Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
Ghat Townsmen great Bigots. Unexpected Meeting with the Sultan. My Targhee Friend's opinion of War. Mode of Baking Bread. Country of Touat. The British Consul is perplexed at his Master being a Lady. Vulgar error of Christians ill-treating Mussulmans in Europe. People teach the Slaves to call me Infidel. Visit to Bel Kasem, and find Khanouhen. The free-thinking of this Prince.
We do not have water poured out over our fingers before the meal begins, the preliminary wash in the tent is invisible and does not count, and we do not say "Bismillah" before we start eating. We are just heathens, they must say to themselves. Our daily bathing seems to puzzle them greatly. I do not notice that little Larbi or his brother Kasem ever tempt the sea to wash or drown them.
The Sheikh Haj Kasem, in the itinerary which he dictated to Monsieur Delaporte, says that, about forty years ago, Agobli and Taoudeni depended on Morocco. This, however, is what the people of Ghadames told me, whilst they admitted that the oases neither did contain a single officer of the Emperor, nor did the people pay his Shereefian Highness the smallest impost.
Bel Kasem calls upon me in a prodigious fright, prostrate under the ire of the incensed Chieftain, and thus pleads in his favour: "Khanouhen considers himself a greater Sheikh even than Shafou the Sultan. He is greatly dissatisfied with so small a present; increase it a little for God's sake if you are going to Soudan, you must add something considerable: if not, just a little to pacify him.
Hateetah vexed me by begging a backsheesh for his brothers. I positively refused; there's no end to making presents. All the Sheikhs, as Bel Kasem Said of Khanouhen, have "a large belly." On returning home, I determined to keep the door shut to prevent people coming to annoy me. Now that I have no sugar or dates left, I have nothing wherewith to get rid of them.
At noon, when the sun began to be felt, went out to see Bel Kasem, and was pleased to hear that Khanouhen would compound with me, and receive five or six dollars in cash, instead of the present. The sugar and cloves, beads and looking-glasses were not to be returned, but to be left for the Sheikh's ladies.
My taleb calls the season khareef, "autumn;" and says the fruits of heaven which are always ripe have nevertheless a peculiar ripeness at this period. Staring at him, he continued, "Yes, there is a greater correspondence between earth and heaven than people think." I was recommended this taleb by the Rais. He writes my Arabic letters for The Desert; he calls himself Mohammed Ben Mousa Bel Kasem.
Evening visited my little queer friend Bel Kasem. Found with him as usual his mighty lord, Khanouhen. The Prince began to ridicule Hateetah and his brothers, and scold me on the subject of presents: "Yâkob, if you give those rascally brothers of Hateetah presents, I shall have to spear you," clenching hold of his spear. "Kelāb" (dogs), said his jester, "they'll strip you of everything, leaving you no bread, nor even a water-skin, to return to Tripoli." I assured Khanouhen I had not given Hateetah's brothers anything but a bit of sugar for some of their children. "Good," said the Prince. Khanouhen now began in the style of un esprit fort: "Yâkob, you're a Marabout. Our Marabouts are all rogues, and are always exciting the people against us and our authority (as Sultan). Are you such a rogue?" Here was a glimpse of another contest between the civil and spiritual power in The Desert. I told the Sheikh I was no priest, but a taleb. "Ah! good," said the Prince, giving me his hand. "But when you die, where are you going to? Are you and I going together on the same camel, or do you take one route of The Desert and I another, with different camels?" I replied, "What is the use of such conjectures?" "Right," said the Prince, "don't you remember (turning to Bel Kasem) that Wahabite the people had here, and how they buffeted him, about? Yâkob, (turning to me) I saved a poor devil, a Wahabite, from being killed by the mob in Ghat, and I'm ready to save you. What's the good of killing a man for his religion?" I thanked the Prince for his noble feelings of tolerance, and left him and his clown to their tête-
The Touaricks of Ghat conduct the merchants from Ghadames to Ghat, and the Touaricks of Aheer the merchants from Ghat to Aheer, and so of the rest of the route, as far as Kanou, the final destination of the Soudan caravan. My Ghadamsee friend Bel Kasem came up to me today, and whispered in my ear the question, "If slaves would be allowed to be sold now in the market of Tripoli?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking