The land of the Moors; a comprehensive description . -venience or accommodation for travellers. * Such was the experience of one day, but it has had « Only once, in all my wanderings, have I had a worse experience,and that was when becalmed for twenty-eight hours in a basket-boat ona flood between the Tigris and Euphrates, within sight of Baghdad: ahorse, two donkeys, four boatmen, a married couple, a soldier and my-self in a circular kofifa—pitched within and without—ten feet in dia-meter- a cold wind driving spray which froze. Further details are betterimagined. During the night the boatmen
The land of the Moors; a comprehensive description . -venience or accommodation for travellers. * Such was the experience of one day, but it has had « Only once, in all my wanderings, have I had a worse experience,and that was when becalmed for twenty-eight hours in a basket-boat ona flood between the Tigris and Euphrates, within sight of Baghdad: ahorse, two donkeys, four boatmen, a married couple, a soldier and my-self in a circular kofifa—pitched within and without—ten feet in dia-meter- a cold wind driving spray which froze. Further details are betterimagined. During the night the boatmen ate my store of biscuits forthe months ride to Damascus. MOORISH ROADS 419 Quagmires. fellows. Sometimes for many a weary mile the roadslie over rich loamy soil, little the better forseveral days sun, cut up for a hundred yardson either side by the feet of cattle. The best-lookingpaths are sun-dried but on top, and as soon as a luck-less rider gets well on, the crust gives way, and his poorbeast, after a plunge or two, meekly settles down with. A WAYSIDE WELL. (Province of Rakdmna.) The Authors servant drawing water. Photograph by Dr. Rudduck. his legs buried over the houghs, needing several men toextricate it, one or two at each side, and one at thetail. Treacherous and muddy streams have constantlyto be crossed, a bare-legged man going first to soundfor a bottom, and the riders following down one steepbank, through a bog, and up another, liver in have seen eleven out of seventeen loaded beastssink one after another more quickly than I could count, 420 REMINISCENCES OF TRAVEL in a comparatively passaHle-looking slough of some twenty yards wide on a level plain. When an animal goes in thus, it lies down patiently: if it has a rider he must dismount, although he may go in himself halfway up his calves, and if it is loaded, unless there are men at hand to lend assistance, its load will probably have to be taken off and repacked when on firmer ground. When a wide rive
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