7th.—From the Kesar Jenoun, and indeed before arriving there, the valley assumed the form of a boundless plain, widening during the whole of our march to-day. We had still on our right, the chain of Wareerat, and, on our left, but scarcely visible, the low ridge of sand hills. We frequently find this sort of Desert geological phenomena; a range of rocky hills or mountains has a parallel range of sand hills, and the intermediate space is a broad valley or vast plain. In traversing this valley-plain, covered now with coarse herbage, now sand, now mounds of earth, now pebbles, now quite bare, our progress was precisely like that of a ship sailing near the shore, with bluff rocks and headlands jutting and stretching into the sea. So were we on our Desert ships (the camels) coasting slowly but surely along; whilst the mountains and their varied magic shapes continually mocked our weary efforts, and our strained vision; now appearing near, then distant, again near, again distant, and ever changing their wild, fantastic forms. I thought we passed the tree under which I made my grave-bed of the past night, but here were many mounds and many dark lethel-trees crowning the many mounds. The detached rocks I did see, and recognized fully my error, but which I had conjectured, in wandering so far northwards. Our people observed justly, "Yâkob, we all went to find you, for we wished all equally to bear the responsibility. If you had been lost, who knows but what we should have been all blamed for having put you away, or left you behind?" This is, perhaps, but too true a conjecture. These poor people would have, perhaps, not only been blamed for my death, but accused of it. I was glad for their sakes, as well as my own, that I escaped from a Desert death. The story of the visiting the Palace of Demons would have been told, of course, variously by so many different people. How could they tell the story in the same way! These varieties of evidence would have been considered unsatisfactory, if not conclusive against them, whilst some people, suspicious of the Moors, would have believed the whole was a "cunningly-devised" trumped-up invention. The deaths of Park and Laing may have been unjustly charged upon the Africans in this way. How, and for what they died, is now altogether beyond our investigation. Even the more recent death or assassination of Davidson is a mystery of The Desert. We encamped close by a little stunted herbage, on which the camels scantily fed. Weary with the previous night's adventure, immediately on being lifted off the camel, I fell down fast asleep upon the ground. Our course to-day due north.
8th.—Did not rise until the sun was wheeling his daily course high up the heavens. Felt better, and walked a little in the morning. No symptoms of fever from the former night's exposure. In general the open Desert is perfectly salubrious. It is in the oases, mostly situated in the valleys, where the fever is generated. The Demon Temple still in view, with all its mysterious hideousness, crowned with its grisly towers. It now stands out in all its defiant isolation; the sand hills which broke upon its view, running north and south, are now seen far beyond. It is its detached condition from the neighbouring chain of Wareerat, with which its geological structure is indissolubly connected, that has given this huge pile its supernatural reputation. The Demons' Rock is apparently a huge square, having four faces, and requiring a day to make the tour of its rugged and jutting basements. Its highest turret-peaks may be some six or seven hundred feet. The wady now has disappeared,—all is an immeasurable expanse of plain, and bare as barrenness and barren wastes can be. I observed a peculiar mirage to-day—lakes of still black shining water.
