THE "CITIES" OF KUFARA 20Z 



The whole assembly had made up its mind to oppose 

 us and they would listen to no argument. "Khallas! 

 It is ended! It is ended! Of what use further speech?" 

 they cried. "If you have a letter from Sidi Idris, saying 

 that you are to visit all our villages by name, then you 

 shall go," said Bu Korayim. "You know that we have 

 the Sayed's permission to visit Kufara. No traveller can 

 set foot beyond Jedabia without it. Do you think we 

 should have risked certain death? We know that no one 

 can hope to visit even the outskirts of your country with- 

 out the consent of Sidi Idris, but we are his guests!" 

 They changed their ground. "You have seen Kufara," 

 urged Suleiman Bu Matar. "Jof and Taj are the 

 'markas' [centre of government]. The villages are 

 not interesting. There are no zawias even." Argument 

 was useless, for none dared give way before the others. 

 We saw that one or two were weakening out of respect 

 for the fact that we were guests of their rulers, but the 

 old inherited instinct welded them together. Generally 

 it w^ould be impossible to get fifteen Arabs to remain 

 united against strong arguments for a quarter of an 

 hour, but we were fighting a principle as profoundly 

 part of their existence as food and drink. "Khallas! 

 Khallas!" resounded from every side and, without even 

 waiting for the usual ceremony of tea-drinking, the 

 meeting rose hurriedly. "We have spoken," they said, 

 "and argument is of no avail." "If you go, you go 

 at your own risk," added Sheikh Badr. Yet before the 

 last flow of protest they had read the "Fatha" all 

 together to show that they honoured the Sayed in the 

 persons of his guests! 



So the strange council of impulse and reason came to 

 an end and, as the last white-robed figure fumbled for 

 its shoes at the edge of the matted loggia, Hassanein 

 turned to me despondently. "We have failed abso- 



