It is very affecting to see at the approach of the caravan the numerous parties who go out with drums and pipes to welcome and escort to the city their friends…for the arduous journey through the desert is fatal to a great number of those who cannot afford themselves the necessary conveniences.
-Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Edward Lane
On the outskirts of Binban we were not met with pipes and drums and friends greeting friends but rather the worst of Egyptian haggling- buyers swarming the herd on donkeys, swirling shouts and dust in the air, gutteral bellows of, That one is mine! and, Save the red camel for me! and, Hands off the one I want! Hajj Bashir’s agent Ahmad abd al-Majid introduced himself as Sahib al-Tibin, the Straw Boss, for that is what he fed our camels once they were settled at the ferry crossing. To us he served fresh tomato and cucumber and gargeer leaves. Marhaban fi Um al-Dunya, he said, Welcome to the Mother of the World, which was just as it tasted after forty days of millet paste.
Camel buyers, Binban, Egypt © David Melody