People of the veil

by Baron Francis James Rennell Rodd Rennell of Rodd

BELOW: UNFINISHED AND FINISHED ARM RINGS, SILVER “AGADES CROSS,” RED STONE SIGNET RING

The origin of both “talhakim” and cross must remain matters of conjecture. The former may or may not be, but the latter certainly is, peculiar to the People of the Veil; its occurrence is yet another example of the deep-rooted habit of mind which inculcates the use of the cross among the race. The ideal explanation, in view of the common characteristics of the ring and three excrescences thereon, would be that the “talhakim” and cross had an identical origin. But the cross suggests association with Christianity, while the large ring points rather to some derivation from the Egyptian Ankh: the latter in my own opinion is more probable.

Two other adornments there are in Air, both restricted to men: a flat plaque and stone arm rings. The former is a flat rectangular piece of tin or silver, usually 2½ to 3 inches long by 1 inch broad, with some slight embossed design on the surface. It is often worn on the head, tied by two little thongs or threads to the band of stuff which is used to secure the veil around the forehead. The ornament may simply be a metal form of amulet pouch, but it certainly bears a striking resemblance to a fibula, which in the course of time for the sake of easier manufacture is turned out without a pin. The plaque is also worn on the shoulder, like certain classical brooches were on the Roman togæ, from which the white robes of North Africa are said to be descended.[253]

No man among the Tuareg will be seen who does not wear one or more arm rings, usually above the elbow and upon either or both arms. The rings are of two main types, a cylindrical ring some ¾ to 1 inch deep by ⅛ to ¼ inch thick, and of the circumference of a man’s forearm, with two or three ridges on the outer surface, and a flat ring some ¼ inch thick, of the same inner circumference, and ¾ to 1 inch broad. The second type is the most important and appears to be the traditional sort. Deep significance is to be attached to the custom of wearing these rings, and there are differences attributed to the numbers and position of the rings on the arms. But whilst I was well aware of the importance of these usages, I was unable to ascertain their precise interpretation. Only it is clear that boys do not wear the rings, that a ring is worn when the sword is girt on, that in the first place only one ring is worn, and that once a ring has been put on it is not again put off. The rings of all types should be made of stone. In Air a soft argillaceous stone of a greenish-grey hue found in the eastern hills is used. The rings are cut by hand without a lathe from a lump of stone about one inch thick. The rough ring is smoothed and fined down with rasps and files and finally cleaned with sand and water. The traditional flat rings tend to taper from the inner to the outer circumference. When the cutting and shaping of the rings have been finished, they are dipped in fat and then baked, to give the slightly porous stone a deep black colour and a polished surface. The flat rings seem to be very important, for they are passed on from father to son. They are often mended with riveted brass plates if they happen to have been broken, and sometimes bear inscriptions, for the most part only names, in T’ifinagh. Of late, rings appear to have been made of a hard baked clay which is also dipped in fat, but they break too readily.

Elaborate and fanciful explanations have been suggested for the practice, which has a sacred or at least mystic association. One author, who shall be nameless, has suggested that the rings were worn—and presumably he saw a Tuareg with many rings on both arms—to enable a man to crush his enemy’s skull when they closed in battle. I myself cannot offer any explanation worthy of much consideration. I must, however, note that such rings, especially when worn, as some always are, above the elbow, and also at the wrist, afford a valuable protection to the vulnerable arm muscles against sword-cuts. Nevertheless, if such was the reason for their first use they have become traditional with the lapse of time.

The last of these matters to which I propose to allude is the use of the Veil, a practice which has certainly assumed a ritual form. No self-respecting Tuareg of noble or servile caste will allow himself to be seen even by his most intimate friends without a veil over his face. The habit has no analogy in the practice of the Arabian Arabs, who sometimes cover their faces with the ends of their head-cloths to protect the mouth and face against the sun and sand. This is a hygienic device[254]; the Tuareg veil is more mysterious. Not the least of the difficulties connected with the veil is, that it is not mentioned by classical authors in referring to people in North Africa who seem to be the ancestors of the present Tuareg and otherwise to correspond to descriptions of the latter. It is only with the advent of the Arabic writers that these same people are first referred to by the name of Muleththemin, the Veiled People.

The veil or “Tagilmus” is a long strip of indigo cloth woven and dyed in the Sudan. The best quality is made of six narrow strips about one inch wide sewn together, edge to edge. The material and the open stitching leave plenty of room for the air to pass through, and even a considerable degree of transparency. The veil is put on in the following wise: about one-half of the length is folded over three times into a band only 2½ inches wide. The part where the full breadth begins is placed over the forehead low enough to cover the nose; the narrow band is to the right, the broad part to the left. The latter is then passed round the back of the head and looped up under the narrow part, which is wound around the head on top of the broad portion so as to hold the latter in place. The broad part over the nose is pulled up into a pleat along the forehead and forms the hood over the eyes, being called “temeder.” There remains a long loop of the dependent broad portion held by the narrow fastening band: it hangs loosely from over the right ear, behind which it is passed, over to the left ear, behind which the end is brought and passed, under the narrow fastening band running round the head. The lower part of the veil thus falls below the wearer’s chin in a loop, both ends being under the narrow band which holds them in place. The centre of the strip is taken and placed on the bridge of the nose, and all the slack is pulled in from the two points over the ears. The lower part of the veil, called “imawal,” should now hang from the bridge of the nose over the mouth and chin without touching them; the upper edge from the nose to the lobes of the ears ought to be nearly horizontal. Thus worn, the veil leaves a slit about ½ to 1 inch wide in front of the eyes, which, with a small part of the nose, are all that one can ever see of a Tuareg’s face.

In this veil the men live and sleep. They lift the “imawal” up to eat but in doing so hold their hand before the mouth. When the veil requires re-fixing, a man will disappear behind a bush to conceal his features even from his own family. These rigorous prescriptions are to some extent less strictly observed in the south among the younger generation, but they belong to the pride of race of the Tuareg. Even when the French induced some Tuareg to visit Paris, they declined to allow their photographs to be taken unveiled. They declared that they had no Moslem prejudices on the subject but firmly refused to entertain the idea.

What is the explanation of this curious habit? Every unlikely theory has been advanced, from that of the desire of raiders to conceal their faces in order to escape recognition, to the one which suggests that the Tuareg were the Amazons of the classics, and that the habits adopted by men and women respectively in such a society had become confused. Of this order of hypotheses the simplest one is that which explains the veil as a purely hygienic accessory designed to protect the wearer against the blinding glare and the sand of the desert: from the first use of the veil for this purpose the habit gradually became so innate as to acquire a ritual significance.

But none of these theories are really tenable: the Tuareg recognise each other, and foreigners can do the same in a short time, as easily in the veil as a man of another race without the veil. The Tuareg are not the Amazons of the classics, at least in the form in which popular beliefs have conceived the latter; nor is there, as a matter of fact, any reason to suppose that the Amazons, either male or female, veiled themselves. There is no logic in only the men veiling their faces and the women going unveiled if the veil were really intended for hygienic purposes; still less is any explanation of this nature reasonable for the use of the veil at night or in the rainy season. Yet almost all Tuareg, unless they have become denationalised, would as soon walk unveiled as an English man would walk down Bond Street with his trousers falling down. No other race in the world possesses this peculiar habit, though some among the population of the Fezzan and the Sudan in contact with them have adopted it. The habit is essentially characteristic of the Tuareg. It is as typical of them as the cross-hilted sword, the cross-pommelled saddle, the status of their women, and their T’ifinagh script.