“FANTASIAS”
“A very merry, dancing, drinking,
Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time.”
“I hear the women singing, and the throbbing of the drum,
And when the song is failing, or the drums a moment mute,
The weirdly wistful wailing, of the melancholy flute.”
SIWANS, on the whole, do not take life very seriously, and when they
have an excuse for an entertainment they thoroughly let themselves go
and are glad of an occasion, if they can afford it, for a terrific
gastronomic display, at which an Englishman feels like a canary
feeding among hungry ostriches. The poor people eat twice a day, in the
morning and evening; the meal consists mainly of dates washed down by
lubki and a few drops of tea. They are very sociable, fond of talk,
of entertaining their friends and holding “fantasias,” but one
notices very much the entire absence of communion between sexes. Men
hardly ever speak to women in public, and it would be considered
quite a scandal for anyone to be seen in company with his own wife,
almost worse than if he was seen speaking to the wife of another man.
With the Arabs it is different. They meet about the camps, and
especially at the wells, which from the time of Rebekah have been
the scene of many flirtations and courtships. The young men often go
and sit by the well-head watching the women drawing water, chaffing
and talking to them and, very occasionally, helping them to haul up a
heavy bucketful. I have often seen most amusing “goings-on” at a
well. Lifting up the weighty tins and drawing up the skins of water
gives the girls an opportunity for coquettish displays of neat arms
and ankles, but an infinitely more modest expanse is exhibited by
these Arabs than by the average young woman in England to-day. But
in Siwa if one rode past a spring where women were washing clothes
they would run off into the gardens as fast as they could, and even
when a Siwan man came to the pool they retired hurriedly with shawls
pulled over their faces, and waited some distance away.
In the hot summer evenings, when noises are hushed and the day’s
work is over, men sit in little groups outside their doors on low
mud benches, drinking tea, discussing the latest “cackle of the
palm-tree town,” and watching the piping shepherds driving their
flocks home from the grazing, raising clouds of golden dust as they
come along the sandy roads. The women collect on the roofs up above,
playing with their children and talking to each other. Each sheikh
sits before his house surrounded by a little crowd of sycophants,
sipping tea and adulation, and listening to the latest scandal told
about his rival of the opposite faction. Passers-by are invited to
join in, and if a stranger arrives there ensues a lengthy greeting of
much-repeated phrases, many hand-shakings, and polite expressions. When
one walked through the market-place after sunset there would be a
murmur of conversation from the shadowy white figures sitting and
lying round the doorways, who rose up and bowed at one’s approach,
and then sank down again silently. This Eastern deference is very
impressive at first, but it does not take long to get accustomed to it.
In Siwa there is no lurid night life like that of Cairo, in which
novelists revel. The people go early to bed and lights are very
little used. Even the quarter of the women of the town is as quiet
as the other streets. There are no noisy cafes with music and
dancing girls, and no hidden houses where natives smoke hashish
and opium. The Senussi religion forbids smoking, or “drinking
tobacco,” as it is called, also coffee, which is supposed to be too
stimulating for the passions, and for this reason tea is the universal
drink. Life is a very leisurely affair, a pleasant monotony, and
“Bukra—inshallah!”—to-morrow, if God wills—is the favourite
expression. Very few games are played. Chess, which was invented in
the East, is unknown, but one sometimes sees a couple of men deeply
absorbed in a game called “helga,” which is rather like draughts,
played with onions and camel-dung on a board which is marked out in
the sand on the ground.
The younger men, especially the ones with black blood in their veins,
are much addicted to drinking lubki, an inexpensive, intoxicating
liquor made from the sap of palm trees. The branches that form the
crown of the tree are cut off, leaving the heart of the palm tree
bare. A groove is cut from the heart through the thick outer bark,
and a jar is hung at the end of this groove which receives the juice
when it oozes up from the tree. A palm which has been tapped in
this way yields lubki for two or three months, and if the branches
are allowed to grow again after some time the tree will continue to
bear fruit, but the branches grow very ragged and trees that have
been used for lubki acquire a rather drunken-looking appearance which
always remains. One of the favourite tricks of small Siwan boys is to
climb up the palm trunks and drink the lubki from the jar in which it
is being collected by the owner of the garden. When freshly drawn it
is as sweet and frothy as ginger-beer, but in a few days it becomes
strongly alcoholic and tastes bitter, like sour milk. Labourers working
in the gardens always retire to a spring and bathe after the day’s
work, then they enjoy a long “sundowner” of lubki before they ride
home to the town. All intoxicating drinks are forbidden by the Koran,
but in Siwa the people satisfy their consciences by saying that the
Prophet approved of all products of the palm tree, so lubki cannot
be a forbidden drink.
The Siwans are most particular in their religious observances. There
are a very large number of mosques in comparison to the population,
and Friday—the Mohammedan Sabbath—is very strictly kept. On
Thursday evening the prayers of the muezzins are longer, as they
remind the people that the morrow is Friday. On Friday all the men
visit the mosques; no work is done in the gardens, and sometimes
one of the sheikhs distributes alms to the poor outside a mosque,
or at the tomb of one of his illustrious ancestors. For a long time
before the event the “mesakin” (poor) of the town collect at the
place; one sees old blind men, cripples, shrivelled hags, and ragged
women carrying solemn little babies, every one trying hard to appear
the most abjectly destitute, and therefore the most deserving case
for alms. Then the sheikh arrives, fat and prosperous, holding an
umbrella, and followed by some stout servants carrying huge bowls
heaped with cold boiled rice spotted with dark-coloured lumps of
camel flesh. The dishes are set down before the people, men and women
sitting apart, with a servant standing near each dish to keep order
and prevent free fights. The paupers snatch and claw at the food,
grabbing it with skinny, dirty fingers, squabbling fiercely over
yellowish-looking lumps of fat, shrieking vile abuse at each other
and trying to hide tasty scraps of meat in their clothes. The sheikh
looks on with a complacent smile and listens with much gratification
while his friends make audible remarks about his excessive generosity
and his liberal qualities.
The typical Arab sheikh of modern fiction (if he does not turn out
to be an Englishman) is a young, dashing, handsome and intensely
fascinating individual, well mannered and well washed; but in
real life one rarely meets such a person—I myself have never seen
him. The typical sheikh at Siwa or on the Western Desert was elderly,
bearded and only moderately clean. Some of them were certainly very
fine-looking men, but utterly different to the personage that one
would expect from the descriptions in a certain style of popular
novel. The “guides” who swindle visitors in Cairo are much more
like the sheikh of fiction in appearance than are the real sheikhs
whom one meets and has dealings with on the desert.
