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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



"the; last hour of my sojourn in the souf country was SPENT AMONG THIv 



TITANIC DUNES NEAR DEBILLA" 



which is allowed to hang at the back 

 when not needed as a head covering. 



Following the advice of the French 

 commandant at El Oiied, we lessened 

 the fatigue of the return journey to the 

 Jerid by spending a night at Debilla, an 

 outlying village of the Souf . The young 

 sheikh of Debilla rode with us as far as 

 his bailiwick. He was an exceptionally 

 intelligent and fine-looking Arab. His 

 costume, which did full justice to his 

 handsome face and figure, consisted of a 

 richly embroidered white silk haik and 

 a snowy burnous of the finest wool. 

 Mounted on a superb gray horse that 



seemed proudly conscious of the red and 

 gilt of its trappings, he realized to the 

 full the gallant cavalier of the desert 

 who figures in the dreams of every 

 school-boy reader of "The Talisman." 



The last daylight hour of my sojourn 

 in the Souf country was fittingly spent 

 among the titanic dunes near Debilla — 

 huge masses of pure sand, without stick 

 or stone to mar their spotless surface. 

 As the rays of the declining sun fell 

 upon them, one could fancy that a sea 

 of molten gold, lashed into fury by a 

 hurricane, had been cooled and fixed be- 

 fore the billows subsided. 



