NARRATIVE OF A MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA

Performed in the Years 1850-51,

UNDER THE ORDERS AND AT THE EXPENSE OF HER MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT.

BY THE LATE

JAMES RICHARDSON,

AUTHOR OF “TRAVELS IN THE GREAT DESERT OF SAHARA.”

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICADILLY.

MDCCCLIII.

LONDON:
Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.

CONTENTS.

[1]

NARRATIVE OF A MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

CHAPTER I.

I begin at length to consider myself as it were at
home in this singular country of Aheer—without,
however, experiencing any desire to dally here
longer than the force of circumstances absolutely
requires. It must be confessed, as I have already[2]
hinted, that the town of Tintalous,[1] in front of
which we are encamped, does not at all answer
the idea which our too active imagination had
formed. Yet it is a singular place. It is situated
on rocky ground, at the bend of a broad valley,
which in the rainy season becomes often-times
the bed of a temporary river. Here and there
around it are scattered numerous trees, many of
considerable size, giving the surface of the valley
something of a park-like appearance. The herbage
is not rich, but it is ornamental, and refreshes the
eye in contrast with the black, naked rocks, which
rise on all hands to the height often of two or three
thousand feet. To the east, it is true, the country is
a little open; and between the mountains run in
numerous white sandy wadys, sprinkled with fresh
green plants, or shaded by various species of mimosa
and other spreading trees, under which the
shepherds and herdsmen find shelter from the
sun.

The principal feature of Tintalous itself is what
may be called the palace of En-Noor. It is, indeed,
one, compared with the huts and stone hovels amidst
which it is placed. The materials are stone plastered
with mud, and also the wood of the mimosa
tree. The form is an oblong square, one story high,[3]
with an interior courtyard, and various appendages
and huts around on the outside. There is another
house, and also a mosque built in the same style, but
much smaller. Of the rest of the habitations, a few
are stone sheds, but the greater part are huts made
of the dry stalks of the fine herb called bou rekabah,
in the form of a conical English haystack, and are
very snug, impervious alike to rain and sun. There
are not more than one hundred and fifty of these
huts and sheds, scattered over a considerable space,
without any order; some are placed two or three
together within a small enclosure, which serves as a
court or yard, in which visitors are received and
cooking is carried on. There is another little village
at a stone’s-throw north. The inhabitants of these
two villages consist entirely of the slaves and dependants
of En-Noor.

All around Tintalous, within an hour or two
hours’ ride, there are villages or towns of precisely
the same description, more or less numerously
peopled. At Seloufeeat and Tintaghoda, however,
we saw more houses built of stone and mud. This
may be accounted for by the fact that the inhabitants
are not nearly so migratory as those of Tintalous,
who often follow in a body the motions of
their master, so that he is ever surrounded by an
imposing household.

I must not omit mentioning an important article
of furniture which is to be observed in all the[4]
houses of Aheer—namely, the bedstead. Whilst
most of the inhabitants of Fezzan lie upon skins or
mats upon the ground, the Kailouees have a nice
light palm-branch bedstead, which enables them to
escape the damp of the rainy season, and the attack
of dangerous insects and reptiles like the scorpion
and the lêfa.

I shall hereafter make a few observations on the
tribes inhabiting Aheer. Here I will note that they
are all called Targhee, that is Tuarick, by the traders
of the north; and that the predominant race is the
Kailouee. To me the latter seems to be a mixture
of the Berbers, or supposed aborigines of the northern
coast, with all the tribes and varieties of tribes of the
interior of Africa. This may account for their
having less pride and stiffness than the Tuaricks
of Ghât, who are purer Berbers; as well as for their
disposition to thieving and petty larceny, of which I
have recently been obliged to give some examples.
The pure Berbers, likewise, are much less sensual
than their bastard descendants, who seem, indeed, to
have no idea of pleasure but in its grossest shape.

The Kailouees are, for the most part, tall and
active, little encumbered by bulky bodies; some
having both complexion and features nearly European.
At any rate there are many as fair-looking
as the Arabs generally, whilst others are
quite negro in colour. The women are smaller and
stouter; some are fattened like the Mooresses of the[5]
coast, and attain to an enormous degree of embon-point.
They are not ill-looking, but offer nothing
remarkable in their forms.

I have already set down many particulars of
manners, and shall proceed to do so in the same disjointed
way. At a future time all these traits must
be collected to form one picture.[2] For the present
I am anxious about the future progress of the Mission,
and impatient, at any rate, to hear some news
of our advance. We cannot do all the things
we would. Our position is almost that of prisoners.
We must depend entirely on the caprice of En-Noor,
who, however, may already have laid out his
plans distinctly, though he does not choose to communicate
them to us.

Oct. 2d.—We have been lately discussing the
practicability of going to Sakkatou, on a visit to
the Sultan Bello; and this morning I looked over,
for the first time, some “letters of credit” which
Mr. Gagliuffi, our plausible consul at Mourzuk,
had given me. I found that the amount offered
for the use of the expedition in Kanou does not
exceed a hundred and fifty reals of Fezzan, or about
twenty pounds sterling, and that the agent is expressly
requested not to advance any more! This
extraordinary document induced me to look further,[6]
and it soon appeared that the documents on which
I relied so much were mere delusions. The wording
of the Arabic letter to Bornou was ambiguous;
but in as far as I and my interpreter could make it
out, Haj Bashaw, to whom it is addressed, was
requested, if he had any money of Mr. Gagliuffi’s
in hand, to give me a little! I really did not expect
that a person in whom I had placed so much
confidence would play me this trick. But it seems
that Levantines are and will be Levantines to the
end of time. I have written to Government, complaining
of this unworthy conduct.

3d.—Dr. Barth is about to take advantage of
the delay necessarily incurred at Tintalous to visit
Aghadez, the real capital of Aheer, to which the
new Sultan has lately been led, and where his investiture
will shortly be celebrated. This journey
will extend our knowledge of this singular Saharan
country, and may also be of advantage in procuring
the signature of the Sultan to a treaty of commerce.

4th.—Dr. Barth started this morning in company
with Hamma, Waled Ocht En-Noor (son of
the sister of En-Noor). The departure took place
in presence of the Sultan himself, who had come to
take tea with me. The caravan was at first composed
of bullocks, the camels being a little in advance
on the road. Our friend the Doctor started
astride on one of these animals, which are a little
difficult to manage, especially when they have been
out at grass for some time. Indeed, in the first[7]
place, it is no easy matter to catch them from
amongst the herds; then it is hard to load them;
and then, though not often, they refuse to proceed.
On this occasion a powerful brute proved absolutely
unmanageable. En-Noor, seeing its obstinacy, exclaimed
that he gave it to me to kill and eat. He
afterwards, however, modified his gift, and said
that the bullock was also to be distributed amongst
the Arabs of the caravans now in Tintalous; and
that we were to give a turban as a present to the
herdsman. I was told that, in the meantime, representation
had been made to him, to the effect that it
was unfair to distinguish the Christians in this manner.
Soon after the animal was given it ran away,
and no one could catch it.

Well, the bullock caravan went off in good style;
and Sultan En-Noor remained taking his tea and
eating English pickles and marmalade with me. He
drank the tea and ate the other delicacies with evident
pleasure, not being afraid, like the greater part of
his subjects, to eat the food of Christians. Possession
of power seems to have one good effect—the destruction
of prejudice; pity that it sometimes goes
further and destroys belief. En-Noor told us that the
Sultan of Asoudee had gone out on a razzia to the
west. We are obliged to hope that it will be
successful, as otherwise our affairs will most materially
suffer. We talked also of the state of Zinder,
which is represented to be a walled town, with seven
gates built amidst and around some huge rocks. The[8]
governor, Ibrahim, keeps fifty drummers at work
every night, but whether with a purpose superstitious
or political I do not know.

En-Noor admired much the portraits of the personages
who figure in the accounts of the former
expedition to this part of the world, particularly
that of Clapperton. He had also a wonderful story
to tell of this traveller’s magic. He said that
Abdallah (Clapperton’s travelling name) had learned
from his books the site of his (En-Noor’s) father’s
house, that near it was a gold mine, and that he had
intended to come and give intelligence of this treasure.
“See!” exclaimed the Sultan, “what wonderful
things are written in the books of the Christians!”

My young fighi (or writer of charms) tells me,
as a secret, that he cannot write a talisman for himself,
but must ask another of the brotherhood to do
this for him. Neither in this place can physicians
heal themselves. This civil youth made me a present
of a piece of his workmanship to-day, observing,
“There is great profit in its power; it will preserve
you from the cut of the sword and the firing of the
gun.” I pray not to have occasion to test its
efficacy, but hope it may also serve as a protection
from the bite of scorpions, which are so plentiful
about here, and are said, at this season, to jump like
grasshoppers. According to the people of Tintalous
there are three species of them, each distinguished
by a different colour—black, red, and yellow. Despite
the talk of these disgusting reptiles I went in the[9]
evening to see the wells which supply Tintalous with
water. They are nothing more than holes scooped
out of the sand in the bed of the wady, and supplied
by ma-el-matr, “rain-water,” which collects only a
few feet under the sand, and passes through no
minerals.

I afterwards proceeded to the encampment of
the slave caravan, which is going in a few days to
Ghât. A native of that place—the chief, indeed—was
exceedingly rude at our first rencounter, and the
following dialogue took place:—

The Ghâtee. Where are you going?

Myself. I am going to Sakkatou.

The Ghâtee. What for?

Myself. To see the Sultan, who is my friend.

The Ghâtee. How do you know him?

Myself. The English have known him for years
past.

The Ghâtee. Ah!

Myself. Yes.

The Ghâtee. Have you any dollars—large dollars?
(making a large circle with his thumb and
forefinger.)

Myself. No: I don’t carry money to Soudan,
which is of no use to me. There I shall have wadâ.

Ghâtee. Eh! Eh! But cannot you give me a
turban?

Myself. No, I am not a merchant, I don’t bring
such things; go to the Arab merchants and buy.

Ghâtee. Um! Um!

[10]

Myself. Do you know Mohammed Kafa in Ghât?

Ghâtee. Oh, yes!

Myself. He is my friend.

Ghâtee. Allah!

Myself. Yes; he sent me a fine dinner twice
whilst I was in Ghât.

Ghâtee. Allah! Allah!

Myself. Do you know Haj Ibrahim? He is my
great friend.

Ghâtee. Allah! Allah! (greatly surprised).

Myself. Why, how is it that you do not know
me, Yakōb, as I have been in Ghât many years
before?

At this some of the other people of the caravan
cried out, “Yes, yes, we all know Yakōb;” so that
I left the rude slave-merchant quite crest-fallen.
He evidently, at first, wished to assume the airs of a
Haghar, and bully me out of a present.

The caravan consisted of some thirty poor young
women and children. There was also with them a
small quantity of elephants’ teeth.

Now that the moon is absent and the nights
are clear we have a most splendid view of the
heavens, its stars and constellations. The number
of meteors darting to and fro overhead is
very great—nearly one a minute shoots along.
Some are only a faint glimmer, and have but the
existence of a moment, whilst others are very beautiful
and last several seconds.

5th.—The weather is improving; the strong gusts
[11]
of wind have ceased, and so has the rain. We have
now calm and fine days with moderate heat.

In the afternoon I received another visit from
En-Noor, who came straight into my tent, like an
old friend whom I had known for twenty years. He
stopped with me at least an hour, drinking tea and
smoking, chatting the while about his past history
and present affairs. He reiterated again assurances
of his friendship for the English, and his determination
to remain the ally of the Queen of England!
He referred to the time when the great Bello, sultan
of Sakkatou, sent his ambassador to request him
(En-Noor) and all his people to subject themselves
to the Fellatahs. En-Noor gave him for answer, “I am
under God, the servant of God, and shall not submit
myself to you or to any one upon earth. My father,
and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and all my
ancestors, ruled here, and were the servants of God,
and I shall follow in their steps.” The Fellatahs
then tried to seduce the people, but they all said,
“We have one Sultan, that is En-Noor.” All the
other authorities of Aheer followed the example,
and preserved their independence, the people everywhere
arming themselves with whatever weapons
they had in case a war should break out.

After this narrative, En-Noor spoke again of the
English, and said he should send a maharee for the
Queen.

I gave him a fancy ring of the value of threepence,
with a mock diamond in it, which he immediately[12]
put on his finger with as much glee and pride
as the gayest Parisian coquette. Yusuf and the
Sfaxee, being present, swore it was diamanti; but I
am quite sure the old Sheikh understood the compliment.
I also gave him a pair of bellows, a basin,
and a pint bottle with a little oil it; with all these
things he was greatly delighted, continually admiring
and trying the bellows. When he went out of the
tent he himself carried all these articles away under
his arm.

With reference to our wish to start for Zinder,
the Sultan says he will send immediately for the
boat, that it may be ready by the time Dr. Barth
returns from Aghadez, when he is determined
himself to take that route. He seems now in the
enjoyment of good health. I felt much satisfied
with his visit. Certainly, when I reflect that in the
northern frontier of Aheer we were pursued for
several days, like monsters not fit to live, by armed
bands, this appears to me extraordinary condescension
on the part of En-Noor. I hope we shall part in a
friendly manner. This worthy sovereign gives the
present Sultan of Sakkatou, Ali Bello, the character
of a miser, but says that his father was a man of
liberality. He cannot exceed En-Noor himself in
greediness.

The bad state of the Bornou route is accounted
for by the desire the Kailouees have to render it
unsafe, so that they may have all the caravans come
along their own route. The same thing is said of the[13]
Timbuctoo route from Soudan. The Haghar murder
all who attempt to go from Soudan to Timbuctoo,
in order that the caravans may pass Ghât and Tuat.
This is called the natural explanation of the bad
character of these routes.

6th.—I continue to record the few characteristic
incidents of my residence at Tintalous. Our bullock
has been at last killed. We could not catch him,
but shot him down. The carcase was divided between
no less than twenty persons, and the meat proved to
be pretty good. Of my share I made steaks, which
I washed down with some tea and rum. This is the
first time we have had fresh beef since leaving
Tripoli. The event created an immense sensation
throughout the whole town of Tintalous, for the
slaughter of a bullock does not take place there
every day.

This morning I administered two ounces of
Epsom salts to a good-natured Kailouee, who,
although perfectly well, would persist in begging for
medicine. These people are continually asking to
be doctored when nothing ails them. En-Noor
seems to have taken a fancy to our morning beverages,
and has sent for tea and coffee. I am afraid
he will become a regular customer. Yusuf carried
off a bottle of rum from the tent in the evening,
which occasioned a disturbance between the servants
and myself. This worthy is not to be trusted with
the care of any strong liquor. The little Hamadee
was privy to the theft. In the course of the evening[14]
the new moon was seen by seven creditable persons,
so that in eight days more we shall have the Feast
of the “Descent of the Koran from Heaven,” and four
or five days after that we hope to start for Zinder.

7th.—This was a fine morning, with the thermometer
at sunrise in the tent 70°; outside, 66°.
The water has been so cooled during the night that
my hands ached when I washed them. Later in the
season it will be yet colder; and all reports tell us
that in Kanou after the rains it is often very chilly.

His highness the Sultan again was attracted
by my tea and marmalade, and gave me a call. He
desired to see once more the portrait of Clapperton,
and told me that Abdallah had five women in
Sakkatou, and had left behind him three children,
all boys. The Sultan was excessively friendly in
manner, which induced me to make him another
little present of a ring set with paste, and a small
pair of gilt scissors for one of his wives. He calls
me his brother, and manifests increased anxiety to
be friendly with the English. According to him, a
short time since the Sheikh of El-Fadeea, who
commanded the attack made on us at the frontier,
came here; and, in consideration of a few presents
and compliments, had promised to exert himself to
procure the restoration of our lost or stolen camels.
En-Noor also again talked about the boat. I am in
great hopes that we shall part from him on good
terms, and that he will be true to his protestations.
There is generally a companion with the old[15]
gentleman on these visits. This time it was an aged
Tanelkum, who married a sister of the Sheikh and
has been settled many years in the country. We
gave him more tea, and also a piece of white sugar,
to carry home.

This evening the Fezzan and Tripoli Arabs had
a musical entertainment, accompanied with dancing,
at which Madame En-Noor and several distinguished
ladies of Tintalous assisted. It was the usual singing
business, with Moorish hammering on tambourines.
The dance was performed by men, mostly in imitation
of the women, and was also of the usual inelegant
and indelicate description. However, there was a
little mixing of the derwish dances. The thing went
off to the great satisfaction of the Kailouees, and was
kept up till midnight.

8th.—I slept little after the villanous dancing
and riot of the preceding night, and rose late. My
occupation this day was completing my vocabulary of
the Kailouee language, of which I expect to collect
a thousand words. My interpreter sometimes gives
very curious explanations when I work with him.
The Arabic word which we translate “Alas!” coming
under consideration, he observed: “There is no
corresponding word in the languages of these countries.
This word belongs to the Koran and the
next world.” He means, that the word has only a
relation to the torment of the damned. It is curious
that this Arabic term agrees with, or is like, our
word wail (Ar. weel), and is the term used by our
[16]
translators of the New Testament in describing the
torments of the lost, “Weeping and wailing” &c.

Of the term “chaste,” Yusuf observed, “There
is no such expression in these languages; all the
women are alike, and equally accessible when danger
is absent.” It is also true that the men place no
bounds to their sensual appetites, and are restrained
only by inability. It may be, however, that the
more religious would have some scruples about
intriguing with their neighbours’ wives.

When we came to the word “school” Yusuf
pretended there was not such a word in Kailouee.
He asked, “Where in Tintalous is there a school?”
The question, unfortunately, is put with too much
truth. The Kailouees hereabouts seem entirely to
neglect education.

I myself observe that the Arabic booss answers
exactly to the vulgar word in English for kiss.[3]
The name of a raven is one of many remarkable
examples of a word being chosen to imitate in
sound some peculiarity of the thing signified. In
this case, kāk irresistibly reminds one of the raven’s
croaking voice; which we describe by caw. Kass,
scissors, is also an imitation of the sound produced
by this instrument in cutting.

[17]

In the evening the Sfaxee and Yusuf came to
pay us a visit, and related divers sorts of wonders of
this and other countries of Africa. The first matter
concerned us. Eight days ago died in Tintalous
an old witch, or prophetess, a negress, who foretold
our arrival, and said to En-Noor, “A caravan of
Englishmen is on the road from Tripoli, coming to
you.” This woman for many years was a foreteller
of future events. The next thing we heard referred
to the secret societies of Central Africa. Some of
the chiefs of these societies have the power of killing
with their eyes. One of these fellows is known to
have gone to a merchant, in whose arms was sleeping
a pretty female slave, and to have entered into
conversation with him, asking him how he was, &c.
In the meanwhile the wizard cast his eyes upon the
pretty slave, and its heart withered. This power is
accordingly much dreaded. If, however, any one
perceive the incantation of the wizard, and say,
“Begone, you son of a brach!” he immediately flees,
like a dog with his tail between his legs.

In parts of Bornou, also, extraordinary things
sometimes happen. There are men in those places
who have the power of assuming the shapes of wild
animals. This they do mostly in the nights. Under
the form of lions and leopards, they go to the tents
of strangers, and endeavour to lure them forth by
calling out their proper names with a perfect human
voice. If any one is so imprudent as to obey
summons and issue forth, he is at once devoured.

[18]

The Sfaxee pledges his word of honour that there
was a female slave a year ago in Mourzuk who
killed five of her companions with her looks. On
this a council was held by the merchants and great
people of Mourzuk, to know what to do with her,
and the decision come to was to send her back to
Bornou; a happy decision for the poor slave!
Lucky for her that she was not born in some parts
of Europe, with her marvellous power. Even our
friend Gagliuffi has not escaped these superstitions
of the people among whom he lives. On my seeing
his young turkeys for the first time, in very considerable
numbers, I exclaimed, “What a host of
young turkeys you have got!” On this he became
quite alarmed, lest I had cast a malign look upon
them, and ejaculated a counter-exclamation, “Oh,
God bless them!”

The Sfaxee and Yusuf do not speak very favourably
of some parts of Soudan as to morality.
In some districts of Begarmi, Yusuf says, a male
takes the first female he meets with, no matter how
near the relationship. All the women, in fact, are
in common. We must receive his asseverations for
what they are worth, on this subject in general, and
on the developements into which he entered. According
to him, in those regions where scarcely any
other roof is required but the heavens, there is no
other couch spread than the earth, and no one shuns,
in any act of life, the eyes of his neighbours.

Whilst these wonders of witches and tales of[19]
African lewdness were being related, a thing happened
which none could disbelieve, none call in
question. This was the appearance of an immense
meteor in the sky, shooting over half the heavens,
with a slight curve, from east to west. It had a
tail like a comet, and around its head burnt a blue
light of excessive brilliancy. This phenomenon appeared
at a quarter to eight o’clock in the evening.
I never saw anything like it before, and perhaps
shall never again see its equal. It might have been
visible two minutes. We all cried out with surprise
at beholding it. We had our faces towards the
south, and the course of the meteor was across the
south, but not very high, at about the third of the
circle of the heavens. Afterwards, every few
minutes, small meteors were seen sporting about in
the same direction, some in a straight line and
others descending.

9th.—The wind of this fine cool morning prevented
a visit from En-Noor. That he might not
be disappointed, however, I sent him his customary
tea; and amused myself by hearing the Sfaxee discourse
of that constant subject of conversation, the
attack of the Fadeea. According to him, on that
occasion great fear was felt by all the caravan.
Most of our servants had formed the resolution to
abandon us. There were, however, some honourable
exceptions; amongst the rest, Saïd, the great mahadee,
and another. Yusuf and Mohammed Tunisee
proposed the plan, that we three, the Germans, and[20]
myself, should be mounted on maharees, and either
conveyed back to Aisou or forward to Tintaghoda,
during the night. Some of the Kailouees wavered,
as well as the Tanelkums; but En-Noor (of our
escort) always declared that he would never consent
to our being given up. The next morning, two or
three of the assailants were very bold, and came and
called out in an authoritative tone, that we must be
given up. It is curious that, in spite of all the force
that was mustered against us, as soon as they saw
that we were determined to resist them, they immediately
began to parley. The Sfaxee is an immense
talker, and great allowance must be made for what
he says. In reality, we shall never be able to know
the exact truth with respect to this affair. Dr.
Overweg confesses that he was terribly alarmed as
well he might be. For my part, I was more used
to desert dangers, and slept all night. Dr. Barth
very kindly refused to allow anybody to awaken
me.

[21]

CHAPTER II.

Oct. 10th.—My garrulous friend the Sfaxee has gone
off this morning, to bring his merchandise from Tintaghoda.
The little fighi came, as usual, to see me.
I showed him the Arabic New Testament. He read
a few sentences, and then laid the book aside. I
offered it to him, but he refused to accept the inestimable
present. He represents the feelings of all
the Muslims of these countries. They have not even
any curiosity to know the contents of the Gospel,
much less the inclination to study or appreciate
them. They remain in a state of immovable, absolute[22]
indifference. Even the beautiful manner in
which the Arabic letters are printed scarcely excites
their surprise. En-Noor paid me his usual morning
visit, drank tea, and ate pickles and marmalade.
We asked him about meteors. He recollects the
fall of many. One, he says, fell upon a house, and
terrified the inhabitants, who came running to him.
Afterwards they dug to the depth of a man, and
found nothing, for it had buried itself deep in the
earth. According to him, a great profusion of
meteors denotes abundance of rain and herbage:
but these phenomena exert also a sinister influence
like comets, signifying the death of some
great personage. I have no doubt that extraordinary
meteors are very frequent in this part of the
Sahara. En-Noor was very condescending, as
usual: no change is observable in his manners.

It turned out that he had come with the intention
of speaking on a very delicate subject, but had
refrained. We learned what it was afterwards.
Dr. Overweg was sent for in the course of the day to
attend upon one of En-Noor’s wives, who had been
frightfully beaten by his highness the previous evening.
This domestic broil formed the common topic
of conversation in Tintalous. Every scandal-monger
has got hold of one version of the story. From what
we could gather, the great man was lying down
quietly, when suddenly, without any apparent provocation,
he started up, took a large stick from the
fire, one of its ends still burning, and with this terrific
[23]
weapon belaboured his wife over the face,
striking especially at the mouth, and cutting the
upper lip in two. The poor woman is now very ill.
No cause can be discovered for this piece of brutality.
En-Noor has, they pretend, two wives here,
and one on his estate at Damerghou; but he has
only one son and three daughters. No larger family
has this great man, with all his wealth and slaves,
been able to bring up.

Beating a wife is so common in these countries,
that, only when the act is attended with features of
unusual atrocity, as in this case of En-Noor, does it
excite any attention. There cannot be a question of
the fact, that our friend the Sultan is a great despot
in every point of view. Perhaps in no other way
could he maintain any authority amongst these semi-barbarian
Kailouees. This, nevertheless, cannot
excuse the atrocity of beating his wife with burning
fagots. Some say that the exciting cause of his
brutality was the eternal loquacity of the woman, of
which his highness began to be afraid. This may be
true, or be only an excuse invented by his courtiers.
Supposing, however, the cause to have been her
infidelity, let us examine what can be reasonably
expected from these African women. They are
not allowed scarcely to believe themselves to possess
souls; they have no moral motives to be chaste, and
certainly none of family and honour, being mostly
slaves. Then the greater part of the young girls of
consequence are married to old men, who are worn[24]
out by their sensual habits and indulgence with innumerable
concubines. These young women are thus
left, though married, like so many widows, without
education or religious motives, and with all their
passions alive, to the first opportunity which presents
itself. We know what they do, and we cannot expect
anything else from them.

We have often dancing now of evenings. Yesterday,
hearing the tambourines and other instruments
strike up, I went to the house of the Sfaxee to
see what was going on. They were dancing again
their Mourzuk dances before a number of delighted
Kailouees, male and female; amongst the rest Lady
En-Noor herself. The whole beauty and appropriateness
of this exercise amongst the Moors consists,
as is well known, in gross imitations of natural
acts. No further description or comment can I
permit myself. I have often thought that the present
dance must be an inheritance from very ancient
times. There seems to be a part of our nature to
which it is adapted. The performances at European
Operas are often nearly as indelicate.

Evil communications corrupt good manners.
One of our servants has learned to act the Tuarick.
He quarrelled with Yusuf, and on being told to go
away replied, “Yes. I will go; but when you get up
to Damerghou I will bring down the people upon
these Christians, and they shall be eaten up!”

11th.—Zangheema, En-Noor’s principal slave,
came early this morning for Dr. Overweg, that he[25]
might attend the “beaten wife.” My privileged
friend went accordingly, and visited at the same
time all the women of the household. They received
him in a very friendly manner: some of them proved
nearly white.

12th.—This day I finished my Kailouee vocabulary,
which contains about a thousand words. I
have never yet collected so large a quantity of materials
of any of the languages of Africa. I carefully
packed up my vocabulary for England, and got it
ready, with other matters, to send by the first
opportunity.

Dr. Overweg has again visited the belaboured
wife this morning, and reports her to be improving.
The Sultan seems now to repent what he has done,
and is endeavouring to obtain forgiveness by kind
and courteous behaviour.

There was a great deal of wind to day, but it did
not come in puffs, endangering our tents. I sometimes
wonder, however, how the flimsy huts of which
part of Tintalous is composed are not swept away.
They are made of the dry stalk of that excellent
herb bou rekabah, called in Kailouee afada.

13th.—No news stirring to-day; nothing said of
razzias; so much the better. We are living very
quietly here, and the climate agrees with me extremely
well. Some of our people, however, are
sick.

14th.—The mornings continue cold; 65° outside
the tent, and a few degrees higher inside. This[26]
fresh weather, no doubt, accounts for my good
health.

According to a Tibboo merchant now here, and
going with our caravan, the people of Wadaï would
receive a Christian well, and allow him to visit their
country. He represents Wadaï as a very rocky
region, like Aheer, with two large rivers in it running
from south to north—not season streams, but
continual. He says that the people are all blacks,
and a very tall race. They have a language of their
own, which is difficult to learn. Warrah is the
capital. The natives drink a great deal of bouza,
and are nearly always intoxicated. Such is a summary
account of Wadaï from the mouth of a Tibboo
geographer.

This morning, Madame En-Noor sent me by
Zangheema a pair of pewter earrings, in exchange
for some rings. It is extremely difficult to make a
good bargain with these people. With respect to
our merchandise, it all sells lower here than we paid
for it at Mourzuk. The profits come from the
purchase of slaves. A burnouse of forty mahboubs
will sell in Soudan for little more than its cost, if
dollars or money is to be given; but if slaves are
taken in exchange, three slaves, perhaps, may be
obtained, which, in Tripoli, may be sold at forty or
fifty dollars each. Hence the profit of the Soudan
commerce. The article which yields the greatest
profit is loaf sugar, which, costing half a dollar in
Mourzuk, is said to sell for a full dollar in Bornou.
[27]
To be sure there is all the risk and the heavy freight
of such an article, especially if conveyed up during
the rainy season.

I wrote yesterday a despatch to Government,
requesting letters of recommendation to be sent up
to me in Kordofan, pointing out the route of Egypt
as the probable one by which I shall return to the
Mediterranean. I had a long dispute with Overweg
about the letter ghain, which he persists in pronouncing
like a strong k. Yusuf was called in,
and declared that the ghain was the letter which
distinguished Arabic from all other languages. In
Kailouee Tuarick there is no kaf or ghain. These
Berber dialects have, however, the hard g in a
thousand words, and have also the k in a great
number of cases, but the hard g and the t are the
consonants most frequently occurring. The Haussa
has also the g hard, as in măgăree, “good;” and a
great number of words with the sound tsh, as doutshee,
a stone or mountain.

The Fellatah language is said to resemble the
Kailouee; in other words, to be a Berber dialect.
If this be the case, the Fellatah people are probably
of Berber extraction, and not Arab, as they are vulgarly
supposed to be. This is a question requiring
still further investigation. Others, again, say that
the Fellatah language is quite different from the
Tuarick. Overweg thinks Islamism was introduced
into Bornou by the Shoua Arabs, who are[28]
found in Bornou in great numbers. The Fellatah,
he thinks, received Islamism by way of Timbuctoo,
from Moors and Arabs trading to that city from
Morocco. There is considerable probability in both
these opinions.

15th.—Four or five days after the approaching
Eed, or festival, half the people of Tintalous will go
for salt, and the other half prepare for their annual
journey to Soudan with En-Noor.

The inhabitants of Damerghou are reported to
be half “Kohlan,” blacks, and half Kailouees. It
is the Kailouees in the neighbourhood of Damerghou
who infest the borders and routes of Bornou.
En-Noor is now very quiet, and there is a chance
that he will not come down upon me for more
money.

According to the Fezzanees, Tuat is thirty days
from Aisou and thirty-three from Taghajeet (short
days). Ghât is forty short and thirty long days from
Tintalous or Asoudee. Bilma is fourteen long and
seven short days from Tintalous or Asoudee. There
is no direct route from this (Tintalous) to Timbuctoo;
from Sakkatou there is, however, a short
route to Timbuctoo, and it is said to be a safe one.
The number of days here mentioned are merely
general numbers; they vary according to the good
state of the camels, or the disposition of the people,
or certain accidents on the road.

The evening of the feast of the “Descent of[29]
the Koran from Heaven,” all good Muslims ought
to sit up all night to read the Koran, through and
through again.

There is a curious commerce of yămăneé, or
agate stones, in Soudan. These yămăneé are originally
brought from the eastern coast of Africa, from
and near Mombas (Mozambique), where they pass
as money, like the cowries. From Mombas they
are carried, by the Muscat traders, to Yamen, and
thence to Mekka; in which place they are blessed,
and rendered doubly precious. From Mekka they
are brought to Egypt, and from Egypt to Mourzuk;
from which point they are distributed all over this
part of Africa, and the souk of Kanou is stocked
with them. They are much esteemed by all classes
of the inhabitants of the interior of Africa, and are
worn equally by the men and women.

