I shook it off and killed it; but it did
not sting me, being, I suppose, unable to manage a third time. I rubbed
some strong smelling salts into Richard's wounds, and I found some
_raki_, which I made him drink, to keep the poison away from his heart.
He then slept, and in the morning was well.
While we were gypsying about in this way we received an invitation to a
Druze wedding at Arneh, near Mount Hermon. Richard went to it one way
and I another. Whenever we separated, the object was to get information
of both routes to our meeting-place, and thus save time and learn more.
On meeting, we used to join our notes together.
The wedding was a very pretty one. The bridegroom was a boy of fifteen;
and the bride, a Shaykh's daughter, was about the same age. There was
a great deal of singing and dancing, and they were all dressed in their
best costumes and jewellery. I was invited to the harim of the bride's
house, where we had a merry time of it. Whilst we were enjoying our fun
the girls blew out all our lights, and we were left in the darkness. The
bride ran and threw her arms round me, for protection perhaps, and then
commenced such a romping and screaming and pinching and pulling that I
hardly knew where I was. It was evidently considered a great frolic.
After a few minutes they lit the candles again. At last the bride, robed
in an izar and veiled, mounted a horse astraddle, and went round to pay
her last visit to her neighbours as a maiden.
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