RESIDENCE IN GHAT.
Arrival of the Sultan Shafou.--Visit to his Highness.--Visit to
Hateetah; his jealousy of the Sultan and other Sheikhs.--Visit
from the People of the Oasis of Berkat.--Said sobbing and
sulking.--A Night-School in The Desert.--Use of Sand instead of
Paper, Pens, and Ink.--Mode of Touarghee succession to the
Throne.--Women hereditary possessors of Household
Property.--Negresses are Dramatic Performers.--Description of the
Oasis of Ghat; Houses, Architecture, Gardens, and Surrounding
Country.--Visit from the Heir-Apparent, Khanouhen.--Genial
softness of the Weather.--Specimen of Retail Trade.--Case of
administering Justice by the Sultan.--Early habit of Touarghee
begging.--The _Bou-Habeeba_, or Saharan Singing Sparrows.--Alarm
of Female Hucksters at The Christian.
_27th._--A FINE morning. Feel better in health. The Touarghee Sultan,
Mohammed Shafou Ben Seed, came in this morning from the country
districts. His Highness is Sultan of all the Ghat Touaricks, or those of
_Azgher_.
Arrived to-day another portion of the Soudan ghafalah. There was a false
report this morning of the appearance of the Shânbah. Musket firing was
heard in various directions, and the people ran together, some mounting
the tops of the houses to see the fighting which was supposed to be going
on between the Shânbah and Touaricks. The Arabs, with their matchlocks in
their hands, ran after their camels to prevent them from being carried
off. The hubbub was most singular and bewildering. I expected to have to
report skirmish after skirmish, in the capture of Ghat, for the benefit
of The Leading London Journal. The true cause at length appeared in the
arrival of the Sultan, the firing of matchlocks heard at a distance being
done in honour of His Highness, and his coming to his town residence. So
it is, in a little place like this a false report may work wonders in a
few minutes. People are charmed with these rumours: they are their oral
newspaper excitement. In the streets were now heard "Shafou! Shafou!" "It
is Shafou! It is Shafou! It is Shafou!" "Shafou has come!"
As soon as the Sultan arrived, without waiting more than three or four
hours, I determined to visit His Highness, and carry him a small present.
I could not yet tell how the Sultan would look upon my projected journey
to Soudan. Fortunately I found Essnousee in the streets, who volunteered
his services as interpreter. Haj Ibrahim was also so good as to embrace
the opportunity of going with us. This had a good effect, and served to
give my visit consequence, Haj Ibrahim being the most respectable
foreigner now in Ghat. He was also a stranger to His Highness as well as
myself.
We found His Highness, at about a quarter of a mile's distance out of the
town, sitting down by himself alone upon the sand, aside of a large
_hasheesh_ house, or hut of date-palm branches. The attendants of His
Highness, who were not very numerous, sat at a considerable distance off.
In this primitive way and Desert style he had been receiving various
personages ever since his arrival this morning. As soon as His Highness
saw us approaching him, he bade us welcome by signs and salutations in
the style of the Touaricks, slowly raising his right arm, as high as his
shoulders, and turning the palm of the outspread hand to us. Haj Ibrahim
was first introduced, but the Sultan could not keep off his eyes from me.
At last the Sultan made a sign to Essnousee to speak on my behalf.
Essnousee explained very deliberately and minutely everything respecting
me--where and when he saw me at Tripoli, how I went to Ghadames, came
here from that place, and what were my intentions in proposing to go to
Soudan. The Sultan then turned to me, and said, "Go, Christian, wherever
you please; in my country fear nothing--go where everybody else goes."
