I could not learn what
great or holy man was buried under it.
25th June. At 4 this morning we came to the place where our caravan
guide lived, a village about a mile from Kerku. His house was
situated, with several others, in a large dirty court-yard, which
was surrounded by a wall with only one entrance. This court-yard
resembled a regular encampment: all the inhabitants slept there;
and, besides these, there was no want of mules, horses, and asses.
Our animals immediately went to their stalls, and trod so near to
the sleepers, that I was quite anxious for their safety; but the
animals are cautious, and the people know that, and remain perfectly
quiet.
My Arab had been absent three weeks, and now returned only for a
very short time; and yet none of his family came out to greet him
except an old woman. Even with her, whom I supposed to be his
mother, he exchanged no kind of welcome. She merely hobbled about
here and there, but gave no help, and might as well have remained
where she was lying, as the others.
The houses of the Arabs consist of a single, lofty, spacious
apartment, separated into three parts by two partition walls, which
do not extend quite across to the front wall.
