CHAPTER IV.
Commence crossing the Hamadah--Last Pillar of the Romans--Travelling in the Desert--Rapid March--Merry Blacks--Dawn--Temperature--Ali returns--Day-travelling--Night-feelings--Animals--Graves of Children--Mirage--Extent of the Plateau--It breaks up--Valley of El-Hasee--Farewell to the Hamadah--Arduous Journey--The Camel-drivers--New Country--Moral and religious Disquisitions--The Chaouches--Reach Edree--Abd-el-Galeel--Description of Edree--Subterranean Dwellings--Playing at Powder--The Kaïd--Arabic Literature--Desertion of the Zintanah--Leave Edree--Sandy Desert--Bou Keta the Camel-driver--Wady El-Makmak--The Lizard--Reach Wady Takadafah--Sand--Another _Embroglio_.
The sun was setting as our caravan, which we had collected in as compact a body as possible, got under way, and rising out of the valley of Tabooneeah, began to enter upon the plateau. It is difficult to convey an idea of the solemn impressions with which one enters upon such a journey. Everything ahead is unknown and invested with perhaps exaggerated terrors by imagination and report. The name of Desert--the waterless Desert--hangs over the horizon, and suggests the most gloomy apprehensions. Behind, in the fading light, the trees of the valley still show their dim groups; before, the lofty level, slightly broken by undulations, stretches away. There was one cheering thought, however. My companions had by this time set up their tent for the night; and although, creeping along at the camel's slow pace, we could not expect to come up to that temporary home until it was about to be deserted, still the knowledge of its existence took away much of the mysterious terror with which I entered upon this desolate region in the hour of coming shadows. An additional solemnity was imparted to the commencement of this arduous journey by the fact that we now passed the last pillar erected by the Romans. Their mighty power seems to have recoiled, as well it might, before the horrid aspect of the Hamadah.
We pushed on at a steady pace over the rough ground; and as I surveyed the scene from my elevated position on the camel's back, I could not help contrasting this primitive style of travelling with that with which I had been conversant a few months before. Instead of whirling along the summit of an embankment, or through a horizontal well miles deep, in a machine that always reminded me of a disjointed dragon, at the rate of some fifty miles an hour, here I was leisurely swaying to and fro on the back of the slowest beast that man has ever tamed, in the midst of a crowd loosely scattered over the country, some on foot, some in the saddle--not seeking to keep any determinate track, but following a general direction by the light of the stars, which shine with warm beneficence overhead. There is no sound to attract the ear, save the measured tread of the caravan, the occasional "_Isa! Isa!_" of the drivers, the hasty wrench with which our camels snatch a mouthful of some ligneous plant that clings to the stony soil, the creaking of the baggage, or the whistling of the wind that comes moaning over the desert. These are truly moments in a man's life to remember; and I shall ever look back to that solemn night-march over the desert, which my pen fails to describe, with sentiments of pleasurable awe.
This night we moved at comparatively a rapid pace--nearly three miles an hour; for there was scarcely any temptation to the camels to linger for browsing purposes, and the drivers seemed desperately anxious to get over as much ground as possible at once. At first all went well enough; and now and then even, the blacks, who were on foot, braved the Hamadah with a lively ditty--celebrating some Lucy Long of Central Africa. But by degrees these merry sounds ceased to be heard; and the hastily-moving crowd of the caravan insensibly stretched out into a longer line. The poor women were beginning to knock up, and several fell at times from mere exhaustion. We proceeded, however, without stopping, for eleven hours, and after a long, dreary night indeed, halted at five in the morning, having reached the encampment of our German friends.
The dawn soon lighted up the waste, and enabled us to see that it was a level plain of hard red earth, scattered over with pebbles and loose pieces of limestone mixed with flint.
The Hamadah was very cold in the night, the wind being from the north. Dr. Overweg does not think that the plateau is more than fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea; but it may be two thousand, and a little more in some places. By day it is hot enough; and as there is little to be observed on these vast, elevated stretches of stony desert, I thought it best to continue my original plan for three whole nights.
