TREACHERY AT HAWARI 179 



wore straight, dark red tobhs, unbelted, so they made 

 an attractive group under a large thorn-tree between high 

 sand walls. One and all they asked for medicine, and 

 when I returned to my fly-filled tent a group gradually 

 gathered outside with various tales of woe. The most 

 important entered and sat uncomfortably on my folding 

 bed, from which they soon slipped thankfully to their 

 accustomed crouched-up position on the sand. My treat- 

 ments were simple, consisting chiefly of boracic powder 

 and quinine, but the recipients tied the pills carefully into 

 corners of their barracans and departed with blessings. 



Suddenly a blaze of colour obstructed the view beyond 

 my tent flap. The smallest of the grey donkeys, almost 

 covered with a gorgeous striped mat of reds and blues, 

 and still further obscured by the voluminous draperies of 

 a small, huddled figure in the vividest scarlet I have ever 

 seen, was led up by a tiny urchin in a tattered white 

 shirt, while another beat from behind. "The mother of 

 Sheikh Musa has come to visit you," announced one of 

 the Farrajes. The flaming folds disengaged themselves, 

 trailed into the tent and crumbled into a red heap on 

 the sand, from which emerged the oldest, frailest Arab 

 woman I have ever met. She was bent and wrinkled 

 beyond behef, toothless and almost blind, yet she carried 

 on an interested conversation about the Sayeds and finally 

 offered me a Moslem rosary blessed by Sidi el Mahdi. 



As the heat was terrific I was glad when the visit 

 came to an end and only wished we had fixed our 

 departure for that afternoon instead of for the next 

 morning. Hassanein suggested our wandering down to 

 the other end of the oasis where there is another small 

 village, Hawawiri. We borrowed a donkey from the 

 reluctant sheikh el-zawia, who told us we should be killed 

 before we were out of sight of the belad, and caUed for 

 a guide to show us the way. At that moment there were 



