96 
SCARCITY OF WATER. 
and we halted at a place where we found a few little banks of 
sand. A slave was sent to seek out a few bushes that might 
afford us shade, but no such thing was to be discovered. 
The reflection of the rays of the sun on the sand augmented 
the heat. It was impossible to stand barefoot on the sand 
without experiencing intolerable pain. The desert is here 
and there interspersed with a few hills, and we found at very- 
distant intervals a little grass for the camels. 
We had been the whole of the morning without drink, 
and as soon as our tents were pitched we slaked our thirst. 
Our water began to diminish in proportion as our thirst 
increased, therefore we did not cook any thing for supper, 
but merely drank a little dokhnou. About eleven at night 
we broke up our camp and proceeded northward : at seven 
in the morning we turned N. N. W. 
At eleven o'clock on the 8th of May, the insupportable 
heat obliged us to halt on a spot as flat and barren as that at 
which we had stopped on the preceding day. We pitched our 
tents, and assembled beneath them. Some drink was distributed 
to us ; and, as we had tasted none since five o'clock on the 
preceding evening, our thirst was very great. Though the 
water had received a bad taste from the leathern bag, it was 
nevertheless exceedingly grateful. I observed some ravens 
and vultures, the only inhabitants of these deserts. They sub- 
sist on the carcases of the camels that die and are left behind 
on the road. At half past six in the evening, after having 
refreshed ourselves with a glass of water and dokhnou, we 
proceeded on our journey. We travelled all night in a 
northerly direction. The camels, finding no pasture, went 
on without stopping. 
About 8 o'clock on the morning of the 9th of May, we 
halted in a sandy plain, where we found a little grass for our 
poor camels. There we perceived at a distance the camels 
of el-Arawan. 
In the morning, little before sun-rise, the Moors who 