In this commerce we see the round-about-way
in which some articles are conveyed for sale. If
there were a road from Mombas direct to Bornou,
this agate would be cheap enough. But then,
perhaps, it would not be esteemed or valued at half
its present cost. It would not be blessed at Mekka,
and so lose all its talismanic and mysterious power.
The name is derived from Yaman, evidently from
the first country in Arabia, to which they were
brought originally from Africa.

According to Overweg, Madame En-Noor is still
very unwell with her lip. It is cut right across
under her nose, penetrating to the gums; she is,[30]
nevertheless, very lively, and is always pestering
Overweg to read the fatah with, or marry a young
girl, one of her relations. She endeavours to warm
my worthy friend to comply with her match-making
wishes by luxurious descriptions of the beauties of
the proffered bride.

As soon as the people hear I have a wife in
Tripoli, they begin to ask how many children I have
got. On receiving for answer, “None,” they are
greatly astonished, and ask me the reason of so
strange a matrimonial phenomenon.

This evening another fine meteor appeared in
the south-east. Its head was like a blazing star,
and it left behind it a train of sparkling light and
flame. There were also numbers of smaller meteors.

16th.—The morning of the Eed. According to
the Fezzanees, prayers are soon ended; because,
they say, “these Kailouees know nothing of their
religion.”

The Fezzanees asked me to hoist the British flag;
to which I replied, “No; the flag belongs to
the Queen, but I will give you a little powder for
your matchlocks.” All these Mahommedan feasts
are celebrated on the northern coast of Africa by
the discharge of gunpowder.

No certain information can be obtained of the
route from Zinder to Sakkatou, in this place. The
people only say the present Sultan is not so strong
as was his father; thereby intimating that the routes
are not so secure as formerly.

[31]

It is usual for the inhabitants of Tintalous to
visit those of Asarara on the morning of the present
feast. About sixty men, natives of this place, accompanied
by a dozen Moors from Tripoli and Mourzuk,
went, accordingly, to Asarara this morning. Then
a number of the people of Asarara returned with
them. Yusuf remarked, with some surprise, that
even the women went out to pray, about forty in
number. So that it would seem the Kailouees
educate their women in religion more than the
Muslims of the coast.

The most interesting event to us, however, this
morning, was the arrival of the boat from Seloufeeat.
Our servants were very quick in their return.
They came all night, to avoid any further attempts
to carry off the camels. They were all alone. I
welcomed the return of the boat as I would that of
an old friend.

There was no firing this evening, as was expected,
En-Noor being very unwell-suffering rheumatism
and fever.

The most agreeable sight in all these Mahommedan
feasts is to see all the people dressed out in
their finery. The merchants have appeared in
splendid burnouses, all more or less in good humour.
The slaughtering of the sheep to-day was the dirtiest
part of the business. All here on such occasions
play the part of butchers-men, women, and children;
and all attack, stab, skin, and maul the poor[32]
animals, in a way frightful to behold. The environs
of the town were turned into dirty slaughter-houses.

17th.—I have determined to purchase no more
things from the Sfaxee at present. He makes me
pay double price. It will be better to wait and see
what can be done at Zinder. An infidel traveller,
who is known to be in possession of any property, is
sure in these countries to be looked upon as a milch-cow.
Does not “the book,” according to the vulgar
opinion, authorise the faithful to take our lives?
“Our purses are more lawful.”

The festival being over, I went to pay my
respects to Sultan En-Noor. He is much better in
health than yesterday, but has still a bad cold, and
continues to blow his nose and wipe it—pardon the
naïve statement—with the sole of one of his sandals!
The action struck me as rather uncleanly and undignified
in a prince; but Kailouees are not punctilious.

Mr. Gagliuffi had mentioned to me that he
had given assistance to some shepherds who were
begging their way to Soudan. One of these poor
fellows had come to see the Sultan. He seemed,
indeed, miserably poor, but tried to hide the fact,
saying to them and Yusuf: “I have news for you;
now I am your friend, as I was a friend to the
Consul in Mourzuk.” He was quite a young man,
and excited my compassion.

In the afternoon I received a visit from En-Noor,[33]
with a whole train of his people. The Shereef
was absent. The Sultan came especially to see
the boat, the pieces of which were put together
that he might know its shape and size. Yusuf then
drew for him a ship with all sails set, on a piece of
paper. It was very well done; and excited the
applause of my visitors. I treated them, as usual,
with pickles, marmalade, and tea. Among other
things I showed En-Noor the broad arrow, or government
mark, on many of our things; as the guns,
and pistols, tent, bags, and biscuits, which greatly
surprised him.

The Sheikh was in good spirits, and was pleased
with his visit. I sent him during the day a piece of
dark blue cotton print for a pillowcase. This little
present delighted him much. I am much hampered
with the “princesses,” who first sent to buy sugar,
and then to beg, forgetting to buy.

We have a Tuat Tuarick changing camels for
slaves now in Tintalous. This man belongs to the
tribe called Sgomara, if I have caught the name
correctly.

18th.—I rose early, having had a bad headache
during the night through eating meat in the middle
of the day. Whatever is eaten in the middle of the
day must be taken very sparingly. I believe the
greater part of the diseases with which foreigners
in these countries are afflicted arise from want of
sufficient attention to diet. We must take great
care of our health just as we are entering Soudan.[34]
The weather is still cool, especially in the morning.
The prevailing wind during these last twenty days
has been E.N.E., which is very refreshing. The
Moorish merchants pretend that in Soudan it is now
very cold.

I received a visit from the young Shereef, whose
conversation smacked a good deal of a disagreeable
curiosity respecting my movements and intentions
in Central Africa. I therefore gave him a very
ordinary and cool welcome. This fellow has been
here some time, and never offered to pay us a visit
before. En-Noor has been feeding him during his
stay. He displayed a good deal of shrewdness, and
is well acquainted with the Christians of the Mediterranean.
He is going to visit his brother in
Zinder, and then returns to Tripoli by the way of
Bornou and Mourzuk. Like all these shereefs, or
marabouts, he pretended that had he been with us,
or had we travelled with him from Mourzuk to
Tintalous, no one would have dared to molest
us; an assertion wholly false, for the Tuaricks
care little for marabouts when they are bent on
plunder.

A young woman has just arrived from a distant
village, with the express object of procuring from
the Taleb (Overweg) a medicine to produce abortion:
she says she has been gadding, “barra” (out
of her mother’s house), and is frightened lest she
should get a good beating. On Overweg’s refusing
to give her any such medicine she burst out into[35]
a pathetic lamentation, and talked loudly of what
her parent would do to her. Young ladies often
think of their mothers a little too late under these
circumstances.

A slave of the Sultan of Aghadez arrived this
morning, in six days from the capital, to inquire
after the health of En-Noor. He brings no particular
news, but says he saw Barth at Aghadez.

“Man is to man the surest, deadliest foe,” has
been quoted from the poet as most applicable to
the moral and social state of Africa. It may truly
be said to be our case, for hitherto we have suffered
little in this town except from men. Looking
also around us, the people suffer less from the arid
country which they inhabit than from the violence
which they inflict one upon another.

I learned from Yusuf yesterday evening, that
for every dollar I take from the Sfaxee, if I pay in
Mourzuk, I must give two. I was greatly afflicted
at this positive declaration, but scarcely believe it;
if it, however, prove to be the case, I must by all
means find money in Soudan. It will be a hard
fight, indeed, to keep down the expenses of this
expedition; however, every effort must be employed
to effect this desirable object.

Mărādee, I learn, is three days west from Tesaoua;
and this latter place is two from Zinder.
There is another village, called Gazawa, one day
south of Tesaoua. The inhabitants of these places
are half Mahommedans and half pagans; the latter[36]
do not offer human sacrifices; their religious rites
consist principally in worshipping trees, to which
they sacrifice at certain seasons. The Fellatahs
are always at war with the people of Mărādee, but
Gouber is at peace with Sakkatou. In Mărādee
there is one large stone-and-mud house for the
Sultan; all the rest of the houses are bell-shaped
huts. The place has a numerous population.
Tesaoua is also independent and self-governed, as
are most of the places hereabouts.

I had a visit from two itinerant schoolmasters,
natives of Bornou. From these I learned that there
does exist a little education amongst the Kailouees.
There is a village near called Amurgeen, three hours
from Tintalous, where children are sent from all the
places around, so that it forms a species of college
or university. It is to this college that En-Noor
sends his sons and grandsons. These itinerant
pedagogues are negroes; and it is certainly a
curious circumstance that from Central Africa instruction
should migrate northwards. But the Kailouees
have little pride in this respect; although
boasting of the name of Tuaricks, and accounting
themselves white people, or allied with the whites,
they do not scruple to receive education from the
negroes of Bornou, whilst certainly it would be
very easy to have Kailouee schoolmasters.

I heard from my friend Tibbaou that En-Noor’s
territory in Tesaoua is simply a village at some
distance from the medeeneh, or city, where there[37]
is a native and independent sultan of some
power. His territory in Damerghou is also a mere
village. Nevertheless, the possession of these places
extends the political influence of the Kailouees in
Soudan. The neighbourhood of Damerghou, especially
the western side, seems celebrated for a tribe,
or factions of tribes, consisting of bad Tuaricks.
This race is evidently spreading in Soudan; there
are great numbers in Gouber and the countries near.

I purchased from the itinerant pedagogues of
Bornou two of their ink-bottles, which are made
of small calabashes. They wrote for me some
specimens of their penmanship, a charm, fatah, or
first chapter of the Koran. They wrote and formed
their letters sideways, as some lawyers’ clerks do in
England.

Dambaba Makersee took the liberty of informing
me to-day, as if I did not know it before, that all
the things of us Christians were considered by the
Kailouees generally as common property, and that
whoever could lay hold of any ought to do so without
qualm or scruple; but, he added, when you
arrive in Zinder, all will be changed. Let us hope
so, Inshallah!

Strings of charms are worn by the men occasionally
under the arm, or suspended over the
shoulders, as well as round the neck. The charm
or armlet of the Moors and Tuaricks corresponds
with the Fetish of the ancient Kohlan, people of
[38]
Soudan, and of the present negro races on the
western coast.

I finished the statistics of the towns and villages
of Asben—after all, a very imperfect affair. Nevertheless,
it is the best which I could make from my
materials.

En-Noor paid me a visit in the morning, and
stopped gossiping two hours. From him I learnt that
the Fellatah language has no relation to the Arabic
or Tuarick, but is quite a language peculiar in itself.
He also informed us that the Gouberites were still
at war with the Fellatahs of Sakkatou; that they
were united with the people of Maradee, ancient
Kohlans like themselves, and that this united force
had been lately gaining their lost ground against
the new Muslim powers in Soudan. En-Noor
seems to favour the re-establishment of these people
against the Fellatahs. The latter he naturally hates,
on account of their attempts on the independence of
the Kailouees, and their perpetual intrigues at
Aghadez.

With regard to Tesaoua, En-Noor pretends that
he founded this city. His statement is singularly
suggestive and picturesque in its simplicity. He says
that he met, on the spot where Tesaoua now stands,
a forlorn man, with only two slaves.

“What are you doing?” he said to the man.

“Nothing,” the man replied. “What can I do,
naked as I am, with myself and two slaves?”

[39]

“Oh!” rejoined En-Noor; “stop a minute, and
I will bring you a multitude of people, and we
together will make a large city.” En-Noor kept
his word, and brought a multitude of Kailouees,
Kohlans, and their slaves. Now Tesaoua is a
mighty city, and En-Noor has got a small town of
his own near it, mostly peopled by his dependants.
Such is the foundation of many African cities;
these places springing up as mushrooms, and disappearing
as soon.

En-Noor also pretends, that through his father
he is heir to the thrones of the ancient Kohlans,
about Kashna, Gouber, and Maradee, and that
he ought to come into possession after the death
of the present occupants. This, I should think,
is incorrect; but his highness has undoubtedly
great political influence in those countries. We
learn that several of the men of Tintalous have
wives and families in Damerghou and Tesaoua, but
none of them have large families—only one or two
children.

[40]

CHAPTER III.

News from Barth—Camels restored—Expensive Journey—Proposed
Migration of Males—Supply of Slaves, whence—A new
Well—Pagans and Christians—Tibboo Manners—The great
Gong—When is a Tibboo hungry?—Hunger-belt—Queen of
England in the Sahara—The Shanbah—A hasty Marriage—Saïd’s
new Wife—Wild Cauliflowers—Tolerance of the Kailouees—Men
go to fetch Salt from Bilma—Approach of Dr.
Barth—Lion’s Mouth—Tibboos and Kailouees—Mysteries of
Tintalous—Fewness of Men in Aheer—Trees preserved in the
Valley—Bright Stars—Method of Salutation—Purposed
Stars—Kailouee Character—Champagne at Tintalous—The
Wells.

Oct. 22d.—A letter was received this morning from
Dr. Barth. It appears that the treaty will not be
signed, nor even presented to the Sultan.
En-Noor paid me a visit, as usual, this morning.
I presented to his highness some old boxes, with
which he ordered a door to be made for his palace.
His politeness does not cease, and the graciousness
with which he receives my presents is really remarkable.

The man sent after our camels brought back
my poor white maharee, and demanded ten dollars
(as good as twenty to me) for his trouble. I refused
[41]
to give them, preferring to let him have the camel,
which is hardly worth ten dollars. This manner of
recovering our lost or stolen camels amounts to
buying them over again. But it has been our
misfortune all along, that our friends, and those
who profess to be such, and all who attempt to aid
us—every one of them, have profited by our losses,
and the disasters which have befallen us. This
dispute has been referred to En-Noor, and they have
accepted five dollars, which I offered them.

I this day made out the statement of the principal
items of expenditure which the expedition has
incurred from Mourzuk to Tintalous, including the
escort to Zinder. It amounts to the enormous sum
of three thousand mahboubs, or about six hundred
pounds sterling!! If we do not proceed better than
this on the future part of the journey, the expedition
will at any rate be bankrupt and ruined for want of
funds.

23d.—Yusuf and I brought before Overweg
this morning the necessity of his assisting in relieving
the Government from the double payment of
the sums advanced by the Sfaxee. He agreed that
it was highly important to save this money, and
promised to place his goods at my disposal for sale
in Soudan.

On the departure of the caravan for Zinder and
Kanou every male inhabitant will leave Tintalous,
some starting with it and others going for salt,
leaving only the women and children behind. This[42]
is considered by the Moors as preferable to leaving
a few men behind, because these few would occasion
quarrels amongst the women, and, besides, excite
the jealousy of the absent husbands.

Most of the men who go with us to Damerghou
and forward to Tesaoua will find another wife
and family in both these places. This is a regular
emigration of males, not the accidental departure of
fathers and husbands. These gentlemen pass half
the year in Soudan and half in Aheer. The system
does not appear to be advantageous to the increase
of population: the wives of these birds of passage
hardly bear two children a-piece. Indeed there are
very few children in Tintalous. We have not yet
sufficient data or experience for a conclusion on this
part of statistics; but, up to the present, all that we
have seen in Africa during this journey exhibits it as
singularly miserable and destitute of population.
We can hear of no man, not even a sultan with his
fifty female slaves, having more than four or five
children. As for the poor, one or two are all that
they can bring up.

Whence, then, comes the supply of slaves? So
far as this part of Africa is concerned I may observe,
in reply, that the annual number of slaves
brought is exceedingly limited, amounting only to a
few thousands. When we get nearer the western
coast, we shall probably be able to account for the
supplies of slaves which are transported across the
Atlantic.

[43]

This afternoon a well was commenced near our
tents. The digging of a well is an important matter;
his highness En-Noor, therefore, vouchsafed his
presence. A number of the excavators came to me
to beg for sugar. I brought out a piece of white
loaf sugar, and broke it into thirty pieces or so; then
ordered one of them to divide it fairly amongst
themselves: but this was impossible. Anything like
fairness amongst the Kailouees, all of whom are
addicted to thieving (a habit acquired from Soudan),
was out of the question. As soon as I rose from
the ground, after breaking the sugar on a leathern
apron, there was a general rush upon it, and some
got a great deal and others none. Was not this a
fine miniature picture of mankind?

24th.—En-Noor paid me a very early visit, and
drank coffee. I heard that a courier to Mourzuk
would cost forty dollars. I begin to learn a little
Soudanese; there are some beautiful soft words in
it. Yusuf says there is no name for God in this
language; but his statement requires further examination.

From what we learn respecting Barth’s reception
at Aghadez, it would appear that the people
were disposed to look upon him with the same complacency
as they are wont to regard the pagans, or
En-sara as they call them, of Gouber and Maradee.
Indeed, the Tanelkums and Kailouees consider that
we shall be well received by our brethren, the pagans
of Soudan.

[44]

Here is a most extraordinary trait of the barbarity
of the Tibboos. It often happens that they
are out foraging for twenty days without finding
anything to eat. If they light upon the bones of a
dead camel, they take them and pound them to
dust; this done, they bleed their own living camels
(maharees) from the eye, and of the blood and
powdered bones they make a paste, which they
eat! This is somewhat analogous to what Bruce
relates of the Abyssinians cutting out beefsteaks
from the rump of a live bullock. The Tibboos
possess the finest maharees; and the breed in the rest
of the Sahara is always being improved or kept up
by a constant supply from their country.

I continue to supply his highness En-Noor with
either tea or coffee every day. I sent him some
early this morning. He is a greedy old dog, and
will not buy a loaf of sugar because I will not give
it him at the price of Mourzuk, and thus lose the
freight. I hold out, and we have sold him none for
the present.

Overweg is making a small commercial lexicon
of the things brought to the market of Kanou: a
most excellent idea. I myself intend, if I go to
Kanou, to make a list of all the things I find in the
Souk, with some account of their produce and
mode of importation into that mart.

The great gong sounded throughout the village
this afternoon, to give note of preparation to all the
people, that every one of the males must be ready
[45]
to leave this place in the course of three or four
days. The Sheikh says he is determined to leave
in three days, whether the people come from
Aghadez or not. Yusuf laid before En-Noor this
evening the necessity of our sending a courier to
Mourzuk, stating that we had nothing left. His
highness pitied our case, and said he would look
about for a courier; observing, “The Consul has
need of much money and many presents in Soudan.”
He said, also, that he would recommend us to go to
Bornou.

25th.—The days are now pretty hot, and the
nights correspondingly cool. We have a good deal
of wind. I wrote a letter to Drs. Overweg and
Barth jointly, calling upon them to assist me in
case the Sfaxee would not wait for his money until
the return of the courier. Dr. Overweg consents.
I wrote out the Tuarick alphabet.

The account of the Tibboos pounding the camels’
bones and bleeding their animals to make paste, is
confirmed by the Gatronee of the Germans.[4] He
says, moreover, that this is the way in which they
proceed. Every Tibboo must fast three days before
he thinks about eating. If on the fourth day he
do not arrive at the belad, or country, he then
takes his left sandal from his foot, and stews or
soddens it, making something of a soup. These
sandals being leather, or untanned hide, it is, perhaps,
[46]
not impossible to make of them a palatable
soup! If on the fifth day he find no village, he
then devours the sandal of his right foot. After
this, still not finding a village, he collects bleached
camels’ bones and bleeds his camel as before mentioned.

A Tibboo always has a girdle with seven knots,
and when travelling hard takes in, as the sailors
would say, a reef every day; if after seven days
he find nothing to eat, he is considered hungry
and unfortunate. The three Tuaricks who followed
us from the well of Aisou declared that they
had had nothing to eat for fifteen days; and there
cannot be a doubt of the fact, that both the Tibboos
and the Tuaricks can, on a pinch, remain without
food for a considerable time—say ten or twelve
days.

A Tuatee, who knows Algiers well, arrived here
this afternoon, and is going with us to Zinder.
He brings an extraordinary report about the copy
of the treaty which I left with Haj Ahmed at Ghât.
He says he heard it read, and from it learned that
“the Queen of England is now in Tripoli, and
wishes to come and live in Ghât, and has offered
to buy half Ghât.” Such is the nature of Saharan
reports.

More authentic intelligence arrived to-day by a
courier, who made the journey from Ghât to Seloufeeat
in fourteen days—sufficiently quick. This
courier brings a warning from Khanouhen to the[47]
caravans now proceeding to Ghât, not to come in
twos or threes, as they were wont, but to come
altogether, as he fears reprisals from the Shanbah
and the Haghar.

The history of the thing is this:—A tribe of
Tuaricks has always acted as the guides of the
Shanbah in their foraging parties—on the Tuarick
territory, for example—always pointing out to them
the camels of the people of Ghât. Khanouhen
has chastised this treacherous tribe, destroying a
great many of them; but the Shanbah and Haghar
not choosing to desert their old friends, have
determined to take vengeance upon the Ghât
Tuaricks. It is this revenge which Khanouhen
fears. He anticipates a combined attack on the
caravans. The wonder is how these routes are
kept open at all, when these distant tribes, who
have no interest in the commerce that moves
along them, are notorious for their predatory
feelings and education. It is now said that the
Fadeea, our friends on the frontier, are in league
with the Shanbah against the Ghât Tuaricks.

En-Noor, it appears, had sent his son to salute
the new Sultan of Aghadez, and to assist in establishing
or placing him on his throne. He got as
far as Asoudee, when he fell in love with a pretty
woman of the town, and at once married her, proceeding
no farther on his mission. Yesterday evening
a man arrived mounted on a maharee, bringing
with him all the finery of the bride, which he exhibited
[48]
to the people, riding about the town! All
were greatly astonished at the splendour of the
bride’s dowry. Are not these fit materials for an
Arabian Night’s entertainment? My servant, Saïd,
also married the other evening, but not so romantically;
taking up with the divorced wife of another
freed black. I heard nothing of it until all was
over. The parties guessed rightly that I should
take no interest in the matter, or rather disapprove
of it, as the fellow has abandoned his own and
natural wife. This divorced negress, who has at
last found a master, has gone the round of all the
tents since she has parted from her former husband,
and is a little intriguing wretch. The Sfaxee and
Yusuf countenanced the affair, but kept it quite unknown
to me. They, however, fetched Overweg,
and presented him with a portion of the marriage-supper—bazeen.
I felt much disgusted on hearing
of the affair. The old wife is a native of Kanemboo,
and is going thither. She will, of course,
gladly take leave of her husband and this young
wife and rival. Marriage is an excessively loose
tie here, at any rate amongst the poor. The rich
pretend to respect marriage.

We have all done little in clearing up difficulties,
or obtaining correct information of the
Tuaricks of the Sahara. No good informants are
to be found. From the Sheikhs of Ghât it is quite
impossible to learn anything. We hope to get
some information from a Tanelkum now going with[49]
us. Many tribes have been mentioned, casually;
but the principal are—the three great tribes of
Ghât, those to which Khanouhen, Shafou, Jabour,
and Hateetah belong—a tribe in Janet—the Haghar
of Ghamama—the Isokamara, located on the
Tuat route from Aisou—the Tanelkums of Fezaan—the
Maraga, a breed produced from the slaves of
the Haghar and the Sorgou of Timbuctoo.

26th.—The sky is now frequently cloudy, but
no rain falls. The valley of Tintalous is looking
fresh, on account of the great quantity of wild cauliflower
overspreading its surface, called by the Arabs
liftee. This word liftee, is evidently derived from
lift, “turnip.” The vegetable grows in lines and
circles, determined apparently by the action of the
water, which deposits the seeds. No use is made of
this wild cabbage; it is very bitter, and no animals
even eat it.

En-Noor paid me a visit this morning before I
was up; he drank some coffee, and went off to see
his camels. The Tanelkums were quite wrong in
their surmisings about En-Noor and his religious
fanaticism. He has shown less fanaticism than any
prince with whom we have had yet anything to do
during the present journey. All the Kailouees of
Tintalous are equally tolerant. We have now
three quasi-princes, or sons of sultans, in Tintalous,
besides the son of En-Noor. We have Mousa
Waled Haj-Ali, who takes our despatches to Mourzuk,
with Yusuf my interpreter, and a Tibboo, the[50]
son of the Sultan of Kouïvar. As we proceed onwards,
princes and sons of princes will thicken upon us.

27th.—I packed up and sent off all my despatches
to Mourzuk, together with a few trifling
things for my poor wife, by the hand of Mousa
Waled Haj-Ali, the virtual Sheikh of the Tanelkums.

28th.—All the male inhabitants, with the exception
of five or six, have gone off this morning to
fetch salt from Bilma. They return here in the
course of a month, and the greater part of the salt
is transported from hence to Soudan by the next
caravan. We have heard of our friends at Aghadez.
They are expected here in a few days. The new
Sultan of Aghadez is said—but there is little accuracy
in these desert reports—to have gone on an
expedition west, to settle some differences between
some tribes in arms against one another. The
people also say that the new Sultan is “hungry,”
and is glad of such an opportunity to get “something
to eat.” This is the way in which they would
describe a Chancellor of the Exchequer planning a
new tax.

Some say the object of the razzia is to chastise
the Fadeea for attacking us; but still the main object
is to fill the Sultan’s “own hungry belly.”
Such are Asbenouee politics.

Bakin-Zakee, the Soudanese name of the Kailouee
green cap, I know here means the “lion’s
mouth.” This is the phrase with which I always[51]
salute Zangheema, En-Noor’s chief slave; but the
terms are much more appropriate for his master, as
intimating his avaricious, nay voracious, disposition.
Zangheema, however, might be called “Kărĕn
Zākee,” the jackal of the lion, or “the lion’s provider,”
so anxious is he to minister to the voracious
appetite of his lord.

We have received the news that Dr. Barth is
near. He is expected to-morrow evening, or early
next day.

29th.—En-Noor paid me a visit at sunset to-day,
and talked of how many children people had
in this country. His highness said he knew a
sultan in Soudan who had seven hundred children.

30th.—The Gatronee of the Germans confirms
the report of the circumstance, that, when the Kailouees
go to the Tibboos to trade for salt, all the
male Tibboos run away, leaving all the business in
the hands of the females; which latter, besides
trading in salt with the Kailouees, make a good
mercantile speculation with their charms. Each
woman, in fact, has her Kailouee husband or lover,
during the carrying on of this singular commerce.
If the traders catch a single Tibboo man staying
behind, they at once murder him, with the most
marked approbation of the Tibboo women. Such is
the state of connubial fidelity in this part of the
Sahara.

The Tibboos have been very greatly neglected
by persons writing on Africa, chiefly on account of[52]
the slighting, summary way in which they are
spoken of by the members of the former English
expedition to Bornou. They are, however, divided
into a great number of tribes, are spread over a
considerable extent of country, and are partly the
guardians of the Bornou route. We must pay
them some attention when they come under our
observation.

There is a man come from Dr. Barth and his
party. They are expected in the course of forty-eight
hours. En-Noor is very angry that they do
not mend their pace. We are all ready to start.
An immense caravan is waiting for their arrival.

31st.—The people begin to pester me to marry
another wife in Soudan,—one very young and with
large breasts is the kind of article they recommend.

The mysteries of Tintalous are celebrated at the
well in the evening, under the bright, glowing light
of Venus, which star is now seen a couple of hours
above the horizon after sunset. On the margin of
the well, which is on the other side of the wady, at
the distance of a quarter of a mile, the damsels of
Tintalous regularly meet their lovers, and spend
with them half an hour of sweet communion. Some
even retire to the shade of a large-spreading tholukh
near, or behind blocks of rock rising on the edge
of the valley, and indulge in lawful or unlawful
embraces. The strangers who come here, the
Moors of Tripoli and Fezzan, are freely initiated
into these mysteries.

[53]

I am told by our servants, who have been round
to all the villages or towns in the neighbourhood of
Tintalous for the purchase of ghaseb, that these
places, small or large, are none of them equal to
Tintalous, although the houses are much the same—bell-shaped
huts, and the people are of the same
character. What has greatly astonished our servants
is the fewness of the men; indeed, in some
villages they saw no other persons but women and
children, and scarcely any children. What is the
cause of this? It would seem that the men are
consumed by the women. These women bear few
children, and perhaps this may in part account for,
if it be not produced by, their excessive licentiousness.
Yet the men are on the wing a great part of
the year. The Kailouees, however, wherever they
go, have their women at hand, and during a journey
many of them take two or three female slaves.
How is this superabundant supply of the softer sex
kept up? If I am noticing a mere temporary phenomenon,
the destruction of men in the razzias
may account for the disproportion. Besides, the
Kailouees are always imparting fresh slaves into
their country.

The poor people of Tintalous are fed chiefly on
the pounded grains of the herb bou rekaba. It is a
real Asbenouee dish. Overweg made a supper of
it one evening. I tasted it, and find it has a very
strong flavour of herbs; that is to say, what is commonly
imagined to be the flavour of herbs in general.[54]
The people now go a long way for wood.
The tholukh-trees of the valley are not allowed to be
cut down; they are always preserved as a resource
for the time of drought and dearth, when the flocks
can find no herbage in the valley. The boughs are
at such junctures lopped off, and the flocks are fed
on the leaves. Thus I have seen the goats and
sheep fed on the tholukh-leaves on the plains of
Mourzuk, as well as near this place. Another reason
may induce En-Noor to save the tholukh-trees,—that
there may be a perpetual shade and verdure
in the valley of Tintalous. There are many finer
valleys than this in Asben, and were the trees not
preserved, it would be a very barren, unlively spot.

This evening, two hours after sunset, Venus exhibited
her most splendid phasis: the west, where she
was setting, about half-an-hour before she disappeared,
was lit up as if it was moonlight. On concealing
the planet, the effect produced was that of
the setting of the moon. Every star was eclipsed
in the western circle of the heavens, I never saw
anything before equal to this. I could here fully
realise the words of Scripture, that the stars were
made also “to give light upon the earth.”

The manner of saluting and shaking hands
amongst the Kailouees deserves notice: they first
hold up the right hand with the palm outspread,
like the Tuaricks of Ghât. Afterwards, when more
companionable and familiar, they take hold of
hands, and press them lightly some five or six[55]
times or more, if great friends, and conclude this
pressing of the hand with a sort of jerk, drawing
quickly off each other’s hand. In taking hold of
the hand of your friend, you fit your thumb in the
circle formed by his thumb and fingers, and every
time you press his hand, and he presses yours, you
separate the hands from each other.[5]

Nov. 1st.—The month has set in with wind,—not
gusts, but steady wind, continually blowing from
E.N.E. It is stated positively that we leave here
to-morrow morning, whether the people return or
not from Aghadez. I register all reports as I hear
them, though perfectly aware that we have not been
yet quite let into the secret of the singular migration
in which we are about to bear a part. The greater
number of the men of Tintalous have gone to
Bilma in search of salt; and I originally understood
that the great annual caravan was for the
transport of this necessary article. Perhaps En-Noor
means to go slowly on, just to keep us in
good humour. Our intercourse with the Kailouees
has taught us to consider them a very mild,
companionable race. Often indeed, like children,
I wonder what the Tibboos can see in them to make
them so desperately afraid, for I am told ten Kailouees
will frighten away fifty Tibboos of Bilma.
But the Tibboos of Tibesty are considered a braver
race. It is worthy of remark, that these cowardly[56]
Tibboos have a bad character, and, like most
cowards, are very treacherous.

I determined not to carry the little box in which
the two bottles of champagne were packed any
further; so I, Overweg, Yusuf, and the servants,
set to work and drank a bottle of it, to the toast,
“that we might have better luck higher up than
all have hitherto experienced.” The other bottle I
have stowed away in reserve for the Lake Tchad,
to drink the health of Her Majesty when we launch
the boat, if we are fortunate enough to arrive there.

I went to the wells to see the people get water
this morning. A number of little children came,—some
naked, and others with small pieces of leather
round their loins: they all wore very large necklaces
of charms sown up in leather bags.

[57]

CHAPTER IV.

