Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 46

_I._--"There must be such a place, at least let us hope so; for this is a bad world, and everybody in it is miserable--Sultans and Dervishes."

"G.o.d is great!" exclaimed the Maraboutah. She then begged for medicine to cure her, for although she had stigmata like St. Francis, she would rather be cured of them. I recommended her the baths in Tripoli, and to put herself under the treatment of the English doctor. "Oh," she added, "send me some medicine, and I'll give you some milk." Then the poor thing, groaning with an attack of pain, continued, "Do, make haste." I could do nothing for the poor sufferer. On returning to my house, I sent her some cream-of-tartar, and received from her some milk immediately, showing her high sense of grat.i.tude.

_27th._--Visited the little dirty Kaed. He gave me dates' syrup to drink.

It was more delicious than honey This syrup is made by pouring fresh water on fresh dates, and covering up the bowl in which they are placed, allowing it to stand a night. Only one of the species of the Sockna dates, but that of the most exquisite quality, will produce this Saharan ambrosia.

Generally, if dates are steeped in water, they will not produce syrup, and only get a little soft. People never wash dates. They say it deprives them of their fine fresh and peculiar date-flavour. When the Mudeer handed me the bowl to drink the syrup, he observed to the Moors and his precious doxy, sitting wantonly by his side, "The Christians are fine people. If in Sockna you give them a cup of coffee, or a few dates, and see them afterwards in Tripoli they will make you many compliments, and be very kind to you." This remark was made spontaneously, having no selfish end. The old Turk was too much of a gentleman in his way to allow such a sordid calculation to enter his mind at the time. I may mention here, a woman observed when I visited the Maraboutess, (addressing me), "You must send the medicine, for a Christian _mou yakidtheb_ (never lies)." It is a pity that these people, who have discernment enough to see at times the moral superiority of Christians, should not look a little below the surface and inquire into its cause. Not, however, that all Europeans, (or myself,) deserve these high compliments of grat.i.tude and love of truth, although, compared to Moors and Arabs, we are certainly far their superiors in morals. The little dirty Turk had as usual his fair concubine installed on the seat of honour. Sockna people say, "She has no husband," and others, "She is the Kaed's wife," to make the best of a bad appearance.

_28th._--Shut up writing during the morning, but in the evening paid a visit to the little nasty dirty Turk, and found the little nasty dirty fellow very civil. His Excellency complained of being very sick. I returned immediately to fetch him some medicine. Afterwards we mounted together to the top of the Castle. From this eminence, we had a splendid view of the environs, and the various little oases of Sockna and its neighbouring desert. The distant mountains form an unbroken circular line on the pale margin of the sky, except on the east, where it is indented a little, but of several heights and colours, giving a fine and more varied effect to The Desert scene. Within this circle, at the base of the various groups, are black-green palms, scattered in little forests, casting shades on the now white, now light red, and now purple mountain sides, as if to set off the perspective of The Desert picture. Here and there are garden-huts or lodges in the wilderness, so many black spots within little squares of pale-green patches of corn cultivation. There is a string of moving dots. What is that? A caravan winding along its weary way. Not a bird is seen to wing the ambient air. The atmosphere generally is a pale unpolished yellow, inclining in some cloudy flakes to red. The Saharan sun now fast descends, with a feeble heat and exhausted l.u.s.tre, showing the near approach of the dull and drowsy step of shadowy night.

There is something about Saharan views which is peculiar to them and to Africa; every object is so smoothed down and smoothed over, that the scenery of Desert looks at a distance more like paint and picture-work, than the stern realities of the Wasteful Sahara. And yet these smoothed-down picture-objects are so well defined and sharply prominent--all the lines traced in the most absolute manner--no blending of shapes or even colours. Mist and misty objects are not frequent in the African Desert.

The Castle of Sockna would be considered by us a ruined building, and condemned as unsafe to be inhabited, but here it is always "The Castle."

It does not contain a single good room; all is tumbling to pieces, and if you don't take care, you will fall through some of the floors, gaping open with large holes at your feet to let you in. Only one miserable piece of cannon was mounted, and two other pieces of ordnance were lying "below stairs," corroding most delightfully in rust. But the Turks never pretend that this place can make any serious defence against an enemy.

