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KHANZYRE.
ing me that I should soon find it much more agreeable than the
town saddle ; moreover, said he, you may depend upon it that
the Sheikh of the Howeytat will take your saddle from you, if
you do not give it to me. I did not dare to put the Sheikh in
mind of his oath, for had I betrayed to the company his having
extorted from me so much, merely for the sake of his company, he
would certainly have been severely reprimanded by the Bedouins
present, and I should thus have exposed myself to the effects of
his revenge. All the bye-standers at the same time pressed me to
comply with his request : “ Is he not your brother?” said they.
« Are not the best morsels of his dish always for you? Does he
not continually fill your pipe with his own tobacco ? Fie upon your
stinginess.” But they did not know that I had calculated upon
paying part of the hire of a guide to Egypt with the value of the
saddle, nor that I had already handsomely paid for my brotherhood. ¬
I at last reluctantly complied; but the Sheikh was not yet
satisfied: the stirrups he had given me, although much inferior to
those he had taken from me, were too good in his eyes, to form part
of my equipment. In the evening his son came to me to propose an
exchange of these stirrups against a pair of his own almost unfit for
use, and which I knew would wound my ankles, as I did not wear
boots ; but it was in vain to resist. The pressing intreaties of all my
companions in favour of the Sheikh’s son lasted for two whole days ;
until tired at length with their importunity, I yielded, and, as I
had expected, my feet were soon wounded. I have entered into
these details in order to shew what Arab cupidity is : an article
of dress, or of equipment, which the poorest townsman would be
ashamed to wear, is still a covetable object with the Bedouins;
they set no bounds to their demands, delicacy is unknown amongst
them, nor have they any word to express it; if indeed one persists ¬
in refusing, they never take the thing by force ; but it is ex¬
