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"How much," asked I, "do the Touaricks get from the merchants who deal in slaves? I don't think more than three hundred dollars a year?" They all laughed at this, and the merchant of Ghat took upon himself to say, for the Sultan and the Sheikhs, "Bring the money." I'll take Shafou's present and bring back his from our Sultan. This is all I can do."
This, whilst lessening perhaps the comparative value of what we have given, at any rate lays the chief under some obligations to the Turks, and assists in making up a good round sum in payment for the trouble of coming all the way from Ghât to Mourzuk to escort us. By the way, Mr. Boro of Aghadez has been fetched back from his encampment at Tesaoua by a man on horseback.
The Souk offers nothing for sale but olive-oil, liquid butter, a little bread, camels' flesh, and now and then a few vegetables. All the Touarick traders have now left, some for Ghat and others for Touat. My Ghadamsee friends cease talking of the dangers of my Soudan trip, and it is a settled thing that I go. Some of them wish me to try a fasting day; "one day, to see how I like it," they tell me.
In Ghat, three cases of cutting and wounding occurred, the gashes on the arms received by two slaves from a Touarghee, and the attack on the Ghadamsee trader whilst at prayers, also by a Touarghee.
My chief hermitage is in Serampore, on Rai Ghat Lane. I am visiting my mother here for only a few days." I wondered at God's intricate play with His devotees. Serampore is but twelve miles from Calcutta, yet in those regions I had never caught a glimpse of my guru. Here too the feet of Buddha, Shankaracharya and other Yogi Christs had blessed the soil. "You will come to me in four weeks."
He thinks I might travel in safety from Touat to Timbuctoo in summer, for during the dry season the banditti cannot keep the open Desert. Saw Hateetah, and gave him a dollar, which put him into a better humour. Although the soi-disant Consul of the English, and all the Christians who per hazard visit Ghat, he displayed to-day the greatest ignorance of the maxims and polity of Christian nations.
We have to try the Saharan populations of Ghat and Ghadames by these four cardinal points or principles, and compare them with the nations of Europe. Whilst resident in Ghadames, not one single case of cutting or maiming, or manslaughter, occurred, nor did I hear of any in neighbouring countries.
They refused to conduct us to the frontier of Aheer, according to their agreement at Mourzuk. 4th. They demanded seventy reals for the passage of our free blacks. 5th. They insisted on having the presents for Berka, Khanouhen, and Jabour, before the treaty was signed. The first two demands I successfully resisted, as also the third at Ghât.
The Sheikh Makouran has calculated the expense from Ghadames to Kanou, and back, for me, at two hundred dollars. The Moors are essentially children in some things. Young men, full grown, carry about with them in their pockets a little bit of white sugar to suck, stowed away in needlecases. To-day, a ghafalah of Touaricks, twenty persons, left for Ghat. They took my letter for the Governor.
He went away, and returned with some hard cheese made at Aheer, little squares somewhat smaller than Dutch tiles, which he presented in acknowledgment. I have had but few returns for the great variety of things I have given away in Ghat. The Medina Shereef, Khanouhen's son-in-law, scolded me: "Ah, Yâkob, you have done wrong to give away so much. You'll get nothing back.
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