CHAPTER VII

PLATE 221. Ornamentation on shields.2. Clay cooking pot.3. Clay water pot.4. Axe.5. Adze.6. Drum: calabash in a bowl.7. Drum: millet mortar.For many months of the year after the rains the true nomads do not even trouble to cluster round a group of wells; living on the milk of their camels and goats, they dispense with water for weeks on end. So long as their camels are only pasturing and the fodder is green they do not require to be watered. They are therefore able to live many days from the nearest wells. In such conditions water is a luxury, for it entails long marches and is not essential to man or beast. In South-eastern Air I came across a small party of Kel Takrizat, who had wandered some distance away from their usual grounds in North-western Air, to an area which had been uninhabited since the war. I was riding out from Tabello on the upper Beughqot valley to look for an old village site of which I had heard. Neither my companion, Alwali, nor I had any baggage, and we were short of water, as the skin I carried was leaky. For a mere two days’ journey Alwali had not thought it worth whileto bring any food for himself except a small skin of millet meal milk, which he had finished early the first afternoon. In the evening we entered a wide valley known as Tsabba,[200]where we saw a number of camels pasturing. We discovered that they belonged to a charming man called Ahmadu ag Musa. The valley was about miles broad from lip to lip, very green and full of a veitch-like plant called “Alwat,” which contains much moisture. The bottom under the steep sides lay some 100 feet below the level of the plain, which was covered with round basalt boulders wherever there were not hillocks of bare rock rising above it. It is a very arid country looking out towards the Eastern Desert, where the last rocks of Air are swallowed up in sand some thirty miles further on. Ahmadu’s camp consisted of a few mats spread under two or three little trees. As we reached it he came out to meet us. When he found out who we were, he asked me to spend the night with him; and this, having at the time intermittent fever which was due that evening, I willingly agreed to do, provided he could let me have some water. He regretted that he had no water, as he had not been near a well for three weeks, but his men went to fetch milk. I had barely dismounted and agreed to stay when a man ran up with a mat for me to sit on and a bowl of sour milk to drink. Among the Tuareg, if a man comes as a guest his host is personally responsible for his guest’s life, camels and property, so a slave unsaddled my two camels and hobbled them in the usual way by tying the two fore fetlocks together with the short hobble rope which everyone carries. My animals were driven off to feed with Ahmadu’s herd of piebald cow camels. I thought at first it was part of the famous Tegama herd of Ahmadu of the Kel Tagei, but it turned out to be another Ahmadu.I met him only that once, and for a few moments two days later at Tabello. I have the pleasantest recollections of a great gentleman. We sat talking of the impending departure of the salt caravan for Bilma. The sun set slowly, and, as thelight grew less, the cruel gleam left the basalt and granite of the plateau beyond the eastern lip of the valley. The rocks ceased to look metallic in the dance of the hot air, and became soft red and purple in the green-blue sky. Here and there white sand from the outer desert had been washed up against the hillocks. Mount Gorset, with one slope inundated by the sand flood, lay just north of the valley where we sat surrounded by acacia bushes and “Alwat.” The wind had fallen. More and more food was brought for us to eat, all of it of the sort on which the true nomad lives. Cheese, sweet and sour milk, curdled milk, whey water, some cakes of baked burr-grass seed and a very little millet. We sat down to eat; they thought I wanted to eat alone at first, but became more friendly when they saw that some white men were only human like themselves. A pot of cooked millet meal was set down in the middle; luckily they had added salt to the porridge. Each man in turn ate a mouthful from the big wooden spoon and handed it on to his neighbour. I ate little, having fever, but drank much milk, both sweet and sour. The former arrived during the meal, warm and fresh from the camel. It is best quite fresh; when it gets cold in the night it is good too, but becomes rather salt and thin to the taste. We went on eating slowly in the evening, and suddenly night came with a greenish light in the west behind our backs. Milk was left for me to drink during the night; a slave was told to fill my skin with millet meal and milk for the next day. We went on talking, and then the snuff-box was passed round. The Tuareg in Air do not smoke: their only vice, in the austere life they lead, is to take snuff, when they can get it, or to chew green tobacco mixed with a little saltpetre to bring out the taste. The tobacco and snuff are traded from the Southland: the saltpetre is found in Air, and is also used in cooking, for they say that a pinch in the stew-pot makes the meat cook in half the usual time. Presently I turned over to go to sleep on Ahmadu’s mat, in a blanket which I had brought. He and Alwali went on talking far into the night, for they were old friends: Alwali had travelled with him when he was a boy many years ago.I thought of how very happy these nomads were. They have no possessions to speak of: a few mats, the clothes they wear, some water-skins, some camel trappings, a few weapons, some gourds and bowls, a cooking-pot or two and their camels. They have no routine of life, and no cares except to wonder if a raiding party will or will not happen on them. Even in their normal centres where their tribes are living more or less permanently they often have neither tents nor covering. At the best their tent is a leather roof made of two or three ox skins carried on a few poles, with brushwood laid across so that the top is dome-shaped. The sides are enclosed with vertical mats, and inside, if they are rich, they have a bed—two poles supported on four forked sticks stuck in the ground, with six transverse poles overlaid with stiff mats, woven of “Afaza” grass and strips of leather. On this bed, which is perhaps eight feet square, the whole family sleeps during the rains. At other times they sleep anywhere, on a mat on the ground. Their smaller possessions are carried in a leather sack of tanned goatskins, dyed and ornamented with fringes. All the belongings of a rich family could be loaded on one, certainly on two camels. So they move about looking for pasture. They are independent of water; their camels and goats provide both food and drink, the grasses of the field a change of diet; a slaughtered sheep or millet porridge is their luxury. When they want a fire they kindle it by rubbing a small green stick cut about the size of, and sharpened like, a pencil on a dry stick; the dust and fibre rubbed off the dry wood collect at one end of the channel which has been rubbed, and when the friction is enough, ignites. They do not even require flint and steel. I am sure they must be very happy, for they want so little and could have so much when the value of their herds often runs into thousands of pounds, but they prefer the freedom of the open world. They are even envied by the village dwellers, whose sole ambition is to make enough money to buy camels and live in the same way as their wandering kinsmen.[175]This name would perhaps be more correctly written Teouar for the “o” is pronounced as if with a London Cockney accent.[176]Plate 20.[177]For certain reasons the names are fictitious.[178]See rock drawing at T’imia,Plate 40.[179]Bates,op. cit., p. 126, and Figs. 17, 20 and 24, where the belt and cross are plainly shown.[180]The initial “T” represents a feminine form.[181]Vide infra,Chap. X.[182]Jean,op. cit., Chap. XIII.[183]Chudeau,op. cit.,Sahara Soudanais, pp. 71-2.[184]It must be remembered that since the evacuation of 1918 many of these animals are with their owners in Southern Air, Damergu, and the south, pending a return to normal conditions.[185]Duveyrier,op. cit., p. 234.[186]Ibid., p. 401,et infra, Chap. XVIII.[187]Basset, in theActes du XIVmeCongrès des Orientalistes, II. p. 69et seq.[188]ApudPlutarchus,Lucullus, XI. 10.[189]De Bello Africano, LXVIII. 4.[190]Tissot,Géographie Comparée de la Province Romaine d’Afrique. Paris, 1884-8. Vol. I. p. 350.[191]Ammianus MarcellinusXXVIII. 6. 5, and others.[192]Pliny, VIII. 67.Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.[193]Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.[194]References in Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. pp. 102 and 105.[195]Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 60, note 8.[196]Herodotus, IV. 183.[197]Vide infra,Chap. X.[198]Mission Cortier,D’une rive à l’autre du Sahara, p. 355.[199]Observation of the author in Damergu in December 1922.[200]The Tesabba valley of the Cortier map. It runs into the Afasas valley, which joins the Beughqot valley further down.CHAPTER VIITRADE AND OCCUPATIONSTheAuderas country, still almost in Tegama, is far less interesting ethnically than the north or east. The old permanent habitations in the area are less characteristic of the Tuareg; there are hardly any inscriptions or rock drawings, with the exception of the large group at T’in Wana, and a few scattered about elsewhere. Owing to the many pools and “eresan”[201]there are no deep wells. At Auderas itself there are some ruined stone-built dwellings of the later type, but a few earlier examples may be seen both there and at Abattul, a village about two miles to the N.E. in the same basin of valleys. A famous mosque was founded there by Muhammad Abd el Kerim el Baghdadi. Abattul village lies between the domed peaks of Faken[202]and Mt. Abattul, which is itself a spur of Mount Todra. Behind, and between them, a valley and rough track run north to Mount Dogam. Just south of the village are the valleys which converge from Todra and Faken on the main Auderas basin. From Auderas Mount Faken is a prominent object on the northern horizon with a rounded top and vertical black sides which look unscalable. Almost at the foot of Faken on the Abattul side is a pool in a deep gorge, usually containing water enough to swim in most of the year. The path from Auderas to Abattul is very rough, as it crosses and re-crosses several small valleys where gazelle, some wild pig, and occasionally monkeys are to be found. Abattul village lies just under a low white cliff in which there are a few caves and many smaller holes inhabited by owls andnight birds. It was the first settlement in the basin and was only gradually abandoned as the country became less subject to raids and war. The inhabitants had settled in this place so that they could easily take refuge in the inaccessible crags of Mount Todra just behind their village, in time of raids. Even nowadays the folk from Auderas have to resort to the mountain from time to time, but not so often as to prevent them from living further away. The stone mosque at Abattul is one of the few in Air which is still used for prayer.[203]The main road from Auderas to Northern Air runs over very rocky ground to a plain west of Faken, bordered by two valleys on the east and by low hills on the west side. The latter continue for some distance along the valley of Auderas until it eventually reaches the foothills of Air on the Talak plain. The different groups of hills are known by names which the Itesan sub-tribes adopted and retained.