218 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



one of the loudest to denounce the strangers. Now he 

 said: "I wanted aU the men to come out to meet you 

 with drums, but there was dissension. What you said 

 at the meeting was true, but it would not have been good 

 for me to have agreed with you then. I was obhged to 

 support the others, for we had arranged what we were 

 going to say beforehand." This was a poor specimen 

 of Arab mentahty, but he was followed by an entirely 

 different type, Suleiman Bu Matar, old and much- 

 travelled, very devoted to the Senussi family. At the 

 original meeting he had been calm and suave, only 

 saying that we should waste time by going to the villages. 

 Now he said with very quiet dignity, "Your words were 

 wise, but you must not judge the people here by your 

 own countrymen. Egypt is the mother of the world. 

 The villagers here are very ignorant." He then offered 

 to accompany us to the other end of the oasis. 



Thereafter the retinue were somewhat less frightened 

 and we went to Jof without difBculty. We rode along 

 a little causeway which crossed the big, curly lake in 

 the midst of the Jof palm gardens and when we came 

 to the rough, salt marsh on the farther side, we found 

 the ruins of a whole Tebu village. Some of the houses 

 were amazingly small but very well preserved — the hard 

 mortar smooth and always polished on the outside — 

 looking exactly like round clay ovens. As at Buma, 

 on the very edge of the water was a castle. It appears 

 that the Tebus fought only with spears, so a strip of 

 water was a good protection against attack. Therefore, 

 wherever there is a lake in the Kufara or Buseima oases, 

 one is pretty certain to find the ruins of villages and 

 primitive forts. The Zouias won an easy victory because 

 they had guns and gunpowder. Jof is a large native 

 town stretching for about a kilometre in a line of solid, 

 long walls without door or window. At one end is the 



