232 LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



for them. The air of perfect satisfaction with which 

 the Sheik inspects himself in one whilst stroking his 

 small beard, or exposing to view his really beautiful 

 teeth, is delightful. One of his men had never seen 

 his own face before, and after a very long study of it 

 he was not apparently over and above pleased, remark- 

 ing that he had seen a great many other faces like it. 

 The next entertainment on the programme was one 

 new alike to all, and we therefore held a levee of the 

 whole camp, and having placed them in a circle no less 

 a marvel was produced than a galvanic battery. From 

 the Sheik downwards each in his turn had an oppor- 

 tunity of testing its astonishing powers so long as they 

 had any inclination to do so; and the very varied effects 

 and the extreme contortions of their faces were a source 

 of endless amusement and produced shouts of laughter 

 amongst the spectators. All tried their best to endure 

 the torture, believing that it would give them new life, 

 and the violent contractions of their muscles before 

 they cried ' enough ' proved there was no lack of pluck 

 in their constitutions. One old Sheik declared that if 

 we took this wonder of wonders to the Abyssinians 

 they would say we were magicians. Interesting, how- 

 ever, as it may be to amuse in this simple way a 

 party of Hamran Arabs, it would require a very strong 

 constitution to continue the performance for a long 

 time whilst the thermometer stands at about 100 Fah. 



