CHAP. IV.] 
ITS DIFFCULTIFS. 
153 
re-loaded when safe upon the opposite bank. The 
operation of loading a camel with about 700 lbs. of 
luggage of indescribable variety is at all times tedious; 
but no sooner had we crossed one ravine with difficulty 
than we arrived at another, and the same fatiguing 
operation had to be repeated, with frightful loss of 
time at the moment when I beiieved the Turks were 
following on our path. 
My wife and I rode about a quarter of a mile at the 
head of the party as an advance guard,' to warn the 
caravan of any difficulty. The very nature of the 
country declared that it must be full of ravines, and 
yet I could not help hoping against hope that we 
might have a clear mile of road without a break. The 
evening had passed, and the light faded. What had 
been difficult and tedious during the day, now became 
most serious ;—we could not see the branches of hooked 
thorns that overhung the broken path; I rode in 
advance, my face and arms bleeding with countless 
scratches, while at each rip of a thorn I gave a warning 
shout—“Thorn ! ” for those behind, and a cry of “Hole ! ” 
for any deep rut that lay in the path. It was fortu¬ 
nately moonlight, but the jungle was so thick that the 
narrow track was barely perceptible; thus both camels 
and donkeys ran against the trunks of trees, smashing 
the luggage, - and breaking all that could be broken : 
