[102] "But we will cause thee to turn towards a _Kiblah_ that will please thee. Turn, therefore, thy face towards the holy temple of Mecca; and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place."--_Surat_ ii.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FROM GHAT TO MOURZUK.
Another Range of Black Mountains.--Habits of She-Camels when having Foals.--Our Mahrys.--Intelligence of my Nagah.--Geology of Route.--Arrive at the Boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan.--The Moon-Stroke.--Sudden Tempest.--Theological Controversy of The Shereef.--Wars and Razzias between the Tibboos and Touaricks.--Forests of Tholh Trees.--The Shereef"s opinion of the Touaricks.--Dine with The Shereef.--Saharan Travellers badly clothed and fed.--Style of making Bazeen.--Mode of Encamping.--Cold Day, felt by all the Caravan.--Well of Teenabunda.--Arrival in The Wady of Fezzan.--Meeting of the two Slave Caravans.--Tombs of Ancient Christians.--Routes between Ghat and Fezzan.--Weariness of Saharan Travel.--Oases and Palms of The Wady.--We meet a rude Sheikh, demanding Custom-Dues.--Haj Ibrahim"s opinion of the Virgin Mary.--Black Jews in Central Africa.--My Affray with the Egyptian.--Route to Tripoli, _via_ Shaty and Mizdah.--Features and Colour of Fezzaneers.--My Journey from The Wady to Mourzuk, on leaving the Slave-Caravans.--Tombs of former Inhabitants, and Legends about them.--Bleak and Black Plateau.--The Targhee Scout.--Have a Bilious Attack.--Desert Arcadians, and lone Shepherdesses.--Oasis of Agath, and its want of Hospitality.
_12th._--A LONG, long, weary day, and tormentingly hot in the middle of the day. Course north-east, over plains scattered with small stones.
Traversed a few small ridges of hills. A new species of stone to-day, the hard slate-coloured, and some of it with a granite-like look. Afternoon, came in sight of the other chain of black, or, as sometimes designated, Soudan mountains, stretching boundlessly north and south, like those near Ghat. This chain likewise extends to the Tibboo country. It is an error of some of the late French writers, to make the Saharan ranges always run east and west. This direction of development only applies to the Atlas ranges of the Coast. No trees, and no herbage for the camels.
The hasheesh which the camels ate this evening was brought us from the encampment of yesterday. The poor slaves knocked up to-day; rested many times on the road, and another very ill. In all probability she will follow her companions lately dead. Others, however, sang and danced, and tried to forget their slavery and hardships. But the death of the two girls is a damper for the rest, and they have not been so merry since that mournful occurrence. The she-camels, which have foals, give no milk for want of herbage. The two mothers bite one another"s children. This, perhaps, they do to teach the young ones their true mothers. One of them makes a great noise over her young one, and disturbs all the caravan.
Evening, whilst all the people were at prayers, and prostrating in their usual parallel lines, I went up to her, and began teazing her. The angry brute slowly and deliberately got up, but, once on her legs, she made a dead set at me, running after me. Meanwhile, receding backwards as fast as I could, I fell over some of the people praying and prostrating, and the camel attacked them as well as me, spoiling their devotions. The camel now returned to her foal; and, prayers over, Haj Ibrahim said to me, laughing, "Yakob, the camel knows you are a kafer, and don"t pray with us. So she attacks you. Camels never attack good Moslems at their prayers." The foal of seven days" old walked the whole of our long march to-day! and nearly as fast as a man. So the poor camel begins to learn by times its lessons of patience and long-suffering. The mahry of the Haj is very vicious and greedy, and bites all the other camels which eat with it. Camels are made to eat in a circle, all kneeling down, head to head, and eye to eye. Within this circle of heads is thrown the fodder. Each camel claims its place and portion, eating that directly opposite to its head. The people eat in the same manner in circles, each claiming the portion before them, but squatting on their hams instead of kneeling. The mahry of the Haj is quite white, and is a very fine animal; but its eye is small and sleepy-looking, so that it does not appear to have the amount of intelligence of the Coast camels. We have another smaller mahry, and some of the mahrys are as diminutive as others are gigantic in size. My nagah feeds by herself. The males never bite the females as they bite one another,--a piece of admirable gallantry, so far, on their part, but they rob the females of their fodder, and I am obliged constantly to keep driving them away from my nagah. The nagah knows she receives her dates from our panniers. Stooping down on one of them this evening to find something, putting my head right in, and raising myself up, I found the nagah"s head right over my shoulder, attentively watching me, to see if I was bringing out her dates. She distinguishes me well from the Moors and Arabs, by my black cloak, and is usually very gentle and civil to me, and familiar, more especially about the time of bringing out the dates.
