Those who have philosophy enough to confine their wants solely to what nature requires, would view the individual happiness of the people who compose the caravans, with approbation. Their food, dress, and accommodation, are simple and natural; proscribed from the use of wine, and intoxicating liquors, by their religion, and exhorted by its principles to temperance, they are commonly satisfied with a few nourishing dates, and a draft of water; and they will travel for weeks successively without any other food; at other times, a little barley meal and cold water is the extent of their provision, when they undertake a journey of a few weeks across the Desert; living in this abstemious manner, they never complain, but solace themselves with a hope of reaching their native country, singing occasionally during the journey, whenever they approach any habitation, or whenever the camels appear fatigued; these songs are usually sung in trio, and in the chorus all the camel drivers, who have a musical voice, join; it is worthy observation, how much these songs renovate the camels, and the symphony and time they keep surpasses what any one would imagine, who had not heard them. In traversing the Desert they generally contrive to terminate the day’s journey at l’Asaw a term which they appropriate to our four o’clock, P.M. so that between that period and the setting sun, the tents are pitched, prayers said, and the (Lashaw) supper got ready; after which they sit round in a circle, and talk till sleep overcomes them, and next morning, at break of day, they proceed again on their journey.
The Arabic language, as spoken by the camel-drivers, is peculiarly sweet and soft; the guttural and harsh letters are softened, and with all its energy and perspicuity, when pronounced by them, is as soft, and more sonorous than the Italian; it approaches the ancient Korannick language, and has suffered but little alteration these twelve hundred years. The Arabs of Moraffra, and those of Woled Abbusebah, frequently hold an extempore conversation in poetry, at which the women are adepts, and never fail to shew attention to those young Arabs who excel in this intellectual and refined amusement.[202]
The articles transported by the company of merchants trading from Fas to Timbuctoo, are principally as follows: various kinds of German linens, viz. plattilias, rouans, brettanias, muslins of different qualities, particularly muls, Irish linens, cambricks, fine cloths of particular colours, coral beads, amber beads, pearls, Bengal raw silk, brass nails, coffee, fine Hyson teas, refined sugar, and various manufactures of Fas and Tafilelt, viz. shawls and sashes of silk and gold, hayks of silk, of cotton and silk mixed, of cotton and of wool; also an immense quantity of (hayk filelly) Tafilelt hayks, a particularly light and fine manufacture of that place, and admirably adapted to the climate of Soudan; to these may be added red woollen caps, the general covering of the head, turbans, Italian silks, nutmegs, cloves, ginger, and pepper; Venetian beads, cowries, and a considerable quantity of tobacco and salt, the produce of Barbary and Bled-el-jerrêde.
The produce of Soudan, returned by the akkabaahs, for the above articles, consists principally in gold dust, twisted gold rings of Wangara,[203] gold rings made at Jinnie,[204] bars of gold, elephants’ teeth, gum of Soudan, (guza Saharawie) grains of Sahara, called by Europeans grains of paradise, odoriferous gums, called el b’korr’h Soudan, much esteemed by the Arabs for fumigating, to which they ascribe many virtues; a great number of slaves, purchased at Timbuctoo, from the Wangareen, Houssonian, and other slatees,[205] who bring them from those regions which border on the Jibbel Kumra,[206] or Mountains of the Moon, a chain which, with little or no intermission, runs through the continent of Africa from west to east, viz. from Assentee in the west, to Abyssinia in the east.
Ostrich feathers and ambergris are collected on the confines of the Desert, and are added to the merchandize before mentioned. The gold jewels of Jinnie[207] are denominated by the Arabs El Herrez, from the supposed charm they contain; they are invariably of pure gold, and some of them of exquisite workmanship, and of various forms, but hollow in the middle for the purpose of containing the Herrez, or amulet, which consists of passages from the Koran, arranged in some geometrical figure, on paper, which being enclosed in the gold jewel, is suspended from the neck, or tied round the arms, legs, or elsewhere. These charms have various and particular powers attributed to them, some insuring the wearer against the effects of an evil eye, others from an evil mind; some are intended to secure a continuation of prosperity and happiness, or to avert misfortune, whilst others secure to the wearer health and strength. This superstition, and predilection for charms, pervades the greater part of Africa: thus, in the northern maritime states, in Suse, and other parts of Bled-el-jerrêde, the fakeers, or saints, attach half a hundred Herrez (without, however, the gold covering, for which they substitute a leathern one) to different parts of their body, and even to the horses: at Marocco I have seen eleven round one horse’s neck.[208] The inhabitants of these countries imagine no disorder incident to mankind can attack either man or beast without the aid of some (jin) spirit, or departed soul, or (drubba del’ain) an evil eye.
