At dawn we were off, our caravan augmented by a couple of Arab soldiers in the service of the Turks, who, by the by, would have proved of little advantage in an attack, as they were armed solely with spears; but in all probability they were sent to watch my movements. The Turks employ a very considerable number of these soldiers in their service, many being of the class of “Akhdam,” probably descendants of the Abyssinians who invaded the Yemen in A.D. 525; while others come from Yaffa and Hadramaut, and are ready to fight against any one so long as pay and booty are to be obtained. We left Yerim by a gate to the north of the city, near which is a picturesque stone mosque, with a white dome, which I had failed to notice the previous day. Emerging through the gateway, the track proceeds for a time along a straight level road, lying below the slopes of Jibel Samára, on which a few Arabs, mounted on ponies, were galloping to and fro, with the evident purpose of thrilling me with their equestrian powers. They were good riders certainly, and very picturesque they looked with their long black hair waving behind them, and the rising sun sparkling on their polished spear-heads. The level surface of the plateau over which we were passing made one forget the great altitude we had reached; and such is the appearance of the surrounding country, that one could scarcely realise that one was not on some low level plain, but at an elevation of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level.