place in time to prevent any very serious consequences; otherwise, I
have no doubt the ruffians would go on exciting themselves, and beating
harder and harder, even until death ensued. We noticed the common black
bird I have already mentioned, with white head and tail. It is indeed
seen everywhere, and may emphatically be called "The Bird of the
Desert!"

Next day, the 3d, we started at daybreak, and made another long day of
nearly twelve hours. It is necessary to hurry over these inhospitable
tracts. After two hours we got among some sand-hills, and continued all
day over the same kind of ground--hill and valley alternating, with here
and there a huge, isolated, granite, rock rising up like an island.
Pebbles strewed the surface of the sandy valleys. I scarcely remember to
have beheld so desolate a region. For two days there has been no water,
and the camels have stretched out their necks in vain for herbage. A
little grass, it is true, was plucked among the sand-hills to-day, and
mixed with the dates, which we are compelled to give to the camels.
These poor beasts are becoming thin and gaunt, from the effects of heat,
fatigue, and especially from the lack of sufficient herbage. Luckily,
cool winds from the south supply the place of the gheblee.

This evening one of the Kailouees challenged me to have a run with him;
I accepted the challenge, and we ran a short distance, to the great
amusement of the people.

Our guides are sociable companions enough. They pointed out to day on
the sand the footsteps of the caravan which we met a few days ago going
to Ghât; and likewise their own footsteps, left when they passed by that
way a month and a half since.