They met, soon after starting, two caravans—the largest consisting of fifteen camels laden with ivory. With the latter was a woman sitting comfortably in a little cage on the camel’s back.
Passing through a narrow ravine between gloomy cliffs, they reached a sandy waste, passing across which they at length arrived at some crumbling ruins surrounding a well, where they and their camels could quench their thirst. Though the great watering-place on this desert road, it has not a cheerful aspect; but, as the water is always bubbling up and keeps the same level, the largest caravan might be fully supplied. A day was spent here, as both camels and men required rest.
Day after day they travelled on, passing through rocky wadies and narrow defiles, out of the sides of which projected jet-black masses of sandstone, giving a wild air to the desolate region.
One day two gazelles were caught, an addition to their bill of fare.
At length in the distance appeared a town on the top of a broad, terraced rock. They took long to reach it.
It is rarely such a place is seen in that part of the world. The rock rose in the midst of a valley, occupying a position which in days of yore must have made it a place of great importance. It is called Ederi. Amidst the sand-hills which surround it are green fields of wheat and barley, and here and there groves of date-trees.
Before them now lay a series of sand-hills, intermingled with small clusters of palm-trees. Sometimes the ascent of the sand-hills was most trying for the camels. They extend for five days’ march or more, but are nothing in comparison with those in the direction of the Natron Lakes: so one of their guides told them.
Often, while crossing this sandy waste, thirsty travellers are deceived by the effects of the curious mirage, when lakes glittering in the sun, with towers, domes, and minarets reflected on their surface, appear before their eyes, to vanish suddenly as they approach.
Their camel-drivers had led them them to the left, in order to visit their own village of Ugrefe. It consisted of about thirty light and low dwellings made of clay and palm
