ABSTRACT
ON reaching Wady Maghareh we found some little difficulty. Our contract was ended, as I had been told at the Consulate that there would be no difficulty in making a fresh contract for camels on the spot. This might have been true enough if we could have waited to negotiate; but one of our two boxes sent as provisions, had proved to be other stores, so our reserve had vanished and we were on very short rations, even the last day down to Maghareh. Our boat of stores was duly ready at Burdeys, but we needed to hire camels to bring up supplies. Even water was two miles away, and a camel was necessary to fetch it. The pushful Khallyl organized a ring, and tried to force us to pay permanently as much as the greedy Abu Qudeyl had charged for camels on the way down. This was 20 piastres (45.) a day, though he only paid the men 12 piastres a day. The claim was enforced by the argument that a certain young official from England had been charged as much all the t-ime he was in Sinai. Not a single camel-man present would work except under a sealed contract with a head man, and Khallyl tried hard to force the price. However, I stood out until he came down to 16 piastres a day; and then next morning by candle-light I drew up an Arabic contract with Khallyl, guarding against the chances of further imposition. After duly sealing it, we got our camels off for water and stores. Even though we were thus in a hole, yet the whole difference between
22 THE BEDAWY AND THE DESERT what we paid for the season, and the lmvest rates we might have obtained, was not as much as the cost and losses of waiting a few days at an hotel, to get sheykhs up and contracts made beforehand in the usual way. Anyone with a few days' supplies in hand could easily ,go on, and settle terms as they went, with much less loss than is caused by the usual delays. Of course, Arabic is essential, and enough to write a contract when needful, as no scribe can be found in the wilderness. Our whole account for the journey down, camels, supplies, and everything, only came to a quarter of the usual charges of a dragoman for such a party.
