We have all done little in clearing up difficulties, or obtaining correct information of the Tuaricks of the Sahara. No good informants are to be found. From the Sheikhs of Ghât it is quite impossible to learn anything. We hope to get some information from a Tanelkum now going with us. Many tribes have been mentioned, casually; but the principal are—the three great tribes of Ghât, those to which Khanouhen, Shafou, Jabour, and Hateetah belong—a tribe in Janet—the Haghar of Ghamama—the Isokamara, located on the Tuat route from Aisou—the Tanelkums of Fezaan—the Maraga, a breed produced from the slaves of the Haghar and the Sorgou of Timbuctoo.
26th.—The sky is now frequently cloudy, but no rain falls. The valley of Tintalous is looking fresh, on account of the great quantity of wild cauliflower overspreading its surface, called by the Arabs liftee. This word liftee, is evidently derived from lift, "turnip." The vegetable grows in lines and circles, determined apparently by the action of the water, which deposits the seeds. No use is made of this wild cabbage; it is very bitter, and no animals even eat it.
En-Noor paid me a visit this morning before I was up; he drank some coffee, and went off to see his camels. The Tanelkums were quite wrong in their surmisings about En-Noor and his religious fanaticism. He has shown less fanaticism than any prince with whom we have had yet anything to do during the present journey. All the Kailouees of Tintalous are equally tolerant. We have now three quasi-princes, or sons of sultans, in Tintalous, besides the son of En-Noor. We have Mousa Waled Haj-Ali, who takes our despatches to Mourzuk, with Yusuf my interpreter, and a Tibboo, the son of the Sultan of Kouïvar. As we proceed onwards, princes and sons of princes will thicken upon us.
27th.—I packed up and sent off all my despatches to Mourzuk, together with a few trifling things for my poor wife, by the hand of Mousa Waled Haj-Ali, the virtual Sheikh of the Tanelkums.
28th.—All the male inhabitants, with the exception of five or six, have gone off this morning to fetch salt from Bilma. They return here in the course of a month, and the greater part of the salt is transported from hence to Soudan by the next caravan. We have heard of our friends at Aghadez. They are expected here in a few days. The new Sultan of Aghadez is said—but there is little accuracy in these desert reports—to have gone on an expedition west, to settle some differences between some tribes in arms against one another. The people also say that the new Sultan is "hungry," and is glad of such an opportunity to get "something to eat." This is the way in which they would describe a Chancellor of the Exchequer planning a new tax.
Some say the object of the razzia is to chastise the Fadeea for attacking us; but still the main object is to fill the Sultan's "own hungry belly." Such are Asbenouee politics.
Bakin-Zakee, the Soudanese name of the Kailouee green cap, I know here means the "lion's mouth." This is the phrase with which I always salute Zangheema, En-Noor's chief slave; but the terms are much more appropriate for his master, as intimating his avaricious, nay voracious, disposition. Zangheema, however, might be called "Kărĕn Zākee," the jackal of the lion, or "the lion's provider," so anxious is he to minister to the voracious appetite of his lord.
We have received the news that Dr. Barth is near. He is expected to-morrow evening, or early next day.
29th.—En-Noor paid me a visit at sunset to-day, and talked of how many children people had in this country. His highness said he knew a sultan in Soudan who had seven hundred children.
30th.—The Gatronee of the Germans confirms the report of the circumstance, that, when the Kailouees go to the Tibboos to trade for salt, all the male Tibboos run away, leaving all the business in the hands of the females; which latter, besides trading in salt with the Kailouees, make a good mercantile speculation with their charms. Each woman, in fact, has her Kailouee husband or lover, during the carrying on of this singular commerce. If the traders catch a single Tibboo man staying behind, they at once murder him, with the most marked approbation of the Tibboo women. Such is the state of connubial fidelity in this part of the Sahara.