H LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



Sunday, like other days, must come to an end, and 

 so has our first in this region ; and now our beds are ar- 

 ranged side by side on the open ground and surrounded 

 by our baggage with a guard of three soldiers. 



Fixing the hammocks by candle-light proved by no 

 means an easy matter, but after numerous failures it 

 was accomplished, and we settled down for the night. 



Dec. 28. If we had good cause to remember our 

 first day on land, the night was not likely to be soonest 

 forgotten. 



Hardly had the last good-night been said, when a 

 sudden crack is heard, and, looking up, we find one patent 

 hammock has collapsed, and the victim of misplaced 

 confidence stretched on the ground. A little later, 

 ' crack ' again, and down has come another ; these oc- 

 casional interruptions to a night's rest, though producing 

 shouts of laughter at the discomfiture of the occupant, 

 become, after sundry repetitions, somewhat monotonous ; 

 so one after another the hammocks are discarded, and 

 an opinion generally expressed that my simple folding- 

 up camp bedstead, with cork mattress, has its advantages. 

 For a few moments quietude is restored, and then is 

 heard close to us that most charming of musical effects, 

 a solo on a drum, probably a military tattoo, which draws 

 from Coke the very apt observation that the practice here 

 is identical with that of St. James's Palace Guard with 

 regard to this high-class music. This tormentor of our 



