[p.231] the Shaykh of the camels and his attendant Badawin were men that fought for farthings, and we were not far inferior to them), a bargain was struck.  We agreed to pay three dollars for each beast; half in ready money, the other half after reaching our destination, and to start on the evening of the next day with a grain-caravan, guarded by an escort of Irregular cavalry.  I hired two animals, one for my luggage and servant, the other for the boy Mohammed and myself, expressly stipulating that we were to ride the better beast, and that if it broke down on the road, its place should be supplied by another as good.  My friends could not dissemble their uneasiness, when informed by the Mukharrij that the Hazimi tribe was “out,” and that travellers had to fight every day.  The Daghistanis also contributed to their alarm.  “We met,” said they, “between 200 and 300 devils on a Razzia near Al-Madinah; we gave them the Salam, but they would not reply, although we were all on dromedaries.  Then they asked us if we were men of Al-Madinah, and we replied ‘Yes;’ and lastly, they wanted to know the end of our journey; so we said Bir Abbas.[FN#11]” The Badawin who had accompanied the Daghistanis belonged to some tribe unconnected with the Hazimi:  the spokesman rolled his head, as much as to say “Allah has preserved us!” And a young Indian of the party-I shrewdly suspect him of having stolen my pen-knife that night-displayed

[p.232] the cowardice of a “Miyan,[FN#12]” by looking aghast at the memory of his imminent and deadly risk.  “Sir,” said Shaykh Nur to me, “we must wait till all this is over.”  I told him to hold his tongue, and sharply reproved the boy Mohammed, upon whose manner the effect of finding himself suddenly in a fresh country had wrought a change for the worse.  “Why, ye were lions at Cairo; and here, at Yambu’, you are cats-hens![FN#13]” It was not long, however, before the youth’s impudence returned upon him with increased violence.

We sat through the afternoon in the little room on the terrace, whose reflected heat, together with the fiery winds from the Wilderness, seemed to incommode even my companions.  After sunset we dined in the open air, a body of twenty:  master, servants, children and strangers.  All the procurable rugs and pillows had been seized to make a Diwan, and we squatted together round a large cauldron of boiled rice, containing square masses of mutton, the whole covered with clarified butter.  Sa’ad the Demon was now in his glory.  With what anecdotes the occasion supplied him!  His tongue seemed to wag with a perpetual motion; for each man he had a boisterous greeting; and, to judge from his whisperings, he must have been in every one’s privacy and confidence.  Conversation over pipes and coffee was prolonged to ten P.M., a late hour in these lands; then we prayed the

[p.233] Isha[FN#14] (or vespers), and, spreading our mats upon the terrace, slept in the open air.