228 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



In those dim evenings, while I made scented tea, the 

 talk was a little less formal. We learned how much 

 the Mahdi had done for Kufara, for besides giving it 

 flowers, fruit and vegetables, he introduced pigeons and 

 duck and the cultivation of grain. He built the fortress 

 sanctuary of Taj, where the wells are ninety feet deep, 

 so that water is always scarce and a girba full is a gift, 

 since two hefty slaves have to wind up the heavy buckets 

 foot by foot. The site is well chosen, but the town 

 depends for its life on an army of slaves, for every 

 vegetable or flower, every date and piece of firewood, 

 must be carried up from the wadi below. The fuel is 

 dry hattab and huge palm leaves. There is also charcoal 

 made in the valley. The Mahdi instituted the regular 

 caravan route to Wadai and encouraged a very exten- 

 sive trade between the Sudan and Cyrenaica. He 

 "miraculously" discovered wells on the southern route 

 and old Sheikh Suleiman Bu Matar told how his father 

 had been with the saint when water failed the caravan 

 at Sarra, on the way to Wadai. The Senussi leader 

 pointed to a spot which appeared to be solid rock and 

 bade the men dig. Hour after hour they laboured till 

 the well had sunk beyond the sight of the watchers up 

 above. Only their faith in the Mahdi could have made 

 possible so gigantic a task, for the water did not appear 

 till the almost inconceivable depth of 120 "kamas" (the 

 length of a man's forearm and hand from elbow to 

 first knuckles). "Only a man with amazing eyesight 

 can see the water and the rope is unending," said 

 Sheikh Suleiman. 



We learned a list of the prices in Kufara from a 

 ponderous merchant whose striped brown and yellow 

 jerd reminded one of Biblical pictures. Hejin (trotting 

 camels), all of which belonged to the Tebus, cost seven- 

 teen to eighteen pounds in gold. Sheep were five 



