CHAPTER IV

[75]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 523.[76]Literally “a small river or torrent” in Temajegh.[77]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 454.[78]This generalisation is not intended to cover exceptional examples of stone construction such as those in Sokoto Province.[79]For the houses of Air seeChap. VIII,where characteristic plans are given.[80]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 477.[81]According to Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 451; but the minaret was built in 1847, according to the Agades Chronicle (Journal of the African Society, July 1910).[82]This is the one to which Chudeau (Missions au Sahara, Vol. II,Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 64) refers as 980 years old according to tradition, presumably basing himself on the same information as Jean,op. cit., p. 86. The date is improbable, as Agades was not founded at that time.[83]Cf. Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829: “The king of this citie hath alwaies a noble garde about him.” Cf.Plate 11.[84]Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829.[85]Denham and Clapperton, Vol. II. p. 397.[86]The same procedure is indicated in the Agades Chronicle, which also states that the Kel Owi give him an ox (Journal of the African Society,loc. cit.)[87]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 422.[88]Jean,op. cit., p. 89.[89]Isuf or Yusuf according to Jean, who is certainly wrong in this respect.Op. cit., p. 89. Chudeau,op. cit., p. 70, gives his name as Yunis, as did my informants in Air.[90]The date of the founding of Agades is a measure of confirmation:vide infra,Chap. XI.[91]The second Sultan is given by Chudeau,op. cit., p. 64, as Almubari (El Mubaraki): a ruler of this name succeeded a Yusif whom he deposed in 1601; some confusion has probably arisen on account of Jean’s error in supposing that the first Sultan was called Yusuf instead of Yunis.[92]SeeAppendix VI.[93]See table inAppendix VI.[94]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 468.[95]See also the remarks made inChap. XIIregarding the tribes which elected the Sultan.[96]For the explanation of the sense which these words have acquired, see second footnote, Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 471.[97]The Tuareg have forestalled many European Powers in making their Prime Minister also Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.[98]Jean,op. cit., p. 89.[99]Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829.[100]The influence of the Emir of Sokoto to which Barth has referred is exercised through the Itesan by virtue of their domicile near this city. Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 468.[101]Cf. Leo Africanus, Vol. III. p. 829.[102]Cf.mapin Chap II.[103]My estimate of 30,000 inhabitants was arrived at locally without any books of reference. On my return I found that Barth had arrived at the same figure, with a possible maximum of 50,000 (op. cit., Vol. I. p. 472).[104]The French operations of 1918 against Air, the occupation of the country from the south in 1904 and the passage of the Foureau-Lamy expedition are not considered, as the superiority of European weapons makes it impossible to compare these exploits with native enterprises, though the success of the first two and the appalling losses in camels and material of the last in a measure confirm the thesis.[105]Vide supra,Chap. II.[106]By Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 459, and by Cooley,Negroland of the Arabs, p. 26, as 1438A.D.CHAPTER IVTHE ORGANISATION OF THE AIR TUAREGOn6th August, soon after noon, I marched out of Agades with twenty-six camels and eight men for Central Air. My two travelling companions had left the same morning with ten camels in the opposite direction, bound for a point called Tanut[107]near Marandet in the cliff of the River of Agades. Some men of the Kel Ferwan, who were camped under the cliff south of the river, had brought information concerning a lion. At Marandet, it appeared, a cow had been killed and the trail of the offending beast was plainly visible; notwithstanding, Buchanan was unable to secure this lion or any specimen, or even a skull, so it proved impossible to classify the animal.Circumstantial evidence goes to show that the lion still exists in Air, but is nevertheless very rare. In the Tagharit valley, a few miles north of Auderas, there is a cave in the side of a gorge which a large stream has cut through a formation of columnar basalt: a pink granite shelf makes a fine waterfall in the rainy season with a pool which survives at its foot all the year round. A lion used to live in this den until recent years, when it was killed by the men of Auderas because it had pulled down a camel out of a herd grazing in the neighbourhood. The carcase had been dragged over boulders and through scrub and up the side of the ravine into the lair; a feat of strength which no other animal but a lion could possibly have accomplished. When I came to the overhanging rock the ground was fœtid and befouled, and the skeleton of the camel was stillthere and comparatively fresh. One of the men of Auderas who had been present at the killing secured a claw as a valuable charm; another had apparently been severely mauled in the shoulder. They had surrounded the “king of beasts,” as the Tuareg also call him, and had attacked with spears and swords. There was no doubt of the animal having been a lion.The cave in the Tagharit gorge is a short distance from the point[108]where Barth[109]saw “numerous footprints of the lion,” which he conceived to be extremely common in these highlands in 1850, albeit “not very ferocious.” In 1905 a lioness trying to find water fell into the well at Tagedufat and was drowned; her two small cubs were brought into Agades, and one of them was afterwards sent to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.[110]This lion, however, may not have been of the same variety as the Air species, for the latter is said never to have been scientifically examined.The Air lion has been described as a small maneless animal like the Atlas species, though von Bary, who, however, never himself saw one, heard that it had a mane. He confirms the report that the animal was common, as late as in 1877, especially in the Bagezan massif, where it used to attack camels and donkeys.[111]The advent of the rains during the latter part of July made travelling through Air in many ways very pleasant. But there were also disadvantages. With the first fall of rain the flies and mosquitoes came into their own again. The common house-flies were especially trying during my journey north of Agades. They infested the country miles from any human habitation or open water.PLATE 13AUDERAS VALLEY LOOKING WESTAUDERAS VALLEY: AERWAN TIDRAKSouth of Agades the rains proved a terrible burden. The combined onslaughts of flies, mosquitoes and every other form of winged and crawling insect made life intolerable for Buchanan’s party; meals had to be eaten undernetting and naked lights were rapidly extinguished by incinerated corpses. Camels got no rest. Even the hardened natives had recourse to any device to snatch a little sleep. They went so far as to make their beds in the thorny arms of small acacia trees in order to escape the plague. The alluvial plain of the River of Agades had become so soft as to be almost impossible to cross. Mud engulfed the camels up to their bellies. The drivers used to unload them and push them bodily over on to their sides at the risk of breaking their legs in order to let the brutes kick themselves free. The several stream beds of the system, even if not too swollen to be completely unfordable, had such perpendicular banks where the water had cut its way down several feet below the surface of the ground that they became formidable obstacles. The constant threat of rain made long marches impossible, though it was abundantly clear that the longer the time that was spent in the valley the worse the ground would become. Buchanan was rewarded for his disappointment at not finding a lion by securing near Tanut two fine specimens of ostrich and an ant-bear. He also reported the existence near Marandet of a cemetery in the bank of a stream bed. It was unfortunate that he had not time to examine this site, as it seems to be an example of urn burial, probably of pre-Tuareg date.[112]Half a day’s march from Agades brought me to the village of Azzal on the valley of the same name, the lower part of which is called “Telwa,” the most convenient name for the whole of this important basin. Azzal and the neighbouring Alarsas[113]are small settlements with a few date palms and some gardens. They were formerly inhabited only by serfs engaged in cultivating the gardens which supply Agades with vegetables. After the 1917 revolution in Air the noble population of certain villagesin the Ighazar, which was evacuated, settled there temporarily under their chief, Abdulkerim of T’intaghoda. They were living in straw and reed huts, hoping in the course of time to return north and resume possession of the more substantial houses in their own country. During my stay in Air several families did, as a matter of fact, go back to Iferuan and Seliufet. But the presence of the remainder of these Kel Ighazar in the south is somewhat anomalous, as the country from the earliest times has been almost exclusively inhabited by servile people. The area, extending over the foothills of the main plateau, is not yet, properly speaking, Air, in the sense in which the name is used by the Tuareg. Like the desert further south, it is called Tegama.After following the Telwa for a short distance the track crosses to the left bank and winds over low bare hills and torrent beds. A little before reaching Solom Solom there is a wooded valley which the road leaves to cross a stretch of higher ground by a small pass covered with the remains of stone dwellings, the site, I presumed, of Ir n’Allem. The track is evidently very old at this point, for in places it has worn deep into the rock. The country is wild and picturesque, but the earth-brown hills are fashioned on a small scale. The district used to be infested by brigands who preyed on the caravans bound to and from Agades.The southern part of my journey followed the usual route, though Barth on his expedition from T’intellust to Agades travelled both there and back by an alternative track rather further east in the Boghel valley and via Tanut Unghaidan, which is not far from Azzal, where he rejoined the more habitual way.At Dabaga my road from Solom Solom rejoined the Telwa valley and crossed the stream bed after a short descent into a basin covered with dense thickets of dûm palms and acacias. The trees were filled with birds. The river was in full flood, over a quarter of a mile wide and some two feet deep—an imposing stream draining south-westernBagezan and Todra into the River of Agades. I was luckily able to cross it with my laden camels, but some travellers only a little behind me were held up for several days by the floods which followed the heavy rain in Central Air. Travelling at this season of the year is slow, as camp must be pitched before the daily rains begin, usually soon after noon. On the other hand, it is very convenient to be able to halt anywhere on the road regardless of permanent watering-points; for every stream bed, even if not actually in flood, contains pools or water in the sand.Climatically Air is a Central African country. It is wholly within the summer rainfall belt, the northern limit of which coincides fairly accurately with the geographical boundary of the country at the wells of In Azawa. The rains usually commence in July, and last for two months, finishing as abruptly as they have begun. Within the limits of the belt, the further north, the later, on the whole, is the wet season, though great irregularities are observed. In Nigeria the rains fall during May and June, at Iferuan they occur in August and September.