174. THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



the solitary black rock of the Hawari Gara. It looked 

 at least a day's journey away. Abdullah said we should 

 reach it by midday. As we marched towards it I tried 

 to draw out more tales of the desolate mountain on our 

 right, for I was intrigued by the description of the sounds 

 heard therein, "a noise of birds." Hornemann, the first 

 modern writer to speak of the Tebu oasis, says that the 

 people of Aujela described the speech of the inhabitants 

 as "like unto the whistling of birds." Curiously enough, 

 the Tebu women I met had extraordinarily high-pitched, 

 sweet voices, which sounded rather like clear warbling. 

 Mora j a and Abdul Hafiz both volunteered the informa- 

 tion that "footprints" had been seen near the haunted 

 Gebel. "Footprints of what?" I asked. "Well, they 

 are like snakes!" they replied. The anti-climax was too 

 great. I could not bear my jinn or prehistoric savage 

 to turn into a serpent ! 



After two hours we left the pink sands and passed 

 into the waste of stony ridges and small hills on the out- 

 skirts of the mountains. The colours were quite extraor- 

 dinary. Occasional banks of vivid vermilion lay between 

 patches of loose black stone, with here and there scattered 

 blocks of grey, rose and mauve, at the foot of the smaller 

 cliffs. All round us the basis of the sand was fawnish 

 red and as the stones grew thicker we found odd hollow 

 tubes and balls, heavy and black, but filled with sand. 

 The largest balls measured more than a foot across, the 

 smallest about an inch. The blacks were delighted with 

 these new toys and broke open the solid ones to see the 

 sand run out, after which they used them as cups and 

 candlesticks. I had never seen the formation before and 

 did not know what it was. We passed the Hawari Gara 

 at noon. It does not stand out particularly from the 

 rest of the Gebel Neri, as it is but one cliff among many 

 in the neighbourhood, but a few hundred yards beyond. 



