Joseph's sufferings. 21

and fearfully abused all Turks, exclaiming, as all renegades ever

do, that he was the mere slave of a set of rascals.

On the 14th March, at two o'clock p.m., the hottest part of the

day, when my poor Joseph was about to retire for a siesta, the

Pascha, who almost never rested or ate, became gloomy, and ordered

ooTthe dromedaries. At once all the camp was bustle and confu-

sion. The Pascha, once mounted, was happy, — more than my

brother was, who was anxiously eyeing the beasts, and heard, with

no slight thrill of alarm, the Pascha pronounce, as he pointed to a

dromedary, the word " kerkab," (mount) ; the more so, as he well knew the fearless style of riding of his leader, which his own native

attendants much feared. Joseph now had to mount a drome-

dary for the first time ; though in our desert-crossings we both

had sat for weeks on the broad cloth-covered backs of the bag-

gage camels. But, up he got ; and there, high raised in air, he

sat as if on a stool, all loose, without any hold as on a horse, and

hardly had got the rope rein into his hand, when off he had to trot

alongside his leader, who, of course, took no notice of his com-

panion's dilemma ; though the latter feared every moment to lose

his balance, and break his neck or limbs.

At first the ride did him good, but, from the constant sliaking, and

from being at every step thrown forward by the animal's shuffling

gait, ere long his bowels were set into such a state of inquietude,

from the sharp ride of two hours under a burning sun, that he had

to remain behind, on the thorn-covered waste near the banks of the

Nile, and await the coming up of the servants and baggage, while

all the others marched on and passed him. Only one pitying Ababdi-

Bedouin remained by him; but, unfortunately, neither understood the

other's language.* Headache, convulsive vomitings, racking heat,

horrible thirst, and no water, as he had no vessel to fetch any in, and

the Bedouin would not leave him to fetch one, was Joseph's lot

;

then delii'ium, but still sufficient consciousness to be aware, now and then, of men passing and asking, " Min di ajahu ?" (Who is the

sick man?) "Hakim Pascha" and then "Hue bimutt " (he lies

• "We did not again fall in with this singular man till cncampi'il at the Ivas-

sela-el-Sus, when we richly rewarded and handsomely entertained him ; he, however, had often seen my brother in the interim, but never came near hiiu,

or made himself known.

C 3