Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/146

 “May Allâh curse the Turkish Government! What do we get from it? They give us nothing and oppress us wherever they can. In every harbor they have placed a toll collector, but they pay no heed to the harbor itself, or to the buildings which are necessary for the storing of goods. All along the shore they have placed regular garrisons who do not protect, but harass and exploit us. I am sorry for the soldiers who die here or who are killed by our arms. They are destroyed by the climate, to which they are not accustomed, and they are destroyed by us when they steal our goats, sheep, and cows. They are supposed to protect us against our enemies, but they do not venture even so much as a gunshot beyond their barracks and indeed scarcely dare even to thrust their heads outside the doors. It is a good thing that they let us have their ammunition and even their firearms by trade or sale. And these poor wretches are the representatives of the Turkish Government in our country! It is no wonder that we hate and despise the Turkish Government as we do. It never occurs to us to pay any attention to what is happening in Constantinople, but we are all interested by what is happening in Egypt or among the English. The Turkish soldiers and ourselves have Turkish money, it is true, but we fix its value according to Egyptian or English money. Our traders maintain trading relations only with the Egyptians and the English. They read Egyptian newspapers and tell us about everything that they learn. The poor people go to Egypt to find work and profit, and when they return home a few months later they proclaim the splendor of Egypt. We all want our coast to become a possession of England, or at least of Egypt. When the Viceroy of Egypt, the Ḫedîwi, made a pilgrimage to Mecca this year, we supposed that he would become our master. But we were mistaken. If we belonged to the Egyptians or the English, all the settlements on our coast would flourish. Our oases would be capable of feeding thousands of people. Thou visitedst al-Bedʻ, Mûsa; thou sawest al-ʻEfâl and thou wilt see Šarma, so thou wilt believe it when I tell thee that at al-Bedʻ and al-ʻEfâl and in the šeʻibân situated to the east thousands and thousands could find nourishment. The whole of this region could be planted with palms and transformed into a garden. And ʻAjnûna, the coast by al-Ḫrajbe, the whole of the wudijân of Šarma, Terîm, and aṣ-Ṣurr, the neighborhood of Ẓbe’ and other places could be inhabited