countrymen had been carrying on against Bórnu, he himself having taken
part in several battles. He boasted, and with reason, that slaves of his
master had twice beaten the sheikh Mohammed el Kánemí, and that the
sheikh had only gained the victory by calling to his assistance Mústapha
el Áhmar and Mukní, the two succeeding sultans of Fezzán, when, by
destroying the towns of Babáliyá and Gáwi, and by taking possession of
the capital, he made himself temporary master of the country. He
described to me with delight how his countrymen had driven back the
Felláta who were endeavouring to establish the Jemmára in their country,
and that they had undertaken afterwards a successful expedition against
Bógo, one of the settlements of that nation.
Bú-Bakr indeed might have been called a patriot in every sense of the
word. Although a loyal subject, and humbly devoted to his sultan,
nevertheless he beheld with the deepest mortification the decline of his
native country from the former wealth and importance it had enjoyed
previous to the time when ʿAbd el Kerím Sabún, the sultan of Wádáy,
conquered it, plundered its treasures, made the king tributary, and led
numbers of the inhabitants into slavery. Thus the whole well-being of
the country had been annihilated, and not only their wealth in silver
and cattle had disappeared, but the ruin and decay extended even, as he
considered, in his melancholy frame of mind, to nature,—whole districts
which had been formerly under cultivation and covered with villages
being now changed to a wilderness, and regions which had formerly been
well supplied with water suffering now the extreme of drought. Worms, he
told me, were devouring their crops and vegetables, dooming them to
starvation.
All this was true as far as regarded the present state of the country;
for though I cannot say whether its physical condition was ever much
more favourable, still as to its government and political importance
there certainly was a time when Bagírmi enjoyed greater prosperity. It
might seem indeed as if the country was visited by Divine chastisement,
as a punishment for the offences of their ancestors and the ungodly life
of their former ruler. In no country in the whole extent of Negroland
which I have travelled over have I seen such vast numbers of destructive
worms, and such a predominance of ants, as in Bagírmi. There is
especially a large black worm called “hallu-wéndi,” as long as the
largest grub, but much bigger, which, swarming in millions, consumes an
immense proportion of the produce of the natives. Bú-Bakr showed me also
another far smaller, but not less voracious insect, which they call
“kunjungjúdu,” a beetle about half an inch long, and of a yellow colour;
but the poor natives, like the inhabitants of other countries in the
case of the locust, do not fail to take their revenge, for when the
insect has grown fat and big at their expense, they devour it
themselves,—a habit which may be one of the numerous relics of their
former pagan existence, it being still a general custom with the Sókoró
to eat a large species of beetle called “dernána.”
Of other species of worms I shall have occasion to speak further on; but
with the white and black ants I myself waged repeatedly a relentless but
unsuccessful war during my residence in the country. Already, the second
day of my stay in Bákadá, I observed that the white ant (_termes
fatalis_) was threatening my couch, which I had spread upon a very
coarse mat, or “síggedí” as the Kanúri, “lába” as the Bagírmi people
call it, made of the thickest reed, with total destruction. I therefore,
for want of a better protection, contrived an expedient which I thought
would guarantee my berth against the further attacks of those cruel
intruders, placing my couch upon three very large poles; but I soon had
cause to discover that those ferocious insects were not to be deterred
by such means, for two days afterwards, I found that they had not only
built their entrenchments along the poles, and reached the top, but had
eaten through both the coarse mats, finished a large piece of my
Stambúli carpet, and destroyed several other articles. And during my
further stay here I had the greatest trouble in preventing these insects
from destroying all my things; for their voracity and destructive powers
seem to increase towards the beginning of the rainy season, which was
fast setting in.
The weather was exceedingly sultry, and we had the first thunder-storm
on the 3rd of April; and from that time we experienced a tornado almost
every day, although in general there was not much rain.
The village itself, of course, afforded very little entertainment. In
former times it had been nothing but a slave or farming village, or
“yóweó,” while the masters of the field-hands resided at another place
called Kústiya; and it was only a few years previously that they had
taken up their residence at this place; nevertheless even at present it
is nothing better than a farming village, grain being the only produce
of the place, while the inhabitants do not possess a single cow, so that
milk and butter are great luxuries, and even a fowl quite out of the
question. But as for grain, Bákadá is not without importance; on the
contrary, it is one of the chief corn-growing places in the country,
especially for sorghum (“ngáberí,” or, as they call it, “wá”), while
millet (“chéngo”) is not so extensively grown.
