Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 33

Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 33

"And Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe." (2 Sam. ii. 18.) In this way Arabs speak of one another. Every person who is conversant with Eastern pictures and scenes in Arabic has met with a sc.r.a.p of poetry of some sort or other, in which the Arab woos his mistress, by comparing her loved eyes to the fine dark full eye of the gazelle. An Arab also, like us Europeans, calls a cunning fellow "an old fox," and stupid fellow "a donkey."

"And it came to pa.s.s, in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house; and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon." (2 Sam. xi. 2.) Everybody now knows, or ought to know, that the roofs of Barbary and Saharan houses are flat, where the people walk and enjoy "the cool of the evening," or "the evening tide" after getting up from their naps or siestas. Here the women gossip and the men pray, but the latter are often disturbed in their devotions by the intruding glimpses of some Desert beauty. Love-matches and intrigues are equally concerted here on house-tops. The flat-roofed house-top, as before observed, is the Ghadamsee woman's entire world; here she lives, and moves, and has her being.

"Woe to thee, O land," &c., "And thy princes eat in the morning."

(Eccles. xi. 16.) The princ.i.p.al meal is in the evening, and no people of these countries think of eating a hearty meal "in the morning" like what Europeans are accustomed to eat in the morning. To eat a hearty meal in the morning would be an act of downright gluttony. Here, then, is strikingly brought out the sense of this pa.s.sage of the Preacher's wisdom.

"We will not drink of the waters of the well." (Numbers xxi. 22.) The Israelites being a numerous host, were obliged to make this promise, for if all had drank, they would soon have emptied the wells, and left the people of the country without water, and their flocks and cattle to die of thirst. The caravans now returning to Ghadames are obliged to go in very small numbers, that they may not exhaust the wells. Having many slaves with them more water is required, which they cannot in any way dispense with. The Israelites renewed their promises about the drinking of the water to other people, through whose country they had to pa.s.s.

"He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha!" (Job x.x.xix. 25.) It is very odd that the hors.e.m.e.n of Morocco, when they gallop to the charge, always cry "Ha, ha!" So the Arabian poet of The Book of Job puts the wild cry of the rider into the mouth of the horse whom he rides. This I frequently witnessed on the parade of Mogador. The wild cavalry of Morocco is the boldest idea transmitted to us of the ancient Numidian horse. In Morocco the horse is both the sacred animal and the bulwark of the empire; for this reason it is the Emperor prohibits the exportation of horses. Even the barley, on which the horses are generally fed, is not allowed to be exported for the same reasons.

"And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren," (Gen. ix. 25.) This portion of Scripture will occur naturally enough to the mind of a biblical reader, who takes up his residence for some weeks at a slave-mart, and is seeing slaves bought and sold every day. It is the famous and much abused text of the slave dealers of the last three centuries, and is now continually quoted in the pulpits of the United States parsons, who, like the devil himself, quote Scripture to support the wickedness of themselves and their slave-holding and man-selling countrymen. The most approved commentators properly apply the text to the Canaanites, whom Providence afterwards dispossessed of their territories in Palestine, and gave them to the children of Shem, and so the Canaanites became the slaves of the Shemites for a limited period.

But to prove that it does not refer to the Negroes of North and Central Africa, I may be allowed to produce the following reasons:--

1st. Of all the children of Ham, Canaan only is mentioned.

2nd. The prophecy was fulfilled in the descendants of Canaan, and there is no occasion to extend it beyond the early history of the Jews, when they took possession of the land of Canaan, and reduced its people to servitude.

