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The bandit, now fairly worsted, full of rage, exclaimed, "What are you going to do with me, am I not to kill this infidel, who has dared to come to my country without my permission ?" Hereat, the messenger from Ghat, Jabour's slave, of whom the bandit was afraid, and dared not lay a hand upon, interposed, and, assuming an air of defiance, said, "I am come from my Sultan, Jabour; if you kill the Christian, you must kill me first.
The Ghadamsee interpreter observed, "The English and the Mussulmans are the same." And if the English require our assistance they can have it. Tell this on your return to your Sultan." This amiable prince then took leave. If there be a desert aristocrat of gentle blood, it is unquestionably Jabour. A shoal of low Touaricks came to me afterwards, in the Sheikh's name, to beg.
On our way we met his master, Sheikh Jabour, who stopped to salute us. Afterwards, somebody hailed us from a hut. My Touarghee friend turned and said, "They want to see you." We went, and I found several of my Ghadamsee acquaintance and some Touarghee people of consequence, all squatting down on the sand in a gossiping circle.
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 sight of a date-palm pleased him exceedingly, tickling the fancy of his followers who accompanied him. The Sheikh promised me a letter for the Sultan of Aheer, and to send a slave of his own with me as far as Aheer. Jabour did not positively assert that Tripoli belonged to the English, and contented himself with asking, "If Tripoli were English?"
Afternoon, Jabour called with a young man, who had a bullet lodged in his arm, which he had received in a skirmish with the Shânbah. I could only recommend a surgical operation, and his going to Tripoli. At this Jabour was alarmed, and asked "What would the Turks do to the young man?" begging of me medicine. I offered to take him under my protection, but it was of no avail.
The Shereef was first on my side, but as I had promised him a present only if the treaty were signed, and as he saw that this would not take place, he turned round and became my active enemy. However, it was out of his power to do me much harm. The greater part of the last days of my stay were spent in agitation about the presents for Jabour, Khanouhen, Berka, and others, some of whom were absent.
I excused my ignorance by saying, I had been a long time in Ghadames, and had heard nothing. Odd enough, the Governor asked me, "Which was the oldest dynasty in Europe?" I told him the Bourbons of France. The Sheikh Jabour here interposed that his family was more than three thousand years old! The pride of an hereditary noblesse is deeply rooted in these Touarghee chiefs.
This is a nasty trick to say the least, but as the Moorish auctioneer observed, "Such is the way with the Touaricks." However, I am persuaded neither Jabour, nor Khanouhen, would have stooped to such a shabby dirty manœuvre. It seems besides, Haj Ibrahim is giving great provocation to the chiefs who are appointed his protectors at the Souk.
Like Khanouhen, Jabour has two wives; one resides in Ghat, where the Sheikh has a town-house, and the other in the country districts. He has, besides, four or five sons. I saw one of them, who was as much of an aristocrat as his father. The merchants assured me that Jabour's influence, more especially as he is a marabout, although he is no demagogue priest of the Higgins' calibre, is unbounded.
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