Evening star., 1926-03-28

stead of getting on and mapping the
| desert.
Eleven miles march from our camp
! brought US to the Cara bu Gerara-a
| long, low. flat-topped hill with small
peak at it's eastern extremity, where
! the road to Blu Gerara branched off
| from the Derb ct Tawil, according to
| Qwaytin's book of treasure.
Much to my surprise, we found a
very we'll marked road branched off
from the Derb ct Tawil, though, judg.
| ing from its appearance, it had not
been used for very long time. Away
| to the east of our route-by the side of
| the Derb ct Tawil--waS a small
but very conspicuous mound of bright
yellow earth - probably ocherous -
which ! was told was the Garet ed
Dahab golden hillockl.
Here Qwaytin and Add err Rahmann
went on ahead in their search for
treasure. After wandering about for a
time, seeking the marble palaces and
gilded domes of Blu Gerara, we at
length caught sight of two figures in
the distance, who, when examined
through the glass. proved to be Qway-
tin and Add er Rahmann.
We found Add er Rahmann and
Qwaytin diligently engaged in grub
bling about in the ground. In reply
to- my question as to whether they
had seen anything of Blu Gerara, I
was told that we were standing on it.
Qwaytin pointed out the foundations
of several walls that could just be seen
showing above the sandy surface of
the ground and lot of broken pottery
lying about on the desert.
He then led me a few Yards away
where a circular patch of unusually
sandy soil, a few feet in diameter, was
TO be seen, which he said was the
mouth of a well, and produced as the
first tnstallment of the treasure" to
be found a piece of broken purple
glass, but had apparently once formed
part of cup or bowl, and a copper
coin of the Ptolemaic period, which
he had dug up.
The sight of that coin was too
much for my men. 1t was all | could
do to get them to unload the camels
and pitch my tent before they were
all digging away into the ground for
dear life eXecting every moment to
find the untold wealth that the book
had described. They continued until
it was too dark for them to see.
X
.OWAYTIN came into my tent in
the evening highly elated at hav-
ing found Blu Gerara. To my disgust
I discovered that he was not think
ing of going on into Farafra, which
was my objective, but was fairly off
on a treasure hunt. and seemed to
imagine that he was going to drag
me all over the desert with him
searching for buried riches.
His book, he explained, not only de-
scribed the road as far as Blu Gerara,
but said that close by there was a. hill
to the west, standing in the same
wady-Qwaytin pointed out a hill
standing by itself to the west as a
conclusive proef that his book was
correct-and that a road ran past the
foot of the hill that, if followed, led
to big hill, on the top of which was
a well in which the treasures of three
Sultans were buried. His mind was
fairly obsessed with the idea of treas
ure and could get him to talk of
nothing else.
The morning after our arrival at Blu
Gerara, the men fell seriously to work
TO dig about the site, with the result
that by midday few pieces of broken
pottery and glass and two or three
more small copper coins had been un-
earthed. AS / wished to ascertain
whether any water was to be found in
the well, in the afternoon, much to
their disgust, 1 set the men to clear
it out.