gments, as it were, of a petrified
forest; large trunks, branches, twigs, and even pieces of bark, being
scattered over it. Sometimes these stony remains were brought in as
mistake for fuel. When the caravan halted for the night, each
individual dug a hole in the sand, gathered a few sticks, and
prepared his victuals after the African fashion of kouskous, soups,
or puddings. Horneman, according to his European habits, at first
employed the services of another, but finding himself thus exposed to
contempt or suspicion, he soon followed the example of the rest, and
became his own cook.

There are, as usual, oases in this immense waste. Ten days brought
the caravan to Ummesogeir, a village situated upon a rock, with 120
inhabitants, who, separated by deserts, from the rest of the world,
passed a peaceful and hospitable life, subsisting on dates, the chief
produce of their arid and sterile soil.

Another day's journey brought them to Siwah, a much more extensive
oasis, the rocky border of which is estimated by Horneman to be fifty
miles in circumference. It yields, with little culture, various
descriptions of grain and vegetables; but its wealth consists chiefly
in large gardens of dates, baskets of which fruit form here the
standard of value. The government is vested in a very turbulent
aristocracy, of about thirty chiefs, who meet in council in the
vicinity of the town wall, and in the contests which frequently
arise, make violent and sudden appeals to arms. The chief question in
respect to Siwah is, whether it does or does not comprise the site of
the celebrated shrine of Jupiter Ammon, that object of awful
veneration to the nations of antiquity, and which Alexander himself,
the greatest of its heroes, underwent excessive toil and peril to
visit and to associate with his name. This territory does in fact
contain springs, and a small edifice, with walls six feet thick,
partly painted and adorned with hieroglyphics. There are also antique
tombs in the neighbouring mountains, but as the subsequent
discoveries of Belzoni and Edmonstone have proved that all these
features exist in other oases, scattered in different directions
along the desert borders of Egypt, some uncertainty must perhaps for
ever rest on this curious question.

The route now passed through a region still indeed barren, yet not
presenting such a monotonous plain of sand as intervenes between
Egypt and Siwah. It was bordered by precipitous limestone rock