The hubble-bubble was a sore trial. I was gradually, under the guidance of Saïd, learning to inhale it; but to have constantly to fill my lungs with the strong smoke was by no means a pleasant task to a novice like myself. The inhaling, even through water, of the tobacco used in these pipes is by no means a thing one can easily accustom one’s self to, and for a long time a whiff too many will bring on giddiness. However, so attentive was the Sultan in handing me the amber mouthpiece that I stuck bravely to the task, although by the time I left I felt a sensation of incipient _mal de mer_ in a rocking-chair or the car of a balloon. As much of the smoke seems to go to the brain as does into the lungs. What with the pipe and the _kat_, and the declining of Arabic irregular verbs in a dialect I scarcely knew, I was not sorry when, after an hour or so of conversation and agony, I was allowed to leave. Nevertheless, I had enjoyed my visit to the Sultan Ali, whom I found to be a pleasant-spoken kindly old gentleman, extremely fond of showing off various treasures he possesses, amongst which is a unique sword of Bagdad work, said to be eight hundred years old. Through the blade is bored a hole, which the Sultan explained to me was the mark that it had taken over a hundred lives. From the condition of the steel it might have been made yesterday, and would be quite capable of taking a hundred more. During my visit I had been watched with great interest by two of the Sultan’s children, a little boy and girl, who, contrary to Arab customs, were present all the time. They were pretty dark-skinned little things—the boy nude except for his loin-cloth of striped silk, the girl dressed in a mauve garment embroidered in gold. Leaving to go, the soldiers who had brought me into the Sultan’s presence again escorted me to my _café_, on the way to which we visited the palace stables. There were a great many horses in the ill-paved yards which serve as the royal stabling. Mats and thatch, and in places rough brick roofs, keep off the heat of the sun from the horses, some of which were very fine. One white mare from Nejed was especially lovely, though from the nature and heat of the country she looked terribly out of condition. The pedigrees of the Nejed horses are most carefully kept by their breeders, and all over Arabia they are estimated as the very finest to be procured. The Sultan of Lahej has his own coinage, a small copper piece of minute value, bearing the inscription “Ali Mhasen el Abdali,” and on the reverse “Struck in Howta,” which, by the way, is anything but true, as they are made in Bombay, by contract. Returning through the courtyards of the great mud palace, I left the royal precincts, and, seeking once more the quiet shade of the _café_, spent the heat of the day in sleep, waiting for the cool of the afternoon before sauntering forth to see the sights of the town of Howta. CHAPTER III. LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA.