Before they had time to get
decomposed from their state of petrifaction I had remounted my
dromedary, and was darting away towards the east.
Without pause or remission of pace I continued to press forward,
but after a while I found to my confusion that the slight track
which had hitherto guided me now failed altogether. I began to
fear that I must have been all along following the course of some
wandering Bedouins, and I felt that if this were the case, my fate
was a little uncertain.
I had no compass with me, but I determined upon the eastern point
of the horizon as accurately as I could by reference to the sun,
and so laid down for myself a way over the pathless sands.
But now my poor dromedary, by whose life and strength I held my
own, began to show signs of distress: a thick, clammy, and
glutinous kind of foam gathered about her lips, and piteous sobs
burst from her bosom in the tones of human misery. I doubted for a
moment whether I would give her a little rest, a relaxation of
pace, but I decided that I would not, and continued to push forward
as steadily as before.
The character of the country became changed. I had ridden away
from the level tracts, and before me now, and on either side, there
were vast hills of sand and calcined rocks, that interrupted my
progress and baffled my doubtful road, but I did my best.
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