Part 38 (1/2)
[102] ”But we will cause thee to turn towards a _Kiblah_ that will please thee. Turn, therefore, thy face towards the holy temple of Mecca; and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place.”--_Surat_ ii.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FROM GHAT TO MOURZUK.
Another Range of Black Mountains.--Habits of She-Camels when having Foals.--Our Mahrys.--Intelligence of my Nagah.--Geology of Route.--Arrive at the Boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan.--The Moon-Stroke.--Sudden Tempest.--Theological Controversy of The Shereef.--Wars and Razzias between the Tibboos and Touaricks.--Forests of Tholh Trees.--The Shereef's opinion of the Touaricks.--Dine with The Shereef.--Saharan Travellers badly clothed and fed.--Style of making Bazeen.--Mode of Encamping.--Cold Day, felt by all the Caravan.--Well of Teenabunda.--Arrival in The Wady of Fezzan.--Meeting of the two Slave Caravans.--Tombs of Ancient Christians.--Routes between Ghat and Fezzan.--Weariness of Saharan Travel.--Oases and Palms of The Wady.--We meet a rude Sheikh, demanding Custom-Dues.--Haj Ibrahim's opinion of the Virgin Mary.--Black Jews in Central Africa.--My Affray with the Egyptian.--Route to Tripoli, _via_ Shaty and Mizdah.--Features and Colour of Fezzaneers.--My Journey from The Wady to Mourzuk, on leaving the Slave-Caravans.--Tombs of former Inhabitants, and Legends about them.--Bleak and Black Plateau.--The Targhee Scout.--Have a Bilious Attack.--Desert Arcadians, and lone Shepherdesses.--Oasis of Agath, and its want of Hospitality.
_12th._--A LONG, long, weary day, and tormentingly hot in the middle of the day. Course north-east, over plains scattered with small stones.
Traversed a few small ridges of hills. A new species of stone to-day, the hard slate-coloured, and some of it with a granite-like look. Afternoon, came in sight of the other chain of black, or, as sometimes designated, Soudan mountains, stretching boundlessly north and south, like those near Ghat. This chain likewise extends to the Tibboo country. It is an error of some of the late French writers, to make the Saharan ranges always run east and west. This direction of development only applies to the Atlas ranges of the Coast. No trees, and no herbage for the camels.
The hasheesh which the camels ate this evening was brought us from the encampment of yesterday. The poor slaves knocked up to-day; rested many times on the road, and another very ill. In all probability she will follow her companions lately dead. Others, however, sang and danced, and tried to forget their slavery and hards.h.i.+ps. But the death of the two girls is a damper for the rest, and they have not been so merry since that mournful occurrence. The she-camels, which have foals, give no milk for want of herbage. The two mothers bite one another's children. This, perhaps, they do to teach the young ones their true mothers. One of them makes a great noise over her young one, and disturbs all the caravan.
Evening, whilst all the people were at prayers, and prostrating in their usual parallel lines, I went up to her, and began teazing her. The angry brute slowly and deliberately got up, but, once on her legs, she made a dead set at me, running after me. Meanwhile, receding backwards as fast as I could, I fell over some of the people praying and prostrating, and the camel attacked them as well as me, spoiling their devotions. The camel now returned to her foal; and, prayers over, Haj Ibrahim said to me, laughing, ”Yakob, the camel knows you are a kafer, and don't pray with us. So she attacks you. Camels never attack good Moslems at their prayers.” The foal of seven days' old walked the whole of our long march to-day! and nearly as fast as a man. So the poor camel begins to learn by times its lessons of patience and long-suffering. The mahry of the Haj is very vicious and greedy, and bites all the other camels which eat with it. Camels are made to eat in a circle, all kneeling down, head to head, and eye to eye. Within this circle of heads is thrown the fodder. Each camel claims its place and portion, eating that directly opposite to its head. The people eat in the same manner in circles, each claiming the portion before them, but squatting on their hams instead of kneeling. The mahry of the Haj is quite white, and is a very fine animal; but its eye is small and sleepy-looking, so that it does not appear to have the amount of intelligence of the Coast camels. We have another smaller mahry, and some of the mahrys are as diminutive as others are gigantic in size. My nagah feeds by herself. The males never bite the females as they bite one another,--a piece of admirable gallantry, so far, on their part, but they rob the females of their fodder, and I am obliged constantly to keep driving them away from my nagah. The nagah knows she receives her dates from our panniers. Stooping down on one of them this evening to find something, putting my head right in, and raising myself up, I found the nagah's head right over my shoulder, attentively watching me, to see if I was bringing out her dates. She distinguishes me well from the Moors and Arabs, by my black cloak, and is usually very gentle and civil to me, and familiar, more especially about the time of bringing out the dates.
