THE FLIGHT FROM TAJ 243 



said with polite despair. We decided not to purchase it 

 and were rewarded at the last moment by the production 

 by a Tebu of a really magnificent camel, half hejin and 

 half beast of burden. Its price was very high, two 

 hundred mejidies, but we did not even wait to bargain. 

 It was too necessary to us. We hated letting it go out 

 of our sight for a moment, but its master insisted that 

 we could not have it till the following day and we were 

 obhged to let the caravan start without it. 



This time the flight was well arranged, though it was 

 precipitated by another of Abdullah's darts. We learned 

 that he had been spreading far and wide a story that the 

 venerated Sidi Ahmed el Rifi, teacher and adviser of 

 the Mahdi, had prophesied disaster to any stranger who 

 travelled on the Jaghabub route. "It is a sacred road 

 between our two holy places," he had said. "It is for 

 the Sayeds and their followers only. Nobody else may 

 go safely by it!" Whether the sajang had other origin 

 than the twisted brain of Abdullah we did not know, 

 but it might have a distressing effect on the easily roused 

 fanaticism of the retinue. We therefore hurried the 

 small caravan off early one morning with the nominal 

 destination of Hawari, because there was a certain amount 

 of grazing in the neighbourhood and it would be natural 

 for the camels to rest there for a week or ten days before 

 starting for Jaghabub. As a matter of fact they skirted 

 the village and main oasis and camped in an isolated palm 

 grove some miles farther on where their presence was 

 Httle likely to be suspected. 



Next day we made obvious preparations for a tour 

 in the wadi and then, just after sunset, while all the 

 devout inhabitants of Taj were occupied with their 

 prayers, we slipped out of our discreet little door, 

 wandered carelessly round a projecting wall and found 

 two camels ready saddled in charge of a plaintive Yusuf, 



