United States or Kyrgyzstan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A man who had gone to fetch the blacksmith, and found him not, demanded payment of two Tunisian piastres. The chaouch, suspecting that he never went at all, but concealed himself in the village, would not pay him. This brought on a collision. Sheikh Omer supported us; and so all the people of the other village took part against us.
"Two mueddins the chaps that call to prayer; two tolbas who read the litanies; two hezzabin, who read the Koran; a mufti who interprets the law; a khetib who recites the prayer for the chief of the government each Friday, and who is very unpopular; an iman who reads the five daily prayers; a chaouch who is a secretary to the last of the list, the oukil who collects the funds and pays them out.
They brought in a bowl of milk, and as the chaouch still continued to caress his children, I left him to pass the night in his tent, and pushed on to Wady Majeeneen, where my portion of the caravan had already encamped. Mr. F. Warrington, with my German colleagues, were a little in advance.
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.
The greyhound of the Fezzanee also ran down a hare. Next day it procured us a gazelle; but with these exceptions were seen only ground-larks, and what we call in Lincolnshire water-wagtails. It is worth mentioning that at this place our chaouch sprained his ankle, and Dr. Overweg applied spirits of camphor as lotion.
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.
Ali, especially, who has distinguished himself for several days in the obstreperous line, has had a regular turn-to with his father-in-law; and not satisfied with this, nearly strangled Moknee's son. The Mandara black threw himself on the ground and called out, "Load my pistol, O Chaouch; I must shoot this reprobate Ali!"
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.
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.
We had at least a hundred tongue-skirmishes between our people and the people of Mizdah between our chaouch and the other chaouch between our chaouch and the sheikh of the country between Yusuf and the Fezzanee between every individual black and every other individual black Between our chaouch particularly and all the people of Mizdah: in short, there were as many rows as it were possible for a logician to find relations betwixt man and man.
Word Of The Day