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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Travels in Arabia, by Bayard Taylor, Edited
+by Thomas Stevens
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Travels in Arabia
+
+
+Author: Bayard Taylor
+
+Editor: Thomas Stevens
+
+Release Date: February 1, 2013  [eBook #41960]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS IN ARABIA***
+
+
+This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler
+
+               [Picture: Night march on the Arabian Desert]
+
+                      ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF TRAVEL
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRAVELS IN ARABIA
+
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                         COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY
+                              BAYARD TAYLOR
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                REVISED BY
+                              THOMAS STEVENS
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 NEW YORK
+                         CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
+                                   1898
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                         COPYRIGHT 1881, 1892, BY
+                         CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                              TROW DIRECTORY
+
+                     PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
+
+                                 NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+REVISER’S NOTE
+
+
+The continuance of Bayard Taylor’s Library of Travel in the popular favor
+is one of the accepted facts of the literary world.  So much so, indeed,
+that a revision of his works on the part of another is to be permitted
+only on certain conditions of reserve, and by reason of events that have
+transpired since the death of the distinguished traveller.
+
+Travellers and authors die; but the tribes, nations, and races visited by
+them continue on, making war or peace, changing frontiers, setting up or
+pulling down dynasties.
+
+The whole political complexion of a country may be changed in a decade.
+Though the people of Arabia, the genuine Bedouins, are believed to have
+changed little or nothing in their mode of life since the days of the
+Shepherd Kings of Abraham’s time, waves of political and religious
+agitation have occasionally rippled over one part or another of the
+ancient peninsula.  Seemingly they make as little permanent impression on
+the undercurrent of Bedouin life, as do the waves of the sea on its
+immutable whole, so that the accounts of the earlier chroniclers of
+Arabian life and manners agree in a singular manner with the descriptions
+of contemporary visitors.  For this reason, no less than for the respect
+and admiration entertained by the reviser for Mr. Taylor’s
+conscientiousness and judgment as a traveller and compiler, and his
+literary excellence as an author, this volume remains, practically, as
+fully the work of its original editor as before.
+
+By way of bringing it up to date, however, Chapter XVII. has been added,
+and such slight revision of preceding chapters has been made as was found
+necessary, consistent with the scope and intention of the new edition.
+
+                                                           THOMAS STEVENS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+                              CHAPTER I.
+SKETCH OF ARABIA; ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND ANCIENT              1
+HISTORY
+                             CHAPTER II.
+EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA                                            8
+                             CHAPTER III.
+NIEBUHR’S TRAVELS IN YEMEN                                          14
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+BURCKHARDT’S JOURNEY TO MECCA AND MEDINA                            29
+                              CHAPTER V.
+WELLSTED’S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN                                     40
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+WELLSTED’S DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY IN HADRAMAUT                55
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+BURTON’S PILGRIMAGE                                                 62
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ARABIA: FROM PALESTINE TO             83
+THE DJOWF
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF                          107
+                              CHAPTER X.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—CROSSING THE NEFOOD                             127
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—LIFE IN HA’YEL                                  138
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH                             176
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO RI’AD THE CAPITAL OF NEDJED          201
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—ADVENTURES IN RI’AD                             217
+                             CHAPTER XV.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—HIS ESCAPE TO THE EASTERN COAST                 240
+                             CHAPTER XVI.
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—EASTERN ARABIA                                  259
+                            CHAPTER XVII.
+LADY BLUNT’S PILGRIMAGE TO NEJD                                    279
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+NIGHT MARCH IN THE DESERT                           FRONTISPIECE
+                                                     FACING PAGE
+THE COFFEE HILLS OF YEMEN                                     19
+VIEW OF EL-MEDINA                                             39
+A VALLEY IN OMAN                                              51
+THE RUINS OF NAKAB EL-HADJAR, IN HADRAMAUT                    59
+VIEW OF MEDINA FROM THE WEST                                  69
+CAMP AT MOUNT ARAFAT                                          77
+COSTUME OF PILGRIMS TO MECCA                                  81
+WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE                                      84
+AN ARAB CHIEF                                                105
+CAPTAIN BURTON AS A PILGRIM                                  129
+THE VILLAGE OF EL-SUWAYRKIYAH                                184
+AN ARAB ENCAMPMENT                                           190
+DEATH ON THE DESERT                                          208
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+SKETCH OF ARABIA: ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AND ANCIENT HISTORY.
+
+THE Peninsula of Arabia, forming the extreme southwestern corner of Asia,
+is partly detached, both in a geographical and historical sense, from the
+remainder of the continent.  Although parts of it are mentioned in the
+oldest historical records, and its shores were probably familiar to the
+earliest navigators, the greater portion of its territory has always
+remained almost inaccessible and unknown.
+
+The desert, lying between Syria and the Euphrates is sometimes included
+by geographers as belonging to Arabia, but a line drawn from the Dead Sea
+to the mouth of the Euphrates (almost coinciding with the parallel of 30°
+N.) would more nearly represent the northern boundary of the peninsula.
+As the most southern point of the Arabian coast reaches the latitude of
+12° 40′, the greater part of the entire territory, of more than one
+million square miles, lies within the tropics.  In shape it is an
+irregular rhomboid, the longest diameter, from Suez to the Cape El-Had,
+in Oman, being 1,660, and from the Euphrates to the Straits of
+Bab-el-Mandeb, 1,400 miles.
+
+The entire coast region of Arabia, on the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and
+the Gulfs of Oman and Persia, is, for the most part, a belt of fertile
+country, inhabited by a settled, semi-civilized population.  Back of this
+belt, which varies in width from a few miles to upwards of a hundred,
+commences a desert table-land, occasionally intersected by mountain
+chains, and containing, in the interior, many fertile valleys of
+considerable extent, which are inhabited.  Very little has been known of
+this great interior region until the present century.
+
+The ancient geographers divided Arabia into three parts,—_Arabia Petræa_,
+or the Rocky, comprising the northwestern portion, including the Sinaitic
+peninsula, between the Gulfs of Suez and Akaba; _Arabia Deserta_, the
+great central desert; and _Arabia Felix_, the Happy, by which they appear
+to have designated the southwestern part, now known as Yemen.  The modern
+Arabic geography, which has been partly adopted on our maps, is based, to
+some extent, on the political divisions of the country.  The coast region
+along the Red Sea, down to a point nearly half way between Djidda and the
+Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and including the holy cities of Medina and
+Mecca, is called the Hedjaz.  Yemen, the capital of which is Sana, and
+the chief sea-ports Mocha, Hodeida, and Loheia, embraces all the
+southwestern portion of the peninsula.  The southern coast, although
+divided into various little chiefdoms, is known under the general name of
+Hadramaut.  The kingdom of Oman has extended itself along the eastern
+shore, nearly to the head of the Persian Gulf.  The northern oases, the
+seat of the powerful sect of the Wahabees, are called Nedjed; and the
+unknown southern interior, which is believed to be almost wholly desert,
+inhabited only by a few wandering Bedouins, is known as the Dahna or
+Akhaf.
+
+Arabia has been inhabited by the same race since the earliest times, and
+has changed less, in the course of thousands of years, than any other
+country of the globe, not excepting China.  According to Biblical
+genealogy, the natives are descended from Ham, through Cush; but the
+Bedouins have always claimed that they are the posterity of Ishmael.
+Some portions of the country, such as Edom, or Idumæa, Teman and Sheba,
+(the modern Yemen,) are mentioned in the Old Testament; but neither the
+Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, nor Egyptian monarchies succeeded in
+gaining possession of the peninsula.  Alexander the Great made
+preparations for a journey of conquest, which was prevented by his death,
+and Trajan was the only Roman emperor who penetrated into the interior.
+
+The inhabitants were idolaters, whose religion had probably some
+resemblance to that of the Phoenicians.  After the destruction of
+Jerusalem, both Jews and Christians found their way thither, and made
+proselytes.  There were Jews in Medina, Mecca, and Yemen; and even the
+last Himyaritic king of the latter country became a convert to Mosaic
+faith.  Thus the strength of the ancient religion was already weakened
+when Mohammed was born (A.D. 570); and there are strong evidences for the
+conjecture that the demoralization of both Jews and Christians, resulting
+from their long enmity, was the chief cause which prevented Mohammed from
+adopting the belief of the latter.  At the time of his birth, the
+civilization of the dominant Arab tribes was little inferior to that of
+Europe or the Eastern Empire.  There was already an Arabic literature;
+and the arts and sciences of the ancient world had found their way even
+to the oases of Nedjed.
+
+The union of the best and strongest elements in the race, which followed
+the establishment of the new religion, gave to men of Arabian blood a
+part to play in the history of the world.  For six hundred years after
+Mohammed’s death Islam and Christendom were nearly equal powers, and it
+is difficult, even now, to decide which contributed the more to the arts
+from which modern civilization has sprung.  Arabia flourished, as never
+before, under the Caliphs; yet it does not appear that the life of the
+inhabitants was materially changed, or that any growth, acquired during
+the new importance of the country, became permanent.  Its commerce was
+restricted to the products of its narrow belt of fertile shore; an arid
+desert separated it from Bagdad and Syria; none of the lines of traffic
+between Europe and the East Indies traversed its territory, and thus it
+remained comparatively unknown to the Christian world.
+
+After the downfall of the Caliphate the tribes relapsed into their former
+condition of independent chiefdoms, and the old hostilities, which had
+been partially suppressed for some centuries, again revived.  In the
+sixteenth century the Turks obtained possession of Hedjaz and Yemen; the
+Portuguese held Muscat for a hundred and fifty years, and the Persians
+made some temporary conquests, but the vast interior region easily
+maintained its independence.  The deserts, which everywhere intervene
+between its large and fertile valleys and the sea-coast, are the home of
+wandering Bedouin tribes, whose only occupation is plunder,—whose hand is
+against every man’s, and every man’s hand against them.  Thus they serve
+as a body-guard even to their own enemies.
+
+The long repose and seclusion of Central Arabia was first broken during
+the present century.  It may be well to state, very briefly, the
+circumstances which led to it, since they will explain the great
+difficulty and danger which all modern explorers must encounter.  Early
+in the last century, an Arabian named Abd el-Wahab, scandalized at what
+he believed to be the corruption of the Moslem faith, began preaching a
+Reformation.  He advocated the slaughter or forcible conversion of
+heretics, the most rigid forms of fasting and prayer, the disuse of
+tobacco, and various other changes in the Oriental habits of life.
+Having succeeded in converting the chief of Nedjed, Mohammed Ibu-Savod,
+he took up his residence in Derreyeh, the capital, which thenceforth
+became the rendezvous for all his followers, who were named _Wahabees_.
+They increased to such an extent that their authority became supreme
+throughout Central Arabia, and the successor of Ibu-Savod was able to
+call an army of 100,000 men into the field, and defy the Ottoman power.
+
+In the year 1803 the Wahabees took and plundered Mecca, and slew great
+numbers of the pilgrims who had gathered there.  A second expedition
+against Medina failed, but the annual caravan of pilgrims was robbed and
+dispersed.  Finally, in 1809, the Sultan transferred to Mohammed Ali, of
+Egypt, the duty of suppressing this menacing religious and political
+rebellion.  The first campaign in Arabia was a failure; the second, under
+Ibrahim Pasha, was successful.  He overcame the Wahabees in 1818,
+captured Derreyeh, and razed it to the ground.  In 1828 they began a
+second war against Turkey, but were again defeated.  Since then they have
+refrained from any further aggressive movement, but their hostility and
+bigotry are as active as ever.  The Wahabee doctrine flatters the
+clannish and exclusive spirit of the race, and will probably prevent, for
+a long time, any easy communication between Arabia and the rest of the
+world.
+
+The greater part of our present knowledge of Arabia has been obtained
+since the opening of this century.  The chief seaports and the route from
+Suez to Mt. Sinai were known during the Middle Ages, but all else was
+little better than a blank.  Within the last fifty or sixty years the
+mountains of Edom have been explored, the rock-hewn city of Petra
+discovered, the holy cities of Medina and Mecca visited by intelligent
+Europeans; Yemen, Hadramaut, and Oman partly traversed; and, last of all,
+we have a very clear and satisfactory account of Nedjed and the other
+central regions of Arabia, by the intrepid English traveller, Mr.
+Palgrave.
+
+Thus, only the southern interior of the peninsula remains to be visited.
+The name given to it by the Arabs, _Roba el-Khaly_, “the abode of
+emptiness,” no doubt describes its character.  It is an immense,
+undulating, sandy waste, dotted with scarce and small oases, which give
+water and shelter to the Bedouins, but without any large tract of
+habitable land, and consequently without cities, or other than the rudest
+forms of political organization.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA.
+
+WHEN the habit of travel began to revive in the Middle Ages, its
+character was either religious or commercial, either in the form of
+pilgrimages to Rome, Palestine, (whenever possible), and the shrines of
+popular saints, or of journeys to the Levant, Persia and the Indies, with
+the object of acquiring wealth by traffic, the profits of which increased
+in the same proportion as its hazards.  From the time of Trajan’s
+expedition to Arabia, (in A.D. 117) down to the sixteenth century, we
+have no report of the history or condition of the country except such as
+can be drawn from the earlier Jewish and Christian traditions and the
+later Mohammedan records.
+
+The first account of a visit to Arabia which appears to be worthy of
+credence, is that given by Ludovico Bartema, of Rome.  After visiting
+Egypt, he joined the caravan of pilgrims at Damascus, in 1503, in the
+company of a Mameluke captain, himself disguised as a Mameluke renegade.
+After several attacks from the Bedouins of the desert, the caravan
+reached Medina, which he describes as containing three hundred houses.
+Bartema gives a very correct description of the tomb of the Prophet, and
+scoffs at the then prevalent belief that the latter’s coffin is suspended
+in the air, between four lodestones.
+
+He thus describes an adventure which befell his company the same evening
+after their visit to the mosque.  “At almost three of the night, ten or
+twelve of the elders of the sect of Mohammed entered into our caravan,
+which remained not past a stone’s cast from the gate of the city.  These
+ran hither and thither, crying like madmen with these words: ‘Mohammed,
+the messenger and apostle of God, shall rise again!  O Prophet, O God,
+Mohammed shall rise again!  Have mercy on us, God!’  Our captain and we,
+all raised with this cry, took weapon with all expedition, suspecting
+that the Arabs were come to rob our caravan.  We asked what was the cause
+of that exclamation, and what they cried?  For they cried as do the
+Christians when suddenly any marvellous thing chanceth.  The elders
+answered: ‘Saw you not the lightning which shone out of the sepulchre of
+the Prophet Mohammed?’  Our captain answered that he saw nothing, and we
+also being demanded, answered in like manner.  Then said one of the old
+men: ‘Are you slaves?’  This to say bought men, meaning thereby,
+Mamelukes.  Then said our captain: ‘We are indeed Mamelukes.’  Then again
+the old man said: ‘You, my lords, cannot see heavenly things, as being
+_neophiti_, that is, newly come to the faith, and not yet confirmed in
+our religion.’  It is therefore to be understood that none other shining
+came out of the sepulchre than a certain flame, which the priests caused
+to come out of the open place of the tower, whereby they would have
+deceived us.”
+
+Leaving Medina, the caravan travelled for three days over a “broad
+plain,” all covered with white sand, in manner as small as flour.  Then
+they passed a mountain, where they heard “a certain horrible noise and
+cry,” and after journeying for ten days longer, during which time they
+twice fought with “fifty thousand Arabians,” they reached Mecca, of which
+Bartema says: “The city is very fair, and well inhabited, and containeth
+in round form six thousand houses as well builded as ours, and some that
+cost three or four thousand pieces of gold: it hath no walls.”
+
+Bartema describes the ceremonies performed by the pilgrims, with
+tolerable correctness.  His fellowship with the Mamelukes seems to have
+been a complete protection up to the time when the caravan was ready to
+set out on its return to Damascus, and the members of the troop were
+ordered to accompany it, on pain of death.  Then he managed to escape by
+persuading a Mohammedan that he understood the art of casting cannon, and
+wished to reach India, in order to assist the native monarchs in
+defending themselves against the Portuguese.  Reaching Jedda in safety,
+Bartema sailed for Persia, visiting Yemen on the way; made his way to
+India, and after various adventures, returned to Europe by way of the
+Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The second European who made his way to the holy cities was Joseph Pitts,
+an Englishman, who was captured by an Algerine pirate, as a sailor-boy of
+sixteen, and forced by his master to become a Mussulman.  After some
+years, when he had acquired the Arabic and Turkish languages, he
+accompanied his master for a pilgrimage to Mecca, by way of Cairo, Suez
+and the Red Sea.  Here he received his freedom; but continued with the
+pilgrims to Medina, and returned to Egypt by land, through Arabia Petræa.
+After fifteen years of exile, he succeeded in escaping to Italy, and
+thence made his way back to England.
+
+Pitts gives a minute and generally correct account of the ceremonies at
+Mecca.  He was not, of course, learned in Moslem theology, and his
+narrative, like that of all former visitors to Mecca, has been superseded
+by the more intelligent description of Burckhardt; yet it coincides with
+the latter in all essential particulars.  His description of the city and
+surrounding scenery is worth quoting, from the quaint simplicity of its
+style.
+
+“First, as to Mecca.  It is a town situated in a barren place, (about one
+day’s journey from the Red Sea), in a valley, or rather in the midst of
+many little hills.  It is a place of no force, wanting both walls and
+gates.  Its buildings are, as I said before, very ordinary, insomuch that
+it would be a place of no tolerable entertainment, were it not for the
+anniversary resort of so many thousand Hagges (Hadjis), or pilgrims, on
+whose coming the whole dependence of the town (in a manner) is; for many
+shops are scarcely open all the year besides.
+
+“The people here, I observed, are a poor sort of people, very thin, lean
+and swarthy.  The town is surrounded for several miles with many
+thousands of little hills, which are very near one to the other.  I have
+been on the top of some of them near Mecca, where I could see some miles
+about, yet was not able to see the farthest of the hills.  They are all
+stony-rock and blackish, and pretty near of a bigness, appearing at a
+distance like cocks of hay, but all pointing towards Mecca.  Some of them
+are half a mile in circumference, but all near of one height.  The people
+here have an odd and foolish sort of tradition concerning them, viz.,
+That when Abraham went about building the Beat-Allah (Beit-Allah, or
+‘House of God’), God by his wonderful providence did so order it, that
+every mountain in the world should contribute something to the building
+thereof; and accordingly every one did send its proportion, though there
+is a mountain near Algier which is called Corradog, _i.e._, Black
+Mountain, and the reason of its blackness, they say, is because it did
+not send any part of itself towards building the temple at Mecca.
+Between these hills is good and plain travelling, though they stand one
+to another.
+
+“There is upon the top of one of them a cave, which they term Hira,
+_i.e._, Blessing, into which, they say, Mahomet did usually retire for
+his solitary devotions, meditations and fastings; and here they believe
+he had a great part of the Alcoran brought him by the angel Gabriel.  I
+have been in this cave, and observed that it is not at all beautified, at
+which I admired.
+
+“About half a mile out of Mecca is a very steep hill, and there are
+stairs made to go to the top of it, where is a cupola, under which is a
+cloven rock; into this, they say, Mahomet when very young, viz., about
+four years of age, was carried by the angel Gabriel, who opened his
+breast and took out his heart, from which he picked some black blood
+specks, which was his original corruption; then put it into its place
+again, and afterward closed up the part; and that during this operation
+Mahomet felt no pain.”
+
+The next account of the same pilgrimage is given by Giovanni Tinati, an
+Italian, who deserted from the French service on the coast of Dalmatia,
+and became an Albanian soldier.  Making his way to Egypt, after various
+adventures, he became at last a corporal in Mohammed Ali’s body-guard,
+and shared in several campaigns against the Wahabees.  He did not,
+however, penetrate very far inland from the coast, and his visit to Mecca
+was the result of his desertion from the Egyptian army after a defeat.
+His narrative contains nothing which has not been more fully and
+satisfactorily stated by later travellers.
+
+By this time, however, the era of careful scientific exploration had
+already commenced, and the descriptions which have since then been
+furnished to us are positive contributions to our knowledge of Arabia.
+With the exception of the journey of Carsten Niebuhr, which embraces only
+the Sinaitic Peninsula and Yemen, the important explorations—all of which
+are equally difficult and daring—have been made since the commencement of
+this century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+NIEBUHR’S TRAVELS IN YEMEN.
+
+IN 1760 the Danish government decided to send an expedition to Arabia and
+India, for the purpose of geographical exploration.  The command was
+given to Carsten Niebuhr, a native of Hanover, and a civil engineer.
+Four other gentlemen, an artist, a botanist, a physician, and an
+astronomer, were associated with him in the undertaking; yet, by a
+singular fatality, all died during the journey, and Niebuhr returned
+alone, after an absence of nearly seven years, to publish the first
+narrative of travel based on scientific observation.
+
+The party sailed from Copenhagen for Smyrna in January, 1761, visited
+Constantinople, and then proceeded to Egypt, where they remained nearly a
+year.  After a journey to Sinai, they finally succeeded in engaging
+passage on board a vessel carrying pilgrims from Suez to Jedda, and
+sailed from the former port in October, 1762.  They took the precaution
+of adopting the Oriental dress, and conformed, as far as possible, to the
+customs of the Mussulman passengers; thus the voyage, although very
+tedious and uncomfortable, was not accompanied with any other danger than
+that from the coral reefs along the Arabian shore.  The vessel touched at
+Yambo, the port of Medina, and finally reached Jedda, after a voyage of
+nineteen days.
+
+The travellers entered Jedda under strong apprehensions of ill-treatment
+from the inhabitants, but were favorably disappointed.  The people, it
+seemed, were already accustomed to the sight of Christian merchants in
+their town, and took no particular notice of the strangers, who went
+freely to the coffee-houses and markets, and felt themselves safe so long
+as they did not attempt to pass through the gate leading to Mecca.  The
+Turkish Pasha of the city received them kindly, and they were allowed to
+hire a house for their temporary residence.
+
+After waiting six weeks for the chance of a passage to Mocha, they
+learned that an Arabian vessel was about to sail for Hodeida, one of the
+ports of Yemen.  The craft, when they visited it, proved to be more like
+a hogshead than a ship; it was only seven fathoms long, by three in
+breadth.  It had no deck; its planks were extremely thin, and seemed to
+be only nailed together, but not pitched.  The captain wore nothing but a
+linen cloth upon his loins, and his sailors, nine in number, were black
+slaves from Africa or Malabar.  Nevertheless, they engaged passage,
+taking the entire vessel for themselves alone; but when they came to
+embark, it was filled with the merchandise of others.  The voyage proved
+to be safe and pleasant, and in sixteen days they landed at Loheia, in
+Yemen.
+
+The governor of this place was a negro, who had formerly been a slave.
+He received the travellers with the greatest kindness, persuaded them to
+leave the vessel, and gave them a residence, promising camels for the
+further journey by land.  Although they were somewhat annoyed by the
+great curiosity of the inhabitants, their residence was so agreeable, and
+offered the naturalists so many facilities for making collections, that
+they remained nearly four months.  “We had one opportunity,” says
+Niebuhr, “of learning their ideas of the benefits to be derived from
+medicine.  Mr. Cramer had given a scribe an emetic which operated with
+extreme violence.  The Arabs, being struck at its wonderful effects,
+resolved all to take the same excellent remedy, and the reputation of our
+friend’s skill thus became very high among them.  The Emir of the port
+sent one day for him; and, as he did not go immediately, the Emir soon
+after sent a saddled horse to our gate.  Mr. Cramer, supposing that this
+horse was intended to bear him to the Emir, was going to mount him, when
+he was told that this was the patient he was to cure.  We luckily found
+another physician in our party; our Swedish servant had been with the
+hussars in his native country, and had acquired some knowledge of the
+diseases of horses.  He offered to cure the Emir’s horse, and succeeded.
+The cure rendered him famous, and he was afterward sent for to human
+patients.”
+
+Having satisfied themselves by this time that there was no danger in
+travelling in Yemen, they did not wait for the departure of any large
+caravan, but, on February 20, 1763, set out from Loheia, mounted on
+asses, and made their way across the _Tehama_, or low country, toward the
+large town of Beit el-Fakih, which stands near the base of the
+coffee-bearing hills.  They wore dresses somewhat similar to those of the
+natives, a long shirt, reaching nearly to the feet, a girdle, and a
+mantle over the shoulders.  The country was barren, but there were many
+villages, and at intervals of every few miles they found coffee-houses,
+or, rather, huts, for the refreshment of travellers.  After having
+suffered no further inconvenience than from the brackish water, which is
+drawn from wells more than a hundred feet deep, they reached Beit
+el-Fakih in five days.
+
+Here they were kindly received by one of the native merchants, who hired
+a stone house for them.  The town is seated upon a well-cultivated plain;
+it is comparatively modern, but populous, and the travellers, now
+entirely accustomed to the Arabian mode of life, felt themselves safe.
+The Emir took no particular notice of them, a neglect with which they
+were fully satisfied, since it left them free to range the country in all
+directions.  Niebuhr, therefore, determined to make the place the
+temporary headquarters of the expedition, and to give some time to
+excursions in that part of Yemen.  “I hired an ass,” says he, “and its
+owner agreed to follow me as my servant on foot.  A turban, a great coat
+wanting the sleeves, a shirt, linen drawers, and a pair of slippers, were
+all the dress that I wore.  It being the fashion of the country to carry
+arms in travelling, I had a sabre and two pistols hung by my girdle.  A
+piece of old carpet was my saddle, and served me likewise for a seat, a
+table, and various other purposes.  To cover me at night, I had the linen
+cloak which the Arabs wrap about their shoulders, to shelter them from
+the sun and rain.  A bucket of water, an article of indispensable
+necessity to a traveller in these arid regions, hung by my saddle.”
+
+After a trip to the seaport of Hodeida, Niebuhr visited the old town of
+Zebid, built on the ruins of an older city, which is said to have once
+been the capital of all the low country.  Zebid is situated in a large
+and fertile valley, traversed during the rainy season by a considerable
+stream, by which a large tract of country is irrigated.  There are the
+remains of an aqueduct built by the Turks, but the modern town does not
+cover half the space of the ancient capital.  Zebid, however, is still
+distinguished for its academy, in which the youth of all that part of
+Yemen study such sciences as are now cultivated by the Mussulmans.
+
+Niebuhr’s next trip was to the plantations of the famous Mocha coffee,
+whither the other members of the party had already gone, during his visit
+to Zebid.  After riding about twenty miles eastward from Beit el-Fakih,
+he reached the foot of the mountains.  He thus describes the region:
+“Neither asses nor mules can be used here.  The hills are to be climbed
+by steep and narrow paths; yet, in comparison with the parched plains of
+the Tehama, the scenery seemed to me charming, as it was covered with
+gardens and plantations of coffee-trees.
+
+“Up to this time I had seen only one small basaltic hill; but here whole
+mountains were composed chiefly of those columns.  Such detached rocks
+formed grand objects in the landscape, especially where cascades of water
+were seen to rush from their summits.  The cascades, in such instances,
+had the appearance of being supported by rows of artificial pillars.
+These basalts are of great utility to the inhabitants; the columns, which
+are easily separated, serve as steps where the ascent is most difficult,
+and as materials for walls to support the plantations of coffee-trees
+upon the steep declivities of the mountains.
+
+                     [Picture: Coffee hills of Yemen]
+
+“The tree which affords the coffee is well known in Europe; so that I
+need not here describe it particularly.  The coffee-trees were all in
+flower at Bulgosa, and exhaled an exquisitely agreeable perfume.  They
+are planted upon terraces, in the form of an amphitheatre.  Most of them
+are only watered by the rains that fall, but some, indeed, from large
+reservoirs upon the heights, in which spring-water is collected, in order
+to be sprinkled upon the terraces, where the trees grow so thick together
+that the rays of the sun can hardly enter among their branches.  We were
+told that those trees, thus artificially watered, yielded ripe fruit
+twice in the year; but the fruit becomes not fully ripe the second time,
+and the coffee of this crop is always inferior to that of the first.
+
+“Stones being more common in this part of the country than in the Tehama,
+the houses—as well of the villages as those which are scattered
+solitarily over the hills—are built of this material.  Although not to be
+compared to the houses of Europe for commodiousness and elegance, yet
+they have a good appearance; especially such of them as stand upon the
+heights, with amphitheatres of beautiful gardens and trees around them.
+
+“Even at this village of Bulgosa we were greatly above the level of the
+plain from which we had ascended; yet we had scarcely climbed half the
+ascent to Kusma, where the Emir of this district dwells, upon the
+loftiest peak of the range of mountains.  Enchanting landscapes there
+meet the eye on all sides.
+
+“We passed the night at Bulgosa.  Several of the men of the village came
+to see us, and after they retired we had a visit from our hostess, with
+some young women accompanying her, who were all very desirous to see the
+Europeans.  They seemed less shy than the women in the cities; their
+faces were unveiled, and they talked freely with us.  As the air is
+fresher and cooler upon these hills, the women have a finer and fairer
+complexion than in the plain.  Our artist drew a portrait of a young girl
+who was going to draw water, and was dressed in a shirt of linen,
+checkered blue and white.  The top and middle of the shirt, as well as
+the lower part of the drawers, were embroidered with needlework of
+different colors.”
+
+Having met with no molestation so far, Niebuhr determined to make a
+longer excursion into the southern interior of Yemen, among the
+mountains, to the important towns of Udden and Taas.  The preparations
+were easily made.  The travellers hired asses, the owners accompanying
+them on foot as guides and servants.  As a further disguise they assumed
+Arabic names, and their real character was so well concealed that even
+the guides supposed them to be Oriental Christians—not Europeans.
+Entering the mountains by an unfrequented road, they found a barren
+region at first, but soon reached valleys where coffee was cultivated.
+The inhabitants, on account of the cooler nights, sleep in linen bags,
+which they draw over the head, and thus keep themselves warm by their own
+breathing.
+
+After reaching Udden, which Niebuhr found to be a town of only three
+hundred houses, the hill-country became more thickly settled.  Beside the
+roads, which had formerly been paved with stones, there were frequent
+tanks of water for the use of travellers, and, in exposed places, houses
+for their shelter in case of storms.  The next important place was
+Djobla, a place of some importance in the annals of Yemen, but with no
+antiquities, except some ruined mosques.  A further march of two days
+brought the party to the fortified city of Taas, but they did not venture
+within its walls, not having applied to the Emir for permission.  They
+returned to their quarters at Beit el-Fakih, by way of Haas, another
+large town at the base of the mountains, having made themselves
+acquainted with a large portion of the hill-country of Arabia Felix.
+
+The journey to Mocha lasted three days, over a hot, barren plain, with no
+inhabitants except in the wadys or valleys, which are well watered during
+the rainy season.  Their arrival at Mocha was followed by a series of
+annoyances, first from the custom-house officials, and then from the
+Emir, who conceived a sudden prejudice against the travellers, so that
+they were in danger of being driven out of the city.  An English
+merchant, however, came to their assistance, a present of fifty ducats
+mollified the Emir, and at the end of a very disagreeable week they
+received permission to stay in the city.  From heat and privation they
+had all become ill, and in a short time one of the party died.
+
+Niebuhr now requested permission to proceed to Sana, the capital of
+Yemen.  This the Emir refused, until he could send word to the Imâm; but,
+after a delay of a month, he allowed the party to go as far as Taas,
+which they reached in four days, and where they were well received.  The
+refreshing rains every evening purified the air, and all gradually
+recovered their health, except the botanist, who died before reaching
+Sana.
+
+Taas stands at the foot of the fertile mountain of Sabber, upon which,
+the Arabs say, grow all varieties of plants and trees to be found in the
+world.  Nevertheless they did not allow the travellers to ascend or even
+approach it.  The city is surrounded with a wall, between sixteen and
+thirty feet high, and flanked with towers.  The patron saint of the place
+is a former king, Ismael Melek, who is buried in a mosque bearing his
+name.  No person is allowed to visit the tomb since the occurrence of a
+miracle, which Niebuhr thus relates: “Two beggars had asked charity of
+the Emir of Taas, but only one of them had tasted of his bounty.  Upon
+this the other went to the tomb of Ismael Melek to implore his aid.  The
+saint, who, when alive, had been very charitable, stretched his hand out
+of the tomb and gave the beggar a letter containing an order on the Emir
+to pay him a hundred crowns.  Upon examining this order with the greatest
+care it was found that Ismael Melek had written it with his own hand and
+sealed it with his own seal.  The governor could not refuse payment; but
+to avoid all subsequent trouble from such bills of exchange, he had a
+wall built, inclosing the tomb.”
+
+The Emir of Taas so changed in his behavior toward the travellers, after
+a few days, that he ordered them to return to Mocha.  Finding all their
+arguments and protests in vain, they were about to comply, when a
+messenger arrived from Mocha, bringing the permission of the Imâm of
+Yemen for them to continue their journey to Sana.  They set out on June
+28th, and, after crossing the mountain ranges of Mharras and Samara, by
+well-paved and graded roads, reached, in a week, the town of Jerim, near
+the ruins of the ancient Himyaritic city of Taphar, which, however, they
+were unable to visit on account of the illness of Mr. Forskal, the
+botanist of the expedition.  This gentleman died in a few days; and they
+were obliged to bury him by night, with the greatest precaution.
+
+From Jerim it is a day’s journey to Damar, the capital of a province.
+The city, which is seated in the midst of a fertile plain, and is without
+walls, contains five thousand well-built houses.  It has a famous
+university, which is usually attended by five hundred students.  The
+travellers were here very much annoyed by the curiosity of the people,
+who threw stones at their windows in order to force them to show
+themselves.  There is a mine of native sulphur near the place, and a
+mountain where cornelians are found, which are highly esteemed throughout
+the East.
+
+Beyond Damar the country is hilly, but every village is surrounded with
+gardens, orchards, and vineyards, which are irrigated from large
+artificial reservoirs built at the foot of the hills.  On reaching Sana
+the travellers were not allowed to enter the city, but conducted to an
+unfurnished house without the walls, where they were ordered to wait two
+days in entire seclusion, until they could be received by the Imâm.
+During this time they were not allowed to be visited by anyone.  Niebuhr
+thus describes their interview, which took place on the third day:
+
+“The hall of audience was a spacious square chamber, having an arched
+roof.  In the middle was a large basin, with some _jets d’eau_, rising
+fourteen feet in height.  Behind the basin, and near the throne, were two
+large benches, each a foot and a half high; upon the throne was a space
+covered with silken stuff, on which, as well as on both sides of it, lay
+large cushions.  The Imâm sat between the cushions, with his legs crossed
+in the Eastern fashion; his gown was of a bright green color, and had
+large sleeves.  Upon each side of his breast was a rich filleting of gold
+lace, and on his head he wore a great white turban.  His sons sat on his
+right hand, and his brothers on the left.  Opposite to them, on the
+highest of the two benches, sat the Vizier, and our place was on the
+lower bench.
+
+“We were first led up to the Imâm, and were permitted to kiss both the
+back and the palm of his hand, as well as the hem of his robe.  It is an
+extraordinary favor when the Mohammedan princes permit any person to kiss
+the palm of the hand.  There was a solemn silence through the whole hall.
+As each of us touched the Imâm’s hand a herald still proclaimed, ‘God
+preserve the Imâm!’ and all who were present repeated these words after
+him.  I was thinking at the time how I should pay my compliments in
+Arabic, and was not a little disturbed by this noisy ceremony.
+
+“We did not think it proper to mention the true reason of our expedition
+through Arabia; but told the Imâm that, wishing to travel by the shortest
+ways to the Danish colonies, in the East Indies, we had heard so much of
+the plenty and security which prevailed through his dominions, that we
+had resolved to see them with our own eyes, so that we might describe
+them to our countrymen.  The Imâm told us we were welcome to his
+dominions, and might stay as long as we pleased.  After our return home
+he sent to each of us a small purse containing ninety-nine _komassis_,
+two and thirty of which make a crown.  This piece of civility might,
+perhaps, appear no compliment to a traveller’s delicacy.  But, when it is
+considered that a stranger, unacquainted with the value of the money of
+the country, obliged to pay every day for his provisions, is in danger of
+being imposed upon by the money-changers, this care of providing us with
+small money will appear to have been sufficiently obliging.”
+
+“The city of Sana,” says Niebuhr, “is situated at the foot of Mount
+Nikkum, on which are still to be seen the ruins of a castle, which the
+Arabs suppose to have been built by Shem.  Near this mountain stands the
+citadel; a rivulet rises upon the other side, and near it is the Bostan
+el-Metwokkel, a spacious garden, which was laid out by the Imâm of that
+name, and has been greatly embellished by the reigning Imâm.  The walls
+of the city, which are built of bricks, exclude this garden, which is
+inclosed within a wall of its own.  The city, properly so called, is not
+very extensive; one may walk around it in an hour.  There are a number of
+mosques, some of which have been built by Turkish Pashas.  In Sana are
+only twelve public baths, but many noble palaces, three of the most
+splendid of which have been built by the reigning Imâm.  The materials of
+these palaces are burnt bricks, and sometimes even hewn stones; but the
+houses of the common people are of bricks which have been dried in the
+sun.
+
+“The suburb of Bir el-Arsab is nearly adjoining the city on the east
+side.  The houses of this village are scattered through the gardens,
+along the banks of a small river.  Fruits are very plenteous; there are
+more than twenty kinds of grapes, which, as they do not all ripen at the
+same time, continue to afford a delicious refreshment for several months.
+The Arabs likewise preserve grapes by hanging them up in their cellars,
+and eat them almost through the whole year.  Two leagues northward from
+Sana is a plain named Rodda, which is overspread with gardens and watered
+by a number of rivulets.  This place bears a great resemblance to the
+neighborhood of Damascus.  But Sana, which some ancient authors compare
+to Damascus, stands on a rising ground, with nothing like florid
+vegetation about it.  After long rains, indeed, a small rivulet runs
+through the city; but all the ground is dry through the rest of the year.
+However, by aqueducts from Mount Nikkum the town and castle of Sana are,
+at all times, supplied with abundance of excellent fresh water.”
+
+After a stay of a week the travellers obtained an audience of leave,
+fearing that a longer delay might subject them to suspicions and
+embarrassments.  Two days afterward the Imâm sent each of them a complete
+suit of clothes, with a letter to the Emir of Mocha, ordering him to pay
+them two hundred crowns as a farewell present.  He also furnished them
+with camels for the journey.  Instead of returning by the same road they
+determined to descend from the hill-country to their old headquarters at
+Beit el-Fakih, and thence cross the lowland to Mocha.
+
+For two days they travelled over high, rocky mountains, by the worst
+roads they found in Yemen.  The country was poor and thinly inhabited,
+and the declivities only began to be clothed with trees and terraced into
+coffee plantations as they approached the plains.  The poorer regions are
+not considered entirely safe by the Arabs, as the people frequently
+plunder defenceless travellers; but the party passed safely through this
+region, and reached Beit el-Fakih after a week’s journey from Sana.
+
+Niebuhr and his companions reached Mocha early in August, and toward the
+end of that month sailed in an English vessel for Bombay, after a stay of
+ten months in Yemen.  The artist of the expedition and the Swedish
+servant died on the Indian Ocean, and the physician in India, a few
+months afterward, leaving Niebuhr the sole survivor of the six persons
+who left Copenhagen three years before.  After having sent home the
+journals and collections of the expedition he continued his travels
+through the Persian Gulf, Bagdad, Armenia, and Asia Minor, finally
+reaching Denmark in 1767.  The era of intelligent, scientific
+exploration, which is now rapidly opening all parts of the world to our
+knowledge, may be said to have been inaugurated by his travels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+BURCKHARDT’S JOURNEY TO MECCA AND MEDINA.
+
+BURCKHARDT, to whom we are indebted for the first careful and complete
+description of the holy cities of Arabia, was a native of Lausanne, in
+Switzerland.  After having been educated in Germany, he went to London
+with the intention of entering the English military service, but was
+persuaded by Sir Joseph Banks to apply to the African Association for an
+appointment to explore the Sahara, and the then unknown negro kingdoms of
+Central Africa.  His offer was accepted, and after some preparation he
+went to Aleppo, in Syria, where he remained for a year or two, engaged in
+studying Arabic and familiarizing himself with Oriental habits of life.
+
+His first journeys in Syria and Palestine, which were only meant as
+preparations for the African exploration, led to the most important
+results.  He was the first to visit the country of Hauran—the Bashan of
+Scripture—lying southeast of Damascus.  After this he passed through
+Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and under the pretence of making a pilgrimage
+to the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor, discovered the rock-hewn palaces and
+temples of Petra, which had been for many centuries lost to the world.
+
+Burckhardt reached Cairo in safety, and after vainly waiting some months
+for an opportunity of joining a caravan to Fezzan, determined to employ
+his time in making a visit to Upper Egypt and Nubia.  Travelling alone,
+with a single guide, he succeeded in reaching the frontiers of Dongola,
+beyond which it was then impossible to proceed.  He therefore returned to
+Assouan, and joined a small caravan, which crossed the Nubian Desert to
+Ethiopia, by very nearly the same route which Bruce had taken in
+returning from Abyssinia.  He remained some time at Shendy, the capital
+of Ethiopia, and then, after a journey of three months across the country
+of Takka, which had never before been visited by a European, reached the
+port of Suakin, on the Red Sea.  Here he embarked for Jedda, in Arabia,
+where he arrived in July, 1814.
+
+By this time his Moslem character had been so completely acquired that he
+felt himself free from suspicion.  Accordingly he decided to remain and
+take part in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, which was to take place
+that year, in November.  His funds, however, were nearly exhausted, and
+the Jedda merchants refused to honor an old letter of credit upon Cairo,
+which he still carried with him.  In this emergency he wrote to the
+Armenian physician of Mohammed Ali, who was at that time with the Pasha
+at the city of Tayf (or Tayef), about seventy miles southeast of Mecca.
+Mohammed Ali happening to hear of this application, immediately sent a
+messenger with two dromedaries, to summon Burckhardt to visit him.  It
+seems most probable that the Pasha suspected the traveller of being an
+English spy, and wished to examine him personally.  The guide had orders
+to conduct the latter to Tayf by a circuitous route, instead of by the
+direct road through Mecca.
+
+Burckhardt set out without the least hesitation, taking care to exhibit
+no suspicion of the Pasha’s object, and no desire to see the holy city.
+But the guide himself proposed that they should pass through Mecca in
+order to save travel; the journey was hurried, however, and only a rapid
+observation was possible.  Pushing eastward, they reached, on the third
+night, the Mountain of Kora, which divides the territory of Mecca from
+that of Tayf.  Burckhardt was astonished at the change in the scenery,
+produced by the greater elevation of the interior of Arabia above the
+sea.  His description is a striking contrast to that of the scenery about
+Mecca.
+
+“This,” he says, “is the most beautiful spot in the Hedjaz, and more
+picturesque and delightful than anything I had seen since my departure
+from Lebanon, in Syria.  The top of Djebel Kora is flat, but large masses
+of granite lie scattered over it, the surface of which, like that of the
+granite rocks near the second cataract of the Nile, is blackened by the
+sun.  Several small rivulets descend from this peak and irrigate the
+plain, which is covered with verdant fields and large shady trees beside
+the granite rocks.  To those who have only known the dreary and scorching
+sands of the lower country of the Hedjaz, this scene is as surprising as
+the keen air which blows here is refreshing.  Many of the fruit-trees of
+Europe are found here: figs, apricots, peaches, apples, the Egyptian
+sycamore, almonds, pomegranates; but particularly vines, the produce of
+which is of the best quality.  After having passed through this
+delightful district for about half an hour, just as the sun was rising,
+when every leaf and blade of grass was covered with a balmy dew, and
+every tree and shrub diffused a fragrance as delicious to the smell as
+was the landscape to the eye, I halted near the largest of the rivulets,
+which, although not more than two paces across, nourishes upon its banks
+a green alpine turf, such as the mighty Nile, with all its luxuriance,
+can never produce in Egypt.”
+
+Burckhardt had an interview with Mohammed Ali on the evening of his
+arrival in Tayf.  His suspicions were confirmed: the Kadi (Judge) of
+Mecca and two well-informed teachers of the Moslem faith were present,
+and although the Pasha professed to accept Burckhard’s protestations of
+his Moslem character, it was very evident to the latter that he was
+cunningly tested by the teachers.  Nevertheless, when the interview was
+over, they pronounced him to be not only a genuine Moslem, but one of
+unusual learning and piety.  The Pasha was forced to submit to this
+decision, but he was evidently not entirely convinced, for he gave orders
+that Burckhardt should be the guest of his physician, in order that his
+speech and actions might be more closely observed.  Burckhardt took a
+thoroughly Oriental way to release himself from this surveillance.  He
+gave the physician so much trouble that the latter was very glad, at the
+end of ten days, to procure from the Pasha permission for him to return
+to Mecca, in order to get rid of him.  Burckhardt thereupon travelled to
+the holy city in company with the Kadi himself.
+
+At the valley of Mohram, nearly a day’s journey from Mecca, Burckhardt
+changed his garb for the _ihram_, or costume worn by the pilgrims during
+their devotional services.  It consists of two pieces of either linen,
+cotton, or woollen cloth; one is wrapped around the loins, while the
+other is thrown over the shoulder in such a manner as to leave the right
+arm entirely bare.  On reaching Mecca he obeyed the Moslem injunction of
+first visiting the great mosque and performing all the requisite
+ceremonies before transacting any worldly business.  When this had been
+accomplished he made a trip to Jedda for the purpose of procuring
+supplies, which were necessary for the later pilgrimage to Medina, and
+then established himself comfortably in an unfrequented part of Mecca, to
+await the arrival of the caravan of pilgrims from Damascus.
+
+Burckhardt describes the great mosque of Mecca, which is called the _Beit
+Allah_, or “House of God,” as “a large quadrangular building, in the
+centre of which stands the Kaaba, an oblong, massive structure eighteen
+paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and from thirty-five to forty feet
+in height.  It is constructed of gray Mecca stone, in large blocks of
+different sizes, joined together in a very rough manner, and with bad
+cement.  At the northeast corner of the Kaaba, near the door, is the
+famous Black Stone, which forms part of the sharp angle of the building
+at four or five feet above the ground.  It is an irregular oval of about
+seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a
+dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together
+with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed.  It is very
+difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has
+been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it
+has received.  It appears to me like a lava, containing several small
+extraneous particles.  Its color is now a deep reddish brown, approaching
+to black.  It is surrounded on all sides by a border, composed of a
+substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel; this
+border serves to support its detached pieces.  Both the border and the
+stone itself are encircled by a silver band.”
+
+Toward the end of November the caravans from Syria and Egypt arrived, and
+at the same time Mohammed Ali, so that the _hadj_, or pilgrimage, assumed
+a character of unusual pomp and parade.  The Pasha’s _ihram_ consisted of
+two of the finest Cashmere shawls; the horses and camels belonging to
+himself and his large retinue, with those of the Pasha of Damascus and
+other Moslem princes, were decorated with the most brilliant trappings.
+On arriving, the pilgrims did not halt in Mecca, but continued their
+march to the Sacred Mountain of Arafat, to the eastward of the city.  A
+camp, several miles in extent, was formed upon the plain, at the foot of
+the mountain, and here Burckhardt joined the immense crowd, in order to
+take his share in the ceremonies of the following day.
+
+In the morning he climbed to the top of Arafat, which is an irregular,
+isolated mass of granite, rising only about two hundred feet above the
+plain.  Overlooking thus the entire camp, he counted more than three
+thousand tents, and estimated that at least twenty-five thousand camels
+and seventy thousand human beings were there collected together.  “The
+scene,” he says, “was one of the most extraordinary which the earth
+affords.  Every pilgrim issued from his tent to walk over the plain and
+take a view of the busy crowds assembled there.  Long streets of tents,
+fitted up as bazaars, furnished them with all kinds of provisions.  The
+Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by their chiefs early in the
+morning, while thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs
+of the plain all around the camp.  The Syrian pilgrims were encamped upon
+the south and southwest sides of the mountain; the Egyptians upon the
+southeast.  Mohammed Ali, and Soleyman, Pasha of Damascus, as well as
+several of their followers, had very handsome tents; but the most
+magnificent of all was that of the wife of Mohammed Ali, the mother of
+Toossoon Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, who had lately arrived from Cairo with
+a truly royal equipage, five hundred camels being necessary to transport
+her baggage from Jedda to Mecca.  Her tent was in fact an encampment,
+consisting of a dozen tents of different sizes, inhabited by her women;
+the whole enclosed by a wall of linen cloth, eight hundred paces in
+circuit, the single entrance to which was guarded by eunuchs in splendid
+dresses.  The beautiful embroidery on the exterior of this linen palace,
+with the various colors displayed in every part of it, constituted an
+object which reminded me of some descriptions in the Arabian tales of the
+Thousand and One Nights.”
+
+Burckhardt also gives an interesting description of the sermon preached
+on Mount Arafat, the hearing of which is an indispensable part of the
+pilgrimage: unless a person is at least present during its delivery, he
+is not entitled to the name of _hadji_, or pilgrim.  The great encampment
+broke up at three o’clock in the afternoon, and Mount Arafat was soon
+covered from top to bottom.  “The two Pashas, with their whole cavalry
+drawn up in two squadrons behind them, took their posts in the rear of
+the deep line of camels of the pilgrims, to which those of the people of
+Hedjaz were also joined; and here they waited in solemn and respectful
+silence the conclusion of the sermon.  Farther removed from the preacher
+was the Scherif of Mecca, with his small body of soldiers, distinguished
+by several green standards carried before him.  The two _mahmals_, or
+holy camels, which carry on their backs the high structure which serves
+as the banner of their respective caravans, made way with difficulty
+through the ranks of camels that encircled the southern and eastern sides
+of the hill, opposite to the preacher, and took their station, surrounded
+by their guards, directly under the platform in front of him.  The
+preacher, who is usually the Kadi of Mecca, was mounted upon a finely
+caparisoned camel, which had been led up the steps: it was traditionally
+said that Mohammed was always seated when he addressed his followers, a
+practice in which he was imitated by all the Caliphs who came to the
+pilgrimage, and who from this place addressed their subjects in person.
