Interest of Money
Application of the Superflux of Property or Capital.
In this country the law allows no interest of money; the consequence is, that the country is overwhelmed with usurers, who exact, generally, an oath of secrecy, and lend money on pledges of valuable and convertible merchandise: the interest paid on these negociations is most exorbitant; I have known five, six, eight, ten, and even twelve per cent, per month paid for the use of money! There is no paper money in this country; but a bank might be established at Mogodor, for the convenience of internal trade: the sine qua non of the bank should be, AN ADEQUATE CAPITAL. The advantages that would necessarily result from an establishment of this kind are incalculable; the paper of a bank, thus established, would be current in a short time, UNDER JUDICIOUS AND INTELLIGENT MANAGEMENT, in all the territories of Sudan, through the heart of Africa, through Bambâra, Timbuctoo, Houssa, Cashna, Wangara, Bernôh, Fas, and Marocco, and various other countries. The immense advantages of the carriage of paper through the Desert and through Sudan, convertible into cash at every commercial city, port, or district in a country like this, would greatly facilitate the operations of commerce; this must be evident to every political economist acquainted with the nature of commercial negociations in Africa.
The superflux of coin, consisting principally of Mexico dollars, and doubloons, (over and above the quantum necessary for the circulating medium of commercial negociations,) is either buried under ground by the owner, or converted into jewels for the ladies of his family; there is a general propensity to these subterraneous hordes; the bulk of the people, the lower classes in particular, have an idea that they will enjoy in the next world what they save in this; which opinion is not extraordinary, when we consider how many cases there are, wherein we see the sublimest capacity prostrate at the shrine of an early imbibed superstition. Many of these erring philosophers, therefore, attentive to the accumulation of riches, retire from this sublunary world with an immense immolated treasure, wherewith to begin, as they imagine, their career in the world to come!
“We,” they say, “convert our superflux to jewels and costly apparel for our females, and we have the gratification of seeing them well apparelled and agreeably ornamented. Moreover, a great part of our possessions is appropriated to the sacred rites of hospitality, which you Christians know not how to practise; for you worship the idol of ostentation; you invite your friends to dinner; you incur an intolerable and injudicious expense, and provide a multiplicity of dishes to pamper their appetites, sufficient for a regiment of muselmen; when nature and national beings, which men were born to be, require only one dish. Moreover, your sumptuous entertainments are given to those only who do not want; therefore is it an ostentatious and a wanton waste! We, on the contrary, that is to say, every good Muselman, gives one-tenth of his property to the poor; and moreover much of his substance is appropriated to the support, not of the rich and independent, who do not want it, but to (deefan) strange guests who journey from one country to another; insomuch that, with us, a poor man may travel by public beneficence and apt hospitality from the shores of the Mediterranean to the borders of Sahara, without a fluce 166 in (hashituh) the corner of his garment. 167 A traveller, however poor he may be, is never at a loss for a meal, several meals, and even for three days entertainment, wherever he travels through our country; and if any man were to go to a douar in any of the Arab provinces of our Sovereign’s empire, and not receive the entertainment and courtesy of a brother, that douar would be stamped with a stigma of indelible disgrace! Pardon us, therefore, if we say, you have not such hospitality in your country, although the great principle of (Seedna Aisa) our Lord Jesus, is charity.” 168 I should, however, observe that this hospitality is shown almost exclusively to Muhamedans.
Respecting women and horses, speaking of the treatment of them in England, they remark, that “England is a paradise for women, who are there exalted beyond the fitness of things; and it is (gehennum) a hell for horses, for those poor ill-treated animals in the hackney coaches and carts, need only to be seen to be pitied; the hard blows which they receive from their cruel masters are calculated to impress our minds with an opinion that we are in a land of barbarians, whereas you call yourselves a civilised people: You say you are such; your actions deny the fact, and we judge by actions, not by words or self-commendations. When, therefore, you pride yourselves on your superiority and civilisation the whole is a delusion; and when we hear you set forth these absurd pretensions, we are compelled to commiserate our common race, and to exclaim, Alas, poor human nature!” This is the verbatim reply that a very intelligent but irritated Muselman made to my animadversions on the absurdity of burying treasure. This gentleman’s father had been ambassador from the Emperor of Marocco to Great Britain, and to France; and had seen much of French, Spanish, and English manners, among the higher orders of society in those countries.
Too much cannot be said in commendation of this generous, open-hearted philanthropy of the Arabs, here described: but the intelligent reader will understand, that it applies particularly to the Arabs, or cultivators of the plains, in the empire of Marocco; and, in its large and unlimited extent, to the Bedouin or roving Arabs of the Sahara, and of Lower Suse, from whose (kabyles) clans, the Arabs cultivators are early emigrations; almost all of them having their original stock in the Sahara. It is also confined, almost exclusively, to Muhamedans, and does not, like the divine doctrine of Jesus Christ, with universal benevolence embrace all mankind, without distinction of party, sect, or nation;—a doctrine which has lately been put in considerable practice in our own country, by institutions supported by voluntary subscriptions for the destitute, for foreigners in distress, and for negroes; by institutions in aid and support of all needy persons labouring under sickness, or having need of surgical aid; by institutions for the encouragement of industry, for the refutation of vice and immorality; by institutions that reflect immortal honour on this country, and cast a lustre on the respective individuals who have contributed to all these heart-approving institutions, which are calculated to afford relief to almost every description of suffering humanity!!