[114]They are tropical in their intensity, and in Air nearly always fall between noon and sunset.During my stay at Auderas there were a few days when the sky was overcast for the whole of the twenty-four hours, with little rainfall; the damp heavy feeling in the air reminded one of England, as the atmosphere was cold and misty. On one particular day it rained lightly and fitfully for fourteen hours on end with occasional heavy showers. Such phenomena, however, are rare. Precipitation follows a north-easterly wind and usually lasts three or four hours; as soon as the westerly wind, prevalent at this season, has sprung up, the nimbus disperses rapidly, leaving only enough clouds in the evening to produce the most magnificent sunsets that I have ever seen.In 1922 the rainy season at Auderas was virtually over by the 10th September, though it continued a little later in the north. The rains were followed by a period of damp heat, and then by some days when the ground haze was so thick that visibility was limited to a few hundred yards. Until recent years there seems to have been a short second rainy season in the north of Air coinciding with the first part of the Mediterranean winter precipitation. In November near Iferuan I experienced several days on which rain appeared to be imminent, but none fell. Natives told me that up to three or four years previously they had often had a few days’ rain in December and January. In 1850 the last rain of the summer season, which, exceptionally, had begun as far north and as early as 26th May at Murzuk, was recorded on 7th October, but in November and December after a fine period the sky had again become overcast, and a few drops of rain actually fell in Damergu on 7th January, 1851. The cycles of precipitation in the Sahara are constantly varying and data are as yet insufficient to permit any conclusion. It would be quite incorrect, from the accounts of the last ten years alone, to suppose that the rainfall had markedly diminished, or that the second rainy season had disappeared.During the rains the larger watercourses meandering among the massifs of the country often become impassable for days on end, which is inconvenient, for in ordinary times they are the channels of communication. Owing to the lack of surface soil and vegetation on the as yet undisintegrated volcanic rock, streams fill with surprising rapidity during the rains and are very dangerous for the unwary traveller. The great joy of these weeks was the freshness of the air after the intolerable heat of June and July, especially in the plains. With the rain too came the annual rebirth of plant life, which made one’s outlook very sweet. In European spring-time Nature awakes from winter sleep, but in Africa a new world, fresh and green and luxurious, is born after the rains out of a shrivelled corpse of sun-dried desert.At Dabaga I was persuaded to forsake the caravan road which continues up the Telwa and take a riding road by Assa Pool and the T’inien mountains. Difficulties began at Assa, when I tried to pitch my tent on rocky ground, with the result that it was almost impossible to keep it erect in the rain squalls which followed. The evening, after the rain, was unsatisfactory. I wounded two jackals at which I had shot, but did not kill either. I missed several guinea-fowl and only secured a pair of pigeons among the dûm palms of the valley. Also, there were many flies. However, I made the acquaintance of one of the greatest guides in Air, Efale, who overtook me on his way north, and camped near me. He talked volubly that night. Next day, after dropping sharply into the T’inien valley by a narrow defile, the road became frankly devilish. At the bottom of the steep sides the soil is impregnated with salt, which effectually prevents anything growing. There are a number of circular pits where the sandy salt, called “ara” or “agha,” is worked. The mixture is dried in cakes and sold in the south for a few pence. It is only fit for camels, which require a certain amount of salt every month, more especially after they have been feeding on fresh grass. “Ara” can only be used for human food if the sand has been washed out and the brine re-dried.After leaving Assa the vegetation had almost entirely disappeared. Low gravel-strewn hills on the right obscured the view to the east. The T’inien valley soon made a right-angle turn to the north, closing to a narrow cleft, which became even rougher. The track was a series of steps between huge granite and quartz boulders, among which the camels kept on stumbling. Their loads required constant readjustment and there was no room to kneel them down. The way was really only fit for unloaded camels or riders on urgent business. There had not been a tree or bush for hours. We climbed some 600 feet in about a mile, almost to the very top of the jagged peaks on the left that marked the summit of the T’inien range. By 11.15 a.m. I was beginning to despair of finding a campsite before the rain was due, as I foresaw a similar unpleasant descent on the other side of the col which had so long been looming ahead. Then as I reached the gates of the pass a view over the whole of Central Air suddenly burst upon me in such beauty as I can never forget.The ground sloped imperceptibly to the east. It fell away only about a hundred feet to the north, where a row of small crags, the continuation of the T’inien range, cut off the western horizon. Straight in front in the distance, piled mass upon mass, the blue mountains of Central Air rose suddenly out of the uplands, soaring into the African sky. Between the bold cliffs and peaks of the Bagezan mountains and the long low Taruaji group to the right, a few little conical hills of black rock broke the surface of the vast plain which rolled away to the east. From so great a distance the plain seemed tolerably smooth, veined like the hand of a man with watercourses winding southwards from the foot of the mountains. Black basalt boulders covered the flat spaces between lines of green vegetation and the threads of white sand, where the stream beds were just visible. Over the whole plain the new-born grass was like the bloom on a freshly-picked fruit. To the south-east stood the blue range of Taruaji itself, flat-topped and low on the horizon. Either side of the hills the curve of the world fell gently away towards the Nile.I camped a mile or so north of the pass in a valley below the precipitous cliffs of a rock called Okluf, which has a castellated crown several hundred feet high. The rocks shone blue-black, with their feet in a carpet of green that seemed too vivid to be real. There were plenty of guinea-fowl and many other birds in the palm woods and thorn groves, and such grass as I thought only grew in the water meadows of England. I shall never forget the beauty of Central Air on that noonday in the rains, though I have it in me to regret the fiendish temper in which the day’s march had left me. The flies in the evening and the fast-running things upon the ground at night only made it worse. I had hurriedly and laboriously pitched a tent, and it never rained after all.PLATE 14MT. TODRA FROM AUDERASOn the following day I ascended the T’ilisdak valley which flows into the Telwa, and reached Auderas village, where some huts had been prepared for us by the chief Ahodu, a man who soon became my most particular friend. The T’ilisdak valley is renowned for its excellent grazing and for some mineral springs where men, camels and herds go after the rainy season to take a “cure” of the waters.[115]Near Okluf there are the remains of several hut villages, and some with stone foundations of a more permanent character. They belong to a servile tribe of Southern Air called the Kel Nugguru, who at present are living somewhat further west.Air proper may be said to begin at the head of the T’ilisdak valley. The part of the plateau I had traversed was therefore still in Tegama, which includes the whole area south of Bagezan and Todra as far as the River of Agades, as well as the Taruaji massif, but not the country east of the latter and of Bagezan. Most of the villages in Tegama have gardens, and some have groves of date palms. That they are inhabited by serfs is, of course, natural, since the cultivation of the soil, in the estimation of the noble Tuareg, is not a worthy occupation for a man. When, however, in a nomad society agriculture is relegated to an inferior caste of people, it is inevitable that the practice should undermine the older allegiances. It becomes possible for the settled and therefore originally the servile people to accumulate wealth even in bad times when the profit from raiding or caravaning is denied to the upper classes of Air. The social effects of the disruption caused by the 1917 revolution may be observed in the village organisations, where people of different tribes are now tending more and more to live in association under the rule of a village headman, who for them is displacing the authority of their own tribal chiefs. The village headmen,it is true, are sometimes themselves the leaders of the tribes in whose area the village is situated, but more often they are merely local men acting on the delegated authority of the tribal chief, who in Tegama is probably the head of an Imghad or servile tribe dependent in turn upon some noble tribe living in a different part of Air. But in time the population of a village may become known collectively as the people of such and such a place, and so reference to the old tribal allegiance of the inhabitants disappears.Tuareg tribal names deserve close investigation. They are of two categories: those which begin with “Kel” (People of . . .) and those which begin with “I” or sometimes “A.” This “I” or “A” may be quite strongly pronounced, but often represents the so-called “neutral vowel,”[116]which is very difficult to transliterate. Thus the word “Ahaggar” might as correctly be written “Ihaggar”; the initial vowel indeed is so little emphasised that the French have come to write simply “Hoggar” or “Haggar.” On the other hand, in the name Ikazkazan, an Air tribe, the “I” is marked; in the Azger tribe, again, the Ihadanaren, it is so lightly accentuated that Barth writes “Hadanarang.” This point, however, is of little moment: what matters is the question of the type of prefix to the name. To simplify reference I propose to call these two types “Kel name” and “I name” tribes. After examining the two categories at length, a distinction seemed to me to stand out clearly; I believe it holds good among other Tuareg as well as those of Air. The primary tribal divisions have names of the “I” category, except in certain cases where they are nearly always known to have been forgotten; the subdivisions of these tribes have “Kel names.” The former are proper names; the latter are derived either from the place where the people usually or once lived, or from some inherent peculiarity. The word “Kel” is also used to cover generalisations of no ethnic importance: the “I name,” on the other hand, isscarcely ever geographical or adjectival. The generalisation will be clearer for a few examples, chosen among the Air tribes. The noble tribe called Imasrodang has for sub-tribes the Kel Elar, Kel Seliufet and Kel T’intaghoda, called after the villages where they lived in Northern Air. Again, the Ikazkazan have one section or group of sub-tribes called the Kel Ulli—the People of the Goats—who are themselves subdivided into other factions bearing “Kel names.”Certain other “Kel names” like Kel Ataram or Kel Innek are often heard in Air, but are not proper names at all; they were erroneously regarded by Barth as tribal names, but simply mean the “People of the West” and the “People of the East” respectively, and have no inherent ethnic significance. In Air the former term logically includes, and is meant to include, the Arab as well as the Tuareg tribes of the west.[117]So clear is this use of geographical “Kel names” that we shall find repeated instances later on of tribes who, having migrated from a certain area, retain their old names, though these are no longer applicable to their new ranges. Take, for example, the Kel Ferwan—the People of Iferuan, in North Air; they now live in the southern parts of the country. Or, again, there are two Kel Baghzen, called after a mountain group in Central Air; the one group is still in that area, the other, which once lived there, has since migrated to the country north of Sokoto.In certain forms the word “Kel” corresponds to the Arabic word “ahel,” but the latter seems more usually employed in connection with wide geographical indications of habitat, without much ethnic significance, like Kel Innek. The use of this type of “Kel name” is the exception rather than the rule in Temajegh and has a colloquial rather than traditional sanction. The more common “Kel names,” on the other hand, are definitely individual tribalnames, and refer to small areas. They are not by any means restricted to sedentary tribes.