As soon as the camp was pitched, the men rushed up the hill and began minutely searching every nook and cranny for the reported well, while Qwaytin wandered disconsolately along its base, vainly searching for the broken glass that his book had foretold would be found there. He thought that perhaps he had mistaken the hill, and said, if we could not find the well or any glass, that we had better follow the road farther, to see if there was not another hill upon it that might be the one referred to in his book; but to waste any more time in looking for that hill was the last thing I intended to do.
By sunset the well had not been found, though every inch of that hill must have been most carefully examined several times.
This was a serious blow to Qwaytin’s hopes, and a distinct wet blanket to the whole caravan with the exception of Ibrahim, who, as he explained to me, would not have minded a little bakhshish, but would not in the least know what to do with sacks of gold, or diamonds, even if he found them.
In the evening Qwaytin, Abd er Rahman, Dahab and I held a serious consultation. The position of the hill tallied so well with the description of it in Qwaytin’s book that he felt sure that it was the right one; but he was terribly worried over the failure to find the well.
Dahab said that he thought that probably it was there all right, but that it was hidden by enchantment, and that it would be necessary for us to burn some incense before it would become visible.
Qwaytin cheered up rather at this idea; but said that we had no incense with us, and added it was awkward stuff to play with, as it was most important that we should have the right kind, and should be quite sure that we knew how to use it.
Abd er Rahman agreed with this, and was very emphatic in saying that we ought to be quite sure that we had enough of it, as he had heard a story of a Maghrabi Arab, who had joined with two fellahin in a search for treasure that was buried in some tombs in the side of a hill that had a spell over them, and so could not be opened without proper formalities. They found the place where the tombs were hidden, and then had gone through the necessary incantations and burnt some incense and the tombs immediately opened. The two fellahin had then gone in to collect the treasure while the Maghrabi had remained outside to look after their camels and to keep the incense burning. Unfortunately the incense ran short, and, as soon as the last of it had been burnt, the tombs closed again with a bang, burying the two unfortunate fellahin alive. The Maghrabi had then gone home with their camels, and Abd er Rahman was clearly of opinion that that Arab had done something that was quite exceptionally clever.
He suggested that, to be on the safe side, we had better go and fetch Sheykh Ibrahim, the Sheykh el Afrit from Dakhla, to come out and do the necessary incantations. But this did not meet with Qwaytin’s approval at all. Sheykh Ibrahim, he said, was a member of the Senussia and he knew all about him. He had the right books and the proper incense and was very clever at his work. But he was such a bad man that sometimes the spirits would not obey him; and he pointed out that if an afrit went on strike in the middle of the performance, we might find ourselves rather badly in the soup.
After much serious discussion, we came to the conclusion that, in the circumstances, it was no use for us to waste any more time in examining the hill, but that at the end of the trip we would go and get a really first-class highly certificated magician from Cairo, or some big town, and get him to come out and do the job. In the meantime, as Qwaytin had told me that there were some mounds in the Kairowin hattia, that we should go there through the eastern part of the Farafra depression and see if they did not contain treasure. Qwaytin had heard that they contained buildings, and so thought that it would be a likely place for buried riches, though, as he said lugubriously, he did not expect that we should find anything like what we might have done if we had discovered the treasure of those three Sultans. The following morning a rather crestfallen caravan set out for the eastern side of Farafra.