Itinerant (tebeebs) doctors travel through the country to administer to the sick; which, however, are seldom found. They carry over their shoulders a leathern bag, containing their surgical apparatus, which consists of a lancet, a scarifying knife, and a caustic knife, or knife for burning: they scarify the neck, the forehead, or the wrists. The caustic knife is an instrument of very general application. They convert all gun-shot and other wounds, as well as sores, into burns, by heating the knife in the fire, and gently touching the circumference of the wound with it. This produces acute pain; but the Africans bear pain heroically: they say that this method prevents inflammation and festering. They perform, by caustic, extraordinary cures. I imagine this method would not agree with an European body, pampered with a variety of high food and luxurious living.
The inhabitants of this country break their fast with (el hassûa) barley-gruel; they grind the barley to the size of sparrow-shot, this they mix with water, and simmer over a slow fire two or three hours. This food is esteemed extremely wholesome, and is antifebrile. The Emperor takes this before he drinks tea in a morning: his father, Seedi Muhamed ben Abdallah, also, who drank none but fine hyson tea, never would drink that beverage till he had first laid a foundation of el hassûa.
The Arabs and Shelluhs, with whom el hassûa is generally used, urge its salubrity, by reporting that a physician alighted in a strange country, and when he arose in the morning, after performing his matins, he seated himself with some of the inhabitants, and, conversing, asked them how they lived, and with what food they broke their fast? “With el hassûa,” was the reply: “Then,” rejoined Esculapius, (Salam û alikume,) “Peace be with you; for if you eat el hassûa in the morning you have no need of a doctor:” and he immediately departed.
When I established the port of Santa Cruz, and opened it to European commerce, the gratitude and hospitality of the Arabs and Shelluhs of the province of Suse, was demonstrated in every way: so rejoiced were they to see their port, after an inactivity of thirty years, again re-established. If I rode out to visit any part of the country, the women, on my approach to a douar, would come out to a great distance with bowls of milk on their heads; others with bowls of honey, with thin scrapings of butter in them, and bread or cakes 169, similar to pancakes, baked in five minutes, on stones heated with the embers of charcoal. These greetings I received by tasting every bowl of milk, and dipping a bit of bread in the honey and eating it. The milk thus presented is emblematical of peace and amity; the honey of welcome: to refuse eating or tasting what is thus presented, is considered, among this patriarchal people, a great breach of good manners, an inexcusable want of courtesy, which they say none but a kaffer 170 would commit. They would then say, Birk eeaudee, birk attajar u straha, “Alight, I pray thee, alight, merchant! and rest yourself.”
In these halcyon days, these grateful people never knew when to cease offering presents. They sat on the ground in the refulgent meridian sun, and when I dismounted to walk to the shade of a tree, to partake of their hospitality, they would exhort me to shun the shade, (lie ê drab’k elbird) for fear it should give me cold. These Bedouin 171 Arabs of Suse and Sahara are the descendants of the ancient Arabs, whose bold and figurative language is the same that was spoken in Arabia twelve centuries ago, in the time of Muhamed.
Passing early one morning by a douar, in the territory of Howara, 172 I was invited to join a party to hunt the wild boar. The plains of Howara, between the city of Terodant and Santa Cruz, abound with boars: we started, in a few hours, seven of these animals, two of which were taken and killed. The dogs best calculated for this sport are what they call sereet telt, or the third race of greyhounds, which is a very strong dog. One of these, I observed, attacked the boars by the nape of the neck, and never left his hold till the other dogs came up to the attack: although the boar would toss him about in all directions, he never left his hold. The Arabs of Suse are very dextrous and active at this sport: they hunt with javelins; some have guns, which they fire when opportunity offers, but they never expend their powder and shot (batâl) vainly, as they express it, but always make sure of their mark. I could not but admire this celebrated (slogie) greyhound; which the Arab to whom it belonged observing, insisted on my taking it home to Santa Cruz, adding, that whenever I wished to hunt, to let him know, and he would accompany me. I offered him a present of money for the dog, which is what I never had refused before in the provinces north of Suse; but he declined the offer, saying he was more than recompensed already by the establishment of the port of Santa Cruz. “Myself, my family, my kabyl,” said he, “hail you as a father; (e moot alik) they will die in your cause.” No favour could have equalled that of re-establishing the commerce of Agadeer. These circumstances serve to show what reception might be expected from these people, if the British Government would negociate with the Emperor for the purchase of the port of Agadeer, or Santa Cruz, preparatory to the establishment of a commerce with Timbuctoo, and other regions of Sudan.
Notes
166 A fluce is a copper coin, one hundred of which are equal to sixpence English.
167 In the corner of his garment:—The Africans have no pockets; they carry their money in the corner of their garment, and tie it with a knot to secure it.
168 The Muhamedans acknowledge Jesus Christ to have been a Prophet that worked miracles; the indelible proof of his mission.
169 See a similar custom in Genesis, xxiii. 5—8.
170 Kaffer is the Arabic term for Infidel. All the idolatrous Negro nations are, by Muhamedans, denominated Kaffer, (or Caffres). Sing. Kâffer—plural Kaffer.
171 The Arabs of the vast plains of the empire of Marocco, who live in douars, or encampments, are emigrations from the original stock or clan in Sahara; who are the pure or Bedouin Arabs. Being established in the beautiful and productive plains of West and South Barbary, they soon forget their Bedouin customs, change their wandering, plundering habits, and become cultivators, and stationary; for the immense produce of their labour in these plains, which require no dung, nor any preparation but the plough, soon rewards their industry, so as to determine them to continue this new mode of life.
172 In the 815th year of the Hejira, an emigration from the Howara Arabs attacked, took possession of, and destroyed the city of Assouan, in Egypt.