Loading camels is hard work and can only properly be done by two men. The pack-saddle is put on the kneeling camel, which is prevented from rising by slipping one of his knees through a looped hobble rope, which, when not in use, is carried round the animal’s neck. The camel protests vigorously in season and out of season and pretends to bite the men. They work stripped to the waist, wearing only their trousers tucked up to the thigh, and the inevitable veil. They stagger under 150 to 200 lbs. loads, swinging them on to the camel’s back, slipping the loops through one another and securing them with the two sticks. The camel is then released, gets up with a jerky movement resembling a deck chair being opened, and probably throws its burden to the ground immediately, when the operation recommences. If this does not happen at once the head rope is secured to the next camel in front with a half-hitch that can be released by pulling the free end. By the time fifty camels have been loaded, at least five in an endeavour to graze on the same bush have bumped into one another and their loads have fallen off. The operation of loading may take place in the early morning when it is cool, or before dawn when it is always cold, or at noon when the temperature is like a furnace; it is always tedious and tiresome and bad for the temper, which the incessant complaining of the camels aggravates.
Eventually the caravan moves off. The camel-men walk along, watching their loads if they are conscientious, and when everything is going well they climb up on their camels and sit on the loads. They jump up on to the neck of the camel after pulling its head down and so reach the top, but they never kneel a camel after it has started on the march until the day’s journey is over, unless the load has been thrown or has slipped very badly. The guide takes the head of the caravan and the march starts. The Tuareg of Air know their mountains as well as the average Londoner knows London: they can find their way along the more important tracks. For the less known ways a special guide must be found: in the outer deserts the reliable guides can be counted on the fingers of both hands. Efale, the leader of the “Taghalam” and veteran of the Eastern Desert, T’ekhmedin and Kalama on the northern routes—are all resourceful, patient and observant men when travelling, but complete autocrats whose orders cannot be questioned. Their knowledge of the roads depends on estimation of time and memory and not on any supernatural powers. They know the stars[212] and have some sense of direction, but especially do they know every fold of ground and almost every bush. Their powers are remarkable but not inexplicable; their observation and memory rarely fail them, but for obvious reasons they do not care to travel by night. Once started the march goes on hour after hour. The heat grows more intense. The narrow path winds down the bed of a valley or among the trees on the banks, or over rocky plains or amid sand dunes.
In Air the vegetation exists principally along the valleys. In the south the dûm palm grows in veritable forests or in low thickets, when it resembles the dwarf palm. The Acacia Adansonii, Acacia Arabica (“Tamat” in Temajegh), Acacia Tortilis (the “Talha” of the Arabs and “Abesagh” or “Tiggeur” in Temajegh), as well as two or three other varieties, are common. They occasionally grow to very large dimensions. The Aborak (Balanites Ægyptiaca) also does very well; trees with trunks up to 2 feet in diameter are common in the larger valleys, and in North-eastern Air I have seen some up to 3½ feet across. The bushes and grasses are innumerable, but flowers are rare, except for the yellow and white mimosa blossom on the trees. Nearly all the trees and bushes are thorned, some with recurving barbs which are dangerous for the careless rider. If burr grass is less frequent than in the south, spear grass abounds and is almost as painful. Vegetation in Air defends itself against pasturing animals vigorously but vainly, for the animals in the country seem to thrive on a diet of thorns, and man ends up by being the worst sufferer from these useless provisions of Nature. Thorns are not the only minor horror of life. How often after a long march has some delicious glade appeared at hand, cool and inviting. After angrily dismissing the suggestion to choose a camp site in the middle of an open river-bed where the sun on the sand will cook an egg in a few minutes, you throw yourself down to rest in deep green shade fanned by the breeze. The unwary traveller soon learns the consequences of disregarding native advice, for he will quickly arise from a bed of thorns with his clothes full of burrs, and his mouth full of bad words, while his whole attention will probably be directed towards dodging a large tarantula or scorpion or, happily less often, a little yellow-crested sand viper, than which there is hardly anything more deadly in all Africa.
PLATE 24
ABOVE: NECK WALLETS, POUCH, “STAR” GAME TRAP
CENTRE: AMULET BAG, WOODEN LADLE, WOODEN SPOON, AMULET POUCHES
BELOW: STRIP OF MATTING, LEATHER BOTTLE, HOUSEHOLD POTS OF CLAY AND HIDE, SKIN FOR CHURNING BUTTER
Apart from trades directly connected with camels the Tuareg have practically no industries. They neither dye nor spin anything, except a rough sewing thread of local cotton; nor do they weave in wool or cotton. Mats of two sorts are made; the one of palm fronds plaited in bands some two to three inches broad and sewn together spirally to form rectangles or ovals worked in varying degrees of fineness, the other made of stiff grass and thin strips of black leather. The technique of the latter is good: deep borders with an intricate geometric ornament are woven in the leather warp. Mat-making and leather-working are carried on by the women. They attain great skill, but although leather-working is usual all over the country, it is at Agades that the craft is especially well developed. Fine designs in coloured strips of leather are made on cushions, bags and pouches like a sort of embroidery. The industry is in the hands of a few women and is probably of Manding origin, brought to Air by the Songhai conquerors or even before. Decorated camel riding saddles, leather head ropes and travelling wallets or pouches of various shapes are made. The leather used is the goatskin locally tanned with the seed pod of the “Tamat” acacia, and dyed with red maize leaf or indigo. A certain amount of prepared leather is also imported from the south. In these articles the foundation is usually of black leather, which is ornamented with coloured strips or bands and metal studs. Camel head ropes are made of twisted or plaited leather strands with coloured tassels; the more elaborate, the finer are the strands used; the tassels are bound with coloured leather threads woven in patterns. The technique of these head ropes is the best of its sort I have ever seen. Cutting leather in strands to the thickness of coarse sewing thread is a highly skilled art, and all the more remarkable in that only knives are used, for scissors are unknown except in the blacksmiths’ equipment. I have seen cords for carrying amulets or pouches made of ten or a dozen threads, each less than ¹⁄₃₂″ thick, bound at intervals and at the ends.
A most characteristic article is a flat rectangular envelope of leather some 6″ long × 3″ broad. It is only open at the bottom and slides up and down the two cords, by which a sort of portfolio is hung from the neck; this consists of four to six leather flaps in which amulets, trinkets, needles and papers are preserved. The black cover is ornamented with some stamped rectilinear pattern and has small tassels at the bottom. A similar object is the small leather amulet case about 3″ broad × 2″ long × 1″ deep, also slung round the neck, and provided with a lid like a box. A larger semi-circular pouch with a design in strips of coloured leather suspended over the shoulder by a long cord is typical Agades work. Triangular travelling bags of all sizes are made of soft leather, closed at the neck with a running cord; they vary in size from those 5 inches long for snuff to others 2 feet or more for clothing and food. Both these bags and ornamented goatskins for packing personal belongings have polychrome patterns on the surface, which is roughed and rubbed with moist dyes. The plaited head ropes and the surface dyeing of leather seem to be a more indigenous technique than the “Agades work” proper, in which the design is procured by appliqué strips.