164 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



made exhaustive inquiries as to the strength of our party 

 and the retinue we were taking. 



It was iNIohammed who elucidated the mystery. He 

 told us that the Bazamas were an old and highly respected 

 Senussi family, who had been ekhwan since the ancestor, 

 who was sent to Kufara by Sidi Ben Ali, was one of the 

 original four who were to instruct the Zouias in the faith 

 of Islam. There had been an ancient dispute about the 

 possession of some land in Ribiana between the Sayeds 

 and a member of this family, but Sayed Ahmed had 

 settled matters amicably by making them sheikhs of 

 Ribiana. Unfortunately, they had lately evaded the 

 payment of "Onshm-" (the tenth part) to the Govern- 

 ment, on the grounds that they had not enough servants 

 to till the lands. Sidi Idris had just removed them from 

 office and appointed another man in their place. Con- 

 sequently the whole Bazama family were in search of 

 revenge. What better opportunity could offer than the 

 murder of the Sayed's guests, who were, moreover, 

 generally supposed to be engaged on an important 

 Senussi mission? 



Now we could trace all the threads to one spinning- 

 wheel. We had attributed the robbers to chance greed, 

 the affair at Aujela to the meanness of a surly Zouia who 

 did not wish to feast the travellers, the rumours of danger 

 in Buseima to the strained imaginations of the retinue. 

 As a matter of fact, we probably owed our continued 

 existence in the first place to our disguised flight, which 

 misled Jedabia. Later on, Hassanein's eloquence the 

 first night in the She-ib's tent at Aujela; at Jalo, the 

 loyalty of the kaimakaan; at Buseima the smallness of 

 the population doubtless saved us from disaster; but what 

 about Kufara? The Bazamas might have much influence 

 there, and in a large Arab oasis there are always factions 

 only too glad of an excuse to squabble. The sacred 



