CHRISTMAS IX THE DESERT 117 



tasmic figures on a lantern screen, to vanish in the next 

 strong gust of wind. It was impossible to put up a tent. 

 The camels were barraked in a semicircle, where they 

 lay groaning but not attempting to move. The baggage 

 was piled to form zaribas, and in the lee of these we 

 crouched for four or five hours, blankets covering our 

 faces, handkerchiefs wound over our mouths. I thought 

 the retinue would look upon the storm as a bad omen, 

 but Mohanmied only smiled with dust-parched lips. 

 "This will be a successful journey. We shall have good 

 luck," he said, "for when the Sayed travels there is 

 nearly always a gibli thus!" 



Once when I tried to change my cramped position I 

 felt something soft huddled against me. I peered out 

 of my wrappings cautiously and found the black face of 

 Zeinab, the prettiest slave girl, almost on my shoulder. 

 She seized my hand and kissed it devoutly, while her com- 

 panion, Hauwa, drew closer. Their thin, gaudy barracans 

 were no protection against the madness of the sand, so I 

 offered them a share in my blanket and we made friends 

 under the sheltering thickness. Zeinab was young, about 

 sixteen, and round-faced, with curved full lips and big 

 velvet eyes modestly downcast. Hauwa looked ancient 

 with her wrinkled skin and yellow, uneven teeth, but her 

 years were only twenty-four. The Sudanese marry, if 

 the parents have money, when the girl is nine and the 

 boy thirteen. Therefore these ebony slaves may be grand- 

 mothers at the age when an English girl is wondering 

 whether she is old enough to wed! ^ly little companions 

 were full of questions and comment, mixed with praise 

 of Sayed Rida. They wanted to give me the eggs they 

 had brought for themselves, and it is almost impossible 

 to refuse a gift in the East. It is accepted as a matter 

 of course without expression of thanks. It used to sur- 

 prise me at first that if one gave a man a watch or revolver 



