Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 11

Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 11

Sunset, this evening, a man proclaimed from the housetops the arrival of the ghafalah, long expected from Tripoli: only a courier arrived. By him I received the first letter from Tripoli, and the first newspaper, the _Malta Times_! That mark of admiration means, gentle reader, my poor old paper, the paper I established at so much cost and waste of time, money, health, and labour, for the good pleasure and caprice of The Island of Malta and its dependencies. It's yet pleasing to see the old paper following me; it will, perhaps, follow at my heels to Central Africa.

Ramadan began a day earlier in Tripoli. The courier, also, brings the news, banditti are prowling about the The Mountains attacking isolated travellers and small caravans. I am sorry to see, by my papers, the people advocates of their own slavery, and that the Texans have carried through their Congress "the Annexation with the United States," the republican patrons and upholders of slavery and the slave-trade! In this case, at any rate, 'it is not kings and despots enslaving mankind,' but the people wilfully forging their own chains. There is also a humble case before my eyes. Here sits by my side, the slave of Haj Abd-Errahman, who is sent every year by his master to buy and sell goods, as if a regular free merchant. It is wonderful fidelity on the part of this slave that he does not run away. Unquestionably the negro has some fine qualities. This slave, however, in palliation of the wrong, tells me he brings few slaves, and mostly goods. I don't fail to tell him, slaves are _haram_, ("prohibited,") to the English. My taleb comes in, and after asking me the news, takes up the Arabic Bible, and reads the following beautiful prophetic sentiment:

and then asks what it means? "_And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold_," I reply, "may be ill.u.s.trated in this way: Suppose the Rais buys up or bribes the people, so that nearly all the people applaud whatever he does, whether right or wrong, then the love of your country, amongst you few faithful remaining, will wax cold?"

_Ben Mousa._--"Yes, I understand, _Seedna Aysa_, ('our Lord Jesus,') was a prophet."

FOOTNOTES:

[27] I always thought phrenology too good to be true. Such a study, however, may be of some service in cla.s.sifying mental phenomena, and induce a taste for metaphysical research.

[28] _Mungalah_ or _Saah-el-ma_. Watches are very uncommon: only the Governor, and a few of the richest people, have a watch.

[29] Once pa.s.sing through Lyons, I heard of an English tourist who hired a steam-boat to himself to pa.s.s down the Rhone in, hired an hotel to himself, and one evening took the upper part of a theatre to himself, including the boxes, and all to enjoy himself _tranquillement_, said my French informant.

CHAPTER VII.

FAST OF THE RAMADAN.

The Women in possession of the Streets.--The Grand Factions of Ghadames, the _Ben Weleed_ and the _Ben Wezeet_.--Interest of the People in Algerian Affairs.--Names, from Bodily Deformities.--Starving Slaves makes them Thieves.--Disease of the _Arak-el-Abeed_.--Finances of Ghadames.--The Prophet Jonah, still living.--Bad system of collecting Taxes by common Soldiers.--Essnousee leaves for Ghat, alone.--The _Thob_.--Stroke of the Moon.--Mission of Impostors always that of pretended Mercy to Men.--How the Turk governs the Arabs.--Saharan _Lady_-Gentlemen.--Cla.s.sic and Vulgar Names of Things.--The _Wadan_, or _Oudad_.--Nimrod, the Hercules of the Saharan Moors.--Enoch, a Tailor.--Noah, a Carpenter.--Serpents and Monsters in The Desert.--Teach Geography to the People.--Indolence of the Inhabitants of Africa.

_19th._--MORNING spent in spelling the Malta Times. Saw a Ben-Wezeetee, who protested that all the money of the country was in the hands of the Ben-Weleed. I asked if he ever went to the Ben-Weleed. "For what," he replied angrily, "should I go to see those devils?" In the afternoon found all the streets deserted by the men-folks, and in possession of the women, girls, and little children, who were playing all sorts of pranks, and dancing and singing like so many people let loose from Bedlam. As soon as they saw me there was a simultaneous rush at me, all crying out, "Oh, Christian! Christian! where's your mother? where's your sister?

where's your wife?--don't you want a wife?" Then they began to pelt me with date-stones. I got out of the way as quickly as possible. Wondered what in the world had become of the men. At last found them and the boys all congregated round a mosque, this being some important ceremony of religion.

