THE HAUNTED ABYSSES. 100 



traveller, if lie set his foot upon them, would be instantly swallowed 

 up. Thus even the Arabs regard it with an unconquerable dread. 

 It owes its name to a Saffite king who would fain have traversed it 

 with his troops, and who saw them perish therein even to the last 

 man. The tradition does not inform us how he himself escaped this 

 immense disaster. 



A European traveller, Baron de "VVrede, undertook nevertheless, 

 some twenty-five years ago, to penetrate into this soul-appalling 

 desert, and attempted to measure the extent and depth of one of 

 these abysses. Starting in the morning from Saba, under the guid- 

 ance of a few Bedouins, he reached, after six hours' marching, the 

 threshold of the desert of Akhaf. 



"A sandy plain, extending as far as the eye could reach," he says, 

 " and upon which arose innumerable hills in the semblance of waves, 

 such was the scene presented to my gaze. Not the least trace of 

 vegetation was perceptible ; not a bird interrupted with its song the 

 tomb-like silence which prevailed around the graves of the Sabean 

 army. I remarked three tracts distinguished by a dazzling whiteness. 

 'Yonder are the abysses,' said the Bedouins; 'they are inhabited 

 by the spirits who have covered with this deceitful sand the 

 treasures intrusted to their charge. He who dares approach them 

 will assuredly be dragged down under the sand ! Do not venture 

 there ! ' 



" Naturally, I paid no attention to this counsel ; on the contrary, 

 I demanded to be guided towards them, according to agreement. 

 Two hours were consumed by our camels in reaching the bottom of 

 the plateau, where we arrived at sunset, taking up our quarters for 

 the night on the lee side of two enormous rocks. On the following 

 day I insisted that the Bedouins should guide me over these tracts. 

 My trouble was in vain ; fear rendered them unable to utter a word. 

 Furnished with a plumb-lead weighing about a pound and a quarter, to 

 which was attached a rope nearly 350 yards in length, I accomplished 

 this dangerous enterprise. I occupied thirty-six minutes in reaching 

 the first abyss ; it was thirty-six feet long by twenty-six feet broad, 



