eleventh degree and the most fruitful stretches of these lowlands at
that, the Musgu have been able to preserve their characteristics almost
unchanged in contrast to the uniformity of those of Islam. The coarse
features of the otherwise well-formed Musgu people are rendered still
more unattractive by the use of lip-disks—similar to the wooden disks
worn by many Indian tribes in Brazil—with which the female sex disfigure
themselves, so much so that Denham mentions that the slave-dealers of
Tripoli and Fezzan declined to buy Musgu women. The disks are of the
size of a dollar and made out of the most varied materials, but usually
from the rind of the calabash gourd;[413] the lips are perforated and
the disks forced into them, so that they project like beaks. The same or
a similar foolish fashion is found in the countries on the north border
of the Congo basin and even in East Africa.[414] The character, too, of
the Musgu has many features that do not exactly evoke sympathy. The
worst of these is their domestic discord, which has not only prevented
this people from offering a common front against the slave-raiders, but,
on the contrary, has even caused them to utilize in the most shameless
fashion the misfortunes of their fellow-tribesmen in order to rob and
plunder.[415] Characteristic of the Musgu, moreover, is the barbarous
way in which they retain their seat on a horse—large numbers of a small,
shaggy, but pretty hardy breed are raised in the country. As saddles are
quite unknown, the Musgu supply the deficiency by causing an artificial
sore on the place where the saddle ought to go of a horse otherwise in
good condition; this sore is kept continuously open, so that the rider
is as it were glued to his horse.[416] The bridle, too, consists of
nothing more than a piece of rope like a halter, which is bound round
the animal’s jaw.[417] Whilst in their clothing the Musgu are also very
primitive—the men only wear an apron[418] and the women only a band of
rope-like twisted grass passed between the legs—in the building of their
villages one finds, on the contrary, a taste for a certain amount of
household comfort, for art, and for an orderly mode of life. The most
remarkable thing in these villages—at least, as far as the Musgu country
proper is concerned—are the bee-hive or tiara-shaped mud huts, which
have numerous knobs on the outside. These knobs may make the houses more
capable of withstanding the effects of the tornadoes, but they also make
it possible to climb to the top of the hut from outside and thence to
gain a view over the extremely flat tract of country.[419] One also,
indeed, meets the usual round huts of the Sudan and mud buildings,
especially designed for the storage of grain. The Musgu towns, which
with certain exceptions such as the capital, Musgum, are not fortified,
lie extraordinarily thick, so that this district is amongst the best
populated of the whole of Africa, and was formerly the favourite quarry
of slave-raiders. The banks of the Logone are so thickly inhabited, that
one may describe the stretch of country extending over fifty kilometres
between the towns of Musgum and Mochore as one huge city.[420]
The density of population compels the Musgu to make the most careful use
of the soil, and one accordingly finds agriculture highly developed in
their country, and even artificial manuring of the fields. In the neatly
laid-out plantations, usually in the shade afforded by the groves of
deleb palms, there hardly ever fail to be beds of tobacco, which is
indispensable to the Musgu.[421] Their commercial spirit is further
shown by the rational use they make of the products of nature that grow
wild. Hives, in the shape of hollowed out tree-trunks, are placed
everywhere in the larger trees for the numerous swarms of bees; the
surplus grass or other edible plants are collected and plaited into sort
of pigtails of hay, which are likewise hung on the trees to serve as
dry-weather fodder for the abundant herds of cattle; they also
understand how to make ingenious contrivances for catching the fish with
which nature has plentifully stocked the rivers.[422] The Musgu and the
tribes related to them fall into a whole string of subtribes, of which
the Puss and the Wuliya are the best known.