After this I presented my little backsheesh to His Highness, consisting
of a small carpet-rug to sit or recline upon, a zamailah or turban, and a
shumlah or sash, large and full, and scarlet, like the Spaniards wear. On
giving the servant of His Highness the present, (which was covered, and
not exposed before His Highness, as a matter of delicacy,) I said,
through Essnousee, "This present is from me, and not from my Sultan, nor
the Consul at Tripoli, nor any persons in my country; it is extremely
small, and scarcely worth accepting. But, probably, if your Highness
should protect Englishmen through your country, and allow English
merchants to come and traffic in Ghat, a greater and richer present will
be sent to you hereafter." His Highness replied, "Thank you; I'm an old
man now, and want but little: we have a little bread, and milk of the
nagah (she-camel), and for which we praise God. Don't fear our people--no
one shall hurt you." Indeed, I saw the old gentleman was thankful for any
trifle. My little backsheesh was, perhaps, of the value of ten dollars,
and was the largest present I had yet made. I then asked His Highness
whether he would write a letter for me to the Sultan of Aheer, and one to
the Queen of England, stating that he would give protection to all
British subjects passing through The Touarghee Desert? The Sultan
replied, "All that you want I will do for you, please God." I determined
to risk a word on Desert politics. I said, "Your Highness must
exterminate the Shânbah, for they are a band of robbers." The Sultan
replied, "Please God we will; we are now preparing the camels to go out
against them." Essnousee and Haj Ibrahim considered the words of the
Sultan delivered in the most friendly spirit. Shafou was dressed very
plainly and very dirtily; and yet there sat upon his aged countenance
(for he was full seventy years of age) a most venerable expression of
dignity. His Highness wore a dark-blue cotton frock of Soudanic
manufacture, and black-blue trowsers of the same kind of cotton. On his
head was a red cap, around which was folded in very large folds a white
turban. He had, like all Touaricks, a dagger suspended under the left
arm, but no other weapon near him, or on his person. By his side, on the
sand, lay a huge stick with which he walks, instead of the lance. His
mouth and chin were covered with a thin blue cotton wrapper, a portion of
the _litham_. Around his neck were suspended a few amulets, sewn up in
red leathern bags. His Highness was without shoes, and his legs were
quite bare; his feet lay half-buried in the sand. He spoke very slow and
under tone, scarcely audible, and at times the conversation was
interrupted by the silence of the dead. All his deportment was like that
of a Sultan of these wilds; and the ancient Sheikh felt all the
consciousness of his power. The Desert Genii hedge him in around. The
Sultan is profoundly respected by all; and Louis-Philippe is a
gingerbread Sovereign compared with Shafou of The Great Desert.
But the reader would not be prepared to find His Highness smoking his
pipe during our interview, and striking a light himself, the materials
for which he carried in a large leathern bag, or pouch, slung on his left
arm, like all the Touaricks. On taking leave, we called the servant of
the Sultan after us, and Haj Ibrahim gave into his hands a small present
for the Sultan of the value of a couple of dollars, so that I maintain my
position of also giving the best presents, in the case of the Sultan. To
me it was a most pleasant and refreshing interview, after the serio-comic
affair of Ouweek. I asked Haj Ibrahim what Shafou said to him. The Sultan
simply told the merchant, "You may go to every part of the country now in
safety: to Touat, to Aheer, wherever you will--don't be afraid of the
Touaricks." I went home with the Haj, and spent the evening with him. The
merchant determines to send eight camels of goods to Soudan. He has not
sold a fourth of what he brought to this mart. A great part of the
slaves, elephants' teeth, and senna which daily arrive here, are not for
sale in Ghat, but are sent direct from Soudan to Tripoli by the
correspondents of the Ghadamsee merchants at Kanou. The Ghat Souk is
nearly closed, all the slaves are sold, and some of the people are
thinking about returning.
_28th._--Rose early and better in health. Pleased with the prospect of
still seeing my journey to Soudan completed. Weather this morning very
dull, sky overcast, a few drops of rain falling. Early Sheikh Hateetah
sent for me. Went and found the Consul of the English better in health.
He shewed me his scarlet burnouse and gold-braided coat, given him by our
Government. But as his object in calling me was only to express his
jealousy of the other Sheikhs, and of the Sultan himself, and to beg
another present, I was by no means pleased with my visit. He evidently
wished me to give him all the presents as the "Friend" of the English.
But this would have been both unjust and suicidal policy on my part. I
could not have considered myself safe, at any rate, respected or
esteemed, unless I had given a present to all the principal personages in
Ghat and the surrounding districts. Hateetah besides annoyed me by saying
the route of Aheer was full of bandits, against the concurrent testimony
of all the merchants. He wishes me to take the route of Bornou, which
would, entirely defeat the object I have in view, of visiting new
countries. However, by being firm with him, I got him to promise to
procure for me a letter and servant from Shafou to go on to Aheer. I am
to call again in a few days, and he is to show me his seal of office,
done by the Consul-General of Tripoli. Hateetah is a man of more than
sixty years, very tall, thin and attenuated, of extremely feeble frame.
