182 THE EMPTY QUARTER

without poetic inspiration, that he should compose a ballad
on the wonders of Wabar and the sacks of black pearls
which had rewarded their searching. Many weeks later
these were going the round of the dealers of Mecca with
disappointment in their train and my companions, distressed
bv the collapse of their dreams of wealth, had to be content
with their earnings. For three months of really strenuous
work they got an average of L8 or LlO apiece—enough
under their conditions of existence to procure a wife withal
but not enough to buy a pedigree camel.

For the moment there was nothing for it but to set our-
selves to the task in hand and make as much progress as
possible amid surroundings as dull, monotonous and dreary
as may be imagined. A pair of ravens occupied our deserted
camp—it was here that we left behind the results of our
unsuccessful pickling,—and a light film of sand swept un-
ceasingly over the face of the earth around us. The gently
billowing desert was as a haze of steam rising from a vast,
simmering cauldron. And, when the wind dropped, the
soft, silky sheen of the sands struck painfully up at our eyes.

Apart from a sparse sprinkling of Abal the landscape was
very bare with only an occasional hum mock of sand to break
the flatness of the picture. As I stood on one of these for a
general view I found it almost impossible to maintain my
position against the sheets of blowing sand which enveloped
me in their tiresome eddies. Till mid-afternoon we marched
still in Sanam with but an hour's break to rest.

Then the scene underwent an abrupt change as we passed
into the district of Majari Tasrat, so-called from the well of
Tasrat1 a day's march to eastward, which is reported to have
sweet water at eight fathoms. Parallel to our course on the
right and beyond the limits of our vision lay the dune
ranges of Hibaka with the valleys of Shuqqan al Birkan
(already noticed in Sa'afij) beyond them and the sands of
Bani Zainan to their southward. The Tasrat tract is itself a
broad band of alternating ridges and valleys lying roughly
east and west. In one of the latter we camped that first
night, to resume our march at 7 a.m. under rather depressing

1 Beyond Tasrat eastward is the well of Umm al Qaratn.