cupy the peninsula of Sinai south of the
Jebel Tih; and are said to number between
five and six thousand. Sheikhs of the desert
always hover about Cairo in the travelling
season. Hassan, therefore, had no difficulty:
he engaged Sheikh Taima, who undertook
to provide twenty-one camels, with suffi-
cient attendants, to take us to Sinai, and
thence to Khan Nûkhl, - half-way between
Sinai and Hebron, beyond which he had
no power to take us. The contract is for
so much each camel, per diem, the men
being thrown into the bargain. Each Sheikh
is the patriarchal head of his family. Tai-
ma's family consisted of about eighty per-
sons, including sons and daughters, sons-in-
law and daughters-in-law, nephews, nieces,
grandchildren, &c. It is not always easy
to ascertain the numbers of a family. How
many children have you?' I asked of an Arab.
'Four, and two girls,' was the reply. Taima
was between fifty and sixty years of age,
simple, unsophisticated, faithful fellow, with
a good-natured countenance, always cheer-
ful, willing, and polite; full of solicitude for
our safety and comfort, occasionally keep
ing watch all night round our tents. He
was somewhat buckish, occasionally com-
ing out in a sheep-skin, and sandals roughly
made of the skin of a fish. He was a true
gentleman, and, no doubt, could boast a
pedigree beside which that of the Percys
is but of yesterday. His salaam was very
emphatic and graceful. His son Salama
accompanied him, a bright, laughing
boy of fifteen or sixteen, with haudsome
features, a clear olive complexion, brilliant
dark eyes, and a set of teeth that any
dentist's door might envy. Taima had
also an Abyssinian slave, named Abdallah,
intensely black, the blackness being pecu-
liarly lustrous, like velvet, or the bloom of
a damson. His mouth was prodigious, and
its tusky, disparted teeth unpleasantly sug-
gestive of those of an alligator, of which, as
he was in a perpetual grin, we had the full
benefit. He was, indeed, the merriest of
the party, although any of us might have
purchased him for £15 or £20. He was,
moreover, a very clever fellow; besides
being the best shot of the party, he was an
accomplished botanist, and generally well
informed.
The camels belonged to different mem-it good or find the thief; the Sheikh alone
bers of Taima's clan, and were accompa- is responsible for the members of his tribe.
nied by their owners,
ten genuine Be- Thus, an English traveller to whom Hassan
douins,
sons of the desert, scarcely civi- was dragoman the previous year, was rob-
lized; all, however, courteous, some of them bed of his revolver at Shiloh, by a fellow
handsome, and with a natural grace of fig- who, in the same place, hung about us for
ure and movement that would not have dis- some time. Complaint was made to the Pa-
credited the first gentleman in Europe.' sha Nablûs, who immediately paid the trav-

It was an unfailing interest, out of the re-
cesses of our tents, to watch their move-
ments as they sat around their camp-fire,
or stood and gesticulated in animated con-
versation.

The great weakness of the Arab is tobac-
co. We, generally, in the morning gave
them a supply for the day: they were just
like children, always on the look-out for
what we might give them, - thankful even
for a few crumbs of biscuit or fragments of
orange. The difficulty about the supply of
the Israelites in the desert is greatly dimin-
ished on seeing upon how little an Arab
and his camel can live.

Taima did not always maintain his authority. His men would sometimes struggle with him very irreverently. Hassan, too, would settle a dispute by seizing the first huge stick that he could lay hands upon, and thrashing away right and left, a Taima coming in for a full share of the blows. This, indeed, is so much a matter of course, that it is resented no more than a sharp word is with us. Happily we never had occasion to use our sticks, although it was repeatedly urged upon us as the only way of managing Arabs. May not this Oriental readiness to administer blows be the special reason of the Apostle's injunction, so strange and superfluous to our Western notions, that a bishop should be no striker'?

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The personal staff of Hassan consisted of a cook, a dreamy, introspective man, with eyes like half-opened oysters, but a capital artiste; and of two servants to attend upon us, Abishai, a Coptic Christian, who was graduating as a dragoman, and Ibrahim, who, Mahometan though he was, got to our canteen and made himself drunk, stole a pair of boots, and had to be ignominiously dismissed at Jerusalem.

