Near Kibbutz Shoval in the Negev Desert, 27 kilo-metres or 17 miles from Beer Sheba on the Road to Arad, lies the settlement of the Attawneh, a Bedouin tribe that originated near the Negev settlement of Rahameh. The Dead Sea is not far away: the hot air is salt-dry in the throat and parched in the nostrils, and you might even turn to straw like the broom plants along the road or to a pillar of salt like Lot's wife. Sodom is only 50 miles away. The sandscape sits as in a kiln, and gravel spits up from under the wheels of your car.

Nothing matters but water. The ancient laws of the desert are reasserted: to withhold water from a desert traveler is to court dishonor and provoke vengeance.(As though there were no Delek Gas stations within a few miles or that Ezekiel's dry bones were your own.)

The gauze scarf for head protection and cotton dress were dry before going inside the Delek station for water and directions to Attawneh, but after an instant over the threshold, every pore burst and ran with sweat. The Levantine-looking boy offered me a towel; he filled my water thermos from a trickling spigot attached to a pipe, and then he pointed across the road."Attawneh."