3rd day. Gúndam. There are no settled halting places between Timbúktu
and Gúndam. People generally perform the distance in two days and a
half. The following is a list of the names of localities between these
two places:—Téshak, Finderíye, El Hándema, Aristoremék, Egéti, Tin-
getán, Tin-réro, Timbarágeri, two villages of the name El Meshra,
Takémbaut, Tenkeríye, Naudis, Gámmatór.—Gúndam is a walled town (ksar or
koira), the chief place of the district Aússa, and of considerable size,
its population consisting of Songhay, Rumá, and Fúlbe or Fullán. The
town has a suburb on its W. side, where live the Tóki, a tribe of the
Fullán, and another suburb on the water-side, where live the Erbébi. On
the N. side there is a black hill, full of fernán. Also to the S. an
eminence is seen presenting the same appearance. The town is situated on
the N. side of a large khálij or rijl (branch of the river) coming from
Dire and turning towards Rás el má, the celebrated “head of the waters,”
distant from here two days, either by land or by water, W. a little N.
Another creek runs from Gúndam to Kábara; but during the highest level
of the inundation the whole country presents almost one uninterrupted
sheet of water. On the east side of Gúndam is a dry creek called
Aráshaf, one day long, and half an hour wide. At its eastern border,
E.S.E. from Gúndam, is the place called Waye e’ semen, with a creek
adorned with the tree called táderes.
4th. A walled village (koira) of Imóshagh and Songhay on the trunk of
the river, having passed in the morning the branch on which Gúndam is
situated.
5th. Arabébe, a village inhabited by Fúlbe.
6th. Nyafúnke, a large village, inhabited in former times by Imóshagh,
but at present peopled by Fúlbe.
7th. Íketáwen. Having passed in the morning close behind Nyafúnke, a
large branch of the river, halt at noon in a village called
Sherífikoira.
8th. Átará, a large village of Fúlbe, on the east side of a considerable
branch of the river going to Gasí Gúmo.
9th. Fadhl-Alláhi a Fúlbe village.
10th. Yówaru. Yówaru is one of the two chief places of Fermágha, and
although consisting entirely of reed huts, is said to be little inferior
in the number of its inhabitants to the town of Timbúktu. The importance
of the place is clear enough from the annual amount of tribute which it
pays, amounting altogether (zekʿa and modhár taken together) to 4000
head of cattle. During the inundation Yówaru lies at the border of lake
Débu, which, at that season, extends from Sʿa to Yówaru, but during the
dry season, it is about one mile distant from the small branch. Close to
the latter lies a suburb where the Surk or Kórongoy, a degraded section
of the Songhay, dwell.[64] In Yówaru and the neighbourhood live a great
number of Fúlbe or Fullán belonging to the following tribes:—the
Sonnábe, Yalálbe, Feroibe, Yówarunkóbe and Jawámbe, or Zoghorán or
Zoromáwa.