1897] Across to the Fay own 249 



" Jth Feb. (Sunday). — Off at half-past seven. A plain desert 

 march, following a track made by sheep and cattle the whole way. 

 Sighted a fox in the early morning on his way home to some limestone 

 cliffs. Also passed two cat'tle droves. No other incident. I remember 

 twenty-one years ago travelling this way and having a tussle with a 

 young Arab horseman, who had jeered at us for our European dresses. 

 He pointed his gun at us, and I 'took hold of it and pulled him off his 

 horse, his girths giving way, and he came a tumble, much to his dis- 

 comfiture. This was in 1876. We are encamped under the tamarisks, 

 where formerly Fraser, who was travelling with us, and I shot hares. 



" Abd-el-Salaam has gone on with his recollections. The expedition 

 he tells me was six months away on their Soudan campaign, each 

 horseman receiving 200 piastres a mon'th and all found, including camels 

 and horses; also their families received from £13 to £14 while they 

 were gone. There was no fighting, ' victorious without fighting.' In 

 all this Western desert southwards there is no pasture, except a little 

 nossi tha't comes up after the rain, or northwards till you come near 

 the Mediterranean. 



" 8th Feb. — A continuous march of eleven hours through the Fay- 

 oum, passing by Toumiyeh, Senuris, Fidimin, Senhur, Abuxeh, and 

 Bisheh. Then, having crossed the river, a branch of the Bahar Yusuf , 

 we camped on the other side, at nightfall, a couple of miles short of 

 Kasr-el-Jibali. I preferred taking excuse of the night to stop, for I was 

 'tired, and I knew that going on to the castle would mean sitting up till 

 midnight waiting for a sheep to be killed and cooked. The Fayoum 

 is a bad country to camp in, all black mud and crops, with hardly an 

 open spot; and we were lucky, after travelling five or six miles looking 

 in vain, at last to pitch upon a dry unoccupied field on the edge of the 

 cliff above the river. 



"At Toumiyeh the land has been taken possession of and cultivated 

 by some Jews, who got a concession from the Government. Otherwise 

 the town is much as it was in 1876, when I remember going to see a 

 poor notable of the town who was dying, they told us, of love. The 

 Mamur of the district in 'those days had taken from him forcibly one 

 of his wives, the youngest, last, and best beloved of them ; and we 

 found him lying on his death-bed, surrounded by his friends lamenting 

 his loss, and he smelling an onion which he held in his hand. 



" gth Feb. — I was already asleep last night when Abdallah Minjo 

 war, hearing of my being in camp so near him, rode out to see me ; 

 and I had to get up to receive him. We drank tea 'together and made 

 all the arrangements necessary for my onward journey. He will send 

 two men with me, Minshawi and another, with camels to El Wah (the 

 small Oasis), Siwah, Jerabub, and Jebel Akhdar, and will write letters 

 to the various Sheykhs, and see me through to Benhazi or Dernah. 



