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The three principal productions are dates, of which there is a great variety, some thirty or forty different sorts ; barley and ghusub . The ghusub is grown in the Autumn and the barley in the Spring; in this way two crops of corn are reaped in the year. A little wheat is now and then grown, but does not thrive.
He replied to my questions about Saharan travelling: "Don't fear, the Touaricks will do you no harm. You can go to Timbuctoo in safety." I was making ghusub water, and asked him to drink of it. "No," he said, smiling with benignity, "you must drink ghusub water with me, not I with you. This is the fashion of us Touaricks."
European travellers in Sahara must always reckon upon these wearying delays. A ghafalah is just arrived from Fezzan, bringing dates, ghusub, and wheat. This is a most seasonable relief, for absolutely there is no food left for the poorer inhabitants of Ghat, the provisions being carried away by various caravans which have left us within a few days. I was myself obliged to borrow from the Governor.
At first it is difficult for a stranger to distinguish these varieties, but when his eye becomes practised, he can easily do so at a great distance. Ghusub, قسب, a species of millet. Pennisetum Tyhoideum. Rich. It is called drâ in Tunis and bishma in Tripoli. Weariness and Exhaustion in Preparating and Waiting to Depart. Cold intensely set in. Excitement of the Messrs.
The suburbs already have been noticed, where in the gardens wheat, barley, ghusub, ghafouly, the flax plant, common vegetables and flowers, a few roses and jessamines, are cultivated, with the noble date-palm overshadowing all. Every garden has its well, or wells. Sweet water is scarce. The spring crops are six weeks in advance of those in Tripoli.
It may, indeed, have been colonized previously to the arrival of the Arabs in Africa by the ancient Berbers, or Numidians, but the castle itself is of Moorish modern construction. The present miserable population does not exceed ten persons, Fezzaneers and one or two Touaricks, who cultivate a little wheat and ghusub. The houses are huts of sticks, date-leaves, and dried grass.
Some assert that all who visit the oases are taken ill. Probably, like Mourzuk, they lay low, in a wady or hollowed plain. Date-trees are numerous, and bear good fruit. A fair quantity of wheat and ghusub is grown. Besides sheep, and goats, and fowls, there is a few camels. The people are occupied in the gardens, but too numerous for the oases; they are very poor, and obliged to emigrate.
Provisions are also exported from Soudan and Aheer to this mart, consisting of semen or liquid butter; ghusub or drâ; ghafouly , sometimes called Guinea corn; hard cheese from Aheer, which is pounded before eaten; beef, cut into shreds, and without salt, dried in the sun and wind; peppers of the most pungent character, an extremely small quantity sufficing to season a large dish; a species of shell fruit, called by the Moors Soudan almonds ; bakhour, or frankincense; and ghour nuts and koudah, which are masticated as tobacco.
The poor little creature knew if it complained or discovered itself frightened, it would be obliged to walk through The Desert. The slaves were fed in the morning with dates, and in the evening with ghusub. Female slaves, after the style of Aheer people, pounded the ghusub in a large wooden mortar, just before cooking.
Ghusub water, is water poured on ghusub grain after the grain has been par-boiled or otherwise prepared. A milky substance oozes from the grain, and makes a very cooling pleasant beverage. Saharan merchants prize the ghusub water chiefly for its cooling quality in summer. A few dates are pounded with the ghusub to give the drink a sweeter and more unctuous taste.
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