THE "CITIES" OF KUFARA 211 



very edge of the water, its grey, broken walls one with 

 the salt stone that surrounded it and made passage 

 difficult from the land. There were one or two of the 

 small, round oven houses scattered near the lake and 

 we wondered if Buma had been the capital of the old 

 Tebu Kufara — then called Tazerr — for this fort was 

 bigger than anything at Buseima, but roofless and 

 windowless as usual. 



From the plantations of pumpkins, radishes, parsnips, 

 onions, with neatly irrigated patches of wheat and barley, 

 we drove our escort south down the long, flat stretch of 

 gravelly sand to Zuruk, a long strip of palms chiefly 

 owned by Sidi Idris and other Sayeds. There is no 

 village in this southernmost oasis. It is inhabited only 

 by the Sudani slaves who look after the dates. We 

 stopped at a palm-leaf fence to ask a huge ebony figure 

 in a tattered white shirt for some dates. He dived into 

 his plaited leaf "tukel," reminiscent of the Sudan, and 

 reappeared with a gourd full of large, dry, purplish dates 

 mixed with the lemon-coloured unripe ones that the 

 Aiabs eat to quench their thirst. We rode the whole 

 length of Zuruk's palms, for by this time the Zouia 

 had laid aside his suspicions and was becoming con- 

 fidential. We asked him how long ago his people had 

 come to Kufara, and he replied, "My father, my grand- 

 father and his father have all lived here, but before then 

 the tribe came. Sheikh JMohammed was fifty-six, so 

 we gathered that the conquest had taken place some 

 hundred and fifty years ago. It is a pathetic thing that 

 the Tebus are disappearing from the wadi even faster 

 than the traces of their odd round houses. Only a few 

 years ago there were about five hundred of these dark- 

 skinned, round-faced people, with smooth hair, broad 

 nostrils and wide mouths, but devoid of the thick 

 negroid lips. Now there are between fifty and a 



