138 BAS-RELIEFS DESERT VALLEYS. 
shaped. There are several other tableaux, repre- 
senting animals, but chiefly bullocks. This would 
seem to intimate, that in the days when these forms 
of animals were chiselled bullocks were the animals 
employed for the transport of men and merchan- 
dise over the desert. No camels occur, as in other 
tablets. These sculptures are very properly said 
by our escort to be neither Arab nor Tuarick, 
but belong to the people that existed before these 
races. The principal tableau has a very Egyptian 
look about it ; the oxen are well formed, and would 
do credit to a modern artist. There is one bas- 
relief figure of an ox with its neck in a circle, as if 
representing some of the games of the Circus. The 
other animals most distinctly seen are ostriches ; 
the rocks around are, besides, covered with Tua- 
rick characters, but nothing interesting. 
We started late on the 6th, for the Tuaricks 
had allowed their camels to stray, and we waited 
some time for them : however, we were obliged, 
after all, to start without them, and having made 
five hours and a half halted. Our course had lain 
over the plateau, which about half way became 
broken up into valleys. One of these, called Anan 
Haghaneen, led us into the pleasant and pic- 
turesque wady of Mana Samatanee, where only 
in this part of the route can be found herbage 
for camels. There are also a few tholukh-trees. 
What a desolate region is all this, despite the 
little spots of vegetation ! There are no signs of 
