ABSTRACT
The neighbouring country was practically denuded of its nomad inhabitants, but spies soon reported that a large gathering of Arabs and Tuaregs was centred at El Hegef, a town situated some sixty miles from the coast and close to the great Southern bend of Shott Jerid. A Jehad, or religious war, had been proclaimed, and there could be no doubt that a wide-spread emeute had broken out among these wayward sons of the desert. A council of war was held, and it was settled that as a preliminary the artillery and machine-guns should make things lively for the denizens of El Hegef, and a storm of shells and bullets soon beat the wretched little houses into fragments. A Spahi was found who had visited El Hegef in his youth, and who quite distinctly remembered driving a flock of goats to an oasis on the plain behind the town by means of a difficult path practicable for two men abreast.
