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Updated: May 21, 2025
It is amusing or lamentable to think, as we may sneer at or regret the matter, that these rude children of The Desert should have ground for charging upon the high-bred and transcendantally-polished nations of Europe, idolatry. A young Touarghee came in with the party, whose eyes were very bad.
In Ghat, three cases of cutting and wounding occurred, the gashes on the arms received by two slaves from a Touarghee, and the attack on the Ghadamsee trader whilst at prayers, also by a Touarghee.
On the whole, however, I have not seen so many cases of indelicacy in this part of the world, as are to be seen almost every day in Paris and London. No, the morals of The Desert are mostly pure and continent as compared to those of our great European cities. My taleb to-day made a vocabulary of the Touarghee, Ghadamsee, and Arabic languages.
My little backsheesh was, perhaps, of the value of ten dollars, and was the largest present I had yet made. I then asked His Highness whether he would write a letter for me to the Sultan of Aheer, and one to the Queen of England, stating that he would give protection to all British subjects passing through The Touarghee Desert? The Sultan replied, "All that you want I will do for you, please God."
The mounds of earth so frequently met with in The Desert are formed by water in the time of great rains. In this gorge were big blocks of stone, on which were carved Touarghee characters. It was fortunate I knew the characters, for the people wished to persuade me they were those of very ancient people, and of Christians, whilst none of the party could read them.
When they travel through Sahara they have a camel to ride, but if there be abundant water on the road they go on foot. Merchants pay each so much to the courier according to their means. A courier sent from this to Tripoli, who also returns and brings answers to the letters, will receive altogether fifteen dollars. Touarghee couriers between this and Ghadames go for half the sum.
When the caravan came up, I said, in hearing of our people, to the fellow who was still following them, "If you had struck my servant in Tripoli, the Pasha would have put you in prison. This is not Touarghee country, but a country where there is a government. This country belongs to Tripoli and the Sultan. Your violence was equally improper and unnecessary."
Specimens of the Touarghee and Ghadamsee language, as well as this alphabet, have been recently published, under the auspices of the Foreign Office. The language of Ghadames is spoken by an extremely mixed and various population.
Speaking to a Touarghee about it, he said: "How do we know, if the son of the Sultan be his son? May he not be the son of a slave? Who can tell? But when our young Sultan is born from the sister of the Sultan, then we know he is of the same blood as the Sultan." There is besides another anomaly of the social system in the town of Ghat. Women here are the hereditary possessors and not men.
I have found two ways of spelling Timbuctoo in The Desert, viz., تِن٘بُك٘تُوا, and تِن٘بُك٘تُا, and they both agree with Batouta. We may, therefore, consider Batouta's style of spelling the more correct orthography. Now, تين, Teen, in Touarghee, is "well" or "pit."
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