146 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Hea 



goal beyond. Our road is often like that leading to a place 

 named Wady Nassoub, situated a short distance from Sarabit- 

 el-Kadim, on the road from Sinai to Suez. It is gained after 

 traversing Ramleh ("the sandy"), a sandy ravine which serves 

 as a retreat for horrible black serpents, both big and little, 

 and for enormous lizards. It is followed by a narrow valley, 

 "Wady Nassoub," one of the most magnificent spectacles in 

 the world. It is a circus of twenty to twenty-five leagues in 

 extent, surrounded by huge rocks arranged in successive terraces, 

 and of incomparable beauty of form and colour. Its arena is an 

 immense sheet of black basalt, furrowed here and there by 

 torrents of yellow sand. A dazzling sun kindles up this land- 

 scape, which is one of incredible splendour. The traveller can 

 now afford to look back triumphantly on the serpents in the 

 valley he has passed; and as he does so, his position is not 

 unlike that of him who, having borne himself nobly in the 

 journey of life, and having attained a glorious consummation, 

 looks back at the vexations he has passed for ever. D. 



Some Heads Worth Little. 



If a man loses his head, he dies immediately ; but an insect 

 is not nearly so fastidious, and continues to live a long time 

 without any head at all. Indeed there are some insects, which, 

 if beheaded, die not so much on account of the head but of 

 the stomach ; for having then no mouth, they cannot eat, and 

 so die of hunger. And some insects there are which positively 

 live longer if decapitated than if left in possession of their 

 head. c. o. 



The Sun a Source of Health. 



" Where there is sun there is thought." All physiology goes 

 to confirm this. Where is the shady side of deep valleys there 

 is cretinism. WTiere are cellars and the unsunned sides of 

 narrow streets there is the degeneracy and weakliness of the 

 human race, mind and body equally degenerating. Put the 

 pale withering plant and human being into the sun, and, if not 

 too far gone, each will recover health and spirit. I. L. 



