The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story Teller of the Desert—"Backsheesh!"
Title: The Story Teller of the Desert—"Backsheesh!"
Author: Thomas Wallace Knox
Release date: December 15, 2015 [eBook #50700]
Most recently updated: October 22, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive
THE STORY TELLER OF THE DESERT
“BACKSHEESH!”
or, Life and Adventures in the Orient
By Thomas W. Knox
With Descriptive And Humorous Sketches Of Sights And Scenes Over The Atlantic, Down The Danube, Through The Crimea J In Turkey, Greece, Asia-Minor, Syria, Palestine, And Egypt; Up The Nile, In Nubia, And Equatorial Africa, Etc., Etc.
Embellished with nearly Two Hundred and Fifty Illustrations, including Forty-Eight full page Engravings, principally executed in London, Paris, and New York, from Photographs and original Sketches.
With fine Steel-Plate Portrait of the Author.
Hartford, Conn; A. D. Worthington & Co., Publishers
1885
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I—STEAMER-LIFE ON THE ATLANTIC.
CHAPTER II—SCENES IN VIENNA—DOWN THE DANUBE.
CHAPTER III—LIFE AMONG THE MAGYARS.
CHAPTER IV—NEARING THE ORIENT—“BACKSHEESH!”
CHAPTER V—THROUGH THE CRIMEA—IN AND AROUND SEVASTOPOL.
CHAPTER VI—ACROSS THE BLACK SEA.
CHAPTER VII—CONSTANTINOPLE—THE CITY OF DOGS.
CHAPTER VIII—TURKISH CURIOSITY SHOPS—SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE BAZAARS.
CHAPTER IX—FASTING AND FEASTING—THE SULTAN AND HIS COURT.
CHAPTER X—THE MOSQUES—FAITH AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE MUSSULMANS.
CHAPTER XI—WHIRLING AND HOWLING DERVISHES—WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE.
CHAPTER XII—ON THE BOSPHORUS.—AMONG THE ISLES OF GREECE.
CHAPTER XIII—SYRA, THE MARBLE ISLAND.—LIFE AT AN ATHENIAN HOTEL.
CHAPTER XIV—ATHENS ANCIENT AND MODERN—SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE GRECIAN CAPITAL.
CHAPTER XV—ROUND ABOUT ATHENS.—THE COUNTRY OF THE BRIGANDS.
CHAPTER XVI—THE GLORY OF ATHENS.—ITS SIGHTS, SCENES, RUINS, AND RELICS.
CHAPTER XVII—ADVENTURES IN QUARANTINE.—RHODES AND ITS MARVELS.
CHAPTER XVIII—SYRIA, THE LAND OF THE SUN.—DRAGOMEN, GUIDES, AND COURIERS.
CHAPTER XIX—THE GROVES OF LEBANON.—A NIGHT AMONG THE ARABS.
CHAPTER XX—DAMASCUS—THE GARDEN CITY OF THE EAST.
CHAPTER XXI—SYRIAN LIFE—DEALERS IN HUMAN FLESH—WE TRY “ZE LUXURIES OF ZE BATH.”
CHAPTER XXII—TRAVELING IN A CARAVAN—SIGHTS ON THE WAY.
CHAPTER XXIII—TENT-LIFE AMONG THE BEDOUINS.—THE WARRIORS OF THE DESERT.
CHAPTER XXIV—ADVENTURES IN THE MOUNTAINS OF SYRIA.
CHAPTER XV—“FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA.”—JOURNEYING THROUGH THE HOLY LAND.
CHAPTER XXVI—IN THE HEART OF PALESTINE.
CHAPTER XXVII—THE LAND OF THE PHILISTINES.—SAMARIA AND ITS PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XXVIII—FROM DAMASCUS TO JAFFA.—INCIDENTS OF THE TRIP.
CHAPTER XXIX—ENGAGING A DRAGOMAN.—OUR START FOR JERUSALEM.
