As soon as the Sultan arrived, without waiting more than three or four hours, I determined to visit His Highness, and carry him a small present. I could not yet tell how the Sultan would look upon my projected journey to Soudan. Fortunately I found Essnousee in the streets, who volunteered his services as interpreter. Haj Ibrahim was also so good as to embrace the opportunity of going with us. This had a good effect, and served to give my visit consequence, Haj Ibrahim being the most respectable foreigner now in Ghat. He was also a stranger to His Highness as well as myself.
We found His Highness, at about a quarter of a mile's distance out of the town, sitting down by himself alone upon the sand, aside of a large hasheesh house, or hut of date-palm branches. The attendants of His Highness, who were not very numerous, sat at a considerable distance off. In this primitive way and Desert style he had been receiving various personages ever since his arrival this morning. As soon as His Highness saw us approaching him, he bade us welcome by signs and salutations in the style of the Touaricks, slowly raising his right arm, as high as his shoulders, and turning the palm of the outspread hand to us. Haj Ibrahim was first introduced, but the Sultan could not keep off his eyes from me. At last the Sultan made a sign to Essnousee to speak on my behalf. Essnousee explained very deliberately and minutely everything respecting me—where and when he saw me at Tripoli, how I went to Ghadames, came here from that place, and what were my intentions in proposing to go to Soudan. The Sultan then turned to me, and said, "Go, Christian, wherever you please; in my country fear nothing—go where everybody else goes." After this I presented my little backsheesh to His Highness, consisting of a small carpet-rug to sit or recline upon, a zamailah or turban, and a shumlah or sash, large and full, and scarlet, like the Spaniards wear. On giving the servant of His Highness the present, (which was covered, and not exposed before His Highness, as a matter of delicacy,) I said, through Essnousee, "This present is from me, and not from my Sultan, nor the Consul at Tripoli, nor any persons in my country; it is extremely small, and scarcely worth accepting. But, probably, if your Highness should protect Englishmen through your country, and allow English merchants to come and traffic in Ghat, a greater and richer present will be sent to you hereafter." His Highness replied, "Thank you; I'm an old man now, and want but little: we have a little bread, and milk of the nagah (she-camel), and for which we praise God. Don't fear our people—no one shall hurt you." Indeed, I saw the old gentleman was thankful for any trifle. My little backsheesh was, perhaps, of the value of ten dollars, and was the largest present I had yet made. I then asked His Highness whether he would write a letter for me to the Sultan of Aheer, and one to the Queen of England, stating that he would give protection to all British subjects passing through The Touarghee Desert? The Sultan replied, "All that you want I will do for you, please God." I determined to risk a word on Desert politics. I said, "Your Highness must exterminate the Shânbah, for they are a band of robbers." The Sultan replied, "Please God we will; we are now preparing the camels to go out against them." Essnousee and Haj Ibrahim considered the words of the Sultan delivered in the most friendly spirit. Shafou was dressed very plainly and very dirtily; and yet there sat upon his aged countenance (for he was full seventy years of age) a most venerable expression of dignity. His Highness wore a dark-blue cotton frock of Soudanic manufacture, and black-blue trowsers of the same kind of cotton. On his head was a red cap, around which was folded in very large folds a white turban. He had, like all Touaricks, a dagger suspended under the left arm, but no other weapon near him, or on his person. By his side, on the sand, lay a huge stick with which he walks, instead of the lance. His mouth and chin were covered with a thin blue cotton wrapper, a portion of the litham. Around his neck were suspended a few amulets, sewn up in red leathern bags. His Highness was without shoes, and his legs were quite bare; his feet lay half-buried in the sand. He spoke very slow and under tone, scarcely audible, and at times the conversation was interrupted by the silence of the dead. All his deportment was like that of a Sultan of these wilds; and the ancient Sheikh felt all the consciousness of his power. The Desert Genii hedge him in around. The Sultan is profoundly respected by all; and Louis-Philippe is a gingerbread Sovereign compared with Shafou of The Great Desert.
But the reader would not be prepared to find His Highness smoking his pipe during our interview, and striking a light himself, the materials for which he carried in a large leathern bag, or pouch, slung on his left arm, like all the Touaricks. On taking leave, we called the servant of the Sultan after us, and Haj Ibrahim gave into his hands a small present for the Sultan of the value of a couple of dollars, so that I maintain my position of also giving the best presents, in the case of the Sultan. To me it was a most pleasant and refreshing interview, after the serio-comic affair of Ouweek. I asked Haj Ibrahim what Shafou said to him. The Sultan simply told the merchant, "You may go to every part of the country now in safety: to Touat, to Aheer, wherever you will—don't be afraid of the Touaricks." I went home with the Haj, and spent the evening with him. The merchant determines to send eight camels of goods to Soudan. He has not sold a fourth of what he brought to this mart. A great part of the slaves, elephants' teeth, and senna which daily arrive here, are not for sale in Ghat, but are sent direct from Soudan to Tripoli by the correspondents of the Ghadamsee merchants at Kanou. The Ghat Souk is nearly closed, all the slaves are sold, and some of the people are thinking about returning.
