CHAPTER XVII. 



" With stout iron shoes be my Pej^asus shod, 

 For my road is a rough one, — flint, rubble and clod." 



OwBiT Meebdith. 



Once Biore in the desert — Our guide fails us — Mohammed el 

 Taleb — We gather manna — Arrested — The Tudmur road — 

 Fox-hunting — A visit to the Amur robbers — We arrive at 

 Palmyra. 



Sunday, March 24. — We have left Deyr, and 

 are once more in tlie desert, oii7^ oiun desert I had 

 nearly said, for indeed we are more at home in it 

 than in the ^ towns ; and yet I feel out of spirits. 

 This new venture has not begun auspiciously ; and, 

 hut for Wilfrid, who suffers from the confinement of 

 indoor life, I would willingly have put off starting for 

 n few days more, to give the Consul a last chance 

 of arriving. It is almost necessary to have an intro- 

 duction to the people we are in search of; and now 

 we are without one, for Ali the Mehed has failed 

 us, and it seems very like looking for a needle in a 

 bundle of hay, to be starting off into the Hamad alone 

 after the Anazeh. Their whereabouts, even on the 

 map, we do not know. Still, after waiting till this 

 morning for the post to come in, and then receiving 

 no news from Aleppo, it seemed foolish to waste 

 more time. The caravan road down the river is 



U(. 



