The author is forced to turn physician. — Distrust of the Moors. —
Description of the camp of King Lam Khaté. — Schools. — Amusement
of the women.
On the 16th the king was indisposed; he sent for me and inquired if I
could tell him of any herb which would ease him. I promised to make an
excursion to look for some; and accordingly I ranged the neighbourhood,
and found abundance of sweet basil, a plant which grows spontaneously
in a rich soil; I gathered also a number of seeds, which I concealed
with care in a corner of my pagne. When I returned, I gave the sweet
basil to the king, and advised him to make tea of it; he drank it and
found himself better. The properties of this plant are entirely unknown
to the Moors, and the circumstance made a great noise in the camp. All
the princes sent for me to their tents, to consult me on their various
complaints, and to ask me for remedies. A quack would have taken
advantage of this event to levy contributions upon their credulity,
and I do not doubt that one of their own marabouts would have played
them this game; but I gave them simply the most innocent remedies,
things indeed which I knew to be harmless, whenever I was compelled
to prescribe. I was not ill-pleased with this transient celebrity, for
it procured me the advantage of rambling about in the country without
exciting suspicion, under pretence of collecting medicinal herbs.
On the 20th of September, before sun-rise, I set off to visit the
chain of hills two miles east of our camp. I crossed, on my way,
a plain of rich black sand, intersected by ravines covered with
luxuriant vegetation. I made my way to the summit of the loftiest
of this chain, which may be about three hundred feet high, and is
sprinkled with detached rocks of granite. Having reached the top
of this, I discovered that the chain extends far to the N.E.; the
width from north to south being about three miles. The other hills
of which it consists are much less considerable than that which
I ascended; among the rocks I found a quantity of cotton trees,
with deeply indented leaves; the husks and seeds also being smaller
than those of the cotton tree cultivated in our establishments in
Wâlo. I took some of the seeds of these and of many other shrubs
which happened to be ripe, and hid them in the corner of my pagne;
I also collected some plants. In descending the hill I was met by two
Moorish hunters; they looked surprised to see me, and asked me what
I came to look for so far from the camp; I shewed them my plants,
and told them that I came to fetch medicines for Hamet-Dou, who
was ill; they appeared satisfied, shewed me some young Guinea-fowl
which they had caught and left me. I climbed another of these hills,
composed of flesh-coloured quartz rocks, in smaller masses than those
which I had remarked on the former. I found many resembling marble;
the intermediate spaces are covered with pure reddish sand.
On my return I searched the plain for cotton trees, like those I had
discovered on the hill; but I could not find a single plant. The two
Moors whom I had met, had arrived at the camp before me, and given an
account of my excursion: the news had come to the ears of the king and
awakened his suspicions. As soon as he was aware that I had returned,
he sent for me, and I had not time to dispose of my seeds. When I
entered, he asked me, with an air of dissatisfaction, whence I came,
and why I went to a distance from the camp by myself. There were
plenty of herbs, he told me, close by, without my going so far to look
for them. Some of the Moors who were present, perceived that I had a
knot in my pagne, and catching hold of it, they asked me what I had
got there; and then, without giving me time to reply, they untied it
themselves. “What do you want with these?” said they. “These are
to take to the white men when you go back to them;” and, without
waiting for an explanation, they threw away the seeds. I tried to
persuade them that these seeds had medicinal virtues, and that I had
gathered them for the benefit of more than one of themselves; but,
not succeeding, I assured them that when I came to them, my connexion
with whites had ceased, and that I could never return to their country.
In the evening, being in the tent of a marabout, who gave instruction,
I took advantage of a moment when I could procure some ink, and fell
to work upon my journal: I had written about a page, when the Koont
sherif came in and caught me; he took the paper from me, and, amazed
to see no Arabic characters, asked me what I was writing. I thought
at first of saying that I had set down some prayers that I wanted
to remember, but recollecting that I had not learnt prayers enough
to take up a page, I told him it was a song, and I began to sing to
convince him. The incredulous sherif did not appear to believe it,
and he accused me of coming to spy out their ways, that I might give
an account of them to the christians. It was of importance to me to
drive this idea out of his head, and I succeeded, by pretending the
utmost indifference as to what I had written. I put the paper into
his hands again with a smile, and said, “Go to the factory and get
this paper read; you will see whether I have deserved the affront you
have offered me.” This stratagem had the effect I expected; he gave
me back my paper, and asked me to read another verse. I sung another
couplet; the sherif appeared convinced, and left me, to my great joy,
for his surmises alarmed me exceedingly. I thanked God that I had
come off so well, and resolved to be more prudent in future. From
that time forward, when I wanted to write, I took care to get behind
a bush, and at the least noise I hid my notes and took up my beads,
pretending to be saying my prayers. This feigned devotion procured
me much commendation from those who surprised me; but it was painful
to me to perform such a part.
For three days the wind had blown hard from the east; the pastures
were nearly bare, and messengers had been dispatched to the north to
see if they were more abundant in that direction. In the evening a
tremendous storm came on, the thunder rolled awfully, and the rain fell
in torrents; all the tents were blown over, and the utmost confusion
pervaded the camp. The storm had taken every body by surprise; there
had been no time to take down the tents; the very huts themselves were
carried away, the briars which had been used for fences were likewise
torn up, and many persons were hurt. The Moors, though accustomed to
scenes of this sort, seemed very much frightened. Nothing was to be
heard but men and women recommending themselves to God: the tumult was
increased by the doleful lowing of the cattle, which had been torn by
the briars which the wind carried off, and were now wandering about at
random. This was the first storm that I had witnessed in the desert,
and the general consternation which I remarked, made me suppose that
there was some imminent danger; for a moment I shared the terror of
the Musulmans, but the wind subsided in about three quarters of an
hour, and the rain ceased soon afterwards. The people then bestirred
themselves to set up the tents again, and to collect the scattered
cattle; the fires which the wind had extinguished were re-lighted,
and every one dried his clothes, for it is the Moorish custom to
have only one suit. I had a dry pagne with which I covered myself,
and more than ten people asked me for it to change themselves; but I
had too urgent occasion for it myself, to lend it, which drew upon me
their abuse. I observed that the king himself had been exposed to the
rain like the rest of us, and that he had no more change of apparel
than his subjects, for he remained all night in his wet clothes.
