sual deep, cut channels carrying into the desert the overflow
of rain water from the Naiband Mountain, and the many little hills at its
foot; otherwise in the thirty-six miles which we covered during the night
there was absolutely nothing of interest.

When we had gone some ten miles from Naiband the camel men, tired of
carrying their matchlocks, slung them to the saddles and professed the
danger of an attack over. We were in the open again. I was much troubled
by my fever, which had seized me violently and brought on aches all over
my body.

We camped at 3,480 feet, having descended 330 feet in thirty-six miles,
an almost perfectly flat stretch except a hillock or undulation here and
there. My fever continued so fierce the whole day that I had not the
strength to stand up nor the inclination to eat, the exhaustion caused by
the very high temperature being indescribable.

We left at 7 p.m., meaning to make another long march. The night was
intensely cold, with a terrific wind sweeping from the north-east.
Several times during the night, when we came across a tamarisk shrub or
two, we halted for a few minutes to make a bonfire and warm our frozen
hands and toes. We actually came across a stream of brackish water--four
feet broad, and about two to three inches deep--the largest stream we had
seen since entering the desert, and having been twelve hours on the
saddle to cover only twenty-four miles, camels and men shivering
pitifully from the cold, and the latter also from fever, we made camp in
a spot where there was an abundance of tamarisks and a deep well, the
water of which was fully twenty feet below the earth's surface.

A small basin had been excavated next to the well. We filled it with
water by means of a bucket, and it was a real pleasure to see the camels
crowding round it and satisfying their thirst of two days. We did not
allow them to drink the water of the brackish stream.

The elevation of this camp was 3,890 feet.

CHAPTER X

Intense cold--Dulled sense of taste--Characteristics of the
country--Beautiful stones--Clouds of the desert--A salt
stream--Icicles on the moustache and eyelashes--Longing for
sunrise--Prayers of the camel men--Fedeshk--Ali Murat meets his
wife--Opium dens and opium smokers--Effects of smoking opium in
excess--Fever-stricken people--Dwellings--An official
visitor--Science reduced to practice--Sadek's idea of sunset and
sunrise--"Ke