VIII. FAST OF THE RAMADAN…

VIII. FAST OF THE RAMADAN

The Shâanbah and Banditti of The Desert.--Native Plays and Dances of Ghadamsee Slaves.--Aâween, or Square of Springs.--The Women of Ghadames, their Habits and Education.--The Ghadamsee and Berber, or Numidian Languages.--Varieties of People and Population of Ghadames.--Charge of corrupting the Scriptures.--Ben Mousa Ettanee.--The Bishop of Gibraltar.--Continue teaching Geography.--Ruin of the Country.--Approaching end of the World.--Seeing the New Moon.--My Taleb disputes about Religion.--Movements of Banditti.--The small Force by which the Turks hold Tripoli.

28th.--HEARD the Shâanbah--‮شعانبة‬--and Touaricks are about to have a set-to. Last year they had a skirmish, and the Touaricks killed about eighty of the Shâanbah. These latter are going to avenge their defeat; they will attack the open districts, and then proceed to Ghat. The Shâanbah inhabit a desert of sand in the neighbourhood of Warklah--‮وارقلة‬--about fifteen days from Ghadames, and four from Souf. They are independent tribes, but small in number, not more than from five to six hundred. Nominally, however, they are located in French Algerian territory. They have been celebrated from time immemorial as the robbers and assassins of The Desert--to be a brigand is, with them, an hereditary honour--and they are equally the dread of the people of Warklah, whose neighbours they are, as of stranger merchants and caravans. They have a well of water scooped out in the sandy regions where their tents are pitched, and here they live in a horrid security, defying all law and authority, human and divine, and all the neighbouring Powers. Around them is an immensity of sandy wastes, and none dare pursue them to their abhorred dens. Horses, indeed, would be useless; and camels might wander for months without water, and perish before coming upon their hiding places in these dreadful regions. "Two hundred men would require four hundred camels, eight hundred water-skins, and provisions for two months," says the Rais, "and therefore we must leave them to be exterminated by time." Unfortunately, they are recruited from the bad characters of the Souafah, a kindred tribe of Arabs, and other outlaws. The Shâanbah are the great professional bandits of the North, but there are some other fragmentary tribes, located on the confines of The Sahara, and the valleys of the Atlas. Particularly I may mention the horde of brigands of Wady-es-Sour, which infest the routes between Touat and Tafilelt. But this horde is more placable, and mostly, after levying black-mail, will allow a caravan to pass uninterruptedly on its way. The expedition of the Shâanbah will take place after Ramadan, for, like the story of the Spanish assassins, who, being too early to enter the house of an unfortunate victim, went in the meanwhile to the matins which were being celebrated in a neighbouring church, so these pious assassins of The Desert highways will not proceed to their work of blood and slaughter until the fast of Ramadan is concluded. The Shâanbah and Touaricks are, besides, national enemies as to blood, the former being pure Arab, and the latter of the Berber, or aboriginal stock of North Africa. The Shâanbah have for arms common matchlocks, and a few horses in addition to their camels. The Touaricks have the spear, dagger, the straight broad sword, and a few matchlocks and pistols, it is said, and all are mounted on camels, so the contest is somewhat differently balanced with regard to the mode of equipment. People speculate as to the success of the parties, but their sympathies are entirely with the Touaricks.

Said comes in blubbering, sympathizing with his countrymen, saying, Rais has been bastinadoing his household slaves, natives of Bornou like himself. Rais certainly ought not to do this, for he does not bastinade his Moors or Arab servants. In the evening I went with Said to see the slaves of Ghadames indulge in their native dances and other plays. These are called ‮لعب العبيل‬ "playing of the slaves." The festival of the evening was "the night of power" (‮ليلة القدر‬), on which the Koran[39] descended from heaven, and the slaves were allowed a holiday in consideration of this solemnity. The slaves danced in a circle around a leader of the dance in the centre. At first, it is a simple walking round, face to back, the legs raised, and a little swinging, and the steps keeping time to the iron castanets fastened on the hands of each. Meanwhile, they sing, and the chorus comes at intervals between the noise of castanets, or finger-clappers. They now turn round and face their leader, some prostrating before him, and others twirling themselves round, but always moving in their circular motion and singing. The tones of their voice are melodious and deep, not the plaintive wearying monotony of the Arabs. Now the sounds increase, the chorus rises higher and higher, the steps fall heavy, like the tread of military, on the ground; and now, sounds, steps, and every noise and movement quickens, until it becomes a frantic rush around their terrified leader, who is at last, as the finish of the dance, overthrown in the wild tumult. . . . . . . Besides the castanets, they have a rude drum, consisting of a piece of skin stretched over the mouth of a large calabash, brought from Soudan, which makes a low hollow sound: to these is added occasionally a rude squeaking hautboy. This circular dance was performed by about thirty male slaves, gaily dressed in their best clothes, and evidently all very happy, in truth, the free blood of their native homes danced through their veins. Aye, the poor slave danced and sung! happier far than his proud and wealthy master, who looked on in moody silence. So God has ordained it to alleviate and balance human miseries. This dance of freedom lasted a full hour, and was very laborious. There were several Negresses near, who answered in shrill voices to the deep choruses of the Negroes, but did not themselves dance. After the circular dance, came off reels of couples. These were danced with great spirit, nay, violence: there was no dancing of a person singly. None of the dancing was indecent, like the Moorish; the lower part of the body and legs now and then assumed steps and positions like the well known Spanish fandango with castanets.

29th.--Weather is now tolerably cool all day long in the city, but not cool enough for agreeable travelling. Sketched to-day the Aâween, ‮اعوين‬, or square of "fountains," which belongs to the faction of the Ben Weleed. A group of fifty persons surrounded me, all clamoring to see what I was doing, and making the funniest observations. They call drawing, writing a thing. One said, "Ah, it is well written, the Christians know everything but God." Another, "Yâkob, shall you give that writing to your Sultan?" From the fountains in this square, which merely run into stone troughs, the camels drink.

The white women, or the respectable women of Ghadames, white or coloured, never descend to the streets, nor even go into the gardens around their houses. Their flat-roofed house is their eternal promenade, and their whole world is comprehended within two or three miserable rooms. The date-palms they see, and a few glimpses of The Desert beyond--and this is all. Truly it is necessary to establish an Anti-Slavery Society for the women of this oasis. I have visited a few of them in their private apartments with their husbands, in my capacity of quack-doctor. None of them were fair or beautiful, but some pleasing in their manners, and of elegant shape; they are brunettes, one and all, with occasionally large rolling, if not fiery, black eyes. They are gentle in their manners, and were very friendly to The Christian. Many of them, in spite of their seclusion, shewed extreme intelligence; they are also very industrious. My taleb assured me the little money he got from keeping the register of the distribution of water, and other minor matters, could not keep his family, and his chief support was from the industry of his wife in weaving, whom he highly praised, adding, "God has given me the best wife in Ghadames." Most of the women weave woollens enough for the consumption of their family, and some for sale abroad. The education of women consists in learning by heart certain prayers, portions of the Koran, and legendary traditions of the famous Sunnat. The women are proud of their learning, and the men pride themselves in saying, "Only in this country are women so well instructed!" Besides this, they have the privilege of going to the mosques very early in the morning, and late in the evening, where they say their prayers like men, at least, so I understood from my taleb; but a Christian must not ask questions about women in these countries. The same authority assured me, the women, mostly negresses and half-castes, seen in the streets in the day-time, are slaves, or esteemed as such, the Touarick women excepted. I have no doubt the manners of the women of this city are generally very correct, and as chaste as any women in North Africa. But the Touarick women, especially of the elder sort, are not always exceedingly refined. One morning, going out from my house, I found some seven or eight Touarick women sitting on the stone-bench at the door. They began to laugh and joke with me; at last one of the elder present said, "Now, Christian, give me some money, and then I'll come into your house." At this delicate sally, all expressed their approbation in loud laughter: the half-caste women are much the same. A Moor said something to me, which I did not understand, and then laughed and said, "It is a Negro word," and, lest I should want an interpreter, an half-caste lady present, putting her hand deliberately to something, said, "That's the meaning," repeating the action two or three times. On the whole, however, I have not seen so many cases of indelicacy in this part of the world, as are to be seen almost every day in Paris and London. No, the morals of The Desert are mostly pure and continent as compared to those of our great European cities.

My taleb to-day made a vocabulary of the Touarghee, Ghadamsee, and Arabic languages. He finished also the translation of the third chapter of Matthew into the Ghadamsee language, which I sent afterwards to the British and Foreign Bible Society. I did not expect that he would have done it so easily, thinking his religious scruples would have interfered. He would have done all the Gospels had I paid him. According to Ben Mousa, the Ghadamsee language contains a few Arabic words, and is a most ancient dialect. It is spoken only at Siwah and Ougelah, two Tripoline oases near the coast, ten days apart, on the route to Egypt, and there is a dialect something like it in one of the Tunisian mountains. Many of the Touarghee words, he says also, are very much like, if not the same, as those of Ghadamsee. I showed him the Gospel of St. Luke, translated into the Berber language of Algeria, through Mr. Hodgson, and published by the Bible Society. He was only able to recognize a few Ghadamsee words in this translation. The Berber dialects, which comprehend the Ghadamsee, the Touarghee, the Kabylee, the Shouweeah (of Dr. Shaw), and the Shelouk of Morocco, although more or less intimately related, are very dissimilar in many words and expressions. But they are sister branches of one original mother, which require to be reduced to consistency and harmony by some mastermind, and then a very copious and powerful language might be formed. Such is said to have been the state of the German language when Luther made his translation of the Scriptures, by which he laid the foundation of the present mighty language of the Germans. Their common enemy is the Arabic, which is daily making inroads upon them; and the probability is, instead of being moulded into one mighty whole, they will in the course of a few centuries be destroyed by the language of their religion, for which the Berber tribes have a superstitious reverence. There is a singularity about the language of Ghadames: it has differences as spoken by the two factions of the Weleed and the Wezeet, the provincialisms of the country. It is highly probable that the various Berber dialects are the fragments of the language of those formidable, but doubtful, auxiliaries, which so often balanced and changed the fortune of Roman and Carthaginian arms. Of all these Numidian dialects, only one people has amongst them a native alphabet, the rest using Arabic characters: this people are the Touaricks. It is besides worthy of remark, that amongst all the African tribes of Central Africa, nay, every part of Africa, excepting the Coptic and Abyssinian Christians, only one alphabet has been found, none of the other tribes having any characters wherewith to write. Specimens of the Touarghee and Ghadamsee language, as well as this alphabet, have been recently published, under the auspices of the Foreign Office.

The language of Ghadames is spoken by an extremely mixed and various population. Some are from Arabs of the plains, others from Arabs of the mountains, others from Berber tribes, others from Moors of the Coast, and not a few from Negress mothers, of every description of Negro race found in the interior. Sometimes the men make a boast of being descended from ancestors of pure Arab blood, from immigrants of the princes of Mecca and countries thereabouts in Arabia, but in practice they contemn the principle of uncontaminated blood, cohabiting with their favourite female slaves, and from these rearing up a large family of mixed blood and colour. In the Arab suburb a considerable number of free Negroes, the offspring of liberated slaves, are settled. This class of population has been mistaken for emigration from the interior, by some writers; but Negroes never emigrate from the south to the north over The Desert, however, some may wander, like the Mandingoes, in the countries of Western Africa, as itinerant traders, tinkers, and pedlars. The city of Ghadames presents therefore a most mixed and coloured population, there being but very few of pure Arab blood, and fewer still of fair complexions. I have seen, nevertheless, some families of sandy hair and fair skins; but, certainly, the barbarossa ("red beard,") or flaxen locks, are not esteemed. These children of the sun prefer the raven-black beard, the tanned skin, and the gazelle eye. The united population amounts to about 3,000, but there are many Ghadamsee families established in Soudan and Timbuctoo. I may add, six languages are spoken daily in Ghadames, viz., Ghadamsee, Arabic, Touarghee, Housa, Bornouse, and Timbuctoo. The Rais has not a Turkish soldier or servant with him, or Turkish would make seven. Mourzuk being a garrison town, there Turkish, Greek, Italian, and Tibbo may be added to these six languages. The Negro languages are spoken by the slaves and free Negroes, and the merchants in conversing with them.

As a specimen of flying reports, I heard yesterday Bona was not in the hands of the French, but the Mussulmans. With respect to shamatah ("fighting"), the reports added, the French had lost 100,000 men in battle! The eyes of all genuine Moslems are turned anxiously westwards, and force and conquest, is everything with them.

30th.--The mornings are now very cool and delicious. Walked on my terrace, and enjoyed the fresh air of this autumnal spring. The palms are beautiful to look upon, and the Desert city has the aspect of an Hesperides. Are these the "fortunate isles" of the ancients? A few birds twittering and chirping about, pecking the ripe dates.

My taleb, backed with two or three Mussulman doctors, charged me in the public streets with corrupting and falsifying the text of the word of God. "This," he said, "I have found by looking over your ‮الانجيل‬ Elengeel (Gospel)." It is precisely the charge which we make against the Mohammedans. But our charge is not so much corrupting one particular revelation as falsifying the entire books of the Jews and the Christians, of giving them new forms, and adding to them a great number of old Arabian fables. A taleb opened the Testament at the Gospel of St. Mark, and read, that Jesus was the Son of God. Confounded and vexed at this, he said, "God neither begets nor is begotten," (a verse of the Koran). An Arab from the Tripoline mountains turned upon me and said, "What! do you know God?" I answered sharply, "Yes; do you think the knowledge of God is confined to you alone?" The bystanders applauded the answer.

In general, the ignorant of the population of this part of North Africa, as well as Southern Morocco and Wadnoun, think the Christians are not acquainted with God, something in the same way as I heard when at Madrid, that Spaniards occasionally asked, if there were Christians and churches in England: "Hay los Cristianios, hay las iglesias in Inglaterra?" But in other parts of Barbary, I have found, on the contrary, an opinion very prevalent, that the religion of the English is very much like the religion of the Moors, arising, I have no doubt, from the absence of images and pictures in Protestant churches.

This evening, when visiting the Ben Weleed, conversation turned upon the Bas-Relief. The people showed some jealousy at my possessing it, and would have prefered that it remained in the oasis, and were not sent to Tripoli. They added:--"Because it proves that God has given us the land of the Christians." This is the grand argument in proof of the Mussulman's religion, that God has given him the countries of the Infidels. Indeed, the sooner the Bas-Relief is off the better. On my observing that the slab belonged to a date prior to the Christians, they were astonished, and asked, "Who were before the Christians?" They have no idea of people before the Christians. The conversation was suddenly stopped by the appearance of a remarkable personage, the quasi-Sultan of the Ben Weleed. This was the famous rich and powerful Haj Ben Mousa Ettanee. He is a man of a great age, and nearly blind, and the chief of the most numerous and influential family of Ghadames. He always exhibits a most difficult and obstinate temper in public affairs, and, I understand, from the first, has shown an hostility to my residence in Ghadames, unlike the Sheikh Makouran, who is the recognized Chief of the Ben Wezeet, and who has shown himself as favourable as the other Chief hostile. There may be a little of the spirit of faction in this; for we see often a person unsupported by the one party, because he is supported by the other party. But the whole family of Ettanee is considered wâr ("difficult"). The Rais speaking to me of this family, said: "Wâr, wâr--I can do nothing with the Ettanee." Ettanee was attended by two or three servants, one carrying a skin, and another a cushion to recline on (mokhaddah). These arranged, the old gentleman mounted upon the stone-bench and took his seat, everybody making way for him with the greatest alacrity. Having heard I was present, after a short silence, he addressed me: "Christian, do you know Scinde[40]?" I replied, "I know it." "Are not the English there?" he continued. "Yes," I said. He then turned and said something to the people in the Ghadamsee language[41]. My conversation with them was always in Arabic. He abruptly turned to me, "Why do the English go there, and eat up all the Mussulmans? Afterwards you will come here." I replied, "The Ameers were foolish, and engaged in a conspiracy against the English of India; but the Mussulmans in Scinde enjoyed the same rights and privileges as the English themselves." "That's what you say," he rejoined, and then continued: "Why do you go so far from home, to take other people's countries from them?" I replied, "The Turks do the same; they came here in The Desert." "Ah! you wish to be such oppressors as the Turks," he continued very bitterly, and then told me not to talk any more. No one present dared to put in a word. This painful silence continued for some time. I was anxious to get off, feeling very disagreeable; and beginning to move, he said to somebody, "Who's that?" for he couldn't see much, being nearly blind. They told him it was the Christian going. He cried out, "Stop!" and then added, "You have books with you, but you English are not Christians. You deceive us. Nor are the Danish, or the Swedes, or the Russians Christians. They have no books." He meant religious books. The same opinion, I found afterwards, was entertained by Haj Ibrahim, a very respectable and intelligent Moorish merchant of Tripoli. Haj Ibrahim said to me, "How is it that you have books on religion, when the English have none?" Formerly Ettanee resided at Tripoli; and I have not the least doubt both these Moors derived this false information from the intolerant and Protestant-hating Romanist priests resident in Tripoli, backed as the falsehoods were by the absence of any English church or worship, although the English Consul very regularly celebrated worship in his family every Sunday,--a circumstance which ought to have been known amongst the town population of all religions. I am sorry the intentions of the British Government have been so feebly carried out by the Bishop of Gibraltar. Her Majesty's Government was anxious that Dr. Tomlinson should visit all the coasts of the Mediterranean, both to strengthen the few Protestants scattered on these inhospitable shores, and to show the various authorities and people of this famed inland sea, that the English had a religion, and cared for its prosperity. Up to the time I left the Barbary coast, Dr. Tomlinson had neither visited Tunis nor Tripoli, though he had been resident at Malta some three years. This is too bad; and it is quite clear the Bishop does not understand the object of his mission in the Mediterranean. He ought to have shown himself at once in all Barbary; he then might have annihilated this monstrous error, propagated by Romish priests, that the English had no religious books, and were not Christians. It is but justice to add, the Bishop went to Tangiers. Mr. Hay expected a very unctuous episcopal visit, and was shocked to hear the good Bishop talk so much about fortifications and "horrid war." There is consistency in everything; and common sense dictated that the Bishop should have, on such a visit, assumed his character of "Overseer of the scattered Protestant flock." Unfortunately, when he went first to Malta, Dr. Tomlinson acted more like an episcopalian tight-rope dancer, always balancing himself between Puseyism and Evangelicalism, and so distracted the few Protestants at Malta. He is eminently a man of no decision of character; and whenever he does manage to get up his reluctant will to a decision, it is invariably on the wrong side of the question. Here in The Desert I found myself pestered with both political and religious questions; and to have shirked either, would have been to offend the people. There was no alternative but to preach to them that all the English and all Protestants had the same Bible as the Romanists, and were equally Christians with them. I may add, of the Bishop of Gibraltar: Since my return, I have heard that his Lordship found all his efforts useless to conciliate the Malta papistical authorities; that he was much shocked at their treachery; and that he was determined, on his return again to Malta, to become once more a good Protestant. The truth is, he had nothing to do with the Roman Catholics. He was to mind and care for the Protestants in Malta, and on the shores of the Mediterranean. I believe, however, he did do something in the way of unpleasant interference with Colonel Warrington. It is well known the Colonel was high-priest of Protestantism through his long Consular service of thirty-three years, as well as Her Britannic Majesty's Consul. The Colonel baptized, married, and buried, whenever applied to. He baptized, married, and buried the members of his own family, and was surprised Sir Thomas Reade had not the courage to do the same. Of this the Colonel was very proud, citing the authority of some peer in the British Parliament, who said, "If the King's subjects wished to procreate in a foreign land, where there was no parson, why should not the British Consul help them?" This the Bishop demurred at; but the Colonel supported himself on the authority of Dr. Lushington. The Colonel was undoubtedly right. Still, politically and ecclesiastically, it would be much better if English clergymen of some denomination or other were established along the line of the whole coast of North Africa, which would show the native Mussulmans we had a religion, and that we could afford to support and protect our co-religionists. The French reap a good harvest by their protection of Christians, which, characteristically enough, they use as a political engine of aggrandizement.

On returning home, my Moorish friends pestered me still with more questions, as to what people were before the Christians. I endeavoured to impress upon them, that the Christian era was comparatively new, and that before Christ, there were many nations, and great events occurred. I found them grossly ignorant. But I had the good fortune to procure an Arabic map in the possession of one of the merchants, who had laid it up for many years amongst dusty papers. This had been published by the printers and agents of the Church Missionary Society of Malta, very much to their credit. By the aid of this, I made more progress in teaching geography to the people. Seeing several dots on the map where Sahara is written, the people asked me what it meant. I told them sand. However, I must protest against this device. We shall see that the greater part of The Desert is stone and hard earth. The term "sandy border" of The Desert is equally incorrect. Such a distinction does not exist in the Tripoline provinces. The Desert comes up to the gates of Tripoli, it then gives way to cultivation and The Mountains; it beyond them appears again here and there and everywhere, within and without the regions of rain. There is nothing like a border of The Desert. The "Grand Desert" and "Petite Desert" of the French, are equally incorrect and absurd. All is Sahara, or waste, uncultivated lands, and oases scattered thick within them, as spots on the back of the leopard[42].

Saw the Rais late, who had heard all about my conversation with Ettanee, and jokingly said, "Wâr, wâr, that old fellow, aye?" His Excellency turned, to other matters: "The Shânbah are not going to attack the Touaricks, they are coming hereabouts to plunder our caravans." Asked him, if the city was secure enough to prevent them entering and pillaging it? His Excellency replied, "Yes," but adding, "koul sheyan maktoub (all is predestinated)." This doctrine is not only a comfort in every misfortune, but also an apology for every fault, crime, or mismanagement a person may be guilty of. Nay, if a man be starved to death, because he will not work, which is sometimes the case in this part of the world, as well as Ireland, it is destiny and the will of God! . . . . . . So of all other things. If Ghadames should be stormed and plundered by the Shânbah in its present defenceless condition, it will be, as a matter of course, the will of God. But I must add, which unhappily cannot be said of Ireland, the security of human life is very great in Ghadames and the neighbouring desert. I have heard of no murder since I have been here, and a murder is the last thing thought of. This does not arise from any preventitive police, but from the simple dispositions of the people--their horror and unwillingness to shed human blood! If a messenger from a distant planet were to come to prove the divinity of a religion, from the absence of the crime of murder, and were to take these Saharan oases, and our Ireland, and put them in the balances of Eternal Justice, we should soon see Ireland and its popular religion kick the the beam, as--

"The fiend look'd up, and knew His mounted scale aloft."

