features of the remainder of the group were all
rigorously hidden, and I was seized with an intense
desire to see what kind of face lay behind those
coverings.
The Tawareks seemed rather to resent our
intrusion. They made no effort to greet us, but
maintained instead a stony silence, turning their
masked faces very slowly from side to side as they
looked about them in a way that was positively
uncanny. It could not be described as a cordial
reception.
I felt that they were all waiting for me to
commence the conversation, but for the moment
every idea had gone out of my head, and for the life
of me I could think of absolutely nothing to say.
This trying silence lasted for some minutes, and
then one of the Tawareks, feeling perhaps that as
a good Mohammedan he ought to offer me some
hospitality, turned to the man next to him and
mumbled something in thick guttural Tamahak.
The man addressed scratched himself, groped for
a moment in his clothing, and then produced a snuff-
horn, which he handed to him in response.
The recipient took a pinch, and, having handed
the box on to his neighbour, pulled his litham away
from the lower part of his face and transferred the
snuff to his mouth. His neighbour followed suit
and passed the horn on, and so, each taking a pinch,
the horn came round till it was my turn to partake
of its contents. I would willingly have refused, but '
to have done so would probably have been to have
insulted my hosts,. So nolens volens I was compelled
to take my pinch and to transfer it to my mouth
like the rest.
I don’t know what that snuff was made of, but
it was very nearly as hot as mustard. I did not
know what to do with it. I dared not spit it out,
and as I was afraid to swallow it, there I sat with
the confounded stuff burning my tongue like a red
hot iron, while my hosts sat round me munching
and evidently enjoying immensely their share of this
‘ light refreshment.’
At last the stinging on my tongue became unbearable.
I stood it as long as I could, but at length,
when the burning sensation began to extend to the
back of my throat, I was compelled to open my
mouth with a gasp. This not unnaturally had the
effect of causing some grains to fly down my throat,
and threw me at once into a paroxysm of choking.
The gravity of my hosts was not proof against
the humorous side of this incident. My neighbour
broke into a gruff but most appreciative chuckle, in
which the other members of the circle joined, as,
completely overcome by this pungent compound, I
rose gasping and spluttering to my feet and withdrew
to get rid of it as best I might. It took me
some minutes to do so, but I had at all events the
consolation of knowing when I was again able to
take my seat in the circle that I had put an end to
that appalling silence. The ice was broken.
They all, even the slaves, spoke Arabic more or
less fluently, so that with Aissa to interpret there
was no difficulty in carrying on a conversation. My
former acquaintance, who seemed to be the most