“There a great Marabout died, and our fathers say that people passing the dead man’s grave saw green lights at night, and said: _‘There lies a man who is glad even in death’_; and so they built a tomb over him.” In the belief that the oases and the sedentary people are the mainspring of the Sahara’s system, it may be worth while to bear in mind the state of the people, in picturing any possibility of resuscitating the land, of which we hear projects from time to time. Prolonged immorality brings decadence in its wake, and extreme poverty can do likewise. I see in the oases to-day human life at a very low ebb; human life that has been allowed to go to rot, because, through the ages, the Sahara has had no strong _friends_ to reach out a hand and lift it from “the Slough of Despond.” If the oases could be rejuvenated it is possible to believe that, despite the awe-inspiring forces of Nature, great things might yet be accomplished in reviving the Sahara; for the oases were ever the keystones of the land. But that is a vast undertaking to attempt, and almost impossible of accomplishment. The low ebb is running fast, and the back eddies of the land are full of wreckage that slide toward oblivion in the end. Which is a clear illustration that, _when the character of the people of a country weakens, so must that country suffer_. [Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE “DIARABBA”] CHAPTER XI STRANGE CAMP-FIRES [Illustration] CHAPTER XI STRANGE CAMP-FIRES When mankind pack up their goods and chattels in dunnage bags and bits of boxes and take to the open road, the life that ensues is that of the nomad, whether the wanderings are from place to place within the bounds of civilisation or beyond recognised frontiers. In either case the quality of adventure is there to quicken the pulses; for the instinct to explore is in all of us, whether the field be far-flung or near at hand. And while it is true that, in minor walks, light-hearted travel may have little purpose in its conception beyond that of pleasure, particularly at the onset, there is nevertheless reason why the smallest of these nomadic propensities should be thoughtfully considered since there is a very tangible utility in them, insomuch that travel of any kind is disposed to enlarge one’s notion of the world as a whole, while, at the same time, it broadcasts the character of a race; which shall be judged of repute or disrepute, abroad, according to the conduct of those who, wittingly or unwittingly, carry the standard far afield.