FROM GHADAMES TO GHAT.
Character of the People of Ghadames.--Strength of our
Caravan.--First features of the new Route.--Well of Maseen.--Rate
of Travelling.--Our Ghafalah divides in two on account of the
difficulty of obtaining Water for so large a
Caravan.--_Es-Sărāb_, or _The Mirage_.--_Gobemouche_
Politicians.--Camels, fond of dry Bones.--Geological Features of
Plateau.--Desert Tombs and _Tumuli_ Directors.--Intense cold of
The Desert.--Well of Nather.--Savage Disposition of Camels.--Mr.
Fletcher's advice to Desert Tourists.--No scientific instruments
with me.--False alarm of Banditti, and meet a Caravan of
Slaves.--Sight of the first tree after seven days' Desert.--Wells
of Mislah in a region of Sand.--Vulgar error of Sand-storms
overwhelming Caravans with billows of Sand.
MOUNTED on my camel, pressing on through The Desert, my thoughts still
lag behind, and as I turn often to look back upon The City of Merchants
and Marabouts, its palms being only now visible in the dingy red of the
setting sun, I endeavour to form a correct opinion of its singular
inhabitants. I see in them the mixture of the religious and commercial
character, blended in a most extraordinary manner and degree, for here
the possession of wealth scarcely interferes with the highest state of
ascetic devotion. To a religious scrupulousness, which is alarmed at a
drop of medicine that is prohibited falling upon their clothes, they add
the most enterprising and determined spirit of commercial enterprise,
plunging into The Desert, often in companies of only two or three, when
infested with bandits and cut-throats, their journies the meanwhile
extending from the shores of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Niger,
as low down to the Western Coast as Noufee and Rabbah. But their
resignation to the will of heaven is without a parallel. No murmur
escapes them under the severest domestic affliction; whilst prayer is
their daily bread. Besides five times a day, they never omit the
extraordinary occasions. The aspirations of the older and retired men
continue all the live-long day; this incense of the soul, rising before
the altar of the Eternal, is a fire which is never extinguished in
Ghadames! Their commercial habits naturally beget caution, if not fear.
In The Desert, though armed, they have no courage to fight. Their arms
are their mysterious playthings. Their genius is pacific and to make
peace--they are the peacemakers of The Desert--and they always travel
under the intrepid escort of their warlike Touarick friends and
neighbours. Intelligent, instructed and industrious, they are the
greatest friends of civilization in North Africa and the Great Desert.
But upon such a people, falls as a blast of lightning, rending and
shivering the fairest palm of the oasis, the curse of Turkish rule.
The force of our caravan consists of about eighty people, including
strangers, and two hundred laden camels. Nearly all the people are armed,
and some single individuals have two or three matchlocks, besides pistols
and daggers. The character of the people are petty traders, commission
agents, camel-drivers, and slaves. There are several Arabs, natives of
Ghadames, Seenawan, and Derge, and five strangers from Souf. We have with
us also three Touaricks. There may be half-a-dozen low women and female
slaves distributed amongst the ghafalah. Respectable females scarcely
ever travel in The Desert. I have only with me my negro servant Said. My
large trunk and tent are conveyed by another camel; the nagah carries me,
the provisions, and the rest of the baggage, going extremely well. Said
walks with the servants, slaves, and camel-drivers. Two-thirds of the
people are on foot. Started in tolerably good health and spirits, and
increase my appetite every mile I ride. Feel no fatigue, of course,
to-day, and trust I shall soon forget I'm travelling in The Sahara. There
are many routes from Ghadames to Ghat, no less than four or five
well-travelled desert tracts. Our present one is the more easterly, being
skirted by the oasisian districts of Fezzan. None of these routes have
been travelled before by an European. Our course to-day is directly east.
We are now encamping at sun-set, and we have just lost sight of the palms
of Ghadames. Alas! this will, I fear, be an everlasting farewell to the
beautiful oasis, and the holy city of merchants.
_26th._--Rose before sunrise. Morning cool and refreshing. We are to
continue ten days in the route of Fezzan, then turn into that of Ghat,
thus describing a sort of semicircle to get out of the forays of the
Shânbah.
Course south-east. On the right ranges of low dull hills, with the same
on the left, but at a greater distance. The road very good, fit for
carriages, through the broad bed of a valley. Two great blocks of rock
stand out on the surface which we traverse, one an oblong square, the
other sugar-loaf, but flattened at the top.
_Camel-drivers._--"Look at these brothers" (the two rocks.)
_Myself._--"How! Are these brothers? They are not much like."
_Camel-drivers._--"Yâkob, don't you know that one brother is born like
the father, and the other like the mother?"