I have already mentioned that this storm took every body by surprise;
in a general way the Moors strike their tents when they are threatened
by a storm, leaving only a few small ones, which almost always resist
its force, and serve to shelter the king and the royal family; all
the rest remain outside exposed to the rain. On this occasion the
wind was so high, that the very smallest tents were thrown down,
and the princes and princesses shared the common fate.
On the 21st of September, a Trarzas marabout, from Portendik, arrived
at the camp: I was called to see some articles which he brought
with him from that place: he showed me a pair of pantaloons, which I
thought I recognized as having belonged to M. Lacaby, who was wrecked
in the Rose Virginie, on the bank of Arquin; he had also a handsome
little dressing-case, and seaman’s boots, which he used to protect
himself from the thorns and khakhames. I should have liked to ask him
a few questions, but I dared not for fear of exciting suspicions. The
particulars of this shipwreck I had been acquainted with before I
left Saint Louis, and I had even seen some of the sufferers.
On the 23d of September, the messengers who had been sent to look
for pasture returned, and said that they had found no water in the
direction in which they had been: it was then determined to move to
the N.E., where we hoped for better success.
On the 24th, the camp broke up. My marabout’s camel was ill, so
I travelled on foot. We crossed the hills; about six miles from the
place which we had left we came to a lake, called Lakhadou, surrounded
by a fine plain of argillaceous soil, covered with vegetation: here we
halted for several days. This lake is pleasantly shaded by _grewias_.
For the last three days, Fatmé-Anted-Moctar had omitted to send
me a meal of sangleh, as she had been accustomed to do; I received
nothing from her but a little milk morning and night, and was tormented
with hunger. The king had told me, it is true, to ask him for every
thing I wanted; but I got no more for that; and the milk, instead of
satisfying me, gave me the colic, and impaired my strength.
This evening a Moor, called Moxé, arrived at the camp; he is the
interpreter in ordinary to the king when he goes to the coast, and
speaks French perfectly well. Hamet-Dou sent for me to question me
again, and I gave him the same replies as before. Moxé told me that
he was come from Galam, where the agent of the commercial society had
given him a piece of Guinea cloth and a gun, and that he should return
very soon; he proposed that I should accompany him, adding that four
or five days would be sufficient for the journey. I should have been
very glad to take this trip, and alleged, as a pretext for it, the
great need I had of some new clothes. I asked the king if he would
lend me a camel for the journey, and he promised he would when the
waters had subsided; for, he said, the roads are impassable at this
season. At night he sent me a piece of mutton for supper.
On the 25th of September, while I was at prayer, I felt myself
ill from exhaustion: Moxé asked me if I had a fever, and I told
him the cause of my illness, adding, that I had great difficulty to
support this way of living; but I hoped, nevertheless, that I should
become used to it in time. After prayer the king offered me a sheep,
advising me to cook it myself, because, if I trusted to the Moors,
they would devour it all. I accepted the offer; but, no doubt,
fearful lest I should not take his advice, and with a view to save
me from the rapacity of his subjects, he took care not to send me the
sheep! It is probable that I owed this good turn to Moxé; for I was
told by Fatmé-Anted-Moctar, that Moxé had endeavoured to prejudice
the king against me: he insinuated, as I found, that it was not the
love of God, but curiosity, which had brought me among them, and that
I should not be likely to remain very long. Fortunately, some of the
marabouts took my part, and the king said himself, that he could not
believe that curiosity alone would have induced me to come amongst them
to suffer such privations, and that God must have wrought a miracle
in my behalf in operating my conversion. I thought I could perceive
a little jealousy in Moxé’s conduct with respect to me, and he
probably feared that my presence, when I should have learned Arabic,
would render his own needless. No doubt this was what also induced the
negro, whom I mentioned as my interpreter in the first conversation I
had with the king, to tell him I had not been shipwrecked, but that I
had committed some atrocious crime among the whites, who had expelled
me for it. Although the king laughed at all this, it did not fail to
diminish his confidence, and I could perceive from day to day that I
lost something of the esteem with which I had at first inspired him. I
was extremely desirous to leave the camp, not only on this account,
but because I could learn nothing; it consisted entirely of warriors,
who did not trouble their heads about study, and my marabout was too
much engaged to give me lessons. I opened my mind to the marabout,
who entered entirely into my views, and persuaded me to ask the king
for a beast of some sort to convey me to his camp, where his son,
he assured me, would undertake to instruct me. Hamet-Dou told me to
wait a few days and he would send me thither.
On the 30th of September, the camp broke up, and we advanced nine
miles to the north, over a sandy soil covered with khakham. As I
wore sandals only, after the Moorish fashion, I suffered extremely
from the prickles of this plant, and my feet and legs were covered
with blood. I asked several of the Moors to take me up behind them on
their camels, but they said that their beasts were weary, and I must
apply to the king who would furnish me with one. The king was gone on
before, and I had lost sight of my marabout, so I had no hope except
from the pity of those who were near me. I tried again to persuade
them, for I was exhausted with pain and fatigue, but in vain; I got
nothing but raillery in answer to my entreaties; and I was told that I
should win heaven by suffering with patience. They spoke the truth;
but I am sure not one of them would have taken my place to earn
heaven at this price. If they had even left me alone in my misery,
it would have been more bearable; but the young princes, mounted
upon their fine horses, came bounding about me, running against me,
and rallying me upon my dress, which consisted only of a coussabe[19]
made of coarse blue pagne, and falling to pieces. I found on the road
some water-melons, which I ate to quench my thirst, and when it became
still more intolerable I was forced to beg some water, with my beads
in my hand, and then I sometimes succeeded in obtaining a little.
