Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
old and infirm, and when he died the Divan would bring charges
against him, and inherit his wealth. Thus are things managed in
Egypt. No wonder that, where such injustice and rascality prevail,
many are found to rejoice at the prospect of a change of rulers.
"News from Souakim (on the Red Sea) of the probable landing of the
English, excite great interest in camp; from all sides they come
to ask questions of us, thinking that we, as Franks, must know
the intentions of the invaders. Upon the whole, they would not be
displeased at such a change of government, particularly when we tell
them of the good pay and treatment customary amongst the English;
and that with them no officer has to endure indignities from his
superiors in rank."
"I have now," says Mr Werne, (page 256,) "been more than half a
year away from Chartum, continually in the field, and not once
have I enjoyed the great comfort of reposing, undressed, between
clean white sheets, but have invariably slept in my clothes, on
the ground, or on the short but practical angarèb. All clean linen
disappears, for the constant perspiration and chalky dust burns
everything; and the servants do not understand washing, inasmuch as,
contrasted with their black hides, everything appears white to them,
and for the last three months no soap has been obtainable. And in
the midst of this dirty existence, which drags itself along like a
slow fever, suddenly 'Julla!' is the word, and one hangs for four or
five days, eighty or a hundred leagues, upon the camel's back, every
bone bruised by the rough motion,--the broiling sun, thirst, hunger,
and cold, for constant companions. Man can endure much: I have gone
through far more than I ever thought I could,--vomiting and in a
raging fever on the back of a dromedary, under a midday sun, more
dead than alive, held upon my saddle by others, and yet I recovered.
To have remained behind would have been to encounter certain death
from the enemy, or from wild beasts. We have seen what a man can
bear, under the pressure of necessity; in my present uniform and
monotonous life I compare myself to the camels tied before my tent,
which sometimes stand up, sometimes slowly stretch themselves on
the ground, careless whether crows or ravens walk over their backs,
constantly moving their jaws, looking up at the sun, and then, by
way of a change, taking a mouthful of grass, but giving no signs of
joy or curiosity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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