CHAPTER VI.
THE SAHARA.
rom the inquiries he had made, Yusuf learnt that the Sheik of the Woled Abou Sebah was encamped on the borders of the Sahara, between the provinces of Suse and Draha. He had, consequently, taken a course through the mountains south of Marocco, where they begin to fall in lower ranges, towards the sea-coast. The inhabitants of this country are Berebbers, living in small villages, among whom he had been in the habit of travelling on trade; and as they were under the Sultan's government, there was little danger to be apprehended. After three days' travelling, almost day and night, he found himself on the south of the mountains. There were no more fixed villages. The few inhabitants of this wilderness, in which vegetation was rapidly disappearing as he advanced, were living in tents where wells of water were to be found. Resting at one of these stations, he had to make up his mind as to his onward course. The sum of his intelligence was, that the Sheik's camp was a day and a half journey in the Desert to the south-east; and that a large caravan from the north was hourly expected on its way across the Desert to Timbuctoo. His object was to join this caravan, which he had hoped to have fallen in with before; and as they usually pay blackmail to the Arabs, when they are allowed to pass unharmed, he knew he should thus have no difficulty in obtaining their guidance to their Sheik.
From these poor peasants he could not obtain a guide, and he dared not offer them money, which he knew was a certain inducement for them to strip and perhaps kill him. His mule, too, was showing signs of fatigue, from the rapid and unaccustomed journey. At daylight, after taking the most minute directions from his host for striking the track of the caravan, he set off with a stout heart, his mule ambling from four to five miles an hour; and while the sun was yet far from noon, he found himself launched on that inland sea which stretches with little interruption from the Atlas to the Niger. With some of the instinct of the Arab, he guided himself by the aid of rising grounds, sand-hills, and indications left by bleached bones, sun-dried manure, and some rocks, keeping a straight course by the sun; but his heart sunk as the afternoon wore on, and no signs appeared of the desired tracks. Had the caravan not passed? or had it passed, and the wind swept the sand over its track and effaced it? He could travel on, but what probability of discovering the road, in such a waste? He might travel another day, and be able to return with safety, if unsuccessful; but then to lose the object of his journey, death were better.
He dismounted and sat down to think. The western sun threw the shadow of his mule far from him, and despair began to creep over his spirits. Hark! was that a shout? His heart bounded at a human voice in such a place, whether of friend or foe; it was welcome. He sprang up, and scanned the horizon. Another long, clear call, and at a distance of three-quarters of a mile he perceived some large fragments of rock, which he had not before noticed; on their highest point, and partly relieved against the sky, stood a dark figure, waving a cloth with one hand, with what seemed to be a gun in the other. If there had been danger, there was no escape; but Yusuf, accustomed to place confidence in these people, joyfully mounted his mule, and hastened to the spot.
The Desert Arabs, to whom I would now introduce the reader, are quite a different race from the Moors, and have little in common with the Arab population of the Maroqueen provinces. The latter have occupied these countries, on occasions of depopulation from plague, have adopted a settled life, and become partially identified in manners and dress with the people who surround them. The Arabs of the Sahara retain their distinguishing characteristics.
Their dress is a blue tunic of India long cloth confined at the waist by a leather belt; besides swords and dirks, they carry double-barrelled guns, which come to them from the French settlements in Senegal. The complexions of the men are swarthy; their features are regular and strongly marked; they wear their hair in short curls, and the beard is usually short. They are decidedly a handsome race, and the beauty of the women is proverbial in the adjoining countries, "Dim el Arb" (Arab blood) being a common expression for female loveliness. They are brunettes, but their dark eyes and resplendent teeth are unrivalled. Their living is frugal—dates, barley-meal, milk, and cheese: flesh is used sparingly, though a sheep is always killed when a guest is to be entertained; the flesh of the gazelle and the ostrich, as well as that of the camel and sheep, is cut in strips, and dried in the sun for household supply.
When Yusuf came up, he found four Arabs sitting under the shadow of the rock, regaling themselves on dates and barley-cakes, spread on a piece of old garment on the sand, by the side of which was a small goat-skin of water. They were on an ostrich-hunt. Their guns were leaning against the rocks, and their horses picketed behind them. These horses were what an Englishman would call "bags of bones;" but they had magnificent points, were as hard as iron, and had eyes like lamps.