numerous slaves, and the head servant politely requested me to
withdraw during the interview. Thus turned out of my tent, I was
compelled to patience and solitude beneath a neighbouring date
palm.

The result of the interview with my wife was most satisfactory;
the usual womanish questions had been replied to, and hosts of
compliments exchanged. We were then rich in all kinds of European
trifles that excited their curiosity, and a few little presents
established so great an amount of confidence that they gave the
individual history of each member of the family from childhood,
that would have filled a column of the Times with births, deaths,
and marriages.

Some of these ladies were very young and pretty, and of course
exercised a certain influence over their husbands; thus, on the
following morning, we were inundated with visitors, as the male
members of the family came to thank us for the manner in which
their ladies had been received; and fruit, flowers, and the
general produce of the garden were presented to us in profusion.
However pleasant, there were drawbacks to our garden of Eden;
there was dust in our Paradise; not the dust that we see in
Europe upon unwatered roads, that simply fills the eyes, but
sudden clouds raised by whirlwinds in the desert which fairly
choked the ears and nostrils when thus attacked. June is the
season when these phenomena are most prevalent. At that time the
rains have commenced in the south, and are extending towards the
north; the cold and heavy air of the southern rain-clouds sweeps
down upon the overheated atmosphere of the desert, and produces
sudden violent squalls and whirlwinds when least expected, as at