[118]A third category of names commencing with the “Im” or “Em” prefix is regarded by Barth[119]as virtually identical with the “Kel” class, but this is not quite accurate. The “Im” prefix is used to make an adjectival word form of place names; the “Kel names” only become adjectival by prefixing “People of . . .” Thus “Emagadezi” would be more correctly translated as “Agadesian” than as the “People of Agades,” whose correct designation is Kel Agades. “I names” partake of neither of these characteristics. For the most part their significance remains unexplained. It follows that “Kel names,” although proper to the tribes that bear them, being descriptive or geographical, are certainly not so old as the individual and proper “I names.”There are examples of tribes which have lost their “I names” and are only referred to by a “Kel name,” though in many cases this is more apparent than real. When a tribe with an “I name” increases until the point is reached where it subdivides, one of the subdivisions retains the original “I name,” the remainder take other and, usually, geographical appellations. This process might be shown graphically:—Original I name tribe.I name sub-tribe (as above)Kel name sub-tribeKel name sub-tribeKel name sub-tribeCollective Kel name often the same as one of the sub-tribe Kel names if the latter has come to play a preponderating part in the group.This difference of nomenclature has a definite bearing on the difficulties of co-ordinating sedentarism and nomadism in one people, which must have occurred to everyone who has studied the problem in administration. The exact relations between a village headman, the tribal chiefs of the persons who are living in his village and the tribal chief of the area in which the village is situated cannot be defined. One set of allegiances is breaking down and another has not yet been completely formed. This was already going on in Air when the position was complicated by the advent of a European Power demanding a cut-and-dried devolution of authority, and tending to encourage sedentary qualities in order to prevent raiding. These problems in Air to-day are almost insoluble, but they are of an administrative rather than of an anthropological order.Auderas at the present time is probably the most important place in Air after Agades. As an essentially agricultural settlement it is an excellent example of the village organisation. The valley of Auderas lies about 2600 feet above the sea. Seven small valleys unite above the village and two affluents come in below, draining the western slopes of Mount Todra and a part of the Dogam group. The main stream eventually finds its way out into the Talak plain[120]under various names. The sandy bed of the valley near the village contains water all the year round. Both banks are covered with intense vegetation, including a date-palm plantation of some thousand trees. Under the date palms and amongst the branching dûm-palm woods, where the thickets and small trees have been cleared or burnt off, are a number of irrigated gardens supplied with water from shallow wells. Some wheat, millet, guinea corn and vegetables are grown with much labour anddevotion. Onions and tomatoes are the principal vegetables all the year round, with two sorts of beans in the winter. Occasionally sweet potatoes and some European vegetables like carrots, turnips and spinach are grown from seeds which have been supplied by the French. Pumpkins do well and water melons are common. There is also a sweet melon. Three different shapes of gourds for making drinking and household vessels are cultivated. Cotton is found in small quantities, the plant having probably been imported from the Sudan. Its presence in Air is interesting, as in 1850 Barth had placed the northern limit of Sudan cotton in the south of Damergu. The cotton plant does very well when carefully irrigated and produces a good quality of fibre. Two samples which I brought home from Air were reported on respectively as: “good colour, strong, fairly fine 1³⁄₁₆ staple,” and “generally good colour, staple 1³⁄₁₆-1¼ inches, strong and fine”; the materials were respectively valued at 20·35 and 21·35 pence per pound when American May Future Cotton stood at 17·35 pence (May 1924).[121]The Tuareg spin their cotton into a rough yarn for sewing or making cord, but in Air they do not seem to weave. The indigo plant grows wild in Air: it is not cultivated, nor is it used locally for dyeing.The gardens require much attention and preparation. The ground is cleared and the scrub burnt off as a top dressing. The soil is then carefully levelled by dragging a heavy plank or beam forwards and backwards by hand across the surface. The area is divided up into small patches about six feet square with a channel along one side communicating with a leat from an irrigation well. These wells are usually unlined and shallow, with a wooden platform overhanging the water on one side; on this a rectangular frame is set up with a second cross member carrying a pulley over which a rope is passed. An ox ora donkey pulls up the big leather bucket by the simple process of walking away from the well, returning on its tracks to lower it again. The bucket is a tubular contrivance, the bottom of which is folded up while the water is raised; when it reaches the level of the irrigation channel, a cord is pulled to open the bottom of the leather tube and the water allowed to run out. The other end of this cord is attached to the animal, and the length is so adjusted that the operation is performed automatically each time the bucket comes to the top. The pole and bucket with a counterweight and the water wheel are not known in Air for raising water; nor are any dams constructed either to make reservoirs in ravines or to maintain a head of water for flow irrigation in the rainy season. Each little patch in the gardens is hoed and dressed with animal manure. The seed is planted and carefully tended every day, for it is very valuable. Barth records seeing at Auderas a plough drawn by slaves. This was clearly an importation from the north; the plough is not now used anywhere in the country, which at heart has never been agricultural.PLATE 15GRAIN POTS, IFERUANGARDEN WELLAs in the south, millet and guinea corn are sown during the rains, but they usually require irrigation before they reach maturity. In certain areas rain-grown crops could be raised most years. In the past a fair amount of cereals seems to have been produced in this way; to-day the Tuareg are too poor to risk losing their seed in the event of inadequate or irregular rainfall. Although the wheat grown in the Ighazar used nearly all to be exported to the Fezzan, where it was much in demand on account of its excellent quality for making the Arab food “kus-kus,” Air at no time has produced enough grain for its own consumption. In the economics of Air necessary grain imports are paid for by the proceeds of wheat sales or live-stock traffic with the north, and by the profits of the trade in salt from Bilma; these provide the means of purchasing the cheaper millet and guinea corn of Damergu. Any additional surplus, representing annual savings, is investedin live-stock, especially camels, within the borders of the country.The breakdown of the social organisations of the Tuareg in Air compelled numbers of nobles out of sheer poverty after they had lost their camels and herds to cultivate the soil; before the war not even the servile people were very extensively so employed if they could find enough slaves to do the work.Neither the advent of a European Power nor the subsequent changes in the social structure of the country has had very much effect on the position of slaves in Air. Of these there are two categories,[122]the household slave and the outdoor slave, and both of them are chattels in local customary law. The former are called “ikelan,” the latter “irawellan,”[123]or alternatively “bela,” “buzu” or “bugadie,” which, however, are not Temajegh words, but have been borrowed from the south. The term “irawel” is also used generically to cover both categories of slaves, although it primarily refers to the latter. In the use of this word Barth[124]makes one of the few mistakes of which he has been guilty, where he states that the most noble part of the Kel Owi group of tribes in Air is the “Irolangh” clan, to which the Amenokal or Sultan of the Kel Owi belonged. The paramount chief of his day, Annur, belonged to the Kel Assarara section of the Imaslagha tribe, which is probably the original and certainly one of the most noble of the Kel Owi, for it includes the Kel Tafidet, who gave their name to the whole confederation. The traveller’s mistaken reference to Irawellan or Irolangh isprobably due to his having been informed by a member of some non-Kel Owi tribe that Annur and all his people were “really Irawellan,” or servile people. Such abuse of the Kel Owi is common among the other Air Tuareg. It is certainly not justified in fact, and is due to the contempt in which an older nobility will always hold more recent arrivals.[125]The negro slaves, the Ikelan, are primarily concerned with garden cultivation, and are consequently sedentary. One half of the produce of their labour goes to their masters and the other half to support themselves and their families. Ikelan also perform all the domestic duties of the Tuareg to whom they belong, and herd their masters’ goats and sheep if they happen to be living in the same neighbourhood. A certain proportion of the offspring of the flocks is also given to the slaves. Since, primarily, they are cultivators of the ground, they do not move from place to place with their owners. They consequently often escape domestic work and herding. Despite their legal status they are in practice permitted to own property, though, if their masters decided to remove it, they would be within their rights to do so. In other words, the theoretical status of slavery which makes it impossible for a chattel to own property has been considerably modified, and not as a consequence of the altered conditions, or of the legislation of a European Power, but because slavery among the Tuareg never did involve great hardship. Their slaves, furthermore, always had the hope of manumission and consequent change to the status of Imghad or serfs, a rise in the social scale which, in fact, often did occur. It was in slave trading and not in slave owning that the Tuareg sinned against the ethical standards which are usually accepted in Europe, and obtained so unenviable a reputation last century.Herding live-stock, and especially camels, is the primary function of the outdoor slave or Buzu. Though often also a negro, he is considered to possess a somewhat higherstatus than the Akel, for he does not as a rule work in the house or village. The Buzu’s work, if on the whole less strenuous than that of the tiller of gardens, is felt to be more manly because he is associated with camels. He travels with nobles or Imghad, to either of whom he may belong. He does all the hard menial work on the march. He is responsible especially for herding the camels at pasture and for loading and unloading them each day on the road. Such duties as filling water-skins, driving camels down to water, feeding them on the march and making rope for the loads, all fall to his lot. The Buzu may even accompany his master’s camels on raids or act as personal messenger for his lord. When the camels are resting he spends his days watching the grazing animals, or looking after any other herds which his master may own in the neighbourhood. On the whole I have found the Buzu a remarkably hard-working person. He is almost useless without his master to give him orders and to see that they are carried out, but ready to undertake any exertion connected with his work, which he regards as his fate, but not his privilege to perform without complaint.It is difficult to determine whether there is any racial difference between the Buzu class, the tillers of gardens, and the ordinary household slaves. The first are more respected than the last, which may mean that they are more closely related in blood to their masters. The practice of concubinage, though not very widespread, has probably created the caste, and from them, in time, a certain proportion of the Imghad. While theoretically the children of a slave concubine and a Tuareg man ought to be “ikelan” like their mother, in practice they tend to rise into the superior caste of the Buzu, and eventually in successive generations to Imghad. In Air at least the general tendency is for the old-established caste distinctions to become more elastic and for the ancient order to pass away. Although the events of the last twenty years have contributed greatly to this change, the strongest factor has certainly been theincreasing wealth of the Imghad, but another reason is probably that many Imghad tribes in Air were themselves originally Imajeghan before their capture in war or their subjugation by some means. Consequently