“like giants stand To sentinel enchanted land.”

The strip of coarse quartz and sandstone gravel is obviously the offspring of some mountain torrent; it stretches southwards, being probably disposed in that direction by the currents of the sea as they receive the deposit.  The distance of the “Hammam Bluffs” prevented my visiting them, which circumstance I regretted the less as they have been described by pens equal to the task.

That evening we enjoyed ourselves upon clean sand, whose surface, drifted by the wind into small yellow waves, was easily converted by a little digging and heaping up, into the coolest and most comfortable of couches.  Indeed, after the canescent heat of the day, and the tossing of our ill-conditioned vessel, we should have been contented with lodgings far less luxurious.  Fuel was readily collected, and while some bathed, others

[p.198] erected a hearth-three large stones and a hole open to leeward-lit the fire and put the pot on to boil.  Shaykh Nur had fortunately a line; we had been successful in fishing; a little rice also had been bought; with this boiled, and rock-cod broiled upon the charcoal, we made a dinner that caused every one to forget the sore grievance of “Mare’s skin” and stone-hard biscuit.  A few Maghrabis had ventured on shore, the Rais having terrified the others by threatening them with those “bogies,” the Badawin-and they offered us Kuskusu[FN#15] in exchange for fish.  As evening fell, we determined, before sleeping, to work upon their “morale” as effectually as we had attacked their physique.  Shaykh Hamid stood up and indulged them with the Azan, or call to prayers, pronounced after the fashion of Al-Madinah.[FN#16] They performed their devotions in lines ranged behind us as a token of respect, and when worship was over we were questioned about the Holy City till we grew tired of answering.  Again our heads and shoulders, our hands and knees,[FN#17] were kissed, but this time in devotion, not in penitence.  My companions could scarcely understand half the rugged words which the Maghrabis used,[FN#18] as their dialect was fresh from the

[p.199] distant Desert.  Still we succeeded in making ourselves intelligible to them, vaunting our dignity as the Sons of the Prophet, and the sanctity of our land which should protect its children from every description of fraud and violence.  We benignantly promised to be their guides at Al-Madinah, and the boy Mohammed would conduct their devotions at Meccah, always provided that they repented their past misdeeds, avoided any repetition of the same, and promised to perform the duties of good and faithful pilgrims.  Presently the Rais joined our party, and the usual story-telling began.  The old man knew the name of each hill, and had a legend for every nook and corner in sight.  He dwelt at length upon the life of Abu Zulaymah, the patron saint of these seas, whose little tomb stands at no great distance from our bivouac place, and told us how he sits watching