_13th._--Our course north-east, over an undulating plain of sand and gravel, and at intervals the desert surface was a plain pavement of stone, of a dark slate-colour. Greater part of the route strewn with pieces of petrified wood, but no pretty fossil remains. Wood, apparently chumps of the tholh. We had all day the new range of black mountains on our right, which extend southwards far beyond the Fezzanee country to the Tibboos. Intensely cold all day, the air misty, and the wind from north-west. But I prefer this cold to the heat of yesterday. Haj Ibrahim complained of the cold, and was alarmed for his slaves. One of the females he chased on his mahry, the girl running away on foot, and gave her two or three cuts with the whip. She had been accused of too great familiarity with a male slave. Crime and slavery go hand in hand: Miserable humanity!
About noon, we reached the territory of Fezzan. Good bye, Touaricks!
farewell to the land of the brave and the free! Farewell, ye Barbarians!
where prisons, gibbets, murders, and a.s.sa.s.sinations are unheard of. We now tread the soil of despotism, decapitations, slavery and civilization, under the benign Ottoman rule, in conjunction with the Christianized Powers of Europe! The boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan are determined by two conspicuous objects, first, by a chain of mountains running north-east and south-west, joining the oases of Fezzan on the north, and extending to the Tibboo towns on the south, the eastern side of all which chain is claimed by the masters of Fezzan, the western by the Touaricks of Ghat; and secondly the forests of tholh trees, which are now appearing in our north, affording abundant wood to the people of the caravan, and browsing for the camels. I am now, then, once more under the power of the Porte, and within the region of Turkish civilization. Pa.s.sed other desert mosques, with some Arabic characters written in the sand, near the Keblah.
To-night the moon shone with a sun"s splendour; all our people seemed startled at this prodigious effulgence of light. Several of the slaves ran out amongst the tholh trees, and began to dance and kick up their heels as if possessed. It might remind them of the clear moonlit banks and woods of Niger. Haj Ibrahim at last got out his umbrella and put it up, "What"s that for?" I asked. "The moon is corrupt (fesed), its light will give me fever. You must put up your broken umbrella." So said all our people, and related many stories of persons struck by the moon and dying instantaneously[103]. This is another ill.u.s.tration of the pa.s.sage, "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." (Ps. cxxi.
6.) In the Scriptures are several allusions to a stroke of the sun, (see Is. xLix. 10, Rev. vii. 16,) but few to the moon-stroke. Saharan opinion is that the moon-stroke is fatal. I am not aware that the moon-stroke is well authenticated by our eminent physicians. The writer of the psalm spoke the current language of his epoch of science. It is probable that "moon-struck madness," and strokes of the moon, are the effects of noisome or infectious vapours which crowd about the night, and obscure with a still paler light that pale luminary. The sun-stroke seems to be well-authenticated; many cases of Europeans going hunting and sporting in the open country of Barbary, then and there receiving a stroke of the sun, and dying with fever, are on record.
_14th._--Course as usual, north-east. Cold to-day. Skirt the mountain-chain on our right, and traverse a vast plain, scattered with pebbles and other small stones. As yet, we have not pa.s.sed over sands or through any sandy region, although sand-ranges bounded the west in the early part of the route; here and there a little sand, loose and flying about. Our road is a splendid carriage-road. Oh, were there but water!
