36 Talks with Zeyd [1890 



Egypt where no advantage of revenue was concerned, they were not 

 insisted on ; energy in introducing them, however sincere at the outset, 

 soon slackened, and the regulations became a dead letter. 



I will add to this, because they are amusing, a couple of extracts from 

 my diary, conversations I put down in it, with Zeyd, my Bedouin horse 

 master, of the Muteyr tribe in Nejd, as I was riding with him on two 

 occasions on the desert edge in the evening that winter. They have an 

 interest worth preserving, as they show the way the Arabs of Arabia 

 think in contrast to the Egyptian fellahin whom they come in contact 

 with during their visits to Cairo, a contrast which has a significance in 

 view of the political developments we have witnessed in these last 

 years. 



" Zeyd. The fellahin are a timid folk, if they see a cat cross their 

 path after dark they think it an afrit, they believe in all manner of 

 foolish things. 



"I. What then? Are there no afrits in Nejd? 

 "Zeyd. Wallah! The belief in afrits is foolishness. There are no 

 afrits, neither in Nejd nor here. But the fellahin have no heart. They 

 are without blood. They are afraid. 



"I. You are a philosopher. Do all in Nejd think like you? 

 " Zeyd. The men of Nejd have brave hearts. They are used to 

 being alone. They journey alone through the desert, ten days, twenty 

 days, forty days perhaps. They know nothing of afrits. There is none 

 other but God. 



"I. Truly none. But do they see nothing? 



" Zeyd. They fear nothing. There is of course Shaitan, who some- 

 times appears to them in the likeness of a goat or a cow. But they are 

 not afraid. He does not harm them. 

 "I. And do they speak to him? 



" Zeyd. Shaitan will sometimes journey with them in disguise. 

 There was once a man of Bereydah who was riding his delul alone in a 

 storm. There was lightning amid the darkness. He heard a voice in 

 front of him asking what he was doing there in such tempestuous 

 weather, and if he was not afraid. A flash revealed to him the figure 

 of a sheep set on the neck of his camel. It was Shaitan, who was 

 speaking to frighten the man. The man, however, put out his hand 

 and caught the sheep by the fleece, saying, ' I know you are a sheep by 

 your wool.' But Shaitan answered, ' And you. I know you are a 

 sheep by your wits ! ' and he slid down the camel's neck to the ground 

 and disappeared. 



" /. Yet you do not believe in afrits. 



" Zeyd. No. That is a vulgar superstition. 



* * * * 



" I. What is this to the right of us ? A tomb ? 



