154 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



had entertained the gravest doubts, had only waited to 

 welcome us until they were certain we were under the 

 protection of Sidi Idris. Once assured of this, the 

 two brothers Faqrun, Maihub and Salah, met us most 

 amicably and showed us the ruins of a Tebu village on 

 the north-west shore of the lake. The Tebawiya must 

 have led cramped existences, for their houses are tiny and 

 of an odd formation, a series of small, round constructions 

 like immense native ovens. Some of them had three or 

 four of these round "rooms" clustered together without 

 regular order, like the cells in a honeycomb. They were 

 made of stones and quite hard mortar, and were window- 

 less unless there had originally been some windows higher 

 up. Unfortunately they were all roofless, the highest 

 walls being about 15 feet 8 inches. Only one door gave 

 access even to the biggest clusters. 



Before we came to these ruins we passed east of one 

 of the smaller round hills of the Gara and faint traces 

 of a Tebu fort were pointed out to us. There had been 

 another on the main cliff of the gebel opposite, so the 

 Tebu must have been a warrior race. These forts would 

 have been impregnable, situated on the top of almost 

 perpendicular rocks, commanding a view of the surround- 

 ing country 50 kilometres on every side and, moreover, 

 showing a very good idea of defence, for they must have 

 utilised various ridges of rock as walls and barricades. 

 On the main gebel are some Tebu tombs, but they are 

 difficult to find among the mass of stones. These primi- 

 tive people were buried in a sitting position exactly as 

 Rohlfs describes the one he saw in Taiserbo, but gener- 

 ally they have sheepskins wound round them. Apparently 

 they had no knowledge of textiles and wore only skins. 



The main village of Buseima, at the north-west end 

 of the lake, with well-kept and well-fenced date gardens, 

 in which grow a few vegetables and fig-trees, stretching 