+The Turkish gentleman of Constantinople, however, unused to camel-riding,
+could not keep his seat so well as the hardy Bedouin prophet, and the
+camel becoming unruly, he was soon obliged to alight from it.  He read
+his sermon from a book in Arabic, which he held in his hands.  At
+intervals of every four or five minutes he paused and stretched forth his
+arms to implore blessings from above, while the assembled multitudes
+around and before him waved the skirts of their _ihrams_ over their heads
+and rent the air with shouts of _Lebeyk_, _Allah_, _huma lebeyk_!—‘Here
+we are at Thy bidding, oh God!’  During the waving of the _ihrams_ the
+sides of the mountain, thickly crowded as it was by the people in their
+white garments, had the appearance of a cataract of water; while the
+green umbrellas, with which several thousand pilgrims sitting on their
+camels below were provided, bore some resemblance to a verdant plain.”
+
+Burckhardt performed all the remaining ceremonies required of a pilgrim;
+but these have been more recently described and with greater minuteness
+by Captain Burton.  He remained in Mecca for another month, unsuspected
+and unmolested, and completed his observations of a place which the Arabs
+believed they had safely sealed against all Christian travellers.
+
+Leaving Mecca with a small caravan of pilgrims, on January 15, 1815, he
+reached Medina after a journey of thirteen days, during which he narrowly
+escaped being slain by the Bedouins.
+
+Burckhardt was attacked with fever soon after his arrival at Medina, and
+remained there three months.  The ceremonies prescribed for the pilgrims
+who visit the city are brief and unimportant; but the description of the
+tomb of Mohammed is of sufficient interest to quote.  “The mausoleum,” he
+says, “stands at the southeastern corner of the principal mosque, and is
+protected from the too near approach of visitors by an iron railing,
+painted green, about two-thirds the height of the pillars of the
+colonnade which runs around the interior of the mosque.  The railing is
+of good workmanship, in imitation of filigree, and is interwoven with
+open-worked inscriptions of yellow bronze, supposed by the vulgar to be
+of gold, and of so close a texture that no view can be obtained of the
+interior except by several small windows, about six inches square, which
+are placed in the four sides of the railing, about five feet above the
+ground.  On the south side, where are the two principal windows, before
+which the devout stand when praying, the railing is plated with silver,
+and the common inscription—‘There is no god but God, the Evident
+Truth!’—is wrought in silver letters around the windows.  The tomb
+itself, as well as those of Abu Bekr and Omar, which stand close to it,
+is concealed from the public gaze by a curtain of rich silk brocade of
+various colors, interwoven with silver flowers and arabesques, with
+inscriptions in characters of gold running across the midst of it, like
+that of the covering of the Kaaba.  Behind this curtain, which, according
+to the historian of the city, was formerly changed every six years, and
+is now renewed by the Porte whenever the old one is decayed, or when a
+new Sultan ascends the throne, none but the chief eunuchs, the attendants
+of the mosque, are permitted to enter.  This holy sanctuary once served,
+as the temple of Delphi did among the Greeks, as the public treasury of
+the nation.  Here the money, jewels, and other precious articles of the
+people of Hedjaz were kept in chests, or suspended on silken ropes.
+Among these was a copy of the Koran in Cufic characters; a brilliant star
+set in diamonds and pearls, which was suspended directly over the
+Prophet’s tomb; with all sorts of vessels filled with jewels, earrings,
+bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments sent as presents from all parts
+of the empire.  Most of these articles were carried away by the Wahabees
+when they sacked and plundered the sacred cities.”
+
+                       [Picture: View of El-Medina]
+
+Burckhardt reached Yambo (the port of Medina), at the end of April, and,
+after running great danger from the plague, succeeded in obtaining
+passage to the Peninsula of Sinai, whence he slowly made his way back to
+Cairo.  Here he waited for two years, vainly hoping for the departure of
+a caravan for Central Africa, and meanwhile assisting Belzoni in his
+explorations at Thebes.  In October, 1817, he died, and the people who
+knew him only as Shekh Abdallah, laid his body in the Moslem
+burying-ground, on the eastern side of Cairo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+WELLSTED’S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN.
+
+PERHAPS the most satisfactory account of the interior of Oman—the
+southeastern portion of Arabia—has been given by Lieutenant Wellsted.
+While in the Indian Navy he was employed for several years in surveying
+the southern and eastern coasts of Arabia.  Having become somewhat
+familiar with the language and habits of the people, he conceived the
+idea of undertaking a journey to Derreyeh, in Nedjed, the capital of the
+Wahabees, which no traveller had then reached.  The governor of Bombay
+gave him the necessary leave of absence, and he landed at Muscat in
+November, 1835.
+
+The Sultan, Sayid Saeed, received the young Englishman with great
+kindness, promised him all possible aid in his undertaking, and even
+arranged for him the route to be travelled.  He was to sail first to the
+port of Sur, south of Muscat, thence penetrate to the country inhabited
+by the Beni-Abu-Ali tribe, and make his way northward to the Jebel
+Akhdar, or Green Mountains, which were described to him as lofty,
+fruitful, and populous.  Having thus visited the most interesting
+portions of Oman, he was then to be at liberty, if the way was open, to
+take the northern route through the Desert toward Nedjed.  The Sultan
+presented him with a horse and sword, together with letters to the
+governors of the districts through which he should pass.
+
+At Sur, which is a small, insignificant village, with a good harbor, the
+mountains of the interior approach the sea, but they are here divided by
+a valley which furnishes easy access to the country beyond them.  After a
+journey of four days Wellsted reached the tents of the tribe of
+Beni-Abu-Ali, at a point to which the English troops had penetrated in
+1821, to punish the tribe for acts of piracy.  Although no Englishman had
+visited them since that time, they received him with every demonstration
+of friendship.  Sheep were killed, a feast prepared, a guard of honor
+stationed around the tent, and, in the evening, all the men of the
+encampment, 250 in number, assembled for the purpose of exhibiting their
+war-dance.  Wellsted thus describes the scene: “They formed a circle
+within which five of their number entered.  After walking leisurely
+around for some time, each challenged one of the spectators by striking
+him gently with the flat of his sword.  His adversary immediately leaped
+forth and a feigned combat ensued.  They have but two cuts, one directly
+downward, at the head, the other horizontal, across the legs.  They parry
+neither with the sword nor shield, but avoid the blows by leaping or
+bounding backward.  The blade of their sword is three feet in length,
+thin, double-edged, and as sharp as a razor.  As they carry it upright
+before them, by a peculiar motion of the wrist they cause it to vibrate
+in a very remarkable manner, which has a singularly striking effect when
+they are assembled in any considerable number.  It was part of the
+entertainment to fire off their matchlocks under the legs of some one of
+the spectators who appeared too intent on watching the game to observe
+their approach, and any signs of alarm which incautiously escaped the
+individual added greatly to their mirth.”
+
+In the evening a party of the Geneba Bedouins came in from the desert,
+accompanied by one of their chiefs.  The latter readily consented that
+Wellsted should accompany him on a short journey into his country, and
+they set out the following morning.  It was December, and the morning air
+was cold and pure; the party swept rapidly across the broad, barren
+plains, the low hills, dotted with acacia trees, and the stony channels
+which carried the floods of the rainy season to the sea.  After a day’s
+journey of forty-four miles they encamped near some brackish wells.  “You
+wished,” said the chief to Wellsted, “to see the country of the Bedouins;
+_this_,” he continued, striking his spear into the firm sand, “_this_ is
+the country of the Bedouins.”  Neither he nor his companions wore any
+clothing except a single cloth around the loins.  Their hair, which is
+permitted to grow until it reaches the waist, and is usually well
+plastered with grease, is the only covering which protects their heads
+from the sun.
+
+The second day’s journey brought Wellsted to a small encampment, where
+the chief’s wives were abiding.  They conversed with him, unveiled, gave
+him coffee, milk, and dates, and treated him with all the hospitality
+which their scanty means allowed.  The Beni Geneba tribe numbers about
+three thousand five hundred fighting men; they are spread over a large
+extent of Southern Arabia, and are divided into two distinct
+classes—those who live by fishing, and those who follow pastoral
+pursuits.  A race of fishermen, however, is found on all parts of the
+Arabian coast.  In some districts they are considered a separate and
+degraded people, with whom the genuine Bedouins will neither eat,
+associate, nor intermarry; but among the Beni Geneba this distinction
+does not exist.
+
+Wellsted might have penetrated much farther to the westward under the
+protection of this tribe, and was tempted to do so; but it seemed more
+important to move northward, and get upon some one of the caravan tracks
+leading into Central Arabia.  He therefore returned to the camp of the
+Beni-Abu-Ali, where the friendly people would hardly suffer him to
+depart, promising to build a house for him if he would remain a month
+with them.  For two days he travelled northward, over an undulating
+region of sand, sometimes dotted with stunted acacias, and reached a
+district called Bediah, consisting of seven villages, each seated in its
+little oasis of date palms.  One striking feature of these towns is their
+low situation.  They are erected in artificial hollows, which have been
+excavated to the depth of six or eight feet.  Water is then conveyed to
+them in subterranean channels from wells in the neighboring hills, and
+the soil is so fertile that irrigation suffices to produce the richest
+harvest of fruit and vegetables.  A single step carries the traveller
+from the glare and sand of the desert into a spot teeming with the most
+luxuriant vegetation, and embowered by lofty trees, whose foliage keeps
+out the sun.  “Some idea,” says Wellsted, “may be formed of the density
+of this shade by the effect it produces in lessening the terrestrial
+radiation.  A Fahrenheit thermometer which within the house stood at 55°,
+six inches from the ground fell to 45°.  From this cause and the
+abundance of water they are always saturated with damp, and even in the
+heat of the day possess a clammy coldness.”
+
+On approaching Ibrah, the next large town to the north, the country
+became hilly, and the valleys between the abrupt limestone ranges
+increased in fertility.  Wellsted thus describes the place: “There are
+some handsome houses in Ibrah; but the style of building is quite
+peculiar to this part of Arabia.  To avoid the damp and catch an
+occasional beam of the sun above the trees, they are usually very lofty.
+A parapet surrounding the upper part is turreted, and on some of the
+largest houses guns are mounted.  The windows and doors have the
+Saracenic arch, and every part of the building is profusely decorated
+with ornaments of stucco in bas-relief, some in very good taste.  The
+doors are also cased with brass, and have rings and other massive
+ornaments of the same metal.
+
+“Ibrah is justly renowned for the beauty and fairness of its females.
+Those we met on the streets evinced but little shyness, and on my return
+to the tent I found it filled with them.  They were in high glee at all
+they saw; every box I had was turned over for their inspection, and
+whenever I attempted to remonstrate against their proceedings they
+stopped my mouth with their hands.  With such damsels there was nothing
+left but to laugh and look on.”
+
+Travelling two days farther in the northward, Wellsted reached the town
+of Semmed, where he found a fine stream of running water.  The Shekh’s
+house was a large fort, the rooms of which were spacious and lofty, but
+destitute of furniture.  Suspended on pegs protruding from the walls were
+the saddles, cloths, and harness of the horses and camels.  The ceilings
+were painted in various devices, but the floors were of mud, and only
+partially covered with mats.  Lamps formed of shells, a species of murex,
+were suspended by lines from the ceiling.  On returning to the tent,
+after this visit, the traveller found, as usual, a great crowd collected
+there, but kept in order by a boy about twelve years of age.  He had
+taken possession of the tent, as its guardian, and allowed none to enter
+without his permission.  He carried a sword longer than himself, and also
+a stick, with which he occasionally laid about him.  It is a part of the
+Arab system of education to cease treating boys as children at a very
+early age, and they acquire, therefore, the gravity and demeanor of men.
+
+Beyond this place Wellsted was accompanied by a guard of seventy armed
+men, for the country was considered insecure.  For two days and a half he
+passed many small villages, separated by desert tracts, and then reached
+the town of Minnà, near the foot of the Green Mountains.  “Minnà,” he
+says, “differs from the other towns in having its cultivation in the open
+fields.  As we crossed these, with lofty almond, citron, and orange trees
+yielding a delicious fragrance on either hand, exclamations of
+astonishment and admiration burst from us.  ‘Is this Arabia?’ we said;
+‘this the country we have looked on heretofore as a desert?’  Verdant
+fields of grain and sugar-cane stretching along for miles are before us;
+streams of water, flowing in all directions, intersect our path; and the
+happy and contented appearance of the peasants agreeably helps to fill up
+the smiling picture.  The atmosphere was delightfully clear and pure;
+and, as we trotted joyously along, giving or returning the salutations of
+peace or welcome, I could almost fancy that we had at last reached that
+‘Araby the Blessed’ which I had been accustomed to regard as existing
+only in the fictions of our poets.
+
+“Minnà is an old town, said to have been erected at the period of
+Narhirvan’s invasion; but it bears, in common with the other towns, no
+indications of antiquity; its houses are lofty, but do not differ from
+those of Ibrah or Semmed.  There are two square towers, about one hundred
+and seventy feet in height, nearly in the centre of the town; at their
+bases the breadth of the wall is not more than two feet, and neither side
+exceeds in length eight yards.  It is therefore astonishing, considering
+the rudeness of the materials (they have nothing but unhewn stones and a
+coarse but apparently strong cement), that, with proportions so meagre,
+they should have been able to carry them to their present elevation.  The
+guards, who are constantly on the lookout, ascend by means of a rude
+ladder, formed by placing bars of wood in a diagonal direction in one of
+the side angles within the interior of the building.”
+
+The important town of Neswah, at the western base of the Jebel Akdar, or
+Green Mountains, is a short day’s journey from Minnà.  On arriving there
+Wellsted was received in a friendly manner by the governor, and lodged,
+for the first time since leaving Muscat, in a substantial house.  He was
+allowed to visit the fortress, which, in that region, is considered
+impregnable.  He was admitted by an iron door of great strength, and,
+ascending through a vaulted passage, passed through six others equally
+massive before reaching the summit.  The form of the fort is circular,
+its diameter being nearly one hundred yards, and to the height of ninety
+feet it has been filled up by a solid mass of earth and stones.  Seven or
+eight wells have been bored through this, from several of which they
+obtain a plentiful supply of water, while those which are dry serve as
+magazines for their shot and ammunition.  A wall forty feet high
+surrounds the summit, making the whole height of the fortress one hundred
+and fifty feet.  It is a work of extraordinary labor, and from its
+appearance probably of considerable antiquity; but no certain
+intelligence could be obtained on this point.
+
+On Christmas-day Wellsted left Neswah on an excursion to the celebrated
+Green Mountains.  The Shekh of Tanuf, the first village where he
+encamped, endeavored in every possible way to dissuade him from
+undertaking the journey; but his resolute manner and a few gifts overcame
+the difficulty.  Mounted on strong asses, the party commenced ascending a
+precipitous ridge by a track so narrow that they seemed at times to be
+suspended over precipices of unknown depth.  On the second day they
+reached the village of Seyk.  “By means of steps,” he says, “we descended
+the steep side of a narrow glen, about four hundred feet in depth,
+passing in our progress several houses perched on crags or other
+acclivities, their walls built up in some places so as to appear but a
+continuation of the precipice.  These small, snug, compact-looking
+dwellings have been erected by the natives one above the other, so that
+their appearance from the bottom of the glen, hanging as it were in
+mid-air, affords to the spectator a most novel and interesting picture.
+Here we found, amid a great variety of fruits and trees, pomegranates,
+citrons, almonds, nutmegs, and walnuts, with coffee-bushes and vines.  In
+the summer, these together must yield a delicious fragrance; but it was
+now winter, and they were leafless.  Water flows in many places from the
+upper part of the hills, and is received at the lower in small
+reservoirs, whence it is distributed all over the face of the country.
+From the narrowness of this glen, and the steepness of its sides, only
+the lower part of it receives the warmth of the sun’s rays for a short
+period of the day; and even at the time of our arrival we found it so
+chilly, that, after a short halt, we were very happy to continue our
+journey.”
+
+They halted for the night at a village called Shirazi, in the heart of
+the mountains, the highest peaks of which here reach a height of 6,000
+feet above the sea.  The inhabitants belong to a tribe called the Beni
+Ryam, who are considered infidels by the people of Neswah because they
+cultivate the grape for the purpose of making wine.  The next day the
+Arabs who formed Wellsted’s escort left him, and he had considerable
+difficulty in returning to Neswah by another road.  From this point he
+had intended starting for Central Arabia, but the funds which he expected
+did not arrive from Muscat, the British agent there having refused to
+make the necessary advances.  Wellsted thereupon applied directly to the
+Sultan, Sayd Saeed, for a loan, and while waiting an answer, made an
+excursion into the desert, fifty miles to the westward of Neswah.  With a
+view to familiarize himself with the manners and domestic life of the
+Bedouins, he mixed with them during this trip, living and sleeping in
+their huts and tents.  On all occasions he was treated with kindness, and
+often with a degree of hospitality above rather than below the means of
+those who gave it.
+
+Although the Sultan of Muscat was willing to furnish the necessary
+supplies, and arrangements had been made which Wellsted felt sure would
+have enabled him to penetrate into the interior, he was prevented from
+going forward by a violent fever, from the effects of which he remained
+insensible for five days.  Recovering sufficiently to travel, his only
+course was to return at once to the sea-coast, and on January 22, 1836,
+he left Neswah for the little port of Sib, where he arrived after a slow
+journey of eight days.  He relates the following incident, which occurred
+at Semayel, the half-way station: “Weary and faint from the fatigue of
+the day’s journey, in order to enjoy the freshness of the evening breeze
+I had my carpet spread beneath a tree.  An Arab passing by paused to gaze
+upon me, and, touched by my condition and the melancholy which was
+depicted on my countenance, he proffered the salutation of peace, pointed
+to the crystal stream which sparkled at my feet, and said: ‘Look, friend,
+for running water maketh the heart glad!’  With his hands folded over his
+breast, that mute but most graceful of Eastern salutations, he bowed and
+passed on.  I was in a situation to estimate sympathy; and so much of
+that feeling was exhibited in the manner of this son of the desert, that
+I have never since recurred to the incident, trifling as it is, without
+emotion.”
+
+A rest of four weeks at Sib recruited the traveller’s strength, and he
+determined to make another effort to reach Central Arabia.  He therefore
+applied to the Sultan for an escort to Bireimah, the first town of the
+Wahabees, beyond the northern frontier of Oman.  The Sultan sent a guide,
+but objected to the undertaking, as word had just arrived that the
+Wahabees were preparing to invade his territory.  Wellsted, however, was
+not willing to give up his design without at least making the attempt.
+He followed the coast, north of Muscat, as far as the port of Suweik,
+where he was most hospitably received by the wife of the governor, Seyd
+Hilal, who was absent.  “A huge meal, consisting of a great variety of
+dishes, sufficient for thirty or forty people, was prepared in his
+kitchen, and brought to us, on large copper dishes, twice a day during
+the time we remained.  On these occasions there was a great profusion of
+blue and gilt chinaware, cut glass dishes, and decanters containing
+sherbet instead of wine.”
+
+“The Shekh,” Wellsted continues, “after his return, usually spent the
+evening with us.  On one occasion he was accompanied by a professional
+storyteller, who appeared to be a great favorite with him.  ‘Whenever I
+feel melancholy or out of order,’ said he, ‘I send for this man, who very
+soon restores me to my wonted spirits.’  From the falsetto tone in which
+the story was chanted, I could not follow the thread of the tale, and,
+upon my mentioning this to him, the Shekh very kindly sent me the
+manuscript, of which the reciter had availed himself.  With little
+variation I found it to be the identical Sindbad the Sailor, so familiar
+to the readers of the Arabian Nights.  I little thought, when first I
+perused these fascinating tales in my own language, that it would ever be
+my lot to listen to the original in a spot so congenial and so remote.”
+
+                       [Picture: A valley in Oman]
+
+Leaving Suweik on March 4th, Wellsted was deserted by his camel-men at
+the end of the first day’s march, but succeeded in engaging others at a
+neighboring village.  The road, which at first led between low hills, now
+entered a deep mountain-gorge, inclosed by abrupt mountains of rock
+several thousand feet in height.
+
+For two days the party followed this winding defile, where the precipices
+frequently towered from three to four thousand feet over their heads.
+Then, having passed the main chain, the country became more open, and
+they reached the village of Muskin, in the territory of the Beni Kalban
+Arabs.  Their progress beyond this point was slow and tedious, on account
+of the country being divided into separate districts, which are partly
+independent of each other.  At the next town, Makiniyat, the Shekh urged
+them to go no farther, on account of the great risk, but finally
+consented to furnish an escort to Obri, the last town to the northward
+which acknowledges the sway of Muscat.  This was distant two days’
+journey—the first through a broad valley between pyramidal hills, the
+second over sandy plains, which indicated their approach to the Desert.
+
+Obri is one of the largest and most populous towns in Oman.  The
+inhabitants devote themselves almost exclusively to agriculture, and
+export large quantities of indigo, sugar, and dates.  On arriving
+Wellsted went immediately to the residence of the Shekh, whom he found to
+be a very different character from the officials whom he had hitherto
+encountered.  “Upon my producing the Imâm’s letters,” says he, “he read
+them, and took his leave without returning any answer.  About an hour
+afterward he sent a verbal message to request that I should lose no time
+in quitting his town, as he begged to inform me, what he supposed I could
+not have been aware of, that it was then filled with nearly two thousand
+Wahabees.  This was indeed news to us; it was somewhat earlier than we
+anticipated falling in with them, but we put a good face on the matter,
+and behaved as coolly as we could.”
+
+The next morning the Shekh returned, with a positive refusal to allow
+them to proceed farther.  Wellsted demanded a written refusal, as
+evidence which he could present to the Sultan, and this the Shekh at once
+promised to give.  His object was evidently to force the traveller away
+from the place, and such was the threatening appearance of things that
+the latter had no wish to remain.  The Wahabees crowded around the party
+in great numbers, and seemed only waiting for some pretext to commence an
+affray.  “When the Shekh came and presented me with the letter for the
+Sultan,” says Wellsted, “I knew it would be in vain to make any further
+effort to shake his resolution, and therefore did not attempt it.  In the
+meantime news had spread far and wide that two Englishmen, with a box of
+‘dollars,’ but in reality containing only the few clothes that we carried
+with us, had halted in the town.  The Wahabees and other tribes had met
+in deliberation, while the lower classes of the townsfolk were creating
+noise and confusion.  The Shekh either had not the shadow of any
+influence, or was afraid to exercise it, and his followers evidently
+wished to share in the plunder.  It was time to act.  I called Ali on one
+side, told him to make neither noise nor confusion, but to collect the
+camels without delay.  In the meantime we had packed up the tent, the
+crowd increasing every minute; the camels were ready, and we mounted on
+them.  A leader, or some trifling incident, was now only wanting to
+furnish them with a pretext for an onset.  They followed us with hisses
+and various other noises until we got sufficiently clear to push briskly
+forward; and, beyond a few stones being thrown, we reached the outskirts
+of the town without further molestation.  I had often before heard of the
+inhospitable character of the inhabitants of this place.  The neighboring
+Arabs observe that to enter Obri a man must either go armed to the teeth,
+or as a beggar with a cloth, and that not of decent quality, around his
+waist.  Thus, for a second time, ended my hopes of reaching Derreyeh from
+this quarter.”
+
+Wellsted was forced to return to Suweik, narrowly escaping a Bedouin
+ambush on the way.  As a last attempt he followed the coast as far as
+Schinas, near the mouth of the Straits of Ormuz, and thence despatched a
+messenger to the Wahabees at Birsimah.  This plan also failed, and he
+then returned to India.  He has given us, however, the only authentic
+account of the scenery and inhabitants of the interior of Oman, and his
+travels are thus an important contribution to our knowledge of Arabia.
+
+It is a sufficient commentary on the exclusive character of Interior
+Arabia, and the difficulties that bar the way there to free and thorough
+exploration, that, although Lieutenant Wellsted’s journey was in 1835, we
+still (1892) have to turn to his very interesting narrative for almost
+all we know of the interior of Oman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+WELLSTED’S DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY IN HADRAMAUT.
+
+WHILE employed in the survey of the southern coast of Arabia in the
+spring of 1835, Lieutenant Wellsted was occupied for a time near the cape
+called Ras el-Aseïda, in Hadramaut, about one hundred miles east of Aden.
+On this cape there is a watch-tower, with the guardian of which, an
+officer named Hamed, he became acquainted; and on learning from the
+Bedouins of the neighborhood that extensive ruins, which they described
+as having been built by infidels, and of great antiquity, were to be
+found at some distance inland, he prevailed upon the officer to procure
+him camels and guides.
+
+One day, having landed with a midshipman in order to visit some
+inscriptions at a few hours’ distance, the Bedouins who brought the
+camels refused to go to the place, but expressed their willingness to
+convey the two Europeans to the ruined city.  Hamed declined to accompany
+them, on the plea of sickness, and they were unsupplied with provisions
+or presents for the Shekhs of the villages on the way.  Still the chance
+was too tempting to be lost.  Wellsted decided to trust himself to the
+uncertain protection of the Bedouins, sent his boat to the surveying
+vessel with a message that it should meet him at a point farther to the
+westward at the end of three days, and set out for the ruins late in the
+afternoon.
+
+Leaving the sea-shore at sunset, they struck northward into the interior,
+and travelled until after midnight, passing several villages of the
+Diyabi Bedouins, a very fierce and powerful tribe, who are dreaded by all
+their neighbors.  Scraping for themselves beds in the sand, the
+travellers slept until daybreak without being disturbed.  The path soon
+after mounted a ledge about four hundred feet in height, from the summit
+of which they obtained an extensive but dreary view of the surrounding
+country.  Their route lay along a broad valley, skirted on each side by a
+lofty range of mountains.  By eight o’clock the sun became so oppressive
+that the Bedouins halted under the shade of some stunted tamarisk trees.
+“Within these burning hollows,” says Wellsted, “the sun’s rays are
+concentrated and thrown off as from a mirror; the herbs around were
+scorched to a cindery blackness; not a cloud obscured the firmament, and
+the breeze which moaned past us was of a glowing heat, like that escaping
+from the mouth of a furnace.  Our guides dug hollows in the sand, and
+thrust their blistered feet within them.  Although we were not long in
+availing ourselves of the practical lesson they had taught us, I began to
+be far from pleased with their churlish demeanor.”
+
+During the day they travelled over sandy and stony ridges, and late in
+the afternoon entered the Wady Meifah, where they found wells of good
+water and scanty vegetation.  “The country now began to assume a far
+different aspect.  Numerous hamlets, interspersed amid extensive date
+groves, verdant fields of grain, and herds of sleek cattle, showed
+themselves in every direction, and we now fell in with parties of
+inhabitants for the first time since leaving the sea-shore.  Astonishment
+was depicted on their countenances, but as we did not halt they had no
+opportunity of gratifying their curiosity by gazing at us for any length
+of time.”
+
+One of the Bedouins, however, in spite of Wellsted’s remonstrances, told
+the people that the travellers were in search of buried treasure.  When
+the latter attempted to encamp near a village, the inhabitants requested
+them to remove; the guides proved to be ignorant of the road in the
+night, and they would have been suffered to wander about without shelter
+but for the kindness of an old woman, who conducted them to her house.
+This proved to be a kind of khan for travellers, and was already so
+crowded that the travellers were obliged to sleep in an open courtyard.
+
+They were hardly prepared for the scene which daylight disclosed to them.
+“The dark verdure of fields of millet, sorghum, tobacco, etc., extended
+as far as the eye could reach.  Mingled with these we had the soft acacia
+and the stately but more sombre foliage of the date palm; while the
+creaking of numerous wheels with which the grounds were irrigated, and in
+the distance several rude ploughs drawn by oxen, the ruddy and lively
+appearance of the people, who now flocked toward us from all quarters,
+and the delightful and refreshing coolness of the morning air, combined
+to form a scene which he who gazes on the barren aspect of the coast
+could never anticipate.”
+
+After three hours’ travel through this bright and populous region, they
+came in sight of the ruins, which the inhabitants call _Nakab el-Hadjar_
+(meaning “The Excavation from the Rock”).  According to Wellsted’s
+estimate, they are about fifty miles from the coast.
+
+The following is Wellsted’s description of the place: “The hill upon
+which these ruins are situated stands out in the centre of the valley,
+and divides a stream which passes, during floods, on either side of it.
+It is nearly eight hundred yards in length, and about three hundred and
+fifty yards at its extreme breadth.  About a third of the height from its
+base a massive wall, averaging from thirty to forty feet in height, is
+carried completely around the eminence, and flanked by square towers,
+erected at equal distances.  There are but two entrances, north and
+south; a hollow, square tower, measuring fourteen feet, stands on both
+sides of these.  Their bases extend to the plain below, and are carried
+out considerably beyond the rest of the building.  Between the towers, at
+an elevation of twenty feet from the plain, there is an oblong platform
+which projects about eighteen feet without and within the walls.  A
+flight of steps was apparently once attached to either extremity of the
+building.
+
+“Within the entrance, at an elevation of ten feet from the platform, we
+found inscriptions.  They are executed with extreme care, in two
+horizontal lines, on the smooth face of the stones, the letters being
+about eight inches long.  Attempts have been made, though without
+success, to obliterate them.  From the conspicuous situation which they
+occupy, there can be but little doubt but that, when deciphered, they
+will be found to contain the name of the founder of the building, as well
+as the date and purport of its erection. {59}  The whole of the walls and
+towers, and some of the edifices within, are built of the same material—a
+compact grayish-colored marble, hewn to the required shape with the
+utmost nicety.  The dimensions of the slabs at the base were from five to
+seven feet in length, two to three in height, and three to four in
+breadth.
+
+             [Picture: Ruins of Nakab El-Hadjar in Hadramaut]
+
+“Let us now visit the interior, where the most conspicuous object is an
+oblong square building, the walls of which face the cardinal points: its
+dimensions are twenty-seven by seventeen yards.  The walls are fronted
+with a kind of freestone, each slab being cut of the same size, and the
+whole so beautifully put together that I endeavored in vain to insert the
+blade of a small penknife between them.  The outer, unpolished surface is
+covered with small chisel-marks, which the Bedouins have mistaken for
+writing.  From the extreme care displayed in the construction of this
+building, I have no doubt that it is a temple, and my disappointment at
+finding the interior filled up with the ruins of the fallen roof was very
+great.  Had it remained entire, we might have obtained some clew to guide
+us in our researches respecting the form of religion professed by the
+earlier Arabs.  Above and beyond this building there are several other
+edifices, with nothing peculiar in their form or appearance.
+
+“In no portion of the ruins did we succeed in tracing any remains of
+arches or columns, nor could we discover on their surface any of those
+fragments of pottery, colored glass, or metals, which are always found in
+old Egyptian towns, and which I also saw in those we discovered on the
+northwest coast of Arabia.  Except the attempts to deface the
+inscriptions, there is no other appearance of the buildings having
+suffered from any ravages besides those of time; and owing to the dryness
+of the climate, as well as the hardness of the material, every stone,
+even to the marking of the chisel, remains as perfect as the day it was
+hewn.  We were anxious to ascertain if the Arabs had preserved any
+tradition concerning the building, but they refer them, like other Arabs,
+to their pagan ancestors.  ‘Do you believe,’ said one of the Bedouins to
+me upon my telling him that his ancestors were then capable of greater
+works than themselves, ‘that these stones were raised by the unassisted
+hands of the Kafirs?  No! no!  They had devils, legions of devils (God
+preserve us from them!), to aid them.’”
+
+On his return to the sea, which occupied a day and a half, Wellsted was
+kindly treated by the natives, and suffered only from the intense heat.
+The vessel was fortunately waiting at the appointed place.  Since the
+journey was made (in 1836) Baron von Wrede, a German traveller, has
+succeeded in exploring a portion of Hadramaut, penetrating as far as Wady
+Doan, a large and populous valley, more than a hundred miles from the
+coast.  But a thorough exploration of both Yemen and Hadramaut is still
+wanting, and when made, it will undoubtedly result in many important
+discoveries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+BURTON’S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+CAPTAIN RICHARD F. BURTON, the discoverer of the great Lake Tanganyika,
+in Central Africa, first became known to the world by his daring and
+entirely successful visit to Medina and Mecca, in the year 1853, in the
+disguise of a Moslem pilgrim.  Although his journey was that of
+Burckhardt, reversed, and he describes the same ceremonies, his account
+supplies many deficiencies in the narrative of his predecessor, and has
+the merit of a livelier and more graphic style.
+
+Burton’s original design was to cross the Arabian Peninsula from west to
+east, as Palgrave has since done, and the Royal Geographical Society was
+disposed to accept his services.  But he failed to obtain a sufficient
+leave of absence from the East India Company, which only granted him a
+furlough of one year—a period quite insufficient for the undertaking.  He
+therefore determined to prove at least his fitness for the task, by
+making the pilgrimage to the holy cities.  He was already familiar with
+the Arabic and Persian languages, and had the advantage of an Eastern
+cast of countenance.
+
+Like Burckhardt, he assumed an Oriental character at the start, and
+during the voyage from Southampton to Alexandria was supposed to be a
+Persian prince.  For two or three months he laboriously applied himself
+in Egypt to the necessary religious studies, joined a society of
+dervishes, under the name of Shekh Abdullah, kept the severe fast of
+Ramazan, and familiarized himself with all the orthodox forms of
+ablution, prayer, and prostration.  He gave himself out to be an Afghan
+by birth, but long absent from his native country, a character which was
+well adapted to secure him against detection.  During his stay in Cairo
+he made the acquaintance of a boy named Mohammed el-Basyuni, a native of
+Mecca, who became his companion for the journey, and who seems not to
+have suspected his real character until the pilgrimage was over.
+
+Having purchased a tent and laid in an ample supply of provisions, with
+about four hundred dollars in money, he went to Suez about July 1st, with
+the avowed purpose of proceeding to Mecca by way of Jedda, yet with the
+secret intention of visiting Medina on the way.  Here he became
+acquainted with a company of pilgrims, whose good-will he secured by
+small loans of money, and joined them in taking passage in a large Arab
+boat bound for Yembo.  The vessel was called the Golden Wire.  “Immense
+was the confusion,” says Burton, “on the eventful day of our departure.
+Suppose us standing on the beach, on the morning of a fiery July day,
+carefully watching our hurriedly-packed goods and chattels, surrounded by
+a mob of idlers who are not too proud to pick up waifs and strays, while
+pilgrims rush about apparently mad, and friends are weeping,
+acquaintances vociferating adieux, boatmen demanding fees, shopmen
+claiming debts, women shrieking and talking with inconceivable power,
+children crying—in short, for an hour or so we were in the thick of a
+human storm.  To confound confusion, the boatmen have moored their skiff
+half a dozen yards away from the shore, lest the porters should be unable
+to make more than double their fare from the pilgrims.”
+
+They sailed on July 6th, and were five days in reaching the mouth of the
+Gulf of Akaba.  While crossing to the Arabian shore, the pilgrims are
+accustomed to repeat the following prayer, which is a good example of
+Moslem invocation: “O Allah, O Exalted, O Almighty, O All-pitiful, O
+All-powerful, thou art my God, and sufficeth to me the knowledge of it!
+Glorified be the Lord my Lord, and glorified be the faith my faith!  Thou
+givest victory to whom thou pleaseth, and thou art the glorious, the
+merciful!  We pray thee for safety in our goings-forth and in our
+standings-still, in our words and our designs, in our dangers of
+temptation and doubts, and the secret designs of our hearts.  Subject
+unto us this sea, even as thou didst subject the deep to Moses, and as
+thou didst subject the fire to Abraham, and as thou didst subject the
+iron to David, and as thou didst subject the wind, and devils, and genii,
+and mankind to Solomon, and as thou didst subject the moon and El-Burak
+to Mohammed, upon whom be Allah’s mercy and His blessing!  And subject
+unto us all the seas in earth and heaven, in the visible and in thine
+invisible worlds, the sea of this life, and the sea of futurity.  O thou
+who reignest over everything, and unto whom all things return, Khyar!
+Khyar!”
+
+A further voyage of another week, uncomfortable and devoid of incident,
+brought the vessel to Yembo.  As the pilgrims were desirous of pushing on
+to Medina, camels were hired on the day of arrival, and, a week’s
+provisions having been purchased, the little caravan started the next
+afternoon.  Burton, by the advice of his companions, assumed the Arab
+dress, but travelled in a litter, both because of an injury to his foot,
+and because he could thus take notes on the way without being observed.
+On account of the heat the caravan travelled mostly by night; the
+country, thus dimly seen, was low and barren for the first two days, but
+on the third day they reached a wilder region, which Burton thus
+describes: “We travelled through a country fantastic in its desolation—a
+mass of huge hills, barren plains, and desert vales.  Even the sturdy
+acacias here failed, and in some places the camel grass could not find
+earth enough to take root in.  The road wound among mountains, rocks, and
+hills of granite, over broken ground, flanked by huge blocks and
+bowlders, piled up as if man’s art had aided nature to disfigure herself.
+Vast clefts seemed like scars on the hideous face of earth; here they
+widened into dark caves, there they were choked up with glistening drift
+sand.  Not a bird or a beast was to be seen or heard; their presence
+would have argued the vicinity of water, and though my companions opined
+that Bedouins were lurking among the rocks, I decided that these Bedouins
+were the creatures of their fears.  Above, a sky like polished blue
+steel, with a tremendous blaze of yellow light, glared upon us, without
+the thinnest veil of mist or cloud.  The distant prospect, indeed, was
+more attractive than the near view, because it borrowed a bright azure
+tinge from the intervening atmosphere; but the jagged peaks and the
+perpendicular streaks of shadow down the flanks of the mountainous
+background showed that no change for the better was yet in store for us.”
+
+At the little towns of El-Hamra and Bir Abbas the caravan rested a day,
+suffering much from the intense heat, and with continual quarrels between
+the pilgrims and the Arabs to whom the camels belonged.  At the latter
+place they were threatened with a detention of several days, but the
+difficulty was settled, and they set out upon the most dangerous portion
+of the road.  “We travelled that night,” says Burton “up a dry
+river-course in an easterly direction, and at early dawn found ourselves
+in an ill-famed gorge, called _Shuab el-Hadj_ (the ‘Pilgrim’s Pass’).
+The loudest talkers became silent as we neared it, and their countenances
+showed apprehension written in legible characters.  Presently, from the
+high, precipitous cliff on our left, thin blue curls of smoke—somehow or
+other they caught every eye—rose in the air, and instantly afterward rang
+the loud, sharp cracks of the hill-men’s matchlocks, echoed by the rocks
+on the right.  My shugduf had been broken by the camel’s falling during
+the night, so I called out to Mansur that we had better splice the
+frame-work with a bit of rope; he looked up, saw me laughing, and with an
+ejaculation of disgust disappeared.  A number of Bedouins were to be seen
+swarming like hornets over the crests of the rocks, boys as well as men
+carrying huge weapons, and climbing with the agility of cats.  They took
+up comfortable places in the cut-throat eminence, and began firing upon
+us with perfect convenience to themselves.  The height of the hills and
+the glare of the rising sun prevented my seeing objects very distinctly,
+but my companions pointed out to me places where the rock had been
+scarped, and a kind of breastwork of rough stones—the Sangah of
+Afghanistan, piled up as a defence, and a rest for the long barrel of the
+matchlock.  It was useless to challenge the Bedouins to come down and
+fight us upon the plain like men; and it was equally unprofitable for our
+escort to fire upon a foe ensconced behind stones.  We had, therefore,
+nothing to do but to blaze away as much powder and to veil ourselves in
+as much smoke as possible; the result of the affair was that we lost
+twelve men, besides camels and other beasts of burden.  Though the
+bandits showed no symptoms of bravery, and confined themselves to
+slaughtering the enemy from their hill-top, my companions seemed to
+consider this questionable affair a most gallant exploit.”
+
+After two more days of severe travel, the pilgrims, at early dawn, came
+in sight of the holy city of Medina.  Burton thus describes the approach,
+and the view from the western ridge: “Half an hour after leaving the Wady
+el-Akik, or ‘Blessed Valley,’ we came to a huge flight of steps, roughly
+cut in a long, broad line of black, scoriaceous basalt.  This is called
+the _Mudarraj_, or flight of steps over the western ridge of the
+so-called El-Harratain; it is holy ground, for the Prophet spoke well of
+it.  Arrived at the top, we passed through a lane of black scoria, with
+deep banks on both sides, and, after a few minutes a full view of the
+city suddenly opened on us.  We halted our beasts as if by word of
+command.  All of us descended, in imitation of the pious of old, and sat
+down, jaded and hungry as we were, to feast our eyes with a view of the
+Holy City.  The prayer was, ‘O Allah! this is the _Haram_ (sanctuary) of
+the Prophet; make it to us a protection from hell fire, and a refuge from
+eternal punishment!  O, open the gates of thy mercy, and let us pass
+through them to the land of joy!’
+
+“As we looked eastward, the sun arose out of the horizon of low hills,
+blurred and dotted with small tufted trees, which gained a giant stature
+from the morning mists, and the earth was stained with gold and purple.
+Before us lay a spacious plain, bounded in front by the undulating ground
+of Nedjed; on the left was a grim barrier of rocks, the celebrated Mount
+Ohod, with a clump of verdure and a white dome or two nestling at its
+base.  Rightward, broad streaks of lilac-colored mists were thick with
+gathered dew, there pierced and thinned by the morning rays, stretched
+over the date-groves and the gardens of Kuba, which stood out in emerald
+green from the dull tawny surface of the plain.  Below, at the distance
+of about two miles, lay El Medina; at first sight it appeared a large
+place, but a closer inspection proved the impression to be an erroneous
+one.”
+
+On arriving at Medina, Burton became the guest of one of the company he
+had met at Suez, and during his stay of a month in the city performed all
+the religious ceremonies and visitations which are prescribed for the
+pilgrim.  He gives the following description of the Prophet’s mosque:
+“Passing through muddy streets—they had been freshly watered before
+evening time—I came suddenly upon the mosque.  Like that at Mecca, the
+approach is choked up by ignoble buildings, some actually touching the
+holy ‘enceinte,’ others separated by a lane compared with which the road
+around St. Paul’s is a Vatican square.  There is no outer front, no
+general aspect of the Prophet’s mosque; consequently, as a building it
+has neither beauty nor dignity.  And entering the Bab el-Rahmah—the Gate
+of Pity—by a diminutive flight of steps, I was astonished at the mean and
+tawdry appearance of a place so universally venerated in the Moslem
+world.  It is not like the Meccan mosque, grand and simple—the expression
+of a single sublime idea; the longer I looked at it the more it suggested
+the resemblance of a museum of second-rate art, a curiosity-shop, full of
+ornaments that are not accessories, and decorated with pauper splendor.”
+
+                 [Picture: View of Medina from the West]
+
+We must also quote the traveller’s account of his manner of spending the
+day during his residence in Medina: “At dawn we arose, washed, prayed,
+and broke our fast upon a crust of stale bread, before smoking a pipe,
+and drinking a cup of coffee.  Then it was time to dress, to mount, and
+to visit the Haram in one of the holy places outside the city.  Returning
+before the sun became intolerable, we sat together, and with
+conversation, shishas and chibouques, coffee and cold water perfumed with
+mastich-smoke, we whiled away the time till our _ariston_, an early
+dinner which appeared at the primitive hour of 11 A.M.  The meal was
+served in the _majlis_ on a large copper tray sent from the upper
+apartments.  Ejaculating ‘Bismillah’—the Moslem grace—we all sat round
+it, and dipped equal hands in the dishes set before us.  We had usually
+unleavened bread, different kinds of meat and vegetable stews, and at the
+end of the first course plain boiled rice, eaten with spoons; then came
+the fruits, fresh dates, grapes, and pomegranates.  After dinner I used
+invariably to find some excuse—such as the habit of a ‘Kaylúlah’ (midday
+siesta), or the being a ‘Saudawi,’ or person of melancholy temperament,
+to have a rug spread in the dark passage, and there to lie reading,
+dozing, smoking, or writing, all through the worst part of the day, from
+noon to sunset.  Then came the hour for receiving and paying visits.  The
+evening prayers ensued, either at home or in the Haram, followed by our
+supper, another substantial meal like the dinner, but more plentiful, of
+bread, meat, vegetables, rice, and fruits.  In the evening we sometimes
+dressed in common clothes and went to the café; sometimes on festive
+occasions we indulged in a late supper of sweetmeats, pomegranates, and
+dried fruits.  Usually we sat upon mattresses spread upon the ground in
+the open air, at the Shekh’s door, receiving evening visits, chatting,
+telling stories, and making merry, till each, as he felt the approach of
+the drowsy god, sank down into his proper place, and fell asleep.”
+
+Burton was charmed with the garden and date-groves about Medina, and
+enjoyed the excursions, which were enjoined upon him as a pilgrim, to
+Jebel Ohod, the mosque of Kuba, and other places in the vicinity of the
+city.  On August 28th the caravan of pilgrims from Damascus arrived, and,
+on account of danger from the Bedouins, decided to leave on the fourth
+day afterward, taking the Desert road to Mecca, the same travelled by the
+Caliph Haroun El-Raschid and his wife Zobeida, instead of the longer road
+nearer the coast, which Burckhardt had followed.  When this plan was
+announced, Burton and his companions had but twenty-four hours to make
+the necessary preparations; but by hard work they were ready.  Leaving
+Medina, they hastened onward to secure good places in the caravan, which
+was composed of about seven thousand pilgrims, and extended over many
+miles of the road.
+
+For the first four days they travelled southward over a wild, desolate
+country, almost destitute of water and vegetation.  On account of heat,
+as well as for greater security, the journey was made chiefly by night,
+although the forced marches between the wells obliged them sometimes to
+endure the greatest heat of the day.  Burton says: “I can scarcely find
+words to express the weary horrors of a long night’s march, during which
+the hapless traveller, fuming, if a European, with disappointment in his
+hopes of ‘seeing the country,’ is compelled to sit upon the back of a
+creeping camel.  The day sleep, too, is a kind of lethargy, and it is all
+but impossible to preserve an appetite during the hours of heat.”
+
+After making ninety-nine miles from Medina, they reached the village of
+El Suwayrkiyah, which is included within the Meccan territory.  The town,
+consisting of about one hundred houses, is built at the base and on the
+sides of a basaltic mass which rises abruptly from the hard clayey plain.
+The summit is converted into a rude fortalice by a bulwark of uncut
+stone, piled up so as to make a parapet.  The lower part of the town is
+protected by a mud wall, with the usual semicircular towers.  Inside
+there is a bazaar, well supplied with meat (principally mutton) by the
+neighboring Bedouins, and wheat, barley, and dates are grown near the
+town.  There is little to describe in the narrow streets and the mud
+houses, which are essentially Arab.  The fields around are divided into
+little square plots by earthen ridges and stone walls; some of the palms
+are fine grown trees, and the wells appeared numerous.  The water is near
+the surface and plentiful, but it has a brackish taste, highly
+disagreeable after a few days’ use, and the effects are the reverse of
+chalybeate.
+
+Seventeen miles beyond El Suwayrkiyah is the small village of Sufayuah,
+beyond which the country becomes again very wild and barren.  Burton thus
+describes the scenery the day after leaving Sufayuah: “This day’s march
+was peculiarly Arabia.  It was a desert peopled only with echoes—a place
+of death for what little there is to die in it—a wilderness where, to use
+my companion’s phrase, there is nothing but He (Allah).  Nature, scalped,
+flayed, discovered her anatomy to the gazer’s eye.  The horizon was a sea
+of mirage; gigantic sand-columns whirled over the plain; and on both
+sides of our road were huge piles of bare rock standing detached upon the
+surface of sand and clay.  Here they appeared in oval lumps, heaped up
+with a semblance of symmetry; there a single bowlder stood, with its
+narrow foundation based upon a pedestal of low, dome-shaped rock.  All
+are of a pink coarse-grained granite, which flakes off in large crusts
+under the influence of the atmosphere.”
+
+After four more long marches the caravan reached a station called El
+Zaribah, where the pilgrims halted a day to assume the _ihram_, or
+costume which they wear on approaching Mecca.  They were now in the
+country of the Utaybah Bedouins, the most fierce and hostile of all the
+tribes on the road.  Although only two marches, or fifty miles, from
+Mecca, the pilgrims were by no means safe, as the night after they left
+Zaribah testified.  While threading a narrow pass between high rocks, in
+the twilight, there was a sudden discharge of musketry and some camels
+dropped dead.  The Utaybah, hidden behind the rocks crowning the pass,
+poured down an irregular fire upon the pilgrims, who were panic-stricken
+and fell into great disorder.  The Wahabees, however, commenced scaling
+the rocks, and very soon drove the robbers from their ambush.  The
+caravan then hurried forward in great disorder, leaving the dead and
+severely wounded lying on the ground.
+
+“At the beginning of the skirmish,” says Burton, “I had primed my
+pistols, and sat with them ready for use.  But soon seeing that there was
+nothing to be done, and, wishing to make an impression—nowhere does
+Bobadil now ‘go down’ but in the East—I called aloud for my supper.
+Shekh Nur, exanimate with fear, could not move.  The boy Mohammed
+ejaculated only an ‘Oh, sir!’ and the people around exclaimed in disgust,
+‘By Allah! he eats!’ Shekh Abdullah, the Meccan, being a man of spirit,
+was amused by the spectacle.  ‘Are these Afghan manners, Effendim?’ he
+inquired from the shugduf behind me.  ‘Yes,’ I replied aloud, ‘in my
+country we always dine before an attack of robbers, because that gentry
+is in the habit of sending men to bed supperless.’  The Shekh laughed
+aloud, but those around him looked offended.”
+
+The morning after this adventure the pilgrims reached the Wady Laymun, or
+Valley of Limes, a beautiful region of gardens and orchards, only
+twenty-four miles from Mecca.  Here they halted four hours to rest and
+enjoy the fruits and fresh water; then the line of march was resumed
+toward the Holy City.  In the afternoon the range of Jebel Kora, in the
+southeast, became visible, and as evening approached all eyes were
+strained, but in vain, for a sight of Mecca.  Night came down, and the
+pilgrims moved slowly onward in the darkness.  An hour after midnight
+Burton was roused by a general excitement in the caravan.  “Mecca!
