CHAPTER XVI

AT ARKENUHidden in the heart of the desert are these strange picturegraphsTHE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE AT OUENATRock drawings found in the valley chiseled on the granite rock. The drawings are similar to those found in Egypt of prehistoric age. There are drawings of giraffes, gazelles of every kind, lions, ostriches, cattle, but none of the camel, yet no traveler can reach this oasis now except with the camel because of the absence of water on the route and of any grains which could make the journey possible for a donkey or a horse. The remains of routes found in the Egyptian oasis west of the Nile Valley point toward the oasis of Ouenat, and it is probable that in the old times the route from the Mediterranean coast to central Africa was through this oasis and not through Kufra, as is the case now.It is not easy to move about, for books and chests of books are ranged along the walls and in the middle of the room as well.There are many very ancient chests used as cup-boards and at the same time fitted with attachments at the sides which enable them to be straightway loaded upon a camel in case of need. The library is somewhat out of order, books piled carelessly one on top of another, for Sayed Idris has long been absent. There is a great number of manuscripts inclosed in beautifully tooled morocco covers. There are modern books printed in Cairo and in India. There are manuscripts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. With the exception of a few books in the Persian language, all are in Arabic. There are two or three manuscripts of the Koran illuminated in gold. It was a great privilege for me to be allowed to go into this library, for as a rule no one is admitted.I found many manuscripts laboriously written on ancient parchment, works on philosophy, the Arabiclanguage, theology, Sufism, a few on poetry and mysticism, another on talismans and magic. Many were the interesting and pleasant hours that I spent among the collection. The surroundings and the atmosphere were just right; so remote, so many miles from the world, one felt in the mood to absorb the thought to be found in these manuscripts. Sit in a comfortable chair in the midst of civilization and try to read such books; one ring of the telephone would be enough to make them appear archaic.Saturday, April 7.A fine pair of shoes came as a present from Sharrufa. The chiefs of the Zwayas came to pay me another visit. We talked over our coffee about Zwaya history. I learned that it was not the Zwayas who first conquered Kufra from the Tebus, but the Ghawasi and Jahama tribes. The names of two of the Kufra villages, Tollab and Zurruk, are family names of the Jahama tribe.I gave each of my visitors a photograph of the group which I had taken several days before, and they were delighted with them.I realized to the full that day the perils of Kufra. Rohlfs almost lost his life here by violence; I almost lost mine by kindness. I lunched prodigally at El Abid’s, as usual, and the meal was followed by coffee, three glasses of tea, with amber, rose-water, and mint, and three glasses of milk enriched with almond pulp.Then Sharrufa insisted that I should come to his house and offered me three glasses of perfumed tea, followed again by three glasses of almond-flavored milk. I reflected that to refuse was to offend, and gulped down the beverages, which, by now, had become somewhat nauseating. The end was not yet. Shams El Din hauled me off to his house and set before me biscuits and nuts and a huge glass of sweet syrup. It was almost more than flesh and blood could endure, but—to refuse was to offend. There followed three glasses of coffee, but I stalked forth with all the dignity of a man going to the gallows or the Spartan boy with the fox gnawing at his vitals.As I lay down in my room to recuperate, many thoughts surged through my brain. Would that the Bedouin, whoever he was, who selected “three” as the mystic number to characterize desert hospitality, had died unborn! But it was lucky that he did not hit on seven instead of three. I came to the desert perfectly prepared for destruction by the hand of nature or hostile men, but the idea of perishing through indigestion did not commend itself to my sense of the fitness of things.And yet, at the proper time, I went to El Abid’s again for dinner. Some of the Bedouin chiefs were my fellow-guests, and once more the route to thesouthward was discussed. Bu Helega persisted in his refusal to go by way of Ouenat.“The conditions laid down by Sayed Idris,” he said, “call for a journey to Wadai and not to Darfur.” He would send neither his camels nor his men that way. I argued like a lawyer that since he had contracted to provide thirty-fivemarhalas—or days’ journeys—from Kufra southward, it should make no difference to him whether I use thosemarhalasto go to Wadai or to El Fasher or back to Egypt. He was unconvinced by this ingenious reasoning, but when he realized that I was determined, that El Abid was not opposed to my plan, and that I was willing to take fewer camels than originally stipulated, he gave a reluctant consent. But he would not go himself or send his men.Sunday, April 8.The affair of Bu Helega’s horse came to a head. I bought him for thirty-three pounds. He was sturdy and a splendid traveler, needing to drink only every second day.After luncheon I took El Abid’s photograph and had a long talk with him about his malady, which he bore with true Bedouin fortitude, about conditions in Cyrenaica and Egypt, and about my plans for the trip to the Sudan.I had had bad luck with my scientific work at Kufra. I did not find it easy to escape surveillanceand to move about unattended or to use my instruments without arousing suspicion. What was worse, it had been cloudy every day since I arrived there, and I had been unable to take observations of the sun or Polaris with the theodolite.WHITE SAND VALLEY AND EXPLORER’S CAMPA view of the inhabitants of Ouenat, the second oasis discovered by the explorerAfter dinner I was thoroughly tired. I had used up all the indigestion tablets which I brought with me. I felt that it would be a relief to get back to the simplicity of the open desert again.Monday, April 9, was still cloudy, but a cool breeze was blowing. I spent a quiet day, reading in Idris’s library, developing a few films, and buyinggirbasand barley for the journey. Sayed El Abid gave me copies, written with his own hand, of letters by El Mahdi to variousikhwan. He made me presents of a Moorish knife in a silver scabbard and a flint-lock pistol also beautifully inlaid.Tuesday, April 10.The clouds cleared away in the afternoon, and I took photographs of the valley. I arranged with the shoemaker for shoes for myself and my men, and for bandoliers, which the men insisted on having, in view of the alarming rumors they had been hearing.I met Mohammed Sukkar, who was to be our guide over the Ouenat route, for the first time, and liked him.Wednesday, April 11.El Abid had heard of mypurchase of Bu Helega’s horse and sent me a Tuareg sword and an Italian carbine, to carry when I ride him.At last I was able to make observations with my theodolite. I was anxious to see how my results would agree with those of Rohlfs.Thursday, April 12.I sent Sayed El Abid my shot-gun as a gift.In the afternoon I rode with Sayed Mohammed Bu Tamanya and Zerwali to Jof. We were met by the chiefs of the village. I visited thesuk, where the weekly market was being held, thezawia, which is the oldest Senussi school in Kufra, and the mosque. Jof is the trade-center of Kufra. It was interesting to find side by side in thesukrifle-cartridges whose marking showed them to be thirty years old, Italian tomato sauce in tins from Benghazi, blue and white calico made in Manchester and imported from Egypt, and leather, ivory, and ostrich-feathers from Wadai. These products of the south, however, are not plentiful now in Kufra, except when a merchant who has brought them from Wadai is prevented for some reason from going on to the north to sell them in Egypt or Cyrenaica. Kufra had seen its best days as a trade-center before the occupation of the Sudan. Then it was easier to find an outlet for the products of Wadai and Darfur through Kufra than by wayof the country to the east. Even now, however, there is a contraband trade through Kufra in female ivory and ivory of less than fourteen pounds weight, the exportation of which is prohibited by the Sudan Government.In addition to the trade that passes through Kufra, most of the big Zwaya chiefs who have enough slaves go in for agriculture. They raise barley and maize. The Senussis are more progressive and grow melons, grapes, bananas, marrows, and other vegetables of the more delicate kinds, all of which are a great treat after the monotonous fare of the desert. They raise mint and roses, from which they make the rose-water and mint essence so essential in their ceremonies of hospitality. From a few olive-trees some olive-oil is produced in primitive presses. The animals of Kufra are camels, sheep, donkeys, and a few horses. Meat, however, is very expensive, as there is little grazing for sheep in the valley. The animals are fed on pounded date-stones, which do very well as a staple diet. But some green stuff is necessary at intervals. The Senussis, who are in everything more progressive than their neighbors, raise chickens and pigeons.The price of slaves, I learned at Kufra, has risen a great deal during the last few years because there are no more slaves coming up from Wadai on accountof the vigilance of the French authorities in that province. Occasionally the Bedouins get round this by contracting a marriage with a slave-girl in Wadai and then, when they come back, divorcing and selling her. On one of my travels in 1916 I was offered a slave-girl for six gold louis (120 francs); now the price varies from thirty to forty pounds. A male slave costs less. The Bedouins sometimes marry their slave-girls, and if one of these bears a male child she automatically becomes free. The Bedouins have no prejudice against color; that is, if a slave bears the head of a tribe his eldest male child, that child ipso facto becomes in his turn the head of the tribe, however black he may be. Whereas the children of slaves are slaves, the child of a slave-girl and a free man, however poor, is always free, and even though his father dies and he is left an orphan, he can never be a slave. The lot of a favorite male slave especially is preferable. They have more power and are taken more into the confidence of their masters than free men. They are very well treated and become members of the family. They are well dressed, for an ill-dressed slave reflects badly on his master, just as a shabby footman would detract from the glory of a millionaire’s Rolls-Royce. The favorite slave of Sayed Idris, Ali Kaja, is not only the most trusted man of Sayed Idris, but he has more power andauthority among the Bedouins themselves than many a free man. Such a slave is treated as a confidant. If the slave of Sayed El Abid came to me with a message, I took it to be absolutely true, knowing that it is his duty to report exactly what he is told. In the same way, if I wished something to reach the ears of Sayed El Abid, and only his ears, I knew that I could tell it without a moment’s hesitation to his slave and be perfectly confident that it would not go anywhere else.THE CARAVAN ARRIVING AT OUENATA man slave is permitted to buy a slave-girl. Once when I asked Ali Kaja about the price of slaves, he complained: “They are very expensive nowadays. The other day I bought one, and she cost me forty pounds in golden sovereigns.” He said it with such an air that he might never have been a slave himself.The shabbiest slave that you see in an oasis is generally the freed slave, who curiously enough is looked down upon by the other owned slaves, and himself feels ashamed that he is a freed slave and belongs to no one!There are many date-trees all through the Kufra Valley, and many of them belong to the Senussis. When the Zwayas invited Sidi Ibn Ali El Senussi to come to Kufra, each one of them gave the Senussis one third of his property, land, and date-trees. Theproportion of two to one between the date-trees owned by the Zwayas and those of the Senussis has, however, in the years since then, been considerably altered in favor of the Zwayas. These regular inhabitants of the valley naturally planted new trees faster and thus increased their own holdings. One can still see in the valley the walls separating the Senussi lands from those of the Zwayas.On our way back from Jof we met a wedding party. The officer commanding the troops at Kufra was being married, and the father of the bride invited me to “empty gunpowder” in honor of the occasion. I was glad to pay a compliment to the officer, who was an old friend of mine, and, when they fired their guns in salute, in good Bedouin style I rode my horse at a gallop up to the party, pulled him to a sudden halt in front of the bride, and fired my gun into the ground before her. It was astonishing how Baraka, the moment he heard the sound of the guns, took to the gallop and brought me at a rush within the prescribed distance for firing. It was all a part of his training.Friday, April 13.A slave of Sayed Idris came to be treated for an illness which had lasted for two months. It seemed to be a digestive upset, with continual vomiting. I gave him ether on a piece of sugar, milk, and rice, and by evening he was better.Bu Helega arrived from Hawari with seventeen camels. I told him to complete the twenty-five we had agreed upon.I received a visit from the bridegroom and his father-in-law, who came to thank me for the compliment I paid the wedding procession.Saturday, April 14.Bu Helega brought the rest of the camels. He was in a dilemma about sending a man with us. He did not wish to send his son, or even a slave, on such a hazardous journey which none of us might get through alive. On the other hand, there was the off chance that Fate might be good to us and let us escape. In that case, remote though it seemed to him, if he had no representative with us, how should he get his camels back, or rather their value? For it would be the natural thing to sell them at the end of the trip.The afternoon was spent in packing and the evening in making observations. The weather was now more gracious. This was only the third night since reaching this spot that I had been able to see Polaris. I determined that I would not leave Kufra until I had made at least twice as many observations on different nights.Sunday, April 15.The morning was spent in loading. Bu Helega was still in a quandary about sending a man with us. But since I had the camelsit did not make any particular difference to me what he decided.The slave whom I had been treating was astonishingly improved in health. He came to thank me. No one was more surprised than I at what I had been able to do for him.At two the caravan