January 7th. Fine morning; thermometer 4°.—Myself much better, Belford very weak. At half past eight the camel started, and at nine we followed; quite rejoiced at escaping from the salt water, damaged barley, and miserable people of Tegerry. At six we arrived at Medroosa, where, even for money, I could procure no food, and where they totally disregarded the Sultan’s order. Unfortunately my character had preceded me: “He is a fool who actually pays for every thing, and yet has the power of taking it.” They carried their resistance so far, that I was at last obliged to exercise the power given me in the Teskera; but it was so late before I got the better of them, that nothing could be cooked that night. My custom of paying for every thing at the places we had passed would actually have exposed me to the risk of being nearly starved all the way back, had I not at last made them sensible of my power.
I now began to feel much alarm respecting Belford, whom we had left some hours before, slowly following with the camel and its driver, but who did not come up with us. After having made frequent and anxious search for him, to our great relief he arrived at 11.45. P.M.; though in a most deplorable condition, having fallen from his horse in consequence of excessive weakness and dizziness. The camel man saw the animal without its rider, and was still more fortunate in observing Belford as he lay extended and helpless on the desert; where, but for this providential discovery, he must have remained all night, at the risk of his life; exposed to severe cold, and in danger of being devoured by the immense herds of jackals and hyænas which were prowling about the plain, and whose howlings we heard all round the village. The poor fellow was so deaf, that our voices could not have reached him, even at the highest pitch; and the night being very dark, every attempt to find him would have been fruitless. Much as he required food and restoratives, we had, unhappily, none to give him, the people of the village refusing to supply us. A little coffee was all we could prepare for him, and that his stomach rejected. In this dilemma, all that remained was to cover him up as comfortably as we could, and to place him on the sandy floor, where we left him, in the hope that his total exhaustion would at least produce quiet and undisturbed sleep.
January 8th. Thermometer 2° 40′; wind northerly.—Belford was this day a little better. At eight the camel started. We observed a Fakeer, or schoolmaster, sitting with his scholars on the sand; one roaring, the others squeaking sentences of the Koran. This man hearing me reproach the natives for their want of hospitality on the previous evening, in refusing assistance to a sick stranger, went into his house, and brought out five eggs, all the food he possessed, which he hoped Belford would eat. This kind action redeemed the character of the village; for had it not been on this good man’s account, I should certainly have complained to the Sultan, and he would, in consequence, have imposed on the offenders a fine of a certain number of dollars, slaves, or cattle, a plan he is very expert in. Indeed, he never loses sight of any opportunity of exacting such penalties, as they not only enrich him, but make his subjects stand in awe of him. At ten we proceeded: Belford still better, but remaining very giddy. At four, having stopped at El Bakkhi to drink the excellent water there, we arrived at Gatrone, and put up at the house of our former hostess.
January 9th. Thermometer 1° 40′.—Belford was much recovered. The Kaid this morning made me some excellent ink of the pods of the Gurd tree, of which I have already spoken, and a bright yellow earth resembling sulphur in colour, easily dissolvible in water, and acid to the taste, called Shahaira, and brought from Bilma by the Tibboo.
The news of the return of the army had so frightened the people here, that I could not find either a sheep or goat, and was obliged to kill a beautiful Majiggri (which I had brought from Tegerry, and intended taking to England) to make soup for poor Belford.—My hostess informed me that she had lost three children in three successive years by the sting of scorpions. Each child was, at the time it died, two years of age: all were boys, and all had received the sting in the room in which we were.
The fondness of these people for show is quite as great as at Tripoli. This afternoon a Marāboot, brother to my friend El Hadge el Raschid, and one of the chief men here, came in from the Ghrazzie, which he had left at El Bakkhi. He arrived in the gardens early, but could not enter the town until some gaudy clothes, and a fine horse, had been sent out to him, that he might make his entrance as a great personage. In the evening I heard the Tubbel sounded for the first time. This is a large drum, which is generally kept at the house or hut of the Sheikh. When sounded, it is to announce to the natives that news, or some order from the Sultan has arrived, which is loudly proclaimed by the Sheikh, or people who may be ordered to do so. Those who are at a distance come and listen to the proclamation, and carry it to their neighbours. This evening it was an order to every family to supply a certain quantity of food on the morrow for the Ghrazzie “of our Lord the Sultan,” and a proportionate allowance of straw and dates for the horses; we took the hint, and secured three days’ fodder for ours. I was informed that all the towns south of Morzouk have these drums, but I had never seen one; the poor people consider this kind of sound as not very agreeable, for they never hear the music without paying the piper.