These huge blocks we had long in view, and approached and passed them
just as a ship passes rocks on the sea-coast. So steady is our progress,
so level our route. Ground strewn over with small flints and other sharp
chips of stone. Saw nothing alive in The Desert but one solitary bird,
which seemed lost in the illimitable waste. Passed the grave of one who
had died in open desert, a small tumulus of stones marked the sad spot;
passed also a few white-bleached camel's bones. Very cold, wind from
north-east. Feel it more than the keenest winter's blast of Old England.
Feel glad I took the advice of the Governor of Ghadames, and purchased a
quantity of warm woollen clothing, heik, bornouse, and jibbah. "That
route (Ghat) kills people with the cold," his Excellency observed.
_27th._--Arrived at the well of Maseen, at 4 P.M. Much the same scenery
as yesterday. The road good, not quite so stony as yesterday, and
scattered over with pieces of very fine quartz and shining felspar. No
sand in quantity, and a little herbage for camels. Wind as yesterday, but
more of it. Maseen is a tolerably deep well, but the water is not very
sweet. About it there are three or four stunted date-palms, and several
shrubby sprouts, pointing the Saharan wayfarer to the well's site. One
of the trees bore fruit this year, but the palm rarely bears fruit in
open desert. No bird or animal of any sort seen to-day. The camels crop
herbage _en route_ as usual. On the whole, however, we proceed pretty
quickly. I imagine about three miles the hour, for a man must walk a
sharp pace to keep up well with the camels. Our people eat nothing in the
morning; two or three, perhaps, may eat a cake and a few dates. They
literally fast all day long and take their _one_ meal at about seven in
the evening. I can't support this, and take tea in the morning, besides
munching dates at intervals through the day. Nay, I feel ravenous, under
the influence of the bleak air of The Desert. About an hour before
sunrise all the people get up and make large fires, warming their feet
and legs, for these are mostly bare and are very sensible to the cold.
I'm sorry I've been obliged to scold Said twice, once for running away
from my camel after other people's, and once for rough and saucy
language. But I must make the best of him; might easily get a worse
servant. Glad the eldest son of the Sheikh Makouran has joined the
caravan; he came riding after us this evening, attended with a Touarick,
both mounted on maharees, well equipped and capable of scouring The
Desert.
_28th._--Some time before we got off this morning, on account of the
difficulty of watering the camels. My nagah started off on the route
of Fezzan about a mile and a half, and Said went another way in
search of her. I was, therefore, obliged to fetch her myself, which
was a considerable run through a hilly region. I found her alone
wandering about. The she-camel strays more than the male-camel, and
is more restless. As soon as I called to her she stopped, stood
stock-still, and looked at me. Before the camels were all watered,
the well of Mazeen was nearly dry and the water muddy. This is the
reason large caravans have such difficulty in traversing The Desert,
it often requiring several days to water a thousand camels. Here I
recollected the justness of Napoleon's observation cited by French
writers,--"That if Africa is to be invaded and conquered _viâ_ The
Great Desert, it must be done by small detached parties." For it is
not that the wells do not afford a sufficiency of water for large
caravans, but that they do not yield an immediate supply for
numerous bodies, so as to enable their people to march in one
compact whole. Here we were obliged to leave half the caravan,
waiting for the running of the water, thus miserably dividing our
strength in case of attack. Noticed one of the camels laden with a
bale of goods, on which were European writing, viz., I. A. N. 6. The
great merchants usually write the name of their firm under the
designation of _Oulad_ (اولاد) "sons," for example, _Oulad
Makouran_, "Sons of Makouran."
The advanced party, of which I was, unexpectedly left the route of
Fezzan to the east, and turned sharp round to the south, through the
gorge of a low mountain range, which we had had all along to the
right. In this defile we proceeded an hour, but it had no natural
opening at the end. We came at last to a very abrupt ascent of some
hundred feet high, and mounted an elevated plateau. Once on the
plateau, all was plain as far as the eye could see. The defile was
tertiary formation, mere dull crumbling limestone; nothing in the
shape and consistence of granite. We are now on the highway for
Ghat, and it is said we shall arrive in fifteen days from the
plateau. Saw on the plateau, for the first time of my life, the
celebrated mirage, which our people call _Watta_, but the classic
Arabic is _Es-Sarab_ (السّرب). At first sight, I thought it was
salt, for it flamed in the sun white, like a salt-pit, or lagoon.
There appeared some low hills in the midst of the white lake. As we
proceeded, I saw what appeared like white foam running from east to
west, as the sea-surf chafing the shore. It then occurred to me that
this might be the mirage; and so it turned out, for as we approached
the phenomenon, it retired and disappeared. The character of the
mirage was evidently affected by the wind, for the foam appeared to
run from east to west with the wind. In some of the white flaming
lakes, shrubs and reeds stood out, as we find in shallow pools. Some
high hills appeared suspended in the air, veritable "castles in the
air." The weather was dull, the sun sometimes hidden, and it was
noon when the phenomena were most observable. At Mazeen a few small
birds were hopping and chirping, and two large crows followed us
upon the plateau; also a butterfly and a few flies. These are the
living creatures noticed to-day.
