Part 17

As I said above, the ruling class of the Azkár constitutes by far the smaller part of the population of the country, while the great mass of the population of these regions consists of a subject or degraded tribe called Imghád, or, in the Arabic form, Merátha or even Metáthra. This I formerly considered to be a gentile name; but I found afterwards that it is a general epithet used by all the different tribes of the Imóshagh to denote degraded tribes. The singular form of the name is Ámghi[78], which is the counterpart of Amóshagh, as it means “servile,” while the latter means “free.” The Imghád of the Azkár differ a great deal from the ruling tribe, particularly the women; for while the Imóshagh are tolerably fair, a great many of the former are almost black, but nevertheless well made, and not only without negro features, but generally with a very regular physiognomy, while the women, at least in their forms, approach more to the type of the negro races. But as for their language, I must confess that I am not able to decide with confidence whether it sprang originally from a Berber dialect or the Háusa language[79]: many of the people, indeed, seem to be bilingual; but by far the greater part of the men do not even understand the Háusa language. I am persuaded that they were originally Berbers who have become degraded by intermixture with the black natives.

The Imghád of the Azkár, who altogether form a numerous body, being able to furnish about 5000 armed men, are divided into four sections,—the Batánatang or Ibétnaten, the Fárkana or Aférkenén, Segígatang, and Wárwaren, which latter name, I think, very naturally calls to mind the Latin “Barbari,” a name which, according to some ancient authors, belonged to certain tribes of Northern Africa[80], and may fairly explain the origin of the name Berber, though it is to be remarked that “_war_,” a syllabic with which a great number of Berber names begin, seems to signify “man.” Of these four divisions the last three seem to live principally in and around the small town of Bárakat, a few miles south of Ghát, and in and around Jánet or Yánet, about thirty miles S.S.W. from Égeri. Neither the population of the town of Ghát nor that of the town of Bárakat is at present formed by these Imghád; but I should suppose that in former times they were also the privileged inhabitants of Ghát itself, which at present is occupied by a very mixed race, so well described by the late Mr. Richardson. These two favoured spots of the desert seem to be left entirely to these people as tenants, on condition that they take care of the plantations and of the gardens, and gather the fruit, of which they are bound to give a portion to their masters. Some of the noble Imóshagh, indeed, seem to have a great many of these people at their disposal. The Batánatang or Ibétnaten, reside principally in a valley called Tesíli, while another section of them have their abode amongst the Hogár, in a district called Tehellahóhet, on the road from Asïu to Tawát. A portion of the last tribe (viz. the Fárkana or Aférkenén) dwell in a valley called Tárat, about a day’s journey north-west from Nghákeli.

Besides these four great divisions, there are many other sections of the Imghád. The names of these, as far as they became known to me, are as follows:—the Dik-Surki, settled in the territory of the Azkár in a place called Édehi; the Kél-n-tunín, living in Aderár; the Amatghílelen[81], who have their abode in the same spot; the Kél-áhenet, living in Hágara; the Akeshemáden, in the valley called Atúl; the Íkelan, who have their dwelling-places in Zerzer; the Kél-ghafsa, in Ífak; the Kél-ífis, in Temághaset; and finally, the Ijrán.

The ruling race of the Imóshagh subsists entirely on the labour of this depressed class, as the old Spartans did upon that of the Lacedæmonians, but still more upon the tribute or gheráma which, as I mentioned above, they raise from the caravans—a custom already mentioned by Leo Africanus.[82] Without some such revenue they could not trick themselves out so well as they do, though when at home in their “tekábber” they live at very little expense, particularly as they are not polygamists. The Imghád are not allowed to carry an iron spear nor to wear a sword, which is the distinction of the free man, nor any very showy dress. Most of them may be regarded as settled, or as “Kél,” that is to say as the constant, or at least as the ordinary, inhabitants of a given place; and this indeed, it seems, is even to be said of a great many of the Azkár themselves, who seem to hold a middle place between the nomadic and the settled tribes. The consequence is, that many of them do not live in leather tents, or “éhe,” but in round conical huts called tekábber, made of bushes and dry grass.

