DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0143
123
TRAVELS IN UPPER
burning drought, and which, like the liquid plains
of the ocean, are exposed to piracies and ship-
wrecks. The vast desert of Libya opened before
us. There no road, no path, remains to guide the
traveller's course ; the impressions of his footsteps
are effaced almost as soon as made, and billows of
sand, raised by the impetuous winds, sometimes
swallow him up. The Arab, to whom these soli-
tudes are familiar, knows how to traverse them in
all directions, without a compass as well as with-
out a path, and, guided by the stars, never loses
his way. Hussein was well experienced in journeys
of this sort. Memory still paints him in my ima-
gination, seldom on his camel, almost always on
foot, with his hands behind him, walking with
tranquillity over these bare plains, where no land-
mark appears to direct the steps, as devoid of care
as if he were in the most nicely planted walk.
The Arabic name of these bare tracts, in which
not a particle of vegetable mould exists, all being
sand or stone, is Dsjcbet, which signifies a moun-
tain. In fact, the ground rises with a gentle slope,
which forms, first eminences, then hills, and at
length mountains.
Wc ascended imperceptibly for two or three
leagues, on a thick bed of fine moveable sand,
into which both men and beasts sink as they walk.
At
TRAVELS IN UPPER
burning drought, and which, like the liquid plains
of the ocean, are exposed to piracies and ship-
wrecks. The vast desert of Libya opened before
us. There no road, no path, remains to guide the
traveller's course ; the impressions of his footsteps
are effaced almost as soon as made, and billows of
sand, raised by the impetuous winds, sometimes
swallow him up. The Arab, to whom these soli-
tudes are familiar, knows how to traverse them in
all directions, without a compass as well as with-
out a path, and, guided by the stars, never loses
his way. Hussein was well experienced in journeys
of this sort. Memory still paints him in my ima-
gination, seldom on his camel, almost always on
foot, with his hands behind him, walking with
tranquillity over these bare plains, where no land-
mark appears to direct the steps, as devoid of care
as if he were in the most nicely planted walk.
The Arabic name of these bare tracts, in which
not a particle of vegetable mould exists, all being
sand or stone, is Dsjcbet, which signifies a moun-
tain. In fact, the ground rises with a gentle slope,
which forms, first eminences, then hills, and at
length mountains.
Wc ascended imperceptibly for two or three
leagues, on a thick bed of fine moveable sand,
into which both men and beasts sink as they walk.
At