DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0134
118 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
between skin and bone, which prevents flesh from
insinuating itself between. Their breast-bones
stand out very prominently; the ribs are as dis-
tinctly perceptible as the bars of a gridiron, and
their empty stomachs seem drawn up till they
touch the back-bone; and their weapons, though
ugly enough, are far from being formidable. The
sheik was the only one of our party who carried
pistols, and I do not believe they could have been
discharged without picking the flints once or
twice ; the rest had swords and matchlock guns ;
the latter, of course, not to be fired without first
striking a light, which is not the work of a mo-
ment ; and although these inconvenient implements
do well enough for contests with their brother Be-
douins, the odds are very much against them when
they have to do with a well-armed Frank; two
pairs of good pistols and a double-barrelled gun
would have been a match for all our matchlock
muskets. (Pardon, gentle reader—the pun was un-
intentional.) Besides all this, one naturally feels a
confidence in himself after being some time left to
his own resources—a development of capacities
and energies which he is entirely unconscious of
possessing, until he is placed in a situation to call
them out. A man must have been in the desert
alone, and beyond the reach of help, where his
voice can never reach the ears of his distant
friends, with a strong and overwhelming sense
that every thing depends upon himself, his own
coolness and discretion ; and such is the elasticity
between skin and bone, which prevents flesh from
insinuating itself between. Their breast-bones
stand out very prominently; the ribs are as dis-
tinctly perceptible as the bars of a gridiron, and
their empty stomachs seem drawn up till they
touch the back-bone; and their weapons, though
ugly enough, are far from being formidable. The
sheik was the only one of our party who carried
pistols, and I do not believe they could have been
discharged without picking the flints once or
twice ; the rest had swords and matchlock guns ;
the latter, of course, not to be fired without first
striking a light, which is not the work of a mo-
ment ; and although these inconvenient implements
do well enough for contests with their brother Be-
douins, the odds are very much against them when
they have to do with a well-armed Frank; two
pairs of good pistols and a double-barrelled gun
would have been a match for all our matchlock
muskets. (Pardon, gentle reader—the pun was un-
intentional.) Besides all this, one naturally feels a
confidence in himself after being some time left to
his own resources—a development of capacities
and energies which he is entirely unconscious of
possessing, until he is placed in a situation to call
them out. A man must have been in the desert
alone, and beyond the reach of help, where his
voice can never reach the ears of his distant
friends, with a strong and overwhelming sense
that every thing depends upon himself, his own
coolness and discretion ; and such is the elasticity