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Young Knights of the Empire

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great red ruined castle, called by the Arabs "The Tooth." Then we got into a deep ravine with red sandy cliffs on either side, and marching up its rocky bed we finally got in among the mountains, and there made our camp. After getting our tent pitched, and while the men were finding firewood, my wife and I started a bit of engineering work in order to obtain a water supply. We cleared out the little trickle of water which we found in the river bed, and digging a hollow in the sandy bed, we planted in it our india rubber bath, and diverted the trickle so that it ran into this, and so gave us a standing supply of clear water for our camp. It was quite a triumph of engineering, though we got pretty wet and muddy in carrying it out. Then we went exploring among the hills, following up our gorge. We soon found that it became a narrow fissure between the mountains, so narrow that the overhanging rocks often nearly touched each other high above our heads. It was a most weird place--exactly the sort of spot where one might expect a dragon to dwell. * * * * * ARAB POLITENESS. A thing that strikes one about the Arabs is their politeness and readiness to do good turns. Every Arab we met as we tramped across the plains greeted us with "good morning" in Arabic or French, and, though it must be a strange sight to them to see a white lady walking, and a man in shorts and shirt-sleeves (for I always wear the Scout kit for camping), they never showed undue curiosity, and never thought of jeering at us as I fear would be the case in many places in England. [Illustration: AN ARAB TENT. The goatskin slung on a tripod is full of water for the use of the family.] If they saw our mules in trouble, or found us pitching our camp, they were always ready to lend a hand without any idea of getting a reward or a tip for doing so. They have a good deal of the Scout in them, and many tribes of them do not know what it is to live in a house-they are "nomads," that is, they are wanderers, and live always in tents, moving with their flocks and families from place to place where the grass gives the best pasture for their sheep and goats. Their tents are large, low, widespread awnings of black or brown goats'-hair cloth, supported on numerous short poles. The tent ropes stretch in various directions, and round the whole they put up a hedge or "zareeba" of thorn bushes to keep out the jackals, and to keep in their goats during the night. In front of the tent hangs a goatskin slung on a tripod, and full of water for the use of the family. Many Arabs are well behaved and hospitable to strangers. But all are not so polite: there are some tribes who are pretty cunning thieves. Our two Arabs always patrolled round our camp at night with loaded rifle and revolver to drive off any would-be robbers, and our mules were shackled up at night with "handcuffs" on their fetlocks, and these were locked to prevent them being stolen. * * * * * THE HOT SPRINGS OF HAMMAM MOUSKETINE. The first thing one notices about the hot springs of Hammam Mousketine which I mentioned above, is clouds of steam coming up out of the bushes at different points. Here you will find water bubbling up out of the ground and through a small mound of hard white or yellow crust. The water is boiling hot, and the crust is formed from salts and chemicals contained in the water drying on the surface. There are about a dozen of these springs and a large number of cones or mounds which have been springs, and which have choked themselves up or run dry. Half a dozen of these cones, of about ten feet high, stand together in a group, and the Arabs have a curious story about them, which I will tell you in the next paragraph. Also close by is a great waterfall about a hundred yards wide by fifty feet high, but all turned to stone by the same process. * * * * * THE ARAB MARRIAGE. A rich Arab named Ali Cassam had a beautiful sister named Ourida. Ali thought her the best woman in the world, and although she was his sister he determined to marry her. Such a marriage is considered just as unholy by the Mohammedans as it

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