The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume X, No. 6 [‎108r] (68/186)

A JOURNEY TO SIWA IN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1896.
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seventeen donkeys,'which shortly before had been driven from theWab el Babrieh,
or small oasis, to Siwa.
We reached the sand-dunes before night, and followed the track by moonlight
as long as we could, encamping at midnight. The next day we travelled across
flat rock and dunes. Three conical hills, known to Dau as landmarks, happily
kept us straight, for the track was difficult to follow on rock, though Abdulla
found it here and there by a turned stone, which showed white on its newly
exposed side.
We reached the Arej that evening, walking down a steep passage in the rock.
The sand slips under your feet, and the camels had a bad time coming down. Once
at the bottom, we found ourselves in a valley surrounded by almost perpendicular
cliff's of limestone, some 140 feet high. We could see nothing beyond. The
Bahrein (“ k two rivers”) with its date-palm forest stretching as far as the eye could
see, visible from the tableland above, had now entirely disappeared. Abdulla
brought us in some excellent dates, which proved that the palms in the Arej are
looked after, though common property.
In the morning I saw the tombs, thirty-six of which have been opened and
robbed. A row of squares gape black on the side of the rock. I climbed into
many, but found nothing but bodies lightly covered with sand, and some mummy
cloth. The walls in some were decorated : one had the hooded snake, others had
been scribbled over by Romans with rude scratchings, and Arabs of a still later
date had in some cases added their names. These tombs were evidently once
closed by slabs of rock carefully built in with smaller bits, till the whole looked
uniform. In places the rock sounds hollow, and other unopened tombs may be
there; yet it is difficult to believe that Arab robbers left any unrifled.
The mosquitoes of the Arej were terrible, as they are wherever there is vege
tation, and therefore water. We dared not light a fire, lest it should serve as a
beacon to the robbers that infest the place. We suffered so that we decided not
to pass another night in misery, and at sundown next day started onwards. Some
Ghara men came up an hour or so before we started, to fetch dates. The Arej
bears so bad a reputation that strangers are looked upon with suspicion; but these
turned out to be friendly and harmless enough.
Our road was easy to find; landmarks known to Dau seemed to abound. From
the Whatia, which we reached the next morning at ten, an abrupt descent took
us straight down to the level of Lake Sittra, which we reached the day after. In
the trees of the Whatia I noticed some small night-herons. I believe them to
be a new variety, but unfortunately I missed the one I shot at. Their cry is not
absolutely the same as that of the ordinary night-heron, and they are much
smaller. They flew back in the direction of the Bahrein. There must, there
fore, be some open water there; that of Lake Sittra is far too salt to make it possible
fish can live in it, and I saw no living thing either in, or on, or near this southern
side.
The lake is about 14 miles long and 3 wide. On the west, stunted bushes grow
near the shallows; on the south—where we stood—sand drilting against the palm
trees had formed miniature cliffs. A range of low white sandhills ran along the
northern shores.
The palms on the banks bear a good deal of fruit, but it is of little use except
as food for the camels. The road is too little used to make it worth while to tend
the trees.
A spring of fresh water rises among the rushes at the east end of the lake.
So difficult is it to see where salt ends and fresh water begins, that I hesitated
before tasting it, when I found it far sweeter than that we had drunk in the Arej.