Camel's Eye
Trekking through the
Moroccan Sahara
Jeffrey Tayler
(Houghton Mifflin)
The blue veils turned into a blue djellaba fluttering in the wind; its wearer appeared to be bobbing up and down on a Stairmaster. Then all at once --- and finally --- the figure in blue was a man on a bicycle, pumping his way across the ragg at high speed.
Too, there is the sense of tragedy: an extended drought over the last decade has devastated the Wadi Sasi, destroying oasis, ruining crops, killing the villages, driving men and women to the large cities of Morocco to work (or to beg).
Camel's Eye is a primer on the politics and history of Morocco, the habits and culture of desert dwellers, the music and poetry of their language, and the reality of the Islamic religion, (La ilaha illa Allah! La ilaha illa Allah!) --- the religion that no matter where they are, what is happening, no matter how much they are suffering, enjoins them to Praise God.
The desert dwellers are innately suspicious of each other: the Zagorans versus the Tuaregs, the Ruhhals versus the Saharawis, all versus the Berbers, the city dwellers, and the Nasrani (the foreigners). Yet almost everywhere they go, they are offered tea, food, water --- even from those who have so little.
The Moroccans --- like the Inuit with snow --- have dozens of different words for the desert:
- khal = barren terrain
- ragg = flat and sandy
- hidban = empty rolling land
- 'uruq = dunes (without vegetation)
- nibka or ghaba = dunes (with vegetation )
- mliss = flat smooth area suitable for camels
And the camels! In a place where one's wealth is measured by the number of these beasts one owns, in a place where one would certainly die without them, such is Tayler's complete Arabization (is there such a word?) that he falls in love with the three that carry them and their food and shelter: Hanan the obedient, Na'im the petulant, the "avid urinator," and Mabruk, who
carried the heaviest loads without complaining. I humored him and often brought him orange peelings on the sly or gave him a carrot or two from the couscous pot.
When all is said and done, you and I (and probably Tayler) will never know why he spent these traditional forty days wandering the wilderness. But he is an engaging traveling companion, has much to teach us about the culture and the people and where they have come from, and what makes it possible for them to survive.
If I ever decided to go trekking in the desert, I would hope you would have my head examined. But, after that, if I was dead-set on it, I would want you to remind me to take Glory in a Camel's Eye along as my guide and my inspiration.
