TUDWAY BEY 297 



we reached Safsaf. This oasis has no trees to mark 

 it. A certain Hope-Johnstone is supposed to have cut 

 down those that were there, as they were infested with 

 snakes. One of the men had planted a dom that was 

 doing well. I planted dates, and hope that my patrols 

 will later have planted a lot on it. The oasis was a 

 long low ridge, covered with safsaf grass. It is the 

 same grass that grows on the banks of the Nile, and 

 gets green during the rise of the river, when the wells 

 above fill, and fades as the Nile falls. The ridge is 

 about seven miles long. The north end of it runs 

 into an immense salt field. Great rocks of salt stick 

 brown and ugly above the surface there. Half-way 

 from Safsaf to Terfaui lie some terabil, and also a 

 narrow sand-drift. The dead level changes here, 

 becoming more undulating and pebbly as Terfaui is 

 approached. Near here it was that Tudway Bey 

 captured a Dervish caravan. In all my wanderings 

 his is the only name which I have met in popular 

 ballads. Those of officers still serving do not count. 

 The young policeman who was crooning it to his 

 camel could only tell me that Tudway had been a bey 

 of the " Hagana" (Camel Corps), and used to give his 

 men things, " magana " (free of cost), &c. Even in 

 Haifa, the names of the Sirdars Wood, Grenfell, and 

 Kitchener are unknown, while that of Wodehouse is 

 a household one. Terfaui has been an oasis of im- 

 portance. It consists of twelve groups of terabil, with 

 others in the distance, to the north-west. It shows 

 almost as many signs of camping-places as Sheb. In 

 one of these I picked up some slag that looked like 



