which will require sixteen pieces of woollen cloth,
forty cubits long by two in width, each worth from 7
to 8 _douros_, making a total of about 112 _douros_.
Two Arab beds, or rather carpets of shaggy wool,
thirty cubits in length by five broad; dyed with
madder, 20 _douros_ each; if dyed with kermes, 25
_douros_ 50
A carpet, twelve cubits long by four wide, hung up as
a curtain to separate the men's apartment from that of
the women. It is dyed with kermes and costs 16
Six cushions, to contain wearing apparel and used as
pillows: the price of each is 2 _douros_ 12
Six cushions of tanned antelope's skin, also used to
contain dresses and spun wool, and to lean against in
the tent 6
Six pieces of woollen stuff, made into a sort of
palanquin carried on camels' backs, and in which the
women travel 12
Five red _haïks_ to cover the palanquins 50
Twenty woollen sacks for the carriage of corn 40
Six _hamal_, or loads of wheat 48
Twelve loads of barley 60
Ten woollen sacks in which are kept jewels, wearing
apparel, cotton-stuffs, gunpowder, _filali_,[91]
money, etc., at 2 _douros_ each 20
Fifteen goat-skin bags to hold water 25
Twelve sheep- or goat-skin bags to contain butter,
valued each at 4 _douros_ 48
Four sheep- or goat-skin bags to hold honey, which is
an expensive article, as it comes from the Tell; at 8
_douros_ each 32
Eight _hamal_ of dates. These _hamal_ are sacks lined
with wool 64
Six _tarahh_, each _tarahh_ comprising six skins of
morocco leather; in all, thirty six skins, at one
_douro_ a piece 36
Gunpowder 30
Lead 5
Flints 4 _douros_.
Ten _mektaa_, or pieces of cotton-stuffs 20
Two _meradjen_, or vases of copper lined with tin,
with handles, to drink out of 2
Two _tassa_, or vases, also for drinking purposes 2
Two _guessaa_, or large wooden bowls for making or
eating kouskoussou 4
Six _bakia_, or drinking vessels of wood 2
A copper pot for cooking the food 2
Three _metreud_, or wooden platters for strangers to
eat from 3
Two _fass_, or mattocks, for preparing the site of the
tent, fixing it, etc., and for clearing wood 2
A _kadouma_, or small hatchet for shaping wood 1
Ten _meudjesa_, a kind of sickle for sheep-shearing 1
Two _rekiza_, or uprights of the tent 2
A _âeushut-el-zemel_, or tent with carpets, cushions,
etc., for travelling, or for receiving strangers 30
Total 741 _douros_.
The wearing apparel of five men will consist of:
Eleven white burnouses, three for the father, and two
for each of his sons: a burnous costs 4 _douros_ 44 _douros_.
Five _haïks_, at 4 _douros_ each 20
Five _habaya_, or woollen shirts 10
Five _mahazema_, or belts of morocco leather
embroidered in silk 10
Five pair of _belghra_, or morocco shoes 2
Five _shashia_, or morocco _fessy_ 2
Five _kate_, or complete suits, for grand occasions,
consisting of an _oughrlila_ or outer garment, a
_cedria_ or waistcoat, a _seroual_ or pair of
trousers; a _haïk_ of silk, a silken cord replacing
the camel's rope; and a cloth burnous: each suit at 60
_douros_ will make 300
Total 388 _douros_.
The wearing apparel of six women will consist of:
Six women's _haïks_, dyed with kermes 60 _douros_.
Six pair of morocco leather boots, embroidered 6
Six woollen girdles 12
Six white _haïks_ worn over the head 6
Six _benica_, or silken hoods 6 _douros_.
Six _aâsaba_, or thread cord by which the women fasten
the _haouly_, or white _haïk_, over their heads 2
Six pair of _kholkhale_, or silver anklets, 20
_douros_ the pair 120
Six pair of _souar_, or bracelets, 7 _douros_ the pair 42
Twelve _bezima_, or silver buckles, used by women to
fasten the _haïk_, 6 _douros_ the pair 36
Six _bezimat el gueursi_, or throat buckles, used to
fasten the _haouly_ under the chin after it has
encircled the head 12
Twelve _ounaiss_, or silver ear-rings set in coral.
