word. Presently the firing was heard far in our rear--the robbers having
fled; the head of the column advanced, and the dense body of the
pilgrims opened out. Our forced halt was now exchanged for a flight. It
required much management to steer our desert-craft clear of danger; but
Shaykh Masud was equal to the occasion. That many were lost was evident
by the boxes and baggage that strewed the shingles. I had no means of
ascertaining the number of men killed and wounded: reports were
contradictory, and exaggeration unanimous. The robbers were said to be
150 in number; their object was plunder, and they would eat the shot
camels. But their principal ambition was the boast "We, the Utaybah, on
such and such a night stopped the Sultan's mahmal one whole hour in the
pass."

At the beginning of the skirmish I had primed my pistols, and sat with
them ready for use. But soon seeing that there was nothing to be done,
and wishing to make an impression,--nowhere does Bobadil now "go down"
but in the East,--I called aloud for my supper. Shaykh Nur, exanimate
with fear, could not move. The boy Mohammed ejaculated only an "Oh,
sir!" and the people around exclaimed in disgust, "By Allah! he eats!"
Shaykh Abdullah, the Meccan, being a man of spirit, was amused by the
spectacle. "Are these Afghan manners, Effendim?" he inquired from the
shugduf behind me. "Yes," I replied aloud, "in my country we always dine
before an attack of robbers, because that gentry is in the habit of
sending men to bed supperless." The Shaykh laughed aloud, but those
around him looked offended. I thought the bravado this time _mal place_;
but a little event which took place on my way to Jeddah proved that it
was not quite a failure.

As we advanced our escort took care to fire every large dry asclepias,
to disperse the shades which buried us. Again the scene became wondrous
wild:--

"Full many a waste I've wander'd o'er,
Clomb many a crag, cross'd many a shore,
But, by my halidome,
A scene so rude, so wild as this,
Yet so sublime in barrenness,
Ne'er did my wandering footsteps press,
Where'er I chanced to roam."

On either side were ribbed precipices, dark, angry, and towering above,
till their summits mingled with the glooms of night; and between them
formidable looked the chasm, down which our host hurried with shouts and
discharges of matchlocks. The torch-smoke and the night-fires of flaming
asclepias formed a canopy,