THE NORTHERN VILLAGES
Population — Relation of Population to Water-Supply — Trade
in Dates — Imports — Taxation on Date-Palms and Wells —
Measurement of Wells — Revenue derived from the Oasis — Origin of
Inhabitants — Kharga Village — Industries — Ancient and Modern
Wells — Meheriq Village — Troubles with Sand — Migration of
Villagers — Ain el Tawîl and other Hamlets — Gennâh Village
— Famous Wells — Ain Estakherab — Ochreous Waters of certain
Wells — Ain el Ghuâta — Bulaq Village — Doum-Palms — Tomb
of Sheikh Khalid Ibn el Walîd.
In point of population Kharga ranks second of the four great oases
of the Libyan Desert. In 1897 the inhabitants numbered 7,856, and
ten years later had increased to 8,348. The 1907 census showed the
male to be slightly in excess of the female population, a result
entirely owing to the preponderance of men in the northern part of
the oasis. The present distribution of the inhabitants, according
to the last census, is shown in the table on the following page.
In the oases of the Libyan Desert there is a very close connection
between population and water-supply. No water is intentionally
allowed to run to waste, every drop being utilized to raise
+-----------------+-------+---------+--------+
| | Male. | Female. | Total. |
+-----------------+-------+---------+--------+
| Kharga District | 2,819 | 2,503 | 5,322 |
| Gennâh District | 207 | 237 | 444 |
| Bulaq District | 487 | 529 | 1,016 |
| Beris District | 767 | 799 | 1,566 |
| +-------+---------+--------+
| Total | 4,280 | 4,068 | 8,348 |
+-----------------+-------+---------+--------+
the crops of rice, dates, barley, and wheat, which form the staple
food-supplies of the inhabitants. Cut off by a waterless desert,
these people have little intercourse with the outside world, except
for a few weeks in the early winter months, when they dispose of
their surplus date-crop to the Bedawin traders who cross the desert
with droves of camels from the Nile Valley. The dates are usually
paid for in cash, ready-money being required in order to meet the
annual taxes levied by the Egyptian Government. Practically the only
food-stuffs imported consist of such commodities as tea, coffee,
and sugar, which are used sparingly, and regarded as luxuries even
by the better classes.
It is evident, therefore, that the inhabitants rely almost entirely
for subsistence on the products they are able to raise by their own
toil and industry. Owing to there being no rainfall, the acreage
of land which can be put under crops depends absolutely on the
amount of water available for irrigation by wells. The total yield
of the latter has, we know, fluctuated to a considerable extent
at different times, and one may surmise that, could figures be
obtained giving the number of inhabitants and the volume of the
water-supply for different periods during the last 5,000 years,
a remarkably constant ratio would be observable between the two.
Taxes are levied by the Egyptian Government on both date-trees
and wells. Over 60,000 adult palms exist in the oasis, each one
being subject to a yearly tax of 1½ piastres (about 3½d.). The
output or yield of a well is, for purposes of taxation, determined
in a somewhat rough-and-ready manner by a method which appears to
have been in use for a number of generations. Whenever a new bore
is completed, or an old well requires remeasurement, all the most
influential personages in the oasis, headed by the Omda or chief
of Kharga village, armed with a number of primitive appliances,
solemnly proceed to the spot.
After first ascertaining that the well has not been temporarily
blocked by interested persons—even here in the remote interior
of the desert there is an inherent objection to the paying of
taxes—the bed and sides of the water-channel are made as smooth
as possible for a distance of five or ten paces below the mouth
of the well, so that the water flows away with an even ripple. A
small pointed stick is now inserted in the centre of the bed of the
stream, in such a way that the top of the peg is exactly flush with
the surface of the water. Then the Omda, hitching up his flowing
robes, steps into the stream, and, selecting a gauge of suitable
dimensions, fixes it firmly in the bed of the channel, in such a
position that the whole of the flow passes freely through, without
raising or lowering the surface of the stream above, as indicated
by the peg. The interior of the gauge, a roughly-made wooden frame,
is intended to be a definite number of centimetres in length, but
in many of those used there is a small error. As soon as the stream
flows evenly over the gauge or weir, without its surface-level being
altered, the depth of water is measured on a scale. The latter is
wetted and plunged into a heap of dry sand before being used, the
depth of water being indicated by that portion of the scale from
which the sand has been removed by the immersion. Observations are
made at both ends of the weir to insure any error due to want of
horizontality of the frame being detected.