+Mecca!” cried some voices; “The Sanctuary, O the Sanctuary!” exclaimed
+others, and all burst into loud cries of “_Labeyk_!” not unfrequently
+broken by sobs.  Looking out from his litter the traveller saw by the
+light of the southern stars the dim outlines of a large city.  They were
+passing over the last rocky ridge by an artificial cut.  The winding path
+was flanked on both sides by high watch-towers; a short distance farther
+they entered the northern suburb.
+
+The Meccan boy Mohammed, who had been Burton’s companion during the
+pilgrimage, conducted the latter to his mother’s house, where he remained
+during his stay.  A meal of vermicelli and sugar was prepared on their
+arrival in the night, and after an hour or two of sleep they rose at
+dawn, in order to perform the ceremonies of arrival.  After having
+bathed, they walked in their pilgrim garb to the _Beit Allah_, or “House
+of God.”
+
+“There,” says Burton, “there at last it lay, the bourne of my long and
+weary pilgrimage, realizing the plans and hopes of many and many a year.
+The mirage medium of fancy invested the huge catafalque and its gloomy
+pall with peculiar charms.  There were no giant fragments of hoar
+antiquity as in Egypt, no remains of graceful and harmonious beauty as in
+Greece and Italy, no barbaric gorgeousness as in the buildings of India;
+yet the view was strange, unique, and how few have looked upon the
+celebrated shrine!  I may truly say, that, of all the worshippers who
+clung weeping to the curtain, or who pressed their beating hearts to the
+stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the Hadji from
+the far north.  It was as if the poetical legends of the Arab spoke
+truth, and that the waving wings of angels, not the sweet breezes of
+morning, were agitating and swelling the black covering of the shrine.
+But, to confess humbling truth, theirs was the high feeling of religious
+enthusiasm, mine was the ecstasy of gratified pride.”
+
+Burton’s description of the Beit Allah and the Kaaba is more minute and
+careful than that of Burckhardt, but does not differ from it in any
+important particular.  Neither is it necessary to quote his account of
+the ceremonies to be performed by each individual pilgrim, with all their
+mechanical prostrations and repetitions.  His account of the visit to the
+famous Black Stone, however, is both curious and amusing: “For a long
+time I stood looking in despair at the swarming crowd of Bedouin and
+other pilgrims that besieged it.  But the boy Mohammed was equal to the
+occasion.  During our circuit he had displayed a fiery zeal against
+heresy and schism by foully abusing every Persian in his path, and the
+inopportune introduction of hard words into his prayers made the latter a
+strange patchwork.  He might, for instance, be repeating ‘and I take
+refuge with thee from ignominy in this world,’ when, ‘O thou rejected
+one, son of the rejected!’ would be the interpolation addressed to some
+long-bearded Khorassani, ‘and in that to come—O hog and brother of a
+hoggess!’  And so he continued till I wondered that no one dared to turn
+and rend him.  After vainly addressing the pilgrims, of whom nothing
+could be seen but a mosaic of occiputs and shoulder-blades, the boy
+Mohammed collected about half a dozen stalwart Meccans, with whose
+assistance, by sheer strength, we wedged our way into the thin and
+light-legged crowd.  The Bedouins turned round upon us like wildcats, but
+they had no daggers.  The season being autumn, they had not swelled
+themselves with milk for six months; and they had become such living
+mummies that I could have managed single-handed half a dozen of them.
+After thus reaching the stone, despite popular indignation, testified by
+impatient shouts, we monopolized the use of it for at least ten minutes.
+Whilst kissing it and rubbing hands and forehead upon it I narrowly
+observed it, and came away persuaded that it is a big aërolite.”
+
+                     [Picture: Camp at Mount Arafat]
+
+On September 12th the pilgrims set out for Mount Arafat.  Three miles
+from Mecca there is a large village called Muna, noted for three standing
+miracles—the pebbles, there thrown at the Devil, return by angelic agency
+to whence they came; during the three days of drying meat rapacious birds
+and beasts cannot prey there, and flies do not settle upon the articles
+of food exposed in the bazaars.  Beyond the place there is a mosque
+called El Khayf, where, according to some traditions, Adam is buried, his
+head being at one end of the long wall and his feet at the other, while
+the dome is built over his navel.
+
+“Arafat,” says Burton, “is about a six hours’ march, or twelve miles, on
+the Taif road, due east of Mecca.  We arrived there in a shorter time,
+but our weary camels, during the last third of the way, frequently threw
+themselves upon the ground.  Human beings suffered more.  Between Muna
+and Arafat I saw no less than five men fall down and die upon the
+highway; exhausted and moribund, they had dragged themselves out to give
+up the ghost where it departs to instant beatitude.  The spectacle showed
+how easy it is to die in these latitudes; each man suddenly staggered,
+fell as if shot, and, after a brief convulsion, lay still as marble.  The
+corpses were carefully taken up, and carelessly buried that same evening,
+in a vacant space amongst the crowds encamped upon the Arafat plain.
+
+“Nothing can be more picturesque than the view the mountain affords of
+the blue peaks behind, and the vast encampment scattered over the barren
+yellow plain below.  On the north lay the regularly pitched camp of the
+guards that defend the unarmed pilgrims.  To the eastward was the
+Scherif’s encampment with the bright mahmals and the gilt knobs of the
+grander pavilions; whilst, on the southern and western sides, the tents
+of the vulgar crowded the ground, disposed in dowars, or circles, for
+penning cattle.  After many calculations, I estimated the number to be
+not less than fifty thousand, of all ages and both sexes.”
+
+After the sermon on Arafat, which Burton describes in the same manner as
+Burckhardt, the former gives an account of the subsequent ceremony of
+“stoning the Great Devil” near the village of Muna: “‘The Shaytan
+el-Kabir’ is a dwarf buttress of rude masonry, about eight feet high by
+two and a half broad, placed against a rough wall of stones, at the
+Meccan entrance to Muna.  As the ceremony of ‘Ramy,’ or Lapidation, must
+be performed on the first day by all pilgrims between sunrise and sunset,
+and as the Fiend was malicious enough to appear in a rugged pass, the
+crowd makes the place dangerous.  On one side of the road, which is not
+forty feet broad, stood a row of shops belonging principally to barbers.
+On the other side is the rugged wall of the pillar, with a _chevaux de
+frise_ of Bedouins and naked boys.  The narrow space was crowded with
+pilgrims, all struggling like drowning men to approach as near as
+possible to the Devil; it would have been easy to run over the heads of
+the mass.  Amongst them were horsemen with rearing chargers.  Bedouins on
+wild camels, and grandees on mules and asses, with outrunners, were
+breaking a way by assault and battery.  I had read Ali Bey’s
+self-felicitations upon escaping this place with ‘only two wounds in the
+left leg,’ and had duly provided myself with a hidden dagger.  The
+precaution was not useless.  Scarcely had my donkey entered the crowd
+than he was overthrown by a dromedary, and I found myself under the
+stamping and roaring beast’s stomach.  By a judicious use of the knife, I
+avoided being trampled upon, and lost no time in escaping from a place so
+ignobly dangerous.  Finding an opening at last, we approached within
+about five cubits of the place, and holding each stone between the thumb
+and forefinger of the ring hand, cast it at the pillar, exclaiming: ‘In
+the name of Allah, and Allah is Almighty, I do this in hatred of the
+Fiend and to his shame.’  The seven stones being duly thrown, we retired,
+and entering the barber’s booth, took our places upon one of the earthen
+benches around it.  This was the time to remove the _ihram_ or pilgrim’s
+garb, and to return to the normal state of El Islam.  The barber shaved
+our heads, and, after trimming our beards and cutting our nails, made us
+repeat these words: ‘I purpose loosening my _ihram_, according to the
+practice of the Prophet, whom may Allah bless and preserve!  O Allah,
+make unto me in every hair a light, a purity, and a generous reward!  In
+the name of Allah, and Allah is Almighty!’  At the conclusion of his
+labor the barber politely addressed to us a ‘Naiman’—Pleasure to you!  To
+which we as ceremoniously replied, ‘Allah give thee pleasure!’”
+
+We will conclude these quotations from Burton’s narrative with his
+description of a sermon in the great mosque of Mecca.  “After returning
+to the city from the sacrifice of sheep in the valley of Muna, we bathed,
+and when noon drew nigh we repaired to the Haram for the purpose of
+hearing the sermon.  Descending to the cloisters below the Bab
+el-Ziyadah, I stood wonderstruck by the scene before me.  The vast
+quadrangle was crowded with worshippers sitting in long rows, and
+everywhere facing the central black tower; the showy colors of their
+dresses were not to be surpassed by a garden of the most brilliant
+flowers, and such diversity of detail would probably not be seen massed
+together in any other building upon earth.  The women, a dull and
+sombre-looking group, sat apart in their peculiar place.  The Pasha stood
+on the roof of Zem Zem, surrounded by guards in Nizam uniform.  Where the
+principal ulema stationed themselves the crowd was thicker; and in the
+more auspicious spots naught was to be seen but a pavement of heads and
+shoulders.  Nothing seemed to move but a few dervishes, who, censer in
+hand, sidled through the rows and received the unsolicited alms of the
+faithful.  Apparently in the midst, and raised above the crowd by the
+tall, pointed pulpit, whose gilt spire flamed in the sun, sat the
+preacher, an old man with snowy beard.  The style of head-dress called
+‘_taylasan_’ covered his turban, which was white as his robes, and a
+short staff supported his left hand.  Presently he arose, took the staff
+in his right hand, pronounced a few inaudible words, and sat down again
+on one of the lower steps, whilst a Muezzin, at the foot of the pulpit,
+recited the call to sermon.  Then the old man stood up and began to
+preach.  As the majestic figure began to exert itself there was a deep
+silence.  Presently a general ‘Amin’ was intoned by the crowd at the
+conclusion of some long sentence.  And at last, toward the end of the
+sermon, every third or fourth word was followed by the simultaneous rise
+and fall of thousands of voices.
+
+“I have seen the religious ceremonies of many lands, but
+never—nowhere—aught so solemn, so impressive as this spectacle.”
+
+                 [Picture: Costume of Pilgrims to Mecca]
+
+Finding that it was impossible for him to undertake the journey across
+Central Arabia, both for lack of time and the menacing attitude of the
+Desert tribes, Burton left Mecca for Jedda at the end of September.
+Starting in the afternoon, the chance caravan of returning pilgrims
+reached, about midnight, a mass of huts called El Hadda, which is the
+usual half-way halting-place.  It is maintained solely for the purpose of
+supplying travellers with coffee and water.  Here the country slopes
+gradually toward the sea, the hills recede, and every feature denotes
+departure from the upland plateau of Mecca.  After reaching here, and at
+some solitary coffee-houses farther on the way, the pilgrims reached
+Jedda safely at eight in the morning.
+
+From this place Burton took passage on a steamer for Suez, and returned
+to Cairo, but without the Meccan boy, Mohammed, who began to have a
+suspicion of his true character, after seeing him in company with some
+English officers, and who left him before embarking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ARABIA: FROM PALESTINE TO THE DJOWF.
+
+MR. WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE, son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian,
+performed, in 1862–63, a journey in Arabia, which gives us the first
+clear and full account of the interior of the country, including the
+great Wahabee state of Nedjed, the early home of Arabian poetry and also
+of the famous Arabian breed of horses.  Mr. Palgrave’s qualifications for
+the undertaking were in some respects superior to those of either
+Burckhardt or Burton.  To a high degree of general culture and a vigorous
+and picturesque style as a writer, he added a knowledge of the Arabic
+language and literature equal to that of any native scholar; he spoke the
+language as well as his mother tongue; his features were sufficiently
+Oriental to disarm suspicion, and years of residence in the East had
+rendered him entirely familiar with the habits of the people and even
+with all those minor forms of etiquette which are so rarely acquired by a
+stranger.  His narrative, therefore, is as admirable and satisfactory in
+its character as the fields he traversed were new and fascinating.  It
+throws, indeed, so much indirect light upon the experiences of all his
+predecessors, and is so much richer in its illustrations of Arab life and
+character that no brief summary of its contents can do justice to its
+importance.
+
+                   [Picture: William Gifford Palgrave]
+
+Of the first stage of the journey, from Gaza on the Mediterranean to the
+little town of Ma’an, which lies on the route of the caravans from
+Damascus to Mecca, a short distance to the northeast of Petra, and thus
+nearly on the boundary between the country of Moab and Edom, Palgrave
+gives us no account.  Yet, in spite of the comparatively brief distance
+traversed, it must have been both laborious and dangerous.  His narrative
+commences as follows, at the moment of his departure from Ma’an:
+
+“Once for all let us attempt to acquire a fairly correct and
+comprehensive knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula.  With its coasts we are
+already in great measure acquainted; several of its maritime provinces
+have been, if not thoroughly, at least sufficiently, explored; Yemen and
+Hedjaz, Mecca and Medina, are no longer mysteries to us, nor are we
+wholly without information on the districts of Hadramaut and Oman.  But
+of the interior of the vast region, of its plains and mountains, its
+tribes and cities, of its governments and institutions, of its
+inhabitants, their ways and customs, of their social condition, how far
+advanced in civilization or sunk in barbarism, what do we as yet really
+know, save from accounts necessarily wanting in fulness and precision?
+It is time to fill up this blank in the map of Asia, and this, at
+whatever risks, we will now endeavor; either the land before us shall be
+our tomb, or we will traverse it in its fullest breadth, and know what it
+contains from shore to shore.  _Vestigia nulla retrorsum_.”
+
+“Such were my thoughts, and such, more or less, I should suppose, those
+of my companion, when we found ourselves at fall of night without the
+eastern gate of Ma’an, while the Arabs, our guides and fellow-travellers,
+filled their water-skins from a gushing source hard by the town walls,
+and adjusted the saddles and the burdens of their camels, in preparation
+for the long journey that lay before us and them.  It was the evening of
+June 16, 1862; the largest stars were already visible in the deep blue
+depths of a cloudless sky, while the crescent moon, high to the west,
+shone as she shines in those heavens, and promised us assistance for some
+hours of our night march.  We were soon mounted on our meagre long-necked
+beasts, ‘as if,’ according to the expression of an Arab poet, ‘we and our
+men were at mast-heads,’ and now we set our faces to the east.  Behind us
+lay, in a mass of dark outline, the walls and castle of Ma’an, its houses
+and gardens, and farther back in the distance the high and barren range
+of the Sheraa’ Mountains, merging into the coast chain of Hejaz.  Before
+and around us extended a wide and level plain, blackened over with
+countless pebbles of basalt and flint, except where the moonbeams gleamed
+white on little intervening patches of clear sand, or on yellowish
+streaks of withered grass, the scanty product of the winter rains, and
+dried now into hay.  Over all a deep silence, which even our Arab
+companions seemed fearful of breaking; when they spoke it was in a half
+whisper and in a few words, while the noiseless tread of our camels sped
+stealthily but rapidly through the gloom without disturbing its
+stillness.
+
+“Some precaution was not indeed wholly out of place, for that stage of
+the journey on which we were now entering was anything but safe.  We were
+bound for the Djowf, the nearest inhabited district of Central Arabia,
+its outlying station, in fact.  Now the intervening tract offered for the
+most part the double danger of robbers and of thirst, of marauding bands
+and of the summer season.  The distance itself to be traversed was near
+two hundred miles in a straight line, and unavoidable circumstances were
+likely to render it much longer.”
+
+Palgrave’s companion was a native Syrian, named Barakat—a man on whom he
+could fully rely.  Hardy, young, and enterprising, he belonged to a
+locality whose inhabitants are accustomed to danger.  But the Bedouins
+who furnished the camels, and acted as guides, were of another class.
+They were three in number—Salim, their leader, a member of a powerful
+family of the Howeytat tribe, but outlawed for pillage and murder, and
+two men, Alee and Djordee, utter barbarians in appearance no less than in
+character.  Even Salim advised the travellers to avoid all familiarities
+with the latter.
+
+“Myself and my companion,” says Palgrave, “were dressed like ordinary
+class travellers of inner Syria, an equipment in which we had already
+made our way from Gaza on the sea-coast to Ma’an without much remark or
+unseasonable questioning from those whom we fell in with, while we
+traversed a country so often described already by Pococke, Laborde, and
+downward, under the name of Arabia Petra, that it would be superfluous
+for me to enter into any new account of it in the present work.  Our
+dress, then, consisted partly of a long stout blouse of Egyptian hemp,
+under which, unlike our Bedouin fellow-travellers, we indulged in the
+luxury of the loose cotton drawers common in the East, while our colored
+head-kerchiefs, though simple enough, were girt by ’akkals or headbands
+of some pretension to elegance; the loose red-leather boots of the
+country completed our toilet.
+
+“But in the large travelling-sacks at our camels’ sides were contained
+suits of a more elegant appearance, carefully concealed from Bedouin
+gaze, but destined for appearance when we should reach better inhabited
+and more civilized districts.  This reserve toilet numbered articles like
+the following: colored overdresses, the Syrian combaz, handkerchiefs
+whose silk stripes relieved the plebeian cotton, and girdles of good
+material and tasteful coloring; such clothes being absolutely requisite
+to maintain our assumed character.  Mine was that of a native travelling
+doctor, a quack if you will; and accordingly a tolerable dress was
+indispensable for the credit of my medical practice.  My comrade, who in
+a general way passed for my brother-in-law, appeared sometimes as a
+retail merchant, such as not unfrequently visit these countries, and
+sometimes as pupil or associate in my assumed profession.
+
+“Our pharmacopoeia consisted of a few but well selected and efficacious
+drugs, inclosed in small tight-fitting tin boxes, stowed away for the
+present in the ample recesses of our travelling bags; about fifty of
+these little cases contained the wherewithal to kill or cure half the
+sick men of Arabia.  Medicines of a liquid form had been as much as
+possible omitted, not only from the difficulty of insuring them a safe
+transport amid so rough a mode of journeying, but also on account of the
+rapid evaporation unavoidable in this dry and burning climate.  In fact
+two or three small bottles whose contents had seemed to me of absolute
+necessity, soon retained nothing save their labels to indicate what they
+had held, in spite of airtight stoppers and double coverings.  I record
+this, because the hint may be useful to anyone who should be inclined to
+embark in similar guise on the same adventures.
+
+“Some other objects requisite in medical practice, two or three European
+books for my own private use, and kept carefully secret from Arab
+curiosity, with a couple of Esculapian treatises in good Arabic, intended
+for professional ostentation, completed this part of our fitting-out.
+But besides these, an ample provision of cloth handkerchiefs, glass
+necklaces, pipe-bowls, and the like, for sale in whatever localities
+might not offer sufficient facility for the healing art, filled up our
+saddle-bags wellnigh to bursting.  Last, but not least, two large sacks
+of coffee, the sheet-anchor and main hope of our commerce, formed alone a
+sufficient load for a vigorous camel.”
+
+The first days of travel were a monotony of heat and desolation.  The
+deceptive lakes of the mirage covered the tawny plain, and every dark
+basaltic block, lying here and there at random, was magnified into a
+mountain in the heated atmosphere.  “Dreary land of death, in which even
+the face of an enemy were almost a relief amid such utter solitude.  But
+for five whole days the little dried-up lizard of the plain that looks as
+if he had never a drop of moisture in his ugly body, and the jerboa, or
+field-rat of Arabia, were the only living creatures to console our view.
+
+“It was a march during which we might have almost repented of our
+enterprise, had such a sentiment been any longer possible or availing.
+Day after day found us urging our camels to their utmost pace for fifteen
+or sixteen hours together out of the twenty-four, under a wellnigh
+vertical sun, which the Ethiopians of Herodotus might reasonably be
+excused for cursing, with nothing either in the landscape around or in
+the companions of our way to relieve for a moment the eye or the mind.
+Then an insufficient halt for rest or sleep, at most of two or three
+hours, soon interrupted by the oft-repeated admonition, ‘if we linger
+here we all die of thirst,’ sounding in our ears; and then to remount our
+jaded beasts and push them on through the dark night, amid the constant
+probability of attack and plunder from roving marauders.  For myself, I
+was, to mend matters, under the depressing influence of a tertian fever
+contracted at Ma’an, and what between weariness and low spirits, began to
+imagine seriously that no waters remained before us except the waters of
+death for us and of oblivion for our friends.  The days wore by like a
+delirious dream, till we were often almost unconscious of the ground we
+travelled over and the journey on which we were engaged.  One only herb
+appeared at our feet to give some appearance of variety and life; it was
+the bitter and poisonous colocynth of the desert.
+
+“Our order of road was this: Long before dawn we were on our way, and
+paced it till the sun, having attained about half-way between the horizon
+and the zenith, assigned the moment of alighting for our morning meal.
+This our Bedouins always took good care should be in some hollow or low
+ground, for concealment’s sake; in every other respect we had ample
+liberty of choice, for one patch of black pebbles with a little sand and
+withered grass between was just like another; shade or shelter, or
+anything like them, was wholly out of the question in such ‘nakedness of
+the land.’  We then alighted, and my companion and myself would pile up
+the baggage into a sort of wall, to afford a half-screen from the
+scorching sun-rays, and here recline awhile.  Next came the culinary
+preparations, in perfect accordance with our provisions, which were
+simple enough; namely, a bag of coarse flour mixed with salt and a few
+dried dates; there was no third item on the bill of fare.  We now took a
+few handfuls of flour, and one of the Bedouins kneaded it with his
+unwashed hands or dirty bit of leather, pouring over it a little of the
+dingy water contained in the skins, and then patted out this exquisite
+paste into a large round cake, about an inch thick and five or six inches
+across.  Meanwhile another had lighted a fire of dry grass, colocynth
+roots, and dried camels’ dung, till he had prepared a bed of glowing
+embers; among these the cake was now cast, and immediately covered up
+with hot ashes, and so left for a few minutes, then taken out, turned,
+and covered again, till at last, half-kneaded, half-raw, half-roasted,
+and burnt all round, it was taken out to be broken up between the hungry
+band, and eaten scalding hot, before it should cool into an indescribable
+leathery substance, capable of defying the keenest appetite.  A draught
+of dingy water was its sole but suitable accompaniment.
+
+“The meal ended, we had again without loss of time to resume our way from
+mirage to mirage, till ‘slowly flaming over all, from heat to heat, the
+day decreased,’ and about an hour before sunset we would stagger off our
+camels as best we might, to prepare an evening feast of precisely the
+same description as that of the forenoon, or more often, for fear lest
+the smoke of our fire should give notice to some distant rover, to
+content ourselves with dry dates, and half an hour’s rest on the sand.
+At last our dates, like Æsop’s bread-sack, or that of Beyhas, his Arab
+prototype, came to an end; and then our supper was a soldier’s one; what
+that is my military friends will know; but, grit and pebbles excepted,
+there was no bed in our case.  After which, to remount, and travel on by
+moon or starlight, till a little before midnight we would lie down for
+just enough sleep to tantalize, not refresh.
+
+“It was now the 22d of June, and the fifth day since our departure from
+the wells of Wokba.  The water in the skins had little more to offer to
+our thirst than muddy dregs, and as yet no sign appeared of a fresh
+supply.  At last about noon we drew near some hillocks of loose gravel
+and sandstone a little on our right; our Bedouins conversed together
+awhile, and then turned their course and ours in that direction.  ‘Hold
+fast on your camels, for they are going to be startled and jump about,’
+said Salim to us.  Why the camels should be startled I could not
+understand; when, on crossing the mounds just mentioned, we suddenly came
+on five or six black tents, of the very poorest description, pitched near
+some wells excavated in the gravelly hollow below.  The reason of Salim’s
+precautionary hint now became evident, for our silly beasts started at
+first sight of the tents, as though they had never seen the like before,
+and then scampered about, bounding friskily here and there, till what
+between their jolting (for a camel’s run much resembles that of a cow)
+and our own laughing, we could hardly keep on their backs.  However,
+thirst soon prevailed over timidity, and they left off their pranks to
+approach the well’s edge and sniff at the water below.”
+
+The inhabitants of the tents showed the ordinary curiosity, but were not
+unfriendly, and the little caravan rested there for the remainder of the
+day.  A further journey of two days over a region of sand-hills, with an
+occasional well, still intervened before they could reach Wady Sirhan—a
+long valley running directly to the populated region of the Djowf.  While
+passing over this intermediate region an incident occurred which had
+wellnigh put a premature end to the travels and the travellers together.
+“My readers, no less than myself,” says Palgrave, “must have heard or
+read many a story of the simoom, or deadly wind of the desert, but for me
+I had never yet met it in full force; and its modified form, or
+_shelook_, to use the Arab phrase, that is, the sirocco of the Syrian
+waste, though disagreeable enough, can hardly ever be termed dangerous.
+Hence I had been almost inclined to set down the tales told of the
+strange phenomena and fatal effects of this ‘poisoned gale’ in the same
+category with the moving pillars of sand, recorded in many works of
+higher historical pretensions than ‘Thalaba.’  At those perambulatory
+columns and sand-smothered caravans the Bedouins, whenever I interrogated
+them on the subject, laughed outright, and declared that beyond an
+occasional dust-storm, similar to those which anyone who has passed a
+summer in Scinde can hardly fail to have experienced, nothing of the
+romantic kind just alluded to occurred in Arabia.  But when questioned
+about the simoom, they always treated it as a much more serious matter,
+and such in real earnest we now found it.
+
+“It was about noon, the noon of a summer solstice in the unclouded
+Arabian sky over a scorched desert, when abrupt and burning gusts of wind
+began to blow by fits from the south, while the oppressiveness of the air
+increased every moment, till my companion and myself mutually asked each
+other what this could mean, and what was to be its result.  We turned to
+inquire of Salim, but he had already wrapped up his face in his mantle,
+and bowed down and crouching on the neck of his camel, replied not a
+word.  His comrades, the two Sherarat Bedouins, had adopted a similar
+position, and were equally silent.  At last, after repeated
+interrogations, Salim, instead of replying directly to our questioning,
+pointed to a small black tent, providentially at no great distance in
+front, and said: Try to reach _that_; if we can get there we are saved.’
+He added: ‘Take care that your camels do not stop and lie down;’ and
+then, giving his own several vigorous blows, relapsed into muffled
+silence.
+
+“We looked anxiously toward the tent; it was yet a hundred yards off, or
+more.  Meanwhile the gusts grew hotter and more violent, and it was only
+by repeated efforts that we could urge our beasts forward.  The horizon
+rapidly darkened to a deep violet line, and seemed to draw in like a
+curtain on every side, while at the same time a stifling blast, as though
+from some enormous oven opening right on our path, blew steadily under
+the gloom; our camels, too, began, in spite of all we could do, to turn
+round and round and bend their knees, preparing to lie down.  The simoom
+was fairly upon us.
+
+“Of course we had followed our Arabs’ example by muffling our faces, and
+now with blows and kicks we forced the staggering animals onward to the
+only asylum within reach.  So dark was the atmosphere, and so burning the
+heat, that it seemed that hell had risen from the earth, or descended
+from above.  But we were yet in time, and at the moment when the worst of
+the concentrated poison-blast was coming around, we were already
+prostrate, one and all, within the tent, with our heads well wrapped up,
+almost suffocated, indeed, but safe; while our camels lay without like
+dead, their long necks stretched out on the sand, awaiting the passing of
+the gale.
+
+“On our first arrival the tent contained a solitary Bedouin woman, whose
+husband was away with his camels in the Wady Sirhan.  When she saw five
+handsome men like us rush thus suddenly into her dwelling without a word
+of leave or salutation, she very properly set up a scream to the tune of
+the four crown pleas—murder, arson, robbery, and I know not what else.
+Salim hastened to reassure her by calling out ‘friends,’ and without more
+words threw himself flat on the ground.  All followed his example in
+silence.
+
+“We remained thus for about ten minutes, during which a still heat like
+that of red-hot iron slowly passing over us was alone to be felt.  Then
+the tent walls began again to flap in the returning gusts, and announced
+that the worst of the simoom had gone by.  We got up, half dead with
+exhaustion, and unmuffled our faces.  My comrades appeared more like
+corpses than living men, and so, I suppose, did I.  However, I could not
+forbear, in spite of warnings, to step out and look at the camels; they
+were still lying flat as though they had been shot.  The air was yet
+darkish, but before long it brightened up to its usual dazzling
+clearness.  During the whole time that the simoom lasted, the atmosphere
+was entirely free from sand or dust, so that I hardly know how to account
+for its singular obscurity.”
+
+“Late in the evening we continued our way, and next day early entered
+Wady Sirhan, where the character of our journey underwent a considerable
+modification; for the northerly Arabian desert, which we are now
+traversing, offers, in spite of all its dreariness, some spots of
+comparatively better cast, where water is less scanty and vegetation less
+niggard.  These spots are the favorite resorts of Bedouins, and serve,
+too, to direct the ordinary routes of whatever travellers, trade-led or
+from other motives, may venture on this wilderness.  These oases, if
+indeed they deserve the name, are formed by a slight depression in the
+surrounding desert surface, and take at times the form of a long valley,
+or of an oblong patch, where rock and pebble give place to a light soil
+more or less intermixed with sand, and concealing under its surface a
+tolerable supply of moisture at no great distance below ground.  Here, in
+consequence, bushes and herbs spring up, and grass, if not green all the
+year round, is at least of somewhat longer duration than elsewhere;
+certain fruit-bearing plants, of a nature to suffice for meagre Bedouin
+existence, grow here spontaneously; in a word, man and beast find not
+exactly comfortable accommodation, but the absolutely needful supply.
+Such a spot is Wady Sirhan, literally, the ‘Valley of the Wolf.’”
+
+They entered Wady Sirhan on June 21st.  “Passing tent after tent, and
+leaving behind us many a tattered Bedouin and grazing camel, Salim at
+last indicated to us a group of habitations, two or three of which seemed
+of somewhat more ample dimensions than the rest, and informed us that our
+supper that night (for the afternoon was already on the decline) would be
+at the cost of these dwellings.  ‘Ajaweed,’ _i.e._, ‘generous fellow,’ he
+subjoined, to encourage us by the prospect of a handsome reception.  Of
+course we could only defer to his better judgment, and in a few minutes
+were alongside of the black goats’ hair coverings where lodged our
+intended hosts.
+
+“The chief or chieflet, for such he was, came out, and interchanged a few
+words of masonic laconism with Salim.  The latter then came up to us
+where we remained halted in expectation, led our camels to a little
+distance from the tents, made them kneel down, helped us to disburden
+them, and while we installed ourselves on a sandy slope opposite to the
+abodes of the tribe, recommended us to keep a sharp lookout after our
+baggage, since there might be pickers and stealers among our hosts, for
+all ‘Ajaweed’ as they were.  Disagreeable news! for ‘Ajaweed’ in an Arab
+mouth corresponds the nearest possible to our English ‘gentlemen.’  Now,
+if the gentlemen were thieves, what must the blackguards be?  We put a
+good face on it, and then seated ourselves in dignified gravity on the
+sand awaiting the further results of our guide’s negotiations.
+
+“For some time we remained undisturbed, though not unnoticed; a group of
+Arabs had collected round our companions at the tent door, and were
+engaged in getting from them all possible information, especially about
+us and our baggage, which last was an object of much curiosity, not to
+say cupidity.  Next came our turn.  The chief, his family (women
+excepted), his intimate followers, and some twenty others, young and old,
+boys and men, came up, and, after a brief salutation, Bedouinwise seated
+themselves in a semicircle before us.  Every man held a short crooked
+stick for camel-driving in his hand, to gesticulate with when speaking,
+or to play with in the intervals of conversation, while the younger
+members of society, less prompt in discourse, politely employed their
+leisure in staring at us, or in picking up dried pellets of dirt from the
+sand and tossing them about.”
+
+“‘What are you? what is your business?’ so runs the ordinary and
+unprefaced opening of the discourse.  To which we answer, ‘Physicians
+from Damascus, and our business is whatsoever God may put in our way.’
+The next question will be about the baggage; someone pokes it with a
+stick, to draw attention to it, and says, ‘What is this? have you any
+little object to sell us?’
+
+“We fight shy of selling; to open out our wares and chattels in full air,
+on the sand, and amid a crowd whose appearance and circumstances offer
+but a poor guarantee for the exact observance of the eighth commandment,
+would be hardly prudent or worth our while.  After several fruitless
+trials they desist from their request.  Another, who is troubled by some
+bodily infirmity, for which all the united faculties of London and Paris
+might prescribe in vain—a withered hand, for instance, or stone-blind of
+an eye—asks for medicine, which no sooner applied shall, in his
+expectation, suddenly restore him to perfect health and corporal
+integrity.  But I had been already forewarned that to doctor a Bedouin,
+even under the most favorable circumstances, or a camel, is pretty much
+the same thing, and with about an equal chance of success or advantage.
+I politely decline.  He insists; I turn him off with a joke.
+
+“‘So you laugh at us, O you inhabitants of towns.  We are Bedouins, we do
+not know your customs,’ replies he, in a whining tone; while the boys
+grin unconscionably at the discomfiture of their tribesman.
+
+“‘Ya woleyd,’ or young fellow (for so they style every human male from
+eight to eighty without distinction), ‘will you not fill my pipe?’ says
+one, who has observed that mine was not idle, and who, though well
+provided with a good stock of dry tobacco tied up in a rag at his greasy
+waist-belt, thinks the moment a fair opportunity for a little begging,
+since neither medicine nor merchandise is to be had.
+
+“But Salim, seated amid the circle, makes me a sign not to comply.
+Accordingly, I evade the demand.  However, my petitioner goes on begging,
+and is imitated by two or three others, each of whom thrusts forward (a
+true Irish hint) a bit of marrowbone with a hole drilled in one side to
+act for a pipe, or a porous stone, not uncommon throughout the desert,
+clumsily fashioned into a smoking apparatus, a sort of primitive
+meerschaum.
+
+“As they grow rude, I pretend to become angry, thus to cut the matter
+short.  ‘We are your guests, O you Bedouins; are you not ashamed to beg
+of us?’  ‘Never mind, excuse us; those are ignorant fellows, ill-bred
+clowns,’ etc., interposes one close by the chief’s side; and whose dress
+is in somewhat better condition than that of the other half and
+three-quarter naked individuals who complete the assembly.
+
+“‘Will you not people the pipe for your little brother?’ subjoins the
+chief himself, producing an empty one with a modest air.  Bedouin
+language, like that of most Orientals, abounds with not ungraceful
+imagery, and accordingly, ‘people’ here means ‘fill.’  Salim gives me a
+wink of compliance.  I take out a handful of tobacco and put it on his
+long shirt-sleeve, which he knots over it, and looks uncommonly well
+pleased.  At any rate they are easily satisfied, these Bedouins.
+
+“The night air in these wilds is life and health itself.  We sleep
+soundly, unharassed by the anticipation of an early summons to march next
+morning, for both men and beasts have alike need of a full day’s repose.
+When the sun has risen we are invited to enter the chief’s tent and to
+bring our baggage under its shelter.  A main object of our entertainer,
+in proposing this move, is to try whether he cannot render our visit some
+way profitable to himself, by present or purchase.  Whatever politeness
+he can muster is accordingly brought into play, and a large bowl of fresh
+camel’s milk, an excellent beverage, now appears on the stage.  I leave
+to chemical analysis to decide why this milk will not furnish butter, for
+such is the fact, and content myself with bearing witness to its very
+nutritious and agreeable qualities.
+
+“The day passes on.  About noon our host naturally enough supposes us
+hungry, and accordingly a new dish is brought in: it looks much like a
+bowl full of coarse red paste, or bran mixed with ochre.  This is samh, a
+main article of subsistence to the Bedouins of Northern Arabia.
+Throughout this part of the desert grows a small herbaceous and tufted
+plant, with juicy stalks and a little ovate yellow-tinted leaf; the
+flowers are of a brighter yellow, with many stamens and pistils.  When
+the blossoms fall off there remains in place of each a four-leaved
+capsule about the size of an ordinary pea, and this, when ripe, opens to
+show a mass of minute reddish seeds, resembling grit in feel and
+appearance, but farinaceous in substance.  The ripening season is in
+July, when old and young, men and women, all are out to collect the
+unsown and untoiled-for harvest.
+
+“On the 27th of the month we passed with some difficulty a series of
+abrupt sand-hills that close in the direct course of Wady Sirhan.  Here,
+for the first time, we saw the ghada, a shrub almost characteristic, from
+its very frequency, of the Arabian Peninsula, and often alluded to by its
+poets.  It is of the genus _Euphorbia_, with a woody stem, often five or
+six feet in height, and innumerable round green twigs, very slender and
+flexible, forming a large feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while
+it affords some kind of shelter to the traveller and food to his camels.
+These last are passionately fond of ghada, and will continually turn
+right out of their way, in spite of blows and kicks, to crop a mouthful
+of it, and then swing back their long necks into the former direction,
+ready to repeat the same manœuvre at the next bush, as though they had
+never received a beating for their past voracity.
+
+“I have, while in England, heard and read more than once of the ‘docile
+camel.’  If ‘docile’ means stupid, well and good; in such a case the
+camel is the very model of docility.  But if the epithet is intended to
+designate an animal that takes an interest in its rider so far as a beast
+can, that in some way understands his intentions or shares them in a
+subordinate fashion, that obeys from a sort of submissive or half
+fellow-feeling with his master, like the horse and elephant, then I say
+that the camel is by no means docile, very much the contrary; he takes no
+heed of his rider, pays no attention whether he be on his back or not,
+walks straight on when once set a-going, merely because he is too stupid
+to turn aside; and then, should some tempting thorn or green branch
+allure him out of the path, continues to walk on in this new direction
+simply because he is too dull to turn back into the right road.  His only
+care is to cross as much pasture as he conveniently can while pacing
+mechanically onward; and for effecting this, his long, flexible neck sets
+him at great advantage, and a hard blow or a downright kick alone has any
+influence on him whether to direct or impel.  He will never attempt to
+throw you off his back, such a trick being far beyond his limited
+comprehension; but if you fall off, he will never dream of stopping for
+you, and walks on just the same, grazing while he goes, without knowing
+or caring an atom what has become of you.  If turned loose, it is a
+thousand to one that he will never find his way back to his accustomed
+home or pasture, and the first comer who picks him up will have no
+particular shyness to get over; Jack or Tom is all the same to him, and
+the loss of his old master, and of his own kith and kin, gives him no
+regret, and occasions no endeavor to find them again.”
+
+On coming in sight of the mountains of Djowf the travellers were obliged
+to halt for two days at an encampment of the Sherarat Arabs, because
+Salim could not enter the Djowf with them in person, on account of a
+murder which he had committed there.  He was therefore obliged to procure
+them another guide capable of conducting them safely the remainder of the
+journey.  After much search and discussion, Salim ended by finding a
+good-natured, but somewhat timid, individual, who undertook their
+guidance to the Djowf.
+
+Journeying one whole day and night over an open plateau, where they saw a
+large troop of ostriches, they mounted again on the 30th, by the light of
+the morning star, anxious to enter the Djowf before the intense heat of
+noon should come on; “but we had yet a long way to go, and our track
+followed endless windings among low hills and stony ledges, without any
+symptom of approach to cultivated regions.  At last the slopes grew
+greener, and a small knot of houses, with traces of tillage close by,
+appeared.  It was the little village of Djoon, the most westerly
+appendage of Djowf itself.  I counted between twenty and thirty houses.
+We next entered a long and narrow pass, whose precipitous banks shut in
+the view on either side.  Suddenly several horsemen appeared on the
+opposite cliff, and one of them, a handsome youth, with long, curling
+hair, well armed and well mounted (we shall make his more special
+acquaintance in the next chapter), called out to our guide to halt, and
+answer in his own behalf and ours.  This Suleyman did, not without those
+marks of timidity in his voice and gesture which a Bedouin seldom fails
+to show on his approach to a town, for, when once in it, he is apt to
+sneak about much like a dog who has just received a beating for theft.
+On his answer, delivered in a most submissive tone, the horsemen held a
+brief consultation, and we then saw two of them turn their horses’ heads
+and gallop off in the direction of the Djowf, while our original
+interlocutor called out to Suleyman, ‘All right, go on, and fear
+nothing,’ and then disappeared after the rest of the band behind the
+verge of the upland.
+
+“We had yet to drag on for an hour of tedious march; my camel fairly
+broke down, and fell again and again; his bad example was followed by the
+coffee-laden beast; the heat was terrible in these gorges, and noon was
+approaching.  At last we cleared the pass, but found the onward prospect
+still shut out by an intervening mass of rocks.  The water in our skins
+was spent, and we had eaten nothing that morning.  When shall we get in
+sight of the Djowf? or has it flown away from before us?  While thus
+wearily laboring on our way we turned a huge pile of crags, and a new and
+beautiful scene burst upon our view.
+
+                         [Picture: An Arab Chief]
+
+“A broad, deep valley, descending ledge after ledge till its innermost
+depths are hidden from sight amid far-reaching shelves of reddish rock,
+below everywhere studded with tufts of palm-groves and clustering
+fruit-trees, in dark-green patches, down to the furthest end of its
+windings; a large brown mass of irregular masonry crowning a central
+hill; beyond, a tall and solitary tower overlooking the opposite bank of
+the hollow, and further down small round turrets and flat house-tops,
+half buried amid the garden foliage, the whole plunged in a perpendicular
+flood of light and heat; such was the first aspect of the Djowf as we now
+approached it from the west.  It was a lovely scene, and seemed yet more
+so to our eyes, weary of the long desolation through which we had, with
+hardly an exception, journeyed day after day, since our last farewell
+glimpse of Gaza and Palestine, up to the first entrance on inhabited
+Arabia.  ‘Like the Paradise of eternity, none can enter it till after
+having previously passed over hell-bridge,’ says an Arab poet, describing
+some similar locality in Algerian lands.
+
+“Reanimated by the view, we pushed on our jaded beasts, and were already
+descending the first craggy slope of the valley when two horsemen, well
+dressed and fully armed after the fashion of these parts, came up toward
+us from the town, and at once saluted us with a loud and hearty
+‘Marhaba,’ or ‘welcome;’ and without further preface they added, ‘Alight
+and eat,’ giving themselves the example of the former by descending
+briskly from their light-limbed horses and untying a large leather bag
+full of excellent dates and a water-skin filled from the running spring;
+then, spreading out these most opportune refreshments on the rock, and
+adding, ‘we were sure that you must be hungry and thirsty, so we have
+come ready provided,’ they invited us once more to sit down and begin.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF.
+
+THE elder of the two cavaliers who welcomed the travellers proved to be
+Ghafil-el-Haboob, the chief of the most important family of the Djowf.
+Ghafil, and also his companion, Dafee, invited the travellers to be his
+guests, and the former, it afterward appeared, had intended that they
+should reside in his house, hoping to make some profit from the
+merchandise which they might have brought.  They felt bound, at least, to
+accompany him to his house and partake of coffee, before going elsewhere.
+Palgrave thus describes the manner of their reception:
+
+“The k’hawah was a large, oblong hall, about twenty feet in height, fifty
+in length, and sixteen, or thereabouts, in breadth; the walls were
+colored in a rudely decorative manner, with brown and white wash, and
+sunk here and there into small triangular recesses, destined to the
+reception of books—though of these Ghafil at least had no
+over-abundance—lamps, and other such like objects.  The roof of timber,
+and flat; the floor was strewed with fine clean sand, and garnished all
+round alongside of the walls with long strips of carpet, upon which
+cushions, covered with faded silk, were disposed at suitable intervals.
+
+“We enter.  On passing the threshold it is proper to say, ‘_Bismillah_,’
+_i.e._, ‘in the name of God;’ not to do so would be looked on as a bad
+augury, alike for him who enters and for those within.  The visitor next
+advances in silence, till, on coming about half-way across the room, he
+gives to all present, but looking specially at the master of the house,
+the customary ‘_Es-salamu’aleykum_,’ or ‘Peace be with you,’ literally,
+‘on you.’  All this while everyone else in the room has kept his place,
+motionless, and without saying a word.  But on receiving the salaam of
+etiquette, the master of the house rises, and if a strict Wahabee, or at
+any rate desirous of seeming such, replies with the full-length
+traditionary formula ‘And with (or, on) you be peace, and the mercy of
+God, and his blessings.’  But should he happen to be of anti-Wahabee
+tendencies, the odds are that he will say ‘Marhaba,’ or ‘Ahlan w’sahlan,’
+_i.e._, ‘welcome,’ or ‘worthy and pleasurable,’ or the like; for of such
+phrases there is an infinite but elegant variety.  All present follow the
+example thus given by rising and saluting.  The guest then goes up to the
+master of the house, who has also made a step or two forward, and places
+his open hand in the palm of his host’s, but without grasping or shaking,
+which would hardly pass as decorous, and, at the same time each repeats
+once more his greeting, followed by the set phrases of polite inquiry,
+‘How are you?’  ‘How goes the world with you?’ and so forth, all in a
+tone of great interest, and to be gone over three or four times, till one
+or other has the discretion to say ‘El hamdu Pillah,’ ‘Praise be to God,’
+or, in equivalent value, ‘all right,’ and this is a signal for a
+seasonable diversion to the ceremonious interrogatory.
+
+“Meantime we have become engaged in active conversation with our host and
+his friends.  But our Sherarat guide, Suleyman, like a true Bedouin,
+feels too awkward when among townsfolk to venture on the upper places,
+though repeatedly invited, and accordingly has squatted down on the sand
+near the entrance.  Many of Ghafil’s relations are present; their
+silver-decorated swords proclaim the importance of the family.  Others,
+too, have come to receive us, for our arrival, announced beforehand by
+those we had met at the entrance pass, is a sort of event in the town;
+the dress of some betokens poverty, others are better clad, but all have
+a very polite and decorous manner.  Many a question is asked about our
+native land and town, that is to say, Syria and Damascus, conformably to
+the disguise already adopted, and which it was highly important to keep
+well up; then follow inquiries regarding our journey, our business, what
+we have brought with us, about our medicines, our goods and wares, etc.
+From the very first it is easy for us to perceive that patients and
+purchasers are likely to abound.  Very few travelling merchants, if any,
+visit the Djowf at this time of year, for one must be mad, or next door
+to it, to rush into the vast desert around during the heats of June and
+July; I for one have certainly no intention of doing it again.  Hence we
+had small danger of competitors, and found the market almost at our
+absolute disposal.
+
+“But before a quarter of an hour has passed, and while blacky is still
+roasting or pounding his coffee, a tall, thin lad, Ghafil’s eldest son,
+appears, charged with a large circular dish, grass-platted like the rest,
+and throws it with a graceful jerk on the sandy floor close before us.
+He then produces a large wooden bowlful of dates, bearing in the midst of
+the heap a cupful of melted butter; all this he places on the circular
+mat, and says, ‘Semmoo,’ literally, ‘pronounce the Name,’ of God,
+understood; this means ‘set to work at it.’  Hereon the master of the
+house quits his place by the fireside and seats himself on the sand
+opposite to us; we draw nearer to the dish, and four or five others,
+after some respectful coyness, join the circle.  Everyone then picks out
+a date or two from the juicy, half-amalgamated mass, dips them into the
+butter, and thus goes on eating till he has had enough, when he rises and
+washes his hands.”
+
+“I will take the opportunity of leading my readers over the whole of the
+Djowf, as a general view will help better to understand what follows in
+the narrative, besides offering much that will be in part new, I should
+fancy, to the greater number.
+
+“This province is a sort of oasis, a large oval depression of sixty or
+seventy miles long, by ten or twelve broad, lying between the northern
+desert that separates it from Syria and the Euphrates, and the southern
+Nefood, or sandy waste, and interposed between it and the nearest
+mountains of the central Arabian plateau.  However, from its comparative
+proximity to the latter, no less than from the character of its climate
+and productions, it belongs hardly so much to Northern as to Central
+Arabia, of which it is a kind of porch or vestibule.  If an equilateral
+triangle were to be drawn, having its base from Damascus to Bagdad, the
+vertex would find itself pretty exactly as the Djowf, which is thus at a
+nearly equal distance, southeast and southwest, from the two localities
+just mentioned, while the same cross-line, if continued, will give at
+about the same intervals of space in the opposite direction, Medina on
+the one hand, and Zulphah, the great commercial door of Eastern Nedjed,
+on the other.  Djebel Shomer lies almost due south, and much nearer than
+any other of the places above specified.  Partly to this central
+position, and partly to its own excavated form, the province owes its
+appropriate name of Djowf, or ‘belly.’
+
+“The principal, or rather the only, town of the district, all the rest
+being mere hamlets, bears the name of the entire region.  It is composed
+of eight villages, once distinct, but which have in process of time
+coalesced into one, and exchanged their separate existence and name for
+that of Sook, or ‘quarter,’ of the common borough.  Of these Sooks, the
+principal is that belonging to the family Haboob, and in which we were
+now lodged.  It includes the central castle already mentioned, and
+numbers about four hundred houses.  The other quarters, some larger,
+others smaller, stretch up and down the valley, but are connected
+together by their extensive gardens.  The entire length of the town thus
+formed, with the cultivation immediately annexed, is full four miles, but
+the average breadth does not exceed half a mile, and sometimes falls
+short of it.
+
+“The size of the domiciles varies with the condition of their occupants,
+and the poor are contented with narrow lodgings, though always separate;
+for I doubt if throughout the whole of Arabia two families, however
+needy, inhabit the same dwelling.  Ghafil’s abode, already described, may
+give a fair idea of the better kind; in such we have an outer court, for
+unlading camels and the like, an inner court, a large reception-room, and
+several other smaller apartments, to which entrance is given by a private
+door, and where the family itself is lodged.
