The yak not only serves as a beast of burden, but furnishes milk, butter, and meatThe yak not only serves as a beast of burden, but furnishes milk, butter, and meatLINK TO IMAGE
The use of water for cleansing purposes seems to be no part of the religion of the people; they never bathe their bodies and seldom wash the face and hands. To protect themselves from the biting cold they smear their faces with rancid butter, which, catching the smoke and dust, adds to the effectiveness as well as the strength of the odor. Their homes and places of worship reek with dirt and filth; small-pox, ailments of the eyes, and other contagious diseases are prevalent. Harelip, in a great measure due to lack of proper nutrition, is a very common ailment.
In leather and inlaid work the Tibetans show great skill, much of the decorative work on the handles of their swordsand daggers being very artistic. The common people live in constant terror of evil spirits in this world and of terrible punishments in the hereafter; the educated classes believe they can drive off or propitiate all evil influences in this world, but fear they may be changed in a future rebirth to some vile form of being. In general, the people are treacherous and cowardly. For weapons of defence they use matchlocks; in firing them, the weapon is held directly in front of the nose.
Of domestic animals the yak is one of the most useful, since it not only serves as a beast of burden but furnishes rich milk, butter, and meat. The long hair of the animal is used for making ropes, tents, and cloth.
The yak resembles the ox in body, head, and legs; but it is covered with long, silky hair which hangs like the fleece of an Angora goat. The long, flowing hair of the tail reaches nearly to the ground. Thousands of these tails find their way to India where they are used for various household purposes.
Wild yaks are found in considerable numbers near the limits of perpetual snow, but at the approach of winter they descend to the wooded valleys just below the snow line. During the summer they pasture on the higher elevations. In their wild state yaks are fierce and dangerous. Being accustomed to high elevations, they fall sick and die when removed to the lowlands.
Milk is obtained not only from the yaks but from the sheep and goats. The sheep, being of large size, are frequently used to bear small loads. Many horses are raised, but they are used chiefly for riding.
Tibet is rich in gold, and for thousands of years the precious metal has been washed out of its surface by the crudest of methods. In fact, gold is washed from every river which has its sources in the Tibetan plateau. Most of it in time finds its way to China. Silver, copper, iron,lead, and mercury abound in the southeastern part and considerable quantities are mined.
Traffic is carried on by means of caravans, the most common pack animal being the yak. Almost all the commerce is controlled by Chinese merchants, and the chief article of trade is tea, which is received in exchange for wool, hides, musk, amber, and gold. The tea is an inferior kind known as "brick tea," being composed of the refuse, stems, and leaves of the plants cemented with rice water and pressed into hard bricks. This kind of tea is preferred by the Tibetans, who brew it with butter and other ingredients and consume the entire concoction. The tea trade amounts to several million pounds annually.
CHAPTER IXTHE PRIMAL HOME OF THE SARACEN
Who has not had the youthful imagination fired by the "Arabian Nights"? The simplicity and lifelike reality of these interesting stories, made even more fascinating by their Oriental color, appeal both to young and old.
So great has been their popularity that few works have been translated into so many different languages, while their influence on the literature of the present day is felt in a marked degree. They are more than the luxurious fancies of the Arab's mind, for they vividly set forth the love and hate, the craft and hypocrisy, the courage and revenge of his race. Moreover, they portray in a truly dramatic manner the innermost life and thought of the Moslem, while they captivate the senses by a magnificent panorama of exquisite banquets, lovely characters, charming gardens, and beautiful palaces.
The country and the descendants of the race that created these masterly storiettes are surely worthy of careful consideration. A region that is the birthplace of a religion claiming nearly two hundred million converts scattered all over the world must possess a special interest.
We are apt to look askance at everything Arabic as bordering on ignorance and savagery; but if we study the past of this alert race we shall find a profusion of historical side lights that are valuable; we shall also find in Arabic literature much to admire. The Arab is poetic and delights in imagery. There are Arabic poems dating back one thousand years before the Christian era that for beauty of thought, vigor, and polish are equal to those produced by any nation and in any age.
In the Middle Ages the Arabs led the world in commerce, exploration, art, science, and literature. The secret of their successful conquests was not in the number of their soldiers but in the courage inspired by the Muhammadan religion. Death has no terrors for the fanatical Moslem, for to him it is the vestibule of paradise where the pleasures of earth await those who fight in the holy cause.
By nature the Arab is active, vivacious, and keen-witted. He is proud of his lineage, earnest, and hospitable. The mother not only takes care of the home but educates the children; and, strange as it may seem to the outside world, illiteracy is practically unknown to Arabia.
To the Arabic race we are indebted for our knowledge of arithmetic, and many of the principles of algebra and geometry. The pendulum, the mariner's compass, and the manufacture of silk and cotton textiles were introduced into Europe by the Arabs. They claim to have used gunpowder as far back as the eleventh century. In the year 706 paper was made at Mecca and from there its manufacture spread all over the western world. To them we owe many of the useful arts and practical inventions which were later brought to perfection by other nations.
Khaibar Pass, the gateway to IndiaKhaibar Pass, the gateway to IndiaLINK TO IMAGE
Now, no one is quite certain about the Saracens as a people because the name has been very loosely used. It was applied by Roman soldiers to several wandering tribes of Arabs who were much accustomed to mistaking other people's flocks of sheep and herds of cattle for their own. Most likely there never was a Saracenic Empire. But there certainly was a time when Arabians controlled not only the Arabian peninsula, but also Syria and the fertile plains of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as well; and that great region became known as the "Land of the Saracens." From Damascus to Bagdad, and from the Bab-el-Mandeb to the Gulf of Oman, the Moslem was all-powerful.