Were indeed a good piece of ordnance fired from the top of The Castle, the concussion would knock down all the part of the building where it was placed. As it is, a portion of the outer walls has fallen down, and the rubbish is scattered up to the doors of the neighbouring shops. No effort is made to clear away this rubbish. "Why should it not remain where G.o.d has allowed it to fall?" says the fate-believing Moslemite. The owners of the shops creep to their magazines of merchandize as they best may. I remarked to the little dirty Turk, who sat with a dreamy stare looking over The Desert, smoking very unpolitely with his back to the sun, "This country without question was formerly in a much better state, and The Castle in good repair." His Excellency shook his head negatively. The Turks detest this country, hating its inhabitants with the most cordial hatred. Yet the l.u.s.t of rule, (the object of a fatal ambition in all Moslemite countries,) and the right and power of bastinading a man when they please, reconciles them to The Desert, and to its weary, dreary, blank mode of existence. For what toys do men sacrifice the best days of their life, and the most n.o.ble faculties of their being!

Glad to get away from the dirty old Turk. Called later to see my dearest Maraboutess, with whom I was almost inclined to fall in love. It is a positive relief to find something, and somebody amiable in this Desert of human affections. The saint had many visitors, and is evidently held in high respect by the inhabitants. Her female a.s.sociates sitting by her, asked me, what has been so often asked before, if the Christian women brought three or four children at a birth. From some cause or other, polygamy, obesity in the women, or the abuse of the marriage-bed, Saharan females have very few children. There were five elderly men in our caravan; all were married, of course, for every man marries amongst Mahometans. These old gentlemen had not more than two children each, and one of them none. I set the Sockna ladies right, telling them, some of our women had twins, and now and then three, but that one was the rule.

Every thing about us Christians is exaggerated. The people of these towns think us a distinct race from themselves. Such is the effect of religion when misapplied; it estranges men from one another instead of drawing them together with the cords of brotherly affection. An Arab present with us, changing the subject, asked why I did not go to Bornou, for all the Oulad Suleiman (Arabs of the Syrtis) up at Bornou were friends of the English, and one and the same with them? He continued, "But let them come here to cut down again our palms, and we will not leave one of them alive." I gave the poor Maraboutess a few paras, received her blessing, and bade her an affectionate adieu. Happy would be many, if with such bodily afflictions they could amuse themselves with such blissful visions!

His Excellency presented me with half a pound of coffee, and told me to beware of the Sockna people, who would rob me of it if they could.

_29th._--Called early to visit the "Grand Turk" of the Castle, and administered to his Excellency a full dose of genuine Epsom. In turn, he gave me a basin of coffee with milk,--quite a novelty in The Desert,--which I thought a splendid exchange. I had a good deal to do to get him to swallow the Epsom. On calling to see him in the afternoon, I found his Excellency racing about like a real jockey of Epsom, running out at times very abruptly, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of his Sultana, who admired the effects of the Epsom. Called again in the evening to see my patient, and found his Excellency suffering from what he called dysentery, and administered a couple of small opium pills. The Turk observed, with something of a grin, that Christian doctors knew more of the inside than the outside of a man.

_30th._--Another Turk arrived this morning with another convoy of provisions from Tripoli. He is twenty days from that city. He complains of the camels. Certainly I never saw worse camels than these of the Tripoline Arabs. The Turk brings good news. Rain has fallen copiously in The Mountains. It is the "_latter_ rain" in the Scriptural phrase, ?et?? ?????. The "_early_ rain," ?et?? p?????, falls in North Africa about September and October. The "_latter_ rain" continues to April, and sometimes falls in May. In December and January there is often dry weather, and the finest season in the year for Europeans. Want of rain in Fezzan and Sockna is compensated for by the abundance of springs. These rains in The Mountains will establish the rule of the Turks. It is only a question of provisions. The want of rain for several years has brought Tripoli to the verge of ruin, and the Sultan is tired of supporting this Regency. If a few good harvests come, Tripoli will support itself.

Wrote to Mr. Gagliuffi by this caravan, to tell him where I was on the 30th of March! He expects me by this time to be at Tripoli. We are to leave this evening.

Amused myself again by noticing several parallel ideas between The East and Africa, as found in our Scriptures.

In these countries there is always some one great river; for this reason, Moors will always have the Nile and the Niger to be "one great river." Mr. Cooley, in his "Negroland of the Arabs," proposes, for the various names given by ancient and modern geographers to the Niger, the simple epithet of "The Great River." In The East, we have, t?? p?ta?? t?? e?a? t?? ??f??t?? (Rev. xvi. 12), "The Great River Euphrates." It is not to be supposed the prophets and evangelists were instructed in geography beyond their age. The vial of wrath is not poured upon Ganges, or Mississippi, or Amazon, but on Euphrates, the great river of that age and time, although not of our age and times.