+
+“But another and a very characteristic feature of domestic architecture
+is the frequent addition, throughout the Djowf, of a round tower, from
+thirty to forty feet in height and twelve or more in breadth, with a
+narrow entrance and loop-holes above.  This construction is sometimes
+contiguous to the dwelling-place, and sometimes isolated in a neighboring
+garden belonging to the same master.  These towers once answered exactly
+the same purposes as the ‘torri,’ well known to travellers in many cities
+of Italy, at Bologna, Siena, Rome, and elsewhere, and denoted a somewhat
+analogous state of society to what formerly prevailed there.  Hither, in
+time of the ever-recurring feuds between rival chiefs and factions, the
+leaders and their partisans used to retire for refuge and defence, and
+hence they would make their sallies to burn and destroy.  These towers,
+like all the modern edifices of the Djowf, are of unbaked bricks; their
+great thickness and solidity of make, along with the extreme tenacity of
+the soil, joined to a very dry climate, renders the material a rival
+almost of stone-work in strength and endurance.  Since the final
+occupation of this region by the forces of Telal, all these towers have,
+without exception, been rendered unfit for defence, and some are even
+half-ruined.  Here again the phenomena of Europe have repeated themselves
+in Arabia.
+
+“The houses are not unfrequently isolated each from the other by their
+gardens and plantations; and this is especially the case with the
+dwellings of chiefs and their families.  What has just been said about
+the towers renders the reasons of this isolation sufficiently obvious.
+But the dwellings of the commoner sort are generally clustered together,
+though without symmetry or method.
+
+“The gardens of the Djowf are much celebrated in this part of the East,
+and justly so.  They are of a productiveness and variety superior to
+those of Djebel Shomer or of upper Nedjed, and far beyond whatever the
+Hedjaz and its neighborhood can offer.  Here, for the first time in our
+southward course, we found the date-palm a main object of cultivation;
+and if its produce be inferior to that of the same tree in Nedjed and
+Hasa, it is far, very far, above whatever Egypt, Africa, or the valley of
+the Tigris from Bagdad to Bassora can show.  However, the palm is by no
+means alone here.  The apricot and the peach, the fig-tree and the vine,
+abound throughout these orchards, and their fruit surpasses in
+copiousness and flavor that supplied by the gardens of Damascus or the
+hills of Syria and Palestine.  In the intervals between the trees or in
+the fields beyond, corn, leguminous plants, gourds, melons, etc., etc.,
+are widely cultivated.  Here, too, for the last time, the traveller bound
+for the interior sees the irrigation indispensable to all growth and
+tillage in this droughty climate kept up by running streams of clear
+water, whereas in the Nedjed and its neighborhood it has to be
+laboriously procured from wells and cisterns.
+
+“Besides the Djowf itself, or capital, there exist several other villages
+belonging to the same homonymous province, and all subject to the same
+central governor.  Of these the largest is Sekakah; it lies at about
+twelve miles distant to the northeast, and though inferior to the
+principal town in importance and fertility of soil, almost equals it in
+the number of its inhabitants.  I should reckon the united population of
+these two localities—men, women, and children—at about thirty-three or
+thirty-four thousand souls.  This calculation, like many others before us
+in the course of the work, rests partly on an approximate survey of the
+number of dwellings, partly on the military muster, and partly on what I
+heard on the subject from the natives themselves.  A census is here
+unknown, and no register records birth, marriage, or death.  Yet, by aid
+of the war list, which generally represents about one-tenth of the entire
+population, a fair though not absolute idea may be obtained on this
+point.
+
+“Lastly, around and at no great distance from these main centres, are
+several small villages or hamlets, eight or ten in number, as I was told,
+and containing each of them from twenty to fifty or sixty houses.  But I
+had neither time nor opportunity to visit each separately.  They cluster
+round lesser water springs, and offer in miniature features much
+resembling those of the capital.  The entire population of the province
+cannot exceed forty or forty-two thousand, but it is a brave one, and
+very liberally provided with the physical endowments of which it has been
+acutely said that they are seldom despised save by those who do not
+themselves possess them.  Tall, well-proportioned, of a tolerably fair
+complexion, set off by long curling locks of jet-black hair, with
+features for the most part regular and intelligent, and a dignified
+carriage, the Djowfites are eminently good specimens of what may be
+called the pure northern or Ishmaelitish Arab type, and in all these
+respects they yield the palm to the inhabitants of Djebel Shomer alone.
+Their large-developed forms and open countenance contrast strongly with
+the somewhat dwarfish stature and suspicious under-glance of the Bedouin.
+They are, besides, a very healthy people, and keep up their strength and
+activity even to an advanced age.  It is no uncommon occurrence here, to
+see an old man of seventy set out full-armed among a band of youths;
+though, by the way, such “green old age” is often to be met with also in
+the central province farther south, as I have had frequent opportunity of
+witnessing.  The climate, too, is good and dry, and habits of out-door
+life contribute not a little to the maintenance of health and vigor.
+
+“In manners, as in locality, the worthies of Djowf occupy a sort of
+half-way position between Bedouins and the inhabitants of the cultivated
+districts.  Thus they partake largely in the nomad’s aversion to
+mechanical occupations, in his indifference to literary acquirements, in
+his aimless fickleness too, and even in his treacherous ways.  I have
+said, in the preceding chapter, that while we were yet threading the
+narrow gorge near the first entrance of the valley, several horsemen
+appeared on the upper margin of the pass, and one of them questioned our
+guide, and then, after a short consultation with his companions, called
+out to us to go on and fear nothing.  Now, the name of this individual
+was Suliman-ebn-Dahir, a very adventurous and fairly intelligent young
+fellow, with whom next-door neighborhood and frequent intercourse
+rendered us intimate during our stay at the Djowf.  One day, while we
+were engaged in friendly conversation, he said, half laughing, ‘Do you
+know what we were consulting about while you were in the pass below on
+the morning of your arrival?  It was whether we should make you a good
+reception, and thus procure ourselves the advantage of having you
+residents among us, or whether we should not do better to kill you all
+three, and take our gain from the booty to be found in your baggage.’  I
+replied with equal coolness, ‘It might have proved an awkward affair for
+yourself and your friends, since Hamood your governor could hardly have
+failed to get wind of the matter, and would have taken it out of you.’
+‘Pooh!’ replied our friend, ‘never a bit; as if a present out of the
+plunder would not have tied Hamood’s tongue.’  ‘Bedouins that you are,’
+said I, laughing.  ‘Of course we are,’ answered Suliman, ‘for such we all
+were till quite lately, and the present system is too recent to have much
+changed us.’  However, he admitted that they all had, on second thoughts,
+congratulated themselves on not having preferred bloodshed to
+hospitality, though perhaps the better resolution was rather owing to
+interested than to moral motives.
+
+“The most distinctive good feature of the inhabitants of Djowf is their
+liberality.  Nowhere else, even in Arabia, is the guest, so at least he
+be not murdered before admittance, better treated, or more cordially
+invited to become in every way one of themselves.  Courage, too, no one
+denies them, and they are equally lavish of their own lives and property
+as of their neighbors’.
+
+“Let us now resume the narrative.  On the morning after our arrival—it
+was now the 1st of July—Ghafil caused a small house in the neighborhood,
+belonging to one of his dependents, to be put at our entire disposal,
+according to our previous request.  This, our new abode, consisted of a
+small court with two rooms, one on each side, for warehouse and
+habitation, the whole being surrounded with an outer wall, whose door was
+closed by lock and bolt.  Of a kitchen-room there was small need, so
+constant and hospitable are the invitations of the good folks here to
+strangers; and if our house was not over capacious, it afforded at least
+what we most desired, namely, seclusion and privacy at will; it was,
+moreover, at our host’s cost, rent and reparations.
+
+“Hither, accordingly, we transferred baggage and chattels, and arranged
+everything as comfortably as we best could.  And as we had already
+concluded, from the style and conversation of those around us, that their
+state of society was hardly far enough advanced to offer a sufficiently
+good prospect for medical art, whose exercise, to be generally
+advantageous, requires a certain amount of culture and aptitude in the
+patient, no less than of skill in the physician, we resolved to make
+commerce our main affair here, trusting that by so doing we should gain a
+second advantage, that of lightening our more bulky goods, such as coffee
+and cloth, whose transport had already annoyed us not a little.
+
+“But in fact we were not more desirous to sell than the men, women, and
+children of the Djowf were to buy.  From the very outset our little
+courtyard was crowded with customers, and the most amusing scenes of Arab
+haggling, in all its mixed shrewdness and simplicity, diverted us through
+the week.  Handkerchief after handkerchief, yard after yard of cloth,
+beads for the women, knives, combs, looking-glasses, and what not? (for
+our stock was a thorough miscellany) were soon sold off, some for ready
+money, others on credit; and it is but justice to say that all debts so
+contracted were soon paid in very honestly; Oxford High Street tradesmen,
+at least in former times, were not always equally fortunate.
+
+“Meanwhile we had the very best opportunity of becoming acquainted with
+and appreciating all classes, nay, almost all individuals, of the place.
+Peasants, too, from various hamlets arrived, led by rumor, whose trumpet,
+prone to exaggerate under every sky, had proclaimed us throughout the
+valley of Djowf for much more important characters, and possessed of a
+much larger stock in hand, than was really the case.  All crowded in, and
+before long there were more customers than wares assembled in the
+storeroom.
+
+“Our manner of passing the time was as follows: We used to rise at early
+dawn, lock up the house, and go out in the pure cool air of the morning
+to some quiet spot among the neighboring palm-groves, or scale the wall
+of some garden, or pass right on through the by-lanes to where
+cultivation merges in the adjoining sands of the valley; in short, to any
+convenient place where we might hope to pass an hour of quiet,
+undisturbed by Arab sociability, and have leisure to plan our work for
+the day.  We would then return home about sunrise, and find outside the
+door some tall lad sent by his father, generally one of the wealthier and
+more influential inhabitants of the quarter yet unvisited by us, waiting
+our return, to invite us to an early breakfast.  We would now accompany
+our Mercury to his domicile, where a hearty reception, and some neighbors
+collected for the occasion, or attracted by a cup of good coffee, were
+sure to be in attendance.  Here an hour or so would wear away, and some
+medical or mercantile transaction be sketched out.  We, of course, would
+bring the conversation, whenever it was possible, on local topics,
+according as those present seemed likely to afford us exact knowledge and
+insight into the real state and circumstances of the land.  We would then
+return to our own quarters, where a crowd of customers, awaiting us,
+would allow us neither rest nor pause till noon.  Then a short interval
+for date or pumpkin eating in some neighbor’s house would occur, and
+after that business be again resumed for three or four hours.  A walk
+among the gardens, rarely alone, more often in company with friends and
+acquaintances, would follow; and meanwhile an invitation to supper
+somewhere had unfailingly been given and accepted.”
+
+“After supper all rise, wash their hands, and then go out into the open
+air to sit and smoke a quiet pipe under the still transparent sky of the
+summer evening.  Neither mist nor vapor, much less a cloud, appears; the
+moon dips down in silvery whiteness to the very verge of the palm-tree
+tops, and the last rays of daylight are almost as sharp and clear as the
+dawn itself.  Chat and society continue for an hour or two, and then
+everyone goes home, most to sleep, I fancy, for few Penseroso lamps are
+here to be seen at midnight hour, nor does the spirit of Plato stand much
+risk of unsphering from the nocturnal studies of the Djowf; we, to write
+our journal, or to compare observations and estimate characters.
+
+“Sometimes a comfortable landed proprietor would invite us to pass an
+extemporary holiday morning in his garden, or rather orchard, there to
+eat grapes and enjoy ourselves at will, seated under clustering
+vine-trellises, with palm-trees above and running streams around.  How
+pleasant it was after the desert!  At other times visits of patients,
+prescriptions, and similar duties would take up a part of the day; or
+some young fellow, particularly desirous of information about Syria or
+Egypt, or perhaps curious after history and moral science, would hold us
+for a couple of hours in serious and sensible talk, at any rate to our
+advantage.”
+
+It was necessary that the travellers should not delay in paying their
+official visit to Hamood, the vice-gerent of Telal.  His residence is in
+the centre of the garden region, near a solitary round tower, whose
+massive stone walls are mentioned in Arabian poetry.  Hamood’s residence
+is an irregular structure, of more recent date, with no distinguishing
+feature except a tower about fifty feet in height.  Palgrave and his
+companion were accompanied by a large number of their newly-found
+friends.  After passing through an outer court, filled with armed guards,
+they found the ruler seated in his large reception-hall:
+
+“There, in the place of distinction, which he never yields to any
+individual of Djowf, whatever be his birth or wealth, appeared the
+governor, a strong, broad-shouldered, dark-browed, dark-eyed man, clad in
+the long white shirt of the country, and over it a handsome black cloak,
+embroidered with crimson silk; on his august head a silken handkerchief
+or _keffee’yeh_, girt by a white band of finely woven camel’s hair; and
+in his fingers a grass fan.  He rose graciously on our approach, extended
+to us the palm of his hand, and made us sit down near his side, keeping,
+however, Ghafil, as an old acquaintance, between himself and us, perhaps
+as a precautionary arrangement against any sudden assault or treasonable
+intention on our part, for an Arab, be he who he may, is never off his
+guard when new faces are in presence.  In other respects he showed us
+much courtesy and good-will, made many civil inquiries about our health
+after so fatiguing a journey, praised Damascus and the Damascenes, by way
+of an indirect compliment, and offered us a lodging in the castle.  But
+here Ghafil availed himself of the privileges conceded by Arab custom to
+priority of host-ship to put in his negative on our behalf; nor were we
+anxious to press the matter.  A pound or so of our choicest coffee, with
+which we on this occasion presented his excellency, both as a mute
+witness to the object of our journey, and the better to secure his
+good-will, was accepted very readily by the great man, who in due return
+offered us his best services.  We replied that we stood in need of
+nothing save his long life, this being the Arab formula for rejoinder to
+such fair speeches; and, next in order, of means to get safe on to Ha’yel
+so soon as our business at the Djowf should permit, being desirous to
+establish ourselves under the immediate patronage of Telal.  In this he
+promised to aid us, and kept his word.”
+
+Hamood afterward politely returned their visit, and they frequently went
+to his castle for the purpose of studying the many interesting scenes
+presented by the exercise of the very primitive Arab system of justice.
+Palgrave gives the following case as a specimen:
+
+“One day my comrade and myself were on a visit of mere politeness at the
+castle; the customary ceremonies had been gone through, and business, at
+first interrupted by our entrance, had resumed its course.  A Bedouin of
+the Ma’az tribe was pleading his cause before Hamood, and accusing
+someone of having forcibly taken away his camel.  The governor was seated
+with an air of intense gravity in his corner, half leaning on a cushion,
+while the Bedouin, cross-legged on the ground before him, and within six
+feet of his person, flourished in his hand a large reaping-hook,
+identically that which is here used for cutting grass.  Energetically
+gesticulating with this graceful implement, he thus challenged his
+judge’s attention: ‘You, Hamood, do you hear?’ (stretching out at the
+same time the hook toward the governor, so as almost to reach his body,
+as though he meant to rip him open); ‘he has taken from me my camel; have
+you called God to mind?’ (again putting his weapon close to the
+unflinching magistrate).  ‘The camel is my camel; do you hear?’ (with
+another reminder from the reaping-hook); ‘he is mine, by God’s award, and
+yours too; do you hear, child?’ and so on, while Hamood sat without
+moving a muscle of face or limb, imperturbable and impassible till some
+one of the counsellors quieted the plaintiff with ‘Remember God, child;
+it is of no consequence, you shall not be wronged.’  Then the judge
+called on the witnesses, men of the Djowf, to say their say, and on their
+confirmation of the Bedouin’s statement, gave orders to two of his
+satellites to search for and bring before him the accused party; while he
+added to the Ma’azee, ‘All right, daddy, you shall have your own; put
+your confidence in God,’ and composedly motioned him back to his place.
+
+“A fortnight and more went by, and found us still in the Djowf, ‘honored
+guests’ in Arab phrase, and well rested from the bygone fatigues of the
+desert.  Ghafil’s dwelling was still, so to speak, our official home; but
+there were two other houses where we were still more at our ease; that of
+Dafee, the same who along with Ghafil came to meet us on our first
+arrival; and that of Salim, a respectable and, in his way, a literary old
+man, our near neighbor, and surrounded by a large family of fine
+strapping youths, all of them brought up more or less in the fear of
+Allah and in good example.  Hither we used to retire when wearied of
+Ghafil and his like, and pass a quiet hour in their k’hawah, reciting or
+hearing Arab poetry, talking over the condition of the country and its
+future prospects, discussing points of morality, or commenting on the
+ways and fashions of the day.”
+
+The important question for the travellers was how they should get to
+Djebel Shomer, the great fertile oasis to the south, under the rule of
+the famous Prince Telal.  The terrible _Nefood_, or sand-passes, which
+the Arabs themselves look upon with dread, must be crossed, and it was
+now the middle of summer.  The hospitable people of the Djowf begged
+Palgrave and his friends to remain until September, and they probably
+would have been delayed for some time but for a lucky chance.  The Azzam
+tribe of Bedouins, which had been attacked by Prince Telal, submitted,
+and a dozen of their chiefs arrived at the Djowf, on their way to Djebel
+Shomer, where they purposed to win Telal’s good graces by tendering him
+their allegiance in his very capital.  Hamood received them and lodged
+them for several days, while they rested from their past fatigues, and
+prepared themselves for what yet lay before them.  Some inhabitants of
+the Djowf, whose business required their presence at Ha’yel, were to join
+the party.  “Hamood sent for us,” Palgrave continues, “and gave us notice
+of this expedition, and on our declaring that we desired to profit by it,
+he handed us a scrap of paper, addressed to Telal himself, wherein he
+certified that we had duly paid the entrance fee exacted from strangers
+on their coming within the limits of Shomer rule, and that we were indeed
+respectable individuals, worthy of all good treatment.  We then, in
+presence of Hamood, struck our bargain with one of the band for a couple
+of camels, whose price, including all the services of their master as
+guide and companion for ten days of July travelling, was not extravagant
+either; it came up to just a hundred and ten piastres, equivalent to
+eighteen or nineteen shillings of English money.
+
+“Many delays occurred, and it was not till the 18th of July, when the
+figs were fully ripe—a circumstance which furnished the natives of Djowf
+with new cause of wonder at our rushing away, in lieu of waiting like
+rational beings to enjoy the good things of the land—that we received our
+final ‘Son of Hodeirah, depart.’  This was intimated to us, not by a
+locust, but by a creature almost as queer, namely, our new conductor, a
+half-cracked Arab, neither peasant nor Bedouin, but something anomalous
+between the two, hight Djedey’, and a native of the outskirts of Djebel
+Shomer, who darkened our door in the forenoon, and warned us to make our
+final packing up, and get ready for starting the same day.
+
+“When once clear of the houses and gardens, Djedey’ led us by a road
+skirting the southern side of the valley, till we arrived, before sunset,
+at the other, or eastern, extremity of the town.  Here was the rendezvous
+agreed on by our companions; but they did not appear, and reason good,
+for they had right to a supper more under Hamood’s roof, and were loath
+to lose it.  So we halted and alighted alone.  The chief of this quarter,
+which is above two miles distant from the castle, invited us to supper,
+and thence we returned to our baggage, there to sleep.  To pass a
+summer’s night in the open air on a soft sand bed implies no great
+privation in these countries, nor is anyone looked on as a hero for so
+doing.
+
+“Early next morning, while Venus yet shone like a drop of melted silver
+on the slaty blue, three of our party arrived and announced that the rest
+of our companions would soon come up.  Encouraged by the news, we
+determined to march on without further tarrying, and ere sunrise we
+climbed the steep ascent of the southerly bank, whence we had a
+magnificent view of the whole length of the Djowf, its castle and towers,
+and groves and gardens, in the ruddy light of morning, and beyond the
+drear northern deserts stretching far away.  We then dipped down the
+other side of the bordering hill, not again to see the Djowf till—who
+knows when?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—CROSSING THE NEFOOD.
+
+“OUR way was now to the southeast, across a large plain varied with
+sand-mounds and covered with the ghada-bush, already described, so that
+our camels were much more inclined to crop pasture than to do their
+business in journeying ahead.  About noon we halted near a large tuft of
+this shrub, at least ten feet high.  We constructed a sort of cabin with
+boughs broken off the neighboring plants and suitably arranged shedwise,
+and thus passed the noon hours of intolerable heat till the whole band
+came in sight.
+
+“They were barbarous, nay, almost savage, fellows, like most Sherarat,
+whether chiefs or people; but they had been somewhat awed by the
+grandeurs of Hamood, and yet more so by the prospect of coming so soon
+before the terrible majesty of Telal himself.  All were duly armed, and
+had put on their best suits of apparel, an equipment worthy of a
+scarecrow or of an Irishman at a wake.  Tattered red overalls; cloaks
+with more patches than original substance, or, worse yet, which opened
+large mouths to cry for patching, but had not got it; little broken
+tobacco pipes, and no trousers soever (by the way, all genuine Arabs are
+_sans-culottes_); faces meagre with habitual hunger, and black with dirt
+and weather stains—such were the high-born chiefs of Azzam, on their way
+to the king’s levee.  Along with them were two Bedouins of the Shomer
+tribe, a degree better in guise and person than the Sherarat; and lastly,
+three men of Djowf, who looked almost like gentlemen among such
+ragamuffins.  As to my comrade and myself, I trust that the reader will
+charitably suppose us the exquisites of the party.  So we rode on
+together.
+
+“Next morning, a little after sunrise, we arrived at a white calcareous
+valley, girt round with low hills of marl and sand.  Here was the famous
+Be’er Shekeek, or ‘well of Shekeek,’ whence we were to fill our
+water-skins, and that thoroughly, since no other source lay before us for
+four days’ march amid the sand passes, up to the very verge of Djebel
+Shomer.
+
+“Daughters of the Great Desert, to use an Arab phrase, the ‘Nefood,’ or
+sand-passes, bear but too strong a family resemblance to their unamiable
+mother.  What has been said elsewhere about their origin, their extent,
+their bearings, and their connection with the Dhana, or main sand-waste
+of the south, may exempt me from here entering on a minute enarration of
+all their geographical details; let it suffice for the present that they
+are offshoots—inlets, one might not unsuitably call them—of the great
+ocean of sand that covers about one-third of the peninsula, into whose
+central and comparatively fertile plateau they make deep inroads, nay, in
+some places almost intersect it.  Their general character, of which the
+following pages will, I trust, give a tolerably correct idea, is also
+that of Dahna, or ‘red desert,’ itself.  The Arabs, always prone to
+localize rather than generalize, count these sand-streams by scores, but
+they may all be referred to four principal courses, and he who would
+traverse the centre must necessarily cross two of them, perhaps even
+three, as we did.
+
+                  [Picture: Captain Burton as a Pilgrim]
+
+“The general type of Arabia is that of a central table-land, surrounded
+by a desert ring, sandy to the south, west, and east, and stony to the
+north.  This outlying circle is in its turn girt by a line of mountains,
+low and sterile for the most, but attaining in Yemen and Oman
+considerable height, breadth, and fertility, while beyond these a narrow
+rim of coast is bordered by the sea.  The surface of the midmost
+table-land equals somewhat less than one-half of the entire peninsula,
+and its special demarcations are much affected, nay, often absolutely
+fixed, by the windings and in-runnings of the Nefood.  If to these
+central highlands, or Nedjed, taking that word in its wider sense, we add
+the Djowf, the Ta’yif, Djebel ’Aaseer, Yemen, Oman, and Hasa, in short,
+whatever spots of fertility belong to the outer circles, we shall find
+that Arabia contains about two-thirds of cultivated, or at least of
+cultivable, land, with a remaining third of irreclaimable desert, chiefly
+to the south.  In most other directions the great blank spaces often left
+in maps of this country are quite as frequently indications of
+non-information as of real non-inhabitation.  However, we have just now a
+strip, though fortunately only a strip, of pure, unmitigated desert
+before us, after which better lands await us; and in this hope let us
+take courage and boldly enter the Nefood.
+
+“Much had we heard of them from Bedouins and countrymen, so that we had
+made up our minds to something very terrible and very impracticable.  But
+the reality, especially in these dog days, proved worse than aught heard
+or imagined.
+
+“We were now traversing an immense ocean of loose reddish sand, unlimited
+to the eye, and heaped up in enormous ridges, running parallel to each
+other from north to south, undulation after undulation, each swell two or
+three hundred feet in average height, with slant sides and rounded crests
+furrowed in every direction by the capricious gales of the desert.  In
+the depths between the traveller finds himself as it were imprisoned in a
+suffocating sand-pit, hemmed in by burning walls on every side; while at
+other times, while laboring up the slope, he overlooks what seems a vast
+sea of fire, swelling under a heavy monsoon wind, and ruffled by a cross
+blast into little red-hot waves.”
+
+Palgrave devotes several pages to his journey across the Nefood, bearing
+out in his general description its character, as above.
+
+Lady Anne Blunt, who with her husband and native followers crossed the
+Nefood sixteen years later, however, takes issue with Mr. Palgrave as to
+its character, as will be found in Chapter XVII., largely devoted to her
+travels in Arabia.
+
+Arriving at the eastern edge of the Nefood Palgrave continues:
+
+“The morning broke on us still toiling amid the sands.  By daylight we
+saw our straggling companions like black specks here and there, one far
+ahead on a yet vigorous dromedary, another in the rear dismounted, and
+urging his fallen beast to rise by plunging a knife a good inch deep into
+its haunches, a third lagging in the extreme distance.  Everyone for
+himself and God for us all!—so we quickened our pace, looking anxiously
+before us for the hills of Djobbah, which could not now be distant.  At
+noon we came in sight of them all at once, close on our right, wild and
+fantastic cliffs, rising sheer on the margin of the sand sea.  We coasted
+them awhile, till at a turn the whole plain of Djobbah and its landscape
+opened on our view.
+
+“Here we had before us a cluster of black granite rock, streaked with
+red, and about seven hundred feet, at a rough guess, in height; beyond
+them a large barren plain, partly white and encrusted with salt, partly
+green with tillage, and studded with palm-groves, amongst which we could
+discern, not far off, the village of Djobbah, much resembling that of
+Djowf in arrangement and general appearance, only smaller, and without
+castle or tower.  Beyond the valley glistened a second line of
+sand-hills, but less wild and desolate-looking than those behind us, and
+far in the distance the main range of Djebel Shomer, a long purple sierra
+of most picturesque outline.  Had we there and then mounted, as we
+afterward did, the heights on our right, we should have also seen in the
+extreme southwest a green patch near the horizon, where cluster the palm
+plantations of Teymah, a place famed in Arab history, and by some
+supposed identical with the Teman of Holy Writ.
+
+“But for the moment a drop of fresh water and a shelter from the July sun
+was much more in our thoughts than all the Teymahs or Temans that ever
+existed.  My camel, too, was—not at the end of his wits, for he never had
+any—but of his legs, and hardly capable of advance, while I was myself
+too tired to urge him on vigorously, and we took a fair hour to cross a
+narrow white strip of mingled salt and sand that yet intervened between
+us and the village.
+
+“Without its garden walls was pitched the very identical tent of our
+noble guide, and here his wife and family were anxiously awaiting their
+lord.  Djedey’ invited us—indeed he could not conformably with Shomer
+customs do less—to partake of his board and lodging, and we had no better
+course than to accept of both.  So we let our camels fling themselves out
+like dead or dying alongside of the tabernacle, and entered to drink
+water mixed with sour milk.”  Here the caravan rested for a day.
+
+“About sunrise on the 25th of July we left Djobbah, crossed the valley to
+the southeast, and entered once more on a sandy desert, but a desert, as
+I have before hinted, of a milder and less inhospitable character than
+the dreary Nefood of two days back.  Here the sand is thickly sprinkled
+with shrubs and not altogether devoid of herbs and grass; while the
+undulations of the surface, running invariably from north to south,
+according to the general rule of that phenomenon, are much less deeply
+traced, though never wholly absent.  We paced on all day; at nightfall we
+found ourselves on the edge of a vast funnel-like depression, where the
+sand recedes on all sides to leave bare the chalky bottom-strata below;
+here lights glimmering amid Bedouin tents in the depths of the valley
+invited us to try our chance of a preliminary supper before the repose of
+the night.  We had, however, much ado to descend the cavity, so steep was
+the sandy slope; while its circular form and spiral marking reminded me
+of Edgar Poe’s imaginative ‘Maelstrom.’  The Arabs to whom the
+watch-fires belonged were shepherds of the numerous Shomer tribe, whence
+the district, plain and mountain, takes its name.  They welcomed us to a
+share of their supper; and a good dish of rice, instead of insipid samh
+or pasty, augured a certain approach to civilization.
+
+“At break of day we resumed our march, and met with camels and
+camel-drivers in abundance, besides a few sheep and goats.  Before noon
+we had got clear of the sandy patch, and entered in its stead on a firm
+gravelly soil.  Here we enjoyed an hour of midday halt and shade in a
+natural cavern, hollowed out in a high granite rock, itself an advanced
+guard of the main body of Djebel Shomer.  This mountain range now rose
+before us, wholly unlike any other that I had ever seen; a huge mass of
+crag and stone, piled up in fantastic disorder, with green valleys and
+habitations intervening.  The sun had not yet set when we reached the
+pretty village of Kenah, amid groves and waters—no more, however, running
+streams like those of Djowf, but an artificial irrigation by means of
+wells and buckets.  At some distance from the houses stood a cluster of
+three or four large overshadowing trees, objects of peasant veneration
+here, as once in Palestine.  The welcome of the inhabitants, when we
+dismounted at their doors, was hearty and hospitable, nay, even polite
+and considerate; and a good meal, with a dish of fresh grapes for
+dessert, was soon set before us in the veranda of a pleasant little
+house, much reminding me of an English farm-cottage, whither the good man
+of the dwelling had invited us for the evening.  All expressed great
+desire to profit by our medical skill; and on our reply that we could not
+conveniently open shop except at the capital, Ha’yel, several announced
+their resolution to visit us there; and subsequently kept their word,
+though at the cost of about twenty-four miles of journey.
+
+“We rose very early.  Our path, well tracked and trodden, now lay between
+ridges of precipitous rock, rising abruptly from a level and grassy
+plain; sometimes the road was sunk in deep gorges, sometimes it opened
+out on wider spaces, where trees and villages appeared, while the number
+of wayfarers, on foot or mounted, single or in bands, still increased as
+we drew nearer to the capital.  There was an air of newness and security
+about the dwellings and plantations hardly to be found nowadays in any
+other part of Arabia, Oman alone excepted.  I may add also the great
+frequency of young trees and ground newly enclosed, a cheerful sight, yet
+further enhanced by the total absence of ruins, so common in the East;
+hence the general effect produced by Djebel Shomer, when contrasted with
+most other provinces or kingdoms around, near and far, is that of a newly
+coined piece, in all its sharpness and shine, amid a dingy heap of
+defaced currency.  It is a fresh creation, and shows what Arabia might be
+under better rule than it enjoys for the most part: an inference rendered
+the more conclusive by the fact that in natural and unaided fertility
+Djebel Shomer is perhaps the least favored district in the entire central
+peninsula.
+
+“We were here close under the backbone of Djebel Shomer, whose reddish
+crags rose in the strangest forms on our right and left, while a narrow
+cleft down to the plain-level below gave opening to the capital.  Very
+hard to bring an army through this against the will of the inhabitants
+thought I; fifty resolute men could, in fact, hold the pass against
+thousands; nor is there any other approach to Ha’yel from the northern
+direction.  The town is situated near the very centre of the mountains;
+it was as yet entirely concealed from our view by the windings of the
+road amid huge piles of rock.  Meanwhile from Djobbah to Ha’yel the whole
+plain gradually rises, running up between the sierras, whose course from
+northeast to southwest crosses two-thirds of the upper peninsula, and
+forms the outwork of the central high country.  Hence the name of Nedjed,
+literally ‘highland,’ in contradistinction to the coast and the outlying
+provinces of lesser elevation.
+
+“The sun was yet two hours’ distance above the western horizon, when we
+threaded the narrow and winding defile, till we arrived at its farther
+end.  Here we found ourselves on the verge of a large plain, many miles
+in length and breadth, and girt on every side by a high mountain rampart,
+while right in front of us, at scarce a quarter of an hour’s march, lay
+the town of Ha’yel, surrounded by fortifications of about twenty feet in
+height, with bastion towers, some round, some square, and large folding
+gates at intervals; it offered the same show of freshness, and even of
+something like irregular elegance, that had before struck us in the
+villages on our way.  This, however, was a full-grown town, and its area
+might readily hold three hundred thousand inhabitants or more, were its
+streets and houses close packed like those of Brussels or Paris.  But the
+number of citizens does not, in fact, exceed twenty or twenty-two
+thousand, thanks to the many large gardens, open spaces, and even
+plantations, included within the outer walls, while the immense palace of
+the monarch alone, with its pleasure-grounds annexed, occupies about
+one-tenth of the entire city.  Our attention was attracted by a lofty
+tower, some seventy feet in height, of recent construction and oval form,
+belonging to the royal residence.  The plain all around the town is
+studded with isolated houses and gardens, the property of wealthy
+citizens, or of members of the kingly family, and on the far-off skirts
+of the plain appear the groves belonging to Kafar, ’Adwah, and other
+villages, placed at the openings of the mountain gorges that conduct to
+the capital.  The town walls and buildings shone yellow in the evening
+sun, and the whole prospect was one of thriving security, delightful to
+view, though wanting in the peculiar luxuriance of vegetation offered by
+the valley of Djowf.  A few Bedouin tents lay clustered close by the
+ramparts, and the great number of horsemen, footmen, camels, asses,
+peasants, townsmen, boys, women, and other like, all passing to and fro
+on their various avocations, gave cheerfulness and animation to the
+scene.
+
+“We crossed the plain and made for the town gate, opposite the castle;
+next, with no little difficulty, prevailed on our camels to pace the
+high-walled street, and at last arrived at the open space in front of the
+palace.  It was yet an hour before sunset, or rather more; the business
+of the day was over in Ha’yel, and the outer courtyard where we now stood
+was crowded with loiterers of all shapes and sizes.  We made our camels
+kneel down close by the palace gate, alongside of some forty or fifty
+others, and then stepped back to repose our very weary limbs on a stone
+bench opposite the portal, and awaited what might next occur.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—LIFE IN HA’YEL.
+
+“AT our first appearance a slight stir takes place.  The customary
+salutations are given and returned by those nearest at hand; and a small
+knot of inquisitive idlers, come up to see what and whence we are, soon
+thickens into a dense circle.  Many questions are asked, first of our
+conductor, Djedey’, and next of ourselves; our answers are tolerably
+laconic.  Meanwhile a thin, middle-sized individual, whose countenance
+bears the type of smiling urbanity and precise etiquette, befitting his
+office at court, approaches us.  His neat and simple dress, the long
+silver-circled staff in his hand, his respectful salutation, his politely
+important manner, all denote him one of the palace retinue.  It is Seyf,
+the court chamberlain, whose special duty is the reception and
+presentation of strangers.  We rise to receive him, and are greeted with
+a decorous ‘Peace be with you, brothers,’ in the fulness of every
+inflection and accent that the most scrupulous grammarian could desire.
+We return an equally Priscianic salutation.  ‘Whence have you come?’ is
+the first question.  ‘May good attend you!’  Of course we declare
+ourselves physicians from Syria, for our bulkier wares had been disposed
+of in the Djowf, and we were now resolved to depend on medical practice
+alone.  ‘And what do you desire here in our town? may God grant you
+success!’ says Seyf.  ‘We desire the favor of God most high, and,
+secondly, that of Telal,’ is our answer, conforming our style to the
+correctest formulas of the country, which we had already begun to pick
+up.  Whereupon Seyf, looking very sweet the while, begins, as in duty
+bound, a little encomium on his master’s generosity and other excellent
+qualities, and assures us that we have exactly reached right quarters.
+
+“But alas! while my comrade and myself were exchanging side-glances of
+mutual felicitation at such fair beginnings, Nemesis suddenly awoke to
+claim her due, and the serenity of our horizon was at once overcast by an
+unexpected and most unwelcome cloud.  My readers are doubtless already
+aware that nothing was of higher importance for us than the most absolute
+incognito, above all in whatever regarded European origin and character.
+In fact, once known for Europeans, all intimate access and sincerity of
+intercourse with the people of the land would have been irretrievably
+lost, and our onward progress to Nedjed rendered totally impossible.
+These were the very least inconveniences that could follow such a
+detection; others much more disagreeable might also be well apprehended.
+Now thus far nothing had occurred capable of exciting serious suspicion;
+no one had recognized us, or pretended to recognize.  We, too, on our
+part, had thought that Gaza, Ma’an, and perhaps the Djowf, were the only
+localities where this kind of recognition had to be feared.  But we had
+reckoned without our host; the first real danger was reserved for Ha’yel,
+within the very limits of Nedjed, and with all the desert-belt between us
+and our old acquaintances.
+
+“For while Seyf was running through the preliminaries of his politeness,
+I saw to my horror, amid the circle of bystanders, a figure, a face well
+known to me scarce six months before in Damascus, and well known to many
+others also, now merchant, now trader, now post-contractor, shrewd,
+enterprising, and active, though nigh fifty years of age, and intimate
+with many Europeans of considerable standing in Syria and Bagdad—one, in
+short, accustomed to all kinds of men, and not to be easily imposed on by
+any.
+
+“While I involuntarily stared dismay on my friend, and yet doubted if it
+could possibly be he, all incertitude was dispelled by his cheerful
+salutation, in the confidential tone of an old acquaintance, followed by
+wondering inquiries as to what wind had blown me hither, and what I meant
+to do here in Ha’yel.
+
+“Wishing him most heartily somewhere else, I had nothing for it but to
+‘fix a vacant stare,’ to give a formal return of greeting, and then
+silence.
+
+“But misfortunes never come single.  While I was thus on my defensive
+against so dangerous an antagonist in the person of my free-and-easy
+friend, lo! a tall, sinister-featured individual comes up, clad in the
+dress of an inhabitant of Kaseem, and abruptly breaks in with, ‘And I too
+have seen him at Damascus,’ naming at the same time the place and date of
+the meeting, and specifying exactly the circumstances most calculated to
+set me down for a genuine European.
+
+“Had he really met me as he said?  I cannot precisely say; the place he
+mentioned was one whither men, half-spies, half-travellers, and whole
+intriguers from the interior districts, nay, even from Nedjed itself, not
+unfrequently resort; and, as I myself was conscious of having paid more
+than one visit there, my officious interlocutor might very possibly have
+been one of those present on some such occasion.  So that although I did
+not now recognize him in particular, there was a strong intrinsic
+probability in favor of his ill-timed veracity; and his thus coming in to
+support the first witness in his assertions rendered my predicament,
+already unsafe, yet worse.
+
+“But ere I could frame an answer or resolve what course to hold, up came
+a third, who, by overshooting the mark, put the game into our hands.  He
+too salaams me as an old friend, and then, turning to those around, now
+worked up to a most extraordinary pitch of amazed curiosity, says, ‘And I
+also know him perfectly well; I have often met him at Cairo, where he
+lives in great wealth in a large house near the Kasr-el-’Eynee; his name
+is ’Abd-es-Saleeb; he is married, and has a very beautiful daughter, who
+rides an expensive horse,’ etc.
+
+“Here at last was a pure invention or mistake (for I know not which it
+was) that admitted of a flat denial.  ‘Aslahek Allah,’ ‘May Heaven set
+you right,’ said I; ‘never did I live at Cairo, nor have I the blessing
+of any horse-riding young ladies for daughters.’  Then, looking very hard
+at my second detector, toward whom I had all the right of doubt, ‘I do
+not remember having ever seen you; think well as to what you say; many a
+man besides myself has a reddish beard and straw-colored mustaches,’
+taking pains, however, not to seem particularly ‘careful to answer him in
+this matter,’ but as if merely questioning the precise identity.  But for
+the first of the trio I knew not what to do or to reply, so I continued
+to look at him with a killing air of inquisitive stupidity, as though not
+fully understanding his meaning.
+
+“But Seyf, though himself at first somewhat staggered by this sudden
+downpour of recognition, was now reassured by the discomfiture of the
+third witness, and came to the convenient conclusion that the two others
+were no better worthy of credit.  ‘Never mind them,’ exclaimed he,
+addressing himself to us, ‘they are talkative liars, mere gossipers; let
+them alone, they do not deserve attention; come along with me to the
+k’hawah in the palace, and rest yourselves.’  Then turning to my poor
+Damascene friend, whose only wrong was to have been overmuch in the
+right, he sharply chid him, and next the rest, and led us off, most glad
+to follow the leader, through the narrow and dark portal into the royal
+residence.
+
+“Here we remained whilst coffee was, as wont, prepared and served.  Seyf,
+who had left us awhile, now came back to say that Telal would soon return
+from his afternoon walk in a garden where he had been taking the air, and
+that if we would pass into the outer court we should then and there have
+the opportunity of paying him our introductory respects.  He added that
+we should afterward find our supper ready, and be provided also with good
+lodgings for the night; finally, that the k’hawah and what it contained
+were always at our disposition so long as we should honor Ha’yel by our
+presence.
+
+“We rose accordingly and returned with Seyf to the outside area.  It was
+fuller than ever, on account of the expected appearance of the monarch.
+A few minutes later we saw a crowd approach from the upper extremity of
+the place, namely, that toward the market.  When the new-comers drew
+near, we saw them to be almost exclusively armed men, with some of the
+more important-looking citizens, but all on foot.  In the midst of this
+circle, though detached from those around them, slowly advanced three
+personages, whose dress and deportment, together with the respectful
+distance observed by the rest, announced superior rank.  ‘Here comes
+Telal,’ said Seyf, in an undertone.
+
+“The midmost figure was in fact that of the prince himself.  Short of
+stature, broad-shouldered, and strongly built, of a very dusky
+complexion, with long black hair, dark and piercing eyes, and a
+countenance rather severe than open, Telal might readily be supposed
+above forty years in age, though he is in fact thirty-seven or
+thirty-eight at most.  His step was measured, his demeanor grave and
+somewhat haughty.  His dress, a long robe of cashmere shawl, covered the
+white Arab shirt, and over all he wore a delicately worked cloak of
+camel’s-hair from Oman, a great rarity, and highly valued in this part of
+Arabia.  His head was adorned by a broidered handkerchief, in which silk
+and gold thread had not been spared, and girt by a broad band of
+camel’s-hair entwined with red silk, the manufacture of Meshid ’Alee.  A
+gold-mounted sword hung by his side, and his dress was perfumed with
+musk, in a degree better adapted to Arab than to European nostrils.  His
+glance never rested for a moment; sometimes it turned on his nearer
+companions, sometimes on the crowd; I have seldom seen so truly an ‘eagle
+eye,’ in rapidity and in brilliancy.
+
+“By his side walked a tall, thin individual, clad in garments of somewhat
+less costly material, but of gayer colors and embroidery than those of
+the king himself.  His face announced unusual intelligence and courtly
+politeness; his sword was not, however, adorned with gold, the exclusive
+privilege of the royal family, but with silver only.
+
+“This was Zamil, the treasurer and prime minister—sole minister, indeed,
+of the autocrat.  Raised from beggary by Abdallah, the late king, who had
+seen in the ragged orphan signs of rare capacity, he continued to merit
+the uninterrupted favor of his patron, and after his death, had become
+equally, or yet more, dear to Telal, who raised him from post to post,
+till he at last occupied the highest position in the kingdom after the
+monarch himself.  Of the demurely smiling Abd-el-Mahsin, the second
+companion of the king’s evening walk, I will say nothing for the moment;
+we shall have him before long for a very intimate acquaintance and a
+steady friend.
+
+“Everyone stood up as Telal drew nigh.  Seyf gave us a sign to follow
+him, made way through the crowd, and saluted his sovereign with the
+authorized formula of ‘Peace be with you, O the Protected of God!’  Telal
+at once cast on us a penetrating glance, and addressed a question in a
+low voice to Seyf, whose answer was in the same tone.  The prince then
+looked again toward us, but with a friendlier expression of face.  We
+approached and touched his open hand, repeating the same salutation as
+that used by Seyf.  No bow, hand-kissing, or other ceremony is customary
+on these occasions.  Telal returned our greeting, and then, without a
+word more to us, whispered a moment to Seyf, and passed on through the
+palace gate.
+
+“‘He will give you a private audience to-morrow,’ said Seyf, ‘and I will
+take care that you have notice of it in due time; meanwhile come to
+supper.’  The sun had already set when we re-entered the palace.  This
+time, after passing the arsenal, we turned aside into a large square
+court, distinct from the former, and surrounded by an open veranda,
+spread with mats.  Two large ostriches, presents offered to Telal by some
+chiefs of the Solibah tribe, strutted about the enclosure, and afforded
+much amusement to the negro boys and scullions of the establishment.
+Seyf conducted us to the further side of the court, where we seated
+ourselves under the portico.
+
+“Hither some black slaves immediately brought the supper; the ‘pièce de
+résistance’ was, as usual, a huge dish of rice and boiled meat, with some
+thin cakes of unleavened bread and dates, and small onions with chopped
+gourds intermixed.  The cookery was better than what we had heretofore
+tasted, though it would, perhaps, have hardly passed muster with a Vatel.
+We made a hearty meal, took coffee in the k’hawah, and then returned to
+sit awhile and smoke our pipes in the open air.  Needs not say how lovely
+are the summer evenings, how cool the breeze, how pure the sky, in these
+mountainous districts.”
+
+Palgrave gives a historical sketch of the rise of Prince Telal to a
+position of power and importance in Central Arabia, scarcely secondary to
+that of the Wahabee ruler of Nedjed.  The region of Djebel Shomer was
+subjected to the Wahabee rule during the last century, and the severe
+discipline of the new creed was forced upon its inhabitants.  But, after
+the taking of Derreyeh by Ibrahim Pasha, the people regained a partial
+independence, and a rivalry for the chieftainship ensued between the two
+noble houses of Djaaper and Beyt Alee.  The leader of the former was a
+young man named Abdallah, of more than ordinary character and
+intelligence, wealthy and popular.  But he was defeated in the struggle,
+and about the year 1820 was driven into exile.
+
+With a small band of followers he reached the Wady Sirhan (traversed by
+Palgrave on his way to the Djowf), where they were attacked by the
+Aneyzeh Bedouins, all the rest slain, and Abdallah left for dead on the
+sands.  The Arab story is that the locusts came around them, scattered
+the sand with their wings and feet upon his wounds and thus stopped the
+flow of blood, while a flock of partridges hung above him to screen him
+from the burning sun.  A merchant of Damascus, passing by with his
+caravan, beheld the miracle, took the youth, bound up his wounds, and
+restored him to health by the most tender care.  When he had recovered
+his vigor in Damascus, the generous merchant sent him back to Arabia.
+
+He went first to the Nedjed, entered the service of the Wahabee chief,
+rose to high military rank, and finally, by his own personal bravery,
+secured the sovereignty to Feysul, the present (1863) ruler.  The latter
+then gave him an army to recover his heritage of Djebel Shomer, and about
+the year 1830 his sway was secured in his native country.  The rival clan
+of Beyt Alee was extirpated, only one child being left, whom Telal
+afterward, with a rare but politic generosity, restored to wealth and
+honors.
+
+Abdallah took every means to strengthen his power.  He found it
+necessary, through his dependence on Feysul, to establish the Wahabee
+creed; he used the Bedouins as allies, in order to repress the rivalry of
+the nobles, and thus gained power at the expense of popularity.  Many
+plots were formed against him, many attempts made to assassinate him, but
+they all failed: his lucky star attended him throughout.  Up to this time
+he had dwelt in a quarter of the capital which the old chieftains and the
+nobility had mainly chosen for their domicile, and where the new monarch
+was surrounded by men his equals in birth and of even more ancient title
+to command.  But now he added a new quarter to the town, and there laid
+the foundations of a vast palace destined for the future abode of the
+king and the display of all his grandeur, amid streets and nobles of his
+own creation.  The walls of the projected edifice were fast rising when
+he died, almost suddenly, in 1844 or 1845, leaving three sons—Telal,
+Meta’ab, and Mohammed—the eldest scarce twenty years of age, besides his
+only surviving brother Obeyd, who could not then have been much under
+fifty.
+
+“Telal was already highly popular,” says Palgrave, “much more so than his
+father, and had given early tokens of those superior qualities which
+accompanied him to the throne.  All parties united to proclaim him sole
+heir to the kingdom and lawful successor to the regal power, and thus the
+rival pretensions of Obeyd, hated by many and feared by all, were
+smothered at the outset and put aside without a contest.
+
+“The young sovereign possessed, in fact, all that Arab ideas require to
+insure good government and lasting popularity.  Affable toward the common
+people, reserved and haughty with the aristocracy, courageous and skilful
+in war, a lover of commerce and building in time of peace, liberal even
+to profusion, yet always careful to maintain and augment the state
+revenue, neither over-strict nor yet scandalously lax in religion, secret
+in his designs, but never known to break a promise once given, or violate
+a plighted faith; severe in administration, yet averse to bloodshed, he
+offered the very type of what an Arab prince should be.  I might add,
+that among all rulers or governors, European or Asiatic, with whose
+acquaintance I have ever chanced to be honored, I know few equal in the
+true art of government to Telal, son of Abdallah-ebn-Rasheed.
+
+“His first cares were directed to adorn and civilize the capital.  Under
+his orders, enforced by personal superintendence, the palace commenced by
+his father was soon brought to completion.  But he added, what probably
+his father would hardly have thought of, a long row of warehouses, the
+dependencies and property of the same palace; next he built a
+market-place consisting of about eighty shops or magazines, destined for
+public commerce and trade, and lastly constructed a large mosque for the
+official prayers of Friday.  Round the palace, and in many other parts of
+the town, he opened streets, dug wells, and laid out extensive gardens,
+besides strengthening the old fortifications all round and adding new
+ones.  At the same time he managed to secure at once the fidelity and the
+absence of his dangerous uncle by giving him charge of those military
+expeditions which best satisfied the restless energy of Obeyd.  The first
+of these wars was directed, I know not on what pretext, against Kheybar.
+But as Telal intended rather to enforce submission than to inflict ruin,
+he associated with Obeyd in the military command his own brother Meta’ab,
+to put a check on the ferocity of the former.  Kheybar was conquered, and
+Telal sent thither, as governor in his name, a young man of Ha’yel,
+prudent and gentle, whom I subsequently met when he was on a visit at the
+capital.