At last, about eleven o’clock we stopped near a lake called
Tobaïti. I perceived the tent of the king, which was pitched, and
thither I went to rest myself. Several marabouts came and took out the
numerous thorns which had run into my feet, and the king appeared sorry
to see me suffer; he assured me that if he had fallen in with me by the
way, he would have ordered a beast for me, and he sent me some milk
and some water to refresh me. When I had rested a little, I went to
the tent of Fatmé-Anted-Moctar, the residence which had been assigned
me. In the evening, at the usual hour, milk was distributed among us
for supper, and as soon as I had received my portion, I inquired if
there was any body to be found who would exchange a little sangleh
for milk; upon which I was referred to an old female slave who was
seldom without it. She accepted my proposition and gave me a little
at the time, promising me the same quantity every day. I, on my side,
promised her a reward. This poor creature was in the habit of going,
when her master could spare her, to pick up haze for her subsistence;
she only received the milk of one cow for her share, and care had been
taken to allot her one of those that gave the least; nevertheless,
in her forlorn state, she found means to soften my lot; so true it
is that the wretched are the most compassionate. During the whole
week that I remained after this time in the camp, she did not fail
once to bring me a little calabash of sangleh.
October the 7th, I requested the king to send me to the marabout’s
camp as he had promised. He gave me a bullock to ride upon, and a
slave to guide me. At nine in the morning we set off, but had scarcely
proceeded a quarter of a mile before the bullock stopped, and would
not go further, upon which we were forced to return to the camp.
On the 8th, Hamet-Dou having provided me with another bullock, I set
off at six o’clock in the morning, travelling to the S.W. ¼ W. over
a sandy soil covered with khakham. Our journey was very painful,
on account of the thirst we endured; for there was not a drop of
water to be found on the road. At two o’clock we found traces of
a camp, which we followed. Climbing some hillocks of loose sand,
we perceived to the south a streamlet running from W. to S.W.; its
banks were bordered with _mimosa_, _zizyphus lotus_, and _nauclea_,
which appeared in full verdure. My guide told me that the rivulet
was called el-Hadjar, and that it overflows the plain in the rainy
season. I thought that it was probably the same which I had passed with
Boubou-Fanfale. I saw some smoke rising from the banks of the river,
which seemed to indicate the vicinity of a camp, and I rejoiced at it,
hoping that I should have an opportunity of quenching my thirst; but,
on advancing a few paces towards it, I perceived that the whole plain
was on fire. Some person had set fire to the dry herbage, and the
birds of prey were hovering around to catch the insects and reptiles
as they were escaping from the flames.
When we reached the bank of the streamlet, we found a number of slaves
employed in collecting haze, and some of the Moors superintending. I
went up to them, and obtained a little water to drink; one of the
Moors took me by the hand, and told me he was delighted to see me;
he made me repeat a short prayer, and then, having called for a
little pot, containing sangleh, he took me to the side of a pool, a
few paces off, in the bed of a rivulet, which is dry at this season,
and shaded by the green foliage of a beautiful tufted tree, which
keeps the water cool. While I was sharing the sangleh with the Moor,
I learned that when the grass is too short to be cut they burn it,
that they may afterwards gather the haze.
We had travelled twenty-three miles since morning, and we had still
three miles to go to the camp of Mohammed Sidy, _lakariche_, or
prince. Having rested, and quenched our thirst, we proceeded to the
N.W. The road that we pursued was crossed by banks of moving sand. At
four o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at the camp.
As soon as I made my appearance, I was here, as in the other camps,
the object of universal curiosity; all its inmates collected about
me, and I was compelled to repeat prayers for great part of the
evening. Some of the women inquired if I would accept a share of their
bed; and on my replying in the affirmative, they ran off with bursts
of laughter. One of them wished to examine whether I had undergone
the rite prescribed by the law of their prophet, but I did not think
proper to satisfy her. The site of this camp was called Lam Khaté. I
had nothing but milk given me for my supper, and I was not allowed
to add sangleh to it, as in the camp of the king. In the night,
there was a hurricane from the east, which overthrew the tents,
and prevented us from sleeping.
On the 9th of October, the guide who had been sent with me by
Hamet-Dou, refused to go any further; I employed all the means in my
power to induce him, but in vain; he chose to return to his master. I
must stop at Lam Khaté to give a description of the royal camp.
This camp comprises the tribe of Oulad-Sidy, otherwise called the
_lakariches_, or princes; and from this tribe spring all the kings of
the Braknas. In some circumstances, the camp is divided into two or
three parts, all retaining the original name, but distinguished also by
the name of the chief who commands them. The camp of Hamet-Dou probably
contained at the time of my visit about one hundred tents, and four or
five hundred inhabitants. When the king receives his customary tribute,
his camp is filled with strangers, who come to ask for presents. I
have seen some of these gentry who had staid for three months in the
hope of at last obtaining ten ells of Guinea cloth, worth, perhaps,
about eight shillings. These parasites establish themselves in the
first tent where they can procure lodging, and twice a day, morning
and night, they sally forth, with their beads in one hand, and a tin
can in the other, to beg milk from door to door. In the day time they
walk about the camp, two and two, or assemble in tents to converse;
and here they commonly fall asleep, while they are ridding each other
of the vermin with which they are infested. I was a great source of
amusement to them, and when they came about me, they were sure to pass
a part of the day in questioning and tormenting me. I suffered most
from the _hassanes_,[20] or warriors; fanatical, idle, and ignorant
they were never contented but when they annoyed me, and they added to
all their other insults an insupportable ironical laugh. They were
continually asking me whether I meant to be circumcised. I replied,
that I had referred the affair to my marabout, who, to my great
satisfaction, declared that the operation was unnecessary, that it
was dangerous at my age, and that I could go to heaven without it.
