“But suppose something happens to your camel?” I asked.
“Protection comes from God,” was his quiet answer. I gave him rice, macaroni, tea, and sugar, and when we had said the “Fat-ha” he departed very happy.
The Bedouins were delighted with a great feast of rice and camel-flesh and went to bed in vast contentment. It was a beautiful night, and I left my tent and spent a few tranquil moments under the golden moon and the stars paled by her brighter light. Their serene cheerfulness and encouraging company sent me back to my bed, as always, with new hope and confidence.
This is the entry in my diary for the following day:
Sunday, March 25. Start at 7:45 A.M., halt at 1:45 P.M. Make 24 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 14°. Strong northeast wind all last night and until 4:30 to-day. Cloudy all the morning, no sun; a few drops of rain at midday. It clears in the afternoon. We walk all the way among little hillocks of dry hatab gradually increasing from a few inches to eight feet in height as we near the well. The hillocks are interspersed with patches of sand strewn with bits of black broken stone. The sand gets gradually softer until it is moist a few inches under the surface.
At 9:15 we sighted to the southwest about 3 kilometers away the sand-dunes of El Washka, a small well of the Zieghen group. At 9:30 we passed on our left Matan Bu Houh, the old well of Zieghen. We camped near the few date-trees that stand by the best well of the group, El Harrash.
APPROACHING THE HILLS OF ARKENU
The explorer’s caravan nearing the first oasis that he discovered seven days’ journey south of Kufra. The photograph was taken in the morning, and in the foreground is seen a ray of sunshine coming from beyond the hills.
In the desert a well does not mean a nicely excavated and stoned-up arrangement such as one finds in other parts of the world, with a bucket and windlass or a pump. In this part of the desert a well is a spot where the water is close to the surface and can be easily obtained by digging. It is just a damp patch of sand which the Bedouins scrape open with their hands, getting water at three or four feet down. Between the visits of caravans the sands drift over the place and choke the water-hole, so that each newcomer must clean it out for himself. But the joy of an ample supply of fresh water after days of having just enough for making tea, with no chance of a bath or even a shave, is sufficient reward for all the labor of digging out the well. If it has been a long journey the first thing to think of is the camels. After they have been watered and a good meal digested, washing is the most important item in the program. If the water is scarce, clothes have to wait until the next well, because the question of water for the trek has to be considered.