PEOPLE OF THE VEIL

Shannon News, 26 June 1928, Page 1

PEOPLE OF THE VEIL

EXPEDITION TO TUAREG “The London Times” has published two interesting articles describing the principal results of a successful ethnological and geographical expedition to one of 'the remotest parts of Africa. Their author, Mr. Francis Rodd — who temporarily forsook the Stock Exchange to revisit his old (.acquaintances, the veiled Tuareg —and his two. fel-low-explorers hayo returned safe and sound from a journey which led them to the distant oasis of Air, through some of the most desolate wildernesses of the Sahara. Unlike many desert voyages, theirs was unattended by any fatal accident to man or beast. Twice they lort their way in a “completely desert region,” a phTase which means much to those who know what comfort specialists in desert travel—one is tempted to call themr “ cremologists are able to extract from a few patches of camel thorn and a brackish well,on every thirty miles of march. They visited a pooplo whose hostility was once proverbial, and whose hostility was responsible for the deaths of several distinguished travellers, and for the complete destruction of the Flatters ’ expedition in 1881. Their success is therefore the more notable and gratifying. They have surveyed much new ground; they have corrected the results obtained by previous explorers; and they have made a successful trial of a new type of wireless receiving apparatus which will make it possible for modestly-equipped expeditions to determine longitudes with remarkable accuracy. But their achievements have not been only geographical. They have made important contributions to our still imperfect knowledge of the ethnology and archaelogy of the Sahara The changes which European penetration was introduced into the most se- v eluded fastnesses of Africa make it more than ever desirable that explorers should collect.all possible information as to the traditions, the customs and the folklore of long isolated peoples. Of such peoples the Tuareg tribes of the Central Sahara are a particularly interesting example. For many centuries they preserved their seclusion. From the days of the Roman decline to comparatively modera times they were the terror of the races—Berber. Arab, Fulah, or Negro —who dwelt on both borders 4 of the desert and to those who crossed it to trade with the blach peoples of the Sudan. The inaccessi bility of their retreats, the sudden ferocity of their attacks, and their custom of wearing the veil added to the aw T e with which they were regarded.

But these nomads were by no mean? ravages; they still use an ancien" script, the ‘ ‘ Tifinagh ’ ’ alphabet, whiel rnay be connected with the Phoenician characters; their social system is more elaborate than that of the Beduir; the women of their higher castes enjoy a consideration and freedom ■ unknown among Arabs or Negroes. The Tuareg of Air were great traders as well as great raiders and carried the goods of the Mediterranean world into thi heart of the Sudan. The origin of these strange 1 people is unknown Wherever they have kept their blood pure they are as white as the men oi the "Mediterranean” race in Spa : .r and in parts of Greece and Italy. Mr. Rodd finds reason for the opin ion that their former classification with the Berbers of the Atlas may b< based only on the delusive ground of s common language and suggests tha the words "Berber” or "Hamitic’ may prove to be as valueless from tli. ethnologist’s standpoint as "Celtic', or "Aryan.” One of the discoverio which he records is of . surpassing ir forest. In Air, which the Tuareg cor r| tiered in late historic times, their ir -eriptions are associated with roc : drawings of men wearing head-dressi unknown in the Sahara to-day, b.

closely resembling (hose of some of th "Libyan” tribesmen depicted on ti. monuments' of the Pharoahs. It is pc slide that the ancestors of the’ Tuan wire among the white skinned fealhw -■owned people of the Western Desen who founded more than one dynastv in the Valiev of the Nile?