over the safety of pious mariners in a cave among the neighbouring rocks, and sipping his coffee, which is brought in a raw state from Meccah by green birds, and prepared in the usual way by the hands of ministering angels.  He showed us the spot where the terrible king of Egypt, when close upon the heels of the children of Israel, was whelmed in the “hell of waters,[FN#19]” and he warned us that next day our way would be through breakers, and reefs, and dangerous currents, over whose troubled depths, since that awful day, the Ifrit of the storm has never ceased to flap his sable wing.  The wincing of the hearers proved that the shaft of the old man’s words was sharp; but as night was advancing, we unrolled our rugs, and fell asleep upon the sand, all of us happy, for we had fed and drunk, and

[p.200]-the homo sapiens is a hopeful animal-we made sure that on the morrow the Ifrit would be merciful, and allow us to eat fresh dates at the harbour of Tur.

Fair visions of dates doomed to the Limbo of things which should have been!  The grey dawn (8th July) looked down upon us in difficulties.  The water is deep near this coast; we had anchored at high tide close to the shore, and the ebb had left us high and dry.  When this fact became apparent, a storm was upon the point of breaking.  The Maghrabis, but for our interference, would have bastinadoed the Rais, who, they said with some reason, ought to have known better.  When this phase of feeling passed away, they applied themselves to physical efforts.  All except the women and children, who stood on the shore encouraging their relatives with shrill quaverings, threw themselves into the water; some pushed, others applied their shoulders to the vessel’s side, and all used their lungs with might and main.  But the “Golden Wire” was firmly fixed, and their exertions were too irregular.  Muscular force failed, upon which they changed their tactics.  At the suggestion of their “Maula,” they prepared to burn incense in honour of the Shaykh Abu Zulaymah.  The material not being forthcoming, they used coffee, which perhaps accounts for the shortcomings of that holy man.  After this the Rais remembered that their previous exertions had not begun under the auspices of the Fatihah.  Therefore they prayed, and then reapplied themselves to work.  Still they failed.  Finally, each man called aloud upon his own particular saint or spiritual guide, and rushed forward as if he alone sufficed for the exploit.  Shaykh Hamid unwisely quoted the name, and begged the assistance, of his great ancestor, the “Clarified-Butter-Seller”; the obdurate “Golden Wire” was not moved, and Hamid retired in momentary confusion.

It was now about nine A.M., and the water had risen