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

cii. XVII.] We Make Acquaintance with Robbers. 39
another in the Jof. He took us in to drink coffee
with the Sheykh of the viJkxge, a very worthy okl
man, whom we found surrounded by his friends,
and among them a party of the Amur roLbers,
whom ]\Iobammed chaffed considerably about their
profession, asking them why they had not paid us
a visit kist night and saying that the Beg had been
waiting to receive them, and woukl have made them
a present of all his spare bullets. The men laughed
and said tbey wished they had known. As it was,
they had stolen a donkey and a gun from some
passers by. The Amiir are a tribe and not a mere
baud of robbers, nor are they all
at war with society;
but they have no Sheykh, and each man sets up his
tent where he likes and behaves as he likes. They
are sometimes joined by deserters and escaped felons,
but not in any great numbers ; and the villages of
Tudmur, Arak, and Sokhne send their
camels and
sheep to graze with the more respectable of them in
the spring, and eat and drink with them when they
meet. They are, all the same, a very low tribe
indeed, and neglect even the virtue of hospitality to
strangers. If you dismount at their tents, Mohammed
says, they strip and rob you.
Wilfrid was anxious to visit a camp of these
Amur, of which the robbers we had made acquaintance
with, said one was close by, so ]Moliammed,
who seems to be on good terms with
everybody in the country, offered to go with him.
He had a reason, too, of his own for this, as he