Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

82 Bedotiiu Tribes of the Eiiph7'ates. [cu. xis:.
us on yesterday, and saying that lie had business to
transact elsewhere, put us under his son's escort and
rode away to the left.
There is evidently somethingbrewing,
but whether peace or war we cannot quite
make out. I tliouofht the retainers seemed more at
their ease when the Sheykh was gone. A little
attempt at sport was made, a bustard hawked and a
fox coursed ; but the Bedouins here seem to care little
about such things, being in
this strangely different
from their relations in the Sahara. The hawk was
a very large one, larger than the peregrine, and well
under command, for having missed his quarry he
came back at once to his master's call. It is very
pretty to see these hawks, perched two together
on the croup of their master's mare, or on his wife's
howda, and keeping their balance with wings
stretched out. The greyhounds while on the march
seemed perpetually at work coursing something or
other, fox, hare, or gazelle, for the long line of
camels acting as
beaters puts up everything before
it for miles. The dogs are small, but show great
breeding, most of them l^eing of the so-called Persian
variety, with long silky ears and tails. The march
was irregularly conducted. A group of horsemen
rode first,
but followed no particular line, going first
in one direction and then in another, either from the
inability we have noticed in the Bedouins to keep a
straight line,
camping-ground.
or possibly looking for pasturage and
Every mile or so they dismounted
to talk and wait for the camels, which came slowly