MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 7^ 



for you we slaughter this victim. Haroun, pro- 

 tect us and forgive us ! O Haroun, be content 

 with our good intentions, for it is but a lean goat ! 

 Haroun, smooth our path, and praise be to the 

 Lord of all creatures !" The force of the supplica- 

 tion for " smoothing the path" will be better seen 

 when we explain that the whole of the surrounding 

 wilderness, once described by an inspired penman 

 as " the fatness of the earth," is now a desert of 

 shifting sands, whose surface is covered with black 

 flints and prickly shrubs ; so that the Bedouins are 

 obliged to carry in their girdles a pair of small 

 pincers to extract the thorns from their feet. 



It was the intention of the guide to conduct 

 Burckhardt to Akaba, in the hope of meeting with 

 some caravan for Egypt ; but to this route he had 

 strong objections ; afraid that he might meet with 

 danger or detention from the garrison of Ali Pasha, 

 stationed there to watch the Wahabis, and who 

 were extremely suspicious of all strangers. He 

 therefore preferred to cross the desert direct for 

 Suez, and had the good fortune to join a small 

 company of Arabs who were carrying a few camels 

 to the Cairo market. His destitute condition may 

 be conceived from his own description : " My 

 clothes and linen were worn to rags ; a dirty Icaffye 

 or yellow handkerchief covered my head; my 

 leathern girdle and shoes had long been exchanged 

 by way of presents, against similar articles of an 

 inferior kind ; so that those I now wore were of 

 the very worst sort. The tube of my pipe was 