One of the most curious, partly philanthropic institutions which has
survived in Siwa is the “Beit el Mal,” a public fund used for
providing shrouds for persons who die without money or relations, and
also for repairing mosques, causeways and sun-shelters. The money is
contributed from the sale of public land belonging to the community,
and also from the sale of argoul, which is a plant that is used as
manure, and rents for grazing paid by visiting Arabs. The fund is
collected and administered by certain sheikhs, and in former days it
included fines, inflicted as punishments, and taxes on strangers who
visited the oasis. Any case which is considered deserving of charity
is supplied from the money.
Ramadan, the Mohammedan Lent, the month in which the Koran was
supposed to have been sent down from heaven, is kept very strictly
in Siwa. During this month all good Mohammedans are expected to
refrain from the pleasures of the table, the pipe and the harem; no
morsel of food or drop of water may pass their lips during the day,
but at night the revels commence and they feast and enjoy themselves
till the unwelcome approach of morning. Night is turned into day,
and at Siwa, during Ramadan, there is a continuous rumble of drums
from sunset till the early morning; at first it is disturbing, but
one grows accustomed to it before the month is out.
The words of the Koran are:
“Eat and drink until ye can plainly distinguish a black thread from
a white thread by the daybreak; then keep the fast until night.”
It is possible to obtain a dispensation from keeping Ramadan, on
medical grounds, and among the effendi class I noticed that this
was frequently done; travellers are also excused from observing it,
though I have often been out on trek during Ramadan with men who
were strictly fasting. If the month occurs in the hot weather it
is a very great strain on every one. Siwa, in the daytime, during
Ramadan, is like a dead place; the minimum amount of work is done
in the gardens, everybody stays indoors during the day, and one sees
nobody about the streets except in the cool of the early morning and
after sunset. Fasting, especially abstaining from drinking, is a severe
strain; the sheikhs, when they come to the Markaz, look thin and ill,
and one’s servants make the fast an excuse for doing nothing.
This arduous month is terminated by a festival lasting for three days
known as the Minor Festival or Kurban Bairam. It is celebrated with
great festivities and rejoicings in Egypt; servants expect tips and
every one appears in new clothes, but in Siwa it is not so important
an occasion; the people merely take a rest after the trials of the
fast month, reserving all their energy and money for the great local
mulid which occurs a week or so later. The mulid of Sidi Suliman,
the anniversary of the birth of Siwa’s patron sheikh, is the most
important incident of the whole year. The festival generally lasts
for three days, but the people take three more days to recover from
it. All the year round everybody saves money in order to make a
“splash” at the annual mulid.
For several days the women are busy cooking cakes and sweets; the
best fruit in the gardens is carefully watched over to be ready
at the mulid, and certain animals are fed up with a view to being
slaughtered. If possible one or two camels are bought from the Arabs
and kept at grass till they are fat enough to kill. On the eve of the
feast there is a general spring cleaning of the town. The tombs of
the sheikhs are freshly painted with whitewash, carpets and coloured
blankets are hung from every roof, while the houses are swept and
cleaned, and the place looks quite gay with its clean white tombs,
and bright mats and rugs hanging out from roofs and windows. In the
evening the sheep that are to be slaughtered on the morrow are led
in from the fields, and everybody discusses with interest how many
animals Sheikh So-and-So is going to kill. Sometimes the richest men
kill as many as seven or eight sheep, and this is remembered and often
mentioned to their credit, all through the year. One year there was a
great scandal in the town because Sheikh Mohammed Hameid had boasted
to everybody that he had killed six sheep, but one of his household
let out that there had only been three old goats slaughtered. Enormous
supplies of lubki are drawn before the holiday in order that it may
stand long and become really strong.
On the morning of the mulid everybody puts on his best clothes, and
even the poorest labourer dons a new shirt or a clean jibba. Every man
goes to pray in his own particular mosque, and the women visit the
tombs and lay palm branches on the graves of their relations. After
this people retire to their houses and eat an enormous meal and as
much meat as they can possibly swallow. When the men have eaten, the
remainder of the food is sent to the harem, and when the harem have
finished, it is sent out to the servants and labourers who pick the
bones clean. After this heavy meal and during the two following days
everybody calls on everybody else, and on this occasion one may see
eastern sheikhs riding haughtily through the western quarter to call
on their much-detested neighbours. In all the streets one meets the
sheikhs riding along on their best donkeys, wearing gorgeous silk,
coloured robes, which emerge from the chests in which they are locked
up during most of the year, each followed by an escort of servants. The
people let each other know at what time they will be “at home”
and when they will ride out visiting.
On arriving at the house one finds servants waiting to hold the
donkeys, and if one is so indiscreet as to look up at the little
windows numbers of female heads pop out of sight. The owner of the
house is found seated in his largest room, with the best carpets
covering the floor, surrounded by about a dozen little tables with
dishes of peaches, grapes, figs, melons, nuts, cakes and sweets, and
one dish which contains the young, white pith of a palm tree, which is
much esteemed as a delicacy. Along the side of the room there are more
dishes, covered with napkins, heaped up with meat, generally smothered
by a cloud of flies. The host offers tea, coffee, or an exceedingly
disagreeable syrupy liquor made from a species of fruit “syrop”
which should be taken cold with soda, but is served hot like tea,
according to Siwan fashion. Strict etiquette enjoins that one must
drink three cups of tea or coffee, and taste every dish in the room,
except the meat, which is reserved for the family at each house.
The extra amount of food everywhere attracts swarms of flies,
and the sticky smell of fruit and meat is rather overpowering,
when the temperature is about 106 degrees in the shade. One year
I rode round myself and paid calls, but the next time I was wiser
and invited the sheikhs and notables to a light meal at the Markaz,
after their own solid luncheon, and even then, although showing
post-prandial symptoms, they managed to eat very heartily. It was
at one of these entertainments that I learnt that the Siwans have
special names for people who offend against the strict etiquette of
eating. The following are all highly condemned:
The man who turns round and looks to see whether more is coming.
The individual who bites a piece of meat and replaces it in the dish.
The person who blows on his food to cool it.
The one who is undecided and fingers first one piece, then the other.
And finally the visitor who orders about his host’s servants,
which I have noticed myself as being a very common habit.
In the afternoon of the mulid the younger men and boys go out into
the gardens, where they lie singing and drinking lubki. At dusk the
people begin to collect in the open space below the highest part of
the old town, round the square, white tomb of Sidi Suliman, which is
illuminated with candles and lanterns, and ornamented with banners
stuck along the parapet of the roof. Crowds of men keep on passing
up the steps and in and out of the tomb, shuffling off their shoes
at the entrance and praying at the grave of the saint. Then everybody
collects at his own particular mosque, in various parts of the town,
and a great “zikr,” a kind of prayer-meeting and religious dance,
is held outside the Medinia mosque in the eastern quarter of the
town. It is a very wonderful sight, and is attended by four or five
hundred devotees.