+
+“Not long after, the inhabitants of Kaseem, weary of Wahabee tyranny,
+turned their eyes toward Telal, who had already given a generous and
+inviolable asylum to the numerous political exiles of that district.
+Secret negotiations took place, and at a favorable moment the entire
+uplands of that province—after a fashion not indeed peculiar to
+Arabia—annexed themselves to the kingdom of Shomer by universal and
+unanimous suffrage.  Telal made suitable apologies to the Nedjean
+monarch, the original sovereign of the annexed district; he could not
+resist the popular wish; it had been forced on him, etc.—but Western
+Europe is familiar with the style.  Feysul felt the inopportuneness of a
+quarrel with the rapidly growing power to which he himself had given
+origin only a few years before, and, after a wry face or two, swallowed
+the pill.  Meanwhile Telal knowing the necessity of a high military
+reputation, both at home and abroad, undertook in person a series of
+operations against Teyma’ and its neighborhood, and at last against the
+Djowf itself.  Everywhere his arms were successful, and his moderation in
+victory secured the attachment of the vanquished themselves.
+
+“Toward his own subjects his conduct is uniformly of a nature to merit
+their obedience and attachment, and few sovereigns have here met with
+better success.  Once a day, often twice, he gives public audience, hears
+patiently, and decides in person, the minutest causes with great good
+sense.  To the Bedouins, no insignificant portion of his rule, he makes
+up for the restraint he imposes, and the tribute he levies from them, by
+a profusion of hospitality not to be found elsewhere in the whole of
+Arabia from Akabah to Aden.  His guests at the midday and evening meal
+are never less than fifty or sixty, and I have often counted up to two
+hundred at a banquet, while presents of dress and arms are of frequent if
+not daily occurrence.  It is hard for Europeans to estimate how much
+popularity such conduct brings an Asiatic prince.  Meanwhile the
+townsfolk and villagers love him for the more solid advantages of
+undisturbed peace at home, of flourishing commerce, of extended dominion,
+and military glory.
+
+“To capital punishment he is decidedly adverse, and the severest penalty
+with which he has hitherto chastised political offences is banishment or
+prison.  Indeed, even in cases of homicide or murder, he has been known
+not unfrequently to avail himself of the option allowed by Arab custom
+between a fine and retaliation, and to buy off the offender, by bestowing
+on the family of the deceased the allotted price of blood from his own
+private treasury, and that from a pure motive of humanity.  When
+execution does take place, it is always by beheading; nor is indeed any
+other mode of putting to death customary in Arabia.  Stripes, however,
+are not uncommon, though administered on the broad back, not on the sole
+of the foot.  They are the common chastisement for minor offences, like
+stealing, cursing, or quarrelling; in this last case both parties usually
+come in for their share.
+
+“With his numerous retainers he is almost over-indulgent, and readily
+pardons a mistake or a negligence; falsehood alone he never forgives; and
+it is notorious that whoever has once lied to Telal must give up all
+hopes of future favor.”
+
+After describing the public audience which is daily given by this
+excellent prince, Palgrave describes the more private reception which was
+accorded to himself and his companion:
+
+“Telal, once free from the mixed crowd, pauses a moment till we rejoin
+him.  The simple and customary salutations are given and returned.  I
+then present him with our only available testimonial, the scrap written
+by Hamood from the Djowf.  He opens it, and hands it over to Zamil,
+better skilled in reading than his master.  Then laying aside all his
+wonted gravity, and assuming a good-humored smile, he takes my hand in
+his right and my companion’s in his left, and thus walks on with us
+through the court, past the mosque, and down the market-place, while his
+attendants form a moving wall behind and on either side.
+
+“He was in his own mind thoroughly persuaded that we were, as we
+appeared, Syrians; but imagined, nor was he entirely in the wrong thus
+far, that we had other objects in view than mere medical practice.  But
+if he was right in so much, he was less fortunate in the interpretation
+he chose to put on our riddle, having imagined that our real scope must
+be to buy horses for some government, of which we must be the agents; a
+conjecture which had certainly the merit of plausibility.  However, Telal
+had, I believe, no doubt on the matter, and had already determined to
+treat us well in the horse business, and to let us have a good bargain,
+as it shortly appeared.
+
+“Accordingly he began a series of questions and cross-questions, all in a
+jocose way, but so that the very drift of his inquiries soon allowed us
+to perceive what he really esteemed us.  We, following our previous
+resolution, stuck to medicine, a family in want, hopes of good success
+under the royal patronage and much of the same tenor.  But Telal was not
+so easily to be blinkered, and kept to his first judgment.  Meanwhile we
+passed down the street, lined with starers at the king and us, and at
+last arrived at the outer door of a large house near the farther end of
+the Sook or market-place; it belonged to Hasan, the merchant from Meshid
+’Alee.
+
+“Three of the retinue stationed themselves by way of guard at the street
+door, sword in hand.  The rest entered with the king and ourselves; we
+traversed the court-yard, where the remainder of the armed men took
+position, while we went on to the k’hawah.  It was small, but well
+furnished and carpeted.  Here Telal placed us amicably by his side in the
+highest place; his brother Mohammed and five or six others were admitted,
+and seated themselves each according to his rank, while Hasan, being
+master of the house, did the honors.
+
+“Coffee was brought and pipes lighted.  Meantime Ebn-Rasheed renewed his
+interrogatory, skilfully throwing out side remarks, now on the government
+of Syria, now on that of Egypt, then on the Bedouins to the north of
+Djowf, or on the tribes of Hedjaz, or on the banks of the Euphrates, thus
+to gain light whence and to what end we had in fact come.  Next he
+questioned us on medicine, perhaps to discover whether we had the right
+professional tone; then on horses, about which same noble animals we
+affected an ignorance unnatural and very unpardonable in an Englishman;
+but for which I hope afterward to make amends to my readers.  All was in
+vain; and after a full hour our noble friend had only managed by his
+cleverness to get himself farther off the right track than he had been at
+the outset.  He felt it, and determined to let matters have their own
+course, and to await the result of time.  So he ended by assuring us of
+his entire confidence and protection, offering us, to boot, a lodging on
+the palace grounds.  But this we declined, being desirous of studying the
+country as it was in itself, not through the medium of a court
+atmosphere; so we begged that an abode might be assigned us as near the
+market-place as possible; and this he promised, though evidently rather
+put out by our independent ways.
+
+“Excellent water-melons, ready peeled and cut up, with peaches hardly
+ripe, for it was the beginning of the season, were now brought in, and we
+all partook in common.  This was the signal for breaking up; Telal
+renewed his proffers of favor and patronage; and we were at last
+reconducted to our lodgings by one of the royal guard.
+
+“Seyf now went in search of a permanent dwelling-place wherein to install
+us; and, before evening, succeeded in finding one situated in a street
+leading at right angles to the market, and at no unreasonable distance
+from the palace.  Every door was provided with its own distinct lock; the
+keys here are made of iron, and in this respect Ha’yel has the better of
+any other Arab town it was my chance to visit, where the keys were
+invariably wooden, and thus very liable to break and get out of order.
+
+“The court-yard was soon thronged with visitors, some from the palace,
+others from the town.  One had a sick relation, whom he begged us to come
+and see, another some personal ailment, a third had called out of mere
+politeness or curiosity; in short, men of all conditions and of all ages,
+but for the most part open and friendly in manner, so that we could
+already anticipate a very speedy acquaintance with the town and whatever
+it contained.
+
+“The nature of our occupations now led to a certain daily routine, though
+it was often agreeably diversified by incidental occurrences.  Perhaps a
+leaf taken at random from my journal, now regularly kept, may serve to
+set before my readers a tolerable sample of our ordinary course of life
+and society at Ha’yel, while it will at the same time give a more
+distinct idea of the town and people than we have yet supplied.
+
+“Be it, then, the 10th of August, whose jotted notes I will put together
+and fill up the blanks.  I might equally have taken the 9th or the 11th,
+they are all much the same; but the day I have chosen looks a little the
+closer written of the two, and for that sole reason I prefer giving it.
+
+“On that day, then, in 1862, about a fortnight after our establishment at
+Ha’yel, and when we were, in consequence, fully inured to our town
+existence, Seleem Abou Mahmood-el-’Eys and Barakat-esh-Shamee, that is,
+my companion and myself, rose, not from our beds, for we had none, but
+from our roof-spread carpets, and took advantage of the silent hour of
+the first faint dawn, while the stars yet kept watch in the sky over the
+slumbering inhabitants of Shomer, to leave the house for a cool and
+undisturbed walk ere the sun should arise and man go forth unto his work
+and to his labor.  We locked the outer door, and then passed into the
+still twilight gloom down the cross-street leading to the market-place,
+which we next followed up to its farther or southwestern end, where large
+folding-gates separate it from the rest of the town.  The wolfish
+city-dogs, whose bark and bite, too, render walking the streets at night
+a rather precarious business, now tamely stalked away in the gloaming,
+while here and there a crouching camel, the packages yet on his back, and
+his sleeping driver close by, awaited the opening of the warehouse at
+whose door they had passed the night.  Early though it was, the market
+gates were already unclosed, and the guardian sat wakeful in his niche.
+On leaving the market we had yet to go down a broad street of houses and
+gardens cheerfully intermixed, till at last we reached the western wall
+of the town, or, rather, of the new quarter added by ’Abdallah, where the
+high portal between round flanking towers gave us issue on the open
+plain, blown over at this hour by a light gale of life and coolness.  To
+the west, but some four or five miles distant, rose the serrated mass of
+Djebel Shomer, throwing up its black fantastic peaks, now reddened by the
+reflected dawn, against the lead-blue sky.  Northward the same chain
+bends round till it meets the town, and then stretches away for a length
+of ten or twelve days’ journey, gradually losing in height on its
+approach to Meshid ’Alee and the valley of the Euphrates.  On our south
+we have a little isolated knot of rocks, and far off the extreme ranges
+of Djebel Shomer, or ’Aja, to give it its historical name, intersected by
+the broad passes that lead on in the same direction to Djebel Solma.
+Behind us lies the capital.  Telal’s palace, with its high oval keep,
+houses, gardens, walls, and towers, all coming out black against the
+ruddy bars of eastern light, and behind, a huge pyramidal peak almost
+overhanging the town, and connected by lower rocks with the main mountain
+range to north and south, those stony ribs that protect the central heart
+of the kingdom.  In the plain itself we can just distinguish by the
+doubtful twilight several blackish patches irregularly scattered over its
+face, or seen as though leaning upward against its craggy verge; these
+are the gardens and country houses of ’Obeyd and other chiefs, besides
+hamlets and villages, such as Kefar and ’Adwah, with their groves of palm
+and ‘ithel’ (the Arab larch), now blended in the dusk.  One solitary
+traveller on his camel, a troop of jackals sneaking off to their rocky
+cavern, a few dingy tents of Shomer Bedouins, such are the last details
+of the landscape.  Far away over the southern hills beams the glory of
+Canopus, and announces a new Arab year; the pole-star to the north lies
+low over the mountain tops.
+
+“We pace the pebble-strown flat to the south till we leave behind us the
+length of the town wall, and reach the little cluster of rocks already
+mentioned.  We scramble up to a sort of niche near its summit, whence, at
+a height of a hundred feet or more, we can overlook the whole extent of
+the plain and wait the sunrise.  Yet before the highest crags of Shomer
+are gilt with its first rays, or the long giant shadows of the easterly
+chain have crossed the level, we see groups of peasants, who, driving
+their fruit and vegetable-laden asses before them, issue like little
+bands of ants from the mountain gorges around, and slowly approach on the
+tracks converging to the capital.  Horsemen from the town ride out to the
+gardens, and a long line of camels on the westerly Medina road winds up
+toward Ha’yel.  We wait ensconced in our rocky lookout and enjoy the view
+till the sun has risen, and the coolness of the night air warms rapidly
+into the sultry day; it is time to return.  So we quit our solitary perch
+and descend to the plain, where, keeping in the shadow of the western
+fortifications, we regain the town gate and thence the market.
+
+“There all is now life and movement; some of the warehouses, filled with
+rice, flour, spices, or coffee, and often concealing in their inner
+recesses stores of the prohibited American weed, are already open; we
+salute the owners while we pass, and they return a polite and friendly
+greeting.  Camels are unloading in the streets, and Bedouins standing by,
+looking anything but at home in the town.  The shoemaker and the
+blacksmith, those two main props of Arab handicraft, are already at their
+work, and some gossiping bystanders are collected around them.  At the
+corner where our cross-street falls into the market-place, three or four
+country women are seated, with piles of melons, gourds, egg-plant fruits,
+and the other garden produce before them for sale.  My companion falls a
+haggling with one of these village nymphs, and ends by obtaining a dozen
+‘badinjans’ and a couple of water-melons, each bigger than a man’s head,
+for the equivalent of an English twopence.  With this purchase we return
+home, where we shut and bolt the outer door, then take out of a flat
+basket what has remained from over night of our wafer-like Ha’yel bread,
+and with this and a melon make a hasty breakfast.  I say a hasty one, for
+although it is only half an hour after sunrise, repeated knocks at our
+portal show the arrival of patients and visitors: early rising being here
+the fashion, and in reason must be wherever artificial lighting is
+scanty.  However, we do not at once open to our friends, nor will they
+take offence at the delay, but remain where they are, chatting together
+before our door till we admit them; of so little value is time here.
+
+“In comes a young man of good appearance, clad in the black cloak common
+to all of the middle or upper classes in Central Arabia; in his hand he
+bears a wand of the Sidr or lotos-wood.  A silver-hilted sword and a
+glistening Kafee’yah announce him to be a person of some importance,
+while his long, black ringlets, handsome features, and slightly olive
+complexion, with a tall stature and easy gait, declare him a native of
+Djebel Shomer, and townsman of Ha’yel; it is ’Ojeyl, the eldest-born of a
+large family, and successor to the comfortable house and garden of his
+father, not long since deceased, in a quarter of the town some twenty
+minutes’ walk distant.  He leads by the hand his younger brother, a
+modest-looking lad of fair complexion and slim make, but almost blind,
+and evidently out of health also.  After passing through the preliminary
+ceremonies of introduction to Barakat, he approaches my recess, and
+standing without, salutes me with the greatest deference.  Thinking him a
+desirable acquaintance I receive him very graciously, and he begs me to
+see what is the matter with his brother.  I examine the case, finding it
+to be within the limits of my skill, and not likely to require more than
+a very simple course of treatment.  Accordingly I make my bargain for the
+chances of recovery, and find ’Ojeyl docile to the terms proposed, and
+with little disposition, all things considered, to backwardness in
+payment.  Arabs, indeed, are in general close in driving a bargain and
+open in downright giving; they will chaffer half a day about a penny,
+while they will throw away the worth of pounds on the first asker.  But
+’Ojeyl was one of the best specimens of the Ha’yel character, and of the
+clan Ta’i, renowned in all times for their liberal ways and high sense of
+honor.  I next proceed to administer to my patient such drugs as his
+state requires, and he receives them with that air of absolute and
+half-religious confidence which well-educated Arabs show to their
+physician, whom they regard as possessed of an almost sacred and
+supernatural power—a feeling, by the way, hardly less advantageous to the
+patient than to the practitioner, and which may often contribute much to
+the success of the treatment.
+
+“During the rest of my stay at Ha’yel, ’Ojeyl continued to be one of my
+best friends, I had almost said disciples; our mutual visits were
+frequent, and always pleasing and hearty.  His brother’s cure, which
+followed in less than a fortnight, confirmed his attachment, nor had I
+reason to complain of scantiness in his retribution.
+
+“Meanwhile the court-yard has become full of visitors.  Close by my door
+I see the intelligent and demurely smiling face of ’Abd-el-Mahsin, where
+he sits between two pretty and well-dressed boys; they are the two elder
+children of Telal—Bedr and Bander.  Their guardsman, a negro slave with a
+handsome cloak and sword, is seated a little lower down; farther on are
+two townsmen, one armed, the other with a wand at his side.  A rough,
+good-natured youth, of a bronzed complexion, and whose dingy clothes
+bespeak his mechanical profession, is talking with another of a dress
+somewhat different in form and coarser in material than that usually worn
+in Ha’yel; this latter must be a peasant from some one of the mountain
+villages.  Two Bedouins, ragged and uncouth, have straggled in with the
+rest; while a tall, dark-featured youth, with a gilded hilt to his sword,
+and more silk about him than a Wahabee would approve, has taken his place
+opposite to ’Abd-el-Mahsin, and is trying to draw him into conversation.
+But this last has asked Barakat to lend him one of my Arabic books to
+read, and is deeply engaged in its perusal.
+
+“’Ojeyl has taken leave, and I give the next turn of course to
+’Abd-el-Mahsin.  He informs me that Telal has sent me his two sons, Bedr
+and Bander, that I may examine their state of health, and see if they
+require doctoring.  This is in truth a little stroke of policy on Telal’s
+part, who knows equally with myself that the boys are perfectly well and
+want nothing at all.  But he wishes to give us a mark of his confidence,
+and at the same time to help us in establishing our medical reputation in
+the town; for though by no means himself persuaded of the reality of our
+doctoral title, he understands the expediency of saving appearances
+before the public.
+
+“Well, the children are passed in review with all the seriousness due to
+a case of heart complaint or brain fever, while at a wink from me Barakat
+prepares in the kitchen a draught of cinnamon water, which, with sugar,
+named medicine for the occasion, pleases the young heirs of royalty and
+keeps up the farce; ’Abd-el-Mahsin expatiating all the time to the
+bystanders on the wonderful skill with which I have at once discovered
+the ailments and their cure, and the small boys thinking that if this be
+medicine they will do their best to be ill for it every day.
+
+“’Abd-el-Mahsin now commits them to the negro, who, however, before
+taking them back to the palace, has his own story to tell of some
+personal ache, for which I prescribe without stipulating for payment,
+since he belongs to the palace, where it is important to have the
+greatest number of friends possible, even on the back stairs.  But
+’Abd-el-Mahsin remains, reading, chatting, quoting poetry, and talking
+history, recent events, natural philosophy, or medicine, as the case may
+be.
+
+“Let us now see some of the other patients.  The gold-hilted swordsman
+has naturally a special claim on our attention.  He is the son of
+Rosheyd, Telal’s maternal uncle.  His palace stands on the other side of
+the way, exactly opposite to our house; and I will say nothing more of
+him for the present, intending to pay him afterward a special visit, and
+thus become more thoroughly acquainted with the whole family.
+
+“Next let us take notice of those two townsmen who are conversing, or
+rather ‘chaffing,’ together.  Though both in plain apparel, and much
+alike in stature and features, there is yet much about them to
+distinguish the two; one has a civilian look, the other a military.  He
+of the wand is no less a personage than Mohammed-el-Kadee, chief justice
+of Ha’yel, and of course a very important individual in the town.
+However, his exterior is that of an elderly, unpretentious, little man,
+and one, in spite of the proverb which attributes gravity to judges, very
+fond of a joke, besides being a tolerable representative of what may here
+be called the moderate party, neither participating in the fanaticism of
+the Wahabee, nor yet, like the most of the indigenous chiefs, hostile to
+Mahometanism; he takes his cue from the court direction and is popular
+with all factions because belonging properly to none.
+
+“He requires some medical treatment for himself, and more for his son, a
+big, heavy lad with a swollen arm, who has accompanied him hither.  Here,
+too, is a useful acquaintance, well up to all the scandal and small talk
+of the town, and willing to communicate it.  Our visits were frequent,
+and I found his house well stored with books, partly manuscript, partly
+printed in Egypt, and mainly on legal or religious subjects.
+
+“Of the country folks in the villages around, like Mogah, Delhemee’eh,
+and the rest, Mohammed-el-Kadee used to speak with a sort of
+half-contemptuous pity, much like a Parisian talking of Low Bretons; in
+fact, the difference between these rough and sturdy boors and the more
+refined inhabitants of the capital is, all due proportion allowed, no
+less remarkable here than in Europe itself.  We will now let one of them
+come forward in his own behalf, and my readers shall be judges.
+
+“It is accordingly a stout clown from Mogah, scantily dressed in working
+wear, and who has been occupied for the last half hour in tracing sundry
+diagrams on the ground before him with a thick peach-tree switch, thus to
+pass his time till his betters shall have been served.  He now edges
+forward, and taking his seat in front of the door, calls my attention
+with an ‘I say, doctor.’  Whereon I suggest to him that his bulky
+corporation not being formed of glass or any other transparent material,
+he has by his position entirely intercepted whatever little light my
+recess might enjoy.  He apologizes, and shuffles an inch or two sideways.
+Next I inquire what ails him, not without some curiosity to hear the
+answer, so little does the herculean frame before me announce disease.
+Whereto Do’eymis, or whatever may be his name, replies, ‘I say, I am all
+made up of pain.’  This statement, like many others, appears to me rather
+too general to be exactly true.  So I proceed in my interrogatory: ‘Does
+your head pain you?’  ‘No.’  (I might have guessed that; these fellows
+never feel what our cross-Channel friends entitle ‘_le mal des beaux
+esprits_.’)  ‘Does your back ache?’  ‘No.’  ‘Your arms?’  ‘No.’  ‘Your
+legs?’  ‘No.’  ‘Your body?’  ‘No.’  ‘But,’ I conclude, ‘if neither your
+head nor your body, back, arms, or legs pain you, how can you possibly be
+such a composition of suffering?’  ‘I am all made up of pain, doctor,’
+replies he, manfully intrenching himself within his first position.  The
+fact is, that there is really something wrong with him, but he does not
+know how to localize his sensations.  So I push forward my inquiries,
+till it appears that our man of Mogah has a chronic rheumatism; and on
+ulterior investigation, conducted with all the skill that Barakat and I
+can jointly muster, it comes out that three or four months before he had
+an attack of the disease in its acute form, accompanied by high fever,
+since which he has never been himself again.
+
+“This might suffice for the diagnosis, but I wish to see how he will find
+his way out of more intricate questions; besides, the townsmen sitting
+by, and equally alive to the joke with myself, whisper, ‘Try him again.’
+In consequence, I proceed with, ‘What was the cause of your first
+illness?’  ‘I say, doctor, its cause was God,’ replies the patient.  ‘No
+doubt of that,’ say I; ‘all things are caused by God: but what was the
+particular and immediate occasion?’  ‘Doctor, its cause was God, and
+secondly, that I ate camel’s flesh when I was cold,’ rejoins my
+scientific friend.  ‘But was there nothing else?’ I suggest, not quite
+satisfied with the lucid explanation just given.  ‘Then, too, I drank
+camel’s milk; but it was all, I say, from God, doctor,’ answers he.
+
+“Well, I consider the case, and make up my mind regarding the treatment.
+Next comes the grand question of payment, which must be agreed on
+beforehand, and rendered conditional on success; else no fees for the
+doctor, not at Ha’yel only, but throughout Arabia.  I inquire what he
+will give me on recovery.  ‘Doctor,’ answers the peasant, ‘I will give
+you, do you hear?  I say, I will give you a camel.’  But I reply that I
+do not want one.  ‘I say, remember God,’ which being interpreted here
+means, ‘do not be unreasonable; I will give you a fat camel, everyone
+knows my camel; if you choose, I will bring witnesses, I say.’  And while
+I persist in refusing the proffered camel, he talks of butter, meal,
+dates, and such like equivalents.
+
+“There is a patient and a paymaster for you.  However, all ends by his
+behaving reasonably enough; he follows my prescriptions with the ordinary
+docility, gets better, and gives me for my pains an eighteen-penny fee.”
+
+During this residence in Ha’yel, Palgrave made many friends, and soon
+established those relations of familiar intercourse which are so much
+easier in Moslem than in Christian lands—a natural result of the
+preservation of the old importance, which in the earliest Hebrew days was
+attached to “the stranger.”  Palgrave’s intimacies embraced many families
+related to Telal, and others, whose knowledge of Arabian history or
+literature made their acquaintance welcome.  His own knowledge of these
+subjects, fortunately, was equal to theirs, and, from the number of his
+invitations to dinners and suppers, he seems to have been a welcome guest
+to the better classes of Ha’yel.  One of the aristocracy, by name Dohey,
+was his most agreeable acquaintance; and we quote the following pleasant
+account of his intercourse:
+
+“Dohey’s invitations were particularly welcome, both from the
+pleasantness of his dwelling-place, and from the varied and interesting
+conversation that I was sure to meet with there.  This merchant, a tall
+and stately man of between fifty and sixty years of age, and whose thin
+features were lighted up by a lustre of more than ordinary intelligence,
+was a thorough Ha’yelite of the old caste, hating Wahabees from the
+bottom of his heart, eager for information on cause and effect, on lands
+and governments, and holding commerce and social life for the main props
+if not the ends of civil and national organization.  His uncle, now near
+eighty years old, to judge by conjecture in a land where registers are
+not much in use, had journeyed to India, and traded at Bombay; in token
+whereof he still wore an Indian skullcap and a cashmere shawl.  The rest
+of the family were in keeping with the elder members, and seldom have I
+seen more dutiful children or a better educated household.  My readers
+will naturally understand that by education I here imply its moral not
+its intellectual phase.  The eldest son, himself a middle-aged man, would
+never venture into his father’s presence without unbuckling his sword and
+leaving it in the vestibule, nor on any account presume to sit on a level
+with him or by his side in the divan.
+
+“The divan itself was one of the prettiest I met with in these parts.  It
+was a large square room, looking out on the large house-garden, and
+cheerfully lighted up by trellised windows on two sides, while the wall
+of the third had purposely been discontinued at about half its height,
+and the open space thus left between it and the roof propped by pillars,
+between which ‘a fruitful vine by the sides of the house’ was intertwined
+so as to fill up the interval with a gay net-work of green leaves and
+tendrils, transparent like stained glass in the eastern sunbeams.  Facing
+this cheerful light, the floor of the apartment was raised about two feet
+above the rest, and covered with gay Persian carpets, silk cushions, and
+the best of Arab furniture.  In the lower half of the k’hawah, and at its
+farthest angle, was the small stone coffee-stove, placed at a distance
+where its heat might not annoy the master and his guests.  Many of the
+city nobility would here resort, and the talk generally turned on serious
+subjects, and above all on the parties and politics of Arabia; while
+Dohey would show himself a thorough Arab patriot, and at the same time a
+courteous and indulgent judge of foreigners, qualities seldom to be met
+with together in any notable degree, and therefore more welcome.
+
+“Many a pleasant hour have I passed in this half greenhouse, half
+k’hawah, mid cheerful faces and varied talk, while inly commenting on the
+natural resources of this manly and vigorous people, and straining the
+eye of forethought to discern through the misty curtain of the future by
+what outlet their now unfruitful, because solitary, good may be brought
+into fertilizing contact with that of other more advanced nations, to the
+mutual benefit of each and all.
+
+“Talk went on with the ease and decorum characteristic of good Eastern
+society, without the flippancy and excitement which occasionally mars it
+in some countries, no less than over-silence does in others.  To my mind
+the Easterns are generally superior in the science of conversation to the
+inhabitants of the West; perhaps from a greater necessity of cultivating
+it, as the only means of general news and intercourse where newspapers
+and pamphlets are unknown.
+
+“Or else some garden was the scene of our afternoon leisure, among
+fruit-trees and palms, by the side of a watercourse, whose constant
+supply from the well hid from view among thick foliage, seemed the work
+not of laborious art, but of unassisted nature.  Here, stretched in the
+cool and welcome shade, would we for hours canvass with ’Abd-el-Mahsin,
+and others of similar pursuits, the respective merits of Arab poets and
+authors, of Omar-ebn-el-Farid or Aboo’l ’Ola, in meetings that had
+something of the Attic, yet with just enough of the Arab to render them
+more acceptable by their Semitic character of grave cheerfulness and
+mirthful composure.
+
+“Or when the stars came out, Barakat and myself would stroll out of the
+heated air of the streets and market to the cool open plain, and there
+pass an hour or two alone, or in conversation with what chance passer-by
+might steal on us, half-unperceived and unperceiving in the dusk, and
+amuse ourselves with his simplicity if he were a Bedouin, or with his
+shrewdness if a townsman.
+
+“Thus passed our ordinary life at Ha’yel.  Many minor incidents occurred
+to diversify it, many of the little ups and downs that human intercourse
+never fails to furnish; sometimes the number of patients and the urgency
+of their attendance allowed of little leisure for aught except our
+professional duties; sometimes a day or two would pass with hardly any
+serious occupation.  But of such incidents my readers have a sufficient
+sample in what has been already set down.  Suffice to say, that from the
+27th of July to the 8th of September we remained doctoring in the capital
+or in its immediate neighborhood.”
+
+By this time Palgrave had obtained sufficient knowledge of the country,
+and was anxious to advance farther eastward before the autumn—the best
+season for travel—should be spent.  Now, the journey across the Shomer
+frontier could only be pursued with Telal’s cognizance, and by his good
+will.  In fact, a passport bearing the royal signature is indispensable
+for all who desire to cross the boundary, especially into the Wahabee
+territory; without such a document in hand no one would venture to
+conduct them.
+
+“Accordingly,” he says, “we requested and obtained a special audience at
+the palace.  Telal, of whose good-will we had received frequent, indeed
+daily, proofs during our sojourn at Ha’yel, proved a sincere
+friend—patron would be a juster word—to the last; exemplifying the Scotch
+proverb about the guest not only who ‘will stay,’ but also who ‘maun
+gang.’  To this end he then dictated to Zamil, for Telal himself is no
+scribe, a passport or general letter of safe conduct, enough to insure us
+good treatment within the limits of his rule, and even beyond.
+
+“When this was written, Telal affixed his seal, and rose to leave us
+alone with Zamil, after a parting shake of the hand, and wishing us a
+prosperous journey and speedy return.  Yet with all these motives for
+going, I could not but feel reluctant to quit a pleasing town, where we
+certainly possessed many sincere friends and well-wishers, for countries
+in which we could by no means anticipate equal favor, or even equal
+safety.  Indeed, so ominous was all that we heard about Wahabee Nedjed,
+so black did the landscape before us look, on nearer approach, that I
+almost repented of my resolution, and was considerably inclined to say,
+‘Thus far enough, and no farther.’
+
+“’Obeyd, Telal’s uncle, had left Ha’yel the day before on a military
+expedition against the Bedouins of the West.  In common with all the
+sight-seers of the town, we had gone to witness his departure.  It was a
+gay and interesting scene.  ’Obeyd had caused his tent to be pitched in
+the plain without the northern walls, and there reviewed his forces.
+About one-third were on horseback, the rest were mounted on light and
+speedy camels; all had spears and matchlocks, to which the gentry added
+swords; and while they rode hither and thither in sham manœuvres over the
+parade ground, the whole appearance was very picturesque and tolerably
+martial.  ’Obeyd now unfurled his own peculiar standard, in which the
+green color, distinctive of Islam, had been added border-wise to the
+white ground of the ancestral Nedjean banner, mentioned fourteen
+centuries back by ’Omar-ebn-Kelthoom, the poet of Taghleb, and many
+others.  Barakat and myself mixed with the crowd of spectators.  ’Obeyd
+saw us, and it was now several days since we had last met.  Without
+hesitating he cantered up to us, and while he tendered his hand for a
+farewell shake, he said: ‘I have heard that you intend going to Ri’ad;
+there you will meet with ’Abdallah, the eldest son of Feysul; he is my
+particular friend; I should much desire to see you high in his good
+graces, and to that end I have written him a letter in your behalf, of
+which you yourselves are to be the bearers; you will find it in my house,
+where I have left it for you with one of my servants.’  He then assured
+us that if he found us still at Ha’yel on his return, he would continue
+to befriend us in every way; but that if we journeyed forward to Nedjed,
+we should meet with a sincere friend in ’Abdallah, especially if we gave
+him the letter in question.
+
+“He then took his leave with a semblance of affectionate cordiality that
+made the bystanders stare; thus supporting to the last the profound
+dissimulation which he had only once belied for a moment.  The letter was
+duly handed over to us the same afternoon by his head steward, whom he
+had left to look after the house and garden in his absence.  Doubtless my
+readers will be curious to know what sort of recommendation ’Obeyd had
+provided us with.  It was written on a small scrap of thick paper, about
+four inches each way, carefully folded up and secured by three seals.
+However, ‘our fears forgetting manners,’ we thought best with Hamlet to
+make perusal of this grand commission before delivering it to its
+destination.  So we undid the seals with precautions admitting of
+reclosing them in proper form, and read the royal knavery.  I give it
+word for word; it ran thus: ‘In the name of God the Merciful, the
+Compassionate, we, ’Obeyd-ebn-Rasheed, salute you, O ’Abdallah, son of
+Feysul-ebn-Sa’ood, and peace be on you, and the mercy of God and His
+blessings.’  (This is the invariable commencement of all Wahabee
+epistles, to the entire omission of the complimentary formulas used by
+other Orientals.)  ‘After which,’ so proceeded the document, ‘we inform
+you that the bearers of this are one Seleem-el-’Eys, and his comrade,
+Barakat-esh-Shamee, who give themselves out for having some knowledge
+in’—here followed a word of equivocal import, capable of interpretation
+alike by ‘medicine’ or ‘magic,’ but generally used in Nedjed for the
+latter, which is at Ri’ad a capital crime.  ‘Now may God forbid that we
+should hear of any evil having befallen you.  We salute also your father,
+Feysul, and your brothers, and all your family, and anxiously await your
+news in answer.  Peace be with you.’  Here followed the signet
+impression.
+
+“A pretty recommendation, especially under the actual circumstances!
+However, not content with this, ’Obeyd found means to transmit further
+information regarding us, and all in the same tenor, to Ri’ad, as we
+afterward discovered.  For his letter, I need hardly say that it never
+passed from our possession, where it yet remains as an interesting
+autograph, to that of ’Abdallah; with whom it would inevitably have
+proved the one only thing wanting, as we shall subsequently see, to make
+us leave the forfeit of our lives in the Nedjean man-trap.
+
+“Before evening three men knocked at our door; they were our future
+guides.  The eldest bore the name of Mubarek, and was a native of the
+suburbs of Bereydah; all three were of the genuine Kaseem breed, darker
+and lower in stature than the inhabitants of Ha’yel, but not ill-looking,
+and extremely affable in their demeanor.
+
+“We had soon made all necessary arrangements for our departure, got in a
+few scattered debts, packed up our pharmacopoeia, and nothing now
+remained but the pleasurable pain of farewells.  They were many and
+mutually sincere.  Meta’ab had indeed made his a few days before, when he
+a second time left Ha’yel for the pastures; Telal we had already taken
+leave of, but there remained his younger brother Mohammed to give us a
+hearty adieu of good augury.  Most of my old acquaintance or patients,
+Dohey the merchant, Mohammed the judge, Doheym and his family, not
+forgetting our earliest friend Seyf the chamberlain, Sa’eed, the cavalry
+officer, and others of the court, freemen and slaves, white or black (for
+negroes readily follow the direction indicated by their masters, and are
+not ungrateful if kindly treated, while kept in their due position), and
+many others of whose names Homer would have made a catalogue and I will
+not, heard of our near departure and came to express their regrets, with
+hopes of future meeting and return.”
+
+“Early next morning, before day, Mubarek and another of his countrymen,
+named Dahesh, were at our door with the camels.  Some of our town friends
+had also come, even at this hour, to accompany us as far as the city
+gates.  We mounted our beasts, and while the first sunbeams streamed
+level over the plain, passed through the southwestern portal beyond the
+market-place, the 8th of September, 1862, and left the city of Ha’yel.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH.
+
+ANOTHER stage of our way.  From Gaza to Ma’an, from Ma’an to the Djowf,
+from the Djowf to Ha’yel, three such had now been gone over, not indeed
+without some fatigue or discomfort, yet at comparatively little personal
+risk, except what nature herself, not man, might occasion.  For to cross
+the stony desert of the northern frontier, or the sandy Nefood in the
+very height of summer, could not be said to be entirely free from danger,
+where in these waterless wastes thirst, if nothing else, may alone, and
+often does, suffice to cause the disappearance of the over-venturous
+traveller, nay, even of many a Bedouin, no less effectually than a
+lance-thrust or a musket-ball.  But if nature had been so far unkind, of
+man at least we had hitherto not much to complain; the Bedouins on the
+route, however rough and uncouth in their ways, had, with only one
+exception, meant us fairly well, and the townsmen in general had proved
+friendly and courteous beyond our expectation.  Once within the
+established government limits of Telal, and among his subjects, we had
+enjoyed our share in the common security afforded to wayfarers and
+inhabitants for life and property, while good success had hitherto
+accompanied us.  ‘Judge of the day by its dawn,’ say the Arabs; and
+although this proverb, like all proverbs, does not always hold exactly
+true, whether for sunshine or cloud, yet it has its value at times.  And
+thus, whatever unfavorable predictions or dark forebodings our friends
+might hint regarding the inner Nedjed and its denizens, we trusted that
+so favorable a past augured somewhat better things for the future.
+
+“From physical and material difficulties like those before met with,
+there was henceforward much less to fear.  The great heats of summer were
+past, the cooler season had set in; besides, our path now lay through the
+elevated table-land of Central Arabia, whose northern rim we had already
+surmounted at our entrance on the Djebel Shomer.  Nor did there remain
+any uncultivated or sandy track to cross comparable to the Nefood of
+Djowf between Ha’yel and Ri’ad; on the contrary, we were to expect
+pasture lands and culture, villages and habitations, cool mountain air,
+and a sufficiency, if not an abundance, of water.  Nor were our
+fellow-companions now mere Bedouins and savages, but men from town or
+village life, members of organized society, and so far civilized beings.
+
+“When adieus, lookings back, wavings of the hand, and all the customary
+signs of farewell and good omen were over between our Ha’yel friends and
+ourselves, we pursued our road by the plain which I have already
+described as having been the frequent scene of our morning walks; but
+instead of following the southwesterly path toward Kefar, whose groves
+and roof-tops now rose in a blended mass before us, we turned eastward,
+and rounded, though at some distance, the outer wall of Ha’yel for nearly
+half an hour, till we struck off by a southeasterly track across stony
+ground, diversified here and there by wells, each with a cluster of
+gardens and a few houses in its neighborhood.  At last we reached a
+narrow winding pass among the cliffs of Djebel ’Aja’, whose mid-loop
+encircles Ha’yel on all sides, and here turned our heads to take a last
+far-off view of what had been our home, or the agreeable semblance of a
+home, for several weeks.
+
+“Our only companions as yet were Mubarek and Dahesh.  We had outstripped
+the rest, whose baggage and equipments had required a more tedious
+arrangement than our own.  Before long they came up—a motley crew.  Ten
+or thereabouts of the Kaseem, some from Bereydah itself, others from
+neighboring towns; two individuals, who gave themselves out, but with
+more asseveration than truth, to be natives of Mecca itself; three
+Bedouins, two of whom belonged to the Shomer clan, the third an ’Anezah
+of the north; next a runaway negro, conducting four horses, destined to
+pass the whole breadth of Arabia, and to be shipped off at Koweyt, on the
+Persian Gulf, for Indian sale; two merchants, one from Zulphah, in the
+province of Sedeyr, the other from Zobeyr, near Bussora; lastly, two
+women, wives of I know not exactly whom in the caravan, with some small
+children; all this making up, ourselves included, a band of twenty-seven
+or twenty-eight persons, the most mounted on camels, a few on horseback,
+and accompanied by a few beasts of burden alongside—such was our
+Canterbury pilgrims’ group.
+
+“Thus assembled, on we went together, now amid granite rocks, now
+crossing grassy valleys, till near sunset we stopped under a high cliff,
+at the extreme southerly verge of Djebel ’Aja’, or, in modern parlance,
+of Djebel Shomer.  The mountain here extended far away to right and left,
+but in front a wide plain of full twenty miles across opened out before
+us, till bounded southward by the long bluish chain of Djebel Solma,
+whose line runs parallel to the heights we were now to leave, and belongs
+to the same formation and rocky mass denominated in a comprehensive way
+the mountains of Ta’i or Shomer.
+
+“At about three in the afternoon, next day, we saw, some way off to our
+west, a troop of Bedouins coming up from the direction of Medina.  While
+they were yet in the distance, and half-hidden from view by the shrubs
+and stunted acacias of the plain, we could not precisely distinguish
+their numbers; but they were evidently enough to make us desire, with
+Orlando, ‘that we might be better strangers.’  On our side we mustered
+about fifteen matchlocks, besides a few spears and swords.  The Bedouins
+had already perceived us, and continued to approach, though in the
+desultory and circuitous way which they affect when doubtful of the
+strength of their opponent; still they gained on us more than was
+pleasant.
+
+“Fourteen armed townsmen might stand for a reasonable match against
+double the number of Bedouins, and in any case we had certainly nothing
+better to do than to put a bold face on the matter.  The ’Eyoon chief,
+Foleyh, with two of his countrymen and Ghashee, carefully primed their
+guns, and then set off at full gallop to meet the advancing enemy,
+brandishing their weapons over their heads, and looking extremely fierce.
+Under cover of this manœuvre the rest of our band set about getting their
+arms ready, and an amusing scene ensued.  One had lost his match, and was
+hunting for it in his housings; another, in his haste to ram the bullet
+home had it stick midway in the barrel, and could neither get it up nor
+down; the lock of a third was rusty and would not do duty; the women
+began to whine piteously; the two Meccans, who for economy’s sake were
+both riding one only camel, a circumstance which caused between them many
+international squabbles, tried to make their beast gallop off with them,
+and leave the others to their fate; while the more courageous animal,
+despising such cowardly measures, insisted on remaining with his
+companions and sharing their lot; all was thoroughly Arab, much hubbub
+and little done.  Had the menacing feint of the four who protected our
+rear proved insufficient, we might all have been in a very bad
+predicament, and this feeling drew every face with reverted gaze in a
+backward direction.  But the Harb banditti, intimidated by the bold
+countenance of Foleyh and his companions, wheeled about and commenced a
+skirmishing retreat, in which a few shots, guiltless of bloodshed, were
+fired for form’s sake on either side, till at last our assailants fairly
+disappeared in the remote valley.
+
+“Our valiant champions now returned from pursuit, much elated with their
+success, and we journeyed on together, skirting the last rocky spur of
+Solma, close by the spot where Hatim Ta’i, the well-known model, half
+mythic and half historical, of Arab hospitality and exaggerated
+generosity, is said to be buried.  Here we crossed some low hills that
+form a sort of offshoot to the Solma mountain, and limit the valley; and
+the last rays of the setting sun gilding to our view, in a sandy bottom
+some way off, the palm-trees of Feyd.
+
+“Feyd may be taken as a tolerable sample of the villages met with
+throughout Northern or Upper Kaseem, for they all bear a close likeness
+in their main features, though various in size.  Imagine a little sandy
+hillock of about sixty or seventy feet high, in the midst of a wide and
+dusty valley; part of the eminence itself and the adjoining bottom is
+covered by low earth-built houses, intermixed with groups of the feathery
+ithel.  The grounds in the neighborhood are divided by brick walls into
+green gardens, where gourds and melons, leguminous plants and maize, grow
+alongside of an artificial irrigation from the wells among them; palms in
+plenty—they were now heavy laden with red-brown fruits; and a few peach
+or apricot trees complete the general lineaments.  The outer walls are
+low, and serve more for the protection of the gardens than of the
+dwellings; here are neither towers nor trenches, nor even, at least in
+many places, any central castle or distinguishable residence for the
+chief; his habitation is of the same one-storied construction as those of
+his neighbors, only a little larger.  Some of the townlets are quite
+recent, and date from the Shomer annexation, which gave this part of the
+province a degree of quiet and prosperity unknown under their former
+Wahabee rulers.
+
+“Next morning, the 10th of September, we were all up by moonlight, two or
+three hours before dawn, and off on our road to the southeast.  The whole
+country that we had to traverse for the next four days was of so uniform
+a character that a few words of description may here serve for the
+landscape of this entire stage of our journey.
+
+“Upper Kaseem is an elevated plateau or steppe, and forms part of a long
+upland belt, crossing diagonally the northern half of the peninsula; one
+extremity reaches the neighborhood of Zobeyr and the Euphrates, while the
+other extends downward to the vicinity of Medina.  Its surface is in
+general covered with grass in the spring and summer seasons, and with
+shrubs and brushwood at all times, and thus affords excellent pasture for
+sheep and camels.  Across it blows the fresh eastern gale, so celebrated
+in Arab poetry under the name of ‘Seba Nedjin,’ or ‘Zephyr of Nedjed’
+(only it comes from precisely the opposite corner to the Greek or Roman
+Zephyr), and continually invoked by sentimental bards to bring them news
+of imaginary loves or pleasing reminiscences.  No wonder; for most of
+these versifiers being themselves natives of the barren Hedjaz or the
+scorching Tehama, perhaps inhabitants of Egypt and Syria, and knowing
+little of Arabia, except what they have seen on the dreary Meccan pilgrim
+road, they naturally look back to with longing, and frequently record,
+whatever glimpses chance may have allowed them of the cooler and more
+fertile highlands of the centre, denominated by them Nedjed, in a general
+way, with their transient experience of its fresh and invigorating
+climate, of its courteous men and sprightly maidens.
+
+“But when, nor is this seldom, the sweet smell of the aromatic thyme-like
+plants that here abound mixes with the light morning breeze and enhances
+its balmy influence, then indeed can one excuse the raptures of an Arab
+Ovid or Theocritus, and appreciate—at least I often did—their yearnings
+after Nedjed, and all the praises they lavish on its memory.
+
+    “Then said I to my companion, while the camels were hastening
+       To bear us down the pass between Meneefah and Demar,
+    ‘Enjoy while thou canst the sweets of the meadows of Nedjed:
+       With no such meadows and sweets shalt thou meet after this
+    evening.
+
+    Ah! heaven’s blessing on the scented gales of Nedjed,
+       And its greensward and groves glittering from the spring shower,
+    And thy dear friends, when thy lot was cast awhile in Nedjed,
+       Little hadst thou to complain of what the days brought thee;
+
+    Months flew past, they passed and we perceived not,
+       Nor when their moons were new, nor when they waned.’”
+
+For three days more they travelled forward over this undulating
+table-land, making from sixty to seventy miles a day.  The view was
+extensive, but rather monotonous.  There were no high mountains, no
+rivers, no lakes, no deep valleys; but a constant repetition of stony
+uplands, shallow and sandy hollows, and villages surrounded by belts of
+palm-groves, the extent and direction of which indicated the subterranean
+water-courses.
+
+On the third evening they reached Kowarah, the most southern station in
+Telal territory—a large village, lying in a wooded and well-watered
+hollow.  Here they still found the order and security which that ruler
+had established, and maintained everywhere throughout his dominions.
+Leaving the next morning, the 14th of September, they crossed a few low
+hills, came to a sudden dip in the general level of the country, and then
+the extent of Southern Kaseem burst suddenly upon their view.
+
+                 [Picture: The village of El Suwayrkiyah]
+
+“Now, for the first time,” says Palgrave, “we could in some measure
+appreciate the strength of the Wahabee in his mastery over such a land.
+Before us to the utmost horizon stretched an immense plain, studded with
+towns and villages, towers and groves, all steeped in the dazzling noon,
+and announcing everywhere life, opulence, and activity.  The average
+breadth of this populous district is about sixty miles, its length twice
+as much, or more; it lies full two hundred feet below the level of the
+uplands, which here break off like a wall.  Fifty or more good-sized
+villages and four or five large towns form the commercial and
+agricultural centres of the province, and its surface is moreover thickly
+strewn with smaller hamlets, isolated wells, and gardens, and traversed
+by a net-work of tracks in every direction.  Here begin, and hence extend
+to Djebel Toweyk itself, the series of high watch-towers that afford the
+inhabitants a means, denied otherwise by their level flats, of discerning
+from afar the approach of foray or invasion, and thus preparing for
+resistance.  For while no part of Central Arabia has an older or a better
+established title to civilization or wealth, no part also has been the
+starting-point and theatre of so many wars, or witnessed the gathering of
+such numerous armies.
+
+“We halted for a moment on the verge of the uplands to enjoy the
+magnificent prospect before us.  Below lay the wide plain; at a few
+miles’ distance we saw the thick palm-groves of ’Eyoon, and what little
+of its towers and citadel the dense foliage permitted to the eye.  Far
+off on our right, that is, to the west, a large dark patch marked the
+tillage and plantations which girdle the town of Rass; other villages and
+hamlets, too, were thickly scattered over the landscape.  All along the
+ridge where we stood, and visible at various distances down the level,
+rose the tall, circular watch-towers of Kaseem.  But immediately before
+us stood a more remarkable monument, one that fixed the attention and
+wonder even of our Arab companions themselves.
+
+“For hardly had we descended the narrow path where it winds from ledge to
+ledge down to the bottom, when we saw before us several huge stones, like
+enormous bowlders, placed endways perpendicularly on the soil, while some
+of them yet upheld similar masses laid transversely over their summit.
+They were arranged in a curve, once forming part, it would appear, of a
+large circle, and many other like fragments lay rolled on the ground at a
+moderate distance; the number of those still upright was, to speak by
+memory, eight or nine.  Two, at about ten or twelve feet apart one from
+the other, and resembling huge gate-posts, yet bore their horizontal
+lintel, a long block laid across them; a few were deprived of their upper
+traverse, the rest supported each its headpiece in defiance of time and
+of the more destructive efforts of man.  So nicely balanced did one of
+these cross-bars appear that, in hope it might prove a rocking-stone, I
+guided my camel right under it, and then stretching up my riding-stick at
+arm’s-length could just manage to touch and push it, but it did not stir.
+Meanwhile the respective heights of camel, rider, and stick taken
+together would place the stone in question full fifteen feet from the
+ground.
+
+“These blocks seem, by their quality, to have been hewn from the
+neighboring limestone cliff, and roughly shaped, but present no further
+trace of art, no groove or cavity of sacrificial import, much less
+anything intended for figure or ornament.  The people of the country
+attribute their erection to Darim, and by his own hands, too, seeing that
+he was a giant; perhaps, also, for some magical ceremony, since he was a
+magician.  Pointing toward Rass, our companions affirmed that a second
+and similar stone circle, also of gigantic dimensions, existed there;
+and, lastly, they mentioned a third toward the southwest, that is, on the
+confines of Hedjaz.
