toilettes of the Syrian ladies who called upon us in laces and
blue satins amid the ruins of Ba'lbek. Although all the hired
camels belonged, as is customary, to the tribe, not to the
Shaykh, the latter was accompanied by the usual "Hieland tail;"
by his two nephews, Hammad and Naji, the latter our head-guide,
addicted to reading, writing, and lying; by his favourite and
factotum, Abdullah, an African mulatto, Muwallid or "house-born;"
and by his Wakil ("agent"), a big black slave, Abdullah Mohammed,
ready of tongue and readier of fist. Lastly, I must mention one
'Audah 'Adayni, a Huwayti bred in the Baliyy country, a traveller
to Cairo, passing intelligent and surpassing unscrupulous.
Confidential for a consideration, he told all the secrets of his
employers, and it is my firm conviction that he was liberally
paid for so doing by both parties of wiseacres.

The immediate objective of this, our last march, was the Bada
plain, of which we first heard at Shaghab. I purposed
subsequently to collect specimens of a traditional coal-mine, to
which his Highness the Viceroy had attached the highest
importance. Then we would march upon the Mochoura of the
ancients, the mediaeval El-Marwah or Zu Marwah, the modern
Marwat-cum-Aba'l-Maru. Finally, we would return to El-Wijh, via
the Wady Hamz, inspecting both it and the ruins first sighted by
MM. Marie and Philipin.

On Friday, March 29th, I gave a breakfast, in the wooden
barracks, to the officers of the Sinnar and the officials of the
port. After which, some took their opium and went to sleep; while
others, it being church-day, went to Mosque. We ran out of
El-Wijh at 1.45 p.m., our convoy consisting of fifty-eight