Chapter XIV

AUGILA and JALO. اوجله and جالوا. — Group of Oases. — The Majabra Arabs. — The Sultan of Waday. — Turkish Drunkards. — Inconveniences of Travel.

_November_ 17.—The palm groves extend for more than three miles in a curved hollow to the town of Augila, and nearly as much beyond it, forming almost a half circle of verdure. The fertile part of the oasis is considerably beneath the level of the surrounding country, so that the water being nearer the surface, the roots of the palm trees, which pierce downwards to a great depth, reach it, and thus obtain their nourishment. The town is built on a slight elevation, nearly equidistant from the two furthest points of the oasis. It is surrounded by a thin mud wall, some twelve feet high, but not more than nine or ten inches thick; this wall is in a most delapidated condition, in several places entirely destroyed, and in others worn into innumerable holes. Six gate towers of equally substantial architecture give entrance to the long and tortuous lanes of the capital.

Sheikh Othman-el-Fadil, the hereditary Sheikh of Augila, and the Kehia who happened to be in the town, came to my tent as soon as I arrived. The former I had seen in Benghazi, and he showed me every attention, convenient and inconvenient, in his power, by way, probably, of asserting his right to the family name, which means “the complaisant.” I returned the Governor’s visit, and thus had an opportunity of seeing “the castle,” which is situated near the great mosque—a not less ruinous structure than the external walls. It is composed of several very small courts with recesses, which serve as sleeping or store rooms; the open court, in which are mastabahs—mud divans covered with carpets—is the place of reception. The Governor either could not or would not tell me the number of inhabitants, or even of the houses, saying they were written in the Deftar, the domesday-book of Benghazi; and, in fact, he seemed quite determined that it should not be in my power to quote him as giving any information dangerous to the State.

I looked into the principal mosque in passing; like all the other buildings it is of mud and small stones, with many low columns and arches of the same material; the roof being formed of small conical cupolas like sugar loaves, some of which are four feet in diameter, and eight or ten in height. This is the consecrated style of building for the mosques, of which there are fourteen. From the best information I could obtain, it seemed that the number of inhabited houses was under 500. The Kehia, an Arab of Benghazi, only comes here once a year, and then to collect the tribute; his visit ended, the Wagily, as the inhabitants of Augila are called, are left to follow their own devices. The Sheikh has a traditionary, but no legal authority; if crimes occur, his duty is to report them to the Bey of Benghazi, and wait for orders before sending the offenders with the witnesses to the Bey for judgment. Of course, with such a system, the only check upon crime and violence is in the natural disposition of the people, or in the fear of blood feuds; recourse is, indeed, rarely or never had to the distant and doubtful justice thus to be sought in Benghazi.

The inhabitants of these oases indulge greatly in a slightly-intoxicating drink, derived from the palm tree. Sheikh Othman, who himself professes not to indulge in this forbidden luxury, was so obliging as to take me to one of his gardens to see the method by which it is obtained. The tree is stripped of its branches, and the crown cut off, so as to lay bare the heart; a small drain is then cut in the edge, to which the mouth of a jar is applied, and for months the tree yields its daily tribute of _lagby_. From time to time the crust is cut from the wound to facilitate the flow of the juice; for this purpose an instrument is used, in shape like a horse fleam, tied at right angles to a handle of wood. After three or four months, the wound is generally closed; the tree does not yield fruit for some years after this exhausting process, and will die if the wound be left too long open. It seemed to me, however, that the tree never recovers its stately appearance, but ever in after life has a debauched, drunken look about its branches, indicative of its former intemperate habits. The drink itself is of a milky white colour; on the first day it is drawn, it is sweet, like the milk of the cocoa-nut; on the second, acid and slightly vinous; and, on the third, it is already vinegar. Though drinkable in large draughts in the second stage, when it has only a slightly acid taste, it is still a poor substitute for the smallest small beer. The Wagily are rich in about 16,000 date trees, and their gardens produce gourds, melons, tomatos, and onions, with a small quantity of kesab and barley.

I next day continued my journey to Jalo, where I hoped to make arrangements for my further progress. On the same day that I left Benghazi, a Turk, dependant on the Kaimahan, set off for Jalo, to take the census of the date trees, on which the taxes are levied; the result of the last one having been unsatisfactory to a large party of the inhabitants. He was accompanied by Yunes, one of the sheikhs, who had given me every promise of assistance, though not disguising the difficulty I should probably find in pursuing my original plan, which was to go to the Koffra, and thence eastwards towards the Nile. Such a route was quite new to the Majabra, and no one would venture to join me in exploring it; I could not even find any one willing to accompany me to Gebabo, كبابو. The Zowayah had already returned; after whom parties of Tibbus often visit these oases to glean the fruit which remains on the date trees.

