CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Park had now been detained a whole month in Ali's camp, during which each returning day brought him fresh distresses. In the evening alone, his oppressors left him to solitude and reflection. About midnight, a bowl of kouskous, with some salt and water, was brought for him and his two attendants, being the whole of their allowance for the following day, for it was at this time the Mahometan Lent, which, being kept with religious strictness by the Moors, they thought proper to compel their Christian captive to a similar abstinence. Time, in some degree, reconciled him to his forlorn state: he now found that he could bear hunger and thirst better than he could have anticipated; and at length endeavoured to amuse himself by learning to write Arabic. The people, who came to see him, soon made him acquainted with the characters. When he observed any one person, whose countenance he thought malignant, Mr. Park almost always asked him to write on the sand, or to decipher what he had written, and the pride of showing superior attainment generally induced him to comply with the request.
Mr. Park's sufferings and attendant feelings decreased in intenseness from time and custom; his attempts, as the first paroxysms ceased, to find the means to amuse and shorten the tedious hours, is a fine picture, of human passions; and their variations, circumstances, and situations, which, before they were encountered, would appear intolerable, generate a resolution and firmness, which render them possible to be borne. Providence, with its usual benevolence, willing the happiness of mankind, fortifies the heart to the assaults, which it has to undergo.
On the 14th of April, Ali proposed to go two days journey, to fetch his queen Fatima. A fine bullock was therefore killed, and the flesh cut into thin slices, was dried in the sun; this, with two bags of dry kouskous, served for food on the road. The tyrant, fearing poison, never ate any thing not dressed under his immediate inspection. Previously to his departure, the negroes of Benown, according to a usual custom, showed their arms and paid their tribute of corn and cloth.
Two days after the departure of Ali, a shereef arrived with merchandize from Walet, the capital of the kingdom of Biroo. He took up his abode in the same hut with Mr. Park, and appeared be a well-informed man, acquainted with the Arabic and Bambarra tongues; he had travelled through many kingdoms; he had visited Houssa, and lived some years at Timbuctoo. Upon Mr. Park's inquiring the distance from Walet to Timbuctoo, the shereef, learning that he intended to travel to that city, said, it would not do, for Christians were there considered as the devil's children, and enemies to the prophet.
On the 24th, another shereef arrived, named Sidi Mahomed Moora Abdallah, and with these two men Mr. Park passed his time with less uneasiness than formerly, but as his supply of victuals was now left to slaves, over whom he had no control, he was worse supplied than during the past month. For two successive nights, they neglected to send the accustomed meal, and the boy, having begged a few handfuls of ground nuts, from a small negro town near the camp, readily shared them with his master. Mr. Park now found that when the pain of hunger has continued for some time, it is succeeded by languor and debility, when a draught of water, by keeping the stomach distended, will remove for a short time every sort of uneasiness. The two attendants, Johnson and Demba, lay stretched upon the sand in torpid slumber, and when the kouskous arrived, were with difficulty awakened. Mr. Park felt no inclination to sleep, but was affected with a deep convulsive respiration, like constant sighing, a dimness of sight, and a tendency to faint, when he attempted to sit up. These symptoms went off when he had received nourishment.
On the 29th of April, intelligence arrived at Benown, that the Bambarra army was approaching the frontiers of Ludamar. Ali's son, with about twenty horsemen, arriving, ordered all the cattle to be driven away, the tents to be struck, and the people to depart. His orders were instantly obeyed; the baggage was carried upon bullocks, one or two women being commonly placed upon the top of each burden. The king's concubines rode upon camels, with a saddle of an easy construction, and a canopy to keep the sun from them. On the 2nd of May, they arrived at Ali's camp, and Mr. Park waited immediately upon him; he seemed much pleased with his coming, and introduced him to Fatima, his favourite princess, saying, "that was the Christian." The queen had long black hair, and was remarkably corpulent; she appeared at first shocked at having a Christian so near her, but when Mr. Park had, by means of a negro boy, satisfied her curiosity, she seemed more reconciled, and presented him with a bowl of milk.
The heat and the scarcity of water were greater here than at Benown. One night, Mr. Park, having solicited in vain for water at the camp, resolved to try his fortune at the wells, to which he was guided by the lowing of cattle. The Moors were very busy in drawing water, and when Mr. Park requested permission to drink, they drove him away with outrageous abuse. He at last came to a well, where there were an old man and two boys, to whom he made the same request. The former immediately drew up a bucket of water, but recollecting Mr. Park was a Christian, and fearing the bucket would be polluted by his lips, he dashed the water into the trough, and told him to assuage his thirst from it. The cows were already drinking at the trough, but Mr, Park resolved to come in for his share, and, accordingly, thrusting his head between two of the cows, he drank with great pleasure till the water was nearly exhausted.
Thus passed the month of May, Ali still considered Mr. Park as his lawful prisoner, and Fatima, though she allowed him a greater quantity of victuals than fell to his portion at Benown, yet she made no efforts for his release. Some circumstances, however, now occurred, which produced a change in his favour more suddenly than he expected. The fugitive Kaartans, dreading the resentment of the sovereign, whom they had so basely deserted, offered to treat with Ali for two hundred Moorish horsemen to assist them in an effort to expel Daisy from Gedinggooma, for till Daisy should be vanquished, they could neither return to their native town, nor live in security in the neighbouring kingdoms. Ali, with a view to extort money from these people, despatched his son to Jarra, and prepared himself to follow him. Mr. Park, believing that he might escape from Jarra, if he could get there, immediately applied to Fatima, prime counsellor of the monarch, and begged her to intercede with Ali for leave to accompany him to Jarra. The request was at length granted. His bundles were brought before the royal consort, and Mr. Park explained the use of the several moveables, for the amusement of the queen, and received a promise of speedy permission to depart.
In regard to the moorish character, especially the female, which Mr. Park had frequent opportunities of studying during his captivity at Benown; it appears that the education of the women is neglected altogether, they being evidently regarded merely as administering to sensual pleasure. The Moors have singular ideas of feminine perfection. With them, gracefulness of figure, and an expressive countenance, are by no means requisite. Beauty and corpulency are synonymous. A perfect moorish beauty is a load for a camel and a woman of moderate pretensions to beauty requires a slave on each side to support her. In consequence of this depraved taste for unwieldiness of bulk, the moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life, and for this purpose, the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great quantity of kouskous, and drink a large portion of camel's milk every morning. It is of no importance whether the girl has an appetite or not, the kouskous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows.