[p.439] had established a depot for his Arabian expedition. The
provisions of my companions consisted only of flour; besides flour, I
carried some butter and dried Leben (sour milk), which when dissolved in
water, forms not only a refreshing beverage, but is much to be
recommended as a preservative of health when travelling in summer. These
were our only provisions. During the journey we did not sup till after
sunset, and we breakfasted in the morning upon a piece of dry bread,
which we had baked in the ashes the preceding evening, without either
salt or leven. The frugality of these Bedouins is indeed without
example; my companions, who walked at least five hours every day,
supported themselves for four and twenty hours with a piece of dry black
bread of about a pound and a half weight, without any other kind of
nourishment. I endeavoured, as much as possible to imitate their
abstemiousness, being already convinced from experience that it is the
best preservative against the effects of the fatigues of such a journey.
My companions proved to be very good natured people: and not a single
quarrel happened during our route, except between myself and my guide.
He too was an honest, good tempered man, but I suffered from his
negligence, and rather from his ignorance of my wants, as an European.
He had brought only one water-skin with him, which was to serve us both
for drinking and cooking; and as we had several intervals of three days
without meeting with water, I found myself on very short allowance, and
could not receive any assistance from my companions, who had scarcely
enough for themselves. But these people think nothing of hardships and
privations, and take it for granted, that other peoples constitutions
are hardened to the same aptitude of enduring thirst and fatigue, as
their own.
We returned to Szadeke, where we filled our water-skins, and proceeded
from thence in a W.S.W. direction, ascending the eastern