spears frantically into the air. The result was the wildest confusion. The air resounded with the fusillade, and the ground was a whirlwind of careering horses and yelling cavaliers and spurting sand. Some of the horsemen were bareheaded, and their plaited hair streamed in the wind as they dashed along; others wore flowing garments of orange and red and golden brown. The chief was clad in a broad-striped robe.

In the midst of the scene I saw the form of the British Minister shot clean over the head of his steed and deposited with no small violence upon the ground. Nothing daunted, he courageously resumed his seat and, amid a hail of bullets, continued the uneven tenor of his way.

As we approached the town, we passed through the entire population (the bazaars having been closed for the day), who were ranged in two rows on either side of our route. The prevailing colour of their men's dress was dark brown, but all wore the white Arab keffieh with the twisted camel hair band round the head. Behind them stood the women, closely veiled and with their figures concealed in dark indigo cloaks of an almost funereal appearance, below which were skirts of gaudy cotton prints. As the cortege passed they indulged in a shrill wail or series of ululations, which might have been mistaken for a dirge of exceptional poignancy, were it not that, as I learned, the sounds were intended to express the extremity of rapture and joy.

Thus escorted, we presently reached the so

called palace of the Sheikh, a modest edifice, built for the most part of sun-dried bricks and situated in a very narrow street or lane of the town. We climbed to the first floor of this building for the exchange of the customary courtesies, accompanied by coffee and cigarettes, of Arab etiquette.

As I sat there, bandying civilities with my host, a sound of violent rending and tearing, accompanied by loud shouts and plunging of horsehoofs, broke the solemn hush of our palaver. Not a word was said on the subject. But when the interview was over and I descended to the street, only the fragments of the Bombay victoria, reduced to matchwood, littered the ground, and the steeds had vanished! It appeared that these animals, who had never before been harnessed to a vehicle, had made up for their orderly behaviour, while conducting the Sheikh and myself from the landing-place to the town, by kicking the somewhat flimsy construction to pieces as soon as they were left alone. I doubt if a victoria has been seen in Koweit since.

We had to feel our way very gingerly, on foot, over heaps of ordure and amid indescribable filth to a nearer point of embarkation for our vessel, which was lying at anchor at a considerable distance in the shallow waters of the gulf. Thus began and thus ignobly ended my Viceregal entry into Koweit.