DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0230
AND LOWER EGYPT.
201
travels through climates of fire, I had learned to
support all the ardour of the orb of day ; fully
convinced, besides, that there is never too much
light for a traveller who wishes to procure useful
information. I have since travelled over the same
ground in the day-time: it is computed to be a
journey of about twelve hours. Carriages not
being in use there, they employ mules, which you
find ready for hire, both at Alexandria and Ros-
setta, at a fixed and very moderate price. Their
pace is a very long amble, by means of which they
can ( over a great deal of ground,'without fati-
guing themselves too much. These animals were
so habituated to the road, that it was unnecessary
to guide them, and that, whether by night or by
day, they never deviated from their course, which,
on a moving sand, can neither be traced nor
formed into a path ; they iiad, accordingly, neither
bridle nor bit, but only a sorry halter.
Though there be no place of habitation on this
route, it is not, properly speaking, a desert. You
see on one side, for half the way, and at a little
distance, a few straggling houses and a town ; and,
through the remainder, you meet with signs which
indicate that the habitations of men are not very
remote. Besides, the traveller has no reason to be
apprehensive of the violent gusts of wind from the
south, so formidable in the vast plains of sand with
which
201
travels through climates of fire, I had learned to
support all the ardour of the orb of day ; fully
convinced, besides, that there is never too much
light for a traveller who wishes to procure useful
information. I have since travelled over the same
ground in the day-time: it is computed to be a
journey of about twelve hours. Carriages not
being in use there, they employ mules, which you
find ready for hire, both at Alexandria and Ros-
setta, at a fixed and very moderate price. Their
pace is a very long amble, by means of which they
can ( over a great deal of ground,'without fati-
guing themselves too much. These animals were
so habituated to the road, that it was unnecessary
to guide them, and that, whether by night or by
day, they never deviated from their course, which,
on a moving sand, can neither be traced nor
formed into a path ; they iiad, accordingly, neither
bridle nor bit, but only a sorry halter.
Though there be no place of habitation on this
route, it is not, properly speaking, a desert. You
see on one side, for half the way, and at a little
distance, a few straggling houses and a town ; and,
through the remainder, you meet with signs which
indicate that the habitations of men are not very
remote. Besides, the traveller has no reason to be
apprehensive of the violent gusts of wind from the
south, so formidable in the vast plains of sand with
which