Jalo, 28 miles, or eight hours E.S.E. from Augila, is by far the most important in this group of oases; the name, now restricted to the first, was probably in ancient times applied to the whole group. The oases, according to the earliest accounts we have of them, contained no fixed inhabitants; the Libyan nomads paid them a summer visit to gather dates, in the same way that the Zowayah now go to the Koffra. In the time of the Roman domination of Africa, they contained a small settlement, which, probably, had been formed to meet the necessities of the caravans. Jalo is approached by a hollow, bordered on each side by rows of tamarisks, which gradually opens into a plain, bounded by low sand hills. On two of them, facing each other, Leb لب and El’Erg العرق, two villages of much humbler pretensions than Augila, are built. Each contains a few mud houses, but the dwellings are mostly huts (zeribah), constructed of palm branches, generally of a conical form, eight or nine feet in diameter, and rarely more than seven high at the apex. The mosques are mere square mud structures, without any attempt at ornament; and, instead of walls and gate-towers, a simple palisading of palm branches surrounds each village. Jalo is, however, more populous than Augila, and a far greater degree, not of comfort—this is unknown in such places—but of _bien être_, is found here. This arises not only from the great extent of its palm groves, but principally from the occupation of its inhabitants, who are all merchants. They are of different origin from the Wagily, some speaking Arabic, whilst others, both in appearance and language, preserve the Berber type. El’Erg contains 4000 inhabitants, allowing five to a family, which is rather above than below the average; it contains seven mosques, distinguished only by little white flags, and is governed by twelve sheikhs. Leb, which is but half this size, rejoices in only three sheikhs and as many mosques.

I encamped in the plain between the two villages, where I found Hafiz Effendi’s tent already pitched; he had chosen this central position by way of proving his impartiality, for there is, of course, great rivalry between the two places. I took my ground between two large clumps of tamarisks (ef-teleh), the only vegetation which the plain presented; their graceful foliage affords a relief to the eye, the small crystals of salt with which it is covered giving it an ashy gray colour; here, then, was an imperfect representation of the three Turkish elements of happiness—a bright eye, a green shade, and a running stream. The tamarisk clumps were the only variety in the monotonous yellow which surrounded me on every side, for the date groves are only visible at a distance in one direction. It would be possible to render the whole of this plain productive, but the Majabra have too little taste for agriculture to take the necessary trouble. About three feet beneath the sand is found a layer of whitish clay, which, when uncovered and watered, yields crops of barley, wheat, and a few vegetables; but the labour required for this is great. The people are addicted to an idle roving life, and as the date-trees produce abundant harvests, almost without care, other cultivation is very much neglected. The dates are of an inferior quality to those of Augila, but they afford the principal article of food, not only to man, but also for all his dependent quadrupeds. Horses, dogs, camel, sheep, are all put on this same regimen, which Sheikh Yunes pretended was a very wholesome one, but the blackened jagged teeth, universal here, seemed to contradict him.

The palm groves which surround Jalo contain upwards of 100,000 trees, the tax upon each of which is four Turkish piastres. The former census only counted 45,000, but the new one, which is now going on, will raise this number to 65,000, an increase of taxation produced by the complaints of the people themselves, who are now, as may be supposed, furious at their own stupidity. For several evenings after the census began, when the people saw the turn it was likely to take, the women of the two villages assembled after dark and filled the air, in alternate chorus, with yelling curses upon Hafiz Effendi. He allowed them the uninterrupted enjoyment of this female form of respectful remonstrance, and after a few nights, either from hoarseness or disgust at finding their eloquence disregarded, this expression of public opinion was abandoned. I went two or three times to see the method adopted for taking the census; nothing could be simpler or more tedious. The commissioners, surrounded by all the fifteen sheikhs, and the greater part of the proprietors, male and female, of the plantation they were visiting, went from place to place, counting and recounting the trees. Every artifice was put in practice to distract their attention, or to puzzle the commissioners as to ownership; indeed, this latter was no difficult matter, for many trees have three or four owners, or one man’s property is dispersed here and there, through the whole oasis. A good date-tree will yield three hundredweight of fruit on alternate years; the produce being generally smaller in the intervening year. As dates are worth about 20 piastres a hundredweight, the tax is about a tithe of the produce.

