Having despatched the dinner, which justified the host’s eulogium of it, and reposed for a few hours after their fatigues, Mr Davis and one of his companions set out by themselves to ride all round the oasis of Nefta. “All went on well at first,” he says, “and we even enjoyed our ride along the outskirts of the thick forest of magnificent and majestic date-trees, till we suddenly perceived our horses sinking beneath us. ‘Pull up! pull up!’ screamed my companion; ‘the ground is unsafe!’ We were on the brink of getting on the _Kilta_, a dangerous swamp, which receives the surplus waters of the head-fountain, after they have supplied the vast date-plantations. The _Kilta_ joins the ‘Sea of Pharaoh,’ and never have I seen anything of a more delusive character. The surface of the swamp had precisely the same appearance as the solid ground; and had we been riding at full speed, we might have perished in this deceitful abyss.” The _Ras Elain_—“head fountain or spring,”—which is the source of the _waad_, or river, constitutes the charm and luxury of this delightful oasis. The spring is surrounded on three sides by hillocks, and is embowered amidst a cluster of palm-trees, so thickly and eccentrically placed that our travellers had much difficulty in approaching it so as to taste its waters. _Fi kol donya ma atsh’ kaifho’_,—“In the whole world there is nothing like it!” exclaimed their guide. “And I must candidly confess,” says Mr Davis, “that though he had never left the locality of his birth, he was pretty correct on this point. Never did I taste more delicious water; and we unanimously agreed that the Neftaweens might well be proud of their _Ras Elain_. What a boon is this spring, located as it is amidst the burning sands!” But the great marvel of this district is the mysterious _Bakar Faraoon_, the “Sea of Pharaoh.” The whole tribes of the vicinity look with awe and terror upon this so-called “sea,” and superstitions innumerable are connected with it. Not only has the army of that wicked monarch after whom the sea is called, perished in it, but hosts of infidel sovereigns, persecutors of the Faithful, with their myriads of warriors, been engulfed in it, and are still sinking down its bottomless abyss! Such are the reports of the Moslems, confirmed by the weighty asseverations of our author’s learned friend, the Cadi of Nefta. “Not only have numberless armies been seen marching and re-marching on its surface by night,” said that erudite expounder of the Koran, “but repeatedly have they been seen during broad daylight. Giants on monstrously large horses, have been seen galloping about in various directions, advancing and receding, and then suddenly disappearing again in that ‘sea.’” “‘Have you ever, my Lord Cadi, seen any of those submarine warriors?’ _Cadi._—‘No, _I_ never have.’ ‘Can you mention any trustworthy person of your acquaintance who has?’ _Cadi._—‘I certainly cannot.’