RELIGION AND BELIEFS
Nominally at least all the Tuareg of Air are now Moslems with the
possible exception of some of the Imghad of the Ikazkazan, who were
described to me as Kufara (heathens). Nevertheless, even to-day the
Tuareg are not good Moslems, and though, as a general rule, they
say their prayers with regularity, they are remiss in such matters
as ablutions. These they never perform except with sand or dust,
which the Prophet enjoined were only to be resorted to on journeys
or where water was scarce.
As was explained at the beginning of this volume, the word “Tuareg”
is not used by the people themselves. It is used in the first
place by the Arabs, in a somewhat derogatory sense. Barth makes no
doubt about the etymology of the word Tuareg, or, as he spells it,
Tawarek. “. . . if the reader inquires who gave them the other
name (_i.e._ Tuareg), I answer in full confidence, the Arabs; and
the reason why they called them so was probably from their having
left or abandoned their religion, from the word ترك (as in),
‘tereku dinihum’; for from other evidence which I have collected
elsewhere it seems clear that a great part of the Berbers of the
desert were once Christians . . . and that they afterwards changed
their religion. . . .”[241] The name is written either with a ك
or a ق, but according to the learned traveller more often with the
former letter. The form “Terga” or “Targa” would, however,
if the word is identical radically with “Tuareg,” point to ق
being correct in a country where this letter so often becomes a
hard ج in the local Arabic. The singular form of “Tuareg” is
“Tarki” or “Tarqi,” with both forms of plural, توارك
and تاركيون. Duveyrier[242] and nearly all other authorities
agree in accepting this etymology, though some have suggested
that it meant “The People of the Sand.”[243] Others add, as
an alternative explanation for the ترك derivation, that it was
not so much Christianity from which they fell away but Islam after
their conversion, and in support of this their laxity in ritual is
quoted. Duveyrier says that they were the “Abandoned of God” on
account of the delay in their conversion to Islam and the numerous
apostasies which occurred, or else because of their evil and violent
habits of life. There is no doubt of the reproach attaching to the
word, but the etymology is unsatisfactory. In its original usage it
seems to have referred rather to a section of the Muleththemin than
to the whole race[244]: if this observation is correct the religious
flavour attaching to the word is misleading, and it becomes simply a
proper name belonging to a section analogous to that of the Sanhaja
and Hawara.
The Tuareg of Air observe the usual religious feasts, but their fasting
during Ramadhan, which they call Salla Shawal, like their ablutions,
is usually excused on the grounds that they are travelling. On the
first day of Ramadhan it is customary to visit the graves of ancestors
and friends. The feast of Salla Laja or Laya is held on the tenth day
of the moon of Zu’lhajja;[245] it is known in Turkey and Egypt as
Bairam. On this occasion sheep are slaughtered and the people feast
for three days. The feast of Bianu on the 20th of Muharrem is a sort
of Saturnalia, and very similar to certain festivities described as
occurring in Ashanti. The feast lasts for a day and a half and is
marked by scenes of joy and happiness, for it commemorates God’s
forgiveness of humanity after the Flood. There is much dancing and
love-making and laughter, and the old people, the children and the
unmarried persons of the villages and camps are sent out of the
settlements while the revelries are in progress. The feasts of the
Birthday of the Prophet and of the Beginning of the Year are also
celebrated. It is customary when a journey is successfully completed
to give a sheep to be sacrificed for the poor, and when there is much
sickness among men or camels the same habit obtains. When three of
our camels had died in rapid succession at Auderas we were urged to
make sacrifice, and did so with three sheep.
PLATE 35
[Illustration: MT. ABATTUL AND VILLAGE]
I regret that I was never sufficiently fluent in Temajegh to learn much
of the superstitions of the Tuareg of Air. Such information can only
be obtained after prolonged residence among a people, and superficial
conclusions are worse than useless. There is no doubt that underlying
all their Islamic practices they hold fundamental beliefs dating
from their earlier religious practices, regarding which only very
few indications are available. The existence of certain apparently
Christian survivals led Duveyrier and other authorities to assert
that the Tuareg were Christians before they were converted to Islam,
and I am prepared to accept this view in spite of the denials which
have been expressed by so eminent a writer as Bates. De Foucauld,
I understand, was also doubtful of their having been Christians,
for among the earlier beliefs which he found to be retained by
the Tuareg of Ahaggar he detected the remains of a polytheistic
rather than a monotheistic system. Bates has laboriously collected
all the references to religious beliefs among the Eastern Libyans,
and any reader interested in the subject cannot do better than refer
to his work, for even as far as Air is concerned I can add nothing
thereto.[246]
There are certain incontrovertible facts which demonstrate
the influence, at least, of Christianity among the People of the
Veil. Much has been written of their use of the cross in ornament,
nor can its so frequent occurrence be entirely fortuitous. I am
aware that the cross is a simple and effective form of decoration
which any primitive people is likely, unless formally prohibited,
to have used; but I find it hard to believe that the Tuareg, who,
after all, are not so very primitive in their culture, however
much of it they may have lost, had no other inducement than a lack
of imagination to drag in at every turn this symbol which their
religion expressly forbids them to use. Their cross-hilted sword,
which has been likened to a Crusader’s, may be a chance example of
the use of a design which is as convenient as it is simple, but the
tenacity with which they cling to the form, and only to this form,
is none the less curious. The cross in T’ifinagh script for the
letter “Iet” (T) is doubtless a pure accident occasioned by the
rectilinear character of the alphabet. But in that case the absence of
the equally convenient diagonal or St. Andrew’s cross is strange. In
other instances the appearance of the cross can be even less lightly
dismissed. The traditional form of ornamentation on the Tuareg shield
is purely and simply the Latin cross rising out of what in design,
apparently, is a traditional representation of glory or light, depicted
as a radiating mass. Bates argues that the occurrence of a drawing of
a shield with a cruciform design thereon upon a rock in Tibesti is an
argument against the view which I have adopted, and that the use of
this symbol is probably due to a former practice of sun worship which
he finds widespread in Libya. But when it is realised how much the
Tuareg of Air, to consider only one group, raided in that direction,
and how natural it would be for them to commemorate a success by
drawing their shield and cross, which they regard as characteristic
of themselves, on a rock, his explanation seems rather lame. In the
curved top of the iron camel head-piece of Air I am inclined to see
another survival of the cross, such as also is probably the square top
of their spoons. The pommel of their camel saddle, a design which is
always strictly maintained, is another convincing example, especially
if the whole equipment is compared with the Tebu sort. In construction
the Tuareg and Tebu saddles are very similar, though the cantle of
the latter is generally low. The pommel of the Tebu saddle takes the
form of a short upright member without any crosspiece or cruciform
tendency; it rarely rises much above the level of the rider’s
legs. It may be said, on the contrary, that the cross pommel of the
Tuareg saddle is the most prominent part of their whole gear. It is
of no practical value whatsoever, for the grip of the rider’s legs
never reaches as high as the projecting arms of the cross-top, and it
is extremely inconvenient for rapid mounting or dismounting in their
flowing robes. The cross is also extensively used in ornamenting the
leather-work of the saddle, and it plays a considerable part in the
traditional metal-work of the more expensive quality.
