as so many Guards, being watchful Animals, and awaking with the Least Noise.
As there was no Chance of meeting, in these long and dreery Deserts, with the least Hospitality or Entertainment, we were obliged to carry along with us all Things necessary for so long and tedious a Journey. We took Care, in the first Place, to provide ourselves with a sufficient Quantity of Goat's Skins, which we filled with Water, every four or five Days, or as often as we found it. Barley, with a few Beans intermixed; or else the Flour of one or other of them, made into Balls, was the Provender we laid in for our Camels. We provided for ourselves Wheat-Flour, Biscuit, Honey, Oyl, Vinegar, Olives, Lentils, potted Flesh, and such Things as would keep, during two Months, the Space commonly taken up in compleating the Journey. Nor should the Wooden Bason or Copper Pot be forgotten, that made up our Kitchen Furniture; the latter whereof was the necessary Utensil for cooking our Provision, the other for serving it up, or kneading our unleavened Cakes.
When we were either to boyl or bake, the Camels Dung that we found left by some preceeding Caravan[1] was our common Fuel; which, after it has been exposed a Day or two in the Sun, catches Fire like Touchwood, and burns as bright as Charcoal. No sooner was our Food prepared, (whether it was potted Flesh, boyled with Rice; a Lentil Soup; or unleavened Cakes, served up with Oyl or Honey;) than one of the Arabs, after having placed himself upon the highest Station he could find, invites three Times, with a loud Voice, all his Brethren, The Sons of the Faithful, to come and partake of it; though none of them were in View, or perhaps within a hundred Miles of us. This Custom however they maintain to be always a Token of their
- ↑ I Vox Persica est كاروان Cârvân, id est, Negotiator, vel collective Negotiatores; sc. tota eorum Cohors simul iter faciens, quæ Arabic قافلة Câfila vocatur. Hinc Mercatorum Hospitia publica quæ Arabibus audiunt خان Cân, Persis كاروان سراي Cârvân Serâi nomimantur, i. e. Caravanæ hospitium. Nam Serâi est quævis Domus ampla; unde in Constantinopoli, Imperatoris Palatium fœminarum Turcis dicitur nomine Persico Serâi, Europæis minus bene Serail & Seraglio. Vid. Perit. Itinera Mundi. Ed. T. Hyde, p. 61.
