Masouda

“ Down they went, and down, till at length, panting, but safe, they stood at the bottom of the darksome gulf where only the starlight shone, for here the rays of the low moon could not reach.
“Mount,” said Masouda. “Princess, stay you on Flame; he is the surest and the swiftest. Sir Wulf, keep your own horse Smoke; your brother and I will ride those of the soldiers. Though not very swift, doubtless they are good beasts, and accustomed to such roads.” Then she leapt to the saddle as a woman born in the desert can, and pushed her horse in front. ”

“ Peace reigned indeed, but Godwin and Wulf could guess that it would not reign for long. Damascus and the plain around it were one great camp, and every day new thousands of wild tribesmen poured in and took up the quarters that had been prepared for them. They asked Masouda, who knew everything, what it meant. She answered:
“It means the Jihad, the Holy War, which is being preached in every mosque throughout the East. It means that the great struggle between Cross and Crescent is at hand, and then, pilgrims Peter and John, you will have to choose your standard.” ”

“ The sound of the fighting will arouse the outer guard ere hurt can come to him. Or,” she added, after thinking awhile, “perhaps it will be best to reveal the plot to the Sultan at once.”
“No, no,” answered Wulf; “let us take the chance. I weary of doing nothing here. Hassan guards the outer gate. He will come swiftly at the sound of blows.”
“Good,” said Masouda; “I will see that he is there and awake. ”

“ At length they reached the crest, and there, on the very top of it, saw Wulf and Rosamund standing by Flame and Smoke.
“They rest,” Godwin said, then he shouted, “Mount! mount! The foe is close.”
So they climbed to their saddles again, and, all four of them together began to descend the long slope that stretched to the plain two leagues beneath. Far off across this plain ran a broad silver streak, beyond which from that height they could see the walls of a city.
“The Orontes!” cried Masouda. “Cross that, and we are safe.” ”

“ The Emeer Moosa also rejoiced at the safety of Abd-Es-Samad, and at the opening of the gate of the city; the people thanked him for that which he had done, and all the troops hastened to enter the gate. But the Emeer Moosa cried out to them, saying to them: “O people, if all of us enter, we shall not be secure from accident. Half shall enter, and half shall remain behind.” The Emeer Moosa then entered the gate, and with him half of the people, who bore their weapons of war. ”

“ The island itself is very small, scarce three quarters of a mile in length, and about half that in breadth, one-third occupied by houses, one by cisterns to receive the rain-water, and the last is reserved for burying the dead.
Masuah, as we have already observed, was one of those towns on the west of the Red Sea that followed the conquest of Arabia Felix by Sinan Basha, under Selim emperor of Constantinople. At that time it was a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the Indian Ocean. ”

“ For these big, bold, burly men are fairly savages in comparison with the cultured Hindu whom they harried. And Masûd, though by repute an affable gentleman, generous even to prodigality, and of uncommon personal strength and courage, was as turbulent as a king as he had been as a prince.
His favourite maxim was, "Dominion follows the longest sword." His was not only long, but heavy. No other man of his court could wield it, and an arrow from his bow would pierce the hide of a mailed elephant. During the ten years of his reign he entered India with an army three times. ”

“ Trusting in Allah and Mohammed his Prophet is a lot easier than rowing a lineless, blunt-nosed, unseaworthy boat beneath a tropical sun. So they trusted in God, and permitted Moussa Isa, slave-boy, to do all that it was humanly possible for him to do.
Moussa did all that was expected of him, but not so Allah and Mohammed his Prophet.
The gentle breeze that (sometimes) carries you steadily over a glassy sea straight up the forty-fifth meridian of east longitude from Berbera to Aden in the month of October, failed these worthy trustful Argonauts, and they were becalmed. ”

“ Massoudy cut down the girth of the world even more than Ptolemy. The latter had left an ocean to [Pg 21] the west of Africa: the former made the Canaries or Fortunate Islands, the limit of the known Western world, abut upon India, the limit of the Eastern.
The first age of Arabic geography ends with Massoudy, its greatest name, in the middle of the tenth century. The second age is summed up in the work of the Eastern sage Albyrouny and of Edrisi, the Arabic Ptolemy (a.d. 1099-1154) , who found a home at the Christian Court of Roger of Sicily. ”

“ Masuah was in this disturbed state, when information was received there from Jidda that a prince, a very near relation of the King of England, a person who was no trader, but, strange to say, was travelling only to visit different countries and people, was about to arrive at Masuah in his way to Abyssinia. When this intelligence arrived, the naybe and his councillors assembled to determine what was to be done with the English prince. Several proposed that he should at once be put to death, and his property divided among themselves. ”

“ A traveller, even a layman, is bound to put up peaceably with such trifles; and to threaten "combustion" without being prepared to carry out the threat is the readiest way to secure contempt.
[20] The Kharif in most parts of the Oriental world corresponds with our autumn. In Eastern Africa it invariably signifies the hot season preceding the monsoon rains.
[21] The circumstances of Masud's murder were truly African. The slave caravans from Abyssinia to Tajurrah were usually escorted by the Rer Guleni, a clan of the great Eesa tribe, and they monopolised the profits of the road. ”

“ Although Masuah is situated in the very entrance of Abyssinia, a very plentiful country, yet all the necessaries of life are scarce and dear. Their quality, too, is very indifferent. This is owing to the difficulty, expence, and danger of carrying the several articles through the desert flat country, called Samhar, which lies between Arkeeko and the mountains of Abyssinia; as well as to the extortions exercised by the Naybe, who takes, under the name of customs, whatever part he pleases of the goods and provisions brought to that island ”

