168 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



of some Arabs seated round their camp fire amidst the 

 starHt dunes. To them came a stranger who asked them 

 for news of the Mahdi. "Our lord is dead," they 

 repHed; "the Sayeds at Kufara say so." "He is ahve," 

 said the stranger, "Huwa fi Wasst." The Beduins 

 translated this to mean that Sidi el Mahdi was in a town 

 called "Wasst" in Algeria, and they rushed with the 

 news to Kufara. "Why did you not hold the man?" 

 asked the sheikhs. "That was the Mahdi. He is alive. 

 He told you he was 'fiwasst,' 'between you.' " The 

 play on the Arabic words is clumsy in English. "Fi- 

 wasst" means "between," "in the middle of," while 

 "fi" means "in," and "Wasst" might be the name of 

 a place. 



The previous night we had camped with a feeling of 

 unrest and apprehension. Everybody clung to his rifle 

 and I remember Hassanein and I had a fierce dispute over 

 an ancient musket, left behind by a soldier who had 

 deserted at Jalo, reducing our army to nine, inclusive 

 of commandant and sergeant. As a matter of fact, the 

 weapon which really filled the Beduin soul with terror 

 was Hassanein's useless target pistol. Its long barrel 

 thrilled them and we overheard Abdullah telling a friend 

 that Ahmed Bey had a revolver which could shoot people 

 an hour away! 



The second night the desert had stuck in her claw 

 again — fatal anesthetic which makes one utterly careless 

 of the future — "What matter dead yesterday and unborn 

 to-morrow, so that the day be good?" In truth the 

 days are generally extremely trying, for there is either 

 a blazing sun which burns through the thin cotton 

 barracan over the wound handkerchief, or a bitter wind 

 which pierces every bone in one's body. Sometimes there 

 were both together and then one side of one is frozen 

 and the other baked! One's skin split and blistered 



