The modern Egyptians…have a horror of the desert. One journey in the desert furnishes them with tales of exaggerated hardships, perils, and wonders, which they are extremely fond of relating to their less experienced countrymen.
-Edward Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 1836
Egyptian camel merchants were drawn to the drovers’ stories of the trail, tales of long days and short nights in the desert, of riding to the point of exhaustion, and that scared and fascinated them. Would I be able to do that, each one thought. Could I eat boiled millet, sleep on the cold ground wrapped in a thin blanket, sit in the saddle until my ass rubbed raw? They should have looked at me and thought, If a Khawaja can do it, how hard can it really be?