242 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
it is the hand of the muleteer. The shooting is postponed till 
next morning on account of the danger of wounding the 
horses; hut the muleteer is whipped with a cane till he swears 
by the heard of the Prophet he will never do so again. For 
a few days the horses look better ; but this doesn’t alter the 
general principle, because the mules begin to look just as lean 
and spiritless as the horses did before. The muleteer is willing 
to be honest; he would like to be on good terms with the 
world generally; but it is not in his nature, or any other 
man’s nature to stand such treatment as this. Hence he re¬ 
sumes his previous policy as soon as he can safely do so, and 
continues to be whipped occasionally when caught with his 
hand in the wrong place. Whipping, however, is one of the 
ills that the flesh of the muleteer is heir to. He takes it hard 
apparently, but it goes easy enough in reality. A good deal 
of the pain of whipping is mental, as any school-boy can 
testify. With him, it is only skin deep; his skin is tough 
from exposure, and is not readily affected. 
He takes life easy, as a matter of personal convenience; 
sometimes sleeping on the top of the baggage, which is on 
the top of the mule, and sometimes trotting along with his 
comrades, listening to pleasant stories of genii and dragons, 
or telling some pretty tough ones himself, but always in that 
happy and contented frame of mind which evinces an entire 
absence of care. Clothing never annoys him at all ; a shirt 
or two and an old sash last him a lifetime; breeches he wears 
little or none; shoes are superfluous, except when his circum¬ 
stances are affluent. What if he have nothing to eat now 
and then? He can smoke the pipe of bliss, and sleep the sleep 
of oblivion. What if he be out of tobacco ? No matter; the 
Howadji will give him some. Moreover, he knows where the 
bag is kept, and can help himself, provided nobody be looking 
on. Food is the least of his wants. A bunch of grapes or figs 
and a piece of leather bread satisfy all his necessities in this 
respect ; and occasionally there are pots and pans that come 
in as a sort a relish, to be licked when the dragoman has 
been drinking a little arrack, and feels unusually good-na¬ 
tured, A very happy fellow is the Arab muleteer, take him 