The slaves brought by the akkabaahs are more or less valuable in Barbary, according to their beauty and symmetry of person, and also according to their age, and the country from whence they are procured: thus a Wangareen slave is not worth so much as one from Houssa; the former being a gross, stupid people, little superior in understanding to the brute creation, whilst those of Houssa are intelligent, industrious, acute, and possess a peculiarly open and noble countenance, having prominent noses, and expressive black eyes: those of Wangara, on the contrary, have large mouths, thick lips, broad flat noses, and heavy eyes. A young girl of Houssa, of exquisite beauty, was once sold at Marocco, whilst I was there, for four hundred ducats,[209] whilst the average price of slaves is about one hundred, so much depends on the fancy, or the imagination of the purchaser.
These slaves are treated very differently from the unhappy victims who used to be transported from the coast of Guinea, and our settlements on the Gambia, to the West India islands. After suffering those privations, which all who traverse the African Desert must necessarily and equally submit to, masters as well as servants and slaves, they are conveyed to Fas and Marocco, and after being exhibited in the sook, or public market place, they are sold to the highest bidder, who carries them to his home, where, if found faithful, they are considered as members of the family, and allowed an intercourse with the (horraht) free-born women of the household. Being in the daily habit of hearing the Arabic language spoken, they soon acquire a partial knowledge of it, and the Mohammedan religion teaching the unity of God, they readily reject paganism, and embrace Mohammedanism; their Mooselmin masters then instil into their vacant minds, ready to receive the first impression, the fundamental principles of the Mooselmin doctrine; the more intelligent learn to read and write, and afterwards acquire a partial knowledge of the Koran; and such as can read and understand one chapter, from that time procure their emancipation from slavery, and the master exults in having converted an infidel, and in full faith, expects favour from heaven for the action, and for having liberated a slave. When these people do not turn their minds to reading, and learning the principles of Mohammedanism, they generally obtain their freedom after eight or ten years servitude; for the more conscientious Mooselmin consider them as servants, and purchase them for about the same sum that they would pay in wages to a servant during the above period, at the expiration of which term, by giving them their liberty, they, according to their religious opinions, acquire a blessing from God, for having done an act, which a Mooselmin considers more meritorious in the sight of Heaven, than the sacrifice of a goat, or even of a camel. This liberation is entirely voluntary on the part of the owner; and I have known some slaves so attached to their masters from good treatment, that when they have been offered their liberty, they have actually refused it, preferring to continue in servitude. It should not, however, be supposed, that the Arabs and Moors are always inclined thus to liberate these degraded people; on the contrary, some of them, particularly the latter, are obdurate, and make an infamous traffic of them, by purchasing, and afterwards intermarrying them, for the purposes of propagation and of sale, when they are placed in the public market-place, and there turned about, and examined, in order to ascertain their value.
The eunuchs which the Emperor and princes keep to superintend their respective Horems, are, for the most part, procured from the vicinage of Senaar in Soudan; these creatures have shrill effeminate voices: they are emasculated in a peculiar manner, and sometimes in such a way, as not to be incapacitated from cohabiting with women;[210] they are in general very fat and gross, and from the nature of the charge committed to them, become very confidential servants: indeed their fidelity is surpassed only by their unbounded insolence. I knew one of these creatures, who was chief of the eunuchs superintending the Horem of Muley Abd Salam,[211] at Agadeer, who was one hundred and ten years old; he was then upright, and walked about without a stick.
Persons unaccustomed to, or unacquainted with, the mode of living in Africa, may imagine the expense and trouble of conveying the slaves across the Desert, would be more than the advantage derivable from their sale; but it must be recollected that these people are very abstemious, particularly whilst travelling; ten dollars expended in rice in Wangara is sufficient for a year’s consumption for one person; the wearing apparel is alike œconomical, a pair of drawers, and sometimes a vest, forming all the clothing necessary in traversing the Desert.
It is not ascertained when the communication between Barbary and Soudan was first opened, yet it is certain, that the enterprising expedition of Muley Arsheede to the latter country[212] tended considerably to encrease and encourage the exchange of commodities, and caused the establishment of the company of Fas merchants, at Fas, as well as that of their factory at Timbuctoo, which has continued to increase and flourish ever since.