The town of Ghát (the favoured locality of which might be presumed to have attracted a settlement at a very early age) is not mentioned by any Arabic author except the traveller Ebn Batúta in the 14th century, and seems never to have been a large place. Even now it is a small town of about 250 houses, but nevertheless of considerable commercial importance, which would become infinitely greater if the jealousy of the Tawáti would allow the opening of the direct road from Timbúktu, which seems to be under the special protection of the powerful chief Gemáma.

The view from the rocky hill, which reaches its greatest elevation just over the town, and, together with a cistern, offers a few Berber and Arabic inscriptions to the curious traveller, proved far less extensive and picturesque than that from a sand-hill a little distance westward from the house of Háj Ahmed. I ascended this little hill in the afternoon of the 22nd, and, screened by an ethel-bush, made the accompanying sketch of the whole oasis, which I hope will give a tolerably good idea of this interesting locality—the separate strips of palm-trees, the wide desolate valley, bordered by the steep slope of the Akakús-range, with its regular strata of marly slate and its pinnacled crest of sandstone; the little town on the left, at the foot of the rocky hill, contrasting with the few and frail huts of palm-branches scattered about here and there; the noble and spacious mansion of the industrious Háj Ahmed in the foreground, on the northern side of which lies the flat dwelling assigned to us. When descending from this hill towards the south, I was greatly pleased with the new improvements added by Háj Ahmed to his plantation. The example of this man shows how much may be achieved by a little industry in these favoured spots, where cultivation might be infinitely increased. In the southernmost and most recent part of the plantation a large basin, about 100 ft. long and 60 ft. broad, had been formed, receiving a full supply of water from the northern side of the sand-hills, and irrigating kitchen-gardens of considerable extent. Thus the wealthy governor makes some advance every year; but, unfortunately, he seems not to find many imitators.

[Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth.

M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt.

GHÁT.

July 22nd. 1850.]

Our negotiation with the Tawárek chiefs might have been conducted with more success, if a letter written by Her Majesty’s Government to the chief Jabúr had not been produced at the very moment when all the chiefs present were ready to subscribe the treaty. But their attention was entirely distracted from the object in view. This letter made direct mention of the abolition of the slave-trade; hence it became a very difficult and delicate matter, especially as Mr. Richardson’s supplies of merchandise and presents at that moment were entirely in the hands of the merchant Háj Ibrahim, who, even if liberal enough to abstain from intrigue against admitting the competition of English merchants, would be sure to do all in his power to prevent the abolition of the slave- trade.

It was a serious undertaking to enter into direct negotiation with these Tawárek chiefs, the absolute masters of several of the most important routes to Central Africa.[83] It required great skill, entire confidence, and no inconsiderable amount of means, of which we were extremely deficient. To this vexation let there be added the petulant and indiscreet behaviour of our servants, who were exasperated by the sufferings of the Rámadhán during the hottest season of the year, and were too well aware of the insufficiency of our means to carry out the objects of our mission; and the reader will easily understand that we were extremely glad when, after repeated delays, we were at length able to leave this place in the pursuance of our journey.

[Footnote 63: Makrizi, Hamaker Specim. Categ. p. 206. بلد فزان واهلها بربر. El Bekri, p. 455., already mentions Benu-Khaldín, besides the Fezzánah, as inhabitants of some places. On the same page this diligent author says expressly that the town of Zawíla was on the border of Negroland. We shall see, in the second volume, that all this country constituted part of the Empire of Kánem; indeed, from what El Bekri says, p. 457., it appears that even within twenty years after the great and unfortunate immigration of the Arab tribes into Barbary, two tribes, the Hadrámis and the Sehámis, had taken possession of Wadán. But we shall see that the Negroes regained this place at a later period.]

[Footnote 64: Edrisi, ed. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 113. Edrísi deserves attention when he says that the Negroes called Tessáwa “Little Jerma;” that is to say, they attached to it a celebrated name, as if it were another capital of the country.]

