A ' PECULIAR' ARAB. 225 



through Albert, but also by his own people, only one 

 answer could be obtained from him viz., that it was by 

 God's will he suffered, and that he would therefore accept 

 his fate, whatever it might be. In fact, we had stumbled 

 upon a ' Peculiar * Arab. Albert of his own accord then 

 said, ' Well, you must tell the " Hakim " you are quite 

 well, if you want him to leave you ; ' and with an expres- 

 sion of face which but too surely belied his tongue he 

 thus addressed me and thereby consigned himself to a 

 fate from which, in his blindness, he could not see he 

 had been unexpectedly sent the means of relief. It was 

 a hard matter to leave him thus, and one felt at first 

 inclined to compel him by force to yield his wishes to 

 ours, but it was decided otherwise ; and Albert's argu- 

 ment, that if anything were done and the man died, the 

 Arabs would declare we had killed him, guided us greatly 

 in the decision. 



Our visit to the camp was not altogether unsuccess- 

 ful, for we heard that they had found a grey horse, and 

 upon our examining it there could be no mistake about 

 its being our sick friend, slightly improved in his walking 

 powers, though still showing great weakness of left side. 

 They gave him up to us without any demur, and we led 

 him home in triumph, and now the long-intended fate 

 we had in store for him, and which by his wanderings he 

 for a time escaped, will probably soon befall him. We 

 could not hear any news of the donkey, but the old 



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