In Fezzan the punishment for crimes is as in Tripoli, though hanging is not commonly practised, strangling being more to the Sultan’s taste. If a man is found murdered, and the authors or instigators of his death are unknown or unconvicted, the inhabitants of the town, in or near which the body is found, are obliged to pay to the Sultan a fine of 2000 dollars. If a corpse is found on the desert with marks of violence on it, the people of the districts which border that desert must pay the requisite sum. Should the murderer return after a few months, he escapes notice, provided the penalty be paid; but this cannot be done either by the principal or his relations. Mukni was himself in this predicament some few years since, when he murdered the broker of the British consulate at Tripoli; the Bashaw affected to be ignorant of his flight, and after he had remained six months with the Arabs, allowed him to return to Tripoli, where he was as well received as if he had been an innocent man. The family of a criminal is never involved in his punishment, that is to say, they are not dishonoured or disgraced; but if the convicted person is sentenced to lose his property, all his immediate dependants are reduced to beggary. A grand-daughter of the last rightful Sultan is at this moment a common beggar; yet, while every one allows her to be noble, they are unable to relieve her, except with a little corn or some dates.
The general appearance of the men of Fezzan is plain, and their complexion black; the women are of the same colour, and ugly in the extreme. Neither sex are remarkable for figure, height, strength, vigour, or activity. They have a very peculiar cast of countenance, which distinguishes them from other blacks; their cheek bones are higher and more prominent, their faces flatter, and their noses less depressed and more peaked at the tip than those of the Negroes. Their eyes are generally small, and their mouths of an immense width, but their teeth are frequently good: their hair is woolly, though not completely frizzled. The females bear children at 12 and 13 years of age, and at 15 or 16 their breasts fall, and they assume the appearance of old women; in some few instances, however, they bear children until 35 years of age. They are a cheerful people, fond of dancing and music, and obliging to each other. The men almost all read and write a little; but in everything else they are very dull and heavy: their affections are cold and interested, and a kind of general indifference to the common incidents of life marks all their actions: they are neither prone to sudden anger nor exertion, and are not at all revengeful.
In Morzouk the men drink a great quantity of Lackbi, and are very good humoured drunkards. The Arabs practise hospitality generally, but amongst the Fezzanners that virtue does not exist; they are, however, very attentive and obsequious to those in whose power they are, or who can repay them tenfold for their pretended disinterestedness. Their religion enjoins, that should a stranger enter while they are at their meals, he must be invited to partake; but they generally contrive to evade this injunction, by eating with closed doors. The lower classes are, from necessity, very industrious, women as well as men; they draw water, work in the gardens, drive the asses, make mats, baskets, &c. in addition to their other domestic duties. People of the better class, or more properly who can afford to procure slaves to work for them, are, on the contrary, very idle and lethargic; they do nothing but lounge or loll about, inquire what their neighbours have had for dinner, gossip about slaves, dates, &c.; or boast of some cunning cheat which they have practised on a Tibboo, or Tuarick, who, though very knowing fellows, are, comparatively with the Fezzanners, fair in their dealings. Their moral character is on a par with that of the Tripolines, though, if any thing, they are rather less insincere. Falsehood is not considered as odious, unless detected; and when employed in trading, they affirm that it is allowed by the Koran for the good of merchants. However this may be amongst themselves, I must say that I never could find any one able to point out the passage, authorising these commercial falsehoods.
The Marāboots are greater liars and rogues than other people, their reputation shielding them from suspicion. I have, indeed, seen amongst these saints some really good and honest men; but these are lost in the general wickedness of the community. Generosity is a virtue so completely unknown here, that it may be said scarcely to exist. Contempt of religion, of holy men and books, are crimes equally heinous with theft. They are rigid and bigoted Mohammedans, of the sect of the learned Malek, one of the four expounders of the Koran, and they worship with all the prostrations and rites peculiar to that sect. The Mamlukes, and ourselves, who were considered as such, are authorised to worship as Hanefis, which is the superior of the four sects; but the Maleki being the form here used, every one complies with it. A belief of the evil eye, devils, gholes, genii, and spirits, is universal; charms and fasting till sunset, are a sure preventive of mischief.
The people attached to the Mosques are the Kadi, who is the head; the Imaum or priest, who, in the absence of the Kadi, prays and preaches; and the Mouadden or crier, who calls the people to prayers, and repeats the responses. None of these men, except the Kadi, have any privileges, but are, in every respect, like the rest of the town’s-people, having the same complement of wives and concubines, and dressing in the same manner. It was the custom with former Sultans to grant them a handsome allowance; but this is not observed by the present ruler, and should they not be fortunate enough to possess any garden of their own, they subsist on charity. They are not connected with, or have any thing to do with the state, neither have they any influence over each other, or the people, unless they are outwardly or really religious; in which case, their prayers, either verbal or written, are much sought after and well paid for. Intellectual knowledge is here at a stand, or rather I should say, on the decline, as none of the Mohammedans, in this part of the world, have books on any but religious or superstitious subjects. Their prejudices and fanaticism prevent the introduction of any new customs, and put a stop to all chance of improvement.
There are persons called Fighi (from “faquire,” a poor man), who subsist by writing letters, and are employed to read those received by the principal inhabitants, who pay them in corn. All the Sultan’s papers and letters pass through the hands of his scribes, who, in consequence (though his purchased slaves), are men of importance, and they accordingly give themselves great airs, knowing that their master, being unable to read, cannot do without their services. Few men can read from any book but their own, which they have used from infancy. Old Hadje Mahmoud, our neighbour, had gone through the same volume every morning for forty years, and yet was unable to repeat one page of it by heart. There were certain passages of it, which, on reading, regularly caused him to exclaim, “God bless me! wonderful! extraordinary! God is great!” as if he had never seen or heard of the contents before. Many of the Fighis, however, have good memories, and by constantly repeating sentences of the Koran for thirty or forty years, manage to know it by heart.
The lower classes work neatly in leather; they weave a few coarse barracans, and make iron work in a solid though clumsy manner. One or two work in gold and silver with much skill, considering the badness of their tools; and every man is capable of acting as a carpenter or mason. The wood being that of the date tree, and the houses being built of mud, very little elegance or skill is necessary. Much deference is paid to the artists in leather or metals, who are called (par excellence) “Sta,” or master; as, “leather master,”—“iron master,” &c.
No individuals arrive at any eminence of character, or, from their abilities, are exalted above the people, except such Marāboots as have most cunning and hypocrisy. They become privileged, courted, and revered while living, and prayers are addressed to them for their mediation, after they are dead. The language here is Arabic, but differs materially from the dialect of Egypt.
From the constant communication with Bornou and Soudan, the languages of both these countries are generally spoken, and many of their words are introduced into the Arabic. The family slaves, and their children by their masters, constantly speak the language of the country whence they originally come. Their writing is in the Mogrebyn character, which is used, I believe, universally in western Africa, and differs much from that of the east. The pronunciation also is very different, the Kāf ق being pronounced as a G, and only marked with one nunnation, thus ف, and the F is pointed below ڢ. They have no idea of arithmetic, but reckon every thing by dots on the sand, ten in a line; many can hardly tell how much two and two amount to. They expressed great surprise at our being able to add numbers together without fingering.
Though very fond of poetry, they are incapable of composing it. The Arabs, however, invent a few little songs, which the natives have much pleasure in learning; and the women sing some of the Negro airs very prettily while grinding their corn.