210 THE CHIEFTAIN LOHITU. 



a great price for my bargain. After saying a few 

 words to the man, he only gave him three of the 

 needles, and distributed what remained, by giving 

 one each to the rest of the party, about a dozen being 

 around us at the time. He kept three himself, placing 

 them in the sheath of his very old and worthless 

 dagger, among the ornaments of which, I noticed 

 an old rusty pair of scissors, which he had thrust 

 in between the thongs that secured it to his belt. 



Lohitu was a very handsome man, with a high, 

 noble forehead, well-formed nose and mouth, and but 

 for a heavy look, occasioned by his thick, bushy eye- 

 brows, would have realized my idea of a savage chief 

 with whom I could have associated, honour and 

 generosity ; and even with the prejudice against the 

 Bedouins I entertained, occasioned by the evidences 

 of their sanguinary and deceitful character, which 

 had come under my own notice, I still could only 

 think well of this generally acknowledged brave 

 and respected man, who was, without any qualifica- 

 tion or jealousy of his excellence whatever, admitted 

 to be the first man of all the combined tribes. 

 Heaven only knows, how much blood it had been 

 necessary to shed to produce this unanimity, but 

 the tale of his having saved the life of the only 

 Muditu who was spared in a recent engagement, 

 was the solitary instance of the sort I ever heard 

 of; for on occasions of their warfare, every con- 

 quered man, who is not able to save himself by 

 flight, is most ruthlessly massacred by the victors, 