We were thus wholly free from responsibility. Hassan was primarily responsible for both our lives and our property. If he failed in any part of his contract, he might be taken before the first pasha we reached: Taima was responsible to him; and through Taima, his whole tribe. If, through them, harm happened to any of us, he would be seized and imprisoned the first town he entered. If any article were lost, he must make

1

eller the estimated value of his pistol, arrest-justed outside the door of each tent. We ed the Sheikh of the village, and imprisoned were astonished to find our table laid with him, until a fine which he levied upon the home neatness and comfort, - a white tableinhabitants was paid. It was for the Sheikh cloth and napkins, always scrupulously to discover and punish the individual of clean; glass, plate, salts, &c. The dinner fender. This is no doubt a rough kind of generally consisted of five courses, viz., justice, but it is the only justice possible soup, mutton, fowls - on Sundays, turkey among the Bedouins. It has the merit of fritters or puddings, mishmash or prunes, being very simple and very effective. In cheese, with a dessert of dried fruits, oranmost parts of the desert a traveller is as safe ges, and preserves; the liquid accompanifrom personal injury, and much more safe ment being bitter beer, sherry, and, when it in his property, than in Cheapside. So far was necessary to neutralize the active qualias we had experience of the Towâra Arabs, ties of doubtful water, cognac. A fragrant they are scrupulously honest. If any tri- cup of café noir, and, about an hour after, a fling article was dropped or left behind in delicious cup of tea provision for which the tents, it was invariably brought to us, should always be made in England - followgenerally before we had missed it. It is said, ed by a tchibouk, crowned the whole. Inthat if a camel laden with goods should fall deed, Hassan's care and experience omitted in the desert, its owner may draw a circle nothing. The only defect of our cuisine round it, and leave it in perfect security, was its necessary monotony, mutton and even for days, while he fetches another. fowls alternating with fowls and mutton. On the whole, the fare of the desert was not to be complained of — it was far in advance of manna and quails.

For the sake of such as may be curious about tent life in the desert, I may say that it is very enjoyable. An hour's rest for lunch, in the middle of the day, enabled the camels to reach the camping-ground before us, so that we commonly found our canvas city built. This consisted of two large tents for ourselves, and a third for Hassan and the servants. Culinary rites were performed in the open air by the side of the latter, at a portable stove sheltered from the wind, if there was any, by a bit of canvas. Three or four fowls-on Sundays a turkey were generally being prepared for sacrifice when we arrived. The camels were permitted, for awhile, to roam in search of the prickly ghurkud. At dark they were picketed close by; their drivers sleeping between their legs. Our chief inconvenience arose from their inconceivable and incessant chattering, sometimes squabbling, which was often prolonged far into the night; and from the guttural grumbling of the camels. Of our twenty-one camels- our party being large twelve or thirteen were baggage camels, carrying, besides our portmanteaus, almost all conceivable things; coops of live poultry, casks of water, butchers' meat always mutton; Travellers to Sinai commonly cross in cooking necessaries, crockery, glasses, &c., -ingeni- boats from Suez to the Ayûn Mousa,' a ously packed in two large canteen chests; distance of six or seven miles; the camels tents, bedsteads and bedding, camp-stools, being sent round by the head of the gulf. and mental wash-basins all spontaneously We determined to accompany our camels, provided by Hassan. Nothing was want- that we might get a better conception of the ing. Our tents were comfortably carpet- formation of the gulf: this was a day's jour ed; small iron bedsteads, with new bed-ney of about seven hours. We left our hotel, ding, three in each tent, were, with our however, on the preceding evening, that portmanteaus, arranged around the sides. we might inaugurate the tent life of the One table for dinner was adjusted against next sixty days by an experimental enthe tent-pole; another for washing was ad- campment a mile or two in the desert. It

Reading, journal-writing, or flower-pressing occupied us until about ten o'clock, and then to bed; taking care to tuck in warmly, for nights in the desert are cold, often intensely so. By five in the morning we are shivering at our tent-door, under an al fresco sponge, making the most of a regulation supply of water. Then breakfast - coffee or tea, with three or four hot dishes of some kind or other, eggs, and jam or marmalade; by seven, or half-past, our city of the desert has disappeared, and we are patiently doing our two and a half miles an hour. About twelve o'clock we lunch, either upon the burning sand under our umbrellas, or, if we can find one, under the shadow of a great rock;'-cold meat, hard-boiled eggs, bread, biscuit and cheese, an orange each, and a few dates or figs; water limited, and often doubtful, -a curious leathery concoction, out of a kind of leathern boot, called a 'zemzemia,' generally, therefore, adulterated with a little brandy: only a desert traveller can appreciate the blessing of pure water.

