4th.—A fine morning, weather very warm and sultry. The town is well nigh empty. When all the caravans are gone, Ghat will sink into the stillness of death. This is the case with all the Saharan towns, which are blad-es-souk, "a mart of trade," taking place periodically. The Governor finds the trade in slaves so thriving, slaves having fetched a good price this year, that he is sending this morning two of his sons to Soudan to purchase slaves. Kandarka left also this morning. I went to see him off. Saif zain, wahad, "A good sword, one!" he exclaimed as usual. He then made me a long speech. "Put yourself under my sword, no man can resist the sword of Kandarka! (drawing his sword from the scabbard, and making a cut with it.) Be my witnesses, ye merchants of Ghadames! (some of whom were present.) I will give you, Yâkob, a good camel, a mahry. Water you will have first, sweet water. Wood there will be always ready for you to make a fire and cook the cuscasou. I am the right hand of En-Nour (Sultan of Aheer). You will be my friend, Yâkob, before the Sultan. In our towns, we have cheese, butter, wheat, sheep, bullocks. You Christians have none like them. Make haste back, make haste, and come to Aheer."
Hateetah seldom spoke to me of religion, but to-day the Consul said, "What sort of Christian are you? I hear there are as many Christians as there are sands" (taking up a handful of sand).
The Author.—"And what sort of Islamites are you Touaricks? for you are many, as many as we."
The Consul.—"We are of Sidi Malek:" (i. e., Malekites like Arabs).
I asked then the Consul what was the meaning of Targhee, who replied En-nas, or "people." Indeed, the word Targhee seems to have the same signification as Kabyle, that is, "tribe," or "nation," both words denoting people of the same original stock.
5th.—The morning of our departure! . . . . . At length comes the end—the end of all things, joys or sorrows—even in The Desert, where delay and procrastination are the dull and wearying gods of ceaseless worship. Rose early to pack up, and pay take-leave visits. Weather is mild; the caravan will move slowly on account of the slaves; the journey is short; the route is safe; all things promise a favourable end of my Saharan tour. The mind looks with regret upon leaving places become familiar, but rises buoyant at the thought of seeing new sights and scenes. Called upon the Governor to bid him adieu. His Excellency said, he should see me at the moment of departing. Found him with some people of Touat, who said:—"The English are very devils; they have two eyes behind their heads, as well as two before." I did not quite understand their allusion. Called on Haj Ibrahim, who had been packing up for three days past, and yet things were still in great confusion. To my astonishment, I found the merchant surrounded with a group of people in the greatest excitement, the master-figure of the group being The Giant Sheikh, foaming with rage, and threatening to cut Haj Ibrahim's throat on the road, unless he made him some sufficient present, in acknowledgment of his authority as heir-apparent of the Sheikhdom of Berka. The Ghatee merchants, all the most respectable of whom were in this mêlée, kept screaming, and some of them pulling hold of Haj Ibrahim, to give a trifle, (a couple of dollars,) to The Giant, and get rid of him. Hateetah and other Touaricks were also present. Meantime, The Giant bullied, menaced, swore, and thundered things horrible and unutterable . . . . . Amidst this bedlam din, Haj Ibrahim at length got a hearing, and mustered up courage enough to defend himself:—"You call your's a peaceful country,—How? Is not this the conduct of bandits? I know (recognize) no person but Berka. Him I have given a present. What was demanded I have given Berka. I will not now give more presents, and not indeed by main force. It is robbery! Go and take my camels." The Giant, who listened to these few words, spoken distinctly and energetically, with a brow overcast, like a storm-cloud charged with the electric fire, and a bosom heaving and boiling with wrath, got up from where he lay sprawling, ("many a rood,") and very deliberately took hold of his broadsword (I began to be alarmed), and with it fetched Hateetah such a stroke on the back with its flat side, as made him cry out with pain. Then addressing his subordinate sternly and laconically, Enker, heek[24], "Get up quick." he strode off a few paces. Hateetah instantly followed, and the other Touaricks. Now turned round The Giant, and said in Arabic:—"Allah Akbar, the camels! Allah Akbar, the camels! Good, good! Allah Akbar, the