LIFE IN THE DESERT.
In studying life in the desert, I have been greatly struck by its analogy to that of the Middle Ages, and by the resemblance which exists between the horseman of the Sahara and the knight of our legends, romances, and chronicles. This analogy will appear yet more real, this resemblance yet more striking, on a close observation of the accessory characteristics which I now propose to sketch with a rapid hand.
By the Arab of the Sahara, I do not mean a dweller in the kuesours. The latter is rallied by the wandering tribes as much as the inhabitants of the Tell, and receives at their hands all sorts of derisive epithets. Grown fat through his habits of indoor and commercial life, he is called "the father of the belly," the grocer, the pepper-dealer. This rearer of fowls—the Arab of the tent possesses no fowls—this shopkeeper resembles the simple citizen of all countries and of all times. He is, at bottom, the villain, the churl of the Middle Ages. He is the Moorish citizen of Algiers—he has the same placid, apathetic, crafty physiognomy.
It is of the master of the tent that I propose to speak: of him who is never more than fifteen to twenty days without changing his abode; of the genuine Nomad, of him who never enters "the tiresome Tell" but once a year, and then only to purchase grain. My horseman, my hunter, my warrior is the man with a hardy iron-nerved constitution, a complexion embrowned by the sun, limbs well proportioned, in stature rather tall than short, but making light of the advantage of height, "of that lion's skin on a cow's back," unless adroitness, activity, health, vigour and, above all, courage be combined with it. But if he values courage, he also pities rather than despises, and never insults those who "want liver." It is not their fault, he good-humouredly remarks, but the will of Allah. His abstinence cannot be exceeded, but, accommodating himself to circumstances, he never neglects an opportunity of making a good and hearty meal. His ordinary diet is simple and without much variety; but, for all that, when the necessity arises, he understands how to entertain his guests in a becoming manner. When the ouadâa, or peculiar festival of a tribe, or douar, comes round, at which his friends will be present, he would not offer them the slight implied by his absence, and though it may be at a distance of thirty or forty leagues, he will not fail to go there and fill himself with food. Besides, they know well that he is quite ready to return their hospitality, and that they have not to do with one of those stingy town traders who never offer more than a space of four square feet to sit down in, a pipe of tobacco, and a cup of coffee either without any sugar at all, or sugared only after many preliminary phrases, carefully enunciated in recommendation of coffee without sugar.
Among the Arabs, everything concurs to give power to the development of the natural man. Nervous, hardy, sober, though occasionally displaying a vigorous appetite, their eyesight is keen and piercing. They boast that they can distinguish a man from a woman when two to three leagues distant, and a flock of camels from a flock of sheep at double that distance. Nor is this mere bragging. The extent and clearness of their vision arise, as in the case of our sailors, from the incessant habit of looking far ahead over an immense and objectless space. And, accustomed as they are to scenes and objects always the same and which encircle them within narrow limits, it would be strange if they did not recognize them under almost any circumstances. Nevertheless, diseases of the eye are very common. The refraction of the sun's rays, the dust and perspiration cause numerous misadventures, such as ophthalmia and leucoma, and blind and one-eyed men are numerous in many parts of the desert—for instance, among the Beni-Mzab, at El Ghrassoul, Ouargla, and Gourara.
The dweller in the desert, in infancy and youth, has beautiful white, even teeth; but the use of dates as his habitual and almost exclusive diet spoils them as he advances in years. When a tooth is entirely decayed, he is compelled to have recourse to the armourer or farrier, who is privileged to torture his patient, to break his jaw with his pincers, and tear away the gums together with the tooth that was troubling him.
The genuine chief, the real great lord, rarely leaves the saddle, and very seldom goes on foot, though he wears both boots and shoes. The common Arab, however, is an indefatigable walker, and in the course of a day will get over an incredible distance. His ordinary pace is what the French call the pas gymnastique [which is quicker than the English "double">[, and what he himself calls a dog-trot. On flat ground, he generally takes off his shoes, if he happens to have any, partly that he may walk faster and more comfortably, and partly that he may not wear them out. Consequently, his foot is like that of antique statues, broad and flat, and with the toes wide apart. He is never troubled with corns, and more than once Christians, who have insinuated themselves into caravans, have been detected by this infallible sign and expelled. The sole of the foot acquires such hardness, that neither sand nor stones affect it, and a thorn sometimes penetrates to the depth of several lines without being felt. In the desert, properly so called, however, the sand during the great heat of summer is so burning hot that it is impossible to walk upon it with naked feet. Even the horses are obliged to be shod, or their feet would become painful and diseased. The dread of being bitten by the lefâ, a viper whose venom is fatal, also compels the Arabs themselves to wear buskins rising above the ankle.
