Faiyum

“ The man on the angareb was the Emir.
"You are a spy of the Government from Wadi Halfa," he said.
"No, I am a musician," returned the prisoner, and he laughed happily, like a man that has made a jest.
Nejoumi made a sign, and an instrument with many broken strings was handed to the captive. Feversham seated himself upon the ground, and with slow, fumbling fingers, breathing hard as he bent over the zither, he began to elicit a wavering melody. It was the melody to which Durrance had listened in the street of Tewfikieh on the eve of his last journey into the desert ”

“ At last a Fakir came along, and he said to the King, "Man, why are you lying here?"
He replied, "Fakir, a thousand men have come and passed by; you pass on too."
But the Fakir said, "Who are you, man?"
The King replied, "I am a King, Fakir. Of goods and gold I have no lack, but I have lived long and have no children. So I have come here, and have laid me down at the cross-roads. My sins and offences have been very many, so I have come and am lying here that men may pass over me, and perchance my sins may be forgiven me, and God may be merciful, and I may have a son." ”

“ To the honored, great, and holy Master and Teacher, Jacob, wise and genial, dear and revered sage, son of the honored, great, and holy Master and Teacher, Nathaniel Fayyumi, distinguished Prince of Yemen, president of its congregations, leader of its communities, may the spirit of God rest upon him, and upon all his associates and upon all the scholars of the communities of Yemen. May the Lord keep and protect them. ”

“ While he stood there the old Fakir opened his eyes, and saw him.
“Son, you have looked after me while I was asleep; who are you and where are you going?”
“I am going to seek my fortune, for I am a poor man.”
“Go no further, but return the same way that you have come,” said the old Fakir.
“Before I go, will you tell me, O holy Fakir, why a certain Rajah’s house is always falling down, though he is constantly rebuilding it.” [99]
“The Rajah has a daughter who is grown up but unmarried; when she is married the trouble will cease.” ”

“ But when Feisul writes anything he signs his name to it, whereas a number is the signature on this. Now that fellow Sidi bin Tagim in the hospital is an honest old kite in his way. He's a great rooter for Feisul. And the only easy way to ditch a man like Feisul, who's as honest as the day is long, and no man's fool, is to convince his fanatical admirers that for his own sake he ought to be forced along a certain course. ”

“ From Serimanna in two hours we reached Fajemmia: this is only a small village, but fortified with a high wall. The chief, from whom the village has its name, formerly resided at Faramba, to the East of this; but has lately retired here, leaving his people and slaves at Faramba. Fajemmia is the most powerful chief of Konkodoo, and holds under his subjection all the country from Toombin to the Ba Fing.
The customs paid by travellers being always in proportion to the power and mischievous disposition of the chiefs; those paid at Fajemmia are of course very high. ”

“ These are the literati, the holy men of the nation, a kind of priests, without exercising sacerdotal functions; they can read and write, allow no music, no dancing, no feasting, and therefore stand in great odour of sanctity. The Sheikh of this village is the supreme Fakir of the district. Everybody believes in him as a prophet; what he has prophesied, happens. The deceased Ahmed Pasha had him locked up a month before his death; “God will punish thee,” he returned in answer to the decree, and a month afterward the Pasha died. This is a very rich man, and owns several villages. ”

“ The Fairy Paribanou, who had her eyes fixed upon the pretended sick woman all the time that the Prince was talking to her, ordered two of her women who followed her to take her from the two men that held her, and carry her into an apartment of the palace, and take as much care of her as herself.
Whilst the two women executed the Fairy’s commands, she went up to Prince Ahmed, and, whispering him in the ear, said: ‘Prince, this woman is not so sick as she pretends to be; and I am very much mistaken if she is not an impostor, who will be the cause of a great trouble to you. ”

“ One day the Rajah passed that way, and asked the Brahmin how he had built such a lovely Palace in the place of his old mud-hut.
The old man told him how he had found the box, and all about the Queen, his wife, whom he thought was dead.
The Rajah owned his sin, and implored forgiveness of his wife. At first she refused to forgive him, but after a time she listened, and the Rajah said that, if ever again he did anything to vex or hurt her, the old Fakir might punish him as he thought best.
Now the Indian people dread the punishment of a holy Fakir ”

