Note 9 — WIDE AND INHOSPITABLE DESERTS.
Reading edition
In a previous chapter, Taylor says: “Before returning on board, we saw a wonderful mirage. Two lakes of blue water, glittering in the sun, lay spread in the yellow sands, apparently not more than a mile distant. There was not the least sign of vapor in the air; and as we were quite unacquainted with the appearance of the mirage, we decided that the lakes were Nile water, left from the inundation. I pointed to them, and asked the Arabs, ‘Is that water?’ ‘No, no!’ they all exclaimed; ‘that is no water; that is Bar Shaytan,’ a river of the devil!”