sed, I
hardly ventured to breathe the hot blast which was offered as the only
means of protracted existence. At last I fetched my respiration with
greater freedom, and no more heard the howling of the blast. Gradually
I lifted up my head, but my eyes had lost their power, I could
distinguish nothing but a yellow glare. I imagined that I was blind,
and what chance could there be for a man who was blind in the desert of
El Tyh? Again I laid my head down, thought of my wife and children, and
abandoning myself to despair, I wept bitterly.

The tears that I shed had a resuscitating effect upon my frame. I felt
revived, and again lifted up my head--I could see! I prostrated myself
in humble thanksgiving to Allah, and then rose upon my feet. Yes, I
could see; but what a sight was presented to my eyes! I could have
closed them for ever with thankfulness. The sky was again serene, and
the boundless prospect uninterrupted as before; but the thousands who
accompanied me, the splendid gathering of men and beast, where were
they? Where was the emir Hadjy and his guards? where the mamelukes, the
agas, the janissaries, and the holy sheiks? the sacred camel, the
singers, and musicians? the varieties of nations and tribes who had
joined the caravan? All perished!! Mountains of sand marked the spots
where they had been entombed, with no other monuments save here and
there part of the body of a man or beast not yet covered by the desert
wave. All, all were gone, save one and that one, that guilty one, was
myself, who had been permitted to exist, that he might behold the awful
mischief which had been created by his presumption and his crime.

For some minutes I contemplated the scene, careless and despairing; for
I imagined that I had only been permitted to outlive the whole, that my
death might be even more terrible. But my wife and children rushed to
my memory, and I resolved for their sakes to save, if possible a life
which had no other ties to bind it to this earth. I tore off a piece of
my turban, and cleansing the sand out of my bleeding nostrils, walked
over the field of death.

Between the different hillocks I found several camels which had not been
covered. Perceiving a water skin, I rushed to it, that I might quench
my raging thirst; but the contents had been dried up--not a drop
remained. I found another, but I had no better success. I then
determined to open one of the bodies of the camels, and obtain the wa