472 THE ESCORT. [1848 



budge. Coaxing and beating were alike found of no avail, 

 an! the boats were then taken off an8 sent across the, bay by 

 water. The difficulty was not yet removed, however, and 

 the brutes still protested against the unaccustomed load. 

 Backed by a Bedawi on the desert they could outstrip the 

 wind, but they were wholly unused to draught, and had no 

 mind to change positions with the patient ox, and the stub- 

 horn, yet, generally good natured mule. Still, after a long 

 and tiresome struggle, by dint of supplication and entreaty, 

 intermingled with kicks and cuffs without number, they 

 wire finally forced along within a couple of miles of St. 

 Jean d'Acre. 



While the necessary preparations for theoverland march were 

 being completed, the party encamped on the river Namaane, 

 or Belns. After a protacted and fruitless parley with Sa'id 

 Bey, the governor of Acre, a private treaty was concluded 

 with the Sherif Hazza of Mecca, a lineal descendant o^ Hie 

 Prophet, and 'Akil Aga el Hassee, a powerful border sheikh, 

 who agreed to accompany the expedition, and to bring with 

 them ten spears, for a reasonable compensation. The Sherif 

 was a fine old Arab nobleman, small in stature, but lithe and 

 active in his movements, possessing intelligent features and a 

 dark Egyptian complexion. 'Akll was a sort of Murat of the 

 desert, a model of personal beauty, and a noble specimen of 

 the Arabian Bedawin. His complexion was a soft, olive, 

 whose feminine appearance was relieved by the dark flashing 

 eye and swelling nostril indicative of the warrior's soul that 

 beat within his bosom. In form he was another Antiuoiis, 

 presenting a muscular development in which elegance and 

 strength were beautifully and harmoniously combined. Attired 

 in a scarlet cloth pelisse, with its rich embroidery of gold — the 

 dark masses of his glossy black hair half concealed beneath 

 his crimson iarbush — and the long ataghan in his girdle 

 ready to be clutched at a moment's warning — he seemed 

 equally well fitted to enter the lists of Venus or of Mars. 



In describing the Bedawin whom he, saw during his 

 tour through the Holy Land, the Rev. Mr. Fisk remarks, 