A market is held every Sunday, near the western hamlet; but it is very
miserable indeed, and it was all the worse for me, as the people refused
to accept in payment any of those small articles of which I was still
possessed, all my property at the time consisting of 3000 shells—that is
to say, little more than a Spanish dollar,—a small assortment of beads,
and a few looking-glasses, but principally needles, while here also the
people required what I had not, namely, the cotton strips which I have
mentioned above. The only luxury offered for sale in the market was a
miserable lean sheep; and, as a representative of foreign civilization,
there was half a sheet of common paper.
This was the sole attraction of the place, with the exception of my
amiable, intelligent, and kind host Bú-Bakr Sadík. The poor old man was
extremely indignant at the negligent manner in which I was treated; but
he was feeble and timorous, and had no authority in higher spheres. The
information which from time to time I collected from him during my
monotonous stay in this place shall be given in the appendix, in the
several places to which the subjects refer. It was very amusing for me
to observe that the good old man, all the time that he was conversing
with me, was not a moment idle; but he would either sew, not only for
himself, but even articles of dress for another wife of his, whom he had
in the capital, and soon intended to visit, or he would scrape some root
to use as medicine, or else select some indigo, for dyeing his tobe, or,
if he had nothing better to do, he would gather the single grains of
corn which had fallen to the ground,—for in his pious frame of mind he
thought it a sin that so valuable a proof of the bounty of the Almighty
should be wasted.
The other inhabitants of the place were rather uninteresting; and I had
a great deal of trouble with the same man who on our arrival had refused
us hospitality, for, as he was sick and wanted a cooling medicine, I
found the common remedies with which I was provided too weak for his
herculean frame, till at length, with a dose of half a dozen ounces of
Epsom salts, mixed up with three or four drachms of worm-powder, I
succeeded in making him acknowledge the efficacy of my medicines.
In general the Bagírmi people are much better made than the Bórnu, the
men excelling them in size, as well as in muscular strength, as they do
also in courage and energy of mind, while the women are far superior.
The Bagírmi females in general are very well made, taller and less
square than the ugly Bórnu women, but with beautifully-proportioned
limbs, while their features have a great deal of regularity and a
pleasing expression; some of them might even be called handsome, with
their large dark beautiful eyes. The broad nostrils of the Bórnu
females, which are still more disfigured by the ugly coral on the left
side of the nose, are entirely foreign to them. While the Bórnu females
in general endeavour only to excel by the quantity of fat or butter
which they put upon their hair, the Bagírmi women bestow considerable
care upon its arrangement; and the way in which they wear it, imitating
exactly the shape of the crest of a helmet, is very becoming, as it
harmonizes exceedingly well with their tall and well-proportioned
figures. It is therefore not without reason that the Bagírmi females are
celebrated over a great part of Negroland. Their dress is very simple,
similar to that of the Bórnu, namely, the black “túrkedí,” which is
fastened across the breast, while the wealthier among them usually throw
a second one over the shoulder.
The women in general seemed to be very healthy; but the men suffer much
from a peculiar sickness which they themselves call “mukárdam,” while
the Arabs call it by the same name as the “Guinea-worm,” namely,
“ferentít,” or “ʿarúk,” although it seems to be a very different thing;
it is a sort of worm which dwells in the little toe, and eats it
gradually away, beginning at the joint, so that the limb has the
appearance of being tied up with a thread. I think this insect is
identical with the _Malis Americana_ or _Sauvagesii_, or, as it is more
generally called, _pulex penetrans_, a very small black insect well
known in America. This disease is so general hereabouts, that amongst
ten people you will find at least one who has only four toes.
