Chapter I: From Tunis to Tripoli (16)

The greatest part of the following day was spent in receiving visits. The first of these was interesting, although its interest was diminished by the length to which it was protracted. The visitor was a gallant freeborn Ikázkezan, of a fine though not tall figure, regular, well- marked features, and fair complexion, which at once bespoke his noble birth; he was clad in a very good red bernús, of the value of 70,000 kurdí in Kanó, and altogether was extremely neatly and well dressed. He came first on horseback with two companions on camels, but soon sent his horse and companions away, and squatted down in my tent, apparently for a somewhat long talk with me; and he remained with me for full three hours. But he was personally interesting, and a very fine specimen of his tribe; and the interest attaching to his person was greatly enhanced by his having accompanied the expedition against the Welád Slimán, which none of our other friends the Kél-owí had done. On this account I was greatly pleased to find that his statements confirmed and corroborated the general reports which we had heard before. He was all admiration at the large fortification which, as soon as they heard that the Tawárek intended an expedition against them, the Arabs had constructed at Késkáwa, on the shore of lake Tsád (carrying trees of immense size from a great distance), and where they had remained for two months awaiting the arrival of their enraged foe. He expressed his opinion that nothing but the Great God himself could have induced them to leave at length such a secure retreat and impregnable stronghold, by crazing their wits, and confounding their understandings. I also learnt that these daring vagabonds had not contented themselves with taking away all the camels of the Kél-owí that came to Bílma for salt, but, crossing that most desolate tract which separates Kawár or Hénderi Tedá (the Tébu country) from Aïr, pursued the former as far as Agwáu.

At the time I conversed with my Ikázkezan friend about this subject I was not yet aware how soon I was to try my fortune with the shattered remains of that Arab horde, although its fate had formed an object of the highest interest to the expedition from the beginning. As for ourselves, my visitor was perfectly well acquainted with the whole history of our proceedings; and he was persuaded that, out of any material, we were able to make what we liked, but especially fine bernúses,—an opinion which gave rise to some amusing conversation between us.

This interesting visitor was succeeded by a great many tiresome people, so that I was heartily glad when Overweg, who had made a little excursion to a great pond of stagnant water, at the foot of the hill of Farára, the residence of Mákita, returned, and, lying outside the little shed of tanned skins, which was spread over his luggage, drew the crowd away from my tent. Overweg, as well as Ibrahím, who had accompanied him, had shot several ducks, which afforded us a good supper, and made us support with some degree of patience the trying spectacle of a long procession of men and women laden with eatables, passing by us in the evening towards the camping-ground of the chief, while not a single dish found its way to us; and though we informed them that they were missing their way, they would not understand the hint, and answered us with a smile. Many severe remarks on the niggardliness of the old chief were that evening made round our fire. While music, dancing, and merriment were going on in the village, a solitary “maimólo” found his way to us, to console the three forsaken travellers from a foreign land, by extolling them to the skies, and representing them as special ministers of the Almighty.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, January 8th.]

To-day I began a list of the principal towns and villages of Dam-erghú, which I shall now give as it was corrected and completed by my subsequent inquiries; but first I shall make a few general observations.

Aïr, or rather Ásben, as we have seen above, was originally inhabited by the Góber race—that is to say, the most noble and original stock of what is now, by the natives themselves, called the Háusa nation; but the boundaries of Ásben appear not to have originally included the district of Dam-erghú, as not even those of Aïr do at the present day, Dam-erghú being considered as an outlying province, and the granary of Aïr. On the contrary, the name of Dam-erghú (which is formed of the same root as the names Daw-erghú, Gam-erghú, and others, all lying round Bórnu proper) seems to show that the country to which it applied belonged to the Kanúri race, who are in truth its chief occupants even at the present day, the Bórnu population being far more numerous than the Háusa; and though a great many of them are at present reduced to a servile condition, they are not imported slaves, as Mr. Richardson thought, but most of them are serfs or prædial slaves, the original inhabitants of the country. It is true that a great many of the names of the villages in Dam-erghú belong to the Háusa language; but these I conceive to be of a former date. The district extends for about sixty miles in length, and forty in breadth. It is altogether an undulating country of very fertile soil, capable of maintaining the densest population, and was in former times certainly far more thickly inhabited than at present. The bloody wars carried on between the Bórnu king ʿAli ʿOmármi on the one side, and the sultan of Ágades and the Tawárek of Aïr on the other, must have greatly depopulated these border districts.

