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We shall be covered up in the sand." This, the Souf Arab repeated several times, and the Ghadamsee traders thought it astonishingly clever and courageous. It is reported five hundred Touaricks are soon to pursue the Shânbah into the Algerian territory. It is said also, French Arabs will support the Shânbah bandits against both Touaricks and Souafah. Such is the silly talk of our caravan.
My Touarghee friend Omer quarrelled violently with two Souf Arabs, who were also visiting me. I told them it was indecent to quarrel in the house of a stranger whom they were together visiting, and they made it up, shaking hands. 10th. Visited a patient, but had some difficulty in persuading him to take my nostrums.
'Yes, judging by the tone of the Charleston papers you've read to-day, I think they will. 'And der yer tink dat de rest ob de Souf will jine wid Souf Car'lina, if she go at it fust? 'Yes, Jim, I'm inclined to think so. 'I hard you say to massa, dat ef dey goes to war,'twill free all de niggers der you raily b'lieve dat, sar?
I'm goin' out there wiv you." Ian shook his head and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid that's not for you, Jigger. No, think again." "Ain't there work in Souf Afriker maybe not in the army itself, y'r gryce? Couldn't I have me chanct out there? Lou's all right now, I bet; an' I could go as easy as can be." "Yes, Lou will be all right now," remarked Stafford, with a reflective irony.
The character of the people are petty traders, commission agents, camel-drivers, and slaves. There are several Arabs, natives of Ghadames, Seenawan, and Derge, and five strangers from Souf. We have with us also three Touaricks. There may be half-a-dozen low women and female slaves distributed amongst the ghafalah. Respectable females scarcely ever travel in The Desert.
I omit a great deal about Souf politics, not being anxious to worry the reader with French and Tuniseen Saharan diplomacy. But a Souafee's notion of hospitality is rather, I should think, rigid. I said to a Souafee, whose acquaintance I have made, "I shall come to your country, and write all about it." "If you dare," he replied, "by G d, the people will immediately cut your throat."
This is the hunting time, which lasts three months, and the flesh of this animal supplies a very good substitute for beef. Indeed, the animal is a species of buffalo, but very small, sometimes not much larger than a good-sized English sheep. They are hunted in the sands to the north-west by Souf Arabs, who are excellent hunters, and pursue the chase twenty days together through the sandy regions.
A white butterfly also, to my amazement, passed my camel's head! Where does the little fluttering thing get its food in this region of desolation? Another of the Souf Arabs said to me this morning, "This sand is the country of the Souafah and the Shânbah." If so, indeed, it would be a troublesome country for a military expedition.
For a brief moment I was transported.... It was not long before I found a companion at Tozeur. He was an Arab from the Souf, region of sand; dark-skinned, oval-faced, with straight eyelashes, straight nose, and an infectious, lingering smile; quite a worthless fellow; he had picked up a few words of French slang, and never tired of exhibiting them.
"Dat white man and his folks, my ol' daddy said, fifty yeah ago, dey wu'k secret all over the Souf, from Tenn'ssee ter Louisian'. Dat was fifty yeah ago, but my ol' daddy say when he was a piccaninny, dis heah thing got out somehow an' de white folks down Souf dey cotch dis white man f'om de Norf, an' done hang him, an' dey done hang and burn a heap o' niggers all over de Souf.
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