268 / Am Brought Prisoner into Shvah [ l &97 



(girdle); 'el dirahem, el dirahem!' ('the drachmas, the money!') 



they shouted ; ' you have a thousand ? you have two thousand ? ' 



" At last a man, with a better face than most, came up to me, and I 

 made myself his dahil (according to the Arab formula, 'ana dahilak,' 

 by seizing his cloak, an act of surrender), and he took me to join a 

 second body which had been waiting behind the first, and some of these 

 threw their cloaks over my head to protect me from further blows. It 

 was a rabble rout as ever was seen, and they marched me to the town, 

 where the women were all shrilling their triumph (iilu-lu-lu-hi) from 

 every housetop. I did not know in the least what it was about or what 

 they intended, but they seemed all very angry, and at times I thought 

 they meant to kill me. But, strangely enough, I was not at all fright- 

 ened, and felt interested in it all almost as a spectator." [The truth 

 is it was a very lovely morning, the air sparkling and clear, and the 

 whole thing, with its almost mediaeval and quite barbaric costuming and 

 staging, was more like a pageant than a reality, so that it seemed diffi- 

 cult to realize that it was quite in earnest ; nor had I time to think much 

 or consider what it meant.] 



" Arrived inside the town, I was marched to an open space where 

 there were two erections not unlike gallows, and for a moment I 

 thought that I was perhaps to be hanged. All I could imagine in ex- 

 planation of the affair was that some revolution had broken out in 

 which I was accidentally involved. But we did not stop at the gallows, 

 and presently I was bidden inside a house and up a stair which led to a 

 nice open room with mastabahs (seats) and a pleasant outlook to the 

 north. This proved to be the mcjliss (council chamber) of the Sheykhs 

 of the Gharbieh (western town), and there we sat down. I took the 

 best place, and called for water, which was brought ; and a great talk 

 began among the Sheykhs, who were now by way of protecting me. 

 Having drunk and recovered my breath, I asked them the reason of all 

 their wrath, and of the attack made on me, but could get no intelligible 

 answer except that the Maown was coming. I explained that I was a 

 person well known at Cairo and a friend of Effendina's (the Khe- 

 dive's). But they said they knew nothing of Effendina — they had a 

 government of their own, and that I should go to the diwan (govern- 

 ment house). Soon after the Maown arrived. He had made me the 

 kindly offer of his services last night, and I now whispered to him that 

 I was an Englishman. This made him still more courteous, and I think, 

 poor man, he did all he could to set things right, with considerable tact, 

 too. And, as things went on better, I whispered the same intelligence 

 also to one of the sheykhs who sat next me, and with the same good 

 effect. There was now a great hurry to restore the plunder, and most 

 of the things taken were by degrees brought in, the chief losses being 

 two of my three guns, and my good Persian sword (the sword Moham- 



