THE LAKE IN THE DESERT 151 



Informant added that when the Zouias made their 

 voluntary submission to Sidi Ben Ali es Senussi the 

 Tebus were already their servants or slaves, for they 

 had been originally conquered by the Fawai tribe, who 

 had been forced to give way to the Ghawazi, who in their 

 turn had fallen before the prowess of the fighting 

 Zouias. This tribe originally came from the Fezzan, where 

 some of the stock still exist in the Aulad Bu Hassan. 



We went to bed that night feeling really truimphant, 

 for the shadows that for so long had veiled the strange 

 Libyan oasis were being gradually rolled away. At the 

 same time we realised how difficult it is to dig out even 

 recent history from the cautious Arab brain. We were 

 anxious to open a Tebu tomb, but in order to do so we 

 had to talk for nearly an hour about Egyptian mummies, 

 so that we could ask if perchance the infidels who used 

 to live in Buseima had buried their dead in the same way. 

 I must acknowledge that Sidi Mohammed el Madeni was 

 the most intelligent and broad-minded Arab whom I have 

 met. From him we learnt much of the history of the 

 spread of the Senussi influence through the Sahara, and 

 he offered to show us all over the oasis on the following 

 day. 



We woke late on January 6 and found both our 

 watches had stopped, but the sun was strong, so we 

 imagined it must be about 8, and hurried through a 

 breakfast of coffee, dates and unleavened bread in order 

 to begin our voyage of exploration. Our start, however, 

 was delayed by a furious quarrel between the blacks and 

 the Beduins as to whose duty it was to re-make the 

 baggage saddles and fetch water for the camp. For once 

 I discarded soothing words and rated them all so soundly 

 that in a few moments the toothless Farraj was creeping 

 off in one direction with a girba and Shakri positively 

 running to the wadi in search of "leaf." Earlier in the 