He is still labouring under fever, and does not leave his pallet. To-day,
however, he got quite energetic on the subject of the presents, having
heard what a fine present the Sultan had received from me. He begged me
not to give a present to the _Oulad_ ("people" or "followers") of Shafou,
meaning thereby Khanouhen.
On my return, I found my door thronged with visitors from Berkat,
the village three miles distant, _en route_ of Soudan. They had been
waiting an hour or two for my return. At first I repulsed them, but
hearing afterwards they had brought a young lad unwell, I let them
in. The lad was covered with hard lumps, which had grown or festered
under his skin, about the size of a nut. He had been so for a year.
I prescribed a bath and opening medicine (senna, which they can get
easily), but I question if they try either. I recommended them to
send him to Tripoli, to the English doctor there, but they heard of
the proposal with horror. None of these Berkat people have ever
visited Tripoli. The Turks are their bugbear. They were not
extremely friendly; rude and ignorant villagers as they were, they
could not understand why I wanted to go to Soudan. I observed they
were all well clothed and seemed to live in Saharan affluence. The
term Berkat, بركت, signifies "a lake" or "lagoon," and probably
the site of the oasis is the dry bottom of what was formerly a
lagoon. The Berkat oasis is larger in gardens, and more fertile than
Ghat, but possesses the same essential features. It has no Souk, and
excites no attention from strangers visiting Ghat. The inhabitants
are Saharan Moors, and some five or six hundred in number. Had a
very friendly visit from Salah, eldest son of Haj Mansour, of
Ghadames. He says justly, Kandarka and other camel-drivers
exaggerate the dangers of the routes for their own private ends, to
get more money out of me. Of the Touaricks and Ouweek, he says,
"They have no knowledge, they are bullocks." He also added, "I have
been reprimanding Ouweek for his bad conduct to you; I told him I
would not give him my usual backsheesh on account of his
ill-treating you."
I am much bothered with Said. Like his master he is continually wavering,
whether he shall return to Ghadames with the return caravan, or proceed
with me. I leave him to his own choice and reflections, telling him I
will secure his freedom by writing to Sheikh Makouran. I can't but pity
him. I find him frequently in tears, or sobbing aloud, afraid the
Touaricks will again make him a slave.
In the streets, I pass nearly every evening a Night-School, where there
is a crowd of children all cooped up together in a small room, humming,
spouting, and screaming simultaneously their lessons of the Koran, in the
manner of some of our infant schools. This mode of simultaneously
repeating a lesson has prevailed from time immemorial in the schools of
North Africa, and I imagine, in The East likewise, and though it may be
new in England or Europe, it is old in Asia and Africa. But I never saw
before a Night-School in Barbary, and look upon this Saharan specimen of
scholastic discipline as a novelty. It is probable, in this way, every
male child of Ghat, as in Ghadames, is taught to read and write. The
pride of the Ghadamseeah is, that all their children read and write. The
whole population can read and write the Koran. This Saharan fact of the
barbarians of The Desert suggests painful reflections to honest-minded
Englishmen. We may boast of our liberties, our Magna Charta, our
independence of character, our commerce, our wealth, the extent of the
world which Providence (too good to us) has committed to our care. But
after all we cannot boast of what the barbarians of The Desert boast. We
cannot, dare not, assert, that every male child of our population can
read the Book which we call the Revelation of God! This deplorable, but
undeniable fact, ought to throw suspicion upon our religious motives, as
well as our pretensions to the love and maintenance of liberty,--unless
it be argued, that our liberty is founded on our want of education, and
we are free men because the half of our population cannot sign their own
name! A Minister of the Crown (Earl Grey), in a late, and the last
discussion of the House of Lords (of the old Parliament), had the
hardihood, the intrepidity, to assert, that, "We (Englishmen) were the
least educated people of Europe, nay, that we were behind the savages of
New Zealand!" But this astounding declaration of the Minister produced no
explosion of indignation, not a single expression of regret, not a hum or
murmur of disapprobation from the Spiritual or Temporal Lords, to whom
the words of shame and censure were addressed. And, as the Lords, so the
Commons, so all classes of our society. The enunciation, the reiteration
of this most extraordinary, most damning stigma, on our national
character, does not even tinge with the most imperceptible hue of shame
the national countenance. What is the cause of all this? It is the
profound, incurable, and inextirpable bigotry of the English people, to
which they will not hesitate to sacrifice the national honour, the public
happiness, their own liberties, and their own consciences. . . . . . . If
measures for education are proposed by Imperial Government, our people
one and all will neither allow them to be adopted, nor will they
themselves adopt measures for education. With the diverse sections of our
society, no education is education unless it be based upon their own
peculiar views and principles. In this way, the curse and opprobrium of
ignorance are maintained in our own country.
