Chapter X: Letter VIII: Saqâra, the 13th April, 1843

I hasten to communicate to you an event which I should not like you to hear for the first time from other quarters, perhaps with alterations and exaggerations. Our camp, a few days ago, was attacked and plundered during the night by an armed band; yet none of our party were seriously injured, and nothing that is irreparable was lost. The affair therefore, is over, and the consequences may only prove a useful lesson to us. But I must first go back several days in my journal.

On the 3rd of April, his R.H. Prince Albert (of Prussia) returned to Cairo from Upper Egypt. The following day I visited the city, and laid before the prince a portion of our labours, in which he especially took a lively interest as he had already seen more of this land of wonders than we ourselves, and the field of Pyramids alone he had still left unvisited. On his first arrival in Cairo, I was absent on an excursion of several days to the Faiûm, with Abeken and Bonomi. The prince returned at the very time of the celebration of some of the chief festivals of the Mahometans, which, had he not been there, I should probably have neglected to attend. On the 6th, the entrance of the returning caravan of pilgrims from Mecca was welcomed by a solemn festival, and, some days later, the birthday of the Prophet, “MULID E’ NEBBI,” was celebrated, one of the most original feasts of the entire East. The principal actors in it are dervishes, who spend the day in processions, and perform their horribly extatic dances, called _sikrs_, in the evening, in tents illuminated by coloured lamps, which are erected in the avenues of the Ezbekîeh. Between thirty and forty of this religious sect place themselves in a circle, and, keeping time, begin first slowly, then gradually more vehemently, to throw the upper part of their bodies, which are naked, backwards and forwards into the most violent distortions, like people who are possessed. At the same time, they ejaculate in a rhythm, with a loud screaming voice, their Prophet’s saying, LA ILAHA ILL’ ALLAH (“There is no God but Allah”), which, gradually stammered out lower and more feebly, is finally almost rattled in the throat, till at length, their strength being entirely exhausted, some fall down, others withdraw reeling, and the broken circle is, after a short pause, replaced by another.

What a fearful, barbarous worship, which the astonished multitude, great and small, people of condition and those of inferior rank, contemplate with seriousness or in stupid veneration, and in which they themselves not unfrequently take an active part. The god who is appealed to is evidently much less the object of adoration than the appealing, raptured saints themselves; for the crazy and the simple, or men and women who are physically disordered in other ways, are very generally held sacred by the Mahometans, and are treated with great reverence. It is the demoniacal force in nature, acting without being comprehended, and therefore regarded with fear, which is worshipped by the natural man wherever he perceives it, because he feels that it is connected with, yet not under the control of his mental faculties; first, in the mighty elements, then in the wonderful instincts of animals—to us dark, yet subject to a law; finally, in the still more exciting, extatic, or generally abnormal psychological conditions of his own race. We must indeed, regard the Egyptian worship of animals—in as far as it was not merely a symbolic embodiment of deeper and more refined ideas—as resting on the same basis of a universal worship of nature; and the adoration paid to men with disordered intellects, which appears occasionally in other nations also, may be considered as a remarkable offset from that tendency. Whether such conditions really exist at the present time, or whether, as among the dervishes, it is produced artificially, and is intentionally cherished, will not be detected by the multitude; and besides, for the individual case, it is indifferent. An uncomfortable feeling of fear creeps over us in such a neighbourhood, and we feel it necessary to avoid uttering any expressions, or even to give a sign of disgust, or to betray that we see through it, lest we should direct the brutal outbursts on ourselves.

