Of the social relations at Tozar, Mr Davis says:—“My first impression, on visiting several families, was such as to induce me to believe that greater domestic happiness prevailed here than in the Mohammedan cities on the coast. The females are not kept in distinct and separate apartments, nor do they even cover their faces when in the presence of strangers, but appear perfectly free, and seem exceedingly affable.” A closer examination, however, sufficed to show that the regulations of Mohammedanism in regard to females produced very much the same results here as elsewhere. Marriage is usually contracted very early,—so that it is no uncommon thing to see boys of thirteen and fourteen in possession of wives of eleven or twelve, or even younger; and the result, here as elsewhere, is, that girls of twelve look as old as European females do at twenty, and at thirty they are almost fit to be placed on the retired list. Indeed, as Colonel Dow in his Ferishta says, polygamy in the East is founded very much on natural causes, as, owing to early marriages, and the effects of the climate, a man there keeps his vigour long enough to see two or three wives bloom and fade in succession. Moslems consider it wrong, and even sinful, if a man has reached his twentieth year without marrying. The young couple are joined together on the good faith of their parents or relations; for they are not permitted to see each other before the nuptial night. Certain persons, however,—generally old women, relatives of the parties—are sent from the man, who examine the lady, and bring him back a report of her bodily accomplishments. If the man finds himself disappointed, he has a right to send her back to her parents, without restoring to her the portion that was promised her,—or rather, the price that was to be paid for her, as the wife is bought by the husband. The young damsels, it must be allowed, take all pains to avoid so lamentable a catastrophe. “Excessive obesity,” says Mr Davis, “is considered the perfection of female beauty among the Mohammedans on the coast; hence a young woman, after she is betrothed, receives gold or silver shackles upon her hands and wrists, and is fed so long till these are filled up. A kind of seed called drough, and their national dish coscoso, are used for the purpose. The young lady is literally crammed, and some actually die under the spoon.”
These African beauties, it would appear, are subject to strange fantasies and superstitions. The Jenoon, or devil, we are told, sometimes causes a lady to fancy some article of dress or jewellery; and until her husband (for the lady is always a married one) procures her the article, the Jenoon torments her in a most pitiless manner. But the tormentor is not satisfied by the lady obtaining the article. He must have something for himself, in return for the trouble he takes in the matter,—and that something is nothing less than a splendid feast exclusively of ladies. Our reverend author, however, by special favour, was once present at a feast of this kind at Nabil, the ancient Neapolis; and as the spirits do not seem to have stood much in awe of “the cloth,” he is able to furnish us with the following account of this Jenoon or devil feast:—
“The room in which it was celebrated was beautifully illuminated, and surrounded with ottomans, upon which the ladies, amounting to forty, were luxuriously reclining, and amongst them the lady possessed by the Jenoon. All of them were beautifully dressed, and none of them, judging from their appearance, were more than forty years of age, though some of them were still in their teens. After I had been there a few moments, supper was brought in; and coscoso, the favourite dish of Barbary, was of course not excluded. They all sat down on the ground, and some with wooden spoons, whilst others with their hands, partook freely of the repast. I was invited to join them, which I did, and had also the pleasure to be favoured with a spoon.” (We hope it was a long one!)
“After supper they all took their former places; and a band of music began to strike up some of their national tunes. All the ladies sat quiet—till of a sudden one of them, a young woman of about twenty, arose and began to dance by herself. She was soon followed by several others, who were wheeling rapidly round; and all of them worked themselves into such a frenzy that from weakness they dropped to the ground, where they lay, till, recovering their strength, they recommenced their madness. This lasted a considerable time. The lady with the Jenoon was sitting quietly on the ottoman. When the visitors had finished their amusement, she started up, and followed their example; and when she, like the others, was stretched on the floor, one of the spectators arose, and asked what article she fancied,—to which she made no reply. The former then named several articles of dress, asking whether she wished any of them; and when the article which the Jenoon lady desired was mentioned, (I believe a shawl), she suddenly started up,—and this was the signal that the Jenoon feast was considered as ended.”
When Barbary ladies play the Jenoon with their husbands at this rate, it is not to be wondered at that a separation from such fantastic spirits should be placed within easy reach of the man. Barbary husbands, at least if they be Moslems, can take back their divorced partners after a first divorce, but not after a second, unless—strange provision!—she has in the interim been married to another man. A husband may oblige his divorced wife to nurse any infant she has borne him, until it is two years old; and no man can marry a divorced woman sooner than four months and a half after her total separation from the former husband. The facility with which a divorce can be procured in Northern Africa, even for the most trivial causes, cannot be otherwise than most pernicious to the social welfare of the community. Mr Davis narrates the following anecdote in illustration of this ridiculous as well as most mischievous license:—
“A servant of mine of the name of Ali, once very pressingly applied for leave to go out for a short time. It was not my custom to inquire into the nature of his business, but, on that occasion something unaccountable prompted me to put the question,—‘And where are you going to, Ali?’
“Holding up a piece of paper, he very coolly answered,—‘To give my wife this divorce; and shall soon be back, Arfi,’ (my master).
“‘To give your wife a divorce! Well, you may go; but remember, if you divorce her, I from this very moment divorce you.’
“Handing me the paper, Ali exclaimed,—‘Here, master, take it; on such conditions I shall not divorce my wife.”’
Tozar was the most southerly point which the expedition reached; and here it remained for the space of three weeks, during which time Mr Davis and his three French companions made excursions to the neighbouring oases. Accompanied by the Governor and Cadi of Nefta, with a retinue of some twenty well-mounted servants, they set out over the sands to visit that place. “Never,” says Mr Davis, “had the propriety of styling the camel the ship of the Desert been so apparent to me as this day. The whole way from Tozar to Nefta, the Desert had completely the aspect of a vast bed of an ocean, and we seemed to plough the sandy waves of the Sahara as the ship does those of the sea. The morning was rather hazy, and the sky was overcast with a number of detached small white clouds, which (particularly those along the horizon) very often assumed the form of a variety of sailing crafts; and thus added considerably to the delusion, under the influence of which we Europeans were quite willing to abide, viz. of navigating some expansive lake. By seven o’clock, however, the sun burst forth in all his brilliance; every cloud was speedily dispersed, and a clear, blue ethereal sky was stretched over us as far as the eye could reach.” When fairly launched upon the Deserts, the sameness of the scenery becomes most oppressive. Seldom is the traveller’s eye refreshed by anything in the shape of a mountain or a green plain. One sea of sand succeeds another; and were it not for an occasional mirage, which for a time diverts them, or, for the circumstance that the glaring sun and drifting sand-clouds compels them sometimes for hours together to envelop their faces in the bornoos, or cloak, so that they are able to dream of the fantastic groups of date-trees, and the gentle rivulets winding amongst them in their native land, their journey through such portions of the Desert would be the most intolerable and dreary imaginable. These alleviations, or “comforts,” as an old voyager of the Desert called them, being mere illusions, are rather calculated to vex the heart of the inexperienced traveller. But those who have been in the habit of crossing the sandy ocean from their infancy, and to whom every spot on its surface is familiar, are diverted, and even cheered by such illusions. “It is a change for them,” said one of these veteran voyagers, “and any change in a monotonous life is agreeable.”