"A SEBAA." 61 



gun ready for service ; another was in the rear, in the 

 same position. I inquired of the owner of the mule the 

 cause of these unusual precautions. He answered me, 

 that they were dreading an attack from a' " sebdd" and 

 that if this should occur, one of us would be carried off 

 without having time to put himself on the defensive. " I 

 would rather be a spectator," I said to him, " than an 

 actor in the scene you describe ; consequently, I will 

 give you two piastres more if you will keep your mule 

 always in the centre of the moving group." My pro- 

 posal was accepted. It was then for the first time that 

 I saw that my Arab carried a yatagan under his tunic, 

 which he used for pricking on the mule the whole time 

 that we were in the thicket. Superfluous cautions ! The 

 " sebdd " did not show himself. 



Each village being a little republic, whose territory we 

 could not cross without obtaining permission and a pass- 

 port from the Mahomedan priest president, the priest 

 who conducted our caravan used to leave us in the fields, 

 and went sometimes a good way off to a village to solicit 

 the permission without which it would have been danger- 

 ous to continue our route. He remained entire hours 

 without returning to us, and we then had occasion to 

 reflect sadly on the imprudence of our enterprise. We 

 generally slept amongst habitations. Once, we found the 

 streets of a village barricaded, because they were fearing 

 an attack from a neighbouring village. The foremost 

 man of our caravan removed the obstacles ; but a woman 

 came out of her house like a fury, and belaboured us with 

 blows from a pole. We remarked that she was fair, of 

 brilliant whiteness, and very pretty. 



Another time we lay down in a lurking-place dignified 

 by the beautiful name of caravansary. In the morning, 