To spare one's self is the great secret of Saharan travelling; and there is, after all, not much to observe in this desolate region.
I should mention, that the second night Ali came up in a penitent state along with a khafilah from Ghareeah, and so our poor black women had an opportunity of getting a lift on the spare camels. We could, therefore, go on until morning without fear of losing any of our party in the night. The position of a person who falls behind a caravan in the desert very much resembles that of a man overboard. This khafilah preceded us to Shaty.
After the third night I found the weather so cool and temperate, that I continued on the whole of the day; and the Germans joining me in the evening, we did not again separate. It was towards the close of the third night that we were assailed by an awful tempest of wind, rain, and lightning, which flashed upon us occasionally through the thick darkness. The Germans, who were encamped, had their tents carried away, whilst we who were in motion found ourselves compelled to stop and crouch under the bellies of our camels until the morning broke, and the hurricane had spent its force. The cold was intense, and our people complained bitterly. More than once, indeed, the thermometer was down to freezing-point whilst we were traversing the plateau; and one morning the desert was covered with a shining frost.
Although we became accustomed to the desolate appearance of this district by degrees, we counted eagerly the days and hours that brought us nearer the confines of Fezzan. Every night's incidents were the same. On we went, nodding drowsily on our camels, sometimes dropping off into a sound sleep, variegated by a snatch of pleasant dreams. But these indulgences are dangerous. I was more than once on the point of falling off. By day, few objects of interest presented themselves: linnets and finches fluttered here and there upon the rare bushes, whilst swallows joined the caravan, and skimmed round and round for hours among the camels, almost brushing the faces of the drivers. Lizards glanced and snakes writhed across the path. We started three wadan or mouflon, churlish animals, fond of such solitudes. As to the birds, our people say they do not drink in winter, and in summer leave the Hamadah altogether. Four-fifths of the surface were utterly barren. Little mounds marked the graves of children, slaves who had perished on the way from inner Africa. The mirage was common, but rarely pretty. Sometimes ridges of low mountains seemed raised on the level plain, probably reflected from the cliffs that edge the plateau. The scattered herbage also assumed regular forms--squares, ovals, circles. Now and then it seemed as if vast ruins were ahead, but as we drew nigh these dwindled into little desert-mosques, formed of half-circles of stones, now turned to the east, now to the west. Here the faithful who may be obliged to traverse these dreary regions stop to offer up their simple prayer to the Almighty Allah, to whom, they say, the dreadful Hamadah belongs.
The extent of this plateau from north to south, varying in our route from S.E. to S.W., is about 156 miles, or six long and seven short days' journey. Sometimes our camels went at the pace of three miles, but nearly always of two and a-half miles in the hour. It is almost impossible to make the traverse in less than fifty-six or sixty hours. The camels may continue on night and day, but it will always require so much time to make the weary journey, which is considered the greatest exploit of Saharan travelling in this portion of Northern Africa.
On the road to Tuat from Algeria, or to Ghadamez from Tunis and Tripoli, or to Fezzan from Bonjem or Benioleed, there is no traverse of six days comparable in difficulty to that which we have just accomplished. There is said to be none other like it on the road to Soudan, except a tremendous desert between Ghât and Aheer. However, we must not trouble ourselves about this as yet.
As for the Hamadah, we know that near Sokna the plateau breaks up and forms what are called the Jebel-es-Soudy, or Black Mountains, a most picturesque group of cliffs; and again on the route to Egypt from Mourzuk, six days' journey south-east from Sokna, it also breaks into huge cliffs, and bears the name of El-Harouj. These mountain buttresses are either the bounds of the Hamadah, or masses of rock where it breaks into hills, forming ravines or valleys. But, in fact, how far the Hamadah extends between Ghadamez on the west and Augila on the east is not yet properly ascertained. It seems to be like a broad belt intercepting the progress of commerce, civilisation, and conquest, from the shores of the Mediterranean to Central Africa. The kingdom of Fezzan, however, advances like a promontory beyond it; and then on every side stretches the desert ocean with its innumerable oases or islands, which, from being once mere fluctuating names, as it were, on a guess map, are now by degrees dropping one by one into their right places.
