BUKDEN AND FURNITURE. 117 



essary mattresses and cushions, and two persons, 

 it makes a heavy load for an Arabian camel, and 

 is of course quite out of the question for a prop- 

 er dromedary. It is at best an uncomfortable 

 conveyance, but invalids can hardly travel other- 

 wise, and their ease may be very much promoted 

 by substituting for the wooden bottom a frame 

 with a stout tight sacking. Last and most lux- 

 urious of ah 1 , is the takhtirawan, or camel-litter, 

 which, from its great length, can only be used 

 on routes of convenient width, and free from 

 steep grades and sharp corners, and is therefore 

 unsuited to ordinary desert travel. The takhtir- 

 awan has a general resemblance to a coach-body 

 resting on two very long shafts, and is borne by 

 two camels, walking betweeh the shafts as in 

 thills, one before and one behind. It is gener- 

 ally intended for two persons, but Pietro della 

 Valle says that the comoda e galante takhtirawan, 

 which he had made at Ispahan for the convey- 

 ance of the fair and courageous Maani and her 

 damsels, allowed convenient space for four to sit, 

 or three to lie. According to Lane, ' the head 

 of the hinder camel is painfully bent down un- 

 der the vehicle.' : Delia Valle does not men- 



1 Burckhardt, Arabia, 263, speaks of the takhtirawan as 

 used by Pachas and other great people, and he mentions 

 seeing the heads of the camels that bore one of these vehi- 

 cles " bent down by fatigue," but does not say that they were 

 kept down by the form of the takhtirawan-. 



