488 
PASSAGE OF TARANTA. 
little valley in which we slept, had hitherto been obscured by 
fleeting clouds ; at seven they began to clear away, upon which 
we dispatched the baggage forward, and about eight o'clock set out 
ourselves. We had not however ascended the first rising ground 
before heavy rain came on, and continued, with very short inter- 
mission, during the whole of the day. Thence the descent became 
very rapid, and the road lay through gullies, down which the 
waters were beginning to run with great force ; but none of these 
obstacles seemed to delay our mules : they descended almost like 
goats from rock to rock, and not one of the whole number made a 
single false step in the course of the day. Notwithstanding our 
cloth-coats and camolines, we were all wet to the skin, and, on ac- 
count of the difficulties of the road, were not able long to keep 
together; so that, while Captain Rudland and myself were pro- 
ceeding on the direct road, Mr. Garter and Pearce were wandering 
wherever the mules chose to carry them, and, as it afterwards ap- 
peared, they had actually arrived within half a mile of Dixan, 
when they turned, and made a circuit of about five miles. 
" Captain Rudland and myself took shelter in a village about 
three miles from Dixan, under a hut divided into many compart- 
ments, and inhabited by several families. They paid us every 
attention that their miserable means would allow; and an old 
woman, who spoke a little Arabic, brought us some water which 
was much discoloured; among the group we observed two hand- 
some young women, who had fine teeth, and silver rings in their 
ears. House-sparrows were seen to fly from under the roofs of the 
huts ; and the cattle were lodged in the same apartment as the 
women and children. The mode of building here is by raising 
