38 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



for the flocks. It now appeared that my host of the night 

 before did not belong here at all, but as one of the head chiefs 

 of the Beni Amer tribe was simply on a visit to the villages 

 collecting contributions towards his marriage expenses, for he 

 was about to take unto himself another wife, so that instead of 

 one sheikh only, we had the honour of daily receiving no less 

 than three, with all their relations and hangers-on, who generally 

 arrived in the morning and remained until evening. They all 

 were very jealous of and hated each other cordially, and no little 

 diplomacy was necessary on the part of our dragoman in making 

 a contract with one of them to supply us with hunters without 

 the others interfering. However, we soon became great friends 

 with all of them by the aid of numerous cups of coffee, various 

 presents, and promises of more. We also gave two dinner 

 parties to the sheikhs and two or three of their head-men, which 

 they seemed to enjoy very greatly. Curiously enough, on each 

 occasion the sheiks brought a poor relation with them, who, to 

 judge from his appetite and capability of storing away food, had 

 probably not been fed for a long time. We always then had a 

 variety of dishes, soup, several meats, vegetables, birds, and 

 sweets, which everybody ate with his fingers, while the conver- 

 sation was mainly carried on through the interpreter. The poor 

 relation was generally the first to clear his plate, and he then 

 took to hunting among what remained on the plates of the other 

 guests for anything which particularly took his fancy. His eye- 

 sight was very keen, and once fixed upon a tempting morsel, 

 down would swoop his fingers into the plate, and carry off 

 triumphantly the captured piece and place it in his mouth. 

 We, seeing this manoauvre, naturally wanted to refill the poor 

 relation's plate, but our dragoman, who remarked our good 

 intention, and was better versed in the manners and customs of 

 the natives, objected, saying, " Let him dig, poor man, he likes 

 it best." So, seeing that those who were being despoiled took 

 it in good part, and were not likely to take defensive or offensive 

 measures, we let him dig, and he dug and was happy. None of 

 the sheikhs smoked. When we rolled a cigarette for them they 

 took it out of compliment but never lighted it. Smoking alto- 

 gether was almost unknown, and all were good Mohammedans 

 in the matter of strong drinks. All the Arabs wore their hair 

 in the usual mop-like fashion. Sheikhs carried a cross-handled 



