The lost oases

We had lost our way, and we had lost all hope. There was no sign of the oasis we sought, no sign of any well near-by. The desert seemed cruel and merciless, and I vowed that if...

THIS is the story of a journey which I made in 1923 from Sollum on the Mediterranean to El Obeid in the Sudan, some two thousand two hundred miles. In the course of it I was for...

“ALLAH yesadded khatak—may God guide your steps.” The Arabic words fell reverently on the air of the great bare room, where candlelight and clouds of drifting incense contended...

THE twenty-first found me disembarking at Sollum, which is a tiny seaport close to the western frontier of Egypt. There we were to take camel and go by way of Jaghbub to Jalo, t...

I was sitting one evening in my room in the little government rest-house, busy with the figures of my scientific observations. There came a knock at the door. I could not imagin...

ANY story of the Libyan Desert would not be complete without some consideration of the Senussis, the most important influence in that region. The subject is a complicated one. J...

ON the afternoon of the second day after the meeting with Sayed Idris we saw the snow-white _kubba_ (dome) of the mosque at Jaghbub rising before us. In proper Bedouin fashion w...

There are various forms of hospitality among the Bedouins, depending upon the rank both of the host and of the guest and upon the circumstances of the given case. When a travele...

I LEFT Jaghbub in accordance with the best tradition. It was a day of sand-storm. The Bedouins say that to start a journey in a sand-storm is good luck. I am not sure, though, t...

JALO is one of the most important oases in Cyrenaica. It lies about 240 kilometers from the Mediterranean at its nearest point, beyond Jedabia, and about 600 kilometers from Kuf...

I got up at six to pack and get my baggage ready. As is usual on the first day of a journey, when the caravan is not yet shaken down and accustomed to the routine, it took us th...

_Sunday, March 18._ Start at 9 A.M., halt at 8:30 P.M. Make 46 kilometers. Highest temperature 21°, lowest 3°. Cloudy all day, clear in evening. Just a few drops of rain in the...

_Monday, March 26._ At El Harrash Well of the Zieghen group. Highest temperature 27°, lowest 6°. Fine and clear with northeast wind, which develops into a bad sand-storm at elev...

_Sunday, April 1._ We started at 9:45 A.M. and halted at 2 P.M., making 17 kilometers, and arrived at El Taj. At 11:15 we entered a broken rocky country, very rolling, covered w...

_Friday, April 6._ The day began with the arrival of an immense bowl of roses, gloriously fragrant, sent by Sayed El Abid. This is the way the desert belies its name every now a...

_WEDNESDAY, April 18._ Bu Helega had at last found two men, Bukara and Hamid, who would go with his camels. They were poor men, and the money they would make loomed larger in th...

_SATURDAY, April 28._ We started at 9:30 P.M. for the first all-night trek, halting at 7 A.M. of the twenty-ninth. We made forty kilometers. It was fair and clear with a very st...

_SUNDAY, May 6._ We got away at 6:45 P.M. and made a good twelve hours’ trek of fifty-four kilometers. It was a thoroughly tiring performance, however, as the first night’s marc...

I GOT up early in order to open the film-box and refill the cameras while it was still cool. At seven, with Mohammed and Hamad, I set out to visit the well. The valley of Erdi i...

I had a good night’s rest and was awakened by the hubbub of the Bidiyat women bargaining with the men of my caravan for empty tins. They offered a kind of dry shrub that they ca...

SLEEP came slowly to me that first night at Furawia. I was excited as I had not been since saying good-by to Lieutenant Bather at Sollum and beginning the journey. Now I was in...