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Bakshish they call it here too; that word accompanies you round the world! I think we'll go for a jaunt, if you're ready, as the light falls quickly here. There is no difficulty in getting two rickshaws, and how they spin along.
I urged the boat walas on with perpetual promises of bakshish. Everybody except myself was behaving with oriental calm, and leaving it to Kismet. It was of no use doing anything to Richard, so I pitched into the Secretary, who really had been most kind. "Can't you shout 'Mails?" I cried to him, as we got nearer. "They might hear you. You can shout loud enough when nobody wants to hear you."
The French post-office, for there is also an Egyptian, was close to the wharf; and they hastened to that, for most of them had written letters to their friends at home. It was still Egypt, and the place was true to its national character; for the travellers were immediately beset by a horde of beggars, and bakshish was still a popular clamor.
We again visited him with our servants and soldiers and were given tea while we talked over the future, and all seemed fair. Later the sultan came to visit us and talk about the escort. He said we must take five soldiers, bargained for their wages, food, and bakshish, and obtained the money.
We rode on to Hebron, an ancient town lying in a valley surrounded by hills. The houses are old and ruinous. One cannot go out upon one's roof without all the other roofs being crowded, and cries of "Bakshish" arise like the cackle of fowls.
He was given ten rupees to attach himself to us, as an earnest of the good bakshish he would get at the coast, as he said all the other soldiers would go back from Shibahm, and really in that case I think he would have been glad of our escort.
Then Saleh, who had 100 rupees a month and ate with everyone, came to demand half a rupee a day for food; this was granted, as we thought it could come off his bakshish, and he soon appeared to make the same request for Mahmoud, the naturalist. Matthaios was furious, as Mahmoud ate partly with him, and no one was angrier with him than Saleh.
He began to discuss the weather; he compared the climate of his interlocutor's province with that of the city; he spoke of the approaching Bairam festivities. Then, apparently apropos of nothing, the man said, "I have been at the sheep-market to-day," a remark which Callard took as a broad hint for bakshish: the Turk wanted money to buy a fat sheep for the impending sacrifice.
All the members of our party having previously visited the spot, we were spared the excitement of climbing the walls and entering the chambers, greatly to the disappointment of our guides, to whom the prospect of extra bakshish is always alluring. Our tour of observation consumed so much time that the usual programme of five o'clock tea at the Hôtel Mene was abandoned.
The six peons displayed a dozen rows of teeth and said: "Bakshish Babu-Sahib." From a side room Nilratan came out, and said in an irritated manner: "Bakshish? What for?" The peons, grinning as before, answered: "The Babu-Sahib went to see the Magistrate so we have come for bakshish." "I didn't know," laughed out Labanya, "that the Magistrate was selling rose-water nowadays.
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