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As the country over which the caravans travelled was the desart of Thebais, which is almost destitute of water, Ptolemy ordered springs to be searched for, wells to be dug, and caravanseras to be erected. In order to protect his merchant ships in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, he fitted out two great fleets, one of which he constantly kept in each sea.

At convenient distances for noon halts and nightly turnings-in, the main freighting-roads of the State are adorned with gigantic caravanseras offering every accommodation for man and beast, provided with arcades straddling nearly across the road, under which all passing wagoners not only may, but must, shelter themselves from the rigors of rain or sun, and billeted along their fronts with seductive descriptions of the paradise within, to which few hearts prove obdurate after being softened by the compulsory magnanimity of the arcade.

The walls were also adorned with many figures. All round the great temple, there were numerous small temples, like the chambers in caravanseras, having curtains of tapestry or brocade, gilded easy chairs and stools, chandeliers, and vessels, for ornament.

Along these roads at equal distances were edifices, a kind of caravanseras, built of hewn stone, for the accommodation of travelers. These great works were described by every Spanish writer on Peru, and in some accounts of them we find suggestions in regard to their history. They are calledroads of the Incas,” but they were probably much older than the time of these rulers.

His son Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet.

"Sic vos non vobis nidificatis, aves" cackle over the promise of their inchoate offspring, doomed to perish unfeathered, before fate has decided whether they shall cluck or crow, for the sole use of the minions of the sun and the feeders of the caravanseras. In another portion of the same establishment are great collections of the chemical substances used in photography.