camels!" They went off (or rather pretended to go) to seize the merchant's camels. These gone, the merchants of Ghat set all upon Haj Ibrahim, "What a fool you are! Why not give the long fellow a couple of dollars? If you won't, we shall give the Sheikh the money ourselves." One of them turned to me, "Why, Christian, what is a couple of dollars to Haj Ibrahim? That's the value?" (putting his hand to his nose.) The reader may easily guess how this stupid obstinacy of the merchant ended. The Haj forked out, with a bad grace, and the money was carried after The Giant, one of the Ghat merchants adding two more dollars. I was pleased with this trait of the Ghateen, who were determined we should not go off in this uncomfortable plight. The Giant I did not see again; I regretted to part with him in this manner. Under his huge and unwieldy exterior he concealed the most tender and generous disposition. His Giantship never begged of me; and when I gave him a little tobacco, he thanked me a thousand times. He was always cheerful with, and had some joke for his friends. After all, my plan is best: to make the necessary presents at once, and voluntarily; to give all the Sheikhs a trifle, and then you are at peace with all.
About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, to our great satisfaction, we got clear and clean off. Hateetah came out to see me start, and walked half a mile with me on the road. He was extremely kind. It is probable, he begged of me so much, because his brothers and cousins incited him, amongst whom I know he shared the presents which he received. I now put my hand in my pocket, and gave him all the money I had left, half a dollar and a karoob! He affectionately shook me with both hands. I then passed the Governor, who was waiting for us. His Excellency shook hands very friendly, and said, "And Ellah, Yâkob" (God be with you, James!)
During my fifty days' residence in Ghat, although I received numberless petty insults, I kept out of all squabbles, and made as few complaints as possible to the authorities. In fact, I may safely say, and without presumption on my part, if I could not live in peace with these people a few weeks, no other European coming after me could.
It is now time to make a few observations upon the general character of these Saharan inhabitants, and compare their social state with that of ours in Europe.
Crime against society, consists mainly in lying or duplicity, and imposture, in thieving, in sensuality, and in murder. Veracity, honesty, continence, and respect for human life, distinguish a moral people. We have to try the Saharan populations of Ghat and Ghadames by these four cardinal points or principles, and compare them with the nations of Europe. Whilst resident in Ghadames, not one single case of cutting or maiming, or manslaughter, occurred, nor did I hear of any in neighbouring countries. Of course, I exclude altogether the depredations of a nation or tribe of robbers, as well as all the skirmishes between the Touaricks and the Shânbah, which have nothing to do with the question of the social condition of the Saharan towns that I visited. In Ghat, three cases of cutting and wounding occurred, the gashes on the arms received by two slaves from a Touarghee, and the attack on the Ghadamsee trader whilst at prayers, also by a Touarghee. These are the only cases which occurred during my residence here, although a mart or fair, and the rendezvous of tribes of people from all parts of Central Africa and the Great Desert! . . . . . So much for the sacredness of human life among the barbarians of The Desert! . . . . . . With respect to theft and thieving, I have already noticed that thieving is only practised by the hungry and starved slaves of these towns, that amongst the people of Ghadames, as likewise amongst the Touaricks, theft is unknown as a crime. The exceptional cases of theft which are brought to notice can be easily traced to strangers. The Touaricks certainly at times levy black-mail in open Desert, but do not rob in the towns; and the black-mail is not considered by themselves as theft, nor, indeed, is it strictly such, being exacted by the Touaricks as transit duties, or as presents for protection through their districts, or as tribute, and under a variety of such reasons and pretensions. What is legally fixed on the Continent of Europe, is here left to the caprice and greediness of the Sheikhs, and the liberality or stinginess of the trader. As to incontinence, this is more a secret crime. But the sexual habits of the Touaricks, and their domestic amours, are purity itself, compared to the