108 
ADEN 
flowers for us, and as we went along entertained us with iheir 
singing, tumbling, and wrestling ; and sometimes they pretended 
to cry from fatigue, or feigned to have hurt themselves, and, if we 
expressed any concern for them, would jump up and laugh at 
the deception they had practised upon us. In one excursion up 
the mountain a little female child not more than five years old 
accompanied us the whole way, though the road was very steep 
and difficult of access. A few commassi, given as a reward on 
such occasions, made these wild urchins completely happy. 
Aden, on the northern and western sides, is protected by a 
steep and craggy mountain, on the pinnacles of which stand 
several ancient towers erected by the Turks. The striking ap- 
pearance of these from a distance had long made me entertain a 
wish to examine them ; and for this purpose, on Friday the 6th, I 
resolved to ascend the mountain. The road is extremely steep, 
and much incommoded by loose stones and pieces of rock, so 
that it was not long before our resolution was severely put to the 
test. After surmounting the first difiiculty we came to a deep 
gully, in which we found two or three small pits of rain-water, 
some trees, and a few straggling goats. After traversing this 
gully another steep presented itself, that took us up to a rugged 
plain about a mile in extent, which, though at this time parched 
up, afibrds, after the rains, sustenance enough for a considerable 
number of goats. Beyond this, the ascent became so abrupt, 
that our guide assured us it was inaccessible ; notwithstanding 
which we persisted in advancing, and at last, after great exer- 
tion, reached one of the highest ridges of the mountain, which 
was so extremely narrow along the top as to present on both 