?a?a?? ???s??? (Rev. xxi. 15), "a golden reed." The term ?a?a??, the root of which are the three consonants ??, is the same as ?????, "a reed" first, and afterwards, "a pen made of a reed." It is difficult sometimes to get reeds in The Desert, and they are carried about from oasis to oasis. On the salt plains of Emjessem, near Ghadames, there is a fine lagoon of reeds, of which pens are made. It is probable the angel _wrote_ the measurement of the "Holy Jerusalem" with a reed pen, and not _measured_ it with a reed, as represented in our version.

?a? ? ???? ef??e? e?? t?? e???? (Rev. xii. 6), "and the woman fled to the Wilderness." The Wilderness, or Desert, in ancient times, as now, in this part of the world, was always a place of refuge; but, as the world becomes civilized, the Wilderness will offer no resource to the fugitive, and the back-woods of the new colonies will no longer shelter the runaway, or outlaw of society, or the innocent patriot fleeing from the pursuit of his country's tyrants.

Gibbon gives an affecting description of the fugitive Roman, who found Rome's omnipresent tyrant in every clime whither he fled, on every soil paced by his trembling foot. Before this time arrives, let us hope liberty will have settled down, with its outspread eagle wings sheltering every country of the habitable globe.

??? ? ?????? ?e??s?, ?a? ??s?e?, ?a? p???s?e? t??t? ? e?e???.

(James iv. 15.) Mahomet and his disciples have made enough of this divine injunction, which, indeed, ought to be more practised by Christians. By the Moslems, however, it is carried to a superst.i.tious excess, and the _En shallah_--??? ??? ?????--"_Deo Volente_," is continually in their mouths. They cannot even say, "Yes," to anything, although _la, la_, "no, no," is heard frequently enough. The _aywah_, ??????, "yes," means rather "well done," than "yes." But it is a pity they have not adopted, with the same superst.i.tious strictness, the ???ete, "swear not," of the same writer; for no people in the world swear so much, and by such sacred names, as the Arabs and Moors.

F??? ??? ?st?? ?? t? ???p?, ???' ? te?e?a ???p? ??? ???e? t??

f???, ?t? ? f??? ???as?? ??e?. (1 John iv. 18.) "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment." I have never yet heard the Arabs or Moors speak of "_loving_ G.o.d." They say either, "He _knows_ G.o.d," or, "He _fears_ G.o.d." Nevertheless, such phrases agree with our expression of religious sentiment. Besides knowing and fearing G.o.d, our religion requires that we _love_ G.o.d. This the Saharan Mussulman does not well understand. All his religious system is: "To know that there is a G.o.d, to be feared and dreaded as an earthly Prince or Sultan, who at times rules them with a rod of iron." So all their actions, motives, impulses, whether religions or secular, spring the rather from fear than love. And so it is, that whenever they speak to a Christian about religion, their first and last argument is, "The torments of the Lost," as I have already so often mentioned; and the fear of the fire of perdition, it may be added, is their continual "torment." The Koran helps them out, in their dread of corporal torments. I need not refer to the celebrated pa.s.sage, which represents the wicked in the regions of the lost as "gnawing their fingers and knuckles in the rage and agonies of their pain." But in Rev. xvi. 10, we also have--ea.s.s??t? ta? ???ssa? a?t?? e? t?? p????

"they gnawed their tongues for pain." In both cases the picture is too terrible to be calmly contemplated. It is a true observation of philosophy, that the pictures of the future state of man, as delineated in the sacred books of different religions, are, the greater part of them of a painful and horrible character. But the Koran surpa.s.ses all these books, in wire-drawn and elaborately wrought descriptions, the most mournful, the most disgusting, the most terrible, of the torments of the d.a.m.ned. Is it because, men generally can only be moved by fear, and not by love, to the practice of virtue and religious observances? But in Sahara the principle of fear is carried into the minutest relations of social life. The child fears and venerates, not loves, his father; he approaches his parent with awe, not with the confidence of love. The wife always fears, rarely loves, her husband. Connubial pleasures are not the embraces of love and confidence, but of l.u.s.t and rule; and the woman slavishly submits to the caprices of the man, as bound by an absolute and resistless contract, and not from affection or any inclination. So it was in earliest times,--the weaker went to the wall, and the stronger was the master; might was right. Peter ungallantly reminds the women of his age of ?????? a?t?? ?a???sa, "(the wife), calling him (the husband) lord," as the practice of the women of a still remoter age. Nothing flatters an African husband so much as to hear his wife call him "lord," and "master." But it was not the intention of the first propagators of our religion to disturb the social customs and (Oriental habits of) society.