The actual discharge is reckoned in ‘qirats’ and eighths
of a qirat (tumns), a qirat being a water-section of 64 square
centimetres. For example, if the depth of water passing over a
gauge having an internal length of 40 centimetres was found to be 8
centimetres, the water-section would amount to 40 × 8 = 320 square
centimetres, which would be reckoned as a discharge of 5 qirats.
The Omda and his attendants carry out the operations with the
utmost care and solemnity, and have the most touching faith in
the accuracy of their results. Apart, however, from errors in the
gauges and scales used, and from the want of provision of a free
fall on the downstream side of the weir, the fact that the velocity
of the stream is entirely left out of account is sufficient to
give the qirat a very variable value, low for small and high for
large streams, the result being that the small wells are being
taxed at about 50 per cent. higher rates than the large ones. In
order to ascertain the average value of the qirat for streams of
different size, I arranged with Mr. Patterson, who at the time
was the Government Representative in Kharga, to send the Omda to
headquarters and instruct him to measure a number of new bores
belonging to the Corporation of Western Egypt, as these bores,
being cased and provided with proper outlet valves, lend themselves
to exact measurement better than the majority of the native-owned
wells. The Omda employed the ordinary local native method just
described, while I, using a tank of known capacity and a reliable
stop-watch, made direct measurements immediately afterwards. The
results obtained show that below 2 the qirat has a value of 22
gallons a minute; from 2 to 4 of 26 gallons a minute; and from 5
to 6 of 38 gallons a minute.
The annual tax levied on the water amounts to 50 piastres (about
10s. 3d.) per qirat. If the average value of the qirat be taken at 25
gallons per minute, the tax works out at approximately 1s. for every
6,000 cubic metres of water. Looked at from another point of view,
it may be considered that the tax amounts to about 1s. 6d. an acre,
as with every qirat of water the native cultivator in the oasis will
annually raise about two acres of rice and five of wheat or barley.
The total revenue derived by the Government from the oasis, by taxes
on date-palms and water, amounts to a little over £1,000 per annum.
My old friend Sheikh Mustapha, who for more than twelve years has
been Omda of Kharga village, was very anxious to know the results of
the comparative measurements made on the bores. He professed himself
as surprised at the difference in the results, but emphatically
refused to entertain the possibility of there being any error in his
measurements, made by so old-established a method. Although he was
far too polite to so express himself in words, I felt that the old
gentleman had the utmost contempt for my method of well measurement.
With the exception of the Dakhla peasants, the inhabitants of the
oases differ entirely from the fellahin of the Nile Valley. According
to Brugsch, the original inhabitants were Libyan (Berber) tribes,
but after annexation to Egypt, there was considerable immigration
from Nubia and other parts of the Nile Valley. Nevertheless, in
the oasis of Kharga the physiognomic type of the Berber race is
still predominant.
El Kharga, the chief village of the oasis, containing about 4,500
inhabitants, is situated in a broad belt of cultivated lands and
palm-groves running centrally down the depression from the southern
extremity of Jebel Têr. The village consists of a picturesque
compact conglomeration of houses, built of sun-dried bricks, and
of every shape and size. The streets meander in a very remarkable
manner, and are to a large extent in partial or total darkness,
owing to their being for the most part roofed over and covered by
upper storeys. Without the aid of a guide it is almost impossible
to find one’s way through the intricacies of the underground
passages, though no fears need be entertained on the score of
being in any way molested, the inhabitants being most peaceably
inclined. In some parts of the village the streets are actually cut
through the solid rock. They are generally clean and cool even on
the hottest and dustiest of days, and as a rule the few wayfarers
one meets scuttle like startled rabbits into the dark recesses on
either side, from the depths of which, and through chinks in the
wooden doors and windows, they can gape in safety at the unwonted
spectacle of European visitors.
[Illustration: A STREET IN KHARGA.]
[Illustration: KHARGA VILLAGE.]
Viewed from the outside, say from the ridge of sand which hems
in the village on the east side, one sees a vast array of walls,
surmounted by screens of dried palm-branches, bound together to
form compact hedges affording protection and privacy to those
portions of the houses open to the sky. Two minarets rise above
the general level, while all around are palm-groves and gardens,
with the open desert rising to the western horizon.