set out for Ezeila, the last well of Kufra Valley on the south. There we were going to dotag-heezproperly, taking several days for perfecting our final preparations. I had bought two sheep for Bu Zafar, as none of us had made this journey before.All my men had been newly clothed and made a cheerful sight, in spotless white with red shoes. Their carefully cleaned rifles glittered as they hung on their backs. Most of the new camels looked fresh and strong.Monday, April 16.Abdullahi took the horse to Taj for shoeing, as I found that the stony ground was too hard for him. I sent a brass tray to the commandant as a wedding present, and the last three bottles of Bovril to Idris’ sick slave. Our departure was postponed because the guide was still occupied before thekadiwith a legal matter over a camel.Tuesday, April 17.I had breakfast at Soliman Bu Matari’s in Jof with Zerwali, Abdullahi, the commandant,Saleh, and Mohammed Bu Tamania. The rest poked fun at the commandant because, being a new bridegroom, he would not partake of a dish cooked with onions. “They do not forgive when they are young,” said Bu Tamania, winking at the commandant.THE VALLEY OF ERDIThe red rocks and rose-colored sand are the peculiarity of that regionI bought ahejin, or trotting-camel, for my own use, paying nine pounds for it. We were at last ready for the start the next day.As I made my last observation of Polaris, I had a strong hope that I should have succeeded in putting Kufra into its proper place on the map. I had been keen to check Rohlfs’s determination of the position of Kufra, which he made from the observations of his companion Stecker at Boema. Taj had not been built in Rohlfs’s day. When I made my first observations at Taj, I discovered that they were not in agreement with the results of Stecker’s observations at Boema, which is two kilometers from Taj in a direction 54° east of true south. I thereupon determined that I would not leave Kufra until I had secured a sufficient number of observations to preclude the possibility of any appreciable error. Polaris was observed with the theodolite by me on six different nights, under conditions which Dr. Ball, in his scholarly paper on my work published at the end of this volume, declares to leave no room for anerror greater than a single minute of latitude or longitude.The net result of my observations, when they were finally reduced after my return to Egypt, was that Kufra is some forty kilometers south-southeast of the position assigned to it by Rohlfs from Stecker’s observations. I found the altitude of Kufra to be almost precisely the same as that ascertained by Rohlfs, 400 meters for Boema, on the floor of the valley, and 475 meters for Taj on the valley’s ridge.CHAPTER XVITHE LOST OASES: ARKENUWEDNESDAY, April 18.Bu Helega had at last found two men, Bukara and Hamid, who would go with his camels. They were poor men, and the money they would make loomed larger in their eyes than the danger.Sayed El Abid sent three representatives to see us off. They brought a letter of farewell from him that touched my heart.Bu Helega came to say good-by. At the final moment there were tears in his eyes, and I do not think they were caused by fears for his camels or for the men whom he was sending with us. In spite of our controversy over the route, we remained true friends, with affection and respect for each other.My men were greeted by their friends as though this was to be their last meeting. It was the most touching farewell of the whole journey. “May God make safety your companion. . . . What is decreed isdecreed, and that will happen. May God guide you to the true road and protect you from evil.”There was little about this parting of that sense of assurance which attends both those who go and those who stay behind when it is a case of starting for a holiday with some certitude of safe arrival. There were a few quivers in the last phrases of farewell, and, knowing what had passed in the preceding days and the intimidation to which the men had been subjected, I could guess what was in their minds. Whereas I was excited by thoughts of the “lost oases” and taking the unexplored road and going into the unknown, they were thinking that this might be the last time they would shake hands with their friends. There was even a pitying look on the faces of some of those who came to bid us God-speed as to doomed men, yet being Bedouins they also felt, “It is decreed that they should go thus.”We recited the “Fat-ha,” the first chapter of the Koran:Praise be to God, the Master of the Universe, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Lord of the day of Resurrection. It is You Whom we worship, and it is You Whom we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have rewarded, not those upon whom displeasure has fallen nor those who have gone astray. Amen.THE FIRST TREE SEEN APPROACHING ERDIThere followed the call to prayers:God is great, and I testify that there is no God but God, and that Mohammed is the Prophet of God. Haste to prayers, haste to that which is beneficent. Prayers are ready. God is great. There is no God but God.It was upon the edge of the valley of Kufra, where the oasis ends and the desert stretches out ahead. They had walked with us until then, and as we passed from the valley into the flat desert we looked back upon the date-palms. The sun was setting, dusk falling, and Kufra itself in the waning light was glimpsed as through the aperture of a camera. Those who had come to say farewell straightway returned and looked back no more. I was eager to get away from Kufra and let my men turn their minds to the task ahead.At last the real start had been made. Before me all was unknown, full of the mystery and the fascination that lie in those parts of the earth’s surface yet untraversed by men from the outside world.We started at 4:30P.M.and halted at 8:15, making fifteen kilometers. It was fine and clear, with no wind. Hard sand covered with very fine gravel, slightly undulating. After leaving the date-trees of Ezeila and Kufra, we crossed a zone ofhatab, similar to that at Zieghen, and entered theseriraat 5:45.At 6:30 we passed hillocks which form the south side of the valley of Kufra. At 8:15 we arrived at Hatiet El Houesh, marked by dryhatab, which must once have been green. We left two men behind us to bring two loads that were to be carried on Tebu camels.Our caravan comprised twenty-seven camels and nineteen persons: myself, Zerwali, Abdullahi, Ahmed, Hamad, Ismail, Senussi Bu Hassan, Senussi Bu Jaber, Hamad Zwai, Sad the Aujili, Faraj the slave, Bukara and his young brother Hamid, the camelman, Hassan, Mohammed our guide, and three Tebus.An entry from my diary again:Thursday, April 19.Start at 1:45P.M., halt at 7:15P.M.Make 24 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 11°. Fair and clear, with few white clouds. Southeast breeze which drops at midday. After leaving Hatiet El Houesh we enter into aseriraagain, flat expanse of hard sand covered with fine gravel. East of thehatiais a chain of sand hillocks covered with dark brown stones; to the west is another similar chain about 4 kilometers away.At 2:15 we pass the end of the Hatiet El Houesh. Thehatiais about 2 kilometers broad. At 3:45 there is agaraon our left about 2 kilometers away, and at 5 anothergara4 kilometers distant on our right. At 6:30 the sand is softer, with patches of red and black stones. The surface is undulating.We were delayed in starting through waiting for the two camels which had been left behind, and used the time in collectinghatab. It was very warm, and the camels grew tired quickly because of the heat. The country was similar to that between Buttafal and Zieghen. With my newhejinI found it easy to fall behind to take observations without exciting suspicion. We had to camp early because of the condition of the camels.Friday, April 20.Start at 2A.M.; halt at 9:30A.M.Start again at 3:30P.M.and final halt at 8P.M., make 48 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 10° at 12:30A.M.Fine and clear, with cold southeast wind in the early morning. It drops at midday and gets up again at 4. In the evening it shifts to northeast.At 4A.M.passing through undulating country strewn with stone. At 6 enterseriraagain, flatter. Sunrise is at 5:30. Immediately thereafter on our right and left are low sand-hills from 8 to 10 kilometers distant. See a swallow in the morning and a hawk in the afternoon. At 4:20 cross low sand-dunes and sight a blackgara, a long low mound, 10 degrees south of southeast.This was the worst part of the journey for traveling, so far as temperature conditions were concerned. In the middle of the day it was too hot to march, and at night it was too cold. So we broke the trek into two parts, starting soon after midnight, and restingin the heat of the day. We had trouble with the baggage because of the difficulty of good packing and loading in the dark. The camels, however, went better on this day.This was the fourth day of the lunar month. The Bedouins observe the weather conditions on that day, believing that the weather for the rest of the month will be the same. It was to prove true in this case.Saturday, April 21.We started at 2:30A.M.At six in the morning we came across stony and hilly country, which lasted for 12 kilometers. We passed on our left thegaracalled Garet Kudi. At nine we entered again intoserira, with distant sand-dunes on the right and left.One camel fell ill shortly after our start and refused to go even when its load was taken off. Two Bedouins were left behind to bleed it, but all efforts at cure were in vain, and it had to be slaughtered. I forbade the Bedouins to eat its flesh. Later, after the midday halt, two Tebus dumped the loads from their camels and went back to dry the flesh and leave it until their return from Ouenat. They were to catch us later. This all delayed us about an hour.The men had little sleep the previous night and were very tired after sunrise. But it was chiefly the intense heat from noon to four o’clock that exhausted both men and camels. It was a very tired caravanthat started again at 4.30P.M.and moved slowly along.THE EXPLORER’S CAMP IN THE VALLEY OF ERDISOUTH OF ERDIBroken country and rough ground encountered by the party; it was very difficult for the camels’ pads, which were often cut by the sharp stonesI saw two hawks and fresh sleeping-camps of birds on the sands.Sunday, April 22.We traveled over flat hard sand, with occasional sand hillocks, three to ten meters high, covered with black stones. At 5:30A.M.we sighted a chain of hills on our left running from north to southwest across our path. At 8A.M.we entered into broken, hilly country, which continued all day. It was called Wadi El Maraheeg. We came across broken ostrich-eggs.We had better loading to-day, but the men were tired. Many of them fell out to snatch a half-hour’s sleep, catching up with the caravan when they woke.Bukara brought me two little eagles, which he had taken from their nest on the top of agara. I ordered him to put them back and saw that it was done.Thehejinwas ill and had to go all the afternoon without load or even saddle.At the midday halt the men fell asleep immediately and snored heavily. This kind of travel is grueling, tedious work. But we were getting on.Monday, April 23.We started at 2.30A.M., halted at 9:15A.M., second start at 3:45P.M., halt at 9P.M., making forty-six kilometers. This was the most exhausting trek that I had yet known. Foreight days we had had only four hours of sleep a day. We had hardly started before the men with one accord fell back to snatch a half-hour’s sleep, leaving the camels to follow the will-o’-the-wisp of the guide’s lantern. I could not avail myself of this privilege, because of my anxiety for my instruments. The loading, done in the dark, was insecure, and a slipped fastening may mean a broken instrument or camera.At intervals one or another camel would halt and kneel and refuse to get up. Then a Tebu would come and press his thumb on a certain big vein in the camel’s forehead and manipulate it. It seemed to give the beast relief.We were having a hard time of it crossing the high steep sand-dunes when suddenly mountains rose before us like medieval castles half hidden in the mist. A few minutes later the sun was on them, turning the cold gray into warm rose and pink.I let the caravan go on, and for half an hour I sat on the sand-dune and let the sight of these legendary mountains do its will with my mind and heart. I had found what I came to seek. These were the mountains of Arkenu.It was the outstanding moment of the whole journey. Any hardships I might have endured, any hardships that might still await me, were as nothingcompared with the joy that filled me at the mere sight of these hills. It was not like going to seek a hidden treasure that had to be dug out of the ground. There they were standing right up high before me so that I might feast my eyes upon them. Up and down, up and down we had plodded across the sand-dunes in the chilly grayness of the hours before dawn, until suddenly at the last dune it was as though somebody had rung up a curtain upon these magical hills of which I have not seen the like in the whole Libyan Desert. From the time I left Sollum until I reached this spot, there had been nothing like the mountains of Arkenu. The sight of them so gripped me that for a while I dreamed that I was not in the desert any more.Tuesday, April 24, was the one hundred and eleventh day from Sollum and the one hundred and fortieth from Cairo. We covered broken country, sand covered with stones, undulating. At 5A.M.heavy sand-dunes. After the dunes the country became stony again, and later there was hard sand covered with gravel. North of Arkenu Mountain and only a hundred meters from it was a big sandstone hill about two kilometers long and a hundred meters or so high.There was a glorious sunrise, with shades of red and gold splashed on the few gray clouds in the east.The cool wind soon dropped, and it became close and warm.Arkenu Mountain is a mass of granite, its gray surface weathered to a ruddy brown, rising uniformly along its length some five hundred meters from the desert surface. It is made up of a series of conical masses which run together at their feet, without intervals between them. We approached it at its most western point. As we came toward it, we could not tell how far it extended to the east. At the farthest point which we could see in that direction it rose into a peak. We marched around the northwestern corner of the mountain mass and came to the entrance of a valley which runs to the eastward. There is one solitary tree of the species called by the Goranarkenustanding in the desert here. From it the oasis takes its name. We made our camp near it. This was a bad spot for camel-ticks, who lived in the shade of the tree and came literally running by the score when our camels approached. We were obliged to camp some distance from the tree, as the insects did not seem