120 
CAMEL'S FLESH. 
where we found a few scattered patches of grass, which the 
camels devoured with eagerness, harsh as it was, as they had 
not eaten scarcely any thing for a week. 
Just before we left the wells of Telig, we had been 
forced to kill two of these animals, which could go no 
further, and were dying of fatigue ; the flesh was distri- 
buted among all who wished for it, and we had some for our 
supper. Part of it was boiled, and the rice which was 
cooked with it contracted the odious taste of the camels' 
flesh, which I disliked extremely. The Moors ate this 
meat with the greatest avidity, and said that it was excellent, 
but 1 was not at all of their opinion, for I thought it very 
tough, and the little I ate disagreed with me ; this might 
however be owing in part to the brackish water I had drunk. 
This was nevertheless one of the most comfortable nights 
I had passed since I had been in the desert ; I lay down by 
a patch of grass, and the heat seemed to me less overwhelm- 
ing than on the preceding days, which 1 ascribed to the 
vicinity of the wells. 
The soil was covered with grey quartz, striped with a 
dirty white, mixed with which were several kinds of small 
gravel. 
On the 28th at sun-rise, we were on our way in a north- 
westerly direction amongst quartz rocks ; here and there 
upon the ruins of sand grew a few withered herbs which 
the camels browsed as they passed. About ten we crossed 
a soil covered with small black gravel, and varied by sand- 
hills extending from east to west ; this sand was harder and 
yellower than what we had seen the day before ; in some 
places we found grey gravel and several rocks of black and 
grey granite. At half past ten we halted to rest our camels, 
which were all very weary, and they were fortunate enough 
to find a few thorny plants * which they amused themselves 
* Hedysarum alhagi. 
