1897] Talk with Bcseys about Religion 255 



at the top of the pass, where we first caught sight of 'the valley. This 

 was a happy spectacle, a break in the brown rags of the desert fore- 

 ground, dipping down and showing blue hills beyond. From this pass 

 we went down by a gradual descent for a couple of hours. We are 

 still some miles from the two villages of the oasis, with 'their palm 

 groves showing blackly against the rocks beyond them. We are en 

 joying an afternoon's rest quietly in the shadow of a great rock half 

 a mile from a spring. The sandy ground is pleasant, with hillocks 

 tufted with green rough grass, ekresh and rukeyb, tamarisk, ithel, and 

 dwarf palm. There are two springs, one on a mound 20 feet high, but 

 the water was flat and bad — the other sweet, which runs for a few 

 yards in open ground, with a little greenness round it — no trees. 



' It is agreed 'that from this point I am to adopt a Syrian identity as 

 Sakr ibn Zeydun el Helali, related by marriage to Sidi Abd el Kader at 

 Damascus, and to Hajji Batran at Aleppo, with a title of Bey from the 

 Dowlah, travelling to see his relations at Dernah and Benghazi. I shall 

 not go into the villages here, so tha't no questions may be asked by 

 officials. Beseys, too, is anxious to keep clear of them. 



" I like Beseys. As we rode ahead of our party yesterday on our 

 debris, I talked to him about religion and about my wish for a hermit's 

 life in the desert, and he much applauded the idea and promised to 

 take me 'to a spiritual father of his own, Sidi Maymum, who lived 

 just such a life in the Jebel Akhdar. The wely would put me in the 

 way of a true vocation and give me all the advice I wanted. I asked 

 him about Jerabub and the Zaghwiyeh there. He assures me the 

 whole of the Akhwan have left it. Sherif, the second son of Senussi, 

 followed his brother Sidi el Mahdi in his flight southwards, but came 

 back to die at Jerabub, and is buried there with his father. Abu Seyf 

 upon this left Jerabub with the rest of his following, and now there are 

 only lay brothers and poor people there who look after the palms. 

 Beseys is very pious himself, and prays every morning for some time 

 as he rides. While we were talking earnestly on these pious matters 

 we missed our track in the ne juris, and were some time finding it again. 

 It is exciting work picking out the cold scent of an old track by odds 

 and ends of camel jcllch and doubtful landmarks, as exciting as fol- 

 lowing hounds, and we became keen and jealous. But Beseys is a 

 really good old man, and I think takes a true interest in my conversion. 

 I't is forty-three years since he travelled the road before, being then a 

 boy of an age young enough to need being told not to lag behind, or 

 get separated from the rest. That would make him no older than I 

 am, but in appearance he is quite an ' ancient of days.' We got back 

 eventually into the right road by following a hyaena track. Hyaenas, 

 jackals and foxes in 'the desert are fond of frequenting caravan routes 

 for what they may chance to pick up, and know them well — the first 