But water is the all and everything in The Desert. Encamped on the limitless plain. How variable is Saharan weather: now, at sunset, a tempest rises, and sweeps the bosom of The Desert with "the besom of destruction!" A high wind continued all night. I fancied myself at sea, but preferred the Ocean Desert, its groaning hurricane, its hideous barrenness, to the heaving and roaring of the Ocean of Waters. We pa.s.sed another desert mosque; it was only a simple line, slightly curved for the Keblah. There were also some letters written on the earth, in Arabic, pa.s.sages from the Koran. Other writing on the ground is always smoothed over, and not allowed to remain. Part of the road was covered with heaps of stone, as if done to clear it, as well as to direct travellers _en route_.
The Shereef introduced the subject of religion to-night in conversation.
He observed:--
"The torments of the d.a.m.ned are like all the fires in the world put together."
_I._--"Are these torments eternal?"
_The Shereef._--"Yes, as everlasting as Paradise."
_I._--"But do you not continually say, "G.o.d is The Most Merciful." How can this be?"
_The Shereef._--"I don"t know, so it is decreed." The Shereef boldly continued, "In this world[104] G.o.d has given all the infidels plenty of good things, (this being a sly allusion to the Christians and their possession of great wealth); but, in the next world, the believers only will enjoy good, and the kafer will be miserable." "You, Yakob," he proceeded, "are near the truth, very near, and near Paradise, because you can read and write Arabic, and understand our holy books."
And so he went on preaching me a very orthodox sermon. I asked him how G.o.d would dispose of those who never read or heard of Mahomet or the Koran. He couldn"t tell. The same queries and objections are, nevertheless, applicable to our own and to nearly all religions, which make the condition of believing one thing, and one cla.s.s of doctrines, absolute for salvation. The Touatee gold-merchant, who was close by at the time, interposed, "You are near jinnah (Paradise), Yakob, one word only, "There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, and Mahomet is the prophet of G.o.d."" I returned, "If this be not uttered from the heart it is useless and mockery." "By G--d! you are right, Yakob," exclaimed the Shereef. Like most Mahometans, the Shereef says, "The coming of Jesus is near, when he will destroy all the enemies of G.o.d, Jews and Christians, and give the world and its treasures into the hands of the Moslemites." I asked him why he represented all mankind but the Moslemites to be the enemies of G.o.d? My mind always recoils from the thought of arranging mankind, and marshalling them forward, so many enemies of G.o.d, as if the Eternal and Almighty Being who planned, formed, and sustains the universal frame of nature, could have enemies! Man may be the enemy of his fellow man, but cannot be the enemy of G.o.d. The Shereef here did not know what to say, and I think replied very properly, _Allah Errahman Errahem_, "G.o.d is most merciful!" a sentiment which all of us admit in spite of our peculiar dogmas of theology. But this conversation offers nothing new or different from those which I had with my taleb Ben Mousa, at Ghadames.
The Shereef then spoke about slavery, and asked me, why the English forced the Bey of Tunis to abolish the traffic in slaves. I explained the circ.u.mstances, adding, the Bey was not forced, but only recommended, by the English Government to abolish the slave traffic. He then began a long story in palliation of the traffic, stating that the slaves knew not G.o.d, and that in being enslaved by the Mohammedans they were taught to know G.o.d. I soon stopped his mouth, first, by telling him, the Turks not long ago had enslaved the Arabs and sold them for slaves at Constantinople, and then, adding, "Nearly all the princes, whence the Soudanese and Bornouese slaves were brought, are professedly Mahometans, as well as their people." He acknowledged, however, slaves were mostly procured by banditti hunting them, not captured in war. He finished, "The Touaricks of Ghat formerly hunted for slaves in the Tibboo country, twice or thrice in the year, and in these razzia expeditions some would get a booty of three, or five, six, ten, and twenty, according as they were fortunate.
Now they have other business on hand, the war with the Shanbah. The Touaricks of Aheer, those who bring the senna, are now the great slave-hunters." The Shereef showed me a Tibboo youth seized by the Aheer people. The Shereef"s account of the Touarghee razzias in the Tibboo country is confirmed by the reports of our Bornou expedition, or rather the Shereef confirms the reports of our countrymen. Dr. Oudney says, "It is along these hills (the ranges which go as far as the Tibboo country) the Touaricks make their gra.s.sies (razzias) into the Tibboo country.
