hen suddenly numerous voices were heard
outside our abode, and the door was shaken with loud and repeated knocks.
We rose at once; the Lama, the camels, all had arrived; there was quite a
little revolution. The order of the day was instantly changed. We
resolved to depart, not on the Monday, but on the Tuesday; not in a car,
but on camels, in true Tartar fashion. We returned to our beds perfectly
delighted; but we could not sleep, each of us occupying the remainder of
the night with plans for effecting the equipment of the caravan in the
most expeditious manner possible.

Next day, while we were making our preparations for departure, our Lama
explained his extraordinary delay. First, he had undergone a long
illness; then he had been occupied a considerable time in pursuing a
camel which had escaped into the desert; and finally, he had to go before
some tribunal, in order to procure the restitution of a mule which had
been stolen from him. A law-suit, an illness, and a camel hunt were
amply sufficient reasons for excusing the delay which had occurred. Our
courier was the only person who did not participate in the general joy;
he saw it must be evident to every one that he had not fulfilled his
mission with any sort of skill.

All Monday was occupied in the equipment of our caravan. Every person
gave his assistance to this object. Some repaired our travelling-house,
that is to say, mended or patched a great blue linen tent; others cut for
us a supply of wooden tent pins; others mended the holes in our copper
kettle, and renovated the broken leg of a joint stool; others prepared
cords, and put together the thousand and one pieces of a camel's pack.
Tailors, carpenters, braziers, rope-makers, saddle-makers, people of all
trades assembled in active co-operation in the court-yard of our humble
abode. For all, great and small, among our Christians, were resolved
that their spiritual fathers should proceed on their journey as
comfortably as possible.

On Tuesday morning, there remained nothing to be done but to perforate
the nostrils of the camels, and to insert in the aperture a wooden peg,
to use as a sort of bit. The arrangement of this was left to our Lama.
The wild piercing cries of the poor animals pending the painful
operation, soon collected together all the Christians of the village. At
this moment, our Lama became exclusively the hero of the expedition. The
crowd ranged themselves in a circle around him;