United States or Iran ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
While they were in this situation, two Arabs, who had gone on with the camels, came galloping back, to say that they had encountered two Tibboo couriers, on their way from Bornou to Mourzouk. They soon made their appearance, mounted on maherhies, only nine days from Kouka.
It was the custom, when the people were more opulent, to liberate a male or female on the feast of Bairam, after the fast of Rhamadan. This practice is not entirely obsolete, but nearly so. In Mourzouk there are some white families, who are called mamlukes, being descended from renegades, whom the bashaw had presented to the former sultan.
The ripple of the driving sand resembles that of a slow and murmuring stream, and after escaping from the myriads of fleas, which day and night persecute you, in the date-bound valley in which Mourzouk stands, the luxury of an evening of this description is an indescribable relief.
The traveller Barth speaks of stone circles near Mourzouk and near the town of Tripoli. True dolmens do, however, occur in Tripoli, and Cooper figures a fine monument at Messa in the Cyrenaica, which appears to consist of a single straight line of tall uprights with a continuous entablature of blocks similar to that of the outer circle at Stonehenge.
They arrived at D'leem, a small plantation of date trees, at noon, and finding no water in the well, were obliged to proceed, and it was three in the afternoon before they arrived at the wells near Mourzouk. Here they were obliged to wait till the camels came up, in order that they might advance in form. They might, however, have saved themselves the trouble.
Boo Khaloom left Mourzouk for Tripoli with his slaves and presents, loading upwards of thirty camels, apparently reconciled to, and upon good terms with the sultan.
This African caravan merchant united the character of a warlike chief and trader, his followers being trained not only to fight in defence of his property, but to attack towns and carry off the hapless inhabitants as slaves. On the 30th of October the caravan entered Mourzouk with all the parade and pomp they could muster.
In Mourzouk, about a tenth part of the population are slaves, though many of them have been brought away from their native country so young as hardly to be considered in that light. With respect to the household slaves, little or no difference is to be perceived between them and freemen, and they are often entrusted with the affairs of their master.
A few leagues from the ancient Tyre can still be seen a circle of upright stones. Ouseley describes another at Darab, in Persia; a missionary speaks of three large circles at Khabb, in Arabia, which circles he compares with those at Stonehenge; and Dr. Barth tells us of a cromlech between Mourzouk and Ghat.
One of the great lounges is on the seat in front of the mosque, and every morning and evening they are full of idle people, who converse on the state of the markets, and on their own private affairs, or in a fearful whisper canvass the sultan's conduct. In Mourzouk there are sixteen mosques, which are covered in, but some of them are very small.
Word Of The Day