" These
vermin are the leeches of the camels. During the morning we passed two
or three forests of palms, and afterwards traversed a flat valley, where
was a little herbage. The people said; "There is no tareek (track): the
tareek is in our heads." Bou Keta noted the route in many parts by the
presence of camels' dung; but the shape of the sand-hills in these parts
seems to be perfectly familiar to these men. We saw one or two lizards,
but no birds or other signs of life, except two brown-black Fezzanees,
trudging over the desert.
At four in the afternoon, after a day of hot wind, we encamped in Wady
Guber, where there is water two or three feet below the surface; and a
small forest of palms belonging to our camel-drivers, having descended
to them in small groups from their grandfathers.
Next day (29th) we again went on over the sand, which extends beyond
Ghadamez and Souf, to the west, and even to Egypt on the east. It is met
at different points by the khafilahs, and crossed in different numbers
of days. We found it very hard work to cross it, and understood why, in
these parts, the words _raml_, sand, and _war_, difficult, have become
convertible terms. Bou Keta had considerable trouble in keeping to the
route, being reduced to depend chiefly on the camels' dung, which rolls
about the surface of the sand. Here and there was a patch of coarse
herbage, scattered like black spots on the bright, white surface.
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