Once during this passage my Arabs lost their way among the hills of
loose sand that surrounded us, but after a while we were lucky
enough to recover our right line of march. The same day we fell in
with a Sheik, the head of a family, that actually dwells at no
great distance from this part of the Desert during nine months of
the year. The man carried a matchlock, of which he was very proud.
We stopped and sat down and rested awhile for the sake of a little
talk. There was much that I should have liked to ask this man, but
he could not understand Dthemetri's language, and the process of
getting at his knowledge by double interpretation through my Arabs
was unsatisfactory. I discovered, however (and my Arabs knew of
that fact), that this man and his family lived habitually for nine
months of the year without touching or seeing either bread or
water. The stunted shrub growing at intervals through the sand in
this part of the Desert enables the camel mares to yield a little
milk, which furnishes the sole food and drink of their owner and
his people. During the other three months (the hottest of the
months, I suppose) even this resource fails, and then the Sheik and
his people are forced to pass into another district. You would ask
me why the man should not remain always in that district which
supplies him with water during three months of the year, but I
don't know enough of Arab politics to answer the question. The
Sheik was not a good specimen of the effect produced by the diet to
which he is subjected. He was very small, very spare, and sadly
shrivelled, a poor, over-roasted snipe, a mere cinder of a man. I
made him sit down by my side, and gave him a piece of bread and a
cup of water from out of my goat-skins. This was not very tempting
drink to look at, for it had become turbid, and was deeply reddened
by some colouring matter contained in the skins, but it kept its
sweetness, and tasted like a strong decoction of russia leather.
The Sheik sipped this, drop by drop, with ineffable relish, and
rolled his eyes solemnly round between every draught, as though the
drink were the drink of the Prophet, and had come from the seventh
heaven.
An inquiry about distances led to the discovery that this Sheik had
never heard of the division of time into hours; my Arabs
themselves, I think, were rather surprised at this.
About this part of my journey I saw the likeness of a fresh-water
lake. I saw, as it seemed, a broad sheet of calm water, that
stretched far and fair towards the south, stretching deep into
winding creeks, and hemmed in by jutting promontories, and shelving
smooth off towards the shallow side. On its bosom the reflected
fire of the sun lay playing, and seeming to float upon waters deep
and still.
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