“ Thereupon Hasib marvelled at her words and said to her, "I beseech thee, of thy favour, bid one of thy guards bear me forth to the surface of the earth, that I may go to my people." She replied, "O Hasib, thou shalt not have leave to depart from us till winter come, and needs must thou go with us to the Mountain Kaf and solace thyself with the sight of the hills and sands and trees and birds magnifying the One God, the Victorious; and look upon Marids and Ifrits and Jinn, whose number none knoweth save Almighty Allah." ”

“ These are the utterances of a great poet, the imaginative interpreter of the heart of man; they are not of one age, or of another, but for all time. Fitz-Gerald knew it when he declared that Hafiz rang true. “Hafiz is the most Persian of the Persians,” he says. “He is the best 53representative of their character, whether his Saki and wine be real or mystical. Their religion and philosophy is soon seen through, and always seems to me cuckooed over like a borrowed thing, which people once having got do not know how to parade enough. ”

“ Now Omar was a native of Naishapur, while Hasan Ben Sabbah's father was one Ali, a man of austere life and practise, but heretical in his creed and doctrine. One day Hasan said to me and to Khayyam, "It is a universal belief that the pupils of the Imam Mowaffak will attain to fortune. Now, even if we all do not attain thereto, without doubt one of us will ”

“ It is not unlikely that some of the extensive plains of the Fayûm may owe their existence in part to the presence in Pliocene times of the sea or of a large inland lake, that they may in fact be plains of denudation. The plain above the escarpment of the Qasr el Sagha series, lying between 150 and 200 metres above sea-level, and stretching throughout a large part of the north of the Fayûm, has characters which tend to support this idea. ”

“ The Nagarchees, or kettle-drummers of each body, were beating the assembly vigorously, and single men were rapidly arriving from other quarters and joining their divisions. Fazil rode on with his companions, looking for somebody he knew, who might give him news of his father, when, from behind a mass of buildings which formed the corner of a street outside the town gate, a cavalcade approached, led by men of his own Paigah, and in the midst of which rode his father, the Peer, and Ibrahim Khan, the leader of the Abyssinians, accompanied by the tall, martial figure of Pahar Singh. ”

“ When she heard of the errand on which the messengers had come, she sent for them when the Fakir was out, and said to them: "Give me the bag of gold mohurs, and you shall take my little daughter to marry the Muchie Rajah." ("For," she thought to herself, "the great fish will certainly eat the girl, and she will thus trouble us no more.") Then, turning to her stepdaughter, she said: "Go down to the river and wash your saree, that you may be fit to go with these people, who will take you to the Ranee's court." ”

“ Although Hafiz Khan and his hordes were defeated and dispersed, they speedily rallied sufficiently to be a ceaseless thorn in the flesh to the brigade now permanently encamped within a few miles of the late scene of action. Hafiz was a striking [Pg 33] illustration of the saying, “He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.” He was a fakir—exceptionally holy, having made the blessed pilgrimage no less than thrice—notorious alike for his zealous piety as for his abhorrence of the accursed Kaffir. Scandal whispered that he had not always been such a devoted servant of the Prophet ”

“ But when for his oppression he fell under the avenging club of his former friends, it was seen that he bled and was no god, but mortal as ourselves. The white man’s gods are not the gods of Fiji. If they are to be set up here the wrath of the great Dengeh will be aroused; he will shake with anger in his cave, and the whole earth will be barren. It is he who has sent us these castaways. They must die. The customs of our country and our religion not only sanction but demand and sanctify the deed.”
2. The Fijian expression for horizon. ”

“ The Sultan was very well pleased with the magician’s conduct, and said to her: ‘Do you as you think fit; I’ll wait patiently the event of your promises; and to encourage her made her a present of a diamond of great value.
As Prince Ahmed had obtained the Fairy Paribanou’s leave to go to the Sultan of the Indies’ Court once a month, he never failed, and the magician, knowing the time, went a day or two before to the foot of the rock where she lost sight of the Prince and his attendants, and waited there. ”

