if you mix whiskey and wine together they cease to be either;
they become a commodity of which the Prophet knew nothing and
which he therefore did not forbid. But if you introduce such a
mixture into the stomach, and thence into the brain of an already
fiery Bedouin; and then introduce the Bedouin to trouble; and
if, in addition to the trouble, you provide impertinent, alien,
and what he calls infidel restraint, it is fair to presume that
the mixture might explode.

It seemed to me I had been given too much to do. In order to get
introductions to the notables I must first get ben Nazir into a
proper frame of mind. Then, stammering in an alien tongue, I
must make friends with chieftains who had never even heard of me;
and that, when their minds were busy with another matter. I must
keep in touch with ben Hamza, and convey his messages to Grim
without being seen or arousing suspicion. In addition to all
that I must keep sober by some means an old savage armed with
two rifles and a knife, who had twenty cut-throats at his beck
and call!

While I pondered the problem in all its impossible bearings, loud
snores to right and left of me, tenor and bass by turns,
announced that Jimgrim and Anazeh were as blissfully oblivious to
my worries as the bedbugs were that had come out of hiding and
discovered me. I began to feel homesick.