its

was a new and a strange sensation, when the stupidity rather than of sagacity, early sunset permitted the night rapidly pyramidal lip either hangs down in sullenand silently to gather round us, and when ness or is uplifted in menacing anger; the the silvery light of the young moon had ignoble dissatisfied motion of its ungainly dimly lit up the solitary scene, and when, head, its unintelligent melancholy face, the after infinite bustle and chattering on the dull obstinacy of its disposition, deprive it part of the Arabs, our tent lights were ex- of all claims to be a favourite among dotinguished. So truly and utterly was it mesticated animals. It is, among them, a desert; Suez might have been a hundred dull plodding slave. The interest that we miles away. Our sense of solitude was Occidentals feel in it is that which as postdisturbed only by another encampment of diluvians we feel in a megatherium: it is travellers at a short distance from us. I the type of another world than ours, - the walked a little way from the tents. The world of the sun, of primeval antiquity, of Jebel 'Atakah was dimly seen in the dis- romance. It has but little of the patience tance; the undulating waves of the desert ordinarily attributed to it. It is stupid rolled away on every side. In this sky the rather than patient. It manifests no apfiery pillar shone - these sands reflected it preciation of kindness; it has no home atthese mountains were lit up by it. Over fections; it is dissatisfied, cantankerous, rethis ground the terrified Israelites crowded pulsive. Its only manifestations of sagacity onwards, as they discovered the pursuing are discontent when it is loaded, and obstiEgyptians in the distance. Over this nate refusal to go further when it thinks it ground the vengeful chariots and horsemen has gone far enough. As compared with of Pharaoh eagerly rushed, until arrested by the mysterious pillar of cloud. Now these look like common spots and things: they give no sign, they bear no impress of the stupendous miracle; and yet they, saw it. One feels as if one fain would question them, or find some memorial inscribed upon them; but they are silent as the sphinx, barren as the commonest part of the earth's surface. The night was intensely cold, although we lunched the next day with the thermometer at 110° under the shade of our umbrellas; even when all our wraps were utilized, we could scarcely obtain adequate warmth. Our Arabs slept comfortably enough among the legs of their camels; neither the drenching dew nor the piercing cold, apparently, affecting these children of the sun. The novelty of our circumstances, and the excitement of so many strange thoughts, rendered sleep impossible.

Our experience of camel-riding was new, and I dare say we were awkward enough. It is very monotonous, but otherwise not very disagreeable; the slow swinging motion being soothing rather than otherwise: relief is obtained by the various postures possible to the rider, who may sit in every conceivable way upon the platform which his wraps make, upon the singular frame of a camel's saddle; progress is very slow, averaging two and a half miles an hour.

I am not enamoured of the camel. It is doubtless one of the most useful of animals; but it is one of the most uninteresting and repulsive, its odour is not pleasant,-it does not keep clean teeth, -its lustreless eye and heavy eyelid are expressive of

the quick sensibilities, the intelligent attachment, and the agile beauty of the horse, it is not to be named, even in the estimation of the Arab. It is the pariah of the brute world fit only to carry burdens and eat ghurkud, and to pace the arid desert at the speed of two and a half miles an hour.

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At length we were fairly started, and soon reached the banks of the ancient canal, upon one of which we had to travel northwards for a mile or two, in order to find a passage across the salt marsh which they inclosed. Salt is collected here in considerable quantities. We then crossed the imaginary line which divides Europe from Asia, with the feeling that we had left behind us all the Christianity of the West; a civilization too that was older than Greece, or Rome, or Nineveh; and that we were now in the early footsteps of a dispensation that preceded Christ. Then, turning southwards, we fell into one of the great highways of the desert- - the caravan route from Cairo to Tûr, marked by from twenty to twenty-five parallel camel tracks, stretching away, like the lines of a railway, over the undulating desert, when not obliterated by sand-storms. Even were there no such tracks, bleached skeletons of camels occur often enough to suffice for waymarks. We observed here some fine eflects of mirage, Suez suddenly assumed the appearance of a vast fortified town, with castellated walls and frowning bastions, having ships in its harbours and roads. Frequently, in after days, like fantastic tricks were played with our deluded vision; blue lakes and shady groves were its most frequent illusions. We began, after a while, to realize the weary

shone with a brilliancy of which, before visiting the East, we had scarcely conceived.

