Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume Ii Part 9

Without this salt the population of Aheer would soon all perish, or emigrate to Soudan. The other commerce of the country could not suffice for the support of the inhabitants.

_27th._--We had a visit from the people of the country before starting; they appear to be a fine race of men, whiter than most of the Kailouees, and nearly all tall. In these nomade districts the weakly children generally die off, leaving only the robust. We journeyed on southwards five hours, through wadys formed by the force of the waters, gradually approaching the great Hamadah. The doom now disappeared, and most of the trees dependent on much water; for here the wadys are all shallow.

Footmarks of the ostrich, gazelle, hare, habara, and some other interesting animals, cover this portion of the desert. The gazelles have more room, and the ostriches also. The former, besides, are out of the way of the lion; for this beast seldom pursues its prey across the desert plains.

People say we shall see many animals in the Hamadah, because the lion does not come there. A large gazelle was taken this evening by some of the caravan.

A few locusts and many fine b.u.t.terflies were busy about. We are encamped at a place called Agalgo, or Agallegu. There is a well at the distance of an hour; so that the number of days during which no water is found is reduced to three: but this water is a sort of collection from the rain remaining beyond its time, and is not always found.

We are now on the edge of the plateau. En-Noor said to-day, "There are five thousand camels with us;" but I question whether there be more than two thousand. It is of great importance to ascertain this, for thus only the force of the country may be estimated. We are now said to be eight days from Damerghou.

The Sultan of Asoudee has detained many of En-Noor's young people, to protect the country in case there be any troubles with the Kalfada.

Several pieces of scoria, or lava, were found on the road, showing a district here once to have had active volcanoes. The granite begins to disappear, to be replaced by sandstone. This sandstone, generally, according to Overweg, forms plateaux; whereas granite is found in rocks and ridges in the midst of valleys.

_28th._--We started early. The camels move on at the beginning of their day's work to the beating of the _kanga_, or drum. We have two or three drums, but the drummers have little skill, and the beating is always the same monotonous sound. Our course varied from S.E. to S.W., but lay always southward, through shallow valleys, or low, indented, or scooped-out plains; the whole country being what the people call _hamadah_, or plateau. All the large trees have disappeared with the doom-palm. Nevertheless there are everywhere the marks of water. Yet the rain cannot fall here so much as in the mountainous regions which we have left behind, for it is high ground only which brings down the rain in Africa; except, indeed, near the equator. As yesterday, the sand and soft earth are covered with the footmarks of gazelles, ostriches, the habara, and even the giraffe. The people, in fact, say we shall see the giraffe before we arrive at Damerghou. But of these animals, who have left thus the impression of their feet on the sand, we saw not one.

Indeed it is quite a matter of luck to fall in with animals in the desert. I have seen but very few. My colleagues have both encountered lions and monkeys, neither of which have I seen.

We have come to-day seven hours and a-half, a very good march for En-Noor. The nights are cold enough; there is also a fresh breeze, generally from north-east, every day: nevertheless, the sun burns hot.

The sky has always now a few clouds, and the atmosphere is a little thick and misty. We have with us various queer characters; amongst the rest, a fellow who boasts of his having killed many people with poisoned arrows. When I come near him I always attack him, not, indeed, with his favourite weapon, but with irony. I tell him, "Ah! poisoned arrows kill many people.--What matters it?--There is no G.o.d" (looking up, and saying _Babo Allah!_) This has had its effect once or twice, and he has confessed it is not so very fine to kill people with poisoned arrows.

Evening came on, but I heard nothing of water. We are encamped near a small hill. I looked to-day again attentively at our strings of camels.

Instead of five thousand, I do not believe there are more than five hundred. We have few people with us in comparison with the number of camels, and these are many of them slaves of the masters who are remaining behind in Aheer. The disturbed state of the country has prevented many persons of consequence from joining us. To-day, my mahadee brought me an ear of ghaseb, of immense length--about three times the length of the ghaseb grown in Ghadamez and other oases of the Sahara; nine times the length of an ear of wheat. This was found growing on the road, and intimates that we are approaching Soudan very fast. I also picked up to-day camomile flowers and the senna-plant.