to care to forsake its shade, even to attack the camels.I once picked up a tick that was like a piece of petrified stone. I hit it with a stick, and it just clicked like a piece of stone. I turned away and pretended to be busy with something else. It took aboutthree or four minutes before it gave any sign of life. The tick knows instinctively that safety lies in pretending to be petrified. Then, without warning, it scooted like lightning. When there are no camels these ticks live on nothing. They absorb the camel’s blood, get inflated, and then they can live—the Bedouins say years, but certainly a few months.THE CHIEFTAIN OF THE BIDIYAT TRIBEHis sword over his shoulder is carried ordinarily on the left arm, with his wrist through the thongTWO BIDIYAT MENNote the finer type of physiqueImmediately on our arrival the camels were sent into the valley to be watered and to bring back the supply of water of which we were much in need.Two hours after we pitched camp the two Tebus left behind arrived with a supply of meat from the slaughtered camel, which was eaten with enthusiasm for dinner. A hot, gusty wind blew all the afternoon. While I was resting in my tent I was suddenly aroused by something tickling my ear and tried to brush it away, without discovering what it was. In a moment a gust of wind blew in one of the side walls of the tent, which had been raised for ventilation, and I felt something darting across my body. I grasped at it instinctively and, fortunately for my peace of mind, missed it. It was a snake some four feet long, which was subsequently caught by my men and despatched.The men held a shooting competition in the afternoon. It started as a perfunctory affair, but the interest quickened when I put up a Medjidie—aTurkish dollar—as a prize. Senussi Bu Jaber, though short-sighted, won the contest. Hamid expressed the feelings of the other contestants when he said: “It was the Medjidie that worked on my emotions and made me nervous. I had hit the mark before.”I made observations and took photographs, and, incidentally, treated the guide’s teeth.Goran, the black tribes of the neighborhood, suddenly appeared from the valley and were kept to dine with my men. No one had dreamed of their presence until they appeared. The mountain looked desolate and deserted, and one would not suspect that inside it lies a fertile valley which is inhabited. As a matter of fact, Arkenu is not inhabited all the year round. In the valley is good vegetation to which in the past Bedouins, Tebus, and Goran brought their camels during the grazing season. They closed the entrances to the valley with rocks and left the camels there unattended for three months.“When they came to take them back,” said Mohammed, the guide, “they had as much fat on them as this.” He put his closed fists one on top of the other.Wednesday, April 25.The Goran family in the valley brought a sheep, milk andsamn, which is butter in a curious liquid state because of the heat,asdiafaor hospitality. They also drove their sheep to the camp to be milked for the men of the caravan.After luncheon I rode into Arkenu Valley with Zerwali and Bukara. It is akarkur, or narrow winding valley, extending some fifteen kilometers back into the mountains. There are grass, shrubs, and an occasional tree. We visited the Goran hut, where I took photographs of a girl and two boys of the family. The boys wore white robes, the sign of the sons of asheikh. When I got back to camp, I sent presents of cloth, handkerchiefs, and rice for the three children.It was a beautiful moonlight night. I decided to spend three days more at Arkenu because the grazing was good and the camels still seemed tired from their hard trek. Myhejinwas doing well. I picked up stones for geological specimens and aroused the suspicions of some of my men. They thought there was gold in what stones I picked up or else I would not take the trouble to carry them back home.Thursday, April 26.At Arkenu. Highest temperature 36°; lowest 9°. Fine and clear, with very strong and hot southeast wind. Twice the wind blew the tents down. We sent the camels to be watered and to graze. It was a sweltering day, over 100° Fahrenheit in the tent, and only a little less in the shade outside. Making observations was difficulton account of the wind. I did not like to shelter myself behind the tent while making them for fear of arousing the inevitable curiosity and suspicion. The wind dropped in the evening, and we were repaid for a hot and scorching day by a beautifully cool evening with a fine moon. There was dancing and singing by Bukara and the other men until midnight.Friday, April 27.Arkenu was the first of the two “lost” oases which it is my good fortune to place definitely on the map. There had long been a tradition that two oases existed close to the southwestern corner of Egypt. But the position that they had been conjecturally given on one or two maps was from thirty to one hundred and eighty kilometers out of place. No one had described them from an actual visit. My observations showed that Arkenu is situated in north latitude 20° 12′ 32″ and east longitude 24° 44′ 15″ and has an altitude of 598 meters at the foot of the mountain. It is thus well within the boundaries of Egypt.The principal interest of this oasis, as of Ouenat, lies in the possibilities it offers for exploring the southwest corner of Egypt, which has until now been unreached either by military patrols or by travelers. No one has known with any certainty of water-supplies in that part of the desert which could be relied upon. The water at Arkenu is apparently unfailingand is drinkable, though not as wholesome for human beings as one could wish. Arkenu may conceivably prove to have strategic value at some future time, standing as it does almost precisely at the meeting-point of the western and southern boundaries of Egypt.BIDIYAT BELLESBIDIYAT PRIESTBoth Arkenu and Ouenat differ from all the other oases of the Western Desert of Egypt in that they are not depressions in the desert with underground water-supplies, but mountain areas where rain-water collects in natural basins in the rocks.The mountain chain of Arkenu as I saw it is about fifteen kilometers in extent from north to south and some twenty kilometers from east to west. But there was no opportunity to explore it to the eastward, so that I cannot say whether it may not extend farther in that direction than I have stated. I could only observe it as far as I could see from the desert at the western foot of the mountain. It may well be that off to the east Arkenu Mountain runs into a chain of hills of which the Ouenat Mountains are also spurs to the south. There is an opportunity for more exploration of the eastern portions of both these rock masses than I was able to make in the time and with the resources at my command.The nearest known point to Arkenu and Ouenat to the east or rather the northeast is Dakhla Oasis,some six hundred kilometers distant. There is a tradition that there is an old track to Egypt between these two points, but a journey from Dakhla to Arkenu and Ouenat with caravan, which would take at least fourteen days, would be a formidable undertaking.CHAPTER XVIITHE LOST OASES: OUENATSATURDAY, April 28.We started at 9:30P.M.for the first all-night trek, halting at 7A.M.of the twenty-ninth. We made forty kilometers. It was fair and clear with a very strong hot wind from southeast all day. The wind blew from the same quarter, but was warm rather than hot all night. The ground wasserira, with large stones making bad going for the camels. At 6A.M.we reached the western corner of Ouenat Mountain and camped an hour later.The day was spent quietly, chiefly in rest for the coming night trek. In the early evening we sent men to bring the camels from their grazing. Bukara hired a camel from a Tebu, to relieve his own, which he wanted to be able to sell at the end of the journey for a high price. I hired three Tebus and their camels to go with us, but not for the same reason. Our transport was inadequate, for the trek from Kufra hadshown me that our loads were too heavy. The camels became quickly exhausted.The camels were brought in at eight in the evening, and we started an hour and a half later. They were lightly loaded this time because we were taking no water from Arkenu. The water there, while its taste is not particularly unpleasant, is hard on one’s digestive apparatus. We had three bad cases of dysentery among the men. The invalids rode camels from the start, and the rest of the men took turns during the night.The caravan started out in the best of humor. At intervals some cheerful spirit stopped and began to chant. In a moment half a dozen of them were lined up beside him, all chanting, stamping and clapping their hands rhythmically as the camels filed past. The words of the song were always the same:En kán azeéz alaih lanzárHátta laú ba-éd biddárThe accents are strongly pronounced and differ in the two lines, as I have marked them. I would translate the verse thus, without making any attempt to fit it to the jazz rhythm that would be needed to complete the effect for the western ear: “O beloved, our eyes gaze after you, even though your camp is far away.”A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER SISTERThe necklace of macaroni beads was given to her by the explorer to eat, but she preferred to make it into a necklace.A BIDIYAT GIRL WITH HER CHILDNote the nose-bead. Her hair is plaited when she is young, and is oiled from time to time but never combed out.Again and again the chant was repeated until the performance ended in a sudden shout. I had been the whole audience for the little show, beating the rhythm with my whip, and when the shout went up I called out, “Farraghu barud!” “Empty gunpowder!” was the signal for afeu de joiefrom the rifles, after which we all took our places in the caravan and went on exhilarated.A night march has its advantages. The time, unless one is dead tired, passes more quickly than during the day, and the stars are cheering company for any lover of nature. On the horizon ahead of us loomed the dark masses of the Ouenat Mountains. It is so much easier to march with one’s destination distinct before one than to be walking on the flat disk of a desert where every point of the compass looks like every other and the horizon keeps always at the same maddening distance. We steadily approached the mountains until the sun was rising over them, tinting and gilding their peaks and throwing out on the desert a heavy shadow whose edge marched steadily toward the mountain-foot as we approached it from another direction. Shortly after sunrise we were opposite the northwest corner of the mountains, and an hour later we made camp close under their rocky walls. At this point there was an indentation in the mountain-side, with a well in a cave at itsinner end. We pitched our tents at the mouth of this little arm of the desert sea, and ten minutes later we were all sunk into sleep. This was our first full night of travel, and we had some arrears of sleep to make up.However, we did not sleep as long as we had expected to, but roused ourselves before noon and turned our attention to food. The French saying,qui dort dîne, may be true under some conditions, but we of the desert find it more satisfactory when we are able to do both. We all found pleasant distraction in roasting parts of the lamb which was provided by Mohammed asdiafafor Ouenat.I spent the rest of the day in visiting the well, which is situated in the cave in the mountain-side, in taking observations, and in looking over our surroundings. At this point the mountain rises in a sheer cliff, with a mass of boulders, great and small, heaped against it at its foot. The stones that make up thistabre, as the geologists call it, have been carved by ages of wind and driven sand into smooth, rounded shapes that giants of the heroic days might have used in their slings to kill monsters or for some enormous game of bowls. Theainor well lies a few meters away from the camp, in a cavity walled and roofed with the great rocks. It is a pool of refreshing water kept cool by their protection from the sun.The desert knows two kinds of wells, theain, which properly speaking is a spring, and thebirormatan, which is a place where water may be obtained by digging in the sand. We call these wells of Ouenatains, for lack of a better word, although they are not springs but reservoirs in the rock where rain-water collects.There are said to be seven of theseainsin the Ouenat Mountains, of which I was to see four before I moved south again. I also heard rumors of one or twobirsin the oasis, but I did not see them.In the evening the camp was full of life and gaiety. The men danced and sang as though there were no tedious days of hot sand and scorching wind behind or ahead of them.Monday, April 30.Up early and went with Zerwali, Abdullahi, Mohammed, and Malkenni, the Tebu, to the bigainup the mountain. It was a stiff climb of an hour and a half. Theainhas a plentiful supply of splendid water and is picturesquely surrounded with tall, slim reeds. I took some of the reeds back with me to make pipe-stems. They give a pleasantly cool smoke.In the early evening I set out on thehejin, with Malkenni, Senussi Bu Hassan, and Sad to explore the oasis. It was a fine moonlight night with a warm southeast breeze. For four hours we marched overserira, skirting the northwest corner of the mountain, and at midnight we entered a valley with a chain of low hills on our left and the sinister mountain with its fantastic rock formations on our right. The valley is floored with soft sand strewn with big stones, which made hard going for the camels. At the hour when men’s spirits and courage are proverbially at the lowest ebb we halted a few minutes for a draft of strong tea from my thermos flask and then pushed on. But our spirits were by no means low. There was something magical about the night and the moonlight and the mountains, to make this an experience stirring to the imagination and uplifting to the soul. I speak for myself; but the men seemed to be getting something out of it too.At five the valley opened out on to a wide plain of flatserira, with hills ten or fifteen kilometers away to the northeast. We turned sharply to the south, around a spur of the mountain. At dawn we stopped for morning prayers.The camels werebarrakked, and we took our stand on the sands facing toward Mecca. When Moslems take part in their ceremonial prayers, they stand before God—not, as some misinformed persons say, before Mohammed, who was not God but man, a prophet and not the Deity—and the first essential is cleansing, of body, heart, and soul. In the desertthe cleansing of the body can be only symbolical, since water cannot be spared. We take sand in our hands, rub it over each hand and forearm, then gently over our faces. With hands uplifted, palms upward, we say the prayers appointed, then, kneeling, touch our foreheads to the cool sands of the morning.

