ved before daylight, and halted at
the maten called El Hammar, close under a bluff head, which had been
in view since quitting their encampment in the morning. Strict orders
were given this day for the camels to keep close up, and for the
Arabs not to straggle, the Tibboo Arabs having been seen on the look
out. During the last two days, they had passed, on an average, from
sixty to ninety skeletons each day, but the numbers that lay about
the wells at El Hammar were countless; those of two young women,
whose perfect and regular teeth bespoke them young, were particularly
shocking; their arms still remained clasped round each other as they
had expired, although the flesh had long since perished by being
exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and the blackened bones only
left; the nails of the fingers, and some of the sinews of the hand
also remained, and part of the tongue of one of them still appeared
through the teeth.

They had now passed six days of desert, without the slightest
appearance of vegetation, and a little branch of the snag, _(Caparis
sodada,)_ was brought as a comfort and curiosity. On the following,
day, they had alternately plains of sand and loose gravel, and had a
distant view of some hills to the westward. While Major Denham was
dozing on his horse about noon, overcome by the heat of the sun,
which, at that time of the day, shone with great power, he was
suddenly awakened by a crashing under his feet, which startled him
excessively. He found that his steed had, without any sensation of
shame or alarm, stepped upon the perfect skeletons of two human
beings, cracking their brittle bones under his feet, and by one trip
of his foot, separating a skull from the trunk, which rolled on like
a ball before him. This event imparted a sensation to him, which it
took him a long time to remove. His horse was for many days
afterwards not looked upon with the same regard as formerly.

One of their nagas had this day her accouchement on the road, and
they all looked forward to the milk, which the Arabs assured them she
had in abundance, and envied them not a little their morning
draughts, which they were already quaffing in imagination. However,
one of the many slips between the cup and the lip was to befall them.
The poor naga suddenly fell, and as suddenly died. The exclamations
of the Arabs were dreadful. "The evil eye! the evil eye!" they all
exclaimed; "she was sure to die, I knew it. Well! if she had been