We Desired Him To
Get Some Tea For Himself, And He Soon Recovered; His Spirits Never
Forsaking Him.
In consequence of these delays, it was rather late, past nine o'clock,
before we set forward.
I had provided myself with a pair of crape
spectacles and a double veil, but I speedily discarded both; the crape
fretted my eye-lashes, and would have produced a greater degree of
irritation than the sand. A much better kind are those of wire, which
tie round the head with a ribbon, and take in the whole eye. Though
the sun was rather warm, its heat was tempered by a fresh cold air,
which blew across the desert, though not strongly enough to lift the
sand; we, therefore, travelled with much less inconvenience than is
sustained upon a turnpike-road in England in dusty weather. I could
not endure to mar the prospect by looking at it through a veil, and
found my parasol quite sufficient protection against the rays of the
sun.
The kafila, which we had passed the preceding evening, overtook us
soon after we started. It consisted of a long train of camels, and
belonged to the native governor of Jiddah, who was proceeding to that
place with, his wife and family, a native vessel being in waiting
at Suez to take him down the Red Sea. We saw several females wrapped
closely from head to foot in long blue garments, mounted upon these
camels. The governor's wife travelled in a sort of cage, which I
recognised immediately, from the description in Anastatius.
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