Let us glance at the country itself. In the first place, Arabia is not a nation but a country made up of petty states—some independent, some controlled by the sultan of Turkey; two or three are included in the British Empire. But the country itself is very far removed from the rest of the world so far as accessibility is concerned; and although its coast is scarcely a gunshot from the greatest trade route of the East, Arabia is to-day one of the least-known countries in the world.
In general, the country is a moderately high table-land bordered by low coast plains. Much of it is an out-and-out desert; all of it is arid. Long ago it was divided into Arabia Petræa, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix—that is, the rocky, the desert, and the happy. It is needless to say that Arabia the happy was the part receiving enough rainfall to produce foodstuffs.
The coast-line of this great peninsula is nearly as great as that of the Atlantic and Gulf coast of the United States; but in its entire extent, not far from four thousand miles, there is scarcely a harbor in which a good-sized fishingschooner could find safe anchorage. Even at Aden a steamship cannot approach within a quarter of a mile of the shore. So one will not be far out of the way in designating Arabia as an impassable country with an impossible coast.
It is estimated that about seven millions of people live in the entire peninsula. To say that these belong to the Semitic race is merely to say that they are dark-skinned and black-haired. The Arab, whether a merchant dwelling in a city along the coast, or a Bedouin wandering with flocks and herds, is a product of the desert and of the teachings of Islam. His black eyes twinkle with shrewdness and he is a past master of craftiness. As a trader he is unsurpassed, and Arab traders control the interior commerce of western Asia and northern Africa just as the Chinese control the trade of southeastern Asia.
As a Bedouin of the desert the Arab is supreme in his way. Savage and blood-thirsty by nature, if there is no caravan to rob or common enemy to fight, neighboring tribes easily find cause for fighting one another. Usually a quarrel over pasture lands in the same locality furnishes an excuse for a feud that results in the extermination of one tribe or the other.
A hatred of those who are not followers of the prophet is a heritage of all Arabs. The merchant class, who are wealthy and usually educated, may have trained themselves to conceal it, but they possess it. Even to the most liberal Arab, one who is not of the faith of Islam is a "dog of an unbeliever." Among Bedouins, not to rob the caravan containing the belongings of a Christian would be a sin. There is one exception, however; if a Bedouin sheik agrees to convoy a party of "unbelievers," together with their valuables, over a robber-infested route, he will carry out his bargain faithfully.
Family ties among the Bedouin Arabs are much the same to-day as they were two thousand years ago. The great-grandfather, grandfather, or father, as the case may be, is the head of the family, and his will is law. The tribe is governed by a sheik, who is simply a "boss." He does not inherit his office, nor is he elected to it by popular vote; he elects himself because he is the best man, and he "holds over" for the same reason.
The family mansion of the Bedouin is a tent made of goat-hair cloth. Some tents occupy as much ground as is covered by a small cottage. The tent of a sheik may be richly furnished with rugs and silk portières; ordinarily, a coarse hearth-rug and a divan cover are about the only furnishings. The cooking utensils are primitive—one or two kettles to a family; and of tableware there is practically nothing more than one or two platters. Meat is freely eaten and coffee is commonly a part of each meal. In the place of bread, flour about as coarse as oatmeal is mixed to a paste, rolled or beaten into thin cakes, and cooked in hot butter. Dates are almost always a part of the food supply.
The camel has first place in the wealth of the Bedouin, but sheep and goats in many instances form a part of his herds. The tents of a family are pitched where the grazing is good and the families move about as they will. All disputes are settled by the sheik, and he is apt to emphasize his decisions by the free use of his lance shaft. Whenever it becomes necessary because of poor grazing, the whole clan or tribe may move to a distant place. All household goods are wrapped in packs or put into saddle bags. Two or three camels will readily carry the tent and luggage of a family. The women are carried in litters; the men ride camels. Horses are rarely ridden at such times.
If a caravan is to be plundered, however, the best horsesare used, and in addition to his lance the raider carries a heavy knife. Perhaps a few firearms may be carried, but they are generally either flintlocks or the older matchlocks. It is only within a few years that the modern rifle with metal cartridge has found favor with the Bedouin.
A group of Arabs with their dromedariesA group of Arabs with their dromedariesLINK TO IMAGE
The great Arabian peninsula, seemingly so far out of the world, produces many things, some of which the world cannot do well without. First of all, it is the home of the camel. Perhaps a more awkward and ungainly animal has not been domesticated, but certainly none is more useful. We are told by students of natural history that the camel is the descendant of the llama kind which seems to have originated in the South American Andes. Just how or when the descent from the New World, which is really the Old World, to the Old World, which is really the New World, was made weare not informed; nevertheless, it looks as though the natural history student has the right end of the argument. After the animal got to Arabia it "developed." And while the result may not have been very artistic, no one will deny that it was good workmanship; for the world has never produced a more useful helper to mankind.
Practically all the riding animals are of the one-hump or Arabian species. They are much larger and stronger than the two-hump animals. One variety is slim and comparatively light in weight. These animals, as a rule, are trained to a swift gait, and are used solely as riding animals. They are called dromedaries, a word that means swift-runner.
Most of the other species are reared for the same purpose as domestic cattle. Some are valuable as beasts of burden, others are shorn for their coating, still others are kept for their milk and flesh. A well-trained dromedary will sell for three hundred dollars and upward; a pack animal rarely brings more than one-fourth as much. The milk of the camel is equal to that of the best domestic cows and is greatly prized. The hair of several species surpasses sheep's wool in texture and is used in the finer kinds of cloth, and it is the most precious textile in high-priced Oriental rugs and shawls. Ordinarily, however, camel's hair is coarse and is used for the cheapest textiles. Arabia is the source from which a large proportion of the camels used in the caravan trade of Asia and Africa is obtained. Fermented camel's milk is much used all over western Asia.