[204]The plain north of Agades is the Erarar n’Dendemu of Barth:[205]it contains El Baghdadi’s place of prayer mentioned by the traveller, lying under a small hill. Turning left here into more broken country by a small tributary the track enters the Ighaghrar valley, which descends from the Gissat and T’Sidderak hills.[206]At the head of the basin a steep drop leads into a valley flowing north between Mount Bila to the west and Mount Dogam to the east. This drop, the descent of Inzerak, is equivalent to the ascent south of Auderas at T’inien on to the central platform of the plateau. It leads into one of the most beautiful valleys in Air, called Assada, the head of which, at right angles to its main direction, is formed by small ravines draining Mount Dogam. It runs along theeastern foot of Bila and falls into Anu Maqaran, the central basin of Air. When we came into Assada there were two or three pools near the foot of Inzerak; further up the T’ighummar tributary lay a small village of stone houses with a deep well and mosque on an alternative loop road from Auderas branching off at the place of prayer of El Baghdadi. This alternative track was the one taken by Barth in 1850; it debouches into the Tegidda valley, a tributary of the Assada from the north, at Aureran well.I camped in Assada three times in all, twice near the foot of the descent and once a mile or so further down at the wells of Tamenzaret,[207]which are temporary and require to be dug again every year. The deep narrow valley with its sandy bed and immense trees growing in the thick vegetation on both banks was magnificent. Towering up on either side the red mountains framed, in a cleft towards the east, the cone of Dogam seated on a pedestal of black lava and basalt. Most of the Dogam massif is so rough as to be impassable. It seems to be a volcanic intrusion in the Todra group, to which it really belongs. I suspect that the basalt boulders covering the plain north and south of Auderas, and perhaps certain features of Todra itself, owe their origin to the Dogam activity. But Bila is hardly less imposing: on the Assada side it presents a wall of vivid red rock. The fine clean colours of dawn on the first morning I saw the mountains against a cold blue sky offered the most lovely spectacle I saw in all Air.The Assada and T’ighummar valleys are inhabited by a northern section of the Kel Nugguru, who pasture their goats and camels there, and owe allegiance to Ahodu of Auderas. There are a few ruined stone houses below Tamenzaret and the remains of a mosque at the old deep well of Aureran, where the main road divides. From here one branch proceeds north past another ruined settlement to the Arwa Mellen valley and mountain, the other turns east towards the upper part of the Anu Maqaran basin.I took the latter road to T’imia. It crossed several broad valley beds flowing northwards from Dogam, notably the Bacos, where there is a village and palm grove, and the Elazzas not far from where they fall into Anu Maqaran. The road I have had occasion to mention as running from Agades by the Ara valley over the shoulder of Dogam descends from the Central massif by Bacos or Elazzas. The latter corresponds to the Ara on the other side of the Dogam pass. By these two the Todra-Dogam group is divided from Bagezan.Near its junction with the main Anu Maqaran valley, the Elazzas is a broad bed between low rocky banks. At a certain point where it crosses a ridge of rock large quantities of water are held up in the sand. The remains of a recent village with a few date palms appear on the site. The rocks in the neighbourhood bear a few rude pictures, but the ruins, a few round pedestal foundations of loose stones some 15-20 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high, on which reed huts used to stand, are uninteresting. Bila from here has the appearance of a long flat ridge, in pleasant contrast to the isolated peaks of Aggata and Arwa in the north, or the confused mass of Bagezan to the south and south-east.The upper part of the Anu Maqaran valley where the Bagezan and the Agalak mountains at the western side of the T’imia massif approach one another is called Abarakan. The road passes a large cemetery and the valley narrows between high hills with bare sides until a big fork is reached: one valley goes north to T’imia village, the other south, emerging on the central plateau east of the Bagezan mountains.T’imia village is a veritable mountain fastness. The Agalak-T’imia massif was evidently highly volcanic, for a great flow of basalt overlying pink granite boulders has taken place along the valley towards Abarakan. The track climbs steadily over the broken lava stream. The going is rough. Then suddenly the track seems to end altogether below an overhanging cliff of lava some 30 feet high lying right across the bed of the ravine. We reached this pointand found the men of T’imia had come down to meet us in order to help our camels to negotiate the path which follows a narrow crevasse in one side of the cliff. The cleft is so narrow that a camel with a bulky load cannot pass at all; it is so steep that the poor animals were forced to proceed in a series of ungainly lurches or jumps. Above the cliff the valley broadens out again, and where two small side valleys enter it lies the modern village of T’imia.PLATE 23TIMIA GORGETIMIA GORGE: PINK GRANITE TO LEFT, BLACK BASALT TO RIGHTThis settlement of Kel Owi nobles is very different from the servile Auderas. The parentage of these Kel Owi may be obscure and mixed, but their physique, the general cleanliness of the place and the neatness of their domed huts stamp them as nobles. The dwellings stand grouped in compounds, or sometimes as single huts, scattered between a row of gardens with irrigation wells, and the slope of a hill covered with huge boulders. In one of the smaller side valleys is a large grove of date palms with most of the gardens, near the site of the older village, a collection of rectangular masonry houses in ruins, and round hut sites marked by a ring of stones and a hearth. The little mosque of stone and mud construction lies between the old and new villages, but it was desecrated by the French soldiers and is no longer used. A matting shelter and compound in the new settlement serve to-day both for a place of prayer and a school, presided over by the ’alim ’Umbellu. Though over sixty he still works daily in his garden in the intervals of teaching the children of the village. Fugda, chief of T’imia, is one of the cleverest men in Air. Under the guidance of these two men the community has prospered. The villagers are enterprising. In the changing conditions of things they are an exception to the usual rule, for the men combine caravaning and trading on a large scale with gardening and date cultivation, without the help of any Imghad. When we came this way some of their camels were fattening in Abarakan ready to go to Bilma with the annual salt caravan in charge of a selected party of men. Another herd of some 100 head was going to Damergu to fetch millet for sale tothe French post at Agades, and later I met yet another drove in Assada going south from Iferuan by way of Auderas to fetch more grain for sale in Northern Air after working on transport duties in Nigeria for the winter.The life of the camel-owning Tuareg may be said to centre round the autumn salt caravan, which all the best camels accompany. It usually leaves in October, starting from Tabello[208]in the upper Beughqot valley, where parties from all over Air, Damergu and the Southland rendezvous in order to start together. Since the war these caravans have been comparatively small, but even during the last few years they have numbered 5000 camels. Ever since the occupation of Agades by the French, the Camel Corps has been turned out to guard the concentration and escort the caravan across the desert, for so valuable a congregation of camels might any year, as it sometimes did in the past, prove an irresistible temptation for raiders. The largest caravan ever escorted reached the fantastic total of over 30,000 camels. The caravan marches for five days to the oasis of Fashi, where it is joined by a smaller caravan from Damagarim via Termit. There, a halt is made for a short time to water and feed on whatever scanty pasture is available, and in some three more days Bilma is reached. The animals go out empty except for a little grain or live meat in the form of goats and sheep, and some trade goods for the Tebu and Kanuri inhabitants of Fashi and Kawar and Tibesti. They bring back salt and dates both from Fashi and Bilma. The latter place has perhaps the finest salt deposits in Africa. It costs nothing to get except the labour at the pans of making it up into loaves and loading it wrapped in matting bales. The outlay may be threepence to fivepence a load, in addition to an export tax of two francs per camel levied by the French authorities. The salt is sold in Hausaland for anything up to 7s.or more a loaf according to the time of year. As a fully-grown camel can carry four to six loaves of salt, the trade is extremely lucrative.Both Fashi, or Agram as the place is also called, and Kawar have practically no pasture, and the few camels which live permanently there eat dates. The desert for five and a half days between Tabello and Fashi and three days between Fashi and Bilma is not only waterless but also nearly pastureless as well. The camels start out loaded with a sufficient supply of fodder for the outward and return journeys; the huge bales of grass are droppeden routeat the end of each day’s march to provide for the equivalent return stage. Since the practice of escorting caravans has been instituted the French authorities quite rightly forbid isolated parties crossing the desert and attracting raiders to the neighbourhood. The route now chosen for the caravan runs from Tabello to Tazizilet on the edge of the Air mountains, and then straight across to Fashi in an almost due easterly direction. Formerly another road, which was more convenient for the northern tribes of Air, was also in use. It left the mountains at Agamgam pool in North-east Air and went to Ashegur well, north of Fashi; this way the distances between watering-points was shortened, and there was also rather more pasture.This annual salt caravan is the largest enterprise of its sort in the world at the present time. It is called in Air the “Taghalam,” a word derived from “aghelam,” meaning a “prize camel,” but the French call it the “Azalai,” which means the “Parting” or the “Separation,” the name given to a similar caravan which annually leaves Timbuctoo to collect salt at Taodenit for sale along the Niger.With the advent of European salt in Nigeria the trade has become somewhat less remunerative, as the Air “Taghalam” no longer enjoys its ancient monopoly in the Central Sudan, but the infinitesimal cost of production and the cheap transport in the hands of nomads will always enable it to compete with the imported European trade product to some extent. Bilma salt is of good quality; it is comparatively free from sand or medicinal chemicals and is preferred by the natives of the south to the purer European product.The loaves are made up in conical form and are pink in colour, standing some 18-24″ high by 9-12″ at the base.The return journey of the “Taghalam” follows the same course as the outward one. The whole trip, which is extremely strenuous for men and camels alike, takes some three weeks. There are always a number of casualties among the camels from exhaustion, but so large are the profits that every Tuareg is ready to take the risk and send as many of his herd as he can possibly spare at least once a year, either in the autumn or on the smaller “Taghalam” which goes in the spring. After returning from Bilma the camels are rested and then proceed to Damergu and the south to sell their salt and their services. They are joined by any other camels fit to go, and when they have disposed of their merchandise engage in transport work between the cities of the Southland until about March or April. Then they begin to move north again before the rains set in in the Sudan. The proceeds of this work and of the sale of Bilma salt, or dates from Fashi and Air, are invested in grain and such trade goods as cotton cloth, tea, sugar, snuff and hardware, which are the only luxuries of Air. By the time they reach the mountains the summer rains have probably begun, and they have some three months in which to recuperate on the fresh pasture of the hills in preparation for the next year’s routine.Transactions in salt and grain are measured by the camel load, which varies considerably from place to place. Metrology is not an exact science in Air, but recognised standards nevertheless exist. The actual measures are kept by the tribal chiefs, and it is, of course, common gossip to hear it said that a certain chief gives unduly short weight. The only truly Tuareg measure is a unit of capacity; in the first instance it is the handful, whether of grain or salt or other commodity. But the measure has been standardised by establishing that a handful shall be as much millet grain as an ordinary man can pick up in his hand with the fingersclosedpalm upwards.