There is a large, open space outside the mosque surrounded by tall
houses, whose little black windows look like gaping eyes, and behind
them one catches a glimpse of the tops of palm trees in some gardens
darkly silhouetted against the deep blue African sky. The whole
scene is flooded with brilliant moonlight, except where the cold,
black shadows fall from the high houses. The ground is entirely
carpeted with old rugs and mats whose faded colours show dimly in the
moonlight; along one side, in front of the mosque, sit the sheikhs
and notables of the Medinia sect, and on the other three sides of the
square there is a vast congregation of white-robed, seated natives,
row upon row of “dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed.”
A carpeted space in the centre is kept empty.
Among the shadows of the houses there are more blurred white figures,
and in one corner of the square kettles are being boiled on open
fires, and men in flowing robes walk to and fro across the light from
the flames. There is a subdued murmur of conversation. The first
part of the entertainment is a solemn tea-drinking. Dozens of men
move about, barefooted and silent, carrying trays and distributing
hundreds of little glasses of tea, which is made and poured out by
the sheikhs. After everybody has drunk three glasses the low tables
in front of the sheikhs are carried away, and the audience becomes
absolutely silent. Then the chief sheikh of the Medinia mosque,
a handsome, bearded man wearing the green turban, whose looks belie
his notoriously bad character, begins intoning verses from the Koran
in a sonorous, impressive voice, sitting on the carpet with his hands
spread on his knees. When he stops one of the other sheikhs begins,
until most of them have had a turn. After this three men step into
the space in the centre of the seated audience. One of them is quite
a boy with a very beautiful voice, the other two are older men. They
walk slowly round and round the square, abreast, singing together a
tune which resembles the solemn grandeur of a Gregorian chant, and
after each verse the whole audience, several hundred powerful male
voices, intone the refrain. It is an intensely impressive performance
and one feels thrilled at being the only white man present at such
a spectacle. The bright moonlight shines down on the massed ranks
of motionless natives whose faces look black, much darker than they
actually are, in comparison with their white robes and white skull
caps or turbans. For a background there are the high houses, and on
the roofs, peering down at the square, a number of heavily veiled
women, and “over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach,
studded with the eternal stars.”
After some time everybody rises and all the full-grown men close up and
form a circle, tightly wedged together. The old sheikh steps into the
centre and begins repeating more prayers, quietly at first then with
restrained violence. The audience join in, chanting the Mohammedan
creed. Gradually the singing grows louder, the voice of the sheikh
is drowned, and the ring of white-robed men begin swaying to and
fro, backwards and forwards, their voices become hoarse and raucous;
every man jerks to and fro in a frenzy of religious excitement, and
the prayer becomes a violent repetition of the word “Allah—’la,
’la, ’la.” Then the sheikh who leads the prayer gradually slows
down, and the congregation repeat more quietly the Mohammedan creed,
“La ilahi illa—llah, wa Mohammed rasul Allah”—there is no
deity but God, and Mohammed the prophet of God. The contrast between
the performers at the beginning of the zikr, when they are calm and
grave, and at its close, when they are hot, dishevelled and exhausted,
is very remarkable.
Meanwhile the crowd in the Sidi Suliman square increases. From
the various mosques come long processions of white-robed figures,
singing and carrying banners; the light of their torches and lanterns
flashes in and out as they slowly thread their way through the steep,
winding streets of the town, and their voices become faint, then loud,
as they pass through and out of the arches and tunnels. They assemble
in the square, forming large circles and dancing zikrs. In one corner
one sees a ring of old men singing and clashing cymbals; in another
group there are a dozen men banging drums, while a half-naked young
negro in their midst twirls rapidly round and round, then suddenly
falls to the ground and rolls over and over till he reaches the tomb
itself, where he is lifted up by his admiring and applauding friends
and carried away unconscious. Behind the tomb there are fires where
the drums can be warmed, in order to tighten their parchment. Numbers
of women squat on the outskirts of the crowd, huddled in their dark
robes, hardly visible, except when the moon gleams on their silver
ornaments and pale white faces. Some of them are burning incense in
little earthenware braziers, and occasionally one of them creeps up
to the white tomb and kisses the wall, if she can reach it before
being driven off by the ghaffirs—watchmen.
[Illustration: A “FANTASIA” AT THE TOMB OF SIDI SULIMAN]
The dancers in the centre of the circles move faster, keeping time to
the drums and hand-clappings of the audience, and soon everybody is
swaying to and fro. Away in the gardens outside the town there are
flickering lights and a sound of singing. The great zikr before the
Medinia mosque ceases and all the people come streaming out from the
dark, shadowy lanes towards the tomb of Sidi Suliman, which shines
white in the moonlight with orange lights blazing from its open
door and little windows. The sheikhs walk slowly about from group
to group, each followed by a little knot of men—servants carrying
carpets and cushions, and some watchmen in tall brown tarbouches,
holding staves. The police stand about in the crowd, and when one
walks up to watch a dance they hurry forward and push people aside,
saying, “Make way, make way!” The sound of distant singing in the
gardens grows louder and nearer, and suddenly mobs of men and boys,
mad with drink, half naked, come leaping and shrieking into the square,
scattering fire from their blazing torches.
Then drums are beaten madly, cymbals crash, and the shrill screech
of reed pipes rends the air. The crowd forms into a great circle
round the mass of frenzied dancers who career round, drinking as
they dance, shouting and yelling. In the centre there are a dozen
men lashing away at cymbals and tom-toms. One of the dancers is an
enormous blind giant, almost naked, who flourishes a jug of lubki,
and some of the boys have wreaths round their heads and bunches of
flowers stuck behind their ears.
As the night goes on the pandemonium becomes wilder; the exotic
timbre of the music grows more frenzied; many of the dancers throw off
their robes, and great pitchers full of potent lubki are distributed
among the people. The fires in the square, heaped up with rushes,
blaze more brightly when the honey-coloured moon sinks behind the
high walls of the town, and frantically writhing figures are seen
whirling round by the light of the shooting flames and torches. The
whole scene becomes even more _macabre_. Gradually boys and men among
the audience, fascinated by the mad mob of dancers, plunge in among
them, linking arms and revolving round the musicians in the centre,
crouching, jumping, hopping, and running, each one executing strange
steps and postures as he goes along. Sometimes the music is voluptuous
and alluring, then the dance becomes frankly indecent; at other times
it is wild and furious, and the performers seem to be overcome with
savage transports of rage; but the whole time the music has a very
definite rhythm which urges them on. The light of many torches gleams
on glistening black flesh and shining teeth and eyes; the air is thick
with heavy fumes of incense, and the bitter smell of liquor. On the
outskirts of the crowd one sees figures stretched like corpses on the
ground, overcome with the orgy of drink and dancing. When the faint
light of dawn shows in the sky, and the fires are dying down they
begin to tire of the Bacchanalian revels, and one by one the dancers
fall exhausted to the ground, lying where they fell, or crawl away,
staggering through the silent streets, to sleep off the effects in
readiness for the following day. Looking down on to this riotous
African carnival from the highest roofs of the town one can imagine
oneself, like Dante, watching damned souls writhing in hell.
