The wind raised the fine sand, with which the extensive desert was covered, so as to fill the atmosphere, and render the immense space before them impenetrable to the eye beyond a few yards.

The sun and clouds were entirely obscured, and a suffocating and oppressive weight accompanied the flakes and masses of sand, which it might be said they had to penetrate at every step.
At times they completely lost sight of the camels, though only a few yards before them.

The horses hung their tongues out of their mouths, and refused to face the torrents of sand.

A sheep that accompanied the kafila, the last of their stock, lay down in the road, and they were obliged to kill him and throw the carcass on a camel; a parching thirst oppressed them, which nothing alleviated.

They had made but little way by three o'clock in the afternoon, when the wind got round to the eastward, and imparted to them a little refreshment.