Dr. Barth[6] has made a very interesting journey
to Aghadez. He says the track lies either through
fine valleys or over mountain-chains cut up by[58]
defiles. Here and there were charming spots, green
with herbage and trees. In going, the shallow
wells at Eghelloua were found to be full of water;
but a month later they were all dry. Beyond is the
Wady Chizolen, overlooked by a mountain that rises
abruptly to the height of two thousand feet. Then
comes the valley of Eghellal, with its rivulet, and
beyond swell the famous mountains of the Baghzem.
The worthy Doctor seems to have been too much
occupied in collecting geographical data to preserve
many picturesque facts by the way. On the third
day he encamped at Tiggedah, where numerous
species of trees and bushes tufted the valley, which
was clothed also, near the margin of its streams,
with grass as fresh and green as any in Europe.
At that time, however, the place, with the exception
of the cooing of wild doves and the cry of a solitary
antelope, seemed perfectly unvisited by man. Afterwards,
it was found full of flocks and herds, and
enlivened by the encampment of a salt-caravan,
with a string of young camels bound for Aghadez.
The tribe to whom the valley belongs are nomadic,
and shift from one place to another, as their fancies
and necessities suggest. Amidst the trees, however,
may be seen a small mosque, built of stone and
roofed with palm-trees.

This agreeable place prefaces the still more
luxuriant scenery of Asadah, where the vegetation
is so rich, and the path so shut up by branches, that
it is difficult to keep on the camel’s back. What a
[59]
contrast to the naked deserts of Ghât! It was from
between the rich foliage of this valley that Dr.
Barth obtained his first glimpses of the majestic
mountain-chain of Dogem, estimated to attain the
height of between four and five thousand feet. It is
the loftiest range in Aheer.

The plain of Erarer-en-Dendemu, which next
succeeds, is covered with brushwood and low trees,
and inhabited by lions—here called the Father of
the Wilderness. Dr. Barth saw several, as well as
a kind of ape about the size of a small boy, squatting
in crowds on the lower hills. Beyond, overhung by
the mountains of Anderas, is the rocky plain of
Tarist, famous among the Arabs, as well as the Kailouees,
on account of the remains of a mosque, indicated
only by lines of stones on the ground. It was
founded by a great saint called Sidi Baghdadi,
and is a general resting-place for caravans. The
basaltic formation here succeeds the granitic; and
the plain is covered with loose black stones, about
the size of a child’s head.

Escaping from this rough ground, the travellers
entered a narrow valley, trenched by a broad watercourse,
along the sides of which was a thick growth
of palm-trees. There are two villages in this wady.
Near one of them slaves were seen yoked to a plough,
and driven like oxen, by their master. Further
south the hoe replaces the plough in preparing the
ground. This valley, inhabited by the Imrad (a
Targhee tribe), is capable of producing not only[60]
ghaseb, but corn, wine, dates, and all kinds of vegetables.
Fifty gardens adorn, it is said, the neighbourhood
of Ifargen. But, in general, the rich soil
is left uncultivated, and is covered by wild and
sickly vegetation, which checks the progress of the
traveller.

In Wadi Buddeh grows a prickly plant called
karengia; and a parasite (griffenee), producing a
sweet but insipid berry of a red colour. A party of
five lions were pursued like so many jackals. A small
caravan of four persons, in Wadi Teffarrakad, were
making use of four different modes of progression:
one was on a camel, another on a buffalo, the third
on a donkey, and the fourth used his own legs. In
Wady Boghel were the signs of a field of ghaseb
having existed last year. The ground was covered
by a sickly wild melon; and in the thick foliage of
the trees the guinea-hens were cackling. Here Dr.
Barth saw the first specimen of the bauré tree,
the trunk measuring twenty-six feet in circumference,
and the thick crown rising to the height of
eighty feet. Here and elsewhere wild beasts were
observed. The whole country, indeed, abounds in
lions, wild boars, gazelles, ostriches, and monkeys.

On the seventh day the party reached Aghadez,
which they entered about an hour after sunset, it
being the custom in this country never to enter a
town by day. Aghadez is situated on a hamadah,
or lofty plateau of sandstone and granite formation.
Around, although there is no arable soil, a good[61]
deal of herbage and wood is found in the depressions
of the plain. It is not surprising, therefore,
that this much-talked-of capital is nothing but a
large village, as indeed are all the other places
of Aheer, with the exception of Asoudee. Aghadez,
which is mentioned by Leo Africanus, is said
by tradition to have been founded or enlarged by
settlements from the north, consisting of a people
called Arabs, but probably Berbers, since expelled
by the Tuaricks. It serves as a sort of rendezvous
between the Kailouees and the tribes to the south
and west. A peculiar language (Emghedesie) is
spoken by the inhabitants in their private intercourse;
but Haussa is the idiom of trade. There
are about seven hundred inhabited houses scattered
among the ruins; and of fifty thousand people who
must previously have lived within the walls, scarce
eight thousand remain.[7] The inhabitants are partly
artizans, partly merchants; but few caravans now[62]
pass on this route, and commerce with Timbuctoo
seems altogether to have ceased. The trade that
exists is entirely in provisions, principally in ghaseb,
or millet, which is imported from Damerghou.
The system adopted is entirely one of barter—the
Aghadez money consisting of turkedi,[8] or dark-coloured
cotton for female clothing made in Soudan,
Egyptian leather for sandals, English calico, white
shawls, cloves, pepper, pearls, &c. All these objects
are imported, the only manufactures of Aghadez
being leather-work (sandals and saddles) and coloured
mats. I do not know what materials are
used in tanning. The Fezzanee gets assistance, according
to my fighi, from four trees—the graut,
the ethel, the pomegranate, and the essalan. The
first and last are a species of acacia. Women and
men work in their houses at the production of these
articles, and merchants go and purchase à domicile,
there being now no shops. There are three market-places
or bazaars, where prices are very low.

The Sultan of Aghadez, the great Koku Abd-el-Kader,
does not receive any direct contribution
towards his revenues, from the people of Aghadez,
but levies a kind of octroi of ten mithkals on every
camel-load of goods that enters the town, provisions
being exempt. He has property of his own, however;
receives presents at his installation; and can[63]
always raise a sum by making a razzia on any
neighbouring freebooters.

It is a fundamental law in Aheer, that the Sultan
of Aghadez shall belong to a particular family,
which is said to derive its origin from Constantinople.
Therefore when, in consequence of some
discontent, Abd-el-Kader was deposed last year, the
malcontents chose a relative, Hamed-el-Argau; but
he also displeasing, a rival was set up in Makita,
also of the same family. This caused great confusion,
and the Walad Suleiman took the opportunity
to make forays against Aheer. The prudent then
resolved to restore the old Sultan, and succeeded, as
I have already said, in their endeavours. When
Dr. Barth arrived in Aghadez, the investiture was
about to take place. The Sultan is chosen by the
Kilgris and Iteesan tribes, who nourish a deadly
hatred against their kindred, the Kailouees. On
the present occasion, however, a marabout proclaimed
peace and good-will between these ancient
enemies. It was necessary, indeed, that some understanding
should be come to, as after the election
the ratification of En-Noor and Lousou is required.
En-Noor, especially, is greatly respected by the
people of Aghadez, as the grand supporter of authority
in Asben. The new Sultan is usually brought
from Sakkatou in state by the tribes Iteesan and
Kilgris. A vast crowd of them, with their families
and flocks, had marched up and occupied a camp[64]
near the town; but they departed on the same day
that Dr. Barth arrived—even before he entered.

Early in the morning, Dr. Barth paid his
respects to the Sultan. He was a stout man, about
fifty-five years of age—benevolent-looking, as far as
could be judged in spite of his face-wrappers. He
sat in a large room, supported by two massive
columns, and received his visitors kindly. The presents
pleased him, and were acknowledged by the
counter-present of a fat ram, and by meals sent
every day.

The ceremony of investiture took place on the
16th of October, and seems to have been an imposing
spectacle. Certain intricate forms are used to
express the combination of various Tuarick tribes
in choosing this foreign sultan. Succeeding it was
the great festival, on which a procession took place,
in which the new chief, wearing the burnouse which
I had sent him, took part, with a great number of
Tuaricks in their best array. Immediately afterwards
a razzia (of which both we and Dr. Barth
heard various conflicting reports) was agreed upon
against the tribes of the north, especially those who
had molested our expedition—the Fadeea. It was
highly successful, and may perhaps be useful in procuring
respect for future travellers. Two thousand
men went out upon this foray, in which Abd-el-Kader
was accompanied by Astakeelee, the Sultan
of the Kailouees. Some, indeed, say that the latter[65]
only acted. Very little resistance was made, and I
hear of only one man being killed. The fellow who
stole Barth’s maharee was compelled to restore him.
Dr. Barth, however, though well-pleased on the
whole with his reception, did not venture to present
the treaty. He obtained some letters of recommendation
to Soudan. Many of the distinguished persons
of Aghadez visited Dr. Barth during his stay, and
altogether his reception was satisfactory.

I have already mentioned that the Sultan of
Aghadez, though elected and controlled by a kind
of aristocracy of sheikhs of various tribes, is invested
with the power of life and death. He is said to have
a frightful dungeon, into which guilty persons are
thrown upon swords sticking upright in the ground.
In his warlike expeditions he is regarded, however,
as chief of some tribes only. The Kailouees have a
sultan of their own, and encamp apart. The Sakonteroua,
or Sheikh of Aghadez, exercises considerable
influence. He is obliged annually to accompany the
great salt-caravan, which sometimes numbers ten
thousand camels—Saharan statistics—to Sakkatou.

The town of Aghadez was formerly divided into
a variety of quarters, the names of which still remain,
although the space they occupied—three
miles in circuit—is now principally filled with ruins.
With the exception of five or six rubbish-hills, the
whole space is level. The houses are spacious, with
large rooms and court-yards. They are of mud,
whitewashed, and furnished with flat terraces. Doves,[66]
children, and young ostriches, enliven the streets.
There are some mosques, but none of imposing
architecture. One, however, has a lofty tower, almost
pyramidal in shape, supported on a basement of
pillars, and rising to the height of about ninety feet.
There is a kind of ladder inside; but Dr. Barth
was not allowed to ascend, being told that the
entrance was walled up.

The land around the town is slightly undulating,
and covered in the depressions with the Acacia
Arabica. Herbage and good water abound. There
are no orchards near, except in Wady Ameluli; but
El-Hakhsas, three hours distant, produces melons,
cucumbers, and melochiyeh, and supplies the whole
town.

The women of Aghadez are reported to be free
and easy in character, and let loose tremendously
as soon as the Sultan had departed on his razzia.
Dr. Barth had some difficulty in keeping them at a
distance. There are more children, however, to be
observed in Aghadez than in most Aheer towns.

This journey of Dr. Barth’s has considerably
extended our acquaintance, both with the geography
and the political state of Asben or Aheer. We see
now that it is strictly a portion of the Sahara, intersected
with fertile valleys, that towards the south
begin to assume quite a tropical character. The
inhabitants are various in origin and in name; but
it is difficult to describe their subdivisions with any
accuracy. According to the natives, there are only[67]
two great tribes—the Kailouees, which division
includes the Kailouees proper, the Kaltadak, and
the Kalfadaï; and, secondly, the Kilgris, including
the Kilgris proper, the Iteesan, and the Ashraf.
But, in questions of detail, numerous other names
appear which it is difficult to arrange under any
proper head. The Kailouees are, I think, of genuine
Targhee origin, although, as I have already mentioned,
with a mixture of the Soudan races. The
Kaltadak and the Kalfadaï seem to be identical
with the borderers who attacked us on our first
entrance into this country. The Kilgris are located
southward, beyond Aghadez, along the Sakkatou
route, and even far into Soudan, where the
influence of the Targhee races seems to be rapidly
on the increase.

According to some of the Tanelkum Sheikhs,
the following are the names of the principal Targhee
tribes scattered over the desert of Sahara, excluding
the inhabitants of Aheer:—

These are Ghât Tuaricks—Azghers.[9]

4. Aheethanaran, the tribe of Janet.

5. Hagar (Ahagar), pure Hagars and Maghatah,[68]
who stand to them somewhat in the relation of the
Kourglouss of Algiers to the Turks. They occupy
the tract between Ghât, Tuat, and Timbuctoo.

6. Sagamaram; located on the route from Aisou
to Tuat.

7. Oulimad; tribes surrounding Timbuctoo in
great numbers. In conjunction with the Berebisheers,
a tribe of Arabs, they shut up the road
between Aghadez and Timbuctoo by their predatory
character.

8. Tanelkum, located in Fezzan.

We have been making inquiries of the Tanelkums
about the population of Ghât and its
deserts. The Tanelkums say, that ten or twelve
years ago Khanouhen brought up about ten thousand
maharees against the then masters of Mourzuk,
the Walad Suleiman, headed by Abd-el-Galeel.
The ten thousand maharees were the whole force
and strength of the Azgher, Khanouhen having
called out every male; for every man of the Azgher
is a warrior. The Arabs, seeing the number of the
Tuaricks, deemed it expedient to make peace.
From this circumstance, it would be supposed that
the Azgher may number from five to ten thousand
families, nearly all located west of the Soudan
route, along the lines of the Ghadamez and Tuat
routes; where, it is said, there are fertile valleys,
in which dates and corn are cultivated. But
at Ghât I could never learn anything of these
wadys. During my last visit I had no time,[69]
and the people there had no inclination to give
me information about this fertile portion of the
Azgher desert. On the former occasion, I learned
from Haj Ahmed that there was a running stream,
on the banks of which corn was cultivated, at about
four days west of Ghât. This is probably the locality
of Janet. For myself, I do not believe the
Azgher Tuaricks number more than two thousand
families.

Of the population of Aheer I have been able to
learn nothing definite; that is to say, nothing which
I can absolutely depend upon. Some make it reach
above fifty thousand souls. There are, however,
only forty towns, exclusive of Aghadez; and about
twenty places where people live in tents. I wrote
down a second list of them, with their directions,
and some guess at the number of male inhabitants.
The son of the Tanelkum Sheikh considers the
Kailouee warriors to amount to about fourteen
thousand; which, indeed, will make the whole
population above sixty thousand. The accounts I
have received, therefore, seem to be sufficiently exact
for general purposes.

The Tanelkum Sheikh says there are no other
tribes of Tuaricks but those enumerated above.
The largest and most powerful tribe is that in the
neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, the Oulimad, answering,
perhaps, to the Sorghou of Caillie; and the
smallest and weakest, the Tanelkum. But the
Tanelkums, if small in number, are great in pride,[70]
and consider themselves a race of marabouts.
They certainly make long prayers, and several of
them can write a little. The Turks treat the Tanelkums
with great consideration, and every year the
Pasha of Mourzuk gives their Sheikh a fine burnouse
and other presents. They pay no impost, though
living in the Fezzan valleys. They are devoted to
peaceful pursuits, and are camel-drivers and small
merchants. Formerly they were powerful; and gave
a sultan to the town of Ghât. About a century
ago, their Sheikhs and the greater part of the Tanelkums
were destroyed by a razzia of the Tibboos.
They had then a town, which was situate in the
Wady Esaiyen, where there are still ruins to be seen,
and which we passed near Berkat.

Of the Oulimad I know but little, except that
they are exceedingly turbulent, even ferocious, in
the neighbourhood of Timbuctoo. They also extend
their razzias from Timbuctoo to the south-western
frontiers of the Asbenouee territories. A very
short time ago they made a foray on the Soudan
route, between this and Damerghou. The Ghât
Tuaricks I have pretty well described.

The tribe of Janet has been mentioned frequently
in this journal, from the circumstance of their
attempting to get up a razzia against the expedition.

The Haghar are well known, even in Europe, for
their freebooting propensities. They lie between the
Oulimad and the Azgher tribes surrounding Tuat,
and are some of them engaged in commerce.

[71]

The Sagamaram (or Sgamara) are an interesting
small tribe, located in the rocky valleys, along the
line of the route from Aisou to Tuat. They are
mostly dressed in leathern clothes, and trade with
Tuat, taking their cloths and a fragrant herb called
debau, which they exchange against dates, &c. They
likewise come to Aheer and Soudan, and fetch slaves
and goods for the souks of Tuat. They are a very
pacific tribe, not unlike the Tanelkums, but carrying
on more commerce.

The Maghatah (or Maratah) are a thievish race,
and have the vices of their mothers, those peculiar
to Soudan, as well as the more ferocious traits of
Berber bandits. Several of these people are in
Janet.

In concluding these imperfect general observations
on the state of Aheer or Asben, I will only
add that the country extends from north to south
eleven days’ journey, or about two hundred and
twenty miles (twenty miles to the day); and east
and west, eight days, or one hundred and sixty
miles. Aghadez, the largest town or city, stands,
as has been seen, alone; and may be considered
as a kind of connecting link, politically and otherwise,
with the black countries to the south. I have
already endeavoured to explain the singular constitution
of society in this large but thinly-peopled
tract. We observe there a curious combination
of the monarchical and patriarchal states, with a
dash of democracy into the bargain. Several times[72]
I have been reminded of Homer’s heroic age. The
princes and the people seem alternately to appear
on the scene, exercising sovereign sway. The great
Sultan is elected from out of the country; but he
is compelled to seek the ratification of the chiefs,
the elders, and the populace within. Then there
is the great chief of the Kailouees, whose town or
camp is at Asoudee; with Sultan Lousou, a most
influential man; not to speak of the great En-Noor
himself, who has, perhaps, personally, the greatest
political weight of them all. Each of these great men
is perpetually surrounded by an army of retainers,
dependants, and slaves; and public affairs are transacted,
partly according to some old routine, difficult
for a stranger to understand, partly after the fashion
of “Arabian Nights,” kings meeting casually at
the head of great armies in some poetical wilderness.
All these chieftains are both pastors and
merchants. One of their chief articles of traffic is,
I am sorry to say, their unfortunate fellow-creatures.
They are the greatest slave-dealers in the Sahara;
two-thirds of the whole commerce is in the hands
of the Kailouees. The Sultans levy duties likewise
on the caravans that pass through their territory—duties
which, to our cost, we know to be neither
regular nor moderate; but they have no right
to apply taxation to their quasi-subjects. Sometimes,
when they are “hungry,” they make a razzia
on a distant tribe, and find both slaves and cattle at
their disposal.

[73]

As might have been expected, the Kailouees—princes
and people—are not very refined in their
ideas or luxurious in their habits. Their food consists
principally of the grains ghaseb and ghafouley,
or guinea-corn. They have also flocks and herds
of sheep, camels, and bullocks; but the bullocks
are used chiefly for draft, and to carry goods from
Aheer to Soudan. Asses are exceedingly numerous,
and likewise go to Soudan to fetch guinea-corn.
The population of Aheer, being scattered about in
small towns and villages, a few hours journey apart,
these animals are found very useful for the transport
of the persons and effects of the poor. The
richer people have camels of the maharee species, like
all the Tuaricks; and in some respects it is the
possession of this splendid animal which distinguishes
the Kailouee population from the people
to the south. For example, all their sports and
pastimes would be exactly Soudanese, were it not
for the introduction of the maharee. On the celebration
of a wedding, the Kailouees ride round the
groups of guests on their silent-treading camels,
which measure their movements to the sound of
a big rude drum. Such scenes would otherwise be
perfectly Nigritian. The men dance, flourishing
their lances; and the slaves both dance and sing.
But I have already noted down all that I observed
remarkable in manners, and need not here repeat
myself.

The great natural features of Asben, also, are[74]
doubtless by this time impressed on the mind of
the reader. They consist of a series of naked
granite rocks or mountains, some of them rising
to upwards of three or four thousand feet, ranging
in every direction, with many isolated peaks; and
of picturesque valleys winding along between steep
precipices—threads of green, in which the tholukh
and all species of mimosa and acacia, with the
souag and other trees, flourish in immense growth,
sometimes adorned by garlands and festoons of
luxuriant parasitical plants. Wild animals of various
kinds range at will in unfrequented places, but do
not seem to excite much terror. There are gardens
and cornfields in the neighbourhood of some of the
towns and villages, the cultivation being kept up
during the dry months by irrigation; but only a
few of the inhabitants, mostly slaves, cultivate the
soil. Besides the grains I have mentioned, a few
vegetables, principally onions, are produced. Date-palms
bear fruit, which is good, but will not keep.

I have already mentioned the chief manufactures
of Aheer. They flourish to the greatest extent
in Aghadez; but Tintalous also has its artizans.
Working in leather was very popular during our
stay, in consequence of the presence of a noted
charm-writer—bags being necessary. A good many
cunning blacksmiths ply their trade in various
places.

[75]

CHAPTER V.

Nov. 2d.—As this was the day fixed for our departure
for Damerghou, it may well be imagined
that we looked forward to it with some anxiety.
Our delay in the neighbourhood of Tintalous had
been unexpectedly long, and at times even the idea
had crossed our minds that we should never be
allowed to depart at all. Often we had desired to
start alone; but had been withheld by our own
prudence, as well as by the representations of our
host, the venerable Sheikh of Tintalous. We had
come by degrees scarcely to believe in the possibility
of an advance, and to consider ourselves as the
prisoners of circumstances in this advanced part[76]
of the Sahara, touching on the very borders of
Central Africa. Now, however, we saw, by the
bustle of preparation in the town, that, whether the
salt-caravan arrived or not, we were to press forward.
All night the town was in a bustle. We rose before
sunrise, to complete what packing we had to do,
and saw Jupiter and the moon in positions nearly
resembling the Ottoman device. It was windy all
yesterday and this morning, with a considerable
degree of cold.

To my astonishment when we had taken leave
of Tintalous, we pitched tent after half an hour’s
journey. This was done, however, for a twofold
reason: 1st, to see that all was right, and that we
had left nothing behind; and 2d, to buy ghaseb,—a
supply having arrived from Asoudee just in time
for us to carry with us. Never was there a more
picturesque caravan. Ladies on bullocks, children
and women on donkeys, warriors on maharees, merchants
on camels, the Sultan’s horse harnessed going
alone, and following steadily; goats and their kids,
sheep, foals of camels, &c. running or straggling
along! When we had pitched tent in the valley,
still in sight of Tintalous, En-Noor paid us a
visit, and vouchsafed to explain the reasons of our
delay. His highness also related several interesting
things of Aghadez. The Sultan of that place, he
says, is a descendant of one of three brothers,
Shereefs, who ruled in Africa over the negro and
other races. The eldest brother was Sultan of the[77]
West (Morocco); the next was Sultan of Bornou;
and the third and youngest was Sultan of Aghadez
in remote times. But how remote, it is impossible
for En-Noor to tell, and, of course, for me to relate.
I was much amazed by the predilection of En-Noor
(who is not absolutely a white man) for black people.
He praised Overweg, because he was getting brown
and black. As for me, his highness was almost
inclined to express his disgust for the whiteness of
my skin. Unfortunately, I happen to be what the
people call in England “very fair,” except in those
parts of my skin which come in direct contact with
the sun. I spent the day in compiling a Haussa
vocabulary, and hope to make considerable progress
by the time we arrive in Damerghou.

3d.—This was my birthday, but of course it
was unkept, and, indeed, almost unthought of until
it was past.

En-Noor again visited us, and drank with us
coffee. His highness is getting quite attached to
my tent, and swears that when I return to my
country I must become a great man, and be made,
like himself, a governor or sultan of some country.
Shall I say, Inshallah? I asked Yusuf to explain
why the Sultan thought so, and I could only learn
that it was the opinion which his highness had
formed from my general conduct.

Being in a very happy humour to-day, the Sultan
related many things of his youth; his exploits,
of course, which all men relate, and which I shall[78]
likewise do, I imagine, if I live to be old. Showing
us his withered fleshless arms, and taking hold of
his armlets, he observed: “The time was when
these armlets could not slip off. Now, see how
easily they come away.” He then abused me for
my leanness, and admired the Taleb (Overweg),
because he had more flesh on his bones. His highness
also stated that he and a single man went to
Damerghou and back in thirteen days, bringing a
caravan of ghaseb. They never stopped on the
road, but travelled day and night. This garrulous
gentleman also declared he was the maker of his
own fortunes—that he would not receive anything
from his father. When he was young, he would
take no person’s advice; he did everything himself
and from himself: but on the death of his father
he always kept to his post as Sheikh of Tintalous,
and Sultan of two towns in Soudan. He never
moved this way or that way. Thus he has remained
to a good old age, respected and venerated by all,
whilst all his compeers have disappeared—not one
remaining. He looks around for the friends and
companions of his youth, and finds not one—they
are all gone! Even now he allows no one in Asben
to be greater than himself. Even if a Sultan presumes
to lord it over him, he (En-Noor) at once
knocks him down, and he is no longer Sultan in
Asben. He remains, however, friends with all if he
can. He never takes notice of anything which is
not done under his own eyes; but when he sees a[79]
bad thing committed, he then acts—killing the
wicked people, if necessary.

The opinion of his highness of women does not
flatter the ladies. He recommended us never to
listen to the advice of our wives; if we did, we
should be lost. The women were very well to fetch
water, pound ghaseb, and cook the supper, but for
nothing else. He never, himself, paid any attention
to what they said; they were awful talkers.
His highness here touched on a tender point; for,
as the reader remembers, he has been beating one
of his wives shamefully lately, because he pretended
he was alarmed at her continual talking—bewildered
by the length of her tongue! Proceeding in
his confessions, the Sultan next related wonderful
stories of a wonderful maharee which he had in his
youth. With this maharee he rode to Aghadez in
one day. With this maharee he chased, and run
down, and won gazelles, and then cooked and ate
them, &c. Glorious old fellow! Our Tanelkum
Mousa, however, afterwards observed, that this was
kitheb, “a lie;” but that he knew a woman who
could catch gazelles. Many other things of equal
interest his highness related, and then left us in a
good humour.

Two of our camels strayed this evening. En-Noor’s
people soon brought them back. Our servants
are very careless, and all our mishaps are a
profit to the Kailouees. We have still, however,
two camels lost, and, I imagine, shall not now recover
[80]
them. But I was glad to hear the news that
the Sultan of Asoudee was successfully chastising
all the people who on the road attacked us.
He had punished the people of Azaghar and of
Seloufeeat, even the son of Haj Bashaw; and the
Haj himself, who was said to be our friend, because
he did not look after his son. The Sultan acts
quite according to my opinion, making all the principal
people of Seloufeeat and other places responsible
for the conduct of the poorer and lower classes.
It is said that the Fadeea have fled; but others say
that they have been captured, and all our property
which could be found seized in the name of the
Sultan of Asoudee. All the steps taken by this
Sultan have been directed, more or less, by En-Noor.
He can muster, it is said, two thousand
warriors—for every able-bodied man fights in this
country. This expedition may be useful for future
travellers from Europe, but I fear we shall get
back none of our property.

As a specimen of the political news strained
through the brains of the people of Tuat, I may mention
that the Tuatee, recently arrived here, reports
that “the King of the Frenchmen has run away to
England, and carried with him all the money of the
French,” and, moreover, that “as the French conquered
Algiers by distributing large dollars to every
one, and hold it by the same means, the French now
having no money, must soon relinquish Algiers
again to the hands of the Muslims.”

[81]

4th.—The weather is getting colder and colder.
The last few days have been quite chilly, with a
strong wind blowing from the east. This morning
it was quite uncomfortable, the thermometer having
fallen for the first time to 60° at sunset. We
started early, and made seven hours in a south-eastern
direction. It was a nice ride; but as the
day advanced we got much sunburnt. After three
hours we passed on the left the little village
Zouazgher. The caravan showed again very picturesquely,
the burdens tumbling off from the donkeys
in the most delightful confusion, and the
girls squalling for help. I ate on the road some
Soudan dates, as they are called by the Arabs,
and found them pleasant—a sort of bitter sweet.
The name of the tree and of the fruit is, in Bornou,
bitu. In Haussa the tree has two names, aduwa
and tinku. Our course to day was up a fine
valley, down which the water in the rainy season
runs from east to west. There was abundance of
trees and herbage. At this place, however, lions
abound, and last night a camel was eaten by them.
We encamped opposite a mountain, rising pretty
high in sugar-loaf shape, called Adudai. Over the
carcase of the camel hovered a small flock of
eagles.

A Bornouee fighi, called Mustapha, from the
country Malămdi, west of Kuka, tells us he has
been six months at Aghadez. According to him,
the route from Aghadez to Timbuctoo is one month.[82]
It is open, and not dangerous. En-Noor, indeed,
promised to send any of us by that route if we
wished. There are few people on the route, and
if you pay them a little money you pass unmolested.
This Bornouese fighi is not equal to his brethren
whom I saw in Tintalous. But I learnt from
this itinerant pedagogue the interesting fact, that
there are a great number of persons of his profession,
all from Bornou, travelling about in Aheer.
Light, therefore, is springing up from the interior,
and spreading to the coast in an opposite direction
to what it did in former times.

5th.—Warmer weather greeted us this morning.
We stay here to-day. The place is called Tin-Tagannu,
and is a large wady, full of herbage
and trees. It is inhabited by a few shepherds.
This place is said to have been the first of the
inhabited localities in Aheer, although now shepherds
only drive their flocks there; so that spots
of earth have their seasons and fortunes in the
Sahara as elsewhere. By the way, I must continue
to call this Sahara. Although there are periodic
rains, we are still without the influences of the
Soudan climate, which begins at Damerghou and
Zinder. At the present season no country can
be more healthy than these Asbenouee valleys. I
hear that nearly all the women, as well as the
men, have left Tintalous, so that the town is a
perfect desert. En-Noor has brought his wives
and daughters, and our caravan is like the migration
[83]
of the whole of the town going in quest
of a new country.

A trap was set last night for the lion, but the
king of beasts was too wise to be caught. En-Noor
borrowed a gun of us to make this trap,
which was of the following description. It was
expected that the lion would come again to the
carcase of the camel; so a hedge of thorns was
made round the carcase with one opening, where
was placed the muzzle of the gun, with a large
piece of meat tied to the trigger, so that when he
seized the meat he might fire off the deadly weapon
against himself.

This is a fine place for doves, and Overweg
shot half a dozen to-day. Our Tanelkum, Mousa,
informs us of the right way of tending camels.
They ought never to be tied, but allowed to roam
at large. They require also to be led through
the best valleys, being so far helpless in finding a
good grazing-place for themselves. He showed
us his camels, comparing them with ours. And
certainly ours, which had their legs tied and were
not guided to good herbage, could not bear comparison.
But, of course, the business, the support,
the riches of Mousa, are his camels. They occupy
all his thoughts, and would appear, to a stranger,
to be the end of his existence.

6th.—This morning at sunrise the thermometer
was as low as 52° Fahrenheit. We shivered with
cold.

[84]

Dr. Barth arrived early by way of Tintalous.
He confirms the news that the Sultans of Aghadez
and Asoudee have completely chastised all those
tribes who stopped us on the road and levied black
mail on us.

En-Noor paid us a visit in the morning. After
shaking us all in a very friendly manner by the
hands, he expressed his regret that he could not
go with us now to Zinder. The country was not
tranquil, and the people would not consent to his
going; but if we wished to proceed immediately with
his principal slave, Zangheema, he assured us we
should go safely. He then left us to reflect upon
what we would do. We decided, without a dissentient
voice, that we could not venture to go with
Zangheema, and that we must wait for En-Noor,
be the time ever so long. We forwarded this decision
to his highness, who seemed to receive it with
satisfaction. His wife sent us word, “To be sure
not to go without her husband;” a piece of advice
from a lady we are anxious most religiously to respect.
Dr. Overweg made an application, through
Daubala and Yusuf, to go to the salt-mines of Bilma
with the Kailouees. But either the applicants betrayed
the thing, or En-Noor was unwilling to grant
permission. Our friend, therefore, is disappointed
of this most interesting geological excursion.

We are to remove a little further to the west,
to a valley more convenient than this for pitching
tents, and under some shelter. We still hope we[85]
shall not be obliged to await the return of the
salt-caravan from Bilma (that is, a month, or forty
days) before we start. Probably, when good news
comes from the camp in the west we shall go on.
It will be a sad trial for our patience to wait so
long, after having already dallied more than two
months in Tintalous.

