The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-03-07
THE WENATCHEE DAILY WORLD MONDAY, MARCH I, 1910.
On a Camel Through Arabia
ByFREDIM

path, for the wind blows sand into
track as soon as made. Bat somehow
bones don't get covered; and all along
We saw them, scattered skeletons OF
camels and donkeys, remains of the
hordes who had gone before.
Thus we pressed on, anxious to
| make the wells in time for camp, and
end the days march.
Finally they appeared. Salmon saw
them first. He points, two or three
miles ahead, and protruding. it SEEM
ed from the very ground, I made out
the arched banners o. scruEby date
| palm. Drawing rearer, / saw that
few low trees were clustered about a
we'll in shallow depression in the
desert. Unconsciously we FASTENED a
| trifle and were soon descending into
the basin. The guide struck my ca
mel on the neck, crying "Ek-Ek-Ek, -
and down the clumsy. tired beast
kneeled. What joy to stretch my
blistered legs, and ease my broken
back.
| Camel thorn grew about the muddy
wells, and from this Yusuf soon kindl-
ed a fire. The tent up, ana hot tea
made, already the lonesome spot
seemed less cherries. 1 ate dried
dates, some rice and condensed milk,
and turned in. Outside lay the ca
mels, chewing noisily their cujs. The
pack mules had their small measure
of grain. the Musselmen were busy
at their own meal a few feet away.
My food was safe from them, of
course, for was 1t not unclean, be-
| longing to a Nazarena (Christian) :?
The Pilgrims Join Us.
Perhaps I had slept an hour, when
| the uproar began. Salmon shouted
and the muleteer swore; the cook
whined. But it was not robbers after
all-simply half a hundred Persian
| pilgrims, going our way. They had
left Bagdad three hours after we had,
| and had overtaken us at the wells.
| The horde swarmed noisily around
| the wells, shouting and beating their
animals. Some women, who travelled
with them, added their shrill cries to
the tumult of the night. These yo-
men ride all day in cage-like boxes,
open at the top, one on each side of
a big Afghan mule, or a camel At
| night they sing or dance, to amuse
the foot-sore pilgrims. This caravan
was on its way to Kerbela, and was
made up Of ten or fifteen pious Per-
slams and their outfits. A part of
| this outfit consisted of several collins,
| in which ratified the bones of a vener-
ated ancestor.
The Death Caravans.
Think of walking four months, ov-
er mountain and desert, leading a
mule carrying your grandfather's
bones! Think Of having this mule
slip and fall. while fording river,
leaving your ancestors boxed-up
bones to drift away on the roaring
river. Then imagine chasing those
sacred bones, you yourself stumbling
| and tripping as you raced along the
| river bank, trying to keep in sight of
| the rafting bones, playfully tossing
| on the waves! I saw this happen
And when the poor pious Persian fin
ally caught the elusive remains of his
| honored ancestor, he had to spend
two hours hunting his lost donkey;
and whilst absent on this errand jack
ais got at his grand-father's bones,
and mussed them up. This was at
Bakuba, forty miles north Of Bagdad,
where the Pilgrims cross the Diala on
their way to Kerbela.
Mohammedans in Persia, when
they feel ready to die, move to the
Holy City of Kerbela, that they may
be buried in or near the sacred mos
ques. Those who are too poor to
stand the trip. or die suddenly in
Persia, become a charge on their de-
scendants. When a grand son feels
financially able, he digs up his grand
father and starts for Kerbela, there
to RENTER the body. Turkish laws
and quarantine oficials say such
dead ancestors must have been dead
| two years; there are also some other
restrictions on travelling from Persia
into Turkey, accompanied by the skel-
eton of ones grandfather. But some
times the Persian pilgrims overlook
these. Thousands of such corpses
have been brought through Bagdad
in a single year. Epidemics have
been traced to them, and in many
cases they are smuggled through,
sometimes shortly after death. The
German writer, Karl May, says he
always gave these "Todes Karawan-
en-" a wide berth, especially in hot
weather.
| So the second time / went to sleep,
1 dreamed that one oblong box open
ed. and that an elderly Persian, de-