Part 23

Having recovered a little from the uncomfortable state in which we had passed the night, we went to pay a visit to the principal men of our new escort, who had seated themselves in a circle, spear in hand, with their leader Hámma (a son-in-law of the chief Ánnur) in the midst of them. Entire strangers as both parties were to each other, and after the many mishaps we had gone through, and the many false reports which must have reached these men about our character, the meeting could not fail to be somewhat cool. We expressed to the leader our sincere acknowledgment of the service which the chief Ánnur had rendered us, and begged him to name us to such of his companions as were related to the chief. On this occasion Mohammed, the chief’s cousin, who afterwards became a great friend of mine, made himself remarkable by his pretensions and arrogance. They were all of them tolerably good-looking; but they were not at all of the same make as the Azkár and the people living near the border of Aïr. They were blacker, and not so tall, and, instead of the austere and regular northern features, had a rounder and more cheerful, though less handsome expression of countenance. Their dress also was more gay, several of them wearing light-blue, instead of the melancholy- looking dark-blue tobes.

At about ten o’clock we at length moved on, and chose the western of the two roads, leading hence to Tin-téllust, by way of Fódet; the eastern one passes through Tágo and Táni. Leaving the large green valley of Tin- tagh-odé on our left, we kept on more uneven ground, passing some smaller glens, till we reached the commencement of the fine broad valley Fódet, and encamped near the cliffs bordering its eastern side. Here the water, rushing down from the rocks in a sort of cascade, had formed a pond, which, however, was not destined to remain long.

[Sidenote: Tuesday, September 3rd.]

We made a very interesting march through a country marked with bold features, and showing itself in more than one respect capable of being the abode of man. Turning away from the eastern border, we kept more along the middle of the valley, till we reached the most picturesque spot where it divided into two branches, the eastern of which, bordered by several imposing mountain-spurs, presented a very interesting perspective, of which the accompanying sketch, drawn as it was on the back of my camel, will give only a faint idea.

[Illustration]

The whole bottom of the valley, where, the day before yesterday, a mighty torrent had been foaming along, was now glittering with fragments of minerals. We then passed the ruins of some houses carried away by the floods, and met further on a little troop of asses laden with éneli.[104] Our whole caravan was in good spirits; and our escort, in order to give us a specimen of their horsemanship, if I may so call it, got up a race, which, as may be readily imagined, proved a very awkward affair. Two or three of the riders were thrown off; and the sport soon came to an end. The swift camel is excellent for trotting; but it can never excel in a gallop.

In our ascent we had reached very considerable mountain-masses on our right, when some of our old companions, who had come with us from Ghát, separated from us, in order to go to their village Túngadu. Among these was Ákshi, a very modest and quiet man, who alone of all these people had never begged from me even the merest trifle, though he gave me some information, and I might have learnt much more from him if I had seen him more frequently. But I had the good fortune to meet with him again at a later period.

The country here became very mountainous, and the ascent steep, till we reached a valley called by some of the Kél-owí the upper course of the valley of Tin-téllust. Having reached the crest of the elevation, we began to descend, first gradually along smaller valleys, afterwards more steeply into a deep ravine, while in the distance towards the south- west, above the lower hills, a ridge of considerable elevation became visible. Gradually the ravine widened, and became clothed with fine herbage. Here, to our great disappointment, the little Ánnur, Dídi, Fárreji, and several of the Tinýlkum (among them the intelligent and active Ibrahím) left us in order to reach their respective residences.

Of course Ánnur ought to have seen us safe to the chief’s residence; but being without energy, he allowed our new companions, with whom we had not yet been able to become acquainted, to extort from us what they could, as the Fade-ang and the Aníslimen had done before. Keeping along some smaller valleys, we reached, about noon, a considerable pond of rain-water, where I watered my thirsty camel. Almost all the smaller valleys through which we passed incline towards the west.

Much against our wish, we encamped a little after three o’clock P.M., in a widening of the valley Afís, near the southern cliffs (which had a remarkably shattered appearance), there being a well at some little distance. We had scarcely encamped when a troublesome scene was enacted, in the attempt to satisfy our escort, the men not being yet acquainted with us, and making importunate demands. But there was more turmoil and disturbance than real harm in it; and though half of the contents of a bale of mine were successfully carried off by the turbulent Mohammed, and a piece of scarlet cloth was cut into numberless small shreds in the most wanton manner, yet there was not much to complain of, and it was satisfactory to see Hámma (Ánnur’s son-in-law, and the chief of the escort) display the greatest energy in his endeavours to restore what was forcibly taken.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, September 4th.]

We were glad when day dawned; but with it came very heavy rain, which had been portended last night by thickly accumulated clouds and by lightning. Rain early in the morning seems to be rather a rare phenomenon, as well in this country as all over Central Africa[105], if it be not in continuation of the previous night’s rain; and it was probably so on this occasion, rain having fallen during the whole night in the country around us.

