cept that a few additional huts or caves had been constructed in the lower town. In the course of the morning I observed some labourers busily engaged in excavating and forming one of these singular habitations, and, as the only tools employed consisted of a small kind of adze, to shape the stones, and the blade-bone of a bullock to dig out the earth and temper the mortar, it was somewhat surprising to remark the facility with which the work was executed. The inhabitants, who came in crowds to look at us, did not seem to be overburthened with clothing. The men wore a short pair of drawers and a loose cloth over their shoulders; and the women had a tanned skin, ornamented with shells, tied round their waists; while the children, both boys and girls, went entirely naked. The country round Dixan at this season of the year wore a scorched and desolate aspect. The only cattle left for the supply of the inhabitants were milch-goats and kids. Large herds of which were brought in by the shepherds every evening and folded near the skirts of the town, to protect them from the hyænas and other wild beasts which prowl about in the neighbourhood. Our rest during the two nights we stayed at Dixan was much disturbed by the howling of these ferocious animals, and the incessant barking of dogs which their approach occasioned. The howling of the hyæna is very peculiar, consisting of three distinct deep-toned cries; after which intervenes, a few minutes interval of silence, when the three cries are again repeated. The nights at Dixan were exceedingly fine; and from the heighth of our situation the stars appeared more brilliant, and consequently nearer to the eye than on the coast.
March 5th.—Having parted from our Hazorta friends, whose company we were not sorry to get rid of, we left Dixan, at six o'clock in the morning, attended by the Baharnegash; and proceeded with recruited spirits on our journey. Our course lay westward, and in about an hour we reached the lofty hill, on which stands the village of Hadehadid, where the women as we passed greeted us with the usual acclamation heli, li li li li li li li, which, as was observed in my former journal, resembles the ziroleet of the Syrians. We journeyed hence, nearly due
