KAFILAH OF CRABS. 71 



douins of the interior, made me feel rather uncom- 

 fortable at first, and I almost felt inclined to get 

 off my mule, and go to prayers with Cassim, when I 

 saw him dismount as we rode along the beach and 

 commence his ablutions for that purpose. As, how- 

 ever, he made no signal for me to halt, I proceeded 

 quietly along with the rest of the party till we 

 passed a broad current, some feet wide, of small 

 hermit crabs, that were marching along, at a great 

 pace, from the sea, towards the north, in which 

 direction, it must be observed, Mecca lay. I pulled 

 up my mule to observe what could possibly be the 

 reason of such an array passing along, and my wild- 

 looking friends coming up, Ibrahim, whose know- 

 ledge of Arabic rivalled mine, looked in my face 

 inquiringly, and pointing to the crabs, remarked, 

 "fennah rah'?" (where go) to which I replied in 

 equally good Arabic, "hadge" (pilgrimage), at 

 which he raised a loud laugh, and telling his friends 

 in their language, they seemed to enjoy the joke 

 exceedingly. After this incident I got a little more 

 confidence, and was just going to ask Ibrahim some 

 question relative to the time we should be on the 

 journey, when a sudden turn brought us to a 

 little savannah, surrounded with date and mimosa 

 trees, whilst beyond, rising high above the bright 

 green foliage, was a pretty regular amphitheatre 

 of high conical hills. As we had been scarcely 

 an hour reaching this place, and I saw by the 

 boxes being piled up that a halt was intended, 



