FISH.
The same variety of fish that is found in the Mediterranean is caught on the shores of West and South Barbary. Of the fresh water fish,
Shebbel—is in most request; it is similar to our salmon, but neither so large nor so red in the flesh, though extremely rich and delicate. Immense quantities are caught in the rivers of Barbary, particularly in those of El Kos, Mamora, Tensift, and Suse: they are salted, or baked and preserved for the supply of Bled-el-jerrêde, and other places of the interior, even as far as Soudan; but the greatest consumption of the dried shebbel is in Bled-el-jerrêde, where the inhabitants live for the most part on dates, as these fish are accounted a corrective of any ill effects produced from eating immoderately of that fruit.
The people who catch the shebbel give to the Emperor a per centage by way of duty.
There is a very considerable fishery on this coast, managed by the Spaniards from the Canary Islands, which extends from lat. N 20° 30′ to lat. N. 29°, being nearly 600 miles, and abounds in all kinds of excellent fish; as there is at present no town, village, or fixed habitation on the coast, within the district above mentioned, the Spaniards fish unmolested; neither do cruizers ever approach these parts, except by accident, so that the fishermen are secure from capture. In the spring and summer the fish are said to abound on the northern part of this extent of coast; and as the autumn approaches, they go gradually southward. Whilst I was established at Agadeer, I saw many kinds of curious fish which I have never seen in any other part of Africa or Europe.
Whales.—About the coast of Africa, from Agadeer to Arguin, whales are frequently cast on shore,[112] deluded, perhaps, like the unfortunate mariners, who being led away imperceptibly by the impetuosity of a deceitful current, are ashore before they are aware of being even near the land. Whenever the whale is cast ashore, ambergris is found on the shore, and is brought to Agadeer for sale. The Moors being very partial to this perfume, consume all that comes to market; so that none is sent to Europe. It is called in Arabic El Amber, and is supposed to possess highly stimulating qualities, for which purpose it is often infused in tea by the African Arabs, Moors, and others.
FOOTNOTES:
[70]This budra is preserved in earthen pots under ground, many, sometimes 20 or 30 years, as it is said, to improve by age; it is of so subtile and penetrating a nature, that it quickly passes to the capillary vessels of the body, and being rubbed on the inside of the hand, is quickly absorbed through the pores into the blood.
[71]Ida dez el Herka fee el bled wa kan trek harushe el Zirg ce herse el hager eladi fee’h.
[72]A small bird unknown in Europe, similar to a sparrow.
[73]Buffon informs us, that Bruce told him this animal was common in Barbary, where it was called Taleb; but Pennant observes, that Bruce should have given it a more characteristic appellation, for taleb, or thaleb, is no more than the Arabic name for the common fox, which is also frequent in that country. See Eng. Encyclopedia, 1802.
[74]The dubbah and the deeb are so totally different, that I cannot account for the error of Bruce in saying they are the same animal; for, besides various other differences, the dubbah is more than twice as large as the deeb. It is surprising that Mr. Bruce, who appears to have been a great sportsman, did not perceive this. Vide Select Passages of Natural History collected in Travels to discover the Source of the Nile. Title Hyæna, Vol V. p. 110.
[75]M’dubbah, stupified or hyænaized, from the word dubbah.
[76]Bruce, in speaking of this animal, observes that most of the animals confounded with him, are about six times smaller than he is. The want of a critical knowledge of the Arabic language, and of natural history at the same time, has, in some measure, been the occasion of these errors among the moderns. Bochart discusses the several errors of the ancients with great judgment, and the Count de Buffon, in a very elegant and pleasant manner, hath nearly exhausted the whole. See Select Specimens of Nat. Hist. collected in Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, Vol. V. Appendix, p. 108. Title Hyæna.
[77]A description of this herb will be given in its proper place.
[78]Andik aineen el Gazel ia Lella. Beek zin el Gazel ia Lella. You possess the eyes of an antelope, O Lady—You possess the beauty of a gazel, O Lady, are irresistible compliments with the Arabs. Again, Zin el mikkumule, and Zin el Gazel, perfect beauty, and gazel beauty, are synonymous terms.
