Chapter V: Part 5

The central and south European migratory birds are certainly all to be found in Bornu, in so far as they seek these latitudes in the winter- time. One of the commonest sights during the dry weather is the ordinary stork, _Ciconia alba_, which one may meet with in whole flocks along the banks of Lake Chad, yet they do not as a rule mingle with the indigenous long-legged birds. High in the air is seen the swift, _Micropus apus_, and in the ‘bush’ one meets with many birds, which are well known to us in Europe. The most commonly seen of these are the wryneck, _Jynx torquilla_, the wheatear, _Saxicola oenanthe_, the wagtails, white, Ray’s and blue-headed, the crested lark, _Alauda cristata_,[305] the golden oriole, _Oriolus galbula_, and hoopoe, _Upupa epops_.

The reptiles and Ranidae of Bornu are at present only properly known in those varieties which are often seen, or which are remarkable for the benefit or damage which they cause.

Of the turtles, for whom, if only in parts, all the conditions of life are forthcoming, the only one known at present is the _Sternothaerus Adansoni_[306] living in the bed of the River Yedseram. On the other hand, crocodiles, belonging to the species _Crocodilus vulgaris_, are to be seen everywhere that collections of water worthy of the name are to be found,[307] but they also stay, in places right up to the foot of the mountains, in the smaller streams and pools, provided that a communication, if only temporary, exists with the larger water-courses; and it is surprising how they are able to maintain themselves here during the dry weather. But of all places the crocodile is commonest in Chad and in its affluents which contain continuously running water, especially the Shari, where indeed one may see giant specimens—as much as four metres long—sunning themselves with gaping jaws during the hottest time of the day on the high sand-banks. The great quantity of fish in the rivers prevents the mail-clad monsters as a rule from attacking men and cattle, but the contrary does sometimes take place—especially in the small but deep and dull-coloured water-courses.

In the reed-beds along the banks of the rivers and lakes often lurks the giant water-monitor, _Varanus niloticus_, with its variegated markings, while it is just the driest parts of the ‘bush’ that are the favourite haunts of the thick-set dull earth-coloured land-monitor, _Varanus exanthematicus_, which has few markings. Most of the smaller lizards are quite domesticated. On every building, wall and roof, the beautiful blue and red lizard, _Agama colonorum_, sports in the hottest sunshine, in some places in company with a brown and white striped lizard with a lively turquoise-blue tail. At night-time these lizards are relieved by the confiding Geckoes, _Platydactylus_, who search the interior of the houses for every kind of vermin and thus are of great utility.

In the millet fields and amongst the ‘bush’ trees are found several varieties and large numbers of brightly-coloured chameleons, which appear on the dry stubble after the conclusion of the harvest, and are able, though not to so extensive a degree as is often supposed, to suit their colouring to that of their surroundings.[308]

Quite large in many places is the number of snakes, among whom several are very poisonous and of considerable size. By far the largest of all is the python, _Python Sebae_, usually to be found in the neighbourhood of the water-courses, but it is also fond of coming into the villages, whose hen-roosts it plunders, but is otherwise harmless. It reaches a considerable length; thus Barth secured a specimen, apparently belonging to this species, that measured over five and a half metres.[309] Distributed all over Bornu, but most commonly among the dunes undermined by field-mice and hares on the south-western shore of Chad, where it finds plenty of prey, is the puff-adder, _Vipera arietans_;[310] in consideration of its size—it reaches a length of over a yard and is as thick as a man’s arm—and its predilection for human habitations swarming with rats, it is a dangerous and poisonous brute, but fortunately evinces great laziness in the daytime. Commoner still is the ‘Efa’, _Echis arenicola_, which in the cool nights seeks the warm houses of the natives; its proper lurking-place is among the thick-knotted roots of the fig-tree. To it appear attributable the majority of fatal accidents from snake-bite.[311] The African cobra, _Naja haje_, the liveliest and most truculent of the poisonous snakes, is found indeed everywhere, but fortunately is distinctly rare. Finally, there is a very long green tree-snake, which is credited by the natives with poisonous qualities.[312]

Of Ranidae also there is no lack. All stagnant and sluggish flowing water harbours crowds of semi-gigantic frogs. A bluish-grey variety with a pointed head possesses the ability of making as much row as a flock of crows, and after the rainy season has set in nightly drives to desperation those travellers who are unable to accustom themselves to the nocturnal noises of the tropics. Small silvery-grey tree-frogs with a red belly—they belong to a widely-distributed species—are often found in Southern Bornu clinging to the leaves.

The connecting link between the Ranidae and the fish tribe is a peculiar animal found also in the Nile, the scaled salamander of Lake Chad, _Lepidosiren annectens_, which, moreover, is a living argument in favour of a former hydrographical connexion between the Chad countries and the Nile. The Shuwa Arabs say the salamander is a savoury dish and are keen on trapping it; the pear-shaped gelatinous capsules—generally hidden among the matted roots of a papyrus bush—in which the animal spends the dry season, are easily found in the dried-up soil on the banks of Lake Chad.

Zoologically speaking the vertebrates that have been least sufficiently investigated hitherto are the fish that live in Bornu waters. The little that is known about them again shows a similarity with the fauna of the Nile countries.[313] A thorough investigation here would contribute to the solution of many geographical questions. Lake Chad and its affluents are beyond all conception rich in fish, sometimes as big as a man in size;[314] the fish ascend the streams far up to their very source, and remain there even during the dry weather, provided that the water outlasts it. Among the most savoury are several species of cat-fish, which are extraordinarily abundant; at the fall of the water they make shift to do with a very small quantity of moisture, and are able to last out the temporary dryness in the humid mud. The best-known varieties are the electric cat-fish, _Malapterurus electricus_,[315] the ‘Fahak’, or ‘puffer’, _Tetrodon fahaka_,[316] and a species of pike, _Polypterus bicher_.[317] All three are also found in the Nile.

Whilst amongst the vertebrates of Bornu many represent species proper to East Africa, the same is the case to an enhanced degree among the invertebrates. Many classes of insects have almost without exception East African shapes, and only quite a few West African. Certain kinds of insects are even, considered purely from the point of view of animal geography, the most interesting kinds of fauna that Bornu has to show. The fact that numerous palearctic insects are also represented here is partly to be explained by their considerable powers of flight; but it is further noteworthy that the Sudan species, which have to undergo without exception only a short larval stage, show with a quicker period of generation a far smaller size than the corresponding European, i.e. Mediterranean species.