On the breaking-up of the plateau we observed its geological structure to consist of three principal strata: first, a covering or upper crust, limestone with flints and red earth; then masses of marl; and then sandstone, lumps and masses of which were blackened by the contact of the air with the iron they contain. Under the sandstone was likewise a bed of yellow clay, with a mixture of gypsum.
The face of the cliffs of the plateau was blackened as with the smoke of a huge furnace, which gave a majestic and yet gloomy appearance to the scene as we descended the pass towards the valley of El-Hasee. We found the plain strewed with great masses of dark sandstone, seeming to have been detached by some convulsion from the rocky walls, which now rose in apparently interminable grandeur behind us. We glanced back in awe, and yet in some triumph, towards the iron-bound desert we had thus safely traversed; but our eyes soon turned from so bleak a prospect, when we beheld, dotting the sandy wady, clumps of the wild palm, green copses, and the majestic ethel-tree.
It was about two in the afternoon when we reached the camping-ground, all our people shouting, "_Be-Selameh el Hamadah!_" Farewell to the Hamadah! I cried out the same words in a joyful voice; for, although now that the dangers of the plateau were overcome they seemed diminished in my eyes, yet I felt that we had escaped from a most trying march with wonderful good fortune. It is difficult to convey an idea of the horror and desolation of so vast a tract of waterless and uninhabited country. They alone who have breathed the sharp air of its blank nakedness can appreciate it, or understand how any accidental delay, sickness, the bursting of the water-skins, the straying of the camels, might produce incalculable sufferings, and even death. "_Be-Selameh el Hamadah!_" then, with all my heart. "_Be-Selameh! be-Selameh!_" again rings through the caravan, as we reach at length our camping-ground, and throw ourselves at full-length under the pleasing shade. Even the camel-drivers were so fatigued, that they stretched out as soon as the command to halt was given, and let their animals stray at will, without taking the trouble to unload them. I had observed the same supineness during our halts all through this trying district, which seems to oppress their imaginations as well as prostrate their bodies. Several times I had been obliged myself to collect wood and make a fire to rally our lagging servants. Indeed, on more than one occasion I was compelled to exert my personal authority. On the third night, particularly, I wished all the people to rest one hour. The camel-drivers resisted this reasonable request, and were backed by Yusuf. When it became a question between myself and my interpreter, I jumped off my camel and stopped the caravan. The chaouch supported me, and in this case at least behaved very well. If we had continued all night, we should have made a march of sixteen hours,--too much for the blacks, and indeed for any man on his feet.
On the whole, however, I have to observe, that as we approach Fezzan our camel-drivers are getting more civil and obliging. Is this the genial effect of native air, or expectation of a present? They have not mentioned the latter subject yet, but, on the contrary, promise me some dates.
The broad valley of El-Hasee is sandy, like all those of Fezzan. It is bounded on the north by the perpendicular buttresses of the Hamadah, and on the south by sandy swells. The well is not copious, but affords a regular supply of slightly brackish water. The people descend to the bottom, thirty or forty feet, and fill their gerbahs. The blacks are very troublesome, and require a good deal of patience. This morning they would not fetch water from this well, although quite close by the tent. I was obliged to threaten to leave them before I could get them to move. They are, probably, a little broken down by the fatigue of the Hamadah.
We passed through Wady El-Hasee on the 24th, and after mid-day began to ascend, and continued to do so until we pitched tent at half-past four, at a place called Esfar. This is also a species of plateau, but consists of sand-hills, sandstone rocks, and shallow valleys filled with herbage and shrubs. I was glad to get rid of the eternal limestone and have a change of the sandstone.
