58 THE EMPTY QUARTEK

bustards as a gift. Very splendid too he looked in a robe of
deep red, which set off so well the swarthy countenance and
aquiline nose inherited from a father, whose birth of a slave
girl had sent him through life with the nickname of Al 'Abd—
1 the slave.' Young Rashid was perhaps about seventeen,
though he bore himself like a grown man, speaking with the
easy assurance that comes of the best desert breeding. It
would be long perhaps before he succeeded to the leadership
of his group, for his father still lived in hopes of stepping some
day into the shoes of the grandfather, Rashid ibn Mani', by
common repute the most considerable individual of all the
Manasir. I insisted on young Rashid riding with us to Anbak,
where he spent the night in our camp, and it was interesting
to see the deference paid to him by Salih and Humaid, both
considerably his seniors in years but rendering the tribute of
men to the quality of birth, which ranks so high in the
Semitic mind. I wished that Rashid might have been of our
party, but he declined my invitation with a grave smile and
took his leave of us, delighted with the few pieces of silver
with which I sought to make some return for his courtesy.

From the wells we struck south-east across the valley
towards the high ground of its southern bank which went up
before us in a series of broad shelves to a narrow pebble-
strewn plateau separating the Abu Arzila depression from
the striking estuary of Anbak. On the way we saw coming
towards us from the left two men, one walking and the other
riding. The latter proved to be Farraj who, leaving his com-
panion to fend for himself, trotted up to us to report the
successful accomplishment of the mission entrusted to him by
Zayid the previous day. He had found the man he sought,
who now came toiling through the shrub-covered sand—a
ragged nomad, it seemed, though of fine athletic stature. It
was Humaid ibn Amhaj, a minor shaikh of the Al bu Rahma,
whose arrival completed the party which was to accompany
me on my wanderings. Two teeth protruded horizontally
and rather aggressively from the front of his mouth as the
result of an old encounter with an enemy bullet. Otherwise
his face was attractive enough, long, hollow-cheeked and
intellectual. He had the reputation of being something of a