+
+“Here, as in most parts of Arabia, the staple article of cultivation is
+the date-palm.  Of this tree there are, however, many widely differing
+species, and Kaseem can boast of containing the best known anywhere, the
+Khalas of Hasa alone excepted.  The ripening season coincides with the
+latter half of August and the first of September, and we had thus an
+ample opportunity for testing the produce.  Those who, like most
+Europeans at home, only know the date from the dried specimens of that
+fruit shown beneath a label in shop-windows, can hardly imagine how
+delicious it is when eaten fresh and in Central Arabia.  Nor is it, when
+newly gathered, heating, a defect inherent to the preserved fruit
+everywhere; nor does its richness, however great, bring satiety: in
+short, it is an article of food alike pleasant and healthy.  Its
+cheapness in its native land might astonish a Londoner.  Enough of the
+very best dates from the Bereydah gardens to fill a large Arab
+handkerchief, about fifteen inches each way, almost to bursting, cost
+Barakat and myself the moderate sum of three farthings.  We hung it up
+from the roof-beam of our apartment to preserve the luscious fruit from
+the ants, and it continued to drip molten sweetness into a sugary pool on
+the floor below for three days together, before we had demolished the
+contents, though it figured at every dinner and supper during that
+period.
+
+“We were soon under the outer walls of ’Eyoon, a good-sized town
+containing at least ten thousand inhabitants according to my rough
+computation.  Its central site, at the very juncture of the great
+northern and western lines of communication, renders it important, and
+for this reason it is carefully fortified, that is, for the country, and
+furnished with watchtowers much resembling manufactory chimneys, in size
+and shape, beside a massive and capacious citadel.  My readers may
+anticipate analogous, though proportionate, features in most other towns
+and villages of this province.
+
+“Between the town-walls and the sand-hills close by was a sheltered spot,
+where we took about four hours of sleep, till the waning moon rose.  Then
+all were once more in movement, camels gnarling, men loading, and the
+doctor and his apprentice mounting their beasts, all for Bereydah.  But
+that town was distant, and when day broke at last there was yet a long
+road to traverse.  This now lay amid mounds and valleys, thick with the
+vegetation already described; and somewhat after sunrise we took a full
+hour to pass the gardens and fields of Ghat, a straggling village, where
+a dozen wells supplied the valley with copious irrigation.  On the
+adjoining hillocks—I may not call them heights—was continued the series
+of watch-towers, corresponding with others farther off that belonged to
+villages seen by glimpses in the landscape; I heard, but soon forgot,
+their names.
+
+“A march of ten or twelve hours had tired us, and the weather was
+oppressively close, no uncommon phenomenon in Kaseem, where, what between
+low sandy ground and a southerly latitude, the climate is much more
+sultry than in Djebel Shomer, or the mountains of Toweyk.  So that we
+were very glad when the ascent of a slight eminence discovered to our
+gaze the long-desired town of Bereydah, whose oval fortifications rose to
+view amid an open and cultivated plain.  It was a view for Turner.  An
+enormous watch-tower, near a hundred feet in height, a minaret of scarce
+inferior proportions, a mass of bastioned walls, such as we had not yet
+witnessed in Arabia, green groves around and thickets of ithel, all under
+the dreamy glare of noon, offered a striking spectacle, far surpassing
+whatever I had anticipated, and announced populousness and wealth.  We
+longed to enter those gates and walk those streets.  But we had yet a
+delay to wear out.  At about a league from the town our guide, Mubarek,
+led us off the main road to the right, up and down several little but
+steep sand-hills, and hot declivities, till about two in the afternoon,
+half-roasted with the sun, we reached, never so weary, his garden gate.
+
+“The morning was bright, yet cool, when we got free of the maze of ithel
+and sand-slopes, and entered the lanes that traverse the garden circle
+round the town, in all quiet and security.  But our approach to Bereydah
+was destined to furnish us an unexpected and undesired surprise, though
+indeed less startling than that which discomposed our first arrival at
+Ha’yel.  We had just passed a well near the angle of a garden wall, when
+we saw a man whose garb and appearance at once bespoke him for a muleteer
+of the north, watering a couple of mules at the pool hard by.  Barakat
+and I stared with astonishment, and could hardly believe our eyes.  For
+since the day we left Gaza for the southeastern desert we had never met
+with a like dress, nor with these animals; and how, then, came they here?
+But there was no mistaking either the man or the beasts, and as the
+muleteer raised his head to look at the passers-by, he also started at
+our sight, and evidently recognized in us something that took him
+unawares.  But the riddle was soon solved.  A few paces farther on, our
+way opened out on the great plain that lies immediately under the town
+walls to the north.  This space was now covered with tents and thronged
+with men of foreign dress and bearing, mixed with Arabs of town and
+desert, women and children, talking and quarrelling, buying and selling,
+going and coming; everywhere baskets full of dates and vegetables,
+platters bearing eggs and butter, milk and whey, meat hung on poles,
+bundles of firewood, etc., stood ranged in rows, horsemen and camel-men
+were riding about between groups seated round fires or reclining against
+their baggage; in the midst of all this medley a gilt ball surmounted a
+large white pavilion of a make that I had not seen since last I left
+India, some eleven years before, and numerous smaller tents of striped
+cloth, and certainly not of Arab fashion, clustered around; a lively
+scene, especially of a clear morning, but requiring some explanation from
+its exotic and non-Arab character.  These tents belonged to the great
+caravan of Persian pilgrims, on their return from Medina to Meshid ’Alee
+by the road of Kaseem, and hence all this unusual concourse and bustle.
+
+                      [Picture: An Arab Encampment]
+
+“Passing a little on to the east, we left the crowded encampment on one
+side and turned to enter the city gates.  Here, and this is generally the
+case in the larger Arab towns of old date, the fortifications surround
+houses alone, and the gardens all lie without, sometimes defended—at
+’Oneyzah, for example—by a second outer girdle of walls and towers, but
+sometimes, as at Bereydah, devoid of any mural protection.  The town
+itself is composed exclusively of streets, houses, and market-places, and
+bears in consequence a more regular appearance than the recent and
+village-like arrangements of the Djowf and even of Ha’yel.  We passed a
+few streets, tolerably large but crooked, and then made the camels kneel
+down in a little square or public place, where I remained seated by them
+on the baggage, switch in hand, like an ordinary Arab traveller, and
+Barakat with Mubarek went in search of lodgings.
+
+“Very long did the half-hour seem to me during which I had thus to mount
+guard till my companions returned from their quest; the streets were full
+of people, and a disagreeable crowd of the lower sort was every moment
+collecting round myself and my camels, with all the inquisitiveness of
+the idle and vulgar in every land.  At last my companions came back to
+say that they had found what they wanted; a kick or two brought the
+camels on their legs again, and we moved off to our new quarters.
+
+“The house in question was hardly more than five minutes’ walk from the
+north gate, and at about an equal distance only from the great
+market-place on the other side.  Its position was therefore good.  It
+possessed two large rooms on the ground story, and three smaller, besides
+a spacious court-yard, surrounded by high walls.  A winding stair of
+irregular steps and badly lighted, like all in the Nedjed, led up to an
+extent of flat roof, girt round by a parapet six feet high, and divided
+into two compartments by a cross-wall, thus affording a very tolerable
+place for occupation morning and evening, at the hours when the
+side-walls might yet project enough shade to shelter those seated
+alongside of them, besides an excellent sleeping place for night.”
+
+The day after their arrival they made a call upon Mohanna, the ruler of
+Bereydah, in order to ask his assistance in proceeding to Nedjed.  But he
+was too busy in devising means to exact more tribute-money from the
+Persian pilgrims to give any notice to two persons whose dress and
+appearance gave no token of wealth.  This neglect afterward proved to be
+a piece of good fortune.  They then spent several days in a vain attempt
+to find camels and guides; no one was willing to undertake the service.
+The central province of Nedjed, the genuine Wahabee country, is to the
+rest of Arabia a sort of lion’s den, into which few venture and yet fewer
+return.  An elderly man of Bereydah, of whom Palgrave demanded
+information, simply replied, “It is Nedjed; he who enters it does not
+come out again,” and this is almost literally true.  Its mountains, once
+the fastnesses of robbers and assassins, are at the present day equally,
+or even more, formidable as the stronghold of fanatics who consider
+everyone save themselves an infidel or a heretic, and who regard the
+slaughter of an infidel or a heretic as a duty, at least a merit.  In
+addition to this general cause of anticipating a worse than cold
+reception in Nedjed, wars and bloodshed, aggression and tyranny, have
+heightened the original antipathy of the surrounding population into
+special and definite resentment for wrongs received, perhaps inflicted,
+till Nedjed has become for all but her born sons doubly dangerous and
+doubly hateful.
+
+Another circumstance, which seemed to make Palgrave’s situation more
+difficult, although it was equally fortunate in the end, was a rebellion
+which had broken out in the neighboring city of ’Oneyzah, headed by
+Zamil, a native chief.  The town was at that time besieged by the
+Wahabees, yet held out gallantly, and the sympathy of the people of all
+Kaseem was so strongly on the side of Zamil, that only the presence of
+the Wahabee troops in Bereydah kept that city, also, from revolt.  The
+rebels had sent deputations to Mecca and also to Djebel Shomer for
+assistance, and there seemed to be some possibility of a general Central
+Arabian revolt against the hated Wahabee supremacy.  It seemed thus to be
+a most unpropitious time for penetrating the stronghold of Nedjed.
+Palgrave did not so much fear the suspicion of being a European, as that
+of being an Ottoman spy.  His first need, however, was the means of going
+forward safely.  He thus described how an apparent chance made him
+acquainted with the man to whom almost the entire success of his later
+travels was due:
+
+“It was the sixth day after our arrival, and the 22d of September, when
+about noon I was sitting alone and rather melancholy, and trying to
+beguile the time with reading the incomparable Divan of Ebn-el-Farid, the
+favorite companion of my travels.  Barakat had at my request betaken
+himself out of doors, less in hopes of success than to ‘go to and fro in
+the earth and walk up and down in it;’ nor did I now dare to expect that
+he would return any wiser than he had set forth.  When lo! after a long
+two hours’ absence he came in with cheerful face, index of good tidings.
+
+“Good, indeed, they were, none better.  Their bearer said, that after
+roaming awhile to no purport through the streets and market-place, he had
+bethought him of a visit to the Persian camp.  There, while straying
+among the tents, ‘like a washerwoman’s dog,’ as a Hindoo would say, he
+noticed somewhat aloof from the crowd a small group of pilgrims seated
+near their baggage on the sand, while curls of smoke going up from amid
+the circle indicated the presence of a fire, which at that time of day
+could be for nothing else than coffee.  Civilized though Barakat
+undoubtedly was, he was yet by blood and heart an Arab, and for an Arab
+to see coffee-making and not to put himself in the way of getting a share
+would be an act of self-restraint totally unheard of.  So he approached
+the group, and was of course invited to sit down and drink.  The party
+consisted of two wealthy Persians, accompanied by three or four of that
+class of men, half-servants, half-companions, who often hook on to
+travellers at Bagdad or its neighborhood, besides a mulatto of
+Arabo-negrine origin, and his master, this last being the leader of the
+band, and the giver of the aromatic entertainment.
+
+“Barakat’s whole attention was at once engrossed by this personage.  A
+remarkably handsome face, of a type evidently not belonging to the Arab
+peninsula, long hair curling down to the shoulders, an over-dress of fine
+spun silk, somewhat soiled by travel, a colored handkerchief of Syrian
+manufacture on the head, a manner and look indicating an education much
+superior to that ordinary in his class and occupation, a camel-driver’s,
+were peculiarities sufficient of themselves to attract notice, and give
+rise to conjecture.  But when these went along with a welcome and a
+salute in the forms and tone of Damascus or Aleppo, and a ready flow of
+that superabundant and overcharged politeness for which the Syrian
+subjects of the Turkish empire are renowned, Barakat could no longer
+doubt that he had a fellow-countryman, and one, too, of some note, before
+him.
+
+“Such was in fact the case.  Aboo-’Eysa, to give him the name by which he
+was commonly known in these parts, though in his own country he bears
+another denomination, was a native of Aleppo, and son of a not
+unimportant individual in that fair city.  His education, and the
+circumstances of his early youth, had rendered him equally conversant
+with townsmen and herdsmen, with citizens and Bedouins, with Arabs and
+Europeans.  By lineal descent he was a Bedouin, since his grandfather
+belonged to the Mejadimah, who are themselves an offshoot of the
+Benoo-Khalid; but in habits, thoughts, and manners he was a very son of
+Aleppo, where he had passed the greater part of his boyhood and youth.
+When about twenty-five years of age he became involved, culpably or not,
+in the great conspiracy against the Turkish government which broke out in
+the Aleppine insurrection of 1852.  Like many others he was compelled to
+anticipate consequences by a prompt flight.
+
+“After trying commerce in order to retrieve his ruined fortunes, but with
+ill success, Aboo-’Eysa engaged in the horse trade between Persia and
+Arabia, and also failed.  He then went to Ri’ad, the capital of Nedjed,
+and by presents to Feysul, the chief, obtained a post as guide to the
+Persian caravans of pilgrims to Mecca, across Arabia.  At this time he
+had followed that career for three years, and had amassed considerable
+wealth, for his politeness, easy manners, and strict probity made him
+popular with the pilgrims.
+
+“He recognized a fellow-countryman in Barakat,” says Palgrave, “received
+him with marked politeness, and carefully informed himself of our whence
+and whither.  Barakat, overjoyed to find at last a kind of opening after
+difficulties that had appeared to obstruct all further progress, made no
+delay in inquiring whether he would undertake our guidance to Ri’ad.
+Aboo-’Eysa replied that he was just on the point of separating from his
+friends the Persians, whose departure would leave camels enough and to
+spare at his disposition, and that so far there was no hindrance to the
+proposal.  As for the Wahabees and their unwillingness to admit strangers
+within their limits, he stated himself to be well known to them, and that
+in his company we should have nothing to fear from their suspicious
+criticism.”
+
+The agreement was made at once, and the travellers now only waited until
+their new companion should have made some final arrangements with the
+Persian pilgrims, who were to travel directly from Bereydah to Bagdad.
+In the meantime, the former took advantage of the delay to see as much as
+possible of the place, and even to make excursions in the neighborhood,
+especially in the direction of the beleaguered city of ’Oneyzah.
+Palgrave’s description of the place shows that it possesses the same
+general features as the other Arabian towns, yet may be quoted for its
+intrinsic picturesqueness:
+
+“Barakat and myself have made our morning household purchases at the
+fair, and the sun being now an hour or more above the horizon, we think
+it time to visit the market-place of the town, which would hardly be open
+sooner.  We re-enter the city gate, and pass on our way by our house
+door, where we leave our bundle of eatables, and regain the high street
+of Bereydah.  Before long we reach a high arch across the road; this gate
+divides the market from the rest of the quarter.  We enter.  First of all
+we see a long range of butchers’ shops on either side, thick hung with
+flesh of sheep and camel, and very dirtily kept.  Were not the air pure
+and the climate healthy, the plague would assuredly be endemic here; but
+in Arabia no special harm seems to follow.  We hasten on, and next pass a
+series of cloth and linen warehouses, stocked partly with home
+manufacture, but more imported; Bagdad cloaks and head-gear, for
+instance, Syrian shawls and Egyptian slippers.  Here markets follow the
+law general throughout the East, that all shops or stores of the same
+description should be clustered together, a system whose advantages on
+the whole outweigh its inconveniences, at least for small towns like
+these.  In the large cities and capitals of Europe greater extent of
+locality requires evidently a different method of arrangement; it might
+be awkward for the inhabitants of Hyde Park were no hatters to be found
+nearer than the Tower.  But what is Bereydah compared even with a
+second-rate European city?  However, in a crowd, it yields to none; the
+streets at this time of the day are thronged to choking, and to make
+matters worse, a huge, splay-footed camel comes every now and then,
+heaving from side to side like a lubber-rowed boat, with a long beam on
+his back menacing the heads of those in the way, or with two enormous
+loads of firewood, each as large as himself, sweeping the road before him
+of men, women, and children, while the driver, high-perched on the hump,
+regards such trifles with the most supreme indifference, so long as he
+brushes his path open.  Sometimes there is a whole string of these
+beasts, the head-rope of each tied to the crupper of his precursor, very
+uncomfortable passengers when met with at a narrow turning.
+
+“Through such obstacles we have found or made our way, and are now amid
+leather and shoemakers’ shops, then among coppersmiths and ironsmiths,
+whose united clang might waken the dead or kill the living, till at last
+we emerge on the central town-square, not a bad one either, nor very
+irregular, considering that it is in Kaseem.
+
+“The vegetable and fruit market is very extensive, and kept almost
+exclusively by women; so are also the shops for grocery and spices.  Nor
+do the fair sex of Bereydah seem a whit inferior to their rougher
+partners in knowledge of business and thrifty diligence.
+‘Close-handedness beseems a woman no less than generosity a man,’ says an
+Arab poet, unconsciously coinciding with Lance of Verona in his comments
+on the catalogue of his future spouse’s ‘conditions.’
+
+“The whole town has an aspect of old but declining prosperity.  There are
+few new houses, but many falling into ruin.  The faces, too, of most we
+meet are serious, and their voices in an undertone.  Silk dresses are
+prohibited by the dominant faction, and tobacco can only be smoked within
+doors, and by stealth.  Every now and then zealous Wahabee missionaries
+from Ri’ad pay a visit of reform and preaching to unwilling auditors, and
+disobedience to the customs of the Nedjean sect is noticed and punished,
+often severely.
+
+“Enough of the town; the streets are narrow, hot, and dusty; the day,
+too, advances; but the gardens are yet cool.  So we dash at a venture
+through a labyrinth of by-ways and cross-ways till we find ourselves in
+the wide street that, like a boulevard in France, runs immediately along
+but inside the walls.
+
+“We stroll about in the shade, hide ourselves amid the high maize to
+smoke a quiet pipe unobserved by prying Nedjean eyes, and then walk on
+till at some distance we come under a high ridge of sand.
+
+“While on one of our suburban excursions we took the direction of
+’Oneyzah, but found it utterly impossible to arrive within its walls; so
+we contented ourselves with an outside and distant view of this large and
+populous town; the number of its houses, and their size, judging by the
+overtopping summits that marked out the dwelling of Zamil and his family,
+far surpassed anything in Bereydah.  The outer fortifications are
+enormously thick, and the girdle of palm-trees between them and the town
+affords a considerable additional defence to the latter.  For all I could
+see there is little stonework in the construction; they appear almost
+exclusively of unbaked bricks; yet even so they are formidable defences
+for Arabia.  The whole country around, and whatever lay northeast toward
+Bereydah, was more or less ravaged by the war; and we were blamed by our
+friends as very rash in having ventured thus far; in fact, it was a mere
+chance that we did not fall in with skirmishers or plunderers; and in
+such a case the military discipline of Kaseem would hardly have insured
+our safety.
+
+“When all was ready for the long-expected departure, it was definitely
+fixed for the 3d of October, a Friday, I think, at nightfall.  Since our
+first interview Barakat and myself had not again presented ourselves
+before Mohanna, except in chance meetings, accompanied by distant
+salutations in the street or market-place; and we did not see any need
+for paying him a special farewell call.  Indeed, after learning who and
+what he was, we did our best not to draw his gray eye on us, and thereby
+escaped some additional trouble and surplus duties to pay, nor did any
+one mention us to him.  At star-rise we bade our host and householder
+Ahmed a final adieu, and left the town with Aboo-’Eysa for our guide.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO RI’AD THE CAPITAL OF NEDJED.
+
+TWO roads lay before us.  The shorter, and for that reason the more
+frequented of the two, led southeast-by-east through Woshem and Wady
+Haneefah to Ri’ad.  But this track passed through a district often
+visited at the present moment by the troops of ’Oneyzah and their allies,
+and hence our companions, not over-courageous for the most, were afraid
+to follow it.  Another road, much more circuitous, but farther removed
+from the scene of military operations, led northeast to Zulphah, and
+thence entered the province of Sedeyr, which it traversed in a
+southeasterly or southern direction, and thus reached the ’Aared.  Our
+council of war resolved on the latter itinerary, nor did we ourselves
+regret a roundabout which promised to procure us the sight of much that
+we might scarcely have otherwise an opportunity of visiting.  Barakat and
+I were mounted on two excellent dromedaries of Aboo-’Eysa’s stud; the
+Na’ib {201} was on a lovely gray she camel with a handsome saddle,
+crimson and gold.  The Meccans shared between them a long-backed black
+beast; the rest were also mounted on camels or dromedaries, since the
+road before us was impracticable for horses, at any rate at this time of
+year.
+
+“Our road lay in Kaseem, whose highlands we rejoined once more, and
+traversed till sunset.  The view was very beautiful from its extent and
+variety of ups and downs, in broad, grassy hills; little groups of trees
+stood in scattered detachments around; and had a river, that desideratum
+of Arabia, been in sight, one might almost have fancied one’s self in the
+country bordering the Lower Rhine for some part of its course; readers
+may suppose, too, that there was less verdure here than in the European
+parallel—my comparison bears only on the general turn of the view.  No
+river exists nearer Kaseem than Shatt (Euphrates), some hundred leagues
+off, and our eyes had been too long accustomed to the deceptive pools of
+the mirage to associate with them even a passing idea of aught save
+drought and heat.
+
+“We journeyed on till dark, and then reached certain hillocks of a
+different character from the hard ground lately under our feet.  Here
+began the Nefood, whose course from the southwest to northeast, and then
+north, parts between Kaseem, Woshem, and Sedeyr.  I have already said
+something of these sandy inlets when describing that which we crossed
+three months ago between Djowf and Shomer.
+
+“On the verge of the desert strip we now halted a little to eat a hasty
+supper, and to drink—the Arabs coffee and the Persians tea.  But
+journeying in these sands, under the heat of the day, is alike killing to
+man and beast, and therefore Aboo-’Eysa had resolved that we should cross
+the greater portion under favor of the cooler hours of night.
+
+“All night, a weary night, we waded up and down through waves of sand, in
+which the camels often sank up to their knees, and their riders were
+obliged to alight and help them on.
+
+“Now by full daylight appeared the true character of the region which we
+were traversing; its aspect resembled the Nefood north of Djebel Shomer,
+but the undulations were here higher and deeper, and the sand itself
+lighter and less stable.  In most spots neither shrub nor blade of grass
+could fix its root, in others a scanty vegetation struggled through, but
+no trace of man anywhere.  The camels ploughed slowly on; the Persians,
+unaccustomed to such scenes, were downcast and silent; all were tired,
+and no wonder.  At last, a little before noon, and just as the sun’s heat
+was becoming intolerable, we reached the verge of an immense crater-like
+hollow, certainly three or four miles in circumference, where the
+sand-billows receded on every side, and left in the midst a pit seven or
+eight hundred feet in depth, at whose base we could discern a white gleam
+of limestone rock, and a small group of houses, trees, and gardens, thus
+capriciously isolated in the very heart of the desert.
+
+“This was the little village and oasis of Wasit, or ‘the intermediary,’
+so called because a central point between the three provinces of Kaseem,
+Sedeyr, and Woshem, yet belonging to none of them.  Nor is it often
+visited by wayfarers, as we learned from the inhabitants, men simple and
+half-savage, from their little intercourse with the outer world, and
+unacquainted even with the common forms of Islamitic prayer, though
+dwelling in the midst of the Wahabee dominions.
+
+“A long, winding descent brought us to the bottom of the valley, where on
+our arrival men and boys came out to stare at the Persians, and by
+exacting double prices for fruit and camel’s milk proved themselves not
+altogether such fools as they looked.  For us, regarded as Arabs, we
+enjoyed their hospitality—it was necessarily a limited one—gratis;
+whereupon the Na’ib grew jealous, and declaimed against the Arabs as
+‘infidels,’ for not treating with suitable generosity pilgrims like
+themselves returning from the ‘house of God.’
+
+“To get out of this pit was no easy matter; _facilis descensus_, etc.,
+thought I; no ascending path showed itself in the required direction, and
+every one tried to push up his floundering beast where the sand appeared
+at a manageable slope, and firm to the footing.  Camels and men fell and
+rolled back down the declivity, till some of the party shed tears of
+vexation, and others, more successful, laughed at the annoyance of their
+companions.  Aboo-’Eysa ran about from one to the other, attempting to
+direct and keep them together, till finally, as Heaven willed, we reached
+the upper rim to the north.
+
+“Before us lay what seemed a storm-driven sea of fire in the red light of
+afternoon, and through it we wound our way, till about an hour before
+sunset we fell in with a sort of track or furrow.  Next opened out on our
+road a long descent, at whose extreme base we discerned the important and
+commercial town of Zulphah.  Beyond it rose the wall-like steeps of
+Djebel Toweyk, so often heard of, and now seen close at hand.  Needless
+to say how joyfully we welcomed the first view of that strange ridge, the
+heart and central knot of Arabia, beyond which whatever lay might almost
+be reckoned as a return journey.
+
+“We had now, in fact, crossed the Nefood, and had at our feet the great
+valley which constitutes the main line of communication between Nedjed
+and the north, reaching even to the Tigris and Bagdad.
+
+“We passed the whole length of the town of Zulphah, several streets of
+which had been lately swept away by the winter torrents that pour at
+times their short-lived fury down this valley.  Before us to the
+southeast stretched the long hollow; on our right was the Nefood, on our
+left Djebel Toweyk and the province of Sedeyr.  The mountain air blew
+cool, and this day’s journey was a far pleasanter one than its
+predecessor.  We continued our march down the valley till the afternoon,
+when we turned aside into a narrow gorge running up at a sharp angle to
+the northeast, and thus entered between the heights of Djebel Toweyk
+itself.
+
+“This mountain essentially constitutes Nedjed.  It is a wide and flat
+chain, or rather plateau, whose general form is that of a huge crescent.
+If I may be permitted here to give my rough guess regarding the elevation
+of the main plateau, a guess grounded partly on the vegetation, climate,
+and similar local features, partly on an approximate estimate of the
+ascent itself, and of the subsequent descent on the other or sea side, I
+should say that it varies from a height of one to two thousand feet above
+the surrounding level of the peninsula, and may thus be about three
+thousand feet at most above the sea.  Its loftiest ledges occur in the
+Sedeyr district, where we shall pass them before long; the centre and the
+southwesterly arm is certainly lower.  Djebel Toweyk is the middle knot
+of Arabia, its Caucasus, so to say; and is still, as it has often been in
+former times, the turning-point of the whole, or almost the whole,
+peninsula in a political and national bearing.
+
+“The climate of the northern part of Djebel Toweyk, whether plateau or
+valley, coincident with the province of Sedeyr, is perhaps one of the
+healthiest in the world; an exception might be made in favor of Djebel
+Shomer alone.  The above named districts resemble each other closely in
+dryness of atmosphere, and the inhabitants of Sedeyr, like those of
+Shomer, are remarkable for their ruddy complexion and well-developed
+stature.  But when we approach the centre of the mountain crescent, where
+its whole level lowers, while the more southerly latitude brings it
+nearer to the prevailing influences of the tropical zone, the air becomes
+damper and more relaxing, and a less salubrious climate pictures itself
+in the sallower faces and slender make of its denizens.
+
+“Two days later we attained the great plateau, of which I have a few
+pages since given an anticipated description.
+
+“About noon we halted in a brushwood-covered plain to light fire and
+prepare coffee.  After which we pursued our easterly way, still a little
+to the north, now and then meeting with travellers or peasants; but a
+European would find these roads very lonely in comparison with those of
+his own country.  All the more did I admire the perfect submission and
+strict police enforced by the central government, so that even a casual
+robbery is very rare in the provinces, and highwaymen are totally out of
+the question.  At last, near the same hour of afternoon that had brought
+us the day before to Ghat, we came in sight of Mejmaa’, formerly capital
+of the province, and still a place of considerable importance, with a
+population, to judge by appearances and hearsay, of between ten and
+twelve thousand souls.
+
+“We were up early next morning, for the night air was brisk, and a few
+hours of sleep had sufficed us.
+
+“After sunrise we came on a phenomenon of a nature, I believe, without a
+second or a parallel in Central Arabia, yet withal most welcome, namely,
+a tolerably large source of running water, forming a wide and deepish
+stream, with grassy banks, and frogs croaking in the herbage.  We opened
+our eyes in amazement; it was the first of the kind that we had beheld
+since leaving the valley of Djowf.  But though a living, it is a
+short-lived rivulet, reaching only four or five hours’ distance to
+Djelajil, where it is lost amid the plantations of the suburbs.
+
+“We had not long traversed the Meteyr encampment, when we came in view of
+the walls of Toweym, a large town, containing between twelve and fifteen
+thousand inhabitants, according to the computation here in use, and which
+I follow for want of better.  The houses are here built compactly, of two
+stories in general, sometimes three; the lower rooms are often fifteen or
+sixteen feet high, and the upper ten or twelve; while the roof itself is
+frequently surrounded by a blind wall of six feet or more, till the whole
+attains a fair altitude, and is not altogether unimposing.
+
+“Early next day, at a short distance from Toweym, we passed another large
+village with battlemented walls, and on the opposite side of the road a
+square castle, looking very mediæval; this was Hafr.  A couple of hours
+further on we reached Thomeyr, a straggling townlet, more abounding in
+broken walls than houses; close by was a tall white rock, crowned by the
+picturesque remains of an old outwork or fort, overlooking the place.
+Here our party halted for breakfast in the shadow of the ruins.  Barakat
+and myself determined to try our fortune in the village itself; no guards
+appeared at its open gate; we entered unchallenged, and roamed through
+silent lanes and heaps of rubbish, vainly seeking news of milk and dates
+in this city of the dead.  At last we met a meagre townsman, in look and
+apparel the apothecary of Romeo; and of him, not without misgivings of
+heart, we inquired where aught eatable could be had for love or money.
+He apologized, though there was scarce need of that, for not having any
+such article at his disposal; ‘but,’ added he, ‘in such and such a house
+there will certainly be something good,’ and thitherward he preceded us
+in our search.  We found indeed a large dwelling, but the door was shut;
+we knocked to no purpose: nobody at home.
+
+                      [Picture: Death on the Desert]
+
+“Our man now set us a bolder example, and we altogether scrambled through
+a breach in the mud wall, and found ourselves amid empty rooms and a
+desolate court-yard.  ‘Everybody is out in the fields, women only
+excepted,’ said our guide, and we separated, no better off than before.
+Despairing of the village commissariat, we climbed a turret on the outer
+walls, and looked round.  Now we saw at some distance a beautiful
+palm-grove, where we concluded that dates could not be wanting, and off
+we set for it across the stubble fields.  But on arriving we found our
+paradise surrounded by high walls, and no gate discoverable.  While thus
+we stood without, like Milton’s fiend at Eden, but unable, like him, ‘by
+one high bound to overleap all bound,’ up came a handsome Solibah lad,
+all in rags, half-walking, half-dancing, in the devil-may-care way of his
+tribe.  ‘Can you tell us which is the way in?’ was our first question,
+pointing to the garden before us; and, ‘Shall I sing you a song?’ was his
+first answer.  ‘We don’t want your songs, but dates; how are we to get at
+them?’ we replied.  ‘Or shall I perform you a dance?’ answered the
+grinning young scoundrel, and forthwith began an Arabian polka-step,
+laughing all the while at our undisguised impatience.  At last he
+condescended to show us the way, but no other than what befitted an
+orchard-robbing boy, like himself, for it lay a little farther off, right
+over the wall, which he scaled with practised ingenuity, and helped us to
+follow.  So we did, though perhaps with honester intentions, and, once
+within, stood amid trees, shade, and water.  The ‘tender juvenile’ then
+set up a shout, and soon a man appeared, ‘old Adam’s likeness set to
+dress this garden,’ save that he was not old but young, as Adam might
+himself have been while yet in Eden.  We were somewhat afraid of a surly
+reception, too well merited by our very equivocal introduction; but the
+gardener was better-tempered than many of his caste, and after saluting
+us very politely, offered his services at our disposal.  We then proposed
+to purchase a stock of dates for our onward way, whereon the gardener
+conducted us to an outhouse where heaps of three or four kinds of this
+fruit, red and yellow, round or long, lay piled up, and bade us choose.
+At his recommendation we filled a large cloth, which we had brought with
+us for the purpose, with excellent ruddy dates, and gave in return a
+small piece of money, welcome here as elsewhere.  We then took leave and
+returned, but this time through the garden gate, to the stubble fields,
+and passing under the broken walls of the village, reached our
+companions, who had become anxious at our absence.”
+
+For three days longer the travellers journeyed southward, through the
+valleys branching out from Djebel Toweyk, encamping for the night near
+some of the small towns.  “In the early gray of the fourth morning,” says
+Palgrave, “we passed close under the plantations of Rowdah down the
+valley, now dry and still, once overflowed with the best blood of Arabia,
+and through the narrow and high-walled pass which gives entrance to the
+great strongholds of the land.  The sun rose and lighted up to our view
+wild precipices on either side, with a tangled mass of broken rock and
+brushwood below, while coveys of partridges started up at our feet, and
+deer scampered away by the gorges to right or left, or a cloud of dust
+announced the approach of peasant bands or horsemen going to and fro, and
+gardens or hamlets gleamed through side openings or stood niched in the
+bulging passes of the Wady itself, till before noon we arrived at the
+little hamlet of Malka, or ‘the junction.’
+
+“Its name is derived from its position.  Here the valley divides in form
+of a Y, sending off two branches—one southerly to Derey’eeyah, the other
+southeast-by-east through the centre of the province, and communicating
+with the actual capital, Ri’ad.
+
+“Aboo-’Eysa had meditated bringing us on that very evening to Ri’ad.  But
+eight good leagues remained from Malka to the capital; and when the Na’ib
+had terminated his cosmetic operations, the easterly turning shadows left
+us no hope of attaining Ri’ad before nightfall.  However, we resumed our
+march, and took the arm of the valley leading to Derey’eeyah; but before
+reaching it we once more quitted the Wady, and followed a shorter path by
+the highlands to the left.  Our way was next crossed by a long range of
+towers, built by Ibraheem Pasha, as outposts for the defence of this
+important position.  Within their line stood the lonely walls of a large,
+square barrack; the towers were what we sometimes call Martello—short,
+large, and round.
+
+“The level rays of the setting sun now streamed across the plain, and we
+came on the ruins of Derey’eeyah, filling up the whole breadth of the
+valley beneath.  The palace walls, of unbaked brick, like the rest, rose
+close under the left or northern edge, but unroofed and tenantless; a
+little lower down a wide extent of fragments showed where the immense
+mosque had been, and hard by, the market-place; a tower on an isolated
+height was, I suppose, the original dwelling-place of the Sa’ood family,
+while yet mere local chieftains, before growing greatness transferred
+them to their imperial palace.  The outer fortifications remained almost
+uninjured for much of their extent, with turrets and bastions reddening
+in the western light; in other places the Egyptian artillery, or the
+process of years, had levelled them with the earth; within the town many
+houses were yet standing, but uninhabited, and the lines of the streets
+from gate to gate were distinct as in a ground plan.  From the great size
+of the town (for it is full half a mile in length, and not much less in
+breadth), and from the close packing of the houses, I should estimate its
+capacity at above forty thousand indwellers.  The gardens lie without,
+and still ‘living waved where man had ceased to live,’ in full beauty and
+luxuriance, a deep green ring around the gray ruins.  For although the
+Nedjeans, holding it for an ill omen to rebuild and reinhabit a town so
+fatally overthrown, have transplanted the seat of government, and with it
+the bulk of the city population, to Ri’ad, they have not deemed it
+equally necessary to abandon the rich plantations and well-watered fields
+belonging to the old capital; and thus a small colony of gardeners in
+scattered huts and village dwellings close under the walls protract the
+blighted existence of Derey’eeyah.
+
+“While from our commanding elevation we gazed thoughtfully on this scene,
+so full of remembrances, the sun set, and darkness grew on.  We naturally
+proposed a halt, but Aboo-’Eysa turned a deaf ear, and affirmed that a
+garden belonging to ’Abd-er-Rahman, already mentioned as grandson of the
+first Wahabee, was but a little farther before us, and better adapted to
+our night’s rest than the ruins.  In truth, three hours of brisk
+travelling yet intervened between Derey’eeyah and the place in question;
+but our guide was unwilling to enter Derey’eeyah in company of Persians
+and Syrians, Shiya’ees and Christians; and this he afterward confessed to
+me.  For, whether from one of those curious local influences which
+outlast even the change of races, and give one abiding color to the
+successive tenants of the same spot, or whether it be occasioned by the
+constant view of their fallen greatness and the triumph of their enemies,
+the scanty population of Derey’eeyah comprises some of the bitterest and
+most bigoted fanatics that even ’Aared can offer.  Accordingly we moved
+on, still keeping to the heights, and late at night descended a little
+hollow, where, amid an extensive garden, stood the country villa of
+’Abd-er-Rahman.
+
+“We did not attempt to enter the house; indeed, at such an hour no one
+was stirring to receive us.  But a shed in the garden close by sufficed
+for travellers who were all too weary to desire aught but sleep; and this
+we soon found in spite of dogs and jackals, numerous here and throughout
+Nedjed.
+
+“From this locality to the capital was about four miles’ distance.  Our
+party divided next morning; the Na’ib and his associates remaining
+behind, while Barakat and myself, with Aboo-’Eysa, set off straight for
+the town, where our guide was to give notice at the palace of the
+approach of the Persian dignitary, that the honors due to his reception
+might meet him half-way.  At our request the Meccans stayed also in the
+rear; we did not desire the equivocal effect of their company on a first
+appearance.
+
+“For about an hour we proceeded southward, through barren and undulating
+ground, unable to see over the country to any distance.  At last we
+attained a rising eminence, and crossing it, came at once in full view of
+Ri’ad, the main object of our long journey—the capital of Nedjed and half
+Arabia, its very heart of hearts.
+
+“Before us stretched a wild open valley, and in its foreground,
+immediately below the pebbly slope on whose summit we stood, lay the
+capital, large and square, crowned by high towers and strong walls of
+defence, a mass of roofs and terraces, where overtopping all frowned the
+huge but irregular pile of Feysul’s royal castle, and hard by it rose the
+scarce less conspicuous palace, built and inhabited by his eldest son,
+’Abdallah.  Other edifices, too, of remarkable appearance broke here and
+there through the maze of gray roof-tops, but of their object and
+indwellers we were yet to learn.  All around for full three miles over
+the surrounding plain, but more especially to the west and south, waved a
+sea of palm-trees above green fields and well-watered gardens; while the
+singing, droning sound of the water-wheels reached us even where we had
+halted, at a quarter of a mile or more from the nearest town-walls.  On
+the opposite side southward, the valley opened out into the great and
+even more fertile plains of Yemamah, thickly dotted with groves and
+villages, among which the large town of Manfoohah, hardly inferior in
+size to Ri’ad itself, might be clearly distinguished.  Farther in the
+background ranged the blue hills, the ragged Sierra of Yemamah, compared
+some thirteen hundred years since, by ’Amroo-ebn-Kelthoom, the Shomerite,
+to drawn swords in battle array; and behind them was concealed the
+immeasurable Desert of the South, or Dahna.  On the west the valley
+closes in and narrows in its upward windings toward Derey’eeyah, while to
+the southwest the low mounds of Aflaj are the division between it and
+Wady Dowasir.  Due east in the distance a long blue line marks the
+farthest heights of Toweyk, and shuts out from view the low ground of
+Hasa and the shores of the Persian Gulf.  In all the countries which I
+have visited, and they are many, seldom has it been mine to survey a
+landscape equal to this in beauty and in historical meaning, rich and
+full alike to eye and mind.  But should any of my readers have ever
+approached Damascus from the side of the Anti-Lebanon, and surveyed the
+Ghootah from the heights above Mazzeh, they may thence form an
+approximate idea of the valley of Ri’ad when viewed from the north.  Only
+this is wider and more varied, and the circle of vision here embraces
+vaster plains and bolder mountains; while the mixture of tropical aridity
+and luxuriant verdure, of crowded population and desert tracks, is one
+that Arabia alone can present, and in comparison with which Syria seems
+tame, and Italy monotonous.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—ADVENTURES IN RI’AD.
+
+“BARAKAT and myself stopped our dromedaries a few minutes on the height
+to study and enjoy this noble prospect, and to forget the anxiety
+inseparable from a first approach to the lion’s own den.  Aboo-’Eysa,
+too, though not unacquainted with the scene, willingly paused with us to
+point out and name the main features of the view, and show us where lay
+the onward road to his home in Hasa. We then descended the slope and
+skirted the walls of the first outlying plantations which gird the town.
+
+“At last we reached a great open square: its right side, the northern,
+consists of shops and warehouses; while the left is entirely absorbed by
+the huge abode of Nedjean royalty; in front of us, and consequently to
+the west, a long covered passage, upborne high on a clumsy colonnade,
+crossed the breadth of the square, and reached from the palace to the
+great mosque, which it thus joins directly with the interior of the
+castle and affords old Feysul a private and unseen passage at will from
+his own apartments to his official post at the Friday prayers, without
+exposing him on his way to vulgar curiosity, or perhaps to the dangers of
+treachery.  For the fate of his father and of his great-uncle, his
+predecessors on the throne, and each of them pierced by the dagger of an
+assassin during public worship, has rendered Feysul very timid on this
+score, though not at prayer-time only.  Behind this colonnade, other
+shops and warehouses make up the end of the square, or, more properly,
+parallelogram; its total length is about two hundred paces, by rather
+more than half the same width.  In the midst of this space, and under the
+far-reaching shadow of the castle walls, are seated some fifty or sixty
+women, each with a stock of bread, dates, milk, vegetables, or firewood
+before her for sale.
+
+“But we did not now stop to gaze, nor indeed did we pay much attention to
+all this; our first introduction to the monarch and the critical position
+before us took up all our thoughts.  So we paced on alongside of the long
+blind wall running out from the central keep, and looking more like the
+outside of a fortress than of a peaceful residence, till we came near a
+low and narrow gate, the only entry to the palace.  Deep-sunk between the
+bastions, with massive folding doors iron bound, though thrown open at
+this hour of the day, and giving entrance into a dark passage, one might
+easily have taken it for the vestibule of a prison; while the number of
+guards, some black, some white, but all sword-girt, who almost choked the
+way, did not seem very inviting to those without, especially to
+foreigners.  Long earth seats lined the adjoining walls, and afforded a
+convenient waiting-place for visitors; and here we took up our rest at a
+little distance from the palace gate; but Aboo-’Eysa entered at once to
+announce our arrival, and the approach of the Na’ib.
+
+“The first who drew near and saluted us was a tall, meagre figure, of a
+sallow complexion, and an intelligent but slightly ill-natured and
+underhand cast of features.  He was very well dressed, though of course
+without a vestige of unlawful silk in his apparel, and a certain air of
+conscious importance tempered the affability of his politeness.  This was
+’Abd-el-’Azeez, whom, for want of a better title, I shall call the
+minister of foreign affairs, such being the approximate translation of
+his official style.
+
+“Accompanied by some attendants from the palace, he came stately up, and
+seated himself by our side.  He next began the customary interrogations
+of whence and what, with much smiling courtesy and show of welcome.
+After hearing our replies, the same of course as those given elsewhere,
+he invited us to enter the precincts, and partake of his Majesty’s coffee
+and hospitality, while he promised us more immediate communications from
+the king himself in the course of the day.
+
+“If my readers have seen, as most of them undoubtedly will, the Paris
+Tuileries, they may hereby know that the whole extent of Feysul’s palace
+equals about two-thirds of that construction, and is little inferior to
+it in height; if indeed we except the angular pyramidal roofs or
+extinguishers peculiar to the French edifice.  But in ornament the
+Parisian pile has the better of it, for there is small pretensions to
+architectural embellishment in this Wahabee Louvre.  Without, within,
+every other consideration has been sacrificed to strength and security;
+and the outer view of Newgate, at any rate, bears a very strong
+resemblance to the general effect of Feysul’s palace.
+
+“Aboo-’Eysa meanwhile, in company with the outriders sent from the
+palace, had gone to meet the Na’ib and introduce him to the lodgings
+prepared for his reception.  Very much was the Persian astounded to find
+none of the royal family among those who thus came, no one even of high
+name or office; but yet more was his surprise when, instead of immediate
+admittance to Feysul’s presence and eager embrace, he was quietly led
+aside to the very guest-room whither we had been conducted, and a dinner
+not a whit more sumptuous than ours was set before him, after which he
+was very coolly told that he might pray for Feysul and retire to his
+quarters, while the king settled the day and hour whereon he would
+vouchsafe him the honor of an audience.
+
+“Afterward, the minister of foreign affairs condescended to come in
+person, and, sweetly smiling, informed us that our temporary habitation
+was ready, and that Aboo-’Eysa would conduct us thither without delay.
+We then begged to know, if possible, the king’s good-will and pleasure
+regarding our stay and our business in the town.  For on our first
+introduction we had duly stated, in the most correct Wahabee phraseology,
+that we had come to Ri’ad ‘desiring the favor of God, and secondly of
+Feysul; and that we begged of God, and secondly of Feysul, permission to
+exercise in the town our medical profession, under the protection of God,
+and in the next place of Feysul.’  For Dogberry’s advice to ‘set God
+first, for God defend but God should go before such villains,’ is here
+observed to the letter; whatever is desired, purported, or asked, the
+Deity must take the lead.  Nor this only, but even the subsequent mention
+of the creature must nowise be coupled with that of the Creator by the
+ordinary conjunction ‘w’,’ that is, ‘and,’ since that would imply
+equality between the two—flat blasphemy in word or thought.  Hence the
+disjunctive ‘thumma,’ or ‘next after,’ ‘at a distance,’ must take the
+place of ‘w’,’ under penalty of prosecution under the statute.  ‘Unlucky
+the man who visits Nedjed without being previously well versed in the
+niceties of grammar,’ said Barakat; ‘under these schoolmasters a mistake
+might cost the scholar his head.’  But of this more anon; to return to
+our subject, ’Abd-el-’Azeez, a true politician, answered our second
+interrogation with a vague assurance of good-will and unmeaning
+patronage.  Meantime the Na’ib and his train marched off in high dudgeon
+to their quarters, and Aboo-’Eysa gave our dromedaries a kick, made them
+rise, and drove them before us to our new abode.”
+
+In the course of a day or two the travellers discovered what a sensation
+the arrival of their caravan had produced at court.  The old king,
+Feysul, now in the thirty-third year of his reign, possessed all the
+superstition and bigotry of the old Wahabees, and the sudden presence of
+Syrians, suspected of being Christians, Persians, and Meccans, in his
+capital, was too much for him.  He at once left the palace, took up his
+temporary residence in a house outside the city, and a strong guard was
+posted around him until the court officials should have time to examine
+the strangers, discover, if possible, their secret designs, and report
+them to the king.  The first spy was a shrewd and intelligent Affghan, a
+pretended convert to the Wahabee doctrine, who discovered nothing, and
+consequently made an unfavorable report.  The second was a “man of zeal,”
+one of a committee of twenty-two inquisitors, appointed by the king to
+exercise constant espionage upon the inhabitants, with the power of
+punishing them at will for any infraction or neglect of the Wahabee
+discipline.  Palgrave gives the following account of his visit:
+
+“Abbood, for such was his name, though I never met the like before or
+after in Arabia proper, however common it may be in Syria and Lebanon,
+took a different and more efficacious mode of espionage than
+’Abd-el-Hameed had done before him.  Affecting to consider us Mahometans,
+and learned ones too, he entered at once on religious topics, on the true
+character of Islam, its purity or corruptions, and inquired much after
+the present teaching and usages of Damascus and the North, evidently in
+the view of catching us in our words.  But he had luckily encountered his
+match; for every citation of the Koran we replied with two, and proved
+ourselves intimately acquainted with the ‘greater’ and the ‘lesser’
+polytheism of foreign nations and heterodox Mahometans, with the
+commentaries of Beydowee and the tales of the Hadeeth, till our visitor,
+now won over to confidence, launched out full sail on the sea of
+discussion, and thereby rendered himself equally instructive and
+interesting to men who had nothing more at heart than to learn the tenets
+of the sect from one of its most zealous professors, nay, a Zelator in
+person.  In short, he ended by becoming half a friend, and his regrets at
+our being, like other Damascenes, yet in the outer porch of darkness,
+were tempered by a hope, which he did not disguise, of at least putting a
+window in our porch for its better enlightenment.”
+
+Next day, in the forenoon, while the travellers were sauntering about the
+market-place, they met the minister ’Abd-el-’Azeez, who had that morning
+returned to the capital.  With a smiling face and an air of great
+benignity he took them aside, and informed them the king did not consider
+Ri’ad a proper field for their medical skill; that they had better at
+once continue their journey to Hofhoof, whither Aboo-’Eysa should conduct
+them straightway; and that the king would furnish each of them with a
+camel, a new suit of clothes, and some money.  To these arguments
+Palgrave could only answer that he greatly desired the profit to be
+expected from a few weeks of medical practice in Ri’ad, since his success
+there would give him an immediate reputation in Hofhoof, while his
+departure might deprive him of all reputation at the latter place.  The
+minister promised to present his plea to Feysul, but gave him no hope of
+a favorable answer.  The order to leave was repeated, and then, as a last
+experiment, Palgrave sent to two of the ministers a pound of the fragrant
+wood, which is burned as pastilles in Arabia, and is highly prized by the
+upper classes.  The next day he received permission to remain longer in
+Ri’ad and exercise his profession.  He thereupon took another residence,
+not so near the palace, and within convenient reach of one of the city
+gates.  Before describing the place he gives the following account of the
+famous Arabian coffee:
+
+“Be it then known, by way of prelude, that coffee, though one in name, is
+manifold in fact; nor is every kind of berry entitled to the high
+qualifications too indiscriminately bestowed on the comprehensive genus.
