The amazing adventures of Ali

Front matter

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF ALI

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MAUD LINDSAY

Introduction

An old Eastern tale tells of a magic carpet, on which the owner might ride at will over land and sea. And it is upon such a carpet, woven of many-colored threads gathered here and there from the wealth of great travelers that I have visited the desert; or so it seems to me.

Wellsted, Burton, Palgrave, Doughty, Hassanein Bey, and others have given information and inspiration for my little romance.

They have not all agreed in their accounts of desert travel. Before one rose “an ocean of mirage,” while another scarcely mentions this phenomenon. One dislikes and belittles the camel; to another, he appears the noblest and wisest of animals. One hears in the shifting sand the beat of drums, another describes the sound as the aftertone of a great bell.

But my selection of material and interpreta¬ tion of experiences have been largely governed by my hero, a child in years, but one of courage and imagination. For his character I found

INTRODUCTION prototypes in two boys: a lad of whose ability Wellsted writes briefly but vividly, and a highminded child to whom Doughty devotes a para¬ graph. And for the advice which his mother gave him, I followed the counsel of a Moham¬ medan lady to her son.

Among every people there are some whose noble traits make them lovable, and though not all sheiks are like Ali the Great, I have read of more than one who might well serve as a model for him.

Another thing, and this is for lovers of ro¬ mance and adventure. Only a few years ago there was (and may still be) a cave in the Ara¬ bian desert where the wealth of a certain tribe was stored, and which was known to none be¬ sides the tribesmen.

The Amazing Adventures of Ali is not a handbook of the desert, but to all who are not afraid to trust themselves to Hassan the camel, I extend an invitation to ride with Ali and me into its vast mysteries.

Maud Lindsay

Sheffield, A labama

ILLUSTRATIONS

He made it with a sharp stone (Page 98 )

Frontispiece

Facing Page

“I will have this one and no other” . 20

'‘Back your camel and make way” . 28

“He shall have the Cashmere shawl that his father gave me” .... 42

He was still at the gate when the start was made ...... 52

She soon returned with a bowl of butter¬ milk ....... 64

Merchants and men alike were quick to de¬ fend the camels and the merchandise 76

“Now, oh, Hassan, we are friends” . 86

In this strange storehouse, nothing was in order ....... 110

Two horsemen came riding slowly toward him ....... 120

Presently their voices reached his ears . 142

“I must go to my grandfather” . . 154

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES

OF ALI

Chapter I

Ali sat with his back against a sun-baked wall in the market place of the old Eastern city that was his home, and thought of many things. First, of his father, who had been a soldier, and of the tom-tom-tom of the drums on the day when he had marched away to war. Ali and Marah the nurse, with the baby in her arms, had gone to watch him pass, looking as fine as the Pasha in his gay new uniform.

Ai — i! That marching away had been the cause of all that followed — the end of sweet¬ meats in the house and the beginning of tears, for though other soldiers had come back with great tales to tell, Ali’s father had not been among these.

Ali was now the head of the family and the protector of his mother and the baby, who was a girl, and of Marah, too, if only she would not

forget this and try to take care of him instead.

“ You are so young, so young,” his mother had said on the day when the news of his father’s death had reached them; but Ali had felt very old and brave.

“ Do you not remember that in the new year I shall be older? ” he had reminded his mother, but even to be ten in years instead of nine had seemed young to her.

On that same day he had heard for the first time of a desert sheik, Ali the Great, who was ruler over many tribes, and owner of horses and camels and flocks without number. He, it ap¬ peared, was Ali’s grandfather.

“ Why, then, does he not come to us? ” the boy had asked in wonder. But the great sheik, whose only child was the mother of Ali, was angry with his daughter because she had chosen to live with her husband in the walls of a city rather than in the tents of her tribe. He had never even heard of his namesake, or of the baby.

“ Yet if he could but know you, he would for¬ give all,” Ali’s mother had told him then, and at many other times.

“ If he will not come to us, may we not go to him? ” he had asked, but this was an undertaking beyond thought; or so his mother and Marah had said at first. Afterwards, when their store of money grew less and the color began to fade from the mother’s cheeks and eyes, it was dis¬ cussed freely; not, it is true, that all should go, but that Ali might.

“ Will you ride, oh, treasure of my heart, to find my father and win forgiveness for me? ” his mother had asked, and Ali had answered that he would.

As he sat in the market place he thought of this, and of how his mother and Marah had laughed and cried at his promise, and how the nurse, who was full of proverbs, had said: “ To a man who has no sons, a grandson is as wel¬ come as water to the thirsty.”

