CHAPTER XV 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 



As it turned out I was delayed at Jeldez for three 

 days, because I thought it advisable to send men 

 forward to see if they could find water ahead, for I 

 was now about to enter an absolutely unknown 

 stretch of country without a single guide. Mahomed 

 Ali, his slave and his companion, returned to their 

 village, for they said, in an interview which I had 

 with them the day before, that although they were 

 willing and anxious to help me in every way, they 

 did not know the country which lay to the west at all 

 well, and they were afraid that if the next two 

 marches should prove waterless, they would be unable 

 to return, unless I gave them camels, on which they 

 could carry water. These I could not spare, for of 

 the eighteen with which I started, one had died at 

 Jana Nyeri, one had been left at Gulola with an 

 abscess in his foot, and another was very ill with 

 what the natives called "camel sickness," so that I 

 had only sufficient for my own needs. 



Jeldez is a well-known water-hole situated on the 

 old Galla trail between Afmadu and Lorian. This 

 bush-path has been completely abandoned by the 

 Somali, who prefer to travel along the north bank 

 of the Lak Dera, where water - holes are more 

 numerous and the country less inhospitable. As I 

 have said, it was dry when I arrived, so I had to 



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