'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎329] (386/552)

BEHIND THE JEBEL EBBA
329
the only industry now carried on by the very few inhabitants,
except the rearing of flocks, is the drying of senna, which
grows wild here in considerable quantities. They cut the
branches and lay them out to dry on levelled circles; these
they take down to the coast and export to Suez.
We were now sixty miles, as the crow flies, from the sea.
We were terribly afraid we should be made to go by a lower
way between the mountains and the sea, in which case our
journey would not be of nearly such great value in map-
making, but at last my husband persuaded the sheikhs,
saying he would sign, with all the rest of us, a paper to
protect the heads of Sheikhs Ali Debalohp, Hassan Hafori,
and Mohamed Ali Hamed, which we did.
They said they did not themselves expect any danger.
Had they done so they would never have let our camp extend
over so much ground, with no concealment as regarded fires
and shouting, nor would they have let their camels wander
so far afield.
The first place after W^adi Gabeit that we camped at was
Hambulli, four hours distant. The thermometer was down
to 50° in the night.
There was another letter from the mamour and another
from Sawakin and a most tremendous lot of consultations,
and at last my husband sent a letter to the mamour: ' Your
Excellency,—I have decided to go by Erba and Sellala and
hope to reach Mohammed Gol in a shorter time by that
route.'
By this time we were in the Kourbab country, in that part
under Sheikh Hassan Bafori, who governs a branch of the
tribe. We liked the mamour's messenger. Sheikh Moussa
Manahm, who came on with us, very much. Four hours
of very desert journeying was our portion the following day.
We were a good distance from water, but some was obtained
by digging, thick with sand and earth. We had thus far