PLANS FOR THE FLIGHT 35 



Sayed. As wakil of Sidi Idris he represented to them, 

 as he does to thousands hke them, the mystic being 

 chosen by Allah to direct them. Their lives are his to 

 command. He is their supreme judge as he is their 

 defender and their guide. It is difficult for a European 

 to reahse the power held by the Senussi family, for there 

 has been nothing approaching it in Europe. It is a 

 reflection of the temporal and spiritual Papacy at its 

 height. For instance, Sidi Idris might order one of the 

 oldest and noblest ekhwan to start the following day 

 for a two-thousand-mile journey to Lake Chad, and he 

 would obey unquestioningly, without preparation or even 

 surprise. "We are the servants of the Saj^ed," he would 

 say as he wrapped his burnus round him and prepared to 

 face the waterless sands. 



When we decided on flight as the only possible 

 means of leaving Jedabia, we asked Sayed Rida for a 

 guide. He gave us Yusuf el Hamri and Mohammed 

 Quemish and, calling them into our presence, he told 

 them that if anything happened to us, whether by their 

 fault or not, they would die immediately. The men 

 accepted the statement as undoubted fact. Yet as Sayed 

 Rida sat in our only camp chair in my big bare room, 

 drinking sweet tea and eating Hassanein's last macaroons, 

 it was difficult to realise that the fate of a country prob- 

 ably lay in his capable hands. The Sayed might declare 

 a Holy War to-morrow against the infidels, and Islam, 

 from Wajanga to the Mediterranean, might respond, but 

 that afternoon our host talked with the simplicity of a 

 child. We were trying to thank him for his amazing 

 hospitality and for the permission he had given us to travel 

 to Egj^pt by way of the great desert, which included the 

 loan of camels, guides and an escort of soldiers, besides 

 immense gifts of food and native clothing. 



Coming from an Italian colony we had become used 



