File:The gateway to the Sahara; observations and experiences in Tripoli (1909) (14598173980).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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ut the year I was inTripoH six francs per hundred kilos was a fairprice for the raw material. When the biddingopens in the early spring, the competition amongthe buyers is very keen, reaching sometimes ashigh as £3-8s-6d a ton. But it sometimes hap-pens that there is not a corresponding increasein its value in England, and the buyers at timessell at a loss. From the topmost bale of a pile of heat-soakedhalfa near one of the scales I watched the dayswork. These scales were huge levers. Througha loop of coarse rope suspended from the crosspoint of two rough-hewn beams, a third hunglazily balanced. At the larger end a chain andtackle containing a scale dangled to the ground.Near by the flapping broad-brimmed hat andofficious manner of an Arab at once stamped himas one in authority, a public weigher. By wordand gesture he would order a bale rolled out fromthe heap where the owner had deposited it. It was noosed in the tackle; a yell from theweigher, and a number of strapping Blacks ri56i
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Weighing esparto grass in the Suk-el-IIaha THE ESPARTO PICKERS sprang from below me like so many leopard catsupon the other more slender end of the beam.They held for a minute suspended in the air,others hung to their legs, the great beam trem-bled, then the monster bale at the other endslowly began to lift, and its human counter-weight sank gradually to the ground. Four hundred-weight called out the over-seer with a glance at the scale as he released thetackle. Crush! dropped the huge bale as it sentup a great puff of sand dust, which drifted awayin quiet space, powdering the shiny skins of twoBlacks. With remarkable strength they grap-pled the meshes with long iron hooks, whirledand rolled it beneath the scales to the other sideof the fence, where another relay bundled it endover end into its place. One cannot sojourn long in Tripoli withoutbeing impressed that it is a land of ancient tra-dition, a land where even to-day only the merefringe of modern civilization has touched one ort

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