Interesting read but his observations, though often interesting because of their characters and culture, lack any contemplation. And it’s a bit hard to read about “those Negroes” and the “uneducated Indians”. Yes, 1958 was a different year. Still.
During these voyages, the wives of the absent men remained faithful to their hsubands, the strict Targui moral code recommending death as a punishment for infidelity. However, a married woman whose husband was away was free to go at night to the graveyeard dressed in her finest apparel, lie on the tombstone of one of her ancestors, and invoke a certain spirit called Idebni, who always appeared in the guise of one of the young men of the community. If she could win Idebni's favor, he gave her news of her husband; if not, he strangled her. The Touareg women, being very clever, always managed to bring back news of their husbands from the cemetary.
Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is: Why go? The answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the baptism of solitude he can't help himself. Once he has been under the spell of the vast, luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surrounds can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatevr the cost in comfort and money, for the absolute has no price.