AT ARKENUHidden in the heart of the desert are these strange picturegraphs

AT ARKENU

Hidden in the heart of the desert are these strange picturegraphs

THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE AT OUENATRock drawings found in the valley chiseled on the granite rock. The drawings are similar to those found in Egypt of prehistoric age. There are drawings of giraffes, gazelles of every kind, lions, ostriches, cattle, but none of the camel, yet no traveler can reach this oasis now except with the camel because of the absence of water on the route and of any grains which could make the journey possible for a donkey or a horse. The remains of routes found in the Egyptian oasis west of the Nile Valley point toward the oasis of Ouenat, and it is probable that in the old times the route from the Mediterranean coast to central Africa was through this oasis and not through Kufra, as is the case now.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE AT OUENAT

Rock drawings found in the valley chiseled on the granite rock. The drawings are similar to those found in Egypt of prehistoric age. There are drawings of giraffes, gazelles of every kind, lions, ostriches, cattle, but none of the camel, yet no traveler can reach this oasis now except with the camel because of the absence of water on the route and of any grains which could make the journey possible for a donkey or a horse. The remains of routes found in the Egyptian oasis west of the Nile Valley point toward the oasis of Ouenat, and it is probable that in the old times the route from the Mediterranean coast to central Africa was through this oasis and not through Kufra, as is the case now.

It is not easy to move about, for books and chests of books are ranged along the walls and in the middle of the room as well.