_13th._--Our course north-east, over an undulating plain of sand and gravel, and at intervals the desert surface was a plain pavement of stone, of a dark slate-colour. Greater part of the route strewn with pieces of petrified wood, but no pretty fossil remains. Wood, apparently chumps of the tholh. We had all day the new range of black mountains on our right, which extend southwards far beyond the Fezzanee country to the Tibboos. Intensely cold all day, the air misty, and the wind from north-west. But I prefer this cold to the heat of yesterday. Haj Ibrahim complained of the cold, and was alarmed for his slaves. One of the females he chased on his mahry, the girl running away on foot, and gave her two or three cuts with the whip. She had been accused of too great familiarity with a male slave. Crime and slavery go hand in hand: Miserable humanity!
About noon, we reached the territory of Fezzan. Good bye, Touaricks!
farewell to the land of the brave and the free! Farewell, ye Barbarians!
where prisons, gibbets, murders, and a.s.sa.s.sinations are unheard of. We now tread the soil of despotism, decapitations, slavery and civilization, under the benign Ottoman rule, in conjunction with the Christianized Powers of Europe! The boundaries of Ghat and Fezzan are determined by two conspicuous objects, first, by a chain of mountains running north-east and south-west, joining the oases of Fezzan on the north, and extending to the Tibboo towns on the south, the eastern side of all which chain is claimed by the masters of Fezzan, the western by the Touaricks of Ghat; and secondly the forests of tholh trees, which are now appearing in our north, affording abundant wood to the people of the caravan, and browsing for the camels. I am now, then, once more under the power of the Porte, and within the region of Turkish civilization. Pa.s.sed other desert mosques, with some Arabic characters written in the sand, near the Keblah.
To-night the moon shone with a sun's splendour; all our people seemed startled at this prodigious effulgence of light. Several of the slaves ran out amongst the tholh trees, and began to dance and kick up their heels as if possessed. It might remind them of the clear moonlit banks and woods of Niger. Haj Ibrahim at last got out his umbrella and put it up, ”What's that for?” I asked. ”The moon is corrupt (fesed), its light will give me fever. You must put up your broken umbrella.” So said all our people, and related many stories of persons struck by the moon and dying instantaneously[103]. This is another ill.u.s.tration of the pa.s.sage, ”The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” (Ps. cxxi.
6.) In the Scriptures are several allusions to a stroke of the sun, (see Is. xLix. 10, Rev. vii. 16,) but few to the moon-stroke. Saharan opinion is that the moon-stroke is fatal. I am not aware that the moon-stroke is well authenticated by our eminent physicians. The writer of the psalm spoke the current language of his epoch of science. It is probable that ”moon-struck madness,” and strokes of the moon, are the effects of noisome or infectious vapours which crowd about the night, and obscure with a still paler light that pale luminary. The sun-stroke seems to be well-authenticated; many cases of Europeans going hunting and sporting in the open country of Barbary, then and there receiving a stroke of the sun, and dying with fever, are on record.