with the dissolution of tribal allegiances in Air and enhanced prosperity they have tended to revert to their former status. They cling so tenaciously to nobility of birth that, rather than accept the logical results of inferiority consequent upon defeat in war, the people collectively combine to admit the fiction of servile people possessing dual status.The presence of more than one racial type among the Imghad has led certain travellers to make quite unjustifiable generalisations about this section of Tuareg society. There have also been advanced numerous and most unnecessarily complicated theories to account for the division of the race as a whole into these two castes. The problem is really much simpler. Although by no general rule can it be said that the Imghad originally belonged to this or to that people, they are all clearly the descendants of groups or individuals captured in war and subsequently released from bondage to form a caste enjoying a certain measure of freedom, and having a separate legal or civil existence under something more than the mere political suzerainty of the noble tribe which originally possessed them. In this first stage, the noble tribe represents the original pure Tuareg race, while the oldest Imghad are the first extraneous people whom they conquered, in some cases perhaps as early as in the Neolithic ages. “It is necessary,” says Bates,[126]with great justice, “to state emphatically that the division into Imghad and Imajeghan is so ancient that the Saharan Berbers preserve no knowledge of its origin.” This antiquity may be held to account for the complete national fusion which has taken place among the two castes: nearly all Imghad would utterly fail to grasp a suggestion that they were not to-day as much Tuareg as their Imajeghan overlords, however they may dislike and abuse the latter.As time went on more and more Imghad were added to the race, each group being subject to the noble tribe responsible for its conquest. The possibility of a group of people becoming the Imghad of an Imghad tribe was precluded by the relations obtaining between serfs and nobles, whereby it is the sole prerogative of the latter to wage war or make peace. Should an Imghad tribe capture slaves in war they could not be manumitted except by the Imajegh tribe, the lords of the victorious Imghad; and by the act of manumission the newly-acquired slaves would then become the equals of their Imghad conquerors under the dominion of the Imajeghan concerned.The Imghad of Air may be divided into three categories whose history is so intimately bound up with the noble tribes that it cannot be considered separately. There are the Imghad whose association with their respective Imajeghan dates from before their advent to Air; their origin must be looked for in the Fezzan or elsewhere at some very early date. Secondly, there are the Imghad who were the original inhabitants of Air before the Tuareg came, and who by some agreement at the time, like the traditional one of Maket n’Ikelan,[127]were not enslaved but allowed to continue living in the country side by side with the new arrivals in a state of vassalage or semi-servitude. Lastly, there are the Imghad who are either Arabs, Tuareg of other divisions, or negroids from the south captured in the course of raids from Air, in some cases as recently as a generation ago. With these different origins it is not surprising to find among the Air Imghad both a strongly negroid type, a non-negroid and non-Tuareg type, and a type showing the fine features and complexion characteristic of the Imajeghan themselves. The first type is the pre-Tuareg population of Air. It is the most common, if only for the reason that negroid characteristics always appear to be dominant in the cross-breeding which ensued. The second type represents the Arab or Berber element acquired byconquest. The third type represents the subjugated groups of Imajeghan of other divisions.[128]Of the latter category are, for instance, the Kel Ahaggar, Imghad of the Kel Gharus, who were originally nobles from the great northern division of the Tuareg. Many of the Kel Ferwan Imghad are believed to be Arabs or Tuareg of the west, captured comparatively recently on raids into the Aulimmiden territory. The Kel Nugguru are the freed slaves of the Añastafidet, the administrative head of the Kel Owi confederation: they have become so prosperous that they are now laying claim to be of noble origin, a pretension which no right-minded Imajegh in Air will admit for a moment. But it is almost impossible nowadays to trace the history of each Imghad tribe in detail. Generally, in the absence of more precise data, it may be assumed that those Imghad tribes which have “I names” are the oldest; for here the process of assimilation to the mass of the Tuareg race is most complete, either on account of the length of their mutual association or owing to the fact that they were originally themselves of the same race; the “Kel name” Imghad, on the other hand, are probably more recent additions.[129]The confusion reigning on the subject of the “Black” and “White” Tuareg in the minds of the few people in Europe who have ever heard of the race is due to the practice in the north of the servile wearing a white, and the nobles a black, veil. But a “Black” Tuareg, being a noble, will, in the vast majority of cases, have a much fairer complexion and more European features than a “White,” or servile Tuareg. In Air the colour of the veil affords no means of distinguishing the caste of the wearer. Thebest veils, being made in the south, are consequently cheaper in Air than in the north, and this is probably the reason why Imajeghan and Imghad alike in Air wear the indigo-black Tagilmus. When a white veil is seen, it usually means that the wearer is too poor to buy a proper black one and has had to resort to some makeshift torn from the bottom of his robe.Slaves, domestic or pastoral, do not wear the face veil at all. This is the essential outward difference between them and the Imghad. The latter, whatever their origin, are considered to be a part of the Tuareg people; the former cannot be so, for they are simply accounted to belong, as camels do, to the People of the Veil.The exact status of the Imghad, or “meratha” (merathra) as they are called by the Arabs in Fezzan, is somewhat difficult to define. There is no adequate translation in any European language of the word “amghid.”[130]The process of their original enslavement and subsequent release to form a category of people who have achieved partial but not complete freedom has, I think, no parallel in Europe except in a modified form in the state of vassalage. Yet, as “servile” conveys too narrow and definite a relationship, so “vassal” is certainly too broad a term. In the state of servility or, to coin a word, “imghadage” to which the pre-Tuareg inhabitants of Air appear to have been reduced, the process of enslavement and release may be said to have taken place only as a legal fiction, and not, if the tradition is to be accepted as accurate, in real fact. The general practice seems to have been that when large groups of people were subjugated or captured in war they were simultaneously released into the state of imghadage, but when individuals or a few persons were acquired by force or by purchase, they were only manumitted in the course of time, if at all, and incorporated at some later date into an Imghad tribe or village already in existence.In contradistinction to slaves, the Imghad are not boundindividually, but collectively, and not to individuals, but to a noble tribe or group of tribes. They are in no sense considered to be the property of the latter; but the relationship is closer than that of suzerain and vassal. It is not within the power of an Imghad tribe to change its allegiance, since in the first instance its members were theoretically at least the property of its overlord tribe; they owe their separate existence to an act of manumission freely and voluntarily accomplished. A change of allegiance could occur only if a servile tribe were captured in whole or in part; it follows that when this has occurred one servile tribe might owe allegiance in several parts to different noble groups.[131]The bond between them consists of the right of the responsible noble tribe alone, and therefore of its chief, to administer justice among the dependent Imghad, either in small cases by tacitly confirming the verdict of their own headman, or in more weighty matters by express reference. The Imghad tribe may be fined or punished collectively by their lords, and would have no right to appeal to the Amenokal without permission. For the Amenokal to interfere on behalf of an Imghad tribe would constitute a breach of tribal custom and ensure a rebuff, if not worse. A certain proportion of the marriage portions payable in the Imghad tribes goes to their Imajeghan, who have the right to give or withhold consent to these contracts. One of the functions of the Imghad is to take complete charge of and use the camels of their lords for long periods or to trade with them on their behalf. In such cases the Imghad act as the agents of the nobles, each one of whom has a right to ask the servile tribe as a whole to undertake these duties. But such obligations are imposed collectively on the tribe and not on any one Imghad. It is the custom to share the offspring of the camels thus herded in equal shares, though in the event of any of the animals dying whilst under the charge of the Imghad, thelatter are collectively responsible for making good the loss, save in extenuating circumstances. Conversely, the nobles are, in every case,[132]the protectors of their dependents. The relations between Imghad and Imajeghan are a mixture of those obtaining under the feudalism of Europe and the “client” system of Rome.A consequence of the interruption of caravan traffic and the disappearance of one of the principal sources of revenue of the noble Tuareg is that the Imghad as camel herders, and generally speaking as the more laborious members of the community, have gained where the nobles have lost.Prosperity is emancipating the Imghad, and is materially assisting the breakdown of social distinctions which in time will survive only in the philosophic contemplation of the Imajeghan dreaming idly of the return of better days. The Imghad tribes used to be the unquestioning allies of their overlords in war; their numbers contributed greatly to the strength of any Imajegh tribe. Though they might not make war on their own initiative, the Imghad carried and still carry weapons.[133]They used to go on raids with their masters, or, if the Imajeghan were busy elsewhere, represent them with their masters’ camels and the weight of their own right arms. But the chiefs of the Imghad were never more than subordinates, or at the most advisers to the nobles.To-day this unquestioning subservience has almost disappeared and we even find Khodi, chief of the Kel Nugguru, disputing with the noble Ahodu the leadership of the village of Auderas. This issue was one of great importance in local politics and originally arose out of the disputed ownership of certain palms which had been given to Ahodu when he was installed as head of the village as a reward for service rendered by him to the Foureau-Lamy expedition. Thevillage is on the edge of the Kel Nugguru country, while Ahodu in fact comes from a northern tribe, the Kel Tadek, who have no real concern with this district. The impossibility of reconciling the tribal and settled organisations was clearly demonstrated in every aspect of this controversy. Khodi, living as a nomad with his people and camels at some distance from the village, sought, without success, to govern the community through various representatives, while Ahodu, who had given up wandering, was suspended by the French during the settlement of the legal case, and sat in the village watching mistake after mistake being made. Under the old system Khodi could never have pretended to dispute with a noble the position of chief of a large village: in fact an Imghad tribe without a protecting noble overlord would have been unlikely to administer a village at all. Similarly among the Ahaggaren Imghad of the Kel Gharus, a man of servile origin, Bilalen by name, has come to share with T’iaman the lordship of a once noble people of the north, a position of such importance that he is regarded as one of the most influential chiefs in Air. Bilalen has only become associated with the Ahaggaren by marriage; he could never have achieved even this, much less could he have attained so powerful a following in the country, under the oldrégime.