The wells of Jalo are all brackish, and the nearest sweet water is at a distance of six hours; hither, at rare intervals, the ladies of the place resort to wash the cotton shirts and woollen plaids, which are the costume of their lords. The scanty fauna is confined to the fox, wolf, or jackal, fovina and gerboa. There are snakes, which are said to be venomous and of large size, but though I offered backshish I could obtain no specimens of them, either here or at Augila. Some exuviæ, which I found in a quarry near my tent, at the latter place, proved the fact of their existence and their size. Of antiquities I could learn nothing; the subterranean temple, with a cubical idol, mentioned by some writer, the oldest inhabitants had never heard of, and the only curiosity which they could point out to me, was a single large hewn stone, about four miles south-west of El’Erg, under which they suppose a treasure to be concealed.

The Majabra are, almost without exception, addicted to excessive drinking, owing, no doubt, to the facility of procuring _lagby_. At an early age they commence their apprenticeship in trade by journeys to Benghazi, soon followed by longer courses to Egypt and Fezzan. They are the great slave-dealers of these countries, purchasing their human merchandise in Fezzan, from wholesale dealers, many of whom are Majabra settled there. The latter make every year an incursion into Bornou, and return with troops of five or six hundred slaves, which they afterwards sell in retail to the men of Jalo. The most valuable black slaves are called Fellatah; they have nearly straight hair, and their features bear little of the negro type. Their distinctive mark is three slashes on the cheeks and two on the temples. The gains in this trade are very large, and many of the Jalese have amassed in it large sums; which sums, however, they have no means of spending. The women are generally unveiled, wearing a long blue shirt and a milayah on the head, like the fellah women in Egypt; they enjoy a good reputation for purity of morals.

Finding myself obliged to renounce all hopes of going to the Koffra, I contented myself with gathering such information as I could from those who had been there. The nearest oasis is distant six days’ journey, over a flat sandy desert, unbroken by rock or shrub, and having no wells. The remaining ones are respectively at a good day’s journey from each other; the furthest and largest, Gebabo, قبابوا, being considered twelve days distant. These oases are totally uninhabited, except in autumn, when the Zowayah proceed from their summer station, Ijherri, in a body to gather the dates and figs, which grow there in wild luxuriance. They are represented as abounding in sweet water, which is obtained in large quantities by merely scratching a hole in the sand. I was assured that the Koffra contained no monument of antiquity, and were mere fertile spots, like some I should see on my journey to the east, inhabited only by the jackal and wild cow. The Tibbus, as far as I could learn, are a timid and inoffensive people, not possessing fire-arms, and, except for the pilgrimage (they are Moslemin), never visiting Jalo or Siwah. With Fezzan they carry on an insignificant trade, chiefly in dromedaries (of which they have an excellent breed) and sulphur, which they exchange on the frontier for cotton, cloths, and beads.

The caravans arriving from Waday reach Gebabo in about forty-two days from Warah, and having come twelve without water, their camels are so exhausted that they stop here, and send to Jalo to hire camels to continue the journey to Benghazi; there they generally spend six months, buying cottons, coral, paper, and, I think, arms. The Sultan of Waday is himself the proprietor of the greater part of the caravan, and in the long intervals between its visits, the Frank merchants lay in stores of such curiosities or elegancies as his Wadayan majesty is likely to be pleased with. I heard of a plated dinner service, which had been ordered by one of them, in hopes the caravan might arrive this year; at its last departure it conveyed a carriage to him. The Sultan is said to have began to coin dollars from a die sent to him from Europe; up to a very recent time the entire circulation was in Spanish dollars, and writing paper served in lieu of smaller coins. A fowl is bought with a sheet of writing paper, six or eight are paid for a sheep—the most original paper currency. The country is said to be rich in pasturage and arable land, and two mountains yield copper and iron. No European having ever visited Waday, its other mineral and vegetable riches are unknown, though a small quantity of gold dust is collected either within its frontiers or from the countries to the south. The Sultan claims to be a sheikh of the family of the Abassides, and was for many years a refugee in Cairo, where he learned to appreciate the arts of civilisation. If he still reign, it is not improbable that a European would be warmly welcomed at his court, but no one could venture there without having previously obtained his consent. While in Jalo I heard rumours from Fezzan, to the effect, that he had grown blind, and had been deposed by his son, a blood-thirsty tyrant, who soon made himself so hateful to his vizirs and influential men, that they reinstated the father, who is now only a puppet in the hands of one of the rival factions warring for the sovereignty. Should these news be confirmed, or in the doubts which they suggest, no one could prudently venture into Waday.[8]

The Turkish Government levies at Jalo heavy duties upon the produce of Waday, 25 dollars on the cantar of ivory (98 lbs.)—a sum more than its original value, and one dollar a head upon the slaves, upon whom a further duty of seven dollars and a half is charged at Benghazi. Those shipped for Constantinople, however, go duty free, the supply of so necessary a commodity for the capital being encouraged in every possible way. The Wadayan slaves are amongst the least intelligent negroes in Africa, and have the reputation of being thievishly inclined; they are, therefore, the cheapest, but the profit on their sale is very great, their value at Warah hardly exceeding a dollar and a half.