PLATE 36
[Illustration: ORNAMENT.
1. “Agades Cross,” ornate form.
2, 3 and 4. “Agades Crosses,” debased forms from Damergu.
5. Necklaces.
6. Bridle Stand.
7. Ornamental strip around door at Agades made of tin plate.
8. Finial to border on riding saddles.
9. Wooden spoon.
10. Iron head-piece of camel-bridle.]
In the course of my wanderings I saw two examples of sticks which
are planted in the ground when camp is pitched; they have a crook
on one side and are surmounted by a small cross of the same shape
as the one on the camel saddle. On these sticks are hung the bridles
and ropes when the camels are unsaddled. They are planted outside a
man’s tent, and sometimes indicate his high position or prosperity.
At Agades I saw a house door ornamented with a border of tin plate in
which was cut the cross and ball design shown in Plate 36. A similar
example of the cross in design is in the characteristic Agades cross
which will be described later.
In addition to this evidence of the use of the cross, certain words
in Temajegh seem to be so closely associated with Christianity as to
require more explanation than the suggestion that they were borrowed
from the north in the course of contact with the Romans or other
Mediterranean influence. The commonest of these words are given in
the following list:[247]
_Word in Temajegh._ _Meaning._ _Suggested derivation._
“Mesi” God. Messiah.
With “Mesina,” { My God,
“Mesinak.” { Thy God.
“Amanai.” God. Adonai (suggested by
Duveyrier).[248]
“Amerkid.” Religious From the Latin: merces, mercedis.
merit.
“Abekkad.” Sin. „ „ „ peccatum.
“Tafaski.” Feast day. „ „ „ Pasca, or
from some later form of the
word meaning Easter.
“Andjelous,” or Angel. From the Latin: Angelus.
“Angelous.”
“Aghora,” or “Arora.” Dawn. „ „ „ Aurora.
In Air, God is referred to either as Mesi or as Ialla, which, of
course, comes from Allah. But there seems to be a slight difference in
the use of the two words, for when Ahodu and others talked of praying
they spoke of Ialla, but when he said to me that they were aware
there was only one God, who was mine as well as theirs, Mesi was used.
The cumulative effect of all this evidence is to my thinking too
great for Bates’ view that the occurrence of the cross among the
Tuareg is merely due to the survival of certain practices connected
with the worship of the sun.
The Tuareg believe in Heaven and in Hell and in the Devil, but the
latter seems to be a somewhat vague personage in their cosmos. Much
more present are the good and evil spirits with which their world,
as that of all Moslems, is peopled. Belief in these spirits among the
Tuareg, however, is probably older than Islam, for they also assert
the existence of angels who are indistinguishable from those of various
Christian Faiths. Unfortunately the angels are less active in Air than
the many other sorts of spirits who haunt the country. Among the latter
are the Jinns or Elijinen,[249] as they call them, which are ghosts
living in certain places or the spirits which attack people and send
them mad. Certain country-sides are known to be haunted by the sounds
of drumming, and curious things happen to people who visit these
parts after dark. The spirits have to be fed, and bowls of porridge
and water are left out for them at night; they are invariably found
empty next morning. Occasionally the spirits make merry: then they can
be heard to play the drum and dance and sing. Elijinen speak Temajegh
and sometimes Arabic: people have spoken with them. The spirits are
rarely harmful, though they occasionally play practical jokes like
deceiving travellers or frightening sheep or goats. From time to time,
however, they do torture unfortunate people who displease them.
The most powerful spirits in Air are identified with the mountains just
north of Iferuan, called Ihrsan, opposite which are the mountains of
Adesnu. In the olden time they fought against one another, the one
armed with a spear and the other with a sword. In the equal combat
Adesnu was transfixed and remains split to this day, while the crest of
Ihrsan was battered with the sword and retains a serrated poll. They
do not fight any more, but they often talk to one another. Aggata
in Central Air is also the home of a spirit population, and so is
Tebehic in the south.