sensuality which disfigures and saps the vitals of society in all the southern nations of Europe. The hardships of The Desert are the greatest safeguards against indulgence in, or the pleasures of, an emasculating sensuality amongst the Touaricks, whilst the ascetic habits of the Maraboutish city of Ghadames sufficiently protect that people from the general indulgence of libertinism, and unnatural crimes. Intoxication, or habitual drunkenness, is, of course, unknown in these Saharan regions. An inebriated woman would be such a wonder as is described in the Book of the Revelations. As to veracity, I have told the reader, the Touarghee nation is a "one-word" people. We cannot expect the same thing from the commercial and make-money habits of the Moors of Ghadames, but they rank much higher for veracity than the Moors of The Coast, which latter have the superior advantages of direct European contact. In my estimate of Saharan populations, I have confined myself to Ghat and Ghadames; the oases of Fezzan, and the city of Mourzuk, have become too much vitiated by contact with The Coast and the Turks for affording fair specimens of Saharan tribes. Let us then compare what has been said to those hideous scenes of crime, of immodesty, and drunkenness, which abound in the great cities of Europe—the ever-present, ever-during stigma on our boasted civilization!—and ask the paradoxical question, What do we gain by European and Christian civilization? We have Chambers of Legislature, infallible and omnipotent Parliaments, princes full of the enlightenment of the age, and reigning by divine right, or the sovereignty of the people, or what not;—we have hierarchies of priests and ministers of religion, we have a Divine revelation;—we have philosophers, poets, and rhetoricians, all enforcing the sublime morals of the age, with reason or fancy and the attractions of the most cultivated intellect;—we have science exhausting nature by its discoveries;—we have our fine arts, and the arts to humanize and exalt the characters of men;—we have our benevolent, philanthropic, and scientific societies;—we profess to govern the destinies of the world, to direct the intellect of all nations, and to advance the being of man to the enjoyment of immortal, imperishable life! ........ And what else profess we not to do? Now then, what are the results? We have the governing authorities of a neighbouring people a mass of corruption[25];—we have the States of the North, so little acquainted with the arts and justice of Government that planned conspiracies and consequent massacres of whole classes are now and then had recourse to, and found requisite to preserve the apparent order of society. Amongst ourselves, we Englishmen, have in all our great cities, the frightful excrescences of crime, too frightful for the pure and simple-minded Saharan tribes to look upon. Our common habits of intoxication and intemperance, and the intoxication of our women, would make the Desert man or woman shrink away from us with horror. Our country is filled with prisons, all well tenanted, whilst the Desert cities have no one thing in the shape or form of a prison. Then look at the Thuggism and open-day assassinations of Ireland! In truth, these Saharan malefactors are the veriest minutest fry of offenders, the minnows and gudgeons of guilt compared to the Irish Thuggee of Tipperary[26]. Poverty is the giant of our United Kingdom, and the incarnate demon of unhappy Ireland; and, with us, people die of starvation....... The Desert, on the contrary, offers the strongest parallel of contrast possible. Poverty there is, but it is wealth compared to ours, and our wants, and no person that I heard of, whilst resident in The Desert, died of starvation. Of course, I omit the traffic in slaves, which has nothing to do with the social state of the Saharan towns I am describing. I omit likewise the condition of the Arabs of the Tripoline mountains, and the terrible exactions of the Turks upon them and other provinces in Tripoli, which indeed are a part of the European system I am now animadverting upon. But I shall stop this tone and style of animadversion. I am sick at heart with the parallel of contrasts between our barbarian and civilized social systems: it is so unsatisfactory, it is so disheartening, and takes away all hope, all faith in the progress and perfectibility of the human race. One thing, however, is certain, that unless we can bring our minds to form a just appreciation of ourselves, unless we can learn to know ourselves, there is no hope, no chance of advancing in our social and moral condition.