Jalo was decidedly not an amusing residence, and my impatience to continue my journey, when I found that I could only reach Egypt by way of Siwah, was not diminished by the delays which I half suspected my friend Yunes of occasioning. In this I did him injustice, for, even if he intentionally sought means to put off my departure, after-occurrences lead me to think that he did this in my interest; of his good-will I had no idea at the time, and I only felt annoyed at being detained, and certain that some intrigue was at the bottom of it. He, every day, expected the arrival of his son, who was on his way from Fezzan with a few slaves for the Egyptian market, and he wished me to accompany him. For this I had little inclination, having no wish to join a slave caravan, and, above all, desiring to be master of my own movements—_Hoc amo quod possum quâlibet ire viâ_.

I had long exhausted every topic of information upon which the Jalese could enlighten me, and my only amusement now were the rare visits of the Sheikh and Hafiz Effendi. At whatever hour they came, the coffee which was given to them was never the only refreshment they reckoned upon being treated to, and they never failed to ask for something stronger. I was provided with a small stock of rum for such a contingency, being well aware that many of the Turkish _employés_ are eager votaries of the bottle; but, before my departure from Jalo, my friends had completely exhausted my stock; when they had done so, I may add, their visits became less frequent. Besides drinking in my tent—not in my company, for I never joined them—they thought nothing of asking for a bottle with which to indulge in a private kef in their own quarters—glad to make something out of the Frank; they could not plead the excuse of the bottle being a rarity to them, as they were in constant communication with Benghazi, where the forbidden drink is plentiful. With us it is shameful for a man out of his teens to be seen drunk; with them it is only a sin. One day, during my stay at Grennah, the secretary to the Government, said to be a most upright man, came to see me; he drank, before, during, and after dinner, Marsala and brandy to such an extent, that when, at last, wearied with his meaningless loquacity, I insisted upon his going to bed in the tent I had prepared for him, he fell flat in the attempt to rise from the couch, breaking the bottles he had just emptied; and then it was with difficulty that he allowed himself to be put to bed by one of my servants. The next day he alluded, without an appearance of shame, to his evening’s exploit, saying, if any damage was done, it was not he but the wine that did it. The great object in getting drunk, (kef they call it,) is to procure the soundness of sleep which follows, and hence the pleasantest liquor, in their estimation, is that which has the speediest effect.

I was, in fact, thoroughly tired of my stay in Jalo; and what rendered it particularly exasperating was the persuasion which every day took more strongly hold of me—that I was the victim of a speculation, on the part of these people, to detain me, until, tired of waiting, I should be ready to subscribe to any terms they chose to offer me. This idea only made me more determined to refuse what I knew to be an exorbitant demand. Hafiz Effendi possessed no authority, and Yunes, if he had any, did not, as I thought, exert it. After concluding a bargain for camels, at nearly a third more than the usual price, my men returned the next morning and tried to extort another dollar; this I refused, and no one, naturally enough, would incur the ill-will of his people in defence of a stranger, by obliging them to stick to their bargain. Consequently, in a fit of unreasonable disgust—unreasonable, for it is always better to put up with such annoyances in travelling than to subject oneself to fresh and perhaps more serious ones, only to give proof of a resolution which people cannot appreciate—I sent off to Augila to ask Shiekh Othman to provide me with camels to return there, and to look out for others for my further journey. I had now been a month in Jalo, and on comparing my expenditure with the state of my purse, I discovered to my dismay that, thanks to the dearness of everything here, I could not start without sending to my good friend Mr. Xerri, in Benghazi, for a fresh supply of the needful. I must do Yunes the justice to say, that when I announced my determination, he did all he could to dissuade me from it, offering me, after the things were already packed for the return to Augila, money, camels, anything. He felt that I had come there in a sort of way as his guest, and that leaving him as I did was a slur upon his hospitality. I persisted, however, in my determination, and in the end was punished for it as I deserved. I never yet opposed myself to an imposition, that I did not end by submitting to at least as great a one, and having all the annoyance without the glory of martyrdom into the bargain. After each lesson I promise myself to consult, in future, my real convenience, throwing abstract notions of justice to the dogs on the next occasion, but I rarely, when the temptation comes, am able to resist it.