In a country where the distinction between the wet and dry seasons is so sharply defined as in Bornu, it is natural that the life of the legged creatures, whose whole existence is closely bound up with the constant moisture of the soil and atmosphere, is subject to considerable fluctuations as regards abundance. Thus soon after the beginning of the first rains great numbers of insects of all sorts appear, which indeed decrease somewhat in the middle of the rainy season, to reach their height during harvest time, whilst the winter is poor in insect-life. Where the species appear in successive generations following each other alike in the dry and in the rainy seasons—this holds good especially of the butterflies—they are subject in a remarkable degree to the laws of seasonal dimorphism, that is to say that the parts which remain visible in repose, show a noteworthy adaptability to the colouring of their surroundings. To the insects and such-like creatures, which are in evidence at all times of the year, belong especially those whose presence at any time is considered a nuisance, such as termites, ants, or vermin.

Of all the insect genera the beetles are the best represented, not only as regards number of species but also as regards splendour of appearance.[318] Big camboid-beetles equipped with formidable mandibles—to this species belong the giant _Anthia venator_, found all over North Africa—gauzy-winged tiger-beetles, _Cicindelae_, which scurry over the sand-banks, and big black water-beetles, _Cybister_, which people all the ponds and pools, are the most rapacious among them. In Bornu the chafer family is also rich both in appearance and species. Everywhere on dung one meets big and little sleek black or metallic tinted dung-beetles, whose giant variety is the elephant dung-beetle, _Heliocopris Sandersi_, which builds long tunnels on the ground and is the most powerful of dung-rollers. Whilst the _Dynastidae_ are very scarce in the Sudan, the rose-beetles, or _Cetonidae_, are as prominent in Bornu as everywhere else in Africa, both as regards number of species, size, and colouring. Great quantities of these beetles, new and surprising examples of which appear every month, are first seen immediately after the beginning of the rains, when every flowering acacia swarms with them. Very many species, and quite the most beautiful ones, such as the white ant-eating _Gnathocera_ species with its zebra- like markings of black, white, and yellow, or the big golden-green fork- nosed _Eudicellae_ of South Bornu, seek the sap which flows from the grasses and trees; at the slightest concussion of these drinking-places they fly off with a loud buzzing.

Distinguished likewise by numerous species and brilliant colouring is the family of gala-beetles, _Buprestidae_, and the long-horned beetles, or _Cerambycidae_. Of the former there is a large and thoroughly tropical variety, with golden-yellow marking on a ground like brown leather, which is found even as far as the country of Aïr in the Sahara; it is called _Sternocera castanea_.[319] Quantities of this giant beetle swarm about the end of the rains on the big acacia trees, on whose leaves they feed. On the dunes overgrown with broom on the banks of Chad one finds the beautiful steel-blue _Caillaudi_ thickly powdered with yellow, which belong to the _Buprestidae_ species, _Julodis_, characteristic of the southern Mediterranean lands. The long-horned beetles, usually with very variegated wing teguments, are remarkable for the damage they do to timber. One large and active species of an orange- yellow colour, striped with velvety black, the _Diastocera fasciata_, is noteworthy for the way in which both males and females are wont to gnaw off, like a beaver, quite large branches of certain trees, in order to find a place to lay their eggs; the stumps thus sawn through are so neatly done that they might have been produced by a turner’s lathe.[320]

Of the beetles that appear in large numbers, one should especially mention the black _Pimeliae_, a true palearctic variety, which are to be found in the sandy districts of Bornu, especially in the neighbourhood of villages amongst dirt and rubbish. Finally, the fire-flies, whose light may be observed at the beginning of the rains all the evening everywhere in tree and bush, belong to the widely-distributed species of _Lampyris_.

Besides the beetles the _Hymenopterae_ in Bornu also belong to the class of insects who are of importance for the good service or the damage that they do; thus the honey-bees are certainly as numerous as the varieties belonging to this family which are hurtful to man. Wherever there are fair-sized trees with hollows in them, and especially in South Bornu, one may count with certainty on the presence of swarms of wild bees, which are distinguished in no way from those of other parts of Africa, as far as concerns viciousness and truculence, as all travellers have reason to relate.[321] Nevertheless, the natives understand very well how to get at the honey, and have also hit upon contrivances for settling the bees in places decided on by themselves. Barth and Nachtigal mention besides the tree-living bees a species which nests in holes in the ground and produces a special kind of honey.[322] Whilst the _Apis_ variety, to which the stinging honey-bee belongs, only attacks one if one approaches its nest, its relative the non-stinging _Melipona_ variety makes itself a regular pest by following man and beast in whole swarms in order to suck their sweat, so that many travellers, especially in view of the smaller size of the _Melipona_, have been led to regard them as flies. Especially unpleasant is the acrid smell which these _Hymenopterae_ diffuse when one kills them, and this attracts still larger swarms of the intrusive insects.

The _Formicinae_, or ants, appear in Bornu in remarkable numbers though not in such masses as in the primaeval forest region. Many are apparently identified, even by travellers like Barth, with the termites, and are thus held to some extent responsible for the latter’s destructive activity,[323] yet they are ubiquitous and their intrusiveness, though not always injurious, makes them in the highest degree troublesome. It is only by making a barrier of oil or water that one can protect oneself from their attentions. The driver-ant, too, _Annoma_, that unpleasant visitor from the primaeval forest, appears, according to Barth’s description, to be always present in the Central Sudan.[324] At all events the ant fauna of Bornu is very large, and Gerhard Rohlfs says with perfect truth: ‘No country could have so many ants and such different species of them as Bornu.’[325] Nachtigal, too, lays special stress on the number of species of ants.[326] Among the most important species of _Hymenopterae_ living in Bornu is the sand- wasp, _Pompilus_, remarkable for its size as well as for its brilliant colouring.

Bornu is poor in butterflies, if one takes into comparison the prodigious richness of the primaeval forest in such insects, at least as far as one considers number of species. In spite of this it is just the lepidopterous fauna of the country which is extraordinarily interesting. Only one single variety is West African, all the others, so far as they are not South European or cosmopolitan, or else of a general Ethiopian character, are East African.

