Page 192 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

X.] TRAVELS IN OMaN. 153

lie was well pleased, we procured a fresh

supply of asses, and set out for Neswah.
Shortly after leaving, we were met by the

Sheikh of that place, with a guard of fifty
men, mounted on camels. Although some­

what more haughty in his manners to those
around him, and more showy than other

chiefs in his dress, while within the town, yet
here, in common with his followers, he had
nothing more than a plain turban on his head,

and a cloth around his waist: the reason he
gave for this, when I inquired of him, was,

that if an individual were to dress himself out
more conspicuously than the rest, he would at

once be selected by the Bedowin marksmen
as the leader, and would most probably be

the first to fall. This was very plausible;
but I am induced to refer the custom of strip­

ping themselves when on the Desert to an­
other cause. Those cooped up in the towns

and oases, which are interspersed throughout
the Desert, lose, in consequence of their fre­

quent journeyings from one to the other, but
little of a Bedowin’s real attachment for a

residence on, or a journey across it, and they
appear beyond measure delighted when any