Part 48 (1/2)
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
FROM MISRATAH TO TRIPOLI.
The Establishment of Signor Regini.--Visit the Acting Kaed of Misratah.--Shabby Conduct of Mehemet Pasha to Regini.--Description of the Villages comprised within the Jurisdiction of Misratah.--Population and Condition of the Jews in Misratah and Tripoli.--Regini sighs for the honour of hoisting the Union Jack.--Village of Zeiten.--Leghma; and the tapping of the Date-Palm.--Corn Fields and Grain Culture in North Africa.--Manipulation.--Sahel or Salhin; its splendid Gardens.--The Eastern _Terminus_ groups of Mount Atlas.--Ruins of Lebida; and other Ancient Ruins.--Monosyllabic Old Moor.--Meet the Bey of Misratah.--Wad Seid, and plain of El-Jumr.--The Sand-Storm.--Our Slaves' first sight of the Sea.--Said left behind.--Essnousee foiled in attempting to beat one of his Slaves.--Trait of the Tender Pa.s.sion in our Troop of Slaves.--Result of my Observations on the Saharan Slave Traffic.--Gardens of Tajourah.--The Gardens of the Masheeah.--Distance, Time, and Expenses of my Tour.--Disposal of Said, and the Camel.
_12th._--EASTER SUNDAY. It is a grand _festa_ with Signor Regini, and his family are dressed out in their best. They are the only family of Christians in this town, but keep the _festa_ with as much religious zest and zeal as if in Malta or Rome. Poor Regini gets only twelve dollars a month from the Pasha of Tripoli for his employment of quarantine agent, and is obliged to look after three ports, for Misratah has three ports, at a considerable distance from each other, as well as several hours'
ride from the town. Visited with Regini the acting Kaed or Governor of this place, and brother of the Bey, now in Tripoli. The Kaed stared stupidly at me whilst relating to him some things about the Touaricks.
He was astonished they treated me so well, instead of murdering me, as he thought they had a right, or ought to have done. This Moorish beast finished by consulting me respecting his health, and begging physic, but which I refused to give him, seeing his indisposition proceeded from sheer indolence. His people, or officers of the place, were all amazed at my travelling as I was, and wondered what I could be doing. Mr. Regini heard one say, ”The Christian has written the country; the English are coming to take all this land.” Another observed, ”This Englishman is a dervish, and is mad. His friends send him here to get rid of him.” I took no interest whatever in the interview, feeling thoroughly tired of my tour and the people. The Kaed had heard some merchants say, ”The Touaricks are a people of one word,” which he now repeated, and which was a good satire upon himself and his Moorish brethren, ”A people of ten thousand words.” The Kaed informed me of the safe arrival of Haj Ibrahim, and the rest of his party, at Tripoli.
Regini's house is a constant resort of visitors and idlers. Amongst the objects of attraction, is Mr. R.'s pretty little daughter, who turns the heads of all the Moors. Mr. R. says the Pacha is going to build him a larger house, and allow it him rent-free, as an increase of salary. This His Highness, indeed, promised to do. But Mehemet Pasha showed the usual and insulting duplicity of the Turk, for the Consul-General heard afterwards that, instead of giving Regini a new house, he increased the rent of his old one. This unhandsome conduct of the Pasha so enraged Colonel Warrington, that, on hearing it, after he had invited the Bashaw to dine with him at his garden, the Colonel determined to withdraw the invitation, or rather not give the dinner. So the Pasha's dining at the British garden did not come off, much to my annoyance, for I wished to have been present at the dinner. These little bits of Turkish duplicity irritate and annoy our Consuls more than acts of tyrants like Asker Ali.
Visited the environs in the evening. Picked up some chamomile flowers, which abound in the lanes and highways. The barilla plant is also very common; it is collected and burnt, and the ashes exported in considerable quant.i.ties. Several ponds of water are found during winter in this neighbourhood, which are frequented by numerous flights of wild-duck, affording capital game for the hungry sportsman. Date-palms are now in blossom, whose flowers are all at first encased in a pod. Essnousee tells me, Abd-El-Geleel destroyed the palms of Sockna by simply cutting off the tops or heads of the palms, in the same way as people do when they tap palms for leghma. Some of them grow again, others do not, it being all a matter of chance. The date-palm is most abundantly cultivated on the Tripoline Coast, supplying the people with a full third of their food.
_13th._--Misratah is an aggregate or series of villages, scattered about to an extent of a full day's journey, containing about 12,000 inhabitants, two-thirds Moors, the rest Arabs, Negroes, and Jews. The houses and other buildings make but a mean appearance, built of mud and stones, and some of lime-mortar. There are a few Marabets s.h.i.+ning beautifully white in the sun, with light and chaste cupola tops. A drawing of one of these is given, that of Sidi Salah. The Marabet is a common, but fair and picturesque, feature in coast scenery. The bazaar, or market of Misratah, is held three times a week, but in different places of the villages included within this circle of jurisdiction. The princ.i.p.al port is three or four hours from the central village, the inhabitants not enjoying an immediate view of the sea, so delightful on the North African Coast. The grand cultivation is dates, but not of good quality, then barley and wheat (the most of the former), olives, figs, and some other fruit-trees. Oxen, goats, and sheep, are in numbers, and there is a considerable export trade in hides and wool. The markets are pretty well stocked with provisions, and cheaper than in Tripoli.
