Page images
PDF
EPUB

finite delays and procrastinations, the 19th of April had arrived before we at length set out from our encampment, situated at the head of the remarkable and highly-indented creek of Bóse-bángo.

Notwithstanding the importance of the day, my excellent friend the Sheikh el Bakáy could not even then overcome his habitual custom of taking matters easy. He slept till a late hour in the morning, while his pupils were disputing with the owners of the camels which had been hired for the journey, and who would not stir. At length my friend got up, and our sluggish caravan left the encampment. There were, besides our own camels, a good many asses belonging to the Gwanín, and laden with cotton strips. It was past eleven o'clock, and the sun had already become very troublesome, when we left the camp. The chief was so extremely fond of his wife and children, that it was an affair of some importance to take leave of them. I myself had become sincerely attached to his little boys, especially the youngest one, Zén el 'Abidín, who, I am led to hope, will remember his friend 'Abd el Kerím; but, notwithstanding my discontent at my protector's want of energy, I could not be angry with him, and, when he asked me whether he had now deceived me or kept his word, I could not but praise his conduct, although I told him that I must first see the end of it. He smiled, and turning to his companion, the old Haiballah (Habíb Allah), who had come from A'zawád to spend some time in his company, asked him whether I was not too mistrustful; but the event unluckily proved that I was not.

The vegetation in the neighborhood of Bóse-bángo is extremely rich, but, as we advanced, gradually the trees ceased, with the exception of the kálgo, the bush so often mentioned by me in Hausa, and which here begins to be very common. I was greatly disappointed in my expectation of making a good day's march, for, after proceeding a little more than three miles, I saw my tent, which had gone in advance, pitched in the neighborhood of an encampment of Arabs belonging to the tribe of the Ergágeda. Here we staid the remainder of the day, enjoying the hospitality of these people, who had to pay dearly for the honor of such a visit; for the pupils of my friend, who had capital appetites, required a great deal of substantial nourishment to satisfy their cravings, and, besides a dozen dishes of rice, and a great quantity of milk, two oxen had to be slaughtered by our hosts. These Arabs, who formed here an encampment of about twenty-five spacious tents, made of sheepskins or farrwel, have no camels, and possess only a few

TAWA'REK ENCAMPMENTS.

405

cows, their principal herds being sheep and goats, besides a large number of asses. They have been settled in this district, near the river, since the time when Sídi Mukhtár, the elder brother of El Bakáy, established himself in Timbúktu, that is to say, in the year

1832.

Although I should have liked much better to have made at once a fair start on our journey, I was glad that we had at least set out at all, and, lying down in the shade of a small kálgo-tree, I indulged in the hope that in a period of from forty to fifty days I might reach Sókoto; but I had no idea of the unfavorable circumstances which were gathering to frustrate my hopes.

The whole of this district is richly clothed with siwák, or 'irák (Capparis sodata), and is greatly infested with lions, for which reason we were obliged to surround our camping-ground with a thick fence, or zeríba; and the encampment of the sheikh, for whom an immense leathern tent had been pitched, with his companions, horses, and camels, together with the large fires, presented a very imposing appearance. I was told that the lion hereabout has no mane, or, at least, a very small one, like the lion of A'sben.

Thursday, April 20th. The first part of this day's march led. through a flat country, which some time before had been entirely inundated. Even at present, not only on the south side of the path, toward the river, were extensive inundations to be seen, but on the left, or north side, a large open sheet spread out. Having passed numbers of Tawárek, who were shifting their tents, as well as two miserable-looking encampments of the Shémman-A'mmas, whose movements afforded some proofs of the disturbed state of the country, we ascended the higher sandy bank, where I first observed the poisonous euphorbia, called here "abári e' sebúwa," or "táboru," which generally grows in the shade of the trees, espe cially in that of acacias, and is said frequently to cause the death of the lion, from which circumstance its name is derived. Pursuing our easterly course, and keeping along the sandy bank, with a deep marshy ground on our right, we then reached a group of two encampments, one belonging to the I'denan, and the other to the Shémman-A'mmas, and here halted during the hot hours of the day. Both the above-mentioned tribes are of a degraded character; and the women were any thing but decent and respectable in their behavior.

Having here decided that it was better to go ourselves and fetch the rest of our party whom we had sent in advance from Bóse

bángo, instead of dispatching a messenger for them, although the place lay entirely out of our route, we started late in the afternoon, leaving our camels and baggage behind. Returning for the first mile and a half almost along the same road we had come, then passing the site of a former encampment of the two chiefs named Mushtába and Rummán, whom I have mentioned before, we entered the swampy ground to the south along a narrow neck of land thickly overgrown with dúm palms and brushwood, and thus affording a secure retreat to the lion. In the clear light of the evening, encompassed as the scenery was on either side, by high sandy downs toward the south on the side of the river, and. by a green grassy ground with a channel-like sheet of water on the other, it exhibited a very interesting spectacle highly characteristic of this peculiar watery region.

