These words reanimated me, and we set off. I dragged myself along with difficulty till near midnight, when we came to a plain, in which the sand rose and fell in undulations: here we rested ourselves till day. The first dawn enabled us to perceive at a distance two objects, which we took for camels. My guide, alarmed, dug a hole in the sand, to conceal us; we got in up to the neck, leaving only our heads out. In this painful situation we remained with our eyes fixed on the supposed camels, when, about noon, Wardi exclaimed, “God be praised! they are only ostriches.” We got out of our grave with joy, and for the first time since our departure I ate a little cake and drank a drop of water. We remained there till night, awaiting the time to move forward. Being then in the midst of the sands, I suffered less in walking. We passed the next day in sleeping. We were opposite Palmyra, to the south. Daybreak, after the fourth night, overtook us at the bank of a large river called El Rahib, running from south to north; my guide stripped, and carried me on his back to the other side, and then returned for his clothes. I wished to rest myself, but he told me it would not be prudent to stop where the river was fordable. In fact, we had not proceeded half an hour, when we saw five hundred well-mounted Bedouins approaching the river, going from the east to the west. Having found some low bushes, we halted amongst them till night. The sixth night brought us within some hours of the Euphrates. The seventh day, the great difficulty was over; and if I had not suffered so much in my feet, I could have forgotten all my fatigues at the sight of the sunrise on the banks of that magnificent river. Some hospitable Bedouins, whose occupation it is to take people over from one side to the other, took us into their tents, where for the first time we made a hearty meal. We obtained intelligence respecting the Drayhy: he was at three days’ distance between Zaite and Zauer. He had made peace with the Emir Fahed, imposing tribute on him; they spoke to me of his military talents and his extreme courage, of his intention to annihilate Mehanna and Nasser, and to return to his desert near Bassora and Bagdad. These details were just as I was wishing: I took my resolution immediately. I asked for a guide to take me to the Drayhy, telling the Bedouins that I was a merchant of Aleppo, having a correspondent at Bagdad, who owed me twenty-five thousand piastres, and who had just become bankrupt: that the war between the Bedouins had intercepted the communications, and I had no other resource than to risk myself alone, and put myself under the protection of the Drayhy to get to Bagdad, where all my fortune was at stake. These kind Bedouins offered vows to Allah that I might recover my money; and Wardi himself took more interest in my journey, when he understood its importance. After having passed the day in examining the tribe Beni Tay, we