Dec. 24.—When the rains fall, which they do here in torrents in the season, a sort of grass quickly springs up many feet high. In passing the desert, a few remaining roots of this dried grass, which had been blown by the winds from Bodemam, were eagerly seized on by the Arabs, with cries of joy, for their hungry camels. The plain was this day covered with slight irregularities, and strewed with various coloured stones—thick beds of gypsum, stones resembling topazes, and pieces of calcareous spar, which, reflecting the rays of the setting-sun, displayed a most beautiful variety of tints. An incrustation of fine whiting lay in patches, at no great distance from the well: and soon after the sun had retired behind the hills to the west, we descended into a wadey, where about a dozen stunted bushes (not trees) of palm marked the spot where the water was to be found. Even these miserable bushes were a great relief to the eye, after the dreary sameness of the preceding days; and at day-break in the morning, I could not help smiling at seeing Hillman gazing at them with pleasure in his look, while he declared they reminded him of a valley near his own home in the West of England. The wells are situated under a ridge of low white hills of sandstone, called Mafrasben-Kasarettsa, where there are also beds and hills of limestone. The wells were so choked up with sand, that several cart-loads of it were removed previous to finding sufficient water; and even then the animals could not drink until near ten at night. One of our nagas had this day her accouchement on the road; and we all looked forward to the milk which the Arabs assured us she had in abundance, and envied us not a little our morning draughts, which we were already quaffing in imagination. However, one of the “many slips between the cup and the lip” was to befall us. The poor thing suddenly fell, and as suddenly died: the exclamations of the Arabs were dreadful.—“The evil eye! the evil eye!” they all exclaimed—“She was sure to die, I knew it.”—“Well! if she had been mine, I would rather have lost a child, or three slaves!”—“God be praised! God is great, powerful, and wise! those looks of the people are always fatal.”