But still more amusing were the strolling musicians, dancers, and players on pipes and drums, who, finding a little piece of level sand, exhibited their strange dances before me. There were three of these mummers amongst the Arabs. Standing in line, they struck up their music, one beating a rough drum, one playing on a double pipe, the other singing. As they sang they stepped slowly backwards and forwards, at periods turning and twisting round. Strange nude creatures they were, with long silky hair and silver daggers, and the eye never tired of watching their graceful movements. Saïd and Abdurrahman took advantage of our delay to cook bread. However, owing to the fact that we had no baking-powder nor anything to take its place, and that it had to be cooked in Arab fashion by rolling the dough round a heated stone, it was not altogether a great success. Hunger, nevertheless, rendered it palatable. As for butter, we had not yet broached the pot of ghee that Saïd had purchased before we left Aden. It was rancid then, and the few days of hot sun on the back of a camel had not added to its charm, though it had added very considerably to its flavour. When we opened the clay with which the jar was sealed the whole valley became full of its odours. One could have run a drag with only a crust and three drops of it. Once having opened the jar, the Arabs went for it wholesale. It served them for two purposes—for fodder, and as pomade for their raven locks. The manner in which they applied it did not make its consumption more appetising, for they dipped their long fingers into the jar and then ran them through their hair until the effect was gorgeously shiny—at a distance. At close quarters the odour rather negatived the picturesqueness. Of course I could have brought stores from Aden; but to have attempted to enter Yemen with anything like a caravan would have been impossible, as the suspicions of the Turks on the frontier would have been excited. I had decided to take as little as possible, so as to be able to pass as a poor Greek trader; nor had I laid my plans unsuccessfully, for the scarcity of stores was well compensated by the facilities I gained on account of having so small a quantity of baggage.