CHRISTMAS IN THE DESERT 119 



palm fence at 7 p.m., and were up again while it was 

 still dark. The same cold wind stimulated the blacks to 

 brisk action, and there was a great deal of running about 

 and singing, but the sun rose while the camels were still 

 being loaded and we did not start till seven. 



We had camped on the very edge of the Jalo oasis. 

 The last palms were behind us, and in front lay the 

 flattest country I had ever seen. To the rim of the near 

 horizon stretched an unbroken expanse of yellowish, 

 gravelly sand. We thought we had crossed flat, mo- 

 notonous country before, but on December 23 we rode 

 across a drab-coloured biUiard table whereon was not a 

 blade of grass, a bird, an insect or a mound. It was as if 

 we were at the end of the world and the round horizon the 

 edge off which we should presently fall! The only objects 

 that marred the extraordinary monotony were a few 

 scattered skeletons of camels which had died at the end of 

 a long march from Kufara or Taiserbo. Occasionally a 

 bleached thighbone had been stuck upright in the sand 

 to mark the direction. 



It was a cool, bright day with a north-west wind. 

 Persistent neglect had practically cured my foot, so I 

 was able to walk for a couple of hours with Abdul Rahim. 

 He waxed enthusiastic over the exte«it of the Senussi 

 influence in Bornu, Senegal, the Sudan and Wadai, 

 giving me a list of the principal zawias. "Only in 

 Wadai there is none," he said, "for the Sultan said to 

 Sidi Ben Ali, 'We will alwaj^s be your friends and allies, 

 but if you build a zawia here the next thing you will do 

 will be to come and conquer us!' " The commandant 

 was in a loquacious mood and reminiscences flowed from 

 his lips. It was he who had been sent by Sidi Ahmed to 

 kill Mukhtar, the Senussi officer in the pay of Turkey, 

 who had attacked Bomba in Egj^ptian territory without 

 direct orders from his master. He was at Jaghabub when 