These two nations are almost always at war, and reciprocally annoy each other by predatory warfare, stealing camels, slaves, &c., killing only when resistance is made, and never making prisoners." But, it must be observed, Touaricks are never made slaves; they may be murdered by the Tibboos. Not six months ago the Aheer Touaricks captured a Tibboo village. The few who escaped fled to the Arabs, under the son of Abd-el-Geleel, imploring aid for the restoration of their countrymen and property. These Arabs, who themselves mostly live on freebooting, were glad of the opportunity for a razzia. They recaptured everything, and restored the poor Tibboos to their village, making also a capture of a thousand camels from these Kylouy Touaricks.
Enjoy better health in this journey, than on that from Ghadames to Ghat.
Felt myself stronger, and hope yet to undertake the journey to Bornou before the summer heats.
_15th._--Course to-day nearly east. Encamped just as the sun dipped down in the ruddy flame of the west. Strong wind, blanching the sooty cheeks of the poor slaves, who were borne down with exhaustion. They were literally whipped along. And the little fellow who refused a ride from me, got a whipping for sitting on the sand to rest himself. I now made him mount my camel, which his master, not a bad-natured man, thanked me for. All day we continued to traverse the vast plain, having on our right the same chain of hills, and, on the left, the sand groups, as far as the eye could see. These broad, now boundless plains, or valleys, are unquestionably the dry beds of former currents. Even now our people called them wadys or rivers. The chain of mountains and the chain of sand-hills are their natural banks. The tholh-tree was most abundant to-day. I never saw it so thickly scattered before. It was spread over all the plain, now in single trees, and now in forest groups, which were also magnified in the distance, and had a grateful and refreshing effect upon the vision, wearied with looking on stones or gravel, or bare desert, or black rocks and glaring sand-hills. Unquestionably these trees of the African are as old as those of the American wilderness. The tholh-trees of the dry thirsty African plain are however but dwarfs compared with the giant trees of the American forest, watered by ocean rivers. The tholh would seem to live without moisture: it is fed by no annual or periodic rain, no springs. And yet it buds, opens its pretty yellow flowers, sheds its fine large drops of translucent gum, flourishes all the year round, and tempts with its p.r.i.c.kly leaves as with richest herbage, the hungry camel. Indeed, about this part of the route the camels get nothing else to feed on. We have seen no living creatures these last five days. On one part of our route our people pretended to trace the sand-prints of the wadan, and others affirmed them to be the foot-marks of the wild-ox. I must except the sight of a few small birds, black all over but the tails. Some one or two had white heads, as well as white tails. People say these birds drink no water, as they say many animals of The Sahara drink no water. The little creatures certainly do not drink much water. Two or three dead camels thrown across the route of this day"s march. The live camels usually turn off the way from them.
Several Saharan mosques, the form of a cross being made in the Keblah on one of them, as seen in the diagrams.
The Shereef"s ideas of the Touaricks are not so favourable as those of his uncle, the Governor of Ghat, and in some respects they are more correct. The Shereef says:--"The Touaricks are not of the Arabian race.
They are the original inhabitants of Africa (Numidians). Their language is a Berber dialect. They are a race generally of bandits, and, when their food fails them, like famished wolves, they make irruptions into their neighbour"s territory, and plunder what is before them. This they do in small bodies, when camel"s milk fails them at home. The Aheer Touaricks are of the same race as those of Ghat. Many of those of Aheer have no fear of G.o.d, and never pray like the rest of professed Mohammedans. Those of Ghat are perhaps the best of the Touaricks, and the most religious. The Touaricks of Touat encircle those of Ghat, lying across the route of Timbuctoo. Their Sultan"s name is Ba.s.sa, a giant of The Desert. He eats as much as ten men. He is the terror of all. But Jabour knows him, and enjoys his friendship and confidence. The road from Ghat to Timbuctoo, through Ba.s.sa"s territory, is extremely short. It is stony, through high mountains, and intensely cold. Springs of water abound there." Such are the ideas and opinions of the Shereef on the Touaricks. The mountains of the route alluded to, are the grand nucleus of the Hagar, which intersect and ramify through all Central Sahara. The Shereef, and some others travelling with us, delight in paradoxes, and maintain, in spite of Haj Ibrahim, who has been to Constantinople and seen the Sultan of the Turks, that there is no Sultan now, the administration at the Turkish capital being in the hands of Christians.
