The channel is a coarse sand, with here and there masses
of sheet rock and patches of thin vegetation.
At about half-past five P.M. we entered a suspicious-looking place. On
the right was a stony buttress, along whose base the stream, when there
is one, swings; and to this depression was our road limited by the
rocks and thorn trees which filled the other half of the channel.
[p.143] The left side was a precipice, grim and barren, but not so
abrupt as its brother. Opposite us the way seemed barred by piles of
hills, crest rising above crest into the far blue distance. Day still
smiled upon the upper peaks, but the lower slopes and the Fiumara bed
were already curtained with grey sombre shade.
A damp seemed to fall upon our spirits as we approached this Valley
Perilous. I remarked that the voices of the women and children sank
into silence, and the loud Labbayk of the pilgrims were gradually
stilled. Whilst still speculating upon the cause of this phenomenon, it
became apparent. A small curl of the smoke, like a lady’s ringlet, on the
summit of the right-hand precipice, caught my eye; and simultaneous
with the echoing crack of the matchlock, a high-trotting dromedary in
front of me rolled over upon the sands,—a bullet had split its
heart,—throwing the rider a goodly somersault of five or six yards.