[Footnote 65: Procop. de Ædificiis, vi. 4.; Joann. Abb. Chronic. p. 13. (respecting the Mauri pacati, but especially the important tribe of the Lewátah); Abu’l Hassan, Annales Regg. Maur., ed. Tornberg, pp. 7. 15. 83. (respecting the Western Berbers); El Bekri, Notices et Extraits, &c., vol. xii. p. 484.; Ebn Khaldún, tom. i. p. 209., le Baron de Slane, and _passim_.]

[Footnote 66: A few authors make this momentous event, which plunged North Africa into a series of misfortunes, happen a few years later, under El Yezúri.—Leo Africanus, ed. Venezia, 1837, l. i. c. 21.: “Ma quando la loro (degli Arabi) generazione entrò nell’ Africa, allora con guerra scacciò di là i Numidi; e ella si rimase ad abitar ne’ diserti vicini ai paesi de’ datteri, e i Numidi andarono a far le loro abitazioni ne’ diserti che sono propinqui alla Terranegra.”]

[Footnote 67: Ebn Khaldún, vol. i. p. 235. Arab. text, vol. ii. p. 64. transl. De Slane; vol. i. p. 260. Arab. text, vol. ii. p. 105. transl. In both passages the name is written تاركا and it is to be noted that this name was borne by a clan which dwelt nearest to the Arab tribe of the Beni Solaim. The great General Tárek Ebn Zíyad, who was a Berber from the tribe of the Ulhassa, seems to have received his name Tárek from the same source as the Berber clan Táriká received theirs.]

[Footnote 68: El Bekri certainly mentions (Notices et Extraits, vol. xii. p. 623.) وادي ترقا; but this has nothing to do with the tribe.]

[Footnote 69: Hodgson, Notes on Northern Africa, p. 23. The word which means tribe is written طَارقَةٌ; and this is an Arabic, and not a Berber word.]

[Footnote 70: The ز and ش (sh) in Berber names are often confounded. Thus they say Ikázkezan, Ikáshkeshan; Ágadez, Égedesh.]

[Footnote 71: The name is written by the Arabs promiscuously with the ك and with the ق, but oftener with the ك; and the name is so pointedly Arabic that besides the plural form توارك another form is used, التاركيون. Sultan Bello says properly, وكان هذه التوارك من بقايا البربر الذي انتثروا ايام افريقية.]

[Footnote 72: Ebn Khaldún, vol. i. p. 275. transl. De Slane.]

[Footnote 73: Journal Asiatique, série iv. tom. i., 1843, p. 238. هكّار. This is the usual form, Hogár, although Hágara, with the second vowel short, seems to have no less pretension to correctness.]

[Footnote 74: Edrisi, trad. Jaubert, i. pp. 113. 116. It is very probable, indeed, that this tribe is already mentioned as early as the 4th century, under the form of Ἀυξωριανοί, and in connection with the Μάζικες, which is nothing else but the general name of the whole tribe, Imóshagh, by Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. xi. viii.), who represents them as making incursions into Egypt. Under the form Ausuriani (Ἀυσουριανοί), the same tribe is several times mentioned by Synesius, the bishop of Cyrene, who expressly represents them as mounted upon camels. Whether they are identical with the Austoriani of Ammianus Marcellinus is less certain. For this hint I am indebted to Mr. Cooley.]

[Footnote 75: Ebn Sʿaid, mentioned by Abu’l Fedá, ed. Reinaud, tom. i. (texte Arabe), p. 125., in the corrupted reading ازكان; trad. vol. ii. p. 177.]

[Footnote 76: The Aurághen are evidently identical with the Aurígha, one of the seven principal clans of the Beránes.]

[Footnote 77: In order to point out clearly the situation of these valleys, I here subjoin a short itinerary of the road from Ghát to Zerzúwa, and thence to Égeri.