On the 25th we started early, and had a cool temperature all day. Our chaouch went out, and by the assistance of the greyhound bitch brought in a young gazelle. For about three hours the camels had herbage; but afterwards came a desert more horrible even than the Hamadah. It consists of sandstone rocks, and valleys covered with pebbles and loose blocks. Some of the rocks are perfectly black, and would be considered by an European geologist, on a distant view, as basalt. Until half-past four in the afternoon we did not see a blade of grass, a sprig of vegetation, or living thing of any description; but at the camping-ground was a thin scattering of herbage, near the foot of the black mountain called Solaou Mârrafa.
We have sometimes moral disquisitions among our people. This day we had a dispute on religion. The Zintanah, a real orthodox Musulman, maintained a strict distinction between the believers and unbelievers, giving heaven to the former and hell to the latter. Yusuf and several more tolerant gentlemen held out hope of mercy to us all, as God was "the Compassionate and the Merciful." The chaouch also lectured the people on courage, and publicly maintained that the Fezzanees were all cowards. This fellow is a second Sir John Falstaff, without the corpulence. The tone of all members of the caravan, as I have mentioned, is now much humanised. Every one is more civil to us, and, by habit, to one another. However, the chaouches must, of course, get up a quarrel now and then: they do it between themselves; but, as a sign that they likewise are a little civilised, have only had two regular explosions to-day. Probably these worthies, who remind me of a bull-dog and a terrier, find particular pleasure in this form of social intercourse; for I always observe, that they are on more friendly terms than ever after they have almost come to beard-pulling.
I interfere as little as possible in all these quarrels, but now and then it is difficult to hold aloof. This morning, for example, the black who has two wives, took it into his head to beat one of them in public. I called upon him to desist, upon which he went to work harder than ever; so that I was compelled to break a stick over his shoulders to reduce him to quietness. These little caravan incidents were often the only ones that diversified our day.
On the 26th, after a march of ten hours, with cool weather at first, but suffocating heat afterwards, we reached Edree, a town of El-Shaty, in a state of great exhaustion. During the latter part of the march, however, we had been cheered by the sight of the town, which stands on a small mound of yellow clay and rock. The whitewashed marabout of Bou Darbalah gleamed a little distance in front of the place, which in itself is now a heap of ruins, having been destroyed by Abd-el-Galeel, on account of the resistance of the inhabitants to his usurped authority. He also, with a cruelty rarely practised in Saharan warfare, cut down above a thousand palms; thus rendering it impossible for the place to recover rapidly from its disasters. Previously there had been a hundred and twenty heads of families; now there are only twenty-five, and these are still diminishing it is said. However, many little children are now in the streets, naked, and covered with filth.
These few inhabitants are a mixed race, some being as fair as those on the coast, whilst others are as black as the darkest negroes of Central Africa. The Sheikh and two or three patriarchs of the village were polite and hospitable, and showed every disposition to comply with the orders sent by the Pasha of Mourzuk to supply us with fresh provisions without payment. I accepted a sheep and two fowls; but the dates for our blacks I paid for, and added a few presents.
The valley of Edree is very shallow, and this portion of it is mostly covered with bushes of wild palm and with coarse herbage; it looks green and grateful amidst the surrounding aridity. There are still remaining many fruit-bearing date-trees--about seven thousand, scattered at great distances. The water is good, although the surface of the valley is in parts covered with a whitish crust of salt. Some large springs are continually overflowing with bubbles of gas, like the great well of Ghadamez.
In the garden-fields of Edree are cultivated wheat and barley, the former white and of the finest quality. A good deal of grain has already been got in this year. With industry, and a few more animals to draw the water for irrigation, a great quantity of wheat might be grown in this oasis. The gardens contain also a few figs and grapes. Doves were fluttering in the branches of the palms, and swallows darting through their waving foliage. There were thousands of native flies here, besides those that had come with us. When we complained, we were answered, "This is a country of dates!"
