THE FEAST WITH THE ANEZEH 



make-up. There was the same stately dignity 

 about her that Wadduda had ; she looked like a 

 fine lady of quality in the presence of a lot of 

 cooks at an employment agency. In my ef- 

 forts to buy her, before Haffez got out of the 

 tent, the Bedouin smiled and laughed, and, 

 when Haffez came out, without looking to see 

 who was on her back, he too began to roll with 

 laughter. Then he looked at me as if urging 

 me on to buy her quick. Ameene began to 

 laugh, too, and finally explained that the joke 

 was on me. The mare it seems could not be 

 sold. She was famous from Nejd to Aleppo, 

 and was owned on shares by the Anezeh. She 

 had been ridden over simply to find out if we 

 would like to look at her last son, a colt two 

 years old. I asked if we could not break the 

 rule and still buy her, and all I got was another 

 laugh. 



Neither the mare nor any of her daughters 

 could be sold, and all in the female line were 

 retained by the Anezeh. At that time she was 

 twelve years old and looked four. When she 

 was seven or eight years old she had swept the 

 desert for speed. Six years before the Ger- 

 man Government had paid four hundred 

 pounds for her three-year-old son. We stood 



[119]^ 



