Page 100 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

V.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 61

on subsequent occasions, will be to furnish

something towards this desideratum.
After their evening prayers, the young

Sheikh, accompanied by about forty men,
came to the tent, and expressed his intention

of remaining with me as a guard during the
night. To ask the whole party in was impos­

sible, and to invite a few only would have
displeased others, so I took my carpet out­
side amidst them. It was one of those clear

and beautiful nights which are only met with

on or near the Desert: the atmosphere felt
pleasantly cool, and we soon commenced an
animated conversation. They were not

wholly ignorant of our customs: some in­

formation on these points they had gathered
from the men who had been prisoners of war
in India; but their accounts were either so li­

mited or exaggerated, that they served rather
to increase than to allay the feelings of cu­

riosity. The nature and observance of our
religion formed, of course, their first sub­

ject of inquiry, and my opinion as to its com­
parative merits with the Mohammedan was

demanded. It is generally a good maxim to
allow yourself to be apparently beaten on