ACROSS THE WATERLESS BAUD 
255 
ably. This was a bad start for the long day before us. 
Soon after reaching the caravan track, one of the camels 
fell down. Its load was taken off and transferred to another 
animal, when it got up and walked another mile or so, and 
then fell down again and utterly refused to get up. I shot 
the poor, worn-out beast and marched on. Ten camels 
dead since leaving Berbera 1 We had not proceeded much 
further when we came to a sharp rise in the ground, covered 
with loose stones. Here the donkey lay down, and could 
not be persuaded to get up again. I put the merciful 
bullet, which ends all pain and trouble, into the poor 
brute’s brain ! What that animal had suffered since leaving 
the Marehan country no one could tell. On and on we 
marched, until we at length reached some green grass, 
where we camped. A native came up and said, in perfect 
English : 
‘ Do you wish to buy some sheep V 
At last we had come among a comparatively civilized 
people. I told him I had just bought twenty sheep at 
Edegan. 
At 2 p.m. we started on our eleventh and last march 
across the waterless Hand, and a very long march it proved 
to be. On the way we passed many villages, people and 
flocks, and encountered Sultan Nur, who promised we 
should water all our camels and fill up the vessels before 
anyone else. This was indeed lucky, as we found a great 
deal of quarrelling going on at the well, as usual, later on. 
A nice cool wind blew from the Gulis Bange across this 
plain, but, as we neared the tug (river bed), the dust got 
thicker and thicker, until it became almost unbearable. 
At sunset we had not reached water, and my herd of 
sheep were now miles behind the caravan. It was lucky 
such a well-defined track had been made to the ‘tug,^ other- 
wise we must have lost our way in the utter darkness. At 
last we saw fires ahead, and going down a bank, we reached 
water. We crossed the tug. In the centre two or three 
wells had been dug, round which a number of natives were 
