Conditions have not changed since those days among the People of the Veil, but habits which would be considered natural in America or in England admittedly seem strange in Africa. They are all summed up in the Tuareg proverb which says: “Men and women towards each other are for the eyes and for the heart, and not only for the bed,” as among the Arabs. The consequence of such a frame of mind is that the men and women of the People of the Veil are often blessed, or cursed, with love so lasting, so sincere and so devoted that, like in our own society, it makes or mars a life.
Bates has discussed the marriage customs of the Libyan tribes mentioned in the classics. While some of these groups of people may represent the ancestors of the Tuareg, there is no evidence of the outrageous performances mentioned, for instance, by Herodotus, having persisted into modern times in Air. Divorce among the Tuareg is fairly frequent and is carried out in accordance with Moslem prescription, but adultery is not very common. Prostitution exists, but perhaps, on the whole, is less common than in more favoured parts of the world. It is, of course, more frequent in Agades than in the villages, and in the latter than among the tribes. The harlot is not respected, and her marriage with a decent man is reprobated.
The husband is required to purchase his wife, the money or equivalent being paid to her parents. The sum varies from a few silver francs to several camels. Marriage portions in cattle, sheep or goats, according to the circumstances of the parents, are frequently given to women; the “dot” remains the property of the bride.
The children of the Tuareg, and especially the little girls, are adorable persons. They are fairer than their parents, largely, I think, because they wash more often than their elders, but even discounting this factor they appear to turn darker as they grow up. Up to the age of seven or eight the children wear no clothes at all, summer or winter, indoors or out of doors, except perhaps a rag to keep off the flies when they are asleep. After that, their first clothes are white cotton shifts. Small boys have their hair cropped close, except for a crest along the top of the head; in some tribes, notably in the west of Air, a lock on either side of the head and a patch on top are sometimes left. Little girls are allowed long hair until they first put on a smock or cloth about their waists. At the age of puberty both sexes dress their hair in one of the several fashions current in Air, usually in small plaits all over the head; thereafter the boys continue to wear white shirts, but the girls put on the indigo skirt cloth. The children are so well brought up that European parents might be envious of them. I have never met small boys with such perfect manners and so free from selfishness as I experienced in Air. As soon as they are old enough to take an interest in things, the boys accompany their fathers on journeys, to which they are thus gradually broken from an early age. They are made to work and do all the domestic duties that their powers allow in camp or on the march. They feed the camels on the road with grass or plants picked by the way; they carry water to their elders to drink; they bring in stray camels at loading-up time and hobble them when turned out to graze. The slaves, who prepare the food, are assisted by the boys and send them out to do all the hundred and one little jobs that are required. So the boys grow up to be useful men before they are mature, and in the process learn the respect which is due to their elders, and their elders show them such devotion as these pleasant little people deserve. The training is evidently successful, for nowhere else have I seen children so thoughtful or so kindly to all and to each other. It had never been my lot until I met the Tuareg to see a right-minded boy, for instance, who had been given a sweet or a penny or some equally valuable object, run off and offer it first to his father and then to his companions, who refused it. And this I saw not in an isolated instance, but as an universal practice.
In the primitive conditions of life in Air, infant mortality is high. The happiest and some of the most successful days I spent in Air were doctoring people, and especially children, at Auderas. There are not many diseases in the clean dry mountain air, but under-feeding and malaria, which comes after the rains, take their annual toll. The almost miraculous effect of quinine on the fevers is a very saving grace. One can never have enough quinine, but fortunately small doses at frequent intervals will keep fever in check during bad attacks and prevent collapse. Thus can a great deal be achieved. But it was the good sense of the women, who had some faith in my elementary remedies, that did most to save several children of Auderas in the autumn of 1922.
I was interested to find how long women went on suckling their children. I saw children of three and four years still feeding at the breast, though they were already eating solid food. A woman will go on suckling an older child for many years so long as her younger ones do not suffer; she is especially prone to do so if her last baby has died. In company with most races living under primitive conditions, even advanced pregnancy does not interfere with a woman’s activities, nor do mothers suffer much from the effects of childbirth. The processes of nature take place unassisted: there are neither local medicine men nor midwives. Women in labour are attended by their older relations or intimate friends, whose assistance is limited to massaging the body with hands steeped in butter or fat. Death in childbirth appears to be rare. Newly-born children are wrapped in some ragged garment, but receive no especial care. Cradles or swaddling clothes are unknown; but perhaps a cushion of grass or leaves for the infant is prepared on the family sleeping mat or bed. Babies are carried on their mother’s back or by a slave woman, slung with one tiny leg each side of the woman’s waist, in a fold of the cloth which constitutes her skirt. The cloth is firmly rolled round the baby and the woman’s body, and tucked in over the breast; only the child’s head emerges from this pouch on her back. So the child sleeps or cries or sucks its finger, and the mother goes about her daily occupations, pounding millet or plaiting mats.
PLATE 18
TEKHMEDIN AND THE AUTHOR
Neither at birth nor later is any form of bodily deformation practised. Such horrors as flattened skulls or filed teeth are unknown. The only eunuchs in Air are negroes purchased in the south. As in the case of all good Moslems, the boys are circumcised at the age of a few months. The diseases which I myself observed in Air, I must admit, seemed few. Syphilis, malaria, certain digestive troubles, dysentery, a few minor skin diseases and eye troubles were the most serious. Syphilis is common, but apparently not very virulent: its method of propagation and origin are well known to the natives: in the Northern Sahara it is called the Great Disease. Von Bary thought that it, like malarial fevers, came from the Sudan, but there is no reason to believe this, for it is very evenly distributed all over North Africa. The juice of the colocynth as a purge is believed to do good in cases of venereal disease. Guinea-worm is fairly common; the milky juice of the Asclepias, known as Calotropis Procera,[172] which grows all over Air, is said to have a curative effect, in addition to the usual method of extraction known to everyone who has travelled in Africa. I saw one case of tuberculosis of the lungs at Auderas, accompanied by hæmorrhage. It was rather an interesting case of a woman whose family for three generations was said to have died of the disease. I was too honest, I suppose, to profess to be able to cure her, but I need hardly say that my servant, Amadu, took over the case. He claimed to have established a complete cure in a few days with some herb which he had found. My reputation suffered, but my advice to Ahodu to move her hut to the outskirts of the village was nevertheless admitted to be reasonable, and was followed. Duveyrier[173] mentions a form of ulcer in the nose, said to be due to constant sand irritation. He describes hernia from long-distance camel riding as being frequent: to prevent abdominal strains from this cause the Tuareg bind a long strip of cotton stuff tightly about their waists. Von Bary[174] records having seen, in addition to the above diseases, epilepsy, atrophied children, skin eruptions, small-pox, hypochondria and madness. He remarks that the Kel Owi seemed to suffer more from disease than the other tribes, that their women were very fat, and that they appeared to have irregular periods. My investigations into local medicine were unproductive. I brought home some drugs which were used locally as purges, lotions and astringents, but they were without value. The empiric knowledge of the Tuareg may yet be worth investigating, but has so far disclosed nothing of any value.