+The best coffee, let cavillers say what they will, is that of the Yemen,
+commonly entitled ‘Mokha,’ from the main place of exportation.  Now, I
+should be sorry to incur a lawsuit for libel or defamation from our
+wholesale or retail salesmen; but were the particle NOT prefixed to the
+countless labels in London shop windows that bear the name of the Red Sea
+haven, they would have a more truthy import than what at present they
+convey.  Very little, so little indeed as to be quite inappreciable, of
+the Mocha or Yemen berry ever finds its way westward of Constantinople.
+Arabia itself, Syria, and Egypt consume fully two-thirds, and the
+remainder is almost exclusively absorbed by Turkish and Armenian
+œsophagi.  Nor do these last get for their limited share the best or the
+purest.  Before reaching the harbors of Alexandria, Jaffa, Beyrout, etc.,
+for further exportation, the Mokhan bales have been, while yet on their
+way, sifted and resifted, grain by grain, and whatever they may have
+contained of the hard, rounded, half-transparent, greenish-brown berry,
+the only one really worth roasting and pounding, has been carefully
+picked out by experienced fingers; and it is the less generous residue of
+flattened, opaque, and whitish grains which alone, or almost alone, goes
+on board the shipping.  So constant is this selecting process, that a
+gradation regular as the degrees on a map may be observed in the quality
+of Mokha, that is, Yemen, coffee even within the limits of Arabia itself,
+in proportion as one approaches to or recedes from Wadi Nejran and the
+neighborhood of Mecca, the first stages of the radiating mart.  I have
+myself been times out of number an eye-witness of this sifting; the
+operation is performed with the utmost seriousness and scrupulous
+exactness, reminding me of the diligence ascribed to American
+diamond-searchers when scrutinizing the torrent sands for their minute
+but precious treasure.
+
+“The berry, thus qualified for foreign use, quits its native land on
+three main lines of export—that of the Red Sea, that of the inner Hedjaz,
+and that of Kaseem.  The terminus of the first line is Egypt, of the
+second Syria, of the third Nedjed and Shomer.  Hence Egypt and Syria are,
+of all countries without the frontiers of Arabia, the best supplied with
+its specific produce, though under the restrictions already stated; and
+through Alexandria or the Syrian seaports, Constantinople and the North
+obtain their diminished share.  But this last stage of transport seldom
+conveys the genuine article, except by the intervention of private
+arrangements and personal friendship or interest.  Where mere sale and
+traffic are concerned, substitution of an inferior quality, or an
+adulteration almost equivalent to substitution, frequently takes place in
+the different storehouses of the coast, till whatever Mokha-marked coffee
+leaves them for Europe and the West, is often no more like the real
+offspring of the Yemen plant than the log-wood preparations of a London
+fourth-rate retail wine-seller resemble the pure libations of an Oporto
+vineyard.
+
+“The second species of coffee, by some preferred to that of Yemen, but in
+my poor opinion inferior to it, is the growth of Abyssinia; its berry is
+larger, and of a somewhat different and a less heating flavor.  It is,
+however, an excellent species; and whenever the rich land that bears it
+shall be permitted by man to enjoy the benefits of her natural fertility,
+it will probably become an object of extensive cultivation and commerce.
+With this stops, at least in European opinion and taste, the list of
+coffee, and begins the list of beans.
+
+“While we were yet in the Djowf I described with sufficient minuteness
+how the berry is prepared for actual use; nor is the process any way
+varied in Nedjed or other Arab lands.  But in Nedjed an additional
+spicing of saffron, cloves, and the like, is still more common; a fact
+which is easily explained by the want of what stimulus tobacco affords
+elsewhere.  A second consequence of non-smoking among the Arabs is the
+increased strength of their coffee decoctions in Nedjed, and the
+prodigious frequency of their use; to which we must add the larger
+‘finjans,’ or coffee-cups, here in fashion.  So sure are men, when
+debarred of one pleasure or excitement, to make it up by another.”
+
+Palgrave gives the following picturesque description of the Wahabee
+capital: “We wrap our headgear, like true Arabs, round our chins, put on
+our grave-looking black cloaks, take each a long stick in hand, and
+thread the narrow streets intermediate between our house and the
+market-place at a funeral pace, and speaking in an undertone.  Those whom
+we meet salute us, or we salute them; be it known that the lesser number
+should always be the first to salute the greater, he who rides him who
+walks, he who walks him who stands, the stander the sitter, and so forth;
+but never should a man salute a woman; difference of age or even of rank
+between men does not enter into the general rules touching the priority
+of salutation.  If those whom we have accosted happen to be acquaintances
+or patients, or should they belong to the latitudinarian school, our
+salutation is duly returned.  But if, by ill fortune, they appertain to
+the strict and high orthodox party, an under-look with a half scowl in
+silence is their only answer to our greeting.  Whereat we smile,
+Malvolio-like, and pass on.
+
+“At last we reach the market-place; it is full of women and peasants,
+selling exactly what we want to buy, besides meat, firewood, milk, etc.;
+around are customers, come on errands like our own.  We single out a
+tempting basket of dates, and begin haggling with the unbeautiful
+Phyllis, seated beside her rural store.  We find the price too high.  ‘By
+him who protects Feysul,’ answers she, ‘I am the loser at that price.’
+We insist.  ‘By Him who shall grant Feysul a long life, I cannot bate
+it,’ she replies.  We have nothing to oppose to such tremendous
+asseverations, and accede or pass on, as the case may be.
+
+“Half of the shops, namely, those containing grocery, household articles
+of use, shoemakers’ stalls and smithies, are already open and busily
+thronged.  For the capital of a strongly centralized empire is always
+full of strangers, come will they nill they on their several affairs.
+But around the butchers’ shops awaits the greatest human and canine
+crowd.  My readers, I doubt not, know that the only licensed scavengers
+throughout the East are the dogs.  Nedjeans are great flesh-eaters, and
+no wonder, considering the cheapness of meat (a fine fat sheep costs at
+most five shillings, often less) and the keenness of mountaineer
+appetites.  I wish that the police regulations of the city would enforce
+a little more cleanliness about these numerous shambles; every refuse is
+left to cumber the ground at scarce two yards’ distance.  But dogs and
+dry air much alleviate the nuisance—a remark I made before at Ha’yel and
+Bereydah; it holds true for all Central Arabia.
+
+“Barakat and I resolve on continuing our walk through the town.  Ri’ad is
+divided into four quarters: one, the northeastern, to which the palaces
+of the royal family, the houses of the state officers, and the richer
+class of proprietors and government men belong.  Here the dwellings are
+in general high, and the streets tolerably straight and not over-narrow;
+but the ground level is low, and it is perhaps the least healthy locality
+of all.  Next the northwestern, where we are lodged; a large irregular
+mass of houses, varying in size and keeping from the best to the worst;
+here strangers, and often certain equivocal characters, never wanting in
+large towns, however strictly regulated, chiefly abide; here too are many
+noted for disaffection, and harboring other tenets than those of the son
+of ’Abdel-Wahab, men prone to old Arab ways and customs in ‘Church and
+State,’ to borrow our own analogous phrase; here are country chiefs, here
+Bedouins and natives of Zulphah and the outskirts find a lodging; here,
+if anywhere, is tobacco smoked or sold, and the Koran neglected in
+proportion.  However, I would not have my readers to think our entire
+neighborhood so absolutely disreputable.
+
+“But we gladly turn away our eyes from so dreary a view to refresh them
+by a survey of the southwestern quarter, the chosen abode of formalism
+and orthodoxy.  In this section of Ri’ad inhabit the most energetic
+Zelators, here are the most irreproachable five-prayers-a-day Nedjeans,
+and all the flower of Wahabee purity.  Above all, here dwell the
+principal survivors of the family of the great religions Founder, the
+posterity of ’Abd-el-Wahab escaped from the Egyptian sword, and free from
+every stain of foreign contamination.  Mosques of primitive simplicity
+and ample space, where the great dogma, not however confined to Ri’ad,
+that ‘we are exactly in the right, and everyone else is in the wrong,’ is
+daily inculcated to crowds of auditors, overjoyed to find Paradise all
+theirs and none’s but theirs; smaller oratories of Musallas, wells for
+ablution, and Kaabah-directed niches adorn every corner, and fill up
+every interval of house or orchard.  The streets of this quarter are
+open, and the air healthy, so that the invisible blessing is seconded by
+sensible and visible privileges of Providence.  Think not, gentle reader,
+that I am indulging in gratuitous or self-invented irony; I am only
+rendering expression for expression, and almost word for word, the talk
+of true Wahabees, when describing the model quarter of their model city.
+This section of the town is spacious and well-peopled, and flourishes,
+the citadel of national and religious intolerance, pious pride, and
+genuine Wahabeeism.
+
+“Round the whole town run the walls, varying from twenty to thirty feet
+in height; they are strong, in good repair, and defended by a deep trench
+and embankment.  Beyond them are the gardens, much similar to those of
+Kaseem, both in arrangement and produce, despite the difference of
+latitude, here compensated by a higher ground level.  But immediately to
+the south, in Yemamah, the eye remarks a change in the vegetation to a
+more tropical aspect; of this, however, I will not say more for the
+present.
+
+“According to promise, Aboo-’Eysa played his part to bring us in patients
+and customers, and the very second morning that dawned on us in our new
+house ushered in an invalid who proved a very godsend.  This was no other
+than Djowhar, treasurer of Feysul, and of the Wahabee empire.  My readers
+may be startled to learn that this great functionary was jet black, a
+negro in fact, though not a slave, having obtained his freedom from
+Turkee, the father of the present king.  He was tall, and, for a negro,
+handsome; about forty-five years of age, splendidly dressed, a point
+never neglected by wealthy Africans, whatever be their theoretical creed,
+and girt with a golden-hilted sword.  ‘But,’ said he, ‘gold, though
+unlawful if forming a part of apparel or mere ornament, may be employed
+with a safe conscience in decorating weapons.’
+
+“After ceremonies and coffee, I took my dusky patient into the
+consulting-room, where, by dint of questioning and surmise, for negroes
+in general are much less clear and less to the point than Arabs in their
+statements, I obtained the requisite elucidation of his case.  The
+malady, though painful, was fortunately one admitting of simple and
+efficacious treatment, so that I was able on the spot to promise him a
+sensible amendment of condition within a fortnight, and that in three
+weeks’ time he should be in plight to undertake his journey to Bahreyn.
+I added that with so distinguished a personage I could not think of
+exacting a bargain and fixing the amount of fees; the requital of my care
+should be left to his generosity.  He then took leave, and was
+re-conducted to his rooms in the palace by his fellow blacks of less
+degree.”
+
+The next visitor was Abd el-Kereem, of the oldest nobility of Nedjed,
+related to the ruling family; a bitter Wahabee, a strong, intelligent,
+bad, and dangerous man, who was both hated and feared by the people.  His
+visit was a distinction for Palgrave, yet an additional danger.  The
+latter, however, determined to draw as much information from him
+concerning Wahabee doctrine as he might be inclined to give; and, in
+reality, found him quite communicative.  One day Palgrave asked him to
+define the difference between the _great_ sins and the _little_ ones—that
+is, those to be punished in the next world, or at least deserving of it,
+and those whose penalty is remissible in this life.
+
+“Abd-el-Kereem doubted not that he had a sincere scholar before him, nor
+would refuse his hand to a drowning man.  So, putting on a profound air,
+and with a voice of first-class solemnity, he uttered his oracle, that
+‘the first of the great sins is the giving divine honors to a creature.’
+A hit, I may observe, at ordinary Mahometans, whose whole doctrine of
+intercession, whether vested in Mahomet or in ’Alee, is classed by
+Wahabees along with direct and downright idolatry.  A Damascene Shekh
+would have avoided the equivocation by answering, ‘infidelity.’
+
+“‘Of course,’ I replied, ‘the enormity of such a sin is beyond all doubt.
+But if this be the first, there must be a second; what is it?’
+
+“‘Drinking the shameful,’ in English, ‘smoking tobacco,’ was the
+unhesitating answer.
+
+“‘And murder, and adultery, and false witness?’ I suggested.
+
+“‘God is merciful and forgiving,’ rejoined my friend; that is, these are
+merely little sins.
+
+“‘Hence two sins alone are great, polytheism and smoking,’ I continued,
+though hardly able to keep countenance any longer.  And Abd-el-Kereem,
+with the most serious asseveration, replied that such was really the
+case.  On hearing this, I proceeded humbly to entreat my friend to
+explain to me the especial wickedness inherent in tobacco leaves, that I
+might the more detest and eschew them hereafter.
+
+“Accordingly he proceeded to instruct me, saying that, Firstly, all
+intoxicating substances are prohibited by the Koran; but tobacco is an
+intoxicating substance—ergo, tobacco is prohibited.
+
+“I insinuated that it was not intoxicating, and appealed to experience.
+But, to my surprise, my friend had experience too on his side, and had
+ready at hand the most appalling tales of men falling down dead drunk
+after a single whiff of smoke, and of others in a state of bestial and
+habitual ebriety from its use.  Nor were his stories so purely gratuitous
+as many might at first imagine.  The only tobacco known, when known, in
+Southern Nedjed, is that of Oman, a very powerful species.  I was myself
+astonished, and almost ‘taken in,’ more than once, by its extraordinary
+narcotic effects, when I experienced them, in the coffee-houses of
+Bahreyn.”
+
+Palgrave furnishes a tolerably complete account of the provinces of
+Nedjed and the tribes which inhabit them.  His concluding statement,
+however, embodies all which will interest the reader.
+
+“To sum up, we may say that the Wahabee empire is a compact and
+well-organized government, where centralization is fully understood and
+effectually carried out, and whose main-springs and connecting links are
+force and fanaticism.  There exist no constitutional checks either on the
+king or on his subordinates, save what the necessity of circumstance
+imposes or the Koran prescribes.  Its atmosphere, to speak
+metaphorically, is sheer despotism—moral, intellectual, religious, and
+physical.  This empire is capable of frontier extension, and hence is
+dangerous to its neighbors, some of whom it is even now swallowing up,
+and will certainly swallow more if not otherwise prevented.  Incapable of
+true internal progress, hostile to commerce, unfavorable to arts and even
+to agriculture, and in the highest degree intolerant and aggressive, it
+can neither better itself nor benefit others; while the order and calm
+which it sometimes spreads over the lands of its conquest are described
+in the oft-cited _Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant_ of the Roman
+annalist.
+
+“In conclusion, I here subjoin a numerical list, taken partly from the
+government registers of Ri’ad, partly from local information, and
+containing the provinces, the number of the principal towns or villages,
+the population, and the military contingent, throughout the Wahabee
+empire.”
+
+
+
+              Provinces       Towns or     Population     Military
+                              Villages                     muster
+        I.  ’Aared                    15       110,000         6,000
+       II.  Yemamah                   32       140,000         4,500
+      III.  Hareek                    16        45,000         3,000
+       IV.  Aflaj                     12        14,000         1,200
+        V.  Wady Dowasir              50       100,000         4,000
+       VI.  Seley’yel                 14        30,000         1,400
+      VII.  Woshem                    20        80,000         4,000
+     VIII.  Sedeyr                    25       140,000         5,200
+       IX.  Kaseem                    60       300,000        11,000
+        X.  Hasa                      50       160,000         7,000
+       XI.  Kateef                    22       100,000             —
+                                     316     1,219,000        47,300
+
+After a time, Palgrave was sent for by Abdallah, the eldest son of King
+Feysul, who pretended that he wished to learn something of the medical
+art.  This led to a regular intercourse, which at least enabled the
+traveller to learn many things concerning the Wahabee government.
+Another important result was an opportunity of visiting the royal
+stables, where the finest specimens of the famous Nedjed breed of horses
+are kept.  Of these he gives the following interesting description:
+
+“The stables are situated some way out of the town, to the northeast, a
+little to the left of the road which we had followed at our first
+arrival, and not far from the gardens of ’Abd-er-Rahman the Wahabee.
+They cover a large square space, about 150 yards each way, and are open
+in the centre, with a long shed running round the inner walls; under this
+covering the horses, about three hundred in number when I saw them, are
+picketed during the night; in the daytime they may stretch their legs at
+pleasure within the central court-yard.  The greater number were
+accordingly loose; a few, however, were tied up at their stalls; some,
+but not many, had horse-cloths over them.  The heavy dews which fall in
+Wady Haneefah do not permit their remaining with impunity in the open
+night air; I was told also that a northerly wind will occasionally injure
+the animals here, no less than the land wind does now and then their
+brethren in India.  About half the royal stud was present before me, the
+rest were out at grass; Feysul’s entire muster is reckoned at six
+hundred, or rather more.
+
+“No Arab dreams of tying up a horse by the neck; a tether replaces the
+halter, and one of the animal’s hind legs is encircled about the pastern
+by a light iron ring, furnished with a padlock, and connected with an
+iron chain of two feet or thereabouts in length, ending in a rope, which
+is fastened to the ground at some distance by an iron peg; such is the
+customary method.  But should the animal be restless and troublesome, a
+foreleg is put under similar restraint.  It is well known that in Arabia
+horses are much less frequently vicious or refractory than in Europe, and
+this is the reason why geldings are here so rare, though not unknown.  No
+particular prejudice, that I could discover, exists against the operation
+itself; only it is seldom performed, because not otherwise necessary, and
+tending, of course, to diminish the value of the animal.
+
+“But to return to the horses now before us; never had I seen or imagined
+so lovely a collection.  Their stature was indeed somewhat low; I do not
+think that any came fully up to fifteen hands; fourteen appeared to me
+about their average, but they were so exquisitely well shaped that want
+of greater size seemed hardly, if at all, a defect.  Remarkably full in
+the haunches, with a shoulder of a slope so elegant as to make one, in
+the words of an Arab poet, ‘go raving mad about it;’ a little, a very
+little, saddle-backed, just the curve which indicates springiness without
+any weakness; a head broad above, and tapering down to a nose fine enough
+to verify the phrase of ‘drinking from a pint pot,’ did pint pots exist
+in Nedjed; a most intelligent and yet a singularly gentle look, full eye,
+sharp thorn-like little ear, legs fore and hind that seemed as if made of
+hammered iron, so clean and yet so well twisted with sinew; a neat, round
+hoof, just the requisite for hard ground; the tail set on, or rather
+thrown out at a perfect arch; coats smooth, shining, and light, the mane
+long, but not overgrown nor heavy, and an air and step that seemed to
+say, ‘Look at me, am I not pretty?’ their appearance justified all
+reputation, all value, all poetry.  The prevailing color was chestnut or
+gray; a light bay, an iron color, white or black, were less common; full
+bay, flea-bitten or piebald, none.  But if asked what are, after all, the
+specially distinctive points of the Nedjee horse, I should reply, the
+slope of the shoulder, the extreme cleanness of the shank, and the full,
+rounded haunch, though every other part, too, has a perfection and a
+harmony unwitnessed (at least by my eyes) anywhere else.
+
+“Nedjee horses are especially esteemed for great speed and endurance of
+fatigue; indeed, in this latter quality, none come up to them.  To pass
+twenty-four hours on the road without drink and without flagging is
+certainly something; but to keep up the same abstinence and labor
+conjoined under the burning Arabian sky for forty-eight hours at a
+stretch, is, I believe, peculiar to the animals of the breed.  Besides,
+they have a delicacy, I cannot say of mouth, for it is common to ride
+them without bit or bridle, but of feeling and obedience to the knee and
+thigh, to the slightest check of the halter and the voice of the rider,
+far surpassing whatever the most elaborate manége gives a European horse,
+though furnished with snaffle, curb, and all.  I often mounted them at
+the invitation of their owners, and without saddle, rein, or stirrup, set
+them off at full gallop, wheeled them round, brought them up in mid
+career at a dead halt, and that without the least difficulty or the
+smallest want of correspondence between the horse’s movements and my own
+will; the rider on their back really feels himself the man-half of a
+centaur, not a distinct being.”
+
+During the last week in November the Persian Na’ib, who had been little
+edified by his experiences in Nedjed, set off for Bagdad.  In the
+meantime, Feysul had made great preparations toward collecting an army
+for the reduction of the city of ’Oneyzah (near Bereydah), which still
+held out gallantly.  Troops were summoned from the eastern coast and the
+adjoining provinces, and Sa’ood, the second son of Feysul, was ordered to
+bring them together at the capital, when the command was to be given to
+Abdallah, the eldest son.  Palgrave had then his only opportunity of
+seeing the old King of the Wahabees.
+
+“Sa’ood speedily arrived, and with him about two hundred horsemen; the
+rest of his men, more than two thousand, were mounted on camels.  When
+they entered Ri’ad, Feysul, for the first and last time during our stay,
+gave a public audience at the palace gate.  It was a scene for a painter.
+There sat the blind old tyrant, corpulent, decrepit, yet imposing, with
+his large, broad forehead, white beard, and thoughtful air, clad in all
+the simplicity of a Wahabee; the gold-hafted sword at his side his only
+ornament or distinction.  Beside him the ministers, the officers of his
+court, and a crowd of the nobler and wealthier citizens.  Abdallah, the
+heir to the throne, was alone absent.  Up came Sa’ood with the bearing of
+a hussar officer, richly clad in cashmere shawls and a gold-wrought
+mantle, while man by man followed his red-dressed cavaliers, their spears
+over their shoulders, and their swords hanging down; a musket, too, was
+slung behind the saddle of each warrior; and the sharp dagger of Hareek
+glittered in every girdle.  Next came the common soldiers on camels or
+dromedaries, some with spears only, some with spears and guns, till the
+wide square was filled with armed men and gazing spectators, as the whole
+troop drew up before the great autocrat, and Sa’ood alighted to bend and
+kiss his father’s hand.  ‘God save Feysul!  God give the victory to the
+armies of the Muslims!’ was shouted out on every side, and all faces
+kindled into the fierce smile of concentrated enthusiasm and conscious
+strength.  Feysul arose from his seat and placed his son at his side;
+another moment, and they entered the castle together.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—HIS ESCAPE TO THE EASTERN COAST.
+
+“FOR a foreigner to enter Ri’ad is not always easy, but to get away from
+it is harder still; Reynard himself would have been justly shy of
+venturing on this royal cave.  There exists in the capital of Nedjed two
+approved means of barring the exit against those on whom mistrust may
+have fallen.  The first and readiest is that of which it has been
+emphatically said, _Stone-dead hath no fellow_.  But should circumstances
+render the bonds of death inexpedient, the bonds of Hymen and a Ri’ad
+establishment may and occasionally do supply their office.  By this
+latter proceeding, the more amiable of the two, Abdallah resolved to
+enchain us.
+
+“Accordingly, one morning arrived at our dwelling an attendant of the
+palace, with a smiling face, presage of some good in reserve, and many
+fair speeches.  After inquiries about our health, comfort, well-being,
+etc., he added that Abdallah thought we might be desirous of purchasing
+this or that, and begged us to accept of a small present.  It was a fair
+sum of money, just twice so much as the ordinary token of good-will,
+namely, four rials in place of two.  After which the messenger took his
+leave.  Aboo-’Eysa had been present at the interview: ‘Be on the
+look-out,’ said he, ‘there is something wrong.’
+
+“That very afternoon Abdallah sent for me, and with abundance of
+encomiums and of promises, declared that he could not think of letting
+Ri’ad lose so valuable a physician, that I must accordingly take up a
+permanent abode in the capital, where I might rely on his patronage, and
+on all good things; that he had already resolved on giving me a house and
+a garden, specifying them, with a suitable household, and a fair face to
+keep me company; he concluded by inviting me to go without delay and see
+whether the new abode fitted me, and take possession.
+
+“Much and long did I fight off; talked about a winter visit to the coast,
+and coming back in the spring; tried first one pretext and then another;
+but none would avail, and Abdallah continued to insist.  To quiet him, I
+consented to go and see the house.  For the intended Calypso, I had ready
+an argument derived from Mahometan law, which put her out of the
+question, but its explanation would require more space than these pages
+can afford.
+
+“The winter season was now setting in; it was the third week in November;
+and a thunder-storm, the first we had witnessed in Central Arabia,
+ushered in a marked change for cold in the temperature of Wady Haneefah.
+Rain fell abundantly, and sent torrents down the dry watercourses of the
+valley, changing its large hollows into temporary tanks.  None of the
+streams showed, however, any disposition to reach the sea, nor indeed
+could they, for this part of Nedjed is entirely hemmed in to the east by
+the Toweyk range.  The inhabitants welcomed the copious showers, pledges
+of fertility for the coming year, while at ’Oneyzah the same rains
+produced at least one excellent effect, but which I may well defy my
+readers to guess.  The hostile armies, commanded by Zamil and
+Mohammed-ebn-Sa’ood, were drawn up in face of each other, and on the
+point of fierce conflict, when the storm burst on them, and by putting
+out the lighted matchlocks of either party, prevented the discharge of
+bullets and the effusion of blood.”
+
+Abdallah, who hated his second brother, Sa’ood, and had many other fierce
+enmities in the capital, then accidentally learned that Palgrave had
+employed a deadly poison (strychnine) in making a remarkable cure.
+Thenceforth all his powers of persuasion were employed in endeavoring to
+procure some of the drug; but Palgrave, suspecting his real design,
+positively refused to let him have any.  His rage was suddenly and
+strongly expressed on his countenance, foreboding no good to the
+traveller, who took the first opportunity of returning to his house.
+
+“There Aboo-’Eysa, Barakat, and myself,” he says, “immediately held
+council to consider what was now to be done.  That an outbreak must
+shortly take place seemed certain; to await it was dangerous, yet we
+could not safely leave the town in an over-precipitate manner, nor
+without some kind of permission.  We resolved together to go on in quiet
+and caution a few days more, to sound the court, make our adieus at
+Feysul’s palace, get a good word from Mahboob (no difficult matter), and
+then slip off without attracting too much notice.  But our destiny was
+not to run so smoothly.”
+
+Late in the evening of November 21st, Palgrave was summoned to Abdallah’s
+palace.  The messenger refused to allow Barakat or Aboo-’Eysa to
+accompany him.  The occasion seemed portentous, but disobedience was out
+of the question.  Palgrave followed the messenger.  On entering the
+reception-room, he found Abdallah, Abd-el-Lateef, the successor of the
+Wahabee, Mahboob, and a few others.  All were silent, and none returned
+his first salutation.  “I saluted Abdallah,” says Palgrave, “who replied
+in an undertone, and gave me a signal to sit down at a little distance
+from him, but on the same side of the divan.  My readers may suppose that
+I was not at the moment ambitious of too intimate a vicinity.
+
+“After an interval of silence, Abdallah turned half round toward me, and
+with his blackest look and a deep voice said, ‘I now know perfectly well
+what you are; you are no doctors, you are Christians, spies, and
+revolutionists, come hither to ruin our religion and state in behalf of
+those who sent you.  The penalty for such as you is death, that you know,
+and I am determined to inflict it without delay.’
+
+“‘Threatened folks live long,’ thought I, and had no difficulty in
+showing the calm which I really felt.  So looking him coolly in the face,
+I replied, ‘_Istagh-fir Allah_,’ literally, ‘Ask pardon of God.’  This is
+the phrase commonly addressed to one who has said something extremely out
+of place.
+
+“The answer was unexpected: he started, and said, ‘Why so?’
+
+“‘Because,’ I rejoined, ‘you have just now uttered a sheer absurdity.
+“Christians,” be it so; but “spies,” “revolutionists”—as if we were not
+known by everybody in your town for quiet doctors, neither more nor less!
+And then to talk about putting me to death!  You cannot, and you dare
+not.’
+
+“‘But I can and dare,’ answered Abdallah, ‘and who shall prevent me?  You
+shall soon learn that to your cost.’
+
+“‘Neither can nor dare,’ repeated I.  ‘We are here your father’s guests,
+and yours for a month and more, known as such, received as such.  What
+have we done to justify a breach of the laws of hospitality in Nedjed?
+It is impossible for you to do what you say,’ continued I, thinking the
+while that it was a great deal too possible, after all; ‘the obloquy of
+the deed would be too much for you.’
+
+“He remained a moment thoughtful, then said, ‘As if anyone need know who
+did it.  I have the means, and can dispose of you without talk or rumor.
+Those who are at my bidding can take a suitable time and place for that,
+without my name being ever mentioned in the affair.’
+
+“The advantage was now evidently on my side; I followed it up, and said
+with a quiet laugh, ‘Neither is that within your power.  Am I not known
+to your father, to all in his palace? to your own brother Sa’ood among
+the rest?  Is not the fact of this my actual visit to you known without
+your gates?  Or is there no one here?’ added I, with a glance at Mahboob,
+‘who can report elsewhere what you have just now said?  Better for you to
+leave off this nonsense; do you take me for a child of four days old?’
+
+“He muttered a repetition of his threat.  ‘Bear witness, all here
+present,’ said I, raising my voice so as to be heard from one end of the
+room to the other, ‘that if any mishap befalls my companion or myself
+from Ri’ad to the shores of the Persian Gulf, it is all Abdallah’s doing.
+And the consequences shall be on his head, worse consequences than he
+expects or dreams.’
+
+“The prince made no reply.  All were silent; Mahboob kept his eyes
+steadily fixed on the fireplace; ’Abd-el-Lateef looked much and said
+nothing.
+
+“‘Bring coffee,’ called out Abdallah to the servants.  Before a minute
+had elapsed, a black slave approached with one, and only one, coffee-cup
+in his hand.  At a second sign from his master he came before me and
+presented it.
+
+“Of course the worst might be conjectured of so unusual and solitary a
+draught.  But I thought it highly improbable that matters should have
+been so accurately prepared; besides, his main cause of anger was
+precisely the refusal of poisons, a fact which implied that he had none
+by him ready for use.  So I said ‘_Bismillah_,’ took the cup, looked very
+hard at Abdallah, drank it off, and then said to the slave, ‘Pour me out
+a second.’  This he did; I swallowed it, and said, ‘Now you may take the
+cup away.’
+
+“The desired effect was fully attained.  Abdallah’s face announced
+defeat, while the rest of the assembly whispered together.  The prince
+turned to ’Abd-el-Lateef and began talking about the dangers to which the
+land was exposed from spies, and the wicked designs of infidels for
+ruining the kingdom of the Muslims.  The Kadee and his companions chimed
+in, and the story of a pseudo-Darweesh traveller killed at Derey’eeyah,
+and of another (but who he was I cannot fancy; perhaps a Persian, who
+had, said Abdallah, been also recognized for an intriguer, but had
+escaped to Muscat, and thus baffled the penalty due to his crimes), were
+now brought forward and commented on.  Mahboob now at last spoke, but it
+was to ridicule such apprehensions.  ‘The thing is in itself unlikely,’
+said he, ‘and were it so, what harm could they do?’ alluding to my
+companion and myself.
+
+“On this I took up the word, and a general conversation ensued, in which
+I did my best to explode the idea of spies and spymanship, appealed to
+our own quiet and inoffensive conduct, got into a virtuous indignation
+against such a requital of evil for good after all the services which we
+had rendered court and town, and quoted verses of the Koran regarding the
+wickedness of ungrounded suspicion, and the obligation of not judging ill
+without clear evidence.  Abdallah made no direct answer, and the others,
+whatever they may have thought, could not support a charge abandoned by
+their master.
+
+“What amused me not a little was that the Wahabee prince had after all
+very nearly hit the right nail on the head, and that I was snubbing him
+only for having guessed too well.  But there was no help for it, and I
+had the pleasure of seeing that, though at heart unchanged in his opinion
+about us, he was yet sufficiently cowed to render a respite certain, and
+our escape thereby practicable.
+
+“This kind of talk continued a while, and I purposely kept my seat, to
+show the unconcern of innocence, till Mahboob made me a sign that I might
+safely retire.  On this I took leave of Abdallah and quitted the palace
+unaccompanied.  It was now near midnight, not a light to be seen in the
+houses, not a sound to be heard in the streets; the sky too was dark and
+overcast, till, for the first time, a feeling of lonely dread came over
+me, and I confess that more than once I turned my head to look and see if
+no one was following with ‘evil,’ as Arabs say, in his hand.  But there
+was none, and I reached the quiet alley and low door where a gleam
+through the chinks announced the anxious watch of my companions, who now
+opened the entrance, overjoyed at seeing me back sound and safe from so
+critical a parley.
+
+“Our plan for the future was soon formed.  A day or two we were yet to
+remain in Ri’ad, lest haste should seem to imply fear, and thereby
+encourage pursuit.  But during that period we would avoid the palace,
+out-walks in gardens or after nightfall, and keep at home as much as
+possible.  Meanwhile Aboo-’Eysa was to get his dromedaries ready, and put
+them in a courtyard immediately adjoining the house, to be laden at a
+moment’s notice.
+
+“A band of travellers was to leave Ri’ad for Hasa a few days later.
+Aboo-’Eysa gave out publicly that he would accompany them to Hofhoof,
+while we were supposed to intend following the northern or Sedeyr track,
+by which the Na’ib, after many reciprocal farewells and assurances of
+lasting friendship, should we ever meet again, had lately departed.
+Mobeyreek, a black servant in Aboo-’Eysa’s pay, occupied himself
+diligently in feeding up the camels for their long march with clover and
+vetches, both abundant here; and we continued our medical avocations, but
+quietly, and without much leaving the house.
+
+“During the afternoon of the 24th we brought three of Aboo-’Eysa’s camels
+into our courtyard, shut the outer door, packed, and laded.  We then
+awaited the moment of evening prayer; it came, and the voice of the
+Mu’eddineen summoned all good Wahabees, the men of the town-guard not
+excepted, to the different mosques.  When about ten minutes had gone by,
+and all might be supposed at their prayers, we opened our door.
+Mobeyreek gave a glance up and down the street to ascertain that no one
+was in sight, and we led out the camels.  Aboo-’Eysa accompanied us.
+Avoiding the larger thoroughfares, we took our way by by-lanes and
+side-passages toward a small town-gate, the nearest to our house, and
+opening on the north.  A late comer fell in with us on his way to the
+Mesjid, and as he passed summoned us also to the public service.  But
+Aboo-’Eysa unhesitatingly replied, ‘We have this moment come from
+prayers,’ and our interlocutor, fearing to be himself too late and thus
+to fall under reprehension and punishment, rushed off to the nearest
+oratory, leaving the road clear.  Nobody was in watch at the gate.  We
+crossed its threshold, turned southeast, and under the rapid twilight
+reached a range of small hillocks, behind which we sheltered ourselves
+till the stars came out, and the ‘wing of night,’ to quote Arab poets,
+spread black over town and country.
+
+“So far so good.  But further difficulties remained before us.  It was
+now more than ever absolutely essential to get clear of Nedjed
+unobserved, to put the desert between us and the Wahabee court and
+capital; and no less necessary was it that Aboo-’Eysa, so closely
+connected as he was with Ri’ad and its government, should seem nohow
+implicated in our unceremonious departure, nor any way concerned with our
+onward movements.  In a word, an apparent separation of paths between him
+and us was necessary before we could again come together and complete the
+remainder of our explorations.
+
+“In order to manage this, and while ensuring our own safety to throw a
+little dust in Wahabee eyes, it was agreed that before next morning’s
+sunrise Aboo-’Eysa should return to the town, and to his dwelling, as
+though nothing had occurred, and should there await the departure of the
+great merchant caravan, mentioned previously, and composed mainly of men
+from Hasa and Kateef, now bound for Hofhoof.  This assemblage was
+expected to start within three days at latest.  Meanwhile our friend
+should take care to show himself openly in the palaces of Feysul and
+Abdallah, and if asked about us should answer vaguely, with the off-hand
+air of one who had no further care regarding us.  We ourselves should in
+the interim make the best of our way, with Mobeyreek for guide, to Wady
+Soley’, and there remain concealed in a given spot, till Aboo-’Eysa
+should come and pick us up.
+
+“All this was arranged; at break of dawn, Aboo-’Eysa took his leave, and
+Barakat, Mobeyreek, and myself were once more high-perched on our
+dromedaries, their heads turned to the southeast, keeping the hillock
+range between us and Ri’ad, which we saw no more.  Our path led us over
+low undulating ground, a continuation of Wady Haneefah, till after about
+four hours’ march we were before the gates of Manfoohah, a considerable
+town, surrounded by gardens nothing inferior in extent and fertility to
+those of Ri’ad; but its fortifications, once strong, have long since been
+dismantled and broken down by the jealousy of the neighboring capital.
+
+“After winding here and there, we reached the spot assigned by Aboo-’Eysa
+for our hiding-place.  It was a small sandy depth, lying some way off the
+beaten track, amid hillocks and brushwood, and without water; of this
+latter article we had taken enough in the goat-skins to last us for three
+days.  Here we halted, and made up our minds to patience and expectation.
+
+“Two days passed drearily enough.  We could not but long for our guide’s
+arrival, nor be wholly without fear on more than one score.  Once or
+twice a stray peasant stumbled on us, and was much surprised at our
+encampment in so droughty a locality.  So the hours went by, till the
+third day brought closer expectation and anxiety, still increasing while
+the sun declined, and at last went down; yet nobody appeared.  But just
+as darkness closed in, and we were sitting in a dispirited group beside
+our little fire, for the night air blew chill, Aboo-’Eysa came suddenly
+up, and all was changed for question and answer, for cheerfulness and
+laughter.
+
+“Early on November 28th we resumed our march through a light valley-mist,
+and soon fell in with our companions of the road.
+
+“Next morning the whole country, hill and dale, trees and bushes, was
+wrapped in a thick blanket of mist, fitter for Surrey than for Arabia.
+So dense was the milky fog, that we fairly lost our way, and went on at
+random, shouting and hallooing, driving our beasts now here, now there,
+over broken ground and amid tangling shrubs, till the sun gained strength
+and the vapor cleared off, showing us the path at some distance on our
+right.  Before we had followed it far, we saw a black mass advancing from
+the east to meet us.  It was the first division of the Hasa troops on
+their way to Ri’ad; they were not less than four or five hundred in
+number.  Like true Arabs, they marched with a noble contempt of order and
+discipline—walking, galloping, ambling, singing, shouting, alone or in
+bands, as fancy led.  We interchanged a few words of greeting with these
+brisk boys, who avowed, without hesitation or shame, that they should
+much have preferred to stay at home, and that enforced necessity, not any
+military or religious ardor, was taking them to the field.  We laughed,
+and wished them Zamil’s head, or him theirs, whereon they laughed also,
+shouted, and passed on.
+
+“On we went, but through a country of much more varied scenery than what
+we had traversed the day before, enjoying the ‘pleasure situate in hill
+and dale,’ till we arrived at the foot of a high white cliff, almost like
+that of Dover; but these crags, instead of having the sea at their foot,
+overlooked a wide valley full of trees, and bearing traces of many
+violent winter torrents from east to west; none were now flowing.  Here
+we halted, and passed an indifferent night, much annoyed by ‘chill
+November’s surly blast,’ hardly less ungenial here than on the banks of
+Ayr, though sweeping over a latitude of 25°, not 56°.
+
+“Before the starlight had faded from the cold morning sky, we were up and
+in movement, for a long march was before us.  At sunrise we stood on the
+last, and here the highest, ledge of Toweyk, that long chalky wall which
+bounds and backs up Nedjed on the east; beyond is the desert, and then
+the coast.
+
+“After about three hours of level route we began to descend, not rapidly,
+but by degrees, and at noon we reached a singular depression, a huge
+natural basin, hollowed out in the limestone rock, with tracks resembling
+deep trenches leading to it from every side.  At the bottom of this
+crater-like valley were a dozen or more wells, so abundant in their
+supply that they not unfrequently overflow the whole space, and form a
+small lake; the water is clear and good, but no other is to be met with
+on the entire line hence to Hasa.
+
+“For the rest of the day we continued steadily to descend the broad even
+slope, whose extreme barrenness and inanimate monotony reminded me of the
+pebbly uplands near Ma’an on the opposite side of the peninsula,
+traversed by us exactly seven months before.  The sun set, night came on,
+and many of the travellers would gladly have halted, but Aboo-’Eysa
+insisted on continuing the march.  We were now many hundred feet lower
+than the crest behind us, and the air felt warm and heavy, when we
+noticed that the ground, hitherto hard beneath our feet, was changing
+step by step into a light sand, that seemed to encroach on the rocky
+soil.  It was at first a shallow ripple, then deepened, and before long
+presented the well-known ridges and undulations characteristic of the
+land ocean when several fathoms in depth.  Our beasts ploughed
+laboriously on through the yielding surface; the night was dark, but
+starry, and we could just discern amid the shade a white glimmer of
+spectral sand-hills, rising around us on every side, but no track or
+indication of a route.
+
+“It was the great Dahna, or ‘Red Desert,’ the bugbear of even the
+wandering Bedouin, and never traversed by ordinary wayfarers without an
+apprehension which has too often been justified by fatal incidents.  So
+light are the sands, so capricious the breezes that shape and reshape
+them daily into unstable hills and valleys, that no traces of preceding
+travellers remain to those who follow; while intense heat and glaring
+light reflected on all sides combine with drought and weariness to
+confuse and bewilder the adventurer, till he loses his compass and
+wanders up and down at random amid a waste solitude which soon becomes
+his grave.  Many have thus perished; even whole caravans have been known
+to disappear in the Dahna without a vestige, till the wild Arab tales of
+demons carrying off wanderers, or ghouls devouring them, obtain a half
+credit among many accustomed elsewhere to laugh at such fictions.
+
+“For, after about three hours of night travelling, or rather wading,
+among the sand-waves, till men and beasts alike were ready to sink for
+weariness, a sharp altercation arose between Aboo-’Eysa and El-Ghannam,
+each proposing a different direction of march.  We all halted a moment,
+and raised our eyes, heavy with drowsiness and fatigue, as if to see
+which of the contending parties was in the right.  It will be long before
+I forget the impression of that moment.  Above us was the deep black sky,
+spangled with huge stars of a brilliancy denied to all but an Arab gaze,
+while what is elsewhere a ray of the third magnitude becomes here of the
+first amid the pure vacuum of a mistless, vaporless air; around us loomed
+high ridges, shutting us in before and behind with their white,
+ghost-like outlines; below our feet the lifeless sand, and everywhere a
+silence that seemed to belong to some strange and dreamy world where man
+might not venture.
+
+“When not far from the midmost of the Dahna, we fell in with a few
+Bedouins, belonging to the Aal-Morrah clan, sole tenants of this desert.
+They were leading their goats to little spots of scattered herbage and
+shrubs which here and there fix a precarious existence in the hollows of
+the sands.
+
+“Theirs is the great desert from Nedjed to Hadramaut.  Not that they
+actually cover this immense space, a good fourth of the peninsula, but
+that they have the free and undisputed range of the oases which it
+occasionally offers, where herbs, shrubs, and dwarf-palms cluster round
+some well of scant and briny water.  These oases are sufficiently
+numerous to preserve a stray Bedouin or two from perishing, though not
+enough so to become landmarks for any regular route across the central
+Dahna, from the main body of which runs out the long and broad arm which
+we were now traversing.
+
+“Another night’s bivouac, and then again over the white down-sloping
+plain.
+
+“It was now three days and a half since our last supply of water, and
+Aboo-’Eysa was anxious to reach the journey’s end without delay.  As
+darkness closed around we reached the farthermost heights of the
+coast-range of Hasa.  Hence we overlooked the plains of Hasa, but could
+distinguish nothing through the deceptive rays of the rising moon; we
+seemed to gaze into a vast milky ocean.  After an hour’s halt for supper
+we wandered on, now up, now down, over pass and crag, till a long,
+corkscrew descent down the precipitous sea-side of the mountain, for a
+thousand feet or near it, placed us fairly upon the low level of Hasa,
+and within the warm, damp air of the sea-coast.
+
+“The ground glimmered white to the moon, and gave a firm footing to our
+dromedaries, who, by their renewed agility, seemed to partake in the joy
+of their riders, and to understand that rest was near.  We were, in fact,
+all so eager to find ourselves at home and homestead, that although the
+town of Hofhoof, our destined goal, was yet full fifteen miles to the
+northeast, we pressed on for the capital.  And there, in fact, we should
+have all arrived in a body before day-dawn, had not a singular occurrence
+retarded by far the greater number of our companions.
+
+“Soon after, the crags in our rear had shut out, perhaps for years,
+perhaps forever, the desert and Central Arabia from our view, while
+before and around us lay the indistinct undulations and uncertain breaks
+of the great Hasa plain, when on a sloping bank at a short distance in
+front we discerned certain large black patches, in strong contrast with
+the white glister of the soil around, and at the same time our attention
+was attracted by a strange whizzing like that of a flight of hornets,
+close along the ground, while our dromedaries capered and started as
+though struck with sudden insanity.  The cause of all this was a vast
+swarm of locusts, here alighted in their northerly wanderings from their
+birthplace in the Dahna; their camp extended far and wide, and we had
+already disturbed their outposts.  These insects are wont to settle on
+the ground after sunset, and there, half stupefied by the night chill, to
+await the morning rays, which warm them once more into life and movement.
+This time our dromedaries did the work of the sun, and it would be hard
+to say which of the two were the most frightened, they or the locusts.
+It was truly laughable to see so huge a beast lose his wits for fear at
+the flight of a harmless, stingless insect; of all timid creatures none
+equals the ‘ship of the desert’ for cowardice.
+
+“The swarm now before us was a thorough godsend for our Arabs, on no
+account to be neglected.  Thirst, weariness, all was forgotten, and down
+the riders leapt from their starting camels; this one spread out a cloak,
+that one a saddle-bag, a third his shirt, over the unlucky creatures
+destined for the morrow’s meal.  Some flew away whirring across our feet,
+others were caught and tied up in cloths and sacks.  Cornish wreckers at
+work about a shattered East Indiaman would be beaten by Ghannam and his
+companions with the locusts.  However, Barakat and myself felt no special
+interest in the chase, nor had we much desire to turn our dress and
+accoutrements into receptacles for living game.  Luckily Aboo-’Eysa still
+retained enough of his North Syrian education to be of our mind also.
+Accordingly we left our associates hard at work, turned our startled and
+still unruly dromedaries in the direction of Hofhoof, and set off full
+speed over the plain.
+
+“It was not till near morning that we saw before us in indistinct row the
+long black lines of the immense date-groves that surround Hofhoof.  Then,
+winding on amid rice-grounds and cornfields, we left on our right an
+isolated fort (to be described by daylight), passed some scattered
+villas, with their gardens, approached the ruined town walls, and entered
+the southern gate, now open and unguarded.  Farther on a few streets
+brought us before the door of Aboo-’Eysa’s house, our desired
+resting-place.
+
+“It was still night.  All was silent in the street and house, at the
+entrance of which we now stood; indeed, none but the master of a domicile
+could think of knocking at such an hour, nor was Aboo-’Eysa expected at
+that precise moment.  With much difficulty he contrived to awake the
+tenants; next the shrill voice of the lady was heard within in accents of
+joy and welcome; the door at last opened, and Aboo-’Eysa invited us into
+a dark passage, where a gas-light would have been a remarkable
+improvement, and by this ushered us into the k’hawah.  Here we lighted a
+fire, and after a hasty refreshment all lay down to sleep, nor awoke till
+the following forenoon.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—EASTERN ARABIA.
+
+“OUR stay at Hofhoof was very pleasant and interesting, not indeed
+through personal incidents and hair-breadth escapes—of which we had our
+fair portion at Ri’ad and elsewhere—but in the information here acquired,
+and in the novel character of everything around us, whether nature, art,
+or man.  Aboo-’Eysa was very anxious that we should see as much as
+possible of the country, and procured us all means requisite for so
+doing, while the shelter of his roof, and the precautions which he
+adopted or suggested, obviated whatever dangers and inconveniences we had
+experienced in former stages of the journey. Besides, the general
+disposition of the inhabitants of Hasa is very different from that met
+with in Nedjed, and even in Shomer or Djowf, and much better adapted to
+make a stranger feel himself at home.  A sea-coast people, looking mainly
+to foreign lands and the ocean for livelihood and commerce, accustomed to
+see among them not unfrequently men of dress, manners, and religion
+different from their own, many of them themselves travellers or voyagers
+to Basrah, Bagdad, Bahreyn, Oman, and some even farther, they are
+commonly free from that half-wondering, half-suspicious feeling which the
+sight of a stranger occasions in the isolated, desert-girded centre.  In
+short, experience, that best of masters, has gone far to unteach the
+lessons of ignorance, intolerance, and national aversion.
+
+“Hofhoof, whose ample circuit contained during the last generation about
+thirty thousand inhabitants, now dwindled to twenty-three or twenty-four
+thousand, is divided into three quarters or districts.  The general form
+of the town is that of a large oval.  The public square, an oblong space
+of about three hundred yards in length by a fourth of the same in width,
+occupies the meeting point of these quarters; the Kôt lies on its
+northeast, the Rifey’eeyah on the northwest and west, and the Na’athar on
+the east and south.  In this last quarter was our present home; moreover,
+it stood in the part farthest removed from the Kôt and its sinister
+influences, while it was also sufficiently distant from the overturbulent
+neighborhood of the Rifey’eeyah, the centre of anti-Wahabee movements,
+and the name of which alone excited distrust and uneasiness in Nedjean
+minds.
+
+“The Kôt itself is a vast citadel, surrounded by a deep trench, with
+walls and towers of unusual height and thickness, earth-built, with an
+occasional intermixture of stone, the work of the old Carmathian rulers;
+it is nearly square, being about one-third of a mile in length by
+one-quarter in breadth.
+
+“On the opposite side of the square, and consequently belonging to the
+Rifey’eeyah, is the vaulted market-place, or ‘Keysareeyah,’ a name by
+which constructions of this nature must henceforth be called up to Mascat
+itself, though how this Latinism found its way across the peninsula to
+lands which seem to have had so little commerce with the Roman or
+Byzantine empires, I cannot readily conjecture.  This Keysareeyah is in
+form a long barrel-vaulted arcade, with a portal at either end; the
+folding doors that should protect the entrances have here in Hofhoof been
+taken away, elsewhere they are always to be found.  The sides are
+composed of shops, set apart in general for wares of cost, or at least
+what is here esteemed costly; thus, weapons, cloth embroidery, gold and
+silver ornament, and analogous articles, are the ordinary stock-in-hand
+in the Keysareeyah.  Around it cluster several alleys, roofed with
+palm-leaves against the heat, and tolerably symmetrical; in the shops we
+may see the merchandise of Bahreyn, Oman, Persia, and India exposed for
+sale, mixed with the manufactured produce of the country; workshops,
+smithies, carpenters’ and shoemakers’ stalls, and the like, are here
+also.  In the open square itself stand countless booths for the sale of
+dates, vegetables, wood, salted locusts, and small ware of many kinds.
