Sugar breeds thirst…
-The Lost Oases, Ahmad Hassanein, 1925
Sugar is the desert’s white gold, Dune’s spice. Its Arabic etymon is Sukkar, as Lane gives, A Certain Sweet Substance, Well Known, and Sakar, as Wehr gives, An Intoxicant. It soothes the sick and the sore, the dry-throated and the trail-tired. But when it runs low or is no more and the drovers are left with bitter tea, tempers flare. So yes, sugar both begets and begones the thirst of the Darb.