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Arid and Semi Arid Geomorphology 1st Edition Andrew
S. Goudie Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Andrew S. Goudie
ISBN(s): 9781107005549, 110700554X
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 26.12 MB
Year: 2013
Language: english
more information - www.cambridge.org/9781107005549
 ARID AND SEMI - ARI D G EOM O RPH OLO GY

Based on four decades of research by Professor Andrew S. Goudie, this volume

provides a state-of-the-art synthesis of our understanding of desert geomorphology.
It presents a truly international perspective, with examples from all over the world.
Extensively referenced and illustrated, it covers such topics as the importance of past
climatic changes, the variability of different desert environments, rock breakdown,
wind erosion and dust storm generation, sand dunes, fluvial and slope forms and
processes, the role of the applied geomorphologist in desert development and conser-
vation and the Earth as an analogue for other planetary bodies. This book is destined
to become the classic volume on arid and semi-arid geomorphology for advanced
students and researchers in physical geography, geomorphology, Earth science, sedi-
mentology, environmental science and archaeology.

andrew s. goudie is director of the China Centre at the University of Oxford and
an honorary Fellow of Hertford College and St Cross College, University of Oxford.
Goudie was professor of geography and a Fellow of Hertford College from 1984 to
2003. A distinguished physical geographer, he is the recipient of a Royal Medal from
the Royal Geographical Society in 1991, the DSc from Oxford in 2002, the Prize of the
Royal Belgian Academy in 2002, the Geological Society of America’s Farouk El-Baz
Prize for desert research in 2007 and the David Linton Award of the British Society
for Geomorphology in 2009. From 2005 to 2009, he was president of the International
Association of Geomorphologists and has also been president of the Geographical
Association, president of Section E of the British Association and chairman of the
British Geomorphological Research Group. He is also a former delegate of Oxford
University Press, former pro–vice chancellor and was Master of St Cross College,
Oxford (2003–2011). He has authored, co-authored or edited more than thirty books
on physical geography, including The SAGE Handbook of Geomorphology (2011),
Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction (2012), The Oxford
Companion to Global Change (2009), Encyclopedia of Geomorphology (2004) and
The Nature of the Environment (2001).
ARID AND SEMI-ARID
GEOMORPHOLOGY

ANDREW S. GOUDIE
University of Oxford
 cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107005549


C Andrew S. Goudie 2013

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2013

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Goudie, Andrew.
Arid and semi-arid geomorphology / Andrew Goudie, University of Oxford.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-00554-9 (hardback)
1. Geomorphology. 2. Deserts. 3. Arid regions. I. Title.
GB611.G674 2013
551.410915 4–dc23 2012047937

ISBN 978-1-107-00554-9 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party
Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.
 Contents

Preface page ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The History of Ideas 1
1.2 Climatic Conditions: Aridity 9
1.3 Causes of Aridity 10
1.4 Desert Rainfall 10
1.5 Desert Temperatures 14
1.6 The Antiquity of Deserts 15
1.7 Increasing Aridity 17
1.8 Quaternary Fluctuations 17
1.9 Lakes of the Quaternary 22
1.10 The Geography and Frequency of Change 28
1.11 Some Holocene Events 30
1.12 Short-Term Climate Fluctuations: ENSO and Other Phenomena 31
1.13 Vegetation Cover and Animal Activity 33
1.14 The Importance of Plate Tectonic Setting 34
1.15 Two Main Types of Desert Topography 35
1.16 The Human Dimension 39
2 Rock Weathering and Desert Surfaces 42
2.1 Rock Weathering Processes 42
2.2 Insolation, Thermal Fatigue and Dirt Cracking 42
2.3 Fire 49
2.4 Frost Weathering 49
2.5 Wetting and Drying Weathering 50
2.6 Salt Weathering 53
2.7 Chemical Weathering 62
2.8 Weathering by Biological Agencies 63

v
vi Contents

2.9 Solution Processes and Limestone: Karst 64

2.10 Dayas 66
2.11 Weathering Forms 68
2.12 Weathering Pits 69
2.13 Tafoni 71
2.14 Alveoles 75
2.15 Amphitheatres and Alcoves 76
2.16 Natural Arches 77
2.17 Polygonal Cracking (Tessellation or Alligator Cracking) 78
2.18 Rock (Desert) Varnish and Other Rock Coatings 79
2.19 Duricrusts 82
2.20 Nitrates 83
2.21 Gypsum Enrichment 86
2.22 Calcretes 90
2.23 Silcretes 94
2.24 Ferricretes 95
2.25 Desert Tufas and Stromatolites 95
2.26 Spring Mounds 98
2.27 Surface Types 99
2.28 Stone (Desert) Pavements 99
2.29 Takyrs 103
2.30 Biological Crusts 104
2.31 Inorganic (Rain-Beat) Crusts 105
2.32 Patterns 105
3 Aeolian Geomorphology 114
3.1 Introduction 114
3.2 The Spatial Variability of Wind Power 114
3.3 Past Wind Velocities 116
3.4 Dust Storms 117
3.5 Desert Loess 131
3.6 Pans 139
3.7 Yardangs 146
3.8 Inverted Relief 150
3.9 Rates of Deflation and Abrasion 152
3.10 Ventifacts 153
3.11 Coastal Sabkhas 153
3.12 Soil Erosion by Wind 156
4 Dunes 160
4.1 Introduction 160
4.2 Ergs (Sand Seas) 163
4.3 Anticyclonic Swirls, Whirls and Whorls 165
4.4 Ripples 165
 Contents vii

4.5 Dune Types 166

4.6 Major Controls on the Nature of Dune Type 166
4.7 Obstacle Dunes 170
4.8 Nebkhas 173
4.9 Lunettes 174
4.10 Reversing Dunes 176
4.11 Barchans 176
4.12 Transverse Ridges, Zibars and Dome Dunes 182
4.13 Parabolic Dunes 183
4.14 Linear Dunes 186
4.15 Star Dunes 190
4.16 Spatial Superimposition 192
4.17 Sand Sheets and Wind Streaks 193
4.18 Sources of Sand 193
4.19 Aeolianite and Miliolite 195
4.20 Dune Colour 197
4.21 Grain Shape and Size 198
4.22 Internal Structures of Dunes 201
5 Rivers and Slopes 204
5.1 Fluvial Processes and Forms: Introduction 204
5.2 Drainage Systems 205
5.3 Pediments 207
5.4 Alluvial Fans 213
5.5 Drainage Density 217
5.6 Badlands and Gully Erosion 219
5.7 Arroyos 222
5.8 Arid Zone Floodplains 224
5.9 Floodouts 227
5.10 Groundwater Sapping Forms 228
5.11 Long Profiles 229
5.12 Processes: Runoff Generation 230
5.13 Hydrophobicity 232
5.14 Sediment Yield and Rates of Denudation 232
5.15 Runoff and Erosion in the Negev and Judean Deserts 235
5.16 Sheetfloods 237
5.17 Debris Flows 238
5.18 Palaeofloods 238
5.19 Some Slope Forms: Hillslopes in Massive Rocks 239
5.20 Scarp and Cuesta Forms 241
5.21 Long-Term Rates of Overall Denudation from
Cosmogenic Nuclides 244
viii Contents

6 Applied Geomorphology in Deserts: Hazards, Resources and the Future 246

6.1 Introduction 246
6.2 Hazards: Dust Storms 248
6.3 Dust Control 252
6.4 Dune Migration and Encroachment 255
6.5 The Salt Weathering Hazard 261
6.6 Slope Instability 269
6.7 Fluvial Hazards 271
6.8 Subsidence 277
6.9 Hydrocompaction and Collapsible Soils 279
6.10 Lake Shrinkage and Expansion 280
6.11 Piping 282
6.12 Dam Problems 284
6.13 Future Climates 286
6.14 Geomorphology and Archaeology 292
6.15 Desert Landforms and World Heritage 294
6.16 Desert Landforms and Military Activity 298
6.17 The Search for Planetary Analogues 299
7 Regional Variety 303
7.1 Introduction 303
7.2 Sahara 303
7.3 The Libyan Desert 305
7.4 Eastern Africa 307
7.5 The Namib 308
7.6 The Kalahari and the Karoo 311
7.7 Arabia and the Middle East 313
7.8 The Thar 314
7.9 Central Asia 315
7.10 Taklamakan, Tarim and the Other Chinese Deserts 316
7.11 Helmand and the Seistan Basin 319
7.12 North American Deserts 319
7.13 Atacama, Altiplano, Monte, Patagonia and Caatinga 321
7.14 Australia 323
References 325
Index 449
 Preface

In previous books I have written about particular phenomena (e.g. dust storms) or
processes (e.g. salt weathering) that occur in deserts. I have also undertaken a regional
survey of the great warm deserts of the world, in which I explored what made particular
deserts distinctive in terms of their landscapes and evolution. The purpose of this new
volume is to produce a systematic synthesis on the landforms and land-forming
processes that occur in the world’s deserts. It has involved the digestion of a huge
amount of literature, as is demonstrated by the size of the reference list, but it also
includes material derived from my own travels and research over a period of years. I
have not attempted to cover the literature on high-latitude deserts.

ix
 Acknowledgements

Over the years I have been fortunate to be able to benefit from the assistance of a wide
range of desert scientists who have published with me, talked with me, sent me their
publications, been my students or traveled with me in the field. Among those I would
like to mention are:
Adrian Parker, Alayne Perrott, Alexander Shaw, Alice Goudie, Amy Carter, Amy
Goudie, Andrew Warren, Andrew Watson, A.S. Alsharhan, Ashok Singhvi, Asma
Al-Farraj, Ben Hickey, Bob Allison, Bridget Allchin, Cameron Petrie, Charles Koch,
Chris Pearson, Christian Velder, Cordula Robinson, Dan Yaalon, David Jones, David
Price-Williams, David Thomas, Denys Brunsden, Derek Kennett, Detlef Busche,
Dick Grove, Ed McKee, Elaine Wright, Farouk El-Baz, Frank Eckardt, Geneviève
Coudé-Gaussen, Gordon Wells, Graham Evans, Hang Gao, Heather Viles, Helen
Rendell, Ian Evans, Ian Livingstone, J. Al-Awadhi, Jean Poesen, Jennifer Lalley,
Joe Henschel, Joe Prospero, John Doornkamp, John Whitney, John Wilkinson, Jon
Holmes, Joseph Ballard, Julie Rich, Ken Pye, Kevin White, Klaus Heine, K.T.M.
Hegde, Lai ZhongPing, Mahmoud Ashour, Marilyn Robertson-Rintoul, Mark Taylor,
Martin Sands, Martin Todd, Mary Bourke, Mary Seely, Mike Summerfield, Monique
Mainguet, Nabil Embabi, Neil Roberts, Nick Drake, Nick Lancaster, Nick Middleton,
Nick Rosser, Nigel Winser, Olly Atkinson, Owais A. El-Rashidi, Paolo Paron, Pete
Magee, Peter Bush, Peter Fookes, Piotr Migoń, Raymond Allchin, Richard Bailey,
Richard Washington, Rita Gardner, Rob Sarre, Ron Cooke, Ron Peel, Sebastian
Englestaedter, Simon Armitage, S.N. Rajaguru, S. Samieh, Stephen Stokes, Steve
Fryberger, Surendra Singh, Susan Conway, Tex Reeves, Warren Wood, Yang Xiaoping
and Zhou Leping.
I am grateful to the following for permission to use their figures: Figure 2.19,
Professor Frank Eckardt of the University of Cape Town; Figure 3.3, John Wiley and
Sons; Figure 3.4, Elsevier; Figure 3.7, Elsevier; Figure 4.3, Nature Publishing Group;
Figure 4.15, Elsevier; Figure 5.8, Elsevier.

xi
 1
Introduction

The world’s arid lands are some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, and
their paucity of vegetation often makes it possible to see landforms and structures
with great clarity (Figure 1.1). In addition, they have many characteristics both in
terms of landforms and geomorphological processes that render them different from
other major environments (see, for example, Laity, 2008; Parsons and Abrahams,
2009; Thomas, 2011a). In this section we first consider how ideas about dryland
geomorphology have evolved, before moving on to a consideration of what desert
environments are like now and how they have varied over time.

1.1 The History of Ideas

The study of the geomorphology of arid lands has a long history and has been
truly international in scope. Its history has been characterised by rapid shifts in the
importance attributed to such processes as wind erosion and physical weathering.
It has also been characterised by differences in approaches adopted by different
national groups, by a tendency to concentrate on the bizarre and by a propensity to
develop a complex multinational terminology (Cooke et al., 1993). It also needs to be
appreciated that drylands cover around one-third of the Earth’s land surface and have
varied settings and environmental histories (Goudie, 2002), so different approaches
and emphases have developed in different countries. Some classic papers that reflect
this have been collected together in Goudie (2004).
In many desert regions, the landforms and processes are not necessarily so diag-
nostic of aridity or so different from landforms and processes encountered in more
‘normal’ humid environments. Most arid areas have experienced a great range of
climatic changes that have caused them to both expand and shrink. Nonetheless, the
roles of wind and salt are plainly very significant in certain drylands, and the limited
vegetation cover is a critical control of the operation of fluvial and slope processes.

