NORTHERN JAFURA 21

be no question of halting until we had passed out of it on the
further side. Slowly but surely I began to take stock of my
companions, as they too of me. Zayid kept himself at all
times conspicuously in the limelight, and the rest for the
moment seemed to maintain a discreet reserve, especially
the Badawin elements, among whom 'All Jahman stood out
in a class by himself—a strange, mysterious, brooding crea-
ture of fine physique and strikingly handsome Semitic
features. His closer acquaintance would obviously be well
worth cultivating, and I was attracted by his apparent aloof-
ness. I knew of course that he was to be our chief guide as
soon as we came to the serious business of the expedition. He
was, moreover,^ cousin of Hamad ibn Sultan ibn Hadi who
had served Bertram Thomas in a similar capacity the year
before. And in his early days he had served some sort of
apprenticeship in the Ikhwan movement, though he was too
wedded to the life of the desert to go as far as taking up
residence in any of the colonies of the brotherhood. He had
however acquired a certain degree of proficiency in the
scriptures, while a voice of unusual charm would have
assured him of success in the role of parish priest had not the
lure of the sands kept him free of such shackles. As I after-
wards came to know, he had the Semitic avarice in more than
full measure, gnawing mercilessly at his soul.

Beyond the Thuwair tract the country gradually developed
into a vast flattish, sandy wilderness with slight undulations
and occasional small patches of gravel. Afar off to the left
appeared a long line of lofty sand-billows. It was so cold
that animal life seemed totally in abeyance, and the only
living creature we saw during the morning was a raven. The
sand in the depressions and on exposed slopes was much
rippled and ridged by the wind, while the lines of dunes
seemed to be uniformly oriented with their long axis lying
east and west. The smooth, rounded sides of the dunes lay
northward, while the characteristic sharp escarpments of
their crests faced southwards over a hollow, semi-circular or
shaped like a horseshoe. Within such hollows and at the
base of the dunes there was generally a light scatter of gravel
or an exposure of the bed-rock forming the foundation of all