[75]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 523.

[76]Literally “a small river or torrent” in Temajegh.

[77]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 454.

[78]This generalisation is not intended to cover exceptional examples of stone construction such as those in Sokoto Province.

[79]For the houses of Air seeChap. VIII,where characteristic plans are given.

[80]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 477.

[81]According to Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 451; but the minaret was built in 1847, according to the Agades Chronicle (Journal of the African Society, July 1910).

[82]This is the one to which Chudeau (Missions au Sahara, Vol. II,Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 64) refers as 980 years old according to tradition, presumably basing himself on the same information as Jean,op. cit., p. 86. The date is improbable, as Agades was not founded at that time.

[83]Cf. Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829: “The king of this citie hath alwaies a noble garde about him.” Cf.Plate 11.

[84]Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829.

[85]Denham and Clapperton, Vol. II. p. 397.

[86]The same procedure is indicated in the Agades Chronicle, which also states that the Kel Owi give him an ox (Journal of the African Society,loc. cit.)

[87]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 422.

[88]Jean,op. cit., p. 89.

[89]Isuf or Yusuf according to Jean, who is certainly wrong in this respect.Op. cit., p. 89. Chudeau,op. cit., p. 70, gives his name as Yunis, as did my informants in Air.

[90]The date of the founding of Agades is a measure of confirmation:vide infra,Chap. XI.

[91]The second Sultan is given by Chudeau,op. cit., p. 64, as Almubari (El Mubaraki): a ruler of this name succeeded a Yusif whom he deposed in 1601; some confusion has probably arisen on account of Jean’s error in supposing that the first Sultan was called Yusuf instead of Yunis.

[92]SeeAppendix VI.

[93]See table inAppendix VI.

[94]Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 468.

[95]See also the remarks made inChap. XIIregarding the tribes which elected the Sultan.

[96]For the explanation of the sense which these words have acquired, see second footnote, Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 471.

[97]The Tuareg have forestalled many European Powers in making their Prime Minister also Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

[98]Jean,op. cit., p. 89.

[99]Leo Africanus, Vol. III. Bk. VII. p. 829.

[100]The influence of the Emir of Sokoto to which Barth has referred is exercised through the Itesan by virtue of their domicile near this city. Cf. Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 468.

[101]Cf. Leo Africanus, Vol. III. p. 829.

[102]Cf.mapin Chap II.

[103]My estimate of 30,000 inhabitants was arrived at locally without any books of reference. On my return I found that Barth had arrived at the same figure, with a possible maximum of 50,000 (op. cit., Vol. I. p. 472).

[104]The French operations of 1918 against Air, the occupation of the country from the south in 1904 and the passage of the Foureau-Lamy expedition are not considered, as the superiority of European weapons makes it impossible to compare these exploits with native enterprises, though the success of the first two and the appalling losses in camels and material of the last in a measure confirm the thesis.

[105]Vide supra,Chap. II.

[106]By Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 459, and by Cooley,Negroland of the Arabs, p. 26, as 1438A.D.

THE ORGANISATION OF THE AIR TUAREG

On6th August, soon after noon, I marched out of Agades with twenty-six camels and eight men for Central Air. My two travelling companions had left the same morning with ten camels in the opposite direction, bound for a point called Tanut[107]near Marandet in the cliff of the River of Agades. Some men of the Kel Ferwan, who were camped under the cliff south of the river, had brought information concerning a lion. At Marandet, it appeared, a cow had been killed and the trail of the offending beast was plainly visible; notwithstanding, Buchanan was unable to secure this lion or any specimen, or even a skull, so it proved impossible to classify the animal.

Circumstantial evidence goes to show that the lion still exists in Air, but is nevertheless very rare. In the Tagharit valley, a few miles north of Auderas, there is a cave in the side of a gorge which a large stream has cut through a formation of columnar basalt: a pink granite shelf makes a fine waterfall in the rainy season with a pool which survives at its foot all the year round. A lion used to live in this den until recent years, when it was killed by the men of Auderas because it had pulled down a camel out of a herd grazing in the neighbourhood. The carcase had been dragged over boulders and through scrub and up the side of the ravine into the lair; a feat of strength which no other animal but a lion could possibly have accomplished. When I came to the overhanging rock the ground was fœtid and befouled, and the skeleton of the camel was stillthere and comparatively fresh. One of the men of Auderas who had been present at the killing secured a claw as a valuable charm; another had apparently been severely mauled in the shoulder. They had surrounded the “king of beasts,” as the Tuareg also call him, and had attacked with spears and swords. There was no doubt of the animal having been a lion.

The cave in the Tagharit gorge is a short distance from the point[108]where Barth[109]saw “numerous footprints of the lion,” which he conceived to be extremely common in these highlands in 1850, albeit “not very ferocious.” In 1905 a lioness trying to find water fell into the well at Tagedufat and was drowned; her two small cubs were brought into Agades, and one of them was afterwards sent to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.[110]This lion, however, may not have been of the same variety as the Air species, for the latter is said never to have been scientifically examined.

The Air lion has been described as a small maneless animal like the Atlas species, though von Bary, who, however, never himself saw one, heard that it had a mane. He confirms the report that the animal was common, as late as in 1877, especially in the Bagezan massif, where it used to attack camels and donkeys.[111]

The advent of the rains during the latter part of July made travelling through Air in many ways very pleasant. But there were also disadvantages. With the first fall of rain the flies and mosquitoes came into their own again. The common house-flies were especially trying during my journey north of Agades. They infested the country miles from any human habitation or open water.

PLATE 13AUDERAS VALLEY LOOKING WESTAUDERAS VALLEY: AERWAN TIDRAK

PLATE 13

AUDERAS VALLEY LOOKING WEST

AUDERAS VALLEY: AERWAN TIDRAK

South of Agades the rains proved a terrible burden. The combined onslaughts of flies, mosquitoes and every other form of winged and crawling insect made life intolerable for Buchanan’s party; meals had to be eaten undernetting and naked lights were rapidly extinguished by incinerated corpses. Camels got no rest. Even the hardened natives had recourse to any device to snatch a little sleep. They went so far as to make their beds in the thorny arms of small acacia trees in order to escape the plague. The alluvial plain of the River of Agades had become so soft as to be almost impossible to cross. Mud engulfed the camels up to their bellies. The drivers used to unload them and push them bodily over on to their sides at the risk of breaking their legs in order to let the brutes kick themselves free. The several stream beds of the system, even if not too swollen to be completely unfordable, had such perpendicular banks where the water had cut its way down several feet below the surface of the ground that they became formidable obstacles. The constant threat of rain made long marches impossible, though it was abundantly clear that the longer the time that was spent in the valley the worse the ground would become. Buchanan was rewarded for his disappointment at not finding a lion by securing near Tanut two fine specimens of ostrich and an ant-bear. He also reported the existence near Marandet of a cemetery in the bank of a stream bed. It was unfortunate that he had not time to examine this site, as it seems to be an example of urn burial, probably of pre-Tuareg date.[112]

Half a day’s march from Agades brought me to the village of Azzal on the valley of the same name, the lower part of which is called “Telwa,” the most convenient name for the whole of this important basin. Azzal and the neighbouring Alarsas[113]are small settlements with a few date palms and some gardens. They were formerly inhabited only by serfs engaged in cultivating the gardens which supply Agades with vegetables. After the 1917 revolution in Air the noble population of certain villagesin the Ighazar, which was evacuated, settled there temporarily under their chief, Abdulkerim of T’intaghoda. They were living in straw and reed huts, hoping in the course of time to return north and resume possession of the more substantial houses in their own country. During my stay in Air several families did, as a matter of fact, go back to Iferuan and Seliufet. But the presence of the remainder of these Kel Ighazar in the south is somewhat anomalous, as the country from the earliest times has been almost exclusively inhabited by servile people. The area, extending over the foothills of the main plateau, is not yet, properly speaking, Air, in the sense in which the name is used by the Tuareg. Like the desert further south, it is called Tegama.

After following the Telwa for a short distance the track crosses to the left bank and winds over low bare hills and torrent beds. A little before reaching Solom Solom there is a wooded valley which the road leaves to cross a stretch of higher ground by a small pass covered with the remains of stone dwellings, the site, I presumed, of Ir n’Allem. The track is evidently very old at this point, for in places it has worn deep into the rock. The country is wild and picturesque, but the earth-brown hills are fashioned on a small scale. The district used to be infested by brigands who preyed on the caravans bound to and from Agades.

The southern part of my journey followed the usual route, though Barth on his expedition from T’intellust to Agades travelled both there and back by an alternative track rather further east in the Boghel valley and via Tanut Unghaidan, which is not far from Azzal, where he rejoined the more habitual way.

At Dabaga my road from Solom Solom rejoined the Telwa valley and crossed the stream bed after a short descent into a basin covered with dense thickets of dûm palms and acacias. The trees were filled with birds. The river was in full flood, over a quarter of a mile wide and some two feet deep—an imposing stream draining south-westernBagezan and Todra into the River of Agades. I was luckily able to cross it with my laden camels, but some travellers only a little behind me were held up for several days by the floods which followed the heavy rain in Central Air. Travelling at this season of the year is slow, as camp must be pitched before the daily rains begin, usually soon after noon. On the other hand, it is very convenient to be able to halt anywhere on the road regardless of permanent watering-points; for every stream bed, even if not actually in flood, contains pools or water in the sand.

Climatically Air is a Central African country. It is wholly within the summer rainfall belt, the northern limit of which coincides fairly accurately with the geographical boundary of the country at the wells of In Azawa. The rains usually commence in July, and last for two months, finishing as abruptly as they have begun. Within the limits of the belt, the further north, the later, on the whole, is the wet season, though great irregularities are observed. In Nigeria the rains fall during May and June, at Iferuan they occur in August and September.[114]They are tropical in their intensity, and in Air nearly always fall between noon and sunset.

During my stay at Auderas there were a few days when the sky was overcast for the whole of the twenty-four hours, with little rainfall; the damp heavy feeling in the air reminded one of England, as the atmosphere was cold and misty. On one particular day it rained lightly and fitfully for fourteen hours on end with occasional heavy showers. Such phenomena, however, are rare. Precipitation follows a north-easterly wind and usually lasts three or four hours; as soon as the westerly wind, prevalent at this season, has sprung up, the nimbus disperses rapidly, leaving only enough clouds in the evening to produce the most magnificent sunsets that I have ever seen.