The Siwans are extremely fond of music and singing. Their instruments
are crude and simple, but they manage to obtain a surprising amount
of music from them. Drums, or tom-toms, are of various kinds, either
cylindrical gourds or basins with a skin stretched across one end,
or large round tambourines with parchment covers. By striking first
the side of the drum and then the resounding parchment, two different
sounds are obtained, one hard, the other soft, and this again can
be varied by using either the palm of the hand or the clenched
fist. Flutes are usually made from the barrels of long Arab guns,
or occasionally from reeds, and string instruments, like primitive
guitars, are manufactured from a bowl covered with skin, a wooden
frame, and string made from wire or gut which can be tightened or
slackened. The combination of these simple instruments with human
voices is singularly effective.
There is a similarity in all African music; in fact, all Eastern
music is somewhat alike. The melody is monotonous and barbaric:
sometimes a song sung in a tremulous, high-pitched voice which rises
above the throbbing tom-toms, or a tune played on a shrill flute with
an accompaniment of drums and twanging string instruments. The scale
ranges from bass to treble, sometimes short, sad notes, and sometimes
long drawn-out wails, varied by sudden, unexpected pauses. It is
difficult to describe, but the general effect is somewhat sinister,
at the same time very fascinating. To a stranger it may sound like
an inharmonious wail, but in time one gets to appreciate the subtle
undercurrent of half-notes which makes the melody. It is suggestive
of fierce passions, vague longings, and vast desert spaces.
The characteristic song of the Western Arabs, a dreamy refrain with
a reiterated note, which they sing to themselves as they ride alone
across the desert, is very similar to the Swiss yeodling; but Siwan
music is quite different. The Siwans have songs and tunes of a distinct
individual style. With them certain notes have definite meanings;
there is a language of sound. When some of their best singers, usually
boys, are performing, the listeners can interpret the meaning of
the song without needing to hear the words. They sing everywhere,
and at all times, especially when at work in the gardens. Several
men and boys working in different parts of a big palm grove sing to
each other, taking up the refrain and answering each other back,
and these unaccompanied quartets and trios sound very attractive,
especially when one hears them in the evening, now loud and clear, now
faintly in the distance. Good voices are much esteemed, and the best
singing boys are hired to perform at entertainments. The songs that
have words are in the Siwan language, but when literally translated
they are exceedingly indecent.
Dancing, too, is very different to the fashion of the Arabs or the
Sudanese. In many parts of the Sudan one sees men and women dancing
together, and among the Arabs there are dancing girls who perform in
front of a mixed audience. On the Western Desert it is not considered
shameful for respectable women to dance, although most of the best
dancers are very decidedly not respectable. But in Siwa only the men
dance in public, and it is very difficult to see women performing,
but on one occasion I did see an entertainment of this kind.
It took place at night in the courtyard of a house discreetly
surrounded by high, windowless walls. A space on the ground was spread
with carpets, with some cushions at one side, and the moon shone
down and illuminated the scene. A little wooden door in the wall
was pushed open and about a dozen girls, followed by an old woman,
and a small boy carrying a brazier of smoking incense, shuffled into
the court and squatted down in a line on one side. The girls wore
the usual Siwan dress, a blue striped robe reaching below the knees,
and white silk-embroidered trousers; but besides this each of them
wore a long silk, coloured scarf, hiding her face and shoulders, and
a quantity of jingling silver ornaments and heavy bangles which they
took off and gave to the old woman to hold while they danced. Three
or four of them had small drums which they beat as they sang. At
first they sat in a row, very carefully veiled, singing quietly to
the accompaniment of the little tom-toms. Then one of them got up,
with the thin coloured veil hiding her face, and began to dance,
slowly at first, keeping time to the music, but gradually moving
faster as the music grew wilder. The dancing began by simple steps and
swaying gestures of the arms, then the movements became more rapid,
and one saw a confused mass of swirling draperies and silver chains.
After each girl had danced for a few minutes the _motif_ of music
changed, becoming more sensuous, and the _prima danseuse_ took the
floor again. This time she performed a variety of the _danse de
ventre_, which consists of queer quivering movements and swaying
the body from the hips, keeping the upper part still, with arms
stretched down and painted hands pointing outwards. This was varied
by an occasional rapid twirl which gave the audience a sight of the
dancer’s features; a pale face with long “kohl” tinted eyes and
a scarlet painted mouth, set in a frame of black braided hair, oiled
and shiny. Finally, the lilt of the music became even more seductive,
and the dancer swung off the long, fringed, silk scarf and danced
unveiled, swaying more violently, with her arms stretched above her
head, stamping on the ground in time to the rhythm of the music, and
finally subsiding into her place in an ecstasy of amorous excitement.
It was not an attractive performance, although the dance is one
which is very much admired by natives, who consider it intensely
alluring. One sees it in various forms all over Africa, and everywhere
it is equally ugly and dull.
CONCLUSION
MANY people have at various times carefully considered the agricultural
possibilities of Siwa from a commercial point of view. Undoubtedly
the cultivation in the oasis could be greatly developed, as there is
enough water to irrigate a much larger area of ground than that which
is now being cultivated. At present the natives have only the most
primitive ideas of agriculture; for instance, they neglect most of the
fruit trees by doing no pruning, and through sheer laziness they have
allowed various species to die out completely. They are handicapped,
too, by having no proper tools or machinery. The dates of Siwa are
exceptionally fine, famous all over Egypt, and besides these there
is a quantity of other fruit whose quality could be much improved by
proper care. Olive oil is a valuable product and commands a very high
price on the coast and in Egypt. No wine is made from the grapes,
and no one has experimented in drying fruit, which is a simple and
lucrative industry.
But the difficulty that faces one in all commercial schemes is the
means of transport. Camels can only be hired from the coast at rare
intervals and during the season when the Arabs do not mind visiting
the oasis, and their hire is so prohibitive as to make any heavy
transport hardly worth while. The ex-Khedive went to Siwa for the
purpose of seeing whether it would be worth running a light railway
from the coast to the oasis, and since then the project has been
seriously thought of more than once, but it has always been considered
impracticable on account of the expense and the great difficulty of
crossing such an expanse of waterless desert.
An alternative scheme of running a service of motor lorries is a
more likely proposition, and when once started it might be highly
remunerative. Some of the richest and most progressive Siwans were very
anxious to buy a lorry and send their olive oil direct to Alexandria,
but they failed to appreciate that one lorry alone would be useless,
and the minimum number would have to be four.