A part of our caravan, and not the least interesting, are six Soudan sheep, which belong to Haj Ibrahim. Their species is well known, but I must mention what an agile and strong animal is the Aheer and Housa sheep, being brought from both countries. This Soudan sheep is the best walker in the whole caravan, and the last which feels fatigue or drops from exhaustion. He browses herbage as the camel on the way, nibbling all the choicest herbs, and sometimes strays at a great distance from the caravan. He has had forty days' training from Aheer, and, as a slave said, "He's a better pedestrian than the mahry." He is an attacking animal, not scrupling even to attack the hand which feeds him with a little barley. He is so formidable to the sheep of the Barbary Coast, that I have seen a whole flock scamper away at the simple sight of him. He is tall, his legs long, and his limbs generally better proportioned than the common sheep. As he requires no wool to shelter him from cold in the sultry regions of Central Africa, Providence has only given him a coat of hair; and his tail is like that of the common dog. The head offers nothing remarkable, but his look is bold, and his heart courageous. He butts fiercely at all strangers, and he is the only lord of freedom whilst marching over The Desert. In the companionship of these sheep over The Desert, they acquire a strong affection for one another, and I saw at Ghat two separated from a flock with great difficulty, the whole flock pursuing savagely the man who had taken away from them two of their compagnons de voyage. In going over Desert they require little attention, and will go without water for half a dozen days together. When, however, we come to a well, they are the first that will be served, neither sticks nor blows will keep them off. We have also, as travelling companions, ten or twelve parrots of the common blue-grey Soudan breed. This parrot has a white broad rim round the eye; its body is a light greyish-blue, legs, beak, and claws black, under-tail feathers white and upper scarlet. Each two or three of the parrots have a little round house to themselves, about eight inches in diameter, made of skins, and pierced with holes to let in the air and light, besides a door. Their quarrels are frequent, for quarrelling seems an essential part of the nature of all animals, the rational and irrational, and they often fight desperately, and are obliged to be separated. They are carried on the heads of the slaves, being, as these poor people, the purchased luxuries of the rich. The parrots are allowed to have an airing and a walk morning and evening. They all talk in good grammatical Negro language, and can occasionally aid our researches in Nigritian tongues. Parrots are brought from as far as Noufee.
The wood in the valley we just left, is the Lethel. Its leaves are powdered over with a white saline substance, indeed, why not salt itself? Some of these trees are very large, having very thick trunks and boughs, perhaps forty feet high, and ten feet round the thickest trunks, which wood, when palm-wood is scarce, is used instead for building. On the plain, however, the Tholh[29] began to appear. This tree is found, as noticed before, in the most desolate places of The Desolate Sahara. It is sometimes very large for trees here, perhaps thirty feet high, and six or seven of width round its broadest trunks. The camels browse on it always, and when hungry crop with avidity a great quantity of the prickles and thorns, and thorny leaves. It is a mystery to me how the camel can chew such thorns in its delicate mouth. The Koran mentions the tholh (Surat lvi.), as one of the trees of Paradise, which Sale has translated Mauz, "the trees of mauz loaded regularly with their produce from top to bottom." But tholh here seems to refer to a very tall and thorny tree, which bears an abundance of beautiful flowers of an agreeable odour, one of the many species of acacia, and not the ordinary gum-arabic tree.
Near sun-set we left the plain, and I took an everlasting farewell of the Temple of Genii. Poor inanimate Rock! which should so much bewilder man's crazy brain, and fill the desert travellers with such strange fancies. We turned to the north-west into a gorge of the chain of Wareerat. In this gorge, besides the usual black sandstone, with glossy basaltic forms, were large deposits of chalk, one of which our route intersected, on the top of the ridge, where also the action of water was extremely well marked. The action of water remains a long time visible in The Great Desert, perhaps twelve, twenty, nay, fifty years, during which several periods, even in the driest regions of The Sahara, there is sure to be a heavy drenching rain,—an overflowing, overwhelming mass of water falls on the desert lands. The districts of Ghat remained some eight or ten years without an abundant rain, till this last winter, when it came in most overpowering showers[30]. The action of rain on the earthy bosom of The Desert is very much like that of the action of the sea on its shores, which has led to the remark, that The Sahara looks as if it been "washed over" by the ocean. The mounds of earth so frequently met with in The Desert are formed by water in the time of great rains. In this gorge were big blocks of stone, on which were carved Touarghee characters. It was fortunate I knew the characters, for the people wished to persuade me they were those of very ancient people, and of Christians, whilst none of the party could read them. They are probably the names of shepherd and Touarghee camel-drivers, wandering through Desert. Some of the letters have a very broad square Hebrew or Ethiopic look about them. The gorge was steep, narrow, and intricate in the first part of its ascent. We then descended and encamped between the links of the chains, which form so many valleys, some broad and deep. It was a good while after sun-set, when we brought up for the night, and we had come a very long day. All were greatly fatigued, especially the poor slave girls.