The plateau, where I now write, is either covered with very small stones,
some quite black, and others calcined or burnt, like brick-bats thrown
from a kiln, or is altogether hardened and black earthy soil. The latter
assists the mirage, for the phenomenon appears mostly on the earthy
tracts of ground. In some parts is herbage for the camels. On the plateau
we saw several small mounds of soft brown stone, crumbling to earth,
which looked like Arab hovels at a distance. I went up to undeceive
myself. These curious mounds have yet to crumble away before the plateau
is a perfect plane. Course to-day mostly south, with a leaning to the
west. Wind cold S.E. and E. The day as dull and dreary as in England. Our
people occasionally mount the maharees, which look very haughty and
imposing. A maharee would be a noble present for the Sultan of the
Touaricks to send to the Queen.
Was surprised this morning at a question, as "To whom Tripoli belonged?"
to the English or the Sultan (of Constantinople). I find there is a vague
notion amongst our ghafalah that Tripoli is either really the property of
the English, or under the immediate protection of England. "Just the
same," say the people. They prefer the late tyrant Bashaw, Asker Ali, to
the present Mehemet, because Asker Ali, they say, did not fleece them so
much or so plunder them of their money. 'Tis natural enough. One of the
lower fellows had the impudence to say, "The English Consul receives
bribes from Mehemet Pasha to let him remain in Tripoli." These people are
great gobemouches; they always report the most incredible things. A
trader said to me, "When you get to Soudan you must marry two wives; this
is our custom." I replied, "I never do anything out of my country, and
apart from my countrymen, which I should be ashamed to do at home in
their presence." Some of these Desert louts are very familiar and
insolent, and require sharp answers to keep them at a distance. I must
not forget to mention, the Rais put my passport _en règle_ for Soudan. A
more monstrous piece of absurdity could not be attempted against the
virtue of the free and simple-minded children of The Desert. Such
documents are only fit for our elevated Christian civilization, for
countries like Naples, France, and Austria, the hot-beds of spies and
police. When I showed my passport to the Touaricks, and explained to them
what it was for, they very indignantly (and properly so) spat on it.
_29th._--Not a living creature was met with to-day. Our camels found the
"dry bones" of camels perished in The Desert; they munched them with
gusto, a piece of cannibalism on the part of these melancholy creatures
which I was not prepared for. Dr. Oudney remarks, "The latter (camels)
are very fond of chewing dried bones." In some parts of the routes,
mostly where the water-stations are distant, and where they drop from
exhaustion before reaching the wells, camels' bones lie in such heaps as
to suggest, the Vision of the Dry Bones of Ezekiel.
We started with the rising sun and continued till four o'clock P.M.
A strong S. and S.E. wind blew all day, and very cold, parching my
lips and mouth. This wind would have a veritable burning simoon in
the summer! We traversed all day the plateau, now become an
immeasurable plain. It slightly undulates in parts, but I think we
continued to ascend. Some of the surface is wholly naked, having
neither herbage or stones scattered about, being of a softish clayey
soil, and printed in little diamond squares, like the dry bottom of
a small lake on the sea-shore. This, I doubt not, is the action of
the rain, which falls at long intervals. Other parts presented the
usual black calcined stones, and sometimes pieces of the common
limestone and pebbles, but not very round. The track was in some
places well-defined, in others the earth so hard as not to admit of
the impression of the camel's foot. Passed by several tumuli of
stones, said by the people to mark the route, and called
_âlam_--علم--directors. Passed also a conspicuous tomb of some
distinguished individual, who had died in the open Desert. There was
no writing or ornament, only a higher heap of stones, and piled in
the shape of an oblong square. As soon as a traveller dies he is
buried, if he have companions; the body is never brought to the
neighbouring oases. My friend Haj-el-Besheer, to my regret, has
disappeared with the Touarick.
Nothing possibly could be more horrible and dreary, exhibiting the very
"palpable obscure," than our course of to-day. As far as the eye can
stretch on every side is one vast, solitary, lifeless, treeless expanse
of desert earth! It is a--
"Dreary [plain] forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation."
A Derge Arab said to me this evening, "The English will never come to
Derge, wherever else they may go. The climate will kill them; in three
days you will die of fever." The love of discussion, as well as their
complaints against the Turkish Government, follow our people through The
Desert. They are trying to make me turn Mohammedan, as far as disputing
goes, and I have enough to do to get rid of their importunities.
Sometimes I get the conversation turned by telling them, if I turn
Mussulman I shall offend my Sultan. They reply, "Oh! you can confess with
your lips, that you are a Christian, whilst you remain a Mussulman in
your heart." One fellow got saucy, and said, turning up the fire with a
stick, "The Jews and Christians will have this (fire) for ever."
