ON THE DESERT OF SAHARA
Now we are on the great Desert of Sahara, in Egypt. Isn’t this a queer way of riding? That looks like a little house on the camel’s back; but it does not look as though it would be very comfortable to ride in. This camel is dressed up too, with a net and saddle-cloth. Do you suppose he likes all this covering?
The desert is a strange place. For miles and miles there is no water, nothing but great stretches of sand with queer plants growing in it, and pebbles all about, blue, pink, green, and other colours. Some people think that long ago there was a sea where the desert is now, and often travellers find shells, which make it seem as though water must have been there once. The Arabs, the people who live on the desert, are shepherds with big flocks of sheep and goats, and many camels and horses. They have no homes to live in always, but have to move about from place to place, wherever they can find water. Of course, living in this way, they can have no houses, but have to live in tents, which can be easily carried whenever they move.
Sometimes a terrible storm comes up on the desert; the wind blows, and drives great clouds of sand before it, making it almost impossible for a person to see. In a storm like this the people have to keep moving and to try to get out of the storm, for if they stayed in one place the sand would soon cover them.
The Arab’s Shibriyeh,—a Home on the Great Sahara Desert
From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York