Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 10

Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 10

3rd. Whether it should be killed, if it could not be cured?

4th. Whether it should be eaten after it was killed?

The diseased, emaciated camel lay groaning just without the semicircle.

There was a large abscess over the shoulders, produced by the loads it had carried, besides other sores. A million of flies was then settled on the abscess, which was a running sore. It was a most disgusting sight.

But not to the people who eyed the poor animal as connoisseurs. I learnt afterwards the Kady's decision was: "The camel is incurable, but may be killed and eaten." I asked the people whether they were not afraid to eat an animal which was so much diseased. They replied, "No, it is the judgment of the Kady. To-morrow we shall kill and eat it. To-day there's camels' flesh enough." I was astonished at the Kady's decision, and told the people diseased animals were not allowed to be killed for eating in our country, for there was danger in their making people ill. Some approved of this; but the population is much poorer than I, at first, thought, and the indigent are glad to catch anything. The few rich bury their money in foreign speculations, or h.o.a.rd it up in their houses.

After the decision, the miserable camel was left alone in the Souk, a prey to the flies, which were voraciously feeding on its running sores, till the next day. Semi-civilized people cannot comprehend the mercy or duty of alleviating the sufferings of the inferior creation.

To-day a new case of severe ophthalmia. This was that of a woman, who also had a fever. To my agreeable surprise, a number of her friends decided that she should take a fever-powder, in spite of the Ramadan. I administered it myself, and she drank it greedily. I was glad of such a marked exception to the rigid fasting. Her relatives said she was permitted to drink it, first, because she was _a woman_, and, secondly, because she was sick. This was the law of the Kady. Met a remarkable Touarick in the streets. This is an old worn-out man, with one eye, and that much damaged. In his day he has been a famous bandit, has plundered many a caravan and murdered the hapless merchants. He is now, in his dreadful old age, sheltered in the very city whose wayfaring merchants he so often plundered and murdered. The judgment of heaven seems pressing hard upon him; for he is poor and miserable, a beggar in the streets--all his ill-gotten wealth is gone! He leads about a little lad, whom he calls his son, and who seems to afford the wretched old villain his only repose of mind, if repose he can have from so horrible a conscience. I gave the child a small coin. The inhabitants feed the bandit, and tolerate him with an admirable spirit of merciful forgiveness. And if _they_ do, who cries for vengeance?

Wrote to-day a letter to the Pasha of Tripoli, thanking His Highness for the kind attentions I had received from the Governor of Ghadames. I never did anything with such good will. It was, besides, an absolute duty.

This afternoon examined phrenologically, _b.u.mp_ologically, the heads of many children. There was a considerable variety in the _b.u.mps_, as well as the configuration, of the cranium. Some of the heads were well flattened on either side, others rounded, and mostly low, depressed foreheads, with "self-esteem" and "love of approbation" ascending appallingly far up at the back of the head. Very few men or children have the frontal regions well developed. Examined a man esteemed a great dervish, who is always reading and writing the Koran. It's strange that the saint had the organ of veneration well developed. The Rais hearing of my cunning in this occult science, which some of the people called a new _deen_, ("religion,") wished to see me perform; so, on visiting him in the evening, he ordered forth all his understrappers and hangers-on, and made them submit to the fearful ordeal of head _pummelling_, first begging me to speak out everything, and then calling for fire to light his pipe, that he might muse over the exhibition _a la Turque_. The first officer examined was collector of the revenue, a native of Derge, a regular task-master in his way, and very malicious; I was frightened what to say. All was attention, the Rais particularly wishing to know if he was a thief, and had secreted Government money in his house. This his Excellency told me afterwards, when we were alone. The collector happened, by good luck, to have a large "acquisitiveness," and "benevolence" at the same time. This I explained to the Rais, and said the one balanced or neutralized the other. Tayeb, ("good"), said his Excellency, much chagrined, his Excellency evidently wishing to have had the fellow made out a thief. I must not continue through all the examinations. Suffice it to say, by this display of my new craft, I was raised very much in the estimation of everybody. But the most surprising thing was, a Touarick affirmed to the Rais, with great vehemence, that one of his neighbours was a phrenologist, and acquired his knowledge from the _jenoun_ ("demons"). The major-domo of his Excellency, (who had had a good character given to him in the examination,) was very angry at this attempt to lower my credit of being the first to teach phrenology in the The Desert, and pushed the Touarick out of the Rais's house, and we only just escaped a disturbance, or losing all our fun, the Touarick drawing his sword to defend himself. In general I was disappointed, and did not observe the African and Moorish forms of cranium so much marked as I expected. They were all, thank goodness, pretty cleanly shaved. It is well known Mussulmans generally shave their heads, and leave their beards unshaven. This is, then, a splendid field for accurate phrenological observation. I observed that the negroes have all of them "self-esteem"

