AN INTERESTING RECEPTION. 55 
and followed by about sixty of my boys, clad in clean 
white tobes, or cloaks, with turbans on their heads, and 
their bodies well smeared with ghee. After them came the 
long train of camels, sheep, and goats, and a motley crowd 
of natives bringing up the rear. By the gateway before 
described there were grouped some three hundred natives, 
with their chiefs, ready to receive us. The whole affair 
WOMEN OF SHEIKH HUSEIN. 
Photograph by F. Gillett. 
had a‘touch of religious mystery about it that made it odd 
and amusing to the Europeans. It was now the time for 
our hosts to show themselves highly appreciative of the 
holy and tremendous event of our coming. Led by an 
old man with long gray hair, they went through such con- 
tortions as I never believed human beings capable of. All 
were provided with long sticks in lieu of spears, which 
they crossed with one another, making a deafening sound, 
