Note 128 — IBN BAṬÚṬAH’S JOURNEY.
Reading edition
A hundred mithḳáls was a large hire, if we estimate it by the price of salt at Tegháza, which was probably but one mithḳál the load. In the descriptions of the Desert of Tíser, the serpents infesting it are always mentioned. They were dressed with salt and wormwood, according to El Idrísí (Rec. de Voy. p. 108), and eaten by the Blacks. If the loose hot sands abruptly approach the limits of vegetation on the southern border of the Ṣaḥrá, between the 4th and 9th westerly meridians, this phenomenon must be ascribed to the prevalence of northerly winds, which drive the sand within the limit of the rains. On the coast the drift of the sand seems to lean towards the north.