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shepherds and half cultivators, pitched in a hollow between two closing eminences, with an opening to the eastward, where we determined on halting for the night.*

us.

Riding up to the back of these tents, and passing through them, we were received in the most friendly manner by the oldest man of the party, our horses were taken from us by one of the young lads, who took as much care of them as if they had belonged to their own parents, and we found a hearty welcome in the tent of the sheikh, in which all the rest were soon assembled to greet While the flocks were driving in, after sunset, I noticed among them some fine fat sheep, resembling the African breed that I had seen at Mokha, where they are brought across from Zeyla, near the entrance of the Red Sea. They had the same short, fat, broad tail, with a little excrescence at its extremity about an inch long, like a short pig's tail, growing out of the larger one above it. They differed from the African sheep in this particular, that while the Zeyla breed were covered with hair, these of Belkah had a thick coat of wool. Both, however, had the head and neck invariably of a different colour from the body itself, the latter being quite white, while the former were either black or brown. One of the lambs of this breed was killed for our supper; and though it could not have been improved for an European palate by the mess of sour milk and corn with which it was stewed, yet it furnished an acceptable meal, of which we all heartily partook.

The conversation of the evening turned on the motives of our journey, as well as the events of the road, and the place of our destination; to which I listened attentively, though I was disposed, for strong reasons, to take as little part as possible in the discussions to which they gave rise. As there were many evils to be apprehended from a detection of my being a European, and as there would be a great risk of this in a long interview with Arabs, had I assumed to be one of their countrymen, my cautious guide, Abu Fă

* See the Vignette at the head of this Chapter.

rah, represented me as a Turk going from Accha or Acre to Karak, to see a relation there, but wearing the Bedouin dress, as better adapted to long journeys than the Turkish, and equally proper with the other for all true Mohammedans. From my previous excursions in Egypt, and during my subsequent experience in Syria, I had surmounted the chief difficulties in the way of travelling as a native of these parts, in having acquired the language sufficiently well for all ordinary purposes; and a practical ease and correctness in conforming to the manners, the attitudes, and the way of feeding common to all, which last is certainly the most inveterate of all obstacles to an Englishman; but my beard was yet short, and the parts of my body usually covered with clothes, but now exposed to the sun, were whiter than those of the people among whom I journeyed; my eyes had not that fiery blackness of the genuine Arab; and, indeed, the whole cast of my countenance and complexion was more like that of a Moor from Barbary, or a Turk from Asia Minor, (of which there are many that could not be distinguished from Europeans except by their dress only,) than a son of the Desert. Accordingly, whenever we halted among Arabs, there never failed to be some questions put, arising from these differences of appearance. Those who had seen me at Assalt, and who remembered Mr. Burckhardt's person, conceived, from that common resemblance which persons of nearly the same stature, with the difference of the hair, eyes, and complexion, which distinguish the European from the Asiatic race, bear to each other, that we must have been brothers; and here the Arabs of the party received without scruple the assertion of Abu Farah, as to my being a Turk, since they had seen many Turks of the same colour, features, and general appearance as myself; while all approved the judicious measure of travelling in a Bedouin dress on a journey of this nature.

"Yes."

I was asked whether I had seen Jerash? I replied, "And Amman ?" continued my host. I answered, that they were both in our road. "Ah!" said the sheikh, "these were both

princely cities once; but as the times are always growing worse, so these have come to nothing at last; as indeed was prophesied concerning them of old." I asked him when and where their destruction was foretold? He replied, "These, O Abdallah, (that being the name by which my guide always addressed me,) were both the works of Solomon, the son of David the Prophet, who lived at El-Khoddes, the Holy (the Arab name of Jerusalem). One day, (he continued,) when Solomon, the son of David, paid a visit to the prince of Amman, the king of Jerash was also present: and as they ascended together the steps of the great palace (meaning the benches of the theatre at Amman), to the summer seat of the sovereign of that city, Solomon, the son of David, exclaimed, 'O! Princes! our empires are on the decline; our cities must soon decay, and our realms be deserted and depopulated.' They expressed a hope that, under the blessing of God, that period was still far distant; when the King replied, Be not deceived, the sign of destruction already approaches, for, behold! even oil hath risen to the price of three paras a skin!" I had listened with all becoming attention to this pompous tale, and had great difficulty in commanding my countenance at the close of it; but remembering that there are many men even among the most learned of our own country, who really believe mankind to be degenerating with each succeeding age, though they might adduce graver reasons to support their opinions, I did not attempt to combat a position which might be so easily illustrated on the spot, by a mere comparison of the splendid cities of which they spoke, with the miserable habitations of those who now possess the same country.

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After this conversation, some of the party ventured on corresponding calculations. "If oil were then at such a low price (about two-pence for a hundred pounds weight), how little labour," said one," must have been sufficient to obtain a good living; and how fat men might get even upon slender gains." Stories were told by others of the Spanish dollar (Aboo Tope), of the pillared pat

tern*, passing in the days of Moses, and among the Jews in Egypt in the time of Pharaoh (a slight anachronism it must be admitted), for half a piastre of Turkey; and various causes were assigned for its having gradually risen from that time onward to its present exorbitant value (as they considered it) of six piastres and a half; at which rate, they calculated, that it would rise to be twenty piastres at least before the world came to an end.

We continued up until a late hour; and I was much amused, as indeed I have always been in parties of this kind, by the earnestness of conviction with which the most extravagant stories were related, and the easy credulity with which they were received. I had also occasion to regret the impossibility of remembering and noting much that passed respecting the positions and names of places, which are far more difficult to retain in the memory than a connected story; and though more desirable to possess, from their utility to geography, become, if numerous, so confounded together, as to be soon forgotten altogether.

* Aboo Tope, literally the Father of the Cannon,—the pillars of the dollar being considered by the Arabs to represent two great guns.

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FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, AND RETURN TO ASSALT.

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FRIDAY, March 2. We left the camp at daylight, while the ground was covered with a thick hoar frost, and although we put ourselves at once into brisk exercise I suffered much from the cold. As we advanced to the southward the soil became more mixed with clay, and the face of the country more unequal and broken by greater elevations and depressions than it had hitherto been; silicious stones became also more abundant, though there was still a green turf covering the surface of the earth.

In about an hour after we set out, we passed a ruined town called El Hherry, of the general size and character of those already described; and in two hours more, after going over steep but low hills, gradually becoming more and more stony and barren, we came

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