AND LOWER EGYPT. 367 



leaves there, as on snow, the vestiges of its track. 

 The varieties of these impressions produce a pleas- 

 ing effect, in spots where the saddened soul expects 

 to meet with nothing but symptoms of the pro- 

 scriptions of nature. It is impossible to see any 

 thing more beautiful than the traces of the passage 

 of a species of very small lizards extremely common 

 in these deserts. The extremity of their tail forms 

 regular sinuosities, in the middle of two rows of 

 delineations, also regularly imprinted by their four 

 feet, with their five slender toes. These traces 

 are multiplied and interwoven near the subterra- 

 nean retreats of these little animals, and present a 

 singular assemblage which is not void of beauty, 



I am going to describe one of the principal cha- 

 racters of these lizards; they have, in reality, five 

 toes on every foot j those of the two hinder feet 

 are considerably longer than those of the fore, and 

 they arc all armed with nails. The eyes arc very 

 large relatively to the dimensions of the body; the 

 tail is round, and terminates in a slender point. 

 r l he scales of the upper part of the head are broad, 

 and of an irregular form ; those on the upper 

 part of the body, the thighs, and the legs, are 

 semicircular and very small : those underneath 

 the body are oblong; those of the belly have the 

 form of lozenges placed horizontally ; the tail is 

 covered circularly with fillets of scales, like a 



mutilated 



