On This Occasion, Though Want Of Water Stared Us In
The Face, One Skin Of The Three Was Allowed To Fall Upon The Road And
Burst, And The Second's Contents Were Drunk Before We Halted.
At 11 P.M., after marching twelve miles in direct line, we bivouacked upon
the plain.
The night breeze from the hills had set in, and my attendants
chattered with cold: Long Guled in particular became stiff as a mummy.
Raghe was clamorous against a fire, which might betray our whereabouts in
the "Bush Inn." But after such a march the pipe was a necessity, and the
point was carried against him.
After a sound sleep under the moon, we rose at 5 A.M. and loaded the
camels. It was a raw morning. A large nimbus rising from the east obscured
the sun, the line of blue sea was raised like a ridge by refraction, and
the hills, towards which we were journeying, now showed distinct falls and
folds. Troops of Dera or gazelles, herding like goats, stood, stared at
us, turned their white tails, faced away, broke into a long trot, and
bounded over the plain as we approached. A few ostriches appeared, but
they were too shy even for bullet. [41] At 8 P.M. we crossed one of the
numerous drains which intersect this desert--"Biya Hablod," or the Girls'
Water, a fiumara running from south-west to east and north-east. Although
dry, it abounded in the Marer, a tree bearing yellowish red berries full
of viscous juice like green gum,--edible but not nice,--and the brighter
vegetation showed that water was near the surface.
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