Explanation of Soudan and Bornou common words for articles of dress, food, instruments for manufacturing:--

_Jebus_, leathern bag.

_Foofoo_, paste of Indian corn.

_Bouza_, a species of beer. In Waura, near the western coast, it is made of guinea-corn, honey, Chili pepper, a root of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s; in Kanou and Wada it is made of only ghaseb and honey, and is therefore more pure and agreeable. It is called by some, acid beer.[13]

_Kolla_, the gour-nut, called "African," or "Soudan."

_Shea_, the b.u.t.ter-tree.

_Manioc_, root. The main article of food in Congo, used as flour.

[13] In Egypt it is made of rice.--ED.

I trust, under the auspices of a good Providence, to arrive strong in Soudan. There our greatest enemy is fever! I walked a little to-day, and found myself better for the exercise; but, as a rule, I avoid exposing myself to fatigue.

CHAPTER IX.

Enter the Hamadah--Home of the Giraffe--Water of Chidugulah--Turtles--Cool Wind--Jerboahs--Centre of the Sahara--New-year's Eve--Cold Weather--Birds of Prey--Soudan Date--Burs--Animals on the Plateau--Young Ostrich--The Tholukh-tree--Severe Cold--Eleven Ostriches--Termination of the Desert--Inasamet--The Tagama--Purchases--People begin to improve--Fruit of the Lote-tree--Village roofed with Skins--Vast Plain--Horses--Approach Damerghou--Village of Gumrek--Rough Customers--Wars of the Kilgris and Kailouees--A small Lake--Guinea-hens--Vultures--Party of Huntsmen.

_Dec. 29th._--About five hours after we started, the route opened into a _bona fide_ hamadah. All around us stretched a limitless plain. Our course lay always south, and we journeyed ten hours, with sand in the evening.

Yesterday I had observed a few footmarks of the giraffe, but to-day they were everywhere visible. They were double, as this animal does not move its feet one after another, like the camel or the horse, but two of its feet together, or simultaneously. We saw the footprints of young as well as old ones. This plateau is the real home of the giraffe. No place could be better adapted for such an unwieldy creature. There is abundance of small tholukh, on which it feeds; all the country is open around to it, and it is out of the reach of ferocious animals. Towards the evening the marks of the giraffe disappeared, and were succeeded by the footprints of what is here called the wild ox (but which Overweg believes to be a large species of gazelle), so that one animal appears to have made room for the other. The day was cool and cloudy.

The plain is intersected with shallow beds and streams, and in some places evident marks of an abundance of water in the rainy season.

_30th._--We started early for the well, but did not reach it till late in the evening, after a march of nine hours. The well is called Chidugulah, and is situated on the side of a valley of some depth. In the bed of this valley Overweg found some infusoria, clay or stone.

Many people started in the night to get water, and give their animals a drink. There is but a small supply, and what there is has a muddy, chocolate colour. The last water we took up from the valleys of Asben had a milky hue, so that when the coffee was made of it, it looked like _cafe au lait_.

Bandits and hostile tribes frequent this well of Chidugulah, and rest hereabouts to pillage caravans. Our people spoke of the Oulimad, and Overweg dreamed he was fighting with them. I dreamed the same night of large turtles, for it had been said they are found in this plateau, and their marks had been traced to-day. I learn now that large turtles, two feet and a-half long, and one foot and a-half broad, are found here. The back sh.e.l.l of one was used for a watering trough by the people we met _en route_. We had sand all day, rising occasionally in considerable mounds. I observed the prevailing winds in the formation of these mounds; for there is always an inclined plane towards the quarter whence the wind blows; whilst to where it blows the mounds are scarped. The winds prevailing now are E.N.E.; and the wind has nearly always come from this direction since our arrival in Aheer. In another season, however, there may be a total change. In full summer it may be south, for what we know. In fact, Amankee says, in summer the wind always comes from the south. At this season the sand is covered with nice herbage in some places, but in the hot weather it must be all dried up. This is, in truth, the spring time in this country; the birds are all laying. There are also young birds fledged. In Haussa there is no word for "fledged."

This route must really present, in some parts, for many hours together, an ocean of sand; as, I think, it is described in the Itinerary procured by Davis. To-day the footprints of the giraffe have entirely disappeared.

