Four Camels Were Knocked Up During This Day's March:

On such occasions, the Arabs wait in savage impatience in the rear, with their knives in their hands, ready, on the signal of the owner, to plunge them into the poor animal, and bear off a portion of the flesh for their evening meal.

They were obliged to kill two of them on the spot; the other two, it was hoped, would come up in the night. Major Denham attended the slaughter of one, and despatch being the order of the day, a knife is struck into the camel's heart, while his head is turned to the east, and he dies almost in an instant; but before that instant expires, a dozen knives are thrust into different parts of the carcass, in order to carry off the choicest parts of the flesh. The heart, considered as the greatest delicacy, is torn out, the skin stripped from the breast and haunches, part of the meat cut, or rather torn from the bones, and thrust into bags, which they carry for the purpose, and the remainder of the carcass is left for the crows, vultures, and hyenas, while the Arabs quickly follow the kafila.

On the 4th, they arrived at Anay, a town which consists of a few huts built on the top of a mass of stone, round the base of which are also habitations, but the riches of the people are always kept above. The Tuaricks annually, and sometimes oftener, pay them a most destructive visit, carrying off cattle and every thing they can lay their hands upon. The people, on those occasions, take refuge at the top of the rock, ascending by a rude ladder, which is drawn up after them; and as the sides of their citadel are always precipitous, they defend themselves with their missiles, and by rolling down stones on the assailants.

The sultan Tibboo, whose territory extends from this place to Bilma, was at this time visiting a town to the south-west of Anay, called Kisbee, and he requested Boo Khaloom to halt there one day, promising to proceed with him to Bilma. They accordingly reached Kisbee on the evening of the 5th, where the camels got some pickings of dry grass.

Kisbee is a great place of rendezvous for all kafilas and merchants, and it is here that the sultan always takes his tribute for permission to pass through his country. The sultan himself had neither much majesty nor cleanliness of appearance; he came to Boo Khaloom's tent, accompanied by six or seven Tibboos, some of them really hideous. They take a quantity of snuff, both in their mouths and noses; their teeth were of a deep yellow; the nose resembles nothing so much as a round lump of flesh stuck on the face, and the nostrils are so large, that their fingers go up as far as they can reach, in order to ensure the snuff an admission into the head. The watch, compass, and musical snuff-box of one of the party created but little astonishment; they looked at their own faces in the bright covers, and were most stupidly inattentive to what would have excited the wonder of almost any imagination, however savage.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 200 of 587
Words from 104773 to 105314 of 309561