DESERT JOURNEYS. 351 



raged, and raved, and at last, utterly spent, fell prostrate on his 

 master, gasped, and died. A second fell victim to sunstroke, and 

 when the storm at last abated was found dead in his resting-place. 

 A third lingered behind the rest after they had started again on 

 their life-or-death race, and he also perished. Half of the camels 

 were lost. With the remnant of his company Thibaut reached the 

 Nile, but in two days his coal-black hair had become white as 

 snow. 



To such storms are due the mummied corpses which one sees by 

 the path of the caravan. The storm which killed them also buries 

 them in the drifting sand; this removes all moisture so quickly 

 that the body, instead of decaying, dries up into a mummy. Over 

 them one wind casts a shroud of sand, which another strips away. 

 Then the corpse is seen stretching its hand, its foot, or its face 

 towards the traveller, and one of the drivers answers the petition of 

 the dead, covers him again with sand, and goes on his way, saying, 

 " Sleep, servant of God, sleep in peace." 



To such storms are also due the dream-pictures of the Fata 

 Morgana which arise in the minds of the survivors. As long as a 

 man pursues his way with full, undiminished strength and with 

 sound senses, the mirage appears to him merely as a remarkable 

 natural phenomenon, and in no wise as Fata Morgana. During the 

 hot season, especially about noon, but from nine in the morning 

 until three o'clock, the " devil's sea " is to be seen daily in the desert. 

 A gray surface like a lake, or more accurately like a flooded district, 

 is formed on every plantless flat at a certain distance in front of or 

 around the traveller; it heaves and swells, glitters and shimmers, 

 leaves all actually existing objects visible, but raises them apparently 

 to the level of its uppermost stratum and reflects them down again. 

 Camels or horses disappearing in the distance appear, like the angels 

 in pictures, as if floating on clouds, and if one can distinguish their 

 movements, it seems as if they were about to set down each limb on 

 a cushion of vapour. The distance which limits the phenomenon 

 remains always the same, as long as the observer does not change 

 his angle of vision; and thus it varies for the rider and the pedestrian. 

 The whole phenomenon depends on the well-known law, that a ray 



