SAHARA DESERT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 202, 19 April 1932, Page 2

SAHARA DESERT

VANISHING MIRAGES DESCRIPT-ION OF JOURNEY ACROSS HUGE SANDY WASTES. DANGERS ENCOUNTERED. To the right are mountains. All around is a sandy, stony waste, sprinkled with scruhhy hushes, tufts of fennel, and bunehes of camel's salad. And stretching far away he- ■ yound the horizon are the countless miles of the great desert, with the j sand dunes of Oumache just visible j enough to give you a glimpse of what , real sand can be. Tolga, the Arab j Zab or village, which, .with the sur- i rounding oases in this part of the | Sahara, gives the district the name j of the Ziban, lies twenty-five miles ; ahead. This is the goal of our journey. And a long day's work is before us. The pace of our caravan is determined hy the camels, whose queer i ship-like rolling movements cover the distance at only two miles an hour. The mules, nothing loth, accommodate their steps to this, generally going either a little , in front or lagging a few yards behind, for, in common with horses they have an extraordinary dis h'ke to the near proximity of camels. The men in charge of the animals walk beside them; the guide rides a small donkey, and is furnished with a pistol. His brother, a handsome young Arab of ahout twenty-f our, carries a long-barrelled gun. These guns are in general use among the natives of the Sahara. Doutbless, besides their use for the chase, they are sometimes necessary in case of an attack for the purpose of rohbery. Failing a gun, the native carries a knife in "a rough wooden sheath or a heavy club-like stick studded with nails. But, except occasionally, in cases of famine, the traveller upon the Tolga road is safe enough. In times of actual distress for food the natives some- ! times get desperate. The diligence, a clumsy, slow-travelling cart which takes the mail and carries passengers, has been attacked during a season of scarcity. The people of the Sahara have so little to live upon, and for that little are so absolutely dependent upon the earth and what it will yield, that a bad season and failure of the all-important former and later rain amply spell starvation. Drama of Hunger. A pathetic little drama, showing what hunger can really mean, was acted before our eyes during the journey to Tolga. Our caravan had halted for lunch near a small cafe, or rest house, just off the track, built for the French soldiers when they pass over the desert. Here was water for the animals : here the Arabs could obtain coffee. The morning had been long; we had started. early, and were quite ready for food. Just as we had fin shad, and when there was nothing left but a few scraps, an emaciajed cat crept round from hehind us. We gave it a chicken bone, which it pounced upon joyfully. Instantly a still more star-ved-looking dog, who had been watching us from a distance, not being able yet tO make up its mind whether we were really to he treated as friends, dashed forward and seized the bone from the cat. The next moment an Arab, who was passing, and who, unnoticed by us, had also been watching, rushed at the dog, took the bone actually out of its mouth and began ravenously gnawing it himself. To such terrible lengths can hunger and starvation go in the Sahara. As this state of things is the result of drought and the absence of rain, what wonder that the miraculous power of bringing that blessing is one of the attributes with which the marabout is most frequently credited. One of our guides is about to be married. He has tired of his first wife, who had annoyed him by her habit of giving some of the money that he allowed her to her relatives. So he had divorced her, according to custom, hy the payment of six francs to the Kadi of the village. He has waited the prescribed time, which in his case happens to be a very short one. The law decrees that a man not divorce his wife and marry again during the same year. So if the divorce .can be arranged to take place in December the re-marriage may he in January. Weird Marriage Song. As they walk beside the camels of our caravan the Arabs practise the weird, barbaric music of the marriage song. A line or verse is sung by the prospective bridegroom, which is answered or followed hy his friends and relations in unison. This goes on over and over again, in endless repetition. The half-melancholy music, punctuated hy the crack of a gun and Jjistol shots, is in keeping with the scene. The minor chords of it belong to the mysterious harmony of the halfsavage native life. But when it has continued for almost an hour without cessation, the monotony of the sounds at last grows to be almost unbearable. One welcomes something else that may possibly occupy the thoughts and the voices of the Arabs. And presently the relief comes, for a wonderful echo claims their attention. The men shout and whistle, and fire off guns to scare perhaps the mocking spirit who is answering them. For the firing of guns is thought to drive away the demons. Over and over again from the distant Aures Mountains the sound comes baclc with pei'feet and unsual repetition. A few minutes later there is ano.ther illusion, and one which might well fill the primitive mind first with expectation and then with awe. In, the misty distance to the left of°our pathway there is a vision of water with palm trfees growing near it; cool, shining, beautiful water, like a lake or a river with flat banks. It looks so clear and distinct, so altogether delightful, that after a long journey "across the desert one can. imagine how the tired camels would long to turn aside and press on towards it. The nearer we approaehed the f arther it seemed to recede, until at last, when we were upon a line with the place where it had seemed to he the beautiful mirage yaiiished altogether.