Our mysterious fellow-traveller continued with
us until we halted, and then expressed the intention
of camping with us for the night.
After a time he became more communicative,
and we discovered that we had been entertaining an
angel—or, at any rate, a saint—unawares. He was a
marabout (saint), Hamid by name, the son of one of
the big Tunisian saints. He was travelling down to
N’goussa to inspect a palm plantation which had
just been presented to the zawia (monastery) of
which his father was the head.
He was journeying in the true Biblical manner,
relying entirely upon his saint-ship to find him lodging
and the means of proceeding upon his way. His
mule and the blunderbuss which he carried for protection
had been lent him by a man at Tougourt;
his food had been given him by another man,
and he was relying upon a fellow-saint at N’goussa
to find him in food and lodging during his stay
there.
On finding that he was a marabout my Arabs
became at once unusually devout, and joined him in
his prayers and chanting.
That was a scene to remember ! The night was
wonderfully still, and, except when a faint breeze off
the desert rustled softly in the scrub, not a breath
was stirring. The blazing camp-fire, with the
camels kneeling round it, the mule, relieved of his
saddle, rolling luxuriously in the sand, the Arabs
seated round the fire engaged in their deep, solemn
chanting, and overhead the dark velvety blue of the
sky thickly studded with brilliant silver stars, all
go to make up a picture which it is difficult to
forget.
The next day was one of the hottest that we
experienced. But the morning was as cold as ever.
At six o’clock we all stood shivering and trying to
warm ourselves round a huge fire, while the keen,
searching desert wind swept over the country,
making the flames roar like a furnace.
I started in the morning as usual in an ulster,
muffler, thick woollen jersey, and corduroy waistcoat.
About seven o’clock the muffler came off.
An hour later the ulster was removed. Then at
intervals, as the day grew warmer, followed the
other garments, until at eleven o’clock it grew so
hot that, having removed all that decency would
allow, I began, like Sydney Smith, to wish that I
could get out of my flesh and walk in my bones.
Hamid travelled with us all the morning, and,
when we had become more friendly, invited me to
stay with him at the house of his friend the marabout
at N’goussa.
It was a rather informal invitation ; but as Aissa
assured me that coming from a Mohammedan saint
it was quite en regie I accepted.
Hamid accordingly went on ahead with his mule
to prepare his fellow-saint for our reception, leaving
us to follow more slowly with the camels.
Nightfall found us in a densely bushed country
still many miles from our destination. The surface
of the desert had changed, and we and our tired
camels had to plough our way along over the softest
sand. To make matters still worse the weather,