I had to-day some talk about the two great political factions, the _Ben-Wezeet_ and the _Ben-Weleed_, the Whigs and Tories of Ghadames, but pushed to such extremities of party spirit, as almost to be without the limits of humanity. Notwithstanding the a.s.sumed sanct.i.ty of this holy and _Marabout_ City of Ghadames, and its actually leaving its walls to crumble away, and its gates open to every robber of the highways of The Desert--trusting to its prayers for its defence and to its G.o.d for vengeance--it has nourished for centuries upon centuries the most unnatural and fratricidal feuds within its own bosom, dividing itself into two powerful rival factions, and which factions, to this day, have not any _bona fide_ social intercourse with one another. Occasionally one or two of the rival factions privately visit each other, but these are exceptions, and the Rais has the chiefs of the two parties together in Divan on important business being brought before him. In the market-place there is likewise ground of a common and neutral rendezvous. Abroad they also travel together, and unite against the common enemy and the foreigner. The native Governor, or _Nather_, and the _Kady_, are besides chosen from one or other party, and have authority over all the inhabitants of Ghadames. But here closes their mutual transactions. It is a long settled time-out-of-mind, nay, sacred rule, with them, as a whole, "Not to intermarry, and not to visit each other's quarters, if it can possibly be avoided." The Rais and myself, reside without the boundaries of their respective quarters, so that we can be visited by both parties, who often meet together accidentally in our houses. The Arab suburb is also neutral ground. Most of the poor strangers take up their residence here. The _Ben-Wezeet_ have four streets and the _Ben-Weleed_ three.

These streets have likewise their subdivisions and chiefs, but live amicably with one another, so far as I could judge. The people generally are very shy of conversing with strangers about their ancient immemorial feuds. I could only learn from the young men that in times past the two factions fought together with arms, and "some dreadful deeds were done."

My taleb only wrote the following when I asked him to give some historical information respecting these factions:--"The Ben Weleed and the Ben Wezeet are people of Ghadames, who have quarrelled from time immemorial: it was the will of G.o.d they should be divided, and who shall resist his will? Yakob, be content to know this!"

But the Rais boasts of having done something to mitigate the mutual antipathies of the factions. "The _Shamatah_, between them," he says, "has had its neck broken." And really, if it be the case, there is in this some compensation for the wrongs and miseries which the Turks are inflicting upon an impoverished and over burthened people. In other parts of Northern Sahara similar factions exist, often arising from chance divisions of towns. There is a similar division of the town of Ghabs in Tunis, but not carried to such extreme lengths as these factions of Ghadames. It would seem that society could not exist without party and divisions no more than a British Parliament. Even Scripture intimates there must be strifes and divisions.

Many came to me to hear the news from Tripoli and Algeria. I found them all interested in the fate and fortunes of the latter country. Some vague rumours had reached them of serious and b.l.o.o.d.y skirmishes. I calmed them, telling them "all people were on an equal footing in Algeria, Christians as Mussulmans, even as Mussulmans were in our British India." Some doubted my information. Late in the evening, when the visitors of the Rais had retired, I had a tete-a-tete with his Excellency. Speaking of the Ghadamseeah, his Excellency said, "They are ignorant and know not the _tareek_ (_i. e._, system) of the Sultan; they magnify every trifle of news they hear, and are now alive to every change, and in feverish expectation of some new event." This is always the case with the oppressed; they must love change, if but for the worse. His Excellency then continued: "Since the forced contribution of fifty thousand dollars, no money is to be found. The money due for the past four months is still uncollected." Speaking of the bandits, his Excellency said, "The Pasha has written to me that he cannot allow me, or the Commandant of The Mountains, to march out against the _Sebaah_ or _Shanbah_, without an order from the Sultan, but with such an order we could soon exterminate them." Our Rais does not entirely neglect the intellectual edification of his Desert subjects. This evening, early, he amused them with talking about steamboats, or "boats of fire." I put in a word about railroads, telling them with a railway we could come from Tripoli to Ghadames in two days. "The Christians know all things but G.o.d," said a Marabout.

