ACROSS THE DESERT WITH SHE-IB 81 



distance as the crow flies is about 220 kilometres. There 

 is a main route as far as Wadi Farig. Thereafter one 

 may wander south anywhere on a stretch some ten miles 

 broad. We travelled on the route which our friends con- 

 sidered provided the best fuel and grass, but it was the 

 least frequented and, therefore, the most dangerous. 

 "No one comes by this track without fear of a battle," 

 said the delightful Mighrib, and hardly half an hour later 

 a party of eight men, without camels, six blacks and two 

 Arabs, appeared from the sand mounds. "Dersalaam! 

 We are going to be attacked," said She-ib with calm 

 interest. Any party of men without camels is looked 

 upon with suspicion in the desert. Thus travel the robber 

 bands in order to be able to scatter quickly. "Some of 

 them will come up and talk to us. Their friends will 

 be hidden behind those mounds. They will fire into the 

 air to attract our attention and then the people who are 

 talking to us will attack us. If they kill us they will 

 take the caravan." The blacks cheered up at once. The 

 prospect of a fight always stimulated them. Everybody 

 pulled out a rifle, but evidently the display of force or 

 the Sudanese intimidated the mysterious party, for they 

 suddenly sheered off without any salutation and vanished 

 as suddenly as they had appeared. 



It is curious the fear with which the Beduins regard 

 the black slaves who are sent from the Sudan as boys 

 of eight or ten and who are trained as soldiers by the 

 Senussi family. They are more brutes than men. I 

 have seen sheer murder in the eyes of the toothless 

 Farraj when I refused him extra sugar, yet they are 

 courageous and faithful to their masters. A good black 

 slave like Ali, our beloved cook at Jedabia, is worth his 

 weight in gold. There was much difference of character 

 between the Farraj es. One had a square, bestial face with 

 a few broken yellow teeth. He was a grumbler and 