The Arabian horse has been famous in literature and in song for more than two thousand years. The district of Nejd has been the chief breeding locality for these horses for many centuries. Contrary to tradition, however, even the finest animals are neither so large nor so swift as American thoroughbred horses. The qualities that have made the Arabian horse famous are its beautiful proportions, endurance,and intelligence. Young colts mingle freely with their owners and attendants, and they need, therefore, only the training to make them saddle-wise; they require no "breaking." Brought up with the family and treated with the greatest kindness from its birth the colt learns to regard his master as his best friend.
Ordinarily but little water is given them, and they are so well trained that a good animal will go a whole day in summer and two days in winter without drink. The pure, full-blood Arabian is never sold. It may be acquired only by gift, by capture in war, or by legacy. Animals of mixed breed, however, are freely sold, most of them going to Turkey and to India.
Mocha coffee is another product for which Arabia is renowned. The coffee berry bearing this name is of the peaberry variety—that is, only one of the two seeds within the husk comes to maturity. Most of the coffee is grown in Yemen and the adjoining vilayets, and it received its name because it was formerly marketed at the port of Mocha. Of late years it has been shipped from Hodeida.
The business is in the hands of Arab merchants, and the coffee is carried to Hodeida by caravans. On its way it is carefully sorted by hand into three or more grades. The finest grade is sold to wealthy Turkish customers at from three to five dollars per pound; the inferior grades command prices varying from thirty cents to twice or three times as much. Very little of the product ever passes outside of Turkey. All the Mocha coffee grown in Yemen would not much more than supply New York City.
The pearl fisheries along the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf are also controlled by Arab traders. From there are obtained some of the finest pearls to be found, and also many tons of mother-of-pearl shells. The yearly product of the fisheries is thought to exceed more than two millions of dollarsin value. The pearls are found in a species of oyster, and to obtain them the divers must go to the bottom in from thirty to ninety feet of water. Expert divers can remain under water as long as two minutes.
The oysters are taken ashore to be opened, and Turkish inspectors are on hand to levy a tax on the product. A few pearls may escape him, especially if he is temporarily blinded by the glare of several piasters; but the pearl industry is taxed for about all that it is worth.
Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, is the city to which every disciple of Islam is supposed to make a pilgrimage at least once in his lifetime. The chief income of the inhabitants of Mecca is obtained by renting rooms and entertaining the visiting pilgrims who flock thither.
In the centre of the city is the so-called Sacred Mosque, or area, which is entirely enclosed by a covered structure of colonnades having minarets and cupolas. Within the centre of this enclosed space is a cube-shaped building called the Kaaba, which contains the famous sacred Black Stone. This stone, probably of meteoric origin, gives to the building its sanctity, and is an object of the greatest veneration to every pious Moslem, who kisses it repeatedly. There is also within the enclosure a building containing the holy well, Zemzem, the only well in Mecca.
No unbeliever is permitted to enter the sacred enclosure, much less to pollute the Holy Kaaba by his presence. A few infidels disguised as pilgrims, at the risk of their lives, have visited this sacred place.
The preparations for pilgrimage are unique. The pilgrims assemble near Mecca during the holy month and begin the sacred rites by bathing and assuming the sacred garb. This suit consists of two woollen wrappers, one worn around the middle of the body and the other around the shoulders.With bare head and slippers covering neither heel nor instep the pilgrim sets forth on his holy journey.
While wearing this dress he is admonished to bring his thoughts into harmony with the sanctity of the territory he now traverses. He is not to shave, anoint his head, pare his nails, or bathe until the end of the pilgrimage. Among the various rites to be performed after reaching Mecca is walking seven times around the Kaaba, first slowly, then quickly. Before leaving the city the pilgrim drinks water from the holy well, Zemzem.
Many pious pilgrims visit Medina, now the terminus of a railway, before going on to Mecca. This is another of the sacred cities of Islam, since it is the scene of Muhammad's labors after his hegira from Mecca; it also contains his tomb. Formerly no unbeliever was permitted to traverse the streets of Medina or look upon the tomb of the great prophet, but tourists are now allowed within the gates. The city is enclosed by a wall forty feet high which is flanked with thirty towers. Two of its four gates are massive structures with double towers. Like Mecca, Medina is supported chiefly by pilgrims.
CHAPTER XTHE SAHARA
An expanse of land as large as the main body of the United States stretches across the northern part of Africa. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and from the foot of the Atlas Mountains to the Sudan, it is a weird panorama of rock waste—level, rugged, shingly, and mountainous, according to locality. In places only it is penetrated by large and permanently flowing streams. On the eastern borderland the Nile pours a mighty flood, winding a sinuous passagealong its self-made flood-plain, the Egypt of history. In the west the Niger has forced its way into the confines of the desert and then, as if rebuffed, turns its course southward.
This great domain of the simoom has every diversity of surface. The higher summits of the Tarso Mountains are eight thousand feet above sea level; the Shott, a chain of salt lakes south of the Atlas Mountains, are about one hundred feet below sea level. The depression in which these lakes is situated probably was once the head of the Gulf of Sidra; but the never-ceasing winds have partly filled the depression, cutting off the head of the gulf in the same manner that wind-blown sands severed what is now Imperial Valley from the Gulf of California. Around the briny lakes are marshes of quicksands, and woe betide the luckless traveller who strays to the one side or the other of the beaten trails. Unless help is at hand, life will have neither joys nor troubles for him after a few brief minutes of struggle.
