An Account Of Timbuctoo And Housa Territories In The Interior Of Africa Part 2

The revenue arises partly from land and partly from duties upon all articles exposed to sale. The king has lands cultivated by farmers 14 who are obliged to supply his household and troops; the surplus after the support of their own families is deposited in matamores[28], these are stores to be used in time of scarcity: the matamores are about six feet deep. The king often gives gold-dust, slaves, &c. to his favorites, but the royal domains are never given. Lands not very fruitful are common pastures. Moors pay no duties; they say they will not bring goods if compelled to pay duty, but the natives must pay; the duties are collected by the king's officers, they are four per cent. upon each article _ad valorem_. At the gate of the desert, goods brought by foreigners pay nothing, but goods brought in by the gate of the Nile, (which is the gate of the Negroes,) pay a tax: another part of the revenue is two per cent, in kind on the produce of the land; but the people of Barbary do not pay even this for what land they cultivate. The property of those who die without heirs goes to the king, but when a foreigner dies the king takes no part of his property; it is kept for his relations. Timbuctoo being a frontier town remits no revenue to Housa; the king of Housa sends money to Timbuctoo to pay the garrison.

[Footnote 28: Subterraneous excavations, or rooms in the form of a cone, which have a small opening like a trap-door; when these matamores are full of grain, they are shut, and the air being excluded, the grain deposited in them will keep sound twenty or thirty years. I have been in matamores in West and in South Barbary, that would contain 1000 saas of wheat, or nearly 2000 bushels Winchester measure. They are from six to sixteen feet deep, and of various conical forms.]

15 ARMY.

The troops are paid by the king of Housa, and are armed with pikes, swords, cutla.s.ses, sabres, and muskets; the other natives use the bow and arrow. At Timbuctoo, in time of war, there are about 12,000 or 15,000 troops, 5000 of which receive constant daily pay in time of peace, and are clothed every year; they are all infantry except a few of the king's household. Sometimes he subsidises the friendly Arabs, and makes occasional presents to their chiefs[29]; these Arabs can furnish him with from 80,000 to 40,000 men.

[Footnote 29: Of the Brabeesh clan; see the Map.]

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

Punishments are the bastinado, imprisonment, and fine. He recollects but one prison. If a native stabs another, he is obliged to attend the wounded man until he recovers; if he dies, the offender is put to death. The offender must pay a daily allowance to the wounded man for his support; if the wound appears dangerous, the culprit is immediately imprisoned; if the wounded man recovers, the offender must pay a fine and suffer the bastinado. There are four capital punishments: beheading, hanging, strangling and bastinadoing to death. Beheading is preferred; it is thus performed: the criminal sits down, and a person behind gives him a blow or push on the back or shoulder, which makes him turn his head, and while his attention is thus employed, the executioner 16 strikes it off. Hanging and strangling are seldom used; and bastinadoing to death, is only inflicted when the crime is highly aggravated. Capital crimes are murder, robbery with violence, and stealing cattle. Small offences, as stealing slaves and other articles, are punished by the bastinado. The landed estates of criminals are never forfeited.[30] The police is so good, that merchants reside there in perfect safety. There are no exactions or extortions practised by government, as in Barbary, nor even any presents asked for the king. A debtor proving his inability, cannot be molested[31]; but to the extent of his means he is always liable; on refusing to pay, he may be imprisoned; but upon proving his insolvency before the judge, he is discharged, though always liable if he should have means at any future time. Watchmen patrole 17 in the night with their dogs; others are stationed in particular places, as the market-place and the _ka.s.serea_, or square, where the merchants have their shops. Guards are placed at the king's palace. Capital crimes are tried by the king: smaller offences by inferior magistrates. The council sit with the king, every man according to his rank; it consists of the princ.i.p.al officers of his household; he asks _their_ opinion, but unless they are unanimous, decides according to his own. There are always five or six judges sitting in the king's court for the general administration of justice. The king is understood to have no power of altering the laws: if the council are unanimous, the king never decides against them.[32]

[Footnote 30: But go to the next heir.]