_20th._--Weather is now cool, and I can walk about the gardens at mid-day without inconvenience. I enjoy this much, amusing myself with throwing stones at the ripe dates, which fall in luscious cl.u.s.ters into one's mouth. Eating fruit in the gardens or from the trees is also a peculiar delight enjoyed by people of all countries and climates. Several of the people are so ignorant of printing that they call my newspapers letters, and this is natural enough, as there are no other but ma.n.u.script books amongst them.--??????

???????, "Simon _the Leper_" (Matt. xxvi.). It is usual here to distinguish people in this way: as "Mohammed, _the one-eyed_,"

"Ahmed, _the lame-with-one-leg_," and "Mustapha, _the red-beard_."

So the famous pirate of the Mediterranean was called "_Barbarossa_."

The people are not at all ashamed of being called by their natural deformities, as we are in Europe. ?????? is one of the numerous words in Arabic where the sound corresponds with the sense.

_Ghemghem_ is, "to murmur," and the English word itself is not a bad example of the kind. The Mussulmans have very grotesque notions of the Christian doctrine of Trinity. A person said: "Do not the Christians say G.o.d has a Son?" "Yes," I replied. The rejoinder was, "That is making G.o.d like a bullock (?????)!" My friend the Touatee, a native of Touat, tells me the Touaricks were originally from Timbuctoo, and so say all Touat Touaricks. The ghafalah just arrived from Tripoli has brought eighty camel-loads of barley. Observed the head of the little son of the Touarick bandit. Fancied it was really the infantile cast of such a parent's head. This is the danger of the science, prejudicing you in such matters.

Apparently, what little thieving there is going on here is committed by the Arabs and slaves. There are three or four of these latter most determined date stealers. One of these slaves was brought up yesterday and received two hundred bastinadoes; but it had not much effect upon him. When these offenders become incurable, the Rais packs them off to Tripoli. A very good plan, which keeps the country free of offences of petty larceny. However, many of these slaves steal because they have not enough to eat: thus we come to the old circle again, that poverty is the mother of crime. So is it with the Arabs and slaves of Ghadames. The slaves are mostly devout, if not fanatic Mussulmans. They have a right to be fanatical, for their religion is a great protection to them. Their masters, not like the _Christian_ slave-masters of the Southern States of America, who close the Bible against the slave, are also proud of the fanaticism of their slaves, and teach them verses of the Koran. The slave's conception of the dogmas of his religion is slow and confused. My Negro Said is a good Mussulman, and keeps his fast well, but I never yet caught him at his prayers, nor does he go much to the mosque. Yesterday I came suddenly upon two youngsters, the Rais's slaves, who at mid-day were devouring roasted locusts and drinking water, in the style of sumptuous feasting. I called out, "Holloa! how now? are you feasting or fasting?"

They began laughing and then handed me some roast locusts, to bribe me not to blab. My taleb caught a slave in my house eating also roasted locusts, and asked him if he should like to be roasted in h.e.l.l-fire?

_21st._--The old blind man is the most regular patient. The novelty of being doctored or quacked by a Christian is wearing away. Wrote to-day to Mr. Gagliuffi, British Vice-Consul of Mourzuk. Said, in visiting his friends, for he has now _his circle_, brought me a present of _Danzagou_, in Arabic _Kashkash_. This is a seed of the size of a large hip, and of a beautiful scarlet colour; it is used sometimes as medicine, mostly for necklace beads, and is native of Soudan, where it abounds. He also brought some _Morrashee_, in Arabic _Jidglan_. This is a species of millet, a product of Soudan. The Blacks, Moors, and Arabs all eat it with _gusto_. There are several varieties of edible seed brought over The Desert from Soudan, chiefly as Saharan luxuries. Had a long conversation with the people of the _Ben-Weleed_, and found them extremely sociable.

