1897] The Senussi Monastery at Zeytonn 265 



bushes of the Siwah oasis." [N.B. It is well here to note, as a gen- 

 eral rule of travelling in the desert without guides that, when looking 

 for a lost camel track or road, there is more chance of finding it at the 

 point of a headland in the wady than elsewhere, for the reason that it 

 is there that the shortest cut would be made in rounding a trend of the 

 hills. This justified Suliman in making for the khusm yesterday.] 

 " Soon afterwards we came to sebkhas, where there were tracks of 

 many pasturing camels, and then within sight of the oasis of Zeytoun 

 and the Senussi Zaghwiyeh standing on high ground a mile or more 

 from its palm trees. As it was near sunset we resolved to rest here and 

 have made a pleasant camp under some ghurkhad bushes. El hamdid 

 Utah. 



" 2jth Feb. — In half an hour from leaving camp we came to the 

 Zaghwiyeh, and Yemama started at the sight of strange human beings, 

 the first she had seen since leaving El Wah. who came out to receive us. 

 These were servants and slaves of the monastery, and we were shown 

 by them the well where we watered mare and camels — a small well 

 just outside the buildings. These were not different from an ordinary 

 small village, a score of low square houses with a mosque attached. 

 The servants may have been half-a-dozen or more, an unhandsome set 

 of men, especially those of the Siwah type, which is one of the ugliest in 

 the world, yellow skinned, brown haired, snub nosed, hare-lipped and 

 light eyed (such one imagines the Huns to have been). In marked 

 contrast to them was the ' brother,' who came out presently to entertain 

 us, an Arab of the Western type, not unlike my friend Abdallah 

 Mijower, with a singularly pleasant smile. One could imagine him 

 having great influence with the people. He had a look of goodness 

 which could not be mistaken. His name, he told us, was Sidi Hamid 

 of the Mujabara tribe of Aujla. He has with him only one fellow 

 brother, a Siwan, inferior to him in every way. He gave us all the 

 news of the brotherhood, how that, after Sidi Sherif's death, Sidi Abu 

 Seyf had also died, leaving Sidi el Medani head of the community at 

 Jerabub. He said we should have no difficulty in our journey to Ben- 

 ghazi. It was four easy days to Jerabub, and from thence we could 

 go straight to Bir Menus in nine days, with one water on the sixth day. 

 He would like to go with us himself. He was very kind to me, and 

 though he did not eat with us, it being Ramadan, he gave me some good 

 gasali dates and some pomegranates, and milk and dates to the servants, 

 who were not fasting. Then he called his fellow brother Mohammed, 

 and they recited a fatha for our safe journey, all standing together out- 

 side the monastery, and we went much pleased on our way. 



" Old Beseys tells me it is their practice to entertain all comers for 

 two nights with milk and dates — otherwise to occupy themselves only 

 with prayer and the superintending of the palm cultivation. (Cardinal 



