disgust, and they turned away
from it.

Omrah now began collecting dried grass, and herbs, and lichen from the
rocks, and had soon a sufficiency to make a small fire; they struck a
light, and cutting off steaks from the antelope, were in a short time
very busy at the repast. When their hunger was appeased, they found that
their thirst was renewed, and they went down to the pool, and shutting
their eyes drank plentifully. Omrah cooked as much of the meat as the
small fire would permit, that they might not want for the next
twenty-four hours; and the horses being again led to the water to drink,
they mounted, and proceeded to the southward, followed by Omrah on foot.
Another day was passed in searching for the caravan without success. No
water was to be found. The heat was dreadful; and at night they threw
themselves down on the ground, careless of life; and had it not been
sinful they would have prayed for death. The next morning they arose in
a state of dreadful suffering; they could not speak, but they made
signs, and resolved once more to attempt to join the caravan.

They proceeded during the whole of the forenoon in the direction by
which they hoped to discover the tracks of the wagons. The heat was
overpowering, and they felt all the agony of the day before. At last the
horses could proceed no further; they both lay down, and our travelers
had little hopes of their ever rising again. The scorching of the sun's
rays was so dreadful, that they thrust their heads into some empty
ant-hills to keep off the heat, and there they lay in as forlorn and
hopeless a state as the horses. Speak they could not; their parched
tongues rattled like boards against the roofs of their mouths; their
lips were swollen and bloated, and their eyes inflamed and starting from
the sockets. As Alexander afterward said to Swinton, he then recollected
the thoughts which had risen in his mind on his departure from the
English shore, and the surmise whether he might not leave his bones
bleaching in the desert; and Alexander now believed that such was to be
the case, and he prayed mentally and prepared for death. The Major was
fully possessed of the same idea; but as they lay at some yards'
distance, with their heads buried in the ant-hills, they could not
communicate with each other even by signs. At last they fell into a
state of stupor and lost all recollection. But an Almighty Providence
watched over them, and during their state of insensibili