160 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

believe, be the revenge of these races on their oppressors ! The reverence the natives and Arabs of this land have for their old sheiks is much greater than that they feel for the Pascha himself. If one of them passes through the camp, not one of the Arabs will continue seated, but will rise and remain respectfully standing,—a thing that never occurs when the Pascha makes his tour of the camp.

This high respect is either founded on the antiquity of the sheik's families, and has been carried down from member to member, or, perhaps, is somehow connected witli their religion ; for among these free tribes, that everywhere find a home, and of which one may indeed say, every individual is independent, the sheik has, as far as I know, no compulsory powers in his hands, or means to maintain his tribe's obedience. The Schaigies every morning wait on the old Sheik Melek Saat, and kiss his hand. They never steal or make a prize of anything, without preserving the best of it for him, and in all ways provide for and attend to him, as if he was still in possession of his old rank and dignities, and could still reward or punish them. Such attachment and reverence is all the more to be admired among this people, as they are too much used to regulate the degree of obedience they yield, by what they hope to make by it, nay, more, among them a certain degree of equality ever prevails, and all look upon themselves as of the same rank and equal in dignity and value.

The right of primogeniture holds full force among them ; the younger brothers attend like servants on the elder, never venturing to seat themselves in his presence, unless requested or ordered to do so. The eldest, too, in general, eats alone. My brother was highly admired by them, because, when we paid visits he (for the sake of jest) yielded me the first place, and for this very reason they styled me Sheik. No son will so far commit himself as to take place on the angareb where his father sits ; he humbly seats himself on the ground, some distance off, and only speaks when he is spoken to. I have often seen the relatives of a great sheik, though perhaps older than himself, rise at his entrance from their angarebs, and seat themselves on the ground. On solemn occasions, Nasra, the royally descended wife of the Sheik Mahomed Wood Defalla in Soriba, sits on a kind of divan, while the latter, who is only the son of the former Grand Vizier,