[Footnote 31: This is the written Muhamedan law: the insolvent is always liable, but cannot be arrested or imprisoned whilst he remains insolvent, but continues always liable for the debt if he afterwards becomes solvent. The present Emperor of Marocco has lately published an edict. Hearing that his Jew subjects in London frequently became bankrupts, or made compositions with their creditors, has enacted, that all, persons in his dominions who live by buying and selling, shall pay their just debts; but if unable, their brethren, or relations shall pay their creditors for them. If _they_ are unable, the insolvent is to receive a beating every morning at sunrise, to remind him of his defalcation. This law was enacted at Fas in 1817, and since then, I am informed, no bankruptcy has happened in that great commercial city.]

[Footnote 32: This is a custom derived from Muhamedan governments.]

A slave is entirely at his master's disposal, who may put him to death without trial; yet the slave may complain to the council of ill-usage, and if the complaint be well-founded, his master is ordered to sell him. The slaves are always foreign; a native cannot be made a slave. There are three reasons for which a slave may be ent.i.tled to freedom: _want of food, want of clothes, and want of shoes_: an old slave is frequently set at liberty, and returns to his own country. The children of slaves are the property of their master. Slaves cannot marry without the consent of their masters.

The master of the female slave generally endeavours to buy the male to whom she is attached.[33]

[Footnote 33: Many conscientious Muhamedans, in purchasing slaves, calculate how many years' service their purchase money is equal to. Thus, if a man pays a servant twenty dollars a-year for wages, and he gives 100 dollars for a slave, he retains the slave five years, when, if his conduct has been approved, he often discharges him from servitude. The period for liberating slaves in this manner is however quite optional, and admits of great lat.i.tude; neither is there any compulsion in the master. I have known instances of a slave being liberated after a few years of servitude; and his master's confidence has been such that he has advanced him money to trade with, and has allowed him to cross the desert to Timbuctoo, waiting for the repayment of his money till his return. This is often the treatment of Muhamedans to slaves!

how different from that practised by the Planters in the West India Islands!!!]

18 SUCCESSION TO PROPERTY.

Upon the decease of a native, the first claim is that of his creditors; the next is that of his widow, who is ent.i.tled to the dower[34] promised by her husband to her father, if, not already paid, and to one-eighth of the remainder; the rest is divided among the children. A son's share is double that of a daughter. If they agree, the land may be sold, if not, it must be divided as above.

Of lands and houses, nothing is sold till the children arrive at the age of discretion; when each is ent.i.tled to his share, the rest being unsold till the others are of age in turn. This age is not 19 fixed at so many years, but the period of discretion is determined by the relations, upon oath, before a magistrate: there is hardly any man that knows his own age. The father may dispose of his property by will, as far as regards the property of his children, but he cannot divest his wife of her rights; if a wife dies without a will, her children succeed. Wills are not written; the guardian appointed by the father takes care of the property of the deceased, and employs in trade, and lends out the money for the benefit of his children. Relations succeed if there are no children; and if there are no relations, the king takes all but the wife's share.

The wife's relations are not considered as the husband's relations.

Children of concubines inherit equally with those of the wife. If a man have two children by a concubine, she becomes free at his death, otherwise she remains a slave. She is ent.i.tled, having children, to an eighth of the property.

[Footnote 34: The husband always stipulates to pay the father of his wife a certain sum: this is the Muhamedan dower.]

MARRIAGE.

A man agrees to pay a certain price to the father of his wife, and witnesses are called to support the proof of the contract: the girl is sent home, and at night a feast is made by the husband for his male friends; by the wife for her female friends.

Rape is punished by death. Adultery is not punishable by the law, nor is it a ground for divorce. A husband may always put away his 20 wife, but if without sufficient legal ground, he must pay her stipulated dower. Abusive language is a sufficient ground of divorce, but adultery is not. The dower is the price originally agreed upon with the father; and if it has been already paid (which it seldom is), she has no further claim upon the husband, though put away without sufficient ground. Her clothes, jewels, &c. given to her by her relations are her own property. A father generally gives the daughter in jewels, &c. a present double the value of that given him by the husband. A man can have but one wife, but may keep concubines. Seduction and adultery are not cognisable by law.

The law says, "a woman's flesh is her own, she may do with it what she pleases." Prost.i.tutes are common. A man may marry his niece, but not his daughter.