In going from Ghát westwards to Tawát, you reach, after four or five hours, the place Fiyút; on the second day you sleep in Idú; on the third, in Átser-n-táshelt; on the fourth, in Azákkan temanókalt (“the royal plain”); on the fifth, in Ihór-hayen; after which, on the sixth day, you arrive in Zerzúwa. (This part of the itinerary varies a little from the itinerary from Ghát to Tawát, given by Mr. Richardson in his first journey.) Going thence to Égeri, in a direction east from south, you encamp on the first night in Téni; on the second, in Tin-túzist; on the third, in Adómar; on the fourth, in Aderár; on the fifth, in Díder; and on the sixth arrive in Égeri.]

[Footnote 78: امغي pl. امغاد The change of the غ into the ر in the Arabic form of the name shows to what extent the sound of the _r_ prevails in the African pronunciation of this letter. The final _d_ has replaced _n_.]

[Footnote 79: Hatíta told us expressly that, if any of the Imghád should trouble us we should say, “bábo.” Now “bábo” is neither Arabic nor Temáshight, but the Háusa word for “there is none.”]

[Footnote 80: Hippolytus, Lib. Generat. (p. 101. in the second volume of the Chronicon Paschale, ed. Bonn.), enumerates among the African tribes “Afri qui et Barbares;” and in Itinerar. Antonini, p. 2., the Macenites Barbari are mentioned. Varvar is a Sanscrit word of very general meaning.]

[Footnote 81: This clan is evidently related to the Mateghílelen mentioned above, p. 233., as settled at present in the Wadi el Ghárbi.]

[Footnote 82: L. i. c. 20.: “Ma le carovane che passano per li diserti loro, sono tenute di pagare ai lor principi certa _gabella_.”]

[Footnote 83: Jackson was the first who pointed out the importance of entering into direct negotiation with the Tawárek.]

[Illustration: DR. BARTH’S TRAVELS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA Sheet No. 5. MAP OF THE ROUTE from FALÉSSELEZ TO TÍDIK 6. to 27. August 1850.

Constructed and drawn by A. Petermann.

Engraved by E. Weller, _Duke Strt. Bloomsbury._

_London, Longman & Co._]

CHAP. XI.

CROSSING A LARGE MOUNTAIN-RIDGE, AND ENTERING ON THE OPEN GRAVELLY DESERT.

On the morning of the 26th of July I once more found myself on the back of my camel, and from my elevated seat threw a last glance over the pleasant picture of the oasis of Ghát. There is an advanced spur of the plantation about two miles south from the town, called Timéggawé, with a few scattered cottages at its southern end. Having left this behind us, we came to the considerable plantation of Íberké, separated into two groups, one on the west, and the other on the east side, and kept along the border of the western group, which forms dense clusters, while that to the east is rather thin and loosely scattered. The town of Bárakat, lying at the foot of a sandy eminence stretching north and south, became now and then visible on our right, glittering through the thinner parts of the plantation.

Being prepared for a good day’s march, as not only the Tinýlkum were reported to have left Arikím several days ago, but as even the little caravan of Kél-owí, with whom we had made arrangements for protection and company on the road, was a considerable way in advance, we were greatly astonished when ordered to encamp near the scattered palm-trees at the extreme eastern end of the plantation. Utaeti, who had accompanied us all the way from Ghát on foot, chose the camping-ground. Mr. Richardson, who had been behind, was not less astonished when he found us encamped at so early an hour. But our camels, which seemed to have been worked during our stay at Ghát, instead of being allowed to recover their strength by rest and pasture, were in great want of some good feeding; and there was much aghúl (_Hedysarum Alhajji_) about our encampment. Towards noon we were visited by several Hogár, or rather Azkár, who proved a little troublesome, but not so much so as the townspeople, who caused us a great deal of annoyance, both during the evening and on the following morning, and gave us some idea of what might await us further on.

