The funniest old specimen of age, rags, and dirt made our coffee for us—as dishevelled an old witch as ever man set eyes upon. She is reported, in spite of her filthy condition, to be of great wealth—for the country, of course—and is apparently a well-known character upon the road. Quite a number of caravan-men, who happened to be resting there, kept up a continual volley of chaff, which reached its climax when, on hearing of her reported riches, I offered to become a Moslem, and lead her a blushing bride to the altar. She took it all in very good part, and laughed as much as her begrimed parchment-like skin would allow, but I feared now and again it would crack. On the road between Digishúb and the city of Dhamar are three sets of old Himyaric tanks, cut in the solid rock, as are, with the exception of a few where the nature of the country allows of some small gully being made use of, all the tanks of this period. Although resembling somewhat the tanks of Aden, there are here none of the natural advantages to be found at that place; for there the crater pours its water by aqueducts and natural channels into the tanks, which are built tier above tier in the wall of rock and between precipices. These between Digishúb and Dhamar, however, lie in the level plain, and are excavated. They are dependent entirely upon the rainfall for supply, and, as far as has been found possible, the water has been drained toward them; but this, owing to the dead level of the country, is to a very slight extent practicable. These tanks are circular in form, and of considerable size and depth. At one spot a flight of steps descends to the water’s edge, while a smaller tank above the steps can be filled from buckets, &c., for the animals to drink from. The entire tanks are lined with intensely hard cement, which takes a peculiar polish, and on one were visible rough designs of men on horseback, and gazelle, scratched into the plaster evidently at the time it was originally applied. The extraordinarily perfect condition in which these tanks are to-day, steps and all, speaks to the excellence of the workmanship of those who excavated and built them; and the caravans are still mainly dependent upon these extremely antique reservoirs for water for the men and their beasts of burden.