The large pagan tribe of the Margi, inhabiting the southern districts of
Bornu west of the Mandara mountains and a part also of those highlands,
show substantial differences from the Masa. To begin with, the Margi
possess great external advantages. They have finer limbs, better
proportioned bodies, and above all, more pleasing features. The copper-
colour mentioned by Barth[423] may sometimes occur naturally, as in the
case of other negro tribes, but this does not exclude the possibility
that the traveller was in error here, for the Margi often stain the
whole body red with powdered wood. According to the study of the
language which Barth engaged in, the Margi belong to the ‘South African
family’.[424] In character also they differ, advantageously indeed, from
the Musgu. They are easier to get into touch with, less truculent and
less suspicious than the latter. But even here the national character
shows the disastrous effects of the slave-raids, for the Margi, like
most of the pagan tribes, replied to the persecution to which they were
exposed by the Mohammedan slave-raiders, by attacks on their own part,
which were rendered successful by the protection afforded by their
mountain refuges and by the use of the bow and justly dreaded poisoned
arrows.[425] A visit to most of the ‘kopjes’ in the Margi country is
even to-day not altogether without danger, although possibly their
attacks on the neighbouring natives may be the result of certainly not
unjustifiable suspicion.
Every Margi is easily distinguishable by his outward appearance: the men
wear little leather aprons decorated with various designs, drawn between
the legs and hanging down behind like a tail; the women make plentiful
use of iron armlets and anklets and iron beads;[426] they also regularly
wear in the chin a little piece of stick as long as a man’s finger or a
little plate of wood, bone, or metal.[427] Their villages are
distinguished by great neatness and by the pleasing architecture of the
round huts, where instead of the usual straw-roofs they employ an
artistic kind of basket-work. In the neighbourhood of their settlements
one finds as shrines large trees—usually _Adansonia_ (Kuka) or fig-
trees—or little copses, whose signification is indicated by a ring of
stones or an earth wall. They appear to point to a species of ancestor-
worship, a fact which Barth adduces as a proof of the relationship of
the Margi with the South African tribes.[428]
To the westwards the Margi adjoin the border peoples of Bornu, all of
them pagan tribes within British territory, about whom even to-day we
know little more than the modest amount of information furnished us by
Nachtigal.[429] They consist of the Babur, south of Gujba, and the
Kerrikerri and Ngizim between Gujba and Katagum.
In the middle of the old Bornu provinces in which the Kanuri language is
still predominant, along the middle course of the River Yo (or Wobe),
and in the hilly district of Munio, lie the principal seats of the salt
industry;[430] here live the Manga and the Bedde, who are probably
related to them. They are bounded on the west and north-west by the
territory of the Hausas, who form the predominant element in
Zinder.[431]
The Hausas, a mixed race probably of Hamitic descent, but like the
Kanuri with a strong infusion of negro blood, are, thanks to their
enterprising spirit and commercial far-sightedness, the most active
trading folk of the Central Sudan.[432] Their travels extend from
Tripoli in the north to the Bight of Biafra in the south, and
occasionally also reach to the Senegal, or in the guise of pilgrims to
Mecca via the Red Sea; they have thus been able to make their language
the ‘lingua franca’ of the Central Sudan, wherever Arabic is not
predominant. In all places in Bornu worth mentioning one meets with
Hausa settlements of some sort, whose members have generally undertaken
the rôle of merchants and money-lenders, and thus have attained
prosperity or even wealth.[433]
Finally, one must consider as border-tribes of Bornu the Tibbu or Tubu,
and the Tuareg (Tuarik) or Kindin, both of whom were formerly causes of
constant disturbance to the northern provinces. The ‘thievish gipsy-
like’ Tibbu, originally closely related to the Kanuri, as has been
stated above, even to-day have settlements along the lower course of the
River Yo (Wobe), from whence they occasionally push their by no means
purely commercial operations as far as the towns of Central Bornu. Now
and then one may see men of this tribe, recognizable by the
characteristic ‘litham’ or cloth veiling the lower part of the face, in
the markets of Kukawa or Mongonu.