“ We visited Mamusa, encamping on its little river a short distance from the merchants’ offices under the eastern slope of the hills. A few years back it had been one of the most populous places representing the Hottentot element in South Africa, but now it was abandoned to a few of the descendants of the aged king Mashon and their servants. Some of the people had carried off their herds to the pasture-lands; others had left the place for good, to settle on the affluents of the Mokara and the Konana, on the plains abounding in game that stretched northwards towards the Molapo. ”

“ Strange race, so intellectual, so quick of wit, so subtle, and yet without the slightest dignity of personal bearing; handsome, and yet without the least attraction, conquering the Arabs as they conquer Saxons, Latins, or all those with whom they come in contact upon that modern theatre of war—the Stock Exchange. Hassan Messoud having protested that by the God of Abraham we were all welcome, retired and left us to pitch our tent upon a dust-heap in a courtyard, between some ruined houses and the village wall. ”

“ The Ma’ázah is a Syro–Egypto-Bedawi clan, originally Arab, or rather Syrian, but migratory, as are all Arabs. It now extends high up the valley of the Nile, and it is still found in the Wady Musá (of Suez) and on the Za’faránah block. Even in Egypt it is turbulent and dangerous: the men are professional robbers; and their treachery is uncontrolled by the Bedawi law of honour—they will eat bread and salt with the traveller whom they intend to murder. ”

“ El Masoudi, who has been called the Herodotus of Arabia, gives us still further details about the race, speaking of Sofala as a place to which the Arabs of his time went habitually to obtain gold and precious stones from the natives. He is more explicit about the descent from the north of the Zindj tribes, which took place not long before his day; and unless there was a previous wave of barbarians, concerning whom we have no account, it may be supposed that it was owing to their advent that the gold settlements up country were finally abandoned, and the Arab traders restricted to the coast. ”

“ There are very few camels, and horses and mules are scarce and dear. The population has been estimated at about 4,000. The island is dependent on Egypt, and is ruled by a governor appointed by the Khedive. The chief inhabitants of Massawa are a few Greeks and Italians, an Italian and French Consul, one Englishman, and a small colony of Banians, through whose hands almost all the trade passes. ”

“ The People of Mashonaland.—A paper concerning the country in South Africa "which has somehow or another got the name of Mashonaland" was read in the British Association by Mr. Theodore Bent. The inhabitants are an oppressed and impoverished race who, raided upon from both sides by Zulus, take refuge in the mountains. They are obviously a race which has seen better days, retaining traces of a higher civilization in their skill in smelting iron, their ornaments, their musical instruments, and many other kindred points. ”

“ I will go up and open the gate to you, if it be the will of God the Most High.’ ‘Go,’ replied Mousa, ‘and may God bless thee! But beware lest thou lose thy head, even as did he.’ Then the man mounted the ladder, but no sooner had he reached the top of the wall than he laughed aloud and saying, ‘Well done! Well done!’ cast himself down into the city and died forthright.
When the Amir saw this, he said, ‘If this be the fashion of a reasonable man, what is that of the madman? If all our men do thus, we shall have none left and shall fail of our errand and that of the Commander of the Faithful. ”

“ The ghost of a flickering smile hovered over the lips that, in the monotonous Arabic drawl of the professional priest, began on the opening sentences of the Mahomedan wedding service.
The man and the woman standing instinct with Life, looked helplessly at each other and instinctively drew apart.
Ma'asuma's violet eyes seemed to strive with coming darkness. "Don't," she murmured. "It is not kind! Look you, I cannot see; and my hands are so weak. Be quick or I shall not hear. Say it quickly and then there will be peace, then I shall have given my lord a son--then we shall all be at rest. ”

“ A railway connects Massawa with Asmara, the capital of the colony. Besides the Abyssinians, who speak a Tigré dialect corrupted with Arabic, the inhabitants comprise Italian officials and traders, Greeks, Indians, Arabs from Yemen and Hadramut, Gallas and Somalis. Massawa is the natural port for northern Abyssinia but commerce is undeveloped owing to the lack of rapid means of communication. The trade done consists mainly in exporting hides, butter, Abyssinian coffee and civet, and importing European and Indian cotton goods and silks. ”

“ Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of residence of the Baharnagash, who, when he was not there himself, constantly left his deputy, or lieutenant. In summer he resided for several months in the island of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was, after the King and Betwudet, the person of the greatest consideration in the kingdom, and was invested with sendick and nagareet, the kettle-drum, and colours, marks of supreme command. ”

“ MASSAWA, or Massowah, a fortified town on the African coast of the Red Sea, chief port of the Italian colony of Eritrea, in 15° 36′ N. and 39° 28′ E. Pop. about 10,000. The town stands at the north end of the bay of Massawa and is built partly on a coral island of the same name—where was the original settlement—and partly on the islets of Tautlub and Sheik Said, and the neighbouring mainland. Massawa Island is from 20 to 25 ft. above the sea, its length does not exceed 1⁄2 m. and its breadth is about 1⁄4 m. The harbour is formed by the channel between the island and the mainland. ”

“ So the Emeer Moosa said: “May God not regard with mercy thy resting-place! There was, in these riches, a sufficiency; and covetousness doth dishonour the person in whom it existeth!” He thereupon gave orders for the entry of the troops, who accordingly entered, and they loaded the camels with part of those riches and minerals; after which the Emeer Moosa commanded them to close the gate as it was before.
They then proceeded along the sea-coast until they came in sight of a high mountain overlooking the sea. ”

“ Bou-Saada is even of less importance than Aumale to the average person. But for the artist it is a paradise. It is not Tlemcen, it has no grand mosques; it is not Tunis, it has no great souks and bazaars; but it is quaintly native in every crooked street huddled around the military post and the hotels. The life of{269}
the leather and silver workers, and of the butcher, the baker and the seller of blankets and foodstuffs is, as yet, unspoiled and uncontaminated with anything more worldly than oil-lamps. ”