In The Harvest Time They Live In
The Mountains Under Tents, And Their Cattle Is Entrusted During The
Whole Year To A Small Encampment Of Their Own Shepherds.
In the
afternoon of this day we were alarmed by loud cries in the direction of
the opposite mountain.
The whole of our party immediately mounted, and I
also followed. On reaching the spot from whence the cries came, we found
two shepherds of Khanzyre quite naked; they had been stripped by a party
of the Arabs Terabein, who live in the mountains of Hebron, and each of
the robbers had carried off a fat sheep upon his mare. They were now too
far off to be overtaken; and our people, not being able to engage the
enemy, amused themselves with a sham-fight in their return home. They
displayed superior strength and agility in handling the lance, and great
boldness in riding at full speed over rugged and rocky ground. In the
exercise with the lance the rider endeavours to put the point of it upon
the shoulder of his adversary, thus showing that his life is in his
power. When the parties become heated, they often bear off upon their
lances the turbands of their adversaries, and carry them
[p.398] about with insolent vociferation. Our Sheikh of Kerek, a man of
sixty, far excelled all his people in these youthful, exercises; indeed
he seemed to be an accomplished Bedouin Sheikh; though he proved to be a
treacherous friend to me.
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