As far as butterflies are concerned, the shimmering _Nymphalidae_ species, in which the primaeval forest region is so rich, is almost entirely unrepresented. Of important forest butterflies there are only forthcoming some of the quick-flying _Charaxes_ species, which are always hovering over the granite rocks of Southern Bornu, where they feed on the sap oozing from the trees or on excrement. The _Precis_ species, corresponding to the European _Vanessa_ species, show themselves during sharply defined periods of the year. Everywhere in the ‘bush’, especially feeding on elephant dung, is to be found the cosmopolitan ‘painted lady’, _Pyrameis cardui_. The best represented of all the butterflies are the whites, _Pieridae_, and amongst them again the most numerous are the charming _Teracolus_ species, characteristic of the Sudan, which with their variegated markings, their carmine or bright blue beauty-spots flutter round the flowering _Capparis_ bushes—they come out especially also in the dry weather—and so form the most beautiful living ornaments of the often desolate ‘bush’.[327] It is also remarkable how exquisitively suited to this family is the golden- red colouring of the under-side of the withered grasses during the dry weather. The _Papilionidae_ species, which includes the largest sized butterflies, is extremely scantily represented in Bornu; so remarkable is this lack, that one of the species that is found, viz. the big black and white _Papilio Schultzei_, is not only a very interesting insect from the point of view of animal geography, but at the same time is also the most interesting representative of the fauna of Bornu in general, so far as it is known. This butterfly is only found in a few small places among the granite rocks north of Uba, i.e. close to the border of Adamawa. The nearest relatives of this butterfly are not found again till east of Lake Victoria Nyanza in East Africa, that is, at a distance of roughly 3,000 kilometres—the intervening countries, including the highlands of Mandara, are apparently altogether without them; they were considered as characteristic of East Africa until the discovery of this new species. It is only geologists that may perhaps be in a position to clear up this curiosity in Natural History, for this butterfly belongs to those, who—like the European _Parnassiae_—are very unwilling to leave their usual haunts and show not the slightest migratory propensity.

The moths, which especially among the _Noctuae_ exhibit many Mediterranean varieties, are somewhat more richly represented than the butterflies. The caterpillars of two variegated _Saturniidae_ of the species _Epiphora_, which live on the _Zizyphus_ trees, belong to the silk-cocoon producing family. These cocoons, however, are not employed by the natives. Many kinds of caterpillars, which crowd the trees and bushes soon after the first tornadoes, are eaten by the pagan tribes, as is usual in Africa; amongst such caterpillars are those of the _Saturniidae_, _Gonimbrasia osiris_,[328] which appear in regular swarms.

An important and sometimes fatal rôle is played by the two-winged flies, or _Dipterae_, for to them belong almost without exception in Bornu those varieties of insects, who have been ascertained to be the chief carriers of the disease germs, from which both man and beast have to suffer. Even when this does not hold good, they are for the most part perfect pests, which may become dangerous from their very numbers. All travellers are aware of the quantities of mosquitoes, often to be described as ‘in size equalling a large fly’,[329] which appear especially along the rivers and on Lake Chad in regular clouds, and make it impossible in many places for men and animals to stay there. Of these blood-suckers, to which belong many species of the _Culex_ and _Anopheles_ family—the female of the latter is the carrier of malaria—as well as the diminutive sand-fly, _Simulia_, with a very irritating bite. Denham says: ‘A chief told me near Kussery that during the last two years he had lost two children, who were literally stung to death, and from our own observation and sufferings this does not appear to be an exaggeration.’[330]

There are also many other flies which are justly dreaded, such as the numerous varieties of horse-flies and the dangerous _Glossinae_, the female of which carries the tsetse-sickness among cattle and the sleeping sickness among men,[331] though the latter has not yet been observed in Bornu;[332] fortunately the tsetse-fly is only found in certain tracts, but there it always causes more or less destruction among cattle.[333] Barth as well as Nachtigal mentions the incredible number of fleas in the houses of the natives;[334] on the other hand the ‘jigger’, _pulex penetrans_, which was introduced into Africa from America at the beginning of the nineteenth century, has not yet penetrated to Bornu.

The _Neuropterae_ are represented by the big _Myrmeleon_ species with brown-spotted wings; they are three times as large as the European ant- lion. The _Orthopterae_, as far as regards dragon-flies, are inferior to the big metallic-glistening species of the primaeval forest, but the southern districts especially excel in the family of the white ants. Everywhere, especially in the acacia forest,[335] one meets with the considerable erections, three or more metres in height, made by these termites. The white ants bear the name of _bellicosus_, _fatalis_, or _mordax_, but only justly so in as much as their war of extermination is directed exclusively against vegetable products. Their destructive fury shows itself in the most troublesome fashion, so that nothing is safe from them; all vegetable material and objects placed on it, such as boxes, trunks, building timber, paper, or cord, is covered by these insects with the familiar crust of mud, unless preventive measures are taken against them, and underneath this the work of destruction goes forward.[336] Many districts, in which dry branches and withered leaves or grass cover the ground, thus take on an appearance towards the end of the rainy season, which Marquardsen describes very accurately, when he says that they ‘give the impression that they have been exposed to floods for a long time’.[337] The damage done by the white ants is to some extent counterbalanced by the fact that during the rains swarms of these little creatures, which lose their wings at the slightest touch, are collected as food by the natives.[338] Where ant-hills exist in the bush they are in a regular proportion with the number of _capparis_ bushes, which thrive in unusual profusion in just such spots; and it is not impossible that this fact conceals a law of symbiosis.

The strange-looking _Mantidae_ and _Phasmidae_ do not leave one in any doubt as to their existence in Bornu. The number of locusts also, including the _Acridiae_ with brightly coloured under-wings, is legion, they start up wherever one goes. Rohlfs observed clouds of these creatures moving from north to south and taking hours to pass a given point.[339] At the beginning of the rains appear the _Gryllus_ species, with few varieties but in large numbers. These are the insects which make themselves chiefly perceptible to one’s hearing; in fact, one large species gives out such a shrill note, that one’s ears ache if standing in the vicinity of this musical insect. On the other hand, the cricket, the most noisy insect in the primaeval forest region, is remarkably rare in Bornu, the _Fulgoridae_ also are not common; the above-mentioned distinction between the dry and rainy seasons may not suit them.

