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
baggage, a stick or a bit of cord, in order to make an exorbitant demand
of the value of a shilling. The Desert furnishes a parallel for every
circumstance of civilized life.
The last night or two I had found it very cold, and the wind too high for
tents. I may observe here, conveniently, the cold was so great in this
portion of Sahara, that I never could undress myself for dread of the
cold. After loosening my neckcloth and shoes, I lay down in the dress
which I wore during the day. My bed was a simple mattress laid over a
piece of matting, which latter was spread on the hard earth or sands of
The Desert, as it might be, with a small sofa cushion for a pillow. After
I had laid down the mattress, I then covered myself up with a large
woollen barracan or blanket, very thick and heavy, and over this was also
drawn a dark-blue European cloak. The cloth distinguished my bed from
those of the merchants, and the nagah always knew the encampment by the
sight of this Christian garment. When I wore it in the day she was
immediately sensible of the presence of her master. I did not pitch a
tent, for we could not, but formed a sort of head-place of the two
panniers of the camel, over which we arranged camel's gear, forming a
small top. Under this I placed or poked my head, so that, at night, if
turning over my face, I found a little shelter from the naked cold
heavens. In this way I lay enveloped in a mass of clothing. I usually
waked a couple of hours before daybreak with the intensity of the cold.
Said slept closely by me on a lion's skin, and rolled himself up in the
slight canvass of the tent. Like myself he never undressed himself at
night. When he wished to confer a favour upon any of his negro
countrymen, or the poor slaves, he would take them and roll them up with
him in this canvass. He would have sometimes half a dozen at once with
him, the confined air of their united breathings keeping them mutually
warm. The poor Arab camel-drivers had nothing but their barracans which
they wore in the day to cover themselves up at night, whilst the bare
earth was their couch of down, and a heap of stones their luxurious
pillow. All these Arabs were wandering wayfaring Jacobs of The Desert.
El-Aïshi says, speaking of the bleak wind of The Desert, "The north wind
blows in these places with an intensity equalling the cold of hell;
language fails me to express this rigorous temperature." The Mohammedans
believe that the extremes of heat and cold meet in hell. Some have
thought there is an allusion to this in the words, "Weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth," (the teeth chattering from cold.) Milton has also
enumerated cold as one of the torments of the lost. The tormented spirits
passed--
"O'er many a frozen, many a fiery, Alp."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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