The mode of making butter in vogue at this village was very peculiar.  The cream was put into a leathern bottle, and shaken about on the ground until the butter consolidated.  It was then put into another bottle filled with water, and finally turned out as white as snow.

Next day, when they rested during the heat, the guide of the caravan endeavoured to procure her a little shelter from the glare of the pitiless sun by laying a small cover over a couple of poles stuck into the ground.  But the place shaded was so small, and the tent so frail, that she was compelled to sit quietly in one position, as the slightest movement would have involved it in ruin.  Shortly afterwards, when she wished for some refreshment, nothing could be procured but lukewarm water, bread so hard that it could not be eaten until thoroughly soaked, and a cucumber without salt or vinegar.

At a village near Kerka the caravan tarried for two days.  On the first day Madame Pfeiffer’s patience was sorely tried.  All the women of the place flocked to examine the stranger.  First they inspected her clothes, then wanted to take the turban off her head; and, in fact, proved themselves most troublesome intruders.  At last Madame Pfeiffer seized one of them by the arm, and turned her out of her tent so quickly that she had no time to think of resistance.  By the eloquence of gesture our traveller made the others understand that, unless they withdrew at once, a similarly abrupt dismissal awaited them.  She then drew a circle round her tent, and forbade them to cross it; an injunction which was strictly respected.

She had now only to settle with the wife of her guide, who had besieged her the whole day, pressing as near as possible, and petitioning for some of her “things.”  Fortunately her husband came on the scene, and to him Madame Pfeiffer preferred her complaint, threatening to leave his house and seek shelter elsewhere,—­well knowing that the Arabs consider this a great disgrace.  He immediately ordered his wife to desist, and the traveller was at peace.  “I always succeeded,” says Madame Pfeiffer, “in obtaining my own will.  I found that energy and boldness influence all people, whether Arabs, Persians, Bedaween, or others.”  But for this strong will, this indomitable resolution, Madame Pfeiffer assuredly could not have succeeded in the enterprises she so daringly undertook.  Even for a man to have accomplished them would have earned our praise; what shall we not say when they were conceived and carried out by a woman?

Towards evening, she says, to her great delight a caldron of mutton was set on the fire.  For eight days she had eaten nothing but bread, cucumbers, and some dates; and therefore had a great desire for a hot and more nutritious meal.  But her appetite was greatly diminished when she saw their style of cookery.  The old woman (her guide’s mother) threw several handfuls of small grain, and a large