At length, after seven days of fever, a steamer arrived in the port, and I saw means of getting to Aden. Saying good-bye to Dr Ahmed on the rickety little pier, down one of the supports of which I was obliged to clamber in order to reach the rowing-boat, as the steps had been washed away, or never built, I forget which, I shook off the dust of Hodaidah from my feet, and in an hour or so was aboard an English steamer, having a yarn with an English captain and mate. In a few days we were back once more in Aden, arriving on the very day on which quarantine from the Red Sea ports was removed, so that I was only detained half an hour on the hulk Hyderabad, in place of the seven days I had feared I would have to undergo. The welcome I received from all friends here was very kind, and many a laugh we enjoyed together over my adventures in the Yemen. * * * * * Just as my journey was then concluded, so is my account of it finished now. A year has passed since I left the country, and yet its every detail is as clear to me as if it had all happened yesterday. As I lay down my pen I conjure up in my mind the desert-rides under a myriad of brilliant stars; I feel upon my cheek the soft balmy southern breeze; I see again our little party hiding in the gullies, and creeping on by night over the terrible rough roads of the mountains. Once more, warned by an unknown friend, I escape by night from Beit Saïd; once more, but this time with a smile, I spend five days a prisoner in the _conàk_ of Sanaa. Once more I pass through the great valleys and descend to the desert, and I shudder over the remembrance of nights and days of fever—a fever that clung to me for months. Yet my recollections of the country are ones that I shall always treasure; and in spite of dangers and sickness, in spite of long marches and days in prison, the Yemen will always be for me, at least, Arabia Felix. FOOTNOTES [1] In 1871 the rainfall at Aden was only one-fourth of an inch. [2] Hist. gen. des Voyages, vol. xxxi. p. 438. [3] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 22. [4] Ibid., pp. 135-139. [5] Sailing Directions for the Red Sea. [6] Kay’s translation of Omarah’s Yemen, 1892. [7] Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892. [8] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 4. [9] Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 68. [10] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 43, 44. [11] Kay’s Omarah. London, 1892. [12] Professor Sayce’s “Ancient Arabia” and “Results of Oriental Archæology,” in the Contemporary Review. [13] Human Origins. S. Laing, 1892. P. 94. [14] These measurements were made by Mons. D’Arnaud in 1843. [15] Vincent’s Periplus, vol. i. p. 53. [16] Koran, chap. lxxxv. [17] Akhdam, plural of Khedim, a word usually employed for a slave to-day. [18] Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892. [19] A list of the Imams of Sanaa will be found at the end of the book. [20] Niebuhr’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 85. [21] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 113, 114. [22] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 118, 119. [23] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 131.