Almost the whole of the population is engaged in agriculture, and as
in some cases the wells are situated far from the village, many of
the peasants daily ride considerable distances to and fro on their
sturdy but diminutive donkeys. There are two or three small shops
in the village, but nothing in the nature of bazaars, the chief
business transacted being the retailing of Nile Valley goods, such
as drapery and groceries. The native women are adepts at basket- and
mat-making, and mention must not be omitted of the very attractive
spherical baskets made of palm-leaves and fibre, ornamented with
coloured wools, and manufactured in every conceivable size and
design. Pretty circular trays are made from the same substances;
in fact, the number of uses to which the waste materials from the
date- and doum-palms can be put is little short of marvellous.
Everything connected with the village is of the most primitive
description, and until a very short time ago few of the inhabitants
had been beyond the limits of their own fields. The advent of
the railway caused no little commotion and stir in the oasis,
and awakened trading instincts which had lain dormant since Roman
times. Many of the villagers now travel to and fro between Kharga
and the Nile Valley, and the Omda took an early opportunity of
obtaining leave of absence from his onerous duties, and proceeded
to Alexandria for a course of sea-baths!
Outside the village, with the exception of the antiquities, to which
we shall call attention in a separate chapter, there is little of
general interest beyond the wells and gardens, among which there
are many picturesque spots. At Bir Ain el Gôs, a few kilometres
to the north, a primitive form of corn-mill may be seen working,
the grinding-stones being driven by the water of the well by means
of an undershot wheel.
It may be mentioned here that with very few, if any, exceptions
the different streams which collectively make up the water-supply
of the oasis find their way to the surface through artificially
constructed passages. The great majority of these are bores of
ancient construction, though a few have been sunk with modern plant
during the last fifty years. The ancient wells are known as Aiyûn
(sing. Ain), the modern as Abiyâr (sing. Bir); for example,
Ain el Ghazâl, Bir Mansûra. In cases where a modern bore has
been specially sunk to replace an ancient well, the two words are
used in conjunction; for instance, Bir Ain el Gôs. The position of
each well is nearly always conspicuously marked by a thick clump of
acacias, from which (more especially in the isolated settlements in
the northern part of the depression) the main irrigating channel
generally runs in a southerly direction, the cultivated lands
being of triangular form, with the apex at or near the source of
the water, and raised little, if at all, above the general level
of the surrounding plain. By this disposition the fields present
the least possible front to the north, from which side comes the
bulk of the sand which is such a curse to these outlying settlements.
Kharga village, being snugly situated among palm-groves, and
directly to the south of Jebel Têr, is well protected from the
fierce, sand-laden winds which so frequently scour the depression
from north to south. The poor little hamlet of Meheriq, on the
other hand, set on the open plain some 20 kilometres to the north,
is exposed to every wind that blows, with the result that the sand
has accumulated to such an extent that most of the palms have been
buried, and many of the houses have been overwhelmed. The advancing
dunes are, in fact, steadily pushing the hamlet southwards. At
frequent intervals the occupants of the most northerly houses move
their goods and chattels, and betake themselves to new quarters
erected at the southern extremity. This periodical migration has,
indeed, become so ingrained a habit that it is now regarded as of
little moment; it is only when their wells and trees are threatened
and destroyed that the wretched people call on Allah to stay His
hand, and protect them from destruction.
Still farther to the north lie a number of isolated wells with small
areas of cultivation, and at some of these there are settlements
consisting of one or two families. Ain el Tawîl, 8 kilometres
south-east of Kharga, is another little hamlet, rendered more
conspicuous than most of these outlying settlements by the presence
of a Sheikh’s tomb surmounted by a rather pointed dome. A third
important dependency of Kharga is known as Um el Dabâdib, and is
situated a day’s journey to the north. This place is of exceptional
interest, in that its water-supply is not derived from wells, but
from extensive tunnels driven into the hills. Some most interesting
ruins exist in the neighbourhood, but a description of these and
of the subterranean aqueducts must be postponed to a later chapter.
[Illustrations: ENCROACHMENT OF SAND-DUNES AT MEHERIQ.]