The most common disease of the foot is the cheggag, or chaps, which are healed by having grease rubbed in, and by being afterwards cauterised with a hot iron. Sometimes these chaps are so long and deep that they are obliged to be sewed up. The thread used for the purpose is made of camel's sinews dried in the sun, and split into parts as fine as silk; spun camel's hair is, likewise, employed. All the inhabitants of the desert make use of this thread to mend their saddles, and bridles, and wooden platters. Every one carries about with him a housewife, a knife, and a needle.
Not a few turn their powers of pedestrianism to a good account, and make it their profession. Hence come the runners and messengers, who gird themselves tightly with a belt. These who are called rekass undertake affairs of great urgency. They will do in four days what the ordinary runners take ten to accomplish. They scarcely ever stop, but if they find it necessary to rest they count sixty inhalations of the breath and start again immediately. A rekass who receives four francs for going sixty leagues thinks himself well paid. This modest reward, however, is the more highly appreciated because it is paid in actual money. Specie is rare, and is the smallest portion of an Arab's fortune. The restricted circulation, and the facility of providing for the principal necessities of life without buying or selling, by simply having occasional recourse to barter are far from lowering the value of coined money.
In the desert a special messenger travels night and day, and sleeps only two hours in the twenty-four. When he lies down he fastens to his foot a piece of cord of a certain length, to which he sets fire; and, just as it is nearly burned out, the heat awakens him. In 1846, an Arab, named El-Thouamy, a native of Leghrouât, was sent by the Kalifa Sid-Hamed-ben-Salem to Berryân, a town situated in the country of the Beni-Mzab. Starting at five in the morning from Kuesyr-el-Heyrân, he reached his destination about seven in the evening of the same day. In fourteen hours he had covered 168 kilomètres, travelling at the rate of twelve kilomètres an hour. This same Thouamy set out one day from Negoussa to go to Berryân, a distance of 180 kilomètres, charged with an important message, and accomplished the journey in sixteen hours. During both of these courses this man eat only a few dates and drank about two litres of water.
In 1850, El-Ghiry, of the tribe of the Mokhalif, was hunting the ostrich, and, while wholly absorbed in chasing a delim, his horse broke down just as his last drop of water was exhausted. All trace of his companions was lost. For thrice twenty-four hours he wandered about at random, in the desert, without food or water. During the day he slept under a bethoum, and walked all night. His family had given him up entirely, when at length they saw him approaching. At first they could hardly recognize him, so utterly exhausted was he, so blackened by the sun, and reduced to such a skeleton. He afterwards related that he believed he owed his life to his dreams, in which he beheld his mother tending him, and giving him something to eat and drink. These visions, he said, had comforted and sustained him in his sore distress.
