Wady Aroukeen is in every respect a desirable place for the resting-place of a caravan. It is full of trees and hasheesh, and lined with lofty precipitous rocks, which afford shelter in winter and in summer, and, as say the Scriptures, give "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." The well dug by the Tanelkums supplies very palatable water. It lies about an hour and a-half from our encampment.
I sent off my Soudanese servant this morning to the Tanelkums, to ask them to wait for us; or at least leave the things behind which I require for our use.
Yesterday evening the new moon (second evening) was seen by our people, telling them that the Ramadhan was finished. They saluted the pale crescent horn with some discharges of their guns.
To-day is a great feast, but they have not the means of keeping it.
I cannot say that at this portion of my journey my mind is visited by much cheerfulness. However agreeable may be the valley of Aroukeen, with its grass patches, its clumps of trees, and the eternal shadow of its rocks, I find my strength begin, to a certain extent, to fail me. For several days I have had some threatening symptoms of ill-health; not very serious, perhaps, to a person surrounded with any of the comforts of civilisation, but much so to one in my position. Besides, despite my endeavours to disbelieve the dangers with which we are said to be menaced from lawless freebooters, it is difficult to disregard them so far as to remain perfectly impassive.
My Kailouee friends do not seem to share our apprehensions. Sometimes this circumstance cheers me; at others it suggests the idea that they may be in league with their brethren. Let us hope not. At any rate I am still displeased with them on account of their shabby conduct, and disposed, perhaps, to look at them more unfavourably than they deserve.
A man came over the hills to our right in the course of the day. He belonged to the Soudan caravan, the great body of which was passing at no great distance by another road. Our presence does not seem to be agreeable to such of these people as derive no profit from it. This individual, in his own name and that of his companions, insists that we Christians must not be allowed to enter the City of Marabouts, the Holy City of Aheer. Many Musulman countries of the interior have their holy cities. Perhaps this worthy man made these observations because he had nothing else to say. At any rate, having expressed his opinion, he went off. I regretted his churlish warning; but his presence, to a certain extent, cheered me. It was pleasant to know that a large body of my fellow-creatures were near at hand in this inhospitable desert, even though they entertained feelings of suspicion against us, and were proceeding on a path which might never again bring us together. Caravans often pass thus in these regions, like ships at sea, which hail each other if within hearing, but, not lying-to, are satisfied by this slight testimony of mutual sympathy.
11th.—We started somewhat late, and made a good day of nine hours and a-half through winding narrow valleys, supplying a fair quantity of hasheesh. The country around was wild and rugged—still the same primitive formation, gneiss being the most common rock. On the way we heard the story of the origin of the Kailouees, as given by the Haghar Tuaricks; it is probably meant as a satire. According to this people, a female slave escaped from their country, and travelling over the desert, reached her native place in Soudan. But she bore within her bosom a pledge that still half bound her to her ancient masters. She brought forth a male child, and loved him and reared him; so that in process of time he took a wife, and from this union sprung the bastard race of Kailouees.
12th.—We had halted the previous evening because we were within an hour of the well of Tajetterat, which had become famous in our caravan as the place where we were to be attacked and despoiled by the freebooter Sidi Jafel Waled Sakertaf. This morning we pursued our way, cautiously sending scouts before. But as the wady opened, the place proved to be desolate, and we advanced joyously, with the confidence that this time at least we had been disturbed by a false alarm. Still, as we descended towards the well we could not now and then refrain from casting our glances about into the gorges of the mountains, to discover whether or not, after all, our enemies were lying in ambush there. Not a living thing stirred upon the hills; and we gathered round the two wells, or rather holes scraped out of the sand, with feelings of delight and confidence. The water proved to be good; it is said to be produced by rain, and to be purgative,—a quality it must derive from the soil through which it trickles. We determined, however, not to stop at this place, lest the men of Janet[7] might after all arrive; and pushing on, in hopes that our track might be confounded with those of the caravans, we reached, after a rapid march of five hours and a-half, the well of Esalan. As we approached, we saw an encampment in its neighbourhood, and camels grazing about. Our vanguard halted; and the whole caravan soon became massed in the entrance of the gorge through which we were about to issue. Our far-sighted guards, however, soon discovered that there was no cause for alarm. We had at length overtaken our Tanelkum friends; and riding forward I greeted them, and, forgetting all idea of danger, anxiously asked for our baggage, and above all for my inestimable supply of potted soups!
In this part of the country the scenery is far more open than it was before; the mountains are lower, but the wadys are not so wide. Here and there occurred considerable patches of herbage, called sabot, and many large, fine trees. Amongst the smaller ones, for the first time, we came upon the senna plant, some of the leaves of which our people plucked. Higher up, in Aheer, is apparently the native soil of this plant. We had also again the adwa, several trees, and the kaiou or kremka, the only plant we have yet seen with a truly tropical aspect.