THE TERRIBLE SAHARA. 21 



without danger at the present day, and which must 

 have heen inexpressibly arduous at a time when the 

 camel had not been introduced. 



The Nile, it is true, flows through this desert, and 

 joins Ethiopia to Egypt with a silver chain. But from 

 the time of its leaving Soudan until it reaches the 

 black granite gate which marks the Egyptian frontier, 

 it is confined within a narrow, crooked, hollow way. 

 Navigation is impossible, for its bed is continually 

 broken up by rocks, and the stream is walled in ; it 

 cannot overflow its banks. The reign of the Sahara 

 is uninterrupted, undisturbed. On all sides is the 

 desert, the brown shining desert, the implacable waste. 

 Above is a ball of fire ascending and descending in a 

 steel blue sky ; below a dry and scorching sea, which 

 the wind ripples into gloomy waves. The air is a 

 cloud which rains fire, for it is dim with perpetual 

 dust — each molecule a spark. The eye is pained and 

 dazzled ; it can find no rest. The ear is startled ; it 

 can find no sound. In the soft and yielding sand the 

 footstep perishes unheard ; nothing murmurs, nothing 

 rustles, nothing sings. This silence is terrible, for it 

 conveys the idea of death, and all know that in the 

 desert death is not far off. When the elements be- 

 come active they assume peculiar and jDortentous forms. 

 If the wind blows hard a strange storm arises ; the 

 atmosphere is pervaded by a dull and lurid glare ; 

 pillars of sand spring up as if by magic, and whirl 

 round and round in a ghastly and fantastic dance. 

 Then a mountain appearing on the horizon spreads 

 upward in the sky, and a darkness more dark than 

 night falls suddenly upon the earth. To those who 

 gasp with swelled tongues and blackened lips in the 

 last agonies of thirst, the mirage, like a mocking 



