The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-10-15
LIFE In an OASIS.

Uied Draa river gives rise to une of
the most charming GASES Of the S sahara,
with circumference of forty miles and
n population OF 25n.OOn. We are now
near the borders OF the great desert, as
It is called. Tits Is not such desert rs
Is pictured by The imagination of the
civilized American sand. and nothing
but sand, to the end of the chapier.
The desert Is. in reality, composed of
immense plains, analogous to the steppos
OF Russia. the pampas of South America
or the Great American desert of our
Western plains. There Ia no wood the
water is confined to few favored spots,
which necessarily become the hating
places OF travellers such as the great
oasis Of Tronatt. Even in the Sahara,
1t is only where running water is pres
ent that luxuriant vegetation and
producing fruit trees spring forth.
Some OF the smaller oases are pocket
editions of Paradise. After travelling
all day over dry and almost barren
vegetation, the sight of one of these,
with its bright green foliage and bril-
liant flowers, is refreshing indeed.
In our journeyings we Travelled
through mountain pass different from
anything that had ever seen before. 1t
was five PAGES in width. with perpen-
dicular natural marble walls on either
side, veined and polished and glistening
with various colors in the sun. Through
1t runs little stream with lovely green
banks, and an outside entrance which
effervesces in ones month like cham
payne. Anthony is also found in the
pass and gives rise TO an oasis called Tes
ma. A carbonic acid spring bubbles up
close to its southe. n vicinity, and pecu-
liar variety of sheep without wool. Quail
are very plentiful, and beautiful gay
feathered songsters of the sparrow
family are found in every house south of
the Atlas. They are of the capsa variety
and have sweet note, superior to the
nightingale, but cannot bear exile to the
north. Butterflies of unusual size and
most beautiful colors are found. often
measuring from four to six inches across
the wings. Mosquitoes and beetles are
plenty enough, and the cochineal insect,
which feeds on the cactus cochenillifera,
is gathered in great quantities and sold
10 the caravan merchants, to be used in
making the famous carmine colors OF
commerce.
Dates are very plentiful and are used
for food and for fattening horses and
camels. A camel load of them, 400 or
500 pounds, can be bought for O metkal,
forty cents. Olive oil, and similar
oil called argan, not SO good for eating,
but much used In lamps, are produced
in great quantities. Monkeys are nu-
merous and sometimes used as food. /
have eaten opossum in Kentucky, and
muskrat with the Indians on the Calu-
met in Illinois, and even tasted of rattle
snake, but l confess roasted monkey
t<<D Co. III.
it was too horribly like eating a young
baby. l found lion meat, however. to
be very palatable and nutritious. All
through Sahara, but especially in the
oasis of Seghronat, southwest of Bis
cara, and Tongourt, in the Oned oasis,
wheat, barley and beans are largely
cultivated. Grain Is cut just below the
ear, and trOdden out with oxen or
threshed with n fail. 1t is stored in
pits OF conical shape, dug in the ground,
and will keep in good condition for
years. Hawking by the use of falcons
and ostrich hunting are the aristocratic
amusements of the Sahara. Ostriches
are killed by light blow with a stick
on their featherless head, and when
closely pressed they run the head into
the sand to avoid this death blow, and
not to hide themselves from their enemy.
Receiving the blow upon their muscu-
lar bodies, they draw their head from
the sand, and are Oft with the speed of
the wind. Thus vanishes another of the
cherished myths of our childhood, i'm
bibeed from the geography and other
books.
Negroes are plenty in the Draa, and
are on an equality with the other races.
Here we begin 10 see the institution of
oil q Low ha bavrpht
for from $50 to $40, but good looking
young girl is more expensive, reaching
sometimes as high as 800. Wives are
not purchased as has been represented,
but the expectant husband pays to the
parents of his intended the amount OF
the bridal outfit or trousseau, which is
always returned If the parties are di-
vorced. No dowry is ever expected
with the wife, 50 that marriages dc con-
venancc ere unknown. The women
often marry at from twelve to fourteen.
| The young people never meet till the
wedding day, the negotiations being
made though other parties, there being
regular maj ket, | Ike Saratoga or a
London season. II, emily attended a
Moorish wedding, finding the young
bridegroom seated on platform alone
Mt one end of the room and looking very
foolish, While his friends and those OF
the bride frolicked and RECALLED them.
sesves below. After about twenty
four hours tie bride was
brought in, and the whole company es-
cortcd them with lamps and music to
the husbands home. No priest was
present aud no ceremony seemed neces-
sary except that tue men in the language
of Scripture. should take" the woman
and when not satisfied he "puts hei
away" The position of woman is the
key to a nations social state. Hard is
the life and sad the slavery of Arat
women, like all females in the pastoral
phase of society. No spiritual tidings
no tender regard for woman. Polygamy
the great bugbear of our times, is here
"a domestic institution" No Arab
however mean, permits his daughter tC
enter the service of another. The only
way TO obtain female servants is to TAXI
another wife. AS to the famous eastern
harem, that is an exclusive and fashion
able institution, kept up only by thu
grand sultan, the shereefs or other ricf
and influential personages, as a matter
of show and pride. The inmates ar,
generally very young girls, from sever
to twelve years of age, and are CAREFUL,
protected and educated, and given fo
wives TO the favorite officers OF the sui
tan or other high ignitary-Corre
spondence Chicago Times.