The Sahara proper begins at the south slope of the Atlas Mountains. Where there are no Atlas Mountains, it begins almost at the Mediterranean's edge. In the valleys of the Atlas and along the Mediterranean coast there is a strip of fertile land, wide here, narrow there, that produces grain and fruit. The Arabs call it theTell. "Beyond the Tell is Sah-ra," or the Sahara. This is the name which the Arabs apply to the archipelago of fertile spots, or oases. Beyond the zone of oases is the desert. One becomes instantly and painfully aware that it is a desert on leaving the last oasis. Go a thousand miles southward, eastward, or westward from Tripoli, and one encounters but a single thing—an ocean of orange-colored rock waste, the Guebla of the Arabs.
On the sands of the desertOn the sands of the desertLINK TO IMAGE
The desert is a desert for want of water only. There is no lack of nutrition in the soil, nor is there anything in surface or temperature that makes a desert unproductive. Temperature and winds reach great extremes in fierceness, however. The temperature of the air in the noonday sun will often exceed one hundred and forty-five degrees; it may reach one hundred and fifty-five degrees. In the shade it frequently climbs to one hundred and thirty degrees in the vicinity of the tropics. Unless one is at a considerable altitude there is not much relief at night, though the thermometer may drop to ninety degrees. Farther north, however, and at an altitude of five thousand feet or more, the temperature of the night is even more cruel than that of the day. Immediately after sunset a sharp chill becomes perceptible. At first it is a welcome relief from the intolerable heat. By nine o'clock it begins to cut like a stiletto, and at midnight the water suspended in shallow dishes clinks into ice. The drivers burrow deep into the sand and wrap woollen baracans about them; the camels shiver and even blubber like whipped bullies.
The air is so dry, however, that the extreme heat of day is by no means insupportable. Sunstroke is almost unknown, and even the tragedy of perishing for want of water is very rare; for the caravan drivers know just where to find water, and there are many hidden watering places that are known to the crafty Tuaregs and Bedouins. Many of the watering places are wells that have been sunk in various localities along the caravan trails. The intense heat, great depth of rock waste, and dry air are not favorable to the above-ground flow of rivers. But nearly every river has an underground flow that is pretty likely to exist all the year round.
One may follow a stream of considerable volume down the southern slope of the Atlas Mountains. The volume of water grows less and less until at last it apparently disappears. Not all is lost by evaporation, however; possiblythe greater part sinks into the porous rock waste. And the rock waste?—perhaps it may be twenty, fifty, or one hundred and fifty feet deep. At all events, the water sinks until it reaches bed rock or clay through which it cannot pass. Then it flows along what may once have been an above-ground channel until fierce winds and cloud-bursts buried it deep.
But the half-savage dwellers of the desert know just where to tap these underground reservoirs and streams; even the dumb animals know instinctively where to look for water. It is merely a question of instinct coupled with experience, and the animal's judgment is about as good as the man's. When one finds the spot, it is necessary only to dig. The water may be two feet below the surface or it may be ten feet. When the moist sand is reached the task is half over. A foot or two more and the hole begins to fill. The water is hot, brackish, and repulsive to the taste, but it is water—and in the desert, water is water!
The simoom is also an institution of the desert. The simoom is unmistakably a wind, and surely no one who has not had the experience can appreciate it. Even the West India hurricanes or the typhoons of the China Sea are more kindly. They have plenty of destructive energy, it is true, but the simoom has all this and much else besides. It comes not without warning, but the warning and the wind are not far apart. The approach of the simoom is a dense black cloud of whirling and seething fine dust. As it strikes one, the choking, suffocating blast of hot air and dust overcomes everything that has life. The caravan men and the animals as well turn their backs to the wind and lie down with faces close to the ground. In a minute or two the full strength of the blast is on and the simoom is picking up not only the fine rock waste, but the coarser fragments as well, and is hurling them along at Empire State Express velocity.One might as well try to face a hail of leaden bullets. It is a cruel blast that neither animal nor human being can withstand. The camels crouch with their heads pointing away from the wind and nostrils close to the ground; their drivers lie prone with faces in little hollows scooped in the sand.
Perhaps the full blast of the simoom may last an hour—perhaps two or even three hours. In lighter strain it may continue a whole day. When, finally, it ceases the air is thick with fine dust; one can see scarcely a rod away. Sun and sky are hidden, and the blackness of a tornado or of a London fog prevails. The fine dust floating in the air may not settle for several days. Perhaps a week afterward there may be a haze that partly obscures the sun. The dust, finer than the finest flour, pervades everything in the desert. One's clothing is full of it; one's hair becomes harsh and matted; the skin becomes rough, cracks and peels; the eyes are inflamed; mouth, lips, and nostrils are swollen. But the great bodily discomfort resulting from the simoom does not last forever; it gives place to bodily irritation of some other sort, which is indeed a grateful change merely because it is a change.
The sand dunes of the Sahara are interesting to those who are not compelled to travel among them, but to the unfortunates who traverse them they are almost heart-breaking. Imagine oneself standing on an elevation a few hundred feet higher than the surrounding country. There is but one landscape—waves upon waves of the loose rock waste, for convenience called sand, as far as the eye can reach. Sometimes the waves are in long windrows, but oftener they are short and choppy like the surface waves of midocean.
Unlike the ocean waves, in which only the form moves forward, while the water composing it moves up and down only, the sand dune and the material of which it is composedare both moving in the direction of the wind. A breeze even of five or six miles an hour will keep the lighter surface dust moving freely, while a twelve-mile wind will not only sweep along much larger particles but it also carries more of them. And just as the surface, or "skin," friction forms waves at the surface of water, it also piles the desert sand in wave-like dunes.
The loose bits of rock waste are carried along, up the windward slope of the dune until they roll over its crest, where, no longer impelled by the wind, they come to rest. Thus, the crest, built forward by new material constantly added, is advancing. Valleys are filled; old stream channels are obliterated; and the inequalities of the surface are levelled off until the whole landscape is one of shifting, drifting sand.
Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, the Sahara and the arid lands southward to the Sudan are by no means destitute of life and wealth. It is an almost universal custom to speak of the barren condition of the desert. The contrary is the truth; there is no soil elsewhere so fertile and productive. It is vastly superior even to the soil of the lands reclaimed from the bottom of the North Sea.
Water is the magic wand that makes the sands of the Sahara bring forth crops that are marvellous both in quantity and quality. No fruit grown elsewhere in the world can compare with that grown on desert lands, and the French engineers are planning the means whereby water may be obtained. Surface water that is available to irrigate the wastes of the Sahara does not exist. The level of the Nile is so far below the surface on both sides of its own flood-plain that its waters cannot be used for the reclamation of any part of the Libyan Desert, and the same is practically true of the Niger, which barely more than touches the borders of the Sahara. The few wadys, or "dry washes," are destituteof water except when a cloud-burst may fill them; but this happens at intervals of years only.
The engineer takes into his confidence a caravan driver—perhaps an Arab, possibly a Berber, but quite as likely a slave. And the long experience has taught the caravan man where to find the precious water. The engineer then brings his science into play and drives an artesian well. The well thus driven may be a "gusher," but for most of them pumps are required to raise the water to the surface. The best well, however, furnishes water enough to irrigate but a very small area. Indeed, all the lands of the Sahara together irrigated by artesian wells would make an area scarcely larger than the State of Delaware, and all the water thus obtained would not supply New York City!
Nevertheless, the water obtained by artesian wells has proved a great blessing to the dwellers of the desert. If the water is found along one or another of the numerous caravan routes, an increase in caravan commerce is apt to result, for along many routes the volume of caravan commerce depends very largely on the number of wells. The location of artesian wells has also led to the opening of trade along new routes as well, for wherever water can be found there will be camels to drink it.
The date palm is essentially a plant of the desert, or, rather, of the oasis. Nowhere else does it grow in such profusion as in northern Africa. The number of productive trees there is estimated to be anywhere from ten million to twenty million, though the estimate is but little better than a guess. At its full growth the date palm is a most beautiful object. Usually the feathered tops of the trees are the only foliage to relieve the harsh landscape. Like the bamboo, every part of the tree is used. The leaves may be made into fans, or shredded and woven into mats. The wood is used in making the framework ofbuildings, and the waste material is very handy as fuel. A refreshing fermented drink and a most vile liquor are prepared from the juice. But the fruit, when properly prepared, is the chief food of many thousands of men and beasts. Even the stones, or "pits," of the dried fruit are useful; those which are not sent to Italy to be used for adulterating coffee are made into an "oil-meal" for fodder.
Esparto grass, called "alfa" or "halfa" by the Arabs, is another unique product of the Sahara. In spite of its name, it is not a grass but a flowering plant whose stalk has a tough fibre useful in making cordage and paper. When the plant turns brown and has become dry to the root, the esparto picker gets busy.
By four o'clock in the morning he is at work, his heavy woollen baracan, or blanket, wrapped tightly about him, for the air is not only chilly but almost freezing cold. By sunrise the chill begins to disappear, and a few brief moments is the only interval between piercing chill and midsummer heat. The baracan is quickly shed and the fez, if the picker is rich enough to possess one, is discarded for an esparto hat with rim of mammoth proportions. Esparto grass sandals protect his feet.
Almost all the animal life of the Sahara is deadly, and the esparto grass picker is constantly facing danger. The clump of esparto, into the bottom of which he must reach to cut the mature stalks, is quite likely to be the lair of a poisonous viper; and if the reptile sinks its fangs into the flesh of the unfortunate picker, long weeks of suffering and disability—perhaps death—are in store for him. Between the bite of a rattler and that of an esparto viper there is little to choose.
The scorpion is another peril to the esparto picker. The great rock-scorpion of the Sahara is about as ugly as the centipede of Arizona and Mexico; in size it is also about aslarge—from six to ten inches in length. Its sting, too, is about as dangerous as the fangs of the rattler. But the esparto picker has a method of heroic treatment for both the bite of the viper and the sting of the scorpion. He squats calmly upon the sand while a brother picker cuts out the flesh that has been pierced. If he survives the twenty-four hours following, he is pretty likely to pull through. If not—well, the vultures know when and where to look.
The esparto grass is delivered to the nearest local market compressed in bales of five or six hundred weight, held together by a coarse netting of esparto weave, and shipped to Europe. Nearly all of it goes to Great Britain. There it is shredded and made into cordage, coarse cloth, or paper.
But the esparto has a rival so far as its use in making paper is concerned. The wood pulp of Norway and the United States is slowly displacing it, and in time esparto will be but little used except for making cordage or gunny cloth. Already the French Government is having troubles of its own in providing employment for the esparto pickers, but it is not likely that such a useful plant will be discarded; on the contrary, its use is likely to increase in the future.
The camel is the institution upon which the commerce of the desert depends. A more awkward, ungainly beast can hardly be imagined—a shambling collection of humps, bumps, knobs, protruding joints, and sprawling legs seemingly attached to a head and neck in the near foreground. But that shambling gait will carry a load three times as heavy as the stoutest pack mule can bear, and it will carry it twice as far in a day.
A horse or a mule must be fed twice a day, but a camel will worry along for a week at a time with nothing more substantial than its cud. Horses and mules cannot traverse regions where the watering places are more than twelve hoursapart, unless water be carried in storage; but the camel is its own storage reservoir, and can carry a supply sufficient to last for ten days.
