Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume Ii Part 15

_21st._--I made various routes, and got a statement of the princ.i.p.al articles of commerce, as current in Zinder and Kanou, Mourzuk and Tripoli. I repeat, there is no chance for an English merchant in this part of Africa.

The houses of Zinder are mostly built of double matting, but a good number have mud walls and thatched roofs. Others are all built of mud.

There are no nice mosques with minarets. The residence of the Sultan is a fort of mud, with walls of some height; it overlooks all the other buildings. The Shereef Kebir has also a mud house, with walls of some height. There are two princ.i.p.al streets, running from the south to the north; one terminating at the castle of the Governor, and the other in the market. These are of some width, there being s.p.a.ce for a dozen camels to pa.s.s abreast. There are, besides, many little squares before the houses of the grandees, where the people lounge: the streets are always full of idle people.

Instead of _suak_, the women used here the calix of a flower, called _furai_, for staining their teeth with a deep amber colour. It is the fas.h.i.+on for ladies to dress their hair in solid knots, two of which fall over the temples, one over the ear, and the other at the back of the head. Some of the women have hair tolerably long. I noticed to-day the shonshonah of Daura. It consists of two thick cuts, forming an angle at the corner of the mouth, with a few small ones on the temples.

I went to see another Tree of Death, where his highness slaughters criminals in the same way as mentioned under the other tree. The s.p.a.ce beneath the boughs is also swept clean. This tree is more spreading, and of another sort; it is crowned with the filthy vultures, which roost day and night in considerable numbers on its upper branches. Yusuf tells me the history of these trees, when the inhabitants were pagans. It was under them that the people sacrificed their oxen and sheep to the deity, who was supposed to reside in these trees. Scarcely a generation has elapsed since this was the case, so that the people may well dread to venture where, in the time of old men yet living, sacrifices, some perhaps human, were offered up.

The Sheikh is obliged to keep a tight hand over the inhabitants of Zinder, to prevent them from lapsing into paganism. His father made them Muslims, and he holds them to the profession of Islamism.

No news from Tesaoua respecting the four persons who were sent to bring Drs. Barth and Overweg first to Bornou, before they went to Soudan. I have had several patients, but ophthalmia does not prevail here as in Damerghou.

A constant succession of visitors troubled me all day long. Another son of the Sultan came this morning--quite a young man--and a dozen of boys from the palace, some sons of the Sultan, and others of his ministers. I gave them all a little piece of white sugar, and sent them off. This is the cheapest present.

I am told that all the Tuaricks are dreadfully afraid of the Sultan of Zinder, for whenever his highness catches an offender, let him be of what tribe of Tuaricks he may, he cuts off his head with as much unconcern as a poulterer of Leadenhall market does that of a goose.

I hear now that, since the dispersion of the Walad Suleiman, the route of Bornou, from Kuka to the Tibboos, is quite secure.

Some lemons have been brought to me, equal in flavour, though small, to those of the north coast. In Soudan they are marvellously cheap; ten are sold at Kanou for the fiftieth part of a penny, viz. one wada; for the same single wada forty can be had at Kashna. There are forests of lemon-trees in Soudan.

The news has arrived from the salt-caravan, that Barth says that he will not return even if they threaten to cut his throat. En-Noor is at Tesaoua, and says they should return; but the salt-caravan is distant from him, and the communication between the two places is difficult.--I had scarcely written these words when the four people sent to bring back Drs. Barth and Overweg returned without them, and brought letters from my colleagues, each one stating that he should continue his journey as previously determined. Ferajee, one of the messengers, pretends that En-Noor is going with Overweg to Maradee; which is very unlikely. Dr.

Barth seems very angry, but his comrade takes matters more easily.

The Shereef Kebir is said to be the only person who has money in Zinder.

This man monopolises all the power and all the money. I do not know how long this will last, but I should think it will soon make both the Sultan and the people of Zinder disaffected. As it is, all the merchants of Zinder are foreigners, and so have the disposal of all the goods most coveted by the blacks, who have only the ghaseb and the cattle.

_22d._--The morning is hazy and mild, the thermometer standing at 57.

A fire broke out close to us early this morning, and two or three huts were immediately consumed. However, the people quenched the flames in a very short time. I wonder half the town is not burnt down every now and then. Visitors pour in upon me as soon as I am up and dressed; and some patients likewise.

The brother of the present Sarkee of Zinder, who ruled a year in Zinder, is called Tanimu. He has a great military reputation, and is a brave man. During his administration he razzied no less than thirty countries.

Daura, or Dura, was the princ.i.p.al theatre of his exploits. This Daura is a country consisting of about a thousand towns and villages; four hundred belonging to the Fullans, and six hundred to the Sheikh of Bornou. The Fullanee Sultan is called Mohammed Bello, and he of the Sheikh, Sofo Lukudi. The nearest place in Daura is not more than one day S.W. of Zinder. The people of the country are remarkably expert in the use of the bow and arrow; and their arrows are very strong, piercing through, as the people say, _three_ boxes, and afterwards killing a man.