How Ali should go to his grandfather was another matter. The season for caravans across the desert was near, but who among them would undertake the care of a child on such a journey?

“ If he had a camel of his own, it would be less to ask,” Marah had said, and it was to buy a camel that Ali had come to the market this morning. An older head than his was needed for such a business, but there was no help for it.

Marah, who might have come with him, was lame with rheumatism, and that his mother should go to the market and bargain with strangers was forbidden by custom. If a camel were bought, Ali must be the purchaser. Doubtless he would be mocked and cheated, or even repulsed, so his mother and the nurse had said; for there was no money to offer, only a bracelet of gold to leave in pledge till it could be redeemed by the grandfather. Even should he refuse to forgive his daughter, the sheik would pay for the camel. There was no doubt in the mind of either Ali’s mother or Marah about this.

Ali had the bracelet hidden in the little tur¬ ban that he wore, and every now and then he put his hand up to assure himself that it was safe. As for the rest, he had no misgivings, for though he was not yet ten years old, he was ready for adventures. And what greater ad¬ venture than to buy a camel?

He had come so early to the market that not even the merchants had been there before him, but now the booths began to open, and cus¬ tomers to come. As Ali walked through the bazaar he looked at everything. In one booth

IS were sold red and yellow dates which would taste, so the seller declared, like the honey of home to a wayfarer’s lips. In the opposite stall was a vendor of water skins, which are called girbies in the East. Some merchants sold bread fresh from the ovens of the city, and others salt, which is prized above all other things by the Arabs. Then, too, there were many sellers of linens and silken stuffs, and in one stall Ali spied a little old shoemaker stitching away on a yellow sandal.

The camel-brokers, who stood by their kneel¬ ing beasts on the outskirts of the market, were the last to be reached. They were a noisy crowd, bickering and laughing among them¬ selves, and before Ali could attract attention he was forced to catch the sleeve of the man who stood nearest him and pull it more than once.

“ Be off, oh, little beggar,” cried the man, but when he observed Ali’s businesslike air he smiled broadly, and another broker laughed and said, “ Take care, oh, Hamood, lest you offend a customer.”

The boy would have told his errand to them at once had it not been that a sweetmeat-seller, who wandered about with a tray of dainties, in¬ terrupted him by calling:

“ Here are wares for your tooth, oh, moon¬ faced one.”

Ali, who thought that such a name was bet¬ ter suited for little ones like the sister at home, flung back his answer:

“ Keep your sweetmeats for children. I come to buy a camel.”

At the moment there was a lull in the busi¬ ness of the market, and Ali’s words brought a throng of idlers to join in the laughter that greeted them. A child come to buy a camel! What better jest could there be? One inquisi¬ tive fellow must ask where Ali’s caravan waited; and if it were to Mecca or Aleppo that he went, and another begged:

“ Buy not a camel, oh, little prince, but an el-fil; ” by which he meant an elephant, though there was none in the land.

The boy’s heart swelled almost to bursting at all this teasing but he stood his ground.

“ I am Ali, the grandson of Ali the Great, whose daughter is my mother,” he cried. “ Show me your camels that I may buy and go.”

The brokers, who till now had seen nothing but child’s play in the matter pricked up their ears at the mention of the great sheik’s name.

“ Granted, oh, little Ali, that your mother is the daughter of the sheik of whom we all have heard, where have you the money to pay for a camel? ”

Now, thought Ali, the time to show the brace¬ let has come; and taking it from his turban he held it up.

“ Here is my surety,” he told the brokers, “ till my grandfather, who has more gold pieces than there are stars in the sky, shall send to re¬ deem it at the camel’s worth and more.”

All of this was what his mother had bidden him say, except for the wealth of the sheik; that he had gotten from the nurse. His earnestness as well as the bracelet convinced the merchants, and they crowded around him as eager to bar¬ gain with him as they had been to play. Ali was begged to look at the legs of this animal and the height of that one, and every man tried to persuade him that the camel he offered was the best.

“ Here is a thelul that your grandfather him¬ self would choose if he were here,” said a broker pushing Ali toward a beast of doubtful merit.

“ Would you rob a child? ” shouted his neigh¬ bor. “ But never mind him, child. His is but a worthless naga, but I will give you a fat camel. Every one knows my camel. I will bring wit¬ nesses to prove that he is a good one.”