monotony of an ever-receding horizon, disappointing our hope of our resting-place, or of some shadow of a great rock' that might For two days we traversed the desert of be a brief protection from the vertical tor- Shur, - the border strip between the mounrent of the sun's fierce rays: but the crown tains and the sea. Passing Ain Howârah of one swelling eminence only brought into and the Wâdy Ghurundel - the Marah and view another; it was unchanging, continu- Elim of the Exodus- on the third day we ous, endless desert, more vividly impressive, entered the highland district of Sinai by a more physically distressing, than on any narrow gorge formed by spurs from the subsequent day. At length we saw a dis- Jebel Rahah meeting the Jebei Hummâm. tant speck of verdure, and after a little Turning suddenly to the right, we descendwhile joyfully encamped near the Ayûn ed the valley Tayibeh, or 'the bewildering,' Mousa the Rosherville of Suez. There, to the sea. This is a perfect labyrinth of about two miles from the sea, are nine grotesque and towering mountain forms brackish fountains, most of them mere holes gloomy, desolate, and magnificent, as if in the sand; one, however, is a regularly scorched and twisted in some great confiabuilt fountain of ancient masonry. The gration, which had left upon them the Arab tradition is, that the Israelites here marks of its blended smoke and flame; wonwanting water, Moses furnished them with derful amphitheatres, terraces, pyramids, a supply by striking the ground with his fortifications, castles, columns, quarries, inrod. These wells give life to a little bit of deed almost every conceivable form and the barren waste, which breaks out in a few freak of nature, presented themselves in palm, and pomegranate, and tamarisk trees, most rapid succession, each at the moment with an undergrowth of shrubs, and vege- photographing itself upon the memory, -a tables, and flowers. The bud of a monthly picture to be distinctly reproduced, when, rose was offered me as the choicest produc- even in old age, these glorious days of travtion of the gardens; it had a pleasant as-el are recalled; and yet so intruding upon sociation of home. The whole is contained and effacing each other, that they leave but in two or three enclosures or gardens, in a confused recollection of a grand pageant which are rude huts for their keepers. Hither picnic parties come from Suez and Cairo. His Excellency Sir Henry Bulwer had been there but two or three days before.

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We we were now beyond all donbt on the track of the Israelites. Here, probably, where the shore forms a gentle bay, the desert sons of Ishmael were startled by the strange advent of the descendants of Isaac, and by their exultant song of triumph awakening echoes never awakened before - even those that slumbered in the distant sides of Er-Râhah. Here, probably, for days and weeks, strange spoil would be gathered upon the shell-strewn shore. Near the Ayun Mousa we kept our first desert Sabbath, a grateful rest, and a tent service, in which, while our friends at home were gathering around the Lord's table, we held holy communion with them. We sang the hymn, Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah,' then strolled along the beach and sat upon the rocks for an hour or two, quietly musing amid these scenes of strange experience and wondrous association. Again the almost sudden darkness fell. It was the Sabbath evening; and, in the translucent atmosphere, the moon and stars seemed to hang down like lamps from the lofty roof of God's great temple; clearly defined as if seen through a telescope, they

of nature. Beneath our feet, ploughed up into channels, heaved into sandbanks, and strewn with huge boulders, bearing everywhere the marks of terrific winter torrents, was a glittering surface of whitish mud baked by the sun, so as to be impervious to the foot of the camel; and reflecting a glare and a heat that were almost intolerable, even when our eyes were protected by coloured spectacles, and we were elevated upon the backs of our camels. Above our heads was a cloudless translucent sky of the deepest purest blue, as the body of heaven in its clearness.'

6

At the foot of this pass is the encampment by the sea' where, the provisions brought from Egypt being exhausted, manna and quails were first given to the Israelites.

Then across the rocky headland of Zalimah and the plain of Mûrkah, until we reenter the mountains by the rocky gorge of the Wâdy Shellâl,' the valley of cataracts;' which after two hours terminates in a fine amphitheatre, over the ridge of which— the Nûkb-el-Bûdrah,' the pass of the sword's point' the path lies. A rugged camel track made by Major Macdonald makes somewhat easier, what, for thirty centuries, must have been an arduous scramble up a precipitous bank of débris.

We felt the greatest difficulty in conceiv