ARCHITECTURE AND ART
The Bagezan group looms large in Central Air, but even its general
features are unknown. The mountains have neither been reconnoitred nor
mapped. The area they occupy figures as a blank on the Cortier map. I
travelled around Bagezan and climbed up into one broad valley in the
heart of the massif, but my own additions to the cartography hereabouts
are confined to a few details along the towering sides. Buchanan in
1919-20 crossed the western side, from Towar to a valley which runs
into the Anu Maqaran basin, where it is called Abarakan. A detachment
of Jean’s first patrol to Air visited the southern valleys. But
no European has ever entered the eastern or north-eastern part of
the group. The reason for this apparent lack of enterprise is due to
few of the mountain tracks being fit for camels; many of them are not
even suitable for donkeys, and the complications of travelling in this
sort of country, where none of the inhabitants will act as porters,
thus become considerable.
The massif rises some 2000 feet above the general level of the central
plateau, except in the north-east, where the latter at 3500 feet above
the sea is itself over 500 feet higher than in the north and west. The
principal peaks must be well over 6000 feet, the bottoms of the upland
valleys perhaps 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea. Many of the latter
contain perennial streams, and rumours reached me of a small lake
somewhere in the unexplored north-eastern part; but this may only be
a fairy tale. The southern sides of Bagezan fall almost vertically on
to the central plain between Towar and Arakieta on the upper Beughqot
valley. Several small villages are hidden in the folds of the mountains
above, wherever there is a permanent supply of water. In some cases
the streams are sufficient to irrigate a few gardens; at one or two
points there are some date palms and the only lime trees in Air. The
climate is cooler and everything ripens some four to six weeks later
than on the plateau below. Frost is common in the winter.
A few of the villages, notably those like Tasessat and Tadesa, near the
southern edge of the massif, have been visited by French patrols. In
addition settlements known as Atkaki, Emululi, Owari, Agaragar and
Ighelablaban have been reported to exist, but generally speaking,
owing to the difficulties of intercommunication, the villages are
almost unknown. They are said to consist of stone houses apparently
of the earliest period associated with the Itesan tribes, in whose
country the mountains lay. Some of the houses, however, differ from
any of those encountered in other districts of Air.
In order to see the type of country and visit some of the people
of the mountains I climbed from Towar up to the Telezu valley,
where there were some Kel Bagezan, to-day a composite tribe made up
of portions of Kel Tadek imghad and various Kel Owi elements. They
are under the chief Minéru or El Minir, who owes allegiance to the
Añastafidet. My way from Towar led past the ruined town of Agejir
to the Tokede valley, which soon turned east and disappeared into the
mountain. I subsequently found that the Tokede was the same valley as
the one called Telesu higher up and Towar further down. The path turned
west along the foot of Bagezan, past a scree of enormous boulders,
ranging from five to twenty-five feet across, on which numerous
families of red monkeys were playing. There we turned, T’ekhmedin,
Atagoom and myself, and wound up the side of the mountain by a path
so steep and rough that a self-respecting mule would have walked
warily. The camels went up and up over loose stones. The left side
dropped away precipitately into the deep valley which divides massifs
of Bagezan and Todra. A stream roared in a gorge hundreds of feet
below at the foot of a cliff of gleaming rock. Still we climbed over
stones and boulders by a two-foot path gradually turning north and
then north-east and then east. We followed up a narrowing tributary
bed of the stream in the gorge until we came to a pass between bare
earth-coloured hills, the tops of which were only a few hundred feet
above us, and at last dropped gently down the other side past some
grazing camels which seemed interested in our arrival and followed
us inquisitively into Telezu. An enclosed plain opened out full of
big green trees and grass with wonderful pasture and plenty of water
in the sand. It ran from west to east before turning and narrowing
southwards to fall over the edge into the Tokede below. The valley was
shut in all round by low peaks and rough crags along the sky-line. One
had no impression of being so far above the plateau of Air on a higher
table-land. The great summits of Bagezan had become small hills.
There was no other way out of Telesu except on foot, either over the
hills or down the ravine made by the stream falling towards Tokede,
so we returned as we had come, after drinking milk with the Kel
Bagezan who were living there. The descent was terrific; the camels
had to be led and we only made Towar by nightfall. After reaching the
bottom of the scree we cut off a corner instead of going by Agejir,
and marched towards the standing rock of Takazuzat (or Takazanzat),
which looks like the spire of a cathedral, on the edge of the Ara
valley near the isolated peak of In Bodinam.
All the ways up to the Bagezan villages are similar, if not
harder. The agility of the camels that have to negotiate these paths
is unbelievable until it has been experienced.
The only account which I can give of the houses of Bagezan is
second-hand, and this is the more unfortunate, because Jean’s
description[216] of them as the first houses in Air does not
correspond with the character of the earliest ones I saw. I will
quote his exact words, as the point is important: “Les premières
constructions édifiées furent Afassaz et Elnoulli; maisons à dôme
central recouvrant une grande pièce sombre entourée de nombreuses
dépendances; l’étage aujourd’hui effondré avait été solidement
étayé par des piliers de maçonnerie à large et forte structure.”
To Afassaz, a large group of villages in a valley east of Bagezan,
we will turn later; Barth erroneously supposed it lay near Towar,
having apparently confused it with Agejir. “Elnoulli” I was
entirely unable to trace under this name, and concluded that Emululi,
which is one of the Bagezan villages, was intended.
PLATE 27
[Illustration: HOUSE TYPES.]
PLATE 28
[Illustration: HOUSE TYPES.]
My interest in Tuareg architecture was first aroused near Tabello,
east of Bagezan, a point reached while I was circumnavigating
the massif. From Auderas we had been to visit T’imia, whence we
returned to the Abarakan valley. We then climbed laboriously up the
bed of the Teghazar[217] tributary, and so reached the plateau east
of the Central massif. We camped at about 3500 feet, by the spring of
Teginjir. The water here is strongly mineralised, and comes out of
the ground at about 90° F. charged with carbonic acid gas. Within
a short distance of the spring is the volcanic crater and cone of
Gheshwa,[218] the only recent vent which I came across in Air. It was
visited and described by Von Bary, but curiously enough is neither
referred to in other works nor shown on the Cortier map. The cinder
cone is small and rather broken down on the west side, but the sides
are still exceedingly steep and covered with loose scoriæ. The lava
flow which came out of the vent extends from the foot of the cone,
for some five miles to the south-east; it appears to have originated
in the course of a single eruption. The lava stratum is level and
about 20 feet thick, overlying the Teginjir plain, which consists of
a surface alluvium from the neighbouring mountains, and, at one point,
a disintegrating crystalline outcrop. The lava is acid and vesicular,
resembling in appearance recent flows from Vesuvius or at Casamicciola
on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. The surface of the
Teginjir flow proved indescribably rough and devoid of vegetation;
it has as yet had no time to disintegrate and is undoubtedly still
in the same twisted and cracked form which it had assumed during the
cooling process. E.S.E. of Mount Gheshwa are two small black hillocks
which appear to be minor cinder cones, not connected with any lava
flows. The eruption which formed the Gheshwa cone and neighbouring lava
flow is certainly posterior to the general configuration of the plateau
and is a most recent geological phenomenon, but I found no tradition
among the natives of any volcanic activity within living memory.
The ground drains eastward from Teginjir along the southern side of the
T’imia massif to the Anfissak valley, named after the buttress hills
which form the south-east corner of this group. East of Anfissak the
plain extends towards and beyond Mount Mari in the north; a number
of hillocks litter the plain to the south. The caravan road from
Tripoli to the Sudan runs down this plain by the Adoral valley past
Mari well, which is now filled in, by Anfissak well, and by Adaudu
and the Tebernit water-holes to Beughqot. Thence it goes due south
to Tergulawen and over the Azawagh to Damergu and Nigeria.
