Almost all the articles of food were so far useful, that they served every one of the party at least as much as they did their owner.  My friends drank my coffee, smoked my tobacco, and ate my rice.  I bought better tea at Meccah than at Cairo, and found as good sugar there.  It would have been wiser to lay in a small stock merely for the voyage to Yambu’, in which case there might have been more economy.  But I followed the advice of those interested in setting me wrong.  Turks and Egyptians always go pilgrimaging with a large outfit, as notably as the East-Indian cadet of the present day, and your outfitter at Cairo, as well as Cornhill, is sure to supply you with a variety of superfluities.  The tent was useful to me; so were the water-skins, which I preferred to barrels, as being more portable, and less liable to leak.  Good skins cost about a dollar each; they should be bought new and always kept half full of water. [FN#15] This shape secures the lid, which otherwise, on account of the weight of the box, would infallibly be torn off, or burst open.  Like the Kafas, the Sahharah should be well padlocked, and if the owner be a saving man, he does not entrust his keys to a servant.  I gave away my Kafas at Yambu’, because it had been crushed during the sea-voyage, and I was obliged to leave the Sahharah at Al-Madinah, as my Badawi camel-shaykh positively refused to carry it to Meccah, so that both these articles were well nigh useless to me.  The Kafas cost four shillings, and the Sahharah about twelve.  When these large boxes are really strong and good, they are worth about a pound sterling each. [FN#16] At my final interview with the committee of the Royal Geographical Society, one member, Sir Woodbine Parish, advised an order to be made out on the Society’s bankers; another, Sir Roderick Murchison, kindly offered to give me one on his own, Coutts & Co.; but I, having more experience in Oriental travelling, begged only to be furnished with a diminutive piece of paper, permitting me to draw upon the Society.  It was at once given by Dr. Shaw, the Secretary, and it proved of much use eventually.  It was purposely made as small as possible, in order to fit into a talisman case.  But the traveller must bear in mind, that if his letters of credit be addressed to Orientals, the sheet of paper should always be large, and grand-looking.  These people have no faith in notes,-commercial, epistolary, or diplomatic. [FN#17] Before leaving Cairo, I bought English sovereigns for 112, and sold them in Arabia for 122 piastres.  “Abu Takahs,” (pataks, or Spanish pillar-dollars), as they are called in Al-Hijaz, cost me 24 piastres, and in the Holy City were worth 28.  The “Sinku” (French five franc piece) is bought for 22 piastres in Egypt, and sells at 24 in Arabia.  The silver Majidi costs 20 at Cairo, and is worth 22 in the Red Sea, and finally I gained 3 piastres upon the gold “Ghazi” of 19.  Such was the rate of exchange in 1853.  It varies, however, perpetually, and in 1863 may be