most surprisingly developed. From this, (if the science were true, which I very much question[27],) we could easily deduce their habitual gaiety, for a man who has always a good opinion of himself is rarely miserable.

Just after the examination finished, whilst we were all very gay, smoking, drinking coffee, talking, and laughing, one of the Moors started up suddenly, and in an instant, taking his shoe, lying beside him, struck something down with a great smack on the floor; it turned out to be an immense scorpion! I felt a chill start through all my blood. The smashed reptile looked hideous in the dim light of the Ramadan lamp. This is the third scorpion within a fortnight the Rais has killed in his own house; one of enormous size he killed a few days ago. The Rais called for more coffee, and said coolly and laconically, "It's all _maktoub_ between you and the scorpions; if they are to bite you, they will." His Excellency thought the sting often deadly. My taleb joins the rest in their notions of fatality. In coming home with me afterwards, I said to him, "I am alarmed at these scorpions, as there's no security from them; for you say they get upon the beds, on the tops of the houses, and in every hole and corner." The taleb--"I am not afraid; I am always killing them in my house, and yet I fear them not, for it's all from G.o.d. If they are destined by _Rubbee_ to sting me to death, they will, so I do not disturb myself. You Christians are foolish." It does not appear that this reptile strikes a person unless it be attacked, or trodden upon. The people say they feed on _trab_, "dust" or "dirt." Yesterday the chameleon was seen in the gardens: there is a few in Ghadames, and in most parts of North Africa. The one I saw was a most unsightly creature. The construction of the eyes is remarkable; they turn on a swivel, or seem to do so, and are directed every way in a moment of time. It is a trite observation, that the lower brute animal has many advantages over the more perfect and rational animal. I often, _en route_, admired the beautiful facility with which the camel turned its head and neck completely round, and looked upon objects in every direction, without even moving its body, or if in motion, without stopping. I watched the chameleon a long time, to see it "change its colour;" it did so continually, but scarcely any of the colours were agreeable or beautiful; they were mostly dunnish red and yellow, and sometimes black brown; often-times it was covered with spots, now with stripes, now with neither one nor the other. Once it was an ugly black, and then of a light pale-green yellow. The fewness of animals in this oasis occasions me to record its appearance. The people mention two or three varieties of the species. They are fond of the chameleons, at least, give them the full liberty of the gardens, without attempting to destroy them.

The Sebaah, a freebooting tribe of Tunisian Arabs on the frontier, who some two months ago plundered a Ghadames caravan near Gharian, have been made to render up an account of the spoil. The Pasha of Tripoli wrote to the Bey of Tunis, and the Bey has undertaken to make them surrender their booty. The value is only about 1000 dollars, and forty camels. People are very inquisitive about my personal affairs. They ask me repeatedly, why I don't marry, or where are my wife and children? and add, "for you are getting old, and have plenty of money." I usually reply, "I can't carry a wife about with me all over the world." In the Desert and all over North Africa, it is looked upon as a species of disgrace for a man not to be married. It perhaps ought to be so everywhere; but our social system of Europe is become now so bad, that nearly half of the people cannot afford to marry. And so degraded in their feelings have become the lower cla.s.ses of the British Isles, that many of those who do marry, marry with the clear understood determination of throwing their offspring upon the public bounty. The Puseyite and Church alms-giving clergy, to their shame, encourage our miserable population in these most despicable sentiments, and tell the people it is their right as granted to them by the founder and apostles of the Christian Church. Tyrants must have slaves, and priestly tyrants as well as other sorts of tyrants; it is therefore necessary there should be propagated a race of slaves.