3rd. The descendants of Canaan were all white people, and the Negroes I need not say are black. But if it be a question of colour, there are red Indians and black Indians, who have been from unknown ages the sons of freedom, and who, when discovered, would not and could not be reduced to slavery. I guess the Yankees have not reduced the Indians to slavery, (although, after robbing them of their hunting-grounds, they have in the most Christian spirit exterminated many,) on the contrary, they are equally free men with the Yankees, and have the same privilege of reducing free men to slavery with their Republican neighbours. The Black Indians, following the precept and example of the White Republicans, have now an immense number of slaves; and in this case, it is not the more civilized who holds his fellow man in bondage, but the less civilized, indeed, savages. So the world is improving and progressing in the Western Hemisphere! The Southern Ocean is peopled with many tribes as black as Negroes. But to return to the Canaanites, they at length mixed with the Israelites and became one people, and the relations of master and slave were lost in equality.

4th. Many of the descendants also of Cush were white people, for he was the father of Nimrod, who founded Babylon, and became the father of all the Babylonians. Were the Babylonians Negroes?

5th. None of the children of Ham, but Canaan, became servants or rather slaves to the rest of the human race in any remarkable degree, during the early period of the Mosaic world. For,

Cush was the alleged father of the Babylonians and the Ethiopians, (the people of Upper Egypt,) but neither of these nations were slaves to conquerors more than any other people of that period of the world; whilst, on the other hand, the Babylonians were great conquerors in their day, and the Ethiopians had princes of their own even down to the days of Solomon. If now the Abyssinians are to be considered the descendants of the Ethiopians, we all know they are not slaves, but like the Yankee States themselves, slave-dealers and slave-holders. The Abyssinians, moreover, enjoyed advantages of civilization when a great portion of Europe was overwhelmed with barbarism. So much for the Cus.h.i.tes and Ethiopians, the lineal descendants of the accursed Ham!

Mizraim was the father of the Egyptians. These ancient and celebrated people, whose country was the cradle of civilization, cannot surely be branded as the slaves of the human race! This was also the lineal descendant of the accursed Ham!

6th. But even the Canaanites, so far from remaining slaves, after the alleged curse was fulfilled in them, recovered from their degradation and rose into consequence, filling the world with their fame. The children of Canaan were undoubtedly the founders of Tyre, whose bold navigators, braving the ocean and the tempest, scoured and ploughed up the waters of the Mediterranean, planting colonies everywhere, and founded Carthage!

The Carthaginians, their more renowned sons, pa.s.sed the Straits of the columns of Hercules, doubled Cape Spartel, and, some say, coasted the entire continent of Africa, returning by the Red Sea. It is monstrous to call such people slaves, branded by the hereditary curse of the inebriated patriarch of mankind. In truth, of all the people of antiquity, the accursed and enslaved race of Ham were the most free-born, enlightened, and enterprising! Never was such a perversion of Scripture interpretation to palliate and bolster up the systems of wickedness of this and former days! Shall we compare the Model Republic and the miserable and degraded nations of Brazils, Spain, and Portugal, the present enslavers of the alleged posterity of Ham, with the once mighty Egyptians and Carthaginians?

7th. But it may be said that Central Africa was peopled from Cush or Ethiopia, and that this Cush, who peopled that portion of the Continent, was the son of Ham. To this I have already replied, that the curse was p.r.o.nounced not on Cush, but on Canaan his brother, and it is arguing in a circle to extend the subject. After all, we are not sure that Central Africa, and the western coast, the theatre of the princ.i.p.al trade, was peopled from Ethiopia. Where is the proof? And besides, Central Africa, the _bona fide_ Negroland, possesses states and powerful confederacies, whom no power in Europe or America has yet been able to subjugate to slavery.

8th. The Africo-European slave-trade is only of extremely modern date. It is too late to look for the fulfilment of this prophecy amongst the European transactions of the last three or four centuries, in this and any particular reference to Africa. But finally, up to a late period, slavery was co-extensive with the human race, in all times, ages, and countries. All cla.s.ses and races of men were made slaves alike, without any relation to Africa and Africans. The Greeks and Romans, if they made slaves of Africans, did not so enslave them because they were Africans, for these ancient people made slaves of all, and even of their own countrymen, it being a const.i.tuent element of their society.