In giving a list of the principal villages of this region, I shall first mention five places which owe their celebrity and importance, not to their size or the number of their inhabitants, but rather to their political rank, being the temporary residences of the chiefs.

I name first Kúla-n-kérki—not the village mentioned above as being seen in the distance, but another place half-a-day’s journey (“wúëni,” as the Háusa people say) east from Tágelel—of considerable size, and the residence of the chief Músa, who may with some truth be called master of the soil of Dam-erghú, and is entitled serkí-n-Dam-erghú in the same sense in which Mazáwaji was formerly called serkí-n-Ásben; and to him all the inhabitants of the district, with the sole exception of the people of the three other chiefs, have to do homage and present offerings.

Olalówa, about three miles or three miles and a half S.W. of Tágelel, is rather smaller than Kúla-n-kérki. It is the residence of Mazáwaji, a man of the same family as Ánnur, who, till a short time before our arrival in Aïr, was “amanókal-n-Kél-owí,” residing in Ásodi, in the place of Astáfidet. Though he has left Aïr voluntarily, he still retains the title “serkí-n-Kél-owí,” and is a friendly and benevolent old man. Olalówa has a market-place provided with rúnfona, or rúnfas (sheds), where a market is held every Sunday; but it is not well attended by the inhabitants of the other places, owing to the fear entertained of Mazáwaji’s slaves, who seem (mild as their master is) to be disposed to violence.

Farára, the residence of Mákita, or Ímkiten, the man who played the chief part during the interregnum, or rather the reign of anarchy in Ásben, before the installation of ʿAbd el Káder. It is situated about two miles from Tágelel, on the west side of the road which we were to take, on the top of a hill, at the foot of which is a very extensive lagoon of water, from which the inhabitants of Tágelel also, and of many surrounding villages, draw their supply.

Tágelel, the residence of Ánnur, although of small size (the two groups together containing scarcely more than a hundred and twenty cottages), is nevertheless of great political importance in all the relations of this distracted country.

Here also I will mention Dankámsa, the residence of an influential man of the name of Úmma, which in a certain respect enjoys the same rank as the four above-named villages.[206]

I will also add in this place the little which I was able to learn about the mixed settlements of Tawárek and black natives between Dam-erghú and Múniyo. As these places are the chief centres whence proceed the predatory excursions which are carried on continually against the northern districts of Bórnu, information with regard to them is not easily obtained. The chief among them is the principality of Alákkos or Elákwas[207], about three (long) days N.E. from Zínder, and two from Gúre, the present residence of Muniyóma. The ruling class in this sequestered haunt of robbers and freebooters seems to belong to the tribe of the Tagáma; and the name of the present chief is Abu-Bakr, who can lead into the field perhaps two hundred horsemen. The chief place bears the same name as the whole principality; and besides it there are but a few small places, among which I learnt the name of Dáucha. Alákkos is celebrated among the hungry inhabitants of the desert, on account of its grain; and in the desert-song, the verse which celebrates the horse of Tawát, is followed by another one celebrating the grain of Alákkos, “tádak Elákwas.”

Quite apart seems to be a place called Gáyim, which is governed by a chief called Kámmedán; and I know not whether another place called Kárbo be comprised in the same principality or not. These are the great haunts of the freebooters, who infest the border districts, from Dam-erghú to the very heart of Kánem.

[Sidenote: Thursday, January 9th.]

This was the great market-day in Tágelel, on which account our departure was put off till the following day; but the market did not become thronged until a late hour. I went there in the afternoon. The market- place, which was about 800 yards distant from our encampment, towards the west, upon a small hilly eminence, was provided with several sheds or rúnfas. The articles laid out for sale consisted of cotton (which was imported), tobacco, ostrich-eggs, cheese, mats, ropes, nets, earthenware pots, gúras (or drinking-vessels made of the _Cucurbita ovifera_ and _C. lagenaria_) and kórios (or vessels made of a fine sort of reed, for containing fluids, especially milk); besides these there were a tolerable supply of vegetables, and two oxen, for sale. The buyers numbered about a hundred.

