Bu Helega’s camels had been taken to near-by grazing grounds for this course of preparation, and on the appointed day for their return they did not appear. The next day I wondered about them, the second day I was concerned, and the day after worried, lest, when taken from grazing, the beasts might have run away. However, they had not done so. They put in their appearance on the fourth day, and when they came they were in excellent condition.
TEBU GIRL WEARING BEDOUIN CLOTHES
A TEBU WITH HIS CAMEL
I hired thirty-five camels, paying a high price for them. I could have bought the beasts outright for from twelve to eighteen pounds, while Bu Helega demanded thirteen and a half pounds for their hire for the two or three months’ journey to Abeshe in Wadai. But it was better so. If I had owned the camels myself the responsibility for their welfare would have been all mine. It would have been my men who had them in charge, with no motive beyond the general one of loyalty to the leader and the job for carrying the camels through in good condition. But when Bu Helega’s men went along with his own animals they were sure to have the best of care. During the trek to Kufra he kept his eye expertly on each one of them. If a camel weakened or seemed ill, he shifted loads to meet the emergency. He did everything to keep them fit to the journey’s end, and his care of them was worth to me all that it cost.
In addition to camels I needed more men. The four who had been hired in Cairo, Sollum, and Siwa were still with me: Abdullahi, Ahmed, Hamad, and Ismail. I now added five more: Zerwali; Senussi Bu Hassan, the guide; Sad, who came from Aujila; Hamid; and Faraj, a slave. Bu Helega had with him his son and two camelmen. The list was supplemented at the last by five Tebus, nomadic blacks from Tibesti, a region northwest of Wadai. Abdullahi and Zerwali were the two headmen of the caravan. The former was in command of the luggage and the commissariat, while Zerwali was in charge of the camels and the men. They were the best companions that any man could have on a desert trek.
We needed clothing, certain articles of food, and shoes, especially the last. The heelless Bedouin slipper is the only possible wear for the desert, but it will wear out, and it often has to be repaired on the way. It was necessary to be sure that each of us had not only shoes but the leather that we should need for patching them until we reached Kufra.
At Jalo I found a famous shoemaker, Hemaida, whom I had met at Kufra two years before. I had with me the very shoes that he had made for me then, with soles badly in need of patching. Great was his delight when I took them to him for his ministrations. He was a venerable-looking personage, whom it would have been easy to take for a judge or a member of the council at least. He came to my house day after day to work on the five pairs of shoes he made for me, on the making of shoes for my men, and on the repairing of our saddles and other leather accoutrement. It was a pleasure to give him a meal and then to invite him to a friendly glass of tea. One day he was coughing as the tea was brought, and I expressed sympathy for his ailment. He looked at me across his glass of tea and answered in his quiet voice: “But your tea always stops my cough, Sidi El Bey. Not other tea, but yours always does.” I did not ignore the hint so gracefully given. Hemaida received his little packet of the miraculous tea as a present before we left Jalo.
Besides my shoes and the leather, I bought cloth for clothing for my men, butter, oil, barley, fire-wood, and eight girbas. Ali Kaja, who was the favorite slave of Sayed Idris and had been made by him his trusted personal wakil in Jalo, told me that his master had directed him to put all his store of supplies of every kind at my disposal. I thanked him but did not avail myself of the offer. I had just come from Egypt, well equipped, and I knew how much these stores meant to those who lived in this isolated spot.