place, almost against my expectation, had successfully carried me as far
as Kúkawa, but at that point it was quite exhausted, wanting at least
some months’ repose. I was, therefore, without a horse, and was obliged
at first to walk on foot, which was very trying in the deep sand and hot
weather. I had once entreated the vizier to lend me a horse, but Lamíno
had in consequence sent me such a miserable animal that I declined
mounting it. The sheikh being informed afterwards that I was bargaining
for a horse, sent me one as a present; it was tall and well-formed, but
of a colour which I did not like, and very lean, having just come from
the country where it had got no corn, so that it was unfit for me, as I
wanted a strong animal, ready to undergo a great deal of fatigue. I was
already preparing for my journey to Adamáwa, and having made the
acquaintance of Mʿallem Katúri, a native of Yákoba, or rather, as the
town is generally called, Garún Báuchi, and an excellent man, who had
accompanied several great ghazzias in that country, and particularly
that most remarkable one of Amba-Sambo, the governor of Chámba, as far
as the Igbo country, at the Delta of the Niger, I hired him and bought
for his use a strong good travelling horse. I bought also a tolerable
pony for my servant, Mohammed ben Sʿad, so that, having now three horses
at my command, I entered with spirit upon my career as an explorer of
Negroland. All this of course was done by contracting a few little
debts.
The vizier, who was well aware of the difficulties and dangers attending
my proposed excursion to Adamáwa, was rather inclined to send me to the
Músgu country, whither it was intended to despatch an expedition under
the command of Kashélla Belál; but fortunately for me, and perhaps,
also, for our knowledge of this part of the continent, the design was
frustrated by an inroad of the Tawárek, which demanded the presence of
this officer, the most warlike of the empire. This incursion of the
plundering Kindín was made by a considerable body of men; who, having in
vain tried to surprise some town on the frontier of Bórnu, turned their
march towards Kánem, and went as far as Báteli, where, however, they met
with but little success.
Having now a horse whereon to mount, I rode every day, either into the
eastern town to pay a visit to the sheikh, or to the vizier, or roving
around the whole circuit of the capital, and peeping into the varied
scenes which the life of the people exhibited. The precincts of the town
with its suburbs are just as interesting, as its neighbourhood
(especially during the months that precede the rainy season) is
monotonous and tiresome in the extreme. Certainly, the arrangement of
the capital contributes a great deal to the variety of the picture which
it forms, laid out as it is in two distinct towns, each surrounded with
its wall, the one, occupied chiefly by the rich and wealthy, containing
very large establishments, while the other, with the exception of the
principal thoroughfare which traverses the town from west to east,
consists of rather crowded dwellings, with narrow winding lanes. These
two distinct towns are separated by a space about half a mile broad,
itself thickly inhabited on both sides of a wide open road which forms
the connection between them, but laid out less regularly, and presenting
to the eye a most interesting medley of large clay buildings and small
thatched huts, of massive clay walls surrounding immense yards, and
light fences of reeds in a more or less advanced state of decay, and
with a variety of colour, according to their age, from the brightest
yellow down to the deepest black. All around these two towns there are
small villages or clusters of huts, and large detached farms surrounded
with clay walls, low enough to allow a glimpse from horseback over the
thatched huts which they inclose.
[Illustration:
_Explanation of References in the Engraving on the preceding page._
1. English house, of which a special plan is given on page 299.
2. Palace, “fáto maibe,” of the sheikh, in the western town or billa
futébe, with the mosque, “máshidí,” at the corner.
3. Minaret of mosque.
4. Square at the back of the palace, with a most beautiful caoutchouc-
tree, the finest in Kúkawa.
5. Déndal, or principal street.
6. Area before the southern gate where all the offal and dead bodies
of camels and cattle, and sometimes even of slaves, are thrown, and
which, during the rainy season, is changed into a large and deep pond.
7. Palace of the sheikh in the eastern town, or billa-gedíbe.
8. Palace of the vizier el Háj Beshír.
9. House where I was first lodged on my arrival, afterwards occupied
by Lamíno, the vizier’s head man.
10. (The house west from this) Palace belonging to Abu-Bakr, the
sheikh’s eldest and favourite son, with a very large caoutchouc-tree
in front.
