I felt so much the lack of scenery in my narrative, that I thought it
well to group in a few pages the African pictures I have given in the
last chapter. My story had too much of the bareness of the Greek
stage, and I was conscious that landscape, as well as action, was
required to mellow the subject and relieve it from tedium. After our
dash through the wilderness, let us return to the slow toil of the
caravan.
Four days brought us to Tamisso from our last halt. We camped on the
copious brook that ran near the town-walls, and while Ali-Ninpha
thought proper to compliment the chief, Mohamedoo, by a formal
announcement of our arrival, the caravan made ready for reception by
copious, but _needed_, ablutions of flesh and raiment. The women,
especially, were careful in adorning and heightening their charms.
Wool was combed to its utmost rigidity; skins were greased till they
shone like polished ebony; ankles and arms were restrung with beads;
and loins were girded with snowy waist-cloths. Ali-Ninpha knew the
pride of his old Mandingo companions, and was satisfied that Mohamedoo
would have been mortified had we surprised him within the precincts of
his court, squatted, perhaps, on a dirty mat with a female scratching
his head! Ali-Ninpha was a prudent gentleman, and knew the difference
between the private and public lives of his illustrious countrymen!
In the afternoon our interpreters returned to camp with Mohamedoo's
son, accompanied by a dozen women carrying platters of boiled rice,
calabashes filled with delicate sauce, and abundance of _ture_, or
vegetable butter. A beautiful horse was also despatched for my
triumphal entry into town.
The food was swallowed with an appetite corresponding to our recent
penitential fare; the tents were struck; and the caravan was forthwith
advanced towards Tamisso. All the noise we could conveniently make, by
way of _music_, was, of course, duly attempted. Interpreters and
guides went ahead, discharging guns. Half a dozen tom-toms were struck
with uncommon rapidity and vigor, while the unctuous women set up a
chorus of melody that would not have disgraced a band of "Ethiopian
Minstrels."
Half-way to the town our turbulent mob was met by a troop of musicians
sent out by the chief to greet us with song and harp. I was quickly
surrounded by the singers, who chanted the most fulsome praise of the
opulent Mongo, while a court-fool or buffoon insisted on leading my
horse, and occasionally wiping my face with his filthy handkerchief!
Presently we reached the gates, thronged by pressing crowds of curious
burghers. Men, women, and children, had all come abroad to see the
immense _Furtoo_, or white man, and appeared as much charmed by the
spectacle as if I had been a banished patriot. I was forced to
dismount at the low wicket, but here the _empressement_ of my
inquisitive hosts became so great, that the "nation's guest" was
forced to pause until some amiable bailiffs modified the amazement of
their fellow-citizens by staves and whips.
I lost no time in the lull, while relieved from the mob, to pass
onward to "the palace" of Mohamedoo, which, like all royal residences
in Africa, consisted of a mud-walled quadrangular inclosure, with a
small gate, a large court, and a quantity of _adobe_ huts, surrounded
by shady verandahs. The furniture, mats, and couches were of cane,
while wooden platters, brass kettles, and common wash-basins, were
spread out in every direction for show and service.
On a coach, covered with several splendid leopard skins, reclined
Mohamedoo, awaiting my arrival with as much stateliness as if he had
been a scion of civilized royalty. The chief was a man of sixty at
least. His corpulent body was covered with short Turkish trousers, and
a large Mandingo shirt profusely embroidered with red and yellow
worsted. His bald or shaved head was concealed by a light turban,
while a long white beard stood out in relief against his tawny skin,
and hung down upon his breast. Ali-Ninpha presented me formally to
this personage, who got up, shook hands, "snapped fingers," and
welcomed me thrice. My Fullah chief and Mandingo companion then
proceeded to "_make their dantica_," or declare the purpose of their
visit; but when they announced that I was the guest of the Fullah
Ali-Mami, and, accordingly, was _entitled_ to free passage every where
without expense, I saw that the countenance of the veteran instantly
fell, and that his welcome was dashed by the loss of a heavy duty
which he designed exacting for my transit.