The marabouts[21] do not usually inhabit the same camp with the
hassanes; four of them only were to be found in that of Hamet-Dou. One
of these was very poor; he was a schoolmaster, taught girls and boys,
and when their education was completed the parents presented him
with a coussabe or a bullock. Evening and morning the children are
engaged in picking up fire-wood; it is always after dark at night, and
before it is light in the morning that they take their lesson. By the
light of a great fire, they recite some verses of the Koran, chanting
them in a loud tone; these verses the master writes upon their boards
and they have to learn them by heart. At night they meet again at the
master’s tent to repeat their lesson. Whilst he is hearing his class,
the master walks round the fire, singing himself to give the note
to his scholars, and holding in his hand a long stick, with which
he lays about him, when he sees any one inattentive. When a pupil
is perfect in his lesson, he goes all round the camp repeating it,
and obtains great applause.
The Moors have a profound reverence for the Koran; they never lay
it on the ground, not even on a mat, without putting a pagne under
it. Before they venture to touch it they perform an ablution, raising
their hands above their heads first, and then rubbing them over their
faces and arms; any one who should do otherwise, would be despised
and considered as an infidel.
The boys are not admitted into the schools till they have been
circumcised, and before this epoch they are forbidden to touch the
holy book. The slaves are never allowed to handle it, being regarded
as impure. When the boards, on which the Koran has been written, are
removed, they must be taken by the cord which serves to hang them
up by, and neither be turned wrong end upwards nor trailed on the
ground. When school is over, these boards are laid upon the thorn
fence, and a slave who should presume to meddle with them would be
beaten without mercy.
The education of the girls is very limited; they are taught to repeat
the salam, and a few prayers, but seldom to write; some of them however
are tolerably well informed. The boys learn the Koran by heart; but
it is to the education of the marabouts that most attention is paid;
some of them are very well read in the precepts of their religion,
and pretend to know more than we do of sacred history. They were quite
surprised that I should know any thing of the Bible, and I gained
great applause by reciting some of the adventures in the lives of the
patriarchs; but they were still more astonished that I was acquainted
with the history of Mahomet, and this gained me their good-will more
than any thing else.
Till the education of the children is supposed to be finished they go
very ill clad, or even naked; the boys have only a coussabe made out
of a pagne; the girls are usually naked till the age of puberty; some
wearing a small guinea cloth when they have left school, or when they
have made especial progress in their studies, by way of distinction.
A father seldom instructs his own children, unless there is no school
in the camp, in which case he teaches the girls, because it is not the
custom to send them to school in another camp. The father does not
complete the education of the boys; they commonly learn the first
elements from him, and are then sent to some marabout who keeps
school. The parents give each of them two cows, the milk of which
supplies them with food; the master does not receive his salary till
the education of the pupil is finished. The hassanes seldom learn
to write, and their principal ambition is to ride a horse well and
to fight.
The Moors assemble to prayers five times a day, the king always
attending. Amongst the Braknas the mosque is formed by an enclosure of
thorns, sometimes under the shelter of a mimosa, if there happens to be
one at hand. The Moors often meet here to discuss affairs of business
or politics; they even pass the whole of the day in chatting on
indifferent subjects; but this holy place the women are not permitted
to enter; they perform the salam before their own tents. Even the men,
when they enter the mosque, observe a peculiar ceremonial, which
consists in putting the right foot first, and leaving it with the
left foremost: on entering the mosque they perform an ablution. They
have no public crier, as amongst the negroes, to call them to prayer;
but, according to ancient custom, one of the oldest marabouts summons
them together by calling _Allah akbar_; several of the other marabouts
repeat this cry on entering the mosque; the practice is not obligatory,
but they seem to consider it as a duty.
The king’s tent differs in nothing from those of his subjects; it is
twenty feet long and ten wide, and covered like all the others, with a
stuff made of sheep’s hair;[22] at each end are eight leather straps,
and as many stakes, upon which it is stretched. Two upright poles ten
or twelve feet long, crossing at top and fitting into a cross-piece a
foot long and six inches wide, are placed in the centre to raise it;
this cross-piece rises above the uprights, and prevents their ends
from piercing the awning. A carpet of sheep’s hair manufactured
in the country surrounds the interior of the tent; four stakes are
driven in at one end, supporting two cross-bars, over which a cord or
string is passed in the form of a net, and upon this is placed their
baggage. Their things are stowed in square leather sacks shaped like
portmanteaus with an opening at the end; and these bags have a lid
secured by a padlock.
The harness of the horses and camels hangs up round the tent. The
king’s bed is after the same fashion as that of the negroes,
consisting of a hurdle covered with mats, and raised by stakes and
cross-bars about a foot from the ground. A mat spread on the ground
covers the unoccupied part of the tent, and serves the king’s
attendants for a bed. The common people lie on the ground on mats,
under which they _sometimes_ spread a little straw. A matting is
put round the goods at the end of the tent, to preserve them from
thieves. The store of water is kept in skins upon stakes in the
inside of the tents; it is reserved for the masters and the calves,
and refused to the slaves; and even she who has had the trouble to
fetch it cannot obtain a little but by dint of entreaties and after
enduring all sorts of mortifications.
The king’s table service consists of six or eight deep round wooden
dishes, each containing about three quarts, and used to hold milk
and other articles; three metal pots and two of earthen-ware, which
they obtain from the Fouta, form the cooking apparatus, and complete
the list of the furniture. This description will serve for all other
tents as well as the king’s, except that the poorer class have mats
instead of a carpet.