In the afternoon two magozáwa, or pagans, in a wild and fanciful attire (the dry leaves of Indian corn or sorghum hanging down from their barbarous headdress and from the leather apron, which was girt round their loins and richly ornamented with shells and bits of coloured cloth), danced in front of our tents the “devil’s dance”—a performance of great interest in regard to the ancient pagan customs of these countries, and to which I may have occasion to revert, when I speak about Dodó, or the evil spirit, and the representation of the souls of the dead.

Tágelel was a very important point for the proceedings of the mission on several accounts. For here we had reached the lands where travellers are able to proceed singly on their way; and here Overweg and I were to part from Mr. Richardson, on account of the low state of our finances, in order to try what each of us might be able to accomplish single-handed and without ostentation, till new supplies should arrive from home. Here, therefore, the first section of my narrative will most appropriately terminate.

[Footnote 200: The Tagáma were said by some of our informants to have come from Jánet; but I was not able to confirm this piece of information. However I am sure that they belong to a stock settled in these regions long before the Kél-owí. We find them settled on the borders of Negroland in very ancient times. Horneman, from what he heard about them, believed them to be Christians.]

[Footnote 201: Clapperton and Denham’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 107.]

[Footnote 202: The Western Tawárek call the doctor “anéssafar.”]

[Footnote 203: I shall describe this sort of tent in the narrative of my stay amongst the Western Tawárek.]

[Footnote 204: This name means “the mosque;” and the tribe, apparently, has formerly been settled somewhere in a town. By the Arabs it is regarded as greatly Arabicized, and is even called ʿÁraba. We shall meet another tribe of the same name in the West.]

[Footnote 205: A representation of such a stack of corn is given in the next volume.]

[Footnote 206: Besides these I learnt the names of the following places of Dam-erghú:—Nimináka, Gómtu, Sabón-garí, Dágabi, Dagábitáng, Bírji-n- bága; Kúfkúf (called Kobkob by Mr. Richardson in the itinerary which, on his first journey to Ghát, he forwarded to Government[a]), in the W., with a lake of very great dimensions; Babá-n-bírni, a place which I think in former times has been the chief town of the district; Kuyáwa, Da-n-kúmbu, Da-n-gérki, Marké (a very common name in Central Sudán); Zozáwa, at the foot of the high cone of the same name mentioned above; Lekári, also S.; Dammágaji, the place mentioned above; Ngól-mata, N.; Ngól-ganó, Ngól-kalé, Banwélki, Gagáwa, Karíkau, Keshír-keshír, Dammókochi, Nakéfadáng, Damméle, Guyé-guyé, Kabíwa, Fókeni, Gámakay, Burúru, Gángará, Tágelel-ta-Dágabi (different from Ánnur’s residence); Maryámatángh, Kusúmmetángh (both these places are Tawárek settlements); Maizáki, Málemrí, Malenkáderi (prop. Mʿallem Káderi), Chíririm, Esúwi, Músherí, Músajá, Aikáuri, Addankólle, Jémagu-Gomaigéne, Lamá, Hámedan, Karáza, Alkúre, Dantánka, Agwá, Makárarí, Kasallíya, Fárag, Gámaran, Ungwa Sámmit, Yesíyu-Négdar, Chílim-potúk (N. of Kulankérki), Ginnári, Golmaija, Kúnkuré (the tortoise), Báya-n-Dúchi (a village so called on account of its being situate behind a hillock or rocky eminence, and the birthplace of the chief Músa), Dakári, Majá, Gílmirám, Maihánkuba.]

[Footnote a: _b_, _p_, and _f_ (or rather _ph_, _ʿp_) are frequently interchanged in all the dialects of the Central African languages.]

[Footnote 207: There can scarcely be any doubt that this place has some connection with the tribe of Ilasgwas, mentioned by Corippus.]

APPENDIX.