THE LAKE IN THE DESERT 165 



character of the place and the fierce fanaticism of the 

 older Senussi would give our enemies every chance of 

 fomenting the distrust which the advent of the first 

 strangers in their history must naturally arouse. Moham- 

 med and Yusuf were exceedingly troubled. For the 

 hundredth time I imagine they wished they had never 

 started on this southern journey! The story invented by 

 the Bazamas, the one most likely to unite every faction 

 and family against us, was that Sidi Idris had sold Ku- 

 fara, Ribiana and Buseima to Europeans, and that Chris- 

 tian strangers (sometimes I was reported to be the Queen 

 of Italy!) were coming to gain all information about the 

 country, so that the Europeans could occupy it with 

 greater ease! Unless this amazing rumour could be 

 rapidlj' discredited, every man's hand would be against 

 us and our lives not worth the fraction of a centime! 



We calculated that the spy would waste at least half 

 the day "fadhling" at Buseima, after which it would 

 take him a day to return to Ribiana. We expected that 

 more time would be wasted there in organising the attack 

 and so hoped, by moving speedily, to arrive at Hawari 

 without a battle. It would not matter much, in case of 

 attack, whether we were victorious or not, for in the 

 former case we should have started a blood feud and the 

 relatives of the slain would lie in wait for us on our 

 return. 



Unfortunately, the dunes made rapid progress im- 

 possible. The camels shpped and fell going down 

 them; the ungirthed loads were flung off in all direc- 

 tions. The beasts had to be urged up them slowly and 

 laboriously. We were obliged to wind round the largest 

 and our course that day was an infinitely slow zigzag. 

 We rose to a height of 580 metres, with great waves and 

 ridges of dunes running irregularly on every side. At 

 3 p. M. we arrived at an almost fiat stretch with one very 



