Immediately on clearing the pass we saw the celebrated Kasar Janoon, or Palace of the Demons; of and concerning which the people had been talking all day:  we had then the range of hills or mountains to our left, and some sand-hills on our right.  Dr. Overweg at once discovered we were in a new region, or zone.  The mountains on the left are composed of slate-marl, and not sandstone, as before stated by myself and Dr. Oudney.  Overweg considers them of a very peculiar character and is delighted with their castle-like and battlemented shapes.  But we shall have much to say of these marl-slate mountains, coloured so beautifully, and looking nobly to the eye.

Before entering the pass of Abulaghlagh, Hateetah hid some of his wheat under the rocks to lighten his camels.  I joked him, and told him I knew his hiding-place, and would return and fetch the wheat.  All over these hills things are hidden, and often money, which is sometimes lost for ever, the owner dying without pointing out his hiding-place.  There was no herbage for camels to-night, but we had brought a little hasheesh with us.  A strong wind set in towards evening and continued nearly all night, preventing us from sleeping.  We were much exhausted by our day’s march, and so were all our animals; they suffer much from these long stretches.  We gave them dates, as we give horses corn.

14th.—­We rose before daylight, and got off by sunrise, continuing till about two hours after noon.  The wind was so exceedingly strong, blowing from the south-east, that we did not feel the heat of the sun.  But now and then we had strong gusts of hot wind, like the breath of a furnace.  I tied a thin dark cotton handkerchief over my eyes, and found great relief.

Our course is now south, over a high sandy plain.  We are at length fairly in the Land of Demons, as the country of the Ghat Tuaricks is called by themselves.  All around, the mountains take castellated forms, and high over all rises the Kasar Janoon, Palace or Citadel of the Ginn:  a huge square mass of rock, said to be a day in circuit, and bristling with turret-pinnacles, some of which must be seven hundred feet in height.  Nothing but its magnitude can convince the eye at a distance that it is not a work raised by human hands, and shattered by time or warfare.  Its vast disrupted walls tower gigantically over the plain.  Here, as in another Pandemonium, the spirits of the desert collect from places distant thousands of miles, for the purpose of debate or prayer.  It is a mosque as well as a hall of council, and a thesaurus to boot, for unimaginable treasures are buried in its caverns.  Poor people love to forge wealthy neighbours for themselves.  No Tuarick will venture to explore these Titanic dwellings, for, according to old compact, the tribes of all these parts have agreed to abstain from impertinent curiosity, on condition of receiving advice and assistance from the spirit-inhabitants of their country.  In my former visit I nearly lost my life in an attempt to explore it and was supposed to have been misled by mocking-spirits:  little did I think that this superstition was about to receive another confirmation.