128 
THE WEATHER HATEETAH. 
Sunday, the 30th, was a cool day for the desert, 
yet sufficiently hot for me. We left Sharaba at a 
quarter past six in the morning, and made a good 
day of nine hours. These confounded Tuaricks will 
travel in the heat, and encamp in the cool. At three 
in the afternoon, just as the weather was becoming 
quite fresh and pleasant, we halted. The wind, 
occasionally strong, blew from the north-east, whilst 
our course lay south-west, across a broad valley. 
The sandy ground is covered with the tholukh-tree, 
which affords a grateful shade in the season. This 
valley is very broad here, only one side being visible 
at once to the eye. 
The Tuaricks are growing civil enough, and com- 
panionable. Luckily Hateetah and the son of Shafou 
do not drink coffee or tea — a saving. Hateetah, how- 
ever, is always begging ; he says he will go to Aheer, 
and appears to consider his escort indispensable. 
According to him, the Germans, who are pushing 
on ahead, run great danger. Yusuf tells me that 
he is, in reality, extremely angry with my companions 
for proceeding alone. He wishes, perhaps, to get a 
present from them too ; and swears that he knows 
nobody but Yakob (my desert name). They are not 
English, he says, but French. Besides, they have 
got twenty camel-loads of goods, which he will seize 
if they do not pay him something. Of course this 
is all harmless bluster, and means nothino:. He 
confesses that, being on Fezzanee ground, he has 
really no claim upon caravans at all ; but he is a 