Threatening to report him to the Rais of Ghadames, he exclaimed, "The dog
Rais has no rule in The Sahara." The other people made him hold his
tongue. Felt the cold last night but especially this morning. It nips me
up severely. Sleep in the clothes I wear during the day, and have
additional covering of a thick rug and a cloak. We pitch no tents. Very
little water is now drunk. Our people seem to shun it as mad dogs. As to
the morning, no one drinks water this time of the day. How different to
the summer! when a drink of water is sometimes reckoned a great favour,
an immense boon, a heaven's best gift.
_30th._--A fine morning; the dawn almost cloudless. Not so
yesterday, volumes of cloud on cloud inflamed with purple stretched
over all the east, not unlike an English summer's dawn, but the
colours more vivid. But this was succeeded by the dreariest of days.
In summer, the Saharan dawn is usually cloudless, and offers no
beautiful variety of colours. The cloud of yesterday was surcharged
with wind, which we soon felt to our annoyance. In The Desert the
wind generally rises in the morning and falls in the evening. We
continued our course over the vast plain all the morning, but at
midday it broke into wide shallow valleys, and in the evening it was cut
across by a large broad valley, or wady, as the Moors called it, stretching
east and west. In this wady lies the well of _Năthār_ or _Năjār_,
some spelling the name with the ز--النزار. Here we
encamp. We had come a very long weary day. Begin to feel very
sensibly the hardships of Desert travelling. The length of a day's
journey depends upon whether water is near or far off, and also upon
there being fodder for camels. Our Arabs are obliged to look out
lest they encamp upon an arid spot where the poor camel cannot crop
a single herb. Mostly in the beds--dry beds of these wadys--there is
some herbage and brushwood. The well of Nathar is very deep, and cut
through rock as well as earth, but its water is extremely sweet and
delicious. We usually find the best water running through rocky
soil. _En route_, I observed no living creature, save a grasshopper,
which had managed to get into existence amidst these herbless wilds.
Think I also saw an ant near the foot of the camel. A few flies
still follow our caravan, which we brought from Ghadames. These
witless things have wisdom enough not to remain behind and perish in
The Desert. Passed by two dead camels, fast decomposing into bones.
Road all small stones sprinkled over an earthy soil, or altogether
earth. Mirage again seen, with similar phenomena. Small islets in
the midst of lakes, and white foam running on the ground as on the
sea-shore. Our course S. and S.E.
_1st December._--A fine mild morning, but intensely cold during the past
night. Here we took fresh water enough for four days, the time required
to arrive at the next well. Started about 11 A.M., and continued only
three hours and a half, when we came to another wady, where we stopped in
order to let the camels have their fill of the rich fodder with which the
wady is covered. The plateau is now apparently disappearing, for it is
broken into deep and broad valleys, from the sides of which rise in
groups, and at various distances, low ranges of Saharan hills, and on one
side, is a range very high, having very wild mountainous features. We
have now travelled nearly six days, and have not yet met with fifty yards
of sandy route. So much for the sandy Desert! All is either earth,
sometimes as hard-baked as stone, or large blocks of stone, but chiefly
very small chips of stone covering the entire surface. Our Arabs ask me,
"Whether I prefer travelling by land or sea?" They imagine Christians,
when they travel, necessarily travel by sea. They are also greatly
astonished when I tell them we have no Sahara in England, and cannot
credit the idea of a country being full of cultivated fields and gardens.
The rest of our ghafalah, consisting of more than a third, is not yet
come up, but Haj-el-Besheer and the Touarick Ali have joined us again and
report them to be at the well of Nather.
Two or three birds were seen this morning about the wells. They were
excessively familiar, and knew instinctively how to estimate the sight of
a caravan for the crumbs and grains it might leave behind. They seemed
also quite at home at the well. Still one would think they were birds of
passage, like ourselves, for there are no trees or bushes for them to
build in, and little to eat. Saw also a single lizard. I believe lizards
abound in every part of The Sahara, but the cold now keeps them in their
holes.
Three or four of our party have left us, mounted on maharees, for Ghat.