There are many very ancient chests used as cup-boards and at the same time fitted with attachments at the sides which enable them to be straightway loaded upon a camel in case of need. The library is somewhat out of order, books piled carelessly one on top of another, for Sayed Idris has long been absent. There is a great number of manuscripts inclosed in beautifully tooled morocco covers. There are modern books printed in Cairo and in India. There are manuscripts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. With the exception of a few books in the Persian language, all are in Arabic. There are two or three manuscripts of the Koran illuminated in gold. It was a great privilege for me to be allowed to go into this library, for as a rule no one is admitted.

I found many manuscripts laboriously written on ancient parchment, works on philosophy, the Arabiclanguage, theology, Sufism, a few on poetry and mysticism, another on talismans and magic. Many were the interesting and pleasant hours that I spent among the collection. The surroundings and the atmosphere were just right; so remote, so many miles from the world, one felt in the mood to absorb the thought to be found in these manuscripts. Sit in a comfortable chair in the midst of civilization and try to read such books; one ring of the telephone would be enough to make them appear archaic.

Saturday, April 7.A fine pair of shoes came as a present from Sharrufa. The chiefs of the Zwayas came to pay me another visit. We talked over our coffee about Zwaya history. I learned that it was not the Zwayas who first conquered Kufra from the Tebus, but the Ghawasi and Jahama tribes. The names of two of the Kufra villages, Tollab and Zurruk, are family names of the Jahama tribe.

I gave each of my visitors a photograph of the group which I had taken several days before, and they were delighted with them.

I realized to the full that day the perils of Kufra. Rohlfs almost lost his life here by violence; I almost lost mine by kindness. I lunched prodigally at El Abid’s, as usual, and the meal was followed by coffee, three glasses of tea, with amber, rose-water, and mint, and three glasses of milk enriched with almond pulp.Then Sharrufa insisted that I should come to his house and offered me three glasses of perfumed tea, followed again by three glasses of almond-flavored milk. I reflected that to refuse was to offend, and gulped down the beverages, which, by now, had become somewhat nauseating. The end was not yet. Shams El Din hauled me off to his house and set before me biscuits and nuts and a huge glass of sweet syrup. It was almost more than flesh and blood could endure, but—to refuse was to offend. There followed three glasses of coffee, but I stalked forth with all the dignity of a man going to the gallows or the Spartan boy with the fox gnawing at his vitals.

As I lay down in my room to recuperate, many thoughts surged through my brain. Would that the Bedouin, whoever he was, who selected “three” as the mystic number to characterize desert hospitality, had died unborn! But it was lucky that he did not hit on seven instead of three. I came to the desert perfectly prepared for destruction by the hand of nature or hostile men, but the idea of perishing through indigestion did not commend itself to my sense of the fitness of things.

And yet, at the proper time, I went to El Abid’s again for dinner. Some of the Bedouin chiefs were my fellow-guests, and once more the route to thesouthward was discussed. Bu Helega persisted in his refusal to go by way of Ouenat.

“The conditions laid down by Sayed Idris,” he said, “call for a journey to Wadai and not to Darfur.” He would send neither his camels nor his men that way. I argued like a lawyer that since he had contracted to provide thirty-fivemarhalas—or days’ journeys—from Kufra southward, it should make no difference to him whether I use thosemarhalasto go to Wadai or to El Fasher or back to Egypt. He was unconvinced by this ingenious reasoning, but when he realized that I was determined, that El Abid was not opposed to my plan, and that I was willing to take fewer camels than originally stipulated, he gave a reluctant consent. But he would not go himself or send his men.

Sunday, April 8.The affair of Bu Helega’s horse came to a head. I bought him for thirty-three pounds. He was sturdy and a splendid traveler, needing to drink only every second day.

After luncheon I took El Abid’s photograph and had a long talk with him about his malady, which he bore with true Bedouin fortitude, about conditions in Cyrenaica and Egypt, and about my plans for the trip to the Sudan.

I had had bad luck with my scientific work at Kufra. I did not find it easy to escape surveillanceand to move about unattended or to use my instruments without arousing suspicion. What was worse, it had been cloudy every day since I arrived there, and I had been unable to take observations of the sun or Polaris with the theodolite.

WHITE SAND VALLEY AND EXPLORER’S CAMPA view of the inhabitants of Ouenat, the second oasis discovered by the explorer

WHITE SAND VALLEY AND EXPLORER’S CAMP

A view of the inhabitants of Ouenat, the second oasis discovered by the explorer

After dinner I was thoroughly tired. I had used up all the indigestion tablets which I brought with me. I felt that it would be a relief to get back to the simplicity of the open desert again.

Monday, April 9, was still cloudy, but a cool breeze was blowing. I spent a quiet day, reading in Idris’s library, developing a few films, and buyinggirbasand barley for the journey. Sayed El Abid gave me copies, written with his own hand, of letters by El Mahdi to variousikhwan. He made me presents of a Moorish knife in a silver scabbard and a flint-lock pistol also beautifully inlaid.

Tuesday, April 10.The clouds cleared away in the afternoon, and I took photographs of the valley. I arranged with the shoemaker for shoes for myself and my men, and for bandoliers, which the men insisted on having, in view of the alarming rumors they had been hearing.

I met Mohammed Sukkar, who was to be our guide over the Ouenat route, for the first time, and liked him.

Wednesday, April 11.El Abid had heard of mypurchase of Bu Helega’s horse and sent me a Tuareg sword and an Italian carbine, to carry when I ride him.

At last I was able to make observations with my theodolite. I was anxious to see how my results would agree with those of Rohlfs.

Thursday, April 12.I sent Sayed El Abid my shot-gun as a gift.

In the afternoon I rode with Sayed Mohammed Bu Tamanya and Zerwali to Jof. We were met by the chiefs of the village. I visited thesuk, where the weekly market was being held, thezawia, which is the oldest Senussi school in Kufra, and the mosque. Jof is the trade-center of Kufra. It was interesting to find side by side in thesukrifle-cartridges whose marking showed them to be thirty years old, Italian tomato sauce in tins from Benghazi, blue and white calico made in Manchester and imported from Egypt, and leather, ivory, and ostrich-feathers from Wadai. These products of the south, however, are not plentiful now in Kufra, except when a merchant who has brought them from Wadai is prevented for some reason from going on to the north to sell them in Egypt or Cyrenaica. Kufra had seen its best days as a trade-center before the occupation of the Sudan. Then it was easier to find an outlet for the products of Wadai and Darfur through Kufra than by wayof the country to the east. Even now, however, there is a contraband trade through Kufra in female ivory and ivory of less than fourteen pounds weight, the exportation of which is prohibited by the Sudan Government.

In addition to the trade that passes through Kufra, most of the big Zwaya chiefs who have enough slaves go in for agriculture. They raise barley and maize. The Senussis are more progressive and grow melons, grapes, bananas, marrows, and other vegetables of the more delicate kinds, all of which are a great treat after the monotonous fare of the desert. They raise mint and roses, from which they make the rose-water and mint essence so essential in their ceremonies of hospitality. From a few olive-trees some olive-oil is produced in primitive presses. The animals of Kufra are camels, sheep, donkeys, and a few horses. Meat, however, is very expensive, as there is little grazing for sheep in the valley. The animals are fed on pounded date-stones, which do very well as a staple diet. But some green stuff is necessary at intervals. The Senussis, who are in everything more progressive than their neighbors, raise chickens and pigeons.

The price of slaves, I learned at Kufra, has risen a great deal during the last few years because there are no more slaves coming up from Wadai on accountof the vigilance of the French authorities in that province. Occasionally the Bedouins get round this by contracting a marriage with a slave-girl in Wadai and then, when they come back, divorcing and selling her. On one of my travels in 1916 I was offered a slave-girl for six gold louis (120 francs); now the price varies from thirty to forty pounds. A male slave costs less. The Bedouins sometimes marry their slave-girls, and if one of these bears a male child she automatically becomes free. The Bedouins have no prejudice against color; that is, if a slave bears the head of a tribe his eldest male child, that child ipso facto becomes in his turn the head of the tribe, however black he may be. Whereas the children of slaves are slaves, the child of a slave-girl and a free man, however poor, is always free, and even though his father dies and he is left an orphan, he can never be a slave. The lot of a favorite male slave especially is preferable. They have more power and are taken more into the confidence of their masters than free men. They are very well treated and become members of the family. They are well dressed, for an ill-dressed slave reflects badly on his master, just as a shabby footman would detract from the glory of a millionaire’s Rolls-Royce. The favorite slave of Sayed Idris, Ali Kaja, is not only the most trusted man of Sayed Idris, but he has more power andauthority among the Bedouins themselves than many a free man. Such a slave is treated as a confidant. If the slave of Sayed El Abid came to me with a message, I took it to be absolutely true, knowing that it is his duty to report exactly what he is told. In the same way, if I wished something to reach the ears of Sayed El Abid, and only his ears, I knew that I could tell it without a moment’s hesitation to his slave and be perfectly confident that it would not go anywhere else.

THE CARAVAN ARRIVING AT OUENAT

A man slave is permitted to buy a slave-girl. Once when I asked Ali Kaja about the price of slaves, he complained: “They are very expensive nowadays. The other day I bought one, and she cost me forty pounds in golden sovereigns.” He said it with such an air that he might never have been a slave himself.

The shabbiest slave that you see in an oasis is generally the freed slave, who curiously enough is looked down upon by the other owned slaves, and himself feels ashamed that he is a freed slave and belongs to no one!

There are many date-trees all through the Kufra Valley, and many of them belong to the Senussis. When the Zwayas invited Sidi Ibn Ali El Senussi to come to Kufra, each one of them gave the Senussis one third of his property, land, and date-trees. Theproportion of two to one between the date-trees owned by the Zwayas and those of the Senussis has, however, in the years since then, been considerably altered in favor of the Zwayas. These regular inhabitants of the valley naturally planted new trees faster and thus increased their own holdings. One can still see in the valley the walls separating the Senussi lands from those of the Zwayas.

