he suggests that the Bedawin should leave, during our journey,
hostages at the fort: this is wholly unnecessary, and means only
piastres. The Yuzbashi, or "military commandant," Sid-Ahmed
Effendi, has charge of the forty-five regulars, half a company,
who garrison the post and outpost. The chief merchant, who
afterwards volunteered to be our travelling companion, is
Mohammed Shahadah, formerly Wakil ("agent") of the fort, a charge
now abolished by a pound-foolish policy: he is an honest and
intelligent, a charitable and companionable man, who has
travelled far and wide over the interior, and who knows the
tribes by heart. I strongly recommended him to his Highness the
Viceroy. His brothers, Bedawi and Ali Shahadah, are also
open-handed to the poor; very unlike their brother-in-law Surur
Selamah, formerly a slave to the father of Mohammed Selamah whom
we had met at Ziba. The list of notables ends with the Sayyid
Ibrahim El-Mara'i and with the sturdy Abd el-Hakk, pearl and
general merchant. All recognized our friend the Sayyid, whom even
the "gutter-boys" saluted by name; and, although the Arab manner
is blunt and independent, all showed perfect civility. It is
needless to say that our late work, and our future plans, were
known to everybody at El-Wijh as well as to ourselves; and that
the tariffs of pay and hire, established in the North Country, at
once became the norm of the South.

Our favourite walk at old "Egra" was to the quarantine-ground and
the lighthouse. The situation of the town is by no means
satisfactory, and the heavy dews of April, wetting the streets,
cause frequent fevers. En revanche, nothing can be more healthy
or exhilarating than the air of the tall plateau to the south of
the cove. The quarantine-ground, with its grand view of the