ARAB HOSPITALITY AND HONESTY. 451 



(replied the Emir) ' her crime cannot remain unpunished, 

 for that were of too perilous example in the town. 

 Strike thou, I say, and kill her.' Then the father 

 drew his sword, and slew her, according to the order 

 of the Emir."* 



Mr. Doughty, who passed some years in travelling 

 through Arabia, among some of the wildest and most 

 fanatical tribes in existence, speaks in high terms of 

 their hospitality and honesty. His attempt to visit 

 them was generally accounted an act almost of suicide, 

 for it was considered certain that he would be robbed 

 and murdered by them; yet though his life was often 

 threatened on the grounds of his being a Christian, 

 he was very seldom seriously molested; for on these 

 occasions, there were always plenty of respectable 

 people ready to take his part, and afford him shelter 

 and protection as "the guest of Allah." 



This chapter has been prolonged beyond its intended 

 limits, but special attention has been bestowed upon 

 the Desert Zone because the phenomena of the desert 

 have been but too often passed over in works of travel, 

 as if they were hardly of sufficient interest to deserve 

 attention and yet the desert is everywhere replete 

 with both interest and instruction. Its scenery, for 

 instance, is often grand in the extreme : for the artist, 

 the matchless colouring of its landscapes can hardly 

 be surpassed: as we have endeavoured to point out, 

 it is a great mistake to suppose that it consists merely 

 of a flat and dreary waste of yellow sand ; nothing 

 could well be further from the truth; take, as an 

 instance in point, the section of sterile desert within 

 easy reach of every tourist, passed through by the Suez 



* Arabia Deserta, by Chas. M. Doughty, 188288, Vol. iii., p. 368. 