Bugs too show a great variety of forms. Whilst many of them are deceptively like a withered leaf, others resemble the beetle species in form and markings; and the _Reduviini_ administer an irritating bite when touched. A species of bed-bug is also found, and this kind of vermin is very widely distributed.

In hollow trees are to be found centipedes, _Scolopendra_, which are dreaded on account of their bite, but the giant ‘Julus’ species, or millepede, as thick as a man’s finger, which lives in similar places, is perfectly harmless.

Of the spider tribe, there is the thick hairy _Solpuga_, which is fond of inhabited places and is shunned as poisonous. Still more dreaded on account of their sting are the various species of _Buthus_, or scorpion, which likewise exhibit a special preference for human habitations. The big black scorpion, however, as long as a man’s hand, which is found on the coast, does not seem to appear in Bornu. Many varieties of the spider proper are forthcoming and are distinguished by their remarkable form and often also by their gorgeous colouring. One species with bluish-grey and golden-yellow markings and as large as a fingerbowl builds huge webs with strong yellow threads amongst the undergrowth.

Amongst the mites, there is a tick, _Ixodes_, which makes itself very noticeable as a most troublesome form of vermin; they swarm in innumerable quantities on the grass of the roads and ‘bush’ paths and appear even to outlast the burning of the grass in the dry weather by slipping into cracks in the soil. Cattle and sheep are often thickly covered with them and on this account are apt to waste away from the loss of blood caused by them. Apparently the vermin mentioned by Barth under the name of ‘Kari’ is something similar to such a tick.[340]

The little that is known or published about the ‘Crustaceae’ of Bornu leaves us in ignorance of some pretty considerable species;[341] still the Chad and its affluents have certainly a great abundance of interesting varieties to show.

The few varieties of molluscs[342] which are known in Bornu furnish a surprising amount of information. While among the land-snails the handsome _Achatinae_, which are found everywhere in tropical Africa, predominate both in number and size, there are varieties of molluscs in Chad and its affluents which more than any other creatures confirm the theory set forth by Professor Dr. O. Boettger, in _Nachbl. der deutsch. Mal.-Ges._, 1905, p. 25,[343] ‘that in very early geological times the Chad district, which has now no effluent, was in connexion with the Nile water-system’. There are a large number of mussels also, whose shells cover certain spots on the banks of Chad with a stratum of the same kind; these spots were formerly under the water of the lake and appear likewise to confirm Boettger’s assertions.[344]

Among the worms the big earth-worms of Southern Bornu, which are also found in Adamawa, deserve mention; their excrement forms little piles of considerable size which are a characteristic phenomenon of the ‘bush’ there.[345] Of parasitic worms there is the well-named Guinea-worm, _Filaria medinensis_, by far the best known and apparently the commonest variety.[346]

Information as to the water animalculae of Bornu is practically non- existent, although this would perhaps be a point of cardinal importance for the geologist. There still remains a wide and fruitful field of inquiry for the scientist on this whole subject, as far as Bornu is concerned.

The principal domestic animals bred in Bornu can be enumerated in a few words. What Nachtigal said on this subject forty years ago, holds good even to-day.[347] The most important of the animals bred there is the ox. In Bornu their use is not confined to furnishing butcher’s meat and the production of milk, but they are also constantly employed in some parts as riding and pack-animals. There are various breeds of oxen in Bornu, but they all show traces of intermixture. The most widely distributed species is the humped ox, similar to the ‘zebu’ of India, which is bred all over the Sudan, but which is much larger than the latter and far more varied in colour. Certain animals of this breed have the very remarkable peculiarity that their horns grow at a disproportionate rate.[348] In the neighbourhood of Lake Chad one often sees ‘Kuri’ oxen with the hump scarcely formed or not at all, yet adorned with extraordinarily long and strong horns, which gives them a somewhat strange appearance.[349] Sheep and goats cannot compete in point of numbers with the cattle. The former are of extraordinary size,[350] while the latter, as throughout the Sudan, have very thin bodies, short legs, with short and generally brown hair.

According to Nachtigal’s statement the horse bred in Bornu found its way there across the Sudan 800 years ago.[351] It has acclimatized itself excellently, and in the course of years has adapted itself very well to the conditions of soil of the swampy low-lying plains, which are not exactly suited to a horse’s anatomy. Donkeys are largely bred, but chiefly in the south-westerly districts, near the Hausa States, where they take the place of oxen as pack-animals. They are all of a very light grey colour with sharply defined zigzag stripes on the back and a single similar stripe of the same colour across the withers. Mules are not bred in Bornu.

Of the camels employed in Bornu only the kind that are bred in Kanem can remain there for long, and even they only thrive where they can find on the dunes plants to graze on such as the ‘retam’, which are indigenous to the Sahara.

Dogs are not often met with;[352] they are small, mean-looking, and certainly have few of the good qualities of the European animal, and there are few varieties of breed; in Zinder they appear to live in a semi-wild state and to have undertaken there, like the vultures, the duty of scavengers.[353] Birds are confined to cocks and hens, and here and there also pigeons and Muscovy ducks. Finally, of the wild creatures of Bornu which are occasionally in some places tamed and made useful, the most important are the civet-cat, the guinea-fowl, and the ostrich.

[Footnote 221: Nachtigal, ii. 368.]

[Footnote 222: Cf. Nachtigal, ii. 504.]

[Footnote 223: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1007.]

[Footnote 224: [Red Patas monkey, _Erythrocebus patas_.]]

[Footnote 225: Cf. Rohlfs, ii. 37.]

[Footnote 226: [_Papis sp._ Some West African baboon, probably either _P. nigeriae_ or _P. sphinx_.]]

[Footnote 227: [One of the many West African bush-babies.]]

[Footnote 228: [Small fruit bat = _Eidolon helvum_.]]

[Footnote 229: Cf. Barth, v. 387.]

[Footnote 230: Barth, iii. 58.]

[Footnote 231: Dominik, _Vom Atlantik zum Tschadsee_, p. 186.]