At the end of his week of fasting the hump of the camel has shrunken to a fraction of its former size. When the animal has a few days of feeding the hump grows to its former proportions again. Indeed, the hump is merely a mass of nutrition ready to be formed into flesh and blood.
A caravan crossing the desert on the road to JaffaA caravan crossing the desert on the road to JaffaLINK TO IMAGE
Within the paunch of the animal and surrounding its stomach are great numbers of cells capable of holding seven or eight gallons of water. When the camel drinks copiously these cells become filled and afterward slowly give up the water as the stomach requires. It may be truly said that the camel is a camel because of the desert and not in spite of it.
The sparse population of the Sahara—Arabs, Berbers, and negroes—are dependent upon the camel, for until therailway shall traverse the Sahara the camel will be practically the only means of transportation. The camel's flesh furnishes about the only meat consumed by the dwellers of the desert, for ordinary cattle can live only in a few localities along the desert border lands.
The native people of the desert are mainly of the race to which the Arabs also belong, although there are many Arabs and negroes. The Tuaregs and Bedouin Arabs are the best known. The Tuaregs are thought to be the descendants of the Berbers and of the same race as the Carthaginians, whom the Romans many times defeated but never conquered. They have whiter skins than the Arabs and in appearance are perhaps the finest peoples of Africa. They are also the most ferocious and blood-thirsty villains on the face of the earth. Many of them live in the white-walled cities such as Ghadames, Kand, and Timbuktu—all large centres of population.
Their government is well organized. Each of the larger tribes is governed by a sultan, and in each there are several castes—a sort of nobility of unmixed Tuareg blood being at the head and negro slaves at the lower end of the social ladder. The families of the highest caste are usually well-to-do, and both the men and the women are taught to read and write. The garments usually worn by a Tuareg man consist of white trousers, a gray tunic with white sleeves, sandals of ornamented leather, and a white turban. When away from home the Tuareg covers the lower half of the face by a cloth mask.
The usual occupation of the Tuaregs is twofold—to guard caravans or to rob them. The average Tuareg is perfectly indifferent as to which he does. A caravan from the Sudan enters, we will say, Kano. The garfla sheik pack master, or superintendent, goes at once to the financial agent of the sultan and pays the usual liken, or tariffcharges. Then he goes to the sultan himself and incidentally leaves in his possession a generous money present. Then, if he desires, he may hire half a dozen or more guards.
The hiring of these will insure the caravan against theft or robbery on the part of the predatory bands living at Kano. The guards will also faithfully defend the caravan in case of attack by Bedouin Arabs. On the other hand, should the garfla sheik forget the present to the sultan, or neglect to hire guards, those same Tuaregs would be the first to attack and loot the caravan.
The Bedouin Arab is the chief trial of the caravans. He is always a foe to them; and although he ostensibly herds camels and horses, his real occupation is robbery and pillage. For days nomadic Arabs will follow a caravan, keeping always out of sight. Most likely a band of a dozen or more mounted on swift horses will survey the caravan from a distance at which they are not likely to be discovered. Then they make their way ahead of it to some point where a dune or a gully will conceal them. Then, just as the end of the caravan drags by, there is a sudden sortie and a rattling musket fire. And before the guards can gather to the defence half a dozen camels are cut out of the train, a driver or two is shot down or pierced with assegais, and both the robbers and their loot are beyond the reach of the guards.
But perhaps the greatest value of the desert is its effect upon the climate of Europe. Hot winds blow from the Sahara in all directions; the northerly winds, crossing the Mediterranean, are not only tempered thereby, but the desert blasts tempered and filled with moisture finally reach the southern slopes of Europe, where they convert the nutrition of the soil into bountiful crops of corn, wine, and oil.
The conquest of the great African desert is already insight, and the railway will be its master. The Cape to Cairo line is no longer a vision of the future; the ends of its two parts are rapidly shortening the interval that separates them and they are almost in sight of each other. When the lines that are projected from the Mediterranean coast shall have traversed the stronghold of the Tuaregs to penetrate the wealth of the Sudan and the Kongo, the Sahara will have become merely an incident.
CHAPTER XIPOLAR REGIONS—THE CONQUEST OF THE ARCTIC
Excepting the arctic and the antarctic regions, with their fortifications of eternal ice and snow, intrepid explorers have made known nearly every part of the world. There Giant Frost guards his frozen secrets and defies man to wrest them from him. Many a hero has perished in endeavoring to solve the Sphinx-like riddle of northern lands and seas. Many a gallant ship has found its grave in northern ice-clad waters. Yet there has never been a lack of adventurous spirits to continue the work.
But one after another the strongholds of nature have gradually yielded to persistent attacks. Especially is this true of the arctic regions, of which not more than two million square miles of sea and land remain to be explored.
Buffeted by adverse winds and floating ice-fields, venturous explorers have drawn nearer and nearer to the north pole. Again and again, the attack has been renewed, until, after half a lifetime, Robert E. Peary, an officer of the United States navy, made a brilliant dash and planted the national ensign at the pole.
The story of arctic exploration and discovery is filled with interest. It is pathetic, tragical, and calculated to awaken the deepest emotions. Nevertheless, it is enlivened by brilliant exploits, deeds of daring, and acts of heroism.
For many years the search for a northern passage to India in the furtherance of commerce was the chief incentive to arctic exploration. Even more than a century before Columbus discovered America, two Venetian brothers named Zeno sought a northwest passage to the Orient, believing that the difficulties in navigating it would be offset by the shortening of the route.
The success achieved by Spain during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in discovery, conquest, and colonization incited England to find a northwest passage, in the hope that such a route, by shortening the distance to the East Indies, would extend her commerce.