1
2 Introduction

Figure 1.1 The Barstow Syncline in the Mojave Desert of California and an erosional
unconformity in the upper part of the section are revealed with great clarity as a result
of the limited vegetation cover. (ASG)

The impact of these changes on their landscapes and those of their neighbours has
often been profound.
Detailed studies of desert geomorphology began with exploration and colonial
expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. John Strong Newberry, one of
the greatest explorers of the Colorado Plateau in the 1850s, recognized these classic
desert landscapes as having been ‘formerly much better watered than they are today’
(1861, p. 47). Such work reached a climax when Gilbert and Russell examined the
desiccated lake basins that were such a feature of the western United States (see Orme,
2008, for a full discussion). Geologists of the U.S. Geological Survey made other
highly important investigations in the American Southwest. Especially influential was
the work of John Wesley Powell and Clarence Dutton on the landforms of the Colorado
Plateau. American scientists also contributed greatly to the development of knowledge
on desert aeolian processes (Udden, 1894; Free, 1911). Also remarkable was the work
of W.P. Blake on stone pavements, desert varnish, old lake basins, calcretes (caliche)
and wind grooving of rock surfaces (e.g. Blake 1855, 1904). Moreover, it was in the
American West that W.J. McGee (1897) drew attention to the role of sheetfloods on
 1.1 The History of Ideas 3

Figure 1.2 Johannes Walther was a German pioneer of desert geomorphology in the
early years of the twentieth century. (Source: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/info/
collections/archives/page5150.html) (accessed March 11, 2011).

pediment surfaces. Also notable were Gilbert’s studies in the Colorado Plateau on
rates of denudation in arid regions (Gilbert, 1876) (see Section 5.4).
The French acquisition of its North African territories – Algeria, Tunisia and
Morocco – led to some major expeditions into the great sand seas of the Sahara
and some fundamental studies of dune forms (Goudie, 1999c). As early as 1864,
Henri Duveyrier classified the main types of dune, related their orientation to that of
the winds, estimated their area and argued that much of the sand was the result of
intense rock disintegration (Duveyrier, 1864). French scientists were very active in
the western Sahara and accumulated a great deal of vital information on the full range
of desert landforms (see Gautier 1908 and Chudeau, 1909).
The Germans for their part took over South West Africa (now Namibia), and
individual German geomorphologists worked in the Middle East (e.g. J. Walther)
and in the Kalahari (e.g. Passarge, 1904). They made major studies of weathering
phenomena, wind erosion and the development of inselberg landscapes. Walther
(Figure 1.2) studied the deserts of North Africa, Sinai, the United States and Australia.
His Das Gesetz der Wüstenbildung in Gegenwart und Vorzeit (1900) was the first
4 Introduction

full-scale book devoted to desert geomorphological processes, and he championed

the role of such mechanisms as thermal fatigue weathering, salt weathering and
deflation.
In central Asia, the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin (1903) discovered wind erosional
landforms – yardangs – and the American geographer E. Huntington found dramatic
evidence for changes of climate in historical times (Huntington, 1907). Other influ-
ential work included that of Sir Aurel Stein on wind erosion (Stein, 1912) and Berkey
and Morris (1927) on pans and weathering in Mongolia.
With respect to the British, the most sustained work on desert geomorphology in
this pioneer era was undertaken by surveyors and geologists in the Western (Libyan)
Desert of Egypt, of whom Ball, Beadnell, Hume and King were the leading figures,
particularly in the study of dunes and weathering (Goudie, 2008b).
In Australia, Jutson was initially a major exponent of the role of wind in moulding
desert surfaces (see, for example, Jutson, 1917), contributing to the development of
salt lakes and leading to the wearing back of scarps. He recognized that wind operated
in tandem with salt weathering. Later, however, Jutson (1934) recognized the role of
fluvial processes in moulding the planation surfaces of the arid landscapes of Western
Australia (Brock and Twidale, 2011).
In the first six decades of the twentieth century, geomorphology as a whole was
often dominated by either those with an interest in long-term landscape evolution or
those who were concerned with the development of ideas of climatic geomorphology.
Towering figures such as W.M. Davis (1905, 1938) and W. Penck (1953) developed
models of landscape development that were relevant to arid regions, and debates
raged about the relative importance of wind and water erosion in creating desert
plains (see, for example, Bryan, 1923). The maverick American C. Keyes (1912)
was an especially vigorous and repetitive exponent of the power of wind erosion
(Goudie, 2012).
In continental Europe, the French and German schools of climatic geomorphology
sought to establish the broad links between climate and morphogenetic regions, and
notable figures included Birot, Dresch, Tricart, Cailleux and de Martonne in France,
and Passarge, Mortensen and Büdel in Germany. A body of important French work is
reviewed by Tricart and Cailleux (1969).
W.M. Davis is perhaps best known for his evolutionary model of landform devel-
opment – the cycle of erosion. This was originally developed in an essentially humid
temperate environment, but Davis recognized that it needed to be modified in other
types of environment where processes were different. Building on the work of
Passarge, a German geomorphologist who had worked in the Kalahari (Passarge,
1904), Davis saw wind action as a factor in the cycle’s operation under arid condi-
tions, especially in its later stages. He also, however, recognized the role of water,
especially in the earlier stages of the arid cycle. Thus he did not adopt the extreme
views of Keyes, but neither did he reject the role of aeolian denudation as Penck was
 1.1 The History of Ideas 5

to do (1953 translation, p. 327). The views of Davis (1905) can be appreciated by

considering these statements which relate to the progressive evolution of an arid area:

In the early stage of the arid cycle the relief is slowly diminished by the removal of waste from
the highlands, and its deposition on the lower gentler slopes and on the basin beds of all the
separate centripetal drainage systems. . . . Streams, floods, and lakes are the chief agencies in
giving form to the aggraded basin floors, as well as to the dissected basin margins in the early
stages of the cycle; but the winds are also of importance. (pp. 383–84)

He then goes on to describe the mature stage:

The obliteration of the uplands, the development of graded piedmont slopes, and the aggrad-
ation of the chief basins will be more and more extensive. (p. 387)

As the processes thus far described continue . . . the initial relief will be extinguished . . . the
plains will be interrupted only where parts of the initial highlands and masses of unusually
resistant rocks here and there survive as isolated residual mountains. (p. 388)

Finally, in old age:

During the advance of drainage integration the exportation of wind-borne waste is con-
tinued. . . . The tendency of wind-action to form hollows wherever the rocks weather to a
dusty texture would be favoured by the general decrease of the surface slopes, and by
the decrease of rainfall and of stream-action resulting from the general wearing down of
the highlands. . . . [R]ock masses that most effectively resist dry weathering will remain as
monadnocks – Inselberge, as Bornhardt and Passarge call them in South Africa. (pp. 390
and 392)

By the 1940s, however, the role of wind erosion in moulding desert landscapes was
becoming the subject of doubt, and Cotton (1942, p. 3), for example, remarked that
‘few if any major relief forms owe their origin or shape to wind scour and that
the sculpture by wind of features even of minor detail in the landscape is rare and
exceptional’.
In the 1930s, the High Plains of America, stretching up from Texas to the Dakotas,
had a run of years that were torridly dry and hot. They coincided with a phase
of agricultural intensification and extension that was facilitated by the widespread
introduction of the tractor, the combine and the truck after the First World War. This
created conditions for the Dust Bowl, which saw ‘black blizzards’ of topsoil being
stripped off agricultural lands recently subjected to ‘the busting of the sod’. This
disastrous decade led to the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service under the
directorship of H.H. ‘Big Hugh’ Bennett. In 1935, he addressed a Senate committee
in Washington, D.C., about the need for a soil conservation act. As he was speaking,
the sky darkened with the passage of a dust storm originating from the Great Plains
to the west, and so the act was recommended (Brink, 1951). This marked the start of
intensive work on the nature and dynamics of wind erosion of soil.
6 Introduction

Of particular note in this respect was the work conducted by W.S. Chepil and
his collaborators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wind Erosion Research
Center at Kansas State University, established in 1947. They were concerned with
establishing the fundamentals of soil movement by wind, the properties of soils
which influenced their susceptibility to wind erosion, the sedimentary characteristics
of dust storms and the effects of various land-cover treatments (mulches, field size,
maintenance of crop residues, type of ploughing, etc.). They also developed tech-
nology for advancing aeolian research, including dust samplers and portable wind
tunnels. This type of work was further developed by Dale Gillette and colleagues
(Marticorena, 2008).
In addition, after the Second World War a number of countries established research
stations in their own desert regions. These permitted long-term monitoring and
provided bases for sustained investigations. Such stations included those at Jodphur in
India, Bardai in the central Sahara, Gobabeb in the Namib, Sidi Boqer in the Negev,
Fowlers Gap in New South Wales (Australia), the Jornada Experimental Range in
New Mexico, the Walnut Gulch experimental watershed in Arizona, the Zzyzx station
of California State University, the Desert Institute of Turkmenistan, the Taklamakan
Desert Research Station in north-west China and the Lanzhou Institute of Desert
Research. Indeed, a feature of the last three decades has been the impressive growth
of high-quality research by Chinese colleagues.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO)
undertook land-resource surveys of the interior drylands, and these surveys had a
major geomorphological component. In the UK, groups of geomorphologists were
employed as consultants to advise on building developments in the Middle East that
resulted from the oil boom of the 1960s onwards, developing studies of, for example,
flood hazards, slope instability and salt weathering of foundations (Cooke et al., 1982).
One of the most striking developments in recent decades, however, has been the
growth of process studies. In some respects this mirrors developments in geomor-
phology as a whole, but in other respects desert geomorphology was ahead of the
rest of the discipline, largely because of the fundamental studies of sediment move-
ment by wind undertaken in the field as well as the wind tunnel initiated by R.A.
Bagnold in the 1930s (Bagnold, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1941). Wind tunnel research has
generated a great deal of fertile research, some of it on the scale of individual grain
transport. Nickling and McKenna-Neuman (1999) provide good reviews of this type
of work. Recent years have also seen many detailed studies of weathering processes,
including salt weathering (see reviews in Goudie and Viles, 1997), sediment move-
ment on slopes and in channels and dust transport and deposition (see the review
by McTainsh, 1999). The data-logger revolution has facilitated process studies in the
field by enabling monitoring of wind conditions, temperature and humidity cycles as
well as sediment movement (Livingstone et al., 2007).
 1.1 The History of Ideas 7

In the 1960s and 1970s, some remarkable work was done in the Negev Desert
(see Section 5.15). Scientists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem applied to
arid environments the developments in quantitative process geomorphology that were
being made at that time. Through intensive monitoring of conditions on slopes and in
channels, they began to give a clear indication of how runoff and erosion occurred in
dryland basins. A leading figure was A. Schick, who developed studies of the effects
of floods and who set up experimental catchments that provided some decades of data
(see, for example, Schick and Lekach, 1993). Also important was the work done by
Evenari et al. (1982) on the hydrological conditions that had permitted runoff farming
in arid areas by Nabatean farmers.
Yet another major influence on studies of desert geomorphology in recent years has
been the development of remote sensing. Air photography was essential for providing
information on large tracts of terrain that were inaccessible on the ground, and it
was especially useful in ascertaining dune patterns (see Goudie, 1999c, pp. 7–8 for a
review). Satellite-borne remote sensing became increasingly important in the 1970s
for, inter alia, mapping dunes at a regional and subcontinental scale, for tracing dust
events and for investigating fluctuations in areas inundated by lakes. Livingstone et al.
(2010) provide an illustration of the wealth of databases on landform morphology that
can now be assembled based on remote-sensing and digital-elevation models.
Beginning in the 1970s, geomorphologists sought analogues for Martian features
on Earth, and this gave a considerable boost to studies of a range of arid zone
processes and phenomena, including sapping phenomena (Laity and Malin, 1985),
salt weathering (Malin, 1974) and aeolian forms (see Section 6.17). The U.S. space
programme enabled the geomorphology of Mars to be investigated in detail for the
first time. The images revealed volcanoes, lava plains, immense canyons, cratered
areas, evidence of surface water and a whole range of wind-formed features. The
aeolian phenomena of Mars were indeed both diverse and impressive (Wells and
Zimbelman, 1997). Dust events range in size from dust devils to dust storms that may
obscure the entire planet. Extending from many topographic highpoints, especially
crater rims, are light (depositional) and dark (erosional) wind streaks. Yardangs are
also plentiful, especially on the equatorial plains. The dunes on Mars, many of which
occur in a large dunefield that encircles the northern polar cap, are largely barchanoid
and transverse forms. Aeolian features are known from other parts of the solar system,
including Titan, and have been reviewed by Greeley and Iversen (1985) and Craddock
(2011).
Since the Second World War, the ability of desert geomorphologists to date phe-
nomena has expanded markedly. Such techniques as radiocarbon and uranium series
dating have been applied to desert sediments as they have been to other environ-
ments, but luminescence dating has proved to be particularly useful for dating dune
sands and other aeolian materials. Optical dating (Figure 1.3) is now used routinely
8 Introduction

Figure 1.3 The collection of samples from aeolian deposits (such as this dune sand
in the United Arab Emirates) for optical dating has revolutionized our knowledge of
the timing and rates of dune deposition. (ASG)

to provide dates that enable phases of dune accumulation to be established as well as

the rates at which dunes accumulate (Singhvi and Porat, 2008). On longer timescales,
cosmogenic nuclides have been used extensively to date surfaces, to estimate rates
of erosion, to date lake shorelines and to estimate sand residence times in dunefields
(see, for example, Wells et al., 1995; Fujioka et al., 2005; Nishiizumi et al., 2005;
Kober et al., 2007; Hall et al., 2008; Vermeesch et al., 2010; Kurth et al., 2011; L.A.
Owen et al., 2011) (see also Section 5.21).
 1.2 Climatic Conditions: Aridity 9

Finally, environmental change has become an increasingly important field of

research. Geomorphologists have become very involved with the study of anthropo-
genic degradation of desert surfaces (desertification). They have also become increas-
ingly interested in the evidence for and causes of natural changes in climate, a quest
that has been facilitated by increasing availability of high-resolution dating techniques
(e.g. optical dating) and by studies of long-term sediment sequences in ocean cores
and lake basins. There is also a fascination regarding how deserts may be impacted
by possible future global warming (see Section 6.13).