Apart from the possibilities of trade Siwa is valuable as a field
for excavators. So far very little digging has been done in Siwa and
the adjoining oases, and undoubtedly there are great possibilities
in this direction. Labour is cheap and one could hire enough men in
the place to do any work of this kind. Nobody has attempted to locate
and examine the subterranean passages which connect Aghourmi and the
temple, and Siwa town with the Hill of the Dead. There is also the
possibility of rediscovering the emerald mines which brought fame
to the oasis many centuries ago, and which are now so completely
forgotten that I doubt whether half a dozen people have ever heard
of their existence. Under the present regime, though one does not
know how long it will last, an Englishman can live at Siwa in perfect
safety, and though the climate is certainly very hot in summer-time
it is quite agreeable during more than half the year.
But Siwa will never become a much-visited place, which is perhaps all
for the best, owing to the strip of desert which stretches between it
and the coast. Otherwise it might have developed into another Biskra,
which is the oasis in Algeria that Hitchens describes so wonderfully
in _The Garden of Allah_. Quite lately I noticed in a travel book
called _Kufara, the Secret of the Sahara_, by Mrs. Rosita Forbes,
a mention of this very desert between Siwa and the coast which was
described as a “tame desert.” This expression, used by a lady
with such great knowledge of deserts in all parts of the world,
surprised me—and I own that it annoyed me! Her only experience of
this particular desert was acquired during the one day in which she
motored up from Siwa to Matruh in the company of several officers of
the F.D.A. who met her there. But people on the Western Desert can
remember, only too well, a terrible fatality which occurred less than
a year ago in which three Englishmen were involved, and which proved
conclusively that no waterless desert is safe or “tame,” even in
these days when cars can travel across it.
I was not actually in Siwa when Hassanein Bey arrived there,
accompanied by Mrs. Forbes, after their memorable journey to Kufra,
but I returned there soon afterwards, and it was very interesting to
hear of her exploit from the various natives who came in to Siwa from
the west.
In spite of a climate that was sometimes trying, in spite of a bad
bout of fever, and in spite of an occasional feeling of loneliness,
the memory of the time that I spent at Siwa will always be a very happy
one. Siwa is so absolutely unspoilt, and so entirely Eastern. Even the
ubiquitous Greek trader has not penetrated this desert fastness. It
is a place that grows on one, and the few who have been there, and
who appreciate its curious fascination, find it very hard to leave.
There is a saying in Egypt that whoever tastes the water of the Nile
must some time return there, and I am very sure that he who drinks
from the Siwa springs will always wish to go there again. Walking by
moonlight under those huge, towering battlements of the strange old
town, through streets and squares deserted save for an occasional
white-robed figure, one could almost credit the queer stories of
ghosts, jinns and afreets that are believed by the Siwans to haunt
every spot in this mysterious little oasis which lies hidden among
the great barren tracts of the pitiless Libyan Desert.
[Illustration: THE WESTERN DESERT OF EGYPT]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books consulted in compiling the “History of Siwa”:—
Anonymous History of Siwa (Arabic).
ARRIAN. Expeditio Alexandri.
BATES, ORIC. The Eastern Libyans.
BLOCHET. History of the Arab Conquest.
BOVARY. Letters from Egypt.
BREASTED. History of Egypt.
BROWNE, W. G. Travels in Africa (1792-6).
BUDGE. Life of Alexander.
BUTLER, A. J. Arab Conquest.
CAILLIAUD. Travels in the Oases.
CAMERON. Egypt in the Nineteenth Century.
CORRIPUS, F. C. Johannides.
DIODORUS SICULUS. Bibliotheca. History of Egypt.
Edmonstone’s Journey. (1822).
ERMANN. Handbook of Egyptian Religion.
FALLS, EWART. Three Years in the Libyan Desert.
FORBES, ROSITA. The Secret of the Sahara, Kufara.
GWATKIN WILLIAMS, R. S. In the hands of the Senussi.
GWATKIN WILLIAMS, R. S. Prisoners of the Red Desert.
HAMILTON, J. Wanderings in North Africa.
HAREEM. Ancient Commerce of Africa.
HERODOTUS. Egypt.
HOHLER, T. B. Report on Oasis of Siwa (1904).
HORNEMANN, F. C. Journal, from Cairo to Mourzouk.
HOSKINS, S. A. Visit to Libyan Desert (1837).
JUVENAL, Satires.
LANE, E. W. Arabian Nights.
LANGLES. Memoires sur les oases d’après les auteurs Arabes.
LEO, JOHANNES. Africae Descriptio.
MERCIER, ERNEST. Histoire de l’établissement des Arabes dans
l’Afrique Septrionale.
Nelson’s History of the Great War.
OKLEY. History of the Saracens.
PETRIE, FLINDERS. History of Egypt.
PINDAR. Hymns to Deities.
PLINY. Geography of the World.
PLUTARCH. Life of Alexander.
QUINTIUS CURTIUS. Alexander.
ROLLINS. Ancient History.
R. E. JOURNAL. Vol. 37, No. 2.
ST. JOHN, BAYLE. Adventures in the Libyan Desert (1849).
SALE. The Koran.
SILVA WHITE. From Sphinx to Oracle.
SMITH. Classical Dictionary.
STANLEY, CAPTAIN. Report on Siwa Oasis.
STRABO. Geography.
VIRGIL. Ænid.
WILKINSON, SIR J. S. Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt.
Translations, mostly French, of the following Arab Historians and
Geographers:—
IBN ABDEL HAKIM KHALDOUN. History of the Berbers.
MOHAMMED BEN AYAS.
EL MAKRIZI.
EL MASOUDI.
IBN EL WARDI.
ABULFEDA.
EL IDRISI.
SCHEMFEDDEN MOHAMMED ABDEL FURUR.
