A HOT WIND THE ETHEL. 
33 
First lie fell out with the servant of the Germans, 
Mahonnimed of Tunis. Then he quarrelled with us 
all, because he picked up a blanket for somebody 
and was refused his modest demand of three piastres 
as a reward. We are heartily glad that he is tamed 
for awhile. 
On the 12th, shortly after we started, I hap- 
pened to look behind and saw, coming from the 
west, some clouds that seemed to give promise of 
rain. Already I felt the air cooled by anticipation, 
but was soon undeceived. In the course of an hour 
a ghebiee began to blow, and continued to increase 
in violence until it enervated the whole caravan. 
Our poor black women began to drop with fatigue, 
and we v/ere compelled to place them on the camels. 
Here was a foretaste of the desert, its hardships 
and its terrors ! The air was full of haze, through 
which we could scarcely see the flagging camels, 
with their huge burdens ; and the men, as they 
cravvled along, were apparently ready to sink on the 
ground in despair. We breathed the hot atmo- 
sphere with difficulty and displeasure. 
Right glad were we then, at length, to reach the 
Wady Taghijah^ where I at once recognised my old 
desert friend, under whose spreading and heavy 
boughs I once had passed a night alone in the 
Sahara, — the eth el-tree ! It is a species of Pinus, 
growing chiefly in valleys of red clay on the top 
of mounds, which are sometimes overshadowed by 
a gigantic tree, with arms measuring four feet in 
VOL. I. D 
