24 SHURMALKEE. 



which serves as a store or warehouse, and one end 

 partitioned off by mats, contains the secluded 

 inmates of the harem. 



One of the objects we had in view in visiting 

 the fair was, to procure some few additional 

 articles I required for my journey into the interior, 

 namely, a bed carpet, two Arab frocks of yellow 

 nankeen, and a black camaline or cloak. We 

 accordingly bent our steps towards the quarter 

 where lived our native friend, Shurmalkee, who 

 was to assist us in making our purchases, but whose 

 residence we should never have found but for the 

 crowd of armed idlers who soon surrounded us, and 

 led us with a kind of barbarous state into the 

 presence of their respected chief. 



The well-known Shurmalkee, or Allee Allee, his 

 real name, is now upwards of fifty years old, tall, 

 thin, with slightly stooping shoulders; his face 

 long, with small quickly moving eyes, and thin 

 white beard. The only deviation from the usual 

 dress of his countrymen is a white cotton cloth 

 turban, a distinction, with the title of sheik, gene- 

 rally assumed by those who can read the Koran, or 

 have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Some 

 fifteen or twenty years since, Shurmalkee was 

 chiefly instrumental in saving part of the crew of 

 the English brig, Mary Anne, then lying at anchor 

 in the harbour of Berberah, which was attacked 

 and burned during the night by the natives. He 

 was himself wounded on the occasion, and the mate 