After the discovery of the mainland of North America, Sebastian Cabot, under the patronage of Henry VII, planned a voyage to the north pole, thinking that would be the best route to ancient Cathay. He proceeded only as far as Davis Strait; then, becoming discouraged by the immense fields of ice, he turned the prow of his vessel homeward.
Soon afterward the Muscovy Company of London sent out an exploring expedition with instructions to find a northwest passage. This expedition, taking a different route from its predecessors, reached Nova Zembla. But the ice-fields forced the vessel back to the shores of Lapland, and the ship was never spoken of again. Years afterward the ship's company were found frozen in death.
Next in importance came the renowned Frobisher, a strong advocate of a northwest route. He made three voyages to the Arctic Ocean, the last two being under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth. Frobisher believed that fabulously rich fields of gold existed in the north, and hisexpedition was organized for the purpose of discovering them. His search for precious metals was fruitless, but he added much to the world's knowledge of polar regions, and he has been remembered in the strait that bears his name.
The Muscovy Company again sent out an exploring vessel, this time under the able navigator Henry Hudson, with orders to go "direct to the north pole." He did his best to carry out his instructions and, sailing along the northern shore of Spitzbergen, reached latitude 81° 30' north. Finding the route utterly impracticable, he returned home. In all, Hudson sailed on four voyages of discovery, twice in the employ of English companies and twice in the employ of the Dutch East India Company.
In one of his voyages under the Dutch, after advancing as far north as he deemed prudent, he turned southward and cruised along the Atlantic coast. Entering New York Bay, he proceeded up the broad river that now bears his name, believing at first that he had found the coveted short route to India. Soon he was undeceived, for as he went farther up he found the seeming passage to be merely a large river. He gave his employers such a glowing account of the valley of the Hudson River that the merchants of Holland sent out ships to establish trading posts along the river and to trade with the Indians.
On his fourth voyage, while seeking a passage northwest, he discovered the strait and the bay both of which bear his name. Desiring to continue his explorations the next year, he sailed westward on the bay and wintered on the island of Southampton. In the spring he again tried to find the long-wished-for passage.
The long, cold winter and lack of suitable food told heavily on his men. They became badly demoralized and declared that they would not remain longer in such an inhospitable region. When Hudson insisted, the men mutinied. Seizingtheir commander, they placed him with his son and five sailors in an open boat and sailed away. After this cruel act of the mutineers, no trace of Hudson or those who were with him was ever found. But Hudson's fame will never die. Historians will ever laud his achievements, and his name is indelibly inscribed on the map of the world. The ringleader of the mutineers with five of his companions was afterward killed by the natives, and several of the others starved to death. The rest of the crew succeeded in getting the ship back to England; there they were tried, found guilty of mutiny, and sent to prison.
In 1616 the intrepid William Baffin took up the search. He penetrated the bay bearing his name and explored the passages of water westward to the mouth of Lancaster Sound.
Later the Russians became interested in exploration. Among the explorers Captain Veit Bering of the Russian navy was the most eminent. In the early part of the eighteenth century Bering was commanded by Peter the Great to take up the search for the long-sought passage. He explored the northeastern coast of Asia as far north as sixty-seven degrees latitude, discovering a fact hitherto unknown, that North America is separated from Asia by a narrow passage of water containing small islands. The passage received the name Bering Strait from its discoverer, and the same name was bestowed upon the sea leading to it.
About ten years afterward Bering determined to explore the northwest coast of North America. He landed twice upon the coast, but, being driven back by violent storms, was at length wrecked on an island, where he died. His crew, though suffering terrible hardships, lived through the winter. With the coming of spring, however, they rigged a craft from the stranded vessel in which a few survivors reached the coast of Asia.
In 1743 the British Government offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds for the discovery of a northwest passage by the way of Hudson Bay. Thirty-three years afterward a like reward was offered for the actual discovery of the north pole and the same amount for the exploration of any navigable passage. The sum of five thousand pounds was also offered to any one who should approach within one degree of the north pole. These standing rewards greatly stimulated arctic exploration.
Of the many voyages of exploration that followed, Sir John Franklin's last expedition was the most tragical. This expedition was fitted out by the British Government with the necessary supplies and scientific instruments for a three years' cruise. Two stanch vessels, theErebusand theTerror, both of which had been previously employed in antarctic exploration, were selected to stem the ice-fields of the north, and a tender with extra supplies accompanied them as far as Davis Strait. The vessels were last seen in Lancaster Sound moored to an iceberg, where they were spoken to by a whaling ship homeward bound.
Three years having passed and no tidings having been received from the expedition, all England became extremely anxious concerning the safety of the explorers. The British Government then sent out two vessels to seek Franklin, but no trace of the missing commander or his men was found.
The government then redoubled its exertions, supplemented by private parties, and in 1850 no less than twelve vessels were vigorously searching the arctic lands and waters for their lost brothers. Lady Franklin spent her fortune in endeavoring to find trace of her noble husband.
The heart of humanity was touched with the deepest sympathy and moved by the noblest motives. The United States Government, aided also by private citizens, fitted out vessels to continue the search. At one time ten of thesearching vessels met in the Arctic. The results of these expeditions were meagre in securing trace of the lost ones, but they greatly enriched our knowledge of northern lands and seas.
Not until five years after theErebusandTerrorleft England was trace of the explorers found. Near the head of Franklin Strait, off the shore of King William Land, evidence of an encampment of some of the men was discovered, and at Beechey Island, near by, carpenters' tools, empty meat cans, and the graves of three of the men threw more light on the mystery of the ill-starred expedition. A few years later, at Victory Point, Lieutenant Hobson found a record of the death of Franklin, the date being July 11, 1847.