28th.—Rose early and better in health. Pleased with the prospect of still seeing my journey to Soudan completed. Weather this morning very dull, sky overcast, a few drops of rain falling. Early Sheikh Hateetah sent for me. Went and found the Consul of the English better in health. He shewed me his scarlet burnouse and gold-braided coat, given him by our Government. But as his object in calling me was only to express his jealousy of the other Sheikhs, and of the Sultan himself, and to beg another present, I was by no means pleased with my visit. He evidently wished me to give him all the presents as the "Friend" of the English. But this would have been both unjust and suicidal policy on my part. I could not have considered myself safe, at any rate, respected or esteemed, unless I had given a present to all the principal personages in Ghat and the surrounding districts. Hateetah besides annoyed me by saying the route of Aheer was full of bandits, against the concurrent testimony of all the merchants. He wishes me to take the route of Bornou, which would, entirely defeat the object I have in view, of visiting new countries. However, by being firm with him, I got him to promise to procure for me a letter and servant from Shafou to go on to Aheer. I am to call again in a few days, and he is to show me his seal of office, done by the Consul-General of Tripoli. Hateetah is a man of more than sixty years, very tall, thin and attenuated, of extremely feeble frame. He is still labouring under fever, and does not leave his pallet. To-day, however, he got quite energetic on the subject of the presents, having heard what a fine present the Sultan had received from me. He begged me not to give a present to the Oulad ("people" or "followers") of Shafou, meaning thereby Khanouhen.
On my return, I found my door thronged with visitors from Berkat, the village three miles distant, en route of Soudan. They had been waiting an hour or two for my return. At first I repulsed them, but hearing afterwards they had brought a young lad unwell, I let them in. The lad was covered with hard lumps, which had grown or festered under his skin, about the size of a nut. He had been so for a year. I prescribed a bath and opening medicine (senna, which they can get easily), but I question if they try either. I recommended them to send him to Tripoli, to the English doctor there, but they heard of the proposal with horror. None of these Berkat people have ever visited Tripoli. The Turks are their bugbear. They were not extremely friendly; rude and ignorant villagers as they were, they could not understand why I wanted to go to Soudan. I observed they were all well clothed and seemed to live in Saharan affluence. The term Berkat, بركت, signifies "a lake" or "lagoon," and probably the site of the oasis is the dry bottom of what was formerly a lagoon. The Berkat oasis is larger in gardens, and more fertile than Ghat, but possesses the same essential features. It has no Souk, and excites no attention from strangers visiting Ghat. The inhabitants are Saharan Moors, and some five or six hundred in number. Had a very friendly visit from Salah, eldest son of Haj Mansour, of Ghadames. He says justly, Kandarka and other camel-drivers exaggerate the dangers of the routes for their own private ends, to get more money out of me. Of the Touaricks and Ouweek, he says, "They have no knowledge, they are bullocks." He also added, "I have been reprimanding Ouweek for his bad conduct to you; I told him I would not give him my usual backsheesh on account of his ill-treating you."
I am much bothered with Said. Like his master he is continually wavering, whether he shall return to Ghadames with the return caravan, or proceed with me. I leave him to his own choice and reflections, telling him I will secure his freedom by writing to Sheikh Makouran. I can't but pity him. I find him frequently in tears, or sobbing aloud, afraid the Touaricks will again make him a slave.
