Very few seemed engaged in any occupation. One woman I observed spinning cotton and two or three busy about their domestic concerns; but the many were enjoying _il dolce fur niente_ of the Italians. They were almost all miserably clad; the clothes of both sexes were in rags, the children naked, and girls from fourteen to sixteen, with beautiful forms, and extremely graceful and elegant in their movements, had merely a covering which extended from the waist to a little above the knee. This ceinture, or _rat_, as it is called in Arabic, is made of thin thongs of hippopotamus hide, and fancifully ornamented with beads and small shells. The number of thongs is so great, that it fully serves its purpose as a covering. They wear it till they are married; an event, however, which often takes place before they are twelve years of age. _Dacker.—Feb._ 12. We left the village of Marwal at seven, and encamped here at sunset. Our route has this day, also, been alternately in the mountains and on the banks of the river. We observe the same poverty, the same sterility; villages of about a dozen houses each, constructed, in the rudest manner, of stones piled on each other. The cultivated land on the banks is never more than fifty paces wide, often not twenty, and in some parts the barren rocks extend to the river. We met, this morning, another troop of a cavalry regiment, returning by the desert from Khartoun. We shall, no doubt, meet traces of their passage,—dead camels, if not men. Some of their animals could scarcely crawl, and one of them dropped on the ground unable to proceed any farther. The master, a Turk, seemed very much concerned; but whether for the value of the beast, or real attachment to his fellow traveller, I will not decide; yet, in justice to his humanity, I must relate, that, when the Arabs wished to stab and cut it up for food, he refused his consent. Finding, however, that it was impossible the animal could proceed, or even live many hours, he ordered his servant to shoot it with his musket. This showed some feeling; for had he left it to die on the road, the Arabs would have killed it with their knives, and then could lawfully have eaten it. They were very much disappointed at being deprived of their repast, and considered it quite a waste of valuable food. We have passed the village and temple of Dandour (on the other bank), and are now encamped opposite the temple and village of Dacker.[4] Adjoining is a Roman inclosure of large extent with towers, constructed of unburnt bricks. There are no traces of a temple within the inclosure; but contiguous to the south-east corner are some fragments of a room still adorned with hieroglyphics and sculpture, but too much defaced for us to discover the subject. The style is very wretched, and evidently Roman. Mountains of hornblende and sandstone.