7th.—The thermometer at sunrise stood at 51°—very
cold. There are no signs yet of Zangheema’s
starting to Damerghou. The people, when sitting
over the fire in the evening, relate jocosely that
the jackals, not being able to come near the flame,
and nevertheless feeling the cold very much, hold
up their fore-paws, in a sitting or squatting position,
in imitation of men, towards the fire, be they at
ever so great a distance, and so screw up their
imaginations to the belief that they are warming
themselves. The language of gesticulation and
signs, by the movement of different parts of the
body, is quite a study in this part of the world.
The most singular gesticulation, and yet the most
significant, is that by which a person begs a thing.
He holds the object in one hand (the left) before
the owner, then gives the right hand and arm a
swing round, and at last places the right hand to
his bosom—the meaning of all which is, that he
seeks to ascertain if the owner has any other
article of the same description as that which he
holds in his left hand, and whether he is willing
to give it to him. When a Kailouee says a thing[86]
is good, he puts the forefinger of his right hand
into the clasped palm of his left, and so, as he
pronounces the thing good, nagari, he turns his
imprisoned finger round within the closed left
hand. When he says there are many persons, he
clasps together the fingers of his left hand, and
forms a good English fist, holding the hand thumb
upwards. He then strikes, with the palm of his
right hand, the fist of his left hand, held in that
particular position. This sign also represents a
more indelicate idea, and is used in the same way
on the coast.

The women, from the shepherdess to the princess,
of Tintalous, are as fond of the bustle as
European dames; but the important difference is,
it is the natural bustle which they here delight to
exhibit to the admiring male population. If a
woman be called to, going off to the well for
water, she does not turn round to see who is calling,
but immediately draws her frock tight round
her form, and imparts to it a most agitated and
unnatural swinging motion, to the great satisfaction
of the admiring lookers-on. Thus we see how the
coquettes of London and Paris meet at opposite
poles with these of the Sahara and Central Africa.

Additional applications were made to En-Noor
by my colleagues, to go respectively to Bilma and to
Zinder—Dr. Barth wishing to go on with Zangheema—but
without effect. The old Sheikh remained
firm in his refusals: Zangheema, however,[87]
was the first to start objections to Barth’s accompanying
him. As to Overweg, we think he lost
his opportunity by not treating directly with En-Noor,
instead of Hamma his son-in-law. His
highness will do nothing extra for us unless paid.

8th.—We rose early, and found a large portion
of the caravan destined for Zinder already gone.
This is very tiresome to see the people starting with
whom you were to have gone, and to know that
you have still thirty or forty days to wait; and as
for expenses, living at almost as dear a rate as in
Tripoli. Our boat has gone with the caravan.

Hereabouts grow a great quantity of wild water-melons,
delaâah. They are very small and bitter,
but the people, nevertheless, eat them occasionally.
If cultivated they would, of course, soon yield an
excellent supply. Barth represents the road between
this and Aghadez as very woody, and also that
the country is everywhere mountainous. Baghzem
is not high, but is, nevertheless, a very large mountain,
seen several days’ journey. The high plains
without water are also covered with trees. I hear,
also, that the road between this and Damerghou is
exceedingly woody, and the trees of “the scratching
or rending description,” like the tholukh. Aheer
also abounds in senna.

Yusuf says that all the people of Soudan are
red, with the exception of the inhabitants of Tesaoua,
Kanou, Kashna, and Maradee.

[88]

Barth represents Gouber as stronger than ever,
and united in alliance with Maradee against the Sultan
of Sakkatou. He has written all the towns.
Gouber appears amongst the towns described by
Leo Africanus.

9th.—This morning En-Noor paid us a visit, to
tell us to move after him in the wady near, under
the shade of the trees. His highness was very
polite and friendly, as he has now been for some
time past.

The weather continues cold—thermometer, 49° at
sunrise in the air. This cold weather ought to
strengthen or restore our health. It certainly
would do us good, much good, if we could get meat
and soups.

I sent on our boat yesterday to Zinder, with
three of our servants, together with some other
heavy baggage. I was occupied to-day in compiling
the Haussa dictionary. Kashna is represented to
be the fountain of the Haussa language, the Florence
of Soudan. Kanou is a place of foreigners, and the
language of the city must be much corrupted. According
to En-Noor, Kal, in the names Kalfadaï,
Kaltadak, Kilgris, and Kailouee, signifies country.
There are to be added to the zoology of this
country the monkey and the mohur, or fine large
gazelle, as large as a deer, called in Haussa măráiă.
We already find great differences in the pronunciation
of the Haussa language, but especially in the[89]
following letters:—sh is confounded with ch or tch,
l with r, and r with l, o with u, &c. Letters are
also frequently unnecessarily doubled. These differences,
however, will never much affect the conversation,
when the parties are well agreed upon what
subject they are conversing.

10th.—This morning we are removing to the
shade of the trees, near En-Noor. Dr. Barth describes
the Kilgris as very fine, tall men, and much
lighter in complexion than the Kailouees: they
dress very simply, having only the black turkadee
on their heads, having neither a bakin zakee under
it, nor any white shash, or fotah, to wind upon it, in
the fashion of the Kailouees. They are, like all
these tribes, very proud, and nourish a deadly enmity
towards the Kailouees, of whom they take
precedence in Aghadez. Barth gave away a black-lead
pencil in Aghadez, and afterwards everybody
came to ask him for one. A person got one pencil,
and begged another, saying, “the two would last
him his whole life.”

11th.—The weather is increasingly cold in the
morning; three-quarters of an hour after sunrise
the thermometer was 45° in open air.

His highness vouchsafed this day to sleep in my
tent, and yesterday he did the Germans the honour
of slaughtering lice in theirs. It is a grand piece
of etiquette in this country, that every man has the
privilege of murdering his own lice. If you pick a
louse off a man’s sleeve, you must deliver it up[90]
instantly to him to be murdered, as his undoubted
right and privilege.

The Sultan of Aghadez has returned from his
razzia against the people of Seloufeeat, of Azgher,
and the Kalfadaï. Those whom he caught he chastised:
but most of the Fadeea fled. I register these
varying reports, because they show the state of uncertainty
in which we were always kept, now hearing
one thing, now another. But the true state of
the case seems to be, that though the great Koku of
Aghadez did take the field for a razzia, the actual
operations were conducted by the Sultan of Asoudee.
It must be remembered, however, that with their
maharees these desert-princes can march to and fro
with surprising rapidity, and that rumour finds it
difficult to follow their footsteps. En-Noor now
thinks the country sufficiently tranquil to move on
two days further. He says he shall do so in the
course of fifteen days.

12th.—His highness paid me a visit as usual,
and I gave him a box containing a looking-glass,
with a lid, on which is painted a draught-board,
for the wife of his highness, who recommended us
not to leave En-Noor, but continue with him until
he carried us safely to Zinder. His highness expressed
great satisfaction for the present; and when
I told him to take care it was not broken, he observed:
“I will take especial care of this thing,
because there is none like it in this country, and it
cannot be repaired.” He told us also that his ladies[91]
could play at draughts. I gave him, besides, a piece
of green silk for a shade for his eyes. He went off
immediately, gratified with these little presents.

The weather is very pleasant for the study of
languages, but the days are too short and the nights
are too long. Nevertheless, I sleep nearly all night
this cold weather.

13th.—Thermometer at sunrise in the open
air was 41° 30′ Fahr., so that the cold increases,
this being the lowest which I have yet taken. The
Germans have had a deal of trouble with Mohammed
of Tunis; they would send him back, but there is no
opportunity of doing so.

Máguzáwa and Azna are the names of the pagan
nations of Soudan, denoting the same people, and
not different races. The names answer to the word
Kurdi, in Bornou. These pagans say, in derision
of the Muslims, when it rains, “Allah must have
a large belly,” that so much water falls from him.

En-Noor describes pagans of Maradee drinking
large quantities of gia (beer, or fermented liquor).

This evening a Gadamsee arrived at the tents,
bringing two or three slaves from Damerghou. He
says the news of our arrival had already reached
Damerghou—that it was reported there that the
Sultan of Aghadez had given Barth a black tobe;
not, by any means, a bad rumour. He sends his
slaves to Ghât from this place, and returns immediately
to Damerghou, taking letters for us to
Zinder.

[92]

CHAPTER VI.

Nov. 14th.—I wrote this morning, by the slaves going
to Ghât, to Mr. Bidwell and my wife. En-Noor
paid us a visit in the afternoon, and was exceedingly
civil. He promises me letters for Sakkatou, and to
forward Overweg to Maradee.

Our servant shot a large vulture to-day. En-Noor
having bad eyes, ordered the eyes of this bird
of prey to be scooped out for a medicine. This is
not the first time that I have heard of the various
parts of animals being eaten, or otherwise used, to
cure or strengthen the corresponding parts in human
beings. It seems to be an idea natural to people in
a rude or semi-barbarous state.

[93]

En-Noor related a pretty anecdote of himself
and his younger days in our tent to-day. After
saying, that formerly the Asbenouee people were
the only folks considered bad in these parts, he
observed, that now he himself and the Asbenouee
were certainly much improved in their manners and
dispositions; “for,” added he, “there were once
four fighis (charm-writers) who employed people to
speak against me, and bring me into disrepute.
What did I do? I called them to me, gave them
fine presents of burnouses and a great supper, with
an apartment in which to pass the night. But when
they were fast asleep I dug a large hole, fetched
them all out of the room, killed them, and covered
them up in the hole. Now, however,” continued
his highness, “we do not go so far as this, but
content ourselves with taking away an enemy’s
camels.”

15th.—Weather cold this morning. Thermometer
at sunrise, 43°. I hang the thermometer on
the tent-ropes, just outside, at about a foot from the
ground.

Hamma (son-in-law of En-Noor) returned this
morning from the salt-caravan. He marked on
the sand that the caravan would be thirty-five days
before it returned; so, I imagine, we have still from
this time some thirty days to wait here. He left
the caravan on its entering the Hamadah, between
this and Bilma.

[94]

Towns and Villages of Tesaoua.

(From Amankee’s relation.)

1. Tesaoua: people 1400; residence of the governor. Two large wells and one small one.
2. Harmaua: 500. A little water.
3. Ungua Korna: 400. One well, much water.
4. Haidaua: 500. One well, and much water.
5. Nuwala: 500 or 600. No water; but only half an hour from Haidaua.
6. Nachira: 800, scattered about in small groups. Much water.
7. Ungua-guka: 500. One well.
8. Ungua-tallai: 400. Much water.
9. Gindaua: 1000. Large wells; few trees.
10. Saulawa: 40 or 50.

The capital and nearly all this country is full of
trees. Not a stone is to be seen, and the soil is
sandy.

The Sultan, or Governor of Tesaoua, is subject to
the sovereign of Maradee, who is the only independent
black prince in this part of Africa. The inhabitants
are mixed, pagans and Muslims, but
these last are not bigoted.

En-Noor visited us this evening, and I asked
him if he recollected earthquakes in this country.
The old Sheikh emphatically replied, Babo,
“There are none.”

[95]

16th.—Barth has picked up a good many words
in Aghadez, mostly correct.

17th.—It was colder this morning, although
yesterday was very pleasant. Thermometer at sunrise,
41°.

It is expected that we shall still remain here
thirty days, which time, if divided half between
Haussa and half between Bornouee, will help me on
in these languages, the principal of the interior of
Africa. Mohammed Tunisee is now the servant
of Barth alone. Overweg has given him up.

Yesterday morning I gave Overweg the presents
for the Sultan of Maradee, to whom he intends to go
on a mission, in the same way as Barth went to
Aghadez. The presents consist of a fine burnouse,
a fine shasheeah (five mahboubs), two pieces of
coloured cotton cloth, two heads of white sugar,
knives, scissors, cinnamon, looking-glasses, beads, &c.
I hope he will not return without bringing back the
treaty signed. He is also to make some arrangement
for the establishment of the missionaries in
Maradee.

To-day we had prayers in Overweg’s tent. I
read several short prayers from the Church of
England prayer-book, and also the Gospel and
Epistle for the Sunday.

18th.—Yesterday evening it was cloudy, and
the moon had, for several hours, an immense elliptical
ring round it—a common phenomenon in the
northern Sahara.

[96]

To-day Yusuf got up in a rage, and threw down
his writing, because I told him he did not take
pains to obtain from the people the several meanings
of the words. This has been the case for
most of the time we have been occupied with the
vocabulary. I have therefore left him to himself,
since he insulted me in this manner before the
servants, and I fear I cannot trust myself to go
with him to Sakkatou. It is a great inconvenience,
but I must search for a kateb (writer) at Zinder.
There are many poor men of this profession in
Bornou, and very faithful people.

19th.—His highness En-Noor continues to
visit us. Yesterday I gave him an English silver
fourpenny piece, an English farthing, and a small
French silver coin, with all of which he was greatly
delighted. He summed up their value in wadâ;
fifty wadâs are an English penny. He admired her
majesty’s face on the silver fourpence; but his
shadow, the man who generally comes with him,
said,—”Oh, no, the face of the woman for a Sultan
is not good. This is good,” pointing to the head of
Louis Philippe.

The news came yesterday evening that a razzia
had just been made on Tintaghoda, the assailants
carrying away everything before them, and the
inhabitants of the town fleeing to the mountains.
This razzia was made by the people whom the
Sultan of Aghadez has lately punished for the depredations
committed on us and other caravans on[97]
the road. When this took place there were a few
people at Tintalous, who, on hearing the news, came
off immediately to us after En-Noor, so that now
there does not remain a single inhabitant in the
village. The people of the razzia were much disappointed
at finding no more camels, all those of
the villages hereabouts, and indeed through all
Aheer, being gone to fetch salt from Bilma. They
wished to make up the number of camels which the
Sultan of Aghadez took away from them. Of
course, when the salt-caravan returns, an effort will
be made to avenge this insult on the holy city of
Aheer—this profanation of the abode of marabouts!
It is singular, nevertheless, that only a year ago
some neighbouring tribes, thinking these holy men
had too much wealth, carried off a large number
of their camels. This is the much-vaunted place
amongst the credulous Moorish merchants of the
coast, where theft and robbery are unknown!

21st.—A foggy November morning! But this
change of the atmosphere is very rare, and soon
passes away. It is amazing how steady the seasons
are, and how they roll, each bringing its accustomed
weather and tunes.

Yesterday I began my Bornou studies, not
knowing whether I shall go first to Bornou or
Soudan. I intend, if my health be preserved, to
make a dictionary of the Bornou and Soudan
languages together, for the sake of commerce and
general information. I hope Government will[98]
print it, or if not Government, the Philological
Society.

Abizgen is a fruit which abounds in Aheer. It
is half the size of small currants, and has not a
disagreeable taste—a sort of bitter-sweet clammy
taste. This fruit may be called Aheer currants.

In the neighbourhood of our encampment have
been seen gazelles, ostriches, and monkeys, in considerable
numbers.

22d.—En-Noor went off yesterday morning
early, to visit a great marabout in the neighbourhood.
This will enable us to apply ourselves
closely to the languages, all day long. Occupied
as I am with Soudanese and Bornouese, all the
days fly away swifter than arrows shot by the
most expert archers. En-Noor is expected to return
in the course of four or five days. We
have now all the village of Tintalous with us.
It is Tintalous encamped out in the valley.

23d.—The orient sky flamed this morning with
a pure yellow flame, amidst a somewhat murky
atmosphere.

Most of the people have a fire all night. In
the morning they cower over it like inhabitants
of the poles. Of course we as well as they, having
been baked in the summer’s sun, now feel the cold
most acutely.

There is a species of people scattered through
Soudan which correspond to our gipsies, called
Máguzáwa (sing. Bámăguzăi). These are essentially
[99]
a merry, care-nothing people, always half
tipsy, and always full of fun. They, however, work
a little in agriculture; differing from our gipsies,
who are little more than itinerant tinkers. A boy
was shown to me to-day, whom his parents had
christened Butu, “worthless.” It is related that
his mother had many children before him, all of
whom died, and when he came into the world
the people or neighbours all cried, “Butu! Butu!”
i.e. “He will come to nothing.” Then, it is added,
“God seeing the people gave him a bad name,
determined in compassion to preserve his life, and
so his life was preserved to this day.”

En-Noor returned this evening from his visit
to the marabout.—It is my intention to send home
fifty thousand African words for this expedition.
What future expeditions may do, if my life be
spared, I cannot tell. I speak for this. I imagine
I have already sent to the Foreign Office six thousand.
I shall have five thousand, I hope, by the
time I get to Zinder—three of Soudanese, and
two of Bornouese. I must try to get a few words
of the Aghadez language. These I can get, probably,
at Sakkatou. I must have another writer,
or fighi. My present Bornouese fighi is a very
poor fellow.

24th.—The Sunday soon came again, with the
study of languages. Now the time of our waiting
here does not appear to be long enough. I have
a commercial dictionary to make.

[100]

En-Noor came to us after his return from his visit
to his marabout friend. He says of the late razzia
at Tintaghoda, that the marabouts of that town
brought it all upon themselves, being the first to
begin to countenance attacks upon caravans (that
is, ours). He does not pity them; he does not care
for them; and, he added, “They have now lost all
their reputation amongst the people.” The fact is,
when we came the marabouts did not know what
course to take, whether to attack us or to receive us;
so they chose the former, in their blinded judgment,
and brought all this evil upon their heads.

The Fadeea, or Kalfadaï, have decamped with
their booty and their families to the Hagar, beyond
the reach of recapture or revenge.

A scorpion was found in my tent to-day, running
across the sandy floor. We look upon them
now as nearly harmless, whilst the cold weather
has deprived them of all force.

25th.—Occupied with the languages. Time
passes quickly.

26th.—Began the Bornou grammar.

27th.—A visit from En-Noor. He put on one
of my gloves, and was much amused with it. He
held out his hand, and put it on the face of his
courtiers—showing fight. It was very white,
which gave him occasion to pass to my skin, and
pity my being so white. I made several useful
remarks on Haussa grammar, and begin to understand
the genius of the language.

[101]

A caravan of ghaseb has arrived from Damerghou,
by which we learn that the Sfaxee and
Fezzan merchants are arrived in that country.
We have been trying to buy ghaseb of the people,
or of En-Noor; but it appears we were too late,
for it is said to be all gone. The dollars are worth
only 1750 wadâs here, whilst in Kanou they pass
for 2500. Every article is depreciated in value
in Aheer, because food is scarce. We have, however,
managed to purchase a bullock—a great
beast.

28th.—I did not feel so well after the meat-eating;
we have had so little of it, and so seldom,
that a little extra quite upsets me, and the gnawing
it makes all my teeth bleed. Thermometer, 50°.
The weather has changed to mistiness, haziness.
It is now reported that we still remain here twenty-five
days longer, the caravan arriving only in twenty
days, and five being allowed to rest the camels.
So we have time enough for the Haussa and Bornou
languages. I wish to master the grammar of
each, so as to superintend some translation of the
Scriptures.

29th.—The weather is still hazy, and warmer;
but whilst it is warmer in the morning it is cooler
in the mid-day, on account of the clouds and haze.
Half an hour after sunrise, thermometer 56°.

En-Noor says we shall start in seventeen days,
but ten days more or less for these people are nothing.
Our courier for the money has just been[102]
gone thirty-three days. If, happily, he arrive to
day, he will save a week of the Shantah from
Mourzuk to Tripoli. If we remain here now
twenty-five days, and are thirty-five days more
before we arrive at Zinder, that will be sixty days.
I shall then have only twenty days more to wait
till the expiration of the four months, when I may
expect the courier to return. Thus I hope to
have the money to pay the Sfaxee before I go to
Sakkatou. But, alas! such calculations are extremely
uncertain, and we cannot tell what a day
may bring forth. For our support and safety we
must repose firmly in the goodness of an Almighty
Providence.

Nov. 30th to Dec. 3d.—The weather has been
mild these last few days; this morning, half an
hour after sunrise, thermometer 51°.

En-Noor has been to pay a visit to the Sultan
of Asoudee, meeting him at some neighbouring
village. There was a council respecting the affairs
of the tribe of the Iteesan, who are fighting amongst
themselves; but no news has transpired since his
return. The old sheikh is in good health and
spirits, which he attributes partly to drinking my
coffee twice and thrice a-day. He says we shall
leave here in the course of twelve days.

Senna is grown, or rather collected, in all the
districts of Aheer; but it is cheap now, and does
not fetch the price in Tripoli which it formerly did;
many other as suitable purgatives being found in[103]
Europe, I suppose. Senna is, besides, procured
from the district of the Tibboos of Bilma, and some
of this is still sent to Tripoli. Bornou has also
much senna, but it does not pay the expense of forwarding
it to Tripoli.

The relations of man and wife in Aheer are
curious, if not extraordinary. A woman never
leaves the home of her father! When a man marries
a woman, he remains with her a few weeks,
and then, if he will not take up his residence in the
town or village of his wife, he must return to his
own place without her. When a man sees a woman
who pleases him, he offers the parents a price for
her—say, four camels. If the parents agree that the
price is adequate to the charms or the rank of their
daughter, the bargain is concluded. These four
camels remain always the property of the wife, with
which she supports herself, sending them to Soudan
or to Bilma, fetching ghaseb or salt. Many of the
women have a large property obtained in this way.
When their husbands visit them, they give them
something to eat, and they remain a few days or
weeks; and again depart to their own native towns,
leaving the wife with her property, and any chance
lover. But the men marry two or three wives, and
so are constantly in motion, first going to visit one
wife and then another. Thus the male population
of this country is kept in a continually restless state
of activity—roaming about here and there, marrying
another and another wife, if their means will permit
[104]
them. The women, of course, left in this way, and
unrestrained by any high moral motives, take as
many lovers as they dare, or can secretly dispose of.
It appears that En-Noor always disapproved of this
strange system, and swore he would never marry a
wife, because he should be obliged to go to another
town to reside there, and so be exposed to having an
inferior position, the authorities of the town of his
wife pretending to exercise jurisdiction over him.
All his women have ever been slaves. His highness
is now living amidst his daughters and their children—the
men who married them being all away in
their own native countries. A daughter of En-Noor
costs ten camels, and this is considered a very
high price for a woman. With two or three camels,
a woman manages to support herself and children.
If the husbands of En-Noor’s daughters be ever so
poor, he never gives them anything but a little food.
They must come and reside in his town. His highness
passes all his evenings amidst this circle of
women—his female slaves, his daughters, and granddaughters.

The population of Gouber and Maradee together
may be about 1500.

Mărádee, capital of Maradee, and residence of the
Siriki.

Jinubakai is the second division of the country,
inhabited wholly by the pagans or gia-drinkers
(beer-drinkers); not, therefore, Mahometans.

Gouber (Gubar), is the name of the country, of
[105]
which the capital and residence of the sultan is Chibri.
This country consists of a large city (Chibri), and
several small villages, some fifty or sixty; two are
here mentioned, Gomer and Sanna.

These two countries of Gouber and Maradee
are now in alliance against the Sultan of Sakkatou,
i.e. of the Fellatahs, and mutually inflict razzias
upon one another. Tesaoua is in close connexion
with these ancient Kohlan countries, and is, indeed,
a province of Maradee. There are mixed up
with the population a number of people, emigrants
from Aheer, called Buzai; but these Aheer Tuaricks
have lost both their language and nationality, retaining
merely the name, to denote their origin.
So, in all probability, were more people and of
other countries to emigrate to Soudan, they would
soon become Soudanee, and lose their nationality.
In these countries of Soudan above-mentioned,
Mahommedanism has been but lately professed.
But the great distinguishing mark between paganism
and Mahommedanism appears to be the drinking
or not drinking gia, the latter being the people
who of course abstain from this intoxicating beverage.

Overweg says, that within three-quarters of an
hour’s walk are found hereabout granite, sandstone,
and basalt, a variety of stones somewhat remarkable.

The study of sau, “footsteps” of men and animals,
is quite a science in this part of the world.[106]
The Fezzanee are reckoned the most expert in this
knowledge; they are said to be able to distinguish
the footsteps of people when printed upon the trunk
of a palm, the print-step being made by dipping
the feet in water! As to animals, the people observe
near the neighbouring rocks the sau of the
lion—a very deep, heavy impression of his five
claws, of the monkey, the hare, the gazelle, the fox,
the jackal, the hyæna, the mouse, &c. &c. Indeed,
we appear to be surrounded with animals; and in the
morning I found the sau of the dog, the cat, the
hare, and the mouse, on the sandy floor of my tent.
It is my intention, before I leave Africa, to draw
the forms of the footsteps of the more remarkable
animals. Inshallah!

4th.—Visit from his highness the Sheikh every
day. He is now kind enough to send me every
morning—at the suggestion of his principal wife—a
small can of milk, which, besides the value of the
milk itself, saves my sugar, enabling me to drink
tea and coffee without sweetening. This evening
the shara was brought of the arrival of couriers
from the salt-caravan, to say it was near. Like the
Arabs, for this shara or news, or first advice of the
coming of something good or agreeable, the Kailouees
ask some present. We gave a little bit of
sugar to the slave who brought the welcome intelligence.

Dec. 5th to 9th.—I was occupied with vocabulary
of Haussa and Bornou. Weather mild and[107]
misty, but a little cold this morning; thermometer,
at three-quarters of an hour after sunrise, 43°.

Nearly all the salt-caravan has arrived, and proceeded
in advance, coming in small detachments.
They rendezvous in a fine wady full of herbage, with
water higher up. We are expected to leave in a
few days, three or four at most. Nothing seems
now to detain En-Noor. But the Fadeea have returned
from the Hagar, finding themselves not pursued.
They very naturally prefer their own fine
valley in Asben to the stony, desert wilds of Hagars.
I suppose a razzia will be executed against
them, for the restoration of the camels of Tintaghoda,
on the return of the salt-caravan from Soudan.

En-Noor gives a tremendously unfavourable
account of the Oulimad, who occupy the desert of
Sahara between Aghadez and Timbuctoo, and keep
the road there shut against caravans. He says,
they would sleep in our tents in the day, eat and
drink with us; but in the night they would carry
away the tent, and make themselves clothing with
it. In fact, En-Noor considers them the veriest
barbarians in this region of Africa. There may be
a little exaggeration in this, and the Oulimad may
not be worse than the Hagars of Ghemâma, or even
than some of his own people. The Kailouees do
not hunt, nor do they cultivate the soil; so that
this country abounds with animals. Some of the
country is extremely wild and rocky, and affords
many a retired den for the lions, who descend from
[108]
the rocks and prowl abroad for prey in great
numbers. Their footmarks frequently cover the
length and breadth of the wadys. Barth himself
saw (very fortunately, for it is a sight seen by very
few persons indeed) as many as five together.
Monkeys also abound in great numbers. I related
to En-Noor the anecdote, as a joke, of the monkey
shaving the cat in Paris; but this he took seriously,
for he observed, “That is nothing; I have seen the
monkeys crack lice just like men.” It is always a
difficult matter to translate a joke to these people.
Overweg has been out these last two days hunting
for ostrich eggs, in the places which these birds
frequent. He saw their footprints, dung, feathers,
&c., and two specimens, but found no eggs. It
appears this is a most difficult bird to catch.

En-Noor continues to be very friendly. I get
milk now every morning, for which I pay sugar
and coffee. His highness and his people went out
yesterday to dig a well, about two hours distant.
All the water in this place is exhausted. It appears
to be merely a deposit of rain-water under the sand,
at a depth of from four or five to eight feet. It becomes,
as in this case, entirely exhausted before the
commencement of the next rains; but of course
there are some springs, and many wells which are
not dried up during the whole year.

N.B.—If I remain a month at Zinder, I must
make a little excursion amongst the Bornou villages
and see the rustic life of the people; but I fear it will
[109]
be a bad place to hear the pure Bornouese language.
I still hope to go off early to Sakkatou, and finish
quickly with Soudan. In these matters the Germans
are better off than I am, and have not to wait
for money.[10]

[110]

CHAPTER VII.

Dec. 10th.—I rose before the sunrise; the coldest
morning we have had; thermometer at half-an-hour
after sunrise, 38°.

It is reported that we leave here to-morrow, or
the day following. There is arrived from Aghadez
the first man of that city after the sultan, called
Amagai. He is come here respecting the affairs of
the Fadeea. En-Noor also asked to-day for a list
of all the things taken by force from us on the frontiers.
It appears the Sultan of Aghadez had captured
the Sheikh of the Fadeea, or some one sheikh,
and allowed him to go out of prison on the promise
that he would restore all the things taken from us—but
[111]
not to us; so these Sultans and Sheikhs of
Aheer will probably get all these things back,
and divide the spoil. But, nevertheless, it is better
that the people in authority should have them, than
that they should remain in the possession of the
robbers, the lawless plundering tribes of the frontier.
Probably these people will be more cautious
how they plunder another caravan of Christians.
It will always be a satisfaction to us that the robbers
were made to disgorge their booty. I have
also heard that a small camel was brought in exchange
for my large lost one; and En-Noor sent
it back, ordering them to restore the large camel of
the boat. My camel has been to fetch salt from
Bilma.

The children call Tesaoua, and the countries thereabout,
Haussa, and say it is near, and that they go on
donkeys. From this it is certain this portion of
Soudan still has the ancient name of Haussa. Afaou
is merely the Bornou name for Haussa, there being
no place or district of that name. All these countries
have most of them two names, or two pronunciations
of the same name; one by the natives, and
one by the Moorish merchants and other strangers.
Thus the village of En-Noor is called by strangers
Tintalous, and by the people themselves Chintullus.
Travellers had better adhere to the name the place
has amongst the strangers and foreign merchants,
otherwise their narrative might be questioned by the
people abroad, who do not know the native name.[112]
Maradee has its native name of Mariadi, but if you
were to mention this name in Mourzuk and Tripoli
none would know the country of which you were
speaking. In fact, it is just the same as calling
Florence Firenza, when speaking to persons who
have not travelled in Tuscany, or who are unacquainted
with Italian. I continue much occupied
with the Bornouese and Haussa languages, and am
now collecting the names of insects and animals.
This is extremely difficult, as for many of the animals
of Soudan there are no Arabic names.

I measured an ant-track, and found it 125 feet.
The ants were fetching the cottony dried blossom
of a withered plant, and were amazingly busy. The
tracks did not wind much. I noticed, also, in my
walk, the footmarks of hares and many other animals.
This country is full of live things.

11th.—I rose before sunrise; this is the coldest
morning I have yet had, according to the thermometer,
which was only two degrees above the
freezing point (34°).

A circular letter arrived to-day from Aghadez,
addressed to all the Tuaricks, written by Mustapha
Bey of Mourzuk, recommending them to render us
all necessary protection. It is dated back two
months. Probably this letter was written on account
of the unfavourable intelligence which reached
Mourzuk respecting us. To-morrow, please God,
we start for Soudan.

12th.—Thank God! we left our encampment of[113]
Chintagawna this morning. And oh, most gracious
God! give us a prosperous journey, and may we be
useful to ourselves and our fellow-creatures.

We started about eleven o’clock, and went on
about three hours and a-half. The day was very
cool; the thermometer in the morning, at sunrise,
being only three degrees above the freezing-point.
We expect to see the water freeze on the high plains
through which we are about to pass, before arriving
at Damerghou. Our encampment is a pleasant
wady, under a conical-formed rock of considerable
elevation, perhaps 1500 feet. We are also in a high
situation, some 1000 or more feet above the level of
the sea. There is near this rock a lower one of an
oblong form, its sides fluted with pillars; these
columnar masses are basalt. Dr. Overweg examined
the rocks, and found the outer crust a new species
of rock, a sort of trachite or brachite; and the
interior a sort of basalt, or volcanic substance. The
large rock is also of the same formation. Dr. Barth
ascended the large rock.

I am now told that I made a great mistake
about the wording of the circular letter of Mustapha
Bey. This letter begins by thanking the
Tuaricks of Aheer for exterminating the Walad
Suleiman! It then hints broadly at the necessity
for the Turks in Mourzuk and the Tuaricks of
Aheer being friends; and to maintain this friendship
one important condition is required—that they, the
Tuaricks of Aheer, shall protect all the merchants[114]
or other travellers passing through their country,
and coming from Mourzuk. In the event of their
committing a bad action, the Bey says he may be
compelled to make reprisals; so it is quite clear
the letter is written entirely on our account, and
perhaps is a preliminary measure to making reprisals.
Nous verrons. This letter is only addressed
to the people of Aheer.

