Sahara and Sudan. Vol. 4 Sahara and Sudan IV: Wadai and Darfur [Translated from the original German. Reprint 2019] 9780520329133

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SAHARA AND SUDAN

Portrait of Gustav Nachtigal, wearing a Nife tobe, before his return to Europe.

SAHARA AND SUDAN Volume Four: Wadai and Darfur BY

GUSTAV NACHTIGAL

T R A N S L A T E D FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN W I T H NEW INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

A L L A N G. B. F I S H E R AND

HUMPHREY J.

FISHER

WITH REX S.

O'FAHEY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles

1971

U N I V E R S I T Y OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles, California ISBN:

0-520-01789-7

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-126761

First published in German under the title Sahara und Sudan : Vols. 1 (1879) and 2 (1881), Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Verlagshandlung Paul Parey; Vol. 3 (1889), Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus This translation, and the introduction and notes, © 1971 by Allan G. B. Fisher and Humphrey J . Fisher

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS

page TRANSLATORS' INTRODUCTION EDITOR'S PREFACE T O THE ORIGINAL EDITION

ix XV

Chapter

B O O K V I I : J O U R N E Y F R O M BORNU T O WADAI I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.

The Winter of 1872—1873 ^ Kuka (September 1872 to March 1, 1873) Journey to Wadai (March 1 to April 6, 1873) Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali (April to May 20, 1873) Stay in Abeshr (May 21 to July 31, 1873) Journey to Runga (July and August, 1873) Journey to Runga, continued (August 25 to October 1, 1873) Second stay in Abeshr (October 1873 to January 11, 1874) Country and People Government, the Life of the People, Commerce The History of Wadai

3 23 43 67 80 98 120 136 172 205

BOOK V I I I : F R O M WADAI T O DARFUR AND EGYPT I. Journey to Darfur (January 11 to March 8, 1874) II. III.

229

Stay in el-Fasher (March 9 to May, 1874)

259

The History of Darfur

272

vi

Contents IV. V. VI.

VII. VIII.

T h e History of Darfur, continued

298

Organisation of the Fur State

324

Inhabitants and Products of the Soil of Darfur

346

Further Stay in El-Fasher (May to July 1, 1874)

362

Journey from El-Fasher to El-Obeid (July 2 to August 10, 1874) Permit issued by the government of Sultan Ibrahim of Darfur

376 394

Letter of introduction from Shaykh U m a r of Bornu to Sultan Muhammad Ali of W a d a i

395

APPENDIX

396

Darfur and W a d a i since Nachtigal's Visit

GLOSSARY

403

INDEX

418

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Gustav Nachtigal, wearing a Nife tobe, before his return to Europe

Frontispiece

Permit issued by the Government of Sultan Ibrahim of Darfur

Facing page 394

Letter of Introduction from Shaykh U m a r of Bornu to Sultan Muhammad Ali of Wadai Facing page 395 M a p of Gustav Nachtigal's route through Wadai and Darfur End of book

TRANSLATORS' INTRODUCTION

Gustav Nachtigal, the author of this book, was born in Saxony on February 23, 1834. He became a doctor in the Prussian army, but retired very early for health reasons, and in 1862 settled on the north coast of Africa. During several years he lived in Tunis, where for a time he served as physician to the Bey. He acquired a fairly good knowledge of Arabic, and some understanding of Muslim thinking and institutions. When he was on the point of returning to Germany, towards the end of 1868, the leadership of an expedition to K u k a , the capital of Bornu, near Lake Chad, was unexpectedly offered to him. This opportunity, which promised to realise for him a boyhood ambition to unveil the mysteries of Lake Chad, he eagerly accepted. T h e specific purpose of the expedition was to carry a collection of gifts which K i n g William of Prussia planned to send to Umar ibn el-Hajj Muhammad el-Amin el-Kanemi, the Shaykh of Bornu, in recognition of the Shaykh's kindness to earlier German travellers who had visited his capital. With little delay, Nachtigal set out from Tripoli on February 19, 1869, with a party of five men recruited there, four Africans and a Genoese pastrycook, on a journey which was not to be completed until more than five and a half years later. European travellers in northern Africa during the nineteenth century commonly took Arabic names; Nachtigal called himself Idris. T h e first stage of his journey took him to Murzuq, the capital of Fezzan. Communications between Murzuq and K u k a were difficult just at that time, and the second stage of his itinerary was to be delayed for several months. Nachtigal took advantage of the leisure thus thrust upon him to embark upon a pioneering expedition into Tibesti, now part of the Republic of Chad, where no European traveller had hitherto penetrated. In Tibesti, Nachtigal's travels nearly terminated, for while he was virtually a prisoner there someone thought it might be a good idea to purchase both him and his pastrycook, as having interest as curiosities. T h e prospective purchaser was, however, ix

Wadai and Darfur

X

not impressed with their potential as working slaves, and declined to offer more for them than one good strong camel. 1 Returning safely to Murzuq, Nachtigal set out again, on April 18, 1870, this time for K u k a , joining a caravan under the leadership of Hajj Muhammad Bu Aisha. Hajj Muhammad, an envoy of the Governor-General of Tripolitania, had been entrusted with a mission to the Shaykh of Bornu on behalf of the Sultan in Constantinople. In K u k a , Nachtigal was well received by Shaykh Umar, and with his active co-operation he embarked upon further exploratory journeys, first to K a n e m and Borku, and then to Bagirmi. He finally left K u k a on March 1, 1873, and his voyage eventually ended when, after traversing W a d a i and Darfur, he arrived in Cairo in November 1874. O n his return to Europe Nachtigal began the preparation of an extensive account of his travels, more than 2,000 pages in all, Sahara und Sudan: Ergebnisse sechsjährigen Reisen in Afrika. T h e first volume was published in 1879, a n d the second in 1881, both in Berlin. In 1882 he became German Gonsul-General in Tunis, just after the French annexation of that territory. He had plans for further exploration in W a d a i and Darfur, the territories covered in the present volume; but these plans had to be abandoned when, shortly afterwards, he was appointed Reichskommissar for the German government in Cameroon and Togoland. He died in April 1885, off the West African coast, on his way back to Europe. T h e third volume of Sahara und Sudan, of which the present work is a translation, did not appear until four years later, in 1889, in Leipzig. Until 1967, when a reproduction of the original work was published in Graz, Sahara und Sudan was a rare book, and it is difficult to find a library in Britain or America which possesses copies of all three of the original volumes. Translations of a few pages or paragraphs have been incorporated in various books, such as Thomas Hodgkin's Nigerian perspectives, but there has been no English translation of extended passages, much less a complete version. T h e contributions which Nachtigal made, and may still make, to knowledge of the regions through which he travelled have scarcely received in the Englishspeaking world the attention which they deserve. A French translation, now very difficult to come by, of part of the first two volumes was published in Paris in 1881 ; 2 and in 1903, when French interest in the area was becoming intense, there was a French translation, in a journal 1

i. 3 3 7 - 8 ; all such references without further identification attached are to the

original German edition of Nachtigal's Sahara und Sudan. Cf. A. G . B. Fisher and H . J . Fisher, Slavery and Muslim 1

Society in Africa

(London 1970), 124 ff.

T r . J . Gordault, Hachette (Paris 1881). Apparently only one volume of the

originally intended two appeared; it is a condensation and rearrangement rather than a straight translation.

Translators' Introduction

xi

also rare today, of the chapters in the third volume which are concerned with Wadai. 1 The present English translation, which it is intended will ultimately include the whole of Sahara uni Sudan, divided, however, into four volumes rather than three, was undertaken in part as a corollary of the work of one of us, now a teacher of African history in the University of London, but more importantly as the project in retirement of the other without any Regard either to Honour or Profit, but only to give myself a Harmless, Innocent, Scholar-like Divertisement in my declining years. As the first fruits of the project, a small volume was published in 1970, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa, based intially on Nachtigal's evidence. Book V I I , with which the present volume begins, opens with an account of Nachtigal's concluding period in Kuka, when, after returning from a six-month expedition to Bagirmi, he was planning for the journey home. Most of Book V I I is devoted to Wadai, where he stayed for nearly a year, his departure for Darfur being held up by political uncertainties following the death of Hasin, the Sultan of Darfur. Book V I I I deals with Darfur, where Nachtigal spent about six months. He passed some time also in el-Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, after his arrival there in August 1874 ; and was eventually despatched by Ismail Ayyub Pasha, the Governor-General of the Egyptian Sudan, down the Nile on a Jellaba, or slave, boat to Assiut, where he was met by a steamer sent by the Viceroy of Egypt, which brought him to Cairo on November 22, 1874. The published record, however, ends rather abruptly with his arrival in el-Obeid, and leaves unanswered several interesting questions about the final winding-up of his marathon journey. Together with an often highly interesting account of his own experiences in Wadai and Darfur, Nachtigal recorded much information about the two countries. His careful attention to history, political and social institutions and customs, even to local distinctions of race and colour, gives his book lasting and general importance : among the main themes which concerned Nachtigal, probably only his geographical speculations have "dated" with the subsequent advance of knowledge about the area. The range of his interests is considerable : medical details are not surprising from a trained doctor, but Nachtigal was equally scrupulous in describing matters as far apart as local vegetation and feminine hair styles. Religious matters are perhaps the only major 1 T h e translation, by Joost van Vollenhoven, appeared in the Bulletin du comité de l'Afrique française.

xii

Wadai and Darfur

sphere in which the attentive reader will not find as much as he might hope in Sahara und Sudan.

Before entering Wadai, Nachtigal had already built up a considerable background of knowledge of that country, from conversations in Kuka with friends of his, in particular the Muallim or Faqih Adam, who returned to Abeshr, the capital of Wadai, while Nachtigal was himself there (pp. 123-4). Nachtigal stayed longer in Wadai than in Darfur, and made a six-week excursion in the direction of Runga to the south of Wadai. All this presumably made it easier for him to write a commentary on Wadai rather fuller than that which follows in Book V I I I on Darfur. He established friendly relations with both King Ali of Wadai and King Brahim of Darfur, his friendship with King Ali even surviving cautious enquiries about the fate of Eduard Vogel, who had been killed outside Abeshr some seventeen years before. It was, however, difficult to eradicate the suspicions with which many of the leading men of both countries regarded a Christian intruder, and especially in Darfur he had considerable difficulty in finding repositories of oral tradition who were willing to take him into their confidence. That Nachtigal achieved as much as he did is in large part a tribute to his personal qualities. Another traveller, K a r l K u m m , who was to cross the continent by a somewhat more southerly route about forty years later, wrote of Nachtigal as "without doubt one of, if not the most fruitful African explorer". With a wonderful amount of tenacity he advanced in his careful and cautious way, made friends as he went, left no enemies behind, and thus slowly passed from land to land until he reached the Nile V a l l e y . . . . He never disguised himself as a Moslem, and his straightforwardness and fearlessness gave him considerable prestige with the Moslem chiefs. 1 Nachtigal's editor worked hard to produce a presentable version of the last volume of his book; but a number of obscurities and anomalies have survived in the printed version, lacking as it does the author's own final editorial touches. The volume as a whole nevertheless presents in an agreeably unpretentious style a great deal of material of much interest, both direct and indirect, for an understanding of these areas at a time which preceded any significant European impact upon them. For some topics, Nachtigal is today our only source; and some parts of his story are relevant for an understanding of current history, particularly of the Republic of the Sudan, just as his accounts in earlier books, of his travels in Tibesti and Bagirmi, throw useful light upon contemporary events in the Republic of Chad. There is no hint in Nachtigal's narrative that in 1873 there was any 1

H. Karl W . Kumm, From Hausaland to Egypt (London, 1910), 2 - 3 .

Translators' Introduction

xiii

French interest in Wadai. Wadai became a part of the French colonial empire in 1909, and is now, like Bagirmi and Tibesti, part of the Republic of Chad. There were already in Nachtigal's time menacing rumblings of conflict between Darfur and Egypt, which erupted in a violent explosion shortly after his departure. This was, however, only one facet of the turmoil by which the region was rent in the immediately succeeding years. Less than a decade after Nachtigal's visit, Darfur became part of the Mahdi's domain, and it was not effectively incorporated in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan until 1 9 1 6 ; it is now part of the Republic of the Sudan. An outline of the history of Wadai and Darfur in the century since Nachtigal's visit is appended at the end of this translation. A Glossary has also been added, to explain the non-English and other technical terms which appear frequently in Sahara und Sudan. Author's notes which appeared in the original German version of the book are identified by the letters G. N., with the exception of those added by Nachtigal's German editor, Dr Groddeck, who identifies them by the initials A . (? Ascherson), D. H. or W. (? Wetzstein). Other explanatory footnotes have been added: some to make intelligible the frequent references back, especially in the opening chapters, to earlier events in Nachtigal's story; others to facilitate the interpretation of Nachtigal's material in the light of later events; and yet others simply to enlarge upon the information which Nachtigal supplies. Especially for the notes on Darfur, we are indebted to the expert collaboration of Dr R . S. O'Fahey presently of Edinburgh University. Dr O'Fahey was on the staff of the University of Khartoum for three years, and visited Darfur in 1969 and in 1970. For assistance with some of the notes on Wadai, we are also indebted to Miss Virginia Rowland. We wish to thank the Nuffield Foundation which, under its Small Grants Scheme in the Social Sciences, helped with the expenses involved in the preparation of notes. Finally we should record our gratitude to Helga Fisher, daughter and wife, for valued aid in dealing with many of the finer points of translation from the German. A L L A N G . B . FISHER H U M P H R E Y J . FISHER

Kempsford House, Brize Norton, Oxon.

EDITOR'S

PREFACE

ORIGINAL

TO

THE

EDITION

[v] 1 When on April 20,1885, the sudden death o f D r Nachtigal snatched him from the world of science, general mourning was combined with deep anxiety lest the completion of his great travel book, Sahara und Sudan, of which the first volume had appeared in 1879 a n d the second in 1881, might now be in doubt. There was naturally a desire to complete the work based on the M S S left by the deceased, but it was necessary first to determine whether the available material would in fact make it possible to do this, and how much of it had already been subjected to examination or revision by the traveller himself. Dr Nachtigal had been prevented from putting the finishing touches to the completion of his book by obligations that pressed upon him from various quarters as well as by the responsibilities which later fell upon him as Consul-General in Tunis. The account of his journey from Bornu to Wadai and Darfur, and thence to el-Obeid, had indeed been dictated by him to a stenographer, and his stay in Wadai and Darfur had been similarly outlined. All the dictation, however, was held for later revision, and thus had not been corrected by the author nor even looked through. In addition to these M S S , there were also diaries and notes from Bornu, Wadai and Darfur, based for the most part on Dr Nachtigal's own investigations, [vi] and dealing with the history of Wadai, the tribes in that country, their manners and customs, etc., and finally drafts of reports made by him, as well as copies of letters from Wadai and Darfur. Even if it had been possible to complete the book merely by working on the diaries and notes which had survived, the task could of course be entrusted only to an expert. Competent people, however, were of the opinion that the objective should be to offer the explorer's own highly characteristic presentation, and not the work of someone else, as it might easily become if subjected to a thorough revision; and a scholar or expert might perhaps be unwilling to undertake such a task. In view of these considerations, Dr Nachtigal's friends advised the editor herself to take the revision in hand. Conditions in Africa were not 1

Pagination of the original German is given in square brackets. xv

xvi

Wadai and Darfur

unknown to her; Dr Nachtigal had often discussed with her the contents of his third volume, and it was no doubt in the expectation that she would efficiently realise his own purposes that in his will he had entrusted to her the disposition of his literary estate. She therefore believed, though not without misgivings and with a full awareness of the responsibility that had fallen upon her, that she had an obligation to undertake this task. Dr Nachtigal would certainly have subjected the dictation to a rigorous examination and revision, for he was tireless in this respect as had appeared in the two earlier volumes. A revision of this kind was now obviously impossible; it could only be a matter of making a few stylistic corrections while maintaining the manifold characteristics of Dr Nachtigal's own way of writing, of arranging the notes which were available in his own hand, some of them reports from reliable collaborators, others memoranda of his own observations; of inserting them in the right places, supplementing them with the diaries and other notes mentioned above, and finally bringing the whole into a form corresponding tp that of the first two volumes. In many respects the work was more laborious than [vii] might appear from a superficial examination. Some imperfections undoubtedly remain; they should perhaps be treated with indulgence, bearing in mind on the one hand the devotion which led to the undertaking, and on the other the limitations under which the editor laboured. Dr Nachtigal's account of his travels, as he dictated it himself, concluded with his arrival in cl-Obeid. It will, perhaps, be regarded as a defect that with the material that was available the story has not now been continued until his arrival in Cairo. The editor, however, regarded it as a decisive consideration that Dr Nachtigal had himself concluded his story at the point where he became an object of such public acclamation that to mention the fact might have looked like selfglorification. Where, as was several times the case, contradictions appeared between the statements made by the traveller earlier and those from a more recent period, the latter have been accepted as authoritative, since they were undoubtedly based on better information. For a thorough revision, so far as geographical information about Wadai is concerned, Dr Nachtigal's own elucidations would have been necessary. In this connection, however, it should not be forgotten that he himself insisted on the inadequacy of his knowledge of this country, and therefore believed that he should abandon the idea of presenting a map of it. He contented himself with sketching a map of his route from Kuka to Abeshr, which appeared in the second volume, and the route from Abeshr to el-Fasher in a manuscript map which he had of Darfur. Unfortunately circumstances prevented Dr Nachtigal from reach-

Editor's Preface to the Original Edition

xvii

ing the Kuta river, about which he had made some enquiries. He had no doubt that it was the continuation of the Uelle discovered by Dr Schweinfurth,1 which has now been established as one of the most important tributaries of the Congo. The correctness of his information and conjectures has been completely confirmed by the [viii] investigations of Junker, Grenfell and van Gele. Dr Nachtigal, however, could not know that between the 19th and 20th degrees of latitude the Kuta abandons its course to the west and turns to the south; he supposed that it went as far as the Benue-Niger, but admitted the possibility that it might be the upper course of the Shari. In order to clear up these relations he had the idea of a second journey to the Sudan countries, which he intended to undertake from Tunis, but he was prevented from doing this by his mission to the west coast of Africa and his untimely death. It was also this plan, in addition to the reasons specified above, which led him to postpone the completion of his third volume. What Dr Nachtigal himself thought of the value of his scientific investigations may be seen from what he wrote in Petermanns Mitteilungen, vol. 21, 1875 [281-2], the substance of which may be paraphrased thus: Although the Englishman Browne had visited Darfur in the nineties of the previous century during the reign of Sultan Abd erRahman, his opportunities for seeing anything of the country - he entered it from the north, and had to confine himself to Kobe and el-Fasher - were so limited, and his experience of the country and its people was so slight that the expansion of our knowledge of Darfur which we owe to him can only be described as very modest. At a later date an educated Muslim, the frequently mentioned Shaykh Muhammad el-Tounsy, had lived in Darfur for several years, and to the best of his knowledge and ability he had placed the information which he collected about the country at the disposition of the world of science [see below, p. 136 n.]. But, lively as was his instinct for social conditions, his topographical information about the central African countries was quite confused and erroneous. For better and richer material we have to thank the so-called Sultan Teima, who as an official of Darfur lived in Kordofan before this province was conquered by Egypt, and the maps which we now have depend almost completely on his reports.2 How much progress has been made in knowledge of the geography of Darfur as a result of my travels and careful enquiries should [ix] be indi1

See below, pp. 82, 139-40. E. G. ' See below, p. 265 and n. Sultan Teima's map was published in E. de Cadalv£ne and J . de Breuvery, UEgypte et la Turquie de 1839 d 1836 (Paris 1836); see the preface to Muhammad el-Tounsy, Voyage au Darfour (Paris 1845), v, xvii-xviii.

xviii

Wadai and Darfur

cated by the attached provisional sketch map. 1 During the first half of this century, the French physician, Dr Cuny, succeeded in entering the country. After his sudden death, King Hasin had the belongings of the Christian physician packed in chests, and had the chests bound with cords and provided with seals. They were placed in the charge of an official, but then forgotten, and when finally it was desired to send them to Egypt, they were found open and with their seals broken, and part of the contents had disappeared. Dr Cuny's investigations of Darfar are thus lost to us, and in my sketch map I have relied only on what I have myself seen, or been told by competent people on the spot. It was a decisive consideration against reproducing unaltered the map of Darfur projected by Dr Nachtigal that in the meantime the Egyptian general staff maps of the Marra mountain had appeared; these to a considerable extent correct Nachtigal's data about this region, depending as the latter did mainly on the enquiries which he had made. After careful consideration, a new map was therefore produced, embracing Nachtigal's basic geographical analysis of Darfur, but for which, in addition to the map supplement of the %eitschrift fur Erdkunde (Berlin 1875), the surveys of the Egyptian General Staff and the maps of Africa of Lannoy de Bissy and von Habenicht were used. The map carries Dr Nachtigal's route close to the point where the map supplement to vol. II of Sahara und Sudan comes to an end; it begins with the Fitri, runs from there to Abeshr and then on to el-Fasher and elObeid, and is then finally extended to Khartoum to permit a better understanding of the geographical associations. At the same time Nachtigal's valuable data about the river-system of the upper Shari are included. It affords the editor special satisfaction to emphasise with gratitude the publisher's ready co-operation [x] in connection with the production of this map. The meteorological observations made both on the journey to Wadai and Darfur and on the spot were described by Dr Nachtigal himself as inadequate; at the end of his six years' travel, his instruments were no longer in a condition which permitted reliable records. For this reason the tables have not been added, as in the earlier volumes, and this all the more as the traveller's own indispensable explanations were not available. 2 It was Dr Nachtigal's intention to add to his travel book a revision of the linguistic material which he had so indefatigably collected and 1

Supplement to the article in

Petermarms Mitteilungen,

T a f e l 15; see below, p.

«55 n. * T h e tables have been prepared in accordance with Dr Nachtigal's diaries, and have his own indications of locality; they might perhaps be of some use in a technical journal. E. G .

Editor's Preface to the Original Edition

xix

arranged during his travels, and he had repeatedly expressed the hope that he would be able to bring this project to a useful conclusion. Three years ago the editor handed over the independent correction and editing of the available material to Gand. phil. R. Prietze, to whom Dr Nachtigal had expressed his grateful acknowledgments in the preface to vol. II, and it is expected that he will soon publish the results of his studies.1 As soon as Herr Prietze has returned the relevant material to the editor, Dr Nachtigal's MSS. on this subject are to be transferred to the Royal Library, and thus made accessible to scholars.2 In accordance with the author's original intention, a general index of the whole work is attached to vol. III. The publishing firm itself undertook the preparation of the index with a willingness for which we are grateful. Professor Dr P. Ascherson has performed an outstanding service for the travel book by his offer to produce a special botanical index, which is appended to the main index. 3 [xi] The portrait of Dr Nachtigal which has been reproduced is from a photograph taken before his return to Europe, and shows him wearing a Nife tobf, he had, soon after his arrival in Kuka, completely replaced his European clothing by that of the country. Should the book now offered to the public meet with some appreciation, the editor owes this in no small part to those who have unselfishly and devotedly helped her, and to whom she feels obliged in this place to express her thanks. The fact that, as has already been mentioned, the manuscripts which Dr Nachtigal dictated were not corrected has made it especially difficult to present foreign names satisfactorily, some having been complete1 Prietze, who was a nephew of Nachtigal, contributed particularly to the study of Hausa; he made also an exhaustive examination of the Konjara, or Fur, language, inspired by his uncle's collections, but this has never been published. Nachtigal's linguistic manuscripts eventually passed to Professor Diedrich Westermann, who entrusted them in turn to Dr Johannes Lukas, of the Hanseatic University of Hamburg. Professor Lukas has made substantial use of Nachtigal's material, for example in the extensive book, Z"itralsudanische Studien (Hamburg 1937). This, however, is mainly concerned with Nachtigal's researches further to the west; Professor Lukas's article, "Linguistic research between the Nile and Lake Chad" (Africa, 1939, xii, 335-49) contains information about the region of Wadai and Darfur, with which the present volume is concerned. The World War then intervened, and the publication of Nachtigal's information on specific languages, such as the Daju and Maba, which seemed imminent in 1939, was never realised. Much of the original documentation was destroyed by fire in the war. For more recent information about these languages, and others, see A. N. Tucker and M. A. Bryan, The non-Bantu languages of north-eastern Africa (London 1956). * Most of the original Nachtigal linguistic manuscripts were destroyed by fire during the Second World War. 3 Neither index has been translated. Instead, we have prepared a new index for this volume alone, incorporating within it some of the information from the original botanical index, and also a few details which appeared in the original general index only and not in the text.

XX

Wadai and Darfur

ly garbled. Herr Consul Dr Wetzstein has, so far as Arabic words arc concerned, most willingly undertaken this arduous task, and at the same time has given attention to the orthography - here deviations from the rules followed by Dr Nachtigal in the first two volumes were often inevitable. In order not to imperil the coherence of the work as a whole, however, and to facilitate the preparation of the general index, the orthography of the first two volumes has been retained for expressions which have been frequently used, and in the geographical notes the spelling adopted in Nachtigal's maps has been accepted as authoritative. For the spelling of Negro words the principle has been followed of giving them as in Dr Nachtigal's original MSS. 1 Dr Wetzstein has also been kind enough to translate the attached Arabic letters. 2 The editor feels herself not less indebted to Dr von Sobbe who, showing a lively interest in the matter, [xii] subjected the complete revision to a thorough examination, and whose advice has been of the greatest value. Finally the editor may be permitted to dedicate a few words to the memory of the man whose death has rightly been regarded as a severe loss for us all, who, full of hopes and plans, and inspired by the wish to be of service both to his country and to science, was snatched away before his time while he was still at the height of his powers. When with astonishment one observes the unexampled success achieved by Dr Nachtigal, with the most meagre funds and equipment most defective in comparison with travellers who after him took part in the exploration of Africa, more fortunately outfitted in every way, the question of how this success is to be explained naturally arises. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge and his enthusiasm for the task to which he had devoted himself are indeed to be emphasised as a driving force which compelled success, but it must be added that in this others have been 1 In the English translation, our basic principle in spelling has been to follow that of the original published text. Certain changes have, however, been made. First, letters or combinations of letters likely to mislead non-German readers have been altered (dsch becomes j, sch becomes sh, j becomes y, ch becomes kh, and a final e which should be pronounced has sometimes been rendered as an i - Jebel Name, for instance, becoming Jebel Nami). Second, certain spellings which are both accurate transcriptions of the Arabic original, and also are in a fair way to become standard, are introduced (e.g. Muhammad, shaykh, awlad, Sulayman). In transcriptions from the Arabic, diacritical marks have been excluded except in the glossary, or where the letter 'ain has been represented by an apostrophe because of its importance for pronunciation (e.g. Ja'adina). All foreign words, titles and phrases are italicised, except where these are or include proper names (e.g. "the Maina Adam", but "the maina himself"), or where they are almost fully anglicised (e.g. shaykh, zariba). 1 The English translations of these are based both on the German, which is good, and on the Arabic.

xxi

Editor's Preface to the Original Edition

scarcely inferior to him. His enthusiasm was, however, matched b y a clear understanding, a spirit of sober tranquillity, a tenacious end u r a n c e ; in the zeal for knowledge directed to great purposes, he thus never lost sight of the apparently small things which lay closest to him. His aversion to all half-measures compelled him to show even in trifles an almost painful accuracy of observation, and his scrupulousness m a d e it a duty for him to report only what was well attested. It is indisputable that a tough constitution which threw off attacks of illness comparatively quickly, and allowed him everywhere to live according to the local customs, stood him in good stead, just as did his talent for completely mastering foreign languages which made intercourse with the natives easy and won their confidence. His unassuming personality, the integrity and obvious honesty of his character, his willingness to recognise the merits of others, his forbearance and patience with the [xiii] defects and weaknesses of his fellow-men, his sensitive consideration for their religious convictions, and above all the capacity to place himself inside the thoughts and feelings of others, procured for Dr Nachtigal an almost miraculous influence on Pagans and fanatical Muslims, and w o n for him during his lengthy sojourn the respect and affection even of those who were at first hostile to him. A b o v e all, however, it was the good will and w a r m feeling for humanity which penetrated his whole being and was indeed the source of that oft-praised kindness which, in combination with other gifts, exerted a charm which none, and certainly not the children of the dark quarter of the globe, could escape. T h u s he disarmed the hatred and the always watchful suspicion of the natives, w h o had impeded the investigations of other travellers. H e was the first Christian to leave W a d a i alive, the country which had brought death to Eduard V o g e l and Moritz von Beurmann; he w o n its proud inhabitants over to his purposes, and gained for himself their enduring affection and loyalty. A s in the heart of Africa so also in T u n i s D r N a c h t i g a l w o n the respect and trust of natives w h o hated the European intruders, first b y his self-sacrificing activities as a physician, and later as Consul-General of the G e r m a n Empire; they became accustomed to see in h i m a friend and adviser w h o was always ready to help, and on the news of his death gave w a y to the most passionate expressions of grief. T h e y too have preserved a loyal memory of him. Berlin, March 1889

E.

G [RODDECK].

CHAPTER

I

THE WINTER OF 1872-1873 IN K U K A September 1872 to March

/,

1873

[3] During my absence from K u k a my household had shrunk considera b l y ; my former travelling companion, Bu Aisha, had left the hospitable capital of Bornu, and, with the ample profits from his visit to that country, set out on his homeward journey. In accordance with the agreement that we had made, Muhammad el-Qatruni, Hajj Husayn and Hajj Brek had also departed with him and under his protection. 1 1 H a j j Muhammad Bu Aisha, an envoy sent to Shaykh Umar of Bornu by the Governor-General of Tripolitania on behalf of the Sultan in Constantinople, was the leader of the caravan with which Nachtigal travelled from Murzuq, the capital of Fezzan, to Kuka, the capital of Bornu, in April-July 1870. Later he became qaimaqam of Ghadames, where a French traveller once saw him in the retinue of the pasha of Tripoli. His excessive exactions led eventually to his displacement from his office (H. Duveyrier, La Confrérie musulmane de Sidi Mohammed ben Ali es-Senousi, Rome 1918, 40). Muhammad el-Qatruni, the most important of Nachtigal's original team of five servants, who had served earlier with Heinrich Barth and with Gerhard Rohlfs, had joined Nachtigal in Tripoli, and remained with him for more than three years. Qatrun, where Muhammad had his home, was a village some four days' march southwest of Murzuq. Hajj Husayn and Hajj Brek were members of a troop of Moroccan pilgrims who travelled from Murzuq in the same caravan as Nachtigal. Several of the Moroccans, who had quarrelled with their leader, were eager to transfer to Nachtigal's service after their arrival in Kuka. Their leader moved on from K u k a in December 1870, his troop depleted by the loss of those who had transferred to Nachtigal's service, or who had for other reasons deserted him. Among the former was Hajj Husayn, but negotiations for prolonging the transfer, when Nachtigal was preparing for his final return journey to Europe, broke down. Then, as recorded here, Hajj Husayn went with Hajj Brek back to Tripoli. Hammu, another discontented member of the troop, continued to serve Nachtigal for some four years until the end of the expedition. Throughout the period covered in this volume Nachtigal's party also included two boys recruited by him in Kuka early in 1872. Slaves of Shaykh Umar of Bornu, they were assigned by him to Nachtigal's service, with a certificate of emancipation which was formally validated by Shaykh Umar before they left Kuka. The elder of the two, Muhammadu, about sixteen or seventeen years old at the time of his recruitment, is mentioned by name only once in the current volume (p. 127), and the younger, Billama, who was twelve, twice (pp. 100 and 127) ; though presumably both of them, as well as Hammu, who wasmentioned several times, were in Nachtigal's

3

4

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

Shaykh Umar and the leading men of Bornu retained no friendly memories of the ambassador of the Sultan of Stamboul, and indeed complained bitterly about his ingratitude. After he had crossed the frontier of Bornu with the gifts which the generous Negro prince had most lavishly bestowed upon him, ordinary slaves, eunuchs, deafmutes and dwarfs, ready money, ivory and ostrich feathers, live ostriches and other wild [4] animals, and even some small herds of Bornu sheep and Kuri cattle, the first token of courtesy to his royal host had been to send him a letter full of bitter home truths about the weaknesses and deficiencies of his government, the feebleness of his rule, and the dishonesty of his high officials. Nor had he in any way spared those among the latter to whom he was indebted for the most substantial tokens of friendship, and, above all, for the material success of his expedition.1 This feeling of bitterness against a man who, as a Muslim and the Sultan's ambassador, had always put me in the shade, operated to my advantage in my relations with the sensitive and kindhearted Shaykh, so that even more than before I had occasion to rejoice in his friendly considerateness and fatherly solicitude. I had returned to Kuka in the second half of the rainy season, a time when the rain storms usually decrease considerably in both number and volume. The year, however, was extraordinarily wet; in September we were still having very heavy downpours, which frequently flooded the interior of my house, for my landlord, Ahmed Ben-Brahim,2 had not thought of making the flat roof of the house more resistant by putting on it a fresh layer of clay mixed with manure and sand. Also the rainy season had begun very early, so that rain was already falling at the time when the ordinary corn was still ripening; it had to be cut in the middle of September, and could not be properly dried. Although it was a very productive year, prices were therefore very high; the ox-load of dtikhn that one Maria Theresa dollar would buy was so small that one could really speak only of half a load, and wheat and rice were twice as dear. A camel suitable for a journey in the desert cost 30-40 Maria Theresa dollars, and even inferior animals brought about 20 dollars; pack animals [presumably oxen] varied, according to quality, from 7 to 9 mind when he wrote his appreciation of the faithful service which he had enjoyed (pp. 268-9). The arrival of Muhammadu and Billama in Cairo is noted earlier in the story (ii. 308-9), but there is no record of Nachtigal's final parting with either of them, or with Hammu. 1 Some correspondence relating to Bu Aisha's mission to Kuka is preserved in the Turkish archives in Istanbul (B. A. Martin, " F i v e Letters from the Tripoli Archives", Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1963). 2 On his arrival in Kuka in July 1870 Nachtigal was assigned quarters, which he retained until his final departure in March 1873, in the house, or compound, of Ahmed Ben-Brahim, described below as at that time perhaps the most influential courtier in Kuka; Nachtigal formed a very low opinion of him.

The Winter of 1872-1873

in Kuka

5

dollars. For the most part the prices of horses were still maintained at their former level, for quite magnificent animals could be purchased for 20 to 30 dollars, and the hacks which were usual on trading journeys of course [5] sold for much less.1 Foreign manufactures as well as hard dollars very seldom came on to the market. Merchants from Tripoli had formerly brought to Bornu as much in ready cash as in goods. Now, however, they were turning more to the prosperous Hausa states, and at the most made a detour to Bornu with those goods for which they could count with certainty on finding a market there. This included above all the ordinary cotton cloth, kham, which was not, however, accepted in payment for the most urgent necessities of life, such as corn. T h e value of the Maria Theresa dollar, which at the time of my arrival in Kuka had been 1 2 0 - 1 3 0 rotl, and during Barth's 2 visit to Bornu, only about 100 rotl, had risen to about 190 rotl, i.e. about 6,000 cowries. 3 In these circumstances it was difficult to dispose of the possessions which I had brought back from my journey to Bagirmi. The two oxen were in any case difficult to sell, for these animals usually die after a journey in the humid south. Mine had indeed arrived in Kuka much debilitated, but apparently healthy. After a few days, however, their hair began to stand on end - a sure sign, according to local opinion, that they had been bitten by some virulent fly - and eventually I had to be satisfied with getting rid of both of them for one dollar in cowries. Since likewise no ready money was to be obtained for the horse which I had purchased on credit on my way back to Kuka, 4 I decided to let one of my former travel companions, Hajj Bu Hadi from Fezzan,® a 1 In Nachtigal's earlier list of K u k a market prices (i. 693), camels from the T u a r e g or from K a n e m or W a d a i were priced at 1 5 to 40 M a r i a Theresa dollars, and camels from the north which had already crossed the desert at up to 1 5 dollars. According to this list, draught oxen cost from 4 to 8 Maria Theresa dollars, a good riding horse bred by the S h u w a or the T u b u 20 to 40 dollars, and an inferior Bornu pack-horse 4 to 10 dollars. 2 Heinrich Barth ( 1 8 2 1 - 6 1 ) was one of the two scientist members of the African expedition which J a m e s Richardson ( 1 8 0 9 - 5 1 ) persuaded the British government to sponsor. T h e party set out from Tripoli early in 1 8 5 0 ; Richardson died in M a r c h 1 8 5 1 , and Barth, w h o then took charge, arrived in K u k a in April. From there, with Shaykh U m a r ' s assistance, he undertook four expeditions, to A d a m a w a , K a n e m , Logon and Bagirmi, eventually returning to England in 1 8 5 5 . His five-volume account of his explorations was published in 1 8 5 7 - 8 both in German and in English. Nachtigal made numerous references to Barth, for whose pioneer work he had the greatest respect and whom he regarded as his "constant example" (i, p. viii). 3 Barth said that as a result of speculation the dollar would sometimes fall as low as 4 5 or 5 0 rotl, while at other times it would fetch as much as 100 rotl, or 3,200 shells (Travels and discoveries in north and central Africa, ii. 3 1 1 - 1 2 ) . T h e rate quoted earlier b y Nachtigal was 180 rotl to the dollar, not 190 (i. 6 9 1 ) . * In August at Otsho, in southern Bornu, for 17 M a r i a Theresa dollars payable in K u k a (ii. 750). ' A M u r z u q merchant who had been a member of the same caravan which

6

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

very upright and trustworthy m a n , w h o intended to make a journey to K a n o , have it for 1 7 dollars, and to give him credit for this amount until his return. M y two hundredweight of ivory 1 were actually worth 100 dollars, but no one h a d so much ready money available. O n l y after some months did I succeed in selling it to the M a i n a A d a m , the K a w a r prince who is known especially from Rohlfs' account of his travels. 2 Letters which had in the meantime arrived from Tripoli were at first, indeed, calculated to raise m y spirits, for they informed [6] me that funds for m y travels, funds which in m y situation were not to be described as inconsiderable, had come into the hands of Luigi Rossi, the Austrian consul there, 3 to be forwarded to me. Uncertain about m y present whereabouts, and moved to caution by the doubtful condition of the roads to Bornu, he h a d , however, not dared to entrust such a considerable amount to any single messenger, and had thought that he should content himself with commissioning a business friend in M u r z u q , w h o owed him 300 dollars, to transmit this sum to me. T h i s man, however, no less cautious and businesslike, had preferred not to part with his ready money, but again designated a business friend in K u k a , with w h o m he h a d an account, to p a y me, in case I should still be in brought Nachtigal to Kuka in J u l y 1870, and had apparently not gone back to Murzuq (i. 491). 1 This ivory was the payment made after a first offer of some slaves had been rejected, for horses sold by Nachtigal to Abu Sekkin, the fugitive king of Bagirmi, a visit to whom had been the main purpose of Nachtigal's expedition to Bagirmi which concluded in September 1871. Abu Sekkin had difficulty in finding the ivory, as some of his vassals were dilatory in discharging their tributary obligations. Nachtigal commented later on the difficulties which its transport was creating for him (ii. 655» 658, 736). J Gerhard Rohlfs (1831-96) was a German physician who travelled extensively in Africa both before and after Nachtigal's expedition. He had been in Murzuq and Kuka in 1866, and was afterwards instrumental in arranging the commission which launched Nachtigal on his travels. The Maina Adam, who was described as a brother of the sultan of Kawar, met Rohlfs during his visit to Murzuq, and they travelled to the Kawar oasis at the same time (Petermanns Milteilungen, Erganzungsheft No. 25, 1868, "Gerhard Rohlfs' Reise durch Nord-Afrika . . . , 1865 bis 1867," 11 et seq.). Nachtigal hoped that he too would meet Adam as he passed through the oasis on his way to Kuka in June 1870 (i. 525), but Adam, who had become one of the leading foreign merchants in Bornu, was by that time in Kuka. He despatched a Oaza into the desert to get news of Nachtigal's approach (i. 557), and was a member of the party which a little later greated Bu Aisha and his caravan just before their entry into Kuka (i. 578). Described as "heir to the Kawar sultanate", Adam was still in Kuka in 1893, and was said to have been caught there by Rabih's invading forces (P. Monteil, St. Louis d Tripoli par le lac Tchad, Paris 1894, 359-99, cit. Hassan Ibrahim Gwarzo, "Seven letters from the Tripoli archives", Kano studies (I. 4), 1968, 6). Adam apparently paid Nachtigal more for his ivory than he had expected (see below, p. 19). 3 Rossi also represented Germany in Tripoli; cf. i. 18.

The Winter of 1872-1873

in Kuka

7

Bornu, the sum that had been named, and to assist me otherwise as far as he could. Finally the last man, Belaid, a thoroughly honest man whom I had known for a long time, was so short of cash of any kind that, with the best will in the world, he had only slaves to offer me, which I could not convert into money again. For the time being, therefore, the 2,000 dollars which the home government had assigned were of little value to me. It was particularly painful to me that, when the dry season began to improve my condition, I was not able to procure even the modest luxuries which Bornu offered. Guro nuts, of which I was very fond, cost 5 to 10 dollars a hundred, coffee was generally not to be found, and a small loaf of sugar weighing about 1 \ pounds had the quite abnormal price of 2 dollars. 1 Oddly enough, despite the decline of trade and commerce, the demands of manual labourers were not correspondingly reduced. For example, the tailor, Abdallah Karussa, 2 asked 5 dollars for making two shirts, a pair of trousers and a jacket, from material, mahmudi, for which I had paid 4 dollars, and, generally speaking, the price paid for free labour was disproportionately high. Since the rest of my belongings, which I had entrusted to the care of my friend, the Sherif Ahmed el-Madani, 3 had been considerably reduced by [7] my servants' departure for Tripoli and by the necessary expenses incurred in that connection, I saw for the time being no possibility of reaching the Nile via Wadai and Darfur. For the present indeed I could not even think of realising any such project, for I had first to recover from the physical effects of the Bagirmi expedition, and a few months had to elapse before the road around Lake Chad would be even tolerably passable. Only when I was at rest did I become fully aware of the deterioration of my condition. The pains in the joints, muscles and bones, which I owed to the marshes of Bagirmi, robbed me of sleep, and my body was covered with deep ugly-looking little ulcers with much inflammation around them. In addition there came the inevitable malarial attacks of the rainy season, which, in view of my extremely small supply of quinine, I was able to treat in only a 1 T h e price of guro nuts quoted earlier (i. 667) was 2 - 1 0 dollars a hundred, according to size, quality and market demand. T h e K u k a market price for a pound of sugar was listed as ranging from a third to a half of a dollar (i. 699). 2 Abdallah of the waggon, so-called because he had charge of a small carriage which Barth had given to Shaykh U m a r . Abdallah had come to Bornu with the Barth-Richardson expedition, and had to get his livelihood chiefly from his skill as a tailor (i. 7 4 7 ) . 3 A h m e d el-Madani, so-called because he came originally from Medina, was described by Nachtigal as his most trusted friend and counsellor in K u k a , where he had lived for some years, his plans to return home being repeatedly frustrated by some accident which made it impossible for him to finance the journey. H e regularly advised Nachtigal about the equipment and presents that would be needed on his excursions, and looked after his affairs during his prolonged absences from K u k a .

8

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

very gingerly way. Thus I continued for more than a month, tortured with pain, without strength, in very low spirits, full of longing for home, and not capable either of any useful work or of pushing ahead with further travel. To some extent, to be sure, a glance at my travelling companions from Fezzan was calculated to afford some consolation to me, for most of them were in very poor shape. After selling his goods at the very beginning at high prices on credit, Abd er-Rahman from Awjila, the wealthiest man in our former company of travellers, 1 was struggling with the most pressing worries about subsistence; Hajj Bu Hadi was trying to realise profitably in Kano what was left of his small belongings. For a long time Hajj Zellawi 2 from Qatrun had to remain on his sickbed, from which it seemed that he would never rise again, and several others were already dead. A very well-known Fezzaner, Hajj Muhammad, son of Hajj el-Amri, one of the richest merchants in Murzuq, 3 had arrived from Kano during my absence on the almost hopeless enterprise of collecting a few thousand dollars from defaulting debtors; he brought me the sad news of the death of my Murzuq friends, the Ben-Aluas, father and son, both of whom, according to the general belief, had [8] died an unnatural death not without the connivance of the Tripolitanian government.4 The general state of the country as a whole was in keeping with the depressed economic conditions of the capital. Immediately after my return from Bagirmi, the Sherif el-Madani had set off to the west of Bornu to dun some delinquent debtors, and on his return he painted a sad picture of conditions there. Everywhere evidence could be seen of the arbitrariness of the princes and of the highest officials, who, endowed with full powers, periodically travelled around practising extortion in the districts entrusted to their control, and taking advantage 1 A distinguished member of the caravan with which Nachtigal had travelled from Murzuq to Kuka in 1870. Awjila was the centre of the Jalo oasis, the home of the Mejabra. 2 Another member of the same caravan. 3 While waiting in Murzuq for a caravan to Kuka, Nachtigal had got to know Hajj Muhammad el-Amri, who at one time had been the business partner of G. B. Gagliuffi, the British vice-consul in Murzuq from 1843 to 1845. The man referred to here was his son. Cf. ii. 746; and p. 19 below. 4 Nachtigal had already had earlier news of the death of these men, towards the end of his Borku expedition (ii. 278), and again shortly before he reached Logon on his way back from Bagirmi (ii. 746). Hajj Brahim Ben-Alua, whom Nachtigal described as the most important man in Fezzan, was very helpful to Nachtigal while he was in Murzuq. His father, Hajj Muhammad Ben-Alua, originally from Awjila, had once been president of the Great Council in Murzuq. The Tripolitanian authori ties had tried to implicate thein in the murder of Fräulein Tinne a little way out of Murzuq after Nachtigal had set out for Tibesti (i. 467-78), and, it was alleged, had had them poisoned.

The Winter of 1872-1873

in Kuka

9

of the lamentable weakness of their master, who, with all his natural goodwill and sense of justice, could not bring himself to take energetic action against his children or his favourites. The rich provinces and flourishing towns of the west obeyed the insolent Tanemon of Zinder rather than Shaykh Umar. Tanemon had not only laid Munio waste and depopulated it, but also exacted tribute from the other provinces bordering on this territory, and appeared scarcely to be aware of any obligation to pay tribute regularly to his liege lord. Instead of the 100 camel loads which had formerly been the annual tribute from Damagaram, the Shaykh now received at most a dozen, and yet he appeared to be happy that his refractory vassal did not, by omitting even this formality, drive him to forceful intervention. 1 Soon after my return, the news came that Abdu, the ruler of Gummel, a loyal vassal of Bornu, like the former Munioma [the ruler of Munio, who had been killed by Tanemon], had been killed by the ruler of Hadeija, who was subject to the Hausa king, and this further intensified the disorganisation of the border territories.2 Only occasionally did the Shaykh receive from his cowardly courtiers watered down and tendentious reports of these events and their consequences. At the audience where he was received on his return from the west, the Sherif el-Madani, in pardonable deference to the wishes felt in the highest quarters, had, amid the applause of the nokena - "usse, usse, thanks, thanks, Sheriff sketched a rather optimistic picture of the condition of the country. In order then [9] to some extent to satisfy his conscience, he began to qualify this with some darker strokes, but the dignitaries hastily interrupted him with appeals to the advanced hour, and his disagreeable intelligence was stifled by the inevitable fatihah. Ahmed Ben-Brahim was, as before, the most influential courtier; 1 Tanemon was a vassal of Bornu who, possibly with the encouragement of the authorities in Sokoto, aspired to make D a m a g a r a m , the state northeast of Bornu of which he was the ruler, with its capital at Zinder, into an independent kingdom. H e had for a considerable time behaved in a highly insubordinate fashion towards Shaykh U m a r . Nachtigal's comments on him were naturally coloured by the views that were current in K u k a ; he has, however, been described as " a man of vision as well as ambition". H e grasped the importance of firearms much earlier than any other Chief in the central Sudan, and Nachtigal mentioned the fact that he had accumulated a considerable supply of such weapons, including a few cannon. Tanemon continued to rule D a m a g a r a m until his death in 1884. H . A . S . J o h n s t o n , The Fulani empire of Sokoto, London, 1 9 6 7 , 197. 2 T h e ruler of Hadeija at this time was Haruna. Hadeija, after a period of revolt and virtual independence not many years before, had renewed its allegiance to the Fulani sultan of Sokoto, to whom Nachtigal here loosely refers as the Hausa king. Recent histories of the Sokoto empire, by Last and Johnston, do not mention this clash between G u m m e l and Hadeija. C . L . T e m p l e (Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Province of Nigeria, 2 ed. London 1963, 4 8 2 ) gives a list of the rulers of Gummel, in which the name A t u appears about this time; A t u reigned for only two years, but T e m p l e gives no indication of his end.

10

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

since the death of his implacable enemy, Lamino, 1 he had gradually succeeded in establishing friendly relations with the crown prince, Aba Bu Bakr, and had even formed a close friendship with the state secretary, Muallim Muhammad el-Komami [cf. i. 603] who had been his enemy for many years, in order to protect his position on that side too. The crown prince had need of both these powerful intriguers, for, in the event of Shaykh Umar's death, his succession to the throne might easily be called in question by his cousin, who was energetic and well regarded by the people, a son of that Abd er-Rahman, Shaykh Umar's brother, who in the '50s had for a short time gained control of the government of Bornu for himself.2 As I have already said, Shaykh Umar knew and was told very little of all this. In continual cheerfulness and invariable amiability, he held his daily Council meetings, at which as a rule nothing was less discussed than affairs of state. He sat there for hours, listening to news from the town, vague rumours from neighbouring countries, anecdotes from the more remote outside world, and the flattery of sponging travellers, who as usual were flooding the town in countless numbers, imposing for months or even years a heavy burden on the Shaykh's hospitality. In the afternoons only intimates such as Ahmed Ben-Brahim and others had access to him, and I often had an opportunity to observe the pleasantries with which they endeavoured to amuse themselves and the Shaykh. The innocent delight which he showed in every novelty served Giuseppe Valpreda, my former travelling companion and cook, extraordinarily well, as a result of Giuseppe's mechanical skills and his talent for continuously thinking up new little surprises. Only when Giuseppe, who at home had been even more skilled as a confectioner than as a cook, wished to give pleasure to the Shaykh with some kind of artfully prepared dish [10], did the pious prince become doubtful, preferring to pass it on to his servants; he had little faith in my former servant's change of religion, and in his eyes it would have been a sin to eat food prepared by a Christian. 3 1 Lamino was, according to Nachtigal's account, Shaykh U m a r ' s most trustworthy adviser. H e was described as " a sort of police minister" (i. 600), or, in a letter to Gerhard Rohlfs of February 1 8 7 2 , as " a sort of finance minister" (Petermanns Mitteilungen, 1 8 7 3 , 206); his exact official status remains a little obscure, but it was he alone who was able to keep Shaykh U m a r on the right track against the insidious influence of most of the courtiers in Kuka, and after his death in February 1 8 7 1 , the political situation in Bornu steadily deteriorated. Cf. i. 6 0 2 ; ii. 9, 10. 2 Cf. i. 7 1 0 . A b a Bu Bakr succeeded his father in 1 8 8 1 , and died in 1884, being then succeeded by his younger brothers. 3 This is Nachtigal's last reference to Giuseppe Valpreda, a Genoese pastrycook who, having fallen on hard times in North Africa, was recruited by Nachtigal, though he had no experience of desert travel, as one of the servants whom he took with him when he left Tripoli for Bornu in February 1869. By the time the party reached K u k a in J u l y 1870, Giuseppe had become disillusioned and soon after

The Winter of 1872-1873

in Kuka

11

At the beginning of October the rains ceased. Every day massive clouds passed south of us from east to west, but only a few drops of rain fell, and the prevailing wind again began to be the eastern trade wind. The nights became cooler, the atmosphere was dry, and the fever waned, both in general and for myself. The pains disappeared from my joints, and the ugly ulcers gradually healed. For nearly all who had the fever, the malaria had this year been accompanied by severe pains in the joints, and for most of them, as for me, great relief came with spontaneous diarrhoea. The following month was Ramadan, the festival month, which usually made heavy claims on the generous Shaykh. Every foreigner who was at all well known received an evening meal direct from the royal palace. In the evening, after the meal which was taken at sunset was ended there, long rows of royal slaves could be seen assembling in the courtyard, each with a large dish on his head; they went through the town under the leadership of their mounted overseer, who had an exact list of the foreigners in Kuka and was able to assess the claims of each of them. Nor was the Shaykh at all sparing in his hospitality. The ordinary Arab received a really gigantic dish of the thick gruel \aish\ which has often been mentioned, with vegetable sauce and meat in it. The more distinguished, among whom I was reckoned, also received in addition to this a second dish with wheat cakes and honey or roast meat. I have actually received a whole roast sheep or a dozen roast fowl, and even one day fifteen roast fowl and ten roast pigeons, from which anything that was left over was usually given to the poorer neighbours. The foreign Arabs, among whom I was [ 1 1 ] tacitly included, took their sunset meal with Muhammad el-Titiwi, 1 who might be described as their consul. Although he was notorious for the cunning and shameless way in which he had been able to enrich himself at the expense of the foreigners who had to trust to his mediation with the abruptly announced that, as he had become a convert to Islam, it was no longer appropriate for him to serve a Christian. Valpreda remained in or around K u k a for more than twenty years. H e gradually lost the protection which for some time he received from Shaykh U m a r , and the Italian explorers, Matteucci and Massari, w h o found him there in 1880, were unable to arrange for his return to Europe. T h e Niger C o m p a n y mission of 1890 found him still in K u k a , and Monteil, who saw him there in 1892, reported that he had asked for quinine. In 1 8 9 3 , he was killed near the river Y o , fleeing from the forces of Rabih. See Enrico de Leone, " U n Italiano nel Bornu: Giuseppe V a l p r e d a " , Rassegna Italiana di politico e di cultura, J u l y - S e p t e m ber 1 9 5 2 , 3 8 5 - 9 7 ; A . Schultze, The Sultanate of Bornu (London, 1 9 1 3 , reprinted 1968), 2 5 n.; H . Ganslmayr, in Gustav Nachtigal i86g-ig6g, Inter Nationes, (Bad Godesberg, 1969), 44. 1 M u h a m m a d el-Titiwi, a brother of the treasurer of Murzuq, had lived for many years in K u k a , where, though not a member of the Council of State, or indeed, strictly speaking, a citizen of Bornu, he exercised considerable influence. Cf. i. 5 7 5 , 604.

12

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

Shaykh, he nevertheless maintained himself in the high regard of the Arabs by the hospitality with which year after year he kept an open table. Every day twenty, thirty or more people came at the time of the evening meal, and rich and poor were entertained without any distinction. After the meal he gave away in addition about a dozen guro nuts, distributed very impartially. The rest of the evening was filled with the reading of religious writings, with one of the disciples of the Sanusiya as the reader, or was devoted to free discussion. The boundless fancy of the Arabs makes them partial to the discussion of the most incredible things, and the more absurd a statement is, the greater the credence which it finds among them. A whole evening was once given to debating how many million greater and lesser prophets God had sent to man since the creation of the world, and who was to be reckoned among the greater or the lesser.1 On one occasion a much-travelled man instructed the assembly about the Christians and their religion in a way which, despite my standing among them, I was not able to put right; irrefutable quotations from Arab writers were used later by one of their most distinguished learned men to demonstrate the probability or improbability of the most monstrous things. Towards the end of Ramadan, Tanemon's men appeared in the usual way from Zinder, to deliver his tribute, reduced, however, to half a dozen lightly laden camels, which were carrying women's shawls, dark blue indigo tobes from the Sudan and some Nife tobes. In earlier years at the "Greater Festival {id el-kabir), Tanemon had had to deliver in addition 1,000 Maria Theresa dollars, and on the birthday, mawlid, of the Prophet 100 mithqal of attar of roses and 200 mithqal of civet. Now the arrogant prince very easily evaded his obligations, and indeed carried his insolence so far [12] as to send gifts to the King of Wadai, who was moving against Bagirmi, and to propose to him that he should conquer Bornu and set Tanemon up as the vassal prince for the whole country. The people of Hadeija, who had killed the tumbima, or sultan of Gummel, also appeared with Tanemon's men, with the intention of placating the Shaykh with some gifts, in which unfortunately they were only too successful. On December 3 the id el-fitr which concludes Ramadan was celebrated. Fever and pains in the joints prevented me from taking part in the festival procession which, in accordance with ancient custom, takes place at that time. This year the brilliance of the procession suffered in some degree from the fortuitous absence of some of the highest 1

According to one account, there was a difference of opinion about the number of Prophets; some said there were 124,000, others 224,000. Of the total number 313 were Apostles (E. A. Wallis Budge, Cook's Handbook for Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, London 1 9 1 1 , 329).

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officials. On the following day, also in accordance with ancient custom, there was the public meal and distribution of the royal bounty, sadaqah, to the learned men of the capital. This included 500 turkedi, 500 Maria Theresa dollars, 60 cattle, 36 headloads of tobes and strips of cotton cloth, a bag of guro nuts, etc. Unfortunately, however, these gifts for the most part remained in the hands of the highest officials. The usual procedure is roughly as follows. All the gifts are delivered to the Shitima Muhammadu, 1 who receives them from the Shaykh himself. After he has held back for himself about 100 turkedi, 100 dollars, ten cattle, six headloads of cloth and a third of the guro nuts, he sends the rest to the Muallim Muhammad el-Komami, the leading scholar of the country, who makes a similar inroad into the gift. After he has received from the three head muallims the lists of the faqihs under them, he divides what is left of the Shaykh's gift into three parts in accordance with the numbers in these lists; these are handed over to the head muallims, who are understandably no less greedy than the higher-ranking men who have preceded them, so that finally only a few cowries are left in the hands of the minor scholars. On the third day after the end of Ramadan, court is held for the public to pay their respects; the inhabitants, according to their tribes and administrative districts, are represented by their chiefs, and the foreigners, Arabs, Tubu, etc., introduced by their so-to-speak consuls. [ 1 3 ] At the military review held on the fourth day of the festival on the plain of Gauanga, to which I also rode out, about 5,000 horsemen were assembled. The Shaykh himself, dressed in a white burnus and red turban, was present, surrounded by a kind of bodyguard of footsoldiers armed with flint-locks. As soon as Ramadan and the festival which followed it were over, a general movement began again among those who liked to travel. Those from Kuka prepared for their departure; others came in from outside, and brought news, which during Ramadan had completely ceased, from every quarter. Those who came from K a w a r and Kanem were of particular interest to me. Tubu refugees from K a w a r told of a great raid by the Arabs of the Great Syrtis aimed at Kanem via the Bornu road, in which 300 men, from every conceivable tribe, were said to have participated. They had first attacked Bu Aisha's caravan in the Tummo mountain [between the K a w a r oasis and Murzuq], and were said to have completely despoiled it, leaving with their bearer only Shaykh Umar's gifts to the Governor-General of Tripoli. They had then attacked Kawar, and were said now to be on their way to their brothers in Kanem. 2 The news about Bu Aisha heartily re1 Muhammadu uled Abram was the senior representative of the Kanuri, the leading tribe in Bornu, on the nokena. For Shitima see Glossary. 1 Further news of this raid was reported to Nachtigal some three months later in Abeshr, the capital of Wadai, p. 68 below.

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

14

joiced the Shaykh and his dignitaries, for even with his natural goodwill the prince could not forget the insults which Bu Aisha had inflicted on him. In Kanem the dissensions between Halluf and his Qadiwa and the Awlad Sulayman still continued.1 The latter were said to have united with the numerous Wadai bands, and threatened the former, who appeared to be supported by the Mgharba and the Dogorda. Halluf had then retreated before superior forces in the direction of Kuka; 2 in his distress he sought to flee to the Lake Chad islands, but this was prevented by the Budduma. Finally came the news that Halluf had come to an understanding with the Wadai commander, and after his withdrawal into the Bahr el-Ghazal territory, had established himself again in Shitati,3 while the Awlad Sulayman were camped near Mao.4 The latest news of all, somewhat uncertain [14], reported that with his well-known foolhardiness Halluf had appeared alone in the midst of the Awlad Sulayman, and spoken something as follows: "For more than thirty years we have maintained an uninterrupted relationship of friendship together. I have, it is true, killed your Hazaz, the son of Bu Alaq. But this was done in open battle and not in any underhand way. Here I am. If you wish to pursue a blood feud against me, I am in your power. But if you are willing to accept the blood money, the diya, I shall bring you 300 cattle." The Arabs were said to have accepted this proposal, and the old understanding was re-established. Although the last rain had already fallen at the beginning of October, the water in Lake Chad was still rising at the beginning of December. Ngornu, the second town in Bornu, and the smaller villages east of Kuka on the shore of the lake, were for the most part covered with water, and had in part to be abandoned by their inhabitants. According to the general belief, Lake Chad was swallowing up more and more of its banks year by year, and repeatedly, when the northeast wind was blowing more fiercely than usual, and driving the water still farther towards the west, the Shaykh and the anxious inhabitants of Kuka became alarmed, and rode out to see for themselves the encroachments of the water. On December 11 I too made an excursion to Kaua, some two hours from Kuka, to observe the condition of the water, but at that time no more of the open water of the lake was to be seen than on my 1

Halluf, whom Barth had met in 1851, was chief of the Qadiwa, a mixed nomad tribe, part Daza and part Kanembu, who allied himself with the Awlad Sulayman, the marauding Arabs with whom Nachtigal spent several months in 1 8 7 1 . Nachtigal met him at that time, but later Halluf broke with the Awlad Sulayman, killing Hazaz, who had been a main support of Nachtigal during his Awlad Sulayman expedition. (Cf. ii. 39, 52, 272, 746.) 2 Nachtigal uses here the more strictly accurate plural form Kukawa, Kuka, like many towns in Bornu, having been built in two distinct parts (i. 586). 3 A district in Kanem, where Nachtigal had travelled in April 1871. 4 The main town in Kanem, now capital of the Kanem province in the Republic of Chad.

The Winter of 1872-1873

in Kuka

15

K a n e m expedition [in March 1871]. Neither my companions nor the K a u a people had any inclination to venture along the broad road, which pools of water and swamps would have made heavy going, to a higher spot from which a view over the lake could have been obtained. As usual, however, my companions from Kuka took the opportunity to extort a substantial feast from the headman of Kaua. Some Budduma, almost naked, with white beads around their necks, had arrived on the shore in their light boats ofphogu wood, to sell the natron of their islands, but they fled as fast as they could as soon as we approached them on horseback. [15] The sand fleas which were present in incredible numbers under the public verandas of the square of K a u a caused me to return to Kuka as soon as the customary meal had been taken. The quantity of water in the Kotoko province, which we would have to pass on the way to Wadai, was also in any case so great that for the time being there could be no thought of departing in that direction. A great number of Jellaba who wished to travel to Wadai, Bagirmi, the Fitri region, or by way of Kuka to southeast Kanem, had indeed already set out, but they had left the capital only to wait in [Ngala], a smaller town on the west bank of Lake Chad, where they hoped to find that corn prices were lower. I had already a promise from Shaykh Umar that he was willing to assist my journey to Wadai in the near future, but there was not yet any prospect of being able to get to Sultan Ali there in safety. The Shaykh refused to allow me to travel with an ordinary caravan, since he quite rightly feared that I might be captured on the way by some of the military leaders of the neighbouring vassals of Wadai, and killed, as Beurmann had been. 1 He had promised that, if no more satisfactory opportunity should present itself, he would give me one of his officials as escort, who, with the help of Sultan J u r a b of Fitri, would bring me safely to Abeshr [the capital of Wadai]. The final date of departure might be postponed, but I felt completely confident about the Shaykh's trustworthiness. I therefore used the time of waiting to produce, with the help of a Sungor young man, whom chance had brought to Bornu, a vocabulary of his language, which was all the more interesting to me, since it was identical with the language of Tama. The Shaykh and his people could not forget the danger which threatened them from Lake Chad, and it was at this time that they began to think of establishing a safe place of refuge against all eventualities on a higher position in the neighbourhood of Kuka. About an hour and a half from Kuka to the northnortheast, there is a pool, kulugu, called Ba Dungu, at the foot of a medium-sized sandhill, which was in part grown over with qarad trees, acacia nilotica, but also, with some 1 Cf. p. 134 n. below.

16

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

other sparse mimosas and a few tamarind trees, contrasted with [16] the monotonous region which surrounds Kuka, covered with oshar, the giant asclepiads.1 There, it was said, Shaykh Umar's father2 had wanted before the foundation of Kuka to build his new capital; when later the project was to have been carried out, he had surprisingly not found the site again, and the capital had been established on its present site. In view of the danger which threatened from Lake Chad, Shaykh Uinar now decided to establish a village there in honour of his father. For his dignitaries there was, moreover, at that time another reason for making this project acceptable to him and for speeding up its execution. The news from the west and southwest of the country had become steadily more disquieting. The Fellata of Missau, south of Katagum and west of Gujeba, ventured even to threaten Gujeba, where the Kashella Abdallah el-Margemi 3 was in command. This must have been the section of the Fellata, almost independent of Sokoto under their chief Salih, which had threatened Bornu in the time of Shaykh Muhammad el-Amin.4 To the earlier defeats, which, as I have said above [ii. 300], Aba Bu Bakr, Aba Brahim [Shaykh Umar's second son] and other military leaders had suffered in Kerrikerri and the Bahr elGhazal region, there was finally added a successful surprise attack by the Bedde Pagans, which filled the cup to the brim, and appeared at last to demand energetic intervention by the Bornu government. A large caravan of Arabs, Jellaba and Manga, coming from Kano, was attacked by a band of Bedde, many hundred strong, and armed with bows and lances; the caravan was completely pillaged, and many were killed. Among the dead was my friend, the poor Hajj Bu Hadi, who wanted from the proceeds from his journey to bring back to me the money which I could only with difficulty do without. There was a general demand for a military expedition to ensure the safety of the roads in the west of Bornu. Already in December the Shaykh had called together an assembly of all the great dignitaries and military leaders, the so-called kindekei, or War Council, in which he spoke out with energy and dignity, announcing that he [17] would take command in person. 1

For pictures of these trees, see i. 2 1 5 , 264, 573. A new capital for Bornu was established at Kuka in 1 8 1 4 by Muhammad el-Amin el-Kanemi, after he had saved the ancient dynasty of the country from Fulani attacks in 1 8 0 9 - 1 1 . He became the de facto ruler of Bornu, though the old dynasty was not finally supplanted until 1846, eleven years after el-Kanemi's death, when he had been succeeded by Shaykh Umar. 3 Ranked second among the kashellawa, or military commanders, of Bornu, i. 724. 4 Muhammad Salih was ruler of Missau, a Fulani emirate established on the western borders of Bornu after the first series of conflicts between Muhammad el-Amin el-Kanemi and the Fulani; Murray Last, The Sokoto caliphate (London 1967), 201, and Johnston, Fulani empire, 79. 2

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At first all the magnates of the country expressed themselves to the same effect, but it was not difficult to infer from the utterances of my landlord, Ahmed Ben-Brahim, reflecting the opinions of his colleagues, that they cherished well-grounded hopes of thwarting the expedition. With this purpose in mind, they first of all made the Shaykh aware that, in view of his advanced years, he had the duty of preserving himself for his country as long as possible. For this reason therefore he should confine himself to marching out with the army, but leave the further direction of the enterprise to his son, Aba Bu Bakr. Even this was too much for the courtiers, since an expedition of this kind must still place upon them heavy burdens, perhaps even requiring their personal participation. There were thus on all sides zealous efforts to stimulate him to carry through his other plans, and soon the foundation of the new village claimed all the thoughts of Shaykh Umar and of his immediate entourage. I was myself asked to recommend Ba Dungu to him on sanitary grounds, which I could do with a good conscience, because of its high position and healthy sandy soil. Nearly every second or third day the Shaykh rode out to Ba Dungu with his dignitaries, and, according to custom, anyone who had the slightest claim to social distinction had to accompany him. Each man set up there a zariba, pitched a tent or built a straw hut, while a gigantic straw hut was constructed as a reception room for the Shaykh. Ahmed Ben-Brahim was responsible for this, and was accordingly in the habit of spending more time in Ba Dungu than in Kuka. Several times a day a long row of his slave women moved out there with dishes 011 their heads to bring their master the means for good living to which he was accustomed. Already a name had been found for the town which was to be built, Kherua, the Rich, or the Fortunate. 1 Only from the middle of December did the great volume of water which covered the southwest bank of Lake Chad begin slowly to recede. The Jellaba, however, who had already departed [18] and were waiting in Ngala, did not wish to continue their journey yet, for, so long as there were great masses of water in the Kotoko province and around the Fitri, the virulent flies there were a danger to their pack and riding animals. The lowest temperature for the winter came in the 1

Later progress in the construction of Kherua is reported below, p. 124, but apparently the project eventually came to nothing. The passage of time may have made it appear less urgent, for it is said that for forty years after the abnormal conditions observed by Nachtigal the waters of Lake Chad never, except in 1897, showed more than the normal seasonal movement (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11 th ed. 1910, v. 787b, where however the "exceptional height" of the lake is dated 1870, and not 1872). Kuka continued to be the capital of Bornu until 1893; Rabih, who overthrew the Kanemite dynasty at that time, shifted his headquarters to Dikoa (see p. 25), because, according to one story, the ghosts of the sultans murdered in Kuka appeared to him in the royal palace there (Schultze, Sultanate, 289-90).

18

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

first half of January, when on several days it was no more than 16 degrees Centigrade. O n such days the eastern trade wind swings round to the north. Then a northeast wind blows strongly, or very strongly, from 8 a.m. until midday, when it gradually slackens, but ceases only at midnight. These temperatures may not appear very cold to us, but in those wide open spaces they are keenly felt, and the natives, continually lamenting and complaining, almost roasted themselves beside the fire. O n January 10, 1873, to my great j o y , a messenger from K i n g A l i of Wadai appeared, carrying letters from his master and from the Shaykh's ambassador, Hajj Abdallah ibn Hajj Abbas, who was expected shortly to return from Wadai. T h e messenger's most important commission, however, was to buy in the well-stocked K u k a markets various western goods which seldom appeared in the markets of Wadai. He was a Jellabi, O t m a n Uled 1 el-Fadl, well known in Bornu and to the Shaykh. T h e tenor of the letters which he delivered was encouraging, and the Shaykh at once promised to allow me to travel with Otman, who was in a great hurry and wished to return to Wadai at once. Otman brought news which on the whole was reassuring about conditions in Wadai, but he had had great trouble and many losses in travelling to K u k a through the inundated regions of the Fitri, the Bahr elGhazal, and the Kotoko province. Otman, whom I met one evening at the house of my friend, the Sherif el-Madani, viewed the prospect of having me as a travel companion with more favour than I had expected. He was indeed not altogether unconcerned about the responsibility to Shaykh U m a r which he would be accepting to guide me in safety to the capital of the king of Wadai, and on the other hand his responsibility to the king for bringing a Christian into the country. [19] In any case he could not refuse the mission proposed to him by the Shaykh, and was, moreover, of the opinion that, once I was in the hands of K i n g Ali, no further danger would threaten me. I had, of course, also explained to him that I was eager to return to my own country, and did not wish a second time to make the long, monotonous and arduous journey by which I had come to Bornu. I hoped rather by a less strenuous route to reach the Nile countries through Wadai and Darfur. M y promise not to take any notes of the country also reassured him to some extent. He emphasised, however, the absolute necessity of refraining from questioning the people along the road, and from writing anything or making any attempt in Abeshr to travel round the country. T o do this was for a foreigner an impossibility. He had himself lived for seven years in Wadai, and was well liked by the Sultan, but he was acquainted only with the well-known great caravan routes to Bornu and Darfur, and would never dare to travel alone in the in1

Uled is the A f r i c a n pronunciation of the A r a b i c weled, son. G . N .