This morning the poor old blind man demands the strong medicine for his eye. He says, "I feel less pain in my eyes though I see no better." O Dio! what a precious gift is sight--how persevering is this old man to see again those sights of desert, palm, and oasis, which he saw in his youthful days! Perhaps there is a tenth of the population of Ghadames nearly blind, or quite blind. The Sheikh Makouran has calculated the expense from Ghadames to Kanou, and back, for me, at two hundred dollars.

The Moors are essentially children in some things. Young men, full grown, carry about with them in their pockets a little bit of white sugar to suck, stowed away in needlecases. To-day, a ghafalah of Touaricks, twenty persons, left for Ghat. They took my letter for the Governor. The Touaricks are getting used to the sight of a Christian. My opinion is also undergoing a favourable change towards them. Certainly, the best informed of the Ghadamsee people give them a good character.

_15th._--The Rais killed two more scorpions after I left him last night.

A child was bitten a few days ago by a scorpion, and died to-day. His Excellency hopes they will disappear after the Ramadan. The scorpion, like many other venemous and deadly animals, is a creature of _heat_, and in the winter is never seen. The scorpion usually comes out of his hiding-places, or the crevices of the walls, during night time, and is rarely seen in the day. Various remedies for its bite or sting, or stroke, are in vogue here. People usually employ garlic: they both eat it and rub it into the bitten or stricken part. Others cut round the stung part, and then rub over the whole with snuff. People persist that the scorpion eats dust, but that he is very fond of _striking Ben-Adam_ ("the human race.") Two nights after the scorpion affair with the Rais, to our dread and horror, Said killed a large one close by our beds. We always sleep upon the ground-floor on matting. He was dozing in the night, after his Ramadan midnight meal, when the monster scrambled past by his head like an enormous crab. In the morning he showed me his sting as a trophy of victory. We then examined all the walls in our sleeping apartment, and stopped up cracks and crevices. After a short time the scorpions were forgotten, or we got used to them; and the next one that Said had a chase after, excited in me little attention. So I found, like the Moors, myself a fatalist, or at least became reconciled to the presence of these death-stinging reptiles. I found eventually, in fact, the people killed them with as much unconcern as we do spiders. The scorpion is the only creature armed with the fatal power of destroying life, which, for the present I hear of in the oases of The Sahara. The Arabs, in their hatred of the Touaricks, say, "The scorpion and the Touarick are the only enemies you meet with in The Sahara."

_16th._--The old worn-out bandit met me, and asked me to cure his rheumatic pains. "Show me your tongue," I said. He flatly refused, as several persons were present. Then when I went away he came running after me, and tried to put out his tongue, but did not succeed. I told him to drink plenty of hot broth, and go to bed. He seemed satisfied. An Arab soldier afflicted with diarrha, came for medicine. He waited till the last rays of the sun were seen to depart from the minaret's top, before he would take his pills. Meanwhile, he gave me a catalogue of grievances, the sum and substance of which was, "he had nothing to eat." I questioned him over and over again, and then, coming to the same stern conclusion, I gave him some supper. Some weeks ago the Rais gave each soldier 3 Tunisian piastres, about 1_s._ 10_d._ Since then they had had nothing.

Substantially, I believe, he spoke the truth, for these poor fellows are kept just above the starvation-to-death point. It is not surprising they wish to return to their homes, or Tripoli, and that they pilfer about the town. Asking him why the Rais did not give them a few karoobs, he replied naively, "The Rais has none for us, but plenty to buy gold for his horse's saddle." To-day, nor yesterday, could I buy any eatable meat. I mean mutton, for this is the ordinary meat of the place, and upon which I live, with now and then a fowl. But in the Souk another camel was killed, and a great display was made of its meat. The camel was ill before killed, but not so bad as the one already mentioned. Some fifty persons were enjoying the sight of the camel being cut up, for the Moorish butchers always cut up their meat into very small portions, sometimes not bigger than a couple of mouthsful. Before killed, the camel sold for one hundred and eight Tunisian piastres; the one on which the Kady gave judgment, only produced thirty-three. (Tunisian piastres vary from 7_d._ to 9_d._)

Yesterday the weather sultry, and a few drops of rain fell on the parched oasis--drops of ambrosia from the G.o.ds. To-day it is cloudy and cool, for the first time since my residence here; a cool elastic sensation braces up my poor drooping frame.

