CHAPTER XII 



THE FLIGHT FROM TAJ 



THEREAFTER we settled down for a day or two 

 to the reserved and placid life of Taj. We got 

 up shortly after sunrise and while there was yet 

 no sign of movement among the dark, discreet walls we 

 wandered miles along the cliffs, trying to get the exact 

 positions of the various oases and villages. The latter 

 are almost invisible in some lights, as they are made of 

 the sand and stones amidst which they stand. We 

 found that the wadi narrowed to a strip to the north- 

 east beyond Boema, while to the west it widened out 

 into a wide expanse of hattab, high mounds covered 

 with sticks and leafless bushes. To the south-west these 

 hillocks rose from twelve to twenty feet and then 

 beyond Tolab, which was too far away to be seen from 

 our chffs, the hattab gradually merged into the flat 

 desert. 



One morning we explored the whole of the salt 

 marsh, from whose hard, grey, stony matter the Tebus 

 had built their houses. We found the remains of a 

 whole village, though some of the houses were but broken 

 circles on the ground. The main fort had one chamber 

 sixteen feet in diameter and the highest bit of wall 

 existing measured eleven feet, but round it was a 

 crumbled mass of walls and smaller rooms, or separate 

 buildings perhaps, as each was neatly finished off with 

 perfectly rounded surface, like the damp clay pots one 

 sees made on a rotary wheel. I think the Tebus must 



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