Having waited till the rain seemed to have a little abated, we started at seven o’clock, in order to reach the residence of the powerful chief Ánnur, in whose hands now lay the whole success of the expedition. Though all that we had heard about him was calculated to inspire us with confidence in his personal character, yet we could not but feel a considerable degree of anxiety.

Soon emerging from the valley of Afís, we ascended rocky ground, over which we plodded, while the rain poured down upon us with renewed violence, till we reached the commencement of another valley, and a little further, on its northern side, the small village Sárara, or Asárara, divided into two groups, between which we passed. We then crossed low rocky ground intersected by many small beds of torrents descending from the mountains on our left, which rise to a considerable elevation. All these channels incline towards the south, and are thickly clothed with bushes.

It was half-past nine o’clock, the weather having now cleared up, when we entered the valley of Tintéllust[106], forming a broad sandy channel, bare of herbage, and only lined with bushes along its border. On the low rocky projections on its eastern side lay a little village, scarcely discernible from the rocks around; it was the long and anxiously looked- for residence of the chief E’ Núr or Ánnur. Our servants saluted it with a few rounds. Leaving the village on the eastern border of the sandy bed, we went a little further to the south, keeping close to the low rocky projection on our right, at the foot of which was the little tebki or water-pond, and encamped on a sand-hill rising in a recess of the rocky offshoots, and adorned at its foot with the beautiful green and widely-spreading bushes of the _Capparis sodata_, while behind was a charming little hollow with luxuriant talha-trees. Over the lower rocky ground rose Mount Tunán, while towards the south the majestic mountain- group of Búnday closed the view. As for the prospect over the valley towards the village, and the beautiful mountain-mass[107] beyond, it is represented in the annexed sketch, made at a later period, and for the accuracy of which I can answer.

Altogether it was a most beautiful camping-ground, where in ease and quiet we could establish our little residence, not troubled every moment by the intrusion of the townspeople; but it was rather too retired a spot, and too far from our protector, being at least eight hundred yards from the village, in a country of lawless people not yet accustomed to see among them men of another creed, of another complexion, and of totally different usages and manners.

This spot being once selected, the tents were soon pitched; and in a short time, on the summit of the sand-hill, there rose the little encampment of the English expedition, consisting of four tents forming a sort of semi-circle, opening towards the south, the point to which all our arduous efforts were directed,—Mr. Richardson’s tent towards the west, Overweg’s and mine adjoining it towards the east, and each flanked by a smaller tent for the servants. Doubtless this sand-hill will ever be memorable in the annals of the Asbenáwa as the “English Hill,” or the “Hill of the Christians.” But before I proceed to relate the incidents of our daily life while we stayed here, it will be well to introduce the reader to the country and the people with whom we have come in contact.

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

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

TIN-TÉLLUST.

Sepr. 1850.]

[Footnote 97: In conformity with the usage of travellers, I call Mehára people mounted upon mehára, or swift camels (in the singular form méheri). This expression has nothing whatever to do with Mehárebín, a name of which I shall speak hereafter.]

[Footnote 98: The name has probably some connection with that of the tribe Ímanang.]

[Footnote 99: Absen and Asben are used indiscriminately, though a ba- Háushe, or Háusa man, will always say Asben, ba-Asbenchi, Asbenáwa, while the native half-castes will prefer the other form—Absen, Absenáwa.]

[Footnote 100: Mr. Richardson calls the pond Anamghur; correctly perhaps, though I did not hear it so called. The name of the valley, however, is Tároï; and, if I am not mistaken, Anamaghúr, or Anemághera, means, in the Southern Berber dialect, in general, “a watering place;” for our halting-place near Tághajít was also called by this name.]

[Footnote 101: I think, however, that the more learned among them call it tágait. The palm-tree is called táshdait.]

[Footnote 102: “Érazar,” properly “éghazar,” means “the valley,” in general; but nevertheless here it seems to be a proper name.]

[Footnote 103: “Aníslim” is the term in the Temáshight language equivalent to the Arabic Merábet; and though it evidently has the most intimate relation to the word “selem” (Islám), meaning properly a man professing Islám, this signification has been entirely lost sight of. I was generally deemed and called by the Western Tawárek an Aníslim, because I wrote and read.]

[Footnote 104: Éneli, انلي—dukhn—is a word several times mentioned by the learned traveller Ebn Batúta in his Travels, where it has not been understood by the translators. See Journal Asiatique, 1843, série iv. tom. i. pp. 188. 191. 200. At p. 194. he describes the favourite beverage dakno, made of this corn.]

[Footnote 105: In many parts of India, just the contrary seems to occur.]

