Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v108.djvu/143

paid the blackmail demanded by them in return for a safe-conduct and protection while in their territory.

Their fears are by no means ill founded, for graves of the victims of these raids and even whole cemeteries, with mounds of earth or mud pillars instead of gravestones, marking the places where caravans have been cut up, are frequently to be seen by the side of the Sarahan trade routes.

Owing, however, to the recent French occupation of the northern part of the Sahara, the roads leading into Algeria have become, comparatively speaking, safe. All the Tawarek men conceal their faces with a cotton mask, which is usually black in color. This mask is never removed even in the family circle. Whatever may be the origin of this curious custom, it certainly is one that has its advantages in a climate like that of the Sahara; for not only by covering the mouth and nostrils does it prevent evaporation and so enable the Tawareks to travel for long periods without drinking, but it shields the mouth and eyes from the flying sand during the violent storms which are so common in this region, and protects to some extent the eyes from the contrast in temperature between the day and the night, which is such a fruitful source of ophthalmic diseases.

On account of this peculiarity and of their marauding propensities the Tawareks have been nicknamed by the French "the masked pirates of the Sahara." But, like every one else, the Tawareks are a compound of good and bad. They are seen at their worst in their relations with their neighbors, for in their domestic circle they are almost model family men, and their good qualities are nowhere more apparent than in their treatment of their womenkind, which in many respects recalls the romantic and chivalrous customs of the feudal ages in Europe.

The young Tawarek gallant, mounted on his swiftest camel, armed with sword,

Arab Falconers