In the streets, I pass nearly every evening a Night-School, where there is a crowd of children all cooped up together in a small room, humming, spouting, and screaming simultaneously their lessons of the Koran, in the manner of some of our infant schools. This mode of simultaneously repeating a lesson has prevailed from time immemorial in the schools of North Africa, and I imagine, in The East likewise, and though it may be new in England or Europe, it is old in Asia and Africa. But I never saw before a Night-School in Barbary, and look upon this Saharan specimen of scholastic discipline as a novelty. It is probable, in this way, every male child of Ghat, as in Ghadames, is taught to read and write. The pride of the Ghadamseeah is, that all their children read and write. The whole population can read and write the Koran. This Saharan fact of the barbarians of The Desert suggests painful reflections to honest-minded Englishmen. We may boast of our liberties, our Magna Charta, our independence of character, our commerce, our wealth, the extent of the world which Providence (too good to us) has committed to our care. But after all we cannot boast of what the barbarians of The Desert boast. We cannot, dare not, assert, that every male child of our population can read the Book which we call the Revelation of God! This deplorable, but undeniable fact, ought to throw suspicion upon our religious motives, as well as our pretensions to the love and maintenance of liberty,—unless it be argued, that our liberty is founded on our want of education, and we are free men because the half of our population cannot sign their own name! A Minister of the Crown (Earl Grey), in a late, and the last discussion of the House of Lords (of the old Parliament), had the hardihood, the intrepidity, to assert, that, "We (Englishmen) were the least educated people of Europe, nay, that we were behind the savages of New Zealand!" But this astounding declaration of the Minister produced no explosion of indignation, not a single expression of regret, not a hum or murmur of disapprobation from the Spiritual or Temporal Lords, to whom the words of shame and censure were addressed. And, as the Lords, so the Commons, so all classes of our society. The enunciation, the reiteration of this most extraordinary, most damning stigma, on our national character, does not even tinge with the most imperceptible hue of shame the national countenance. What is the cause of all this? It is the profound, incurable, and inextirpable bigotry of the English people, to which they will not hesitate to sacrifice the national honour, the public happiness, their own liberties, and their own consciences. . . . . . . If measures for education are proposed by Imperial Government, our people one and all will neither allow them to be adopted, nor will they themselves adopt measures for education. With the diverse sections of our society, no education is education unless it be based upon their own peculiar views and principles. In this way, the curse and opprobrium of ignorance are maintained in our own country.
I observe that the little urchins of this Saharan School use sand in their first efforts to write. As sand abounds everywhere in the populated oases of Sahara, and the people are poor and cannot afford to buy much paper, it is constantly employed instead of paper, pens, and ink, in casting up accounts. I see all the Soudanese merchants casting up their accounts of barter and bargains in this way. Mostly the fore-finger is employed, and in careless conversation a long stick or spear is used to scratch the sand. But if the subject is serious, the speaker very distinctly marks the stops of his discourse, or illustrates it with flourishes, squares, and circles on the sand, or dust of the streets, smoothing over the sand when he has finished. There is a little bit of superstition attached to this smoothing over the sand. The Moors always tell me when I write in this way to smooth all over and never forget it. They invariably do so themselves, and never leave a mark, or stroke, or dot of the finger on the sand after they have done speaking or writing.
I was surprised to hear of the peculiar mode of the Touarghee succession for Sultans or reigning royal Sheikhs. It is the son of the Sister of the Sultan who succeeds to the throne amongst all the Touaricks. I have learnt since that the same custom prevails amongst the Moorish tribes of the banks of the Senegal. Batouta also mentions this singular custom as prevailing amongst the Berber people of Twalaten, ايوالاتن, in Western Sahara, in these words—"The people call themselves after the name of their maternal[9] uncles; it is not the sons of the fathers who inherit, but the nephews, sons of the sister of the father." He adds:—"I have never met with this usage before, except amongst the infidels of Malabar (in India)." It would appear, these rude children of The Desert have not sufficient confidence in the succession of father and son, and think women should not be put to so severe a test in the propagation of a race of pure blood. Speaking to a Touarghee about it, he said:—"How do we know, if the son of the Sultan be his son? May he not be the son of a slave? Who can tell? But when our young Sultan is born from the sister of the Sultan, then we know he is of the same blood as the Sultan." There is besides another anomaly of the social system in the town of Ghat. Women here are the hereditary possessors and not men. The law of primogeniture is on the female side. The greater part of the houses of the town of Ghat, although the population is chiefly Moorish, belong to women, bequeathed to them or given them on the day of their marriage by friends or relatives. These two cases of anomaly are more favourable to womankind than what we mostly find in Mahometan countries. I may not now scruple to tell the Touaricks, that the Sovereign of England is a female, for fear of giving them offence. It is a curious fact, and may here be added, that the son rarely goes, or travels, with the father, but always is pinned to his mother's knee, or trudges along at her side; at last, he loses all affection for his father, and concentrates his filial love on his mother. This alienation of the son from the father, is increased by the custom of the son inheriting nothing from his father, but all through his mother.
29th.—A fine morning; the sun high in the heavens scatters light and colour over all the Desert scene. In tolerably good spirits, but utterly at a loss which route I shall take. Visited Hateetah; he did not beg or annoy me to-day, but told me to resolve upon my route. Prescribed him some medicine, as also for another person, who had the ill manners to say, "God has made the infidels to be doctors for the Faithful." Yesterday evening, the slaves of Haj Ibrahim (about fifty) danced and sang and forgot their slavery. One young woman acted various grotesque characters, and, amongst the rest, Boree, "The Devil." When a Negro sulks, or is moody, he is said to be possessed, or to have got in him Boree, which agrees pretty well with our "Blue-devils." In these evening pastimes they fancy themselves in the wild woods of their native homes, and dance and sing to the rude notes of their ruder instruments of music, and feel as if free and like other mortals.