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 submitted with wonderful patience to all this mangling, and after drinking a draught of water moved on with the camels.  More than twenty camels were lost this day, on account of their straying out of the path.  After travelling several days over the desert, encountering great distress and many privations, they arrived at an extensive wadey called Agbadem.  Here there were several wells of excellent water, forage, and numbers of the tree called Suag, the red berries of which are nearly as good as cranberries.  They here broke in upon the retreats of about a hundred gazelles, who were enjoying the fertility of the valley.  It was, however, not without great difficulty, from their extreme shyness, that one was shot, which afforded an ample and salutary meal to the distressed travellers.  Aghadem is a great rendezvous, and the dread of all small kafilas and travellers.  It is frequented by freebooters of all descriptions.