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good care they shall not eat the second. After some time I returned to rest, and, recommending myself to God, exclaimed, "Deo gratias," I will sleep all the night, and wishing good repose to the captain, I consigned my fatigued and weary limbs to rest. But oh, fallacious hopes! I awoke several times in the night from the excruciating pain in my breast, and burning with thirst. "Parienza," I repeated, I was so happy to sleep one whole night, et gaudium meum in tristitiam conversum et in tormentum. For four days I had awaited this night of rest, and behold this night I find myself so ill! I burn with violent fever; as if the heat and torments of the day were not sufficient. How long and painful seemed that night to me. I awoke for the fourth time at midnight, and could not close my eyes again; finally, day came, but I remained stretched on my mat. The captain went to bathe in the second well, and returned when the coffee and rice were ready. Having finished breakfast, I threw myself down again to sleep. The captain asked if one whole night was not enough sleep for me. I said, "no, one night's rest is not equal to four nights' watching." I fell asleep, and was only awakened by the Arabs shouting-Iasciak Abdolcader, when they began to load. I arose with great pain, and waited till they had finished, to mount and set off. I had enquired

Arabic, or, at least, possess a tolerable stock of imprecations, for he cannot depend on his dragoman, who is never feared or obeyed by the Arabs.

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of the two Arab families,* who take care of the wells at Morrat, if they had either a kid or lamb they would sell us, but I was told no. "What wretched people,"

said I, to the two fathers of the families, who came to beg something from us, and their brethren. "You are as destitute of everything as the Desert that you inhabit." We started at half-past one: the heat was then 117°, at two it rose to 1200. A short time after passing the mountains of Morrat, we entered on a wide plain, and saw at the end of it, a lake of clear water, with the shadows of the surrounding mountains reflected in it. Would that it had been a real lake! Though overcome with fever, and weakened by the spitting of blood, I would have dragged myself across the burning sands, to plunge myself in it. Oh! what

*There are two Arab families who dwell in that amphitheatre of Morrat, and pretend to be the keepers of the wells. The fathers of these two families came to beg of our Arabs a few handfuls of dora, and I never saw in all my life more ugly human beings. They were of short stature, their limbs and body were nothing but skin and bone, and their sunken features and their general squalid appearance gave me the idea that they were the gods of hunger, who could not have chosen a more suitable place of residence than that desert. Being so lean, it was rather difficult to distinguish if they had eyes in their faces or two empty niches prepared for the statues of Hercules and of Neptune. They have no revenue except the charity of the Giallabe, who give them a few handfuls of dora when they take rest on the Morrat. The worst is, that they are never contented with what is given to them, and when the Arabs start from Morrat they follow them, muttering and quarrelling with them, to get more than they have already received. They were going to do so with our Arabs; but I turned round to them, and with a loud voice gave them a short answer, like that of the Frenchman to the Spaniard. Our Arabs had no dora for so many persons, and changing my voice into the major key, I ordered them to go back to their huts, which they did at once, showering upon me an abundance of imprecations.

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a lovely country it would be, were that real water; here, I am certain, would come all the painters of both the old and new world, to imitate with their colours the perfection of nature; how daguereotypists would plant themselves to take a fair copy of such mountains and hills! But now, what horror reigns, there is not an animal or insect to be seen, but only bones and carcasses of camels and dromedaries exhausted by thirst and heat, these form the inhabitants of the Desert. Nevertheless, there are seen the foot prints of hungry leopards, invited by the odour of recently dead camels to come and satisfy themselves on them; and very rarely, some raven or hawk passes through the hemisphere above us. "What a difference," I exclaimed, "between this and the desert of Sinai: there are often seen gazelles bounding before the traveller; here, carcasses and bones; there, verdure and trees; here, death and scarcity; that was a smiling garden, this a hell. If the beginning of our journey is so hard, painful, and terrific, what may be the middle, what the end of it? What will it be if we find ourselves in some other part of this desert, surrounded by lions and tigers? Well, we are going in search of death, let us go." Combating with such thoughts, I had not perceived that evening drew nigh. We dismounted exactly at seven. The captain and I threw ourselves on our mats near each other, and he asked how I felt. I no longer wished to conceal my miserable state, so I told him that besides spitting of blood, I suffered from violent

dysentery, and had fever the previous night. The captain encouraged me by saying, that he also suffered from bleeding at the nose, which was caused by the rarity of the air. I laughed and told him, that if the gentleman with the black passport came to separate my soul from my body, he would be obliged to perform the last services, and bury me. He replied in the affirmative, and added, that should he die first, I must dig a deep ditch to bury him in, that this people might not take out his bones to look at them. Upon such a subject turned our short conversation.

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CHAPTER IX.

SIXTH AND SEVENTH NIGHT.

We did not seem so tired this evening from the rest at Morrat; but weary or not, we must observe exactly the laws of the Arabs. The camels are loaded, they brought us our dromedaries, and we mounted, to travel over that plain. "What a beautiful view," said the captain; "most beautiful!" I rejoined; for the moon spread over the pure sand her silvery light, by which she guided us, the high mountains towards which we were going seemed quite close; profound silence reigned around, no voices disturbed the air but those of our Arabs, who were singing to drive sleep and please their camels. I envied them, and had a great temptation to sing "Vaga luna;" but it was not possible from the weakness of my chest, therefore, I diverted myself by listening attentively to the songs of the Arabs, of whom I learnt two very curious in melody, and very pretty in expression.* One song was upon Arabs

* All the Arabs, though rude in their life, are very eloquent by nature, and extremely polite in their expressions. Above all, the Arabs Ababde, or guides.