I observe that the little urchins of this Saharan School use sand in
their first efforts to write. As sand abounds everywhere in the populated
oases of Sahara, and the people are poor and cannot afford to buy much
paper, it is constantly employed instead of paper, pens, and ink, in
casting up accounts. I see all the Soudanese merchants casting up their
accounts of barter and bargains in this way. Mostly the fore-finger is
employed, and in careless conversation a long stick or spear is used to
scratch the sand. But if the subject is serious, the speaker very
distinctly marks the stops of his discourse, or illustrates it with
flourishes, squares, and circles on the sand, or dust of the streets,
smoothing over the sand when he has finished. There is a little bit of
superstition attached to this smoothing over the sand. The Moors always
tell me when I write in this way to smooth all over and never forget it.
They invariably do so themselves, and never leave a mark, or stroke, or
dot of the finger on the sand after they have done speaking or writing.
I was surprised to hear of the peculiar mode of the Touarghee
succession for Sultans or reigning royal Sheikhs. It is the son of
the _Sister_ of the Sultan who succeeds to the throne amongst all
the Touaricks. I have learnt since that the same custom prevails
amongst the Moorish tribes of the banks of the Senegal. Batouta also
mentions this singular custom as prevailing amongst the Berber
people of _Twalaten_, ايوالاتن, in Western Sahara, in these
words--"The people call themselves after the name of their
maternal[78] uncles; it is not the sons of the fathers who inherit,
but the nephews, sons of the sister of the father." He adds:--"I
have never met with this usage before, except amongst the infidels
of Malabar (in India)." It would appear, these rude children of The
Desert have not sufficient confidence in the succession of father
and son, and think women should not be put to so severe a test in
the propagation of a race of pure blood. Speaking to a Touarghee
about it, he said:--"How do we know, if the son of the Sultan be his
son? May he not be the son of a slave? Who can tell? But when our
young Sultan is born from the sister of the Sultan, then we know he
is of the same blood as the Sultan." There is besides another
anomaly of the social system in the town of Ghat. Women here are the
hereditary possessors and not men. The law of primogeniture is on
the female side. The greater part of the houses of the town of Ghat,
although the population is chiefly Moorish, belong to women,
bequeathed to them or given them on the day of their marriage by
friends or relatives. These two cases of anomaly are more favourable
to womankind than what we mostly find in Mahometan countries. I may
not now scruple to tell the Touaricks, that the Sovereign of England
is a female, for fear of giving them offence. It is a curious fact,
and may here be added, that the son rarely goes, or travels, with
the father, but always is pinned to his mother's knee, or trudges
along at her side; at last, he loses all affection for his father,
and concentrates his filial love on his mother. This alienation of
the son from the father, is increased by the custom of the son
inheriting nothing from his father, but all through his mother.
_29th._--A fine morning; the sun high in the heavens scatters light and
colour over all the Desert scene. In tolerably good spirits, but utterly
at a loss which route I shall take. Visited Hateetah; he did not beg or
annoy me to-day, but told me to resolve upon my route. Prescribed him
some medicine, as also for another person, who had the ill manners to
say, "God has made the infidels to be doctors for the Faithful."
Yesterday evening, the slaves of Haj Ibrahim (about fifty) danced and
sang and forgot their slavery. One young woman acted various grotesque
characters, and, amongst the rest, _Boree_, "The Devil." When a Negro
sulks, or is moody, he is said to be possessed, or to have got in him
_Boree_, which agrees pretty well with our "_Blue-devils_." In these
evening pastimes they fancy themselves in the wild woods of their native
homes, and dance and sing to the rude notes of their ruder instruments of
music, and feel as if free and like other mortals.
Went out this morning to have a commanding view of the oasis. Was
accompanied by the uncle of Jabour, who took hold of my hand, and
pulled me on, when we mounted the neighbouring piece of rock which
commands the oasis and scenery around. From this block of mountain,
north of the city, we had a beautiful view of the town, the oasis,
and adjoining palms, and all the Desert of the Valley of Ghat. To
the south we saw the date-palms of Berkat. To the east, is the black
range of mountains, throwing sombre shadows upon the scattered
sand-hills, which lie like shining heaps of silver at their base.