“ Except that he is lame of a foot and blind of an eye,” said the next man, “ but mine, oh, little grandson of the great, is a young camel and has no blemish.”

Ali had little knowledge to guide him in all this bibble-babble, but before he left home he had heard his mother say in her anxiety to Marah:

“ When he comes to the market, I pray heaven no toothless camels will be there; ” so he called:

“ I will buy no camel till I have seen its teeth.”

His only thought was to please his mother, but the brokers saw great wisdom in his words; for it is by their teeth that the age and worth of camels are largely determined.

“ Choose for yourself, oh, little wise one,” cried a merchant, and after this there was no chaffering but only wonder as Ali passed along the line of kneeling beasts.

Some of them were old and some were young, and their colors varied, brown, grey, black, white; but, even when the owners goodnaturedly showed the teeth of their camels, Ali found it hard to make a choice. He had almost reached the end of the line when a great white beast thrust its nose into his hand. Here now was a friend among strangers, or so Ali thought, and his indecision vanished.

“ I will have this one and no other,” he cried, looking about for the owner, who proved to be the very Hamood to whom he had first spoken. This honest man, it appeared, was willing enough to make the bargain, but not until he had told the merits of his beast.

“ Teeth he has as you require, and strength and wisdom, and a name like a prince, for this your camel, oh, little Ali,” he said, “ is Hassan, who, God willing, shall be a friend to you whithersoever you may journey.”

Chapter II

The streets of the city where Ali lived were narrow and crooked. In some parts of them two horsemen could scarcely pass each other, and all were uneven and rough.

Through these streets Ali must lead his camel home, but as Hamood the broker, partly from good nature and partly from curiosity to see the family of the boy, offered to go with him, he felt no anxiety as he started out.

It happened, however, that on this very morning an Emir had come to visit the Pasha, who was the governor of the city, and as Ali and his companions entered the street from the bazaar they found themselves in the midst of the great man’s procession.

A more gorgeous spectacle could scarcely be imagined. First came the standard-bearers with banners of white with deep green borders. Then on a chestnut horse with a flowing mane, rode the Emir, who was dressed in clothes of

“I WILL HAVE THIS ONE AND NO OTHER. ’ '-Page 19.

the richest coloring, with a gold-embroidered mantle blowing back from his shoulders, and the brightest of satin turbans on his head. Be¬ hind him came his principal officers in crimson uniforms, with spears in their hands, swords by their sides, and daggers in their girdles. And after them other soldiers rode on camels and dromedaries with gay scarlet fringes hanging from their saddles.

There was neither room to turn nor space to cross in the street, and, almost before they real¬ ized it, Ali and Hamood with the camel were caught in the moving line and forced to march with it as though they were a part of all the pageantry. And it was not long before they attracted the attention of the crowd of spec¬ tators who had come to see the Emir’s splendor.

“ Look you, there goes a child leading a great white camel,” called one of them.

“ The beast is doubtless a gift for the Pasha, and the child the Emir’s son,” said some one else.

“ Nay, his dress is not rich enough for that,” said a third. “ It is likelier that the man beside him is his father, and they and the camel have been taken captive by the Emir. Was there not talk in the bazaar to-day of Bedouin rob¬ bers? ”

All this made a stir and noise in the crowd, and presently an officer of the Pasha’s house¬ hold, who had ridden to meet the Emir, rode up to inquire the cause. When the three in the procession were pointed out to him he was in¬ clined to be angry with them, but finding it was no fault of theirs that they were in such com¬ pany, he made way for them to turn aside at the next street to which they came.

This was a quiet street between the high blank walls of houses built around courtyards and with no windows opening on public ways, in Eastern fashion. Hamood and Ali, who were glad enough to be rid of the noise and press in which they had been, were hurrying the camel along when they came upon an unlucky porter who had spilled the contents of the crate he carried. Dates, melons, pomegranates, lemons, citron, cucumbers, rice, and beans were lying in the dust on every side while the unfortunate man, who was a big helpless fellow, stood in the midst of them bemoaning the mishap.

When he saw the boy and the broker ap¬ proaching with Hassan, he called out hastily to beg them not to let the camel step upon the food, for, as he was quick to tell them, he was a poor man who could ill afford to pay his em¬ ployers for the loss.

Ali and Hamood were far too good-natured to add to his troubles, and while the broker kept the camel back the child ran to assist in picking up the fruit and vegetables. Soon everything but a little rice and a handful of beans was restored to the crate, and the porter was loud in his gratitude.