The Winter of 1872-1873

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terior of Wadai. His relative, the Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga, a friend of King Ali, who intended to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, would certainly guide me in safety from Wadai to Egypt. I was thus able at last to proceed with preparations for realising my plan. The most important thing for my journey was to procure the necessary means for it. Belaid, who had been commissioned from Fezzan to pay me 300 dollars, had the best intentions, and made the largest offers. He was, however, as I said, quite without ready cash, and I could not myself venture upon the sale of his slaves and camels. Almost six months had passed since my return from Bagirmi, and the limited resources which I had left with Sherif Ahmed el-Madani in case of emergency had been reduced to a very small remnant. There had already been serious inroads on the sum of about 130 Maria Theresa dollars which I had received from Maina Adam of Kawar from the sale of my ivory, and the money which the unfortunate Hajj Bu Hadi owed me and intended to bring back from Kano [20] was lost as a result of his death. I made an attempt to have the small sum involved refunded from his estate, and was comforted by the most binding promises. Inevitably, however, it was my experience that deceased estates of any kind, to whomsoever they belong, have usually in Kuka, under the authority to which their regulation was entrusted by the government, the habit of evaporating into nothing. The Hajj Muhammad el-Amri from Murzuq, one of the most intelligent Muslims I have ever met, could well as a wealthy man, who was familiar with Europeans, have lent me a larger sum, but he himself had collected little or nothing of the numerous debts which were due to him. There remained to me, therefore, only that assistance on which no European traveller in Bornu had ever counted in vain, the kindness of Shaykh Umar. I discussed the matter with my landlord, Ahmed, who grasped the problem cold-bloodedly in a thoroughly businesslike way, and for a certain percentage pledged himself to have my complete outfit looked after by the Shaykh. In the middle of January, as soon as it was decided that I should travel with Otman to Wadai, I went myself to the Shaykh to make my position clear to him, and, since the honest man was accustomed to receiving some gift, however small, at every visit, I was embarrassed to know what I could offer him. With some difficulty I succeeded in collecting a few articles from my possessions, a geodetic instrument with a tripod, a washing sponge, a filtering vessel for drinking water, a small tin goblet, which consisted of three sections fitting into each other, a little box of cork stoppers, and some cases of revolver cartridges. The Shaykh, who had already on the occasion of my journey to Kanem and Bornu been annoyed that I had borrowed several hundred dollars from Bu Aisha and Muhammad el-Titiwi at

Journey from Bomu to Wadai

20

the rate of 150 per cent, 1 was ready with great kindness to help me out of my embarrassments and to protect me from the necessity of borrowing at such rates from pious Muslims. The Mala Abd el-Kerim 2 appeared after a few days with more than a hundred turkedi, [21] twenty kororobshi tobes (indigo tobes from Kano), ten other garments of various kinds from Nife and Bomu, a number of silk-embroidered women's shirts, large coverlets from the Hausa states, a large number of Bomu basketwork dish covers, as well as lion and leopard skins, with the announcement that, as soon as the day for departure arrived, provisions and camels would be added to these gifts. About a third of this outfit I had to hand over to my landlord Ahmed and to the mala. The next task was to procure presents for the courts of Wadai and Darfur. I still possessed a pair of cavalry pistols with gold inlay, a telescope and a revolver carbine, which I decided to give to the King of Wadai. Then since I was aware of King Ali's great partiality for horses, I tried to obtain a beautiful horse for myself, actually in exchange for the revolver carbine; the latter, which needed special cartridges, would no doubt for that reason not have appealed to his practical mind. Moreover, as had been reported to me, he had a pronounced preference for the long flintlock muskets of the Arabs. On the other hand, I believed that the carbine would be very much to Shaykh Umar's liking as a new type not hitherto represented in his great collection. The Shaykh in his passion for arms was guided less by considerations of utility; he had a distinct insight into mechanical processes, and valued the objects in his collection with reference less to their serviceability than to their diversity and the novelty of their mechanism. One day therefore I presented him with the carbine, adding that as a result of the kindness with which he had equipped me, and by his introductions had opened up for me the way to the Nile, it had become superfluous for me and frankly requested for myself in exchange a beautiful horse from his stables. This affair too was arranged. 3 At the end of January the Shaykh also sent me two jars of honey and six containers with butter, as well as a tent, and my equipment was complete except for the acquisition of pack animals. The start of the journey, however, dragged on until February [22] was at an end, for the Jellabi Otman had straight away sold to the Shaykh the goods which he had brought with him, 1

In February 1 8 7 1 , cf. ii. 16. Shaykh Umar's head eunuch and treasurer. He has been described as "the de facto master of Bornu for nearly half a century" (C. F. Ifemesia, "Bornu under the Shehus", in J . F. Ade Ajayi and Ian Espie, eds., A thousand years of West African history, Ibadan and London 1965, 291). Nachtigal mentioned him several times, but without imputing to him quite such importance. 3 King Ali took abrupt delivery of this horse, which suffered severely from fly-bites in the Lake Fitri region, as soon as Nachtigal arrived in Abeshr, pp. 3 5 , 4 5 ; the horse, however, died during Nachtigal's Runga excursion, 122. 2

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and it was not easy now to collect the sum of about 300 dollars. In the meantime I also purchased a horse from the Hajj el-Amri as a present f o r the sultan of Darfur, 1 and indeed on credit, the only way in which he was able to give me a loan. Unfortunately at the beginning of January my own horse fell ill of the disease called toso by the Kanuri and horse syphilis by the Arabs, though its symptoms seem to have little similarity to those of syphilis. More or less hard cord-like swellings form very suddenly in the horse's skin, especially behind the joints of the hindlegs, on the chest and in the groin. The legs swell, and the animal can scarcely move. The disease is, however, regarded as not at all dangerous, and my horse in fact recovered very quickly under treatment with a mixture of masha, the fruit of the karasu (Yatropha Manihot) [ ? cassava] and dukhn meal. Id el-kabir, the Festival of the Sacrifices, was on February 9, when the decline of Bomu was again brought clearly to the understanding of the people. It is an ancient custom that on that day, when pious Muslims slaughter a sheep, the Shaykh sends to every foreigner in the town, according to his rank and the size of his household, one or more sheep. T h e distribution this year was very meagre; most of the Arabs got nothing, and the two ramswhich I received were much inferior to those of the previous year. 2 On the second day of the festival, the day for entertaining dignitaries, learned men and foreigners, the same scarcity made itself evident. The guests were offered no wheat dishes, and the customary distribution of guro nuts was altogether omitted. Imports of guro nuts had certainly recently been very small. The continuous pillaging by the Bedde of the caravans coming from Kano had created such a shortage of these favourite Bornu luxuries that for a time their prices were exorbitant. On receipt of the news that the last great caravan from Kano had been attacked [23] and plundered, less complaint was heard from the leading dignitaries of the country about the unfortunate losses of life than about the serious prospect of higher prices for guro nuts. At last, in the second half of February, Shaykh Umar's ambassador, the Hajj Abdallah ibn Hajj Abbas, returned from Wadai with satisfactory news. Otman Uled el-Fadl was at last paid, 3 and the day 1

This horse was left in poor shape in the royal stables in Abeshr when Nachtigal set off on the Runga excursion (p. 88), and died during his absence. The horse eventually presented by Nachtigal to King Brahim in March 1874 (267) was a substitute which King Ali had given to Nachtigal (229). * Nachtigal did not specifically mention the id el-kabir of 1872, just before he set out for Bagirmi. ' This is puzzling. Economic conditions in Bornu were depressed, prices were high [4], supplies were short [5]; nevertheless Otman wanted to buy in "the wellstocked markets of Kuka" [18], and then had to wait for cash payment for the goods which he himself had offered for sale to Shaykh Umar [20-1].

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

22

for departure drew near. Shaykh Umar's letters to the King of Wadai [see below, pp. 394-5], the King of Darfur and the German Emperor I had already received some time before, and on March 1 I had my last interview with the noble Bornu prince. He regarded the journey to Abeshr as the most dangerous part of my enterprise, and warned me against Sultan Ali's military commanders, the aqids, one of whom had had Beurmann killed. The road from Kuka to Abeshr is about 1,000 kilometers, and for a caravan the journey ordinarily takes 28-34 days. 1

Nachtigal's caravan covered the distance in 36 days.

CHAPTER

IX

JOURNEY TO WADAI March i to April 6, 1873 [24] My travelling companion, Otman, had already set off in the morning, and was to wait for me in Mongono, a little to the southsouthwest of Ngornu. After an affectionate farewell from the amiable prince whose hospitality I had so long enjoyed, and whose kindness had been so often demonstrated, I was able towards midday to load my camels, surrounded by most of the population of the west city, and at 3 o'clock, accompanied by Ahmed, who was to guide me to Mongono, and by the Sherif el-Madani, to turn my back on Kuka. The entirely amiable and innocent character of the people of Bornu was evident in this farewell. Hundreds of neighbours and friends, from far and near, with whom I [25] had lived as it seemed for years, assembled to wish me bon voyage and a happy return to my fatherland with a cordiality which showed me how far at that moment religious fanaticism was from their minds. Only Ahmad Ben-Brahim, who should have been the nearest to me, revealed here too his lack of feeling. About 9.30 p.m., after a hard ride towards the south through a region with the bare steppe character of the country around Kuka, we reached our destination for the day, where the camels also had arrived only a short time before. We resumed our journey before daybreak. The first days of such a journey, before the traveller has got to know accurately the characteristics of each camel, and has hit upon the most suitable way of arranging the baggage on its back, inevitably involve considerable loss of time. Otman, adynamic personality, nevertheless pressed indefatigably forward, very eager to get back to Abeshr. In addition to ourselves, our caravan also included the Muallim Abo, a Shuwa Arab, who had been exiled from Wadai by King Ali and taken up his residence in K u k a ; a Shinqiti from the region west of Timbuktu, who was making the pilgrimage to Mecca; some Bornu people who had been born in Wadai, and numerous Hausa and Fellata pilgrims. While he was living in Bornu, the Muallim Abo had married a Tunjur woman, Haiyamat by name, who had been my regular milk supplier 23

24

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

in Kuka [ii. 295], but he had now parted from her as he was hoping to be restored to King Ali's favour. After about five hours we reached the town of Yedi which has been mentioned earlier, 1 passing it by because of the lack of drinking water, and after another two hours pitched our camp near a pool beside the Shuwa village of Mogolam. Our direction was to the southsoutheast as far as Yedi, and then to the southeast. The soil was still predominantly sandy, but the plain then became more wooded and better provided with the camel fodder which my animals urgently needed. Onward from Mogolam we had on the following day the dark black so-called jirki soil, on which [26] also the dum palm appeared more frequently than before. After crossing a small tributary of the Misseneram, which consisted only of pools of water, we reached the Misseneram itself after a fivehour march; it was full of water, some twenty-five paces wide, and at most one meter deep, whereas at the same time in the previous year I had seen it completely dry. 2 So far we had maintained our direction to the southeast, but now for another hour we moved eastwards, passed through the hamlet of Legaroa, which already formed part of Ngala, and during the heat of midday camped near it. On our right we left the towns of Marte and Missene which we had touched on our way to Bagirmi [ii. 489], while Debbua, which was on our road back from Bagirmi [ii. 756], lay to the left. The place where we rested was near Gujari, in fact, to the south of it. The afternoon march eastwards was only short, for we had to go through the Mbulu Kurra river, which was very full of water, about 100 paces wide, coming up to the horses' saddles. The marshy ground in the stream made one of Otman's camels practically unserviceable for that day, so that we had to pitch our camp a half-hour southsouthwest of Hobbio, the village of the Kashella Koftera J e r m a , 3 which I knew from my journey back from Bagirmi [ii. 755]. After a visit to this dignitary, who entertained us at a sumptuous meal, we set off next morning to the southwest, and after a few hours reached the village ofJimmak, formerly walled, with about 100 huts, which also I had touched on the road to Bagirmi [ii. 494]. 1 ii. 488-9. For the first four or five days Nachtigal's route from Kuka to Wadai corresponded closely, though not exactly, with the road by which he had returned to Kuka from Bagirmi in September 1872. On his way to Bagirmi in March 1872 there were some deviations from this route, partly because the rainy season made it prudent along one stretch of the road to keep a little farther to the east of Lake Chad (ii. 492). 1 In March 1872 (ii. 494); there was a good deal more water in the Misseneram by September, when Nachtigal crossed it again on the return journey to Kuka

(»• 3755)-

Koftera Jerma was listed as one of the four most important military commanders, in Bornu, i. 744.

Kashellawa,

or

Journey to Wadai

25

W e soon crossed the Mbulu river, at a spot where it was sixty paces wide and about one meter deep. T h e little tributary, which consisted only of pools, and is called Mbulu Ganna, the little Mbulu, the Misseneram, and the Mbulu Kurra, or great Mbulu, are all only arms of the Komodugu Mbulu, from which they branch off in the neighbourhood of Dikoa [farther south]. In the morning we passed Ngala, 1 where we had our servants exchange our remaining cowries, the limits of whose market use are reached there, for corn. Moving to the east, we reached the ruined Makari village, Gambaru, on the Gambaruram river, at midday. This [27] place had only some miserable remnants of walls and about 50 huts, standing on a terrace, characteristic of many of the villages in the well-watered Kotoko province. There are sharp turns in the river here, on one of which lay Gambaru. O n the other side of the river, to the north of our road, Lekariri, which I had also touched earlier [ii. 752], lay not far away. T h e river, which, as I have already observed, is said to come from the Musgo region, and probably branches off from the Logon river, was about 100 paces wide; it was almost without current, but both men and beasts had to swim across the greater part of it. It had well-wooded banks, and attractive surroundings enlivened by large flocks of ducks, herons, cranes, ibises, etc. In the middle of the morning of March 5 we passed towards the eastsoutheast and east the Nagaia and Gubbege hamlets and the little Makari town of Ngafe, crossed the VVoshem Kurra, about thirty paces wide and a meter deep, and soon afterwards the narrower but somewhat deeper Woshem G a n n a ; through thick woods towards the eastnortheast and northeast we then passed the village of Golo, and after an eight- or nine-hour march camped in the bush. T h e watercourses which we crossed, and in which no current was to be observed, were indicated to me as nothing but outlets of Lake Chad, the so-called rijul or vage. T h e woods were mainly oikurna, talha, a few other mimosas, the hejlij and the serah, among which the acacias sparkled with the most fragrant blooms. T h e district was evidently much exploited by the socalled Keribina, for the fences and barricades of trees into which they used to drive their game were to be seen everywhere. Since some members of our caravan had arranged to bring some garments to Maffate for dyeing, we camped after a one-hour march on the following day in that genuine old Makari town, which travellers call Makari par excellence. By the village, beyond the Komodugu Lafia, there flowed an important arm of the Logon river, which branches off south of the junction of the Logon with the Shari proper. It was about 150-200 paces wide; in its western [28] part it was only a half to 1 1 S a i d to be a n old t o w n of the So, the original inhabitants of Bornu, w i t h a mausoleum in w h i c h thirty-five M a k a r i kings w e r e buried, ii. 426, cf. 498.

26

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

meter deep, though in the eastern third transport by boat was necessary. The western bank was quite flat, the eastern about 3 meters high. Whereas the Gambaruram had been crossed by means of a kind of raft made of stakes of ambaj (or phogu) wood, we found here real boats of the kind usual in Logon, Gulfei and other places. The town is very dilapidated, as indeed most of the Makari towns usually are, has a small fort and a population of at most 4,000. In indigo dyeing, the chief occupation of the people, they are much superior to the people of Kuka. Like the other towns in the Makari region, Maffate has two chiefs, a mai or prince, who represents the remnant of the supreme authority in an earlier period of independence, and an alifa, who is the governor on, so to speak, the Bornu side [cf. ii. 428]. There was a market in the town, frequented by 500 to 1,000 men, in which little dukhn and durra was sold, but much maize, kurna fruit, some cotton, a few cattle and sheep and much dried fish. Strips of cotton cloth were the usual medium of exchange, together with kohol, kimba pepper, glass beads and the like. I met here a companion from my Bagirmi journey, who presented me with a loaf of salt, such as is also produced here in tolerable quality from wood ash. After the rainy season, the town is completely surrounded by water, and for several months people from the surrounding country, mostly Shuwa Arabs, come to it in boats. Since the tobes which were being dyed were not quite ready the following day, we could set off only in the afternoon. We marched some hours to the southeast, and camped towards evening near a small halfruined Shuwa hamlet. March 7 brought us in about five hours to the southeast to Wulegi, a large town, which came under the administration of Ahmed Ben Brahim, and across a river-bed, 80 paces wide, completely overgrown with reeds, whose depth did not exceed two-thirds of a meter, the river of the Abu Dyiill. It too is a branch of the Shari, but is said gradually to disappear before it reaches Lake Chad. There are many pools of water throughout the region, and the soil [29] is mostly sandy, with a rich humus beneath. On the following day too, when, after a 3-4-hour march to the eastsoutheast, we reached Gulfei, on the Shari proper, we had to cross a very tortuous branch of that river, sixty paces wide and scarcely one meter deep, which is called Abu Ngaraka. As on the preceding day, we passed numerous villages, mostly inhabited by Shuwa. A t Gulfei on the Shari, the first quarter of our journey was completed, the section which lay within the territory of Bornu. For the next quarter, which is very sparsely populated, from the Shari to the Fitri Lake, we had to provide ourselves with corn, a considerable quantity of which was required for my three horses. We camped south of the town close by the Shari, and, since we intended to continue our journey next day,

Journey to Wadai

27

paid our respects to the alifa the same afternoon. Here too there are two administrative officials, a mai and an alifa. But in contrast with Maffate, where power is in the hands of the mai, in Gulfei the alifa has absolute control. 1 A very intelligent and popular man, who has distinguished himself in recent years by his loyalty and devotion to the King of Bagirmi, he belonged through his father to the Arab tribe of the Awlad Bokhder, and through his mother to the Makari. The town was the best maintained Makari town which I had so far seen. It not only had walls in good condition, much more solid than those of Kuka, but the houses were also less dilapidated than those of most of the Bornu villages. They were either of the bongo type, consisting of a circular surrounding wall and a bell-shaped straw roof, or larger fort-like clay structures, which, with their corner turrets and crenellated walls, could make some claim to architectural beauty, or high gabled houses, such as I had already found in Logon [ii. 520], and from the interior of which one could look right into the gable. The population did not exceed 8,000, though Gulfei was generally said to be more populous than Ngala. We found the alifa [30] sitting on a high platform, called in Bornu diggeli, covered with a carpet, in the small reception-room of his house, which, like the prayer or reception-place in front of the house, was strewn with coarse straw. In accordance with custom, he came down from his carpet when we conveyed to him the greetings of the Shaykh, his master, took off the little cotton cap from his head, and, before beginning the conversation, said " M a y God prolong the days of our master, the Shaykh." The rest of the day was used to purchase the necessary corn, of which it was by no means easy to get as much as we needed for our horses. The morning of March 10 was taken up in crossing the river; this was completed only about midday, for the banks were 3 to 5 meters high, and the river was almost as wide as the Rhine at Cologne. That day we marched for only a few hours, in a generally easterly direction, as far as the village of Shaykh Salih of the Awlad Bokhder. In the region south of Lake Chad, from the Shari as far as the rock villages of the Kuka, there are no real native villages at all. The villages there are in the hands of Shuwa Arabs, compelled here and there by necessity to adopt a sedentary life. The road to the Awlad Bokhder, who with their Shaykh Salih enjoy no very favourable reputation for their treatment of isolated travellers, leads through a rather dense wood, where there are various trees and grasses which I had not seen before. In addition to the types of acacia which are more often mentioned, there were many examples of the kuk variety with its enormous pods, while, alongside the kurna and the nabaq (zizyphus spina Christi), called by the Arabs there dal, or nabaq el fil, i.e. the elephant 1

In M a r t e too, the mai had no power, ii. 490.

28

Journey from. Bornu to Wadai

nabaq, which with its large bitter fruit was well represented, there was also another mimosa, abungati, which in the uninhabited desert regions has acquired a certain importance because it indicates the presence of subterranean water near the surface. A m o n g the Arabs of this region, the saying, "Shame on anyone who dies of thirst when he is near an abungati", is generally well known. In the branches were numerous nests of the small weaver birds, [31] diledile, which reminded me of the hejlij in my courtyard at K u k a with its lively inhabitants [i. 620]. T h e ground was covered with adar, a fine fibrous grass, specially valued for weaving dish covers, and the red seeds of which are also used in an emergency as food. Alongside this, there was also a coarser grass, tebi, which provides material for stuffing camel saddles, and arkala, a convolvulus; the seeds of both are also eaten. Half an hour from the Shari we left an Assala village, R a u a j a , to the north of our road. T h e ground was sandy, and in many places appeared scarcely to have dried up. Dukhn for the horses was not to be had; maize, however, was brought for sale from the A w l a d Bokhder village, and very cheap hens could be bought for one sheet of coarse writing paper apiece, a favourite currency among the nomadic Arabs. 1 The following day a march of about nine hours, prolonged by a detour, brought us in a generally eastsoutheast direction to the Deqena Arabs and the village of Shaykh Musa. T h e ground was flat, and most of it had recently been completely covered with water. There was a more or less thick growth of shrubs on it. Already at the beginning of the march we had had to cross a komodugu [river] overgrown with rushes, eighty paces wide and about a meter deep, and towards midday another of about the same width, but shallow with a very marshy bottom, both of which appeared to be tributaries of the Shari. Between these watercourses were many giraffe and elephant tracks. T h e Deqena, whose pastures had earlier extended as far as the Bahr el-Ghazal, appear to have approached gradually nearer to the Shari, and from being nomads (boadi) have little by little become a sedentary people, a change for which the lung epidemic which through the years reduced their herds to almost nothing also provided a motive. T h e y claim descent from Ali Kerrar, a companion of the Prophet, and their skin colour is surprisingly light. In Bornu and Bagirmi I had already [32] heard reports of their former power and wealth [ii. 670]. Some 1 T h e scarcity of paper, which was largely of Italian manufacture, imported across the Sahara from Tripoli, has been suggested as a probable explanation for the small handwriting found in the early official documents of the Sokoto caliphate. A n attempt to clear up doubtful points of chronology by an examination of watermarks failed, because paper that had been imported in bulk continued in use over a long period (Last, Caliphate, 194). As paper became more plentiful, large handwriting became more common; in some areas manuscripts were in fact recopied for the benefit of elderly clerics whose eyesight was failing.

Journey to Wadai

29

decades earlier they had been able to put more than 1,000 horsemen into the field, whereas their present mounted strength amounted to scarcely a few hundred. Of the nominal chief of the tribe, Shaykh el-Baheiri, who lived in another nearby village, I was told that in those days of glory he had never gone on foot, even from one tent to another. T h e actual chief now was his younger brother, Shaykh Musa, who was held in high esteem by the King of Wadai. Probably in view of the fact that this monarch claimed to be supreme over the whole region as far as the Shari, the Shaykh, despite *he scarcity of cattle, made a present of a cow to my companion Otman. Next day we remained with the Deqena, for a royal emissary, in Wadai called kursi, who intended to travel with us, was with them. Four days' march in a completely uninhabited region lay before us. Since, despite the abundance of water, its distribution in this region requires some measure of foresight in selecting the route, we set off next day only at the beginning of the afternoon, and with numerous turns marched in a general northeasterly direction until sunset, when we camped on the bank of a body of water, Mashtur, resembling a river, which was said to be an outflow from Lake Chad. At the beginning of the day's march we had crossed a river-bed, Sere, in which the water had already ceased to flow. This appeared to reach Lake Chad towards the north, and thus to be an arm of the Shari. The Mashtur, though only a few paces wide, with a swampy bed, had magnificent trees on its banks, and in the neighbourhood there was a quantity of that high grass, nal, called siggedi in Bornu, sherkaniya by the Shuwa, whose strong stalks are used in this region for weaving fences or the walls of huts; the lower and stronger parts of the grass are used as pens. Since the Wadai official with the cattle which he had collected from the Deqena joined up with us too late, we set out on the following [33] day, March 14, only in the afternoon, and then marched rapidly towards the northeast until midnight. The large number of Hausa and Fellata pilgrims in our party, who had no waterbags or baggage animals, made such a forced march during a favourable time of the day desirable, and indeed necessary. Our path led mostly through light woods over sandy soil, where dum palm brushwood, stunted luban and fragrant siwak shrubs appeared. Another five hours to the northeast then brought us through thickening dum palms to an outlet from Lake Chad, the proximity of which had already been indicated to us by the dense trees on the horizon as we marched. The water, which though sluggish flowed visibly from north to south, was full of small fish. The emissary from Wadai whom I have mentioned had no tent; he carried with him, however, a complete set of household furniture, and

3°

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

shut himself up completely in a large piece of striped cotton cloth, which he spread out with the help of a dozen poles arranged in a circle. Otman, on the other hand, had with him an angreb, the low bench, the seat of which consists of a network of strips of hide, and which is in general use in Wadai, Darfur and the Nile countries. Since rain was not to be feared at night, and the shade of the trees offered sufficient protection against the sun during the day, I myself made no use of my rather large tent which was difficult to put up. On March 16 we arrived at last at the Bahrel-Ghazal, to which I had been looking forward with so much impatience; unfortunately when I saw it, I was very disappointed. Although in this region, so near to its outlet from Lake Chad, it had been full of water since the first rains, the water gave no certain indication whatever of the direction of this enigmatic river-valley; it had the appearance of being only a depression thickly overgrown with trees, the direction of which the eye was unable to follow-indeed, the banks of the depression were nowhere to be seen. We first rcached it only after two hours' march to the east. We followed it for some hours through the thick woods on its bank, which were full of buffalo and giraffe tracks, to the eastsoutheast and southeast, since there is [34] a deviation to the south before it pursues its northeasterly course. The Karka archipelago [in Lake Chad] lay to the northnorthwest from here, with the Tegaga halt to the northwest, near the point where the Bahr el-Ghazal emerges from Lake Chad; we were then approaching the place where several of our fellow-travellers, who intended to go to Kanem, had to turn north. During the midday heat we camped near the river valley, at a spot which is regarded as part of the well-known Omm Dokhan halt, and found traces of a camp of the Kreda (the Qoran or Daza of the Bahr el-Ghazal), who had entered this region after the Deqena had withdrawn further to the west because of the scarcity of cattle. From here our road continued again to the northeast, for the Bahr el-Ghazal now assumed its definitive direction. In the neighbourhood of this broad river valley there is a continuous northeast wind, which frequently attains considerable strength. Another five hours to the eastnortheast brought us as far as the region called el-Qara. The country was very flat, and the layer of sand otherwise to be found everywhere disappeared, so that a deep black cracked soil became visible. The country became more arid, and only an occasional dum palm, kurna, hejlij (balanites aegyptiaca) and the almost leafless tundub (capparis sodada) were to be seen. The more barren the country became, the more clearly were the Bahr el-Ghazal and its outlets or backwaters shown up by the growth of trees or reeds. The outlet by which we camped in el-Qara had a clear direction from southwest to northeast. The ground was beginning to rise here, for we

Journey to Wadai

3i

were approaching the elevation that marks the watershed between the Fitri and the Shari. A fourteen-hour march to the eastsoutheast, at the beginning of which we crossed the well-known Fatshatsho region, brought us through undulating country which, with a moderate growth of trees and a sandy soil alternating with bare soil hard as a rock, was very like Kanem, to the neighbourhood of the first group of rocks which sheltered the huts of [35] Ngurra. The rocks were large reddish granite blocks in three separate groups, at the foot of which lay the huts, and rising at most 30-35 meters above the surface of the ground. The population was smaller than I had expected; it was said to have been larger earlier, and to have suffered just recently from numerous attacks from Wadai. The number of huts scarcely reached 200. The inhabitants of Ngurra are Kuka and Bulala; they speak the same language, though Arabic is also universally known, and they live generally mingled together. The people are of only moderate stature, mostly reddish black, with handsome faces. The women in particular are well built, and have pleasant features which have given them a reputation throughout Wadai for outstanding beauty. Their hair-style is very artistic; a broad thick plait runs from the front of the head to the nape of the neck, from which it is brought back to the place where it began, and fastened with ribbons or formed into a loop. At the sides on the cheeks and over or behind the ears an indefinite number of thin plaits hang down about 20-30 centimeters long, and between them and the plaits in the middle, smaller plaits nestle elegantly on the head. The right nostril has a hole bored through it, and carries either the inevitable piece of coral, or else a silver or copper disc, a metal ring, or a string of beads. The beads in the amber bead ornaments for the neck, especially popular among the Arabs, are of varying size. The exhaustion of our supplies compelled us to buy some food here, and this was all the more inconvenient since the acquisition of large quantities was still less easy than in Bornu. Of the corn which they brought, the women sold only a few handfuls, which they offered on their basket covers, and refused to allow any offers to divert them from this kind of retail trade, which they believe to be the most profitable for them. In Bornu, where beside the Makari the Arab population in the villages of the Kotoko province is numerous, the favourite mediums of exchange were kimba pepper, cowrie shells and kohol, antimony powder, which in [36] Kanuri is called santerem. The Arab women also like beads, but in this connection they are very choosy, for the demands of fashion are inexorable. In the most southeasterly part of Bornu, there is no demand for cowrie shells, and a paper, called kalkat, is the favourite means of exchange alongside kimba and kohol. Paper rises in value after the Shari is crossed, and

32

Journey from Borna to Wadai

among the Deqena one sheet is worth up to two hens. In Ngurra and the other rock villages, likewise, kimba, kohol and paper are mainly in demand. In these rock villages, water is very scarce, and the wells very deep. The people therefore refused to water our animals and only very unwillingly allowed us to fill a few water-bags. After arriving in the morning, we moved on a few hours later towards evening so that, with a short rest during the night, we might continue our journey in the cool when thirst is less oppressive. At first our direction was towards the east, and then during the night to the eastnortheast. Various rock groups could be seen at a distance of about one day's march to the south of our road; at daybreak we passed the rock village, Abu Koakib, from whose wells we filled our water bags, and in the early forenoon the Muti rock with an insignificant village, from which the Moito rock groups could be seen to the southsouthwest, and soon after we camped by the Ganzus rocks. These were 8 or 9 hours distant from Ngurra, and the intervening desert had the same arid, sandy, barren character as Ngurra itself. Since we had set out before daybreak, the morning of March 20 brought us in a few hours to the east by the Auni rocks to the considerable village of Hissena. There was generally rising ground to the north of our route, and we caught sight of the Fali rocks, while to the south the country visibly sloped away. Everywhere we found the people very reluctant to water our animals, and we had to press for this quite urgently because of the needs of our horses, of which we were taking a great number with us; both Otman and the Faqih Abo were bringing horses for sale in Wadai. The depth of [37] the wells, as much as 30 meters, made this work very arduous and time-consuming, and the last stretch which still separated us from the first Fitri villages and required 1 0 - 1 1 hours of strenuous marching was very fatiguing because of the scarcity of water and the lack of fodder. In the early forenoon on March 21, after continuing our march during part of the night, we reached the first Fitri village, Mai Dana, with only about 100 huts, towards the eastsoutheast, and soon after Karfa, which was more important, lying beside a pool on whose banks were found enormous numbers of large stinging flies. Alongside the luxuriant growth of dum palms which characterises the whole Fitri region, the oshar (calotropis procera), the outstanding vegetation in the Kuka district, was unfortunately again very common here. After a moderate afternoon march of a few hours, we spent the night beside the Kudu hamlet, where we received the news that Jurab, the king of Fitri, was stopping in Melme with some of the military commanders of Wadai. Next day, when we maintained our direction to the east, and arrived at Melme, going past the village of Mondoge, Jurab had

Journey to Wadai

33

already moved on, so that we could not reach him until the following day. Melme is one of the most important villages of the Fitri region, consisting entirely of reed huts, which are neither very solid nor distinguished by any elegance. It has a population of several thousand who are said to be nearly all pure Bulala. A few Jellaba families have also settled there, who with their characteristic tirelessness carry on a modest trade between Kanem, Bornu, Wadai and Bagirmi. In the evening a son of Sultan Jurab appeared to greet us in his father's name and to tell us that his father was expecting us on the following day. T h e following morning after a few hours we reached the king's temporary residence, Bukko, towards the eastnortheast. W e did not delay in paying our respects to the prince, who was a friend of Bornu, and found him in one of the ordinary [38] huts sitting on a simple Egyptian carpet, with a long forearm knife in his hand, wearing a long moderately clean tobe, and with his mouth covered by a narrow litham. He was a thin, but evidently strong, healthy man, of dark colour tending towards reddish, had a fairly full white beard, and might have been about sixty. With a loud voice, courteous, intelligent, speaking directly and frankly, he justified by the good impression which he made the excellent reputation which he enjoyed in both Bornu and Wadai. He even greeted me with a handshake, at first indeed without knowing who I was, but his attitude did not change when he learnt this, and he then read aloud Shaykh Ulnar's letter of introduction. He discussed the situation of the Faqih Abo, who, as I have said, appeared to have been guilty of some kind of high treason eight years before, and assured him of K i n g Ali's pardon. He also gave me the assurance that I could continue my journey in complete safety in the company of my travelling companion, Otman, and engaged in conversation with me about the origin of the Bulala, whom Barth had reported to be an offshoot of the Kanuri. 1 This had always seemed very improbable to me since, having been settled so long in K a n e m and so near to Bornu, the Bulala would certainly not have completely forgotten their original Kanuri language. K i n g Jurab, who was a sensible and, according to the local standards, even a learned man, also emphatically rejected this descent. According to Jurab the Bulala are of Arab origin, and indeed related most closely to the A w l a d Hamed, who are scattered throughout Wadai, the Bahr el-Ghazal and Bornu, and in some regions are called Homeid. After they had migrated from the east into the Sudan, one section remained in Kordofan, a second in Wadai, a third settled in the Bahr el-Ghazal, and a fourth partly in Bagirmi and partly by 1 Barth, Travels, ii. 640; cf. F. Hagenbucker, "Notes sur les Bilala du Fitri", Cahiers (Office de la recherche scientifique et technique Outre-mer, Paris), série sci. hum., v, 4, 1968, 39-76.

34

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

the Fitri; from the latter emerged the great state which at one time embraced the region of the Kuka, the Fitri Lake and Kanem. Although this branch of the Awlad Hamed, which had become completely sedentary and [39] had mixed with the Kuka, had now also accepted the language of the Kuka, T a r Lisi, Arabic still remained very widespread among them. Every tolerably educated person, King J u r a b assured me, knew very well all his ancestors and all the ramifications of the Awlad Hamed down to himself. The name Bulala is of later origin, embracing all the inhabitants of the Fitri, and is derived from the name, Belal or Bulal, of the man who first centralised the government. From him the territory was called Ardk Belal, i.e. the territory of Bulal, and from that came the general collective, or better plural, name of the people, Bulala. Belal is in fact a name widely used in the Muslim world, and Barth had been surprised that there was 110 singular for the name of the people, Bulala. In Arabic there later developed a singular, Bulalawi. When he entered the district, this legendary Bulal was said to have prayed first on the site of the present capital of the Fitri, Y a w or Y a w a , where traces of the hands, feet, knees and forehead of the worshipper are still shown on the rocky ground; this was the reason for founding Y a w a . Since that time the sultans of Fitri have been bound to visit this sacred place every Friday. King J u r a b declared that he could produce adequate documents from which the origin of the Bulala could be proved. Unfortunately I had to push on towards Wadai, and my path did not bring me back to the Fitri again. Apart from the Bulala and the Kuka, who live very much intermingled, there are still also remnants of the original masters of the Fitri and its banks, the Abu Simmin, who are scattered about in various villages, as well as living on one of the larger islands in the lake. They too are said to speak T a r Lisi. In addition to them there are fragments of the Kanuri, who, dating back to the time of the Kanem empire, have migrated to the Fitri, and finally the Ngijem, [who are described earlier, ii. 262, as a remnant of the Bulala]. To travel right round the Fitri lake takes about two days; the lake is oval-shaped, and its long axis can be traversed by water [40] between daybreak and noon. In many places the water is said to be so deep that it is not possible to touch the bottom with boat poles. The level of the lake rises each year, during the rainy season as soon as the Batha 1 begins to flow, as it never fails to do, if only for a short time, and all the surrounding country is then inundated, making communications very difficult in view of the clayey nature of the soil. At that time the Arabs, who from time to time pasture by the Fitri, withdraw from the 1 Batha, like the Buteha encountered later, is a word of Arabic origin, meaning low-lying swampy ground, with or without water. Both words are of the feminine gender. G. N.

Journey to Wadai

35

lake to the so-called Gizal, i.e. the sandy regions, and many of the foreign inhabitants follow their example. The large stinging-fly, which has been described in my account of Bagirmi [ii. 5 5 1 , 572; p. 5 above], becomes very common during this period; another smaller variety, reddish or brownish grey, is reputed here too to be even more dangerous, since it creeps into the nostrils of animals and might certainly kill them, while the larger variety constitutes no more than a very troublesome nuisance. I cannot determine whether the smaller and more dangerous fly is identical with that found some degrees farther south in the south of Bagirmi and Wadai, for at the time of our journey, the end of March, it was very rare, and I did not actually see it. It appears, however, in the rainy season, and at that time too the larger variety becomes more numerous, more troublesome and perhaps more dangerous. Even when we were there, we had to keep large fires going day and night with damp firewood, in the smoke of which the animals could find repose. Camels seemed especially to suffer, and it was not easy to restrain them from pressing into the fire itself, as despair prompted them to do, and thus inflicting serious burns upon themselves. One of Otman's camels in fact died as a result of this. It was curious that the large flies seemed to be attracted by a light colour. The spotless white horse which I [41] had brought from Shaykh Umar as a present to Sultan Ali was already during our march completely covered with blood on the neck, abdomen and the sides of its legs, suffering much more than the dapple grey horse which I had brought with me for Sultan Hasin of Darfur, while the reddish piebald which I rode myself was almost completely spared. The camels who were driven to pasture could in fact not feed for a moment during the day, and returned in desperation to the camping place and to the fire. The not very numerous cattle of the Fitri people are pastured at night, and if they have to be outside during the day, are wrapped in plaited covers of straw; camels, which however can be kept there only very rarely, and for a short time, are treated in the same way. Horses likewise are scarcely brought out at all, except to give them exercise. For this reason too the region nearest the Fitri is almost devoid of wild animals. Antelopes, buffaloes and giraffes retreat from the lake into the sandy regions to the north. Only lions, who cannot do without water and shade, remain, and the scarcity of food for them makes them very dangerous to men. It is said indeed that on the Fitri the lion lives exclusively on human flesh. In that region prudent travellers camp only in the villages, and even then still light large fires. The Faqih Adam of Wadai, who had been my informant in Bornu about his fatherland, told me - and he was a very trustworthy man - that on one occasion, when he and his companions passing through the Fitri region had been so foolish as to camp at a distance from any village, a lion had dragged

36

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

one of his slave girls away from the fire at night. He and his neighbours had leapt up and pursued the lion with abuse and blows from a stick. The lion had then let the slave go, but remained sitting within sight, apparently surprised at having his rights thus infringed. Such a country might be regarded as almost uninhabitable, despite its fertility, but the inhabitants are of quite a different opinion. When I spoke to a Bulala man about the troublesomeness of their almost perpetual pests, [42] he answered with the most profound conviction, " I s there then any sweeter land than the Fitri region?" The late summer and autumn are understandably very unhealthy there, and certainly, since they are of Arab origin, the ruling class of the Bulala could not have acclimatised themselves except by inter-marriage with the natives. The whole Fitri territory is said to embrace a hundred or more villages, of which those lying to the south of the oval lake are quite near its shore, while many to the north lie farther away. The Batha flows into the Fitri on the southeastern side, and a few hours to the north, not far from the shore of the lake, is the capital, Y a w or Y a w a . The most important other villages are Tekkete, to the west of the lake; Gorko, some three hours north or northnorthwest of Y a w a ; Melme, which we had passed; and Golo and Gamsa, east of the lake on the Batha. The island of Modo, with two villages inhabited by the Abu Simmin, is in the middle of the lake, and to the south of Modo is another island, Dogo, inhabited by the same people. The lake has an abundance of hippopotami and crocodiles. We were obliged to stay next day in Bukko, for Otman, as an emissary of Sultan Ali, was expecting from King J u r a b a substitute for the camel which had been slaughtered because of its burns. Throughout the day I was beset by visitors, who behaved however with great restraint and courtesy, without making any excessive demands. A sheet of paper as a gift was more than satisfactory, and Jurab's inquisitive son, who had come to meet us, was as grateful for the information which I gave him in order that he might understand the watch, the compass, and the like, as for a little piece of pencil only half an inch long. On March 25, after Otman had received an ox and a horse in place of the baggage animal which he had lost, we were able to continue on our way. We had reached Melme towards the eastnortheast, and continued in the same direction to Bukko. From there we turned to the southeast, and after some hours, [43] passing through fields of dukhn and cotton, reached the village of Gorko, with about 200 huts. We ended our day's march quite early, since King J u r a b had established his camp at the same place. He was indeed following at some distance the commanders of the Wadai forces, of whom the Aqid el-Bahar, the Aqid el-Debaba,

Journey to Wadai

37

the Aqid Gerri and the Aqid Dirseh were present, and had stopped in villages nearer the lake. The king remained always in their immediate neighbourhood, so that, in view of the notoriously violent character of the people of Wadai, he might always be in a position to settle any possible disputes with the natives, which was not difficult for him in view of the great personal reputation which he enjoyed in Wadai and with King Ali. As mediums of exchange in the Fitri region paper, red Sudan pepper, kimba, salt, cowrie shells and beads are much in demand, but onions and garlic are also used. I could thus sometimes obtain in exchange for onions things which could not be purchased with anything else. The usual needles, whose value in these regions is generally very doubtful, were also used as a medium of exchange, and with them I was on several occasions able to buy wood, hens and even a little milk. In this region and in Wadai cowrie shells are worth much more than in Bornu, since they are used not as money but as ornaments; one should however be careful to pick out the largest varieties, and those which have not had holes bored through them. The next day we set off before daybreak, towards the eastsoutheast or almost to the east, until after sixteen hours we reached the Seta village, camping on the other side of it on a tributary of the Batha with the same name as the village. There was no water in the river-bed, the borders of which were not clearly defined, and it was overgrown with trees and very shady. T o water our animals we had to go to the Batha itself, which we reached after half an hour to the southeast. It ran here in two arms, one flowing from northeast to southwest and the other from southeast to southwest [itc]; the latter was the more important, though it was narrower. The riverbed [44] was 40 to 50 paces wide, running between banks 3 to 5 meters high, and was filled with beautiful yellow sand a foot deep. There is water in it throughout the year at a depth of half to 1 meter, and a hole dug in the sand immediately produces clear fresh water in which there are many little fish. The river-bed itself is entirely devoid of trees, and is like all considerable streams in which there is a strong current. In fact there is never a rainy season when the Batha is not full of water, and during the dry season too there are here and there permanent pools. Seta, the last village of the Fitri region, with about 300 huts, is inhabited by Abu Simmin, Kuka and Bulala. Between it and the mouth of the Batha there lie near the latter the Golo and Gamsa villages already mentioned, Gamsa consisting of seven hamlets. Between Seta and Y a w a the Batha runs west or southsouthwest. In the afternoon we set out again, and for about five hours travelled to the northeast over hard, light-grey soil, with a sparse growth of trees and grass. There followed then the steppe region

38

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

stretching between the Fitri territory and the borders of the heartland of Wadai, which is visited periodically by sections of the Arab tribes of the Ja'adina, Awlad Hamed, Khozzam, Zebeda, Nawalina and Salamat. It has rather poor soil, but in addition to the hashab acacia from which comes the best gum in Kordofan, the black kittir and the kulkul with its whitish bark and small leaves which are useful on wounds, the murr (? treculia) which the inhabitants of Bornu call kagem is also to be found, with leaves which are specially renowned for their healing effects on ugly open sores and wounds on the backs of baggage animals. There were also some isolated soap trees, and for the first time the ebony tree with its whitish bark and black wood. We travelled to the northeast, maintaining this direction for two hours after going round a bend in the Batha, in order to camp after another hour's march to the eastnortheast at the spot called Kharub on the banks of the Batha. In the afternoon we crossed the Batha towards the east, [45] and more or less maintaining this direction, pitched our camp in the bush after four and a half hours. So long as we were near the river, the woods were dense, and to the numerous trees already mentioned the dum palm which likes to be near water was added. Next day we came through various villages, occupied by the sedentary elements of the Arab tribes which have been mentioned above; generally moving to the east, while the Batha ran at a considerable distance from us in a wide bend, we reached after three and a half hours the large village of Mandele, the residence of the Aqid el-Debaba, which lies on the well-wooded south bank of the river. There were perhaps 300 huts in the village, which is inhabited by Salamat Arabs and Kuka. The south bank of the river was up to 5 meters high, the north bank somewhat lower, and the river-bed 50 meters wide. It ran from northeast to southwest and the wells or pools of water in the sand of the river-bed were exactly like those encountered on the preceding day. The well-known Sorra village lies roughly at the level of the northern bend made by the river between Kharub and Mandele. Here too paper, the larger cowrie shells, onions and amber beads were at a premium; for one sheet of paper, for example, a large hen or a peck of corn could be bought. Ten to twenty sheets had a quite considerable value, and one onion could buy half a peck of rice. Kohol and kimba pepper were often asked for, but were almost cheaper than I had bought them in Kuka. There was also an extraordinarily brisk demand for salt, for the red salt which the Mahamid Arabs bring to Wadai from the Bedeyat region seldom comes as far as this. For buying larger objects, the poorest Bornu tobes were very useful, or better still, a pair of the beautifully tanned leather shoes from Kano. The district was made unsafe not only by lions and rhinoceroses,

Journey to Wadai

39

but also by thieves; we were therefore compelled to camp close together and to surround the camp with a fence of thorns. Our night's rest was moreover disturbed by a domestic scene of Otman with his favourite slave Falmata, [46] whom he cruelly whipped; she fled to me looking for protection, with the blood from a wound on her head streaming over me and my bed. It appeared that the jealousy of one slave girl for another had been the cause of this unpleasant contretemps. The morning of the following day slipped away in tedious shopping, for the Arab women sold the wares which they brought to market, ropes, camel halters, butter and fresh milk, only in very small quantities. We needed food not only for ourselves and for our animals, but had at the same time to take care of the numerous Hausa and Fellata pilgrims, nearly all of whom had no possessions of their own, each seeking to find in the caravan a patron who would protect him. A t last in the afternoon we crossed to the north bank of the Batha, shifting our direction from north to eastsoutheast, though the largest part of the march, nearly six hours, was still to the eastnortheast. Various villages and hamlets were passed, many of which were inhabited partly by Arabs and partly by Kuka. About half-way through our march we reached the considerable settlement of Amelaye, i.e. Umm el-Melahi (Omm Malawi), which comprises four or five villages. The natron-rich soil which had given the place its name - for melahi can be translated as salty - was everywhere rather bare and arid, and in some places covered with sand. The inhabitants belong to the small tribe of the Morkolong, which, only a section of the Malanga, appears to be one of the noblest tribes of Wadai. The farther we advanced, the greater became Otman's haste, and the more eager his efforts to prevent me from coming into contact with the inhabitants of the country. Even when the villages were becoming more frequent, we were sure to spend the night in the bush. Thus on March 30 we passed in the eastsoutheast direction the village of Amgarwundi with about 200 huts, inhabited by Arabs and Kuka, and in the neighbourhood of which we found some fine herds of cattle belonging to the Fellata, and on our road left the Osheraya village behind. Instead of the earlier Arab tribes, the Salamat, etc., we now encountered in the villages the sedentary families [47] of the red Misriya, or Missiriya, though the Kuka were still the most important native element. We were more than a half day's march from the Batha; the wells were accordingly deeper, and especially in the heat of midday, when the people customarily water their cattle, very crowded. On Otman's principle of always spending the night in the bush, we never enjoyed complete rest, for the whole Misriya region is notorious for its insecurity and numerous thieves. In spite of the fact that we arranged

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

4°

night watches, Otman, our chief warner in this connection, was also the first victim of the thievish Misriya, losing a considerable part of his turkedis and Bornu tobes. Next day, April i, my strongest camel was also stolen from the pastures, and in spite of all our searching it was never found again. The increasing depth of the wells, now as much as 65 metres, made the task of watering our animals and filling our water bags very timeconsuming, and this was the more so since the natives also were in the habit of watering their cattle during the daytime when we too had to do it, because in the evening we were always on the march. Thus we often saw ourselves obliged to buy water from the people, and it was very fortunate for me that I could turn to good account here a small supply of glass beads which I had brought with me from Tripoli, but which had been disdained in Bornu as well as in Kanem and Bagirmi. They were of the elongated porcelain variety, black with white stripes, known in those countries as the awlad el-qresh, and procured for me not only water, but also hens and that leavened dough made of flour, which in the form of paper-thin dried pancakes provides under the name kisra the essential rations for every traveller from Wadai as far as the Nile. Our direction was towards the northeast, and on April 1 we had the Batha about a day and a half's march south of us with the wellknown place, Birket [i.e. pool of] Fatima, on its southern bank. We camped in the Mandela village, which is inhabited by Bulala. In front of us lay an uninhabited waste stretch, [48] Amberkei, distinguished by its poor water supply and the scarcity of trees. 1 In the spring and during the cold months of the year, it is inhabited from time to time by the owners of herds of cattle and people who collect wild rice and kreb grass seeds, a favourite form of food. At that time of the year it is full of water, which collects in numerous depressions in the ground, called ruhut. We moved through this desert to the eastnortheast, marching on April 2 for about eight hours, and early on April 3, after crossing the Wadi Rima, which is twenty paces wide, and of which I could not determine whether it ran into the Batha, or lost itself towards the west, we again came to a more thickly populated area with the village of Sheqq el-Hejlij. Here too the argument about water began again, and it was the fine appearance of my horses, which were pointed out to the inhabitants as King Ali's, which helped us in watering our animals. Water had to be purchased for our people, 10 liters costing a sheet of paper, approximately equivalent in value to two pecks of corn or two hens. The village contained about 150 huts and there was a mixed population of Bulala and Salamat Arabs. The villages of the K u k a 1

A somewhat different picture of the Amberkei is suggested on p. 152 n.

Journey to Wadai

4i

proper and of the Batha Massalit are much closer to the river, which here too was one to two days' march distant from us. We were now only four long days' march from Abeshr, the capital of Wadai, and every day my companions, Otman and the Faqih Abo, became more pensive, Otman uncertain how King Ali would react to my arrival, and the faqih worried whether he could count for certain on pardon from the king, of which he had been assured only at second and third hand. Otman sent a messenger on horseback to the capital, to announce my arrival to the king, and to tell him that Otman had ventured to bring me to Wadai only because of a command from Shaykh Umar. Where, despite Otman's orders, I had nevertheless succeeded in having some contacts with the natives, I observed that I was highly respected as a pilgrim and a sherif. No one [49] suspected or understood my character as a Christian, although I did not conceal it. On the contrary I sometimes referred to it in order to test the people's knowledge. The name nasara, Christian, was apparently understood as meaning an adherent of some distant, rather peculiar Muslim sect. From Sheqq el-Hejlij we entered the so-called Dar-Ziyud, which is separated from the Kuka region, Dar-Kuka, by the Amberkei desert. We crossed a narrow wadi, which of course was dry at this time of year, and the Wadi Shokhet, which some call Shawat. Like the little Rima stream which we had crossed before reaching Sheqq el-Hejlij, it runs from northnortheast to southsouthwest, both streams apparently running to the Batha, though, because of their insignificance and the fact that only occasionally is there any water in them, travellers seldom realise this. Near the river there was a veritable forest of tundub trees (capparis sadada), which also included some hejlij and dum palms. We set off in the middle of the afternoon, in a direction more to the eastnortheast. After about three hours, we passed a very large village, Ngoss, with exceptionally obliging people at the well, who took almost violent possession of my horses in order to water them, although they had had some water before we set out. We then passed through several other small villages, and after five hours' march camped, as usual in the wilderness, at 9 o'clock in the evening. The inhabitants of these villages are Ziyudi, not quite pure Arabs, who have become sedentary. Only the large village of Ngoss was inhabited by the so-called koshde, i.e. descendants of the kings of Wadai in the fourth generation, when they are absorbed into the ranks of ordinary subjects, and no longer have any special privileges. The children of the ruling princes bear the title tintelak, the grandchildren, i.e. the second generation, are uled es-sultan, and the great-grandchildren, i.e. the third generation, koloting koli; finally come the koshde, forming the fourth generation. From Dar-Ziyud the country became rather more thickly popu-

42

Journey from Borna to Wadai

lated, and along our road were numerous villages, both large and small. [50] The following morning, setting off before daybreak, we travelled in the same eastnortheast direction for six hours, and in the afternoon for another three hours, which an attack of fever made very burdensome for me. The ground gradually rose, and on April 5 we saw scattered rocky peaks, and on the eastnortheast horizon the mountain chain of the Kondongo. About four hours from our camping place, directly to the south, lay the rock group of Neri, in the caves of which are the prisons for political offenders. Keeping in the afternoon to the eastnortheast, we crossed a small watercourse, the Wadi Elme, running from northnortheast to southsouthwest. After passing the considerable Mashek village group, which comprises three large hamlets, we at last pitched our camp, and the nearer we approached the capital, the more worried, of course, we became. Next morning the Kondongo mountain lay before us, with the main chain apparently running from northeast to southwest. North of this and somewhat farther from us lay a second chain belonging to the same group of mountains. This section continues without interruption as far as Wara, the former capital of Wadai, and then further to the mountain region of the Kodoi or Abu Sunun. We took our direction approximately to the east, towards the northeast border of the first-named main chain, leaving to the north of us a single compact mass of rocks, Umm Sherarib. But before we reached this mountain chain, Otman, after a march of scarcely two hours, decided to camp in the early morning beside a well.

CHAPTER

III

A R R I V A L IN ABESHR. KING ALI April

to May

20,

1873

[51] U p to this point Otman had pushed rapidly forward, but as we got near Abeshr, his courage failed him a little. It was now the fourth day since his messenger had gone there to announce our arrival to the king, and Otman solemnly swore [52] that he would go no farther until he had received an answer from his master. The afternoon came, and still there was no messenger from the king. T h e mood of depression was general; Muallim A b o was concerned about his own person, Otman feared both for himself and for me, and I myself could not avoid a certain uneasiness. I believed indeed that K i n g Ali was an upright man, for I had already been given ample evidence of his characteristic methods of behaviour. But while he was always just in his dealings with fellow-believers, religious fanaticism might, if he were not endowed with a naturally generous disposition, easily provoke him to acts of violence against a Christian. For he was the most faithful adherent of those fanatical sectaries, the Sanusiya, 1 whom I had had an oppor1 A c c o r d i n g to one a c c o u n t , M u h a m m a d Sherif, the father a n d predecessor o f K i n g A l i , met the founder of the S a n u s i y a while on p i l g r i m a g e in M e c c a , p e r h a p s before he b e c a m e king in 1835, a n d afterwards maintained close associations w i t h the Sanusi centre at J a g h b u b (N. A . Z i a d e h , Sanusiya, Leiden, 1958, 4 9 - 5 0 ) . A n o t h e r story says that A l i ' s respect for the S a n u s i y a h a d its origin in events w h i c h followed his efforts to reverse the x e n o p h o b i c excesses of his father a n d reopen c o m m e r c i a l relations b e t w e e n W a d a i a n d the outside world. A c a r a v a n of slaves despatched b y a p a r t y of W a d a i m e r c h a n t s w a s c a p t u r e d by n o m a d s on the frontier of E g y p t a n d T r i p o l i t a n i a ; M u h a m m a d bin A l i el-Sanusi, however, intervened, a n d a r r a n g e d for the slaves to b e b o u g h t , instructed, freed and finally returned to W a d a i as missionaries ( D u v e y r i e r , La Confrérie musulmane de Sidi Muhammad ben Ali es-Senousi, R o m e 1918, 17). Sidi M u h a m m a d was able later to re-establish for his o w n benefit the old c o m m e r c i a l relations of W a d a i w i t h the M e d i t e r r a n e a n coast, v i a J a l o to B e n g h a z i , or via S i w a to A l e x a n d r i a . A c c o r d i n g to this account, the royal c a r a v a n s m e n tioned b e l o w b y N a c h t i g a l (e.g. p. 123) were despatched to Sidi M u h a m m a d . T h e slaves thus supplied to h i m e x c e e d e d his o w n needs, a n d outlets for t h e m w e r e therefore sought in E g y p t a n d T u r k e y , a l t h o u g h the slave trade w a s officially abolished there. H i s o w n slaves w e r e e m p l o y e d in his zawiya for cultivation of the oases in the m a n n e r described by N a c h t i g a l in i. 195.

T h e location of the Sanusi settlements w a s said to h a v e been a consequence of

43

44

Journey from Bornti to

Wadai

tunity to learn to fear during my Borku journey; they are the fiercest Christian-haters among the Muslims, and on my last desert journey the faithful had been incited to murder me by the prospects of paradise held out to them by one of the Sanusiya missionaries.1 All this went through my mind as I sought to have my usual midday nap, and I could not manage more than a half-sleep, disturbed by wild dreams. At last, about 2 p.m., a colleague of Otman's appeared, like him a Jellabi in King Ali's service, who had been entrusted by him with a very friendly message; to be sure, the favourable impression made on me by the delivery of the royal aman, the promise of safe conduct, was destroyed again by the commission with which he had been charged to bring my horses and fire-arms immediately to the capital. Despite my assurances that I had with me no horses for sale, but wished only to offer one as a present to the king, he insisted on carrying out his instructions; after a long parley, I parted with my horses, but kept back my weapons, alleging as an excuse the custom of my home country according to which no man ever parted with his weapons. For my own transport to Abeshr, the messenger brought a local horse. [53] After he had left us, we loaded our camels and followed him. Setting out soon after 2 p.m., in an approximately easterly direction, we reached the northeast end of the main mountain chain, moving about 5 p.m. between it and a second chain which runs from southwest to northeast, and at the foot of which lay several Kondongo villages. The valley between the two chains was more densely wooded, and with kulkul, hejlij and mimosa, for the first time there appeared considerable quantities of makhet, the fruit of which, after soaking has removed its bitterness, is an important food item. Climbing sharply, we crossed the southeast [jíc] end of the second chain, which here turned towards the east and for a time ran parallel with our path; at 7 p.m. we passed a small river-bed, at that time dry, which ran from north to south. For several days we had observed frequent cloud formations of the kind that often appears at the time of year which in the more distant south marks the beginning of the lesser rainy season, and in the evening considerable storm-clouds gathered in the east. The wind rose, the clouds burst over us, and my spirits, already not altogether cheerful, Sidi M u h a m m a d ' s belief that water would probably be found in the neighbourhood of the ancient R o m a n ruins in the desert. 1 O n the K a n e m expedition, in April 1 8 7 1 , see ii. 5 0 ; cf. i. 1 9 2 - 4 , and p. 120 n. below. In view of Nachtigal's memorable experience of the Sanusiya in this respect, it is a little curious to find him quoted as a supporting authority in a passage beginning, with regard to the proselytising of Sanusis, that it " . . . has never in any w a y been connected with violence or w a r and has employed in the service of religion only the arts of peace and persuasion"; T . W . Arnold, The preaching of Islam (London 1 9 3 5 ) , 3 3 3 - 4 » " t i n g ii. 1 7 5 .

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

45

were thereby still further depressed. The horrible night spent in this rocky wooded region seemed to me an evil omen, and when towards midnight, after an uninterrupted march over the river-beds which ran deep through the rocky soil, we reached the residence of the dreaded king and halted quietly among the dark, low houses, above which towered the dim mass of the royal castle, I had the feeling that I was going to meet inexorable ruin. We dismounted at the house of my travelling companion. No preparations had been made for my accommodation, nor had the king sent a meal to us, or presented any greeting, as was the custom for distinguished strangers; after I had thrown myself, wearied by a tenhour march, on my simple couch, my sleep was not of the quietest nor my dreams the most enjoyable. Next [54] morning, as I lay meditating on my bed, a royal official appeared, and, without any greeting, summoned me to follow him - "the king calls m e " - so brusquely that my ill-humour was by no means diminished. He also had orders to bring with him the weapons which had been withheld the previous day. I was conducted to the palace, though not yet to be received by the king. He had a clay vessel set up at the top of a building some hundred paces away, and I was challenged to demonstrate the efficiency of my weapons by shooting at this target, while the king, unseen by me, was in the second storey of his castle. Uncertain of my skill, and offended as much by this request as by the king's failure to receive me beforehand, I turned my back on the place, and had the king informed that it was usual for mc, as was indeed demanded both by my rank and by custom, to be received by the king immediately, and that I was leaving the task of making experiments with my weapons to his own officials. For the rest I found my horses standing quietly at the royal palace; two were soon returned to me, though the one which was intended as a present for the king was kept back without any further ceremony. My weapons were held there for further testing. T o the unbounded astonishment of those who were living in the house, as well as of my own people who with much misgiving had seen me summoned to the king in the morning, I very soon received numerous visits from Nile merchants and Mejabra as well as from two merchants of Qairawan, the holy Tunisian city, whom I treated as if they were my own countrymen, and who on their side greeted me as a compatriot. Hajj Salim, the more important of the two, was full of praise for King Ali, and his intelligent and convincing words to some extent revived my spirits, rather depressed as they had been by the events which I have just described. In the afternoon I was again summoned to the king. On this occasion he asked at once for the cavalry-pistols and the telescope which I had indicated to Otman as presents intended for the king.

46

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

[55] We entered the royal residence by the so-called "Women's Road", the usual entrance for officials and petitioners being the "Men's Road"; the "Women's Road" is used only by visitors and intimates. In the square in front of the royal residence, my companions were already removing their garments from the right shoulder, and pushing their heads through the broad sleeves, but I was not asked to conform to this general custom. In front of the outer door is the house of the chief eunuch, who has the highest rank in Wadai, that of a kamkolak [pp. 178-9]. Every visitor who has not been directly summoned by the king must notify the chief eunuch before entering the palace; otherwise entry will be denied by the guard at the gate. Just beyond the entrance gate a door led to the left into that part of the palace which is reserved for the women; passing through a fairly long court, or rather broad passage, through a doorway, we entered another courtyard on the left side of which were two red brick buildings with an upper storey, joined by a large solid gate which constituted the principal entrance. Of the first of these edifices only a high unbroken bare wall was to be seen; the second consisted of three houses joined at the base. In the upper storeys were window openings with wooden lattices, and all three of the houses which formed the building were covered in the bongo style with semi-spherical straw roofs, and various ostrich eggs and ostrich feathers at the top. One of the three houses faces east, another west and the third south, while the entrance court itself faces north. As I have said earlier, the whole building, though not itself of any considerable height, towers above the other houses in the city. Within the court alongside the bare wall that has been mentioned there is a terrace about four feet long, to which some earthen steps lead up. This elevated place is called dirja, the dais, and on certain great festive occasions serves as the king's seat. My guide, who had fetched me in the morning, and who, despite his dark [56] skin, proved to be a Dongolan from the Upper Nile, had himself been the architect of this building, which, judged by the local standards, was a very remarkable edifice. There were also various verandas in the court, under whose protection some of the king's eunuchs and servants were sitting. At the end of the court, behind the royal residence itself, we entered a small forecourt, in which was a substantial hut with an earthen substructure and a straw roof, and a veranda, both frequented by the king's personal servants, the so-called tuweirat, or "birds", and other slaves. From here a door hung with draperies of strips of coarse cotton cloth (toqqiya) sewn together led into the king's reception chamber. I squatted down in the waiting room, leaning against a wall, until my presence should be announced to the king. I had greeted the officials and servants sitting near me, but no one returned my greeting.

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

47

Timidly they all turned away from the wall beside which I was sitting, looking at me with suspicious eyes. But if no one spoke to me, neither did anybody molest me. I did not have long to wait, much less indeed than was usual for such an audience in Bornu or Bagirmi, and was soon summoned by one of the tuweirat, who, kneeling down and gently clapping his hands, addressed to me the words, " T h e king, our master, calls for y o u " . M y overshoes I had had to leave outside at the entrance to the first court, but about my stockings and fine Moroccan leather soleless shoes there were no arguments of any kind such as I had experienced in Bagirmi [ii. 599-600] and Logon. I crept through the curtain, coming then through a short wide passage, to a second doorway, which was draped in the same way. Under this curtain too I came creeping into a rather large rectangular court, bounded on the east by the palace proper described above and on the south by the brick building with open doors and windows, while to the north between the [57] entrance opening and a large reed hut, decorated with ostrich eggs and feathers, still another entrance gate was to be seen. Exactly in the middle of the court was a wide veranda beneath which large pitchers of water were lined up. Between this veranda and the buildings which marked off the court on either side, the dreaded ruler of Wadai sat on a mat covered with carpets, wearing a simple cotton shirt and trousers of the same material, and with a small tarbush on his head. None of his courtiers or dignitaries were around him, whereas I had never before seen any of the rulers whom I had visited without a large contingent of servants. A picture of the utmost simplicity! A t the entrance to the court, I squatted down, gently clapped my hands, and, in accordance with custom, wished the king long life, victory and good health. His face, and still more his first words, gave me once more a sense of complete security. He thanked me simply for my good wishes, and asked me to sit down close beside him, while he enquired about my journey and its perils. Was it true that I had been with his enemy, the king of Bagirmi, and visited the Pagan Somrai country, where he had once been himself? 1 Nor did he fail to add at once that I should enjoy the most complete security while I was with him and in his dominions. If I wished, I could survey the whole of his country; he knew well that, in order to extend their knowledge, Europeans travelled in the most remote regions; they were completely devoted to this custom, and while he did not understand either its purpose or its usefulness, he would put no obstacle in my way. If I wanted to travel to the north or to the east, or make excursions into the 1 The main purpose of Nachtigal's expedition to Bagirmi had been to see Abu Sekkin, the king of Bagirmi, who had been driven from his capital, Massenya, by the forces of Wadai, which then endeavoured to install in his place a rival ruler, Abd er-Rahman.

48

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

interior of his country, he would have me conducted everywhere without danger, though this latter was not always perfectly easy. In order not to arouse his suspicions, I replied, after thanking him for his kindness, that for a long time on my travels I had been weakened, in body and mind, by sickness and hardships, and as my means had gradually been exhausted, my only wish was to return home through Darfur. Even if he had no objection to [58] my visit and possible excursions in his country, I should make little use of his permission, and return again to Europe through Benghazi. There had been no previous visitors to him from my country, but I rejoiced that my confidence in his magnanimity had not been misplaced. From the reputation which he enjoyed in Tripolitania, Fezzan and the whole of the north, I had steadily refused to listen to the warning voices in Kuka which without exception had advised me against a journey to Wadai. He replied that for a long time he had heard that Europeans would subject themselves to the greatest dangers merely to see foreign peoples, and he could appreciate fully that, in order to attain my objective, I had not been afraid to visit Abu Sekkin in the south of Bagirmi and in Somrai, whose wild inhabitants and clay marshes were well known to him. In particular my visit to Abu Sekkin led him to ask several questions; he was certainly glad to receive authentic news from me about Abu Sekkin's military forces and his relations with the Pagan territories in the south of Bagirmi, for to Wadai also there had penetrated the most contradictory reports about these things and about the two kings of the neighbouring country. He then enquired simply and intelligently, though also quite ignorantly, about Turkey and the other European countries, and about my home land, referred to my profession and his own illness, haemorrhoids, and discussed the effects of this and that medicament, the organs of the human body, and so forth. He enquired about the military strength of my country, and the arms which are usual in Europe. He asked more questions than one man or one physician could competently answer, but they were highly intelligent, and his own answers were given with the utmost thoughtfulness, composure and courtesy. In all those countries I had not come to know a single person, much less a sultan, who made upon me such an impression of intelligence, simplicity, dignity and self-assurance as the dreaded king of Wadai. The external appearance of the prince too was anything but [59] repulsive. He was a powerful, broad-shouldered man of about thirtyfive, with a sparse beard, a dark skin tending towards red, a slightly developed nose, somewhat protruding cheek-bones, and a face which was on the whole pleasant rather than ugly, with some tendency to corpulence. His large intelligent reassuring eyes were his most attractive feature.

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

49

His tuweirat and all who came near him - throughout my long visit he listened to reports and gave orders, nearly always in Arabic - fell on their knees as soon as they entered the court, with the right shoulder uncovered and remained at a distance from him corresponding to their rank. The moment that they came close to him, they raised the upper part of the body, bowed in front of him, gently clapped their hands, and murmured the appropriate greeting without ever raising their eyes to the king. Even in direct conversation with him, their eyes were fixed on the gravel with which the court was covered. His words to them were always in the highest degree simple and natural, and he seemed to expect equally simple and decisive answers. Towards sunset King Ali sent me away, again promising the most complete security, but also directing me not to leave my dwelling to wander hither and thither, until I was better acquainted with the inhabitants and the local conditions, for he feared excesses on the part of his rather raw subjects. Just as one of his tuweirat had brought me in, so another of them guided me back. These young men did not leave those entrusted to their guidance until they had actually seen them disappear inside the door of their dwelling; this caution was imposed upon them since, especially towards evening, the town was swarming with vulgar drunken people who, even by the boundless fear which everybody had for the king, could be restrained to only a limited extent from their favourite primitive occupation, bloody brawls. As Arab strangers told me, not a week went by when there were not several murders, deadly assaults, or serious woundings, [60] caused by the quarrelsomeness of these drunkards or the sudden anger of jealous men. A knife or a wooden club about one meter long with an iron ring at the lower end was always at hand, and the word, kafir, unbeliever, which immediately came to their lips in moments of anger, was sufficient to set them in action. Foreigners were especially hated, and the mere sight of one was sufficient to make a drunken man seek a quarrel with him and resort to his weapons. Ever since his accession to power in 1858, King Ali had been unwearied in his efforts to eradicate the brutality and the xenophobia which his father, Muhammad Sharif, had fostered both at court and among his subjects. By the utmost severity Ali had in some measure succeeded in restraining the wild spirits of the natives; nevertheless the foreigner, and especially the Arab, still kept himself in his house as much as possible, and at least towards sunset, left it only for the most pressing reasons. On subsequent occasions, I sometimes stayed rather long with the king, and, not having noticed that the sun had set, he let me go home alone. He then usually sent to my house, as soon as he became aware of his forgetfulness, to make sure that I had arrived there unharmed, and had expressed his astonishment that I was not

50

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

afraid to go home alone and unarmed. This was a thing which none of the Nile merchants who had been doing business in the country for decades would have dared to do. However, the smallest of his tuweirat was as effective as the most numerous armed company in assuring complete safety for foreigners, and the vigorous prince had succeeded in the heart of the country in creating among the raw inhabitants at least so much fear that any one who was accompanied by one of the tuweirat would have been able to travel throughout the region with tolerable safety. 1 The Arabs who visited me, and especially the two skerifs from Q_airawan in Tunisia, who were my immediate neighbours, [61] were full of praise for King Ali, and many incidents were related to me which indicated both his severity and his sense of justice. His vigorous efforts to encourage trade in the country and to promote intercourse with the outside world obviously placed upon him an obligation to assure the safety of foreigners, and for this he made the most strenuous endeavours. He was especially attentive to the Arabs, who under his father's rule had not only been badly treated, but often, and actually on his instructions, had been murdered, so that gradually all caravan routes from the north had been deserted. The shortest route to the Mediterranean, that which connects Benghazi with Wadai, had been opened up only fifty years before under the rule of Abd el-Kerim, who was called Sabun. 2 The first again to embark on this route were the inhabitants of the J a l o oasis ten days' journey south of Benghazi, the so-called Mejabra. 3 Only those among them who from their previous experience had close links with Bornu maintained their connection with that country; the others went exclusively to Wadai. The Nile merchants had for more than a century been making regular journeys through Darfur to Wadai, and a large colony of them had settled in the commercial centre of Nimro. With their characteristic tenacity and spirit of enterprise, they now, when 1 Barth (Travels, iii, I O - I J ) , surveying the various powers which at mid-century might seem to threaten Bornu, drew attention to W a d a i , though well aware of the need for a more centralised authority there: " a n empire strong in its barbarism, and containing the germs of power, should it succeed in perfectly uniting those heterogeneous elements of which it is composed." 8 Died 1 8 1 3 ; see p. 2 1 5 . Sabun's unremitting efforts to open this route involved sometimes tragic losses: one pioneering caravan, which Sabun's own mother is said to have accompanied, on its w a y north, as an intending pilgrim, perished utterly ( M . Fresnel, " M é m o i r e . . . sur le W a d a y " , Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1849, 50). F o r further discussion, see Nachtigal, i. 3 7 9 . 3 T h e M e j a b r a handled most of the trade between W a d a i and the Mediterranean, and were active in other directions also. Clapperton's colleague, al-Hajj H a t Salah Byoot, described in 1 8 2 6 as the richest man in K a n o , was a Mejabra - Clapperton called them great merchants (H. Clapperton, Journal of a second expedition into the interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo, London, 1829, 169).

