"This traveller saw a Turk running down from a hillock, with despair in his looks. 'I am,' cried he, 'the most ill-fated man in the world. I have purchased, at an enormous rate, 200 young women, the finest of Greece and Georgia. I brought them up with great care, and now, when arrived at the age of marriage, I have come with them on my way to Bagdat, thinking to dispose of them to advantage. Alas! they are all now dying of thirst in this desert.' The traveller, going round the hillock, beheld a sight of horror. In the midst of twelve eunuchs and about a hundred camels, he saw all these girls, from twelve to fifteen years old, stretched on the ground in the agonies of a burning thirst and inevitable death. Some had already been buried; a larger number had fallen down by the side of their keepers, who had not sufficient strength left to bury them. On every hand were heard the sobs of the dying; and the cries of those in whom enough of life still remained, begging for a drop of water. The traveller hastened to open his flask, in which a little water was left, and was now offering it to one of these poor victims. 'You fool!' exclaims his Arabian conductor, 'would you have _us_ also to perish for want of water?' and with his arrow he laid the girl dead at his feet; laid hold of the bottle, and threatened the life of any one who dared to touch it. He advised the Turkish merchant to go on to Taïbu, where he would find water. 'No,' said the Turk, 'at Taïbu the robbers would carry off all my slaves.' The Arab forced the traveller to accompany him. At the moment of their departure, these unfortunates, losing the last ray of hope, uttered a piercing shriek: the Arab was affected, he took one of the girls, poured some drops of water on her burning lips, and placed her on his camel, intending her as a present for his wife. The poor girl fainted repeatedly on passing the dead bodies of her companions. The small stock of water of the travellers was soon exhausted, when they discovered a well of fresh clear water. Here, disconcerted by the depth of the well, and the shortness of their rope, they tore their clothes into strips, which they tied together, and, with this frail cordage, contrived to take up the water in small quantities, dreading the loss of their bucket, and the disappointment of their hopes. Through such perils and anxieties, they at last found their way to Syria."