The people of Timbuctoo are not circ.u.mcised.

TRADE.

Timbuctoo is the great emporium for all the country of the blacks, and even for Marocco and Alexandria.

The princ.i.p.al articles of merchandise are tobacco, kameemas[35], beads of all colours for necklaces, and cowries, which are bought 21 at Fas by the pound.[36] Small Dutch looking gla.s.ses, some of which are convex, set in gilt paper frames. They carry neither swords, muskets, nor knives, except such as are wanted in the caravan. At the entrance of the desert they buy rock-salt[37] of the Arabs, who bring it to them in loads ready packed, which they carry as an article of trade. In their caravan there were about 500 camels, of which about 150 or 200 were laden with salt. The camels carry less of salt than of any other article, because (being rock-salt) it wears their sides. They pay these Arabs from twenty to fifteen ounces[38] of Barbary money per load. An ounce of Barbary is worth about _6d._, and a ducat is worth about _5s._ sterling. They sell this salt at Timbuctoo upon an average at 50 per cent. profit; it is more profitable than linen. They take no oil from Barbary to Timbuctoo as they are supplied from other places with fish-oil used for lamps but not for food; they make soap with the oil. The returns are made in gold-dust, slaves, ivory, and pepper; gold-dust is preferred and is brought to Timbuctoo from Housa in small leather bags. He bought one of these bags of gold-dust and pieces of rings for 90 Mexican dollars, and sold it at Fas for 150. The merchants bring their gold from Timbuctoo in the saddle-bags, in 22 small purses of different sizes one within the other. The bag which Shabeeny purchased was bought at Housa, where it sells for seven or eight ducats cheaper than at Timbuctoo. On articles from Marocco they make from thirty to fifty per cent. clear profit. Cowries and gold-dust are the medium of traffic. The shereefs and other merchants generally sell their goods to some of the princ.i.p.al native merchants, and immediately send off the slaves, taking their gold-dust with them into other countries. The merchants residing at Timbuctoo have agents or correspondents in other countries; and are themselves agents in return. Timbuctoo is visited by merchants from all the neighbouring black countries. Some of its inhabitants are amazingly rich. The dress of common women has been often worth 1000 dollars. A princ.i.p.al source of their wealth is lending gold-dust and slaves at high interest to foreign merchants, which is repaid by goods from Marocco and other countries, to which the gold-dust and slaves are carried. They commonly trade in the public market, but often send to the merchant or go to his house. Cowries in the least damaged are bad coin, and go for less than those that are perfect. There are no particular market days; the public market for provisions is an open place fifty feet square, and is surrounded by shops.[39] The Arabs sit down on their goods in the middle, till 23 they have sold them. The pound weight of Timbuctoo is about two ounces heavier than the small pound of Barbary, which weighs twenty Spanish dollars; they have also half and quarter pounds; by these weights is sold milk, rice, b.u.t.ter, &c. as well as by the measure.

The weights are of wood or iron under the inspection of a magistrate called in Barbary _m'ta.s.seb, i.e._ inspector of weights and measures, and if the weights are found deficient, he punishes the offender immediately; they have also a quintal or cwt. They have a wooden measure called a _m'hoad_[40], equal to the small _m'hoad_ of Barbary, where a _m'hoad_ of wheat weighs about 24 lb.

Both the weights and measures are divided into 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16.

[Footnote 35: _Kameema_ is the Arabic word for the linen called _plattilias_. They are worth 50 Mexico dollars each, at Timbuctoo.]

[Footnote 36: Called, in Amsterdam, _Velt Spiegels_, and in Timbuctoo, _Murraih de juah_.]

[Footnote 37: This salt is bought at Tishet, at Shangareen, and at Arawan, in the south part of Sahara; for which see the Map of Northern and Central Africa, in the new Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Article _Africa_.]

[Footnote 38: _Okia_ is the Arabic name for this piece of money.]

[Footnote 39: Similar to the corn-market at MoG.o.dor.]

[Footnote 40: The _m'hoad_ is no longer used in Barbary. There is a _krube_, of which sixteen are equal to a _saa_, which, when filled with good wheat, weighs 100 lbs. equal to 119 lbs.

