Goran, the black tribes of the neighborhood, suddenly appeared from the valley and were kept to dine with my men. No one had dreamed of their presence until they appeared. The mountain looked desolate and deserted, and one would not suspect that inside it lies a fertile valley which is inhabited. As a matter of fact, Arkenu is not inhabited all the year round. In the valley is good vegetation to which in the past Bedouins, Tebus, and Goran brought their camels during the grazing season. They closed the entrances to the valley with rocks and left the camels there unattended for three months.
“When they came to take them back,” said Mohammed, the guide, “they had as much fat on them as this.” He put his closed fists one on top of the other.
Wednesday, April 25. The Goran family in the valley brought a sheep, milk and samn, which is butter in a curious liquid state because of the heat, as diafa or hospitality. They also drove their sheep to the camp to be milked for the men of the caravan.
After luncheon I rode into Arkenu Valley with Zerwali and Bukara. It is a karkur, or narrow winding valley, extending some fifteen kilometers back into the mountains. There are grass, shrubs, and an occasional tree. We visited the Goran hut, where I took photographs of a girl and two boys of the family. The boys wore white robes, the sign of the sons of a sheikh. When I got back to camp, I sent presents of cloth, handkerchiefs, and rice for the three children.
It was a beautiful moonlight night. I decided to spend three days more at Arkenu because the grazing was good and the camels still seemed tired from their hard trek. My hejin was doing well. I picked up stones for geological specimens and aroused the suspicions of some of my men. They thought there was gold in what stones I picked up or else I would not take the trouble to carry them back home.
Thursday, April 26. At Arkenu. Highest temperature 36°; lowest 9°. Fine and clear, with very strong and hot southeast wind. Twice the wind blew the tents down. We sent the camels to be watered and to graze. It was a sweltering day, over 100° Fahrenheit in the tent, and only a little less in the shade outside. Making observations was difficult on account of the wind. I did not like to shelter myself behind the tent while making them for fear of arousing the inevitable curiosity and suspicion. The wind dropped in the evening, and we were repaid for a hot and scorching day by a beautifully cool evening with a fine moon. There was dancing and singing by Bukara and the other men until midnight.
Friday, April 27. Arkenu was the first of the two “lost” oases which it is my good fortune to place definitely on the map. There had long been a tradition that two oases existed close to the southwestern corner of Egypt. But the position that they had been conjecturally given on one or two maps was from thirty to one hundred and eighty kilometers out of place. No one had described them from an actual visit. My observations showed that Arkenu is situated in north latitude 20° 12′ 32″ and east longitude 24° 44′ 15″ and has an altitude of 598 meters at the foot of the mountain. It is thus well within the boundaries of Egypt.
The principal interest of this oasis, as of Ouenat, lies in the possibilities it offers for exploring the southwest corner of Egypt, which has until now been unreached either by military patrols or by travelers. No one has known with any certainty of water-supplies in that part of the desert which could be relied upon. The water at Arkenu is apparently unfailing and is drinkable, though not as wholesome for human beings as one could wish. Arkenu may conceivably prove to have strategic value at some future time, standing as it does almost precisely at the meeting-point of the western and southern boundaries of Egypt.
BIDIYAT BELLES