The Caliph Harun.[FN#11] The
land belongs to the Utaybah Badawin, the bravest and most ferocious
tribe in Al-Hijaz; and the citizens denote their dread of these
banditti by asserting that to increase their courage they drink their
enemy’s blood.[FN#12] My companions shook their heads when questioned
upon the subject, and prayed that we might not become too well
acquainted with them—an ill-omened speech!
The Pasha allowed us a rest of five hours at Al-Birkat: we spent them
in my tent, which was crowded with Shaykh Abdullah’s friends. To requite
me for this inconvenience, he prepared for me an excellent water-pipe,
a cup of coffee, which, untainted by cloves and by cinnamon, would have
been delicious, and a dish of dry fruits. As we were now near the Holy
City, all the Meccans were busy canvassing for lodgers and offering
their services to pilgrims. Quarrels, too, were of hourly occurrence.
In our party was an Arnaut, a white-bearded old man, so
[p.137] decrepit that he could scarcely stand, and yet so violent that
no one could manage him but his African slave, a brazen-faced little
wretch about fourteen years of age. Words were bandied between this
angry senior and Shaykh Mas’ud, when the latter insinuated sarcastically,
that if the former had teeth he would be more intelligible.