In the course of our journey Besheer often mentioned his having been at the Bahr el Ghazal; and his account agrees with almost every one I have heard. He says that there must once have been a great sea there, as he himself has picked up handsome shells, (according to the Arabs, Beit el Khoot, بيت الخوت, or fishes’ houses,) imbedded in the earth, and as large as his double fist; also backbones of fish the size of his arm, (no small one,) which were petrified; and he added, that if the pieces were joined together, it would appear that the fish, when alive, must have been ten or twelve feet in length. The Kaid dressed and dried, with the hair on, the skin of the sheep I had killed, by stretching it on the ground, and rubbing it with Gurd pods pounded, and afterwards with salt; he allowed it one day to dry, and then softened it by rubbing it with butter, the hair remaining perfectly firm.
January 10th. Thermometer 2° 30′. Went out to meet Sidi Aleiwa and the Ghrazzie, whom I joined at El Bakkhi. The horsemen were in a body, and the foot and captives followed. After many compliments, and shaking hands with all my old friends, I returned with them to Gatrone. They had brought with them 800 lean cripples, clad in skins and rags, between 2000 and 3000 Maherries, and about 500 asses: 180 of the mounted Arabs, and about 300 foot, were still left behind in the negro country; 100 horses came with Aleiwa, and 400 Arabs; nearly 1000 camels, and many captives, had died on the road, besides children: the death of the latter was not included, as they were not considered of any importance. If a brutal Arab found a child in a plundered village, so young as to require milk, it was considered sufficient to try to keep the poor infant a day or two on dates and water mixed, and if it sickened, to throw it on the road side to die, or to be devoured by the jackals. A wretch of the Boowadie Arabs, endeavoured to laugh at an acknowledgment of his having followed this odious practice; and he was much astonished at my driving him out of the house in consequence.
I could not in any instance find that these cowardly ruffians ever dared to attack an armed man, whilst they inflicted every species of cruelty on invalids, old people, and children. Mohammed el Lizari, a friend of ours and a principal Mamluke of Fezzan, was the actual commander of this expedition, though Aleiwa was the nominal one. This man was so disgusted at the scenes which he had witnessed, that he determined never again to accompany the Ghrazzie; indeed his having now done so was not with his own consent, but in consequence of an order from Mukni, which precluded all possibility of refusal. The Ghrazzie had been six months absent, during which time they had overrun Bergoo (of the Tibboo), Wajunga, and the southern part of the Bahr el Ghazal. In Bergoo their success was not great, as the Tibboo were warned of their approach, and had nimbly betaken themselves to their native fastnesses in the rocks. Afraid to follow them, these wretches made themselves amends by firing at the poor Negroes, well aware that they had no guns with which to defend or revenge themselves. On the return of these people through Tibesty, with which country Mukni is at peace, they endeavoured to take a few of the Tibboo camels (in a friendly way,) and for that purpose sent three of the Sultan’s household slaves to demand that they should be given up; these the Tibboo seized and put to death, considering them as nothing less than robbers. Aleiwa’s people, however, succeeded in taking prisoners some of this tribe, cutting the throats of fifteen men and women, and making captive 130 young men and girls, with 200 camels. I was induced to ask who were the aggressors in this case. “Oh! the Tibboo assuredly, for they are Kaffirs and thieves: we only wanted 300 or 400 camels for the Sultan, and were at peace with them, and did not intend making any slaves; therefore they ought not to have resisted us.”
The Tibboo of Borgoo are all Kaffirs, but are quiet inoffensive people, living in houses made of palm-leaf mats, called Booshi, which are so closely woven, that the rain cannot penetrate them. I have seen huts of this description at Gatrone and Tegerry, and consider them superior to the Fezzan houses in general. Very little corn is cultivated in Bergoo, the inhabitants subsisting chiefly on dates, which grow there in immense quantities, of an inferior kind, and on the flesh of their sheep, goats, and camels: they have also a small breed of black cattle, but these are chiefly used for milking. The arms of these people I have spoken of in a former page. Their dress has very little variety; and except the skins of animals they have only such coarse cloths as they sometimes obtain from their trading neighbours, which they wear, having a piece before and another behind, hanging down as low as the knees. Boys and girls are entirely naked, and few of the men have any other covering than a leather wrapper round the loins; all have the head bare. Marriage, according to the accounts of the Arabs, who vilify them in order to excuse their own cruelties, is unknown among them, and the women are in common: brothers and sisters live together, and confess it when asked. They have no knowledge of a God; they are, nevertheless, peaceable and neighbourly towards each other. One or two whom I questioned, admitted that there was a great Spirit who, made them; but laughed when I asked where he was to be found? They imagine thunder and lightning to be produced by their deceased friends, and are therefore very fearful during a storm. They eat the blood of camels when baked over a fire; and they also will eat animals which die a natural death. Lizari came and lodged with us; we provided him with clothes, and made him as comfortable as we could. Neither he, nor any of the Ghrazzie, had for the last forty-two days tasted any other food than dates; he was fat, however, and so were they all, which is a strong proof of the nutritious quality of that fruit.