he rocks rang with shouts
of "Labbayk! Labbayk!" At a pass we fell in with the Wahhabis,
accompanying the Baghdad caravan, screaming "Here am I"; and guided by a
large loud kettle-drum, they followed in double file the camel of a
standard-bearer, whose green flag bore in huge white letters the formula
of the Moslem creed. They were wild-looking mountaineers, dark and
fierce, with hair twisted into thin dalik or plaits: each was armed with
a long spear, a matchlock, or a dagger. They were seated upon coarse
wooden saddles, without cushions or stirrups, a fine saddle-cloth alone
denoting a chief. The women emulated the men; they either guided their
own dromedaries, or sitting in pillion, they clung to their husbands;
veils they disdained, and their countenances certainly belonged not to a
"soft sex." These Wahhabis were by no means pleasant companions. Most of
them were followed by spare dromedaries, either unladen or carrying
water-skins, fodder, fuel, and other necessaries for the march. The
beasts delighted in dashing furiously through our file, which, being
colligated, was thrown each time into the greatest confusion. And
whenever we were observed smoking, we were cursed aloud for infidels and
idolaters.

Looking back at El Zaribah, soon after our departure, I saw a heavy
nimbus settle upon the hilltops, a sheet of rain being stretched between
it and the plain. The low grumbling of thunder sounded joyfully in our
ears. We hoped for a shower, but were disappointed by a dust-storm,
which ended with a few heavy drops. There arose a report that the
Bedouins had attacked a party of Meccans with stones,--classical Arabian
missiles,--and the news caused men to look exceeding grave.

At 5 P.M. we entered the wide bed of the fiumara, down which we were to
travel all night. Here the country falls rapidly towards the sea, as the
increasing heat of the air, the direction of the water-courses, and
signs of violence in the torrent-bed show. The fiumara varies in breadth
from 150 feet to three-quarters of a mile; its course, I was told, is
towards the southwest, and it enters the sea near Jeddah. The channel is
a coarse sand, with here and there masses of sheet rock and patches of
thin vegetation.

At about half-past 5 P.M. we entered a suspicious-looking place. On the
right was a stony buttress, along whose base the stream, when there is
one, flows; and to this depression was our road limited by the rocks and
thorn-trees, which