“You misinterpret his Excellency’s words,” cried Sheykh Eissa. “Your vanity lies so close to the skin that——”
“Why should you make it bleed, then?” I broke in. “A truce to your quarrelling. Show me the way to our camp. My eyes are heavy with sleep. It is as much as I can do to keep them open. Come, Seyyid ’Alí, unknit your sullen brow. I have missed you grievously. Let that assurance suffice to heal your wounds.”
As I spoke a bugle sounded the hour of midnight. Seyyid ’Alí, still somewhat glum, started off at once, carrying a thick Bedouin club. After him came the servant, bearing a lighted fánús in his hand, while Sheykh Eissa and myself followed close at his heels, leaving the moghavem in the rear to look after our mules.
Our way lay to the east of the central broadway. Before entering our own quarters, in the north-eastern corner of the plain, where all the dignitaries of the Hájj had pitched their tents, the Sheykh pointed out to me the high-pinnacled pavilions of the Sheríf of Mecca, of the Amin-us-Surreh, of the Pashavat of Turkey, of the Persian Consul-General, of the High Priest of Teheran, of the military commanders of Hejaz, and of the Amir-ul-Hájj-ul-Shami and the Amir-ul-Hájj-ul-Mesri.
WATER-CARRIERS OF MECCA.
THE PASHA OF HEJAZ AND THE AMINUS-SURREH.
“His Holiness the Sheríf,” said he, “has more tents than one could count at one’s ease. Do you see that high pavilion where the green flag is flying? That is the audience-chamber of his Holiness. Some of the tents serve as dining-rooms, some as withdrawing-rooms, some as bath-rooms. Others, again, as sentinel houses, as stables, as cooking-houses, as servants’ apartments, and so forth.”
Well, the tents of all the grandees, including those of my Persian hosts, were surrounded by tejirs or canvas walls measuring about seven feet in height. The extent of the confined space varied of course with the number of one’s retinue; our enclosure being comparatively small covered a stretch of ground about fifty paces square. A sentinel was on guard at the entrance, above which hung a Persian lantern, and directly in front of us as we passed through was a semi-circular partition of canvas which concealed from sight the series of tents beyond.