_14th._--Course as usual, north-east. Cold to-day. Skirt the mountain-chain on our right, and traverse a vast plain, scattered with pebbles and other small stones. As yet, we have not pa.s.sed over sands or through any sandy region, although sand-ranges bounded the west in the early part of the route; here and there a little sand, loose and flying about. Our road is a splendid carriage-road. Oh, were there but water!
But water is the all and everything in The Desert. Encamped on the limitless plain. How variable is Saharan weather: now, at sunset, a tempest rises, and sweeps the bosom of The Desert with ”the besom of destruction!” A high wind continued all night. I fancied myself at sea, but preferred the Ocean Desert, its groaning hurricane, its hideous barrenness, to the heaving and roaring of the Ocean of Waters. We pa.s.sed another desert mosque; it was only a simple line, slightly curved for the Keblah. There were also some letters written on the earth, in Arabic, pa.s.sages from the Koran. Other writing on the ground is always smoothed over, and not allowed to remain. Part of the road was covered with heaps of stone, as if done to clear it, as well as to direct travellers _en route_.
The Shereef introduced the subject of religion to-night in conversation.
He observed:--
”The torments of the d.a.m.ned are like all the fires in the world put together.”
_I._--”Are these torments eternal?”
_The Shereef._--”Yes, as everlasting as Paradise.”
_I._--”But do you not continually say, 'G.o.d is The Most Merciful.' How can this be?”
_The Shereef._--”I don't know, so it is decreed.” The Shereef boldly continued, ”In this world[104] G.o.d has given all the infidels plenty of good things, (this being a sly allusion to the Christians and their possession of great wealth); but, in the next world, the believers only will enjoy good, and the kafer will be miserable.” ”You, Yakob,” he proceeded, ”are near the truth, very near, and near Paradise, because you can read and write Arabic, and understand our holy books.”
And so he went on preaching me a very orthodox sermon. I asked him how G.o.d would dispose of those who never read or heard of Mahomet or the Koran. He couldn't tell. The same queries and objections are, nevertheless, applicable to our own and to nearly all religions, which make the condition of believing one thing, and one cla.s.s of doctrines, absolute for salvation. The Touatee gold-merchant, who was close by at the time, interposed, ”You are near jinnah (Paradise), Yakob, one word only, 'There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, and Mahomet is the prophet of G.o.d.'” I returned, ”If this be not uttered from the heart it is useless and mockery.” ”By G--d! you are right, Yakob,” exclaimed the Shereef. Like most Mahometans, the Shereef says, ”The coming of Jesus is near, when he will destroy all the enemies of G.o.d, Jews and Christians, and give the world and its treasures into the hands of the Moslemites.” I asked him why he represented all mankind but the Moslemites to be the enemies of G.o.d? My mind always recoils from the thought of arranging mankind, and marshalling them forward, so many enemies of G.o.d, as if the Eternal and Almighty Being who planned, formed, and sustains the universal frame of nature, could have enemies! Man may be the enemy of his fellow man, but cannot be the enemy of G.o.d. The Shereef here did not know what to say, and I think replied very properly, _Allah Errahman Errahem_, ”G.o.d is most merciful!” a sentiment which all of us admit in spite of our peculiar dogmas of theology. But this conversation offers nothing new or different from those which I had with my taleb Ben Mousa, at Ghadames.
The Shereef then spoke about slavery, and asked me, why the English forced the Bey of Tunis to abolish the traffic in slaves. I explained the circ.u.mstances, adding, the Bey was not forced, but only recommended, by the English Government to abolish the slave traffic. He then began a long story in palliation of the traffic, stating that the slaves knew not G.o.d, and that in being enslaved by the Mohammedans they were taught to know G.o.d. I soon stopped his mouth, first, by telling him, the Turks not long ago had enslaved the Arabs and sold them for slaves at Constantinople, and then, adding, ”Nearly all the princes, whence the Soudanese and Bornouese slaves were brought, are professedly Mahometans, as well as their people.” He acknowledged, however, slaves were mostly procured by banditti hunting them, not captured in war. He finished, ”The Touaricks of Ghat formerly hunted for slaves in the Tibboo country, twice or thrice in the year, and in these razzia expeditions some would get a booty of three, or five, six, ten, and twenty, according as they were fortunate.
