Upon Near Arrival I Went Forward To Meet Him And
To Assist Him From His Camel; But His Animal Knelt Immediately At His
Command, And He Dismounted With The Ease And Agility Of A Man Of Twenty.
He was the most magnificent specimen of an Arab that I have ever seen.
Although upward of eighty years of age, he was as erect as a lance, and
did not appear more than between fifty and sixty.
He was of herculean
stature, about six feet three inches high, with immensely broad
shoulders and chest, a remarkably arched nose, eyes like an eagle's,
beneath large, shaggy, but perfectly white eyebrows. A snow-white beard
of great thickness descended below the middle of his breast. He wore a
large white turban and a white cashmere abbai, or long robe, from the
throat to the ankles. As a desert patriarch he was superb - the very
perfection of all that the imagination could paint, if we should
personify Abraham at the head of his people. This grand old Arab with
the greatest politeness insisted upon our immediately accompanying him
to his camp, as he could not allow us to remain in his country as
strangers. He would hear of no excuses, but at once gave orders to
Mahomet to have the baggage repacked and the tents removed, while we
were requested to mount two superb white hygeens, with saddle-cloths of
blue Persian sheepskins, that he had immediately accoutered when he
heard from Mahomet of our miserable camels.
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