On through the bazaars with their closed shops; on by narrow streets and byways, over which the tall houses seemed verily to hang suspended; across the bridge that spans what is at times a roaring torrent but was now but a dry bed; across a wide open space and through the dirty Jews’ quarter, and the garden suburb of Bir el-Azab; then out under the great town gateway with its strange towers, on which a shivering sentry or two kept guard, into the open country. A long level road leads one from the city across the surrounding plain, a road as good as one could expect to find in England. Then a range of bare hills seems to block the way, and one begins to climb up and up by the winding twisting track, until the summit is reached. Looking back, a fine view of Sanaa was obtained, lying on the spur of Jibel Negoum, backed by still higher mountains. To right and left extended the valley, until some way off to the north one could see the town of Raudha, where not a month before the rebels had blown up the Turkish barracks and some twenty-five soldiers with gunpowder. From this spot one could obtain a better idea than we had as yet been able to do of the size of Sanaa, as it lay mapped out below us, a great flat-roofed city, dull yellow and white, upon still yellower and whiter plains, the only break in which were the gardens at Bir el-Azab. At the summit of the ascent a plateau is reached scattered with villages, now all more or less knocked down by the Turkish artillery, after the road from Hodaidah had been forced, and the Arab Shereef, Sid esh-Sheraï, dislodged from Hajarat el-Mehedi, a spot a few miles farther on. Over the plateau the road proceeded tolerably straight, though the going was by no means good, in spite of the fact that the track was a wide one. But its repair had evidently been neglected for a time, and it was strewn with stones. After the sun had risen it became very warm, but it was a change for the better from the miserable cold of the early morning, and, weak as I was from fever, I was glad to get off my mule for a time and stretch my limbs by walking.