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

5i

M u h a m m a d ' s terror might have been expected to be t e m p o r a r y , at first continued their journeys to W a d a i , though M u h a m m a d had some decades earlier expelled from the country those J e l l a b a w h o h a d not settled there. In K i n g Ali's time they entered the country in m u c h larger numbers, and were so m u c h respected and favoured b y h i m as to be regarded by the inhabitants with jealousy and hatred. T h e K i n g ' s cruel severity against rioting can h o w e v e r scarcely be understood b y a European without an accurate appreciation of the c h a r a c t e r of the population. Just before m y arrival [in A b e s h r ] , there h a d been one episode which clearly illustrated A l i ' s sternness and energy. O n e d a y , from the upper storey of his palace, f r o m w h i c h he could look over the market held under [62] the western walls of his residence, he had seen widespread disorder and confusion, and finally fighting a m o n g the people in the market. A messenger w h o was hastily despatched brought back the news that there had been a robbery, a n d that a d v a n t a g e had then been taken of the subsequent disorder for further robberies. T h e king immediately himself went outside the p a l a c e on foot, a thing completely unheard of for a k i n g o f W a d a i , w h o in the eyes of his subjects had something of the c h a r a c t e r of a g o d ; he had a straw mat spread out in front of the gate w h i c h leads to the market, assembled a n u m b e r of his armed grooms, korayat, and h a d the officials responsible for security in the capital summoned before him. These were his brother Yusef, 1 the A q i d of the J a ' a d i n a , the J e r m a A b u J e b r i n , w h o was his maternal uncle, and his friend and counsellor, the J e l l a b i H a j j A h m e d T a n g a t a n g a , each of w h o m supervised one quarter of the town. W h e n these nobles and high officials appeared before him, and the people had gathered round, he a n n o u n c e d to those present that, w h e n a k i n g of W a d a i appeared on foot in sandals in the market place, they could infer the severity with w h i c h he w o u l d insist on the maintenance of public security in the capital. H e notified his relations a n d officials that, if they did not within a short time discover and b r i n g h i m the lawbreakers and those w h o were disturbing t h e peace, he w o u l d exact a bloody compensation from t h e m . T h e y immediately b e g a n an investigation, and brought before the king fourteen people, including not a few w o m e n , w h o were regarded as responsible for the robberies d u r i n g the general disorder. T h e king h a d them brought together and shot by his korayat, most of w h o m w e r e armed w i t h carbines. A more careful investigation w o u l d p r o b a b l y have shown m a n y of those w h o were shot to be innocent, a n d to h a v e been found guilty merely because the heads o f the dignitaries themselves were shaking hazardously on their shoulders. But if in these countries in general the life of a single m a n is not v a l u e d v e r y h i g h l y , in W a d a i it is valued even less; a b o v e all the king w a n t e d [63] b y the 1

See pp. 75-6, 127. Yusef succeeded Ali in 1874, and reigned until 1898.

52

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

fear of punishment to warn the inhabitants against similar crimes. At the time of my arrival there was another horrible episode, in which a Jellabi was the victim of a bloody punishment inflicted by the pitiless ruler. He was a member of the merchant colony which had settled in Wadai, and had earlier undertaken trading journeys to Bagirmi. In Massenya he had begun a love affair with the daughter of Abu Sekkin, who, as the leading princess, bore the title of shukotma. After the war she was brought as a prisoner to Wadai, and married to one of Ali's officials. The merchant nevertheless renewed his association with her, though warned about it several times by the king. When the warnings were ineffective, the king had his nose and ears cut off, and one foot mutilated, and sent him in this condition to his people. When all the merchants ventured to complain about this, the king called them together and told them curtly that according to the law of Islam death was the proper punishment for adultery; if his methods of justice did not please them, they could leave the country immediately, and he gave them fourteen days to wind up their affairs. Under King Ali's government it was impossible that, as is far too often the case in Bornu, a foreign merchant should be unable to collect the debts due to him. How many of my travelling companions were still waiting in vain in Kuka after three years, struggling with distress and hunger, for payment for the goods sold to the dignitaries there on their arrival! When in Wadai the time has come for the departure of a caravan to the north, and some of those who want to travel have not succeeded in collecting their debts, they turn to the king who docs not delay in announcing clearly to the negligent debtor, whether a high official or a slave, " I f you have not satisfied your creditor by such and such a date, you will go with him as a slave as a substitute for the money you owe him". And to avoid too frequent resort to violent measures of this kind, he later reminded the merchants who came to Wadai [64] that they should sell only for cash. In the interior of the country, indeed, the king had not yet been able to establish the same conditions of security, but he strove with all his power to achieve this end, not in any way sparing even his nearest relations, who in those countries are usually the chief offenders. It was perhaps to be ascribed to this circumstance that at the beginning of his reign, in accordance with an old Wadai custom, Ali had had his brothers and other close relations who might have aspired to power blinded. In this connection, however, he had practised a certain measure of justice; those whose wild ambitious disposition he knew he had deprived of their eyesight, but some of his brothers he spared, relying on their better nature, though they were born of free and noble mothers, and were therefore in the eventual line of succession to the throne. Shortly before my arrival Ali had confronted his own mother in the most peremptory

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

53

manner. In Wadai the Queen Mother, or momo, enjoys great power, and the present one was much inclined to allow herself to overstep the mark. O n e day her son appeared before her with the insignia of his royal dignity, and accompanied by his highest officials; in her own house he gave her a most emphatic warning, and, when she threatened that if she was not given her appropriate status in Wadai she would withdraw to another country, he replied that he would place no obstacle in the way of such a step. He knew quite well, indeed, that the ardent patriot would not leave her fatherland, and thenceforth he had peace. 1 A l l these stories of recent events supported a judgment of the king which subsequently I found was completely corroborated. He had a sound common sense, little feeling, boundless energy, and a powerful, even cruel, sense of justice. His main objective was to increase the power of Wadai abroad, and at home to establish the royal authority by justice among the good and fear among the bad. He was also very much concerned to promote the warlike spirit which is in any event characteristic of the people of Wadai. [65] For the furtherance of trade he thought it necessary to live in peace and friendship with the larger neighbouring countries, but his military commanders were also kept continuously active in other directions, and woe to him whose energy and bravery seemed at any time to be in doubt. He had just recently despatched some of his commanders against the marauding Massalit, who were making the caravan routes between Wadai and Darfur unsafe; when they returned, not only without having achieved their objective, but with their forces almost decimated, he had the ears and noses cut off of those who had not behaved with proper resolution. K i n g A l i may before my arrival have been still undecided whether his religious convictions would permit him to receive me - over the aman to be granted to me he had no doubt - but, after the spell had been broken, he had me summoned to him nearly every afternoon as soon as government business proper had been concluded for the day. Right from the beginning I had numerous illustrations of the simple logical way in which he was in the habit of forming his judgments. After a few days, for example, he sent back to me the telescope which had been presented to him; when I expressed my regret that the tele1

Voluntary exile for royal dames was, however, apparently not merely hypo-

thetical. In 1911 an aunt of the deposed and reigning Sultans of W a d a i was living in grateful enjoyment of the hospitality of the Sultan of Bagirmi, having not found life easy in her own country (Olive Macleod, Chiefs

and cities of central Africa,

burgh and London, 1912, 170, 179). T h e chief wife, or gumsu,

Edin-

of Sultan G a u r a n g a

of Bagirmi at this time was also a Wadaian, whom he had married during his captivity in Abeshr following the W a d a i a n conquest of Bagirmi in 1870 {ibid., pp. 67-8).

164-5;

see

below,

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

54

scope did not please him, adding that he had insulted me by returning it - for in our country it was regarded as an insult to get a present back - he expounded his principles on this matter with persuasive clarity and simplicity. With some justification he held it to be more appropriate in his country for us to follow the practices customary there rather than those of our own homeland; the gifts which he received or claimed from foreign travellers were, he explained, in the nature of a tax for which as a counterpart he undertook to guarantee the security of their property and person. He therefore believed that, especially since his royal dignity required that he should reciprocate any ostensible gift, and even outdo it, he had the right to examine any gift meticulously in order to see whether it pleased him and how much it was really worth. If a gift did not please him, or he could make no [66] use of it, he simply gave it back. The telescope was an instrument of which people had told him that I could see with it as far as my own country, but for several days he had tried in vain to see anything unusual through it. God had given him good eyes, and he renounced the use of this instrument the more gladly since he knew that we valued such inventions very highly; it would serve me better than him, and for this reason he had sent it back. 1 The letter of introduction which Shaykh Umar had given me for his royal neighbour, I also could not persuade him to accept. When I wanted to hand it to him, he declared that it was quite superfluous, for the Shaykh could not have sent through me anything but a personal introduction. He already knew quite well how to conduct himself with foreigners, and he would not allow himself either to be moved by his friendship for Shaykh Umar to treat me better than his own principles demanded, or to refrain from ill-treating me merely because of fear. King Ali in fact never received the letter, which is still in my possession [see below, p. 395]. The Queen Mother and her brother, the J e r m a Abu Jebrin, could not make up their minds to have any closer contact with me. T o the former I sent by Otman, my travelling companion, a suitable present of some indigo-dyed K a n o tobes and turkedi, but she rejected with alarm the idea of a visit from a Christian, and limited herself to entrusting to me daily the numerous sick in her large household. Through a third party, indeed, the J e r m a Abu Jebrin several times expressed his desire to get to know me and to see me by myself; discretion and knowledge of the fact that apart from the king no one occupied any position of real power in the country did not, however, allow me to have much regard for this highly placed person. [67] The king's hospitality was quite adequate for me, although he did not in this 1

Nachtigal eventually disposed of his telescope by presenting it to King Brahim of Darfur (p. 370 below).

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

55

respect display the same liberality as the amiable ruler of Bornu. D u r i n g the w h o l e of m y long stay in W a d a i , I did not once receive a m e a l from the royal kitchen, K i n g A l i limiting himself to gifts of sheep, a n d o f butter, honey and teqaqi, as a supplement for market expenses. A t the beginning, for example, he sent m e ten sheep and fifty teqaqi, w o r t h a b o u t 8 M a r i a Theresa dollars. In this connection I could again observe the stringent control w h i c h the king exercised over his subjects. T h e eunuch w h o brought his hospitable gifts steadfastly refused to accept the gratuities offered to him, not because he thought t h e m i n a d e q u a t e , but because his master had forbidden it. T h e king could not endure that his generosity to foreigners should be m a d e a source o f profit for his servants. W h a t a difference between K i n g A l i ' s officials a n d those of S h a y k h U m a r and of the king of D a r f u r , w h o could discuss for hours w h e t h e r the gratuities offered to t h e m corresponded to their dignity and to the value o f the presents conveyed b y t h e m ! In view o f all that had been heard earlier about the inhabitants a n d the administration of W a d a i , of the sad catastrophe w h i c h had deprived the world a n d science o f the gallant E d u a r d V o g e l [pp. 130-4], a n d of w h a t I h a d been told of the causes of his downfall, I kept myself understandably very m u c h in the background. For weeks I showed myself in the t o w n only in going to the royal palace or visiting the D o n g o l a n H a j j T a n g a t a n g a , the king's friend and counsellor, w h o lived opposite me, and under whose special protection I had placed myself. Since in fact, as I told the king, I intended as soon as possible to move on into D a r f u r , in order to reach my home again, I sought first of all to arrange for the sale o f the outfit with w h i c h the generous S h a y k h U m a r had provided me. A great part of the currency w h i c h is customary in W a d a i , pieces of European cotton cloth, 65 centimeters wide [68] and 17 meters long, k n o w n as maqta kham or tromba, comes there from E g y p t via the Nile countries and Darfur. Imports of this cloth had for a long time been meagre, and the market was limited b y the scarcity of this currency, so that the sale of m y few manufactured articles was neither easy nor remunerative. T h e turkedi, or w o m a n ' s shawl, f r o m K a n o , w h i c h in normal conditions cost about two-thirds of a M a r i a Theresa dollar for moderate quality, served very well to purchase the requirements of ordinary daily life. A t that time, however, the maqta tromba was v a l u e d in W a d a i at 1 \ dollars. I n order to get the means for m y j o u r n e y to D a r f u r , I sought to avoid retail sales, w h i c h in every country require great skill if one is to engage in t h e m to any advantage, a n d instead to dispose o f part o f m y w h o l e stock to some enterprising wholesaler. A n d this, as I have said, was incredibly difficult to arrange because of the scarcity of kham in the market. In all that I undertook, both in m y relations w i t h the king, and in m y personal affairs, such as b u y i n g and selling, the Sherif H a j j S a l i m

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

56

from Qairawan, who, as I have said, had also lived in the city of Tunis, and regarded me almost as a fellow-countryman, was of the greatest value to me. His advice was much more disinterested and honest than that of my otherwise good natured landlord, Otman Uled el-Fadl. Hajj Salim had been in Abeshr for about two years, and was considered an able, enterprising and prosperous merchant. Although he was a sherif and deeply religious, he nevertheless formed a strong bond of friendship with me, and by associating with me daily and not disdaining to take his evening meal out of the same dish with me, he considerably increased my standing among the narrow-minded and fanatical natives. His companion, the Sherif Muhammad, also from Qairawan, was less intelligent and less shrewd, but he was especially interesting to me, since before his journey to Wadai he had got to know Dr Schweinfurth 1 in the Niamniam countries. It was he of whom this distinguished traveller said that because of [69] the light colour of his skin and his educated manner of speaking he had at first taken him for a European traveller in disguise. I was indeed astonished myself after a few days to be approached by this man with a request for lessons in English, since he had started earlier to learn this language. He had a very incomplete, but on the whole accurate, notion of the geography of European and other countries, could understand a geographical map, and was happy to discuss astronomy, geographical definitions of length and breadth, topics of cosmic physics, and the like. He did not appear to understand so well how to manage his affairs, for while Hajj Salim speedily made headway with his business, Hajj Muhammad was, despite the advice of his companion, nearly bankrupt at the time of my departure from Wadai. Unfortunately before the end of the year, Hajj Salim fell victim to chronic dysentery, from which he was already suffering before my arrival. My preference, as I have already said, was to associate with Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga, as soon as he had returned from a journey on which he had been sent by the king, for not only did he occupy a position of trust in relation to his master, but he was also to be my escort on the journey to Darfur and Egypt. He was a small fraillooking man with a large beard, about forty-eight; his only official position was that of a chief of the foreign merchants,2 being himself the 1

Georg August Schweinfurth, 1836-1925, a German naturalist, born in Riga, after travelling around the Red Sea area in 1863-6, embarked in 1869 on an extensive expedition from Khartoum to the Bahr el-Ghazal region in the Sudan and beyond, where he discovered the Welle or Uelle river, to which Nachtigal referred below, p. 82. Schweinfurth's best-known book is Im Herzen von Afrika, with an English translation, The Heart of Africa, (London), both published in 1873. 2 He is, however, described above (p. 5 1 ) as one of the four men responsible for public order in the capital, and later (p. g i ) as administering Kenga, the inhabitants of which had substantial tax obligations to him.

Arrival in Abeshr. King Ali

57

most i m p o r t a n t merchant in the c o u n t r y . His trading journeys d u r i n g the 1850s h a d brought him repeatedly to W a d a i , and even in the time o f K i n g M u h a m m a d Sherif he had m a d e the a c q u a i n t a n c e o f the then heir to the throne w h o is n o w king. H e at that time performed m a n y friendly services for the prince, w h o , like most princes, was not very generously provided w i t h m o n e y b y his father, a n d had supplied him w i t h o u t p a y m e n t w i t h everything that he n e e d e d ; later with all the other foreign merchants in the country, he w a s banished by K i n g M u h a m m a d Sherif. H o w e v e r K i n g A l i did not forget h i m , a n d as soon as he succeeded to the throne, summoned him back to W a d a i . 1 T h e largest [70] part of W a d a i ' s trade w i t h foreign countries was in H a j j A h m e d ' s hands, and I had to thank h i m for m u c h o f m y information about it. A f t e r the news arrived o f the death of his brother, w h o m he h a d sent forward to D a r f u r with ivory and ostrich feathers in preparation for the j o u r n e y w h i c h he h a d planned, in accordance w i t h custom he did not leave his house for seven days, and d u r i n g that time received m a n y visits of condolence. T h e r e followed on the eighth d a y the socalled sadaqah, for w h i c h great quantities of food were prepared a n d distributed to e v e r y b o d y , the k i n g contributing ten h e a d o f cattle. T h e higher the esteem in w h i c h the king with his partiality for trade a n d c o m m e r c e held the foreign merchants, and the greater the profit gained b y t h e m from their activities in the country, the more u n p o p u l a r they were with the natives. W i t h their boundless fear o f the king, the natives indeed tolerated the foreigners, but nevertheless looked on t h e m as intruders and parasites w h o lived sumptuously at their expense. Especially were the J e l l a b a , m a n y o f w h o m c a m e from D o n g o l a - the people settled in N i m r o are mostly Dongolans - hated and despised b y the people. Even today it is almost as insulting to be called a D o n g o l a w i as a haddad, a smith, or a kabartu, a m e m b e r of the despised musicians' caste of the country, insults w h i c h c a n be wiped out only by blood. It was indeed only fear of the king w h i c h m a d e it possible for me to live unmolested in A b e s h r ; even in spite of the marks o f favour w h i c h he showed me, the real W a d a i people could only very gradually bring themselves to the point, not indeed where they w o u l d seek me out or desire visits from me, but merely take m y advice in cases of illness. I a m quite convinced that, if it had not been for the king, they w o u l d not long have suffered me to remain in the c o u n t r y ; I should p r o b a b l y , indeed, not h a v e left it alive. G r a d u a l l y the people b e g a n at least to ask me for advice in cases of illness, a n d , as I have said, the momo g a v e the lead here, although it was she w h o at the outset had opposed m e w i t h the utmost hostility. Every d a y she sent me w o m e n from her large household, [71] w h o 1

T h e story is told in greater detail on pp. 245-6 below.

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journey from Bornu to Wadai

unfortunately were afflicted b y illnesses which lay outside the scope of m y medical skill, for they could not be cured b y administering harmless internal medicine. Diseases of the w o m b , eyeballs destroyed by smallpox, cataracts and glaucoma, diseases of the conjunctiva, inflammation and ulcers of the cornea, chronic rheumatism, syphilis, chronic indigestion and catarrh of the lungs formed the greater part of the illnesses which came to me for treatment. T h e Jellaba, Tripolitanians and others were docile and grateful patients, but most of the real W a d a i people, even when they had consulted me, would only rarely make use of the remedies administered to them. O n l y the king, who, as has been said, suffered from haemorrhoids, himself a thoroughly honourable m a n , showed complete trust in m y good intentions, and to the great alarm of his entourage took my medicaments with great regularity, on the administration of which, of course, as always in those countries, I too had to take a dose before the eyes of those present. O n m y frequent visits to the royal palace, where later I was called, or went without being invited, nearly every third day, I gradually got to know the most distinguished people of the country; I was compelled, however, to recognise that even the highest official exerted no more influence upon the king than the least of his servants. H e was somewhat disappointed that I was neither an armourer nor an expert gunnery technician, for he had heard that we understood all the handicrafts and arts; however he made up for this more and more with m y medical profession. I had frequent conversations with him about the Christian religion and Christian countries, as well as about things knowledge of which was bound to be of great value to me as an explorer. T h u s one topic of discussion was the rhinoceros of W a d a i , which according to the report long spread by the tales of foreign merchants, has only one horn. Opinions about this animal in the country were, despite its frequency, extraordinarily divided. Some pictured its hide as [72] like that of a giraffe, others that of an elephant, and others again of a buffalo, while the king compared it for colour and bristles with the wild pig. M a n y maintained that it had only one horn, some allowed two, and others again spoke o f three. T h e controversy was settled one day b y the chance presence in Abeshr of a celebrated rhinoceros hunter. W h e n our doubts were explained to him, he sat down, took a piece of clay, and from it formed an ordinary two-horned rhinoceros, which everybody recognised as corresponding to the reality. Since the king had repeatedly pressed me to tell him how he could serve me, I finally asked him for a young rhinoceros; this however he regarded as impossible, for he said that the animal was so wild that it was not worth the effort to try to capture it. T h e rhinooceros is, in fact the animal most feared in W a d a i ; it is said to be so vicious that, even on a chance encounter with a man, without having been attacked or

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molested, it will charge at him in wild rage. It is hunted in the south of the country like the elephant; one rider on a good horse attracts the attention of the animal, while another seeks to thrust a very broad, sharp, long lance into its body between the hip-joint and the tail. It is a dangerous form of hunting, demanding great strength and skill. In the interior of the country, on the banks of the Batha, where the rhinoceros is very common, it is the custom to kill the animal from the top of a tree along its path, a lance being thrust from above into its body near the vertebral column. Since I intended soon to depart, I sought to extend my information about the topography of the country, compared the numerous reports which I had collected in Bornu, and got hold of people who could enlighten me about the unknown south, the basin of the Bahr es-Salamat, about Dar-Runga:, Kuti and the rivers flowing to the west into the pagan countries south of Wadai, where I was convinced that the source of the Shari must be. A t the same time [73] I sought to renew my stock of baggage animals for the journey before me, for the camels which I had brought with me from Bornu had proved to be unserviceable. I did not, to be sure, think at that time that fate would still keep me in Wadai for nearly a whole year. In the middle of May, with the kursi, the overseer of the Jellaba who have settled in Wadai, I made an excursion to Wara, the former capital, 1 and to Nimro, the merchants' town, which lies a few hours to the west of W a r a . As soon as I had expressed to the king a wish to visit the city of his ancestors, his well-known energy required that the plan be carried out immediately. T h e excursion was agreed for M a y 16. A t daybreak a messenger from the kursi arrived to fetch me, and a little after sunrise we could set out from his house which lay at the far west of the town. This for the first time gave me an opportunity to obtain a general view of the town and its surroundings. Abeshr lies in the southern part of a broad flat valley, on a hillock which towers above the level of the valley. T h e valley stretches to the cast to the slopes of the Kelingen mountains, to the west to those of the Kondongo chain. T o the south it is bounded by a massif standing somewhat isolated in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, and to the north it is shut off by a low ridge which 1 Information which Clapperton, in the Fulani empire of Sokoto in the 1830s, received about W a d a i included mention of the capital, Hoowara. T h e brief account is worth quoting, confirmed in many details as it is by Nachtigal's experience:

. . . it is very extensive, hilly, sandy, mountainous, and contains vales, lakes, and deep wells. Its sultan is named Yousuf, and his capital, which is situated under high mountains, is called H o o w a r a ; the inhabitants are a mixture of Arabs and Persians; they are renowned for courage in war, swift horses, and the abundance of their camels, oxen, and sheep. T h e y have a great many market places or towns, and their living is the dokhun and dura. (Second expedition, 335.)

6o

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

stretches from the Kondongo chain as far as Shugur. From east to west it is one day's march, and from north to south about two hours. We moved off towards the northnorthwest, maintaining this direction throughout the whole day with some deviations to the north and east, and travelling very swiftly. Poor as was the appearance of the horse which the kursi was riding, its speed was nevertheless much greater than that of my much more magnificent Bornu horse. In fact, there are scarcely any of those countries where the horse maintains a faster amble than in Wadai. It does not look like a country for horses, and those which are imported often die. The breed which is raised through continuous importation is [74] very unprepossessing in appearance, but it has extraordinary powers of resistance. The Wadai horse is very thick-set, has a powerful bony structure, is short-haired, with a powerful chest and broad neck, inclined to put on both flesh and fat, but at the same time fast, fiery and tireless. I was indeed with my long-legged much admired Bornu horse able to follow the kursi only with the greatest trouble, and to keep close to him I had to break into a trot or a gallop, and thus had an unusually tiring day's journey. After we had crossed the river-bed which terminates the valley of Abeshr, we soon reached the ridge which bounds the valley to the north, on whose northern and southern slopes lie the two Ogodenge villages, which together had about 300 huts, and whose inhabitants originally came from Kelingcn. Between these villages one descends into another broad flat valley, covered with siwah and makhet, in the northern part of which another river-bed had to be crossed, before we reached the village of Mandafana, with at most 100 huts. The stream ran parallel to the mountain chain of the Kondongo, to which we approached nearer and nearer, and the inhabitants of the village belonged originally to this tribe. A further flat valley led us to the village of Abunduro, with several hundred huts, lying beside a wadi which was the most important of the three that we passed. The river-bed was narrow, but the sharp deep furrows in the hard soil demonstrated the power of the flow of water here from northeast to southwest in the rainy season. All these small streams flow together into the Buteha, or small river. The country around, like the whole of northern Wadai, seemed very deficient in water, and the village had only one well, n o to 150 meters deep, where the supply was not at all good. On the other side of the valley, we made a brief halt, before we had completed half our journey, to take the breakfast which the kursi had brought with him, consisting of a roasted hen, to which was added a water-bag, whose contents however to my great [75] astonishment turned out to be merissa. After the kursi had taken the contents of the bag almost entirely for himself, we continued our journey, passing a bell-shaped mountain, which rose in isolation from the gradually rising country around, a halfway-mark on

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the road to Nimro, and for that reason called Jebel en-Nusf, i.e. the half-way hill. At this point the northeast end of the Kondongo chain lay several hours from us to the west, so that the Jebel en-Nusf formed a sort of link between it and the southwestern spurs of the mountain mass of the Kodoi region. The ground became gradually more stony, and the peaks ran in a line to the southwest. Another valley followed, bounded to the east by a low ridge running from east to west, at whose foot lay the small village of Brorit, and which towards midday we surmounted with considerable trouble, for great blocks of granite and coarse sand stone made the way difficult. The Bornu horses are so little accustomed to stone that these inconsiderable elevations presented my horse with almost insuperable difficulties, while the kursVs animal scrambled along the road with great ease and very swiftly. In the broad valley which lies on the other side of the ridge, with numerous trees at the bottom, and bounded to- the north by the fairly high isolated Tolfu peak, lay the three Burtei villages. The wells from which their water supplies were drawn are in the steepest parts of the valley; they were not so deep as the wells of Abundoro, and there was more water in them. We rested here to water our animals and to wait for our servants who were following on foot, and had of course been left behind by the speed of our horses. From here could be seen many individual mountain groups, to the northwest the Shibi, to the west Dobu, to the northnortheast the mountains of Wara and to the northeast those of Andobu. Our people did not join us until 4 p.m., having been held up in Brorit by thirst and fatigue. We then set off as quickly as possible, especially as a [76] heavy storm was working up in the east. At first it moved towards the southeast, and a rather strong northwest wind also developed, but as often happens this suddenly turned round in the opposite direction, and the storm broke mostly over the Shibi region, and only partly over us. We then passed the Mardhaba village, and after another hour reached our objective for the day, Nimro, whence some of the kursVs horsemen had come to meet us. Nimro consists of a central village with 200-300 dwellings, mostly attractive, rather spacious, clay houses, and eleven smaller hamlets, grouped irregularly around the centre. Some are real villages, others can only be called hamlets. The inhabitants are for the most part Jellaba from Dongola, Khartoum, Sennar and Kordofan 1 . They are ruled 1 Nimro was perhaps the resort also of visitors from the far west. It is said, for example, that Momodu Lamine, the Muslim leader who caused the French some embarrassment near the upper Senegal in 1885-7, had stayed there. While on pilgrimage, he had made a prolonged stop in Wadai, becoming a member of the Sanusiya there, and studying in the Nimro school of the cleric Ali bin Fakir Barouala,

62

Journey from Bomu to Wadai

by shaykhs, of whom there are four to six in the main village and one in each of the others. The top administration is in the hands of the kursi, an office formerly always held by a slave of the king, and with an amin serving under him. My host, however, the present kursi, came from a good Jellabi family, and when he was twenty-six had inherited from his father a property which in the circumstances of that place was quite substantial. As he himself told me, he offered his inheritance to the king in return for the office of kursi of the Jellaba. The king, who knew the young man and appreciated him because of his energetic character, granted his wish despite the lively opposition of the Jellaba. It was years before the young kursi succeeded in establishing his position, but his strong, tenacious character enabled him to overcome all difficulties. The office of kursi is indeed very lucrative, for he receives taxes from the Jellaba, who are almost continuously on the road, two maqta tromba for every laden camel on their return from Darfur, and one turkedi on their arrival from the west. The kursi also has jurisdiction over robberies, adultery, police offences and bloody brawls, and the penalties nearly always take the form of fines [77] which accrue to him. In criminal cases of the first importance, half the fine goes to the king. It was characteristic of my host's strong constitution that he could endure the life which he led; when one looked at him, one could not avoid the conclusion that merissa, the beer of that country, has a much less devastating effect than our alcoholic drinks, for he drank it from daybreak until the time of the evening meal, asha, about 8 p.m., eating almost no farinaceous food, but only some roasted meat. He practised this vice, moreover, not secretly, as Muslims are accustomed to do, but in the yard, surrounded by his friends and subordinates, while he attended to the details of administration, settled disputes and judged offences. On the first day I left the kursi to his most pressing business, while I examined the whole Nimro group, and at King Ali's request visited a sick Jellabi, the Faqih Ahmed, who was afflicted with an acute dropsy. The following day we made an excursion to Wara, setting out at 5 a.m., and after a sharp hour-and-a-half's ride towards the east reached the entrance to the rocky valley of the former capital. Muhammad Sherif, the father of the present king, had moved his residence from here whose daughter he married. A. Le Chatelier, VIslam dans I'Afrique occidentals (Paris, 1899), 216; cf. H . J . Fisher, "The ¡early life and pilgrimage of al-Hajj Muhammad al-Amin the Soninke (d. 1887)", Journal of African History, xi, 1, 1970, 57-8. During the 17 th and 18th centuries there is evidence of exchange between Sennar and Wadai, in scholarship as well as in trade; clerics came to Wadai to teach, and pupils travelled thence to the Nile. See J . S. Trimingham, History of Islam in West Africa (Oxford 196a), 140 and nn.

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63

to Abeshr. He appears to have left his former capital, well fortified as, of course, it was, mainly because he feared the proximity of the Abu Sunun or Kodoi, the most powerful of the original noble Wadai tribes, which was not well-disposed towards his family; the ostensible reason offered was that evil spirits had made the old royal castle uninhabitable. As always quickly happens in that part of the world, there remained of the old capital after the twenty years which had elapsed since the change only a poor little hamlet of some 100 huts. 1 The town lay in a narrow valley bounded by mountains to east, south and west; the mountains to the east and south form a chain, of which the most southerly section, which is the highest, has about the same elevation as the Drachenfels on the Rhine. To the west the narrow valley is [78] bounded by the Thorega, which earlier had been a sacred place. The royal insignia were kept there, and at the beginning of his reign the king had to retire there for a week. Between this mountain and the chain which is the boundary of the valley to the east and south is a narrow entrance through which part of the mountain water flows to the southwest. The valley was open to the north and northwest, and there lay the little village of Gandigin, the remnant of the former Wara. Nearby was the Tumang, the burial place of the kings of Wadai. From here there was an extensive view over the region to the east, with the pointed cone in the distance some hours away, at whose foot lay the original Malanga villages. To the northeast were the mountains of the Madala and the Madaba, not much farther away than the others. About a day and a half farther on the northern and northeastern horizon was filled by the mountain region of the Abu Sunun or Kodoi. Of the former royal castle only some miserable remnants remained; it had formed a large oval, or long rectangle without sharp corners, and had been of considerable size. The interior was completely in ruins; only the surrounding walls, for which a considerable number of bricks had been used, continued to resist the effects of time. The large mosque of Abd el-Kerim, the founder of the dynasty [1635-55], built entirely of red brick, was an exception to the general decay; it was distinguished by a sharp-edged minaret, about 10 meters high and with a regular polygonal shape, which was indeed for that part of the world a considerable architectural achievement.2 1 There seems no evidence here for the assertion that Wara maintained its commercial importance in the trans-Saharan trade even after it ceased to be the capital; see A. A. Boahen, Britain, the Sahara, and the western Sudan: 1788-1861 (Oxford, 1964), 120. 1 Opinions vary about who built the mosque. According to H. G. Balfour-Paul ("Sultans' palaces in Darfur and Waddai", Kush, 2, 1954), it was not built by Abd el-Kerim the founder of the dynasty, but by Abd el-Kerim Sabun (1803-13), who is now regarded as having been responsible for all the buildings of Wara. However, J . P. Lebeuf ("The site of Wara", Journal of the historical society of Nigeria, 1962, 396-8)

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

While I was inspecting this scene of many bloody deeds committed by the king or by his subjects, my companion and host sat down in front of the mosque with his servants and the qirba of merissa from which he was inseparable, and after a few hours, when I had completed my tour and he his supply of merissa, we were able to return to Nimro. The carouse was continued there with a brief pause at midday for a nap, and then started again with renewed vigour in the afternoon, [79] concluding only at nightfall. The men drank from a small gourd, holding from 8 to 10 ounces, which continually made the rounds, and it was regarded as unbecoming not to empty it at one draught. In general the people were very amiable to me, and only one fanatical muallim, or scholar, became rather tiresome with his attacks on the Christians; but in spite of his status which demanded respect, the company induced him to keep at a distance, and excused the incident to me in view of the man's violent temperament. I took the opportunity to explain to them that I much desired reasonable discussion about religion, but that, after living for years among the learned Muslims of Tunis, I had not come to the Negro countries to be converted. I also had the opportunity in between to see various sick people, leprous ulcers, destroyed eyeballs, and the large callous scars following smallpox or umbilical hernia, which in these regions is very common because the umbilical cord has been cut too short. I intended to return to Abeshr on the following day, but the kursi, who did not dare, because of fear of the king, to allow me to make the journey alone, and was not yet ready to make it himself, had recourse to a stratagem to keep me back. About midday he disappeared into one of the smaller villages of Nimro, where he had a second wife, and only returned so late that departure on that day was impossible. The time of his absence was beguiled for me with a visit from two magnificently dressed young girls whom a slave woman from the kursi's household introduced to me. Each of them had a dirty red skin colour, and apart from their youth, they had no special charm. Their hair was very carefully arranged, in the style of the women of Ngurra, in innumerable small plaits, of the thickness of a quill, which covered the whole head. So that these plaits should not fall over their face, as with married women, [80] two thick plaits of sheep hair 1 down to the ears framed returned to the earlier view that the building, of both mosque and royal palace, "must have been started" by Abd el-Kerim, and was finished by Kharut (d. 1677). Lebeuf called Wara "the finest example of ancient architecture in the Republic of Chad". Nachtigal sent a general description and sketch of Wara to Europe from Kuka, which appeared in £eitschrift der Gcsellschaft JUT Erdktmde zti Berlin, 6, 1871, 345-66; cf. Ganslmayr, in Nachtigal, 69. Nachtigal, in Balfour-Paul's view, "simply wasn't interested in ruins". 1 As is still to be explained elsewhere, the Wadai sheep have no wool, but only hair which in some breeds is very long. G. N. Cf. p. 145 below.

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65

them in, keeping in the straying little plaits, and preventing them from falling forward. In the middle over the top of the head, there ran the middle plait which is usual in Wadai, one for a maiden, two for a wife, f r o m the forehead to the back of the head, also made up with sheep's hair. From the front end of this plait a piece of gold hung down over the forehead, while fine-looking corals adorned the two side-plaits. T h e i r hair was not only carefully and abundantly smeared with butter, but was also sprinkled with a powder made of the red earth of Dimi (a place in the desert, north of the Bedeyat region), powdered tobacco and some fragrant plant powders. In the right nostril was an enormous coral cylinder, which made the nose, stunted as it was in any case, appear completely distorted and deformed. As is required by the custom of Wadai, of which we shall speak again later [p. 198], the lips and the whole of the mouth including the gums appeared to be of a beautiful blue-grey colour. A l l the fingers carried various monstrous silver rings; coral necklaces and thick cylinders of genuine coral, strings of woven silk with small bags containing talismans and Quran verses, adorned the necks of these beauties, who, fully conscious of their attractions, sallied forth confidently on their manhunt. When I had admired them sufficiently, they at last asked me directly if I did not wish to be married, and when I excused myself on the ground that, according to the custom of our country, it was possible to take only one wife, this was taken as applying to only one of them, and I had to promise the other to speak with the kursi on his return, and arrange the matter suitably. T h e kursi came back late in the afternoon, and the rest of the day passed in a public drinking party, where he caroused longer and deeper than ever; for me [81] it was interrupted from time to time by numerous visits from sick people. A t this session, however, the drink that was offered was not only merissa, but also one made from dates of reddish colour, stronger than the dukhn beer, but quite unlike laqbi (palm wine). During all these days indeed, in spite of the great quantity and strength of the liquor, I did not see anybody really drunk. In Abeshr on the contrary, the slaves and lower ranks of the population were sometimes seen in a dubious condition in the streets or houses. A t these drinking parties, it was usual from time to time, in order to increase the sensation of thirst, to eat some small pieces of raw ox flesh, especially entrails and liver, with salt and pepper. T h e consumption of raw meat of this kind is popular throughout W a d a i , but the Jellaba are particularly distinguished by their partiality for camel liver. I must confess that of all the things which I used to eat during my sojourn in the Sudan countries, only raw camel liver and the guro nut remain as pleasant memories. Even when I reached Cairo with its European hotels and excellent tables-d'hote the raw camel liver which from time to time I procured

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

for myself could for my taste completely hold its own in comparison with the most dainty dishes offered there. On May 20, when we were to have returned to Abeshr, the news came at midday that King Ali had left the capital, and would return only after a few days. The kursi was accordingly no longer to be persuaded to accompany me to Abeshr; the following morning at daybreak I left Nimro alone, and after a short midday halt in Abundoro, reached Abeshr in the afternoon. To one coming from the north the place presented a not unpleasant appearance. In the distant valley which sloped to the south, situated on pleasant high ground between the mountains of the Kondongo and Kelingen, it offered a cheerful picture with its irregular layout. The whole town had obviously developed out of separate zaribas, and above all out of the residence of the king, around which were grouped irregularly in wide circles the settlements [82] of the members of his family and of his dignitaries. Nearly all the houses of the latter even now lay outside the town, since subjects and common folk later built as close as possible to their ruler. Only the Queen Mother's extensive palace was near the ruler's house; around both lived her slaves, her proteges, foreign merchants from the Nile and Kordofan, and here and there a tintelak, a son of a king. Thus in the whole place there was really only one street, though it wound about in the strangest way, in a general east-west direction. All the other thoroughfares were only crooked narrow passages, interrupted by courtyards; here were houses of clay, there straw huts, completely without order, so that it was extremely difficult to find one's way. In the western part of the town, the strawcovered brick huts of the royal residence towered above its surroundings. Within the enclosure walls of the palace, the extensive royal stables joined up towards the northeast and north with the dwellings of the king's officials and grooms. On the north side in front of the enclosure wall was the royal square, which was at the same time the market place; to the southwest was the separated region of the kabartu, the despised caste, already mentioned, of musicians and executioners; while to the south of the dwelling of the king was that, almost as extensive, of the momo. Free subjects and foreigners were in possession of the east of the town. The total population might be around ten to fifteen thousand.

CHAPTER

IV

STAY IN ABESHR May 21-July

31,

1873

[83] At the time of my return from Wara King Ali had not yet come back from the expedition which he had undertaken to inspect one of his Bagirmi settlements. There were several of these in the country, and the king followed their development with the greatest interest. If the generally accepted belief that he had brought from Wadai to Bagirmi 30,000 men, free and slave, may have been exaggerated in the manner which is customary there, [84] 12,000-15,000 might perhaps be an underestimate. Most of them were slaves; of these a great number had been distributed among King Ali's officials, and others sold and already taken abroad. In spite of his religious convictions, the distinction between horr, the free man, and abd, the slave, did not seem, if the reports of the judicious Hajj Salim were to be believed, to have been properly observed. It would, indeed, sometimes be difficult to establish free birth; and during my visit disputes about individual slaves from Bagirmi still came before the king for his decision nearly every time I had an audience with him. He then summoned a high official from Bagirmi whom he had taken into his service, who had to determine the genealogical tree of the persons concerned, and in their presence report to the king. The free young women were married to officials, and the older women employed as servants by the members of the royal house. The king settled some of the men in the capital, and others as agricultural workers at various points in the country. Since in handicraft skills the natives of Bagirmi surpassed by far the people of Wadai, who are the most barbarous of all the Sudan people, these crafts fell almost completely into their hands. They performed valuable service in building clay houses, which, apart from them, is understood by only the less numerous Kotoko or Makari; they also know how to construct straw and reed huts - an art which they had themselves learnt from the inhabitants of the Pagan countries belonging to Bagirmi - which were much stronger and more elegant than the people of Wadai could produce. All the saddles for the king and his leading dignitaries were made by Bagirmi craftsmen. The usual Wadai saddle is small and narrow, 67

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high in front, curved towards the neck, with a pommel which can be grasped by the hand, and a high inclined back-support about two hands wide. The manufacture of cords of leather or silk, of the little pouches for talismans, of knife-sheaths and other leather goods was in the hands of people from Bagirmi. The people of Bagirmi were also experts in producing cotton strips, from which garments are made, of a [85] fineness formerly unknown in Wadai, and a respectable garment could be made only by a Bagirmi tailor. These craftsmen therefore enjoyed a great reputation, and were welcomed by the king. Those who were settled as workers on the land also far surpassed the people of Wadai. In general, indeed, the success achieved by King Ali in civilising his country by the forced emigration of the people of Bagirmi was to be rated more highly than the treasures, rich as they were in the circumstances of those countries, which he was said to have seized in Massenya. As soon as the King had returned from his expedition, I paid him a call to report on my excursion to Nimro and Wara, and to arrange with him for my early departure to Darfur. As always, he was extremely friendly, enquiring about everything, and gunpowder, the manufacture of cannons and guns, steamships, and the like, were, as before, the favourite topics of conversation. Since I was now fairly familiar with the town, he invited me to visit him as often as I liked, and had me guided back to my dwelling after sunset, on this occasion, by a man named el-Heimer, who has already been mentioned in my account of my journey with the Awlad Sulayman. He had been taken prisoner of war at the beginning of King Ali's reign, and served him as a go-between with the marauding Arabs [see ii. 47]. Recently returned from Kanem, he had brought with him a young member of the gang, who belonged to the Urfilla tribe in Tripoli, and was well known to me from my stay with them [in April 1871]. The young man brought me the news that the great Arab raid from Tripolitania, which according to the last news which I had earlier received had plundered Kawar, had reached Kanem. The peace which had been sworn with the Daza chief, Halluf, who had killed my friend Hazaz in battle, had, after this increase in their strength, been immediately broken by the faithless Arabs; they appeared now to be relying entirely on their own forces, maintaining the peace indeed with Bornu and Wadai, but wanting to exterminate the Tuareg, the Bedeyat, the Daza and the northern Arabs of Wadai. The Urfilla brought me many greetings from my [86] numerous acquaintances among the Arabs and their wives, whose special favour I enjoyed, and who played a great role in the tribe. In the meantime I slowly emerged from my cautious reserve, and, so far as my modest supply of medicaments permitted, was very active in the practice of medicine and surgery. The Jellaba especially, to

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w h o m I felt closer both because of their better education and knowledge of the world, and on account of my friendship with H a j j Ahmed T a n g a t a n g a , frequently had recourse to me. A cousin of Hajj Ahmed, the young Geren, also many times sought medical attention from me. H e had set out from Darfur with a severe lung inflammation, had been carried about with this disease for nearly a whole month, and in consequence had a lung abscess, which had broken through the chest wall, and created an extensive pocket of air under the skin. In spite of this the young man recovered, and I could not sufficiently admire the powers of resistance of these tough constitutions. In the worst days, when I constantly feared for his life, the sick man was always compelled by his friends and relations to take a quantity of food which exceeded anything that I was accustomed to. I must here mention the abundant use of melted butter made by all the Sudan people, and especially by those in the east. Every sick man, whether his illness is external or internal, is smeared with butter from top to toe every evening, and drinks at least a quarter to a half quart of butter in the morning. Everyone is agreed about the favourable results from this treatment, which enjoys an especially high reputation for rheumatic pains in the bones and joints. As always, the treatment of surgical cases was most worthwhile. In the last days of M a y a Jellabi from Khartoum came from the Fitri with a pistol wound, the shot from which had lodged somewhere between the bones of the sole of his foot. T h e injury was already forty days old, and the foot was badly swollen. T h e sick man was in a state [87] of intense general pain, and as a result of the swelling of the tender parts around it, the position of the shot could not at first be determined. After I had waited long enough to get the swelling down, so that examination should be easier, I had at last, lest I should lose my reputation as a physician, to undertake the decisive operation. In those countries such an operation is always made difficult by the impossibility of keeping relations and friends a w a y ; on the contrary a large audience always assembles, in which every one believes himself entitled to assert his opinion of the case. Fortunately I quickly succeeded in finding and extracting the shot, and thus brilliantly justifying my standing as a physician. 1 With the small caravan of this wounded man was one of my old acquaintances, the Moroccan, Azizi [cf. i. 741], who had lodged with me for a long time in Bornu, and had not accompanied me to Wadai, since he was convinced that the king of W a d a i would have me killed and would probably not spare my servants. Never have I seen such a 1

Nachtigal's grateful patient met him again more than a year later, and hospitably

received him when he was near the end of his journey from el-Fasher, the capital of Darfur to el-Obeid, cf. p. 392 below.

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cowardly, lazy, irresolute man, quite different from the usual Moroccan, although he was from the town of Morocco itself [i.e. Marrakesh]. Hammu, who, though also incredibly lazy, was at least indubitably courageous and loyal, had the greatest contempt for his cowardly fellow-countryman. However, I received him again as a guest. When by the end of May I was fairly well equipped by the purcha., of new camels and the exchange of some of the other older ones which were no longer serviceable to continue the journey to Darfur, I went one day to Hajj Ahmed, to settle with him the date of our departure, for I knew that he was as eager as I was to get to Egypt. Rather, however, he asked me mysteriously to have no tentative discussion of the project with the king, for rumours were circulating, whose truth or falsity had first to be determined, but on account of which the road to the east was provisionally closed. A pilgrim caravan which had already departed under the Shinqiti Shaykh Masur was temporarily held up on the king's instructions on the borders of the country. [88] It was a very dangerous thing to circulate rumours or political news in the capital of Wadai, and for the time being H a j j Ahmed was unable to explain himself more clearly. I n fact in Abeshr no one dared to communicate to anyone else the lightest rumour about war and peace, about relations with neighbouring countries, or events in their own country, of which they had by chance had knowledge. If it came to the ears of the king - and everything came to his ears - he enquired into the report, and woe then to anyone who could not give accurate information on how he had learnt of it, or to whom he had passed it on. My adviser, the man from Qairawan, thought that another explanation for the postponement of our departure was probable. He told me that within a few days the king's favourite wife, a Daza woman named Kili, would have two sons circumcised, an occasion on which presents would come in from all directions. She intended, at the conclusion of the festivities, to exchange these and other goods which she had previously accumulated, for slaves, and to send them with our caravan to Darfur, and she did not wish to have the market there spoiled. Next day, however, after he had been inside the royal palace, he was able to give me the real reason for closing the road to the east. Uncertain news of the death of King Hasin of Darfur had come in several days before, and Wadaian spies had been despatched as quickly as possible to the neighbouring country to ascertain the truth. The death of the old blind king would very probably lead to disputes over the succession and disturb good relations with Wadai. King Hasin had, indeed, designated as his successor Ibrahim, the youngest of his three sons, but some of Hasin's numerous brothers were so powerful and so much respected that they might be successful in aspiring to power. The oldest of them, Hasib Allah, who was nearly the same age as Hasin,

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was especially suspected; there was a large faction in his favour among the genuine Fur, continually slighted, as they had been, during the reign of King Hasin who placed the whole administration in the hands of slaves. When Hasin had [89] tentatively disclosed to his nearest relations his plan to nominate Ibrahim as his successor, he encountered no difficulties with his two elder sons, for they loved their younger brother because of his conciliatory disposition; Hasib Allah, however, and his equally powerful brothers, Seif ed-Din and Bosh, had recorded their opposition, and declared the plan to be impracticable. It was therefore very probable that there would be a conflict between the slaves and soldiers under Ibrahim, the claimant to the throne, and the free Fur under Hasib Allah. 1 If the latter were to emerge victorious from the struggle, the good relations with Wadai, which through the intelligent attitude of King Ali had become very cordial despite the century of hostility between the two countries, would be endangered. The correctness or otherwise of the report of King Hasin's death had now first to be determined. This was not easy, for after the death of the ruler in those countries, all roads leading out of the country are immediately closed until the succession has been settled. Between Wadai and Darfur this is not difficult, for there is actually only one road, leading directly to the east, by which communications are maintained, the roundabout routes, which run by a wide detour northwards via T a m a and southwards via Sula, being scarcely practicable except for the people of these regions. 2 On J u n e 6 the circumcision of the king's sons took place in the house of their grandmother, the momo. Everyone who possessed a musket, Arabs, Jellaba and natives, repaired to her palace to squander their gunpowder there in honour of the ceremony. 3 Unfortunately I could not be present, for right from the beginning the noble lady had not been able to bring herself to receive a Christian. I regretted this all the more, as the natives in her household were dancing with their female partners and maid-servants, and I would gladly have been a eye-witness of this. During this time, I had to go to the royal palace to examine a man 1

T h e story is repeated from the Darfur angle on pp. 3 1 9 - 2 0 below. I n his preliminary survey of D a r f u r (Petermanns Mitteilungen, 2 1 Band, 1 8 7 5 , 2 8 2 - 6 ) , Nachtigal said that the T a m a route could be used only by impecunious natives, fugitives, pilgrims and similar people. Both routes were impossible for foreigners and merchants, and especially on the D a r Sula route there was too much mistrust and violence. 2

3 S u c h festive and ceremonial employment of fire-arms was widespread in the Sudan countries. F o r a reconsideration of the impact of firearms in the central Sudan, see H . J . Fisher and V . R o w l a n d , " F i r e a r m s in the central S u d a n " , Journal of African history, 1 9 7 1 , xii, 2.

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from Bagirmi who had been wounded by a musket-shot. As usual the wound was the sequel to an act of revenge, and had followed alcoholic excesses; the wounded man had [90] been pestering another man's wife. The shot, fired at close quarters, had caused extensive burns in the wounded man's clothing, some of which had been driven along the track of the wound on the inside of the upper part of the thigh. The shot, however, could not be found, nor could the end of the track be reached, and apparently the shot had been torn away with the remnants of his clothing; his prompt recovery confirmed the correctness of this hypothesis. On the following day, when the dances in honour of the festival were being continued in the public square beside the large well in the extreme east of the town, I had the opportunity to make some interesting observations of them. There was a great display of luxury; the women in Wadai are in general not very restricted, and upper-class girls gladly joined in these public dances. While gold ornaments are scarcely to be seen in the western countries, they arc enormously popular in Wadai, and most of the girls possessed narrow gold necklaces, two fingers wide, from which small ornaments hung down in front. This gold jewellery is mostly fabricated in Egypt or Sennar, some of it in fine and tasteful fashion; other pieces, of less pleasing pattern and cruder workmanship, are made in Wadai itself, though only by foreign craftsmen. In addition to these gold necklaces a large cylinder of real coral in the nose is indispensable. Strings of coral are also worn round the neck, and coral pendants on the middle tress of the hair, gussa; on both sides of the latter there are silver crescents of various sizes with coral decorations. Silver plates, in the shape of little books, and adorned with silver chains, are fastened to the side tresses; finally silver bracelets for arms and feet are not lacking, though these are not so absolutely necessary as in Bornu. The dance itself was decorous in the highest degree, with a graceful restraint, and slow and solemn like a minuet or polonaise. The dancers are in couples; young men and women had put their best clothes on, the latter indeed on such [91] occasions wearing men's clothing over the customary shawls around their waist and shoulders. The dancer with his lady partner went round in a circle, giving his left hand to her, and both of them discreetly spread out the broad sleeves of their robes, swinging them gracefully to and fro. Sometimes the dancer left his place, circled his partner, and having returned to his place again, made our quadrille "balancez" step, turning first away from, and then towards his partner, and the promenade was then continued. Meanwhile one drummer went round the circle close to the dancers, sturdily beating on the taut skin of the drum, while the others squatted down in the middle of the dance square. All the men dancers were

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bareheaded, and carried their long knives in their hands. The women dancers, with the refinement of their coiffure and the beautification of their faces, presented a unique spectacle. The red of the coral, the very different red of the moghr, a red clay mixed with butter and perfumes, in all its shades, the grey stippled lips, the profusion of gold and silver ornaments, and, added to all this, their men's clothing, made them appear as beautiful and as desirable there, as with us they would have been found revolting and ugly. Another group, of Kotoko women, had also taken its stand on the square, and executed their native dance which I have described on the occasion of my journey to Bagirmi [cf. ii. 5 2 1 ] . It has to be admitted that the girls and women of Wadai in general are in no way distinguished by pleasing regular features; but their magnificent figures, tall, slender and at the same time robust, must also be acknowledged. They have a reputation for readily engineering love affairs. Every girl has her lover; frequently a beauty flirts with several, and, in view of the fierce, excitable temperament of the men, violence and murder are often the sequel. After this innocent dance, one young man, whom I had at one time employed for my journey to Bagirmi, and now caught sight of among the dancers, came to me in the afternoon with a gash on his upper arm which I had to sew up with a needle, and with the clothing torn which he had moreover borrowed for the festival. [92] The next day, too, the festival which followed the circumcision of the princes was continued. This operation is performed when the boys are from eight to twelve, and usually, by circumcising a number of boys together in a village, it is made the occasion for a great festivity. The boy who is circumcised first is considered the leader of the others, and until the healing is completed, carries the title, tanjak, chief. The one who has the operation last is called arak, and at the joint feast is given only the left-overs. The ceremony is carried out over a great mortar, in which the waste and blood are collected. If a boy behaves well - it is considered a great disgrace to show any signs of pain - his father or elder brother may send him an ox or a sheep, or an uncle promises him one of his daughters as wife. The wound is sewn up with acacia thorns which are removed after three days. From the moment of his circumcision, the boy wears sandals, with which he was not previously acquainted. For weeks before the ceremony the boy prepares for himself with great skill a whip, woven from the fibres of the kulkul or the oshar, which has an ingenious purpose. The girls of his family, his sisters and cousins, give him a large part of their ornaments, which they have to redeem from him soon afterwards with a few measures of grain. From other girls too whom he may come across, the boy has the right, during the period of healing, to demand the same

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thing. If, for example, he meets a girl with a necklace, an ornament for the face (falngak), bracelets, etc., he takes these objects from her. If the owner resists, the invalid tyrant flourishes his whip against the obstinate girl and thrashes her as well as he can from a distance, since his wounds hinder him in running. Custom further permits him to kill with his wooden missile all the hens who come in his way, to take the milk from the nomads who bring it to the market, and to seize the wares of travelling merchants until they are redeemed by a present. [93] The princes especially made the fullest use of this right, so that after their circumcision market operations were completely suspended for several days. M y people came back empty-handed one day when they were to have bought food, for the princes had robbed them of the money which they were intending to spend. When the princes appeared on the market, everybody packed up his belongings as quickly as possible, and only the first to be reached by these tyrants fell victim to them. The waste from the operation is placed in a clay pitcher filled with ashes, and after seven days is brought by the boys concerned to a large anthill outside the town. The arak, the last boy circumcised, seizes the pitcher of ashes, breaks it into pieces and, amid loud curses, all of them let fly at the pitcher with whips and sticks. When the boys are completely healed, they are conducted through the town on horses, donkeys or oxen, and the festival is completed with a general banquet and carouse. In Wadai young girls are subjected to a similar operation, a custom which does not exist in Bornu. It is, however, limited in Wadai to a simple circumcision, and the cruel procedure which is usual in the Nile countries, Dongola, Berber, Sennar, Khartoum, and in part Darfur, has not been adopted. There was still no reliable news about the events in the neighbouring country on which my immediate future depended. People who were sent to the frontier to get information returned with more or less probable reports. Some said that Prince Hasib Allah had seized power and was the undisputed master; others reported the same of the young prince Ibrahim; and others again brought the news that the former had established himself in the old royal palace, while the dead king's son had made good his claim to the new palace built by his father. For the time being, therefore, I was unable to think of departure, and began again to consider a plan for penetrating into the south. With a young Sula prince I studied moreover the language of the Daju [94] who inhabit this country, and sought information from him about the Pagan regions of Wadai. The sick claimed the rest of my time. I was still unable to get on friendly terms with the great officials or the Maba, the free men of Wadai proper. They suffered my

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presence in Wadai only from fear of their king, who had given me such a friendly reception. The Maba people are indeed the most arrogant, fanatical and narrow-minded men whom I met on my travels. It is not only religious fanaticism, but in particular also a profound conviction of the superiority of their country, their king and themselves, which is the cause of their behaviour to foreigners. O n the whole they kept themselves aloof from me. Just as the Queen Mother had rejected with fanatical indignation the request to receive me, so her brother too, the Jerma A b u Jebrin, showed himself very reserved in regard to me. His behaviour indeed was not unfriendly, and he was even courteous if we met in the royal palace, but he did not permit his curiosity to induce him to pay me a visit. It was only chance that brought me into closer touch with the wider circles of the royal family. The Princess Sara, a sister of K i n g Ali, whom I had often seen with her brother, had a son from her first marriage, which had been with the Aqid of the Mahamid, 1 who one day was thrown from his horse, and sustained a kick on the head. I was hastily summoned to their zariba, and found the young Mustafa - for that was his name - unconscious, surrounded by his whole family and a numerous assembly of high-ranking people. He was about fourteen, and promised to become as robust as his mother, who always astonished me by her massive figure. The horse's kick had struck the back of his head, causing a considerable swelling, and on the affected side there had been a considerable haemorrhage from his ear. There had also been some vomiting, and it was feared that the top of the skull might have been fractured. I found the bones undamaged, however, and his accelerated pulse [95] as well as the condition of the pupils allowed me to hope that there was only a slight concussion. While I was waiting for some time with the patient, the threatening symptoms diminished to some extent, so that on these grounds I made a favourable prognosis. It was no light matter to emerge successfully from such a situation at the court of Wadai; on the one hand I had to use the opportunity to increase my prestige and for that purpose give vigorous treatment, even if it was only apparently so; on the other hand, if my prediction was not correct, such treatment could be very prejudicial to me. I drew out a knife and, relying on my prognosis, made a deep incision through the swelling as far as the skull. I was then able, when I found the skull intact, to confirm my prediction to the bystanders with some assurance. T h e young man in fact recovered after a few days, and my reputation rose considerably. Some of the king's brothers approached me as a result of this episode, though not indeed with any unselfish purpose. Since Yusef, 1 One of the six most important aqids, p. 180. He had earlier advised against Nachtigal's visit to Wadai, ii. 238.

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who, likewise a son of the momo, was above all the king's favourite brother, King Ali, relying on his fraternal loyalty, had not, as was customary, had him blinded. Yusef had discovered that I had some guro nuts in my possession, an article which was known only to the most distinguished men in Wadai, and seldom came there. King Ali was the only one who from time to time had guro nuts brought in from Bornu for his own personal use, keeping them, however, for himself. Little as I could spare them, I gave some from my modest store to the prince, who from that time treated me with more friendliness, or perhaps rather with less disdain. The friendship of the other princes was still less to be desired. The Abu Koyuma, who was also a full brother of the king, had been blinded by him. After the king had assumed power, Abu Koyuma was found weeping; it was concluded from this that he was envious of his brother, and for that reason he was subjected to the cruel operation. It seems that it had not been performed completely, and that the prince still had [96] a sufficient glimmer of eyesight, for one day, after collecting weapons and troops in the neighbourhood of the capital, he left the court in circumstances which aroused suspicion. His departure was immediately noticed; he was seized again and subjected to a supplementary and effective operation. Like most of his blinded brothers, he spent his time in consuming as much merissa as he could. Even more unpleasant than this prince was the Tintelak Abd el-Kerim, whose mother was a Kondongo woman, and who, because of his scheming character, had been blinded without delay at the beginning of King Ali's reign. He came several times, and extorted small presents from me, until one day my landlord, Otman, discovered him with me, as usual dead drunk. The king inspired such fear that Otman believed that he should not conceal this incident from him, but immediately reported in the palace that Prince Abd el-Kerim had repeatedly sought presents from me. The consequence was that the unhappy drunkard was put in chains and had to spend six weeks in prison. This stern punishment frightened away the other princes, who had also come from time to time and received some trifling gifts from me. Only the princesses frequently honoured me with their visits. My fairly large supply of camphor, celebrated in Muslim countries as a specific against sorcery and evil spirits, especially attracted many of them to me. They were usually very amiable and confiding, and many of them were, according to local ideas, quite handsome. However, their visits too suffered a considerable diminution because of one of the king's wives, who on the occasion of a temporary stay with the Queen Mother, my neighbour, had found a pretext for visiting me too. The red-skinned, handsome young wife was observed by my landlord as

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she was leaving my dwelling, and if he did not report this too to the king, at least he went to the Queen Mother and asked her to be more careful with the daughters-in-law [97] who might be visiting her. Although I had no suspicions about the character of the young woman, and had simply given her the medicaments and the camphor that she wanted, he reproached me very severely, since I had brought both myself and him into such immediate danger, adding that I could receive the young princesses as often and as long as I wished, but the strictest caution had to be observed in regard to the hababat, the wives of the Sultan. As in Bornu, so in Wadai, the princesses represent the irresponsible element among the youthful female population, and they gladly embark upon love affairs with wealthy A r a b or Nubian merchants. As a consequence of the great freedom enjoyed by women and girls, relations of that kind are less hazardous in Abeshr than might be expected in view of K i n g Ali's strictness. Just as the natives, despite their religious fanaticism, have with the greatest tenacity clung to the use of alcoholic drinks, so, despite the Quran, they have not been able to cast off the easygoing principles which characterised their social life in old times. Only love affairs with married women or with virgins of spotless reputation are regarded as blameworthy. By the self-sacrificing exercise of the physician's art, which I made available equally to high and low, and for which I never accepted the smallest payment, I succeeded very gradually in establishing tolerable relations with the inhabitants of the capital. A t least it came to the point that, while the people always looked at me more or less as if I were a leper, they yet felt some regret that I did not have the same religion as they did, and was not in the same class as they were. A t the beginning, to be sure, when I was waiting for an audience in the forecourt of the palace, everybody turned away nervously from the place where I had sat down, with indications of silent abhorrence and the Muslim profession of faith, " T h e r e is no G o d but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet". More than once this was the occasion for very comic scenes, and later I frequently had to give K i n g A l i a graphic account of the way in which the Aqid of the Zebeda had behaved towards me the first time he [98] met me in the forecourt of the royal palace. He had circled around me again and again with the formula of exorcism, looked at me with alarm and horror, and then, as he could not overcome his curiosity, had first begun a conversation with me only from a distance; coming nearer, he had recoiled again in horror at the white parts of my body which had not been exposed to the air. After a few hours he had finally come to the point of saying, " B y God, we have always heard from our elders that a Christian was the most frightful creature in the world that one could picture to oneself, and for this

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reason we have believed that this was also true of their outward appearance; now we have to recognise that you are indeed a man, as we all are, and that your skin, although disagreeably light, for all that reveals a nobler origin than ours." He sought at first by the opening prayer from the Quran to protect himself against my defiling proximity. Later he made use as an exorcism only of the customary profession of faith, and finally sat down beside me, held out his hand to me, and talked to me without constraint. The illwill of the population against me made itself felt later, however, when at the beginning of the rainy season the rain which was so much desired and so precious was as infrequent as it was meagre. Learned men had expressed the view that the presence of a Christian in the country had brought this punishment from God upon its inhabitants. A large deputation of respected men went therefore to the king to ask him to get relief by destroying me, or at least by removing me. King Ali refused their demand with a laugh, and fortunately there was such abundant rain later that my innocence in this connection became quite clear. With the rains came of course also the fever, which finds a fertile breeding-ground in Abeshr itself and its immediate surroundings; among the foreigners, however, it claimed not nearly so many victims as I had been accustomed to see in Kuka. It was chiefly the Arabs who were attacked by it, and much less the Nile merchants; virulent attacks moreover seemed to be rarer, and the normal intermittent type [99] w a s most common. The guinea worm (filaria medinensts) here, on the other hand, was alarmingly active. In Wadai, too, no recognised efficacious remedy against it has been found. I n the main, here too one is content to fasten the head of the animal, as soon as it has emerged, and allow it slowly to develop. I have seen individuals who were carrying on their bodies at the same time up to twelve specimens. In addition to these illnesses I also had to deal with a pensioner of King Ali, the destruction of whose fingers was threatened by leprous ulcers which had affected the joints. The man was especially interesting to me as he was a slave who had not long before come to Wadai from the Pagan regions in the south; he belonged to the Fanga tribe, which lives south of Lake Iro, into which the Bahr es-Salamat mostly empties itself. H e attached himself so closely to me and my people that, even after I had completely removed one of his fingers, he maintained that he was not completely healed, representing this to King Ali with the protestation that he still had pains at the place where the operation had been performed. King Ali, discerning his motives, wanted to make a present of the poor man to me, but I had to refuse him, in spite of the fact that I was sorry to see him left behind in the royal palace in the

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utmost despair, for with my departure close at hand I should not have known in the least what I should do with him. Unfortunately the onset of the rainy season had very serious effects upon my friend, the Tunisian Hajj Salim. As I have said, he had suffered from chronic dysentery for a long time, and grave fears for his life were now entertained.

CHAPTER

V

JOURNEY TO RUNGA July and August, 1873 [100] As the messengers who were frequently despatched to the frontier still failed to return with any certain news about events in Darfur, there was no hope of being able to continue my journey during the next few months; while the rainy season lasted, and perhaps for a month afterwards, no caravan would have undertaken the journey anyway, although there was only one river on the road where the flow of water presented any great difficulty, the Wadi Kaja, [ 1 0 1 ] the chief source of the Bahr es-Salamat. Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga and another Jellabi, Abd el-Mejid, the khabir, literally leader (i.e. one who had already directed a caravan from Darfur to Upper Egypt), had sent a messenger to Kobe in Darfur to get reliable news. He was a Bornu man, and had bound himself to return to the capital of Wadai within fifteen days. With seven days for the outward journey, he thus had one day for delivering the letters entrusted to him and getting an answer, and seven days for the return journey. In order to avoid causing any sensation, their emissary had to travel without any riding animals, and it is indeed astonishing what these people can accomplish in such circumstances. Abeshr is nearly seventy German miles from Kobe, so that in fifteen days 140 German miles [about 650 English miles], had to be covered on foot. The messenger later exceeded this time by two days, but the reason was the absence of the addressee who had gone from Kobe to el-Fasher. Convinced that there would be no question of continuing my journey in the immediate future, I had, as has already been mentioned, begun to consider a plan for a brief expedition into southern Wadai. The king had favoured my plan, but Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga sought by every means to dissuade me, chiefly because of the rainy season, but also on account of the character of the people of Runga, where, moreover, at that time political unrest was still making the country insecure. I had myself become particularly curious about this region as a result of the numerous enquiries which I had made about it in various quarters. In the first place, the young Daju prince, with 80

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whose assistance I was studying the Daju language, had told me much about Sula and the Kuti villages which lie south of Runga. He was the son of the recently deceased ruler of Sula, and, afraid of the new sultan, who was his uncle, had left his fatherland and placed himself under King Ali's protection, in order perhaps with King Ali's assistance to achieve power for himself, or, in any event, to ensure his own security close to the Wadai prince. [102] Sula is a comparatively old Muslim kingdom. My informant was able to show me a series of rulers, twenty-one of his ancestors, in a list written indeed very imperfectly in Arabic script, and mixed with many fanciful comments about the origin of the Daju, so that it deserved little confidence. Sula lies southeast of Wadai, between Wadai and Darfur, and has an obligation to pay tribute to both its neighbours. Since the Daju had migrated into their present country, Sula, from Darfur - where, as is to be reported in more detail later [pp. 273-4], they had had the government in their hands in very ancient times their historical memories, customs and habits linked them more closely to Darfur. King Ali's vigorous government had, however, compelled them to seek some measure of insurance on the Wadai side too. The young prince was certainly leading a very hard life, and was grateful for the teqaqi with which I paid him for his lessons. I had then also got to know a young Runga prince, who, in association with his brothers, had after the death of his father killed an uncle of his, since the uncle had wanted to seize power for himself, and for this reason he had lived for a long time as a prisoner in Wadai. King Ali had appointed as ruler of Runga one of their more distant relations who had earlier lived in Abeshr, and then had the young prince swear to maintain the peace, and set him at liberty. The young man knew Runga, Kuti and the district south of his fatherland very well, and had given me much useful information about them. According to him, Runga was a very elongated country, extending in the south perhaps to latitude 8°N. As it was completely under the control of the king of Wadai, a visit there was indisputably more suitable for me than one to Sula. The young Runga man was a noteworthy member of his tribe, a tall, very black man, a steady merissa drinker, and to judge by his stories and his whole personality, a man who found satisfaction only in military campaigns, and in the dangerous elephant and rhinoceros hunting, which was carried on there on horseback. [103] Finally I got hold of a man from Bornu, Ali Fentami, who had originally lived at Manawashi in Darfur, and at the beginning of King Ali's reign had been persuaded to travel from the south of Darfur to Kuti,. a province of Runga, which is celebrated for the abundance of its ivory, in order to do business there. Since King Ali regarded trade in Kuti as a monopoly of his own, he had merchants who went there

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simply plundered on the spot, after they had exchanged their goods for ivory. 1 Some of them remained there, some returned povertystricken to Darfur, while others came to Abeshr to entreat the king for the return of their goods. M y friend had lived for a long time in Kuti and Runga, and especially on the Iro lake, and with the indefatigable industry characteristic of his people, had made numerous journeys in every direction. Just as the Daju, who was to some extent an educated man, could give me very abundant information about the language of his people, so too I obtained from the Runga prince at least some knowledge of the Runga language for which I could be grateful to him; now also from Ali Fentami I could learn something of the language of the Banda tribes in south Runga and Kuti. T h e information about the rivers in those regions was particularly interesting. Like most of the rivers which flow out of the rocky region of the Banda, they are obviously part of the Shari system, to which, however, one important river farther south, which Ali Fentami had himself seen, did not, in his view, belong. It seemed to flow westwards more or less along the fifth parallel south of Abeshr, was known as the Bahr Kuta, and appears to me undoubtedly to be the same as that which Heinrich Barth explored as the Kubanda, and which Georg Schweinfurth saw southeast from there as the Uelle. 2 A l i Fentami, who from the Kotoko province knew the Shari well after the junction of its two arms, asserted that the Bahr K u t a was bigger than the Shari, more full of islands, rich in crocodiles and hippopotami, and was navigated by the natives in substantial boats. It was also generally known that it flowed farther to the west than the Shari. [104] All this information caused me to accept K i n g Ali's proposal, and to make use of the time until my departure for Darfur on a journey to Runga. And with this I combined a plan for improving my financial position at the same time by a little trade in Kuti. T h e long delay in Wadai had gradually exhausted the resources which I owed to the sale of the manufactured goods given me by Shaykh U m a r ; Darfur still lay in front of me, and there was no prospect of getting any money from the north. Ivory, however, is so cheap in Kuti that it can be purchased in exchange for the goods that are acceptable in barter there for less than a tenth of its value. Those who were authorised by King Ali to trade in Kuti could therefore have made enormous profits had it not been for the difficulties of transport. It is possible indeed to 1 Royal monopolies over ivory continued the fashion. El-Sanusi, ruler of Dar Kuti at the turn of the century, regarded all the ivory of the region as his private property, "and as the punishment for any smuggling is death, there is very little of it" (Kumm, From Hausaland, 185). 1 Cf. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, i. 548.