In 1922 the rainy season at Auderas was virtually over by the 10th September, though it continued a little later in the north. The rains were followed by a period of damp heat, and then by some days when the ground haze was so thick that visibility was limited to a few hundred yards. Until recent years there seems to have been a short second rainy season in the north of Air coinciding with the first part of the Mediterranean winter precipitation. In November near Iferuan I experienced several days on which rain appeared to be imminent, but none fell. Natives told me that up to three or four years previously they had often had a few days’ rain in December and January. In 1850 the last rain of the summer season, which, exceptionally, had begun as far north and as early as 26th May at Murzuk, was recorded on 7th October, but in November and December after a fine period the sky had again become overcast, and a few drops of rain actually fell in Damergu on 7th January, 1851. The cycles of precipitation in the Sahara are constantly varying and data are as yet insufficient to permit any conclusion. It would be quite incorrect, from the accounts of the last ten years alone, to suppose that the rainfall had markedly diminished, or that the second rainy season had disappeared.

During the rains the larger watercourses meandering among the massifs of the country often become impassable for days on end, which is inconvenient, for in ordinary times they are the channels of communication. Owing to the lack of surface soil and vegetation on the as yet undisintegrated volcanic rock, streams fill with surprising rapidity during the rains and are very dangerous for the unwary traveller. The great joy of these weeks was the freshness of the air after the intolerable heat of June and July, especially in the plains. With the rain too came the annual rebirth of plant life, which made one’s outlook very sweet. In European spring-time Nature awakes from winter sleep, but in Africa a new world, fresh and green and luxurious, is born after the rains out of a shrivelled corpse of sun-dried desert.

At Dabaga I was persuaded to forsake the caravan road which continues up the Telwa and take a riding road by Assa Pool and the T’inien mountains. Difficulties began at Assa, when I tried to pitch my tent on rocky ground, with the result that it was almost impossible to keep it erect in the rain squalls which followed. The evening, after the rain, was unsatisfactory. I wounded two jackals at which I had shot, but did not kill either. I missed several guinea-fowl and only secured a pair of pigeons among the dûm palms of the valley. Also, there were many flies. However, I made the acquaintance of one of the greatest guides in Air, Efale, who overtook me on his way north, and camped near me. He talked volubly that night. Next day, after dropping sharply into the T’inien valley by a narrow defile, the road became frankly devilish. At the bottom of the steep sides the soil is impregnated with salt, which effectually prevents anything growing. There are a number of circular pits where the sandy salt, called “ara” or “agha,” is worked. The mixture is dried in cakes and sold in the south for a few pence. It is only fit for camels, which require a certain amount of salt every month, more especially after they have been feeding on fresh grass. “Ara” can only be used for human food if the sand has been washed out and the brine re-dried.

After leaving Assa the vegetation had almost entirely disappeared. Low gravel-strewn hills on the right obscured the view to the east. The T’inien valley soon made a right-angle turn to the north, closing to a narrow cleft, which became even rougher. The track was a series of steps between huge granite and quartz boulders, among which the camels kept on stumbling. Their loads required constant readjustment and there was no room to kneel them down. The way was really only fit for unloaded camels or riders on urgent business. There had not been a tree or bush for hours. We climbed some 600 feet in about a mile, almost to the very top of the jagged peaks on the left that marked the summit of the T’inien range. By 11.15 a.m. I was beginning to despair of finding a campsite before the rain was due, as I foresaw a similar unpleasant descent on the other side of the col which had so long been looming ahead. Then as I reached the gates of the pass a view over the whole of Central Air suddenly burst upon me in such beauty as I can never forget.

The ground sloped imperceptibly to the east. It fell away only about a hundred feet to the north, where a row of small crags, the continuation of the T’inien range, cut off the western horizon. Straight in front in the distance, piled mass upon mass, the blue mountains of Central Air rose suddenly out of the uplands, soaring into the African sky. Between the bold cliffs and peaks of the Bagezan mountains and the long low Taruaji group to the right, a few little conical hills of black rock broke the surface of the vast plain which rolled away to the east. From so great a distance the plain seemed tolerably smooth, veined like the hand of a man with watercourses winding southwards from the foot of the mountains. Black basalt boulders covered the flat spaces between lines of green vegetation and the threads of white sand, where the stream beds were just visible. Over the whole plain the new-born grass was like the bloom on a freshly-picked fruit. To the south-east stood the blue range of Taruaji itself, flat-topped and low on the horizon. Either side of the hills the curve of the world fell gently away towards the Nile.

I camped a mile or so north of the pass in a valley below the precipitous cliffs of a rock called Okluf, which has a castellated crown several hundred feet high. The rocks shone blue-black, with their feet in a carpet of green that seemed too vivid to be real. There were plenty of guinea-fowl and many other birds in the palm woods and thorn groves, and such grass as I thought only grew in the water meadows of England. I shall never forget the beauty of Central Air on that noonday in the rains, though I have it in me to regret the fiendish temper in which the day’s march had left me. The flies in the evening and the fast-running things upon the ground at night only made it worse. I had hurriedly and laboriously pitched a tent, and it never rained after all.

PLATE 14MT. TODRA FROM AUDERAS

PLATE 14

MT. TODRA FROM AUDERAS

On the following day I ascended the T’ilisdak valley which flows into the Telwa, and reached Auderas village, where some huts had been prepared for us by the chief Ahodu, a man who soon became my most particular friend. The T’ilisdak valley is renowned for its excellent grazing and for some mineral springs where men, camels and herds go after the rainy season to take a “cure” of the waters.[115]Near Okluf there are the remains of several hut villages, and some with stone foundations of a more permanent character. They belong to a servile tribe of Southern Air called the Kel Nugguru, who at present are living somewhat further west.

Air proper may be said to begin at the head of the T’ilisdak valley. The part of the plateau I had traversed was therefore still in Tegama, which includes the whole area south of Bagezan and Todra as far as the River of Agades, as well as the Taruaji massif, but not the country east of the latter and of Bagezan. Most of the villages in Tegama have gardens, and some have groves of date palms. That they are inhabited by serfs is, of course, natural, since the cultivation of the soil, in the estimation of the noble Tuareg, is not a worthy occupation for a man. When, however, in a nomad society agriculture is relegated to an inferior caste of people, it is inevitable that the practice should undermine the older allegiances. It becomes possible for the settled and therefore originally the servile people to accumulate wealth even in bad times when the profit from raiding or caravaning is denied to the upper classes of Air. The social effects of the disruption caused by the 1917 revolution may be observed in the village organisations, where people of different tribes are now tending more and more to live in association under the rule of a village headman, who for them is displacing the authority of their own tribal chiefs. The village headmen,it is true, are sometimes themselves the leaders of the tribes in whose area the village is situated, but more often they are merely local men acting on the delegated authority of the tribal chief, who in Tegama is probably the head of an Imghad or servile tribe dependent in turn upon some noble tribe living in a different part of Air. But in time the population of a village may become known collectively as the people of such and such a place, and so reference to the old tribal allegiance of the inhabitants disappears.

Tuareg tribal names deserve close investigation. They are of two categories: those which begin with “Kel” (People of . . .) and those which begin with “I” or sometimes “A.” This “I” or “A” may be quite strongly pronounced, but often represents the so-called “neutral vowel,”[116]which is very difficult to transliterate. Thus the word “Ahaggar” might as correctly be written “Ihaggar”; the initial vowel indeed is so little emphasised that the French have come to write simply “Hoggar” or “Haggar.” On the other hand, in the name Ikazkazan, an Air tribe, the “I” is marked; in the Azger tribe, again, the Ihadanaren, it is so lightly accentuated that Barth writes “Hadanarang.” This point, however, is of little moment: what matters is the question of the type of prefix to the name. To simplify reference I propose to call these two types “Kel name” and “I name” tribes. After examining the two categories at length, a distinction seemed to me to stand out clearly; I believe it holds good among other Tuareg as well as those of Air. The primary tribal divisions have names of the “I” category, except in certain cases where they are nearly always known to have been forgotten; the subdivisions of these tribes have “Kel names.” The former are proper names; the latter are derived either from the place where the people usually or once lived, or from some inherent peculiarity. The word “Kel” is also used to cover generalisations of no ethnic importance: the “I name,” on the other hand, isscarcely ever geographical or adjectival. The generalisation will be clearer for a few examples, chosen among the Air tribes. The noble tribe called Imasrodang has for sub-tribes the Kel Elar, Kel Seliufet and Kel T’intaghoda, called after the villages where they lived in Northern Air. Again, the Ikazkazan have one section or group of sub-tribes called the Kel Ulli—the People of the Goats—who are themselves subdivided into other factions bearing “Kel names.”

Certain other “Kel names” like Kel Ataram or Kel Innek are often heard in Air, but are not proper names at all; they were erroneously regarded by Barth as tribal names, but simply mean the “People of the West” and the “People of the East” respectively, and have no inherent ethnic significance. In Air the former term logically includes, and is meant to include, the Arab as well as the Tuareg tribes of the west.[117]

So clear is this use of geographical “Kel names” that we shall find repeated instances later on of tribes who, having migrated from a certain area, retain their old names, though these are no longer applicable to their new ranges. Take, for example, the Kel Ferwan—the People of Iferuan, in North Air; they now live in the southern parts of the country. Or, again, there are two Kel Baghzen, called after a mountain group in Central Air; the one group is still in that area, the other, which once lived there, has since migrated to the country north of Sokoto.

