NATIVE JEWELRY. 51 



of Beiram, when all are expected to keep open house,, 

 and they will sell their heirlooms in order to have enough 

 money to buy supplies for this festive occasion. These 

 ornaments are of rude workmanship as a rule, and the 

 bracelets, anklets, nose and ear-rings nearly all consist 

 of a solid piece of silver, of various sizes, bent so as 

 nearly to complete a circle, and having each end beaten 

 out after some simple design ; and they are sold weight 

 for weight against the dollars, the value of this coin here 

 being twenty-five of their large piastres. . 



The only stimulant these Arabs drink is a kind of 

 beer made from dhurra, which Albert says is very good, 

 but we have not as yet acted upon his recommendation. 

 He is quite in his element here, and finds so much enter- 

 tainment as well as occupation in the trinket purchases^ 

 and in looking up his old friends amongst the Greek 

 community, that Emanuel and Bob do not have much 

 assistance from him in their really hard work. 



Jan. 15. All our arrangements for an early start 

 to-morrow are complete, and only depend on the arrival 

 of the promised camels. Munsinger Pasha has given 

 us two soldiers belonging to the Bashi-Bazouks as pro- 

 tectors, and we have engaged as one of our guides an 

 Egyptian named Ibrahim, who was with Arkwright on a 

 somewhat similar expedition last year. In the afternoon 

 we went for our promised ride with Munsinger Pasha, 

 who, dressed in a loose white suit, and wearing only a 



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