The reptiles are few, and consist of lizards, and small snakes, some of a venemous kind, called El Effa. Scorpions and spiders are also very numerous; one of the latter being of an immense size, and called Agrab el riahh عقرب الريح or scorpion of the wind, from its great swiftness in running; its bite is venomous, but not dangerously so. There is a large species of lizard called Warral, which is about thirty inches long from the nose to the tip of the tail; it is very fierce, and when it bites, never relinquishes its hold until it dies, or has its mouth forcibly opened. We had one which kept a piece of rope in its mouth for four or five days, and in that state died. A blow from the tail of this reptile, which it uses like a whip, is much dreaded, as the natives suppose, that a person so struck can never be the parent of a child. One of these having struck my horse on the nose, I was seriously told that he would be incapacitated from becoming the father of a foal.
Tobacco is very generally chewed by the women as well as the men; they use the Trona or Soda with it. Smoking is rather the amusement of a great man than of the lower class, the mild tobacco being very dear, and pipes not easily procured.
On the 28th October, during the time I was in bed, we had another grand rejoicing day, called Aid el Tagtāga, which is to welcome in the new year of the Hegira, 1235 years having now passed since the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina. Mukni having given a couple of his cast off women to two of his slaves, one of whom was secretary and barber, and the other groom, we had gay doings in the little square before our Mosque. The first night the barber and secretary (who was the greatest man of the two) was seated in state on a carpet and mats placed on the ground, in the centre of the square, supported on each side by a friend, who, as well as himself, was covered with fine borrowed clothes, though the bridegroom, of course, shone most bright. He was very solemn and dignified, having a lighted candle and lamp placed on the ground before him. The men and women sung round him until near midnight, treating him with great respect. He held a fan in his hand, and occasionally bowed to the company. The bride was then brought from the castle, surrounded by a great concourse of women, who were vociferating in rapid succession, their cries of joy. She held a lighted candle in her hand, and had on a profusion of silver and bead ornaments: she was quite black and very handsome, and had borne three children by the Sultan, all of whom had died. The bridegroom did not deign to look at her, but suffered the procession to pass along to his house; when, after waiting about half an hour, he rose in a stately manner, and leaning his hands on the friends who walked on each side of him (in the manner of the Bashaw of Tripoli, and the Sultan of Fezzan), he slowly proceeded home; the dancers following him and singing songs of congratulation. The second night passed in much the same manner; and, on the following day, I saw the bridegroom, who had been a few hours before glittering in scarlet and gold, cleaning a horse in the street, with a ragged shirt on.
I had many opportunities of observing the Fighi and their scholars, sitting on the sand. The children are taught their letters by having them written on a flat board of a hard wood, brought from Bornou and Soudan, and repeating them after their master. When quite perfect in the alphabet, they are allowed to trace over the letters already made; they then learn to copy sentences, and to write such small words as are dictated to them. The board generally used is in this form:
The master often repeats verses from the Koran, in a loud voice, which the boys learn by saying them after him; and when they begin to read a little, he sings aloud, and all the scholars follow him from their books, as fast as they can. Practice at length renders them perfect; and in three or four years, their education is considered complete. Thus it is that many who can read the Koran with great rapidity, cannot peruse a line of any other book. Arithmetic is altogether out of the question.—For children who learn by the month, the general pay is about two Saa, or two quarts of corn, and by the year one dollar.
When the boy is considered to have finished his studies, the parents, if they can afford it, present the master with some clothes, or a few dollars; if poor, they give him something to eat, and the usual salutation of Alla iebārek, or God prosper you. On breaking up for the day, the master and all the scholars recite a prayer. The school hours are by no means regular, being only when the Fighi has nothing else to do. Mornings early, or late in the evenings, are the general times for study. The punishments are, beating with a stick on the hands or feet, and our good old English custom of whipping, which is not unfrequently practised. Their pens are reeds, their rubber sand.
While learning their tasks (and perhaps each boy has a different one), they all read aloud, so that the harmony of even a dozen boys may be easily imagined.
In the time of the native Sultans, it was the custom, on a fixed day, annually, for the boys who had completed their education, to assemble on horseback, in as fine clothes as their friends could procure for them, on the sands to the westward of the town. On an eminence, stood the Fighi, bearing in his hand a little flag rolled on a staff: the boys were stationed at some distance, and on his unfurling the flag, and planting it in the ground, all started at full speed. He who first arrived and seized it, was presented by the Sultan with a fine suit of clothes and some money, and rode round the town at the head of the others. These races have ceased since the arrival of Mukni, and parents complain that their sons have now no inducement to study.
All the houses are infested by multitudes of small ants, which destroyed all the animals we preserved, and even penetrated into our boxes; their bite was very painful, and they were fond of coming into our blankets.