She was so
accustomed to search the desert since the days, long ago, when she had
actually hoped for friends to come and take her away, that she could
differentiate objects at greater distances than one less trained to
observation. Hardly thinking of the caravan, she made out, nevertheless,
that it consisted of two camels, carrying bassourahs, a horse and Arab
rider, a brown pack camel, and a loaded mule, driven by two men who
walked.
They had evidently come from Oued Tolga, or at least from that
direction, therefore it was probable that their destination was the
Zaouia; otherwise, as it was already late, they would have stopped in
the city all night. Of course, it was possible that they were on their
way to the village, but it was a poor place, inhabited by very poor
people, many of them freed Negroes, who worked in the oases and lived
mostly upon dates. No caravans ever went out from there, because no man,
even the richest, owned more than one camel or donkey; and nobody came
to stay, unless some son of the miserable hamlet, who had made a little
money elsewhere, and returned to see his relatives. But on the other
hand, numerous caravans arrived at the Zaouia of Oued Tolga, and
hundreds of pilgrims from all parts of Islam were entertained as the
marabout's guests, or as recipients of charity.
Dimly, as she detached her mind from the message she had sent, the woman
began to wonder about this caravan, because of the bassourahs, which
meant that there were women among the travellers.
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