Much more important and fateful, however, is the rôle which the Berber
Tuaregs have played in the provinces north of the Wobe. Considered by
Barth as formerly ‘an integral part’ of the population of Bornu,[434]
they have in later times broken off and since then, while avoiding open
hostilities, have continually disturbed the country by their sudden
raids, which afforded them booty in the shape of slaves and cattle, and
thus for a time completely blocked the roads to the Western Sudan, and
even in parts rendered impossible the cultivation of the land. The state
of affairs in these districts was so insecure that the Shehus finally
saw themselves compelled to appoint a special Kachella to cope with the
Tuareg raids, and even recently these have necessitated the constant
interposition of the French garrisons. At all events the Tuareg are by
far the most turbulent and dangerous members of the whole population of
Bornu.[435]
Besides the above-mentioned tribes, one meets at the present day in
Bornu two elements in the population who are scattered in larger or
smaller colonies over the country usually unconnected with each other,
and though of quite different origin, yet show a certain purely external
similarity, and in fact are often found in friendly intercourse with
each other; these are the Semitic Arabs and the Hamitic Fulani.
First as regards the Arabs called Shuwas by the Kanuri: they form a not
inconsiderable part of the population of Bornu,[436] and are to be
carefully distinguished from the very light-coloured Tripoli merchants
designated as ‘Wassili’, who are equally of Arabic origin, but who in
most cases only make a temporary sojourn in the larger towns of Bornu,
such as Kukawa, Mongonu, and Dikoa. The Shuwas immigrated into Bornu at
various times, firstly with the conquerors of the country from the
north, and secondly at a much later epoch, about 300 years ago, from the
east, no doubt, as Barth assumes, from Nubia or Kordofan.[437] They are
broken up into a great number of tribes, of which the Beni Hassan has
remained the purest; but they have lost many of the bodily and mental
peculiarities of the Semitic race, doubtless as a result of their long
wanderings and also of the intermixture which has taken place with other
peoples. Their language, however, which indeed through the Koran is a
bond of union between most of the North African peoples, they have
retained in wonderful purity.[438]
It is interesting to see how the Shuwas, driven by circumstances, from
being nomads became a settled people. Since the camel, with which their
existence had hitherto been bound up, could not stand the climate of
Bornu, they turned their attention to cattle-breeding, and when later
these too were annihilated by contagious disorders, the wandering
herdsmen were compelled to become settled, and very capable,
agriculturists, who curiously enough have established themselves in just
those districts which are the best watered.[439] It is this totally new
mode of life which—as in the case of the Kanuri—has influenced their
character in an unfavourable sense. Barth and Nachtigal lay special
stress on the disappearance of that chivalrous hospitality once so
notable a trait among the Arabs.[440] The Shuwas modelled their habits
of life chiefly on those of the Kanuri. This is well shown in the
architecture of their huts, which are similar to the Kanuri huts, only
roomier and with somewhat flatter roofs,[441] and especially in their
clothing. Only the mode of dressing the hair among the women, who in
spite of an often unmistakable infusion of negro blood have everywhere
retained their long and not frizzled hair, differs essentially from that
of the Kanuri and reminds one in many respects of that of the wandering
Fulani. The style almost invariably met with—at least in German
Bornu—which makes the Shuwa woman easily recognizable at a distance,
consists of numerous tightly plaited braids hanging down from the
temples and often also a thicker raised plait at the back of the head.
Hair dressed in this style, which is alleged to have originated from
Bagirmi, is kept in place, according to the usual custom in the Sudan,
by a plentiful application of butter.[442] The Arab tribes who have
settled down are to be found to-day in the lowlands of Central and
Eastern Bornu, but especially on the south bank of Lake Chad.
The Hamitic Fulani are less commonly seen in Bornu than the Shuwas,
though in Adamawa, which borders Bornu on the south, they are the
dominant race. According to Barth’s investigations, they were originally
herdsmen, but having penetrated in historical times from the Senegal
into the Central Sudan, they finally, at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, when they had become the ruling race in Sokoto, came into
conflict with the Kanuri. However, in spite of their mental superiority,
they were unable to secure any permanent influence in Bornu. They appear
to have emigrated from Asia Minor in very ancient times by way of
Morocco and Fezzan; many circumstances point to this, such as their
physical build and the use by the men of the Phrygian cap.[443] Perhaps
it was they too who, in prehistoric times, brought over the humped ox
from Asia. Barth says of them with absolute truth: ‘There is not the
slightest doubt that the Fulani are the most intelligent of all African
tribes’;[444] equally just is Rohlfs’ dictum that: ‘At all events they
are by far the finest specimens of mankind in Central Africa.’[445] The
Borroro[446] tribe especially, who are found even in Bornu, between the
Shari and the Logone, as half-nomadic herdsmen, and who live in almost
complete isolation, have retained all the peculiarities of the race—the
spare, sinewy build of the dweller in the desert or the steppe, the
delicately formed limbs and the refined features, which remind one of
ancient Egyptian art, and which in the case of the women, with their
long hair plaited into braids and their big copper earrings, even attain
a certain charm. On the other hand, it is just those Fulani who formerly
played so important a rôle, that have lost many of the characteristics
peculiar to their race as a consequence of intermixture with the native
tribes. Fulani of this kind have remained in small colonies along the
middle course of the Wobe since the time of their first advance into
Bornu; similar to these are the inhabitants of those Fulani settlements
which have been pushed forward from Northern Adamawa into the frontier
districts of Bornu.
