remendous fellow and bolted the shark, camel, legs, and all."

In return for this anecdote, the major gave him the story of the two
Kilkenny cats in the saw-pit, which fought, until nothing remained of
either but the tail and a bit of the flue. The old pilot doubted. "How can
that be?" said he, revolving the business seriously in his mind. "As for
the story I have told you, it is as true as the Koran."

After a short stay and presentation to the Sultan of Tajura, a slave-port,
with a miserable old man for its master, the mission once more set forth
for Shoa; yet even here we glean a specimen of Arab speech. "Trees attain
not to their growth in a single day," said an Arab, when remonstrating
with the sultan on his inordinate love of lucre. "Take the tree as your
text, and learn that property is to be gathered only by slow degrees."
"True," said the old miser; "but, sheik, you must have lost sight of the
fact, that my leaves are already withered, and that, if I would be rich, I
have not a moment to lose."

The packing up for the journey was a new source of trouble; every
camel-driver found fault with his load. However, at length every article
was stowed, except a hand-organ and a few stand of arms. At length, a
great hulking savage offered to take the arms, provided they were cut in
two to suit the back of his animals. We have then another instance of Arab
drollery. "You are a tall man," said the old pilot; "suppose we shorten
you by the legs." "No, no," said the barbarian, "I am flesh and blood, and
shall be spoiled." "So will the contents of these cases, you offspring of
an ass," said the old man, "if you divide them."

The progress to the interior from the port of Tajura, led them over
immense ranges of basaltic cliffs, where the heat of the sun was felt with
an intensity scarcely conceivable by European feelings. In this land of
fire, the road skirting the base of a barren range covered with heaps of
lava blocks, and its foot marked by piles of stones, the memorials of
deeds of blood, the lofty conical peak of Jebel Seearo rose in sight, and
not long afterwards the far-famed Lake Assad, surrounded by its dancing
mirage, was seen sparkling at its base.

The first glimpse of this phenomenon, "though curious, was far from
pleasing"--"an elliptical basin, seven miles in its transverse axis,
filled half with smooth water of the deepest cerulean hue, and half with a
sheet of glittering snow-white salt, girded on three si