On our way back from Jof we met a wedding party. The officer commanding the troops at Kufra was being married, and the father of the bride invited me to “empty gunpowder” in honor of the occasion. I was glad to pay a compliment to the officer, who was an old friend of mine, and, when they fired their guns in salute, in good Bedouin style I rode my horse at a gallop up to the party, pulled him to a sudden halt in front of the bride, and fired my gun into the ground before her. It was astonishing how Baraka, the moment he heard the sound of the guns, took to the gallop and brought me at a rush within the prescribed distance for firing. It was all a part of his training.

Friday, April 13.A slave of Sayed Idris came to be treated for an illness which had lasted for two months. It seemed to be a digestive upset, with continual vomiting. I gave him ether on a piece of sugar, milk, and rice, and by evening he was better.

Bu Helega arrived from Hawari with seventeen camels. I told him to complete the twenty-five we had agreed upon.

I received a visit from the bridegroom and his father-in-law, who came to thank me for the compliment I paid the wedding procession.

Saturday, April 14.Bu Helega brought the rest of the camels. He was in a dilemma about sending a man with us. He did not wish to send his son, or even a slave, on such a hazardous journey which none of us might get through alive. On the other hand, there was the off chance that Fate might be good to us and let us escape. In that case, remote though it seemed to him, if he had no representative with us, how should he get his camels back, or rather their value? For it would be the natural thing to sell them at the end of the trip.

The afternoon was spent in packing and the evening in making observations. The weather was now more gracious. This was only the third night since reaching this spot that I had been able to see Polaris. I determined that I would not leave Kufra until I had made at least twice as many observations on different nights.

Sunday, April 15.The morning was spent in loading. Bu Helega was still in a quandary about sending a man with us. But since I had the camelsit did not make any particular difference to me what he decided.

The slave whom I had been treating was astonishingly improved in health. He came to thank me. No one was more surprised than I at what I had been able to do for him.

At two the caravan set out for Ezeila, the last well of Kufra Valley on the south. There we were going to dotag-heezproperly, taking several days for perfecting our final preparations. I had bought two sheep for Bu Zafar, as none of us had made this journey before.

All my men had been newly clothed and made a cheerful sight, in spotless white with red shoes. Their carefully cleaned rifles glittered as they hung on their backs. Most of the new camels looked fresh and strong.

Monday, April 16.Abdullahi took the horse to Taj for shoeing, as I found that the stony ground was too hard for him. I sent a brass tray to the commandant as a wedding present, and the last three bottles of Bovril to Idris’ sick slave. Our departure was postponed because the guide was still occupied before thekadiwith a legal matter over a camel.

Tuesday, April 17.I had breakfast at Soliman Bu Matari’s in Jof with Zerwali, Abdullahi, the commandant,Saleh, and Mohammed Bu Tamania. The rest poked fun at the commandant because, being a new bridegroom, he would not partake of a dish cooked with onions. “They do not forgive when they are young,” said Bu Tamania, winking at the commandant.

THE VALLEY OF ERDIThe red rocks and rose-colored sand are the peculiarity of that region

THE VALLEY OF ERDI

The red rocks and rose-colored sand are the peculiarity of that region

I bought ahejin, or trotting-camel, for my own use, paying nine pounds for it. We were at last ready for the start the next day.

As I made my last observation of Polaris, I had a strong hope that I should have succeeded in putting Kufra into its proper place on the map. I had been keen to check Rohlfs’s determination of the position of Kufra, which he made from the observations of his companion Stecker at Boema. Taj had not been built in Rohlfs’s day. When I made my first observations at Taj, I discovered that they were not in agreement with the results of Stecker’s observations at Boema, which is two kilometers from Taj in a direction 54° east of true south. I thereupon determined that I would not leave Kufra until I had secured a sufficient number of observations to preclude the possibility of any appreciable error. Polaris was observed with the theodolite by me on six different nights, under conditions which Dr. Ball, in his scholarly paper on my work published at the end of this volume, declares to leave no room for anerror greater than a single minute of latitude or longitude.

The net result of my observations, when they were finally reduced after my return to Egypt, was that Kufra is some forty kilometers south-southeast of the position assigned to it by Rohlfs from Stecker’s observations. I found the altitude of Kufra to be almost precisely the same as that ascertained by Rohlfs, 400 meters for Boema, on the floor of the valley, and 475 meters for Taj on the valley’s ridge.

THE LOST OASES: ARKENU

WEDNESDAY, April 18.Bu Helega had at last found two men, Bukara and Hamid, who would go with his camels. They were poor men, and the money they would make loomed larger in their eyes than the danger.

Sayed El Abid sent three representatives to see us off. They brought a letter of farewell from him that touched my heart.

Bu Helega came to say good-by. At the final moment there were tears in his eyes, and I do not think they were caused by fears for his camels or for the men whom he was sending with us. In spite of our controversy over the route, we remained true friends, with affection and respect for each other.

My men were greeted by their friends as though this was to be their last meeting. It was the most touching farewell of the whole journey. “May God make safety your companion. . . . What is decreed isdecreed, and that will happen. May God guide you to the true road and protect you from evil.”

There was little about this parting of that sense of assurance which attends both those who go and those who stay behind when it is a case of starting for a holiday with some certitude of safe arrival. There were a few quivers in the last phrases of farewell, and, knowing what had passed in the preceding days and the intimidation to which the men had been subjected, I could guess what was in their minds. Whereas I was excited by thoughts of the “lost oases” and taking the unexplored road and going into the unknown, they were thinking that this might be the last time they would shake hands with their friends. There was even a pitying look on the faces of some of those who came to bid us God-speed as to doomed men, yet being Bedouins they also felt, “It is decreed that they should go thus.”

We recited the “Fat-ha,” the first chapter of the Koran:

Praise be to God, the Master of the Universe, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Lord of the day of Resurrection. It is You Whom we worship, and it is You Whom we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have rewarded, not those upon whom displeasure has fallen nor those who have gone astray. Amen.

THE FIRST TREE SEEN APPROACHING ERDI

There followed the call to prayers:

God is great, and I testify that there is no God but God, and that Mohammed is the Prophet of God. Haste to prayers, haste to that which is beneficent. Prayers are ready. God is great. There is no God but God.

It was upon the edge of the valley of Kufra, where the oasis ends and the desert stretches out ahead. They had walked with us until then, and as we passed from the valley into the flat desert we looked back upon the date-palms. The sun was setting, dusk falling, and Kufra itself in the waning light was glimpsed as through the aperture of a camera. Those who had come to say farewell straightway returned and looked back no more. I was eager to get away from Kufra and let my men turn their minds to the task ahead.

At last the real start had been made. Before me all was unknown, full of the mystery and the fascination that lie in those parts of the earth’s surface yet untraversed by men from the outside world.

We started at 4:30P.M.and halted at 8:15, making fifteen kilometers. It was fine and clear, with no wind. Hard sand covered with very fine gravel, slightly undulating. After leaving the date-trees of Ezeila and Kufra, we crossed a zone ofhatab, similar to that at Zieghen, and entered theseriraat 5:45.At 6:30 we passed hillocks which form the south side of the valley of Kufra. At 8:15 we arrived at Hatiet El Houesh, marked by dryhatab, which must once have been green. We left two men behind us to bring two loads that were to be carried on Tebu camels.

Our caravan comprised twenty-seven camels and nineteen persons: myself, Zerwali, Abdullahi, Ahmed, Hamad, Ismail, Senussi Bu Hassan, Senussi Bu Jaber, Hamad Zwai, Sad the Aujili, Faraj the slave, Bukara and his young brother Hamid, the camelman, Hassan, Mohammed our guide, and three Tebus.

An entry from my diary again:

Thursday, April 19.Start at 1:45P.M., halt at 7:15P.M.Make 24 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 11°. Fair and clear, with few white clouds. Southeast breeze which drops at midday. After leaving Hatiet El Houesh we enter into aseriraagain, flat expanse of hard sand covered with fine gravel. East of thehatiais a chain of sand hillocks covered with dark brown stones; to the west is another similar chain about 4 kilometers away.At 2:15 we pass the end of the Hatiet El Houesh. Thehatiais about 2 kilometers broad. At 3:45 there is agaraon our left about 2 kilometers away, and at 5 anothergara4 kilometers distant on our right. At 6:30 the sand is softer, with patches of red and black stones. The surface is undulating.

At 2:15 we pass the end of the Hatiet El Houesh. Thehatiais about 2 kilometers broad. At 3:45 there is agaraon our left about 2 kilometers away, and at 5 anothergara4 kilometers distant on our right. At 6:30 the sand is softer, with patches of red and black stones. The surface is undulating.

We were delayed in starting through waiting for the two camels which had been left behind, and used the time in collectinghatab. It was very warm, and the camels grew tired quickly because of the heat. The country was similar to that between Buttafal and Zieghen. With my newhejinI found it easy to fall behind to take observations without exciting suspicion. We had to camp early because of the condition of the camels.

Friday, April 20.Start at 2A.M.; halt at 9:30A.M.Start again at 3:30P.M.and final halt at 8P.M., make 48 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 10° at 12:30A.M.Fine and clear, with cold southeast wind in the early morning. It drops at midday and gets up again at 4. In the evening it shifts to northeast.At 4A.M.passing through undulating country strewn with stone. At 6 enterseriraagain, flatter. Sunrise is at 5:30. Immediately thereafter on our right and left are low sand-hills from 8 to 10 kilometers distant. See a swallow in the morning and a hawk in the afternoon. At 4:20 cross low sand-dunes and sight a blackgara, a long low mound, 10 degrees south of southeast.