In summer it must be very difficult for large caravans to obtain water from this well, for our people were full half a day filling four or five skins. What a blessing, nevertheless, is the existence of the Chidugula, for there is no water for three days farther. The boys killed this morning a jerboah, or what the Germans call a jumping mouse. I saw one yesterday, jumping before my camel's feet. There are a great number here. This jerboah is of a different colour from those I have seen in Tunis; being white all over the lower part of the body and neck, straw-coloured on the top of the head and along the back; whilst those in Tunis are nearly of the same colour as ordinary mice. This species is also small, three inches and a-half long, and the tail is double the length of the body. The hind legs are nearly as long as the body, and the fore legs not half an inch. Near the tip of the tail there is an inch of black. Many young jerboahs were caught, all of the same description. The Haussa people call it a mouse, but have besides a special name.

We are now about the middle of the Sahara, including the radii of the western and northern coasts, and we here find an immense plateau, stretching many days north and south, east and west. So far Le Brun's conjecture is right, that the central parts of Africa are plateaux, or one vast plateau. But more of this hereafter. This plateau extends to the Bornou route, and how much further east is yet to be ascertained. In the west we yet also want information. North and south it extends along the territory of Aheer some eight days, or about one hundred and sixty miles. Overweg reckons the height of the plateau, above the level of the sea, at some fifteen hundred feet.

_31st._--The last day of the year! One year gone in Africa this tour!

How many more are to pa.s.s? Alas! who can tell?--We came to-day nine hours, always south, over a perfect desert-plain, mostly sandy. A cold north-east wind was blowing all the day. The people dread it as death itself; as well they may, for they are nearly naked. Their Soudan cotton clothes afford them little or no protection against such a bleak north-easter. Europeans are astonished to see these people s.h.i.+vering with cold in this bleak weather, and forget that they themselves are well clothed. This remark is very applicable to the northern coast, where hundreds of the poor are seen s.h.i.+vering, with only a thin blanket thrown around them in the coldest day of winter. When they see a European well covered with tight cloth clothes, and flannel underneath, they may well call out _sega_, "cold," as they often do; and we are ready to laugh, and forget they are naked.

In this part of the desert birds of prey abound. We pa.s.sed to-day some twenty large vultures, feeding on a dead camel. When the caravan filed by they all took wing, and perched themselves in a row on a rising mound of sand, and there waited until we had pa.s.sed before them, like so many soldiers. These were black vultures, and of enormous breadth of wing.

Many wild oxen, or what are so called, were seen, and everywhere the footprints of ostriches and gazelles. His highness En-Noor made us a present of two ostrich eggs, and we supped on this out-of-the-way delicacy the last day of the year. The date of the black country (Soudan) is deserving of notice. It is called in Bornou, _bitu_; and in Haussa, _aduwa_ and _tinku_, both tree and fruit. Its kernel, or stone, is very large, and the little pulpy matter upon it has the taste of a bitter sweet. It is about the size of an almond, and covered with a green husk, a little thick. This fruit is now ripening fast in Aheer.

The tree is covered with thorns, very large, and projecting in every direction. The leaves are small, almost without veins, and with a thick stalk.

To-day we had the karengia, or bur, with a vengeance. En-Noor had already advertised us of its appearance hereabouts two days ago. It is certainly the most troublesome thing that can well be conceived for all travellers, and more so for Europeans. This bur is from a species of herbage bearing grain, very small, and which the people make bazeen of, like ghaseb and other grain. All feet of men, women, and animals, were to-day covered with this teasing bur.

The animals seen on this plateau, it will be seen, are in reality mostly of the harmless kind. The giraffe, the wild ox (considered a species of immense gazelle, or stag), the gazelle, a large and small species, the ostrich, the guinea-fowl, the hobara (in Haussa, _tuja_), various kinds of vultures, the crow, many small birds, the lizard (in small numbers), the jerboah, the locust, b.u.t.terflies, and other insects, the thob, the large turtle, &c. Overweg says the footmarks of the hyaena were also seen.

En-Noor's people caught a young ostrich, only a few hours hatched. It is now kept as a pet. Several eggs have been also picked up. The ostrich has been seen feeding on the gum of the tholukh-tree.