Hamet-Dou is almost always surrounded by _guéhués_ or strolling
singers, who abound among the Moors, and are always to be found in
the train of the princes, from whom they obtain whatever they want,
sometimes by threats, at others by the basest flattery. Every prince
has one of these men in his retinue, and Hamet-Dou’s _guéhué_
follows him wherever he goes. When they are seated together in
the tent, he sings the king’s praise, and loads him with such
outrageous panegyric, that none but an African monarch could hear
it without blushing; the king’s wife and children usually join and
repeat in chorus all the absurdities he can invent. These parasites
have contrived to make themselves as much feared as despised by
the Moors; they understand the art of persuasion in perfection; and
though they are noted impostors and consigned to everlasting fire by
public opinion, their calumny is so ingenious that it always injures
the character of those against whom it is aimed. The marabouts have
the greatest contempt for the guéhués, but they always receive them
politely when they make their appearance, for fear of the false reports
which they would raise if they were offended. The instruments which
the guéhués use to accompany their songs are of two kinds. One,
in the form of a guitar, is nothing but an oval gourd, covered with
a well dried sheep-skin; this is crossed horizontally by a stick a
foot long, upon which the strings of the instrument, five in number,
are fastened: these strings are made of twisted hair, and the tone of
this instrument, which is touched by the hand, is pleasing enough. The
second is a sort of harp with fourteen strings of sheep’s gut,
mounted upon a stick two feet long, and placed obliquely in a round
calabash of much larger dimensions than the other. A leather thong,
stretched horizontally over the skin which covers the gourd, serves to
fasten the lower end of the strings, or sometimes they are attached
to a bit of wood placed across. At the edge of the calabash and
under the last string is a piece of iron, flat and oval, about five
inches long, and set round with small iron rings, which tinkle when
the harp is played upon, and add to the effect. The musicians never
fail to ask for presents from the princes whose praises they sing,
and as they are seldom refused they have numerous flocks and good
beasts of burden. Sometimes they make presents to the marabouts to
conciliate their esteem; and the marabouts accept the gift and despise
them nevertheless.
During the month that I passed with the king, I never once saw him
take any solid food, or drink any thing but milk. When I asked him why
he took neither sangleh nor meat, he replied that he preferred milk
to all other food. To distinguish themselves from the common people,
the king and his nobles always drank camel’s milk, and said they
preferred it; but I always suspected that their only motive was the
difficulty of procuring it, which prevented the slaves from drinking
it also; a sort of distinction of which they are jealous. I have seen
the queen several times eat meat swimming in melted butter.
In the rainy season the Moors seldom take any other food than milk,
which they have in abundance at that period of the year. The rich
sometimes kill a sheep, but not often. The king’s guéhué killed a
sheep one day, and was roasting it on the embers while I was in his
tent; presently as many as thirty Moors collected, having found out
what was going on by the smell of the meat; and they watched like so
many ravenous beasts for the moment when they could satisfy their
voracious appetite. The guéhué hoped to have got rid of them by
distributing some small pieces among them; but no sooner had he sat
down to the feast with his wife, than the Moors fell upon it and
carried it all off, tearing the scraps from one another’s hands
and mouths; they even fought for the bones, and dispatched the poor
guéhué’s sheep without giving him a taste. I could only compare
them to dogs fighting for a piece of meat that one of them had stolen;
and I, who had been invited to partake with the lawful proprietor,
was not more fortunate than himself. This was a great disappointment
to me, as I was very hungry. I was told that this scene could not
have taken place except at a guéhué’s, and that they would not
have dared to behave so to a person of more importance.
I sometimes suggested to the Moors that they would improve their fare
by sending their slaves to collect haze, and making it into sangleh,
but this hurt their pride: “It is food for the common people,”
said they, “and for slaves; we do not condescend to eat it.” Those
who have a little millet left from their stock save it for the return
of the dry season, when milk becomes scarce.
The Moors have large herds of oxen and camels; and they have also a
number of fine horses, of which they take great care; giving them milk
when it is plentiful, morning and night. When a horseman arrives at
a camp, he goes about inquiring for milk and for water for his beast.
The care of the camels is committed to the Laratines[23] or the
zenagues, and very seldom to negro slaves. As soon as a camel is
foaled, its legs are tied under its body, to habituate it from the
first to the posture in which it is to receive its burthen. When it
is old enough to carry a load, a month is sufficient to teach it to
rise with its burthen, and to balance itself. When it is to be weaned,
they thrust a splinter through its nose, and fasten some thorns to
the splinter, that it may prick its mother whenever it comes near her,
and she may prevent it from sucking. They also tie a cloth round the
teats of the mother, and fasten it over her back. The black slaves
attend on the bullocks, driving them to pasture at seven o’clock
in the morning, and bringing them back at sun-set. The cows are not
milked till ten o’clock at night, after the last prayer; those who
took care of them in the day time performing the office. The wooden
vessel which they use to milk into is never cleaned except by holding
it over the fire for about ten minutes; by this method of purification,
it contracts a smoky taste, which it imparts to the milk, and this
renders it very unpleasant. The Moors let the calves suck, because
they fancy that the cow would cease to give milk if they did not. A
boy is employed to lead them out one after another, as soon as they
are milked. The calf runs to its mother, and is suffered to suck for
a few minutes; they then tie it to one of its mother’s legs, and
she permits herself to be milked without perceiving the change. The
calves are left for a short time with their mothers, and are then
shut up again in the thorn enclosure, where they remain the rest of
the night and all day.
The favourite female slaves of the princes receive the milk in
calabashes, and distribute it again to their masters. Beauty amongst
the Moors consists in enormous embonpoint; and the young girls are
therefore obliged to drink milk to excess; the elder ones take a great
quantity of their own accord, but the younger children are compelled
by their parents, or by a slave whose office it is, to swallow their
allowance. This poor creature commonly takes advantage of the “brief
authority” that is granted her, to revenge herself by her cruelty
for the tyranny of her masters. I have seen poor little girls crying
and rolling on the ground, and even throwing up the milk which they
had just drank; neither their cries nor their sufferings making any
impression upon the cruel slave, who beat them, pinched them till
they bled, and tormented them in a thousand ways, to force them to
take the quantity of milk which she thought proper. If their food
were heavier, such a system would have fatal consequences; but it
is so far from hurting their constitutions, that they grow visibly
stronger and fatter. At twelve years old they are enormous, but at
twenty or twenty-two they lose their embonpoint; I never saw a woman
of that age who was remarkably corpulent.
The largest women are reckoned the handsomest. The Moors have no taste
for beauty of form or mind; on the contrary, what we consider a capital
defect is an attraction with them; they admire women who have the two
front teeth of the upper jaw projecting from the mouth; and ambitious
mothers employ all possible means, to make their daughters’ teeth
grow in that direction.
