We dismounted, embraced, and exchanged a few words. The Bedouins then continued their rapid course over the Desert. We passed other riders on delouls and mares, hastening to join the main body, or to meet their friends at the rendezvous for the night near Abou Psera. The attack on the tents was to be made at dawn on the following morning, the true Bedouin never taking an unfair advantage of his enemy in the dark. On the 16th of April, Mohammed Emin and his sons returned from their expedition, driving before them their spoil of cows, oxen, and mares. The Agaydat were taken by surprise, and made but a feeble defence; there was, consequently, little bloodshed, as is usually the case when Arabs go on these forays. The fine horse of the Jays chief had received a bad gunshot wound, and this was the only casualty amongst my friends. Mohammed Emin brought me one or two of the captured mares as an offering. They were, of course, returned, but they involved the present of silk dresses to the Sheikh and his sons. _April 18th._ To-day we visited the tents of Moghamis and his tribe; they were pitched about five miles from the river. The face of the desert was as burnished gold. Its last change was to flowers of the brightest yellow hue, and the whole plain was dressed with them. Suttum rioted in the luxuriant herbage and scented air. I never saw him so exhilarated. "What Kef (delight)," he continually exclaimed, as his mare waded through the flowers, "has God given us equal to this? It is the only thing worth living for. Ya Bej! what do the dwellers in cities know of true happiness, they have never seen grass or flowers? May God have pity on them!" Moghamis clad himself in a coat of chain mail, of ordinary materials and rude workmanship, but still strong enough to resist the coarse iron spear-heads of the Arab lance, though certainly no protection against a well-tempered blade. The Arabs wear their armour beneath the shirt, because an enemy would otherwise strike at the mare and not at her rider.[129] After we had enjoyed all the luxuries of an Arab feast, visited the women's compartments, where most of the ladies of the tribe had assembled to greet us, examined the "chetab," or camel saddle, used by the wives of the chiefs, and enquired into various details of the harem, we returned as we came, through the flowers and long grass to our tents at Arban. CHAPTER XIV. LEAVE ARBAN.--THE BANKS OF THE KHABOUR.--ARTIFICIAL MOUNDS.--MIJWELL.--THE CADI OF THE BEDOUINS.--THE THAR, OR BLOOD REVENGE.--CAUTION OF ARABS.--A NATURAL CAVERN.--AN EXTINCT VOLCANO.--THE CONFLUENTS OF THE KHABOUR.--BEDOUIN MARKS.--SULEIMAN AGHA.--ENCAMPMENT AT UM-JERJEH.--THE TURKISH IRREGULAR CAVALRY.--MOUND OF MIJDEL.--RUINS OF THE KHABOUR.--MOHAMMED EMIN LEAVES US.--VISIT TO KURDISH TENTS AND HAREM.--THE MILLI KURDS.--THE FAMILY OF RISHWAN.--ARAB LOVE-MAKING.--THE DAKHEEL.--BEDOUIN POETS AND POETRY.--TURKISH CAVALRY HORSES.