THE RICH ARAB 257 



old Sol's company. A story is told of a British tar of the 

 ancient order of things who had been cruising on the 

 coast of Africa for several years and was finally ordered 

 home. As his ship sailed up the English Channel, in a 

 fine hearty yellow fog, out of which one could cut chunks 

 with a hatchet, the hard-baked old tar, coming up fi'oni 

 below, drew big inspirations of the home air into his 

 lungs, and " Ah, shipmate," said he, " 'ere's weather for 

 you. None of your blasted sunshine !" He had had too 

 much of a good thino^. 



In what I sa}^ of the people I am, of course, not referring 

 to the educated, intelligent Arab. He is what well-to-do 

 folk are everywhere. I passed some days with the Caliph 

 of K'sar H'lal, and can truthfully say that I have never 

 met a man with finer instincts, nobler presence, or more 

 abundant courtesy, no part of which came from any source 

 but his own deep character and native training. There are 

 also sheiks in the same vicinity who would murder you 

 for your money until you had broken bread with them ; 

 but so there are in America, and breaking bread with these 

 will by no means serv^e you. 



There are rich and well-bred city Arabs who have 

 learned many ways from the Franks with whom the}^ 

 come in contact ; but I prefer their own native customs. 

 The unspoiled, w^ell-mannered, educated Arab can scarcely 

 be improved on — save in what we are vain enough to call 

 intelligence. But who shall measure intelligence? Theirs 

 sufiices for them, and ours appears to them heathenish. 

 To learn a few thousand texts from the Koran affords 

 them an altogether better culture than all our science and 

 art and letters — so they claim. 



They all dress alike — Arabs, Berbers, Moors, and the rest. 

 Item : one " b'iled rag," not the b'iled rag of the wild and 

 woolly "West, but a yard or tw^o of cotton cloth, cut off a 

 17 



