A Pilgrimage To Nejd Book

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Section 3CHAPTER XIII. " Babel was Nimrod's hunting box, and then A town of gardens, walls, and wealth amazing, Where Nabuchodonosor, king of men, Reigned till one summer's day he took to grazing.*' Bncnr. " Oh how wretched Is that poor man that lives on princes' favours." Bhajcmpbiu. Mohammed loses his head—A ride with the Emir—The mountain fortress of Agde—Farewell to Hail—We join the Persian Haj— Ways and manners of the pilgrims—A clergyman of Medina. I Have hinted at a mystification in which we found ourselves involved a few days after our arrival at Hail, and which at the time caused us no little anxiety. It had its origin in a piece of childishness on Mohammed's part, whose head was completely turned by the handsome reception given him as an Ihn Aruk by the Emir, and a little too, I fear, by our own spoiling. To the present day I am not quite sure that we heard all that happened, and so forbear entering upon the matter in detail; but as far as we could learn, Mohammed's vanity seems to have led him to aggrandise his own position in the eyes of Ibn Rashid's court, by representing us as persons whom he had taken under his protection, and who were inCh. Tiii.] textit{A mystification. 19 some way dependent on him; boasting that the camels, horses, and other property were his own, and our servants his people. This under ordinary circumstances might have been a matter of small consequence, and we should not have grudged him a little self-glorification at our expense, conscious as we were of having owed the success of our journey hitherto, mainly to his fidelity. But unfortunately the secondary textit{r6le which he would thus have assigned to us, made our relations with the Emir not only embarrassing, but positively dangerous. Our reception at first had been cordial to a degree that made it a...