248 Start for Siwah [ l &97 



that true desert hermitage I had so often dreamed of. Some'thing of 

 this will be found noted in my diary, and I give it hardly at all abridged 

 as it stands there. 



" $th Feb. — Left Sheykh Obeyd at half-past seven. Our 'travelling 

 party consists of Suliman Howeyti, Owde his cousin, and Eid, all 

 Bedouins of the Howeytat, and Salem, my Egyptian body servant for 

 cook, with Abd-el-Salaam of the Oulad AH Bedouins, my own six 

 camels, one with foal at foot, and my mare Yemama. Anne and 

 Judith rode the first few miles with me. We passed the Obelisk of 

 Heliopolis and followed the Towfikiyeh Canal to Mustorod where Anne 

 and Judith turned back. They saw a blue kingfisher on the way but 

 I missed seeing it, which I take for an ill omen. From Mustorod we 

 followed the Helwa, the sweet water canal — overtaking many people 

 on their way to market at Cairo with loads of bersim. A few white 

 herons were about, and by the cactus gardens we saw tracks of jackals, 

 nothing European, till we reached the railway station of Pont Limon at 

 Cairo, then on through the town 'to Kasr el Nil Bridge, mixed up with 

 carriages, people on bicycles, and the usual mongrel crowd; and on 

 to within half a mile of Mena (nobody recognizing me) when we turned 

 to the left and camped beyond it on the sand. I have with me the 

 following moneys for my journey, £40 in English gold, £5 in silver 

 dollars, and £8 in small silver, £1 in half piastres — total £54 13s. 



" 6th Feb. — To-day we followed up the Nile valley passing to the 

 right of Sakkara — many tracks of foxes and jackals on the desert 

 edge. Great fields of lupins (termes) — the Delta very green — desert 

 larks but few other birds, except wagtails. Camped at half-past two 

 by the birkch, where the road branches off to Tumiya — teals, coots, 

 pochards, pintails, and other small waterfowl. The water brackish. 

 A very beautiful evening. 



"Abd-el-Salaam tells me he went campaigning with 1,500 of his 

 tribe, in the first year of Ismail's reign, to the Soudan, taking the outer 

 road of the Oases, and as far as Darfur and Kordofan. He told me 

 also much about Jebel Akhdar (the Cyrenaica). There are five springs 

 in it, he says, with streams running from them, all well wooded wi'th 

 trees, seytoun (olive) and karub, with much grass and crops watered 

 by rain. It is held by the Harabi tribe with whom the Oulad Ali had 

 been gottm (enemies) from the time of Said Pasha. But he. Abd-el- 

 Salaam, has friends amongst them. He has travelled 'to Benghazi and 

 to all the Oases, but not to Tarablus (Tripoli) or Tunis. He boasts 

 that the Oulad Ali are of Anazeh blood ; as to the Harabi they are of 

 Harb blood. He is fasting for Ramadan, which no one else of us is, 

 and is rather cross and obstinate. I am not sure about taking him 

 beyond Kasr-el-Jibali. There is beautiful sweet camomile here for 

 our camels. 



