72 ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE 



upon so strange a world. The ocean and the ice-fields of the 

 polar regions make a similar impression. 



Thus, in spite of all he may have endured, the traveller that 

 has once crossed the desert will ever after remember it with 

 pleasure, and long for the renewal of its deep emotions. For 

 the life of the Sahara resembles that of the ocean. During 

 a continuance of bad weather or a calm, the mariner may vow 

 to forsake the sea for ever ; but he has scarcely landed when 

 his affection revives, and he longs for the sea again. We may 

 grow fatigued with the life of the town, but we cannot tire of 

 the majestic uniformity of the ocean or of the awful sublimity 

 of the desert. 



The stillness of these wastes is sometimes awfully interrupted 

 by the loud voice of the khamsin or simoom. The crystal 

 transparency of the sky is veiled with a hazy dimness. The 

 wind rises and blows in intermittent gusts, like the laborious 

 breathing of a feverish patient. Grradually the convulsions of 

 the storm grow more violent and frequent ; and although the 

 sun is unable to pierce the thick dust-clouds, and the shadow of 

 the traveller is scarcely visible on the ground, yet so suffocating 

 is the heat, that it seems to him as if the fiercest rays of the 

 sun were scorching his brain. The dun atmosphere gradually 

 changes to a leaden blackness; the wind becomes constant; 

 and even the camels stretch themselves upon the ground and 

 turn their backs to the whirling sand-storm. At night the 

 darkness is complete : no light or fire burns in the tents, which 

 are hardly able to resist the gusts of the simoom. Silence 

 reigns throughout the whole caravan, yet no one sleeps ; the 

 bark of the jackal or the howl of the hysena alone sounds 

 dismally from time to time through the loud roaring of the 

 storm. 



Modern travellers (Russegger, D'Escayrac de Lauture) assure 

 us that the often repeated tale of whole caravans having been 

 buried in the sand by one of these tornados is very much ex- 

 aggerated ; but there can be no doubt that the simoom causes 

 the death of many a poor slave. Walking at the side of the 

 camels, beaten, miserably fed, and but niggardly supplied with 

 brackisli water, without hope — the last support of the wretched 

 — he sinks under an apoplectic stroke ; or else, worn out by 



