44 
MARCH OF THE CARAVAN. 
companions had by this time set up their tent for 
the night ; and although, creeping along at the 
camel's slow pace, we could not expect to come up 
to that temporary home until it was about to be 
deserted, still the knowledge of its existence took 
away much of the mysterious terror with which I 
entered upon this desolate region in the hour of 
coming shadows. An additional solemnity was im- 
parted to the commencement of this arduous journey 
by the fact that we now passed the last pillar erected 
by the Romans. Their mighty power seems to have 
recoiled, as well it might, before the horrid aspect of 
the Ham a dab. 
We pushed on at a steady pace over the rough 
ground ; and as I surveyed the scene from my 
elevated position on the camel's back, I could not 
help contrasting this primitive style of travelling 
with that with which I had been conversant a few 
months before. Instead of whirling along the 
summit of an embankment, or through a horizontal 
well miles deep, in a machine that always reminded 
me of a disjointed dragon, at the rate of some fifty 
miles an hour, here I was leisurely swaying to and 
fro on the back of the slowest beast that man has 
ever tamed, in the midst of a crowd loosely scattered 
over the country, some on foot, some in the saddle — 
not seeking to keep any determinate track, but 
following a general direction by the light of the 
stars, which shine with warm beneficence overhead. 
There is no sound to attract the ear, save the 
