358 DELIBERATENESS 



pause ; not his horse particularly, but any horse, he meant. 

 A rot'l is about five pounds. " But why ?" I asked. "Oh, 

 because a horse weighs as much as two men," was his long 

 cogitated reply. " But," I quickly objected, " this horse 

 weighs as much as four or five or six men !" " Yes," he 

 gravely agreed, after waiting an exceptional time to make 

 up for my hasty interpellation, "but I mean a very big 

 man." His ideas on all points relating to a horse were 

 about as definite as this. In treating a horse for sickness, 

 the Arabs are very children. But their horses, out of 

 doors, and standing on the earth at all times, are as hardy 

 as the bronco, and need scant medical treatment. 



The Arab keenly enjoys conversation, but it must be 

 deliberate and long drawn out. Our Occidental haste, in 

 talk and trade alike, they deem objectionable in a high 

 degree almost insulting. You may go into a carpet- 

 store and haggle and haggle by the half -day, drink the 

 coffee invariably offered you, and even if you do not buy, 

 providing always you are very slow and familiar and 

 chatty, your visit will be deemed a courtesy, and all the 

 trouble the store-keeper and his men have taken to spread 

 out a hundred rugs for your inspection will be quite com- 

 pensated for by your kind words and pleasant smiles. 

 But if you just go in, look at a few, and hastily purchase, 

 or bid on one or more, he deems you almost an intruder 

 on his privacy. He wants the fun of haggling and talk- 

 ing. The profit is a mere incident though it be his 

 daily bread. In those bazaars which are kept by Greeks 

 or by other non- Orientals, this rule does not apply; but 

 it does with all self-respecting Eastern merchants. This 

 is of a part with their extreme slowness in coming to a 

 point in conversation. 



Color, in the Bedouin's estimation, ranks : bay, chestnut 

 or sorrel, blue (comprising iron-gray, blue-roan, gray, and 



