A Pretended Dervish in Turkestan, Parts I-III [pp. 198-215]

A Pretended Dervish in Turkestan.
ing, but where it was impossible to of an infidel." This pretended indigdiscover the least trace of a path. nation produced the desired effect; no
The sun alone indicated their course, one afterward expressed a doubt in
an([ during the night the kervanbashi regard to the pilgrim. Vamb6ry could
(chief of caravans) guided himself not resolve to keep his promise, and,
by the polar star, called by the Turko- whatever it might have cost him to
men the iron pin, because it is motion- deceive his friends, he continued to
less. Gradually the sand gave place make in secret some rapid notes.
to a hard and flinty soil, on which "Let one imagine," says he, to excuse
through the silent night resounded the himself, " the bitter disappointment of
foot-fall of the camels. At day-break a traveller who arriving at last, after
the caravan stopped to take some long efforts and great peril, before a
hours of rest, and presently Vamb6ry spring for which he has eagerly sighed,
perceived the kervanbashi engaged finds himself forbidden to moisten his
eagerly in conversation with Hadji parched lips."
Bilal and Hadji Salih, the subject of The caravan advanced slowly
which their looks, constantly directed through the desert; in compassion for
toward him, sufficiently indicated. the camels, who suffered much from
Hle pretended not to observe it, and the sand, uponwhich they could hardly
occupied himself with renewed earn- walk, the pilgrims dismounted when
estness in turning over the pages of theroadbecameverybad. Theseforced
the Koran. Some moments after his marches were a severe trial to Vamfriends came to him, and said "his b6ry on account of his lameness; but
foreign features excited the distrust of he endeavored to forget his fatigue
the kervanbashi, for this man had al- andcl to take a part in the noisy converready incurred the anger of the king sations of his companions. The nephew
because he had some years before of the kervanbashi, a Turkoman of
conducted to Khiva a European, Khiva, entertained a particular affecwhom this single journey had enabled tion for him; full of respect for his
to put down on paper with diabolical character as dervish, and won by the
art all the peculiarities of the country, benevolence of his looks, he took great
and he never should be able to save pleasure in talking to him of lhis tent,
his head if he committed another such the only manner in which the prescripblunder. It is with great difficulty," tions of the Prophet permitted himn to
added the dervishes, " that we have speak of the young wife whom he had
persuaded himn to take you with us, left at home. Separated for a whole
and he has made it a condition, first, year from the object of his tenderness,
that you shall consent to be searched, Khali Mallah appealed to the science
and secondly, that you will swear, by of the pretended hadji to pierce the
the tomb of the Prophet, that you will veil which absence had placed between
not carry about you secretly awooden himnselfand his family. Vambry gravepen, as these detestable Europeans ly took the Koran, pronounced some
always do." cabalistic words, closed his eyes, and
These words, we may imagine, were opened the book precisely at a passage
not very agreeable to Vamb6ry, but in which women are spoken of. He
he had too much self-control to permit interpreted the sacred text so as to
his agitation to be seen. Pretending draw from it an oracle sufficiently
to be very angry, he turned toward vague, at which the young Tartar was
Hadji Salih, and, loud enough to be transported with joy.
heard by the chief of caravans, re- On the 27th of May the travellers
plied, " Hadji, you have seen me in reached the table-lands of Korentaghi,
Teheran, and you know who I am; a chain of mountains surrounded by
say to the kervanbashi that an honest vast valleys, to the west of which exman ought not to listen to the gossip tend ruins probably of Greek origin.
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