Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846Richardson, James
History
Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846
Richardson, James
Sahara -- Description and travel
The Rais, who is a grave Turk, nevertheless unbended himself to-day,
amusing himself in seeing the boys swing. The Moors sadly wanted me to
join their swinging, but I politely declined. They said, it was
"_medicine_," meaning good for the health, everything conducive to health
being called "_medicine_" by people in The Desert. Was gratified to see
some sports amongst the people, for the men are always gloomy and
reclining about the streets, brooding over their ruinous affairs, and the
boys are little encouraged to healthful and innocent games. Up to this
time, the only persons I have seen happy are the slaves, who dance and
sing, and forget everything but the present moment. The swings are tied
high up to the tallest date-palms, two or three persons swing together,
and the sport is a little dangerous. Saw no other amusements during the
âyed, except here and there drafts, played in the primitive way of making
small holes in the sand for the squares.
During the expedition of the Duke d'Aumale to the south of Algeria, the
Bey of Biskera, Mohammed-es-Sagheer ("little") murdered the small
garrison of soldiers left behind, emptied the chest of what francs were
in it, and went off to The Desert. He is now living tranquilly in the
Jereed. The French made a demand to the Bey of Tunis to have him given
up, but it seems His Highness had courage enough to resist it, alleging
that he was a political refugee. Mohammed-es-Sagheer had married a French
woman, and she ran away, or was taken by force, with him. She had borne
him two children. The most extraordinary stories are current of this
French woman. Though a low woman of one of the towns, she gives herself
out as "the daughter of the Sultan of France!" She rides like a man,
dresses like a man, smokes, and follows the Arabs in all their
expeditions _against_ the French. She has adopted the Mahometan religion,
and is become a sort of priestess, or Maraboutah. She promises the
credulous Arabs that she will not only put her husband on the throne of
Algeria, but even of France itself, and then all the world will become
Mussulmans! The Moors say she can never leave The Desert because she has
brought her husband two children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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