not unconnected with the affair, who visited us incognito,
heard a lurid but truthful account of how the business struck us, from a
chance met subaltern, who in the darkness had no idea that he was
entertaining angels.

[Illustration: BEDOUIN SHEIKS, BELAH.]

After a broken night's rest the Brigade moved on at dawn, the Battalion
supplying the advance guard, and reaching its bivouac area at 1.15. The
scenery as we advanced began to show a most welcome change. In the
hollows by the side of the track little patches of dwarf barley appeared
and a thin crop of green stuff began to transform the familiar sand. Our
bivouac area was a valley which from a little distance looked almost
like a meadow at home. On a nearer approach the vegetation was found to
be very thin, and the soil still sandy, but it was spotted with
delightful little flowers, and in the village of Sheikh Zowaid near by,
were fruit trees and cactus hedged enclosures well covered with fresh
grass; while to the south of us were some big areas of young crops. The
effect of this change was immediate, and the least poetical and
imaginative among us felt a thrill of joy in the relief from the
desolation of eternal sand. To the north a high barrier of sand hills
hid the sea, a barrier which runs right along the coast as far as Jaffa
and beyond. But in the distance it was beautiful enough, and served to
remind us of what we had escaped.

Unfortunately the dust storms were even worse here than among the
heavier sand and the place swarmed with centipedes, scorpions and other
undesirables. But we were not in a mood to be critical when we retired
to rest beneath the stars, with the fresh smell of living flowers in our
nostrils, or woke at dawn to hear little crested larks do their best to
imitate their brethren overseas, though they could but manage a few
gentle notes and that from the ground.

An Australian trooper on arriving at a very attractive grass enclosure
at Sheikh Zowaid found a notice to the effect that this area was
reserved for the Headquarters of such and such a Division, obviously
the work of a zealous A.D.C. His annoyance at not being able to secure
this area for his own regiment's resting place made him add to the
notice in large letters, "Please keep off the gwass."

On the 16th we took over an extended picket line in sandy country but
overlooking a good deal of barley. While we were here the Desert Column
Race Meeting was held at Rafa. Several of