Let us now pass on from these examples of vigour and abstinence, which might be multiplied to infinity, and give a tolerably correct estimate of the goods and chattels of a Saharene nomad. This inventory will afford a far better idea of life in the desert than can be obtained from a long description. I take a man of influential family, and assume that his household is constituted after the following fashion. Himself, four wives, four sons, the wives of two of his sons, each of whom has a child, four negroes, four negresses, two white men servants, two white women servants: in all, twenty-five souls. He may also, of course, have daughters, but they are sure to be married, and are no further trouble to him. Such a household as this will possess:
| A spacious tent in thoroughly good condition, to make which will require sixteen pieces of woollen cloth, forty cubits long by two in width, each worth from 7 to 8 douros, making a total of about | 112 douros. |
| Two Arab beds, or rather carpets of shaggy wool, thirty cubits in length by five broad; dyed with madder, 20 douros each; if dyed with kermes, 25 douros | 50 |
| A carpet, twelve cubits long by four wide, hung up as a curtain to separate the men's apartment from that of the women. It is dyed with kermes and costs | 16 |
| Six cushions, to contain wearing apparel and used as pillows: the price of each is 2 douros | 12 |
| Six cushions of tanned antelope's skin, also used to contain dresses and spun wool, and to lean against in the tent | 6 |
| Six pieces of woollen stuff, made into a sort of palanquin carried on camels' backs, and in which the women travel | 12 |
| Five red haïks to cover the palanquins | 50 |
| Twenty woollen sacks for the carriage of corn | 40 |
| Six hamal, or loads of wheat | 48 |
| Twelve loads of barley | 60 |
| Ten woollen sacks in which are kept jewels, wearing apparel, cotton-stuffs, gunpowder, filali,[[91]] money, etc., at 2 douros each | 20 |
| Fifteen goat-skin bags to hold water | 25 |
| Twelve sheep- or goat-skin bags to contain butter, valued each at 4 douros | 48 |
| Four sheep- or goat-skin bags to hold honey, which is an expensive article, as it comes from the Tell; at 8 douros each | 32 |
| Eight hamal of dates. These hamal are sacks lined with wool | 64 |
| Six tarahh, each tarahh comprising six skins of morocco leather; in all, thirty six skins, at one douro a piece | 36 |
| Gunpowder | 30 |
| Lead | 5 |
The wearing apparel of five men will consist of:
| Eleven white burnouses, three for the father, and two for each of his sons: a burnous costs 4 douros | 44 douros. |
| Five haïks, at 4 douros each | 20 |
| Five habaya, or woollen shirts | 10 |
| Five mahazema, or belts of morocco leather embroidered in silk | 10 |
| Five pair of belghra, or morocco shoes | 2 |
| Five shashia, or morocco fessy | 2 |
| Five kate, or complete suits, for grand occasions, consisting of an oughrlila or outer garment, a cedria or waistcoat, a seroual or pair of trousers; a haïk of silk, a silken cord replacing the camel's rope; and a cloth burnous: each suit at 60 douros will make | 300 |
| Total | 388 douros. |
The wearing apparel of six women will consist of:
| Six women's haïks, dyed with kermes | 60 douros. |
| Six pair of morocco leather boots, embroidered | 6 |
| Six woollen girdles | 12 |
| Six white haïks worn over the head | 6 |
The arms for seven men are:
| Five guns for the masters, procured from Algiers, and mounted in silver | 100 douros. |
| Two guns for the servants | 20 |
| Five sabres, two of them mounted in silver | 40 |
| Five pistols, two of them mounted in silver | 35 |
| Four pistols for the negroes | 1 |
| Four sabres for the negroes | 12 |
| Total | 219 douros. |
Harness and horsemen's equipment consist of:
| One saddle for the master | 100 douros. |
| Four ordinary saddles | 160 |
| Two common saddles for the servants | 20 |
| One master's djebira of tiger-skin | 17 |
| Four ordinary djebira | 28 |
| One pair of master's temag, or boots of morocco leather | 12 |
Horses, cattle, negroes, etc., consist of:
| A stallion for the chief of the tent | 100 douros. |
| Four blood mares for his sons | 320 |
| Two servants' mares | 60 |
| Six asses | 18 |
| Two slougui, or greyhounds [not purchasable] | » |
| Four negroes | 240 |
| Four negresses | 200 |
| Twenty ghelem each ghelem a flock of 400 sheep | 8,000 |
| Four ibeul, or droves of 100 camels each: of these 400 animals, 130 are she-camels which command a higher price than the males, but I value them all round at 30 douros a head | 12,000 |
| Ten he- or she-goats, the only use of which is to make the sheep keep moving on a march | 50 |
| Two tame gazelles, a young antelope, and an ostrich [these are never for sale] | » |
| Total | 20,988 douros. |
The chief of a tent of this importance ought besides to possess, in depôt, in three or four kuesours, or small towns:
| Twelve hundred zedja, or fleeces, worth each half a boudjou | 200 douros. |
| Thirty white burnouses, at 3 douros each | 90 |
| Thirty haïks at 2 douros | 60 |
| Forty habaya, or woollen shirts at 2 douros | 80 |
| Forty loads of dates at 7 douros | 280 |
| Thirty camel loads of wheat | 240 |
| Thirty loads of barley | 150 |
| Four khrabya, or enormous earthen vessels filled with butter | |
| Total | 1,100 douros. |
| I estimate at 600 douros the amount of what he may have lent or sold, to the people of the kuesours with whom he has business transactions | 600 douros. |
| In his tent he has | 600 |
| Buried in a hose belonging to him in one of the kuesours[[92]] | 1,000 |
| -------- | |
| Total | 2,200 douros. |
| -------- | |
| He has likewise a house in a kuesour in the charge of a khremass, containing his most valuable property | 60 douros. |
| -------- |
RECAPITULATION.
