A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race. Vol. 2 [of 2]

notes

1

Abbas Pasha’s Seglawieh is reported to have had two foals while in Egypt; one of them died, and the other was given to the late King of Italy, and left descendants, now in the possession of the present king.

2

We measured one, a pollard, thirty-six feet round the trunk at five feet from the ground.

3

Rassam, who has been digging at Babylon, informs me that these inscriptions are in the ancient Phœnician character. It would seem that the Phœnicians, who were a nation of shopkeepers, were in the habit of sending out commercial travellers with samples of goods all over Asia; and wherever they stopped on the road, if there was a convenient bit of soft rock, they scratched their names on it, and drew pictures of animals. The explanation may be the true one, but how does it come that these tradesmen should choose purely desert subjects for their artistic efforts – camels, ostriches, ibexes, and horsemen with lances. I should have fancied rather that these were the work of Arabs, or of whoever represented the Arabs, in days gone by, anyhow of people living in the country. But I am no archæologist.

4

It was to Taybetism that Abdallah ibn Saoud fled ten years ago when he was driven by his brother out of Aared, and from it that he sent that treacherous message to Midhat Pasha at Bagdad which brought the Turks into Hasa and broke up the Wahhabi Empire.

5

Red is said to be the female and green the male, but some say all are green at first and become red afterwards.

6

Compare Mr. Palgrave’s account.

7

Compare Fatalla’s account of the war between the Mesenneh and the Dafir near Tudmor at the beginning of the present century.

8

Belkis is the name usually given by tradition to the Queen of Sheba.

9

I have since been told by dentists that the fact of a third set of teeth being cut in old age is not unknown to science.

10

Presents of honour always given to a sheykh.

11

An incomplete account of this state of things is given in “Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates.”

12

We heard nothing of Mohammed for nearly a year, and then heard that he was in prison. Prompted by a conscientious motive, of which those who have read thus far will need no explanation, he rendered himself liable to the action of Ottoman justice. A man of the Faris faction was found slain at Tudmur, and the relations of the deceased pointed out Mohammed’s as the hand which had fired the shot. The Turks had just re-occupied the town and were anxious to make an example, so Mohammed was put in chains and sent to Deyr. There he found means to send us news of his misfortune, and Wilfrid had the satisfaction of being able to fulfil his brotherly obligation by interceding with the Pasha, on his behalf, and eventually by procuring his release.

13

Just a year afterwards, poor Captain Clements, being in command of the Kalifeh, was attacked off Korna by an Arab ghazú, and while gallantly defending his vessel, was shot through the lungs.

14

What became of Ariel we shall never know. At first reports came to Bagdad that she was alive and recovering; then news that she was dead; and then, when someone was sent to inquire, it was discovered that Seyd Abbas and Bashaga and all the Arabs had deserted and were gone. We hope still she may be with them.

15

This part of the journal was written at irregular moments when order was not possible. It has been pieced together since.

16

We trust this duplicity may be pardoned us in consideration of the straits we were in.

17

Christians of St. John, see “Bedouin Tribes.”

18

Captain Cameron never started at all from Bagdad on the expedition planned between us. Letters received, after we had left, recalled him to India, and he went there by steamer down the Tigris and Persian gulf.

19

The exact direction of these strings it is difficult to determine accurately; but perhaps E. by S. and W. by N. may be accepted as nearest the truth.

20

This seems to have been a forgery.