I have omitted purposely to question the Divine commission of the Yankee parsons to uphold slavery as the basis of their Republic. But it is difficult not to question the right of an incensed father, awakening from a drunken debauch, to condemn an innocent grandson (for what we know) to everlasting slavery and degradation.

With regard to the word ??????, _Doulos_, used in the Greek Testament to denote either a slave or a servant, there can be no doubt of the application of the term to both these relations of ancient society. The word corresponds to ????? in the Hebrew, and ????? in the Arabic, both being the same consonants, which terms are used, according to their application, to denote both slaves and servants. Slavery existed amongst the Jews as amongst the Greeks and Romans, in the beginning of the Christian era; so we have allusions to "the bond and the free," as well as "the Greeks and the Barbarians," the former phrase distinguishing slaves and free men, the latter, nations of arts and science from those of uncivilized or semi-civilized people. The question is not, then, the meaning of the term _Doulos_, or its application to slavery at the period of the promulgation of the Christian religion; but, whether, because slavery was not then reprobated by the teachers of Christianity, it was not therefore a very great evil. First of all, there are many things of ancient society not reproved or reprobated by the founders of Christianity, which are inconvenient to, and inconsistent with, our moral sense, and which would violate the laws of modern society.

Such are the laws and customs of usury and polygamy. No man in his senses would attempt to establish polygamy in modern society, because it is not prohibited and condemned by the writers of the New Testament. To argue, therefore, that slavery is congenial with the spirit of the Christian religion because it is not condemned by its apostles and evangelists, is an utterly fallacious system of reasoning. But even supposing the apostles themselves practised slavery, and received into their communion slave-holders, men-dealers and men-stealers, it does not therefore follow that we should imitate them, and become men-stealers likewise. What, was good or right for them and their state of society, may not be good or right for us and our society. The liberties of mankind require to be guarded in these our days by the most intense hatred, and the broadest and clearest denunciations of slavery, in every shape and mode of its developement. But let any people imbibe the spirit of Christianity, and slavery cannot exist amongst them; let all nations imbibe the spirit of Christianity, and slavery would become immediately extinguished throughout the world.

_20th._--A fine morning; the Desert around is fair and bright, save where the Black Mountains are casting their mysterious shades. Visited by some Succatou merchants, amongst whom were several Touaricks of Aheer. The Housa people and Aheer Touaricks both speak the Housa language, these Touaricks having abandoned their Berber dialect so far as I can learn. It is also difficult to distinguish the one people from the other when they wear the litham. One is nearly as dark as the other, but the features of the Touaricks are much more, and often quite in the style of Europeans. A few of the Aheer merchants are also, I have observed, tolerably fair. How different are the airs and consequence of these merchants, and some of them pure Housa Negroes, from the slaves which they lead into captivity; they talk, and laugh, and feel themselves on a level with us, whilst their slaves are moody and silent, without confidence, and slink away from observation. Such is the impress of slavery on men in whose veins runs the same blood as our own. The Soudanese merchants gave me some account of the reigning Sultans. Ali is the Sultan of Succatou, and succeeded the famous Bello, to whom Clapperton was dispatched in his last mission. Daboo is the Sultan of Kanou, and Ghareema, Sultan of Kashna, but both subjected to the Succatou Sultan. Besides these cities, the districts of Beetschee, Kaferda, Kasada, Sabongharee, Ghouber, Dell, Yakoba and Noufee, besides other provinces, including a vast extent of territory, are subjected to the Fullan dynasty of Succatou. But it is extremely difficult to get correct information from these Soudanese merchants, though dealing and travelling through all the Housa and neighbouring countries; as to the names of the princes, they could not recollect them. There are also frequent dethronements of the petty princes.