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83 take camels to Kuti from Abeshr in the dry season, but they promptly die there, and, cheap as they are in Wadai, still require too large an expenditure. Oxen and the ordinary donkeys, the prices of which do not exceed two to three, or at the most four, dollars in Wadai, certainly stand the test better, but they likewise usually die before one is ready to return after exchanging one's goods for ivory. One therefore has to count upon the loss of one's animals, to send somebody back to the north after the goods have been sold, in order to bring back the required number of donkeys or oxen, and then immediately to set out on the return journey. The cause of the rapid mortality among these baggage animals is the virulent fly, umm bujena, which has been mentioned in the account of the Fitri Lake [p. 35 above]. I found myself nevertheless compelled to abandon this project of trading in Kuti, especially because of King Ali's intelligent objection that it would tie me down there too long and delay my journey on to Darfur. To the opposition of Hajj Ahmed and Ali Fentami to the journey because of the extensive swamps and clay depressions in the Bahr es-Salamat region, my royal adviser constantly countered with the observation that, if I [105] had travelled around the middle Shari and in Somrai in the rainy season, I had no reason to be afraid of the Bahr es-Salamat. I therefore decided, in spite of my desire to embark upon the return journey as soon as possible, again to set off towards the south. It was on July 31 that King Ali told me that he would shortly be sending the newly named King Alo of Runga thither. After I had made known my willingness to travel with him, King Ali sent at once to the Aqid es-Salamat, who has the oversight of the most southerly provinces, and instructed him to bring before him the future ruler of Runga and one of his most trustworthy men. When they had both appeared, he addressed the Runga prince as follows: " I n this stranger here you see my guest; without seeking money or property he wishes to be able to learn about foreign countries. You will shortly be leaving for your home in the country that has been entrusted to you; you will take this man with you, and will answer for his safety with your head. You will receive him in your own house in your fatherland, you will take care of him there, and guide him everywhere where he wishes to go, if it can be done without endangering his safety. If you are prevented from going yourself, one of your brothers or near relations should go who will be responsible to you. You will not let him go into the regions with whose inhabitants you have a feud, for people like him are very imprudent, and allow their desire to see foreign peoples and lands to induce them not to think of their own safety. He speaks much of the Bahr el-Abiad, on which the cannibal Banda live, and you will conduct him there first of all if there are any trading links with that region.

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Since his baggage animals will almost certainly die, you will provide him with new beasts as the time of his departure approaches, wherever you can get them." He placed a similar obligation upon the Aqid es-Salamat's subordinate, impressing upon him that he must accompany me every step of the way, and that if any harm were to befall me the king would know how to find him, whether he returned, or whether because of fear of punishment he stayed in those regions. Finally [106] he gave him instructions to supply me with some oxen, and the business was settled. I then proceeded as quickly as I could to complete my equipment for the journey. With Hajj Ahmed as an intermediary I had already bought a draught ox whose strength and reliability completely justified the unusual price of 3 maqta tromba (i.e. dollars). In addition I had a riding donkey purchased from a Jellabi for 10 dollars, and the two oxen supplied by the king. I also provided myself with 8 dollars' worth of tobacco from Darfur, which is very popular in the Pagan countries, and packed it in goat-skins which looked like waterbags. For 15 dollars I got some of the small red and white glass beads which are called sini, for 5 dollars some cowrie shells, and for 6 dollars I bought four dozen coloured cotton handkerchiefs, for 6 dollars some of the loosely woven, dyed dark blue rectangular cotton cloths from Egypt which are called mekkiya, and finally took with me in natura 9 maqta tromba, the equivalent of 14 dollars. For the beginning of the journey we then had only to await the investiture gifts for the Runga prince, which in accordance with custom, consisted of a horse, a robe of honour, and a surriya or concubine. As usual, the delivery of these things kept us waiting, and we could not actually set out until the middle of August. Before this the capital became the scene of a great wedding which commanded general interest. A daughter of the king was married to the Aqid of the Mahamid. The Aqid of the Mahamid, the Aqid of the Khozzam and the Aqid el-Jebaba were all sons of the well-known former chief of the Mahamid, Aqid Jerma, who had acquired much merit for himself in connection with King Ali's accession to the throne. With us the name of the Aqid Jerma is likely to arouse unpleasant memories, for it was he with whom Eduard Vogel was quartered in the time of King Muhammad Sherif, and who first made to his master the reports of the suspicious activities of our unfortunate countryman which had such grievous consequences, and it was by his people that Vogel was killed in the neighbourhood [107] of Abeshr, with the consent, or by the command, of the king. King Ali had a special liking for the family of his faithful servant, and after Aqid Jerma's death the eldest of his sons, who at that time was Aqid of the Khozzam, had been appointed as his successor by the king. During

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his father's lifetime he had allowed himself to embark on an intrigue with a slave girl from the royal household, the consequences of which could not remain concealed from the king. When the king had learnt about the state of affairs, he summoned the father of the delinquent, reported the affair to him, and asked what in his view should be done to the guilty party. Fear of the king went so far in Wadai, and the conviction of his inexorable severity was so profound, that without hesitation the father replied: This crime, my master, can be expiated only by death. The king then on this occasion, as very rarely happened, tempered justice with mercy and contented himself with depriving the guilty man of his office. Only later, many years after, was he in some measure restored to favour and appointed Aqid of the Khozzam. On the day of the actual marriage festivities, the bride's dowry was conveyed into the zariba of the chief of the Mahamid; she herself had been brought there during the preceding night. All the horses and the fire-arms possessed by both the official and the unofficial world were active on that day. All the surroundings of the zariba of the young couple were full of women and girls, who endeavoured to honour the day with their dances and processions, all of course in their most beautiful garments. A double wedding was in fact celebrated, for on the same day another daughter of the king was married to the Aqid Gerri. On the morning of this day four of those large bottle-shaped woven baskets, called hanga, which in the eastern Sudan countries are used to store butter and honey, and are often a meter high with a circumference of 1 J to 2§ meters, filled to the brim with coral and gold ornaments, presents from the dignitaries and distinguished inhabitants, were produced by Hajj Ahmed, and [108] divided equally between the two brides. Eleven hundred camel loads of dukhn were also provided as house provisions for them, without counting numerous individual gifts from the courtiers. The Kodoi alone had sent 250 loads, the Jerma Abu Jebrin 300, the Aqid Magene 200, and so on. When I arrived in front of the zariba of the Aqid of the Mahamid, some of the camels which were loaded with the dowry had already disappeared inside the zariba, but I still had an opportunity to admire a great many of them. They were laden with clothing, ornaments, and especially with all the property in the shape of gold, silver and cloth, with which their royal father had endowed the brides. The leather bags used in Wadai for camel loads differ from those of Bornu both in shape and in material. In Bornu and Kanem they are made of camel-hide simply sewn together from rectangular strips with an opening just as large as the circumference of the bottom of the bag; in Wadai they are made of ox-hide in the shape of a bottle with a quite narrow opening. Wing-like attachments of the same kind of leather

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are placed as ornaments on both sides where the bag is widest. For this festival these bags, which are called gerfa, were all covered with various carpets, which were also part of the dowry. Slave girls, who followed the young mistress out of her father's house, were enthroned on the loads. Those camels which carried the most valuable loads of this kind were decorated with ostrich feathers on their heads, and with silver foot-rings. In front of the outer gate of the distinguished bridegroom's quarters several dozen oxen or cows, up to 100 sheep and a number of camel mares were slaughtered, and the flesh distributed among the people. T h e friends, officials, retainers and servants of the young aqid, the royal slaves and all the noblemen of the court, were on the wide square in front of the zariba, splendidly mounted, and in festive attire. Silk caftans and trousers, usually with red and yellow stripes, were frequently to be seen, and silk head-shawls, similar red girdles, and wonderful silk beret-like head coverings were ornaments which, seldom worn otherwise - [109] for in general K i n g Ali did not at all like his people to decorate themselves - were put on in honour of this day. M a n y of the horsemen were armed with lances, others with sabres, and some with muskets; in the arrangement and execution of the equestrian manoeuvres, which A r a b custom had transplanted into those regions, there was naturally a close relationship with those of the neighbouring countries and of the north. I was specially interested in the surging crowd of women onlookers, some of them participants in the festivities, others merely curious. All of them were in their best clothes. A n d on this day, too, most of the young girls and women wore men's garments over their clothing. T h e momo's sister and envoy led a singular procession which carried the memo's presents for her granddaughter. She herself was completely enveloped in a red and white striped silk shawl, which concealed even her face. A slave led the horse on which she was sitting, while at her side two others made a dreadful din with a gourd full of stones, while several kabartu made their contribution to heighten the solemnity of the occasion on wooden trumpets two meters long and on fairly long antelope horns. Thirty slave girls brought up the end of the procession, who were not only neatly but richly dressed and ornamented, all carrying on their heads large baskets with covers, the contents of which were of course not visible to the spectators. T h e baskets themselves were decorated with cowrie shells or beads in the most varied and tasteful patterns, and the whole scene gave an impression which was as varied as it was charming and interesting. T h e king himself did not appear but followed the development of the ceremonies from the top of his palace which towered above the town. These festivities did not provide the only variety during the time

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before my journey to the south. The news arrived in the first days of August that the Norea, or Nawarma, and the people of Wun in Borku, who acknowledge King Ali as their master, had been attacked by the Arabs of Kanem, who had, however, been [ n o ] defeated and twentysix of them taken prisoner; the Nakazza chief, Derbai, was on his way to Abeshr with the captured raiders. In fact, during the first week of August, thirteen Awlad Sulayman arrived as prisoners of war in the most deplorable condition. The others had been kept back by the Norea to be sent back to their tribe in exchange for other prisoners and to pave the way for better relations. The latter was especially desirable, since the Norea, who lived in the Bahr el-Ghazal for a great part of the year, were very exposed to Arab attacks, and, far from the protection of Wadai, had instructions to arrange themselves their affairs with their dangerous neighbours. King Ali, as I have &aid earlier [ii. 46-8], had taken infinite trouble to bind to himself these unruly marauding nomads from Kanem, and to establish peace between them and the tribes living on the northern border of his country. He had showered upon them evidence of his friendship, although at the beginning of his reign they had given armed support to one of his stepbrothers against him. He had repeatedly sent ambassadors and gifts to them, invited the oldest heads of their families to visit him, and received them hospitably; on one occasion, when a great number of Arabs and Daza had been taken prisoner on a raid against the Bedeyat who were subject to him, he had even had all the Daza killed, although they had been only tools of the Arabs, while the Arabs were allowed to return to their homes. He had done all this, as I have said, in order to have peace in Kanem and on the northern borders of his kingdom. But the faithless robbers answered all these proofs of goodwill only with the blackest ingratitude. I was by chance in the royal palace when the prisoners were brought before the king, and myself heard the intelligent and severe judgment which he pronounced. He spoke as follows: " I have sought in every possible way to get you to appreciate the benefits of peace, but nothing, it appears, can restrain your ferocious spirits. If you cannot live without war, [ i n ] I shall give you the opportunity to satisfy your inclinations. I shall give every one of you a musket and the necessary powder and shot, and you will go with the king of Runga who will shortly depart for the southern borders of my country. There you will find opportunity enough to exercise your warlike spirits against the pagan, maneating robbers." And so it was! I thus had the prospect of spending some time again with these robbers, with whom I had wandered around for so many months, and whose society I did not recall with any great pleasure. In thankful recollection of the fact that as long as I was staying with them

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they had always dealt at least with me in good faith, I sought, now that they were in need, by sending them a few pieces of kharn to help them with their very scanty clothing - they had in fact appeared before the king almost completely naked. I also sent them a few sheep, for their food situation seemed to be very bad. They were very grateful and full of praise for me. 1 Since we were now in the middle of the rainy season, I gave up altogether the idea of taking a riding horse with me, for Runga seems to be very much like the Fitri lake district, that is to say it is infested by those virulent flies and mosquitoes which so dreadfully torment animals day and night. Both the horses which were still in my possession were, moreover, in sad condition. The one which I had originally earmarked as a present for the king of Darfur was becoming thinner and thinner, after first falling ill with swollen feet; he lost his appetite, and the usual cure in Bornu, feeding with bran and natron in the form of noodles, something like the treatment of geese in some parts of Germany, was quite without effect. He had been a fine, large horse of the usual North African coastal breed; the animal of the Bornu breed, my actual riding horse, was in no better shape. I could not possibly venture to leave these horses in my house during my absence, for there was nobody [ 1 1 2 ] there to whom I could with any assurance have entrusted their feeding. I therefore went to the king, whose horses received the most careful attention, and asked him to allow mine to be taken into his stables and thus possibly to ensure their maintenance. He agreed to this request with the greatest amiability. On the same day that I handed my horses over to him, definite news came from Darfur that Ibrahim, the third son of King Hasin, had actually taken over the government. I could not, however, bring myself to abandon the journey which had once been agreed, the less so as the king told me that an ambassador from the new neighbouring king had set out from Darfur only a short time before, that he would in any event spend some time in Abeshr, and that it would still be a considerable time before a caravan set out to the east. Alo, the Runga prince, departed in the middle of the month, while I was still waiting for the kursi, a word which has the same meaning (royal messenger) as kingiam in Bornu, who had been allotted to me by the king. This man had left the town ostensibly to make his travel preparations and to take leave of his family; now, however, from a distance he sent us news that he was suffering from guinea-worm and for that reason could not travel with me. Probably his fanatical conscience did not allow him to escort a Christian. As a result of this, an official of the Aqid es-Salamat appeared, bringing me another kursi, 1

Nachtigal does not mention these Awlad Sulayman again; perhaps they accompanied the new ruler of Runga, whom he never overtook.

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T o m , who belonged to the Maba tribe of the Malanga, and was therefore a genuine Wadai man, coming from Demba in the vicinity of Wara. He was practically jet-black and did not wear his hair shaved according to the newer Muslim fashion; he was taciturn and reserved, and made not a bad impression. At last we were able to set out on August 17, though still not without great difficulties; twice, because of heavy rainfall, we had to carry back into the zariba the baggage which had been brought outside. I did not, however, wish to postpone our departure, since the sultan of Runga was already several days ahead of us. Then the loading of the oxen was, because of the [ 1 1 3 ] indispensable angreb, very difficult and timeconsuming. The angreb is the couch without which no Jellabi or civilised man from the eastern Sudan ever travels. During the rainy season, indeed, such an apparatus is absolutely necessary. M y landlord and former travel companion, Otman, had made mine himself. It consisted of four wooden feet about a third of a meter high, fastened together with as many bamboo poles. This frame was padded with plaits of dum-palm fibre rope. The strips of hide normally used instead of this plaited work Otman had put aside because of the rainy season, and replaced them by dum-palm cords which moisture makes increasingly firm. When at last the oxen were loaded, and those travelling with me were marching out toward the town, I went to Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga to take my leave of him and of some merchants from Benghazi and Tripoli. Both my travel companions from Bornu, Otman and the Faqih Abo accompanied me as far as the zariba of the Aqid of the Salamat, where Tom received his final instructions. I took leave there of the aqid, who, oddly enough, despite the predominantly military character of his office, was, in accordancc with the old Wadai custom, a eunuch. Almost directly south we cut across the low valley in which Abeshr lies, and which is here almost completely without trees. The clay soil mixed with sand in the immediate surroundings of the capital was interrupted here and there by low granite rocks, and a few small watercourses cut across it. These, running to the west, subsequently join another stream from the northern surroundings of Abeshr and, like the more important of the streams which have their source on the southern slopes of the Kondongo chain, flow into the Buteha. After two hours, ascending gently along the valley, we left to the west the isolated peak of Abu Guddam, and after another hour to the south we had a good view embracing the southsouthwest horizon over the wide undulating valley of the Buteha and of the Kashemereh chain of mountains on the other side of the valley. In the far distance to the southsoutheast we saw the spurs of the Kajanga mountains. [ 1 1 4 ] Although there were still no villages to be seen, there were a few

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scattered cornfields, and the fresh green, the rich foliage of the trees and the twittering of the birds made a very pleasant impression on me after the long monotonous spectacle of the grey clay walls of Abeshr. This is the time of year when these regions remind us, though indeed in rather pitiful fashion, of the northern spring. With a considerable loss of time, caused by the defective loading of the baggage animals, we maintained a southsouthwest direction, crossed the Wadi Shuqq, 30-40 paces wide, which comes from the mountains of Kelingen, runs into the Buteha in the Kaura district, and in deep, coarse gravel, contains two small watercourses. After a six-hour march we camped in the large village of Engringa, with some 250 huts, which is inhabited by Malanga. Our reception there seemed to augur ill for the rest of our journey. Of the overseer of the village and his slaves nothing was to be seen, and of the people who were visible no one showed any disposition to conduct us to the head man, manjak. The general prayer place, masjid, of the village, which serves as a mosque, jami, and, as everywhere in these regions, includes, in addition to the prayer place, a veranda and a hut where elementary education is carried on and strangers find accommodation, was full of people. Since it was late in the afternoon and the sky was clear, we camped on an open, rather elevated square under a shady community tree, which seemed to serve as an assembly place for young people. This was, however, a very tiresome situation, for the young people, who did not observe the restraint of the educated people of that region, did not leave our immediate neighbourhood until late in the evening and thus hindered us in our meal which, out of respect for the custom of the countiy, we should have had to share with them. Fortunately the night passed without rain, and at sunrise, which promised a bright day, we set off again to march to the south towards the east end of a chain of hills running from west to east, which we reached after an hour, and where we [ 1 1 5 ] found a second Engringa village. Further on we passed the village of Aturda, with only about eighty huts, and farther to the east and southeast caught sight of the Kajanga mountains and, on the southwest horizon, of the Kashemereh chain, while in the far distance between the two the mountains of the Marpa, or Marfa, filled the southern part of our field of vision. Through sparse mimosa woods, over sandy ground, where here and there a coarse crumbling granite emerged, we reached the Buteha, or little river (diminutive of Batha, which means river), after three hours to the southsouthwest. No one would indeed have thought that a river was being crossed here, for at this spot there was only a simple depression in the ground, a strip of sand in the plain, without any banks, though of considerable width. To the east, and still farther to the west, there is said to be a deep bed cut into the soil. Where we crossed there

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must be a flood at times when water is coming down the river, and this happens frequently during the year. Going here to the southwest, it flows at Malamm, i.e. the junction, into the Batha. O n the other side of the Buteha, after half an hour, we reached K e n g a , a district of H a j j A h m e d Tangatanga, where, despite the early hour, for the sake of m y people and in consideration of the inhospitable character of the Kashemereh, I decided to camp. Here by this time the corn was higher than a man, with ears already formed. T h e district was on the whole very well cultivated, and according to w h a t I heard in Hajj Ahmed's zariba, where his slaves received me hospitably, the people had to be quite industrious if they wanted to pay the taxes, which were rather heavy. In the month of Fitr they had to deliver to Hajj Ahmed two mudd, pecks, of dukhn per head; two mudd per household were to be given to the king, and two, also per household, to the fattashi, who will be mentioned later [p. 181], who tracks down merissa and merissa drinkers in the country. After that they were also liable to a levy of four mudd, the burmiya, for the king, a further tax called difa, consisting of teqaqi, for Hajj Ahmed and the provincial officials, the kodmula, payable in narrower strips of cotton, [116] and finally, at harvest time, there had to be delivered one tenth of the cotton, vegetables, fennel etc., the cultivation of which is pursued in the Buteha valley with great assiduity. Hajj Ahmed, the chief, collected all these taxes, and gave the king and the other officials their share. 1 It turned out to be very convenient that we had sought accommodation in Hajj Ahmed's excellent compact hut, for after a sultry southwest wind had been blowing during the morning, thick clouds gathered in the east in the afternoon, with a heavy downpour of rain in the evening. Near this district a section of the Mahamid lives on the pastures where the camels intended for my journey to Darfur had been sent to be looked after. During the following day, keeping to our southsouthwest direction, while we were advancing towards the southeast end of the Kashemereh chain we had to pass a narrow water-course called Akurras, filled with beautiful yellow sand and running into the Buteha, and shortly thereafter the Batrane, about thirty paces wide, cut deep into the 1 M u h a m m a d el-Tounsy knew the Kashemereh region well. H e said that these people lived four days south of W a r a , in the Botayha (Nachtigal's Buteha), a charming, well-watered valley, yielding a n abundance of vegetables, pepper, coriander, garlic and onions. His father had been given, by the Sultan Sabun of W a d a i , the revenues of five Kashemereh villages, and found this more profitable than to have fifty Fur villages. Although Nachtigal h a d certain reservations about the Kashemereh people, el-Tounsy found them submissive, docile, easier to lead than any other Wadaians. T h e Arabic spellings given by el-Tounsy are kashmarah and butayha. M u h a m m a d el-Tounsy, Voyage au Ouadai, Paris, 1851, 246-7, 729, 735.

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earth, though it was likewise without any water; after hours we reached the considerable village of Tara on the eastern slopes of a mountain of the same name, which is detached to the north of the mountain chain proper. The mountains of Kajanga to the eastsoutheast and the Marfa chain in front of us directly south, which appeared to run from east to west, stood out increasingly more clearly visible here. From Tara, where there may be at least several hundred huts, we reached a smaller village, Sherambula, to the southwest after three-quarters of an hour; the prince of Runga had spent the night here two days before, and after another hour we reached the southeast end of the Kashemereh chain with the village of Urondo at its foot. The main part of the mountain chain runs from southeast to northwest, but from its end a side chain runs to the west, the eastern part of which is called Kondongo and the western Kuldi. Our road led us to the southsouthwest through an open plain, overgrown mainly with habila; at the beginning of the afternoon [ 1 1 7 ] we tried in vain to camp in one of the two Muril villages, but at last found accommodation in the masjid of the village of Tshafo. We had crossed a small stream, Bittek, shortly before, with a thick layer of sand in its bed, the banks of which were distinguished by luxuriant vegetation, especially giant sahabas. This stream flows to the west, and is said eventually to reach either the Buteha or the Batha. In the masjids, the cheap hostels of Wadai, there are, as I have already observed, nearly always a hut with the wooden writing boards (1loah) of the itinerant scholars (muhajirin) and a fireplace in the middle, a veranda, and a clean sandy spot, where the people perform their prayers. This last, however, I saw very seldom. To have quarters in a masjid has the additional advantage that free fuel is provided; since the scholars have to earn their living during the day by other kinds of work, they can pursue their studies only in the evening, in the hour and a half between sunset and asha, and from daybreak to sunrise, and this they do by the light of the fire for the maintenance of which each has contributed a specified quantity of wood. These young people, some of them boys down to the age often, wander around the country for years, getting their food and sometimes a little more from the assistance which they earn by working in the fields, and enjoying moreover the simple lessons given by the village teacher. As I have already said in my description of this class which is numerously represented in Bornu [i. 625], their clothing consists of a simple goat- or sheepskin, and their whole possessions of a wooden writing board, a small gourd which serves as an inkwell, a reed pen, and a gourd from which they drink and in which they collect charitable gifts. When they believe that they have reached the summit of their education, i.e. have finished once the reading of the Quran, they return home, where in the most favourable

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cases they can likewise find employment as a schoolmaster or a public scribe. 1 The people who came to visit us here in Tshafo in very large numbers were, contrary to expectation, friendly, courteous and [118] not very obtrusive. At the time of the evening meal, they appeared with three dishes, and it was noteworthy how unpretentiously this hospitality took place, how the donors approached softly and silently, without even wishing us good evening, set down the dishes without any suggestion of a wish to make the acquaintance of their guests, and departed without waiting for even a barak Allah, God bless you, as thanks. This day the wind came from the southwest, while at midday the clouds began to thicken in the east and were accompanied by a little rain. We passed towards the southwest two villages, Kornaya and Woboja, through hilly country to the Kolotu mountain, which forms the boundary between the Kashemereh region and that of the Karanga, with a correspondingly mixed population. North of this we moved through the mountain mass of the Karanga, again maintaining a southwest direction. After three hours' march we saw to the north of us the Kadoma mountain which was formerly the centre of Wadai under the Tunjur regime. The last Tunjur king, Daud, had lived here, before the founder of the present dynasty, Abd el-Karim, had brought his rule to an end. The whole district was undulating and hilly. We crossed several little rivers running to the west or northwest. The woods were sparse and open, and the Karanga mountain mass gradually dissolved in a small chain of foothills extending from east to west, which, with their green colouring, contrasted pleasantly with the bare red rocks of the Karanga mountain proper. At their foot we passed the villages of Kishilu and Murdigan, then turned more to the southsouthwest, and after seven hours' march camped in Agora, a Karanga village, at the foot of the southern part of the mountain, after passing the large village of Mustakhede a few minutes before. The Karanga massif forms a more or less circular or rectangular rock mass of interconnected mountain peaks; it is without any trees and red in 1 In the eastern Sudan, the first missionaries of Islam are remembered as those "who kindled the fire of learning". In some places it is believed that the flames of the Quran school fire will spring up again on the Day ofJudgment, to plead on behalf of the students who tended them, and to feed the furnaces of hell; more pedestrianly, food collected lawfully or otherwise during the day may roast in the embers. (These details come from the west coast of Africa, but are probably not peculiar to that region.) It is likely, although Nachtigal does not mention it here, that the timetable of the Quran school in Wadai varied, as it does elsewhere, with the seasons, to take account of the weather and of the students' obligations in farm work; and also, that the education there even in its most elementary forms did not consist only in reading through the Quran once, but in memorising a greater or lesser portion of it. Such reading and recitation might sometimes bring pupils into a state of trance or inspiration.

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colour. The side which faced us extended for a good half-hour [119] from north to south, and the side which runs from east to west is said to extend as far. None of the peaks in this range are higher than the Drachenfels on the Rhine, and the mass as a whole served as a place of refuge for the Karanga in the days of independence or semiindependence. There are many villages on the various mountain slopes. The inhabitants of the village had no hospitality to offer us; on the contrary, in the masjid where we dismounted, we found only spiritual food morning and evening in the Quran reading of the bawling muhajirin. From the beautiful, regularly-formed angular peaks of the massif we moved to the south past the foothills of the chain in front to another series of peaks, which still belong to the Karanga region. This appears to form a link with the mountains of Marfa, running from east to west and is called the Hajer (mountain) Yurngo. After some hours we reached their western end, and saw in front of us a half-hour further on a second, rather higher chain, which, like the first one, consisted of reddish granite; on its slope we then passed the Mangorno village, and at its foot we moved by the lower hills which enclosed it, and which are all reckoned as part of the Hajer Yurngo, to the isolated Funno mountain, which concealed the last dwellings of the Karanga. After four hours we had all the peaks of the Hajer Yurngo behind us, and after another hour and a half we reached the Funno mountain. Despite the early hour we camped in the village of the same name, for no dwelling places were to be found before Amm Degemat, the place where we intended to cross the Batha. On our way we met a large caravan of Arabs, who, accompanied by their wives adorned with amber beads round their necks and silver rings or half-moons in their nostrils, were driving large herds of magnificently maintained cattle to northern pastures, as was their custom during the rainy season. They belonged to the Nawaiba tribe, and in Abeshr obeyed the Tintelak Yusef. In the Funno village there were no more than thirty huts. We established ourselves in two dilapidated huts and one [120] new one which was unfinished, which appeared to have no owners. Here began the plague of flies, which with steadily increasing intensity was to continue until Runga and beyond. After repairing my angreb, repeatedly damaged by the unskilfulness of my people, I climbed the rocky peaks of Funno, but without getting a view, since it was not high enough and the atmosphere too was not clear. The hill was scarcely as high as the Rolandseck, and large blocks of red granite were scattered about on it. It formed the playground for numerous small rock badgers - hyrax - about as large as a rabbit, and called koko or keka by the Arabs; they are dark grey, and appear to be quite tailless, as the rudiments of this organ are concealed under the skin. Here we again lost track of Alo, the Sultan of Runga.

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From Funno to the west as far as the Batha, and to the northwest as far as the junction of the Batha with the Buteha, and likewise to the southeast stretches a lightly wooded uninhabited plain, khala, Amm Jurar. We marched through this to the southsouthwest, and after four hours crossed the Wadi Tshororo, which, twenty paces wide, flows from east to west with banks one and a quarter meters high, flowing into the Batha by Amm Jurar. The actual water was about six paces wide, while there was no water in the little stream in the Wadi Nebagaia, which we passed soon afterwards, with a wider bed but lower banks. The two are said to unite before flowing into the Batha. The woods on the banks of this little stream were more imposing, displaying especially fine specimens of jokhan, sahaba and kurna trees. Still a third insignificant tributary of the Batha separated us from a broad grassy plain, with only scattered shrubs, and this plain from the Batha, which finally, after a march of eight hours towards the southwest, we reached at the Amm Degemat village, which is subject to the Aqid of the Salamat. On the other side of the Batha the two mountains or mountain groups of the Fala or Awlad Bakka showed up on the horizon. Although the zariba of the Aqid of the Salamat was offered to me, [ i 2 1 J I preferred the ordinary masjid, for in it I had a better opportunity to associate with the inhabitants, and also outside the muhajirin's huts were some magnificent trees and a veranda. The Batha, which we had to cross here, was unfortunately full of water; it had indeed not yet reached the maximum level of its banks, which it frequently overflowed, but already the surface of the water was more than 100 paces wide, and there was a strong current. Numerous Bornu people were living in Amm Degemat, who indulged their taste for music and dancing until far into the night. Otherwise there were mostly sedentary Arabs who belonged to the tribe of the Salamat. The rest of the day was spent in negotiations with the swimmers who were to transport us and our baggage across the Batha, for there were no boats there, or ferries of ambaj wood or gourd devices for a crossing. All the baggage had to be pushed across the river by swimmers in the clay pitchers which are used in the houses for holding water. An agreement was finally made with six men, who were to receive for their labour four teqaqi or an equivalent of the same value, twenty pounds of salt and six sheets of paper. Unfortunately, next morning three times this number appeared, who wanted to join the party apparently merely for amusement, but also, as later became clear to me, in the hope of being able to perpetrate some petty thefts. The goods were laboriously distributed among the wide-mouthed jars; Hammu, my Moroccan, then swam across in order to receive them, while I supervised their distribution and the departure of the swimmers. This primitive method of transportation was extremely awkward, since all the bigger articles

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had to be taken to pieces, as they were either too heavy or too bulky. There were, moreover, so many people that they could not all be recognised again, and as a guarantee I had only my status as the king's ambassador. A light drizzle of rain fell on the baggage as it lay around, and this was especially damaging to the salt. Much of it was turned into red earth, and when at last we arrived on the other bank, [122] not only was a considerable quantity of this medium of exchange, which is so necessary further south, missing, but various dyed goat-skins and other trifles could not be found again even after long disagreeable disputes with the people. After everything had been packed again as well as it could under the incessant rain, we could set off from the bank on the other side about midday, accompanied by some of the swimmers (auwama), since our people were expecting two more of the numerous tributaries of the Batha, in connection with the crossing of which the swimmers also had a contractual obligation. After half an hour we came to the first tributary, where fortunately the water was only one meter deep, and a few minutes later the second one, where there was no water at all. The banks of both showed strata of clay, while their bed was sandy. They separate from the main arm of the river about half an hour to the east of Degemat at Jeima, and join it half an hour to the north of the Amm Demm village, to which we directed our march. We soon reached this village, but unfortunately found the masjid so crowded with muhajirin that we had the unpleasant prospect of camping for the night in the open air. In the meantime the weather was good, and in the shade of a soap tree I recuperated on my angreb from the strenuous passage of the Batha. The teacher of the village appeared with his students to examine me and my effects; some people from the village followed, and I have never seen such admiration for a watch, compass, etc. as was shown by these people who appeared, despite some importunity, good-natured, amiable men. Most of them had red skins, whereas the Salamat are otherwise mostly dark coloured. All the inhabitants belonged to the Awlad Dau section of the Salamat, and only four years before had been forced into the narrow limits of a Wadai village, apparently at the instance of the government, which had compelled their Shaykh Jedei to abandon his home on the Bahr es-Salamat and to settle in Wadai. Through him, by far the most distinguished chief of the Salamat, the government wanted to make it possible to exert some pressure on the [123] members of the tribe who lived further away. The shaykh at this time was in his former home and was not expected back before the winter, while most of the other men in the village had moved to the north with their herds of cattle as they always do in the rainy season. There were some 100 huts in the village. When towards evening I had become sufficiently friendly with

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97 my visitors, it was proposed by some of them to billet me in the dwelling of the absent shaykh. His married daughter and neighbour, Fatima, was summoned, and after she had declared herself completely in agreement, the proposal was immediately put into effect. This was all the more desirable as in front of us there lay a small stream, the Likore, which comes from the southeast, and flows into the Tindurne region of the Fala, and of which it was generally said that the quantity of water in it at that time could easily hold us back for several days. My Kursi Tom and the Moroccan, Hammu, had to go next morning to check the accuracy of the report, and returned with the unfavourable news that I would have to reconcile myself to the idea of a stay for two or three days. The time otherwise passed pleasantly for us as a result of the visits of the women and girls of the village, who in the absence of the men enjoyed greater freedom, had little to do and were extremely friendly. Most of them had reddish skins. Fatima, the daughter of the absent Shaykh, a sort of grass widow, was a real Semitic beauty and showed no evidence at all of the effect of the centuries-long sojourn of her tribal comrades in the country of the Negroes. Our change of quarters was all the more appropriate as immediately on the following morning a fierce storm blew up with frenzied swiftness, which would have placed us in a lamentable condition if we had been in the open air.

CHAPTER

VI

JOURNEY TO RUNGA

{continued)

August 25-October /, 1873 [124] Here in A m m D e m m I had an opportunity to make fairly clear to myself the hydrographic conditions of southwestern W a d a i , to get an approximately accurate idea both of the Iro lake, which receives the waters of the S a l a m a t river, and transmits them further to the west as the Iro river, and of the relation of the Iro to the river of the Rashid, [125] the W a d i A n d o m a , and to collect the first fairly reliable information about the rivers running south of the Iro lake from the east to the Shari, the A u k a d e b b e , the Bahr el-Abiad, the Bahr el-Azrak and the Bahr el-Ardhe, to w h i c h I shall return in another place [pp. 139-40]. From their real homes the Salamat make frequent raids to the south to get slaves, of w h o m they are obliged to deliver a considerable number to the king of W a d a i . T h e whole tribe was divided into eighteen sections, of which only three h a d some importance; altogether they could muster a force of only some 600-800 horsemen. O n e of the sections is, strangely enough, called Bulala, apparently having taken this name from one of its chiefs w h o belonged to that tribe. I n addition to the slaves, never less than 100 annually, the Salamat also had to let the government in Abeshr have 500-600 oxen - before the cattle epidemic, which has often been mentioned, the number was 1,000 1,000 teqaqi, and in addition as much honey, ivory, rhinoceros horns, crocodile skins and the like as their governor and representative in Abeshr, the A q i d es-Salamat, could extort from them each year. Since in spite of the normal standard rates, these taxes are more or less dependent on the discretion of the aqid, the Salamat had several years before given up c h a n g i n g their place of residence in the rainy season from the south to the northern pastures, just in order to escape the additional taxes which they would then customarily be required to bring to the capital. Anxious lest the waters of the Likore might not fall quickly enough, and thus make a longer stay necessary for me, I had discussed with some of the y o u n g people of the village the possibility of risking a crossing even while the level of the water was high. T h e Salamat w h o live 98

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on the banks of the river of the same name, which during the rainy season often becomes very turbulent and wide, have, of course, other means for crossing the river besides the primitive ones of which we had made use the day before. But since ambaj, which is used in Bornu for the construction of ferries, is lacking there, ferries are made here [126] from stout dukhn and durra canes. They are very capacious, quickly constructed and light, but likewise they can be ferried across the river only with the help of swimmers. The next morning, August 26, an unwelcome event unfortunately postponed our departure. I had slept alone during the night in the Shaykh's large hut, while, because of the enormous number of troublesome flies, my people had camped in the open air, in order to have the benefit of the smoke from a large fire as a protection against this pest. The dimensions of the hut were similar to those of the Arab huts in Bornu which have been described earlier [ii. 756—7], although it was not intended for the accommodation of cattle. After I had struggled with the flies there for several hours, and had at last fallen into a sleep of complete exhaustion, thieves penetrated the reed-walls, and stole from me a sack containing a burnus, a guinea-fowl tobe, a Tunisian tarbush, a shirt and a pair of trousers, another sack with the tobacco which was so important, and a large vessel with butter. I vaguely remembered having heard some noise during the night, but had attributed it to the movements of one of my people outside my hut, and in my great fatigue I had not become fully conscious. We found the footprints of three people, and during the morning started enquiries about the thieves, which were, of course, fruitless. After reporting the matter to the administrative official living nearest at hand, and threatening the inhabitants with King Ali, we prepared to depart. I promised the beautiful Fatima to pass again through Amm Demm on my way back from Runga, and in accordance with her friendly proposal, to ensure greater security against thieves and insects by staying overnight in her mosquito compartment. Inside a large hut a smaller one of the same shape is constructed, resting on a frame about one meter high, and reaching up to the peak of the main hut, and a passage is left open alongside this for the business of the day and for storing the household utensils. At last at two o'clock in the afternoon we set off, and it was better so, for the rain which was falling every day made it [127] unlikely that the waters of the Likore would go down. We travelled, however, for only a few hours to the southeast as far as the Khenama village, with about thirty huts, which is also inhabited by Salamat Arabs, so that we should have the whole day before us for such difficulties as might arise in crossing the river. Here, too, we put up first at a masjid, but later were quartered by a friendly man, whose own hut was neither

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impervious to the rain nor equipped with a veranda, in the hut of a single woman, who for her part had to seek other accommodation for the night. This hospitality stood us in very good stead, for heavy rain began soon after our arrival, and continued until late in the night. Unfortunately, the hut was so small that there was room only for me with my baggage, the Kursi Tom and my little servant Billama; the others remained in the masjid. But if our lodging did not prove to be very magnificent, we had all the more liberal entertainment from an official of the Aqid of the Salamat, the Kursi Isa. In addition to various dishes of the usual corn pudding, we had a considerable quantity of fresh milk, and in the evening a promise was given that he was willing to make it possible for us to cross the Likore. After marching for about half an hour, we stood next morning before the Likore; on the way, very close to Khenama, we had seen another village, Ademti, inhabited by Arabs, which belonged to the momo. The river had risen far above its banks, and its bed could be recognised only by the more rapid current and the absence of trees. As far as the edge of its banks, the unevenness of the ground made the passage difficult, especially for the oxen; in the river-bed itself the water rose above the height of a man, and thus also presented difficulties for my men, of whom only Hammu could swim. We could not possibly make the crossing alone. I therefore rode back with Kursi Tom to the Khenama village, and requisitioned from the obliging official of the Aqid of the Salamat seven men who brought us across even without any previous agreement about pay. When, after the crossing was accomplished, I [128] gave each of them two sheets of paper and a handful of tobacco, they were remarkably satisfied and grateful. A march of three and a half hours led us with manifold turns in a generally southeastern direction past the little Arab hamlets of Faj elKhala and Amm Tshinqir, through cornfields, over open pastures and through sparsely wooded flat country to Amm Deban, the chief village of the Kudugus region. We were rather badly received, for the head man, the only one who had the obligation to provide lodging for an emissary from the king, was absent; fortunately, Kursi Tom found accommodation for us in the house of one of his friends under the roof of a dilapidated hut. The Likore, in which three little streams, the Khebene, the Kumboye and the Amm Tamarib, come together, uniting in the Bir Sessi region, a day's march to the eastsoutheast of Kudugus, runs through the Kudugus region, which includes a dozen villages, the largest of which, Amm Deban, has perhaps 400 dwellings. From Amm Deban, which has an elevated position, one caught sight of several mountain groups on the eastern horizon, to the eastnortheast the mountains of Ligia, to the east, about one and half days'journey distant, the low Amm Roaba ridge, farther to the southeast, and at a

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IOI

similar distance, a higher mountain, Jeji, and an equally important one, Behass, to the eastsoutheast. In view of the rain which fell daily, it was very opportune for us that the district had a sandy, fairly level surface. O n this day, August 28, we travelled for seven hours, almost continuously to the southeast, and, only in the last hour, to the east, passing through open woodland in which the mimosa, kurna, nabaq and soap trees predominated, but where there were also hommed and the gnarled gardenia, which the Arabs of W a d a i call abu nequya. There are many lions there, though as a rule lions prefer to avoid inhabited districts, and both the king of the jungle and the hyena often break into the villages at night to carry off the cattle. In the morning we were worried by a fresh lion track, and when later a lion's roar rang out several times near our path, even my usually very quiet donkey was obviously [129] profoundly agitated. Heavy rain overtook us during the morning, putting us for several hours in a most unpleasant situation, soaking our clothes so thoroughly that we arrived at the Buram village, inhabited by K h o z z a m Arabs, in a very cheerless mood, shivering with cold. Fortunately, we found here pleasant accommodation; we had a good hut for ourselves, food and wood were brought to us, and we could dry ourselves and our belongings beside the fire with some measure of comfort. Unfortunately, the hut was not large enough to dry out our baggage, so that we had again to spend the whole of the following day on that. This delay was not disadvantageous insofar as we also needed some spare time to protect the backs of our draught oxen more adequately than before against the pressure of their loads, and under the direction of the Arabs we purchased, or made for ourselves, some better straw pads for this purpose. M y riding donkey had already become quite unserviceable as a result of a wound on his back, and such a mishap would have been considerably more troublesome if it had happened to any of our draught oxen. T h e people entertained us most hospitably, and everything that we needed was easily obtainable at the cost of a little morsel of salt, which is scarce and expensive here. O n l y milk, hens and sheep cost more than in Abeshr, as is indeed frequently the case elsewhere in the interior of the country. Since the hens belonged mostly to the women, I would have been able to obtain them more easily if I had had some aromatic wood, e.g. sandalwood or the like, or even some of the trinkets that are popular among them; my supplies, however, had been made up with the semi-pagan people of R u n g a in mind, and all my glass beads were according to the taste of the Pagans of K u t i . T h e inhabitants were likewise mostly reddish in colour, and had become sedentary only since 1870 when their cattle had been ravaged by the pestilence. I was very surprised that the wives of these Arabs

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also had to follow the custom of Wadai, and were not allowed to slip past in front of a company of men except on their knees, and that too at a respectful distance. [130] Neither mud nor rain exempted them from this obligation. I saw pretty young girls with silk draperies round their hips pass through pools of water on their knees, and even if in such cases the men perhaps invited them to cross over upright, the fair sex seldom ventured to make use of this permission. Tolerably well dried out, we set out next morning, August 30, turning to the eastsoutheast towards a mountain chain in front of us, the Jebel Bir-Sessi, which ran from eastnortheast to westsouthwest. We passed through two villages named Mokorok at the foot of the chain, wound our way through its hillocks, took up our direction to the south, thither following another chain of hills which remained on our left, running out from the Jebel Bir-Sessi. After we had crossed a sluggish little river, we camped after about five hours in the village of Bir-Sessi. The road had at first risen fairly sharply, for we had entered the hilly country of the Kajakse tribe. As usual we took up our quarters in the masjid, which was distinguished by a beautiful large closely thatched veranda, gedebaba or rekuba, though the hut itself left much to be desired, and was, moreover, completely occupied by the sleeping places of the muhajirin, arranged one above the other as in a ship's cabin. In the afternoon, when the people, and with them the headman, had returned from work in the fields, I was given accommodation with my baggage in a hut belonging to him, and just in time to avoid a downpour from the second thunderstorm of the day. The village was unimpressive with some fifty huts. Here, for the first time since our departure from Abeshr, I saw a real weaver's loom in action. The weaver sits on the edge of a hollow, in which the pedal apparatus is placed beneath a light wooden frame set up above. The longitudinal threads are fastened to the ground at some distance from the hollow, while the cross threads are guided by the weaver. King Alo, who was to have been my travel companion, had spent the night here, so that we had at last reached his road which at first [ 1 3 1 ] had run more to the east, for he had two days' lead over us. From Bir-Sessi we wanted indeed to take a more or less direct route to Olo, but the inhabitants told us that, because of the dangerous umm-bojenaflies,the prince had chosen the eastern road via Taffe. On August 31 we, too, therefore chose a direction to the southeast, after an hour reached the little village of Morefeine with only forty to fifty huts, and, fearing the afternoon rains, were content that day to get to the Butta village, one and a half hours to the southsoutheast of Morefeine. TafFe was too far away, and during the rainy season camping in the bush obviously had of course to be avoided if it was at all possible. The road led mostly through some fine woods, where the trees became

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more impressive with every day's southward march, and their curtain of parasitic creepers and cactuses also became ever more luxuriant. Butta, or Buta, lies on the thickly wooded western slope of a hill about 100 metres high, whose peak is crowned by a rock rising like a tower some 100 metres high. From the top of the hill the Aiountains of the Sula could be seen on the horizon from east to southeast at a distance of a day's march. The little village had at most thirty households, but we were received very hospitably. An amiable old man welcomed us on the masjid square, the veranda of which had been foolishly built over a subsidence in the ground, where the water inevitably collected when rain fell, while the hut itself lacked support in its foundations. As soon as the manjak had returned from the field, however, he received us courteously in his house. The numerous visitors showed themselves amiable, unassuming, hospitable and honest people, but they were extremely primitive with a low level of civilisation. In this spot, which was still a part of Wadai proper, the thing which, for example, most astonished them was my lamp, consisting of a plain iron bowl, with a small incision [132] to receive a simple cotton wick or a little piece of cotton cloth, and which was fed with butter. They seemed to stare in amazement at this as a brilliant specimen of the unheard of civilisation of the north. For my friendly reception I had indeed in part to thank the official status with which I was endowed in the eyes of the people. Since in the rainy season a journey across the Bahr es-Salamat for the purposes of trade would obviously have been absurd, the inhabitants were convinced that I was travelling to Runga with some kind of commission from King Ali, a belief which I had no interest in destroying. From my host, Brahim Merdo, I bought a small fat wether for 5 meters of kham. This was dearer than in Abeshr, but, as I have already observed, everything is dearer in the interior, where there is no competition, than in the capital. In this trade transaction, as indeed throughout the day, I found an excellent family relationship. Not only did man and wife take counsel together about the sale, but on everything about me which the man admired, Kadija had to be called in and share his pleasure with him. This seemed equally to be the position with the other inhabitants. Nobody, moreover, had more than one wife. My character as a Christian was not in the least concealed, but it aroused as little surprise as abhorrence, for the people there had made too little progress in Muslim culture to know what a crime it is to belong to the Christian religion. Scarcely had I settled down in the evening in this hospitable house and slaughtered my sheep than a tremendous thunderstorm broke out, the rain from which completely inundated even the interior

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of the hut. Both our belongings and our people suffered considerably; only I myself, installed on my angreb in a sheltered spot, was spared. In the evening my host produced a little vessel with a brew of the fruit of the makhet, which is usually substituted only in an emergency for corn, of which the people, therefore, seemed not to possess very much. The rain lasted until the following morning; we then decided, therefore, since we wanted to reach Taffe in one day, [133] to stay in Butta also on September 1. I used the time to make a small vocabulary of the Kajakse or Marfa language, for which I found the greatest willingness on the part of my host and his neighbours. Two sheets of paper as a present for my host and one for each of his neighbours produced sincere effusions of gratitude, and brought me the benediction of a fatihah. The soil throughout this region has under a top layer of sand a layer of beautiful red clay, from which the children made their playthings with great skill. Just as the Arab children in Kanem and Borku made camels out of clay, and those in Bornu similarly made representations of horses, so here, in accordance with the surroundings, every child was to be seen playing with very accurately and skilfully made imitations of rhinoceroses and elephants. The prince of Runga was said already to have set out from Taffe four days before, but it was thought that he would remain for some time in Mangari on the Bahr es-Salamat, and would wait there until the slackening of the rain made possible the journey through the swampy country which lies between it and Runga. From now on, as we were approaching the low country through which the Salamat river flows, our journey became considerably more difficult, clayey soil often appeared, and caused us great exertions and loss of time. Fortunately there were still many hillocks and stony and sandy places in the region. We marched to the south and southsouthwest through a romantic jungle, between rows of hillocks, and over undulating country, across small streams with stony beds, and after five and a half hours came to a parting of the ways, one track branching to Olo to the southsouthwest and the other to Taffe to the southeast. In this dense wood, where there were many ebony trees, nabaq el-fil and a thorny tree with dry bitter berries, as well as the tree which is called dadem in Bornu and amudeke in Wadai, with a beautiful refreshingly acid yellow fruit, like our mirabelle plum, I observed for the first time the bamboo, which is called gamsa here, and the long-leafed rutrut tree which has no branches, the bark of which can, in emergencies, be used as paper. [134] Unfortunately, in the afternoon such threatening clouds piled up in the east that we preferred to pitch our camp early and protect

Journey to Runga ourselves as well as we could in good time. We constructed a stout zariba out of acacia branches, placed our baggage on a raised wooden platform, collected a sufficient quantity of firewood, and with resignation awaited our fate, which overtook us about midnight in the shape of a fierce thunderstorm. With the exception of myself, who again in these circumstances could not be sufficiently thankful that I had taken an angreb with me, everything lay in water until the morning. If one is dependent for transport only on oxen and donkeys, a tent which is soaked with water is such an unwieldy object that I had refrained from bringing one with me. Thus, next morning, September 3, we again saw ourselves cheated of about half of the day that lay before us, for as soon as the sun was up, we had to spread our things out on the branches of the zariba, until by midday a makeshift drying out had been achieved. After two and a half hours to the southsoutheast we arrived at the foot of the mountain on whose northern slope TafFe lies, after crossing a wide wadi overgrown with tall rushes, where in the dry season there are some wells. The hillocks of T a f f e were so covered with stones and sometimes rose so sharply that we had great trouble in getting our oxen over them. From the top of the mountain we saw behind us the chain of hills, which cuts across the road from Butta, farther to the southwest the Kibet mountain group, and in the west Kerrere and Jummo, the isolated mountains of the Kajakse. Taffe is one of the largest of Kajakse villages, with 150-200 huts, and is extensively cultivated. The fencing between the numerous gardens and fields inside it formed paths, so narrow as to permit animals to get through only with the greatest difficulty. The melik was in Abeshr, and his representative, or khalifa, was in the fields, so that we had again to put up at the masjid and await the official's return. When he arrived, however, he placed [ 1 3 5 ] no hut at our disposal, and there was nothing for us but to camp under the veranda and in the hut of the masjid. For this night the cabins in the hut were free from muhajirin and only the old faqih remained as my sleeping companion. The people were quite friendly, but their large number made them rather troublesome. I was careful not to offer any unusual objects to their curiosity, but my primitive lamp was again enough to draw dozens of people to me, and to fill them with the greatest admiration for the intelligence and craftsmanship of Christians. When next day, September 4, we continued on our way to the southwest to Olo, we saw to the south and southeast a broad plain, from which there rose in the southeast at a distance of about one day's march an isolated peak near the Salamat river and to the east of the Abu Rhusun mountain. After three hours we came to the middle of the Olo mountain chain, running from northnortheast to southsouth-

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west, and marched for nearly another hour towards its southeastern foot before reaching the main village of that name. It was smaller than TafFe, with about 100 huts, but nevertheless looked very prosperous. I had myself here a large empty hut. It was chiefly my carpet, defective as it might be, which raised my reputation here, for the prince of Runga, who had likewise been seen there shortly before, had brought with him a similar one as the royal insignia from his liege lord. We had to remain here for a day, for my Moroccan servant had such a severe eye inflammation that at his request and that of the inhabitants I postponed our departure. There at once developed in front of my dwelling a lively market in flour, hens and the eggs which were coming back into favour here, all of which were exchanged for the valuable salt. Very tasty and tender buffalo and giraffe meat was also brought for sale. The inhabitants kill very many of these animals, and buffaloes indeed are hunted on horseback, as the whole district is full of them. [136] I had yielded to Hammu's request the more willingly as there lay in front of us a notorious depression which people were very much afraid to cross during the rainy season; this we undertook on the following day, September 6. With sharp turns, in a direction between southeast and southwest, and on the average southsoutheast, we struggled through dense wood, which, from the predominance of the sharp-thorned acacias which the Kanuri call doso and the Arabs there abundoro, became increasingly troublesome, demanding great vigilance. The ground was loamy, here and there covered with water which often concealed treacherous hollows. After a few hours we reached a more open part of the wood, Serir el-Jellabi: the Jellabi's throne, with red, rocky soil.1 A Jellabi travelling southwards who had not been able to cross the swamp which has been mentioned lying in front of us was said to have constructed for himself here a hut from a beautiful tamarind tree, where he had spent a whole rainy season, and hence the name. At midday we came to the dreaded morass, which is called Sunta. It is a sort of swamp from the Salamat river, which here is called Bahr Korte, and in the dry season is easily crossed. Now there were everywhere sheets of water or bottomless mud. I found no trace of any clear tracks, and we had to rely entirely on the knowledge of my Kursi Tom. Tramping through the mud always up to one's knees - for the animal on which I had been riding, since my donkey had become incapable of carrying a load, had enough to do to look after himself - we struggled 1

Sarir is the Arabic word for throne. The same word is used for an elevation of moderate height, with stony soil and devoid of vegetation. In this sense it appears frequently in the account of the first stage of Nachtigal's travels from Tripoli to Murzuq (i. 53).

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forward, and when after a few hours we were hoping to have almost reached the end of the Sunta, it became clear that we had lost our way. T h e animals were upset countless times, and their loads flung into the water or the morass. We were now stuck in the marsh, the animals up to their bellies, and we ourselves to half way up the thigh. The kursi left us to discover the direction of our road, and, to add to the unpleasantness of our situation, thick storm clouds began to form. Thus we stood for several hours, waiting for Tom, [ 1 3 7 ] unable to move either forward or backward, under the pouring rain which soon descended upon us, a most unpleasant situation. At last the rain slackened so far as to permit us to look around at our immediate surroundings. T o m came back to tell us that he had found the way, and we sought to reach it by a diagonal route, since a return to the point where we had lost it would have demanded several more hours with the same exertions. We had then not moved half a dozen paces when the animals were peeping out with only their heads above water, and no trace of our baggage was to be seen above its surface. T w o or three fruitless attempts were made to fish out the baggage, and drive the animals on again. Finally, we had to make up our minds to bring the animals out by themselves, and slowly to carry the baggage on our heads and shoulders along the comparatively dry path in front of us. It was a frightful struggle against the unfathomable mud, the deep hollows beneath it, and the rain, which still poured down continuously. Hours again went by before we had dragged everything, animals and baggage, slowly over this stretch which should have taken scarcely half an hour, and even then we had not reached the end of the Sunta. We were, however, on the right track, and though the rain prevented us from pursuing it further, we had at least found a tree the immediate surroundings of which seemed to be high enough above the water to promise us safe quarters for the night. Drenched to the skin, covered with mud, our baggage in similar condition, the animals shaking with fear and fatigue, and the rain pouring down incessantly, it was a frightful night, on which I shall think back to the end of my days. There could be no question of any sort of meal - the wood would not burn - and to make our torment complete, swarms of mosquitoes descended upon us, which with the characteristic energy of these creatures did not allow us a moment's sleep. In the morning our legs were lying in the water, the upper part of the body near the tree having remained comparatively dry - during the passage of the swamp my angreb had become temporarily [138] quite useless. Wherever one looked, one saw only moisture, mud, cold, hunger and despair. The immediate consequence for me was a frightful attack of fever. At last the rain slackened, and the rays of the sun breaking through revived our hopes. We made some frames on which to spread out our baggage for a make-

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shift drying, and attempted to set out in the afternooon, so that we might spend the next night outside the Sunta. After half an hour we emerged from the tangled woods of the swamp, and saw the river for which we had been longing. Here it is called the Bahr Korte, a little farther to the southwest, the Bahr Mangari, and only later the Bahr es-Salamat. At this spot it was about 300 paces wide, with a considerable current, though it had not yet reached its highest level. The southeast bank was low, and the water very nearly reached the highest point on it; the higher northwest bank was 2 - 3 meters above the water. For one and a half hours we marched with many turns more or less along the bank of the river, generally to the southwest, and then camped for the night close to the river. T o a width of roughly a kilometer its banks were covered with high reeds, and only on the other side of the river bank was there a dense wood. In the reeds hippopotami, rhinoceroses and buffaloes live, with an occasional hyena, and in the wood, giraffes, antelopes, lions and elephants. We camped at a place where there was a gap in the reeds on the edge of the river, and where also the wood did not approach very close to it. Happily there was no rain in the evening or during the night which followed. Unfortunately, however, from now on the fever never left me, and it was only the hope of soon reaching Mangari that kept me going. Next day, September 8, we worked our way to the southsouthwest through the numerous swamps alongside the river, through the high rccds which made it impossible to look out over the country, and often did not allow us to find any trace of our road. It was easy to go wrong in our efforts to find our way through the thicket of reeds, along hippopotamus tracks, which we took to be the tracks of men; [139] after half an hour or more of effort, one was then certain suddenly to be standing in front of the surface of a swamp, covered with water, the favourite resort of these animals. After four hours of painful wandering, our road was blocked by a considerable backwater of the river, while the river itself remained out of sight. M y overwhelming weakness and high fever induced me to camp, for I could discover no trace of a path, and in any case we had to give up for this day any idea of reaching the much-desired Mangari village. I fell off my ox unconscious, and remained in this condition until late in the evening. It was fortunate that there was no rain during the night, and we had to endure only the usual struggle with the mosquitoes. Next day after we had gone round the rijel swamp with its population of hippopotami to the southwest and had located the right road, we covered in a difficult march of six and a half hours the distance to the first Mangari village, Dumbuane, which in a direct line should have been only a few hours away. As we were approaching human habita-

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tions, the road also improved a little; the high reeds were replaced by lower grass about as high as a man. There were numerous trees, followed at last by rich durra and maize plantations which awakened our hopes, and with the pleasant feeling of having entered a haven, we camped under a fine sycamore, which overshadowed the middle of the village square, taking the place of the usual rekuba, or public veranda. The inhabitants who assembled, as they were accustomed to do, were so curious, and in my feverish condition I was so little able to withstand their importunities that I got Tom to seek out some private accommodation and, if necessary, to hire a hut. He found a kind man, described as of noble birth, since he had once been invested as a melik in Terkama, the northern district of Runga, who was ready to receive me in his house. The two huts at his disposal were, however, so overcrowded - all his household gear, my baggage and the [140] kitchen were in one of them, and the family lived in the other - that for the time being I chose for my sojourn a small clean space which he had enclosed behind his house as a praying-place. Here I passed the time while my fever was at its worst, at least unmolested by the people, but on the other hand I received the visit of a messenger from King Ali, who had made the whole journey from Abeshr on foot, to be sure alone and without baggage, in less than five days. He brought me the news that the King of Darfur's ambassador had arrived in Abeshr, and would be returning immediately. This fact, my fever which I could not expect to cure without quinine, and the stories of my host, the "nobleman", about the difficulties which the marshy stretches of Gerari lying two or three days in front of us immediately presented, made me resolve to return to Abeshr. The Sunta with its terrors was too vivid a memory for me not to be filled with dismay at the horrors which a continuous three-day march through the clay swamps lying before us would inflict upon us. A few days before, King Alo had abandoned his stock of salt there and lost his donkeys and oxen. We had now been several weeks on our journey, my salt supplies were reduced by nearly half, my animals were sick and exhausted, my clothing had been stolen, torn to pieces and ruined, and my powers of resistance broken. With the possibility of a journey to the east homesickness awoke with renewed strength; there was no prospect of continuing our journey into Runga before Ramadan, which meant being able to return to Abeshr only two or three months later, and this must mean a further delay of two or three months in my journey to Darfur. The resolution once made gave me a certain feeling of security and repose, which did an extraordinary amount of good to my feverish over-excited brain. The day had remained clear, and I therefore tried to spend the night also in the open air. There was no trace of cloud either in the evening

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or during the night, which however [ 1 4 1 ] was made no less frightful by the struggle against swarms of mosquitoes. The following day, therefore, I moved into the hut of my host, where however, because of the lack of space, I remained absolutely confined to the spot which would have to be allotted to me for the night. As always, the chief contents of the hut consisted of two large clay pitchers like bulging bottles with a narrow opening and a cover which could be closed made of the same material as is used for corn receptacles. These stood on stone supports, to protect them from ants and rats, were about as high as a man, with a 3 - 4 meter circumference; because of their gigantic dimensions a special kind of architecture was necessary for the hut, which did not have a conical or sugar-loaf shape here as in the north, but was shaped almost like a bell. Beside the pitchers there was a simple wooden stand with a mat laid over it as a sleeping-place for the married couple, and my angreb. In addition to the master of the house and his exceptionally ugly wife, two sons also lived in the hut, who slept under their parents' bed, and also a goat. For the surrounding walls the coarse straw network, sherkaniya) was rarely used here, but mostly durra canes. Towards sunset the flies were cleaned out of the hut with smoke, and the hut was then closed as securely as possible. I thus found myself better in the morning, if not quite free of fever, and since I could now talk I was very much in demand by the inhabitants of the village who came chiefly to admire my Hausa carpet. The Mangari district consists of seven villages, lying on both sides of the river which is here called Bahr Mangari. The largest village is Usulin, on the other side of the river to the south of our village; it was the residence of the melik, with about 150 huts, while our village had at most 100. Then followed J i j ere, Kaidoko and Madak, all on the other bank, at the foot of an extensive low ridge of hills which borders on the river. On our side there were, in addition to our village, Erdebe and Matabone, all very close together. The inhabitants are not actually called Mangari, [142] but Jeggel, and recognise as their chief in Abeshr or in Wara - as people here still said - the J e r m a Abu Jebrin. Their taxes consist of 10 slaves, 300 teqaqi and 150 jars of honey. In general the Jeggel, like the Kajakse, are ugly Negroes, and this is especially true of the women, who differ from the Kajakse women in their higher status in the household. One external indication of this is the fact that it is not the custom here, as is obligatory elsewhere in Wadai, for women to crawl on their knees in the presence of men. Here they also wear coral, bone or wooden cylinders bored through their nostrils, and have strings of beads as ornaments, sometimes the large round blue beads which are called zeilan, or the spindle-shaped awlad el qresh, with black and white rings round them. They arrange their hair like

Journey to Runga the other women of Wadai, but without the numerous small plaits which fall down over the face. The people were extraordinarily poor, and I had long talks with my host and another frank fellow, Dia by name, about the cause of this poverty. It seemed to everybody indisputable that it was quite impossible to find in Abeshr, the chief market centre of the country, an outlet for the products of their agriculture, their weaving and their fisheries. Apart from the fact that, as Dia rightly pointed out, a camelload of fish would scarcely bring one toqqiya, they feared above all the extortions of all kinds practised before ever they could get to Abeshr, by men in authority, the slaves of the sultan or other officials, and yet they could be satisfied with even a very modest profit. Dia gave me proof of this, since he was considering a plan whether he should not use the favourable opportunity of my return journey to go back with me to Abeshr, to get from his friend and protector, the Aqid el-Dirsh, perhaps a new shirt. Think of it, ten to twelve days' march through this swampy region in the rainy season for the sake of a single shirt! In spite of his rank as melik in Runga, my amiable hospitable nobleman was indescribably poor; [143] he nevertheless had great selfconfidence, for, though an old man, he also had the idea of adding to his old and ugly wife a second wife who was not at all rich - as he told me with pride, in order to demonstrate the esteem which the inhabitants had for him. He was nevertheless very grateful when I gave him a few sheets of paper, a large piece of salt and about twenty needles, and his wife some sandalwood, only regretting, in view of these rich gifts, my resolve to turn back from there, since he had hoped that I would wait in Mangari for the water in the Gerari swamp to fall, and then travel on to Runga, where he himself intended to go on his own business. Prince Alo of Runga had also waited with him for seven days for an improvement in the conditions between Mangari and Terkama, but had at last risked the passage, as his supporters from Runga desired his presence because of political conditions there. The weakest of his baggage animals had been left behind in Mangari, but the most valuable and heaviest part of his baggage, the salt, he had had to give up for lost in crossing the extensive swamp. In the dry season Terkama is only two days' march to the southeast from Mangari. The chief grain cultivated by the people in Mangari is maize, under the name of amabat. While in other countries the cobs are simply boiled in water or toasted in the fire, those who live by the Salamat river make flour of them, from which they prepare their usual food, the thick porridge, which has often been mentioned. For the return journey which lay ahead I bought some flour and dried fish for the usual sauces.

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I made an effort to find a guide who could show us a road, of which I had heard, running round the Sunta swamp to the north, for, with my fever continuing, I could not credit myself with having the strength to cross the Sunta, at least under conditions similar to those of the first crossing. Unfortunately it turned out that such a road did not even exist, and willy-nilly we had [144] to set out on the return journey on September 12 in the same direction by which we had come. Our draught animals were becoming weaker every day, for in the judgment of experts it was only now that the fateful influence of the virulent flies was beginning to affect them. After six hours, when we had succeeded in making a detour round the backwaters of the river, which were mentioned on the way into Dumbuane as being thick with hippopotami, we camped, chiefly for the sake of the animals. Since our passage through the swamp, no drop of rain had fallen, but towards the evening of this day the sky, which likewise during the first half of the day had been quite clear, became overcast with thunder clouds to the east and southeast. Heavy rain overtook us around 8 p.m., a second storm followed, and for the rest of the night there was a gentle rain, so that next morning we were again in the most lamentable condition. Covering our baggage and ourselves with mats, ox-covers, etc., had been in vain, and we all awoke - if indeed we had slept at all, which we had scarcely done, since the mosquitoes also sought shelter under the mats which covered us, using the favourable opportunity thus given them to suck our blood - in a thoroughly amphibious state. Next day followed the usual drying of clothing and baggage, after which we set out again at midday, and in the evening camped at our former camping spot next to the river. On the following day, September 14, we had the dreaded Sunta in front of us; this time, since we did not lose our way, we crossed it in two hours and in comparatively satisfactory style. Animals and baggage were thrown or sunk into the soft ground not more frequently than perhaps twenty times, but this was still enough to weaken the exhausted creatures to such an extent that we were glad in the evening to reach the small rocky plain which I have already mentioned as the Serir el-Jellabi. Since our quarters were made extremely uncomfortable by the large hordes of ants which attacked us and the usual swarms of mosquitoes, we considered ourselves fortunate to arrive towards noon next day at Olo with its friendly inhabitants and good accommodation. [145] During the few days of our absence there had been tremendous progress in the condition of the fields and crops. What we had then seen still without ears was now nearly ripe. Since Kursi Tom fell ill here, apparently because the buffalo and giraffe meat of our previous visit was pleasantly remembered by him, we had to rest for a day, and the inhabitants in fact again offered these dainties for sale. Here, too,

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I got rid of the heavy salt which I still had, selling it for a small ivory tusk, and decided to take another road, lying farther to the west, broader and said to be better. On September 17 we accordingly cut across the chain of hills from Olo to the west, and then moved northwest, bringing us towards midday over the granite rocks in front of the little village of Guffo through a troublesome swamp. The village, which we reached about one o'clock, is under the melik of Olo. In spite of the reports that I had received, the road proved to be extraordinarily difficult, especially after at the beginning of the afternoon we had crossed a wadi with unusually high banks, though its bed was narrow and there was little water in it. A swampy region, covered with high reeds, followed, and only after we were near the Surbo (Zurbo) village, where we camped towards sunset, did the ground become firmer and dryer. Since the public square offered only the ruins of a hut and a very defective veranda, Tom sought accommodation for us in the hut of a distinguished man, who, a rare phenomenon in those countries, had had a wife, but, after becoming a widower, had not married again. We had scarcely made our baggage secure when a heavy storm broke over the village, the rain from which lasted far into the night. In addition to my host, two unmarried sons and a dog were living in the hut, which at least had the advantage of being rainproof, and was remarkably free of mosquitoes, although the door did not fit perfectly. The master of the house was actually a scribe, but busied himself in [146] processing cotton, just as the men of Wadai in general, both in the public squares and in their own homes, are nearly always spinning cotton, weaving teqaqi or preparing the raw cotton for the spindles. They first work the cotton up with two wooden rolls, fastened in a frame, so that the seeds are left behind. Then by means of a bow held in one hand, the cotton is unravelled by the other hand on the string which is stretched a little and then bounces back. The Surbo village, with about 100 huts, lay on the western slope of a low granite hillock and, like those mentioned earlier, belonged to the district of the Kajakse. Nearby to the northeast was the Kerrere rock, also mentioned earlier, and as close to the westnorthwest the rock of Jummo. Unfortunately, the unhappy condition of our baggage animals, who had already refused their food the day before, compelled us to rest for a day in Surbo. Next day, September 19, brought us after eight hours' march in a general northnortheast direction to the Jakhjakheiya village. Interspersed throughout the region were quarries and numerous small watercourses, including the Wadi Farkh, which we crossed first, and which was about twenty paces wide with high banks. In the morning we marched through open woodland, but at midday through a dense

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wood where in some places the swampy soil made our advance very difficult. This wooded low ground, from the clearings in which rich harvests of sorghum had been obtained, and which for this reason the natives called berebere umm hataba, also had, in addition to the abundoro and the nabaq el-fil, with its claw-shaped thorns, a fine tree called durrot, with leathery leaves, the wood of which is used for perfume, while on its northern border was an unusually large number of rutrut, whose bark, as already noted, serves as writing paper. After we had left the wood, the road ran between two chains of hillocks and became drier. In the numerous ravines and depressions, however, there were many apparently dry reddish places, where the oxen sometimes sank up to their shoulders, so that they [147] had literally to be lifted out. Jakhjakheiya was also a Kajakse village with, however, many Bornu people among its inhabitants; it had about sixty huts. On the next marching day, when we set off to the northnortheast, the ridge of hillocks on the left soon came to an end, while the higher ridge on the right receded, and allowed us to move towards the east. After a few hours, we crossed the Wadi Dileba, which runs towards the west to the Tindurne river in the territory of the Fala. The chain of hillocks, which with a wide bend to the east abandons its original southeastern direction, continuing to the northeast, was reached after about four hours in the direction which we also followed farther to the east when we passed through the Kokoro village lying at its foot. This village was inhabited by Bornu people, and made a very pleasant impression, especially by the careful construction of its huts and the verandas on the public square, as well as by the friendliness of the inhabitants. We could not, however, make use of their invitation to spend the night in the village, but moved on farther to the northeast and northnortheast, crossing soon after the path which had led us on the journey out from Buram to Bir Sessi. The usual road led through the Mokorok hamlets, which we had also touched earlier, but we now left them on our right, and with an expert guide went directly through the wilderness, a hard rocky plain covered with grass, thus reaching after six hours' march the Bir Sessi village with the rock of the same name, which is very closely connected with the chain of peaks which for the whole day ran east of our road. This day's march was distinguished by the complete absence of clay or swampy country. Sand and rocks and the hard type of desert soil, which is called naka and here had a reddish colour, alternated, and there was some open woodland, where a poisonous tree which otherwise is rarely seen was especially common; it has a short trunk of soft wood, tapering off sharply at the top. T h e Arabic name for it there is semm el-far, mouse poison, and [148] children use it to catch birds by means of the scent of its narcoticising wood. We were in fact very much in need of a good road, the more so as our animals

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still had no strength, and aroused the most justified doubts as to whether they would be in a condition to reach Abeshr. The village was rather large, scattered over a considerable area, with more than 100 huts; the inhabitants were Awlad Bakka (Fala). On the enormous public square there were no less than four huts for strangers and itinerant students, of which the three which were habitable were for the time being occupied by muhajirin, while the fourth was in a very poor condition. Tom, however, discovered a large hut with a courtyard and a small hut inside, whose owner had gone away. Since Tom was well known here, he had no difficulty in getting possession of this hut for the night, and in addition we were able to enjoy rich hospitality from friendly neighbours. Here, for the first time, there was added to the usual gruel that was sent us a caterpillar sauce, which did not in itself have a bad taste, though it still seemed fortunate that it was brought into use only rarely. The complete exhaustion of our oxen compelled us to rest for another day, since we intended to cross the Batha on the following day, and therefore had a long day's march ahead of us. We did not indeed reach the Batha the next day, but only the Akrub village close to its southern bank. From Bir Sessi we moved in a generally northern direction, and in the plain, which here slopes down towards the Batha, we had to cross some watercourses running from southeast to northwest, one of which, Kumboye, proved to be a source of the Likore. I was pleased with the fine fields of corn and the careful cultivation of ground-nuts and sesame to be seen here. Nearer the Batha the grass became more luxuriant, the soil more fertile, the trees more frequent, and the streams more numerous. The woods, however, were still poor and sparse, and, strange to say, it was the. talha acacia, which the K a nuri call karamga, which was most frequently seen. The [149] average direction of our march had been northnortheast. Near the cornfields of Akrub there was an abundant supply of water, which seeped out here and there from the sandy soil, forming pools in small depressions in the ground, and trickling hither and thither in a manner which the Arabs there call saraf. The extensive cornfields of Akrub allowed us to hope for a large village, and therefore for good quarters for the night, so that after seven hours' march I was very disappointed by the poor appearance of the little hamlet in which we took up our lodgings. It soon appeared, however, that we had left the large village of Akrub lying to the west, since it had remained hidden from us by rising ground and luxuriant cornfields. All the other numerous villages of the same name were quite insignificant. The midday heat, however, was great, our baggage animals were very weary, and despite the poor prospects for any kind of comfort, we therefore decided to camp where we were.