Now they have other business on hand, the war with the Shanbah. The Touaricks of Aheer, those who bring the senna, are now the great slave-hunters.” The Shereef showed me a Tibboo youth seized by the Aheer people. The Shereef's account of the Touarghee razzias in the Tibboo country is confirmed by the reports of our Bornou expedition, or rather the Shereef confirms the reports of our countrymen. Dr. Oudney says, ”It is along these hills (the ranges which go as far as the Tibboo country) the Touaricks make their gra.s.sies (razzias) into the Tibboo country.
These two nations are almost always at war, and reciprocally annoy each other by predatory warfare, stealing camels, slaves, &c., killing only when resistance is made, and never making prisoners.” But, it must be observed, Touaricks are never made slaves; they may be murdered by the Tibboos. Not six months ago the Aheer Touaricks captured a Tibboo village. The few who escaped fled to the Arabs, under the son of Abd-el-Geleel, imploring aid for the restoration of their countrymen and property. These Arabs, who themselves mostly live on freebooting, were glad of the opportunity for a razzia. They recaptured everything, and restored the poor Tibboos to their village, making also a capture of a thousand camels from these Kylouy Touaricks.
Enjoy better health in this journey, than on that from Ghadames to Ghat.
Felt myself stronger, and hope yet to undertake the journey to Bornou before the summer heats.
_15th._--Course to-day nearly east. Encamped just as the sun dipped down in the ruddy flame of the west. Strong wind, blanching the sooty cheeks of the poor slaves, who were borne down with exhaustion. They were literally whipped along. And the little fellow who refused a ride from me, got a whipping for sitting on the sand to rest himself. I now made him mount my camel, which his master, not a bad-natured man, thanked me for. All day we continued to traverse the vast plain, having on our right the same chain of hills, and, on the left, the sand groups, as far as the eye could see. These broad, now boundless plains, or valleys, are unquestionably the dry beds of former currents. Even now our people called them wadys or rivers. The chain of mountains and the chain of sand-hills are their natural banks. The tholh-tree was most abundant to-day. I never saw it so thickly scattered before. It was spread over all the plain, now in single trees, and now in forest groups, which were also magnified in the distance, and had a grateful and refres.h.i.+ng effect upon the vision, wearied with looking on stones or gravel, or bare desert, or black rocks and glaring sand-hills. Unquestionably these trees of the African are as old as those of the American wilderness. The tholh-trees of the dry thirsty African plain are however but dwarfs compared with the giant trees of the American forest, watered by ocean rivers. The tholh would seem to live without moisture: it is fed by no annual or periodic rain, no springs. And yet it buds, opens its pretty yellow flowers, sheds its fine large drops of translucent gum, flourishes all the year round, and tempts with its p.r.i.c.kly leaves as with richest herbage, the hungry camel. Indeed, about this part of the route the camels get nothing else to feed on. We have seen no living creatures these last five days. On one part of our route our people pretended to trace the sand-prints of the wadan, and others affirmed them to be the foot-marks of the wild-ox. I must except the sight of a few small birds, black all over but the tails. Some one or two had white heads, as well as white tails. People say these birds drink no water, as they say many animals of The Sahara drink no water. The little creatures certainly do not drink much water. Two or three dead camels thrown across the route of this day's march. The live camels usually turn off the way from them.
Several Saharan mosques, the form of a cross being made in the Keblah on one of them, as seen in the diagrams.
The Shereef's ideas of the Touaricks are not so favourable as those of his uncle, the Governor of Ghat, and in some respects they are more correct. The Shereef says:--”The Touaricks are not of the Arabian race.