low. The horses, with great avidity, sucked up the mud which was thrown out of it. Strong sand wind from the southward. April 10th.—A t 6. 10. A. M. set off. A t 7 cleared the pass, and proceeded to a small wadey, where, in spite of a strong Siroc, we succeeded in pitching our tents. The sand, however, flew about in such quantities, that we were unable to prepare any food, and we could not even see thirty yards from us. Mukni took shelter with us, and advised that we should strip to our shirts, as the lightest way of withstanding the sand showers. Mr. Ritchie here presented him with one of our tents, it being much superior to his own. In the afternoon, the wind having a little subsided, we cleared away the heaps of sand which had collected round our goods, and allowed the camels to graze on the small bushes until 3 o’clock. We found, on examining some of our stores, that a large organ had been burst by the heat, and excessive dryness of the wind; a discovery by no means welcome to us. A t 8. 15. P. M. struck our tent, and again made our way over the plain until 7, when we stopped amongst some palms, which were thickly planted in a range of sand hills. There were two wells of tolerably fresh water at this place, which is called Hammam, *UU Prom hence we could easily have made our way to Sockna ; but as the Sultan preferred entering in the morning, we were content to stop, and get our heads shaved, as well as to enjoy a good washing, which was very requisite, as we were not over clean. The Sultan’s people were also employed in preparing themselves; and a large convoy of drummers, bag-pipers, and others, joined us in the night, mounted on asses, in order to precede his majesty to his city of Sockna. April 11th.—A t 7 A. M. proceeded with the Sultan and his escort, but found we were sadly in the back-ground with respect to outward appearance. Unfortunately we had not thought it necesl i i till! jjjgg i l l if § in i l [ Sill
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