50 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



dawn! Mohammed was already murmuring, "AUahu 

 Akhbar," devoutly turning towards the kibla at Mecca. 

 We followed his example, abluting in the sand as is 

 permissible when there is no water. Luckily it is only 

 necessary to go through the "Fatha" and the requisite 

 "Raqa-at." The kneeling position hurt my foot excru- 

 ciatingly, and I could hardly get it into my huge yellow 

 shoe again. 



The men bestirred themselves to some purpose. Five 

 minutes after the last "Salamu Aleikum wa Rahmat 

 Allah" had saluted the angels who stand on either side 

 to record a man's good and bad deeds, the camels w^ere 

 loaded and we were moving away from the white qubba 

 of Sidi Hassan and the scattered mud houses which 

 appeared but a stone's throw distant. There had been 

 no time to eat. I tried to force a hard-boiled egg down 

 my throat as I swayed along, but I could not manage it. 

 Hassanein was doubled up with rheumatism and I tried 

 every possible position to ease my foot. My hands were 

 numb as I clutched the gaudy barracan, red, blue and 

 orange, round me, and prayed for the sun to warm me. 



Every few minutes we turned round to see if Jedabia 

 had disappeared, but it must stand on a slight rise as 

 the morabit was visible for three hours. Distance is 

 illusive in the desert. Everji;hing looks much nearer 

 than it really is. One sees the pahns of an oasis early 

 in the morning, plans to arrive before midday, and is 

 lucky if one reaches it by sunset. However, by 10.30 

 every sign of human habitation had disappeared and only 

 a flat sandy plain, tufted with coarse grey brush a few 

 inches to a foot high, lay all around us. Thankfully we 

 halted, turned the camels to graze, spread the scarlet 

 woven rugs in the sun, and prepared to eat. 



Further troubles threatened when we discovered 

 that our retinue, Yusuf, Mohammed and two coal-black 