Besides, the apostles, being Jews and Asiatics, would naturally introduce into their new doctrine the old despotic notions of the East regarding women. When Christianity spread west and north, these notions of despotism over women were resisted in Greece[124] and Rome, and by the Germanic tribes, amongst whom especially women were treated as dignified and responsible agents, enjoying equal rights with men. Nevertheless, the condition of women has improved everywhere with the spread of the pure morality of Christianity.

Near Sockna, or one and a half hour east, is Houn; and two hours north-east, is Wadan. The water of these two towns is brackish.

FOOTNOTES:

[121] This is probably an allusion to the following observations of Captain Lyon, in justification of his a.s.suming the Mahometan religion:--"It may be necessary before I take leave of Mourzuk, and indeed of Tripoli, to explain that our adoption of the Moorish costume was by no means a sufficient safeguard in either of those places, or in traversing the interior of Africa; for, though it might, to a casual observer, blind suspicion, yet when we had occasion to remain for a time at any place, or to perform journeys in company with strangers, we found that it was absolutely requisite to conform to all the duties of the Mohammedan religion, as well as to a.s.sume their dress. To this precaution I attribute our having met with so little hindrance in our proceedings; for had we openly professed ourselves Christians, we might, in Fezzan, have experienced many serious interruptions; whilst farther in the interior, even our lives would have been in continual jeopardy.

The circ.u.mstance of our having come from a Christian country, which we always acknowledged, frequently rendered us liable to suspicion; but by attending constantly at the established prayers, and occasionally acknowledging the divine mission of Mahomet; or, more properly, by repeating, 'There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, Mahomet is his Prophet,' we were enabled to overcome all doubts respecting our faith." It must be added, in justice to Messrs. Ritchie and Lyon, that since 1821 a vast change has been wrought in the minds of the Moors of North Africa, and especially with regard to Englishmen. When even Denham and Clapperton visited Mourzuk, they were not allowed to reside in the town, but kept in the castle, under the special protection of the Bashaw, lest anything should befall them from the prejudices of the people.

[122] As a suitable accompaniment of Mussulman charms, I add in a note, the following specimen of a Christian charm, which I found in the letter of the _Times'_ Swiss correspondent.--(See _Times_, 10th Dec., 1847):--

"More--I have seen some curious little bra.s.s amulets, with the effigy of the Virgin on one side and the Cross on the other, which were sold in great numbers to the people as charms against all possible injuries in battle. Those sold at seven and ten batzen (about 10_d._ and 15_d._ of our money) were efficacious against musket and carbine b.a.l.l.s; those at twenty batzen (about half-a-crown) were proof against cannon shot also! The purchasers of these medals were also presented with a card, of which the following is a _verbatim_ transcript, capitals, italics, and all:--

'O MARIE CONCUE SANS PECHE, PRIEZ POUR NOUS QUI AVONS RECOURS A VOUS!

'_Quiconque_, portant une medaille miraculeuse, recite avec piete cette invocation, se trouve place sous la protection speciale de la Mere de Dieu; c'est une promesse de Marie Elle Meme.'

Which, being interpreted--if indeed I may be excused for profaning the honest English tongue with such blasphemy--is,

'Oh Mary!--conceived without sin--pray for us who have recourse to you. _Any one_ carrying a miraculous medal, who recites with piety the above invocation, becomes placed under the especial protection of the Mother of G.o.d. This is a promise made by Mary herself.'"

[123] This is the tiresome, frequently-recurring phrase of the Koran.

[124] So we find Paul declaiming that he will not suffer a woman to speak in the churches. It was the Greek women who wished to a.s.sert the dignity of woman by teaching in the a.s.semblies of the saints.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

FROM SOCKNA TO MISRATAH.