At 4A.M.passing through undulating country strewn with stone. At 6 enterseriraagain, flatter. Sunrise is at 5:30. Immediately thereafter on our right and left are low sand-hills from 8 to 10 kilometers distant. See a swallow in the morning and a hawk in the afternoon. At 4:20 cross low sand-dunes and sight a blackgara, a long low mound, 10 degrees south of southeast.

This was the worst part of the journey for traveling, so far as temperature conditions were concerned. In the middle of the day it was too hot to march, and at night it was too cold. So we broke the trek into two parts, starting soon after midnight, and restingin the heat of the day. We had trouble with the baggage because of the difficulty of good packing and loading in the dark. The camels, however, went better on this day.

This was the fourth day of the lunar month. The Bedouins observe the weather conditions on that day, believing that the weather for the rest of the month will be the same. It was to prove true in this case.

Saturday, April 21.We started at 2:30A.M.At six in the morning we came across stony and hilly country, which lasted for 12 kilometers. We passed on our left thegaracalled Garet Kudi. At nine we entered again intoserira, with distant sand-dunes on the right and left.

One camel fell ill shortly after our start and refused to go even when its load was taken off. Two Bedouins were left behind to bleed it, but all efforts at cure were in vain, and it had to be slaughtered. I forbade the Bedouins to eat its flesh. Later, after the midday halt, two Tebus dumped the loads from their camels and went back to dry the flesh and leave it until their return from Ouenat. They were to catch us later. This all delayed us about an hour.

The men had little sleep the previous night and were very tired after sunrise. But it was chiefly the intense heat from noon to four o’clock that exhausted both men and camels. It was a very tired caravanthat started again at 4.30P.M.and moved slowly along.

THE EXPLORER’S CAMP IN THE VALLEY OF ERDISOUTH OF ERDIBroken country and rough ground encountered by the party; it was very difficult for the camels’ pads, which were often cut by the sharp stones

THE EXPLORER’S CAMP IN THE VALLEY OF ERDI

SOUTH OF ERDIBroken country and rough ground encountered by the party; it was very difficult for the camels’ pads, which were often cut by the sharp stones

SOUTH OF ERDI

Broken country and rough ground encountered by the party; it was very difficult for the camels’ pads, which were often cut by the sharp stones

I saw two hawks and fresh sleeping-camps of birds on the sands.

Sunday, April 22.We traveled over flat hard sand, with occasional sand hillocks, three to ten meters high, covered with black stones. At 5:30A.M.we sighted a chain of hills on our left running from north to southwest across our path. At 8A.M.we entered into broken, hilly country, which continued all day. It was called Wadi El Maraheeg. We came across broken ostrich-eggs.

We had better loading to-day, but the men were tired. Many of them fell out to snatch a half-hour’s sleep, catching up with the caravan when they woke.

Bukara brought me two little eagles, which he had taken from their nest on the top of agara. I ordered him to put them back and saw that it was done.

Thehejinwas ill and had to go all the afternoon without load or even saddle.

At the midday halt the men fell asleep immediately and snored heavily. This kind of travel is grueling, tedious work. But we were getting on.

Monday, April 23.We started at 2.30A.M., halted at 9:15A.M., second start at 3:45P.M., halt at 9P.M., making forty-six kilometers. This was the most exhausting trek that I had yet known. Foreight days we had had only four hours of sleep a day. We had hardly started before the men with one accord fell back to snatch a half-hour’s sleep, leaving the camels to follow the will-o’-the-wisp of the guide’s lantern. I could not avail myself of this privilege, because of my anxiety for my instruments. The loading, done in the dark, was insecure, and a slipped fastening may mean a broken instrument or camera.

At intervals one or another camel would halt and kneel and refuse to get up. Then a Tebu would come and press his thumb on a certain big vein in the camel’s forehead and manipulate it. It seemed to give the beast relief.

We were having a hard time of it crossing the high steep sand-dunes when suddenly mountains rose before us like medieval castles half hidden in the mist. A few minutes later the sun was on them, turning the cold gray into warm rose and pink.

I let the caravan go on, and for half an hour I sat on the sand-dune and let the sight of these legendary mountains do its will with my mind and heart. I had found what I came to seek. These were the mountains of Arkenu.

It was the outstanding moment of the whole journey. Any hardships I might have endured, any hardships that might still await me, were as nothingcompared with the joy that filled me at the mere sight of these hills. It was not like going to seek a hidden treasure that had to be dug out of the ground. There they were standing right up high before me so that I might feast my eyes upon them. Up and down, up and down we had plodded across the sand-dunes in the chilly grayness of the hours before dawn, until suddenly at the last dune it was as though somebody had rung up a curtain upon these magical hills of which I have not seen the like in the whole Libyan Desert. From the time I left Sollum until I reached this spot, there had been nothing like the mountains of Arkenu. The sight of them so gripped me that for a while I dreamed that I was not in the desert any more.

Tuesday, April 24, was the one hundred and eleventh day from Sollum and the one hundred and fortieth from Cairo. We covered broken country, sand covered with stones, undulating. At 5A.M.heavy sand-dunes. After the dunes the country became stony again, and later there was hard sand covered with gravel. North of Arkenu Mountain and only a hundred meters from it was a big sandstone hill about two kilometers long and a hundred meters or so high.

There was a glorious sunrise, with shades of red and gold splashed on the few gray clouds in the east.The cool wind soon dropped, and it became close and warm.

Arkenu Mountain is a mass of granite, its gray surface weathered to a ruddy brown, rising uniformly along its length some five hundred meters from the desert surface. It is made up of a series of conical masses which run together at their feet, without intervals between them. We approached it at its most western point. As we came toward it, we could not tell how far it extended to the east. At the farthest point which we could see in that direction it rose into a peak. We marched around the northwestern corner of the mountain mass and came to the entrance of a valley which runs to the eastward. There is one solitary tree of the species called by the Goranarkenustanding in the desert here. From it the oasis takes its name. We made our camp near it. This was a bad spot for camel-ticks, who lived in the shade of the tree and came literally running by the score when our camels approached. We were obliged to camp some distance from the tree, as the insects did not seem to care to forsake its shade, even to attack the camels.

I once picked up a tick that was like a piece of petrified stone. I hit it with a stick, and it just clicked like a piece of stone. I turned away and pretended to be busy with something else. It took aboutthree or four minutes before it gave any sign of life. The tick knows instinctively that safety lies in pretending to be petrified. Then, without warning, it scooted like lightning. When there are no camels these ticks live on nothing. They absorb the camel’s blood, get inflated, and then they can live—the Bedouins say years, but certainly a few months.

THE CHIEFTAIN OF THE BIDIYAT TRIBEHis sword over his shoulder is carried ordinarily on the left arm, with his wrist through the thongTWO BIDIYAT MENNote the finer type of physique

THE CHIEFTAIN OF THE BIDIYAT TRIBEHis sword over his shoulder is carried ordinarily on the left arm, with his wrist through the thong

THE CHIEFTAIN OF THE BIDIYAT TRIBE

His sword over his shoulder is carried ordinarily on the left arm, with his wrist through the thong

TWO BIDIYAT MENNote the finer type of physique

TWO BIDIYAT MEN

Note the finer type of physique

Immediately on our arrival the camels were sent into the valley to be watered and to bring back the supply of water of which we were much in need.

Two hours after we pitched camp the two Tebus left behind arrived with a supply of meat from the slaughtered camel, which was eaten with enthusiasm for dinner. A hot, gusty wind blew all the afternoon. While I was resting in my tent I was suddenly aroused by something tickling my ear and tried to brush it away, without discovering what it was. In a moment a gust of wind blew in one of the side walls of the tent, which had been raised for ventilation, and I felt something darting across my body. I grasped at it instinctively and, fortunately for my peace of mind, missed it. It was a snake some four feet long, which was subsequently caught by my men and despatched.

The men held a shooting competition in the afternoon. It started as a perfunctory affair, but the interest quickened when I put up a Medjidie—aTurkish dollar—as a prize. Senussi Bu Jaber, though short-sighted, won the contest. Hamid expressed the feelings of the other contestants when he said: “It was the Medjidie that worked on my emotions and made me nervous. I had hit the mark before.”

I made observations and took photographs, and, incidentally, treated the guide’s teeth.

Goran, the black tribes of the neighborhood, suddenly appeared from the valley and were kept to dine with my men. No one had dreamed of their presence until they appeared. The mountain looked desolate and deserted, and one would not suspect that inside it lies a fertile valley which is inhabited. As a matter of fact, Arkenu is not inhabited all the year round. In the valley is good vegetation to which in the past Bedouins, Tebus, and Goran brought their camels during the grazing season. They closed the entrances to the valley with rocks and left the camels there unattended for three months.

“When they came to take them back,” said Mohammed, the guide, “they had as much fat on them as this.” He put his closed fists one on top of the other.

Wednesday, April 25.The Goran family in the valley brought a sheep, milk andsamn, which is butter in a curious liquid state because of the heat,asdiafaor hospitality. They also drove their sheep to the camp to be milked for the men of the caravan.

After luncheon I rode into Arkenu Valley with Zerwali and Bukara. It is akarkur, or narrow winding valley, extending some fifteen kilometers back into the mountains. There are grass, shrubs, and an occasional tree. We visited the Goran hut, where I took photographs of a girl and two boys of the family. The boys wore white robes, the sign of the sons of asheikh. When I got back to camp, I sent presents of cloth, handkerchiefs, and rice for the three children.

It was a beautiful moonlight night. I decided to spend three days more at Arkenu because the grazing was good and the camels still seemed tired from their hard trek. Myhejinwas doing well. I picked up stones for geological specimens and aroused the suspicions of some of my men. They thought there was gold in what stones I picked up or else I would not take the trouble to carry them back home.