The wound of these arrows is fatal, the flesh of the smitten part rising up immediately into an enormous swelling. The brother of the present Sarkee brought in hundreds of slaves from Daura, the people at the same time having risen against the authority of the Sheikh.

The blacks of Kanou--not the Fullans--do not scarify their faces like their neighbours. The form of the shonshona of Zinder and its provinces is four cuts on each side the cheek, but not drawn very near the corner of the mouth; that is, rather towards the ears. In Tumbi and Gumel, provinces of Bornou, they draw four on the left side of the cheek and five on the right side; the cuts not drawn very near either the corner of the mouth or the ears. Maradee and Kashna have six cuts on each side of the cheek, drawn from the top of the ears down to the corner of the mouth. Gouber has four small cuts close to the corner of the mouth. The people of the Sheikh of Bornou have two small cuts drawn down the face, under each eyelid, and one in the forehead, between the eyes. Even Mekka has its shonshona. One of the shereefs here in Zinder, who was born in that holy city, has three small cuts on each side his face, drawn down the fleshy part of the cheek. It is only in Mekka that the shonshona is seen. The other countries of Arabia do not use this disfigurement.[16]

[16] Many Egyptians, men and women, practise tattooing; and if I mistake not, I have seen evidences of the existence of the practice mentioned in the text in some parts of Egypt.--ED.

The Sheikh Lousou sent his slave to salute me on his part. They say, that had we been committed to his care, he would not have fleeced us like En-Noor. But I almost question if he would have been strong enough to protect us. I observe, again, that all the Tuaricks are well behaved in Zinder, and have a wholesome dread of the Sheikh.

Many of the domestic slaves in Zinder are constantly ironed, for fear they should run away to the neighbouring towns and villages. The poor people live just like convicts. It is only when they are taken to Kuka, or to a great distance, that their irons are struck off.

The report is now current in Zinder, that the Sarkee is going, in the course of seven or eight days, to razzia some neighbouring place in the direction of Daura. They say, even, that he will not scruple to razzia some of the villages of Meria if necessary; that is to say, a part of the province of Zinder. My informants observed merely, "Oh, he must have slaves to pay his debts; and as the largest fish eat the little fish, so the great people eat the small people." Thus the protection of Islamism is now come to nothing, and the cry is,--"To the razzia!" without mentioning even the name of Kafer or Kerdi. In the end this will r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of Mahommedanism; for the blacks see that it is now no protection for them against their more powerful neighbours and their periodical razzias.

I visited several personages this afternoon; first, the Shereef Kebir, with whom I ate some broiled fish brought from a neighbouring lake, and some fine Bilma dates, soaked in milk. I asked him how it was that the Sheikh committed to the governors or sultans of the provinces the awful power of life and death. "Oh," replied he, "the Sheikh has given them this power that he might not be bothered with their reports about criminals. It is far better to finish quick with these people." Where there are periodical razzias the sacredness of human life is unknown, and the Shereef has been, besides, many years in the camp of Abd-el-Kader, where a good deal of sanguinary work was carried on. He thought it, therefore, quite right that the Sheikh should not fatigue his sovereign conscience by deciding on the lives of criminals and other suspected persons, and that the sooner they were hung or slaughtered the better.

From the Shereef I pa.s.sed on to the brother of the Sultan, a young man of mild manners. I entered the inner part of the house, where were the women. Verily the Zinder people have a strange love of dust, dirt, and bare mud walls. In the two or three beehive huts which I explored, there was not a single article of furniture, nor a mat to lie down upon. The brother of the Sultan was sitting by his sister, and both on the dust of the ground, without a mat. I am told, however, that they sleep on mats and skins, which are, indeed, cheap enough; two or three pence, or two or three hundred wadas, would purchase a good one. The sister of the Sultan was coloured well with indigo, the dark blue of which replaces the yellow ochre of the ladies of fas.h.i.+on in Aheer. This Zinder lady had also the end of the tufts of her hair--I cannot call them curls--formed into clayey sticks of macerated indigo. For the rest, she had little clothing, her arms and bust being quite bare. All the other ladies with her were coloured in like fas.h.i.+on, and had their hair dressed in a similar manner.

Afterwards I visited an old Tripoline Mamluke, who has been up here twenty-two long years. He came alone, and has now a household of twenty-eight persons, including wives, children, and slaves. He is called Mohammed El-Wardi, knew Dr. Oudney, and even mentioned his name, recollecting it after so many years. He knew also the other travellers.

Some of his family are in Kuka.

Various applications are made me for remedies to avert certain evils, and one man applied for a means to make him sell his goods quick: this was a Tibboo trader.

It would appear that some of the routes from Zinder to neighbouring places are not very safe; that from this place to Kanou, even, is somewhat dangerous for small parties, there being woods on the road, in which lurk banditti, who lie in wait for unprotected caravans. With good travelling, Kanou is only eight or ten days from Zinder, and Kashna four or five. It is not easy to get the route here by hours, for the people are ignorant of this way of reckoning the routes. By days, something may be done.