If water be the sustaining and even the generative
force of vegetation in the desert, it is also the
destruction of trees and herbage; for along the line
of the current of the wady are seen immense
numbers of dead and overthrown trees, torn from
their roots by the force of the water in the rainy
season. En-Noor paid me a visit this afternoon,
and took a nap in my tent.

13th.—We rose early, but did not start till about
nine o’clock. This was the coldest day we have yet
experienced: the heavens were overcast with clouds.
We came five hours; our course irregular, but
always south-east; the track through wadys filled
with the usual trees of the tholukh species. Yesterday
were seen numbers of large butterflies, but
to-day, on account of the cold, few. Flies innumerable
follow the caravan. The rocks were, as
yesterday, many conic-formed, and others rounded
or appearing in ranges, like huge haycocks: granite,
sandstone, and trachite. We have in the distance
before us, a peculiarly shaped rock of considerable
height, called Mari, in the midst of a range. We are
[115]
encamped in the bed of an immense broad valley, and
camels are feeding about in considerable numbers.
The salt-caravan is very near. We are not yet in
the regular caravan route, viâ Asoudee, but expect
to reach it after to-morrow. En-Noor has with
him as a guest the principal man of Aghadez,
before mentioned. This man was once a slave, but
by his address has risen thus high, as the slaves
frequently do in Turkey: so widely do similar
manners prevail. Many slaves in Soudan rise to
the highest consequence.

The shonshona (or practice of scarifying the face
or neck) prevails everywhere in Bornou, Soudan,
and all this part of Africa; the Tuaricks and Fellatahs
being the only people who abstain from this
barbarous practice. Each device of scarifying denotes
the peculiar nation of the blacks. I have
now got three sketches of faces thus disfigured,
and shall get as many as I can.

The Mahommedans of the coast usually teach
that this way of marking the body is a sin, but
nevertheless the black Muslims will not abandon
the peculiarities of their nation.

14th.—Started early, but made only two hours
and a-quarter, through the expansive valleys of
yesterday. Here we found the salt-caravan, there
being in this place abundance of room, herbage,
and a large well, all necessary for such an assembly
of people and beasts. On the road we put up a
covey of partridges, and a splendid solitary bird,
[116]
the hobara of Soudan. Footprints of the hares and
of the gazelle were observed en route.

By this opportunity we have got a few dates
from Bilma; but they are very poor, some of them
little better than dried wood. The salt-caravan has
nothing attractive. The salt is all tied up in small
bales or bundles, the outward wrapper being matting
or platting of strips of the leaves of the doom-palm,
called by the people kabba. Our caravan resembles
the march of a wandering tribe, there
being camels, sheep, oxen, asses, dogs, with all the
paraphernalia of tents, cooking utensils, &c. Some
of the animals are laden, some unladen, playing,
running, and skipping about. Then come the
human animals, men, women, and children of every
age. Our own caravan is mostly composed of the
household and slaves of En-Noor, with two or three
strangers. But now all changes to the salt-caravan,
and we shall probably be soon absorbed in it.

Yesterday morning I observed the dawn of day,
and witnessed a degree of redness and red clouds,
or, more poetically, rosy-tinted clouds, which I never
before observed in all the Sahara. Probably now
the sky will change to a colouring more like
England. Sunset and sunrise in the Sahara are
essentially different from those of England, the
colours in the desert being exceedingly light and
bright; and often in the summer time, at daybreak,
there is a full, blazing sun in the course of three
quarters of an hour; so that, that rich colouring of
[117]
the summer’s dawn in England is never here
observed.

I visited the salt-caravan, or that portion
of it which belongs to En-Noor. The salt is
prepared in Bilma, by the Tibboos, in three different
manners. There is, first, the canto, a kind
of pillar or pedestal, about 16 inches high, and
3 or 4 broad in its widest part. As to weight, 10
of these are a good camel-load, 8 a load for a
small camel, and 6 for a weak camel. Then there
are two cakes, one of refined salt and the other
coarse. These coarse cakes are about 5 inches in
diameter, and the refined ones 7 inches, the
former being about 3lbs. and the latter 5lbs.
in weight. When a caravan of Tuaricks arrive
at Bilma, they find the salt all ready for them,
and they pay a barter for it in this way,—a zekka
of ghaseb is exchanged against twenty of the
coarse cakes; a zekka for six of the refined cakes,
and three zekkas of ghaseb for two of the pillars.
Ghaseb appears to be the only staple thing which
the Tibboos receive for their salt; they may also
take now and then turkadias, or black turbans, and
on the other side the Tuaricks bring a few dates
with them: the fruit, even those of the best quality,
are not very good or fine. This commerce of barter
is managed almost solely by the women: the men
remain in their houses, whilst the women go to the
salt-pits or lakes, and transact this important
business; but the men do not run away, as is commonly
[118]
reported. At least, so say the Tuaricks.
The supply of salt is inexhaustible. It is, probably,
on account of the weight of the salt, and the fatigue
of the camels which carry it, with the distance, that
this commerce is not very profitable to the Tuaricks;
but this can only be ascertained in the markets of
Kanou, and other large cities of Soudan. There
are only six months to the rainy season, so I have
just time to go to Sakkatou and return, without
waiting long at any of the intermediate places
between Sakkatou and Kuka.

Our encampment is under some rocks, where
are seen the dens of lions. At the mouth of these
caves or holes are bones of animals and the dung
of the lions.

15th.—I rose early, but we did not start till two
hours after sunrise. The caravan was a considerable
time in loading. We have only with us En-Noor’s
detachment of the salt-caravan, about 130 camels.
We may be quicker in our movements to-morrow.
The first morning of starting is always thus slow.
We came to-day five hours: passed the picturesque
rock Mari, like a camel couchant, and entered after
three hours the Asoudee route, or the direct
caravan route from Ghât to Damerghou, through
Aheer. Another detachment of the salt-caravan
passed or crossed us, and took another route to the
east. Our course was always southwards, now S.E.
now S.W., through wadys filled with trees, mostly
tholukh and its varieties; the rocks were all granite.
[119]
Aheer appears to be a region essentially of granite,
although here and there are volcanic cones striking
up, composed of basalt, or a variety of this stone.
The weather was very cloudy and cold, only a little
warm in the middle of the day. We have not
come to water or wells for three days, because our
journeys are very short. To-day I saw, for the first
time, the indigo plant—neela in Arabic, and bala in
Soudanese. I was glad to make its acquaintance.
It grows amongst the other herbage, and may be
easily confounded with it as a common herb. It is
now in seed, the pods being small and very hard.
This is one of the products capable of working the
regeneration of Africa, if Africa is to be civilised by
legitimate commerce.

En-Noor asked to-day if, on entering Constantinople,
we English made presents. I told him very
positively, “No;” but, on the contrary, everything
which the English demanded of the Sultan of the
Turks he did for us; and because the Sultan was
weak, England was obliged to protect him against
the encroachments of the other Christian nations.

I was much surprised to hear to-day that En-Noor
begged a black burnouse from Barth. The
old Sheikh is a Tuarick every inch of him. Nevertheless,
it is too bad to beg the things which we wear
to protect us from the cold and the heat. Barth, I
believe, has not yet made the Sheikh a present, and he
is coming Hateetah over my worthy friend. Overweg
has given the Sheikh a cloth jacket, which he could
[120]
ill spare. I feel most determinedly disposed to
give nothing more; but in justice I have to add,
that his highness sends regularly the milk in the
morning, that he gave me a piece of gour-nut
on the road, and that he sent me a few dates at
my request! These are great things for Tuaricks;
so, “patience.”

16th.—I rose at daylight; the cold was moderate,
morning foggy as yesterday. People say we shall
be only nine days from this going to Damerghou,
but I will give them twelve. All the old men in
this country apply to the Taleb for medicine to
restore their powers. They very unwillingly relinquish
the exercise of the functions which give them
most delight; but nature is stronger than all things,
and they must submit to its inevitable course. In a
country like Africa, where woman is only thought of
for one purpose, it chagrins these old fellows to see
all their nice plump slave-girls about them, and to
find themselves past and gone, so far as this state of
existence is concerned. En-Noor and Hateetah
both made this kind of application to the Taleb.
When I was alone in my former journey in the
desert, I had also the same kind of experience.

We came two hours to-day to the well of
Anfesas, before the mountain of Baghzem. Our
course was through valleys and rocks, as yesterday,
and, indeed, always in this country; for there is
very little variation in the landscape. Baghzem,
instead of being the high mountain pictured to me[121]
by the Ghadamsee merchants, is, at this view of it,
only a low range. Two little things observed to-day
were, first, a “traveller’s sharpening stone,” on
which every person passing by sharpened his dagger
or his sword: next, were heaps of sand scraped
together, and sticks or stalks of herbage stuck on
the top, as frail marks of the route, corresponding
to the heaps of stone which mark in line the routes
of the Sahara. There was also a mosque formed of
boughs of trees; that is, a low wall of the groundplan
of a mosque made of boughs of trees, like the
walls of stone in other places. The trees were as
before, always those full of thorns, like the tholukh;
many of the species bearing what is called the date
of this country. No animals of game were seen,
except a solitary hare; but there were marks of the
foot of the mohur, or large gazelle.

The lading of the camels in the morning takes
always an hour and a-half: we have few people,
compared with the number of beasts of burden.

However, under the leadership of En-Noor, who
has now decked himself in a fine yellow burnouse,
a sort of ensign of authority, the caravan marches
in great order and tranquillity.

The inhabitants of Damerghou are said to be
a mixture of Kohlans and Tuaricks; the latter,
however, receding into the interior. But if the
Tuaricks have dispossessed the Kohlans, they have
almost become Kohlans themselves, forgetting their
own language and their own customs and manners.[122]
This would naturally result from their habit of
taking female slaves from Soudan. Women, of
course, always teach their children their own language.
In this way the population becomes in a
few years amalgamated, the blacks with Tuaricks.

17th.—We stopped here all day, occupied with
Bornouese. The place is pleasant enough, there
being a good well of water. A little temporary
village stands near, composed of the women and
children belonging to the salt-caravan.

18th.—We halted again another day. After
this rest of three days for the camels, we are to go
on quicker. Overweg paid a visit to the temporary
village, principally to see the women, taking
with him the Mâlem Ibrahim. He was
pleasantly received, and notes the fact as the first
specimen of Soudan hospitality. I also made an
excursion of an hour to a neighbouring eminence,
where I had a view from the top of a quartz
rock of the surrounding landscape of stony hills
and valleys. On the east and west were ranges
and groups of mountains; on the north-east and
towards Bilma, and on the south-west round the
mountain of Baghzem, the country appeared open.
North and south were rocks. In the direction of
our route (south-east) the rocks seem scattered and
at wide distances, so I expect we shall soon bid
farewell to the mountains of Aheer. The celebrated
mount of Baghzem is a mighty mass of rock,
not high, but apparently of immense breadth. The[123]
town of Baghzem is on the western side, and out
of our route.

I had a little clandestine transaction with
Madame En-Noor to-day. She sent me cheese
and milk, and I sent her a ring. The slaves
brought the cheese stealthily: so, I suppose, the
Sultan was not to know of it. But they say that
all the goats belong to the women, and, consequently,
the milk and cheese; but the camels to
the men; some women, however, have camels.
There is a sort of division of male and female property
in this country.

[124]

CHAPTER VIII.

Dec. 19th.—We started early, and journeyed on
eight hours and a-half—the best day we have had
since leaving Tintalous. Our course still towards that
immense block of mountain, the celebrated Baghzem.
We are now encamped along its side. We
crossed a large wady with ancient-looking trees,
having antiquity, in fact, stamped on their trunks,
all of the tholukh species. The sand of this desert
is covered with the footsteps or marks of the gazelle
and hare; but we saw only one gazelle and
one hare. The gazelle was followed by a stupid
mongrel-bred dog; it jumped high in the air, and
was soon out of sight. The Kailouees are no[125]
huntsmen. I question whether they have ever
caught a gazelle or any full-grown animal in their
lives; they are a stupid set, and their dogs worse
still in field-sport, though always living in the
desert. There are huntsmen amongst the Haghars.
The Kailouees prefer running down men, or rather
women. All they think of is riding or straying
from place to place after the women—this is their
sport.

This may be called a country of dry wadys.
The name is appropriate all the year round, except
on the few days when the floods are seen
pouring down these seeming beds of rivers. Hereabouts
are the largest tholukh and other trees
found in Aheer. Those that grow on high ground
are small, but from their trunks are picked off,
by the slaves, pieces of gum. To-day, however, I
could not succeed in getting a piece. What was
found was carried to En-Noor. I shall soon
get a taste of it. We continue with our same
number of camels; no other detachments of the
large salt-caravan have yet joined us. En-Noor
is still very active, riding before and behind,
seeing that all is right. He is followed by his
shadow. He wears his yellow burnouse. I have
heard of no town on this side of Baghzem.

An immense quantity of stone is scattered over
the route hereabouts. Overweg believes it to be
basalt, or a species of volcanic stone of similar
character.

[126]

I am preparing myself for my Soudan journeys,
and, en route, take as much rest as possible.
Cold winds prevail night and morning, but the
sun burns a few hours in the day. Certainly now
is the best season for travelling in this country.
What it is in Soudan it is impossible to tell.

20th.—We rested to-day. There is a well a short
distance off, called Tilya. This morning early
filed by a large division of the salt-caravan, about
three hundred camels. We passed them yesterday.
They had also a little merchandise besides salt.
Some of the people inquired of me if I had found
my camels. I told them two were still missing.
They were all strangers, but were, nevertheless,
civil. I made a short excursion in search of gum
amongst the tholukh-trees. I was fortunate enough
to find one piece, or, rather, a small bunch of pellucid
drops, of a bright amber-colour. The bunch
was scarcely exuding from the tree on which it
was found, and was ready to drop when touched,
hanging by the slenderest connexion. It was even
somewhat disposed to become liquid. This gum
is found only on the small young trees. The
taste was very pleasant. It is astonishing how
little gum has been picked off these trees by our
people, although we have passed tens of thousands
of them en route.

The slaves of the caravan were having a game
amongst themselves this morning. They brought
into my tent a man bound as dead, and I was[127]
obliged to pay a handkerchief to relieve myself
of the bad omen. Such a thing is considered a
horrible thing if you do not buy away the ill effects
of it. This is certainly an easy way of collecting
money and goods. It was, however, amusing to
see the fellow, how still he lay; truly it was as
still as death. The ceremony itself arose out of
the culprit, or man bound, having lost our camels,
a circumstance which has detained us here to-day.
The herdsman was thus punished for his neglect;
and so all these African people have an amusing
way of turning their misfortunes into fun, as well
as of making a profit out of them. I have already
observed before, that every misfortune we have
suffered has been a benefit to the Kailouees. This
has made them so careless about what might
happen to us.

21st.—Our course was generally nearly south,
but often a little winding. Baghzem was always on
our right, until we left it behind us, on the north-west.
This mountain has, probably, been so much
celebrated in all past times, because it is the most
conspicuous object on the return route from the
south to the north. Overweg conjectures that it
is granite. He had no servant at hand yesterday
to visit it with him, and he did not like to go alone,
because it swarms with lions.

We passed to-day mostly through undulating
country, a sort of ground which, in the Sahara,
lies generally between the plateaux and the high[128]
rocky ranges. From one of the lesser heights we
had a magnificent view of Baghzem. We passed
also through and along several fine wadys, lined with
ancient trees. Perhaps, in some places, full half
of the trees were decayed, and many only naked
stumps. The trees were so thick in certain places as
to deserve the name of forests—primeval forests—but,
I imagine, not to be compared with those of
America.

Amongst the trees to-day appeared most conspicuously
the doom-palm. This is the first day
we have seen it in such numbers. This “palm
of Pharaoh,” as the Moors call it, according to
their habit of coupling all strange things with
those ancient monarchs, is found in groups as well
as isolated trees. When isolate, and also when
in groups, it very frequently assumes a double-shaped
trunk, or two large arms spread out or
divided from a low stump.[11] Of the leaves, which
are called gabba, the people make all their rope.

These trees are now laden with fruit, not ripe.
The abundance of them gives to the place of our
encampment a truly tropical aspect. We journeyed
on to-day eight hours and a-half—a good, fair day.
The weather was warm, even a little sultry. As
to inhabitants, we passed many isolated huts, but
saw no villages in groups. We also passed the
ruins of many villages, whose houses were better[129]
built than any I have yet seen in this part of
Aheer. This country has seen its best days; for
the huts which now take the place of these houses,
high and well-built of stone and mud, are, indeed,
miserable. Probably these deserted places are
some of the towns whose people were carried off
to Bornou in the recent razzias. At the bottom
of most of the wadys to-day, water was found at a
foot depth, though not a copious supply. People
were at the wells in numbers, watering their cattle.

En-Noor paid me another attention to-day,
when on camel-back, in presenting to me a piece
of gour-nut. This is considered a very great compliment.
As to the fruit itself, I have not yet
acquired the taste; it is only agreeable if you
are thirsty, and after chewing it drink water.

22d.—We remain here to-day. It is not so
cold as it has been.

I am sorry Madame En-Noor has left off the
milk, though I never cease to send coffee twice
a-day. I must now, however, send but once, as my
sugar is getting low.

I observed the beautiful bird’s nest which I
mentioned the other day. It is a perfect piece of
architecture, far superior to the huts made in this
country. The only apparent deficiency is, that it
seems to hang on nothing, or is suspended sometimes
on a slender straw, at other times on a thin twig.
The nest is built of straw inside and outside, but the
inside is of a finer straw. I have not seen the bird
[130]
who is the architect of this wonderful piece of mechanism.
I observed two species of parasitical
plants, one of which has a slender trunk, and has
its root in the earth; and the other, which is entirely
dependent on the tree over which it spreads
for all its support and nourishment. Its roots are in
the very boughs of the tree which bears it. Some
of our blacks, who were carried over the desert when
young, and had not seen or observed this phenomenon
before, burst out laughing. These comicalities
of vegetation amused them exceedingly. What
excites the serious attention of cultivated minds
often produces only laughter in vulgar and untutored
people. Parasitical plants would be a complete
study for the botanist here. The doom-tree
has a smaller and rounder-shaped head than the
common date-palm; the leaves are spread out very
like a fan, but I know not whether the doom is
called the fan-shaped palm.

We are to stay at this place some time—there
appears to be no hurry. We shall probably be here
three days more. The Sultan of Asoudee is visiting
amongst us, and has concerted with En-Noor that
all the caravans shall go together, in order that no
one portion of it shall arrive before the other in
Damerghou, and so get the ghaseb cheaper; as, of
course, the early arrivals generally get the better
bargains. At first I could not understand the
reason of our all going together; now the thing is
clear enough.

[131]

En-Noor called at my tent in the evening, and
was very civil. I got a little milk afterwards for
the tea sent him. The royal family appear now
to be short of milk. I find that his royal highness
has in reality only one wife, who is a slave. In
an African point of view, however, even this is too
much. His highness confessed to Overweg that
God gave man his limited time in this as in all
things. Had the beating I have recorded any
relation to this bitter reflection?

When the sun is down, the landscape around
begins to look like Old England, the species of trees
not being visible. The doom reminds me of the
shorn elms along the hedges.

23d.—The Sultan of Asoudee sent this morning
for powder, and was thankful for a small quantity.
We remained here this day. All the valleys and
country around are called Unan. This is also the
name of a well near us, but water is usually obtained
by scooping out the sand in the bed of the
valleys, and there are few regular wells; those
which are dug are destroyed as soon as the rain
returns. Such alone remain entire as are out of
the reach, or beyond the range of the periodic
floods.

24th.—We were not to come on to-day; but
En-Noor changed his mind, and we journeyed on
five hours, up the valley of Unan. The eternal
sameness of the tholukh and doom—for dooms are
now in great numbers—would be wearisome, had we
[132]
not had so much desert before; but we are still
delighted with the continual occurrence of trees, be
they of what species they may. There is, besides, a
great abundance of wild water-melons, which the
people sometimes eat. They are very small, but
hard and sound. The lizard, which almost through
the whole desert was found darting about and
around the camels’ feet, has now disappeared. It
would be a curious inquiry for a naturalist to endeavour
to account for its disappearance, for the
nature of the soil has not so much changed. The
only difference—but perhaps this is great for the
lizard—is that hereabouts occur periodic rains, which
deluge the land for a few days in the year; and
during these few days, probably, all the land lizards
found in low places would be destroyed.

This is Christmas-eve; a sorry one for us all!
We receive no news but bad news. For to-day a
man came up to us, who said he left Tripoli three
months ago, and that the cholera had been very
severe in Tripoli, making many victims; but he
brought no particular news for us. He came by
the way of Ghadamez and Ghât, and yet had heard
nothing of our misfortunes on the frontier. I suppose
the people of Ghât had already ceased to talk
about us and our affairs; for here in the desert, as
elsewhere, things are soon forgotten. We saw little
of the rest of the caravan en route, but if we ever see
the whole of the camels going with us, and the
division of Aghadez, I am quite sure they will never
[133]
reach the exaggerated number of 10,000! All
numbers are dreadfully exaggerated in Africa.

25th.—Christmas-day! My second Christmas
day in Africa during this journey. We have
nothing to make a merry day of; but we must try
and cheer ourselves up by the thought that we are
still spared, after passing through so many dangers,
and amidst a people naturally hostile to us, and
only softened by fear of the Turks, and by possession
of the goods of the Government, which they have
taken one way or other. Yet some of the people
appear of a more kindly nature, and Overweg has
experienced a little hospitality in the huts retired
from the road, or sequestered in the surrounding
valleys.

Gracious God! make us all thankful for health
and strength: may we ever praise thy protecting
care of us and our mission. For the sake of our
Saviour, born on this day, pardon all our sins; give
us grace to lead a new life, and a most willing mind
to receive Jesus as the Lord our righteousness! O
God, have mercy upon all our friends and relations,
and give them the will to receive the Saviour, born
on this day, as their only chance of salvation! O
God, have mercy upon Africa, and on all men!

Some musicians came this morning to salute us
with a little of their rough music, a drum and a
clarionet. I gave them three rings and a little
sugar. I have very little to bestow, and were I to
be more generous, or to make an effort to give them
[134]
anything like a Christmas gift, I should then have all
the people upon me, begging everything I had left.
Yesterday I spoke a few words to Hamma, son-in-law
of En-Noor, and he immediately asked me for a
turban. I had not spoken to him for several weeks,
or only saluted him with a few words, in order to
avoid his begging. This man has already had from
me presents to the amount of fifty dollars! Thus I
am cut off from all conversation with these people,
and have no practice in speaking the languages of
the interior. I must try to get on better than this.
Overweg, as doctor, is better off. The sick, and the
people who bring the sick, must talk to him, and
must receive a favour from him. And he frequently
gets a few cheeses in return. The women make
extraordinary propositions. The other day they
offered him a slave or a bullock for a medicine to
produce a child.

The place of our encampment is called Bargot,
which I believe is also the name of a well, near or
about an hour and a-half distant. I have also heard
the name of Bergu. Yesterday we passed some
ruins of houses, built of stone and mud. I am glad
that Barth borrowed my Bible, and is reading to-day.
Overweg also was the first to propose prayers on
Sundays when we are staying long together in one
place.

We are now near the Hamadah, which is a
journey of full four days without water. We arrive
at the water on the morning only of the fifth[135]
day. I gave a Christmas-box to all the servants of
the expedition, seven persons, each a cotton handkerchief
and a ring. This is all I could spare.
Yusuf had a silk handkerchief and no ring. The
kind of ring esteemed here is one having a good
imitation of a stone, and the metal is as good as
gold for these people. With the exception of the
Gatronee and my mahadee, the rest ill deserved their
Christmas-box, but it is necessary to forget and to
forgive. However, I am now more strict with
them, as we are leaving the Tuaricks, amongst
whom some of our servants became almost Tuaricks
themselves in manners.

The Sultan of Asoudee is still with us, and keeps
up a sort of state about him, although he is a poor
weak fellow indeed, compared to En-Noor. He has
not paid us a visit, and we have not seen him. En-Noor,
probably, does not wish to bother us with
such a visit. The musicians who saluted us this
morning came from him, but they did not know
it was a feast-day of Christians, and only came to
pick up what they could get. I sent Madame
En-Noor a piece of white loaf-sugar, and told her
it was a Christmas-box. She received it with many
thanks; so I have chronicled all our doings this
day. I read the two first chapters of St. Luke in
Arabic. We had no provisions, or anything with
which we could produce the resemblance of a
plum-pudding. As to roast beef, we have some[136]
bits of preserved beef, which we eat with our baseen
and hamsa.

Amidst so many uncertainties in Central Africa
we may not see another Christmas-day. O God!
whenever the time of our departure is come, may
we be found relying for salvation on that Saviour,
thine only-begotten Son, born on this day.

Overweg and I conversed late at night on the
mechanism of the heavens, and the antiquity of
the world, according to the received theories of
astronomers and geologists; the dark and black
vault above, sprinkled over with brilliant points,
being the object which first set our thoughts in
motion. The stars are time itself, and also illustrations
of the passage of light through the universe.
The earth was once a hotter orb, passing successively
from a vaporous to a fluid, and then a solid
state. The northern climes were once torrid zones,
from the evidence of the fossil remains and from
coals, which are masses of tropical trees. Such
were the speculations in which we indulged.[12]

26th.—We stay here to-day. There is some
trouble amongst those restless tribes, the Kaltadak
and Kalfadaï; and Yusuf was sent for this[137]
morning by En-Noor to write some letters for him
to these marauding tribes. They are fighting
amongst themselves. The route from the North
will never be safe for Europeans until these tribes
are properly subjugated; and when will that time
come? It is now reported that we all go to
Zinder. I shall be glad of this opportunity to get
a few dollars, and then make the best of my way
to Sakkatou. But our delay here renders this
trip always less certain, and seems to point out
that I shall go first to Bornou.

The most frequent parasitical plant, which is
found upon nearly all the tholukhs, is called koushi
in Haussa, and barango in Bornou. It is a fine
plant, and its flower is not unlike the woodbine or
honeysuckle, but devoid of all fragrance. The
leaves are succulent, full of moisture, in shape a
long oval, the longest not more than an inch and a
quarter. This parasite also fastens itself on other
trees, and often kills the branches from which it
draws its strength—a real sap-sucker. The karembo
frequently dies in its embraces.

Hamma, the son-in-law of En-Noor, is not to go
with us, on account of the quarrels with the Kalfadaï
and the Kaltadak. He is exceedingly disappointed,
for it deprives him of making anything for
himself in Haussa; and En-Noor keeps him very
poor indeed, as his highness does everybody about
him.

The salt-caravan is the affair of life and death[138]
for Aheer; and the reason is now clear to me why
it is that En-Noor goes every year with it, and
directs and superintends its movements. This is the
greatest service he can render to his country, and
the Kailouees generally. Without this salt the
population of Aheer would soon all perish, or emigrate
to Soudan. The other commerce of the
country could not suffice for the support of the
inhabitants.

27th.—We had a visit from the people of the
country before starting; they appear to be a fine
race of men, whiter than most of the Kailouees, and
nearly all tall. In these nomade districts the weakly
children generally die off, leaving only the robust.
We journeyed on southwards five hours, through
wadys formed by the force of the waters, gradually
approaching the great Hamadah. The doom now
disappeared, and most of the trees dependent on
much water; for here the wadys are all shallow.
Footmarks of the ostrich, gazelle, hare, habara,
and some other interesting animals, cover this portion
of the desert. The gazelles have more room,
and the ostriches also. The former, besides, are out
of the way of the lion; for this beast seldom pursues
its prey across the desert plains.

People say we shall see many animals in the
Hamadah, because the lion does not come there. A
large gazelle was taken this evening by some of the
caravan.

A few locusts and many fine butterflies were[139]
busy about. We are encamped at a place called
Agalgo, or Agallegu. There is a well at the distance
of an hour; so that the number of days during
which no water is found is reduced to three: but
this water is a sort of collection from the rain remaining
beyond its time, and is not always found.

We are now on the edge of the plateau. En-Noor
said to-day, “There are five thousand camels
with us;” but I question whether there be more than
two thousand. It is of great importance to ascertain
this, for thus only the force of the country may be
estimated. We are now said to be eight days from
Damerghou.

The Sultan of Asoudee has detained many of
En-Noor’s young people, to protect the country in
case there be any troubles with the Kalfadaï.

Several pieces of scoria, or lava, were found on
the road, showing a district here once to have had
active volcanoes. The granite begins to disappear,
to be replaced by sandstone. This sandstone, generally,
according to Overweg, forms plateaux;
whereas granite is found in rocks and ridges in the
midst of valleys.

28th.—We started early. The camels move on
at the beginning of their day’s work to the beating
of the kanga, or drum. We have two or three
drums, but the drummers have little skill, and the
beating is always the same monotonous sound.
Our course varied from S.E. to S.W., but lay
always southward, through shallow valleys, or low,
[140]
indented, or scooped-out plains; the whole country
being what the people call hamadah, or plateau.
All the large trees have disappeared with the doom-palm.
Nevertheless there are everywhere the marks
of water. Yet the rain cannot fall here so much
as in the mountainous regions which we have left
behind, for it is high ground only which brings
down the rain in Africa; except, indeed, near the
equator. As yesterday, the sand and soft earth are
covered with the footmarks of gazelles, ostriches,
the habara, and even the giraffe. The people, in
fact, say we shall see the giraffe before we arrive at
Damerghou. But of these animals, who have left
thus the impression of their feet on the sand, we
saw not one. Indeed it is quite a matter of luck to
fall in with animals in the desert. I have seen but
very few. My colleagues have both encountered
lions and monkeys, neither of which have I seen.

We have come to-day seven hours and a-half, a
very good march for En-Noor. The nights are
cold enough; there is also a fresh breeze, generally
from north-east, every day: nevertheless, the sun
burns hot. The sky has always now a few clouds,
and the atmosphere is a little thick and misty. We
have with us various queer characters; amongst the
rest, a fellow who boasts of his having killed many
people with poisoned arrows. When I come near
him I always attack him, not, indeed, with his
favourite weapon, but with irony. I tell him,
“Ah! poisoned arrows kill many people.—What[141]
matters it?—There is no God” (looking up, and
saying Babo Allah!) This has had its effect once
or twice, and he has confessed it is not so very fine
to kill people with poisoned arrows.

Evening came on, but I heard nothing of water.
We are encamped near a small hill. I looked
to-day again attentively at our strings of camels.
Instead of five thousand, I do not believe there are
more than five hundred. We have few people with
us in comparison with the number of camels, and
these are many of them slaves of the masters who
are remaining behind in Aheer. The disturbed
state of the country has prevented many persons of
consequence from joining us. To-day, my mahadee
brought me an ear of ghaseb, of immense length—about
three times the length of the ghaseb grown in
Ghadamez and other oases of the Sahara; nine times
the length of an ear of wheat. This was found
growing on the road, and intimates that we are
approaching Soudan very fast. I also picked up
to-day camomile flowers and the senna-plant.

Explanation of Soudan and Bornou common
words for articles of dress, food, instruments for
manufacturing:—

Jebus, leathern bag.

Foofoo, paste of Indian corn.

Bouza, a species of beer. In Waura, near the
western coast, it is made of guinea-corn, honey,
Chili pepper, a root of coarse grass; in Kanou and
Wadaï it is made of only ghaseb and honey, and is
[142]
therefore more pure and agreeable. It is called by
some, acid beer.[13]

Kolla, the gour-nut, called “African,” or
“Soudan.”

Shea, the butter-tree.

Manioc, root. The main article of food in
Congo, used as flour.

I trust, under the auspices of a good Providence,
to arrive strong in Soudan. There our greatest
enemy is fever! I walked a little to-day, and found
myself better for the exercise; but, as a rule, I avoid
exposing myself to fatigue.