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The little village was inhabited by Arabs, indeed by Nawaibe. Since the men had all gone off to the north with their herds of cattle we found only women there, who at the bottom of their hearts were not very pleased about their difan, or guests. However, they gave us a hearty welcome, and on our arrival did not even mention the existence of a larger village; this was, however, only in order not to violate the duties of hospitality, which are as a rule so little respected by the native Arabs there. Their limited joy over our arrival was all the easier to understand, since they appeared to be unspeakably poor. Some of the huts scarcely deserved this name. They consisted simply of a frame of uprights and crossbars with a mat of dum undergrowth stretched over it. These were so small that they provided space for exactly one person - I saw them used only by old women living by themselves, and it was astonishing with what careful calculation all the earthly belongings of the occupant were distributed above, below, behind and in front. T o the animals was assigned a small space fenced in with palisades such as the [150] Arabs provide for their herds of cattle. There was practically nothing to be bought in the village, and not a single hen was to be procured. The Moroccan's slave, Buba, an acquisition from Bagirmi, distinguished himself by getting two fat coloured lizards, whose flesh, apart from its strong flavour, was very pleasant. They are not eaten by the genuine Maba, for while, as everywhere in the Muslim world, their use is not, like that of the wild pig, prohibited as haram, unlawful, it is nevertheless regarded as makruk, i.e. objectionable but not forbidden. The other tribes, however, do not disdain it. Fortunately we were spared the storm which was looming up at night, for neither we nor our belongings would have found any protection there. After an hour's march next morning, September 23, we reached the Batha, which here runs from eastnortheast to westsouthwest, two arms joining together, one from the northeast, the other from the east, and was scarcely more than 100 paces wide. As usual the banks were of clay, creating some considerable difficulties for us, whereas the sandy bed was easily crossed. We passed through the cornfields of the little village of Bishene, with about sixty huts, which is inhabited by Bandala, and lost our way in the pathless jungle which surrounds it. After fruitless search and running hither and thither, we returned after nearly four hours to the point from which we had set out; for this we had chiefly to thank the irresponsible and malicious information about the road which the inhabitants gave us. Finally we followed only Kursi Tom, who led us approximately north across various small streams, with banks covered with fine trees, until at last, because of the exhausted oxen, we decided to spend the hottest part of the day in the magnificent shadow of the trees. In the afternoon, too, when river beds running to the west to the Batha cut across our road to the northnortheast nearly

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117

every half hour, we went forward for only a few hours, since towards evening threatening thunder clouds were gathering. We intended to reach the Amm Guja village, [ 1 5 1 ] but did not know exactly how far it was; only we were informed by some Arab women from Akrub whom we met, and who were coming from the Marfa region, that it was still far away. Since we saw signs of agriculture, we searched in our immediate neighbourhood, and in fact found to the west of our path a small hamlet of ten huts, one of which appeared to be uninhabited. When, however, we wanted to take possession of this, it became evident that those six Arab women from Akrub had got in ahead of us; however, they courteously withdrew, and distributed themselves in the neighbours' huts. The rain had overtaken us shortly before we entered the village, and lasted for the greater part of the night. In the morning the sky was still clouded and there was occasional light rain so that we did not resume our journey until midday. This day, too, we had great trouble in finding the way to Amm Guja, since the whole region was intersected by small tracks running in all directions and by numerous winding watercourses. In the course of the afternoon we got a view of the whole region. To the southeast lay the mountains of Kokoro, which we had passed the day before; to the northwest at several hours' distance was a group of irregular rocky peaks, among which lay the Moyo village of Marafeine, and the chain of the Marfa extended in the far distance in front of us. After a few hours we reached the Amm Guja village, inhabited by Moyo. As usual in cases of necessity, we dismounted at the masjid, and had to stay there, since the melik was not to be found, and without his assistance no hut could be obtained, which would have been all the more desirable as a storm was brewing, and the hut of the muhajirin was almost fully occupied by the young people of the village, who did not offer to give it up to us for the night. The Moyo, a small tribe related to the Marfa and the Kajakse, showed here the same amiable modesty and reserve as those excellent people. [152] Next day we had to make a difficult march through a depression which lay between the long low Lagia mountain ridge and the Marafeine rock-group, and the slopes of which were swampy or covered with water. After three hours we had crossed its shallow watercourses, which all run to the west, reached higher ground, and passed the Moyo village, Baqbaq, leaving to the west at about three hours' distance the Shombole chain of hills. We then had before us on all sides some insignificant hill groups. Baqbaq, which had only about sixty huts but extensive cornfields, lay on the western slope of a rock. The whole terrain became more hilly and difficult hour by hour, so that after about five hours we camped for the benefit of our oxen for some hours

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in the shade of some immense granite blocks and of the trees which were growing in between. With its rocky ravines and dense woodlands, the region later became very romantic, but unfortunately it was much too difficult for the exhausted animals. Our direction was northnorthwest. The chains of hills which had previously stretched out on both sides united here, and had to be crossed; a half-hour's march on the other side brought us to the little village of Kurnaya. From the top of the mountain pass we had a view over the low plain which separated us from the mountains of the Marfa. In Kurnaya, whose public square was distinguished by two immense kurnas, which had indeed given the village its name, we found an empty masjid hut and fairly friendly inhabitants, Marfa mixed with Moyo, who soon brought us some corn cobs and fresh ears of dukhn, while with needles and salt we were able to buy a hen and some meal. After crossing the plain in front of us and a low ridge of hills on the other side, we entered next day the Marfa region, which extends from east to west, and is distinguished by its numerous hills. Two peaks indeed stand out from the chain as a whole, one, Ambelaya, with a domeshaped arch, directly to the north in front of us with a village of the same name, the other, a high peak of very regular [153] shape, which is southwest of Ambelaya, and concealed the village of Hogene. From Ambelaya we continued to the east; we reached this mountain only in the afternoon, for after crossing the cornfields of the Nyere village towards midday, we camped during the hours of greatest heat in a broad wadi filled with shingle, which despite its apparent size merely belonged to the next mountain. Unfortunately our hours of rest were spoilt by a storm, which, however, gave us only a moderate drenching. On the other side of Ambelaya another chain showed itself in front of us running from east to west, and we marched towards its western end. Valleys and series of peaks thus followed each other, until towards evening we caught sight of the Kashemereh chain on the northwest horizon. We had left the Marfa mountain chain proper behind us towards sunset, and descended into the considerable village of el-Oleb whose inhabitants, however, were still Marfa. Next day, September 27, we maintained our direction to the northnorthwest, and after two hours' march passed first the Shala village with Marfa and Bagirmi inhabitants, then the Biddene village, and during the morning the Len village. On the other side of Len, which, like the other villages, had less than 100 huts, we had to make another hal t of several hours on account of our animals. During our afternoon march the country became more open and flatter. We were approaching the Kashemereh chain, and after sunset took up our quarters for the night in the Araq Tinyare village, which is inhabited by Kashemereh.

Journey to Runga

"9 Next day, after passing through the Kashemereh villages of Mungulti, Gurbajo, Beggar ed-Dakker and Qarn el-Kebsh, we reached the Buteha in four hours, and camped under a fine tamarind on its northern bank. During these days our progress had been unusually slow, since the baggage animals were showing disquieting symptoms of weakness. From the Beggar ed-Dakker village on we had to unload some of the baggage, and have it brought to the Buteha with the help of the people. The Buteha here flowed through a thickly-wooded plain, which [154] scarcely rose above the river-bed, so that the slightest rise in the level of the water threatened to flood the surrounding country. The river's broad bank was, therefore, extraordinarily fertile and suitable for cultivation. Much cotton, garlic, fennel, onions, etc., were being grown, the inhabitants of the villages on the river bank being the exclusive suppliers of these products in the Abeshr market. The river-bed was three or four times as wide as that of the Batha at the point where we had crossed it, and was filled with pure sand. Since there was no prospect of getting one of our oxen to move again, there was nothing for it but to spend the afternoon and night under our tamarind tree, and to slaughter the animal. Hyenas, however, were so abundant in the country that we had to keep a fire going during the night to protect our feeble donkeys from their attacks. Although in the thick woodlands on the banks of the Buteha the rhinoceros is very common, and at this season often ravaged the fields, we did not actually see any of them. The following day we dried out the flesh of the slaughtered ox, and endeavoured to enjoy its liver in the raw state, like the liver of the camel, which is, however, much more suitable for this purpose. The flesh was sold to the women of the neighbouring villages, who used it for sauces, and gave us in return sugar-cane, meal and fresh dukhn ears. After a few hours we reached, on September 30, the large village of Erkeb with more than 100 dwellings, and at the village of Engringa touched again our outward route. With that we again entered the Abeshr region, which, like the whole of northern Wadai, is distinguished by scarcity of water. The rainy season was just at an end, and there was everywhere already again a water shortage. The press around a well in the neighbourhood of the village was so great that only after a couple of hours did we succeed in half-filling a water-bag. We marched then as far as the Gulfo village, where we camped for the night, in order to reach Abeshr in a few hours on the following day, October 1, and to make our entry in the evening. The pause at the Buteha had so far restored the strength of the other animals that they carried us right through to Abeshr.

CHAPTER

VII

SECOND STAY IN ABESHR October 1873

to January

11,

1874

[155] During my absence my Tunisian friend, Hajj Salim from Qarawan, who, as I have said, had been ill for a long time, had unfortunately died in the house of my host, Otman. Since King Ibrahim's ambaisador who was there had brought with him many people from Darur, and the house was filled with foreigners, [156] I had to take possession of the dead man's dwelling. A distinguished merchant from Benghizi, Barani by name, who, though he was a Sanusi, had always been \ery friendly to me, had also fallen victim to the fevers of the rainy season. Malaria was indeed still claiming many victims in Abeshr e\ery day. Immediately after my arrival, I was again stricken; most of the Mejabra and many of the Jellaba, who had lived for many yeari in those countries, also suffered from it, including the most important of the northern merchants, el-Fadil from Benghazi, who, because of his friendship with the young Sanusi, 1 enjoyed the special regard of the king. His wealth enabled him to bring young lions and tame antelcpes over the difficult desert roads to Benghazi - wild animals were at ihat time specially in demand in Tripoli and Constantinople - while I l a d to content myself with the possession of two specimens from the animal world which I so much loved, a small long-tailed monkey (Cercop.thecus griseo-viridis), the most attractive monkey that I have ever sein,2 1 "The young Sanusi" is probably es-Sayyid Muhammad el-Mahdi, the elder son of the "Grand Sanusi", es-Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali es-Sanusi, who, vhen already fifty years old, founded the Sanusiya order about 1837. On his death in 1859, a regency of ten shaykhs was to control the order until Muhammad el-Mahdi wis of age. He dealt primarily with the general affairs of the Order, leaving religioui instruction in the hands of his younger brother, Muhammad es-Sharif. (Nachiigal called the successor of the founder of the Order "Sidi Mahadi", i. 192.) El-Mihdi remained head of the order until his death in 1902. E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford 1949, reprinted 1968), 19-22. Nachtigal himself, in 1884, after he had become German consul-general in Tinis, visited "Mahdi Sidi Senusi" at Jaghbub, which was the centre of the Order from 1856 until it was transferred to the oasis of Kufra in 1895 (A. A. Boddy, To Karwan the Holy, London, 1885, 104, 247). 2 These monkeys were the most popular of the animals who assembled Ir. the courtyard of Nachtigal's house in Kuka (i. 635-6).

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and a hyrax (keka, A r a b i c teis el-hajer), which I had bought in the market in order to convince myself of its taillessness. In addition to the fevers other kinds of acute illness were also frequent and dangerous at that time of year. A nephew of H a j j A h m e d , a y o u n g man of eighteen fell ill with an inflammation of the membrane of the spinal cord and quickly died. In addition to m a n y children, a surprisingly large number of adults suffered from a feverish skin disease, perhaps measles, called tinnenin by the K a n u r i , and kajayanga by the M a b a , and in November I heard of m a n y w h o died after a few days o f an acute complaint of the throat and larynx, perhaps diphtheria, though, in view of these people's reserve, it was not possible for me to observe these cases. A n d finally among the Jellaba I saw various cases of liver inflammation, all of which proved fatal. In these climates the organism's powers of resistance against acute illnesses seems to be much weaker than in northern latitudes, where, nevertheless, the symptoms [157] are for the most part much more severe. O n l y the true A r a b s show as a rule a tenacious vitality in surmounting illnesses. After I had got m y household more or less into order, and had m a d e the most essential purchases in the market, I visited H a j j A h m e d T a n g a t a n g a , and then betook myself to the king, who, as always, gave me a friendly reception. W h i l e we were sitting inside the palace, his chief eunuch, the K a m k o l a k Fotr, who, as I h a v e said earlier, lived at the entrance of the " W o m e n ' s W a y " on the square in front of the palace, had been holding a merissa party with a subordinate eunuch, the A q i d D u g g u D e b a n g a , 1 and the followers of both himself and the aqid. T h e two eunuchs had got into a quarrel, in which their partisans and subordinates had joined, ending in a general fight, in which not only were eight people more or less severely wounded, but also a lancethrust penetrated through his right shoulder-blade into the lung of the K a m k o l a k Fotr, of w h o m K i n g A l i thought very highly. In spite of people's favourable predictions, and particularly that of the J e r m a A b u Jebrin, I could not but regard his case as desperate. T h o u g h I would gladly have kept clear of the hopeless treatment of the wounded man, I had, nevertheless, on the instructions of the king, to look at him every day and report on his condition, while A b u Jebrin was undertaking the treatment of the case. W i t h some obscure idea of the blood and pus which were being retained in the breast, A b u Jebrin planned a means for draining this out, and found in melted butter the most effective remedy for the purpose. I was present several times when this was inflicted on the body of the unfortunate m a n . For the operation the J e r m a used a very small bottle-gourd, with a tiny opening at the end of a very elongated point, and a much larger open1 He is described here as untergeordrut, but on p. 177 is said to be "the senior eunuch at the court of Wadai".

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Journey from. Bornu to Wadai

ing above to receive the butter. The gourd might hold about an ounce. The butter was heated, and poured slowly into the opening of the wound, which was sufficiently wide not to lose a drop, and as this was done, the air escaped from the patient's interior, with loud groans from him. At the first session when I was present, [158] the small vessel was emptied into the sick man's breast seventeen times, and this operation was repeated every two days. Another of my patients, Hajj el-Khidr from Qatrun, was after my return suffering from rheumatism of the joints, which, without running to a high fever or affecting many joints, was also very common that year, even carrying off many children. Two or three was the usual number ofjoints affected, and the medication, which consisted of abundant fumigation with talha or hejlij wood, or of plunge baths or hipbaths of natron, was usually completely without effect. Every day for several weeks I found my patient holding the affected joints in large vessels of melted butter, and this he did for the greater part of the day. Of the horses which I had entrusted to the care of the royal stables, the one intended for the king of Darfur had died, and the other was in no pleasing condition. I took it at once to my house, where, however, it too died after a few days, as a result, people said, of the stings of the virulent flies by which the animals had been poisoned at the Fitri lake. The beautiful horse which Shaykh Umar had given me for King Ali had also during my absence succumbed to these pernicious influences. That not only the flies, but also the change of climate is especially dangerous for horses from Bornu was also shown by the fact that a horse which Otman had brought with him as a speculation, an animal less beautiful than powerful, had likewise fallen ill shortly afterwards and died quite quickly. The visits of my acquaintances, mostly Jellaba, continued during the first days after my arrival. I cannot sufficiently commend the kindness and courtesy, both at this time and later, of the Nile merchants, irrespective of whether they came from Dongol?i, Berber, Kordofan, Sennar or Kassala. I emphasise this all the more since in this respect the glaring contrast between them and the merchants of the north coast of Africa was especially striking in a place where both groups were numerously represented. In view of the long years [159] I had spent on the north coast, the inhabitants of Tripoli and Benghazi, and even of Jalo, should have been closer to me than these Africans from the interior, and yet intercourse with them, for the most part to be sure men from the Jalo oasis, the so-called Mejabra, was less cordial than that with the "Ayal el-Bahar" [the merchants of the Nile Valley]. Since the old Barani had died, the only one with whom I associated was Ftiti, a brother of Nkesri, one of my acquaintances from Kuka. Much as he shared the calculating and selfish nature of his fellow-countrymen,

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123

he invariably showed himself a cultivated, frank and courteous man. M y dead friend, Hajj Salim, too, had not been able to speak sufficiently harshly of the Mejabra, with whom he had travelled from the north, not only from his experience while staying at Jalo, where they had overcharged him in the most shameful fashion, but also because without any pity they had wanted to leave him behind in the desert when he was ill. Hajj Salim was a rough, unfeeling, ruthless man, and although as his half-countrymen the Mejabra should have been close to him, he had since that time injured them wherever and however he only could do. But just as in his relations with his inferiors he showed himself pitilessly harsh, and even cruel, in his relations with others he was vigorous, frank and decisive. That it was not only in his trading activities that he was clear-sighted, honest and generous was shown by his relations with me, a Christian, to whom he, a sherif from the holy city of Qairawan, which until 1881 no Christian was allowed to enter, showed the most disinterested friendship, and stood by with the most intelligent advice. He did full justice to the Ayal el-Bahar, and associated almost exclusively with them. The envoy of the king of Darfur, the Jellabi Shems ed-Din, a bull. necked young man, nearly six feet high, from Kobe in Darfur, with whom I also formed an association, treated me with the politeness and amiability of his tribesmen. He had been in Abeshr almost a month; and though there was still no talk of the date of his departure, he was convinced that it would take place only after Ramadan. King Ibrahim's ambassador was indeed delayed by the attention which he had to give to his own trading affairs, but King Ali also had political reasons for [160] not hastening his departure. In the meantime talk began about the departure of the northern caravan, which was completely in the king's hands, since he intended to send his own caravan with it to Cairo, as he was accustomed to do approximately every third year. Already the camels, which his subjects, and especially the Mahamid Arabs, had to provide, were being assembled, and these, with the king's slaves, ivory and ostrich feathers, were being allocated to the four officials who were to accompany them to Cairo. O n October 20, I had the unexpected pleasure of a visit from Faqih Adam 1 from Kuka, who had for so long helped me there as a reporter on Wadai, and had now returned to his homeland. He had placed himself under the protection of the Jerma Abu Jebrin, and had been pardoned by the king for his participation in the enterprises of the pretender Tintelak Adam [pp. 224-5], s o n of King Abd el-Aziz. Like my travelling companion, the Faqih Abo, he was now waiting for great benefits 1 Cf. i. 638-9, 735. Adam, who had been Nachtigal's closest neighbour in Kuka, also helped to look after his household during his expedition with the Awlad Sulayman, 295, 301.

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

from the forgiving king, though in fact both of them were quite deluded in their expectations. Faqih Adam brought all sorts of interesting news from Bornu. The crown prince Aba Bu Bakr was still engaged on his military expedition in Fika, Kerrikerri and Bedde, but without any great success. The most distinguished Bedde prince, Ajin, the son of Babutshi in Fititi, against whom the expedition was chiefly directed, had, by means of rich gifts and solemn assurances, been able to withdraw without hindrance, but that was all that had so far been accomplished. In Kherua, the newly founded royal residence, many clay houses had in the meantime been put up alongside the straw huts, so that an actual town could be expected ultimately to develop there. The son of the powerful Lamino had more and more lost the favour of his master, and thereby also his towns, districts and tribes. The faqih also had something to report about Bagirmi and the unfortunate civil war which was devastating that country, though his reports always appeared to be influenced by the wish to say what would be welcome to the king of Wadai. According to him, Abd er-Rahman, the ruler installed by King Ali, was making headway everywhere. [ 1 6 1 ] He had left his earlier residence at Bidderi [p. 206 n.], and had moved to Massenya, the real capital, close by, but, as was frequently the case in northeast Bagirmi, was said to be suffering from a shortage of corn. However, his fatsha [i.e. the chief military commander in Bagirmi], the former chief of the Badanga, who, contrary to his promise to remain in Bagirmi as a military commander, had handed over his territory to a brother, was said to have gained a notable success over my royal friend, Abu Sekkin, and captured 136 of his horses; Abu Sekkin had again established himself in Bugoman. The new king of Bagirmi must, however, have been rather short of resources, for shortly after the Faqih Adam there came to Abeshr one of the Arabs, whom I had met in Logon on my way back from Bagirmi, in order to complain to King Ali against his vassal, Abd er-Rahman, who had actually purchased all his goods but had not paid for them. With Ramadan, which began on October 25, the difficulties of getting daily food for my people steadily increased. I had already frequently hired the slave women of my neighbours and other women in my quarter of the town to deliver the usual meals twice a day. But even if the agreement was regularly observed for some weeks, the large stocks of corn which I had to provide for this purpose made the women very dishonest. They took the corn and the meat for the sauces, but the number of days on which, in spite of this, no meal appeared increased. Earlier it had been work on the land which had to serve as an excuse. Now when Ramadan began no order of any kind could be maintained. At last the benevolent Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga helped me out of my predicament, assigning a slave woman to me to look after my house-

Second Stay in Abeshr

125

hold. I received myself from my landlord daily two thin leavened flour cakes (kisra), and in addition my Moroccan prepared a sauce from meat or fowls. For breakfast for half a toqqiya (ferda), about one-twentieth of a dollar, I bought milk daily, which now, with the Arabs from the south keeping their herds in the neighbourhood of the city, was easy to get. [ 1 6 2 ] T h e oxen which I had brought back from the south I soon had to have slaughtered as being completely unserviceable, and at least for a time I therefore had dried meat. The daily purchases of my household requirements were, as they had been before, very awkward for me; there was always the absence of standardised coins, which for any one who is not a merchant and, as such, in possession of all the things that sellers demand, makes marketing as time-consuming as it is difficult. Even if one offered a comparatively large sum in teqaqi for some object, one could not get it if its owner, female or male, insisted on just amber beads or coral. Even the maqta tromba and the toqqiya which were supposed to serve as a really stable standard of value achieved this purpose only very imperfectly. The maqta tromba, indeed, cost only 9 teqaqi, and the Maria Theresa dollar, when it was offered in the market, scarcely more than 6 teqaqi, but, to purchase the necessities of daily life, the teqaqi had again to be exchanged for marketable goods. For more valuable goods, such as butter, honey and wheat, good coral or amber and other better quality beads were demanded; for the inferior articles, the khaddur clay bead, the awlad el-qresh porcelain bead and the sini bead. Especially amber and khaddur beads were the market mediums of exchange which circulated most widely. Of the former, three types were distinguished, circulating in trade in the form of rosaries of thirty to forty beads according to size. A rosary of the first type, large, slightly transparent beads, cost about 25 maqta,1 of the second type, a half, and of the third, a quarter of this. Even the poorest woman will always sooner try to increase her bead decorations than to get a new shawl, though that forms the whole of her clothing. The men never resist their wives' propensity to adorn themselves, or seek to limit their expenditure in either their own interests or those of the household. The head of the house, however, provides only limited means for running the household; on the other hand, he makes no claim to any share in the proceeds from the milk, hens and other things which are left to the care of his wife. If the supply of provisions runs out, the wife will [163] not tell her husband about it, and try to get fresh supplies from him, but goes to her relations, and if this attempt is fruitless, she then tries to procure provisions by selling her ornaments. Money 1 Such a price, nearly 40 dollars, for a rosary or necklace, may seem at first glance excessive; but el-Tounsy, speaking of an elaborate ornament worn by wealthy Wadaian women, the am-chinga, made from silver and coral, adds that a good one will sell for the price of four slaves, or about 40 douros, or dollars (Ouaday, 398).

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

to spend she never receives. In the autumn the people of a village are accustomed to join forces for the communal slaughter of some cows, and to divide the meat among themselves. Throughout the greater part of the year, the wife had to look after the ingredients for the sauces ; grubs, locusts, onions, sour cereal water, and, in the best cases, hens, then provide the material for the indispensable addition to the daily gruel of flour. In calculating the taxes to be paid to the king and the administrative officials, the man, too, is never taken into account; on the contrary, the women's huts are counted, and the salam, the difa, the kodmula, etc., are collected from them. Needless to say, these conditions help to raise prices and to make market transactions difficult. Everything except dukhn was considerably dearer than in Bornu; only in the autumn, when the cattle-owning Arabs stayed in the north, were butter and honey rather more plentiful and cheaper. A t that time of year there also frequently came into the market the little wild cucumbers with a refreshing though insipid taste, called ngurli by the Kanuri, of which we had found many in the Pagan districts of Bagirmi and in Logon. O n e has to be careful in eating them, for many of them are scarcely less bitter than the colocynth. Fairly large water-melons of very inferior quality were also offered for sale. Other varieties of melon were available only in small quantities and of very bad quality. T h e king had, indeed, made an attempt to lay out a little garden, and to improve the cultivation of various fruit trees, etc. T h e honest but drunken Murabid from Rhodwa in Fezzan who was employed as gardener, however, understood no more of the art than did the people of Wadai, with the result that there was not a single fruit tree in the garden, which produced only some tomatoes, clusters of pepper and the like. [164] In the middle of November, after a death-struggle of nearly four weeks, the eunuch Kamkolak Fotr at last died of his breast wound. In his place was appointed a D a z a - w h o are uncommon among eunuchs - who had scarcely reached manhood, by name Sherif ed-Din, who during my absence from Abeshr had returned from Kordofan where he had been sent by the king. 1 Unfortunately, the fever seldom left me during R a m a d a n , and even when there were no regular attacks, my spleen and liver were enlarged, my nights were feverish, and my strength steadily diminished. For this reason I seldom went to the king, although he had asked me not to discontinue my visits to him during the fast, since he then had more 1 More than twenty years later Sherif ed-Din was invited by another eunuch, who, after several years' experience in Mecca, pressed him to retire there to spend his last days in prayer and study, but he did not accept this invitation. H. Gaden, "États musulmanes de l'Afrique-centrale. . . .", Questions diplomatiques et coloniales,

«907» 439-

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127

free time than usual. In fact, custom required him to spend the greater part of the day on the high clay platform in the outer courtyard above which a veranda had been erected. O n November 25 the id el-fitr was celebrated. I had had a sharp attack of fever in the night, which left me almost unconscious for half the day, so that I could not follow the procession of the king and his people to the old mosque outside the town for the festival prayer. So far as my means permitted, I supplied my people with new clothes; to my Muhammad I gave a white Bornu tobe, to Billama, in view of his dubious cleanliness a black dyed tobe, to the Moroccan Hammu a woollen shawl (haba or barka) such as the Arabs wear there, to his slave a new pair of trousers, and to Kursi T o m a beautiful K a n o kororobshi tobe. According to the reports of Hammu and Muhammad, who had watched the royal procession, there might have been about half as many mounted men, nearly 1,000, as assembled in K u k a on similar occasions. They were, to be sure, exclusively from the tanga, i.e. from the detachments of the military commanders, aqids, who were permanently under arms, while no one took part from the villages subject to them. According to my people's account, [165] the aqids of the Salamat, the Mahamid and the Rashid might each have commanded around 100 horsemen, the momo and the Tintelak Yusef each about sixty, the head eunuch fifty, the Me'iram Sara some thirty, and the other commanders between twenty and fifty. O f both riders and horses about half appeared in padded armour, 1 and all the horsemen were armed with swords. T h e assembled infantry were described to me as having been very numerous; of what might be called the king's regular forces, however, the slaves armed with flintlocks scarcely numbered 100, and the number of horsemen of his household was no greater. The latter were either tuweirat (pages) or korayat (grooms). Each aqid also had with him up to several dozen tanga carrying flintlocks, for at that time the king and his officials were making a great point of adding to their fire-arms. T h e king's immediate entourage were required to have daily firing exercises, and the better shots were then armed with double-barrelled flintlocks. However, even the most powerful aqid of the great nomad tribes which have been mentioned did not have at his disposal more than about fifty men with flintlocks, and in the whole kingdom the number that the king had at that time scarcely reached 1,000. A small cannon was carried in the procession on the back of a camel. 1 T h e quilted coats widely used as armour for both horsemen and horses throughout the area visited by Nachtigal was described b y him in detail (with a picture) in his account of the armed forces of Bornu (i. 583-5), where the coats were called libbe. In the context of W a d a i the word libs is used once by Nachtigal (p. 196 below), while for Darfur a similar word, libis, is recorded.

128

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

There was, it is true, no gun-carriage, and when it was desired to fire the cannon, it was put down on the ground, and its front part raised by stones placed beneath it. T h e horses as a rule belonged to the breed which I have already described [p. 60], and which is similar to the Darfur breed. A gigantic umbrella, resplendent with all the colours, was held over the king's head by several slaves. Three of his own ostrich feather standards, the usual number for a king of Wadai, and four that had been captured were carried before him, but their bearers did not distinguish themselves by such whirling and dance movements as I had had occasion to admire with A b u Sekkin [ii. 607-8]. O n these festival days the princes and kings here are accustomed to have presents given to them by their subjects. Indeed, some years before, a regular festival gift, salam, from the foreign merchants [166] had been instituted through Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga, which was already coming to be regarded as a sort of "custom", the name by which taxes in general are described (ada, plural, aivaid). This year 120 maqta was collected from the A y a l el-Bahar, about 1 maqta per head. T h e Kotoki and Kanuri, however, raised only about a tenth part of this, and this of course did not fail to make the impression which was to be expected in high places. With the conclusion of the month of fasting, the news arrived that Tripolitanian merchants had arrived in Borku on their way to Wadai. In the year before my arrival in Abeshr two enterprising Tripolitanians had for the first time in many years again appeared in Wadai, and they had done so much business that a considerable caravan had now been formed for a similar purpose. T h e Murabid from Qatrun who had arrived in Abeshr at the beginning of my stay there in order to get the backing of the king for a caravan journey from Tripoli to W a d a i via Tibesti, Fezzan and Borku, had, however, not received a satisfactory answer from the king, who had replied, truly enough, that foreign merchants were very welcome, but that he could guarantee the road for them only so far as his own power extended, to W u n in Borku on the road to Fezzan, and to Wanyanga on the Benghazi road. In spite of this, as I have said, the news came in at the beginning of December that a caravan from Tripoli, 260 camels strong, was approaching, and a few days later the merchants who had been in Abeshr the previous year appeared as forerunners. O n e hundred and ninety camels were camped in Arada with the Mahamid, and sixty remained behind in W u n , too weak to travel any further. K i n g A l i immediately sent a messenger to the chieftain Derbei in Wun, with instructions to replace the sixty camels which were unfit to travel, and to bring their loads to Arada. I had a visit on December 9 from these men, who could indeed provide only very imperfect news about Europe for me, but consoled

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m e with the arrival of a certain Z o m m i t , w h o was bringing letters and money for me from Rossi, the Austrian consul in Tripoli. [167] Since my departure from T r i p o l i , A l i R i z a Pasha 1 had, in accordance with the old Turkish custom, been succeeded by several other governors; Fezzan had had a similar experience, and if the reporters were able to extol the grace of G o d during the two last very fruitful years, there was, as before, no good to be reported about their governments. T h e members of the caravan were all Tripolitanians, whereas I had hoped on this occasion to see again some of my Fezzan friends. A l t h o u g h they had been nearly five months on the road, including their stay in Fezzan, and the camel loads were only 3^-4 hundredweight, a b o u t a quarter of the camels had nevertheless become unserviceable, despite the fact that as a rule camels from the north enjoy an outstandi n g reputation for their carrying capacity. T h e camels of the K a b a b i s h 2 o n the Nile must indeed be stronger and have greater powers of resistance, for the Jellaba of Dongola frequently place a load of 8 hundredweight on their animals on the road to Darfur. A few days later the Tripolitanians were ceremoniously received. T h e king summoned to the fasher, or palace square, all his officials and great dignitaries on horseback and with ornaments on their weapons and clothing; he inspected them, and then sent them on in advance with selected horses for the leading men of the caravan. A n attack of fever again prevented me from participating in their reception. In the afternoon when the attack was over, I rode on a donkey to the zariba o f the A q i d of the M a h a m i d , in order to greet these men, and found there the leader of the caravan, M u h a m m a d Bey, a grandson of Yusef Pasha, 3 w h o was travelling as a merchant, but was also bringing gifts on behalf o f the governor-general, as well as his brother, the son of the merchant Z o m m i t , and other members of the c o m p a n y . T h e y all made a great show in velvet and silk, scarfs and haiks from Jerid, so that I, w h o had not seen such magnificence for a long time, felt rather ashamed of my simple Jellabi dress. T h e y were nearly all good-looking intelligent men, though cold and not very forthcoming. I had a bitter disappointment with regard to Zommit, w h o had been thoughtless enough to put the letters directed to me in one of his merchandise packs, which he 1 Governor-General of Tripolitania in 1869, i. 24. * T h e Kababish were a loose confederation of camel-raising nomad tribes, who today live in territory running from the eastern boundary of Darfur nearly as far as Khartoum. A modern writer describes the Kababish as still regarding themselves "for sentimental reasons . . . primarily as camel rearers even though they own more sheep than camels" (Talal Asad, The Kababish Arabs, London, 1970, 15). See also Asad, " A note on the history of the Kababish tribe", Sudan notes and records, xlvii, 1966. 3 T h e last Karamanli ruler of Tripoli, i. 29, 31.

130

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

[168] was unable to trace, so that I, who for two years had heard nothing from home, had the prospect of having to wait for the delivery of my letters until he was settled in his lodgings and had unpacked all his baggage. The beautiful horses which the king sent to meet the merchants were transferred as their property to those who momentarily had them in their possession, and each individual merchant was given lodgings, which in Abeshr, with its limited space and small number of houses, was not so easy as it was in Kuka. Only then did they muster the greeting gifts for the ruler of Wadai. I had been summoned just before daybreak to the king, who on account of a slight intestinal catarrh had taken a Dover's Powder, of which he had earlier received a larger dose from me. The Aqid of the Mahamid was delivering the salam of the Tripolitanians. The presents were in fact very sumptuous, representing in Wadai a value of at least several thousand dollars; there was a saddle with a silver-embroidered velvet cover and silver stirrups, a silver tea service, cloth and clothing of all kinds, gold watches, etc. While I was with the king in the afternoon to enquire about his health and the effects of the medicaments which he had taken, Muhammad Bey appeared to hand over the presents from the Mushir of Tripoli, which consisted of a sabre and a costly burnus. On this occasion the proud character of the king and the simplicity of his judgment again found full expression. As could be clearly seen from the velvet of the scabbard and the metal on its handle, the sabre had been worn, and this became the reason why Sultan Ali rejected the Mushir's gift. He coolly pointed out to its bearer, who was greatly embarrassed by the king's displeasure, that as a king he was not accustomed to make use of things which others before him had already worn. He might take the present back and explain to his master the reason for its rejection. Muhammad Bey himself, the king added in some friendly words, had no responsibility for the mishap, and the king would hold him [169] just as worthy and as dear as if he had delivered the most costly gifts. The governor-general of Tripoli had written to the king a personal letter of introduction for me, which I was to have delivered to him. This letter, too, had the same fate as the letter of introduction from Shaykh Umar. He simply handed it back, and found it quite strange that a pasha of Tripoli should wish to teach the king of Wadai how he should conduct himself with strangers. I used the opportunity of the letters received from home - in fact, they came only from Tripoli, for I had no direct news from the fatherland - to take up with the king a question which was in fact one of the main purposes of my journey to Wadai, the fate of Eduard Vogel and the search for his papers. 1 From the people who had lived in Abeshr 1

Eduard Vogel (1829-56), a German scientist, who had been working at the

Second Stay in Abeshr

at that time I had already often made enquiries about these unhappy events, and while I could scarcely expect from the king any more accurate information about the outrage, I could not, however, leave the country without having spoken to him about it, and asking him for the return of such of the traveller's papers as might still be in existence. So far, however, I had been restrained from raising the subject with him by the most urgent warnings of my faithful friend, the Hajj Ahmed. He adjured me, if I valued my life, never to mention the subject, which was all the more painful for the king, since his own thinking was so honest, and he bore no responsibility for Vogel's death. I had, therefore, at various times allowed myself to be restrained by my friend from the performance of this duty, but at last I explained to him that I would not inform him about it if I should make a fresh resolution to fulfil this obligation. I now seized the opportunity to discuss the affair with the king. Evading the truth, in order to spare the king's sensibilities, I told him that I had received letters from home which had expressed great delight with the picture I had painted of his character, his intelligence [170] and his sense ofjustice; among these was a letter from the very aged father of one of my countrymen who had died in Wadai. As in general we Europeans valued very highly the autograph writings of our dear departed, this old man had, on the strength of the report he had received of King Ali's magnanimity, asked me to request him that he would comfort him in his old age by returning any of his son's papers which might still be found in Abeshr. King Ali was much surprised and embarrassed by my disclosure, and at first tried to feign complete ignorance of the affair. " H o w , " he asked, "has one of your brothers died here in my country?" " O king," I answered, "many years have passed, and the event took place when you, scarcely a full-grown young man, were yourself living far from the royal palace in the interior of the country; if we in our country have accurate knowledge of the shocking way in which our brother lost his life here, the whole European world knows, too, that you have no responsibility for it. The emotion of revenge and the desire for it are foreign to our religion, and I now speak to you of this unhappy episode only because of my knowledge of your magnanimous spirit and my desire to give to you throughout the whole world the reputation of being the noblest and most upright prince in the Sudan. No one has mentioned the property of the murdered traveller; we Bishop Observatory in London, was despatched from London with two sappers and two interpreters to join Barth's Central African Mission after the death of James Richardson and Adolf O v e r w e g , and arrived in K u k a in January 1854. H e made several expeditions from K u k a , and met Barth on his arrival there in December. I n January 1856 V o g e l finally left K u k a for W a d a i , where he was killed.

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

attach no importance to its loss. We desire only to recover such scraps of writing as may have survived, for the satisfaction of his aged father and the enhancement of your glory." After the king had enquired about the name of the dead man, he appeared, while repeating it to himself, Abd el-Wahid, to recall the case, and said: "See, oh Khawaja (that is the title given to Christians by educated Arabs in Syria, Egypt, Darfur and Wadai), the death of your countryman [ 1 7 1 ] happened long before I came to the throne, and I have only incomplete knowledge of these events. I shall, however, have enquiries made in accordance with your wishes, and will hand over to you any writings which may be found." I assured him repeatedly that no one in Europe had any inclination to make him responsible for the crime of his father, and that we had given expression to a request of this kind only because of our confidence in his sense of justice. I had, however, the conviction even then that my efforts would be unavailing. The king, full of shame for his father's crime, and the shadow which in this connection hung over the government of Wadai, obviously felt the need to bury the almost forgotten deed in the darkness of oblivion, and by no means to stir it up again. Although later, before my departure, he assured me that of Eduard Vogel's papers nothing had been found, it may nevertheless be possible that some day some remnants might come to light, for the destruction of documents is very rare in the Muslim world. Since nowadays, with the exception of its use in commercial transactions, the Arabic language deals only with matters relating to religion, everything that is written is treated with the greatest respect, and is scarcely ever intentionally destroyed. According to my enquiries about the fate of our unfortunate countryman, he had travelled from Kuka via Fitri at the beginning of 1856 to Abeshr, where he arrived at the end of the year. He was received by King Sherif in no unfriendly fashion, but yet behaved very imprudently, taking so little account of the suspicions and narrowmindedness of the natives that his downfall is to be ascribed to this circumstance. With the indefatigable industry which was characteristic of him, he was busily engaged the whole day outside his quarters, roaming around the neighbourhood on horseback and on foot, writing and sketching, and in this way provoked the most lively suspicions of the barbarous people, who were incapable of understanding such enterprise. He was lodged with the father of the present [172] Aqid of the Mahamid, Aqid Jerma, who held the same office as his son, and was highly esteemed by the king, and it was he who, after a few days, drew the king's attention to his guest's abnormal and suspicious behaviour. King Muhammad Sherif, a blood-thirsty tyrant,

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and especially hostile to the Arabs, apart from the numerous Fezzaners and Tripolitanians, whose blood he had shed earlier, had not long before had a sherif from Benghazi murdered, who was suspected of being a spy of the Turks. 1 T h e people of Wadai who were so hostile to all foreigners used this circumstance to direct the suspicious king's distrust against the fair-haired, blue-eyed Dr Vogel, who obviously had been despatched only to gather accurate information about that murder and to carry on the murdered man's spying. A man like Muhammad Sherif needed no proof for such assertions; for him the merest suspicion always sufficed for a death sentence, and after all, what is one man's life in a country like Wadai! He simply replied to the Aqid Jerma, " I f this is so, it is in any event safer that you should have him killed." One day Eduard Vogel, accompanied by the Aqid Jerma's people, went into the country round the town, and beside some granite rocks in its immediate neighbourhood, which were shown to me, he was killed with the iron-tipped cudgels or clubs, such as the Wadai people carry, and which are commonly used in executions by the kabartu caste of executioners and musicians already mentioned [iii. 70]. He had been in Abeshr only thirteen days. If I had won the confidence of individuals to such an extent that they talked to me about this event - for such things were considered state secrets, and fear of the king shut the mouths of those who knew about them - they also sought to put me at my ease, since they believed that my enquiries had their origin in fears for my own life. " O h K h a w a j a , " they said, "you must have no notions of that kind; that man was quite different from you. He was really [ 173] not a good man, for he did not like the people, he did not like to receive visits from them, and could not speak with them since he had little knowledge of Arabic. He lived almost exclusively on hens' eggs, as no intelligent man is in the habit of doing, and he did not write like other people with ink, but with a small stick." 2 1

The name Turk, when used in the Sudanese context, should not be given too precise a national or linguistic significance. Even when Egypt was only nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, the distinction between Turk and Egyptian was frequently blurred in those parts of Africa where there was an interest in Egypt. Nachtigal reported that the people of Darfur were said always to have called the Egyptians Turks (p. 322), and on several other occasions he referred to Turks, or to Turkish spies, in a similar sense (pp. 246, 264, 266, 370, 374). In the Sudanese phrase the period of its history under the Khedive Ismail was called al-Turkiya alsabiqa, the former Turkish government, and its officials and soldiers were execrated by the Mahdi as Turks, not as Egyptians; later the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, in which British officials predominated, came to be popularly known as al-Turkiya al-thaniya, the second Turkish government (P. M . Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan i88i-i8g8, Oxford, 1958, 14). * According to one story, "Vogel was strangled in 1856 because he ate too many eggs (his stomach was too weak for meat and the prodigious number of eggs he

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

These were all, on the face of it, insignificant things, which nevertheless had the most fateful consequences. The news which Werner Munzinger1 sent to Europe from Kordofan in 1862, and which he had received from the Sherif Muhammad el-Shinqiti, was correct, with the exception of the date, on which his informant was mistaken. This Shinqiti had travelled from Kuka to Abeshr in the same caravan with Dr Vogel, and the horror which he felt at Muhammad Sherif's deed, and probably also fear for his own life, had the result of hastening his departure from Wadai. He had been on the north coast earlier, and might therefore also have been considered a spy who was supposed to be reporting about the circumstances of the execution of the sherif from Benghazi. Since I had observed King Ali's embarrassment in talking about the atrocity perpetrated on Eduard Vogel, and it was generally known that the honest king had openly expressed his disapproval of the murder of Beurmann,2 killed by his officials in Kanem - he had refused to accept the property left by Beurmann - and moreover Beurmann's murder had not taken place in Wadai itself, I hesitated to mention this case also to the king, for he would probably not have taken so quietly an affair where his responsibility came into question in a quite different way. High as was Hajj Ahmed's regard for his royal friend and master, he was nevertheless quite paralysed with terror at the irresponsible audacity with which, in spite of his warnings, I had asked the king for information, crying out: "You Europeans are quite absurd. Not content with being received in every way by the king in a country like Wadai in a friendly and hospitable manner, [174] you still with might and main try to make yourself lose your head." The difference which I have emphasised earlier between the character of the northern Arab merchants and of those from the Nile consumed aroused the suspicions of the locals), and the British non-commissioned officer who was with him shortly followed suit" (Douglas Botting, The Knights of Bomu, 1961, 117). Another account, however, says that Macguire, the N.C.O., stayed behind in Kuka when Vogel went to Wadai, and was later killed in January 1857 on his way back to Tripoli (A. A. Boahen, Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan ¡788-1861, Oxford, 1964, 197). The suggestion that hens' eggs were disapproved in Wadai is not, at first glance, easily reconciled with Muhammed elTounsy's account of the incredible number of guinea-fowl eggs which the peasants of Wadai collected in the spring (Ouaday, 65). 1 Johann Albert Werner Munzinger, 1832-75, a Swiss linguist, who went to Egypt in 1852, engaged in trading activities, and in 1861-2 collaborated in von Heuglin's expedition in search of Eduard Vogel, but failed in the attempt to enter Darfur. He became French consul, and subsequently also British consul, at Massawa, entered the khedivial service, and was killed by the Galla in 1875. 2 Moritz von Beurmann (1835-63) intended to investigate the mystery of Vogel's death in Wadai; he was killed while approaching the country in 1863. Nachtigal's enquiries about him are described in ii. 264-5.

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again made itself unpleasantly evident to me in the matter of the delivery of the letters and money by Muhammad Zommit. It was not enough that he held my letters for days until he had unpacked all his merchandise; the payment of the 350 dollars which he brought me on behalf of Consul Rossi also took place only after innumerable complications and petty chicaneries. He had received full-weight M a r i a Theresa dollars in Tripoli, but tried to persuade me to accept instead pieces of kham at its market price, and when I insisted at least on payment in ready cash of half the sum, he mixed up Spanish dollars and others which were worth less than the Maria Theresa dollar, asserting that he had received these for me in Tripoli, whereas I knew well that he had only just got the money on the spot by selling his wares. In paying out he made great difficulties about the choice of witnesses who had to attach their signatures to my receipt, and permitted himself various expressions about the service which he was so unselfishly rendering me. H o w completely different was the behaviour later of the Dongolan Hajj Hamza, who delivered 500 Maria Theresa dollars from Egypt to me, and without witnesses or receipt handed over the whole sum the first day after my arrival in Darfur.

CHAPTER

VIII

COUNTRY AND PEOPLE [ 1 7 6 ] I did not have the privilege of undertaking a n y t h i n g more t h a n a

preliminary

investigation

of

Wadai

and

the

Pagan

countries

bordering it to the south, and a n equally provisional estimate of the extent and boundaries of the country, and I have, therefore, h a d to content myself with a general survey of the tribes of W a d a i and a s u m m a r y picture of its historical past. T h e results of m y work m a y , even so, serve as a foundation for further investigations of this, still for the greater part almost virgin country. W a d a i h a d been visited before m e only b y the unfortunate E d u a r d V o g c l , w h o found his death there. M o r i t z von Beurmann, w h o was on the point of entering upon the heritage of his enterprising predecessor, fell victim on the border o f the c o u n t r y to the xenophobia of a fanatical W a d a i official, and w h a t w e have

learnt

about

the

country

T o u n s y could be characterised

from the

Shaykh

Muhammad

as being at least very

el-

inadequate. 1

• M u h a m m a d ibn U m a r ibn Sulayman el-Tounsy (or Tunisi), 1789-1857, studied as a young boy at al-Azhar, and at the age of fourteen, in 1803, followed his father to Darfur, where he spent about eight years. Arriving at the beginning of the reign of M u h a m m a d al-Fadl (pp. 298-9), he won the favour of the vizier, M u h a m m a d K u r r a , Nachtigal's "celebrated A b u S h a k y h " (p. 294), who was, however, killed in 1804. M u h a m m a d el-Tounsy travelled extensively in Darfur, and eventually returned to Tunis via W a d a i , where he spent more than a year under the patronage of Sabun (pp. 212-15), and Tibesti. Muhammad's father later died in Wadai, and the son set out to return thither to claim his inheritance; he turned back south of Murzuk, on finding that an avaricious uncle had forestalled him. In the 1830s M u h a m m a d el-Tounsy became réviseur en chef at the School of Medicine in Cairo, where he met Perron, a French physician, who took lessons in Arabic from him, and persuaded him to write the story of the travels which he had undertaken some thirty years or more before. Perron's French translation of Voyage au Darfour was published in Paris in 1845, and of Voyage au Ouaday in 1851. T h e Arabic original of the latter book has been lost. Nachtigal made more than a dozen references to el-Tounsy's work, but these are all to his Wadai book, and for the most part to his comments on Tibesti and the T u b u . El-Tounsy was in W a d a i for only a few months, but spent a much longer time than Nachtigal in Darfur, and their interests were not altogether identical. Nevertheless, though a comparison between their historical 136

Country and People

137

His topographical notes are not only confused, but actually so erroneous that his so-called " T a b l e a u " of Wadai, which, neglecting all other enquiries, is based exclusively on his own information and assumptions, gives a quite distorted picture of the country as a whole. The more or less natural boundaries of the original Wadai were to the north the desert, to the west the Fitri lake, to the south the Bahr es-Salamat, and to the east Darfur and the tributaries of the Bahr esSalamat flowing to the south. Wadai proper begins about longitude i 8 ° 3 o ' E . ; along the thirteenth parallel it extends for approximately four degrees, and on the meridian of Abeshr, between [177] longitude 20° and 2 i ° E . , for about three and a half degrees. The territory as a whole is not clearly defined, but its total area may be estimated at about 3,000 German square miles [63,000 English square miles]. Under the rule of King Ali, part of the desert tribes of the Daza, the Wanya and the Bedeyat, the Fitri lake, and in addition part of Kanem and of the Bahr el-Ghazal, as well as Bagirmi, were subject to his control, and finally across the Bahr es-Salamat to the south, Wadai incorporated the extensive domain of Runga, which was also the boundary of Islam, together with Kuti and as far as the Niamniamlike tribes of the Dar-Banda. If these dependent territories are included - and this would be justified, for the association is much closer than is usual with vassal states - the extent of the kingdom is almost doubled, so that an area of more than 5,000 German square miles [100,000 English square miles] and, therefore, a correspondingly larger population than would result from my estimate for Wadai proper, can be accepted. If, however, we leave aside the territories and tribes which have been attached to the core of Wadai in recent times, there would remain, as I have said, an area of some 3,000 German square miles. For the eastern Sudan a population estimate of 1,000 inhabitants per [German] square mile has generally been accepted. This figure may be fairly satisfactory for Darfur, but for Bornu it is definitely too low, while Wadai does not even come up to it. I have based my own estimate of the population on the information and reports which I had from trustworthy people who knew the country. In strenuous work that lasted for months, I succeeded in ascertaining and classifying according to their names and approximate size the individual villages of the various tribes I have taken the average village as including 150 households, and the average household at seven people, and, taking account of the fact that probably a third or a fourth of the villages comments clearly illustrates some of the hazards with which a historian who relies on oral tradition has to contend - perhaps the balance of political influence had shifted in the meantime - the pictures of Wadai and of Darfur presented by them, though of conditions separated by an interval of some sixty years, are recognisably of the same countries.

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were omitted by my informants, I came to an estimated population of about two and a half million. It should, however, [178] be borne in mind that a large part of the country is desert and therefore uninhabited. The country as a whole rises gradually from west to east; in its western part it is 250-350 meters above sea-level, reaching to the east an elevation of 500-650 meters. Because of the scarcity of water in some areas, most of the north is rocky and arid. The east, on the other hand, and the centre, although hilly, nevertheless have a light sandy soil and an abundance of water, and the south is outstanding in its rich clay soil. The Batha and Buteha rivers, which rise in the mountains in the east and northeast of Wadai, constitute in a sense the water arteries of the country. They are indeed dry during the greater part of the year, but there are even then not only occasional open stretches of water, but also in the clay soil at a depth of meters excellent water in abundance. In the rainy season these rivers become torrential streams. The Bahr es-Salamat, in the south of Wadai, is the chief outlet from the Marra mountain in Darfur, collecting the waters of its western and northern slopes. There is indeed no perennial flow of water, but nevertheless its basin is not only more extensive than that of the Batha, but also has a better supply of water. The Bahr es-Salamat, here called the Wadi Asunga, forms the boundary between Wadai and Darfur down as far as Dar-Sula, with several smaller wadis running into it along its course, and with a succession of names, Wadi Asunga, Wadi Kaja, Wadi K y a ; then, as it loses its wadi character, it is called Bahr Korte, Bahr Mangari, Omm et-Timan, Bahr es-Salamat, as well as Bahr et-Tine. South of Kibet it changes direction from the west to the southwest, part of it ending in the Iro Lake, three days' journey west of the Dar-Runga, while a smaller part appears to reach the tributary of the Shari, Ba Batshikam, as the Bahr Iro. The Iro Lake mentioned above is not inconsiderably larger than the Fitri Lake, with some islands in it, to which the Salamat retire in times of danger, and is notable for the large number of hippopotami and crocodiles. [179] The Bahr Andoma - Andoma is a section of the Awlad Rashid - runs into the lake from the north, having risen in the Bugdy lake. Into the latter, about half as large as the Iro, numerous wadis run from the north, and, though its circumference is less than that of the Fitri lake, it appears to contain a larger volume of water. Runga, or Dar-Runga, which since King Ali's reign must be regarded as part of the kingdom of Wadai, though it has a sultan of its own, lies south of the Bahr es-Salamat, the boundary of Dar-Wadai proper. From Mangari, which was the extreme point of my journey to the Bahr es-Salamat, one can get to Terkama, the most northerly region of Runga, in two good days' march. The distance to Ardh el-Khalifa is then about two, and further to Kuka, one and a half days, and on the

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seventh day the Aukadebbe river is reached. The Aukadebbe, which apparently comes from the region of the Fongoro in Darfur, is at first called Auk, 1 and apparently before it reaches Runga, several tributaries flow into it from Kordol, a mountainous region south of Simyar, inhabited by Pagans. To the south of it the Merabe, the Bungul, the Ngarjam, and the Tete, listed in order from north to south, traverse the country, uniting near its western boundary with the Aukadebbe, which is said to flow into the Shari in the region of the Bua. South of the Aukadebbe, one can travel for several days in uninhabited territory, crossing the tributaries just mentioned, which appear to have their source in the east and southeast in the region of the Gulla and the most northerly Banda. Turning on the tenth day to the southwest, one reaches Dilfo, the first Kuti village, on the eleventh day. The position of the Aukadebbe in this itinerary is in complete agreement with the report of my servant, who travelled south on a slave raid from Sunsh, a village on the Bahr es-Salamat, which lies about two days' march northeast of the Iro lake. He reached the Aukadebbe in five days. According to his report, the Fanga live south, and the Kulfe west and southwest, of the Iro. Kulfe is said to be distant from Kuti some ten days' march to the northwest. There was an uninhabited region bordering on Runga to the east of my informant's road. [180] About three days' march south of Kuti brings the traveller to the Bahr el-Abiad, the White River, which, according to my authority, is, in the summer, i.e. before it has swollen, 200-300 paces wide and meters deep. He reached the Bahr el-Abiad in three days from the point where he crossed the Aukadebbe, near its junction with the Bahr el-Azraq. The latter was only half as wide, but too deep to wade through. The Bahr el-Abiad rises farther to the east, for my informant from Kuti [Ali Fentami], a Bornu man who had lived there for years, had no accurate knowledge of its source. There is water throughout the year in both the Bahr el-Abiad and the Bahr el-Azraq. About the Aukadebbe opinions in this respect were divided. The Bahr el-Azraq is said to have its source in the Lele mountain, five and a half days' march from Kuti, two days' march south of the Bahr el-Abiad. Finally, four more days bring the traveller to the Banga mountain in the region of the Banda Marba, where the Bahr el-Abiad is said to have its source. This outline also agrees with the report of my servant, who took four and a half days on the return journey from the Bahr el-Ardhe to the Bahr el-Abiad at the place where the Bahr el-Azraq has already flowed into it. The Bahr el-Ardhe was represented by my Bornu informant to be a river nearly as wide as the Shari at Kusseri, after the Shari has been 1

The Bahr Aouk is now the boundary between the Central African Republic and the Republic of Chad.

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joined by the Logon river, while in the Wadi Tineat in Darfur, the bed of which was 300 paces wide, my servant told me that the Bahr elArdhe was much wider than that. According to his account - it was before the rainy season - the Bahr el-Ardhe had a swift current, and like the Shari, had numerous islands, though it was only I - I | meters deep; it carried many boats belonging to the neighbouring Pagan tribes. M y Kuti informant had come five or six days later to a large stream which his companions called the Bahr Kuta, much larger than the Shari, with many crocodiles and hippopotami, and full of inhabited islands. While the rivers mentioned above ran more or less [181] to the northwest, this one flowed to the west, and those who had seen it declared that it had no connection with the Shari, but flowed into the country of the Fellata. I leave it undecided whether the river which according to the opinion I expressed earlier [p. 82 above] undoubtedly corresponds with Barth's Kubanda and Schweinfurth's Uelle is actually the upper course of the Shari. It is also possible that, notwithstanding what I was told, the Logon might be a separate river, and the fact that its waters and those of the Shari do not rise at the same time or in the same way favours this view. A t the extreme point of my Bagirmi journey the Bahr el-Ardhe was always represented to me as a tributary of the Shari, without anyone being able to state definitely where the one flowed into the other, for, as everywhere, information about how rivers joined or were separated was always very vague and uncertain. It is thus still uncertain whether the Iro flows into the Shari system, neither are the points where the Aukadebbe and the Bahr el-Abiad flow into it accurately determined. T h e position of Runga and Kuti may be further approximately determined from a Runga man's account of the road to Wadi Salah, which he had reached from Kedetei in Runga in nine days, and further from the report of my Kuti authority, who had reached the Ardh el-Khalifa district from Birkawiya in Darfur in fourteen days, and the same man's fourteen-day journey to the east through various Banda districts, in the course of which he reached the village of Salah Tete in the Banda Miri district, which is said to be five days south of the Hofrat en-Nuhas. Runga can be divided into four districts each of which includes some fifteen villages. The most northerly is Terkama, to the south of which lies Ardh el-Khalifa, and still further to the south Kuka, which itself is bounded on the south by the Aukadebbe, the southern boundary of Dar-Runga proper. The fourth district, Aguare, lies to the west of the other three. Runga proper is crossed by small river valleys, and has a hard humus soil. The [182] northern district is said to be sandy. The K u t i or Dar-Kuti, which is counted as part of Runga, southwest of

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Kuka, has a maximum extent of about two days' march from east to west, and includes fourteen villages. The inhabitants, who are related to the Runga, are Pagans, whereas the Runga are Muslims. The latter, related to the Mangari and Kibet, are tall, powerful, dark-skinned people, obstinate, warlike and vigorous elephant and rhinoceros hunters. The country is separated from the Bahr es-Salamat by a jungle, which during the rainy season and immediately afterwards becomes almost completely impassable on account of the wide marshes which form in the rich clay soil. Every year the Aqid of the Salamat, who administers the country, goes to Runga to supervise his extensive district, to keep up the warlike spirit of the people of Wadai by raids to the south, southwest and southeast, and to supply the sultan's requirements of slaves and ivory. As has already been said, Runga is feared because of its mosquitoes and pernicious flies, and for that reason cattle, horses and donkeys are rare there; goats appear to withstand these pests better, and fowl are numerous. Among the cereals, dukhn, durra and maize are grown. Petty traders from various countries, chiefly from Bornu, have settled in Kuti, and make journeys to the west as far as the Sara, 1 who live to the east of the Shari, to the southwest, where they reach the Bahr elArdhe, and to the south as far as K u t a through the numerous sections of the Banda who are still to be mentioned. Only to the east, where the Gulla live, who have a reputation for faithlessness and treachery, does no one go. The region west of Runga and Kuti is full of rainwater pools (rahat, pi. ruhut); to the east and south the country rises and becomes hilly. South of these regions the only domestic animals are fowls, goats and dogs; there are no cattle, horses or donkeys. O f wild animals there are lions, leopards, hyenas, wild boars, elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, antelopes, ground hogs, ant-eaters and porcupines; there are said to be scarcely any giraffes. Among the trees from Kuti to the south are the cotton tree, the [183] butter tree, the oil palm, the deleb palm, numerous fig-like trees, the parkia biglobosa, the banana, the kimba pepper, and various edible tubers and tobacco. The tribes which live south of Kuti on the Bahr el-Abiad, the Bahr el-Azraq, the Bahr el-Ardhe, and the north bank of the Bahr Kuta, are all given the general name of Banda by the people of Runga and Kuti and the foreigners who have settled there, and, since most of them are addicted to cannibalism, are likewise called Niamniam. M y informant from Bornu reported indeed that they are linked together by a common language, and gave me some specimens of this Banda language, which he spoke fluently. Throughout Dar Banda rocky soil and humus mixed with sand appear to predominate, though the statements of my 1

Cf. ii 674-5, and other references in Book V I .

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informants that chiefly durra, and only a little dukhn, are cultivated there make it probable that clay soil is not lacking. Some districts are very hilly, others have only some isolated rocky patches, and others again are quite flat. The Banda clothe themselves with the bark of the sycamore fig, and their women with the leaves of the habila. Both men and women file their teeth to a point, bore the lobes of their ears, their nostrils and their lips, and decorate themselves with cylinders of tin [£tnn]. They are much addicted to the consumption of merissa and dumma, a fermented drink made from maize and honey, and are partial to smoking tobacco. As has already been said, they are cannibals, and from the teeth of their victims make necklaces for themselves, their wives and their children. Polygamy is practised, and its extent is only a matter of property, wives being purchased with beads, iron, etc. Weapons consist of bows and arrows, lances and short throwing irons.1 Every household has a small hut for the chief god, Wamba, who is a woman, and for her husband, Botokollo, to whom they make sacrifices, and at whose shrines they make vows and consecrate their newly born children or newly acquired slaves. The north of Wadai proper, to which we now return, is not very fertile; as has already been observed, its predominantly dry, rocky soil, with water shortages in some parts, permits only sparse dukhn and cotton cultivation. The [184] eastern and central regions, on the other hand, are specially suitable for the cultivation of dukhn, while the rich clay soil of the south produces abundant harvests of durra and maize. The northeast, east and centre are, however, especially productive as a consequence of the water from the tributaries of the Batha and Buteha. The cultivation of dukhn, the chief source of food, is spread over the whole country; in the Fitri region it is actually sown twice a year in the neighbourhood of the lake, at the beginning of the autumn rains and in the winter or spring. Other crops include ground-nuts {arachis and vorandzeia), lubia (dolichos lubia), sesame, tobacco, indigo, and everywhere where, as in Dar-Sula, on the Fitri and elsewhere, there is a clay or humus soil, abundant cotton, most of which, however, comes from the vicinity of the Batha. Wheat is also harvested, although not in great abundance, as well as rice, predominantly in the DarZiyud. Gourds, which are worked up in great variety into tools and 1

The name of the weapon which the Arabs in Africa called Shangermangor (1mijri in Teda, golio in Bomu, ii. 408) was translated by Nachtigal as Wwrfcisen, or sometimes Handeisen, the two words being treated as synonyms. It was frequently mentioned in the earlier parts of his book as a weapon extensively used in the Sudan, and capable of inflicting a fatal wound (ii. 402). It was about three spans long, one half consisting of the haft, with double-edged prongs of varied shape and direction, and an average length of one span, formed from a single piece of iron. Sec i. 452-3, with pictures, and pp. 331, 337 below.

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implements, are also indigenous, as well as a wild cucumber, ngurli, which is a very popular food, and a water melon of very poor quality, as well as various herbs and vegetables, such as are common throughout the Sudan, from which are prepared the indispensable sauces for aish. The varieties of wild kreb (eragrostis) grass, abu sabe, adar, askemmta, bertemele, also form a popular food, although the Negro millet, dukhn (penicillaria) is the staple item in the diet. Dar-Said, with its sandy and humus soil and its abundant rivers, rejoices in the largest variety of production from the soil, of both cotton, corn and other crops. In some areas, e.g. in Tama, the northern, western and southern parts of which are even thickly wooded, there is quite an abundance of trees, but many regions, as in the Mimi district, are almost treeless. Among the acacias, the qarad (acacia nilotica), of which both fruit and wood are used, is frequently represented. Sayal, talha and harraza (acacia albida) are not rare, but more common are the nabaq el-Jit (zityphus sp.), the hejlij, or soap-tree (balanites aegyptiaca), which has many uses, the kittir [185] (acacia mellifera), abundoro, siwak (salvadora persica), shau, which is also called arak. bamboo (gamsa), rutrut, oshar (calotropis procera), luban (boswellia?), tundub (capparis sodada), kurna (zizyphus sp.), hashab and tamarind (erdebe). The last is especially common in the richly endowed Dar-Said, and its fruit forms an important item of commerce for this region thus favoured by nature. Here, too, is found the ambassoa, conspicuous for its height, with leaves which contain a much-used black dyestuff. The deleb palm (borassus flabelliformis) is likewise found in the Dar-Said, especially in the Wadi Hamra, but also by the Fitri, though it is one of the species of trees which on the whole are rather uncommon. By contrast I found in the Fitri region dum palm (hyphaene thebaica) woods such as I had scarcely seen before. If Wadai is inferior in vegetation and fertility to its neighbours, Darfur and especially Bornu, on the other hand less use has also been made of its resources. This is especially true of the Pagan regions to its south. In the desert, steppe-like north, the ostrich is still well represented, while an extraordinary number of elephants live in the plains south of the Bahr es-Salamat, the districts of Runga and Kuti. The same is true of the Kitabel wilderness. The territory in the south of Wadai as far as the fifth degree is still completely undeveloped; the means of communication there are quite inadequate, not only time-consuming, but also, as I have said earlier, dangerous in every respect. Among the wild animals, the lion should be mentioned; it is indeed found not in the north, but from Dar-Said to the south, and chiefly in the wooded river valleys of the Buteha and Batha and on the Fitri lake, where it often becomes dangerous to men. People join together to attack the lion, but not by a direct encounter; he is roused in his

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

lair, and while one of the hunters attracts the lion's wrath to himself, at the same time skilfully covering himself with his shield, the others attack the lion and kill it with their lances. The wild boar also appears on the Batha and the Buteha, as well as in the Wadi Hamra, and is regarded as dangerous. The leopard is found in the Kodoi and the [186] Mararit regions, in the Dar-Said and in the south, in all the rocky wooded districts. In addition to the usual medium-sized leopard, nimr, whose skin is the most highly valued, two other large feline beasts of prey are also distinguished: an ammer, without spots, and a smaller variety, fahad, with black spots on a yellow background. There are two kinds of wild cat; asigonyaharam is blackish, as large as a dog, stoutly built and very bloodthirsty. It seems to be especially common near the Bahr Mangari. The other, bise (Arabic, the cat) or ngam el-khala, the ngam of the wilderness, is dark in colour and said to be so wild and bloodthirsty that even elephants and lions avoid it. There are also three kinds of hyena in Wadai, karraga, which is yellowish-black, dungalaya, grey-black with a white tail, and iritek, spotted and striped. The crocodile, timsah, is found both in the Batha and in all the larger lakes of Wadai, and in the centre of the country, and especially in the neighbourhood of the Batha and Buteha, the two-horned rhinoceros is common. The greatest number of giraffes and buffaloes is also in the less thickly populated south. Everywhere there are numerous varieties of gazelles and antelopes. Four species of gazelle came to my knowledge, and the number of species of antelope seems to be even larger. Antelopes are larger than gazelles, and the females of both these animals have no horns. There are many species of snakes, scorpions and lizards. There are land tortoises and water turtles, the former being notably the larger of the two; its flesh is very popular. There are many kinds of monkey, of which three were known to me, mongo, a small grey monkey with a black face, a large, black monkey which was called gun in the Maba language, and is also indigenous in Tibesti, and the abalaya, small, yellowish and with a tail. There are no parrots in Wadai, but there are storks and ducks, which are known to leave the country at the end of the rainy season. Ants are very numerous, six species being distinguished according to colour and size, found either in crops, on trees or [187] in houses, etc., and frequently with a very painful bite. Among the domestic animals, cattle, sheep and camels thrive excellently, so that they are about one fourth cheaper than in the fertile Bornu. With a few exceptions the cattle are of the same species as the humped cattle of the Shuwa of Bornu, their colour being mostly brown. The people of Wadai do not use cattle at all for riding, and seldom as pack animals, for which purpose sufficient camels and donkeys are available. Donkeys are very common, especially in the north; there is

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one beautiful large powerful breed of predominantly grey colour, as well as one of black and white. All of them have black stripes on the back and shoulders. The camels of Wadai come only from the DarTurtalu and the western regions between Wara and the Fitri. They are splendid, large, powerful animals, like the camels of the Tubu, and with even a stronger bony structure; they have smooth yellowish hair. Their milk and their flesh are very popular, the latter forming the most important meat dish for the well-to-do, only young, fat animals being slaughtered for this purpose. A camel can carry on a journey a load of about 4 hundredweight. One species of riding camel, or mehari, is also bred in Wadai, which is however not so outstanding as the riding camels of Suakin or of the Tuareg. The sheep of Wadai are without wool; in the south indeed they have very short smooth hair. The southern sheep are, moreover, small and of an inferior breed, while those to the north show a gradual improvement, so that the sheep of the DarZiyud mark a stage intermediate to the northern sheep, which are tall, long-legged, long-tailed and long-haired; they are usually dark in colour. Sheep's milk is a popular drink, its flesh is preferred to that of cattle, and its skin is used for clothing. Goats are just as numerous as sheep, especially among the Sungor and in Dar-Said, where there are often 500-1,000 in the possession of a single owner. Their colour is generally white or variegated. Both goats' milk and goats' meat are popular foods, and first-rate water-bags and excellent leather for various purposes are made from their skin. Horses, [188] small, ugly and expensive, are not numerous in Wadai. In the course of time, as has already been noted [see p. 60], a breed has developed by imports of better animals, said to be of Arabian origin, which is noteworthy for staying power and mettle, and is an unusually efficient rock-climber. Black horses and white horses are very rare, but light bays and sorrels are common. The largest number of horses is in the possession of the Sungor, and, among the nomads of Wadai, of the Qoran and the Awlad Hamed. King Ali was a great horse connoisseur and expert, though he ranked utility above beauty. The population of Wadai, with which we deal next, is made up of many varied elements. The indigenous free tribes, who are concentrated in the Dar-Maba, form the essential nucleus of the population. Next come immigrant African tribes, and then the numerous Arab elements - camel herdsmen in the north, cattle herdsmen in the south - and finally the Pagan tribes in the south and the Teda groups in the north. Nearly all the native black tribes are linked by a common language, the Bora Mabang, and in their physical or psychological characteristics there is no fundamental distinction between them. Maba, the name of their country, the heartland of the kingdom of Wadai, is said to be of Arabic origin, derived from ma, water, and ba,

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

father, and with the meaning, so to speak, "the water is our father", to signify the hilly well-watered character of Dar-Maba. If we list the elements in the population of Wadai, beginning from Dar-Maba, and going northnortheast from Wara, the old capital, we come first in three-quarters of a day's march to the territory of the Kodoi, from kodok, mountain, the "mountain people", whom the Arabs call Abu Sunun, "the tooth people", because of the redness of their teeth reputedly caused by the water. It takes about one and a half days' march to traverse this region from one end to the other, and its width is about the same; it consists of more or less interconnected groups of mountains spread out to the four [189] points of the compass, and with the highest elevation in the Korjago mountain. The ninety-eight larger and smaller villages of the Kodoi lie at the feet of these mountain groups. The region is not thickly wooded, and the rivers, Wadi Agelba, Wadi Kokermellen, Wadi Menderfoki and Wadi Nyellingak, the last of which runs eventually to the Batha, are insignificant. There are five sub-divisions of the Kodoi, the MatukSing (sing means door) in the west, Galak-Sing in the south, MargakSing in the north, Ujak-Sing in the east of the region, and the Nemena (smiths); the Ujak are the most numerous, the Matuk the most highly esteemed. Most of the Nemena live scattered about among the other tribes; as throughout the Sudan and in the Sahara, they are despised in Wadai, too, though they have long since abandoned their handicraft. The language of the Kodoi is Maba; they are a powerful, very longlived mountain people, famous for their bravery. Pigheaded, obstinate and stiff-necked indeed, they are nevertheless not in the habit of being actively pugnacious, and indeed are probably regarded as being the best of the people of Wadai; they are, moreover, religious, and their hospitality and solicitude for the poor members of their tribe are well known. Lying, failure to keep their word, and theft are foreign to their nature. The Kodoi are under a melik appointed by the sultan himself, as he is afraid of their sense of independence, and always from the Gabed family, whose tribal ancestor is said formerly to have been king of the Kodoi. In addition to the general taxes, a special tribute to the sultan is also imposed on the Kodoi, the delivery of wooden supports for the enclosure of the royal tent. In return they receive from him gifts of cattle, clothing, etc. The chiefs and the administrative officials of this tribe, as well as of the other tribes listed below, will be mentioned in our review of the officials of the royal court. Separated from the Kodoi only by the isolated Mogun mountain with the little river of the same name we find to the north [190] the Awlad Jema, who formerly formed an integral part of the Kodoi; as,

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147 however, the power of these tribes was always to be feared so long as they remained in close association, they had already been separated from the Kodoi at the time of Kharut es-Sarhir [c. 1707-47], and were called Awlad Jema after the kamkolak of that time. They trace their origin to the son of the Jedei Koliyon, the tribal mother of all the Kodoi, whereas the Kodoi proper are said to be descended from her daughters; they are divided into nine sub-sections, grouped with their villages around more or less isolated mountains, for the Awlad Jema region is also a hilly country. It extends for a day's march from east to west, and half a day from north to south. The mountains everywhere are massive and well wooded, and two wadis have their sources there; on the whole, however, water is very scarce. The Mararit or Abu Sharib, who are also called simply Abii, live between the Kodoi region and Tama. Their first name comes from the tribal father, Marra; the meaning of Abii is uncertain, and Abu Sharib, the "moustache people", like the Abu Sunun mentioned above, indicates a characteristic of these people, which has remained obscure to me, since I did not find this manly decoration any more common among them than among any of the other main Wadai tribes. For the rest, there is nothing to distinguish the Mararit physically from the Kodoi and the Awlad Jema. They are just as brave, and have a reputation for being more skilful. Their distinctive characteristics, however, do not appear to be altogether of the best; they are reputed to be hardhearted, treacherous and mendacious; they are also less religious than, for example, the Kodoi. My informant denied any relationship between the Mararit and the people of Tama, the two being also distinguished from each other by their languages. The Mararit region is two days' journey from north to south, and one from west to east. In this territory we encountered the Wadi Lobbode, whose source is between Tama and Darfur and which later joins the Wadi Delal, then the Wadi Mezane, which comes from Tama and [191] flows into the Karangak, and finally, the Wadi Marba, which has its source in the Mararit region itself and which is extraordinarily rich in date-palms and wells, touches the Kodoi territory as the Gindakeiing, and after that is called Aktumon, and goes into the Wadi Malanga. The territory is divided into twenty-one groups, most of them politically united with the Awlad Jema, but some of them with Dar-Said and the Bitakginnek district. All the villages here are on the mountain slopes, which however are not so high as those of the regions mentioned earlier, but are more thickly wooded. The region is especially rich in date plantations. Among the wells with which the region is also abundantly supplied, there is one hot spring, at Derna. The Mararit form, as it were, a shield against Tama, from which attacks may be expected at any time. Regularly organised watchmen,

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working in alternation, give alarm signals from the mountains, whenever they notice anything suspicious on the frontier. North of the Mararit and the Awlad Jema we find the Mimi (Mututu in the Maba language), a very numerous tribe, of which the larger part has left its own district, is scattered over southern Wadai and among the foreign elements there has lost its national identity. The Mimi language is a special one, different both from that of the Abii and from the Bora Mabang. 1 The Mimi have a reputation for bravery, but not for good nature or for being especially religious. Their very extensive region is three days' journey from east to west, and two good days from north to south. It is divided into thirty sub-sections, some of which are administered with the Mahamid, and some with the Rezeqat, the Nawaiba, the Mahariye and the Malanga. They have a separate chief, a free melik, melik horr,2 distinguished by the possession of a royal carpet, but otherwise they are administered like the Awlad Jema. The Malanga are grouped to the south of the Mimi region in [192] six or seven villages around an isolated mountain in the immediate vicinity of Wara; in number they are only an insignificant tribe, but very important for the history of Wadai, as one of its oldest original tribes. From their historical importance are derived the privileges enjoyed by their chief, the tujongo, (Arabic, jindi, the warrior), despite his lack of real power. He has, for example, the right of sitting on a carpet at court, a privilege which he shares with only one or two other vassal princes. He keeps his burnus over his head in the sultan's presence, and does not have to remove his tobe from his shoulders. The majority of the Malanga tribe, however, is scattered over the whole of southern Wadai. To the northeast immediately alongside the region where the Malanga live we find the Madaba at the foot of a low ridge of hills. What I have said in relation to the preceding tribes about the disproportion between their historical importance and their numbers and real power applies still more to the Madaba and to the Madala who come next. The Madala are also settled in small numbers at the foot of a low mountain; the Kabga, too, originated here near the Mimi, although most of them now live in the Kelingen region. In their own district, a mountain, Jebel Kabga, where water was said to be found actually at its peak, assured to them by its inaccessibility an independence which was very disagreeable to the sultans of Wadai, until at last one of the sultans succeeded in subjugating them, expelling them from their mountain and scattering them through the country. The 1

Cf. J . Lukas and O. Volckers, " G . Nachtigals Aufzeichnungen tiber die Sprache der Mimi in Wadai", ^eitschrift fur Eingeborenensprachai, xxix, 2, 1930, 145-54* Horr means "free", in contrast with abd, "slave". G. N .