The Moor picks up every bit, or little dirty sc.r.a.p of paper he finds in the streets, and places it in a hole of the wall, or upon a ledge, lest there should be written on it, "the name of G.o.d," and the sacred name be trodden upon and profaned. It is probable they derived the superst.i.tion from the Jews, who have many mysterious notions about certain letters which form the name of The Almighty. I have often seen ????? affixed on the door-posts of Jewish houses in Barbary. But no people in the world use the name of G.o.d more vainly than Mussulmans, nor swear more than they, the greater part of the words used being different epithets of the Divine Nature. This inconsistency runs through all the actions of these semi-civilized people. No people pretend to more delicacy in the mode of dress, more respect for women, not even mentioning the names or existence of their wives. My late Marabout camel-driver, when speaking of his wife and family, merely said _saghar_ ("little children"). And, notwithstanding all this, no people are more sensual and impure, and esteem women less, than the Moors of towns. In swearing and oaths, the epithets "With G.o.d!" "By G.o.d!" "G.o.d!" "The Lord!" or "My Lord (_Rubbee_)!" "G.o.d, the Most High!" and, "The Most Sacred Majesty of G.o.d (_Subkhanah Allah_)!" are the common forms of using the Divine Name. A Tibboo stranger went into a house to buy a pair of pistols, and the seller was not at home. My taleb, who was a neighbour, and was anxious his friend should sell his pistols, run about exclaiming, _Subkhanah Allah!_ I confess I was greatly shocked on hearing these most awful words used in such a way. I taxed the taleb afterwards with it, and compared his conduct with what I had seen in his picking up bits of paper in my house, for fear the names of The Deity should be upon them. He merely answered pettishly, "What do you wish? all people say so." A less serious note may be added here, that of the loose and curious way in which the Arabs express their ideas of quant.i.ties and distances. "Great" and "small" means with them any quant.i.ties, as "near" and "afar," any distances. I asked an Arab of Tunis when he expected his caravan? He replied, _Ghareeb_ ("near"). "What do you mean, a week, a fortnight, or how long?" "_Twenty days!_" was the reply. In endeavouring to obtain information from these people on distances and quant.i.ties, the only way is to make them compare the thing unknown with what you know. They will tell you at such a place is an exceedingly high mountain. If there is a hill or a mountain near you at the time, you must ask them if it as large or larger than that? In this way you will frequently find their great mountain to be no bigger than a hillock.

The merchants say it is necessary to give presents to the following princes of authority, in the route of Soudan:--

TOUARICKS.

Governor of the town of Ghat; The Sultan of the Touaricks of Ghat, and the surrounding districts; The Sultan of Aheer; and The Sultan of Aghadez:

and these princes demand presents as a matter of right.

FULLANNEE AND NEGROES.

The Governor of Damerghou; The Sultan of Tesouwah; The Deputy-Sultan of Kashna; and The Deputy-Sultan of Kanou:

but these latter princes do not demand presents as a matter of right, leaving it to the good pleasure of the stranger. There are also a few other smaller places where a trifling present will help a merchant on his way. The presents are collected according to the means and wealth of each individual merchant, each subscribing his share, one giving a burnouse, others a piece of cloth, or silk, or beads, and what not. The whole is then collected together, and a deputation of two or three merchants is formed out of the caravan, who convey their presents to the prince, and the prince, when he finds the merchants have treated him liberally, sometimes returns a present of a slave or two, but generally a quant.i.ty of fresh provisions.