1.2 Climatic Conditions: Aridity

Drylands, which cover about a third of Earth’s land surface, occur in every continent
(Goudie, 2002). Predominantly, because precipitation is low, there is a severe shortage
of moisture. In some deserts, aridity also results from high temperatures, which means
that evaporation rates are great (Mainguet, 1999). Good reviews of desert meteorology
and climates are provided by Warner (2004) and Nicholson (2011).
Aridity can be defined by the water balance concept. This is the relationship
that exists between the inputs of water in precipitation (P), the losses arising from
evaporation and transpiration (evapotranspiration) (Et ) and any changes that occur in
storage (soil moisture, groundwater, etc.). In arid regions there is an overall deficit in
the annual water balance, and the size of that deficit determines the degree of aridity.
The actual amount of evapotranspiration (AEt ) that occurs varies according to whether
there is available water to evaporate, so the concept of potential evapotranspiration
(PEt ) has been devised. This is a measure of the evapotranspiration that could occur
from a standardized surface never short of water. The volume of PEt varies in response
to four climatic factors: radiation, humidity, temperature and wind. Thornthwaite
(1948) developed a general aridity index based on PEt : When P = PEt throughout
the year, the index is 0. When P = 0 throughout the year, the index is –100. When
P greatly exceeds PEt throughout the year, the index is +100. Areas with values
below –40 are classified as arid, those between –20 and –40 as semi-arid and those
between 0 and –20 as subhumid (Meigs, 1953). The arid category can be subdivided
into arid and extreme arid, with the latter being defined as the condition in any locality
where at least twelve consecutive months without any rainfall have been recorded,
and in which there is not a regular seasonal rainfall rhythm. Extremely arid areas,
such as the Atacama, Namib, inner Arabia, the central and eastern Sahara and the
Taklamakan, cover about 4 per cent of Earth’s land surface, arid about 15 per cent and
semi-arid about 14.6 per cent.
In addition, deserts can be classified on the basis of their proximity to the oceans
or their continentality. Coastal deserts, such as the Namib or the Atacama, have very
different temperatures and humidities from those of continental interiors. They have
modest daily and seasonal temperature ranges and are subject to fogs. They also have
10 Introduction

very low rainfalls. In addition to the coastal and inland deserts of middle and low
latitudes, there are also the cold polar deserts. The precipitation of the Arctic regions
can be as low as 100 mm per year, and at Vostok in Antarctica it can be less than
50 mm.

1.3 Causes of Aridity

Most deserts are dry because they occur where there is subsiding air, relative atmo-
spheric stability and divergent air flows at low altitudes associated with the presence
of great subtropical high-pressure cells around latitude 30◦ (Nicholson, 2011). Such
areas are only infrequently subjected to precipitation-bearing disturbances and depres-
sions – either from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) or from the belt of
mid-latitude depressions associated with the circumpolar westerlies. The trade winds
that blow across these zones cause evaporation, and because of the trade wind inver-
sion they are areas of subsidence and stability.
These global tendencies are often reinforced by more local factors. Of these,
continentality can be dominant and plays a part in the location and character of
the deserts of areas such as central Asia. The rain shadow produced by mountains
ranges can create arid areas in their lee, as in Patagonia, where the Andes have an
influence. Other deserts are associated with cold currents offshore (e.g. Namib and
the Atacama). Winds that blow onshore tend to do so across cold currents (e.g. the
Benguela and the Peruvian) and so are stable because they are cooled from beneath;
they also have a relatively low moisture-bearing capacity. They reinforce the stability
produced by the dominance of subsiding air. Aridity may also be reinforced by the
high reflectivity (albedo) of desert surfaces themselves. This may cause net loss of
radiative heat, create a horizontal atmospheric temperature gradient along the desert
margin and induce circulation systems that either induce or reinforce subsidence.
Finally, atmospheric dust palls may have a positive feedback effect, being both a
consequence and an accentuator of aridity (Xu et al., 2011).

1.4 Desert Rainfall

The main characteristics of deserts are caused by the very low levels of rainfall, and
these are a particular feature of some coastal deserts. For example, mean annual totals
at Callao in Peru are only 30 mm, at Swakopmund in Namibia only 15 mm and at Port
Etienne in Mauritania only 35 mm. Years may go by in such areas of extreme aridity
during which no rain falls at all. The most intense aridity occurs in northern Chile,
which receives less than 10 mm of rainfall per annum. Indeed, the climate station
at Quillagua (mean annual rainfall 0.05 mm) can lay claim to be the driest place on
Earth (Middleton, 2001). Very low precipitation amounts are also found in the centre
 1.4 Desert Rainfall 11

of some great deserts. In Egypt there are stations where the mean annual precipitation
only amounts to 0.5 mm, and parts of the Tarim Basin in China have only 17 mm of
precipitation per annum (Dong et al., 2011).
Another very important characteristic of desert rainfall is its highly variable
temporal character. This inter-annual variability (V) can be expressed as a simple
index:
the mean deviation from the average
V (%) = × 100
the average
Whereas European humid temperate stations may have a variability of less than 20
per cent, variability in the Sahara ranges from 80 to 150 per cent. There are some
differences in the variability of rainfall for any given mean annual rainfall between
deserts, with a general, although not universal, tendency for low latitude, summer
rainfall deserts to be significantly more variable than higher latitude, winter rainfall
ones (Van Etten, 2009). Four regions – the Thar, Namib-Kalahari, Somali and northern
Australian deserts – are significantly more variable than all others. In the case of the
Lake Eyre Basin in Australia, the coefficient of variation of the rainfall is 60 per cent
greater than that found for stations located in arid regions in the rest of the world
(McMahon et al., 2008a).
A graphic illustration of the inter-annual variability of rainfall in some dryland areas
is provided by the record for Los Angeles, California. For the period from 1877–78
to 2006–07, annual rainfall during the hydrological year ranged from as high as 970
mm (in 1883–34) to only 110 mm (in 2001–02).
The considerable variability in rainfall amounts and intensities is reflected in
changes in vegetation cover, runoff and sediment yields. Polyakov et al. (2010),
for example, found that in semi-arid Arizona, during a thirty-four-year period,
annual sediment yields varied between 0.85 t ha−1 and 6.69 t ha−1 , while
Nichols (2006), also working in Arizona, found that in one catchment during a
forty-seven-year period, sediment yield ranged from a low of 1.2 m3 ha−1 to a high
of 5.32 m3 ha−1 .
The high temporal variability of desert rainfall means that from time to time,
although mean rainfall levels are so low, there can still be individual storms of
surprising size, and flash floods can play a very important role in sediment mobilization
(Vanmaercke et al., 2010). Indeed, maximum falls in twenty-four hours may approach
or exceed the long-term annual precipitation values. For example, at Chicama in Peru,
where the mean annual precipitation over previous years had been a paltry 4 mm,
in 1925, 394 mm fell in one storm. Similarly, at El Djem in Tunisia (mean annual
precipitation 275 mm), 319 mm fell in three days in September 1969, causing severe
flooding and creating great geomorphological changes. In June 1965, Plum Creek
in Colorado, which has a mean annual rainfall of c 400 mm, received 360 mm
12 Introduction

of rainfall in just four hours (Osterkamp and Costa, 1987). In July 1981, Bassi in
the Thar Desert of India received 560 mm in twenty-four hours, 93 per cent of its
mean annual rainfall (Dhar et al., 1982). In August 2006, Jaisalmer (average annual
rainfall 210 mm) received two separate daily falls of 130 and 140 mm each (Rao
et al., 2011). The Pakistan floods of July–August 2010 were associated with large
rainfall events in the Indus catchment. For instance, 274 mm of rain fell on July 29
in Peshawar, where the mean annual rainfall is 274 mm. In October 2004, Sedom
in the Negev, which has a mean annual rainfall of 46 mm, received 74 mm in about
two hours (Greenbaum et al., 2010). In April 2006, the desert town on Luderitz
in southern Namibia received 102 mm, about six times its average annual rainfall
(Muller et al., 2008), while further north, at Gobabeb on March 11, 2011, 49.5 mm
of rain occurred in just two hours, more than double the annual mean. In June 2007,
Cyclone Gonu struck eastern Oman, and dumped up to 610 mm in one storm in an
area where the mean annual rainfall is around 70 mm (Abdalla and Al-Abri, 2010).
In the Atacama Desert, storms in the summer of 2001 produced more than 400 mm
of rainfall in areas where the mean annual rainfall was around 150 mm (Houston,
2006). Severe El Niños, like that of 1997–78, can have a remarkable effect on rainfall
amounts. This was shown with particular clarity in the context of Peru (Bendix
et al., 2000), where normally dry locations suffered huge storms. At Paita (mean
annual rainfall 15 mm) there were 1,845 mm of rainfall, while at Chulucanas (mean
annual rainfall 310 mm) there were 3,803 mm. Major floods resulted (Magilligan and
Goldstein, 2001).
Not all desert rainfall occurs as storms of such ferocity, however. Indeed, contrary
to a common perception, most of it falls in storms of low intensity. This is clear
when one considers the rainfall statistics for the Jordanian Desert and Death Valley
in California (Figure 1.4). Both these areas have very low rainfall in terms of mean
annual levels (102 and 67 mm, respectively), yet on average rain falls on twenty-six
and seventeen days respectively, so that the mean rainfall event tends to be only 3–4
mm – which is much the same as for London. Table 1.1 shows the average rainfall per
rainy day for a range of deserts, with figures ranging from around 4 mm per rainy day
for temperate deserts to more than 9 mm per rainy day for tropical deserts. Nicholson
(2011, p. 191–2) reports that the contribution of daily rainfall events less than 5 mm
to mean annual rainfall ranges from 76 per cent in the Chihuahuan Desert to 85 per
cent in the Sonoran and to 95 per cent in the Mojave.
Precipitation in arid zones, in addition to showing temporal variability, also shows
considerable spatial variability. For this reason it is often described as being ‘spotty’.
The spottiness is especially common in areas where localized convectional cells occur
(Sharon, 1972).
In coastal deserts, with cold currents offshore, the moisture provided by fogs may
augment that produced by rain (see Section 2.5). In the coastal fringes of Namibia,
 1.4 Desert Rainfall 13

a) b)
% %
80 105 80

*Number of precipitation events over *Number of precipitation events over

70 the 5-year period starting 70 the 10-year period starting
October 1960 October 1963

60 Mean fall per storm 3.84 mm 60 103 Mean fall per storm 3.9 mm

Mean annual fall over period 102 mm Mean annual fall over period
50 50 67.1 mm

40 40

30 30

20 21 20
27

10 10 11 13
5 6
2 4 3 2
0 0 1 1 01
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 50 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
Precipitation (mm) Precipitation (mm)

Figure 1.4 The amount of rain falling in each rainy day for two desert locations: (a)
H4, Jordan: (b) Death Valley, California, USA. (From Goudie, 1984a, fig. 5.2)

the mean annual fog precipitation (35–45 mm) may exceed that from rain, and the fog
may occur on up to 200 days in the year and extend more than 100 km inland. In Peru,
the fogs and low cloud provide enough moisture to support a growth of vegetation in
what would otherwise be a hyperarid habitat.

Table 1.1 Rainfall per rainy day in arid areas

Range of mean Range of number Average rainfall

Number of annual rainfall of rainy days per rainy day
stations in (mm) (30-year >0.1 mm per over 30 years
Area arid zones average) year (mm)
Former USSR 12 92–273 42–125 3.56
China 6 84–396 33–78 4.51
Argentina 11 51–542 6–155 5.41
North Africa 18 1–286 1–57 3.82
West Africa 20 17–689 2–67 9.75
Kalahari 10 147–592 19–68 9.55
Total 77 1–689 1–155 6.19
14 Introduction

Table 1.2 Average mean monthly temperatures (◦ C) of coastal deserts

Month Tarfaya (Morocco) Arica (Chile) Walvis Bay (Namibia)

J 16 23 17
F 16 23 18
M 17 22 17
A 18 20 16
M 18 18 16
J 19 17 15
J 20 16 14
A 20 16 13
S 20 17 13
O 20 18 13
N 19 20 15
D 16 21 16
Range 4 7 5

1.5 Desert Temperatures

According to their type, deserts have a wide range of temperature conditions. Interior
deserts can be subjected to extremes of temperature, both seasonally and diurnally,
that are not equalled in any other climatic region, while coastal deserts tend to have
relatively low seasonal and diurnal ranges. Here, the climate is modified and moderated
by the presence of cold currents and upwelling. Average monthly temperature ranges
over the year are low (Table 1.2), being about 4◦ C. Daily ranges in such stations
are also low, often around 11◦ C, and only about half what one would expect in the
Sahara. The mean annual temperature values are also generally moderate (c 19◦ C
in the Atacama and 17◦ C in the Namib). By contrast, great extremes of temperature
can occur in interior deserts, with maximum shade temperatures exceeding 50◦ C.
Temperatures in excess of 37◦ C may occur for many days on end in the summer, but
because of the clear skies there may be a marked reduction of temperature at night,
and daily ranges of 17–22◦ C are normal. In the winter in high-altitude interior deserts,
frost can occur frequently.
Whereas some deserts show great daily and seasonal ranges in air temperatures,
ground surface temperatures show even greater ranges, which may have many impli-
cations both for rock weathering and for plant and animal life. Satellite-borne sensors
now enable us to have a global picture of maximum land surface temperatures, and
desert areas such as western North America, the Sahara, Egypt, India, the Middle
East, the Gobi and much of Australia regularly exceed 60◦ C. Tracts of the Iranian
deserts regularly exceed 70◦ C in the summer months, and this regularly has the
largest contiguous area of surface temperatures above 65◦ C on Earth. Other notable
temperature hotspots include the interior of Queensland and the Turpan Basin in China
(Mildrexler et al., 2011).
 1.6 The Antiquity of Deserts 15

1.6 The Antiquity of Deserts

Desert areas have changed through time, so present conditions of the type just outlined
may not necessarily be those that have moulded desert surfaces. As Williams et al.
(1998, p. 174) wrote:

Many desert landforms are exceedingly old. The vast desert plains of the central and western
Sahara have been exposed to subaerial denudation for well over 500 million years, . . . as have
the Precambrian shield deserts of the Yilgarn Block and the Pilbara in Western Australia. It
is misleading to consider such well-known desert monoliths as Ayers Rock (Uluru) in central
Australia, or the granite inselbergs of the Sahara, as diagnostic of aridity, for they owe their
present morphology to prolonged and repeated phases of weathering and erosion under a
succession of former climates, few of which are particularly arid.