INDEX
Abbas Helmi, 3
Abbas Pasha, 108
Abdel Arti, smuggler, 115, 117
Abdel Gader, sheikh of travellers, 54
_Abdel Moneim_, cruiser, 34, 35
Abdel Rahman, Sheikh, 66
Abdel Sayed, 180
Abdulla Homeid, Sheikh, 66, 247
Abdulla Mansur, 112
Abu Zeyed, 54
Actium, battle of, 9
Aeroplanes, 125
African Association, 101
Agagia, battle of, 126
Age of Siwans, 196
Aghourmi, 69, 71, 83, 86, 87, 96; sheikh of, 67; spring, 81;
temple, 78
Agriculture, 260
Ahmed Fazi, 119
Ahmed Hamza, 112
Ahmed Idris, 111
Ain el Hammam, 81
“Akaba incident,” xiv
Alexander the Great, 84, 85, 176
Alexandria, 3, 5, 6, 34, 35; summer resort, 8; Alexander buried
at, 85
Algeria, 10
Ali Balli, 102, 104
Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, 132, 190
Almsgiving, 243
Amaryllis, 10
Ammon, god, 76; legends of, 77, 79, xix
Ammonia, 7, 79
Ammonians, 76, 77, 79, 80
Amrou, 89
Animals at Siwa, 202
Antony, 9
Appetites of Siwans, 168, 239
Arabia, 93
Arabs, 5, 14, 17; carrying arms, 18; clothes, 20;
characteristics, 209; conversation, 24; dance, 44; horses, 27;
hospitality, 22; invasion, 5, 89, 94; at Maragi, 185; refugees,
201; songs, 256; tents, 19; wealth, 26; wells, 43; welcome rains,
32; wives, 39; women, 21
Arasieh, lake, 103
Architecture, Siwan, 133, 134
Areg, El, oasis of, 183, 184
Argoul, 158, 244
Arms, seizing, 73
Arusia, sect, 151
Assiut, 184
Athanasius, St., 88
Athenians, 79
Atlantic, 94
Atlantis, 191
Augerin, Bir, 43
Augustus, 88
Australian Light Horse, 125
Awlad Ali, 6
Azhar university, 119
Bachelors, custom of, 98
Bagbag, 15
Bahrein oasis, 115, 183, 184
Bairam, Kurban, feast of, 246
Baird, Miss, xxi, 201
Bakhr-Wahash, wild ox, 202
Bakshish, 176
Bangles, rolling the, 235
Barley, 6
Barrani, 13, 14; evacuation, 124; reoccupation, 126
Bashu Habun, 176
Basket making, 199
Bates, Oric, 75, 76
Bathing, 61, 63; bride, 216; at Matruh, 8
Bazaars, 141
Beda, el, 120
Behera, 110
Beit el Mal, 244
Ben Ayas, historian, 90
Ben Soleim, tribe of, 93
Bequests, religious, 235
Berbers, 2, 88, 91, 94, 95, 209; from Europe, 20, xvii; dialect,
146; sacrifices, 234
Berseem, custom of, 162
Bikaner, Maharajah, xxiv
Bilad el Kelab, 57
Bir Hakim, 123, 131
Birds, 31, 203; eggs, 204
Birth-rate at Siwa, 2
Bisharin trackers, 53
Blossoms, 202
Booba, story of, 173
Booza camp, 40
Bramley, Captain Jennings, xxii
Bread, on trek, 52
Bride, customs of, 213, 216
Browne at Siwa, 100
Budget, economy on, 34
Butin, Colonel, 103
Byzantines, 89
Cairns, rock, 52
Calamis, statue by, 80
Cambyses, lost army of, 80
Camel Corps, 2, 15, 26, 37, 38; barracks, 49; exploring with,
195; as garrison, 131, 135; soldiers, 41; songs of, 54; wives of,
62, 100
Camels, 25; riding, 48; fly, 202; in rain, 32; stories of, 36;
drinking, 45; as transport, 260
Camp, in the desert, 49
Canaanite migration, xvii
Canal, Suez, 123
Caravans, 56, 86, 120
Carpets, 189; leather, 91; makers of, 201
Cars, 11
Carthage, 80
Cats, 170
Causeway, 104
Caves, at Kasr Hassuna, 119
Cemeteries, 223
Chess, 241
Childbirth preventives, 211
Children, 146, 200, 211, 213; festival, 237; murder of, 173
Christianity at Siwa, 88
Cimon, 81
Cisterns, 17, 43, 44
Civil War in Siwa, 99, 100
Clearchus, King, 78
Cleopatra, 9
Clerk, Coptic, 67
Climate, 263
Coastal belt, 5
Coastguards, 3, 4, 34, 37, 124; fight with Abdel Arti, 117;
officers of, 124
Coffee, 67
Constantinople, 122, 189; Sayed Ahmed retires to, 131
Cooks, 44, 60
Corippus, 75
Cows, 203
Crime, 172
Crœsus, 76
Crops, 155, 156
Customs, 188
Cyprus, 81
Cyrene, 84
Cyrenians, 78
Daftar el Ain, 154
Dak bungalows, 13
Dakhla oasis, 128
Dakrur, Gebel, 83, 93
Danaus, 77
Dancing, 46, 253, 254, 257, 258; Arab, 45
Darfur, 56, 132, 190
Dartmoor, 14
Dates, markets, 137, 138; harvest, 152; palms, 156; cultivation,
157; at El Areg, 184
Decorations, Turkish, 127
Delphi, 87
Derna, 105
Desert plateau, 57
“Devil’s Country,” 189
Diodorus Siculus, 77
Dionysius, 76, 78
District Officer’s house, 59, 60
Divorce, among Siwans, 172, 173, 214, 215; Arabs, 21
Doctor, Syrian, 67
Dodona, oracle of, 77, 79
Dogs, Arab, 23; country of, 57; as food, 169, 170; “Howa,”
47, 163
Doré, Gustave, 57
Dorset Yeomanry, 126
Doves, 77
Dreams, interpretation of, 232
Drinking, 150, 249
Drums, 252, 255
Ear-rings, 148
Earthquakes, 195
Easterners, 99, 100
Egyptian Army, 38
Egyptian Government, 2, 114; representative, 64
Emeralds, 86, 91, 93, 261
Enver Pasha, xxv
Ethiopia, 80, 77
Evening at Siwa, 240
Evil Eye, 25, 209, 223; charms against, 224, 225
Exabia oasis, 185
Excavations, 93, 178, 191, 192, 261
Ex-Khedive, 3, 4, 93, 178, 261
Falls, Ewart, 3
False dawn, 47
Fantasias, 239
Farafra oasis, 203
Farag Khasaf, 104
Fasting, 244
Fénelon, 88
Ferik, 83
Fever, 160, 189, 263
Fezzan, 101
Fikis, 194, 209; charms of, 224
Fish, 212; destroy mosquitoes, 160; as food, 97
Flies, 248
Flowers, 32
Flying Corps, 124
Forbes, Mrs., xxvii, 262
Fortune-telling, 233
Fossils, 88, 183
Fostat, 92
Fountain of the Sun, 81
French in Algeria, 119
Frogs, 164
Frontier Districts Administration, xiv, xv, 2, 37, 201
