The clay is porous, and keeps the water deliciously cool.
By four o'clock next morning all was ready for a start.

The caravan consisted of eighteen camels, four Baluchis, Kamoo, and Gerome, with an escort of ten soldiers of the Djam of Beila, smart-looking, well-built fellows in red tunics, white baggy trousers, and dark-blue turbans.

Each man, armed with a Snider rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition, was mounted on a rough, wiry-looking pony.

As we were starting, Chengiz Khan rode up on a splendid camel, and announced his intention of accompanying us the first stage, one of eighteen miles, to Shekh-Raj.
Here the honest fellow bade us good-bye.

"The sahib will not forget me when he gets to India," he said, on leaving, thereby implying that he wished to be well reported to the Indian Government.