Indeed, the German climatic geomorphologist Büdel (1982) believed that the great
landscapes of Australia and the Sahara were largely moulded by moist, seasonal
tropical conditions that had characterised the Tertiary. He felt that Pleistocene aridity
had been too short lived to achieve much landscape change. It is therefore necessary
to consider their palaeoclimatic history.
Although formerly many deserts were regarded as a result of Holocene (post-
glacial) progressive desiccation, it is now clear that our present deserts are old (Goudie,
2002). The climatic development of the Namib and the Atacama coastal deserts was
closely related to post-Jurassic plate tectonics and sea-floor spreading in that the
degree of aridity must have been largely controlled by the opening up of the seaways
of the Southern Ocean, the location of Antarctica with respect to the South Pole and
the development of the cold Benguela and Peruvian currents offshore. Arid conditions
have existed in the Namib for some tens of millions of years, as is indicated by the
Tertiary Tsondab Sandstone – a lithified mass of dune sand that underlies the current
sand sea (Ward, 1988).
The Atacama’s aridity may have started in the Eocene, becoming more profound in
the middle to late Miocene (Alpers and Brimhall, 1998; Rech, Quaid and Betancourt,
2010). There were perhaps two crucial factors responsible for its initiation: the uplift
of the Andes during the Oligocene and early Miocene and the development around
15–13 Ma of the cold offshore Peruvian current as a result of ice buildup in Antarctica.
The former produced a rain-shadow effect (Placzek et al., 2009; Rech et al., 2010)
and helped to stabilize the south-eastern Pacific anticyclone, while the latter provided
the cold waters that are necessary for hyperaridity to develop (Alonso et al., 1999).
Of these two factors, the development of a cold offshore current is given greater
significance by Garreaud et al. (2010). One line of evidence for this early initiation
of the Atacama, in comparison with many of the world’s deserts, is the existence of
gypsum crusts preserved beneath an ignimbrite deposit that has been dated to c 9.5
million years old (Hartley and May, 1998). The ready solubility of gypsum implies
16 Introduction

the existence of aridity ever since that time. The long-term stability/persistence of an
arid climate is suggested by the fact that cosmogenic nuclide studies show some of
the oldest exposure ages found anywhere on Earth, ranging between 9 and 37 million
years (Kober et al., 2007; Placzek et al., 2009). Studies of lake basins also indicate
drying in the late Miocene (Saez et al., 1999 Alonso et al., 1999; Diaz et al., 1999;
Gaupp et al., 1999; May et al., 1999). However, there is some controversy relating to
this issue on sedimentological grounds. Hartley and Chong (2002) have argued that
the development of hyperaridity was a late Pliocene phenomenon, associated, as in
other deserts, with global climate cooling. They recognized, however, that a semi-arid
climate persisted from 8 to 3 Ma, punctuated by a phase of increased aridity at around
6 Ma. Amundson et al. (2012) also believed that although the area had been dry
since the Miocene, full hyperaridity set in only in the late Pliocene to early Holocene,
causing stream incision and erosion by water to be reduced to insignificance. In
Argentina, sustained aridity appears to have set in by 5 Ma (Bywater-Reyes et al.,
2010).
The timing of desert initiation in North America is still a matter of considerable
uncertainty (see Wilson and Pitts, 2010, for a review), although it is possible that some
may have existed as far back as 15 Ma. Uplift of the Sierra Nevada was an important
factor in producing a rain-shadow effect (Smith, 2009).
In the Sahara, sediment cores from the Atlantic contain dust-derived silt indicating
that a well-developed arid area, producing dust storms, existed in North Africa in the
early Miocene, around 20 Ma (Diester-Haass and Schrader, 1979). Desert deposits
are also found in the Mio-Pliocene strata of the Chad Basin (Schuster et al., 2009).
It is possible that uplift of the Tibetan Plateau at this time (see the next paragraph)
played a role in this by creating a strong counterclockwise spiral of winds that drove
hot, dry air out of the interior of Asia across Arabia and northern Africa (Ruddiman,
2001, p. 388).
In China, Miocene uplift and a resulting transformation of the monsoonal circula-
tion is one of the mechanisms that caused aridification (Zhang and Sun, 2011; Miao
et al., 2012). The uplift of mountains and plateaux in Tibet and North America may
have caused a more general change in precipitation in the late Miocene, as is made
evident by the great expansion of C4 grasses in many parts of the world (Pagani
et al., 1999) and the microbial lipid evidence for alkalinity and drought in the Tibetan
Plateau region (Xie et al., 2012). The aeolian red clays and loess of China may have
started to form around 7.2–8.5 Ma (Qiang et al., 2001), and while the Tarim Basin
also has aeolian dune sediments dating to c 8 Ma (Zheng et al., 2010), it is now
recognized that some aeolian deposits in the far north-west of China may even date
back to c 24–25 Ma (i.e. the late Oligocene) (Sun et al. 2010; Qiang et al., 2011).
Dupont-Nivet et al. (2007) have suggested that some aridification of the Tibetan
Plateau was associated with widespread global cooling that took place around 34 Ma
at the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Another contributing factor may have been the
 1.8 Quaternary Fluctuations 17

late Eocene retreat of the Paratethys Sea from the Tarim Basin (Bosboom et al., 2011;
Zhuang et al., 2011).
In India and Australia, latitudinal shifts caused by sea-floor spreading and contin-
ental drift led to moist conditions during much of the Tertiary. For example, plant
fossils show that rainforest covered much of central Australia until 25–30 Ma (Fujioka
and Chappell, 2010). However, India and Australia entered latitudes where conditions
were more arid in the late Tertiary. Isotopic studies in the Siwalik foothills of Pakistan
illustrate increasing aridity in the late Miocene, where C3/C4 analyses show a change
from a C3 (mainly forested) setting to a C4 (mainly grassland) setting at about 7 Ma
(Quade et al., 1989). The upward and outward growth of the Tibetan Plateau may also
have contributed to decreasing monsoon rainfall over north-western India since c 10
Ma (Molnar and Rajagopalan, 2012).

1.7 Increasing Aridity

In many regions aridity intensified in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene. It became a
prominent feature of the Sahara in the late Cenozoic, partly because of ocean cooling
and partly because the buildup of ice caps created a steeper temperature gradient
between the equator and the poles. This led to an increase in trade-wind velocities
and in their ability to mobilize dust. DeMenocal (1995) recognized that there was an
acceleration in dust loadings in ocean cores off the Sahara and Arabia after 2.8 Ma and
attributed this to decreased sea surface temperatures associated with the initiation of
extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Likewise, loess deposition became more
vigorous in China after around 2.5 Ma (Ding et al., 1992), and between 3.6 and
2.6 Ma the loess became coarser and more widespread (Lu et al. 2010). Sediments
from the central North Pacific indicate that dust deposition became more important
in the late Tertiary, accelerating greatly between 7 and 3 Ma (Leinen and Heath,
1981), but it was around 2.5 Ma ago that there occurred the most dramatic increase
in dust sedimentation. In Australia, some desert features started to develop 2–4 Ma,
with major dune development occurring at around 1 Ma (Fujioka et al., 2009) and
the desiccation of the palaeo-mega-lake Bungunnia after c 1.5 Ma (McLaren and
Wallace, 2010; McLaren et al. 2012). Krebs et al. (2011) suggest that late Pliocene
aridification of Australia may have been caused by tectonically induced changes in
ocean circulation through Indonesia. In the Atacama, fluvial activity became greatly
reduced in the late Pliocene as hyperaridity became pronounced (Amundson et al.,
2012).

1.8 Quaternary Fluctuations

All deserts show the impact of Quaternary climatic changes (Anderson et al., 2007),
and we now know that there were huge shifts in the strength of the tropical monsoon
18 Introduction

Table 1.3 Evidence for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in drylands

Evidence Inference
1. Geomorphological
Fossil dune systems Past aridity
Breaching of dunes by rivers Increased humidity
Discordant dune trends Changed wind direction
Lake shorelines Balance of hydrological inputs and outputs
Old drainage lines Integrated hydrological network
Fluvial aggradation and siltation Desiccation
Colluvial deposition Reduced vegetation cover and stream flushing
Karstic (e.g. cave) phenomena Increased hydrological activity
Frost screes Palaeotemperature
2. Sedimentological
Lake floor sediments Degree of salinity, etc.
Swamp ore and rhizoconcretion deposits Presence of swampy conditions
Lee dune (lunette) stratigraphy Hydrological status of lake basin
Spring deposits and tufas Groundwater activity
Duricrusts and palaeosols Chemical weathering under humid conditions
Dust and river sediments in ocean cores Amount of aeolian and fluvial transport
Loess profiles and palaeosols Aridity and stability
Cave sediments Hydrological activity
3. Biological and miscellaneous
Macro-plant remains, including charcoal Vegetation cover
(in packrat or hyrax middens, bat
guano, etc.)
Pollen and phytolith analysis of sediments Vegetation cover
Faunal remains Biomes
Disjunct faunas Biomes
Isotopic composition of groundwater and Palaeotemperatures and recharge rates
speleothems
Distribution of archaeological sites Availability of water
Drought and famine record Aridity
Dendrochronology Moisture conditions
Chloride concentrations in dunes Recharge
Isotopic composition of calcretes, etc. Presence of C3 or C4 plants
Microbial lipids Alkalinity and drought

systems (Lézine, 2009; Preusser, 2009). There are many techniques for establishing
such past environmental changes (Table 1.3).
Sand deserts expanded from time to time, covering areas that are now heavily
vegetated. As a consequence, stabilized sand seas occur in areas where rainfall levels
are currently in excess of 500–800 mm. That some dunes are fossil rather than active
is indicated by features such as deep weathering and intense iron-oxide staining, clay
and humus development, silica or carbonate accumulation, stabilization by vegetation,
gullying by fluvial action and degradation to angles considerably below that of the
 1.8 Quaternary Fluctuations 19

Table 1.4 Indicators that dunes are relict

Geomorphological
Degraded slopes, gully development, colluvial mantles, flooding by lakes, submergence
in alluvium
Pedological
Calcification, clay and silt accumulation, soil horizon development
Biological
Mantled in vegetation
Archaeological
Covering of human artefacts of known age

angle of repose of sand (Table 1.4). Sometimes archaeological evidence has been
employed to show that sand deposition is no longer progressing at any appreciable
rate, whereas elsewhere dunes have been found to be flooded by lakes, to have had
lake shorelines etched on their flanks and to have had clays deposited in interdune
depressions.
If one compares the extent of old dunefields, using the types of evidence outlined
in Table 1.4 with the extent of currently active ones, it is possible to appreciate the
substantial changes in vegetation and rainfall that have taken place in many parts
of the tropics. This is all the more striking when one remembers that decreased
temperatures during glacials would have caused a reduction in evapotranspiration
rates and thus led to increased vegetation cover. This would, if anything, have tended
to promote some dune immobilization. Dune movement might, however, have been
accentuated by higher glacial trade-wind velocities (Ruddiman, 1997), which could
in some circumstances have led to dune building and sand transport (see Section
3.3) without any great reduction in rainfall (Wasson, 1984). It is also possible that
in some cases increased fluvial sediment transport could have led to a much greater
sand supply to river channels so that dune accretion may have been greater even if the
climate was moister than it is today (Ellwein et al., 2011).
Stabilized sand seas occur on the south side of the Sahara between Senegal and
Sudan (Grove and Warren, 1968) (Figure 1.5), while in southern Africa the Mega
Kalahari (Grove, 1969) extended as far north as the Congo Basin (Figure 1.6). Relict
dunes also occur in South America, including parts of Amazonia, the Llanos and the
São Francisco valley in the north (De Oliveira et al., 1999; Latrubesse and Nelson,
2001; Filho et al., 2002) and the Pampas in the south (Tripaldi and Forman, 2007).
The High Plains of America have extensive areas of stabilized dunes, the most notable
examples of which are the Nebraska Sandhills. In north-west India the dunes of the
Mega Thar can be traced from Rajasthan southwards into Gujarat and eastwards
towards Delhi (Allchin et al., 1978), while in Australia large linear dunes can be
20 Introduction
20 10 0 10 20 30 40

HOGGAR

20 ile
N
ADRAR DES TIBESTI
IFORAS 20
Sene AÏR
g
Dakar al Tombouctou
Tombouctou
Agadès
Agades
Khartoum
Bathurst
Bathurs Ségou
DARFUR
Bamako
Bamaka Niamey Kosti
10 Kano N'Djamena
Kordofan
10

Ni
ge
Bongor

r
Ft. Archambault

0
0

10 0 10 20 30 40

0 1000 km Isohyet 150 mm A - Live dunes

Isohyet 1000 mm B - Vegetated dunes

Figure 1.5 Limits of the live and vegetated dunes on the south side of the Sahara.
(From Goudie, 2002, fig. 4.11)

found in the Kimberleys and elsewhere in the tropical north (Goudie et al., 1993)
(Figure 1.7).
The development of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating means that
there are now many dates for periods of dune accumulation (e.g. Fitzsimmons et al.,

Figure 1.6 A Landsat image of ancient linear dunes, now forested, in the vicinity of
the Okavango Delta in north-west Botswana. (Courtesy of NASA)
 1.8 Quaternary Fluctuations 21

