a long line of camels (called _kitar_, a name better known than either kafila or karwan), anxiously toiling through the often doubtful path, and the Charan conductor, at each stage, tying a knot on the end of his turban. He may discover, lying in ambush, a band of Sahariyas, the Bedouins of our desert (_sahra_),[8.1.8] either mounted on camels or horses, on the watch to despoil the caravan, or engaged in the less hazardous occupation of driving off the flocks of the Rajar or Mangalia shepherds, peacefully tending them about the _tars_ or _bawas_, or hunting for the produce stored amidst the huts of the ever-green _jhal_,[8.1.9] which serve at once as grain-pits and shelter from the sun. A migratory band may be seen flitting with their flocks from ground which they have exhausted, in search of fresh pastures: And if the following day they chance to find A new repast, or an untasted spring, Will bless their stars, and think it luxury! Or they may be seen preparing the _rabri_, a mess quite analogous to the _kouskous_ of their Numidian brethren, or quenching their thirst from the _Wah_ of their little oasis, of which they maintain sovereign possession so long as the pasture lasts, or till they come in conflict with some more powerful community. =Oasis.=—We may here pause to consider whether in the _bah_, _bawa_, or _wah_, of the Indian desert, may not be found the _oasis_ of the Greeks, corrupted by them from _el-wah_, or, as written by Belzoni (in his account of the Libyan desert, while searching for the [294] temple of Ammon), _Elloah_. Of the numerous terms used to designate water in these arid regions, as _par_, _rar_, _tar_, _dah_ or _daha_, _bah_, _bawa_, _wah_, all but the latter are chiefly applicable to springs or pools of water, while the last (_wah_), though used often in a like sense, applies more to a water-course or stream. _El-wah_, under whatever term, means—‘_the water_.’ Again, _daha_ or _dah_ is a term in general use for a pool, even not unfrequently in running streams and large rivers, which, ceasing to flow in dry weather, leave large stagnant masses, always called _dah_. There are many of the streams of Rajputana, having such pools, particularized as _hathi-dah_, or ‘elephant-pool,’ denoting a sufficiency of water even to drown that animal. Now the word _dah_ or _daha_, added to the generic term for water, _wah_, would make _wadi_ (pool of water), the Arabian term for a running stream, and commonly used by recent travellers in Africa for these habitable spots. If the Greeks took the word _wadi_ from any MS., the transposition would be easily accounted for: _wadi_ would be written thus وازي, and by the addition of a point وازي, _wazi_, easily metamorphosed, for a euphonous termination, into _oasis_.[8.1.10]