[209]Six such handfuls nominally make one “tefakint,” which is measured by heaping the grain in a small circular basket with sloping sides 1¾″ deep × 3⅝″ in diameter at the mouth × 2″ at the bottom. The next larger measure is the “muda,” a cylindrical wooden cup with a hemispherical bottom in aUsection. As the handful and the “tefakint” are too small to measure bulky wares like dates, the “muda” has become the effectual standard in the country, but it varies in certain areas. At Auderas it is of five “tefakint,” but in Agades of ten. The T’imia and Kel Owi or Ighazar “muda” is different again, three of them being the same as two Auderas or one Agades “muda.” The three “mudas” are, however, generally recognised and are not the subject of bargaining in each transaction. The measure corresponding to the Air “tefakint” basket in Damergu is a round section cut from a large calabash; this slightly convex plate is held by a loop for the fingers fixed to the underside. All these grain measures are considered to be full when the grain is heaped up so that it runs over the edge.For small weights the silver five-franc piece, or “sinko” as it is called, is now also used, especially in measuring the value of silver ornaments. The rate of exchange current in 1922 in Air at Agades was four silver shillings or five silver francs to the “sinko”; a general rate of five obtained elsewhere in Air, as silver francs and shillings were not distinguished from each other. The people of Air have the nomads’ dislike for paper currency in any form. Various coins, including the Maria Teresa dollar, are still in circulation, but French coinage is gradually replacing all others. Cowrie shells are no longer used and gold is now unknown. The mithkal of Agades dates from the time when the gold trade was still flourishing, and its form here is peculiar to this city. It seems to have been a unit of weight and not of currency; as a recognised amount of gold it was used asthe basis for striking bargains, but the metal probably did not pass from hand to hand owing to the inconvenience of handling dust. With the decline of the gold trade the mithkal survived as a unit of weight, but its theoretical value changed considerably in the course of centuries. We find in Barth’s day the exchange was reckoned at 1 mithkal = 1000 cowries, and 2500 cowries = 1 Maria Teresa dollar; but whereas the Agades mithkal was only worth two-fifths of a dollar, the Timbuctoo mithkal was worth one-third of a dollar. It is interesting to arrive by a round-about method at a rough estimate of the change in value of the unit.The mithkal as a simple unit of weight was a part of a larger unit in the following equation:[210]100 mithkal = 3 small karruwe = 1 large karruwe = 6½ Arab rottls. The Arab rottl weight varies between 225 grammes in Persia and about 160 grammes in Cairo, several slightly different standard rottls being used in other parts of Egypt. Taking 160 grammes as the equivalent of 1 rottl, and assuming Barth’s equation to be correct, we get 10·4 grammes for the Agades mithkal. The unit of 10·4 grammes of gold dust in the fifteenth centuryA.D.was in the nineteenth century equal to two-fifths of a Maria Teresa dollar weighing 28·0668 grammes silver 0·833 fine, or in other words, 13·5 grammes of silver.The only measures of length in Air are the “aghil” (plural “ighillan”)[211]and the “tedi” or “teddi.” The former is the universal dra’, ell or cubit measured from the inner elbow-point to the first joint of the middle finger on an average man, say 5 ft. 10 in. tall. Ten “ighillan” make one “amitral,” the two measures being only used for cloth, etc. The “tedi” is the fathom and is used for measuring the depth of wells or the length of rope, etc. There is no measure in Air for distance, which is invariably calculated by the parts of a day or the number of days taken to cover the ground.The pack-saddle of Air is peculiar to the country. It is very simple, consisting of two sheaves of grass or straw, two semi-circular pieces of matting made of plaited dûm palm fronds, a skin filled with grain or stuffed with dry camel dung and a wooden arch terminating in flat boards. A bundle of grass, with the butt ends even and trimmed, is laid on the semi-circular mat, which is then rolled around it and sewn up with ribbands of palm frond by a long wooden or iron bodkin; the flowery ends of the grass project beyond the matting. One of these mat cylinders or cushions is fitted each side of the camel’s hump with the butts nearly touching one another over the withers. Over these pads is placed the arch of wood, the ends of which terminate in boards some 9″ × 3″ at the ends, resting on the pads, which are tied on with twisted dûm palm rope. A stuffed goatskin thrown transversely over the back of the camel behind the hump forms a rear pad. Its corners are tied to the two ends of the arch with adjustable cords to regulate the distance between them. The loads, which must be carefully balanced, are slung over the pack-saddle; two loops on each load are hitched to the other two on the other load with two short sticks. The weight of the load rests on the side pads and the ends of the back pad; the load cords bear on the latter and on the side pads just in front of the wooden arch, which prevents them slipping backwards. The load ropes rest on, and are not tied to, the saddle. No girths, crupper or breastband are used unless the loads are very bulky or need special steadying. Unloading is extraordinarily simple, for as soon as the camel has been knelt down the loops are disconnected by pulling out the short sticks and the loads fall down on either side.The pack-saddle is simple and cheap, but is not efficient on steep slopes where the camel may stumble or lurch awkwardly. As these conditions prevail all over Air, the arrangement is really far from ideal, though in the plain land it is practical enough. The principal advantages are that every part of the saddle is easily adjustable to suit any particular camel, while the whole equipment weighs nextto nothing. The goatskin used as the back pad on long journeys is filled with a provision of grain, saving an additional receptacle on each camel of the caravan. The resultant economy of space and bulk is unequalled in any other system.The rest of the camel’s equipment consists of a head rope, a hobbling rope and the load ropes. In Air all rope is made of split dûm palm fronds soaked in water till they have fermented, or, if no time is available, from fresh material. The strips are twisted like ordinary two or three strand “cable laid” rope. It is a strong, serviceable material costing nothing and available everywhere where the dûm palm grows, which is all over Air and the Sudan. The scarcity of date palms precludes the use of the brown fibre which grows below the fronds, known to camel travellers in the north. The dûm palm rope does not wear so well as the latter but is easier to manufacture. Every camel-man in Air spends a certain part of the day making rope, twisting the fronds from split ribbands about ¼-½″ broad, bundles of which he carries about; he sits on the ground talking and twisting, using his big toe to hold the end of the rope he has made, and weaving in strand after strand with incredible speed. The rope is nearly all two-stranded cable, but the tightness of twist and the finish vary with the use. Load ropes are very closely twisted cable, passed twice round the package at each end and terminating in a loop adjusted by a running half-hitch to raise or lower the load on the side of the camel. Lashing rope and rough nets are made of loosely twisted strands. The camel head rope is a long piece with a slip knot at one end passed over the lower jaw of the camel and pulled tight behind its front teeth. Hobble ropes are stout lengths passed round one foreleg, then twisted and passed round the other, leaving about 18″ of movement between the limbs: the ends are secured by passing a knot through a small loop. Carefully made rope is beaten with a stone to make the strands pack tightly.Loading camels is hard work and can only properly be done by two men. The pack-saddle is put on the kneelingcamel, which is prevented from rising by slipping one of his knees through a looped hobble rope, which, when not in use, is carried round the animal’s neck. The camel protests vigorously in season and out of season and pretends to bite the men. They work stripped to the waist, wearing only their trousers tucked up to the thigh, and the inevitable veil. They stagger under 150 to 200 lbs. loads, swinging them on to the camel’s back, slipping the loops through one another and securing them with the two sticks. The camel is then released, gets up with a jerky movement resembling a deck chair being opened, and probably throws its burden to the ground immediately, when the operation recommences. If this does not happen at once the head rope is secured to the next camel in front with a half-hitch that can be released by pulling the free end. By the time fifty camels have been loaded, at least five in an endeavour to graze on the same bush have bumped into one another and their loads have fallen off. The operation of loading may take place in the early morning when it is cool, or before dawn when it is always cold, or at noon when the temperature is like a furnace; it is always tedious and tiresome and bad for the temper, which the incessant complaining of the camels aggravates.Eventually the caravan moves off. The camel-men walk along, watching their loads if they are conscientious, and when everything is going well they climb up on their camels and sit on the loads. They jump up on to the neck of the camel after pulling its head down and so reach the top, but they never kneel a camel after it has started on the march until the day’s journey is over, unless the load has been thrown or has slipped very badly. The guide takes the head of the caravan and the march starts. The Tuareg of Air know