Figure 1.7 In the late Pleistocene, tropical aridity led to the expansion of sand deserts.
These vegetated linear dunes, now engulfed by Holocene coastal alluviation, are
located in King Sound near Derby, Western Australia. (ASG)

2012; Stone and Thomas, in press). These dates can, under favourable conditions,
extend back for some hundreds of thousands of years. It is important to point out,
however, that the dates are generally for periods of sand accumulation and stabilization
rather than for periods of actual dune movement (Thomas, 2011b). This work has
shown that many areas have had repeated phases of dune accumulation, some in the
Holocene, as in the High Plains of the United States (Halfen et al., 2010; Hanson
et al., 2010; Rich and Stokes, 2011; Halfen et al., 2012), or the Pampas of Argentina
(Tripaldi and Forman, 2007), and some in the late Pleistocene. For example, in
Australia, Fitzsimmons et al. (2007) identified four periods of dune activity at 73–66,
35–32, 22–18 and 14–10 ka, while Lomax et al. (2011) found dunes that were at least
380 ka old and with phases of substantial dune deposition at 72–63 and 38–18 ka.
In the Arabian Peninsula, Preusser (2009) identified periods of dune accumulation
at c 150, 110, 65 and 20 ka years ago, and Atkinson et al. (2011, 2012) identified
periods at 106, 51, 22–20, 16–10 and 7–2 ka. In the Negev, there appear to have been
three main periods of dune accretion: (1) 18–11.5 ka, (2) 2–0.8 ka and (3) modern.
In the Thar, Singhvi et al. (2010) found no less than 12 cycles of dune accretion over
the last 200 ka. In southern Peru, Londoño et al. (2012) identified four major aeolian
depositional episodes at c 55–45 ka, 38–27 ka, 22–16 ka and 12 ka. In many areas,
dune activity appears to have been considerable in the period between the Late Glacial
Maximum (LGM) and the early Holocene wet phase, and a cluster of studies have
demonstrated this in the context of, inter alia, the Mongolian and Chinese deserts
(Li et al., 2002; Hülle et al., 2010), the Rub ‘Al Khali of Arabia (Goudie et al., 2000),
the Negev (Roskin et al., 2011), the Thar of India (Singhvi and Kar, 2004; Singhvi
22 Introduction

et al., 2010; Saini and Mujtaba, 2012), and the Witpan area of the Kalahari (Telfer
and Thomas, 2007).
There are numerous problems in interpreting OSL dates on dunes, including the fact
that erosional phases may cause the record to be incomplete. Bioturbation can also be
a problem (Bateman et al., 2007). Moreover, the record obtained from dunes in close
proximity to each other may not always be the same, and as more and more dates are
obtained from an area, some of the supposed intervals of non-accumulation of sand
may turn out to be unreal. Equally, a more intensive vertical sampling strategy may
have a similar outcome (Stone and Thomas, 2008). It is also necessary to appreciate
that aeolian accumulation may not always relate solely to aridity but also to windiness
and sand availability (Roskin et al., 2011), and that OSL dates of dunes may not
necessarily relate to periods of dune activity but to phases of dune stabilization (Lu
et al., 2011). Rivers may be an important source of dune sand, so their state is
important (Londoño et al., 2012. Broad, seasonal, sandy channels that dry out may
provide ample sand for dune construction, whereas perennially wet or deeply incised
channels may provide little sand (Wright et al., 2011).
The flow of rivers showed great variability during the Quaternary. For example,
cores extracted from the Mediterranean offshore from the Nile record the strength of
the monsoon over East Africa, and indicate greatly increased Nile flow between 18
and 8 ka years ago, and 98–72 ka years ago (Revel et al., 2010). Indeed, sapropel
(organic-rich mud) layers in the eastern Mediterranean give a good picture of Nile
flow variability in the late Pleistocene. They were created by considerably enhanced
flow, which caused collapse of deep water ventilation and/or the elevated supply of
nutrients, which then fuelled enhanced productivity (Scrivner et al., 2004). Sapropel
development appears to have coincided systematically with Northern Hemisphere
insolation maxima related to the orbital cycle of precession, which intensified the
African monsoon (Tuenter et al., 2003). Ethiopian rivers, fed by strong monsoon rains
in summer, caused a strong seasonal flood in the Nile, and eleven sapropel events
have taken place during the last 465,000 years. The most recent period of sapropel
deposition (Sapropel 1) started at c 9000 BP and ended after c 6000 years BP and
was, like earlier sapropels, caused by a massive input of Nile freshwater (Freydier
et al., 2001)

1.9 Lakes of the Quaternary

Deserts have many types of lake basin. These have a variety of names, including
playa, pan (see Section 3.6), kavir, salar, daya (see Section 2.10), and so forth. They
have a multitude or origins, including deflation, solution of limestone (as in the
case of dayas) and evaporites, meteorite impact, aeolian blocking of drainage and
tectonic subsidence. A great former lake in south-eastern Australia, Lake Bungunnia,
 1.9 Lakes of the Quaternary 23

Table 1.5 Areal extent (km2 ) of some pluvial mega-lakes

Basin Area
Caspian/Aral, central Asia 1,100,000
Mega-Chad, Sahara 350,000–400,000
Mkagdikgadi, Botswana 120,000
Mega-Fazzan, Sahara 76,250
Lop Nor, China 55,000
Bonneville, USA 51,640
Bungunnia, Australia >50,000
Jilantai-Hetao, China 34,000
Lahontan, USA 30,000–35,000
Eyre, Australia 25,260
West Nubia, Sudan 7,000
Mega-Frome, Australia 6,500
Lakes El Fresnal and Santa Maria, Mexico 5,650
Suguta, Kenya 2,150

for example, developed because of tectonic influences on the Murray River Basin
(McLaren et al., 2011).
Most notably, there are large areas of internal drainage and many basins without
outlets. This was pointed out very clearly by de Martonne (1927), who produced a
diagram which showed the clear latitudinal correlation between an index of aridity
and the distribution of closed drainage basins. Details of the hydrography and geo-
morphology of such basins are given by Currey and Sack (2009a and b) and by Shaw
and Thomas (1997).
Pluvial lakes are bodies of water that accumulated in such basins because of
previous greater moisture availability resulting from changes in temperature and/or
precipitation. Their study developed in the second half of the nineteenth century (Flint,
1971). Closed-basin lakes have various advantages for environmental reconstruction –
there are many of them, their deposits are amenable to dating and they are sensitive
recorders of the local moisture balance (Quade and Broecker, 2009). As Table 1.5
shows, some pluvial lakes attained enormous dimensions. Equally, some lake basins
contracted markedly during drought phases, as happened with Lake Malawi, which
lost more than 95 per cent of its volume during some of the drier portions of the late
Pleistocene (Scholz et al., 2010).
In the United States, the Great Basin contained eighty pluvial lakes during the
Pleistocene, occupying an area at least eleven times greater than that of today. Lake
Bonneville (Figure 1.8) (Benson et al., 2011) was roughly as big as present-day Lake
Michigan and was about 370 m deep and covered 51,640 km2 . It reached a peak
at about 18.5 kyr. Lake Lahontan was more complex in form, covered 23,000 km2 ,
24 Introduction

Figure 1.8 The shorelines of Lake Bonneville, a massive pluvial lake in Utah, USA.
(ASG)

and reached a depth of about 280 m. It was nearly as extensive as present-day Lake
Erie. River courses became integrated and lakes overflowed from one sub-basin to
another (Reheis, 1999; Tchakerian and Lancaster, 2001). In Searles Lake, groundwater
bubbling up under its floor produced great tufa pinnacles (Figure 1.9), and its history
over the last 3.2 million years has been established by Smith (2009), who identified the
importance of 413 kyr precipitation cycles related to the Earth’s orbital fluctuations
during that period. Smith and Street-Perrott (1983) demonstrated that many basins
had particularly high stands during the period that spanned the LGM, between about
25,000 and 10,000 years ago. The high lake levels during the LGM, many of which
are indicated by stranded lake features (Figure 1.10), may have resulted from a
combination of factors, including lower temperatures and evaporation rates as well
increased precipitation levels. Pacific storms associated with the southerly branch of
the polar jet stream were deflected southwards compared to today. The lake basins also
contain high shorelines that date back to earlier in the Pleistocene (Kurth et al., 2011).
For example, a large pluvial lake developed in the Chihuahuan Desert in northern
Mexico in the early Holocene (Castiglia and Fawcett, 2006).
Pluvial lakes also developed in the Atacama and Altiplano of western South Amer-
ica (Lavenu et al., 1984). Impressive algal accumulations at high levels occur above
the present saline crusts of depressions such as Uyuni (Rouchy et al., 1996). However,
a great deal of confusion exists about climatic trends in this region, not least with
respect to the situation at the LGM and in the mid-Holocene (Placzek et al., 2001).
Nonetheless, estimates have been made of the degree of precipitation change that the
 1.9 Lakes of the Quaternary 25

Figure 1.9 Tufa pinnacles formed by groundwater discharge on the floor of Searles
Lake, California, USA. (ASG)

high lake stands imply. Pluvial Laguna Lejı́ca, which was 15–25 m higher than today
at 13.5 to 11.3 kyr MP and covered an area of 9–11 km2 compared to its present
extent of 2 km2 , had an annual rainfall of 400–500 mm, whereas today it has only
around 200 mm. Pluvial Lake Tauca had an annual rainfall of 600 mm compared with
200–400 mm today.
In the Sahara, there are many pluvial lakes both in the Chotts of Tunisia and Algeria,
in Mali (Petit-Maire et al., 1999), in Libya and in the south (e.g. Mega-Chad). Many
lakes grew during the African Humid Period, which started at c 13.5 kyr BP in the
eastern Sahara and at c 10.5 kyr in the western Sahara, and lakes and wetlands reached
their maximum development between 7.5 and 9.5 kyr BP (Lézine et al., 2011). In the
Libyan (Western) Desert of Egypt and the Sudan, playa sediments indicate that they
once contained substantial bodies of water, which attracted Neolithic settlers. The
mid-Holocene wet phase has been called the Neolithic pluvial. A large lake – the
West Nubian Palaeolake – formed in the far north-west of Sudan (Hoelzmann et al.,
2001). It was especially extensive between 9500 and 4000 years BP, and may have
covered as much as 7,000 km2 . If it was that big, then a large amount of precipitation
would have been needed to maintain it – possibly as much as 900 mm compared
to the less than the 15 mm it receives today. In the Fazzan Basin of Libya, another
26 Introduction

Figure 1.10 Bedded lake silts overlying a thin layer of calcareous oncoids on an old
shoreline of Lake Manix, Mojave Desert, California, USA. (ASG)

large lake, with an area of 76,250 km2 , formed (Armitage et al., 2007). Mega-Chad
(Schuster et al., 2009) reached a peak sometime before 7,000 years ago, when it was
more than 173 m deep and had an area of at least 350,000–400,000 km2 – bigger
than the current Caspian Sea, the biggest lake on Earth today (Drake and Bristow,
2006). At that time, large spits developed on its shores (Bouchette et al. 2010). The
Sahara may have largely disappeared in the early to mid-Holocene during what has
been called the Greening of Africa and the African Humid Period, and rock paintings
depict all the big African fauna, including elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and
crocodile.
Other lakes developed in the East African Rift Valleys (Figure 1.11), and the
shorelines of Lake Chew Bahir in southern Ethiopia are marked by expansive spreads
of algal stromatolites. Lake Turkana was also high in the early Holocene and over-
flowed into the White Nile system (Garcin et al., 2012). To the south, in one of the
driest parts of the Rift Valley, a large lake occupied the Suguta basin, attaining a depth
of 300 m between 16.5 and 8.5 ka BP, after which it disappeared (Garcin et al., 2009).
In the Kalahari of southern Africa, Lake Palaeo-Makgadikgadi was more than
50 m deep and covered 120,000 km2 , vastly greater than the present area of Lake
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 —Mabrouka, passant près de chez Mouley Abdallah, questionna des
gens... Dada Fatouma, qui allait faire une commission à Lella Meryem,
aperçut la nouvelle esclave.
—Elle a coûté trois cents réaux. L’intendant de Mouley Hassan fut à Fès,
l’acheter.
—Elle ne passa point dans la maison du Chérif, c’est pour cela qu’elle
était vierge... affirme Rabha.
Malgré les détours que prit cette nouvelle pour me parvenir, je ne doute
point qu’elle ne soit exacte. Mouley Hassan jugeait insensé l’engagement
pris par son fils avec Lella Meryem.
—Il faut quatre femmes à l’homme, disait-il un jour à mon mari, de
même qu’il faut quatre jambes au cheval. C’est pourquoi le Coran nous a
fixé ce nombre.
Son libertinage a dû trouver fort plaisant de donner au mari trop fidèle
une esclave aussi belle et blanche que l’épouse légitime.
J’ai négligé ma charmante amie depuis quelque temps. Ainsi, j’ignorais
le malheur écrit sur son destin.
Les petites filles disent qu’elle se dessèche et jaunit... Mais que peut
craindre Lella Meryem d’une autre femme, elle qui réunit toutes les
séductions et les grâces?... D’ailleurs elle n’a pas d’amour, ou si peu.
Je la trouve, en effet, riante et parée selon sa coutume. Le carmin de ses
joues m’empêche de vérifier les allégations de Rabha quant à son teint. Son
corps svelte est plus pliant qu’une branche de saule, mince et pendante. Ses
yeux, ô ses yeux ensorceleurs, où l’on croit saisir les reflets du ciel!...
Elle se plaint de ma longue absence, m’offre le thé, rit, bavarde,
caquetage vide et charmant de petit oiseau qui ne pense à rien qu’à chanter.
La sombre maison garde son habituelle et somptueuse mélancolie. Une
esclave pile du cumin dans un mortier en cuivre, la cadence des coups
accompagne notre insignifiant entretien. Des femmes sont assemblées, près
de la fontaine, mais je n’y découvre pas d’inconnue. Le négrillon Miloud
renifle et pleure derrière une colonne.
Il vole tout ce qu’il trouve, malgré les châtiments, explique Lella
Meryem. Frappe l’esclave, ce pécheur, ton bras sera usé bien avant sa
malice...
 Nous disons encore de petites choses, sans intérêt, et je me lève pour
partir. Alors, Lella Meryem me retient, et, son délicieux visage soudain
bouleversé,—vraiment elle est jaune de teint! la petite Cherifa m’interroge:
—Tu le sais? Les gens te l’ont raconté?
—Quoi donc?
—Que Mouley Abdallah reçut de son père une esclave blanche.
Ses lèvres frémissent, son regard se noie, elle pleure...
—Que t’importe?... Une esclave et c’est tout... Ton époux en a bien
d’autres...
—Oui, mais ce sont des négresses. Celle-là est blanche.
—Elle l’est sans doute moins que toi.
—Tu vas voir, dit Lella Meryem, après avoir séché ses larmes. Qu’Aoud
el Ouard apporte des parfums, commande-t-elle au négrillon.
Aoud el Ouard! tige de rose, le joli nom! bien fait pour cette adolescente
au visage enchanteur, aux seins fermes et glorieux, aux yeux de nuit, aux
hanches souveraines.
Elle entre, et, malgré qu’elle soit une esclave, elle a toute l’assurance et
l’allure d’une maîtresse des choses.
N’est-ce point d’elle que le poète a dit:

Une pleine lune marche avec fierté

En se balançant comme un roseau.

