THE MOUNTAIN OF MOKRAT. 189 ed here and there by a distant peak. Far in advance of us lay Djebel Mokrat, the limit of the next day's journey. From its top, said Eyoub, one may see the palm-groves along the Nile. We encamped on the open plain, not far from two black pyramidal hills, in the flush of a superb sunset. The ground was traversed by broad strata of gray granite, which lay on the surface in huge boulders. Our camels here found a few bunches of dry, yellow grass, which had pierced the gravelly soil.

To the south-east was a mountain called by the Arabs Djebel No gar a (the Mountain of the Drum), because, as Eyoub declared, a devil who had his residence among its rocks, frequently beat a drum at night, to scare the passing caravans.

The stars were sparkling freshly and clearly when I rose, on the morning of the eighth day, and Djebel Mokrat lay like a faint shadow on the southern horizon. The sun revealed a few isolated peaks to the right and left, but merely distant isles on the vast, smooth ocean of the Desert. It was a rapture to breathe air of such transcendent purity and sweetness.

I breakfasted on the immense floor, sitting in the sun, and then jogged on all day, in a heat of 90°, towards Djebel Mokrat, which seemed as far off as ever. The sun went down, and it was still ahead of us. " That is a Djelel Shaytan," I said to Eyoub ; " or rather, it is no mountain ; it is an afrite." " 0 Eflendi ! " said the old man, " don't speak of afrites here. There are many in this part of the Desert, and if a man travels alone here at night, one of them walks behind him and forces him to go forward and forward, until he has lost his path." We rode on by the light of the moon and stars — silently at first, but presently Shekh Ali began to sing his favorite song of " Yallak salaameh, el-hamdu Ullahfok belameh" and one