Spirits are part of the every-day life of the universe. No one doubts
their existence. They may be found anywhere, even in the open desert,
where their drums are often heard. Evidence of such noises is so
circumstantial; although I have never experienced them myself, I cannot
fail to believe that they are heard. Some physical explanation on the
lines suggested by the late Lord Curzon in an essay must certainly
be accepted.[250]
The spirits which obsess men and women are more serious. I was
able to observe a case at Auderas, where Atagoom’s sister became
possessed—an affliction to which she had been liable for a long time
at irregular intervals. Her fits lasted from one to seven days. She
used to lie crouched and huddled all day, sometimes in uncomfortable
postures, but not apparently suffering from muscular contraction or
fits or spasms. At night she used to wander about oblivious of her
surroundings, waking up the children or treading on the goats. Then
she would seize a sword and wave it about, thinking she was a man and
dancing like a man. It was said that if she could only get some sleep,
the spirit would go away, so I provided a sleeping draught which her
relations joyfully promised to administer. But they failed in their
endeavours because the spirit, of course, knew what the medicine
was and made the patient refuse to take it! The treatment for these
possessions is both kind and sensible. Atagoom’s relations sat
around her trying to attract her attention, calling on her by name,
and saying familiar things to her. All the while they beat a drum
to distract the spirit’s attention, and she was constantly called
or given things to hold or shown a child whom she knew. As soon as
the glassy stare leaves the patient’s eye, and the attention can be
caught, even for a moment, a cure is certain. Persons afflicted in this
way are usually women; it will happen to them at the time they first
become aware of men, which is not necessarily when they first marry,
but this rule also has many exceptions. Atagoom’s small brother,
aged about twelve years, was shortly afterwards afflicted in the same
way, but his access only lasted one day.
The difficulty of exorcising spirits, at which the Holy Men of Ghat,
for instance, are said to be very proficient, is, as Ali explained,
that most of the people in Air who can read the Quran do not understand
it sufficiently well to do any good. Of course it was useless, he
added, to make charms unintelligently against the “jenun.” In
Air there was only one man who is really proficient. El Mintaka, the
scribe of Auderas, the man from Ghat, was said to know the method,
but it was not his speciality and he had not been very successful.
The consensus of opinion is that, unlike many of the spirits at Ghat,
where they take the form of objects like pumpkins rolling down the
road in front of people who happen to be walking about at night,
those in Air do not assume visible shape. The spirit which attacks
women, nevertheless, is stated to have been seen by some people and
to have the aspect of a dragon; it is called “Tanghot.” Ghosts,
more especially the ones who live near tombs and deserted villages,
are called “Allelthrap.”
A famous legend in Air is that of the column of raiders which by
the mercy of Allah was swallowed up suddenly as a result of the
prayers of the Holy Man Bayazid. They were on the point of capturing
Agades when the ground opened before them, and in proof thereof the
Hole of Bayazid is shown to this day. The famous event lives on in
memory because at that place the water, which we have already seen
is naturally somewhat saline and foul in the immediate vicinity
of the city, is said to have been poisoned by the corpses of the
band. There is another story, too vague to record, of a legendary
hero or religious leader called Awa whose tomb in the Talak area is
an object of devotion. The rumour may repay investigation, for the
tomb was mentioned to me in connection with the religious practices
of the Air Tuareg before they became Moslems.
Divination is resorted to by means of the Quran, and also by playing
that curious game resembling draughts which is so widespread all
over the world. In Air the game takes the form of a “board” of
thirty-six holes[251] marked in the sand. Each player has thirteen
counters made of date stones, or bits of wood, or pebbles, or camel
droppings. The object of the game is to surround a pawn belonging
to one’s adversary, somewhat on the principle of “Noughts and
Crosses.” The game is called “Alkarhat” and when a Holy Man
presides, the winner of three successive games carries the alternative
submitted for divine decision. Another form of divination is resorted
to by women who desire to obtain news of their absent husbands or
lovers; they sleep on certain well-known tombs, and thus are favoured
with a vision of their desire. The women of Ghadames and of the Azger
Tuareg do the same. The practice appears to be identical with that
described by Herodotus as current among the Nasamonians. It is also
reported by Mela of the people of Augila.[252]
The consequence of these beliefs in spirits is that amulets are much
in demand. They are especially in request to ward off the direct
influence of particular evils, which are, of course, more especially
potent when the local Holy Men have not been sufficiently regaled with
presents. There is no man in Air who does not wear an amulet—usually
a verse of the Quran in a leather envelope—somewhere on his
person. The more modest may confine themselves to a little leather
pouch tied in the white rag which is worn around the head to keep
the veil in place. On the other hand, Atagoom, whose wealth permitted
him the luxury, had little leather pouches sewn on to every part of
his clothing in addition to some twenty-five strung on a cord round
his neck. The manufacture of these amulets is the principal source of
revenue to the Holy Men of Air. Besides verses written out on paper
or skin other objects are also used. Lion claws are very efficacious,
and in some cases fragments of bone of certain animals are good. I
saw one bag containing the head of a hawk, and another filled with
pieces of paper covered with magic squares. These leather amulet
pouches are the principal ornament worn by men, with the exception
of the “talhakim,” a most interesting object, the distribution
of which in Africa still remains to be ascertained.
