A breakfast was brought to us of eggs swimming in hot butter and honey,
with the usual Arab cakes of bread. The crowd could not be kept off; and
the people themselves told us it was because they had never before seen
Europeans.

One man asked for some gunpowder from my horn. I gave some to Asaad, and
one of the villagers took a pinch of it from him; then went to a little
distance, and another brought a piece of lighted charcoal to make it
explode on his hand. He came to me afterwards, to show with triumph what
good powder it must be, for it had left no mark on his skin.

Ibn Simhhan had to make the people move away their lighted pipes while I
was giving him some of the precious powder. He then informed the
assembly that I had come to see _Hharrasheh_ and the sculptured figures.
They refused to allow it. He insisted that I should go; and after some
violent altercation and swearing the majority of the men ran to arm
themselves and accompany us, so as to prevent us from carrying off the
hidden treasures.

We rode away; and at every few hundred yards places were pointed out to
us as sites of clan massacres, or wonderful legends, or surprising
escapes, in deep glens or on high hills. At one time we passed between
two cairns of stones, one covering a certain 'Ali, the other a certain
Mohammed, both slain by ---. "By whom?" said I. The Hadji gave no other
reply than pointing over his shoulder to Asaad. I felt as if transported
a couple of centuries back to the wilds of Perthshire or Argyleshire,
among the Highland clans. The local scenery was of a suitable character.

In about forty minutes we arrived at some lines of big stones, that must
have belonged to some town of enormous or incalculable antiquity; and
this, they told us, was _Hharrasheh_. As for columns, the people told us
to stoop into a cavern; but there we could perceive nothing but a piece
of the rock remaining as a prop in the middle. "Well, now for the
figures of the children of men." The people looked furious, and
screamed. They gathered round us with their guns; but Asaad insisted; so
a detachment of them led us down the side of a bare rocky hill, upon a
mere goat-path; and at last they halted before a rough, uncut stone,
whose only distinction from the many thousands lying about, was that it
stands upright.

Asaad observed our disappointment, and said something--I forget the exact
terms now--which led me to believe that this was not the obj