They say they shall arrive in six or seven days. They will soon see if
banditti are before us, and will return to let us know. Thought I should
escape the orthodox _body_-guard. But it seems not. Where every person is
obliged to accept of this guard, _bon gré, malgré_, it seems I must
submit. However, I shall do without their services if possible. I
offended a Moor by telling him that Christians do not require it, and
have not this guard: it is only "peculiar to Mussulmans." A necessary
part of the occupation of a ghafalah when it reaches a well is collecting
and cracking the vermin. The camels are terrible things for straying. If
they are surrounded with immense patches of the most choice herbage, even
which is their delicium, they still keep on straying the more over it
miles and miles. As to our nagah, we are obliged to tie her fore-feet,
which prevents the camel from getting at a very great distance from the
encampment. The camels are sly, unimpassioned, and deliberately savage,
one to another, more especially the males. At times they go steadily, and
even slowly, behind one another, and turning the neck and head sideways,
deliberately bite one another's haunches most ferociously. The drivers
immediately separate them, for the bite is dangerous to their health, and
often attended with serious mischief to the animal bitten. But I have
never yet seen a camel kick or attack a man. They invariably grumble and
growl, sometimes most piteously, when they are being loaded, as if
deprecating the heavy burden about to be placed upon them, and appealing
to the mercy of their masters. The merchants pay 13½ Tunisian piastres
per cantar for goods now conveyed from Ghadames to Ghat. The Touaricks
carry goods cheaper, but they are now gone after the Shânbah. The Arabs
asked 25, but the Rais of Ghadames fixed it at 13½. A camel carries from
2 to 3½ cantars[62]. I confess I was sorry to see these apparently so
quiet and melancholy creatures ferocious to one another; but I
recollected that all animals, even doves, quarrel and fight, and
particularly males, where females are concerned.
To-day took out of my trunk Mr. Fletcher's note to me, to read over,
which I had received from Malta during the time of my being in The
Desert. The advice to travellers which it contains in a very few words,
is so good, so excellent, that I shall take the liberty of transcribing
it here, for the benefit of all future tourists in The Desert.
1st. "Keep a sharp look out about you, and pick up information."
2nd. "Keep with Sheiks, Religionists, (he means I suppose, Marabouts,)
and Chieftains, for these are the only people who can give you
protection."
3rd. "Expose yourself to no unnecessary risks and dangers."
4th. "Conciliate!"
Mr. Fletcher adds, "The white man is at the mercy of every tenant of The
Desert, and though we would, one cannot be all things to all men."
Nevertheless, I do think, _poverty_ is my great protection in travelling
in these countries. My fellow-travellers, up to the present time, are
civil and assist me. It is necessary to mention here, I have neither
compass nor thermometer, nor measure of any kind, nor maps, nor watch, so
that I'm afraid my journal will sound ill to scientific ears. This was
very bad management. Still we shall see what a man can do without the
ordinary and most common scientific instruments of travelling. I have,
however, an hour-glass, which embraces four hours in the time of
emptying, and which I found useful in Ghadames, but make no use of it _en
route_. I consider the objects of my tour _moral_, a random effort to
maim, or kill, or cripple the Monster Slavery, a small rough stone picked
up casually from the burnt and arid face of The Desert, but with
dauntless hand thrown at this Titanian fabric of crime and wickedness.
However, as my friend Mr. Fletcher advises, it does not prevent me from
"picking up information," any how and everywhere, which I trust the
reader will have already perceived. As a person who loses one sense
acquires more intensity in others, so I, having no artificial means for
procuring information with me, must do all by the ordinary senses of
observation, common to the civilized man and the savage.
The mirage was very abundant to-day, producing a variety of splendid
phenomena, "_Castelli in Spagna_," running streams, and silvery lakes,
and a thousand things of water, and air, and landscape, just types of
those pleasures and delights which we seek, and when grasping them, they
slip from between our fingers.
Whilst we were encamped, two hours before sun-set, we were suddenly
alarmed by the cries of banditti and Shânbah, and all were called upon to
arm. At the same time people were sent off to bring up the camels which
were grazing and straying at a distance. I was amusing myself with
cooking the supper, and started up, not knowing what to make of it; I
couldn't however help laughing at the queer predicament in which the
supper looked, and thought I had been making it for the Shânbah. Running
forward to see the cause of the alarm, I saw in the south, dimly at a
distance, a small caravan approaching us. There were three or four
camels, and several persons on foot. I then thought I must look about
for a weapon of some sort. A man gave me a huge horse-pistol, and with
this I sallied forth to take part in the common defence. Seeing an Arab
far in advance, and alone, I went after him, who turned out to be one of
the Souafah, whose acquaintance I had already made. This Arab certainly
showed considerable bravery, and took up a reconnoitring position on a
rising ground, looking with a steady and determined eye upon the
approaching caravan. He turned to me and said bluffly, "It must be a
Touarick ghafalah." Meanwhile, about forty people all armed, assembled
_pêle-mêle_ on the opposite side of the route, on a hill behind, uttering
wild cries, and throwing up their matchlocks into the air. The cries now
ceased, and was succeeded by a most anxious silence, all waiting a closer
observation. At length, the experienced eye of our people discovered what
was considered a troop of bandits on foot, to be a caravan of slaves. And
immediately a number of the people ran off violently to meet the
slave-caravan, which was escorted by our own Touaricks, the slaves being
the property of our people. Our surprise was the greater when we found
Haj-el-Besheer, and his companion the Touarick, returning with the
caravan, which had brought letters for all the people. So the bandits
turned out to be our friends and neighbours; and so burst this bubble of
alarm. I observed two persons with long staffs lagging behind, and
imagined them old men labouring along the route. What was my astonishment
to find, as they approached, these old men gradually transformed into
poor little children--child-slaves--crawling over the ground, scarcely
able to move. Oh, what a curse is slavery! how full of hard-heartedness
and cruelty! As soon as the poor slaves arrived, they set to work and
made a fire. Some of them were laden with wood when they came up. The
fire was their only protection from the cold, the raw bitter cold of the
night, for they were nearly naked. I require as much as three ordinary
great coats, besides the usual clothing of the day, to keep me warm in
the night; these poor things, the chilly children of the tropics, have
only a rag to cover them, and a bit of fire to warm them. I shall never
forget the sparkling eyes of delight of one of the poor little boys, as
he sat down and looked into the crackling glaring fire of desert scrub.
