246 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



had often waited to greet us as we left the house of 

 Sidi Saleh. "We wanted to see if the Sitt Khadija 

 wears the same clothes as our ladies," one had said 

 shyly, but they were frightened of being photographed, 

 the idea being that if one possesses a picture of a person 

 one possesses also his soul, or at least a certain hypnotic 

 power over him. 



We were obliged regretfully to decline the delightful 

 offer of Sidi Ahmed, as speed was necessary. There- 

 fore, we hurried north as fast as our odd little procession 

 — camels, donkej-, sheep and foal — ^wouid go. The wind 

 dropped after the first three hours and a feeble moon 

 rose in a clear, translucent sk3\ It was a night of 

 colour so marvellous that it was unreal. I knew the 

 strange tricks moonlight could play in the desert, but 

 only once before had I seen such startling effects 

 and that was in Chu Chin CJwwf Wbite moon- 

 light on white sand makes an iridescent silvery sea, 

 cold, almost cruel in its pale intangibility. But this 

 was a golden light on an amber-red world and, except 

 that one could not see so far, it was as clear as the 

 day. The palm trees were shades of sapphire, silvered 

 at the edge, and their shadows hot, clear-cut purple. 

 We rode through a world so wonderful that when 

 we had skirted the dreaming village of Hawari and 

 I'Completely lost our way in the oasis beyond — ^the infalli- 

 /bility of guides is a very brittle myth in Libya — we 

 hardly minded, but with jerds flung back we revelled 

 in unutterable stillness and colour '-i' onceivable. Even 

 after we had turned two complete circles and, with 

 a waning moon, unexpectedly discovered our camp 

 discreetly hidden in a hollow between great clumps 

 of palms and what looked like mimosa trees, we could 

 not go into the tent, though it was one of the 

 coldest nights we had had. We sat outside amidst 



