Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/69

Rh to the purse, and rattling when I handed it to the man, betrayed us, and they seized the servant, laid hold of the purse, and struggled to get it. The obstinate resistance of the poor man was in vain, for the rascals kicked him into the river, and succeeded in getting possession of the purse. But the owner of the boat, when all the robbers were out of it, profited by the circumstance, cut the ropes by which it was fastened, left his man behind, and made an effort to gain the opposite bank of the river.

Scarcely were we in the middle, when we heard them vociferating, and calling us back, with a promise to return all they had taken, swearing, even by the name of their prophet, that they had a patient among them whom they wished to be cured by us. But we could not rely on their oaths, as we believed them to be Agelis, and so we rowed towards the opposite bank. Scarcely, however, had we arrived there, when one of them came swimming upon an inflated goat-skin, in order to persuade us to come back to the patient, who was his brother, and we were so embarrassed, and driven to such extremes, that we felt ourselves obliged to soothe him with the promise that we would come to them early in the morning. As he remained with us, we passed another sleepless night. At break of day, we perceived a few black tents, not far from the place where we were, which gave us some consolation. Accompanied by the soldier, whom the Agha of Hit had sent with us, my companion went into one of these Arab tents, to convince himself of the truth of the man's statement. He soon came back, and told me that the robber was the Sheikh Dendal, the chief of the country on the other side of the river ; that he was assured that the elder brother had been for some time sick and swollen, and he added that he was ready to go there on horseback to see the patient. They then led him to a fordable part of the river, and I remained with the boat ; and whilst I was musing on this barren, but still somewhat cultivated ground of the desert, calculating what day of the week we were in, and guessing that it might be Sunday of the second week of November, probably St.Martin's day