| Tent and furniture, etc | 741 douros. |
| Wearing apparel of both sexes | 815 |
| Arms | 219 |
| Harness and Accoutrements | 376 |
| Horses, cattle, etc. | 20,988 |
| Deposits | 1,100 |
| Loans, etc. | 2,200 |
| House | 60 |
| -------- | |
| Total | 26,499 douros.[[93]] |
| -------- |
An Arab who possesses such a fortune does no work. He attends the meetings and assemblies of the djemâa, hunts, rides about, looks at his flocks, and prays. His only occupations are political, warlike, and religious. A poor Arab equally disdains manual labour. He is not forced to it, for there is no other kind of cultivation than that of date-trees, which is left to the inhabitants of the kuesours. Negroes are numerous and cost very little, and, with the assistance of a few white servants, suffice for the services which the free men refuse to perform for themselves. Some of the latter, however, mend their sacks and harness, but they form the exception. There are likewise farriers, but these, in fact, are artists—the privileges that are accorded to them, of which I have already had occasion to speak, constituting them a sort of special corporation. The armourers are, in truth, mere workmen who repair, but cannot manufacture, arms. The Arabs of the desert are for the most part worse armed than those of the Tell, though their chiefs yield to none in pomp and luxury. This is easily accounted for. As they obtain their arms from Tunis by way of Tougourt, or from Morocco through the Gourara country, the great distance to be traversed prevents them from getting their arms repaired as soon as they need repairs, and the unskilfulness of those who undertake this business will not permit them to do their work very efficiently. Many of the Saharenes are still armed with lances, which they seldom use except when pursuing runaways. Their spears consist of a shaft of wood six feet long, with a flat double-edged head of iron, and are usually carried in a bandolier.
The Arab of the Sahara is very proud of his mode of life, which is not only exempt from the monotonous toil to which the inhabitant of the Tell is subject, but is full of action and excitement, of variety and incident. If beards grow white at an early age in the desert, it is not only because of heat, fatigue, journeys, and combats, but much more from care, anxiety, and grief. He alone does not turn gray who "has a large heart, is resigned, and can say: It is the will of Allah!" This pride in their country and in their peculiar mode of existence amounts to positive contempt for the Tell and its inhabitants. What the dweller in the desert chiefly plumes himself upon is his independence; for in his country the lands are wide and there is no Sultan. The chief of the tribe administers and renders justice, a task of no great difficulty where every delinquency has been provided for and its appropriate penalty fixed beforehand. Whoever steals a sheep, pays a fine of ten boudjous. Whoever enters a tent to see his neighbour's wife, forfeits ten ewes. Whoever takes life, must lose his own; or, if he makes his escape, all that belongs to him is confiscated, save only his tent, which is given up to his wife and children. The fines are set apart by the djemâa for defraying the expenses of travellers and marabouts, and of presents to strangers. Thefts within the tribe are severely punished. If committed on another tribe, they are looked over, and, if a hostile tribe be the sufferers, are even encouraged.
The women attend to the cooking, and weave various kinds of carpets, sacks, stuff for tents, horse-cloths, camel-packs, and nose-bags, while the negresses fetch wood and water. Burnouses, haïks, and kabaya are made in the kuesours. If rich, an Arab is always generous; and rich or poor, he is sure to be hospitable and charitable. He seldom lends his horse, but would regard it as an insult if the animal were sent back to him. For every present he receives he makes a return of greater value. Some men are quoted as never having refused anything. It is a common saying: "He who applies to a noble never comes back empty-handed." It is needless to speak of alms. Every one knows that next to a holy war, and on the same line with going on a pilgrimage, alms-giving is the act of all others the most pleasing to Allah. If an Arab is sitting down to a meal, and a mendicant, who happens to be passing, exclaims: Mtâ rebi ia el moumenin—"of what belongs to Allah, O Believer!"— he shares his repast with him if there be enough for two, or else abandons it to him entirely.
