TUAREG SWORD AND SHEATH, SHIELD, ARM-SWORD AND SHEATH AND TWO KNIVES
As far as possible the Tuareg fight according to their code, which in a less cynical age would be called chivalrous. They obey the injunctions of Islam neither to destroy palm trees nor to poison wells. They will give water in the desert to their worst enemy. They will lie and deceive their opponent whenever possible, but they will not infringe the laws of hospitality. When they have given the “Amán” or peace, they do not break their word. They are faithful to the tribes which they take under their protection and to those who have received their “A’ada” or “right of passage,” confirmed with the “Timmi” or oath suitable to the occasion. Their reputation as base fighters has little real foundation. Every case of which I have heard, when such an accusation was brought against them, has resolved itself into some surprise attack by a raiding party, the essence of whose success depended upon an unexpected descent upon an unsuspecting enemy. Of their courage I will write nothing, for it is too easy to exaggerate; but their proverb says: “Hell itself abhors dishonour.”
[201]Singular: Ers. Water-scrapes in the sand of valley-beds.
[202]Or Efaken.
[203]See [Plate 35.]
[204]See the Kel Geres group in [Appendix II.]
[205]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 385.
[206]Misnamed the Dogam Mountains on the Cortier map. Dogam is to the east. The Ighaghrar valley runs south and then, assuming the name of Tagharit, west, and then on to the Talak plain. This valley does not run into the Auderas valley as the Cortier map shows.
[207]The “Assada well” of the Cortier map.
[208]Quite close to the Nabarro of Barth. The name is not given on the Cortier map.