Chapter XII: Conclusion

MANY people have at various times carefully considered the agricultural possibilities of Siwa from a commercial point of view. Undoubtedly the cultivation in the oasis could be greatly developed, as there is enough water to irrigate a much larger area of ground than that which is now being cultivated. At present the natives have only the most primitive ideas of agriculture; for instance, they neglect most of the fruit trees by doing no pruning, and through sheer laziness they have allowed various species to die out completely. They are handicapped, too, by having no proper tools or machinery. The dates of Siwa are exceptionally fine, famous all over Egypt, and besides these there is a quantity of other fruit whose quality could be much improved by proper care. Olive oil is a valuable product and commands a very high price on the coast and in Egypt. No wine is made from the grapes, and no one has experimented in drying fruit, which is a simple and lucrative industry.

But the difficulty that faces one in all commercial schemes is the means of transport. Camels can only be hired from the coast at rare intervals and during the season when the Arabs do not mind visiting the oasis, and their hire is so prohibitive as to make any heavy transport hardly worth while. The ex-Khedive went to Siwa for the purpose of seeing whether it would be worth running a light railway from the coast to the oasis, and since then the project has been seriously thought of more than once, but it has always been considered impracticable on account of the expense and the great difficulty of crossing such an expanse of waterless desert.

An alternative scheme of running a service of motor lorries is a more likely proposition, and when once started it might be highly remunerative. Some of the richest and most progressive Siwans were very anxious to buy a lorry and send their olive oil direct to Alexandria, but they failed to appreciate that one lorry alone would be useless, and the minimum number would have to be four.

Apart from the possibilities of trade Siwa is valuable as a field for excavators. So far very little digging has been done in Siwa and the adjoining oases, and undoubtedly there are great possibilities in this direction. Labour is cheap and one could hire enough men in the place to do any work of this kind. Nobody has attempted to locate and examine the subterranean passages which connect Aghourmi and the temple, and Siwa town with the Hill of the Dead. There is also the possibility of rediscovering the emerald mines which brought fame to the oasis many centuries ago, and which are now so completely forgotten that I doubt whether half a dozen people have ever heard of their existence. Under the present regime, though one does not know how long it will last, an Englishman can live at Siwa in perfect safety, and though the climate is certainly very hot in summer-time it is quite agreeable during more than half the year.

But Siwa will never become a much-visited place, which is perhaps all for the best, owing to the strip of desert which stretches between it and the coast. Otherwise it might have developed into another Biskra, which is the oasis in Algeria that Hitchens describes so wonderfully in _The Garden of Allah_. Quite lately I noticed in a travel book called _Kufara, the Secret of the Sahara_, by Mrs. Rosita Forbes, a mention of this very desert between Siwa and the coast which was described as a “tame desert.” This expression, used by a lady with such great knowledge of deserts in all parts of the world, surprised me—and I own that it annoyed me! Her only experience of this particular desert was acquired during the one day in which she motored up from Siwa to Matruh in the company of several officers of the F.D.A. who met her there. But people on the Western Desert can remember, only too well, a terrible fatality which occurred less than a year ago in which three Englishmen were involved, and which proved conclusively that no waterless desert is safe or “tame,” even in these days when cars can travel across it.

I was not actually in Siwa when Hassanein Bey arrived there, accompanied by Mrs. Forbes, after their memorable journey to Kufra, but I returned there soon afterwards, and it was very interesting to hear of her exploit from the various natives who came in to Siwa from the west.

In spite of a climate that was sometimes trying, in spite of a bad bout of fever, and in spite of an occasional feeling of loneliness, the memory of the time that I spent at Siwa will always be a very happy one. Siwa is so absolutely unspoilt, and so entirely Eastern. Even the ubiquitous Greek trader has not penetrated this desert fastness. It is a place that grows on one, and the few who have been there, and who appreciate its curious fascination, find it very hard to leave.

