flesh of their bodies open to the bone! Becoming weary of the bloody contest, an old Arab (who probably was a chief) at length commanded them to desist, and promising them, as I have since learned, that we should be possessed by those only who had the best claim to us; this point being at length amicably settled among them, and each Arab having taken possession of what had been apportioned⚫ to him, as his rightful property, my husband by signs (exhibiting his mouth as parched and dry as the sand under foot) gave them to understand that our thirst was too great to be any longer endured, and that if we were not provided with something immediately to allay it, they must expect soon to be in possession of nothing but our dead carcasses!

As the Arabs appeared now to esteem us (poor miserable objects) of too much value to suffer us to perish for any thing within their power to afford us, they drove up their camels and took from the back of one of them a goat skin, sewed up like a wallet, and containing about four gallons of brackish slimy water, which they poured into a callabash⚫ and gave us to drink. Bad as this water was, and nauseous to the smell, I think we could have drank half a gallon each; but having finished the contents of the skin, they refused us any more; but pointing to the east, gave us to understand that although water was with them a precious article, they in a few days should arrive at a place where