THE CURTAIN RISES	17
ready. The cold was now intense and my limbs seemed to
have been stretched on the rack though we had ridden less
than 10 miles. The camp-fire was a welcome sight indeed
and I went to warm myself by it before visiting my tent.
Unwisely, and until driven off by weeping eyes, I chose the
warmer and smokier side of the fire, whose fuel was of pungent
Shinan faggots. Stiff and cold, I would have been better
advised to tramp about a bit to give my blood a chance of
circulating. I chose the fire instead and my new friends plied
me with cups of hot sweetened camel's milk after I had
drained the last of a pot of tea. Suddenly a feeling of unease
came over me. I lay back against a friendly saddle to shake
off wh&t appealed to be a stupid fit of biliousness or chill—all
to no purpose. I rose rather unsteadily to go to my tent and
my companions helped me down the slope to its door, seeing
that I was not well. And there I went out in a dead faint,
from which I came to apparently after about four minutes of
lifelessness. According to Sa'dan, my face went yellow, and
they thought I was finished ; but, on coming to, I had a per-
fectly lucid idea of all that had happened and bundled myself
into bed without delay, piling every available rug and blanket
over me and taking two aspirin tabloids to encourage per-
spiration. In spite of the coarse wool and leather boots^1 I
was wearing I felt astonishingly cold in my feet, but that
passed off when I had removed the boots and settled down to
the generous warmth of blankets in a tent which kept off the
cold wind. I soon began to feel well enough to wonder at
such an occurrence at the very outset of a journey which
presupposed complete fitness in the adventurer. I began to
wonder, and could not help remembering that eighteen
months before, during a hot July afternoon at Jidda, I had
had a sudden and devastating reminder of the frailty of
human life. Was this another—another warning from the
Infinite to hasten the completion of my worldly tasks ? I
wondered, and sank into the caressing arms of sleep. And
the morning and the evening were the first day.
^1 These Zarabil (sing. Zarbul) are made in the Hasa for the Badawin and
are more Uke snow-boots than anything else.