142 THE CAMEL. 



wanderings, I will use with you as much famil- 

 iarity as is good betwixt teacher and pupil, and 

 will incidentally impart to you, with other pleas- 

 ant and profitable knowledges, such store of 

 further information on that topic, that, among 

 people who know no better, you shall come at 

 last to be thought very nearly as wise as your 

 master. 



" According to my ' unheedful vow,' I am 

 now to introduce you to the Desert and the Be- 

 douins ; but before I proceed to describe the 

 wilderness and its inhabitants, it is fit that I 

 convey you fairly into the midst of them ; and 

 therefore we will first organize our caravan, and 

 then mount our dromedaries and pace forth a 

 day's journey into the waste, after which we 

 will sit cosily down together, compare notes, 

 and draw up a description of the sights and 

 sounds which have struck most strangely upon 

 our inexperienced eye and ear. 



" Having engaged your ' guide, philosopher, 

 and friend,' the dragoman, your next business 

 is, with the aid of that personage and the con- 

 sul, to contract with some potent sheikh for the 

 safe and convenient conveyance of yourself and 

 your luggage through the territory of his tribe ^ — 

 mark that ; for without special license, hard to be 

 obtained, he can go no further ; and when he has 

 set you down at the end of his tether, you must 