CHAPTER XXX—THE LIONS OF JERUSALEM.—THE TEMPLE, THE SEPULCHRE, AND THE HOLY OF HOLIES.
CHAPTER XXXII—AMONG THE BEDOUINS.—TRAVELLING UNDER ESCORT, AND LIVING IN TENTS.
CHAPTER XXXIII—THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, AND SHRINE OF THE CITY OF DAVID
CHAPTER XXXIV—THE LAND OF PHARAOH.—THROUGH THE EGYPTIAN DESERT.
CHAPTER XXXV—IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.
CHAPTER XXXVI—AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KHEDIVE.—LIFE IN THE CITY OF THE NILE.
CHAPTER XXXVII—STREET-LIFE IN CAIRO.
CHAPTER XXXVIII—THE BAZAARS OF CAIRO.—EGYPTIAN CURIOSITY SHOPS.
CHAPTER XXXIX—ADVENTURES WITH A DONKEY.—A DAY AT THE RACES.
CHAPTER XL—THE PASHA AND THE PRIESTS.—EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE—SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
CHAPTER XLI—THE GREAT PYRAMIDS.—IN THE KINGS’ BURIAL CHAMBERS.
CHAPTER XLII—A VOYAGE UP THE NILE.—THE MYSTERIES OF EGYPTIAN ART AND WORSHIP.
CHAPTER XLIII—LIFE ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE.—COPTS, JUGGLERS, AND THIEVES.—AMUSING EXPERIENCES.
CHAPTER XLIV—ADVENTURES IN UPPER EGYPT.—FUN AND FROLIC WITH THE NATIVES.
CHAPTER XLV—THE DANCING GIRLS OF KENEH.—THE TREASURES OF DENDERAH.
CHAPTER XLVI—LUXOR, THE CITY OF GIANTS.—AMONG THE MUMMIES OF ANCIENT THEBES.
CHAPTER XLVII—A VISIT TO A HAREM IN UPPER EGYPT.—LIFE AMONG THE NUBIANS.
CHAPTER XLVIII—CAMEL RIDING.—ADVENTURES AMONG THE NUBIANS.
CHAPTER XLIX—IN THE SLAVE-COUNTRY—SIR SAMUEL W. BAKER’S EXPEDITION.
CHAPTER L—SUNSET IN THE ORIENT.—VOYAGING DOWN THE NILE.
CHAPTER LI—THE WEDDING OF THE KHEDIVE’S SON.—ENJOYING A MONARCH’S HOSPITALITY.
CHAPTER LII—WOMEN AMONG THE MOHAMMEDANS—LIFE IN THE HAREM.
CHAPTER LIII.—WINTER ON THE NILE—THE KHAMSEEN AND ITS EFFECTS—BEDOUIN LIFE.
CHAPTER LIV—LAST DAYS IN EGYPT.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
The following pages are the result of a peaceful crusade to the East, undertaken for purposes of pleasure and profit. The author has endeavored to combine the humorous features of the journey with the store of useful knowledge that should be the result of a tour through the Orient. He trusts that he has so combined them that both will be satisfactory, and that the reader will be amused while seeking instruction and instructed while seeking amusement.
There is a story of an honest old Quaker resident of Philadelphia, who sent his son to make the tour of Europe. The young man determined to see all that could be seen, and gave his whole mind to the search for enjoyment. When he returned from his travels his father said:
“John, thou hast been absent a twelvemonth and past, and thou hast drawn on me for eighteen thousand dollars. John, that is a great deal of money for thee to spend in one year.”
“I know it, father,” was the young man’s response, “but I have had lots of fun for that money.”
In return for the labor and fatigue incident to Oriental travel, the author believes that he found an ample reward in the entertainment and information which the journey afforded.
The author is glad to avail himself of this opportunity to express the gratification he feels at seeing his book so profusely and artistically illustrated. In this department of the work the publishers have displayed their enterprise and liberality in such a creditable manner, as to justly entitle them, not only to the author’s grateful acknowledgments, but to the hearty thanks of all who may read his book.