A short distance to the south the Anfissak valley changes its name
to Tamanet, so called after a watering-place which we reached in
one day’s march from Teginjir. At least it was meant to be a
watering-point, but we found that insufficient rain had fallen that
year in Eastern Air and there was no water in the sand of the valley
bed. We camped and left next day on a short ration of water over one
of the most difficult parts of Air which I encountered in the whole
of my journey. The plain is not boldly accidentated, but the valleys
have cut deep into the disintegrating plateau. Their sides are steep
and the flat places between them are so thickly covered with boulders
that the area is almost impossible to cross. We eventually reached the
Tebernit[219] valley just above Adaudu and sent camels up the valley
to find water at a point called Emilía on the way to Ajiru. Our
supply had completely run out. It was thirsty work waiting for the
watering party to return, and one’s worst apprehensions were of
course aroused. I prowled about to relieve the tedium, and found a
place where a ridge of rock crossed the bed or channel of the valley. I
began digging in the sand to find water, for it seemed a likely place
for an “Ers,” as there was an old village site near by. Sure
enough I found water about two feet down, and everyone cheered up,
as the Emilía party was not due back for several hours. The place
became known to the expedition as “Rodd’s Ers.”
Marching from here to Tabello was light work; we camped in the valley
where the Arakieta tributary comes down from Bagezan near a small
hut village, and then made an easy stage to the rendezvous of the
salt caravan. The valley known as Tabello we discovered to be the
upper part of the Beughqot: it was another example of the confusing
habit of giving a multitude of names to a single system. Each section
bears a different name to which a traveller, according to where he
happens to be, may refer. The Ajiru, Tellia, Tebernit and Afasas are
really the same valley; similarly the Telezu, Tokede, Towar, Tessuma
and Etaras are another, while the Abarakan, T’imilen, Agerzan,
Bilasicat, Azar and Anu Maqaran are also one and the same watercourse.
The country east of Bagezan now belongs to the Kel Owi
confederation. The northern part of the plain is the country of the
Kel Azañieres, but before their advent the Immikitan came as far
south as Tamanet. The Kel Anfissak, living presumably at Barth’s
well of Albes, are a Kel Azañieres sub-tribe. Ajiru was the home of
Belkho and the head-quarters of the Igermaden; but Tabello belonged
to the Igademawen. It was at Ajiru that Von Bary was detained as a
virtual prisoner by Belkho until he decided to abandon his projected
journey to the Sudan.
The countryside had evidently at one time been quite thickly
inhabited, but presumably before the immigration of the Kel Owi,
for nearly all the ruined villages contained a characteristic type
of house, which every Tuareg agreed was built by the Itesan, who of
course came to Air long before the Kel Owi. In the Beughqot valley
where it is called Tabello a great deal of water is available all the
year round in the sand, and consequently several villages sprang up
on both banks. The largest group, which will be described in detail,
is the northernmost on the west bank, called Tasawat. The houses here
are all of the characteristic “old type,” which is culturally far
the most advanced dwelling in Air. Many of the buildings here are very
well preserved except for the roof, which in almost every instance
has collapsed. In the Tabello houses the walls are for the most part
well preserved, but elsewhere in Air the constructional material was
less good, for little remains of the oldest type dwellings but the
ground plan.
The oldest houses, which I will call the “A type,” are rectangular
in plan and have two rooms, a larger one with two or three outer doors,
and an inner one with one door in the partition wall and no outer
doors. All the houses of this type and most of the later houses in
Air are oriented in the same direction, namely, within a few degrees
of north and south, with the smaller room at the northern end. There
were a few exceptions in the fourth group which I examined at Tabello;
they were houses on a N.N.W.-S.S.E. line, or oriented E.-W. with
the small room at the west end. The latter is an interesting point,
because although the Air dialect of Temajegh contains a proper word
for north (“tasalgi”), the word for west (“ataram”), which
in some other dialects of the language has acquired the significance
of north, is also sometimes used for this cardinal point.
PLATE 29
[Illustration: TIMIA: “A” AND “B” TYPE HOUSES AND HUT CIRCLES]
[Illustration: TABELLO: INTERIOR OF “A” TYPE HOUSE]
The big rooms of these “A type” houses in all the village groups
examined varied but little in size, the largest one I measured being
29 ft. × 14 ft. inside. The small rooms varied rather more, ranging
between 9 ft. and 12 ft. in length, the breadth being the same as for
the big room. The head room was in all cases remarkable, one house I
measured being as much as 12 ft. from the floor to the underside of
the dûm palm rafters of the roof. In every instance the height was
more than sufficient for a man to stand upright, a feature which does
not obtain in the later houses. The large room was usually provided
with three doors, the east and west ones being of similar dimensions,
the south door rather smaller. In two cases in one group at Tabello
and in other instances in the north I noticed that the east doors of
the old houses had small buttresses outside as if to enhance their
importance, though in one house the east door had been reduced to a
small aperture; but this was exceptional. Buttresses were not observed
on any of the west doors. In two cases I noticed here there was no
south door, an omission which also occurred elsewhere among the later
houses. The east and west doors, varying slightly according to the
size of the house, were 4 ft. or more in height by 3 ft. 6 in. to
4 ft. in breadth. In all the Tabello houses the door openings were
recessed on the inner side to take a removable wooden door some ten
inches broader and taller than the opening itself. The recess was
continued for a sufficient space laterally to allow the frame to
be pushed to one side without taking up room space. One side of the
recess was provided with an elbow-hole in the outer wall of the house
about 2 ft. from the ground for access to a latch for securing the door
frame. In the later houses, but not at Tabello, the sliding frame door
gave place to one swinging from stone sockets in the threshold and
lintel; these doors are in some cases over 3 ft. broad and cut out
of one piece of wood: they also were provided with a latch or bolt
fitting into a catch in the inner part of the elbow-hole by which
the door was secured and sometimes locked with a rough padlock of
Tripolitan or Algerian manufacture. No doubt the door frames of the
earlier houses were provided with a similar latch and lock, but none
of the woodwork has survived. The neatness of design of the sliding
door recess was particularly striking in these dwellings.
The threshold of the doors in the older houses was on the floor level,
which was a few inches above the outside level. The larger rooms had
quadrangular niches of different dimensions at odd points in the walls,
as well as certain peculiar and characteristic niches in the partition
walls. The inner rooms were provided with small niches made of pots
built into the walls; in many cases there were four shelves across the
corners some 3-4 ft. from the ground made of heavy beams, evidently
intended to carry considerable weights. The surfaces of these shelves,
like all the inner walls of both rooms, were carefully plastered with
mud mortar whitened or coloured with earths similar to those used in
the washes on houses at Agades. In one case a dado or wainscot of a
different colour had been applied with a finger-drawn zigzag border
of another shade. The stucco surfaces were brown, earthy crimson,
ochre, yellow or white.
One characteristic feature was observed in all the “old type”
houses which still had walls standing of sufficient height for
something more than the mere ground plan to be seen. On either side
of the doorway in the partition or north wall of the large room there
was a niche of very peculiar shape. The top was rather like a Gothic
arch, and a recess was cut out in the base. The niches and the door
in some cases were ornamented with an elaborate border, in other
cases they were entirely unadorned. The shape of the niche, however,
was constant and the size generally uniform. The style of decoration
will be seen in Plates 29 and 30.