[Footnote 106: It will be well to say a few words about this name, as the way in which I write it has been made the subject of criticism. Tin- téllust means “(the valley) with or of the téllust;” “tin” is the pronoun expressing possession, and exactly corresponds with the Western Arabic متاع. It is of very frequent occurrence, as well in names of localities as of tribes, and even of men, such as Tin-Yerátan, son of Wasembú, the celebrated King of Aúdaghost. “Téllust” is the feminine form of “ellus,” the feminine Berber nouns having the peculiarity of not only beginning with _t_, but often ending with it likewise. (Newman, in Zeitschrift für Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1845, vol. vi. p. 275.)]

[Footnote 107: These mountains, which from this side seem to form a well-defined group, have, as far as I know, no general name.]

CHAP. XIV.

ETHNOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF AÏR.

The name Aïr, exactly as it is written and pronounced by the natives at the present day, first occurs in the description of Leo, which was written in 1526.[108] The country Káher, mentioned by the traveller Ebn Batúta[109] on his home-journey from Tekádda by way of the wells of Asïu, is evidently somewhere hereabouts, but seems rather to denote the region a few days’ journey west from Tintéllust, and to be identical with the “Ghir” of Leo[110], though this extended more to the S.W. The name being written by the Arabs with an _h_ (Ahír), most historical geographers have erroneously concluded that this is the true indigenous form of the name.[111]

Aïr, however, does not appear to be the original name of the country, but seems to have been introduced by the Berber conquerors, the former name being Asben or Absen, as it is still called by the black and the mixed population. Asben was formerly the country of the Góberáwa, the most considerable and noble portion of the Háusa nation, which does not seem to belong to the pure Negro races, but to have originally had some relationship with North Africa; and from this point of view the statement of Sultan Bello cannot be regarded as absurd, when in the introduction to his historical work on the conquests of the Fulbe, “Infák él misúri fi fat hah el Tekrúri,” he calls the people of Góber Copts[112], though only one family is generally considered by the learned men of the country as of foreign origin.

The capital of this kingdom of Asben, at least since the 16th century, was Tin-shamán, at present a village a little to the west of the road from Aúderas to Ágades, and about twenty miles from the latter place. The name is evidently a Berber one[113]; and the Berber influence is still more evident from the fact that a portion, at least, of the population of the town were Masúfa, a well-known Berber tribe who in former times were the chief guides on the road from Sejilmésa to Waláta.[114] Be this as it may, several learned men, inhabitants of this place, are mentioned by the native historians of Negroland, which shows that there existed in it some degree of comparative civilization. In the middle of the 14th century not only Tekádda but even Káhír was in the hands of the Berbers, as we see from Batúta’s narrative; and this eminent traveller mentions a curious custom with regard to the Berber prince, whom he styles El Gérgeri, or Tegérgeri[115], which even at the present moment is in full operation in this country, viz., that the succession went not to his own sons, but to his sister’s sons.[116] This remarkable fact is a certain proof that it was not a pure Berber state, but rather a Berber dominion ingrafted upon a Negro population, exactly as was the case in his time in Waláta. Leo, who first calls the country by its present Berber name Aïr, states also expressly that it was then occupied by Tawárek, “Targa populo;”[117] and we learn also from him that the ruler of Ágades (a town first mentioned by him) was likewise a Berber[118]: so that it might seem as if the state of the country at that time was pretty nearly the same as it is now; but such was not the case.

The name of the Kél-owí is not mentioned either by Leo or any other writer before the time of Horneman, who, before he set out from Fezzán on his journey to Bórnu, obtained some very perspicuous information[119] about these people, as well as about their country Ásben. At that time, before the rise of the Fúlbe under their reformer (el Jihádi) Othmán the son of Fódiye, it was a powerful kingdom, to which Góber was tributary. From Horneman’s expression it would seem that the Kél-owí had conquered the country only at a comparatively recent date[120]; and this agrees perfectly with the results of my inquiries, from which I conclude that it took place about A.D. 1740. However, we have seen that four centuries before that time the country was in the hands of the Berbers.

It appears that the Kél-owí are traceable from the north-west, and the nobler part of them belong to the once very powerful and numerous tribe of the Aurághen, whence their dialect is called Auraghíye even at the present day. Their name signifies “the people settled in (the district or valley of) Owí;” for “kél” is exactly identical with the Arabic word áhel, and seems besides to be applied with especial propriety to indicate the settled, in opposition to the nomadic tribes. For in general the characteristic mark of the Kél-owí and their kinsmen is, that they live in villages consisting of fixed and immovable huts, and not in tents made of skins, like the other tribes, or in movable huts made of mats, like the Tagáma and many of the Imghád of the Awelímmiden. With this prefix kél, may be formed the name of the inhabitants of any place or country:—Ferwán, Kél-ferwán; Bághzen, Kél-bághzen; Afélle (the north), Kél-afélle, “the people of the north,” whom the Arabs in Timbúktu call Áhel e’ Sáhel; and no doubt a Targi, at least of the tribe of the Awelímmiden or Kél-owí, would call the inhabitants of London Kél- london or Kél-londra, just as he says Kél-ghadámes, Kél-tawát.