In the evening I noticed the amount of the food which was given as the
one daily meal to these famished creatures, ten in number. Said usually
eats more than the whole of it for his supper. The food was barley-meal
mixed with water. The slaves were children and youths, all males. They
had been already fourteen days _en route_ from Ghat, and would be eight
more before they could reach Ghadames. By that time, like the last slaves
which arrived whilst I was there, they would be simply "living
skeletons." The misery is, these slaves are conducted not by their
masters, but slave-drivers, at so much per head, and consequently the
conductors feed the slaves on as little as possible, to make the most of
their bargain with the owners. The slave-caravan, however, brought us
good news.
The Shânbah, after ravaging the Touarick districts, had fled their own
country, and taken refuge in the Algerian territory--so escaping the
vengeance of the Touaricks. We have, therefore, no enemy _en route_,
thank God, except ourselves, and our own quarrels, which occur but
seldom. The annual winter Soudan caravan had not yet arrived in Ghat, but
was expected every day. It is worth mentioning here, as a remarkable
trait of good faith amongst the Moors and Arabs, that they do not often
seal their letters, but fold them up as we do notes of trifling import.
All the letters brought to-day were unsealed, and did not require
_Grahamizing_. Haj-el-Besheer told me it was _haram_ ("prohibited,") for
strangers to read these unsealed letters. My readers will see that we are
again obliged to go to the barbarians of The Desert to learn the ordinary
practices of good faith and morality. How exceedingly rejoiced would be
the "_Haute Police_" of _civilized_ Europe to have all letters sent
_un_-sealed through the Post Office! What a pity these Mahometan
barbarians are so trusting and simple-minded! What a pity our boasted
religion does not teach us Christians the honesty of barbarians! We wrote
letters to Ghadames and Tripoli over the fire-light. Afterwards my friend
Haj-el-Besheer commenced a sing-song repetition of a Marabout legend,
which he continued all the evening, speaking to no one; even whilst he
was eating he continued his rigmarole story to himself, the people taking
no notice of him. I was greatly amused at this odd singing to one's self.
_2nd._--A very fine morning, and, as I anticipated, it turned out very
hot. Yet whilst the sun scorched my face on one side, the cold wind from
the east blanched my cheek on the other. No living creature seen but a
few insects. Our people fell in with the skeleton of a Touarick ass, and
amused themselves with setting it up upon its legs, as if in the pillory.
I rallied them afterwards as they were in a good humour, on their terror
of banditti yesterday. They replied, "It was the number of people on
foot which alarmed us, banditti generally go on foot with a few camels to
carry provisions and water." We started at sun-rise and encamped an hour
before sun-set, to have light enough to collect firewood, and forage for
the camels. The ground of our course to-day was broken into broad and
long valleys. In the wady where we encamp is herbage for camels. I notice
as a thing most extraordinary, after seven days from Ghadames, two small
trees! the common Desert acacia. Another phenomenon, I see two or three
pretty blue flowers! as I picked one up, I could not help exclaiming,
_Elhamdullah_, ("Praise to God!") for Arabic was growing second-born to
my tongue, and I began to think in it. An Arab said to me, "Yâkob, if we
had a reed and were to make a melodious sound, those flowers, the colour
of heaven, would open and shut their mouths (petals)." This fiction is
extremely poetical. Felt unwell this morning from eating or munching too
many dates; better this evening. All our people well, and no accidents.
_3rd._--Rose at sun-rise and pursued our weary way over broken ground,
now broad valleys, now low hills. Whilst exclaiming that the sandy desert
was all "a report," "a talk," "a fabrication of travellers who wished to
increase and vary the catalogue of Saharan hardships," at noon we came
upon a range of sand-hills. These increased on every side, and at length
we cut right across a group of them. Having left the plateau the mirage
has also disappeared, apparently the only species of desert where it can
be fairly developed. With the sand has appeared a new kind of stone, of a
light-blue slate colour, some of it of as firm a consistence as granite.