[143]

CHAPTER IX.

Dec. 29th.—About five hours after we started, the
route opened into a bonâ fide hamadah. All around
us stretched a limitless plain. Our course lay
always south, and we journeyed ten hours, with sand
in the evening.

Yesterday I had observed a few footmarks of the
giraffe, but to-day they were everywhere visible.
They were double, as this animal does not move its
feet one after another, like the camel or the horse,
but two of its feet together, or simultaneously. We
saw the footprints of young as well as old ones.
This plateau is the real home of the giraffe. No[144]
place could be better adapted for such an unwieldy
creature. There is abundance of small tholukh, on
which it feeds; all the country is open around to
it, and it is out of the reach of ferocious animals.
Towards the evening the marks of the giraffe disappeared,
and were succeeded by the footprints of
what is here called the wild ox (but which Overweg
believes to be a large species of gazelle), so that one
animal appears to have made room for the other.
The day was cool and cloudy.

The plain is intersected with shallow beds and
streams, and in some places evident marks of an
abundance of water in the rainy season.

30th.—We started early for the well, but did
not reach it till late in the evening, after a march of
nine hours. The well is called Chidugulah, and is
situated on the side of a valley of some depth. In
the bed of this valley Overweg found some infusoria,
clay or stone.

Many people started in the night to get water,
and give their animals a drink. There is but a
small supply, and what there is has a muddy, chocolate
colour. The last water we took up from the
valleys of Asben had a milky hue, so that when the
coffee was made of it, it looked like café au lait.

Bandits and hostile tribes frequent this well of
Chidugulah, and rest hereabouts to pillage caravans.
Our people spoke of the Oulimad, and Overweg
dreamed he was fighting with them. I dreamed
the same night of large turtles, for it had been said
[145]
they are found in this plateau, and their marks had
been traced to-day. I learn now that large turtles,
two feet and a-half long, and one foot and a-half
broad, are found here. The back shell of one was
used for a watering trough by the people we met
en route. We had sand all day, rising occasionally
in considerable mounds. I observed the prevailing
winds in the formation of these mounds; for there
is always an inclined plane towards the quarter
whence the wind blows; whilst to where it blows
the mounds are scarped. The winds prevailing
now are E.N.E.; and the wind has nearly always
come from this direction since our arrival in Aheer.
In another season, however, there may be a total
change. In full summer it may be south, for what
we know. In fact, Amankee says, in summer the
wind always comes from the south. At this season
the sand is covered with nice herbage in some
places, but in the hot weather it must be all dried
up. This is, in truth, the spring time in this country;
the birds are all laying. There are also young birds
fledged. In Haussa there is no word for “fledged.”

This route must really present, in some parts,
for many hours together, an ocean of sand; as, I
think, it is described in the Itinerary procured by
Davis. To-day the footprints of the giraffe have
entirely disappeared.

In summer it must be very difficult for large
caravans to obtain water from this well, for our
people were full half a day filling four or five skins.
[146]
What a blessing, nevertheless, is the existence of
the Chidugula, for there is no water for three days
farther. The boys killed this morning a jerboah,
or what the Germans call a jumping mouse. I saw
one yesterday, jumping before my camel’s feet.
There are a great number here. This jerboah is of
a different colour from those I have seen in Tunis;
being white all over the lower part of the body and
neck, straw-coloured on the top of the head and
along the back; whilst those in Tunis are nearly of
the same colour as ordinary mice. This species is
also small, three inches and a-half long, and the
tail is double the length of the body. The hind legs
are nearly as long as the body, and the fore legs not
half an inch. Near the tip of the tail there is an
inch of black. Many young jerboahs were caught,
all of the same description. The Haussa people call
it a mouse, but have besides a special name.

We are now about the middle of the Sahara,
including the radii of the western and northern
coasts, and we here find an immense plateau, stretching
many days north and south, east and west.
So far Le Brun’s conjecture is right, that the central
parts of Africa are plateaux, or one vast plateau.
But more of this hereafter. This plateau extends
to the Bornou route, and how much further east is
yet to be ascertained. In the west we yet also want
information. North and south it extends along the
territory of Aheer some eight days, or about one
hundred and sixty miles. Overweg reckons the[147]
height of the plateau, above the level of the sea, at
some fifteen hundred feet.

31st.—The last day of the year! One year gone
in Africa this tour! How many more are to pass?
Alas! who can tell?—We came to-day nine hours,
always south, over a perfect desert-plain, mostly
sandy. A cold north-east wind was blowing all the
day. The people dread it as death itself; as well
they may, for they are nearly naked. Their Soudan
cotton clothes afford them little or no protection
against such a bleak north-easter. Europeans are
astonished to see these people shivering with cold in
this bleak weather, and forget that they themselves
are well clothed. This remark is very applicable
to the northern coast, where hundreds of the poor
are seen shivering, with only a thin blanket thrown
around them in the coldest day of winter. When
they see a European well covered with tight cloth
clothes, and flannel underneath, they may well call
out sega, “cold,” as they often do; and we are ready
to laugh, and forget they are naked.

In this part of the desert birds of prey abound.
We passed to-day some twenty large vultures,
feeding on a dead camel. When the caravan filed
by they all took wing, and perched themselves in a
row on a rising mound of sand, and there waited
until we had passed before them, like so many
soldiers. These were black vultures, and of enormous
breadth of wing. Many wild oxen, or what
are so called, were seen, and everywhere the footprints
[148]
of ostriches and gazelles. His highness En-Noor
made us a present of two ostrich eggs, and we
supped on this out-of-the-way delicacy the last day of
the year. The date of the black country (Soudan) is
deserving of notice. It is called in Bornou, bitu; and
in Haussa, aduwa and tinku, both tree and fruit. Its
kernel, or stone, is very large, and the little pulpy
matter upon it has the taste of a bitter sweet. It is
about the size of an almond, and covered with a
green husk, a little thick. This fruit is now ripening
fast in Aheer. The tree is covered with thorns,
very large, and projecting in every direction. The
leaves are small, almost without veins, and with a
thick stalk.

To-day we had the karengia, or bur, with a
vengeance. En-Noor had already advertised us of
its appearance hereabouts two days ago. It is certainly
the most troublesome thing that can well be
conceived for all travellers, and more so for Europeans.
This bur is from a species of herbage
bearing grain, very small, and which the people
make bazeen of, like ghaseb and other grain. All
feet of men, women, and animals, were to-day covered
with this teasing bur.

The animals seen on this plateau, it will be seen,
are in reality mostly of the harmless kind. The
giraffe, the wild ox (considered a species of immense
gazelle, or stag), the gazelle, a large and small
species, the ostrich, the guinea-fowl, the hobara (in
Haussa, tuja), various kinds of vultures, the crow,
[149]
many small birds, the lizard (in small numbers), the
jerboah, the locust, butterflies, and other insects, the
thob, the large turtle, &c. Overweg says the footmarks
of the hyæna were also seen.

En-Noor’s people caught a young ostrich, only a
few hours hatched. It is now kept as a pet. Several
eggs have been also picked up. The ostrich has
been seen feeding on the gum of the tholukh-tree.

As to trees, we have still the eternal tholukh, or
mimosa. What an omnipresent tree is this in
Africa! The mimosa is found at the Cape, with
the ethel; it is found in all the northern Sahara,
and the ethel with it, wherever there is some water,
as in the wadys of Fezzan. In all the western
Sahara it abounds, producing the finest gums.
Consider also the gum-trade at Mogador and Senegal!
In the plain of Timbuctoo, the mimosa is
found in scattered forests. Our people pretend,
however, that the tholukh does not occur in Soudan,
its place being filled up by various thorny trees,
much resembling the mimosa. We have around
us some other stunted shrubs. All trees are
dwarfish in these plateaux.

Various distinguished characters are amongst the
servants and slaves of En-Noor. One fellow is
called the “King of the Donkeys,” another wench is
styled the “Queen of the Goats;” Zumzug is properly
named Proban berau, “a great thief,” from his
thievish propensities. Then there is the “Lad of
the Arrows,” the fellow who is always boasting of
[150]
how many people he has killed with arrows, &c. &c.;
but Zumzug requires especial notice from me, on
account of his having run off to Aghadez with a
caftan of mine; and also from the curious circumstance
that En-Noor keeps such a thief amongst
his slaves, so confounding the honest with the
thievish servants.

January 1, 1851.—A strong, bleak, north-east
wind ushers in the New Year. It began yesterday,
and is likely to continue for some time. Most
comfortless and disagreeable weather is this for the
caravan. The people do not like to move, and
show a decided tendency to hibernation. Some
camels are also lost—escaped from the numbed
fingers of their drivers. I, too, feel it cold; and
yet there is so much of home in this weather—this
keen, bracing air—that I cannot complain.

Our people caught the camels at length, and
we proceeded still southwards. After three hours’
travelling we appeared to have passed the most
barren portion of the plateau, and came upon a new
species of tree, called in Haussa, tadana. We have
this day had a splendid sight of ostriches—eleven
feeding in a troop near us, quietly like so many
sheep—eccentric birds of their species, showing no
tendency to scud away. Perhaps I shall never
see so many again together. They were all black,
with maybe a white feather or two underneath the
sombre plumage.

The small tholukh-trees are full of birds’ nests.
[151]
In the Northern Sahara a bird’s nest was not to be
seen, but here the trees are all covered with them.
Amongst the various smaller ones, we came upon a
huge vulture’s nest on a very small tholukh, which
seemed to bend and look unhappy beneath the
weight of this den of rapacity and violence. There
are hereabouts no rocks for the eagles to build
upon. We halted amidst abundance of herbage and
small trees, which afforded a little shelter from the
wind.

It is, perhaps, as well that we begin the year
with this most bleak and unlovely day. We may
have a better one to terminate 1851. I was obliged
to increase my travelling clothes, and put on an
extra holi on account of the cold wind; and yet
the temperature was not very low, it being only 46°
at sunrise. The wind evidently comes over an
immense extent of plain towards the east, perhaps
some forty or fifty days’ journey. We made six
hours and a-half.

2d.—We started early, and moved at first to the
beat of the drum. Already yesterday we had seen
symptoms that the desert was drawing to a close.
To-day we fairly got out of it, and entered upon a
wilderness of small trees. The vegetation has not,
however, yet improved in proportion to our nearness
to Soudan; for this dwarf forest of tholukh and
various other trees cannot be compared to the
splendid desert vegetation in the Aheer valleys;
these are pigmy mimosas in comparison with those[152]
of Aheer. The surface of the ground is now undulating
sand and red earth, and every trace of stone
has almost disappeared; the soil is also covered
with karengia and other herbs, all dry and sapless.
We seem to be traversing a limitless stubble-field,
covered over or sprinkled with small trees. Few
animals enliven the scene; a crow here and there
struts or flies. All the small birds seem to have
sought covert from the cold. The same north-east
wind as yesterday blows with remorseless strength.

I observed great numbers of ant-hills, and very
large ones, too. Some of the paths from these hills
are straighter than the roads made by man over the
Sahara. So, also, the birds in Aheer, and on this
route, build better houses for themselves than men
do. We halted amidst karengia, and had great difficulty
in finding a place clear of them. En-Noor
suffers dreadfully from the cold, and we help to
keep him alive by our coffee, which he drinks
shivering, and then admits to have given him renovated
heat and strength. This coffee keeps the old
fellow in a good humour, and he is extremely civil
to us.

3d.—We started early, and made four hours
and a-half, when we stopped at the village Inasamet,
or Unwessemet. The weather is still the
same, and the route continues to wind through a
scattered wilderness of small trees, amongst which
Overweg thought he had discovered a species of
wild orange.

[153]

We now see signs of approaching habitations,
such as flocks of sheep straying, and droves of oxen
feeding begin to appear. There seems to be a
great number of birds of prey hereabouts. I counted
at least thirty vultures, who watched the passing
of the caravan, in hopes to see a camel fall and
be abandoned.

We encamped a stone’s throw beyond the houses.
The well is called by the same name as the village.
The inhabitants are Tuaricks, and some of them of
a very pure race, almost white; whilst others, again,
are dark: they are called Tagama. The women
and children all came out to sell their cheeses, and a
few other things. I purchased two small fowls and
a good number of cheeses, which seem to be the
principal articles of produce: they are made quite
square, three or four inches a side, and a quarter of
an inch thick. I purchased these with imitation
silver rings, of which the people are immensely
fond, preferring them to the imitation gold ring.
I got two cheeses for a ring—a plain hoop: the
fowls cost each three of these toys. The women
and girls bothered me much with their curiosity and
their bartering. Some of them are as stout as the
Mooresses of the coast, and nearly all are well-looking;
many with very good features, and fair
for this country. All are polite enough, men,
women, and children. We are glad to find the
people more civil, the nearer we approach to Soudan.
[154]
We pray and hope this amendment may
continue; for hitherto, since we left Mourzuk, we
have always had the people, with the exception of
those of Tintalous, more or less hostile towards us.
Some of our customers came to ask if the rings were
really silver, for the blacksmith of the village had
said they were only pewter. We replied, they were
de-de silver; that is, looked like it, or equal to it.
They are, indeed, a most excellent imitation of silver,
and answer quite as well the purpose of adorning
these Targhee beauties.

I saw to-day, on a single bough of tholukh,
and a very small bough, three birds’ nests suspended
in a festoon. I tasted the wild water-melons
of this part of the Sahara, and found
them bitterness itself. But I am told by our
Gatronee, that the Tibboos have a method of extracting
the bitterness from this wild fruit. The people
brought me en route some fruit, called in Bornou
kusulu, and mageria in Haussa; that is, the nebek or
fruit of the sider or lote-tree. They were dry, but
sweet and nice, and of a pleasant, acid sweet. Provisions
thus are becoming more plentiful and varied.
Dr. Barth has bought some meat of el-wagi, the name
given by Yusuf for the bugar wahoush, or wild ox
of the Arabs.

The greater part of the trees in this region are
of the species called in Haussa, tadani, and in Bornouese,
kabi. Were these trees adorned with[155]
leaves—they are now fallen off, in consequence of
the cold—the country about would seem covered
with a dense forest.

Our arrival amongst the Tagama is a new era
in our journeying, it being some time since we saw
any men besides Kailouees. Overweg thinks the
men thieves and bad, and the women lascivious;
but I observed in their conduct nothing different
from other Tuaricks. A man, however, offered
several women to Barth. I have never yet had
such offers. Amongst the things brought for sale
are young ostriches and the eggs of ostriches. I ate
in the evening some flesh of the giraffe; it is pretty
well tasted, and something like beef. Hunting the
giraffe is a great occupation with the people of this
village, and the flesh of the animal a source of subsistence
for them. They have, however, besides,
cattle and flocks; and the karengia, which has proved
such an annoyance to us, is the principal farinaceous
food of these Tagama, as the bou rekaba is the principal
food of poor families in Aheer. Inasamet
has, perhaps, a hundred huts, covered with the skins
of the bullock, and probably of the giraffe. The
latter animal is hunted by men mounted on horseback,
who throw their spears at it, and wound it
under the belly. This is said to be the only way of
killing it, for the rest of its body is covered with a
sort of rhinoceros hide, of great thickness. Of this
hide they make famous sandals, which wear long.

It is difficult to decide how far this immense[156]
plain—which extends as far as Aghadez on the
N.W., to Gouber on the S.W., perhaps as far as
the plain of Senezrouft, on the route of Timbuctoo—passing,
besides, eastwards across the route of
Bornou,—how far this vast space of desert is a plateau
to the surrounding countries; that is, whether
higher or lower than their level. We do not think
it is a plateau in reference to Aheer. There is
another route to Damerghou, westward of this, on
which is situate the forest of Kob-kob, the place
mentioned in the itinerary which I procured from
the people of Ghadamez.

4th.—The morning was cold, with wind. The
Tagama, I observe, have many horses. Like
their more civilised brethren in Europe, these
people find this the most tractable and convenient
animal in every case where the desert does not
interfere.

We came south seven hours and a-quarter;
after four, the wavy country broke up into a deep
valley; in another hour, on the right, was seen a
pool of rain-water—a small lake, stretching nearly a
mile long. The country, as yesterday, was undulating,
and covered with a dwarf forest; but the
trees were thicker, and the ground was covered
with dried herbage, mostly karengia. It is our constant
occupation, morning and evenings, for half an
hour, to pick the burs out of our clothes. The
animals seen were mostly small birds; some flights
of blackbirds, two-thirds the size of the English[157]
blackbird; and crows and doves in numbers. Near
the water I picked up the feathers of the guinea-fowl,
and the piece of a shell of a large turtle. Burrows
of the hyæna and the ant-eater dotted the
ground. En-Noor told me that lions also abound
in the thickets. The lions conceal themselves in the
trees, and the hyænas burrow under ground.

Our people are now on the threshold of Damerghou,
and do not know yet what route they will
take from this country to Kanou; whether by
Tesaoua or Zinder. Even En-Noor seems quite
undecided what he shall do.

5th.—We came well on to-day, eight hours and
twenty minutes. After four or five hours we passed
on the roadside a dozen huts, with skin-roofs or
coverings. The people are some light, some dark;
variegated, like most of the Tuaricks. The children
of eight or nine years go quite naked. After two
hours more we came upon the large village of Gumrum,
or Gumrek. I saw many people, light and
dark; the women are fat and bold, free in their
conversation; and the men evidently fanatical. The
latter shouted that we ought not to pass, because we
were infidels. One fellow was very savage, and
cursed me; he was an old grey-headed gentleman,
and seemed quite excited. These people are also of
the tribe of the Tagama. Amankee came up to me,
whispering, “These are like the Kalfadaï, they
would rob you as they did, only they are all in the
hands of the Sofo (En-Noor).”

[158]

The inhabitants of Gumrek have much cattle.
We ourselves saw some five or six hundred head,
and they must have more than double this number,
besides flocks and horses. The men mostly ride
horses, but their breed is miserably small and ill-looking.
People in poor circumstances mount bullocks,
as do all the women.

To the west, lately, there came off a great razzia.
All this country around, for some hundred miles, is
the noted theatre of such expeditions, which are
mostly undertaken against the salt and other caravans,
where there is considerable booty expected.
The smaller caravans escape. When the Kilgris
and Kailouees are in open hostility, they generally
make this the theatre of their battles; the former
carrying off the salt of the latter. This hostility is,
like that of most of the wild tribes, of ancient date.
The Kilgris have been driven from all this part of
Asben by the Kailouees. The houses we passed in
ruins are said to have been once occupied by the
Kilgris. If so, they evidently were in former times
powerful and opulent, and have since become relaxed
and pusillanimous. At any rate, they have been
expelled by the fiercer and more ferocious Kailouees.
The Oulimad also come here to plunder occasionally.
At Gurarek we saw a phenomenon which, after so
much desert, gladdened indeed our eyes. This was
a fine sheet of water, of great extent, covered with a
forest of luxurious trees. It was a genuine Soudan
picture, and we gazed at it with delight. I nevertheless
[159]
thought of the pestilential exhalations of the
stagnant pools further on in Soudan. The ground
holds the water tightly, for wells are sunk near
it of some depth before water is reached. This
pool, or lake, dries up during the heat of summer,
as is proved by the existence of wells sunk in their
beds.

The country to-day was extremely pleasant, like
some parts of the undulating county of Essex, after
the harvest is gathered. I scarcely expected to find
such reminiscences in Africa, on the frontiers of
Pamerghou. If the vegetation were all in leaf,
the scenery would be quite cheerful and happy-looking.
The trees to-day thickened into forests
down some slopes—but there is nothing tropical in
all this verdure; one or two plants, at most, are
all that could be considered as such. Many
gazelles glanced on either hand as we proceeded:
the guinea-hen was in great numbers, thirty
or forty together, old ones and chickens. They
run very quickly through the forests, and cannot
be taken in the day. At night, however, some are
snared. They feed on the karengia, and get immensely
plump. Their flesh is greatly esteemed.
Doves showed themselves in flights; and many
beautiful small birds, some strangers to my eyes.
One especially, a little black-and-white fellow, with
an immense bushy tail. Vultures, in company with
a variegated crow, were feeding on a dead camel.
This curious crow has a white neck and breast.[160]
What a truly Saharan group is that which I have
just noticed. The vulture feeding on a camel fallen
in the desert, towards the end of an arduous
journey!

We met a party of huntsmen, with three bullocks
to carry their ghaseb. They had six dogs,
and told us they were off after the giraffe. A few
lizards now and then glanced over the path, and
at every thirty or forty yards rose a busy ant-hill.

En-Noor and I converged to-day from the backs
of our respective camels. He asked me particularly
if I liked stout women, and whether stout women
were found in England. I replied, gravely, that
this species occurred in all Christian countries; a
piece of zoological information which seemed highly
to gratify him. His highness still pretends he does
not know where he is going—that is, whether to
Zinder or Tesaoua.

We encamped near a shallow wady, the first
we have seen in this part of the country; i.e. a
well-defined dry bed of a river.

[161]

CHAPTER X.

Jan. 6th.—We came seven hours. The weather
is always thick, as for many days past; but the wind
not so strong, nor the air so cold. We had even
some drops of rain; and, probably, the rain here is
not so constant, in its fall in summer-time, as is generally
supposed. I took out my last barracan, as
some precaution against the threatening clouds.
This barracan excited everybody’s attention; every
one admired it, and asked for it. I was plagued to
death by the people, and I vowed I would not take
it out again be the weather what it might. The[162]
same demand had been repeatedly made for my
poor carpet; so, on the following day, I took it off
from the camel.

An hour before we pitched tent; we passed a
town on the top of a hill composed of huts, some
covered with skins, and some made of straw. Our
encampment is in a wady, near a cluster of hovels.
The people came running to welcome us, by
offering ghaseb for sale. Two volunteered to
assist us in clearing a clean place for our tents.
This being the first act of spontaneous assistance
which we had witnessed from Tripoli to Damerghou,
I gave them each a ring. We are now fairly
in Damerghou; and to-day we saw the first specimens
of the culture in this part of Africa. The
ground is cleared by burning, as on the coast;
which burning serves partly to supply the place of
manure. The people, apparently slaves, were burning
and raking up the ashes and stubble, with rakes
made of fallen branches of trees. We passed
through wide tracts of ghaseb stubble. Some of
the stalks were seven or eight feet high, but the
ears were not larger than those seen at Ghadamez—about
eight or nine inches.

Amongst the plants observed yesterday was the
cactus, with a smooth leaf. Water-melons were
also found in the road, mostly quite good and sweet,
but some white ones perfectly tasteless. None,
even those cultivated, are equal to the melons of
the coast; there are no mealy ones here.

[163]

We were met by a party of Tuaricks, who came
to salute En-Noor, mounted on horseback. As we
had had some very rough customers amongst the
Tagama, I took little notice of them, and continued
eating my bread and cheese. At this the
people of the caravan laughed. They thought we
ought always to receive these strangers, Tuaricks,
with fear and trembling. I deemed the contrary
plan more politic. However, had I known they
were official persons, and one son of a sheikh of a
town, I should have given them a more civil
welcome.

7th.—We came eight hours and a-half south,
over an undulating country, intersected with small
wadys, and through ghaseb stubble. All was wavy
ground, and bare of trees. There is, however, a
small hill, at a distance of some ten miles from our
encampment, called Boban Birni, “Great City,” of
conical form. Numerous villages were scattered
along the whole line of route, a few of some size.
The form of the huts is like that of beehives.
Around them are small magazines of ghaseb, supported
on wooden stakes, very like corn-stacks. The
inhabitants of these Damerghou villages are blacks,
with features like the Bornouese. In fact, they speak
the Bornou languages, and are said to have been
the product of past razzias in that country by the
Tuaricks.

Damerghou is the granary of Asben, and seems
to be entirely in possession of the Asbenouees,[164]
nearly all these villages being peopled by the slaves
of the Tuaricks. Some villages, indeed, contain
nothing but slaves.

Few animals were noticed to-day, but we saw
four gazelles feeding together, and some hares.
Not many birds appeared, on account of the fewness
of the trees. Only a small portion of the ground is
cultivated, but the camels and cattle are taken to be
fed in the waste lands.

We encamped at the village of En-Noor, called
Tagelel. The capital of Damerghou is on the west
(N.W.) from this, and is called Olleloa. The place
is governed by Tuaricks.

People say there are two or three hundred
towns and villages in the country. Damerghou is
not considered as part of Soudan, because it is possessed
by the Tuaricks; but the country and climate
are undoubtedly the same as all the neighbouring
Soudanee territories. The weather was very warm
and oppressive to-day. I fancied I suffered from
the change of climate. I felt not quite well, and was
much annoyed by the disobedience of the servants.
Mohammed Tunisee has spoiled them all, and
even Yusuf has done his share of mischief.

8th.—The weather was warm again this morning.
I had a visit from the female slaves of the
village of En-Noor, introduced by the wife of his
highness. I gave them rings and sugar, and sent
them off in a good humour. The country around
looks exceedingly bare, almost free from trees.[165]
There is a little herbage for the camels. Ghaseb
stubble, however, spreads all over, which looks well
for the industry of the poor slaves. The karengia
has disappeared.

The news of the day goes that En-Noor will
take me himself to Zinder. He probably wants to
make acquaintance with the new governor of that
place, as well as to see us safe there. The Tuaricks
paid me a visit. I gave them a bit of sugar, showed
them a gun, and got rid of them. A present of
leban from a daughter of En-Noor induced me to
give her a ring.

Amankee says the population of this country is
very various, but the Tuaricks of Asben are the
masters. The villagers are not all slaves; there are
many free people amongst them,—also Buza in
numbers; Tuaricks who, having settled in Soudan,
have forgotten their own language, speaking only
Haussa. Many visitors trouble us, but we hope for
a diminution to-morrow. The people of Damerghou
are reported as enormous thieves, but we have
seen as yet but little of their propensities this way,
having, happily, lost nothing.

I made a visit to the village, and was well
received by the principal slave of En-Noor, who
presented me with ghaseb-bread, cheese, and furd,
or ghaseb-water. The ladies were singularly complaisant,
and one offered me her friend; another
was offered by a man. I believe these offers[166]
made in the way of compliments. In the East, it
would not be prudent to take him at his word
who should say, “Everything I have is yours.”
The huts of the village are very clean, and are
inhabited entirely by slaves of En-Noor. These
villages of Damerghou, at a distance, have the
appearance of Chinese villages, such as I have
seen drawn, with eaves cocked up like the rim of a
French hat. The evening was given up to festivities,
the slaves of the caravan uniting with those
of the Tagelel. A regular procession brought the
supper from the village to the people of the caravan,
and then the music and dancing began. We
had no supper sent. His highness is amazingly
shabby in this respect. He fancies, perhaps, he
could send us nothing better than what we have
ourselves got, but he might try the compliment.
We are, however, obliged to him for preventing
others from levying contributions upon us in this
new region. The Tuaricks here—all the strangers—are
very civil; on account, I believe, of our
being with the old man. He is of great negative
utility.

Overweg went to a lagoon, with little green isles
in the midst of it, and shot some ducks. Ducks!
This convinces us that we are now in the country of
water. A wader was shot, and a fine plump bird
something like a partridge, which Mohammed
Tunisee calls poule de Carthage, but it is much
[167]
smaller than those that I have eaten in Tunis.
Many aquatic birds were flying or floating about
the lake.

The dancing in the evening was after this
fashion. Two men beat drums, standing on one
side of a circle marked. The dancers advanced
towards them with shy and coyish gesture, and then
swung round and round to the opposite side of the
circle in a sort of time kept by the beating of the
drum. They threw up their legs, but not in an indecent
manner. It was a kind of simple waltzing.
The men were not more violent in action than the
women. Each sex danced separately, the women
beginning first and then retiring. During the performance
a song was kept up, a continually recurring
rhyme. When it became dark the male
and female slaves made love, and coquetted together.
We, too, had our music; a strolling minstrel came
to our tent by appointment to play on his guitar.
He sang all our praises in very nice Haussa words,
and indulged in the most extraordinary flattery I
ever heard. I was Sultan, and had the riches of
the world at my command. Over was the great
doctor, and what he could not cure, God himself
could not cure. Bar was the wise man, knowing
all languages and all things. We tried not to be
pleased, but in vain. Flattery is sweet, especially
when enveloped in song.

The weather was hot to-day, and sultry. I
made many little presents, some to a fighi of[168]
Bornou, a Shoua Arab, who repeated the fatah to
us. It is reported that a great deal of the salt goes
with En-Noor to Zinder, from which we are separated
by two days’ journey, one of villages and
another of forest.

9th.—The morning opened with wind, as usual,
from the N.E. The weather was cooler than yesterday.
I visited a group of cottages, or rather
huts, and received a present of a korna for holding
water. The thatch of these primitive habitations
was of bou rekaba stalks. The korna is allowed
to twine itself over the roofs, as the woodbine over
our cottages, and looks very pretty. This group of
cottages was inhabited by a single family,—alas! all
slaves.

According to Overweg, the reason En-Noor beat
his wife in the terrible manner mentioned in this
journal was, because she was accustomed to glide out
of her chamber at night to witness the dances—the
beastly dances of the north coast. I certainly was
surprised to hear that she was present at these filthy
exhibitions. “Have I not bought you?” his highness
remonstrated with her. “Are you not my slave?”
“No.” she replied; “I am your wife, not your slave.”
So the lady continued, till she aggravated his highness
into a great fury. Many Europeans, it must
be confessed, would beat their wives for a less cause.

It is now said, his highness goes first to Tesaoua.
We start all to-morrow, at any rate. The bells which
cover the horses are without clappers, but being[169]
close together they make a great jingling noise by
dashing one against another. Suppers were brought
this evening, but the singing and dancing were not
continued. We had, however, at sunset, a visit from
a Hazna dancer,—a perfect specimen of African
buffoonery and jingling. He danced and sung with
the wildest barbarity. He had two followers, to pick
up the offerings of the people. They beat two
pieces of stick together to the motion of his legs,
hung with bells. The upper part of his body was
naked, whilst the lower part was covered with a red
and yellow apron. This man is said to drink beer,
and is a professed pagan.

I went to the wells, which are bored through the
hard red clay, in the shape of small circular holes,
of about fifty feet in depth. There is very little
water at this season, but it is sufficient for the wants
of the village when the salt-caravan is not here.

The inhabitants of Damerghou consist of Kailouee
Tuaricks—Bornouese runaways and slaves—Haussa
people, free and slaves—Bousa, or the descendants
of Tuaricks by slaves, and a few Fullanee.
This is also the refuge of dethroned sultans, as well
as runaway slaves. There is now here the Kailouee
prince called Maaurgi, who exercised authority some
years since in Aheer. Damerghou, indeed, appears
to be common ground, where every one who pleases,
and is strong enough, comes to establish himself.
Many runaways, freemen from Bornou, who had
committed some misdemeanour, being found in this[170]
country weak and unable to protect themselves, were
reduced to slavery by a Tuarick prince. The slaves
here answer to the serfs of Russia, with the exception
that they may be taken away and sold in other
countries.

10th.—The morning was cool because of the
wind. They held a souk, or market, to-day near us.
Provisions were very cheap. I was greatly amused
to see the small quantities of sunbal which Mahadee
had laid out for two zekkas of ghaseb. For myself I
was much plagued by the women, who all admire
my beard; not, certainly, my red nose, which is
terribly scorched and peeled by the sun.

Overweg visited the dethroned Sultan of Asoudee,
who is living here in state, in the midst of his
slaves. He holds a sort of court, and, contrary to
the free customs of the Tuaricks, he permits slaves
who approach him to prostrate themselves and throw
dust on their heads. He is the uncle of the present
Sultan of Asoudee, and is called Masouarji. In his
fallen condition he gave Overweg a hospitable reception,
and a present of dates, which was duly
acknowledged.

Yusuf, refusing to do some translation which I
requested him, now forfeits all claims to my service.
I told him, to-day, to go off to Kanou. Afterwards
I arranged with him to go with me to Zinder, where,
before the governor, I hope to get clear of him; for
he is now of little use, and costs me more than all
my servants together.