At times the village was enlivened by some little intercourse,—now a
caravan of pilgrims, then a troop of native merchants, tugúrchi or
fatáki. The pilgrims were some of them on their home-journey, with the
impressions which they had received of things scarcely intelligible to
themselves, others going eastward with the narrow prejudices which they
had brought from their distant homes. There were people from every
region of Negroland; but unfortunately I had scarcely anything to offer
them besides needles, with which article I gladly assisted them on their
arduous journey, for nothing is of so much importance to the traveller
as to gain the goodwill of these people, who are the bearers of public
opinion in these regions. Thus my liberality of making presents of
needles, and nothing but needles, procured me the title among these
witty people, of the Needle-Prince, “maláríbra;” and although it was
useful, in order to convince them of my friendly disposition, it was
scarcely sufficient to open an intimate intercourse with them. But there
was one amongst these distant wanderers, a native of Kébbi, a very
intelligent man, from whom I derived my first information about the
populousness of that fine and beautiful country which I was soon to
visit myself.
A numerous troop of pilgrims from Wándalá or Mándará also created a
considerable interest; and I entered with them into lively polemics
concerning the relation of their prince, or “tuksé-malé,” with the ruler
of Bórnu, for they denied positively that their chief had tendered his
subjection in order to avert from his own country that numerous host
which we had accompanied a few months previously to the Músgu country.
The poorer members of the caravan went round about the hamlets beating
their drums, in order to collect alms to supply their wants during their
meritorious journey, while the wealthier among them came to my host in
order to buy from him their supply of native corn.
The commercial intercourse also which took place in the little village
where I was obliged to make so long a stay, exhibited some more
interesting features, notwithstanding the dulness of the market; for
among the merchants there appeared occasionally a small troop of Háusa
people—dangarúnfa, slender active fellows, accustomed to fatigue, and
content with little profit, who were carrying on their heads, all the
way from Kanó to Bagírmi, small parcels of indigo-dyed shirts, and other
commodities, in order to barter them for the fine asses of Dár-Fúr,
which are brought hither by the travellers from the east.
Not less interesting was the arrival of a portion of a numerous caravan
of Jellába, from Nimró in Wádáy, who had come to Más-eñá; it consisted
of about a dozen people, with about twenty pack-oxen and asses. As for
the principal part of the caravan, the chief commodity imported by them
was copper, which they were bringing from the great copper-mine, or el
hofra, situated to the south of Dár-Fúr, carrying it as far as Kanó
towards the west, where this fine eastern copper rivals the old copper
which is brought by the Arab caravans from Tripoli. But these people who
had arrived in Bákadá were the poorer members of the troop; and their
wealth and exclusive article of commerce was a very excellent quality of
rock salt, which the Tebu-Gurʿaán bring from the Burrum or Bahr el
Ghazál to Wára, where it is bought in great quantities by the Jellába,
who sell it in small parcels, carrying it as far as Logón and Kúsuri. I
bought a little for a sheet of paper, and found it excellent, with the
exception of its having decidedly a fishy taste.
It was but very rarely that I mounted my horse, as I purposely avoided
everything which was likely to attract attention, or create envious and
jealous feelings; but on the 10th of the month, I was obliged by
circumstances to take a long ride, as my she-camel, which at the time
was my only beast of burden, was missing, and not a trace of her could
be found. On the south-east side of the village there is much forest of
a very uniform character, interspersed with tall reed-grass; but on the
other sides a great deal of cultivation was to be seen, shaded by
hájilíj (or “jánga,” as it is called here), nebek or “kírna,”[40] and
talha-trees, here called “keláya.” I found it very remarkable that
almost all the fields, even those where millet and sorghum were grown,
were laid out in deep furrows, called derába,—a system of tillage which,
in the case of any sort of grain, I had not before observed in
Negroland. Besides grain, a good deal of sesamum (“kárru”), cotton
(“nyére”), and indigo (“alíni”) was cultivated, the plants being from
two and a half to three feet in height, and bare of leaves at the
present season. On the north-east side, also, there was a great deal of
forest; but it was adorned by some groups of fine trees. It was
enlivened by numbers of Guinea fowl and gazelles; and a great number of
“kálgo” trees, with their wide-spreading branches, were observed here.
The soil had been already tolerably saturated with moisture, fine tufts
of succulent grass were springing up here and there, and I was enabled
to water my horse at a small pool; but this abundance of the watery
element, of course, was only temporary, in consequence of the heavy rain
which had fallen the previous night, and the poor inhabitants were still
to suffer most severely from drought, their deep well being almost dry.
