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Yesterday, some specimens of the women of the lower classes of this town came to our encampment. I was astonished to see them such barbarians as to daub their faces with yellow ochre. I did not expect this in the Mahommedan country of Aheer. They had a little ghaseb, a few onions, and other little things to barter.
Several of our people have recently been unwell, Yusuf amongst the rest. They take little care of themselves, and attribute their illness to the ghaseb. I expect we shall have them all ill in Soudan. Early this morning I found Ibrahim, servant of the Germans, holding in his hand and playing with a huge scorpion, which he had caught near the tents.
These women bring very small quantities of the dark-brown rice of Soudan, with ghaseb, onions, and other little things. I find that our servants are to-day in better spirits, because we have got a supply of provisions. I repeat again, that the Germans and myself enjoy tolerably good health, but none of us can be said to be in a state of robust bodily vigour.
Some few palm-trees bend gracefully here and there; but, in general, the groves of the oasis are a little distant from the walls. There is a suburb of some fifty houses of stone and mud; and a number of huts, made of straw and palm-branches. The whole oasis is not more than three miles in extent; the gardens produce only a little wheat, barley, and ghaseb, with some few kinds of fruit.
These orchards, when thus formed close by the well-side, are very luxuriant. People now begin to sow ghaseb, ghafouly, dra, and such grains, which are reaped in the summer season. Barley and wheat are sown in autumn or winter, and reaped in spring.
En-Noor has not yet sent us a sah of ghaseb; or a drop of samen or a sheep's head. Never did travellers visit a country in Africa, without receiving some mark of hospitality of this kind from the chief or sovereign of the place. After some trouble we fixed the bargain. Saïd was fool enough to give him the veneese before he brought the merchandise, the fellow promising to bring it the next morning.
The bou rekabah, however, the best for them, is in small quantities, but when seen is devoured to the sand. The people of Aheer eat its seed as ghaseb. Yesterday, we saw, for the first time, a bird's nest in the desert, in the side of a rock. It contained no eggs; our people, on a former occasion, brought in some.
Every one is now busy sowing ghaseb, and I passed a half hour in working with some cheerful labourers at the preparation of the ground, smoothing the soil in the squares for irrigation. They were amused at my voluntary industry. I sleep now late of mornings after my evening exercise in the gardens, and find myself the better for it. Perhaps the first melons ever eaten at Mourzuk appeared on Mr.
This they have purchased with various little wares, principally knives and looking-glasses. The ghaseb is always mixed with ghafouley, a species of grain about a third the size of a small pea. Ghafouley is called koula in Soudanese. The Aheer cheese has appeared for the first time amongst us to-day. It is made in little squares, three by two inches broad, and a quarter of an inch thick.
It would seem that Tintalous, like all the Tuarick countries, is a miserably poor place; for it is said that none, or very few, of the people in the town have a fire for cooking their bazeen, except the great En-Noor himself. The time, however, approaches for the departure of the caravans for Zinder, whence they bring back a great quantity of ghaseb and samen.
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