32 LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



cular also about filtration, and directly we arrive in camp, 



even before pitching the tent, we have a post with 



hooks driven into the ground, and a water-bucket with 



filters suspended from it, and by this means we have an 



ample supply by dinner time. Camel-riding now over 



the burning plain, when not the smallest clouds come to 



our relief, is more trying than at first, and the sun is 



playing considerable havoc with the skin of our faces ; 



but we can at least relieve our eyes from the intense 



glare by smoked glass spectacles with gauze frames, and 



by white umbrellas. There was great excitement this 



afternoon amongst our camel-men when a wounded 



gazelle gave them the chance of running forward and 



despatching it by hacking at the throat in a horrible 



manner with their curved knives until they had nearly 



severed the head from the body. This was the first 



opportunity they had been given to satisfy their 



religious scruples, for our expanding bullets generally 



destroy life at once, and their joy was proportionate ; 



though it was afterwards somewhat marred by our laying 



claim to the liver. 



Beautiful as the sunsets have been, that of to- 

 night seemed somehow to far surpass the others in 

 grandeur. We were crossing at the time a vast sandy 

 plain surrounded save to the west by mountains, and 

 with no sign of vegetation upon it but here and there 

 a solitary stunted mimosa or a dry tuft of grass. South- 



