TREACHERY AT HAWARI 177 



built zariba, while Mohammed's faithful follower, Omar, 

 hurriedly made coffee. The tribesmen were shghtly 

 depressed at first and we wondered if it had anything 

 to do with our arrival, until it appeared that one man 

 had made a bad bargain in buying slaves from a Wadai 

 caravan a few days before. He had paid 400 mejidies 

 (about £70) for a man and two women, and now the man 

 was very ill. "It was bad business," he said sadly. They 

 all repeated the same formula, "The Sayed's orders are 

 above our heads," and added that our visit was welcome, 

 saying, "Your coming is a blessing. May Allah bless 

 our Sayeds and those who come from them!" Yet 

 Abdul Rahim started the rumour that night that we were 

 prisoners and were not to be allowed to move till 

 permission arrived from Kufara. 



We were too sleepy to inquire into the truth, but the 

 following morning gifts of sour leban and milk arrived, 

 together with a couple of chickens, so we thought that 

 probably the Zouias, while paying all honour to the 

 Sayed's guests, were anxious to show how impossible it 

 was for strangers to penetrate their well-guarded borders. 

 Yusuf and Mohammed implored us not to move from the 

 camp, which they had pitched in an unsheltered, torridly 

 hot and fly-ridden spot to avoid robbers in the palm 

 groves. "Wait till the big men come to see us," they 

 said. "Then you can walk with safety." This was 

 palpably an excuse, for Hawari is only a little village 

 suffering from its nearness to a big centre. The whole 

 life of the country depends on the town beyond the 

 mountains. The big sheikhs and ekhwan live in Jof and 

 Taj. In Clapham or Tooting one does not expect to 

 find Ministers of the Crown. So in Hawari everyone 

 says, "There is nothing here. All things come from 

 Kufara." The important sheikh of the place. Bush Naf, 

 was at the moment in Jof. For this reason we had sent 