Being annoyed at our delay here, I accompanied two of Mr. Richardson’s people and the young son of Yusuf Mukni, who wished to go into the town to buy a fowl. We were followed by two men from among the townspeople, who wanted to extort a present from me, and one of whom, by bawling out the characteristic phrase of his creed, made me fear lest he might succeed in exciting all the people against me. The town was distant from our encampment a mile and a quarter; and having once reached its wall, I determined to enter it. The town, or ágherim, forms a tolerably-regular quadrangle, on an open piece of ground at the eastern foot of the sandy eminence, and is enclosed by a wall (agadór), built of clay, about five- and-twenty feet high, and provided with quadrangular towers. We entered it by the eastern gate, which, being defended by a tower, has its entrance from the side, and leads first to a small court with a well, from which another arched passage leads into the streets. Here several women, of good figure and decently dressed, were seated tranquilly, as it seemed, enjoying the cool air of the afternoon, for they had no occupation, nor were they selling anything. Although I was dressed in a common blue Sudán shirt, and tolerably sunburnt, my fairer complexion seemed to alarm them; and some of them withdrew into the interior of the houses crying “lá ilah.” Still I was not molested nor insulted by the people passing by; and I was pleased that several of them courteously answered my salute. They were apparently not of pure Berber blood. It appeared that a good many of the inhabitants had gone to their date- groves to look after the harvest, as the fruit was just about to ripen; hence the place, though in good repair, and very clean, had a rather solitary appearance. There is no commerce in this place as in Ghát, the whole wealth of the inhabitants consisting in their plantations. Yet they are said to be better off than the population of Ghát, who are exposed to great and continual extortions from the Tawárek on account of their origin, while the people of Bárakat enjoy certain privileges. The houses were all two or three stories high, and well built, the clay being nicely polished. A few palm-trees decorate the interior of the town. It is of still more diminutive size than Ghát, containing about two hundred houses; but it is built with great regularity.

Having stuck fast awhile in a lane which had no thoroughfare, we at length got safely out of the little town of Bárakat by the south gate. It has, I believe, four gates, like Ghát. On this side of the town, inside of the walls, stands the mosque, a building of considerable size for so small a place, neatly whitewashed, and provided with a lofty minaret.

Leaving the town, we took a more southern and circuitous road than that by which we had come, so that I saw a good deal of the plantation. The soil is for the most part impregnated with salt; and the wells have generally brackish water. There was much industry to be seen, and most of the gardens were well kept; but the wells might easily be more numerous, and only a small quantity of corn is cultivated. The great extent to which dukhn, or Guinea corn (“éneli” in Temá-shight[84]), or _Pennisetum typhoïdeum_, is cultivated here, as well as near Ghát, in proportion to wheat or barley, seems to indicate the closer and more intimate connection of this region with Negroland. Some culinary vegetables also were cultivated; and some, but not many, of the gardens were carefully fenced with the leaves of the palm-tree. The grove was animated by numbers of wild pigeons and turtle-doves, bending the branches of the palm-trees with their wanton play; and a good many asses were to be seen. Cattle I did not observe.

But far more interesting were the scenes of human life that met my eyes. Happiness seemed to reign, with every necessary comfort, in this delightful little grove. There was a great number of cottages, or tekábber, built of palm-branches and palm-leaves, most of them of considerable size, and containing several apartments; all of them had flat roofs. They are inhabited by the Imghád, or Merátha. A great many of the men seemed at present to be busy elsewhere; but these lightly- built straggling suburbs were full of children, and almost every woman carried an infant at her back. They were all black, but well formed, and infinitely superior to the mixed race of Fezzán. The men wore in general blue shirts, and a black shawl round the face; the women were only dressed in the túrkedi, or Sudán-cloth, wound round their body, and leaving the upper part, including the breasts, uncovered. They understood generally nothing but Temáshight; and only a few of them spoke the Háusa language. The men were nearly all smoking.

Having returned to our tent from this pleasant ramble, I did not stay long in it, but stealing off as secretly as possible, I walked to the eastern side of the valley, which is here locked up by the steep slope of the Akakús range. The plain on this side, being much interrupted by hills crowned with ethel-trees, does not afford a distant prospect. In this quarter, too, there are a few scattered gardens, with melons and vegetables, but no palm-trees.

In the evening we were greatly annoyed by some Imghád; and between one of them and our fiery and inconsiderate Tunisian shushán a violent dispute arose, which threatened to assume a very serious character. We were on the watch the whole night.

[Sidenote: Friday, July 26th.]