1.897] Deceived by the Mirage 259 



mounds, the dark green wady, and the hill, blue beyond — almost like 

 the Nile valley. 



" We were, therefore, in the highest spirits, and Suliman and the 

 camels having joined me at the foot of the hill, and he having also 

 climbed up and convinced himself, we went on singing with joy. Two 

 more hours, I thought, and we should be at the spring, and I led the 

 way over the intervening nefuds gaily. The sun was in our faces as 

 we topped the last of them, and saw at last the plain of our hopes 

 before us. Suliman and I looked in each other's faces blankly. There 

 was nothing at all of what we were expecting — only another long, 

 low, shining plain. The tarfa clumps had resolved themselves into as 

 many bare black stones, and nothing to break the horizon but a single 

 pyramidal hill far away, a full day's journey off. It was a bitter dis- 

 appointment. We asked Osman when he arrived with the camels 

 whether he recognized the valley as Sittarah, and he said ' no.' We 

 were worse lost than before. Nevertheless, we were convinced that 

 the valley must be still before us, and like an old hound Suliman ran 

 off to the left casting for some sign of it, and presently came, by ex- 

 traordinary good fortune, on a track, and then a mile or two still farther 

 on, at the very place where the black stones were which we had taken 

 for tarfa clumps, to our exceeding joy, lay the great caravan road — we 

 had not seen it for two days — running with at least a hundred parallel 

 camel paths bearing due westward. This, ' if not the work of the jan,' 

 we know must be our road. It led straight to the pyramidal hill, and 

 ' there' said Suliman, ' the water will be.' So now we are camped at 

 sunset, once more praising God for his bounty, and in good heart and 

 hope. Old Beseys and all of them had given themselves up for lost. 

 They had made no complaint, but also had made no effort to find the 

 road, but had ridden silently — Beseys saying his prayers at intervals. 

 Perhaps they were heard in heaven."' [N.B. What is very remarkable 

 in this adventure is that both Suliman and I, he being a master in desert 

 craft, having been deceived by the mirage, were so not to our own hurt 

 but to our advantage, for the apparent vegetation lay precisely where 

 the caravan road was emerging from the sand. The mirage in our case 

 saved us. Not that we were yet in great straits for water, except for 

 the mare, for we still had skins enough for our own drinking, and the 

 weather was cold. But, if we had failed to hit off Sittarah next day, 

 we should have soon been in sorry plight, for Sittarah is the only water 

 between El Wah and Siwah. What makes travelling without guides 

 so dangerous in the western desert is that the oases are mere cup-like 

 hollows in the plains, which one may pass to right or left of without sign 

 of their being near. There are almost no landmarks visible from the 

 plain, and the sands have encroached, obliterating the ancient roads, 

 which are most of them now abandoned. In former days the oases 



