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
I now, for the first time, produced Captain Lyon’s book in Boo
Khaloom’s tent, and on turning over the prints of the natives
he swore, and exclaimed, and insisted upon it, that he knew
every face:—“This was such a one’s slave—that was his
own—he was right—he knew it. Praised be God for the talents
he gave the English! they were shater, clever; wolla shater, very
clever!” Of a landscape, however, I found that he had not the
least idea; nor could I make him at all understand the intention
of the print of the sand-wind in the desert, which is really so
well described by Captain Lyon’s drawing; he would look at it
upside down; and when I twice reversed it for him, he exclaimed,
“Why! why! it is all the same.” A camel or a human figure was
all I could make him understand, and at these he was all agitation
and delight—“Gieb! gieb! Wonderful! wonderful!” The eyes
first took his attention, then the other features: at the sight
of the sword, he exclaimed, “Allah! Allah!” and on discovering
the guns instantly exclaimed, “Where is the powder?” This want
of perception, as I imagined, in so intelligent a man, excited at
first my surprise; but perhaps just the same would an European have
felt under similar circumstances. Were an European to attain manhood
without ever casting his eye upon the representation of a landscape
on paper, would he immediately feel the particular beauties of the
picture, the perspective and the distant objects? Certainly not:
it is from our opportunities of contemplating works of art, even
in the common walks of life, as well as to cultivation of mind,
and associations of the finer feelings by an intercourse with the
enlightened and accomplished, that we owe our quick perception in
matters of this kind, rather than from nature.
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