[79]Horreh signifies any thing pure and free; thus a free-born man, (having a handsome person and virtuous mind,) is called Rajel Horreh; a horse of high breed is called Aoud el Horreh; it is also opposed to Abd, which signifies a slave.
[80]Possibly bizoar may be a corruption of Bide el Horreh.
[81]A shrub of Atlas used in tanning.
[82]Sir Joseph Banks.
[83]The Saharawan lizard is also called Dubb by the Arabs (See under [Reptiles]), and from the similitude of name, the conjecture that bears are found in Africa may have originated.
[84]The mountain at Ceuta is called Jibbel D’Zatute, the Mountain of Apes.
[85]Job, ch. 39, v. 9, 10.
[86]I met with a very intelligent Shelluh in Shtuka, whilst I was staying at the castle of the Khalif Mohammed ben Delemy, who had been thirty years travelling through various countries of the interior; he had frequently seen the Aoudad, the Horreh, the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the elephant, the hyæna, and various other animals, but he declared he had never seen an animal resembling a horse or mare, having one horn, nor had he ever heard, in the different Kaffer countries (as he called them) he had visited, that such an animal existed.
[87]These heirie riders will travel three days without food; or a few pipes of tobacco, or a handful of dates, will furnish their meal; so that a regiment of Arabs would subsist on less than would be sufficient to maintain a company of English soldiers.
[88]On the journey, a man who had been travelling with the caravan asked me for bread. “How long have you been without it?” said I. Two days was the reply. “And how long without water?” “I drank water last night.” This was at sun-set, after we had been marching all day in the heat of the sun. See Brown’s Travels in Africa, &c. Vol. II. p. 288.
[89]Incredible stories are told of them, as that they will hold out for twenty-four hours together, travelling constantly at the rate of ten miles an hour. See Brown’s Travels in Africa, &c. Vol. II. p. 259.
[90]Marocco is about one hundred miles from Mogodor.
[91]On this subject M. de Florial aptly observes, that “le plus part des hommes mesurant leur foi par leur connoissance acquise, croyent à fort peu de choses.”
[92]This term literally signifies Wind-sucker; the animal is so called from his hanging out his tongue at one side of his mouth, when in speed, and as it were sucking in the air.
[93]The straw being trodden out by cattle to separate it from the corn, is similar to chopped straw, and is the only substitute for hay.
[94]It is to the fashion of the saddle, stirrups, and bridle, that the Arabs are considerably indebted for their agility in horsemanship, and for their dexterous management of the horse.
[95]A food of extraordinary and incredible nourishment, and a sovereign remedy for consumption.
[96]It is called (Adû el hensh) the serpent’s enemy.
[97]Even the Bo’ah, or desert serpent (described in a subsequent page), is not venomous.
[98]The river called Luccos should be El Kos, so named from its winding through the country in semi-circular forms; El Kos in Arabic signifies a bow or arch.
[99]El Garb (the g guttural) signifies in Arabic the west; this is the western province.
[100]See the Author’s observations on the Plague in Barbary, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1805, page 123.
[101]In the consulship of Marcus Plautius Hypsæus, and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, Africa scarce breathing from bloody wars, a terrible and extraordinary destruction ensued; for now throughout Africa an infinite multitude of locusts were collected, and having devoured the growing corn, and consumed the vegetables, and leaves of the trees, their tender boughs, and their bark, they were finally driven, by a sudden and tempestuous wind, into the air, and being driven by the wind through the air, at length were drowned in the sea; their carcases, loathsome and putrified, being cast up by the waves of the sea in immense heaps, in all parts of the shore, bred an incredible and infectious smell, after which followed so general a pestilence of all living creatures, that the dead bodies of cattle, wild beasts, and fowls, corrupted by dissolution, filled the atmosphere with a contagious miasma, and augmented the fury of the plague; but how great and extraordinary a death of men there was, I cannot but tremble to report; in Numidia, where Micipsa was the king, died eighty thousand persons: on the sea-coast, near Carthage and Utica, about two hundred thousand are reported to have perished; from the city of Utica itself were, by this means, swept from the face of the earth thirty thousand soldiers, who were appointed to be the garrison of Africa, and the destruction was so violent, according to report, that from one gate of Utica were carried to be buried, in one and the same day, the bodies of above fifteen hundred of the aforesaid soldiers; so that by the grace of God (through whose mercy, and in confidence of whom I speak of these events), I boldly affirm that sometimes, even in our days, the locusts do much mischief, yet never before happened, in the time of the Christians, a calamity so insupportable, as this scourge of locusts, which, when alive, were insufferable, and after their death, produced much more pernicious consequences, which, if they had lived, would have destroyed every vegetable thing; but being dead, destroyed, through the plague which they produced, all earthly creatures. Vide Paulus Orosius contra Paganos, Lib. V. Cap. ii.