The “talhakim” is an ornament shaped like a triangle surmounted by
a ring with three little bosses on its circumference. The material used
for making these objects is red agate or white soap-stone or turquoise
blue glass. They are so prized in the Sahara and Sudan that cheaper
varieties of red and white china or glass were made in Austria before
the Great War for trade purposes. The stone “talhakim” are not
made in Air. They come from the north. I have it on the authority
of Ali that they are not made at Ghat or in the Fezzan either,
I have, however, still to learn where they actually are made. The
stone “talhakim” are beautifully cut and invariably of the same
design. The upper part of the triangle is sometimes slightly thicker
than the point, and in all cases is divided from the ring part by a
ridge and one or two parallel lines with the addition, in some cases,
of little indentations. I can neither find nor suggest any explanation
of the significance of the design. It may be the prototype of the
Agades cross, but I do not think it likely. The bosses on the ring
are essential to the design, and somewhat similar, therefore, are
agate rings which I used to see worn in the same way as ornaments
strung on leather cords around the neck; they seemed too small to be
worn on the finger. Most of them had on one side three little bosses
analogous to those on the upper portion of the “talhakim.” These
rings also came to Air from the north.
The flat tablet or plate of stone or wood hung around the neck,
which is so widespread throughout the East, occurs in Air, but is not
common. The finest example I saw was worn by a man at Towar; it was
made of white soap-stone without any inscription on either surface,
but was very thin and finely cut.
The women but not men wear necklaces of beads, or beads and small stone
ornaments, resembling small “talhakim.” It has been suggested
that these little objects were similar to those which are known,
as far afield as Syria, to have been derived from stone arrow-heads
conventionalised as trinkets after they had ceased to be used for
weapons. In Air, however, I am convinced the necklace ornaments are
intended as small “talhakim,” and I am loth to believe that
the latter are conventionalised arrow-heads both on account of
the difficulty presented by their large size and also on account
of the essential upper ring portion, which points to a different
origin. Circular bangles and bracelets with an opening between two
knobs such as are worn in the north are affected by the Tuareg women;
they are made of brass and copper and in some cases of silver. The
workmanship of the latter, considering that they are made by the
local blacksmith with his ordinary tools, is remarkably good. On
these bracelets the knobs are surprisingly accurate cubes with the
eight corners hammered flat, forming a figure having six square and
eight triangular facets.
Of all the Air ornaments the so-called Agades cross is the most
interesting. The lower part is shaped like the cross on the pommel of
the camel saddle; its three points terminate in balls or cones. The
fourth or upper arm of the cross fits on to a very large ring similar
to that on the “talhakim,” and curiously enough also provided
with three excrescences, though in this case all near one another at
the top of the circle. An elaborate form worn by Ahodu’s wife had
a pierced centre, but this was not generally a part of the design. A
conventionalised form was seen among the Fulani and Kanuri of Damergu,
where in one case the shape had been so lost that it had become a
simple lozenge suspended from a small ring. In all the examples which
I saw in Air the large ring of the ornament was obviously, as in the
“talhakim,” an essential part of the whole; all the rings also had
the three protuberances on the circumference. The cross is worn by men
and women alike; it is referred to as the Ornament of the Nobles. They
regard it as characteristic of themselves. The stone “talhakim”
is worn in the Sudan, but the Agades cross is only known in Damergu,
where it has been borrowed as a result of contact with the Tuareg,
and in a debased form. In Air it seems as characteristic of the race
as the face veil, and like the latter it is never put off, as are
the amulet pouches and garments when heavy work necessitates stripping.
PLATE 37
[Illustration: ABOVE: FLAT SILVER ORNAMENTS, “TALHAKIM” OF RED
STONE, BLUE AND WHITE PASTE, AND SILVER, SILVER HEAD ORNAMENT FOR WOMEN
BELOW: UNFINISHED AND FINISHED ARM RINGS, SILVER “AGADES CROSS,”
RED STONE SIGNET RING]
The origin of both “talhakim” and cross must remain matters of
conjecture. The former may or may not be, but the latter certainly
is, peculiar to the People of the Veil; its occurrence is yet another
example of the deep-rooted habit of mind which inculcates the use of
the cross among the race. The ideal explanation, in view of the common
characteristics of the ring and three excrescences thereon, would be
that the “talhakim” and cross had an identical origin. But the
cross suggests association with Christianity, while the large ring
points rather to some derivation from the Egyptian Ankh: the latter
in my own opinion is more probable.
Two other adornments there are in Air, both restricted to men: a flat
plaque and stone arm rings. The former is a flat rectangular piece of
tin or silver, usually 2½ to 3 inches long by 1 inch broad, with some
slight embossed design on the surface. It is often worn on the head,
tied by two little thongs or threads to the band of stuff which is
used to secure the veil around the forehead. The ornament may simply
be a metal form of amulet pouch, but it certainly bears a striking
resemblance to a fibula, which in the course of time for the sake of
easier manufacture is turned out without a pin. The plaque is also
worn on the shoulder, like certain classical brooches were on the
Roman togæ, from which the white robes of North Africa are said to
be descended.[253]
No man among the Tuareg will be seen who does not wear one or more arm
rings, usually above the elbow and upon either or both arms. The rings
are of two main types, a cylindrical ring some ¾ to 1 inch deep by
⅛ to ¼ inch thick, and of the circumference of a man’s forearm,
with two or three ridges on the outer surface, and a flat ring some
¼ inch thick, of the same inner circumference, and ¾ to 1 inch
broad. The second type is the most important and appears to be the
traditional sort. Deep significance is to be attached to the custom
of wearing these rings, and there are differences attributed to the
numbers and position of the rings on the arms. But whilst I was well
aware of the importance of these usages, I was unable to ascertain
their precise interpretation. Only it is clear that boys do not wear
the rings, that a ring is worn when the sword is girt on, that in the
first place only one ring is worn, and that once a ring has been put
on it is not again put off. The rings of all types should be made of
stone. In Air a soft argillaceous stone of a greenish-grey hue found
in the eastern hills is used. The rings are cut by hand without a
lathe from a lump of stone about one inch thick. The rough ring is
smoothed and fined down with rasps and files and finally cleaned
with sand and water. The traditional flat rings tend to taper from
the inner to the outer circumference. When the cutting and shaping of
the rings have been finished, they are dipped in fat and then baked,
to give the slightly porous stone a deep black colour and a polished
surface. The flat rings seem to be very important, for they are passed
on from father to son. They are often mended with riveted brass plates
if they happen to have been broken, and sometimes bear inscriptions,
for the most part only names, in T’ifinagh. Of late, rings appear
to have been made of a hard baked clay which is also dipped in fat,
but they break too readily.
