THE QARA MOUNTAINS

other's left shoulder, but they are so uncouth that if one
party is sitting he often does not bother to get up - un-
thinkable boorishness judged by any Arabian standard; for
a shaikh or old man the cheek kiss is sometimes followed
by kissing his brow; if shaikhs or persons of quality meet
they will kiss, then withdraw and stand facing one another
for a few seconds in dignified silence, before sitting.

I now rewarded the two Mahris who deserved well at my
hands, and they withdrew with the usual remarks of the
satisfied, 'God whiten your face/ and cGod preserve you/

Sounds of girls' voices came floating up from the spring
in the valley where a party of Qarawiya had gone off with
their water-pitchers. Their song was said to be one of joy,
but the love-fraught lyrics needed a bilingual native to turn
them into Arabic for me, and none was present, so I must
be content to record in our musical notation the curious
wail of its melody. Where else in tribal Arabia would an
honourable woman dare sing in public, if indeed at all? In
puritanical Oman she would be beaten for a hussy, but here
in these mountains and valleys I often heard the distant
chanting of girls, and very pleasing it was to my ears.

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