But there is something indeterminate in the name Kél-owí, which has both a narrower and a wider sense, as is frequently the case with the names of those tribes which, having become predominant, have grouped around them and, to a certain extent, even incorporated with themselves many other tribes which did not originally belong to them. In this wider sense the name Kél-owí comprises a great many tribes, or rather sections, generally named after their respective settlements.

I have already observed that the Berbers, in conquering this country from the Negro, or I should rather say the sub-Libyan race (the Leucæthiopes of the ancients), did not entirely destroy the latter, but rather mingled with them by intermarriage with the females, thereby modifying the original type of their race, and blending the severe and austere manners and the fine figure of the Berber with the cheerful and playful character and the darker colour of the African. The way in which they settled in this country seems to have been very similar to that in which the ancient Greeks settled in Lycia. For the women appear to have the superiority over the male sex in the country of Ásben, at least to a certain extent; so that when a ba-Ásbenchi marries a woman of another village, she does not leave her dwelling-place to follow her husband, but he must come to her in her own village. The same principle is shown in the regulation that the chief of the Kél-owí must not marry a woman of the Targi blood, but can rear children only from black women or female slaves.

With respect to the custom that the hereditary power does not descend from the father to the son, but to the sister’s son,—a custom well known to be very prevalent not only in many parts of Negroland, but also in India, at least in Malabar,—it may be supposed to have belonged originally to the Berber race; for the Azkár, who have preserved their original manners tolerably pure, have the same custom, but they also might have adopted it from those tribes (now their subjects—the Imghád) who conquered the country from the black natives. It may therefore seem doubtful whether, in the mixed empires of Ghánata[121], Melle[122], and Waláta[123], this custom belonged to the black natives, or was introduced by the Berbers. Be this as it may, it is certain that the noble tribe of the Awelímmiden deem the custom in question shameful, as exhibiting only the man’s mistrust of his wife’s fidelity; for such is certainly its foundation.

As for the male portion of the ancient population of Ásben, I suppose it to have been for the most part exterminated, while the rest was degraded into the state of domestic slavery, with the distinct understanding that neither they nor their children should ever be sold out of the country. The consequence of this covenant has been an entire mixture[124] between the Berber conquerors and the female part of the former population, changing the original Berber character entirely, as well in manners and language as in features and complexion. Indeed, the Háusa language is as familiar to these people as their Auraghíye, although the men, when speaking among themselves, generally make use of the latter. The consequence is, that the Kél-owí are regarded with a sort of contempt by the purer Berber tribes, who call them slaves (íkelán). But there is another class of people, not so numerous indeed in Ásben itself as in the districts bordering upon it; these are the Búzawe, or Abogelíte, a mixed race, with generally more marked Berber features than the Kél-owí, but of darker colour and lower stature, while in manners they are generally very debased, having lost almost entirely that noble carriage which distinguishes even the most lawless vagabond of pure Targi blood. These people, who infest all the regions southwards and south-eastwards from Ásben, are the offspring of Tawárek females with black people, and may belong either to the Háusa or to the Sónghay race.

What I have here said sets forth the historical view of the state of things in this country, and is well-known to all the enlightened natives. The vulgar account of the origin of the Kél-owí from the female slave of a Tinýlkum who came to Ásben, where she gave birth to a boy who was the progenitor of the Kél-owí, is obviously nothing but a popular tale indicating, at the utmost, only some slight connection of this tribe with the Tinýlkum.

Having thus preliminarily discussed the name of the tribe and the way in which it settled in the country, I now proceed to give a list, as complete as possible, of all the divisions or tiúsi (_sing._ tausit). which compose the great community of the Kél-owí.

The most noble (that is to say, the most elevated, not by purity of blood, but by authority and rank) of the subdivisions of this tribe at the present time are the Irólangh, the Amanókalen or sultan family, to which belongs Ánnur, with no other title than that of Sheikh or Elder (the original meaning of the word)—“sófo” in Háusa, “ámaghár” or “ámghár” in Temáshight. The superiority of this section seems to date only from the time of the present chief’s predecessor, the Kél-ferwán appearing to have had the ascendancy in earlier times. Though the head of this family has no title but that of Sheikh, he has nevertheless far greater power than the amanókal or titular sultan of the Kél-owí, who resides in Ásodi, and who is at present really nothing more than a prince in name. The next in authority to Ánnur is Háj ʿAbdúwa, the son of Ánnur’s eldest sister, and who resides in Táfidet.