Accordingly I Set Out
About Midnight, And Being Guided By The Lowing Of The Cattle, Soon
Arrived At The Place, Where I Found The Moors Very Busy Drawing
Water.
I requested permission to drink, but was driven away with
outrageous abuse.
Passing, however, from one well to another, I
came at last to one where there was only an old man and two boys. I
made the same request to this man, and he immediately drew me up a
bucket of water; but, as I was about to take hold of it, he
recollected that I was a Christian, and fearing that his bucket
might be polluted by my lips, he dashed the water into the trough,
and told me to drink from thence. Though this trough was none of
the largest, and three cows were already drinking from it, I
resolved to come in for my share; and kneeling down thrust my head
between two of the cows, and drank with great pleasure until the
water was nearly exhausted, and the cows began to contend with each
other for the last mouthful.
In adventures of this nature I passed the sultry month of May,
during which no material change took place in my situation. Ali
still considered me as a lawful prisoner; and Fatima, though she
allowed me a larger quantity of victuals than I had been accustomed
to receive at Benowm, had as yet said nothing on the subject of my
release. In the meantime, the frequent changes of the wind, the
gathering clouds, and distant lightning, with other appearances of
approaching rain, indicated that the wet season was at hand, when
the Moors annually evacuate the country of the negroes, and return
to the skirts of the Great Desert. This made me consider that my
fate was drawing towards a crisis, and I resolved to wait for the
event without any seeming uneasiness; but circumstances occurred
which produced a change in my favour more suddenly than I had
foreseen, or had reason to expect. The case was this:- The fugitive
Kaartans, who had taken refuge in Ludamar, as I have related in
Chapter VIII., finding that the Moors were about to leave them, and
dreading the resentment of their own sovereign, whom they had so
basely deserted, offered to treat with Ali for two hundred Moorish
horsemen, to co-operate with them in an effort to expel Daisy from
Gedingooma; for until Daisy should be vanquished or humbled they
considered that they could neither return to their native towns nor
live in security in any of the neighbouring kingdoms. With a view
to extort money from these people by means of this treaty, Ali
despatched his son to Jarra, and prepared to follow him in the
course of a few days. This was an opportunity of too great
consequence to me to be neglected. I immediately applied to Fatima,
who, I found, had the chief direction in all affairs of state, and
begged her interest with Ali to give me permission to accompany him
to Jarra. This request, after some hesitation, was favourably
received. Fatima looked kindly on me, and, I believe, was at length
moved with compassion towards me. My bundles were brought from the
large cow-skin bag that stood in the corner of Ali's tent, and I was
ordered to explain the use of the different articles, and show the
method of putting on the boots, stockings, &c. - with all which I
cheerfully complied, and was told that in the course of a few days I
should be at liberty to depart.
Believing, therefore, that I should certainly find the means of
escaping from Jarra, if I should once get thither, I now freely
indulged the pleasing hope that my captivity would soon terminate;
and happily not having been disappointed in this idea, I shall pause
in this place to collect and bring into one point of view such
observations on the Moorish character and country as I had no fair
opportunity of introducing into the preceding narrative.
CHAPTER XII - OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER AND COUNTRY OF THE MOORS
The Moors of this part of Africa are divided into many separate
tribes, of which the most formidable, according to what was reported
to me, are those of Trasart and Il Braken, which inhabit the
northern bank of the Senegal river. The tribes of Gedumah, Jaffnoo,
and Ludamar, though not so numerous as the former, are nevertheless
very powerful and warlike, and are each governed by a chief, or
king, who exercises absolute jurisdiction over his own horde,
without acknowledging allegiance to a common sovereign. In time of
peace the employment of the people is pasturage. The Moors, indeed,
subsist chiefly on the flesh of their cattle, and are always in the
extreme of either gluttony or abstinence. In consequence of the
frequent and severe fasts which their religion enjoins, and the
toilsome journeys which they sometimes undertake across the desert,
they are enabled to bear both hunger and thirst with surprising
fortitude; but whenever opportunities occur of satisfying their
appetite they generally devour more at one meal than would serve a
European for three. They pay but little attention to agriculture,
purchasing their corn, cotton, cloth, and other necessaries from the
negroes, in exchange for salt, which they dig from the pits in the
Great Desert.
The natural barrenness of the country is such that it furnishes but
few materials for manufacture. The Moors, however, contrive to
weave a strong cloth, with which they cover their tents; the thread
is spun by their women from the hair of goats, and they prepare the
hides of their cattle so as to furnish saddles, bridles, pouches,
and other articles of leather. They are likewise sufficiently
skilful to convert the native iron, which they procure from the
negroes, into spears and knives, and also into pots for boiling
their food; but their sabres, and other weapons, as well as their
firearms and ammunition, they purchase from the Europeans, in
exchange for the negro slaves which they obtain in their predatory
excursions.
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