We approached Palmyra thus, cheering and singing warsongs; and I am sure
that we must have looked very imposing.

The first sight of Palmyra is like a regiment of cavalry drawn up in a
single line; but as we got nearer gradually the ruins began to stand out
one by one in the sunlight, and a grander sight I have never looked upon,
so gigantic, so extensive, so desolate was this splendid city of the dead
rising out of, and half buried in, a sea of sand. One felt as if one
were wandering in some forgotten world.

The Shaykh of Palmyra and his people came out to greet us, and he
conducted us to his house. We approached it over the massive blocks
of stone that formed the pavement and by a flight of broad steps. The
interior of Palmyra resembles a group of wasps' nests on a large scale,
clinging to the gigantic walls of a ruined temple. The people were
hideous, poor, ragged, dirty, and diseased, nearly every one of them
afflicted with ophthalmia. What have the descendants of the great
Zenobia done to come to this? We dined at the Shaykh's house, and had
our coffee and pipes. Later we returned to our camp, which consisted of
our five tents and ten for the eighty soldiers. It was picturesquely
placed, close to the east of the grand colonnade of Palmyra, for the
sake of being near the wells, and the animals were picketed as much as
possible in the shelter, for during our sojourn there we suffered from
ice and snow, sirocco, burning heat, and furious sou'westers. We had
two sulphurous wells, one to bathe in, and the other to drink out of.
Everybody felt a little tired, and we went to bed early. It was the
first night for eight days that we had really undressed and bathed and
slept, and it was such a refreshment that I did not wake for twelve
hours. My journal of the following morning contains a very short notice.
We were considerably refreshed, and attended to our horses and several