108 



ISHMAEL. 



powder-gourds, one containing coarse material 

 for loading, the other a finer article, English, if 

 possible, for priming. He is never without flint, 

 steel, and tinder ; and disposed about his person 

 are spare cartridges in reed cases. His sabre is 

 of the Persian form ; his dagger is straight er and 

 handier than that of the Arab ; and altogether 

 his tools, like his demeanour, are those of a dis- 

 ciplined, or rather of a disciplinable, man. 



The wildest and most picturesque figures are 

 the half-breeds from the western shores of the 

 Persian Gulf — light brown, meagre Ishmaels 

 and Orsons, who look like bundles of fibre 

 bound up in highly-dried human skin. Their 

 unkempt elf-locks fall in mighty masses over un- 

 clean, saffron-stained shirts, which suggest the 

 ' night-gown ' of other days, and these are ap- 

 parently the only articles of wear. Their straight, 

 heavy swords hang ever ready by a strap passing 

 over the left shoulder; their right hands rest 

 lovingly upon the dagger-hafts, and their small 

 round targes of boiled hippopotamus hide — one 

 of the ' industries ' of Zanzibar — apparently await 

 immediate use. Leaning on their long match- 

 locks, they stand cross-legged, with the left foot 

 planted to the right of the right, or vice versa, 

 and they prowl about like beasts of prey, as they 



