192 PLAIN OF ABIHEOSOPH. 



height, by the occasionally running waters which fed 

 the stream. Another remarkable feature, was the 

 protruded ridges of a few feet high of black cellular 

 lava, and which extended in directions generally due 

 north and south. A coarse kind of grass, in high 

 and large tufts, covered this plain, and numerous 

 ant-hills raised their tops some feet higher than any 

 of the Kafilah men. It was not unusual for one of 

 these to be made a kind of look-out. Perched 

 upon the summit, some curious Bedouin, squatting 

 upon his heels, would peer above his shield, looking, 

 as I thought, something like a bronze Blemmyes 

 upon a conical pedestal. On the road, we passed the 

 carcase of a recently deceased ox, which had fallen 

 up to his shoulders, through the frail roof of earth, 

 that covered the den of a wild boar, and in that 

 miserable situation, unable to extricate himself, 

 must the animal have hung suspended until dead. 



From Abiheosoph we descended, by a gentle 

 declivity, through a grove of the most powerfully- 

 scented mimosa-trees, from whose high branches, 

 depended the large drop-like nests, so characteristic 

 of the African oasis. During our progress, we 

 flushed, from among the roots of long dry grass, 

 several large coveys of the earth-coloured small 

 desert partridge; and vast herds of antelopes, dis- 

 turbed by our approach, cantered gently away 

 among the thin trunks of the trees, and then 

 halting, turned round to take a long inquisitive 

 gaze at the intruders. 