their mountains as well as the average Londoner knows London: they can find their way along the more important tracks. For the less known ways a special guide must be found: in the outer deserts the reliable guides can be counted on the fingers of both hands. Efale, the leader of the “Taghalam” and veteran of the Eastern Desert, T’ekhmedinand Kalama on the northern routes—are all resourceful, patient and observant men when travelling, but complete autocrats whose orders cannot be questioned. Their knowledge of the roads depends on estimation of time and memory and not on any supernatural powers. They know the stars[212]and have some sense of direction, but especially do they know every fold of ground and almost every bush. Their powers are remarkable but not inexplicable; their observation and memory rarely fail them, but for obvious reasons they do not care to travel by night. Once started the march goes on hour after hour. The heat grows more intense. The narrow path winds down the bed of a valley or among the trees on the banks, or over rocky plains or amid sand dunes.In Air the vegetation exists principally along the valleys. In the south the dûm palm grows in veritable forests or in low thickets, when it resembles the dwarf palm. TheAcacia Adansonii,Acacia Arabica(“Tamat” in Temajegh),Acacia Tortilis(the “Talha” of the Arabs and “Abesagh” or “Tiggeur” in Temajegh), as well as two or three other varieties, are common. They occasionally grow to very large dimensions. The Aborak (Balanites Ægyptiaca) also does very well; trees with trunks up to 2 feet in diameter are common in the larger valleys, and in North-eastern Air I have seen some up to 3½ feet across. The bushes and grasses are innumerable, but flowers are rare, except for the yellow and white mimosa blossom on the trees. Nearly all the trees and bushes are thorned, some with recurving barbs which are dangerous for the careless rider. If burr grass is less frequent than in the south, spear grass abounds and is almost as painful. Vegetation in Air defends itself against pasturing animals vigorously but vainly, for the animals in the country seem to thrive on a diet of thorns, and man ends up by being the worst sufferer from these useless provisions of Nature. Thorns are not the only minor horror of life. How often after a long march has some delicious glade appeared athand, cool and inviting. After angrily dismissing the suggestion to choose a camp site in the middle of an open river-bed where the sun on the sand will cook an egg in a few minutes, you throw yourself down to rest in deep green shade fanned by the breeze. The unwary traveller soon learns the consequences of disregarding native advice, for he will quickly arise from a bed of thorns with his clothes full of burrs, and his mouth full of bad words, while his whole attention will probably be directed towards dodging a large tarantula or scorpion or, happily less often, a little yellow-crested sand viper, than which there is hardly anything more deadly in all Africa.PLATE 24ABOVE: NECK WALLETS, POUCH, “STAR” GAME TRAPCENTRE: AMULET BAG, WOODEN LADLE, WOODEN SPOON, AMULET POUCHESBELOW: STRIP OF MATTING, LEATHER BOTTLE, HOUSEHOLD POTS OF CLAY AND HIDE, SKIN FOR CHURNING BUTTERApart from trades directly connected with camels the Tuareg have practically no industries. They neither dye nor spin anything, except a rough sewing thread of local cotton; nor do they weave in wool or cotton. Mats of two sorts are made; the one of palm fronds plaited in bands some two to three inches broad and sewn together spirally to form rectangles or ovals worked in varying degrees of fineness, the other made of stiff grass and thin strips of black leather. The technique of the latter is good: deep borders with an intricate geometric ornament are woven in the leather warp. Mat-making and leather-working are carried on by the women. They attain great skill, but although leather-working is usual all over the country, it is at Agades that the craft is especially well developed. Fine designs in coloured strips of leather are made on cushions, bags and pouches like a sort of embroidery. The industry is in the hands of a few women and is probably of Manding origin, brought to Air by the Songhai conquerors or even before. Decorated camel riding saddles, leather head ropes and travelling wallets or pouches of various shapes are made. The leather used is the goatskin locally tanned with the seed pod of the “Tamat” acacia, and dyed with red maize leaf or indigo. A certain amount of prepared leather is also imported from the south. In these articles the foundation is usually of black leather, which is ornamented with colouredstrips or bands and metal studs. Camel head ropes are made of twisted or plaited leather strands with coloured tassels; the more elaborate, the finer are the strands used; the tassels are bound with coloured leather threads woven in patterns. The technique of these head ropes is the best of its sort I have ever seen. Cutting leather in strands to the thickness of coarse sewing thread is a highly skilled art, and all the more remarkable in that only knives are used, for scissors are unknown except in the blacksmiths’ equipment. I have seen cords for carrying amulets or pouches made of ten or a dozen threads, each less than ¹⁄₃₂″ thick, bound at intervals and at the ends.A most characteristic article is a flat rectangular envelope of leather some 6″ long × 3″ broad. It is only open at the bottom and slides up and down the two cords, by which a sort of portfolio is hung from the neck; this consists of four to six leather flaps in which amulets, trinkets, needles and papers are preserved. The black cover is ornamented with some stamped rectilinear pattern and has small tassels at the bottom. A similar object is the small leather amulet case about 3″ broad × 2″ long × 1″ deep, also slung round the neck, and provided with a lid like a box. A larger semi-circular pouch with a design in strips of coloured leather suspended over the shoulder by a long cord is typical Agades work. Triangular travelling bags of all sizes are made of soft leather, closed at the neck with a running cord; they vary in size from those 5 inches long for snuff to others 2 feet or more for clothing and food. Both these bags and ornamented goatskins for packing personal belongings have polychrome patterns on the surface, which is roughed and rubbed with moist dyes. The plaited head ropes and the surface dyeing of leather seem to be a more indigenous technique than the “Agades work” proper, in which the design is procured by appliqué strips.Carpentry is rudimentary and the craft akin to iron-working. The artisan, known as the “Enad” or smith, whatever his caste, is a person of standing in the community:he is a man whose advice is sought in council though he rarely becomes a leader. In the olden days the “Enad” is said even to have had a peculiar form of grave to distinguish his resting-place from that of other men, but however this may have been, there is nothing now to show that the smith of Air ever belonged to a separate race or caste. To-day the smith is only respected for his skill. The position is usually hereditary and includes the duties of the blacksmith, jeweller, carpenter and farrier, with the same set of tools for all these trades. His adze is an acute-angled crook of wood with a socketed iron cutting edge bound on to the point of the short limb; the form dates back at least to the Neolithic period of civilisation. The axe is equally primitive: the cutting edge, instead of having a socket, ends in a point which is fitted into a hole bored through the club head of a wooden haft. With these two tools, a few hammers, usually of European shape, tin-shears, pincers, files and chisels, the “Enad” contrives to turn out some remarkably fine work. Using only his adze he will cut spoons with a pointed bowl at a slight angle to the flat handle, or round ladles, from a solid block of “Aborak” wood. They are then ornamented with geometric patterns burnt on the handles around the edge. The Air “Enad” does not smelt iron, for all the presence of ironstone in the hills and magnetite sand in the river-beds. The only iron-working done is quite simple bending, beating or tempering on an anvil shaped like a huge horseshoe nail planted in the ground. A goatskin bellows closed by two wooden slats and a clay nozzle are used as in the Southland. The iron is heated in a hearth in the sand filled with charcoal. A certain number of inferior iron knives are forged, but the Tuareg of Air must be regarded as having hardly yet reached the iron-working age of evolution.The Agades blacksmith-jewellers melt down silver coins heated in small clay crucibles. They lose a lot of silver by oxidation, but the work is remarkably well finished, considering the primitive nature of their tools and the heavy hammers employed. The wooden household furniture willbe described later; so far as there is any at all, it is well made, but rough. The principal skill of the smiths is displayed in making and decorating camel riding saddles and certainU-shaped luggage rests, to which particular reference will be made hereafter.The Tuareg riding saddle, or “tirik” (“t’iriken” in the plural) in Temajegh, or “rahla” in Arabic, is a highly efficient production, combining comfort with extreme lightness. It consists of a circular seat over an invertedVframe which fits across the withers of the camel. High above the seat are a broad, tall cantle shaped like a Gothic arch and large cross pommel. The whole saddle weighs perhaps 10 lbs. at the most. Its equipment includes a quilted saddle cloth over the withers and a single plaited leather girth two inches broad. No iron is used in the saddle, except for two rings which pull by diagonal straps from the underside of the seat over the flatɅshaped frame of the saddle. The girth is permanently attached to these straps at one end, the other end is lashed to the ring on the off-side straps by a leather thong. The seat, cantle and pommel are made of separate pieces of wood held together by raw hide, which is pulled over them wet and dried in place; the violent contraction of the hide holds the component parts together as firmly as if they were screwed or dovetailed. The broadɅsides which fit over the withers are of soft tanned leather stretched over a rectangular frame: the upper part is covered with leather over hide and wood. The common saddle has dark red leather over the seat and cantle and black leather over the cross pommel and along the edges of the cantle. The elaborate decoration of the more ornate patterns is invariably the same. In this variety the seat and edging are of red and black leather as previously described, but the back of the cantle and the front of the cross pommel are covered with pale green leather, on which is applied a geometric decoration of horizontal and diagonal strips of stamped and fretted silver or white metal, with red cloth showing through the holes. Every example I sawhad the same green leather background on the front of the pommel and back of the cantle. I observed no instance where the ornament was on a different background or where green leather without the silver metal design had been used. Where the design comes from I have no idea; it is remarkably well executed and dignified without being so barbaric in splendour as the horse saddles of the Sudan. Every element of the construction and ornament is traditional and rigidly adhered to. I can offer no suggestions regarding its origin, but can only note its presence. Some symbolism is probably involved.

