94 JOURNEY FROM acquainted ; for it had hitherto, on the journey, been turned inside out, or more properly speaking, with the outer side in, to prevent it from being soiled, and from fading in the sun. His saddle-cloth also, which had hitherto consisted of a dirty piece of white flannel, was now of bright scarlet cloth ; and, besides the embroidered covers to liis silver-embossed pistols, he had carefully suspended from different parts of his body a great variety of little bags, of different colours and sizes: these were the repositories of his powder and ball, and carried tinder, flints and steel, money, nails, and tobacco, with sundry other little matters too numerous to mention. By his side also hung a neat little smaat, or goat skin, with the long black hairs left to ornament and protect the outside ; and which, properly speaking, was meant to hold water, but which likewise served indifferently for holding milk, oil, or butter, or any other substance which it might be necessary to carry in it. We should state that, under all this variety of ornament, Shekh Mahommed elDhbbah sat with dignity upon his mare, a recently -acquired present from the Bashaw, whose spirit had been prudently roused on this occasion by the stimulus of an extra feed of corn. The display of Arab horsemanship which concluded the procession, received additional eclat from this precaution ; and the Hhbbah’s mare, after manoeuvring her head to admiration, first on one side and then on the other, and prancing, and pacing, and rearing, to the delight of the assembled spectators, no sooner felt the angle of the spur assail her sides, than she sprang forward with a bound in advance of the party, and being suddenly pulled up with a powerful bit, was thrown back upon her haunches within a foot of