qualification if applied to Cullen himself; but it served wonderfully to encourage Djowhar, and thus predispose him for a

cure.

After ceremonies and coffee, I took my dusky patient into the consulting room, where by dint of questioning and surmise, for negroes in general are much less clear and less to the point. than Arabs in their statements, I obtained the requisite elucidation of his case. The malady, though painful, was fortunately one admitting of simple and efficacious treatment, so that I was able on the spot to promise him a sensible amendment of condition within a fortnight, and that in three weeks time he should be in plight to undertake his journey to Bahreyn. I added that with so distinguished a personage I could not think of exacting a bargain and fixing the amount of fees; the requital of my care should be left to his generosity. He then took leave, and was reconducted to his rooms in the palace by his fellow-blacks of less degree.

The ice was now broken; and the confidence displayed by our first patient towards his physician, joined with his high rank and important office, produced the best effect at court and in the town. It was for me a singular piece of good fortune that my first customer was a negro. The black race, much inferior to the Arab in intellectual power and in steadiness of will, are at the same time free from the sceptic distrustfulness and deep jealousy so common among their white fellow-citizens. Envy is indeed the plague-spot of Arabs, and whoever lives long among them will understand by his own experience whence the frequent mention and unavailing condemnation of that unlovely passion in the literature of the land. But nowhere have I found envy so venomous and so universal as in the 'Aareḍ.

The next individual worthy of note whom we took in hand was of a very different stamp from Djowhar; less pliable, less grateful, but in some respects even more to the purpose of our sojourn in Riad. This was 'Abd-el-Kereem, son of Ibraheem, nearly allied by marriage with the great Wahhabbee family, and claiming descent from the oldest nobility of 'Aared. Himself a bitter Wahhabee, and a model of all the orthodox vices of his sect, he had figured conspicuously in the first band of Zelators at the epoch of their foundation in 1855, and the cruel

death of Soweylim, the late minister, was by popular rumour ascribed to this man's personal jealousy and private aims, thinly disguised under the mask of religious zeal. Other acts of the same description were attributed to him, and he had during a brief exercise of power become so universally unpopular, that his fellow-Zelators had been compelled to avail themselves of the pretext of his weak health to remove him from office. Honoured by those who considered him a victim of his own virtues, hated by ordinary mortals, he now led a retired life in the third quarter of the town, whence a chronic bronchitis, no uncommon ailment in this climate, brought him to our door.

He presented himself with an air of cheerful modesty, and before stating his case entered, by way of introduction, into a discourse which proved him a master of Islamitic lore. Under our roof he affected a special tenderness for the Damascene school of doctrine, took care to remind us that the son of 'Abdel-Wahhab had learned the true faith in the capital of Syria, and insinuated that we ourselves were doubtless of equal orthodoxy and learning. It was a pleasure to converse with him on topics in which he was thoroughly at home, and a few encomiums soon led him to instruct us on many points of Wahhabee doctrine and manners. At last, from abstract, he descended to practical regions, and begged me to examine his chest. I prescribed what seemed requisite, and he took his leave, but not till after exacting a promise of our honouring his house with our presence at an early dinner next day. All this familiarity pleased yet alarmed Aboo-'Eysa. Pleased, because admittance to the domestic circle of so high a character in the orthodox world was, in common phrase, a feather in our cap, and a ticket of respectability elsewhere; and alarmed when he considered the treacherous and evil heart of our future host. Indeed, this latter feeling so far predominated, that he advised us not to stand to our engagement; but I did not think fit to comply with this over-cautious admonition.

Next day, a little before noon, 'Abd-el-Kereem, in a long white robe, modest guise, and staff in hand, came to our abode in person, and claimed the fulfilment of our promise. We rose and accompanied him across the market-place and behind the palace, through neat streets where decorum and gravity were manifestly the order of the day, till we reached his dwelling.

It was a large one; he ushered us into the courtyard, and thence up a long flight of steps to the second storey, where we entered a handsome and well-lighted divan. Above its door was inscribed, in the large half-Cufic characters usual throughout Nejed, the following distich of the celebrated poet 'Omar-ebnel-Farid :

Welcome to him of whose approach I am all unworthy,

Welcome to the voice announcing joy after lonely melancholy:

Good tidings thine; off with the robes of sadness; for know

Thou art accepted, and I myself will take on me whatever grieves thee.

Words bearing an ascetic, almost a Christian import, where they stand in the exquisite piece whence they are extracted, but here designed to express the feelings of hospitality and of ready friendship. Like all Nejdean inscriptions, they were simply painted, not carved. Within the room sat Ibraheem, the aged father of our friend and master of the house, and with him another of his sons; several books treating of law and divinity, sections of the Coran, and inkstands, with good supply of writing paper; some of these objects strewed on the divan, others inserted in the little triangular niches which represent bookcases in Arabia, announced a haunt of learning and study.

