* * * * *

Morhange left me to go into the little grotto, where Bou-Djema’s camels were now resting comfortably.  I stayed alone, watching the torrent which was continuously rising with the impetuous inrush of its unbridled tributaries.  It had stopped raining.  The sun shone from a sky that had renewed its blueness.  I could feel the clothes that had a moment before been drenching, drying upon me incredibly fast.

A hand was placed on my shoulder.  Morhange was again beside me.

“Come here,” he said.

Somewhat surprised, I followed him.  We went into the grotto.

The opening, which was big enough to admit the camels, made it fairly light.  Morhange led me up to the smooth face of rock opposite.  “Look,” he said, with unconcealed joy.

“What of it?”

“Don’t you see?”

“I see that there are several Tuareg inscriptions,” I answered, with some disappointment.  “But I thought I had told you that I read Tifinar writing very badly.  Are these writings more interesting than the others we have come upon before?”

“Look at this one,” said Morhange.  There was such an accent of triumph in his tone that this time I concentrated my attention.

I looked again.

The characters of the inscription were arranged in the form of a cross.  It plays such an important part in this adventure that I cannot forego retracing it for you.

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o  o  o  o  —­ W + —­ —
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[Transcriber’s Note:  This is but a crude ASCII representation of the inscription.  The center ‘W’ is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise in the book.]

It was designed with great regularity, and the characters were cut deep into the rock.  Although I knew so little of rock inscriptions at that time I had no difficulty in recognizing the antiquity of this one.

Morhange became more and more radiant as he regarded it.

I looked at him questioningly.

“Well, what have you to say now?” he asked.

“What do you want me to say?  I tell you that I can barely read Tifinar.”

“Shall I help you?” he suggested.

This course in Berber writing, after the emotions through which we had just passed, seemed to me a little inopportune.  But Morhange was so visibly delighted that I could not dash his joy.

“Very well then,” began my companion, as much at his, ease as if he had been before a blackboard, “what will strike you first about this inscription is its repetition in the form of a cross.  That is to say that it contains the same word twice, top to bottom, and right to left.  The word which it composes has seven letters so the fourth letter, W [Transcriber’s Note:  Rotated 90 deg. counter-clockwise], comes naturally in the middle.  This arrangement which is unique in Tifinar writing, is already remarkable enough.  But there is better still.  Now we will read it.”