A long day's journeying, which to Cuthbert seemed interminable, found them on the low spit of sand which runs along by the side of the Dead Sea.

Behind, lofty rocks rose almost precipitously, but through a cleft in these the Arabs had made their way.

Cuthbert saw at once that they belonged to some desert tribe over whom the authority of Suleiman was but nominal.

When summoned for any great effort, these children of the desert would rally to his armies and fight for a short time; but at the first disaster, or whenever they became tired of the discipline and regularity of the army, they would mount their camels and return to the desert, generally managing on the way to abstract from the farms of those on their route either a horse, cattle, or some other objects which would pay them for the labours they had undergone.
They were now near the confines of their own country, and apparently had no fear whatever of pursuit.

They soon gathered some of the dead wood cast on the shores of the sea, and with these a fire was speedily lighted, and an earthenware pot was taken down from among their baggage: it was filled with water from a skin, and then grain having been placed in it, it was put among the wood ashes.