These couplets were accompanied by the gestures of the Arabs, who also sung the burden in chorus. At the last couplet, a new kind of accompaniment was heard. It was the distant sound which had attracted my notice on the two preceding nights; first like the distant whispering, but which, as it drew near, assumed a strange and melancholy character. It was like dull and distant groans, in the midst of which were soon distinguished mournful lamentations, interrupted by prolonged sighs and piercing howls. It reminded me of a passage in the Lady of the Lake: Then rose the cry of females shrill, And wretchedness and woe. One might have supposed that the noise was the shrieks of women and children on the point of being massacred. I confess that I was greatly alarmed. I thought that the neighbouring khan was attacked, and that I heard the shrieks of the dying. I called Bechara. "Oh!" said he, "do not let these cries disturb you; they are a mere nothing. The wind has spread about the smell of your sheep, and the jackals and hyenas are come to ask for their share. Luckily, nothing is left but the bones. You will soon hear them much better, and you will not only hear them, but if you throw some dry wood on the fire, you will see them prowling about. I followed Bechara's advice for two reasons; first, because I knew that fire frightens off wild-beasts; secondly, because on the whole I was not sorry to make the acquaintance of the new personages with whom we had to deal. In fact, no sooner was the flame sufficiently bright to illuminate a circle of sixty paces, than we saw at the extremity of the radius, half in light and half in shade, appearing only to vanish, and vanishing only to re-appear, the musicians of the concert which had puzzled me for three successive nights. This time they prowled round us within gun-shot, howling in such a way, that they seemed stimulating each other to attack us, and advancing so far into the light, that we could not only distinguish jackals and hyenas, but even observe the hair bristling on the backs of the latter. We had only pistols and daggers, and I confess, that the notion of a close combat with such adversaries was far from pleasing. So I called my friend Bechara, and asked what it would be necessary to do in case of a siege. He answered that there was no danger, and that our enemies would keep at a respectful distance from the camp; but, on the contrary, if there had been near us a carcass of a man or animal, nothing would check them, and that what ought to be done in this case, would be to throw the body out of the enclosure, and abandon it to them, provided that they would leave us quiet. I thought of the unfortunate sheep which we had dissected, and I turned towards it. But I was reassured, on perceiving that it was no longer a carcass, but a skeleton. I had a notion of throwing it to them, such as it was, but I feared that they might regard such a measure as an impertinent joke, and come to demand satisfaction. The Arabs looked upon the circumstance as a matter of perfect indifference. They made all their little preparations for the night, and then lay down fraternally side by side with their camels. One alone remained awake as sentinel, and he kept watch, I believe, far more on account of our twofooted neighbours, than our four-pawed marauders. We retired to our tent and stretched ourselves on our carpet. We chatted for some time about the Roise of this music; finally, fatigue prevailed over our anxiety. Our eyes closed in spite of ourselves, and we slept as sound as if we had been lulled by a sonata, or a symphony. XIV. THE CONVENT OF MOUNT SINAI. : THE next day was one of the worst we had yet endured; the road was covered with heaps of round stones, forming a slippery bed, over which our dromedaries stumbled at every step. We were entering the narrow passes close to Sinai, and the heat was greatly augmented by that reflected from the mountain, naked from base to peak, which we were passing. Never had a halt been so anxiously desired scarcely had we come to a fit place, when we threw ourselves under our tent. For the first time, the Arabs, on their side, took off the covering from their dromedaries to form a screen, which they supported by their long lances. Our camels themselves, those indefatigable coursers of the Desert, appeared to feel the severe influence of this toilsome day. They languidly stretched out their long necks, and dug the sand with their long noses, to seek in a second stratum, the coolness which was wanting at the surface. Still, great as was our want of repose, the halt was brief. It was necessary to set out early, in order to choose a place of encampment before night. We were again entering upon the domain of serpents, lizards, and other reptiles. There was not a breath of air; the heat was stifling; the hours appeared endless; questions respecting the distance we had to travel, were answered by the eternal "There it is!" accompanied by the corresponding gesture. The tongue clung to the palate, and the scorching rays of the sun, right in our face, burned cheeks, lips, and eyes. Yet this was the moment Bechara chose to give his song a loudness and extent, which we had not previously known. It appears that this infernal temperature excited the Arabs to gaiety; for a general chorus followed his first couplet, and was religiously renewed after every other. I know nothing so fatiguing as even good music when a person is in a bad humour; it is therefore easy to guess how the charivari to which we were listening shattered our nerves. Let any one judge then what it was, perched fifteen feet high, on a wooden saddle, to hear Bechara's solo, and a chorus of Bedouins. Still, I was too polite to impose silence on the musical amateurs, who appeared to find their concert so delightful, that it would have been a sin to undeceive them. I profited by a short pause to ask Bechara for a translation of the verses he was singing. I hoped, that while explaining the subject, he would forget the song. "Look," said he, describing with his arm a semicircle, which embraced all the landscape |