Page 430 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XX.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 403

been thrown, the piers of which alone re­
main. The upper part of these has fallen
in, and is replaced by rafters covered with
mats and about a foot of soil. They bent
so much with the weight of the camels,
'
that I hardly expected the cafila could cross

without some accident; but the Arabs take
these things very coolly. If one break
down, the caravans continue to fetch a long
circuit, until the Sultan sends some one to
repair it. Small bushes soon began to ap­
pear, and apprehensions of the Futhalis !; M
kept our party on the alert. It is an ani­
-
mating sight to observe a body of thirty or
forty Bedowins scouring across the plain on
either hand, their long hair floating in the
• :
wind, shouting the war song of their tribe,
or discharging their matchlocks as they
wheel around. Until I had seen the mag­
nificent manner in which these men man­

oeuvre their camels, I knew not what the
animal was capable of. They are stopped
as suddenly, turned, and in fact kept under
as complete command as a horse. The pace
of the animals I have seen in the Hejaz,
the peninsula of Sinai, and Egypt, when
2 d 2

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