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Updated: June 27, 2025
The heart, considered as the greatest delicacy, is torn out, the skin stripped from the breast and haunches, part of the meat cut, or rather torn from the bones, and thrust into bags, which they carry for the purpose, and the remainder of the carcass is left for the crows, vultures, and hyenas, while the Arabs quickly follow the kafila.
The way was made longer by its having to wind about to skirt the wadis, which cut into it like a fringe; sometimes we were only half a mile from our former or future track. Once we heard a gun fired, and looking across, we saw a kafila of fifty camels, a much larger one than our own, slipping behind a hill to hide from us, and presently some men climbed up to peep.
Starting at sunrise, they had another fatiguing day, over the same kind of desert, without seeing one living thing that did not belong to the kafila, not a bird, nor even an insect; the sand is beautifully fine, round, and red. It is difficult to give the most distant idea of the stillness and beauty of a night scene, on a desert of this description.
A couple of jackals slunk furtively across the road ahead of us in the dusk. A kafila of long-necked camels undulated over the plain. The shadows fell more heavily over cactus-hedge and olive-orchard as we turned down the hill. In the valley night had come.
The Kattiri tyrannise over the sultan of Siwoun and are enemies to the sultan of Shibahm; beyond them are the Minhali, who are also enemies; then the Amri and the Tamimi, who are friendly, and then come the Mahri. The sultan told us that not even he could prevent us going along the kafila path, but we should not be admitted into any villages and should probably be denied water.
This giving universal satisfaction, the Arab kafila took its departure, leaving the caravan of the traders by the well, where they were intending to remain for some time longer. Shortly after leaving the well, the old sheik ordered a halt by the seashore, where he stopped long enough for his slaves to gather some shell-fish, enough to satisfy the hunger of all his followers.
The face of the landscape became more uneven; while here and there stunted bushes and weeds were seen, as if struggling between life and death. The kafila had arrived on the northern border of the great Saara; and a few days more would bring them to green fields, shady groves, and streams of sparkling water. Something resembling the latter was soon after discovered.
If He has sent anything for you, look along the sea-beach and find it." On this invitation the camels of the kafila were unloaded, and the tents pitched. The new comers then set about searching for the debris of the wrecked vessel. They discovered only some spars, and other pieces of ship timbers, which were of no value to either party.
On ascending the rising ground on which the town stands, the distressing sight presented itself of all the female, and most of the male inhabitants with their families, flying across the plain in all directions, alarmed at the strength of the kafila.
"I was sure it would fail, for reasons which the Baron has explained, but I bade Abdullah join the kafila, seeing that we could not carry out our first plan of landing lower down the coast. Then, if the Italian party received news of our whereabouts, Abdullah would steal away and warn us. The mere fact that he is not here now shows that our presence in this locality is altogether unsuspected."
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