BEDOUIN ARABS. 139 filled up and useless. We left Delemy's castle in the afternoon, about two or three o'clock, and we went at a pace called by the Arabs el herkay over a plain country infested with rats, and the haunts of sei-pents, our horses continually stumbling over the rat-holes. We were, to the best of my recollection, about four hours going. We found Tomie, an open road, not altogether calculated to form an advantageous commercial establishment. Its situation with respect to the sea being somewhat objectionable. We sat down near one of the wells, arid after Delemy and his guards had amused themselves with {lab el borode) running full gallop and firing, we drank Hollands till we became gay. The sun had just set, when we mounted our horses to return. After an hour's herka, we approached a douar of the Woled Abbusebah Arabs, who, seeing their sheik, came forward and kissed his stirrups, entreating him to pass the night with them, which, it appeared, would have been contrary to the etiquette of Arabian hospitality to refuse. Delemy, therefore, asked us if we would consent to sleep there ; and, apologising for not conducting us to our own beds that night, again intimated, that it was, in a manner, incumbent on him, not to refuse. We, therefore, consented to stop. This noble-spirited Arab, anxious to entertain us, and justly conceiving that the beds and •* A pace similar to that which European cavalry go when charging.

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