He would also return his thanks to the artists and engravers, who have so skilfully designed and executed the illustrations, many of which were drawn and engraved in London and Paris, expressly for this volume.
Finally he would thank most cordially the many gentlemen in the various countries he visited who gave him the benefit of their personal experience and observation. Their names are too numerous to be included in this preface, and their nationalities comprise nearly all the civilized countries of the globe. T. W. K.
Principally designed, or reproduced from photographs, by Karl Giradet, Faguet, Frank Beard, James C. Beard, Arthur Lumley, L. Hopkins, and eminent artists, and mostly engraved by Messrs. Holier, Pannemaker, Laptante, Gusmand, Gauchard, and other noted engravers of Paris; by W. J. Palmer, and the London Illustration Company, of London; and by Charles Speigle, of New York.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
6. Head Piece...............................................033
7. Steamer Day..............................................034
8. The Judge’s First Day at Sea.............................035
9. The Judge’s Second Day at Sea............................036
10. The Race................................................039
11. The Judge...............................................040
12. A Practical Joke........................................044
13. Head Piece..............................................048
14. Fraternizing............................................050
15. Eternal Friendship......................................051
16. Proof of the Affray.....................................052
17. Avenging an Insult......................................054
18. “I must have a Duel”....................................055
19. An Imperial Wine Cellar.................................060
20. Head Piece..............................................063
21. “Salt by Yer”...........................................068
22. The Snoring Match.......................................069
23. The Doubter.............................................071
24. A Turkish “Hamal”.......................................073
25. Tail Piece..............................................077
26. Head Piece..............................................078
27. Among the Fleas.........................................079
28. A Toilet in Public......................................082
29. “Natives of the Country”................................085
30. Precautionary Measures..................................086
31. “She is a Jewess”.......................................089
32. The Palace Tshiragan....................................091
33. Head Piece..............................................093
34. Shirking the Cemetery...................................097
35. “Fresh Paint”...........................................100
36. Driving a Bargain.......................................104
37. A Night at Baidar.......................................106
38. Caught in the Act.......................................108
39. Tail Piece..............................................109
40. Head Piece..............................................110
41. Putting in his “Best Licks”.............................112
42. “Backsheesh”............................................113
43. An Impressive Scene.....................................116
44. Constantinople from the Tower of Golata—Full..........116
45. Head Piece..............................................123
46. A Street in Constantinople..............................124
47. Strategy................................................126
48. The Reconnoitre.........................................129
49. The Retreat.............................................130
50. A Damas-cussed Dog......................................131
51. Stowing the Sandwiches..................................132
52. Admiring the Mosque.....................................132
53. A Sudden Attack.........................................132
54. The Pursuit.............................................133
55. A Hopeless Chase........................................133
56. “Retrospection”.........................................134
57. Tail Piece..............................................135
58. Headpiece...............................................135
59. A Sedan Chair...........................................136
60. A Turkish Beauty........................................137
61. An Importunate Moslem...................................143
62. Extorting “Backsheesh”..................................144
63. Head Piece..............................................145
64. End of the Fast and Beginning of the Feast.............146
65. “Good-Bye, my Friend, Good-Bye”.........................148
66. A Turkish “Cavass”......................................149
67. Head Piece..............................................153
68. Moslems at Prayer.......................................154
69. “Bismillah”............................................155
70. The “Duplicate”.........................................157
71. Muezzin announcing the Hour of Prayer...................158
72. An Oriental Boot Jack...................................160
73. Fartha, or Opening Chapter of the Koran.................163
74. Tail Piece..............................................165
75. Head Piece..............................................166
