CHAPTER V.
Departure for Tegerry, through Zuela and Gatrone — Arrival at Zaizow — Pass on to Traghan — Visit Gardens and Springs — Arrival at Zaitoon and Touela — Pass Villages of Maghwa and Taleb — Arrival at Hamera — Illness — Leave Hamera — Bearings of its neighbouring Villages — Large Salt Plain — Arrival at Zuela — Description of Inhabitants — Author’s Illness — Ancient Buildings — Hospitality of the Shreefs — Leave the Town — Arrival at Terboo — Its Wretchedness — Curious Story of Marāboot — Arrival at Mejdool — Journey across the Desert, and Arrival at Gatrone — Feast of Milood — Costume, Character, and general Description of the Tibboo — Description of Gatrone — Accounts of Tibesty and Waday, from a Tibboo Trader — Tibboo Language — Leave Gatrone in order to meet the Grazzie — El Bakkhi — Tibboo Manner of making Tar — Arrival at Tegerry.
On the 9th of December we began our preparations, and by the 13th, had succeeded in nailing and lashing up all our effects, which we lodged in the Koudi or sitting-room of old Hadje Mahmoud, who was to take charge of them. I bought a very fine brown Maherry seven feet six inches in height, and able to carry 5 cwt., of a little one-eyed boy, of about 12 years of age, who drove a bargain harder than any man I ever saw. My health was very bad, and I suffered severe pain from diseased liver and enlarged spleen; but having considered that it would be necessary for me, before I returned to Tripoli, to ascertain the situation of other parts of the kingdom of Fezzan beyond Morzouk, I determined, notwithstanding my extreme weakness, to visit the southern and eastern provinces, proceeding in the first place to Zuela زويله in the east, and from thence passing the desert to Gatrone قترون and Tegerry تجرّي in the south. I persuaded Belford, who always entered into my views, to try what change of air would do for him as well as for myself, and he agreed to accompany me, although we more resembled two men going to the grave, than fit persons to travel over strange countries. Yussuf ben el Hadge Khaleel kindly lent us his little boy, Barca, who was to act as our servant, and to lead our camel.
On the 14th we set out, having received a Teskera from the Sultan, on all the villages through which we might pass, so as that ourselves and animals might be fed. I also had an order for the Kaid of Zaizow زيزو and the brother of the Kaid of Traghan طرعغن to accompany us: but it was not until 1.50. P.M. that we were able to get away. We were weak and helpless; and the Arabs, according to custom, gave us so much trouble, by their officiousness, that the poor camel and our horses were loaded and unloaded a dozen times at least. At 2.50. we passed a small nest of huts on our left, named Mangelly منجلّي having another village to the south of it, about one mile distant, called Ghrowāt غروعت. At 4. after crossing a sandy plain, we came to a little village in the gardens of Hadge Hajeel حاج حجيل where we found our friend, Mohammed, measuring and burying the Sultan’s dates. The heap he was employed on was about twelve feet in height, and thirty in length, and had all been collected in the immediate neighbourhood. Mohammed gladly left his work; and having ordered some Lackbi to be brought, and a fowl or two to be seized upon, carried us to the hut he was living in.
We proceeded this day E. and by S. about seven miles.—Mohammed made us welcome in the evening, and brought a fifer and two bagpipers to stun us, while the women of the village, to do us honour, beat tin-pots, singing, and dancing before us.
The village of Hadge Hajeel is half a mile south of the gardens, and has about 250 inhabitants; this is the place which Horneman mentions under the name of Sidi Besheer, whose tomb stands near it.
Dec. 15th. Therm. 9°. 30′.—At 8.30. A.M. we started with Mohammed, who was to take us to Zaizow, and at a mile S.E. of the gardens, arrived at the tomb of Sidi Besheer, where we recited the Fatha, or first chapter of the Koran, and where I gave a dollar to purchase food for the poor. It was a small mud hut, white-washed in front, covered at the top with palm branches, and standing on a sandy plain. Custom, and the sanctity of the Marāboot, induce all Kafflés coming from the Interior to stop and refresh the slaves and animals at this spot, previously to their entering Morzouk; and here, too, all travellers assembling for the Interior, meet. Hard by are the ruins of an old Arab Castle, called Gusser Hamādi.
On leaving this plain, we got into a most excellent beaten road, running S. and by E. to Zaizow, and passed four of the Sultan’s men on horseback, escorting three poor Augela Arabs, bound on camels, with thirty-eight slaves, once their property. These people had been six years trading in Soudan, and were now on their way to prison. We left fourteen of their countrymen in confinement when we set out.
At 10.35. arrived at the small village of Zaizow, where we found the Kaid Saad, who was to be our attendant, sitting on the sand, at his own door, making women’s red shoes. On seeing the Sultan’s order, he sprung up with alacrity, and carrying his tools into the house, returned to us in a short time, in a gay dress, with a sabre hanging over his shoulder. He was a fine honest looking black, very fat and well oiled, and had the appearance of a great eater, which qualification he soon gave proof of. While waiting here, we saw a black woman with lips of a pale pink colour, and one or two marks on each hand, of the same hue. I wished to ask her some questions, but she looked so sulky that I desisted.
Zaizow is prettily situated in a little dell, thickly planted with palms, and having a ruined castle on a rising ground in the centre. The houses are nearly all in ruins, and many had palms growing in them: the population, according to the Kaid, amounted to about 70 souls. It is E. and by S. seven miles from Hadge Hajeel. Mohammed left us in charge of our new friend, the Kaid, who soon found a donkey to carry him on with us to Zuela, at which place he was to find his horse.