A stranger presenting himself before a douar, stands some little way off, and pronounces these words: Dif rebi—"a guest sent by Allah." The effect is magical. Whatever may be his condition of life, they throw themselves on him, tear him from one another, and hold his stirrup while he alights. The servants lead away his horse, about whom, if he be a man of good breeding, he will not give himself any further trouble. He himself is almost dragged into a tent, and whatever is ready to hand is set before him, until a banquet can be prepared. Nor is less attention shown to a traveller on foot. The master of the tent keeps his guest company throughout the whole of the day, and only leaves him to make way for sleep. No indiscreet questions are ever asked, such as: Whence comest thou? Who art thou? Whither goest thou? There is no instance of any evil having ever befallen a stranger thus received as a guest, even though he were a mortal enemy. At his departure, the master of the tent will say to him: "Follow thy good fortune;" and after the guest has fairly taken his departure, his entertainer is no longer answerable for anything. In retiring from the hospitable repast, if the stranger pass before a douar and be seen, he is obliged again to accept the invitations that are pressed upon him.
A certain class of men live entirely on alms and hospitality. These are the dervishes. Absorbed in prayer, these pious individuals are the object of universal veneration. "Beware of offering them an insult, for Allah will punish you." A request made by them is never refused. By the side of these mendicant monks, who so exactly reproduce a particular feature of the Middle Ages, it seems appropriate to place the tolbas, or learned men, and the "wise women," who fill in the Sahara the part that belonged in the olden times to the magicians, alchemists, and sorcerers, and those other impostors celebrated by Tasso and Ariosto, and ridiculed by Cervantes. It is to these tolbas and aged dames that both men and women apply for a philter, composed of various herbs prepared with solemn invocations and awesome or grotesque ceremonies, which is mixed with the food of the swain or damsel whose love is longed for. It is they, again, who write magic words and the name of the hated one on a piece of paper and a dead man's bone taken from a cemetery, and then bury together the paper and the bone, which will soon be joined by the enemy, "with his belly full of worms." They will teach you, too, the formula you must pronounce while closing your knife, in order to sever the life of an odious rival; and that which you must throw into the furnace over which is being cooked the food of the family you would poison; and that which you must write on a copper plate, or flattened ball, to be flung into the stream whither repairs to drink the woman on whom you would avenge yourself—seized with a dysentery as rapid as the river, she will die, if she do not yield herself up to you. To effect her cure, the first sorcery must be counteracted by a second.
After these come the long train of spectres, the phantoms of those who have died a violent death. If one of them pursue you, lose no time in exclaiming: "Return to thy hole. Thou canst not frighten me. I feared thee not when thou didst carry arms." It will follow you yet a little, but will soon desist. If you are seized with terror and attempt to flee, you will hear in the air the clashing of arms, and a horse in full pursuit behind, with yells and horrible uproar, until you drop exhausted by fatigue.
In Morocco, on the banks of the Ouad Noun, about twenty days march westward of Souss, the most famous sorcerers are found. There is there a whole school of alchemists and necromancers, and of occult sciences, besides a talking mountain, and many others marvels of the magical world. The common people alone are debased to these superstitions. The wealthy, the marabouts, the tolbas of the zaouïa; and the sheurfaa, scrupulously follow the precepts of religion and read the sacred books; but the vulgar herd are plunged in ignorance, and barely know two or three prayers and the confession of faith. They likewise pray very rarely, and only perform their ablutions when they find water. The chiefs do their utmost to dispel this ignorance. Even on a journey they take care that the moudden never fail to proclaim the hour of prayer, and they establish schools in their tents. But a life of fatigue, wandering, and migration, soon causes the Arabs to forget the lessons of their childhood. Men of all ranks, however, take pleasure in having them recalled to mind in the garb of poesy by the meddah, or religious bards, who go about at festivals singing the praises of Allah, and the saints, and the holy war, accompanying themselves the while with flute and tambourine. These bards are rewarded with numerous presents.