about two leagues to the north of the first, the guide told us that we were near the well Apseach; soon after we arrived at a place containing bushes.  Here the caravan halted, and those who wanted fresh water filled their water-skins from the well which lies in the mountains, about an hour’s march from the place where we halted.  This well is at the bottom of an oblique passage leading into one of the mountains, at the termination of which is found no great quantity of sweet water deposited by the rains which fall in this country about the time of the summer solstice.[75] During the last two days I traveled in great pain; the reflection of the sun from the sand, and the strong wind from the north (prevalent at this season in the desert), which blew its finer particles into my eyes, in spite of all my precautions to shelter them, exasperated and inflamed their malady to a great degree, which the want of sufficient shelter from the sun, during the time of repose, contributed to aggravate.

We stayed near the well till about sunset, when we resumed our travel, and at about three hours after sunrise on the morning of the 10th, came to a rock in a sandy plain, where the conductor of the caravan ordered a halt.  We distributed ourselves round this rock as well as we could, in order to repose;[76] Khalil Aga and myself making a covering from the sun by means of my carpet, propped up by our fusees and fastened by the corners to stones we placed upon the rock, by means of our shawls and sashes.  We stayed here till the middle of the afternoon, when we mounted our camels in order to reach the well Morat as soon as possible, in order to water those patient and indispensable voyagers of the desert.[77] We traversed a tolerably level but rocky tract till about two hours after midnight, when we reached the well.  It lies in a valley between two high chains of mountains of black granite.  Its water is somewhat bitter, as its name imports, and is not drank by travelers except when their water-skins are exhausted.  It serves, however, for the camels of the caravans, and for the inhabitants of two Arab villages in the vicinity, named “Abu Hammak” and “Dohap” who brought their camels to water here the morning after our arrival.  These poor but contented people are obliged to subsist, for the most part, upon their camels’ milk, their situation affording little other means of nourishment.  They are, however, independent, and remote from the tyranny and oppression which afflicts the people of most of the countries of the east.[78]

On the rocks near the well we saw some rude hieroglyphics, representing bulls, horses, and camels, cut in the granite, in the manner of those found in the rocks near Assuan, on the south side of the cataract.  Our guide tells us that such cuttings in the rocks are found in many of the mountains of the desert.