Elaborate and fanciful explanations have been suggested for the
practice, which has a sacred or at least mystic association. One
author, who shall be nameless, has suggested that the rings were
worn—and presumably he saw a Tuareg with many rings on both
arms—to enable a man to crush his enemy’s skull when they closed
in battle. I myself cannot offer any explanation worthy of much
consideration. I must, however, note that such rings, especially when
worn, as some always are, above the elbow, and also at the wrist,
afford a valuable protection to the vulnerable arm muscles against
sword-cuts. Nevertheless, if such was the reason for their first use
they have become traditional with the lapse of time.
The last of these matters to which I propose to allude is the use of
the Veil, a practice which has certainly assumed a ritual form. No
self-respecting Tuareg of noble or servile caste will allow himself
to be seen even by his most intimate friends without a veil over his
face. The habit has no analogy in the practice of the Arabian Arabs,
who sometimes cover their faces with the ends of their head-cloths
to protect the mouth and face against the sun and sand. This is a
hygienic device[254]; the Tuareg veil is more mysterious. Not the
least of the difficulties connected with the veil is, that it is not
mentioned by classical authors in referring to people in North Africa
who seem to be the ancestors of the present Tuareg and otherwise to
correspond to descriptions of the latter. It is only with the advent
of the Arabic writers that these same people are first referred to
by the name of Muleththemin, the Veiled People.
The veil or “Tagilmus” is a long strip of indigo cloth woven and
dyed in the Sudan. The best quality is made of six narrow strips
about one inch wide sewn together, edge to edge. The material and
the open stitching leave plenty of room for the air to pass through,
and even a considerable degree of transparency. The veil is put on
in the following wise: about one-half of the length is folded over
three times into a band only 2½ inches wide. The part where the full
breadth begins is placed over the forehead low enough to cover the
nose; the narrow band is to the right, the broad part to the left. The
latter is then passed round the back of the head and looped up under
the narrow part, which is wound around the head on top of the broad
portion so as to hold the latter in place. The broad part over the
nose is pulled up into a pleat along the forehead and forms the hood
over the eyes, being called “temeder.” There remains a long loop
of the dependent broad portion held by the narrow fastening band:
it hangs loosely from over the right ear, behind which it is passed,
over to the left ear, behind which the end is brought and passed,
under the narrow fastening band running round the head. The lower
part of the veil thus falls below the wearer’s chin in a loop,
both ends being under the narrow band which holds them in place. The
centre of the strip is taken and placed on the bridge of the nose,
and all the slack is pulled in from the two points over the ears. The
lower part of the veil, called “imawal,” should now hang from the
bridge of the nose over the mouth and chin without touching them;
the upper edge from the nose to the lobes of the ears ought to be
nearly horizontal. Thus worn, the veil leaves a slit about ½ to 1
inch wide in front of the eyes, which, with a small part of the nose,
are all that one can ever see of a Tuareg’s face.
In this veil the men live and sleep. They lift the “imawal” up to
eat but in doing so hold their hand before the mouth. When the veil
requires re-fixing, a man will disappear behind a bush to conceal his
features even from his own family. These rigorous prescriptions are
to some extent less strictly observed in the south among the younger
generation, but they belong to the pride of race of the Tuareg. Even
when the French induced some Tuareg to visit Paris, they declined
to allow their photographs to be taken unveiled. They declared that
they had no Moslem prejudices on the subject but firmly refused to
entertain the idea.
What is the explanation of this curious habit? Every unlikely theory
has been advanced, from that of the desire of raiders to conceal their
faces in order to escape recognition, to the one which suggests that
the Tuareg were the Amazons of the classics, and that the habits
adopted by men and women respectively in such a society had become
confused. Of this order of hypotheses the simplest one is that which
explains the veil as a purely hygienic accessory designed to protect
the wearer against the blinding glare and the sand of the desert:
from the first use of the veil for this purpose the habit gradually
became so innate as to acquire a ritual significance.
But none of these theories are really tenable: the Tuareg recognise
each other, and foreigners can do the same in a short time, as easily
in the veil as a man of another race without the veil. The Tuareg are
not the Amazons of the classics, at least in the form in which popular
beliefs have conceived the latter; nor is there, as a matter of fact,
any reason to suppose that the Amazons, either male or female, veiled
themselves. There is no logic in only the men veiling their faces and
the women going unveiled if the veil were really intended for hygienic
purposes; still less is any explanation of this nature reasonable
for the use of the veil at night or in the rainy season. Yet almost
all Tuareg, unless they have become denationalised, would as soon
walk unveiled as an English man would walk down Bond Street with
his trousers falling down. No other race in the world possesses
this peculiar habit, though some among the population of the Fezzan
and the Sudan in contact with them have adopted it. The habit is
essentially characteristic of the Tuareg. It is as typical of them
as the cross-hilted sword, the cross-pommelled saddle, the status of
their women, and their T’ifinagh script.
