While at Insalah I went for a ride in the palm groves, and it was then that I learned something about dates. There are many varieties of the fruit, but the principal ones are the “grhess” and the “deglet-nour.” The former is the ordinary date of commerce, and is the one grown and sold at Insalah. It is the “grhess” which is eaten by the desert traveller, and it is carried for sale in bags made of camel’s hair, called “tellis.” A “tellis” contains eighty to one hundred kilos of dates, and two “tellis” make a camel’s load. Dates are harvested in September or October. At this period of the year nomads flock to the oasis to gather their harvest or buy the fruit if they do not themselves possess trees at Insalah.
The “deglet-nour” is a finer date. It is, indeed, the date we see in England, sold for dessert in white boxes. None of these are grown at Insalah, but they come from the oases in the extreme north.
If rain falls in any quantity where dates are growing the fruit is ruined. The date tree requires plenty of irrigation at the roots, but water on the fruit quite spoils the latter. The reason for this is that dates are covered with a coating of sugar, which protects and nourishes the fruit, but rain washes this off. At Insalah, and all date oases, there are swarms of flies. These flies come to feed on the sugar, just mentioned, on the coating of a date. The plague of flies in these places is most disagreeable, and commences from the time the fruit begins to ripen, continuing till the end of the harvest.
Pasturage for camels is bad and scarce near Insalah. Camels have to be sent 200 kilometres away to graze, so that, when they are at Insalah, some other form of food has to be given them. The animals actually stopping in the oasis are generally fed on dates. These are broken up into small pieces, and either given raw, or cooked soft, to the beasts. Dates are an expensive form of diet for the camel, as his appetite is so insatiable, but at the same time they are very nourishing. Camels are also fed on barley, but as the quantity grown at Insalah is so small this form of food is exceptional.
Some of the streets of Insalah are absurdly narrow. The main street in the principal “ksour” in one place is barely twelve inches wide. The ponies of the oasis are very clever at passing along it—from constant practice, I suppose. The houses at this spot have been built so close together that little room was left between them for a street. Insalah has the appearance of an Eastern town. Arab beggars and cripples are a common sight in its streets. Some of these are uncommonly dirty, but picturesque. Tattered, flowing gowns, once white, but now coffee colour from the dirt of ages, adorn their lean bodies; while the older ones have fine white beards, often sweeping half-way down their breast. The Arabs of this part are fine-looking men as a rule. They are very pale of complexion, with black or dark brown eyes, aquiline noses, and white teeth. Most of them are muscular and extremely wiry. I fancy a great many children die at birth, so it is a case of the survival of the fittest.
A strange place is this little town of sand, buried in the heart of the Central Sahara, but although so small, and with such limited resources, what a paradise it seems to many a wayfarer in the desert! Here at least it is possible to get shelter from the cruel sandstorms and from the fierce heat of the sun. At Insalah there is that precious necessity of life, water. While here, also, a man can rest, and his camels can be relieved of their burdens. The necessity for hurrying forward with the restless energy which is required of a caravan in the Sahara need no longer be exercised. Peace and rest are the two exclamations which must rise to the lips of almost every traveller when he sees the Oasis of Insalah before him.
CHAPTER XXIV
Disturbing news — En route for Algiers — A remarkable man — Horses at Insalah — Hospitality of French officers — Slavery amongst the Arabs — An unusual sight — A pathetic story — My own valet and cook — A precipitous track — The “Great Erg”— Hassy Inifel — An incompetent guide — Lost — A useful camel-driver — A hospitable Arab chief — An unappetizing menu — The dates of Ouargla — Touggourt — A ramshackle coach — Biskra.
THE morning after my arrival at Insalah the officer in command of the post came to see me wearing a very troubled look. I could not help surmising that some serious incident had occurred, and waited for him to tell me what it was.
It appeared that a messenger had just arrived in great haste on a camel from a place called Tit, which was a small oasis in the Touat region, about sixty-six miles from Insalah.