11. House belonging to Abba Yusuf, second brother of the sheikh.
12. House occupied during my later stay by Lamíno.
13. Hollows from whence the clay has been taken for building material,
and which, during the rainy season, are changed into deep pools of
stagnant water.
14. Cemetery.]
In this labyrinth of dwellings a man, interested in the many forms which
human life presents, may rove about at any time of the day with the
certainty of finding never-failing amusement, although the life of the
Kanúri people passes rather monotonously along, with the exception of
some occasional feasting. During the hot hours, indeed, the town and its
precincts become torpid, except on market-days, when the market-place
itself, at least, and the road leading to it from the western gate, are
most animated just at that time. For, singular as it is, in Kúkawa, as
well as almost all over this part of Negroland, the great markets do not
begin to be well attended till the heat of the day grows intense; and it
is curious to observe what a difference prevails in this as well as in
other respects between these countries and Yóruba, where almost all the
markets are held in the cool of the evening.
The daily little markets, or durríya, even in Kúkawa, are held in the
afternoon, and are most frequented between the ʿaser (lásari) and the
mughreb (almágribu) or sunset. The most important of these durríyas is
that held inside the west gate of the billa futébe; and here even
camels, horses, and oxen are sold in considerable numbers: but they are
much inferior to the large fair, or great market, which is held every
Monday on the open ground beyond the two villages which lie at a short
distance from the western gate. Formerly it was held on the road to
Ngórnu, before the southern gate; but it has been removed from thence,
on account of the large pond of water formed during the rainy season in
the hollow close to this gate.
I visited the great fair, “kásukú letenínbe,” every Monday immediately
after my arrival, and found it very interesting, as it calls together
the inhabitants of all the eastern parts of Bórnu, the Shúwa and the
Koyám, with their corn and butter, the former, though of Arab origin and
still preserving in purity his ancient character, always carrying his
merchandise on the back of oxen, the women mounted upon the top of it,
while the African Koyám employs the camel, if not exclusively, at least
with a decided preference[77]; the Kánembú with their butter and dried
fish, the inhabitants of Mákari with their tobes (the kóre berné): even
Búdduma, or rather Yédiná, are very often seen in the market, selling
whips made from the skin of the hippopotamus, or sometimes even
hippopotamus meat, or dried fish, and attract the attention of the
spectator by their slender figures, their small handsome features
unimpaired by any incisions, the men generally wearing a short black
shirt and a small straw-hat, “súni ngáwa,” their neck adorned with
several strings of kúngona, or shells, while the women are profusely
ornamented with strings of glass beads, and wear their hair in a very
remarkable way, though not in so awkward a fashion as Mr. Overweg
afterwards observed in the island Belárigo.
On reaching the market-place from the town the visitor first comes to
that part where the various materials for constructing the light
dwellings of the country are sold, such as mats, of three different
kinds, the thickest, which I have mentioned above as lágará, then
síggedí, or the common coarse mat made of the reed called kalkálti, and
the búshi, made of dúm-leaves, or “ngílle,” for lying upon; poles and
stakes; the framework, “léggerá,” for the thatched roofs of huts, and
the ridge-beam or “késkan súmo;” then oxen for slaughter, “fé
debáterám,” or for carrying burdens, “knému lápterám;” further on, long
rows of leathern bags filled with corn, ranging far along on the south
side of the market-place, with either “kéwa,” the large bags for the
camel, a pair of which form a regular camel’s load, or the large
“jerábu,” which is thrown across the back of the pack-oxen, or the
smaller “fállim,” a pair of which constitutes an ox-load, “kátkun
knémube.” These long rows are animated not only by the groups of the
sellers and buyers, with their weatherworn figures and torn dresses, but
also by the beasts of burden, mostly oxen, which have brought the loads
and which are to carry back their masters to their distant dwelling
places; then follow the camels for sale, often as many as a hundred or
more, and numbers of horses, but generally not first-rate ones, which
are mostly sold in private. All this sale of horses, camels, &c., with
the exception of the oxen, passes through the hands of the dilélma or
broker, who, according to the mode of announcement, takes his percentage
from the buyer or the seller.