There is a saying in Egypt that whoever tastes the water of the Nile must some time return there, and I am very sure that he who drinks from the Siwa springs will always wish to go there again. Walking by moonlight under those huge, towering battlements of the strange old town, through streets and squares deserted save for an occasional white-robed figure, one could almost credit the queer stories of ghosts, jinns and afreets that are believed by the Siwans to haunt every spot in this mysterious little oasis which lies hidden among the great barren tracts of the pitiless Libyan Desert.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books consulted in compiling the “History of Siwa”:—

Anonymous History of Siwa (Arabic).

ARRIAN. Expeditio Alexandri.

BATES, ORIC. The Eastern Libyans.

BLOCHET. History of the Arab Conquest.

BOVARY. Letters from Egypt.

BREASTED. History of Egypt.

BROWNE, W. G. Travels in Africa (1792-6).

BUDGE. Life of Alexander.

BUTLER, A. J. Arab Conquest.

CAILLIAUD. Travels in the Oases.

CAMERON. Egypt in the Nineteenth Century.

CORRIPUS, F. C. Johannides.

DIODORUS SICULUS. Bibliotheca. History of Egypt.

Edmonstone’s Journey. (1822).

ERMANN. Handbook of Egyptian Religion.

FALLS, EWART. Three Years in the Libyan Desert.

FORBES, ROSITA. The Secret of the Sahara, Kufara.

GWATKIN WILLIAMS, R. S. In the hands of the Senussi.

GWATKIN WILLIAMS, R. S. Prisoners of the Red Desert.

HAMILTON, J. Wanderings in North Africa.

HAREEM. Ancient Commerce of Africa.

HERODOTUS. Egypt.

HOHLER, T. B. Report on Oasis of Siwa (1904).

HORNEMANN, F. C. Journal, from Cairo to Mourzouk.

HOSKINS, S. A. Visit to Libyan Desert (1837).

JUVENAL, Satires.

LANE, E. W. Arabian Nights.

LANGLES. Memoires sur les oases d’après les auteurs Arabes.

LEO, JOHANNES. Africae Descriptio.

MERCIER, ERNEST. Histoire de l’établissement des Arabes dans
l’Afrique Septrionale.

Nelson’s History of the Great War.

OKLEY. History of the Saracens.

PETRIE, FLINDERS. History of Egypt.

PINDAR. Hymns to Deities.

PLINY. Geography of the World.

PLUTARCH. Life of Alexander.

QUINTIUS CURTIUS. Alexander.

ROLLINS. Ancient History.

R. E. JOURNAL. Vol. 37, No. 2.

ST. JOHN, BAYLE. Adventures in the Libyan Desert (1849).

SALE. The Koran.

SILVA WHITE. From Sphinx to Oracle.

SMITH. Classical Dictionary.

STANLEY, CAPTAIN. Report on Siwa Oasis.

STRABO. Geography.

VIRGIL. Ænid.

WILKINSON, SIR J. S. Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt.

Translations, mostly French, of the following Arab Historians and Geographers:—

IBN ABDEL HAKIM KHALDOUN. History of the Berbers.

MOHAMMED BEN AYAS.

EL MAKRIZI.

EL MASOUDI.

IBN EL WARDI.

ABULFEDA.

EL IDRISI.

SCHEMFEDDEN MOHAMMED ABDEL FURUR.

