rn and fetch the wheat. All over these
hills things are hidden, and often money, which is sometimes lost for
ever, the owner dying without pointing out his hiding-place. There was
no herbage for camels to-night, but we had brought a little hasheesh
with us. A strong wind set in towards evening and continued nearly all
night, preventing us from sleeping. We were much exhausted by our day's
march, and so were all our animals; they suffer much from these long
stretches. We gave them dates, as we give horses corn.

_14th._--We rose before daylight, and got off by sunrise, continuing
till about two hours after noon. The wind was so exceedingly strong,
blowing from the south-east, that we did not feel the heat of the sun.
But now and then we had strong gusts of hot wind, like the breath of a
furnace. I tied a thin dark cotton handkerchief over my eyes, and found
great relief.

Our course is now south, over a high sandy plain. We are at length
fairly in the Land of Demons, as the country of the Ghat Tuaricks is
called by themselves. All around, the mountains take castellated forms,
and high over all rises the Kasar Janoon, Palace or Citadel of the Ginn:
a huge square mass of rock, said to be a day in circuit, and bristling
with turret-pinnacles, some of which must be seven hundred feet in
height. Nothing but its magnitude can convince the eye at a distance
that it is not a work raised by human hands, and shattered by time or
warfare. Its vast disrupted walls tower gigantically over the plain.
Here, as in another Pandemonium, the spirits of the desert collect from
places distant thousands of miles, for the purpose of debate or prayer.
It is a mosque as well as a hall of council, and a thesaurus to boot,
for unimaginable treasures are buried in its caverns. Poor people love
to forge wealthy neighbours for themselves. No Tuarick will venture to
explore these Titanic dwellings, for, according to old compact, the
tribes of all these parts have agreed to abstain from impertinent
curiosity, on condition of receiving advice and assistance from the
spirit-inhabitants of their country. In my former visit I nearly lost my
life in an attempt to explore it and was supposed to have been misled by
mocking-spirits: little did I think that this superstition was about to
receive another confirmation.

The Kasar Janoon, and all the mountains around, were wrapped this day in
haze, but loomed gigantically through. We proceeded, still in sight of