174 
JOURNEY FROM 
AVhile we were pitching the tents, and all hands were employed, 
some of our horses got loose, and Shekh Mahommed el Dtibbah, who 
had just come up with us on his trusty mare, was violently assailed 
by them on all sides. He called out most lustily for help, and in 
the mean time exhibited uncommonly good horsemanship ; wheeling 
about rapidly in all directions, and making his mare kick out in the 
intervals, to the no small amusement of our whole party, who were 
at first too much overcome by laughter to give him any effectual 
assistance. 
As the attack however began to grow serious, from the number 
and impetuosity of our valiant Shekh’s assailants, we soon recovered 
ourselves sufficiently to make a diversion in his favour, and eventu- 
ally to secure all the horses, though not before the Dubbah was quite 
out of breath, and had broken his gun in his defence. 
The next morning he entered our tent with the fragments of his 
ill-fated weapon in his hand ; and after he had squatted himself down 
as usual, and paid his two or three customary salams, and a variety 
of fulsome compliments, which always preceded any request he had 
to make, he began to expatiate upon his rencontre of the preceding 
evening, and the address which he had shewn on the occasion : he 
concluded by holding forth the shattered remains of his bendikah 
(musket), and observing that the Dhbbah had now nothing to 
defend himself with in case of an attack from the formidable bands 
of robbers which he had always asserted to be lying in wait for us. 
As we had no time to spend in trifling, and were not inclined to 
take the hint by presenting him with one of our muskets, we sud- 
denly changed the subject, to the discomfiture of his hopes, and 
