THE ‘DAVOUST’ AT ANCHOR OFF RHERGO.
Their women, however, cried shame on them, reproaching them for losing such a chance of presents; and to cut short all further discussion, they threatened that any man who was coward enough to flee from an imaginary danger would have to go without his wife.
The prospect of having their wives imitate the strike of the women of Mycenæ, as described by Aristophanes, put a stop to the desire of the husbands to decamp, and Sidi Hamet wound up by telling me that all was now arranged for our friendly reception. Amongst the Igwadaren he had seen Mohamed Uld Mbirikat, the cousin of my friend Bechir, to whom I had a letter, and he brought back with him a rifle which had been taken from Colonel Bonnier, and had remained for some time in the possession of the chief of the Eastern Kel Antassar. On hearing of our arrival the chief, not liking to keep anything so compromising, had hastened to give the rifle to Mohamed.
The fact is, if we could only have gone immediately to Sakhaui we should no doubt have been well received; but unfortunately we had promised Abiddin to wait for him at Rhergo, and during the delay our enemies, especially the marabouts, had plenty of time to poison the minds of the natives against us.
On the 8th Taburet and Father Hacquart went to the village, where they met with a merchant of Timbuktu whose goods had been stolen by an Igwadaren named Ibnu, a relation of Sakhaui, who had probably been sent to Rhergo to spy on us. The merchant wanted to complain to us, but the chief of the village told him that if he did he would cut his throat when we were gone.
This chief being very infirm, I sent for his son and read him a good lecture. I also sent for Ibnu, who came at once, and protested his repentance for what he had done. I pretended to accept his excuses, and presently he reappeared dragging two goats behind him, which he offered to me. I accepted them, earnestly hoping that he had stolen them from the sheriffs of the village, who pleased me less and less. Then I in my turn gave him some presents, notably a garment for his wife.
The next day we had a visit from Alif, the brother of Sakhaui, who offered us a fine bull. We killed it with a shot from a Lebel rifle, which alarmed the Tuaregs not a little. The next day, the 9th, back comes Ibnu with another goat, this time for sale. But the chief object of his visit is to ask for another length of stuff for the dress I had sent to his wife, who he explained was as big round as our tent, and the material I had given him would only dress one-half of her. From the Tuareg point of view she must have been a splendid woman, for amongst this tribe weight counts as beauty. The desired corpulence is obtained by eating quantities of a mixture of which curdled milk is the chief ingredient, in fact, they fatten themselves up much as the French do the geese which are to produce paté de foie gras.
POLITICAL ANXIETIES.