[Footnote 232: Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 21.]

[Footnote 233: Denham, i. 260.]

[Footnote 234: Cf. Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 181.]

[Footnote 235: Barth, iii. 168.]

[Footnote 236: [Also known as _Vulpes cerda_. On Appendix, p. 182 of Denham, first edition, there is a drawing and description of this animal.]]

[Footnote 237: Barth, iii. 293 (German ed.) and iv. 49 (German ed.).]

[Footnote 238: Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 291 ff. [for illustration vid. Mecklenburg, i. 63].]

[Footnote 239: Nachtigal mentions four species of hyena in the neighbouring country of Bagirmi, vid. Nachtigal, ii. 544. But it is very probable that it is only a question of varieties of the same species.]

[Footnote 240: Cf. also Nachtigal, ii. 38.]

[Footnote 241: Rohlfs, ii. 107.]

[Footnote 242: [There is also a kind of malodorous badger, Kanuri, ‘mbachamma’, Hausa, ‘tunku’, grey with a white-tipped tail and sharp head. The Kanuris, however, consider its scent ‘sweet’, but their taste in perfume is peculiar. According to Koelle, they think that the odour of bugs and the odour of Heaven are of the same nature; vid. ‘be̥rmade̥’ in Vocab.]]

[Footnote 243: Cf. Barth, iii. 320; Nachtigal, i. 598 and 635.]

[Footnote 244: Nachtigal, ii. 490.]

[Footnote 245: Cf. Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 646.]

[Footnote 246: Cf. Nachtigal, ii. 544.]

[Footnote 247: Cf. Barth, iii. 285; Rohlfs, ii. 78.]

[Footnote 248: Nachtigal, i. 629.]

[Footnote 249: Perhaps, however, it belongs to a species of its own.]

[Footnote 250: Nachtigal, i. 561.]

[Footnote 251: Cf. Rohlfs, i. 286.]

[Footnote 252: The German members of the Yola-Chad Boundary Commission observed giraffe even on the northern border of Adamawa, close to the foot of the Mandara Hills.]

[Footnote 253: Cf. Barth, ii. 244 and 326; iii. 45 and 357; iv. 20; Nachtigal, i. 533, 561 ff., 572; ii. 34.]

[Footnote 254: [In addition to these, some of which are not found in British Bornu, there are the common red cob antelope, the white-stern gazelle, and the sittatunga. There was a specimen of the latter in captivity in Maiduguri in 1911—the only one so far observed in Bornu. It was obtained near Mulgue on the River Yedseram.]]

[Footnote 255: Nachtigal, ii. 488 and 544.]

[Footnote 256: Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 248.]

[Footnote 257: Barth, ii. 190-1.]

[Footnote 258: Barth, ii. 42 (German edition).]

[Footnote 259: Denham, i. 75; ii. 147.]

[Footnote 260: Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 5.]

[Footnote 261: Barth, iii. 162.]

[Footnote 262: Nachtigal, i. 565. [The Customs Clerk when proceeding to Kauwa, inside the Chad Game Reserve, in 1908, reported that he was held up for an hour by an elephant on the road who stood and looked at him. A subordinate Customs Officer, one Shegorama, a man of imagination, assured me that once when riding inside the Reserve he had had his cap taken off by an elephant.]]

[Footnote 263: [The whole of the British shore of Chad is a strict game reserve. There are a considerable number of elephants there, whose destructive habits have entirely driven the natives off the rich farming land there.]]

[Footnote 264: Cf. Barth, iii. 313; Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 4; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 118; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 260 ff. [The rhinoceros is also found on the Bornu-Yola border and along the Gongola. The Kanuri say there are two kinds of rhino which they call ‘Kargadan’ (large) and ‘Kumarima’ (small).]]

[Footnote 265: Nachtigal, ii. 542.]

[Footnote 266: Barth, iii. 311.]

[Footnote 267: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1008.]

[Footnote 268: _La Géographie_, _loc. cit._, p. 332.]

[Footnote 269: Barth, ii. 326; Rohlfs, i. 331.]

[Footnote 270: Nachtigal, ii. 288.]

[Footnote 271: Nachtigal, ii. 573.]

[Footnote 272: Nachtigal, i. 566.]

[Footnote 273: [Cf. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p. 286, the ‘ayo’ or ‘manatee’. There is a photo of one on p. 208, vol. ii of Chudeau, _Missions au Sahara_.]]

[Footnote 274: Barth, iii. 325; Nachtigal, i. 660; _La Géographie_, ix (1904), p. 342. A similar animal, the ‘Ayu’, identical with the _Manatus senegalensis_, is found in the Benue.]

[Footnote 275: Cf. Rohlfs, i. 286.]

[Footnote 276: Barth, iii. 240.]

[Footnote 277: [_Palaeornis docilis_.]]

[Footnote 278: The grey parrot is not found in Bornu. Its distribution does not extend beyond that of the oil-palm.]

[Footnote 279: Barth, iii. 354.]

[Footnote 280: [_Lophoceros erythrorhynchus_. Kanuri, ‘zogum’; there is also a black-billed hornbill, Kanuri, ‘kogoji’.]]

[Footnote 281: [_Bucorvus abyssinicus_, called in Hausa, ‘burtu’, Kanuri, ‘kagum’.]]

[Footnote 282: Vid. also plate in Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 727.]

[Footnote 283: The other species, such as the green _Merops Persicus Saharae_, are much rarer and always appear in pairs.]

[Footnote 284: [Red-headed falcon—_Falco ruficollis_.]]

[Footnote 285: Cf. Barth, iii. 287.]

[Footnote 286: [_Lophoaetus occipitalis_.]]

[Footnote 287: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 547.]

[Footnote 288: Cf. Barth, iv. 169. [_Buphagus Africanus_.]]

[Footnote 289: [North African golden oriole.]]

[Footnote 290: Barth relates that in one place he observed thousands of turtle-doves, whose presence required special precautions to be taken for the protection of the farms. Barth, ii. 205.]

[Footnote 291: [There are also the sand-grouse, Kanuri, ‘fe̥r-fe̥r’, and the little black ‘rock-partridge’. The latter is about the size of a bantam; I have only seen it twice in Bornu, once at Gujba, and once near Wupti on the Maiduguri-Yola road. P. A. B.]]

