Chapter XX

HAVING disposed of the question of Qway, I went off to Rashida for the fête of Shem en Nessim (the smelling of the breeze). The officials of the oasis were also there, and we celebrated the day in the usual manner. In the morning we put on clean clothes and took our breakfast out of doors to “smell the breeze.” Then we went up among the palm plantations to a primitive swimming bath the _’omda_ had made by damming up a stream from one of his wells. The natives stripped and disported themselves in the water, swimming about, splashing each other and enjoying themselves immensely.

After the bath they dressed again and we lay about under the palms till lunch was brought out to us. We lounged about on the ground, sleeping and talking till late in the afternoon, when a woman from the village appeared, who had been engaged by the _’omda_ to dance. A carpet was spread for her to perform on, and we lay round and watched her. She looked quite a respectable woman, and it was certainly a quite respectable dance that would have been an addition to “Chu-Chin-Chow,” but the _mamur_ took occasion to be shocked at it. He sat with his back half turned to the woman, watching her out of the corner of his eye, however, and apparently enjoying the performance. Though I was unable to detect anything in the slightest degree wrong in the dance, the delicate susceptibilities of the _mamur_ were so outraged that—as he was not on good terms with the _’omda_ of Rashida—he felt it his duty to report him to the Inspector in Assiut for having an immoral performance in his private grounds. Government under the Egyptian _mamurs_ is a wonderful institution!

The next day I returned to Mut to pack up. A number of callers came round to see me during the short remaining time I stayed in the town. For since I had come out on top, the whole oasis had become wonderfully friendly.

Among them was the Sheykh el Afrit from Smint. He was extremely oily in his manner and kept on addressing me as “Your Presence the Bey!” He gave me a lot of information about _afrits_. He spoke in the tone of a man who had had a lifelong experience in the matter. It was most important, he said, to use the right kind of incense when invoking them, as if the wrong sort were used the _afrit_ always became very angry and killed the magician—it seemed to be a dangerous trade.

He told me a lot of information of the same nature and gave me a number of instances of encounters with _afrits_ to illustrate his remarks. Among them he mentioned—quite casually—that it had been an _afrit_ that had led Qway astray. The object of his visit had apparently been to put this opinion, as an experienced magician, before me, for he left almost immediately afterwards.

Among my other visitors was the _’omda_ of Rashida, who said he had come into Mut as he had a case to bring before the _mamur_ against his cousin Haggi Smain. He, too, stood up for Qway. He was the only native of the oasis who had the backbone to openly champion his cause.

Some time after he had gone, I had to go round to the _merkaz_. I could hear a tremendous row going on inside as I approached. Someone kept thumping a table and two or three men were shouting and bawling at each other and, judging from the sounds that proceeded from the court, all Bedlam might have been let loose there.

But I found that it was only the _mamur_ “making the peace” among the Rashida people. The _’omda_ of Rashida and two of his brothers were bringing an action against their cousin, Haggi Smain, who owned part of the same village. The row stopped for a while as I came in, and the proceedings were conducted for a few minutes in an orderly manner. Then they went at it again, hammer and tongs, bawling and shouting at each other, and at the _mamur_, who was endeavouring to effect a reconciliation, at the top of their voices. The _mamur_ at first spoke in a quiet persuasive tone, but soon he lost his temper and was as bad as they were. He banged with his fist on the table and yelled to them to be silent and listen to what he had to say. The _’omda_ shouted back that it was not he, but Haggi Smain that was interrupting the proceedings, while Haggi Smain himself foaming at the mouth and at times almost inarticulate with rage, screamed back that it was the _’omda_ who was making all the noise.

The cause of all this hullabaloo was as follows: Haggi Smain had an orange tree growing on his property, one branch of which projected beyond his boundary and overhung some land belonging to the _’omda_. Three oranges had fallen off this branch on to the _’omda’s_ territory and the case had been brought to decide to whom these three oranges belonged. Their total value was a farthing at the outside.

I left next day for Egypt. As I got on my camel to start, the _mamur_ and Co. announced that they intended to walk with me for part of the way. As this was calculated to increase my prestige with the other natives, I decided to keep them with me for some time.

I rode—and the _mamur_ walked—which was quite as it should have been, for these little distinctions carry great weight among these simple natives. The _mamur_, I was glad to see, was wearing a pair of new brown boots fastened with a metal clasp over the instep, and having soles about as thin as dancing pumps. The road was rough and baked very hard by the sun in those places where it was not boggy. The _mamur_, I fancy, was not used to much pedestrian exercise and soon became very obviously footsore.

I saw him look longingly at an unloaded camel, so told Dahab to get up on it and ride. Several times he hinted that he had come far enough, but I merely had to look surprised and displeased to keep him trotting along beside me for another mile. He had not shown up well while I had been in the oasis, and he realised that in a very few days I should be seeing one of the Inspectors about Qway, so was desperately anxious not to do anything to displease me.

At last I decided to take a short cut. We left the road, such as it was, and went straight across country over a very rough stretch of desert. I called out to Abdulla to hurry up the camels, as they were going too slowly, with the result that the limping _mamur_ and the fat old _qadi_ began to fall behind. The farce was becoming so obvious that all my men were grinning at them and Abd er Rahman sarcastically whispered to me that he thought the _mamur_ must be getting tired.

When I had got them well away from the road, and two or three miles from any habitation, I looked back and suddenly discovered the _mamur_ was limping, and asked him why on earth he had not told me before that his feet were all covered with blisters. I insisted that he should go back at once to Mut.

On the way to Assiut, in the train, I saw old Sheykh Mawhub, the Senussi, going, as he said, to Cairo. But I was not in the least surprised to find that he broke his journey at Assiut, where he lay doggo in the native town, pulling strings in the _mudiria_ to get his catspaw, Qway, out of his difficulties—unfortunately with considerable success.

I went round to the _mudiria_ as soon as I got to the town, only to find that the English Inspector was away, so I asked to see the _mudir_ (native governor of the province). The _mudir_ did not think Qway had been tried, but would I go up into the town and ask at the _mamur’s_ office? There I was requested to wait while they made enquiries. They made them for about three-quarters of an hour, and then a man came in with an ill-concealed grin and announced that Qway had just that moment been tried and had been acquitted!

I went round to interview the _mudir_ again—rather indignantly this time. He was bland and courteous—but firm. He had been acquitted, he said because I had said that I did not want him to be severely punished, and because I had given him a good character the year before. The course of true law never did run smooth in Egypt!

I tried to get this decision reversed by applying to a very exalted personage. He told me, however, that the Government did not want to raise the Senussi question and were anxious to avoid an incident on the frontier, and he was afraid that he could not take the matter up.

I had to get the best of Qway somehow and, as the regulation methods of dealing with him had failed me, I took the law into my own hands—which is quite the best place to keep it in Egypt—and fined him the balance of his pay, which amounted to about twenty pounds. I afterwards heard that the Senussi, in order to prevent Qway from having a grievance against them, had bakhshished him £42 worth of cotton; so I got at the real culprits in the end; but it was a roundabout way of doing it.

Thanks to Qway and the Senussi, the results of my second year did not come up to my expectations, for the main work I had planned for the season was, of course, the fifteen days’ journey to the south-west of Dakhla, which I hoped would take me to Owanat. Instead of this we had not been able to get farther than the centre of the desert, so far as we could estimate where the middle lay.