This range is higher than the average height of Saharan mountains.
The Touaricks say the Genii built these mountains, to protect them
(the Touaricks) and their posterity from the inroads of the Turks,
and Gog and Magog, from the east. "These are," say they, "our
eastern doors (barriers)." Scarcely any breaks or gorges are found
in this chain. Beyond the suburb, begirt with sand groups, stands
the palace of the Governor, which from hence looks like a line of
fortifications, with a tower or two rising above its battlements.
There reigns, king and priest, Haj Ahmed, the lord of all he
surveys. Sahara around has a varied aspect of trees and plain, sand
and mountains. The contrasts are striking, and spite the gloom of
Wareerat range, it is a bright desert scene. The town is small, and
the gardens are also extremely limited; the oasis is comprehended
within a circle of not more than three or four miles. The palms are
dwarfish, and half of them do not bear fruit, and their dates are of
the most ordinary kind. A sufficient proof that the date-palm is not
dependent on the quality of its water, otherwise the palm of Ghat
should be the finest and its fruit the most delicious of The Sahara.
On the contrary, in some of the oases of Fezzan, where the water is
literally salt, the palm is a noble towering tree, catching the
breathings of highest heaven, and casting down most luscious fruit.
Houses in Ghat have but a wretched appearance, and are as wretched
within as without. They are not white-washed, or clean and bright
and shining as Moorish houses of the coast, and though the city is
surrounded with stones, and lime is procurable, they are nearly all
constructed of sun-dried bricks and mud. A few days of incessant
rain would wash many of them down. The wood of construction is, of
course, that of the palm. The Desert furnishes no other available
building wood. Only one mosque tower deserves the name of minaret.
Besides, there is a huge building higher than the rest, but which is
inhabited as other houses. The town is walled in with walls not more
than ten feet high, but its six gates are miserably weak, and never
so closed as to prevent their being opened in the night. The whole
town is built on a hill, a portion of the blocks of rock from which
we view it. This little place has one large square, called
_Esh-Shelly_--الشلّي--the general rendezvous of business and
gossip, and where Shafou and all the subordinate Sheikhs administer
justice. Here is held the Souk, where everything important is done.
But the town-councils and state-councils of the Sheikhs are
generally held in the open air. Two or three palms within the town
cast a grateful shadow, and make an angle of the streets
picturesque, but no other trees are seen. On the south, without the
walls, is a suburb of some fifty mud and stone houses. There are
also scattered over the sand, on the west, a hundred or more of
hasheesh huts, made of straw and palm-branches. In the gardens,
besides the palms, a little wheat, barley, and ghusub is
cultivated. There are some fruit-trees, but no vines. Of water there
are several large pits, and some warm springs, but nothing
approaching to the hot boiling spring of Ghadames. There is,
however, one large reservoir, partly surrounded with palm-trees, and
the banks covered with rushes, except where the people go to draw.
The whole of this is enclosed within walls. Water apparently oozes
from a great extent of surface. The water itself is of the first
quality, and is said not to produce bile or fever. The irrigation is
the same in principle as that of Ghadames, but slaves are employed
to draw up the water, whilst animals are used in Fezzan, and in
Ghadames the water runs itself into the gardens. The places for
burying the dead around the Saharan towns occupy more space than the
abodes of the living. This is not surprising, when we reflect that
every new grave occupies a new piece of ground, and many years
elapse before the old grave is opened to place in it a fresh body. I
saw but one grave whitewashed; it was that of a Marabout, the only
"whitewashed sepulchre," and, strange enough, it is to denote
superior priestly sanctity as in New Testament times amongst the
Jews. The rest were small stones heaped up in the shape of a grave,
a large piece of stone being placed at the head.
The style of architecture, both here and in Ghadames, is the same, except
that of Ghadames is neater and more fantastically elaborated. Most of the
walls are surmounted with a mud-plaster work, and the tops and terraces
of the houses are surmounted with the same style of material, and
generally very irregularly done, as seen in the annexed diagram. The
cupboards cut out or excavated in the walls are of the shape of squares
or triangles, and the windows sometimes of the same shape, but
occasionally varying as seen in the diagram. All the doors and beams of
the houses, as before mentioned, are of the date-palm wood. The doors are
the usual long squares, but some of them so low that you are obliged to
stoop to enter through them. This is very troublesome to the Touaricks,
who always carry their long spears with them, as we our walking-sticks. I
have noticed here in The Sahara, as well as on the coast of Barbary, very
ingenious wooden lock-and-keys. The key is a piece of wood six or eight
inches long, and two broad, covered at one end with little pegs. The lock
is fitted to these pegs by little holes. On the arrangement and fitting
of these pegs and holes depend the secrecy and security of the lock. It
is no easy matter at times to unlock these locks, and requires a very
practised hand. The floors are covered with a thick layer of sand, even
many of the sleeping rooms, which sand is clean or dirty according to the
quality and cleanliness of the occupant.
