=The Rann of Cutch.=—We shall hereafter return to the country of the Chauhans, which is bounded to the south by that singular feature in the physiognomy of the desert, the Rann, or Ran, already slightly touched upon in the geographical sketch prefixed to this work. This immense salt-marsh, upwards of one hundred and fifty miles in breadth, is formed chiefly by the Luni, which, like the Rhone, after forming Lake Leman, resumes its name at its further outlet, and ends as it commences with a sacred character, having the temple of Narayan[8.1.13] at its embouchure, where it mingles with the ocean, and that of Brahma at its source of Pushkar. The Rann, or Ran, is a corruption of Aranya, or ‘the waste’;[8.1.14] nor can anything in nature be more dreary in the dry weather than this parched desert of salt and mud, the peculiar abode of the _khar-gadha_, or wild-ass, whose love of solitude has been commemorated by an immortal pen.[8.1.15] That this enormous depository of salt is of no recent formation we are informed by the Greek writers, whose notice it did not escape, and who have preserved in Erinos a nearer approximation to the original Aranya than exists in our Ran or Rann. Although mainly indebted to the Luni for its salt, whose bed and that of its feeders are covered with saline deposits, it is also supplied by the overflowings of the Indus, to which grand stream it may be indebted for its volume of water. We have here another strong point of physical resemblance between the valleys of the Indus and the Nile, which Napoleon [296] at once referred to the simple operations of nature; I allude to the origin of Lake Moeris, a design too vast for man.[8.1.16] =Thal, Rūi.=—As the reader will often meet with the words _thal_ and _rui_, he should be acquainted with the distinction between them. The first means an arid and bare desert; the other is equally expressive of desert, but implies the presence of natural vegetation; in fact, the jungle of the desert. =Thal of the Luni.=—This embraces the tracts on both sides of the river, forming Jalor and its dependencies. Although the region south of the stream cannot be included in the _thal_, yet it is so intimately connected with it, that we shall not forego the only opportunity we may have of noticing it.