hem away from the tent by force; and, in the first
moment of indignation, wrote a letter to the Pasha about them. Hearing
of this, they came to beg us not to send the letter, which was
accordingly torn up by the Sheikh. My chaouch was the great actor in all
this affair; and it was necessary that I should support him, even if he
were a little wrong, otherwise he would have had no confidence in
himself or us in cases of difficulty.

The Sheikh, who, as well as ourselves, has lost some little things
during these days, gives the people of Mizdah a very bad character. In
the scuffle, I noticed that they called him _Fezzanee_, which is used as
a term of insult in these parts. "All the Fezzanees are bad people, and
all their women courtezans," says my chaouch.

There is a large leopard reported to be abroad near the oasis of Mizdah.
He escaped from Abdel-Galeel, who brought him from Soudan, and creates
great terror among the camel-drivers. They say, with unspeakable horror,
"The nimr eats all the weak camels!" He has already devoured two. He
drinks in the neighbouring wady, where there is water six months of the
year. During the remainder he is capable, they say, of doing without
drinking.

CHAPTER III.

Leave Mizdah--Gloomy Country--Matrimonial Squabbles in the
Caravan--"Playing at Powder"--Desert Geology--A Roman Mausoleum--Sport--A
Bully tamed--Fatiguing March--Wady Taghijah--Our old Friend the
Ethel-Tree--The Waled Bou Seif--Independent Arabs--A splendid
Mausoleum--One of the Nagahs foals--Division of a Goat--March over a
monotonous Country--Valley of Amjam--Two new Trees--Saluting the New
Moon--Sight the Plateau of the Hamadah--Wady Tubooneeah--Travelling
Flies--The Desert Hour--A secluded Oasis--Buying Barley--Ghareeah--Roman
Remains--Oasian Cultivation--Taxation--Sand-Pillar--Arrangements for
crossing the Hamadah--An _Emeute_ in the Caravan--Are compelled to
discharge the quarrelsome Ali.

We started for Mizdah, at length, towards noon, Sheikh Omer bringing us
a little on our way, and, begging to be well spoken of in high quarters;
and after passing the ruins of two Arab castles that frown over the
southern side of Wady Esh-Shrab, got into a gloomy country, exactly
resembling that on the other side of the oasis, except that the strata
of the limestone rocks, instead of being horizontal are inclined. The
whole desert, however, wears a more arid appearance. Yet there were some
lote-trees here and there, and