“All that is right, Shekh, said I, but suppose your people meet us in the desert, in going to Cosseir, or otherwise, how should we fare in that case? Should we fight?” “I have told you Shekh already, says he, Cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you, or even does not defend and befriend you, to his own loss, were it Ibrahim my own son.”
I then told him I was bound to Cosseir, and that if I found myself in any difficulty, I hoped, upon applying to his people, they would protect me, and that he would give them the word, that I was _yagoube_, a physician, seeking no harm, but doing good; bound by a vow, for a certain time, to wander through deserts, from fear of God, and that they should not have it in their power to do me harm.
The old man muttered something to his sons in a dialect I did not then understand; it was that of the _Shepherds_ of Suakem. As that was the first word he spoke, which I did not comprehend, I took no notice, but mixed some lime-water in a large Venetian bottle that was given me when at Cairo full of _liqueur_, and which would hold about four quarts; and a little after I had done this the whole hut was filled with people.
There were _priests_ and _monks_ of their religion, and the heads of families, so that the house could not contain half of them. The great people among them came, and, after joining hands, repeated a kind of [139]prayer, of about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves, and their children, accursed, if ever they lifted their hands against me in the _Tell_, or Field in the _desert_, or on the river; or, in case that I, or mine should fly to them for refuge, if they did not protect us at the risk of their lives, their families, and their fortunes, or, as they emphatically expressed it, to the death of the last male child among them.
Medicines and advice being given on my part, faith and protection pledged on theirs, two bushels of wheat and seven sheep were carried down to the boat, nor could we decline their kindness, as refusing a present in that country (however it is understood in ours,) is just as great an affront, as coming into the presence of a superior without a present at all.
I told them, however, that I was going up among Turks who were _obliged_ to maintain me, the consequence therefore will be, to save their own, that they will take your sheep, and make my dinner of them; you and I are _Arabs_, and know what _Turks_ are. They all muttered curses between their teeth at the name of Turk, and we agreed they should keep the sheep till I came back, provided they should be then at liberty to add as many more.