Its colour also sometimes varies to a beautiful light green. The Desert
itself only increases and varies in hideousness. And yet in some places
where sand is sprinkled over the hardened earth, a little coarse herbage
springs up. Encamped at night. Cold all day. Felt unwell. To-day and
yesterday course mostly south.
_4th._--Sand-hills increase in number, and find ourselves in the heart of
a region of sand. At noon descended the deepest wady we have yet
encountered. On the big blocks of rock below Arabic and Touarghee letters
were carved. The barbarians, as their civilized brethren, seek in this
way also a bastard immortality for their names. Down in the valley we
passed some human bones; the skull was perfect. Who shall write the
history of these bones? Are they those of one who was murdered, or who
dropped from exhaustion in The Desert? These bones scattered at the
camel's feet made the march of to-day still more melancholy. No herbage
for camels or wood for fire. Gave our nagah barley and dates. It
frequently happens, there is no wood _en route_ (I mean underwood or
scrub), or at the place where we are obliged to stop. This obliges us to
carry it from places where it abounds, as also a little herbage for the
camels. Pitched our camp amidst the sandy waste late at night. Our route
varied between S.W., S., and S.E., but around some huge groups of
sand-hills we were obliged to make a painful circuit. Warmer to-day, and
a little wind, always from the east. No living creature met with! No
sound or voice heard! Felt better to-day.
_5th._--Rose with the sun, as it enflamed the sand-hills, and made them
like burnished heaps of metal. Marched three hours amidst the
sand-hills. Very difficult route for the camels, which frequently upset
their loads in mounting or descending the groups of hills. The Arabs
smooth the abrupt ascents, forming an inclined plane of sand, and then,
in the descents, pull back the camels, swinging with all their might on
the tails of the animals. No herbage--no stone--no earthy ground--all,
everything one wide waste of sand, shining under the fervid sun as bright
as the light, dazzling and blinding the eyes. But Milton's poetic eye,
turning, or in "a fine frenzy rolling" to the ends of the earth,
subjecting all the images and wonders of nature, of all climates and
countries, to the supporting of his majestic verse, glanced also at these
sands of the Lybian Desert--
"Unnumbered as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil."
El-Aïshi, describing the sandy Sahara, says, "There is neither tree, nor
bush, nor herb. The eye sees only clouds of sand, raised by continual
winds, which by their violence efface the marks of the caravan as fast as
men and animals imprint them with their feet. The aspect of this
immensity of sand reminds me of the words, 'Bless our Lord Mahomet as
much as the sand is extended,' and I understood now their full import."
But here in the centre of this wilderness of sand we had an abundant
proof of the goodness of a good God. Whilst mourning over this horrible
scene of monotonous desolation, and wondering why such regions were
created in vain, we came upon _The Wells of Mislah_, where we encamped
for the day. These are not properly wells, for the sand being removed in
various places, about four or five feet below the surface, the water
runs out. Indeed, we were obliged to make our own wells. Each party of
the ghafalah dug a well for itself. Ghafalahs are divided into so many
parties, varying in size from five men and twenty camels, to ten men and
forty camels. Three or four wells were dug out in this way. Some of the
places had been scooped out before. Water may be found through all the
valley of Mislah. A few dwarfish palms are in the valley, but which don't
bear fruit. The camels, finding nothing else to eat, attacked voraciously
their branches. It is surprising the sand is not more scattered over the
wells and trees, for on the south-west is a lofty sand-hill, deserving
the name of a mountain, almost overhanging the pits. Here is a sufficient
proof, at once, that The Desert has no sandy waves like the Desert Ocean
of waters, as poets and credulous or exaggerating writers have been
pleased to inform us. Were this the case, the wells of Mislah would have
been long ago heaped up and over with pile upon pile of sand-hills, and
caravans would have abandoned for ever this line of route. For we can
hardly suppose that one sand-storm would cover the pits of Mislah with a
mountain pile of sand, and the next sand-storm uncover them and lay them
bare to the amazed Saharan traveller. On the contrary, the pits of Mislah
and the stunted palms have every appearance of having remained as they
now are for centuries. The hills are huge groups, some single ones,
glaring in sun above the rest, and others pyramidical. The sand at times
is also very firm to the camel's tread. Shall I say a _terra firma_ in
loose shifting sands? But for the water of Mislah it is extremely
brackish, nay salt. I had observed between the sand-hills small valleys,
or bottoms, covered with, a whitish substance which I now find salt. Both
men and camels are alike condemned to drink this water. I try it with
boiling and tea and find it worse, and cannot drink it, so I'm obliged to
beg of our people the remaining sweet water of Nather, left in the skins.