On attaining the age of puberty, Tuareg youths in Air put on the
large trousers which all Moslems should wear, and soon afterwards they
begin to carry a sword and wear an arm ring. The first event may take
place when they reach sixteen or seventeen; the others, two or three
years later. As soon as they have put on the dress of a man they are
inscribed in the register of the Holy Man of their village or tribe
and they commence their individual existence. The veil, however,
is sometimes not donned until the mature age of twenty-five years;
in no case is it worn until several years have elapsed after the sword
is girt on. The ceremony of putting on the veil for the first time is
accompanied by much rejoicing in the family and feasting and dancing.
Two aspects of this habit strike one. In the first place the ceremonial
significance to which I have already alluded is very apparent, and in
the second place the comparatively late age at which the veil first
begins to be worn is curious in an Eastern people, where physical
development takes place early in life. A parallel may perhaps be
noticed in the late date at which marriages take place in Air. I
questioned Ahodu closely about these practices connected with the veil,
but obtained no satisfactory information: he had nothing to say on
the subject except that a man was not a proper man until he had put
on the veil. And there, for the moment, one must leave the matter.
The veil will be found wherever the Tuareg live, and only when the
riddle of their origin is solved will an explanation probably be
forthcoming. Equally obscure is the absence of any reference to the
veil among them until the time of the Arab authors. But up to the
present no reasonable theory has been advanced.
Mention has been made on several occasions of the Holy Men of
Air. As is natural among superstitious people, they have always been
a powerful part of the community. In mitigation, it must be said that
they have probably had a hard fight to keep the Tuareg in the way of
Islam at all. Where Europeans have been concerned their influence
has been uncompromisingly hostile. It was certainly the Inisilman,
as they are called in Temajegh, of T’intaghoda who tried to have
Barth and his companions killed on more than one occasion. The attack
on the Foureau-Lamy Mission at Iferuan was also due to them. Their
counsel to fall on the French expedition a second time would have
prevailed at Agades had it not been for the advice of Ahodu and the
common-sense of the Sultan, who replied to their promptings that
if the attack failed he would have to face the consequences alone,
while they, in the name of God and the Faith, saved their own skins.
With an effete monarch and lazy Añastafidet at Agades, the most
important men in Air to-day are Inisilman like Haj Musa of Agellal,
Haj Saleh of the Kel Aggata at Agades, Agajida of the Kel Takrizat,
’Umbellu of T’imia, and Abd el Rahman of the Ikazkazan. Their
influence is not exerted through sectarian organisations nor has any
“tariqa” like that of the Senussi taken root in Air. The Tuareg
have repeatedly come under the influence of the Senussiya, especially
during the late war, but in Air at least they never became affiliated
to the sect. They have continued to regard its tenets as heretical
and its policy as selfish.
A certain number of the Air tribes such as the Igdalen, Kel Takrizat,
Isherifan, etc., are reputed to be holy. The Igdalen are said not to
carry or resort to arms, but use only pens and prayer. It is difficult
to ascertain the exact nature of the distinction which they possess
over other noble tribes, but the same differentiation is known among
other sections of the People of the Veil. They cannot and do not
claim descent from the Prophet, nor are their lives any holier or in
the main different from those of their fellows. The Kel T’intaghoda
who are Inisilman are reputed even in Air to be great scoundrels. The
Kel Takrizat are not less warlike than other tribes. Their _raison
d’être_ must be sought in the shadowy past to which all problems
surrounding the early religion of the Tuareg are still relegated. On
this subject too little information is at present available.
The people of Air belong to the Maliki persuasion of Islam, as a result
of the teaching of a great leader who came amongst them in the early
sixteenth century. His name was Muhammad ben Abd el Kerim el Maghili,
surnamed El Baghdadi, and he was the Apostle of Islam in the Central
Sudan. El Maghili belonged to Tilemsan and was born either at that
place or in Tuat, where he was brought up. He was a contemporary
of El Soyuti (A.D. 1445-1505), the Egyptian, whose encyclopædic
works were destined to perpetuate Moslem learning of the fifteenth
century. El Maghili was a man of bold and enterprising character. By
his uncompromising fanaticism he stirred up massacres of the Jews
in Tuat, which he eventually left in order to convert the Sudan. He
preached in Katsina and in Kano, as well as in Air.[255] “Living
in the time when the great Songhai empire began to decline from that
pitch of power which it had reached under the energetic sway of Sunni
Ali and Muhammad el Haj Askia, and stung by the injustice of Askia
Ismail, who refused to punish the murderers of his son, he (El Maghili)
turned his eyes on the country where successful resistance had first
been made against the all-absorbing power of the Asaki, and turned
his steps towards Katsina.” On his way thither he passed through
Air, where he preached and gave to those Tuareg who were already
Moslems a way of salvation, and to the others the first beginnings
of their present Faith. He founded a mosque at Abattul near Auderas,
and one of his sons is said to have been buried there; the tomb at
least is described as his. A short distance away on the road north
from Auderas he knelt to pray in the Erarar n’Dendemu at the point
known as Taghist, and the place was marked by a roughly rectangular
enclosure of stones with a semi-circular bay in the eastern side near
a small tree marking the Qibla. Travellers always stay there to make
their prayers by the road. The place is remembered and far-famed as the
“Makam el Sheikh ben Abd el Kerim,” but others call it the “Msid
Sidi el Baghdadi,” the name by which he is usually known in Air,
where men who have lived long in the East often earn this surname. His
stay in Air was not entirely peaceable, for he was eventually driven
out by these lax Moslems on account of his uncompromising attitude. It
is reported traditionally that he was attacked by a party of Aulimmiden
in Western Air, but was not apparently killed, for thereafter he again
preached in Katsina. He eventually heard that one of his sons had
been murdered in Tuat, probably by the Jews, for motives of revenge,
and he set out for the north once more, but died before reaching the
end of his journey. It is probably to this period that the attack in
the west on his person must be referred. His death occurred between
A.D. 1530 and 1540. El Maghili left behind him the greatest name of
any religious teacher in Air and in the Central Sudan. Twenty volumes
of his works on law and theology, in addition to a correspondence in
verse and prose with El Soyuti,[256] have survived in various places.
