224 MAHOMED ALLEE. 



and putting his hands to his breast, with a kind of 

 salutation and a smile of introduction, said, 

 " Mahomed Allee," and then in Arabic asked me 

 if I had no letters to send down to the Com- 

 mander at Aden, for by that name is Capt. Haines 

 generally known among the Dankalli merchants. 

 Zaido at this moment making his appearance, I 

 appealed to him, if this were Mahomed Allee, 

 and Zaido, who looked anything but comfortable, 

 reluctantly admitted that it was, stammering out 

 at the same time, that " Mahomed Allee had better 

 go away." The latter, however, did not understand 

 this, but laughed most sneeringly, as he said, 

 " Cutta," with a contemptuous wave of the hand, 

 that made Zaido back expeditiously out of the hut, 

 carrying on his shoulders the hanging door mat. 



Being determined not to allow myself to be so 

 imposed upon as I had evidently been by Ohmed 

 Mahomed, I tore a leaf out of my note book, having 

 exhausted all the paper I had taken out in the 

 morning, except that on which I wrote my letters, 

 in presents to the begging Bedouins. Upon the 

 abstracted leaf I wrote a hasty note, telling Capt. 

 Haines of the deception practised upon me, and 

 recommending that no present should be given to 

 the counterfeit Mahomed Allee, as a punishment 

 for his impudence. This being made up into a 

 note, was carefully deposited by Mahomed Allee, 

 between the double fold of ox-skin which formed 

 the scabbard of his knife, and which is made a con- 