The men, as I have said, feed also on milk; but they drink less than
the women. The slaves live upon cows’ milk, and in the season when
milk is scarce, they are allowed a small portion of grain, about
three quarters of a pound, without milk; at that season they eat only
at 11 o’clock at night, when their masters are in bed. Such of the
Moors as have young slaves ten or twelve years old, send them to the
enclosure where the calves are, at milking time; and from every cow
they let them drink a mouthful of milk; which is all the food they
receive, so that they suffer much from hunger.
When supper is over, the milk which is left is put in a leather bag,
called _soucou_, to curdle. In the morning, after the cows are milked,
they breakfast as they supped over-night, that is to say upon milk;
the difference being that they have less of it, because the calves
are allowed to suck in the morning.
At noon, a slave churns the milk to make butter; filling the soucou
which holds it with wind, and then shaking it on her lap for a quarter
of an hour. When the butter is made, they work it into little balls
of the size of a walnut, and add three parts water to the milk, which
is set by in calabashes to be distributed at dinner. The balls are
put into the portion destined for the women, and they swallow them
in drinking; this beverage of milk and water is called _cheni_.
The Moors are naturally filthy; and they seem to chuse the dirtiest
slave on purpose, to make the butter and apportion the cheni. I have
seen the women making the balls of butter with their hands wipe their
fingers on their hair, and then plunge them again into the calabash
containing the butter and milk. They disgusted me to such a degree
by their uncleanly ways, that I have often suffered hunger, rather
than accept a drink which they had prepared so filthily.
If the slaves are ill treated by the hassanes, those who belong to the
marabouts fare still worse. I have mentioned that the hassanes allow
them to gather haze for themselves, which tends much to alleviate their
condition; the marabouts, on the other hand, make them collect it for
them, and give them a very small quantity of it, and that without milk.
The herds of the hassanes are less numerous than those of the
marabouts; they have hardly ever any thing in their camp but a
few cows and oxen; the rest of their cattle, the camels excepted,
are entrusted to zenagues, or tributaries, who are responsible for
them, and bring them back when they are wanted. Each tribe has a
distinct mark for its herds, to which the proprietor adds his own
counter-mark. The wooden vessels which they use for milking are
made by their workmen; they take a piece of the trunk of a tree
of suitable size, cover it with cow-dung except where they mean to
hollow it out; then putting fire under it, they blow up the fire with
bellows, driving the flame towards the wood; and thus, the dampness
of the cow-dung on the outside preventing it from burning too far,
the vessel is hollowed. They make wooden funnels also by this process,
which is very tedious, but the only one with which they are acquainted.
I have already mentioned that I was on the point of continuing my
journey, and that my guide had left me at Lam-Khaté. On the 10th
of October, one of the sons of Mohammed-Sidy, lakariche, gave me a
slave for a guide; we set off at seven o’clock in the morning, and
advanced a mile to the west along the bank of a large lake, where I
saw plenty of ducks, teal, and coots. The soil in the neighbourhood
of the lake is argillaceous and rich; I observed there some stems
of millet of the preceding year. After having passed this lake,
we directed our course to the S.W. and proceeded fifteen miles on
stony ground covered with dog-grass. I had nothing to hold water, and
suffered from thirst. On the road we met a marabout riding on an ox;
I begged him to give me a little water, and accompanied my request
by a short prayer in Arabic; he gave me some rather grudgingly,
and told me that I should have had none if it had not been for the
prayer. At noon we arrived at the camp of Boubou-Fanfale, situated
on the bank of the Hadjar; he seemed pleased to see me, and gave me
a bit of mutton for dinner. My guide returned and Boubou sent one of
his sons to conduct me to the camp of my marabout. At two o’clock we
set off again, directing our course over a stony soil. At six in the
evening, having travelled about ten miles, we arrived at Ténèque,
the camp of the zenagues belonging to the king; we passed the night
there. My host gave me for supper a bowl of sangleh, which I enjoyed
very much. In the evening, I was visited by all the women of the camp.
On the 11th, at five in the morning, we continued our journey still
in the same direction. One of the marabouts was going the same way,
and we travelled in company. The soil, consisting of yellow sand, was
covered with khakhames. We passed near eight or ten tombs, and as soon
as my fellow-travellers descried them at a distance, they exclaimed:
_Salam aleycoom; la allah ila allahou!_ (Peace be with you; there is
only one God.) We stopped to pray, which gave me time to examine the
tombs. Mounds are raised upon the bodies, and at the head of each is
a flat stone, on which is written the name of the deceased. After a
short prayer, we each threw a small branch of a tree on the tombs;
my companions then went to the grave of a celebrated marabout which
had a hole a foot deep at the head; they took earth from this hole,
and rubbed their foreheads, breasts, and backs with it, and then
invited me to follow their example; from which I inferred that all
passers-by were expected to perform this ceremony.
At eleven o’clock, we arrived at the camp of the Dheiolebere tribe,
of which my marabout was the chief; we had then travelled ten miles. We
rested here during the heat of the day, and they gave us water to
refresh ourselves. At two, we continued our journey towards the west,
over a rich black argillaceous soil. We came again to the rivulet,
and at six o’clock we halted at el-Khara Hett-Louhed-lahi. A little
before we reached the place, we were espied by a troop of women,
who were gathered around a drum; two youths, with each a stick, were
beating this drum; and the women kept time, clapping their hands,
singing, and making a thousand contortions without changing their
places. As soon as they perceived me, they left their amusement
and came to torment me; gathering around the bullock on which I
was seated, they pulled me by the legs, pinched me, and screamed
frightfully whenever I moved. In vain the marabout who was with me
attempted to drive them away, and assured them I was a Musulman; they
pursued me, shouting _el-nasrani! el-nasrani!_ (the christian! the
christian!) while the children threw stones at me. A girl struck me
with a stick, and fairly exhausted my patience; I snatched the stick
from her, and gave her a such a stroke on the face, that all the rest
were frightened and ran off. We visited a friend of my guide’s,
where I was well received, and had some couscous given me for supper
which I thought delicious; for it was the first time I had eaten any
since I had been amongst the Moors. I was afraid that I should have
been tormented again in the evening, but the stick had frightened
the curious, and I was left in perfect quiet.