Every woman wears two pair 24
Six _mekhranga_, or necklaces of coral and pieces of
money 48
Six necklaces of cloves interspersed with coral 5
Six _zenzela_, or silver chains with a small circular
plate in the middle, called "the scorpion:" the chain
stretches from ear to ear 18
Six _kuerrabar_, or silver boxes which the women hang
from their necks, and in which they put musk and
benjamin 18
Eighteen _khatem_, or silver rings 6
Six _melyaca_, or bracelets of djamous horn 6
Women in the desert do not wear any ornaments of gold;
the whole of their jewelry is in silver.
Total 815 _douros_.
The arms for seven men are:
Five guns for the masters, procured from Algiers, and
mounted in silver 100 _douros_.
Two guns for the servants 20
Five sabres, two of them mounted in silver 40
Five pistols, two of them mounted in silver 35
Four pistols for the negroes 1
Four sabres for the negroes 12
Total 219 _douros_.
Harness and horsemen's equipment consist of:
One saddle for the master 100 _douros_.
Four ordinary saddles 160
Two common saddles for the servants 20
One master's _djebira_ of tiger-skin 17
Four ordinary _djebira_ 28
One pair of master's _temag_, or boots of morocco
leather 12
Four pair of ordinary _temag_ 24 _douros_.
One pair of master's spurs, mounted in silver and
ornamented with coral 6
Four pair of ordinary _shabirs_, or spurs 4
Five _medol_, or straw hats adorned with ostrich
feathers 5
Total 376 _douros_.
Horses, cattle, negroes, etc., consist of:
A stallion for the chief of the tent 100 _douros_.
Four blood mares for his sons 320
Two servants' mares 60
Six asses 18
Two _slougui_, or greyhounds [not purchasable] »
Four negroes 240
Four negresses 200
Twenty _ghelem_ each _ghelem_ a flock of 400 sheep 8,000
Four _ibeul_, or droves of 100 camels each: of these
400 animals, 130 are she-camels which command a higher
price than the males, but I value them all round at 30
_douros_ a head 12,000
Ten he- or she-goats, the only use of which is to make
the sheep keep moving on a march 50
Two tame gazelles, a young antelope, and an ostrich
[these are never for sale] »
Total 20,988
_douros_.
The chief of a tent of this importance ought besides to possess, in
depôt, in three or four _kuesours_, or small towns:
Twelve hundred _zedja_, or fleeces, worth each half a
_boudjou_ 200 _douros_.
Thirty white burnouses, at 3 _douros_ each 90
Thirty _haïks_ at 2 _douros_ 60
Forty _habaya_, or woollen shirts at 2 _douros_ 80
Forty loads of dates at 7 _douros_ 280
Thirty camel loads of wheat 240
Thirty loads of barley 150
Four _khrabya_, or enormous earthen vessels filled
with butter
Total 1,100 _douros_.
I estimate at 600 _douros_ the amount of what he may
have lent or sold, to the people of the _kuesours_
with whom he has business transactions 600 _douros_.
In his tent he has 600
Buried in a hose belonging to him in one of the
_kuesours_[92] 1,000
--------
Total 2,200 _douros_.
--------
He has likewise a house in a kuesour in the charge of
a _khremass_, containing his most valuable property 60 _douros_.
--------
RECAPITULATION.
Tent and furniture, etc 741 _douros_.
Wearing apparel of both sexes 815
Arms 219
Harness and Accoutrements 376
Horses, cattle, etc. 20,988
Deposits 1,100
Loans, etc. 2,200
House 60
--------
Total 26,499
_douros_.[93]
--------
An Arab who possesses such a fortune does no work. He attends the
meetings and assemblies of the _djemâa_, hunts, rides about, looks at
his flocks, and prays. His only occupations are political, warlike, and
religious. A poor Arab equally disdains manual labour. He is not forced
to it, for there is no other kind of cultivation than that of
date-trees, which is left to the inhabitants of the _kuesours_. Negroes
are numerous and cost very little, and, with the assistance of a few
white servants, suffice for the services which the free men refuse to
perform for themselves. Some of the latter, however, mend their sacks
and harness, but they form the exception. There are likewise farriers,
but these, in fact, are artists—the privileges that are accorded to
them, of which I have already had occasion to speak, constituting them a
sort of special corporation. The armourers are, in truth, mere workmen
who repair, but cannot manufacture, arms. The Arabs of the desert are
for the most part worse armed than those of the Tell, though their
chiefs yield to none in pomp and luxury. This is easily accounted for.