Shaty has eighteen districts, some very limited, but having date-palms, and paying contributions to Mourzuk. Edree, itself, is drained of four hundred mahboubs per annum.
_27th._--I rose at sunrise and went to see the ancient dwellings of Edree, where the people lived underground: they are excavations out of the rock, some fifty yards from the surface beneath the modern town. The entrances are choked with sand, and they are not entered by the people, who say "They are the abodes of serpents." At present, there is nothing remarkable about them. Probably they were originally natural caves, which were enlarged and arranged as dwellings.
On returning to the encampment, I found that the Kaïd, or commander of the troops of the Shaty district, had arrived with some Arab cavaliers: he has in all thirty horsemen. Our visitors offered to "play powder" in order to do us honour; but were compelled to beg us to supply the ammunition. It was a very animating scene, after the dreary journey over the Fezzanee deserts. A dozen mounted cavaliers dashed to and fro, shaking the earth, scouting and firing from time to time. Everybody enjoyed it; even the half-naked, dirty, brown-black ladies of the town, stopped with their water-jugs, and looked on with satisfaction. The Kaïd was the best man of his men; but Yusuf afterwards dressed and beat the victor, riding with great dexterity, and attracting the spontaneous applause of all the spectators. The Kaïd trembled whilst contending with Yusuf, who was set down as a marabout in consequence by our chaouch.
I gave the Kaïd, who was a mild and respectful man, a handkerchief, a little bit of writing-paper, and some soap, and sent him off to his station, whence he had come on purpose to visit us. Three handkerchiefs formed also an appropriate present to the Sheikhs of Edree.
Yusuf has been reading an Arabic book, which I at first thought was some commentary on the Koran; but to-day I was undeceived. He related what he read; it reminded me of Gulliver's Travels. A tall man walks through the sea, cooks fish in the sun, and destroys a whole town, whose inhabitants had insulted him, by the same means that our comparative giant saved the palace of Lilliput from conflagration.
This evening it was announced as an event that the Zintanah, a servant of the Germans, was going to Tripoli, having resolved to return home. Some said one thing about him, some another; but most, "He's afraid of the fever of Mourzuk." The fellow came afterwards to me, asking for letters to Tripoli. I told him to go about his business; that he was a man of words and had no heart, otherwise he would continue with us to Mourzuk. I wished to discourage such acts of desertion, for they produce always a bad effect. My German companions seemed glad to get rid of him.
We started again on Sunday morning (the 28th). This was our first day of sand. We had almost forgotten that there was such a thing as sand in the desert; but we shall have two days more of the same kind of travelling, to keep us in mind of this unpleasant truth. However, we were glad enough to leave Edree. Our marabout, comparing this place with El-Wady, for which we are now journeying, says, "Edree is like a jackass; El-Wady is like a camel!" Yusuf calls Edree "the city of camel-bugs." These vermin are the leeches of the camels. During the morning we passed two or three forests of palms, and afterwards traversed a flat valley, where was a little herbage. The people said; "There is no tareek (track): the tareek is in our heads." Bou Keta noted the route in many parts by the presence of camels' dung; but the shape of the sand-hills in these parts seems to be perfectly familiar to these men. We saw one or two lizards, but no birds or other signs of life, except two brown-black Fezzanees, trudging over the desert.
At four in the afternoon, after a day of hot wind, we encamped in Wady Guber, where there is water two or three feet below the surface; and a small forest of palms belonging to our camel-drivers, having descended to them in small groups from their grandfathers.
Next day (29th) we again went on over the sand, which extends beyond Ghadamez and Souf, to the west, and even to Egypt on the east. It is met at different points by the khafilahs, and crossed in different numbers of days. We found it very hard work to cross it, and understood why, in these parts, the words _raml_, sand, and _war_, difficult, have become convertible terms. Bou Keta had considerable trouble in keeping to the route, being reduced to depend chiefly on the camels' dung, which rolls about the surface of the sand. Here and there was a patch of coarse herbage, scattered like black spots on the bright, white surface. Every object was very much magnified at a little distance; I saw what seemed to me to be a horse on the top of one of the hills, but on drawing near it proved to be our own greyhound bitch smelling the hot air.