INDEX

Abbas Helmi, 3

Abbas Pasha, 108

Abdel Arti, smuggler, 115, 117

Abdel Gader, sheikh of travellers, 54

_Abdel Moneim_, cruiser, 34, 35

Abdel Rahman, Sheikh, 66

Abdel Sayed, 180

Abdulla Homeid, Sheikh, 66, 247

Abdulla Mansur, 112

Abu Zeyed, 54

Actium, battle of, 9

Aeroplanes, 125

African Association, 101

Agagia, battle of, 126

Age of Siwans, 196

Aghourmi, 69, 71, 83, 86, 87, 96; sheikh of, 67; spring, 81;
temple, 78

Agriculture, 260

Ahmed Fazi, 119

Ahmed Hamza, 112

Ahmed Idris, 111

Ain el Hammam, 81

“Akaba incident,” xiv

Alexander the Great, 84, 85, 176

Alexandria, 3, 5, 6, 34, 35; summer resort, 8; Alexander buried
at, 85

Algeria, 10

Ali Balli, 102, 104

Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, 132, 190

Almsgiving, 243

Amaryllis, 10

Ammon, god, 76; legends of, 77, 79, xix

Ammonia, 7, 79

Ammonians, 76, 77, 79, 80

Amrou, 89

Animals at Siwa, 202

Antony, 9

Appetites of Siwans, 168, 239

Arabia, 93

Arabs, 5, 14, 17; carrying arms, 18; clothes, 20;
characteristics, 209; conversation, 24; dance, 44; horses, 27;
hospitality, 22; invasion, 5, 89, 94; at Maragi, 185; refugees,
201; songs, 256; tents, 19; wealth, 26; wells, 43; welcome rains,
32; wives, 39; women, 21

Arasieh, lake, 103

Architecture, Siwan, 133, 134

Areg, El, oasis of, 183, 184

Argoul, 158, 244

Arms, seizing, 73

Arusia, sect, 151

Assiut, 184

Athanasius, St., 88

Athenians, 79

Atlantic, 94

Atlantis, 191

Augerin, Bir, 43

Augustus, 88

Australian Light Horse, 125

Awlad Ali, 6

Azhar university, 119

Bachelors, custom of, 98

Bagbag, 15

Bahrein oasis, 115, 183, 184

Bairam, Kurban, feast of, 246

Baird, Miss, xxi, 201

Bakhr-Wahash, wild ox, 202

Bakshish, 176

Bangles, rolling the, 235

Barley, 6

Barrani, 13, 14; evacuation, 124; reoccupation, 126

Bashu Habun, 176

Basket making, 199

Bates, Oric, 75, 76

Bathing, 61, 63; bride, 216; at Matruh, 8

Bazaars, 141

Beda, el, 120

Behera, 110

Beit el Mal, 244

Ben Ayas, historian, 90

Ben Soleim, tribe of, 93

Bequests, religious, 235

Berbers, 2, 88, 91, 94, 95, 209; from Europe, 20, xvii; dialect,
146; sacrifices, 234

Berseem, custom of, 162

Bikaner, Maharajah, xxiv

Bilad el Kelab, 57

Bir Hakim, 123, 131

Birds, 31, 203; eggs, 204

Birth-rate at Siwa, 2

Bisharin trackers, 53

Blossoms, 202

Booba, story of, 173

Booza camp, 40

Bramley, Captain Jennings, xxii

Bread, on trek, 52

Bride, customs of, 213, 216

Browne at Siwa, 100

Budget, economy on, 34

Butin, Colonel, 103

Byzantines, 89

Cairns, rock, 52

Calamis, statue by, 80

Cambyses, lost army of, 80

Camel Corps, 2, 15, 26, 37, 38; barracks, 49; exploring with,
195; as garrison, 131, 135; soldiers, 41; songs of, 54; wives of,
62, 100

Camels, 25; riding, 48; fly, 202; in rain, 32; stories of, 36;
drinking, 45; as transport, 260

Camp, in the desert, 49

Canaanite migration, xvii

Canal, Suez, 123

Caravans, 56, 86, 120

Carpets, 189; leather, 91; makers of, 201

Cars, 11

Carthage, 80

Cats, 170

Causeway, 104

Caves, at Kasr Hassuna, 119

Cemeteries, 223

Chess, 241

Childbirth preventives, 211

Children, 146, 200, 211, 213; festival, 237; murder of, 173

Christianity at Siwa, 88

Cimon, 81

Cisterns, 17, 43, 44

Civil War in Siwa, 99, 100

Clearchus, King, 78

Cleopatra, 9

Clerk, Coptic, 67

Climate, 263

Coastal belt, 5

Coastguards, 3, 4, 34, 37, 124; fight with Abdel Arti, 117;
officers of, 124

Coffee, 67

Constantinople, 122, 189; Sayed Ahmed retires to, 131

Cooks, 44, 60

Corippus, 75

Cows, 203

Crime, 172

Crœsus, 76

Crops, 155, 156

Customs, 188

Cyprus, 81

Cyrene, 84

Cyrenians, 78

Daftar el Ain, 154

Dak bungalows, 13

Dakhla oasis, 128

Dakrur, Gebel, 83, 93

Danaus, 77

Dancing, 46, 253, 254, 257, 258; Arab, 45

Darfur, 56, 132, 190

Dartmoor, 14

Dates, markets, 137, 138; harvest, 152; palms, 156; cultivation,
157; at El Areg, 184