PLATE 221. Ornamentation on shields.2. Clay cooking pot.3. Clay water pot.4. Axe.5. Adze.6. Drum: calabash in a bowl.7. Drum: millet mortar.

PLATE 22

1. Ornamentation on shields.2. Clay cooking pot.3. Clay water pot.4. Axe.5. Adze.6. Drum: calabash in a bowl.7. Drum: millet mortar.

For many months of the year after the rains the true nomads do not even trouble to cluster round a group of wells; living on the milk of their camels and goats, they dispense with water for weeks on end. So long as their camels are only pasturing and the fodder is green they do not require to be watered. They are therefore able to live many days from the nearest wells. In such conditions water is a luxury, for it entails long marches and is not essential to man or beast. In South-eastern Air I came across a small party of Kel Takrizat, who had wandered some distance away from their usual grounds in North-western Air, to an area which had been uninhabited since the war. I was riding out from Tabello on the upper Beughqot valley to look for an old village site of which I had heard. Neither my companion, Alwali, nor I had any baggage, and we were short of water, as the skin I carried was leaky. For a mere two days’ journey Alwali had not thought it worth whileto bring any food for himself except a small skin of millet meal milk, which he had finished early the first afternoon. In the evening we entered a wide valley known as Tsabba,[200]where we saw a number of camels pasturing. We discovered that they belonged to a charming man called Ahmadu ag Musa. The valley was about miles broad from lip to lip, very green and full of a veitch-like plant called “Alwat,” which contains much moisture. The bottom under the steep sides lay some 100 feet below the level of the plain, which was covered with round basalt boulders wherever there were not hillocks of bare rock rising above it. It is a very arid country looking out towards the Eastern Desert, where the last rocks of Air are swallowed up in sand some thirty miles further on. Ahmadu’s camp consisted of a few mats spread under two or three little trees. As we reached it he came out to meet us. When he found out who we were, he asked me to spend the night with him; and this, having at the time intermittent fever which was due that evening, I willingly agreed to do, provided he could let me have some water. He regretted that he had no water, as he had not been near a well for three weeks, but his men went to fetch milk. I had barely dismounted and agreed to stay when a man ran up with a mat for me to sit on and a bowl of sour milk to drink. Among the Tuareg, if a man comes as a guest his host is personally responsible for his guest’s life, camels and property, so a slave unsaddled my two camels and hobbled them in the usual way by tying the two fore fetlocks together with the short hobble rope which everyone carries. My animals were driven off to feed with Ahmadu’s herd of piebald cow camels. I thought at first it was part of the famous Tegama herd of Ahmadu of the Kel Tagei, but it turned out to be another Ahmadu.

I met him only that once, and for a few moments two days later at Tabello. I have the pleasantest recollections of a great gentleman. We sat talking of the impending departure of the salt caravan for Bilma. The sun set slowly, and, as thelight grew less, the cruel gleam left the basalt and granite of the plateau beyond the eastern lip of the valley. The rocks ceased to look metallic in the dance of the hot air, and became soft red and purple in the green-blue sky. Here and there white sand from the outer desert had been washed up against the hillocks. Mount Gorset, with one slope inundated by the sand flood, lay just north of the valley where we sat surrounded by acacia bushes and “Alwat.” The wind had fallen. More and more food was brought for us to eat, all of it of the sort on which the true nomad lives. Cheese, sweet and sour milk, curdled milk, whey water, some cakes of baked burr-grass seed and a very little millet. We sat down to eat; they thought I wanted to eat alone at first, but became more friendly when they saw that some white men were only human like themselves. A pot of cooked millet meal was set down in the middle; luckily they had added salt to the porridge. Each man in turn ate a mouthful from the big wooden spoon and handed it on to his neighbour. I ate little, having fever, but drank much milk, both sweet and sour. The former arrived during the meal, warm and fresh from the camel. It is best quite fresh; when it gets cold in the night it is good too, but becomes rather salt and thin to the taste. We went on eating slowly in the evening, and suddenly night came with a greenish light in the west behind our backs. Milk was left for me to drink during the night; a slave was told to fill my skin with millet meal and milk for the next day. We went on talking, and then the snuff-box was passed round. The Tuareg in Air do not smoke: their only vice, in the austere life they lead, is to take snuff, when they can get it, or to chew green tobacco mixed with a little saltpetre to bring out the taste. The tobacco and snuff are traded from the Southland: the saltpetre is found in Air, and is also used in cooking, for they say that a pinch in the stew-pot makes the meat cook in half the usual time. Presently I turned over to go to sleep on Ahmadu’s mat, in a blanket which I had brought. He and Alwali went on talking far into the night, for they were old friends: Alwali had travelled with him when he was a boy many years ago.

I thought of how very happy these nomads were. They have no possessions to speak of: a few mats, the clothes they wear, some water-skins, some camel trappings, a few weapons, some gourds and bowls, a cooking-pot or two and their camels. They have no routine of life, and no cares except to wonder if a raiding party will or will not happen on them. Even in their normal centres where their tribes are living more or less permanently they often have neither tents nor covering. At the best their tent is a leather roof made of two or three ox skins carried on a few poles, with brushwood laid across so that the top is dome-shaped. The sides are enclosed with vertical mats, and inside, if they are rich, they have a bed—two poles supported on four forked sticks stuck in the ground, with six transverse poles overlaid with stiff mats, woven of “Afaza” grass and strips of leather. On this bed, which is perhaps eight feet square, the whole family sleeps during the rains. At other times they sleep anywhere, on a mat on the ground. Their smaller possessions are carried in a leather sack of tanned goatskins, dyed and ornamented with fringes. All the belongings of a rich family could be loaded on one, certainly on two camels. So they move about looking for pasture. They are independent of water; their camels and goats provide both food and drink, the grasses of the field a change of diet; a slaughtered sheep or millet porridge is their luxury. When they want a fire they kindle it by rubbing a small green stick cut about the size of, and sharpened like, a pencil on a dry stick; the dust and fibre rubbed off the dry wood collect at one end of the channel which has been rubbed, and when the friction is enough, ignites. They do not even require flint and steel. I am sure they must be very happy, for they want so little and could have so much when the value of their herds often runs into thousands of pounds, but they prefer the freedom of the open world. They are even envied by the village dwellers, whose sole ambition is to make enough money to buy camels and live in the same way as their wandering kinsmen.

[175]This name would perhaps be more correctly written Teouar for the “o” is pronounced as if with a London Cockney accent.[176]Plate 20.[177]For certain reasons the names are fictitious.[178]See rock drawing at T’imia,Plate 40.[179]Bates,op. cit., p. 126, and Figs. 17, 20 and 24, where the belt and cross are plainly shown.[180]The initial “T” represents a feminine form.[181]Vide infra,Chap. X.[182]Jean,op. cit., Chap. XIII.[183]Chudeau,op. cit.,Sahara Soudanais, pp. 71-2.[184]It must be remembered that since the evacuation of 1918 many of these animals are with their owners in Southern Air, Damergu, and the south, pending a return to normal conditions.[185]Duveyrier,op. cit., p. 234.[186]Ibid., p. 401,et infra, Chap. XVIII.[187]Basset, in theActes du XIVmeCongrès des Orientalistes, II. p. 69et seq.[188]ApudPlutarchus,Lucullus, XI. 10.[189]De Bello Africano, LXVIII. 4.[190]Tissot,Géographie Comparée de la Province Romaine d’Afrique. Paris, 1884-8. Vol. I. p. 350.[191]Ammianus MarcellinusXXVIII. 6. 5, and others.[192]Pliny, VIII. 67.Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.[193]Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.[194]References in Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. pp. 102 and 105.[195]Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 60, note 8.[196]Herodotus, IV. 183.[197]Vide infra,Chap. X.[198]Mission Cortier,D’une rive à l’autre du Sahara, p. 355.[199]Observation of the author in Damergu in December 1922.[200]The Tesabba valley of the Cortier map. It runs into the Afasas valley, which joins the Beughqot valley further down.

[175]This name would perhaps be more correctly written Teouar for the “o” is pronounced as if with a London Cockney accent.

[176]Plate 20.

[177]For certain reasons the names are fictitious.

[178]See rock drawing at T’imia,Plate 40.

[179]Bates,op. cit., p. 126, and Figs. 17, 20 and 24, where the belt and cross are plainly shown.

[180]The initial “T” represents a feminine form.

[181]Vide infra,Chap. X.

[182]Jean,op. cit., Chap. XIII.

[183]Chudeau,op. cit.,Sahara Soudanais, pp. 71-2.

[184]It must be remembered that since the evacuation of 1918 many of these animals are with their owners in Southern Air, Damergu, and the south, pending a return to normal conditions.

[185]Duveyrier,op. cit., p. 234.

[186]Ibid., p. 401,et infra, Chap. XVIII.

[187]Basset, in theActes du XIVmeCongrès des Orientalistes, II. p. 69et seq.

[188]ApudPlutarchus,Lucullus, XI. 10.

[189]De Bello Africano, LXVIII. 4.

[190]Tissot,Géographie Comparée de la Province Romaine d’Afrique. Paris, 1884-8. Vol. I. p. 350.

[191]Ammianus MarcellinusXXVIII. 6. 5, and others.

[192]Pliny, VIII. 67.Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.

[193]Cf.Strabo, XVII. 1. 45.

[194]References in Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. pp. 102 and 105.

[195]Gsell,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 60, note 8.

[196]Herodotus, IV. 183.

[197]Vide infra,Chap. X.

[198]Mission Cortier,D’une rive à l’autre du Sahara, p. 355.

[199]Observation of the author in Damergu in December 1922.

[200]The Tesabba valley of the Cortier map. It runs into the Afasas valley, which joins the Beughqot valley further down.

TRADE AND OCCUPATIONS

TheAuderas country, still almost in Tegama, is far less interesting ethnically than the north or east. The old permanent habitations in the area are less characteristic of the Tuareg; there are hardly any inscriptions or rock drawings, with the exception of the large group at T’in Wana, and a few scattered about elsewhere. Owing to the many pools and “eresan”[201]there are no deep wells. At Auderas itself there are some ruined stone-built dwellings of the later type, but a few earlier examples may be seen both there and at Abattul, a village about two miles to the N.E. in the same basin of valleys. A famous mosque was founded there by Muhammad Abd el Kerim el Baghdadi. Abattul village lies between the domed peaks of Faken[202]and Mt. Abattul, which is itself a spur of Mount Todra. Behind, and between them, a valley and rough track run north to Mount Dogam. Just south of the village are the valleys which converge from Todra and Faken on the main Auderas basin. From Auderas Mount Faken is a prominent object on the northern horizon with a rounded top and vertical black sides which look unscalable. Almost at the foot of Faken on the Abattul side is a pool in a deep gorge, usually containing water enough to swim in most of the year. The path from Auderas to Abattul is very rough, as it crosses and re-crosses several small valleys where gazelle, some wild pig, and occasionally monkeys are to be found. Abattul village lies just under a low white cliff in which there are a few caves and many smaller holes inhabited by owls andnight birds. It was the first settlement in the basin and was only gradually abandoned as the country became less subject to raids and war. The inhabitants had settled in this place so that they could easily take refuge in the inaccessible crags of Mount Todra just behind their village, in time of raids. Even nowadays the folk from Auderas have to resort to the mountain from time to time, but not so often as to prevent them from living further away. The stone mosque at Abattul is one of the few in Air which is still used for prayer.[203]

The main road from Auderas to Northern Air runs over very rocky ground to a plain west of Faken, bordered by two valleys on the east and by low hills on the west side. The latter continue for some distance along the valley of Auderas until it eventually reaches the foothills of Air on the Talak plain. The different groups of hills are known by names which the Itesan sub-tribes adopted and retained.[204]The plain north of Agades is the Erarar n’Dendemu of Barth:[205]it contains El Baghdadi’s place of prayer mentioned by the traveller, lying under a small hill. Turning left here into more broken country by a small tributary the track enters the Ighaghrar valley, which descends from the Gissat and T’Sidderak hills.[206]

At the head of the basin a steep drop leads into a valley flowing north between Mount Bila to the west and Mount Dogam to the east. This drop, the descent of Inzerak, is equivalent to the ascent south of Auderas at T’inien on to the central platform of the plateau. It leads into one of the most beautiful valleys in Air, called Assada, the head of which, at right angles to its main direction, is formed by small ravines draining Mount Dogam. It runs along theeastern foot of Bila and falls into Anu Maqaran, the central basin of Air. When we came into Assada there were two or three pools near the foot of Inzerak; further up the T’ighummar tributary lay a small village of stone houses with a deep well and mosque on an alternative loop road from Auderas branching off at the place of prayer of El Baghdadi. This alternative track was the one taken by Barth in 1850; it debouches into the Tegidda valley, a tributary of the Assada from the north, at Aureran well.

