lO Bedoidn Tribes of the EiLphrates. [ch. xvi. 



Tiirkisli is to Arabic, in public estimation, that 

 French is to Turkish, the language of the superior 

 race. Although the Valy took his departure next 

 morning, the prestige of our reception remained ; 

 and Huseyn was again all that we could wish. 



We had not, hitherto, ventured to breathe a word 

 of the negotiation intrusted to us by Faris, although 

 the Mollah, who was constantly in and out of the 

 house, had hinted more than once that it was time 

 to begin. But we had felt that, until our own 

 character was cleared up, we should only be pre- 

 judicing our friend's interests by advocating them. 

 Now however there was no such reason to deter 

 us, and we took advantage of the first opportunity 

 to open the subject. Zakki Bey, the Pasha's eldest 

 son, had arrived with the Valy ; and Ave found him 

 a nice boy of eighteen or twenty, with a good in- 

 genuous countenance, pretty manners, and a fair 

 education. He was a Kdtih, or clerk in the " Cham- 

 ber of Writing," a public ofiice at Aleppo ; and with 

 him we speedily made friends. It was no difficult 

 matter to interest him in the cause of the Bedouins, 

 for these to a youth of any imagination must always 

 have a certain attraction ; and he knew of his 

 father's recent overtures to Faris, and of the official 

 friendship which had been begun between them. 



" My father," he said quite simply, "is as a father 

 to all these people. The Bedouins are his children, 

 and I know that Faris is his especial favourite. If 

 he would allow me, I would go myself to see your 