The later houses in Air are clearly an adaptation of the earlier type,
for they have many common characteristics. These houses I have called
the “B type” to distinguish them from the “A” or “Itesan
type.” The “B houses” also are rectangular but single-roomed; for
the most part they too are oriented north and south. An Imajegh whom
I questioned on this point at Iferuan said he did not know why this
was so, but that all the correct houses of nobles were built in this
manner, including the one in which his own family had always lived. He
added that the three usual outside doors were called Imi n’Innek,
the Door of the East, the Imi n’Aghil, the Door of the South, but
the west door, instead of being called the Imi n’Ataram, was called
the Imi n’Tasalgi, which properly means the Door of the North. When I
asked him to explain this curious fact, he told me that it was because
the Tuareg came from there, a statement which seemed inadequate, albeit
significant. The confusion of west and north is especially curious;
and the explanation of the house oriented E. and W. at Tabello is
probably due to a misunderstanding on this point in the mind of the
early builder. The problem is not unconnected with the varying sense
of the word Ataram. Analogies between the “A” and “B” types of
house are not, however, confined to those peculiarities of orientation
and doors. A door in the north wall of the “B type” houses is very
rare; on the other hand, in the majority of examples of this type
I noticed that there was a long, very low niche on that side of the
room. These recesses were not more than four or five inches high by
eighteen to twenty-four inches long; they were used for keeping the
Holy Books in and for no other purpose. The position of these niches,
it is true, was not absolutely constant, nor was the type of niche
for the Holy Books in the north walls always that shape, but the
conclusion I reached from their frequent occurrence was that they in
some way correspond to the ogive niches of the earlier houses, which
I conceive had an indisputably ritual or religious significance. In
a “B type” house at Assarara in Northern Air I came across two
rectangular niches in a west wall which were obviously developments of
the ornamented ogive niches of the “A type” house, and may also
have been used for Holy Books, but this example of displacement with
the varying and fortuitous practices adopted in the later dwellings
convinced me that the use which had prescribed the earlier fashion was
in process of being forgotten as modern times were approached, and that
no explanation was therefore likely to be obtained by consulting local
learned men. In the “B type” houses, as in the earlier dwellings,
there was usually a profusion of other niches in the walls serving
different household purposes.
The niches and the style of ornamentation of the “A type” houses
of Air occur in the Sudan, but the formality of planning, the constant
orientation and the ritualistic properties of the recesses, so far
as I know, have no analogies outside Tuareg lands. I am not aware
that attention has hitherto been drawn to these points either in the
accounts of Air prepared by the French or in descriptions of dwellings
in other parts of Africa, with the exception of one reference in
Richardson’s account of his travels in 1845-6 in the Fezzan. He
describes the houses at Ghat as having niches, and, from sketches he
made, some of them are evidently of the same type as those in the Air
houses of the first period.[220] They afford a problem which requires
elucidation and which might throw much light on the cultural contacts
of the Tuareg, among whom they seem to be traditional.
PLATE 30
[Illustration: HOUSE INTERIORS.]
The constant type of the houses, despite their disparity of date, is
so marked that it cannot be fortuitous. I examined in the course of
my stay in Air the villages and towns of Auderas, Towar, Agejir, the
Tabello and Afassaz-Tebernit groups, T’imia, Assode, T’in Wansa,
Igululof, Anu Samed, T’intaghoda, Tanutmolet, Iferuan, Seliufet,
Agellal, Tefis and Anu Wisheran, and found the “A” and “B
types” or their derivatives predominant to an extent which made
it quite clear that some fundamental principle was involved in their
construction. The earlier houses betray so highly developed a technique
of building that we are clearly concerned with the remnants of a
far higher cultural state than that which the Tuareg now possess. I
say “remnants” advisedly, for since the date of the “A type”
dwellings there has been a progressive deterioration in the art of
construction. Technically, in Air, what is best is earliest. The
first houses of the Tuareg were obviously planned and executed with
care. The walls, where still standing, measured about 2 ft. 9 in. to
3 ft. at the base, tapering 9 to 12 in. to the top. The inside faces
were perpendicular, all the taper being on the outside, where it
is clearly visible in the profiles of the corners. The outsides of
the walls were roughly faced with mud stucco; the insides were more
carefully plastered to produce a very smooth surface, which in the
best houses appears to have been procured with a board; hand marks
on the plaster surface seemed rare. The dûm palm rafters of the
roofs, door lintels and tops of recesses were carefully placed so
that any curve of the wood was upward in order to give as much height
as possible. The most noticeable feature in the construction of the
“A type” houses was certainly the squareness and accuracy of the
corners, which were sharp and cleanly finished. The later houses were
less carefully executed and the corners, instead of being square, were
rounded both within and without. The walls were less perpendicular
and straight, the rectangular planning was sometimes out of true,
the stucco-work, while better conserved on the outer walls owing
to their more recent date, was manifestly rougher; there was often,
nay usually, hardly room to stand upright inside the dwelling.[221]
The constructional material of both types of house was observed
to vary very much according to the supplies available on the
spot. Small stones up to six inches long set in mud mortar are
generally used. The coursing of the stones was carefully levelled,
and in the “A type” very regular; a deterioration was seen in the
later dwellings. The influence of the Sudanese style of construction
is reflected in one or two houses at Tabello, where dried mud cakes
have been used instead of stones; but even in these cases the mud
cakes have been used like stones, set in mud mortar, levelled and
regularly coursed, and contrasting with the more irregular methods
of the Southland. Generally speaking the numbers of “A” and “B
type” houses in Air built only of mud seemed exceedingly small. In
the stone, as in the mud constructions, some re-surfacing every year
after the rains must have been inevitable.
The roofs are made of palm fronds, brushwood and mud mortar with a low
parapet around the edge, and often with six pinnacles, respectively
at the four corners and half-way along the longest sides.
The ruins of the “A type” houses at Tabello and Afasas were nearly
always surrounded by other derelict buildings within an enclosure
of large stones marking a sort of compound. The enclosures were not
formal; they sometimes surrounded the whole house, sometimes only
one side. The outhouses in the compound had no particular character:
they were storehouses or the dwellings of the slaves. The buildings
were as formless as the main houses were formal: they were either
one-roomed or many-chambered with or without inter-communicating
doors. They rarely adjoined the “A type” buildings, and were
invariably more roughly constructed, many more of them being built
of mud. In the “B type” settlements one was struck with the
greater absence of outhouses and enclosing walls. Where subsidiary
dwellings existed there had been a tendency to build them on to the
main dwelling. A large number of both “A” and “B” houses in
the Ighazar had wooden porches or shelters outside the east door,
and were surrounded by a sort of wooden fence or stockade.
Such are the two most characteristic types of house in Air. Other forms
of dwellings I will refer to as the “C,” “D” and “E types.”
The last-named “E type” can be disposed of immediately, for it
is of no particular interest in connection with the Tuareg. Plate 28
gives the plan of one such a house formerly inhabited by Fugda, chief
of T’imia, before the inhabitants moved to the present village and
lived in huts. It is characteristic of the Southland both in design
and construction, and, like all the recent “E type” houses,
was built of mud.
The “D type” is a many-roomed dwelling, apparently occupied by
several families. The largest example I saw was at Tabello. The plan
is given on Plate 28. In this case the construction was of stone and
mud, but principally of the former. The technique was very inferior;
several periods of construction were observable. The individual
dwellings in this group were apparently at least four, consisting of
areas numbered in the plan 1 to 7, 8 to 10, 13 to 17, and 20 to 26,
respectively. Areas numbered 4, 9, 21, 22 and 24 were courtyards,
the entrance to 21 having holes in the wall for wooden bars, and
being apparently designed as a cattle-pen. The group had at least
one well in area 16, and possibly another one in 12, though the
latter might only have been a grain-pit. Another example of the “D
type” house situated in the Afassaz valley group is given on Plate
28. It lay at the foot of a rock, beneath which there is a permanent
water-hole in the sand. A few hundred yards away was a village of “A
type” houses. Along the valley in the same vicinity were enclosures
of dry stone walls on the tops of the hills bordering the valley. I
hazard a conclusion that these “D type” dwellings were used by the
inhabitants of the area when the larger settlements were abandoned by
the Itesan and Kel Geres in their move westward as a result of raiding
from the east.[222] The “D type” dwelling is a semi-fortified
work, or at least a defensible building where several families who
had remained in a dangerous area might congregate for safety in times
of trouble. These dwellings with the hill-top enclosures along the
Afassaz valley are the nearest approach to fortifications which I
discovered in Air.