English weight.]

MANUFACTURES.

The black natives are smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and masons, but not weavers. The Arabs in the neighbourhood are weavers, and make carpets resembling those of Fas and of Mesurata, where they are called telisse[41]; they are of wool, from their own sheep, and camels' hair. The bags for goods, and the tents, are of goats' and camels' hair; there are no palmetto trees in that country. Their thread[42], needles, scissors, &c. come from Fas: 24 most of their ploughs they buy of the Arabs near the town, who are subject to it. Some are made in the town. These Arabs manufacture iron from ore found in the country, and are good smiths. They make iron bars of an excellent quality. They tan leather for soles of shoes very well, but know nothing of dressing leather in oil: the upper leather comes from Fas[43]; their wooden combs[44] and spoons come from Barbary; they have none of ivory or horn. No lead is brought from Barbary; he thinks they have lead of their own. The best shoes are brought from Fas.

[Footnote 41: _Telissa_, sing.; _Telisse_, plur.]

[Footnote 42: To Fas they are brought from England through Gibraltar and MoG.o.dor.]

[Footnote 43: Leather is also imported from Marocco, and from Terodant in South Barbary.]

[Footnote 44: Wooden combs are imported from Ma.r.s.eilles to MoG.o.dor.]

HUSBANDRY.

The country is well cultivated, except on the side of the desert.

They have rice, _el bishna_[45], and a corn which _they_ call _allila_[46], but in Barbary it is called _drah_: this requires very rich ground. They make bread of _el bishna_: they have no wheat or barley. Property is fenced by a bank and a ditch. Dews are very heavy. Lands are watered by ca.n.a.ls cut from the Nile; high lands by wells, the water of which is raised by wheels[47] worked 25 by cattle, as in Egypt. They have violent thunder-storms in summer, but no rains: the mornings and evenings, during winter, are cold; the coldest wind is from the west, when it is as cold as at Fas.

The winter lasts about two months, though the weather is cool from September to April. They begin to sow rice in August and September, but they can sow it at any time, having water at hand: he saw some sowing rice while others were reaping it. _El bishna_ and other corn is sown before December. _El bishna_ is ripe in June and July; as are beans. _Allila_ may be sown at all seasons; it requires water only every eight or ten days. Their beans are like the small Mazagan beans, and are sown in March; the stalk is short, but full of pods. The _allila_ produces a small, white, flattish grain.

[Footnote 45: _El Bishna_. This is the Arabic name for Indian corn.]

[Footnote 46: _Allila_, a species of millet.]

[Footnote 47: A wheel similar to the Persian wheel, as before described in the note, page 13.]

PROVISIONS.

Rice is their princ.i.p.al food, but the rich have wheaten flour from Fas[48], and make very fine bread, which is considered a luxury.

Bread is also made from the _allila_. They roast, boil, bake, and stew, but make no _cuscasoe_. Their meals are breakfast, dinner, and supper. They commonly breakfast about eight, dine about three, and sup soon after sunset. They drink only water or milk with their meals, have no palm wine or any fermented liquor; when they wish to 26 be exhilarated after dinner, they provide a plant of an intoxicating quality called _el has.h.i.+sha_[49], of which they take a handful before a draught of water.

[Footnote 48: And also from Marocco.]

[Footnote 49: _El Has.h.i.+sha_. This is the African hemp plant: it is esteemed for the extraordinary and pleasing voluptuous vacuity of mind which it produces on those who smoke it: unlike the intoxication from wine, a fascinating stupor pervades the mind, and the dreams are agreeable. The _kief_ is the flower and seeds of the plant: it is a strong narcotic, so that those who use it cannot do without it. For a further description of this plant, see Jackson's Marocco, 2d or 3d edit. p. 131 & 132.]

ANIMALS.

Goats are very large, as big as the calves in England, and very plentiful; sheep are also very large. Cattle are small; many are oxen. Milk of camels and goats is preferred to that of cows. Horses are small, and are princ.i.p.ally fed upon camels' milk; they are of the greyhound[50] shape, and will travel three days without rest.

They have dromedaries[51] which travel from Timbuctoo[52] to Tafilelt in the short period of five or six days.