274 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



midday meal now consisted of dates and a handful of 

 "bucksumat," for we had been given a couple of bags 

 of these hard, unleavened biscuits, slightly sweetened 

 and flavoured with carraway seeds, by the kindly ekhwan 

 of Taj. In the evening we shared a tin of corned beef, 

 but, alas! our great support of the Taiserbo journey had 

 failed us, for the dates we had brought from Hawari 

 were too fresh and they stung our mouths, blistering 

 our gums and reducing us to agonies of thirst. The 

 water allowance was too small to allow of our drinking 

 except in the morning and the evening, so we had 

 reluctantly to discard om* dates. Yusuf insisted on 

 eating one only each day, because there is an Arab 

 proverb, "A date by the way or a young girl smiling 

 makes a fortunate journey." 



We started at 6.30 a.m. on February 3 and walked 

 till 7 P.M., when the whole party, men and camels alike, 

 sat down and groaned. It had been absolutely torrid, 

 without a breath of wind. The girbas began to look 

 distinctly thin and the clank of the water in the fanatis 

 showed that a good deal had evaporated. Unfortunately, 

 it had been very cold after the sandstorm the evening 

 before our departure from the Zakar well and the 

 camels had not drunk properly. Yusuf had made 

 gloomy prognostications most of the day and when we 

 came to a mound of sand, which had drifted over a few 

 old hawias thrown away by a former caravan, he poked 

 them viciously. "How many of our own shall we throw 

 in this way?" he asked of fate. 



There is no logic in desert weather. After middajr 

 heat we had a very cold night. I remember I ate my 

 chilly dinner with my gloves on and was not surprised 

 to find there was frost, when a sudden storm of shouts 

 and roars brought me rapidly out of my flea-bag and I 

 fell over the thermometer in the dark. The camels 



