Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/54

 — a stock of household furniture sufficient to begin housekeeping; to which must be added stores of canned meat and fruits, boxes of eggs, and even a hencoop full of chickens! Even when thus provided, we could not have a single meal except as we carried sacks of charcoal to cook our food. And not less important than what we were to eat, was what we were to drink, of which we must have a large supply: for though the camels could go four days without water, we could not. This had to be carried in casks, which were slung on the backs of camels. Altogether an Arab sheikh, with his patriarchal family, could hardly make a more imposing caravan.

We found a dragoman in a Syrian from Beirut, whom Dr. Post had known before — Yohanna (or Hanna) Abeusaab — who was willing and obliging, though not always as energetic as we could wish, yet who served us fairly well, and for whom we had, and still have, a very friendly feeling. As soon as the contract was signed, he began to bustle about with a senses of importance, and in an hour or two knocked at our doors to ask us to come out into an open space behind the Hotel to see our tents, and to select our camels, The tents were already pitched, and we drew aside the door almost with the feeling that we were penetrating the retreat of some Oriental potentate. They were ornamented with figures in gay colors, and carpeted with Persian rugs, which together made quite a brave show. Yohanna smiled serenely as he saw the pleasure, not unmingled with surprise, with which we regarded such magnificence, and gravely intimated that he was not yet at the end of his resources, but that he would do "more better" for us before he got through. There was also a housekeeping tent in which the cook would perform his mysterious operations. The Arabs would sleep outside in the open air.