The greatest care is taken by the drivers in
descending these banks; the Arabs hang with all their weight on the
animal's tail, by which means they steady him in his descent. Without
this precaution the camel generally falls forward, and of course all
he carries goes over his head.

In the evening they bivouacked under a head called Zow, (the
difficult,) where they found several wells. On the following day, the
sand-hills were less than on the preceding one. But the animals still
sank so deep that it was a tedious day, for all the four camels of
Boo Khaloom gave in; two were killed by the Arabs, and two were left
to the chance of coming up before the following morning. Tremendously
dreary are these marches, as far as the eye can reach, billows of
sand bound the prospect. On seeing the solitary foot passenger of the
kafila, with his water flask in his hand, and the bag of zumeeta on
his head, sink at a distance beneath the slope of one of these, as he
plods his way along, hoping to gain a few paces in his long day's
work, by not following the track of the camels, one trembles for his
safety; the obstacle passed which concealed him from the view, the
eye is strained towards the spot, in order to be assured that he has
not been hurried quickly in the treacherous overwhelming sand.

An unfortunate merchant of Tripoli, Mahomet N' Diff, who had suffered
much on the road from an enlarged spleen, was here advised to undergo
the operation of burning with a red hot iron, the sovereign Arab
remedy for almost every disorder; he gave his consent, and previously
to their proceeding, he was laid on his back, and while five or six
Arabs held him on the sand, the rude operators burnt him on the left
side under the ribs in three places, nearly the size of a sixpence
each. The iron was again placed in the fire, and while heating, the
thumbs of about a dozen Arabs were thrust into different parts of the
poor man's side, to know if the pressure pained him, until his flesh
was so bruised, that he declared all gave him pain: four more marks
with the iron were now made near the former ones, upon which he was
turned on his face, and three larger made within two inches of the
back-bone. It might have been supposed that the operation was now at
an end, but an old Arab, who had been feeling his throat for some
time, declared that a hot iron and a large burn were absolutely
necessary just above the collar bone on the same side. The poor man
submi