In certain forms the word “Kel” corresponds to the Arabic word “ahel,” but the latter seems more usually employed in connection with wide geographical indications of habitat, without much ethnic significance, like Kel Innek. The use of this type of “Kel name” is the exception rather than the rule in Temajegh and has a colloquial rather than traditional sanction. The more common “Kel names,” on the other hand, are definitely individual tribalnames, and refer to small areas. They are not by any means restricted to sedentary tribes.[118]

A third category of names commencing with the “Im” or “Em” prefix is regarded by Barth[119]as virtually identical with the “Kel” class, but this is not quite accurate. The “Im” prefix is used to make an adjectival word form of place names; the “Kel names” only become adjectival by prefixing “People of . . .” Thus “Emagadezi” would be more correctly translated as “Agadesian” than as the “People of Agades,” whose correct designation is Kel Agades. “I names” partake of neither of these characteristics. For the most part their significance remains unexplained. It follows that “Kel names,” although proper to the tribes that bear them, being descriptive or geographical, are certainly not so old as the individual and proper “I names.”

There are examples of tribes which have lost their “I names” and are only referred to by a “Kel name,” though in many cases this is more apparent than real. When a tribe with an “I name” increases until the point is reached where it subdivides, one of the subdivisions retains the original “I name,” the remainder take other and, usually, geographical appellations. This process might be shown graphically:—

This difference of nomenclature has a definite bearing on the difficulties of co-ordinating sedentarism and nomadism in one people, which must have occurred to everyone who has studied the problem in administration. The exact relations between a village headman, the tribal chiefs of the persons who are living in his village and the tribal chief of the area in which the village is situated cannot be defined. One set of allegiances is breaking down and another has not yet been completely formed. This was already going on in Air when the position was complicated by the advent of a European Power demanding a cut-and-dried devolution of authority, and tending to encourage sedentary qualities in order to prevent raiding. These problems in Air to-day are almost insoluble, but they are of an administrative rather than of an anthropological order.

Auderas at the present time is probably the most important place in Air after Agades. As an essentially agricultural settlement it is an excellent example of the village organisation. The valley of Auderas lies about 2600 feet above the sea. Seven small valleys unite above the village and two affluents come in below, draining the western slopes of Mount Todra and a part of the Dogam group. The main stream eventually finds its way out into the Talak plain[120]under various names. The sandy bed of the valley near the village contains water all the year round. Both banks are covered with intense vegetation, including a date-palm plantation of some thousand trees. Under the date palms and amongst the branching dûm-palm woods, where the thickets and small trees have been cleared or burnt off, are a number of irrigated gardens supplied with water from shallow wells. Some wheat, millet, guinea corn and vegetables are grown with much labour anddevotion. Onions and tomatoes are the principal vegetables all the year round, with two sorts of beans in the winter. Occasionally sweet potatoes and some European vegetables like carrots, turnips and spinach are grown from seeds which have been supplied by the French. Pumpkins do well and water melons are common. There is also a sweet melon. Three different shapes of gourds for making drinking and household vessels are cultivated. Cotton is found in small quantities, the plant having probably been imported from the Sudan. Its presence in Air is interesting, as in 1850 Barth had placed the northern limit of Sudan cotton in the south of Damergu. The cotton plant does very well when carefully irrigated and produces a good quality of fibre. Two samples which I brought home from Air were reported on respectively as: “good colour, strong, fairly fine 1³⁄₁₆ staple,” and “generally good colour, staple 1³⁄₁₆-1¼ inches, strong and fine”; the materials were respectively valued at 20·35 and 21·35 pence per pound when American May Future Cotton stood at 17·35 pence (May 1924).[121]The Tuareg spin their cotton into a rough yarn for sewing or making cord, but in Air they do not seem to weave. The indigo plant grows wild in Air: it is not cultivated, nor is it used locally for dyeing.

The gardens require much attention and preparation. The ground is cleared and the scrub burnt off as a top dressing. The soil is then carefully levelled by dragging a heavy plank or beam forwards and backwards by hand across the surface. The area is divided up into small patches about six feet square with a channel along one side communicating with a leat from an irrigation well. These wells are usually unlined and shallow, with a wooden platform overhanging the water on one side; on this a rectangular frame is set up with a second cross member carrying a pulley over which a rope is passed. An ox ora donkey pulls up the big leather bucket by the simple process of walking away from the well, returning on its tracks to lower it again. The bucket is a tubular contrivance, the bottom of which is folded up while the water is raised; when it reaches the level of the irrigation channel, a cord is pulled to open the bottom of the leather tube and the water allowed to run out. The other end of this cord is attached to the animal, and the length is so adjusted that the operation is performed automatically each time the bucket comes to the top. The pole and bucket with a counterweight and the water wheel are not known in Air for raising water; nor are any dams constructed either to make reservoirs in ravines or to maintain a head of water for flow irrigation in the rainy season. Each little patch in the gardens is hoed and dressed with animal manure. The seed is planted and carefully tended every day, for it is very valuable. Barth records seeing at Auderas a plough drawn by slaves. This was clearly an importation from the north; the plough is not now used anywhere in the country, which at heart has never been agricultural.

PLATE 15GRAIN POTS, IFERUANGARDEN WELL

PLATE 15

GRAIN POTS, IFERUAN

GARDEN WELL

As in the south, millet and guinea corn are sown during the rains, but they usually require irrigation before they reach maturity. In certain areas rain-grown crops could be raised most years. In the past a fair amount of cereals seems to have been produced in this way; to-day the Tuareg are too poor to risk losing their seed in the event of inadequate or irregular rainfall. Although the wheat grown in the Ighazar used nearly all to be exported to the Fezzan, where it was much in demand on account of its excellent quality for making the Arab food “kus-kus,” Air at no time has produced enough grain for its own consumption. In the economics of Air necessary grain imports are paid for by the proceeds of wheat sales or live-stock traffic with the north, and by the profits of the trade in salt from Bilma; these provide the means of purchasing the cheaper millet and guinea corn of Damergu. Any additional surplus, representing annual savings, is investedin live-stock, especially camels, within the borders of the country.

The breakdown of the social organisations of the Tuareg in Air compelled numbers of nobles out of sheer poverty after they had lost their camels and herds to cultivate the soil; before the war not even the servile people were very extensively so employed if they could find enough slaves to do the work.

Neither the advent of a European Power nor the subsequent changes in the social structure of the country has had very much effect on the position of slaves in Air. Of these there are two categories,[122]the household slave and the outdoor slave, and both of them are chattels in local customary law. The former are called “ikelan,” the latter “irawellan,”[123]or alternatively “bela,” “buzu” or “bugadie,” which, however, are not Temajegh words, but have been borrowed from the south. The term “irawel” is also used generically to cover both categories of slaves, although it primarily refers to the latter. In the use of this word Barth[124]makes one of the few mistakes of which he has been guilty, where he states that the most noble part of the Kel Owi group of tribes in Air is the “Irolangh” clan, to which the Amenokal or Sultan of the Kel Owi belonged. The paramount chief of his day, Annur, belonged to the Kel Assarara section of the Imaslagha tribe, which is probably the original and certainly one of the most noble of the Kel Owi, for it includes the Kel Tafidet, who gave their name to the whole confederation. The traveller’s mistaken reference to Irawellan or Irolangh isprobably due to his having been informed by a member of some non-Kel Owi tribe that Annur and all his people were “really Irawellan,” or servile people. Such abuse of the Kel Owi is common among the other Air Tuareg. It is certainly not justified in fact, and is due to the contempt in which an older nobility will always hold more recent arrivals.[125]

The negro slaves, the Ikelan, are primarily concerned with garden cultivation, and are consequently sedentary. One half of the produce of their labour goes to their masters and the other half to support themselves and their families. Ikelan also perform all the domestic duties of the Tuareg to whom they belong, and herd their masters’ goats and sheep if they happen to be living in the same neighbourhood. A certain proportion of the offspring of the flocks is also given to the slaves. Since, primarily, they are cultivators of the ground, they do not move from place to place with their owners. They consequently often escape domestic work and herding. Despite their legal status they are in practice permitted to own property, though, if their masters decided to remove it, they would be within their rights to do so. In other words, the theoretical status of slavery which makes it impossible for a chattel to own property has been considerably modified, and not as a consequence of the altered conditions, or of the legislation of a European Power, but because slavery among the Tuareg never did involve great hardship. Their slaves, furthermore, always had the hope of manumission and consequent change to the status of Imghad or serfs, a rise in the social scale which, in fact, often did occur. It was in slave trading and not in slave owning that the Tuareg sinned against the ethical standards which are usually accepted in Europe, and obtained so unenviable a reputation last century.

Herding live-stock, and especially camels, is the primary function of the outdoor slave or Buzu. Though often also a negro, he is considered to possess a somewhat higherstatus than the Akel, for he does not as a rule work in the house or village. The Buzu’s work, if on the whole less strenuous than that of the tiller of gardens, is felt to be more manly because he is associated with camels. He travels with nobles or Imghad, to either of whom he may belong. He does all the hard menial work on the march. He is responsible especially for herding the camels at pasture and for loading and unloading them each day on the road. Such duties as filling water-skins, driving camels down to water, feeding them on the march and making rope for the loads, all fall to his lot. The Buzu may even accompany his master’s camels on raids or act as personal messenger for his lord. When the camels are resting he spends his days watching the grazing animals, or looking after any other herds which his master may own in the neighbourhood. On the whole I have found the Buzu a remarkably hard-working person. He is almost useless without his master to give him orders and to see that they are carried out, but ready to undertake any exertion connected with his work, which he regards as his fate, but not his privilege to perform without complaint.

It is difficult to determine whether there is any racial difference between the Buzu class, the tillers of gardens, and the ordinary household slaves. The first are more respected than the last, which may mean that they are more closely related in blood to their masters. The practice of concubinage, though not very widespread, has probably created the caste, and from them, in time, a certain proportion of the Imghad. While theoretically the children of a slave concubine and a Tuareg man ought to be “ikelan” like their mother, in practice they tend to rise into the superior caste of the Buzu, and eventually in successive generations to Imghad. In Air at least the general tendency is for the old-established caste distinctions to become more elastic and for the ancient order to pass away. Although the events of the last twenty years have contributed greatly to this change, the strongest factor has certainly been theincreasing wealth of the Imghad, but another reason is probably that many Imghad tribes in Air were themselves originally Imajeghan before their capture in war or their subjugation by some means. Consequently with the dissolution of tribal allegiances in Air and enhanced prosperity they have tended to revert to their former status. They cling so tenaciously to nobility of birth that, rather than accept the logical results of inferiority consequent upon defeat in war, the people collectively combine to admit the fiction of servile people possessing dual status.