The middle of the market is occupied by the dealers in other merchandise
of native and of foreign manufacture, the “amagdí” or tob from Ujé, and
the kóre, or rébshi; the farásh, or “fetkéma,” and the “selláma,” the
people dealing in cloths, shirts, túrkedís, beads of all sizes and
colours, leatherwork, coloured boxes of very different shape and size,
very neatly and elegantly made of ox-hide. There are also very neat
little boxes made of the kernel, or “náge,” of the fruit of the dúm-
tree. Then comes the place where the kómbuli disposes of his slaves.
There are only a few very light sheds or stalls (“kaudi”), erected here
and there. In general, besides a few of the retail dealers, only the
dilélma or broker has a stall, which, on this account, is called
diléllam; and, no shady trees being found, both buyers and sellers are
exposed to the whole force of the sun during the very hottest hours of
the day, between eleven and three o’clock, when the market is most full
and busy, and the crowd is often so dense that it is difficult to make
one’s way through it: for the place not being regularly laid out, nor
the thoroughfares limited by rows of stalls, each dealer squats down
with his merchandise where he likes. There are often from twelve to
fifteen thousand people crowded together in the market; but the noise is
not very great, the Kanúri people being more sedate and less vivacious
than the Háusáwa, and not vending their wares with loud cries. However,
the wanzám or barber, going about, affords amusement by his constant
whistling, “kangádi.” In general, even amusements have rather a sullen
character in Bórnu; and of course, in a place of business like the
market, very little is done for amusement, although sometimes a serpent-
tamer (“kadíma”) or a story-teller (“kosgolíma”) is met with. Also the
luxuries offered to the people are very few in comparison with the
varieties of cakes and sweetmeats in the market-places of Háusa; and
“kólché” (the common sweet groundnut), “gángala” (the bitter groundnut),
boiled beans or “ngálo,” and a few dry dates from the Tébu country, are
almost the only things, besides water and a little nasty sour milk,
offered as refreshment to the exhausted customer.
The fatigue which people have to undergo in purchasing their week’s
necessaries in the market is all the more harassing, as there is not at
present any standard money for buying and selling; for the ancient
standard of the country, viz. the pound of copper, has long since fallen
into disuse, though the name, “rotl,” still remains. The “gábagá,” or
cotton-strips, which then became usual, have lately begun to be
supplanted by the cowries or “kúngona,” which have been introduced, as
it seems, rather by a speculation of the ruling people, than by a
natural want of the inhabitants[78], though nobody can deny that they
are very useful for buying small articles, and infinitely more
convenient than cotton strips. Eight cowries or kúngona are reckoned
equal to one gábagá, and four gábagá, or two-and-thirty kúngona, to one
rotl. Then, for buying larger objects, there are shirts of all kinds and
sizes, from the “dóra,” the coarsest and smallest one, quite unfit for
use, and worth six rotls, up to the large ones, worth fifty or sixty
rotls. But while this is a standard value, the relation of the rotl and
the Austrian dollar[79], which is pretty well current in Bórnu, is
subject to extreme fluctuation, due, I must confess, at least partly, to
the speculations of the ruling men, and principally to that of my friend
the Háj Beshír. Indeed, I cannot defend him against the reproach of
having speculated to the great detriment of the public; so that, when he
had collected a great amount of kúngona, and wished to give it currency,
the dollar would suddenly fall as low as to five-and-forty or fifty
rotls, while at other times it would fetch as much as one hundred rotls,
or three thousand two hundred shells; that is, seven hundred shells more
than in Kanó. The great advantage of the market in Kanó is, that there
is one standard coin, which, if a too large amount of dollars be not on
a sudden set in circulation, will always preserve the same value.
But to return to the market. A small farmer who brings his corn to the
Monday market, or the “kásukú létenínbe,” in Kúkawa, will on no account
take his payment in shells, and will rarely accept of a dollar: the
person, therefore, who wishes to buy corn, if he has only dollars, must
first exchange a dollar for shells, or rather buy shells; then with the
shells he must buy a “kúlgu,” or shirt; and after a good deal of
bartering he may thus succeed in buying the corn, be it some kind of
argúm, wheat, or rice. However, these two latter articles are not always
to be got, while more frequently they are only in small quantities. The
rice sold in Kúkawa is wild rice, the refuse of the elephants, and of a
very inferior description.
The fatigue to be undergone in the market is such that I have very often
seen my servants return in a state of the utmost exhaustion. Most of the
articles which are sold on the great Monday fair may also be found in
the small afternoon markets or durríya, but only in small quantity, and
at a higher price, and some articles will be sought for there in vain.
