i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 501 



no Oriental at all when I found that he was capable of 

 refusing baksheesh. But this would be a superficial 

 judgment. His temperament, his ambitions, his enjoy 

 ments, his vanity, are thoroughly Eastern. And I am 

 afraid that I shall somewhat mar his character in the 

 eyes of the reader when I add that, like a true Arab, he 

 is married, at the age of thirty, to his fifth wife a young 

 beauty with a mind of her own, who tyrannises over him, 

 and plays the part of a severe stepmother to his son a 

 young pickle who is always fishing and bird -catching 

 when he ought to be at school. But it would be rude to 

 dwell on the secrets of his domestic life which Ismail 

 imparted to me in the confidence of friendship. Let us 

 keep our attention for the man himself, as he sits some 

 what uneasily on a very rough dromedary, above two 

 huge saddle bags piled with the appurtenances of our 

 journey. His long sallow face peeps out from a plain 

 white semada, a corner of which is brought round to 

 cover the chin and lower part of the face. His dress is 

 a black tob or smock frock covered by a handsome grey 

 abaye, which he has borrowed from his master to cut a 

 good figure in travelling ; and his superiority in civilisa 

 tion to the ordinary Arab appears in the European shoes 

 and stockings that dangle over the earners neck, instead 

 of the bare feet and sandals with gold-spangled straps 

 that are usually worn even by Arab gentlemen. 



My other companions are four of the Shereef s armed 

 followers and a Bedouin camelman, who &quot; eats the Emir s 

 bread/ but is not inscribed among his regular retinue. 

 The leader, who is an old and favourite servant, is a very 

 great man in his own eyes. By birth an Abyssinian, he 

 was originally, as his name shows, a slave in the family 

 of one of the Shereef s in the neighbourhood of Okatz. 

 He is called the Diamond Al Mas, or, more specifically, 

 Al Mas al kebeer, the Big Diamond, to distinguish him 

 from a fellow-servant of the same name. His dark blue 

 head shawl, for which in the town he substitutes a hand- 



