THE CAMELS BREAK DOWN 535 
hummocks of sand. The greater portion of the dunes 
stretched from north to south ; but the highest ones 
extended from east to west. The horizontal terraces of 
clay, which were at least evidence that the ocean of sand 
was not quite without a bottom, and which buoyed us up 
with the hope that we should ultimately get beyond the 
sweep of its sand-waves, had now entirely ceased. Every- 
thing was completely buried under sand ; the dunes were 
sand ; every hollow between them was sand. It was plain 
we were entangled in the very worst part of all the desert ; 
and I became painfully conscious of the seriousness of our 
position. 
1 travelled all that day on foot, partly to spare my 
excellent camel Boghra, partly to encourage my men. 
The camel Babai kept stopping every minute. Time 
after time the cord that he was led by broke, and his 
nose became sore and tender. At last he lay down on 
the sand, and refused to exert himself any further. We 
took off his load. Then he got up. We fastened his 
load on again as he stood. But he walked slower and 
slower, stopped oftener and oftener, and had to be led all 
the time by one of the men. Finally we relieved him of 
his burden and divided it amongst the other camels, and 
left him to make his way alone in the wake of the caravan. 
It was a terrible sight to see “the ship of the desert,” 
man’s only hope on that endless sea, become a wreck. 
We gazed and gazed impatiently eastwards, seeking some 
abatement of the difficulties of the road ; but we gazed in 
vain. There was nothing but mountains of sand as far 
as the eye could pierce. All of a sudden a gadfly came 
buzzing amongst the camels. Instantly our hopes rose 
to fever point; we believed we were nearing “land.” Yet 
in all probability it was merely a deceiver, which we had 
not observed before — a straggler which had quietly lain 
hidden in the hairy hide of one of the camels. 
Babai delayed us continually ; at last we decided to halt 
for an hour, so as to afford him an opportunity to rest. 
We gave him a few pints of water and a few handfuls of 
hay out of his own pack-saddle ; he devoured them 