A small ghafalah of Touaricks having left to-day for Touat, Sheik Makouran, whose merchandise they were escorting on its way to Timbuctoo, begged me to write a letter to the Sheikh of Ain-Salah, one of the oases, which is in direct commercial relations with Ghadames. The plain English of the letter was, that Sheikh Haj Mohammed Welled Abajoudah, of Ain-Salah, would receive me friendly if I came to him, would protect all Englishmen travelling through his country, and would not let them be attacked and murdered as Major Laing was. When I gave my friend Makouran the letter, he asked me what I had written. I related the substance.

"Allah, Allah!" exclaimed old Makouran; "Why, the Sheikh of Ain-Salah is my friend, he'll treat you as kindly as I do; he's one of us." Then he added, "Never mind, the letter may go." This evening the Rais was very unwell. Gave his Excellency some purgative pills. Afraid he will be obliged to return to Tripoli for his health; poor fellow, he suffers greatly.

_17th._--The weather has opened this morning, dull, cloudy, and cool, threatening rain. A dingy veil is drawn over the face of things.

Have not yet seen any pretty plays amongst the children. All is dullest monotony. The youth, however, ultimately recover their wits by travelling. My turjeman says, "The natives of Ghadames are the greatest travellers in the world, and are to be found in every country." The _Souk_ offers nothing for sale but olive-oil, liquid b.u.t.ter, a little bread, camels' flesh, and now and then a few vegetables. All the Touarick traders have now left, some for Ghat and others for Touat. My Ghadamsee friends cease talking of the dangers of my Soudan trip, and it is a settled thing that I go. Some of them wish me to try a fasting day; "one day, to see how I like it," they tell me.


It is very amusing to see butchers in this place cut up their meat. Four, eight, or twelve persons, join to buy a sheep. The sheep is killed, and the butcher has to divide it into as many equal parts as joint-purchasers. He begins by dividing it into four equal parts, but not in the way we should imagine, by cutting the carcase into four. No, quite different. He first divides the intestines into four portions, cutting the heart, liver, and lights into four equal portions, and so of the rest. Sometimes the heart is made a present to some favoured individual.

Of two sheep cut up to-day, the heart of one was given to a young friend of mine, and that of the other to the Governor. The intestines divided, the butcher proceeds to divide the legs and shoulders into four equal portions, dividing one leg and one shoulder into two, and so of the other. The ribs and rest of the meat is then also equally divided. When the carcase is thus far divided, a few persons only take one whole quarter, the rest the butcher proceeds leisurely and scientifically to divide, several persons taking a whole quarter divided and subdivided amongst them, not being able to purchase a large quant.i.ty. The quarter is divided into half-quarters, the half-quarters into quarter-quarters, and the quarter-quarter is often again divided and subdivided before it gets into the pot. In this division, you would imagine the Desert dissector would cut the meat all away;--no such thing; and so great is the precision with which he divides and subdivides, that he has no need of scales and weights, equally dividing every bit of muscle, cartilage, fat, and bone; indeed, every person goes away perfectly satisfied with the justice of the division. I never saw scales and weights used on these occasions. Should, perchance, a difficulty or dispute arise as to the comparative size of the portions or equal divisions, a child is then sent for, and each party having chosen his token--a piece of wood, a straw, or what not, the whole are put into the hands of the child, who is requested to place the sticks or straws upon the portions of meat it chooses, or to which its caprice may guide. This decision of the umpire Chance is without or beyond all appeal. Mussulmans of The Sahara have no idea of _separate joints_ or choice parts, the heart, perhaps, excepted, which is highly prized; or, if you will, they like a bit of every part of the carcase, and cut it up into these infinitesimal divisions in order that they may obtain this aggregate of delicate minutiae. But as this is all cooked together, there can never be that separate taste of separate parts which distinguishes the meat as killed and cooked by Europeans. All Mussulmans are instinctively butchers, and are familiar with the knife, and expert at killing animals; it is a sort of religious rite with them.