“ Praise be to God,” he said, “ that it was you who came and not the gutter-boys, who, like the locust, would have devoured all, and mocked me as they mocked my brother when a mis¬ fortune greater than my own befell him.”

Ali could not keep from asking what this misfortune was, and the porter, who was more than eager to tell the tale, lost no time in be¬ ginning it.

“ Know, oh, child,” he said “ that my brother is a man of taste, and having made a little money he purchased from a tailor a coat of ex¬ cellent material in two colors. This he wore to the market place where, standing on a cor¬ ner, he soon attracted the attention of a man of good appearance, who offered him employ¬ ment.

“ 4 Here,’ thought my brother, 4 is a house¬ holder of wealth who will spend freely, and when I have conveyed what he has bought to his house, he will pay according to his means. And with this fee I shall buy in the bazaar a pair of crimson slippers, for to wear old shoes with a fine coat is unbecoming to any man ; 5 so he accepted the offer joyfully.

44 Imagine then his disappointment when, en¬ tering a stall, the householder bought only a skin of sour milk.

44 Laying this across his shoulder my brother hurried away determined to have done with such a task as quickly as could be. But no sooner had he passed into the streets than the ravenous dogs, of which the city is full, came to leap upon him, lapping and biting at his coat till it was well-nigh torn from his back. And to make the matter worse, the gutter-boys, for¬ saking their play, began to follow him with mocking words.

4 4 4 Alas! ’ cried my poor brother , 4 What have I done to merit such ill treatment? ’ But the worst was not yet known to him. When at last, though more dead than alive, he reached the house of his employer and lifted down the milk bag he found that it was empty! For the neck of the skin having come untied, the milk had leaked away upon his coat.

“ But though this misfortune was great it was not so grievous as what befell my uncle,” said the porter.

This tale, however, was left untold, for, much as they would have liked to hear it, Ali and Hamood could stay no longer, and bidding the porter good-bye they hastened on.

As they went, Hamood, who was as full of talk as the porter had been, told Ali of his own journeys into the desert, where he had gone to purchase camels for the market; for it is from the great Bedouin sheiks, like Ali’s grandfather, that these are bought.

On one of his journeys he had come upon a camel left for dead by a caravan. Its neck was already stretched on the sand and its eyes glazed, but Hamood, who was skilled with beasts, had poured water on its tongue and rubbed a great vein in its head, and finally had gotten it to its feet again.

“ And where think you, oh, little Ali, is that camel now? ” he asked, breaking off his story and looking at the child.

Ali was all excitement at the question.

“ Hamood, oh, Hamood,” he cried, “ Was it Hassan that you found? ”

“ Aye,” said Hamood, his voice full of hon¬ est pride, “ and as good a camel as any ever bought or sold.”

Who the owners might have been, he could not tell, though inquiry had been made.

“ ’Tis likely they were Persian Pilgrims, such as ride to Mecca and haste home again,” said Hamood; but whether this were true or not, he had kept the beast unsold, and in the market where all could see him for many a day.

By this time they had come to an alley not far from the boy’s home, and were already well into it when they spied before them a small grey donkey loaded with huge panniers filled with earthenware; jars, pots, and pipkins.

The driver was a wizened, crabbed man who had no thought of yielding ground to them.

“ Oh, heedless one! ” he called to Hamood, “ Have a care how you come.”

“ Have a care yourself how your donkey oversteps her space,” said the broker, who was ruffled at his tone. “ Would you push us to the wall? ”

“ Back your camel and make way,” retorted the driver, “ lest I break my pots against his bones.”

“ Talk you of bones, oh, you who overburden donkeys,” cried the broker, indignation bris¬ tling in his words. “ Unload your wares and the passing will be easy.” But this the driver would not do.

“ The camel has no burden,” he shouted, “ and to unload wares is far more easily said than done.”

“ Aye,” the broker answered, “ but what do you, who are a driver of small beasts, know of a camel? Back him, say you? But what if he bruise a shin or break a leg? Who then will recompense the child who is his owner? An¬ swer me that, oh, seller of pots and pipkins? ” But by now the driver had a new line of con¬ tention ;

“ The right of way is mine,” he cried. “ Was I not here before you came, as is easily proven? Look you and see the Cadi’s house, which stands midway between this alley-end and that; which one is nearer to it, my donkey or yourself? ”

“ Myself,” said the broker, and the dispute might have gone on without end if the Cadi had not heard the noise and come from his house to ask the trouble. He was a judge noted for his justice, and when he had listened to both sides, he determined the matter in this way:

“ Back the camel to yonder doorway, and make him kneel,” he told the broker; and to the driver he said:

“ Unload the one-half of your wares, and keep the empty pannier to the wall.”

