Soon Mr. Catafago took Lady Hester to pass some time at Nazareth. The little town, twin sister of the towns of Umbria or Tuscany, dispersed in terraces its bright-coloured houses on the slope where cyprus-trees perched. And the Eastern sky possessed Italian charms. Bruce brought back from an excursion to Tiberias a fantastic Arab. He was no one less than the celebrated Burckhardt, Sheik Ibraham as he had himself called. Tall, strong, shaped like a Hercules, with a broad German face, prominent eyes, badly placed teeth and an air of assurance, he displeased Lady Hester. He quitted Syria definitely for Egypt, after having travelled for two years over the unexplored regions of Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon and Hauran. None of Lady Hester's companions knew at that time that he was travelling on account of the Geographical Society. In July, Lady Hester returned to St. Jean d'Acre to organise the departure. The caravan passed the gates of the town at sunset. The noise and the confusion were frightful. The majority of the Christian servants had never ridden on horseback; and the horses, accustomed by their Arab masters to rear, dance, neigh and play a thousand tricks on leaving the villages, added to the confusion. Shouts from the drivers, yells of fright from the servants.... Mrs. Fry, the English lady's-maid, worried and ill at ease in her masculine habiliments, persisted in wishing to ride as an Amazon, at a time when all women in the East rode astride. The camels became entangled in their leading-reins and threw the line into disorder when it was scarcely reestablished. With time and blows, all was settled. The doctor and the janissary Hadji Ali took the head of the march. In the darkness, beasts and men wandered from the torrent-bed which served as a track. Suddenly, noises and tumults in the rear; the camel carrying the medicine-case had just fallen into a ravine. He was got out again unhurt; but the doctor did not dare to open the box. Poor medicine-case, collected with great difficulty in Egypt to replace that lost off Rhodes, it had truly no chance! The route seemed sometimes an alley in an English park, well sanded, bordered by green Aleppo pine-trees, alternating automatically with thickets of cactus, crested with roses and yellows, sometimes a path of rocks fit to break the bones. Ruins ended by being engulfed on the seashore. The road climbed interminably. From a rocky point they saw in the far distance Tyre like a little fishing barque stranded on the beach. The slowness of the journey was full of charms. Sometimes they passed naked women who were washing their linen at the fountain and who, without being troubled the least in the world at the sight of them, carelessly turned their backs. They had just traversed the Nalsr and Kasimaze when five blind men emerged suddenly, holding each other by the shoulders and walking one after the other. These joyous fellows astonished them by their pleasant appearance and their merry air.