32 LEFT BEHIND TO DIE,

the coast, were two women, one of whom was rather lame. As

she could not well trudge along with the rest of the party, they

simply left her behind to die in the desert ; although her hus-

band was with her, it appeared that he was perfectly satisfied

to do so. Unfortunately we knew nothing of it, until so long

after she had been left behind, that it was impossible and quite

useless to send after her. She could quite well have ridden on

one of our camels ; but such is the callousness to suffering, and

total disregard of life, among these people, that no one of the

drivers had thought of asking her to do so.

A similar event took place when we were crossing the Great

Nubian Desert from Korosko, four years before : then it was

one of the camel-drivers that had been left behind to die. We knew nothing of it for several days after ; and, when we ex-

pressed our horror at what had happened, they considered they

had behaved in a really generous manner by leaving him a small

quantity of water and dJiiirra-?io\\x.

The sand-storm continued the following day, and Jules was

too ill to move. We decided on leaving him behind, as we

could not remain any longer at a place where there was no

water, and scarcely any food for the camels ; for, though fond of

tamarisk-bushes, they would not live exclusively upon them.

Lort Phillips and the doctor remained behind with the invalid.

After five and a half hours' march through a decidedly less

sandy country, we arrived at a kJior called Wandi ; where

there was more food for the camels than at the last place, and,

moreover, wells of tolerably good water. It was only the se-

cond watering-place on our direct route we had come across

;

and there were a few tents there, and Arabs with sheep and

goats.

The next day we spent in camp, hoping that the rest of the

party would overtake us. There being no signs of them, on