Twelve kilometres to the south of Kharga lies the village of
Gennâh. The intermediate country is largely covered by sand, which
in the neighbourhood of the village has accumulated into large dunes,
threatening it and its magnificent wells, Ain Estakherab and Ain
Magarin, with ultimate destruction. Ain Estakherab is undoubtedly the
finest well in the Libyan Desert, and has been running for hundreds,
if not for thousands, of years; but unless special measures are taken
to cope with the advance of the dunes immediately to the north and
north-west, this splendid flow of water is doomed to destruction
within the next ten or twenty years. Owing to the encroachment
of the sand there is very little land available for cultivation
near the village, the bulk of the water from the two wells being
conducted in an open channel to the low-lying plain south-east of
the hill-range known as the Gorn el Gennâh. This channel traverses 7
or 8 kilometres of porous desert before it reaches the first of the
cultivated fields in the neighbourhood of the Gorn, and there is in
consequence very great loss of water through seepage and evaporation.
The famous wells of Gennâh differ from most of those in the
northern part of the oasis in that their mouths are large and deep
pools of limpid water, from the depths of which great bubbles of
gas constantly ascend to the surface. Little or nothing is known as
to the age and depth of either of these wells; they have never been
cleaned out in modern times, and are closed in at a depth of a few
metres from the surface in such a way as to prevent soundings being
made. With the object of determining if the large discharges are due
to the wells being situated on exceptionally low ground, I recently
had a line of levels run from headquarters to Gennâh. Contrary
to expectation, it was found that Ain Estakherab and Ain Magarin
discharged at levels considerably above the average elevation of the
wells of the Kharga district; possibly, therefore, the exceptional
flows in this district are due to its comparative isolation, and
to the immunity thus obtained from the interference of other wells.
Between the villages of Kharga and Gennâh, along a north and south
belt lying somewhat to the east and on the downthrow side of the
fault, are a number of wells whose waters are almost invariably
more or less charged with ochre and alkaline salts. In some cases
the proportion of dissolved salts is sufficiently great to render
the water unfit for either drinking or irrigation, and even where
it can be used for the latter purpose, ochre is deposited to such an
extent as to bind the soil into a hard cake. The occurrence appears
to be due to the geological position of the wells in this tract,
where, owing to the beds being let down by the fault, the purple
shales form the floor of the depression; it is perhaps from these
beds that the waters derive their abnormally high contents of ferric
oxide and other salts.
[Illustration: A PTOLEMAIC TEMPLE, QASR EL GHUATA.]
[Illustration: DOUM-PALMS NEAR QASR EL GHUATA.]
The wells near Qasr el Ghuâta are of similar nature, and thick banks
of ochre have been deposited along their channels. I recollect on
one occasion using the water of Ain el Ghuâta for making tea, and
being considerably surprised at the inky blackness of the resulting
liquid, although, in spite of the colour and a markedly ferruginous
taste, the brew was not undrinkable.
Near the ruins of Qasr Zaiyan, and southward as far as the village
of Bulaq, the country takes on quite a different aspect, owing to
the numerous scrub-covered areas, dotted everywhere with semi-wild
doum-palms. Doums thrive in very poor soil, and appear to be
self-sown; they are to my mind far more graceful and picturesque than
the ordinary date-palms, from which they differ in many important
respects. The trunk of a well-grown doum-palm is forked, not once,
but many times, the different stems preserving a considerable amount
of symmetry; the branches, which are covered with the most atrocious
hooks, terminate in sharp-pointed, serrated fan-shaped leaves. The
fruit consists of bunches of hard nuts, and can be eaten either in
its raw condition or after being ground into meal and cooked; most
persons, however, except perhaps confirmed nut-eating vegetarians,
would decline it in either state. Although the country throughout
which the doum-palms abound appears to be more or less deserted,
every tree has its owner among the inhabitants of the nearest
village.
Bulaq, distant 25 kilometres from Kharga, has a population of 1,016,
and is the centre of the mat and ‘zambile’ trade. The zambile
is an open wide-mouthed basket which is used in every part of Egypt,
and practically replaces the wheelbarrow of western lands. Formerly
only small quantities were made for export, but the natives have not
been slow to take advantage of the railway, and truck-loads of these
baskets may now be frequently seen on the trains. The Bulaq varieties
of mats and baskets are mostly made from the leaf of the doum-palm.
The village, bounded on three sides by sand and open desert, with
the palm-groves and cultivated lands to the east, cannot be said to
be particularly attractive. A few kilometres to the south is the
tomb of Sheikh Khalid Ibn el Walîd, a large, square, whitewashed
building surmounted by a dome.