CHAPTER V 



ARABIA 



Your visits to Arabia must have been very interesting, 

 Count. Have you been there often ? 



' Ah, yes, madam, many times. I have Uved among the 

 Arabs in their tents for months at a time, travelhng with 

 them in their journeyings from place to place ; penetrating 

 into the very depths of the desert, and longing with them 

 for the sight of an oasis after the intense heat of the day.' 



Then you speak their language ? 



' That goes without saying, and many of their dialects 

 also, which are important to know.' 



Had you any special object, beyond the love of travel, to 

 induce you to spend so much time with them, and were 

 they always friendly ? 



' To me they were always friendly, for the reason that 



some of their remote ancestors were mine also, and with 



them, nothing is so strong as the ties of blood. Their pride 



of race is one of their strongest characteristics, since they 



can trace back their ancestry for thousands of years. For 



aliens and strangers they have a certain contemptuous pity, 



as not belonging to them, as well as much distrust and 



suspicion.' 



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