As to trees, we have still the eternal tholukh, or mimosa. What an omnipresent tree is this in Africa! The mimosa is found at the Cape, with the ethel; it is found in all the northern Sahara, and the ethel with it, wherever there is some water, as in the wadys of Fezzan. In all the western Sahara it abounds, producing the finest gums. Consider also the gum-trade at Mogador and Senegal! In the plain of Timbuctoo, the mimosa is found in scattered forests. Our people pretend, however, that the tholukh does not occur in Soudan, its place being filled up by various th.o.r.n.y trees, much resembling the mimosa. We have around us some other stunted shrubs. All trees are dwarfish in these plateaux.

Various distinguished characters are amongst the servants and slaves of En-Noor. One fellow is called the "King of the Donkeys," another wench is styled the "Queen of the Goats;" Zumzug is properly named _Proban berau_, "a great thief," from his thievish propensities. Then there is the "Lad of the Arrows," the fellow who is always boasting of how many people he has killed with arrows, &c. &c.; but Zumzug requires especial notice from me, on account of his having run off to Aghadez with a caftan of mine; and also from the curious circ.u.mstance that En-Noor keeps such a thief amongst his slaves, so confounding the honest with the thievish servants.

_January 1, 1851._--A strong, bleak, north-east wind ushers in the New Year. It began yesterday, and is likely to continue for some time. Most comfortless and disagreeable weather is this for the caravan. The people do not like to move, and show a decided tendency to hibernation. Some camels are also lost--escaped from the numbed fingers of their drivers.

I, too, feel it cold; and yet there is so much of home in this weather--this keen, bracing air--that I cannot complain.

Our people caught the camels at length, and we proceeded still southwards. After three hours' travelling we appeared to have pa.s.sed the most barren portion of the plateau, and came upon a new species of tree, called in Haussa, _tadana_. We have this day had a splendid sight of ostriches--eleven feeding in a troop near us, quietly like so many sheep--eccentric birds of their species, showing no tendency to scud away. Perhaps I shall never see so many again together. They were all black, with maybe a white feather or two underneath the sombre plumage.

The small tholukh-trees are full of birds' nests. In the Northern Sahara a bird's nest was not to be seen, but here the trees are all covered with them. Amongst the various smaller ones, we came upon a huge vulture's nest on a very small tholukh, which seemed to bend and look unhappy beneath the weight of this den of rapacity and violence. There are hereabouts no rocks for the eagles to build upon. We halted amidst abundance of herbage and small trees, which afforded a little shelter from the wind.

It is, perhaps, as well that we begin the year with this most bleak and unlovely day. We may have a better one to terminate 1851. I was obliged to increase my travelling clothes, and put on an extra holi on account of the cold wind; and yet the temperature was not very low, it being only 46 at sunrise. The wind evidently comes over an immense extent of plain towards the east, perhaps some forty or fifty days' journey. We made six hours and a-half.

_2d._--We started early, and moved at first to the beat of the drum.

Already yesterday we had seen symptoms that the desert was drawing to a close. To-day we fairly got out of it, and entered upon a wilderness of small trees. The vegetation has not, however, yet improved in proportion to our nearness to Soudan; for this dwarf forest of tholukh and various other trees cannot be compared to the splendid desert vegetation in the Aheer valleys; these are pigmy mimosas in comparison with those of Aheer. The surface of the ground is now undulating sand and red earth, and every trace of stone has almost disappeared; the soil is also covered with karengia and other herbs, all dry and sapless. We seem to be traversing a limitless stubble-field, covered over or sprinkled with small trees. Few animals enliven the scene; a crow here and there struts or flies. All the small birds seem to have sought covert from the cold.

The same north-east wind as yesterday blows with remorseless strength.

I observed great numbers of ant-hills, and very large ones, too. Some of the paths from these hills are straighter than the roads made by man over the Sahara. So, also, the birds in Aheer, and on this route, build better houses for themselves than men do. We halted amidst karengia, and had great difficulty in finding a place clear of them. En-Noor suffers dreadfully from the cold, and we help to keep him alive by our coffee, which he drinks s.h.i.+vering, and then admits to have given him renovated heat and strength. This coffee keeps the old fellow in a good humour, and he is extremely civil to us.