56 Bedouin Tribes of the Eiiphraies. [ch. xvm 



would not allow liim to go on, and overwhelmed 

 liini with a torrent of words. He had been un- 

 lucky enough to remark that the Bedouins were 

 robbers, and this was the signal for loud expostula- 

 tions from the crowd. " No, no," they called out, 

 " the Anazeh are quite another thing from the Amur 

 and the people you, Ali Bey, are accustomed to in the 

 desert. The English Beg knows better than that." 

 " But," argued the Mudir, " what does the Beg want 

 with the Anazeh that he must go off to them 

 to-morrow. Why cannot he Avait till they come 

 here % " Wilfrid : " We are obliged to be back in 

 our own country, and cannot afford to wait, and we 

 cannot go without seeinsf the Anazeh. In our own 

 country it is the custom to travel for sight-seeing, 

 just as in yours for trade. He who sees most gets 

 most honour (akram), and if I were to return to 

 my friends and to tell them, ' I have seen Bagdad, 

 and seen Aleppo, and seen the Shammar in Meso- 

 potamia, and Deyr and Palmyra, but I did not see 

 the Anazeh,' they would laugh at me, and my 

 journey would be a shame (aib) to me." Now the 

 word a'ih is in constant use, and I may say abuse, 

 among the Arabs, both in its literal sense and 

 metaphorically ; as we say in English, " it will be 

 a shame if you don't give me sixpence ; " and on 

 this occasion it exactly suited the understandings of 

 the audience, and they applauded the sentiment 

 loudly. "You see," they echoed to Ali Bey, "it 

 will brino- shame on the Be"' if he does not see 



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