80 BASHAN. 



inoffensive thougli inquisitive race, walked off to explore 

 tlie village. It was of the usual ruinous character, and 

 we found nothing of any interest, except the base of a 

 black basalt column. At a distance of about five miles to 

 the north-west, the ruins of a large village were con- 

 spicuous on the plain. In the evening the Sheikh of the 

 place, a good-looking merry old gentleman, visited us in 

 our tent. Strange to say, he refused a pipe, on the ground 

 that his three wives would not let him smoke. With an 

 absence of the usual Oriental reserve, he entered into some 

 amusing details of his domestic arrangements. His wives 

 had each of them, he said, cost him 35,000 piastres ; his 

 last acquisition was the dearest of the three, and he was 

 contemplating adding a fourth (the full number allowed to 

 orthodox Mussulmen), still dearer. All these ' dear things,' 

 together, appeared to be somewhat too much for the old 

 gentleman, and he seemed relieved to escape from home 

 a,nd chat with us, even though his fears of being accused 

 of smelling of smoke prevented the enjoyment of a pipe. 



We asked when he had last seen European travellers. 

 The Sheikh replied that, three years before, a party, in- 

 cluding some ladies, had passed, on the way to Damascus, 

 by the direct road through Mezarib, the residence of the 

 Turkish governor of the Hauran. 



During the night our second Turkish soldier, who had 

 been left behind at Es-Salt, and had ridden on to Amman 

 instead of Jerash, came into camp. He was horribly afraid 

 of our anger at his involuntary desertion, and was in an 

 abject state of contrition. 



March 19th. — Before we started, a caravan of 400 camels, 

 laden with corn for shipment at Acre, passed by. It 

 struck us as curious, that a land described, by the latest 

 authority, as ' utterly desolate,' should be able not only 

 to feed its inhabitants, but to send away such quantities 



