256 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



The Hawaish are not really mountains. They are an 

 irregular mass of round, rocky hills, cliffs and cones 

 and their direction would baffle even an experienced 

 geographer. We spent any spare moments at dawn and 

 at sunset sitting on the top of some abrupt hillock 

 with binoculars, compass and a note-book, studying the 

 compMcated positions of the local mountains, but hair 

 grew grey and tempers short in the task. Always there 

 was a new wall of hills in the distance generally running 

 at an unexpected angle and when we asked the retinue 

 for explanations, all they could say was, "Allah alone 

 knows !" 



I wanted to camp within the first line of the 

 Hawaish, for by now I was just as anxious to leave the 

 mysterious, enchanted land as I had been to enter it. 

 The circling horizon of strange hills seemed to shut us 

 in with the hot coloured sands, but the cool white dunes 

 beyond called us back to the open deserts of the north. 



Just as Suleiman wavered as to whether we should 

 turn right or left of a large cliff, sudden news brought 

 by Yusuf and Amar, who had climbed a gherd we had 

 just left, abruptly shattered our peace. Our fat retainer 

 was actually running, a swift uneven little trot, which 

 made him pant as he shouted, "There is a caravan 

 behind us!" The idea was starthng to say the least, 

 for no one had travelled by this route for nearly four 

 years and we knew that nobody was prepared to start 

 when we left Kufara. At first we told Yusuf that he 

 had dreamed his caravan. We were two days' march 

 from Hawari, from where all travellers start, and when 

 we left the oasis there had been no question of any- 

 body else going north by any route. Amar, however, 

 was equally positive. "We looked through the glasses," 

 he said. "There are four or six camels and nearly a 

 dozen men with them. They are travelling fast, about 