One of them had been to Leghorn, and described the houses as seven stories high, and the port _free_. These were his strongest impressions.

It is worth observing here the universal freemasonry of the mercantile spirit. As a merchant, he could understand and recollect a free-port in any part of the world. The honour of this anecdote have the Leaguers.


A man showed me a sore place on his arm, which he called _Arak_[30]_-El-Abeed_ (???? ???????). This was a large raised pimple, in the centre of which was an opening, and from which aperture there issued from time to time a very fine worm, like the finest silk-thread, and sometimes not much thicker than a spider's web, in small detached lengths. This worm is often of the enormous length of twenty yards, gradually oozing out piecemeal. It is a common disease of Soudan where the merchants catch the infection, and bring it over The Desert. It is said to be acquired princ.i.p.ally by drinking the waters of that country.

By the wars before the occupation of the Turks, Tripoli had become exhausted of its wealth, and its trade and agriculture were at the lowest ebb. The country was divided into two armed factions of the ancient family, money was borrowed at the most extravagant, and sometimes 500 per cent. interest, and the jewels of the ancient family were bartered away for arms and provisions, to carry on the war. A large collection of splendid diamonds were sold for something like an old song. Most of these got into the hands of Europeans. I saw some in the hands of an European gentleman, who a.s.sured me that he had been fortunate enough to get them for a fourth, and some of them for a seventh, of their value. When the Turks usurped the Government, such was the condition of the country. But they had also to put down a formidable rebellion of the Arabs, which occupied several years of exterminating war. This gave the _coup de grace_ to the unfortunate Regency of Tripoli, and plunged it into complete ruin. There was, however, one city, far in The Desert, which appeared unaffected by these sanguinary and wasting revolutions--the holy-merchant-marabout city of Ghadames! the pacific character of whose inhabitants seemed to place it without the pale of such dire turmoils.

But the Turks (the war with the Arabs ended, and at leisure) began to look about, and thought they saw an Eldorado looming beautifully in the _mirage_ of The Desert, which would speedily replenish their exhausted treasures, and put the Government of Tripoli in easy pecuniary circ.u.mstances. A pretext was soon found to excavate in this newly discovered Desert mine. "The people of Ghadames," said the Pashas of Tripoli, "are rebels--they sympathized with the Arabs--they did not come forward to help us to exterminate the Arabs--they must now pay for their disaffection." A forced contribution was therefore immediately levied upon them of 50,000 mahboubs and upwards, and the women and children were stripped of their gold and silver ornaments, and houses ransacked, to make up the amount at once. Ten thousand mahboubs were also demanded annually. This new demand threw the city into consternation, and the men brought out the women and the children into the streets, who fell upon their faces before the officers of the Pasha, and implored them not to deprive their wives and children of bread. It was at last settled they should pay 6,250 mahboubs, as an annual contribution. Under the Caramanly dynasty they paid only some 850 mahboubs per annum, besides being left to the uncontrolled management of their own affairs. Now, whilst the people are complaining of the large amount of taxation imposed upon them, and pleading their impossibility to pay up arrears--in this irritable state of things--an order comes from Ahmed Effendi in The Mountains, to collect an additional contribution of 3,225 mahboubs, under the pretext of its being wanted to maintain troops in Fezzan, and keep open the communications of commerce. This intelligence has so completely astounded the few remaining merchants who have any money, that they nearly lost their senses, yesterday and to-day, being very ill, and unable to attend to their ordinary business. The money for the last four months is not yet collected, and the people say they cannot pay up. Our Rais has three times represented to the Pasha the inability of the people, but the answer always is, "_money must be had_." I expect to witness some cruel scenes of extortion practised before I leave this place, like what I saw in The Mountains. I observe now the Rais can't keep a respectable collector. _No native of Ghadames will collect for him._ Sometimes he sends the Arab soldiers, who abuse the defaulters. Once an Arab soldier got hold of a poor man in the street, an acquaintance of mine, to drag him off before the Rais. I told him to stop a moment, and then having ascertained how much it was--about one shilling and eight-pence--paid the money and got the poor fellow clear this time. Sheikh Makouran is a true patriot. Whenever he sees anybody dragged off in this way through the streets, in spite of the Governor, and his being a member of the Divan, he takes upon himself to impede the course of justice (_extortion?_), abuses with all his might the officer, and if he can't rescue the defaulter, pays the money himself: so strives for public liberty this Hampden of The Desert!