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Ganyanga region, about one and a half days' march from northeast to southwest, and with a breadth of about one day's march, includes some forty to fifty villages, but is now only to a small extent inhabited by Ganyanga, Kodoi, Malanga and others living together with them. Its name - Ganyanga means naked - indicates their Pagan origin, tradition recording that some naked Pagans migrated here, and since they [193] were called ganyanga, naked, the same name was given to the region. The Sungor region is south of T a m a and west of Darfur. 1 It borders on the regions of the Mararit and the Massalit, and in the west runs as far as the numerous villages of mixed population which lie on the Wadi Lobbode, the Monjobok and the Delal. The shape of the region is roughly that of a triangle with rounded corners, the longest side of which, about two days' journey, runs westnorthwest to eastsoutheast. The distance from the centre of the triangle to its southern angle is one and three-quarters days' march. The northwest angle is completely lost in the Mararit region. The region has no extensive contact with Darfur, being also separated from it by the Wadi Asunga, while a stretch of desert country lies close to the river which forms the boundary. The region is mountainous, but the peaks are mostly isolated, and trees are rare. It has the advantage of possessing two not inconsiderable rivers, the Wadi Lobbode, with its source between T a m a and Darfur, and the Wadi Delal, which rises in the border mountain of Tirje in the Massalit region. The whole territory is divided into three districts with many villages. Since the Sungor engage in extensive horse breeding, their tribute is payable chiefly in horses, a specified number being delivered every three years, with one load of dukhn added to each horse. The Sungor are said to be hot-tempered, revengeful and treacherous. In their respect for religious forms, they appear however to surpass most of the other tribes of Wadai. Their language has nothing in common with the Bora Mabang, nor with the languages of the Mararit and the Mimi; it is however identical with that of Tama, of the Jebel Mul 2 in Darfur, and the language of the Qimr, whom we still have to mention. If I mention here the Kelingen district to the south of Wara, it is in order specifically to contradict the view that there is actually any 1 The Sungor or Asoungor live around Am Dam, south of Abeshr;they numbered 21,000 in the 1954 Chad census. They are at least linguistically a sub-group of the Tama language group; cf Annie M. D. Lebeuf, Les populations du Tchad (Paris, 1959), 77-8, and A. N. Tucker and M. A. Bryan, The non-Bantu languages of north eastern Africa (London, 1956), 57. 2 Mul is marked on modern maps as Mun; the people of Jebel Mun are the Mileri, a non-Arab group who speak a dialect of the Tama language; see R. S. O'Fahey and Y . F. Hasan, Sudan Notes and Records, Ix, 1970.

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150

tribe of that name, a view which in the course of time has led to the habit of speaking of "the Kelingen". 1 Kelingen is, on the contrary, the name of a district, which [194] has been carried over to its inhabitants; they consisted in the earliest times of Kodoi, Mararit, Kabga and Arabs, but the Maba element of the Kodoi predominates, and if in the course of time - for it branched off centuries ago - it united with the elements absorbed by it to form almost a separate tribe, this does not at all affect its origin. If we find it reported that a sultan of Wadai had a wife from the Kelingen, she can only be of Kodoi origin, since legitimate wives for the rulers of Wadai do not come from the Kabga, Mararit, etc. It may be noted here that the ruling tribes of the DarMaba, whom tradition regards as the original free inhabitants of the country, and who later were the first to accept Islam, are the Kodoi, Awlad Jema, Matlamba, Malanga, Madaba and Kondongo. These have the Maba language in common, whereas the immigrant tribes, such as the Mararit, Mimi, Kabga, the date of whose settlement is not known, have quite separate languages. Small sections of immigrant Pagans, such as the Ganyanga, Banadula, etc., indeed also speak only the Maba language, but they first adopted it later. The Kelingen region is very rocky and stony, but nevertheless numerous small streams make possible the cultivation of the indispensable dukhn. There are no woods in this region, and only one wadi, the Karangak, runs through it. The inhabitants are especially well-known for their peace-loving disposition, which they have in common with the people of the Dar-Said. South of the Kelingen district lies the region of the Kajanga, called Abu Derreg by the Arabs; they are reckoned as belonging to the Maba proper, although in addition to the Maba language they also speak a special idiom of their own. The son of a Kajanga wife of the sultan is indeed eligible to ascend the throne. The tribe is not very numerous, and lives only in the small rocky part of the region, the larger part being occupied by mixed tribes. The Kajanga have a reputation for bravery, but are also said to be anything but good-natured. From north [195] to south their territory measures about one and a half days, and from east to west about one day's march. Large river valleys run through the larger eastern part of the region; the Monjobok joins here with the Lobbode and the Delal, which have already united in the Dar-Said, and from which the Buteha flows. The Massalit are divided into two sections, the Massalit el-Haush, living to the east on the borders of Darfur, and the Massalit el-Batha, living in the regions extending to the west of the Batha. The former live to the south of the Sungor, north of the sources of the Batha, and west of the uninhabited region which separates Darfur from Wadai. 1

e.g. by Barth, Travels, iii. 540.

Country and People Their region runs from northeast to southwest, the boundary here running to the southeast, and in this direction is a good two and a half days' march, but only one short day's march from east to west. There are many low rocks scattered about the region, but no mountain ridges worthy of mention; its rivers include the Wadi Hamra, which runs into the Worenga, a tributary of the Batha, the W a d i K a j a l e , a tributary of the Delal, and the Wadi Adrange, a tributary of the W a d i Hamra. Despite the fact that especially the eastern Massalit are quite generally, and not only in Wadai, suspected of cannibalism, just as they have a reputation for being revengeful, treacherous, faithless and hot-tempered, they have an unusually large number of faqiks, and Islam counts many fanatical adherents in this tribe. T h e y are not completely black, but, in the terminology usual in W a d a i , zurq (i.e. literally, grey, plural of azraq, cf. pp. 170-1); their language is related to that of the Maba. Their numbers are about the same as those of the Mimi and the Sungor, but they exceed the Kodoi. T h e Kondongo, whom the Arabs call A w l a d Mese, whose district stretches about one and a half days' march from east to west and threequarters of a day's march from north to south, belong to the true W a d a i people, but they are not a pure M a b a group, although they are similar to them physically and psychologically, and are said to be as courageous as the Kodoi. In addition to the M a b a language, they speak an idiom, which is however only a dialectical variation of M a b a . [196] Their region is not very hilly, and has good soil, on which much dukhn, beans and cotton, as well as peas, are cultivated. There are some isolated rocks in the region, which is also traversed from northeast to southwest by a ridge of hills, running to the southwest from the ridge of the Kodoi, south of Tittir, as far as the western border of the Kondongo region. O n l y insignificant streams have their sources in these hills; we find here also the Wadi Nyellingak, which begins at Mezana, between Dar-Tama and the Mararit region, and runs southwest through the district of the Ganyanga. T h e Kashemereh, whose territory lies south of the Buteha, and reaches as far as the junction of the Buteha with the Batha, are indigenous Negroes, and show no physical, moral or intellectual differences from the M a b a people proper; they are not, however, counted among the original "masters" of Wadai. T h e y have a reputation for mendacity, but are also celebrated for their piety and love of peace. Their language is a dialect of Maba, from which however, it differs more than do the dialects of the Massalit, Marfa, Kondongo and K a j a n g a . T h e Marfa are regarded as being identical with the Kajakse, or at least as having the same origin; their language is only a dialectical

152

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

variant of Maba. Their district lies to the southeast of the Kashemereh, to the west of the Kajanga; it measures one day's march from east to west, a quarter of a day's march from north to south. The number of Marfa is about the same as that of the Kashemereh. Further to the west the Karanga live in a hilly region; they are a warlike tribe, feared because of their ferocity, and for this reason they, like the Kodoi, are given a slave melik as head chief by the sultan. They also speak a special dialect, which however seems likewise to be an offshoot of the Bora Mabang. The Ali live west of the Massalit, but in manners, customs and mentality are closer to the Maba people proper. Their language shows a certain relationship with the Bora Mabang, of which also they have a good command. [197] Their numbers are close to those of the Ganyanga. The district is fairly rounded off, measuring from north to south about one, and from east to west, one and a quarter days' march; the terrain is, however, full of hills and rivers, of which the most important are the Wadi Adrange (Erdenge), a tributary of the Wadi Hamra, and the Wadi Altin (Alting), a broad stream which runs to the Batha. Apparently related to the Marfa, but blacker than the Maba people and the tribes related to them is the Moyo tribe, whose territory measures no more than about a quarter day's march from north to south, and about the same from east to west; most of their villages, about ten in all, are grouped at the foot of a considerable hill. It is noteworthy that this tribe speaks in addition to the Bora Mabang a special idiom, which seems to resemble none of the other languages of Wadai. The Fala (in Arabic Bakka) are also very similar to the Maba people, with the same manners and customs. Their region is one and a half days' march from east to west and three-quarters of a day's march from north to south. The number of the Fala is about the same as that of the Marfa. In the Berej region, where there are only some five villages, the Birgid have settled, a tribe which consists of slaves of the sultan, and has not mixed with other people. The Birgid are grey-black, darker than the Maba, have the true Negro physiognomy, displaying also the psychological characteristics and the customs of the central Africans, and with a completely separate language. The Mubi Zarka live west of the Berej region, separated from it by the Kitabel 1 wilderness, which, as the Amberkei, stretches from the Dar-Ziyud as far as the Batha, continues as the Kitabel between the 1

This is not actually a desert, although the name Sahara [Arabic faftra, fem. fah&ra, desert] is applied to it, as it is for all similar regions; it is in fact well-wooded, and the luxuriant grass which grows between the scattered trees affords excellent pasturage for the Arabs in the autumn. G. N. (Cf. p. 40 above.)

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regions of the Mubi Zarka and the [198] Mubi Hadaba, and runs on into the Pagan countries. The periphery of the region is about one day's march, and there are many hills and rivers. T h e Mubi were still Pagans when the Maba elements embraced Islam, and were later forcibly converted by them. This also explains why the sultan of Wadai still has a right to their children, especially the girls, as at that time an individual who was liable to punishment frequently purchased his liberty by giving up his children. Even today Islam has not become completely acclimatised in the tribe, though there are many pilgrims among them, a fact to be explained by the belief that a journey to Mecca affords protection against the oppression of the government. T h e Mubi speak a specie1 language; their colour is black, their faces fairly regular, and their character does not inspire much confidence. Separated from them by the Kitabel wilderness are the Mubi Hadaba, who are not so black as their fellow-tribesmen, but otherwise cannot be distinguished from them, and share the same language. Their region runs one and a quarter days' march from north to south, and one day from east to west. It is bounded on the north by the Batha, and apart from a few small elevations, has neither hills nor river courses. Their neighbours to the west, likewise separated from them by the Kitabel, are the Masmaje. They, too, like the two Mubi tribes mentioned above, are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam at the beginning of the Abassid regime [p. 206 n.], without however having gained even today any real understanding of Islam. W e see them accordingly surrounded by all the attributes of the Pagan period, and worshipping sacred stones, trees, etc. They are darker than the Mubi Hadaba, and also have a special idiom related to the language of the Kuka. Their district extends for more than one day's march from east to west, but merges into the district of the K u k a without any clearly defined boundary; its extent from north to south is likewise one day's march. The Massalit el-Batha, who live north of the Masmaje, [199] east of the Kuka, southsouthwest of Dar-Ziyud, and west of the Karanga, occupy a large region which extends some four days' march from east to west and one and a quarter days from north to south. As the name indicates, it lies directly on the Batha. The Massalit el-Batha are more numerous than the Massalit el-Haush, and less sunk in barbarism, although it is said that they too are not free from cannibalism. For the rest they are distinguished from their eastern brothers only by the fact that, as a result of their contacts with the Arabs, most of them have a command of Arabic. The Kuka, who live in Dar-Kuka, are divided between the genuine pure Kuka hirar and the K u k a Amdena, who are reputed to be of mixed blood and for that reason are more or less despised. T h e

154

Journey from Bomu to Wadai

cleavage between the two sections is so sharp that, for example, there is no intermarriage between them. For the rest the Kuka are well built, with regular features, tall and with much the same skin colouring as the Maba people. They have a common language with the Bulala and Middogo, which is related to the language of Bagirmi. Dar-Kuka is bounded on the northnorthwest by the district of the Tubu Qoran (Kaserda and Kreda), on the northnortheast directly by the region of the Durring (Jumbo), on the east by Dar-Ziyud from which it is separated by the Amberkei wilderness mentioned above, on the westsouthwest by the region of the Daju, on the west by that of the Difadin (Arabs and Kuka) and on the westnorthwest by that of the Arabs (Ja'adina). The Dar-Kuka district is traversed by the Batha, far the greater part of it lying to the north, and the smaller part to the south of that river. The Wadis Shohet, Amaterek, Masmaje and Debker flow into it here. 1 The Abu Simmin and the Bulala who have been mentioned earlier inhabit the Fitri region with the lake of the same name. Originally masters of the country, and still the larger part numerically, [200] the Abu Simmin are now the subordinate section of the population, while the Bulala are the dominant element. The Abu Simmin are black, tall, but with irregular undistinguished features. They are related to the Kuka Amdena and have the same language. They are treated almost as slaves, and a number of them are given to the sultan of Wadai yearly as part of his tribute. The Bulala are copper or bronze-coloured, often lighter than the Tubu, and like them of slender build. They have migrated here from Kanem, but now speak only the language of the Kuka. Although the country is dependent on Wadai, as the obligation to pay tribute shows, they are under a sultan of their own, who is of Bulala origin. Having regard to their glorious past, he is actually considered as being himself of more noble birth than even the sultan of Wadai. He accordingly takes precedence over the sultan of Wadai, is greeted by him first, rides into his residence, and, if they happen to meet, expects the sultan of Wadai to dismount first. The Fitri region is about two days' march from east to west, and the same distance from north to south. The part of the region which lies north of the lake is more extensive and more thickly populated than the southern part. It is a freshwater lake, with a few islands, of which one, inaccessible to outsiders, serves as a place of refuge when there is danger of war. For the rest the Fitri lake is only a lagoon of the Batha, as Lake Chad is a lagoon of the Shari, the Batha running to the west after its junction with the Buteha, and reaching its end in the Fitri lake. 1

The length and breadth of Dar-Kuka are not recorded in Nachtigal's MSS. D. H.

Country and People

155

The Middogo, who live next to the Bulala to the southsoutheast of the Fitri, maintain that they branched off from the Kodoi long ago, but no kind of basis for that view is known. Their language is merely a dialect of the Kuka language. The territory of the Daju lies between tjie region of the Mubi Zarka, the Abu Telfan district, the Dar-Kuka, and the territory of the Mubi Hadaba, or the Kitabel wilderness, and is about three days' march from northnortheast to southsouthwest and one and a quarter days' march from eastsoutheast to westnorthwest. The Daju [201] are certainly Muslims, but have still less renounced their Pagan practices than their neighbours, the Mubi. Like them, they still have a special hut for their god, well equipped with merissa, which is for the benefit of the supervising priests, a sacred tree, on which merissa is sprinkled, and also a sacred stone. Deaths are seldom ascribed to natural causes or to the power of a supreme being, but mostly to the magic of individuals who have [literally, are subject to] the "evil eye". If such sorcerers are discovered with the help of the god and the aid of some secret arts, they are killed, their property is confiscated, and their dependents sent to Wadai as slaves. The Daju are pure black; they are of powerful build, with strong limbs, rather clumsy, and with ugly features. Their language is identical with that of the inhabitants of Sula. From their tribe the Sultan takes many of his slaves, especially female working slaves. 1 The Abu Rhusun, in the region of the same name stretching from east to west about one and a half days' march, and one day from north to south, are grey, with regular features, have a common language with the inhabitants of the Jeggel and Kibet regions which are closest to them, and are under a sultan of their own who pays tribute to Wadai. The region is bounded on the east by Sula, on the south by the Bahr Mangari, and on the west by the Jeggel region. The Jeggel, so called after their region which [202] runs from east to west about two day's, and from north to south one and a half days' march, are distinguished only by their name from the Abu Rhusun, with whom they have a common language. They also have a sultan of their own, alongside whom however a kursi from Wadai is the de facto 1 The inhabitants of Dar-Sula are also Daju with a sultan of their own. West and westsouthwest of the Daju territory are the Pagan tribes of the Makheit, Badanga and Kena (Kenga), who are near Bagirmi, and according to M a p 15 in Petermanns Mitteilungen, 1875, actually belong to Bagirmi. Raids are still made by them into Wadai, as also by the Korbe and Geyai pagan tribes. W e should also mention here the region of A b u Telfan, in the north of the Daju region, which is here under several independent sultans who, however, owe tribute to Wadai. The Jebel Olo lies on its borders with the Pagan tribe of the same name, and near Olo is another independent Pagan region, difficult of access, the Jebel Kuffe. G . N .

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

ruler. Their region is bounded on the north by that of the Kajakse, and on the east by Rhusun; on the south the Bahr Mangari (Omm etTiman) forms the boundary, and Kibet on the west. Between the north and the east is a thickly-wooded jungle which is made unsafe by Arab highwaymen. The hills in this region are insignificant, but there are numerous small watercourses which run into the Bahr Mangari. The Kibet, of the same tribe as the Jeggel, are distinguished by their mild manners and piety, and have many faqihs. They are, however, less courageous than their tribal brothers, the Abu Rhusun and the Jeggel, though they certainly are not to be described as cowardly. Their preferred language is Arabic. The Kibet, Jeggel and Abu Rhusun have lighter skins than the other Negroes, which warrants the conclusion that they are of mixed Negro and Arab blood. It is indeed probable that Rhusun and Jeggel are a mixture of Negro and Awlad Hamed (? Heimat), and Kibet a mixture of Negro and Awlad Rashid. The Kibet territory is about two days' march from east to west and one from north to south. It is bounded on the east by the Jeggel region, on the south by the Bahr Mangari. The Salamat live to the southwest, the Awlad Rashid in the west, northwest and north, and the Kajakse in the northeast. The Murro live north of the Abu Rhusun in a fairly hilly and thickly-wooded region, with only about five or six villages; I have not learnt the size of their villages or of those of the Kajakse region. The Murro are tall and well-built, with regular features, and speak the language of the people mentioned above; they have accepted Islam. The Kajakse, living on the Jebel Abasa, are in outward appearance related to the Marfa, though [203] certainly in the course of time the latter have become much more refined. The Kajakse are fairly black, of bony build, with regular features, and their language is identical with that of the Marfa. They are extraordinarily honest and goodnatured, and among the Maba people proper, who are themselves brutal and violent, this has given them a reputation for cowardice. As officials of the government the Kajakse have several meliks, among whom the manjak, the headman, and the khalifa rank as deputies at the head of their representatives at court. The boundaries of their district are Berej on the north, Murro on the east, Jeggel on the south, and the Kitabel wilderness on the west. The fairly lofty Jebel Abasa, which is visible from a distance, is the heart of the district, around which the villages are grouped. The Gulla in the district of the same name are a numerous tribe with a language of their own, which has however been widely displaced by Arabic. The Gulla region lies north of the Iro lake. The Birrimbirri are to be found west of it, living not, as has been erroneously assumed, on the border of Darfur, but in the direction of

Country and People

157

B a g i r m i , and the F a n a or F a n g a live south and southeast of the G u l l a . Finally the important, quite independent a n d thickly populated P a g a n c o u n t r y , Selten, lies west of L a k e Iro. 1 T h e T a m a ( T a m a z a n ) are brothers o f the Sungor, the Q i m r , and the inhabitants of the J e b e l M u l in D a r f u r , and include some D a j u elements. Physically a n d in mentality they are very like the Sungor, a n d their l a n g u a g e is identical with theirs. T h e Q i m r were originally the dominant people in T a m a ; this was still the position w h e n Islam w a s introduced, and even later the s-.ltans of T a m a c a m e from the Q i m r . O n l y after the death of Sultan H a m i d , did a family w h i c h had migrated from Sula attain the dominant position w h i c h [204] the D a j u h a d held. T h i s explains the suggestions w h i c h w e find in T a m a , and w h i c h are especially c o m m o n a m o n g the w o m e n , a b o u t these people. For the rest the people of T a m a are not nearly so warlike as their stubborn defence o f their country m i g h t lead one to believe, and the fact that they carefully protect the interior o f their country from foreign eyes has given them an unjustified appearance o f lack of hospitality. In their dealings w i t h each other they are models of uprightness and conciliatoriness, and bloody quarrels a n d murders are unheard of a m o n g them. In the same w a y they detest lying, and are notable for their industry. A l t h o u g h Muslims, they h a v e not been w o n over to Islam for a sufficiently long time to carry out the m u c h too onerous sequence of its rules, and the shahada, the M u s l i m profession of faith, 2 is not m u c h respected b y them. T a m a is b o u n d e d on the west b y the M a r a r i t , on the northwest by the M i m i , on t h e northnorthwest b y the mountains of the K a b g a and K u b u , on the northeast b y the Z o g h a w a - K u b e , on the east by the Q i m r , and on the south b y the J e b e l [tribe] o f D a r f u r and the Sungor and M a r a r i t . T h e region runs mainly from north to south; the most southerly part, corresponding to the M a r a r i t district, extends far to the southeast, and the most important mountains and the sources of the rivers are in the southeast of the country. T h e J e b e l Nyere encircles the chief town, w h i c h has the same n a m e , on the north, west and south sides, and extends for about one day's m a r c h to the west, northeast and southeast. W e find in T a m a the source o f the M o n j o b o k , w h i c h begins here as the W a d i K u n o n g o , turns to the west as the W a d i A m b e r w a t i , and flows through D a r - S a i d as the M o n j o b o k . D a r - T a m a is n o w in fact a dependency of W a d a i , but M u h a m m a d 1

D a r - R u n g a , the most southerly vassal state of W a d a i , has, in addition to the

natives, a population of Arabs (Heimat) and Bornu people, who represent a separate nation, and whose language has nothing in common with that of the D a j u in D a r Sula, or of the A b u R h u s u n . T h e sultan of R u n g a is subject to the A q i d of the Salamat. G . N. J

" L a ilaha ill' A l l a h w a - M u h a m m e d u n resul A l l a h " , there is no G o d but Allah,

and M u h a m m a d is His apostle. G . N .

i58

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

Sherif has allowed the country a real sultan, who governs quite independently and only pays his tribute to Wadai regularly, thus carefully [205] avoiding any chance of allowing his neighbour a glimpse of the scrupulously secluded country. The military expeditions of the various sultans of Wadai against T a m a have failed so often Muhammad Sherif could have told quite a story about that - that the present ruler of Wadai appears to rest content with what has now been achieved. Despite all the assurances of submission, even the sultan Ibrahim who has been installed by Muhammad Sherif has been able to maintain a certain degree of independence for his country. As we see from the history of Wadai, Ibrahim had afforded protection to the rebellious Tintelak Muhammad, Muhammad Sherif's son, and later gave hospitality to the pretender Adam, the son of Sultan Abd el-Aziz, and refused to surrender to the sultan of Wadai this enemy of his. We turn now to the Arab population of Wadai, the Aramka. 1 It is not certain when the Arabs, who are very numerous in Wadai, migrated thither, but it is scarcely doubtful that they have occupied their present territories for centuries. When, as we see in the history of Wadai, Abd el-Kerim, from the J a ' l i y a tribe of Shendi, overthrew the power of the Tunjur and made the kingdom Muslim, he found his chief support among the Arabs. The Mahamid, Mahariya, Ereqat, Nawaiba, Beni Holba and the Abu Shedr 2 rallied to his side, as well as the native tribes of the Abu Sunun, Awlad Jema, Mararit, Mimi, Malanga, Madaba, Madala, Debba and Abissa(?), while a few Arab tribes supported King Da'ud, and joined with the Kashemereh, Karanga and Fala against Abd el-Kerim; these were the Missiriya, the Zebeda, the Rashid, the Hamida and the Khozzam. The first-named group has enjoyed to this day certain privileges which are said to date from that time. The Arabs of Wadai are divided into two groups, the Arab baqqara and the Arab abbala, according to their chief possessions and the corresponding [206] taxes which they pay either in cattle (baqar) or in camels (ibl). The Arabs in general are well treated in Wadai; they live mostly by breeding cattle, which makes it possible for them to follow their inclination to wander about, and if they engage in agriculture, it is nearly always only with the assistance of slaves. If their native wanderlust impels them to roam about even for years, the sultan allows them complete freedom. In Bornu the goods of such people 1 T h e footnote which Nachtigal attached to his commentary on the population of K a n e m (ii. 3 4 2 ) is, no doubt, equally applicable in the context o f W a d a i and Darfur. " S i n c e it is", he said, " i n most cases impossible at present to distinguish with certainty between the A r a b and the Berber elements in the tribes now listed in Africa as ' A r a b ' , I expressly record that by using the w o r d A r a b I do not necessarily imply that a tribe is justified in tracing its origin to A r a b i a . " 2 T h e A b u Shedr have gradually scattered and disintegrated. G . N .

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w o u l d simply be confiscated, and a sojourn outside the country w o u l d , moreover, be regarded w i t h suspicion. T h e A r a b s of W a d a i have, like the S h u w a in Bornu, in general maintained the purity of their blood t h o u g h there are some tribes w h i c h live so isolated a m o n g the P a g a n tribes that they h a v e eventually blended with t h e m ; others again through marriage associations w i t h their slaves, by marrying their daughters to them, h a v e combined with foreign elements. T h e situation will be described in detail in our enumeration of the tribes. Arab el baqqara (Cattle-breeding Arabs) i . S a l a m a t . These are mostly grey-black, but, because of intermarriage w i t h slaves, m a n y are dark bronze. T h e y h a v e also frequently intermarried w i t h the G u l l a . T h e y are a very numerous tribe, with, it is said, ninety-nine sections and shaykhs, and c a n put into the field a b o u t 4,000 horsemen in all. T h e best known of the numerous sub-sections o f the S a l a m a t are the N i j e m i y a , Elasele, O i s i y a ( ? ) , O m a r , D a k h a k h i r a (PDekakire), A w l a d M u s a and A w l a d H a m d u n . T h e i r chief centres are on the B a h r et-Tine (Bahr es-Salamat) and the Iro l a k e ; in the a u t u m n , w h e n the rainy season makes it impossible to remain on the clay soil, where there is always a b u n d a n c e o f water, they m o v e to the north, where also scattered individuals are usually to be found in A m m D e g e m a t , K u d u g u s and W a d i T u i l ( T a w i l ? ) . In this tribe the king of W a d a i ' s administrative officials are two aqids, a kursi, an amin, and a kursi taba, i.e. an under-kursi; w h e n , as frequently happens, their higher officials are in W a r a , 1 the head shaykh of the S a l a m a t , w i t h the title tobabu, attends to all business. [207] 2. T h e Missiriya, w h o live south o f the J e b e l K h a r e s , are divided into a. Missiriya humr, the red Missiriya, w h o however are not red-skinned, their colour v a r y i n g between red and grey, the colour of the b. Missiriya ztirq, grey Missiriya. In n u m b e r the t w o sections together are about the same as the S a l a m a t , the g r e y Missiriya being less numerous than the red. T h e y are subject to t h e officials of the sultan in the same w a y as the S a l a m a t . T h e y are reputed to be violent and addicted to brigandage. 3. A w l a d Rashid. O r i g i n a l l y more numerous t h a n the Missiriya, they have been m u c h weakened b y the separation of the Z e b e d a , the H a m i d a and the Heimat, but still put more t h a n 2,000 horsemen into the field. T h e i r sections are the R a s h i d azid, R a s h i d el-Bahariya ( A n d o m a ) , R a s h i d el-Batha, and the R a s h i d e l - H a j a r , the latter h o w ever living outside D a r - W a d a i . T h e i r settlements are south o f t h e 1

Presumably a slip for Abeshr.

i6o

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

Kitabel wilderness, by the Bahr Bugdy and Bahr Andoma, south of Dar-Kuka and among the Mubi, and in Burma Tekil, southwest of Abu Telfan. The Awlad Rashid are mostly red and have fairly well maintained the purity of their race. Living for the most part under or with the Pagans, they are scarcely superior to them, though their reputation is by no means bad. Their administrative officials correspond to those of the tribes already mentioned. 4. Ja'adina. Rather red-grey in colour, they likewise are fairly pure Arabs and very religious. Nearly as numerous as the Rashid, they put about 1,000 horsemen into the field. Their settlements are in Fitri, Ala and K'harrub. 5. Khozzam. They arc similar in colour and blood to the Ja'adina, but live politically linked with the Zoghawa (the Amm-Kimmelte). They are about as numerous as the Ja'adina, with whom their settlements are shared. 6. Shurafa (Beni Hasen). A small tribe, with a considerable mixture of foreign elements and with a skin colour similar to that of the Salamat, among whom they [208] live on the Amm Jellat, Kudugus and Duma; the Aqid of the Salamat is also their supreme commander. 7. Heimat (Heiyimat or Heyimat). They are pure Arabs, with red skins, well built and more numerous than the Shurafa. Although pious Muslims, they are a quarrelsome and warlike people, and ancient enemies of the Salamat. They were originally related to the Awlad Hamed, 1 and despite the considerable distance between them maintain their association. They live in villages in Mangari, and in the autumn in the north at Kudugus and in the valley of the Batha. Their sections are the Nedmiye, the Jarrare, and the Taisa in Dar-Sula and Dar-Amir. 8. Deqena. They are a more numerous tribe, not free from foreign elements, and are to be found among the Salamat of Bornu and the Qoran - Awlad Ahmed, Awlad Salim and Awlad Alwan. Their colour is a light bronze. They are good Muslims, but are disagreeably arrogant. Their settlements are between the Fitri and Lake Chad, but in the summer they are to be found more in Bagirmi near the Shari of Bornu. The number of their horsemen is estimated at 1,000. 9. Shiggerat (Shujerat?). These are red-skinned and appear to be related to the Mahamid, from whom however they are distinguished by their cattle-breeding character. Their settlements are between Nimro and Id el-Jemel, and in number they appear to be between the Heimat and the Shurafa. 10. Torjem. A very small red-skinned tribe. They live on the eastern Batha (Massalit as far as Abugantura), and in the autumn go to the northern Qisan. 1

The Awlad Hamed or Hamid should not be confused with the section of the of the Ja'adina of the same name. G. N.

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1 1 . Kolomat. Closely related to the J a ' a d i n a and more numerous than the Torjem. They live on the Batha, west of Dar-Ziyud, and in the autumn make raids in the north. 12. Beni Hasen (Beni Hasan) are related to the Hamida, red-skinned and few in number. T h e y live in the Wadi el-Hamra, and like their brothers move to favourable pasturage in the autumn. [209] 13. Zabalat, dark bronze in colour, are about as numerous as the Beni Hasen and related to the Mahadi. T h e y live in the Wadi Delal, turning towards Kunongo in the autumn. 14. Mahadi, with the same colour as the Zabalat, and about as numerous, have their villages in the south of Sungor, where they practise agriculture, remaining there during the autumn. 15. Zanatit are also dark bronze, and related to the Mejanin; they live at Id el-Qraa. 16. Mejanin, a small tribe related to the Mahamid. They practise agriculture at Hajer Tokulla, Mejanin and Daraba, where they remain throughout the whole year. 17. Korobat, also a small tribe, dark bronze in colour, with permanent settlements between the Mararit, Sungor and Dar-Said. 18. Isirre, a small tribe with permanent settlements at Shoqqan and Nella, where they practise agriculture. Arab abbala (Camel-breeding Arabs) 1. The Mahamid form a very numerous tribe, the sections of which are said to have sprung from the brothers Mahmud, Mahar and Naib, and their near relation R a k a l (also called Ereqa), who will be further mentioned in reviewing the Arab tribes in Darfur [pp. 302, 354], and to put at least 4,000 horsemen in the field. They are red-skinned and of good character, God-fearing, charitable and hospitable. Their language is pure Arabic. They live northwest of Dar-Mimi from Arada to H a w a r and in the Wadi Garda. There are many sections of them, of which the following became known to me: A w l a d J e l l u , A w l a d Shaykh, Awlad Yasin, Awlad Zed, Neja, Seif ed-din (or Seifan), Nawaibe, Ereqat, Mahariya (Mehriya?), Awlad J e n a b , Hamdiya, and Et-teiyifat. 2. T h e Hamida, related to the Awlad Rashid, were earlier so numerous that they could carry on a continuous feud with the Mahamid. T h e y have now been weakened, and live in such complete peace with their former enemies that they actually [ 2 1 0 ] resort to their pastures in the autumn. They are very fair skinned, of medium height, well-built and powerful, and speak fairly good Arabic. They live in the Wadi el-Hamra, Abker and Shoqqan, and near the Zebeda. Their sub-sections are Dilla and Hamida Zebeda. 3. Beni Holba. They are also said to be related to the Rashid, but any

Journey from Bornu to Wadai relationship can only be very remote. Their colour is light bronze. They are a small tribe and good Muslims. 4. Zebeda. They are almost as numerous as the Khozzam, with perhaps 800 horsemen. They are very like the Awlad Rashid, well built with a light copper-red colour, but little civilised and notorious as brigands. 5. The Shuqeqat are politically linked with the Mahamid, without however being closely related to them, and are few in number. They live in Kondongo and on the west of the Buteha, and in the autumn near the Mahamid or in Bitakginnek. Dar-Ziyud can rank as an almost exclusively Arab province. It is inhabited by Torjem, Missiriya, both humr [red] and zurq [grey], Awlad Hamed and Khozzam, but even the other elements in the population have accepted both the Arabic language and Arab customs, the Maba with their royal blood, the small number of Kuka, the Tunjur and the Qimr, Berauna (people from Bornu), Jellaba, Massalit, Kashemereh, Tama, Jebel and finally the Doruq, who are of central African origin. They live only in Bir-Yoyo, are grey-skinned, and their dialect appears to be related to that of the Qimr, though theynowspeak only Arabic. Several other tribes, which live outside Dar-Wadai, remain to be mentioned: 1. The Debaba, who are actually Salainat, and have settled in Bagirmi as cattle breeders, dark bronze in colour, with the sections Awlad Musa, Awlad Karai, Awlad Jowi, Asela, Ajina, Nedmiya, Dukhakhira (? Dekakire), Omri. 2. Qawalima, red-skinned, related to the Khozzam, with whom, as with the Ja'adina, they are politically linked. They were formerly very numerous in Wadai, but have now for the most part [ 2 1 1 ] moved into Bornu. They live on the western Batha and on the banks of the Shari, as well as in Kanem, and in the autumn on the Batha. 3. Assala, also red-skinned, are said to have originated in Fezzan, a warlike tribe, which has reluctantly submitted to the sovereignty of Wadai, keeps clear of that country as far as possible, and is apparently diminishing in numbers. Since they have their own settlements on the bank of Lake Chad, in part among the Kuri, it is thus easy for them to withdraw from the control of Wadai. Although earlier they were Muslims only in name, the influence of Wadai has been effective in this respect, and there are now many faqihs or dervishes among them. 4. The Awlad Hamed, light copper-red in colour, are related to the Nawala (Nawalina?) who live in association with the Ja'adina, to the Awlad Malik and Numura, and to the Heimat. They live on the Bahr el-Ghazal. Among their sub-sections are the Omm Kuleba, Awlad Radi, Awlad Mera'i, Awlad Ahmed and Awlad Qedafat.

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5. The Khozzam el-Bahariya, brothers of the Khozzam of Bornu, were formerly fairly numerous, but have been weakened by the raids of the Wadai people. They live in the territory of Bagirmi, in a few villages on the banks of the Shari. 6. The Tunjur, who, as has already been noted, are counted among the Arab elements in Wadai, and were deprived of control there under Abd el-Kerim [c. 1635-55] a r e Muslims, with the exception of those who live at Abu Telfan. Their colour is red, a very light copper-red, and their language Arabic. Their numbers are still fairly considerable, and they are said to furnish 4,800 warriors. We find them living in the Dar-Ziyud, at Meqren, at Kadama in Kashemereh, at Abu Telfan, in Runga and in Kanem (Mondo). We shall have an opportunity of returning to the Tunjur in reviewing the history of the state of Darfur and its inhabitants. 7. The Qimr (Gimr), as we have already mentioned [p. 157], the original population of T a m a , are brothers of the Sungor and in the Maba language of Wadai were called Ermbeli. [212] The origin of this name is the same as that of the Arabic Q_imr, both meaning a wild pigeon. The Qimr have a dark skin, or sometimes a light copper-red. They live scattered about, and for this reason their numbers appear to be smaller than they really are. They are most numerous in Gerri; their more remote homes are at Ras Salime, Bir-Yoyo, Firsha and in Tama. 8. The Zoghawa, darker than the Tubu, and even than the Maba group, have a common language with the Darmut, which is quite different from the Tedaga [the language of the Tubu], and other characteristics also contradict the view that the Zoghawa should be regarded as a Tubu tribe. It is, for example, noteworthy, that, completely contrary to the Tubu custom, they drink merissa and asses' milk, and that they catch gazelles in snares, which among the Tubu is done, if at all, by the smiths. On the other hand, they resemble the Tubu physically, with the exception of their skin colour, and their habits and customs are overwhelmingly the same; the hair-style of their women is exactly like that of the Qoran women. In Wadai they are despised, and put on a par with the smiths; Muhammad Sherif, however, had two wives from this tribe. The Zoghawa are still not well versed in Islam. Most of them live in Darfur; in Wadai they live among the Mimi, and farther to the west of the J u m b o district among the Arab tribes there, with whom they have been completely incorporated, and finally in Amkian, Gaga, Irenib and Id el-Qraa in Dar-Said. It should also be noted that the Zoghawa living in Wadai are mostly called Awlad Amm-Kimmelte. Their sub-sections are: Zoghawa Kube, Zoghawa Dor, Zoghawa Anka, Zoghawa Menderfoki and Zoghawa Durne. Their number is estimated at 4,000 men.

164

Journey from Bornu to Wadai The Tubu (Teda) of Wadai, called Qoran

1. K r e d a . T h e T u b u of W a d a i , w h o m the people there like to class with the people of Habesh, that is, Abyssinia, with w h o m indeed they have great similarities, are elegant, well-built and, thanks to their predominantly milk diet, powerful and with regular features. T h e i r colour varies from [213] dark bronze and a dirty copper colour to lighter shades. T h e women are exactly like those of the northern T u b u , but their character is different to the extent that they are not so quarrelsome as, for example, their sisters in Tibesti. It is said that they were the first of all the T u b u or T e d a to accept Islam. While earlier the T u b u had settled homes in the Bahr el-Ghazal and actually were still under the government of Bornu, they have abandoned these homes and become nomads since Arus and K h a r u t es-Sarhir had them harried with raids from W a d a i . Their temporary settlements are in the Bahr el-Ghazal, with a few at A m b a r and Rimela. K r e d a or K a r d a , K o y o , N g a l a m i y a , Iriya and K o d e r a are subdivisions of the T u b u . T h e K a r d a are related to the K a n e m b u - K a r d a . T h e K o y o , the most numerous section, are also the lightest in colour, and are said to be related by marriage to the Fellata, as the K a r d a are to the A w l a d H a m e d . T h e y can put more than 3,000 horsemen into the field. 2. T h e Kasherda are related to the tribes just mentioned, and have similar physical characteristics; they have also intermarried with the K o y o . Formerly very numerous, they have been much weakened b y the control of W a d a i , but have also become better Muslims; they can still turn out 1,000 horsemen. T h e i r sub-sections are the Shindakora, Sakerda and Norea ( N a w a r m a ) . 3. T h e H a w a l l a (the Famalla of the Arabs) in the W a d i Tshiri are dark bronze, but otherwise not distinguished from the T u b u , with the same manners and customs. T h e y are good Muslims and well-liked in W a d a i . T h e y live intermingled with the red-skinned cross-breeds of K a n e m , the H a m m e j , 1 w h o dwell in villages and are very numerous. [214] 4. T h e A w l a d Salim, small in numbers, live between M a o and M o n d o in river valleys where dates are abundant, and have likewise mixed with the H a m m e j . 5. T h e A w l a d Beqqar, to w h o m everything said about the A w l a d Salim also applies, except that in M o n d o they have also mixed with the T u n j u r . 6. T h e Meidena are related to the H a w a l l a , behave like them, and live in the same places. 7. T h e Dogorda, a very numerous tribe, with a light skin colour, w h o 1

T h e H a m m e j , who are remnants of the original inhabitants of K a n e m and

closely related to the Bulala, are called Amkime, i.e. the red people, and are still mostly red-skinned. Some of their tribes are the Fedha or Fedda, N g i j i m , Bare, D a n a , who still carry lances and spears. G . N .

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are said to have perhaps 1,000 horsemen, are related to the Hawalla. They live northeast of the Qadawa. They are very loosely linked with Wadai, and are politically associated with the Haddad 1 and Hammej. 8. The Qadawa, who have their homes in the Wadi Shitati, are nearly as numerous as the Dogorda, and are regarded as the most wealthy among the Qoran. Among them live the Hasauna (Qawalima), who also have 1,000 warriors. 9. The Wandala, who can scarcely be regarded as belonging to Wadai, live however with the Qadawa for fear of raids by the Awlad Sulayman. 10. About the Kumosoalla, who appear to be mixed with the Awlad Salim, I was unable to get any accurate information. 2 This is the place to mention among the population of Wadai the sultan's slaves living in various districts: 1. Bandala, not a tribal name, Muslims, living in the south of Dar-Ziyud. 2. Abidiya, not a tribal name, Muslims, in Dar-Ziyud and DarSaid. 3. Torom, Muslims, at Oloki Neri and Tondo in the Kelingen district. [215] 4. Dengeah, and 5. Bolgu, Pagans who inhabit five villages at Keru and Nettimba. 6. Minyi, Muslims at Shoqqan. 7. Kasa, Pagans at Keru. 8. Ngama, Pagans at Timan. 9. Banala, Pagans, about 200 men, at Tiggre near the Sungor. 10. Birgid, in the Berej district. If we list all the tribes of Wadai according to the relationship between their languages, we arrive at the following groups: 1. The Maba group includes: a. Kodoi, or Abu Sunun; b. Awlad Jema, with c. Galum and d. Dekker; e. Malanga, with f. Madaba, g. Madala and h. Debba (Matlamba) ; 3 i. Abissa. 1 The Haddad (Danoa) live in Dana, Bari, Mondo and Nguri; they are said to be descended from the smiths, but are now mixed with the Arabs and Hammej. Only the Qoran have no associations with them. Their weapons are the bow and arrow. For further details about the Tubu of Wadai, see Book V , Chapter III. G. N . a But for this group in Kanem, see ii. 248-9, 3 2 5 , 3 3 5 , 343. 3 The Matlamba are a scattered M a b a tribe which as such needs no further consideration; its members differ in no respect from the Malanga, Maba and Madala. G . N.

Journey from Bornu to Wadai 2. The dialects more or less closely related to the Maba, arranged according to the closeness of their connection with the Bora Mabang: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.

Massalit; Marfa; Kashemereh; Kondongo; Karanga, or Kurunga; Fala, or Bakka; Kajanga; Ali.

3. Kajakse, a dialect related to Marfa. 4. Mararit and the languages more or less related to it: a. Shale; b. Oro; c. Kurbo; d. Kubu, [216] all of which in Wadai, though not in Darfur, form political sub-sections of the Mararit, whereas their linguistic relationship is not very close; only among the Kubu, who belong to the Mararit in a more intimate sense, does the language show merely slight dialectical variations. 5. Kabga. 6. Mimi. 7. Zoghawa, with a. Darmut, who have the same dialect, and b. Durring, whose language is related to that of the Zoghawa. 8. Teda (Qoran). 9. Kuka, with the a. Abu Simmin, b. Bulala, c. Middogo (Modogo) and d. Masmaje. The common language of the Kuka, Abu Simmin, Bulala and Middogo, which is related to the language of Bagirmi, also has a relationship, though a more distant one, with the dialect of the Masmaje. 10. Daju, the language of Sula. 1 1 . Mubi, whose language is related to that of 12, the Birgid in Berej. 13. Jeggel, with the related a. Kibet, b. Abu Rhusun and c. Mangari. 14. Runga. 15. Murro. 16. Moyo. 17. Kurjinna, related to the Kashemereh. 18. Sungor, with the people of Tama, the Q,imr and the Jebel of Bororit. 19. Arabs. 1 The Maba group are not only distinguished by a common language; their physical and mental similarities, their common origin, and a long political association have united the Kodoi and the Awlad J e m a , and 1

For further discussion, and some revision, of this analysis, see Lukas, "Linguistic research", 336, 3 4 1 - 2 .

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with them [ 2 1 7 ] are also linked the Malanga, Madaba, Madala, Debba and Abissa, as well as the Galum who have branched off from the Awlad J e m a and the Dekker, who are closely attached to them. Whereever the Kodoi are found active in the civil strife and rebellions in which the history of Wadai is so rich, we find the Awlad J e m a at their side. A claimant to the throne who was recognised by one of the two tribes was always sure of the support of the other. The others who have been mentioned associated all the more closely with them, as there was no physical distinction between them; in language, too, there was only a slight variation in pronunciation. On the other hand the latter were fairly definitely marked off from the former by their greed and arrogance, qualities by which the Awlad J e m a and Kodoi are not disfigured. In the physical conditions of their dwellings, and the mode of life occasioned thereby, the other tribes are very close to the Awlad J e m a and Kodoi, but not in their character. The Maba are without doubt the most honest, the most level-headed and the most courageous of all the tribes of Wadai. With the tenacity of all mountain people they maintain their customs and their privileges, but they are also full of loyalty and devotion to their lawful princes, stubbornly defending their rights and again and again fighting back against the rulers who are imposed on them. The position of their homes, which, as we have seen, lie very close to the [old] capital Wara, assured to the Kodoi the greatest influence on the government, i.e. on the sultan and his closest associates, the more so as the other tribes have a looser relationship with the centre corresponding to their distance from it. As soon as all its elements were united, the whole group thus exercised a decisive influence on the fate of the country, and this is still the case today. Just as they occupy numerous small villages which surround the capital, so also the large Kelingen district is peopled almost exclusively by them, and the other tribal elements are here so much merged with them that politically Kelingen can be regarded as a pure Kodoi region. [218] The Ganyanga in the district of the same name and the people ofJ u m b o are similarly related. The Ganyanga indeed are of completely foreign origin, Pagans who have migrated into the country, but they have established the closest links with the Maba. The J u m b o must also be regarded politically as entirely a Maba people. Physically the Kondongo tribe is very like the Maba. The dialect spoken by them is closely related to Maba and, through this common dialect, they are also linked with the people of Gerri, of Mashek, and of Abu Sebaha, Burtai, Dobu, Bir-Todu, districts or villages to the west and southwest of Wara. The Kajanga live together with some pure Maba elements, and actually in superior numbers, so that they are also closely linked with the M a b a people, especially as their idiom is only a dialectical varia-

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tion of Maba; the situation of the people of Manga, Namon (Ngamon) and others is similar. The Kashemereh and the Marfa are said to be a shade darker than the Maba, but otherwise physically they are completely alike, though they diverge more in their manners and customs. It is particularly significant in this connection that these tribes certainly like some animal food, e.g. frogs, which is forbidden to others, or is uncommon. Their idiom is only a dialectical variation of Maba. The Karanga stand still closer to the Maba, and even surpass them in the nobility of their blood. The Fala are closely associated with them; their dialect is also a branch of the Maba. Originally the Kabga appear to have had little relationship with the Maba group, their speech being different, but they were scattered so early over the Maba territory - we find them in Kelingen, Murra, Fillett, Busa and many single villages - that they now have to be regarded as at least closely associated with them. On the other hand, the Massalit, despite the slight dialectical difference between their idiom and the Maba language, are far removed from the Maba people in their manners and customs, while the Ali, who [219] are attached to the Maba through similar manners, customs and way of life, diverge much more in their dialect. The Mararit, who live east of the Awlad Jema and Kodoi and west of the Tama, differ more from the latter, and have a language of their own. It is surprising that some of their sub-divisions, the Shale, Oro and Kurbo, differ so much from the true Mararit idiom, and also have dialects differing so much from each other, that they can only with difficulty make themselves mutually intelligible. We find the same sub-divisions in Darfur, as independent tribes, quite separated from the Mararit. The Kubu, who speak a dialect very similar to that of the Mararit, must be regarded as related to them, and are indeed apparently descended from them. The Mimi who live with the Maba group so close to the centre of the kingdom are quite different from them. Just as they are a shade darker than the Maba tribes, they are also distinguished from the Kodoi and the Awlad J e m a in their character. The straightforwardness, simplicity, honesty and hospitality of the latter are foreign to the Mimi. They are more like the Zoghawa, with whom they have marriage relationships, whereas the Zoghawa in general are despised by the Maba people. The Sungor, Tama, Qjmr and Jebel form a special group (the Jebel come from the Jebel Mul in Darfur, and are found only in Bororit), with a language quite independent of the Bora Mabang, and although physically not very different from the Maba, they diverge from them considerably in character. A not less distinct and coherent group is formed by the Kuka, the Abu Simmin, the Bulala, the Middogo and the Masmaje, the four first of whom share the language of the Kuka, while the Masmaje speak a dialect related to it. The close asso-

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ciations of at least the first four are the result of the similar characteristics of the regions where they live, and the similar mode of life thereby imposed upon them, and of the same customs and common history. T h e Kajakse, M u b i , Birgid and D a j u differ still more from the M a b a group. [220] A l t h o u g h the languages of these four peoples are not related, the K a j a k s e speaking a dialect related to the M a r f a idiom, the relationship is undeniable in skin colouring, which is black to grey, and in the similarity of customs, food habits and the manufacture oiteqaqi. T h e people of R a s el-Fil, A b u G a n t u r a , Kajakse, Ambosher, K u d u g u s , Jeji, A m m Hajerat, Biwere, K h e r w a j i d , A m m L u b a n , etc., living south of the Batha, form in a sense a wider group, nas el-khala,1 linked by physical similarities and similar w a y of life. Still further south are the K i b e t , Jeggel, A b u Rhusun, M a n g a r i and Murro. O f these indeed only the four first named are linked by a common language, whereas the M u r r o have a quite different idiom, but, in spite of this, all of them have been given a similar stamp by the common character of their territory, including that of the Murro, and by their identical physical characteristics. T h e linguistic relationship of the Z o g h a w a with the D a r m u t , with which the dialect of the Durring is linked, has already been considered; it should also be mentioned that they share the same fate of belonging to tribes more or less despised, of which the Z o g h a w a are in any case the outstanding example. West of W a r a as far as the Fitri the A r a b i c language and character predominate; it is the same in D a r - Z i y u d and in the territories of A m b a r , M a d a , Ferrewa, R e h u t , M a z a and Hillelat. O n l y D a r - K u k a is an exception. It is obvious that the Islamisation of the country has affected the grouping of the tribes; whether these declared at once for Islam or later, and whether they were peaceably or forcibly converted. T h o s e long-settled tribes, who, as we [221] see in the history of W a d a i , helped A b d el-Kerirn to establish the new Muslim kingdom and thus first voluntarily professed Islam, form the M a b a group with which we are familiar, including their nearest neighbours, the K o d o i , A w l a d J e m a , Malanga, M a d a b a , M a d a l a , M a t l a m b a , with the Mararit and M i m i , later joined by the K o n d o n g o through voluntary conversion. O n the other hand the Kashemereh, K a r a n g a , K a b g a , Fala, Masmaje, M u b i , in part the K a j a n g a , the Sungor and the A l i were converted by force, and accordingly a certain blemish always attaches to these tribes. T o the same reason can be traced the restriction which forbids the sultan of W a d a i to take a wife from any tribes other than the first named, the M a b a group together with Mararit, M i m i and K o n d o n g o . T h e pure 1 Nas el-khala means "men of the desert", which may here be regarded as equivalent to nomad tribes. G. N.

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170

M a b a groups observe the same restriction with their members who are scattered over Kelingen and Kajanga. Actually, no example is known of the sultan taking a legitimate wife from the Mararit or the Mimi, who are not only regarded as not quite genuine Wadai people, but also are not very respectable. If it is true that some wives of the sultans have come from the K a j a n g a , it should be remembered that half the country is inhabited by M a b a people, the Kodoi, A w l a d Jema, etc., who have likewise been called K a j a n g a after the place where they live. T h e Massalit and Q,imr migrated, or rather were tribes brought in, from Darfur, the former of whom were to be repeatedly compelled by bloody violence, for the most part under the sultans Kharut, Arus and Joda, to stay in the homes imposed upon them. T h e Q_imr are said to have been present in the country earlier. T h e T a m a were brought in from their original country, and, as already noted, the Ganyanga are Pagan immigrants from some unknown region. By their incessant revolts against the rulers of W a d a i all these tribes, and indeed not least the M a b a people proper, produced an endless series of civil wars. Only the Marfa are an exception, as should here be recorded to their credit. [222] A grouping according to language may be contrasted with one according to skin colouring. From the north coast of Africa right into Central Africa a gradual gradation of skin colour from white to black is to be observed. In Wadai, as in most of the eastern Sahara and the whole of the Sudan, seven grades of colour are distinguished, 1 which I list below, and which I have also used as a basis in the foregoing description of the tribes of Wadai: 1. abyad, plural bid, white, the colour of most Europeans, many Berbers and a few Arabs; not found in Wadai. 2. ahmar, plural humr, red, a light copper-red; found in a few individuals in some of the Arab tribes. 3. asmar, plural sumr, light bronze, literally dark brunette; most of the pure native Arabs. 4. asfar, plural sufr, a dirty copper colour, literally yellow; many of the native Arabs, very many Qoran, and even many M a b a people and Karanga. 5. akhdar, plural khodr, dark bronze, literally green; most of the people of Wadai, many Qoran, Karanga, Mimi and Zoghawa, and most of the Mararit. 6. azraq, plural zurq, the transition stage to black, literally grey: the Kajanga (Ertana), Kashemereh, Masmaje, K u k a , Darmut, 1

Cf. i. 428. G. N.

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many Daju, Wadai people (including Maba), Mimi, Mararit and most of the Zoghawa. 7. aswad, black and aswad el-fahem, coal-black, plural sud;1 the Mubi, most of the Daju, Durring, Haddad and many Pagans in the south of Wadai. 2 [223] The following is the regional grouping of the people of Wadai with the exception of the Arabs; north and northeast, also called DarMaba, is inhabited by the group of Wadai people proper, the A b u Sunun, Awlad Jema, Malanga, Madaba, Madala. Related to them, the Mararit, Mimi, Kondongo, Kajanga, Karanga, Marfa, Fala, Kajakse and Massalit live in the centre. Part of the north and northwest is inhabited by the Qoran (Daza) and Zoghawa, the west by the Kuka, Bulala and Masmaje, the southwest by the Mubi, Daju and Abu Telfan, the south by the Mangari, Kibet, Birgid and Runga, the southeast again by the Daju. The Sungor live in the east and the Tama in the northeast. W e have finally still to mention the immigrant African tribes, (agkrab, "foreigners"), who in Wadai are distributed as follows: 1. The Bagirmi live in some ten villages, Lein, Abu Guddam, Bedina, Karangala, Fana, Gogo (a quarter of Wara) and others. 2. The Kanuri are in about fifteen villages in Dar-Ziyud, and among the Fala live as faqirs (murabidiya), and as travelling traders and nomads, e.g. in Runga. 3. The Fellata are found in forty villages, at Ala, Barkalla and elsewhere, as cattle-breeders. 4. The Kotoko live only in Abeshr. 5. Jellaba inhabit about twenty villages, Nimro, Kurnaya (in Dar-Ziyud), Delebaya (on the Buteha), Gungala (in Abker), Sumukder (in Dar-Said), etc. 1 aswad, b l a c k , has t w o plurals, sud a n d sudan, " t h e b l a c k s " ; D a r es-Sudan thus means not the c o u n t r y of S u d a n , b u t the c o u n t r y of the blacks. G . N . 2 F o r a brief discussion of such terms in early A r a b i a n literature, see B. I.ewis, " R a c e a n d colour in I s l a m " , Encounter, L o n d o n , A u g u s t 1970, 2 0 - 1 .

CHAPTER

IX

GOVERNMENT, THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE, COMMERCE

[224] T h e succession to the throne of W a d a i always goes to the eldest son of a legal marriage, or to the nearest male relation of the dead sultan. [225] It has already been mentioned elsewhere [pp. 169-70] that no son of a sultan whose mother is an anermele (which means " s u b j u g a t e d " ) , i.e. a woman from a tribe which has been subjugated by force of arms by the ruling people, the M a b a , may succeed to the throne of W a d a i . O n l y the A b u Sunun (Kodoi), the A u l a d J e m a , M a l a n g a , M a d a b a , M a d a l a and the K o n d o n g o are full citizens of W a d a i . T h e sultan must further be in full possession of his five senses, and should have no kind of visible bodily defect. It is not absolutely necessary that he should be literate, although such erudition undoubtedly increases his prestige. A sultan can never revoke an order, even when he realises that an error has been made. T h o u g h the observance of the external marks of Islam, and principally the performance of the five daily prayers and the thirtyday R a m a d a n fast, are indispensable, a mere outward show of religion without a way of life in conformity with it would damage the ruler seriously in the estimation of his people. T h e sultan is always dressed in white, and when he goes out - walking is no disgrace to distinguished men in W a d a i - he carries a broadsword or a musket in his hand. N o one knows in which bed he sleeps, several always being ready for him in different rooms. He sleeps alone; he must take his meals alone, and restrict himself to dishes of rice and wheat, avoiding the otherwise usual Negro millet fare. Whether he is permitted or forbidden to drink milk — the latter view has been maintained by others - I have not been able to find out. I believe, however, that this view is based on an error. 1 T h e sultan must, however, abstain from merissa, durra or dukhn beer. 1

A c c o r d i n g to e l - T o u n s y

(Oxtaday,

393), the b a n on d r i n k i n g milk h a d

been

a p p l i e d in earlier times o n the g r o u n d t h a t if the sultan d r a n k m i l k , n o t h i n g w o u l d r e m a i n w h i c h w o u l d be a p p r o p r i a t e for his subjects to drink. T h e rule h a d b e e n abandoned b y el-Tounsy's time. 172

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H e appears in public only on F r i d a y , w h e n he visits the mosque and sits in j u d g m e n t . Otherwise he does not expose himself to the profane glances of his subjects. Even the water w h i c h is intended to be drunk b y him is carried in pitchers w h i c h are completely sewn u p in cloth, so that no unauthorised eye should fall u p o n it, and the well from w h i c h the water is d r a w n is also draped w i t h cloth. T h e w o m e n and girls w h o carry the pitchers are a c c o m p a n i e d b y three eunuchs, and w o e to those w h o meet the procession, and do not [226] immediately crouch d o w n and remain w i t h face averted until it has passed; they would be w h i p p e d soundly without mercy. A t the entrance to the palace, the bearers take the pitchers, w h i c h so far h a v e been carried on their heads, on their shoulders, and the m e n w h o a c c o m p a n y t h e m uncover the right shoulder and right a r m in the manner described earlier [p. 46], for only so is a m a n allowed to enter the royal apartments. O n the d a y of the enthronement, the great m e n of the country assemble in the royal house, where in an o p e n courtyard a lofty clay dais, dirja, has been erected, and a carpet laid over it. Here the heir to the throne takes his p l a c e ; the most distinguished cleric of the country covers the king's h e a d with a turban, and the royal insignia and weapons, the possession of which is indispensable for the exercise of royal authority, are placed in front of him. T h e y consist of the ostrich feather emblems, risha, w h i c h are carried before h i m as standards, the great drums, tiuhas, the royal ostrich feather fan, neffada, and the umbrella, dallala, made of red, yellow and green silk - no one other than the king m a y carry an umbrella - and the family Q u r a n . T h e few family and State papers are also handed over to the new king. W h i l e the clerics, ulema, and the other great dignitaries are p a y i n g homage to him and calling d o w n God's blessing upon him, his " s p e a k e r " , w h o carries the title, khoshem el-kelam, the mouthpiece, passes through the city, and in ornate language announces to the inhabitants that the new, lawful sultan has taken over the administration. A f t e r this ceremony the king keeps to his house for a week, except on the Friday, and arranges the high posts in the court and the government, dismissing and appointing officials at his o w n discretion, and w i t h the advice of the kamkolak tangakalak toluk and the kamkolak [tangakalak] luluk, w h o are nominally the highest officials in the country. 1 Also according to circumstances, he proclaims an amnesty for [227] prisoners. O n F r i d a y he visits the mosque, holds open court, 1 Kamkolak means literally " o l d m a n " or " g r e a t m a n " ; tangakalak is a combination of tanga, house a n d kalak, b o y ; toluk a n d luluk m e a n left or east, and right or west. T h e s e phrases m e a n n o t h i n g m o r e than the great court officials on the right or the left side, a n d they recur e v e r y w h e r e . T h e peoples of W a d a i are divided into tolu a n d lulu, a c c o r d i n g not to their p l a c e of residence, b u t the p l a c e allotted to them by ancient custom in the military array. G . N .

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decides disputes on the spot, or hands them over to the Kamkolaks; a dispute which has become out-of-date is hushed up, "buried under the carpet". So long as the royal residence was in Wara the new sultan had to spend seven more days on the Thorega mountain, where the great royal drums were kept, and at the end of that time had to have 100 cattle, ioo camels and 100 sheep slaughtered at the family burial place, Tumang, in honour of his ancestors. 1 The meat was distributed among the population in the immediate neighbourhood, who served as a sort of guard for the sultan's residence. There follows then the homage of the various tribes and regions paid through their emissaries who are led by their melik, and bring with them their salam, the greeting gift, four measures of millet per man. The sultan receives them, and speaks to them through his two interpreters, khoshem el-kelam, who in accordance with ancient custom, have to belong to the Arab tribes of the Ereqat and the Mahariye and must be faqihs, learned men. These officials thus have an opportunity to display the fluency of their language, their poetic talent, and their wit, as they castigate the weak points of the tribes or their chiefs, for the most part in verse, in which they appear to be severe mostly on the Ganyanga, the K a b g a and the K u b u . The deputations are then assured through the king's spokesman of the new ruler's best intentions, and lavishly entertained with meat and meal dishes, some, e.g. the Kodoi, being provided, according to ancient customary right, with presents of clothing and food. T h e harem of the king's father, which contains from 500-600 women, hababat and maid servants, is then, so to speak, depopulated. The hababat, i.e. his real wives, who have borne the children [228] of the dead sultan, remain, but the others are brought into the mosque in parties of twenty to thirty, where the faqihs have the right of choosing for themselves wives from among them. Those who are not so chosen return to their parental home. The same thing happens with the female servants of the harem. If the dead sultan was the father of his successor, it is customary to remove the whole of the female personnel of the harem. I f he was his brother, the successor sometimes chooses one or other of the women for himself. The daughters of his predecessor, if they are still children, are taken by him into his family, and he arranges marriages for those who are grown up. On the other hand, the sons, if their mothers were of noble birth, and they might therefore be entitled eventually to the throne, are for the most part blinded or killed, in accordance with the barbarous custom of the country, which however dates only from the beginning of this century. The operation of blinding is 1 El-Tounsy (Ouaday, 369) confirms that the royal drums were kept on the mountain, the more correct name for which is Thurayya. For a fuller description of the ceremonies in the early days, see the passage from a Wadai chronicle in H. R. Palmer, Sudanese memoirs (Lagos 1928, reprinted London 1967), ii. 27-8.

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175

p e r f o r m e d b y t h e h e a d c h i e f o f t h e smiths, sultan el-haddadin, w h o passes a h o t i r o n over t h e eyes. I n t h e m e a n t i m e t h e emissaries o f t h e t r i b u t a r y territories o f B a g i r m i , T a m a , S u l a a n d R u n g a h a v e a r r i v e d , b r i n g i n g t h e u s u a l gifts a n d g r e e t ings f r o m their masters, a n d are l i b e r a l l y r e w a r d e d . F i n a l l y , the a m bassadors o f the n e i g h b o u r i n g k i n g d o m s , B o r n u a n d D a r f u r , a p p e a r w i t h the usual presents, t w o or three fine tobes, a horse, a s w o r d , a rosa r y a n d h e r d s o f c a t t l e as a m e m o r i a l sacrifice for t h e sultan's predecessor. H e m a k e s s i m i l a r gifts in r e t u r n , a n d also, as a k i n d o f h o m a g e , h e sometimes sends a n u m b e r o f e u n u c h s to C o n s t a n t i n o p l e , 1 a n d p i o u s gifts o f m o n e y t o t h e h o l y cities o f M e c c a a n d M e d i n a . T h e sultan's d a i l y life begins w i t h t h e e a r l y p r a y e r , at w h i c h t h e imam a p p e a r s . T h e sultan t h e n returns t o his p r i v a t e rooms, w h i c h o c c u p y the s o u t h e r n h a l f o f t h e west w i n g o f t h e p a l a c e ; t h e y are q u i t e n u m e r o u s , b u t d o n o t d i f f e r v e r y m u c h in t h e i r furnishings. H e r e o n l y t h e personal servants are in a t t e n d a n c e o n h i m , o f w h o s e r a n k a n d f u n c tions w e shall h â v e occasion to speak later [ p p . 1 7 7 - 8 ] , the amin-horr, t h e A q i d - G e r r i [229] a n d the amin-abd, w h o is also c a l l e d uled melik. E v e n these, t h o u g h a l w a y s at t h e sultan's b e c k a n d c a l l , are not i m m e d i a t e l y beside h i m . A t d a y b r e a k , the A q i d D u g g u D e b a n g a , a e u n u c h , a p p e a r s , w h o w i l l also b e m e n t i o n e d a g a i n later. T h e e n t r a n c e s to the sultan's r o o m s are h u n g w i t h silk or w o o l l e n c l o t h ; t h e p a g e s , tuweirat, w h o a r e e m p l o y e d o n the k i n g ' s commissions, s t a n d i n f r o n t o f t h e m . T h e t w o kamkolak tangakalek, t h e t w o millek tangakalek a n d a l l those w h o are p r e sentable at c o u r t g r a d u a l l y a p p e a r for t h e m o r n i n g g r e e t i n g . T h i s is either c o n v e y e d to t h e sultan b y o n e o f t h e p a g e s , w i t h his response c a r r i e d b a c k in t h e s a m e w a y , or h e a l l o w s t h e c o u r t officials t o present their g r e e t i n g in person, for w h i c h p u r p o s e t h e y h a v e to assemble in t h e so-called maqama, a c o u r t y a r d o n t o w h i c h several o f t h e sultan's r o o m s o p e n . I n o n e o f these r o o m s h e receives t h e officials, or if t h e w e a t h e r is g o o d , has his c a r p e t b r o u g h t o u t into t h e maqama. W h e n t h e s u l t a n holds a n a u d i e n c e , those w h o are present, as h a s a l r e a d y b e e n e x p l a i n e d , k n e e l d o w n b e f o r e h a n d outside t h e a u d i e n c e c h a m b e r , a n d c r a w l o n their h a n d s a n d knees u n d e r t h e c u r t a i n into t h e maqama or w h e r e v e r t h e sultan m a y b e . A t a respectful d i s t a n c e , a c c o r d i n g to their r a n k , t h e y r e m a i n o n their knees, w i t h their faces b o w e d t o t h e g r o u n d , i n order not t o h a v e t o raise their eyes t o t h e m a j e s t y o f t h e r o y a l c o u n tenance, a n d q u i e t l y c l a p their h a n d s t o g e t h e r , w i s h i n g t h e i r r o y a l master l o n g life, g o o d fortune a n d p e a c e . U n d e r t h e earlier kings those w h o w e r e r e c e i v e d in a u d i e n c e h a d t o b o w , first t o t h e r i g h t , a n d t h e n t o the left, u n t i l their f o r e h e a d s t o u c h e d t h e g r o u n d ; b u t , to t h e g r e a t a n n o y a n c e o f his subjects, K i n g A l i h a s a b o l i s h e d this c u s t o m 1 For such export of eunuchs, cf. Nachtigal, i. 481 ; Gaden, "États musulmanes", 439; Fisher and Fisher, Slavery, 156, 169.

