As the plane climbed over the town and swung above the sea I knew how it felt to go into exile. - Wilfred Thesiger

The Nuristanis had retained their individuality as a race even after conversion to Islam. Now they would be visited by an ever-increasing number of expeditions seeking adventure in wild places. This would disrupt a society utterly unprepared. Each expedition by its very presence would help destroy what it had come to find.

…I had learnt that the most effective way to spread a story was to tell it to one or two Arabs under a pledge of secrecy.

[re Danakil country] I was among a savage, good-looking people with a dangerous reputation. I was travelling with camels in hot, arid country under testing conditions where, if things went wrong, I could get no help and where men's lives depended on my judgement.