We continue our Journey—Huntsmen—Gum on the Tholukhs—The Salt-Caravan—A Bunch of Gum—Games among the Slaves—Baghzem—Trees—Palm of Pharaoh—Deserted Villages—Birds' Nests—Wife of En-Noor—Unan—Lizards—Bad News—Christmas day in Africa—Christmas-boxes—Begging Tuaricks again—Bargot—Musicians—Speculations—Tribes at War—Parasitical Plant—Importance of Salt—Animals—Agalgo—Force of the Caravan—Beat of Drum—Approach the Hamadah—Giraffes—Poisoned Arrows—Ear of Ghaseb—Soudan and Bornou Roads.
We continue our Journey—Huntsmen—Gum on the Tholukhs—The Salt-Caravan—A Bunch of Gum—Games among the Slaves—Baghzem—Trees—Palm of Pharaoh—Deserted Villages—Birds' Nests—Wife of En-Noor—Unan—Lizards—Bad News—Christmas day in Africa—Christmas-boxes—Begging Tuaricks again—Bargot—Musicians—Speculations—Tribes at War—Parasitical Plant—Importance of Salt—Animals—Agalgo—Force of the Caravan—Beat of Drum—Approach the Hamadah—Giraffes—Poisoned Arrows—Ear of Ghaseb—Soudan and Bornou Roads.
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 nohuntsmen. 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.
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 themen 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 wasobliged 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 highrocky 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 calledgabba, 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 betterbuilt 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 birdwho 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.
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 calledUnan. 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 wenot 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 caravanen 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 neverreach 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 themanything 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 fifthday. 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 somebits 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 thismorning 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 calledkoushiin Haussa, andbarangoin 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 deathfor 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 werebusy 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 thekanga, 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,indented, or scooped-out plains; the whole country being what the people callhamadah, 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.—Whatmatters it?—There is no God" (looking up, and sayingBabo 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 istherefore 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.
[11]I believe the trunk of the doom is always thus divided and subdivided.—Ed.
[11]I believe the trunk of the doom is always thus divided and subdivided.—Ed.
[12]I have not thought it advisable to abridge or alter thisnaïveaccount of a Christmas-day on the southern borders of the Sahara. Mr. Richardson seems already to feel certain presentiments of the fate that awaited him. In other places I have omitted devotional passages; but in this it seemed to me that it would be unjust to the memory of this amiable traveller to do so.—Ed.
[12]I have not thought it advisable to abridge or alter thisnaïveaccount of a Christmas-day on the southern borders of the Sahara. Mr. Richardson seems already to feel certain presentiments of the fate that awaited him. In other places I have omitted devotional passages; but in this it seemed to me that it would be unjust to the memory of this amiable traveller to do so.—Ed.
[13]In Egypt it is made of rice.—Ed.
[13]In Egypt it is made of rice.—Ed.
Enter the Hamadah—Home of the Giraffe—Water of Chidugulah—Turtles—Cool Wind—Jerboahs—Centre of the Sahara—New-year's Eve—Cold Weather—Birds of Prey—Soudan Date—Burs—Animals on the Plateau—Young Ostrich—The Tholukh-tree—Severe Cold—Eleven Ostriches—Termination of the Desert—Inasamet—The Tagama—Purchases—People begin to improve—Fruit of the Lote-tree—Village roofed with Skins—Vast Plain—Horses—Approach Damerghou—Village of Gumrek—Rough Customers—Wars of the Kilgris and Kailouees—A small Lake—Guinea-hens—Vultures—Party of Huntsmen.
Enter the Hamadah—Home of the Giraffe—Water of Chidugulah—Turtles—Cool Wind—Jerboahs—Centre of the Sahara—New-year's Eve—Cold Weather—Birds of Prey—Soudan Date—Burs—Animals on the Plateau—Young Ostrich—The Tholukh-tree—Severe Cold—Eleven Ostriches—Termination of the Desert—Inasamet—The Tagama—Purchases—People begin to improve—Fruit of the Lote-tree—Village roofed with Skins—Vast Plain—Horses—Approach Damerghou—Village of Gumrek—Rough Customers—Wars of the Kilgris and Kailouees—A small Lake—Guinea-hens—Vultures—Party of Huntsmen.
Dec. 29th.—About five hours after we started, the route opened into abonâ fidehamadah. 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. Noplace 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 likecafé 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 saidthey 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 meten 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.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 theheight 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 outsega, "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 footprintsof 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,aduwaandtinku, 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,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 namedProban berau, "a great thief," from his thievish propensities. Then there is the "Lad of the Arrows," the fellow who is always boasting ofhow 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.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 thoseof 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.
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.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 werede-desilver; 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 meen routesome fruit, called in Bornoukusulu, andmageriain Haussa; that is, thenebekor 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 ofel-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 withleaves—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 immenseplain—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 Englishblackbird; 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)."
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 neverthelessthought 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.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.