Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/302

 284 Collectanea.

Myths Current in the Sahara Desert.

I picked up the following stories while on an expedition into the Sahara in 1900; most of them from Arabs of my caravan, or from the Touareg nomads whose camp I visited. They are all, I think — with one possible exception — of Touareg, that is to say of Berber, origin. Some of them I afterwards found reproduced in Le Sahara francais, by Bissuel, published in 1891 by Jourdan, Algiers, from which I have added a few items, distinguishing them in each case from what I gathered at first hand.

" Somewhere in the Touareg country " there is a valley strewn with stones which shine at night. It is infested by deadly snakes which can spring as high as the hump of a camel from the ground. They sleep among the rocks during the daytime, but emerge and attack anyone who enters the valley during the night, which is the only time when these stones can be distinguished from ordinary pebbles. The men who collect these stones enter the valley at night on camel-back and sew fleeces, with the woolly side out- wards, all over their camels, and over themselves up to the waist, for protection from the snakes. They carry a hollow reed and a bag of powdered charcoal, and when they see a luminous stone they place one end of the reed over it and pour a handful of charcoal down the tube, so that when they return during the day- time to gather the stones, they may be able to identify them from those which surround them. (From my Arab guide.)

In the Air district there is said to be an enchanted oasis {cf. the Garden of the Hesperides), some of the trees in which bear precious stones instead of fruit. In its midst is a magnificent palace with walls of porphyry, jasper, and jade. Splendid ara- besques cover the walls, lace-like tracery fills the windows, and its golden domes and minarets flash and sparkle in the sun. Foun- tains play all day in its courts and gem-like singing birds warble continually around it. It is inhabited by women " more beautiful than hoiiris" who appear on its roofs and beckon to those who visit the oasis to enter {cf. the Sirens). But no human being has yet entered that palace ; for whenever any one attempts to cross the threshold the building recedes before him, and continues to do so while he follows it about the oasis ; until at length, fascinated by those beautiful women, he wears himself out by following the palace round the oasis and falls exhausted and dies under its walls.