212 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



hundred. Nearly all of them live in a palm-leaf village 

 with a few round mud hovels on the outskirts of Jof. 

 They are more pastoral in habit than the Arabs, so, in 

 spite of their debased position as employees of the 

 Zouias, they own a good many goats and sheep and a 

 few camels. 



There is practically no pasturage in the wadi, only 

 a little coarse grass or rushes by the lakes and sparse 

 tufts of the brown, mossy hattab we saw at Buseima. 

 Therefore there are very few flocks indeed and milk 

 and meat are luxuries except among the prosperous 

 ekhwan of Taj. Fresh water is not plentiful, for there 

 are no springs. There is absolutely no rainfall. Some- 

 times for eight consecutive years there is not a single 

 shower. All the gardens are irrigated from wells, but 

 slave labour is abundant. Yet Kufara in summer must 

 be a veritable Eden. From her grapes she makes the 

 sweet vinegar we drank at banquets and from her roses 

 the essence dropped into our tea, as well as the heavier 

 perfume used in braziers. She has olives for oil, 

 almonds, lemons, figs, melons and peaches. Her leather 

 comes from the Sudan and the shoemakers in Jof 

 fashion delightful red heel-less shoes of soft, pliable hide 

 without nails, but with thongs to bind round the 

 ankles. The Tebus make baskets and rope from the 

 palm leaves, but there is no weaving. The rich clothes 

 of the princely ekhwan, which were our envy and 

 admiration, came from Egypt. "Before the war there 

 were many caravans. One came nearly every day" 

 (which means that one was nearly always within the 

 confines of the oasis, perhaps a weekly arrival). "Now 

 there are very few," said Sheikh Mohammed. 



We learned that when a caravan came from the Sudan 

 it consisted of 150 camels, belonging to perhaps a dozen 

 different merchants, who brought ivory, feathers, sandal, 