Bou Keta gave some account of himself to-day. It seems that "Fezzanee" is not a very respectable epithet in those countries.
"I am not a Fezzanee," said Bou Keta, abruptly.
"Then what are you?"
"My mother was a Tuarick woman, and my father one of the Walad Suleiman."
"Then the Walad Suleiman are gentlemen, whilst the Fezzanees are Turks and dogs?"
"That's the truth," quoth he.
To-day I found the veil of my sister-in-law of essential service. Doubled, it shielded my eyes perfectly from the hot wind and sand. It serves also as an excellent protection for the eyes against the flies whilst I am writing. This is the second day of the hot wind. In the evening we heard crickets singing in the scorching sand. At mid-day the thermometer, when buried, rose to 122°° Fahr. We encamped in Wady El-Makmak, where we had good water, far superior to that at Guber. As in nearly all sandy places, a hole is scooped in the sand and then covered over, or left to be filled by the action of the wind after the khafilah is supplied. Two pretty palms point, as with two fingers, to the buried wells of El-Makmak.
Some of our people noticed the lizard to-day. This seems to be the omnipresent animal of the Sahara, inhabiting its most desolate regions when no other living creature is seen. It changes in species with the nature of the country. To-day, those seen are large; very soon they will become small, meagre, and will change colour. In the valleys I have observed them nearly the same colour as the sandy soil. Perhaps the beetle is nearly as common as the lizard in the desert, being found in its most arid and naked wastes. It is generally a big, round, black-bottle beetle, which produces a trail in the sand that may be mistaken for that of the serpent.
Still the following day we had to cross the same kind of desert, under the enervating influence of the gheblee, or hot wind; the thermometer in the sand reached 130°. Although the camels were eight hours on foot, little progress was made. I stopped an hour to rest in Wady El-Jumar, where were two or three palm-groves. One of the Fezzanees ferreted out a lot of dates, hidden in the sand, and taking some distributed them amongst us.
Thus refreshed we pushed on to encamp in Wady El-Takadafah, where there is a well of water, good to drink, but disagreeable in smell, like that of Bonjem. The odour resembles that of a sewer, and is produced by hydrogen of sulphur. We have had good water every day in this sandy tract, and I have no doubt that some may be found in every wady, a little below the surface. Birds begin now to reappear: a few swallows, a dove, and some small twitterers, were seen to give life to the otherwise melancholy wadys.
Dr. Overweg examined the sand, which rolled in great heaps on every side, and found it to consist of grains of four kinds,--white, yellow, red, and black; the latter colour caused by the presence of iron. These variegated sands form the basis of sandstone, and may be a decomposition of sandstone. The sand near Tripoli is of a finer sort, consisting mostly of a decomposition of limestone. There is a blue-black earth in the wadys, arising from the wood, a species of crumbling coal.
This evening we had a famous _embroglio_ between our chaouch and the marabout. The latter had caught a waran, or large species of lizard, and skinned it to dispose of the skin. The chaouch impudently swore he had been eating the flesh of the reptile--a direful accusation. A tremendous war of words ensued; and not of words only, for presently the holy man came in for a gratification of ropes' end. All the Fezzanees rushed forward to save the honour of the marabout; and the chaouch retreated to my tent in search of arms. A stupid joke was on the point of leading to murder. I interfered, and succeeded in appeasing the storm in some degree. I then rated the chaouch soundly for beating a man invested with a sacred character in the eyes of all Musulmans. This produced a good effect, and the culprit, hanging his head, seemed ashamed of the part he had played. Subsequently he kissed the hand of the holy man, and they were reconciled.