64 
WATER AND HERBAGE IN THE DESERT. 
vance at all. Instead of the cheering cry of Isa ! 
Isa which urges on tlie burdened beasts over rocky 
deserts, the dull, prolonged sound of^^Thurr! ThurrT 
was substituted. Beyond this there was no noise. 
The men liad no strength to talk or to sing, and 
the tread of many feet awaken no echo in the sandy 
waste. Waves of red and yellow, or of dazzling 
whiteness, swelled round in a circle of ever-varying 
diameter as we rose and fell. Here and there 
stretched great stains of black herbage. Every 
object is magnified and changed to the eye. The 
heat and the swinging motion of the camel produce 
a slight dizziness, and the outer world assumes a 
hazy indistinctness of oatline — something like dream- 
landscapes. There is a desert-intoxication whicli 
must be felt to be appreciated. 
We must not, however, libel even the Sandy De- 
sert, by producing the impression that it is all bar- 
ren and comfortless. Though far more difficult to 
travel over than the Hamadah, it possesses the in- 
estimable advantage of having w^ater every day once 
at least. A little after noon, indeed, we passed two 
lakes ; one small, and the other of considerable di- 
mensions, containing sweet water, and bordered by 
a fringe of palm-trees. At times there is very good 
herbage for the camels. The most frequent shrub 
on which they browse is the resou, which has small 
ears of grain, eaten also by men as food. Traces 
of animal life, as I have observed, are few ; but we 
saw this day two broken ostrich-eggs. How they 