76. A Whirling Dervish......................................170
77. Effect of too much Whirling.............................171
78. Howling as a Profession.................................173
79. Homopathic Treatment....................................175
80. Head Piece..............................................177
81. Some of the Brothers of Far-Away Moses..................178
82. Interviewing a Purser...................................184
83. Head Piece..............................................187
84. Head Piece..............................................197
85. View of Athens and the Acropolis........................199
86. The Decline of Greece...................................201
87. Greek Priest of Modern Times............................204
88. “Doing” the Ruins.......................................206
89. Tail Piece.............................................212
90. Head Piece..............................................213
91. Sending Up the Ear of a Victim..........................217
92. Head Piece.............................................225
93. Pickling the “Doubter”..................................229
94. “Backsheesh!” “Backsheesh!”.............................231
95. Head Piece..............................................236
96. Inspecting the Crew.....................................241
97. Bad “Backsheesh.”—“It was Counterfeit”.................243
98. St. Jean D’Acre—Full Paye..............................249
99. A Tricky Beast..........................................254
100. Beyrout and the Mountains of Lebanon—Full Page........257
101. “Mou Dieu! Is this the Party for Damascus?”............262
102. Head Piece.............................................264
103. The Cedars of Lebanon—Full Page.......................265
104. Cedar of Lebanon.......................................270
105. Great Stone at Baalbek.................................272
106. Portal of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbek.............275
107. Court of a House in Damascus...........................279
108. Moslem Women Weeping at a Tomb.........................282
109. Syrian Jew with Phylactery.............................285
110. A Money Changer in the Bazaar..........................288
111. Flat Roofed Houses—Damascus...........................291
112. Abd-el-Kader...........................................293
113. We “Strip to ze buff”..................................296
114. “You will have all ze luxuries”........................296
115. We Enter “Ze Bain Beautiful”...........................297
116. One of the Luxuries....................................297
117. Softening the Asperities...............................298
118. A Not One..............................................298
119. “What is Curlew?”......................................305
120. A Bedouin Encampment...................................308
121. A Bedouin of the Desert................................309
122. The Terror of the Desert on his Arabian Charger........311
123. Enins of Palmyra—Full Page............................315
124. Hebron—Full Page......................................319
125. Mount Carmel—Full Page................................323
126. An Inhabited Boot,.....................................325
127. Ploughing in Syria,....................................332
128. All that remains of Capernaum,.........................334
129. “Backsheesh! O Howadji!”...............................335
130. The Sea of Tibenas—Full Page..........................337
131. Magdala,...............................................339
132. Unhorsing the “Doubter,”...............................342
133. Nazareth—Full Page....................................345
134. Jeivs of Nazareth—Full Page...........................349
135. A Syrian Water Bearer,.................................353
136. Jerusalem and Surrounding Country—Full Page...........359
137. Sidon—Full Page.......................................365
138. Tyre,..................................................368
139. Tail Piece,............................................369
140. Jaffa—Full Page.......................................371
141. Our Dragoman, Ali Soloman,............................374
141. “Backsheesh,”..........................................376
143. Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives—Full Page..........377
144. Ancient Arch; Portion of the Haram Wall,...............380
145. A Street in Jerusalem,................................381
146. Arched Street and Fountain, Jerusalem,.................382
147. Jdrindpal Street of Jerusalem—Full Page...............383
148. The Golden Gate, Jerusalem,...........................386
149. Interior of the Golden Gate,...........................387
150. Site of the Temple, Jerusalem,.........................388
151. Ancient Signet Ring,...................................389
152. Ancient Signet Ring,...................................389
153. Exploring the Substructions,...........................390
154. Underground—Beneath the City of Jerusalem.............391
155. The Valley of Jehoshapliat,............................393
156. Wailing Place of the Jews, Jerusalem,..................394
157. Walls of the Church of the Presentation—Full Page.....395
158. Bethlehem—Full Page..................................399
159. Chinch of the Nativity, Bethlehem—Full Page...........405
