appetite, for he ate as much as all the rest of us put
together.
As soon as we had satisfied our hunger, what
little remained of the couscous was handed over to
the slaves, who squatted round it in the far corner
of the room and very soon cleared the platter. I
did not grudge it them, for they were a miserable-
looking set, who seemed badly in want of a good
square meal. Our host was not the sort of man to be
over liberal to his dependants.
The inevitable coffee was then produced, and
after I had given our host a cigarette, which in spite
of his saintship he eagerly accepted, he became more
offensively affable and facetious than before.
Hamid was suffering from a cold in his head.
To alleviate this I, to his great delight, presented
him with a menthol inhaler. This was looked upon
as a great mystery. It was handed round from one
to another, and everyone took a pull at it, and started
in surprise at the result.
My compass, watch, revolver, and camera were
then produced and handed round for inspection.
I had been for some time trying in my very best
Arabic to explain to Hamid the working of my
camera, and was failing very badly to make him
understand, when suddenly our host, feeling perhaps
that his company was not as much appreciated as
it might have been, wished us a gruff good-night,
and waddled off sulkily to his bed. We were all glad
when he had gone.
After sitting up talking far into the night, Hamid
rose, and, opening a. door behind us, showed me into
a long, narrow room, some eight feet by thirty,
which he told me was to be my bed-room.
The room appeared to be a store-room. Pieces
of stick had been driven into the walls to act as
pegs, and on these hung a varied assortment of
articles, huge horse-pistols, goatskin bags filled with
dates and barley, while piles of rugs and bales of
carpets and cotton stuffs lay on the floor beside two
huge green wooden chests heavily strapped and
bound with iron. A pile of rugs had been placed at
the far end of the room intended for my use as
a bed, and on this I arranged my blankets and
pillow.
There was no window to the room, and as A'issa
insisted upon my closing the door while he and El
Haj slept across the threshold, I found it extremely
stuffy.
I was aroused betimes on the following morning.
The fat marabout did not put in an appearance to
see us off. He excused himself by stating that he
had a headache.
I sent the invalid a message of sympathy and
thanks for his hospitality (?), and after taking some
coffee with Hamid and arranging a meeting with
him on the following day at Wargla—an engagement
which with the forgetfulness of an Arab he, of
course, never kept—we loaded up the camels and
left.
The wind grew stronger as we proceeded, and as
part of our way lay over some small sand-dunes we
found the flying sand extremely trying. The Arabs
wrapped their haiks (head-cloths) like mufflers over