Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2 - Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's Government by James Richardson
page 54 of 316 (17%)
page 54 of 316 (17%)
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them take two or three female slaves. How is this superabundant supply
of the softer sex kept up? If I am noticing a mere temporary phenomenon, the destruction of men in the razzias may account for the disproportion. Besides, the Kailouees are always imparting fresh slaves into their country. The poor people of Tintalous are fed chiefly on the pounded grains of the herb _bou rekaba_. It is a real Asbenouee dish. Overweg made a supper of it one evening. I tasted it, and find it has a very strong flavour of herbs; that is to say, what is commonly imagined to be the flavour of herbs in general. The people now go a long way for wood. The tholukh-trees of the valley are not allowed to be cut down; they are always preserved as a resource for the time of drought and dearth, when the flocks can find no herbage in the valley. The boughs are at such junctures lopped off, and the flocks are fed on the leaves. Thus I have seen the goats and sheep fed on the tholukh-leaves on the plains of Mourzuk, as well as near this place. Another reason may induce En-Noor to save the tholukh-trees,--that there may be a perpetual shade and verdure in the valley of Tintalous. There are many finer valleys than this in Asben, and were the trees not preserved, it would be a very barren, unlively spot. This evening, two hours after sunset, Venus exhibited her most splendid phasis: the west, where she was setting, about half-an-hour before she disappeared, was lit up as if it was moonlight. On concealing the planet, the effect produced was that of the setting of the moon. Every star was eclipsed in the western circle of the heavens, I never saw anything before equal to this. I could here fully realise the words of Scripture, that the stars were made also "to give light upon the earth." |
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