72 Bedoiun Tribes of the Euphrates, [ch. xix, 



stayed beliind to eat our luiiclieon of bread and dates 

 and let the camels go on, led by Jazzer, and now when 

 we had finished our meal they were some mile or so 

 ahead. It was just about noon, and the mirage in 

 the middle of the day quickly swallows up even a 

 caravan of camels on the horizon, or they get hidden 

 in a dip of the plain, and ours were now out of sight. 

 Wilfrid and I galloped on to keep up the line of 

 communication, which it is very dangerous to lose in 

 travelling in the desert, and it was well we did so, 

 for by the time we sighted them the rest of our 

 straggling party was in its turn lost to view. Wil- 

 frid then sent me on alone to the caravan with in- 

 structions to stop it while he galloped back to 

 collect the stragglers. He found them, with the 

 Consul at their head, following each other c|uite 

 unconsciously in a line at right angles to that of 

 our route, and where they would have got to 

 Heaven only knows. It was all that he could do 

 to induce them to alter their course, which they still 

 declared was that which the camels had taken. 

 This little incident has made us cautious of keeping 

 together, and has shown us the advantage of having 

 at least one person well mounted with a caravan, as, 

 had we all been riding donkeys and beasts of heavy 

 burden, we should infallibly have now been scattered 

 hopelessly over the plain. 



After this, we went steadily on till sunset, when 

 we stopped in a broad wady within sight of certain 

 hills, from which Jazzer assures us we shall see the 