When this advice was followed the passing was accomplished without the breaking of a single pipkin, and the driver and the broker parted on the best of terms. Nevertheless Hamood thought that the victory had been his.

“ The Cadi is a wise man,” he said, “ still, oh, little Ali, it is well that I was here to speak for you, else the dealer in small wares had worsted you.”

When they reached the end of the alley, Ali’s home was in sight, but here a fresh anxiety pre¬ sented itself. The door or gateway of the court¬ yard, on which the house opened, was broken away from age and lack of mending, but Ali was not sure that Hassan could pass through

‘‘Back your camel and make way.” -Page 27.

it. Ai — i! if he should have to lie in the street to be stumbled on, and abused by passers!

Fortunately this question was soon settled; the camel entered the gap as if it had been made for him, and then Ali shouted joyfully:

“ Come, oh, my mother! Come, Marah, with the child! Hassan that has all his proper teeth is at the door.”

Chapter III

Ali’s mother and the nurse had nothing but praise for Hassan. First one and then the other found something to exclaim about; his size, his shape, the breadth of his feet, his slen¬ der neck, all of which showed that he was no ordinary camel, but among the best of his kind.

44 There were black camels in the market; would you, oh, my mother, have bought one of those? ” asked Ali; but a white camel was to be desired above all others, so his mother thought.

44 My father had one in his herd, and the camel had a foal as white as herself,” she told him; and pleased with the memory she called to the nurse, 44 Do you not remember, oh, Marah, the white foal of my father? ”

44 Aye,” said Marah, 44 and the day that it was stolen away with twenty other camels and the chestnut mare.”

44 But my father rode to overtake the robbers. Every camel was brought back, and the mare as well. Only the little foal was lost. Ai — i! How I wept that day,” said the mother.

Her eyes were bright with tears now, as she looked at Hassan and thought of what his com¬ ing meant, but she wiped them away before Ali could see them, and hastened to turn the praise to him.

“ Was it not well done, oh, Marah, to go to the market and buy a camel, and such a camel! ”

“ Aye,” said Marah, “ but the child is half a Bedouin. Did I not say that you could trust him?”

“ He has a head beyond his years,” put in Hamood who had stood by listening. “ Nevertheless, it is well that he found an honest man to deal with him.”

“ True,” said the mother, “ and, God willing, you shall have reward.” Hamood was ready enough to hope for this.

“ God requites the kind of heart, and so, doubtless, will Ali the Great,” he answered gravely.

Everything that he saw and heard in the little courtyard convinced him that he had made no mistake in befriending Ali, and even when his farewells were said and lie was out of the gate, he turned back to assure the mother that he would watch for travelers.

“ The market is the place for news,” he said; “ and never goes a caravan that I am not the first to hear of it.”

After he had gone, nothing was talked of in Ali’s home but plans for his journey. Marah thought only of what he must take with him, and how these things might be gotten in readi¬ ness quickly.

“ He may wait for a caravan, but a caravan will never wait for him,” she said. But his mother’s anxiety was all for his safety on the way.

“You shall not go into the desert except with trusty men,” she told him; but Ali felt very sure that he could find them.

“ Did I not find Hassan? ” he asked.

“ Aye, treasure of my heart,” she answered, “ but to judge a camel is easier than to judge a man.”

Nevertheless when morning came she let him go again to the market where, as on the day before, he sat with his back against the wall.

But now his thoughts were only of the passers, among whom he hoped to find protectors.

All the usual crowd of the market was there; men who were plainly citizens and householders of the city, a few women with their faces veiled, as the custom of the country was, and servants hurrying to and fro on errands. But besides these, there were many about whom the boy could guess nothing.

Then came two men with olive skins and bright dark eyes, and voices that seemed soft and liquid in comparison to the shrill cries of the market. These men were dressed like the rest, in Eastern costume, but by many little signs Ali knew that they were strangers. When they stopped at the booths, a servant, who followed them, asked the prices of things and did the buying. They looked about them as if what they saw were unfamiliar to them, and once, when something pleased them, they called out a word or two in a language that the boy had never heard before.

Of all who had passed, Ali liked them best. They walked so fearlessly through the crowd, and their faces were so gay and pleasant. Once, too, they stopped to lift a child, who had stumbled and fallen, and Ali saw that they gave him sweetmeats.