When the hubbub had subsided, and all sat after supper smoking the pipe of peace in the cool night air, I rejoined my companions, and found them talking, as usual, about old Shaykh Sa’ad.  The scene was appropriate for the subject.  In the distance rose the blue peak said to be his eyrie, and the place was pointed out with fearful meaning.  As it is inaccessible to strangers, report has converted it into another garden of Iram.  A glance, however, at its position and formation satisfied me that the bubbling springs, the deep forests, and the orchards of apple-trees, quinces and pomegranates, with which my companions furnished it, were a “myth,” whilst some experience of Arab ignorance of the art of defence suggested to me strong doubts about the existence of an impregnable fortress on the hill-top.  The mountains, however, looked beautiful in the moonlight, and distance gave them a semblance of mystery well suited to the themes which they inspired.

That night I slept within my Shugduf, for it would have been mere madness to sleep on the open plain in a place so infested by banditti.  The being armed is but a poor precaution near this robbers’ den.  If you wound a man in the very act of plundering, an exorbitant sum must be paid for blood-money.  If you kill him, even to save your life, then adieu to any chance of escaping destruction.  Roused three or four times during the night by jackals and dogs prowling about our little camp, I observed that my companions, who had agreed amongst themselves to keep watch by turns, had all

[p.271] fallen into a sound sleep.  However, when we awoke in the morning, the usual inspection of goods and chattels showed that nothing was gone.

The next day (July 23rd) was a forced halt, a sore stimulant to the traveller’s ill-humour; and the sun, the sand, the dust, the furious Samum, and the want of certain small supplies, aggravated our grievance.  My sore foot had been inflamed by a dressing of onion skin which the lady Maryam had insisted upon applying to it.[FN#7] Still being resolved to push forward by any conveyance that could be procured, I offered ten dollars for a fresh dromedary to take me on to Al- Madinah.  Shaykh Hamid also declared he would leave his box in charge of a friend and accompany me.  Sa’ad the Demon flew into a passion at the idea of any member of the party escaping the general evil; and he privily threatened Mohammed to cut off the legs of any camel that ventured into camp.  This, the boy-who, like a boy of the world as he was, never lost an opportunity of making mischief-instantly communicated to me, and it brought on a furious dispute.  Sa’ad was reproved and apologised for by the rest of the party; and presently he himself was pacified, principally, I believe, by the intelligence that no camel was to be hired at Bir Abbas.  One of the Arnaut garrison, who had obtained leave to go to Al-Madinah, came to ask us if we could mount him, as otherwise he should be obliged to walk the whole way.  With him we debated the propriety of attempting a passage through the hills by one of the many by-paths that traverse them:  the project was amply discussed, and duly rejected.