378 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



times a mere dribble, and to cross this in a carriage is 

 often impossible and generally unpleasant, for the bed 

 is made up of huge boulders over which one jolts. 

 Sometimes, too, as happened in our case, the wretched, 

 jaded beasts refuse to move from the middle of the 

 river in spite of the application of Arab oaths and 

 physical force. To get out of this dilemma the ladies 

 had to be carried pick-a-back by some stalwart Arabs 

 who came to our aid and who compelled the animals 

 to return to the starting point. 



The hospitality and good nature of the Arab are 

 proverbial. On one occasion, returning from a drive 

 to Sedi Okbar, where, like Dominie and her Boris, 

 we had visited the most ancient mosque in Africa, we 

 overtook an Arab on a mule with his small son in 

 front of him. As we passed, the girths gave way, and 

 the Arab, his son, and his goods and chattels fell to 

 the ground. We stopped and helped to put him 

 straight again, taking the child into the carriage and 

 feeding him on oranges, conversing meanwhile in 

 French with the father, who was a perfect gentleman. 

 Some days afterwards the ladies met the man in the 

 street in Biskra. He was pleased to see them, and 

 invited them to take coffee with him in the Arab res- 

 taurant, visited us in our hotel, but refused all offers of 

 hospitality, and finished by asking the ladies to stay 

 with him in his home in the mountains, where he could 

 offer them sights and scenes which he knew would be 

 of interest to them. He expressed his regret that 

 they found it impossible to accept his invitation. 



This kindliness of the desert Arab, who is of a much 

 finer race than the Egyptian, was also shown by the 

 way in which the ladies could go about unmolested 

 through the crowds in the market place. Although 

 the guide-books dissuade ladies from passing through 



