SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 75 



left. Any deviation from the beaten track, and 

 one's horse broke through the thin salt crust, and 

 floundered fetlock-deep in a spongy soft mud. As 

 we urged on our tired horses at nearly the top of 

 their speed, we seemed possessed of a feeling that 

 any delay on this burning plain would be instant 

 death. "We knew that, till we were at the gates of 

 the town, we should not find shelter from the death- 

 dealing rays of the sun large enough to screen a 

 mouse. Before we had ridden half the distance, the 

 white walls of the residency gleamed in detached 

 fragments through a hazy mirage ; now far above the 

 horizon of the plain, now again far below it, and 

 apparently close to us. Then the hazy line of brown 

 Avail which surrounds the town and the several bas- 

 tions gradually separated themselves from the wavy 

 plain ; some grotesquely elongated objects defined 

 themselves into a string of camels approaching the 

 town. And, finally, Bushire, that had seemed for 

 the last hour but the "baseless fabric of a vision," 

 became a reality, and in a few minutes we were clat- 

 tering through the gateway, and charging a throng 

 of half-naked Arabs, who were wrangling under its 

 shade over a donkey-load of dates. 