The festival, which lasts nine days, closes with a peculiar ceremony called DOSEH, the Trampling, but which I could not bear to look at. The sheikh of the Saadîeh dervishes rides to the chief sheikh of all the dervishes in Egypt, El Bekri. On the way thither, a great number of these holy people, and others who do not consider themselves inferior to them in piety, throw themselves flat on the ground, face downwards, and in such a manner that the feet of one always lies close to the head of another. The sheikh then rides over this living carpet of human bodies, and his horse is obliged to be led on each side by a servant, to compel it to make this march, unnatural even to the animal. Each body receives two treads from the horse; the greater number spring up again unhurt, but whoever comes away seriously, or, as sometimes occurs, mortally injured, has, besides, this disgrace, that it is believed that on the previous day he had either misunderstood or neglected to say the proper prayers and charm-formularies, which were alone able to protect him.

On the 7th April, Erbkam and I accompanied the prince to the Pyramids, first of all to those of Gizeh. The Pyramid of Cheops was ascended, and the interior was visited. In order to exhibit the beautiful tomb of Prince Merhet, I caused it to be re-opened. We next proceeded to our camp at Saqâra.

Here we heard that during the previous night a daring robbery had been committed in Abeken’s tent. He was sleeping in it, on his return from Cairo, beside a burning light, when his full portmanteau, pistols, and other objects lying near, were purloined. It was only while the thief was making his retreat that a noise was heard by the slumbering guards, composing the night-watch, immediately behind the tent; the darkness, however, hindered all pursuit.

After the prince had also seen the most beautiful tomb of Saqâra, we rode across the plain to Mitrahinneh, to visit the mounds of ruins at Memphis, and the half-buried colossal granite statue of Ramses Miamun (Sesostris)[16], the face of which is still preserved almost without a blemish. It was late in the evening before we again reached Cairo, after a day’s journey of sixteen hours, hardly interrupted even by short pauses for repose; but the unusual exertion seemed rather to heighten than to depress the prince’s cheerful enjoyment in travelling.

The following day we visited the mosques of the city, which are remarkable, partly by their splendour, and in part, also, are peculiarly interesting for the history of architecture in the middle ages, as the earliest general application of the pointed arch is here visible. The questions which relate to this most characteristic department of architecture, the so-called gothic style, interested me so deeply a few years ago, that even here I could not forbear following my old pursuit. The pointed arch is found in the oldest mosques, even as far back as the ninth century. Upon the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the new form of arch was transported to that island, where, in the eleventh century, it was found by the Normans, the next conquerors, and was still more generally adopted. Without entering into further details, it seems to me scarcely possible to indicate any historical connexion of the Norman pointed arch of Palermo with our style of pointed arch of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The acceptance of such a connexion would be still more difficult for the explanation of the rows of pointed arches to be found already much earlier in Germany, which are sporadic, but still according to rule; those, for example, in the cathedral of Naumburg as early as the eleventh century, and in Memleben even in the tenth. Theorists do not indeed admit this yet, but I am still waiting for a refutation of the argument I have brought forward.[17]

The Nilometer on the island of Roda, which we visited after the mosques, also contains a series of pointed arches, belonging to the original building, which dates as far back as the ninth century, proved by the Cufic inscriptions, which have been carefully examined by those who are learned in these matters.

Egypt, however, does not only lay claim to the oldest application, therefore, perhaps to the invention, of the _pointed arch_, but also to that of the _round arch_. Near the Pyramids there are a number of tombs having stone vaulted roofs, whose single blocks exhibit the correct concentric cut. These belong to the 26th Manethonic Dynasty of the Psammetici, that is, to the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ, and are therefore coeval with the _Cloaca Maxima_ and the _Carcer Mamertinus_ in Rome. But we have also found tombs with vaulted roofs made of Nile mud bricks, which go back as far as the time of the Pyramids. Now, contrary to the opinion of others, I deny that the brick arch, whose single bricks with their parallel surfaces, are only made concentric by the wedge of cement, presupposes a more intimate acquaintance with the actual principle of the arch, and more especially with its qualities of support; and, as a proof of this, we never meet with a concentric joined arch before the time of the Psammetici, but frequently an apparently real arch, in like manner cut out of horizontal layers of stone. But wherever the brick arch was very ancient, we may there most naturally place the development of the concentric stone arch, which is met with at a later period at that very place, contemporaneous at least with its appearance in other countries.