Well of Hammam.--Innocent game of the Negresses.--Baiting at noon.--Bird's-nests and Birds in Sahara.--Ghiblee or the _Simoum_; its terrible effects on our Caravan.--Delusions of Desert, and bewilderment of our People.--Disastrous Fate of the Young Tuscan.--Snakes.--Small capital of some Slave-Merchants.--Arrival at Bonjem.--Visit the Roman Ruins of Septimius Severus.--The newly created Oasis.--Regulations to mitigate Saharan Slave-traffic.--My Imbroglio with Essnousee.--Imbroglio of an Arab with the Kaed of Bonjem.--Description of the Fort of Bonjem.--The Disease of the _Filaria Medinensis_, and its Cure.--My Journal confused and fragmentary.--Route from Bonjem to Misratah.--Enter the regions of Rain and Open Culture.--_Bughalah_, or the Rock, where Abd-El-Geleel was a.s.sa.s.sinated.--Wells of Daymoum and Namwah.--Sudden changes of Temperature in North Africa.--Well of Saneeah Abd-El-Kader.--Stream of Touwarkah.--Ecstatic joy on arriving near the Sea.--How diminutive all things are become in comparison with the Vast Sahara.--Arrival at Misratah.

IN the afternoon, about three, we left Sockna _en route_ for Tripoli; we arrived at Hammam in a couple of hours. On the road, we met not less than three hundred camels laden with provisions and ammunition for the troops at Mourzuk, shewing evidently the dread which the Turks have of the Arabs under the son of Abd-El-Geleel, and any sudden attack by them on Fezzan.

This is a bad speculation for the Turks. Fezzan can never pay at such a rate.

Hammam, is a collection of small sand-hills grouped together, around and upon which are palms. There is also a well of tolerably good water. The name Hammam ("hot-spring"), is derived from the circ.u.mstance of there being here a hot-spring; but now said to be covered up by the sand-hills.

This is what the people have received by tradition. Very hot this evening; the sun burnt us most extraordinarily. We felt it more after having been shut up some days in Sockna; we took in a supply of water at Hammam in preference to the waters of Sockna. This evening, the Negresses played their usual sweet innocent little game. They form an alley by taking hands, blocked up at the end. At the top enters one of their number backwards. As she pa.s.ses along the opposite pairs, each couple put their hands across and form a sort of seat for her, by which she is b.u.mped backwards from one seat to another seat of hands, through the whole alley. When arriving at the end, she falls into the chain of hands.

Another now enters, being b.u.mped backwards on her broad bustle like her predecessor, and caught by the hands stretched across the alley. I don't know whether this is intelligible, but the game is very simple and full of mirth. The point of tact is, their always sitting down on the hands, and not falling back on the ground, when, like every body who attempts to sit down on a chair and suddenly finds himself on the floor, they would look very foolish. But as the Devil leaped over the fold of Paradise, so he may be expected to creep in everywhere, and the Negro lads are always peeping about, at a respectful distance, to see what they can see, when these falls take place; and I imagine the zest of the thing, both amongst the lads and the la.s.ses, turns upon this naughty circ.u.mstance. So much for poor innocence, and innocent games.

_31st._--Started, as the sun shewed his broad face above the horizon.

Route till the afternoon, over a sandy, gravelly plain; then entered some hilly country, where we came to the well of Temet-Tar. Excessively hot again to-day, apparently the precursor of the Simoum the following day.

In this Fezzanee caravan, it is our practice to halt at noon, or thereabouts, to take a little refreshment. I am informed all the caravans of this route do so. The Ghadamsee caravans, on the route of Ghat, never halt in the day-time, continuing from morning to night. Our people carry a few dates in a bag, or on the camel's back, all ready for the luncheon.

These they throw down upon a portion of a barracan spread on the sands.

Sometimes a piece of bread is broken over the dates. They then squat round this repast in groups. The slaves save from their previous day's supper, or from the morning, a few dates for this time of the day, and are allowed each a drink of water. Noticed a bird's nest on a furze of The Desert. This is only the second I have ever seen in Sahara. A few small birds are now hopping about on the line of route. But I have observed the colour of the birds to vary with the region through which we pa.s.s. Now they are yellow, now black, now black and white, and all as small as linnets. These birds have no song, only chirping and twittering about. A few larks I have seen where water and palms and other trees abound. We encamped about 4 P.M. The water of the well is by no means sweet, but not being brackish, it quenches thirst sufficiently.