As they obtain their arms from Tunis by way of Tougourt, or from Morocco
through the Gourara country, the great distance to be traversed prevents
them from getting their arms repaired as soon as they need repairs, and
the unskilfulness of those who undertake this business will not permit
them to do their work very efficiently. Many of the Saharenes are still
armed with lances, which they seldom use except when pursuing runaways.
Their spears consist of a shaft of wood six feet long, with a flat
double-edged head of iron, and are usually carried in a bandolier.
The Arab of the Sahara is very proud of his mode of life, which is not
only exempt from the monotonous toil to which the inhabitant of the Tell
is subject, but is full of action and excitement, of variety and
incident. If beards grow white at an early age in the desert, it is not
only because of heat, fatigue, journeys, and combats, but much more from
care, anxiety, and grief. He alone does not turn gray who "has a large
heart, is resigned, and can say: It is the will of Allah!" This pride in
their country and in their peculiar mode of existence amounts to
positive contempt for the Tell and its inhabitants. What the dweller in
the desert chiefly plumes himself upon is his independence; for in his
country the lands are wide and there is no Sultan. The chief of the
tribe administers and renders justice, a task of no great difficulty
where every delinquency has been provided for and its appropriate
penalty fixed beforehand. Whoever steals a sheep, pays a fine of ten
boudjous. Whoever enters a tent to see his neighbour's wife, forfeits
ten ewes. Whoever takes life, must lose his own; or, if he makes his
escape, all that belongs to him is confiscated, save only his tent,
which is given up to his wife and children. The fines are set apart by
the _djemâa_ for defraying the expenses of travellers and marabouts, and
of presents to strangers. Thefts within the tribe are severely punished.
If committed on another tribe, they are looked over, and, if a hostile
tribe be the sufferers, are even encouraged.
The women attend to the cooking, and weave various kinds of carpets,
sacks, stuff for tents, horse-cloths, camel-packs, and nose-bags, while
the negresses fetch wood and water. Burnouses, _haïks_, and _kabaya_ are
made in the _kuesours_. If rich, an Arab is always generous; and rich or
poor, he is sure to be hospitable and charitable. He seldom lends his
horse, but would regard it as an insult if the animal were sent back to
him. For every present he receives he makes a return of greater value.
Some men are quoted as never having refused anything. It is a common
saying: "He who applies to a noble never comes back empty-handed." It is
needless to speak of alms. Every one knows that next to a holy war, and
on the same line with going on a pilgrimage, alms-giving is the act of
all others the most pleasing to Allah. If an Arab is sitting down to a
meal, and a mendicant, who happens to be passing, exclaims: _Mtâ rebi ia
el moumenin_—"of what belongs to Allah, O Believer!"— he shares his
repast with him if there be enough for two, or else abandons it to him
entirely.
A stranger presenting himself before a _douar_, stands some little way
off, and pronounces these words: _Dif rebi_—"a guest sent by Allah." The
effect is magical. Whatever may be his condition of life, they throw
themselves on him, tear him from one another, and hold his stirrup while
he alights. The servants lead away his horse, about whom, if he be a man
of good breeding, he will not give himself any further trouble. He
himself is almost dragged into a tent, and whatever is ready to hand is
set before him, until a banquet can be prepared. Nor is less attention
shown to a traveller on foot. The master of the tent keeps his guest
company throughout the whole of the day, and only leaves him to make way
for sleep. No indiscreet questions are ever asked, such as: Whence
comest thou? Who art thou? Whither goest thou? There is no instance of
any evil having ever befallen a stranger thus received as a guest, even
though he were a mortal enemy. At his departure, the master of the tent
will say to him: "Follow thy good fortune;" and after the guest has
fairly taken his departure, his entertainer is no longer answerable for
anything. In retiring from the hospitable repast, if the stranger pass
before a _douar_ and be seen, he is obliged again to accept the
invitations that are pressed upon him.