“ The uproar was too great to allow Ahmed to hear what was being said; he could only guess at it by the gesticulations of the men and by what happened afterwards. The fakir had, in fact, called on the fanatics who surrounded him, to bring combustibles for the burning of the house. Against this Minghal vehemently protested: the king's orders were that no houses should be fired: this would be only to assist the Feringhis. But the fakir scoffed at orders: it was the duty of all the faithful to destroy the infidels by any means in their power. ”

“ The following night, on the return of the prince from his visit to Gulizar, he and the vizier's son, taking the horses and bags of muhrs, went to a graveyard about a mile or so distant. It was arranged that the vizier's son should act the part of a fakir and the prince the part of the fakir's disciple and servant. ”

“ In Fiji we have an example of the introduction of the Hindu to the extinction of the Fijian for the sake of the enrichment of the white man. The indentured Indian, small and wiry, who seems too delicate for any task and is stopped by none, acts as a reinforcement in the South Sea labor market. He glides along in purposeful indifference. As coolie, he may be seen at any time wending his way along Victoria Parade, bareheaded, a thin sulu of colored gauze wound about his loins. As freed man, he is the tailor, the jeweler, the grocer, and the gardener. ”

“ Next came the common soldiers on camels or dromedaries, some with spears only, some with spears and guns, till the wide square was filled with armed men and gazing spectators, as the whole troop drew up before the great autocrat, and Sa’ood alighted to bend and kiss his father’s hand. ‘God save Feysul! God give the victory to the armies of the Muslims!’ was shouted out on every side, and all faces kindled into the fierce smile of concentrated enthusiasm and conscious strength. Feysul arose from his seat and placed his son at his side; another moment, and they entered the castle together. ”

“ CHAPTER XIX THE EFFECT OF FIAM’S FORESIGHT
As soon as we were alone I said to Fiam:
“You see what a fine figure you made me cut.”
He gave no answer. My request to dictate a telegram to the newspaper he flatly refused. Half an hour later we arrived at the encampment. From inside my tent I heard a horse trotting and then stop. A voice asked:
“May I come in?”
“Come in,” I cried.
An officer entered. I knew him at once. It was the surgeon I had talked to on the railroad train.
“The general sent me,” he announced. “I am an army surgeon; my name is Tasa. Let me feel your pulse.” ”

“ The tidings reaching Medina just after Mohammad's death, Abu Bekr appointed Feiruz to be his lieutenant. The Arab blood of Keis ibn Mekshuh rebelled against serving under a Persian, and he plotted to expel the whole body of foreign immigrants. To effect this, he called in the aid of 'Amr ibn Ma'dikerib, a famous poet and influential chief who, having like others cast off the Faith, ravaged the country with remnants of the false prophet's army. Daduweihi was treacherously slain by this 'Amr at a feast, but Feiruz escaped, and after much hardship secured his retreat with a friendly tribe. ”

“ He called for food, and the raw liver of a camel, covered with salt and red pepper, was placed before Feversham. Seldom has a man had smaller inclination to eat, but Feversham ate, none the less, even of that unattractive dish, knowing well that reluctance would be construed as fear, and that the signs of fear might condemn him to death. And, while he ate, Nejoumi questioned him, in the silkiest voice, about the fortifications of Cairo and the strength of the garrison at Assouan, and the rumours of dissension between the Khedive and the Sirdar. ”

“ There was a crowd about the water's edge, men passed up and down between the crowd and them. Trench took his foot into his lap and examined the sole. But at the same time he unfolded the paper in the hollow of his hand and read the contents aloud. He could hardly read them, his voice so trembled. Feversham could hardly hear them, the blood so sang in his ears.
"A man will bring to you a box of matches. When he comes trust him.—Sutch." And he asked, "Who is Sutch?"
"A great friend of mine," said Feversham. "He is in Egypt, then! Does he say where?" ”