Talk:The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil
| Information about this edition | |
|---|---|
| Edition: | (Extracted from) Adventure magazine, February 20 1922, pp. 3-56. |
| Source: | https://archive.org/details/Adventure20Feb1922 and gutenberg.net.au |
| Contributor(s): | ragpicker |
| Notes: | Accompanying illustrations omitted |
| Proofreaders: | ragcleaner |
From the "Camp-Fire" section of the issue, p. 176
SOMETHING from Talbot Mundy concerning his story in this issue:
New York.The first non-Moslem since crusaders' times to be allowed to enter the Mosque of Abraham at Hebron was King Edward the Seventh, then Prince of Wales; there came very near being an insurrection on account of it. The writer of this story and two friends were privileged to be the 18th, 19th and 20th respectively to pass the forbidden door.
The two "boys"—the Governor of Hebron, that is to say, and his assistant—are drawn from life. It was because the young man, whom I have named in this story de Crespigny, had made a tremendous impression on the Arabs by his courage, sheer ability and integrity that a word from him was sufficient to pass us into the mosque.
The details of the mosque, as given in the story, are about accurate, though given necessarily from memory because there are no printed particulars available in any guide-book or similar work of reference.
THE situation in Hebron at the time I was there was pretty much as given in the story, although I have run two or three tales together to make one connected yarn. I was in the Governorate when the mob arrived to storm it. We were all eating dinner (that was Easter, 1920), when the mob arrived to storm the place and the youngster I have called de Crespigny went out to talk to them.
Next day I was sent back to Jerusalem, in an open carriage with a lady and a boy. "De Crespigny" gave me a loaded revolver and advised me to use it at the least excuse, but nothing happened until we reached Jerusalem late that night and the bayonet of a British sentry thrust into the carriage from the shadow of the city wall took a button off my waistcoat. {[dhr]} AS FOR the "fire-gift," the trick of breathing fire and handling it is as old as the everlasting hills. The recipe given in the story for making a man fireproof is, I believe, accurate; but I haven't tried it and don't intend to; whoever chooses to take a chance with it mustn't blame me. There is quite a number of different religious sects in the world, even to-day, and at least one Christian sect, who practise similiar trickery; one notorious fraternity in Jerusalem produce "sacred fire" and handle it before thousands of people once a year. Then there isn't a hotel in Egypt or the East where mountebanks don't swallow fire and pass the hat round. They most of them come to a horrible end, but I have seen one or two who are pretty handy at it, putting up at least as good a show as that described.