76 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



have with you. What more do you want?" said She-ib. 

 "Even now you are wearing the Sitt's coat." Our 

 retinue had complained bitterly of cold one night at 

 Wadi Farig, so we had lent them two fleece-lined 

 waterproofs which we had hidden in our bedding and 

 they wore them day and night, even in the fierce 

 noon sun! 



We departed leisurely at 3.30 p.m. and trekked 

 through blinding, white sand, soft and deep, till 8.30 

 P.M., but the last hour we went very slow, as the 

 grey brush appeared again and the camels grazed as they 

 walked. We passed a herd grazing and She-ib went to 

 greet the owners, encamped in a zariba of piled luggage, 

 and to drink strong tea. We campsd under some huge 

 grey bushes with a wonderfully sweet scent and ate the 

 rest of Mighrib's black damper, with camel's milk and a 

 half-ration of meat, while another marvellous sunset 

 painted feathers of flame and rose below the silver sickle 

 moon. 



We used to shut the tent flaps after our evening meal 

 to write our diaries and make our simple route maps, 

 for if we pulled out note-books and pencil in the daji;ime 

 it caused great suspicion. We had made plans in 

 England, while lunching in the oriental splendour of 

 Claridge's, to do a little survey work in Libya, but we 

 had not counted with the fanaticism of the Senussi. It 

 seems to me now that we were mad to imagine that a 

 Christian could show his or her face beyond Jedabia, 

 in a land where it is every man's sacred duty to kill the 

 Nasrani. True, the mental atmosphere had changed since 

 the first day out, when, if we carelessly asked the name 

 of any tribe or district, we were looked upon as spies. 

 At our first camp I told one of the blacks to fetch me a 

 camel, whereupon he turned to his fellow-soldier exclaim- 

 ing, "Are we to be ordered about by a cursed Christian 