—Cette maudite! s’exclame Lella Meryem après son départ. Elle me

regarde avec insolence, on dirait qu’elle est cherifa et non esclave, fille
d’esclaves... Que ferai-je maintenant, je suis exilée de ma propre demeure...
Je ne veux plus quitter ma chambre; dès que je sors dans la cour, elle me
nargue... Au lieu de la mettre avec les négresses (la plus noire vaut mieux
qu’elle dix fois et plus!), Mouley Abdallah lui a donné la petite mesria[74]!
—Ta chambre est beaucoup plus belle.
—Assurément... Mais, si Mouley Abdallah monte à la mesria?... O cette
calamité!
—Par le Prophète! Lella Meryem, ne crois pas que ton époux te préfère
cette esclave.
 —Tu penses ainsi. Tu ne connais pas les Musulmans. Les femmes sont
comme les grains du chapelet entre les mains d’un Derkaoui... Ils passent de
l’une à l’autre... J’ai supplié Mouley Abdallah de renvoyer cette affligeante,
de la revendre tout de suite. Il n’a pas voulu... Il dit qu’il craint de déplaire à
son père. C’est elle, la rusée, la fille de diable, qui l’enchaîne... Elle saura se
faire frapper la dot[75]. O jour de malheur où cette Aoud el Ouard entra
dans la maison!
Je voudrais consoler la pauvre petite épouse, lui dire... Mais nos paroles
à nous, elle ne les comprendra pas... J’essaye cependant.
—S’il plaît à Dieu, Lella Meryem, ton mari te reviendra. Tu peux tâcher
de le reprendre...
—O Puissant! j’ai tout essayé... J’ai fait écrire sur une feuille de laurier:
«Je lie tes yeux, ta bouche et ta force virile pour toute autre que moi. O
serviteurs du grand nom, rendez ce qui est illégitime, plus amer à Mouley
Abdallah que ne l’est cette feuille de laurier!» Je l’ai cousue dans son
caftan... et cela ne l’empêcha pas de retourner auprès d’Aoud el Ouard... On
m’a dit, ajoute Lella Meryem, qu’une sorcière possède les secrets pour
ranimer l’amour. Elle habite à Berrima[76]... O ma sœur! je connais ton
affection. Va pour moi chez cette sorcière!
Je ne m’attendais pas à cette demande et j’y réponds d’abord par des
objections.
—Envoie plutôt une de tes négresses. La sorcière ne révélera rien à une
Nazaréenne...
—Non, je t’en prie! Mes négresses, je n’ai pas confiance, elles sont
bêtes... Tu mettras un haïk, la sorcière ne se doutera de rien car tu sais
toutes nos coutumes... Je suis réfugiée en toi! ajoute Lella Meryem en
m’embrassant.
L’imploration consacrée me lie... et puis, ne serait-ce point, que déjà
l’aventure tente ma curiosité.
—Sur ma tête et sur mes yeux, ô délicieuse! répondis-je à la Chérifa.

12 mars.
Une nuit bleue, limpide et tendre, une nuit où le sommeil devrait nous
entraîner comme une barque glissant légèrement sur l’eau calme... Les
patios éclairés, qui semaient la cité de reflets orange, redescendent peu à
peu au fond de l’ombre.
—Allons! me dit Kaddour, il est temps... Les braves gens sont tous
rentrés...
Pour l’amour de Lella Meryem, je revêts encore une fois l’accablant
haïk, et nous partons à travers les ruelles, si désertes et noires que je puis
tenir mes voiles écartés, quitte à les ramener bien vite sur mon visage
lorsque la petite lueur d’une lanterne dénonce, au loin, un passant attardé.
Après avoir franchi la porte de quartier, massive et grinçante, qu’un
gardien ouvre devant nous et referme aussitôt, nous entrons dans Berrima.
Kaddour a préparé ma venue; la sorcière nous attend. Elle croit que, sous
ces voiles de laine rude, se cache une tremblante Cherifa, échappée cette
nuit, par quelles ruses! aux murailles qui l’emprisonnent. Aussi ne
s’étonnera-telle pas de la rigueur avec laquelle je les tiens baissés, clos,
masquant obstinément mes yeux.
Je distingue à peine la pièce où elle nous a introduits: une chaise longue,
garnie de modestes sofas, tout à fait honnête et rassurante, qu’éclairent deux
cierges, verts et jaunes, en de hauts chandeliers.
La sorcière est une lourde matrone à l’air équivoque. Souvent, dans les
harems, j’en ai rencontré de ces vieilles, complaisantes et détestables,
habiles à insinuer la tentation.
Elles présentent des étoffes, achètent aux recluses les vêtements et les
bijoux dont elles veulent se défaire, colportent les nouvelles, indiquent des
remèdes, et s’entremettent surtout dans les aventures où leur malice
l’emporte sur la défiance des maris.
—Nous sommes venus, dit Kaddour, comme des malfaiteurs, avec
l’épouvante...
—Ne craignez rien, répond la sorcière. Par le pouvoir de ceux qui
m’obéissent, nul ne s’apercevra de votre absence.
Elle s’accroupit devant un brûle-parfums, y jette quelques grains de
benjoin, et se met à égrener un chapelet.
—Nous désirons, reprend Kaddour, que tu fasses venir pour nous ceux
que tu as promis d’appeler.
—Ah! dit-elle avec lassitude. Aujourd’hui l’heure presse et je ne suis
point disposée... Je prierai pour vous, cela suffit.
 —Puisse Allah te le rendre, ô ma mère! Certes la prière est excellente!
Mais nous voulons aussi que tu évoques le roi des djinns, afin d’apprendre
ce qui nous importe... insiste Kaddour en faisant tomber sur le sol un réal
d’argent.
La vieille s’approche de moi, pose ses mains sur ma tête. Son haleine
forte m’incommode à travers le haïk:
—Au nom du Dieu Clément et Miséricordieux, implore-t-elle,
Qui n’a point enfanté et n’a point été enfanté,
Qui n’a point d’égal en qui que ce soit,
Qui connaît les secrets enfermés dans les mystères de son nom?
Sur toi un rayon de sa lumière.
J’aperçois ton cœur refroidi et ton corps qui n’a plus d’attraits pour
l’époux.
Celui qui s’éloigne de toi, fut enchaîné par le recours et le charme de
Chenharouch le sultan[77].
Comme elle prononçait ce nom, la porte fut ébranlée d’un coup violent.
—Qui est là? cria la vieille.
—Quelqu’un est venu, répondit une voix aiguë.
—Quelqu’un est venu, Quelqu’un reviendra,
Et le destin s’ensuivra...
Au bout d’un instant, la sorcière ouvrit la porte. Il n’y avait personne; la
lune éclairait un pan ruiné de muraille, et projetait sur le sol bossué l’ombre
d’une treille...
—Puisque le sort t’est fâcheux, dit la vieille, j’interviendrai.
Elle disparut au bout de la chambre, derrière une boiserie, et en rapporta
un plateau gravé de signes bizarres, au milieu duquel fumait un canoun
plein de braises. Tout autour, bien rangées en cercle, sept petites coupes
contenant des poudres, des grains et des pâtes.
La vieille déplia un haïk écarlate dont elle s’enveloppa tout entière. Elle
s’accroupit, attira le plateau magique sous ses voiles, et elle ne fut plus
qu’une masse flamboyante, à travers laquelle s’échappait quelque fumée...
Immobiles et silencieux, nous attendons... Les cierges crépitent, l’air
s’alourdit de benjoin, une souris apparaît et file...
 Est-ce un djinn?
Tout à coup, des sons rauques, insensés et caverneux semblent gonfler la
draperie rouge.
Lutte, halètements, protestations... auxquels, de temps à autre, se mêle
une faible plainte...
Puis une voix s’élève, qui n’est pas celle de la sorcière, ni d’un être
humain, une voix qui vient des profondeurs mystérieuses:

«J’en jure par le soleil et sa clarté!

Par la lune quand elle le suit de près.
Par le jour quand il le laisse apparaître dans tout son éclat,
Par le ciel et celui qui l’a bâti,
Par la terre et celui qui l’a étendue comme un tapis,
Par l’âme et celui qui l’a formée[78]!»

J’en jure par cette invocation sublime et toujours exaucée.

O Mouley Idriss! Il n’y a de Dieu que Dieu!
O Mouley Abd el Kader qui voles à travers l’espace!
O Mouley Thami, maître des lieux brûlants!
Écoute-moi, ô sultan rouge! qui commandes les génies effrayants!
O Sidi Moussa, gardien des eaux!
O Sidi Mimoun er Rahmani, le Soudanais!
O Moulay Ibrahim, oiseau de la montagne!
O Sidi Saïd Derkaoui!
O Sidi Ahmed Derwich!
O les maîtres noirs de la forêt!
O les pèlerins, seigneurs des djinns!
O Lella Myrra, l’inspirée!
O Lella Aïcha, la négresse!
O Lella Rkia, fille du rouge!
O Bousou, le marin!
O Sidi Larbi, le boucher!
O le serpent des pèlerins!
O toi qu’on ne peut nommer, souverain de l’épouvante[79].
Accourez avec les nuées et le vent, avec les éclairs et le tonnerre!
O vous qui avez la connaissance des choses secrètes!
Que je voie, de vos yeux, que votre langue parle en ma bouche!
Je vous conjure et vous adjure d’écarter tous les voiles,
De me pénétrer de la science que le Seigneur mit en vous.
Je vous conjure et vous adjure par Lui, Seul, Unique,
Hors duquel il n’y a pas d’autre Dieu!
L’Ét l l Vi l P i t
 L’Éternel, le Vainqueur, le Puissant,
Roi de tous les temps et de tous les mondes,
Celui qui mettra debout les os rongés par les siècles.
Celui à qui nul n’échappe, que nul ne peut atteindre et ne peut égaler!
Éclairez mon esprit. Je vous le demande et vous l’ordonne!
Sinon vous serez contraints au moyen des flammes et de l’ébullition,
Dont aucun pouvoir ne vous protégera!

«N’as-tu jamais entendu parler du Jour qui enveloppera tout?

Du jour où les visages seront baissés,
Travaillant et accablés de fatigue,
Brûlés au feu ardent[80]?»

Quiconque ne répond point à mon appel,

Dieu lui fera subir le châtiment
Par la vertu du grand nom, invoqué, craint et révéré,
Qu’il assure l’accomplissement de mes desseins!

La voix peu à peu s’est enflée, elle n’implore plus, elle commande,
impérieuse, et menace.
Les draperies rouges frissonnent. Entre la vieille et les génies accourus,
un combat s’engage dont nous ne distinguons que les soubresauts et les cris.
Rauques aboiements, clameurs de souffrance, d’épouvante et de mort...
Une louve hurle dans la nuit... Ce vagissement misérable qui répond est le
dernier râle de sa victime...
... Quand la sorcière écarta ses voiles, elle avait un visage congestionné,
hagard et tout à fait terrifiant.
L’incantation semblait l’avoir épuisée,—on ne converse point en vain
avec les démons.—Elle resta quelques moments inerte sur le sofa, puis se
redressa, prit sept pincées de poudre dans les coupelles, en fit un petit
paquet et me le tendit. Elle parlait avec effort, d’une voix naturelle mais
toute dolente:
—Mets ceci dans l’eau de rose et enduis-en ton corps. Et ensuite tu
jeûneras et tu réciteras la prière, au moghreb, prosternée sur une natte
neuve, que ton ennemie n’a jamais foulée. Invoque trois fois Mouley Abd el
Kader, l’oiseau blanc, et ne crains pas... Alors les choses qui te contristent
cesseront, et ton époux retrouvera sa juste raison. La jeune fille disparaîtra
de ses yeux, ainsi que le soleil derrière l’ombre, un jour d’éclipse. Elle sera
pour lui comme si elle n’était pas, ou sans plus d’attrait qu’une chamelle
pelée...
Cet oracle a complètement brisé la sorcière; sa masse retombe sur le
divan, son teint est jaune, ses joues bouffies et malsaines tremblotent...
Pourtant elle retrouve quelque vigueur pour saisir le nouveau réal que lui
tend Kaddour.
—Chose étonnante! s’exclame-t-il aussitôt dehors. Ces vieilles! Tout ce
qu’elles font! Tout ce qu’elles savent!... Quand les djinns sont entrés dans le
chambre, j’ai vu danser des flammes rouges... Et cette voix! tu l’as
entendue!...
—Certes! répondis-je, cette sorcière connaît les choses mystérieuses et
j’accorde que les démons l’inspirent... Cependant, ô Kaddour! explique-moi
comment elle n’a point découvert que j’étais une Nazaréenne?

