TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
93 
mounted on one of his gayest chariot-horses, he could scarcely have 
been more an object of admiration and wonder in the eyes of the hum- 
ble and unassuming crowd of Arabs which had assembled to witness 
the show, than Shekh Belcazi and his charger were on this occasion. 
We dare not guess how the lady of our honest friend the Dhbbah 
would have supported this splendid exhibition, in which her husband 
was so completely eclipsed; but we thought that the eyes of Shekh Ma- 
hommed himself did occasionally wander to the shining masses by his 
side, with something like an expression of jealousy. If it were so, 
however, the glance only found its way through the corners of the 
Ddbbah’s orbs of vision; for his head kept its post with becoming so- 
lemnity, and was never once turned towards those objects of his envy, 
to which all other eyes were so fuUy directed. It must at the same 
time be allowed, that the toilet of Shekh Mahommed had been much 
more attended to than usual. He had made a temporary adjourn- 
ment from his usual only garment to a white cotton shirt of very 
decent exterior, over which he had carefully arranged a clean-looking 
white barracan ; and he had drawn from the innermost recesses of 
his saddle-bags a new white burnoos of no ordinary texture, which 
he persuaded himself to substitute for the old and coarse brown one he 
had hitherto worn on the road *. His saddle-case was now observed to 
be of crimson morocco, a circumstance with which we were not before 
* A coarse brown barracan is on most occasions the only habit of a Bedouin Arab ; 
but as the rainy season was approaching, Shekh Mahommed had allowed himself the 
additional covering of the old burnoos we have mentioned. Shirts are seldom worn but 
on gay occasions. 
