camp wants. We lounged about till breakfast and wrote our diaries. It
was scorchingly hot weather. We were here for five days, so we did not
begin serious work until noon.

So many travellers have described Palmyra that it is not necessary for me
to describe it again, and I suppose that everybody knows that at one time
it was ruled over in the days of its splendour by Zenobia, a great queen
of the East. She was an extraordinary woman, full of wisdom and heroic
courage. She was conquered by the Romans after a splendid reign, and the
Emperor Aurelian caused her to be led through Rome bound in fetters of
gold. The city must once have been magnificent, but it was now a ruin.
The chief temple was that of the Sun. The whole city was full of columns
and ruined colonnades. One of the great colonnades is a mile long.

I saw something of the inner life of Palmyra, the more so because I wore
a dress very much like that of a man. So attired I could go almost where
I liked, and enter all the places which women are not deemed worthy to
see. My chief difficulty was that my toilet always had to be performed
in the dead of night. The others never appeared to make any, except in
the stream, which was too public for me, and I did not wish to appear
singular.

In another way my masculine garment had its drawbacks, for I always used
to forget that they regarded me as a boy, and I never could remember not
to go into the harims. Once or twice I went into them, and the women ran
away to hide themselves screaming and laughing at my appearance; and I
remember once or twice, on being remonstrated with, pointing to my chin
to plead my youth, and also my ignorance of their customs. I passed
Palmyra as Richard's son; and though it was a little awkward at first,
I soon fell into my part, and remembered always to be very respectful