+
+“The Rifey’eeyah, or noble quarter, covers a considerable extent, and is
+chiefly composed of tolerable, in some places of even handsome,
+dwellings.  The comparative elegance of domestic architecture in Hofhoof
+is due to the use of the arch, which, after the long interval from Ma’an
+to Hasa, now at last reappears, and gives to the constructions of this
+province a lightness and a variety unknown in the monotonous and heavy
+piles of Nedjed and Shomer.  Another improvement is that the walls,
+whether of earth or stone, or of both mixed, as is often the case, are
+here very generally coated with fine white plaster, much resembling the
+‘chunam’ of Southern India; ornament, too, is aimed at about the doorways
+and the ogee-headed windows, and is sometimes attained.
+
+“The Na’athar is the largest quarter; it forms, indeed, a good half of
+the town, and completes its oval.  In it every description of dwelling is
+to be seen—for rich and poor, for high and low, palace or hovel.  Here,
+too, but near the Kôt, has the pious policy of Feysul constructed the
+great mosque.
+
+“But perhaps my reader, after accompanying me thus far, may feel thirsty,
+for the heat, even in December, is almost oppressive, and the sky
+cloudless as though it were June or July.  So let us turn aside into that
+grassy plantation, where half a dozen buffaloes are cooling their ugly
+hides in a pool, and drink a little from the source that supplies it.
+When behold! the water is warm, almost hot.  Do not be surprised; all the
+fountain sources and wells of Hasa are so, more or less; in some one can
+hardly bear to plunge one’s hand; others are less above the average
+temperature, while a decidedly sulphurous taste is now and then
+perceptible.  In fact, from the extreme north of this province down to
+its southern-most frontier, this same sign of subterranean fire is
+everywhere to be found.  The rocks, too, are here very frequently of tufa
+and basalt, another mark of igneous agency.
+
+“The products of Hasa are many and various; the monotony of Arab
+vegetation, its eternal palm and ithel, ithel and palm, are here varied
+by new foliage, and growths unknown to Nedjed and Shomer.  True, the
+date-palm still predominates, nay, here attains its greatest perfection.
+But the nabak, with its rounded leaves and little crab-apple fruit, a
+mere bush in Central Arabia, becomes in Hasa a stately tree; the papay,
+too, so well known in the more easterly peninsula, appears, though
+seldom, and stunted in growth, along with some other trees, common on the
+coast from Cutch to Bombay.  Indigo is here cultivated, though not
+sufficiently for the demands of commerce; cotton is much more widely
+grown than in Yemamah; rice fields abound, and the sugar-cane is often
+planted, though not, I believe, for the extraction of the sugar.  The
+peasants of Hasa sell the reed by retail bundles in the market-place, and
+the purchasers take it home to gnaw at leisure in their houses.  Corn,
+maize, millet, vetches of every kind, radishes, onions, garlic, beans, in
+short, almost all legumina and cerealia, barley excepted (at least I
+neither saw nor heard of any), cover the plain, and under a better
+administration might be multiplied tenfold.
+
+“The climate of Hasa, as I have already implied, is very different from
+that of the uplands, and not equally favorable to health and physical
+activity.  Hence, a doctor, like myself, if my readers will allow me the
+title, has here more work and better fees; this latter circumstance is
+also owing to the greater amount of ready money in circulation, and the
+higher value set on medical science by men whose intellects are much more
+cultivated than those of their Nedjean neighbors.  In appearance, the
+inhabitants of Hasa are generally good-sized and well-proportioned, but
+somewhat sallow in the face, and of a less muscular development than is
+usual inland; their features, though regular, are less marked than those
+of the Nedjeans, and do not exhibit the same half-Jewish type.  On the
+contrary, there is something in them that reminds a beholder of the
+Rajpoot or the Guzeratee.  They are passionately fond of literature and
+poetry.
+
+“I have already said that our great endeavor in Hasa was to observe
+unobserved, and thus to render our time as barren as might be in
+incidents and catastrophes.  Not that we went into the opposite extreme
+of leading an absolutely retired and therefore uneventful life.
+Aboo-’Eysa took care from the first to bring us into contact with the
+best and the most cultivated families of the town, nor had my medical
+profession anywhere a wider range for its exercise, or better success
+than in Hofhoof.  Friendly invitations, now to dinner, now to supper,
+were of daily occurrence; and we sat at tables where fish, no longer mere
+salted shrimps, announced our vicinity to the coast; vermicelli, too, and
+other kinds of pastry, denoted the influence of Persian art on the
+kitchen.  Smoking within doors was general; but the nargheelah often
+replaced, and that advantageously, the short Arab pipe; perfumes are no
+less here in use than in Nedjed.
+
+“We had passed about a week in the town when Aboo-’Eysa entered the side
+room where Barakat and I were enjoying a moment of quiet, and copying out
+‘Nabtee’ poetry, and shut the door behind him.  He then announced to us,
+with a face and tone of serious anxiety, that two of the principal
+Nedjean agents belonging to the Kôt had just come into the k’hawah, under
+pretext of medical consultation, but in reality, said he, to identify the
+strangers.  We put on our cloaks—a preliminary measure of decorum
+equivalent to face- and hand-washing in Europe—and presented ourselves
+before our inquisitors with an air of conscious innocence and scientific
+solemnity.  Conversation ensued, and we talked so learnedly about bilious
+and sanguine complexions, cephalic veins, and Indian drugs, with such
+apposite citations from the Koran, and such loyal phrases for Feysul,
+that Aboo-’Eysa was beside himself for joy; and the spies, after
+receiving some prescriptions of the bread-pill and aromatic-water
+formula, left the house no wiser than before.  Our friends, too, and they
+were now many, well guessing what we might really be, partly from our own
+appearance and partly from the known character of our host (according to
+old Homer’s true saying, _Heaven always leads like to like_), did each
+and all their best to throw sand into Wahabee eyes, and everything went
+on sociably and smoothly.  A blessing on the medical profession!  None
+other gives such excellent opportunities for securing everywhere
+confidence and friendship.
+
+“Before we leave Hasa I must add a few remarks to complete the sketch
+given of the province and of its inhabitants.  Want of a suitable
+opportunity for inserting them before has thrown them together at this
+point of my narrative.
+
+“My fair readers will be pleased to learn that the veil and other
+restraints inflicted on the gentle sex by Islamitic rigorism, not to say
+worse, are much less universal, and more easily dispensed with in Hasa;
+while in addition, the ladies of the land enjoy a remarkable share of
+those natural gifts which no institutions, and even no cosmetics, can
+confer; namely, beauty of face and elegance of form.  Might I venture on
+the delicate and somewhat invidious task of constructing a ‘beauty-scale’
+for Arabia, and for Arabia alone, the Bedouin women would, on this
+kalometer, be represented by zero, or at most 1°; a degree higher would
+represent the female sex of Nedjed; above them rank the women of Shomer,
+who are in their turn surmounted by those of Djowf.  The fifth or sixth
+degree symbolizes the fair ones of Hasa; the seventh those of Katar; and
+lastly, by a sudden rise of ten degrees at least, the seventeenth or
+eighteenth would denote the pre-eminent beauties of Oman.  Arab poets
+occasionally languish after the charmers of Hedjaz; I never saw anyone to
+charm me, but then I only skirted the province.  All bear witness to the
+absence of female loveliness in Yemen; and I should much doubt whether
+the mulatto races and dusky complexions of Hadramaut have much to vaunt
+of.  But in Hasa a decided improvement on this important point is
+agreeably evident to the traveller arriving from Nedjed, and he will be
+yet further delighted on finding his Calypsos much more conversible, and
+having much more, too, in their conversation than those he left behind
+him in Sedeyr and ’Aared.
+
+“During our stay at Hofhoof, Aboo-’Eysa left untried no arts of Arab
+rhetoric and persuasion to determine me to visit Oman, assuring me again
+and again that whatever we had yet seen, even in his favorite Hasa, was
+nothing compared to what remained to see in that more remote country.  My
+companion, tired of our long journey, and thinking the long distance
+already laid between him and his Syrian home quite sufficient in itself
+without further leagues tacked on to it, was very little disposed for a
+supplementary expedition.  Englishmen, on the contrary, are rovers by
+descent and habit; my own mind was now fully made up to visit Oman at all
+risks, whether Barakat came with me or not.  Meanwhile, we formed our
+plan for the next immediate stage of our route.  My companion and I were
+to quit Hofhoof together, leaving Aboo-’Eysa behind us for a week or two
+at Hasa, while we journeyed northward to Kateef, and thence took ship for
+the town of Menamah in Bahreyn.  In this latter place Aboo-’Eysa was to
+rejoin us.  Our main reason for thus separating our movements in time and
+in direction, was to avoid the too glaring appearance of acting in
+concert while yet in a land under Wahabee government and full of Wahabee
+spies and reporters, especially after the suspicions thrown on us at
+Ri’ad.  The Oman arrangements were to be deferred till we should all meet
+again.
+
+“Barakat and myself prepared for our departure; we purchased a few
+objects of local curiosity, got in our dues of medical attendance, paid
+and received the customary P. P. C. visits, and even tendered our
+respects to the negro governor Belal, where he sat at his palace door in
+the Kôt, holding a public audience, and looking much like any other
+well-dressed black.  No passport was required for setting out on the road
+to Kateef, which in the eyes of government forms only one and the same
+province with Hasa, though in many respects very different from it.  The
+road is perfectly secure; plundering Bedouins or highway robbers are here
+out of the question.  However, we stood in need of companions, not for
+escort, but as guides.  Aboo-’Eysa made inquiries in the town, and found
+three men who chanced to be just then setting out on their way for
+Kateef, who readily consented to join band with us for the road.  Our
+Abyssinian hostess supplied us with a whole sack of provisions, and our
+Hofhoof associates found us in camels.  Thus equipped and mounted, we
+took an almost touching leave of Aboo-’Eysa’s good-natured wife, kissed
+the baby, exchanged an _au revoir_ with its father, and set out on the
+afternoon of December 19th, leaving behind us many pleasant
+acquaintances, from some of whom I received messages and letters while at
+Bahreyn.  So far as inhabitants are concerned, to no town in Arabia
+should I return with equal confidence of finding a hearty greeting and a
+welcome reception, than to Hofhoof and its amiable and intelligent
+merchants.
+
+“We quitted the town by the northeastern gate of the Rifey-’eeyah, where
+the friends, who, according to Arab custom, had accompanied us thus far
+in a sort of procession, wished us a prosperous journey, took a last
+adieu, and returned home.  After some hours we bivouacked on a little
+hillock of clean sand, with the dark line of the Hofhoof woods on our
+left, while at some distance in front a copious fountain poured out its
+rushing waters with a noise distinctly audible in the stillness of the
+night, and irrigated a garden worthy of Damascus or Antioch.  The night
+air was temperate, neither cold like that of Nedjed, nor stifling like
+that of Southern India; the sky clear and starry.  From our commanding
+position on the hill I could distinguish Soheyl or Canopus, now setting;
+and following him, not far above the horizon, the three upper stars of
+the Southern Cross, an old Indian acquaintance; two months later in Oman
+I had the view of the entire constellation.
+
+“Next morning we traversed a large plain of light and sandy soil,
+intersected by occasional ridges of basalt and sandstone.
+
+“We journeyed on all day, meeting no Bedouins and few travellers.  At
+evening we encamped in a shallow valley, near a cluster of brimming
+wells, some sweet, some brackish, where the traces of half-obliterated
+watercourses and the vestiges of crumbling house-walls indicated the
+former existence of a village, now also deserted.  We passed a
+comfortable night under the shelter of palms and high brushwood, mixed
+with gigantic aloes and yuccas, and rose next morning early to our way.
+Our direction lay northeast.  In the afternoon we caught our first
+glimpse of Djebel Mushahhar, a pyramidical peak some seven hundred feet
+high and about ten miles south of Kateef.  But the sea, though I looked
+toward it and for it with an eagerness somewhat resembling that of the
+Ten Thousand on their approach to the Euxine, remained shut out from view
+by a further continuation of the heights.
+
+“Next day we rose at dawn, and crossed the hills of Kateef by a long
+winding path, till after some hours of labyrinthine track we came in
+sight of the dark plantation-line that girdles Kateef itself landward.
+The sea lies immediately beyond; this we knew, but we could not obtain a
+glimpse of its waters through the verdant curtain stretched between.
+
+“About midday we descended the last slope, a steep sandstone cliff, which
+looks as though it had been the sea-limit of a former period.  We now
+stood on the coast itself.  Its level is as nearly as possible that of
+the Gulf beyond; a few feet of a higher tide than usual would cover it up
+to the cliffs.  Hence it is a decidedly unhealthy land, though fertile
+and even populous; but the inhabitants are mostly weak in frame and
+sallow in complexion.  The atmosphere was thick and oppressive, the heat
+intense, and the vegetation hung rich and heavy around; my companions
+talked about suffocation, and I remembered once more the Indian coast.
+Another hour of afternoon march brought us to Kateef itself, at its
+western portal; a high stone arch of elegant form, and flanked by walls
+and towers, but all dismantled and ruinous.  Close by the two
+burial-grounds, one for the people of the land, the other for the Nedjean
+rulers and colony—divided even after death by mutual hatred and anathema.
+Folly, if you will, but folly not peculiar to the East.
+
+“The town itself is crowded, damp, and dirty, and has altogether a
+gloomy, what for want of a better epithet I would call a _mouldy_, look;
+much business was going on in the market and streets, but the ill-favored
+and very un-Arab look of the shopkeepers and workmen confirms what
+history tells of the Persian colonization of this city.  Indeed, the
+inhabitants of the entire district, but more especially of the capital,
+are a mongrel race, in which Persian blood predominates, mixed with that
+of Bassora, Bagdad, and the ’Irak.
+
+“We urged our starting dromedaries across the open square in front of the
+market-place, traversed the town in its width, which is scarce a quarter
+of its length (like other coast towns), till we emerged from the opposite
+gate, and then looked out with greedy eyes for the sea, now scarce ten
+minutes distant.  In vain as yet, so low lies the land, and so thick
+cluster the trees.  But after a turn or two we came alongside of the
+outer walls, belonging to the huge fortress of Karmoot, and immediately
+afterward the valley opening out showed us almost at our feet the dead
+shallow flats of the bay.  How different from the bright waters of the
+Mediterranean, all glitter and life, where we had bidden them farewell
+eight months before at Gaza!  Like a leaden sheet, half ooze, half sedge,
+the muddy sea lay in view, waveless, motionless; to our left the massive
+walls of the castle went down almost to the water’s edge, and then turned
+to leave a narrow esplanade between its circuit and the Gulf.  On this
+ledge were ranged a few rusty guns of large calibre, to show how the
+place was once guarded; and just in front of the main gate a crumbling
+outwork, which a single cannon-shot would level with the ground,
+displayed six pieces of honey-combed artillery, their mouths pointing
+seaward.  Long stone benches without invited us to leave our camels
+crouching on the esplanade, while we seated ourselves and rested a little
+before requesting the governor to grant us a day’s hospitality, and
+permission to embark for Bahreyn.
+
+“Barakat and I sat still to gaze, speculating on the difference between
+the two sides of Arabia.  But our companions, like true Arabs, thought it
+high time for ‘refreshment,’ and accordingly began their inquiries at the
+castle-gate where the governor might be, and whether he was to be spoken
+to.  When, behold! the majesty of Feysul’s vicegerent issuing in person
+from his palace to visit the new man-of-war.  My abolitionist friends
+will be gratified to learn that this exalted dignitary is, no less than
+he of Hofhoof, a negro, brought up from a curly-headed imp to a
+woolly-headed black in Feysul’s own palace, and now governor of the most
+important harbor owned by Nedjed on the Persian Gulf, and of the town
+once capital of that fierce dynasty which levelled the Kaabah with the
+dust, and filled Kateef with the plunder of Yemen and Syria.  Farhat, to
+give him his proper name, common among those of his complexion, was a
+fine tall negro of about fifty years old, good-natured, chatty,
+hospitable, and furnished with perhaps a trifle more than the average
+amount of negro intellect.
+
+“Aboo-’Eysa, who had friends and acquaintances everywhere, and whose
+kindly manner made him always a special favorite with negroes high or
+low, had furnished us with an introductory letter to Farhat, intended to
+make matters smooth for our future route.  But as matters went there was
+little need of caution.  The fortunate coincidence of a strong north
+wind, just then blowing down the Gulf, gave a satisfactory reason for not
+embarking on board of a Bassora cruiser, while it rendered a voyage to
+Bahreyn, our real object, equally specious and easy.  Besides, Farhat
+himself, who was a good, easy-going sort of man, had hardly opened
+Aboo-’Eysa’s note, than without more ado he bade us a hearty welcome,
+ordered our luggage to be brought within the castle precincts, and
+requested us to step in ourselves and take a cup of coffee, awaiting his
+return for further conversation after his daily visit of inspection to
+Feysul’s abridged fleet.
+
+“The next day passed, partly in Farhat’s k’hawah, partly in strolling
+about the castle, town, gardens, and beach, making, meanwhile, random
+inquiries after boats and boatmen.
+
+“It was noon when we fell in with a ship captain, ready to sail that very
+night, wind and tide permitting.  Farhat’s men had spoken with him, and
+he readily offered to take us on board.  We then paid a visit to the
+custom-house officer to settle the embarkation dues for men and goods.
+This foreman of the Ma’asher, whether in accordance with orders from
+Farhat, or of his own free will and inclination, I know not, proved
+wonderfully gracious, and declared that to take a farthing of duty from
+such useful servants of the public as doctors, would be ‘sheyn w’khata’,
+‘shame and sin.’  Alas, that European custom house officials should be
+far removed from such generous and patriotic sentiments!  Lastly, of his
+own accord he furnished us with men to carry our baggage through
+knee-deep water and thigh-deep mud to the little cutter, where she lay
+some fifty yards from shore.  Evening now came on, and Farhat sent for us
+to congratulate us, but with a polite regret on having found so speedy
+conveyance for our voyage.  Meanwhile he let us understand how he was
+himself invited for the evening to supper with a rich merchant of the
+town, and that we were expected to join the party; nor need that make us
+anxious about our passage, since our ship captain was also invited, nor
+could the vessel possibly sail before the full tide at midnight.
+
+“From our town supper we returned by torchlight to the castle; our
+baggage, no great burden, had been already taken down to the sea gate,
+where stood two of the captain’s men waiting for us.  In their company we
+descended to the beach, and then with garments tucked up to the waist
+waded to the vessel, not without difficulty, for the tide was rapidly
+coming in, and we had almost to swim for it.  At last we reached the ship
+and scrambled up her side; most heartily glad was I to find myself at sea
+once more on the other side of Arabia.”
+
+After a slow voyage of three days Palgrave reached Bahreyn, the
+headquarters of the pearl fisheries, and established himself in the
+little town of Moharrek, to wait for the arrival of Aboo-’Eysa before
+undertaking his projected exploration of Oman.  He and his companion
+enjoyed a grateful feeling of rest and security in this seaport among the
+sailors, to whom all varieties of foreigners were well known, and who,
+having no prejudices, felt no suspicion.
+
+On January 9, 1863, Aboo-’Eysa arrived, and after much earnest
+consultation the following plan was adopted: Aboo-’Eysa was to send
+twenty loads of the best Hasa dates, and a handsome mantle, as presents
+to the Sultan of Oman, with three additional mantles for the three chiefs
+whose territories intervened between Bahreyn and Muscat.  Palgrave was to
+accompany these gifts, under his character of a skilled physician in
+quest of certain rare and mysterious herbs of Oman.  Meanwhile,
+Aboo-’Eysa and Barakat would take passage for Aboo-Shahr (Busheer), in
+Persia, where the former would be employed for three months in making up
+his next caravan of Mecca pilgrims.  Here Palgrave was to rejoin them
+after his journey.
+
+In place of Barakat his companion was a curious individual named Yoosef,
+whom Aboo-’Eysa had rescued from misery and maintained in a decent
+condition.  He was a native of Hasa, half a jester and half a knave;
+witty, reckless, hare brained to the last degree, full of jocose or
+pathetic stories, of poetry, traditions, and fun of every description.
+When everything had been arranged the four parted company, Palgrave and
+his new companion sailing for the port of Bedaa’, on the Arabian coast,
+where resided the first of the three chiefs whose protection it was
+necessary to secure.  They reached there after a cruise of five or six
+days, finding the place very barren and desolate, with scarcely a tree or
+a garden; but, as the chief said to Palgrave, “We are all, from the
+highest to the lowest, the slaves of one master—Pearl.”  The bay contains
+the best pearl-fishery on the coast, and the town depends for its
+existence on the trade in these gems.
+
+The chief was intelligent and friendly, and appears to have interposed no
+obstacle to the proposed journey into the interior, but Palgrave decided
+to go on by sea to the town of Sharjah, on the northern side of the
+peninsula of Oman.  Embarking again on February 6th, the vessel was
+driven by violent winds across to the Persian shore, and ten days elapsed
+before it was possible to reach Sharjah.  Here, again, although their
+reception was hospitable, the travellers gave up their land journey and
+re-embarked in another vessel to pass around the peninsula, through the
+Straits of Ormuz, and land on the southern shore, in the territory of
+Muscat.
+
+In three days they reached the island of Ormuz, of which Palgrave says:
+“I was not at all sorry to have an opportunity of visiting an island once
+so renowned for its commerce, and of which its Portuguese occupants used
+to say, ‘that, were the world a golden ring Ormuz would be the diamond
+signet.’  The general appearance of Ormuz indicates an extinguished
+volcano, and such I believe it really is; the circumference consists of a
+wide oval wall, formed by steep crags, fire-worn and ragged; these
+enclose a central basin, where grow shrubs and grass; the basaltic slopes
+of the outer barrier run in many places clean down into the sea, amid
+splinter-like pinnacles and fantastic crags of many colors, like those
+which lava often assumes on cooling.  Between the west and north a long
+triangular promontory, low and level, advances to a considerable
+distance, and narrows into a neck of land, which is terminated by a few
+rocks and a strong fortress, the work of Portuguese builders, but worthy
+of taking rank among Roman ruins—so solid are the walls, so compact the
+masonry and well-selected brickwork, against which three long centuries
+of sea-storm have broken themselves in vain.  The greater part of the
+promontory itself is covered with ruins.  Here stood the once thriving
+town, now a confused extent of desolate heaps, amid which the vestiges of
+several fine dwellings, of baths, and of a large church may yet be
+clearly made out.  Close by the fort cluster a hundred or more wretched
+earth-hovels, the abode of fishermen or shepherds, whose flocks pasture
+within the crater; one single shed, where dried dates, raisins, and
+tobacco are exposed for sale, is all that now remains of the trade of
+Ormuz.”
+
+After being detained three days at Ormuz by a storm, the vessel passed
+through the Strait, skirted the southern coast of the peninsula, and
+reached the harbor of Sohar on March 3d.  Palgrave determined to set off
+with Yoosef the same evening on the land-journey of eight or nine days to
+Muscat; but he had already lost so much time by delays since leaving
+Bahreyn that he yielded to the persuasions of the captain of another
+vessel, who promised to take him to Muscat by sea in two days.  He sailed
+on the 6th, weighed down with a vague presentiment of coming evil, which
+was soon to be justified.  His wanderings in Arabia, and also in this
+world, very nearly came to an end.  The vessel slowly glided on for two
+days, and Muscat was almost in sight when a dead, ominous calm befell
+them near the Sowadah Islands—some low reefs of barren rocks, about three
+leagues from shore.  It proved to be a calm, ominous indeed for Palgrave,
+as well as for the captain of the vessel and all on board.  It was
+followed by a furious storm that ended in the wreck of the dhow, and the
+loss of several lives, together with the entire outfit of the expedition.
+Palgrave and the survivors of the crew and passengers, nine in number,
+barely escaped with their lives, and reached the shore utterly exhausted,
+with nothing but the shirts they wore.
+
+In sorry plight the traveller made his way along the coast to Muscat.  He
+was obliged to give up the idea of exploring the interior of Oman, partly
+on account of the loss of the stores but chiefly because his identity as
+a European had been disclosed; and so in this disastrous manner ended the
+most important and interesting journey that had yet been made by any
+traveller in Arabia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+LADY BLUNT’S PILGRIMAGE TO NEJD.
+
+IN 1878–79, sixteen years after Palgrave’s journey, Lady Anne Blunt, with
+her husband and several native servants, accomplished a journey, which,
+in many respects was more remarkable than the exploits of any of their
+predecessors.  Whereas Palgrave and others had travelled in disguise,
+believing it impossible to penetrate into the interior otherwise than as
+mussulmans, the Blunts made no pretences of the kind, but went as
+European travellers, desirous of seeing the country, and visiting its
+rulers.  They traversed the whole breadth of the peninsula, from Beyrout
+on the Mediterranean coast, to Bagdad on the Tigris, crossing the Great
+Nefood, or central desert, and visiting Hail, Jebel Shammer, and other
+places in Nejd. {279}
+
+On their return Lady Blunt published the remarkably interesting story of
+their adventures, under the title of “A Pilgrimage to Nejd,” a book which
+added greatly to our knowledge of the Arabian interior, and to which the
+compiler of this chapter is largely indebted.
+
+The travellers entered upon their adventurous undertaking with the
+advantage of experiences gained on a previous journey among the Arab
+tribes of the Euphrates Valley, and a knowledge of the Arab tongue.
+Their native servants, who had accompanied them on their previous
+expedition, eagerly joined their service for the new venture; camels,
+horses, and all necessary supplies for the journey were purchased at
+Damascus, and on December 12th, 1879, the start was made.
+
+Though unwilling to travel under false colors as to race or nationality,
+the English travellers found it convenient to adopt the Bedouin costume
+for the desert journey, to avoid attracting more notice than was
+necessary.  Their first objective point was Jôf, an important oasis in
+the desert, four hundred miles away.  Lady Blunt, describing the start
+from Damascus, says:
+
+“At first we skirted the city, passing the gate where St. Paul is said to
+have entered, and the place where he got over the wall, and then along
+the suburb of Maïdan, which is the quarter occupied by Bedouins when they
+come to town, and where we had found the Tudmuri and our camels.  Here we
+were to have met the Jerdeh, and we waited some time outside the Bawâbat
+Allah, or ‘Gates of God,’ while Mohammed went in to make inquiries and
+take leave of his Tudmuri friends.
+
+“It is in front of this gate that the pilgrims assemble on the day of
+their start for Mecca, and from it the Haj road leads away in a nearly
+straight line southward.  The Haj road is to be our route as far as
+Mezárib, and is a broad, well-worn track, though of course not a road at
+all according to English ideas.  It has, nevertheless, a sort of romantic
+interest, one cannot help feeling, going as it does so far and through
+such desolate lands, a track so many thousand travellers have followed
+never to return.  I suppose in its long history a grave may have been dug
+for every yard of its course from Damascus to Medina, for, especially on
+the return journey, there are constantly deaths among the pilgrims from
+weariness and insufficient food.”
+
+A leisurely journey of a week brought the party to Salkhad, a Druse
+community at the edge of the desert, where Huseyn, the Sheykh of the
+Druses provided them with guides to the Kâf oasis, a five days’ journey
+into the desert.  On the way to Kâf they passed areas of sand, white as
+snow, and encountered violent sand-storms, in one of which they lost a
+camel who seized his opportunity to escape back to Mezárib.  Beyond Kâf
+they met with rather a thrilling adventure, which is thus graphically
+described:
+
+“Friday, January 3d.—We have had an adventure at last, and rather a
+disagreeable one; a severe lesson as to the danger of encamping near
+wells.  We started early, but were delayed a whole hour at Jerawi taking
+water, and did not leave the wells till nearly eight o’clock.  Then we
+turned back nearly due east across the wady.  The soil of pure white sand
+was heavy going, and we went slowly, crossing low undulations without
+other landmark than the wells we had left behind us.  Here and there rose
+little mounds, tufted with ghada.  To one of these Wilfrid and I cantered
+on, leaving the camels behind us, and dismounting, tied our mares to the
+bushes, that we might enjoy a few minutes’ rest and eat our midday
+mouthful; the greyhounds meanwhile played about and chased each other in
+the sand.
+
+“We had finished, and were talking of I know not what, when the camels
+passed us.  They were hardly a couple of hundred yards in front, when
+suddenly we heard a thud, thud, thud, on the sand, a sound of galloping.
+Wilfrid jumped to his feet, looked round, and called out: ‘Get on your
+mare.  This is a ghazú!’
+
+“As I scrambled round the bush to my mare, I saw a troop of horsemen
+charging down at full gallop with their lances, not two hundred yards
+off.  Wilfrid was up as he spoke, and so should I have been but for my
+sprained knee and the deep sand, both of which gave way as I was rising.
+I fell back.  There was no time to think, and I had hardly struggled to
+my feet when the enemy was upon us, and I was knocked down by a spear.
+Then they all turned on Wilfrid, who had waited for me, some of them
+jumping down on foot to get hold of his mare’s halter.  He had my gun
+with him, which I had just before handed to him, but unloaded, his own
+gun and his sword being on his delúl (riding camel).  He fortunately had
+on very thick clothes, two abbas one over the other, and English clothes
+underneath, so the lances did him no harm.  At last his assailants
+managed to get his gun from him and broke it over his head, hitting him
+three times and smashing the stock.
+
+“Resistance seemed to me useless, and I shouted to the nearest horseman,
+‘_Ana dahílak_’ (I am under your protection), the usual form of
+surrender.  Wilfrid hearing this, and thinking he had had enough of this
+unequal contest, one against twelve, threw himself off his mare.  The
+_Khayal_ (horsemen) having seized both the mares, paused, and as soon as
+they had gathered breath, began to ask us who we were and where we came
+from.
+
+“‘English, and we have come from Damascus,’ we replied, ‘and our camels
+are close by.  Come with us and you shall hear about it.’
+
+“Our caravan, while all this had happened, and it only lasted about five
+minutes, had formed itself into a square, and the camels were kneeling
+down, as we could plainly see from where we were.  I hardly expected the
+horsemen to do as we asked, but the man who seemed to be their leader at
+once let us walk on (a process causing me acute pain), and followed with
+the others to the caravan.  We found Mohammed and the rest of our party
+entrenched behind the camels with their guns pointed, and as we
+approached, Mohammed stepped out and came forward.
+
+“‘Min entum?’ (Who are you?) was the first question.
+
+“‘Roala min Ibn Debaa.’  ‘Wallah?’ (Will you swear by God?)  ‘Wallah!’
+(We swear).
+
+“‘And you?’  ‘Mohammed ibn Arûk of Tudmur.’
+
+“‘Wallah?’  ‘Wallah!’  ‘And these are Franjis travelling with you?’
+‘Wallah!  Franjis, friends of Ibn Shaalan.’
+
+“It was all right; we had fallen into the hands of friends.  Ibn Shaalan,
+our host of last year, was bound to protect us, even so far away in the
+desert, and none of his people dared meddle with us, knowing this.
+Besides, Mohammed was a Tudmuri, and as such could not be molested by
+Roala, for Tudmur pays tribute to Ibn Shaalan, and the Tudmuris have a
+right to his protection.  So as soon as the circumstances were made clear
+orders were given by the chief of the party to his followers to bring
+back our mares, and the gun, and everything which had been dropped in the
+scuffle.  Even to Wilfrid’s tobacco-bag, all was restored.”
+
+The robbers and the travellers fraternized after the affair was over, and
+the former were very much ashamed of themselves for having used their
+spears against a woman.  Lady Blunt apologizes for them, however, as the
+Bedouin dress she wore for riding prevented them distinguishing her sex
+in the confusion of the sudden attack.
+
+Two days after the encounter in the desert the party arrived at Jôf,
+where they spent three days, and found the people very hospitable.  Their
+chief servant and camel-driver, Mohammed, was an Arab, who had distant
+connections in this part of Arabia; and as tribal kinship, no matter how
+remote, is regarded as a matter of great importance, this relationship
+was of material aid in securing them the good-will of the inhabitants.
+The Blunts were less favorably impressed with Jôf than was Palgrave, who,
+however, uses the term “Djowf” in a broader sense, as including a number
+of oases situated in “a large oval depression of sixty or seventy miles
+long by ten or twelve broad, lying between the northern desert that
+separates it from Syria and the Euphrates, and the southern Nefood, or
+sandy waste, and interposed between it and the nearest mountains of the
+Central Arabian plateau.”
+
+Lady Blunt writes of it: “Jôf is not at all what we expected.  We thought
+we should find it a large cultivated district, and it turns out to be
+merely a small town.  There is nothing at all outside the walls except a
+few square patches, half an acre or so each, green with young corn,” etc.
+
+How true is it that no two travellers see things with the same eyes.
+Doubtless both these distinguished travellers are reasonably correct in
+their descriptions, but summed up their impressions from opposite
+stand-points in a topographical sense; a common enough mistake in Asia,
+where the name of a place often indicates, equally accurately, a large
+scope of country and the central spot in it.  In Central Asia, for
+example, there is Merv, which is the name of a city, and also of the
+large fertile oasis in which it is situated; also Herat, meaning a broad
+area of oases, with a population of probably half a million people, in
+which the fortress-city Herat stands, no less than the city itself.
+
+Important political changes had taken place since Palgrave’s visit.  The
+rule of the Wahabees had been overthrown in Jôf, and the only
+representatives of staple authority found there were a Sheykh and six
+soldiers, who represented the authority of Mohammed ibn Rashid, Emir of
+Jebel Shammar, with his seat of government at Hail.
+
+From Jôf the travellers proceeded toward Hail, crossing the dreaded
+Nefood, of which they give a very interesting, and far less gloomy,
+account than did Palgrave.  They, however, crossed it in January, while
+Palgrave crossed it in midsummer; so that, in the case of the Nefood, as
+with Jôf, the apparently conflicting accounts are doubtless both fairly
+accurate, the one describing the desert in winter, the other in summer.
+On January 12th, the travellers found themselves on the edge of the
+desert.
+
+“At half-past three o’clock we saw a red streak on the horizon before us,
+which rose and gathered as we approached it, stretching out east and west
+in an unbroken line.  It might at first have been taken for an effect of
+mirage, but on coming nearer we found it broken into billows, and but for
+its red color not unlike a stormy sea seen from the shore, for it rose
+up, as the sea seems to rise, when the waves are high, above the level of
+the land.  Somebody called out ‘Nefûd,’ and though for a while we were
+incredulous, we were soon convinced.  What surprised us was its color,
+that of rhubarb and magnesia, nothing at all like what we had expected.
+Yet the Nefûd it was, the great red desert of Central Arabia.  In a few
+minutes we had cantered up to it, and our mares were standing with their
+feet in its first waves.
+
+“January 13th.—We have been all day in the Nefûd, which is interesting
+beyond our hopes, and charming into the bargain.”  After taking issue
+with Mr. Palgrave, who, Lady Blunt thinks, overlooked its brighter side,
+the narrator continues her own observations thus:
+
+“The thing that strikes one first about the Nefûd is its color.  It is
+not white like the sand dunes we passed yesterday, nor yellow as the sand
+is in parts of the Egyptian desert, but a really bright red, almost
+crimson in the morning, when it is wet with dew.  The sand is rather
+coarse, but absolutely pure, without admixture of any foreign substance,
+pebble, grit, or earth, and exactly the same in tint and texture
+everywhere.  It is, however, a great mistake to suppose it barren.  The
+Nefûd, on the contrary, is better wooded and richer in pasture than any
+part of the desert we have passed since leaving Damascus.  It is tufted
+all over with ghada bushes, and bushes of another kind called _yerta_,
+which at this time of the year, when there are no leaves, is exactly like
+a thickly matted vine.
+
+“There are, besides, several kinds of camel pasture, especially one new
+to us, called _adr_, on which they say sheep can feed for a month without
+wanting water, and more than one kind of grass.  Both camels and mares
+are therefore pleased with the place, and we are delighted with the
+abundance of firewood for our camps.  Wilfrid says that the Nefûd has
+solved for him at last the mystery of horse-breeding in Central Arabia.
+In the hard desert there is nothing a horse can eat, but here there is
+plenty.  The Nefûd accounts for everything.  Instead of being the
+terrible place it has been described by the few travellers who have seen
+it, it is in reality the home of the Bedouins during a great part of the
+year.  Its only want is water, for it contains but few wells; all along
+the edge it is thickly inhabited, and Radi tells us that in the spring,
+when the grass is green after rain, the Bedouins care nothing for water,
+as their camels are in milk, and they go for weeks without it, wandering
+far into the interior of the sand desert.”
+
+In the desert of sand the travellers found many curious hollows, which
+the native guide called fulj.  Some of these holes were a quarter of a
+mile in diameter, and as much as 230 feet deep.  They were chiefly of
+horse-hoof shape.  They took observations, and at one point on the desert
+found the elevation to be 3,300 feet above sea-level.  After seven days
+in the Nefûd, the last two of which tried the endurance of men and
+beasts, the party reached the oasis of Jobba, which is described as being
+one of the most curious, as also most beautiful, places in the world.
+
+“Its name Jobba, meaning a well, explains its position, for it lies in a
+hole or well in the Nefûd; not indeed in a fulj, for the basin of Jobba
+is quite on another scale, and has nothing in common with the horse-hoof
+depressions I have hitherto described.  It is, all the same, extremely
+singular, and quite as difficult to account for geologically as the
+fuljes.  It is a great bare space in the ocean of sand, from four to five
+hundred feet below its average level, and about three miles wide; a
+hollow, in fact, not unlike that of Jôf, but with the Nefûd round it
+instead of sandstone cliffs.  That it has once been a lake is pretty
+evident, for there are distinct water marks on the rocks, which crop up
+out of the bed just above the town; and, strange to say, there is a
+tradition still extant of there having been formerly water there.  The
+wonder is how this space is kept clear of sand.  What force is it that
+walls out the Nefûd and prevents encroachments?  As you look across the
+subbkha, or dry bed of the lake, the Nefûd seems like a wall of water
+which must overwhelm it; and yet no sand shifts down into the hollow, and
+its limits are accurately maintained.”
+
+At length the Nefûd was overcome and the travellers approached Hail, not
+without apprehensions as to the reception that might await them.  Their
+guide from Jôf enlightened them in regard to many changes that had
+occurred since Palgrave’s visit, changes that will be equally interesting
+to readers who have followed Palgrave’s narrative in preceding chapters.
+
+Telal, then despotic ruler at Hail (Ha’yel), had gone insane and
+committed suicide by stabbing himself with his own dagger four years
+after Palgrave’s visit.  He was succeeded by his brother Metaab, who,
+however, died suddenly after reigning three years; when a dispute arose
+between his brother Mohammed and Telal’s oldest son, Bender, about the
+succession.  Mohammed being away at the time, Bender, a youth of twenty,
+was proclaimed Emir.  Mohammed returned, and in a violent quarrel with
+his nephew drew his dagger and stabbed him to death.
+
+“Then Mohammed galloped back to the castle, and finding Hamûd (son of
+Obeyd, uncle of Telal) there, got his help and took possession of the
+palace.  He then seized the younger sons of Tellál (Palgrave’s Telal),
+Bender’s brothers, all but one child, Naïf, and Bedr, who was away from
+Hail, and had their heads cut off by his slaves in the court-yard of the
+castle.  They say, however, that Hamúd protested against this.  But
+Mohammed was reckless, or wished to strike terror, and not satisfied with
+what he had already done, went on destroying his relations.
+
+“He had some cousins, sons of Jabar, a younger brother of Abdallah and
+Obeyd; and these he sent for.  They came in some alarm to the castle,
+each with his slave.  They were all young men, beautiful to look at, and
+of the highest distinction; and their slaves had been brought up with
+them, as the custom is, more like brothers than servants.  They were
+shown into the kahwah of the castle, and received with great formality,
+Mohammed’s servants coming forward to invite them in.  It is the custom
+at Hail, whenever a person pays a visit, that before sitting down he
+should hang up his sword on one of the wooden pegs fixed into the wall,
+and this the sons of Jabar did, and their slaves likewise.  Then they sat
+down and waited and waited, but still no coffee was served to them.  At
+last Mohammed appeared, surrounded by his guard, but there was no ‘salaam
+aleykum,’ and instantly he gave orders that his cousins should be seized
+and bound.  They made a rush for their swords, but were intercepted by
+the slaves of the castle and made prisoners.  Mohammed then, with
+horrible barbarity, ordered their hands and their feet to be cut off, and
+the hands and feet of their slaves, and had them, still living, dragged
+out into the court-yard of the palace, where they lay till they died.
+
+“These ghastly crimes, more ghastly than ever in a country where wilful
+bloodshed is so unusual, seem to have struck terror far and wide, and no
+one has since dared to raise a hand against Mohammed.”
+
+The knowledge of these terrible doings naturally made the travellers feel
+that they were venturing into dangerous quarters as they rode up to the
+gates of Hail.  The Emir, whose title was Mohammed-ibn-Rashid (Mohammed,
+son of Rashid), however, received them kindly; and it was discovered
+that, apart from the bloody work of the succession, he had turned out to
+be not a bad ruler.  In any part of his dominions, it was understood that
+a person might travel unarmed, and with any amount of gold on him,
+without fear of molestation.  Moreover, he seemed to have been deeply
+stricken with remorse for his past misdeeds, lived in constant fear of
+assassination, and was endeavoring to make what amends he could by
+lavishing honors and kindness on the youth Naïf, the only one of his
+nephews he had spared—for Bedr, too, had been executed.
+
+It all reads much like a tale from the “Arabian Nights;” and that Arabia
+is still the land of romance and poetry is confirmed by a curious bit of
+news learned of Obeyd, about whom it will be remembered Mr. Palgrave had
+also a good deal to say.
+
+“He (Obeyd) lived to a great age, and died only nine years ago (_i.e._
+1869).  It is related of him that he left no property behind him, having
+given away everything during his lifetime—no property but his sword, his
+mare, and his young wife.  These he left to his nephew
+Mohammed-ibn-Rashid, the reigning Emir, with the request that his sword
+should remain undrawn, his mare unridden, and his wife unmarried forever
+after.”
+
+The travellers give an interesting account of the Emir’s horses, the most
+famous stud in Nejd.
+
+Though interested, they were, on the whole, disappointed with the horses
+of Nejd as compared with those of Northern Arabia.  “In comparing what we
+see here with what we saw last year in the north, the first thing that
+strikes us is that these are ponies, the others horses.  It is not so
+much the actual difference in height, though there must be quite three
+inches on an average, as the shape, which produces this impression.”
+
+The average height was found to be under fourteen hands; and though great
+care was taken to obtain and preserve pure strains of blood, in the
+matter of feeding and grooming, gross negligence seemed to be the rule,
+even in the royal stud.  The stables were mere open yards, in which the
+animals stood, each tethered to a manger.  No shelter was provided, but
+each horse was protected by a heavy rug.  They wore no headstalls, being
+fastened solely with ropes or chains about the fetlocks.  No regular
+exercise was given them, their food was almost exclusively dry barley,
+and their appearance generally was far different from what Europeans
+would naturally expect of the finest stable of horses in the “horse
+peninsula.”
+
+The travellers also enlighten us, on the subject of horses, in other
+directions.  Except in the north, horses were found to be exceedingly
+rare.  It is possible to travel vast distances without meeting a single
+horse, or even crossing a horse-track; on the whole journey across the
+Nefûd, and on to the Euphrates, they scarcely saw a horse, apart from the
+stables of the rich and great in the cities.  The horse is a luxury to be
+afforded only by people of wealth or position.  Journeys and raids and
+wars are all made on camels; the Sheykhs who have horses, when going to
+war save them to mount at the moment of actual engagement with the enemy.
+It was considered a great boast by a Nejd tribe of Bedouins that they
+could mount one hundred horsemen; while the Muteyr tribe, reputed to be
+the greatest breeders of thoroughbred stock in Central Arabia, would be
+expected to muster not more than four hundred mares.
+
+Mohammed-ibn-Rashid recruited his stables by compelling the Sheykhs of
+tributary tribes to sell him their best animals, an improvement on some
+of his predecessors, who kept their studs up to the proper mark becoming
+Arab royalty by making raids against the tribes for the purpose of
+bringing in celebrated mares, waiving the matter of payment.
+
+In the spring the horses of the Emir’s stables are distributed among the
+neighboring Bedouins to be pastured on the Nefûd, which at that period
+affords excellent grazing.  Had the visitors seen the herd after a month
+on the Nefûd, they would likely have carried away a much more favorable
+impression.  During the winter quartering the colts seemed to fare even
+worse than their dams and sires, from the following:
+
+“Besides the full-grown animals, Ibn Rashid’s yards contain thirty or
+forty foals and yearlings, beautiful little creatures, but terribly
+starved and miserable.  Foals bred in the desert are poor enough, but
+those in town have a positively sickly appearance.  Tied all day long by
+the foot, they seem to have quite lost heart, and show none of the
+playfulness of their age.  Their tameness, like that of the ‘fowl and the
+brute,’ is shocking to see.”
+
+The contrast between the actual treatment of these royal animals and the
+following Arab recipe for rearing a colt is sufficiently striking:
+
+“During the first month of his life let him be content with his mother’s
+milk; it will be sufficient for him.  Then, during five months, add to
+this natural supply goats’ milk, as much as he will drink.  For six
+months more give him the milk of camels, and besides a measure of wheat
+steeped in water for a quarter of an hour and served in a nose-bag.  At a
+year old the colt will have done with milk; he must be fed on wheat and
+grass, the wheat dry from a nose-bag, the grass green, if there is any.
+
+“At two years old he must work or he will be worthless.  Feed him now,
+like a full-grown horse, on barley; but in summer let him also have gruel
+daily at mid-day.  Make the gruel thus: Take a double-handful of flour
+and mix it in water well with your hands till the water seems like milk,
+then strain it, leaving the dregs of the flour, and give what is liquid
+to the colt to drink.
+
+“Be careful, from the hour he is born, to let him stand in the sun; shade
+hurts horses; but let him have water in plenty when the day is hot.  The
+colt must now be mounted and taken by his owner everywhere with him, so
+that he shall see everything and learn courage.  He must be kept
+constantly in exercise, and never remain long at his manger.  He should
+be taken on a journey, for the work will fortify his limbs.  At three
+years old he should be trained to gallop; then, if he be true blood, he
+will not be left behind.  Yalla!”
+
+Lady Blunt thinks this represents a traditional practice of rearing colts
+in Arabia since the days of the Prophet Mohammet.
+
+From Hail, the party joined the Haj, or caravan of Persian pilgrims,
+returning home from Mecca and Medina; and after eighty-four days’ travel
+from Damascus their Arabian journey came to an end at Bagdad.  Their
+route from Hail took them far north of Palgrave’s route, so that they did
+not visit Ri’ad, the headquarters, in Palgrave’s time, of the Wahabee
+ruler Feysul.  Lady Blunt, however, in an appendix to her narrative
+enlightens us in regard to the end of Feysul, and the continued decline
+of the Wahabee regime after the visit of Palgrave.
+
+Three years after Palgrave’s visit Feysul died, and the Wahabee state,
+which under him had regained much of its power and influence (which had
+been all but crushed by the Turks after the Crimean war) was again
+weakened by internal dissensions.  Feysul left two sons, Abdallah and
+Saoud, who quarrelled and put themselves at the head of their respective
+adherents.  Saoud proved himself the stronger party, and in 1871 Abdallah
+fled to Jebel Shammar and sought the aid of Midhat Pasha, Turkish
+governor at Bagdad.
+
+The result was that a Turkish expedition of 5,000 regular troops occupied
+the seaboard territory of Hasa, and took possession of Hofhoof (mentioned
+by Palgrave); whilst Abdallah and his adherents, and a third rival,
+Abdallah-ibn-Turki, attacked Saoud at Ri’ad.  Saoud was defeated, and
+Abdallah essayed to govern at Ri’ad; but in the following year he was
+again ejected by Saoud who reigned till 1874, when he died, not without
+suspicion of poison.
+
+Lady Blunt’s account of affairs at the Wahabee capital ends with the
+information that Abdallah and a half-brother, Abderrahman, were in joint
+and amicable control, Abdallah as Emir, the latter as his chief minister.
+Hasa and the seaboard was held by the Turks, whose policy was the
+stirring up of strife and feudal enmity among the Arabs, with a view to
+weakening the power and authority of the Emir at Ri’ad, and so making the
+country easy prey whenever opportunity arrives for its incorporation in
+the Ottoman dominions.  The power and fanaticism of the once powerful
+Wahabee Empire, has become but little more than a name and a remembrance
+among the Bedouin tribes, who once paid tribute to its Emirs; and
+whatever was national in thought and respectable in inspiration in
+Central Arabia seemed to be grouping itself around the new dynasty of the
+Emir of Jebel Shammar, Mohammed-ibn-Rashid of Hail.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+{59}  The inscription, which is copied in Lieutenant Wellsted’s work,
+appears to be in the Himyaritic character.  If any translation of it has
+ever been made, the compiler is unable to say where it can be found.
+
+{201}  “The Na’ib” was a Persian official, despatched by the Persian
+pilgrims to lay before Feysul, the ruler of Nedjed, a statement of the
+extortions to which they had been compelled to submit at Bereydah.  He
+was thus equally under Aboo-’Eysa’s charge, and his company was rather an
+advantage to Palgrave, since his mission was another cause of
+removing—or, at least, lessening—the prominence of the latter, after his
+arrival at Ri’ad.
+
+{279}  It is well to point out here that Palgrave and Lady Blunt spell
+the names of places quite differently, which makes it rather difficult at
+times to identify them as referring to places mutually visited.  Thus,
+Blunt’s “Hail” and Palgrave’s “Ha’yel” are one; as are also “Jôf” and
+“Djowf.”  Other differences are “Nejd,” “Nejed,” “Djebel Shomer,” “Jebel
+Shammer,” etc.
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS IN ARABIA***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 41960-0.txt or 41960-0.zip *******
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