372 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



of the submerged desert. Even the dreaded Bashi- 

 Bazooks were lugged in, in the vain hope of estab- 

 lishing some sort of indecision, some sort of fear, in 

 our stubborn hearts. Hassan beat his breast, and 

 finally went to the length of throwing his round felt 

 skull-cap on the ground, and that with a vehemence 

 and a suddenness that made even one of the poor 

 horses prick his ears, and give a sign or two of life. 

 But instantly our saddles were placed, as gently as 

 circumstances would permit, on the raw backs of 

 our horses, start we did, for we had no ambition of 

 bivouacking around our saddles on banks of Tigris, 

 romantic as the situation might appear hereafter to 

 friends in England. Under a starry heaven I 

 thought not even in Southern Africa I had ever 

 seen one equal to it in brilliancy we struck away 

 south-west across the plain, leaving the Tigris behind 

 us ; and now our horses' heads were turned in the 

 direction of her sister river the Euphrates. It had 

 been long dark when the howling of dogs told us we 

 were passing through an Arab encampment. Still 

 on we went, every now and then splashing through 

 acres of water, our horses profanely treading upon 

 what seemed a brilliant starlit firmament spread be- 

 neath us. It was within an hour of midnight when 

 the large serai of Kan-e-zad loomed up suddenly, 

 dark and massive, before us. At the serai we found 



K , who had arrived several hours previous, and 



the Turkish guard of four dragoons under a lieuten- 