The character of the Fulani shows many superiorities over that of the
other Mohammedan tribes of the Sudan. If the doctrines of Islam have
from time to time stimulated them to special fanaticism, on the other
hand—whatever people may say about the degeneration of the Fulani—it is
also owing to these doctrines that they have retained a stricter
morality, which is shown not least by their better developed family
spirit and the domestic inclinations of the Fulani woman.[447]
[Footnote 354: Individual colonies of Kanuri extend far beyond the
borders of Bornu, on the one side as far as the Sahara, on the other
beyond the right bank of the Shari, and as far as Adamawa. Cf. Barth,
iii. p. 293 (German edition).]
[Footnote 355: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 736.]
[Footnote 356: Nachtigal, ii. 417 ff.; cf. also Barth, iii. 77—8. The
name ‘Berebere’ or ‘Beruere’ (Berber), by which the Kanuri are
designated even at the present day by their southern neighbours, the
Fulani, points to an original immigration from the Sahara. [On the
subject of the Berbers, Sir H. H. Johnston has the following
illuminating remarks in his recently published monograph on _The Opening
Up of Africa_, p. 102: ‘The Berbers were very near to the white man of
Europe in race, descent, and culture, but they were sufficiently tinged
with the blood of Africa to be no longer in community of feeling with
Europe. . . . They found the Romans a little too European to their
liking: too dominating, too fond of method, order, tidiness, and
fatiguing public works.’ It would perhaps be impossible to sum up the
African’s objection to the European more succinctly.]]
[Footnote 357: Cf. Barth, iv. 88-9; Nachtigal, ii. 193.]
[Footnote 358: Monteil, p. 313.]
[Footnote 359: Cf. Rohlfs, ii. 8.]
[Footnote 360: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 723; Monteil, p. 355. Even at the
present day in German Bornu the mother of the reigning Sultan, Shehu
Sanda, holds an important position. [In the old Court of Bornu there
were two officials called the ‘Magira’ and the ‘Magiram’, the Shehu’s
official mother and his official sister—not necessarily his actual
mother and sister. Their duties appear to have been connected with the
Royal Household, but the ‘Magira’ also acted as an adviser of, and
interceder with, the sovereign. There is a mention of the ‘Magira’ in
Harris, _Hausa Stories and Riddles_, p. 33 ff., where she is wrongly
described as the Shehu’s sister instead of his mother. These ladies are
not officially recognized in British Bornu, though at one time it was
proposed that they be ranked as second class chiefs and given staves of
office.]]
[Footnote 361: Cf. Denham, ii. 2; Barth, ii. 317; Rohlfs, i. 341;
Nachtigal, i. 738; ii. 299; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 155.]
[Footnote 362: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 611.]
[Footnote 363: [‘Masallachi’ is the Hausa word, ‘mashidi’ the Kanuri.]]
[Footnote 364: Cf. also Barth, ii. 543-4.]
[Footnote 365: Rohlfs, i. 344; Nachtigal, i. 625.]
[Footnote 366: Barth, iii. 153.]
[Footnote 367: [For illustration vid. Macleod, p. 20.]]
[Footnote 368: Cf. Rohlfs, ii. 46.]
