“These were big raids from fifty to one hundred men. Ordinary raids were composed of from fifteen to twenty men, armed with flint-lock firearms, and each robber was capable of rounding up, and taking care of, three to four camels apiece, when they swooped upon their victims. Captives were taken, in addition, and were sold to buy fresh arms and ammunition. A good, able-bodied male captive realised one hundred silver pieces, of coin the size of a sixpence, and a comely woman four hundred silver pieces, in the markets of Ghat and elsewhere. His days of raiding are over. He wishes he could recall them, and declares the life of adventure was a grand game, where prizes were many, in camels and captives.
“He stays a few days in our camp—then, of an evening, a little dark figure on a camel trails out alone into silent solitude until he is lost from view.
“No man knows the road he travels.”
Another raider, with the ugly scar of a sword-slash on his left side, that sometimes showed in raising the arm, when the loose robes blew aside, told me the following story of his most exciting adventure:
“It occurred about thirty years ago. We had no rifles; only swords and spears. There were a hundred men in our band, all mounted on camels. Some camels carried two men.
A TUAREG WOMAN OF AHAGGAR
“Our camp was hungry, and we set out to plunder whatever chanced our way. We had no news of caravans when we started, and did not know what we might find.
“After crossing a wilderness of desert we came upon a small lot of camels, which we seized without fighting.
“But, by that time, some of the men were tired, discontented, and afraid, and tried to persuade all of us to give up and return to our own country. I would not agree; and, finally, we split; some going home while I led the others on.