iserable booths (see illustration), which I searched in
vain for specimens of native industry. While engaged on my sketch I had
an opportunity of seeing some old coins found in the neighbourhood.

The cemetery is situated beyond a piece of land fenced with a prickly
hedge, at a short distance from which there is a very old Nebke tree. It
has a most neglected aspect. There are a large number of tombs in the
form of steps, and here and there various kinds of pedestals, some of
which are fluted. It also contains the roughly constructed Koubba of the
Sheik Ghebara, with a pyramidical cupola coated with clay.

On the opposite or east side of the cemetery there is a slight rise in
the ground affording a good view of the entire place, as well as of the
large palm wood towards the sea, and the extensive plain planted with
fig trees between the dunes of the coast and the cemetery. While I was
sketching there, an old man approached and looked at the grave of some
children, which no doubt were his own. He then looked up and enquired
whether I was a father, and on my replying in the negative, ejaculated
in a tone of the deepest sympathy, "Poor man!" An instance, this, of the
high value set by these people upon the blessings of family life. "But,"
he added after a pause, "we must submit to God's will."

Here and there we remarked tombs in a better condition, with aloes
planted around, and one or two that were even whitewashed. Many
"Haddayas" (_Milvus ater_, or black kite) and kestrels (_Falco
tinnunculus_) were flying about this deserted burial-place, which one
might almost have fancied to be the spirits of the departed.

Westward of the cemetery and below the town is a kind of vale or
declivity planted with tamarisks and fig trees, and containing three
wells provided with handspikes. Numbers of women and children with black
jugs from Gaza go there to draw water, giving, as may be imagined, great
life and animation to the scene. The water, like that of all the wells
of the place, is somewhat saline. At Wadi the water is perfectly fresh.

[Illustration: EL HARISH (VIEW ON THE NORTHERN SIDE).]

Proceeding still in a westerly direction, we came to the telegraph
posts and the beginning of the route leading through the desert, which
now lay unrolled before us. This road is the same by which we came to El
Harish. Ruins of old buildings, asserted by the inhabitants to date from
the time of the crusades, strewed the ground in every dir