490 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



was, therefore, a decided mistake on my part not to speak 

 to him at once of my proposed excursion. As soon as 

 he was consulted, delay was at an end, and without further 

 loss of time an escort was granted, and Omar himself 

 gave me every assistance. The reader must not suppose 

 that in describing Omar Effendi I am tracing an unusually 

 dark picture of the influential Arab. It is men of this 

 type who make their way in the East, and if Omar were 

 to fall to-morrow before his rival, Moses of Bagdad, who 

 took his place during the short interregnum on the death 

 of the Emir Abdullah, Jeddah would certainly not have 

 reason to congratulate itself on the change. That a man 

 without some elements of the scoundrel should hold such 

 a post is not to be expected for a moment. Unprincipled 

 intrigue is the very life-blood of government here, and 

 the morale of the whole upper classes of Jeddah is so 

 thoroughly sapped that nothing short of a revolution 

 could put things on a sound basis. If Omar Effendi 

 makes no pretence to honesty or morality, he is at least 

 a shrewd and sensible man, good-natured when his personal 

 interests are not at stake, and perfectly free from the 

 fanaticism and prejudice against infidels which has done 

 so much to ruin the Ottoman Empire. The prejudices 

 and superstitions of Mohammedanism are much less 

 strong in the true Arab than in the Turk, and to men of 

 position Islam is generally a mere affair of society and 

 politics. They care for the slave trade much more than 

 for the Koran. It is in many respects convenient to en 

 courage certain prejudices against the intrusive foreigner, 

 and the reputation of the holy places is the most profitable 

 stock-in-trade which the Hejaz possesses. Every one, 

 therefore, is a good Mohammedan, observes the hours of 

 prayer with creditable regularity, adorns his conversation 

 with pious phrases, and abstains from drinking brandy 

 in too open a way. But all this is merely on the surface, 

 and the conduct of a shrewd Arab like our Effendi towards 

 Europeans is not in the least regulated by superstitious 



