His Objects In Meeting Me Were To Ask For Some
Medicine, And For A Temporary Seat In My Shugduf; The Latter I Offered
With Pleasure, As The Boy Mohammed Was
[P.130] longing to mount a camel.
The Shaykh’s illness was nothing but
weakness brought on by the hardships of the journey: he attributed it
to the hot wind, and to the weight of a bag of dollars which he had
attached to his waist-belt. He was a man about forty, long, thin, pale,
and of a purely nervous temperament; and a few questions elicited the
fact that he had lately and suddenly given up his daily opium pill. I
prepared one for him, placed him in my litter, and persuaded him to
stow away his burden in some place where it would be less troublesome.
He was my companion for two marches, at the end of which he found his
own Shugduf. I never met amongst the Arab citizens a better bred or a
better informed man. At Constantinople he had learned a little French,
Italian, and Greek; and from the properties of a shrub to the varieties
of honey,[FN#5] he was full of “ useful knowledge,” and openable as a
dictionary. We parted near Meccah, where I met him only once, and then
accidentally, in the Valley of Muna.
At half-past five A.M. on Tuesday, the 6th of September, we rose
refreshed by the cool, comfortable night, and loaded the camels. I had
an opportunity of inspecting Al-Sufayna.
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