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Updated: June 23, 2025
This woman, the sultaness, the queen, the absolute sovereign of Ahaggar, is called Antinea. Don't start, M. Morhange, you will soon understand." He opened the book and read this sentence: "'I must warn you before I take up the subject matter: do not be surprised to hear me call the barbarians by Greek names." "What is that book?" stammered Morhange, whose pallor terrified me.
On the other hand, they are at war with the people of Ahaggar, who will not follow you into their country. What I have said, is said. You must rejoin the Timbuctoo road near where it enters the borders of the Awellimiden. Their country is wooded and rich in springs. If you reach the springs at Telemsi, you will finish your journey beneath a canopy of blossoming mimosa.
My untrimmed beard, the frightful layer of dirt which lay about my eyes and furrowed my cheeks, my clothing, spotted by all the clay of the Sahara and torn by all the thorns of Ahaggar all this made me appear a pitiable enough suitor. I lost no time in undressing and plunging into the porphry bath in the center of the room. A delicious drowsiness came over me in that perfumed water.
"'Antinea, she said to me, 'is the daughter of El-Hadj-Ahmed-ben-Guemâma, Sultan of Ahaggar, and Sheik of the great and noble tribe of Kel-Rhelâ. She was born in the year twelve hundred and eighty-one of the Hegira. She has never wished to marry any one. Her wish has been respected for the will of women is sovereign in this Ahaggar where she rules to-day.
If you weary of it here, promise me, swear to me.... "The Sheik had understood. He took a ring from his finger and slipped it onto mine. "'Sidi Casimir, comrade, he affirmed. 'You come find us. Take Sidi Ahmed's ring and show it. Everybody at Ahaggar comrades. Bono Ahaggar, bono. "When I came out of the Gare de Lyon, I had the feeling of having perpetrated an excellent joke."
With a gesture, he indicated the black mountain. "They are afraid. All the Tuareg of Ahaggar are afraid of the Mountain of the Evil Spirits. You saw how they were up and off at the very mention of its name." "It is to the Mountain of the Evil Spirits that you are taking us?" queried Morhange. "Yes," replied the Targa, "that is where the inscriptions are that I told you about."
"Near the wells of Asiou, the Moors were attacked by a party of Tuareg of Kel-Tazeholet, serfs of the great tribe of Kel-Rhelâ, which rules over Ahaggar. They, in their turn, were massacred to the last man. That is how I was brought here, and offered as homage to Antinea, who was pleased with me and ever since has been kind to me.
A Negro waiter set before me a superb fish covered with a pimento sauce as red as tomatoes. I have explained that I was ravenously hungry. The dish was exquisite. The sauce immediately made me thirsty. "White Ahaggar, 1879," the Herman of Jitomir breathed in my ear as he filled my goblet with a clear topaz liquid. "I developed it myself: rien pour la tête, tout pour les jambes."
"I do not know," Morhange finally managed to say, "whether or not we shall regret some day our little excursion into Ahaggar. But admit, in the meantime, that it promises to be rich in unexpected adventures.
I must point out to you, here, my dear sir, that the processes of embalming used by Antinea differ from the processes employed in ancient Egypt. Here, there is no natron, nor bands, nor spices. The industry of Ahaggar, in a single effort, has achieved a result obtained by European science only after long experiments.
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