_21st._--I do not go out much now, except in the evening; I grow weary of the place. A young Aheer Touarick called. I never refuse admittance to Aheer merchants because they are so well behaved, and apparently not fanatical. He offered me a straight broad sword for five small dollars; it is quite new, having the handle made in the form of a cross and of hard wood, with a leathern scabbard. The blade was made in Europe. The Touarick dagger hilts are also made in the shape of a cross. There is besides a Malta cross usually cut on the bullocks-hide shields. The cross appears to be an usual ornament of Soudan and Aheer arms. It has been thought there is in this device of arms some vestige of the now extinct Christianity of North Africa. The subject is curious, but we have no means to arrive at its solution. My Aheer friend pretended his sword was worth two slaves in Soudan; this is an exaggeration. Abdullah, the Souf Arab, called. His brothers have brought thirty slaves from Soudan, which are destined for the market of Constantina. One of the Governor's sons goes to Soudan with the return of the caravan, a lad not more than ten years of age; he is to bring back merchandize as a regular trader. A little urchin of a Touarick, not more than nine years, came up to-day with his mother and asked me, "Why I did not know Mahomet?" but without waiting for a reply, set on cursing me. It is amazing how well these youngsters have learnt this lesson, and how soon! for they never before saw, or perhaps heard of, a Christian. The zealous mother had probably put up her son to this pious cursing of The Christian.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_22nd._--Made the tour of the oasis, and sketched a view of the town, which is annexed. Weather extremely warm to-day--nay, hot, and in the midst of January. What must it be in August! But the weather is far more changeable and uncertain in Sahara than it is commonly thought to be.

Several visits from the Touaricks of Aheer. Gave one a small lock and key, which is esteemed a great curiosity in this country. It gladdened his heart so much, that I believe he would now go through fire and water for me. He wanted to take me to Soudan by main force. He went away, and returned with some hard cheese made at Aheer, little squares somewhat smaller than Dutch tiles, which he presented in acknowledgment. I have had but few returns for the great variety of things I have given away in Ghat. The Medina Shereef, Khanouhen's son-in-law, scolded me:--"Ah, Yakob, you have done wrong to give away so much. You'll get nothing back.

This is a country of extortioners and extortion from strangers. You ought to have come here, said a few words, and left us." This is fine talk for the Shereef. He knows as well as I know, that this wouldn't do. A courier arrived from Ghadames, by which I received two kind letters from Malta.


It seems a thousand years since I received a letter from a friend.

A Negress had the hardihood to call on me, begging, in the name of Ouweek, thinking thereby to intimidate me. The bandit, however, sent a person two or three days ago to beg of me a little tobacco. I should certainly have sent some, had I had any left. Hateetah called, wondering what had become of me, as I had not called on him for a few days. Gave him another dollar, but it is the last. The Consul says there is a great deal of fever about amongst the merchants and people, but I don't see it.

I was somewhat surprised, for I thought the town enjoyed good health. I have reason to be thankful that it does not attack me. Apparently I'm fever proof. In all my life I never recollect to have caught an epidemic fever.

_23rd._--Called upon the Governor. His Excellency displayed his hospitality by giving me zumeeta made with dates and sour milk. Took the opportunity of asking him about the origin of the Touaricks. He pretends they are of Arab extraction. On inquiring how they lost their language, whilst all the Arabian tribes retained theirs, his Excellency replied, "They have learnt Touarghee as you have learnt Arabic." This is extremely unsatisfactory, for he could not explain from whom they learnt Touarghee.

About the history of Ghat his Excellency knows nothing. He says only, "It is a more ancient place than Ghadames," which, however, I do not believe.

His Excellency said the news had arrived from Algeria, that the Emperor of Morocco had united with Abdel Kader against the French, and four districts had elected the Emir for their chief. Called on Hateetah.

Whilst there, an old lady of eighty years of age came in and got up to dance before me in the indecorous Barbary style, and then begged money.

Seeing she had outlived her wits and took a great fancy for one of my b.u.t.tons, I cut it off and gave it her to the annoyance of Hateetah, the Consul scolding me for my condescension.

