356 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
war, upon which he immediately difmounted, and, upon 
feeing this, I alighted likewife. We faluted one another ~ 
very courteoufly, He was a man about feventy, with a: 
very long beard, and of a very graceful appearance. It was. 
with the utmoft difficulty I could prevail upon him to mount. 
his horfe, as he declared his intention was to walk by the 
fide of my mule till he entered the town of Teawa. This. 
being over-ruled, by an invincible obftinacy on my part, he: 
was at laft conftrained to mount on horfeback, which he: 
did with an agility only to be expected from a young man: 
of twenty. 
BEING cote he fhewed us a variety of paces on horfes- 
back. All this, too, was counted a humiliation and polite- 
nefs on his part, as playing tricks, and prancing on horfe= 
back, is never done but by young men before their elders, 
or by meaner people before their fuperiors. We paffed*by 
avery commodious houfe, where he ordered my fervants: 
to unload my baggage, that being the refidence affigned: — 
for me by the Shekh. He and I, with Soliman on foot by 
the fide of my mule, croffed an open fpace of about five: 
hundred yards, where the market is kept; he protefted a. 
thoufand times. by the way, what a fhame it was to him to: 
appear on horfeback, when a great man like me was riding: 
on a mule. 
A uiTTLe after, having paffed this fquare, we came to the- 
Shekh’s houfe, or rather a collection of houfes, one ftorey- 
high, built with canes; near the ftreet, at entering, there 
was a large hall of unburnt brick, to which we afcended 
by four or five fteps. The hall was a very decent one, co- 
vered with ftraw-mats; and there was in the middle of it, 
a chair, 
