I should mention, that the second night Ali came up in a penitent state along with a khafilah from Ghareeah, and so our poor black women had an opportunity of getting a lift on the spare camels. We could, therefore, go on until morning without fear of losing any of our party in the night. The position of a person who falls behind a caravan in the desert very much resembles that of a man overboard. This khafilah preceded us to Shaty. After the third night I found the weather so cool and temperate, that I continued on the whole of the day; and the Germans joining me in the evening, we did not again separate. It was towards the close of the third night that we were assailed by an awful tempest of wind, rain, and lightning, which flashed upon us occasionally through the thick darkness. The Germans, who were encamped, had their tents carried away, whilst we who were in motion found ourselves compelled to stop and crouch under the bellies of our camels until the morning broke, and the hurricane had spent its force. The cold was intense, and our people complained bitterly. More than once, indeed, the thermometer was down to freezing-point whilst we were traversing the plateau; and one morning the desert was covered with a shining frost. Although we became accustomed to the desolate appearance of this district by degrees, we counted eagerly the days and hours that brought us nearer the confines of Fezzan. Every night's incidents were the same. On we went, nodding drowsily on our camels, sometimes dropping off into a sound sleep, variegated by a snatch of pleasant dreams. But these indulgences are dangerous. I was more than once on the point of falling off. By day, few objects of interest presented themselves: linnets and finches fluttered here and there upon the rare bushes, whilst swallows joined the caravan, and skimmed round and round for hours among the camels, almost brushing the faces of the drivers. Lizards glanced and snakes writhed across the path. We started three wadan or mouflon, churlish animals, fond of such solitudes. As to the birds, our people say they do not drink in winter, and in summer leave the Hamadah altogether. Four-fifths of the surface were utterly barren. Little mounds marked the graves of children, slaves who had perished on the way from inner Africa. The mirage was common, but rarely pretty. Sometimes ridges of low mountains seemed raised on the level plain, probably reflected from the cliffs that edge the plateau. The scattered herbage also assumed regular forms--squares, ovals, circles. Now and then it seemed as if vast ruins were ahead, but as we drew nigh these dwindled into little desert-mosques, formed of half-circles of stones, now turned to the east, now to the west. Here the faithful who may be obliged to traverse these dreary regions stop to offer up their simple prayer to the Almighty Allah, to whom, they say, the dreadful Hamadah belongs.