14 mars.
La beauté bien cachée qui surpasse toutes les autres beautés, certes je la
connais! Et les fleurs de son teint, et les grenades parfumées de ses lèvres,
et l’éclat de ses yeux fascinateurs... Pourquoi donc Lella Meryem,
aujourd’hui, m’apparaît-elle plus éblouissante, d’un charme inattendu,
étincelant, renouvelé, d’une gaîté sans égale? Serait-ce déjà l’effet du
sortilège que j’apporte?
Dès les premiers mots elle m’arrête.
—Qu’Allah te rende le bien, ô ma sœur! le remède, je n’en ai plus
besoin, Aoud el Ouard est partie...
—O Seigneur! la nouvelle bénie!... Qu’est-elle devenue?
—Cette chienne! Puisse le malheur l’accompagner! Mouley Hassan l’a
reprise.
—Louange à Dieu! Comment se fait-il que le Chérif ait retiré le présent
offert à son fils?
—Qui le sait? Peut-être avait-il entendu vanter son attrait... Il aura voulu
s’en assurer... Cela n’importe guère! dans quelques mois, elle ne sera plus
qu’une esclave d’entre ses esclaves...
Lella Meryem triomphe avec insolence et naïveté... Je devine les petites
ruses qu’elle mit en œuvre pour éloigner sa rivale, les louanges perfidement
colportées sur Aoud El Ouard, afin d’éveiller la concupiscence du Chérif, la
requête qu’elle-même fit parvenir à son beau-père...
Mouley Hassan, changeant et sensuel, regrettait sans doute de n’avoir
pas cueilli cette tige de rose. Il dut être facile à convaincre.
—Sais-tu, poursuit Lella Meryem, que les noces de Lella Oum Keltoum
seront bientôt célébrées?
—C’est une honte! Elle n’a pas donné son consentement.
—Lella Oum Keltoum est folle, affirma Lella Meryem, ses refus font
parler tous les gens.
—O mon étonnement de t’entendre! Ne m’as-tu pas dit mille fois que
Lella Oum Keltoum avait raison?...
Cette contradiction n’émeut pas la Cherifa.
—Je t’ai dit cela, dans le temps! A présent, il est clair qu’elle est folle.
Puisque le Sultan a fait savoir au Cadi, par son chambellan, qu’il désire ce
mariage, Lella Oum Keltoum n’a qu’à se soumettre. Les unions entre
parents sont bénies d’Allah, à cause de leur ressemblance avec celle de
Lella Fatima, fille du Prophète, et de son cousin, notre seigneur Ali. Les
noces de Lella Oum Keltoum et de Mouley Hassan seront un bonheur dont
il faut se réjouir.
—O chérie! O celle dont la langue est experte! répondis-je en souriant,
Mouley Hassan t’a donc achetée toi aussi?
Le petit visage de la Cherifa rosit, lumineux, ainsi que la lune surgissant
à l’horizon.
—Seulement, ajoutai-je, il ne t’a rien donné. C’est toi qui lui rendis
Aoud El Ouard...

27 mars.
Turbulent et leste, Kaddour remplit la maison de son agitation. Les
petites filles, radieuses, se bousculent, tout affairées; Hadj Messaoud piaffe
devant ses fourneaux; Saïda, la négresse, affuble son minuscule négrillon
d’un superbe burnous émeraude.
Notre expédition émeut tout le quartier; on entend dans la rue le
braiement désespéré des bourricots et les querelles des âniers. Mohammed
le vannier, accroupi sur le pas de sa porte, cesse de tresser des corbeilles
pour observer notre cortège, et des têtes de voisines s’avancent furtivement
au bord des terrasses... Après beaucoup de bruit, de cris, d’allées et venues,
de faux départs et de retours imprévus, Kaddour ferme enfin nos portes
avec les énormes clés qui grincent.
La caravane s’ébranle.
Certes! elle est digne d’un hakem qui va fêter le soleil dans une arsa, et
les gens ne manqueront point d’en approuver le déploiement fastueux.
Kaddour prend la tête, fier, important comme un chef d’armée, une cage
en chaque main. Dans l’une gazouille un chardonneret, dans l’autre, un
canari.
Ensuite viennent les ânes chargés de couffas d’où sortent les plus
hétéroclites choses: le manche d’un gumbri, un coussin de cuir, un bout de
tapis, une théière... Ahmed le négrillon, à califourchon sur un bât,
ressemble, avec son burnous émeraude, à une grenouille écartelée. Rabha
chevauche, très digne, le second bourricot.
Puis s’avancent les femmes, la troupe craintive, pudique, trébuchante des
femmes qui s’empêtrent dans les plis de leurs voiles: Kenza, Yasmine, déjà
lasses; Saïda et son haïk rayé de larges bandes écarlates; Fathma la cheikha
que nous n’eûmes garde d’oublier, car une partie de campagne s’agrémente
toujours de musique et de chants.
Les hommes ferment la marche: Hadj Messaoud, tenant précieusement
un pot plein de sauce qu’il n’a voulu confier à personne, et les trois porteurs
nègres sur la tête desquels s’érigent, en équilibre, les plats gigantesques
coiffés de cônes en paille.
Nous n’avons pas «rétréci»! Kaddour en conçoit un juste orgueil.
Au sortir des remparts, le soleil, le bled déployé, la route fauve déjà
poussiéreuse, éblouissent et accablent... Mais nous n’allons pas loin,
seulement à la Guebbassia, qui appartint à un vizir, et s’incline dans la
vallée. Le chemin descend entre les grands roseaux bruissants, émus par la
moindre brise, et nous entrons dans l’arsa toute neuve, toute fraîche, toute
pimpante, dont les jeunes feuillées ne font point d’ombre.
Elle tient à la fois du verger, du paradis terrestre et de la forêt vierge,
avec ses arbres fruitiers roses et blancs, ses herbages épais, ses ruisselets,
ses oliviers, ses rosiers grimpants épanouis au sommet des citronniers, ses
vignes qui s’enlacent et retombent comme des lianes. Les sentiers
disparaissent sous l’envahissement des plantes sauvages... La ville est très
loin, inexistante. On ne voit que l’ondulation de la vallée, de vertes
profondeurs mystérieuses, et parfois, entre les branches, la chaîne du
Zerhoun toute bleue sur l’horizon.
Kaddour a choisi, pour notre installation, un bois de grenadiers au menu
feuillage de corail. Il étend les tapis, les sofas, une multitude de coussins.
Au-dessus de nous il suspend les cages et les oiseaux se mettent à vocaliser
follement, éperdument, en un délire.
Un peu plus loin s’organise le campement de nos gens. Des nattes, des
couvertures berbères et tous les accessoires sortis des couffas. Hadj
Messaoud s’ingénie à allumer un feu, qu’il souffle au bout d’un long
roseau; les nègres s’agitent, apportent du bois mort. Kenza, Yasmine, Saïda,
ont rejeté leurs haïks et folâtrent dans la verdure; Fathma essaye sa voix.
Le déjeuner est un festin: des poulets aux citrons, des pigeons tendres et
gras, des saucisses de mouton percées d’une brochette en fer forgé, un
couscous impressionnant, dont tous nos appétits ne pourront venir à bout.
Les plats passent de nous à nos voisins, et c’est amusant de les voir
manger, engouffrer avec un tel entrain!... leurs dents brillent comme celles
des carnassiers, leurs mains huileuses, dégouttantes de sauces, ont des
gestes crochus pour dépecer les volailles. Il n’en reste bientôt plus que les
carcasses. Pourtant la montagne de couscous, quoique fort ébréchée, a
raison de tous les assauts.
Ensuite chacun s’étend avec satisfaction et rend grâce à Dieu très
bruyamment.
Kaddour prépare le thé.
Rien ne fut oublié, ni le plateau, ni les verres, ni même les mrechs niellés
pour nous asperger d’eau de rose.
Il fait chaud, les grenadiers ménagent leur ombre, des moucherons
voltigent dans le soleil, les cigales grincent très haut... Tout vibre! l’air
tiède, les feuillages, les impondérables remous de l’azur. Le parfum des
orangers s’impose, plus oppressant, plus voluptueux.
Le printemps d’Afrique est une ivresse formidable. Il ne ressemble en
rien à nos printemps délicats, gris et bleutés, dont l’haleine fraîche, les
sourires mouillés font éclore des pervenches dans les mousses. Ici la nature
expansive, affolée, se dilate. Les bourgeons éclatent subitement, gonflés de
sève, pressés d’étaler leurs feuilles; un bourdonnement sourd et brûlant
monte des herbes; les juments hennissent au passage des étalons; les
oiseaux s’accouplent avec fureur.
 Le ciel, les arbres, les fleurs, ont des couleurs excessives, un éclat brutal
qui déconcerte. La terre disparaît sous les orties, les ombelles plus hautes
qu’un homme, les ronces traînantes et ces orchidées qui jaillissent du sol
comme de monstrueuses fleurs du mal.
J’aperçois le ciel si bleu, à travers le papillotement d’un olivier, dont les
petites feuilles se détachent en ombres grêles et en reflets d’argent. Le
canari, exténué de roulades, ne pousse plus que de faibles cris. Saïda, la
négresse, vautrée dans l’herbe, s’étire, telle une bête lascive; ses bras
musclés brillent en reflets violets, ses yeux luisent, à la fois languides et
durs; elle mâchonne de petites branches.
Saïda ne m’apparaît pas simiesque ainsi qu’à l’habitude. Elle est belle,
d’une beauté sauvage, toute proche de cette ardente nature en liesse.
Soudain elle bondit et disparaît dans les lointains verts de l’arsa. On dirait la
fuite d’un animal apeuré.
Fathma la cheikha continue ses chansons, mais sa voix s’adoucit et
parfois se brise:
 O nuit!—gémit-elle,—ô nuit!
Combien es-tu longue, ô nuit!
A celui qui passe les heures
En l’attente de sa gazelle
Et veille la nuit en son entier!

O Belles! ô chanteuses! ô celles

Vers qui s’envole mon esprit!
Si vous êtes filles de Fès et nobles,
Je me réjouirai parmi vous.
Je ne vous quitterai pas.
Qu’est la vie sans amour?...
La mort me convient mieux.

O jeune fille étendue, es-tu malade?

T’a-t-on frappée, chère colombe?...
Tes joues sont des pommes musquées,
Tes lèvres ont la pulpe juteuse
Des raisins roses du Zerhoun
Quand l’automne dore les vergers;
La chair des pastèques est moins fraîche
Que la tienne où je veux mordre...

O nuit! ô nuit! Combien es-tu courte, ô nuit!

A celui qui passe les heures auprès de sa gazelle!
Enamouré il ne peut dormir.
Il avait espéré tant de jours!

Le chant me berce... Une torpeur tombe du ciel avec le soleil qui

s’égrène sur nous en mille taches d’or, mobiles et brûlantes. La voix de
Fathma se mêle à toutes les voix amoureuses de la terre, des herbes et des
branches; je n’en distingue plus que l’harmonie...
Quand je m’éveille, le soleil décline vers l’occident, de longues ombres
s’étendent sous les arbres. Fathma s’est tue, elle mange... Autour du
couscous un cercle s’est reformé: Hadj Messaoud, Yasmine, Kenza, le petit
Ahmed et les âniers. Quelques heures de digestion calmèrent la résistance
de leurs estomacs. Certes ils auraient honte de revenir avec un seul grain de
semoule! Cependant Rabha déclare que «son ventre est plein. Louange à
Dieu!» et Saïda, la négresse, n’a pas reparu.
Kaddour n’est pas là non plus.
 J’avais entendu les notes de son gumbri jusqu’au moment où le sommeil
m’enveloppa... Kaddour ne s’attarde jamais en nonchalance, il lui faut du
mouvement, de la vie... Rien d’étonnant à ce qu’il vagabonde à travers le
verger... Pourtant cette double absence m’inquiète, et j’arrête Kenza qui
veut aller à leur recherche. Il y a tant d’allégresse, tant de senteurs dans ce
jardin, une telle provocation de la nature capiteuse!...
Saïda reparaît la première, l’air calme, les mains pleines de gros
champignons blancs trouvés au bord de l’oued. Elle gronde le négrillon qui
a taché son burnous, puis elle s’accroupit et se jette sur le couscous.
Le plat est nettoyé quand Kaddour revient, d’un tout autre côté; il parle
beaucoup, il nous donne mille détails sur les particularités de sa promenade.
Malgré tout, je ne me sens pas convaincue... Et puis, cela paraît presque
naturel, s’ils se sont aimés par un tel jour de printemps.
Saïda est jeune, vigoureuse et saine, libre aussi puisque ses deux maris la
répudièrent. C’est une bonne et simple brute, toute d’instinct. Kaddour doit
plaire aux femmes par sa violence, son impérieuse volonté... il ne
s’embarrasse point de scrupules.
Maintenant ils cheminent avec notre petite caravane, apaisés,
indifférents. Las surtout, comme les fillettes, Hadj Messaoud, la cheikha et
le gosse au burnous émeraude, soudain épuisés après la grande excitation de
l’arsa.
Les remparts se détachent sur un ciel rouge, et nous franchissons Bab
Berdaine dans le tumulte des troupeaux, qui regagnent leurs étables à
l’heure du moghreb.