The "signs of the times" in this country are, when I first came here bread was found in the Souk occasionally, as a luxury for the poor who could not buy wheat and make bread; now, and it is only a little more than a month, no bread is to be found. To-day not a single sheep was killed anywhere, and I am obliged to go without meat. So the country progresses in poverty and misery, so rapidly is its money being filched from the people! Or, is it because every body has conspired together against the Rais, and determined to wear an air of abject poverty? And thus to evade the new contributions? This cannot be. To-morrow is the last day of Ramadan; provided the new moon can be seen. I hope they'll see it, for I am heartily sick of the Ramadan: the most amiable and kind-hearted get out of humour in Ramadan; as to the Rais, I never go to see him, except in the evening, unless to get a little money from him, his Excellency being my banker. A Turk, who smokes all day long for eleven months out of twelve, must suffer greatly in these thirty days. Should like to have tried a day's fasting, as I have been so strongly recommended by the people, but I expect to have enough of fasting in The Desert, and it is of no use adding to our miseries for the sake of curiosity or vanity. From recent conversations, it appears there is no great danger in attempting Timbuctoo, but I have resolved on the route of Kanou, because my object is not so much a journey of discovery, as to collect a statistical account of the slave-trade, and see whether there are any practicable legitimate means for extinguishing the odious traffic. For this latter object, the Kanou route is decidedly more advantageous. A wild adventure to Timbuctoo, ever so successful, can never serve me in such stead in the end, when I have to read my own heart and its motives, as a humane mission on the behalf of unhappy weak Africans, doomed, by men calling themselves Christians, to the curse of slavery.

1st October.--Sheikh Makouran paid me a visit this morning. Our conversation turned chiefly on the discoveries of lands and countries since the times of Christ and Mahomet. The Sheikh was a little surprised when I told him: "We ought to consider the world as just beginning, for the ancients knew but little, and the greater part of the now inhabited world was unknown to them." Moors, like some Christians, think the time is near when Deity shall appear to destroy all unbelievers in their respective religions. For myself, I cannot but believe that the world has only yet begun. It is impossible that the Creator should destroy the world in its present imperfect state. No--the world will go on yet thousands of years on years in the path of improvement unto (shall I say?) perfection. At any rate, I belong to those whose aspirations are for the future and not for the past. I am not enamoured with Hebrew patriarchal innocence, or Grecian classic polish and freedom, or Christian mediæval chivalry of the past. I am of the New Englanders, but not for the resurrection of the past. Rather than subscribe to divinely-anointed kings and pious monks, church charities and May-day holidays and May-poles for the people, I would sooner affix my signature to railways, electric telegraphs, and the wild, bold, and raving aspirations of a Shelley--in fact, to plunge anywhere head foremost, than back again into the past.

A Moor to-day, in wishing to give a grand idea of the Touaricks (some of whom were present), said, "Muley Abd Errahman (Emperor of Morocco) and the Sultan of Stamboul, pay tribute to the Touaricks; but they pay tribute to no one." This is ingeniously made out by the merchants of Tripoli and Morocco, the subjects of the two Sultans, being obliged to pay black-mail in passing through the Saharan districts of the Touaricks. Some of the ill-natured are continually magnifying the dangers of the route of Kanou, and one present said, "You can't go, there are thousands of Touaricks to block up your way." Annoyed with this man and others, I replied, "Do Touaricks eat the flesh of Christians after they have killed them?" This made him very angry, and he began to apologize for the Touaricks, one class of Mohammedans being always anxious to defend another from unwonted or odious suspicions. They have, nevertheless, not the least difficulty in confessing that the Touaricks will kill Christians, as such, thus tacitly acknowledging it to be right to kill Christians. The more respectable Ghadamseeah argue that in no case, if I pay the Touaricks a certain sum as tribute, or what not, have the Touaricks a right by the law of the Prophet to do me the least harm. Heard all the Arab soldiers have run away from Emjessen, being without anything to eat. These wise Turkish commanders gave the poor fellows a bag of barley and a little oil, and left it, like the widow's cruse in Holy Writ, to replenish itself. The Shânbah may now go and drink the water of the well, and plunder the caravans as they please. The wonder is that more open-desert robberies are not committed.

The Rais told me this evening that one person saw the moon, but it is necessary two should have seen the dim, pale, half-invisible crescent streak. Then the âyed after the fast would have been to-morrow. At sun-set, all the people were on the qui-vive, the Marabouts mounting the minaret tops, but none saw it but this solitary moongazer, who, said the Rais, "might have imagined he saw the moon." The telescope was not lawful, he added, "The people must see it with the naked, unassisted eye."

2nd.--No patients; only a little girl with severe ophthalmia, and the old blind man, who fancies his eyes are better with the application of the caustic. Generally the Moors think there is a different sort of medicine for women. Yesterday I was asked for a medicine for women. I gave a man a fever powder for his wife. This morning being the last before the Ramadan, the Rais sent me a backsheesh of meat (not cooked) and a quantity of rice, enough to make a sumptuous festa. Certainly the Rais is very gracious, and continues, if not increases, in his friendly feelings towards me. People are killing and preparing for the festival. There's a report, the merchants in Tripoli are afraid to leave for this city on account of rumoured depredations of the Sebâah and Shânbah. To-morrow, my taleb says he marries his two daughters. He prepares the wedding-feast, and gives his daughters a stock of semen (liquid butter), and barley and wheat, to begin the world with. The sons-in-law make presents to their brides of clothes, besides a little money; and this is all the matter. My taleb seems very glad to get rid of his daughters so easily; they are extremely young--thirteen and fifteen. Besides these daughters he has a pet son. People usually choose a religious festival, for the day of the celebration of their nuptials, as in some parts of England. The taleb then, who is excessively fond of religious discussion, began, "The essence of all religion is,--

‮وهو لا يولد ولا مولد‬ He (God) neither begets nor is begotten: and

‮وما عند الله شركاً‬ God has no associate":--

both referring to the unity of God. Speaking of the duration of the world, I said:--"The world must now begin, for, up to this time, men have been generally very ignorant; and until lately the whole of the earth has not been discovered." Very angry at this, he replied:--"Now the world will finish; God is coming to destroy all you Christians, and all the black kafers (infidels), as well as the white." He then gave me an account of the creation. "The world," he said, "was created seven times," &c., &c., adding many curious things.

I.--"What is to become of the world; are nearly all its inhabitants, from its beginning until now, to be d----d?"

He.--"Yes."

I.--"Is this the decree of God?"

He.--"Yes, all is maktoub."

I.--"But you say, God, is ‮الرحمان الرحيم‬, (Most merciful.)"

He.--"Yes; but men won't obey his religion and Mahomet."

I.--"What is to become of those who never saw, nor never could see or read the Koran?"

The Taleb.--"I don't know; God is great; God must have mercy upon them."

I.--"Undoubtedly God created the world; but according to you, the world is now all corrupt (fesad), and nearly all men must soon be destroyed. Is this honourable to God?"

The Taleb.--"All is decreed."

I.--"But many of the unbelieving Infidels are better than the Touaricks and Arabs. Is not the British Consul in Tripoli better than a Shânbah bandit?--better than an assassin who cuts the throats of the Faithful? Do not all the people speak well of our Consul?"

The Taleb.--"I know it; he's very good."

I.--"But you can't change the religion of some people though you kill them. When the Mohammedans conquered India, they got tired of putting Hindoos to death for not changing their religion, and becoming Mussulmans."

The Taleb.--"God knows all, but you don't know," (a frequent phrase in the Koran).

I.--"Now, I don't think it's of much use to talk about religion, for you won't change yours nor I mine. Here's the end of the matter. We must all die, that's a thing no one disputes; but as to who is saved, or who perishes, we cannot tell."

The Taleb.--"The truth, by G--d! If God please, we shall see all soon."

A small caravan of Arabs, bringing sheep for the Ayed, arrived this morning from Tunis. The route is viâ Jibel Douerat, and only seven days. If the roads were safe, travelling indeed about North Africa could soon be rendered expeditious. The Arabs report:--"That great military preparations are making at Jerbah, where the Bey of Tunis is expected after the Ayed, and whence he will invade Tripoli, all his Arabs being ready to march with him." After this, a caravan of forty slaves arrived from the south, under the conduct of Touaricks. The ghafalah is originally from Bornou, but half left for Fezzan on arriving at Ghat. Was much surprised when Rais told me this evening, after five or six days, he would send a soldier to sleep as a guard in my house. He explained he had received authentic intelligence from Souf, of the Shânbah banditti being on the march, five hundred strong, proceeding in the direction of Ghat and Ghadames, and he expected them near this in the course of ten days. Their intention is to avenge themselves on the Touaricks for the defeat last year. They are the immemorial enemies of the Touaricks, who have a stake in the commerce of the Desert, but they as professional robbers have none. Besides this, we hear the Sebâah continue their depredations, and have carried off 2,000 sheep from The Mountains: they also threaten an attack on Derge. The whole country, indeed, will soon be full of banditti, unless some energetic measures are adopted, and we shall have no communication between this and Tripoli. All the routes are now considered unsafe. Rais assured me, he has applied to the Pasha for a few Turkish troops, but His Highness refused, on the plea of expense. The whole force of the Rais is not a hundred Arabs, and poor miserable fellows they are, with two or three horses placed at their disposal. With such inconsiderable means the Pacha presumes to hold in the heart of The Desert this important commercial city, and its dependencies of Seenawan and Derge! The French manage matters very differently in Algeira. Indeed, the united force occupying all Tripoli, with its wide-spread provinces of many hundred miles apart, does not exceed five thousand men of all arms! Compare this to the hundred and thirty thousand men (including native troops) in Algeira, and be astonished at the different effects of the French and Turkish systems. . . . . To add to the Rais's embarrassments, the people are in ill-humour, whilst some hear the news with pleasure, and fancy they see in our present troubles the beginning of the end of Turkish rule in Ghadames.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] This book is said to be eternal as God himself, even UNCREATED. This is argued metaphysically from all the thoughts and volitions of Deity being eternal and immutable, and therefore the laws of the Koran have no relation to time or creation.

[40] Most of the people here have heard of Scinde; but their knowledge of it is very imperfect.

[41] I afterwards learnt it was--"You see these Christians are eating up all the Mussulman countries."

[42] Strabo mentions the oasis:--"To the south of Atlas lies a vast desert of sand and stones, which, like the spotted skin of a panther, is here and there diversified by oases, or fertile grounds, like isles in the midst of the ocean."

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

IX. CONTINUED RESIDENCE IN GHADAMES

The Ayed (little Festival of Moslems).--Ghadames a City of Marabouts.--Every Accident of Life ascribed to Deity.--Second Day's Feast, Swinging and Amusements of the People.--Death of the Sultan of Timbuctoo.--Various Terms employed for denoting Garden.--French Woman in The Desert.--Price of Slaves.--Time required to go round the World.--Stature of the Touaricks.--Oases of Derge.--Reconquest of the World by the Mahometans.--Tibboo Slave-dealer.--Touatee Silversmith and Blacksmith.--Assassination of Major Laing.--Tibboos compared to Bornouese.--The Touarick Bandit again.--First Encounter with the Giant Touarick.--Water of Ghadames unhealthy.--Manacles for Slaves.--Second Meeting with the Giant.--The Souafah, and Tuggurt.--Visit from the Giant.--Chapter in the Domestic History of Ghadames.--Serpents and Scorpions, the Banditti of The Desert.--Toys Prohibited.--The Wahabites.--How Moslems despise Jews.

3rd.--THE Ayed ‮عيد‬, succeeding Ramadan, is ushered in with a cold morning, the first cold morning I have felt in The Desert. Might venture to put on my cloth pantaloons. Happy to feel this invigorating cold. This is the little âyed; the âyed kebir, or âyed Seedna Ibrahim, takes place two months hence, when every family, in imitation of Abraham offering up his son Isaac, kills or sacrifices a lamb. The caravan from Bornou reports the road to be good. It is added, rain has fallen in Ghat as well as in The Sahara, near Tunis and Tripoli, so that the oasis of Ghadames is the only dry spot, for no rain has yet fallen.

Had several visits from persons all dressed out in festival finery, amongst the rest the black dervish. He looked like a dusky Nigritian Sultan. Twenty paras he condescended to take from me, which added to his holiday happiness; sometimes he won't accept of money. Now comes Ben Mousa, my taleb, to pay his respects. Not, as amongst the great unwashed of London, do they shave for a penny and give a glass of ---- (I shall not say what), in the bargain, here in Ghadames they shave for nothing. "How is this," I said to my turjeman who had now come in. "This is the custom of the country," he replied, "we always shave one another for friendship." There are several other little things done gratuitously in Ghadames, but shaving the head is the principal one[43]. He who has the sharpest razor is expected to do the most work. They cut and hack one another about most barbarously, some using no soap, only rubbing a little water over their heads. I have seen a score in a row, all sitting on the ground, waiting patiently their turn. Some shave the head every month, others allow several months to elapse. By way of diverting conversation, my taleb had the extreme kindness to tell me that the Touaricks of Aheer and Aghadez (not those of Ghat) killed Christians and Jews on the principle of religion, and would refuse to compound matters, even if I gave them a thousand dollars. He, however, condescended to add, "They are mahboul (foolish)." He then went on to boast of the sanctity of this city, and said, "Our people are not afraid of the Sebâah and Shânbah, because they are a city of marabouts." The taleb had just come from a full divan of the people, where the Rais, on this festival morning, had been haranguing them and flattering their prejudices. "Be assured," said the Governor, "if the Bashaw knew that you were a holy city, a city of dervishes, a zaweea (or sanctuary), he would write to the Sultan at Constantinople, and the Sultan, hearing of this, would immediately give orders that no 6,000 mahboubs were to be exacted from you, but that, on the contrary, money from the Sultan would be sent to you, holy people." I wondered that a man of the Rais's sense could so commit himself. What would he have done if after the âyed, the people had brought a petition to him, addressed to the Sultan, setting forth that they were "a city of marabouts," and praying to have their tribute remitted? But the poor people are incapable of taking such an advantage. They were excited by their religious feelings, and believed all the Rais told them. It was certainly a fine compliment for the feast, to men in the situation of the people of Ghadames. And my informant added: "Ahmed Effendi in The Mountains is the rascal and the infidel, and does not tell the Pasha we are a nation of dervishes." Said told me a slave was brought up to day to be bastinadoed, but reprieved till to-morrow on account of the feast. Said's sympathy is always excited on these occasions, he remembers ancient days. On asking what he had done, he said, "The slave stole some dates because he had nothing to eat." My taleb, occasionally rather free in tongue, took upon himself to call all Negroes thieves. I admonished him: "The poor slaves got little from this city of dervishes, now and then a little barley-meal, or lived almost altogether on a few dates. It was not surprising they stole to satisfy the cravings of hunger." Berka the liberated slave of Makouran, and Said's intimate friend, now came in, dressed up in his holiday clothes. He asked for Said. "He is gone to The Desert, run away, for he has broken our cooking-pot; see here are the pieces, here's the meat spoilt; what am I to do for dinner?" I added, "He ought to have a good beating." The poor old negro stared and looked really grieved. At last he muttered, "Why, Christian, that breaking comes from God, and not Said." "The truth," said the taleb laughing. Said now came in, having borrowed another pot, and Berka was comforted at the return of his friend. In The Desert, every accident of life is ascribed to an ever-present and all-superintending Divinity!

All people enjoy their festival or carnival, to-day. They follow the reckoning of Tripoli, but as the people saw the moon a day sooner there, a day of fasting is here saved. It is so fortunate not to see the moon too soon. The appointed Ramadan is twenty-nine or thirty days; ours is twenty-nine. However, rigid Moslems did not begin to eat to-day till noon, after the morning prayers, so delicately scrupulous are they. My taleb agrees with me, that the Arabs, who usually only eat in the evening, and don't smoke, experience but little inconvenience from the fast. Nothing particular took place to-day's âyed, except every one being dressed in his best clothes, and most of the youth having on something new. It is the same with the Jews of Mogador on the feast of Passover. The Sanctuaries hoist the holy colours of their religion, beautiful vermilion, and yellow, and green; these are their holiest and most-loved colours. The slaves danced and sang all day long. I was present during the closing scene at night, which was curious. After their continuous and laborious dancing, they all suddenly stopped as if struck with paralysis, offered a prayer to Allah, and dispersed. Did not go out till evening, for if I had gone out at all in the day-time I must have dressed up, and I did not wish to appear a Guy Fawkes amongst the people, or excite their curiosity or prejudices on the day of a solemn festival. The Rais asked why I did not come in the morning, for this was a grand receiving-day, when all his particular friends and the heads of the people paid him visits. On telling him, he approved my reason, and said, "You, Yâcob, have compass yaiser (plenty of wit)."

4th.--To-day is half a feast, and full-grown men and aged men are amusing themselves with swinging, like so many boys. A dead aoudad was brought in from The Sahara, which the Touaricks had killed. These Touaricks are also bearers of a letter, written at Timbuctoo, which has come the round-about way of Soudan, announcing that the Sultan of Timbuctoo is dead. Sidi Mokhtar, a marabout, is appointed Governor of Timbuctoo by the new Sultan. The Sultan himself, after visiting Timbuctoo and making this appointment, retired to Jinnee, his royal residence. Sheikh El-Mokhtar has a good reputation; he is now occupied reorganizing his government. No other news. Met in the streets one of the Touaricks who came yesterday with fifteen camel-loads of senna. Asked him if Touaricks killed Christians. Surprised at this abrupt question, he asked, "Why?" I added, "If you are a good fellow I will go with you to Ghat." Pleased at this confidence, he came home with me and took some coffee. A camel-load of senna now sells for seventeen mahboubs. He asked me what the Christians did with the senna, and would not believe it was all used for physic. Said Christians were not numerous enough to drink all they bought. There is a wady near Ghat covered with senna, during rain, but the greater portion of senna is brought from Aheer.

An instance of the way in which the Arabic language is used, and which makes some people think there are different dialects in this language, may be given in the terms denoting Garden. For garden, the Touaricks and people of Touat use ‮جنّة‬, a word which frequently occurs in the Koran, conveying the highest and purest idea of garden, and which we usually translate "paradise." In Ghadamsee and Touarghee a corruption of this pure Arabic word is used for heaven, ‮اجّن‬. The Tripoline and Tunisian Moors use the term ‮سانية‬, and the people here ‮قابة‬, for garden, but which is, rather, kitchen-garden. Now, all these words are good Arabic, and may be used indifferently, at least the two latter. In the New Testament translation, the Persian ‮بستان‬ is used, which I imagine is the Eastern term for garden generally, in opposition to the western ‮سانية‬. The Garden in North Africa is very different from our ideas of a garden. Corn-fields, overshadowed with the palm, the olive, and a few other fruit-trees, is the species of plantation to which the term is usually applied. Certainly a few flowers are sometimes cultivated in these gardens of Africa, but this is the exception to the usage.

The Rais, who is a grave Turk, nevertheless unbended himself to-day, amusing himself in seeing the boys swing. The Moors sadly wanted me to join their swinging, but I politely declined. They said, it was "medicine," meaning good for the health, everything conducive to health being called "medicine" by people in The Desert. Was gratified to see some sports amongst the people, for the men are always gloomy and reclining about the streets, brooding over their ruinous affairs, and the boys are little encouraged to healthful and innocent games. Up to this time, the only persons I have seen happy are the slaves, who dance and sing, and forget everything but the present moment. The swings are tied high up to the tallest date-palms, two or three persons swing together, and the sport is a little dangerous. Saw no other amusements during the âyed, except here and there drafts, played in the primitive way of making small holes in the sand for the squares.

During the expedition of the Duke d'Aumale to the south of Algeria, the Bey of Biskera, Mohammed-es-Sagheer ("little") murdered the small garrison of soldiers left behind, emptied the chest of what francs were in it, and went off to The Desert. He is now living tranquilly in the Jereed. The French made a demand to the Bey of Tunis to have him given up, but it seems His Highness had courage enough to resist it, alleging that he was a political refugee. Mohammed-es-Sagheer had married a French woman, and she ran away, or was taken by force, with him. She had borne him two children. The most extraordinary stories are current of this French woman. Though a low woman of one of the towns, she gives herself out as "the daughter of the Sultan of France!" She rides like a man, dresses like a man, smokes, and follows the Arabs in all their expeditions against the French. She has adopted the Mahometan religion, and is become a sort of priestess, or Maraboutah. She promises the credulous Arabs that she will not only put her husband on the throne of Algeria, but even of France itself, and then all the world will become Mussulmans! The Moors say she can never leave The Desert because she has brought her husband two children.

Saw Rais in the evening, and had a sort of confidential conversation with him, and told him for the first time of my intention to proceed further in the interior. Of course, he had heard of it before from his servants. Nevertheless, he affected great surprise and sorrow. But, when I told him I might return in six months hence, he became more calm. He then persuaded me by all means to avoid the routes of the Touaricks, and proceed to Fezzan, thence to Bornou. Speaking of the Ghadamsee merchants and their friends and correspondents, Messrs. Silva, Labe, Shaloum, and Francovich, in Tripoli, he said, "Your merchants exchange products with the Ghadamseeah in the way of barter, and make a great deal of money, whilst the Ghadamseeah have no money left, none at all." He wondered, like the Touaricks, what the Christians do with all the senna. He expected the Shânbah, on the route of Ghat, in a few days' time. I observed, "People are all superbly dressed, and there was not much appearance of poverty." He smiled, and said, "The people are sheytan (very cunning), they lay up their new clothes, and only wear them on festivals." Speaking of slaves, his Excellency said, "There is now no profit on slaves. Government takes ten mahboubs duty on each. A good slave fetches 40,000 wadâ (cowries) in Soudan, usual price 30,000, and some as low as 15,000. A good slave sells in Ghadames for forty mahboubs." The Rais told me to take care of the vermin, and abused the filthiness of the people. If I escape the Touaricks and the fevers as well as I escape the vermin, which abound on the clothes of all the people without exception, I shall consider myself fortunate. The inhabitants of Ghadames make no scruple in attacking the enemy in the public streets, which stick to them closer than their dearest friends. I attribute my escape to my being an infidel, for their orthodox l-i-c-e won't have anything to do with Kafers.

People look worse than during the Ramadan. Poor creatures, they have little to eat; they say they have nothing but barley-meal and dates to eat, for the Turks have taken away all their money. Some, however, as a luxury, which their relations and friends send them from Soudan, masticate ghour[44]-nuts, and which I believe is the kolat, or colat-nut of Caillié. The Arabs called these nuts the "Coffee of Soudan." Konja is a great place for the growth of the ghour, two or three months west of Kanou.

5th.--Weather gets colder every day. I was reflecting on the best situation for a Consul in Northern Sahara. The point would be Touat, the nucleus of many routes, the great highways of commerce in The Desert. From this point a British Consul could keep a sharp look-out on the French, moving southward.

A Mussulman doctor told me with great solemnity this morning, that five hundred years were necessary to go round the world. Two hundred years desert (‮ك٘لع‬), or nothing, or containing--

"(God's) dark materials to create more worlds."