What I have observed particularly is, there is none of that shrinking back and chilled-blood shudder at seeing a poor animal killed, which characterizes Europeans, and especially the children of Europeans. Here children may be seen holding the animal whilst its throat is most barbarously cut! and not flinching a step, or blinking the eye. Apropos of killing and eating meat, I had a long polemical discussion with my taleb upon the respective rites and ceremonies of Christians and Mussulmans. I told him what distinguished the religion of the New Testament was, that it prescribed no rules for eating and drinking, or dress; that the whole Christian religion was based upon two great commandments: "Thou shalt love G.o.d with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." This, however, only drew from him the observation, "Before the time of Sidi Mahomet, this was the religion of the world." I rejoined, "This was the religion--still is the religion--of all the English, who eat and drink everything that is good, and dress any way they please; and such is the will of G.o.d." The taleb observed, "You wear braces, which is unlawful." I could not find out the why and the wherefore, unless it were that it tightened men-folks up too much for modesty. I told him the Rais and all Turks had braces to their pantaloons. He simply replied, "Braces are not permitted by our marabouts."

North Africa, or this region of The Sahara, more particularly, is essentially the East, (the Syrian, Arabian East,) and the religion of Mahomet has indissolubly bound in ideas, manners, and customs, the inhabitants of these countries with those of the East. It is, therefore, very satisfactory to read the _Arabic_ New Testament in these countries; for, besides presenting all the ideas and metaphorical adornments, such reading often gives you the very words and idiomatical expressions of the people. This correspondence is certainly a strong proof, both that the latter Biblical writers were natives of the East, and that the inhabitants of North Africa and The Sahara were originally emigrants, or colonies from Syria and Arabia. This is the opinion of my taleb, and all the literati of the oasis. My taleb also treated me to-day with writing the famous Mohammedan prophecy, respecting the destinies of the East, and the world in general, and everybody in particular. It runneth according to this mighty import: "_The Dajal_, (????????,) whose name is the Messiah, and who is the son of Said, and who is a monstrous fellow, with one eye, shall come upon the earth, or rather, go abroad upon the earth, and all the Jews shall flock around him, and enrol themselves under his standard, for he is their expected Messiah; and then, armed with their prowess and gold, he shall slay all Christians and Mohammedans, and shall reign upon the earth, after their destruction, forty years. This time outran, there shall then appear Jesus, the son of Mary, (the Messiah of the New Testament,) in the clouds, who shall descend upon the earth with flaming vengeance, and destroy _The Dajal_. This done, then shall come the end of the world." My taleb a.s.sures me, upon his _parole d'honneur_, that _The Dajal_ will come in forty years from the present time, or in the year 1885! Khoristan, the country where he is now bound in chains, is, besides, the country of Gog and Magog (???? ? ?????).

One of these gentlemen is very small, indeed a dwarf, about the size of General Tom Thumb, perhaps one and a half inches shorter; and the other is tall enough to reach the moon when it is high over your head. It is strange the Mussulmans of Ghadames make also the Turks (_Truk_, as they call them,) to come from the country of Gog and Magog. See the following table of the genealogy of all the people of the earth, especially the Turks, the Touaricks, and the Russians:--

Noah.


+----------------------+----------------+
Shem. Ham. j.a.pheth.


+------------------------+ +--------+ +------------+
Christians. Arabs. Jews. Negroes. Gog and Magog.


+----+ +---------+
Turks. Touaricks.


+--------+
Russians.

Such is the leaf of holy tradition in The Desert. It is astonishing how all nations love to indulge their gloomy musings with monsters.

The extraction of the Russians from Gog and Magog is a curiosity; but the Russians, (_Moskou_, such is their name here,) are looked upon as a species of monster, whose jaw is capacious enough to swallow up all the Turks, and the Sultan of the East. The Rais has the greatest dread of them, whose native soil they have already gorged, "These Russians,"

he said to me one day, "are always, always, always advancing, advancing, advancing upon the Sultan." Who will say the patriotic Turk's apprehensions are groundless? With regard to the extraction of the Touaricks, I asked one of these people where his countrymen sprang from. He answered me, that formerly they were demons, (??????) and came from a country near Kanou, on the banks of The Great River.