On the 12th of October, at six in the morning, we resumed our route to
the south. The soil, though stony in some places, is good. I remarked
on the road some indigo plants of great beauty; the Moors are not
aware of its properties. We travelled for six miles, and towards
nine in the evening arrived at the camp of my marabout, where I was
received with great joy by the inhabitants.
On the 13th, the youngest son of Mohammed-Sidy-Moctar cut off my hair,
and made me a pair of breeches out of my coussabe, and a coussabe
out of a pagne which I had with me.
On the 14th, we went to visit his aunt, whose camp was not far from
ours. All the marabouts welcomed me politely, and I was happy to find
that I should be less tormented than I had been by the hassanes. One
of the marabouts brought me a slave who had a cancer in her breast,
and begged me to tell him of some herb which would cure her, offering
me six oxen as a reward; I bade him observe that vegetation was all
dried up at this season, and that it was impossible to procure any
herbs. After him, came a multitude of invalids, all entreating that
I would cure them; some I remarked were suffering acutely, and it
grieved me extremely that I could afford them no assistance. In vain
I told them that I was not a physician, and that I had no medicines
with me; they renewed their entreaties, and I could only escape from
this scene of woe by leaving the camp. It was one o’clock when I
returned to my marabout.
I have observed that the Moors in general are not subject to severe
illnesses, an exemption which they probably owe to their temperance;
but they are very susceptible of pain, and the least suffering
unmans them. I have seen a Moor with a slight head-ache cry like a
child. The remedies most in vogue amongst them, are the following:
when ill, they diet themselves and take nothing but milk, and as soon
as they are convalescent, they feed upon flesh only, that they may
recover their strength the sooner. When they have a head-ache they
bind a cloth round the forehead, as tight as they can. For a cold,
they introduce melted butter into their noses, by means of a pipe
fitted into a vessel, and they pretend that they derive much benefit
from this, especially for a cold in the head. When troubled with
pain in the stomach, they make a drink of half a glass of camel’s
urine mixed with two bottles of water; the bark of mimosa burnt and
reduced to powder serves for all sorts of cuts, burns, contusions,
&c. They make an ointment of it, by mixing it with butter, and rub it
on the part twice a day. The leaf of the _bauhinia_ pounded, and mixed
with powdered gum and water, is a recipe for aches; they lay it like
a poultice on the part affected, and the gum when dry forms a crust,
which they leave to fall off of itself; they sometimes burn the gum
before they make use of it. For pain in the face occasioned by cold,
they have a special remedy in a certain very hard red stone, which
they find on the mountains; they reduce it to powder by grating it
against a flint, and rub the powder in a dry state upon the part. It
is common to see people with half the face red—sometimes an eye,
or part of the cheek: this stone is called _lahmiri_; I consider it to
be a sort of red lead, and the Moors make ink of it by mixing it with
gum water. I wished to have brought home a specimen of this stone, but
I looked for it in vain, and could never persuade any one to give me
a bit. The Moors are subject to fever, for which they have no remedy,
but they drink gum and milk when they are attacked with it. I saw a
woman, who had had a fever for a month, rub her head with very hot
butter, in which pounded cloves had been steeped.
Aperients are seldom employed, although they are acquainted with the
use of them. They collect senna, and call it _falagé_; when they mean
to make use of it, they bruise it in a mortar with the fruit of the
_ziziphus lotus_, and dilute the powder in a considerable quantity of
water, which they give to the patient to drink. They have another plant
which they use as an aperient, which is less potent in its effects.
The itch, so common among the negroes, is rare with the Moors. Whoever
is attacked with it is shut out from society; he is forbidden to
enter the mosque; a mat is spread in one corner of a tent for his
bed, and nobody drinks out of the same vessel with him till he is
cured. Gunpowder steeped in water is the remedy, and with this the
patient rubs his body all over. Such is the medical practice I have
seen in this country, from which the Moors appear to benefit very
little. I saw during my stay, one case of elephantiasis, one blind
man, but not a single leper; with the last disease they seem not to
be acquainted; I never once met with a cripple.
When I returned to the camp, I asked the marabout’s son, who was
about eighteen years of age, to repeat some verses of the Koran,
which I wanted to write down, that I might learn them by heart. At the
second line, however, he stopped and refused to proceed, telling me
that it was unlawful to write the words of God with a profane hand;
he afterwards consulted one of the marabouts on this point, who was
wiser and bade him to continue.
Walking about in the camp, I remarked some heavy black stones lying
loose on the soil; one of these I broke; and found that it contained
a great deal of iron; a specimen of these stones I have sent to
the governor. The Moors smelt this ore, and make locks, fetters,
and other things, of the iron. To smelt it, they dig a hole in the
ground, a foot and a half deep, over which they build a furnace in
the shape of a pyramid five feet high, leaving at the bottom four
holes for the bellows. They fill the furnace with ore broken into
small pieces, and heat it with sheep’s dung, which when dry makes
a very strong fire. Four men, placed at the apertures of the furnace,
blow the fire, till the iron is melted, after which they leave it to
cool without giving it any form, which renders it very difficult to
work, so that they prefer what they buy of us.
On the 15th of October, the pasture being exhausted, we broke up
the camp, and removed four miles to the S.W. ¼ W. to a peninsula
formed by the bed of a rivulet, and called by the Moors Guigué;
it was then covered with pasturage, which is inundated in the rainy
season, and the trees are finer there than elsewhere.
On the 21st, I suffered much from the colic. One of my marabout’s
sons repeated prayers, and then spat on my stomach, assuring me
that it was an excellent remedy; he did the same to the milk which I
was to drink, and I let him have his own way, disgusting as it was,
rather than contradict his opinions.