Two hundred years of seas. Eighty years of Gog and Magog. Eighteen years of Soudan. And two years of white people, including Christians and Mohammedans. There were countries full of Mussulmans which had not been visited by the Mussulmans of Turkey or Africa. They had been visited by one man only, Alexander the Great. Certainly the Moors read history backwards. On asking where this information was to be obtained, he said, "From the Tăfseer (Commentaries) of the Koran."

The Touaricks who have just arrived are men of very large stature, and as "straight as a dart." Several of them are full six feet high. Such men are alone produced in the Sahara! All the weak and the diseased soon die off, leaving behind only the robust. They walk about the streets with an air of consummate pride, with their huge broad swords swung at the back, and their lances in their hands, like "a tall pine."

An Arab, just arrived from Derge, brings intelligence that the Ghadamsee people who were in Tunis are returning home viâ Tripoli. These are mostly poor labourers, who go a few months to Tunis to amass a little capital, with which to trade afterwards. The Ghadamsee is constantly going on these journeys of profit and enterprize, either as merchant or labourer. His Desert home is the pulse of all his distant enterprises, whither he retires to end his days, dedicating the last hours of his existence to God. The Arab came from Derge, mounted on a good horse, in the short time of thirteen hours,--by camels it occupies two and two-and-a-half days! The Arab told me he killed, a few days ago, six ostriches near Derge. The oases of Derge consist of four little oases, or districts, viz., Derge (proper), Terghuddah, Madress, and Fiffelt, containing an Arab population of 400 souls, a hardy and brave people. Water is plentiful, but there are no hot springs. A native told me, that invariably any stranger drinking this water, was attacked with fever. Generally these little oases are very unhealthy. Some assert that all who visit the oases are taken ill. Probably, like Mourzuk, they lay low, in a wady or hollowed plain. Date-trees are numerous, and bear good fruit. A fair quantity of wheat and ghusub is grown. Besides sheep, and goats, and fowls, there is a few camels. The people are occupied in the gardens, but too numerous for the oases; they are very poor, and obliged to emigrate. Derge is in the more eastern route of Zantan and Rujban; and when that of Seenawan, the western, is not safe, this, the longer route, is taken.

6th.--Slept badly during the night; restless about my journey. Determined now to take the Fezzan route. Weather very soft, with murky clouds.

Relating to my taleb, that, formerly, Mussulmans conquered Christians, but now, all the countries of the Mediterranean were fast falling back again into the hands of the Christians--such being the will of God, he consoled himself by replying: "That, in less than forty years will rise up one Abou Abdullah Mohammed El-Arbee El-Korashee El-Fatamee, (‮ابو عبد الله محمّد القرشي الفاطمي‬,) who will kill all the Christians, both of the new[45] and the old world; that this will be the golden age; all people will be Mussulmans, and all will be rich and powerful, enjoying the abundance of this world's good things; and the very dust of the earth, and the sand of the Sahara, will be turned into gold and silver: But, (the awful but!) that this will only last one generation, or forty years; for then will arise The Dajal! who, mounting upon an ass, will scour the earth in three days, and kill and destroy all the Mussulmans, this Dajal being the Messiah of the Jews, who will all flock to his standard; and that then will appear Jesus, the Son of Mary[46], from the top of the mountains of the moon, after Dajal has reigned forty years, and slay this monster Messiah of the Jews. Now there will appear Gog and Magog, let loose from Jibel Kaf, in Khoristan, and the country of the Turks and Russians. And last of all will come the end, when the Wahabites will carry all the Jews into hell-fire on their backs." Such are the secret consolations of a good and orthodox Mussulman of The Sahara. A part of this monstrous fable has been related before, with some variations. The gist of the prophecy is, the destruction of the Christians by another Arab Conqueror. Here the now humbled follower of the Prophet finds his sweet revenge. The same revenge the more ignorant and fanatic of the Jews seek and cherish in the advent of their long-expected Messiah, who is to enable them to put their feet upon the necks of all people--all the nations of the earth. But the better class of Israelites are willing to believe that the Gentile nations may enjoy a portion of the blessings of Messiah's reign, and will not be effaced from the earth. Some pious Christians, who, failing to convert men to their peculiar views of revelation, anticipate the appearance quickly of a sort of Buonaparte Messiah, armed with similar attributes, who is to involve all infidel nations in seas of blood, and make the world a heap of Saharan desolation. Such views of Christianity have always been abhorrent to my feelings; and I have kept close to the fair and pacific pictures of Messiah's reign, so beautifully set forth by Pope:--

All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white rob'd Innocence from Heaven descend.

The dumb shall sing--the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting like the bounding roe. No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear, From every face He wipes off every tear.

No more shall nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes, But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.

The swain in barren deserts with surprise, Sees lilies spring and sudden verdure rise; And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear, New falls of water murmuring in his ear.

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. The smiling infant in his hand shall take, The crested basilisk and speckled snake.

Afternoon, went to see the slaves lately brought from Bornou. They were as much like merchandize as they could be, or human beings could be made to resemble it. They were entirely naked, with the exception of a strip of tanned skin tied round the loins. All were nearly alike, as so many goods packed up of the same quality. They were very thin, and almost skeletons, about the age of from ten to fifteen years, with the round Bornouse features strongly marked upon their countenances. These slaves are the property of a Tibboo. I invited the Tibboo home to my house, to glean some information from him. The Tibboo bought the slaves on speculation in Bornou; he could now sell them at from forty to fifty dollars each. He had only six; the Touaricks had thirty-four. He came from Bornou to Ghat, thence to Ghadames. He had also some elephants' teeth. The Tibboo pressed me to buy his slaves; he had not yet found purchasers, though he had been here some days. The merchants have no money, or none to buy slaves. The Tibboo drank some tea with me, which he observed was better than bouzah, fermented grain liquor. The Tibboo was a young black, tall and slender, and of mild and not disagreeable features. There was nothing in him to denote that he was a common trafficker in human flesh and blood. He was not so much stamped with the negro features as his slaves; he was, indeed, as much of a gentleman as a Presbyterian slave-holder of the United States, patronized by Doctors Cunningham and Candlish, and admitted to the fellowship of Free Kirk Saints. The Tibboo was excessively curious about me, the Christian. He handled and turned over everything I had. Seeing my naked (white) arm, he exclaimed, "Whiter than the moon!" Said did not approve of my new acquaintance, and declared all the Tibboos rascals; and thinks he recollects that he was made a slave by the Tibboos. Said was very angry with me for giving the Tibboo tea--wouldn't make any more for him--I might make it myself. The Tibboo showed his sense of my attention, by giving me some trona, which he says abounds in Bornou, and is called konwa. He champs it in its hard crystalline state, like children champing sugar-candy. He mixes it with his tobacco, and says it is pulverized and drank in solution for medicine at Bornou, like Epsom salts, producing the same effects.

Two people left to-day for Ghat, and two for Timbuctoo. The latter were the headmen of the large mercantile firm of Ettanee. It is the custom of Saharan merchants to send their headmen, and even slaves, to these distant countries, when circumstances prevent them going themselves.

My friend the Touatee, who unites in himself a blacksmith and a silversmith, was this evening employed in making ladies' ornaments for arms and legs. He was in the course of finishing a pair of anclets, weighing together about thirty-eight ounces. Each anclet would cost 20 dollars. They are for an Arab lady; but, of course, the husband invests his money in this way until he can find profitable employment for it, or becomes distressed. "Meanwhile," says the Touatee, "he has the kisses of his wife for the investment, and is happier than if he obtained a hundred per cent. for his outlay of silver." The old Touatee distinctly recollects Major Laing passing through Ghadames to Timbuctoo. The account he gives of him is:--"When in Ghadames the Rais (or Major) purchased something of every thing he could find in our city, as well as specimens of Soudan manufacture. He had with him thirty-six bottles of wine! which I counted. He was attacked by the Touaricks near Touat, and wounded in twenty places; but he cured his wounds, and then proceeded on and arrived safe at Timbuctoo, where he stopped some time. Afterwards he went to Sansandy, where he was murdered." The unfortunate Major had no money in his possession when murdered, which greatly surprised the assassins, who murdered him merely for his money. People add, he wrote every thing in Timbuctoo, but did not stop long there. He was enticed to go away with a stranger, against the advice of the parties who conducted him to Timbuctoo. The stranger was a Saharan Arab. One of them is still living, Haj Kader, and left lately for Touat, who has the reputation of being a quiet and upright man. I did not hear of him until he was gone, otherwise I should have had some conversation with him about the Major. The other party died at Timbuctoo; he was called the Marabout, and seems to have been another Mohammed (my marabout.) In a letter of the Major, read to me by Colonel Warrington, his father-in-law, the Major charges his Marabout with having stolen his double-barrelled gun, and sent it on to Timbuctoo for sale before they arrived there. For this theft, and other bad conduct, old Yousef Bashaw made a formal complaint against the people of Ghadames, and mulcted them several thousand mahboubs. Mr. Gagliuffi heard a strange story about the Major; according to which, he was murdered near Touat, on his return, by the same Touarick who stopped him, and wounded him in twenty-six places, on his way thither, the Touarick alleging, that the Major was not a man but a devil, so he (the Touarick) was obliged to kill him. No authentic account now will ever be collected of Major Laing's death. That he was stopped a couple of days beyond Aghobly, in the oases of Touat, and there wounded, is certain; we have the Major's own account for it. He seems also to have remained a month at Timbuctoo, and wrote a full account of that mysterious city. He then, not being able to ascend or trace the Niger viâ Jinnee, on account of the objections of the people, made a détour through The Desert, wishing to go to Senegambia, when, after four days' journey, he was stopped by a party of Arabs, and murdered. Some persist in saying, that Caillié found Major Laing's papers, and gave them as his own account of Timbuctoo. I should be sorry to attempt either to prove or contradict the charge. All the documents are in possession of the family of the late Colonel Warrington. We must suspend our opinion until they are published, which I trust will not be long.

Afterwards visited the Rais, who is, like myself, very fond of the Touatee. His Excellency had a bad headache, and his major-domo was hard at work rubbing his head with his hands. I laughed, but said nothing. The people are fond of manipulation, and shampooning (Temras). Whenever any one hurts himself by bruises or falls, the limb affected is rubbed and stretched, and stretched and rubbed, until the poor sufferer's limb is nearly severed from his body. Manipulation ought to have made the fourth mode of cure laid down by my marabout, after burning, blood-letting, and talismanic writing. However, I believe manipulation, aided by the bath, frequently effects important cures. Some Moors indeed, consider this the sovereign remedy for every hurt and disease. Found the Touatee again with the Rais. He amused us both by giving his opinion about the inexhaustible supply of slaves furnished by Nigritia. "All other countries," said he, "die and become depopulated. It is now ten thousand years we go to buy slaves in Soudan. The oftener we go there the more we find. In that country the men are all night long begetting children, and the women all the morning bringing them forth. This is the reason the supply of slaves never becomes exhausted."

7th.--Said has just come in and told me I must not eat many of the dates of this country, for they have killed some of the soldiers, and will kill me. Dates may, indeed, injure the poor soldiers, who have nothing else to eat. One died yesterday. I asked his comrades what he died of, who replied, "Hunger." It is a disgrace to the Government of Tripoli to keep these wretched Arabs without any thing to eat. Why not let them go to their native mountain homes; for there, though they may pine away and die in the caverns of the Atlas, they will nevertheless give up the ghost in the arms of friends and relations--joining misery to misery, where the miserable may comfort the miserable. But, here, amidst the rude buffs of strangers, it is cruel to let them die like dogs.

The Tibboo called this morning. Merchants have offered him only 35 mahboubs each for his slaves; he asks from 40 to 50. He says, the Americans, or people nearly as white as I am, ascend the Niger as far as Noufee, for the purchase of slaves. Bornou and the surrounding countries are now in peace, and make no slaves by war. The Tibboo bought his slaves of persons who kidnapped them during the night. To observe, that although the Tibboos, if this merchant be a fair representation of them, have not such extended nostrils as the Bornouse, and such thick projecting lips, yet they are much darker than the Bornouse. Indeed, the Bornouse are of a lighter, fairer complexion than any of the Negroes I have yet seen, those of Soudan and Timbuctoo being of a much darker shade, and some quite black. The Bornouse has a round, chubby, smiling face; the Tibboo, a long, grave, intellectual face. The old Touarick bandit called to-day, with other Touaricks, and asked how much I would give for a live aoudad. Told him from 6 to 8 mahboubs. He said they're going to hunt them next month. This retired cut-throat gave himself a good character, and the Touaricks generally. "Trust us, don't be afraid of the Touaricks, upon our heads (raising his sword to his head,) we'll protect you!" Then stepped in an old friend and lover of the mysteries of geography. These are some of his questions:--"Where is the sea by which the Christians go to Soudan? Where is Mount Kaf, that girdles the earth with brass and iron? Where are Gog and Magog, which is Muskou (Russia), the monster which eats up the Moumeneen (faithful Mohammedans)?" &c. Went out and saw for the first time the Giant Touarick. The huge fellow must be 6 feet 9 inches. His limbs were like the trunks of the palm, and he walked with a step as firm as a rock; whilst his voice was a gruff growl like distant thunder. Compare this noble, though monstrous, specimen of a man, the product of the wild uncongenial Sahara, to the little ricketty, squeaking, vivacious wretch of the kindly clime of Italy, "the garden of Europe," and be amazed at the ways in which works Providence! As soon as the giant saw me, he bellowed out, "Salam aleikom!" which far resounded through the dark winding streets. He now strode by without stopping to speak or to look at me, his head and turban nearly reaching the roof of the streets, and his big sword, swinging from his back, extended crosswise, scraping the mortar from both sides of the walls. His iron spear, as large as an ordinary iron gas-light post, was carried in his firm fist horizontally, to prevent its catching the roof of the covered streets. The giant is one of the chiefs of a powerful tribe of Ghat Touaricks, of whom the aged Berka is the reigning Sheikh. The giant is quite at home here and possesses some forty or fifty camels, with which he conveys the goods of the merchants between this city and that of Ghat.

After several trials of changing food, find I am greatly relaxed, and am convinced it must be the water. This, however, is the opinion of every stranger who visits Ghadames. Last evening the Rais said, "The water here is bad. Look at the people of Ghadames, they have no colour in their cheeks. What a miserable wretch am I! When I first came, I had the colour of the rose; now I am become like these yellow men: as for my poor horse, he eats quantities of barley every day, and is still very thin. It's the bad water. We have a proverb in Turkey, 'Good water makes good horses, and bad water bad horses.'" I observed, the dates and water together made the soldiers ill. He replied, "I have written several times to the Pasha to return, it is impossible for me to enjoy good health here. His Highness still refuses to allow me, saying, he can get no one to fill my post so well, but I hope to return in a few months." I am inclined to think now that Ghadames is not salubrious, although, thank God, I enjoy pretty good health. Strangers, however, require to be acclimated. A great controversy is now being carried on amongst the medical men of Algeria, respecting acclimating; some alleging that a man can bear the climate of a country when he is quite new or fresh in it, much better than after a long residence. According to the anti-acclimaters, the longer residence in a country only weakens the force necessary to support a person against the fever and bad influences of a foreign climate.

Accosted one of my merchant acquaintances, playing with some iron manacles and fetters for the legs. It did not strike me at first what they were: at last, he says to me, "These are for slaves, each has a pair of them, to prevent them from escaping when travelling through The Desert." A painful shuddering came over me to see a man playing with these dreadful instruments of the slavery and torture of his fellow men. Yet he played with them as his rosary of beads, or some simple toy! . . . . . Another merchant came up to him, and observed, "The irons for the neck are better, as these may break." After a pause, I asked my acquaintance where these irons for the legs were made? He replied, "In Soudan; the people there have iron mountains, and they make these irons for slaves in that country." I asked him then how much they cost, and whether he would sell them. They were not for sale. So Africa enslaves herself! forges the very chains of her own slavery. Cruel, heartless Europe! Thou that knowest better, encouragest the wretched African to create his own misery; to dig from his dark purple mountains the very iron fetters of his own slavery! Take care that slavery does not surprise thee in an hour when thou thinkest not, though thou art never so wise, never so free! Another Corsican tyrant may come and bind thee down anew in the chains of slavery. . . . . . . Making inquiries of the Moors about these fetters, they said, (wishing to smooth down the matter, seeing it was disagreeable to me), "Only those who seek to escape are chained." This, indeed, afterwards I found was the case. "Some," they added, "have irons on their necks, and others irons on their legs." Alas! poor people, what have they done to be thus ironed? or what right have others to iron them? Has God said "Thou shalt iron thy brother and make him a slave?" "Yes!" say the free republicans of America, who, for being taxed for half an ounce of tea, proclaimed their freedom and independence of the tyranny of the parent country, in words which, continuing as they are, slave-holders, must condemn them to everlasting infamy[47]. But, as God lives, he will have a day of reckoning; he will avenge the wrongs of Africa! . . . . . Be sure, beware America! . . . . . Whilst walking through the streets to-day, in a bad humour on this subject, there were three Bornou youths, nearly naked, offered for sale, I think they belonged to the Tibboo. Some Arabs sitting near, asked me to buy. I replied, indignantly, "If I buy, my Sultan will hang me up, and you too." They stared at one another, and muttered something like a curse upon me.

I here find several reasons in the journal for my not proceeding by the route of Fezzan and Bornou, but it is unnecessary to give them. It is easy to write out a long list of pro and con reasons. Whilst writing these, the Tibboo comes in and brings a sick slave. He complains the merchants will not buy his slaves. Give the dropsical slave medicine. Ask him whether he ironed his slaves en route over The Desert. He answers, "No." I am bound to believe him, for though a slave-dealer, he appears an honest man.

8th.--O God of the morning! what a fine sight are these lofty umbrageous palms, with the soft serene morning sky, and the sun just rising above the clear illumined horizon, colouring and setting off the heavens around. How still, how voiceless is The Desert! The early morn now begins to be pleasant as the autumnal morn of old England. It is indeed, the--

"Sweet hour of prime."

After breakfast visited the quarter of Ben Weleed. Saw the giant Touarick stretching his unwieldy length upon a stone-bench. At sight of me, he aroused himself, and raising his head upon his huge arm, growled out to the people near him, to show them his zeal for their common religion, "Tell the Christian to say, 'There is only one God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God.'" No one took any notice of the stern command. After a moment, the conversation was continued on other subjects, and the giant fell back again to sleep. I asked an acquaintance of mine, how long he would sleep? He told me that whenever the Sheikh comes here, he usually sleeps three days before he goes round to see his friends, or begins to transact business, during which time he occasionally opens his eyes,--and his mouth, for his slaves to feed him.

Heard some Souafah, Arabs of Souf, had purchased the slaves lately come from Bornou, to sell them in Algeria, there being no market in Tunis on account of the abolition of slavery. Rais sent for me and asked me if I had any money left. I thought his Excellency wanted to lend me some, by putting the question. His Excellency then said he was in want of money. I lent him a hundred Tunisian piastres--all the money I had in the world, with the exception of seventeen in my pocket. Afterwards I dined with the Rais, and he persuaded me to return to The Mountains, en route for Fezzan. It is reported, the Touaricks have gone out to meet the Shânbah. I tell the Governor, as well as the people, whenever they begin to exaggerate or declaim upon the dangers of travelling in The Desert "Rubbee, mout wahad (God! death is but once)." This has usually the effect of stopping their mouths. Were I not to adopt this Moslemite style of address and reply, I should be worried out of my life with the exaggerations of the dangers of The Desert.

A small caravan has arrived from Souf, bringing the news of the departure of the Shânbah from Warklah for Ghat. The Souafah also bring news of interest from their own country. They are threatened with an invasion of the people of Tugurt. Twelve hundred men of Souf have returned from Tunis to their own country, in expectation of a combined attack of the Tugurt people and the French, for the Tugurt people have given out that the French, their new allies, will help them. They boast that they must now go and destroy all the Souafah. The object is to revenge an old grudge, for formerly the people of Souf and Tugurt fought a pitch battle, and the latter were worsted. There is no French governor in Tugurt, but the tribute is regularly paid to the authorities of Constantina. One of the Souafah came to me much excited. I told him that it was not likely the French would encourage this war of revenge, and I understood the principle of the French to be, "to occupy only the countries which before paid tribute to the Dey of Algiers." He observed he understood that to be the rule. But if the Souafah attack Tugurt, the French will probably defend it as a part of their territory.

9th.--The morning is cool and cloudy; a few drops of rain fell soon after sunrise, still it holds up. Amused in finding the Ghadamsee word for father was the same as dad or dady, which is written ‮دادا‬ dada. This morning the giant Touarick honoured me with a visit; he had enough to do to get through the doors of my house with his pine-tree spear. He behaved extremely well. I gave him sixty paras to buy tobacco. He begged for a whole piastre, but thinking he would be a customer of this sort again, I thought it prudent to begin with a little. His giantship swore by all the powers terrestrial and celestial, that he would escort me from Ghadames to Kanou in perfect safety. I evaded the question by observing, (what the Rais had often told me) "The Rais says the Touaricks will cut my throat." The giant roared, "Kitheb, kitheb, kitheb, (a lie! a lie! a lie!)"--and went off furiously threatening wrath against the Turks. Afterwards I heard of a complaint which the giant made against me, saying I had given him this morning a karoob short of the half piastre. I was greatly amused at the giant's keen observance of this defalcation of my generosity.

The Ghadamseeah literally carry out the injunction, "Take no thought for the morrow," which will be illustrated in the following conversation.

"What do you do for the poor in your country?"

"In England, the poor are not allowed to beg in the streets, but are provided with food and clothing in a house built on purpose for them when they can no longer work."

"We have no houses for the poor in Ghadames."

"How then do the poor live?"

"By begging."

"And if the people give them nothing?"

"It is destined they must die."

However, in one part of the oasis there are some large gardens which belong to the poor, who are allowed to eat the dates and cultivate patches of the gardens. I think also the Sanctuaries sometimes give alms in the way of the ancient monasteries. These are miserable and precarious resources. Nevertheless, before the Turks so fleeced the inhabitants, I question if there were any poor person ever likely to die of starvation, for the rich members of families provide for the poor, and rich friends for poor friends, and each faction for the poor of the faction, although no poor-rates are levied. Indeed, like the Society of Friends, all took care of their own poor relations and connections.