[Footnote 292: Denham observed flocks of guinea-fowl of as many as 100 birds. Denham, i. 70.]

[Footnote 293: Nachtigal, i. 561.]

[Footnote 294: Barth, ii. 238.]

[Footnote 295: [Denham took home four black ostriches, which were put in the royal menagerie at Windsor, vid. Denham, Appendix, p. 199 (first edition). The Niger Company at Nafada now do a very large trade in ostrich feathers, but they nearly all come from Kanem and Wadai.]]

[Footnote 296: Denham, i. 254. The _Otis senegalensis_, which is also found, is very widely distributed.]

[Footnote 297: Denham, i. 120.]

[Footnote 298: [White-bellied stork.]]

[Footnote 299: [Saddle-billed stork—_Ephippiorhynchus_.]]

[Footnote 300: [Crown-bird or demoiselle crane, Kanuri, ‘gubori’, Hausa, ‘goraka’.]]

[Footnote 301: Cf. Nachtigal, ii. 488.]

[Footnote 302: Denham, i. 63.]

[Footnote 303: Rohlfs, i. 331 ff. Cf. also Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 650.]

[Footnote 304: [Including the very common and succulent whistling-teal, the mallard, and rarely the miniature goose, often called the cotton- teal.]]

[Footnote 305: According to an oral statement by the English ornithologist Boyd Alexander, it belongs to a species of its own. Personally I cannot detect the slightest difference.]

[Footnote 306: The author brought one of these home with him alive. It has not been determined to what species belonged the turtle observed by Barth in Kanem. Barth, iii. 67 (German edition).]

[Footnote 307: Chudeau even met with the crocodile in the Lake of Gadabuni. _La Géographie_, xv (1907), p. 334.]

[Footnote 308: Cf. Vogel in _Petermann’s Mitteilungen_, 1857, p. 168.]

[Footnote 309: Barth, iii. 57. One that was brought to me alive by some Shuwa Arabs at Ulugo was over four metres long.]

[Footnote 310: Cf. Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 638.]

[Footnote 311: Cf. also Rohlfs, i. 287.]

[Footnote 312: [For a very full native account of the snakes of Bornu, vid. Koelle, _African Native Literature_, p. 189. They are enumerated there as follows:

(1) ‘Kulutshi’, a python, speckled, 12 ft. long, and as thick as two men.

(2) ‘Abr’, spotted, 9 ft. long, poisonous.

(3) ‘Gangu’, spotted, 6 ft. long, harmless.

(4) ‘Komontugu’, yellow, 6 ft. long, harmless.

(5) ‘Tshibato’ [jibado], black, 9 ft. long, said to spit poison and blind its victims; venom used for arrow poison; nicknamed ‘Koana lage̥te̥’ = the villainous felon. Rears itself erect and distends its head. [Adder or cobra?]

(6) ‘Rokodimi’, square red spots on the skin, 1 ft. long, has four legs, very poisonous, venom used for arrow poison.

(7) ‘Shargo’, striped black and white, 3 ft. long, nicknamed ‘Kadi mallam’ = the priest snake, harmless, much admired for its beauty, and sometimes domesticated.

(8) ‘Kadi ke̥li’ = green snake, 3 ft. long, poisonous.

(9) ‘Kadi tse̥lim’ = black snake, small, lives in wells, poisonous.

To these may be added from personal information:

(10) ‘Wofe’, light yellow, poisonous but not aggressive. Lives inside houses. About 3 ft. long.

(11) ‘Fushi’, striped, poisonous and aggressive. Lives in holes in the ground in dry weather, but in the grass in wet weather. About 18 inches long.

(12) ‘Gergeshi’, speckled, poisonous and aggressive. Lives at the bottom of trees. About 2 ft. long.

(13) ‘Karua’, dull green, poisonous and aggressive. Lives in the water in Chad. About 9 inches long.

(14) ‘Kadi suni uguwa’ = snake of the five shepherds. Green. Lives in hollows of trees. Very poisonous. It will kill five or more men if they put their hands into the hollow. About 18 inches long.

(15) ‘Silla’, black, harmless, lives in houses. About 6 inches long.

(16) ‘Kadi digalbu’ = the bed-snake. Striped. Lives at bottom of native beds. Poisonous but not aggressive. About 18 inches long.

In spite of the number of snakes found in Bornu, one seldom hears of a death from snake-bite. Can the explanation be the same as given in the old Greek epigram?

‘A snake once on a Cappadocian

Its deadliest venom tried.

Was the man killed? Dismiss the notion;

The snake it was that died.’

(_Memoir of Herbert Kynaston_, by E. D. Stone).]]

[Footnote 313: Cf. Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1054, and Hassert, p. 154. [In Chevalier, _Mission Chari-Lac Tchad_, p. 437, there is an Appendix on Fish.]]

[Footnote 314: Barth, iii. 241 (?); Nachtigal, i. 660; Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 714; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 187.]

[Footnote 315: Barth, iii. 36.]

[Footnote 316: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1054.]

[Footnote 317: _Idem_, and Nachtigal, ii. 495.]

[Footnote 318: Cf. Kolbe, _Berliner ent. Zeitschrift_, li. Jahrg., 1906, p. 334 ff., and Ch. Kerremans, ‘Buprestides des environs du Lac Tchad,’ in _Ann. de la Société ent. de Belge_, Brussels, 1907. [Cf. Chevalier, _Mission Chari-Lac Tchad_, p. 703, Appendix on Coleoptera.]]

[Footnote 319: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1021.]

[Footnote 320: [These beetles are known among Europeans in Bornu as the Colorado beetle. I do not know if the term is a correct one. A small sum is spent every year in their extermination in the vicinity of Government stations.—P. A. B.]]

[Footnote 321: Cf. also Barth, iii. 240.]

[Footnote 322: Barth, ii. 337; Nachtigal, i. 666.]

[Footnote 323: Barth, iii. 341. According to Nachtigal there is one species of ant which is the termite’s chief foe. Nachtigal, ii. 556. [This is the large black travelling ant, Hausa, ‘Kwalkwassa,’ Kanuri, ‘Kanam leïrabe’.]]

