I04 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [ch. xx, 



Beteyen has paid fourteen camels for his share in 

 the mare, which, at the rate of £5 a camel, gives 

 £70, besides £20 in money, making a total of £90 ; 

 but this sum represents in reality two-thirds of the 

 whole value, because the " holder of the bridle," as 

 the partner is called who keeps and rides the mare, 

 has the right, if he wishes, of buying up the re- 

 maining interest in her for half the sum he has 

 already paid. The mare, then, may be reckoned as 

 having cost Beteyen no more than £135, and the 

 sheykli has every reason to be pleased with his 

 bargain. 



Beteyen ibn Mershid himself is less interesting. 

 He is a worthy elderly man, well bred as an Ibn 

 Mershid can hardly help being, but not in any way 

 distinguished. His face is weak and colourless and 

 answers well to the reputation he bears among the 

 tribes, that of a man quite unfit to command the 

 Sebaa in troubled times like the present. We can 

 easily understand that, with such a sheykh at their 

 head, the Gomussa have been willing to accept 

 Jed dan as their real leader, parvenu as he is. It 

 is the misfortune of the Sebaa that just now they 

 are without a capable head, the older sheykhs with 

 the exception of Beteyen being dead, and the young 

 generation not having yet had time to distinguish 

 itself and gain the influence necessary to com- 

 mand the tribe in war. The office of Akid, or 

 military leader, is an elective one and dependent 

 wdiolly upon personal merit and influence. Ferhan 



