CHAP. VI. 
RETURN TO MORZ(jUK. 
257 
must the poor naked Negroes, who know no winter, have suffered 
during the whole of this night, lying out uncovered, on the sand ! 
We had a long chase after our horses, which had hroken loose and 
gone away, until 10. 20. when, after much trouble in securing them, 
we set off, passing as before over a fiat plain of sand until S. 20. 
when we arrived at some dangerously high sand hills ; down which 
I every moment expected the Maherry, which carried myself and 
two sacks of dates, would tumble. At 7. 30. we arrived safely past 
the hills at JMafen a small village which I saw from Traghan, 
when first I went there. We had travelled, when on the plain, 
N. 35° E. 15 miles, and over the sand hills, N. 10°. E. 12 miles. 
Saturday 15th. Therm. 2°. Fine morning. — Started at nine 
from Mafen, and passed over a most curious plain of salt and earth, 
so broken by the sun, that it resembled the rough and irregular 
lava of Vesuvius ; large slabs of four or five feet in height, with 
sharp points, were sticking up in every direction, and as hard as 
stone. I think it next to an impossibihty for a man to walk even a 
few yards over this ground. A poor path, barely wide enough for a 
camel, has been cut and worn through it ; but many accidents still 
happen by animals falling on their journey over it. This extra- 
ordinary bed extends east and west above twenty miles, and is 
about three in breadth at this part. I paid it a much longer visit 
than I could have wished, being attacked so severely by hemma, 
as to be obliged to dismount and he in the road, until the after- 
noon, without water to reheve me, or any thing at hand to assuage 
the pain in my hver. 
On my recovery, we passed Traghan, without entering the 
town ; and having refreshed ourselves at a weU of tolerably good 
water, went on with Besheer to his house at Deesa, where he killed 
the fatted calf, and gave us the most cordial welcome. His mother 
and young wife came out to receive us, and with his sisters, wept 
