238 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



unaccustomed to carrying loads, but it was done to the 

 accompaniment of marriage music from the town and 

 wild "ulla-la-een" of women, mixed with firing of guns 

 and beating of drums. "He is taking a very little girl. 

 She is only thirteen," said Saleh Effendi of the bride- 

 groom. I thought of the woman-child in her stiff, heavy 

 draperies, clinging shyly and desperately to the veil 

 which she would so soon have to raise for an unknown 

 man, the stranger to whom her parents had given her! 



Yusuf and Mohammed were waiting for us at the 

 top of the cliff — two unrecognisable figures entirely 

 muffled in immense woollen jerds. With the usual Arab 

 cheerfulness they had come to the conclusion that we 

 had already been murdered by the Zouias! 



The attitude of the two men had been very charac- 

 teristic during our stay at Taj. Both knew by this time 

 that the object of the expedition was to write a book 

 about the country. Both believed it must be for the 

 good of the Senussi since we travelled under the Sayeds' 

 protection, but after this they differed. Yusuf felt that 

 he had accomplished his duty when we arrived safely in 

 Kufara. He was delighted that we were well received 

 and hospitably entertained by the Government, for he 

 thought that we should be impressed by the generosity 

 of the Sayeds. Mohammed felt instinctively that we did 

 not need impressing and all he wanted was that the work 

 of Sidi Idris should be successfully achieved. Both were 

 conscious of the undercurrent of unrest. Yusuf, treating 

 us as strangers and himself as one of the people of Ku- 

 fara, explained to us with perfect justice that the position 

 was largely due to our own mistakes. Often we had 

 trusted the wrong people. Often I, alas, had forgotten 

 the nice shades of Moslem feminine behaviour in my thirst 

 for knowledge. Mohammed swept aside all these points. 

 He counted that Sidi Idris and he and we were all pitted 



