The water collected for the use of the caravans is carried in bags
made of goat-skins, unripped in the middle, and stripped from the
animal as entire as possible; those made at Soudan are the strongest
and best; water may be preserved in them for five days, without
acquiring any bad taste : the bags of an inferior manufacture give
an ill taste, and a smell of the leather, from the second day. To
render the skins flexible and lasting, they are greased on the inside
with butter, and by the Arabs sometimes with oil, which latter gives
quickly a rancid taste, and to any but an Arab, renders the water
scarcely fit for drinking.
The sixth day we had again a difficult and tiresome journey of
twelve hours, without halting ; towards the close of our march, the
horse of an Arab near me falling sick, and being unable to proceed
at the same pace as the caravan, 1 kept in the reàr to attend him,
and give such assistance as might be required. On our coming up
with the caravan at its evening encampment, the Arab immediately
sent by his slave, two pieces of dried camel’s flesh, with a proper
compliment, requesting my acceptance of the present, as some
return for the civility I had shewn. I was in an instant surrounded
by a number of meaner Arabs, who eyed with avidity the meat I
had received, and on my dividing it amongst them, seemed greatly
surprised, that I should so readily part with what, in their estimation,
was so great a dainty.
Circumstances light and trivial often delineate manners, and
characterize nations : the method of equipment, and the means of
sustenance which the Arab uses in journeying through these deserts,
may furnish a subject of just curiosity, and certainly of special use
to such as may undertake a similar expedition.
The Arab sets out on his journey with a provision of flour,
kuskasa, onions,, mutton suet, and oil or butter ; and, some of the
richer class add to this store, a proportion of biscuit, and of dried flesh.
As soon as the camels are halted and the baggage unladen, the drivers
and slaves dig a small hole in the sands wherein to make a fire,
and then proceed in search of wood, and of three stones to be placed
round the cavity, for the purpose of confining the embers, and supporting
the cauldron. The cauldron, (which is of copper,) being
set over, the time till the water begins to boil is employed first in
discussing, and then in preparing, what the mess of the day shall
consist of. The ordinary meal is of hasside, a stiff farinaceous pap,
served up in a copper dish, which, in due economy of utensils and
luggage, is at other times used for serving water to the camels-:
when this pap or pudding is thus served on table, it is diluted with
a soup poured on it, enriched or seasoned with the monachie dried
and finely pulverized. At other times, the dinner consists of flour
kneaded into a strong dough, which being divided into small cakes
and boiled, affords a species of hard dumplins called mijotta. A yet
better repast is made of dried meat boiled together with mutton
suet, onions sliced thin, crumbled biscuits, salt, and a good quantity
of pepper. The meat is at dinner time taken out and reserved for
the master, and the broth alone is the mess of his followers. The
slaughtering of a camel affords a feast to the camel drivers and
slaves. The friends of the owner of the beast have a preference in
the purchase; and,after dividing the carcase, every slave comes in
for a share: no part of the animal capable of being gnawed by
human tooth, is suffered to be lost; the very bones pass through
various hands and mouths, before they are- thrown away. They
make sandals of the skin, and they weave the hair into twine.
It is not on every occasion that time can be allowed', or materials