Capital towns suppose more polished manners and greater elegance of life than elsewhere, nor does Wahhabee severity prevent Riad from following the general rule. A very courteous greeting and honourable reception was made us by Ibraheem and his family, and one of the children brought in without delay a select dish of excellent dates, as a gage of goodwill and esteem. When in due time the dinner made its appearance, after many excuses for its simplicity-"You Damascenes would treat us better were we your guests, but Nejed is poor, the means want us, not the will," and the like--it included, among other delicacies, a dish which I was equally surprised and pleased to see, because it was a clear indication of our approach to the eastern coast. But were my readers, even though of East Norfolk, to guess for an hour together what was this well-omened platter, they would hardly, I think, hit on dried shrimps, the article now before us. My Syrian companion, who had never seen these crustaceæ before, did not know what to make of them; for

me, I welcomed old friends, though under disadvantageous circumstances-less fresh and less correctly prepared than they might have been on the bonny banks of Yare. On inquiry, I was informed that these delicacies formed a regular item of importation from Ḥaşa, and that the fishery itself belonged to Bahreyn. But of the copious marine produce of that island nothing else arrives thus far; possibly from want of skill in salting and curing.

After dinner we washed our hands with potash or kalee (whence our own "alkali"), the ordinary cleanser of Nejed, and then took place the ceremony of fumigation. Not that we here underwent it for the first time, since even in Djebel Shomer it is sometimes practised, and in Sedeyr is of daily occurrence; but I forgot to describe it before, and this may be a suitable occasion. Indeed, here, in orthodox 'Aared, perfuming has scarcely less of a religious than of a genteel character, the Prophet having declared himself in express terms almost as much a lover of sweet odours as of women, wherein he left an example to be imitated by zealous followers. Accordingly after meals, or even at the conclusion of a simple coffee-drinking visit, appears a small square box, with the upper part of its sides pierced filigree-wise, while its base offers a sort of stalk or handle, long enough to lay hold of without danger of burning one's fingers; the apparatus is of baked clay, and looks much like an overgrown four-petaled flower. Above, it is filled with charcoal or live embers of Ithel, and on these are laid three or four small bits of sweet-scented wood, identical with that which in the last chapter bribed the ministry on our behalf; or, in place of wood, fragments of benzoin incense, till the rich clammy smoke goes up as from a censer. Everyone now takes in turn the burning vase, passes it under his beard (which, I should say, is generally but a scraggy one in Nejed), next lifts up one after another the corners of his head-gear or kerchief, to catch therein an abiding perfume, though at the risk of burning his ears if he be a new hand at the business, like myself; and lastly, though not always, opens the breast of his shirt too, to give his inner man a whiff of sweet-smelling remembrance. For the odour is extremely tenacious, and may be perceived for hours after. Twice or thrice only did I see incense of the kind commonly employed in Europe brought

in on these occasions; it had been imported, said the Nejdean, from Hadramaut. But to return to our host.

His father, old Ibraheem, could remember the Egyptian invasion and the siege of Derey'eeyah. He told us many tales regarding those events, of which he had been an eyewitness; I shall insert some of them in my chronicle of the Ebn-Sa'ood dynasty a few pages farther on. The name of Aboo-Nokta, mentioned by the companion of Lascaris in his highly magnified description of the Wahhabee northern invasion, was not unknown to our narrator, but he assigned much greater military prominence to another negro hero, entitled Ḥarith: we shall hear more of this warrior hereafter. When the old man was on these topics, he kindled up, and looked as though he could swallow all the infidels on earth alive, nor do I suppose that he was in reality scant of courage; cowardice is no fault of Nejdeans.

'Abd-el-Kereem continued to pay us almost daily visits, and we occasionally to return them, till his ailment was sufficiently relieved, and he had no further need of us. He was not, I think, “clear," to borrow a Quaker phrase, touching our religious opinions, and in his attempts to draw us out, laid himself very open on many points, to my especial satisfaction.

During an intimate conversation, I enquired of him one day, what, according to the Wahhabee code, were the great sins, or "Kebey'ir-ed-denoob," in Arab terms, and what the little ones, or "Şeghey'ir." My readers may perhaps know that Mahometans divide sins into classes-the "great," to be punished in the next world, or at least deserving it; and the "little" sins, whose forgiveness is more easily obtained, and whose penalty is remissible in this life. Somewhat analogous to the division widely received among Christians between mortal and venial transgressions. To hold them all of equal gravity never occurred to a Mahometan, nor in consequence to a Nejdean.

The fact of a real and important distinction is admitted. But here comes a main difficulty, namely, which is which? Everyone knows the infinite variety of opinion existing on this subject among Christian doctors or casuists. Nor are Mahometan divines less at variance. Some hold infidelity, polytheism, or non-Mahometanism, to be the only