cii. XIX.] The Pleasures of Talk. 67 



the fez only, while the Bedouins fasten their kefiyes 

 with an aghaal or camel's hair rope. However, 

 such is our costume, and it puzzled the Consul 

 not a little. 



I don't think I ever really enjoyed talking for 

 talking's sake till this morning, but we have been 

 so long without it. We had so much to tell and to 

 hear, that for a couple of hours at least our tongues 

 never stopped an instant. Mr. S. had been detained 

 by the arrival of his successor at Aleppo, and so had 

 failed us, but to make up had travelled day and night 

 since, hoping to find us still at Deyr. At Treyf, he 

 had learned from some zaptiehs that we had started 

 from Tudmur, and leaving the valley had struck 

 across the desert straight for this place. It had been 

 a hard ride, without food or water for the beasts 

 for many hours. At Arak the horse he rode could go 

 no further, and the two mares he was brinoins; for 

 us began to sufier from sore backs, so he had stopped 

 short at this last stage of his journey, almost des- 

 pairing of getting up with us after all. It is 

 fortunate that his messenger arrived when he did, as 

 three hours later we should have been off to the 

 Hamad and out of all reckoning. Then there was 

 political news to hear, the collapse of the Turks 

 before Constantinople, an armistice, changes of 

 ministry, and a thousand other things, to say 

 nothing of a huge bundle of letters from England, 

 the first we have received for nearly four months. 

 These, although hungry for news, we have decided 



