DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0142
126 INCIDENTS OF TRA.TEL.
clear, pure air of the morning has given me a new
life. From dragging one leg slowly after the
other, I have fairly jumped into the saddle, and
my noble Arabian, in such cases, always completed
what the fresh air of the morning had begun. In-
deed, I felt then that I could not be too thankful
for those two things, uncommonly fine weather
and an uncommonly fine horse ; and I considered
that it was almost solely those two that sustained
me on that journey. It is part of the historical
account of the Bedouins' horses, that the mares
are never sold. My sheik would have sold his
soul for a price ; and, as soon as he saw that I was
pleased with my mare, he wanted to sell her to
me; and it was singular and amusing, in chaffer-
ing for this animal, to mark how one of the habits
of bargain-making, peculiar to the horse-jockey
with us,existed in full force among the Arabs; he
said that he did not want to sell her ; that at Cairo
he had been offered 250 dollars, a new dress, and
arms complete, and he would not sell her; but if/
wanted her, there being nothing he would not do
for me, &c, I might have her. The sheik's was
an extraordinary animal. The saddle had not
been off her back for thirty days ; and the sheik,
himself a most restless creature, would dash off
suddenly a dozen times a day, on a full run across
the valley, up the sides of a mountain, round and
round our caravan, with his long spear poised in
the air, and his dress streaming in the wind ; and
when he returned and brought her to a walk at my
clear, pure air of the morning has given me a new
life. From dragging one leg slowly after the
other, I have fairly jumped into the saddle, and
my noble Arabian, in such cases, always completed
what the fresh air of the morning had begun. In-
deed, I felt then that I could not be too thankful
for those two things, uncommonly fine weather
and an uncommonly fine horse ; and I considered
that it was almost solely those two that sustained
me on that journey. It is part of the historical
account of the Bedouins' horses, that the mares
are never sold. My sheik would have sold his
soul for a price ; and, as soon as he saw that I was
pleased with my mare, he wanted to sell her to
me; and it was singular and amusing, in chaffer-
ing for this animal, to mark how one of the habits
of bargain-making, peculiar to the horse-jockey
with us,existed in full force among the Arabs; he
said that he did not want to sell her ; that at Cairo
he had been offered 250 dollars, a new dress, and
arms complete, and he would not sell her; but if/
wanted her, there being nothing he would not do
for me, &c, I might have her. The sheik's was
an extraordinary animal. The saddle had not
been off her back for thirty days ; and the sheik,
himself a most restless creature, would dash off
suddenly a dozen times a day, on a full run across
the valley, up the sides of a mountain, round and
round our caravan, with his long spear poised in
the air, and his dress streaming in the wind ; and
when he returned and brought her to a walk at my