31st May.  I had never seen such numerous herds of camels as I did today; there might possibly have been more than 7,000 or 8,000.  As most of them were unloaded and carried only a few tents, or women and children, it was probably the wandering of a tribe in search of a more fruitful dwelling-place.  Among this enormous number, I saw only a few camels that were completely white.  These are very highly prized by the Arabians; indeed, almost honoured as superior beings.  When I first saw the immense herd of these long-legged animals appearing in the distant horizon, they looked like groups of small trees; and I felt agreeably surprised to meet with vegetation in this endless wilderness.  But the wood, like that in Shakspere’s Macbeth, shortly advanced towards us, and the stems changed into legs and the crowns into bodies.

I also observed a species of bird today to which I was a complete stranger.  It resembled, in colour and size, the small green papagien, called paroquets, except that its beak was rather less crooked and thick.  It lives, like the earth-mouse, in small holes in the ground.  I saw flocks of them at two of the most barren places in the desert, where there was no trace of a blade of grass to be discovered, far and wide.

Towards 10 o’clock in the morning, we halted for two hours only at Chan Nasri, as I was resolved to reach Hilla today.  The heat rose above 134 degrees Fah.; but a hot wind, that continually accompanied us, was still more unbearable, and drove whole clouds of hot sand into the face.  We frequently passed half-ruined canals during the day.

The chans upon this road are among the best and the most secure that I have ever met with.  From the exterior, they resemble small fortresses; a high gateway leads into a large court-yard, which is surrounded on all sides by broad, handsome halls built with thick brick walls.  In the halls, there are niches arranged in rows; each one being large enough to serve three or four persons as a resting-place.  Before the niches, but also under the halls, are the places for the cattle.  In the court-yard, a terrace is also built five feet high for sleeping in the hot summer nights.  There are likewise a number of rings and posts for the cattle in the court, where they can be in the open air during the night.

These chans are adapted for whole caravans, and will contain as many as 500 travellers, together with animals and baggage; they are erected by the government, but more frequently by wealthy people, who hope by such means to procure a place in heaven.  Ten or twelve soldiers are appointed to each chan as a guard.  The gates are closed in the evening.  Travellers do not pay anything for staying at these places.

Some Arabian families generally live outside the chans, or even in them, and they supply the place of host, and furnish travellers with camel’s milk, bread, coffee, and sometimes, also, with camel’s or goat’s flesh.  I found the camel’s milk rather disagreeable, but the flesh is so good that I thought it had been cow-beef, and was greatly surprised when my guide told me that it was not.