Decorations, Turkish, 127

Delphi, 87

Derna, 105

Desert plateau, 57

“Devil’s Country,” 189

Diodorus Siculus, 77

Dionysius, 76, 78

District Officer’s house, 59, 60

Divorce, among Siwans, 172, 173, 214, 215; Arabs, 21

Doctor, Syrian, 67

Dodona, oracle of, 77, 79

Dogs, Arab, 23; country of, 57; as food, 169, 170; “Howa,”
47, 163

Doré, Gustave, 57

Dorset Yeomanry, 126

Doves, 77

Dreams, interpretation of, 232

Drinking, 150, 249

Drums, 252, 255

Ear-rings, 148

Earthquakes, 195

Easterners, 99, 100

Egyptian Army, 38

Egyptian Government, 2, 114; representative, 64

Emeralds, 86, 91, 93, 261

Enver Pasha, xxv

Ethiopia, 80, 77

Evening at Siwa, 240

Evil Eye, 25, 209, 223; charms against, 224, 225

Exabia oasis, 185

Excavations, 93, 178, 191, 192, 261

Ex-Khedive, 3, 4, 93, 178, 261

Falls, Ewart, 3

False dawn, 47

Fantasias, 239

Farafra oasis, 203

Farag Khasaf, 104

Fasting, 244

Fénelon, 88

Ferik, 83

Fever, 160, 189, 263

Fezzan, 101

Fikis, 194, 209; charms of, 224

Fish, 212; destroy mosquitoes, 160; as food, 97

Flies, 248

Flowers, 32

Flying Corps, 124

Forbes, Mrs., xxvii, 262

Fortune-telling, 233

Fossils, 88, 183

Fostat, 92

Fountain of the Sun, 81

French in Algeria, 119

Frogs, 164

Frontier Districts Administration, xiv, xv, 2, 37, 201

Fruit, 156, 158; at Siwa, 202, 248

Fuca, Bir, 6

Funerals, 149, 222

Furniture, 144

Gabreen, Haj, 194

Gaffar Pasha, 125, 126

Gagub, oasis, 185; spring at, 186; wild oxen, 202

Gallipoli, 123

Gara, oasis, 102, 179; legends about, 180, 181

Gardens, 154, 156, 158

Gawazi Arabs, 203

Gazelle, 30, 49, 184

Gebel Dakrur, 83, 93

Geography, Strabo’s, 87

Germans, 4, 6, 101; in N. Africa, 118; in Tripoli, 122

Ghaffir, 253; El Ain, 154

Ghouls, 208

“Ghrula,” 221

Girba, battle of, 129; evacuation of, 130

Goats, 24; quarrel about, 111

God of Siwa, 76

Governor’s House, 7

Governor, Western Desert, 37

Gramophone, 164

Graves, 223

Greece, 77

Greeks, 5, 58, 79; colonists, 7, 13, 10, 263

Gum trees, 182

Gun-running, 38, 190

Gurzil, 76

Haboob, 72

Habun, Bashu, 175, 176

Habun, Osman, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117

Hakim, Bir, 123, 131

Halfia Pass, 127

Ham, 77

Hamed, Bir, 44

Hamilton, 105, 106, 107

Hannibal, 79

Hanoui, 198

Hares, 28

Harimat, 39, 62

Hashish, 241

Hassan Mitnana, 98

Hassanein Bey, xxvi, 262

