SAID BIN SALIM. 



481 



judge my companionship canny, and once more 

 to link his destiny with ours. 



Said bin Salim is a Bayazi of the Khariji schism. 

 He prays regularly ; fasts uncompromisingly ; 

 he chews but will not smoke tobacco; he never 

 casts away a date-stone ; and he 6 sips water ' but 

 6 swills milk ' as the Moslem saying directs. His 

 mother tongue is the Kisawahili : he speaks, 

 however, the grotesque Arabic of Oman, and 

 sometimes, to display his mastery of the human- 

 ities, he mixes hashed Koran and terminating 

 vowels with Maskat c baragouinage,' Paradise 

 Lost and Thieves' Latin. He has read svntax : he 

 writes a pretty hand ; he is great at epistles, and 

 he loves to garnish discourse with saw and song. 

 "When in the ' doldrums ' he will exclaim — 



* The grave's the gate all flesh must pass — 

 All ! would T knew what lies behind.' 



I have heard him crooning for long hours — 



1 The knowledge of this nether world, 

 Say, friend, what is it ? — false or true ? 

 The false, what mortal cares to know ? — 

 The true, what mortal ever knew ? ' 



Sometimes he will break out into rather a 6 fast ' 

 strain, e. g. — 



1 At Meccah I saw a lass selling perfume, 

 She put forth a hand, and I cried, " O sweet ! " 



(Three sniffs, crescendo.) 

 VOL. i. 31 