A certain class of men live entirely on alms and hospitality. These are
the dervishes. Absorbed in prayer, these pious individuals are the
object of universal veneration. "Beware of offering them an insult, for
Allah will punish you." A request made by them is never refused. By the
side of these mendicant monks, who so exactly reproduce a particular
feature of the Middle Ages, it seems appropriate to place the _tolbas_,
or learned men, and the "wise women," who fill in the Sahara the part
that belonged in the olden times to the magicians, alchemists, and
sorcerers, and those other impostors celebrated by Tasso and Ariosto,
and ridiculed by Cervantes. It is to these _tolbas_ and aged dames that
both men and women apply for a philter, composed of various herbs
prepared with solemn invocations and awesome or grotesque ceremonies,
which is mixed with the food of the swain or damsel whose love is longed
for. It is they, again, who write magic words and the name of the hated
one on a piece of paper and a dead man's bone taken from a cemetery, and
then bury together the paper and the bone, which will soon be joined by
the enemy, "with his belly full of worms." They will teach you, too, the
formula you must pronounce while closing your knife, in order to sever
the life of an odious rival; and that which you must throw into the
furnace over which is being cooked the food of the family you would
poison; and that which you must write on a copper plate, or flattened
ball, to be flung into the stream whither repairs to drink the woman on
whom you would avenge yourself—seized with a dysentery as rapid as the
river, she will die, if she do not yield herself up to you. To effect
her cure, the first sorcery must be counteracted by a second.
After these come the long train of spectres, the phantoms of those who
have died a violent death. If one of them pursue you, lose no time in
exclaiming: "Return to thy hole. Thou canst not frighten me. I feared
thee not when thou didst carry arms." It will follow you yet a little,
but will soon desist. If you are seized with terror and attempt to flee,
you will hear in the air the clashing of arms, and a horse in full
pursuit behind, with yells and horrible uproar, until you drop exhausted
by fatigue.
In Morocco, on the banks of the Ouad Noun, about twenty days march
westward of Souss, the most famous sorcerers are found. There is there a
whole school of alchemists and necromancers, and of occult sciences,
besides a talking mountain, and many others marvels of the magical
world. The common people alone are debased to these superstitions. The
wealthy, the marabouts, the _tolbas_ of the _zaouïa_; and the
_sheurfaa_, scrupulously follow the precepts of religion and read the
sacred books; but the vulgar herd are plunged in ignorance, and barely
know two or three prayers and the confession of faith. They likewise
pray very rarely, and only perform their ablutions when they find water.
The chiefs do their utmost to dispel this ignorance. Even on a journey
they take care that the _moudden_ never fail to proclaim the hour of
prayer, and they establish schools in their tents. But a life of
fatigue, wandering, and migration, soon causes the Arabs to forget the
lessons of their childhood. Men of all ranks, however, take pleasure in
having them recalled to mind in the garb of poesy by the _meddah_, or
religious bards, who go about at festivals singing the praises of Allah,
and the saints, and the holy war, accompanying themselves the while with
flute and tambourine. These bards are rewarded with numerous presents.
THE ARAB ARISTOCRACY.
"Take a thorny shrub," said the Emir Abd-el-Kader to me one day, "and
water it for a whole year with rose-water, and it will still yield
nothing but thorns. But take a date-tree, and leave it without water,
without cultivation, and it still will produce dates." From the Arab
point of view the nobles are this date-tree, and the common people that
thorny shrub. In the East, great faith is placed in the power of blood
and in the virtue of race. The aristocracy is regarded not only as a
social necessity, but as an absolute law of nature. No one ever dreams
of revolting against this truism, which is accepted by all with a placid
resignation. The head is the head and the tail the tail, is what the
lowest of the Arab shepherds would say.
