the desert robbers, who steal what they can from travellers. So they
journey in large companies called "caravans," with a paid guide to
show them the best and the quickest way from oasis to oasis, and with
many men armed with guns and spears paid to ride along by the side of
the camels carrying the merchandise, and to fight if robbers come to
steal. These Sahara robbers are very bad people, who fight, and steal
all they can get, and always kill everyone they can. So everyone who
crosses the Sahara has to be ready to fight for his life as well as
his property. The desert is so vast, and has so many hills and
hiding-places, that it is easy for the robbers to get away after they
have robbed a caravan. Then, as silence once more falls on the place
of the struggle, the cries of the jackals and hyenas and vultures are
heard, as they come from miles away drawn by the smell of blood.
Swiftly they gather to feed on the bodies of the slain, and soon the
wind blows the sand smooth and clean, where a few hours before it was
trampled and stained with blood. Perhaps only a few whitened bones
remain to show what has happened.

6. The North of Africa

So we have learned something about the people who live in the North of
Africa. In Egypt, the land of the great River Nile, the people can
grow rich and prosperous. They have time to learn, but, except the
Copts, many of whom are goldsmiths, they seem to have quite forgotten
how to make the beautiful things the old Egyptians made. In the
desert, the Sahara, there is little water, and life is very hard. All
day people must work to get enough for food and clothes. It is a land
without a king and without laws, where each must fight for himself.
Yet these people, on their long journeys through the waterless waste,
have learned to be very brave and fearless and strong. They are