5^4 
THROUGH ASIA 
more caught a glimpse of the caravan. It had halted. 
The five camels were dead beat, and had thrown them- 
selves down. Old Mohammed Shah lay flat on his face 
on the sand, mumbling prayers and crying to Allah for 
help. Kasim sat in such shade as he could find behind 
one of the camels, and gasped for breath. He told me, 
the old man was completely done up, and unable to go 
another step. All the way, ever since they started, he 
had been delirious, raving about water the whole time. 
Islam Bai was a long way on ahead. We shouted to 
him to come back. He was now far the strongest of us 
all, and again proposed to hurry on on foot with the iron 
pitchers. He thought he could do thirty-five miles during 
the night. But when he saw the pitiable condition to 
which 1 was reduced, he abandoned the idea. After 
we had rested a while, Islam had another plan. He 
suggested we should seek a piece of firm ground, and use 
such strength as remained to us in digging a well. Mean- 
while he undertook to lead the caravan. The white camel 
was freed of his load, consisting of the two ammunition- 
chests, two European saddles, and a carpet. These things 
we intended to leave behind. Then, with great difficulty, 
Islam helping me, I scrambled on the white camel’s back. 
But the animal refused to get up. It now became clear to 
us all, that it was impossible to go on any longer groping 
our way in this fashion in the burning heat ; especially 
as Mohammed Shah was perfectly delirious, laughing to 
himself, weeping, babbling, playing with the sand, and 
letting it run between his fingers. He was absolutely 
unable to go any further, and we could not of course 
abandon him. 
We resolved therefore to remain where we were until 
the hottest part of the day was past ; and then continue 
our journey in the cool of the evening and during the 
night. We let the camels remain where they had thrown 
themselves down, but took off their loads. Islam and 
Kasim once more put up the tent, so that we might get 
a little shade in the inside of it. They spread our last 
carpet and a couple of felts on the ground, and rolled up 
