Sheik Ibrahim told me that he had no other object in staying among the Bedouins than that of giving me an opportunity of studying more closely their language and their customs; that it was necessary for his own purposes to get to the Drayhy; but that I must avail myself of our roamings amidst the tribes to take exact notes of their names and their numbers, which it was most important to him to know. Their manner of speech is extremely difficult to acquire, even for an Arab, although in fact it is the same language. I applied myself with success. I also learned, in the course of our long wanderings, the names of all the sheiks and the numbers of all the tribes, a thing which had never been accomplished before: I shall give the list at the end of my journal. The numerous tribes are often obliged to divide themselves into detachments from two hundred to five hundred tents, and to occupy a large space, in order to procure water and pasturage for their flocks. We went successively through their encampments, until we could find means to transport ourselves to the Drayhy, who was at war with the tribes of the territory of Damascus. We were universally well received. In one tribe it was a poor widow who showed us hospitality. In order to regale us, she killed her last sheep and borrowed bread. She informed us that her husband and her three sons had been killed in the war against the Wahabees, a formidable tribe in the neighbourhood of Mecca. Expressing our astonishment that she should rob herself on our account:--“He that enters the house of the living,” said she, “and does not eat, it is as though he were visiting the dead.” One tribe already considerable had been lately formed in the following manner:--A Bedouin had a very beautiful daughter, whom the chief of his tribe demanded in marriage; but he would not give her, and in order to avoid his solicitations he went away furtively with all his family. The sheik being told of what had happened, some one said: “Serah (he is gone).” “Serhan[H] (he is a wolf),” replied he; meaning by that, that he was a savage. From that time the tribe of which this Bedouin became chief, has been always called the tribe El Serhan (the wolf.) Whenever the Bedouins are courageous and have good horses, they in a short time become powerful.