S6 Bcdoiiin Tribes of the Euphrates, [ru. xix. 



distinguished manners of any of tlie Bedouins we 

 have met, Faris only excepted. He is short in 

 stature, but very slight and graceful, with exceed- 

 ingly small hands and feet, and a refined, almost 

 melancholy, countenance of dark olive hue. He 

 was very poorly dressed, but there was something 

 in his air which pointed him out to us at once as a 

 man of rank and birth. His manner to ourselves 

 was a type of good breeding — quiet, frank, and un- 

 obtnisive, and full of kind attentions. He apolo- 

 gised simply, but with dignity, for the poor reception 

 he was able to give us. His tribe was the one 

 which had suffered most from the Eoala war, for, at 

 the very outset, and before hostilities had actually 

 been declared, they had been plundered by the 

 Turkish soldiers whom Ibn Shaalan had got to help 

 him. These had left the Moayaja without so much 

 as a tent over their heads, and the wretched awn- 

 ings under which they are now camj^ed have been 

 given them in charity by the other Sebaa tribes. 

 All their cooking pots and pans, things hereditary 

 in a Sheykh's tent, were gone, and it was all they 

 could do to muster a copper jug to make us coffee 

 in. They had no bread, only dates and trufiles ; 

 but, as Ferhan said, " the kemeyes are our bread just 

 now, and better than the bread of towns." 



Of the war he naturally spoke with some bitter- 

 ness, and of the treacherous attack made upon his 

 people by Ibn ShaaMn and the Turkish troops. 

 Their camp had been surrounded while stopping in 



