They Claim The
Allegiance Of The Badawi Tribes Around, Principally Mutayr, And I Was
Informed That Their Fealty To The Prince Of Meccah Is Merely Nominal.
The Morning After Our Arrival At Al-Suwayrkiyah Witnessed A Commotion
In Our Little Party:
Hitherto they had kept together in fear of the
road.
Among the number was one Ali bin Ya Sin, a perfect “old man of the
sea.” By profession he was a “Zemzemi,” or dispenser of water from the Holy
Well,[FN#1] and he had a handsome “palazzo” at the foot of Abu Kubays in
Meccah, which he periodically converted into a boarding-house. Though
past sixty, very decrepit, bent by age, white-bearded, and toothless,
he still acted cicerone to pilgrims, and for that purpose travelled
once every year to Al-Madinah. These trips had given him the cunning of
a veteran voyageur. He lived well and cheaply; his home-made Shugduf,
the model of comfort, was garnished with soft cushions and pillows,
whilst from the pockets protruded select bottles of pickled limes and
similar luxuries; he had his travelling Shishah (water-pipe),[FN#2] and
at the halting-place, disdaining the crowded, reeking tent, he had a
contrivance for converting his vehicle into a habitation. He was a type
of the Arab old man. He mumbled all day and three-quarters of the
night, for he had des insomnies. His nerves were so fine, that if any
[p.126] one mounted his Shugduf, the unfortunate was condemned to lie
like a statue.
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