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. 6, 1862.] making her labour tremendously. We were full to the hatches with cargo, and had 700 passengers on deck. I remember looking upon the whole affair in a business point of view, and thought that we should have been a bad risk for any underwriter, even at over 50 per cent. premium. The Arabs were certainly quite out of their element, and probably thought that that night was worse than months of toil over the sandy deserts.

In the fine weather, however, we had great amusement in watching the manners of our fellow-passengers. Those from Algiers were under command of five sheiks, two of whom took the most active part. One was a fine-looking, though rather delicate young man; the other was a venerable, good-humoured old fellow, with a long white beard and a striking expression, decidedly more advanced in civilisation than the others. Yet he often looked puzzled about some things; especially on one hazy evening. Our little captain was a wag, and that night the old chief came up to get particulars about sunset, and the exact direction of Meccah. The captain put him right as to the hour, but pointed exactly in the wrong direction for the chief and his followers to bow when praying towards the holy city of Mahommed: but before it went too far, we got this also set right. The old man, however, seemed to put less faith in the captain, though he had a profound respect for him on one account—namely, as a sort of magician: for one day the captain took a small instrument to the division where the sheiks were, and placing two tubes in the old sheik’s hands, began at once to electrify him so hard that the old man could not leave go. He was very much astonished, but persuaded a young servant to try, who got a desperate shaking before he was let off. All was done in very good humour, and it was really wonderful how well everything went off, for no one of the steamer’s crew could speak Arabic, and none of the Arabs could speak English. We found out two who knew something of French, so that I could manage to do a little as interpreter, and facilitate arrangements.

It was wonderful to see the patience of the poor fellows, rigidly keeping from food all day, till about four or five o’clock, when they began to cook simple messes of lentils, grain or fruit (without meat), and did not offer to taste a morsel till after sunset prayers. At sunset, the old chief called them all to prayer, and it was really a fine sight to see how earnest they were; they set a strong example to some Christian congregations.

A few of the men had a curious custom, from the practice of which they must have suffered great pain. From a small metal box they took an iron pin, covered with a dark powder; this they scraped round the inside of their eye-lids, the eye-ball became bloodshot at once, and the eyelids had a blue tint. It was very disagreeable to witness. As a preventive of sea-sickness, I noticed many kept a piece of orange peel up one or both nostrils; but they were not all successful. Out of the whole number I never saw more than two reading; and they all appeared very idle, and quite accustomed to do nothing. There were few really handsome men among them, and none well dressed. Each had his valuables and money attached to his person by a belt, frequently hung over one shoulder under his clothing. Every man was disarmed on coming on board. The Algerines (as we called those which came on board at Algiers, though they were nearly all Kabyles) had very few weapons; but the men who came on board at Tunis were well supplied with swords and guns. It was fortunate that the arms were taken away, for the Algerines were not at all disposed to let the Tunis Arabs turn them out of good places on deck. Words came to blows, and at last, while at anchor off Tunis, we had to send on shore for a guard of soldiers to keep order among them. It was after leaving Tunis for Malta that we felt the heavy gale, which took all ideas of fighting out of their heads; perhaps fortunately so, for our crew was a very small one for so large a ship, and though very willing, could scarcely manage the steamer, and could not attempt to make her “snug aloft.” So the Arabs saw practically how much more a ship can roll than a camel, whose walking is so proverbially uncomfortable to unpractised riders.

Of the Arab women we saw nothing, though we knew that several bundles of clothes were meant to represent humanity intended to be invisible. How these bundles must have suffered in the gale, utterly drenched, and with no chance of a “change,” even after the pleasant addition of two days’ coaling in Malta harbour. It would require more than the turning of a stone in the hand and pretending to wash with it that would make them clean. There was a form of ablution, daily, before prayers; each man went through the form of washing, using only a stone: the latter, having been brought from Meccah, was supposed to cleanse thoroughly as well as water. I was told that in the desert, when water is scarce, this is the customary manner of ablution. We were warned that the Arabs would bring many “passengers” on board with them; of such passengers we saw daily massacres; on the whole, I put down these Arabs as a dirty set, and in several respects inferior to many Asiatics. And even though we do help them on in their pilgrimage, and they seem very devout in thus devoting much of their time exclusively to a long religious penance, I cannot help thinking that with their view of an “hereafter,” so much a sensual one as it is, all this rigid religion and fanatical penance is a good deal like a man saving up money, and starving himself to be able some day to launch out in a grand revel, made up of all his savings. But there is no doubt much good in these men, or would be, if they were more civilised, and not kept in a state of ignorance, which, with their mode of living, makes them mere fanatics.

They may lose some of their fanaticism when they find that the Christians take advantage of it to make money, and that there is really not much honour, or chivalry, in making a pilgrimage by steam. Though our fellow-passengers were all journeying with the same object in view, the selfish feeling of the Arab was very prominently developed. I noticed it particularly with regard to water—the treasure of the desert; even on board ship this was zealously guarded. Each man had his own supply generally in a goat skin, and