"Get away, will you?" said he. "I don't want any of you, and I won't
have you! If you take hold of me I'll shoot you!" This was said to
one specially energetic Arab, who, in his efforts to secure his prey,
had caught hold of Mr. Damer by the leg.
"Yes, yes, I say! Englishmen always take me;--me--me, and then no
break him leg. Yes--yes--yes;--I go. Master, say yes. Only one
leetle ten shillings!"
"Abdallah!" shouted Mr. Damer, "why don't you take this man away? Why
don't you make him understand that if all the Pyramids depended on it,
I would not give him sixpence!"
And then Abdallah, thus invoked, came up, and explained to the man in
Arabic that he would gain his object more surely if he would behave
himself a little more quietly; a hint which the man took for one
minute, and for one minute only.
And then poor Mrs. Damer replied to an application for backsheish by
the gift of a sixpence. Unfortunate woman! The word backsheish means,
I believe, a gift; but it has come in Egypt to signify money, and is
eternally dinned into the ears of strangers by Arab suppliants.
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