The Moorish merchants resident here pretend that the territory of Zinder contains no less than two thousand _belad_, or inhabited spots, towns, villages, and hamlets, and some of these are large towns--as large, or larger, than Zinder. Damagram is a populous place, more so than Zinder; but the whole of the province of Zinder has this name, the people being all Damagrama. The town of Damagram was once the capital of the province. The large towns are:--

Damagram, one day and a-half south-east.

Dakusa, five hours south.

Termeni, three hours south.

Washa, two days and a-half west.

Gos.h.i.+, two days east.

Bidmuni, one day east.

Andera, one day east.

Jegana, one day south.

Jermo, one day south.

Guria, one-half day west.

Meria, six hours south-east.

Konchai, one day and a-half west.

Gorgahn, one-half hour.

Mageria, two days south-west.

Fatram, two days south.

Dalladi, six hours north.

All these are towns, some larger than Zinder.

I expect to see the great drum brought here, and to hear it beaten. It has led the people of Zinder to the razzia during the time of twelve sultans. The drummer, when he beats the drum in leading on the people to the razzia, repeats the perpetual chorus of _Jatau chi geri_--"The red (Sultan) eats up the country." He is afraid to mention the name of the Sultan, and so repeats the word red, as distinguis.h.i.+ng royalty; but whether in the same way as purple distinguished the Roman emperors, or because kings delight in blood, does not appear.

I went to see the process of indigo dyeing. The dyers bore circular pits of about fifteen or twenty feet deep, and three feet in diameter, in which they throw the things to be dyed, and leave them there. The pits are full of the dye, produced by the leaves and the seed of the plant called _nila_, sodden in water. They dye tobes and raw cotton, and cotton twist; the work is carried on in the open air. About thirty people were employed at the pits which I saw. They also prepare indigo in a better way than what I saw at these pits.

_23d._--I have not quite done with the Tuaricks, and had many visitors of that tribe to-day; amongst the rest, our old friends and robbers, Ferajee and Deedee. I told Ferajee I had my boxes full of gold and silver, and asked him to buy. He replied, "Ah, el-Consul did not say so in Asben; he said _babo_ (there is none)!" At this, all our visitors burst out in a roaring laugh. I rejoined, "Oh, no, Ferajee; because I was then amongst thieves and robbers." (Continued laughter.) I went to see the souk;--everybody was very civil;--no calling Kafer!--Tuaricks all as still as mice.

I called upon the Shereef Kebir, and drank with him tea and coffee, which he makes in Magrabi fas.h.i.+on, putting the sugar in the tea-pot. I observed, "How is this? I hear the Sultan is going soon on a razzia."

Somewhat disconcerted, he replied, _Allah yalem!_--"G.o.d teaches!" After some time, he explained that the Sheikh left his va.s.sals great liberty in this matter; that the Sultan of Zinder was permitted to go to Daura and eat up the Kohlans, but not the Fullans, between whom and the Sheikh there was peace: that is to say, the Fullans were not to be made slaves, but the Kohlan subjects of the Fullans might be captured. The Sheikh was not friendly to Maradee, and wished the Sultan of Zinder to attack that country; but the Sarkee was a friend of Maradee, and would not, &c. &c.

So it is quite clear these Sarkees, or at any rate the one in Zinder, have great lat.i.tude of action. After hesitating still more about these razzias, the Shereef said, "Oh, you see the strong devour the weak; there are no regular governments here."

In the souk to-day, it was proved beyond all doubt that the Zinder people sell themselves into foreign slavery. Many of the slaves for sale had the Zinder scarified marks on their faces. There were also specimens from Maradee. Slaves are sent from Zinder to Niffee. Indeed, it now appears that all this part of Africa is put under contribution to supply the South American market with slaves.

Zinder is considered within the circle of Soudan, and not to be Bornou, but only a Bornouese province. The Sheikh has in this province several Tuarick subjects, i.e. Tuaricks settled in the Zinder provinces.

The souk to-day was full of people, but goods of value were wanting.

Indeed, Zinder is now a poor place. Only the foreigners have any at their command. The Sarkee is at this moment desperately poor, and is going on this approaching razzia to raise money to satisfy his creditors. Verily, this _is_ a "new way to pay old debts."

I heard a curious explanation of the reason why the people of Zinder do not use mats or skins to lie down upon in the daytime. It is said they are afraid, because the Sarkee does not use them, and they must not display a luxurious taste not practised by their prince. This is the explanation of the Shereef and the little court of Arabs and Moors by which he is surrounded. "Like people like prince" is a proverb which I think I have heard.

The Shereef told me this morning that he had made war with France, in Algeria, fourteen years, and he had been a prisoner of the French seven months. He said the French were people without religion, or faith in their words and promises, and could not be trusted. He showed me his French pa.s.sport. However, he seems to have soon forgotten his troubles in Algeria, and is quiet now. He writes well, and has received a good education. His country is one day east of Tetuan, in the Rif mountains.

He is likely to be very useful to the Sheikh in Zinder.

I visited the souk again in the evening, and made a few small purchases of curiosities; but there are very few things to be got in this market, and those mostly come from Kanou. What things are made here are of the rudest manufacture.