I camped in Assada three times in all, twice near the foot of the descent and once a mile or so further down at the wells of Tamenzaret,[207]which are temporary and require to be dug again every year. The deep narrow valley with its sandy bed and immense trees growing in the thick vegetation on both banks was magnificent. Towering up on either side the red mountains framed, in a cleft towards the east, the cone of Dogam seated on a pedestal of black lava and basalt. Most of the Dogam massif is so rough as to be impassable. It seems to be a volcanic intrusion in the Todra group, to which it really belongs. I suspect that the basalt boulders covering the plain north and south of Auderas, and perhaps certain features of Todra itself, owe their origin to the Dogam activity. But Bila is hardly less imposing: on the Assada side it presents a wall of vivid red rock. The fine clean colours of dawn on the first morning I saw the mountains against a cold blue sky offered the most lovely spectacle I saw in all Air.

The Assada and T’ighummar valleys are inhabited by a northern section of the Kel Nugguru, who pasture their goats and camels there, and owe allegiance to Ahodu of Auderas. There are a few ruined stone houses below Tamenzaret and the remains of a mosque at the old deep well of Aureran, where the main road divides. From here one branch proceeds north past another ruined settlement to the Arwa Mellen valley and mountain, the other turns east towards the upper part of the Anu Maqaran basin.I took the latter road to T’imia. It crossed several broad valley beds flowing northwards from Dogam, notably the Bacos, where there is a village and palm grove, and the Elazzas not far from where they fall into Anu Maqaran. The road I have had occasion to mention as running from Agades by the Ara valley over the shoulder of Dogam descends from the Central massif by Bacos or Elazzas. The latter corresponds to the Ara on the other side of the Dogam pass. By these two the Todra-Dogam group is divided from Bagezan.

Near its junction with the main Anu Maqaran valley, the Elazzas is a broad bed between low rocky banks. At a certain point where it crosses a ridge of rock large quantities of water are held up in the sand. The remains of a recent village with a few date palms appear on the site. The rocks in the neighbourhood bear a few rude pictures, but the ruins, a few round pedestal foundations of loose stones some 15-20 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high, on which reed huts used to stand, are uninteresting. Bila from here has the appearance of a long flat ridge, in pleasant contrast to the isolated peaks of Aggata and Arwa in the north, or the confused mass of Bagezan to the south and south-east.

The upper part of the Anu Maqaran valley where the Bagezan and the Agalak mountains at the western side of the T’imia massif approach one another is called Abarakan. The road passes a large cemetery and the valley narrows between high hills with bare sides until a big fork is reached: one valley goes north to T’imia village, the other south, emerging on the central plateau east of the Bagezan mountains.

T’imia village is a veritable mountain fastness. The Agalak-T’imia massif was evidently highly volcanic, for a great flow of basalt overlying pink granite boulders has taken place along the valley towards Abarakan. The track climbs steadily over the broken lava stream. The going is rough. Then suddenly the track seems to end altogether below an overhanging cliff of lava some 30 feet high lying right across the bed of the ravine. We reached this pointand found the men of T’imia had come down to meet us in order to help our camels to negotiate the path which follows a narrow crevasse in one side of the cliff. The cleft is so narrow that a camel with a bulky load cannot pass at all; it is so steep that the poor animals were forced to proceed in a series of ungainly lurches or jumps. Above the cliff the valley broadens out again, and where two small side valleys enter it lies the modern village of T’imia.

PLATE 23TIMIA GORGETIMIA GORGE: PINK GRANITE TO LEFT, BLACK BASALT TO RIGHT

PLATE 23

TIMIA GORGE

TIMIA GORGE: PINK GRANITE TO LEFT, BLACK BASALT TO RIGHT

This settlement of Kel Owi nobles is very different from the servile Auderas. The parentage of these Kel Owi may be obscure and mixed, but their physique, the general cleanliness of the place and the neatness of their domed huts stamp them as nobles. The dwellings stand grouped in compounds, or sometimes as single huts, scattered between a row of gardens with irrigation wells, and the slope of a hill covered with huge boulders. In one of the smaller side valleys is a large grove of date palms with most of the gardens, near the site of the older village, a collection of rectangular masonry houses in ruins, and round hut sites marked by a ring of stones and a hearth. The little mosque of stone and mud construction lies between the old and new villages, but it was desecrated by the French soldiers and is no longer used. A matting shelter and compound in the new settlement serve to-day both for a place of prayer and a school, presided over by the ’alim ’Umbellu. Though over sixty he still works daily in his garden in the intervals of teaching the children of the village. Fugda, chief of T’imia, is one of the cleverest men in Air. Under the guidance of these two men the community has prospered. The villagers are enterprising. In the changing conditions of things they are an exception to the usual rule, for the men combine caravaning and trading on a large scale with gardening and date cultivation, without the help of any Imghad. When we came this way some of their camels were fattening in Abarakan ready to go to Bilma with the annual salt caravan in charge of a selected party of men. Another herd of some 100 head was going to Damergu to fetch millet for sale tothe French post at Agades, and later I met yet another drove in Assada going south from Iferuan by way of Auderas to fetch more grain for sale in Northern Air after working on transport duties in Nigeria for the winter.

The life of the camel-owning Tuareg may be said to centre round the autumn salt caravan, which all the best camels accompany. It usually leaves in October, starting from Tabello[208]in the upper Beughqot valley, where parties from all over Air, Damergu and the Southland rendezvous in order to start together. Since the war these caravans have been comparatively small, but even during the last few years they have numbered 5000 camels. Ever since the occupation of Agades by the French, the Camel Corps has been turned out to guard the concentration and escort the caravan across the desert, for so valuable a congregation of camels might any year, as it sometimes did in the past, prove an irresistible temptation for raiders. The largest caravan ever escorted reached the fantastic total of over 30,000 camels. The caravan marches for five days to the oasis of Fashi, where it is joined by a smaller caravan from Damagarim via Termit. There, a halt is made for a short time to water and feed on whatever scanty pasture is available, and in some three more days Bilma is reached. The animals go out empty except for a little grain or live meat in the form of goats and sheep, and some trade goods for the Tebu and Kanuri inhabitants of Fashi and Kawar and Tibesti. They bring back salt and dates both from Fashi and Bilma. The latter place has perhaps the finest salt deposits in Africa. It costs nothing to get except the labour at the pans of making it up into loaves and loading it wrapped in matting bales. The outlay may be threepence to fivepence a load, in addition to an export tax of two francs per camel levied by the French authorities. The salt is sold in Hausaland for anything up to 7s.or more a loaf according to the time of year. As a fully-grown camel can carry four to six loaves of salt, the trade is extremely lucrative.

Both Fashi, or Agram as the place is also called, and Kawar have practically no pasture, and the few camels which live permanently there eat dates. The desert for five and a half days between Tabello and Fashi and three days between Fashi and Bilma is not only waterless but also nearly pastureless as well. The camels start out loaded with a sufficient supply of fodder for the outward and return journeys; the huge bales of grass are droppeden routeat the end of each day’s march to provide for the equivalent return stage. Since the practice of escorting caravans has been instituted the French authorities quite rightly forbid isolated parties crossing the desert and attracting raiders to the neighbourhood. The route now chosen for the caravan runs from Tabello to Tazizilet on the edge of the Air mountains, and then straight across to Fashi in an almost due easterly direction. Formerly another road, which was more convenient for the northern tribes of Air, was also in use. It left the mountains at Agamgam pool in North-east Air and went to Ashegur well, north of Fashi; this way the distances between watering-points was shortened, and there was also rather more pasture.

This annual salt caravan is the largest enterprise of its sort in the world at the present time. It is called in Air the “Taghalam,” a word derived from “aghelam,” meaning a “prize camel,” but the French call it the “Azalai,” which means the “Parting” or the “Separation,” the name given to a similar caravan which annually leaves Timbuctoo to collect salt at Taodenit for sale along the Niger.

With the advent of European salt in Nigeria the trade has become somewhat less remunerative, as the Air “Taghalam” no longer enjoys its ancient monopoly in the Central Sudan, but the infinitesimal cost of production and the cheap transport in the hands of nomads will always enable it to compete with the imported European trade product to some extent. Bilma salt is of good quality; it is comparatively free from sand or medicinal chemicals and is preferred by the natives of the south to the purer European product.The loaves are made up in conical form and are pink in colour, standing some 18-24″ high by 9-12″ at the base.