Near the “Makam el Sheikh ben Abd el Kerim,” which is only one
of many similar prayer enclosures in Air, are some mounds of loose
stones. On every important road such enclosures and mounds may be
seen. The simplest form of praying-place is a semi-circular line
of stones; the larger places have a rectangular plan like the
mosques. Whenever a standing camp is set up, a place of prayer
is cleared and marked, and once made these hallowed areas are not
disturbed. The mounds of stones by the roadside mark spots where some
holy man has stopped to pray or where some equally important but long
since forgotten incident has befallen. But although oblivion may
have overtaken the event, passing caravans continue to commemorate
the place; each man picks up a stone and throws it on the heap. The
habit is good, for it clears the paths of loose stones. I acquired much
respect by observing the custom scrupulously myself. I made my men do
the same, and so assisted in perpetuating a highly commendable and
utilitarian practice. Thanks to the many prayers which El Baghdadi
must have said all over the neighbourhood, the paths over the
Erarar n’Dendemu have been cleared of loose stones. The heaping of
stones serves the additional purpose of marking tracks in a difficult
country. Where rocks abound or the exact way through a defile is hard
to find, it has also become the habit to indicate the way by placing
different coloured stones in little heaps on the guiding rocks. It is
a superstition that if the traveller does not either add to a mound
or help to mark a path, some evil will befall him by the way.
In spite of the proselytising of El Baghdadi and the Holy Men of Air,
much of the older Faith remained. They were unable to eradicate the use
of the cross. The people are also given at times to using camel bells
despite the injunctions of the Prophet, who denounced it as an object
associated with Christianity. It is also possible to see in the status
of women the practice of monogamy, the ownership of property by women,
and the treatment of the wife as her husband’s equal, survivals of
a state of society which must in many respects have been regarded by
El Baghdadi as heretical and tending towards Christian ideals.
Is there after all any difficulty in accepting the view that the Tuareg
were Christians before Islam in the Near East became victorious over
all that schismatic and heterogeneous Christianity of the Dark Ages
which did so little credit to the religion which we profess? There
was a time when the Bishoprics of North Africa were numbered by the
score. What was more natural than that Christianity should have spread
into the interior? When the Arabs first came into Africa, we are told
by Ibn Khaldun and El Bekri that they found in Tunisia and Algeria a
majority of the population apparently Christian. Certain “Berber”
tribes, however, were Jews, while the Muleththemin, in part, were
heathens. The profession of Judaism by people including the inhabitants
of the Aures hills, who had Kahena the Queen as their leader in the
eighth century A.D., means no more than that they professed some form
of monotheism which is not inconsistent with Aryan Christianity. But
in any case Christianity was quite sufficiently widespread to have
accounted for the survival of certain beliefs among the People of the
Veil. Even so remote a part of Africa as Bornu was known to have been
subjected to the influence of Coptic Christianity from the Nile Valley,
and we have Bello’s testimony that the Gober chiefs were Copts.[257]
Why, then, should not the Tuareg have been Christians too?
Neither to Islam nor to Christianity, however, can be attributed what
is susceptible only of explanation as a survival of totemism. The
Northern Tuareg[258] believe that “they must abstain from eating
birds, fish and lizards, on the score that these animals are their
mothers’ brothers. This reason at once suggests that these taboos
are both totemic and matriarchal in their origin”; but while the
facts have been alluded to by many authors, the possibility that the
taboos may be of recent and therefore of Sudanese, origin has not
been sufficiently taken into account.[259] As against their southern
origin—for birds and fishes are recognised as totemic animals, in
Nigeria, for instance—it may be pointed out that no proscription
against these animals obtains in Air. Instead, however, another taboo
is strongly indicated in the belief which the Tuareg of the latter
country hold, that the harmless and vegetarian jerboa is second
only in uncleanliness to the pig. Any food or grain which the jerboa
has touched must be destroyed, but rats and mice are not abhorred,
and the large rat or bandicoot of the Southland is even eaten. Bates
cites examples of the ceremonial eating of dogs among the Eastern
Libyans, and considers that this may also have been a taboo animal,
but these rites are not found in Air, where the eating of dogs,
pigs, horses, donkeys or mules in any circumstance is regarded as
infamous. Incidentally the prohibition regarding pigs is probably very
old, for Herodotus states that none of the Libyans in North Africa bred
swine in his day, and the women of Barca abstained from eating pork,
as well as in certain cases cow’s flesh, on ritualistic grounds.[260]
PLATE 38
[Illustration: MT. ARWA: DRAWN BY T. A. EMMET FROM A SKETCH BY
THE AUTHOR]
I have a distinct impression of an animistic view of nature among
the Tuareg in Air, but I am unable to base it on any tangible
evidence. Herodotus tells us that the Libyans sacrificed to the sun
and moon,[261] and Ibn Khaldun[262] certainly states that the early
Berbers generally worshipped the sun. Bates deduces that the Eastern
Libyans revered the sun, and connects their rites with bull worship
and the Egyptian deity Amon. The only surviving Libyan name for
the solar deity is preserved by Corippus as Gurzil.[263] A trace of
sun worship survives in Air perhaps in association with the Kel Owi
tribes. When the sun is veiled by white cloud in the early morning
and the temperature is low, it is customary to say that “it is as
cold as the mother of the Kel Owi,” or “the mother of the Kel
Owi is cold.” I asked for an explanation of the remark, and was
told that the sun was the mother of the Kel Owi, and that when the
early morning air was cold the saying was used, for the Kel Owi are
known to be ungenerous and mean.