[Footnote 324: Barth, iii. 397. From the description there given it appears that Barth regarded ants as termites.]

[Footnote 325: Rohlfs, ii. 9.]

[Footnote 326: Nachtigal, ii. 556.]

[Footnote 327: Cf. also Rohlfs, i. 287.]

[Footnote 328: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 662 [silk-moths].]

[Footnote 329: Denham, i. 119.]

[Footnote 330: Denham, ii. 30; cf. also ii. 92 and Barth, iii. 251 (German edition); Nachtigal, ii. 386.]

[Footnote 331: [It has been suggested that there is a mention of the tsetse-fly in the Bible. The 18th and 19th verses of the 7th chapter of Isaiah, in prophesying threatened scourges, read as follows: ‘And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss (i.e. whistle) for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes [in margin, or commendable trees].’ The ‘uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt’ can hardly mean anything else than the headwaters of the Nile, viz. the Victoria Nyanza, whilst by the usual law of antithesis in Hebrew composition, the first half of the 19th verse will refer to the bee and the second half to the fly, i.e. that the flies shall rest ‘upon all thorns and upon all bushes’, and it is the well-known habit of the tsetse-fly to rest on the thorny ambach-shrubs near the Lake.

Arguing from this in an article in the _Royal Geographical Society’s Journal_ for February, 1913, Dr. Felix Oswald remarks that although sleeping sickness only entered Uganda eleven years ago from the west, it is not improbable that it may have existed in the region of the great African lakes in past ages, subsequently disappearing. In the discussion on the paper, Sir Percy Girouard gave it as his opinion that the disease had spent its force in West Africa through centuries, and had become endemic.]]

[Footnote 332: The only species as yet known in Bornu, the _Glossina tachinoides_, is found in places on the bushy banks of streams. [_Glossina submorsitans_, has also been found. The only case of sleeping-sickness so far observed in Bornu was that of a prison warder who was proved to have contracted the disease which proved fatal, at Loko in Nassarawa Province three years before. The case was described by Dr. D. Alexander in the _Journal of Tropical Medicine_, for 1911.]]

[Footnote 333: Barth, iii. 315 and 463 (?); Rohlfs, ii. 15; Nachtigal, ii. 573.]

[Footnote 334: Barth, ii. 301; Nachtigal, ii. 486.]

[Footnote 335: According to Barth termites are not found in the Musgu country, which is exposed to floods for long periods of the year (Barth, iii. 199). Here again Barth has certainly confused termites with ants. On the edges of the swampy ‘firki’ patches the hills erected by the termites are to be found everywhere.]

[Footnote 336: Cf. also Barth, iii. 37 and 302.]

[Footnote 337: Marquardsen, _Der Niger-Benue_, p. 46.]

[Footnote 338: Cf. also Nachtigal, ii. 555.]

[Footnote 339: Rohlfs, ii. 16. Nachtigal also mentions a species of locust being used as an article of food, Nachtigal, i. 666. [For an account of six different kinds of locusts found in Bornu, and of the method of cooking the edible ones, vid. Koelle, _African Native Literature_ p. 198.]]

[Footnote 340: Barth, iii. 263. [‘Kari’ is the regular Kanuri word for a ‘tick’.]]

[Footnote 341: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1060. It is certain, however, that the large land-crabs observed by me in Adamawa are also found in Bornu during the rainy season. [Cf. Chevalier, _Mission Chari-Lac Tchad_, p. 701.]]

[Footnote 342: [There is a detailed study of the Chad shells in Tilho _Doc. sc._, ii. 165 ff.]]

[Footnote 343: The species adduced to confirm a correspondence between the molluscs of Lake Chad and of the Nile are:

_Vivipara unicolor_ [the pond or river snail].

_Melania tuberculata_.

_Corbicula fluminalis_.

In addition to these, I found in a pool on the Yedseram the following varieties, which belong to the fauna of the Nile, and which were identified by Professor Dr. Boettger:

_Ampullaria ovata_ (a very common species) [i.e. the apple snail].

_Lanistes ovum_.

_Cleopatra bulimoides_.

[Cf. [97].] [In Chevalier, _Mission Chari-Lac Tchad_, p. 459, there is an Appendix on Molluscs, with a plate at the end of the volume, and a Bibliography on p. 587.]]

[Footnote 344: Cf. also Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1060 ff.]

[Footnote 345: Cf. Passarge, _loc. cit._, pp. 57, 237, 292, and 400 ff., and the views there expressed as to the rôle played by the earth-worm.]

[Footnote 346: [Also several kinds of intestinal worms.]]

[Footnote 347: Nachtigal, i. 672 ff.]

[Footnote 348: Nachtigal, i. 687; Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 1033 and 1039.]

[Footnote 349: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 682. [Cf. Appendix XVI.]]

[Footnote 350: [The Bornu cattle are periodically decimated by a disease called ‘fufu’, generally described as ‘lung-sickness’, i.e. pleuropneumonia (‘fufu’ means ‘a lung’ in Kanuri). Tilho, _Doc. sc._ i. 32, mentions an epizootic liver disease, called in Budduma ‘banami’, as attacking Budduma cattle, and says that it is caused by the bad quality of stagnant water. There is a disease called ‘gisu’ in Kanuri which attacks sheep and goats, and consists of a tumour in the side.]]

[Footnote 351: Nachtigal, i. 616.]

[Footnote 352: [This is a curious statement. Dogs are as numerous and as noisy in Bornu as in the other countries of the Western Sudan.]]

[Footnote 353: Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 506.]