In the evening, a caravan on its way to Fouta, to exchange salt for
millet, stopped at our camp, and took up its quarters in the midst
of us; mats were brought to serve as beds for the travellers. At ten
o’clock at night, milk was brought to the marabout, from all sides,
and calabashes full of sangleh and milk, which were distributed among
the _ziafis_, or travellers.
When a caravan is small, only a part of the camp contributes to the
supply of its wants, and the inhabitants take their turns to do so:
if it is large, every body furnishes his quota. If it arrives in
the day time, the chief of the camp, when he goes to the mosque to
prayer, makes a collection for the ziafis, and each person sends a
measure or two of grain according to the number of the strangers. A
slave is appointed to pound the corn and prepare the sangleh. When a
traveller arrives alone, he goes to any tent he pleases, and the owner
supplies him without having recourse to his neighbours. As strangers
always prefer the best-looking tents, the same tent is often visited
five or six days in succession. Travellers frequently stay some time
in the camp; for the first three days they are fed as a matter of
right, after which the master of the tent is at liberty to refuse
them provisions. The hassanes when they travel are always unwelcome
guests, on account of the arbitrary manner in which they exact what
they want. If they are not waited upon as quickly as they expect,
they clamour and threaten, and call their host an infidel—the most
opprobrious epithet that can be bestowed on a marabout. If a stranger
arrives amongst them, he is ill-treated, and ill-fed; hence their
camps are always avoided, and the burden of entertaining travellers
devolves in consequence upon the marabouts.
The Moors, as has just been observed, afford one another hospitality,
but they do not deserve to be called hospitable, for nothing annoys
them so much as the sight of strangers. They receive them not out of
humanity but from fear, particularly when they happen to be hassanes,
who would not fail to plunder, if they were not treated as they
liked. They seldom afford assistance to travelling negroes; if any
such pass through a camp, they beg morning and night when the cows
are milked for a draught, going about with a jotala in their hand,
and receiving so little, that they are obliged to traverse two or
three camps before they obtain sufficient for a meal.
Many negroes from Fouta-Toro come amongst the Moors to study the
Koran; they often remain five or six months, and have no other means
of subsistence but alms. Though Musulmans, they are in bad repute,
and very generally despised amongst the Moors, who say they are fit
for nothing but slaves. The negroes take nothing with them, because
they would be sure to be stripped by the hassanes; they always travel
on foot, and carry at their backs a small board, on which they write
passages of the Koran.
There are amongst the Moors a sort of vagabonds called _Wadats_;
these are the very poorest hassanes, who have often neither tents
to lodge in, nor cattle to feed them; and being too idle to work,
which indeed they consider as a disgrace, they like better to run from
tent to tent and beg for a living. The insolence of these troublesome
parasites is without bounds; when they arrive at a camp they throw
it into confusion: nothing is heard on all sides but the disputes
which they cause by their importunities. Impudent as they are, they
get whatever they ask for; because, if they were to complain to their
tribes that they had been ill received in a camp, the hassanes would
carry off the herds belonging to that camp while feeding in the woods,
and the marabouts would be obliged to give many head of cattle to
redeem them. The parties of Wadats are chiefly composed of women
and children; there are seldom any men amongst them: they travel
on foot or mounted on asses, and always apply to the chief of the
camp, who is obliged to find them provisions. To get rid of them,
it is common to give them food enough for three or four days, and
send them off; they then go to another camp, where they beg again,
and as they know that they shall always obtain as much as they want
to eat, they sell what they can spare for Guinea cloths, often to the
very people who afford them hospitality. If they have no beasts to
carry what has been given to them, they borrow some to go as far as
the next camp. They visit only the marabouts, for the hassanes and
zenagues refuse to receive them.
At the time when the gum is collected, these vagabonds beset the
marabouts, and follow them into the woods, requiring to be fed, and
worrying them till they can get a good share of gum, which they carry
to the markets. The marabouts dare not refuse them, for the Wadats
would join together if they did, beat them, and steal their gum. Such
is the life of these people. It is worthy of remark, that when they
are with the marabouts they are very exact in performing the salam;
but they trouble themselves no further about it when they are out of
their sight.
I had now been nine days with Mohammed-Sidy-Moctar, and not a word had
been said about teaching me. I applied to the eldest of Mohammed’s
sons, who wrote the Arabic alphabet upon a board for me, and told
me to learn it by heart; I could not do it alone and begged him to
help me; and I afterwards applied to his brothers, but seldom found
them disposed to take the least trouble with me: they liked better
to loll in their tents and to chat or sleep. In other respects,
my situation was more agreeable than in the king’s camp; I never
suffered from hunger, for I had commonly sangleh twice a-day with a
little milk to it. At noon and at ten o’clock at night they gave
me my allowance. At noon I had sometimes cheni instead of sangleh,
and sometimes my sangleh was moistened with cheni and butter; but
this mess was always so filthy, that I often went without my dinner
on account of the nasty way in which the butter is made; nevertheless
it is a great luxury amongst the Moors—none but the rich eat it, and
they very seldom. The marabouts live better than the hassanes because
they employ their slaves in gathering haze; the men eat sangleh once
a-day, and drink milk at night; the women live entirely upon milk. In
the dry season, when milk is scarce, the marabouts go to Fouta to
buy millet in exchange for cattle and Guinea cloth. Those who have no
means of buying it, content themselves with what milk they have; and
to a certainty they are very ill off, for in the months of February
and March the best cows do not give above two bottles a day. The
poor who have no herds of their own are maintained by their tribe,
every inhabitant of the camp in turn giving them the milk of one cow;
this however is only amongst the marabouts.
Those who have large herds and flocks kill a cow or a sheep,
but it is a rare event: during the seven months that I spent in
Mohammed-Sidy-Moctar’s tent, only ten were killed, and those during
the dry season, for they are never killed when milk is abundant,
or after the millet harvest.
The wealthiest hassanes eat meat once a day; some, however, from
economy, refrain from it for several days. They are great gluttons,
and if they were to eat as much as they liked, their flocks would not
be capable of supplying their wants. They never eat to their heart’s
content except on a journey, when they can levy contributions upon
their hosts.