me who I was? — "Tell me first, said I, who that is you have before?" — "It is an Arab, our enemy, says he, guilty of our blood." — "He is, replied I, my servant. He is a Howadat Arab, his tribe lives in peace at the gates of Cairo, in the same manner your's at Shekh Ammer does at those of Assouan." "I ask you, Where is Ibrahim your Shekh's son?" — "Ibrahim, says he, is at our head, he commands us here. But who are you?" — "Come with me, and shew me Ibrahim, said I, and I will shew you who I am."
I passed by these, and by another party of them. They had thrown a hair rope about the neck of Abdel Gin, who was almost strangled already, and cried out most miserably, for me not to leave him. I went directly to the black tent which I saw had a long spear thrust up in the end of it, and met at the door Ibrahim and his brother, and seven or eight Ababdé. He did not recollect me, but I dismounted close to the tent-door, and had scarce taken hold of the pillar of the tent, and said Fiarduc *[1], when Ibrahim, and his brother both knew me. "What! said they, are you Yagoube our physician, and our friend?" — "Let me ask you, replied I, if you are the Ababdé of Shekh Ammer, that cursed yourselves, and your children, if you ever lifted a hand against me, or mine, in the desert, or in the plowed field: If you have repented of that oath, or sworn falsely on purpose to deceive me, here I am come to you in the desert." "What is the matter, says Ibrahim, we are the Ababdé of Shekh Ammer, there are no other, and we still say, Cursed be he, whe-
- ↑ * That is, I am under your protection.
