About The Middle Of The Afternoon A Soldier, Full Armed, Dashes Up
To Us In A Mad Gallop, Hands A Message To My Dragoman, And Then As
Rapidly Rides Back Again.
I am a little alarmed at this until I
learn that he has entrusted a writing to us to be delivered in
Jerusalem.
A little later I see another soldier leave the group in
which he is riding and gallop ahead across the open way to the
brow of a hill. There he dismounts, lays down his gun, takes the
robe, or blanket, on which he rode, spreads it upon the ground,
faces toward Mecca, and prostrates himself in prayer. The prayer
over, he dashes down to his party and they are off like the wind.
About four o'clock we passed near a little village, the only place
where I saw a house on that long afternoon ride. It is not safe
for any one to live outside the villages; hence there are no
isolated dwellings in all this region. We did not halt for one
moment, but kept pressing steadily on.
After five o'clock the plain was deserted; we saw from that time
neither man nor beast. I was cramped and painfully tired, and
feeling that if I could but walk for a few minutes it would be
quite a relief, I dismounted - quite a difficult thing to do and
keep from sprawling upon the ground. But I was no sooner off my
horse than Haleel was beside me, and my dragoman, who was at that
time nearly a hundred yards ahead of me, rode back and sternly
commanded:
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