being a bedu

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,/ Had a bad cold, nevertheless/ Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,/ With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,/ Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,/ (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)/ Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,/ The lady of situations.
T S Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922

When in doubt, look to the Bedu. Racing across the sands of the Sharqiya, Mohammed Wahaibi yelled approval over the roar of 4WD low gear. At the last outpost before the tarred road seemed to buckle under the weight of the desert and disappear into sand, Mohammed charged homewards on the little sliver of beach, tyres deflated for maximum traction. As we slithered towards Ras ar Ruways, Mohammed talked of the two things he took most pride in – being a Bedu and driving the Abu Shenab.

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