Nevertheless, the villages of Misratah are choked full of very poor dest.i.tute people, and during the past year, in the midst of comparative abundance, many of them lived almost entirely on herbs. These wretched creatures congregate in Misratah from all the neighbouring districts, the Gharian and Gibel mountains, the village of Touarghah, and other places.
The same system of spoliation by Government is going on here as in other provinces of Tripoli, the inhabitants being reduced gradually to most complete beggary. Every year the number of poor increases, whilst the taxes on land, under the curse of Turkish oppression, as fatally increase, reducing all to serfdom, leaving not an acre of land in the hands of the people, excepting those lands protected by the sanctuaries of religion. The civil power in this country has no conscience; the people are alone protected from annihilation by their religion.
Fifty families of Jews are located in these villages, occupied as brokers and petty traders, or in making essences. They pay a poll-tax of a hundred mahboubs per annum to the Pasha. They have two synagogues, and a Rabbi superintending them. Rabbi Samuel says he has heard there are Jews in Soudan. Lyon has mentioned the same report, and locates Jews south from Timbuctoo, supposing them to have gone originally from Morocco. Many of the Tripoline mountains contain Jews, and in Misratah there are a hundred families. As a specimen of the state of Biblical learning and literature amongst these Jews, I give the following conversation I had with Rabbi Samuel. He explained the 53rd chap. of Isaiah as referring to another and a past suffering Messiah, the Messiah of Ephraim, the son of Ephraim, and not the son of David, who is to be the future and conquering Messiah. To Philip's question, ”Of whom speaketh the prophet this?” &c. (Acts viii. 34), he candidly answered, acknowledging that the prophet spake not of himself, but the suffering Messiah. The epithets ?? ????? and ????????, in Is.
ix. 6, 7, the Rabbi explained, as denoting the reign of Messiah to be full of peace and happiness for all mankind, quoting Psalm lxxii., observing properly, the words first refer to Solomon, and then to the Messiah. Asking him for a pa.s.sage of the Pentateuch, referring to the future state, he replied;--”Moses did not speak at all of a future state; Moses intended to have done so when he got to Jerusalem, and settled the people in the Holy Land; but having offended G.o.d, he was not permitted to enter there, and was prevented from communicating knowledge about the future world. But you will find in the commentaries all the information you require.” He could not tell where the future state was spoken of in the prophets, so I pointed out to him Daniel xii. 2, 3. Rabbi Samuel now bestowed on me the honorary t.i.tle of English Marabout, earnestly recommending me to call on Rabbi Jacob at Tripoli, the mighty scholar of the Regency.
He added:--”The Mussulmans say that our Messiah will conquer them first; but afterwards, they (the Mussulmans) will recover their strength and dominion, and destroy us and our Messiah. You see they are idiots.” So much for Jewish learning in Tripoli.
Signor Regini is an original in his way. Speaking of an old man about taking a young wife, he observed, ”Growing old, he became young.” Of himself, he says, ”_Noi siamo molto respetati qui_ (We are much respected here).”
”So you ought to be,” I replied, ”for I would not live here to be despised.”
”Stop, Signore Inglese,” he rejoined abruptly, ”I am the first man here.
You are a learned man, and have travelled all over the world, and you know Latin; '_Aut Caesar, aut nullus_,' that's my motto. I only want the flag here. Get me appointed British Consul. I don't want a salary. Then shall I be a greater man than the Bey of Misratah.”
I promised, as in duty bound, after this sally of modest ambition, to mention his wish to the Consul-General. The fact is, Regini is a very deserving man, and could he hoist the Union Jack, might benefit British subjects and promote British interests at the same time that he gratified his own Caesar-like ambition.
This afternoon we left Misratah for Tripoli, our last stage. We found the gardens of Misratah very agreeable, getting clear of them by night, and encamping in a hilly country, covered with the delicious green of spring, with nibbling snowy flocks scattered and feeding, and Arabs' tents pitched, ”black, but comely.” But I was surprised to see so few Arabs'
tents and douwars in this Regency. In fact, the Arabs of Tripoli are nearly all located and confined to The Mountains.
_14th._--Afternoon, arrived at _Zeitin_, a small village. The palm is abundant as usual, and the gardens are full of olive and other Barbary fruit-trees. On encamping, I purchased some _Leghma_--??????--according to some philologists, ”tears” of the palms, and others ”foam,” from the fermenting quality of the sap. At this season many trees are tapped, being, indeed, the tapping season.