On the following morning I was intending to accompany the prince into the interesting institute of M. Lieder, when Erbkam arrived unexpectedly from our camp. He reported that during the previous night, between two and three in the morning, a number of shots had been suddenly fired in the immediate neighbourhood of our tents, and that at the same time a body of more than twenty people had broken into the camp. Our encampment is on a narrow flat space in front of the rock-tombs, which are excavated about half-way up the precipitous sides of the Libyan valley, and the great accumulation of rubbish has formed a broad terrace before them. It was only accessible on one side, by a cleft, which passes our terrace from above, downwards. It was from this point that the attack was made. They first fell upon the tent in which we all take our meals, and which also serves the purpose of a drawing-room, which soon fell down. Then followed the other great tent, in which Erbkam, Frey, Ernest Weidenbach, and Franke, were sleeping. This was also torn down, and covered its inmates, who, in the general confusion, extricated themselves with difficulty from the ropes and canvas. Besides all this, the arms had been taken the day before into one tent, for the reception of the prince, and had been arranged and secured to the central pole, so that no one had them at hand. The watchmen—cowardly fellows—who knew that by the orders of the police here, they would incur punishment, were anything of the sort to befal us, even should they not be to blame, had immediately run off on all sides, uttering loud cries, and have not yet returned. The robbers now laid hold of the chests and boxes which stood nearest to them, rolled whatever they could seize down the hill, and soon disappeared across the plain. Their muskets were evidently not loaded with ball, for no one had been wounded by them; they had, however, attained their object, which was to increase the confusion. E. Weidenbach, and some of our servants, had alone been wounded in the head and shoulders, though not dangerously, by the butt-ends of their muskets, or by bludgeons. The purloined articles must, however, have bitterly disappointed the expectation of the robbers, for the great trunks scarcely contained anything but European clothes, and other things, which no Arab can use. A number of coloured sketches are most to be regretted—the Sunday studies, up to the present time, of the very able artist Frey.

We know besides, very well, from whence this attack has proceeded. We dwell on the frontier of the territory of Abusir, an Arab village which has been long under evil report, situated between Kafr el Batran, at the foot of the Pyramids of Gizeh, and Saqâra. By ARABS (Arab. pl. ʾUrbân) I mean, according to the custom of this country, those inhabitants who, as we are informed, only settled at a later period in the Nile valley, and having obtained certain privileges, founded some villages here. They are distinguished by their free origin, and their more manly character, from the FELLAHS (Fellahʿ, pl. Fellahʿîn), the original peasants of the land, who, enervated by their centuries of bondage, have reached a low point of degradation, and who were not, besides, able to withstand the encroachment of Islam. The name of BEDOUIN (Bedaui, pl. Bedauîn) belongs alone to the ever free son of the Desert, who only roves about the borders of the inhabited country. In the vicinity of the Pyramids there are now a number of Arab villages. To these, also, belong the three places I have mentioned. Since our place of encampment was within the territory of the Sheikh of Abusir, a young, handsome, and enterprising man, he had a certain claim to supply us with the necessary number of well-paid watchmen. I, however, preferred to place ourselves under the protection of the more trustworthy, and more powerful Sheikh of Saqâra, whom I had known before, and within whose district the principal field of our labours is situated. This determination deprived the people of Abusir of a reward, and us of their friendship, as I had already observed for some time past, without vexing myself any further about it. They had manifestly taken the opportunity at the present time, when I was absent in Cairo with several servants, to execute this prank. The footmarks were traced through the plain to Abusir, and a little clever boy probably served as a spy, the grandson of an old Turk from the Mameluke times, the only friend in Abusir, with whom we sometimes exchanged visits. It must have been also by means of this boy, who often came to our camp, that the first theft was committed in Abeken’s tent, with which he was well acquainted.