[Illustration]
According to my friend Mr. Colli, the original meaning of the term
Ghat is _Sun_ or _God_, in the Lybio-Egyptian language. The Arabic
is غات, _Ghat_, but as people fancy, like the French, they hear in
the pronunciation of the غ in _Ghat_ the R, so our former tourists
have sometimes written the name of the town Gh_r_at, and others
Ghr_aa_t. The oasis of Ghat is situated in 24° 58′ north lat., and
11° 15′ east longitude.
This afternoon received a visit from Khanouhen and his brother,
accompanied by Essnousee. This visit was perhaps the most friendly
of all which I have received from the Touaricks. For evil or for
good, it was, at the time, the preponderating motive for attempting
the tour to Soudan. I felt more confidence in the Touaricks.
Khanouhen is a man advanced in life, full fifty years of age. He has
hard but intelligent features. Like all the Sheikhs, he is tall and
of powerful muscular frame. His conversation consisted of a few
words, but full of pride and courage, and also to the point. He
said:--"I do not expect presents from a stranger who has come so far
to claim my hospitality. I can give you assistance without presents.
Cannot the man, who is to succeed Shafou, be generous without
bribes? It is not generosity to render you assistance if you load me
with presents. The heir of the Touarick Sultan receives no presents:
he asks for none. We wish not to terrify strangers--even those who
do not believe in Mahomet--by acts of extortion and plunder. I will
write you a letter to the Sultan of Aheer, so shall Shafou, so shall
Hateetah. The Sultan of Aheer must respect our letters. When he does
not, we make reprisals on his people. I am now busy. I am going to
exterminate the Shânbah. Our maharees will soon overtake the
robbers; not one of them shall escape. We scorn the assistance of
the Turks. We are strong enough by ourselves. We want no letters, no
advice, no arms, no horses, no guns, from the Pasha of Tripoli. All
The Desert is ours; wherever you go you find traces of our power. Be
happy here, fear nothing; for if you fear us, you lose our
confidence, and become our enemy." I have picked out the sense and
many of the exact expressions of this harangue, and the reader will
see that the Shereef, his son-in-law, did not exaggerate his sense
and fierce eloquence. Khanouhen, indeed, is called "The man of speech,"
رجل الكلام--by the merchants. The Sheikh was superbly
dressed in the first style of the Touaricks, unlike his venerable
uncle the Sultan. He wore a scarlet gold-braided coat, an immense
red turban, and a huge black litham, covering the upper and lower
part of his face, and nearly all his features. His arms were a
dagger, a broadsword, and a ponderous bright iron spear, which on
entering my apartment the Sheikh was obliged to leave outside.
Weather to-day is as soft and genial as Italy. The sky is overcast this
evening, and rain threatens. Yesterday I saw it lighten for the first
time in The Sahara. Flies live throughout winter here, and there is now
enough of them to give annoyance. An article which I purchased to-day
will give some idea of the retail trade in Ghat. This was a barracan, of
light and fine quality, which cost me three Spanish dollars. In Tripoli,
about forty days' journey from this, it cost two mahboubs, about a dollar
and three-quarters. But I purchased it for money; had it been exchanged
for goods or slaves, it would have been charged four dollars. This is
nearly cent. per cent. profit. Spent the evening with Haj Ibrahim.
Shafou had returned the merchant's visit, and dined with him. The
venerable Sheikh does not stand upon etiquette. An affair came off
to-day, which admirably and most characteristically illustrates the mode
of administering justice in Ghat. Mustapha, the young merchant of
Tripoli, quarrelled with one of his Arabs, and came to blows. Shafou
chanced to pass by at the time. His Highness immediately dispatched a
servant to bring the pugilists before him. Shafou then harangued them and
the bystanders, in this spirited manner:--"You see these men come here to
disturb our country. What ungrateful wretches they are! Shall I suffer
this? Don't I protect them? Don't I allow them to gain money at our Souk?