The last type of house to be described represents a later development
of the “A type.” The “C type” houses retain many of the
characteristics of the earlier buildings, and although it is not always
easy to date them, their preservation indicates that they are more
recent. The rectangular formality of the earlier type survived but
the orientation has been lost. The technique in many cases is better
than in the “B type”; but the ogive niches are absent and the
interior stucco-work was often very rough. The various forms which
the plan may take are given in Plates 29 and 30. Some of the “C
type” houses belong to the Itesan period and are descended from the
“A type” building, while some of them are certainly late Kel Owi
houses. The town of Agejir, north of Towar, from which the plans on
Plate 27 are taken was an Itesan settlement, probably founded when
these tribes moved away from the plain east of Bagezan. Here I found
only one true “A type” house, but as there must be over 300 ruined
houses, I may well have missed many more. The state of the buildings
here was very bad owing to the lack of good mud mortar, which has
preserved those at Tabello. The better houses at Agejir seemed to
fall into two categories: the one a single-roomed structure of about
20 ft. × 10 ft. internal dimensions, having usually two doors in the
centre of the longest or east and west sides; the other a two-roomed
structure. In the latter, the larger room was about the same size as
in the single-roomed dwellings, the smaller room being about 10 ft. ×
7 ft.; the common wall was not pierced, which may have been due to the
use of inferior building materials. All the other buildings at Agejir
were formless quadrangular structures, but the two types described
are clearly descended directly from the “A type” house.
Of the three villages at Towar, the modern one is a collection of mud
huts; the older site on the same bank is a group of single-roomed
“B type” houses, while the oldest of the three settlements is
on the west bank and is called the Itesan village. Among the twenty
ruined houses which I examined there I found three very good examples
of the “A type,” correctly oriented north and south, in addition
to several others of the single-roomed variety, the better ones being
similar to those at Agejir. The 100 odd houses on this site were in
too ruinous a condition to be readily identifiable.
The houses in Northern and North-eastern Air will be described in
a succeeding chapter, but the subject cannot here be left without
reference to certain dwellings which I encountered at Faodet at the
head of the Ighazar basin. Here, side by side with some ordinary “B
type” dwellings, were a few straw and thatch huts of about the same
size constructed on a rectangular plan in obvious imitation of the
neighbouring masonry dwellings. They were correctly oriented and had
flat thatched roofs. Their inhabitants, though using an unsuitable
material, had evidently tried to construct that type of dwelling which
they felt was more correct for permanent occupation than the temporary
round huts, a more suitable shape, of course, for brushwood, grass
and matting construction. This example of innate sense of formality
is most significant.
It is possible to draw certain conclusions on the style of Tuareg house
construction in Air, even without the material evidence necessary
for a more detailed study or comparative dating. Could excavation
be undertaken, information would not be lacking, for pottery and
stratified débris abound, only, unfortunately, time was not available
for such investigations in the course of my journey.
The “A type” houses, according to the unanimous tradition of
the present inhabitants, were built by the Itesan. Their vicarious
distribution in Air suggests that all the Tuareg of the first wave
used this style of dwelling. That fewer have survived in areas
from which they were dispossessed by the Kel Geres and Kel Owi is
natural. It is not, therefore, fortuitous that the present Tuareg
call the houses Itesan rather than Kel Geres, despite the later
association of the two groups of people; whatever claim has been
put forward on behalf of the latter for a share in the earlier
architectural development I am inclined to regard as simply due
to their comparatively recent historical association. The later
immigrants do not appear to have been so troubled by traditions of
the formality which imbued their predecessors. In the essentially
Kel Geres areas west of the Iferuan-Auderas-Agades road, other than
the part which the Itesan occupied astride the line in the Auderas
area, the “A type” houses occur, but are rare. The “B” and
transitional “C types,” predominate. Nevertheless these Kel Geres
“B type” houses are larger and better in technical execution than
the late “B type,” which are known to have been made and used
by the Kel Owi. The latter in their dwellings display a more formal
conception than the Kel Geres; many of the old characteristics, like
orientation, arrangements of the doors, ritual niches and proportion
come out more strongly in North-eastern Air than, for instance, in
the Agellal and Sidawet areas. The formless quadrangular buildings
of Assode with very few of the old peculiarities are apparently Kel
Geres work. The influence of the first or Itesan immigrants was,
however, still sufficiently powerful to render their technique of
construction in many respects superior to that of the Kel Owi.
The persistence of the characteristics of the Itesan period among
the later Kel Owi, in fact its existence till quite recently among
all the Air Tuareg in one form or another, is proof that we are not
concerned with any fortuitous manifestation. Both the sentiments held
by the people to-day and the occurrence of rectangular straw huts on
the “B type” plan at Faodet, substantiate this conclusion. But
if I am right in my feeling that the characteristics in question
were more strongly present among the first Itesan or Kel Innek wave
and among the third or Kel Owi wave than among the Kel Geres, then
the explanation is tenable that the features are derived from the
civilisation of the Lemta or Fezzanian branch of the Tuareg, who,
we shall see, are the original stock from which the first and last
wave of immigrants into Air were probably derived, the former by way
of the Chad countries, the latter also from the north or north-west,
but perhaps by way of the Adghar of the Ifoghas and Tademekka.[223]
This line of reasoning, which is put forward very tentatively,
indicates that the Fezzan requires to be examined in some detail
before an advance in the solution of the problem surrounding the
cultural origin of the Air house can be made. Even if the evidence
of their houses were all, I should be satisfied that the culture of
the Air Tuareg was a shadowy memory of some higher civilisation. I
will hazard no guess regarding its first cradle, but only suggest
that some clues may be found in the Fezzan.
Another aspect of Tuareg architecture in Air remains to be examined. It
concerns the style of their mosques. These buildings are comparatively
numerous and all on much the same plan. The simplest form is a long,
narrow construction running north and south with a “Qibla”
in the centre of the east side. It is noteworthy that in several
cases the “Qibla” gives the impression of having been added to
the building, after the main walls had been erected, but this may
only be an illusion due to defective workmanship. The larger mosques
have one or more “aisles,” the wall or walls between them being
pierced at many points to give the illusion of columns supporting
the low roof. With the exception of one at Agejir, the head room of
all the mosques I examined never exceeded 6 feet. Even the mosque at
Assode, which was the largest in Air, had so low a ceiling that it
was scarcely possible to stand upright anywhere inside. In one or two
examples which I saw there was a separate construction, consisting
of a single or double “aisle,” standing some feet away, west of
the mosque proper. These buildings were of the same dimensions from
north to south as the latter and served as alms-houses or “khans”
for the distribution of food to the poor, who were also allowed to
sleep there when travelling from village to village. In the mosque of
Assode and in that of Tasawat in the Tabello group of villages certain
portions of the sacred building were reserved for the worship of women,
or as schools. In the Tasawat mosque the windows of the “harim”
enclosure looked into the main part of the mosque, but had lattice
gratings of split palm fronds crossing one another diagonally. This
mosque was certainly later than any of the “A type” houses in
the vicinity. Its construction was indifferent, but noteworthy for
the elaboration of the holes pierced in the partition walls, every
alternate one being shaped like the ogive niches in the partition
walls of the “A type” houses with the same recess cut out of
the base. Neither in these openings nor in the niches of the houses
has the principle of the true arch been applied: the ogives were
built up by a wooden cantilever framing set in the thickness of the
walls. With the exception of the great mosque at Agades, which is
of the same type as the other holy buildings in Air, Assode is the
only example which possessed a minaret. It is curious that the early
houses of the Tuareg should be so noteworthy for the height of the
roof, while the mosques should be equally remarkable for the lowness;
the feature is one associated with a late period of building.
