MERGE TO GYRENE. 509 pitch our tents here, we had first to burn away the stubble to destroy a species of venomous spider, from the bites of which we had two or three narrow escapes, saving ourselves only by killing them suddenly on the spot with a smart blow, the moment we saw them upon us.

Ghirrza, the scene of the extraordinary story so extensively propagated, being only within three or four miles of this place, occasioned me a restless night : so that early on the morning of the 9 th I eagerly sat off over the hills, and after a short ride the ruins of Ghirrza abruptly met my sight.

“ I instantly perceived the error of some writers, in ascribing cold springs and moving sands to this spot, for the site is mountainous and bare, presenting only dreary masses of lime and sandstone, intersected with the ramifications of the great wadie of Zemzem.

And although I had not allowed my imagination to rise at all in proportion to the exhilarating accounts I had heard, I could not but be sorely disappointed on seeing some ill-constructed houses of comparatively modern date, on the break of a rocky hill, and a few tombs at a small distance beyond the ravine. On approaching the latter I found them of a mixed style, and in very indifferent taste, ornamented with ill-proportioned columns and clumsy capitals. The regular architectural divisions of frieze and cornice being neglected, nearly the whole depth of the entablatures was loaded with absurd representations of warriors, huntsmen, camels, horses, and other animals in low relief, or rather scratched on the freestone of which they are constructed. The pedestals are mostly without a dye, and the sides bore a vile imitation of arabesque decoration. The human figures