Our people confess themselves, in summer when this water gets hot they
can scarcely drink it, being veritable brine. An European travelling this
route should always provide himself with water enough at the well of
Nather to last him from six to eight days. My skin-bags have got out of
order, and I did not make inquiries of the people about this well. At one
well a traveller should always make inquiry about the water of the next
well. This is indispensable if an European tourist would have water fit
to drink. The Mislah water is full of saline particles, and is purging
every body. The valley of Mislah, over which we are encamped, is not more
than twenty minutes' walking in length, and half this in breadth. In many
parts the sand is encrusted with a beautiful white salt. One of the Arabs
of Souf said to me, "See, Yâkob, this is our country, all Souf is like
this." So it appears an oasis may exist in a region of _shifting_ (?)
sands. Are these the shifting sands which bury whole caravans beneath
their sandy billows, when lashed up by the Desert tempest[63]?
[Illustration]
This reminds me of what Colonel Warrington told me of some tourist, who
describes himself as killing a camel to procure the water from its
stomach, when within a couple days from Tripoli, and on a spot where
there was a splendid spring of never-failing water. I often asked the
Arabs, if they ever killed the camel to get the water from its stomach?
They replied, "They had often heard of such things." A merchant of
Ghadames made, however, an apposite observation: "This is our sea, here
we travel as you in your sea, bringing our provisions and water with us."
These pits are considered the half-way house or station to Ghat. I'm told
the route from Ghat to Aheer is much more easy and agreeable than this.
Trust I shall find it so if I go. Begin to feel this irksome, and am in
low spirits. People try to amuse me, and I have received many little
presents of date-cakes and bazeen from them. Begin to relish this sort of
food, and The Desert air sharpens the appetite. Yesterday, a slave of the
ghafalah amused us with playing his rude bagpipe through these weary
wastes. We are not very merry. There is very little conversation; we move
on for hours in the most unbroken silence, nothing being said or
whispered, no sound but the dull slow tread of the camel. Sometimes an
Arab strikes up one of his plaintive ditties, and thinks of his green
olive-clad mountain home in the Atlas. Happily there is little or no
quarrelling. I am sure sixty people of all ages and tempers, were they
Europeans, travelling in this region of blank monotony, oppressed with
sombre reflections and without anything to relieve the senses, would not
manage things so smoothly, or without quarrelling, and at times most
desperately. For we are a _bonâ fide_ moving city, and at each well every
body prepares to start afresh. Some mend their torn clothes, others the
broken gear of the camels, others take out the raw materials from their
bags and work up a new supply of provisions. Others wash and shave. Our
Saharan travellers rarely wash themselves except at the wells. Their
religion requires of them to wash their hands at their meals, but this
they evade by rubbing their hands with a little sand, a privilege,
however, Mahomet has only granted them when they can find no water. We
followed the tracks of the few of our party who had preceded us. Here
also the footstep is rigidly observed as in the American wilderness, and
the people pretend to distinguish the foot-print of the bandit on the
sand from that of an honest man. But one night of strong wind usually
covers up the track, and though the sand does not move in billows, it
flies about, first from one side and then the other, and fills up the
foot-prints of men and animals. There is no doubt but it requires the
most practised eye of the camel-driver to find his way through these
regions, and yet, for my life, I could not see that the people
experienced any difficulty. They seemed as much at home in this intricate
waste of creation as in their own dark zigzag streets of Ghadames.
As the sun goes down and night comes on, the sand-hills, from shining
white, look as dark and drear as earth-hills. But how smooth is all! If
they were hills of blown glass they could not be more smooth. In the
sketch of Mislah will be seen a date-tree with part of its branches
depending, forming with the up-rising a curious shape. The under foliage
is dead and dried up, a fit object in the desolate scene. Not a single
living creature about the wells. No bird is here. At Maseen and Nather we
had seen two or three small birds, hopping about the wells, picking up
the crumbs and scattered grain of the passing caravan. Except the little
vegetable life, all else here is "a universe of death!"
FOOTNOTES:
[62] A _cantar_ is about an English hundred-weight.
[63] Oudney says:--"The presence of nothing but deep sand-valleys
and high sand-hills strikes the mind forcibly. There is something
of the sublime mixed with the melancholy. Who cannot contemplate
without admiration masses of loose sand fully four hundred feet
high, ready to be tossed about by every breeze, and not shudder
with horror at the idea of the unfortunate traveller being
entombed in a moment by one of these fatal blasts, _which
sometimes occur_?" I agree with the Doctor about the sublime and
melancholy mixed in contemplating these regions of sand. But they
are by no means dangerous. No people that I heard of had been
entombed under these fatal blasts. I am almost sorry now that I
did not pass through the region of Mislah in a Saharan hurricane,
and then I should have known all.