66 
ARRIVAL IN EL-WADY. 
ground about noon, or before, these cliffs seeming so 
near. But as day wore on, new expanses of glittering 
desert seemed to stretch out before us; and every 
hillock gained disclosed only the existence of new 
hillocks ahead. Meanwhile the hot wind still blew 
with unremitting violence, scorching our faces, and 
penetrating to the inmost recesses of our frames. 
The poor blacks, who were on foot, gazed wistfully 
ahead, and ever and anon called to those who were 
nodding on the camels, as if stunned by the heat, to 
tell them if they might hope for rest. I found my 
eyesight dimming, and deafness coming on. The 
thermometer was plunged into the sand, and the 
mercury instantly mounted to above 130°. 
At length we sighted the wady, stretching like 
a green belt between the sand and the mountains 
beyond. We found that we had been traversing an 
elevated swell of the desert, for we were full three 
quarters of an hour descending to the level of the 
valley. 
The first specimen of inhabitants we saw on ar- 
riving was a group of naked children with their 
mother, who covered herself up in her barracan on 
our approach. The children were nearly all females, 
and even those of not more than three or four years 
of age seemed wonderfully developed. They had 
formed a house out of a thick bush of wild palms 
over the well. 
These people are what are called Tuaricks of 
Fezzan. They are a dwarfish, slim race ; and the 
