Nejf
for he was a man of affairs and a practical man, " I should
like to come and sit in a library in Nejf, and wear a black
abba and white turban, and study Religion.
" To-morrow," he said, one day " I will take you to see
our religious Head, Shaikh Muhammad 'Abdul-Husain
al-Ghata', whose fathers before him for five generations
have been our leaders in this town/'
He took me accordingly—after some little consultation
as to the least conspicuous hour, for the visit of a woman
smacks somewhat of frivolity. Shaikh Hadi, who copies
books which Nejf still passes from hand to hand in manu-
script, came first to look at me, and having sent in a
favourable report, took us through winding alleys to an
unobtrusive house where, like the early Moslems in un-
pretentious simplicity, the Shaikh lives among his people.
We climbed through a plain narrow door up a high
narrow stair, to a barely furnished room on die roof—two
cotton mattresses and a rug on the floor, and an old servant
offering cigarettes: and presendy saw the Shaikh himself
appear, preceded through the narrow door by an immense
white turban, under which his lean face and bright henna
beard looked like a Persian immature, extremely dignified,
He is an old man, but with a moudi so mobile, impish, and
intelligent, so quick a twinkle in his eye, diat age can have
litde hold upon his spirit, He gave me the tips of his
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