I one day saw a fine young man, one of our bravest soldiers, present himself before the houdah: “Arkia,” said he, “O thou fairest amongst the fair, allow me a sight of thy face, for I go to fight for thee!” Arkia, unveiling, replied: “Behold, O thou most valiant! Thou knowest my price; it is the head of Abdallah!” The young man brandished his spear, put spurs to his courser, and rushed into the midst of the enemy. In less than two hours he sank covered with wounds. “Heaven preserve you!” said I to Arkia, “this brave man is killed.”--“He is not the only one who has never returned,” she sorrowfully replied. At this moment a warrior made his appearance, armed from head to foot; even his boots were defended with steel, and his horse covered with a coat of mail, (the Wahabees reckoned twenty such warriors amongst them; we had twelve.) He advanced towards our camp, challenging the Drayhy to single combat: this has been the custom amongst the Bedouins from time immemorial; he who is thus defied, cannot without forfeiting his honour refuse to fight. The Drayhy, hearing his name, prepared to answer to the challenge: but his kinsmen joined with us to prevent it. His life was of too much importance to be thus risked; for the loss of it would have entailed the total ruin of our cause, and the destruction of the two allied armies. Persuasion becoming useless, we were obliged to have recourse to coercion. We bound him with cords hand and foot to stakes driven into the ground in the middle of his tent: the most influential chiefs supported him, and entreated him to calm himself, urging the imprudence of risking the welfare of the army for the purpose of answering the insolent bravado of a savage Wahabee. Meanwhile, the latter incessantly exclaimed: “Let the Drayhy come forth! this shall be his last day; I am waiting to terminate his career.” The Drayhy, who heard him, becoming more and more furious, foamed with rage and roared like a lion; his blood-shot eyes almost starting from his head, while he fought with terrible strength to disencumber himself of his bonds. This tumult attracted a considerable multitude around the tent, when suddenly a Bedouin, making his way through the crowd, presented himself before the Drayhy. His sole clothing was a shirt bound round his loins with a leathern girdle, and a turban on his head; he was mounted upon a bay horse, and armed only with a spear; and thus singularly equipped, he came to ask, in the following metrical style, permission to fight the Wahabee instead of the sheik: “This day, I, Tehaisson, have become master of the horse Hadidi: it has long been the object of my ambition; I wished to receive upon his back the praises due to my valour. I am about to fight and to vanquish the Wahabee, for the beautiful eyes of my betrothed, and to render myself worthy of his daughter who was always conqueror.” So saying, he rushed to combat the hostile warrior. No one imagined that he could for one half hour resist his formidable