The Downfall of the Dervishes; or, The Avenging of Gordon — John Shaqi
The Downfall of the Dervishes; or, The Avenging of GordonBennett, E. N. (Ernest Nathaniel), Sir
History
The Downfall of the Dervishes; or, The Avenging of Gordon
Bennett, E. N. (Ernest Nathaniel), Sir
Sudan -- History -- 1821-1881
As we sat at dinner in the cool of the evening under the palms
and tamarisks, somebody chanced to look under the table and saw a
number of large yellowish tarantulas waltzing about our feet. A
panic ensued, and the meeting rose as one man and got upon chairs,
until these repulsive insects were driven away by the waiters. The
incident forcibly recalled the famous congress of ladies which was
convened to demonstrate the Superiority of Woman over Man, and was
broken up by a small box of mice opened by a son of Belial in the
audience. These horrid spiders, whose bite is very painful, and,
in the case of young children, occasionally fatal, seemed to be
ubiquitous at Luxor; nor did they even respect the sanctity of our
bedrooms. Medical psychologists tell of a case in which a gentleman
suffering from hallucinations declared that he saw "pink pachyderms"
in his bath, but was unable to secure a specimen owing to the
rapidity of the creature's movements. But I had much rather see a
pink pachyderm--which may after all be merely subjective--inside my
tub than a brace of tortoiseshell tarantulas, whose objectivity is
undoubted, racing round and round the bath and cutting off one's
retreat.
We took the opportunity afforded us by our enforced wait at Luxor to
visit the temples. No tickets were demanded, no touts clamoured at
one's heels and interfered with one's reflections. We rode to Karnak
in the moonlight, and after dismounting we were suddenly mobbed by
scores of dogs, who came rushing upon us from the Bedawin houses
near the ruins. The animals became so menacing and approached so
close that I was compelled to use my revolver. The pariah doggie in
Egypt does not seem to be quite like his Constantinople cousin, who
is probably descended partly from the jackals who accompanied the
Turkish armies from their Asiatic settlements. The puppies of these
pariah dogs are, by the way, the dearest little creatures in the
world, with rough woolly coats like tiny bears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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