They return with goods and innumerable slaves to Tripoli. But they laugh
at me and insult me to my face, and trample upon our hospitality,
(_addressing a Sheikh_). Do you think, (_turning to the combatants_,)
there is no authority or justice in this place? I'll let you know to the
contrary. What do you think the Christian will say, if he comes and sees
this? Now, you rascals, pay me each of you ten dollars." This was
followed by a violent intercession on their behalf by the foreign
merchants, some blaming one and some the other. His Highness was obliged
to compromise the matter, accepting of a dollar from each. It is probable
His Highness was more anxious to inflict the penalty than quell the
tumult; but I was quite unprepared for such an eloquent address from the
ancient patriarch of the country. Considering the great number of
strangers, there are very few quarrels. "Ghat," as was said before I
came, "is a country of peace." Were a bazaar of this sort held in Europe
(for example an English fair), there would be a row every day, and every
hour of the day. Nevertheless, this does not prevent us from calling
these Saharan people barbarians.
_30th._--Very mild weather this morning, but overcast as if rain would
soon fall. I have not been long enough in The Desert to read the weather
signs, or become weather-wise. Keep the door shut, to prevent an influx
of visitors. Now and then a few people get in. Whilst eating my supper
this evening, I was surprised at the appearance of two little ragged
boys. I asked what they wanted, they returned, "Eat, eat, we want to
eat." I went out to see them, for they stood on the terrace in the dark.
Here I found one of the audacious urchins flourishing a spear ten times
as big as himself, menacing me with it. I pushed the little scoundrels
down stairs into the street. I could not however help remarking upon
their audacity, and the early infant habits of Touarghee "begging by
force." The Ghadamsee people have always been the fair game of the
Touaricks. Asking one day a Ghadamsee, "What occupation the Touaricks
followed?" he replied indignantly, "Beg, beg, beg, this is their trade!
When they get money, they bury it, and beg, beg, beg!" This perhaps, is
overstated, still it is curious to witness this first lesson of "we want
to eat," repeated by children of very tender age, with a tone of command
and insolence. Khanouhen does not send for his present, and I hear, he
will not receive presents. I shall have the more to give away at Aheer.
_31st._--Fine morning. I am surprised at my simplicity; but, apparently,
the only thing which I enjoy with pure feelings, is the song of the
little birds, the _boohabeeba_, which frequent my terrace and the
house-top, as sparrows familiarly in England. With these I feel I can
hold free converse and interchange an unadulterated sympathy. The
innocent little creatures remind me of my days of childhood, when I
revelled in the woods and corn-fields of Lincolnshire, listening to the
song of birds in early fresh spring morn, or bright summer day. Here was
the tender chord of childhood associations touched, and no wonder that
memory should come in to the aid of sympathy in these unsympathizing
deserts. How little at times contents the heart, and fills the aching
vacuum of the mind! In this we cannot fail to see an arrangement of
infinite wisdom. If only great things could satisfy the mind of man, how
prodigiously our miseries would be increased, for how few are the things
deserving to be called great! Called this morning on Hateetah. Put him in
a better humour, by telling him I would give him an extra present. On
returning, stopped at a stall, where were exposed for sale, onions,
trona, dates, and other things. The women immediately caught alarm,
afraid I was going to throw a glance of "the evil eye" on their little
property. They cried out, "There is one God, and Mahomet is the prophet
of God!" I made off quick enough from this unseemly uproar. Saw
afterwards the Governor. Called to ask him to allow his servants to make
me some cuscasou, which request his Excellency granted immediately. He
said:--"In travelling to Soudan adopt the dress of the Ghadamsee
merchants, and let your beard grow." The Governor refuses to say anything
of Kandarka. Probably they have quarrelled. Our merchants give the
Tibboos a bad character, and the caravans are afraid of them.
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Amongst the Servians the mother's brother was "a very
important personage." Ranke says:--"Amongst the early Germans,
families were held together by a peculiar preference on the
mother's side; the mother's brother being, according to ancient
custom, a very important personage. In the Sclavonic-Servian
tribe, there prevails, to a greater extent, a strong and lively
feeling of brotherly and sisterly affection; the brother is proud
of having a sister; the sister swears by the name of her
brother."--(_See_ Mrs. Alexander Kerr's admirable translation of
Ranke's _Servian History, &c._, chap. iv., p. 56.)