Another told me, in true h.e.l.lenic style, "The Touaricks sprang out from the ground." An opinion has been advanced by some acquainted with ancient Eastern and African geography, that the Touaricks are from Palestine, and are a portion of the tribes of the Philistines expelled by Joshua; that the first rendezvous of the wanderers was the oasis of _Oujlah_, which is a few days' journey from _Siwah_, the site of the celebrated _Ammonium_; and thence they proceeded, wandering at will, to the west and south, peopling all the arid regions of the Sahara.

The Sheikh of the slaves visiting me to-day, and describing Timbuctoo, said, "It is several times larger than Tunis; it is as large as _Moskou_ (or Russia)."

_I._--"Who told you _Moskou_ was large?"

_He._--"The people."

So the Emperor of all the Russians may rejoice in the consciousness, that he and his people const.i.tute as large a kingdom as Timbuctoo, and are celebrated in the gossip of Saharan cities.

The first thing with which people break their fast in the evening is _dates_. My taleb, when visiting me, takes a few dates in his hands, and goes to a corner of the court-yard, or upon the house-top, about the softening, musing time, when the last solar rays are lingering playfully--and to the emaciated faster, teasingly, on this Saharan world, and there he listens in silence for the first accents of the shrill voice of the _Muethan_, calling to prayers, from the minaret of a neighbouring mosque. This heard, he commences putting the dates, one by one, slowly into his parched mouth, repeating a short prayer with each as he swallows it with a sort of choking difficulty. After he has eaten a dozen or so, he drinks, and then goes off to mosque prayers. Sometimes he prays in my house, and then comes down to dine with me. Many people, of course, in Ghadames, never saw a Christian before me; but they are quite as much astonished to see a Christian eat and drink in the Ramadan, as to see the Christian himself. This afternoon I was very thirsty, and went to drink a little water from one of the water-skins suspended in a square. A woman, of half-caste, going by at the time, cried out, "Why, why?" I went up to her and said, "Because you are a Mussulman and I'm a Christian." Her astonishment was no way abated; she kept exclaiming, "Why, why?" as if she would raise the whole city. One of my merchant friends seeing there was some prospect of a disturbance, came up to me and said, "Yakob, that woman is mad; make haste, go home." However, I rarely ever eat and drink before the people, avoiding as much as I can shocking their prejudices; and if asked about fasting, usually evade the question, or say I fast or wait for my dinner till Said can eat his dinner also.

_18th._--Weather has now set in cool. This morning a little cold and raw.

Now's the time for catching coughs and cold;--people are coughing already. Just before day-break, a thunderbolt was said to be discharged over the city, accompanied with a long, low growling muttering sound, which reverberated from the Saharan hills. The circ.u.mstance remarkable, in the falling of this dread bolt of heaven's artillery, at the time the sky was perfectly clear and bright, and there was nothing in the shape of storm. These discharges of sound are rare in the Saharan regions. People asked me to explain to them what it was, and what it prognosticated? I told them, thunderbolts were frequent in Christian countries during storms, and nothing of consequence follow from them. I have reason to believe since, after conversing with several French officers in Algeria on the subject, that this phenomenon of a tremendous discharge of sound was a discharge of electricity _from the earth_, which sometimes occurs in North Africa.

Went to examine the Great Spring of Ghadames this morning, which is situate on the west side of the city, but conveniently between the two grand divisions of the population, the Ben Wezeet and the Ben Weleed. It was to me a _delicium_. What a revolution has my opinions undergone respecting water since I have travelled in The Thirsty Desert! Never was such an enthusiastic conversion! But were all conversions so harmless, how happy for mankind! Some thirty swallows are skimming its gaseous-bubble surface, playing off their wing-darting delights. The Spring or Well is perennial, as old as the foundation of the city, and may have ran for ages before the palms were planted around it by the hand of man, or sprung up from a few date-stones left by some chance fugitives who had stopped to taste its waters, and then held their way on in The Desert. Without the Spring the city could have no existence. It runs into a basin made and banked up for it, an oblong square of some twenty yards by fifteen. In its deepest part it is not more than six feet. The water is hot, averaging a temperature of 120 degrees, and upwards, it being too hot to bathe in near the orifices, whence the water gushes with gaseous globules, which continually rise from the bottom. But the orifices are not visible, and hence an air of mystery is thrown over this spring of "Living Water." The people say it was created by G.o.d on the same day when the sea near Tripoli was made. The gaseous particles are larger and more numerous in the centre, where is the great force of the Spring. The water is tolerably good, but a little purgative. It is usually allowed twelve, but some give it twenty-four hours to cool before drunk. The form of the basin may be thus rudely represented:--

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A. Small bathing-places.