It is very difficult to date any of the mosques, or indeed any of
the other buildings or graves in Air, absolutely, in the absence of
archæological field evidence. Jean[224] has collected a tradition
to the effect that the mosque of Tefis is the oldest in Air, and this
accords with my information. He dates it, however, at 1150 years ago,
and states that it was built by the Kel Geres, who, according to
him, were the first Tuareg to reach Air. Though I cannot agree with
the last part of this conclusion, I concur in finding that the Kel
Geres were the first Tuareg to enter Air by the north, and that they
were, therefore, perhaps responsible for the introduction of Islam
into the country. If this should prove to be the case, it is indeed
probable that they built the first mosques. But Jean’s acceptance
of the traditional dating of the mosques is closely connected with
the dates which he assigns to the advent of the Tuareg, namely, the
eighth century A.D., a period which for reasons given elsewhere I am
inclined to consider too early.
The traditional date for the founding of the mosque at Tefis in
the eighth century A.D. is hardly admissible, for it is more than
doubtful whether Islam had spread so far south by that time. It is
alternatively uncertain whether a Christian Church then existed in the
land. By the year 800 A.D. Islam had only penetrated Tripolitania and
Tunisia to a limited extent and in the face of much opposition which
persisted for long. Jean’s dates must be regarded, not as absolute,
but only as indicating a chronological sequence. The second mosque
according to him was founded at T’intaghoda fifty years after the
one at Tefis. The building, he states, was made by the Kel Owi, but if
they were responsible for its construction the date must be set down
as much later. My information agrees with its having been the second
mosque in Air to be built; and this much of Jean’s information I
accept, but discard its Kel Owi origin.[225] The third mosque was
built at Assode about 100 years later than Tefis. The one at Agades
followed after an interval of 40 years, 980 years ago, and is said to
have been offered to the second Sultan of Agades as a present from
the tribes. Chudeau adds to this information the additional detail
that the minaret of the mosque of Assode, which, according to him,
was 1000 years old, fell four centuries ago, but as the débris has
not been cleared away to this day, the accuracy of the statement
seems doubtful. Both Chudeau’s and Jean’s dates are all too
remote. Undue importance must not be attached to the round figures
in which the Tuareg are prone to reckon their traditional history.
PLATE 31
[Illustration: MOSQUES.]
PLATE 32
[Illustration: MOSQUES.]
The etymology given by the Arabs to the word “tarki” or
“tawarek,” even if not strictly accurate, indicates that the
People of the Veil adopted the Faith of Islam long after the other
inhabitants of North Africa. When they did so, they appear to have been
lukewarm converts and to have retained many practices which the Prophet
directed good Moslems to abhor. At Ghat, which was ever under their
influence and where numbers of them have always lived, the tradition
of their recent conversion may be found in the two parts of the town,
known as the Quarter of Yes and the Quarter of No, from the people
who accepted or refused Islam. At so late a period as when the Kel
Owi arrived at the end of the seventeenth century A.D. the Kel Ferwan
whom they drove out of the Iferuan valley in Northern Air were still
“heathen,” though we are not told what their religion was. A very
early date for the mosques of Air is therefore inherently improbable
even if the Kel Geres did found Tefis as the first permanent place of
worship for the new Faith. Assuming that the Kel Geres came to Air in
the eleventh or twelfth century, the foundation of T’intaghoda mosque
some 400 years later is not improbable; and it is not wholly impossible
to reconcile such a date with the implications involved in the story
of the gift of the mosque of Agades to the second Sultan of Air, who,
we believe, reigned half-way through the fifteenth century. I prefer to
consider that the mosques as a whole are not very old. Their style of
construction demonstrates them to be more recent than the “A type”
houses, though admittedly this view might have to be altered in the
event of excavations providing additional or contradictory evidence.
Apart from the numerous places of prayer marked by a “Qibla” of
a few stones laid on the surface of the ground or by a quadrilateral
enclosure of small stones, I only came across one site which might
have been a pre-Moslem place of worship adapted to the later Faith. In
the upper part of the River of Agades, on the south shore below the
cliffs, at the entrance of the gulf where the Akaraq valley joins it,
there is a square enclosure marked by what looks like the remains of
a wall of which only the foundations on the ground level survive. The
walls may never at any time have been more than a few inches high;
what remains is of stones set in mud cement. At each of the four
corners of the square there was a large stone. The four sides, each of
some 15 ft. long, were true and square and oriented on the cardinal
points. The enclosure was obviously not that of a hut, nor like the
ground-plan of any of the houses in Air. In the centre of the eastern
side at a later period two standing stones had been set up. The stones
were fossil trees, some other fragments of which were lying loose on
the top of the neighbouring cliff. They had obviously been brought by
human agency, as curious or interesting stones, from another place
at no very remote period.[226] The two standing stones were about 2
ft. 6 in. apart. They were intended to mark the east, but were quite
clearly later additions to the place, for they were merely standing,
and not built into, the foundation of the enclosure. They were not even
symmetrical or exactly in the centre of the side. The enclosure may,
I think, be regarded as a pre-Moslem place of worship and not merely as
a dwelling-house, because the “Qibla” pillars of an Islamic place
of prayer could as readily have been set up elsewhere, had there not
been a deliberate design to convert a site from one religious use to
another. Its form does not resemble that of any of the usual buildings
of Air. In the vicinity was a group of graves, some of which were
circular enclosures, while others, obviously more recent in date,
were oblong and correctly oriented from the Moslem point of view.
The graves and tombs of Air might well form the object of interesting
archæological excavation. Many of them display an indubitably
non-Moslem appearance. The most common type which continues throughout
the period of Tuareg occupation in one form or another is a ring
of stones set on edge around a raised area covered with small white
pebbles. The grave is too low to be termed a tumulus or mound, it is
convex or shaped like an inverted saucer, but the centre rises only
a few inches above the surrounding ground. The ring of stones may
be roughly circular, oval or elliptical. In the Moslem period the
graves are definitely oblong, the major axis being directed north
and south, in order that the body may be placed in the grave with
the head turned towards the east. The older graves were the round,
or elliptical enclosures, the latter with no fixed orientation; the
earlier they are the more nearly circular they seem to be. This is
especially noticeable in the case of the graves near, and probably
contemporary with, the “A type” houses at Tabello. A large central
circular grave is often surrounded by smaller oval ones lying in any
direction, clustering about a more important burial.
The later Moslem graves are smaller, but the practice of covering the
surface with white pebbles or chips of quartz continues. The shape
becomes narrower, less circular and more inclined to turn into a
rectangle. The appearance of head-stones or head and feet stones,
which the Arabs call “The Witnesses,” coincides with correct
Moslem orientation, but even in modern times it is rare to find any
inscription. The few I saw were rough scratchings in Arabic script and
sometimes, in T’ifinagh, of some simple name like “Muhammad”
or “Ahmed.” I only saw one instance, at Afis, of an inscription
of any length; it recorded the interment of a notable sheikh, and
was scored with a pointed tool on a potsherd. Neither in the houses
nor in the graves of Air is there any evidence of the Tuareg having
attempted to cut stone. Even the petroglyphs are hammered and scratched
but not chiselled.
