i8 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



merchandise being carried on the backs of camels and 

 donkeys, strings of which animals are constantly to be 

 met with. The houses with the exception of a 

 very few which are built of stone are made either 

 of large unburnt mud bricks or of wood. Most of 

 them are two, and some three, stories high. There 

 are several mosques in the town, the finest being the 

 Mosque of Omar, a large stone-built edifice, with a 

 fine minaret. Walking through the town late in the 

 evening, we found the four entrances to the bazaar 

 each guarded by a savage dog attached to a long- 

 chain, which allowed him to range from side to side 

 of the street, and seize any one by the leg who might 

 attempt to pass. These dogs are only on duty at 

 nights, and save the expense of policemen. 



We were up betimes the next morning, and had 

 everything packed up ready for an early start; but it 

 was some time before the ponies turned up, all in 

 charge of one man, and past nine o'clock, and already 

 very hot, when we at last said good-bye to our kind 

 host, and clattered through the streets of El Maly, 

 preceded by a mounted Turkish soldier, who was to 

 act as our escort. After getting clear of the town we 

 followed a very good road, which had been built some 

 years before by the Turkish Government to connect 

 El Maly with the port of Fineka. Not long after 

 starting, we passed a huge cave at the foot of a range 

 of hills into which a considerable stream of water 

 poured itself and disappeared. Through my inter- 