In addition to this long descended and sacred nobility composed of the
_sherifs_, or descendants of the Prophet, there are two distinct classes
of aristocracy—the one the aristocracy of religion, the other the
aristocracy of the sword. The marabouts and the _djouad_—for such are
their designations—the former deriving their position from their piety,
the latter from their courage, the former from prayer, the latter from
battle, regard each other with an implacable hatred. The _djouad_
reproach the marabouts with the offences which in all countries are
eagerly attributed to religious orders that aim at the direction of
human affairs. They accuse them of ambition, of intriguing, of underhand
proceedings, and of an insatiable covetousness for the good things of
the earth masked by a pretended love of Allah and of Heaven. One of
their proverbs declares "From the _zaouïa_[94] a serpent is ever
issuing." From this it appears that the Arabs, while chaunting the
praises of the aristocracy, do not hesitate, sound Believers as they
are, to speak the truth with regard to their priesthood. The marabouts,
on the other hand, charge the _djouad_ with violence, rapine, and
impiety. This last accusation furnishes them with a terrible weapon of
offence. They stand in the same relation towards their rivals as did the
clergy of the Middle Ages towards the lay nobles who, notwithstanding
the imposing appearance of their warlike power, could yet be reached by
an anathema. In like manner, if the _djouad_ exercise an influence over
the people through the memory of perils encountered and blood shed, and
all the prestige of military achievements, the marabouts on their part
are armed with the omnipotence of religious faith acting on popular
imagination. More than once has a marabout, feared or loved by the
people, imperilled the power and even the life of a _djieud_.[95]
Nevertheless it is the _djieud_ whom I now propose to portray, because
the life of the desert is especially the life of the warrior. To
exhibit at one glance a noble of the Sahara in all the pomp, noise, and
animation of his existence, it is necessary to depict the interior of a
great tent at the moment when the day begins, from eight o'clock to
noon.
The poets of antiquity have many a time described the crowd of clients
who were wont to inundate the porticoes of a patrician palace in ancient
Rome. A great tent in the desert in these days resembles in its way the
luxurious mansions painted by Horace and Juvenal. Gravely seated on a
carpet, with that dignified demeanour which is the peculiar privilege of
Orientals, the chief of the tribe receives in their turn all who come to
invoke his authority. This one complains of a neighbour who has
endeavoured to seduce his wife, that one accuses a wealthy man of
refusing to pay a debt, another is anxious to recover some cattle that
have been stolen from him, while a fourth demands protection for his
daughter whom a brutal husband maltreats in the most shameful manner.
The first quality in a chief is patience. Assailed on all sides by
violent recriminations, he lends an attentive ear to each, and strives
to heal the wounds of every description which are disclosed to him. "A
man in authority," says an eastern apophthegm, "ought to imitate the
physicians who never apply the same remedies to all diseases." In these
"beds of justice" that recall the primitive manner in which our ancient
kings disposed of the private interests of their subjects, the Arab
chief employs the utmost sagacity, the greatest force of character, with
which he may have been endowed. To some he gives orders, to others
advice: to no one does he refuse the aid of his wisdom and influence.
Nor has he need only of the quality that Solomon demanded of the Lord.
Wisdom must be combined with generosity and valour. The highest praise
that can be awarded is to say of him that "his sabre is always drawn,
his hand always open." He must never weary of practising the somewhat
ostentatious, and yet at the same time noble and touching, charity,
enjoined by the Mussulman law as an obligation on all Believers. His
tent must be a refuge for the unfortunate, nor may any one die of hunger
in his neighbourhood; for the Prophet hath said: "Allah will never
accord his mercy but to the merciful. Believers, give alms, if it be
only the half of a date. Whoso gives alms to-day shall be amply
recompensed to-morrow."
If a warrior loses the horse that was his sole strength, if a family is
robbed of the flocks that furnished its subsistance, it is to the chief,
and to the chief alone, the sufferers address themselves. However strong
may be the love of pelf, it never goes so far as to make him risk the
loss of his influence; and the Arab noble, while in so many respects
resembling the Baron of the Middle Ages, differs from him in one
essential point—he abhors gambling. Neither cards nor dice ever wile
away the leisure hours in a tent. An Arab chief may neither indulge in
play, nor lend money at usurious rates of interest. The only way in
which he may turn his money to account, is by indirect participation in
some commercial enterprise. He hands over a certain sum to a merchant,
who trades with it, and, at the end of so many years, divides with the
lender the profits he has gathered. It must not, however, be supposed
that riches are therefore despised by Orientals. With them, as in every
other part of the world, wealth is one of the indispensable conditions
of power. Whoever falls into poverty, falls also very quickly into
obscurity, while he who makes a fortune enters upon the path of honours.
But, in order to follow out an ambitious career, it is by the right arm
rather than by industry that wealth must be acquired. When a warrior has
made a number of razzias that have brought him at the same time glory
and gold, he is surnamed Ben-Deraou, "the son of his arm," and may
aspire to the highest dignities of the tribe. This brings us back to the
quality which should be the groundwork of every noble Arab's
soul—valour.