Hassein Bey, 102, 103, 104

Hassuna Mansur, 110, 111

Hassuna, Kasr, 119, 129

Hawking, 27, 28

Hedjaz, 119

“Helga,” 241

Henna, 20, 226, 210

Hens, 175

Hephistion, 85

Herodotus, 77, 78

Hidden cities, 92

Hilal tribe, 93

Hill of the Dead, 68, 94, 104

History, Arabic, 3, 74, 80

Holy war, 118

Hornemann, 101

Horses, 27

Hounds, 29

Houses, 33; Siwan, 133; interior of, 142

Hunter, Colonel G. G., xv, 37

Hunting, 29, 30

Husband, to obtain, 228

Iblis, 208; to summon, 230

Ibrahaim el Bishari, 56

Idris, Sidi, 132

Immorality, 101

Inheritance, 155, 172

Interpreters, 98

Ireland, 18

Iron, 91

Irrigation, 153, 154

Islands of the Blessed, 1

Italians, in Tripoli, 15, 118, 122, 132; British alliance
with, 123

Jackals, 31

Jalo, 56, 96; Senussi at, 120

Jerabub, 56, 96, 110; the Senussi at, 121; view of, 186

Jewels, 91, 188

Jews, 10

Jinns, 136, 194

Johannides, 265

“Joy Riders,” 35

Jupiter, 77

Juvenal, 87

Kareished, 178

Karnak, 80

Kasr Hassuna, 103, 119; caves at, 120; shaft, 193

Keimat en Nus, 53

Kerdassa, 148

Khadria confraternity, 119

Khamissa, 83, 88, 185

Khamsin, 7

Khargeh oasis, 80

Khartoum, 36

Khedival road, 7

Kingfishers, 8

Kitchener, Lord, 6

Kom Ombo, 38

Koran, 94; used by Fikis, 209; quotations from, 245

“Kreish,” 18

Kufra oasis, 56, 96, 177, 190, 191, 262

Labour, cost of, 261

Lagoons at Matruh, 8, 9

Lake, magic, 90

Language, 2, 101, 146

Lapis lazuli, 91

Level, sea, 1, 57

Libyans, ancient, xvii, 4, 5, 76

Light cars, 16, 31

Lions, 204

Liquor, 255

Loneliness, 263

Lotophagi, lotus eaters, 4

“Lover, the,” magic stone, 91

Lubbok, 115

Lubki, 242; drinkers of, 249

Lucky Days, 43

Luncheon, garden, 162, 165

Luxor, 38; snake charming at, 206

Lybis, king, 78, 79

Lysander, 79

Macdonnel, Colonel, 37

Magic, 207, 209

Mahdi, Sudanese, 122

Mahdi Abdel Nebi, sheikh of Aghourmi, 67, 69

Mails, 34, 42

Malaria, 160, 161

Mamur, 13, 59, 67; at Siwa, 109; Arab, 118; killed by Habun, 116

Manshia, suburb, 97, 108

Maragie, 185

Marids, 208

Marissa, 41

Markaz, 59, 65, 128

Markets, date, 137, 138

Marriage, Arab, 21; Englishmen, question of, 172; oldest
inhabitant, 197; customs, 214; money, 213

Mashrabs, 52; El Abd, 53

Maspero, M., 44, 75

Mat making, 157, 198

Matruh, Mersa, 3, 11, 79, 84; town, 7; bay, 8; water supply,
9; pack, 29; as base, 125