The weather superstitions of the Tuareg are numerous. The climate
on certain mornings of the year is heavy and still, with a thick
cirro-cumulus cloud in the sky; when this occurs it is held to presage
some evil event. A north-west wind, with the thick haze which so
often accompanies it, indicates the advent of raiders from the north,
probably because in the past some famous raids have occurred in this
weather. Similarly a haze without wind, or a light north-east breeze
and a damp mist, are warnings of Tebu raids. The fall of a thunderbolt
is a very evil omen, as also is the rare form of atmospheric phenomenon
to which the general name of “Tufakoret” is given. It consists
of a slight prismatic halo around the sun in the clear morning sky
when there is no evident sign of rain. The phenomenon is probably
due to the refraction of low sunlight in semicondensed water vapour
derived from heavy dew. A sunset behind a deep bank of cloud causing
a vivid or lurid effect but obscuring the disc of the sun is also
called “Tufakoret” and is equally a bad sign. A morning rainbow
“Tufakoret” was seen in Air shortly before the late European war
broke out. An ordinary rainbow in wet weather is a good omen.
The two most noticeable virtues among the Tuareg, that of patience
and of a sense of honour, have not come to them from Islam. They are
attributable to something older. Their patience is not that of quietism
or of fatalism. It is rather the faculty of being content to seek in
the morrow what has been denied in the present. They take the long
view of life and are not querulous; they are of the optimistic school
of thought. Theirs has seemed to me the patience of the philosopher
and not the sulky resignation of a believer in pre-ordained things.
Their ethical standards of right and wrong, while differing profoundly
from our own, and in no way to be commended or condemned in our shallow
European way, seem to come from some older philosophy, some source
less obvious than their present religion. Not only have they standards
which the Quran does not establish or even approve, but they hold
certain codes of conduct for which there can be no legislation. When
right and wrong, or good and evil, are not obviously in question,
and a Tuareg will still say that a man does not do a thing because
it is dishonourable and an action such as no Imajegh would commit,
it must mean that his forefathers did learn in an ancient school to
seek some goal which is no reward in the present material life.
Such development is only found in societies, whether Christian,
Moslem or otherwise, which have for long been evolving under the
guidance of a few men who have learnt much and taught much. Yet
the feet of the Tuareg are not now kept in this way; their conduct
is unconscious. They are no community of philosophers seeking by
choice to live in primitive conditions for the betterment of their
souls. They hold what they have as an inheritance of grace from bygone
generations. In mind, as in custom, they are very old. Only a slight
glow of the past glory remains to gild the meanness of their perpetual
struggle and the eternal hardship of existence. It is doubtful whether
they could still be caught and moulded afresh. There is too little
left of the now threadbare stuff; it just survives in the clean air
of the desert; it would fall to pieces in the atmosphere of more
luxurious circumstance. And then, nothing would remain but lying
tongues and thieving hands unredeemed by any saving grace.
[Footnote 241: _Op. cit._, Vol. I. pp. 227-8.]
[Footnote 242: _Op. cit._, p. 317.]
[Footnote 243: From “Reg” or “Areg,” an Arabic geographical
term for a certain type of sandy desert.]
[Footnote 244: _Vide infra_, Chap. XI.]
[Footnote 245: Not, I think, Zu’lqada, as Jean, _op. cit._, p. 224,
suggests. It is properly the greater Bairam, though sometimes known
as the Lesser. Sale: _Koran Prelim. Dis._, § VII.]
[Footnote 246: Bates, _op. cit._, Chap. VIII.]
[Footnote 247: Cf. Duveyrier, _op. cit._, p. 414. Cortier: _D’une
rive à l’autre. . . ._, p. 283. Barth, _op. cit._, Vol. V. p. 570.]
[Footnote 248: Perhaps a connection with “Amana,” pardon, etc.,
may be suggested.]
[Footnote 249: From the Arabic “el jenun.”]
[Footnote 250: Curzon: _Tales of Travel_, p. 261. “The Singing
Sands.”]
[Footnote 251: Jean says forty: cf. _op. cit._, p. 215.]
[Footnote 252: Herodotus, IV. 1723. Mela, i. 8. Duveyrier, _op. cit._,
p. 415. Ben Hazera: _Six mois chez les Touareg du Ahaggar_, p. 63.]
[Footnote 253: Worn by Arabs and Berbers but not, normally, by Tuareg.]
[Footnote 254: The illustration of the Persian in Maspero’s _Histoire
Ancienne_, Chap. XIII, is an example of the use of the head-cloth in
early times as a protection in the Arabian manner.]
[Footnote 255: Barth, _op. cit._, Vol. I. pp. 386-7; Vol. II. pp. 74
and 76; Vol. IV. p. 606.]
[Footnote 256: C. Huart: _Arabic Literature_, pp. 383-4.]
[Footnote 257: _Vide infra_, Chap. XII.]
[Footnote 258: Cf. especially Ibn Khaldun _ed. cit_., I. 199-209.]
[Footnote 259: Bates, _op. cit._, pp. 176-7.]
[Footnote 260: Herodotus, II. 18 and 47, and IV. 186.]
[Footnote 261: _Ibid._, IV. 188.]
[Footnote 262: Ibn Khaldun, IV. p. 89.]
[Footnote 263: Corippus, Johannis, IV., _passim._]