160. Monastery of Mar Saba—Full Page.......................409
161. A Formidable Escort,...................................414
162. Bathing Place of the Pilgrims on the Jordan............417
163. The “Doubter’s” Mishap,................................420
164. The Mount of Olives—Full Page.........................423
165. Pool of Hezekiah,......................................426
166. West Door, Church of the Holy Sepulchre................427
167. Church of the Holy Sepulchre—Full Page................429
168. The Fountain of the Virgin,............................433
169. Doubter’—Sixpence,”...................................436
170. Jaffa Orange Seller,...................................438
171. Tail Piece,............................................439
172. Water Bearers at the Railway Station, Cairo,...........447
173. Praying in the Streets of Cairo,.......................448
174. Cairo—Full Page.......................................449
175. Massacre of the Mamalukes—Full Page...................455
176. Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt,........................458
177. A Tough One,...........................................459
178. Head Piece.............................................468
179. Tombs of the Sultans—Cairo—Full Page..................469
180. “O Ye Thirsty,”........................................472
181. Children Bread Sellers in the Streets of Cairo,.......473
182. Mosque of the Sultan Hassan, at Cairo—Full Page.......475
183. Young Street Arabs of Cairo,...........................477
184. Shoe Peddler in the Bazaar,............................479
185. Latticed Windows—Cairo,...............................480
186. An Auctioneer in the Bazaars,..........................485
187. A Syce,...............................................489
188. Donkey Drivers of Cairo—Full Page.....................491
189. Not up to the Dodge,...................................494
190. An Egyptian Eunuch,....................................496
191. An Arab School—Full Page..............................503
192. Ceremony of the Doseh,.................................510
193. A Shadoof for Drawing Water from the Nile.............515
194. Climbing the Pyramid,..................................518
195. The Ascent of the Judge,...............................520
196. An Arab Feat,.........................................522
197. The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Gizeh..............523
198. A Nile Boat............................................530
199. The Serapeum—Memphis—Full Page........................537
200. Landing Place at Beni-Soef—Full Page.................545
201. Sugar Cane Seller at Minieh,..........................549
202. An Inconvenient Position,..............................552
203. Siout—Upper Egypt—Full Page..........................555
204. “Nargeeleh,”...........................................557
205. Siout Egg Merchant,....................................558
206. Egyptian Gamblers,.....................................559
207. “Aoz, Eh?”.............................................663
208. “Dusting” for “Backsheesh,”............................566
209. An Egyptian Ghawazee,..................................569
210. Ghawazee and Musicians,................................570
211. An Egyptian Musician,..................................574
212. Egyptian Water Carriers Filling their Jars.............575
213. Ruins of the Temple of Denderah, Upper Egypt...........579
214. Entrance to the Temple of Luxor........................587
215. The Memnonlum and the Ruined Statue....................593
216. Sitting Colossi,.......................................595
217. A Fresh One............................................599
218. Interior of a Harem....................................601
219. A Murderous Assault,...................................607
220. A Nubian Belle,........................................609
221. A Nubian Lady..........................................610
222. An Egyptian Sakfdeh, Drawing Water from the Nile.......611
213. All Affectionate Beast.................................613
214. Luxuries of Camel Riding...............................615
225. Egyptian God Osiris....................................617
226. Egyptian Goddess Isis..................................618
227. Island of Phike, or Sacred Island—Full Page...........619
218. Sacred Lotus of the Egyptians—Full Page...............627
219. Modern Egyptian Gristmill..............................630
230. A Nubian Warrior.......................................632
231. Papyrus of the Egyptians—Full Page....................633
231. Biting the Dust........................................641
233. Women of Cairo—Full Page..............................655
234. Bread Seller in the Streets of Cairo...................659
235. A Lady of the Harem....................................662
236. An Egyptian Barber.....................................665
237. Alexandria—Full Page..................................671
238. Court of a House in Egypt,.............................673
239. A Bedouin Encampment near Cairo,.......................675
240. The Madonna Tree,......................................676
241. Boot Blacks of Cairo,..................................679
242. Mosque of Sultan Berkook, and Fountain of Ismail.......682
243. Modern Egyptian Oven,..................................683
244. Palace of the Viceroy, near Alexandria—Full Page......689