THE MIRAGE. 219 



to our station, could be now seen the stranger 

 Kafilah, camel after camel, emerging from the 

 mirage in a long extended line. The effect of this 

 natural phenomenon, the mirage, was greater than 

 I expected. The very perfect and natural resem- 

 blance it bears to water, the reflection even of the 

 adjoining ridges as perfectly distinct as from the 

 surface of a lake, contributing very much to the 

 illusion. To ascribe to any traveller the originality of 

 the beautiful expression, " ships of the desert," as 

 applied to that useful animal the camel, is an injus- 

 tice to the simple elegance of natural ideas. Not 

 one, but half a dozen of the Bedouins, came to me 

 in succession, and directed my attention to the broad 

 and enlarged figure of the camel with its burden, 

 as it appeared through the medium of the mirage, 

 and all expressed themselves exactly in the same 

 terms, that it was the ship of their country, and any 

 one who has seen the camel in such a situation 

 would have immediately suggested to his mind, a 

 distant vessel sailing end on before a breeze, with 

 all its studding sails set, so exact a resemblance is 

 observed between it and the distorted image of the 

 laden camel. 



The merry sound of the laughing, chatting, 

 singing, infant children, who formed the bulk of 

 a Kafilah of at least two hundred slaves, now gra- 

 dually reached us, increasing, as they approached, 

 into the buzzing hubbub of a crowd of people, who 

 at length passed us, and halted for the day, at the 