Meat, 169

Mecca, 95, 96, 101, 119, 234, 236

Mediæval historians, 90

Medinia, sect, 112, 151; revolt of, 128; “zikr,” 249, 250

Mediterranean, 1, 3, 14

Megahiz, spring, 58, 107

Mejberry Pass, 182

Melfa, oasis of, 185, 186

Memphis, 80

Meneclush, King, 82, 83

Merchandise, from Jerabub, 188

Mesamia, 104

Mice, 169

Michael’s Mount, 133

Midwives, 211

Mihrab, 119

Military Administrator, 37

Mines, 91

Ministry of Health, 160

Mirage, 14, 51, 189

Mitnana, Hassan, 98

Mogabara Arabs, 56

Mohammed Ali, 75, 102, 108

Mohammed el Mahdi, 120, 121

Mohammed el Sherif, 121

Mohammed Effendi Saleh, 126, 129, 130, 131

Mohammed el Senussi, 118, 119, 120, 121

Mohammed Hamman, 69, 70

Mohammed Ithneini, of Jerabub, 187

Mohammed Said, 112

Mohammedan invasion, 5, 94

_Moorina_, survivors of, 130

Morals, Siwan, 150

Morocco, xviii, 119

Mosques, 139, 242

Motors, 11, 127, 261

Moussa Ibn Nosseir, 90

Mud pans, 51

Muezzins, 69, 155

Mulids, 246

Mummies, 192

Music, 255, 256

Nabis, 79

Naming children, 212, 213

Napoleon, 101

Nasamonians, 4

Natrun Wadi, 102

Negb Mejberry, 182

Niger, river, 79

Night life, 241

Nile, river, 79

Noah, 77

Nomads, 17

Oases, xix, 1, 75, 78, 177

Occupations at Siwa, 170

Officials, Egyptian, 67

Old age, Siwan, 197

Oldest inhabitant, 197; his wedding, 198

Olives, 178; press for, 179; oil, 178, 260

Omm Beyda, 82

Opium, 241

Orange tree, fabulous, 91

Painting, 171; mural, 184

Palms, date, 156; cultivation, 157

Pan-Islamic possibilities, 4

Parætonium, 7, 84

Partridges, 31

Peyton, General, xxiv

Persia, 81

Persians, 5

Pharaoh, 85

Phœnicians, 77

Photography, 171; photo of Siwa, 4

Pigeons, 31; carrier, 204

Pilgrimage, 234, 235, 236

Pindar, 79

Plague, 95

Pliny, 76

Police, Siwan, 65, 100, 253

Polygamy, 21

Population, 2

Postman, Senussi, 198

Pottery, 199

Pumice stone, 13

Puttees, worn by Senussi, 127

Quail, 31

Quarrel of East and West, 98, 99

Quinine, 160

Qur el Beid, 47

Rabbits, 145

Raid, rifle, 72

Rains, 5, 32, 33, 125

Ram-headed divinity, xix, 75, 78, 85, 86

Ramadan, 244, 245

Rameses, 75

_Rasheed_, gunboat, 124

Rashwan, King, 94

Rats as food, 169

Ravens lead Alexander, 85

Rest houses, 13

Revolt of Siwans against Senussi, 128

Ritual of temple, 85, 86

Rodd, Francis, xxiii

Rollins history, 77

Romans, 9, 44, 88; road, 17

Roofs, 144

Roses, 165

Routine, daily, at Siwa, 63

Royal Artillery, 8

Royle, Major, 124

Sacrifice of bull, 234

Sahara, 191

St. John, Bayle, 105

St. Menas, xxii, 4

Said Pasha, 108

Sakhit Amouou, 78

Saleh Said, Sheikh, 65

Salt, 91; lakes, 159; tribute, 159

Samovars, 189

Sand-storms, 80

Santarieh, 90

Sayed Ahmed, 122, 123; at Siwa, 126; goes to Dakhla, 128;
flight from Siwa, 129; retires to Turkey, 131; character, 132

Sayed Mohammed, xxv

Scarp, 14, 16, 17, 29, 31; in spring, 32; ascent of, 47

School, 139

Scorpions, 205

Sebukh, 97, 159, 182

Semna, 24

Senagra tribe, 4

Senussi, xxiv, 8; rebellion, 18, 38; brethren, 52; power of,
109, 110, 111; peace made by, 114; operations against, 117; history
of, 118, 119, 120, 121; at outbreak of war, 122; campaign against
British, 123-132

Serpents, 91

Servants, 61, 245

Shaigis, 44

Sharks, 12

Sheep, 25

Sheikhs, Siwan, 65; in fiction, 243

Shells, 87

Sheytan, 208

Shops, 139, 140, 141

Shyata, 185

Sightseers, 135

Sikhs, 125

Silius Italicus, 79

Silugis, 29, 47

Sinai, xiv, 37

Singer, 4

Siwa, whereabouts, 1; arrival at, 58; first impressions, 61;
view from, 68; history of, 74-132; town of, 133; population of, 150

Slaves, 95, 96

Slave-woman’s story, 70, 71

Smoking, 241

Snakes, 28, 205; charmers, 206

Snow, 88; Colonel, 124

Solitude, 171

Sollum, 1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 14; camp of, 16; houses at 33; Camel
Corps camp at, 40; departure from, 42; garrison of, 123; evacuated,
124; recaptured, 127

