[p.165]he was a stingy tyrant.  It is almost needless to declare that Salih Shakkar was, as the East-Indians say, a very “fly-sucker.[FN#2]” There were two other men of Al-Madinah in the Wakalah Jirgis; but I omit description, as we left them, they being penniless, at Suez.  One of them, Mohammed Shiklibha, I afterwards met at Meccah, and seldom have I seen a more honest and warm-hearted fellow.  When we were embarking at Suez, he fell upon Hamid’s bosom, and both of them wept bitterly, at the prospect of parting even for a few days.

All the individuals above mentioned lost no time in opening the question of a loan.  It was a lesson in Oriental metaphysics to see their condition.  They had a twelve days’ voyage, and a four days’ journey before them; boxes to carry, custom-houses to face, and stomachs to fill; yet the whole party could scarcely, I believe, muster two dollars of ready money.  Their boxes were full of valuables, arms, clothes, pipes, slippers, sweetmeats, and other “notions”; but nothing short of starvation would have induced them to pledge the smallest article.

Foreseeing that their company would be an advantage, I hearkened favourably to the honeyed request for a few crowns.  The boy Mohammed obtained six dollars; Hamid about five pounds, as I intended to make his house at Al-Madinah my home; Omar Effendi three dollars; Sa’ad the Demon two-I gave the money to him at Yambu’,-and Salih Shakkar fifty piastres.  But since in these lands, as a rule, no one ever lends coins, or, borrowing, ever returns them, I took care to exact service from the first, to take two rich coats from the second, a handsome pipe from the third, a “bala” or yataghan from the fourth, and from the fifth an imitation Cashmere shawl.  After which, we sat down and drew

[p.166]out the agreement.  It was favourable to me:  I lent them Egyptian money, and bargained for repayment in the currency of Al-Hijaz, thereby gaining the exchange, which is sometimes sixteen per cent.  This was done, not so much for the sake of profit, as with the view of becoming a Hatim,[FN#3] by a “never mind” on settling day.  My companions having received these small sums, became affectionate and eloquent in my praise:  they asked me to make one of their number at meals for the future, overwhelmed me with questions, insisted upon a present of sweetmeats, detected in me a great man under a cloud,-perhaps my claims to being a Darwaysh assisted them to this discovery,-and declared that I should perforce be their guest at Meccah and Al-Madinah.  On all occasions precedence was forced upon me; my opinion was the first consulted, and no project was settled without my concurrence:  briefly, Abdullah the Darwaysh suddenly found himself a person of consequence.  This elevation led me into an imprudence which might have cost me dear; aroused the only suspicion about me ever expressed during the summer’s tour.  My friends had looked at my clothes, overhauled my medicine chest, and criticised my pistols; they sneered at my copper-cased watch,[FN#4] and remembered having seen a compass at Constantinople.  Therefore I imagined they would think little about a sextant.  This was a mistake.  The boy Mohammed, I