[24] Whether the Rais brought his superstitious reverence for amulets from Turkey or not I cannot tell, or acquired the notion here. But the superstition seems merely to have changed place with the Fetisch amongst the Negro Mohammedan converts. Haj Ibrahim, a merchant of Tripoli, was the only Mussulman I found who despised the use of charms. He observed:—"The grigri is only fit for slaves, or ignorant Mussulmans."
[25] Hell is ordinarily denominated fire by people in The Desert.
[26] Caillié gives an affecting account of this superstition amongst the Mandingoes:—
"On the 8th, I found myself very ill in consequence of the food, and I had an attack of fever. I took a few doses of sulphate of quinine, which had the effect of abating the fever for a few days. My host seemed much concerned at my indisposition. He searched through some old books which contained verses of the Koran, and brought me a scrap of paper well fumigated on which was written a charm in Arabic characters, assuring me that it was an excellent remedy for the disorder under which I was suffering. He directed me to copy it on a little piece of wood which he brought me; then, to wash off the writing with some water which I was to drink: he observed that this would to a certainty relieve me. To please him I copied the writing as he directed, and when he was gone washed the bit of board; but instead of drinking the water I threw it away, which had quite as good an effect, for next day I found myself tolerably well. My host, of course, attributed my amendment to the efficacy of his remedy."
CHAPTER VI.
THE FAST OF THE RAMADAN.
The Sahara, and derivation of the Name.—Astonishment of the People at the Sovereign of England being a Woman.—Decision of the Kady on a diseased Camel.—The old Mendicant Bandit.—Phrenological examination of the Servants of the Rais.—The Scorpion and the Chamelion.—Starving state of the Arab Troops.—Contradictions in the Moorish Character.—Difficulty of acquiring notions of Quantities and Distances from the People.—The Princes to whom Presents are made in the Soudan Route.—How Butchers cut up their Meat.—Connexion between North Africa, The Sahara, and the East.—The Prophecy of The Dajal and Gog and Magog.—Origin of the Turks, Touaricks, and Russians.—How the Fast is broken in the Evening.—Phenomenon of Desert Sound.—The Great Spring of Ghadames.—The Malta Times.—The People their own Enslavers.—Quotation from Scripture.
A taleb tells me that The Sahara is so called from its consisting mostly of rocky stony ground, and its name is a cognate term with Sakharah, صخرة, i. e. "rock." This derivation we can scarcely admit, although as we advance into The Sahara we shall find at least a third of its entire surface to consist of rocks and stones, and mountains. The Sahara—الصحرا—being the theatre of my adventures and researches, deserves a little consideration as to the derivation of this appellation, for so vast a proportion of the African Continent. A late French writer, M. Le Lieutenant-Colonel Daumas, defines The Sahara as "une contrée plate et très-vaste, où il n'y a que peu d'habitants, et dont la plus grande partie est improductive et sablonneuse." This definition presents no proper idea of The Sahara. We have already seen it intersected with long low ridges of mountains, but we shall soon meet with groups of high mountains, as well as find it bristled over and bounded by interminable chains. We shall find also that but a certain portion of its actual mass consists of sand. Unproductive the greater part undoubtedly is, or rather uncultivated; and its population, compared with its vast sterile surface, is extremely small, perhaps not one inhabitant to many thousand square miles. The Mahometan talebs give the following curious etymology of the term Sahara. "We call Sehaur," they say, "that point scarcely distinguishable which precedes the point of day, (fidger), and during which, in the time of Ramadan, we can eat, drink, and smoke. The most rigorous abstinence ought to commence from the time of morning, or when we can distinguish a white thread from a black thread. The Sehaur is then a shade between night and the point of day, which is important for us to seize upon and to determine, and which ought to occupy the attention of our Marabouts. One of them, Ben-ej-Jiramy, starting on the principle, that the Sehaur is more easily and sooner distinguished by the inhabitants of the plains, where nothing bounds the horizon, than by the mountaineers, who are enveloped in masses of earth, concludes that, from the name of the phenomenon there formed, viz., on the plains, where it is more particularly distinguished or observed, we have named the country Sahara, or the country of the Sehaur." In this whimsical and ingenious derivation there is a change of the س into ص, but which is sufficiently frequent in the Shemitic languages. The grand fallacy of the above etymology is, that it assumes the Sahara to be a perfectly flat country, or country of plains, which is not the fact. The talebs also give various names to different portions of The Sahara, according to the geological character of the country. Feeafee is The Oasis, where life is retired, and one spends one's happy days amidst eternal springs of living water, reclining under palms and fruit trees, securely sheltered from the burning simoon (shoub). Keefar, is the sandy arid plain, which, occasionally watered by the winter's revivifying refreshing and fructifying rains, produces spring herbage, where the Nomade tribes pasture their flocks in the neighbourhood of the oases. Falat, is the region of sands in the immensity of steril wastes. But all these distinctions are arbitrary, and can be predicated of tracts of country lying on the North Coast of Africa, as well as the boundless Sahara. On the coast of Tripoli we have the oasis, the arid plain, and the groups of sand-hills of eternal sterility. Captain Lyon enumerates in the same way as the talebs, the various names which the Arabs apply to different regions of The Desert. Sahara is sand alone, forming a plane surface, which agrees with the hypothesis of Ben-ej-Jiramy. Ghoud is groups of sand-hills of indefinite height, situate on the borders of stony plains, where the wind has formed and collected them. Sereer, is generally plains, whence the sand-hills have been swept, and where alone sand-hills are found. Wâr, is a rough plain, covered with large detached stones, lying in confusion, and very difficult to pass over, which is the meaning of the appellation. It is applied to all difficult traverse. Hateea, is a spot possessing the power of fertility; indeed, those patches of land which are the germs of the oases, now producing small stinted shrubs scattered at intervals, from which camels browse a scanty meal, or travellers make their Desert fire. Wishek, is productive sand-hills and plains, where the wild palm and lethel-tree grow. Ghabah, distinguishes cultivated Sahara, sometimes a portion of the oases, but mostly where there are no inhabitants. So near Touat, there is a cultivated place called Ghabah, and without inhabitants. But the people of Ghadames call also their gardens Ghabah. Sibhah, is the usual name for all salt plains, sometimes called Shot in Algeria, being mostly sandy salt marshes. Like the Sibhah of Emjessen, and "The Lake of Marks," in Tunis, the saline particles are often combined with earths or sand so closely as to form a substance resembling stone, and equally hard to break or cut through. With this salt stone houses are built. Wady, is the designation of all long deep depressions of the surface, and is used indifferently for a valley, a bed of a river, or torrent, or ravine. These wadys are almost always dry, except one or two months in the winter. Gibel, is applied to all hills and mountains. It is quite evident, from the above enumeration, that these various terms can be equally applied to the coast and other regions of land, not comprehended within the assigned limits of The Sahara, and are therefore not peculiar to The Great Desert of Sahara.
