she believed Idris to be as perfect as any body; but, in case we met with the Bishareen they would neither shew to him nor to me any mercy. She gave me, however, a letter to Mahomet Abou Bertran, shekh of one of the tribes of Bishareen, on the Tacazze, near the Magiran, which she made her son write from the howat, it not being usual, she said, for her to write herself. I begged I might be again allowed to testify my gratitude by kissing her hand, which she condescended to in the most gracious manner, laughing all the time, and say. ing, "Well, you are an odd man! if Idris, my son, saw me just now, he would think me mad."'

On the 20th of October, Mr. Bruce left Chendi. He was still above 900 miles from the entrance into Egypt. Next day he saw a large island in the Nile, opposite to which are extensive ruins, and this, he conjectured, might be the ancient city of Meroë. On the 26th, he and his party committed themselves to the desert: they were nine in number, eight only of whom were effective, and were well armed. Five or six naked wretches joined them at the watering place. Here they parted from the Nile, doubting if ever they would see it again.

Having travelled three days in the desert, they were surprized and terrified by a sight, surely one of the most magni ficent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. and to N. W. of us,' says Mr. Bruce, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majes tic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken near the middle, as if struck with a large cannon shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged alongside of us about the distance of three miles. The great

est diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure 10 feet. They retired from us with a wind at S. E. leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger, and the full persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood, and let the camels gain on me so much in my state of lameness, that it was with some difficulty I could overtake them.

The effect this stupendous sight had upon Idris was to set him to his prayers, or indeed rather to his charms; for be sides the names of God and Mahomet, all the rest of the words were mere gibberish and nonsense. This created a violent altercation between him and Ismael, the Turk, who abused him for not praying in the words of the Koran, maintaining, with apparent great wisdom at the same time, that nobody had charms to stop these moving sands but the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta.

• We went very slowly to-day, our feet being sore and greatly swelled. The whole of our company were much disheartened, (except Idris) and imagined that they were advancing into whirlwinds of moving sand, from which they should never be able to extricate themselves; but before four o'clock in the afternoon these phantoms of the plain had all of them fallen to the ground and disappeared. In the evening we came to Waadi Dimokea, where we passed the night, much disheartened, and our fear more increased, when we found, upon awaking in the morning, that one side was perfectly buried in the sand that the wind had blown above us in the night. From this day, subordination, though not entirely ceased, was fast on the decline; all was discontent, murmuring, and fear. Our water was greatly diminished, and that terrible death by thirst began to stare us in the face.

Two days after this, the same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves, only they seemed to be more in number, and less in size. They came several times in a diVOL. III.

B

rection close upon us; that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began, immediately after sun-rise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the sun: his rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate: the Greeks shrieked out, and said it was the day of judgment. Ismael pronounced it to be hell, and the Tucorories, (the name of the people that joined us) that the world was on fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before seen such a sight? He said he had often seen them as terrible, though never worse; but what he feared most was that extreme redness in the air, which was a sure presage of the coming of the simoon. I begged and entreated Idris that he would not say one word of that in the hearing of the people.'

On the following day, continues our adventurer, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a loud voice, "Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoon!", I saw from the S. E. a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy 20 yards in breadth, and was about 12 feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of such heat as to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an asthmatic. sensation till I had been some months in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards.

'An universal despondency had taken possession of our people. They ceased to speak to one another, and when they did, it was in whispers, by which I casily guessed their discourse was not favourable to me, or else that they were increasing each others' fears, by vain suggestions calculated to sink

each others' spirits still further, but from which no earthly good could possibly result. I called them together, and both reprimanded and exhorted them in the strongest manner I could; I bade them to attend to me, who had nearly lost my voice by the simoon, and desired them to look at my face, so swelled as scarcely to permit me to see; my neck covered with blisters, my feet swelled and inflamed, and bleeding with many wounds. In answer to the lamentation that the water was exhausted, and that we were upon the point of dying with thirst, I ordered each man a gourd full of water more than he had the preceding day, and shewed them, at no great distance, the bare, black, and sharp point of the rock Chiggre, wherein was the well at which we were again to fill our girbas, and thereby banish the fear of dying with thirst in the desert. I believe I never was at any time more eloquent, and never had eloquence a more sudden effect. They all protested and declared their concern chiefly arose from the situation they saw me in; that they feared not death or hardship, provided I would submit a little to their direction in taking a proper care of myself. They entreated me to use one of the camels, and throw off the load that it carried, that it would ease me of the wounds in my feet, by riding at least part of the day. This I positively refused to do, but recommended to them to be strong of heart, and to spare the camels for the last resource, if any should be taken ill and unable to walk any longer.

'This phænomenon of the simoon, unexpected by us, though foreseen by Idris, caused us all to relapse into our former despondency. It still continued to blow, so as to exhaust us entirely, though the blast was so weak as scarcely would have raised a leaf from the ground. At twenty minutes before five the simoon ceased, and a comfortable and cooling breeze came by starts from the north, blowing five or six minutes at a time, and then falling calm. We were now come to the Acaba, the ascent before we arrived at Chiggre, where we intended to have stopt that night.'

Here they found the water very foul, and two of the Arabs died on their arrival. On proceeding on their route they were

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exposed to great hardships, and an attempt was made one night to steal their camels, which, had it succeeded, death would inevitably have been their fate. The poisonous wind, and pillars of moving sand, continued to menace destruction. One of the Arabs was seized with frenzy or madness, and was necessarily left in the desert; and the whole party was much disheartened, from seeing the bodies of several men, whom the Arabs had murdered, lying on the sand. Mr. Bruce also could scarcely walk, his feet being swelled, and full of wounds and sores; but his distress was completed when the camels became exhausted, and in the morning could not be raised upon their legs, This,' says he, the Arabs all declared to be the effects of cold; and yet Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, stood at 42 deg. Every way we turned ourselves death now stared us in the face. We had neither time nor strength to waste, nor provisions to support us. We then took the small skins that had contained our water, and filled them as far as we thought a man could carry them with ease; but, after all these shifts, there was not enough to serve us three days, at which I had estimated our journey to Syene, which still however was uncertain. Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them, and took as much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and, from the stomach of each of the camels, got about four gallons of water, which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity. It is known to people conversant with natural history, that the camel has within him reservoirs in which he can preserve drink for any number of days he is used to. In those caravans of long course, which come from the Nigre across the desert of Selima, it is said that each camel, by drinking, lays in a store of water that will support him for 40 days. I will by no means be a voucher of this account, which carries with it an air of exaggeration; but 14 or 16 days, it is well known, an ordinary camel will live, though he hath no fresh supply of water. When he chews the cud, or when he eats, you constantly see him throw, from this repository, mouthfuls of water to dilute his food; and nature has contrived this vessel