162 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



was a gold stopping! They thought it was a new form of 

 jewelleiy and everyone in tui'n was called upon to inspect 

 and poke my unfortunate tooth. "If we have gold," 

 they said, "we make it into necklaces and ear-rings. 

 A\Tiy do you wear it in your mouth?" They insisted 

 on unwinding my cumbersome red hezaam, which I had 

 always rolled round my waist, and swathing it very low 

 on my hips, which gave me the immensely long-bodied 

 effect of all Arab women. They showed me all their 

 jewellery — huge silver ear-rings, necklaces and amulets — 

 and asked me why I had no tattoo marks to show my 

 tribe. Altogether we spent an amusing hour in the dark 

 palm-room, varied by drinking sour goat's milk out of 

 bowls made of palm wood, and eating dry, black dates 

 almost too hard to bite. 



From Buseima there are two routes, one due south to 

 Ribiana, described as a day and a half through very big 

 dunes, a hard road that no guide likes to face, and another 

 slightly south-east, taking three and a half days, of which 

 two are difficult. From Ribiana it is possible to continue 

 through the same high dunes to the Kufara group. By 

 the more direct route one arrives at Hawari and by the 

 longer one at Tolab. We took the straight road without 

 hesitation, for our camels had by no means recovered 

 from our last disastrous journey. Two of the nagas were 

 expected to foal at any moment and all looked extremely 

 thin and weak. Abdul Hafiz shook his head over them 

 despondently. "Allah is great," he said, "but so are 

 the dunes!" 



We left Buseima at 8.20 on January 8. Bu Regea 

 walked with us to the top of the first sand ridge, from 

 where there was a marvellous view of the whole oasis, 

 palms, lake and mountains, the latter like ruddy amethysts 

 in a gold setting. The "Fatha" was solemnly repeated 

 on the summit of a sharp rise; then, after many good 