VII

POPULATION

Bornu offers to the ethnologist, as well as to the botanist and zoologist, phenomena well worthy of notice. Especially he finds confirmed here the interesting fact that in a relatively short time a nation essentially uniform in character can be built up out of various races. The predominant race and the one that inhabits the largest districts in the country is the Kanuri.[354] They are a mixed race of the kind mentioned above; their speech and character are uniform, although single individuals often show ‘throw-backs’ in their external appearance which point unmistakably to the bodily peculiarities of the tribes which have contributed to the creation of the new breed. We have here in front of us one of the most difficult problems of general ethnology, because all the conditions favouring the creation of a state of miscegenation from very heterogeneous elements, such as continued migrations, lack of natural boundaries, and the universal and widespread practice of slavery, coincide to a degree known scarcely anywhere else. Absolute clearness regarding the origin of the race is still more difficult to obtain to-day than it was in Barth and Nachtigal’s time, because since then the campaigns of Rabeh have introduced new elements into the population of Bornu.[355]

Roughly speaking, one will not go far wrong if one follows in the main the deductions of Nachtigal based on the philological studies of Barth, according to which the Kanuri are a mixed race of Arab tribes and Hamitic Kanembu and Tubu,[356] which, gradually losing more and more the physical and mental peculiarities of the dwellers in the desert, became merged in the negro population of the conquered country. Of the good qualities of the desert tribes steeled by a struggle with hostile Nature, the Kanuri appear to have retained only a certain mental activity and industry, whilst the moral virtues, such as energy and chivalry, and the generous bodily characteristics, swamped by the opposite qualities of the inferior negro type, have disappeared more and more. Not only has the influence of the intermixture of blood been made apparent, but also that of the enervating climate of the newly conquered country, which does not call into play all the powers both of body and spirit in the same degree as that of the Sahara.[357] As regards external appearance the Kanuri in general are far inferior to many other tribes in the country owing to their heavier build and pronounced negro physiognomy. One may well describe them as of an ugly, thickset type; their women, moreover, still further disfigure themselves, at least according to European ideas of beauty, by staining the teeth red and wearing in the nostril the inevitable plug of coral or stud of metal. Their chief characteristics are untrustworthiness, love of good living, and true negro levity. Still the assertion of Monteil that Bornu is justly called by the Hausas and Fulani ‘the Land of Lies’,[358] certainly suits the Kanuri in no higher degree than other tribes with a strong negro strain. When, on the other hand, the German travellers Barth, Rohlfs, and Nachtigal lay eulogistic stress on the estimable qualities of such people as Shehu Umar, this is almost always a sign that in the case of these particular individuals the intermixture of negro blood has not yet been thoroughly assimilated.

The quality which shows the Kanuri in an advantageous light as compared with other peoples is their industry; in spite of their undeniable love of pleasure, they do not leave all the hard work to the women and slaves, as is so very very common in the Sudan and especially in almost all negro countries, and it is this that has rendered possible the rich cultivation of the country.[359] In spite of this activity, much that one may consider as signs of a higher civilization appears to have been lost, such as the use mentioned above of burnt bricks in earlier times.

The influence of Islam is everywhere unmistakable; often indeed it is purely formal, but it is the predominant religion of the country, and in spite of contact—in the Eastern Sudan—with the fanatical sect of the Senussi, conducts itself throughout in tolerant fashion. On the other hand, it can scarcely be denied that Islam has favoured in every respect that deeply rooted inclination towards slave-raiding, on which the European Powers have latterly for the first time imposed some check. The ordinances of the Koran are very laxly observed, as is shown especially by the very slightly secluded life of the extremely coquettish Kanuri lady, who is thus enabled to play a definite part in public life,[360] and who even apart from this shows none of the reserve of her sisters in strict Mohammedan countries. This freedom goes so far that, at least in the larger towns, the women show themselves in the streets and exhibit an exceedingly wanton demeanour, to which even the ladies of royal blood form no exception.[361] Finally, in harmony with this looseness of manners is the lack of piety towards the dead, in which the Kanuri compare very unfavourably with many pagan tribes.[362] The practices peculiar to Islam are shown by the conscientious observance of the Mohammedan feasts; the existence of a mosque or ‘masallachi’[363] which is never lacking anywhere, though it often consists of nothing more than an enclosed rectangular space; and the instruction of a large proportion of boys in the teaching of the Koran. If the teaching generally consists only in the thoughtless repetition by rote of the first chapters of the Koran,[364] still one meets more people in Bornu than in other countries of the Central Sudan who can reproduce the words of their native language in the letters of the Arabic alphabet. However little may be the value of the ‘high schools’ of the larger towns, of which Rohlfs and Nachtigal inform us, and however scanty may be the knowledge of the ‘beggar-students’ taught there,[365] still it is to be observed that Barth met people at the Court in Kukawa who knew enough to be able to converse with him on the subject of Ptolemy.[366] Moreover, the fact that a part of the history of Bornu, as we have seen above, could have been handed down in written form, is surely owing to this unmistakable impulse towards education.

It is obvious that in so purely Mohammedan a country as Bornu is, there is no pictorial art to be met with apart from the decoration of houses and utensils. On the other hand it happens that music is extensively cultivated; besides long coach-horns and the ‘algeita’[367] found all over the Sudan, which is a wind instrument evolving the most clamorous dissonances, there are also many string instruments, by means of which very pleasing melodies are produced. Music finds multifarious applications in Bornu, and even serves to spur the people to labour cheerfully in the fields.[368]

The fact that the dress of the natives in Denham’s time—apart from the fact that European influence is now predominant—was subject to certain definite fashions, may perhaps be considered as a sign of a fairly high state of culture. In Barth and Vogel’s time the women wore their hair in a sort of helmet shape, quite different from the fashion prevailing now,[369] though the tattoo marks usual at that time, numerous parallel lines or three scars on each cheek, are still partly retained to- day.[370] The tobe and burnous, formerly invariably worn by men, have now in many cases been replaced by the Dervish dress introduced by Rabeh. The Kanuri bestow great attention on their external appearance and show a preference for costly stuffs; besides those manufactured in the country itself, excellent cotton fabrics are imported by way of Tripoli and the Niger, and as a result of this their taste is constantly changing. This has become especially noticeable in the last decade, and is shown by the preponderance of East Sudan influence over that of the Hausa States, which was formerly predominant, in the dress of the Bornu troops, consisting of wide trousers, the fez, and the Rabeh ‘gown’, worn especially by the infantry. The cavalry have to a large extent retained the old equipment, which from the remotest times has been peculiar to the Central Sudan, consisting of a coat of mail worn under the clothes, made of a thickly wadded cotton quilt, which can protect both horse and rider against poisoned arrows or throwing knives, and a helmet, which is occasionally furnished with a piece of chain-mail[371] to cover the nape of the neck. They are still armed, even to-day, with the lance, though besides this various kinds of missile weapons—such as the infantry invariably carry—are included in their equipment.