in. Oh, horror! She saw no sign of her
footsteps. The whole expanse lay behind her as smooth as though she
were just starting on her way. As if dazed by astonishment, she stamped
on the sand; directly after, before her eyes, the impression was filled
up, completely effaced by the finest sand, which was driven by the
light breeze.

Startled, she pressed her hand upon her beating heart--and grasped
sand; a fine but thick layer had incrusted her garments, her hair, her
face. Through her bewildered thoughts darted the remembrance of having
heard how human beings, animals, whole caravans, had been covered by
such sand-storms, how, heaped by the wind, the sand often rose like
huge waves, burying all life beneath it. She fancied that on her right,
on the south, a hill of sand was towering; it seemed moving swiftly
onward, and threatened to bar her way. So she must run yet faster to
escape it. Her path was still open. Just at that moment, from the
south, a gust of wind suddenly blew with great force. Snatching the
braided hat from her head, it whirled it swiftly northward. In an
instant it was almost out of sight. To overtake it was impossible.
Besides, she must go toward the east. Forward!

The wind grew stronger and stronger. The sun, rising higher, darted
scorching rays upon her unprotected head; her dark-brown hair fluttered
wildly around. Incrusted with salt, it struck her eyes or lashed her
cheeks and stung her keenly. She could scarcely keep her eyes open; the
fine sand forced its way through their long lashes. On. The sand
entered her shoes; the band across the instep of the left one broke.
She lifted her foot; the wind tore off the shoe and whirled it away. It
was certainly no misfortune, yet she wept--wept over her helplessness.
She sank to her knees; the malicious sand rose slowly higher and
higher. A shrill, harsh, disagreeable cry fell on her ear,--the first
sound in the tremendous silence for many hours; a dark figure, flying
from north to south, flitted for a moment along the horizon. It was an
ostrich, fleeing in mortal terror before the simoom. With head and long
white neck far outstretched, aiding the swift movement of its long legs
by flapping its curved dark wings like sails, it glided on like an
arrow. Already it was out of sight.

"That bird is hurrying with such might to save its life. Shall my
strength fail when I am hastening to the man I love? 'For shame, little
one!' he would say." Smiling through