CHAP. V. 
JOURNEY TO ZUELA. 
505 
one or two marks on each hand, of the same hue. I wished to ask 
her some questions, but she looked so sulky that I desisted. 
Zaizow is prettily situated in a little dell, thickly planted with 
palms, and having a ruined castle on a rising ground in the centre. 
The houses are nearly all in ruins, and many had palms growing 
in them: the population, according to the Kaid, amounted to 
about 70 souls. It is E. and by S. seven miles from Hadge Hajeel. 
Mohammed left us in charge of our new friend, the Kaid, who soon 
found a donkey to carry him on with us to Zuela, at which place he 
was to find his horse. 
At 11. SO. A. M. set out, and at 2. SO. passed a village on 
the left, named Areg el Libban, and an old castle, called Gusser 
Bighia. 2. 45. Passed the ruined village and castle of Mokhaten 
^^pUisro. 3. 12. arrived at a place called Deesa ^ j where we found 
the Kaid of Traghan, who promised to come to us on the morrow, 
and to send his brother as soon as he returned home. The village 
of Ershadi faces Deesa to the southward of the road. Leaving 
Deesa, we passed for an hour over a flat, so completely encrusted 
with salt, that it had the appearance of a hoar frost in England ; 
indeed, the whole of the road from Hadge Hajeel bore, more or less, 
the same resemblance. 
At 5. we entered the gardens and date groves of Traghan ^ )> 
which appeared in a higher state of cultivation than any we had 
yet seen, and at 5. 45. arrived at the town, which stands clear of the 
gardens, on a flat desert plain. Yussuf having offered us his house, 
we put up there, although not without a great deal of clamour from 
an over-civil Negress and her husband, who, to do us more honour, 
shifted us and our baggage about without mercy. The Maraboot, 
the principal man here, sent to apologise for not being prepared to 
provide us with bread and meat. At 2. this day the thermometer 
was 25°. 