B. Steps where the women descend to fill their jugs with water.

C. Corners where the water runs away to the fountains in the squares and streets, and to the gardens, in and without the city. Around are the ruins and backs of houses, walls, and gardens, the palms alone being visible, looking very fresh and gracefully picturesque, near this source of life. After this went to see the _Water-Watch_[28], which is placed in one corner of the Souk. This is constructed upon the same principle as the hour-gla.s.s, but it is small, and requires to be emptied twenty-four times to complete the hour. In fact, it is only a small earthen pot or jar with a hole in the bottom of certain dimensions, and when filled with water, and the water has emptied itself, running out twenty-four times, the hour is completed. Some gardens require the stream, which the _Water-Watch_ measures the time of the running of, an hour, others only half an hour, and others two or more hours, according to their size and distance from the source. The inhabitants pay Government so much per hour for the running of the stream into their gardens; but some have an hereditary possession in a certain quant.i.ty of the time of the stream's running. Of this they are naturally very proud. For ordinary household purposes the water is given without cost. There are two or three places in the town where a small water-watch is kept, but that in the Souk is the princ.i.p.al one. I have thus entered into particulars, for the obvious reason that, "water is the liquid gold in these thirsty regions." In Southern Algeria, the oasis of El-Agouat, each landed proprietor has the prescriptive right of an hour or two hours of the running of the water, according to the t.i.tle deeds of the estate. The time is measured with an hour-gla.s.s (of sand) held by the officer who distributes the water, and who opens and shuts the conduit of irrigation at the time fixed. Many other oases have the same system.

Some Touaricks remained, who called on me to-day. One, who had shown himself very friendly, began to enlarge on the dangers of the Soudan route. I immediately observed, "G.o.d is greater than all the Touaricks."

This stopped his gab, and was applauded by the rest. A Ghadamsee bawled out, "Oh! it requires a great deal--much, much, much money to go to Soudan." "How much?" I asked,--"Oh! much, much, much!" was rejoined.

"What is _much_?" "Five hundred dollars!" was shouted out by half a dozen. I coolly observed, "It is not much for an Englishman." Another of the Touaricks said, about twenty years ago he saw some Englishmen come to his country from Fezzan. What struck the Touarick was, the English tourists gave a dollar for a fowl, for a drink of milk, and even, he added with an oath, for an _Es-Slamah aleikom_? ("How do you do?") This story was told to impress me with the necessity of taking plenty of money with me, and I was to keep up the liberal character of my predecessors in Saharan travel. So we see these English tourists, who undoubtedly were Messrs. Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, have spoiled the roads of travelling between Ghat and Fezzan, as Englishmen have spoiled the routes of the Continent of Europe. This is the propensity of John Bull, to buy up everything and everybody abroad[29]. The Touarick added, "A deal of money is required, because there are many banditti." He meant not exactly robbers, but beggars, who, whilst begging, give you to understand that their appeal to your eleemosynary feelings must not be in vain. All who beg _impudently_ on the routes, or who levy black-mail, are called _Sbandout_ ("banditti.") But I'm more convinced than ever, that the greatest shield of safety for the Desert traveller is his poverty.

Saw an aged Moorish lady, who greatly interested me. She told me she was an hundred years old, fasted all day long, and expected soon to go to Paradise. It is undoubtedly a vulgar error to say the Mahometan doctrine teaches that women have no souls. During her hundred years, she had never seen a Christian before. Her faculties were too weak for sectarian spite, and she looked upon me as if I had been a simple Mussulman stranger.