38 
JOURNEY FROM 
the sand, while some of them scarcely appeared above the summit. 
Judging from the present appearance of Tagiura, we should imagine 
that many gardens, situated on its eastern limits, have been com- 
pletely overwhelmed by these heaps. 
Any object which is stationary would arrest the progress of 
sand borne towards it by the violence of the wind ; and the low 
enclosures of Arab gardens in exposed situations might in a few years 
disappear altogether. 
We are not, however, inclined to attribute quite so much to the 
overwhelming properties of sand, as many other travellers have done ; 
and we do not think that the danger of being actually bui’ied will ap- 
pear, on consideration, to be altogether so great, to those who are 
crossing sandy deserts, as writers of high respectability have asserted. 
The sand which encounters a body in motion, would pass it, we 
should imagine, without accumulation; and the quantity which might 
even be heaped upon sleepers could scarcely be more than they might 
easily shake off in waking. We shudder at the dreadful accounts 
which have been recorded of whole caravans, and whole armies, 
destroyed by these formidable waves of the desert ; and when our 
pity is strongly excited by such relations, we are seldom inchned to 
analyze them very deeply. But a httle reflection would probably 
convince us that many of these are greatly exaggerated : some, because 
the writers believed what they related ; and some, because they 
wished their readers to believe what they might not be quite con- 
vinced of themselves. 
In fact, we think, it probable that they who have perished 