The return journey of the “Taghalam” follows the same course as the outward one. The whole trip, which is extremely strenuous for men and camels alike, takes some three weeks. There are always a number of casualties among the camels from exhaustion, but so large are the profits that every Tuareg is ready to take the risk and send as many of his herd as he can possibly spare at least once a year, either in the autumn or on the smaller “Taghalam” which goes in the spring. After returning from Bilma the camels are rested and then proceed to Damergu and the south to sell their salt and their services. They are joined by any other camels fit to go, and when they have disposed of their merchandise engage in transport work between the cities of the Southland until about March or April. Then they begin to move north again before the rains set in in the Sudan. The proceeds of this work and of the sale of Bilma salt, or dates from Fashi and Air, are invested in grain and such trade goods as cotton cloth, tea, sugar, snuff and hardware, which are the only luxuries of Air. By the time they reach the mountains the summer rains have probably begun, and they have some three months in which to recuperate on the fresh pasture of the hills in preparation for the next year’s routine.

Transactions in salt and grain are measured by the camel load, which varies considerably from place to place. Metrology is not an exact science in Air, but recognised standards nevertheless exist. The actual measures are kept by the tribal chiefs, and it is, of course, common gossip to hear it said that a certain chief gives unduly short weight. The only truly Tuareg measure is a unit of capacity; in the first instance it is the handful, whether of grain or salt or other commodity. But the measure has been standardised by establishing that a handful shall be as much millet grain as an ordinary man can pick up in his hand with the fingersclosedpalm upwards.[209]Six such handfuls nominally make one “tefakint,” which is measured by heaping the grain in a small circular basket with sloping sides 1¾″ deep × 3⅝″ in diameter at the mouth × 2″ at the bottom. The next larger measure is the “muda,” a cylindrical wooden cup with a hemispherical bottom in aUsection. As the handful and the “tefakint” are too small to measure bulky wares like dates, the “muda” has become the effectual standard in the country, but it varies in certain areas. At Auderas it is of five “tefakint,” but in Agades of ten. The T’imia and Kel Owi or Ighazar “muda” is different again, three of them being the same as two Auderas or one Agades “muda.” The three “mudas” are, however, generally recognised and are not the subject of bargaining in each transaction. The measure corresponding to the Air “tefakint” basket in Damergu is a round section cut from a large calabash; this slightly convex plate is held by a loop for the fingers fixed to the underside. All these grain measures are considered to be full when the grain is heaped up so that it runs over the edge.

For small weights the silver five-franc piece, or “sinko” as it is called, is now also used, especially in measuring the value of silver ornaments. The rate of exchange current in 1922 in Air at Agades was four silver shillings or five silver francs to the “sinko”; a general rate of five obtained elsewhere in Air, as silver francs and shillings were not distinguished from each other. The people of Air have the nomads’ dislike for paper currency in any form. Various coins, including the Maria Teresa dollar, are still in circulation, but French coinage is gradually replacing all others. Cowrie shells are no longer used and gold is now unknown. The mithkal of Agades dates from the time when the gold trade was still flourishing, and its form here is peculiar to this city. It seems to have been a unit of weight and not of currency; as a recognised amount of gold it was used asthe basis for striking bargains, but the metal probably did not pass from hand to hand owing to the inconvenience of handling dust. With the decline of the gold trade the mithkal survived as a unit of weight, but its theoretical value changed considerably in the course of centuries. We find in Barth’s day the exchange was reckoned at 1 mithkal = 1000 cowries, and 2500 cowries = 1 Maria Teresa dollar; but whereas the Agades mithkal was only worth two-fifths of a dollar, the Timbuctoo mithkal was worth one-third of a dollar. It is interesting to arrive by a round-about method at a rough estimate of the change in value of the unit.

The mithkal as a simple unit of weight was a part of a larger unit in the following equation:[210]100 mithkal = 3 small karruwe = 1 large karruwe = 6½ Arab rottls. The Arab rottl weight varies between 225 grammes in Persia and about 160 grammes in Cairo, several slightly different standard rottls being used in other parts of Egypt. Taking 160 grammes as the equivalent of 1 rottl, and assuming Barth’s equation to be correct, we get 10·4 grammes for the Agades mithkal. The unit of 10·4 grammes of gold dust in the fifteenth centuryA.D.was in the nineteenth century equal to two-fifths of a Maria Teresa dollar weighing 28·0668 grammes silver 0·833 fine, or in other words, 13·5 grammes of silver.

The only measures of length in Air are the “aghil” (plural “ighillan”)[211]and the “tedi” or “teddi.” The former is the universal dra’, ell or cubit measured from the inner elbow-point to the first joint of the middle finger on an average man, say 5 ft. 10 in. tall. Ten “ighillan” make one “amitral,” the two measures being only used for cloth, etc. The “tedi” is the fathom and is used for measuring the depth of wells or the length of rope, etc. There is no measure in Air for distance, which is invariably calculated by the parts of a day or the number of days taken to cover the ground.

The pack-saddle of Air is peculiar to the country. It is very simple, consisting of two sheaves of grass or straw, two semi-circular pieces of matting made of plaited dûm palm fronds, a skin filled with grain or stuffed with dry camel dung and a wooden arch terminating in flat boards. A bundle of grass, with the butt ends even and trimmed, is laid on the semi-circular mat, which is then rolled around it and sewn up with ribbands of palm frond by a long wooden or iron bodkin; the flowery ends of the grass project beyond the matting. One of these mat cylinders or cushions is fitted each side of the camel’s hump with the butts nearly touching one another over the withers. Over these pads is placed the arch of wood, the ends of which terminate in boards some 9″ × 3″ at the ends, resting on the pads, which are tied on with twisted dûm palm rope. A stuffed goatskin thrown transversely over the back of the camel behind the hump forms a rear pad. Its corners are tied to the two ends of the arch with adjustable cords to regulate the distance between them. The loads, which must be carefully balanced, are slung over the pack-saddle; two loops on each load are hitched to the other two on the other load with two short sticks. The weight of the load rests on the side pads and the ends of the back pad; the load cords bear on the latter and on the side pads just in front of the wooden arch, which prevents them slipping backwards. The load ropes rest on, and are not tied to, the saddle. No girths, crupper or breastband are used unless the loads are very bulky or need special steadying. Unloading is extraordinarily simple, for as soon as the camel has been knelt down the loops are disconnected by pulling out the short sticks and the loads fall down on either side.

The pack-saddle is simple and cheap, but is not efficient on steep slopes where the camel may stumble or lurch awkwardly. As these conditions prevail all over Air, the arrangement is really far from ideal, though in the plain land it is practical enough. The principal advantages are that every part of the saddle is easily adjustable to suit any particular camel, while the whole equipment weighs nextto nothing. The goatskin used as the back pad on long journeys is filled with a provision of grain, saving an additional receptacle on each camel of the caravan. The resultant economy of space and bulk is unequalled in any other system.

The rest of the camel’s equipment consists of a head rope, a hobbling rope and the load ropes. In Air all rope is made of split dûm palm fronds soaked in water till they have fermented, or, if no time is available, from fresh material. The strips are twisted like ordinary two or three strand “cable laid” rope. It is a strong, serviceable material costing nothing and available everywhere where the dûm palm grows, which is all over Air and the Sudan. The scarcity of date palms precludes the use of the brown fibre which grows below the fronds, known to camel travellers in the north. The dûm palm rope does not wear so well as the latter but is easier to manufacture. Every camel-man in Air spends a certain part of the day making rope, twisting the fronds from split ribbands about ¼-½″ broad, bundles of which he carries about; he sits on the ground talking and twisting, using his big toe to hold the end of the rope he has made, and weaving in strand after strand with incredible speed. The rope is nearly all two-stranded cable, but the tightness of twist and the finish vary with the use. Load ropes are very closely twisted cable, passed twice round the package at each end and terminating in a loop adjusted by a running half-hitch to raise or lower the load on the side of the camel. Lashing rope and rough nets are made of loosely twisted strands. The camel head rope is a long piece with a slip knot at one end passed over the lower jaw of the camel and pulled tight behind its front teeth. Hobble ropes are stout lengths passed round one foreleg, then twisted and passed round the other, leaving about 18″ of movement between the limbs: the ends are secured by passing a knot through a small loop. Carefully made rope is beaten with a stone to make the strands pack tightly.

Loading camels is hard work and can only properly be done by two men. The pack-saddle is put on the kneelingcamel, which is prevented from rising by slipping one of his knees through a looped hobble rope, which, when not in use, is carried round the animal’s neck. The camel protests vigorously in season and out of season and pretends to bite the men. They work stripped to the waist, wearing only their trousers tucked up to the thigh, and the inevitable veil. They stagger under 150 to 200 lbs. loads, swinging them on to the camel’s back, slipping the loops through one another and securing them with the two sticks. The camel is then released, gets up with a jerky movement resembling a deck chair being opened, and probably throws its burden to the ground immediately, when the operation recommences. If this does not happen at once the head rope is secured to the next camel in front with a half-hitch that can be released by pulling the free end. By the time fifty camels have been loaded, at least five in an endeavour to graze on the same bush have bumped into one another and their loads have fallen off. The operation of loading may take place in the early morning when it is cool, or before dawn when it is always cold, or at noon when the temperature is like a furnace; it is always tedious and tiresome and bad for the temper, which the incessant complaining of the camels aggravates.

Eventually the caravan moves off. The camel-men walk along, watching their loads if they are conscientious, and when everything is going well they climb up on their camels and sit on the loads. They jump up on to the neck of the camel after pulling its head down and so reach the top, but they never kneel a camel after it has started on the march until the day’s journey is over, unless the load has been thrown or has slipped very badly. The guide takes the head of the caravan and the march starts. The Tuareg of Air know their mountains as well as the average Londoner knows London: they can find their way along the more important tracks. For the less known ways a special guide must be found: in the outer deserts the reliable guides can be counted on the fingers of both hands. Efale, the leader of the “Taghalam” and veteran of the Eastern Desert, T’ekhmedinand Kalama on the northern routes—are all resourceful, patient and observant men when travelling, but complete autocrats whose orders cannot be questioned. Their knowledge of the roads depends on estimation of time and memory and not on any supernatural powers. They know the stars[212]and have some sense of direction, but especially do they know every fold of ground and almost every bush. Their powers are remarkable but not inexplicable; their observation and memory rarely fail them, but for obvious reasons they do not care to travel by night. Once started the march goes on hour after hour. The heat grows more intense. The narrow path winds down the bed of a valley or among the trees on the banks, or over rocky plains or amid sand dunes.

