DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4669#0146
A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT 119
contact with a mass of hot fellow creatures. It is
true that all who are inmates of the same tent are
related to each other, but I am not quite sure that
that circumstance adds much to the charm of such
a life."
Upon our arrival at the encampment we found
that it consisted of several low, widespread, dark-
coloured tents, pegged down with ropes at the
ends and back, the front alone being open. In the
first tent were goats, sheep, fowls, kids, lambs, and
two or three dogs ; in another were the wives of the
Sheik ; and in a portion of the same, divided off by
a curtain of the same material as that of which the
tent was made, the Sheik received his visitors. Kids,
lambs, poultry, and children, of different ages and
sizes seemed to be everywhere. The Sheik, a
dignified, grey-bearded man came forward and
welcomed us. He was dressed in a brown and
drab-striped kaftan, over a robe that once was white,
and a turban. He led us to the tent, and said his
wives should make us some coffee. We were then
received by the youngest of them, who shook hands
with us, and seated us upon a handsome thick carpet.
Some very fine dates were then handed to us. We
found that the Sheik had three wives ; and one was
old and ill, lying behind the curtain ; the second was
a middle-aged black, from the Soudan, and was
engaged in making up a little fire to boil the coffee
in a most picturesquely-shaped coffee-pot; the third,
who received us, was evidently the favourite. She
was young and handsome, and wore earrings, nose-
ring, necklace, bracelets, and finger-rings, all of silver.
She had large lustrous eyes, beautiful as a gazelle's,
which were outlined with kohl, exactly like those ol
contact with a mass of hot fellow creatures. It is
true that all who are inmates of the same tent are
related to each other, but I am not quite sure that
that circumstance adds much to the charm of such
a life."
Upon our arrival at the encampment we found
that it consisted of several low, widespread, dark-
coloured tents, pegged down with ropes at the
ends and back, the front alone being open. In the
first tent were goats, sheep, fowls, kids, lambs, and
two or three dogs ; in another were the wives of the
Sheik ; and in a portion of the same, divided off by
a curtain of the same material as that of which the
tent was made, the Sheik received his visitors. Kids,
lambs, poultry, and children, of different ages and
sizes seemed to be everywhere. The Sheik, a
dignified, grey-bearded man came forward and
welcomed us. He was dressed in a brown and
drab-striped kaftan, over a robe that once was white,
and a turban. He led us to the tent, and said his
wives should make us some coffee. We were then
received by the youngest of them, who shook hands
with us, and seated us upon a handsome thick carpet.
Some very fine dates were then handed to us. We
found that the Sheik had three wives ; and one was
old and ill, lying behind the curtain ; the second was
a middle-aged black, from the Soudan, and was
engaged in making up a little fire to boil the coffee
in a most picturesquely-shaped coffee-pot; the third,
who received us, was evidently the favourite. She
was young and handsome, and wore earrings, nose-
ring, necklace, bracelets, and finger-rings, all of silver.
She had large lustrous eyes, beautiful as a gazelle's,
which were outlined with kohl, exactly like those ol