The Governor tells me there is a mountain of considerable alt.i.tude about two days from Ghat, in the route of Touat, from the base of which gush out some twelve large streams. The rain this year has fallen plentifully on these heights, and wheat and barley have been sown on the banks of the streams. This is fact of importance in Saharan geography, more especially as the mountain is situate in that central part of the Great Desert which is represented on the maps as an ocean of sand, the scene of eternal desolation! . . . . . .

Evening, whilst visiting Haj Ibrahim, who continues unusually kind to me, came in our funny friend, the famous Aheer camel-driver, Kandarka. This Kylouy is a great favourite with all, the Governor excepted. People praise his undaunted courage and say, "If a troop of fifty robbers were to attack Kandarka alone, he would still resist them." He has shown himself very friendly to me, and says, "Write a letter to Aheer, my Sultan, and I will take it. When you return bring me one thing--a sword, and I will take you safely over all Soudan." He has great influence with En-Nour, Sultan of Aheer, and any one travelling under Kandarka's protection is sure of a good reception from En-Nour.

_24th._--A fine day, but hot. Our departure is now delayed till next month. What a dreadful loss of time is this! I'm weary to death. I wish I had arranged to continue to Soudan. Grown disgusted with Ghat, I am reading what few books I have with me. Noticed more parallel customs between Africa and the East.

"And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them." (Gen. xxvi. 18.) The object of stopping up the wells was to prevent the children of Abraham making use of them and so occupying the country. The same thing is done in Sahara. When an enemy is to be exterminated, or robbers repulsed from a particular district, the wells are stopped up. Wells are also named by the digger of them. A man who goes to the expense of digging out a well, if peradventure he finds water, has the privilege of giving to it his own name. There is one on the route from Mourzuk to Tripoli called _Mukni_ or _Beer-Mukni_, from the great merchant who dug the well. So the name of the city of Timbuctoo is said by some to be derived from the Berber Word _teen_, "well", and _Buktu_, the name of the person who on its present site dug a well for the rendezvous or casual supply of pa.s.sing caravans. But this derivation is merely conjectural.

"Take heed that thou _speak_ not to Jacob, good or bad." (Gen. xxi.

24.) The verb _speak_ (???????????) is used for the verb to _do_. The same idiom prevails amongst the Touaricks. The friendly Touaricks always address me, "Don't be afraid, no person will _say_ (or speak) either good or bad to you." So Jabour's slave brought me word from the Sheikh; "No person is to say anything (_do_ anything) to you."

Dr. Wolff says, in his travels of Central Asia, the people of a strange place always apply to his servant for information about himself. So the Saharans apply to my Negro servant for news or information about me.

"And David sat between the two gates . . . . . and the king said, If he be _alone_ then is tidings in his mouth . . . . . . tidings." (2 Sam.

xviii. 24, 25, 26.) All couriers in this country are sent _alone_. When they travel through Sahara they have a camel to ride, but if there be abundant water on the road they go on foot. Merchants pay each so much to the courier according to their means. A courier sent from this to Tripoli, who also returns and brings answers to the letters, will receive altogether fifteen dollars. Touarghee couriers between this and Ghadames go for half the sum.--"And the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall and lifted up his eyes," &c. (part of the verses above cited). When a spy was sent from Ghadames to watch the Shanbah and their approaches round the country, on the eve of my departure from that place, people went up a ruined tower, situated on a high ground, and apparently built specially for the purpose, _to watch_ the return of the spy. I have seen several of these watch towers in the oases of Sahara.

"And they took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him." (2 Sam. xviii. 17.) When one dies in open desert, the people lay a heap of stones over the grave, the heap being smaller or larger according to the rank and consequence of the individual. The mention of "a very great heap," in the words cited, evidently denotes the royal rank of the deceased.

