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

en. XX.] A Afail of Breeding. 99
Ferhan spent the morning with us talking, and
answering the many questions we bored him with,
most agreeably. It was pleasant, too, to see the
way in which he exerted his authority over his
people in keeping them from boring us. Not that
they did anything which was impolite, but the right
of gazing is one which is liable at all times to abuse
in a Bedouin camp ;
and, when the youths and boys
edged in too closely round our tent, he would send
them about their business with a good-humoured
word or two which they did not venture to disregard.
His manner to them was exactly that of
an elder l^rother keeping order in an unruly household.
We should have liked to stay longer with
Ferhan than this one night, but, now that our di[)lomatic
mission is seriously decided on, we shall have
to visit one or two more of the principal sheykhs,
and so about ten o'clock we struck our tents, intending
to go on to the Gomussa, who were close
by. Ferhan, as we wished him goodbye, seemed
really sorry to part with us, and made us promise,
not unwillingly, that, if ever we come again into
his neighbourhood, w^e will make his tent our home.
I hardly know whether it is their misfortunes and
present poverty which make them so, but these
Moayaja and their sheykh are certainly the nicest
people we have met this side of the Euphrates.
touch of misfortune is doubtless an excellent thing
for us all.
A