A great deal has been written about the funerary monuments of North
Africa known as the “argem.”[227] They are found in many parts of
the Northern Sahara, in the Ahnet mountains and the Adghar n’Ifoghas,
and in the Nigerian Sudan, but not in Tuat. They have been reported
in the Azger Tassili, at In Azawa on the north road from Air and at
several points in Air. Bates reports them in the Gulf of Bomba and
in the Nubian cemeteries of Upper Egypt.[228]
They are enclosures of piled stones varying in shape from round to
square, but generally the former; or they take the form of tumuli
containing a cist or tomb. In certain cases the graves are described
as surrounded by concentric circles of stones. The distribution of
these “argem” recalls immediately the geographical situation of
the Tuareg. It would be easy to assume that their existence was due
to this people, were it not for the difficulty that the monuments all
appear quite late in date. To quote Gautier[229]: “En résumé la
question des monuments rupestres du Sahara, funéraires et religieux,
semble élucidée, au moins dans ses grandes lignes. Le problème
d’ailleurs, tel qu’il se pose actuellement, et sous réserve de
découvertes ultérieures, est remarquablement simple. En autres pays,
en particulier dans les provinces voisines d’Algérie et du Soudan,
le passé préhistorique se présente sous des aspects multiples. En
Algérie les redjems abondent, mais on trouve à côté d’eux
des dolmens, quelques sépultures sous roche, pour rien dire des
Puniques et Romaines. Au Soudan, comme on peut s’y attendre, en un
pays où tant de races sont juxtaposées, le livre de M. Desplagnes
énumère des tombeaux de types divers et multiples, poterie, grottes
sépulcrales, cases funéraires, tumulus.[230] Rien de pareil au
Sahara. On distingue bien des types différents de redjem, les caveaux
sous tumulus du nord qui sont peut-être influencés par les dolmens et
sépultures romaines, les redjems à soutaches du Tassili des Azguers,
les chouchets du Hogar qui semblent nous raconter l’itinéraire
et l’expansion des nobles Touaregs actuels. . . . Parmi tant de
pierres sahariennes entassées ou agencées par l’homme, on n’en
connaît pas une seule qu’on peut soupçonner de l’avoir été par
une autre main que Berbère.” But here the difficulty appears, for
“ceci nous conduirait à conclure que les Berbères ont habité le
Sahara dans toute l’étendue du passé historique et préhistorique
si d’autre part tous ces redjems ne paraissaient récents. . . . Les
mobiliers funéraires contiennent du fer, et on n’en connaît pas un
seul qui soit purement et authentiquement néolithique. Cette énorme
lacune est naturellement de nature à nous inspirer la plus grande
prudence dans nos conclusions. D’autant plus que, après tout,
les monuments similaires algériens, dans l’état actuel de nos
connaissances, ne paraissent pas plus anciens.”
While the distribution of “argem” seems then to coincide with,
and be due to the Tuareg, the “Berbères” to whom Gautier refers
arrived in North Africa and spread into the interior before the
advent of the metal ages. The last word has certainly not been said
regarding the age of these monuments, and in spite of this difficulty
of dates I have little hesitation in finding in them evidence of
the individuality and racial detachment of the Tuareg stock from
that of the other Libyans, who do not seem to have used this funerary
apparatus. After all, the late neolithic and early metal ages in inner
Libya were hardly separate from one another, and in the south, where
we know the Tuareg are only fairly recent arrivals, the lateness of
the “argem” is readily understandable. But if we believe them to
be due to the Tuareg, the earliest remains in the north must be far
older than Gautier supposes.
Although certain remains of a presumed funerary or religious nature
in Air have been described as “argem,” it has apparently escaped
notice that both the pre-Moslem as well as the later graves of the
country are all linear descendants of the older and more pretentious
monuments. Yet if the term has any significance at all, there has
been a tendency perhaps to describe rather too many enclosures as
“argem.” Certain examples illustrated by Gautier are probably
devoid of any spiritual significance. There are in Air, for instance,
especially in the north of the country near Agwau, a number of groups
of concentric stone circles, which were simply enclosures round
temporary huts or tents. The old hut circles of the T’imia village
(Plate 29) show clearly how an isolated example might be assumed to
have been a prayer or religious enclosure. Again, the circular heaps of
stones at Elazzas resemble the “argem” illustrated by Bates[231]
so much that one might be tempted to conclude that they were such,
if it did not happen to be known that they were the raised plinths
on which huts used to be constructed. A deduction drawn from the
occurrence of the latter might indicate that the origin of the true
“argem” was derived from a desire to commemorate in death the only
permanent part of a man’s hut dwelling in life. Such an explanation
is not only permissible but even probable; it is even possible that
in some cases tombs were actually made in the very floor of the hut
or side of the pedestal where the deceased had lived.
In the lower Turayet valley in Southern Air I passed a number of
graves which seemed to suggest an intermediate type between the large
prehistoric “rigm” and the later small enclosure of stones covered
with white pebbles. The Turayet graves were small circular platforms
like the hut foundations at Elazzas, but not more than 10 ft. in
diameter with vertical sides a few inches above the ground level and
flat tops covered with white stones. The occurrence of these tombs
on the Turayet valley, not far from the mouth of the Akaraq valley,
where also is perhaps a pre-Moslem place of worship, and the existence
of what may prove a pre-Moslem urn burial cemetery at Marandet, all
of which places are in the extreme south of Air, are interesting
points when it is remembered that the first Tuareg inhabitants of
Air came to the country from the south. It may nevertheless be pure
coincidence that there seemed to be fewer obviously ancient monuments
in Northern Air than in the southern part.
The absence of funerary inscriptions is in marked contrast with the
profusion of rock writings in Air. Written literature is, however,
almost non-existent, but traditional poetry takes its place. The
esteem in which poetry is held and the popularity which it enjoys
are proof of the intellectual capacity which is present in this people.
When it is realised that, alone among the ancient people of
North Africa, the Tuareg have kept an individual script, it seems
extraordinary that drawing, painting and sculpture should have remained
in so primitive a state. Even if we are to admit that the earliest and
therefore the best of the rock drawings of North Africa are the work of
the ancestors of the Tuareg, it is hardly possible to qualify them as
more than interesting or curious. Few of them are beautiful. Some of
the “Early Period”[232] drawings were executed with precision and
care, but even if full allowance is made for the possibility of their
having been coloured there are hardly any artistic achievements of
merit. They do not bear comparison with the bushman drawings of South
Africa, still less with the magnificent cave paintings of the Reindeer
Age in Europe. But while some doubt exists regarding the authorship of
the early drawings, the later North African pictures can be ascribed
to the Tuareg without any fear of controversy. The Tuareg are still
engaged in making them, but this modern work is even more crude. The
drawings have become conventionalised; the symbols do not necessarily
bear any likeness to the objects which they purport to represent.
The rock drawings in Air display continuity from bad examples in
the style of the early period down to the modern conventionalised
glyphs. In most cases both the early and the late work is accompanied
by T’ifinagh inscriptions. The earlier drawings represent animals
which exist, or used to exist, in Air. The most carefully executed I
saw were in the valley leading up from Agaragar to the pass into the
Ighazar basin above Faodet. The place was near some watering-point,
used by the northern Salt Caravan from Air to Bilma. The pictures were
somewhat difficult to see as they had in part been covered by later
drawings. The execution was rough, consisting of little more than an
outline with a few markings on the bodies of some of the animals. As
in the late petroglyphs there was no chiselling or cutting: the lines
were made by hammering with a more or less suitable instrument and then
by rubbing with a stone and sand. Among the animals thus represented,
the giraffe and the ostrich in a wild state survive south of Air. An
antelope with sloping quarters and large lyre-shaped horns, the ox,
the camel, the donkey, a horse, a large bird, and the human figure,
both male and female, could also be traced. The large antelope I
cannot identify for certain, but the large bird is probably the
Greater Arab Bustard.
