94 THJH EM±'TY

Sending the rest ahead while we surveyed the scene, 'Ali
and I dropped down into the wide salt-flat which marked the
beginning of the Juba depression. He led and I followed but
suddenly his camel began to flounder about, knee-deep in a
veritable bog. Warned by such behaviour I slipped to the
ground from my saddle—thereby earning some kudos
from my companions, to whom my exhibition of skill and
agility was duly reported by the approving expert with suit-
able exaggerations—and, being myself on firm ground, was
able to seize 'Ali's bridle and lead his mount back into safety
without necessitating his own dismounting in the sloshy
quagmire. Look you, said 'Ali, the sun sets. Let us there-
fore pray now—it will be a long time yet before we can break
our fast. So we prayed together at the edge of the bog, he
reciting the prayer formulae with me at his right side—when
the congregation is not more than three persons, one acts as
Imam and the others stand on either side of, not behind
him. The praying over, 'Ali made a cup of his hands to
catch the urine of his staling dromedary and broke his fast
by rinsing out his mouth in the approved fashion. Then he
produced from a fold of his shirt two cough lozenges which
he had had from me some days before. You take one, he
said, and I will eat the other. So we broke the long day's
fasting and continued our march, walking for a bit to feel
our way cautiously across the morass of salt to the sandhills
beyond. We then mounted and trotted on until the camp-
fire of our companions appeared in the distance as a beacon
to guide us in the dark. Soon after 7 p.m. we arrived at the
camp, pitched as arranged beforehand with our baggage-folk
by the sweet-water wells of Al Mushammara, reputed to be
among the best in the whole basin. One was buried but the
other had water at a depth of only six feet. The Mubarraz
knolls lay close by to the north-west and north in a semicircle
on some high bare ground, while nearer at hand to east and
south lay the scanty palm-groups of Ghuraba and Ma'jaba.
A mile away to the south-west was the patchy plantation of
Nakhl 'Ali ibn Najran, and a low forest-like tract of palms,
tall and small, seemed to extend to the far distance both
north and south. But there was nothing impressive about