at the back of the neck, and transferred it into his
bag with the others.
During the course of the second day of our
journey from Biskra, we passed a little oasis called
Shegga, where the track from El Wad, by which
we were subsequently to return, joins the Biskra-
Tougourt road.
Here my guide found some of the camel herdsmen
of his tribe who had come in from their grazing-
ground, some ten or twelve miles away in the desert
to the west, to water their herds at the Shegga well.
It is to these men that the owners of camels in
oases like Biskra confide the charge of their beasts
when they are not using them on some expedition.
For each camel under his charge the herdsman
receives about seven francs per annum. He gets,
besides, occasional presents of dates, grain, and so
forth, from the owners of his charges. This does
not, at first sight, appear to be a very large remuneration
for the trouble entailed in the care of a camel;
but an Arab who is fortunate enough to gain a good
reputation as a herdsman will sometimes have as
many as a thousand camels under his charge, and
these would bring in an income which, for a nomadic
Arab, would be very large indeed.
The salutations which pass between Arabs of
different degrees of intimacy are very sharply distinguished.
Mere acquaintances when they meet
simply touch each others’ right hands and then kiss
their own forefingers. More intimate friends kiss
each others’ hands before kissing their own. An
inferior Arab when he meets a Raid, or other native
D 2