TRIUMPHANT ARRIVAL AT JALO 105 



information about the route and generally to reorganise 

 the caravan, and that we would then go to Taiserbo, the 

 party broke up with many "Aselamu akeikum's" and 

 "Rahmat Allah!" 



At last we could devote our whole attention to food! 

 First, however, I was taken by Moraja to see the sheep, 

 which had already been slaughtered, skinned, and cut 

 up into bits. "Choose which piece you want, and we 

 will eat the rest," said the sergeant. I picked out a 

 leg and departed hastily, but the blacks were amazed at 

 my frugality. Two rushed after me with strange-look- 

 ing fragments, which I had never seen on a dinner-table, 

 and pressed them upon me. "They are very good," 

 they said. "You will be happy." 



December 20 and 21 we passed in the little sand house 

 with the maze of odd com-ts and antechambers. After 

 forty-eight hours within its hospitable walls I still lost 

 my way coming from the main door to my room, so 

 intricate were the twists and turns. It does not sound 

 a very lengthy affair to procure and issue food and girbas 

 sufficient for seventeen people for a fortnight or three 

 weeks, when the Government's stores are at one's dis- 

 posal and the kaimakaan is as capable and energetic 

 as Hameida Bey Zeitun. Yet we worked about eighteen 

 hours out of each twenty-four. Flour rations for the 

 caravan! Yes, the grain is in the village, but it must 

 be ground, and for this purpose a httle must be doled 

 out to each house in Jalo, for no family possesses more 

 than one primitive handmill worked by two blue-robed 

 women, who slowly turn the great stones one above the 

 other. Sixteen girbas for water ! Yes, but some of them 

 leak, and there is no tar to repair them. 



So it is with ever}i:hing. The soldiers would not travel 

 without a large supply of "zeit" (oil) in which to cook 

 their cereals. Mohammed wanted to have a change of 



