226 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



How many cloistered lives were hidden behind the little 

 wooden shutters that never opened for dark-fringed eyes 

 to peer shyly at the passing strangers! Sometimes little 

 Sidi Omar ran out to kiss my hand and say, "On my 

 head and my eyes, I love you!" Sometimes we saw 

 a long row of red leather slippers before one of the 

 smaller porches and caught a glimpse of white figures 

 bent over a huge platter from which, with the right 

 thumb and two fingers — it is very bad form to dirty 

 more of the hand than this — they ate rapidly. Other- 

 wise the house kept its secrets well and we never knew 

 who lived in it or how! 



After the evening meal the atmosphere mellowed 

 with the candle-light and mint tea. Our host talked 

 to us of the Sayeds he served, of their great history 

 and their great influence. We learned that Sidi Ahmed 

 es Sherif was respected and revered as the supporter of 

 the old regime. He stood for the stern, unbending 

 laws of the first Senussi. His judgments were ruthlessly 

 severe and rapidly executed, as in the case of the 

 unfortunate Mukhtar. The malefactor saw only a stately 

 white figure, completely veiled, and from behind the 

 snowy cloth came the immutable words of judgment. 

 Sayed Ahmed broke men. He never bent them. Yet 

 the older ekhwan, serious and simple, venerated him 

 because to them he represents the power of tradition, 

 the inviolate Islam, fanatically opposed to European 

 progress. On the other hand, Sidi Idris is loved. As 

 the son of the Mahdi, the Senussi saint, the wonder of 

 whose works and words is rapidly becoming legendary, 

 he inherits a great power. The Beduin likes to worship 

 something tangible under Allah. He must feel con- 

 vinced that there is one being on earth who blends 

 spiritual and temporal power so that he can himself 

 dwell in a sort of mystic securitj^. "Inshallah, and if 



