THE LAKE IN THE DESERT 155 



to the water's edge, was another surprise to us, for it 

 contained but six houses, square buildings with sohd, well- 

 constructed walls, and regular, neatly finished yards, with 

 strong wooden doors. They looked neat and comfort- 

 able, and had none of the crumbling aspect so common 

 to Arab villages. Here we left the men of Buseima after 

 they had promised to come and share our woolly sheep 

 with us in the evening. Sidi Mohammed continued the 

 tour of the lake to show us the Bir Nasrani, a tiny hollow 

 at the roots of a great clump of palms. We had brought 

 our fanatis to fill, as this was supposed to be the best water 

 in the oasis and, while two blacks were slowly scooping 

 up the cold liquid, we "fadhled" in the shade and drew 

 maps in the sand, locating the elusive Taiserbo where 

 "each man sticks to his village and never goes beyond 

 it; so no one meets them or hears about them." Ribiana, 

 we found, lay a day and a half's journey due south, 

 through bad sands, which put it in the middle of Kufara 

 (Kebabo) according to our map. 



After leaving the well we skirted round the whole of 

 the outer shore of the lake and wondered if we had 

 wandered into fairyland by mistake. It seemed incredible 

 that after fourteen days in the intolerable sands, unchang- 

 ing and characterless, w^e should be in an iridescent 

 setting of turquoise, emerald and amethyst. Buseima is 

 the loveliest oasis I have ever seen, with its strange, ruddy 

 hills — jewels purple and crimson reflected in the silver 

 salt mirage which girdles the bluest lake in the world. 

 All this colour is clear-cut against the soft, pale dunes. 

 It is seen through a frame of drooping palm branches with 

 perhaps a rose-hued figure, scarlet sashed, guarding a 

 flock of goats by a dark pool among high green rushes. 

 Time stood still for us that day as we wandered slowly 

 on from green of the palms to gold of the sands and so 

 back to our tents in the wadi. We had eaten nothing 