I shall now give the reader a chapter of the domestic history of Ghadames, referring to one of the principal families. Most of the rich merchants of this city have two and some of them three wives. My venerable friend, the Sheikh Makouran, came in possession of one of his present young wives in the following romantic way. (His wives by whom he had his children are long ago dead.) A friend of the Sheikh's died and left a young and beautiful widow, whose wit and grace was the theme of all the city, for such things are esteemed also here. The eldest son of the Sheikh immediately set his heart upon the possession of this beauty, but unfortunately he did not communicate his intentions to the disconsolate lady, who remained in ignorance of his attachment. Meanwhile, El-Besheer, as a party in the firm of his father, purchased the house over the widow's head and made everything ready for the future wedding, and then took a journey of business to Touat, intending on his return to send some old lady, which is mostly the practice, with his message of love and marriage to the widowed solitary. Perhaps he thought the widow could not fail to discover his intentions in what he had already done, mostly preliminary to marriage. But we often imagine others are thinking about us when we are never in their thoughts. So he left for twenty days' journey through The Desert, with all these hopes and fears crowding about him. On his return, to his consternation, he found his old father, of some seventy years of age, had got possession of the young blooming widow, the object he had so fondly cherished on his weary way over the solitudes of The Sahara! But like the doomed Pasha, who receives the imperial order of his decapitation from the hand of the executioner, and kisses it and then bows his head to the stroke, so the young merchant, full of filial veneration for his aged sire, submitted silently and without a murmur to this cruel decree of heaven. It is said of the lady that she pines and mourns out her life for the son. She was kept in profound ignorance of his love until she found herself in the withered, cold, and shrunken arms of the father. She accepted the father to keep a house over her head. Alas! poor woman, whether sold at Paris or London in a marriage of convenance, or in The Desert, she is always the victim of man's galling tyranny.

The Ghadamseeah are a strictly religious people. One of my best friends would not allow me to touch a religious book of his, concerning the future world, alleging it was haram ("prohibited"). A young rogue of a Touarick now came in and asked me impudently, whether I knew God and prayed? He added, "Say Mahomet is the prophet of God." As several aged men were present I made no answer. These people believe that there can be no more question of believing in Mahomet than in the sun when shining in its full strength, and are astonished that I who read and write Arabic don't know better. One said, "You are afraid of scorpions, believe in Mahomet and they will do you no harm." I could not help thinking of the parallel, for all Oriental phraseology is so much alike:--

‮هاهوذا اعطيتكم سلطا نا لتدوسا الحيات والعقارب‬ Luke x. 21.

"Serpents and scorpions" have a peculiar application to The Desert. There are still more dangerous animals in The Desert, and I have heard the epithet of "a race of vipers," applied to the Shânbah banditti. This morning the people showed me a wooden figure of a fiddler, placed on a box, in which was inserted a handle, turning round and making a squeaking noise. None of them could understand what it was. A boy was playing with it as a toy. They told me, as news, "This came from the country of the Christians; it ought not to have been made, it is haram." All toys of men and animals are considered by these rigid Moslems as so many violations of the commandment "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image."

According to my turjeman there are many Wahabites in this neighbourhood. Besides Jerbah and its mountains, many Wahabites are found in the Tripoline districts of Nalout, Kabou, Fessatou, Temzeen and Keklah. The Ghadamsee people detest them and say; "The Wahabites will be the carriers of the Jews to hell-fire in the next world." The Wahabites assert, there are five orthodox sects, of which they form the fifth, and hate cordially the other four. Wahabites have great difficulty in eating with other Mussulmans, and some refuse absolutely to eat with other than their own sect. Wahabites are very numerous in the oasis of Mezab, belonging to Algeria, which is confirmed by the Morocco marabout El Aïachi, who made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1661. The Wahabites of Jerbah are subdivided in the Abadeeah, or The Whites, who wear a white scull-cap, in contradistinction from those who wear red caps, like most Mussulmans of the coast. Generally the Wahabites differ from other Mohammedans as to the observance of the five daily prayers. They also require that, in the observance of the Ramadan, a person should purify and wash himself at the hour of the day in which the fast may begin. The sub-sect of Abadites will neither eat nor drink from the same vessel with any other sects. Wahabites in general will not weigh or touch weights, for fear of doing wrong. Other persons do weighing for them, they looking on, like the Jews who will not touch the candle on their Sabbath, and get Mussulman or Christian servants to snuff a candle or trim a lamp for them. It seems what is a sin in them, may or may not be a sin in others.

My turjeman is surprised we Christians receive the books of the Jews as sacred and inspired, and so are many other people. They are quite astonished when I tell them that Christians esteem the Scriptures of the Jews equally divine with their own. They have a confused notion that the whole of the Jewish Scriptures consist of the five books of Moses, which they call the Torat, and the Psalms of David. Some of them say Abraham was not a Jew. I explain to them, that the Christians give a different interpretation to the Jewish Scriptures from the Jews themselves, and believe "the Son of Mary" to be the Messiah of the Jews and all the world. They hardly believe me; and say, "The Jews are corrupt and their books corrupt." When I told them one day before the Rais that we had had Jews in India, they flatly replied it was a lie, for said they, "It is impossible for such a miserable being as a Jew to be a soldier."

FOOTNOTES:

[43] Shaving off the hair from different parts of the body is a species of religious rite. The barber in North Africa is highly esteemed. One of the antiquities in Kairwan (Tunis) is the tomb of Mahomet's barber. This city is also the third holy city of the Moslemite world, on account of this important personage being buried there.

[44] Ghour, ‮قور‬, Sterculia acuminata, Pal. de Beauv.

[45] He did not know there was a new world before I told him.

[46] The Moors always add to ‮عيسي‬, (Jesus,) the son of Mary, to distinguish The Saviour from others of the same name, one of whom is Jesus, a marabout, the founder of the Brotherhood of Snakecharmers.

[47] In their "Declaration of Independence," the Anglo-Americans say--"All men are created equal," and "_endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights_;" and "_amongst these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness_." I once met a Naval Officer of the United States of America at Gibraltar, who graciously told me, "Slavery is the support of the country," (his country).

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X. CONTINUED RESIDENCE IN GHADAMES

Celebration of Marriage.--Native Feast of the Slaves.--Study of the Negro Languages.--Visit to the Ancient Watch-Tower.--Arrival of an Algerian Spy.--Visit to Sidi Mâbed.--Continued Oppression of the Ghadamsee People by the Turks.--The Ancient Sheikh Ali.--Finances of Algeria.--Bastinading a truant School-Boy.--Ceuta sold by the Mahommedans to the Spaniards for a Loaf of Bread.--The Parakleit of the New Testament the promised Prophet Mahomet.--Tricks of the Algerian Dervish-Spy.--Learn to crack Jokes in Arabic.--The sustaining force of Camels' Milk as Food.--Depreciation of Women by the Moors.

10th.--A BEAUTIFUL morning, and cool. I saw with some surprise a very fine red butterfly, also a small flight of good-sized birds passing over the gardens.

This morning there was a grand gormandizing of bazeen[48], in celebration of the nuptials of the two daughters of my taleb. The feast was given by the fathers of the young men. Nearly the whole of the male population of the Ben Wezeet, besides strangers and the Arab soldiers, went to dig, and dip, and dive into the huge bowl of bazeen, some three or four hundred adults, besides boys. The house was small, and parties entering together were limited to twenty. However, as the object is merely to compliment the new married people and their parents, after they had swallowed half a dozen mouthsful, they immediately retired and left the coast clear for the rest, and thus the ceremony was soon got through. There was an exception in the case of the soldiers, whose hungry stomachs found the bazeen so good that they stuck fast to the bowl, and were obliged to receive the Irish hint of being pulled away by main force before they would relinquish their tenacious grasp. My taleb, as a matter of course, called upon me to go to the festa. I found the festive hall to be a smallish oblong room, the walls of which were garnished with a number of little looking-glasses, polished brass basons, and various other small matters, including little baskets made of palm-branches. The floor was covered with matting and a few showy carpets, and one or two ottomans were arranged for seats. In the centre of the room was placed an enormous wooden dish, full of bazeen, or thick boiled pudding, made of barley-meal, with olive-oil, and sauce of pounded dates poured upon it. Every person ate with his hands, rolling the pudding into balls, and dipping the balls into oil and date-sauce. A great piece of carpetting was laid round the bowl, to be used as a napkin to wipe the hands and mouth. The wooden dish or bowl might have been three feet in diameter, and was replenished as fast as emptied with masses of boiled dough, oil, and date-sauce. There was suspended over it, two or three feet above, a wicker roof, to prevent the dirt from falling into it when the people stood up all around and wiped their hands. The visitors squatted down together, encircling the bowl, in numbers of about eight or ten. An Arab, who had a lump given him in a corner, like a dog, found fault with it and returned it, saying, "It is not enough." This, of course, was delicate, but another lump was given him, for which also he growled dissatisfaction. This feeding of bazeen was the fullest extent of the good things of the feast. Some of the more respectable merchants went in and out without tasting the bazeen, merely paying the compliment to their friends. I asked an acquaintance how much he thought a feast of this sort cost. He replied, "About twenty dollars, but it is not the value of the materials of the feast, but the custom, which is esteemed." Not one of the Ben Weleed were present, but all the Wezeet deemed it their duty to attend the feast. The marriage feast is some eight days after the marriage. Last night there was a little firing of matchlocks. After marriage, the bridegroom cannot mix with his acquaintances for two or three weeks. It is a sort of decamping after marriage, as if the parties had done something of which they were ashamed, like in travelling honey-moons amongst ourselves. But at certain hours of the day the bridegroom may be seen gliding about like a spectre in the dark streets, alone and with noiseless tread. He usually is dressed in gayest colours of blue and scarlet, with a fine long stave of brass, or a bright iron spear in his hand. When he is met by any one he instantly vanishes: he does not utter a syllable, and no person attempts to speak to him.

This afternoon and evening was also a native feast of the slaves. They first danced and sung in the market-place. Afterwards they visited the tombs, and prayed to their dead relatives, propitiating their manes, and "to be restored to them and liberty at their death." The women carried chafing-dishes in their hands, on which burnt fragrantly the incense of bekhour. The pride of men perpetuate their distinctions beyond life to the land of the dead, where one would think the ashes of the human body should be allowed freely to return to the essential elements of our common mother, Earth. So slaves have their place of burial, and must not commingle their bones with those of freemen. From the grave-yard and its sadness, the slaves proceeded to a garden, alotted to them, where they danced, and sung, and forgot their slavery. Besides dancing and singing, the slaves occasionally fired off matchlocks, which they had borrowed from their masters or friends, and of which they are most immoderately fond. The high military chivalry of Europe, and France, who calls herself mère de l'épée, are well matched by the savage tribes and slaves of enslaved Africa, who all delight in the slash and cut of the sword, and the banging noise of the gun. The negresses sat apart, as usual, occasionally raising their shrill loo-looings, which they have well learnt from their Moorish mistresses. They were very gaily attired, some with their arms covered with bracelets and armlets, six or seven pairs of very broad tin or silver hoops being fitted on or encircling one single arm; so that the arms of some of these sable beauties were an entire mass of metal. The party mustered about a hundred, and the Tibboo stranger was here, attracted by the colour of skin and native associations. Several people went from the city to see the slaves' festival--I amongst the rest. It would be great injustice if I were not to add, that the Moorish inhabitants of Ghadames ordinarily treat their slaves well; they have a good deal of leisure, if not liberty; and their lot, as compared with the slaves of the cotton and sugar plantations of Christians, is liberty itself,--so differently do religions affect, or not affect at all, the morality of the people who profess them. To judge from this obvious case of comparison, which is so notorious through all The East and North Africa, as contrasted with the Christian States of America, the religion of the impostor of Mecca should be the religion of the divine morals of the New Testament, and the religion of The Saviour be the corrupt morals of the Koran. But if we were to judge of a religion and its morals from those who profess it, our ideas would soon get into confusion, and we should fall into the most deplorable errors.

Began to-day to acquire a few words of the Nigritian languages. People are such geese, that when I learnt half-a-dozen words of what some call the "black" language, they thought me a prodigy. The Housa is the best and most frequently spoken language here of the Nigritian tongues. A New Testament, translated into this language, would or could be read by a third of the tribes of Central Africa. Asking my negro master what I was, he replied, "Kerdee," which means kafer ("infidel") in Bornou, the negro mistaking my individual self for the pronoun I, which is oomah. I laughed heartily at the fellow's impudence.

This afternoon, visited the ancient tower, about half a mile distant, westwards, from the walls of Ghadames. My turjeman, who was cicerone, informed me that the tower was built by the Christians, and was a watch-tower to give alarm to the city in case of an attack from banditti or other enemies. There is another like it in the mountains to the north-west, where are also scattered some old masonry of other buildings. We mounted the top of the tower, and found a hollowed space at the top, of this shape-- twenty feet long, eight broad, and about five deep. It was evidently a cistern or tank for the troops, for we saw a hole at the broad end, from which the water ran out. The tower itself was about forty feet in diameter. How high it had been, we could not now tell; but the cistern is placed nearly at the top of what remains of the tower. Probably the water ran down into the lower rooms. From the tops of the ruins there was a commanding view of the oasis, and the surrounding Desert. On our way we passed a very deep, dry well, and the wall-remains of several ancient gardens. The turjeman says the water of Ghadames diminishes, and was formerly much more abundant.

11th.--This morning cooler than any yet. My eyes are now nearly restored from the attack of ophthalmia which I had in Tripoli; they open always with a little pain in the morning. It is frightful to observe how many people here have their eyes injured. A poor camel-driver said to me, "Alas! since I went that road to Ghat, I have been nearly blind. The sand and rock were too bright for them."

An Algerine Arab arrived with those of Souf, a species of vagrant marabout, bringing with him all the lax liberal ideas of French Mussulmans. I thought at first he had been sent as a spy, to see what I myself was doing at Ghadames. The pious Ghadamseeah were confounded at his discourses, as he held forth in the streets. He was very clever and facetious, now and then affecting the saint--now the reformer. When he was gone, I asked the people what they thought of him. They replied, "He's spoilt--he's a French Mussulman--he'll soon be an infidel." Others said, "He's mad." This stranger brings the news that all is peace in Algeria. One of the people asked him, "Whether it was really true that the French had got so far into the interior as Constantine?" The Algerine says also, Abdel-Kader is escaped to The Desert. The Emir had been at war with the French during the summer. My taleb, speaking of the French, observed, "Buonaparte had no father." I endeavoured in vain to persuade him to the contrary; and pressing him to tell me under whose influence he was begotten, he at last said, "You think I'm a fool, but his father was one of the Jenoun ("demons")." This is rather a good ancestry, for the Jenoun are, on the whole, a harmless, pleasant sort of people, a disposition which the war-loving tyrant Corsican rarely showed.

12th.--Rose earlier than usual, before sunrise, in order to go to the marabet[49] of Sidi-Mâbed--‮سيدي مَع٘بد‬. My turjeman had married his wife from this place, and therefore accompanied me. He said, "I married one of the daughters of the Saint, and his blood runs in the veins of my children." In all The Desert we find this aristocracy of the gentle blood of the Saints. Sidi-Mâbed is two miles and a half from Ghadames due west. It is situate upon the slope of a small valley, which might formerly have been the bed of a river. To look at this speck of an oasis, its appearance is not unlike that of Seenawan. Around, and near the little village, which may consist of some fifteen very lowly dwellings, is a cluster of palms, and further on are two or three single ones, scattered over the sloping valley. At the furthest distance are some patches of cultivation, the water running gurgling down to them. The gardens are of the same character as those of Ghadames. The inhabitants consist of some seventy souls, all the descendants of one man, the famous saint who has given his name to the village. But according to the account of his sons, his offspring has not increased very fast, for it is several hundred years,--even 900 say they--since His Maraboutship flourished. Some place him as far back as the Flood. It is said that Nimroud did not place his iron hoof on this sacred spot. The daughters of the Saint marry away, only the sons remain in the oasis, and some of these emigrate, which accounts for the smallness of the Saint's offspring.

The children of this Saint, like many a saint himself, are very ignorant, and only one of them pretends to read and write, and to-day he was unfortunately not in the oasis. Those with whom I conversed were simple rude peasants, but polite in their manners, with countenances speaking a serenity of soul and happiness of disposition, not common to the inhabitants of the Saharan regions. They told me their village was Zaweea ("a sanctuary"), and was recorded in the sacred archives of Constantinople as one of the most renowned places in the countries of the Prophet. It is, at any rate, one of the most venerated sanctuaries in the Sahara, and receives pious offerings from all. Amidst wars and tumults, and the depredations of banditti without and around, it remains secure and inviolate and inviolable. This has been its happy destiny through ages, and the villagers, poor and ignorant as they are, may be proud of their sacred unpolluted home. We have here a remarkable instance of the triumph of religious principle over brute force. The people of Ghadames make continual pilgrimages to the shrine of the Saint. The villagers brought our party dates, and all the women and children came out to look at me; the same jealous feelings do not exist amongst these unsuspecting untutored people as in Ghadames and other Desert cities. A happy thought occurred to me before I came away in the morning, of bringing them some wedding-cakes and sweets which had been sent to me: these I brought, with several loaves of bread. They received them very gratefully, dividing them among the whole population of seventy people, a morsel for each. They have no wheaten bread here; they live not on the "fat of the land," as the Christian poverty-vowing monks of our own and past times. These Desert saints are content with a scanty supply of barley-meal, a little olive-oil, and a few dates. I had been told they did not approve of holding Ben-Adam as slaves, and was greatly disappointed to hear a reply from one of them, "If we had money we would have slaves; we have no slaves, because we have no money." By the way, the poverty of North Africa and The Sahara is one of the principal causes of the few domestic slaves now kept, in comparison with former times.

When we had been in the village a few minutes, an Arab soldier came hastily after us. He was sent by the Rais, who was frightened out of his wits, his Excellency giving out, that I should be attacked by banditti. His Excellency said, on my return, "Why, why? (apparently displeased, many people being with him,) whenever you go out, come to me, and I will give you an armed Arab soldier." He added; "You and I will go and see the Zaweea on horseback." The fact is, some of the people were jealous of a Christian going to their sacred village, and considered it a pollution, and the Rais was obliged to make a show of opposition and displeasure. The children of the Saint manifested none of these exclusive jealous feelings, and were happy to see me. In the course of an hour, though my turjeman and myself came off early and secretly, it was known all over the city the Christian had gone to the sanctuary, and the more bigoted were not a little excited. In the village, although everything has the appearance of the most abject poverty, all is bright and clean. The tomb of the Saint remains, but is concealed from the world, enveloped in profound mystery, suitable to the exciting of superstitious feelings. In the gardens were many pretty butterflies. I noticed a single cotton-tree, and gathered two or three ripe pods; the tree looked unhealthy and was very dwarfish. The Sahara is not the place for cotton growing; formerly, however, cotton was grown at Carthage, the Jereed, and other parts of North Africa. Sir Thomas Reade has lately tried cotton-growing on the lands of Carthage, but not succeeded very well. We went to see the date-trees, and seeing one a mere bush, without a trunk, I said; "How long has that been so, will it ever bear dates?" A son of the Saint said; "That tree has been there as long as I can remember. It was always so. Date-trees are like mankind, some are tall, some are dwarfish, some fat, some lean, some bear fruit and others are barren. The root descends into the earth as low as the length of a man. God created this place and gave us this garden. We and our children shall keep it until the Judgment-day! From this garden we shall ascend to that of paradise, where we shall have dates always ripe and ready for eating, for every tree is large and fruitful there. And no man dare touch these trees without our permission, not even the Rais or the Bashaw. We pay nothing to any man; all cast before us their offerings. But we have little because we want little. Such is the will of God." Here then is the abode of inviolate sanctity! here sits the protecting genius of Ghadames, like a pelican in the wilderness! I observed again to-day the burnt volcanic stones scattered over The Desert. They were of all colours, yellow, black, brown, and red, like so many brick-bats. These stones scattered for miles around, together with the hot-spring of the city, and many of the low dull Saharan hills, like so many heaps of scoriæ and lava, give apparently a volcanic origin to all these regions, or render such a supposition probable.

In full Divan it was decided this morning to clear out a little the hot-spring and its ducts running to the gardens, in order to give the flow of water more room. Some old people say their fathers cleaned it out, and the water ran more abundantly; the deeper their fathers dug the well, the more the water gushed out. Others are opposed to the innovation, opposed to all change, being the good old Tories of the Saharan city. All the people are to go in a few days and set to work at this cleaning, that means their slaves. Went to see this evening a sick Touarick, out of town in his tent, and gave him some medicine; but shall be obliged to leave off distributing soon, for the most useful medicines are nearly all finished.

13th.--Weather becomes daily cooler. Get tired of writing, and wish to be off in The Desert. A courier from The Mountains has arrived, bringing a note from Ahmed Effendi, who says, "The people of Ghadames have no occasion to send a deputation to Tripoli. They must pay the extraordinary demand of 3,000 mahboubs at once, without farther dispute or delay." People are in consternation; they all say they've no more money. My taleb assures me he was obliged to sell two of his shirts to make up the last amount of the regular tax. What is to be done for extraordinary demands? The fortifications of Emjessem are to be immediately rebuilt. The mud and salt walls are to be destroyed, and new ones of stone and lime are to replace them. Rais showed me the plan of the fonduk, which was nearly executed. This looks like perseverance on the part of the Turks, and shows their determination to keep open the communication between this and Tripoli. The fonduk, or caravanseria, will be eighty feet long and thirty wide. It is to be built by the people of Ghadames, who, whilst working, will be protected by sixty Arab troops. The expense to be also paid by Ghadames. Rais is going to see the works begin. Besides the new fonduk, Rais has taken the precaution of stopping up a well, a day's journey north-east from the city, by rolling into it a huge stone. This is for the same object, to prevent brigands coming near the city and lying in wait for small caravans and isolated travellers. Fifty sheep were brought into Souk to-day; they were immediately sold. People fatten them for the Ayd-Kebir, each family endeavouring to procure one as a religious obligation.

14th.--Went early this morning to Ben Weleed to find my aged friend, Sheikh Ali. He has the largest species of dates, and invited me to go to his garden to see the palms.

Sheikh Ali is a man of ancient days, and ancient honour and resources, and fallen into a very low estate. He has not only outlived his age and reputation, but outlived his wealth and riches and has become "poor indeed." A long flowing white beard now covers his receding breast, and the wrinkles of ninety years furrow his pale brow and sunken cheeks. Nevertheless, dignity, though ruined, is stamped on his countenance, and an almost youthful activity and hale health keep up the great burden of his years. On arriving at the old man's garden, he told me to follow him, and coming to a very fine lofty palm, with over-hanging wide-spreading boughs, he sat down under its ample shade, and bade me sit by his side. "Christian," he said, "I have sat under the shade of this palm all the days of my life, and shall recline here till God summons me hence."

"How old are the longest-lived palms?" I returned.

"More than the ages of three old men's lives," observed the Sheikh.

An old slave, as ancient-looking as his master, now brought a basket of dates, they were every one of them larger than our largest walnuts. I am vexed I have forgotten the name of this splendid variety of the date. "Eat," said Sheikh Ali, and reclined back in silence for at least half an hour. Now and then he opened his eyes to look on the autumnal beams of the rising sun, then breathed a sigh and a prayer, but did not address me a word. His ancient slave sat at a distance with his eyes fixed on his beloved master, watching the movement of his lips, as he breathed his morning prayer. At length, seeing the old man's lips cease to move, I said gently:--

"Sheikh Ali, they say you have broken down very much, but I am glad to see you confide your sorrows in the bosom of God."

