Monday, 21st February. Thermometer 3°.—At 7.15. set off. At nine, passed the eastern Gaaf, and at ten the western. 11.20. rose gradually to the beginning of Soudah. I walked, and my two camels were made use of by some of the poor fatigued Negresses, who were ready enough to mount them. We passed over a plain of white shining stones, called El Maytba Bayda الميتبايده, and then over a black one called El Maytba Soudah الميتباصوده, which is covered with large detached black masses of basalt. At 2.15. descended to a long wadey, having a few Talhh trees طالح, and running north and south, called Temesheen طمشين. At four passed this, and ascended with difficulty to another mountain top. At five we descended by an equally dangerous track to a narrow wadey, called Finger فنقر, where, as the slaves were very much exhausted, we lay for the night. My own Maherry had fallen very lame this day in consequence of the sharpness of the rocks we passed over; I therefore lightened his load, and allowed no one to mount him. A remarkably high and black mountain, called Kohol كخل, or black, bore north-west about ten miles. We had proceeded this day north 35° east, 30 miles.
Tuesday, February 22nd.—At 7.20. went on. Thermometer 5°. A very fine morning. At noon we passed over a wadey, called Zayra زيرا, with many shrubs in it, on which a few poor shepherds from Sockna were feeding their flocks. From 2. to 2.50. passed over a mountain top, called Dahr t’moumen دانحر تمومين, or “the Believer’s back.” At 5 stopped on a wadey, having travelled north 35°, east 14 miles. We were every evening much amused by a little Tibboo boy, called Moosa, about five years of age, whose master was always in the Kafflé next to us. This child had picked up a few words of Arabic, and spoke very prettily. The chief amusement of his master, and the Arabs who were with him, was to make Moosa dance, and then fight another boy of double his age. Whilst sitting opposite to each other by the fire, their masters made them fight with lighted sticks. Moosa, who always was the first to be enraged, began to call the other boy an infidel, to curse his father, and to use many other equally insulting speeches, which the Arabs taught him. The elder boy, provoked in his turn, then rose to revenge himself, when the little fellow darted at his legs, and by biting them unmercifully, was always sure of gaining the victory. The Moors never took the trouble of collecting wood for their fires, but waited until every Kafflé had supplied itself, when they sent Moosa to steal what he could. Owing to his small size, he succeeded in these pilferings, to my great amusement, for I found that though he stole from every one else, he never robbed me, but even supplied me when I was in want of fuel. He was repeatedly offered to me as a present by his master, and I have since been sorry I refused him: he was jet black, and extremely pretty. In all the difficult passes he rode on my right knee, telling me the way in which he was caught, and many long stories besides. If his master’s camels or mine chanced to stray, he would arm himself with a stick and go in search of them, nor would he give up the chase till he had driven them back; he was indeed a most engaging child, and I became very fond of him.
Wednesday, 23rd February. Thermometer 4°.—At seven the camels took the road by a wadey to the left, whilst I and the slaves went over an almost inaccessible mountain, called Nufdai نوفدي, which brought us to the well at its foot, called Gutfa قتفا, about three miles distant from our last sleeping place; the water here is very good. We stopped an hour at the well to water and refresh the slaves and animals, and then wound along a wadey having many small Talhh trees in it, until we had made about six miles north-east, the mountains opening out on the left.
Old Baba Hassein, the Turk of whom I have made mention as not giving his Bouzaferr, was now become quite a standing joke amongst the Kafflé. He spoke very bad Arabic, which, with his being very lame, and always requiring, when he walked, to be supported by two Negresses, made him the constant subject of ridicule. He had almost famished his slaves and camel-men, allowing them to drink once a day only, though he had a plentiful stock of water. Having a pipe, he amused himself with it day and night; and as smoking was to him the height of enjoyment, and he always rode a camel, he affected to wonder that the poor slaves should be fatigued or in want of refreshment. Every other owner had brought ready ground corn with him for the food of the Negroes; but Baba obliged his poor tired females to pound their corn every evening after their fatiguing march, in wooden mortars, which he had brought for the purpose. Though the whole Kafflé had been straitened for water, he actually brought two whole skins full to the well, and the Arabs told me that his slaves lay down and drank of it like camels. This man had been, about six years before, robbed of all his goods by the Tuarick, of the tribe of Haggar, when on the confines of the kingdom of Kashna, on his way from Tunis; but his address, or roguery, more than supplied his loss. He arrived almost naked at Sakkatoo, the residence of Bello (son of the celebrated Hatman Danfodio), the Sultan of the Fellata, introducing himself as a Shreef, or descendant of the Prophet, and telling a piteous story of his losses, which he since owns to have been greatly exaggerated. Bello, believing him to be a Shreef, took compassion on him, and made him a kingly present of a hundred Negresses, some of whom, then with him, were really beautiful; he also supported him for some time. The old man had traded with the Negresses, and had made a great deal of money, with which he was now returning.
