"Art thou ignorant of our great forefather Askia?"
"None knoweth his fame in Morocco," I replied. "Was he a man of power?"
"While he lived he was the Most Mighty of the Sahara. If thou hast
never heard of the Great Sultan who was so wealthy that he preferred to
wear a crown of iron to a diadem of gold, I will render thee
explanation:--Hadj Mohammed Askia, the most powerful of the Songhay
conquerors, lived in the year of the Hedjira 311, or a thousand years
ago, and was a just but warlike ruler. His wrath was feared from Gogo
even unto Mourzouk, and those who disobeyed him were put to the sword
relentlessly. Having by constant battle extended his kingdom so as to
include the regions now known as Katsena and Kano, he two years later
led an expedition against the Sultan of Agadez. After a siege lasting
nearly six moons, the Sultan of the Ahir was killed, and the City of the
Sorcerers fell and was looted, together with the dead Sultan's palace
and the houses of many rich merchants who dwelt near. Soon afterwards,
however, the vengeance of Allah, the Omniscient, descended upon the
conquerors, for the city was smitten by a terrible plague of
bloodsuckers the length of the little finger-joint, and Askia's people,
panic-stricken, deserted their ruler and fled. Askia, gathering
together the whole of the plunder he had secured, amounting to an
enormous quantity, packed it upon a number of camels, and with four
faithful followers set out at night secretly for his own stronghold far
away at Gogo."
"A caravan worth plundering," I observed, smiling.
"Yes," he replied, with a broad grin. "But, strangely enough, no
reliable facts ever came to light regarding the Great Sultan's
subsequent movements. With his camels, his followers, and his gold and
gems, he set out into the desert and disappeared. Alas! woe succeedeth
woe, as wave a wave. Some declare that he went to Egypt and again
became a ruler among men, but we of the Fade believe that the Great
Treasure was buried. The story-tellers relate that Askia, having
travelled for one whole moon from Agadez, found himself still in the
desert, with both food and water exhausted. He and his companions were
lying on the sand dying, when there appeared in the heavens a mirage of
green fields, in which a Christian in a white robe was standing. The
visitant addressed the great chieftain, telling him that the only manner
in which to save his life and those of his followers, was to abandon his
treasure, upon which there lay a curse, and travel straight in the
direction of the rising sun. Askia promised, but instead of abandoning
his wealth he buried it, and then started off, as directed, in search of
the oasis. Still within sight of the spot where the treasure had been
hidden the travellers were so jaded that they were compelled to halt for
the night, and during the darkness, it occurred to the Sultan that his
four men, knowing the spot, would in all probability return before him,
seize the gold, and carry it off. Therefore, in order to preserve the
secret, he rose, and with his scimitar slew those who had been true to
him. Then a curse again fell swiftly upon the Mighty Potentate, for ere
dawn appeared he too had succumbed, and the knowledge of the place where
the treasure lieth buried thus became lost for ever."
"And has no one been able to discover its position?"
"No," he replied. "The gold and gems of fabulous worth remain still
hidden."
As prisoner in the hands of the Kel-Fade I was guarded carefully,
together with my companions in adversity, during the four weeks we were
journeying in the wild sandy regions of the Great Sahara. Our
taskmasters took a brutal delight in keeping us without water as long as
possible, and the awful agonies of thirst I endured in those blazing
days while crossing the Admar will ever be vivid in my memory. Cuffed,
beaten, and half-starved, we were dragged onward over the hot dusty
plains towards the town of Assiou, situate on the direct caravan route
from Mourzouk to Agadez. It was a source of some satisfaction to know
that my captors were taking me towards my goal, yet my perilous position
seemed utterly hopeless, for I had lost the Crescent of Glorious
Wonders, and been robbed of everything I possessed, with the exception
of Zoraida's letter to the _imam_, which, for safety, I had concealed in
the rope of camel's hair I wore twisted around my head.
Before we had been a week on our journey, two of Makita's men, exhausted
by the barbarous treatment they had received at the hands of their
conquerors, sank, and were left behind upon the sand to die. Treated
like cattle, and compelled to bear the blows of our inhuman masters, we
received only dates with a little kousskouss, just sufficient to keep us
alive, and any who grumbled were secured by a rope to one of the camels
and made to trudge over the stony wilderness until he or she sank from
sheer exhaustion. On three occasions was this terrible punishment
administered, and each time the unfortunate prisoner, when overcome by
heat and fatigue, was left a prey to the huge grey vultures who,
expecting carrion, followed us with ominous persistency.
A fortnight after our annihilation, we passed through the great valley
of the Anahet, a sorry band of smileless captives, each apprehensive of
his doom, and after halting for two days under the palms of Azatteli,
where there was a rich supply of herbage, principally of the kind called
_bu rekkebah_, and of _el had_, the camels' dainty, we resumed our
journey into a waterless region resembling a sea of bare rocks with
patches of sand, until we reached the Mararraba, a great heap of stones
which marks the boundary line between the countries of Rhat and Air,
close to which we halted, apparently in order to await another caravan.
This spot is held in religious awe by the Kel-Fade, who each placed a
stone upon the gigantic heap of granite blocks.
For several days we remained there. One afternoon the male prisoners
were assisting the women, who had been set by their captors to grind the
corn. Our taskmasters guarded their tents, keeping them hard at work
with lash or bastinado, and while the encampment was hushed in its
siesta, I was roughly awakened from a doze by the villainous old Sheikh
of the Kel-Fade, who, finding me stretched upon the sand, in the shadow
of one of the tents, after some fatiguing work I had just completed,
administered a vigorous kick, the effects of which I felt for some days.
"Rise! son of a dog! Hasten, or thy movements shall be quickened in a
manner thou wilt not like."
As I scrambled to my feet, rubbing my eyes, he commanded me to follow
him to his tent, and after he had settled himself upon his divan,
together with two of his chief men, he subjected me to a severe
cross-examination as to my past, and my capabilities.
When I had related to him a long imaginary account of my career in
Morocco, and entertained him with an exciting story, he suddenly asked--
"What trade hast thou followed?"
"I was a _hodja_ (letter-writer) in Mequinez, and afterwards in
Algiers," I replied.
"Then thou shalt write me a letter," he said, and, ordering an ink-horn
and writing materials to be brought, he dictated a message regarding
some merchandise. When I had finished, he inspected it, while I stood
by in trepidation, fearing lest he should detect the many mistakes I had
made in tracing the Arabic characters. Evidently, however, he could not
read, though he made a pretence of doing so, for he expressed complete
satisfaction by a sharp grunt, and a deep pull at his pipe.
"Art thou a musician?" he inquired presently.
"I can play the _kanoon_ and the _guenibri_" I answered, and in a few
moments one of the strange-looking two-stringed Arab instruments,
fashioned from the shell of a tortoise, covered with skin, was handed to
me. As it happened, I had long ago learned to manipulate the strings of
the _guenibri_, and at once gave the old Sheikh an illustration of my
talent for native music.
"Good," he said at last. "Thou art a musician. I must consider what I
shall do with thee. Leave now and return to thy slumbers, for thou wilt
not always be enabled to take thine ease in the shadow."
The men squatting on either side of their chieftain grinned at their
lord's witticism, and as I turned wearily away, I wondered what fortune
the next turn of the kaleidoscope of life would bring to me.
Yet I cared little. I had, alas! lost my mystic talisman, and with it
had disappeared all hope of securing the hand of my peerless Queen of
the Desert.