While we were making the circuit of the camp,
and inspecting all that we were permitted to see, I
managed, by getting Aissa to stand in front of my
camera and to step aside just as I made the exposure,
to procure a few snapshots without attracting
the attention of my hosts. One of them, however,
hearing the clicking noise that my camera made as
I reeled up the film, inquired suspiciously of Aissa
what I was doing.
My guide was quite equal to the occasion. He
was an Arab, and consequently never hesitated, if he
considered it necessary to do so, to lie like a company
promoter. Fearing that there might be some unpleasantness
if the Tawareks realised that I had
been taking their portraits without their permission,
he gravely informed them that my camera was a
machine for telling the time, and that occasionally
it had to be wound up to prevent it from stopping !
This put me in a most uncomfortable position.
The Tawareks said they had all heard of such
machines, but they had none of them ever seen
one, and they were very anxious to have the working
of them explained. They asked me to allow them
to inspect my camera.
That was the drawback to Aissa. He was an
experienced and most careful guide, but he was an
inveterate and most careless liar. He had several
times before got me into minor difficulties in this
way, and while attempting to get me out of a scrape
had landed me fairly on the horns of a dilemma, and
left me, having completely lost his own head as soon
as he felt that he was cornered, in the unpleasant