[p.280] as the Stars of Heaven, and the Waves of the Sea, and the Sands of the Waste-bless him, O Lord of Might and Majesty, as long as the Corn-field and the Date-grove continue to feed Mankind[FN#22]!” And again, “Live for ever, O Most Excellent of Prophets!-live in the Shadow of Happiness during the Hours of Night and the Times of Day, whilst the Bird of the Tamarisk (the dove) moaneth like the childless Mother, whilst the West-wind bloweth gently over the Hills of Nijd, and the Lightning flasheth bright in the Firmament of Al-Hijaz!”

Such were the poetical exclamations that rose all around me, showing how deeply tinged with imagination becomes the language of the Arab under the influence of strong passion or religious enthusiasm.  I now understood the full value of a phrase in the Moslem ritual, “And when his” (the pilgrim’s) “eyes shall fall upon the Trees of Al-Madinah, let him raise his Voice and bless the Apostle with the choicest of Blessings.”  In al[l] the fair view before us nothing was more striking, after the desolation through which we had passed, than the gardens and orchards about the town.  It was impossible not to enter into the spirit of my companions, and truly I believe that for some minutes my enthusiasm rose as high as theirs.  But presently when we remounted,[FN#23] the traveller returned strong upon me:  I made a rough sketch of the town, put questions about the principal buildings, and in fact collected materials for the next chapter.

[p.281] The distance traversed that night was about twenty-two miles in a direction varying from easterly to north-easterly.  We reached Al-Madinah on the 25th July, thus taking nearly eight days to travel over little more than 130 miles.  This journey is performed with camels in four days, and a good dromedary will do it without difficulty in half that time.[FN#24]

[FN#1] The natives of Al-Hijaz assured me that in their Allah-favoured land, the Samum never kills a man.  I “doubt the fact.”  This Arnaut’s body was swollen and decomposing rapidly, the true diagnostic of death by the poison-wind. (See Ibn Batuta’s voyage, “Kabul.”) However, as troopers drink hard, the Arabs may still be right, the Samum doing half the work, arrack the rest.  I travelled during the months of July, August, and September, and yet never found myself inconvenienced by the “poison-wind” sufficiently to make me tie my Kufiyah, Badawi-fashion, across my mouth.  At the same time I can believe that to an invalid it would be trying, and that a man almost worn out by hunger and fatigue would receive from it a coup de grace.  Niebuhr attributes the extraordinary mortality of his companions, amongst other causes, to a want of stimulants.  Though these might doubtless be useful in the cold weather, or in the mountains of Al-Yaman, for men habituated to them from early youth, yet nothing, I believe, would be more fatal than strong drink when travelling through the Desert in summer heat.  The common beverage should be water or