I continue to supply his highness En-Noor with either tea or coffee every day. I sent him some early this morning. He is a greedy old dog, and will not buy a loaf of sugar because I will not give it him at the price of Mourzuk, and thus lose the freight. I hold out, and we have sold him none for the present.
Overweg is making a small commercial lexicon of the things brought to the market of Kanou: a most excellent idea. I myself intend, if I go to Kanou, to make a list of all the things I find in the Souk, with some account of their produce and mode of importation into that mart.
The great gong sounded throughout the village this afternoon, to give note of preparation to all the people, that every one of the males must be ready to leave this place in the course of three or four days. The Sheikh says he is determined to leave in three days, whether the people come from Aghadez or not. Yusuf laid before En-Noor this evening the necessity of our sending a courier to Mourzuk, stating that we had nothing left. His highness pitied our case, and said he would look about for a courier; observing, "The Consul has need of much money and many presents in Soudan." He said, also, that he would recommend us to go to Bornou.
25th.—The days are now pretty hot, and the nights correspondingly cool. We have a good deal of wind. I wrote a letter to Drs. Overweg and Barth jointly, calling upon them to assist me in case the Sfaxee would not wait for his money until the return of the courier. Dr. Overweg consents. I wrote out the Tuarick alphabet.
The account of the Tibboos pounding the camels' bones and bleeding their animals to make paste, is confirmed by the Gatronee of the Germans.[4] He says, moreover, that this is the way in which they proceed. Every Tibboo must fast three days before he thinks about eating. If on the fourth day he do not arrive at the belad, or country, he then takes his left sandal from his foot, and stews or soddens it, making something of a soup. These sandals being leather, or untanned hide, it is, perhaps, not impossible to make of them a palatable soup! If on the fifth day he find no village, he then devours the sandal of his right foot. After this, still not finding a village, he collects bleached camels' bones and bleeds his camel as before mentioned.
A Tibboo always has a girdle with seven knots, and when travelling hard takes in, as the sailors would say, a reef every day; if after seven days he find nothing to eat, he is considered hungry and unfortunate. The three Tuaricks who followed us from the well of Aisou declared that they had had nothing to eat for fifteen days; and there cannot be a doubt of the fact, that both the Tibboos and the Tuaricks can, on a pinch, remain without food for a considerable time—say ten or twelve days.
A Tuatee, who knows Algiers well, arrived here this afternoon, and is going with us to Zinder. He brings an extraordinary report about the copy of the treaty which I left with Haj Ahmed at Ghât. He says he heard it read, and from it learned that "the Queen of England is now in Tripoli, and wishes to come and live in Ghât, and has offered to buy half Ghât." Such is the nature of Saharan reports.
More authentic intelligence arrived to-day by a courier, who made the journey from Ghât to Seloufeeat in fourteen days—sufficiently quick. This courier brings a warning from Khanouhen to the caravans now proceeding to Ghât, not to come in twos or threes, as they were wont, but to come altogether, as he fears reprisals from the Shanbah and the Haghar.
The history of the thing is this:—A tribe of Tuaricks has always acted as the guides of the Shanbah in their foraging parties—on the Tuarick territory, for example—always pointing out to them the camels of the people of Ghât. Khanouhen has chastised this treacherous tribe, destroying a great many of them; but the Shanbah and Haghar not choosing to desert their old friends, have determined to take vengeance upon the Ghât Tuaricks. It is this revenge which Khanouhen fears. He anticipates a combined attack on the caravans. The wonder is how these routes are kept open at all, when these distant tribes, who have no interest in the commerce that moves along them, are notorious for their predatory feelings and education. It is now said that the Fadeea, our friends on the frontier, are in league with the Shanbah against the Ghât Tuaricks.
En-Noor, it appears, had sent his son to salute the new Sultan of Aghadez, and to assist in establishing or placing him on his throne. He got as far as Asoudee, when he fell in love with a pretty woman of the town, and at once married her, proceeding no farther on his mission. Yesterday evening a man arrived mounted on a maharee, bringing with him all the finery of the bride, which he exhibited to the people, riding about the town! All were greatly astonished at the splendour of the bride's dowry. Are not these fit materials for an Arabian Night's entertainment? My servant, Saïd, also married the other evening, but not so romantically; taking up with the divorced wife of another freed black. I heard nothing of it until all was over. The parties guessed rightly that I should take no interest in the matter, or rather disapprove of it, as the fellow has abandoned his own and natural wife. This divorced negress, who has at last found a master, has gone the round of all the tents since she has parted from her former husband, and is a little intriguing wretch. The Sfaxee and Yusuf countenanced the affair, but kept it quite unknown to me. They, however, fetched Overweg, and presented him with a portion of the marriage-supper—bazeen. I felt much disgusted on hearing of the affair. The old wife is a native of Kanemboo, and is going thither. She will, of course, gladly take leave of her husband and this young wife and rival. Marriage is an excessively loose tie here, at any rate amongst the poor. The rich pretend to respect marriage.