Chap. XL. INTERVIEW WITH THE SHEIKH. 
67 
from our place of encampment. Ghet, who was 
smoking a long pipe, was a tolerably handsome young 
man ; but his pronunciation was very defective, and 
he had nothing very commanding in his manner. 
Having exchanged a few compliments, and asked some 
general questions, we withdrew, and soon after re- 
ceived a present of dates and milk. A great many 
of the Arabs paid us a visit ; and a renegade Tripolitan 
Jew, 'Abd- Allah, with the surname " el Musulmani," 
who would not leave us for a moment, kept telling us 
of his adventures and his importance, and assuring us 
of his most disinterested affection for us. Though his 
former religion differed from ours, and he had again 
exchanged this for another from mere w r orldly mo- 
tives, he nevertheless thought himself entitled to 
the claim of brotherhood, and was gracious enough 
to callus sometimes his cousins (welad ami). There 
was another man who tried to make himself as agree- 
able as possible to us, and endeavoured to obtain our 
friendship : this was an Egyptian named Ibrahim, 
a fine tall man w T ho evidently belonged originally to a 
good family ; but he had run away from home, and 
was now leading, in company with this little horde, a 
restless, remorseful, and wearisome life. 
When the heat of the day had a little abated, we 
prepared the small present we had to give to Sheikh 
Ghet, and which consisted of a red cloth bernus of 
good workmanship, a pound of cloves, a pound of 
jawi or benzoin, and a razor. We were well aware that 
it was rather a trifling gift, considering the assistance 
F 2 
