I have just come in from the desert, so my liver is melting [with desire].
-Arabic proverb
On the old cattle drives, they called Ogallala, Nebraska “the Gomorrah of the West” and Dodge City, Kansas “the Devil’s Own”. What did Hajj Bashir’s camel drovers call Dongola, and what did they do in town after twenty hard days on the trail? Al-Urdi, the Military Camp, from the days when Turks and Egyptians sent armies above the Nile’s 3rd Cataract. And when they came into town, they sat in the market stall of Hajj Bashir’s agent al-’Amiri Yaseen, telling tall tales to souk sellers about camel thieves and dry wells. No dancing girls, no gambling, no drinking…except for Bilal, who couldn’t be denied his nip or two of Merissa.