An account of Palmyra and Zenobia Author:William Wright Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ENTABLATURE OF iiRANli ENTRANCE, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER IV. r I HE halt gave me an opportunity of estimating the - magnitude and organization of o... more »ur party. Two cavaliers stood out conspicuous from all the others. They were Gazawy, the dragoman, the same who brought " Sheikh Stanley" through "Sinai and Palestine," and a Moslem sheikh, brought from Nebk as guide to the expedition. Gazawy was the prince of dragomans; his weakness, perhaps his strength, was to have everything of the best, and always ten times more than enough. The long line of laden mules carried, I believe, provisions for the party for twelve months. Booted and braced, he sat on a splendid horse, called the " Steam Engine," as if he were a part of the horse, and viewed the long cavalcade with a smile of pride on his kindly, weather- beaten face. Gazawy's chief pride and glory that morning was his guide, chosen expressly on account of his radiant waistcoat. Half a mile from the village this guide lost theroad, and led us astray, and fell back to the rear, where he could do no harm. When a village would rise into sight before us, he would suddenly gallop up and declare it was " Sudud," or some other town that he knew was on our way; but as we saw Sudud far down on the plain to the left, we called the guide "Sudud" for the rest of the journey, and groped our way by the aid of an incorrect map. Our course during the day lay north-east over gently undulating ground. On our right was the bare northern shoulder of Kalamoun, which we were rounding, and to our left was the great plain which stretches away to Hums and Hamah. Green spots dotted the red expanse, and marked the sites of such towns as Kara, Hafr, and Sudud, the Zedad of Scripture, one of the border cities of the Land of Promise. That pla...« less