Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14

said hopefully that we all spoke French
in the Alexarldrian harerns.
A HOT, bored, somewhat shy ofacer
"A greeted me with stilted, courteous
phrases, upon which I became so loqua-
cious that he turned helplessly to my
companion. I apologized and preferred
my story In French, my countrymarl re-
plying In q most exotic language, with
many gesticulations to help him out.
However, he promised to write to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and secure
the passports and, in state Of COM
plete bewilderment, left.
On the stairs Col. Lawrence passed
me. demure and neat and very hot
under his yellow kufiya. He glanced
disgustedly at my dirty white and made
disparging remark to his unknown
companion, who replied: "She has
rather fine eyes, but probably she's got
skin disease under that veil. They all
have"
AS we were assured BY the sympa-
thetic Egyptian that we should most
certainly receive our passports next
morning, we were able to watch, un-
moved. the departure Of our fellow
Egyptians. The loading Of their caInels
took nearly seven hours, during which
the deafening babel never ceased for q
single instant, so that even Bahia
breathed a sigh of relief when the end
of the camel string, roped head to tail.
lurched out OF our narrow alley with
final shouts and roars Of expostulation,
encouragement and good wishes.
Our peace was short lived. Abdulla
and Mohammed nervously, but quite
definitely, refused to be seen in the
streets with US or to perform any other
service for such doubtful characters ss
we had become. This attitude, however,
merely aroused the synpathies Of some
Of the neighbors with whom we had
fraternized, and shortly the Egyptian
quarter was divided, but the larger por-
ton was in our favor.
In every country where the masses
suffer silently at the hands of Official
dom, It is enough to niurnur the words
"Hakoorna-siasSa" Government poll
tics) with significant gesture to be-
come popular martyr. Many people
came to ask me not to "anger myself
SICK" and my Egyptian relations be-
came more and more powerful with
Bahia's righteous indignation.
X X \ X
THE mosquitoes took their nightly
meal, and about am, with a
most sympathetic escort, we made the
obligatory visit to the tomb of our
Mother Eve, who. by the way, was con-
siderably more than 400 feet long. On
the way we met some of the Egyptian
officers escorting the Mammal, and the
oddly Of the pilgrim garb struck us
forcibly when one saw these smart,
modern young men riding well groorned
polo ponies, yet clad only in bath
towelsl
Mother Eve seemed a long way of
that morning, though she Is Just out.
side the town. One Of my hlisters had
burst, which rather Tliarred my en-
thusiasm for walking all around the
sort of trench where Mother Eve IA
buried with little uubba about the
middle Of her anatomy and chapel at
each end.
Crowds of pilgrims were doing the
visit. but We got near enough to touch
the bars OF the first chapel and repeat
the suitable prayers after one OF the
guardians. who perform this Office for
a small fee. Beggars of all ages swarm
ed on every side, for the pilgrims were
generous, but they were contented with
minute coins. as was also the incalcu-
lably filthy crone who took our shoes
at the entrance to the qubha.
Eere we paid the guardian to make q
special exhortation that Bahia's next
child might be q boy and, having
kissed the tomb and pressed our fore
heads to the rail on all four sides. my
handmaiden forcibly wrenched some
hairs from my head and tied them
around bar. "You will now have
many sons" she said gravely, "per-
haps 49,"
When we returned to Bakr Hanowi's
house, I found letter In execrable
French stating that the minister of
foreign affairs had been on the point
OF returning our passports when he had
heard that Abdul Melek had reported
the matter to King Hussein.
This really settled the matter, for the
king, who, like Abdul Me1ek, knew me
personally, was the last man to allow q
Christian on the pilgrimage. And that
is as far as got In my effort to reach
Mecca.
(Copyrieht, 1921