The Shereef now invited me to dine with him from bazeen, and when I sat down, kept addressing me:--"Eat plenty!" But only think of three grown men sitting down to a small paste dumpling, with a little melted b.u.t.ter poured over it, and the host crying out l.u.s.tily to me:--"Eat plenty!"
Such, indeed, was our repast! Of course, returning to my encampment, I ate my supper as if nothing had happened to me. And this little dumpling supper is the only meal in the day which our people eat. Well may they cry out about the cold, and pray for the heat. In a hot day a man is supposed to eat half the quant.i.ty which he does in a cold day. I am, therefore, still of the same opinion as before expressed, that the sufferings of these people, who travel in Sahara, are enormously increased from their want of sufficient food and clothing. As to clothing, many of them, in this trying season, go half-naked.
Some of our Arabs, who make bazeen for a large party, have a scientific way for its cooking and preparation. On the Ghat route a young Arab was accustomed to fill up three parts of a large iron pot with water. This water he would boil, throwing into it the meanwhile peppers, sliced onions, and occasionally, as a luxury, very small pieces of dried meat, or sc.r.a.ps from which fat had been strained. The pot having boiled until the onions and peppers were soft, he now brings the meal, mostly barley-meal, but sometimes coa.r.s.e wheaten flour. This he pours into the pot, forming a sort of pyramid in the boiling water. He then gets a stick, mostly a walking-stick, pretending first to sc.r.a.pe off the dirt, or rubbing it in the sand; with the stick so polished, he makes a hole in the centre of the pyramid of meal, through which the water bubbles up and circulates through the mealy ma.s.s, now fast cooking. He now gets two small pieces of stick, and puts them into the ears of the iron pot, which generally are burning hot. He removes with the pieces of stick the pot from off the fire, and places it on the sand. He now squats down over it, putting his two feet, or rather the great toes of the feet, one on each ear of the pot, which gives him a poise, or sort of fulcrum. And then, again, taking the long stick, he stirs it up with all his might, round and round and round again, until all the water is absorbed in the pudding-like meal, and the meal is thus well mixed into a sort of dough.
However this dough is not unbaked paste, but a _bona-fide_ dumpling, cooked and ready for the sauce. Now comes the wash wherewith to wash it down. My young Arab friend takes the dumpling, or pudding, in a great round ma.s.s, and places it within a huge wooden bowl. He then goes off for the oil, or liquid b.u.t.ter, which is usually kept in a large leather bottle, or goat"s-skin, with a long neck. He does not pour the oil out, but thrusts one of his hands into the oil, and, taking it out, with his other hand rubs or squeezes off the oil over the ma.s.s of dumpling. When he has got enough, he sets to and sucks his fingers, as the great reward of all his labour in preparing the supper of bazeen for his companions.
Once he did not sufficiently squeeze off the oil from his hands, and his uncle scolded him for leaving so much on to suck. He protested to his uncle that the bazeen had taken him an unusually long time to prepare[105]. The supper is now ready. The party squat round it on their hams. They dig into the ma.s.s with their fingers, after saying aloud, as grace, _Bismillah_, "In the name of G.o.d," before they begin supper.
