Lapped in his fine woollen garments, his curtains and carpets
Spreading full length in the shade of the canopy wide.
What though with milk newly-drawn from the udders of camels,
What though with meat and with butter his paunch he has filled,
Straight as a nail to the ground pins the lance of the victor,
Out with a shriek and a yell flies the soul of the killed!
Sunk in despair lies the heart-broken wife of the victim,
Scattered and vanished their goods like as water o’erspilled!
Wild manners truly do these lines describe, but they also express proud and heroic sentiments. What will the Tuaregs gain by their transformation into civilized people?
In a few centuries, where the tents of the Amezzar are pitched there will be permanent towns. The descendants of the Ihaggaren of the present day will be citizens. There will be nothing about them to remind their contemporaries of the wild knights of the desert.