Their society was not very agreeable to me, for they were
well armed, and looked very savage. I should have preferred waiting
until daybreak, and going without them, but my guide assured me that
they were honest people; and trusting more to my good fortune than
his word, I mounted my horse about 1 o'clock at night.
4th August. I soon lost my fear, for we frequently met small
parties of three or four persons, who would scarcely have ventured
to travel at night if the road had been dangerous. Large caravans
also, of several hundred camels, passed us and took up the road in
such a way, that we were obliged to wait for half an hour to allow
them to pass.
Towards noon we entered a valley in which lay a town, which was
certainly large, but of such an unpretending appearance, that I did
not at once inquire what was its name. The nearer we approached the
more ruined it appeared. The walls were half fallen, the streets
and squares full of heaps of rubbish, and many of the houses were in
ruins; it seemed as if a pestilence or an enemy had destroyed it.
At last I asked its name, and could hardly believe that I had
understood it rightly when I was told that it was Tebris.
