THE LAKE IN THE DESERT 159 



heart of the weh, whose threads were the long caravan 

 routes spreading out in every direction from TripoH to 

 the Sudan, from Lake Chad to Egj^pt, the commercial 

 side of the problem fascinated me. Kufara controls the 

 desert trade of half the Sahara. So few of the old routes 

 are open now and others are almost impracticable for 

 lack of wells, but there are infinite possibilities in the 

 future. [Camels need not remain for ever the only means 

 of transport in Libya. \ Cisterns of water might be stored i 

 at various known posts, as is done between Jalo and 

 Jaghabub, where the Sayeds have caused water to be kept 

 in great stone jars for the use of travellers. 



That night at Buseima, when our guests departed, 

 we returned to the tent athirst for map-making. We 

 shut the flaps and drew out our secreted apparatus. We 

 ruined many sheets of paper and lost our compass in the 

 sand a dozen times before we produced the first rough 

 chart of the desert oasis, but we felt the effort was worth 

 while when we saw the wells we had added to the 1915 

 Egj^ptian Survey map. "Let us hope we shall have 

 saved the next European quite a lot of trouble!" said 

 Hassanein, unconsciously adding sand to his already 

 ruffled hair. 



Sidi Mohammed spent the night in our camp. I 

 thought it was to avoid the long walk back in the dark, 

 for he lived in the farthest away of the two villages. In 

 the morning I discovered he had done it as a precaution. 

 Apparently the tales of danger were not so absurd as 

 we had thought. The Faqrun men had said to Moham- 

 med, "Wallahi! If it had not been for Sidi el Madeni, 

 we would have killed you all!" It remains a complete 

 mystery how they proposed to do it, but there could be 

 no further doubt about Buseima's dislike of strangers. 

 A pale-faced woman had shpped out of the bushes to 

 talk to Mora j a as he went out of the camp. The sergeant 



