At twelve o’clock, the caravan, whose course was E.S.E. passed through the town of Tajarah, a miserable collection of clay-walled huts, of which some were covered with terrace, and the rest with roofs of thatch: but wretched as the buildings are, the country around them abounds with date trees, among which a few of the olive are intermixed. At five the caravan encamped for the night upon a sandy eminence. No sooner were the camels unburthened of their loads, than their drivers turned them loose to feed on the stubble of the valleys, and on the brambles of the adjacent hills; but though their freedom is thus given them, they never stray to a greater distance than that of two or three hundred paces from the camp. The loads in the mean time are piled in a circle, and, except at the narrow opening which forms the entrance, are stowed as close as possible to each other. Within this circle the Merchants and drivers and servants spread their mats and carpets. Here, also, they light their fires and dress their victuals; and without any other covering than their alhaiques or blankets (for very few are furnished with a tent) lie down amidst the heavy dews and occasional storms of rain that fall upon the coast, and sleep as soundly as in a bed: for the wetness of their cloaths, which is often the consequence of this exposure, is little regarded, and from the salubrity of the climate, is attended with little inconvenience. Mr. LUCAS’s tent being spread, the two Shereefs, with three of their friends, took up their quarters with him: and on the first appearance of supper, which was served in a large wooden dish, and consisted of dried meat, and of flour formed into balls, and dressed in steam, they all sat down with the familiarity of near relations, and dipping their right hands into the dish, without either spoons or forks or knives, devoured, with a voracious and disgusting haste, the whole that was set before them. The conclusion of the meal was followed by the ceremony of washing, which consisted in each man’s dipping his right hand into the same water which his companions had used. Coffee being then brought in, they lighted their pipes, and each of them having drank three or four dishes as he smoaked, they laid themselves down in their cloaths, upon the bare sand, and conversed together till they talked themselves to sleep. February 2d. The next morning, at day-break, the drivers began to re-load the camels: at eight o’clock the caravan was again in motion; from which time till half an hour after four, they travelled amidst dreary hills of loose and barren sand, where they saw neither man nor beast, neither wood nor water. A small valley between the hills, from which, to their great annoyance, the shifting sand was continually blown down upon them, was the place of their encampment; a place entirely destitute of water, but from this circumstance they felt no sort of inconvenience, as they had brought with them, in goat skins, an ample store.