Thursday, April 26.At Arkenu. Highest temperature 36°; lowest 9°. Fine and clear, with very strong and hot southeast wind. Twice the wind blew the tents down. We sent the camels to be watered and to graze. It was a sweltering day, over 100° Fahrenheit in the tent, and only a little less in the shade outside. Making observations was difficulton account of the wind. I did not like to shelter myself behind the tent while making them for fear of arousing the inevitable curiosity and suspicion. The wind dropped in the evening, and we were repaid for a hot and scorching day by a beautifully cool evening with a fine moon. There was dancing and singing by Bukara and the other men until midnight.

Friday, April 27.Arkenu was the first of the two “lost” oases which it is my good fortune to place definitely on the map. There had long been a tradition that two oases existed close to the southwestern corner of Egypt. But the position that they had been conjecturally given on one or two maps was from thirty to one hundred and eighty kilometers out of place. No one had described them from an actual visit. My observations showed that Arkenu is situated in north latitude 20° 12′ 32″ and east longitude 24° 44′ 15″ and has an altitude of 598 meters at the foot of the mountain. It is thus well within the boundaries of Egypt.

The principal interest of this oasis, as of Ouenat, lies in the possibilities it offers for exploring the southwest corner of Egypt, which has until now been unreached either by military patrols or by travelers. No one has known with any certainty of water-supplies in that part of the desert which could be relied upon. The water at Arkenu is apparently unfailingand is drinkable, though not as wholesome for human beings as one could wish. Arkenu may conceivably prove to have strategic value at some future time, standing as it does almost precisely at the meeting-point of the western and southern boundaries of Egypt.

BIDIYAT BELLESBIDIYAT PRIEST

BIDIYAT BELLES

BIDIYAT PRIEST

Both Arkenu and Ouenat differ from all the other oases of the Western Desert of Egypt in that they are not depressions in the desert with underground water-supplies, but mountain areas where rain-water collects in natural basins in the rocks.

The mountain chain of Arkenu as I saw it is about fifteen kilometers in extent from north to south and some twenty kilometers from east to west. But there was no opportunity to explore it to the eastward, so that I cannot say whether it may not extend farther in that direction than I have stated. I could only observe it as far as I could see from the desert at the western foot of the mountain. It may well be that off to the east Arkenu Mountain runs into a chain of hills of which the Ouenat Mountains are also spurs to the south. There is an opportunity for more exploration of the eastern portions of both these rock masses than I was able to make in the time and with the resources at my command.

The nearest known point to Arkenu and Ouenat to the east or rather the northeast is Dakhla Oasis,some six hundred kilometers distant. There is a tradition that there is an old track to Egypt between these two points, but a journey from Dakhla to Arkenu and Ouenat with caravan, which would take at least fourteen days, would be a formidable undertaking.

THE LOST OASES: OUENAT

SATURDAY, April 28.We started at 9:30P.M.for the first all-night trek, halting at 7A.M.of the twenty-ninth. We made forty kilometers. It was fair and clear with a very strong hot wind from southeast all day. The wind blew from the same quarter, but was warm rather than hot all night. The ground wasserira, with large stones making bad going for the camels. At 6A.M.we reached the western corner of Ouenat Mountain and camped an hour later.

The day was spent quietly, chiefly in rest for the coming night trek. In the early evening we sent men to bring the camels from their grazing. Bukara hired a camel from a Tebu, to relieve his own, which he wanted to be able to sell at the end of the journey for a high price. I hired three Tebus and their camels to go with us, but not for the same reason. Our transport was inadequate, for the trek from Kufra hadshown me that our loads were too heavy. The camels became quickly exhausted.

The camels were brought in at eight in the evening, and we started an hour and a half later. They were lightly loaded this time because we were taking no water from Arkenu. The water there, while its taste is not particularly unpleasant, is hard on one’s digestive apparatus. We had three bad cases of dysentery among the men. The invalids rode camels from the start, and the rest of the men took turns during the night.

The caravan started out in the best of humor. At intervals some cheerful spirit stopped and began to chant. In a moment half a dozen of them were lined up beside him, all chanting, stamping and clapping their hands rhythmically as the camels filed past. The words of the song were always the same:

En kán azeéz alaih lanzárHátta laú ba-éd biddár

En kán azeéz alaih lanzár

Hátta laú ba-éd biddár

The accents are strongly pronounced and differ in the two lines, as I have marked them. I would translate the verse thus, without making any attempt to fit it to the jazz rhythm that would be needed to complete the effect for the western ear: “O beloved, our eyes gaze after you, even though your camp is far away.”

A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER SISTERThe necklace of macaroni beads was given to her by the explorer to eat, but she preferred to make it into a necklace.A BIDIYAT GIRL WITH HER CHILDNote the nose-bead. Her hair is plaited when she is young, and is oiled from time to time but never combed out.

A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER SISTERThe necklace of macaroni beads was given to her by the explorer to eat, but she preferred to make it into a necklace.

A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER SISTER

The necklace of macaroni beads was given to her by the explorer to eat, but she preferred to make it into a necklace.

A BIDIYAT GIRL WITH HER CHILDNote the nose-bead. Her hair is plaited when she is young, and is oiled from time to time but never combed out.

A BIDIYAT GIRL WITH HER CHILD

Note the nose-bead. Her hair is plaited when she is young, and is oiled from time to time but never combed out.

Again and again the chant was repeated until the performance ended in a sudden shout. I had been the whole audience for the little show, beating the rhythm with my whip, and when the shout went up I called out, “Farraghu barud!” “Empty gunpowder!” was the signal for afeu de joiefrom the rifles, after which we all took our places in the caravan and went on exhilarated.

A night march has its advantages. The time, unless one is dead tired, passes more quickly than during the day, and the stars are cheering company for any lover of nature. On the horizon ahead of us loomed the dark masses of the Ouenat Mountains. It is so much easier to march with one’s destination distinct before one than to be walking on the flat disk of a desert where every point of the compass looks like every other and the horizon keeps always at the same maddening distance. We steadily approached the mountains until the sun was rising over them, tinting and gilding their peaks and throwing out on the desert a heavy shadow whose edge marched steadily toward the mountain-foot as we approached it from another direction. Shortly after sunrise we were opposite the northwest corner of the mountains, and an hour later we made camp close under their rocky walls. At this point there was an indentation in the mountain-side, with a well in a cave at itsinner end. We pitched our tents at the mouth of this little arm of the desert sea, and ten minutes later we were all sunk into sleep. This was our first full night of travel, and we had some arrears of sleep to make up.

However, we did not sleep as long as we had expected to, but roused ourselves before noon and turned our attention to food. The French saying,qui dort dîne, may be true under some conditions, but we of the desert find it more satisfactory when we are able to do both. We all found pleasant distraction in roasting parts of the lamb which was provided by Mohammed asdiafafor Ouenat.

I spent the rest of the day in visiting the well, which is situated in the cave in the mountain-side, in taking observations, and in looking over our surroundings. At this point the mountain rises in a sheer cliff, with a mass of boulders, great and small, heaped against it at its foot. The stones that make up thistabre, as the geologists call it, have been carved by ages of wind and driven sand into smooth, rounded shapes that giants of the heroic days might have used in their slings to kill monsters or for some enormous game of bowls. Theainor well lies a few meters away from the camp, in a cavity walled and roofed with the great rocks. It is a pool of refreshing water kept cool by their protection from the sun.The desert knows two kinds of wells, theain, which properly speaking is a spring, and thebirormatan, which is a place where water may be obtained by digging in the sand. We call these wells of Ouenatains, for lack of a better word, although they are not springs but reservoirs in the rock where rain-water collects.

There are said to be seven of theseainsin the Ouenat Mountains, of which I was to see four before I moved south again. I also heard rumors of one or twobirsin the oasis, but I did not see them.

In the evening the camp was full of life and gaiety. The men danced and sang as though there were no tedious days of hot sand and scorching wind behind or ahead of them.

Monday, April 30.Up early and went with Zerwali, Abdullahi, Mohammed, and Malkenni, the Tebu, to the bigainup the mountain. It was a stiff climb of an hour and a half. Theainhas a plentiful supply of splendid water and is picturesquely surrounded with tall, slim reeds. I took some of the reeds back with me to make pipe-stems. They give a pleasantly cool smoke.

In the early evening I set out on thehejin, with Malkenni, Senussi Bu Hassan, and Sad to explore the oasis. It was a fine moonlight night with a warm southeast breeze. For four hours we marched overserira, skirting the northwest corner of the mountain, and at midnight we entered a valley with a chain of low hills on our left and the sinister mountain with its fantastic rock formations on our right. The valley is floored with soft sand strewn with big stones, which made hard going for the camels. At the hour when men’s spirits and courage are proverbially at the lowest ebb we halted a few minutes for a draft of strong tea from my thermos flask and then pushed on. But our spirits were by no means low. There was something magical about the night and the moonlight and the mountains, to make this an experience stirring to the imagination and uplifting to the soul. I speak for myself; but the men seemed to be getting something out of it too.

At five the valley opened out on to a wide plain of flatserira, with hills ten or fifteen kilometers away to the northeast. We turned sharply to the south, around a spur of the mountain. At dawn we stopped for morning prayers.

The camels werebarrakked, and we took our stand on the sands facing toward Mecca. When Moslems take part in their ceremonial prayers, they stand before God—not, as some misinformed persons say, before Mohammed, who was not God but man, a prophet and not the Deity—and the first essential is cleansing, of body, heart, and soul. In the desertthe cleansing of the body can be only symbolical, since water cannot be spared. We take sand in our hands, rub it over each hand and forearm, then gently over our faces. With hands uplifted, palms upward, we say the prayers appointed, then, kneeling, touch our foreheads to the cool sands of the morning.

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