Sheikh Ali.--(Awakening up suddenly, and looking at me anxiously) "Ah, Christian, have they told you so? The detractors, the wretches!"

"I trust I have not offended you."

Sheikh Ali.--"No, stranger, no. But I hate them. I hate the world. I curse the world."

"The unfortunate and disappointed are always bitter upon the world. But you, Sheikh Ali, I know are above spite and malignity: you would not stoop even to hate the miserable follies of the world."

Sheikh Ali.--"Christian, thou talkest well, and in my way. I tell thee I hate no one, I have lived and I shall soon be done with the world. May those who come after me fare better."

"What is this hatred of the Ben Weleed and the Ben Wezeet?"

Sheikh Ali.--(Smiling faintly.) "Christian, thou wilt know everything. My father told me when I came out of the belly of my mother, that I was a Ben Wezeelee, and I have remained so to this day. But why or wherefore, I know not? Dost thou not see that people do this and that, and know not why they do it? Well, Christian, we do not hate the Ben Wezeet; but we will not associate with them, because we are proud, and because our fathers did not associate with them. It is pride, not hatred, which divides this our nation into two."

"Why so proud? It says in the Koran the Devil would not admire Adam for pride[50], and God cursed him for his pride."

Sheikh Ali.--"Ah, Christian, how knowest thou the Koran? Canst thou read the Great and Mighty Koran?"

"In England we read the Koran in order to obtain a correct knowledge of classic Arabic. Others read it to understand the religion of Moslems."

Sheikh Ali.--"Right, right. The Christians are a wise people. Oh, these religions!"

I thought I heard a regret of scepticism, or a kindly view of heretics and infidels, in the latter exclamation, "Oh, these religions!" So I observed to the Sheikh, "A pity it is we are not all of one religion, as we are all the children of one Creator."

Sheikh Ali.--"By G----! Christian, thou art right. I have always prayed God to lead me in the right way, and to have mercy upon others. But do you know, Christian, I think there were amongst those prophets of ancient times many impostors. What do you think?"

"I am sure of it. It is also the opinion of all our wise men in England."

Sheikh Ali.--"Christian, I hate Marabouts. In the long years of my life I have seen all their tricks, lies, and impositions. I am sorry for the poor people, on whom they practise their impostures, and also for the women. I have one daughter; I never permitted her to consult a marabout. I told her what the wretches were. Have you marabouts in England?"

"Yes, of all descriptions. We have also many who get the women to confess the secrets of families, and create an odious war in the bosom of society."

Sheikh Ali.--"Ah, ah (chuckling), all the world's alike. God curse those marabouts. Do you give them money?"

"Money! In our country, nothing is done without money."

Sheikh Ali.--(Becoming fresh excited.) "What! are the English like us? is a man esteemed for his money?"

"You have heard of London?"

Sheikh Ali.--"Londra?"

"Yes, that's it. Well, in Londra, nor virtue, nor honour, nor wisdom, is worth anything without money."

Sheikh Ali.--"The Devil take the world, it's all alike. So here, so there. When I was rich, everybody bowed down to me; now that I am poor, they pass me by without saying bis-slamah (saluting). Why did God make money? How wretched is the world." So this philosopher of The Desert continued. Returning, I bade the ancient Sheikh an affectionate adieu.

In the streets, people appeared to be fasting, as in the most rigid Ramadan. I never saw such gloomy, emaciated faces. Really people look as if they were all going to give up the ghost. What is to become of these poor devils of dervishes! Government is grinding them down to the dust! Returned home heart-sick at the sight. I am growing daily more impatient of remaining so long in Ghadames. Impatience comes on like attacks of fever. Have determined again to pursue the Kanou route.

The forty slaves brought by the Touaricks and the Tibboo have been all sold to the Souafah. The Tibboo sold his for twenty dollars per head. The ten dollars per head tax on them put the Rais in possession of a little ready money, and his Excellency paid me back the hundred Tunisian piastres. The Arabs of Souf always bring money here, and, besides dollars, a quantity of five-franc pieces, since the French have occupied Algeria. The millions spent or wasted by the French in Algeria are variously disposed of:--

1st.--The Arabs get a fifth, who bury their money, or send it into the neighbouring deserts of Tunis and Morocco.

2nd. The Maltese ship off a ninth of the money to Malta. The Spaniards and other foreigners also get a share.

3rd. A great quantity, a fifth, perhaps, is embezzled by the employés of the civil administration, and their creatures, the contractors.

4th. A tenth is spent on the public works.

5th. The rest is paid to the military. A fraction only is spent on the culture of the soil, and for the purposes of emigration, or the real colonization of the country.

15th.--This morning is really cold, and the coldest morning we have had yet. Rais assures me I shall with difficulty be able to bear the cold, so intense is it in Ghadames during the winter, or January and February. Greatly agitated about my journey in the past night, and could not sleep. There will soon be an end of this uncertainty. I pray God to give me patience and wisdom. Observe people are beginning to feel the effects of the cold, and cover up their mouths like the Italians and Spaniards. But all are living up to the starvation-point.

At noon was held a full Divan, to decide upon the "extraordinary demand." The chiefs of the people said:--"We have no money, and cannot pay." The Rais replied:--"Such discourse will not do; you have money, and must pay." Then the Divan broke up without farther palavering. The alleged object of the money to be raised, is for the expenses of the troops who went in pursuit of the Arabs of the son of Abd-el-Geleel in the past summer.

The old bandit calls and says:--"Your friend, the long man, has finished to-day all his tobacco." The long man is the Giant Touarick. I took no notice of this polite hint to furnish a new supply. I might furnish with tobacco all the Touaricks who came here, if I were to attend to these Irish hints. The old bandit, who is cramped up like a wizened apple, is said by people still to carry on his nefarious trade. The proof of this they give to be, his always going alone when he travels. The old villain then catches what he can. Myself, I hardly believe he continues his brigandage. He appears wholly worn out. I gave his little son 20 paras to buy camel's flesh. The old freebooter grinned a ghastly smile. Walking in Ben Weleed quarters, I heard a great to-do, and went to see what it was, when I saw the old chief, Haj Ben Mousa Ettanee, standing over his young truant son, whilst with a thick stick the servant of the schoolmaster was belabouring the feet of the child. Never was a more complete bastinadoing. The urchin cried to his father for mercy. It was perfectly in character with the old man, and the austere manners of his family. I do not wonder that all the people read and write in Ghadames, when such severity is practised by the very aristocrats of the city. Whilst standing by, another Moor went up to the old man, and said, "Stop, stop, here's the Christian looking on." They stopped, but it appeared a mere pretence for leaving off, for already they had unmercifully belaboured the truant.

No mutton to be had to-day, and was obliged to buy camel's flesh for dinner: found it pretty good. My turjeman and taleb both joined me. After dinner, the taleb began in his usual controversial spirit. He insisted, that "Any person who should make himself well acquainted with the Koran must become a Mussulman." "If the French teach their children to read the Koran, in order to learn the Arabic," said he, "they must conquer the Russians and the English." Not "εν τουτω νιχα[51]," but in or with This Book, say the Mussulmans, the world must be conquered. The Russians and the French, having recently made conquests in Mohammedan countries near them, (for the wars in Circassia are heard of here,) impress these people with fear, and fear is their ruling principle of government. Asking my taleb why the Mussulmans who had possession of This Book did not conquer the world, he answered sharply, "The Mussulmans conquered the world once with the Koran, but now they have lost their faith, and are weak, and such is the will of God." The taleb then related a curious story about Ceuta. A certain marabout, who had seen the Elouh Elmahfouth (‮الوح المحفوظ‬,) or "Book of Fate," which was let down to him to look at and read in, from heaven, went into the city, and offered Ceuta for sale at the low price of "a loaf of bread." The people said:--"Oh, the man is mad, let him go." But he continued the more to cry out, "Who will give me a loaf of bread for Ceuta?" At last he met a Christian, a Spaniard, who gave the Marabout a loaf of bread, and took possession of the city. This seems really an excuse for the loss of that strong fortress. But it is added:--"The Marabout having seen and read the future destiny of Ceuta in the Book of Fate, was determined to hasten the crisis, and placed it at once in the hands of the Christians." My taleb assures me that Mahomet was foretold and promised in our gospels, under the name of Parakleit, (i. e. ὁ Παράκλητος,), "The Comforter." He cited also the Koran, but would not write the passage; I had no Koran with me. But this is an advantage, for if I had had a Koran in my possession, I should only have excited the prejudices of the people against me, and should not have been able to have kept it from them. A traveller might take a translation advantageously, one without Arabic notes, or Arabic words explained, which would soon excite their curiosity to know what it was. Speaking of the "Ben Welleed" and "Wezeet," my turjeman said:--"These are the French and the English; we are always at war with one another."

It is the opinion of people here, that the French and English are always at war, and they are continually on the qui-vive for a war breaking out between France and England, for they think then the English will drive out the French from Algeria, unmindful of what miseries such a war would entail upon themselves, crushed as they would be between the two great hostile Powers.

The Algerine dervish is playing off some fine tricks. This afternoon he got together a dozen low fellows of the Ben Weleed, and went to say the fatah before the Governor. This saying fatah was chiefly forming a circle with his troop, himself in the middle, and then at the top of his voice singing out, whilst his troop cried out, "hhahh," jumping up, and bending forward their heads and bodies towards him. This they continued for an hour or more, until they sank upon the floor with exhaustion. Afterwards they played off some other genteel tricks. His Excellency the Rais is as great a dervish as any mad fellow here, and though suffering greatly from headache and bad eyes, he endured this tomfoolery for nearly a couple of hours. My taleb, a shrewd man, said to me, "Don't you see, I told you this Algerian was an impostor?" I believe really he is a French spy on the movements of the Turks, and perhaps myself. The Tibboo calls. He is preparing to depart, and presses me to go with him. Speaking to a Touarick, he said, "See the money of the Christians (taking hold of my black buttons)." Many people have half a mind to believe my black buttons are money. The Tibboo says, there are no watches in Soudan. People are content to measure time by the sun's rising and setting. Some merchants, lately come from Tunis, have heard of the projected aërial machine. They have no difficulty in believing that Christians travel in the air. They think the Devil, being very clever, teaches Christians all these things. The Touatee calls, and says, "You must write something." "What?" I answer. "Oh," he replies, "My wife has a head full of fantazia (or nonsense); this you must write." It appears the Touatee has got a scolding wife. Told the Rais about this funny incident, who said, "Tell the Touatee to go home and pretend he's going to take another wife, and then she'll soon leave off pouting."

16th and 17th.--Continues cold. People say I improve in Arabic. I ought, for I have enough of it. What is odd, I begin to joke with the people. It will be seen I have represented the Saharan people as mostly gloomy, and suffering from the oppression of their Government. Still there are times when they can force a smile, or crack a joke. They carry the joke so far that they have sometimes joked me about my fasting in Ramadan, a very sacred subject for a Mussulman. Every time I go into the streets, I meet with one or other with whom I try to get up a joke, for it grieves me to see the people suffer so much from bad government. After we come to satire, and with the help of the word batel, "good-for-nothing," we manage to hit off somebody. An Arab Sheikh came to us, one day, when we were joking. I said, "Oh! here's the lion-heart, who ran away from Emjessem for fear of the Shânbah-Bātel." The Arab, astounded, "Ya rajel (Oh man), I had nothing to eat!" "Nor have we here," replied a merchant, "you better go and hunt with the greyhounds of the Touaricks. The Rais has taken away all our victuals." The poor Arab went his way very queer and crestfallen.

Speaking to a Moor of The Sahara, I said, "The Sahara is always healthy: look at these Touaricks, they are the children of The Desert." He replied, "The Sahara is the sea on land, and, like sea, is always more healthy than cultivated spots of the earth. These Touaricks are chiefly strong and powerful from drinking camels' milk[52]. They drink it for months together, often for four or five months, not eating or drinking anything else. After they have drank it some time, they have no evacuations for four or five days, and these are as white as my bornouse. It is the camels' milk which makes the Touaricks like lions. A boy shoots up to manhood in few years; and there's nothing in the world so nourishing as camel's milk." Caillié mentions that the chief of the Braknas lived for several months on nothing but milk; but it was cow's milk. Many of the Saharan tribes are supported for six months out of twelve on milk.

The Moors seem to have a secret dislike for women, as well as a most obstinate desire to tyrannize over them. There is a lurking desire of this sort in the men-sex of all countries. Are we not the Lords of Creation? I actually get afraid of avowing to them that the supreme ruler of England is a woman, they are so confoundedly annoyed at the circumstance. The first questions of their surprise are, "How? Why?" &c. My taleb is very fond of supporting the doctrine of a woman having only a fifth of her father's property. I annoy him by telling him it's a bad law, and that the daughter should have an equal share with the son. Lady Morgan is sadly wanted here; she would find ample additional materials for a second edition of "Woman and her Master."

FOOTNOTES:

[48] Bazeen, ‮بزين‬, called also Aseedah, ‮عصيدة‬.

[49] Some have endeavoured to distinguish in English the mausoleum in which a dead saint is laid by the term Mara_bet_, though in Arabic both the dead and living saint, and the cupola house in which the dead saint is laid, are all called Mara_bout_. When a village or town, is built round the mausoleum of a saint, it is also called after the saint, as in the instance now related.

[50] "We (God) created you, and afterwards formed you (mankind); and then said unto the angels, Worship Adam; and they worshipped him, except Eblis (The Devil), who was not one of those who worshipped. God said unto him, What hindered thee from worshipping Adam, since I had commanded thee? He answered, I am more excellent than he: thou hast created me of fire, and has created him of clay. God said, Get thee down therefore from Paradise; for it is not fit that thou behave thyself proudly therein: get thee hence; thou shalt be one of the contemptible."--Surat vii. Intitled Al-Araf.

[51] The words in the Cross, which Constantine is reported to have seen in the heavens.

[52] When the milk is fresh it is called by the Arabs ‮حليب‬, when sour, ‮لبن‬.

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XI. CONTINUED RESIDENCE IN GHADAMES

Gaiety of the Black Dervish.--Walking Dance of the Slaves.--The Fullans or Fellatahs.--Shoushoua, or scarifying the face of Negroes.--Terms used in connexion with Slaves.--The Razzia.--A Souafee Politician.--Parallel Customs between The East and The Sahara.--The mercenary Blood-letter.--Indifference to the sufferings of the Arab Troops.--Colour of the people in Paradise.--Excellent Government of the Fullanee Nations.--Moors do not fondle their Children.--Administering Physic to Camels.--Simplicity of Touarick manners.--Knocked down by a Pinch of Snuff.--Departure of the Tibboo alone to Ghat.--Blood in White Sugar, and Anecdote of Colonel Warrington and Yousef Bashaw about collecting old Bones.--Colonel Warrington compared to the late Mr. Hay.--Said, a subject of Anti-Slavery discussion.--Specimen of Desert Arab freedom.

18th.--WITH the full moon the cold has regularly set in. Good-bye flies and good-bye scorpions. Can now write with my door open, without being covered with flies. Can also sleep without waking up at midnight to kill scorpions running over the mattresses. The mad black dervish is always in motion, and full of gaiety. People are so fond of him that they think he is inspired. When all the Moors are in solemn vacant thought, or brooding over their griefs, or dreaming in broad day of their being marabouts or sultans, the poor witless thing runs in amongst them, shaking hands with the first he meets with, and bursts out a-laughing. He usually succeeds in infusing a little of his cheerfulness into these equally mad people, but more sober in their method of madness. Yesterday the slaves had another feast for the dead. The Moors allow their slaves the liberty of blending the two religions, as Rome has allowed the blending of Christianity and paganism. And when questioned about it they say; "Oh, the slaves know only a little of Allah, and are not much better than donkeys in their understandings." The slaves assembled to the number of some fifty in the Souk. Here they performed a species of walking dance, in two right lines, very slow and very stiff and measured, having attached to it some mysterious meaning. They were gaily dressed, attended with a drum and iron castanets, making melodious noises. Each had a matchlock slung at his back. The women carried a chafing-dish of incense, as if about to raise some spirit or ghost. A crowd was around them; but they performed nothing but this slow-marching dance, and then retired to the tombs. The dervish, poor fellow, mingled in the gay throng, shouldering a stick for a gun.

Received many little presents from people lately. Sheikh Makouran brought me himself a small basket of very fine dates. My taleb afterwards brought me some gharghoush, or small cakes, made of flour, honey, sugar, and milk. They are extremely pleasant eating and a little acid, which adds greatly to their flavour. There are but few things acid in this country; of sour things there is an abundance.

Heard a great deal about the Foullans, Foulahs, and Fellatahs, the predominant race in Soudan. Foullan (‮فلّان فلّانين فلّاني‬) is the Soudanic term, Fellatah the Bornouese, and Foulah what is used to denominate them among the Mandingoes. According to information here, they were once the most miserable race of Arab wanderers in The Desert. But at last they settled down as neighbours to the Negroes, some 700 years since. They continued to increase in numbers and importance, abandoning tents and building villages and towns, and intermixing with the Negroes, till about forty-five (and others thirty-five) years ago, when they expanded their ideas to conquest and renown. About this time they made the conquest of Kanou, Succatou, and the other large cities of Housa. Never a people rose to greater fame and power. They were assisted, like the Saracens before them, by religious fanaticism, and so far corresponded with them, in extending the boundaries of Islamism. They went on conquering and to conquer till within the present year, when their power received some check by the daring exploits of the Tibboo prince of Zinder, a vassal of Bornou. This prince has taken from them a few towns. The complexion of the ordinary Fullanee is a deep olive, with pleasing features, not much Negro, and long hair.

Negroes in Nigritia are known by the Shoushoua (‮شوشوا‬), or scarifying. Generally in Negro countries, which profess the Mohammedan religion, the Shoushoua is abandoned as haram or prohibited. It is mostly the sign of paganism. The operation is performed by a sharp cutting instrument, and is never effaced from the face during life. The annexed drawing presents the Shoushoua of the Negroes of Tombo, near Jinnee, who are pagans. Whenever the slaves see these marks they know the country of the other slaves who bear them. Formerly it could be ascertained whether a slave was born on the coast, or brought from the interior, by the presence or absence of the Shoushoua. Now it cannot, because the practice is discontinued in countries subject to Moslem rule, whence slaves are sometimes brought. In Ghadames a freed slave is called mâtouk (‮معتوق‬) or horr (‮حرّ‬). The terms waseef (‮وسيف‬) and sometimes mamlouk (‮مملوك‬) are employed for a single slave, and âbeed (‮عبيد‬) for many. The Arabic terms ‮قايد الوصفان‬ "the chief of slaves," are used to denote the person who is responsible for the conduct of slaves, or the "Sheikh of the slaves." The word RAZZIA, which the French are said to have invented, and which has acquired such a triste celebrity by their butcheries of the Arabs in Algeria, is derived from the same word as designates a Slave-hunt (ghazah)[53] amongst our Saharan people. The verb is ‮غَزَا‬ ghaza, "petivit," which in the second conjugation means, "expeditione bellica petivit hostem," and the noun in use is ‮غَزَاة‬ ghazah, "expeditione bellica." The Bornouese word to denote a slave-hunt, as carried on by the Touaricks, is DIN, applied to private kidnapping expeditions, and means, I think, simply "theft," showing that not by war, as captives, but by "theft," "stealing," the "man-stealing" of the Apostle Paul, are slaves generally procured in Central Africa. It is only just that razzia and ghazah, the same words, should be so closely allied in application to their different actions. The French, to do the thing properly, and in their usual style, should erect a monument upon the "Place" of the city of Algiers, to the new invention RAZZIA, with its derivations from ghazah, "a slave-hunt." A prize essay might also be proposed to the Oriental Chair of Paris, and its various students, now looking for distinction as interpreters in the land of RAZZIAS or "butcheries," for the best derivation and historical progress of the term RAZZIA, as used by Christian and civilized nations, in relation to infidel and Mohammedan barbarians. At the bottom of the monument erected by the French to the DEMON RAZZIA, may be appended the following veracious words, copied from the late proclamation of the Duc d'Aumale, on his assumption of the high post of Governor-General of Algeria (Moniteur Algérien, October 20, 1847):--"You have learned by experience, O Mussulmans! how just and clement is the Government of France." The Duke unpardonably forgets to cite one of the last proofs of this just and clement Government, the roasting of a tribe of Arabs, men, women and children in the caverns of the Atlas! . . . . Will not the Lying Bulletin (native of France) be proclaimed till doomsday?

This morning the merchants asked me why the English did not drive out the French from Algeria. They had often badgered me with this subject. I thought it better to speak plainly at once, and for all. I began by asking, why should the English drive out the French? and continued, "France and England are now at peace. They don't wish to make war at all, and England does not consider Algeria of such importance as to go to war about it. England did not derive much benefit from Algeria when Mussulmans ruled there; besides the Algerines were always sea-robbers. The English were obliged to go and chastise them several times before the French captured their country. And do not think, that if war did take place between England and France, and the English should drive the French out of Algeria, the country would therefore be given up to the Sultan and the Mussulmans. The English might wish to rule there themselves. Upon no account wish for war in Algeria, for the miseries of the war would chiefly fall upon you, Mussulmans." This completely settled them, and exasperated them, as well it might; they said no more. The Mussulmans always have in their memories the conduct of the English when they drove out the French from Egypt, and discussing this kind of politics, it is quite natural.

Afterwards I heard a Souafee holding forth to another group. His theme was, the Shânbah, Warklah, Touaricks, Tugurt, Souf, and Ghadames, and it was evident to him that besides the people now enumerated there were no others in the world. A respectable Moor observed at the time, "That Souafee is a rascal. He's as great a robber as a Shânbah bandit. Mussulmans are not like Christians. The Christians have but one word, and are brothers. The Mussulmans have a thousand and ten thousand words, they don't speak the truth, and they are enemies to one another." The ingenuous Moor knew little of the history of Europe and America. I did not disabuse him of his good opinion of us. He was a Ben Wezeet, and complained that now the Nāther (‮ناظر‬), or native overseer of the city, and the Kady or judge, and some of the richest merchants belonged to the Ben Weleed, and added mournfully, with a sigh, "It was not so in my father's time. But the world has changed, and this is the new world."

In reading the Arabic Testament, I have noticed several parallel customs or habits between The East and North Africa. Take this:

"But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote upon the ground." (John viii. 6.)

