Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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Why! (It Is
All The Same.) A Camel, Or A Human Figure, Was All He Could Be Made
To Understand, And At These He Was All Agitation And Delight.
Gieb!
gieb!
(Wonderful! wonderful!) The eyes first took his attention,
then the other features; at the sight of the sword, he cried out,
Allah! allah! and on discovering the guns, instantly exclaimed,
"Where is the powder?" This want of perception as was imagined in so
intelligent a man, excited at first the surprise of Major Denham, but
perhaps, just the same would a European have felt, under similar
circumstances. Were a European to attain manhood without ever casting
his eye upon the representation of a landscape on paper, would he
immediately feel the particular beauties of it, the perspective and
the distant objects of it? It is from our opportunities of
contemplating works of art, even in the common walks of life, as well
as to cultivation of mind, and associations of the finer feelings, by
an intercourse with the enlightened and accomplished, that we derive
our quick perception in matters of this kind, rather than from
nature.
On leaving Bilma their road lay over loose hills of sand, in which
the camels sunk nearly knee-deep. In passing these desert wilds,
where hills disappear in a single night by the drifting of the sand,
and where all traces of the passage of even a large kafila sometimes
vanish in a few hours, the Tibboos have certain points in the dark
sandstone ridges, which from time to time raise their heads in the
midst of this dry ocean of sand, and form the only variety, and by
them they steer their course. From one of these land-marks they waded
through sand formed into hills from twenty to sixty feet in height,
with nearly perpendicular sides, the camels blundering and falling
with their heavy loads. The greatest care is taken by the drivers in
descending these banks; the Arabs hang with all their weight on the
animal's tail, by which means they steady him in his descent. Without
this precaution the camel generally falls forward, and of course all
he carries goes over his head.
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.
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