4-6 Bedouin Ti'ibcs of tJic EitpJirates. [ch. xvni. 



have patience and trust in God. He did not liow- 

 ever seem to see things in this light. His only 

 companion and confidant was the mejlis or tax- 

 gatherer, a Turk from Erzeroum, long-settled at 

 Deyr, who wore Constantinople clothes and a fez, 

 and looked very dirty. With him he every now 

 and then relieved his mind in Turkish, or made 

 him his interpreter and go-between with the 

 Tudmuri. We do not like this man on account 

 of his villainous face, though Mohammed assures 

 us that he is a good fellow and a friend of his own. 

 When we had all sat talking thus in a friendly 

 way for some little wdiile, and finished our break- 

 fast, ]\Iohammed, inspired by some evil spirit, 

 suddenly bethought him of a letter which Huseyn 

 Pasha had entrusted him with for the Mudir, and, 

 without consulting us on the prudence of delivering 

 it, handed it to Ali Bey.'" We saw that a mistake 

 was being committed, but it was too late to inter- 

 fere, and we could only watch the functionary's 

 face as he read it and try and guess its contents. 

 That they were not altogether to our advantage we 

 were soon aware, for Ali Bey's manner suddenly 

 became diplomatic, and he began to talk about the 

 dano'ers of the desert, the disturbed state of the 

 Bedouin tribes, ghazus, hardmi and the rest, ac- 

 cording to the ofiicial formula, and to suggest that 



* The Arabs pronounce " Bey " as if it were "written with a g. I 

 liave therefore spelt it with a y only when it occurs as the title of 

 a Turkish official. 



