Ben Nazir smiled like a prince out of a picture-book--beautiful
white teeth and exquisite benignance.

"Oh, you mustn't mind him. These celebrities from the centre of
Arabia give themselves great airs. To do that is considered
evidence of piety and wisdom."

I sat on the bed--quite a civilized affair, spotlessly clean.
Ben Nazir took the chair, I suppose, like the considerate host he
was, to give me the sensation of receiving in my own room.

"He wears the same sort of head-dress you do. What does it
mean?" I asked.

"I wear mine out of compliment to him--not that I have not
always the right to wear it. It is the Ichwan head-dress.
It is highly significant."

"Of what?"

He hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to make up his mind
that it did not much matter what he might divulge to an ignorant
stranger soon to return to the United States.

"It is difficult to explain. You Americans know so little of our
politics. It is significant, I might say, of the New Arabia--
Arabia for the Arabs. The great ben Saoud, who is a relative of
this man, is an Arabian chieftain who has welded most of Arabia
into one, and now challenges King Hussein of Mecca for the
caliphate. Hussein is only kept on his throne by British gold,