9th.—Rose early, and started early. The feet-marks of the aoudad wore observed on the sand. Course through the gorge north-east. After a couple of hours we cleared the gorge, entering upon a broad open plain or valley. Here I observed the chain of Wareerat was rounded off on the eastern side, and of considerably less altitude, whilst the peaks of the opposite or western side were steep and escarpé, owing apparently to the action of the water in the wady.
Continuing our course on the plain for an hour or two, we arrived at the oasis of Serdalas, a handful of cultivation, but very fair and of vigorous growth. The valley or plain of Serdalas, which is also called Ludinat, and the site of a Marabet, is an extensive undulating plain, bounded east and west by two ranges of mountains, stretching north and south. Near the spot of our encampment are wells of excellent water, seven or eight of them, and the largest is a thermal spring, which is about the centre of the oasis. It is banked up, or rather issues from a rocky eminence, where large lumps of bog iron may be picked up. Formerly this spring was fortified, the high walls built around its mouth still remaining, and there are besides the brick ruins of a castle close by. Tradition relates that the oasis was formerly colonized by Christians, and others say, by Jews. It may, indeed, have been colonized previously to the arrival of the Arabs in Africa by the ancient Berbers, or Numidians, but the castle itself is of Moorish modern construction. The present miserable population does not exceed ten persons, Fezzaneers and one or two Touaricks, who cultivate a little wheat and ghusub. The houses are huts of sticks, date-leaves, and dried grass. Near the great spring is a large tree, with prickly thorny leaves, not unlike the tholh. It is called Ahatas, اهتس, and was brought from Soudan, where its species grows to an enormous magnitude. Its wood makes excellent bowls, spoons, and several useful domestic utensils. This tree measures at least twelve feet round its trunk; its principal branch is prostrate, bent beneath the burden of many a Saharan summer's heat and winter's cold. From the old paralyzed arm, however, shoot up young green branches, offering a pleasant shade to the weary and thirsty wayfarer in these wilds. Under this tree money is buried to a great amount, but the writings, pointing out the particular spot, were destroyed by a son of the Marabout, whose tomb consecrates this desert spot. Several small birds are hopping about, like those seen in Ghat, with white heads and white under tails, the rest black. This seems a bonâ fide feathered tenant of Sahara.
We remain here to-day and to-morrow. It is, perhaps, for the better, for we are all knocked up. By preserving the body we preserve the mind. Our party consists of four merchants, the rest being servants and slaves. My friend Haj Ibrahim is the principal one. We have the Medina Shereef, who is in charge of a male and two female slaves, the property of the Governor of Ghat. He continues his route from Tripoli to Mecca, and expects to be absent two years on his pilgrimage. The Shereef makes great pretensions to learning and sanctity, and I believe he is clever, if not learned; he says to me, "My business is study and prayer." He asked me about Khanouhen, his father-in-law, and the presents which I made the prince, and said, "Khanouhen sent back his presents to you, and would not accept them." I told him I commuted the goods into silver; at which he laughed and remarked, "Ah! Khanouhen is deeper than the devil himself." He considers Jabour's protection omnipotent in the route of Timbuctoo, but says the Touaricks only, and not caravans, can protect European travellers: I think the Shereef is right. Another of our merchants is a very civil Ghadamsee, and acts as a sort of broker for Haj Ibrahim. He is very civil and good-natured, but, nevertheless, keeps mostly in his hand a little nasty whip, with which he lays it into the unlucky slaves. The last of the four is a queer dwarfish Touatee, from Aïn Salah, who is carrying a few little bags of gold to Tripoli, perhaps a dozen ounces. At the instigation of the Shereef, who likes a laugh, I keep roasting him on the way, telling him, "You have got so much gold about you that we are sure to be attacked by banditti before we arrive safely at Tripoli." This makes him very savage, and sometimes he calls me a kafer. Haj Omer is the great factotum of Haj Ibrahim, an Arab of Tripoli, and a most hardy hard-working fellow. Omer has two camels which are hired by his master. One of these foaled a little before we left Ghat, and he carried the young camel the half of a day's journey on his back. Omer never rides, walks all day long, pitches the tents, looks after the camels, looks after the slaves, and from morning to night is on his legs. So these people can work when it is necessary; indeed, I am sure, with a good government, and an equitable system of trade, the Moors and Arabs of North Africa would be as industrious and persevering as any other people.
