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
_4th._--Morning. Find the greater part of the ghafalah has not yet come
up. We are to wait for them, being the advanced body. Expect them in the
afternoon. It is exceedingly difficult to keep these various groups of
merchants together; each group is its own sovereign master and will have
its own way. The commandant is constantly swearing at each party to get
all to march together; now and then he draws his sword and shakes it over
their heads. "You are dogs," he says to one; "you are worse than this
Christian Kafer amongst us," (myself,) he bawls to another.
Have, thank God, suffered little up to now, although intensely hot in the
day-time, and my eyes so bad that I cannot look at the sun, and scarcely
on daylight without a shade. They were bad on leaving Tripoli, having
caught a severe ophthalmia from the refraction of the hot rocks when
bathing. My left arm is also still very weak, from the accident of
falling into a dry well a little before I started. I can't mount the
camel without assistance, but begin to ride without that sickly
sensation, not unlike sea-sickness, which I felt the first day's riding.
Drink brandy frequently, but in small quantities and greatly diluted, and
find great benefit from it; drink also coffee and tea. Eat but little,
and scarcely any meat. The Arabs of the country brought a few sheep to
sell this morning, but asked double the Tripoli price; so nobody
purchased. Bought myself a fowl for eighty Turkish paras. The people of
the ghafalah civil, but all the lower classes will beg continually if you
are willing to give. Each one offers his advice and consolation on my
tour; but Mohammed keeps all the hungry Arabs at a respectable distance,
lest I should give to them what belongs to his share, like servants who
don't wish their masters to be generous to others if it interferes with
their own prerogatives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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