In Air the vegetation exists principally along the valleys. In the south the dûm palm grows in veritable forests or in low thickets, when it resembles the dwarf palm. TheAcacia Adansonii,Acacia Arabica(“Tamat” in Temajegh),Acacia Tortilis(the “Talha” of the Arabs and “Abesagh” or “Tiggeur” in Temajegh), as well as two or three other varieties, are common. They occasionally grow to very large dimensions. The Aborak (Balanites Ægyptiaca) also does very well; trees with trunks up to 2 feet in diameter are common in the larger valleys, and in North-eastern Air I have seen some up to 3½ feet across. The bushes and grasses are innumerable, but flowers are rare, except for the yellow and white mimosa blossom on the trees. Nearly all the trees and bushes are thorned, some with recurving barbs which are dangerous for the careless rider. If burr grass is less frequent than in the south, spear grass abounds and is almost as painful. Vegetation in Air defends itself against pasturing animals vigorously but vainly, for the animals in the country seem to thrive on a diet of thorns, and man ends up by being the worst sufferer from these useless provisions of Nature. Thorns are not the only minor horror of life. How often after a long march has some delicious glade appeared athand, cool and inviting. After angrily dismissing the suggestion to choose a camp site in the middle of an open river-bed where the sun on the sand will cook an egg in a few minutes, you throw yourself down to rest in deep green shade fanned by the breeze. The unwary traveller soon learns the consequences of disregarding native advice, for he will quickly arise from a bed of thorns with his clothes full of burrs, and his mouth full of bad words, while his whole attention will probably be directed towards dodging a large tarantula or scorpion or, happily less often, a little yellow-crested sand viper, than which there is hardly anything more deadly in all Africa.

PLATE 24ABOVE: NECK WALLETS, POUCH, “STAR” GAME TRAPCENTRE: AMULET BAG, WOODEN LADLE, WOODEN SPOON, AMULET POUCHESBELOW: STRIP OF MATTING, LEATHER BOTTLE, HOUSEHOLD POTS OF CLAY AND HIDE, SKIN FOR CHURNING BUTTER

PLATE 24

ABOVE: NECK WALLETS, POUCH, “STAR” GAME TRAPCENTRE: AMULET BAG, WOODEN LADLE, WOODEN SPOON, AMULET POUCHESBELOW: STRIP OF MATTING, LEATHER BOTTLE, HOUSEHOLD POTS OF CLAY AND HIDE, SKIN FOR CHURNING BUTTER

ABOVE: NECK WALLETS, POUCH, “STAR” GAME TRAP

CENTRE: AMULET BAG, WOODEN LADLE, WOODEN SPOON, AMULET POUCHES

BELOW: STRIP OF MATTING, LEATHER BOTTLE, HOUSEHOLD POTS OF CLAY AND HIDE, SKIN FOR CHURNING BUTTER

Apart from trades directly connected with camels the Tuareg have practically no industries. They neither dye nor spin anything, except a rough sewing thread of local cotton; nor do they weave in wool or cotton. Mats of two sorts are made; the one of palm fronds plaited in bands some two to three inches broad and sewn together spirally to form rectangles or ovals worked in varying degrees of fineness, the other made of stiff grass and thin strips of black leather. The technique of the latter is good: deep borders with an intricate geometric ornament are woven in the leather warp. Mat-making and leather-working are carried on by the women. They attain great skill, but although leather-working is usual all over the country, it is at Agades that the craft is especially well developed. Fine designs in coloured strips of leather are made on cushions, bags and pouches like a sort of embroidery. The industry is in the hands of a few women and is probably of Manding origin, brought to Air by the Songhai conquerors or even before. Decorated camel riding saddles, leather head ropes and travelling wallets or pouches of various shapes are made. The leather used is the goatskin locally tanned with the seed pod of the “Tamat” acacia, and dyed with red maize leaf or indigo. A certain amount of prepared leather is also imported from the south. In these articles the foundation is usually of black leather, which is ornamented with colouredstrips or bands and metal studs. Camel head ropes are made of twisted or plaited leather strands with coloured tassels; the more elaborate, the finer are the strands used; the tassels are bound with coloured leather threads woven in patterns. The technique of these head ropes is the best of its sort I have ever seen. Cutting leather in strands to the thickness of coarse sewing thread is a highly skilled art, and all the more remarkable in that only knives are used, for scissors are unknown except in the blacksmiths’ equipment. I have seen cords for carrying amulets or pouches made of ten or a dozen threads, each less than ¹⁄₃₂″ thick, bound at intervals and at the ends.

A most characteristic article is a flat rectangular envelope of leather some 6″ long × 3″ broad. It is only open at the bottom and slides up and down the two cords, by which a sort of portfolio is hung from the neck; this consists of four to six leather flaps in which amulets, trinkets, needles and papers are preserved. The black cover is ornamented with some stamped rectilinear pattern and has small tassels at the bottom. A similar object is the small leather amulet case about 3″ broad × 2″ long × 1″ deep, also slung round the neck, and provided with a lid like a box. A larger semi-circular pouch with a design in strips of coloured leather suspended over the shoulder by a long cord is typical Agades work. Triangular travelling bags of all sizes are made of soft leather, closed at the neck with a running cord; they vary in size from those 5 inches long for snuff to others 2 feet or more for clothing and food. Both these bags and ornamented goatskins for packing personal belongings have polychrome patterns on the surface, which is roughed and rubbed with moist dyes. The plaited head ropes and the surface dyeing of leather seem to be a more indigenous technique than the “Agades work” proper, in which the design is procured by appliqué strips.

Carpentry is rudimentary and the craft akin to iron-working. The artisan, known as the “Enad” or smith, whatever his caste, is a person of standing in the community:he is a man whose advice is sought in council though he rarely becomes a leader. In the olden days the “Enad” is said even to have had a peculiar form of grave to distinguish his resting-place from that of other men, but however this may have been, there is nothing now to show that the smith of Air ever belonged to a separate race or caste. To-day the smith is only respected for his skill. The position is usually hereditary and includes the duties of the blacksmith, jeweller, carpenter and farrier, with the same set of tools for all these trades. His adze is an acute-angled crook of wood with a socketed iron cutting edge bound on to the point of the short limb; the form dates back at least to the Neolithic period of civilisation. The axe is equally primitive: the cutting edge, instead of having a socket, ends in a point which is fitted into a hole bored through the club head of a wooden haft. With these two tools, a few hammers, usually of European shape, tin-shears, pincers, files and chisels, the “Enad” contrives to turn out some remarkably fine work. Using only his adze he will cut spoons with a pointed bowl at a slight angle to the flat handle, or round ladles, from a solid block of “Aborak” wood. They are then ornamented with geometric patterns burnt on the handles around the edge. The Air “Enad” does not smelt iron, for all the presence of ironstone in the hills and magnetite sand in the river-beds. The only iron-working done is quite simple bending, beating or tempering on an anvil shaped like a huge horseshoe nail planted in the ground. A goatskin bellows closed by two wooden slats and a clay nozzle are used as in the Southland. The iron is heated in a hearth in the sand filled with charcoal. A certain number of inferior iron knives are forged, but the Tuareg of Air must be regarded as having hardly yet reached the iron-working age of evolution.

The Agades blacksmith-jewellers melt down silver coins heated in small clay crucibles. They lose a lot of silver by oxidation, but the work is remarkably well finished, considering the primitive nature of their tools and the heavy hammers employed. The wooden household furniture willbe described later; so far as there is any at all, it is well made, but rough. The principal skill of the smiths is displayed in making and decorating camel riding saddles and certainU-shaped luggage rests, to which particular reference will be made hereafter.

The Tuareg riding saddle, or “tirik” (“t’iriken” in the plural) in Temajegh, or “rahla” in Arabic, is a highly efficient production, combining comfort with extreme lightness. It consists of a circular seat over an invertedVframe which fits across the withers of the camel. High above the seat are a broad, tall cantle shaped like a Gothic arch and large cross pommel. The whole saddle weighs perhaps 10 lbs. at the most. Its equipment includes a quilted saddle cloth over the withers and a single plaited leather girth two inches broad. No iron is used in the saddle, except for two rings which pull by diagonal straps from the underside of the seat over the flatɅshaped frame of the saddle. The girth is permanently attached to these straps at one end, the other end is lashed to the ring on the off-side straps by a leather thong. The seat, cantle and pommel are made of separate pieces of wood held together by raw hide, which is pulled over them wet and dried in place; the violent contraction of the hide holds the component parts together as firmly as if they were screwed or dovetailed. The broadɅsides which fit over the withers are of soft tanned leather stretched over a rectangular frame: the upper part is covered with leather over hide and wood. The common saddle has dark red leather over the seat and cantle and black leather over the cross pommel and along the edges of the cantle. The elaborate decoration of the more ornate patterns is invariably the same. In this variety the seat and edging are of red and black leather as previously described, but the back of the cantle and the front of the cross pommel are covered with pale green leather, on which is applied a geometric decoration of horizontal and diagonal strips of stamped and fretted silver or white metal, with red cloth showing through the holes. Every example I sawhad the same green leather background on the front of the pommel and back of the cantle. I observed no instance where the ornament was on a different background or where green leather without the silver metal design had been used. Where the design comes from I have no idea; it is remarkably well executed and dignified without being so barbaric in splendour as the horse saddles of the Sudan. Every element of the construction and ornament is traditional and rigidly adhered to. I can offer no suggestions regarding its origin, but can only note its presence. Some symbolism is probably involved.

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