[171]

Mohammed Tunisee has done him great harm;
but, nevertheless, this chap continues to improve
since the arrangement made, by which he becomes
only the servant of Barth. The Germans, however,
are still afraid of him. Yusuf is trying the same
system with me, but will probably find that it will
end in no good affair for himself. Mohammed Tunisee
and Yusuf seem hitherto to have combined to spoil
all our people. The liberated slaves from Tunis,
brought up by me, have turned out the best and
most faithful servants. I am much pleased with
this.

All the people of Damerghou are afflicted with
ophthalmia, which is said to arise from the winds
that prevail constantly over this open and unsheltered
country. Some of the people pretend it is caused by
drinking ghaseb-water, which appears absurd enough.
The Moorish and other merchants attribute the
greater part of their diseases to drinking water,—especially
the fevers. How much truth there is in
this assertion is not easy to be determined.

11th.—It has been agreed that I and my colleagues
should here part for a time, Dr. Barth going
to Kanou, and Dr. Overweg to Tesaoua and Maradee,
whilst I proceed with En-Noor direct to Zinder.
Dr. Barth promises to be in Kuka in two months;
and Dr. Overweg says he will immediately correspond,
that is from Tesaoua to Zinder. The latter
has the more difficult journey before him; but even
Dr. Barth’s visit to Kanou may turn out a more[172]
serious business than perhaps he anticipates. We
took leave one of the other with some emotion; for
in Central Africa, those travellers who part and take
divergent routes can scarcely count on all meeting
together again.

I also here parted with Amankee, my Haussa
servant. He had behaved indifferently lately, but
nevertheless, as he rendered us some service in the
acquirement of the Haussa languages, and in other
matters, I made him a present of four dollars for one
extra time he had remained with us. He had
been paid his wages at Mourzuk to go with us to
Zinder, but then we expected to be only three months
en route. In a moment, just as we were starting, he
changed his mind, and would go to his home at
once. This is his character,—levity and instability,—otherwise
he is a good fellow enough. He is one
of those Tuaricks who have settled in Haussa and
forgotten their native tongue. I have been often
obliged to use harsh language to him, to curb his
levity. In parting with the servants of the Germans,
I promised them each a present of six dollars if I
heard a good report of them on their arrival at
Kuka. This present is held out as an inducement
because it is impossible to tell what may happen, as
the Germans will nearly always be without any
special escort. En-Noor, however, sends one of his
slaves with Overweg to Maradee, and Barth goes
with the salt-caravan to Kanou.

I was much disappointed that we made but one[173]
hour this morning (south). To pass the time, I
determined to visit some of the villages with which
Damerghou is overscattered. I went first to a place
called Fumta Bou Beker, twenty-five minutes from
our encampment. Here I found the Sheikh, who
had just returned from Kanou,—a considerable merchant.
He received me with great hospitality, and
gave me ghaseb-water, and some little pieces of
meat, roasted, besides milk. I was accompanied by
my stupid mahadee, who is, nevertheless, not a bad
market-man. He purchased a large calabash of
milk, and a peck of beans, for some small pieces of
jaui, or benzoin. I then administered caustic to all
the eyes of the village—at least sixty persons—including
men, women, and children, with the Sheikh.
Bad eyes were the only pressing complaints of the
place.

The villagers all spoke Bornouese. I believe
this is the general language of Damerghou. There
were only two or three Tuaricks present. Most of
the people were free. The Sheikh, of course, had
several slaves; amongst them a Yakobah slave, with
straight lines cicatrised in curious patterns all over
his body. The poor fellow seemed remarkably
stupid, and I believe that many of these poor fellows
brought from the more distant countries of Soudan
become half idiots from continually regretting their
beloved country. Alas! what can be done for
Africa, when the greater part of its social system is
constructed on slavery?

[174]

Curious applications are made for medicines to
cure various afflictions, moral and physical, amongst
these people. A woman, to-day, begged for a medicine
to prevent her children from dying. She had
had many children, and all had died. Another woman
applies for a medicine to prevent her husband from
liking her rival, and to make him place his affection
on her. A man demands medicine for good luck,
and says he is always unfortunate.—Good people, I
am not the physician to be called in in these cases.

It is night, and En-Noor has not made his appearance.
I am travelling with his wife and the
other women; besides, there are a number of male
slaves and some thirty camels of salt. Probably his
highness will go another way to Zinder.

I believe that Fumta Bou Beker is quite an independent
village, and that all the great towns and
villages here have an independent jurisdiction of
their own. According to a slave of En-Noor, there
are two sultans.

12th.—The morning was cool and windy. We
started pretty early, and moved one hour through
huts scattered amidst the ghaseb stubble. Then
came three hours of undulating ground, uncultivated.
Afterwards we fell in with huts again; and in two
hours more reached the conical-shaped mount called
Boban Birni. It consists of a sort of coarse sandstone
and is in part overgrown with herbage.
From the encampment to Mount Boban Birni was
a distance of six hours S.W. It can be seen from[175]
afar off, though in reality not very lofty. We passed
the mount for two hours through a forest of dwarf
trees; the country still billowy, as it were. We
advanced in all about eight hours, braced by a pleasant
north-east wind. As we advanced we saw
ostriches quietly feeding at no great distance, not
heeding our caravan as it murmured by. Partridges
rose as we advanced; together with guinea-hens,
blackbirds, crows, black and white, and several
long-tailed flutterers.

13th.—The morning was overcast, with cold
wind. We started early, and made a long day of
nine hours and a-half, and did not encamp until an
hour after dark. Our course, as we ascended from
Mount Boban Birni, was S. 3° E. The country
still undulated through the same forest, which in
many places was quite dense, whilst in others the
trees were scattered.

When we reached the camping-ground a pleasant
announcement was made. We were at length
upon Bornou soil! I could hardly believe my ears.
Oh, marvel, after all our dangers and misgivings!
Thanks to Almighty God for deliverance from the
hands of lawless tribes! I shall never forget the
sensation with which I learned that I was at length
really in Bornou, and that the robber Tuarick was
in very truth definitively left behind.

Our encampment was near a little village of
twenty huts, called Daazzenai, placed under a rock
of red stone. The country of Damerghou, in this[176]
direction, is separated from Bornou by about eleven
hours of forest, or some thirty miles English—a
sufficient distance to divide two countries, especially
in Africa. The trees were larger to-day, and some
of considerable altitude. Many pretty yellow blossoms,
glowed on a species of shrub not unlike the
laburnum.

I observed scattered in the forest small mounds
of mud, wasting away to the level of the ground;
there were many of them; the birds perch thereon.

We have seen a few nice families amongst the
Tuaricks and their slaves, but these are mostly
foreigners. There is the family of the Tripoline
slave; her husband is a pleasant, quiet man, and one
of En-Noor’s household; she has a daughter and one
cade-lamb. Then there is the Bornou fighi and his
wife. These people are so affable, that they always
have visitors near their little tent. They have also
a cade-lamb. Their tent is a curiosity. It is just
large enough for one of them to creep in—not for
two. I suppose the fighi enters at night, and leaves
his wife to sleep at the door.

A detachment of the salt-caravan passed us to-day
for Zinder. The whole force of the salt-caravan
this year could not be more than fifteen hundred.
Two divisions were with us of Kailouees,
one in advance, each of five hundred, and the Kilgris’
division of five hundred. So much for the
boasted ten thousand camels which were gone this
year to bring salt! From En-Noor one could not[177]
possibly get correct statistics, for, being a thorough
Kailouee and a Tuarick, he magnifies everything
connected with his people before strangers, and
particularly to us. It was very amusing to see all
the little children warming themselves in the evening
at the fire, or feeding the flames with brushwood,
which they easily collected.

[178]

CHAPTER XI.

Jan. 14th.—We started early, in hopes to reach
Zinder in the course of the morning. Our course of
five hours was S. 10° E. from the encampment. The
route from En-Noor’s palace in Damerghou is two
good days and a-half. After two hours and a-half
we came to huts in a valley, and a village of thirty
or forty houses, called Boban Tabki. In three
quarters of an hour there were villages again. I
was pleased to see the corn-stacks or field-granaries
standing in the open country, apart from all houses
or habitations, illustrating the security of property in
Zinder and its neighbouring districts. The country
all around is pleasant, nicely undulating with ridges
[179]
of green hills—the horizon bounded on every side
with rounded green hills.

We sighted Zinder after four hours’ march; and
entered the town within another hour. I was somewhat
impatient to get rid of the Tuaricks, and
place myself in the hands of the Bornou authorities;
so I rode off myself to the town, leaving the
suburbs, where the family of En-Noor have their
residence, deaf to all their cries to stop. I found a
friendly Kailouee, who conducted me straight to the
house of the governor. His servants took me to
the Shereef, and the Shereef sent me to Saïd, my
servant, where I found a house and everything prepared
for my reception; and here, also, I found a
slave sent from Bornou by the Sheikh, to conduct
me to Kuka: so all things wore a happy aspect
after so many miseries and uncertainties.

I was delighted with the appearance of Zinder,
its picturesque situation, and its unexpected size.
It is much larger than I was led to expect. As
soon as I was domiciled I received visits from
several merchants of Mourzuk, besides the authorities
of the town. All the sons of the Sultan of the
place came to salute me; I gave them each a little
sugar, and off they went highly pleased. Provisions
now poured in at such a rate, that after the starvation
of the desert I became nauseated at their
sight. These were sent by the Sultan and the
Shereef.

Thankful satisfaction for my deliverance from[180]
the wild tribes, the most hostile to Christians of all
this part of Africa, and fond anticipations of what I
may do in Bornou; the good news I already heard,
and the anxiety of the Sheikh for our safety, with
my comparatively robust health;—thoughts of all
these things prevented me from sleeping during
the night.

I learnt from Saïd, servant of Haj Beshir, that
letters had arrived from Mourzuk for us in Kuka,
and one was addressed to the Sheikh, which had
determined him to bring us all at once to Kuka,
and prevent us going first to Soudan. Upon this
advice, the Sultan of this place had sent four persons
to Tesaoua, to bring my colleagues from
that place. But whether they will come on the
demand of these persons is very questionable. I
learned that the Sfaxee, as I expected, was laid up
with fever in Kanou, for he is emphatically a man
of fever; and, besides, he has no control over himself,
but gorges himself with food when an opportunity
presents itself; and this, after the privations
of the desert, is sure to bring on disease. Yusuf
Moknee came to me this evening, to know what was
to be done on the next morning. He finds it necessary
to alter his conduct, as he sees now that I
could do without him. I determined to go on with
him for the present. I do not wish to leave him
here with En-Noor, for he may do us harm with
that subtle Kailouee prince. I must take him away
from the Tuaricks altogether.

[181]

I found all the Mourzuk people very friendly—everybody
friendly; the world seemed turned upside
down after our treatment from the Tuaricks.
I began to make little presents, for I am determined
our friends shall have a portion of her Majesty’s
goods as well as our enemies; which latter, indeed,
took them away from us by force. I must not forget
to remark, that when I entered Zinder there
was not a single person bold enough to whisper the
name Kafer! so immense is the difference between
this Bornou country and the Tuarick territories.

15th.—I rose early, having slept little. The
weather was cool, the thermometer at sunrise being
at 59°. I began to prepare our presents for the Sultan
and the Shereef. After much debating as to
quantity, it was determined to keep all the best
things for Kuka, and give small presents here. In
this respect I must praise Yusuf and his friends
amongst the Mourzuk people.

I prepared a present for Sarkee Ibrahim, sultan
of Zinder, consisting of a piece of muslin for turban,
a red turban, three heads of sugar, two glass drinking-cups,
painted, a cup and saucer for coffee, a
few rings in imitation of gold, cloves, two handkerchiefs
(cotton), powder and shot, fifty bullets, two
or three small looking-glasses. The present for the
Shereef consisted of a carpet (hearth-rug), used
here for kneeling upon in performing prayers,
three white sugar-loaves, cloves, handkerchief (cotton),
powder and shot, with some other trifles. The[182]
present for Saïd, sent by Haj Beshir from Kuka,
consisted of a cloth caftan (coarse), a cotton handkerchief,
and a piece of cotton stuff to make a pillow.

I am happy to add, that all were content and
satisfied; but we made them understand—indeed,
they knew it before we arrived—that the Tuaricks
had taken away nearly all my property.

I must add the present of the Shereef Saghir
(little Shereef), who acts as interpreter for the Sultan:
a glass painted drinking-cup, a handkerchief
(cotton), a little sugar, jani, senbal, a few cloves,
and two or three rings; with which he was well
satisfied.

Before noon I waited on the Shereef to deliver
my present. I was much struck with this man’s
appearance. He was quite an European—white as
myself. His countenance seemed full of thought
and meaning. He is a native of Fez, and has lived
long in Algiers. He has served in the war against
the French under Abd-el-Kader, and has only
been two years in Bornou and in Kuka, and once in
Zinder. He is here as the nather, “looker-on;” one
who watches over the interests of the country, particularly
in its foreign relations. To speak plainly,
he is a spy of the Sheikh of Bornou over the authorities
of Zinder, including the Governor. All the
people say, “Without the Shereef nothing can be
done in Zinder;” and well they may, considering
that he is in the entire confidence of the Sheikh.
The Shereef is also the agent of all foreigners, and
[183]
our goods were directed to his care from Tintalous—that
is, those things which we sent up before us.
The Sultans of Zinder are always a little disaffected;
and to check them, and watch their conduct, the
Shereef has been sent here. This personage is also
universally respected for his learning, piety, and
almsgiving; so that, apparently, the Sheikh could
not have intrusted his interests to a more able man.
The Shereef knows well the use of arms, for it is
reported here in Zinder that he has killed forty
thousand Frenchmen with his own hands! The
people actually believe this most marvellous report!

After leaving the Shereef we went to salute the
Sultan Ibrahim, and deliver to his highness our
present. We were conducted into a species of
fort, built of clay, with walls exceedingly thick.
Here in a sort of anteroom, or open skifa, or hall,
we found some fifty soldiers of the Sultan, unarmed
and bare-headed, with one or two governors of neighbouring
places, all squatted upon the ground. I
was requested to squat down amongst them, which
I did near a raised mud-bench. There was little
light, the place being built to shut out the glare and
heat of the sun. Here I waited a quarter of an
hour, till the Sultan was announced by the cries of
the soldiers, slaves, and domestic officers. His
highness took his seat upon the mud-bench; and
whilst so doing his attendants all squatted down,
many of them taking up the dust from the ground
and throwing it over their bare heads, and crying,
[184]
“Long live the Sultan! God bless him!” This is
the first occasion on which I have witnessed this
degrading custom, this abject worship of the representative
of power. The scene was perfectly African
and negro.

I was squatted amidst a number of courtiers,
one of whom had a sort of double skull, another
smaller skull raised above the larger one,—a protuberance
which came from an accident in infancy.
This double-skulled man was the chief of the domestics.

The Sultan was in a merry humour, and smilingly
asked after my health. We then read our
letters of recommendation, which pleased him. He
observed that the route viâ Aheer was good. “How
good,” asked Yusuf, “when we are arrived here
naked, and stripped of everything?” At which his
highness burst out, laughing, with all the people.
There was now observed a little bustle behind,
and his highness called out “Silence!” like a
sheriff in a court of law. I begged the interpreter
to tell the Sultan that our present was
small, for we had been stripped by the Tuaricks.
This he whispered in his ear; after which I slipped
a packet of powder and shot into the hands of one
of the principal courtiers, telling him it was for the
Sultan, and he carried it off. I did not place it
with the other presents, because the servant of Haj
Bashaw, sent from Kuka, forbad my giving his
highness any powder and shot, alleging, that this
[185]
Sultan was always disaffected, and the Sheikh
would disapprove of my giving him munitions of
war. But I was determined to give fifty bullets
and two dozen charges of powder, believing that
he could do the Sheikh little harm, whilst it would
make him my personal friend. No person knew
what I gave the Governor.

The powder and shot being delivered, I took
leave of his highness, raising my cap and shaking
hands with him. At this doffing off the cap all the
people were highly gratified, thinking great respect
was thereby shown to their prince.

Ibrahim is a negro, a native of Zinder, a man of
fifty years of age, with a countenance sparkling with
good humour, and I believe I may add, intelligence.
He has been Sultan here some thirty years, so that
he must be a man of character. This day he received
a renewal of his commission from Kuka, a
ceremony that takes place every year; and so he
was in a happy humour. There was also a sort of
feast at the palace, and his highness rode out with a
detachment of cavalry. The persons who brought
our camels from Kuka also brought the renewed
commission, or a man, from the Sheikh. Haj Beshir
has sent us ten camels, to bring the boat and our
baggage, in the event of our camels being stolen,
or having become weak with the journey from
Mourzuk. I have, therefore, only to sell my
camels and turn them into ready money, which I
much need, and then start.

[186]

We afterwards called again on the Shereef, and
had a laugh about the man with two skulls. I told
the Shereef “two heads were perhaps better than
one,” at which they all burst out laughing. The
Shereef was surrounded by foreign merchants, all
chatting in good humour. These Moors were
friendly to me. To-day I dressed in my European
clothes; first, because unless you have very good
clothes, such as worn by the people of the country,
you cut a very bad figure; and secondly, and principally,
to show the Kailouees, and other strangers,
that I was now in a friendly place, and that no one
dare say anything to me in the way of insult. In
fact, as yesterday, there is not even a whisper of the
word Kafer. His highness and all the people admired
my European gear. I told them that now
the Turks dressed in the same manner, or nearly
so; at which they were greatly surprised. I had on
a black surtout, tight trousers, and varnished boots,
gloves, neckerchief, waistcoat; everything European
but the hat, wearing instead of this the fez cap
or shasheeah.

In the evening I paid a visit to the family of
En-Noor, who were greatly astonished at my transfiguration
from a bad Moorish dress into an European
suit. They were much disconcerted at this
change, and my happy humour. Madame En-Noor
rated me for running away from them yesterday.
I told them I wished to get to my friends of
Bornou as quickly as possible. My interpreter also
[187]
informed them that the Sheikh had sent camels,
and enlarged on the anxiety of everybody here
for our safety. They were all displeased at this
news, as a reflection upon them and the conduct
of the Tuaricks. They now beheld quite a change
in everything. I was anxious to mark this change
in our circumstances, that they might reflect how
they treated Europeans again when fallen into their
hands. At the same time I showed a desire not to
hurt their feelings, wishing to be on friendly terms
with them whilst here.

The Kailouees are all excessively quiet now.
All feel the power of the Sheikh, and are almost as
submissive as if they were at Mourzuk. However,
the family of En-Noor still keep begging. But I
believe now I must finish with them. The Sultan
is said by his servants to have gone to Tesaoua. I
am extremely glad I came without him to this
place. Perhaps he also was ashamed to bring me.
From Tesaoua he will be here after some days.
People call him, as in Aheer, An-Nour, and not
En-Noor. The prince of Zinder asked, where is
An-Nour? The people are still at work preparing
this chieftain’s apartments, consisting of a circular
wall of matting, enclosing a number of huts; there
is a mud-house in the middle, but it is now fallen
into ruins.

I made a tour of the town, and was still more
pleased than before with its size. It is said to contain
20,000 inhabitants. There are many divisions,[188]
separated by blocks of granite, and small hills. We
visited the Kaïd of a district. He immediately
brought us ghaseb-water and milk. Really the
world seems turned upside down when the conduct
of the people here is compared with the hospitality
which we received from En-Noor, although he personally
paid us some attentions not vouchsafed by
others. We came through the souk, where were
the sticks of meat roasting, and lots of people. No
one whispered Kafer! The Shereef sent me a horse
to ride on when I go out, and recommends me to
do so.

The scavengers of Zinder are a multitudinous
host of a small species of filthy-looking vultures,
brown and black in colour: they are exceedingly
tame, for the people never touch them, and they
walk about the streets tamer than the fowls. I
believe the same species of vulture are also the
scavengers of Kanou. At Zinder they take their
evening exercise by flying in circles over the city,
a hundred or two together. There are a few white
ones amongst the flock. The Sultan sent for a
piece of camphor this morning. I gave him some,
with a silver French coin and a new English
farthing.

The news is, that I must stay here ten days, to
oblige the slaves who have been sent from Kuka
to carry the baggage. We are also to stay at
Minyo a few days, en route four days from this.

I spent the evening gleaning information of the[189]
interior. There is now no war in any part of
Central Africa, i.e. no great wars. Probably the
princes of Africa, like those of Europe, find that war
will not pay. At any rate, all is peace for the
present. This will facilitate our progress. I had
a visit from the son of the Kadi of Kuka, an intelligent
young man, who has promised to come to-morrow
to write the routes from Zinder to his native
place.

I have obtained a list of the names of the principal
sultans in this part of Africa:

1. Bornou—The Sheikh Omer, the son of the
   sheikh who reigned in the time of the first expedition.
   He has now reigned fourteen years. He
   has a good character.
2. Sakkatou—Sultan of the Fellatahs, Ali. He
   is not so great as his father Bello, celebrated in the
   time of the first expedition.
3. Asben, or Aheer—Abd-el-Kader.
4. Maradee—Binono.
5. Gouber—Aliou (Ali).
6. Niffee—Khaleelou. The name of the capital
   is Gondu. The Sultan is a Fullan, but independent
   of Sakkatou, as are many other Fullan
   princes.
7. Adamaua—Lauel. He is called by the Fullans
   Madubbu-Adamaua, i.e. Sultan or Kakam of
   Adamowa. He is a Fullan, but the people whom
   he governs are all Kohlans, or negroes.[190]
8. Yakobah—Ibrahim. His father was called
   Yakobah, and the country has probably derived its
   recent name of the late sultan; the capital is called
   Baushi. The rulers are Fellatahs.
9. Kanou—Osman Bel-Ibrahim.
10. Kashna—Mohammed-Bello.
11. Zaria—Mahommed Sani.
12. Kataguni—Abd-er-Rahman.
13. Kadaija—Ahmadou.
14. Timbuctoo—Mohammed Lebbu, a Fellatah.
15. Jinnee—
16. Begharmi—Burkmanda.
17. Mandara—
18. Lagun—
19. Zinder—Ibrahim.

The alliances and enmities, the wars and the
intrigues of all these princes, will one day, perhaps,
form materials for some semi-mythological history,
when civilisation has removed its camp to
these intertropical regions. Regular annals, however,
there never can be. No record seems to be
kept, except in the unfaithful memories of the natives;
and even if the contrary were the case, posterity
would willingly consign to oblivion all but
the salient points of this period of barbarism and
slave-hunting.

Daura is a city of great antiquity, but I have
never seen it on the maps. It is two days from
Zinder on the route to Kanou, and has now about[191]
the same number of inhabitants as Zinder, or from
20,000 to 25,000.

Ancient Haussa, according to the Monshee, consisted
of seven cities, viz.

1. Kanou.
2. Kashna. This city is now about three times the size of Zinder.
3. Daura.
4. Zaria.
5. Gouber.
6. Maradee.
7. Zanbara. This city is now about the size of
   Kashna. It lies beyond Gouber, not far from
   Sakkatou.

I went to see the souk. There are two market-days
in Zinder: the great souk on Thursday, and
the little one on Friday, the days following one
another. I rapidly passed through it; it was full
of people and merchandise; all things in abundance;
no one called after me, but I did not like to
stay long to expose myself. The principal provisions
and domestic animals offered for sale are
cattle (oxen), sheep, camels, asses, goats, beef,
mutton, samen, honey, ghaseb, ghafouley, a little
wheat, dried fish (rather stinking, because no salt is
used in drying), kibabs or roasted pieces of meat,
beans, dankali or sweet potatoes; which last are
brought from Kanou, as also is the fish, &c. I purchased
three sweet potatoes for a fifth of a penny.
There was, besides, also a good quantity of merchandise
[192]
of every sort, and slaves in numbers.
Honey also is brought from Kanou to this souk.
In Kanou, twelve pounds and a-half are sold for
four thousand wadâs, or four-fifths of a dollar. In
Zinder, the same quantity sells for about double the
price. They adulterate here and send it to Aheer.

In the evening I went with the Shereef to his
garden. He has brought with him the tastes of the
people of Morocco for gardens, and has introduced
into Zinder tomatas from Kuka. His beds contain
onions, peppers, cucumbers, wheat, lemons,
date-palms, and some other small things. There
is a little wheat also, but merely as an ornament.
The date-palms bear twice a-year, but the dates do
not dry in this country. There is a part of Soudan
where the dates are said to become dry as those of
Fezzan. The lemons are as good as those on the
north coast, but they are found only in Soudan.
But two or three trees have been seen in Bornou.
Onions are in abundance, and it is said that those
people who eat onions do not catch the fevers of
Soudan. The Shereef considers the horses of this
country to have little strength—not to be compared
with those of the north coast. He has sent me one
to ride round the environs. We conversed upon
Algerian affairs. The Shereef said nothing against
the French in general; he only complained of the
non-fulfilment of the treaty of capitulation with
Abd-el-Kader and his fellow-prisoners. I told
him Bou Mâza was liberated, which news surprised[193]
him. He said Bou Mâza was a fool, and had no
followers. All the conversation of the Shereef was
marked with good sense. He had been in Malta,
and resided there two months. His native place
is two days’ journey from Tangiers. He is well
acquainted with Christians. He speaks with a
strong Mogarbi accent. As to this country and
the Tuaricks, he observed the Sheikh was determined
to keep them down, and was not afraid of
them.

The Shereef possesses a fair amount of women—some
twenty, but only one son. I sent this
evening presents of rings to the ladies.

Yusuf paid a visit to the Sultan this morning,
to carry him a present on his part. He entered the
interior of the building, and found it full of dirt,
and bare of every species of furniture. The Sultan
himself had only upon him a Soudan tobe and a
white cap. All the rest of his people were bare-headed,
and were covered with dirty tobes. This
contempt of dress arises from the fact that the
prince was a slave of the ancient Sultans of Bornou.
There are, besides, other sultans en route to Kuka,
of the same stamp; but he of Minyo is said to dress
excessively, changing his costume five times a-day.
We are to remain some days in Minyo, of which I
am glad, because there we shall see the Bornouese
population, in a purer state. Here it is mixed
somewhat with the Kailouees and other tribes.
At any rate, the manners of the people are somewhat
[194]
influenced by the great number of foreigners.
En-Noor and Lousou have both houses in Zinder,
which the people dignify by the name of belad or
“villages,” but which are simply enclosures of a few
huts.

I have been endeavouring to collect materials
for the statistics of Zinder. The following note
exhibits a partial result:—

Various persons give the population of Zinder
at 25,000 or 30,000 souls. Let us take the number
at 20,000.

The military force consists of cavalry and foot—two
thousand cavalry having swords, spears, and
shields; and eight or nine thousand bowmen, having
only bows and arrows. This force is commanded
by one Shroma Dan Magram, who receives the
enormous pay of half the land taxes of some fifty
towns and villages in the circle of the province of
Zinder. The officers of the Sultan of Zinder are
mostly slaves.

The principal personages are Shroma Dan
Magram; the Kady, Tahir; the Bash Kateb, or
Secretary, Dang Gambara; the chief of the Treasury,
Nanomi; of the Custom-house, Fokana. There
are four officers of the Treasury, and four of the
Custom-house; and, moreover, four Viziers, the
principal of whom is Mustapha Gadalina.

The Arabs do not pay any custom duties, but
all the blacks and the Kailouees and Fullans pay as
follows:—

[195]

There is no duty on goods, and, whether the
camels are laden with rich burnouses or salt, it is
all the same thing.

Camels are very cheap in this country, and
the best of all will not fetch more than 40,000
wadâs, or about sixteen Spanish dollars. The
Shereef is to purchase ours, four of them for 120,000
wadâs; they cost about three times the sum in
Mourzuk. Horses are not quite so cheap; the best
will fetch 100,000 wadâs.[14] The exchange here is the
same as in Kanou; 2500 wadâs is the value of the
large dollar, or douro ghaleet, as it is called amongst
the Moorish and Arab merchants.

[196]

CHAPTER XII.

Jan. 17th.—The Sultan this morning sent me an ox.
I made him my personal friend by giving him the
powder and shot, in spite of the servant of Haj
Beshir from Kuka. The Shereef is excessively
generous; whether at his own cost or that of Kuka I
do not know. I suppose the latter, as he had orders
from head-quarters to supply us with everything.
He sends rice, honey, fowls, eggs, milk, tomatas,
and all things in abundance. I repeat, for the
third time, that the world is turned upside down,
so far as the supply of provisions and hospitality is
concerned. It is true that the Tuaricks are desperately
poor, and their generosity must always be
very limited.

[197]

Our maharees of the salt-caravan went very
well, and ate little on the road, so that much time
was saved in this way. The Tuarick camels are
far better travellers than the Arab, which sometimes
are allowed to eat all day long. The females
and the young ones are the most troublesome. I
was much amused to see one of the Kailouee camel-drivers
overcome the obstinacy of a young camel.
The fellow actually bit the loose skin which hung
over the muzzle of the rebel, and in this manner
dragged it to the string, and there tied it to the
rest. All the male camels are gelded, whilst many
breeding maharees carry no weights, but follow
their burdened kind with their foals.

To-day, for the first time, I received cowrie
money, viz. four cases, made of matting, each containing
30,000. This was the price of four of my
camels. The Gharian brute I sold to one of the
servants for 8000. It is quite a labour to count
this money, but I perceive that some persons are
exceedingly expert at it, and count 5000 in a few
minutes. There would appear to be always some
mistakes made; one case was found to have ninety-eight
short. This certainly is not much out of 30,000,
and when a dozen people were counting. The
small and large shells are all alike, and of the same
value. But I shall be able to say more of this
money afterwards. Thirty thousand of these shells
are many pounds in weight, and not very conveniently
carried about.

[198]

I visited some of the principal personages this
afternoon, with the interpreter of the Sultan. This
interpreter is a Shereef, and has been a sailor, in
which capacity he has seen Malta, and many European
countries. He is now married to a daughter
of the Sultan of Zinder, and is established here in
the confidence of his father-in-law. It appears,
then, that even common Moorish sailors make their
way in these black countries.

The first person we visited was one of the viziers,
called Mayaha, a native of Damagram, a place one
day east, from whence the greater part of the
population of Zinder is drawn. This personage
was sufficiently polite. He gave me permission to
see the interior of his house, and his harem. The
harem was full of fine, handsome Haussa slaves,
attending on his four wives; they were all polished,
and apparently clean, lying about on the floors of
the huts, and in the court-yards, in the most
strenuous idleness—one cleaning, polishing, and
decorating another. One was bolder than the rest,
and beckoned me to come to her.

This house of this vizier contained many huts of
bee-hive shape; one or two were built of sun-dried
earth, but all were small. Few carpets, or even
mats, were seen: these people of Zinder are most
dearly fond of squatting on the naked dust.

Afterwards I visited the Grand Vizier, or Mustapha
Gadalina (a title). This personage, a man
of great age, was polite, but did not permit me to
[199]
enter the interior of his house. We then went to
see the Commander-in-chief—a funny fellow. He
was very civil to us, and to all, joking with his
soldiers, amidst whom he was squatting. These
Zinder troops have no arms in their undress, and
only wear a loose tobe, with bare heads. The
General told us he would visit us in the morning.

After a climb to the summit of one of the
granite rocks of Zinder to have a view of the town,
I went to see and hear the drummers hammering
on their kangas. There were three of them, surrounded
by a group of Zinder maidens. One fellow
had two long drums, very narrow, on which he
laboured with all his might. The maidens approached
the musicians by twos, dancing or stepping
forward, and retreating with great apparent
modesty. Whilst I was looking at a couple, one of
them ran up to me, and struck me lightly with her
hand. For this attention I was obliged to give her
a present of gour-nuts, which are equally current
with the cowries on such occasions. The drum is
the national music of the people of Zinder, and they
hammer away at it from morning to night. They
say that in the palace it never ceases all day, beginning
at dawn. Perhaps it may be esteemed useful
in supplying the place of silly conversation.

