consternation throughout the camp, he turned his dromedary again to the
west, and in a few minutes was out of sight.

The Emir was confused; murmurings and consultations were arising among
the crowd. I was afraid that they would listen to the suggestions of the
Maribout; and, alarmed for my camel, and the loss of the honour
conferred upon him, I was guilty of a lie.

"O! Emir," said I, "listen not to that man who is mine enemy: he came to
my house, he ate of my bread, and would have been guilty of the basest
ingratitude by seducing the mother of my children; I drove him from my
door, and thus would he revenge himself. So may it fare with me, and
with the caravan, as I speak the truth."

I was believed; the injunctions of the Maribout were disregarded, and
that night we proceeded on our march through the plains of El Tyh.

As your highness has never yet made a pilgrimage, you can have no
conception of the country which we had to pass through: it was one vast
region of sand, where the tracks of those who pass over it are
obliterated by the wind,--a vast sea without water,--an expanse of
desolation. We plunged into the desert; and as the enormous collection
of animals, extending as far as the eye could reach, held their
noiseless way, it seemed as if it were the passing by of shadows.

We met with no accident, notwithstanding the prophecies of the Maribout;
and, after a fatiguing march of seven nights, arrived safely at Nakhel,
where we replenished our exhausted water-skins. Those whom I knew joked
with me, when we met at the wells, at the false prophecies of my enemy.
We had now three days of severe fatigue to encounter before we arrived