THE LAKE IN THE DESERT 153 



a mejidie (fivepence) each! Abdullah contributed the 

 most bitter goat's milk I have ever tasted, mixed with 

 fresh laghbi — the juice of the palm, which ferments after 

 twenty-four hours and makes a very potent liquor. The 

 stern Senussi law decrees that anyone getting drunk on 

 laghbi shall be flogged and fined. 



After all disputes were settled we mounted the two 

 least weary camels and started picking our way across 

 the waste of salt that lay between our camp at one end 

 of the semi-circular strip of palms and the village at the 

 other. It was difficult going, because the salt was caked 

 in hard and uneven formation, but it was a wonderful 

 morning, vividly clear and cool in spite of a brilliant sun. 

 To the east of us lay the chain of cliffs, no longer black, 

 but purplish red, against the pale dunes beyond. To the 

 west was an iridescent blue lake about eight kilometres 

 long, very salt, so that no fish can live in it, but exquisitely 

 translucent. Beyond it was the border of massed palms 

 and the faintly coral sands, for the reddish dust from the 

 gebel tints the neighbouring country. 



Half-way across the salt waste we were met by Sidi 

 Mohammed, and before we left it the whole male popula- 

 tion of Buseima had joined us. Our amusement may be 

 imagined when we discovered that it numbered about 

 a score! Including men, women and children, I don't 

 believe that there were more than fifty human beings 

 in the danger spot that all our fully armed retinue were 

 mortally afraid to approach! Thereafter we had the 

 profoundest distrust of the far-spread tales of marauding 

 bands and murdered caravans. 



I also came to the conclusion that the Senussi inliuence 

 was much more firmly established in the smaller oasis 

 than is generally supposed. Sidi Mohammed had kissed 

 the Sayed's letter and touched his eyelids with it and the 

 important Faqrun family, about whose loyalty our retinue 



