50 THE EMPTY QUARTER

ever-poor and ever-hungry Badawin to settle here in per-
manence to enjoy and improve the advantages provided by
Nature! Yet evidently there had been something in the
nature of a permanent occupation here in centuries long gone
by. And there must be some explanation of the present
derelict aspect of the place. It is the fever, said Zayid, that
prevents settlement in such places. Everywhere, indeed, as
at Sikak and Anbak and even Jabrin, the IJchwan have made
such attempts but always the fever drives them back to the
desert. The Arabs cannot face it and die off quickly, so the
palms are left untended for God to fertilise and bring to
fruition.

This strange fever of the spring-fed oases of the desert
would be an interesting subject for expert study. The Arabs
have not learned by experience and will not learn from
preaching that modern science can both cure or mitigate the
fever in individuals and eradicate it from its natural haunts.
I saw no signs of mosquitoes either here or elsewhere, and
even in the Hasa they do not seem to be the scourge they are
at M'ecca and Jidda. Curiously enough Madina is almost and
Riyadh entirely free from the pest. Perhaps the fever of the
eastern oases is due to some other source than the mosquito,
and perhaps some day the problem will be tackled to add
appreciably to the cultivable area of Arabia.

We resumed our tour of inspection by setting off at a
swinging trot towards the conspicuous landmark of Qarn
Abu Wail, a flat-topped hillock to the south-east, detached
from the long escarpment of Qalail, which forms the westward
face of the Qatar plateau. We rode over the same vast salt-
flat, whose perfect surface was littered with tiny spiral shells
and dotted with clumps of Suwwad and Qataf, which in a
rougher patch of ground further on gave way to Shinan and
Thullaith. We crossed the camel-paths leading to the Sikak
watering and kept straight on across a broad and stormy
strip of astonishingly white sand-waves with dark contrasting
vegetation until we came to the foot of the hillock, just five
miles distant from the Salwa ruins.

Leaving 'All and Ibn Ma'addi to guard the camels at its
base—and incidentally to sleep—Zayid and I began the