74 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



hungry! The preceding day the ration had been two 

 sardines and a cup of coffee for breakfast, a handful of 

 dates at noon and half a one-ration tin of meat at night. 

 That morning there had been no time for food, but the 

 kindly She-ib had brought me a delicious bowl of camel's 

 milk, still warm. I would not have exchanged it for the 

 cellar of the Ritz! 



We had left the last vestige of fawny-yellow earth 

 and grey scrub behind us and as the strange square 

 hillocks came in sight we trod the white limestone that 

 we had known in Jedabia. We looked right over the 

 farther edge of the low tableland and dropped gently 

 to a plain with the deep white sand of the southern 

 deserts, tufted with great shrubs and bushes of sweet- 

 scented feathery vegetation and clumps of low palm 

 foliage, with here and there a solitary upright palm. 

 There are three wells in the neighbourhood of Bir 

 Rassam, perennial springs, two of which have brackish 

 yet drinkable water, while the third, several kilometres 

 farther south, has terribly salt water. 



As we approached the wells, about 9.15 a.m., streams 

 of camels appeared from all directions. Mohammed 

 gazed at them with loving eyes. "The Zouia are rich," 

 he said appreciatively; "look at the hundreds of their 

 beasts!" All that morning a crowd of camels, number- 

 ing several hundreds, pressed round the well, together 

 with some sheep and goats, but we encamped under a 

 mound of sand topped by a mass of palm scrub and in 

 rare shelter I prepared our frugal meal. The previous 

 night and that morning we had had no fuel for fire, so 

 now it was a joy to make hot tea and I was about to 

 knead my heavy damper when Mighrib, the most 

 delightful of all the Mojabras, young and smiling, in his 

 torn white shirt which showed muscular brown arms and 

 chest, assured me that he could make a much better one. 