[102]This invigorating quality is expressed by the term Skoon, the k guttural.
[103]These Aisawie have a considerable sanctuary at Fas. They go to Suse in large bodies about the month of July to collect serpents, which they pretend to render harmless by a certain form of words, incantation, or invocation to (Seedy ben Aisah[a]) their tutelary saint. They have an annual feast, at which time they dance and shake their heads quickly, during a certain period, till they become giddy, when they run about the towns frantic, attacking any person that may have a black or dark dress on; they bite, scratch, and devour any thing that comes in their way. They will attack an Unjumma, or portable fire, and tear the lighted charcoal to pieces with their hands and mouths. I have seen them take the serpents, which they carry about, and devour them alive, the blood streaming down their clothes. The incredible accounts of their feats would fill a volume; the following observations may suffice to give the reader an idea of these extraordinary fanatics. The Bûska and the El Effah here described, are enticed out of their holes by them; they handle them with impunity, though their bite is ascertained to be mortal; they put them into a cane basket, and throw it over their shoulders: these serpents they carry about the country, and exhibit them to the people. I have seen them play with them, and suffer them to twist round their bodies in all directions, without receiving any injury from them. I have often enquired how they managed to do this, but never could get any direct or satisfactory answer; they assure you, however, that faith in their saint, and the powerful influence of the name of the Divinity, Isim Allah, enables them to work these miracles: they maintain themselves in a miserable way, by donations from the spectators before whom they exhibit. This art of fascinating serpents was known by the ancient Africans, as appears from the Marii and Psylli, who were Africans, and shewed proofs of it at Rome.
[a]Aisah signifies Jesus: thus Jesus Christ is denominated by the Mohammedans, Seedna Aisah, i.e. Our Lord Jesus.
[104]Ky herk el bled beshuelhu.
[105]The turtle called the Hawk’s bill is excellent on this coast. I never eat any superior in Europe; they are plentiful at Agadeer, but as the natives do not eat them, they care not about catching them, except when employed so to do by some European.
[106]See the description, [page 94.]
[107]Vide Sonini’s Travels in Egypt, page 217.
[108]I cannot suppress a smile when I recollect a trifling adventure to which the egrets gave occasion in my journey from Rosetta to Alexandria with M. Tott; he took with him a surgeon, puffed up with folly and conceit, and combining their knowledge of natural history, they had decided that the numerous egrets, whose dazzling whiteness (so interesting an emblem of candour and virginity), constituted the most beautiful ornament of the banks of the Nile, were the Ibis or Curlews of the ancients; birds on which antiquity conferred the highest honours. Whatever I could say, they would not relinquish their opinion. Vide Sonini’s Travels.
[109]This is the plural; the singular is Bukula.
[110]Mr. Wynne.
[111]Those who go to Mecca, receive on their return, the title of El Hage, to which (whatever their rank in life may be) is prefixed the appellation of Seedy, or Monsieur.
[112]During my stay at Messa, I saw two enormous jaw-bones of a whale erected in the form of an arch, and on enquiring how they came there, was informed that they had been there (min zeman) from time immemorial, and that the fish was thrown on the shore, having a man in his belly, whose name was recorded to be Jonah. Having laughed heartily at this whimsical story, I was surprized to find my informant not only very serious, but desirous to impress my mind with a belief, that there was no doubt of the fact. It has been handed down, said he, by tradition, and nobody but a Christian would doubt the fact! See Brookes’s Gazetteer, title Messa.
CHAPTER VI.
Metallic, Mineral, and Vegetable Productions.