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as an exaggerated ceremonial not at all suitable to his simple tastes. After early prayer, coffee and then a warm breakfast, aish with sauce and meat, are brought by the officials responsible for this, who always have to leave the apartment at once, in accordance with the command, " T h e sultan must eat alone". Anything left over is not [230] eaten by the servants, but buried. During the morning, after the tribunal which will be mentioned later has been held, coffee is again served with pastries and northern sweetmeats. The midday siesta is followed by an invigorating meal, concluded with coffee, and the imam then again appears for prayers. Next come reports from the various officials, and orders, etc., are issued. The sultan decides on the guests or magnates to whom meals should be sent, and even fixes the number of dishes, not infrequently one or two thousand, which are delivered by slaves. After sunset and another prayer, there is an evening meal, this time without coffee, which the sultan takes later. As twilight approaches lamps filled with butter are lit in all the rooms, and at nightfall Sultan Ali is in the habit of making a tour of investigation in the palace, by means of which he maintains a strict supervision of all the rooms, from the harem and the stables to the treasure chamber, etc. The palace is an immense building with its chief entrance on the west side, and is divided by a wall into a western and an eastern half, with only one connecting door between the two. The eastern half is reserved almost exclusively for the women, while the western part contains the sultan's apartments, the stables, and the dwellings of the free men and slaves who have duties at court. In reporting my first audience with the king, I took the opportunity to describe the royal palace [p. 46-7], and need not go into further details here. The harem consists of a toluk and a luluk section, each under a head hababa, so that the two of them have the whole female personnel, consisting of hababat and fellagine [servants], under their control. The number of hababat, the wives of the sultan, is unlimited; the rule about four legal wives does not apply in the Sudan countries to the royal devotees of Islam. There are to begin with in each section fifty huts, one for each hababa-, but since there are several hundred huts in all, the number of hababat that may be accommodated [231] may reach 300 or more, a number which is not unusual. Each head hababa receives weekly supplies of corn for herself and for the hababat under her care, as well as for any possible guests, etc., and monthly supplies of all the other food. They also distribute clothing and ornaments among the women. As for the female servants, the fellagine, it should be said that they are never taken from the genuine Wadai tribes, but from the Kuka, Masmaje and other immigrant and subjugated peoples. Closely associated with the harem are, of course, the eunuchs (called

Government, the Life of the People, Commerce

177

Masters, Shuyukh [or Shaykhs]), of whom there are about forty to fifty, mostly imported from Bagirmi; some, however, are from Wadai itself, though these have been made eunuchs only as a punishment. Some are confined strictly to the service or supervision of the women. Others, however, are high officials or military leaders, and frequently have distinguished themselves by their warlike spirit. The Aqid of the Salamat, for example, who has one of the major and militarily most important appointments, is always a eunuch, just as in Bornu, too, eunuchs occupy some high posts which have nothing at all to do with their original vocation. The senior eunuch at the court of Wadai is the Aqid Duggu Debanga, who administers the supplies of the inner palace, and arranges the sultan's relations with the apartments of his wives; in addition he has the Arab tribes and villages under his control, which makes him a very influential and wealthy man. Next to him comes the millek artan, "ornang Shuyukh", i.e. the overseer of the eunuchs, whose most important function is to carry out the sultan's commissions concerning his wives. T o these are added five or six others with less important duties. Before we turn to the actual court officials, who are, as it were, the sultan's personal servants, and to the administrative officials, we should mention those persons who, with their close association with the court, have at the same time an official rank. Outstanding among these, as I [232] have said elsewhere [p. 53], is the morno, or Queen-Mother, who often exerts a far-reaching influence on the government and its policy. Next, the senior princess, usually a sister of the reigning sultan, has the official rank of head of all the princesses, and as such carries the title of me'iram. She, too, can sometimes exert a significant influence. In contrast the sultan's wives have no official position and their personal influence is very limited. Of the princes of the royal house, the brothers, uncles, etc. - those who have not suffered the fate of being blinded which is usual for all princes - occupy positions as chiefs of tribes and villages, etc., without however reaching the highest offices in the country. Otherwise these members of the royal family owe the same submission to the sultan as do all his other subjects. The sultan's domestic household officials are as follows: 1. two umena (singular amin), of whom one is a free man and the other a slave. The first amin has part of the royal treasure in his custody, actually in his own house, and is also director of the merchants, the Jellaba. The second amin has the greater part of the treasure in the palace itself under his care. He is the Sultan's special groom of the chamber, and serves his food. 2. the Aqid Gerri, the overseer of the "Birds", tuweirat, i.e. the royal pages. He has the king's books and documents in his care, and is his chief messenger, but, as overseer of the tuweirat,

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he usually makes use of them, and this is probably the origin of their name, Birds. The ayal el-qedaba, i.e. those used for important messages, form one section out of about 500 "Birds". They are slaves, boys from twelve to sixteen, about twenty in number; from them the aqids and other high officials are frequently appointed, and they are used especially by the sultan on important commissions. Anyone who is summoned directly to the sultan by one of the ayal el-qedaba [233] recognises immediately the significance of the order from the demeanour of the messenger. If the messenger crouches submissively at a distance with a friendly greeting, a favour may be expected, but if the boy approaches him aggressively, and in summoning him to the royal citadel, actually touches him, the man has every reason to be concerned for his head. The sultan's stables are supervised by four masters of the horse, who, likewise divided between toluk and luluk, have the title oijerma, and are at the same time important administrative officials. Thz jerma toluk is the senior master of the horse; he may be either a free man or a slave, and the west of the country, i.e. Kanem, etc., is assigned to him. T h e jerma luluk, who is next to him in rank, is always a freeborn man, and usually a maternal uncle of the king; he administers Fitri, Bagirmi, etc. The jerma in attendance holds the bridle and stirrup for the sultan when he is mounting his horse. More than a hundred korayat, grooms, form at the same time a kind of bodyguard for the sultan. We have now mentioned all the court staff, strictly so-called, who are in the personal service of the sultan and the palace, and turn to the officials responsible for the administration of the country, the kamkolaks and the aqids. The political division of Wadai is as follows: Dar-Turtalu, the northern province; Dar-Turlulu or Dar-Sa'id, the southern province; Dar-Toluk, the eastern province, which include only the border tribes of the Sungor and the Massalit el-Haush; Dar-Luluk, the western province; Dar-Kodro, including the mountain districts of, among others, the Abu Telfan; Dar-el-Bahr, i.e. the regions near the Bahr es-Salamat; and Dar-Jungertan, including the southern Pagan countries. As we shall see from what follows the rank of the kemakil does not correspond completely with the division into provinces. There are four kemakil of the first rank: 1. Kamkolak Turtalu, also called Kamkolak Awlad J e m a , is the chief administrative official of the northern province, to whom also the northeast of the country is subject. 2. Kamkolak Turlulu, the chief government official of the DarSa'id, [234] the southern province, who has to accompany the Aqid es-Salamat on his expeditions.

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3. K a m k o l a k B i t a k g i n n e k , w h o administers t h e c e n t r a l p a r t o f t h e k i n g d o m a n d the n e i g h b o u r h o o d o f W a r a . 4. K a m k o l a k Z i y u d , w h o s e territory c o v e r s t h e w h o l e o f t h e west, a n d w h o a c c o m p a n i e s the A q i d e r - R a s h i d o n his expeditions. T h e s e kemakil, w h o are also c a l l e d angreb ja, t h e feet o f t h e b e n c h or b e d s t e a d , h a v e in their h a n d s t h e d u t y o f a d m i n i s t e r i n g t h e c u s t o m a r y l a w , a n d therefore h a v e a u t h o r i t y o v e r life a n d d e a t h . T h e i r p o w e r does not extend to t h e n o m a d s , t h e smiths, w h o are u n d e r t h e e x c l u s i v e a u t h o r i t y o f t h e so-called S u l t a n o f t h e S m i t h s , or t o persons o f r o y a l b l o o d , w h o are w i t h i n t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i v e sphere o f t h e sultan. I n a c c o r d a n c e w i t h ancient c u s t o m , the d i g n i t y o f kamkolak is r e t a i n e d in c e r t a i n specified families. T h e s e officials t r a v e l r o u n d their districts, i n s p e c t , dispense justice a n d c o l l e c t their revenues. F r o m e a c h v i l l a g e t h e y c o l l e c t the ada ma'luma, " t h e c u s t o m a r y t r i b u t e " o f a l o a d o f c o r n , a g a r m e n t , one h e a d o f cattle a n d a w e t h e r , a n d also f r o m a n y p l a c e w h e r e t h e y t e m p o r a r i l y p i t c h their c a m p , the so-called difa, t h e " g u e s t g i f t " , w h i c h consists o f o n e o x a n d so m a n y teqaqi, a c c o r d i n g to t h e size o f t h e village. T h e kemakil h a v e beside t h e m four " l i t t l e kemakil" w i t h t h e s a m e rights a n d h a l f t h e i n c o m e , b u t in a d d i t i o n e a c h has a c o m p l e t e court o f s u b o r d i n a t e officials, w h o surprisingly h a v e the s a m e titles as t h e sultan's officials. I n h i m s e l f o f little i m p o r t a n c e , b u t nevertheless e n j o y i n g preced e n c e in m a n y respects, e v e n so far as to b e treated like a real s u l t a n , t h e K i n g o f the Smiths, sultan el-haddaditi, a k i n d o f s h a d o w sultan, h a s t h e e m b l e m s o f a sultan, b u t is w i t h o u t a n y r e a l p o w e r . H i s wives, like those o f t h e ruler, are c a l l e d hababat, a n d his d a u g h t e r s princesses, meiram; h e has the privilege o f a p p e a r i n g before t h e sultan w i t h h e a d u n c o v e r e d a n d w e a r i n g a b u r n u s , a n d o f sitting o n a c a r p e t . T h e smiths are p l a c e d u n d e r his unfettered c o n t r o l , [235] a n d he a l o n e has the r i g h t to a d m i n i s t e r j u s t i c e for t h e m . H e must b e w e l l - r e a d in the Q u r a n , is t h e p h y s i c i a n for the w h o l e r o y a l f a m i l y , a n d as such is p e r m i t t e d t o enter t h e h a r e m . A s a l r e a d y n o t e d , it is his m e l a n c h o l y d u t y , at t h e b e g i n n i n g o f a n e w reign, to b l i n d t h e sultan's brothers, n e p h e w s a n d cousins. H e also has the task o f s h a v i n g t h e sultan's h e a d w e e k l y , a n d h e has t o p r e p a r e t h e b o d y o f a d e a d sultan for b u r i a l . F r o m his q u a s i subjects, he has to collect t h e shovels, h a t c h e t s , lances, knives a n d c h a i n s , w h i c h are p a i d to t h e k i n g as taxes - t h e n u m b e r runs t o several t h o u s a n d s o f e a c h kind - a n d he retains for h i m s e l f a q u a r t e r o f t h e o b j e c t s w h i c h h e h a n d s o v e r t o the k i n g . T h e l o w social status o f t h e smiths in W a d a i a n d D a r f u r , as w e l l as in B o r n u , a n d especially a m o n g all t h e T u b u tribes, I h a v e a l r e a d y d e s c r i b e d e l s e w h e r e [i. 443-4; ii. 145, 370]. I n W a d a i t h e y m a y m a r r y o n l y a m o n g themselves. N o o n e w o u l d e a t w i t h a smith, a n d to b e c a l l e d a smith is a d e a d l y insult.

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Individual tribes are under separate chieftains, who, however, have no more than historical importance. For example, the head chief of the Malanga, who bears the title tvjungo (from the Arabic jindi), enjoys certain privileges, as do also those of the Madala, the Mimi and the Karanga. We come now to the most important officials in the country, the aqids, i.e. the military leaders, who may be free men, slaves or even eunuchs. Though responsible for the government and the administration of the law in the tribes and villages under them, they do not have powers of life and death. Since their villages are scattered through the provinces, their authority is also usually shared with that of the kemakil, in such a way that they control the soil, and the kemakil the rivers and wells. In some villages, however, they have exclusive control. Where they rule together with the kemakil, they also share with them the receipts from the fines which have been imposed. Their other income is similar to that of the kemakil, consisting of the ada ma'luma, [236] the traditional tax, and the difa, which however is less important, for the aqids, unlike the kemakil, do not travel about in their regions, which in any case are less extensive. Their receipts are drawn mainly from the nomad tribes, and are thus still considerable. The great importance of the aqids lies in their capacity as military leaders. They take command on military expeditions and have to raise the troops for this purpose. There may be some forty aqids altogether, of whom the most important are the Aqid cs-Sbah, [the administrator of the eastern province]. Aqid cl-Bahar, Aqid cl-Mahamid, Aqid cs-Salamat, Aqid er-Rashid and Aqid el-Ja'adina. These aqids are definitely more powerful than the kemakil. With approximately the same rank as the aqids, the jerma, the chief masters of the horse, who have already been mentioned, also rank as court officials; they perform the same functions as aqids, and just as they have the same rank they also enjoy the same income. In my time, the J e r m a Turlulu or Luluk, Abu Jebrin, was the most powerful man in the country. After the jerma come the teraqina (singular turqenak), of whom there are sixteen, invariably freeborn men. Four of them are overseers of the people of royal blood, over whom a rigorous authority is maintained, all the more rigorous in view of their propensity to contrive conspiracies against the ruling monarch. They are, in a manner of speaking, police agents for the sultan, and act as the executioners of high-ranking personalities. Four others are captains of the king's bodyguard, gentlemen-at-arms, osban, who, numbering several thousand, carry shields of iron, and in time of war do not fight themselves but only protect the person of the prince. And the remaining eight teraqina are distributed among the kemakil for the administration of their districts.

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A peculiar personality, whose office was said to be often associated with a large income, is that of the fattashi, the "seeker", a vigilante, whose exclusive function it is to track down the forbidden drink, merissa. The fattashi has his agents throughout the country, and himself travels around in the greatest possible secrecy. He is authorised, [237] whenever he finds a house in which merissa is prepared, to inflict severe punishment, i.e. to whip the inhabitants, to have the vessels used for preparing the beer smashed, to shave the head of the woman of the house, etc. Since, however, in the end everything can be adjusted with money, the fattashi is accustomed to be lenient and to allow his indulgence to be bought. Next in rank come the muluk (singular melik), the chiefs of the sedentary tribes, who serve under the kemakil and carry out their orders, being responsible for public security, and exercising general oversight in the absence of their superiors. There is a great number of them, but the only prominent independent man among them is the sin-melik, the general collector of the corn tax. He receives for storage in the capital this royal tax, salam, which is extended to the whole country, amounting to two mudd1 of dukhn per household, and as has already been noted, collected from every woman. He also collects from the whole country the fitra, one mudd per head, which is levied at the end of the month of fasting, and the zakah, amounting in fertile regions to a full tenth, oshr [cf p. 91], but in less favoured parts of the country to only half of this. We now come to the sultan's revenues. In addition to those mentioned above, there is the diwan, paid chiefly in horses, camels or sheep, but sometimes in corn, which falls on the Kajanga, Sungor, Ali and others, a kind of fine for tumults and revolts in these territories; in addition the zamula is a contribution in the form of camels from any raids that may be undertaken. The sultan also receives regularly 8 mudd of rice per household from the Tunjur in Dar-Ziyud, cotton, partly raw and partly in thread or cloth, 10 teqaqi per head, a tax levied on every man, whether married or not, and fish from the villages of the Batha. Fishing, supervised by a special official and his deputies, takes place some time after the rains, [238] as soon as the waters of the Batha have returned to the form of the small lakes which mark the whole course of the river-bed. The sultan takes eight from each catch of ten, leaving two to the fisherman. The Bandala, a slave tribe scattered over the southern part of the country, have to deliver 4 mudd of honey per head. Ivory comes principally from the Arabs of the south, the Salamat and the Rashid, and is delivered every third year. The yield from this tax may amount to about 100-200 hundred1 Mudd is the measure of corn in Wadai; it has an external circumference of about four spans, and is approximately 15 centimeters high. G. N.

Joumey from Bornu to Wadai weight, of which the sultan received one half. Some 4,000 slaves are also delivered every third year, one half for the sultan, who in addition receives the produce from his officials' raids. This tax falls of course on the Pagan tribes, who live in the south and southwest. Camels to the number of around 5,000 are delivered every third year by the camelbreeding nomads. Similarly the cattle-breeding Arabs deliver twice the number, i.e. about 10,000 head of cattle every third year. All the stallions, except those necessary for breeding, belong to the sultan, and this tax, too, is paid every third year. In addition mats and skins come from the Dar-Ziyud, luban and lance-shafts from the Massalit, tentpoles from the Abu Sunun, ostrich eggs from the Zoghawa, guinea fowl eggs from all the eastern tribes, butter from the cattle herdsmen, up to 1,000 pitchers per tribe, one bowl of salt per head from the Mahamid, and pitchers for water or honey as well as water-bags from the Darmut, a despised offshoot of the Zoghawa. After this digression we return to the administration of Wadai. The administration of justice has still to be mentioned, resting chiefly in the hands of the kemakil as we saw earlier in our account of them, though it is also in part a function of the sultan. There is reserved to the sultan the right to judge members of his own family, as well as members of the families of the kemakil and murderers. If they are found guilty, murderers are either handed over by the sultan to the family of the murdered man, or sentence is passed on them by the ulema. In the former [239] case it is customary for the guilty party to be pardoned "for the sake of the sultan"; in the latter he usually falls victim to a bloodfeud, unless he purchases his life and freedom by paying the bloodmoney, diya, of 100 camels or cattle. If, however, the murdered man has forgiven his murderer before he dies, there is no diya or blood feud. In former times, the sultan was accustomed to pronounce judgment in person on Fridays in the square in front of his palace; in addition a court of six persons, two kemakil, two millek and two faqihs, sat there daily. In my time this court continued, and had to report to the sultan on everything that came before it, submitting difficult cases to be tried by him. As I have said, the kemakil act in the provinces as judges over everything, with the specified exceptions, and there is no appeal against their decisions. Thefts, with or without violence, are punished with a money fine, but if repeated, with death. Armed highway robberies bring the death penalty, just as does high treason. Adultery and slander, etc., are punished with fines. As for the method of carrying out sentences, men condemned to death by a kamkolak are killed with iron-shod clubs by the kabartu, the king's musicians, a despised caste, while the sultan's death sentences are effected either by the turqenak and his men, by the kabartu, or by the sultan's slaves. Death by the

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kabartu's clubs is prescribed for all crimes w h i c h h a v e been committed p u b l i c l y , for w h i c h indeed public opinion requires expiation. Traitors receive various kinds of death penalty. D e a t h b y h a n g i n g is the punishment for thieves w h o h a v e relapsed, and is carried out b y slaves. D e a t h b y shooting is reserved for men o f rank w h o h a v e been guilty o f a public crime, and the sentence is carried out in the sultan's presence b y his slaves. Political offenders are executed b y strangling b y the turqenak, and rebels, regicides, etc., b y impalement, or b y pits furnished w i t h knives, swords a n d the like [into w h i c h they are thrown] [240] w i t h the help o f the sultan's slaves. A s w e h a v e already seen, K i n g A l i w a s a very stern j u d g e , quite i m p l a c a b l e , t h o u g h in all religious matters he submitted himself to the j u d g m e n t of the ulema. T h i s is a convenient place to e x a m i n e the military strength of W a d a i . I n the event of a w a r , the several tribes furnish contingents, v a r y i n g w i d e l y according to the country against w h i c h the c a m p a i g n is to be directed. T h e largest forces are a l w a y s deployed if D a r f u r is concerned, since the inhabited part of W a d a i lies so close to the D a r f u r border, while, if there is a w a r to the west, the boundaries in the direction of D a r f u r should not be exposed. O f t h e tribes o f the M a h a m i d , A w l a d R a s h i d , S a l a m a t , etc., w h o live v e r y far a w a y only a few take part in wars, unless the A r a b s arc expecting a rich booty. K i n g A l i had about 4,000 muskets with flintlocks, w h i c h the A r a b s h a d brought to him from the north, from T r i p o l i , for the percussion w e a p o n s imported by the Nile merchants were of very poor quality. For these 4,000 muskets there were, however, scarcely 1,000 men w h o k n e w h o w to h a n d l e fire-arms. T h e twelve cannons w h i c h he had - in fact forty were reported to m e - were of small calibre, cast from bronze in the country itself by E g y p t i a n or Turkish soldiers and mechanics, but without gun-carriages or gunners, and therefore completely useless. 1 A s in all the S u d a n countries so in W a d a i the greatest importance is attached to the mounted men. I h a v e already observed that W a d a i is not a horse-breeding country, but nevertheless the stock which in the course of time has developed there, while not handsome, is outstandingly serviceable, with stamina, contented and spirited. T h e n u m b e r that c a n be brought into the field m a y be some 5,000-6,000 [241] o f w h i c h more than a third have quilted armour, and m a n y of their riders have a r m o u r o f steel. 2 U n d e r ordinary conditions the foot1 T h e figures given here correspond with the statements in Dr Nachtigal's lectures, but are quite different from those found in the notes that he made in the country. It may be assumed that for political reasons it was found convenient to exaggerate the military strength of the country to a traveller there and that later he had an opportunity to convince himself of the inaccuracy of the estimates that had been made. D. H. 2 O n e of Fresnel's informants ( " M é m o i r e " , 46-7), Abdullah of Wara, reported in the 1840s that a complete suit of armour - apparently for a cavalry soldier - was in

Journey from Bornu to Wadai soldiers of Wadai in a war with neighbours who were their equals might number 56,000-60,000, inasmuch as every man able to bear arms, i.e. the whole male population from eighteen to sixty, can go to war. Of soldiers in our sense of the word there are none. The order of battle in the event of war has been settled once and for all. The army is divided into three sections, the centre, with the sultan behind it, and the two wings. The aqid of the vanguard stands in front in the centre, and next to him are the royal slaves who are armed with muskets, the ulema and the kemakil tangakalek; then follow the ayal ed-delala, "the troop of the path-makers", who hold back the branches from the sultan's path with a forked stick, and cut a way for him with a hatchet through the bush, but also carry swords and daggers. They are followed by the korayat, grooms, sometimes with mail shirts, but always armed with lances, and not seldom with muskets also, the awlad ed-deraqa, the "troop of shield-bearers", who cover the sultan with their iron shields, and the tuwe'irat, the royal pages, armed with lances, and under the command of their chief, the Aqid Gerri. The sultan's other domestic officials follow with their subordinates, the King of the'Smiths with his people, the eunuchs, the people of the Queen-Mother, momo, and of the chief princess, meiram, and finally the aqid of the rearguard. The other kemakil and aqids are distributed on the two wings, one half toluk and the other luluk. Each of these officials has his own horsemen and soldiers as well as the contingents of the various tribes and regions which obey him. The king is supreme commander in war, although he docs not himself take part in the fighting. From the centre at first only the royal slaves with muskets enage in fighting, though in a moment of pressing danger everybody of course joins in. If the army is defeated, the king's immediate entourage contiAues the fight to the bitter end. He himself, however, dismounts, and has the royal carpet spread out, [242] awaiting his fate in silence and with dignity. For the kings of those countries flight is an indelible disgrace, indeed unthinkable, and if in the history we encounter a degenerate prince who sought safety in flight, we see him consigned to general contempt, and stigmatised for all time. The communal and family life of Wadai is organised with no less care than the government of the State. Let us first consider their dwellings. The villages consist, of course, of straw huts; earthen Wadai worth ten slaves. Another informant, a shaykh from J a l o , said that the most highly esteemed armour in Wadai was the "Davidic" coat of mail, which would fetch 75 Maria Theresa dollars at Benghazi. For a stimulating discussion of chain-mail in the Sudan, both east and west, see A. D. H. Bivar, Nigerian panoply: arms and armour of the Northern Region (Lagos, 1964).

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houses are found only in the capital, and perhaps in N i m r o , the town of the J e l l a b a , the merchants. But they, too, even the most eminent of t h e m , limit themselves to t w o or three living-rooms. Bricks c a n be moulded a n d baked, but only the sultan's p a l a c e and the mosque are built with them. C a r e f u l roofing is regarded as of the greatest importance. T h e roof is supported b y one or more strong rectangular earthen pillars, as well as b y the sidewalls, and is surrounded with a kind of w o o d e n railing. T h e clay houses frequently h a v e a second storey, reached by earthen stairs, and in it are placed windows with wooden lattice-work. T h e large cross-beams and the smaller longitudinal beams are m a d e o f the wood of the deleb p a l m , the other beams of gana w o o d . A b o v e t h e m lies a coarse network of ngille, d u m p a l m brush w o o d , covered with mats and a thin layer of earth. T h o u g h lime is available, the clay houses are not usually whitewashed, with the exception of the mosque and the royal palace. A rich m a n frequently leaves h a l f of his house unfinished, supplementing it with straw huts. T h e great mosque also includes a number of huts as lodgings for travellers and fuqara, dervishes. T h e straw huts are shaped roughly like a sugar-loaf; sometimes they are actually conical with long drawn-out peaks, thus differing from the more rounded type of Bornu. T h e y are not very solid and still less artistically constructed, being in this respect m u c h inferior to the huts of the Pagans. A light wooden frame is first of all erected, consisting of poles arranged in a circle, tied together at the top and [243] held together round the circumference with traverse beams forming a circle. A thick layer of sukko (mahreb) is fastened over this, and enclosed with neatly w o v e n siggedi mats. T h e hut thus constructed is then placed on a circle of stakes meters high driven into the ground, and the w h o l e is covered with sukko stalks, the lofty peak being decorated with a n u m b e r of ostrich eggs, or made to open at the top in the shape of a flower to permit a still richer decoration of ostrich eggs. T h e D a j u and the M u b i diverge from this pattern in d r a p i n g the w o o d e n scaffolding w i t h thin layers of sukko matting, in order to obtain sufficient strength for the covering. A l t h o u g h they are D a j u , the Sula h a v e adopted the method of the people of W a d a i . In T a m a , o n the other h a n d , a kind of grass, aush, w h i c h also serves as fodder for horses, is used for the same style of b u i l d i n g ; the outside of the hut is covered with it, and the interior, w h i c h in W a d a i is left uncovered, draped with siggedi. T h e w o o d e n frame is also covered w i t h siggedi, instead of the qsab (dukhn) straw used in W a d a i . I n the interior of the hut a simple bench covered with a mat of d u m p a l m brushwood serves as a bed, and there are several large clay pitchers (dabonga) for storing corn, so large indeed that a m o n g the D a j u and the M u b i , for example, they cannot be carried into the huts, but

Journey from Bornu to Wadai the huts have to be built around them. 1 Clay vessels for holding water, vessels for cooking, bowls for eating and drinking made of pumpkin shells, which however are not painted or decorated as in Bornu, and wooden bowls, dyed black, and often with feet, complete the domestic equipment. Sometimes, too, there are large plaited pitcher-shaped baskets (hanga), coated with pitch inside which are used to hold butter or honey, baskets shaped like chests (tolkaya), or sheepskin bags (,kufoya) to hold the modest wardrobe, and finally, [244] especially thick basketware (konio) to hold all sorts of food for a longer time. The larger dwellings have several straw huts within a courtyard, and are fenced in. The leading men also always build special huts for the reception of guests (deballa), while poor people co-operate to set up such a hut in common. In a village of any importance there are three such public huts, one, solo, intended for the old men, one, turrik, for men from twenty-five to fifty, and the third for youths. In a small and poor village there is at least one hut which is regarded as a mosque; here school is held, the budding learned men (Bettelstudenten,2 as it were) who are constantly wandering .through the country live, and travellers find lodging. In this hut the teacher or cleric repeats the daily prayers. Near it is erected a veranda under which the men spend the day, spinning cotton, weaving and sewing, which, with agricultural work, constitute their chief occupation. A man has a dwelling of his own only for the night; it would be regarded as a disgrace to take his food alone, and young unmarried people do not like even to sleep at home. At meals the older are served by the younger groups. Private houses belong to the women. In the event of a divorce it is therefore not the woman who leaves the home which has been held in common, but the man who takes his belongings with him and seeks other accommodation, which may not be very difficult to find, since he always has several wives. This custom is no doubt generally understandable, for, if her parents did not live in the neighbourhood, a divorced wife would be without any other shelter. It is the wife's duty to look after the house. In fact she leaves it only to fetch wood or water, unless it happens to be the time for field work or harvesting. She makes mats and straw plaiting for the huts, grinds the corn into flour between stones, and cooks the meals. For carrying water, wood, etc., she uses the dogodik, yoke, called am damne by the Arabs, which rests on one shoulder. [245] Cords lead from each end of the yoke to a coil of strong rope sewn together. (Among the people of Wadai these cords are made of strips of hide, among the 1

On the dabonga, which corresponds to the Arabic kawara, compare the VerhandItmgen der Berliner Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, 1882, 469. W. 1 V a n Vollenhoven (Bulletin, 222 n.) noted that before 1870 Bettelstudenten, or begging students, were still to be seen on the streets of German university towns.

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Sungor, T a m a and Mararit, of lubia or kulkul fibre). Vessels, and, indeed, also the infants who are put to bed in a gourd shell, are carried in this coil. 1 Small children are, however, usually carried on the back, tied there by a skin. W o o d , straw, etc., on the other hand, are slung anywhere on the body, but only reluctantly carried on the head. In our account of dwellings, we have seen that the old people keep together, just as do the young men and youths. T h e association of the old people is called jemma? It occupies the large straw hut belonging to them, solo, with a wide courtyard surrounded by a zariba, and usually with several verandas. Here they sit from morning to night spinning cotton, and chatting about religion, politics at home and abroad, or community interests; they pray together under the leadership of their imam and also take their meals in common. T h e manjak, or headman, comes from the jemma; he is appointed by the kamkolak, and is to some extent under his supervision, for he administers his office together with an official of the kamkolak or o f the aqid, called zirbe-melik by the W a d a i people, sidi ez-zariba in A r a b i c , master of the zariba. T h e functions of both, however, extend little further than the distribution of the land to be cultivated. T h r o u g h o u t D a r - W a d a i , the soil belongs to the sultan, and the fields are leased on his account. T h e r e is individual land ownership only in the genuine M a b a regions. T h e manjak works together with the other old men, and like them fulfils public obligations. In the summer, together with the zirbe-melik, he regulates the leasing of the fields, a matter in connection with which intrigues and attempts at bribery are of course not absent. But woe to him if he is found to be guilty of any abuse of his office, for any man w h o m he has dispossessed thereupon takes bloody revenge on him. For the rest it is not regarded as in any w a y [246] an honour to be appointed to this post, i.e. " t o w a x fat at the expense of other p e o p l e " . His colleague, the slave, who quite naturally is in government service, is more highly respected than the manjak, the free citizen w h o stoops to receive a salary. In the absence of the kamkolak or the aqid, the manjak may j u d g e minor offences, and impose fines, but he has so little authority that accused persons are seldom content to accept his verdict, and usually appeal to a higher court. T h e jemma has the duty of supervising public morals, directing public works and advising on the affairs of the community. A l l offences which do not fall within the competence of the kamkolak are submitted to its j u d g m e n t , and notorious shirkers, slanderers, etc., are tried b y 1 El-Tounsy also described the yoke and baskets to which Nachtigal refers here. T h e apparatus as a whole, he said, was called karanjalah and each basket raykeh. H e compared the whole to the beam and trays of a balance, and the trays themselves to the flexible baskets used in Egypt (Ouaday, 401-2). 2 Jemma is presumably the Arabic jema, assembly or union. W .

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it. If an offence is repeated, a serious warning is given, and in case of public scandal the culprit is expelled from the village, while the customary penalty consists of a fine of some measures of corn. There is no appeal in such cases. T h e association of the young people, sibyan (singular, sabi), joins with the jemma in public works and in the provision of military contingents, as well as in discussions of military affairs and such other matters as affect their relations with the government. A kind of control over the sibyan is likewise vested in the jemma, but in such a way, however, that a reprimand cannot be pronounced against individuals but rather against the association as a whole. T h e older women are subject in the same way to the authority of the jemma. A man is counted as one of the sibyan (kurtu in Maba) from the age of twenty-five. From eighteen until full manhood is reached a youth is called farfarok. These youths,ferafir, still at first live with the boys in the school, but are enlisted in the tasks of the sibyan. T h e sibyan have a communal hut, turrik, in which, like the old men, they sit and work together, if there are no public or private claims upon their time. T h e y [247] have an overseer, millek (ornang in Maba), who maintains law and order among them. Any member who breaks the law, dissociates himself from the completion of his public duties, etc., is expelled. T h e sibyan do not pray together, as a strict fulfilment of religious duties is asked only from those of a riper age. In addition, girls and young women, up to the age of thirty, are subject to the authority of the sibyan; they have indeed also an overseer, tanjak, from their own ranks, who is, however, subordinate to the millek of the sibyan. This last has a deputy among the female youth, the arak, who arranges all their relations with the sibyan, and serves also as a guardian of morals in their social life at times when public works are being carried out. T h e duty of maintaining the walls of the royal palace in W a r a gives the sibyan of that region a welcome opportunity for all sorts of insolence and misconduct. T h e gathering together of large numbers of young men then often becomes a real public danger, and one cousin of K i n g Ali paid with his life for the efforts which he made on one such occasion to settle a quarrel. T h e nurti (singular, nermak) form the third age-group in the population, extending to the age of eighteen, those who are no longer sedasi, or six-span high boys, but are not yet farfarok. T h e nurti (or ngurti) live together in the school (makteb), and see their parents' houses only at meal-times. T h e ferafir (plural of farfarok) live with them in order to continue their studies, unless they are otherwise occupied with the work of the sibyan and kurtu. T h e nurti also have their own organisation and their prescribed responsibilities. Their chief is also called millek, as

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they too are linked with the corresponding girls' age-group, those between the sedasiya and the young women, which in its turn has a tanjak and an arak, who obey the millek of the nurti. Their responsibilities are primarily to the school, where they have to perform all the domestic work for the teacher. They also look after his work in the fields. Each of the boys, with the exception of those who have the honour of maintaining the fire, delivers daily a bundle of [248] wood for it. Their studies are, of course, limited to the Quran. Each stage in progress in reading the Quran is celebrated with a festivity. When a youth has learnt the whole Quran by heart and has demonstrated this before a faqih, there is great joy in his parents' house. His father slaughters a cow and prepares a great banquet. The youth is put on horseback, and led around in triumph, the people congratulate him, the sedasiya girls of the village are brought before him, and he has the right to choose one of them as his future wife. He dismounts and places his hand on the shoulder of the one whom he has chosen, and she is as proud as her father of the honour which has been done to her by the hero of the day. Religious education is much more general and more advanced in Wadai than in Bornu and practically all the other neighbouring central African countries. There are, as the foregoing shows, elementary schools in every village, and compulsory schooling is no less stringent than in our country. More advanced schools exist to the number of thirty, and are distributed among the various districts and regions of the country. Writings, imported from Egypt, which form the object of higher studies, were particularly cited to me by my informant; they concentrate more or less on the study of the Muslim faith, but also deal with the Arabic language, orthography, the etymology of words and forms, dialectical differences, etc. The community public responsibilities which have been mentioned are quite numerous. The first place is taken by the maintenance of the public buildings, including the huts of the jemma, which are constructed and maintained jointly by the jemma itself, the sibyan and the older woman's age group. Only the sibyan and the younger women and girls work on the maintenance of the turrik. The school is kept up by the jemma, the sibyan and the young girls. The same is true of the dwelling of their millek, and, though in this case both old and young have to take part, of any housing kept for the kamkolak or the aqid. [249] The erection of corn stacks (kula) is also a communal responsibility, organised under the sin-melik. The cultivation of the sultan's fields is a concern of the regions in which the fields are situated. Each district has such fields, tilled by the jemma and the sibyan. For each field of the sultan an official, kushingak, supervises the work, and brings in the corn when it is cut, the workers being entertained by him at this time with aish and merissa.

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For this purpose the young women of the village have to deliver an adequate number of bowls and pitchers. Stretches of land lying near the rivers and watered by them are reserved for the sultan and cultivated by the inhabitants, a task which is called mik. Another task, sellek, relates to the cultivation of cotton, and is for the benefit of the kamkolak who is entitled by custom to claim for himself the best-yielding fields of cotton. The explanation of this customary right is the kamkolak's need of large quantities of cotton for the quilt-armour of his horsemen and horses. An obligation, lingakfeda, also rests on the men, both old and young, to make the roads passable for the sultan when he comes into the district on a military expedition or for some other purpose. And there is, finally, the general obligation to serve in the army, to which both jemma and sibyan are subject. For this purpose, the number of men in the locality is ascertained, and half of them are conscripted for the army; the manjak has to decide who will be called up, and who will stay behind. While work is going on in the fields, all other work is held up. A wife cultivates in company with her husband, or they work in turn; their respective fields are completely separate, for in Wadai a strict separation of property prevails. At the end of the harvest a man gives his wife a specific [250] quantity of corn, about 12 bushels, or if he has several wives, about 6 bushels to each of them. If he harvests less, he has to sell what he has [of other property?] to discharge this obligation, but also as soon as his corn supplies are exhausted he has a lawful claim on those of his wives. In addition to the corn a husband also has to provide clothing for his wife each year, a large shawl to go around the waist, a scarf for the shoulders and head, and a sheep or goat skin which is occasionally worn. Subservient as a wife is in general to her husband, she permits no infringement of her rights, complains without hesitation, and if necessary, returns to her relations. For the rest the wives get on very badly together, though it is regarded as a disgrace if men quarrel, and if this happens, it is usually only after an excessive indulgence in merissa. Just as work is carried on in common, so the festivals are also celebrated by all the age-groups together, and for the most part indeed in such a way that the sexes in each age group join together, whether for dancing or for feasting, though for the latter the participation of the women is confined to the preparation of the feast. The most important festivals in Wadai are the id el-Jitr, which terminates the fast at the end of Ramadan, and the id el-kebir, the Great Feast, or feast of sacrifice on the tenth day of the month of DulHijja, when the sacrificial camels of pilgrims in Mecca are slaughtered on Mount Arafat. These two festivals are celebrated in the same way,

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and the feast of the New Year comes next. The nurti and the ferafir spend the night before each of the first two feasts in reading the Quran. Jemma and sibyan (kurtu) have a feast on the same day, for which the women of the corresponding age-groups deliver the food, the aish, kisra, etc.; the younger age-groups are accustomed to have their share of anything left over by their elders. The boys and youths also have their feast, but only on the second day of the festival, and are served by the younger girls. No woman, even if she is a widow or unmarried, can [ 2 5 1 ] avoid the above-mentioned duty without exposing herself to expulsion from the community. It is, moreover, the custom for children, boys and girls separately, on this day to go begging from house to house. No one refrains from giving, the collection of food and other things being for the benefit of the little ones. Naturally the best clothing is worn for the festivals. In the afternoon the nurti and the small girls dance outside the village until sunset. The girls place themselves in a semi-circle, and sing a song in honour of their fathers, the sultan, the country and the nurti, accompanying it with rhythmical handclapping. In the meantime the nurti dance in front of them, moving backwards and forwards, and enthusiastically brandishing their knives and lances. As soon as they approach the girls in this manner, the latter fall on their knees, apparently a symbolic indication of their weakness. It goes on in this way for three days. The sibyan also dance with their corresponding age group, forming with them a double circle, with the women and girls in the inside ring, and two drummers in the centre. The men dance in couples around the women, to the accompaniment of the drums, which are beaten at the same time on both sides. The day before the New Year festival (Kanuri, sorumbulu, literally, the full belly), all the fires in the village are put out, even the ashes being removed from the houses. With the beginning of the New Year a fresh fire is kindled in the jemma's hut, from which everybody then takes a piece of burning wood into his own house. The women have the task of making the fire. For this purpose a large smooth piece of wood is used, with a groove on one side, to which a piece of easily combustible cloth is fastened. To set this alight, the women's skilled hands rotate and rub very rapidly, like a twirling stick, a small fine cylindrical staff in the palms of their hands and in the groove, until the staff is set alight and at the same time kindles the cloth. Before the New Year there is a day of fasting and general washing, so that on New Year's Day [252] itself dishes of all kinds are tackled all the more heartily. Towards evening, with glowing cudgels in their hands, the nurti meet the nurti of a neighbouring village, and with these fiery weapons they fight, sparing neither skin nor clothing. As has been suggested by the foregoing, the relations between the

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sexes are fairly innocent and easy. Every evening the girls and boys come together on the public square for games and dancing. The courtship of a girl is carried on with the consent of her mother in the form of visits at night. The young man knocks on the door of the mother's house, she appears, satisfies herself about the identify of the visitor, calls her daughter, and retires. If the parents do not wish a marriage, the girl often allows herself to be abducted, but in such a case the pair must try to get to the old burial place of the kings of Wadai. The official in charge there has, according to ancient custom, the right to unite the lovers, and then sends them back to their village with a certificate that they have appealed for his intervention. There is, however, always a certain blemish attached to a marriage contracted in this way, and this is transferred moreover to the children of the marriage. If a young man courts a girl from another village, the young men there try to hinder him by violence. If they are outwitted, the happy bridegroom appeases his opponents with the gift of a yellow steer, or if such a one is not procurable, of a red steer with white feet. The expenses of betrothal and marriage fall mainly on the bridegroom. He provides the cattle to be slaughtered for the two festivals, gives to the bride a number of cows corresponding to his wealth, to his future father-in-law a robe of honour, to his mother-in-law a milch cow with its calf, and to the bride's nearest relations, if they are older than her parents, some smaller gifts. His blood relations provide the bride's ornaments. On the day of the wedding he presents her with another gift, "the right of the bride's bed", [253] in the shape of slaves, horses, cows, according to his wealth, but he has the right to take this back if the bride does not come up to expectations. Among people of moderate means, the young married couple live for some time in the house of their parents, with whom their intercourse, however, is very limited. The husband, for example, does not eat in the presence of his mother-in-law, and for some years displays the same reserve in relation to his father-in-law. The wife, too, should never eat in the presence of her parents-in-law, or of her brothers or sisters-in-law, if they are older than she is. A wife not only never eats together with, or in the presence of, her husband, but eats at such a distance from him that he can neither see nor hear her eating. Children should not eat from the same dish as their father, in order not to infringe the respect which they owe him. The reciprocal requirements of courtesy are also regulated by the strictest etiquette. If one meets an acquaintance, the hand is extended to him, and he is asked how he is, and how he has found the night or the heat of the day. But if one meets an unknown person, the hand is simply raised, one wishes him peace and goes on one's way. If one encounters a group of people who are sitting together, one crouches down for a

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moment beside them, asks how they are, wishes them peace all round and passes on. If a man and a woman meet, the latter remains standing at a distance of about twenty paces, turns her face away, and waits, bending down or even on her knees, until the man is a similar distance in front of her. A woman must not pass a man who is sitting down ; instead she slips past on her knees. The custom is similar for younger in relation to older people. Younger people leave the company of older people on their knees standing up only when they are right outside the circle. Children do not greet their elders unless the latter are returning from a journey. In that case, a son bows in front of his father, and a daughter kneels before him, while he places his right hand on their left shoulder without uttering a word of greeting. [254] This is an appropriate place to show how the display of respect for the aged, for people of rank and for the authorities, of a wife for her husband, and of children for their parents, finds its most pointed expression in the extreme veneration with which the sultan is regarded. For the people of Wadai, he is scarcely any longer a man, but rather a demi-god. It may seem contradictory in this respect that the history of Wadai is so rich in revolts against the government, but it has to be taken into account that the revolting tribes have begun hostilities only because they wish to bring to the throne someone else who in their view is the lawful sultan. In early times, as Muhammad el-Tounsy too has reported, 1 no subject could bear the name of the ruler. At the accession of a sultan to the throne, every subject who happened to have the same name as the new king had to change his name, and this custom was still binding at the time of Khorefin [c. 1813-29], who extended the prohibition to the names of some of his relations. Since that time the rule has been forgotten, and in my time the name of Ali, as well as that of his predecessor Sherif, was quite common. The sultan in Constantinople alone is recognised by the people of Wadai as superior to their own sultan, as in earlier times they recognised the sultan of the extinct dynasty of Bornu. 2 This concept of the overlordship of the Bornu government was transferred at the time of Muhammad Sherif to Shaykh Umar, although he, or rather his father, was a usurper. For this reason all his counsellors advised Sultan Sherif against military attacks on Bornu, which in fact ended with little success or renown for him. 1

Ouaday, 146-8, 372-3. An agreement, probably of 1889-90, from the Tibesti region, refers to an Arna chief there as second in rank only to the Sultan of Wadai, the Turkish government, and the Bornu government. The scribe, Mahamat Bahar, who made the later copy which has survived to be published, was from Wadai ; J . d'Arbaumont, "Organisation politique au Tibesti: une convention entre Arna et Tomagra", Bull. Institut français d'Afrique noire, xviii (1956), 150. 2

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We turn back to the family. It is customary on the birth of a child to utter a cry of joy; this is done three times for a boy, only twice for a girl. The infants take their mother's milk for an average period of two years, and it seems therefore not impossible that a faqik, who was a friend of mine, and who had a very retentive memory, could in fact clearly remember, as he claimed, receiving nourishment in this way. [255] From the seventh day the heads of newborn infants are periodically shaved. After two years the hair of girls is allowed to grow, while for boys a tuft is left standing on the top of the head. Small children are usually carried on the back, not as in Bornu on the hips, in a skin, and after two months female children may be made to sit up, in order, as it is said, "to prevent them from growing too long". The same is done to male children only after four months. A broad leather neck band, gurnek, is placed on a child in order to give support to the head. Infants usually make their first attempts at walking at the age of eight months. It has already been noted elsewhere that boys are circumcised at the ages of from eight to twelve, and the festivities which then take place have likewise been described in detail earlier [pp. 73-4]. Nearly all the tribes also impose a similar operation upon girls. When a boy begins to attend school, he is in some measure removed from being brought up by his father, and, leaving his parents' house, he comes under the control of his school-teacher, or faqik. Up to that time children of both sexes go without clothes; boys then wear a kind of shirt, and only much later a pair of wide trousers. And, finally, a boy also uses sandals, or the yellow or red goatskin shoes imported from the west, Bagirmi or Bornu, and is thus equipped with the complete men's clothing which will be discussed later. Very small girls go naked or wear a belt, roro or rakhat, with a leather fringe, or decorated with cowries. As they grow up, they wear the kamftis, girdle, consisting of a piece of cotton cloth the width of a hand and ayard long, passed between the legs and fastened round the groin with a narrow ribbon, and hanging down in a long train. Nor are girls without ornaments in the form of ear-rings and bracelets. Only when they are five spans high are [256] their right nostrils bored through so that the favourite cylinders of coral may be fitted there; they then also put on the women's girdle, the chief ornament of a Wadai woman, and their hair will also be made up like that of a woman. I have already [p. 69] had occasion to note that in cases of illness in Wadai, relations and friends turn up in order to offer advice or be active in other ways. If anyone is about to die, everybody who has had even the most distant connection with him hastens to him, and, as everywhere in these countries, they scarcely wait until the corpse is cold in order to make the necessary arrangements for burial. An early burial is regarded as desirable, and the methods used differ little from

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those of other Muslim countries. A dead person is placed in a grave as deep as the hips for a man, up to the shoulders for a woman, and the grave is closed as carefully as possible, and protected against wild animals by thorns, stones, etc. On the day of the burial, there is a general reception, and the faqihs appear to read the Quran through for seven days, in return for which they are provided with food and merissa. In relation to inheritance the law that male heirs, even if they are distant relations, have the preference over females, is generally applied. The principle that daughters should receive only half the share of a son, while all sons inherit equal shares is, as everybody knows, prescribed in the Quran j 1 it is thus a command of God, and, as in all the Muslim countries, has the status of law. If there are only daughters and sisters, and no male relations, the former still do not inherit anything more, the residue of the inheritance belonging to the sultan. No dying person has the right to make testamentary dispositions or to disinherit anyone. There are no longer any men in Wadai who wear skins; 2 instead they wear tobes, trousers and sandals. There are four kinds of tobe, distinguished [257] according to the coarseness or fineness of the material (toqqiya) of which they are made. All those which are manufactured in the country itself are white; the reason for this is said to be the fact that dark colours are not popular, but it must also be noted that the art of dyeing is at a very low level in Wadai. The tobes are not so wide as those worn in Bornu, but still have very wide sleeves because of the tacking of the longish rectangular sack on the sides. The opening at the neck is round and without any decoration. Tobes from Kotoko (Dar-Makari) are worn by the well-to-do, while more distinguished people have them made from European material which comes from Tripoli or Egypt. At most two tobes are worn over one another; never, as in Bornu, do they go as far as four or even five. Distinguished people add perhaps a caftan of silk, cloth or cotton, worn over the tobe. The northern burnus, usually white, and rarely black, is also seen among them, though not so frequently as in Bornu. On the day when a battle is expected a red burnus is preferred. The trousers made of toqqiya are fairly wide and reach to the ankles. Footwear, as I have said, consists of sandals, the ornamental varieties of which are called na'l bagirmi. During the rainy season wooden sandals are worn, as in Bornu. Shoes of coloured goats' leather are also popular, but mostly for riding, and 1 Quran, Al-Nisa*: T h e Women, surah 4, 1 1 : God thus directs you as regards your children's inheritance: to the male a portion equal to that of two females. 2 Although the clothing, etc., of the W a d a i people had already been mentioned in the course of the travel story, it still seemed appropriate to return to the subject again here. D. H .

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for this purpose they are equipped with a special attachment for the big toe, in order to grip the stirrup. The head is uncovered and, if possible, shaved every week. Students are an exception to this. Learned men, pilgrims and old men usually wear a small, white, cotton cap, while the red Tunisian cap, the tarbush, is the custom only among foreigners and court officials, when it is worn with the red or white turban wound round it; in the king's presence it is laid aside. Pocket handkerchiefs are unknown in Wadai. With the exception of the moustache which is usually shaved, beards, as a rule rather sparse, are worn as nature has bestowed them. As ornaments men frequently wear silver finger-rings and armbands of ivory, horn, clay or [258] stone. The chief ornament for a man, however, is the so-called dum-fruit, muqla, i.e. a ridge in the skin between the ear and the neck caused by the recurrent application of a dry cupping glass, which according to the people of Wadai is the token of warlike zeal and of fearlessness. The people of Wadai are seldom without their weapons, which thus constitute an essential element in their external appearance. The weapons consist chiefly of a large lance, four or five spears, two daggers, one smaller carried above the elbow, the other, about the size of a hunting knife, on the wrist. The great men of the country also carry a sword, or a short iron-tipped club, which hangs on the saddle. In addition to the daggers,called galmanak and gulak or jenak, there is also a long hand-knife, bulingak, and some ten kinds of lance, with longer or shorter handles and iron tips, each of which has a special name. The Wadaians' shields are about as high as a crouching man, shaped like a thumbnail. A wooden frame is covered and decorated with leather from cattle, buffalo or giraffe hide, or in the Pagan countries from elephant or rhinoceros hide. The quilted shirt of mail, libs, is worn under the tobe. Heavy cavalry wear a thickly quilted garment, the covering of which is made of toqqiya or cloth. The caps which serve as protection for the head are made of iron wire, with a quilted layer below which hangs over the neck. From this "helmet" proceed strips of iron to protect the face. A horse's quilted mail coat reaches down to its ankles, and covers it so completely that only the eyes and ears are visible. The brass plates over the breast and face seem to be ornamental rather than protective. At the animal's back, however, behind the saddle, is a large number of pointed iron prongs in the quilted coat, intended to prevent an enemy from jumping up there. Apart from the girdle already mentioned, which is decorated with coral, glass or [259] clay beads (frequently in forty or fifty strings), and worn as a thick pad round the hips, the Wadai women's dress includes the large shawl for the hips, and the shoulder and head shawl. The hip shawl (Arabic firde, also called firde gingriminek in the Wadai language), which is the smaller of the two, covers the hips and legs, and

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reaches to the ground. Hjere, too, luxury has in the course of time increased the original length from about 3 dra to 12 dra, and these long shawls trailing on the ground are called firde endurki; they are, of course, worn only by the upper classes, being made of fine toqqiya, cotton, half-silk or silk, the usual firde being made of coarse toqqiya. In Dar-Ziyud and Dar-Said, the M a b a women are frequently seen followed by young slaves who carry for them the luxurious train of the firde endurki. Another kind of firde, firde kurmonjang, consists of a piece of material which covers the left shoulder, but leaves the right arm free; from the left shoulder nearly to the wrist it is sewn together, and is decorated on the shoulder with silk embroidery. T h e garment is enclosed from the right shoulder to its end at the knee. Usually made of fine toqqiya, in alternate white and blue strips, this garment is not in general use. Trousers of silk or turkedi are frequently worn under the firde by well-to-do women. Under the influence of increasing luxury, the length of the head and shoulder shawl, nreke mushon, like that of the firde, has also increased from the original 8 dra, with a width of 4 dra, to some 16 dra, and forms an enormous train. These shawls are, of course, made only of better toqqiya or of European cotton or silk. T h e shawl encloses the whole person, and custom demands that especially the head and face should be covered by it. Women who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca wear a kind of small head-shawl, similar to that of the sherifs and ulema, which is sometimes wound round like a turban. Women's ornaments consist of necklaces, bracelets, anklets and hair adornments. Necklaces, kurmonak, [260] are worn of oval-shaped pieces of somij or kijel .(? agate), pieces of coral, or of gold and silver, or of long beads of various sizes which have been pierced. Coral, murjan, is imported in various sizes, of which four classes are distinguished, and sold by the pound. Stringing coral together with zeitun (Arabic, olives, also called kawadim and mansus), is very popular; these are large transparent balls of various sizes, dyed yellowish or greenish. Long necklaces on the neck and shoulders arc also worn of aqiq, red agate which has been made into beads, and which are sufficiently costly to be paid for with a slave, a sedasi. Armbands are worn on the forearm above the wrist, to the number of five or six. T h e y are either silver, copper or brass, or made of buffalo or rhinoceros hide. Among the Arab women armbands of ivory are popular. T h e anklets are either large hollow silver rings with small stones or pieces of metal, or not so thick but massive and, therefore, more expensive, rings of silver. O n l y the poorer women wear brass rings. T h e hair, the style of which has been frequently described [e.g. pp. 64-5], is arranged around the head in innumerable thin plaits, which among the married women fall like a veil over the face, while two thicker plaits run from the front of the head over the parting to the

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Wadai

back. At the back of the head the plaits are decorated with a massive crescent-shaped silver ornament, the horns of which, in contrast with the Bornu fashion, are turned downwards. These horns are connected by a string of coral, and strings of coral also run from them to the thick plaits at the front of the head, whence again others lead back over the ears. The middle line of the head is decorated with smaller silver crescents, the concave sides of which point backwards, and are connected with the large crescent by small strings of coral. Finally, strings of coral go over the forehead from temple to temple, hanging down over the ears; others hang down at the side in pairs from the middle of the head, and their ends are decorated with hollow gold and silver balls. In spite of [261] the fact that almost the whole head is thus covered, there is still a place over the ears which is decorated with silver crescents the horns of which point downwards. A large ring of small pieces of coral strung together is also worn on the lobes of the ear with a special arrangement which makes it stick out from the ear. Finally, this part of the toilette of a Wadai woman is completed by a cylinder of the favourite coral bored through the right nostril. Among the Arab women it is made of silver either with the same shape, or semi-circular. The lips and gums are subjected to special treatment. The lips are pricked with acacia thorns until the blood runs, and into the wound iron filings are rubbed, thus producing a blackish grey colour.The gums are treated similarly, but rubbed with the bile of cattle which produces a bluish colour. Above all the women pay great attention to the care of the mouth, and are seldom seen without a toothbrush in its corner. This takes the form of a cylinder from the wood of the siwak {salvadora pérsica) which has been frayed at one end; as soon as they sit down they use it vigorously. In addition to its mechanical effect, this wood also has the attribute of keeping the breath sweet. 1 In Tama women's dress is still entirely of skins, from which the hair has been removed, and which is coloured with black clay. In the right nostril they wear a copper or bronze ring, like that also worn by the women of Qjmr and Sungor, and bracelets and anklets of the same metal. Their hair style is similar to that described above, but instead of coral, they ornament their hair with white beads, so that the head appears to be completely white. They also wear a string of large white beads as an ear ornament. Their gums and lips are not coloured. The chief food of the people of Wadai comes from peniciltaria (dukhn, qsab) and its varieties; of the other kinds of corn durra (ngaberi), rice, wheat, beans (lubia), sesame and especially the wild varieties of 1 El-Tounsy also remarked on the devotion of the women of Wadai to dental hygiene. Standing, sitting, walking, everywhere, they brush their teeth, he said, hardly stopping for sleep or work; their teeth are accordingly of exquisite cleanliness, their breath delicately perfumed (Ouaday, 398-9).

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kreb (eragrostis), abu sabe, adar, askemta and bertemele, are eaten. T h e r e is a good deal o f meat, and those w h o are better o f f especially enjoy the flesh o f r a m s and [262] camels, a n d as a special dainty, r a w c a m e l liver. T h e mass o f the population have o n l y the poorer less h i g h l y regarded beef. T h e J e l l a b a a n d the people o f Gerri are specially w e l l k n o w n as m e a t eaters. T h e K u k a , the Massalit a n d others w h o live o n the B a t h a , like fish, as do also the inhabitants o f the B a h r es-Salamat to the south. T h e natives south of the B a t h a , however, are connoisseurs oiangaderi, i.e. food w h i c h , while not directly forbidden, is nevertheless a b n o r m a l or unusual in W a d a i , lion and antelope flesh, various insects, etc. T h e K a s h e m e r e h , the K a r a n g a , the M a r f a a n d the K a j a n g a (Ertana) are one g r a d e still lower in the eyes of the people of W a d a i . T h e y eat frogs w i t h relish a n d do not disdain lizards. I f w e disregard dukhn, durra a n d the various kinds o f wild corn w h i c h are popular a n d generally suited for the conditions of the country, beans form the favourite food of the K o n d o n g o , the K a s h e m e r e h a n d the inhabitants o f the D a r - S a ' i d . In addition to beans the K a j a n g a also like sesame, and balanites leaves are a favourite dish o f the Sungor, M a r a r i t and Massalit. F o r the genuine M a b a people, however, the various meal dishes, aish, h a v e top preference. T h e s e are generally better prepared than in Bornu, m a i n l y because the corn is more finely ground by r u b b i n g on stones, than b y being p o u n d e d in a mortar, as is the Bornu practice; but also in W a d a i the d o u g h seems to be kneaded with more care. V a r i o u s kinds, kudugudugaia, leddek, asida, are distinguished according to the stiffness o f the brew, the length of time for which it is cooked, and w h e t h e r it is well kneaded or is less stiff. T h e varieties of cereal mentioned above are substituted for dukhn by those w h o prefer them. In D a r - M a b a and a m o n g the K a s h e m e r e h , dukhn or durra meal is mixed very thick, cooked until all the water has disappeared, a n d then dried and eaten with milk. A n d in addition to the milk, as in Bornu and other countries, the aish is eaten with sauces, m a d e of dried or pounded, and sometimes of fresh, meat or fish with vegetables, or sometimes o f fruit, and in w h i c h agreeable changes c a n be m a d e b y a d d i n g various leaves of trees and shrubs (khudra). [263] In general, indeed the v e g e t a b l e sauces, idam, are the most favoured, and very tasty varieties are m a d e from gherkins and the leaves of the t a m a r i n d . A c c o r d i n g to its principal ingredients and the various methods o f preparation, each sauce has a special n a m e , of w h i c h I h a v e noted some twenty-eight. T h e r e are also, as for the aish, different methods o f preparation in use b y the different tribes. O f great value on a j o u r n e y , and also frequently having an excellent taste, are the often mentioned cakes, kisra, m a d e of corn, rice, dukhn, etc., w h i c h are mixed with honey or w i t h milk and spices, a n d are baked or dried. Drinks are m a d e from corn [dukhn, durra, etc.), as well as from honey, dates, etc., with the

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addition of water; they are left standing until fermentation begins, and drunk under the names merissa khabsha, merissa ambilbil, merissa horde, merissa khall, merissa geringa. I know of three kinds of permitted non-intoxicating drinks, which, made of water and corn or meal (or of aish), are distinguished from those mentioned above only by the shorter process of fermentation, from which they get a sweet-sour taste. I have already remarked elsewhere that the people of Wadai are much addicted to intoxicating drinks, despite the stringency of the action taken against this prohibited indulgence. M y experience of this in Abeshr proved very discreditable to the natives. T h e genuine Wadai people are in any case not very amiable, and have a violent quarrelsome nature; when they are drunk the whole of their natural savagery comes to the surface, and during my stay in the capital there was scarcely a week without disputes arising from drunkenness in which men were badly, sometimes fatally, injured. It might be expected that in a country with such a complicated social order, with such carefully arranged social gradations, the arts of peace, handicrafts, trade and commerce must also have developed; this is, however, by no means the case. T h e people of Wadai are at a [264] very low level of civilisation. In the Hausa countries and in Bomu excellent cotton cloth is manufactured, and richly and tastefully decorated ; the goat leather tanned by the Hausa is dyed by them in diverse fashion and used for the most delicate work; Darfur is distinguished by its straw work and basket weaving; the K u k a market is richly supplied with all kinds of natural and manufactured products. In this respect, however, Wadai shows no capacity for rising above the most primitive level of artisanship, resorting, as soon as there is a question of getting better things, to the skill and good taste of other tribes. If, for example, anyone wants to have a fairly elegant straw hut or an earthen house built, he turns to a man from Bagirrni or B o m u ; if he wants to be well dressed, he buys clothes from Bornu or the Hausa country. If European cloth is to be worked up, he must turn to people from Bagirmi or Bornu. Anything that has been made in Wadai or by the people of Wadai is always clumsy and unserviceable. T h e shoes and sandals are crude, the horse saddles uncomfortable, basket and straw weaving is ugly and not at all durable, the cotton cloth which is called toqqiya is incredibly coarse and of bad quality. It was the clear recognition of this lack of skill and industry in his people that induced K i n g Ali, as I have said [p. 67], after the victorious war against Bagirmi, to settle some 12,000-15,000 prisoners of war in his country, where they showed up very advantageously against their surroundings. T h e advantages of trade were the only benefits of civilisation about which the king had some measure of success in convincing his people; it is indeed chiefly in the hands of foreigners, but in general Wadai is

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more advanced in this connection than the neighbouring countries. At least it was so in my time. Imports come into Wadai by three routes, from J a l o , from Darfur and from Bornu. Caravans coming from J a l o and Darfur have the same starting point, Egypt. On the route from J a l o goods are carried by its inhabitants, the Mejabra, on the Darfur road, by the Nile merchants, [265] the often mentioned Jellaba. About a hundred Mejabra come in each year, and their average capital may be put at about 250 Maria Theresa dollars per head. There are some indeed who bring in goods worth 1,000 or 2,000 dollars, but also many the value of whose goods must be estimated at less than 100 dollars. Nearly all the more important merchants are foreigners, for example, Hajj Salim from Qairawan, whom I have mentioned in the account of my travels. During my stay in Wadai there arrived for the first time in Abeshr a caravan, whose starting-point was not Cairo but Tripoli, and which represented a greater capital value. The chief imports from Cairo were those small pieces of ordinary cotton cloth, maqta kham, about 14 meters long and 1 - 1 J meters wide, which take the place of money, or, as might be said, of the dollar. The Maria Theresa dollar, however, had a lower value in Wadai than in Cairo, for while in Cairo two of these pieces of calico could be bought for one dollar, they cost three dollars in Wadai. In addition to the pieces of European cotton cloth which are substitutes for the dollar, the frequently mentioned strips of coarse indigenous cotton cloth, toqqiya, also serve as small change, ten to sixteen of them having the value of one piece of calico. There are of course no small subsidiary coins, and this inconvenience is made good by pieces of paper or glass beads. The important differences between the levels of civilisation in Wadai and in Bornu are clear in this connection, too. The standardised currency officially introduced into Bornu, the Maria Theresa dollar, with its subsidiary coin, the cowrie shell, has the great advantage of the very small values which are indispensable for buying the cheaper goods and smaller quantities, and has a not insignificant effect upon price relationships. In addition to the cotton goods which have been mentioned, imports from Cairo include the large red clay beads which, with the name khaddur, "hidden", are used as women's ornaments, worn under their clothing around the waist, large amber beads, and small quantities of silk, [266] velvet, cloth and shirting. Much the same goods come via Darfur, while merchants from Tripoli brought luxury goods, for which, however, there was only a narrow market. Import tolls on caravans from J a l o amounted to 2 maqta kham, or maqta tromba per camel load; on caravans from Darfur, 7 maqta is levied, of which the king takes five and the queen-mother two. The difference is to be explained by the much more difficult desert road which the

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people from J a l o have to take, a n d b y the circumstance that on the d a y w h e n they cross the frontier, the J e l l a b a , w h o come from D a r f u r , frequently put three loads o n one c a m e l , in order to diminish the toll. I n addition to these taxes there are levies for the chiefs of the foreign merchants and for the official w h o a c c o m p a n i e s the c a r a v a n to the capital, and finally for the governors of the border province. T h e t a x on one donkey-load is 2 maqta tromba. F r o m B o r n u there is only a small import of H a u s a manufactures, the indigo-dyed K a n o tobes, turkedi, goat skins tanned and d y e d in K a n o , and the shoes which are m a d e f r o m them. T h e exports of W a d a i consist of slaves, ostrich feathers and ivory. Slaves have always been the most considerable item, and particularly with K i n g Ali's warlike spirit, w h i c h he has also endeavoured to m a i n tain a m o n g his officials a n d subjects, they were obtained in considerable numbers. T h e M e j a b r a alone w h o c o m e from T r i p o l i and travel back to T r i p o l i and to E g y p t h a v e themselves b r o u g h t some 15,000 slaves to the north, but h a v e carried w i t h t h e m fewer ostrich feathers, and o n account of the difficulties of transport, still less ivory. T h e T r i p o l i tanians themselves bought no slaves, and only v e r y unwillingly accepted a few individuals, male a n d female, as presents for their personal needs. Ostrich feathers and ivory were exported via D a r f u r , and the easier route to the east also allowed the export of articles of less value, such as tamarind, incense (luban), and the like. O f ostrich [267] feathers a n d ivory, perhaps 100 centners cross the frontier y e a r l y to the north a n d cast, without reckoning the share of the k i n g himself, the greatest merchant in the country in these exports. T h e r e are considerably more ostrich feathers in W a d a i than in the n e i g h b o u r i n g countries, t h o u g h their quality is not outstanding. A b o u t t w e n t y years ago a w h o l e ostrich skin could be b o u g h t for one dollar, or even for less, and in one skin there is an average of three pounds o f black and one of white feathers. In the course of time d e m a n d and exports have increased their value fifty-fold. T h e Sherif S a l i m f r o m Q a i r a w a n bought chiefly ivory, for it was his intention to return b y the more convenient route v i a D a r f u r , and in view of the length of his stay he was afraid that ostrich feathers w o u l d be destroyed b y moths, while the irritable temperament of slaves caused h i m too m u c h anxiety and annoyance. H e had been in W a d a i for two years, and w i t h an original c a p i t a l of something more t h a n 1,000 M a r i a Theresa dollars h a d been able to collect some 25 centners of ivory, but was still looking for another 50 centners. T h e foreign merchants w h o wish to deal in ivory sell their goods on credit to reliable natives, w h o then take t h e m to the rich sources of ivory in the Bahr es-Salamat, R u n g a and K u t i . I n m y time a centner o f ivory, w h i c h in E g y p t cost 150 dollars, could be bought in K u t i for beads or cotton strips to the value o f 10 dollars.

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Because of the difficult desert road to Benghazi, which requires indeed only fifty days' march, but is very poorly supplied with water, caravan traffic to the north took place only once or twice a year, while trade between Darfur and Egypt went on without interruption. T h e king of Wadai, like the king of Bornu, did not disdain to enrich himself with trade; every third year he sent to Cairo a caravan which was exclusively his own over the desert road via K u f r a or Jalo. Since K u t i , which had the reputation of being the most productive source of ivory, was reserved to him, he exported mainly ivory, and a few ostrich feathers. H e could [268] send 300 centners approximately every third year, and had besides less reason than the merchants to fear the difficult transport through the desert, since the Mahamid and all the other Arabs on the northern border were very well supplied with camels, and had an obligation to provide a sufficient number for him for such a journey. Some of his dignitaries and officials accompanied these caravans, and as they had to provide their own provisions, the king could carry on his trade with very little expense. Wadai is far from being such a rich country as Bornu or Darfur, and for the maintenance of his household the king was mainly dependent on this trade, which, after allowing for incidental expenses, must have brought him 50,000 Maria Theresa dollars every three years. A m o n g the Nile merchants there are fearless and enterprising men, who travel themselves to the northern and western borders of the country to collect ostrich skins, or visit the regions on the Bahr esSalamat to buy ivory at first hand. T h e y then get their wares at derisorily low prices, though often with some risk to their life. T h e enterprise is difficult and requires an exact knowledge of the country and its people. T h e wholesale trade of Wadai, if it can be so described, is carried on in the capital Abeshr, and in Nimro, the town of the merchants; public markets are held only in three or four other places. T h e Abeshr market was in any case not nearly so well supplied as the market in K u k a . T h e advantages which Shaykh U m a r had provided for trade through the introduction of the Maria Theresa dollar were easily recognisable in Abeshr. In K u k a everything could be purchased either for dollars, or for cowries; in Abeshr the maqta tromba took the place of the dollar, but there was a tremendous number of the necessaries of life which could be purchased only with other valuables. If, for example, one found in the market butter, honey and the like and they were by no means always available - their owner perhaps firmly refused maqta tromba or dollars, and demanded instead the kawadim, large amber beads, or the khaddur, [269] clay beads, mentioned above, or some other kind of object, which one then had to purchase elsewhere in order to make the desired exchange. O n l y dukhn

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could be bought for tromba or its sub-divisions, the teqaqi, or the ferda, a half toqqiya. During my time 12 teqaqi were exchanged for 1 maqta tromba and 8 teqaqi for 1 dollar. Dukhn had the same price as in Bornu; 1 toqqiya purchased 4 mudd. For 1 ferda one bought a bundle of straw, sufficient for my horses for about two days, for 1 toqqiya four hens, and for 1 ferda one leg of mutton. Wheat seldom came on to the market; one measure cost 4 teqaqi or half a Maria Theresa dollar. Rice, which grows wild in many places, especially in the Dar-Ziyud which I visited on my way to Abeshr, was not highly regarded as a food and was seldom brought to market. Wood was abundant, but wooden eating bowls and drinking vessels made from gourds were rare and much more expensive than in Bornu. The same was true of the siggedi, the straw matting, called here and by the Arabs sherkaniya, which is used for fencing farms, and for verandas and enclosing the walls of huts.

