Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/251

 we say, How can we ever believe again in an Arab sheikh as a model of virtue?

The next morning, as if to show how virtue (!) is rewarded in this world, there came by our tent at sunrise a great herd of camels, which belonged to our friend the sheikh, and were the reward of his "industry"! They were being driven to new pastures, having exhausted their late grounds. It was a very picturesque sight. There were camels of all sizes and all ages, large and small, old and young — some were very young, mere babies. I observed that the old camels had large humps, and was told that when they are not used, but are left at pasture, their humps increase in size. They were accompanied by their herdsmen, who were all dressed in sheepskins, like the shepherds on the Campagna around Rome. Following on soon after, we overtook them as they were roaming over the hills. I think the sheikh had a new saddle-beast brought to him to ride, for he suddenly appeared mounted on a young, swift dromedary. While we were moving along at a slow and solemn pace, he dashed up at full speed, and rode by as if in a charge of battle. His legs and feet were bare, but he had on a red tunic under his coarse goat's-hair cloak, and there was a touch of finery in the housings of his saddle. He presented quite a military figure, with his gun slung behind his back, and his pistol in his belt, as he rode by at full gallop, and disappeared over the crest of a hill. As he passed, I observed sticking up behind him what I took to be a sheep's head, but what proved to be a little camel, born only the day before, which he had slung by his saddle, and carried off, while the poor mother followed behind, lowing and groaning mournfully. As the whole herd was on a day's march to find pasture, and as this new-born baby could not walk, it was thus carried. After a time the sheikh