66 PREPARATIONS 



of Tajourah, are even these rude mill-stones, and 

 for what purpose of manufacture could they have 

 been originally designed. The climate of the country 

 in which we find them precludes the idea of their 

 being used for the grinding of wheat ; nor would 

 the jowaree, I think, be used as food by people so 

 advanced in civilization as these stones indicate. 

 I am quite at a loss to account for their presence, 

 for no production of this country, as it now exists, 

 could require their employment, and the difficulty 

 can only be surmounted by supposing them to have 

 been the product of a period anterior to the 

 volcanic era which has made the whole of this 

 country a desert. Some examination of the country 

 to the north and east of Tajourah may, perhaps, 

 at a future day prove the existence of extensive 

 ruins in the neighbourhood ; and this I feel more 

 inclined to believe from the name of Tajourah itself, 

 which appears to me to signify the dependent village 

 of the black population, of some once great and 

 flourishing city. 



The time was now approaching for my departure. 

 The Arab blacksmith had been two or three days 

 at work making me a crooked dagger to be carried 

 with three small pistols in my belt, and which 

 enabled me to present a very warlike front. The 

 rumours of assassinations and Bedouin attacks, 

 made me wish to be ready in cases of extremity. 

 I am fully convinced that the greatest danger 

 in travelling among savage and lawless tribes 