This was the only point in regard to which I had continual disputes with
the inhabitants, who would scarcely allow my horse to get his sufficient
_quantum_, although I had to pay a considerable sum for it.
Meanwhile I waxed impatient. At length, on the evening of the 6th of
April, my escort Gréma (whom on the last day of March I had sent to the
capital to bring me a decisive answer without delay) returned with a
messenger of the lieutenant-governor,—not, however, to grant either of
my requests, but rather to induce me to wait patiently till an answer
should arrive from the sultan himself. In order that I might not starve
in the meanwhile, they brought me a sheep and a shirt, with which I
might buy provision in some neighbouring village; but as there was
nothing to be got besides millet and sorghum, I declared it to be
absolutely necessary for me either to be admitted into the capital, or
to retrace my steps. I requested Gréma to stay with me; but he pretended
he was obliged to return to the town, where his servant lay sick. Not
suspecting that he wanted to leave me alone, and to join the Sultan on
the expedition, I allowed him to go, and resolved to wait a few days in
patience. But, restless and impatient as I was, the delay pressed
heavily upon me; and when on the 13th my kind and amiable host Bú-Bakr
Sadík himself went to the capital, I had nothing to calm my disquietude.
Through my host, I had once more addressed myself to the lieutenant-
governor, requesting to be admitted into the capital without further
delay; and Bú-Bakr had promised me, in the most distinct terms, that
before Thursday night, which was the 15th, I should have a decisive
answer. Having only one weak camel to carry my luggage, I had taken
scarcely any books with me on this excursion to Bagírmi, and the little
information which I had been able to gather was not sufficient to give
my restless spirit its proper nourishment; and I felt, therefore,
mentally depressed. The consequence was, that when Thursday night passed
away, and neither Bú-Bakr himself arrived, nor any message from him, I
determined to put my threat into execution, and to retrace my steps the
following morning.
[Footnote 37: Sheríf el Edrísi, trad. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 72. كركدان]
[Footnote 38: I think it is this animal which is mentioned by Burckhardt
(Travels in Nubia, Appendix I., p. 433.) as the ام قرغي. This name must
be given to it by the Shúwa, but I did not hear it.]
[Footnote 39: Before coming to the main river I had to traverse a small
stream of very cold and limpid water, running in the opposite direction
to the river; but I do not know whence it may proceed.]
[Footnote 40: The name of this tree, which is so common all over this
part of the world—in the forms kórna, kúrna, kúrnahí, kúrru, kírna—is
one of the most widely-spread of all those names indicating objects
possessing properties useful to man; and this would seem to indicate
that it is not indigenous in the various regions where it is at present
found, but introduced from one and the same quarter. However, on nearer
inspection, this argument does not seem to be conclusive. It has
certainly not been introduced into Negroland from a more northern
climate, as little as the _Balanites_ and the _Cucifera_, which is
erroneously called _Thebaica_, instead of _Nigritia_.]
CHAP. XLIX.
ENDEAVOUR TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY. — ARRESTED. — FINAL ENTRANCE INTO
MÁS-EÑÁ. — ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES.
[Sidenote: Friday, April 16th.]
As soon as day dawned, I arose to prepare for my departure. The sky
was overcast, and a little rain fell, which caused some delay; but as
soon as it ceased I got my camel ready and my horse saddled. Several
of the relations and friends of Bú-Bakr endeavoured to persuade me to
remain; but my determination was too fixed, and, pointing at the
disgraceful manner in which I had been treated in this country, I
mounted my horse and rode off. My three servants, themselves
dissatisfied with the treatment they had received, followed sullenly.
We retraced the path by which we had come; but the rains had made it
almost undiscernible, and we had some difficulty to make out the right
track. The sun was very powerful after the rain which had fallen during
the night, as is very often the case in tropical climates; and it not
being my design to abscond secretly, I decided upon halting, during the
hot hours, in Mókorí, and quietly pitched my tent—for I firmly expected
that, if my presence was required, it was here they would seek for me.
