190 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



previous day. Therefore, muffled to the eyes in the 

 thickest blankets and jerds we could find, astride two 

 minute, barebacked donkeys, we plunged into the east 

 w^ind and laboured down the whole length of the narrow 

 Hawari oasis. 



The village of our captivity proved to be unexpectedly 

 large, for more houses were scattered continually along 

 the strip of palms. When we asked the number of 

 inhabitants, the only reply was the one word which 

 denotes any form of size, long, big, great, powerful, 

 plenty, numerous, etc., "wajid" — but I imagine that 

 there must be a population of two hundred or more. 

 There was a gap between the palms of Hawari and those 

 of its little companion, which was only a few square 

 kilometres in size, and whose three houses were sur- 

 rounded by a few huge fig-trees. The figs were nearly 

 air small and hard, but the villainous-looking Zouia, 

 brown-haired and green-eyed, with very low brow and 

 narrow skull, who accompanied us, knocked down a few 

 little purple ones from the top. They were very good 

 and comforted us for the awful wind, which froze us 

 even at midday, as we tramped over the stony gherds 

 that lie on the way to Kufara. 



The red sand continued, mixed with more and more 

 patches of black stones, while little rocky ridges rose 

 into low dark hills or big mounds, increasing in size after 

 Hawari was lost to sight beside her vermiUon gherds. 

 Each time that we mounted a faint ridge and saw black 

 hills in front of us we said, "Those are the last — behind 

 those is the secret of the desert." A dozen times we 

 were disappointed as a further waste of stones and rock 

 obscured our vision. Finally, when from quite a high 

 hillock we saw nothing but mounds and low hills where 

 the boulders had almost conquered the red sands, we 

 began to wonder if Kufara were a huge joke by which 