To-day, had a proof of the rancorous enmity of the ancient factions. A merchant of the Ben Welleed, who wished to visit me, said, "I must come round the city, for _I don't know_ the streets of the Ben Wezeet. Thank G.o.d! I never went through them in my life." This he said with vehemence, intimating that he never would enter the streets of the Ben Wezeet as long as he lived. A ghafalah has arrived from the oases of Fezzan, bringing corn and dates, productions abundant in those countries.

_22nd._--Weather continues cool. Few more patients. Present of dates from one of them. Very little meat now killed in Ghadames, less and less every day. What will become of this once flourishing city it is hard to tell.

The prejudices of the people against the residence of an European in this city have apparently disappeared; people are increasingly civil; many would willingly look upon me as their protector, were I made Consul, but unfortunately for them, I am not ambitious of, nor have any inclination for, the honour.

This morning heard a curious opinion about Younas, or Jonas (Jonah), for the Arabs, like the Greeks[31], sometimes change the last letter of the Hebrew ? into a S. Probably they got their traditions through the Greeks or the Greek language. I was talking with a taleb about longevity, when he observed, "There is but one person who is always alive." "Who is that?" I inquired very anxiously. "It is our lord Jonas, who is living in _distant_ and _unknown_ parts of the world," he said. "Is he alone?" I further inquired. "No," he added, "he has with him a hundred thousand people, who live to a great age, but who at last die, whilst he is always living. Then as to Jesus, the son of Mary, he also never died, and went up to heaven alive. The Jews (the curse of G.o.d upon them!) only killed his _likeness_." I have always observed these mysterious events to transpire in some _unknown_ and _distant_ part of the world, and took the liberty of telling this taleb that the "smoke-ships" (steamers) could soon make every place in the world near and known, and then we might find out the residence of Jonah as well as the captivity of the ten tribes.

The story of the ten tribes is pretty well known. A Maroquine rabbi told me they are somewhere about the regions of Gog and Magog, in Central Asia, situate in a country where there is a river running perpetually six days out of seven, very rapid and full of stones, so that they cannot pa.s.s it and return to the Holy Land. On the seventh it stops, when it might be pa.s.sed, but on the Sabbath day the law does not permit them to travel. This is the Barbary version. Central Asia is still the land of mysteries for both Jews and Mohammedans. The Russians have done little to dispel these mysteries, if they have not tried to envelop these lands in profounder obscurity, for political purposes; but had we been established in Affghanistan, we might have discovered _Jibel Kaf_, the retreat of Gog and Magog, the strange stony river, the ten tribes, and all the other objects of Jewish and Mohammedan superst.i.tion. But as with the famous gardens of the Hesperides, the abode of perfectly happy mortals, which were shifted farther and farther from actual observation by the progress of ancient discovery, so the mysterious retreat of the ten tribes and the ever-living Jonas will be transferred to other unknown lands when modern discovery shall have exhausted Central Asia.

Met Sheikh Makouran: asked him what was to be done to meet the extraordinary contribution. He said he couldn't tell, people had no money: Rais had so written to Tripoli, but was reprimanded by the Pasha.

Advised him to send a deputation to the Pasha, or the British Consul-General. Had another example of the bad system of collecting monies, as often in Mahometan States, by means of common soldiers. These fellows do all the dirty jobs, everything necessary in the way of extortion; the more respectable officials shun these disagreeable transactions, especially if they be natives of the place where the taxes are collected. A great disturbance was in the streets, the people almost fighting with these extortioner ruffians. Going farther on, something absolutely ludicrous happened. The soldiers could not read, no person would read their papers for them, and they could not find out the person on whom they were to make their demands, although the parties were actually present. They then came to me to read their papers. I asked them, "Whether they thought it showed any of the friendship which they professed towards me to embroil me with the people of the country, whose hospitality I was receiving?" They were so convinced of the justice of my appeal, that they went off without replying. A Ghadamsee peasant called to me, "Yacob, you must be our Consul!"

