ese degenerate times it was necessary for
the would-be champion to cry his challenge in some public place, or
else arrange the fight beforehand meanly in some tavern. I should have
been delighted with him on the whole, if he had not been quarrelsome
and had not expected us, as his companions, to extricate him from the
strife in which his arrogance involved him. We dreaded the arrival at
a town or village. If he had possessed the prowess of his courage,
which was absolutely reckless, he would have been a more endurable, if
dread, companion. But in almost every quarrel which he brought upon
himself he got the worst of it, and was severely beaten, and then
would talk to us about the honour of the Arabs till we fell asleep.

One night in the small town of Mazarib we rescued him from two
Circassian bravoes whom he had insulted wantonly. They had nearly
stopped his mouth for ever when we intervened. I cannot say he was
ungrateful upon that occasion. On the contrary, he swore that he would
not forsake us until death--a vow which filled us with dismay, for
even Suleyman by that time saw that he was useless; and Rashid, our
treasurer, resented his contempt of money. He had a way, too, of
demanding anything of ours which took his fancy, and, if not forcibly
prevented, taking it, peculiarly obnoxious to Rashid, who idolised my
few belongings. We were his friends, his manner told us, and he, the
bravest of the brave, the noblest of the noble Arabs, was prepared to
give his life for us at any time. Any trifles therefore which we might
bestow on him were really nothing as compared with what he gave us
every hour of every day.

It grew unbearable. The people in the khan at Mazarib were laughing at
us because that wretched Bedawi, a chance adherent, ruled our party.
We plotted desperately to get rid of him.

At length Suleyman devised a scheme. It was that we should change the
whole direction of our journey, turning aside into the mountain of the
Druzes. The Druzes were at war with many of the Bedu--probably with
this man's tribe; at any rate, a Bedawi, unless disguised, would run
grave risk among them while the war was on.

Accordingly, when we at length set out from Mazarib, Suleyman, with
many compliments, informed the knight of a dilemma which distressed us
greatly. I had been summoned to the bedside of a friend of mine, a
great Druze sheykh, now lying very ill, whose one wish was to gaze on
me before he died. Rashid chimed in