The attack was a serious affair, and its consequences might be important, if it remained unpunished. I went immediately with M. von Wagner to Scherif Pascha, the minister, whose business it was to find out the offenders.

A few days afterwards the plain beneath our camp became an animated scene. The mudhir (governor) of the province arrived with a splendid cavalcade, and a great troop of under officials, and servants, and pitched his gay camp at the foot of the hill. We exchanged visits of ceremony, and discussed what had happened. The mudhir told us beforehand that the individual offenders would not be found out, at any rate they would not be brought to confess, because each knew that his throat stood a poor chance. However, on the second day, the Sheikhs of Saqâra and of Abusir, and a number of suspected persons were brought forward, in order to be put upon their trial. As was to be expected, no decision was come to, neither by personal interviews, nor examinations. The punishment was therefore summarily executed. One after the other they were tied to a post, their faces towards the ground, and the soles of their feet upwards. They were then unmercifully bastinadoed with a long whip of hippopotamus hide, called _kurbatsch_, often till they fainted. It was in vain that I urged that I saw no reason to punish these particular persons, and I was still more astonished when our old venerable friend, the Sheikh of Saqâra, for whose innocence I would have accepted any surety, was also led up, and, like the others, was laid in the dust. I expressed my surprise to the mudhir, and protested earnestly against it, but received for answer that he could not be exempted from the punishment, as though, indeed, we had not been on his ground and territory, we had however received the watchmen from him, who had run off, and had not then returned. With some difficulty I obtained, at least, a mitigation of the punishment; but he had already become almost insensible, and it was necessary to have him carried to the tent, where his feet were bound up. The whole affair ended with a compensation in money for the value of the stolen articles, which I purposely did not estimate at too low a price, as every loss of money remains for years in the remembrance of the Arab, while he forgets the bastinado, indeed boasts of it, as soon as he no longer feels it. _Nezel min e’ semma e’ nebút, bárakak min Allah_, say the Arabs, _i. e._ “The rod came from Heaven, a blessing from God.” But also in the matter of the fine, the sum that we demanded was so distributed, that the rich Sheikh of Saqâra was compelled to pay a far greater share than the Sheikh of Abusir, a partiality which was probably in some measure owing to the intercession of the old distinguished Turk of Abusir with the Turkish mudhir.

As soon as the money was paid down I went to our Sheikh of Saqâra, whose unmerited adverse fate had seriously vexed me, and I publicly gave him the half of his money back again, promising in confidence that afterwards, when the mudhir should have departed, I would restore to him also the other half. This was such an unexpected thing to the old sheikh, that he looked at me for a long time incredulously, then kissed my hands and feet, and called me his best friend on earth; I, who had just been, at all events, the indirect occasion of his beautiful beard being soiled with dust, and of his feet being so lacerated as to cause him weeks of pain. His wondering joy, however, was not directed so much at me as at the unhoped-for sight of the money, which never loses its charm with the Arab.

There is a curious mixture of noble pride and vulgar avarice to be found in the Arab, which is at first quite incomprehensible to the European. Their free noble bearing, and imperturbable repose, appear to express nothing but a proud sense of honour; balanced, however, against the smallest gain of money, it melts away like wax before the sun, and the most contemptuous treatment is not taken into consideration, but is borne with crouching servility where money is in question. We might at first imagine one of these two natures to be hypocrisy, or dissimulation; but the contradiction returns too often in all forms, both great and small, not to lead to the conviction that it is characteristic of the Arab, if not of the entire East. Even as early as in the days of the Romans, the Egyptians had so far degenerated, that Ammianus Marcellinus could say of them: _Erubescit apud eos, si quis non infitiando tributa plurimas in corpore vibices ostendat_,[18] and in the same manner the fellah to-day points with a contented smile to his scars as soon as the tax-gatherer has withdrawn, who, in spite of his instruments of torture, has been curtailed of a few piastres.