A False Attack Would
Draw Off The Attention Of The Defenders, Who In These Latitudes Know
Nothing Of Sentry-Duty, Whilst Scaling-Ladders Or A Bag Full Of Powder
Would Command A Ready Entrance Into The Other Side.
Around the Al-Hamra
fort are clusters of palm-leaf huts, where the soldiery lounge and
smoke, and near it is the usual coffee-house, a shed kept by an
Albanian.
These places are frequented probably on account of the
intense heat inside the fort. We passed a comfortless day at the "Red
Village." Large flocks of sheep and goats were being driven in and out
of the place, but their surly shepherds would give no milk, even in
exchange for bread and meat. The morning was spent in watching certain
Badawin, who, matchlock in hand, had climbed the hills in pursuit of a
troop of cranes: not one bird was hit of the many fired at-a
circumstance which did not say much for their vaunted marksmanship.
Before breakfast I bought a moderately sized sheep for a dollar.
[p.256] Shaykh Hamid "halaled[FN#25]" (butchered) it, according to
rule, and my companions soon prepared a feast of boiled mutton. But
that sheep proved a "bone of contention." The boy Mohammed had, in a
fit of economy, sold its head to a Badawi for three piastres, and the
others, disappointed in their anticipations of "haggis," lost temper.
With the "Demon's" voluble tongue and impudent countenance in the van,
they opened such a volley of raillery and sarcasm upon the young
"tripe-seller," that he in his turn became excited-furious.
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