These workings are even more unusual and more picturesque than Bilma, and they differ, also, in the fact that a great deal of labour is demanded in obtaining very modest quantities of salt.
The method of obtaining the salt is as follows:
The product is secreted in the soil and sand of the low hill. Well-like pools down in the workings among the salt basins, are the “mixing pots,” where the salt-bearing earth from the hill and water, already brackish, are mixed to make a fluid of strong brine. On close inspection it is found that the bottom of the workings is of solid rock, and the basins are formed thereon, to hold water securely, simply by moulding carefully plastered rims of clay to the circle desired. As each shallow basin dries out, and after the frigid salt sediment, or crust, has been collected, it is scrupulously cleaned with a hand-whisk and refilled with a skin-bucket or two of brine. The basin is then left undisturbed, beneath blue sky and blazing sun, for the day or two required for the water to completely evaporate.
And thus the people of Tigguida labour constantly in these workings, which provide their sole means of livelihood. Whether puddling clay, carrying water, sweeping out basins, or collecting the salt crust, they are ever busy at one ploy or another; exhibiting a commendable diligence that is foreign to other people of the land.
From the workings the salt is carried to the dwellings in the town, where it is spread out to harden into flat oblong cakes of a size suitable to bale into compact camel loads. The cakes are of pale pink colour, and on account of this it is easily recognisable when seen south of the Sahara in the bazaars of the markets of West Africa, where it is prized on account of its high quality.
Thus is salt obtained from two remarkable places in the Sahara.
Its romance as currency begins at the very commencement of its existence as a product. Almost everything that the two towns secure from the outside, most of the food, and all of the clothes they require, is purchased by barter for salt.
Sometimes the exchanges are curious—a score of blocks of salt, at Bilma, for an article of adornment, or a lover’s gift; half a dozen blocks for a sheaf of raw tobacco, and a single block for a few sticks of scarce firewood.
At Tigguida n’Tisem all the water in the town is very salt. Hence fresh water is transported from a distance by donkeys and sold in the streets every day, a handful of raw salt being the purchase price of a half-filled calabash bowl of fresh water.
