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

I04 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [ch. xx,
Beteyen has paid fourteen camels for his share in
the mare, which, at the rate of £5 a camel, gives
£70, besides £20 in money, making a total of £90 ;
but this sum represents in reality two-thirds of the
whole value, because the " holder of the bridle," as
the partner is
called who keeps and rides the mare,
has the right, if he wishes, of buying up the remaining
interest in her for half the sum he has
already paid.
having cost
The mare, then, may be reckoned as
Beteyen no more than £135, and the
sheykli has every reason to be pleased with his
bargain.
Beteyen ibn Mershid himself is less interesting.
He is a worthy elderly man, well bred as an Ibn
Mershid can hardly help being, but not in any way
distinguished. His face is weak and colourless and
answers well to the reputation he bears among the
tribes, that of a man quite unfit to command the
Sebaa in troubled times like the present. We can
easily understand that, with such a sheykh at
their
head, the Gomussa have been willing to accept
Jed dan as their real leader, parvenu as he is. It
is the misfortune of the Sebaa that just now they
are without a capable head, the older sheykhs with
the exception of Beteyen being dead, and the young
generation not having yet had time to distinguish
itself and gain the influence necessary to command
the tribe in war. The office of Akid, or
military leader, is an elective one and dependent
wdiolly upon personal merit and influence.
Ferhan