"Pray tell him that I'll pay him for it," said he. "We'll
make that all right," I answered; and then we remounted,--not
without some difficulty on his part. "You should have let me rub in
that brandy," I said. "You can't conceive how efficaciously I would
have done it." But he made me no answer.
At noon we met a caravan of pilgrims coming up from Jordan. There
might be some three or four hundred, but the number seemed to be
treble that, from the loose and straggling line in which they
journeyed. It was a very singular sight, as they moved slowly along
the narrow path through the sand, coming out of a defile among the
hills, which was perhaps a quarter of a mile in front of us, passing
us as we stood still by the wayside, and then winding again out of
sight on the track over which we had come. Some rode on camels,--a
whole family, in many cases, being perched on the same animal. I
observed a very old man and a very old woman slung in panniers over
a camel's back,--not such panniers as might be befitting such a
purpose, but square baskets, so that the heads and heels of each of
the old couple hung out of the rear and front.
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