Afternoon, Essnousee left for Ghat. Being extremely attached to this merchant, I went to see him off. About thirty of the Ben Weleed (for he is of this faction) accompanied him, the most respectable of this division of the the city; I was glad to see a person, in whom hereafter I might have to place implicit confidence, so much esteemed. His friends set to and loaded his camel before starting, as many as could find any thing, each taking an article of harness or equipment. This I observed often afterwards. It is reckoned friendly. By such conduct they show they are willing to render all the a.s.sistance in their power to their friend.

I continued on the route of Ghat with Essnousee half an hour or more, bade him farewell and returned. His brothers and a slave left him with me. The merchant then proceeded on his desert journey of some fifteen or twenty days _absolutely alone_, for he had only a Touarick camel-driver.

This demonstrates the security of the route. I said to the people afterwards, "Is he not afraid to go alone?" "No," was the answer, "they will only meet Touaricks, and these are our friends. You have only to pay a small trifle of toll in different parts of the route and you are quite safe. Sometimes you don't pay this." Essnousee will reach Ghat in twelve, whilst a quick caravan requires from eighteen to twenty days. With first-rate camels the journey could be performed in _eight_ or ten days.

Strange infatuation! I felt an almost irrepressible desire to accompany Essnousee _as I was_, and to plunge anew into all the hardships and dangers of The Desert. But such is man, a creature of daring or absurd impulses! and the more he moves, and roams, and rambles, the more (in modern phrase) _locomotive_ he is--the less he likes repose, and seeks unceasingly such perilous stimulants. Observed, on returning, amongst the loose stones scattered upon the surface of The Desert, a great quant.i.ty of rubbish, like brick-bats thrown out from a brick-kiln, giving the face of the ground a burnt and volcanic appearance. Picked some up and could hardly believe but what they were burnt bricks. The Ben Weleed, who accompanied Essnousee, instead of the short and direct road through the streets of the Ben Wezeet, took a circuitous route round the inner walls of the city to arrive at the gate of departure, showing me how great was still the force of these factions. Essnousee himself told me he never went through the streets of the Ben Wezeet, nor did he expect he ever should in this world.

_24th._--Yesterday and to-day employed in writing for the _Shantah_ (Turkish, for mail). Rais in a good humour this evening. Two camels came in from The Sahara, one day's journey, laden with wood for the Rais. His Excellency offered some to me. The fact is, I purchased a camel-load a few days ago, and his Excellency's servants had nearly begged it all away. People generally burn dried and dead branches of the palm, which, in this season, is abundant. It is not good fire-wood; there is plenty of flame and smoke, but little heat. Said, on my return from the Rais, a.s.sures me he has heard from his visitors, the Touarick slaves, that now the Touaricks do not beat their slaves, but esteem all men _souwa, souwa_, ("equal"); it was not so in former times. Free and enlightened America may have yet to learn lessons of freedom and humanity from the savages of The Sahara!