The sharp eye of Ali-Ninpha was not slow in detecting Mohamedoo's
displeasure; and, as I had previously prepared him in private, he took
an early opportunity to whisper in the old man's ear, that Don Teodore
knew he was compelled to journey through Tamisso, and, of course, had
not come empty-handed. My object, he said, in visiting this region and
the territory of the Fullah king, was not idle curiosity alone; but
that I was prompted by a desire for liberal trade, and especially for
the purchase of slaves to load the numerous vessels I had lingering on
the coast, with immense cargoes of cloth, muskets, and powder.
The clouds were dispersed as soon as a hint was thrown out about
traffic. The old sinner nodded like a mandarin who knew what he was
about, and, rising as soon as the adroit whisperer had finished, took
me by the hand, and in a loud voice, presented me to the people as his
"_beloved son_!" Besides this, the best house within the royal
inclosure was fitted with fresh comforts for my lodging. When the
Fullah chief withdrew from the audience, Ali-Ninpha brought in the
mistress of Mohamedoo's harem, who acted as his confidential clerk,
and we speedily handed over the six pieces of cotton and an abundant
supply of tobacco with which I designed to propitiate her lord and
master.
Tired of the dust, crowd, heat, confinement and curiosity of an
African town, I was glad to gulp down my supper of broiled chickens
and milk, preparatory to a sleepy attack on my couch of rushes spread
with mats and skins. Yet, before retiring for the night, I thought it
well to refresh my jaded frame by a bath, which the prince had ordered
to be prepared in a small court behind my chamber. But I grieve to
say, that my modesty was put to a sore trial, when I began to unrobe.
Locks and latches are unknown in this free-and-easy region. It had
been noised abroad among the dames of the harem, that the _Furtoo_
would probably perform his ablutions before he slept; so that, when I
entered the yard, my tub was surrounded by as many inquisitive eyes as
the dinner table of Louis the Fourteenth, when sovereigns dined in
public. As I could not speak their language, I made all the pantomimic
signs of graceful supplication that commonly soften the hearts of the
sex on the stage, hoping, by dumb-show, to secure my privacy. But
gestures and grimace were unavailing. I then made hold to take off my
shirt, leaving my nether garments untouched. Hitherto, the dames had
seen only my bronzed face and hands, but when the snowy pallor of my
breast and back was unveiled, many of them fled incontinently,
shouting to their friends to "come and see the _peeled Furtoo_!" An
ancient crone, the eldest of the crew, ran her hand roughly across the
fairest portion of my bosom, and looking at her fingers with disgust,
as if I reeked with leprosy, wiped them on the wall. As displeasure
seemed to predominate over admiration, I hoped this experiment would
have satisfied the inquest, but, as black curiosity exceeds all
others, the wenches continued to linger, chatter, grin and feel, until
I was forced to disappoint their anxiety for further disclosures, by
an abrupt "good night."
We tarried in Tamisso three days to recruit, during which I was
liberally entertained on the prince's hospitable mat, where African
stews of relishing flavor, and tender fowls smothered in snowy rice,
regaled me at least twice in every twenty-four hours. Mohamedoo fed
me with an European silver spoon, which, he said, came from among the
effects of a traveller who, many years before, died far in the
interior. In all his life, he had seen but _four_ of our race within
the walls of Tamisso. Their names escaped his memory; but the last, he
declared, was a poor and clever youth, probably from Senegal, who
followed a powerful caravan, and "read the Koran like a _mufti_."
Tamisso was entirely surrounded by a tall double fence of pointed
posts. The space betwixt the inclosures, which were about seven feet
apart, was thickly planted with smaller spear-headed staves, hardened
by fire. If the first fence was leaped by assailants, they met a cruel
reception from those impaling sentinels. Three gates afforded
admission to different sections of the town, but the passage through
them consisted of zig-zags, with loopholes cut judiciously in the
angles, so as to command every point of access to the narrow streets
of the suburbs.
The parting between Mohamedoo and myself was friendly in the extreme.
Provisions for four days were distributed by the prince to the
caravan, and he promised that my return should be welcomed by an
abundant supply of slaves.