In the later work the conventionalised symbols remain fairly
constant. The ox is shown as a straight line with four vertical lines
representing legs, a clear indication of the hump, and two short
horns. The rectangular camel symbol had become so debased that for
a long time I was at a loss to interpret it. The representations of
the human figure are only curious inasmuch as they emphasise the long
robe worn by the Tuareg and sometimes the cross bands over the breast,
so typical of the Libyans in the Egyptian paintings. An interesting
point in these rudimentary examples of the pictorial art is that even
in the early period they portray a similar fauna and habit of life
to those of to-day. A faint Egyptian influence may be detected in
the human figures. I know of no drawings in Air to compare with the
ones found by Barth at Telizzarhen, nor any which appeared to have
a religious significance. The most interesting example is certainly
that of the ox and cart referred to in the following chapter.
The necessity of pictorial expression was evidently less felt
than that of poetry, a condition to which nomadism has undoubtedly
contributed. Yet even in ornament and draughtsmanship the Tuareg
seem once to have reached a higher plane of civilisation in the past
than that which they now possess and which their life has led them
progressively to abandon.
They have little knowledge of history outside their own tribal or group
lore with the exception of that modicum of knowledge derived from a
superficial study of the Quran. At the same time, men like Ahodu have
heard and remembered stories of the past such as those of Kahena, Queen
of the Aures, and of her fighting against the Arabs. Their knowledge
of local geography is enormous, of the general form or shape of North
Africa small. They know of the Mediterranean and their language has
a word for the sea. They have heard of the Nile, of Egypt, of the
Niger and of Lake Chad, but they have only very vague inklings of
the existence of Arabia or of the whereabouts of Istambul, where the
Defender of the Faith lived. They can draw rough maps of local features
on the sand and understand perfectly the conception of European maps on
a wider scale. When I showed them an atlas with a map of the world and
laboriously explained that it was a flat representation of a spherical
object, Ahodu and Sidi surprised me by saying that they knew that the
world was round, and that if you went in by a hole you would eventually
come out on the other side. Duveyrier and others have been surprised
at the knowledge of European countries and politics which they have
found in the Sahara. The communication of news between distant parts
of Africa is highly developed and at times astounding.
PLATE 33
[Illustration: TIFINAGH ALPHABET]
If only on account of their script the Tuareg have deserved more
attention in this country than they have received. I have no intention
at this juncture of examining either T’ifinagh or Temajegh in detail,
as they require study in a volume dedicated to them alone; but, as
an ancient non-Arabic script which has survived in Africa, I cannot
refrain from a brief description of the former. T’ifinagh is an
alphabetic and not a syllabic script, but owing to the abbreviations
practised in writing and the absence of all vowels except an A
which resembles the Hamza or Alif, it has come to resemble a sort
of shorthand. It is usually necessary to know the general meaning of
any writing before it can be read. The T’ifinagh alphabet consists
of between thirty and forty symbols varying somewhat from place to
place. Duveyrier[233] collected an alphabet of twenty-three letters
used in the north: Hanoteau,[234] who wrote the best grammar of
Temajegh yet published, gives twenty-four letters: Masquerey[235]
gives twenty-three letters for the Taitoq dialect and script: Freeman
found twenty-five in the Ghadamsi Tuareg dialects. In addition to these
letter symbols there are about twelve ligatures of two or sometimes
three letters. All these signs are used in Air, but there are also
certain additional symbols which may be alternative forms. Of the
twenty-three to twenty-five letters in T’ifinagh, some ten only
have been derived from the classical Libyan script as exemplified by
the bilingual Thugga inscription now in the British Museum. Of these
ten letters perhaps five have Punic parallels, while for the thirty
known Libyan letters six Phœnician parallels have been found. It has
hitherto been assumed[236] that the T’ifinagh alphabet was descended
from the Libyan, which, it may be noted, has not yet been found in
any inscription proved to be earlier than the fourth century B.C. Many
theories have been advanced for the origin of the Libyan script, but
Halévy is usually accepted as the most reliable authority on the
subject. He supposed that the Libyan alphabet was derived from the
Phœnician with the addition of certain non-Semitic symbols current
nearly all over the Mediterranean. If this were universally admitted
as the correct view it would still not be possible to explain why the
T’ifinagh alphabet contains so many symbols which are not common
to either the Libyan or Punic systems. On evidence which cannot here
be examined in detail, it seems easier to believe that the ancestors
of the Tuareg brought to Africa, or copied from a people with whom
they had been in contact before reaching the Sahara, an alphabet
replenished by borrowing certain symbols from a Libyan system partly
founded on the Phœnician one. A consideration of this problem, like
the one which concerns the Temajegh language itself, must be left
to experts to resolve. As much false analogy and loose reasoning
have been used on this question as on the subject of the origin of
the Libyan races. One thing only seems to me to stand out, namely,
that the T’ifinagh alphabet and Temajegh language were not evolved
in Africa but came from without, probably from the east or north-east,
into the continent, where they developed independently. To postulate an
Arabian origin, for instance, for T’ifinagh and Temajegh could not be
construed as evidence in support of any theory regarding the origin of
the Tuareg themselves. Linguistic evidence is notoriously unreliable
from the anthropological point of view, since more often than not it
only indicates some cultural contact. The most interesting aspect of
the linguistic question is the evidence which it may afford regarding
the cultural development of the older Tuareg. In their present stage
of development there is no reason for them to have retained, still less
for them to have evolved by themselves, any form of script. Their mode
of life does not necessitate the use of writing: they are for the most
part illiterate or are in process of becoming so. To have had and in
so far as they still use T’ifinagh, to have retained an individual
script, is to my mind the most powerful evidence in favour of the
conclusion to which I have already on several occasions referred,
namely, their far higher degree of civilisation in the past.
In Air, T’ifinagh is dying out. One tribal group is famous for
having retained it in current use more than any other section of
the Southern Tuareg. The Ifadeyen men and women still read and write
Temajegh correctly if somewhat laboriously. They use it for sending
messages to each other or for putting up notices on trees or rocks,
saying how one or other of them visited the place. Among most of the
other tribes a knowledge of T’ifinagh is confined to the older women
and a few men. The younger generation can neither read nor write either
in T’ifinagh or in Arabic: the scribes and holy men usually only
write in Arabic script. In the olden days all the Tuareg women knew
how to write and it was part of their duties to teach the children.
The rocks of Air are covered with inscriptions which have neither
been recorded nor translated. Owing to the changing linguistic forms
of Temajegh and the absence of any very fixed rules for writing it,
it is difficult to decipher any but the modern writings. Words are not
separated, vowels are not written, and where one word ends with the
same consonant with which the following one begins, a single symbol
is usually written for the two.
PLATE 34
[Illustration: ROCK INSCRIPTIONS IN TIFINAGH]
T’ifinagh script may be written from left to right or from right
to left, or up and down or down and up, or in a spiral or in the
boustrophedon manner. The European authors who have written of Temajegh
have variously reproduced T’ifinagh running from right to left
and from left to right, but the two best authorities, Hanoteau and
de Foucauld,[237] have adopted the former direction. It ill becomes
me to differ from such learned authorities, but the existence of
certain inscriptions in Air leads me to believe that the left to
right manner was, there at least, perhaps the most usual system. On
Plate 40 is reproduced an _Arabic_ inscription written by a Tuareg in
Arabic characters running in the wrong direction, namely, from left to
right, nor do I think the writer would have made this mistake unless he
had been accustomed so to write in the only other script of which he
could have had any knowledge, namely, T’ifinagh. The inscription,
of course, records the common “La illa ilallah Muhammed rasul
Allah.” I came across two or three other instances of the same sort.
The T’ifinagh inscriptions in Air, like the pictures with which
they are so often associated, belong to all periods. Some of them
certainly date back to the first Tuareg invasion.
