104 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



business in life consisted in robbing any chance travellers 

 between Buseima and Kufara. He said that caravans 

 cannot cross the steep dunes. The camels slip and cast 

 their loads or break their legs. "Our camels are not 

 strong," he urged, "and they are not used to deep sand. 

 While we are labouring in the dunes, the Tuaregs will 

 attack us and take the caravan." "Is there no way of 

 avoiding them?" I asked, determined to see Buseima. 

 "None. They will know where we are passing, and they 

 will lie in wait to surprise us. One man might escape 

 them, but how can a caravan pass unseen?" He told 

 a gruesome story of a caravan passing that way from 

 Wadai a few weeks ago and of a successful Tuareg attack 

 which seized the camels and put to flight those of the 

 escort whom they did not kill. I could believe it, because 

 in the French Sahara I had known the masked Tuaregs, 

 and their swift-trotting camels, date-fed. They never 

 remove the cloths which hide their mouths, but they 

 are the salt of the Beduin race — tireless, fearless and 

 cruel ! 



Ibrahim Bishari proffered the fact that there was a 

 route between Taiserbo and Zieghen, one day's journey 

 or a day and a half at most, so if, after reaching Taiserbo, 

 we did not wish to face the dunes or the Tuaregs, we 

 could go to the lonely well on the caravan route, and 

 thence in five days to Kufara. Only Yusuf protested. 

 "In Buseima are enemies of the Arabs," he said. 

 "There is always danger there." But I sternly insisted. 

 "The honour of the Sayed is in your hands. You must 

 prove to the Ferangi that his influence is strong enough 

 to protect his people anywhere." This phrase spiked his 

 guns for the moment. It was enthusiastically received 

 by the others. After deciding that we would stay in 

 Jalo for two or three days to procure girbas to carry 

 sufficient water for our large party, food for the men, 