Fruit, 156, 158; at Siwa, 202, 248
Fuca, Bir, 6
Funerals, 149, 222
Furniture, 144
Gabreen, Haj, 194
Gaffar Pasha, 125, 126
Gagub, oasis, 185; spring at, 186; wild oxen, 202
Gallipoli, 123
Gara, oasis, 102, 179; legends about, 180, 181
Gardens, 154, 156, 158
Gawazi Arabs, 203
Gazelle, 30, 49, 184
Gebel Dakrur, 83, 93
Geography, Strabo’s, 87
Germans, 4, 6, 101; in N. Africa, 118; in Tripoli, 122
Ghaffir, 253; El Ain, 154
Ghouls, 208
“Ghrula,” 221
Girba, battle of, 129; evacuation of, 130
Goats, 24; quarrel about, 111
God of Siwa, 76
Governor’s House, 7
Governor, Western Desert, 37
Gramophone, 164
Graves, 223
Greece, 77
Greeks, 5, 58, 79; colonists, 7, 13, 10, 263
Gum trees, 182
Gun-running, 38, 190
Gurzil, 76
Haboob, 72
Habun, Bashu, 175, 176
Habun, Osman, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117
Hakim, Bir, 123, 131
Halfia Pass, 127
Ham, 77
Hamed, Bir, 44
Hamilton, 105, 106, 107
Hannibal, 79
Hanoui, 198
Hares, 28
Harimat, 39, 62
Hashish, 241
Hassan Mitnana, 98
Hassanein Bey, xxvi, 262
Hassein Bey, 102, 103, 104
Hassuna Mansur, 110, 111
Hassuna, Kasr, 119, 129
Hawking, 27, 28
Hedjaz, 119
“Helga,” 241
Henna, 20, 226, 210
Hens, 175
Hephistion, 85
Herodotus, 77, 78
Hidden cities, 92
Hilal tribe, 93
Hill of the Dead, 68, 94, 104
History, Arabic, 3, 74, 80
Holy war, 118
Hornemann, 101
Horses, 27
Hounds, 29
Houses, 33; Siwan, 133; interior of, 142
Hunter, Colonel G. G., xv, 37
Hunting, 29, 30
Husband, to obtain, 228
Iblis, 208; to summon, 230
Ibrahaim el Bishari, 56
Idris, Sidi, 132
Immorality, 101
Inheritance, 155, 172
Interpreters, 98
Ireland, 18
Iron, 91
Irrigation, 153, 154
Islands of the Blessed, 1
Italians, in Tripoli, 15, 118, 122, 132; British alliance
with, 123
Jackals, 31
Jalo, 56, 96; Senussi at, 120
Jerabub, 56, 96, 110; the Senussi at, 121; view of, 186
Jewels, 91, 188
Jews, 10
Jinns, 136, 194
Johannides, 265
“Joy Riders,” 35
Jupiter, 77
Juvenal, 87
Kareished, 178
Karnak, 80
Kasr Hassuna, 103, 119; caves at, 120; shaft, 193
Keimat en Nus, 53
Kerdassa, 148
Khadria confraternity, 119
Khamissa, 83, 88, 185
Khamsin, 7
Khargeh oasis, 80
Khartoum, 36
Khedival road, 7
Kingfishers, 8
Kitchener, Lord, 6
Kom Ombo, 38
Koran, 94; used by Fikis, 209; quotations from, 245
“Kreish,” 18
Kufra oasis, 56, 96, 177, 190, 191, 262
Labour, cost of, 261
Lagoons at Matruh, 8, 9
Lake, magic, 90
Language, 2, 101, 146
Lapis lazuli, 91
Level, sea, 1, 57
Libyans, ancient, xvii, 4, 5, 76
Light cars, 16, 31
Lions, 204
Liquor, 255
Loneliness, 263
Lotophagi, lotus eaters, 4
“Lover, the,” magic stone, 91
Lubbok, 115
Lubki, 242; drinkers of, 249
Lucky Days, 43
Luncheon, garden, 162, 165
Luxor, 38; snake charming at, 206
Lybis, king, 78, 79
Lysander, 79
Macdonnel, Colonel, 37
Magic, 207, 209
Mahdi, Sudanese, 122
Mahdi Abdel Nebi, sheikh of Aghourmi, 67, 69
Mails, 34, 42
Malaria, 160, 161
Mamur, 13, 59, 67; at Siwa, 109; Arab, 118; killed by Habun, 116
Manshia, suburb, 97, 108
Maragie, 185
Marids, 208
Marissa, 41
Markaz, 59, 65, 128
Markets, date, 137, 138
Marriage, Arab, 21; Englishmen, question of, 172; oldest
inhabitant, 197; customs, 214; money, 213
Mashrabs, 52; El Abd, 53
Maspero, M., 44, 75
Mat making, 157, 198
Matruh, Mersa, 3, 11, 79, 84; town, 7; bay, 8; water supply,
9; pack, 29; as base, 125
Meat, 169
Mecca, 95, 96, 101, 119, 234, 236
Mediæval historians, 90
Medinia, sect, 112, 151; revolt of, 128; “zikr,” 249, 250
Mediterranean, 1, 3, 14
Megahiz, spring, 58, 107
Mejberry Pass, 182
Melfa, oasis of, 185, 186
Memphis, 80
Meneclush, King, 82, 83
Merchandise, from Jerabub, 188
Mesamia, 104
Mice, 169
Michael’s Mount, 133
Midwives, 211
Mihrab, 119
Military Administrator, 37
Mines, 91
Ministry of Health, 160
Mirage, 14, 51, 189
Mitnana, Hassan, 98
Mogabara Arabs, 56
Mohammed Ali, 75, 102, 108
Mohammed el Mahdi, 120, 121
Mohammed el Sherif, 121
Mohammed Effendi Saleh, 126, 129, 130, 131
Mohammed el Senussi, 118, 119, 120, 121
Mohammed Hamman, 69, 70
Mohammed Ithneini, of Jerabub, 187
Mohammed Said, 112
Mohammedan invasion, 5, 94
_Moorina_, survivors of, 130
Morals, Siwan, 150
Morocco, xviii, 119
Mosques, 139, 242
Motors, 11, 127, 261
Moussa Ibn Nosseir, 90
Mud pans, 51
Muezzins, 69, 155
Mulids, 246
Mummies, 192
Music, 255, 256
Nabis, 79
Naming children, 212, 213
Napoleon, 101
Nasamonians, 4
Natrun Wadi, 102
Negb Mejberry, 182
Niger, river, 79
Night life, 241
Nile, river, 79
Noah, 77
Nomads, 17
Oases, xix, 1, 75, 78, 177
Occupations at Siwa, 170
Officials, Egyptian, 67
Old age, Siwan, 197
Oldest inhabitant, 197; his wedding, 198
Olives, 178; press for, 179; oil, 178, 260
Omm Beyda, 82
Opium, 241
Orange tree, fabulous, 91
Painting, 171; mural, 184
Palms, date, 156; cultivation, 157
Pan-Islamic possibilities, 4
Parætonium, 7, 84
Partridges, 31
Peyton, General, xxiv
Persia, 81
Persians, 5
Pharaoh, 85
Phœnicians, 77
Photography, 171; photo of Siwa, 4
Pigeons, 31; carrier, 204
Pilgrimage, 234, 235, 236
Pindar, 79
Plague, 95
Pliny, 76
Police, Siwan, 65, 100, 253
Polygamy, 21
