our bodies on the desert, a prey to vultures and hyenas. Such a spirit had to be stamped out on the instant. The suggestion roused Dr. Post, gentle as he is, and he turned fiercely upon the dragoman: "Yohanna, what do you mean by talking to the men in this way, or listening to them? The trouble is not with them: it is with you — with your miserable cowardice! Go about your business, and look after the tents and the baggage, and leave the men to me. I know the Arabs, and I will take care of them." Yohanna slunk off to the rear of the train, but for several days he was in mortal fear lest we should be left like a shipwrecked crew in the middle of the ocean.
Having silenced the dragoman, the Doctor turned to the sheikh, and to dispose him to favor these long marches, addressed him in quite another fashion, enlarging on the number of his camels, which made him a man of great consideration on the desert. He then drew upon his imagination for a picture of myself, using well-flavored Oriental language. He described me as a personage of great distinction, a sort of prince in disguise (very much in disguise), who was abroad in quest of knowledge, and who it was very desirable should carry away high impressions of his country, and who (this was thrown in incidentally), whatever his affluence or generosity, might, if disappointed or delayed in his progress, be less princely in his gifts than he would otherwise be! At the suggestion of backsheesh, the old sheikh grew attentive and almost devout, and at length answered with great solemnity, as if he had screwed up his mind to the highest pitch of resolution, and only needed Divine assistance, "We have leaned upon God"!
This sheikh was quite a character. His mixture of pious phrases with craft and cunning, his fervent appeals to Heaven while keeping an eye on the main chance, made him a good representative of his race. But for an