The presence of more than one racial type among the Imghad has led certain travellers to make quite unjustifiable generalisations about this section of Tuareg society. There have also been advanced numerous and most unnecessarily complicated theories to account for the division of the race as a whole into these two castes. The problem is really much simpler. Although by no general rule can it be said that the Imghad originally belonged to this or to that people, they are all clearly the descendants of groups or individuals captured in war and subsequently released from bondage to form a caste enjoying a certain measure of freedom, and having a separate legal or civil existence under something more than the mere political suzerainty of the noble tribe which originally possessed them. In this first stage, the noble tribe represents the original pure Tuareg race, while the oldest Imghad are the first extraneous people whom they conquered, in some cases perhaps as early as in the Neolithic ages. “It is necessary,” says Bates,[126]with great justice, “to state emphatically that the division into Imghad and Imajeghan is so ancient that the Saharan Berbers preserve no knowledge of its origin.” This antiquity may be held to account for the complete national fusion which has taken place among the two castes: nearly all Imghad would utterly fail to grasp a suggestion that they were not to-day as much Tuareg as their Imajeghan overlords, however they may dislike and abuse the latter.As time went on more and more Imghad were added to the race, each group being subject to the noble tribe responsible for its conquest. The possibility of a group of people becoming the Imghad of an Imghad tribe was precluded by the relations obtaining between serfs and nobles, whereby it is the sole prerogative of the latter to wage war or make peace. Should an Imghad tribe capture slaves in war they could not be manumitted except by the Imajegh tribe, the lords of the victorious Imghad; and by the act of manumission the newly-acquired slaves would then become the equals of their Imghad conquerors under the dominion of the Imajeghan concerned.

The Imghad of Air may be divided into three categories whose history is so intimately bound up with the noble tribes that it cannot be considered separately. There are the Imghad whose association with their respective Imajeghan dates from before their advent to Air; their origin must be looked for in the Fezzan or elsewhere at some very early date. Secondly, there are the Imghad who were the original inhabitants of Air before the Tuareg came, and who by some agreement at the time, like the traditional one of Maket n’Ikelan,[127]were not enslaved but allowed to continue living in the country side by side with the new arrivals in a state of vassalage or semi-servitude. Lastly, there are the Imghad who are either Arabs, Tuareg of other divisions, or negroids from the south captured in the course of raids from Air, in some cases as recently as a generation ago. With these different origins it is not surprising to find among the Air Imghad both a strongly negroid type, a non-negroid and non-Tuareg type, and a type showing the fine features and complexion characteristic of the Imajeghan themselves. The first type is the pre-Tuareg population of Air. It is the most common, if only for the reason that negroid characteristics always appear to be dominant in the cross-breeding which ensued. The second type represents the Arab or Berber element acquired byconquest. The third type represents the subjugated groups of Imajeghan of other divisions.[128]Of the latter category are, for instance, the Kel Ahaggar, Imghad of the Kel Gharus, who were originally nobles from the great northern division of the Tuareg. Many of the Kel Ferwan Imghad are believed to be Arabs or Tuareg of the west, captured comparatively recently on raids into the Aulimmiden territory. The Kel Nugguru are the freed slaves of the Añastafidet, the administrative head of the Kel Owi confederation: they have become so prosperous that they are now laying claim to be of noble origin, a pretension which no right-minded Imajegh in Air will admit for a moment. But it is almost impossible nowadays to trace the history of each Imghad tribe in detail. Generally, in the absence of more precise data, it may be assumed that those Imghad tribes which have “I names” are the oldest; for here the process of assimilation to the mass of the Tuareg race is most complete, either on account of the length of their mutual association or owing to the fact that they were originally themselves of the same race; the “Kel name” Imghad, on the other hand, are probably more recent additions.[129]

The confusion reigning on the subject of the “Black” and “White” Tuareg in the minds of the few people in Europe who have ever heard of the race is due to the practice in the north of the servile wearing a white, and the nobles a black, veil. But a “Black” Tuareg, being a noble, will, in the vast majority of cases, have a much fairer complexion and more European features than a “White,” or servile Tuareg. In Air the colour of the veil affords no means of distinguishing the caste of the wearer. Thebest veils, being made in the south, are consequently cheaper in Air than in the north, and this is probably the reason why Imajeghan and Imghad alike in Air wear the indigo-black Tagilmus. When a white veil is seen, it usually means that the wearer is too poor to buy a proper black one and has had to resort to some makeshift torn from the bottom of his robe.

Slaves, domestic or pastoral, do not wear the face veil at all. This is the essential outward difference between them and the Imghad. The latter, whatever their origin, are considered to be a part of the Tuareg people; the former cannot be so, for they are simply accounted to belong, as camels do, to the People of the Veil.

The exact status of the Imghad, or “meratha” (merathra) as they are called by the Arabs in Fezzan, is somewhat difficult to define. There is no adequate translation in any European language of the word “amghid.”[130]The process of their original enslavement and subsequent release to form a category of people who have achieved partial but not complete freedom has, I think, no parallel in Europe except in a modified form in the state of vassalage. Yet, as “servile” conveys too narrow and definite a relationship, so “vassal” is certainly too broad a term. In the state of servility or, to coin a word, “imghadage” to which the pre-Tuareg inhabitants of Air appear to have been reduced, the process of enslavement and release may be said to have taken place only as a legal fiction, and not, if the tradition is to be accepted as accurate, in real fact. The general practice seems to have been that when large groups of people were subjugated or captured in war they were simultaneously released into the state of imghadage, but when individuals or a few persons were acquired by force or by purchase, they were only manumitted in the course of time, if at all, and incorporated at some later date into an Imghad tribe or village already in existence.

In contradistinction to slaves, the Imghad are not boundindividually, but collectively, and not to individuals, but to a noble tribe or group of tribes. They are in no sense considered to be the property of the latter; but the relationship is closer than that of suzerain and vassal. It is not within the power of an Imghad tribe to change its allegiance, since in the first instance its members were theoretically at least the property of its overlord tribe; they owe their separate existence to an act of manumission freely and voluntarily accomplished. A change of allegiance could occur only if a servile tribe were captured in whole or in part; it follows that when this has occurred one servile tribe might owe allegiance in several parts to different noble groups.[131]The bond between them consists of the right of the responsible noble tribe alone, and therefore of its chief, to administer justice among the dependent Imghad, either in small cases by tacitly confirming the verdict of their own headman, or in more weighty matters by express reference. The Imghad tribe may be fined or punished collectively by their lords, and would have no right to appeal to the Amenokal without permission. For the Amenokal to interfere on behalf of an Imghad tribe would constitute a breach of tribal custom and ensure a rebuff, if not worse. A certain proportion of the marriage portions payable in the Imghad tribes goes to their Imajeghan, who have the right to give or withhold consent to these contracts. One of the functions of the Imghad is to take complete charge of and use the camels of their lords for long periods or to trade with them on their behalf. In such cases the Imghad act as the agents of the nobles, each one of whom has a right to ask the servile tribe as a whole to undertake these duties. But such obligations are imposed collectively on the tribe and not on any one Imghad. It is the custom to share the offspring of the camels thus herded in equal shares, though in the event of any of the animals dying whilst under the charge of the Imghad, thelatter are collectively responsible for making good the loss, save in extenuating circumstances. Conversely, the nobles are, in every case,[132]the protectors of their dependents. The relations between Imghad and Imajeghan are a mixture of those obtaining under the feudalism of Europe and the “client” system of Rome.

A consequence of the interruption of caravan traffic and the disappearance of one of the principal sources of revenue of the noble Tuareg is that the Imghad as camel herders, and generally speaking as the more laborious members of the community, have gained where the nobles have lost.

Prosperity is emancipating the Imghad, and is materially assisting the breakdown of social distinctions which in time will survive only in the philosophic contemplation of the Imajeghan dreaming idly of the return of better days. The Imghad tribes used to be the unquestioning allies of their overlords in war; their numbers contributed greatly to the strength of any Imajegh tribe. Though they might not make war on their own initiative, the Imghad carried and still carry weapons.[133]They used to go on raids with their masters, or, if the Imajeghan were busy elsewhere, represent them with their masters’ camels and the weight of their own right arms. But the chiefs of the Imghad were never more than subordinates, or at the most advisers to the nobles.

To-day this unquestioning subservience has almost disappeared and we even find Khodi, chief of the Kel Nugguru, disputing with the noble Ahodu the leadership of the village of Auderas. This issue was one of great importance in local politics and originally arose out of the disputed ownership of certain palms which had been given to Ahodu when he was installed as head of the village as a reward for service rendered by him to the Foureau-Lamy expedition. Thevillage is on the edge of the Kel Nugguru country, while Ahodu in fact comes from a northern tribe, the Kel Tadek, who have no real concern with this district. The impossibility of reconciling the tribal and settled organisations was clearly demonstrated in every aspect of this controversy. Khodi, living as a nomad with his people and camels at some distance from the village, sought, without success, to govern the community through various representatives, while Ahodu, who had given up wandering, was suspended by the French during the settlement of the legal case, and sat in the village watching mistake after mistake being made. Under the old system Khodi could never have pretended to dispute with a noble the position of chief of a large village: in fact an Imghad tribe without a protecting noble overlord would have been unlikely to administer a village at all. Similarly among the Ahaggaren Imghad of the Kel Gharus, a man of servile origin, Bilalen by name, has come to share with T’iaman the lordship of a once noble people of the north, a position of such importance that he is regarded as one of the most influential chiefs in Air. Bilalen has only become associated with the Ahaggaren by marriage; he could never have achieved even this, much less could he have attained so powerful a following in the country, under the oldrégime.

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