It is now afternoon, and very hot. The weather has been sultry the four days of our route. But our faces are nearly always north, and a slight fresh breeze blows from either N., N.E., or N.W. every day, a most grateful relief. It is, however, cold at nights, and very cold in the morning after the heat has been absorbed during the night. The negresses are busy either pounding ghusub, or washing themselves, or making the toilet and arranging their sable persons in showy trinkets. Certainly woman in the negro races is a remarkable creature. She bears her bondage and its hardships with consummate fortitude, and the greatest good humour and gaiety, never quarrelling or sulking with her master, and only now and then having a little bickering of jealousy or rivalry with her fellow slave. Two or three slaves only, for the present, are unable to keep up, and placed on the backs of camels. I am astonished to see how well they keep up, what fatigue they are capable of bearing; I should myself die of exhaustion were I placed in their situation. There is a little boy only four or five years of age, who walks as well as any of them. He refused my offer to give him a ride, and answered, "I don't wish to ride. I walked all the way from my native country to Ghat." Should this little creature continue to walk his way to Tripoli, by the time he arrives in that city he will have walked over eighty-five days of Desert, besides the distance he may have walked before reaching Aheer, perhaps some additional thirty days.
Another of Haj Ibrahim's camels foaled to-day. The foal is stretched upon the ground as if lifeless, the mother standing over and staring at it. But the foal will not remain so long, for to-morrow or next day it will be up on its legs, and after four, five, or six days, it will be able to run after its dam. In fact, the foal, now five days' old, runs after its mother part of the day's march, and after two or three more days it will be able to continue a whole day's journey. Here is an instance of the immense superiority of the lower animal over the higher animal man. It is curious that the cry of the foal is very much like a child, and I once turned round to see a negress child crying, and found it was a camel-foal. In marching the foal is tied upon the back of its mother, and so borne along, the dam grumbling regular choruses to the cry of the foal. (Later an hour.) The foal is actually upon its legs, about four hours after its birth, and it has sucked its mother twice. The mother does not quarrel so much about her child as the first she-camel. Such is the varying dispositions of brutes. A foal is worth ten dollars when a year old. Most she-camels have a foal every other year, but some few every year. The foal remains a whole year with its mother. None of these camels give milk, because there is not sufficient herbage in our way. In cases of extremity, when the herbage is scarce and the camels give little milk, the Touaricks of Ghat will drive their camels to graze as far as Aheer, or even to Soudan. Milk is an essential portion of their means of existence. The reader must not be surprised to find so frequent a mention of the Camel-Ship of The Desert. In the Koran the camel is thus introduced, "Do not they consider the camels, how they are created?" (Surat lxxxviii.) and very properly, as a wonderful instance of the creative might of Deity. These animals are of such use, or rather necessity, in The East and in The Desert, that the creation of a species so wonderfully adapted to these countries, is a very apposite and proper instance to an Arabian and African, or even an European (travelling here), of the power and wisdom of the Creator. Like the reindeer, and the lichen, or moss, on which it feeds in the polar regions, the camel and the date-palms in the Great Desert furnish striking and remarkable examples of the inseparable connexion of certain animals and plants with human society and the propagation of our common species. Providence, or nature, for it is the same, has so formed the faithful, patient and enduring camel, as to create in this animal a link of social and commercial intercourse amongst widely-scattered and otherwise apparently unapproachable nations. The she-camel which I am riding through these solitary wastes never fails me, except from sheer exhaustion, the enduring creature never giving in whilst nature sustains her! In the most arid, herbless, plantless, treeless, thirsty wastes, she finds her loved-home, for The Desert is the natural sphere of life and action for the camel. The Desert was made for the Camel, and the Camel was made for The Desert.
