In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of one's country."[221] In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable energy in conducting researches under the most untoward conditions.[222] So highly did the French government value the part Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work--that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. As an archaeologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss Harriet Boyd--now Mrs. C. H. Hawes--has achieved an international reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is a frequent contributor to archaeological journals; but it is upon her splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest. Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, _circa_ 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries which rewarded her labors during the following three years.