Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

72 Bedoiun Tribes of the Euphrates, [ch. xix,
stayed beliind to eat our luiiclieon of bread and dates
and let the camels go on, led by Jazzer, and now when
we had finished our meal they were some mile or so
ahead.
the
It was just about noon, and the mirage in
middle of the day quickly swallows up even a
caravan of camels on the horizon, or they get hidden
in a dip of the plain, and ours were now out of sight.
Wilfrid and I galloped on to keep up the line of
communication, which it is very dangerous to lose in
travelling in the desert, and it was well we did so,
for by the time we sighted them the rest of our
straggling party was in its turn lost to view. Wilfrid
then sent me on alone to the caravan with instructions
to stop it while he galloped back to
collect the stragglers. He found them, with the
Consul at their head, following each other c|uite
unconsciously in a line at right angles to that of
our route, and where they would have got to
Heaven only knows. It was all that he could do
to induce them to alter their course, which they still
declared was that which the camels had taken.
This little incident has made us cautious of keeping
together, and has shown us the advantage of having
at least one person well mounted with a caravan, as,
had we all been riding donkeys and beasts of heavy
burden, we should infallibly have now been scattered
hopelessly over the plain.
After this, we went steadily on till sunset, when
we stopped in a broad wady within sight of certain
hills, from which Jazzer assures us we shall see the