THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS 261 



of the well at Jaghabub," I suggested. "Insha-allali !'* 

 replied Yusuf devoutly. 



We found a delightfully sheltered spot between two 

 hills that night, so did not trouble to build a zariba. 

 The thermometer registered a frost, but I think it had 

 been affected by the mental atmosphere of the previous 

 night because we did not feel very cold. I remember I 

 drank so much coffee that I could not sleep, so I did not 

 mind when the Beduins insisted on making a fire three 

 hours before dawn and cooking their "asida," a sticky 

 mass of damp flour flavoured with onions and zeit (oil). 

 We must have been particularly inexpert with the loading 

 for, in spite of this early breakfast, we started only just 

 before sunrise. The new grey camel lay doAvn almost at 

 once, for he had not recovered from his greed. We had to 

 divide his girbas among the others, for water is needed 

 to harden the sand when digging the Zakar well. We 

 watched the caravan anxiously as, leaving the second 

 mass of the Hawaish hills, it crossed a rolling expanse of 

 great flat slabs of stone, broken and slippery. How- 

 ever, it toiled slowly but safely across them and about 

 10 A.M. we were moving in sparkling white sand, blind- 

 ing, dazzlingly clean in the hot sun. There was prac- 

 tically no wind for once, and Yusuf actually discarded 

 his overcoat after he had climbed a mound to point out 

 a square, solid, black gara among surromiding stony 

 gherds. "Near that is the well," he announced. "We 

 shall be there in one hour or perhaps four." As a 

 matter of fact we saw the two tufts of palm scrub that 

 mark the Zakar well at noon and they looked scarcely 

 a stone's throw away among sands white as snow, but 

 we only reached them two hours later. 



The last caravan that passed must have suffered 

 severely en route, for there were bits of broken baggage 

 among scattered camel skeletons. Yusuf wished to 