Purchased a _Thob_[32], a species of large lizard. It is common in The Sahara. The Touaricks eat them, and say they are _medicine_ for a pain or weakness in the back. This may have been surmised from the ideal resemblance between the strength of their backs, which is scaly and bony, and strongly bound together, and the strength it is likely to communicate unto persons having a weak or crippled spine. They are pretty good eating, and taste something like the kid of the goat; the tail is esteemed the greatest delicacy. I tasted of this which I bought, and liked it. There is no lizard of this species in Soudan. A Touarick told me that, having found one in The Desert, he carried it to Soudan, where a Negro prince fell in love with it, and gave him for it the present of a young female slave. The Arabs tame the Thob, and he grows very fond. Some of them are very large. This I purchased is only twenty inches in length, and about ten round the thickest part of the body. The head is large and tortoise-shaped, with a small mouth. It is covered with scales, or "scaly mail," and its tail is about four inches long, composed of a series of broad thick and sharp bones. It has four feet, or rather _hands_, for, as the Arabs say, "It has hands like _Ben-Adam_ (mankind)." All the body, back and flanks, are covered by shining scales, of the colour of a darked-spotted grey, with spots white and light under the belly. It runs very awkwardly on account of its bulky tail, and to look at is a miniature aligator or crocodile. It is almost harmless, fighting a little now and then; its appearance, however, is rather forbidding. It hides in the dry sandy holes of The Sahara. A drop of water, say the Arabs, would hurt it. The traditions of the Mohammedans mention that Mahomet did not himself eat the Thob, at the same time he did not prohibit it to his followers. The Saharan merchants, in traversing The Desert, frequently make a good meal of the Thob. Whilst talking of the Thob, the people said the flesh of parrots was _poison_ for Ben-Adam.

_25th._--Another of my patients dead, of a raging fever caught, it is said, "by sleeping on the top of the house in the open air." The moon struck him, they say. According to the Psalms, "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor _the moon by night_."

They let him remain seven days without sending for me, when it was too late to administer my fever powders. I fetched an old gentleman who could bleed to have him bled, but they refused, saying it was now late. The old blood-letter vexed at their refusal, said, "Well, if I mustn't bleed him, let me pray for him;" and, immediately offered up a short prayer, in which they all joined willingly. On telling a Ghadamsee I ate some Thob, he said, "Ah, that's forbidden; the Thob was formerly a human being, before it had its present shape. Don't you see its hands are still _human_?" The notion of the transmigration of souls lingers in these parts, but it is a doctrine not generally received. I observed this man afterwards fattening his sheep with date-stones, broken into small pieces. Almost every family, however small, have their sheep to fatten.

Pounded date-stones are also given to camels for fattening. Writing for amus.e.m.e.nt with my taleb, I recollected a verse in the Koran, which I wrote:--

This filled him with surprise and horror, and he immediately scratched it out, as too pure and holy a thing to be in the possession of an Infidel.

The translation is:--"We (G.o.d) have sent thee (Mahomet) only for mercy to mankind;" or, "Thy mission to man, O Mahomet! is only mercy." Such credit all impostors and pretenders to revelation claim for themselves, and such an object they declare to be the end of their mission, although at the same time, and in the same breath, they don't forget to doom all those who reject their authority to perdition. This, it would seem, is a necessary evil in propagating new religions and new sects. But enough of this--may the world grow more kindly--let us hope it will. This morning arrived a single Arab from Fezzan. It would appear extreme hardihood when we reflect, that for nine days, there is not a house, and scarcely a resting-place. The Arab was mounted on a camel. This arrival, as Essnousee's departure, shows the security of the routes in some directions. The Arab told me he made his journey in nine days, and stopped occasionally on the road to sleep and refresh himself. In the night he tied his camel's leg to his own leg, so that if it attempted to stray, it would awake him.

Nothing new with Rais. Speaking of the Arabs, he says, "You know Arabs to be very devils. There are two ways to consider Arabs, but whichever way they are robbers and a.s.sa.s.sins. When they are famished, they plunder in order to eat; when their bellies are full, they plunder because they kick and are insolent. Now, we (Turks) keep them upon low diet in The Mountains; they have little, and always a little food. This is the Sultan's _tareek_ (government) to manage them. Their spirits are kept down and broken, and they are submissive." He then told me he had held a Divan to obtain the extra contribution of 3,200 mahboubs, for the Pasha; but the people protested they could not pay such an amount. I wrote a letter to Colonel Warrington, stating this circ.u.mstance, and asked him if he could a.s.sist the people in any way. I thought it a bare possibility that the hand of foreign diplomacy might be stretched out to save this city, which had flourished in the pursuits of its own peaceful commerce for more than a thousand years. . . . To mitigate the apparent harshness of his demand, the Rais observed, that before the Sultan occupied Ghadames, the country between this and Tripoli was full of banditti. "The Arabs of The Mountains," he added, "were all banditti, those amongst whom you resided eight days. The Touaricks were not so bad, they generally protected Ghadamsee merchants. Now since the Sultan, there are only the Shanbah and the Sebaah, therefore the Ghadamseeah must pay." So, _Audi alteram partem_.