Very few Tuaricks are to be seen in the streets
of this city. They rarely show themselves, except on
market-days, when they come from their houses in
the suburbs. Little cordiality exists between them
[200]
and the Binder people. They owe one another,
like all neighbouring people, many grudges. I
jocularly told the commander-in-chief to kill all the
Tuaricks. He naïvely replied, “I would, but when
I attack them they all run away!” I am informed
by the Moors here the Tuaricks have a wholesome
dread of the Sheikh, and are on bad terms with the
Fullans. They are, however, for the most part,
friendly with the ancient Kohlans, the people of
Maradee and Gouber. This accounts for the fact
that En-Noor always spoke in the most amiable
way of these remaining kingdoms of Soudan paganism.
The town of Zinder is inhabited chiefly by
the blacks of the Bornouese province of Damagram,
who, though speaking the same language, are not
considered Bornouese. In fact, properly speaking,
it is situated in that province. The Zinder folks are
easily distinguished from the natives of Kuka, and
those more eastern provinces, by a lighter complexion
and the smaller breadth of their nostrils.

Zinder has always enjoyed much liberty as a
province, though it has fallen successively under
the influence of Bornou and Haussa princes. Anciently
it was ruled by the former; then it lapsed
to the Haussa princes and the Fullans, and finally it
was again recovered by Bornou. The present prince,
Ibrahim, has been sultan twenty-five years. Under
his rule a rebellion took place against the Sheikh,
who removed him, made him prisoner, and promoted
his brother to the governorship of the province.[201]
But this new prince also rebelled; upon which
the Sheikh came with a large force a year ago, and
restored the former governor, placing, however,
several persons here as a check on his authority.
I have already mentioned the influence of the
Shereef of Morocco. But no people in the world
detest central government so much as the Africans,
and these rebellions occur yearly and monthly.

The facts which have been mentioned to me
connected with the last rebellion of Zinder, and its
reduction by the Sheikh of Bornou, are interesting,
as illustrative of the present condition of these out-of-the-way
countries. The re-conquest proved to
be no easy matter, and required three months’ siege,
and sixty thousand men, commanded by the Sheikh’s
best officers and the sultans of the neighbouring
provinces. When the revolted people had notice of
the approach of this force, they threw up a wall of
earth round the city in the brief space of three days
only. Even Africans can be energetic when compelled
by necessity. The siege lasted three months,
and many people were killed on either side.

Before hostilities commenced the Sheikh sent
for the brother of the deposed prince, whom he had
placed in power at Zinder; but the answer was
refusal. “If you want money,” said the rebel
chieftain, “here it is; if you want slaves, here
they are;—but I will not come to Kuka.” Ibrahim,
the former and present sultan, had meanwhile gone
to the capital, and covered himself with dust in the
[202]
presence of the Sheikh, and obtained his pardon
and the promise of his restoration to power. His
brother knew this well, and, of course, would not go
to the capital. It is surprising, however, that the
rebellion could hold out so long against so large a
force; the people of Zinder must be framed for war.
The Tuaricks during the struggle stood by and
looked on. The displaced brother is now at Kuka,
having there obtained the pardon of the Sheikh.
He fled to the Tuaricks after the capture of the
town.

There are several pretty shady trees scattered
through the town of Zinder, planted mostly in the
gardens of the grandees. The names of three of
these are, in Bornouese, rimi, jaja, and ilbug.

I have obtained some information on the slave-trade,
which I here give in its crude shape. Slaves
are classed as follows:—

Males.

The best of the slaves now go to Niffee, to be
there shipped for America; they are mostly males,
of the class 2d, 3d, 4th, and are minutely examined
before departure. From all reports, there is
an immense traffic of slaves that way exchanged
against American goods, which are driving out of
the markets all the merchandise of the north.

Prices:—I. Males.

II. Females.

The above are the prices of Kanou; there is
sometimes a difference of 5,000 or 10,000 wadâs.[204]
A remark suggested by this list of prices is, that the
value of human merchandise is determined by its
present adaptation for consumption. No allowance
is made for capability of development, intellectual
or physical. Slave-drivers and slave-holders believe
as little in a future here as hereafter.

I give another account of the prices of slaves at
the principal markets in this part of Africa, and at
Smyrna and Constantinople. A good male slave
is sold, at

• Kanou, for 10 or 12 dollars.
• Zinder, the price varies little.
• Mourzuk, for 40 dollars.
• Tripoli, from 60 to 65 dollars.
• Smyrna, 90 to 100 dollars.
• Constantinople, 90 to 100 dollars.

A good female slave is sold, at

• Kanou, for 32 dollars.
• Zinder, a little more, or the same.
• Mourzuk, 85 dollars.
• Tripoli, 100 dollars.
• Smyrna, 130 dollars.
• Constantinople, 130 dollars.

This is merely to show the difference of prices
at these various places of slave traffic, and so
enable the reader to form some notion of the profits
of the commerce.

I am very sorry to hear of the iniquitous manner
in which slaves are captured for the supply of the
north at this present time. It appears that, now all
[205]
these populations are Muslims, it is difficult to get
up the war-cry of Kafers!—”Infidels!” What is
then done? The sultan of a province foments a
quarrel with a town or village belonging to himself,
and then goes out and carries off all the people into
slavery. Thus acts the present Sultan of Zinder, and
so did his brother during his year of administration.
To appease the Sheikh of Bornou they send him a
portion of the spoil. Indeed, the Sheikh countenances
the system, so detrimental to his interests
as a sovereign, and so immoral in its character.
The brother of the present sultan was accustomed
to go out every month, and bring in razzias of slaves,
particularly to Dura, a country which belongs half
to the Sheikhs of the Fullans. The real Kerdi
people are now very distant, and you must go many
days’ journey if you will catch genuine Kafer slaves.

On Friday, Yusuf paid his respects to the Sultan
at noon, being the Sunday of the Muslims, when
visits are made by true believers to the princes. He
found his highness surrounded by his court, in a
cloud of dust, which the people raised by throwing
it in handfuls upon their heads, and thus doing
homage to their prince. Yusuf and some other Moors
obstinately abstained from such a grovelling mode of
“rendering to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s,”
and contented themselves with saluting his highness
in the Moorish fashion. Yusuf observed, “Our
religion does not teach this servility.” The natives
salute their Sultan by the cry of “God give you[206]
victory!” (i.e. over your enemies.) In Soudanee this
phrase is “Allah shàbáka nasăra;” and in Bornouese,
“Kábunam sherga!“

18th.—I sent letters for Government and my
wife viâ Kuka, as caravans are expected to leave
Bornou for Moursuk about this time. My rooms
were full of visitors to-day. First came the commander-in-chief,
Shroma. I showed him all my
treasures, portable peepshow, kaleidoscope, &c. &c.
He was marvellously pleased. I treated him also
with sugar, but coffee he positively refused as too
bitter. He brought with him some twenty of his
troops and a chosen aide-de-camp. He is just the
man for a negro commander, full of cunning and
address, very active if necessary, and on familiar
terms with his men, pleasing them by low fun and
buffoonery. Afterwards came the sons of the
Sultan, all of whom I treated with sugar and
coffee: that is, as many as would venture to taste of
it. Then followed a host of Fezzan merchants, with
the son of the Kadi of Kuka—a very nice, pleasant
young fellow, who writes pretty good Arabic. He
is to make out for me the route from Zinder to
Kuka.

I afterwards went to the Sultan himself, to show
him my treasures, viz. peepshows and kaleidoscope.
These barbarians are nothing but great wilful children.
I also took the compass. We entered the
interior of the building, where we found a number
of officers, courtiers and slaves, squatted together on
[207]
the sand, chatting most familiarly on all subjects.
The building is all made of mud, mixed with large
grains of granite. They say all the buildings of
Bornou are built in the same manner, and very few
of stone, on account of the rain; for the stone, not
being well cemented together, falls during the
great rains of the tropics.

After we had been kept waiting about half an
hour his highness made his appearance, the courtiers
and slaves throwing dust on their heads,
prostrating themselves on the ground before him,
crying, “God give you victory over your enemies!”
Whilst the Sultan took his seat upon the raised
mud-bench, the slaves held up two wrappers or
barracans, to shield his highness from public view
whilst he took his seat. All the floor of the apartment
was covered with a dense mass of people, and
amongst the number several Tuaricks, including the
Sheikh Lousou, and Haj Abdoua, another distinguished
Tuarick. Lousou is a tall thin man, of
light complexion, with European features—a perfect
Targhee. His manners were very mild, and indeed
all this tribe are gentle enough here in a foreign
country. The Sheikh shook me cordially by the
hands. I then commenced business as showman to
the prince and this mass of people. At first his
highness was timid, and would not look through
the glasses of the peepshows, but when the people
began he followed, and acquired the knack of[208]
looking through in a very short time. My compass
and watch and keys were then all examined, and
produced great amusement. What pleased him
much was the screw by which the compass was
stopped. I was dreadfully frightened lest the watch
should be broken as well as the compass, and indeed
the former has received some damage: such
machines should not be handled by these negro
grandees.

Whilst this examination was going on, his highness,
as if he had little time to lose, continued to
administer justice. Several cases were settled whilst
the worthy Sultan was looking through the peepshow
and kaleidoscope. Among others, a man
came forward in great agitation, and cried, “O
Sultan! my wife will not live with me, and has run
away to her father. I will give you three bullocks
if you will fetch her back and make her live with
me!” The Sultan smiled, and observed only,
“Hem, your wife won’t live with you! Well, what
can I do?” Another man came forward and cried,
“O Sultan! I am a thief, but you must pardon me.
I stole this mat because I was a poor man” (holding
up the mat). “I restore the mat.” His highness
observed, “Leave it; I will see what can be done.”
A collection of stolen articles was restored also by
another person. Then came a man more bold, and
brought a present from a neighbouring village, consisting
of two large bowls of ghaseb and a bundle of[209]
wood. The man made a great clamour, holding up
the present. His highness looked at him, and said,
“Good, good; put them down.”

I am told his highness is much feared by all the
people of the provinces. He has the character of
being impartial. But the way in which he carries
out capital punishment is truly terrible, and beyond
conception barbarous. He neither hangs nor beheads.
This mode of punishment is too mild for
him. No; he actually cuts open the chest, and rips
out the heart! or else hangs up people by the heels,
and so inflicts upon them a lingering death. I am
astonished that the Sheikh of Bornou permits such
barbarity, but imagine that the Sheikh is still afraid
of his vassal, and shrinks from endeavouring to deprive
him of this awful power. Here, then, we have
a specimen of the negro character, with all its
contradictions; soft and effeminate in its ordinary
moods; cheerful, and pleasant, and simple, to appearance;
but capable of acting, as it were without
transition, the most terrible deeds of atrocity. Say
what you will of the barbarism of the Tuaricks,
such a mode of inflicting capital punishment is unknown
amongst them. I took leave of his highness,
promising to come again another day and bring
other things.

This evening we were disturbed by the cries of
the hyæna; a large one had come down upon the
calves belonging to a drove of bullocks, and carried
[210]
off one as big as itself. The brute seizes its prey
by the throat, and so prevents the animal from
giving intelligence to its pursuers. The place of
execution is near my house, and when the Sultan
executes any criminal the body is left unburied.
At such times, troops of hyænas, old and young,
come down in the night, from the rocks and open
country, and devour the body in a few minutes.
The jackal does not visit this place, but is found in
the open country. There are also many lions on
the road between this and Kuka.

A very simple mode of salutation is prevalent
here in Zinder, said to be the custom of Wadaï—that
of merely clapping the palms of the hand
together; the hand being held forward flat, not
edge-ways.

Gurasu is an interesting Tuarick territory, three
days’ journey north-east from Zinder, and two
days from Minyo. This country consists of a number
of small villages, scattered upon the rocks, or
mountains. The inhabitants are especially those banditti
who, from time to time, plunder the caravans
on the route from Bornou to Mourzuk. Gurasu is
seven days from Kanem, and Kanem is three days
from the Bornou route. Kanem is mostly a desert
country, and has now only a few inhabitants.

Gurasu and Damerghou are the only Tuarick
countries adjoining the provinces of the Sheikh of
Bornou, and Gurasu is the last country east in this
[211]
part of Africa. There is but very slight communication
between it and Zinder; and little is known
of the people, except that they are Tuaricks.

19th.—I again entertained visitors, who are still
numerous, of all classes; and also paid a visit to the
Shereef, and took with me the kaleidoscope, as he
expressed a wish to see its revolving glowing
beauties.

Zinder is full of half-crazy fighis, who can just
write the Arabic alphabet. They go about the
streets begging piteously, with a calabash inkstand
and reed-pen in their hands. I have been pestered
with two or three every day since I came here.
They also wander through the country parts of Damerghou.
Bornou is the nursery of these silly
pedagogues, in whom learning and madness are
most cordially united; but, as I have already mentioned,
it sends out a few instructed ones to redeem
the reputation of these ignoramuses.

In the afternoon I went to see the place of execution,
and found it covered with human bones, the
leavings of the hyænas, whose dens are close by.
Proceeding a little further I came to the Tree of
Death! a lonely tree springing out of the rocks,
some forty or fifty feet in height, and of the species
called here kanisa. My guide would not approach
it very near, for he assured me that if any person
went under its boughs, there must instantly come an
order from the Sultan to put him to death, or hang
him heels upwards upon its branches. “Don’t you[212]
see the place is swept clean underneath its boughs?
This is done every day, and by the executioner
alone: no other person dare go there, for if he do he
must die!” I certainly began to feel sick myself at
the recital of various horrors perpetrated at this
place by the executioner, and don’t know whether,
if any one had offered me some great reward, I
would have ventured to place my feet upon this
accursed spot of mother earth. Never in my life
did I feel so sick at heart—so revolted at man’s
crimes and cruelties. The tree itself was a true
picture of death—a tree of dark, impenetrable
foliage, with a great head, or upper part larger than
the lower one, and this head crowned with fifty
filthy vultures, the ministers of the executioner,
which eat the bodies of the criminals! The number
of executions here performed is very great—some
two or three hundred in a year. Since we have
been here a man has been butchered in the night,
scarcely a hundred yards from my house; so that
I am in a pleasant neighbourhood, what with the
executions and what with the hyænas. The people
pretend that for a small offence the Sultan inflicts
capital punishments: for example, merely speaking
bad language.

Turning from these disagreeable scenes, we went
to see the dens of the hyænas, which are beneath
the rocks, extending far under ground. Here we
saw bones and dung enough. The scavengers of
Zinder are, therefore, the vultures and hyænas: the
[213]
former wing the air and dart on their prey by day,
and the latter prowl the streets by night.

In the evening we refreshed our fancies by witnessing
the kanga, or drums beating to the dances
of the maidens of Zinder. It is always the same
thing, two or three fellows thumping upon their
drums, dancing round them occasionally themselves,
and the maidens approaching these drummers with
timid steps. To-night they had a sort of hopping-dance,
on one leg, keeping time to the beating of
the drums. These coy maidens soon approached,
or rather ran at me, and touched me with the hand;
this done, they claim the right of a present. It is
considered a favour to be so distinguished.

[214]

CHAPTER XIII.

Jan. 20th.—I received visits as usual, and one from a
younger brother of the Sultan, whom I treated with
coffee; and I also gave him a cotton handkerchief
and a ring, so that he went away highly satisfied.
He had a numerous train, all of whom had a peep at
the show and a bit of sugar. This brother of the
Sultan is a pleasant-looking fellow, a very different
character from the man in power. He asked for
saffron to colour charms with; but I had none to
give him.

Those who expect to find Zinder a great commercial
dépôt will be much disappointed. The
principal merchants here are the Sheikhs En-Noor
[215]
and Lousou, and the other Tuarick of Asben, whom
I have mentioned, called Haj Abdoua. Of Zinder
merchants there are but two of consequence, the
Morocco Shereef, Konchai, and Haj Amurmur, a
Tibboo. The latter is always resident; but Abd-Effeit,
or Shereef Konchai, goes abroad and trades.
Both these are foreigners. There are, besides, a
number of small traders, Tibboos and Fezzanees,
who drive a few hard bargains with the Governor.
At the present moment his highness has no money.
All the specie is quickly carried off to Kuka. The
Tuaricks have the goods and the money, and often
make their own prices; but as they always demand
ready cash, are obliged to wait long before they can
dispose of their goods. Burnouses alone bring a
great profit; for these are sold to sultans, who
require a credit of several months. I am afraid I
shall have to give a very poor account of the
commerce of this portion of Africa, with reference
to its being profitable to Europeans. The greater
part of the goods in Kanou are cheaper than
those found in the markets of Fezzan, or even
Tripoli. The only way in which this commerce
pays the Moorish merchants is by the purchase of
slaves; and this, from casual circumstances en route,
frequently turns out a loss. All the traders found
on this road are mostly poor fellows, with small
capitals: there is no equal to Waldee.

Here is a statement of the prices of provisions
in the market of Zinder:—

[216]

An ox, 10,000 wadâs (for riding).

A cow, for food, 8000.

(N.B. Cows only are eaten, bullocks being used
for riding and carrying burdens.)

A sheep of the first quality, 1500 wadâs.

A goat of the first quality, 1000.

A good fowl, 100.

A horse (of the best kind and condition),
1,000,000.[15]

An ass: he, 8000 wadâs; she, 6000 wadâs.

A zekka of ghaseb: large, 10 wadâs; small, 6
wadâs.

(N.B. When there is but little rain, a zekka of
ghaseb consists only of two handfuls.)

A pound of samen, 40 wadâs.

A pound of honey, 60 wadâs.

A zekka of wheat, or one handful, 10 wadâs.

A zekka of rice, or about six handfuls, is 20
wadâs.

A canto of salt, of the weight of about a quarter
of a cantar, is now sold for 1200, because the salt-caravan
has just arrived; but after two or three
months it will fetch 2500 wadâs.

His highness the Sultan expressed the most
ardent desire to see and make himself acquainted
with the rum, and other strong drinks of the
Christians, having heard from his son-in-law and
interpreter, the little Shereef, that I had a supply of
[217]
these liquors with me. After resisting some time,
I delivered up to his highness half a bottle of mastic,
with which retiring to his innermost chamber, and
taking with him his son-in-law, he made himself
very merry; so much so, that he was unable to make
his appearance in public or justice-hall all this day.

The immediate territories of Bornou contain five
large and important capitals, viz. Zinder, which
belongs to Haj Beshir, the prime minister.

Mashena, belonging to Mala Ibrahim, second
minister.

Minyo, belonging to Abd-Er-Rahman, brother
of the Sheikh.

Yumbi, belonging to the mother of the Sultan.

These capitals are the centres of large populations
and provinces.

The taxes are appropriated by the various personages
to whom they are given by the Sheikh,
but these personages are expected to give up to his
highness the greater part of the funds which they
derive from them.

21st.—I made various routes, and got a statement
of the principal articles of commerce, as
current in Zinder and Kanou, Mourzuk and Tripoli.
I repeat, there is no chance for an English
merchant in this part of Africa.

The houses of Zinder are mostly built of double
matting, but a good number have mud walls and
thatched roofs. Others are all built of mud. There
are no nice mosques with minarets. The residence
[218]
of the Sultan is a fort of mud, with walls of some
height; it overlooks all the other buildings. The
Shereef Kebir has also a mud house, with walls of
some height. There are two principal streets, running
from the south to the north; one terminating
at the castle of the Governor, and the other in the
market. These are of some width, there being
space for a dozen camels to pass abreast. There
are, besides, many little squares before the houses
of the grandees, where the people lounge: the
streets are always full of idle people.

Instead of suak, the women used here the calix
of a flower, called furai, for staining their teeth
with a deep amber colour. It is the fashion for
ladies to dress their hair in solid knots, two of which
fall over the temples, one over the ear, and the
other at the back of the head. Some of the women
have hair tolerably long. I noticed to-day the
shonshonah of Daura. It consists of two thick cuts,
forming an angle at the corner of the mouth, with a
few small ones on the temples.

I went to see another Tree of Death, where his
highness slaughters criminals in the same way as
mentioned under the other tree. The space beneath
the boughs is also swept clean. This tree is more
spreading, and of another sort; it is crowned with
the filthy vultures, which roost day and night in
considerable numbers on its upper branches. Yusuf
tells me the history of these trees, when the inhabitants
were pagans. It was under them that the[219]
people sacrificed their oxen and sheep to the deity,
who was supposed to reside in these trees. Scarcely
a generation has elapsed since this was the case,
so that the people may well dread to venture where,
in the time of old men yet living, sacrifices, some
perhaps human, were offered up.

The Sheikh is obliged to keep a tight hand over
the inhabitants of Zinder, to prevent them from
lapsing into paganism. His father made them
Muslims, and he holds them to the profession of
Islamism.

No news from Tesaoua respecting the four
persons who were sent to bring Drs. Barth and
Overweg first to Bornou, before they went to
Soudan. I have had several patients, but ophthalmia
does not prevail here as in Damerghou.

A constant succession of visitors troubled me all
day long. Another son of the Sultan came this
morning—quite a young man—and a dozen of boys
from the palace, some sons of the Sultan, and
others of his ministers. I gave them all a little
piece of white sugar, and sent them off. This is
the cheapest present.

I am told that all the Tuaricks are dreadfully
afraid of the Sultan of Zinder, for whenever his
highness catches an offender, let him be of what
tribe of Tuaricks he may, he cuts off his head with
as much unconcern as a poulterer of Leadenhall
market does that of a goose.

I hear now that, since the dispersion of the[220]
Walad Suleiman, the route of Bornou, from Kuka
to the Tibboos, is quite secure.

Some lemons have been brought to me, equal in
flavour, though small, to those of the north coast.
In Soudan they are marvellously cheap; ten are
sold at Kanou for the fiftieth part of a penny, viz.
one wadâ; for the same single wadâ forty can be
had at Kashna. There are forests of lemon-trees
in Soudan.

The news has arrived from the salt-caravan, that
Barth says that he will not return even if they
threaten to cut his throat. En-Noor is at Tesaoua,
and says they should return; but the salt-caravan is
distant from him, and the communication between
the two places is difficult.—I had scarcely written
these words when the four people sent to bring
back Drs. Barth and Overweg returned without
them, and brought letters from my colleagues, each
one stating that he should continue his journey as
previously determined. Ferajee, one of the messengers,
pretends that En-Noor is going with Overweg
to Maradee; which is very unlikely. Dr. Barth
seems very angry, but his comrade takes matters
more easily.

The Shereef Kebir is said to be the only person
who has money in Zinder. This man monopolises
all the power and all the money. I do not know
how long this will last, but I should think it will
soon make both the Sultan and the people of Zinder
disaffected. As it is, all the merchants of Zinder
[221]
are foreigners, and so have the disposal of all the
goods most coveted by the blacks, who have only
the ghaseb and the cattle.

22d.—The morning is hazy and mild, the thermometer
standing at 57°.

A fire broke out close to us early this morning,
and two or three huts were immediately consumed.
However, the people quenched the flames in a very
short time. I wonder half the town is not burnt
down every now and then. Visitors pour in upon
me as soon as I am up and dressed; and some
patients likewise.

The brother of the present Sarkee of Zinder, who
ruled a year in Zinder, is called Tanimu. He has a
great military reputation, and is a brave man. During
his administration he razzied no less than thirty
countries. Daura, or Dura, was the principal theatre
of his exploits. This Daura is a country consisting of
about a thousand towns and villages; four hundred
belonging to the Fullans, and six hundred to the
Sheikh of Bornou. The Fullanee Sultan is called
Mohammed Bello, and he of the Sheikh, Sofo Lukudi.
The nearest place in Daura is not more than
one day S.W. of Zinder. The people of the country
are remarkably expert in the use of the bow and
arrow; and their arrows are very strong, piercing
through, as the people say, three boxes, and afterwards
killing a man. The wound of these arrows
is fatal, the flesh of the smitten part rising up immediately
into an enormous swelling. The brother of[222]
the present Sarkee brought in hundreds of slaves
from Daura, the people at the same time having
risen against the authority of the Sheikh.

The blacks of Kanou—not the Fullans—do not
scarify their faces like their neighbours. The form
of the shonshona of Zinder and its provinces is four
cuts on each side the cheek, but not drawn very
near the corner of the mouth; that is, rather towards
the ears. In Tumbi and Gumel, provinces of Bornou,
they draw four on the left side of the cheek and
five on the right side; the cuts not drawn very near
either the corner of the mouth or the ears. Maradee
and Kashna have six cuts on each side of the cheek,
drawn from the top of the ears down to the corner
of the mouth. Gouber has four small cuts close to
the corner of the mouth. The people of the Sheikh
of Bornou have two small cuts drawn down the face,
under each eyelid, and one in the forehead, between
the eyes. Even Mekka has its shonshona. One of
the shereefs here in Zinder, who was born in that
holy city, has three small cuts on each side his face,
drawn down the fleshy part of the cheek. It is only
in Mekka that the shonshona is seen. The other
countries of Arabia do not use this disfigurement.[16]

The Sheikh Lousou sent his slave to salute me
on his part. They say, that had we been committed
to his care, he would not have fleeced us like En-Noor.
[223]
But I almost question if he would have been
strong enough to protect us. I observe, again, that
all the Tuaricks are well behaved in Zinder, and
have a wholesome dread of the Sheikh.

Many of the domestic slaves in Zinder are constantly
ironed, for fear they should run away to the
neighbouring towns and villages. The poor people
live just like convicts. It is only when they are
taken to Kuka, or to a great distance, that their
irons are struck off.

The report is now current in Zinder, that the
Sarkee is going, in the course of seven or eight days,
to razzia some neighbouring place in the direction
of Daura. They say, even, that he will not scruple
to razzia some of the villages of Meria if necessary;
that is to say, a part of the province of Zinder. My
informants observed merely, “Oh, he must have
slaves to pay his debts; and as the largest fish eat
the little fish, so the great people eat the small
people.” Thus the protection of Islamism is now
come to nothing, and the cry is,—”To the razzia!”
without mentioning even the name of Kafer or
Kerdi. In the end this will retard the progress of
Mahommedanism; for the blacks see that it is now
no protection for them against their more powerful
neighbours and their periodical razzias.

I visited several personages this afternoon; first,
the Shereef Kebir, with whom I ate some broiled
fish brought from a neighbouring lake, and some
fine Bilma dates, soaked in milk. I asked him how
[224]
it was that the Sheikh committed to the governors
or sultans of the provinces the awful power of life
and death. “Oh,” replied he, “the Sheikh has
given them this power that he might not be bothered
with their reports about criminals. It is far better
to finish quick with these people.” Where there
are periodical razzias the sacredness of human life
is unknown, and the Shereef has been, besides,
many years in the camp of Abd-el-Kader, where a
good deal of sanguinary work was carried on. He
thought it, therefore, quite right that the Sheikh
should not fatigue his sovereign conscience by deciding
on the lives of criminals and other suspected
persons, and that the sooner they were hung or
slaughtered the better.

From the Shereef I passed on to the brother of
the Sultan, a young man of mild manners. I entered
the inner part of the house, where were the
women. Verily the Zinder people have a strange
love of dust, dirt, and bare mud walls. In the two
or three beehive huts which I explored, there was
not a single article of furniture, nor a mat to lie
down upon. The brother of the Sultan was sitting
by his sister, and both on the dust of the ground,
without a mat. I am told, however, that they sleep
on mats and skins, which are, indeed, cheap
enough; two or three pence, or two or three hundred
wadâs, would purchase a good one. The sister
of the Sultan was coloured well with indigo, the
dark blue of which replaces the yellow ochre of the
[225]
ladies of fashion in Aheer. This Zinder lady had
also the end of the tufts of her hair—I cannot call
them curls—formed into clayey sticks of macerated
indigo. For the rest, she had little clothing, her
arms and bust being quite bare. All the other
ladies with her were coloured in like fashion, and
had their hair dressed in a similar manner.

Afterwards I visited an old Tripoline Mamluke,
who has been up here twenty-two long years. He
came alone, and has now a household of twenty-eight
persons, including wives, children, and slaves.
He is called Mohammed El-Wardi, knew Dr.
Oudney, and even mentioned his name, recollecting
it after so many years. He knew also the other
travellers. Some of his family are in Kuka.

Various applications are made me for remedies
to avert certain evils, and one man applied for
a means to make him sell his goods quick: this
was a Tibboo trader.

It would appear that some of the routes from
Zinder to neighbouring places are not very safe;
that from this place to Kanou, even, is somewhat
dangerous for small parties, there being woods on
the road, in which lurk banditti, who lie in wait for
unprotected caravans. With good travelling, Kanou
is only eight or ten days from Zinder, and Kashna
four or five. It is not easy to get the route here by
hours, for the people are ignorant of this way of reckoning
the routes. By days, something may be done.

The Moorish merchants resident here pretend[226]
that the territory of Zinder contains no less than
two thousand belad, or inhabited spots, towns, villages,
and hamlets, and some of these are large
towns—as large, or larger, than Zinder. Damagram
is a populous place, more so than Zinder;
but the whole of the province of Zinder has this
name, the people being all Damagrama. The town
of Damagram was once the capital of the province.
The large towns are:—

• Damagram, one day and a-half south-east.
• Dakusa, five hours south.
• Termeni, three hours south.
• Washa, two days and a-half west.
• Goshi, two days east.
• Bidmuni, one day east.
• Andera, one day east.
• Jegana, one day south.
• Jermo, one day south.
• Guria, one-half day west.
• Meria, six hours south-east.
• Konchai, one day and a-half west.
• Gorgahn, one-half hour.
• Mageria, two days south-west.
• Fatram, two days south.
• Dalladi, six hours north.

All these are towns, some larger than Zinder.

I expect to see the great drum brought here,
and to hear it beaten. It has led the people of
Zinder to the razzia during the time of twelve sultans.
The drummer, when he beats the drum in[227]
leading on the people to the razzia, repeats the
perpetual chorus of Jatau chi geri—”The red
(Sultan) eats up the country.” He is afraid to
mention the name of the Sultan, and so repeats the
word red, as distinguishing royalty; but whether in
the same way as purple distinguished the Roman
emperors, or because kings delight in blood, does
not appear.

I went to see the process of indigo dyeing.
The dyers bore circular pits of about fifteen or
twenty feet deep, and three feet in diameter, in
which they throw the things to be dyed, and leave
them there. The pits are full of the dye, produced
by the leaves and the seed of the plant called nila,
sodden in water. They dye tobes and raw cotton,
and cotton twist; the work is carried on in the
open air. About thirty people were employed at
the pits which I saw. They also prepare indigo in
a better way than what I saw at these pits.

23d.—I have not quite done with the Tuaricks,
and had many visitors of that tribe to-day; amongst
the rest, our old friends and robbers, Ferajee and
Deedee. I told Ferajee I had my boxes full of gold
and silver, and asked him to buy. He replied,
“Ah, el-Consul did not say so in Asben; he said
babo (there is none)!” At this, all our visitors burst
out in a roaring laugh. I rejoined, “Oh, no,
Ferajee; because I was then amongst thieves and
robbers.” (Continued laughter.) I went to see[228]
the souk;—everybody was very civil;—no calling
Kafer!—Tuaricks all as still as mice.

I called upon the Shereef Kebir, and drank
with him tea and coffee, which he makes in Magrabi
fashion, putting the sugar in the tea-pot. I observed,
“How is this? I hear the Sultan is going soon on
a razzia.” Somewhat disconcerted, he replied,
Allah yâlem!—”God teaches!” After some time,
he explained that the Sheikh left his vassals great
liberty in this matter; that the Sultan of Zinder
was permitted to go to Daura and eat up the Kohlans,
but not the Fullans, between whom and the
Sheikh there was peace: that is to say, the Fullans
were not to be made slaves, but the Kohlan subjects
of the Fullans might be captured. The Sheikh
was not friendly to Maradee, and wished the Sultan
of Zinder to attack that country; but the Sarkee
was a friend of Maradee, and would not, &c. &c. So
it is quite clear these Sarkees, or at any rate the
one in Zinder, have great latitude of action. After
hesitating still more about these razzias, the Shereef
said, “Oh, you see the strong devour the weak;
there are no regular governments here.”