[Footnote 369: Polko, _loc. cit._, p. 136. The way of dressing women’s
hair usual at the present day had already come into fashion in
Nachtigal’s time. The hair is twisted with the help of butter into
countless little plaits, which radiate from the crown and lie flat on
the head, being frayed out at the tips. This produces a thick crown of
hair, which when seen from in front reminds one of the coiffure of
European ladies. The hair is often thickly powdered with pulverized
cinnamon, so that it has a chestnut-brown tint. [Cf. illustrations of p.
238 and p. 250 of Macleod, _Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa_; and
for Kanembu hair-dressing and hair-ornaments, _idem_, p. 240.]]
[Footnote 370: Cf. Denham, ii. 144 ff.; Rohlfs, ii. 7. Vid. also
Passarge, Pl. XX, Fig. 3. In addition to this there is the tattooing
mentioned above, which was forcibly introduced by Rabeh.]
[Footnote 371: [There are a few suits of chain-mail in the country, said
to date from Crusader times, and to have drifted across the desert. For
illustrations of four different patterns of ‘ngalio’ or throwing-iron
vid. Mecklenburg, i. 24, and for coloured illustration of ‘liffedi’ or
quilted armour vid. _idem_, i. 53.]]
[Footnote 372: Nachtigal, i. 610 ff.]
[Footnote 373: Cf. Barth, ii, 308. [Instead of an ostrich egg, an
inverted bottle-shaped gourd, or nowadays a glass bottle, is sometimes
used, sometimes also an iron spear-head.]]
[Footnote 374: Ornamentation of this sort, such as Foureau describes at
Zinder (_Documents scientifiques_, ii. 934, and _D’Alger au Congo_, p.
505), I myself found in the ruined Sultan’s palace in the old west town
at Kukawa.]
[Footnote 375: Burnt bricks are not employed at the present day. [The
ruins of the palace at Gaserregomo (Kasr Koumo) of the old ‘Mais’ of
Bornu show that it was built of bricks of extraordinary hardness. The
secret of their manufacture has, however, been lost.]]
[Footnote 376: Cf. Barth, iii. 128-9; Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p.
510.]
[Footnote 377: Nachtigal rightly considers cereals to be the staple food
in Bornu, i. 652. [On the subject of agriculture cf. _The Agricultural
and Forest Products of British West Africa_, by G. C. Dudgeon, and
various special monographs in French published by the firm of A.
Challamel, Paris.]]
[Footnote 378: Monteil met with wells in Western Bornu which were 38
metres [i.e. 126 ft.] deep (Monteil, p. 317). [This is nothing unusual;
wells in Gubio and elsewhere are 40 fathoms, ‘nganji’, i.e. 240 ft.
deep.]]
[Footnote 379: Cf. also Barth, iii. 116.]
[Footnote 380: Cf. Denham, ii. 96; Nachtigal, i. 635 ff. [I do not think
many people would agree to this statement _re_ the Kanuri ‘love’ of
animals.—P. A. B.]]
[Footnote 381: This bad practice is usual even within the Sahara,
according to Nachtigal, i. 557.]
[Footnote 382: Cf. also Denham, ii. 88 ff.; Barth, ii. 253 (German
edition) and iii. 34 (German edition). [For illustration vid. Tilho,
_Doc. sc._, i. 26. Plaited grass fish-traps are also largely used, and
are formed into dams right across the rivers.]]
[Footnote 383: For an illustration of one of these, vid. Nachtigal, i.
650.]
[Footnote 384: [Rather from sheep and goat skins. For notes on the
method of preparation, vid. _Bulletin of the Imperial Institute_, 1908,
6. 175, and 1910, 8. 402.]]
[Footnote 385: Cf. Barth, iii. 44; Nachtigal, i. 544, 570; Foureau,
_Documents scientifiques_, ii. 946, and _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 581.
Barth mentions that salt is even obtained by burning cow-dung; vid.
Barth, iii. 240 (German edition).]
[Footnote 386: [For a detailed chemical study of the salt and natron of
the Chad countries, vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 553-600. Cf. an article
by M. Cortier on ‘Les Salines du Sahara soudanais’ in _La Géographie_
(1912), pp. 231-46.]]