Digging thus into it, they make small or large b.a.l.l.s, according to the measure of their jaws, which are generally sufficiently wide, or according to the sharpness or dulness of their appet.i.te. These b.a.l.l.s they roll and roll over in the oil or sauce that is often made of a herb called hada, or aseedah, a pleasant bitter, and producing a yellow decoction, (whence the bazeen is sometimes called,) which enables the large boluses to slip quietly and gratefully down the throat. Meanwhile a jug of water is handed round, provided always there is any difficulty in getting down the b.a.l.l.s; but mostly the water is handed round after the eating. It is drunk with a _bismallah_, and then a _hamdullah_, or "praise to G.o.d," the grace after meat, winds up and finishes the repast.
The business of the caravan and its affairs of encampment are always terminated before supper. So the dumpling or pudding-fed travellers now roll themselves up in their barracans, covering their faces entirely, and stretch themselves down on the ground to sleep, frequently not moving from the place where they ate their supper. There is generally a mat or skin under them, and they lie down under the shade of the bales of goods which their camels carry. The first thing on encamping is to look for the direction of the wind, and so to arrange bales of goods, panniers, and camel gear, as to protect the head from the wind. In this way one often lies very snug whilst the tempest howls through The Desert. People like to retain the taste of the pudding in their mouths, particularly if a little fat or oil be poured over it. I once gave an Arab some coffee after his pudding-supper, which he drank with avidity, but afterwards began to abuse me. "Yakob, what is your coffee? I"m hungry, I"m ravenous.
Why, before I drank your coffee, my supper was up to the top of my throat, but now I want to begin my supper again. I"ll never drink any more of your coffee, so don"t bring it here." A little more cuscasou is eaten on this route than on that of Ghat from Ghadames, the Fezzaneers and Tripolines preferring coa.r.s.e cuscasou to bazeen if they can get it.
The poor Arabs are often obliged to put up with zumeetah, which they eat cold. Haj Ibrahim eats his fine cuscasou, which he brought from Tripoli, but I do not consider him a _bona-fide_ Saharan merchant. This is his first trip in The Desert.
_6th._--Rose as the day broke, with a hazy yellow tint over half the heavens, and started early in order to reach the well before night. Very cold, and continued so all day long. Felt my nerves braced, and liked cold better than heat. In proportion as I liked the cold, all my travelling companions disliked this weather; all were shivering and crumpled up creatures. The slaves suffered dreadfully, having shivering-fits and their eyes streaming with water. However, I could not help laughing at the Shereef and the Touatee, who kept crying out, as if in pain, "_Mou zain el-berd_ (Not good is the cold!)" And, to make it worse, they both rode all day, by which they felt the cold more. On the contrary, I walked full three hours, and scarcely felt myself fatigued.
Indeed, to-day, I was decidedly the best man of the caravan, and suffered less than any. I always walk an hour and a half every morning. But my Ghadames shoes, that I"m anxious to preserve, are fast wearing out, which spoils some of the pleasure. The small stones of Desert soon cut and wear out a pair of soles, which are made of untanned camel"s skin. Observed to the Shereef, to tease him, "Why, you Mussulmans don"t know what is good.
Your legs and feet are bare. You have nothing wrapt tight round your chest. Your woollens are pervious to the cold air. You"re half naked; but for myself, I"m clothed from head to foot, only a small portion of my face is exposed. You must go to the Christians to learn how to travel The Desert." "The Christians are devils," he returned, "and can bear cold and heat like the Father of the imps in his house (perdition)." "Mou zain, el-berd," cried the Touatee. Yesterday and this morning the slaves were oiled all over with olive-oil, to prevent their skin and flesh from cracking with the cold. This is a frequent practice, and reckoned a sovereign remedy. Hot oil is also often swallowed. Boiling oil is a favourite remedy in North Africa for many diseases. The poor slaves were again driven on by the whip. We reached the well just after sunset. Haj Ibrahim rode far in advance on his maharee to see that the well was all right, our water being exhausted. Happily the weather prevented any great absorption of its water. When the slaves got up, having suffered much to-day from thirst, although so cold, they rushed upon the water to drink, kneeling on the sands, and five or six putting their heads in a bowl of water together. I myself had only drunk two cups of tea this morning, Said having given the slaves all the water we had left. To-day"s march convinced me that thirst may be felt as painfully on a cold day as on a hot day.