People of Ghadames are writing daily with their fingers on the ground. They are also wont, with fancy ornamental sticks, which they usually carry, to illustrate their ideas on the sand or dust of the streets, by drawing figures. In speaking with them on geography, they sketch shapes of countries. They cast up all their ordinary accounts by writing figures on the sand. They have also certain games which they play by the use of sand. Sand is their paper, their ledger, their boards of account, their pavement, and their auxiliary in a thousand things. It is said in the Gospels, that The Saviour escaped to the mountains[54], either from the pressure of the people, or from the persecutions of his enemies. Persons are accustomed to escape to the mountains in Barbary, more particularly in Morocco and Algeria; but also in this country. Our Saviour, besides, gives the same advice to his disciples: "Let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains." (Luke xxi. 21.) It has always been difficult to apprehend fugitives in the mountains, especially in ancient times, when a good police did not exist. The conqueror has always had great difficulty, and exposed his conquests to imminent risk, by pursuing the conquered in mountainous districts. Such are the instincts and habits of men in all ages. The Desert has, besides, afforded an asylum to the fugitive and unfortunate, as well as the persecuted. Our Saviour was wont to retire to desert places. In this country, the discomfited defenders of their country's liberties have invariably escaped to The Sahara. How many times has Abd-el-Kader escaped to the mountains of Rif, or the solitudes of The Sahara? But it is unnecessary to pursue this obvious idea farther, otherwise it also will escape to The Mountains or The Desert.

The "five barley loaves," (John vi. 9,) reminds me of the barley bread of these countries, more frequent than any other sort of bread. Wheaten bread is rarely eaten by the lower classes.

It is needless to cite all the passages of Scripture where the people in the towns and villages are represented as bringing out their sick of every kind and description. (Matt. xiv. 14, 35, 36.) So it is in North Africa. Whenever an European visits these countries with any pretensions to medical skill, all the sick of the place are brought out to him. When I see the sick daily brought to me--as also when I was in The Mountains--I cannot help thinking of those affecting pictures of disease and misery which were providentially exhibited to demonstrate the divine skill of the Great Physician of mind and body.

Salt is procured in a few hours' journey beyond Sidi Mâbed, and is considered superior to that procured at the Salinæ of the coast. This Saharan salt is only obtained after there has been some rain, the earth being impregnated with it, and the water washing away the earthy particles. It is gathered in the dry season.

19th.--Amuse myself with Arabic reading and philological studies. The mornings continue cool. Administer now little medicine, for I have but little left. Ordered an Arab to be bled by the old Moor, who possesses a good lancet. The big hulking Arab proved a greater coward than a child. How sickness unnerves a man, the hardiest and strongest of men! I once took a passage from Algeria to Marseilles in a French transport of convalescents. There I saw the brave and brilliant French troops cry and whine like children under the influence of fever. When the old Moor had bled the soldier, he said to me, "Where's the money?" This shows that, though they rarely think of remunerating the services of the Christian Tabeeb, they have a perfectly clear conception of what is due to the labour and skill of a doctor when the case refers to themselves. Some time after, I went to the old Moor again, and asked him to bleed another soldier attacked with fever. He refused to bleed him, alleging that he must be paid. "He will die," I said. "Let him die," returned the unfeeling old blood-letter; "why do they bring soldiers here, we don't want them?" This afternoon I visited the barrack, where several Arab soldiers were laid up with the fever, which they had caught at Emjessem. One was very bad. The Arabs said to me, "You must give him money to buy some bread, and a little meat to make some broth." I told them they must go the Rais; it was his business to look after his troops. It is distressing to witness the condition of these wretched Arabs. At different times I have given them a little meat, and bread, and oil; but now my stock of provisions is getting down, and the communication between Tripoli and Ghadames is very precarious. In the evening I saw the Nāther, and said to him--expecting he would mention it to the Rais, "See that soldier lying on the stone-bench; he is sick, and has nothing to eat."

The Nāther.--"Yes, he is ill."

I.--"But he has nothing to eat; can't you get him something to eat?"

The Nāther,--"Pooh, he must die."

The other Moors present laughed at my simplicity in begging something to eat for a fever-worn, emaciated wretch of a soldier. The matter of fact is, these poor fellows are detested by the inhabitants, and starved to death by the Government. The soldier had caught the fever of Derge, whilst sent there on business, which is a bad tertian fever, prevalent in some oases of The Sahara.

Lately, as my turjeman and Said, with several negroes, were chatting, and saying people would have husbands and wives in the next world, I asked, in the manner of the Sadducees, "If a woman had three husbands in this world, whose wife would she be in the next?" They all answered, "The wife of the last." As some of the group of these theologians and diviners of the future state were negroes, I asked, "What colour will people be in the next world?" They replied, "All white, and alike; and not only will their skins be white, but all their clothing will be white." White, indeed, is the favourite colour of Mussulmans; and a sooty-black Mohammedan negro will set off his face with a white turban, as our Christian niggers do their japan with a lily-white neckcloth. But white is the colour of purity, of religion in North Africa and The East, as in Biblical times.--περιβεβλημένους ἐν ἱματίοις λευχοῖς. (Rev. iv. 4.)

20th.--Weather continues fine and cool. Less meat to be had; nothing decided about the new levy of money, except that the people will not or cannot pay. The Sheikh Makouran tells me he is greatly in debt to Messrs. Silva and Laby, and so are all Ghadamsee merchants. The money now employed in commerce is chiefly that of European and other merchants of Tripoli and Tunis. "We have no money," says Makouran, "we cannot pay any new levies. If Rais persists, he must collect our money at the edge of the sword; and this can't last, for we shall all soon die of hunger." These continual complaints make me melancholy, and added to my impatience "to be up and doing," make me very peevish. O Dio! but such is the lot of man, to suffer always, either in mind or body. Much annoyed at my taleb for eating Said's dinner, even before my face. These Moors, at least some of them, have neither honour nor conscience. I suppose the taleb is pinching his belly to pay his portion of the new contribution. To punish the taleb, I give Said coffee before him, without asking him to take any. I may observe, the Moors don't like to see me treat the poor blacks and slaves as their equals. I frequently give the negroes tea and coffee before I serve them, to show I despise such distinctions, although, perhaps, against propriety.

The taleb began boasting about Soudan, and he has much reason to boast of it, if we compare what Mohammedans have there done with what Christians have done on the Western Coast of Africa. He said, "There's no gomerick (Custom-house), no oppression, for the people are Mussulmans." Such were the reasons for their not being oppressive. It is a great question how far a country may be civilized, and in how short a time, without actual conquest? Civilization has progressed in Central Africa with the spread of Islamism. When it reaches the point of Mahometan civilization it will stop. The question with us is, "Whether we shall civilize the Mohammedans, and so work on Central Africa, or reconquer their conquests?" There appears very little chance of civilizing Africa without arms and conquest. Bornou, Soudan, and its numerous cities, Timbuctoo and Jinnee, formerly all governed by the Kohlan--‮كحلان‬, or "blacks," are now governed by strangers, either Arabs (pure) or Touaricks or Fullans. These are the present most important kingdoms of the ancient Nigritia, and include a population of some millions. I continue to pursue my inquiries respecting the Fullans. All agree in representing them as originally Arab, but now greatly mixed, of very dark colour, some being nearly black, others, and most of them, a dark brown and yellow red, and some nearly white. The fortunes of the Fullans, emerging filthily from the dregs and offscouring of The Sahara, have become as great as the old Romans formerly in Europe, but they will always have powerful and vindictive rivals in the Touarghee and pure Arab and Berber races. The Revd. Mr. Schön has given a too unfavourable report of the Fullans, in his Notes and Journal of the Niger Expedition, biassed against them in his Missionary zeal, simply because they are Mahometans. It is true that the Fullans are great slave-dealers, but so are nearly all the princes of Africa. The mild and equitable administration of the kingdoms of Kanou, Succatou, Kashna, and other immense centres of population, as carried on by the Fullans, is notorious throughout The Great Desert. No people of Nigritian Africa has so profoundly excited my best sympathies as the Fullanee races[55].

The Moors do not fondle and dandle their children on their knees, as parents are accustomed in Europe; and when grown up, the children appear as distant from their parents as strangers. This arises from the absolute authority assumed by parents over children during their minority. I have often been angry to see some of the lower people here teaching the children to call me Kafer ("infidel") as a sort of religious duty, lest, I imagine, the children should see at last that there is no very great difference between a Kafer and a Moslemite.

Was much amused this afternoon in seeing physic administered to camels. The camel is made to lie down, and its knee joints are tied round so that it cannot get up. One person then seizes hold of the skin and cartilage of the nose, and that of the under jaw, and wrests with all his force the mouth wide open, whilst another seizes hold of the tongue and pulls it over one side of the mouth; this done, another pours the medicine down the throat of the animal, and, when the mouth is too full, they shut the jaws and rub and work the medicine down its throat. The disease was the falling off of the hair; and the medicine consisted of the stones of dates split into pieces and mixed with dried herbs, simple hay or grass herbs, powdered as small as snuff, the mixture being made with water. People told me it would fatten the camel as well as restore its hair. Camels frequently have the mange, and then they are tarred over. For unknown incomprehensible diseases, the Moors burn the camel on the head with hot irons, and call this physic. Men are treated in the same way, and the Moors are very fond of these analogies between men and brutes. What is good for a camel is good for a man, and what is good for man is good for a camel. Whilst the camel was being drugged, a Touarick came up and said, "Salām âleikom" to me. They always use this primitive mode of salutation. When they swear oaths they also say, "Allah Akbar," (God is Greatest!) the famous war-cry of the Saracennic conquerors of olden times. They are primitive in all their ideas and words; their manners are equally stiff, and slow or courtly, "stately and dignified;" they fully understand the doctrine that, "Great bodies move slow."

A man is said sometimes not to be worth "a pinch of snuff;" and yet a pinch of snuff will knock a man down, as it knocked me down this evening. My value then does not quite reach to a pinch of snuff standard. To come to explanation: a merchant offered me a pinch of snuff, and to please him, I took a large pinch, pushing a portion of it up my nostrils. Immediately I fell dizzy and sick, and in a short time, vomited violently. The people stared at me with astonishment, and were terrified out of their wits, and thought I was about to give up the ghost. They never saw snuff before produce such terrible effects. After some time, I got a little better and returned home. This snuff was that from Souf, and what people call wâr ("difficult"). I had been warned of it, and therefore richly paid for my folly. Moreover, it was a violation of my usual abstinence from this not very elegant habit. The Souf snuff is extremely powerful; it is constantly imported here, and for the satisfaction of snuff-takers and snuff-taking tourists, I am bound to inform them that they will find snuff much cheaper in Ghadames than in Tripoli. People call snuff hot and cold, according to its stimulating, irritating, and tickling power. It is prohibited to drink wine and spirits amongst Moslemites, but, nevertheless, many of them do not fail to intoxicate themselves with everything besides which comes in their way: they snuff most horribly all the live-long day. In the season the Arabs drink their leghma, and the Mahometan Negroes their bouza, the Soudanic merchants chew their ghour, nuts, and kouda, as our jolly tars their tobacco, and others munch the trona. My taleb came to me to see if I were dead. He had heard such a horrible report in the town. I embraced the opportunity of lecturing him upon the absurdity of the prohibition from drinking wine, when he and others intoxicated themselves with snuff. But man will have his stimulant, and the tee-totaller, who protests against all stimulants, seeks his in his tea and coffee. There is no harm in this, and the question only remains to seek as harmless a stimulant, as consistent with health as possible. In justice to the Marabout city of Ghadames, I must mention that some of the more strict Mohammedans consider snuffing, as well as smoking, prohibited by their religion, and opium (‮ععيون‬), and keef, an intoxicating herb, sometimes called takrounee, ‮تكروني‬, are not smoked in this place. In general, few of the Moors of this place smoke at all.

21st.--Weather fine, no rain. The merchants begin to bake biscuits for their journey to Ghat, which looks like preparation. My friend Abu Beker called and gave me two letters written to him from Timbuctoo by his brother, who is established there. Since my return, I have given one of these letters to the Royal Asiatic Society, and the other to the British Museum, considering them a great curiosity, so long as this city shall remain separated from us Europeans by such impassable barriers.

The following is the translation of the letter presented to the Royal Asiatic Society:--

LETTER FROM A BROTHER IN TIMBUCTOO TO A BROTHER IN GHADAMES.

"From the poor servant of his Lord, Muhammad ben Ali ben Talib, to our respected brethren, Abu Bekr and Muhammad, and Abdallah, and Fatimah, and Ayshah, and our Aunt Aminah; God prosper their conditions, Amen!

"After a thousand salutations and respects to you, and the mercy of God, and his blessings on you, should you indeed inquire concerning us, we are well, and you, please God, are so likewise; and we desire no further favour from God than the sight of your precious countenance; may God unite us with you before long, for He is the Hearer (of petitions)! As to this country there is in it neither buying nor selling. By G--d, O my brother! this day we are six months in Timbuctoo, and truly in the whole time I have received but 15 mithcals. There is not a single farthing (or kirat) in this town, nor commerce at all, except in salt, &c., (some other commodities, whose names I cannot discover.) And our minds are in continual fear here from the scarcity of the times. I am desirous of going to Arawan, if we can find something to sell there, when the people of Kiblah (the South) come; but they are not yet arrived, up to the present moment, and we do not think they will come. And thou, O my brother, beware of sending us any thing! as in this country there is no commerce, (neither buying nor selling); and whatever has been sent us, we have received for it neither far nor near. And truly, from the day in which we entered Timbuctoo, we have given 600 louats (some measure) to the Touaricks and the Fullans. But do you pray with us that we may be delivered from this land; and we have no more news after the letter which we have written to you. Convey our salutation to our aunt and to our brothers, many thousand salutations; and to Muhammad ben al Tayil, and his brother and his sons, many thousand salutations; and to Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim Taraki, many thousand salutations. Salute also the Hajj al Beshir, and his brother the Hajj Yusuff, if he is arrived; and salute also Hajj Abdallah. The people (caravan) of Touat have not yet come to us. Our salutation to Al Mustafa and his brother Abdal Cadir, and tell the Hajj al Behir, for God's sake not to send us any thing. Of a truth, we sincerely hope to fulfil your commissions, but in this land there is neither buying nor selling. By G--d, neither in Arawan nor in Timbuctoo, have we seen any one who will buy of you for a mithcal, nor for a kirat. Tell the Hajj al Beshir, the Sheikh has not yet arrived. And of all the (----?) I brought to Timbuctoo, I have not sold a single thing, and I sent them back to Arawan. Know, that there is no dealing here except by cowries, and the cowrie is 3,500 to a mithcal. Convey my salutation to the Hajj Abdal Kerim Ben Aun Allah, and his brother Abdarrahman, and to their sons; many thousand salutations, and say to them, For God's sake take care how you send us any thing, for this land is a vexation to us. May God not visit you with vexation, and may he open to us a way of deliverance! And our salutation to the Hajj Muhammad Sahh, if he is arrived, and tell him not to forget us in the Fátihah (1st. chap. of the Koran, used in prayer,) and in the prayer called Salihah (the Beneficial.) And also to his son and to his mother, many thousand salutations. And our salutation to the Hajj Muhammad ben Ali, and his brother, and their father, many thousand salutations. And salutation to our cousin (the daughter of our uncle) Miriam, many thousand salutations, and to our aunt Sultánah, and to her brothers, and to (some other female name) and her sons, many thousand salutations. And our salutation to our cousins (the children of our uncle) and say to them, For God's sake do not forget us in the Fátihah and the prayer Salihah, that God may deliver us from this land; and the people ("or caravan") of Touat are not yet come to us. O my brethren! we anxiously and most earnestly do desire news of you; the Lord give us news of your welfare before long. And do thou, O my brother! send us some cinnamon and some black pepper, and some grains of ‮جلاو‬. And when thou writest, give us all the news, and take care not to leave your letter unclosed, for the people here read it, and be sure to seal it. Salute the inhabitants of our street, all of them, without exception, each one by name.

"And so farewell: at the date of Rajab the 25th, in the year 1246; and again farewell, from this poor (servant of God,) and many thousand salutations, as also from Ibrahim and from the Hajj al Mansur and the Hajj al Mansur's son, who is still with him. Farewell.

"(Postscript below.)--Convey our salutation to Hajj Hamad, and tell him Muhammad ben Canab is doing well, and he is in Arawan; and in like manner salute from us his brother Ali.

"(2nd Postscript at the side.)--Salutation also to our uncle, and say to him, that among the people of the Sheikh (‮اهل الشيخ‬) we obtain nothing, except what the Lord has brought us (a proverbial expression of the Moors, signifying nothing at all.) So farewell!

ADDRESS.

"To the hand of our esteemed brethren Abu Bekr, and Muhammad and Abdullah ben Ali Ibn Talib; may God amend their condition, amen!

"(With Solomon's seal, and a rude commencement of another; the name of Ben Talib, and the mystical words ‮طه‬ and ‮بسم‬ the first of which is prefixed to the xxth chapter of the Koran, and the other probably intended for ‮طسم‬, heading the xxvith, and xxviiith; or for ‮يس‬ xxxvi.)"

Obs.--This letter is written within and without, and on every fold of it. The advice to seal the letter to prevent it from being "Grahamized" is curious. I have seen a hundred letters in The Desert _un_sealed, and it is only in case of suspicion, that the Saharan merchants seal their letters. Such is their confidence in each other's honour and good faith, that it is an insult to seal a letter when put into the hands of a friend. It would appear, from this letter, that some twenty years ago the commerce of Timbuctoo was in the most languishing deplorable state; but as far as I can judge, from the present operations of the merchants in Ghadames, the trade of Timbuctoo has in a measure revived. The letter itself is a most admirable specimen of the epistolary style of the Saharan Moors, and in this respect alone is of considerable value.

When walking out this morning, an impudent young dog came running after me and shouted, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God;" whilst another cried out, "You Kafer!" Judging it necessary to put a stop to this, I gave each little imp for his pains a hard rap of the head with my fly-flapper, which greatly surprised them, and sent them off yelping. Some of the boys, however, are very friendly, and come running after me and take hold of my hand. A day or two afterwards these young rascals came running after me again in the same way; but they were chased by an adult Moor, who gave them a good thrashing.

22nd.--Weather fine. Nothing new. Bought Said a new pair of Morocco shoes, and made him happy for a day or two. He begins to sulk about going amongst the Touaricks. To my great joy, the Shantah from Tripoli has arrived, bringing letters from Colonel Warrington, and Mr. Francovich, which latter has remitted to me 125 mahboubs. Two Touaricks have also arrived from Touat. The road is open. Rain has fallen in many places of The Desert in copious showers, which has buoyed up the hopes of the camel-graziers. Rumours of fighting between the Shânbah and Touaricks are prevalent.

The Tibboo left during the night for Ghat--ALONE! riding on a single camel. His conduct has astonished everybody. Some say "he's mad," and some say "he's a bandit." He had with him a small quantity of light goods, and about 300 dollars in cash. I asked the Rais about him. He observed, "That Tibboo has no wit. Many people die on the routes, the camels running away whilst they sleep. What can he do alone!" I asked the people, all of whom replied, "The Tibboo is a wonderful fellow!" One said, "Ah, that's a man, Yâkob. No Christian like the Tibboo." But another said, "Without doubt he's a cut-throat, that is the reason he goes alone. Even the Touaricks are afraid of him; and when they brought him here he quarrelled with them several times. Besides, a few days ago he was going to knock down the toll-taker at the gate." After this display of personal daring, I shall never have a contemptible idea of a Negro. The free, independent, and enlightened gentleman slave-driver of Yankee Land, armed with that symbol of order and good government, the bowie-knife! would find his match in this his brother Tibboo slave-driver. The Tibboo has done what no man of this city would have dared to do, in undertaking a journey of some twenty days over The Desert alone. What is very extraordinary, he never travelled the route but once before, that is, when he came here. They say he will arrive at Ghat in twelve days. He took the precaution of purchasing a good pair of horse-pistols before he left. I may add, he arrived safe and sound at Ghat.

23rd.--This morning exceedingly cold. In going out, a man said to me, "Where are you going this cold morning?" People were all shivering, or wrapped up in their burnouses. Said is attacked with ophthalmia. Received a visit from an old Arab doctor. He says cattle are attacked with the plague, as well as men. He wrote me a receipt for the cure of night-blindness, which would cure it in one night. He says, in the neighbouring desert, towards the west, there is a small oasis of Arabs, who are called El-Hawamad--‮الحومد‬--who are always afflicted by night-blindness, which singular affection is called by them Juhur (‮جُهُر‬). Mr. Jackson, in his Morocco, calls this strange disease butelleese. The Arabs of El-Hawamad see perfectly well in the day-time. But I must mention, that I received an application for medicine from a person who is affected with the same strange kind of malady. The European physicians call this disease Nyctalopia (Νυκταλωπια). I recently myself met with a case in London. But what is equally extraordinary, Captain Lyon (I think) mentions a case which he met with in The Desert, of a person who could see in the night-time but not in the day-time--a human owl. We conversed about other diseases in Ghadames. The principal, as before-mentioned, are ophthalmia and diarrhœa. There are two lepers; a few dropsical people; and, occasionally, small-pox and syphilitic diseases. There are, besides, various cutaneous affections. Dogs are known to go mad amongst the Arabs, but not very often. When mad, they are called makloub. The remedy is, when they bite people, the hair of the mad dog himself, rubbing it over the part bitten. Mussulmans are fond of this antagonistic idea, of the bane and the antidote being one and the same thing, for they preserve the dead scorpions to be applied to the sting of the living ones, and they aver it to be a certain cure. Quackery is the native growth of the ingenious as well as the whimsical and hypochondriacal ideas of men. In dropsy the native doctors cut the body to let out the water, as we do.

