ABSTRACT
It was, as may be imagined, a delightful surprise to us to find thus, at the very threshold of the East, so excellent an expounder of the Asian mystery; and, when the north wind blew day after day more furiously, and the rain changed to snow, and reports reached us of caravans brought to a standstill in the mud or snowed up in the mountains, we were easily persuaded to stay on, listening to the " tales of our landlord," and always with increasing interest. These turned, as I have said, principally on Bedouin life and manners, things at which we had hitherto looked with the half contemptuous ignorance with which the European world regards them, but which we now found set before us under a new and fascinating light.