Charles F. Hall, a native of New Hampshire, but long a resident of Ohio, who had been a reader of arctic literature, became deeply interested in the search for Sir John Franklin. Obtaining financial aid from different sources, he made four voyages to the arctic, the first being devoted to searching for Franklin's men and in solving the mystery of their disappearance. His third voyage was the most fruitful one in securing results. Hall believed that the Eskimos knew more about the lost explorers than they were willing to tell, and that if he could but gain their confidence he could extract from them the story. In furtherance of his plan, he resolved on his third voyage to live with them several years. In 1864 he started on this voyage north. On his arrival in the arctic he sought out the natives and made himself one of them, adopting their mode of life and food.
He spent five years living and travelling with them. Having won them over, he obtained the story of the ill-fated explorers. He learned that one of Franklin's vessels had actually made the northwest passage to O'Reily Island, southwest of King William Land. Five men remained on board alive, but the vessel was abandoned by the crew. Thenext spring the Eskimos found it in good condition frozen fast in the ice.
The skeletons of Franklin's men were found scattered over King William Land, where they had perished one after another from starvation and cold. Some had engaged in conflict with the natives in endeavoring to secure food, but being weak from hunger were unsuccessful. Of the one hundred and five men who accompanied Franklin not one was ever found alive.
During the year 1850 the problem of the northwest passage was solved by Captains M'Clure, Collinson, and Killet. South of Melville Island, M'Clure, who had sailed through Bering Strait, met the ship of Killet which had come through Lancaster Sound. M'Clure, having wintered near the connecting waters, had really established the existence of the passage by observation before the meeting. Twenty days later Collinson came up in his ship. Finding the problem of the northwest passage solved, he turned to the southeast and completed the passage in another direction.
It thus became evident that so far as commercial purposes were concerned a northwest passage was impracticable and that further northern exploration must be considered in the light of scientific and geographic value only.
Hall's labors did not cease with his discovery of the Franklin expedition. He became an enthusiast concerning the arctic and seemed to enjoy its weird icy scenery and attendant perilous excitement. Believing that he could reach the north pole if he had a properly equipped expedition, he planned a fourth voyage and appealed to Congress for assistance.
A generous appropriation was made by Congress, and on July 3, 1871, the expedition set sail from New London, Conn., carrying a full crew and several scientists. The vessel, which was named thePolaris, touched at severalplaces on the western coast of Greenland to secure additional dogs and skins suitable for arctic clothing, and then steamed north as far as seemed safe, to establish winter quarters preparatory to making a dash for the pole in the spring.
The vessel passed through Robeson Channel into the polar ocean, reaching 82° 11', then the highest point ever reached by a ship. Not finding a good harbor, Hall sailed south about fifty miles. He anchored near the Greenland shore to the lee of a stranded iceberg. Building material for a house and part of the stores were removed to the land in case anything happened to the ship. Then the ship was banked up with snow and part of the deck was covered with canvas to keep out the cold.
The weather being propitious, Captain Hall thought best to take a sledge journey to find the lay of the country. He ordered the dogs to be well fed, and accompanied by two other sledges advanced northward about fifty miles, making side trips to take observations. At the end of two weeks he returned seemingly perfectly well, but in a few hours complained of illness. Thirteen days afterward he died. The date of his death was November 8, 1871, just a little more than four months from the time he left the port of New London buoyant with hope.
The command of the expedition now devolved on Captain Buddington, a man of dissipated habits and lacking in discipline. During the winter and spring severe storms crashed the ice-pack against the sides of the vessel, causing it to leak. In the meantime exploring parties were sent out with sledges and boats, gathering not a little knowledge concerning the west coast of Greenland. Then the vessel began to leak badly, and Captain Buddington ordered all hands on board for return home.
Great fields of ice still covered the sea, and it was with extreme difficulty that the vessel made its way through themsouthward. A severe gale damaged the vessel still more, and as it seemed certain that it could not float much longer, preparations to abandon it and to move at once to the ice-floe were made.
At the dead of night, in the face of a fierce gale, a part of the ship's company and stores were transferred to the ice. Then the heaving billows broke the vessel loose from the floe, separating the men on the ice from those on the vessel. With eighteen companions Captain Tyson lived on the ice-floe which moved southward, breaking off piece after piece, for a period of six and one-half months, suffering incredible hardships from cold, hunger, and constant fear. Finally, they were sighted off the Labrador coast by the shipTigressand rescued in a starving condition. The story of this ice-floe journey of one thousand three hundred miles is one of the most thrilling in maritime annals. Fortunately, there were two Eskimos on the ice-floe skilled in the capture of seals, else the entire company would have starved to death, since but a small portion of the provisions had been transferred to the floe when the vessel parted from it. The devices for sustaining their lives during the journey form interesting reading. Strange to relate, no one was seriously ill and no deaths occurred during this remarkable ice voyage.
After drifting a while thePolariswas purposely beached on the Greenland shore and the stores placed on land, where a house was built in which to spend the second winter. In the spring two boats were constructed in which the company started southward along the coast, where they were finally picked up by a whaling vessel.
The conquest of the northeast passage was not achieved until the latter part of the century. In 1878 Baron Nordenskjold, a Swedish explorer commanding theVega, entered the Arctic and sailed eastward along the Russian and Siberian coast. Nordenskjold was the first navigator todouble Cape Chelyuskin, the northern cape of Asia. TheVegareached Bering Strait where she was nipped by the ice-pack. In the following spring she reached Japan in safety.
In 1879-80 Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka set out on an overland expedition northwestward for Hudson Bay, to gather knowledge concerning the great Arctic Plain of North America. Schwatka's was probably the longest sledge journey ever made up to that time. With a small party of men, his dog sledges covered a distance of three thousand miles. Schwatka found the skeletons of several members of Sir John Franklin's party. These he buried on King William Land.