* * * * *

Wrote letters to Mr. Alsager, Colonel Warrington, and others. People grumbling about their letters being too high charged. Formerly letters went free to Tripoli. The Turkish post-office and policy never fail to make things worse. Treating some Moors with coffee and loaf-sugar, one asked me if there were blood in sugar, for so he had heard from some Europeans in Tripoli. I told him in loaf sugar. "What, the blood of pigs?" one cried. "How do I know?" I rejoined; "if the refiner has no bullock's blood, why not use that of pigs?" This frightened them all out of their senses. They will not eat loaf-sugar again in a hurry. A most ludicrous anecdote of the old Bashaw of Tripoli here occurs to me. Old Yousef one day sent for Colonel Warrington, with a message that the Consul's presence was very particularly required. The Consul, putting on his best Consular uniform, and taking with him his Vice-Consul, his Chancellor, and his Dragoman, immediately waited upon His Highness. The Consul found His Highness sitting in full Divan, surrounded with all his high functionaries. Approaching the Bashaw, the Consul was begged to take a seat. His Highness then opened business, and, drawing a very long and solemn face, requested to know, "If the Christians were carrying away all the bones from the country?" assuring the Consul that such he heard was the case from his people, adding, that even the graveyards were ransacked for bones. The Consul, nothing blinking, or disquieted, congratulated His Highness upon bringing such an important subject before his notice, and observed, "It is very improper for the Christians to be ransacking the tombs for old bones to ship off for Europe." "Improper!" exclaimed the Bashaw, "why the man who does so ought to be beheaded!" "Yes, yes," replied the Consul, coaxingly, "he ought, your Highness; I quite agree with you." The Bashaw then got a little more calm, and begged of the Consul, as a favour, to tell him what the Christians did with all these old bones. The Consul, now assuming a magnificent air, deigned to reply, "Now, your Highness, you must be cool. You drink coffee?" "Yes." "You put sugar in it?" "Yes" (impatiently). "You use white sugar?" "Yes, yes," said the Bashaw, half amazed, half trembling, wondering what would come next. "Then," cried the Consul triumphantly, "I beg most submissively to inform your Highness, hoping that your Highness will not be angry, but thank me for the information, that the old bones are used to make white sugar with." Hereupon was an awful explosion of Allahs!--beginning with His Highness the Bashaw, and going round the whole assembled Divan, in such serious and perplexed conclave now met. Then followed harams!--in the midst of which Colonel Warrington graciously and elegantly backed himself out of the Divan, smiling and bowing, bowing and smiling, to the utter horror of all present. Next day His Highness made a proclamation forbidding any of his subjects from exporting old bones on pain of death. On his part, the Consul issued a notice calling upon all British subjects not to be such barbarians as to violate the tombs of pious Mussulmans, at the same time threatening them with the full weight of the Consular displeasure. I am assured that Yousef Bashaw never ate white sugar afterwards.

* * * * *

The liberties which Colonel Warrington was wont to take with old Yousef Bashaw, of the Caramanly dynasty, could not now be, in these days of Ottoman politeness, at all tolerated. For a long series of years, and especially during the French war, the Colonel was the virtual Bashaw of Tripoli. I shall only give another of a thousand incidents in which the British Consul showed himself the master, and the Bashaw the slave, instead of the Sovereign of his own country. One day the Bashaw had done something to offend the Consul. Colonel Warrington, hearing of it whilst riding out, immediately rides off to the Castle, and rushes, whip in hand, into the presence of the Bashaw, producing consternation through the whole Court. An Italian, having at the time an audience with His Highness, demanded, "Che cosa vuole Signore Consule?" seeing the Consul frustrated in his rage for want of an interpreter. "Tell him (the Bashaw) he's a rascal!" roared the Consul, almost shaking his whip over the head of His Highness. But the Italian was just as far off, not knowing English, and fortunately could not interpret this elegant compliment. The very next day, the Consul and the Bashaw dined together at the British Garden, the Colonel slapping the old gentleman over his shoulder, and drinking wine with him, like two jolly chums. In this way, Colonel Warrington managed to be, what he was called in Malta, "Bashaw of Tripoli." Now that Colonel Warrington, during the time these pages have been going through the press, has left us for another and a better world, we may for a moment compare his Consular system with that which was pursued by the late Mr. Hay, Consul-General of Morocco. The difference is striking, if not remarkable. Colonel Warrington boasted of being able to do anything and everything in Tripoli; Mr. Hay boasted of being able to do nothing in Morocco. The former had the Bashaw under his thumb, or hooked by the nose; the latter stood at an awful distance from the Shereefian Presence. Colonel Warrington underrated the difficulties and dangers of travelling in Tripoli and Central Africa, making the route from Tripoli to Bornou as safe as the road from London to Paris; Mr. Hay, exaggerating every obstacle, represented it as unsafe to walk in the environs of Tangier, under its very walls, and even boasted of himself being shot at in the interior of Morocco, on a Government mission, and whilst attended by an escort of the Emperor's troops. With Colonel Warrington, a mission of science or philanthropy had a real chance of success; with Mr. Hay, no mission could possibly succeed--failure was certain. And so I might continue the opposite parallels. But in justice to these late functionaries and their friends, I must observe, that both were zealous servants of Government and their country. They exerted themselves diligently and conscientiously to protect and advance the interests of their countrymen, who had relations with Tripoli or Morocco, according to their peculiar temperaments and circumstances. No doubt they gave Government at home an immense deal of unnecessary trouble, and sometimes even annoyance; but so long as each public functionary abroad thinks the affairs of his own particular post of more importance than those of anybody else, this inconvenience will always happen, in a lesser or greater degree.

Said furnishes me with a continual anti-slavery text against the slave-trade. Everybody asks me if Said is a slave. I reply, "Slavery is a great sin amongst the English. We cannot have slaves, or make slaves of our fellow-creatures." Then follow discussions, in which I damnify the traffick in human beings as much as possible.

Today witnessed a good specimen of Arab Desert freedom. I was conversing quietly with the Governor, seated beside him on his ottoman, a privilege granted only to me, the Nather (native governor) and the Kady, when rushed into the apartment a Souafee Arab, exclaiming to the Rais, "How are you?" and seizing hold of his hands, knocked his fly-flap down on the floor. His Excellency was shocked at this rudeness, and I myself was a little startled. The conversation which followed, if such it may be called, is characteristic of the bold Arab, and the haughty Turk.

The Souafee.--"The Shânbah are coming to Ghadames."

The Governor.--"I don't know; God knows."

The Souafee.--"My brothers write to me and tell me so."

The Governor.--"I don't know."

The Souafee.--"Give me money, and I'll go and look after them."

The Governor.--"I have no money."

The Souafee.--"Make haste, give me money."

The Governor.--"Have none."

The Souafee.--"Where's the money?"

The Governor.--"Go to the Ghadamseeah."

The Souafee.--"They tell me you have all their money."

The Governor.--"Go to them."

The Souafee.--"I'm going, Bislamah (good bye.)"

The Governor.--"Bislamah."

As the Souafee left the threshold of the apartment, his Excellency turned to me, and raising his right hand underneath his chin, drew its back jerkingly forwards, making the sign of the well-known expression of contempt in North Africa. He then said to me:--"See what a life I lead, what insults I am obliged to put up with! what beasts are these Arabs!" The Souafah are, indeed, the type of the genuine Desert Arab. They have no foreign master, and manage all their affairs by their own Sheikhs and Kadys. The immense waste of sand lying between Ghadames and Southern Tunis and Algeria, is their absolute domain, in the arid and thirsty bosom of which are planted, as marvels of nature, their oases of palms. The Shânbah bandits, who plunder every body, and brave heaven and earth, nevertheless dare not lay a finger on them. I cannot better represent the feelings of the Souf Arab, nor the "wild and burning range" of his country, than by quoting the lines of Eliza Cook:

"Through the desert, through the desert, where the Arab takes his course, With none to bear him company, except his gallant horse; Where none can question will or right, where landmarks ne'er impede, But all is wide and limitless to rider and to steed.

No purling streamlet murmurs there, no chequer'd shadows fall; 'Tis torrid, waste and desolate, but free to each and all. Through the desert, through the desert! Oh, the Arab would no change, For purple robes or olive-trees, his wild and burning range."

FOOTNOTES:

[53] It is now the fashion in French writers to represent the Arabic ‮غ‬ by the Roman R, as R'dames for _Gh_adames.

[54] ‮هرب الي الجبل‬

[55] Fullans.--Mungo Park says: "The Foulahs are chiefly of a tawny complexion, with silky hair, and pleasing features."--M. D'Avezac says: "In the midst of the Negro races, there stands out a métive (mezzo-termino?) population, of tawny or copper colour, prominent nose, small mouth, and oval face, which ranks itself amongst the white races, and asserts itself to be descended from Arab fathers, and Tawrode(?) mothers. Their crisped hair, and even woolly though long, justifies their classification among the oulotric (woolly-haired) populations; but neither the traits of their features, nor the colour of their skin, allow them to be confounded with Negroes, however great the fusion of the two types may be." Major Rennell calls them the "Leucœthiopes of Ptolemy and Pliny." Mr. D'Eichthal thinks them to be of Malay origin, on account of their language; but Dr. Pritchard considers them to be a genuine African race.

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XII. PREPARATIONS FOR GOING TO SOUDAN

His Excellency the Rais questions me on my rumoured Journey to Soudan.--The Devil has in safe keeping all who are not Mahometans.--I am wearing to a Skeleton.--A Caravan of Women.--Predestination.--The Shânbah begin their Foray.--The Gardens and their Products.--Varieties of the Date-Palm.--Locusts.--Brigands spare the Property of the Marabout Merchants of Ghadames.--Agricultural Implements in The Desert.--Violent capture of a Souf Caravan by the Governor.--Uses of the Date-Palm.--The Touarghee Bandit's opinion as to Killing Christians.--Combat between an Ant and a Fly.--Loose Phraseology in The Mediterranean.--Harsh Hospitality of the Souafah, and Usurpation over their Oases by the French.--Money disappearing from Ghadames.--The Affair of Messrs. Silva and Levi, and their connexion with Ghadamsee Slave-Dealers.--Visit, with his Excellency the Governor, the Ruins of Kesar-el-Ensara "the Castle of the Christians."--Antiquity of Ghadames, and Account of it by Leo Africanus.

THE 23rd, 24th, and 25th, employed in writing letters. On one of these days the Rais called me to him and asked, "Whether I really intended to go to Soudan, as the people had reported to him?" I told him Yes, and that I was already making preparations. His Excellency affected great amazement, and looked exceedingly mysterious, but did not know what to reply. At last he observed, "I must write to Ahmed Effendi of The Mountains, and if he says you may go, all well, if not, you must not go." I then asked the Rais, what I was to do in Ghadames? His Excellency said anxiously, "Stay with me to keep me company. I am surrounded with barbarians. I am weary of my life here." As the Rais spoke what I knew to be the truth, I pitied him and said nothing, although I could not understand this asking of permission from Ahmed Effendi, whom I knew to be a queer customer to deal with. However, I interpreted the sense of Colonel Warrington's letter to Rais, viz., "If I had friends I might venture further into the interior, if not, stay where I was until I made friends." I believe the sympathy of the Rais sincere, which is a great deal for a Turk, or even any body else in this insincere and lying world. He is a timid man, and is afraid the Touaricks will make an end of me. What the Rais says is reasonable enough: "Bring me a Ghadamsee, or a respectable Arab merchant whom I know, and who will take you with him, and be answerable for your head (safety), and will protect you equally with himself, then I have no fears for your safety." I took my friend Zaleâ to the Rais, who is a native of Seenawan, and much respected by all. The camels of the giant left to-day for Ghat, his giantship himself waits to be conducteur of our caravan.

In replying to an observation about another increase of taxes of which the people bitterly complained, I said, "The Mahometan princes are now the greatest oppressors of the people, whilst the Christian kings are more tolerant, and people enjoyed more security under our Governments." My taleb replied, "Yes, it is the truth, Yâkob, and this is the reason. The Devil knows that all the Christians, and Jews, and black kafers, belong to him. So he troubles them not, they are his safe property and sure possession. But he is always stirring up amongst us Mussulmans evil passions, and leading our sovereigns to oppress the people, and one Mussulman to oppress another." Such is the reasoning of a bigoted Moslemite, and with him and others it has considerable force. Indeed, a Christian stands a very poor chance with these subtle orthodox doctors.

26th.--The mornings grow colder and colder. I feel the change sensitively, more so than the natives; am exceedingly chilly. I perceive the hot weather has dried up or torn off the flesh from my bones, and my feet are very skinny. Attribute this a good deal to the water. Rais is almost worn to a skeleton. This morning he called his servants to attest, how stout he was when he first came here. But as the heat is gone, I shall not now drink so much water. The more malicious, in revenge for Turkish oppression here, hope and pray the Rais will die of the climate, and every Turk who succeeds him.

To-day the Touarick women leave for Ghat. No men go with them, only some of their little sons. About ten women form this caravan. They have camels to carry their water, and ride on occasionally when they are fatigued. I asked a Ghadamsee whether these women were not afraid to go by themselves, particularly now as banditti are reported to be in the routes. He replied, "These Touarick women are a host of witches and she-devils. No men will dare to touch them." This ghafalah of women is a perfectly new idea to me. Some of the women are quite young and pretty, and delicate, and don't appear as if they could bear twenty days' desert-travelling. One said to me, "If you will go with us women, we will take better care of you than the men can do."

27th.--Occupied in writing. Rais paid me a visit in the afternoon. Gave one of the slaves who came with him a pill-box, which highly delighted the boy. I found when I visited Rais again, that his Excellency himself had become so enamoured with the pill-box, as to purchase it from his slave. Said continues bad with ophthalmia. The disease seems to attack mostly people of this country, and not strangers. At any rate it would seem that we require to be acclimated to catch these diseases, as well as acclimated to resist them. Rais took it into his head to preach to me about the decrees of Heaven. "You and I," said his Excellency, "were great fools to come to this country; I to leave Constantinople, you to leave London. But it was the decree of God that we should come to this horrible country." The decrees of Heaven, or the acknowledgment of such, are the bonâ fide religion of Ghadames. "What do the people eat?" I said to a man. He replied, "What is decreed!" Another interposed, "Don't be afraid of the Touaricks; you will not die before the time which is decreed by Heaven for you to die." Such is consolation in man's misery. Are we to believe this? or why not believe it?

28th, 29th, and 30th.--Employed in preparing routes of The Desert. This evening the Governor received a letter from his spies in Souf, which reports that the Shânbah had left their country four days before they wrote, which is now fifteen days. It is not known whether the banditti have taken the route to Ghat or Ghadames. His Excellency has taken precautionary measures, and sent soldiers to look out in the routes near our city. He has also sent to bring back a merchant who started yesterday to Touat, and another to Derge. The freebooters are 100 horse, and 400 camels strong. The Giant Touarick taking the alarm, and mounting his strongest and fleetest Maharee, has gone off to protect his family and country. He was one of the expedition last year, and slew a dozen Shânbah with his own hand. In the meanwhile caravaning to all quarters is to be stopped.

31st.--Purchased an outfit for Said. Afterwards he would put them on, and walked all over the town, and left me to cook the dinner myself. I said nothing to him, humouring his vanity. No people are so fond of new and fine clothes as Negroes.

1st November.--A strong wind blowing from the south-east, or nearly east. Not very cold, clouds thick and dark, and no sun. The music of the wind in the date-palms is very agreeable, and tunes my soul to a quiet sadness. The Ghadamsee merchant who was overtaken on his road to Tourat, refuses to come back, and says he trusts in God against the Shânbah. Some Souf Arabs have come in to-day, giving out that the French wish to assume the sovereignty over their country. The able-bodied men of the united oases are calculated at 2,000.

Visited the gardens with my taleb as cicerone. Was much gratified with the rural ramble, although there is nothing remarkable to be seen. The three principal productions are dates, of which there is a great variety, some thirty or forty different sorts[56]; barley and ghusub[57]. The ghusub is grown in the Autumn and the barley in the Spring; in this way two crops of corn are reaped in the year. A little wheat is now and then grown, but does not thrive. The native date is the madghou (‮مدغو‬) which is also common in Seenawan and Derge. It is small and filbert-shaped, of a black colour, very pleasant when fresh, but when dry very indifferent. I saw no black dates in any other parts of The Sahara. The gardens furnish besides a few vegetables and fruits, such as pomegranates, apricots, peaches, almonds, olives, melons, pumpkins, tomatas, onions, and peppers, a few grape-trees and fig-trees in the choicest gardens, but all in small quantities. There is scarcely a flower or fancy tree but the tout. No person of my acquaintance, except my turjeman, showed much fancy for botany. He had brought an aloe from Tripoli, and planted it in his garden. It is the only one. He has another tree or two besides, which nobody else has. The merchants have brought the varieties of the date-palm from the different oases of The Sahara. Nearly every householder has a garden, and some several. Sometimes a date plantation is divided between two or three families, each cultivating and gathering the fruits of his pet choice palm. Herbage is grown in the gardens for fattening the sheep. Pounded date-stones both fatten sheep and camels. In summer the gardens are intolerable, but in winter deliciously pleasant. Sheikh Makouran is the largest landed-proprietor. He has seventeen gardens; "nearly half the country," as a person observed. So Europe is not the only place in the world where there is such an unequal division of the land. The gardens are small, and the whole number is some two hundred and odd, only the half of which are regularly watered from the Great Spring. As the people can never depend upon rain, the whole culture is conducted on irrigation. The Ghadamsee garden-gate, of all the absurdities of inconvenience is the greatest I ever met with. It is scarcely large enough for a small sheep to enter. Every person entering a garden must not only stoop but crawl through the gate. It is fortunate there are no lusty people here, all being bony and wiry like the Arabs. Not being dependant on rain, the gardens only suffer from the locusts, and now and then a blighting wind. In the Spring of this year these insect marauders passed over the oasis and made a pillage of the date blossoms for thirty days, besides doing much damage to the barley. I encountered a flight of the same horde, which emerged from The Desert and then took to sea, and were scattered over to Malta and Sicily by the wind, when I was travelling from Tunis to the isle of Jerbah late in the Spring. From Ghadames they proceeded en masse to Tripoli and Ghabs, inflicting great damage. When they passed near the gardens of Ghabs, the people climbed up the fruit-trees and made a great noise, screaming and shouting, which kept them from settling in masses on the fruit-trees and vegetables. They also kindled a fire and tried to smoke them away. Many of those which did settle were gathered, cooked, and eaten with great gusto by the people. I met them myself on the immense plains of Solyman; they were the first flight of locusts I ever saw. I had seen locusts on the hills near Mogador, where they are bred in great numbers. Millions of small green things were just starting into being. The locust is a somewhat disproportioned insect, the wings are too fine for the bulk and weight of the body, which explains why they are unable to struggle against the wind; as it is said in the Scriptures, "and when it was morning the east wind brought the locusts." (Exod. x. 13.) They do not fly high, and when they settle on the ground they roll over very clumsily. A flight at a distance looks like falling flakes of snow in a snow-storm. They are mostly of a reddish colour, with lead-coloured bodies, and some of a glaring yellow. The yellow ones are said to be the males, and are not so good eating as the others. The locust tastes very much like a dry shrimp when roasted. They are from an inch and a half to two and a half long. The head is large and square, and very formidable. Hence the Scripture allusion: "and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men." (Rev. ix. 7.) But the prophecy gives them a superadded power which they do not possess, "and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power;" (v. 3.) for when you catch the locust it makes little resistance and does not bite. Few of these were eating, and most of them were either flying or lay motionless basking in the sun, grouped in hundreds round tufts of long coarse grass. My Moorish fellow-travellers didn't like their appearance. They said the locusts are bad things, and came from the hot country to devour their harvest. It was indeed, an unpleasant sight, this horde of insect marauders, and soon lost the charm of novelty. But the world is made up of the elements of destruction and reproduction. Such is the eternal order of Providence, and we must bear the evil and the good. I do not think that they come far south or from the inner Desert, for they could not be bred in regions of desolation, where there is no green thing. Yet these flights were from the south of Ghadames, and at any rate they are bred in the Saharan districts, from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Atlantic. The world is full of impostors. One of these went once upon a time to Morocco, and endeavoured to persuade the people he could destroy all the locusts by some chemical process. I believe he was a French adventurer.

2nd.--Occupied in taking notes of routes. The whole day overcast but no rain. Rais alternately laughs and admires the Ghadamsee people. He was endeavouring to prove to me what profound respect the bandits of The Desert entertain for these Marabout people, and said, "If a camel of the Ghadamseeah falls down in The Desert and dies, and no person present has a camel to lend them, they leave the goods or the load of the camel on the high road until they fetch one. Should a bandit pass by in the meanwhile and see the goods, and recognize them to belong to an inhabitant of Ghadames, he does not even touch them, but passes by and calls for the blessing of Heaven upon the Holy City of The Desert." This, one would say, is too good to be true, at the same time, I have no doubt the banditti of The Desert have a species of religious respect for these pacific-minded, unresisting merchants. I took an opportunity of asking Rais about the use and value of his charms. His Excellency replied, "They are to protect me when exposed to robbers like the Shânbah, or to other evils. These charms will then render me great assistance." I I have already said Rais is as big a ninny in these superstitious matters as any of his Maraboutish subjects.

3rd.--Am still in great doubt as to the route I shall take for the interior. Every route has its separate advantages, and separate dangers. In this perplexity what can I do but wait the turn of events? . . . . . Another overcast morning, as dull and foggy as Old England's November. A perfect Thames-London fog. I was accustomed to think that in the bright sky of an African desert such a mass of cloud and haziness was impossible. Still, though gloomy and drear, there is more boldness and definiteness of outline than in England. After a person has been living long under the bright skies of the Mediterranean, he may mistake a clear winter's day on Blackheath, as I have done, for a moonlight, owing to the want of those sharp angles by which nature draws her landscapes in Southern Europe. To-day the face of the heavens has cast its shadows upon the countenance of the population, for all is dull in business. Every one is awaiting the result of the skirmishes between the Touaricks and the Shânbah.

4th.--A fine morning, and not very cold. No patients, everybody apparently in health. My old friend Berka, the liberated slave, is now occupied in turning or digging, or hoeing up a whole garden of good size, about two days and a half's labour, for which he will receive one Tunisian piastre! (Seven pence English money.) This is free labour. I am sure the slave labour, the principal here, cannot be cheaper. The implements of agriculture are few and simple in The Desert. Friend Berka had but a small hoe, which is well described by Caillié, who saw it used near Jinnee, and indeed it seems to be used throughout Central Africa. This hoe is about a foot long, and eight inches broad; the handle, which is some sixteen inches in length, slants very much. With this hoe they turn up the earth instead of the plough, and prepare and open and shut the squares of irrigated fields. For reaping they make use of a small sickle without teeth. The caravans usually have a supply of these sickles for cutting up Desert provender for the camels. The use of the hoe requires constant stooping to the ground and is consequently laborious, but the Saharan fields are very limited, and are soon hoed up. The smallness of space is compensated by a redundant fertility, and double and even treble crops in the course of the year. Passing by a group of gossipping slaves to-day, one came running up to me and said, "Buy me, buy me, and I will go with you to Ghat. I shall only cost you 100 mahboubs." This is humiliating enough, but those who offer their services for sale, like hundreds in the metropolis of London, to write up a bad cause and write down a good one, or to--

"Make the worse appear The better reason--"

"With words cloth'd in reason's garb--"

certainly perform a greater act of degradation than these poor debased bondsmen.

