THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 199 



to satisfy even a just vengeance at the expense of 

 hospitality. If once the Bedouin has eaten bread 

 and salt with his guest nothing can induce him to 

 betray him. 



A Bedouin, named Jabal, possessed a mare of 

 great celebrity. Hassad Pacha, then governor of 

 Damascus, wished to buy the animal, and repeatedly 

 made the owner the most liberal offers, which Jabal 

 steadily refused. The pacha then had recourse to 

 threats, but with no better success. At length one 

 Jafar, a Bedouin of another tribe, presented himself 

 to the pacha, and asked what would he give the man 

 who should make him master of Jabal's mare. " I 

 will fill his horse's nosebag with gold," replied Hassad, 

 whose pride and covetousness had been irritated to 

 the highest degree by the obstinacy of the mare's 

 owner. The result of this interview having gone 

 abroad, Jabal became more watchful than ever ; and 

 always secured his mare at night with an iron chain, 

 one end of which was fastened round her hind fetlock, 

 whilst the other, after passing through the tent cloth, 

 was attached to a picket driven into the ground under 

 the felt that served himself and his wife for a bed. 

 But one midnight Jafar crept into the tent, and, in- 

 sinuating his body between Jabal and his wife, he 

 pressed gently now against the one, now against the 