But while there is certainly a great deal of trouble in the market of
Kúkawa, it must be acknowledged that the necessaries of life are cheaper
there than in any other place which I have visited in Central Africa,
almost half as cheap again as in Kátsena and Sókoto, a third cheaper
than in Kanó, and about a fourth cheaper than in Timbúktu. About the
cheapness of meat and corn in the latter place, which is indeed a very
remarkable fact, and struck me with the utmost surprise when I first
reached that celebrated town, I shall speak in the proper place. But I
must remark that dukhn, argúm móro, or millet (_Pennisetum typhoïdeum_),
is in greater quantity, and therefore cheaper, in Kúkawa than the durra
or sorghum, “ngáberi,” just as it is in Timbúktu and Kanó, while in
Bagírmi durra is much cheaper. The ngáberi of Bórnu, however,
particularly that kind of it which is called matíya, and which is
distinguished by its whiteness, is most excellent; and the “senásin,” a
kind of thin pancake prepared from this grain, is the lightest and best
food for a European in this country.
Of course the price of corn varies greatly according to the season, the
lowest rates ruling about a month or two after the harvest, when all the
corn in the country has been thrashed, and the highest rates just about
the harvest time. In general a dollar will purchase in Kúkawa three ox-
loads, “kátkun knémube,” of argúm; a dollar and a half will buy a very
good ox of about six hundred pounds’ weight; two dollars fetch a pack ox
(“knému”), or a milch-cow (“fé mádarabé”); one dollar, two good sheep;
from seventeen to twenty rotls, a “téndu” of butter, containing about
four pounds’ weight. For wheat and rice the general rule in Negroland
is, that they fetch double the price of the native corn. Rice might seem
to be indigenous in Central Africa, growing wild everywhere, as well in
Bághena, in Western Africa, as in Kótoko or Bagírmi. Wheat, on the
contrary, was evidently introduced some hundred years ago, together with
onions, the favourite food of the Arab, to the merits of which the
native African is insensible, although it is a most wholesome article of
diet in this climate, as I shall have repeatedly occasion to state.
Of fruits the most common are—the two sorts of groundnut, “kólché” and
“gángala,” the former of which is a very important article of food,
though by no means on so large a scale as in the eastern parts of
Adamáwa; the “bíto,” the fruit of the hajilíj or _Balanites Ægyptiaca_
(which is so much valued by the Kanúri that, according to a common
proverb, a bíto-tree and a milch-cow are just the same,—“Késka bítowa
féwa mádarabé kal”); a kind of _Physalis_, the native name of which I
have forgotten; the bírgim, or the African plum, of which I shall speak
further on; the kórna, or the fruit of the _Rhamnus lotus_; and the
fruit of the dúm-palm, “kírzim” or _Cucifera Thebaïca_.
Of vegetables, the most common in the market are—beans of various
descriptions, which likewise form a very important article of food in
many districts, certainly as much as the third of the whole consumption;
onions, consumed in great quantity by the Arabs, but not by the natives,
who prefer to season their food with the young leaves of the monkey-
bread tree, “kálu kúka,” or the “karás,” or with a sauce made from dried
fish. There are no sweet potatoes and no yams in this part of Bórnu, the
consequence of which is that the food of the natives is less varied than
in Háusa, Kébbi, or Yóruba. Yams are brought to this country as
rarities, and are given as presents to influential persons.
Camels sell at from eight to twenty dollars. When there is no caravan in
preparation, a very tolerable beast may be bought for the former price;
but when a caravan is about to start, the best will fetch as much as
twenty dollars—very rarely more; and a good camel may always be had for
about fifteen dollars. Some camels may be bought for four or five
dollars each, but cannot be relied on.
