"We
met," said they, "between 200 and 300 devils on a Razzia near
Al-Madinah; we gave them the Salam, but they would not reply, although
we were all on dromedaries.
Then they asked us if we were men of
Al-Madinah, and we replied ‘Yes;' and lastly, they wanted to know the
end of our journey; so we said Bir Abbas.[FN#11]" The Badawin who had
accompanied the Daghistanis belonged to some tribe unconnected with the
Hazimi: the spokesman rolled his head, as much as to say "Allah has
preserved us!" And a young Indian of the party-I shrewdly suspect him
of having stolen my pen-knife that night-displayed
[p.232] the cowardice of a "Miyan,[FN#12]" by looking aghast at the
memory of his imminent and deadly risk. "Sir," said Shaykh Nur to me,
"we must wait till all this is over." I told him to hold his tongue,
and sharply reproved the boy Mohammed, upon whose manner the effect of
finding himself suddenly in a fresh country had wrought a change for
the worse. "Why, ye were lions at Cairo; and here, at Yambu', you are
cats-hens![FN#13]" It was not long, however, before the youth's
impudence returned upon him with increased violence.
We sat through the afternoon in the little room on the terrace, whose
reflected heat, together with the fiery winds from the Wilderness,
seemed to incommode even my companions. After sunset we dined in the
open air, a body of twenty:
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