Soud, Sheikh, 176

Sparta, 79

Sponge fishers, 12

Springs, 152, 153, 161

“Stables,” 68

Stanhope, Lady Hester, 201

Stars, shooting, 227

Stolen property, 230, 231

Stone, sacred, 76, 91

Stove, story of, 39, 40

Strabo, 87

Submarines wrecked on coast, 123

Sudan, 6, 26, 36, 44, 56, 61; rest houses, 13; recruiting in,
38; trade, 96; caravans from, 87; invasion of, 102; rebellion
in, 132

Sudanese, 38; conversation, 57; views of, 26; wives, 39

Sugar, 142

Suitors, to obtain, 227, 228

Suliman, Haj, 197

Suliman, Sidi, 96, 98; legends of, 97, 212; Mulid of, 246, 249;
tomb of, 110, 114, 138, 233, 234

Sulphur spring, 186

Sultan of Turkey, 118, 131; excommunicated by Senussi, 121

Sultan Mousa, 162

“Sultan” of tea ceremony, 167

Sunset at Siwa, 69

Sun worship, 75

Sweets, 237

Table manners, 249

Talbot Mission, xxiv

Tamousy, spring, 215

_Tara_, torpedoed, 123; rescue of crew, 130

Tea-drinking, 167, 248, 250

Tebu, lost army from, 81

Telemachus, 88

Telephone, 181

Temperature, 50, 61

Temple of Jupiter, 77

Temple of Jupiter Ammon, 32, 77

Temple of Thebes, 80

Tharic Ben Sayed, 90

Thebes, 76

Theft, discovery of, 230

Thieves, 137

“Thirty, The,” 95

Thomi, Sheikh, 66, 163

Thorn, camel, 183

_Thousand and One Nights_, 210

Timasius, 88

Title-deeds, 155

Tombs, of kings, 196; of sheikhs, 246, 247; inhabited, 192

Town-crier, 221

Toy-maker, 200

Trade, 10, 120, 261

Transport difficulties, 260

Treaty of Lausanne, 118

Trees, 202

Tripoli, 1, 15, 71, 93, 96, 101, 105, 151, 187; smugglers, 115;
Arabs of, 18, 118; blankets, 184; Italians, 122, 123; Senussi, 120

Tunis, 10

Tunnels in Gebel Hassuna, 193

Turks, 102; in Tripoli, 118, 122

Typhoid, 160

Uganda, 57

Viceroy of Egypt, 107

Wadai, 96, 120

Wadi Natrun, 102

Wær, Bir, 127

Wahabi confraternity, 151

Wakf, 95, 235

Watchmen, 253

Water supply in Siwa, 152; rights, 154, 155

Weddings, Arab, 45; customs, 217, 218, 219; presents, 214, 220;
procession, 216

Wells, 18; in Siwa, 136; courting at, 240; at Gara, 179

Westerners, 99, 100

Westminster, Duke of, 127, 130, 131

Whitewashing custom, 137

“Widow’s War,” 111

Widow, custom of, 221

Wind, 72-107

Windows, 143

Witches, 208, 225; tea with, 226; invoking demons, 229; practices
of, 230

Witnesses, female, 174

Wives, “taking over,” 62; Siwan, 213

Wreckage, 13

Yeomanry, 125

Yom el Ashur, 237

Yusif Ali, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108

Zafr el Medina, 151

Zealand, New, Brigade, 125

Zebras, 93

Zeitoun, 177

Zeus, 85

Zigale, 98, 106

Zikr, 248, 249, 250

Zouias, 120

Transcriber's note:

pg xi Changed: "A Little Siwan Girl -- 283" to: "238"

pg 12 Changed: "what a a strange" to: "what a strange"

Caption of twelfth illustration “KASR HASSUNA,” Changed:
"OFFICER’S HOUS" to: "HOUSE"

pg 163 Changed: "I was introduce to the other" to: "introduced"

pg 190 Changed: "It js a dreary region" to: "is"

pg 250 Changed: "surrounded by tall, houses" to: "tall houses"

pg 265 Changed: "from Cairo to Mouzouk" to: "Mourzouk"

pg 266 Changed: "ABDULFEDA" to: "ABULFEDA"