Very strong travelling horses for servants were during my first visit
purchasable for from six to eight dollars, while an excellent horse
would not fetch more than thirty dollars; but in the year 1854 the price
had risen considerably, in consequence of the exportation of horses,
which had formerly been forbidden, having been permitted, and great
numbers having been exported to the west—chiefly to Múniyo, Kátsena, and
Márádi. A first-rate horse of foreign race, however, is much dearer, and
will sometimes fetch as much as three hundred dollars. I shall have
another opportunity of speaking of the horses of Bórnu, which is rather
an interesting and important subject, as the breed is excellent, and,
besides being very handsome and of good height, they bear fatigue
marvellously—a fact of which one of my own horses gave the best proof,
having carried me during three years of almost incessant fatigue on my
expedition to Kánem, to the Músgu country, to Bagírmi, to Timbúktu, and
back to Kanó, where my poor dear companion died in December, 1854: and
let it be taken into consideration that, though I myself am not very
heavy, I constantly carried with me a double-barrelled gun, one or two
pairs of pistols, a quantity of powder and shot, several instruments, my
journals, and generally even my coffeepot and some little provision.
But to return to the picture of life which the town of Kúkawa presents.
With the exception of Mondays, when just during the hottest hours of the
day there is much crowd and bustle in the market-place, it is very dull
from about noon till three o’clock in the afternoon; and even during the
rest of the day, those scenes of industry, which in the varied panorama
of Kanó meet the eye, are here sought for in vain. Instead of those
numerous dyeing-yards or máriná full of life and bustle, though
certainly also productive of much filth and foul odours, which spread
over the town of Kanó, there is only a single, and a very poor máriná in
Kúkawa; no beating of tobes is heard, nor the sound of any other
handicraft.
There is a great difference of character between these two towns; and,
as I have said above, the Bórnu people are by temperament far more
phlegmatic than those of Kanó. The women in general are much more ugly,
with square short figures, large heads, and broad noses with immense
nostrils, disfigured still more by the enormity of a red bead or coral
worn in the nostril. Nevertheless, they are certainly quite as
coquettish, and, as far as I had occasion to observe, at least as wanton
also, as the more cheerful and sprightly Háusa women. I have never seen
a Háusa woman strolling about the streets with her gown trailing after
her on the ground, the fashion of the women of Kúkawa, and wearing on
her shoulders some Manchester print of a showy pattern, keeping the ends
of it in her hands, while she throws her arms about in a coquettish
manner. In a word, their dress, as well as their demeanour, is far more
decent and agreeable. The best part in the dress or ornaments of the
Bórnu women is the silver ornament (the “fállafálle kélabé”) which they
wear on the back of the head, and which in taller figures, when the hair
is plaited in the form of a helmet, is very becoming; but it is not
every woman who can afford such an ornament, and many a one sacrifices
her better interests for this decoration.
The most animated quarter of the two towns is the great thoroughfare,
which, proceeding by the southern side of the palace in the western
town, traverses it from west to east, and leads straight to the sheikh’s
residence in the eastern town. This is the “déndal” or promenade, a
locality which has its imitation, on a less or greater scale, in every
town of the country. This road, during the whole day, is crowded by
numbers of people on horseback and on foot; free men and slaves,
foreigners as well as natives, every one in his best attire, to pay his
respects to the sheikh or his vizier, to deliver an errand, or to sue
for justice or employment, or a present. I myself very often went along
this well-trodden path—this highroad of ambition; but I generally went
at an unusual hour, either at sunrise in the morning, or while the heat
of the mid-day, not yet abated, detained the people in their cool
haunts, or late at night, when the people were already retiring to rest
or, sitting before their houses, beguiling their leisure hours with
amusing tales or with petty scandal. At such hours I was sure to find
the vizier or the sheikh alone; but sometimes they wished me also to
visit and sit with them, when they were accessible to all the people;
and on these occasions the vizier took pride and delight in conversing
with me about matters of science, such as the motion of the earth, or
the planetary system, or subjects of that kind.
[Footnote 77: This custom, I think, confirms the opinion that the Koyám
migrated from Kánem into Bórnu. They are expressly called “áhel el
bil.”]
[Footnote 78: I shall have occasion to mention what an influence the
introduction of cowries into Bórnu, by draining the Háusa country of
this article, has exercised upon the demand for cowries in Yoruba and on
the coast in the years following 1849.]
[Footnote 79: The Austrian dollar, the “bú-tér,” though less in
intrinsic value, is better liked in Bórnu than the Spanish one, the “bú
medfʿa.”]
CHAP. XXXI.
THE TSÁD.
My stay in the town was agreeably interrupted by an excursion to Ngórnu
and the shores of the lake.
[Sidenote: Thursday, April 24th.]