LEHOCHOMU-MELLEHA.
By six o'clock the next morning all were stirring, and at seven we struck our tents. Ascending from the hollow in which Bir el Abd is situated, we came to an acclivity known as El Homda Bir el Abd, overlooking the extended chain of Jebel el Magara in the distance. This was followed by a flat piece of ground, upon which little was growing beyond a number of plants of wormwood (Artemisia monosperma), and a kind of prickly gray-leaved shrub with blue blossoms. Our path then brought us to a Melleha with a few rushes, where the water was almost entirely dried up, leaving a bed of salt. A little later we passed across a plain of an almost uniform level, which appeared bounded to the right by the high hills in the distance. On the same side is situated Bir el Mabruka—"Well of the Mabruka," towards which we saw a party of Bedouins making their way. This plain is succeeded by hilly ground, distinguished as El Bassoul—"the onions," where white-blossomed broom with thin leaves is met with, and, in a slight declivity, a few bushes. From El Bassoul the road descends gently through a sandy tract, from which to the left we saw the great Lehochomu Melleha, with a mirage effect of such remarkable vividness as to make us think we had the open sea before us (see illustration). At this part of our journey we met two Bedouins, who greeted us with much ceremony. Here too, scattered about, we found specimens of Caucalis. Our course then lay through drearily uniform sandy ground, of somewhat broken configuration, and covered with bushy vegetation, where we passed a telegraph post bearing the notice that it was half-way between Bir el Abd and Bir el Magara. Here we overtook our camels, which, as usual, had preceded us; but we sent them on again, as we decided to pause for our midday meal. The wind being in the south, the air was terribly oppressive, and I felt some apprehension of the Hampsin. We accordingly pitched our tent in a hollow, overgrown with rushes, where we were to some extent protected from the scorching blasts. All our provisions were covered with the fine sand with which the air was filled. We were passed by two travelling companies of Bedouins, whom we had already seen on the road taking their scanty meal. An old woman came up to us to ask for a drop of water. Glad as we should have been to accommodate the poor creature, we dared not do so, lest we should have had a visit from the whole troop of Bedouins on the same errand, when our store would very soon have been exhausted. A youth of eighteen, to whom we gave a pipeful of tobacco, also begged for a little water, but we had to refuse him too.
Being anxious to get on, we did not rest more than an hour. Continuing to follow the telegraph posts, we came to a hilly, sandy district, called El Brej, a most fatiguing section of the route, and much dreaded by the Bedouins on account of the almost entire absence of water. To the right is a small hollow where, by digging to some depth, just enough may be found to moisten the sand, but it is so saline that it aggravates the thirst instead of appeasing it. As we went on, the wind increased in violence. We met a number of Bedouins greatly suffering from thirst and heat, who asked us for a little water. It was most heartrending to see young children toiling along, and to hear them entreating their parents for a draught. Even now I can fancy I hear their piteous lamentations, as one after the other they tried to drain a drop from the empty clay bottles. One family I remember particularly; it consisted of an old man and three little children, the two younger of whom were mounted upon an emaciated old donkey, while the eldest, a thin, sunburnt lad, walked with the old man behind. As the poor beast was struggling up a sandy slope, its two little riders holding tight on, with their wan faces fixed on the distant goal, it came down all at once with a deep groan. The poor children rolled off terrified on to the sand. I shall never forget the eyes of the old man as he came up panting. "Allah! Allah!" he cried, with a supplicating glance heavenward. He then sat on the sand, and took the children in his arms, leaving the ass to recover itself. We were obliged to go on, and could do nothing for him but hope that his prayer for help had been heard.
A little further we passed a spot where we were told a wandering Hindoo had four years ago succumbed from exhaustion and thirst. As may be imagined, the account of his sufferings was anything but cheering. Shortly after, we came upon our kitchen-boy, a native of Cairo, who could go no further. All our people had become so worn out that they had gone forward on the baggage mules, leaving the poor lad, as the humblest among them, to make his way on foot through the deep sand as best he could. He had besought our moukri to allow him to ride, but in vain; every one cared only for himself. I ordered some bread, meat, and water to be given to him, and we then had to leave him to shift for himself. It was not until after midnight that he came into camp.
We then descended slowly between roundish sand-ridges to the great Melleha, El Mestebak—"Melleha of the wall-seat," where the deep sand ceases. At a spot close to the entrance of the Melleha a little water may usually be obtained by digging, but our camel-drivers, after trying in vain to get some, had to content themselves with cooling their arms and feet with the moist sand. This Melleha is of great length, interrupted in one place only by a small saddle-shaped sand-hill, and is bounded on both sides by ridges of sand. It gradually slopes into a great flat plain with but one slight elevation in the centre, near which lies the grave of a soldier of the time of Ibrahim Pacha, marked by wooden pegs. This spot is also frequently used by the Bedouins as a burial-place. Beyond this part the Melleha increases in width, and the enclosing ridges become gradually lower, until a view is obtained over those to the right of the extended Jebel el Magara. Only at the time of heavy rainfalls does this Melleha contain much water. The sandy tract which follows contains a great deal of white-blossomed broom, which also grows further on in abundance.
JEBEL EL MAGARA (TAKEN FROM EL BREJ).
KOUBBA EL MAGARA.