Having kept along this neck of land, which is called Temáharót, for about two miles, and reached its terminating point, we had to cross a part of the swamp itself which separates this rising ground from the downs on the bank of the river, and which less than a month previously had been impassable, while at present the sheet of water was interrupted, and was only from three to. three and a half feet in depth at the deepest part. We then reached the downs, and here again turned westward, having the low swampy ground on our right and an open branch of the river on our left.

This whole tract of country is of a very peculiar character, and presents a very different spectacle at various seasons of the year. During the highest state of the inundation, only the loftiest downs rise above the surface of the water like separate islands, and are only accessible by boats during the summer; while the low swampy grounds, laid bare and fertilized by the retiring waters, afford excellent pastures to innumerable herds of cattle. Even at present, while the sun was setting, the whole tract through which we were proceeding along the downs was enveloped in dense clouds of dust, raised by the numerous herds of the Kél-n-Nokúnder, who were returning to their encampment. Here we were most joyfully received by the followers of the sheikh, who had been waiting already several days for us, and I received especially a most cordial welcome from my young friend Mohammed ben Khottár, the sheikh's nephew, whom I esteemed greatly on account of his intelligent and chivalrous character. He informed me how anxious they had been on my account, owing to our con

CAMP OF THE KE'L-N-NOKU'NDER.

407 tinued delay. Having brought no tent with me, a large leathern one was pitched, and I was hospitably treated with milk and rice.

The Kél-n-Nokúnder are a division of the numerous tribe of the I'denán, and although in a political respect they do not enjoy the privileges of full liberty and nobility, yet, protected by the Kunta, and the Sheikh el Bakáy in particular, they have succeeded in retaining possession of a considerable number of cattle. All of them are tolba, that is to say, students; and they are all able to read. Some of them can even write, although the I'denán can not now boast of men distinguished for great learning as they could in former times.

All these people who come under the category of tolba are distinguished by their fair complexion, and do not possess the muscular frame common among the free I'móshagh. Their fair complexion is the more conspicuous, as the men, with scarcely an exception, wear white shirts and white turbans. All of them took a great interest in me, and looked with extreme curiosity upon the few European articles which I had with me at the time. Aft er some little delay the next morning we left the place, and at that time I little fancied that I was soon to visit this spot again. It is called Ernésse, or Núkkaba el kebíra, the great (sandy) down.

Having this time excellent guides with us who knew the difficult ground thoroughly, after leaving the sandy downs we struck right across the swampy meadow grounds, so that we reached our encampment on the other side of Amalélle in a much shorter time than on our out-journey, while by continual windings we almost entirely avoided the swamps; but, without a good guide, no one can enter these low lands, which constitute a very remarkable feature in the character of the river. One of the Kél-n-Nokúnder, of the name of Ayóba, whom I had occasionally seen in the town, and who was not less distinguished by his loquacity than by his activity, here received a small present from me, as well as some of the I'denán, who, during my absence, had treated my people. hospitably.

Starting in the afternoon, after a march of about eight miles, at first through a low swampy country, afterward through a sandy wilderness with an undulating surface and with high sandy downs toward the river, we reached an encampment of Kél-úlli, the same people who had repeatedly protected me during my stay in the town, and, on firing a few shots, we were received by our friends with the warlike demonstration of a loud beating of their shields.

The hospitable treatment which they exhibited toward us in the course of the evening really filled me with pity on their account, for, having no rice or milk, they slaughtered not less than three oxen and twenty goats, in order to feast our numerous and hungry party, and make a holiday for themselves. Thus, having arrived after sunset, great part of the night was spent in reveling, and the encampment, with the many fires, the numbers of people, horses, and beasts of burden, in the midst of the trees, formed a highly interesting scene.

In the course of the evening I received a visit from my protector. I had promised him another handsome present as soon as he should have fairly entered with me upon my home-journey, and he now wanted to know what it was. I informed him that it consisted of a pair of richly ornamented pistols, which I had kept expressly for the occasion: but instead of at once taking possession of them, he requested me to keep them for him till another time; for he himself was no doubt fully aware that our journey was not yet fairly begun; and its abortive character became fully apparent the following day, when, after a march of less than seven miles, we encamped near the tents of Téni, or E' Téni, the first chief of the Tarabanása.

The locality, which is called Téns-aróri, was of so swampy a character that we looked for some time in vain for a tolerably dry spot to pitch our tents, and it had a most unfavorable effect upon my health. Here we remained this and the two following days: and it became evident that as this chief persisted in his disobedience to his liege lord Alkúttabu, the other more powerful chief, A'khbi, whose mutinous behavior had been the chief reason of the former not coming to Timbúktu, would certainly follow his example. The fact was, that, irritated against their superior chief, or more probably treating him with contempt on account of his youth and want of energy, after the death of his predecessor, E' Nábegha, they had fallen upon his mercenaries, especially the Shémman-A'mmas, and deprived them of their whole stock of cattle.

This was the first time that I saw these more easterly Tawárek in their own territory; and I was greatly astonished at their su perior bearing in comparison with the Tademékket and I'regenáten, both in their countenance and in their dress. They were also richly ornamented with small metal boxes, made very neatly, and consisting of tin and copper: but it was in vain that I endeavored to obtain some of them as a curiosity. They wore also a rich pro

« PreviousContinue »