A EIDE TO BABYLON. 387 



white fang or two, and then suddenly disappeared. 

 Early as it was, there was no greeting for us from 

 the fresh pleasant air of morn. As we pushed 

 along through the empty bazaars, a heavy close at- 

 mosphere stifled us with its various scents of all 

 manners of spices and fruits and stores ; all which, 

 good things in their way, we knew were piled up be- 

 hind the great badly-jointed boards that stretched 

 across the counters of the stalls. Xot till we issued 

 out into the open plain, across which our road lay, 

 did Ave drink in the pure morning air of the desert, 

 and then it came to us like an invigorating draught. 

 We coaxed the horses which were small springy 

 Arabs, not in the best condition certainly, but infin- 

 itely better in every respect than our Baghdad ones 

 into a cheering gallop. The Hillah Pasha had 

 provided us with an escort of two men. These men, 

 chosen from among his own retainers, were supposed 

 to have some sort of mysterious information as to the 

 movements of a plundering tribe of the Shammar 

 Arabs, who had lately been seen in the vicinity of 

 the ruin we were about to visit. "Whether it was 

 the presence of these two formidable-looking horse- 

 men with us or not, it was impossible to say ; but no 

 plundering Arabs molested us, nor did we see any, 

 nor indeed any living thing during our ride, if I re- 

 member right, beyond some terribly mangy-looking 

 jackals, that slunk away at our approach as they say 

 ghosts do at the approach of dawn. One of our two 



