ON A WATERLESS WAY 133 



thought everyone would be extremely thirsty by the 

 seventh day. We ourselves drank one cup of hot coffee 

 in the morning and two cups of cold tea or water at 

 night. We camped that day at 6.10 p.m. 



December 30 we started at 7 a.m. and camped at 

 6.35 P.M. It was a terribly hot day and the camels were 

 nearly as crocked as the men. One had cut a foot, and 

 another had a raw shoulder. Two had bad sore backs, so 

 their loads had to be divided among the others. In spite 

 of this some of the soldiers had to be allowed to ride, for 

 their feet were badly swollen. The country had changed 

 slightly, for faint waves of sand had marked the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Wadi Farig, but the flatness of the disk 

 was now unimpaired, though its yellow monotony was 

 broken by patches of dark gravel. This gave the mirage 

 a chance to build ebony hills and islands amidst its blue, 

 shifting waves. 



December 31 we started at 6.30 a.m. and walked 

 till 7 p.M.^ doing 46 kilometres, because the situation 

 had suddenly become very serious. The previous day 

 Abdullah had surprised us by insisting on a slightly 

 south-easterly course, as he had not yet seen a small 

 landmark on the Zieghen route. When we had talked 

 the matter over in Jalo he had assured us calmly and 

 strongly that he had been to Taiserbo and knew the 

 route. We had cross-questioned him severely, and 

 always he had been confident of being able to guide us 

 to any of the southern oases, though he had urged us 

 not to go to Buseima on account of the danger of being 

 attacked. 



Now according to our map it was 350 kilometres from 

 Buttafal to Taiserbo. It was generally stated by the 

 Arabs to be a seven days' journey, which was a daily 

 march of eleven to twelve hours at an average of four 

 and a fraction kilometres an hour. Therefore, in spite 



