conveyances would be useless; so people always travel on camels, or mules, or donkeys, or on horses, as we did. It was now about six o'clock, and just outside the gate the inhabitants of Yâfa were enjoying their pipes in the shade of the city, for the sun was going down toward the sea. Others were riding and galloping along the broad sandy road, which led us to a pleasant bridle path between hedges of a gigantic kind of cactus—the opuntia—the large, fleshy, thick-jointed stems of which were fringed with yellow flowers, promising a rich harvest of prickly pears. These formidable hedgerows rising from two to eight, and sometimes even ten or twelve feet in hight, were wreathed with graceful creepers, the briony, the clematis, and the wild vine twining their tendrils together. Our Crimean friend suggested that such a cactus hedge would prove an impenetrable barrier to advancing cavalry. This pleasant sandy path led us for three or four miles between beautiful fruit gardens, where the palm-tree, laden with golden fruit, towered high above all other trees. Oranges, lemons, pistachios, apricots, almonds, and mulberries were ripening. The pomegranate-tree showed its thick clusters of scarlet flowers, and acacias, locust-trees, tamarisks, silvery olives, and broad-leaved fig-trees flourished. It was about half-past six when we reached the open country beyond the extensive and well-cultivated gardens of Yâfa. The sun was going down behind us, over the sea. The far-away hills toward which we were journeying, east by south, were crowned with glowing red, while purple night shadows were rising rapidly. We passed through fields of mallows and gardens of cucumbers, with tents or little stone lodges for the gardeners scattered here and there.
The sun went down. Vultures and kites were sweeping through the air. As the darkness increased, our little party, consisting of six muleteers, our servants, and ourselves, assembled together to keep in close company for the rest of the way.
We could distinguish parties of field-laborers and oxen
