150 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



the fashion of travelling more slowly and camping by 

 the way. 



The curious thing was they all said that when Rohlfs 

 escaped from Kufara and passed through Buseima in his 

 flight, he was alone with Korayim, whereas he speaks of 

 having three Germans with him. The name by w^hich 

 they recognised the Teuton explorer was Mustapha Bey. 

 Oddly enough, Sidi Omar and Bu Regea proved to be 

 nephews of Haballah el Abed, mentioned by Rohlfs as 

 the head of the Ait Anira, part of the Zouia tribe at 

 Kufara, and a descendant of the last Tebu sultan, while 

 Abdullah turned out to be a near relation of the same 

 chief. 



We tried to discover where in the Kufara oasis the 

 iight had taken place. "There was no fight," they said. 

 "The man was a Nasrani. He came without the per- 

 mission of Sidi el Mahdi, who was then at Jaghabub. He 

 deserved to die. His caravan was eaten up by Bu Guettin 

 and the Zouias and he did not go to the belads at all." 

 "Where did he camp, then?" I asked. "We do not 

 know," they said. "We were young then. Senussi 

 influence had only just started. There were but four 

 ekhwan in Kufara, but the Nasrani did not go into the 

 country." It was impossible to pin them down to details, 

 but they evidently beheved that the gallant Teuton had 

 camped on the outskirts of Kufara and been obliged to 

 retire after the loss of his caravan. To our amusement 

 neither Abdullah nor our two visitors were proud of their 

 connexion with the Tebu sultan. "It was before Islam," 

 they said. "The Tebawiya were infidels — Kufara!" 



We asked if there were any of these savages left in 

 Buseima and were told that the Tebus were rapidly 

 dying out and while some had been converted to Islam 

 and continued living in Kufara and Taiserbo, the 

 remainder had ensconced themselves in Ribiana. Our 



