'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎106] (239/458)

106
COMMANDER F. JONES.
kefiyeli with a greasy sheepskin, worn like the hussar pelisse on one
shoulder and the whole much the worse for wear. Their chief knew
the position he was entitled to, and at once assumed it on the carpet
beside me, first however performing the Bedoin salutation of laying
cheek to cheek on either side the face, a ceremony I could well have
dispensed with, redolent as his person was of an unwashed sojourn in
Bedoin camps and heightened by the effluvium from the sheepskin
which I was embrasing, and which, from its shining appearance had
doubtless, performed the office of table napkin by day, while at night
it had answered for a covering, perhaps, during a score of years. Mu
tual enquiries as to health having been gone through and his com-
panions seated around on the ground, he informed us that Hassan
the Chief Sheikh had desired them to accompany us across to the
Euphrates, or to Eblis * if we had a mind to go there. This was a
compliment which, however rude it would sound in English, meant
nothing more than the party was entirely at our disposal. They in
formed us that the fugitives of the morning were a party of their own
people who left them the night before in search of plunder. They had
met each other on the road and described the numbers of our party
with exactness though we had not seen them. It appears they had
succeeded in capturing some five or six laden beasts belonging to the
Bijeil district and hurried off to secure their prey beyond the reach
of pursuit, which they imagined had already commenced when we
hove in sight of them. Our new friends expressed some disappoint
ment when told it was not our intention to proceed, as we had pur
posed—to the Euphrates, but the wound 1 had received in the leg
from the accident of last night served appropriately as an excuse and
not the having satisfied ourselves with regard to the extent of the
Chali Batekh, with which they would have been but little pleased.
The blood still on my clothes, satisfied them on the former head, but
it subjected me to a five minutes commisseration from the whole party
which fulsome and unmeaning as it was, could scarcely be submitted
to with patience. It shews, however, the contrast in the Bedoin
character, which, is a compound of dignity and obsequiousness; the
former being the natural attribute of man in an independent position
* vl« of the cognomens of the arch enemy of mankind.
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