CHAP. LXVI. INTERCOURSE WITH EGYPT. 427 inside with honey, in order that it might be preserved from putrefaction.* The remains of A'skía Dáúd were transported all the way from Tindírma to Gágho in a boat. Even in the case of the slaughter of distinguished enemies, we find strict orders given to perform towards them the ceremonies usual with the dead. The attention thus bestowed upon the dead seems not to have been in consequence of the introduction of Islám, but appears rather to have been traditionally handed down from the remotest antiquity. Nevertheless, it is clear that the adoption of Islám exercised considerable influence upon the civilisation of these people, and we even find a Medreseh mentioned in Gágho†, an establishment the institution of which we have probably to assign to El Háj Mohammed, who, while on his pilgrimage to Mekka, solicited the advice of the most learned men in Egypt, and especially that of the sheikh Jelál e' dín e' Soyúti, as to the best method of propagating the Mohammedan religion in his own country. The influence of learning and study, even in the royal family, is apparent enough from the example of the pretender Mohammed Bánkorít, who, when on his march to Gágho, ready to fight the king El Háj A'skía, was induced by the kádhi of Timbúktu, whom he by chance visited, to give up his ambitious designs * Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 532. † Ibid. p. 527, from the year 936 a. H. + Ibid. p. 541. for a quiet course of study, to the great astonishment and disappointment of his army, who expected to be led by him, in a bloody contest, to power and wealth. A'hmed Bábá himself, the author of the history of Songhay, who gives a long list of learned natives of Negroland, may serve as a fair specimen of the learning in Timbúktu at that time. He had a library of 1600 books. A great deal of commerce was carried on in Songhay during the dominion of the A'skías, especially in the towns of Gágho and Kúkiya; the latter being, as it appears, the especial market for gold as early as the latter half of the eleventh century. Salt, too, was the staple commodity, while shells already at that time constituted the general currency of the market; not, however, the same kind of shells that are used at present, but a different sort which were introduced from Persia; and there is no doubt that, even at that time, almost all the luxuries of the Arabs found their way into this part of Negroland. That Timbúktu also, since the decline of Bíru or Waláta, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, formed an important place for foreign commerce, is evident from the fact that the merchants of Ghadámes, even at the taking of the town by the Bashá Jódar, inhabited the same quarter as at the present day. We also see, from Leo's account*, that the king of Songhay was obliged to spend a great proportion of his revenue in the purchase of horses from Barbary, * Leo Africanus, 1. vii. c. 3. CHAP. LXVI. COMMERCE.- ARMY. 429 by means of which he improved the native breed, as we have seen was the case in Bórnu, cavalry constituting the principal military strength of countries in the state of civilisation which prevails in Negroland. We also find coats of mail mentioned, as well as brass helmets, but no allusion is made to even a single musketeer, nor is the use of any firearms intimated by A'hmed Bábá, although he distinctly describes several engagements, and even single combats. It was this circumstance which secured to the small army sent by the Emperor of Morocco, a superiority which could not be contested by any numbers which the last A'skía, ruling over a kingdom of vast extent but undermined by intrigues and civil war, was able to oppose to it; and we must not conclude, from this circumstance, that an army of 4000 men was a great thing at that time in point of numbers, for the kings of Negroland, at least those of Songhay and Bórnu, at that period, were able to raise greater armies than any of the present kings of those regions could bring together, and we hear of an army of 140,000 men. The circumstance of the kings of Songhay not having procured at that time-the end of the sixteenth century of our era-even the smallest number of firearms, is remarkable, if we compare with it the fact which I have dwelt upon in its proper place*, that Edrís A'lawóma, the king of Bórnu who ruled in the latter part of the sixteenth century, possessed a considerable number of muskets. The cannon which * Vol. II. p. 650. was found among the Songhay when they were conquered by the Moroccains had, I have no doubt, formed part of the present which the Portuguese had forwarded to A'skía Músa, as we shall further see in detail in the chronological tables; but the fact of the enemy having found this piece of ordnance among the spoil of the capital, and not in the thick of the battle, sufficiently proves that the Songhay did not know how to use it. As for the matchlocks, which even at the present day are preserved in Gágho, and of which, by some accident, I did not obtain a sight, they belonged originally to the very conquerors from Morocco, who afterwards, as Rumá, formed a stationary garrison, and even a certain aristocratical body, in all the chief towns of the kingdom. Side by side with a certain degree of civilisation, no doubt, many barbarous customs were retained, such as the use of the lash, which in other parts of Negroland we find rarely employed, except in the case of slaves, but which, in Songhay, we see made use of constantly, even in the case of persons of the highest rank; and instances occur, as in that of the instigator of the revolt of El Hádi, under the king El Háj, of persons being flogged to death.* It is certainly a memorable fact, of which people in Europe had scarcely any idea, that a ruler of Morocco, at the time when Spain had attained its highest degree of power under Philip II., and was filled with precious metals, should open an access to an ex *Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 543. CHAP. LXVI. THE RU'MA. 431 tensive and rich country, from whence to procure himself an unlimited supply of gold, to the surprise of all the potentates of Europe. It is, moreover, a very remarkable circumstance, that the soldiery by means of which Múláy Hámed subdued that fardistant kingdom, and who were left as a garrison in the conquered towns, intermarrying with the females of the country, in the same way as the Portuguese did in India, managed to rule those extensive regions by themselves, even long after they had ceased to acknowledge the supremacy of the Emperor of Morocco, whose soldiers these Rumá originally had been, Rumá or Ermá being the plural form of Rámi, "shooter" or "sharpshooter;" and although they appear never to have formed a compact body ruled by a single individual, but rather a number of small aristocratic communities, the Rumá in Timbúktu having scarcely any connection with those in Bághena, nay, probably not even with those in Bamba and Gágho, yet superior discipline enabled them to keep their place. The nationality of these Rumá puzzled me a long time, while I was collecting information on these regions in the countries farther eastward; and they have lately attracted the attention of the French traveller Raffenel*, during his journey to Kaárta, when he learnt so much about a people, whom he calls "Arama," that he supposed them to be *See Raffenel, Nouveau Voyage dans le pays des Nègres (made in 1847), Paris, 1856, vol. ii. p. 349, et seq.; the Vocabulary, ibid. p. 399, et seq. |