The journal of the expedition, under the command of Madame de Guéran,
is very concise as regards the Niam-Niam, whose territory the
Europeans were about to enter when we left them.
An irresistible impulse hurried the caravan forward. They scarcely
rested, but marched, marched, marched. All trace of whatever apathy
may have, existed had disappeared; they were drawing near the
Equator, and yet, owing to the fact that the country is, on an
average, over two thousand yards above the sea level, and owing still
more to the numerous water courses to be met with at every step, the
heat was less and the air lighter, and the travellers felt stronger
and more active.
The escort, also, was in a better state of discipline. In the midst
of the famous tribes whom they knew by hearsay only, they were afraid
of accidents and misadventures, and they dared not leave the beaten
track. Every one kept his place in the ranks, and the idlers and
incorrigibles now hesitated either to lag behind or to make any
expeditions on their own account into the brakes and thickets.
Moreover, the caravan was not as numerous as it was when it started.
We have already seen that it had diminished gradually, losing many of
its members in the various seribas and amongst the Bongos. But, at
the last stage before entering the Niam-Niam territory, there was a
panic, a regular stampede, and more than sixty men bolted in all
directions. Those who remained were at all events better worth
having, because, having resisted every temptation, they might be
looked upon as likely to be reliable in the future. They appeared to
have unlimited confidence in their leaders, and they fully understood
that, to make head against all dangers, they needed the support and
assistance of the Europeans, and the influence which white men ever
possess over their black brethren. Every step forward made desertion
and flight more difficult. How, indeed, could they find their way
back without a guide or counsellor in the midst of this tangled mass
of woods, forests, and trees? They were very like our own sailors.
Noisy and occasionally unmanageable when in harbour or ashore, they
blindly obey their officers when at sea. They are conscious of their
want of experience, and they know that, in spite of their numbers,
they would be powerless to navigate the ship or fight against the
elements. Brute force gives way before moral influence.
We may assume that the Europeans, according to all probability,
though they are not explicit on this point, profited by the lower
temperature and the improved discipline of the caravan to make longer
stages and cross the territory of the Niam-Niam as quickly as
possible. In the evening, tired out, they had not the heart to jot
down in their journal their notes by the way. They confined
themselves to a remark here and there, and a few curt paragraphs to
which we may add the information we ourselves have gathered from the
most reliable works on the subject. Thus, we are enabled to devote a
few lines, very few, to a most curious and almost unknown race, whose
savage nature in some respects passes all limits, but who also can
boast of a species of civilization which one cannot help admiring.
Their cannibalism is admitted by every traveller except the Italian,
Praggia, but even he confesses to have been a witness to one instance
of it, though he puts it down to hatred and a spirit of revenge. We
may, consequently, look upon it as a fact, and consider the Niam-Niam
from other points of view, which certainly redound more to their
credit.
Their vast territory is drained, to a certain extent, by countless
streams, living sources of marvellous richness. In their land the
glory of the tropics shines forth in all its splendour. "Trees with
immense stems," says Schweinfurth, "and of a height surpassing all
that we had elsewhere seen (not even excepting the palms of Egypt),
here stood in masses which seemed unbounded except where at intervals
some less towering forms rose gradually higher and higher beneath
their shade. In the innermost recesses of these woods one would come
upon an avenue like the colonnade of an Egyptian temple, veiled in
the leafy shade of a triple roof above. Seen from without, they had
all the appearance of impenetrable forests, but traversed within,
they opened into aisles and corridors which were musical with many a
murmuring fount. Hardly anywhere was the height of these woods less
than seventy feet, and on an average it was much nearer a hundred.
Far as the eye could reach it rested solely upon green, which did not
admit a gap. The narrow paths that wound themselves partly through
and partly around the growing thickets were formed by steps
consisting of bare and protruding roots, which retained the light
loose soil together. Mouldering stems, thickly clad with moss,
obstructed the passage at well-nigh every turn. The air was no longer
that of the sunny steppe, nor that of the shady grove; it was
stifling as the atmosphere of a palm-house. Its temperature might
vary from 70° to 80° Fahr., but it was so overloaded with an
oppressive moisture exhaled by the rank foliage that the traveller
could not feel otherwise than relieved to escape."
Praggia calls this part of the Niam-Niam territory "galleries," and
he says that they reminded him of shady, perfume-laden paths in the
enchanted gardens of the poets. But, instead of lovely nymphs, they
are peopled with the ponderous rhinoceros, the savage buffalo, the
massive elephant, and numerous varieties of monkeys.
The population of the known districts, for we have not yet reached
the extreme western frontier, amounts to about three millions, spread
over two degrees of longitude and six of latitude.
The appearance of this tribe, called amongst themselves Zandey or
Sandey, for the word Niam-Niam is a nick-name, signifying "eaters,"
is startling to a degree, and puts in the shade everything seen from
the Upper Nile to Khartoum, or in all the region situated to the
south of the Gazelle River, making it appear tame and spiritless.