The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the Desert

by E.‏ Daumas

Five guns for the masters, procured from Algiers, and mounted in silver	100 douros.
Two guns for the servants	20
Five sabres, two of them mounted in silver	40
Five pistols, two of them mounted in silver	35
Four pistols for the negroes	1
Four sabres for the negroes	12
Total	219 douros.

Harness and horsemen's equipment consist of:

One saddle for the master	100 douros.
Four ordinary saddles	160
Two common saddles for the servants	20
One master's djebira of tiger-skin	17
Four ordinary djebira	28
One pair of master's temag, or boots of morocco leather	12

Four pair of ordinary temag	24 douros.
One pair of master's spurs, mounted in silver and ornamented with coral	6
Four pair of ordinary shabirs, or spurs	4
Five medol, or straw hats adorned with ostrich feathers	5
Total	376 douros.

Horses, cattle, negroes, etc., consist of:

A stallion for the chief of the tent	100 douros.
Four blood mares for his sons	320
Two servants' mares	60
Six asses	18
Two slougui, or greyhounds [not purchasable]	»
Four negroes	240
Four negresses	200
Twenty ghelem each ghelem a flock of 400 sheep	8,000
Four ibeul, or droves of 100 camels each: of these 400 animals, 130 are she-camels which command a higher price than the males, but I value them all round at 30 douros a head	12,000
Ten he- or she-goats, the only use of which is to make the sheep keep moving on a march	50
Two tame gazelles, a young antelope, and an ostrich [these are never for sale]	»
Total	20,988 douros.

The chief of a tent of this importance ought besides to possess, in depôt, in three or four kuesours, or small towns:

Twelve hundred zedja, or fleeces, worth each half a boudjou	200 douros.
Thirty white burnouses, at 3 douros each	90
Thirty haïks at 2 douros	60
Forty habaya, or woollen shirts at 2 douros	80
Forty loads of dates at 7 douros	280
Thirty camel loads of wheat	240
Thirty loads of barley	150
Four khrabya, or enormous earthen vessels filled with butter
Total	1,100 douros.

I estimate at 600 douros the amount of what he may have lent or sold, to the people of the kuesours with whom he has business transactions	600 douros.
In his tent he has	600
Buried in a hose belonging to him in one of the kuesours[[92]]	1,000
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Total	2,200 douros.
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He has likewise a house in a kuesour in the charge of a khremass, containing his most valuable property	60 douros.
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