There is a tradition that the Quran was translated into Temajegh
and written out in T’ifinagh, a most improper proceeding from the
Moslem point of view. But no European has seen this interesting book,
which is said to have been destroyed. It may possibly have survived in
some place, for Ahodu told me he had once seen a book in Air written in
T’ifinagh, though all the documents which I found in the mosques were
in Arabic calligraphy. Until a “Corpus” of T’ifinagh inscriptions
has been compiled it will be very difficult to make much progress.
Such a collection would assist in the study of Temajegh itself,
for the language is in a somewhat fluid state, tending to vary
dialectically from place to place and period to period. It is one
of the languages termed “Berber,” the only connection in which I
am prepared to admit the use of this word. By many it is considered
the purest of the Berber forms of speech. Although related to such
dialects as Siwi and Ghadamsi, and to western forms like Shillugh or
the Atlas languages, Temajegh is distinct; it was not derived from
them but developed independently, and probably preserved more of the
original characteristics.
The relationship of the original tongue to the Semitic groups of
languages has not yet been defined. The two linguistic families
have certain direct analogies, including the formation of words from
triliteral verbal roots, verbal inflections, derived verbal formations,
the genders of the second and third persons, the pronominal suffixes
and the aoristic style of tense. Nevertheless there are also certain
very notable differences, like the absence of any trace of more than
two genders, the absence of the dual form, and verbs of two or three
or four radicals with primary forms in the aorist and imperative
only. Berber does not appear to be a Semitic language. But the two
are probably derived from a common ancestor.
The Air and Ahaggar dialects of Temajegh differ somewhat from each
other. They are mutually quite intelligible, and so far as I could
judge not more diverse than English and American. Barth stated that,
unlike the rest of the Air Tuareg, the Kel Owi spoke the Auraghiye
dialect, which is the name often given to the Ahaggar language. The
name is, of course, derived from the Auriga or Hawara ethnic group,
which, as we shall see, is the name of the parent stock of most of
the Ahaggaren tribes. I have it on the best authority, however, of
Ahodu, ’Umbellu and Sidi, that the Kel Owi language does not differ
materially from the dialect of the rest of Air and am therefore at
a loss to be able to explain Barth’s statement.
The absence of the Arabic ع (_’ain_) in Temajegh necessitates its
transcription by the letter غ (_ghen_) which is so characteristic
of Berber. In all words, therefore, adopted from the Arabic, and
especially in proper names like ’Osman, ’Abdallah, ’Abdeddin,
etc., the forms Ghosman, Ghibdillah, Ghabidin are used. The Temajegh
letter (_yegh_) ⵗ or _ghen_ is common and so strongly _grasseyé_
that it becomes very similar to an R. The difficulty of transcription
of the T’ifinagh into European languages is therefore very
considerable,[238] for the R and Gh sounds are very confusing. In
some T’ifinagh inscriptions the Arabic letter ع is frankly used
when Arabic words occur.
The great feature of the Temajegh language and of the Tuareg is the
diffusion of poetry. It is unfortunately impossible to give any
examples in this volume, but the collections made by Duveyrier,
Hanoteau, Masquerey, Haardt,[239] and de Foucauld[240] show the
natural beauty and simplicity of this art among the People of the
Veil. Their prosody is not strict, but nevertheless displays certain
formality. Iambic verses of nine, ten and eleven syllables are the
most usual forms of scansion, with a regular cæsura and rhymed or
assonated terminations. In the matter of rhymes there is considerable
freedom: the use of similarly sounding words is allowed. Terminations
like “pen,” “mountain” and “waiting” would, for instance,
all be permissible as rhymes. Poetry is sung, chanted or recited with
or without music. The themes cover the whole field of humanity, from
songs of love or thanksgiving to long ballads of war and travel. The
Tuareg are in some measure all poets, but the women are most famous
among them. They make verses impromptu or recite the traditional
poems of their race which are so old that their origin has been
forgotten. One hears of women famous throughout the Sahara as the
greatest poets of their time.
Their way of life is attractive. These famous ladies hold what is
called a “diffa,” which is a reception or “salon.” In the
evening in front of their fires under an African night they play their
one-stringed “amzad” or mandoline and recite their verses. Men
from all over the country come to listen or take part. They seem to
live and love and think in much the same manner as in Europe those of
us do who retain our natural feelings. Only perhaps there are fewer
_grandes dames_ in Europe now than in the Sahara.
Poetry, music and dancing are all to a great extent branches of a
single art in so far as they all depend on rhythm and seek to express
the emotions. In Air the syncopated music of the negro has had more
influence than in the north, so the “amzad” is less common. Their
other instruments are drums, but the lilt of their dance is rather
different from that of the south. Their improvised drums are most
ingenious. There is the hemispherical calabash floating in a bowl
of milk, the note of which varies according to the depth to which
the gourd is sunk, and the millet mortar with a wet skin stretched
over the mouth by two parallel poles weighed down with large stones
lying across their ends. The other various drums of the Southland
are also known and used by those who can afford them. The dances of
the Tuareg men are done to a quick step on a syncopated beat. The
most effective one is a sword dance by a single man running up to
the drum and executing a series of rapid steps, with the sword held
by both hands at arms’ length above the head. I have never seen
any women dancing among the Air Tuareg and it is said not to be their
practice. This may be so, for even among the men dancing is relatively
uncommon and has probably been borrowed from the south. It seems
hardly to be consistent with their grave and dignified demeanour,
of which poetry is the more natural counterpart.
[Footnote 216: Jean, _op. cit._, pp. 82 and 176.]
[Footnote 217: Called Assingerma on the Cortier map. Teghazar is the
diminutive of Ighazar, and means a small river or torrent.]
[Footnote 218: Also spelt Reshwa. Von Bary calls the cone Teginjir,
which is inaccurate.]
[Footnote 219: Which is also called Tellia, as Barth refers to it.]
[Footnote 220: Richardson, _op. cit._, Vol. II. p. 71.]
[Footnote 221: Naturally many more of the “B” houses than of the
“A” class still have the roof on them.]
[Footnote 222: Cf. Chap. XI.]
[Footnote 223: The evidence for these movements is in Chap. XI.]
[Footnote 224: Jean, _op. cit._, p. 86.]
[Footnote 225: Jean throughout regards the Kel Owi as very ancient
inhabitants of Air, but if due allowance is made for (as I think)
this error and his traditions are not taken to refer to an earlier
period than the one with which this group is associated, they are
still valuable, from the comparative point of view.]
[Footnote 226: Fossil trees exist in the sandstone hills of Eghalgawen
and T’in Wana, a few miles away.]
[Footnote 227: Or “rigm” or “rigem” in the singular.]
[Footnote 228: Bates, _op. cit._, App. I.]
[Footnote 229: Gautier, _op. cit._, p. 86.]
[Footnote 230: Desplagnes: _Le plateau Central Nigérien_.]
[Footnote 231: Bates, _op. cit._, App. I., Figs. 90, 93 and 94.]
[Footnote 232: According to the classification of Pomel and
Flamand. Cf. Frobenius: _Hadshra Maktuba_, and Flamand, _Les Pierres
Ecrites_.]
[Footnote 233: Duveyrier, _op. cit._]
[Footnote 234: Hanoteau, _Grammaire de la Langue Tamachek_, Algiers,
1896.]
[Footnote 235: Masquerey, _Dictionnaire et Grammaire Touaregs_
(Dialect des Taitoq).]
[Footnote 236: As, for instance, by Bates, _op. cit._, p. 88,
following Halévy.]
[Footnote 237: De Foucauld, _Dictionnaire Touareg-Français_, 2
Vols., Alger.]
[Footnote 238: Hence the difficulty surrounding the writing of Ghat,
or Rat or Rhat. I have used “gh” through this volume, but the
French usually use “r.”]
[Footnote 239: See especially MM. Haardt and Dubreuil’s account of
the Citroën Motor Expedition across the Sahara.]
[Footnote 240: In R. Bazin’s life of Père de Foucauld.]