Course, north-east, inclining to east. Met with some Fezzanee Touaricks, who were a very different cla.s.s of people from those of Ghat and Aheer.
They are simple shepherds, tending their flocks, mostly goats, in open Desert, which browse the scanty herbage of the plain. The mountain chain on our right continues north with us. We found in our route the blood and filth of a camel just killed. Dead or killed camels, are generally found near the wells on the last day"s journey, after having made five or six days" forced marches to reach them. It is here they"re knocked up, going continually and most patiently to the last moment of their strength, when they expire at once.
Teenabunda or "Well of Bunda," is a well of sweet delicious water. It is some thirty or forty feet deep. There is nothing to mark the site of the well from the surrounding plain, nor palm tree, nor shrub, nor herbage of any kind. An accident alone could have discovered this well. Some stones are placed about in the form of seats, and one can easily see where there has once been a fire from the sign or circ.u.mstance of three stones being placed triangularly, leaving a small s.p.a.ce between them for the fire.
These three stones also support the pot for cooking, as well as inclose the fire. This evening took some bazeen with the Ghadamsee merchants.
They are fond of showing me this little mark of hospitality. However the same thing was enacted as at the Shereef"s supper. Three grown-up persons sat down to the one day"s meal, a smallish dumpling, seasoned with highly peppered sauce of hada, and a little fat. It is quite absurd to call this a supper for three persons; it is mocking European appet.i.te. How they live in this way I cannot comprehend.
_17th._--Rose early, but did not start until the sun had two hours mounted the horizon. We usually start half an hour after sunrise. Weather fair and fine, a cool breeze and hot sun, which is suitable for the middle of the day. I do not feel it at all oppressive. Continued north-east. We now caught a glimpse of the palms of The Wady. But here we overtook our Tripoline friends, who had left Ghat ten days before us and were waiting for our arrival. They conducted us to their encampment. The party consisted of Mustapha, an Alexandrian merchant of Tripoli, and another merchant, having with them some sixty slaves. When our slaves arrived these ran out to meet them, welcoming them in a most affectionate manner as old friends. In fact, most of them had been companions in the route from Aheer to Ghat, sharing one another"s burthens and sufferings, helping to alleviate their mutual pains. After being separated and sold to different masters, never expecting to see one another again, it is not surprising there should have been such a tender and affectionate meeting of the poor things. I shall not soon forget the sight of two little girls who unexpectedly met after being sold to different masters and separated some weeks. The little creatures seized hold of one another"s hands, then each took the the head of each other with the palms of the hand, pressing its side, in the meanwhile kissing one another pa.s.sionately and sobbing aloud. And yet those brutal republicans of America,
"Whose fustian flag of freedom, waves In mockery o"er a land of slaves--"
have the devilish cruelty to continue to stigmatize, by their laws of equality and liberty, the Africans as goods and chattels, depriving them of their divine right of sentient and intellectual beings, having all the tenderest and holiest affections of humanity. These poor little girls were quite un.o.bserved by their masters or drivers, who were now occupied with the rakas or courier, who had brought letters from Tripoli in answer to ours sent some time ago. The news is good for the merchants; the Pasha will not exact the customs-dues of Fezzan on those who return this route, on account of the war between the Shanbah and Touaricks.
Near the well Haj Omer beckoned me to show me what he called, "water-courses of Christians," ancient irrigating ducts of the people of former times. These consisted of raised banks of earth, stretching across the road to the mountains on the right. Along these lines of embankment were large fields of cultivation, showing the country had declined in its agricultural industry, which, indeed, is manifest from every oasis I have yet seen in The Sahara. It is probable these earlier or ancient cultivators of the soil were colonies from the coast. Omer also pointed out at a distance, what he styled "The tombs of Christians," on the sides of the mountains, scattered miles along, showing The Desert to have been cultivated to a far greater extent in past times.
