was overflowing in that sunset had acclimated me to this height of interest, so that I breathed its air naturally.

Nothing could have really surprised Ixion after the first draught of nectar. That gave him, in a goblet, the freedom of Heaven. A man who has sailed for two months upon the Nile, encounters the desert with an emotion none the less profound because it is placid.

Eastern enthusiasm is undoubtedly suspected. The filth, fanaticism, and inconvenience of the East are not to be denied, nor the alarming proportion of vermin to people in oriental cities. Therefore, whoever sees in a Mosque only red and white plaster, or in the Parthenon but a mass of broken marble, should not expose himself to the trouble of contemplating those objects. There are prints of them engraved with restored proportions, a travelling and thinking made easy, much preferable to the ocular experience of those agile travellers who overrun all Europe in three months.

When once you are admitted ad eundem in that enthusiasm, however, you will readily forgive the suspicion of all under-graduates. Looking at the East through your experience, and confessing that "we want from Nature but the first, few primitive notes, in us lies the true melody with its endless variations," you will bear with the most judicious doubts and the most sensible shrugs, as the astronomer, stealing through his telescope the secrets of the moon, tolerates the plain common sense which asserts that it is all green cheese.

I remember when Tadpole came home from Italy. He seemed to me like one who had basked in the latest

smile of my absent Mistress. I greeted him as poor Arabs in a desert village greet the Hadji or Pilgrim who returns from Mecca, and has seen the Prophet's tomb and the holy stone. On the most Italian of June evenings we strolled together in the moonlight, and renewed in our words the romance of the South.

He listened courteously and quietly. I loved his silence, in which I perceived the repose of May days in Naples. The smoke curled languidly from his cigar, and we heard the beat of oars upon the tranquil bay.

"Yes," he said at last-"I know-it was certainly so. But frankly-do you not think the fleas balance the

fascination?"

Tadpole has the reputation and privilege of a travelled man. He brought shell necklaces from Venice, and corals from Naples, and scarfs from Rome-but, for all that, he has never been in Italy.

B*

IV.

Encamping.

THE evening darkened and we paced along in perfect silence.

The stars shone with the crisp brilliancy of our Januuary nights, but the air was balmy, veined occasionally with a streak of strange warmth, which I knew was the breath of the desert. Under the palms, along the edges of cultivated fields we passed, a spectral procession, and I caught at times the fragment of a song from the Shekh who led the way.

The Arabs who had gone forward with the pack camels, were to encamp just beyond a little town which we entered after dark. It was a collection of mud hovels, and we reflected with satisfaction upon the accommodation of our new tent, and the refreshing repose it promised.

Lost in pleasing anticipations, we scarcely observed that our line of march was suddenly altered, and I had barely time to save my head from violent contact with the stone cross-piece of a huge gate,-when we perceived that we were in a Caravanseri or Khan.

Now a Khan in oriental literature,-in parts of Persia

and in Damascus, as we shall hereafter see, is no less beautiful than convenient. But this Khan in the small mud town was a square court, of the character and dignity of a sheep-fold, and by no means suited our anticipations of a desert camp.

It was dark within the inclosure, but the scene was picturesque.

By the light of two or three torches we could see our camels and those of other travellers lying upon the ground. Groups of Arabs and Egyptian merchants sat around the sides of the yard, with their long chibouques, and arranged for the night. In the middle of the court was a well, and around it were piled our camp equipage and our luggage, which the Arabs had cunningly removed from the camels. Upon entering, my camel snorted and sighed with satisfaction, and immediately knelt, delighted with the prospect and the society. But there was very ominous silence upon all sides.

We were sufficiently accustomed to the people to understand that this was the trial of mastery between us. The arrangement of encamping outside the town was perfectly comprehended by the Arabs, but they wisely wished to test our metal.

The Howadji were not at all sorry, and after a preliminary burst of surprise and indignation, they ordered the camels to be instantly reloaded, which was a work of no little time.

The Arabs expostulated in the most astonished manner. "What! desert this agreeable Khan-this sweet security from thieves and the nameless dangers of the

desert! Load the camels for a journey of a few minutes, when all was so comfortably arranged for the night! It was only a pleasantry of the benign Howadji."

The groups of turbans and ample drapery emitted meditative smoke, and complacently watched and listened. Our Arabs scolded and conversed apart with Mohammad, and he, the timorous Commander, made peace with the enemy, and attempted to wheedle his allies. But the command to reload was sternly repeated, and in the course of an hour we moved triumphantly out of the Khan at the head of our caravan. A few steps beyond the town brought us to the white-domed tomb of a Shekh, just on the edge of the desert, and there the camping ground was chosen.

In a few minutes our desert palace was built. It was a new white tent, and of circular form, to facilitate the pitching. The pole was planted upon a spot indicated by the Pacha, and the canvass was rapidly laid over and stretched to the pegs. The riding camels were then led up, and made to kneel while the carpets, blankets, and matting were removed from the saddle. We laid the matting upon the sand, spread over it a coarse, thick carpeting, and covered the whole with two Persian rugs, one upon each side of the pole. The travelling bags were then thrown in, and we commenced Arabian housekeeping.

The Commander's tent was pitched at a little distance, and into that were conveyed the chests of cooking utensils, and the household furniture. He built a fire near by, and put on some leathery water to boil,