_26th._--To-day, resident thirty days in Ghadames which time I have certainly not lost. Written a good deal of MS., such as it is, and several letters; besides, applied myself to reading and writing Arabic.

Likewise distributed medicines to a considerable number of invalids. Wish to pa.s.s the next month as profitably as the month gone. My expenses of living, including a guard to sleep in the house at night, and Said, are only at the rate of eighteen-pence per day; this, however, excludes tea, coffee, and sugar. Besides, Sheikh Makouran refuses to take anything for house-rent, saying, "It would be against the will of G.o.d to receive money from you, who are our sure friend, and our guest of hospitality." Few patients, in comparison with the past. As the winter approaches, the cases of ophthalmia are less. In the precipitation of leaving Tripoli, brought little ink with me, and most of that I gave away; so am obliged to go about the town to beg a little. The custom is, when one person wants ink, he begs it of another. Went to Ben Weleed, who procured me a supply.

My intercourse has been mostly with Ben Wezeet, but to day I visited _Ben Weleed_ at the _Bab-Es-Sagheer_, ("the little gate,") or the _Bab-Es-Saneeah_, ("the gate of the garden,") where there were about forty of the most respectable of this faction a.s.sembled in a sort of gossiping divan amongst themselves. They told me they met here every morning, and chatted over the news of the previous day. Usually they meet just after sunrise, and certainly in this way they pa.s.s a cool and fragrant hour, full of the odoriferous breathings of the gardens as the day is awakening. I asked one, who were the richer, the Weleed or the Wezeet? He replied, with an honourable frankness, "The _Wezeet_."

Observed many of the men had their eyelids blackened, like the women, with _Kohel_[33], and also their finger-nails and toe-nails dyed dark-red with henna[34]. I confessed I was surprised at this monstrous effeminacy.

One of these _lady_-gentlemen was the son of the powerful Ettanee family; he was brought up to the Church, and of great promise, bidding fair to be future Kady or Archbishop. He put a curious question to me, "How much is the expense of a journey from Malta to Constantinople?" When I satisfied him, he said, "I shall go and buy some slaves at Ghat, and then convey them to Constantinople. Don't you think I shall make money by it?" I told him he would not find anybody at Malta to convey slaves to Constantinople; and if he took them there, they would be set at liberty, for a slave once touching British territory became free. To this he replied only, "I know--I knew before." I was extremely glad he did know it. It is strange to see a young man of this description so avariciously turn himself into a slave-dealer, but Mohammedan priests frequently trade.

Marabouts in The Mountains are mostly camel-drivers; and the greater part of priests, marabouts, and kadys perform sacred duties gratis. An order of priesthood exists, though it is not kept up very distinctly from laymen, but it is an honour to them, "to work in the service of G.o.d for nothing,"

and is worthy of the imitation of Christians. My new clerical friend gave me a dissertation upon things having two names, a cla.s.sical one and a vulgar one. The Kohel is also called _Athmed_, ??????, which is its cla.s.sical name. Senna is called _hasheeshah_, ???????, literally "herbs," its vulgar name, and ???? ????, "senna of _Mecca_," (literally, of the inviolable,) which is its cla.s.sical name. A little senna is found casually in the gardens of Ghadames; but the country of Senna, in The Sahara, is Aheer, where it is cultivated by the Touaricks. He pointed out to me the _Tout_, (?????,) the small white mulberry, which is planted in little squares of the city. Speaking of the Touaricks, he said: "These people are getting dissatisfied with us. Formerly we paid them better; but being robbed of our money by the Turks, we can't give them much. They smell also a disagreeable odour now. Formerly they came in and went out our city as a garden." "What odour is that?" I asked. "_It's that Rais_," he whispered in my ear. The fact is, the Touaricks felt themselves more at home before the Turks came here, which everybody can imagine.