After the bad fare which I had received in Bákadá for so long a time, I
was delighted to be able to procure here a fowl, some butter, and a
little milk; and it was a sort of holiday for me to indulge in these
simple luxuries. The manner in which I obtained these supplies was
rather circuitous, a long bartering taking place with beads, needles,
and a little natron which I was provided with from Kúkawa. The price of
the fowl was three darning-needles; and I may here state the obligation
under which I am to Mr. Charles Beke, the Abyssinian traveller, upon
whose advice I had provided myself in London with a small assortment of
these articles. In Middle Sudán their value was not appreciated; but
here, in Bagírmi, I found them extremely useful, and it was to them that
I partly owed my subsistence in this country.
I quietly conversed with the people on my situation; and they behaved
very friendly towards me, and advised me, if no news should arrive from
the capital in the course of the day, to take the road by Kólle-Kólle,
Márga, and Jógodé, a place which they represented as of considerable
size, and thus to reach the river near the village of Klésem, from
whence I might cross over to Kúsuri. I even obtained here some valuable
information with regard to the river-system of Wádáy, from a
Felláta[41], or Púllo, of the name of ʿAbd el Káder. I should have
passed the day very comfortably, if a strong gale had not arisen about
noon, and filled my tent with dust and sand. The sky was overcast; but
there was no rain.
A little after sunset, when the busy scene at the well had subsided, I
measured the temperature of the water, and found it to be 86°·4 Fahr.,
which, if we consider it as nearly the mean temperature of the country,
would give a very high standard for Bagírmi. The well was fifteen
fathoms deep, the present temperature of the air being then 86°; at one
o’clock P.M. it had been 99°·7.
[Sidenote: April 17th.]
Having passed rather an unpleasant night, the ground swarming with black
ants (_termes mordax_), so that my camel, as well as my horse, moved
restlessly about and disturbed our own slumber frequently, I set out
early in the morning with confidence on my journey westward. Forest and
cultivated ground alternately succeeded each other, the cultivation
consisting, besides millet, of cotton and sesamum. Women were collecting
the leaves of the hájilíj, from which, in the absence of the more
esteemed leaves of the monkey-bread tree, to prepare the tasteless sauce
used for their daily pudding. The hájilíj was the most predominant tree;
besides it there was the tree called homaín by the Shúwa, which was at
present leafless, but was covered with fruit about the size of an
apricot, which, when ripe, is eaten by the natives. The tsáda also, with
its cherry-like fruit, called by the Shúwa people ábú-déje, was
frequent.
My young Shúwa companion here called my attention to the honey-bird
(_cuculus indicator_), called by his countrymen “shnéter,” and said to
be a metamorphosed old woman searching after her young son, and calling
him by name, “Shnéter, Shnéter!” All over Africa this little bird has
given rise to a variety of the most curious tales, from the Hottentot
country to the Somaul, and from the Somaul to the Jolóf.
Having gone about five miles, we wanted to obtain a supply of water from
a small hamlet of the name of Bagáwu, which we saw on one side of our
track; but as soon as we approached the well, a decrepit old man rushed
furiously out of his hut, as if we were about to steal his most valuable
property, and ordered us away with the most threatening attitude. Such
is the value of water in this dry region! We therefore continued our
march, and could only account for the existence of this miserable
village, by the extensive tract of cultivated ground which was spread
about.
We then entered a thick forest or jungle, with tall reeds, and showing
numerous footprints of the giraffe, an animal not at all frequent in the
populous districts of Negroland. Further on, the path exhibited various
signs of being a common thoroughfare for elephants. This animal further
westward had not made itself remarkable, while its inveterate enemy the
rhinoceros had already, close to the river, given sufficient proof of
its presence.
At half-past eight o’clock in the morning we approached another village,
of the name of Kólle-Kólle, which from a distance exhibited a most noble
appearance, adorned as it was by two stately deléb-palms, here called
káwe, and a group of most beautiful tamarind-trees; but as for water,
this village was not much better provided than that from which we had
just been driven, being dependent for this necessary element upon a
sister village at little less than a mile distance. Nevertheless, the
dry tract which lay before me obliged me to make a halt here, in order
to procure a supply of water.