nfeebled, they had become more inured to the
conditions, and the few t'samma, or tubers dug from the sand for them,
sufficed to keep them alive.

I had ceased to take account of the time, but there came a day when we
came upon a tract where rain had fallen in abundance some time before.
For from an absolutely barren dune, we suddenly looked down upon a
thick garden of beautiful flowers; tall, and like a slender foxglove in
appearance, they filled the wide hollows between the dunes in all
directions. They were of endless variety in color, white, mauve, and an
endless gamut of pinks, down to the deepest purple; and a more
beautiful sight it would be impossible to imagine. But thickly as they
grew for mile after mile, there was nothing else, no t'samma or any
other refreshing plant or fruit, and the hungry horses would not look
at them. I noticed, too, that Inyati seemed none too pleased at finding
this gorgeous garden, and climbed dune after dune to peer in all
directions as the sun rose on the morning we found it.

"We must cross it quickly, or go round," he said, as I stood beside him
on the top of a high dune. "It is a poison flower, and makes one sleep
and to sleep among it is to die. But I see no way round!" Far on the
horizon we could see the clouds rising from a pan in the right
direction.

"We must go on," said Inyati, "and cross this belt of poison flower by
day, when it will harm us but little; to be among it after sundown is
to sleep and to sleep among it is to die."

I had heard of this poison flower before, but had never heard of its
being found in such abundance as to be a danger to life. It looked too
beautiful to be harmful, and its perfume was but faint. But Inyati knew
it well, and I could see that he was anxious, as after a short rest we
trekked on through the never-ending stretches of gorgeous coloring,
through them, as through a cornfield. And soon I found that even now in
the glaring sunshine when they were considered innocuous, their perfume
had a peculiar effect upon me, and long before we had half crossed to
the pan I was seized with an overpowering desire to sleep. I nodded as
I stumbled along nothing seemed to matter why should we worry to go
farther, why not lie down and rest, and sleep?

I must have stumbled and fallen, drugged with the insidious poison of
the faint perfume, for I came to myself lying upon the ground among the
flowers, and with Inyati shaking me violently and shouting in