THE COMPTROLLER-GENERAL. 161 



and as savage a meal as any of the rest. I could 

 not help noticing the attention paid to new comers 

 who were too late for the scramble at the contents 

 of the bowl. Some of their more successful com- 

 panions, would strip off a piece from the bone with 

 their teeth, and throw it at them, not at all in 

 the gentle manner that w T e might have expected, a 

 kindness like that to have been performed. 



Zaido managed to put by one whole leg, and to 

 conceal it, had pushed it under the mats of the roof 

 of my hut, close to my head ; for a joke I took it 

 down inside, and divided it, without his knowledge, 

 among some hungry Bedouins, much to his indig- 

 nant surprise, when he afterwards discovered his 

 loss, for he unhesitatingly attributed the abstraction 

 of the meat, to the thievish propensity of his 

 countrymen, an unhappy failing he on more than 

 one occasion had reason to lament. 



Our Kafilah had now assumed the character of 

 one united family, no divisions, no continual 

 calahms, that had characterized our progress before 

 the arrival of Ohmed Medina, w T ho took his place 

 as Comptroller-General, and all of us submitted 

 without a murmur to his command. As for 

 myself, I felt perfectly easy, for the same deference 

 the rest of the Kafilah paid to Ohmed Medina, was 

 reflected upon me by the respect and attention 

 which he always showed, and which had a corre- 

 sponding effect upon all the rest. This night par- 

 ticularly, I noticed the great change in the bearing 



VOL. I. M 



