The camp had again changed its situation; it was a mile further to the east, near a rivulet called Rekiza. On our arrival, we were informed that Hamet-Dou was at war with the Oulad-Hamets, and that the latter, who were greatly inferior in number, were flying from their enemies. The cause of hostilities was this: the laratine slaves of the tribe of Oulad-Hamet had quarrelled with those of the king, and had ravaged their fields of millet; the slaves complained to their master, who went with his people to seize the flocks of the Oulad-Hamets, in order to make them pay for the damage done in his territory. All the women of the tribe came to implore the king’s mercy, and he restored the cattle without insisting upon any indemnification for the damage. So far from being thankful for the goodness of the prince, these wretches attacked Hamet-Dou’s people again, surprised them in their tents, and killed four of them; they met with a vigorous resistance, however, for they retired with the loss of seven men. This atrocious conduct on the part of the aggressors excited the indignation of the king; he swore that he would be revenged, and declared war against the whole tribe. The Oulad-Hamets, knowing that they should have nothing to gain in this contest, entered into a negociation, and the king pardoned them once more.
The tribe of the Oulad-Hamets is the most perfidious of all the Braknas; they spare nothing, not even the people of their own tribe. When they meet travellers, they strip them if they can; and if chance conducts a stranger to their camps, he never escapes till he is plundered of every thing he has with him; of course care is taken to keep out of their way. Their atrocious character causes them to be detested by all the other tribes, and they are never spoken of but with horror.
The same day, word was brought that the Trarzas[32] had fallen upon the oxen in the woods, and were driving them off. Our people were greatly embarrassed, for there were very few men in the camp, most of them having left it at the approach of the Ramadan; seven or eight only were at hand to pursue the robbers. I observed that they had no guns, but I was assured that the Trarza hassanes would make no use of theirs, and that the matter would be decided with sticks. During the absence of the men, the women collected in groups, and discussed the probable result of the affair; there was much quarrelling amongst them, for some asserted that the Trarzas would carry off the oxen, and others maintained, on the contrary, that they would be beaten, and that the marabouts would oblige them to relinquish their prize. Towards the end of the day, these disputes were decided by the return of the marabouts, who reported that the robbers had fled at their approach and abandoned their prey.
At night, the new moon appeared; it was that of the Ramadan; and the fast was about to commence: long prayers were said, and a great quantity of sangleh was made. We supped later than usual, because we were to fast the next day. Before light I was roused to drink, for it is not lawful to take any thing while the sun is above the horizon.
The truly devout Moors observe a most rigorous fast; they make only one meal in the middle of the night, and not only take no food in the day-time, but neither drink nor smoke. As the Ramadan often happens in hot weather, and the fast is more painful on account of the dreadful thirst which is experienced, the less zealous take the opportunity of travelling just at this time, because they are excused from observing the fast when they are on a journey. It was for this reason that there were so few men in the camp, when the oxen were carried off; they had all set out on their travels a few days before. This emigration does not exempt them from fasting altogether, but it affords them the advantage of chusing their own season; they always fast in preference in cold weather, because they are not then liable to suffer so much from thirst.
The first day I bore the fast pretty well, but I suffered severely from thirst, and sighed for the setting of the sun; it was only a quarter of an hour after sun-set that the cheni was brought, and this quarter of an hour appeared as long as a day. Impatience increased my thirst to such a degree, that I could not restrain myself, and drank more than was prudent. My body was covered with a violent perspiration; my legs failed; I fell motionless upon the mat, where I remained for half an hour, but without losing sensation. At last my strength returned by degrees, and I was able to get up to go to prayer.
At eleven o’clock at night, some sangleh was brought for supper; I remarked that a greater quantity had been made than usual, but I ate very little, for thirst had taken away my appetite and I felt feverish. The women had all intended to fast, but at noon they were obliged to drink, and their fast was broken. For my part, I persevered for the next few days, and my sufferings increased, as my strength diminished. On the sixth day, I thought that I could no longer endure these privations. The east wind blew violently; the heat increased; my throat was parched, my tongue, dry and chapped, was like a rasp in my mouth, and I thought I should sink under my sufferings. I was not the only one who was in this state; every body around me was tormented in the same way. The marabouts, at last, bathed the face, head, and part of the body, and I was allowed to do the same; but I was watched very closely, and could only have deceived my Arguses at the risk of my life, in case I had been seen to swallow a drop of water. When my sufferings were excessive, and a murmur escaped me, they told me, for my encouragement, that when I died Mahomet would receive me into heaven, present me with a vase of delicious liquor to quench my thirst, and reward me for the pains and privations I had endured. One day I contrived to enjoy this treat beforehand, as the law permits you to wash your mouth, and to snuff up water through the nose, provided you spit it out again; I seized the moment when my marabout, being engaged in washing himself, could not observe me, to swallow part of the water that I had in my mouth: it seemed to me as if the prophet was that moment opening the gates of heaven to me, for I had never tasted any thing so delicious. This was the only time that I could elude their vigilance, and I did it then with fear and trembling. I fasted thus for seventeen days, and on the eighteenth I was attacked with a fever; a dispensation from fasting was then granted me, if a man can be said not to fast because he drinks a little water in the course of the day: they gave me absolutely nothing to eat.
Besides being compelled to observe a most rigorous fast, I had to bear the insolence of a number of travelling hassanes, with whom my sufferings were a subject of ridicule. If they found me lying upon my mat, and expiring of thirst and exhaustion, they pulled me by my clothes, and pinched me, and tormented me in a thousand ways to force me to answer their questions, which were all intended to insult me. They commonly concluded by asking me if I would not drink a little brandy and eat pork, and whether I did not intend to be circumcised. At each of these questions, to which I refused to reply, they laughed violently, and answered for me, affecting the most cutting contempt. The marabouts did not like this, but they could not protect me from the annoyance, and it was not till after the departure of the hassanes that they censured them and called them infidels.
I observed, that the marabouts were not so strict with their countrymen as they were with me, for I often saw young men who were eating in the day-time. When I asked why they were not obliged to fast like the rest of us, I was told that they could not have got through the day without eating. This pretext they employed whenever they were disposed to break the fast.
To amuse themselves, and make the days seem less tedious during the Ramadan, the Moors have a game called sigue. It consists of six flat pieces of wood, rounded at the ends in an oval form, white on one side, and black on the other. The game is played by two, four, or six persons, but always divided into two parties. Three rows of holes are made in the sand, twenty-four in each; the outside rows are taken by the different parties, who cover each of the holes with a straw, taking care that the straws of the two parties shall be of different colours, so as to be easily distinguished; the middle row of holes is left open. One of the players takes five bits of wood in his hand, shakes them and drops them on the ground; if all the pieces of wood are of the same colour, or all but one, this is called making the sigue, and counts for one: the player continues with six pieces until he fails to make the sigue; then another plays, and so on. Every time a player makes the sigue he puts a straw into one of the holes of the middle row, and moves it forward as many places as he has thrown pieces of wood of the colour adopted by his party. When a player has reached the last hole in the middle row, he leaves his straw there; if his adversary arrives at it also, the first straw is thrown out, and the player begins again as before. When all the holes in the middle row are taken, the player begins upon his adversary’s, and they go on with the game, taking straws out of all the holes which they win from him; when either party has lost all its holes the game is over.