The eastern group of oases in Dakhla, in addition to the villages of Tenida and Belat, includes a number of ezbas (farms or hamlets), each consisting of a well or two with the surrounding palm plantations and cultivation and a few houses. Generally the whole ezba is owned by one individual, or at any rate by a single family.

In addition to a number of ezbas, the western group contains the following small towns and villages: Smint, Masara, Mut, Hindau, Qalamun, Gedida, Mushia, Rashida, Budkhulu and Qasr Dakhl—the last lying in the extreme north-west of the group, close under the shelter of the scarp. These villages vary greatly in size. Qasr Dakhl, the largest, with the ezbas that go with it, being estimated in 1898 to have a population of 3,758, with 3,428 feddans (acres) of cultivated land and 49,758 palm trees. Budkhulu, the smallest village, with its dependencies, had a population of 583, with 893 feddans of land under cultivation and 12,302 palms.

In addition to date palms a considerable number of other fruit trees are cultivated—oranges, tangerines, lemons, sweet lemons, limes, figs, mulberries, bananas, olives and almonds being planted under the shade of the palms. About one-fourteenth of the cultivated land is under fruit trees—principally palms—the remainder being devoted to field crops, chiefly wheat, barley, rice, clover and vegetables. Similar fruit trees and field crops are grown in Kharga.

Goats, sheep, donkeys, cattle and a few horses are kept in addition to pigeons, fowls, a few rabbits and a considerable number of turkeys. The cattle of the oases are a rather noted breed, not unlike our Channel Islanders in appearance. Buffaloes are either few, or non-existent. Camels—with the exception of about half a dozen owned by the Senussi zawias (monasteries) and used by the sheykhs in their visits to their headquarters in Kufara—are not kept permanently in Dakhla oases, as a fly makes its appearance in the spring whose bite is as fatal to these beasts as the tsetse fly is to horses in other parts of Africa. During the winter months, however, large herds of camels are sent by the bedawin of the Nile Valley to pasture in the scrub-covered areas lying on the eastern and southern sides of the oasis; but these are removed before the camel-fly appears in the spring.

Practically the whole population of the oasis is engaged in the cultivation of the land. The only manufactures of which the oasis can boast are the making of a little rough pottery and a few baskets. The women also spin small quantities of wool by means of a primitive hand distaff and spindle, and embroider their robes with the thread they produce. A small quantity of oil is also extracted from the olives, and, I believe, occasionally exported to the Nile Valley.

The buildings and villages closely resemble those in Kharga Oasis, though owing to the more wealthy character of the inhabitants the houses are frequently on a larger scale; but, as in the case of Kharga, the dwellings of the poorer natives are little better than hovels. Many of the villages are surrounded by a series of small walled-in yards into which the cattle are driven at night, and which play the part generally of farm buildings in other countries.

In some of the villages—notably Mushia, Gedida and Qalamun, which lie on the western side of the oasis, on the edge of the dune belt—the sand hills and drift sand are encroaching on the cultivation, burying the palm groves, swamping the wells and doing an immense amount of damage.

Though the depression to the north of Dakhla, in which the oasis of Farafra lies, is far larger than those in which Kharga, Dakhla and Bahariya are situated, Farafra is a miserable little place containing only about twenty wells all told, with only two oases permanently inhabited. Of these, Qasr Farafra, the larger, has a population of only about 550; while the smaller—’Ain Sheykh Murzuk—contains only one or two houses and a small Senussi zawia, the number of inhabitants probably not much exceeding twenty. At the time of my visit practically all the natives of this oasis were affiliated to the Senussia—and a most surly unpleasant lot they were.

Baharia, the next oasis to the north, is said to be of similar type to Kharga and Dakhla; but I did not visit it. It is peculiar owing to the large number of small isolated rocky hills to be seen scattered about the floor of the depression. Neither did I visit the oasis of Siwa, still farther north in the Wady el Fardy. It has, however, been frequently described.

NOTE