At Last, Fearing Some Violence, And
Feeling Answerable For The Boy's Safety To His Family, I Seized Him By
The Nape Of His Neck And The Upper Posterior Portion Of His Nether
Garments, And Drove Him Before Me Into The Tent.
When the hubbub had subsided, and all sat after supper smoking the pipe
of peace in the cool night air, I rejoined my companions, and found
them talking, as usual, about old Shaykh Sa'ad.
The scene was
appropriate for the subject. In the distance rose the blue peak said to
be his eyrie, and the place was pointed out with fearful meaning. As it
is inaccessible to strangers, report has converted it into another
garden of Iram. A glance, however, at its position and formation
satisfied me that the bubbling springs, the deep forests, and the
orchards of apple-trees, quinces and pomegranates, with which my
companions furnished it, were a "myth," whilst some experience of Arab
ignorance of the art of defence suggested to me strong doubts about the
existence of an impregnable fortress on the hill-top. The mountains,
however, looked beautiful in the moonlight, and distance gave them a
semblance of mystery well suited to the themes which they inspired.
That night I slept within my Shugduf, for it would have been mere
madness to sleep on the open plain in a place so infested by banditti.
The being armed is but a poor precaution near this robbers' den. If you
wound a man in the very act of plundering, an exorbitant sum must be
paid for blood-money.
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