Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824Denham, Dixon
History
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Denham, Dixon
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Africa, North
On the 19th instant I had news of Mr. Tyrwhit’s arrival at the river
Yeou, and on the 20th I went out to meet him at the resting place,
called Dowergoo. This gentleman His Majesty’s Government had kindly
sent out to strengthen our party, without knowing how fatally the
climate had weakened us: he was the bearer of presents to the sheikh,
in acknowledgment of the kind reception we had experienced, and was
also accompanied by the sheikh’s children, so long detained at
Mourzuk by the intrigues and contrivances of the late bey, Mustapha,
the sultan of Fezzan.
On the 22d instant we delivered the presents from his Majesty in
full form, consisting of two swords, of very beautiful workmanship,
two pair of pistols, a dagger, and two gold watches: the delight,
nay ecstasy, with which these well-selected specimens of our
manufactories were received by El Kanemy, was apparent in every
feature of his intelligent countenance, and in the quick glances of
his sparkling and penetrating eye. The dagger, and the watch with the
seconds movement, were the articles which struck him most forcibly;
and when I mentioned, that, agreeably to his request, a parcel of
rockets had also been forwarded, he exclaimed, “What, besides all
these riches! there are no friends like these! they are all truth;
and I see, by the Book, that if the Prophet had lived only a short
time longer, they would have been all Moslem!”
June 1.—The Rhamadan was now over, and we had, in the place of
fasting and complainings, feastings and rejoicings: the oftener in
the twenty-four hours a man could afford to eat meat, the greater
person he was considered. The heat had been very oppressive, and the
people complained dreadfully, as the sheikh admitted of no excuse for
breaking the Rhamadan: any man who was caught suffering his thirst
to get the better of him, or visiting his wives between sunrise and
sunset, was sentenced to four hundred stripes with a whip made of
the skin of the hippopotamus—a dreadful punishment. An hour or
two before the sun went down, sometimes more than a dozen of the
class to whom labour rendered the deprivation of liquid for so many
hours far more insufferable, would lay themselves near the well, and
have buckets of water thrown over them, the only relief that could
be allowed, and which appeared greatly to revive them, even when
almost fainting with thirst. With the feast of the Aid, however,
finished all their sufferings, and also the recollection of them;
for the wrestlings now took place in front of the sheikh’s house,
as before, and the evening dances at the gates of the town were
crowded with many picturesque groups. I had, several times during
the fast, paid the sheikh a visit by his desire, soon after sunrise,
the only time in the day, at this season, that he is visible: our
meeting was always in his garden, which a few pomegranate and lime
trees made really here a refreshing spot, which was not a little
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