A few evenings ago intelligence arrived that a Souf caravan of eight camels and five persons were seen about a day and a half from this city, proceeding in the route of Ghat. This gave rise to suspicions that the news about the Shânbah and Touaricks was a hoax of the Souafah, in order to frighten the people of Ghadames, and allow them (the Souafah) to get first to the market of Ghat, and buy slaves cheaper. So reason the merchants with the usual jealousy of such people. Rais, on receipt of the above, summoned his Divan, and it was debated, "Whether the Souafah should not be brought in here by force?" The question was decided in the affirmative, and late at night, fourteen Arab soldiers, two Arabs of Seenawan, intimately acquainted with the routes, and an official of the Rais, went off to seize the caravan. This bold measure may bring us unpleasant consequences. First of all, the Governor has no right to seize a caravan in a district where the Sultan, his master, has no authority, decidedly neutral ground, especially a caravan of strangers. Then the Souafah, in revenge, may attack the caravans of Ghadames. Again, it is a question whether the caravan will come in without fighting, for the Souafah are tough men to deal with. It will be a poor excuse for the Governor to plead before the Pasha, that the caravan was guilty of this hoax, supposing it so, and giving this as the reason for seizing the peaceable caravan of an independent state. Indeed, who shall decide that they gave false intelligence of the Shânbah? And if they did, should this be the punishment for spreading a false report? Many other disagreeable thoughts occur. It is clear there is a violent infraction of international law committed on our neighbour's (the Touarick's) territory.

Talking with a gossip about the character of Moors, and he saying they were "friends of flous (money,)" i. e. mercenary, and adding that the Touattee was the best fellow amongst them. Said, who was present, said to me, "Yes, it is so, and because he is a black man." Said often repeats to me, "In Soudan it will cost you nothing to live; being a stranger, everybody will feed you in our country." Another free black took upon himself to ridicule the constitution of the white man. "Ah," he cried, "what is a white man! a poor weak creature; he can't bear Soudan heat; he gets the fever, and dies. No, it is the black man that is strong, strong always. He never droops or sinks! Look at the strength of my limbs." Such are the traits of character of coloured men in this Saharan world. I add another anecdote. Speaking to Berka one day, I said, "I shall have that Tibboo himself sold as a slave; what right has he to bring people here as slaves and sell them?" Berka mistook my meaning, thinking that, because the Tibboo was black, I wished to have him sold and punished, and not for being a slave-dealer, and the old gentleman got into a great passion, sharply reprimanding me in this style: "Yes, Christian! drop that language; when you get to Soudan you will find everybody black. Drop that language; don't fancy, because the Tibboo is black, you can sell him. Drop that language, for all are black there."

7th.--This morning, after a pursuit of three days, our soldiers brought in the Souf Arabs, which has made a great clamour in the town, as it always happens in disputed cases, the people arranging themselves on different sides as partisans, some for the Rais and others for the Souafah. Called upon the Governor and told him I hoped he would not take the gomerick ("duties") for the goods of the caravan, as the people were brought here against their will. His Excellency said he would not, but merely reprimand them for spreading false news. It appears there is some slight evidence of a hoax, but nothing to justify such a violent measure. The Governor wants to make it out that they might have been Shânbah, when it was well known before their capture they were Souafah.

Every part of the date-palm is turned to account. The fibrous net-work, which surrounds the ends of the branches where they attach themselves to the trunk, is woven into very strong and tough ropes, with which the legs of camels are tied, and horses picketed. The very stones are split and pounded, to fatten all animals here. The branches make baskets of every kind; the dried leaves are burned, and the trunk builds the houses, supplying all the beams and rafters. One day, on looking up to some palm wood-work, the old men present said, "How old do you think that wood is, Yâkob?" "I can't tell," I replied. They observed, "That wood is upwards of three hundred years old. Indeed, we can't tell how long it has been there. Our grandfathers found it there, and it looked just the same then as now." It was large beams of the trunk of the tree, with platted thin pieces of the boughs across them, forming a fantastic zig-zag joice of wood ceiling. The fruit of the date-palm supports man, in many oases, nine months out of twelve. In Fezzan, all the domestic animals, including dogs, and horses, and fowls, eat dates. Such are some of the various and important uses to which this noble tree is turned. The Saharan tribes, likewise, are wont to live for several months of the year upon two other products, viz., milk and gum. Milk I have mentioned as supporting the Touaricks exclusively six or more months in the year. Gum, also, in the Western Sahara, furnishes tribes with an exclusive sustenance for many months. Even the prickly-pear, or fruit of the cactus, will support a Barbary village for three months. It is, therefore, not surprising the Irish peasant may live on potatoes and milk the greater part of the year. The bead on the date-stone is the part (vital) whence commences germination, and sprouts the new shoots of the palm. New shoots spring up all over the oases, but particularly in those places where water is abundant, and within and about the ducts of irrigation. These shoots are collected for the new plantations, and the female plants carefully separated from the males, and these latter destroyed. Only a few male plants are kept for impregnation.

8th.--Warm this morning, the cold weather gone apparently for a short time. No patients. The long-expected ghafalah from Tripoli has arrived by the way of Derge, avoiding the more dangerous route of Seenawan, by which latter I came here. No mail. All the people now in a hurry to be off to Ghat, as their goods have arrived. I begin to feel extremely irritable and irresolute at the prospect of the new unknown Desert journey. The old bandit called, and asked, "Well, are you going?" I answered, "Yes, very soon, but I must first have a letter of permission from the Pasha of Tripoli, so the Rais says, for the Pasha is greatly afraid you Touaricks will cut my throat." "God! God! God!" exclaimed the bandit; "I'll risk my head that you'll go on safe to Ghat and Aheer. But, as for those villains, the Touaricks of Timbuctoo, those, I'll grant you, are cut-throats." As I was about to take leave of the old brigand, I gave him a piastre, and said, "Now tell me fairly, and as an honest man, what is the reason that the Touaricks kill Christians, and why did they kill the English officer who went to Timbuctoo?" "Stop, stop," the brigand replied, very pleased with the piastre, "I'll tell you. There are three reasons. First (scratching with his spear on the ground), the Christians will not say that Mahomet is the prophet of God. Second (again scratching with his spear on the ground), the Christians are the brothers of Pharaoh, and have plenty of money; we are poor, we kill you for your money. Third (again scratching), you wish to take our country. You have nearly all the world; you have robbed us of Algeria, and Andalous. Why don't you stop in the sea, where you are? We shall not come to you. We don't like the sea." Seeing I could make nothing of the old sinner, so cunning was he, I gave him a piece of sugar for his little son, and he went away. I thought often of the words which I had recently read in the Arabic, "The time will come when those who kill you will think that they render service to God," (John xvi. 2,) when discussing so repeatedly this question of the killing of Christians by the Touaricks with the Rais, with the people of Ghadames, and with the Touaricks themselves. But has this principle alone reference to the wild tribes of The Sahara? Has it not had a pointed application in all the authenticated annals of the world? Take our own era. The Jew thought he did service to God by killing those who confessed Christ. Then the Imperial Roman, he immolated the Christian who worshipped not the image of Cæsar. Then the Roman Christian killed the heretic Donatist, lighting up the flames of persecution in this Africa. Then the Catholic killed the Protestant, and deluged Europe with a sea of blood. Thus in England we enacted our penal laws against Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, some of which, to our shame, still exist on the statute book. What a horrid heritage of murder for conscience' sake has been transmitted to us in this nineteenth century? And is the present fratricidal war in Switzerland unconnected with this principle of blood and persecution! No; and again, no! How, then, can we find fault with the barbarians of the Great Desert? Nay, contrarily, those who follow me through The Desert, will find the Saharan Barbarians infinitely more tolerant than the mild, and the gentle, and the polished, and the educated, and the civilized, and the Christianized professors of religion in our own great Europe!

This afternoon the first portion of the Ghadamsee Soudanic caravan left for Ghat, consisting of about twenty-five camels, and some ten merchants and traders. This is merely a detachment. The larger portion of the population went to see them off, and several families were dressed in their best clothes, as on festas. It is the usual custom on the departure and return of caravans. Two or three mounted on saddled Maharees accompanied the caravan a day's journey. I have many offers of the people, as in The Mountains, to accompany me to Ghat: a strange infatuation for such rigid Moslems as the Ghadamseeah!

To-day I witnessed in my court-yard or patio a tremendous struggle between an ant and a fly: both species of insects are very numerous in Ghadames, and there is a great number of various coloured ants. The ant got hold of the muzzle of the fly, or its neck, and there grasped it with as firm a grasp as it is possible to conceive of one animal grasping another. In vain the fly struggled and flapped its wings; over and over again the combatants rolled as these weak defences beat the air: and yet they must have had great force in them, for they flung over the ant, of a good size, some hundred times. The struggle continued a full half hour. I once or twice took them up on a piece of straw, but the ant never let go its hold on the fly, and paid no attention to me. At last, the fly was exhausted, and ceased to flap its tiny wings. The sanguinary ant strangled the poor silly fly, as some sharper strangles or ruins his poor dupe. After death, the ant seemed busy at sucking its blood. Satiated with this, the ant attempted to convey the fly away, dead as it was, but thinking better of the matter, the carcase was abandoned. I observed that the combat went on in the midst of a thousand flies, but alas! these rendered their fellow, in this his death-struggle, against a common foe, no assistance. Such is the way the tyrants of the earth succeed! They strike down the friends of freedom one by one, and the people, as silly as the flies, leave their champions to struggle alone against the common oppressor of mankind, only thinking of what they shall eat and drink, in which fashion adorn themselves, and how they shall fill up sufficiently the measure of their idle days of folly.

The whole phraseology of the Mediterranean is very loose in the designation of persons and objects. The Italians call every Mussulman un Turco, "a Turk." The French of Algeria call every Mohammedan resident amongst them "un Arab." So the Moors and Arabs here call all people who are not Mussulmans Ensara, ‮الانصرا‬, "Christians," whether Pagans, Idolaters, or what not. I was writing some information from the mouth of a Moor, and got into a scrape. He told me there were plenty of Ensara in Soudan, and I thought these might be Abyssinian Christians, until I reflected that it was merely the ordinary denomination of those who are not Moslemites.

9th.--Slept very little during the past night; always dreaming of Timbuctoo. The further an object is from you the nearer it is to your thoughts. The morning broke with a violent wind from the south-east, which is exceedingly disagreeable. Rais continues very gracious, and sends me constantly cakes, being a portion of what he receives as presents from the people.

I omit a great deal about Souf politics, not being anxious to worry the reader with French and Tuniseen Saharan diplomacy. But a Souafee's notion of hospitality is rather, I should think, rigid. I said to a Souafee, whose acquaintance I have made, "I shall come to your country, and write all about it."

"If you dare," he replied, "by G--d, the people will immediately cut your throat."

I.--"I will get an amer ('order') from the Bey of Tunis, which will protect me."

"No, no," rejoined the Souafee, "the people will tear the amer to pieces, and set the Bey, the French, and all Christians, at defiance."

No doubt the Souafah, the most interesting Arabs of all this region, are very fierce of their independence, which explains their jealousy of the French, and their determinedly withholding any mark of sovereignty, in the way of tribute, from the Bey of Tunis. It appears, however, two or three of the small districts have really consented to pay a tribute to the French, an act of decided usurpation on the part of France, as the Souf oases "formerly did acknowledge" the sovereignty of Tunis. It is, nevertheless, a pleasing trait in the character of the Souafah, that they have permitted some thirty families of Jews to settle amongst them, a concession not yet made by the Marabouts of Ghadames.

Within my couple of months' residence here, how rapid has been the impoverishment of the country! Everything gets worse and worse. Now, it is almost impossible to get change for a Tunisian piastre. I've been two days trying to get change, and have not yet succeeded. The money in circulation is principally Tunisian piastres; but since the Turks have come, Turkish money also passes. There are, besides, a quantity of Spanish dollars and five-franc pieces. Apparently, all the money has left the country, or is hidden by the people. A good deal, I have no doubt, has been hidden within a few weeks. The Governor himself laments that he changed a dollar yesterday for two karoubs (two pence) less than its current value in Tripoli. His Excellency is very low-spirited, and very sick. His Excellency prays that the Pasha will allow him to return to Tripoli a few months. Being a good man, the system of extortion which he is obliged to put in practice to meet the demands of the Pasha, makes his heart sick. His Excellency assured me, that if the Souf Arabs had not lately brought some money, with which they purchased slaves for the markets of Algeria, there would have been no money left in the country. The merchants say their affairs must now be transacted in the way of barter, as in Soudan. I am particular in noticing these things, and the cause of the impoverishment of these unhappy people, as showing the curse of the Turkish system on the transactions of commerce.

My taleb wrote in my journal this splendid Arabic proverb:

الرجال سناديق مغلقة ومفاتحها التجريب صدور الرجال سنادق الاسرار

"Men are locked-up boxes--experience opens them; the bosom of man is a box of secrets."

10th.--To-day I ran about town to tire myself, in order to sleep at nights. This morning, one of the two expected ghafalahs of Tripoli, consisting of 117 camels and twenty traders of Ghadames, arrived; the other ghafalah will arrive in a few days. The ghafalah has brought goods only for the interior. The merchants just come report in town, "That Yâkob (myself) has written to the English Consul of Tripoli, informing him how Aaron (Signor Silva) lends money and goods to the merchants of Ghadames, with which goods and money to go into the interior, and traffick in slaves." This is substantially correct; but it was written in confidence to Colonel Warrington, and to no other person in Tripoli. I expressly begged Colonel Warrington not to divulge the fact, or my mention of such a matter, until I was out of the lion's mouth of the slave-dealing interests of this part of North Africa. The Consul, however, deemed it his duty to disregard my request, and to divulge or violate this confidence, and posted up a placard on the door of the Tripoline Consulate, stating, "That certain merchants, under British protection, were accused of slave-dealing with the merchants of Ghadames, and calling upon them to clear themselves from such an imputation." Of course, as there was nobody else likely to make such an accusation but myself, being well known as an anti-slavery man in Tripoli, the public attention was at once directed to me as the accuser. The other merchant alluded to is Mr. Laby (Levi), a Barbary Jew, and the head of a house in Tripoli. Mr. Silva is also a Jew, but from Europe. This report, circulating from mouth to mouth, has created a tremendous sensation in Ghadames; and the people fancy they see in it not only a blow aimed at them and the slave-trade, but the final ruin of their commerce, already sufficiently crippled by the oppression of the Turks. I am, therefore, obliged to Colonel Warrington, not so much for facilitating my progress in the interior, as for increasing my difficulties a hundred-fold. I was astonished that a high functionary, of thirty-three years' experience in these countries, should have committed such an act of egregious indiscretion, exposing the life of a fellow countryman to such increased danger, who was already without any kind of guaranteed protection. If I had been murdered in The Desert tract from Ghadames to Ghat, it would have most justly been attributed to the placard placed on the doors of the Consulate at Tripoli. Justice requires from me, however, that I should state an indiscretion also on my part. I wrote to the Consul that I had communicated the charge against Messrs. Silva and Levi to the Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and did not add, as I ought perhaps to have done, that I had likewise begged of Mr. Scoble not to make the charge public for the present. Colonel Warrington was afraid the charge would be known in London before he had reported upon it, and in this way his Consulate might suffer in the eyes of Government. Now I shall not trouble the reader with the proof of the charge. It must already have been seen, that as the merchants of Ghadames are drained of all their capital by the Turkish Government, they, the merchants of Ghadames, are obliged to fall back upon the merchants of Tripoli, who will give them credit, some of which latter are under British protection. So Sheikh Makouran complained to me he could not now trade without the credit of Silva, so the people told me the house of Ettanee, the other great mercantile firm of this country, had received several thousand dollars' worth of goods on credit from the Messrs. Laby, and so the Rais frequently has told me, the money of the merchants of Ghadames is in the holding of those of Tripoli, who are mostly under European protection. The question is, whether such a state of things can be brought under the provision of Lord Brougham's Act, for preventing British merchants from trading in slaves, or aiding others to trade in slaves, in foreign countries. It is a very delicate subject, because the modes of evading the Act, by private and secret contracts, are innumerable. British juries are also unwilling to convict parties under this Act, and the case of Zulueta failed not so much from the want of evidence as from the unwillingness of the jury to come to an impartial decision on the evidence.

Whilst reflecting upon my very critical position, my poor Said came in from the streets very much cast down, and very sulky.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Oh!" blubbered Said, "the people are all talking about your telling the Consul that the Jews lend them goods to trade in slaves. They hate you now."

"Never mind," I returned, "it will pass away soon."

Said had already become a staunch abolitionist, both from principle and circumstances, and often asked me, "When the English would put down the slave-trade in Tripoli?" Said is by no means so stupid as I first took him to be. I immediately determined not to go out for two or three days until the excitement had somewhat abated. In the evening I had many visitors, who all spoke of my accusation against Levi and Silva. I met the accusations by a deprecatory proposal of this kind: "Would the Ghadamsee merchants consent to abandon the traffic in slaves, on the conditions that some English merchants would furnish them with goods on credit at a lower rate than that which they obtained them from Levi and Silva: if so, I would write about it to the Consul? And, likewise, I would ask the Consul to get their Soudan goods charged only five per cent. importation, which was the sum paid for European goods coming into Tripoli; thereby equalizing the per centage of the imports and exports." My merchant friends received this proposal very favourably, and swore there was no profit in slaves, and declared themselves ready to give up the traffic. Some proposed that they should try the gold trade of Timbuctoo, and leave the Soudan trade altogether. The traffic to Soudan is two-thirds in slaves or more. I knew, however, that to expect such a thing from the Turks, was all but hopeless,--their grand maxim of Government being to depress and to destroy, not to help and build up,--and I made to them the proposition chiefly with the object of diverting the odium of the accusation from myself. But yet, who does not see that the proposal is well worthy the attention of any Government that wishes to establish in Africa a legitimate commerce, a system of trade which a good man and a good Government may approve of and support?

Sixty Arab soldiers came yesterday from The Mountains to protect the people whilst they are building the caravansary of Emjessem. A merchant made a present to-day of some slave neck-irons and leg-irons to the Rais. His Excellency said to me, "I had none before, it was necessary to have some of these things, in case they should be wanted for the banditti who might be captured." A person justly observed, "Before the Truk (Turks) we had no need of these things, except for runaway slaves, and we seldom used them." The Irishman who discovered himself to be in a civilized country from the erection of a gallows, might have equally proved the advance of civilization in The Sahara from this fact.

11th.--Feel greatly discomposed on account of the news which has transpired respecting the joint dealings of Silva and Levi with our Ghadamsee merchants. One trouble succeeds another, as the angry waves beating on the rocky shore. First the pain of delay, then sickness, now other matters, then the prospect of a dangerous journey through The Desert, with a people who may look upon me with dislike, distrust, and every kind of suspicion. . . . . . In the past night, blew a gale from the north-west. Slept very little. Also troubled with a large boil. Received a visit from some of my old Arab friends of the Rujban Mountains, who regaled themselves with bread and dates. Called on the Rais, who was as friendly as ever. If his Excellency have heard the report, he has the delicacy to say nothing about it. His Excellency told me he had dispatched ninety-two shatahs, or mails, during the fifteen months which he has been in Ghadames. It is reported in town, that Signor Silva is in a great fright, and fears being arrested by the British Consul at the order of the Queen. A notary visited me to-day, laughed at the news of Silva, and was very friendly; he protested the people got nothing by slave-dealing. Begin to feel relieved, but I see clearly some discouraging circumstances. My taleb comes in as usual, but the turjeman is frightened and keeps away. Several of the merchants positively affirm, that now, since the market of Tunis is shut, and the Pasha takes ten dollars duty on each slave, there is no profit in slave-dealing. However, news has arrived from Ghat that a great many slaves are coming with the next caravan from Soudan.

This evening was glad to go with the Rais to see the ruins of Kesar-El-Ensara, ‮قصر الانصرا‬, "The Castle of the Christians," although I had seen them often before. It was a great relief to me. The Rais put his head down to the vaults under the ruins to listen to the conversation of the Jenoun, or "Demons." His Excellency said he thought he heard the Demons talking. The ruins are situate about half a mile from the walls of the city S.SW. All the piles have a small vault under them, apparently for water, but it might have been an excavated tomb. The people pretend that these ruins are four thousand years of age. A son of the late Yousef Bashaw, on a visit to Ghadames, about thirty years ago, to amuse himself and frighten the demons, blew up a large portion of the ruins with gunpowder. Previously the ruins were much more perfect and imposing. I have made a sketch of what remains of these ancient buildings. The style of the buildings can be easily distinguished from the modern by its being composed of a very white cement and small stones, half the size of ordinary paving stones, the cement being in a large proportion. My turjeman once pointed out to me a piece of the ancient walls of the city, still remaining, exactly corresponding to these ruins. I have seen frequent ruins of ancient Roman walls, representing the same kind of building in North Africa. This Kesar-El-Ensara, together with the bas-relief, and the Latin inscription, copied by a Moor from a tomb-stone, beginning with the words "Diis Manibus," are more than sufficient evidence to prove that Ghadames was "colonized," as it was called, by the Romans, and probably earlier by the Greeks and Carthaginians. The same Moorish prince who blew up the ruins, carried away also to Tripoli the tomb-stone, from which a Moor copied the inscription, and which transcript I brought with me from Ghadames. The copyist of this inscription says, he affixed the Arabic letters in order that the Mussulman might compare them with the Christian letters and find out their sense, but he himself did not know what were their meaning. On returning from Kesar-El-Ensara, we looked around and were painfully impressed with the appalling barrenness of The Sahara. The Rais said, "Ah, these people, little know they what a garden is my country compared to this!" The Rais then stumbled over a small solitary herb and exclaimed instinctively, Hamdullah, "Praise to God," picking it up. What attracted our attention was the almost infinite number of small serpentine camel-tracks, wriggling endlessly through the wastes of The Sahara. The Rais said, "Those Touaricks are incarnate Genii! they know all these paths:" pointing south towards Ghat.

Ghadames, ‮غدامس‬, is the ancient Cydamus, the name being precisely the same. In the year 19 before our era, it was subjugated by Cornelius Balbus, being at that period in the possession of a people called Garamtes. The Romans are said to have embellished it, and probably built the fortifications whose ruins have been just described. In an ancient itinerary, from Tunis to Ghadames, we find the following names of stations, viz., Berezeos, Ausilincli, Agma, Augemmi, Tabalata, Thebelami and Tillibari. Leo Africanus, gives the subjoined account of Ghadames:

GADEMES, ABITAZIONE.--Gademes è una grande abitazione, dove sono molti castelli e popolosi casali, discosti dal mare Mediterraneo, verso mezzogiorno, circa a trecento miglia. Gli abitatori sono ricchi di possessioni di datteri, e di danari, perciocchè sogliono mercatantare nel paese de' Negri: e si reggono da lor medesimi, e pagano tributo agli Arabi; ma prima erano sotto il re di Tunis, cioè il luogotenente di Tripoli. E vero che quivi il grano e la carne sono molto cari.--(Part vi., chap. Lii.)

FOOTNOTES:

[56] In the Tunisian Jereed there are more than two hundred different varieties. Some thrive in one kind of soil, and some in another. At first it is difficult for a stranger to distinguish these varieties, but when his eye becomes practised, he can easily do so at a great distance.

[57] Ghusub, ‮قسب‬, a species of millet. Pennisetum Tyhoideum. Rich. It is called drâ in Tunis and bishma in Tripoli.

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