volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

256 A Visitor to the Raft.
boldly, and apparently expected to find us asleep. The
man in the river with the knife w4s close to the raft,
and there was nothing to be done but shoot. One of the
others, a very neat shot with a revolver, soon accounted
for the thief in the river, and I devoted my attention to
the party on the bank, who were not ten yards from
the raft ; two of these fell down and their companions
turned and fled. Then we heard many voices coming
towards the river from the desert, and quite suddenly
several Arabs appeared on the bank close to the raft
it was quite clear that they were friends of the men we
had driven off, and that they intended to share in the
plunder of the raft. Meanwhile the raftsmen had got
their mooring^ropes loose from the stones to which they
were tied and we began to move down-stream. Later
they told me that they heard in Takrit that an attempt
would be made to steal the indigo, and when I asked
them why they had not warned me, the elder man said,
"We wanted the thieves to come so that you might
kill them ; the Arab people shoot for fantastyah {i.e.,
show, amusement), but the English shoot to kill.
These thieves have robbed rafts for many years ; may
their souls be in Jahannum !" Further sleep that night
was out of the question, so we boiled some coffee and
sat down and prayed for daylight.
During the rest of that day and on December 17th
we made poor progress, but the hours passed without
incident, and we were content. The wind had dropped,
the sky was blue, the air was warm, and the sight of the
groves of palms and the beautiful gardens, which showed
that we were nearing Baghd§,d, was very pleasant and
restful. Early in the afternoon of December i8th, as
we were lazily drifting in mid-stream, my peace of mind
was rudely broken by a native who appeared suddenly
by the side of the raft, and said he had business with me,
and must be taken on board. He had fastened together
two inflated skins, and was resting comfortably upon
them, and his cloak and sandals, tied together in a bundle,
were on his head. We helped him on board, and as
soon as I saw his face I recognized him as the native