We were also accompanied from Zeghen by an old Arab, who appeared to have nothing to do with loading or unloading the camels, and who always prayed and slept apart from the Kafflé. I supposed him to be the father of some of the camel-men, and frequently gave him food, until I learnt that he was related to none of our companions, and that he had but one object in coming with us, which was to live upon us. He had a voracious appetite, and finding he could not obtain food at home without working for it, had been for many years in the habit of passing this desert with the Kafflés, on whom he quartered himself: his character was well known, yet the Arabs were unable to shake him off, fearing he would spread a report that they allowed him to starve, while they had plenty, which would have been a great reproach to them. At the well where I killed the camel, I gave him two days’ allowance, or about four pounds of food, which he devoured at once: he then dined with my drivers, and again with the Shreef Sadig’s men, and even managed to coax the hungry slaves out of part of their dinner. Having lost his teeth, he never chewed, but bolted his food, and was a complete glutton.
Thursday, Feb. 24th. Therm. 4°.—The Sheikh of Sockna, who was on his way to congratulate the Sultan, met us here and gave me fifty dollars, with letters from the Consul, Dr. Dickson, and Mr. Carstensen, who were all well. He also informed us of the death of the Bashaw’s eldest Mulatto son Sidi Mourad, of a pestilential disorder, which, he said, was reported to be the plague. We dressed ourselves in our best clothes, and passed on, in company with Lizari, before the Kafflé, for the town of Sockna, to prepare houses. After proceeding for about two hours over a plain sprinkled with shrubs, we passed a sandy flat and date trees: at about two miles from the town, having traversed north-east nearly fourteen miles, arrived at the town of Sockna. Before we entered it above a hundred friends of Lizari, who was once acting, and is now nominal Kaid of Sockna, came out to welcome him; and I, as his friend, received every attention. We had good houses provided for us; and the Kafflé arrived soon after; but notwithstanding the respect shown us by some of the inhabitants, there were others who very much molested us; and the boys were, I think, the most impudent I ever met with, even in the most riotous and disorderly streets in London. Finding we were strangers in the country, they amused themselves with rushing by dozens into our room, to stare at, and to rob us, if they could. When their curiosity had ceased, their talents for tormenting commenced; and a good camel whip became at last my only resource against their impertinence. After I had succeeded in turning them out, they surrounded the door, all being ready for a run, and called out, “Bring the whip, bring the whip! d——n your father! here are plenty of boys peeping!” At last I was obliged to rush out upon them, and catching two of the offenders, flogged them heartily; they then began to discover, that though a stranger, I was not to be trifled with.
I must observe that some of the men of Sockna were also most intrusive and impudent beggars. They crowded in upon us ten and twenty at a time, one party leaving us only to make way for another equally troublesome; one asked for powder, another for flints, knives, scissars, and all kinds of articles: at first I felt ashamed to turn them out, and therefore had recourse to entreaty that they would go away; but this had not the slightest effect, and I was obliged finally to show that I had profited by Mukni’s instructions, and to get rid of them by main force.
Sunday, February 27th.—To my great dismay I was again attacked by hemma, and was also under the painful necessity of killing my largest Maherry, finding he had broken his toe. I had intended him for Sir Joseph Banks. He was the finest I had ever seen: seven feet eight inches from the ground to his hump, which was a low one. I was offered two dollars for him, but preferred killing him, to feed ourselves and fellow travellers. As we had to hire fresh camels here, we discharged those which had brought us from Morzouk, and I was heartily glad to get rid of the Sockna drivers, who are never contented, always trying to deceive, and never assisting any one.
We found that the Bashaw had sent chowses with eight horses, the property of his late son, to be disposed of in Fezzan for Negroes, and the purchasers were to sell them in the interior, so that they might never again be seen at Tripoli. The news brought by these people occasioned a general mourning, and the women, this day and the preceding one, were out on the sands, howling, beating the Tubbel, or alarm drum, tearing their hair and faces, and committing all sort of extravagancies, which always ended in frenzy, though they would in their hearts have rejoiced to learn that the whole Koramanlie race was extinct.
Almost all the houses here have, in the principal rooms, a black line drawn round them about breast high, with wetted gunpowder. If the woman of the house is delivered of a male child, this precaution prevents Iblis and the devil’s children, or imps, from coming into the room to tease or injure him; or, what is worse, to make him squint.