THE ESTUARIES OF JIBAN 63

they had had coffee and devoured one of Rashid's bustards.
The half-dozen palm-groves of the oasis draw their nourish-
ment from as many springs welling up into reedy pools flush
with the ground-level, in addition to which there were one or
two shallow wells surmounted by the usual tackle for lifting
the water. The reeds grew thick and luxuriant to a height of
12 or 15 feet, and their graceful flowering heads against a
dark background of palms made a magnificent show where
the camels coming to water had not cropped them down to
the semblance of ravaged millet-stalks. Tamarisks also
struggled with the reeds and palms for existence, and a pair
of sparrow-hawks1 seemed to be having good hunting among
the nucierous warblers and other small creatures until one of
them was itself stalked by Salih and shot at such close range
with my gun that its head was almost completely blown off.
I took advantage of the plentiful—and excellent—water to
have my first good wash of the journey by the largest of the
pools, where the camels had been watered and our skins filled
and laid out in rows in readiness for the morrow's march.
The water was quite tepid at sunset but earlier in the day my
companions had found it deliciously cool. By the time I had
finished, dinner was served and very good it was with the
meat of a bustard to vary the monotonous rice meals of the
past week. I had noticed by the pools a fair number of
sheep belonging to the folk of Ibn Nuqaidan, whose tents
were scattered about on the sands round the oasis, and I
had suggested that it might be a good thing to purchase a
few of the animals so as to have meat for a couple of days to
infuse a little vigour into us. Zayid, however, declared that
the sheep were in poor condition and not worth buying at any
price, but some of the others hinted strongly that there was
a nice young camel to be had of the Arabs. I replied that
such a plethora of meat would only damp their ardour for
the chase, whose results—two hares and two curlews—had
scarcely vindicated their early boasting. Ah ! wait till we
come to the Sands, they said, and you will surely see hares as
plentiful as locusts, and we shall eat of the meat of the Oryx
to our heart's content. We had seen tracks of foxes and hares,

i Stobbut.