As I Thought That I Had Settled Matters With
Him, To His Entire Satisfaction, I Was Not A Little Astonished,
When he
took me aside in the evening to announce to me, that unless he received
twenty piastres more, he
Would not take charge of me any farther.
Although I knew it was not in his power to hinder me from following him,
and that he could not proceed to violence without entirely losing his
reputation among the Arabs, for ill-treating his guest, yet I had
acquired sufficient knowledge of the Sheikh’s character to be persuaded
that if I did not acquiesce in his demand, he would devise some means to
get me into a situation which it would have perhaps cost me double the
sum to escape from; I therefore began to bargain with him; and brought
him down to fifteen piastres. I then endeavoured to bind him by the most
solemn oath used by the Bedouins; laying his hand upon the head of his
little boy, and on the fore feet of his mare, he swore that he would,
for that sum, conduct me himself, or cause me to be conducted, to the
Arabs Howeytat, from whence I might hope to find a mode of proceeding in
safety to Egypt. My precautions, however, were all in vain. Being
satisfied that my cash was reduced to a few piastres, he began his plans
for stripping me of every other part of my property which had excited
his wishes.
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