This Arose From Eating Dates After Drinking Water; These Probably Pass Into A Spirituous Fermentation In The Stomach.

On the 22nd of December, they moved before daylight, and halted at the maten called El Hammar, close under a bluff head, which had been in view since quitting their encampment in the morning.

Strict orders were given this day for the camels to keep close up, and for the Arabs not to straggle, the Tibboo Arabs having been seen on the look out. During the last two days, they had passed, on an average, from sixty to ninety skeletons each day, but the numbers that lay about the wells at El Hammar were countless; those of two young women, whose perfect and regular teeth bespoke them young, were particularly shocking; their arms still remained clasped round each other as they had expired, although the flesh had long since perished by being exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and the blackened bones only left; the nails of the fingers, and some of the sinews of the hand also remained, and part of the tongue of one of them still appeared through the teeth.

They had now passed six days of desert, without the slightest appearance of vegetation, and a little branch of the snag, (Caparis sodada,) was brought as a comfort and curiosity. On the following, day, they had alternately plains of sand and loose gravel, and had a distant view of some hills to the westward. While Major Denham was dozing on his horse about noon, overcome by the heat of the sun, which, at that time of the day, shone with great power, he was suddenly awakened by a crashing under his feet, which startled him excessively.

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