THE ARRIVAL AT KUFRA
On the march from Zieghen to Kufra I encountered
the most awful sandstorm of my experience. About midnight my tent began
to be shaken by the wind, so I got out and tightened the rope. At 2
o'clock the tent collapsed on me, the pole hitting and smashing the
smaller of my two remaining chronometers. If it had struck my big
chronometer I should not have been able to bring back my scientific
results—a matter of pure luck !
I reached Kufra on April 1, 18 days after leaving
Jalo.
The most attractive feature of this oasis is a
beautiful lake having an area of some two square miles (see page 246) in
which I was admonished not to bathe, as "only children do that."
(p250)
I had letters for Sayed Mohammed El Abed, the
cousin of Sayed Idris El Senussi (see text, page 238). He was very
helpful and most hospitable. As a matter of fact, of all the dangers I
encountered at Kufra, his hospita1ity was, I think, one of the greatest!
He had to produce about 15 courses for late breakfasts and dinners, and
I exhausted all my sodium bicarbonate and indigestion tablets. On one
occasion, just after partaking of his bountiful hospitality, I was
entertained at dinner successively, the same day, by three Senussi
chiefs. Etiquette forbade my declining any of the invitations.
When they dislike a traveler the Bedouins have a
very clever way of dealing with him without assuming the blame for
"mishaps." They treat the visitor royally and then wait for him outside
the village or oasis and attack his caravan; if they can destroy it,
they do so. Then there are many excuses. If they are questioned they
say, "We showed him every hospitality while he was in our midst; outside
there are many robbers. One cannot know who committed this crime."
WITH THE
THEODOLITE IN THE DESERT
The Bedouins were extremely suspicious
of this surveyor's instrument. They were told it was a type of camera
which attracted pictures from a distance (see text, page 247). [photo
page 251]
 
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