When a tree is tapped, a small hut of palm-branches, cut from off the tapped palm, is set up close to it, which is turned into a sort of _tap_-room, or boozing-place, for drinking the leghma, and half a dozen Moorish louting fellows are always seen idling and skulking about the hut, or sweltering with intoxication inside, as long as the tree yields the spirituous juice. A tree, if a good one, will yield its sap for two months, and sometimes a few days more. You can purchase a tree, tap it and drink of its sap at your pleasure, for only a couple of dollars. And for this trifle, people will often destroy their best palms. The leghma is pleasant when quite new or fresh; when a few days old it becomes very strong and acrid drinking, continually fermenting. Moors do not understand drinking leghma, wine or spirits, for their health, considering the object of drinking fermented liquor is not attained until they become intoxicated. In these palm-booths, or huts, the Moors occasionally bring their provisions, and here they will pa.s.s night and day for weeks together in dreamy drunken musings, each sot, shut up in himself, making himself by a drunken and delirious imagination, Kady, or Sheikh, or Sultan, or some mighty warrior, and all mankind his slaves and ardent wors.h.i.+ppers, as the bent of mind wildly leads him. Moderation Moors cannot comprehend, they can neither drink moderately, nor eat moderately; they must either abstain altogether or eat or drink like beasts. Of course I speak of their general character. But such is the case with too many amongst us, as well as these semi-barbarians.
We encamped amidst palms and barley-fields. High wind from the east. The barley was getting ripe very fast, in some places being reaped. All these crops of grain are thin, the stalk of the barley short, the ears small--not the barley or wheat of England certainly. No part of North Africa furnishes such fine and heavy corn-fields as my own native county, Lincolns.h.i.+re; I might, perhaps, add, no place in the world. The plains of Morocco furnish thousands of acres of barley[127], but all straggling and thinly growing. The wheat is the same. Add to which, you will find a North African corn-field full of weeds, herbs, and wild flowers.
_15th._--Helping up my little Negro to a ride this morning, as the camel ascended a hillock he was pitched off in a summerset. A slave immediately got hold of him and began to stretch his neck for fear it was broken, and otherwise pull and manipulate him, holding him up by the head and neck.
Manipulation and pulling and stretching are favourite appliances of remedy in all this part of Africa. Manipulation is frequently used at the baths, and is attended with surprising cures. Every muscle of the body is stretched, and rubbed, and _coaxed_. To burning, bleeding, and charms, some Moorish doctors add manipulation, as the fourth sovereign remedy.
Early, we reached Sahel (Salhin?). These cultivated lands are a continuation of Zeiten; but Sahel is in a much higher state of cultivation. The golden harvest is nodding over Afric's sunny plains.
Fields of ripe barley are waving in the wind, overshadowed with splendid palms of young and vigorous growth. Besides there are most beautiful olive plantations all around us. Essnousee, who now became a little more familiar, kept crying out to me with spontaneous admiration, ”This is the new world (_Dunyah Jedeed_)!” The slave-driver had heard me praise the vast fields of fertility in America. Sahel, in fact, is a country of most vigorous and teeming fertility. But, to-day, from the camel's back, I saw the sea. How rejoiced I was, after nine months _Ocean_ Desert-travelling, over sands and rocks, and naked sultry plains, suffering all sorts of privations and hards.h.i.+ps, to see once more the world of waters! And this, notwithstanding it had been so often unfriendly to me in my various travellings by land and water. I kept straining (and pumping) my lungs to breathe its pure cool air. Sahel is of considerable extent, but has no nucleus of houses in the shape of a town, consisting merely of a series of small villages and detached houses, like our cottage groups and farms, but, of course, in Moorish style. Extremely warm to-day, though near the sea. Cleared the Sahel the afternoon, and, at night, encamped amidst the last groups of the Atlas, spreading and stretching eastwards. I had observed we were about to enter these terminus groups and links of the eastern Atlas chain, whilst at some distance, and easily distinguished them from those of the Saharan groups and ridges. Their appearance is strikingly different, being wooded and bristling on the sides, shooting up in craggy heights, h.o.a.ry and white on the uppermost peaks and ridges, as if bitten by the cold and frost, and bared by the bleak winds of the sea. The Great Desert ranges, on the contrary, are naked as nakedness can be, dull, dreary, and dead, smoothed over as velvet, of black and purple hues, and look more like mountains which children might paint than the sterile realities of Old Sahara. Here, amidst the mountainous scenery of the coast, I could recognise many of the features of Virgil's description. (aeneidos b. iv.)
”Jamque volans apicem et latera ardua cernit Atlantis duri, clum qui vertice fulcit: Atlantis, cinctum a.s.sidue cui nubibus atris Piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri; Nix humeros infusa tegit; tum flumina mento Praecipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.”