31 mars.
Kaddour passe du rire à la fureur sans s’arrêter jamais aux états
intermédiaires.
Hors de lui ce matin, il vocifère dans la cuisine. De ma chambre
j’entends ses éclats, mais je ne perçois point les réponses du Hadj
Messaoud, l’homme paisible.
—Oui! oui! J’ai répudié ma femme! Elle ne m’est plus rien! Où se
cache-t-elle, cette chienne fille du chien cet autre?...
»Elle a quitté ma maison pendant que j’étais ici.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
 —C’est vrai, je l’avais battue. Que pouvais-je faire?... O Allah! le
croirais-tu! Elle a mis ma sacoche en gage chez le marchand d’épices pour
s’acheter du henné!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
—Je n’ai plus qu’à partir de la ville! Les gens ont pu voir ma sacoche
pendue chez ce marchand d’épices!—Allah le confonde!—Il l’avait
accrochée à la face de sa boutique!... Honte sur moi!... Quand je suis passé,
j’ai dit: Ha!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
»Je l’ai répudiée devant notaires. Elle ira chez son oncle voler tout ce
qu’elle trouvera de sacoches!...
La chose paraît grave. J’appelle Kaddour. Il a sa figure sauvage des
mauvais jours. Son nez frémit, sa petite barbe se hérisse et son regard a
noirci...
—Qu’as-tu raconté au Hadj Messaoud? Tu as répudié Zeïneb devant
notaires?
—Oui, c’est une voleuse sans vergogne, une impudente, une...
—Doucement! Par combien de fois l’as-tu répudiée?
—Deux fois, pas davantage. Les notaires m’ont demandé d’attendre un
peu avant la troisième répudiation, mais je veux le faire tout de suite, et ce
sera fini.
—Voyons, Kaddour! à cause d’une sacoche, tu oublies tout son bien.
—Tout son bien! Elle ne m’apporta que le malheur et la honte.
—Tu ne sais te passer d’elle, et tu connais votre loi musulmane: quand tu
l’auras répudiée trois fois, tu ne pourras plus la reprendre que si elle a
épousé, entre temps, un autre homme... Voudrais-tu la savoir dans la maison
d’un autre? Et que diraient les gens?
A cette idée Kaddour est devenu très jaune de teint. Il fronce les sourcils,
halète un peu.
—Pour ton visage! finit-il par répondre, je vais chercher Zeïneb. C’est
une fille de gens honorables. Elle s’est évidemment réfugiée chez sa mère...
Il lui fallait du henné, car elle doit aller à des noces demain, et j’avais oublié
de lui laisser de l’argent... Avant de prononcer la troisième répudiation,
j’écouterai ce qu’elle dira de ma sacoche...
 5 avril.
Pour échapper aux raisonnements, à l’anxiété, au vertige d’horreur où
nous sommes entraînés, il faut de vastes paysages joyeux, et des spectacles
apaisants.
Allons au cimetière oublier la mort, et toutes les choses tragiques de ce
temps.
Le cimetière est un lieu plaisant où l’on peut s’étendre à l’ombre des
oliviers, les yeux éblouis par l’azur du ciel et par le vert intense de la terre.
Une vie bourdonnante monte des herbes et descend des branches; les
cigognes planent, très haut; les moucherons tournoient en brouillard léger;
l’âpre odeur des soucis relève l’arôme miellé des liserons et des mauves.
Il fait chaud, il fait clair, il fait calme... L’âme se détend, se mêle aux
chansons, aux parfums, aux frémissements de l’air tiède, à tout ce qui
tourbillonne, impalpable et enivré dans le soleil.
Un ruisseau coule au milieu des roseaux où le vent chante; de jeunes
hommes, à demi nus, y lavent leur linge. Ils le piétinent avec des gestes de
danseurs antiques. Leurs jambes s’agitent en cadence, et, soudain,
s’allongent, horizontales, minces, le pied tendu, un moment arrêtées en l’air,
comme s’ils faisaient exprès d’être beaux en leurs singulières attitudes
rythmiques. Des vêtements sèchent autour d’eux, sur les plantes, étalant des
nuances imprécises, exténuées par l’âge.
A quelques pas de moi, un adolescent, très absorbé, s’épouille.
—En as-tu trouvé beaucoup?
—Une vingtaine seulement. Je n’enlève que les plus gros, ceux qui
mordent trop fort... les poux ont été créés par Allah en même temps que
l’homme... Qui n’en a pas? Ils complètent le fils d’Adam.
—Sans doute, tu parles juste et d’expérience.
Le jeune garçon ne s’attarde pas à ce travail. Il est venu au cimetière
pour jouir, pour fêter le soleil. Une cage, suspendue au-dessus de lui dans
les branches, lance des roulades frénétiques. On ne voit pas l’oiseau, les
barreaux de jonc ne semblent contenir qu’une harmonie, une exaltation qui
s’évade.
Couché sur sa djellaba, une pipe de kif entre les lèvres, un verre de thé à
portée de sa main, le regard bienheureux et vague, cet adolescent participe à
l’universelle félicité d’un matin au printemps. Parfois, il s’arrache à sa
béatitude pour vérifier quelques cordes tendues entre deux arbres, comme
d’immenses fils de la Vierge.
—Ce sont, m’explique-t-il, des cordes pour mon gumbri[81]. Si elles
sèchent vite, elles auront de beaux sons... Je suis Driss le boucher.
Complaisamment il soupèse un paquet blême et mou d’intestins encore
frais. Il en attache les bouts à une branche et les dévide en s’éloignant, pour
atteindre un micocoulier aux ramures basses.
Plus loin, un groupe de burnous, dont je n’aperçois que les capuchons
émergeant des herbes, se penche au-dessus du sol en religieuses attitudes.
Mais ce n’est point une tombe qu’ils entourent. Ils jouent aux échecs... et ils
poussent les pions avec de subites inspirations, après avoir longuement
médité chaque coup.
Quelques bourricots, chargés de bois, trottinent à la file dans le sentier,
entre les plantes sauvages et hautes, qu’ils écartent sur leur passage, en
frissonnant de la peau et des oreilles. L’ânier invective contre eux sans
relâche.
—Allons! Pécheurs! Calamités! Fils d’adultère! Allons! Pourceaux
d’entre les pourceaux!
Parfois il arrête ses injures pour baiser la porte d’un marabout, marmotte
quelque oraison, puis il rejoint ses ânons en courant et vociférant de plus
belle...
Des femmes voilées psalmodient autour d’un tombeau, et leurs chants
me rappellent que ce lieu n’est point une arsa, malgré les arbres, le sol
couvert de fleurs, les cactus rigides et bleus et le bel horizon de montagnes
mollement déployées; que ces frustes pierres éparses dans la verdure ne
sont point les accidents d’un terrain rocailleux... Mais lorsque je passe, elles
me saluent et rient et elles m’interrogent sur les noces de Rhadia où je fus
l’autre semaine.
O croyants! Vous avez raison. Il faut vivre sereinement, sans autre souci
que les douces frivolités de l’existence. Il faut vivre sans réfléchir, sans
prévoir. Il faut vivre d’une vie simple, paisible, familière—et se distraire et
chanter, et jouir des bonnes choses—en regardant le ciel très bleu, en
écoutant les oiseaux—avec insouciance, avec ivresse.
Le monde est un cimetière délicieux.

13 avril.
 —La mariée pleure! la mariée pleure!
Vierge pudique et bien gardée, dont aucun homme ne connaît le visage, ô
petite gazelle farouche tremblant à l’approche du chasseur, combien tes
larmes réjouiront l’époux!... Puisse Allah, qui les compte, te les rendre en
félicités! Puissent tes filles, au jour de leurs noces, verser autant de larmes
que toi et t’honorer de leur douleur ainsi que tu honores ta mère!
O mariée, tes pleurs disent ta pureté parfaite.

Les invitées louangent entre elles cette «aroussa» dont l’affliction peut
servir d’enseignement aux fillettes qui l’entourent. Et elles félicitent
Marzaka d’avoir mis tant de honte au cœur de Lella Oum Keltoum, de
l’avoir si bien élevée, si merveilleusement préparée au mariage, car jamais
fiancée n’a répandu plus de larmes!
Nulle n’ignore sa résistance, ni la contrainte qui la brise, mais une jeune
fille dont l’hymen est célébré avec un si surprenant éclat ne doit-elle pas
s’en réjouir secrètement, mesurer l’envie élogieuse des gens, jouir en son
cœur des récits émerveillés qui se répéteront de génération en génération?
Le mariage enfin, qu’il convient d’atteindre dans la tristesse, n’est-il pas
le but unique d’une Musulmane, l’inconnu qui vient briser tout à coup la
monotonie du temps, le moment suprême d’orgueil et de joie?
Depuis sept jours, tant de femmes, les plus riches, les plus nobles de la
ville, n’ont eu d’yeux et d’attention que pour Lella Oum Keltoum. Toutes
les parures se sont étalées autour d’elle; tous les flambeaux se sont allumés;
tous les parfums se sont épandus; toutes les chanteuses ont détaillé sa
beauté, sa pudeur et son émoi; toutes les fillettes, réunies dans le Ktaa, ont
frémi de désir en la contemplant.
Soudain, à cause d’elle, la vie uniforme et lente est devenue un
enchantement de plaisirs, de festins, de musique et de splendeurs.
Docile entre les mains de la neggafa, pliée par la tradition, Lella Oum
Keltoum a pris l’attitude rituelle des jeunes épouses. Ses pieds ne touchent
plus le sol, ses lèvres ne prononcent plus une parole, ses yeux ne s’ouvrent
pas sur les somptuosités environnantes.
Maintes fois, elle fut exposée à l’admiration de l’assemblée, en des
atours différents. Et chacune de ses toilettes était plus splendide que la
précédente, et chacun de ses bijoux dépassait la richesse des autres, et
chacune de ses larmes excitait davantage l’admiration et la louange...
Qui donc n’envierait Lella Oum Keltoum?
Il faut avoir un cœur de Nazaréenne, sous les caftans de brocart, pour
songer avec angoisse au destin qui s’accomplit, pour démêler la révolte et le
désespoir à travers les pleurs traditionnels d’une mariée...
Dans le palais de Mouley Hassan où l’on se prépare à recevoir l’aroussa,
la magnificence dépassera, dit-on, celle des fêtes qui se déroulent ici.
Lella Fatima-Zohra, très dignement retirée dans ses appartements, ne
saurait y assister, mais elle a donné ses ordres et prévu toutes choses afin
que les noces de Mouley Hassan soient dignes de leur maison.
Tout est prêt.
L’époux s’impatiente.
Amenez la mule harnachée de velours et d’argent!
Allumez les cierges aux mains des jouvenceaux!
Frappez les instruments!
Voici que la vierge paraît! Autour d’elle, les danseurs bondissent, les
tambourins s’agitent éperdus, les torches répandent leur lumière vacillante
et dorée.
Et les gens, attardés dans la nuit, s’émerveillent au passage fantastique
du cortège nuptial, tandis que, droite, rigide, sous ses voiles de pourpre et
d’or, mystérieuse amazone éblouissante, la mariée pleure.

16 juin.
Au retour de Marrakech, où nous allâmes après les noces de Lella Oum
Keltoum, Meknès m’apparaît plus intime, plus familière et plus aimable.
Tous les visages nous sont connus et accueillants, toutes les portes nous
sont ouvertes.
J’ai hâte de revoir mes amies abandonnées depuis deux mois,
d’apprendre les petits événements très importants de leur existence, et
surtout de savoir ce qu’il advint de la révoltée entre les mains du vieillard...
—Comment le jugerions-nous, m’a répondu Yasmine. Peut-on se fier
aux propos des esclaves, mères du mensonge? Et pour ce qui est de Lella
Oum Keltoum, elle ne monte plus jamais à la terrasse, car elle est Chérifa,
et son temps de fillette a passé. Aussi n’avons-nous point revu la couleur de
son visage, bien qu’elle soit de nouveau notre voisine. Mouley Hassan l’a
gardée chez lui pendant les premières semaines, puis il l’a réinstallée dans
sa propre demeure et il y passe lui-même presque toutes les nuits... Hier
soir, nous avons appris ton retour aux négresses, et certes Lella Oum
Keltoum en doit être informée et t’attendre dans l’impatience.

J’avais cueilli, pour la petite épouse, toutes les roses de notre riadh.
Cependant je parvins chez elle les mains vides, car chaque enfant, rencontré
dans la rue, me priait gentiment de lui donner une fleur, et, lorsque
j’atteignis la demeure de nos voisines, je fus sollicitée par une vieille
mendiante accroupie dans la poussière. C’était une pauvre femme hideuse
et décharnée; des haillons cachaient à peine son corps, laissant apercevoir la
peau flétrie, la misère des seins et les jambes osseuses. A mon approche,
elle arrêta sa complainte:
—O Lella, me dit-elle, accorde-moi une petite rose!
Cette demande inattendue fut aussitôt exaucée, et la pauvresse, m’ayant
couverte de bénédictions, plongea son visage de spectre dans les fleurs dont
ses mains étaient pleines.

On n’entre plus chez Lella Oum Keltoum ainsi qu’autrefois. Un portier

garde le seuil, soupçonneux et digne sur sa peau de mouton. Il ne laisse
pénétrer les gens qu’à bon escient.
Dans l’ombre du vestibule, se cachant derrière les portes, il n’y a plus de
curieuses négresses à épier les passants.
Le demeure m’apparut toute différente et cent fois plus belle que je ne
pensais, car, aussitôt après les noces, Mouley Hassan mit à la réparer les
meilleurs artisans de la ville. En sorte que le palais de Sidi M’hammed
Lifrani a retrouvé son ancienne splendeur.
Dans les salles, tous les sofas étaient neufs, bien rembourrés et chargés
de coussins. Des haïtis, en velours éclatant, garnissaient les murailles, des
tapis d’Angleterre couvraient les miroitantes mosaïques, et de grands
miroirs, venus d’Europe, reflétaient la transformation des choses, au milieu
de cadres très dorés.
Lella Oum Keltoum s’avance vers moi, le visage plein, avenant et
reposé. Des caftans de drap alourdissent mollement ses gestes et lui donnent
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