from Ramah to Jerusalem; where, exclusive of three or four hundred spahees, four bands of Turkish infantry, with the mosolom, or general, at the head of them, were not able, or durst not at least, protect us from the repeated insults, ravages, and barbarities of the Arabs. There was

scarce a pilgrim, and we were upwards of six thousand, who did not suffer, either by losing a part of his clothes, or his money; and when these failed, then the barbarians took their revenge, by unmercifully beating us with their pikes and javelins. It would be too tedious to relate the many instances of that day's rapine and cruelty, in which I myself had a principal share, being forcibly taken at Jeremiel or Anathoth, as an hostage for the payment of their unreasonable demands, where I was very barbarously used and insulted all that night; and provided the aga of Jerusalem, with a great force, had not rescued me the next morning, I should not have seen so speedy an end of my sufferings.

But in Barbary, where the Arabian tribes are more under subjection, I rarely was guarded by more than three spahees and a servant; all of us well armed with guns, pistols, and scimitars ; though even here we were sometimes obliged to augment our numbers, particularly when we travelled either among the independent tribes, or upon the frontiers of the neighbouring kingdoms, or where two contiguous clans were at variance. These, and such like harammees, as the free-booters are usually named in these countries,

VOL. I.

C

must

must be what the Europeans call wild Arabs; for there is no such name peculiar to any one particular clan or body of them, they being all the same, with the like inclinations (whenever a proper opportunity or temptation offers itself) of robbing, stripping, and murdering, not strangers only, but also one another. In proof of this, I need only mention the many heaps of stones that we meet with in several places in Barbary, in the Holy Land, and in Arabia, which have been gradually erected (as so many signs, Ezek. xxxix. 15.) over travellers thus barbarously murdered; the Arabs, according to a superstitious custom among them, contributing each of them a stone whenever they pass by them. We read of something like this, Josh. vii. 26. and viii. 29. and 2 Sam. xviii. 17. where great heaps of stones are said to be raised over Achan, over the king of Ai, and over Absalom.

However, to prevent as much as possible the falling into the hands of these harammees, the greatest safety for a traveller is to be disguised in the habit of the country, or to be dressed like one of his spahees. For the Arabs are very jealous and inquisitive, suspecting all strangers to be spies, and sent to take a survey of those lands, which, at one time or other (as they have been taught to fear, vol. i. p. 443.) are to be restored to the Christians.

In our journies betwixt Kairo and Mount Sinai, the heavens were every night our covering; the sand, with a carpet spread over it, was our bed;

and

and a change of raiment, made up into a bundle, was our pillow. And in this situation we were every night wet to the skin, by the copious dew that dropt upon us, though without the least danger (such is the excellency of this climate) of catching cold. The continued heat of the day afterwards, made us often wish that these refrigerations could have been hourly repeated. Our camels (for horses or mules require too much water to be employed in these deserts), were made to kneel down (Gen. xxiv. 11.) in a circle round about us, with their faces looking from us, and their respective loads and saddles placed behind them. In this situation, as they are very watchful animals, and awake with the least noise, they served us instead of a guard.

As there was no chance of meeting, in these lonesome and dreary deserts of Arabia, with the least hospitality or entertainment, we were obliged to carry along with us every thing that was necessary for so long and tedious a journey. We took care in the first place, to provide ourselves with a sufficient quantity of goats skins (the axes, or bottles, so often mentioned in Scripture), which we filled with water every four or five days, or oftener if we found it. We laid in a provision likewise of wine and brandy. Barley, with a few beans intermixed, or else the flour of one or other, or of both of them, made into balls with a little water, was the provender of our camels. We provided for ourselves wheat-flour, rice, biscuit, honey, oil, vinegar, olives, lentils, potted flesh,

and

and such things as would keep sweet and wholesome during two months, the space commonly taken up in completing this journey. Nor should our wooden bason and copper pot be omitted; the latter whereof was the necessary utensil for cooking our provisions, the other for serving it up, or kneading therein our unleavened cakes. These two vessels made up the whole of our kitchen furniture. When we were therefore either to boil or to bake, the camels dung that we found left by some preceding caravan (for wood is very scarce) was our usual fuel; which, after being left a day or two in the sun, quickly catches fire, and burns like charcoal. No sooner was our food prepared, whether it was potted flesh, boiled with rice, a lentil soup (the red pottage, Gen. xxv. 30.) or unleavened cakes served up with oil or honey, than one of the Arabs (not to eat his morsel alone, Job xxxi. 17.) after having placed himself upon the highest spot of ground in the neighbourhood, calls out thrice, with a loud voice, to all his brethren, the sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it, though none of them were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of us. This custom however they maintain to be a token at least of their great benevolence, as indeed it would have been of their hospitality, provided they could have had an opportunity to shew it.

But travelling in Barbary is of a quite different nature. Here we always endeavour to find out the douwars of the Arabs (not being fond of visiting the Kabyles, who are a set of sturdy fel

lows

lows not so easily managed), where we are entertained at free cost, as in the towns and villages above mentioned, and as we read of the wayfaring man, Jer. xiv. 8. for the space of one night. For in this country, the Arabs, and other inhabitants, are obliged, either by long custom, by the particular tenure of their lands, or from fear and compulsion, to give the spahces and their company the mounah, as they call it, which is such a sufficient quantity of provisions for ourselves, together with straw and barley for our mules and horses. Besides a bowl of milk and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which upon our arrival were presented to us, to stay our appetites, the master of the tent where we lodged, fetched us from his flock (according to the number of our company) a kid or a goat, a lamb or a sheep, half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served up with cuscasooe; the rest was made kab-ab, i. e. cut into pieces (u is the term, Hom. Il. A. ver. 465.) and roasted, which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner the next day.

Yet the cold and the dews that we were every night exposed to, in the deserts of Arabia, did not incommode us half so much as the vermin and insects of all kinds, which never failed to molest us in Barbary. Besides fleas and lice, which might be said, without a miracle, to be here in all their quarters, the apprehensions we were under, in some parts at least of this country, of being bitten or stung by the scorpion, the viper, or the venomous spider, rarely failed to interrupt

Our