File:The gateway to the Sahara; observations and experiences in Tripoli (1909) (14784525232).jpg

Identifier: gatewaytosaharao00furl (find matches)
Title: The gateway to the Sahara; observations and experiences in Tripoli
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Furlong, Charles Wellington, 1874-
Subjects: Tripoli (Libya) -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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the accuracy of his knowledge. *Lah! He shook his head. *For that wasin the days of my fathers. Then the Arabs werea strong people! But I have a friend, old Hadji-Mohammed Gabroom, whose father often toldhim about it. If we find him now at his coffeeoff the Suk-el-Turc, he may tell us. Shall we go .^ Passing out into the hot glare of the early after-noon, a few minutes walk brought us to the Suk,where, just before one enters the Street of theTailors, and the shops of the workers in silverand brass, we came to a small coffee booth.Here, back in the farthest corner, wrapped in thenumerous folds of his brown baracan, squattedHadji-Mohammed Gabroom, a dried-up, sinewyold man, stroking his scraggly beard and suckingat a long pipe-stem. Looking out from underthe heavy overhanging brows, and almost lost inthe wrinkles of his tanned, sun-parched face, apair of black beady eyes glittered like two sandbeetles. After several salaams we drank ofproffered coffee and El-Ouachi stated our mis- (106)
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We came to a heaj) of . . . rust-eaten cannon THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA slon. The fascinating little eyes glowed likelive coals, as with almost a look of hatred theysearched me through. For a moment the firedied out of them and the old man seemed to losethe sense of his surroundings as though gropingin the long-forgotten past. Then, in the slow,measured manner of the Arab chronicler, hespoke: *Many times has my father told me the storythus: In the year of the Hegira, 1218, duringawasit (the second ten days of the month) of themonth Rajah, my son, the sails of strange shipsare seen to the north where the Khafkan andKhafikin (the eastern and western horizons)meet. The amtar (rains) have begun, the nightsare cold, and few people walk abroad. In thattime, there comes from Bengazi way an Americanship, which chases a felucca with one mast gone.The Arab Rais (captain) knows many passagesthrough the reefs and invites the big ship tofollow where the water is shallow. Allah wills!and the big shi

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