hey were
not sufficiently thirsty to overcome their disgust, and they turned away
from it.

Omrah now began collecting dried grass, and herbs, and lichen from the
rocks, and had soon a sufficiency to make a small fire; they struck a
light, and cutting off steaks from the antelope were in a short time
very busy at the repast. When their hunger was appeased, they found
that their thirst was renewed, and they went down to the pool, and
shutting their eyes drank plentifully. Omrah cooked as much of the meat
as the small fire would permit, that they might not want for the next
twenty-four hours; and the horses being again led to the water to drink,
they mounted, and proceeded to the southward, followed by Omrah on foot.
Another day was passed in searching for the caravan without success.
No water was to be found. The heat was dreadful; and at night they
threw themselves down on the ground, careless of life; and had it not
been sinful they would have prayed for death. The next morning they
arose in a state of dreadful suffering; they could not speak, but they
made signs, and resolved once more to attempt to join the caravan.

They proceeded during the whole of the forenoon in the direction by
which they hoped to discover the track of the waggons. The heat was
overpowering, and they felt all the agony of the day before. At last
the horses could proceed no further; they both lay down, and our
travellers had little hopes of their ever rising again. The scorching
of the sun's rays was so dreadful, that they thrust their heads into
some empty ant-hills to keep off the heat, and there they lay in as
forlorn and hopeless a state as the horses. Speak they could not; their
parched tongues rattled like boards against the roofs of their mouths;
their lips were swollen and bloated, and their eyes inflamed and
starting from their sockets. As Alexander afterwards said to Swinton,
he then recollected the thoughts which had risen in his mind on his
departure from the English shore, and the surmise whether he might not
leave his bones bleaching in the desert; and Alexander now believed that
such was to be the case, and he prayed mentally and prepared for death.
The Major was fully possessed with the same idea; but as they lay at
some yards' distance, with their heads buried in the ant-hills, they
could not communicate with each other even by signs. At last they fell
into a state of stupor and lost all recollection. But an Almighty