Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/83

Rh crop of gratitude. If I had bestowed royal favors, their delight could not have been greater. They smiled at me all day long as they trudged by my side, and called down upon me all the blessings of the Prophet. Thus the Arab may be governed through his pleasures, his imagination, or his fear. If a leader among the Bedaween knows how to amuse them up to a certain point, all the while keeping a tight rein upon them, he will have no trouble. The greater the awe of his power, the greater the liberty with which they can be indulged. But they must never be allowed to forget that he is their master. If he will but please their fancy, and at the same time impress them with a sense of his own authority, and thus keep them in strict subjection, he will find them docile and obedient.

So far, then, I was pleased with my new companions — a pleasure which was all the greater because it was mingled with surprise. I had been accustomed to think of the Bedaween as born cut-throats, as by nature thieves and robbers, and who would not scruple at murder. But our experience has been of the most pleasant character. We have had them in our service for weeks, and more faithful servants, or those more harmless and inoffensive, I never saw. We cannot help becoming attached to creatures so simple, who seem to live in our favor, and who follow us like pet spaniels.

Whenever we dismounted to walk, I observed my cameleer looking wistfully at the vacant seat. He would not have presumed to vault into his master's saddle; but sometimes I gave him a smile and a nod, when he climbed up at the rear, and seating himself a few inches in front of what looked more like a piece of tarred rope than a respectable tail, with his naked and swarthy legs high in air, rode in triumph.

Among those attached to me as my retainers was a boy,