1 24
2 but I do not know what kind it was. The next day I cooked
3 it with my rice, for my camel driver put it into my pot without
4 my knowledge.
5 To deceive the women, we told them that we were coming
6 from Bagdad and going to Damascus, and after having pro-
7 vided ourselves with water, we retraced our steps, but only
8 to make them believe so ; for we had hardly got out of
9 their sight, when we struck into an opposite direction, and
10 marched the whole night, for fear of being overtaken by their
11 husbands. On the eleventh day, we arrived at Quoise, a
12 village where we rested for one day, waiting for the escort from
13 Hit, which was to bring us to the banks of the Euphrates. On
14 the journey, I was told how the Arabs of the desert heal their
15 wounds. They make a hole in the ground, in the form of a
16 grave, which they heat with fire, the patient is placed therein,
17 and covered, and he remains there until he is either cured or
18 dies, a matter which takes but a very short time to decide. In
19 the case of death, they have only to fill up the grave with earth ;
20 while, if the patient recover, he has to mount his camel and meet
21 the enemy. Their wounds are either spear-thrusts, or sword-cuts,
22 as they very seldom use guns in the desert.
23 The caution with which the camel-drivers carried us through
24 the desert is not to be described. On the third or fourth
25 day, on our arrival at the wells, in order to give water to
26 the camels, and to fill our leather-bags, the most sharp-sighted
27 among them placed himself on an elevation, to ascertain whether
28 there were any men discernible in the distance. If they found
29 embers or ashes, they examined the place strictly. The excrement
30 of the camels also underwent a scrutiny as to whether it was new
31 or old, which way the animals passed, &c. We were brought
32 from the banks of the Euphrates into Hit, as they told us that
33 the place we were in was not perfectly secure. The governor
34 ordered us to appear before him, and he demanded a certain sum
35 from the two Armenians, our fellow travellers, but not from us
36 nor the pilgrims, as we were provided with a letter of recom-
37 mendation from the Pasha of Damascus to Dohud Fasha of