FEASTS m THE HOLY PLACE 193 



nearest patch of sand. I followed suit, with a blanket 

 over my head and one by one the foremost of the retinue 

 sank down beside me, so that when the lingering caravan 

 caught us up it had to wake half a dozen exhausted 

 explorers before we could make a dignified entry into 

 the Holy Place. 



Abdullah came out to meet us, for he had taken 

 Zeinab and Hauwa the previous night to Sayed Rida's 

 house, as it was not meet that the personal slaves of the 

 Sayed should be looked upon by the people. He tried 

 one last shot when he saw me riding a camel. "Get 

 down! Get down, Khadija!" he shouted loudly so that 

 the interested group of loafers might hear. "You can- 

 not ride into this holy place!" We were still nearly 

 half a mile from the nearest house, so we ignored him, 

 but when we came to the last hillock we dismounted, 1 

 covering my face completely, and with the army of nine 

 in battle array behind us we marched towards a very 

 dignified group who came forward to greet us. 



Except for the Sayeds themselves and the ekhwan I 

 had m.et for a moment at Jedabia, I had so far talked 

 only with merchants and Government officials, a few 

 sheikhs of the smaller zawias and the Beduins. Now 

 we were meeting the great men of the Senussi, important 

 ekhwan, shrewd statesmen as well as religious chiefs. 

 They welcomed us with grave, calm dignity, that uncon- 

 scious, simple dignity that the West can never learn of 

 the East, for rank in the former is a ladder up which 

 all men may climb, but in the latter it is a tableland 

 apart. It is such a remote world, so utterly unattainable 

 by those who do not inherit it, that the sheikh may 

 safely invite the camel-driver to "fadhl" with him or 

 the ekhwan unbend to the bread-seller. Men talk of the 

 democracy of the East because there appears to be but 

 one distinction — the free-bom from the slave, yet even 