_25th._--My young Targhee called today as usual. Asked him abruptly, "What he did? What was his occupation? And how the Touaricks employed themselves?" With great simplicity, "When the _nagah_ (she-camel) is with young and gives no milk, we come to Ghat, and eat dates and ghusub and bread, if we can get them. When the nagah gives milk we return and drink milk and lie down on the road side. This is all which Touaricks do." The Touaricks are determined to feel as little of the primeval curse,--"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,"--as any people. The Targhee then gave me spontaneously a bit of knowledge which I had not before heard. He proceeded, "When I return to my house _on the road_ (or by the caravan route), and to my wife, I don't uncover my face and go up to her and stare boldly at my wife. No, I cover my face all over, and sit down gently by her side, waiting till she speaks with all patience. When she speaks, I speak, because I know then that she is willing to speak. It is very indecent to go to your wife with your face uncovered." In fact, generally amongst the Touaricks, the men have their faces covered and the women their faces uncovered. The reverse of what we find in other Mahometan countries. But also the reverse of what the native modesty of the human mind dictates.

Atkee, the Ghadamsee Arab, who was to have been my companion to Soudan, went off, returning to Ghadames, without paying the money which I committed to his care for the owner of the camel's flesh, which we ate on the route of Ghat. Atkee besides neglected to bring the money for the half of the skin of the sheep which I purchased with him, according to promise. These things are merest trifles, but merest trifles develop the character of men. It is such actions of dishonesty which make one afraid of travelling in Africa, lest we are sacrificed to the designing villany of those who pretend most and exhibit the most officious marks of friendship. In such a way poor Laing was entrapped and murdered. This very Atkee, I considered the first man of the ghafalah. Zalea now tells me that Atkee wished to lay on two more dollars for the things given to Ouweek. But the Arabs, like the Cretans of old, are "all liars," and I don't wish to make Atkee worse than he was. I am sufficiently disappointed with him.

The Medina Shereef called, who is the most learned person in Ghat. I showed him the Arabic Bible, which amazed and confounded him, as he turned over its well-printed pages. He sighed, nay, literally groaned, at the profanity of having our infidel religion translated into the holy Arabic language. The Shereef told me Arabic would be the language of heaven. The Jews tell us it will be _Hebrew_, (or ???? ?????). The Latin Church has its holy Latin, and a _trilingual_ bible of "_Hebrew, Latin, Greek_," was said by pious fathers of that Church, to represent "Christ crucified between two thieves." The Hindoos have their sacred Sanscrit, and so of the rest. The benumbed and frozen mind of the Esquimaux, amidst the fat seals, blubber, and seas of oil in which it revels and swims, when antic.i.p.ating the joys of the polar heaven, makes the tongue involuntarily speak in genuine Esquimauxan gibberish. It is, however, not surprising that the language in which a people first receives the rudiments of its religion should be greatly venerated and acquire a peculiar sacredness. The Shereef asked me to show him the pa.s.sage where Mahomet was spoken of under the t.i.tle of Parakleit; but he kept off religious discussion, having more delicacy than his neighbours of Ghat. Ignorance is bliss to a Shereef of these countries. Were the Shereef to see the wonders of Christian civilization, he would be stung to death with envy. A gentleman once told me as the result of his experience in Barbary, that a Mussulman who had not seen Europe was more friendly to Christians than one who had, accounting for it on the principle of a despicable envy.

_26th._--The weather continues warm and fine; little wind. Objects at fifty miles' distance seem close upon you, so clear and rarefied is the air. Berka came this morning ostensibly for eye-powders, but really for a bit more sugar for his little grandson, the well-beloved son of his old age.

_Sheikh Berka._--"Sala-a-a-m!"

_The writer._--"Good morning, Berka."

_Sheikh Berka._--"Medicine for my eyes."

_The writer._--"Here is some powder, you must mix it with a bowl of water; but take care, it's poisonous."

_Sheikh Berka._--"Good G.o.d, Christian! take it back, my little son will eat it for sugar. He gets everything and eats."

_The writer._--"Here's some sugar for him."