Page 50 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

II.] TOR TO SUEZ. 31

length retired to rest, the chief Hamed con­
trived to possess himself of a comfortable
berth by clearing away the embers from
the spot where the fire had been burning:
he then removed the soil to the depth of a
few inches, and laid himself down in the
hollow.

At daylight January 27th we pursued our
journey along El Kaa. Mount Serbal, with
dark craggy summit, was still visible, proudly
elevated above the surrounding peaks. This
was once a place of pilgrimage, and some
authors have even considered it to be Mount
Sinai.
During the early part of the day we several
times beheld the phenomenon of the mirage,
or false water of the Desert. Its resemblance
to a diminutive lake was certainly very strik­
ing, since it not only reflected the bushes on

its margin, but had also something of the
ripple of water, and was streaked by those
narrow shining patches of light observable on
the surface of lakes when viewed from a dis-
tance. In some instances the opening be­
tween the false object and the true one must
have amounted to nearly two degrees.