The Life of My ChoiceWilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, a legendary figure, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the victorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of twenty-three he made his first expedition into the country of the Danakil, a murderous race among whom a man's status in the tribe depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. His widely acclaimed books, 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' tell of his two famous sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of southern Iraq. But Thesiger's true character and motives have until now remained an enigma. In this, his autobiography, he highlights the people who most profoundly influenced him and the events which enabled him to lead the life of his choice. "One of the very few people who in our time could be put on the pedestal of the great explorers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." "A treasure galleon built to the same specifications as 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' ... it is the record of a man magnificently and unabashedly out of step with his times." "He is, unquestionably, one of the greatest travellers the British have ever produced, the last of our recognizable primitives. He also writes with much distinction and honesty." |
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... Tedda , who inhabited Tibesti , the French had never met with serious opposition such as they encountered from the Tuareg and Senussi : being essentially individualists whom no chief had effectively controlled , the Tedda had always ...
... Tedda and the rest of the camels crossed directly by an easier pass into the Miski valley , where we arranged to meet them . We struggled along , climbing and descending but slowly working upwards , until we came to the great gorge of ...
... Tedda would not degrade themselves by working on the soil : to own a garden was a sign of wealth but to work in it was accounted proof of servile origin . The Tedda claimed they were too few to tend both their herds and their gardens ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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