TRIUMPHANT ARRIVAL AT JALO 101 



had no claim on their hospitality. We had no right to 

 enter the most closely guarded country in the world. 

 Beggar or prince, Beduin or sheikh, must prove good 

 reason ere he is made free of the south-bound tracks to 

 the sacred city. Our only passport was our love of the 

 Arab race, our sympathy with their customs and their 

 Faith. We dared offer no other plea. We asked but the 

 right of the nomad to travel with his camels wherever 

 the desert called him. Sidi Idris, with a mystic's vision, 

 responded to our desire. "The Beduins sense those who 

 love them, and they answer to the bond," he said. 

 "You will go unharmed." We had received a blessing 

 and we might wander south by desert city and guarded 

 well to the mysterious, secret oasis. Little did we realise 

 that we had been marked as the honoured guests for whom 

 no generosity was too great! "The hospitality that you 

 show them will be as if you had shown it to us," had 

 vvritten Sayed Rida and, by his will, we shared his lord- 

 ship of the desert. 



As we approached the white ranks bowed with dignity, 

 and a chorus of grave "Aselamu aleikum, Marhaba, 

 Marhaba!" "Bisilama" welcomed us, but the lines 

 never wavered. We shook hands with the kainiakaan, 

 Hameida Bey Zeitun, with the sheikh of the zawia, 

 Sidi Mohammed es Senussi, and with many ekhwan, 

 following their example by afterwards kissing our hands 

 and touching our foreheads. We murmured gratitude 

 unbounded for the honour they did us. "All that we 

 have is yours," they said. "We belong to the Sayed." 

 A house had already been prepared for us. The white 

 mass parted to let us through. Surrounded by the digni- 

 taries of the town, amidst a swelling murmur of welcome 

 and blessing, we followed the hospitable kaimakaan into 

 the narrow sand streets. 



It was a strange, muddled phantasy seen through a 