Our route from Ghat to Fezzan is good enough perhaps for man, being simple and plain, easily traversed, generally on level surfaces, but it is very bad for animals, there being scarcely any herbage, except at Serdalas, and the Ghat Wadys. Our camels had little herbage for seven days, which greatly tried their strength and endurance. The caravan we now joined had lost two camels, and I was afraid for my nagah. Water they had none for six days. The Soudan sheep also went without water those six long days. Our route is thus mentioned by Dr. Oudney: "There are several routes to Ghat (from Mourzuk); and the upper one, where we had to enter the hills, was last night fixed for us. There is plenty of water, but more rough than the lower, which is said to be a sandy plain, as level as the hand, but no water for five days." Travelling with slaves, a route is always extended one-fifth, at the very least: such was our case.
Afternoon, we encamped at the mouth of the wady, weary, thirsty, and exhausted, which forcibly brought to my mind that oasis of rest, (wearied and disgusted, as I felt with Saharan travel,) so divinely described in Desert pastoral style: ??de ? pes? ep" a?t??? ? ?????, ??de pa? ?a?a . . . . ?a? ?d???se? a?t??? ep? ??sa? p??a? ?dat??.
(Rev vii. 16, 17.) We have in these divine words the smiting and parching of Saharan sun and heat, and the Lamb-Shepherd leading the drooping flocks to the living life-giving springs of the oases of Desert.
Our people called the series of little oases, which we now entered, _El-Wady_. But this term is hardly sufficiently distinctive, and, I think in the general division of Fezzan, it is called _El-Wady Ghurby_--??????? ???????--or "The _Western_ Valley," in contra-distinction from _El-Wady Esh-Sherky_, "The _Eastern_ Valley."
_18th._--Entered fully into The Wady this morning. After so much Desert, was delighted to ecstasy with the refreshing sight of the distant forests of palms, crowd upon crowd in deepening foliage, their graceful heads covering the face of the pale red horizon, as with hanging raven locks of some beautiful woman. Saw a few huts of date branches, some wells, and here and there a villager. The huts were so blended with the date-palms, in colour and make, that it was with difficulty our eye could catch sight of them. I am often astonished how these slight, feeble tenements can protect the people from the sun and cold and wind. It is like living in open Desert. When we had continued our course some two hours, the Sheikh of the district came running out after us, demanding the customs-dues, and attempting to stop the slaves for payment. "What does this fellow want?" I said to our people, feeling myself now under the protection of the Tripoline government, and knowing the Sheikh to be subjected to the Bey of Mourzuk. They replied, "Oh, he wants some slaves to work at the water (by irrigation)." The Sheikh would not be said "nay." He demanded to see the teskera of the Pasha exempting us from the duties, which he could not, as Haj Ibrahim was gone to purchase dates. He then commenced seizing slaves, but our Arabs now attacked him, pushing and dragging him away. These people are mighty fond of a little scuffling. We encamped for the night in The Wady. More "Tombs of Christians" were pointed out to me.
Many dwarf palms were scattered about, wild and producing no fruit. Water may be under the surface. Our people say these palms would all bear fruit if cultivated and watered. Undoubtedly many more could be cultivated.
There are innumerable palms in this wild dwarf state. My nagah growled and grumbled on seeing the palms, rightly concluding that we were arrived in an inhabited country. These melancholy-looking creatures are extremely wise. The other evening we had great trouble to get the nagah to eat herbage when she was brought to the encampment. She had for her supper every evening a few dates and barley for several successive days. Now we left off giving her them on arriving at The Wady, where there was abundant herbage. This she resented, and grumbled nearly all night, keeping us from sleeping, and would not eat the herbage. On encamping, the camels are allowed to stray and graze an hour or two, and are then brought up to the encampment for the night, the drivers cutting a little herbage for them to eat during the night, or in the morning before starting. Like us, more intelligent brutes, the camels don"t like starting on a journey with an empty stomach.
Haj Ibrahim expressed surprise that I had with me religious books. He thought the English had "no books," (that is, religious books.) Some Christians in Tripoli (Roman Catholics) had told him the English people had no books. He then observed to me, that it was wrong to worship Mary, who was not G.o.d, or the mother of G.o.d, for G.o.d had no mother or father.