ABSTRACT
AFTER LUNCH AND the usual Arabian siesta, I went down to take my farewell of the brother Princes. To my surprise, they tried to dissuade me from setting out for Shibam, telling me of a route across the mountains from the Du'an valley leading, as they said, to Shabwa by a quicker and more direct route. I got out my maps and showed them the lost city marked in a very different place from where the track they advised seemed to lead; I thought the two Princes probably had their own pet route and did not understand the advantages of a map. How sadly wrong I was, I did not realise until many days later, when it was too late. If I had taken the advice of the Ba Surrha and gone west, directly across the unmapped mountains, I should have reached Shabwa in all probability before Philby's arrival there, or at any rate have met him in the town itself. But I was tired of being side-tracked by authority, and as I had been forbidden entry into Yemen territory, I was now resolved to have my own way where the ancient Sabaean city was concerned.
