Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/313

306 through my mind. "My spirit had climbed high," by reason of the very danger near, and "from the top of sense overlooked sense, to the significance and heart of things, rather than things themselves."

In rather less than half an hour, though it seemed more to me, the joyful cry of "El-hâmdoulillah!" "El-hâmdoulillah!"-"Praised be God!" — was echoed from one side to another, and soon Simeon, who had not been far off, was by my side, and the other men rejoined me. They had found the right road, and a way to reach it; so we started again, following the kawass.

We had to go down a very difficult and dangerous declivity. My horse, usually very sure-footed, stumbled forward over a smooth slab of inclined rock and some loose stones. I was very nearly thrown over his head — the excellence of my hunting-saddle saved me; but I was so shaken and startled that I trembled from head to foot, and was obliged to pause for a few minutes. A hookah, the Oriental panacea, was brought to me. It was so very dark down in that valley that I could scarcely distinguish one of the men from the other as they gathered round me. I soon recovered my composure and courage to proceed. We splashed through a stream, and scrambled up a steep embankment, and crossed a stony wady before we regained the proper route.

I had desired the kawass to fasten a white handkerchief over his head as a beacon for me. We were going up a hill, and I was watching this mark, when suddenly a circle of light appeared near it, like a nimbus, and was accompanied by a clicking noise. I found that our leader was preparing a light for his narghilé by a method which I had never before seen adopted, although it is a very common one.

The moistened Persian tumbac,which is used in parghilés and hookahs, can only be smoked by means of a piece of red-hot or live charcoal. The lover of tumbac, when on a