[Footnote 387: Barth, iii. 289; Rohlfs, i. 307. Cf. also Foureau,
_D’Alger au Congo_, p. 505. According to Barth, gunpowder also is
manufactured in the country, Barth, iii. 127 ff. (German edition). The
powder-magazine, which blew up when the French captured Dikoa, must have
been filled for the most part with locally manufactured powder.]
[Footnote 388: [‘Suk’ is the Arabic word for market, ‘Kasugu’ the
Kanuri.]]
[Footnote 389: Cf. also Nachtigal, i. 602 and 703 ff.]
[Footnote 390: Denham, ii. 140.]
[Footnote 391: Polko, _loc. cit._ p. 140.]
[Footnote 392: Nachtigal, ii. 336 ff.]
[Footnote 393: Barth, iii. 114.]
[Footnote 394: For illustration vid. Pl. XXIV, Foureau, _Documents
scientifiques_, ii. 954; Lenfant, p. 165.]
[Footnote 395: Nachtigal, ii. 341.]
[Footnote 396: Barth, ii. 341, 414, 445; iii. 161, 269 (all in German
edition); Nachtigal, ii. 426, 530; Nachtigal considers Barth’s
designation of ‘Masa’ for these tribes as rather arbitrary.]
[Footnote 397: Barth, ii. 363. [They are semi-pagan.]]
[Footnote 398: Barth, iii. 304.]
[Footnote 399: Barth, iii. 275 ff.; Nachtigal, ii. 519; cf. plate in
Nachtigal, ii. 502; Bauer, _loc. cit._, p. 101; Lenfant, p. 166.]
[Footnote 400: Barth, iii. 293; Nachtigal, ii. 533.]
[Footnote 401: Barth, iii. 293; Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 684;
Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 173. Plates in Foureau, _Documents
scientifiques_, ii. 975, and _D’Alger au Congo_, pp. 685, 697, 715;
Dominik, p. 189. [For illustration of Kotoko canoe, vid. Macleod, p.
194.]]
[Footnote 402: They offered a very energetic and successful resistance
to the hordes of Rabeh, first of all in their capital-town of Mora, and
later in the hills.]
[Footnote 403: [The Buddumas do not appear to have much faith in their
Mohammedan teachers. One of the chiefs remarked to M. Landeroin: ‘Our
“mallams” are liars. They ask us for alms in order to cure us of
sickness and to prevent epidemics. . . . If after a man’s death his
relations demand a refund of the payments made to the “mallam”, he
replies: “I cannot restore it, for thanks to my prayers the deceased
will obtain an excellent place in Paradise, which he would lose if the
‘sadaka’ was refunded”.’ Vid. _Doc. sc._, ii. 339.]]
[Footnote 404: They are treated of in great detail by d’Huart in _La
Géographie_, xi (1904), p. 167 ff.; cf. also Nachtigal, ii. 362 ff. and
373. [For notes on the Buddumas, and for Budduma and Kury vocabularies,
vid. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages of the Western Sudan_, p. 38 ff.
and p. 78 ff.; and for a very full study of the Buddumas, vid. Tilho,
_Doc. sc._, ii. 310-41. Cf. also Budduma and Kury vocabularies by Dr.
Decorse in _Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Orientalistes,
Alger_, 1905.]]
[Footnote 405: [Landeroin remarks as follows: ‘The principal population
of the Chad islands is generally designated under the name of Budduma, a
nickname given them by their neighbours, the Kanuri, from ‘budu’ (=
grass) and ‘-ma’ (= belonging to). But the Buddumas’ own name for
themselves is ‘Yedina’, the etymology of which is uncertain. It may be
derived from Yedi, a town on the south-west bank of Chad, whose original
inhabitants, a branch of the Sos, may have taken refuge in the islands
from the power of Bornu; or it may be derived from the Kanuri word Gedi,
meaning East. . . . Some people say that Yedina was the name of the
Kanembu tribe, to which Bulu, the mythical ancestor of the Budduma,
belonged.’]]
[Footnote 406: Cf. also Rohlfs, i. 333 ff.]