Population, 2
Postman, Senussi, 198
Pottery, 199
Pumice stone, 13
Puttees, worn by Senussi, 127
Quail, 31
Quarrel of East and West, 98, 99
Quinine, 160
Qur el Beid, 47
Rabbits, 145
Raid, rifle, 72
Rains, 5, 32, 33, 125
Ram-headed divinity, xix, 75, 78, 85, 86
Ramadan, 244, 245
Rameses, 75
_Rasheed_, gunboat, 124
Rashwan, King, 94
Rats as food, 169
Ravens lead Alexander, 85
Rest houses, 13
Revolt of Siwans against Senussi, 128
Ritual of temple, 85, 86
Rodd, Francis, xxiii
Rollins history, 77
Romans, 9, 44, 88; road, 17
Roofs, 144
Roses, 165
Routine, daily, at Siwa, 63
Royal Artillery, 8
Royle, Major, 124
Sacrifice of bull, 234
Sahara, 191
St. John, Bayle, 105
St. Menas, xxii, 4
Said Pasha, 108
Sakhit Amouou, 78
Saleh Said, Sheikh, 65
Salt, 91; lakes, 159; tribute, 159
Samovars, 189
Sand-storms, 80
Santarieh, 90
Sayed Ahmed, 122, 123; at Siwa, 126; goes to Dakhla, 128;
flight from Siwa, 129; retires to Turkey, 131; character, 132
Sayed Mohammed, xxv
Scarp, 14, 16, 17, 29, 31; in spring, 32; ascent of, 47
School, 139
Scorpions, 205
Sebukh, 97, 159, 182
Semna, 24
Senagra tribe, 4
Senussi, xxiv, 8; rebellion, 18, 38; brethren, 52; power of,
109, 110, 111; peace made by, 114; operations against, 117; history
of, 118, 119, 120, 121; at outbreak of war, 122; campaign against
British, 123-132
Serpents, 91
Servants, 61, 245
Shaigis, 44
Sharks, 12
Sheep, 25
Sheikhs, Siwan, 65; in fiction, 243
Shells, 87
Sheytan, 208
Shops, 139, 140, 141
Shyata, 185
Sightseers, 135
Sikhs, 125
Silius Italicus, 79
Silugis, 29, 47
Sinai, xiv, 37
Singer, 4
Siwa, whereabouts, 1; arrival at, 58; first impressions, 61;
view from, 68; history of, 74-132; town of, 133; population of, 150
Slaves, 95, 96
Slave-woman’s story, 70, 71
Smoking, 241
Snakes, 28, 205; charmers, 206
Snow, 88; Colonel, 124
Solitude, 171
Sollum, 1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 14; camp of, 16; houses at 33; Camel
Corps camp at, 40; departure from, 42; garrison of, 123; evacuated,
124; recaptured, 127
Soud, Sheikh, 176
Sparta, 79
Sponge fishers, 12
Springs, 152, 153, 161
“Stables,” 68
Stanhope, Lady Hester, 201
Stars, shooting, 227
Stolen property, 230, 231
Stone, sacred, 76, 91
Stove, story of, 39, 40
Strabo, 87
Submarines wrecked on coast, 123
Sudan, 6, 26, 36, 44, 56, 61; rest houses, 13; recruiting in,
38; trade, 96; caravans from, 87; invasion of, 102; rebellion
in, 132
Sudanese, 38; conversation, 57; views of, 26; wives, 39
Sugar, 142
Suitors, to obtain, 227, 228
Suliman, Haj, 197
Suliman, Sidi, 96, 98; legends of, 97, 212; Mulid of, 246, 249;
tomb of, 110, 114, 138, 233, 234
Sulphur spring, 186
Sultan of Turkey, 118, 131; excommunicated by Senussi, 121
Sultan Mousa, 162
“Sultan” of tea ceremony, 167
Sunset at Siwa, 69
Sun worship, 75
Sweets, 237
Table manners, 249
Talbot Mission, xxiv
Tamousy, spring, 215
_Tara_, torpedoed, 123; rescue of crew, 130
Tea-drinking, 167, 248, 250
Tebu, lost army from, 81
Telemachus, 88
Telephone, 181
Temperature, 50, 61
Temple of Jupiter, 77
Temple of Jupiter Ammon, 32, 77
Temple of Thebes, 80
Tharic Ben Sayed, 90
Thebes, 76
Theft, discovery of, 230
Thieves, 137
“Thirty, The,” 95
Thomi, Sheikh, 66, 163
Thorn, camel, 183
_Thousand and One Nights_, 210
Timasius, 88
Title-deeds, 155
Tombs, of kings, 196; of sheikhs, 246, 247; inhabited, 192
Town-crier, 221
Toy-maker, 200
Trade, 10, 120, 261
Transport difficulties, 260
Treaty of Lausanne, 118
Trees, 202
Tripoli, 1, 15, 71, 93, 96, 101, 105, 151, 187; smugglers, 115;
Arabs of, 18, 118; blankets, 184; Italians, 122, 123; Senussi, 120
Tunis, 10
Tunnels in Gebel Hassuna, 193
Turks, 102; in Tripoli, 118, 122
Typhoid, 160
Uganda, 57
Viceroy of Egypt, 107
Wadai, 96, 120
Wadi Natrun, 102
Wær, Bir, 127
Wahabi confraternity, 151
Wakf, 95, 235
Watchmen, 253
Water supply in Siwa, 152; rights, 154, 155
Weddings, Arab, 45; customs, 217, 218, 219; presents, 214, 220;
procession, 216
Wells, 18; in Siwa, 136; courting at, 240; at Gara, 179
Westerners, 99, 100
Westminster, Duke of, 127, 130, 131
Whitewashing custom, 137
“Widow’s War,” 111
Widow, custom of, 221
Wind, 72-107
Windows, 143
Witches, 208, 225; tea with, 226; invoking demons, 229; practices
of, 230
Witnesses, female, 174
Wives, “taking over,” 62; Siwan, 213
Wreckage, 13
Yeomanry, 125
Yom el Ashur, 237
Yusif Ali, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108
Zafr el Medina, 151
Zealand, New, Brigade, 125
Zebras, 93
Zeitoun, 177
Zeus, 85
Zigale, 98, 106
Zikr, 248, 249, 250
Zouias, 120
Transcriber's note:
pg xi Changed: "A Little Siwan Girl -- 283" to: "238"
pg 12 Changed: "what a a strange" to: "what a strange"
Caption of twelfth illustration “KASR HASSUNA,” Changed:
"OFFICER’S HOUS" to: "HOUSE"
pg 163 Changed: "I was introduce to the other" to: "introduced"
pg 190 Changed: "It js a dreary region" to: "is"
pg 250 Changed: "surrounded by tall, houses" to: "tall houses"
pg 265 Changed: "from Cairo to Mouzouk" to: "Mourzouk"
pg 266 Changed: "ABDULFEDA" to: "ABULFEDA"