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Updated: September 18, 2025
This is ingeniously made out by the merchants of Tripoli and Morocco, the subjects of the two Sultans, being obliged to pay black-mail in passing through the Saharan districts of the Touaricks. Some of the ill-natured are continually magnifying the dangers of the route of Kanou, and one present said, "You can't go, there are thousands of Touaricks to block up your way."
We wrote the maker's name in Arabic, and gave directions to have it well preserved. He inquired after Drs. Barth and Overweg, and seemed to take great interest in our welfare. In the midst of our conversation a lady, one of the Sultan's female relations, came, moved no doubt by curiosity, into the room. She was evidently a fine dame, a person of fashion in this Saharan capital.
The Touarick women, however, disdain the unnatural adornment, and shame the unmanly conduct of certain of the Saharan men who actually paint thus their eyelids. It is a trite saying, that women are coquettes all the world over. But if mothers will educate their daughters so, it must be so. Besides cheerful young ladies are frequently confounded with coquettes, which is very unfair.
Were the rest of the wealthy residents to imitate the Marabout, they would in a few years make Ghat a large and most lovely oasis of Desert. Water is complained of as to supply, but there is water enough to irrigate an oasis of five times the present extent. So in Ghadames, so almost in every Saharan oasis.
The Touarick women industriously weave the woollen tobes, jibbahs, or frocks; they are very cheap, warm, and comfortable in the water. But the Soudan cottons are the great Saharan consumption. There are also now introduced from Europe quantities of, I think, what are called "Indians" in mercantile slang, or coarse white cottons.
In summer, the Saharan dawn is usually cloudless, and offers no beautiful variety of colours. The cloud of yesterday was surcharged with wind, which we soon felt to our annoyance. In The Desert the wind generally rises in the morning and falls in the evening.
It was more delicious than honey This syrup is made by pouring fresh water on fresh dates, and covering up the bowl in which they are placed, allowing it to stand a night. Only one of the species of the Sockna dates, but that of the most exquisite quality, will produce this Saharan ambrosia. Generally, if dates are steeped in water, they will not produce syrup, and only get a little soft.
There are two seasons and two crops. But the gardens near the city offer no features of beautiful vegetation. At a distance there are much finer specimens of Saharan cultivation. The government of Mourzuk consists of a Bashaw, ostensibly assisted by a Divan of six persons, to whom is joined the Kady. Besides a Kady in this city, there are four Kadys in the rest of the province.
We have with us one old gentleman who joined us at Sockna. He is conveying one slave to Tripoli. Greatly surprised at this, I asked him how he could travel these horrid wastes with such a miserable stake in commerce as a single slave! The Saharan veteran replied, "You are right. It would be better for me to remain in Sockna, and spend my days in prayer and poverty like a dervish.
I descended, much heated, in a flowing perspiration, feeling also the cold chill of the higher atmosphere. I began to have thirst, the worst enemy of the Saharan traveller, and fatigue was violently attacking me. I could not recognize at all the processes of detached rock over which I had been scrambling. I must be several miles too high up.
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