ABOUT TO CROSS THE DESERT.

337

loads of presents. We opened the discourse by saying that we had come with a wish to see him and his people, and had been much gratified; that we were now on our return to Orfa, but if he chose to take us to Nisibis, or the Singar, we would give him so much, to be paid on our arrival; if not, it was really very indifferent to us by which route we went, and thanking him for his hospitality, we would return. Jacob, on the part of the sheik, accepted the offer, but his son interposed and said an extra sum must be given to each horseman. This the Christian said was unfair.

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May your mother be childless of you," retorted the young man. His father rose, and with the short dromedary stick, aimed a blow at him; but he darted out, saying he would kill that dog yet. He afterwards mounted his mare, nor did we see him again.

338

ADVICE OF SHEIK ABDALLAH,

CHAPTER XXI.

Difficulties urged against crossing the Desert-The Sheik Dahhal on the unchangeableness of the Arabs-Confessions of Arab plundering prepossessions--Anecdotes in illustration of them-Sheik Abdallah on the milking of pigs-Burden of a song of Arab children-The magnanimous Guide-His violent return to worldliness-Transitory beauty of Arab women-A Bridal party-Arab mode of contracting Marriage—Indifference of Turks to their Children-Turkish regular and irregular Troops-Their Duties-How they exercise them— Costume of the Koords-Reflections excited by the Scenery-Reach the Tscham Uschai River-Beauty of the Night Rides—We reach Yel Bagdad.

DAHHAL Owned he could not enter Mosul, or Nisibis, or Mardin, but said he would conduct us to a short distance from either, and leave us at the last halting place or shortly afterwards. Sheik Abdallah sent again to beg us not to go, saying that Dahhal was unable to perform what he undertook. "If you are attacked, he will gallop off, and save himself in the Desert, of which he knows every inch, while you will be as certainly carried off and held for ransom." So most reluctantly the majority determined not to proceed.

Sheik Dahhal came and said he heard we had

UNCHANGEABLENESS OF THE ARABS.

339

determined not to go. "It is well whether you go or stay, all Dahhal has, all his enemies have left him, is yours." We asked him if he saw any change in the Arab since he remembered: he looked quietly round at his tents, at his camels now crowded round them, the flocks lowing to their homes; his dress, his arms, and then said, "No: since the time of the Prophets,-since time was, we are unchanged; perhaps poorer, perhaps less hospitable in consequence; but otherwise unchanged." He made a very just remark afterwards. "Our habits are the only ones adapted to the country we live in; they cannot change unless we change our country: no other life can be lived here."

He said his tribe had been driven up by, or come with, the Wahabees; but owned, from the mingling of tribes, from families deserting one sheik and joining another, from wars, &c., none of the tribes. now could boast of much antiquity. With regard to southern Nedjid, or the southern portions of the Desert, he said, "I never had men enough to venture there; the tribes are larger and more united. I have plundered south of Bagdad; but had to fly, so saw little. Fortune has never

340

ARABS PLUNDERERS ON PRINCIPLE.

smiled on me; for here I am what I am, though I ventured further than most men." He himself was at Palmyra once on a plundering excursion, but not when the Bint el Melek, the king's daughter, was there,-Lady Hester Stanhope.

On his retiring, we continued conversing with his people. One said: "Allah has been very good to me (meaning he had been a successful plunderer), but he never yet sent me a Frank. Ya Wallah! * I would not touch you; I know your faces; but another, I should strip to his skin." "But he would die." " "Well, he came stripped into the world, and as a helpless child managed to grow up and get clothed Allah Kerim! God is merciful! He might do so again surely, now he is a man, and able to take them of himself. God gave the Beni Adam (sons of Adam) gold, silver, riches, cities, plenty to us he gave the barrehee (Desert): all that comes on it is our own."

The fellow was a plain-spoken man, and freely owned he robbed all who came in his way, "except his friends;" and "at night it is difficult to distinguish them, particularly if they are weaker than yourself."

"But of what use would our

* Yes, by God.

ARAB STYLE OF ADDRESSING THEIR VICTIMS. 341

things be to you?" "Well, we might not use them perhaps as you do, but an Arab throws nothing away. We neither sow nor reap. It is our way to rob; our fathers robbed and lived; we must also live and rob."

Travellers assert that the Arabs on robbing any body say, instead of our matter-of-fact, "Stand and deliver," "Your aunt hath need of it." I was certainly never robbed by Arabs (at least in a wholesale way), but I imagine a mistake to have occurred from their usual salutation. They have none of those modes of address which with us answer for all, "My good man, my good sir:" the Bedawee, therefore, use the expression, "my uncle," or cousin, for any body, and addressing the person they wish to lighten of his load, as they would a companion, they say "My uncle, or cousin, I want your load." They would hardly say "my aunt," as all mention of that sex is an insult. A Christian journeying and wishing to address one whose name he does not know, will say to a Mussulman, "Ya hadjee," "Sir pilgrim;" to another Christian, "Ya howadja," "Sir merchant;" to a countryman, "Ya sheik ;"

The words being much alike in Arabic, might easily be confounded for "thy aunt."