132 Wis Wife's Life of Him [1906 



guises. His face was one that lent itself to this, for it had in it little 

 of the European, and there must certainly have been a cross in his 

 blood, gipsy or other. At the same time in his talks with me, and also 

 in his books, he showed little true sympathy with the Arabs he had 

 come to know so well. He would at any time, I am sure, have will- 

 ingly betrayed them to further English, or his own professional interests. 

 His published accounts of Arabia and the Arabs are neither sympa- 

 thetic nor true. His ' Pilgrimage to Mecca ' is largely made up with 

 literary padding, and as a narrative reads to me insincere. It cer- 

 tainly exaggerates the difficulty of the undertaking which in those days 

 was comparatively easy to anyone who would profess Islam, even 

 without possessing any great knowledge of Eastern tongues. At 

 Damascus, when I was there in 1878, he had left a poor reputation, 

 having managed to get into hot water with every native class — Turk, 

 Arab, Syrian, Christian and Moslem alike — though this I believe was 

 greatly his wife's fault. She was indeed a very foolish woman, and 

 did him at least as much harm in his career as good. Her published 

 Life of him, however, which has the ring of a true wife's devotion, 

 redeems her in my eyes, and it is a fine trait in his character that he 

 should have borne with her absurdities for the sake of her love so 

 long." 