_1st April._--Rose early and started early. A terrible day! A _ghiblee_ in all its force[125]. The wind is directly from south (?????? "south"). It is quite dry, unlike the _sirocco_ which blows at Malta. Sirocco is damp and most enervating, and south-east in its direction. Probably, however, it is the same wind, but sweeping over the sea it attracts moisture, and changes to south-east. I was praying for, and prophesying all the morning, up to 9 A.M., a cool day. The reverse has happened, as so often happens in answer to our most ardent wishes. I never was so astonished as when I saw the negroes on this day. Mr. Gagliuffi had said to me, "If you have ghiblee, the slaves can't go." But I could hardly believe a hot wind to be so injurious to these children of the sun. They seemed as if they could bear any cold better than a hot south wind. They got behind the camels or stooped under their bellies; they held up their barracans, taking it by turns to hold them up, by which means they sheltered five or six together; they concealed their faces and their bodies with their tattered garments; they invented all sorts of expedients to shelter themselves a moment against The Desert simoum.

I could not help observing how superior the white man was to the black man in his physical make. Our Arabs and Moors kept up erect, facing this furnace blast, and bore the heat and burthen of the day a thousand times better than the Negroes--these children begotten by the sun from the slime of the Niger, on whose swampy plains heat reigns eternally with all its fiery fervour! I had always thought the Negro, being naturally a chilly creature, could not be affected with a hot wind. We all drank plentifully today, ten times as much as on other days. But this being a ghiblee day, it was necessary to drive on the slaves quick, and with violence, the camels not carrying a sufficiency of water for a couple of days of this sort.

Essnousee now showed how eminently qualified he was for this infernal traffic. He did drive them on most furiously, while as to one wretched Negress, I thought he would have left her dead on the spot, flaying her most unmercifully. The miscreant Essnousee was only prevented from the perpetration of this horrid crime by the main-force interference of Mohammed Azou, another slave-dealer travelling with us, with seven slaves, and who, I must record, was a humane man, though a dealer in the flesh and blood of his fellow creatures. I have not observed him even once beating his slaves, which is saying a great deal. The conduct of this humane Moor proved that it was not absolutely necessary to beat slaves when driving them over Desert. The Touaricks of Aheer, indeed, know this, and never lay a finger on their poor captives. We, at length, got through this day of horrible heat and thirst, for G.o.d gives an end to all things. Never will be effaced from the tablet of my memory the prayer of a poor Negress girl, who, in the height of the simoum came running up to me, her eyes bloodshot, her face streaming with tears, "Buy me, Yakob, O, buy me! I am very good, I will be good wife to you, and sleep with you. O, I'm dying! take me, buy me, buy me, Yakob. The wind kills me."

We encamped on a vast plain, having ranges of low mountains on our right and left. The carcases of two camels were left on the road, which had broken down from the large caravan we had pa.s.sed; and, a thing unusual, the Arabs had left part of the flesh on the bones; some of our slaves immediately devoured it raw. Hunger's the thing to give you a relish.

_2nd._--Rose at Fidger, a little before day-break, or at the point of day, in fright of another ghiblee. Necessity has, indeed, in such a case, no law, and no compa.s.sion on the unfortunate. But, to-day, G.o.d sent the poor slaves a little fresh north wind, for "G.o.d tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." The north wind increased towards the evening, we journeying on very well. Course, north and north-west, over the vast expanse mentioned yesterday. Quant.i.ties of bits of marble, pieces of fine quartz, and s.h.i.+ning felspar, are strewn over the plain, which contrasting with its dark ground-work, look at times as if we were traversing some enchanted carpet. But our brains reeled, and we all suffered from thirst.

People seemed all mad to-day. One called to me, "Yakob, listen." I listened, but being hard of hearing, I thought there might be some sounds. Another camel-driver pretended he heard sweet melodious sounds.

On inquiring what music it was, he replied, "Like the Turkish band." Then another came running to me, "Yakob, see what a beautiful sight." I turned to look, but my eyes were so weak and strained, that I could see nothing upon the dreary face of the limitless plain. Essnousee swore to seeing a bright city of the Genii, and actually counted the number of the palaces and the palms. I believe our people were delirious from the effects of yesterday's simoum, for I did not observe mirage. The beautiful words of Cowper recurred to me when I had the power of calm reflection, in the evening of the day:--

"So in The Desert's dreary waste, By magic power produced in haste, (As ancient fables say,) Castles, and groves, and music sweet, The senses of the traveller meet, And stop him in his way.