CHAPTER

X

THE HISTORY OF WAD AI 1

[270] While the kingdom of Bornu had flourished for centuries and under its Muslim princes had greatly extended its power, its eastern neighbours, which later became the kingdoms of Darfur and Wadai, still lay in the darkness of Paganism. The Tunjur were the dominant tribe in these regions; the date of their immigration from the east is still obscure, but [271] their dominance began scarcely as much as a century before the introduction of Islam. The Tunjur, of whom a detailed account will be given in the history of Darfur, are lightskinned, and speak Arabic, so that both in Wadai and in Bornu they are regarded as genuine Arabs. 2 In Darfur their power had already been broken before the introduction of Islam; in Wadai this task fell to Abd el-Kerim, the founder of the kingdom, who introduced Islam at the same time there. Long before the end of Tunjur domination, Yame, or his father, with the members of his family migrated to this region from the east. Despite the erroneous assertions of some scholars, Yame's family has nothing in common with the Qimr, who are of central African origin. It belongs rather to the Ja'liya in Shendi in the Nile valley, north of Khartoum, who recognise as their ancestor Salih ibn-Abdallah ibn1 The references to Nachtigal's informants (on pp. 210, 212, 221) might be interpreted as implying that most of the information in this chapter was collected by him in Abeshr. This is not, however specifically stated, and as the chapter corresponds closely to the account of the history of Wadai published in 1874 in the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, which presumably was despatched before Nachtigal reached Abeshr in April 1873, Ganslmayr thinks that Nachtigal did not add much to his knowledge of the country while he was in Wadai. The Faqih Adam, who returned to Abeshr from Kuka while Nachtigal was there (p. 123), was mentioned by him several times earlier as a valuable and reliable reporter on conditions in Wadai (cf. i. 638-9). Nachtigal said that he had found no written history of Wadai, but in a letter sent from Kuka to Gerhard Rohlfs in February 1872, he reported that he had come into possession of an extremely important book, of which he had made a copy, which gave a list of its kings. Petermanns Mitteilungen 19, 1873, 205; cf. Ganslmayr, in Nachtigal, 71-2. * Cf. p. 346 n. 1. 205

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A b b a s , and therefore call themselves Abbasids, just as even today the inhabitants of Shendi, A b u H a r a s , U r f a , Neselmiya and the town of Sennar are nearly all said to be Abbasids. 1 Before these migrants entered the districts of what later became W a d a i , they spent some time in w h a t is now Darfur, first to the east of K o b e , in the mountain district of W o d a , and later on the Burgu mountain at K a b k a b i y a . W e find here the origin of the two names W a d a i and Burgu, both of which are commonly used for the kingdom of W a d a i . In D a r f u r W a d a i is called Burgu, while W a d a i is used in Bornu and Bagirmi and b y the A r a b s of W a d a i . T h e Q o r a n call it K u g u , and in the written language it is called D a r - S a l i h , i.e. the kingdom of the descendants of the Abbasid, Salih i b n - A b d a l l a h . 2 T h e derivation of the name from that of a man called W o d a is based on an error. Y a m e , the A b b a s i d - the rulers of W a d a i have an undoubted right to bear this title - settled at D e b b a , in the immediate neighbourhood of the later W a r a , and northeast of it. His son, A b d el-Kerim, a very pious man, founded a small M u s l i m community, with w h o m he engaged in religious propaganda from Bidderi in Bagirmi. 3 After his [ 2 7 2 ] 1

The people in this region who called themselves Abbasids claimed to be descended from Salih ibn-Abdallah ibn-Abbas, a member of the Abbasid family which founded the second great dynasty of the Muslim empire, displacing the Umayyads in the middle of the eighth century A.D. The Abbasids trace their origin to el-Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet. After the capture of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, a line of Abbasid caliphs was established in Cairo, where, however, effective control over Egypt was in the hands of the Mamluks. The feeble show of Abbasid authority there came to an end with the Turkish occupation of Cairo in 1 5 1 7 , and the last Abbasid caliph died in 1538. According to the story which Muhammad el-Tounsy heard from one of the aqids of Wadai in the early nineteenth century (Ouaday, 70-5), the children of the Abbasid dynasty had dispersed, one of them going to the Hijaz, where he had a son Salih, an able jurist and a very devout man. Ulema on pilgrimage from Sennar persuaded him to return with them to Sennar, where, however, he found so much libertinage and debauchery that he pushed further on, finally winding up in the Abu Sunun mountain in Wadai. There he converted the local people, who were idolators, teaching them to pray and fast, and was eventually made sultan. This account of the Abbasids was not, however, universally accepted. El-Tounsy was told by others in Wadai that the sultans of the country had no blood relationship with true Arabs, while others again said that the Abbasid descent was real, but its date and the circumstances under which it took place were not known. Nachtigal noted earlier (p. 153) that the Masmaje were converted to Islam forcibly at the beginning of the Abbasid régime. He says here that the rulers of Wadai had an undoubted right to be called Abbasids, but according to Sir Harold MacMichael (A History of the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge, 1922, i. 197), there was no evidence to support the claim made by the Ja'liya, the tribe to which Yame had belonged, to descent from the uncle of the Prophet. * A different origin for the name Dar-Salih is suggested on p. 2 1 1 . 3 H. Gaden specifically corrects Nachtigal here, for the implication (not quite explicit, however) that Abd el-Kerim founded Bidderi, though he did study there ("Note sur le dialecte foul parlé par les foulbé du Baguirmi", Journal asiatique,

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return he cherished more and more a plan for overthrowing the Pagan rule, the rapid realisation of which, so tradition records, was occasioned by the following circumstances. K i n g Daud, who at that time ruled over the Tunjur, had a daughter, Me'iram Aisa, with whom A b d el-Kerim was carrying on an intrigue which was betrayed to her father. 1 V e r y angry, he ordered the miscreant to be arrested at the earliest opportunity. A b d el-Kerim was saved by the swiftness of his horse. Moved by concern for his own safety, he decided at this point to act resolutely. By marrying the daughters of his family to the chiefs of the Mahamid, the Mahariye, the Nawaibe, the Ereqat and the Beni Holba, he ensured for himself a substantial following among the Arab population, he attracted to his side by his promises the native black tribes, and finally he adopted a strategy, which tradition describes as follows: he had his A r a b supporters invited to come to him with their camels, with long tree branches attached to their tails. With this army of camels, which with the branches hanging down from them stirred up a great dust on the road, he advanced against K i n g Daud, who, deceived by the clouds of dust, believed that there was a large army in front of him, and, terrified, took to flight. K i n g Daud himself was indeed killed. 2 Some of the Tunjur turned towards K a n e m , and called for the protection of the king of Bornu; others remained in the A b u Telfan region, where they still live practically independent under a sultan of their own. T h e former residence of Daud, K a d a m a , still exists, about four days' march southwest of Wara, in the region of the Kashemereh. T h e traditional story of the foundation of the capital, Wara, is that A b d el-Kerim had camped one day with his men near the present site Paris, 1908, 6. For the Fulani founders of Bidderi, see Barth, Travels,

iii. 433, 528,

5921 For other instances of the liaison, usually more formal, between a newcomer bringing Islam and the daughter of the local ruler, see M.-J. Tubiana, Survivances priislamiques en pays zaghawa (Paris 1964), 32 n.; c f . 20-1. 2 A Bornu manuscript, published in H. R. Palmer, Sudanese memoirs (Lagos, 1928, reprinted London, 1967), ii. 32, summarises the affair thus: Then the Sultan of the Tunjur gave him [Abd el-Kerim] his daughter to wed, and said, "pray G o d for me".

But he prayed on his own behalf, and so the Sultan died, but the "Sherifs" rule Wadai till now - the Abbasid Sherifs. Nachtigal's account is clearly more circumstantial: but this brief passage may be significant in reminding us of the practical impact of religion (first in the sultan's hope that A b d el-Kerim might help him, and later in A b d el-Kerim's own personal elevation). It is one of the few shortfalls in Nachtigal's generally all-embracing narrative that he shows little interest in local religious practice and belief. Another account, presenting A b d el-Kerim as the supplanter of a previous immigrant, the ancestor of the Kapka Zaghawa, interprets the authority of both men in religious terms; Tubiana, Survivances, 80.

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of Wara, where at that time there was an impenetrable forest. The calves from his herds penetrated into the thickets, and inside fared very well on the juicy fodder which the well-watered soil offered to them. When in the evening the calves could not be found, it was necessary to break through the thicket, and Abd el-Kerim, [273] observing the abundance of water and the luxuriant vegetation, decided to found a town there, which in memory of the occasion he called Wara - in Arabic War or Wara means "the place which is difficult to pass". He established his residence there, assembled his Muslim community the first general conversion to Islam had taken place at Debba built a mosque, and ruled for twenty years, it is said from 1635 to 1655, in peace and quietness.1 During this time, he paid tribute to Darfur as the Tunjur had done before, mainly in the form of a princess despatched every three years,2 and to Bornu, whose intervention in favour of the Tunjur he thereby averted. Abd el-Kerim's successor was his son Kharut, who reigned over the young kingdom justly and peacefully for some years longer than his father, from 1655 t o 1678, strengthened it internally, and won general affection for himself. The only noteworthy event recorded during his reign is that Wara was considerably extended, and made into a veritable capital. Kharut was followed by his son Kharif, who was killed in the third year of his reign, 1681. His downfall came on an expedition to Tama against the sultan Milbis, who lived at Nyere, called in Wadai Yangal. Milbis, indeed, fled at the approach of Kharif, who pitched his camp in Lafunga, but the sultan of Tama returned and thus induced Kharif to approach within a day's march of Nyere and to camp in Abu Hadid. The rainy season had begun, and the Wadai troops told their leader that they wanted to go home to look after their fields. O n his emphatic refusal, most of Kharif's men secretly abandoned him, only a small number of faithful followers remaining with him. O n hearing this news Sultan Milbis hurried forward and killed the king of Wadai and his companions. Kharif was followed by his younger brother, Ya'qub Arus, 16811707. The following folk tale may be taken as characteristic of the sense of justice of the people of Wadai. As a punishment for the faithlessness of the men of Wadai, the country remained without rain during Arus' reign for seven years, the consequence of which was a general 1 The chroniclc of Wadai (in Palmer, Sudanese memoirs, ii. 28) says that the installation of new sultans on the sacred mountain (see p. 174) had been practised before Abd el-Kerim's day, but that he founded a town there and began farming. People were attracted to him especially because many, owing to the Tunjur raids, had feared to plant. * According to p. 281, this was an annual obligation.

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[274] cattle pestilence, and hunger and misery for the population. Arus, however, perceived the reason for this punishment from heaven and tried to atone for the wrong that had been committed. He secretly sent a confidant of his to examine his brother's grave in Tama; his emissary succeeded in bribing an old woman with an ornament of white beads, so that she showed him Kharif's grave in a river-bed. A large tree, called Salob, was growing there. Arus then went himself to Tama, pitched his tent on the spot of which he had been told, dug there, and found the body of his brother without any signs of decomposition. He had the body carried away, put on a horse, and conducted to Wadai with umbrellas held over it, while he himself followed the corpse. When they touched the soil of Wadai, the wind which had long been missing began to blow, and when Kharif had been buried with all honours, the first rain fell. A second miracle then followed; the corn necessary for sowing was lacking, and an ant, so the story goes, went from the Konada mountain, near Wara, to Tama, and carried so much seed corn that everybody was able to satisfy his requirements. With the increasing prosperity of the country, its spirit of independence also increased again. When Ahmed Bokkor, the sultan of Darfur, had payment of the customary tribute demanded from Wadai, and a princess had been chosen for this purpose, a poor ragged man named Kirdi came forward, obstructed her departure, and described this tribute as a disgrace for the land of Wadai. Arus, delighted that there were still real men in his country, ordered the princess to remain, and sent instead of her two men with a message to the sultan of Darfur that, if he wanted to have his tribute, he could collect it for himself. The messengers carried out their dangerous commission, but Ahmed Bokkor did not allow anyone to lay hands on them, sending them home without any answer.1 When Ahmed Bokkor, an old, peace-loving man, hesitated, despite this provocation, to advance against Wadai, Arus took the initiative, and marched into Darfur by way of Kheir-Wajid, [275] Murli, Nokat, Sag (Shag), and Ferreoli as far as Shutak (the name means, "Beware of entering this place"), where he camped by a lake, Rahat Bergana, and from there, near the Jebel Marra, raided in all directions. On learning of these attacks, the long-suffering sultan of Darfur sent a messenger to Arus to ask him what he wanted in his country; to this the insolent man replied that he was on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Bokkor then sent him one of his daughters as wife "for the long road to the holy land", asking him to set forth on his journey. Arus, however, remained where he was and on her arrival the unfortunate princess was treated with contempt. Now at last Ahmed Bokkor decided to take action against Arus, and succeeded in surrounding him in his camp. In the middle of 1

Cf. in this connection and later the chapter on the History of Darfur. G . N.

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

the camp was a tree, beside which Arus stood holding one of its branches with uplifted hand. Ahmed Bokkor's soldiers threw themselves on the men of Wadai who surrounded him, but Arus continued to resist until a shot from an Arab tore away the branch which he was holding. He then gave the signal for retreat, broke through with his people, and was not pursued by Bokkor, who showed himself willing to make a peace without seeking any indemnity; the treaty for this purpose was ceremoniously buried on the border. Anyone, so it was agreed, who would pass this spot with hostile intentions, would be guilty of perjury. Bokkor's daughter was given back to him. Ahmed Bokkor's grandson, Omar Lele, did not hesitate to demand again the customary tribute from Wadai, but received the same reply, he could come and get it for himself. In response to this challenge he sent an army against Wadai under two of his commanders, Kunyina and Dima-Uma, 1 who found the enemy well prepared. With one column the Kamkolak Dudder camped in the Wadi Delal, which comes here from the east, and with the Lobbode and the Monjobok forms the Buteha, which runs into the Batha at Malamm five days' march southwest of Wara, [276] and the Kamkolak Geren, an ancestor of my informant, camped in the Wadi Lobbode. Dima-Uma took up his position in front of Dudder and defeated him, while Kunyina was beaten by Geren. A t this critical moment the two sultans rejoined their armies, and Arus, marching along the river-bed, succeeded in making a detour around his enemy, and falling upon his rear; instead, however, of taking him unawares, he loudly challenged him before he attacked, decisively defeated the army of Darfur in a bloody battle, and drove it to hasty flight. For the kings of these countries flight would be a disgrace that could not be erased; Omar Lele therefore remained behind, surrounded by his servants and the members of his family, and they were all massacred. He himself was taken prisoner to A b u K u n d i in the Jumbo district, where he spent his days in reading the Quran, and now lies buried there. Arus then enjoyed a long reign, the duration of which is not precisely known, since even the written chronicles of these countries do not regard such matters as important. Arus' son and successor, Kharut es-Sarhir, "the younger", reigned for forty years from 1707 to x 747, his reign being noted not for warlike enterprises2 but for the welfare of the country, the general contentment of the citizens and security at home. His son, Joda, followed him, 1747-95, the brilliance and power of whose rule is at least comparable with that of the first ruler, A b d 1 Dima-Uma is actually two words and two titles; the name combines that of the chief of the Dimenga, Dar-Dima, and of the Umanga, Abu Uma. G. N. 1 Cf. however p. 285.

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el-Kerim, and that of his successor, Sabun. This is also indicated by the various nicknames under which he is better known than under his real name, e.g. K h a r i f T i m a n , the double harvest, 1 M u h a m m a d es-Salih, the pious, es-Sarif, the boundlessly generous. F r o m the second of these nicknames, Salih, comes the name for W a d a i of Dar-Salih, Salih's kingdom, which represents this sultan as in some sense the second founder of the kingdom. During his reign O m a r Lele, w h o had been taken prisoner by Y a q u b Arus, died, and his death was the cause of fresh conflicts with the eastern neighbouring kingdom, for A b u 'l-Qasim, O m a r ' s brother and successor, no sooner received the news of his death than he, too, embarked upon an expedition of revenge against W a d a i . [277] H e assembled a large army and entered W a d a i under the pretext of wishing to pray at his brother's grave. Accompanied b y his generals, D i m a U m a and K u n y i n a , he camped on the territory of W a d a i at R a k a n n a near the Lobbode in the T u n j u r region. J o d a permitted no delay. M a r c h i n g rapidly with his army to the east, he made a detour round his enemy, as Arus h a d done. But A b u 'l-Qasim, so the story goes, had with him a camel mare, naqa, whose milk he used to drink every day. W h e n one d a y his slave girl A m d e m e r a m brought him the milk, and he noticed that it was black with dust, the girl w h o had brought it could offer no explanation. 2 He then had a look-out mounted for the enemy, and from the top of a tree his scout reported that he saw something glittering on the horizon like water with the sun shining on it. " T h a t , " replied A b u 'l-Qasim, "is the swords and weapons of the e n e m y . " T h e n the other man said that he saw something like stones approaching. " T h a t , " said his master, "is Joda's horses covered with their saddlecloths (lebabid)". Finally, the scout said that he noticed something like waving cornstalks. " T h o s e , " cried the sultan, " a r e the lances of the men of W a d a i , " and at once h a d his army prepared in battle order. T h e two armies were soon confronting each other. O n Joda's left stood Said, the A q i d of the J a ' a d i n a , with his contingents and on the right the A q i d of the A w l a d Rashid. W h e n the former was asked by the king to move from the left behind the battle-line to the right, he replied that he could not take upon himself the disgrace of a movement masked in this way, and that he wanted to go forward before his master's face. N o sooner said than done. In front of the centre of the Forawa, where A b u 'l-Qasim was, there broke out a fierce struggle, in which 1

More correctly, double autumn, autumn being the time of rain and sowing.

El-Tounsy, spelling the sultan's name Gaudeh, says that he was celebrated for his generosity, for when he gave it was abundantly, as double rains enrich the land

('Ouaday, 74, 632). 8

El-Tounsy also reported a black milk story, somewhat different, however, from

Nachtigal's; Ouaday, 86-7.

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Said indeed lost a third of his men, but defeated his enemy, and at last took prisoner a man whom he took to be the sultan. The Amin elBahar el-Kunyigawi had, however, placed himself in front of the sultan and thus it was he who became a prisoner, while the sultan, wounded in the shoulder, escaped to his own country. The exchange was not discovered until later. Joda [278] had the booty which he had acquired spread out before the prisoner, generously offering to him a selection from it together with his freedom; the amin, however, like a sultan, refused to make use of this "ignominious" permission and remained a prisoner. This remarkable exchange is said to have remained in obscurity until quite recently; my informant, a trustowrthy man who belonged to the noble Kodoi tribe, told me that he had learnt about the mistake that had been made in Darfur, where he had lived for ten years. During his long reign Joda made eight military expeditions against the Jenakhira, the Pagans in the south of the kingdom.1 The conquest of a large part of Kanem, which up to that time was ruled by Mele, a khalifa, or viceroy, of the king of Bornu, he did not undertake himself, but left to the Aqid el-Bahar Gerfa, who also conquered Mondo, the centre of Tunjur power. Sultan Joda reigned for forty-six years, but was so weakened by age in the last years of his reign, that the business of government had to be conducted by the Aqid Dud Barka. For this reason some of the leading men in the kingdom aimed at deposing him, but the general opinion was opposed to this, and Joda remained in undisputed possession of the throne until the time of his death. It is said that at the end the wrinkles on the old sultan's face fell down so far as to cover his eyes, so that if he wanted to see the wrinkles had to be tied up. But when a false alarm announced that an enemy was at the gates, the sultan had himself lifted on to his horse, and convinced himself that the rumour was without foundation. Joda's son and successor, Salih Derret, though not a bad character, was an incompetent ruler, and completely in the hands of his advisers and slaves, to whose treachery he eventually fell a victim. He had nine sons, Abd el-Kerim, later called Sabun, whose mother belonged to the Malanga tribe, Radama, Muhammad Sherif, Asad, Abd el-Jelil, Tirab, Muhammad, Ahmed and Otman. He appears to have preferred Asad, the son of a wife of inferior birth, to his eldest son, Abd el-Kerim, who [279] had adopted a hostile attitude towards his father's advisers, and who, though he had a large following, kept away from the court. Salih Derret had reigned for eight years, when on one occasion he went with only a few companions on a more distant excursion, 1

M . Perron, el-Tounsy's editor, explains Junkarawi as a general term applied to those Pagans lying to the south of Wadai, whom it was customary for the Muslims to enslave; for the area south of Darfur, the corresponding general term was Fertit, while south of Bagirmi and Bornu it was Kirdy (Ouaday, 3 - 4 ) .

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during which, whether through the treachery of some of the great dignitaries, or an intrigue of the hababa, or head wife, the news of his death was spread around and his grave was actually prepared at the burial place of the sultans, Tumang. In view of the secrecy with which in that country the illness or death of a sultan is treated, the seclusion of his private life, and the small number of people who had immediate access to his sacred person, this story did not appear at all strange, and it is even possible that the hababa herself was deceived. Since she was afraid of Asad and his associates, she hastened to inform Abd el-Kerim, in accordance with custom, by sending him an empty bowl. Abd elKerim, who at once acted with resolution, had used his withdrawal to good purpose to win adherents and power; with his people he set off for Wara, at the same time despatching messengers in every direction in order to increase his forces. With the help of the six aqids who supported him, the most dangerous men in his father's entourage were removed, and night found the son already in possession of the palace and at the graveside of his father, to whom he had always shown filial respect. The supposed dead man is said to have returned during the night, learnt of the conspiracy, and fled to Delmik to the Kodoi. Next morning Abd el-Kerim had himself proclaimed sultan, and with unhappy energy had all who were hostile to him executed. Voices were, however, soon heard affirming that Salih Derret was still alive, and charging Abd el-Kerim with a conspiracy against his father, to which Abd el-Kerim replied that, if certain proof of Salih Derret's survival were produced, he would be willing to withdraw immediately. Messengers were despatched, however, in vain; they returned without having achieved their objective, and Abd el-Kerim then set out himself to convince himself about the identity of his father, who had his headquarters with the army of the Kamkolak Abd el-Baqi at Batuma in the region of the Madala. [280] Salih Derret waited for his son at the head of a small force, and his son, recognising him wanted to submit to him. His mother, however, implored him not to expose himself unreservedly to the anger of the aggrieved sultan. While Abd el-Kerim was still hesitating, wavering between his duty towards his father, his love for his mother, and his concern about his own person, one of his men attacked Salih Derret and killed him. Abd el-Kerim had the murderer immediately executed, but saw himself obliged to take up the fight which broke out after the murder, and plunged the party which was hostile to him in a great blood-bath. By this time in unquestioned possession of the throne, Sabun, the name by which Abd el-Kerim is nearly always known, had to fear only Asad, his father's favourite son, since his other brothers were still children. Asad was not present at the time of the catastrophe, and when he learnt about it, he fled to Darfur to Sultan Muhammad el-Fadl.

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After an unsuccessful effort to get him out of the way by assassination, Sabun succeeded with the assistance of traitors in luring Asad into Wadai, where he wanted to appear as a claimant to the throne. Asad set up his headquarters in Bir Tuil, east of Wara, and was surrounded with royal honours by Sabun's conspiring creatures; suddenly he was taken by surprise and carried a prisoner to Wara, where on his brother's instructions he was blinded. In the second year of his reign Sabun undertook his memorable expedition to Bagirmi against Sultan Abd er-Rahman Gauranga on the pretext of wanting to punish his mode of life which was an affront to all the laws of religion. 1 He invaded Bagirmi, captured and destroyed the capital, Massenya, had the Sultan Abd er-Rahman killed, and set up as his successor his son Burkomanda, 2 who after a long reign died during the reign of Muhammad Sherif in [281] Wadai. Bagirmi's tributary obligation to Wadai dated from this time. 3 Since in the meantime Sabun's brother Radama had grown to manhood, he too fell victim to Sabun's suspicion, in the same way as Sabun was able in bloody fashion to get rid of all the enemies, real or supposed, of his government. His brother, Muhammad Sherif, who as a child had been a witness of Radama's death, later escaped the danger which threatened him only by fleeing to Darfur. After a year of peace Sabun turned against Tama, which had hitherto successfully resisted every effort of the Wadai princes to subjugate it. The sultan of Tama, Abu Derek, lived at Nyere at the foot of the mountain of the same name. Sabun established his headquarters at Amberwati, and insistently prodded the resolution of his generals by making known to them his determination to have them all 1 Cf. ii. 7 1 2 . El-Tounsy gave a long account of this episode, on which his father, U m a r , had accompanied Sabun, Ouaday, 1 2 2 - 8 6 . 2 In ii. 7 1 3 , it was stated that Sabun made N g a r M u r b a Bira, the son of A b d er-Rahman, his successor, but that his brother Burkomanda killed him and himself seized power. D. H . Writing in 1 8 4 5 , El-Tounsy said that he could not remember the name of the son of Ahmed who was left behind as sultan by Sabun, Ouaday, 1 7 1 . 3 Bagirmi's tribute consisted of 500 slaves, 3 0 young slave girls, 3 0 horses and 1,000 tobes, and was payable every third year. G . N . Barth says that the triennial tribute w a s " a hundred ordinary male slaves, thirty handsome female slaves, one hundred horses, and a thousand shirts or khalgan, besides ten female slaves, four horses, and forty shirts to Z e r m a or J e r m a , w h o is the inspector of this province" (Travels, iii. 4 3 8 , but cf. iii. 5 5 2 ) . According to elTounsy, the annual tribute first imposed on Bagirmi was 1,000 slaves, 1,000 horses, 1,000 camels and 1,000 robes called godany or taikau; T c h i g a m a , A h m e d ' s eldest son, w h o was later installed as sultan, represented the poverty of his country following the wars to Sabun, who then reduced the tribute by half (Ouaday, 1 7 1 , 1 8 2 ) . Later the custom of the king of Bagirmi, in discharging this obligation, of sending old and ugly slaves as tribute was one factor which provoked W a d a i to attack again, in 1 8 7 0 (Nachtigal, ii. 7 2 4 ; for slaves as tribute, see Fisher and Fisher, Slavery, 1 4 9 - 5 3 ) .

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executed since they were not endowed with that courage which constituted the glory of the people of Wadai. They implored him to postpone his sentence until after the battle, in which they would demonstrate the contrary to him, and competed in miracles of bravery and in overcoming the difficulties offered by the scarcely accessible sanctuary of Sultan Abu Derek. The sultan, however, succeeded in escaping and fled to the Zoghawa in the northeast of his country. After he had destroyed the villages, cut down the woods, and dragged away all the young people, Sabun returned to Wara, while Abu Derek remained in possession of his country, but submitted to the supreme authority of Wadai. After Sabun had put down revolts by the Kodoi and the Gamar 1 during the years which followed, he directed his attention to linking his country with the Mediterranean. The history of his successful and patriotic [282] efforts in this direction is so thoroughly examined elsewhere [i. 379] that I pass it over here. Sabun reigned for only ten years. In spite of the ruthless and sanguinary vigour with which he had fought for his throne and consolidated his rule, no one in Wadai hesitates to describe him, with Joda, as the wisest and most brilliant princes who have ruled over the country. The cause of his death is in some measure shrouded in mystery; he seems to have received a fatal wound from a spear thrust in 1813, whilst on an excursion to his favourite resort in Dukri (Duggi) on the road to Nimro in pursuit of some thieves, and to have died after dragging himself back to his palace. His murderer has never been discovered. Sabun left six sons who were still children, Muhammad Busata, Yusef, Idris, Seif en-Nasr, Dayog and Jafer, whose mother, Amina, belonged to the Madaba tribe. Muhammad Busata, who as the eldest came first to the throne, died of smallpox after two months, and the shortness of his reign is an adequate explanation for the frequent disappearance of his name from the list of rulers, and the designation of his successor Yusef as the direct successor of Sabun. His nearest maternal relations undertook the business of government on behalf of Yusef, who was still a child. Any possible claimants to the throne, brothers of Sabun, were blinded in accordance with the usual barbarous custom. When he reached manhood, Yusef tried to free himself from his guardians. He undertook an expedition against Tama, where sultan Abdallah es-Sarif was reigning, but achieved nothing there, since his relations, and also at their instigation the magnates of the country, gave him only inadequate support. In the tenth year of his reign, he again advanced against Tama, but was again prevented from an energetic prosecution of the campaign by the discovery of a conspiracy against his life in which his own mother was involved. Relations between him and his relations and former 1

The Gamar, a section of the Awlad Jema, had supported Salih Derret. G. N.

2l6

Journey from Bornu to Wadai

guardians indeed became more and more strained, the latter trying to poison him with food which was sent from Wara into his camp, [283] and to put Seif en-Nasr on the throne. Even his wives, of whom he had ninety, were among the conspirators. After, by trying it on a dog, Yusef had proved that the food which was offered to him was in fact poisoned, he handed over his ninety wives, who had brought the food to him, to the executioners, and then had all the conspirators, including his brothers, imprisoned, blinded or killed. He then returned to Wara where, by executions and the like, he satisfied his feelings of revenge to his heart's desire. A n expedition against the Pagans of A b u Telfan, as well as another against Sula, had, like all his military undertakings, no real success. After returning from the latter, Yusef, who was generally known as Khorefin, lived at Tara, a few hours from Wara, a revengeful, bloodthirsty tyrant, alienating more and more the hearts of his subjects. In fact, he played such havoc among the great men of the country that his council finally consisted exclusively of slaves, and he was so unpredictable in his bloodthirsty anger and in the choice of his victims that everyone who came near him had reason to fear for his life. T h e only act of a generous nature that was known of him was the release of his great aunt Simbil and his mother Amina, who had been imprisoned after the conspiracy and whom later he restored to their property and honours. After he had provoked suspicions of a new atrocity by his strange, behaviour at two meetings of his council, the following council members, the Amin Sherif, Amin Teissa, Aqid Yugurde and Awad Avergur plotted together to bring to an end this condition of continual general insecurity. They had poison given to the sultan in a drink, while they awaited the results nearby. When immediately after drinking, Yusef realised that he had been poisoned, and seized his weapons, the conspirators at once strangled him. 1 Raqib, Khorefin's surviving son, who was still a young boy, became his nominal successor in 1829. During his short [284] reign more blood flowed in the country than ever before. His mother, who was of slave origin, and her advisers took charge of the government, and endeavoured to strengthen it by sanguinary measures. Murder and execution were the order of the day, and since the regent and her relations and advisers were of Arab origin, the intention was ascribed to them of 1 According to Fresnel ("Mémoire", 71-2), Yusef was poisoned by one of his favourite female slaves in a garden whither he had gone to disport himself. Although this is no reason for necessarily preferring Fresnel's account to Nachtigal's, it is worth noticing that other occasional instances of murder by slaves are known : a cleric from Sennar, teaching in Wadai, was killed by his own concubines there (Wad Daif Allah, Tabaqat, Khartoum, 1930, 3a). Cf. Fisher and Fisher, Slavery, 92-3.

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gradually killing all the free men, allowing only the A r a b elements to remain, and carrying on the administration with slaves. T h e attempt of the Kamkolak Turlulu Y a k u b , a Malanga, to overthrow the government of the sultan's guardians at W a r a was frustrated by the cunning of Tenzil, Raqib's mother, and cost him his life. Twenty of the distinguished men of the Malanga were then summoned to a conference in Wara and likewise killed. T h e regents then sent detachments on a raid to the place where this tribe lived, and its inhabitants made a timely flight to the Kodoi. A t a joint council these two most respected tribes of Wadai resolved to bring this hopeless business to an end, and to place on the throne a man from the royal family who was living among the Kodoi. This man was A b d el-Aziz, a son of R a d a m a and grandson of Sabun Gandigin, who for his part was a son of the sultan Joda. A b d el-Aziz was living quietly and in retirement in his family circle, and had never hitherto appeared as a claimant to the throne. T h e assembled tribes of the Kodoi and Malanga sent two Malanga men, A d a m Nun and A b d el-Mahmud, to him, and found him in the company of a weaver who was a friend of his. T h e emissaries sought a secret interview with him, which he at first is said to have refused with the remark that he had no secrets from his weaver friend, but finally agreed to their earnest request. They then said to him, "Sultan R a q i b is dead, and Dugri, the son of a slave, sits on the throne of W a d a i ; he is determined to kill all the free men, and has already begun this bloody work in Wara and with the M a l a n g a " . T h e y swore to the truth of this story on the Quran, in order [285] to convince the hesitant A b d el-Aziz who had not been inclined to believe them, and he then accepted it as his duty to bring to an end this disgrace for his country and for its free men. He first went to Kurngon, the chief centre of the Kodoi, whose head chief, a slave, was the first victim of their enterprise. A n army which was sent against the insurgents from Wara on the news of these events was first driven back by them at Tukulbei, but at a second encounter put the Kodoi to flight and returned victorious to Wara. During the night, however, the Kodoi and the Malanga, whose flight had provoked the contempt of their valiant women, gathered together; the Madaba, the A w l a d Jema, the Mimi, the Mararit, the Ganyanga and the Bitanginna joined them, and they set off for Wara. One detachment of the army met them in front of the town, and was defeated after a bloody battle. T h e Kodoi threw their lances away, and attacked their opponents with their long knives. A detachment of Jellaba armed with muskets was likewise routed, and those who survived and fled into the mosque in W a r a were later killed. It is also said that pieces of wood with charms inscribed upon them were thrown at the enemy's horses, which were thus overthrown.

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

Wara, including the royal residence, was given over to plunder. Abd el-Aziz established himself in the palace, performed his prayers in the mosque, and had peace and the end of hostilities proclaimed. He had earlier ordered the dethroned sultan, Jerma Dugri, to be brought before him, and when Raqib with two small slaves was brought to him, he recognised the fraud that had been practised. He is said to have shed bitter tears over it but recognised the political necessity of having the young Raqib killed in the interests both of peace in the future and of his own security; he condemned, however, to serve as executioners the two emissaries of the Malanga and the Kodoi, who had deceived him by a false oath. Abd el-Aziz was by this time undisputed master, at least of Wara, but peace did not last long. Despite his conciliatory disposition and upright character, new enemies constantly appeared. The Malanga, who at first were his passionate supporters, [286] deserted him, and set up a new claimant to the throne; they were, however, defeated at Kadaza by the Kamkolak Abu Ommi. Then came the Kelinga, who set up Ja'fer a son of Sabun; they were totally defeated by Abd el-Aziz who had Ja'fer killed. The Tittir and the Ganyanga also set up a pretender of royal descent, and wanted to bring him to the throne by means of assassination. Their plan was, however, betrayed, and the murderers seized and executed. In order to punish the other conspirators, the Kamkolak Abu Ommi and the Jerma Abd el-Qadir advanced against the Tittir and the Ganyanga, destroyed their villages, and killed all the inhabitants whom they could get hold of. Nor did a large number of prisoners who were brought to Wara escape this gloomy fate, which appears to be not the ultima but the prima and indeed sola ratio of all Wadai governments. After the revolt of the Tittir and their associates, there followed one by the Kondongo, who intended to place a prince, Rashid, on the throne. Abd el-Aziz fell upon them at Burtai and completely destroyed them. During the battle he made use of the stratagem of having umbrellas, one red and the other blue, carried by his slaves without himself making any use of them. When the insurgents supposed him to be under the blue umbrella, they directed all their efforts towards this point, and thus diminished their strength elsewhere. Scarcely had these numerous revolts and domestic conflicts been with difficulty suppressed, or actually drowned in blood, and peace established at home, when a fresh disaster hampered the sultan in his concern for the prosperity of Wadai. The country was afflicted by a famine, which became so serious that the magnates proposed to their master to go into the Pagan countries to collect corn. Abd el-Aziz, careful not to leave the country open to enemies from without, at first refused permission, and allowed himself to be moved to yield only by the ex-

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tremely determined attitude of these men; he, however, himself remained in the country with a few faithful followers. His fears soon found adequate justification, for an army [287] was approaching from Darfur. It was already in Wadai territory when Abd el-Aziz fell ill with smallpox, and died in the sixth year of his reign. Abd el-Aziz left nine sons, all still young children. O n behalf of Adam, the eldest, who was seven, the uncle of the dead king, the Kamkolak A b u Ommi, took control of the government. His first measure was to recall the small force which under the Kamkolak O b o had been despatched against the advancing army of Darfur. O b o was willing to obey this order, but was overborne by his proud and warlike companions, and compelled to fight an unequal battle with the enemy. When he was indeed on the point of retiring, his cousin, Y a q u b Yangangera, i.e. "the friend of battle", angrily called it a disgrace to retreat without having seen the enemy, and while O b o was hesitating, he had the drums sounded to take horse, mounted his own powerful grey steed, and announced that he preferred death to an ignominious retreat. O b o had perforce to yield, since his other commanders were also following Yaqub's example. The Darfur army was camped quite near the little Wadai force, and was at once attacked by this desperate band. The Darfur forces, infinitely superior in numbers to those from Wadai, however, gradually surrounded them, and of the 1,000 horsemen under Obo's command, only five escaped alive. O f the commanders O b o himself and two others saved themselves by flight. Yaqub, urged to exchange his clumsy horse for another, stabbed it, and declared that he was willing to fight on foot. He actually advanced on foot into the midst of the enemy horsemen, and immediately fell. This battle was at Ahbes. In the meantime A b u Ommi had also set out with a small force to make a last desperate effort to overthrow the enemy, and he was joined by the three leaders mentioned above. The dead Sultan A b d el-Aziz, foreseeing the attack from Darfur, had warned the Aqid Adam not to attack the enemy with any small force, but to get close to him in skilful night marches, [288] and to take him unawares. A b u Ommi, neglecting this advice, openly attacked the superior forces of the enemy at Amrata, for he regarded it as a disgrace to take advantage of the enemy by surprise, and only a few of his men escaped alive. The Darfur army then advanced to Batuma. In the army there was a prince of Wadai, Muhammad Sherif, who was not, however, as was generally supposed, the occasion for this expedition against Wadai. During the famine which had ravaged Wadai during the last years of Sultan A b d el-Aziz, the eastern tribes of the unhappy country had in their distress made frequent raids in Darfur territory, and finally exhausted King Muhammad el-Fadl's patience so that he decided at last to punish them by an

Journey from Bomu to Wadai

220

armed attack. O n the advice of his trusted slave, Said Bomu, Muhammad el-Fadl gave the expedition a direction different from that which he had originally intended. " I f you, master," the slave said, "want to wage war against Wadai, do not go yourself, for the history of the two countries shows that, when they take the field in person, the sultans of Darfur always fare badly; therefore send only your leading men. But do not send them on the usual plundering raid, which would make all the tribes of that brave nation your enemies, but rather send with the army a Wadai prince, who will immediately raise a party of his own in a country disrupted by domestic strife and famine. Place him on the throne, and make him a tributary of Darfur." Muhammad el-Fadl, recognising the soundness of this advice, summoned the Wadai prince, whom as Muhammad Sherif we shall see on the throne of Wadai, from Jemaan, where he was living in modest circumstances as a small merchant, with his wife and three sons, Muhammad, Ahmed and Suleman. He showed little disposition to appear as a claimant to the throne, but the sultan persuaded him, fitted him out, and gave him a wife from the palace. This is the place to discuss whether the claimant to the throne was, or was not, identical with Muhammad Sherif, Salih Derret's son who, as was recorded above, had during Sabun's reign escaped the danger of being killed like his brother Radama [289] by fleeing to Darfur. With him had fled another prince, Izz ed-Din, a son of Tambe, who was a son of Sultan Joda. Muhammad Sherif, horrified by the cruel fate which threatened all the younger sons and all the male relations of a sultan of Wadai, vowed that he would never aspire to a throne which had been established on corpses and blood, and thus it came about that he exchanged his name and, so to speak, his lineage with his companion Izz ed-Din, who, as the son of a foreign slave mother, had according to the law of the country no prospect of ever coming to the throne. From that time he called himself Izz ed-Din, but later in part resumed his own name, for after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he called himself Sherif el-Hajj. Later he went to Bomu, and there married the divorced wife of Tirab, the mother of the well-known Hajj Beshir, the all-powerful minister of Shaykh Umar. 1 We find Sherif el-Hajj again later on the islands of the Karka or Karga, to which he had retired. The real Izz ed-Din, on the other hand, called himself Muhammad Sherif, the son of Salih Derret and of the Hababa Were from the lineage of the Kelinga, and lived at Jemaan in Darfur. He, too, showed no disposition to enter the political arena, but was, however, as reported above, induced by the course of events and the influence of Muhammad el-Fadl to come forward as a claimant to the throne.2 Cf. i. 600. Hajj Beshir was executed in 1853. * Fresnel ("Mémoire", 70) does not mention this exchange, saying simply that

1

The History of Wadai

221

Improbable as this story may sound from many points of view, my informant was such a trustworthy man, and so well versed in the history and the affairs of his country, that I feel obliged to accept his report as true. M y reporter's statements on this matter were quite positive, and were definitely confirmed by his uncle, the Kamkolak Didan, who had indeed known both the genuine and the false Muhammad Sherif. T h a t it was easy for Sultan Muhammad Sherif to silence the doubts of the H a b a b a Were and of his brother A b d el-Jelil can be understood without any difficulty, if one bears in mind ..he trifling value of a man's life at the court of Wara. The exchange is still not generally acknowledged, but there are certainly several other people who have known the truth about it. [290] The secret was, however, quite safe; no one who valued his head betrayed it. W e now turn back to the army of the Forawa and the pretender to the throne, to whom we give the name which history has adopted of Muhammad Sherif Ibn Salih Derret, while the actual prince of that name we call Sherif el-Hajj. When the army arrived at Batuma near Wara, Muhammad Sherif had all the inhabitants of Wara summoned to betake themselves to the royal palace so that no harm would come to them on his impending entry into the city. T h e child sultan A d a m and his nearest relations nevertheless fled, but they were captured and Adam was handed over to the Forawa. It was in these circumstances that Muhammad Sherif ascended the throne of Wadai - Sherif is here only a name and has nothing to do with descent from the Prophet - and the beginning of his reign, which lasted from 1835 to 1858, was distinguished by a mildness which was unheard of for a new ruler of Wadai. There were only a few executions. The Darfur army returned home, taking the dethroned Adam with it, and for one year the new sultan reigned quietly and peaceably. In the second year of his reign he undertook an expedition to the eastern part of Lake Chad, the swampy islands of Karka or Karga mentioned above, where those magnates of the kingdom had retired who, under the rule of Abd el-Aziz,had stripped the country of its forces and abandoned it to the enemy. Here they were trying to tear Muhammad Sherif el-Hajj away from his retirement, in order to present him as a claimant to the throne against Sultan Muhammad Sherif. The latter, however, soon got the mastery over them, had the leaders who fell into his hands executed, and returned with a rich booty of cattle to Wara, Yusef h a d blinded one of his uncles and four of his brothers, but that another uncle, M u h a m m a d Salih, later to become Sultan Sherif, had escaped. T h e refugee went first to Darfur for seven years, and then to M e c c a , as a mujawir

or sojourner in the

holy places, for a like period. T h e n c e he returned to Darfur, and was eventually helped to the throne of W a d a i by M u h a m m a d el-Fadl.

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

where, ruling justly, he remained undisturbed from without, leaving the periodical slave raids, or razzias, to his generals. Muhammad Sherif el-Hajj, who, faithful to his youthful resolutions, had shown no disposition to give way to the pressure of his supporters, nevertheless thought it advisable to escape by flight any possible violent measures by the sultan. [291] In the tenth year of his reign, Muhammad Sherif advanced against Tama, whose sultan had behaved with arrogance towards the ruler of Wadai to whom nominally he owed tribute, and by a skilful manoeuvre quickly mastered the situation. Sultan Muhammad enNur of Tama, however, succeeded in escaping to Darfur, whereupon Muhammad Sherif placed his brother Ismail on the throne instead of him, leaving behind five of his military commanders for the protection of Ismail. Muhammad en-Nur, however, returned unexpectedly from Darfur, defeated the Wadai generals, and again seized the throne, while his brother got away in the nick of time. Two further expeditions were launched against T a m a : twice, Muhammad en-Nur returned to the country, but fled again as the Wadai forces approached. Finally, Muhammad Sherif began in barbarous fashion to lay waste the country until he was given the most binding promises of obedience. After setting up another brother of the sultan, Ibrahim ibn-Suleman, as ruler there, he returned again to Wadai. The indefatigable Muhammad en-Nur, as ready to return as to flee, approached for the third time without any forces of his own, but relying on the effects of an appearance in person. A duel, however, ensued between him and his brother Ibrahim at the entrance of the royal dwelling, in which he lost his life, and with his death the episode was concluded. A few months later, Muhammad Sherif undertook his celebrated campaign against Bornu. 1 At first he pretended to be moving against Bagirmi or Kanem, but then turned from the shores of Lake Chad to Kusseri, and sent an ambassador to Shaykh Umar offering to retire peaceably in return for a specified price. Although the Shaykh was completely unprepared, and had sent the greatest part of his forces against the sultan of Zinder, his honour forbade him to give any other answer but to send an army against the challenger. The two armies soon confronted each other on the Shari, at the spot where the Logon runs into it. As a result of the treachery of the people of Kusseri, it was made possible for Muhammad Sherif's army [292] to reach the opposite bank by fording the river, though with considerable loss. A fierce battle 1 One of Fresnel's informants ("Mémoire", 46), Abdullah of Wara, had in the 1840s accompanied Sherif on an expedition against Bornu, apparently the same one which is here mentioned. Abdullah reported that the army of Wadai had no artillery, that its cavalry did not exceed ten or twelve thousand men, but that most of these wore armour. For further details on the expedition, see Barth, Travels, ii, 666-7.

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ensued which ended with the Shaykh's defeat; he withdrew to await the return of larger forces from Zinder. Muhammad Sherif had also suffered heavy losses, and since he would have to cross the river a second time and in addition to await the Shaykh's warlike brother, Abd er-Rahman, who had a considerable force with him, he preferred to enter into negotiations with the Shaykh, and for this purpose used one of the Shaykh's vassals who had been taken prisoner, Ibrahim el-Wadawi, friend and companion of Shaykh Muhammad el-Amin el-Kanemi. The upshot was that for a payment of 8,000 Maria Theresa dollars, so it was said, Muhammad returned to Wadai with his army decimated by disease and losses in battle. 1 After returning from this expedition Muhammad Sherif remained quietly in Wara for four years; by his greed, however, he more and more alienated the hearts of his subjects, and finally left the historic residence in Wara for Abeshr. His loss of sight contributed very much to making some of the factions in the country think of dethroning him, especially since there was never any lack of pretenders to the throne in Wadai. It should be noted here that according to the law blindness does not make a man unfit to rule; it only excludes a man from ascending the throne, but it will always offer a welcome pretext for attempts at subversion. There then began for Muhammad Sherif years of strife and neverending unrest. A start was made by the Kodoi, soon joined by the Awlad J e m a and the Mararit. The Shaykh el-Hiran from the Kodoi tribe is said to have provided the occasion for this revolt. He was a friend of the sultan of long standing, to whom the sultan had once said: " M y door will always stand open for you; should it [293] ever be shut against you, that is a sign that I am no longer alive." Turned away one day at the door of the royal dwelling, the Shaykh el-Hiran wrote to the Kodoi: " T h e sultan is dead" and explained in answer to their questions that a blind old man was sitting on the throne, the father of the Hababa Kedeni. Indignant that, contrary to all custom and usage, a ruler who was not of royal blood should have been placed on the throne, the Kodoi hastened to Wara, but Muhammad Sherif, already informed of their intentions, advanced against them from Abeshr. In a battle at Doruba, the insurgents' pretender to the throne, Hajj Muhammad Gudzan, was killed, with 4,653 Kodoi, the total number of 1 This episode is recounted in ii. 4 1 2 with the addition that Muhammad Sherif penetrated to Kuka and laid it waste, but it is not stated there that he was induced to return by payment of an indemnity. D. H. Ifemesia ("Bornu under the Shehus", 290) says that 10,000 dollars were paid; another version says that Sherif was bought off for 1,000 dollars, 600 being supplied to Shaykh Umar by an Arab trader who accepted slave girls in return (Schultze, Sultanate, 266-7). Nachtigal's landlord in Kuka, Ahmed ben Brahim el-Wadawi, was a son of this Ibrahim el-Wadawi (i. 603).

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

casualties on both sides being 7,000. Only after the battle did the Kodoi learn that they had been deceived; Muhammad Sherif pardoned the insurgents, who, however, felt so little security that many of them fled to Tama, and when Muhammad Sherif asked Sultan Ibrahim to hand them over to him, which the latter refused, they once more sought safety by resort to arms. A new pretender in the person of the Faqih Maken Yudukkum of royal blood, a descendant of Sultan Joda, placed himself at their head, but Muhammad Sherif succeeded in defeating the insurgents and Maken fled to Darfur. Two years later the Tintelak Muhammad revolted against his father. As the son of a Fellata woman he had no chance of ascending the throne, and was with some justification afraid of violence on the part of his better qualified brothers in the event of Muhammad Sherif's death. He was able to take possession of the royal residence in Wara without a fight, since his father was holding court in Abeshr; the latter is said even to have been prepared to hand over the government to his dearly loved first-born, but neither his entourage nor public opinion would have allowed it. He was obliged to step in against his rebellious son, but had him warned beforehand, and urged to repent and make a fresh start. The ill-advised Muhammad however, allowed it to come to an unequal fight, which ended unfortunately for him; he himself and his supporters took to flight. His conciliatory father promised him forgiveness, but Muhammad, not unnaturally mistrustful in view of the history of Wadai, fled to [294] Tama to Sultan Ibrahim. The sultan of Wadai in vain asked for the surrender of his son; Ibrahim replied that his guests had not been summoned by him. They had come to him of their own free will, and would depart only in the same way; he would know how to protect them in his own country. The angry father then decided to fetch his disobedient son himself. He advanced against Tama by forced marches, prudently approaching the capital by detours to the east and north, and established his headquarters at Gubberlele, one and a half day's march from Nyere. Sultan Ibrahim first sent his son Ishaqa against Muhammad Sherif, and when he had been put to flight by the Wadai forces, the Kamkolak Dondor. But Dondor was also defeated. Ibrahim then set out in person, and together with his generals completely defeated Muhammad Sherif's army in the difficult mountain passes. The day after this calamitous battle, the blind sultan returned to Wadai, though still not to find peace there. The sultan of Tama indeed persuaded the Tintelak Muhammad to surrender voluntarily to his father, relying upon his pardon - he followed this advice, but soon fled again, this time to Darfur - but on the other hand Ibrahim also persuaded Adam, the son of Sultan Abd el-Aziz, who, as reported earlier, had been taken to Darfur as a boy when Muhammad Sherif came to the throne [p. 221], to come forward

The History of Wadai

225

as a claimant to the throne, holding out to him the prospect of reinforcements from the Kodoi, the A w l a d Jema and the Mararit. A d a m was only too inclined to comply with this invitation and to enter the bloody and often disastrous path of a pretender to the crown of Wadai. He made all his preparations in secret, and with the same secrecy engineered his departure from el-Fasher, where he was living under Sultan Hasin's protection, and betook himself to T a m a . In Nyere he succeeded in assembling a small force, but repeated efforts at more serious undertakings miscarried because of the indecision and unreliability partly of the leader and partly of his soldiers; finally, A d a m withdrew to a small village in T a m a to await better times. In the meantime Tintelak Muhammad had returned to W a d a i [295] on the pretext of supporting his father against Adam, and was living at T u n g u n g ; he also established a second residence at Kaffenak, a half day's march away, where he daily received new supporters, including many of his brothers and of the other princes. Disturbed again by the attitude of his son, Muhammad Sherif had him seized by his bodyguard and held him as a prisoner in Abeshr, where, however, after a short time he succeeded in escaping. There followed a year and a half of mutual fears and general loss of confidence, when Muhammad Sherif suddenly died. A t the time of Muhammad Sherif's death Ali, the rightful heir to the throne, the eldest son of the Hababa Madena from the Matlamba, was at Foshi, two days' march from Abeshr. T h e Hababa Kedeni sought indeed with a few supporters to place her son Suleman on the throne, but the Kamkolak Asad, in association with the Aqid of the Mahamid, took possession of the royal insignia and carried the body of his dead master to Wara. All these developments occurred with great speed. T h e sultan was scarcely buried, when the crown prince Ali, already informed by messengers, was camped at Delala by the Jebel Balul, where the royal insignia had been brought to him. Tintelak Muhammad with his followers had fled to Sula, and from there to Darfur. T h e Hababa Kedeni was made a prisoner, her sons Suleman and Seif en-Nasr were blinded, and in accordance with the barbarous custom, several other princes and presumed claimants to the throne suffered a similar fate. Ali then saw himself in undisputed possession of the throne. None of the numerous groups of the D a r - M a b a who were always ready for a fight had a pretender at hand, and Ali's character, which was generally highly regarded, provided a basis for this general agreement. T h e new sultan took over the government with justice and gentleness, and with unusual wisdom had continued in this way from 1858 to the time of my arrival in Wadai. Instead of bloody wars and raids, he sought to establish his reputa-

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Journey from Bornu to Wadai

tion by encouraging trade, the revival of caravan traffic with the Mediterranean coast, [296] the protection of scholars, the establishment of strict justice and friendly intercourse with his neighbours. 1 In the third year of Sultan Ali's reign, his elder brother, the Tintelak Muhammad, who had often been mentioned, tried again to provoke a revolt in his own favour, and with this in mind returned to Darfur, but Ali succeeded in nipping the project in the bud. He scored an easy victory, and Muhammad fled again to Darfur, where he disappeared. The efforts of the Hababa Kafani to place her son Ahmed on the throne ended similarly. Ali treated both the Hababa and her son very leniently, but her repeated intrigues and attempts at new revolts at last exhausted his patience and he had her killed. Her son Ahmed had settled in Kuka in 1868, where he was received by Sultan Umar in the kindest way. Adam, the claimant who, as a son of Abd el-Aziz, had a better right to the throne than Ali himself, not only kept quiet, but expressly announced that he had no intention of creating any kind of embarrassment for Ali. By his intelligence and energy, Ali thus maintained himself in undisturbed possession of the throne. The factions were silenced, and the Kodoi, the element most feared in Dar-Maba, enjoyed special privileges from the sultan, who understood how to bind their former pretender, Adam, to himself in friendly relationships. With the usual arrogance of their nation, the people of Wadai indeed reproached him for showing too much favour to foreigners, and for violating the ancient customs of the country. King Ali'in fact often chose his officials contrary to the old practice, not from this or that tribe, or this or that family, but gave an office, which perhaps only a freeborn Maba had previously held, to a slave, if he thought that he would be more competent. This wise prince, however, by the firmness of his government and the justice of his principles of conduct, established such a reputation and a position of such power that any thought of violent discontent was ruled out. 1

There was, however, one expedition againt Bagirmi, ii. 723.

CHAPTER

I

JOURNEY TO DARFUR January

u

to March

8,

1874

[300] I had hoped to reach Darfur by the spring of 1873, but it was not until the beginning of January 1874 that I was able finally to get away from Wadai. On January 1 1 , for the last time I took leave of King Ali, my faithful protector, who again showed his goodwill towards me by sending various items of equipment. I received from him a horse to be taken with me as a present to King Brahim of Darfur,, and he also presented me with a small hack (kadira), five giraffe-hide pots of honey, and the same number of nets (shebeqat) woven from dumpalm brushwood filled with dates, and assured me that he was willing to supply me with camels for the journey. I distributed the honey among my friends, since for the time being I did not have sufficient means of transport to take it with me, and kept for myself only one of the cylindrical woven nets with the dates, giving the others likewise to my friends. After proper testing by experts, the hack was pronounced fit to carry me to Darfur, and I therefore refrained from buying a donkey. Cheap as were the donkeys used as baggage animals in Wadai, the riding donkeys imported from Egypt were considered to be expensive according to local standards. Such a one in fairly good condition, called a rifani, cost from 20 to 30 Maria Theresa dollars at least and my means did not run to such expense. The Egyptian riding donkeys are highly valued in Wadai; specimens such as are frequently seen in Kordofan and throughout Egypt [301] are rare, their price often exceeding that of a good horse. The speed of a good riding donkey is considerably greater than that of a Wadai horse or camel, unless it is one of those riding camels bred by the Tuareg, the Teda, the Bedeyat, and above all the Bisharin. 1 1 have 1 The Bishariyin, a tribe related to the Beja. They are nomads, moving between Egypt and the Sudan east of the Nile. The special qualities of the Bisharin camel have been acknowledged in both history and literature. It was on a Bisharin mare that Slatin Pasha escaped from captivity among the Mahdists, and Dick Heldar, the hero of Kipling's The Light that Failed, died on the saddle of a Bisharin. On the different breeds of camel in the Sudan, see J . D. T o thill, Agriculture in the Sudan (London, 1948), 644-6.

sag

230

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

myself seen a very old donkey, whose owner, a Nile merchant, had been rescued from the cruelty of King Muhammad Sherif during that monarch's last days by the extraordinary speed of his mount. The Jellabi fled from the capital Abeshr, and by the morning of the third day had reached Tineat in Darfur. In the intervening time he had covered the distance of a good forty German miles [about 185 English miles]. In these countries there are great difficulties associated with the departure of a large caravan, and days and even weeks may pass after the originally agreed date of departure before one actually sets forth. Today this man has not yet completed his food supplies; next day the number of another's camels is incomplete, the day after, the king has not issued the permit for departure, the parting present from the king for some distinguished member of the caravan has not arrived. Whatever the reason, departure is put off from day to day, and all these delays make the impatient traveller quite desperate. At last, on January 17, the journey was to begin in earnest. My faithful companion in many lessons, the young Daju prince from Sula, had wanted to accompany me as far as the border of Wadai. The day before our departure, however, he came to me rather sadly, and despondently confessed that his wife, afraid that he would leave her and go off with me into the wide world, had cleared out the whole house during his absence and hidden its contents with friends and relations, thus making the short journey impossible for him. If my friend, Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga, who intended to repeat the pilgrimage to Mecca and visit his relations in Dongola, had not been afraid that some sort of unforeseen event might make impossible for him the journey that had so long been planned, we might not have got away even when we did. With his characteristic energy, however, and in spite of the very varied [302] burdens which he had to carry as chief of the free merchants in Wadai, the little man - Tangatanga means something small, elegant - zealously pushed forward our departure, and we were therefore able to set out on the appointed day at 2 p.m. There is always a great loss of time on the first day of such a journey, and for that reason it is usual to camp after a few hours not far from the starting point, so that anything that has been forgotten may be retrieved. Hajj Ahmed had sent forward his people and his camels, of which he was taking a great number with him, and had himself to remain with the king for a few days; he had promised, however, to join us at the frontier. Shems ed-Din, King Brahim's envoy, and the other merchants, nearly all of whom were from Kordofan, Khartoum or Dongola, and of whom many had got to know me well during the months in Abeshr, set out with us. It has already been explained elsewhere [p. 71] that of the three roads from Wadai to Darfur there are two which can be used only by

Journey to Darfur

231

pilgrims and those very familiar with the country. One of these leads via Tama by a curve towards the northeast, the second southeast via Sula; the third road, which is the usual one for caravans, leads directly towards the east into Darfur. Right at the outset our caravan was divided into two sections. Those who were bringing with them slaves whose legal status was open to question had to make a detour by a little used route as far as the frontier. Since, after the war with Bagirmi, as I reported earlier [p. 67], King Ali had brought into Wadai some 12,000-15,000 prisoners of war, both slaves and free men, there were many Bagirmi people whose slave status was dubious, and for whom it might have been possible to establish their free birth, but who were nonetheless sold as slaves. Such men, as well as stolen slaves, who because of such legal doubts were usually bought at lower prices, were called hami, warm or hot. If one was considering the purchase of a slave, one asked, is he hot [303] or cold (barid) ? Those members of our caravan who knew that they had "hot" human ware with them had to try to reach the frontier by secret paths. After a few hours we camped in the Wadi Gurmele, a small, low, rainwater depression, where the abundance of water during the rainy season was indicated by the numerous wells, which now, however, were dried up. The following day we moved southwards over the hills of Kelingen, a series of separate, irregular peaks in a chain running more or less to the west, with the highest and most considerable peak at the western end of the chain; towards evening, after crossing the Wadi Shuqq and the Wadi Udei, we reached the village of Murra, in a river valley of the same name, which the people of Wadai call Monjobok. It is one of the main sources of the Buteha, with a bed of clean sand and gravel devoid of vegetation. In the village of Murra, a Bagirmi colony settled by King Ali, there were perhaps around 100 huts. This village, as well as Oilombo, also a Bagirmi colony, on the opposite bank of the Murra, with nearly 400 huts, was distinguished by its cleanliness and the good architecture of its huts, and by the appearance of a measure of prosperity. As I have already said [pp. 67-8], the king was extremely fond of these Bagirmi colonists, who in agriculture, in handicrafts and in artistic skill were much superior to his own subjects. The district through which we were travelling had had so far a predominantly sandy and rocky soil, with stunted acacias, soap trees, and Qzyphus spina Christi, and was like a steppe. Only on the banks of the streams was there any luxuriant plant growth. The next day, January 19, ascending from the Monjobok, we passed through the Oilombo village, crossed in a more or less continuous

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

easterly direction the river valley of the same name which is also reckoned part of the Monjobok, and shortly afterwards another valley, Yoye, whose waters likewise run into the Monjobok, with the Askanit villages on its banks; in the afternoon we camped in the sandy bed of the W a d i [304] Koddoni, called by the W a d a i people Wadi Lobbode, which is one of the sources of the Buteha. T h e landscape was similar to that of the day before, stunted mimosa on light soil mixed with humus, intersected by layers of rock and a few steeply rising rocky peaks. Dukhn and cotton were the only crops. T o the north we saw on the w a y a group of hills which belongs to T a m a . O n the northwest bank of the Lobbode were two villages called Mattabono, and on its southeast bank a third village, Le'in. T h e following day, to suit the convenience of our companion, Shems ed-Din, who was a sort of acting chief of our caravan, shaykh el-qajila, we did not set off until 9.30 a.m.; Hajj Ahmed was still kept back by the king, who could bring himself to permit his most faithful adviser to depart only after careful consideration had been given to every possible eventuality. T w o men more different than Shems ed-Din and Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga could indeed scarcely be imagined. T h e former, nearly six feet high and correspondingly broad and stout - such giants are not uncommon among the Jellaba - seemed to sink under the burden of keeping his heavy body moving; he retired to his tent early in the evening, and in the morning could not be roused to break camp. Hajj Ahmed, on the other hand, of less than middle height, slight and delicately built, full of life and energy, could not bring himself to seek his bed before midnight. After our evening meal together he told stories by the camp fire of events from his richly varied experience, and long before daybreak he was already again pressing to move on. Next day, too, January 20, we maintained our general eastsoutheast direction, left Le'in, which lay before us to the south, and further along our road in the same direction another hamlet of only about thirty huts, and came at midday to the large village of Id el-Garra, with perhaps 150 huts. Far away to the northeast we had seen in front of us the day before a group of hills belonging to T a m a , and to the eastnortheast [305], a short day's march away, the Torane mountain. O u r road, however, rose gradually and continuously, as had also been the case to a lesser degree on the preceding days. T h e ground was alternately rocky and sandy, and there was little change in the trees, mainly nabaq, kaia, arred and talha (two kinds of acacia),jakhjakh and hejlij. After skirting some other villages we reached Tiwemat, with 80 huts, during the afternoon, then left Mustakhede to the south, and towards evening camped near Fidele in a small river valley where siwak (salvadora pérsica) was growing, called by the inhabitants Wadi

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Rimele, but by travellers Wadi Kunno, the same name as that of the village on its eastern bank. The following day, January 21, after a four-hour march, during which we passed the large village of Rakkana, distinguished by its wells and magnificent harrazas (acacia albtda), and with at least 200 huts, we came towards the east to the well-known Bir-Tuil, the capital of the eastern border region and the residence of the governor, the Aqid es-Sbah. It actually consists of two villages, the original one and a new one founded by the aqid, in which he himself and his own people mostly lived. The mountain group we had seen in the distance to the northeast was now to our north, and the Torane mountain, which was nearer, was northwest from us. A chain of peaks, some two days' march distant, and belonging to the Massalit region, occupied the whole of the country to the southwest and south. As on previous days, our road was climbing gradually, but we now descended into the valley of the Wadi Delal close by, about a hundred paces wide, with low banks and a deep sandy bed. As this was the principal border village, the whole company had to assemble here and then be guided by the Aqid es-Sbah and his men through an uninhabited desert as far as the first villages of Darfur. We found some of the Jellaba who had gone ahead already camped in the river valley, sheltered, in accordance with the practice of these experienced travellers, [306] not only in huts but also under verandas. There were camped together Hajj Ahmed's people, Shems ed-Din, some other Jellaba, myself with some of those poor pilgrims from the far west who are called Tekarine, natives of Takur on the Niger, 1 a merchant from Tripoli travelling to Darfur to dispose there of some of the luxury articles which he had been unable to sell in Wadai, and one of those adventurers from Egypt who roam around the whole of the Muslim world, sometimes as pilgrims, sometimes as dervishes or as storytellers. We surrounded our camp with a zariba, an enclosure of thorns, quickly constructed from the abundant supply of acacia that 1

Takarin is one of various plural forms of Takruri, meaning someone from Takrur. The original Takrur was a state on the lower Senegal, mentioned as early as the n t h century as being Muslim both in ruler and people. Although it was never a powerful state, even in its heyday overshadowed by Ghana, its name acquired a curiously wide currency in the Middle East, where it was popularly applied to anyone from the western, and sometimes also the central, Sudan. El-Tounsy said that in his day Takrur applied to every area from eastern Wadai to western Bornu (Darfour, 126-7), but this places the western limit of the term much too far to the east. The bracketed addition by Nachtigal (or perhaps his editor) misplaces and misspells Takrur; there was probably no real evidence of from how far west these particular Takarin came. See 'Umar al-Naqar, "Takrur: the history of a name," Journal of African History, x, 1969, 365-74. A group of Takarna, pilgrims from Takrur, were Fresnel's sources for information about Wadai; "Memoire", 44.

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was there. There we had to wait for Hajj Ahmed, and those who had claims on the king of Wadai's generosity were to receive their camels. And finally it was necessary to supply ourselves with provisions for both man and beast for the main part of the journey which lay ahead. The Muhammadan festival of sacrifices was to be celebrated in ten days, and any further movement before that date was therefore from the beginning unlikely. Bir-Tuil is one of the few market centres in Wadai, of which, apart from the capital Abeshr and Nimro, the town of the native Jellaba, there are only four altogether. The market, which was held there on a Friday, was, however, a great disappointment to us, being conspicuous by the absence of everything that was worth having, with the exception of dukhn. As in Abeshr, trading was in the hands of the women, and we had little contact with the male part of the population. In addition to the dukhn and the flour made from it, they also produced kitra, those dry flat cakes of dukhn flour which are such a favourite food for travellers. They are simply soaked in a little water, and the meal is ready. There were few hens for sale, goats and sheep were practically unobtainable, and even milk was a great rarity, although some sections of the Mahamid Arabs had their winter pastures close by. The women sold their scanty provision in exchange for the cotton strips, tshaka, which are customary in Bir-Tuil, only [307] 40-50 centimeters wide and loosely woven; the much broader and more durable strips, toqqiya dibdoba, described earlier, used in Abeshr and Nimro, were not in use in Bir-Tuil. Various kinds of beads were also very popular as a medium of exchange, including the small white beads, suqsuq abyad, which in Abeshr are called sini, and about five pounds of which will be exchanged for one maqta tromba, or piece of cotton cloth, and small red beads, suqsuq ahmar, also called murjan toddu, three pounds of which cost one maqta tromba in Abeshr, large red clay beads, khaddur, used for the Wadai women's head ornaments described earlier [pp. 197-8], and a kind of green glass bead, sheqiq, used for the same purpose. There were finally porcelain beads with black and white stripes, and imitation coral, murjan kedeb. In addition to these beads, cloves (qarom/ul) and little pieces of sandalwood (dufr) were also used as a medium of exchange, but all these things circulated only in very small quantities. To collect our supplies for several days, a whole day was necessary, and a not inconsiderable application of cunning and of the arts of persuasion. Only very seldom did one succeed in inducing the owner of com or flour to deal in any considerable quantity worth perhaps a dollar. With great stubbornness the saleswomen limited themselves to offering a few handfuls on a straw plate, and for even this small quantity it was necessary to haggle as if one was buying a whole bushel.

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The population of Bir-Tuil consisted of Wadai people from the Sungor region, and of Bornu people, whom Muhammad Sherif, father of the present king of Wadai, had brought as prisoners from there and settled here after his military expedition against Bornu. The permanent presence there of the Aqid es-Sbah with hundreds of his mounted men, who form the border guard of this district, and the frequent traffic of broad-minded Nile merchants have the consequence that there is a more extravagant consumption of merissa in Bir-Tuil than anywhere else in the country with the exception of the capital. Great pitchers of the prohibited beverage are offered by women in the market without any reserve. [308] After a few days, those members of the caravan turned up who had made a detour to the south because they had with them as slaves men who had been stolen or were actually free men, and after a further three days Hajj Ahmed also appeared. We were now right in the coldest season of the year; the wind blew persistently from the east or eastnortheast; in the morning the thermometer often fell to 6 or 7 degrees centigrade, and at night, with our scanty covers, we could scarcely warm ourselves sufficiently to enjoy even a light sleep, though it is true that the hours in the middle of the day were certainly marked by very agreeable temperatures. In the evening about 8 o'clock, as is the custom in those regions, we used to take our main meal in a large company outside our zariba, at which we were joined by acquaintances from the other camps. Here too the food consisted mostly of that thick boiled meal porridge, which is in use in Tripoli as well as on the equator, and in the Negro countries is made of dukhn or durra. After our meal together we drank coffee, the preparation of which fell to my people, for since I had no slave girl I had made no contribution to the meal. Coffee is very rarely offered for sale in Bornu, for there the kola or guro nut imported from the Negro countries, which has a similar stimulating effect, is very much preferred. In Wadai, on the other hand, though guro nuts are also imported, their transport is very difficult because of their sensitivity to atmospheric conditions, and the consumption of coffee is more widespread. The merchants from Kordofan and from the Nile countries as far as the Red Sea bring Abyssinian coffee to market, while the Mejabra, the merchants from the J a l o oasis south of Benghazi, import Arabian coffee, the so-called Yemeni, from Yemen in southern Arabia. The price of the latter is at least one third higher than that of the Abyssinian variety, and when supplies are short it may be as much as a dollar a pound; when supplies are easier, a dollar will purchase two or three pounds. When Tripolitanian merchants re-established the connection with Wadai in 1873, [309] they brought a considerable quantity of coffee imported from Europe, the so-called

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afrenji, frankish, i.e. European, coffee. It could not, however, compare with the Abyssinian variety, and was sold only with some difficulty. Every three or four days Hajj Ahmed, who always travelled in great comfort and had with him at least thirty to forty slaves and twenty women, wives and servants, entertained us with tea of which he was a great connoisseur. Tea drinkers there absolutely disdain black tea, and drink only the green, which they make very strong and saturate with sugar. Hajj Ahmed was carrying with him a large number of loaves of sugar, and was the only man who could supply both himself and us with this luxury. We often continued the enjoyment of our coffee or tea late into the night around a great fire, which some slaves had to keep up, and the Egyptian storyteller entertained us either with fairy tales from the Thousand and One Nights, or with stories of the glories of the Caliphate in Bagdad or of the celebrated conquest of North Africa in the early days of Islam. On January 30 there finally appeared the last distinguished member of our company, the Faqih Mukhtar, who in response to the embassy from King Brahim was going to him with a commission from the king of Wadai to deliver the funeral offering [or sadaqah] appointed for his dead father. Because of the difficulty of transporting so many animals, the cattle had already been sacrificed by King Ali in Abeshr, and the Faqih Mukhtar was bringing with him only a herd of some hundred camel mares intended for the same purpose. The great festival of sacrifices fell on the following day, January 3 1 . The most distinguished members of the caravan, Hajj Ahmed, Shems-ed-Din, the Khabir Abd el-Mejid and the Faqih Mukhtar, rode into the village in their colourful festival robes and the finery of the taqiya, the little caps made in Mecca, to perform the festival prayer together with the king's representative, the governor of the border district. All the other members of our caravan assembled on the open space between the two [310] camping places on the sandy river-bed; one of the learned men was chosen as imam or prayer-leader, and under his guidance divine service was held with that dignity and solemn earnestness which one cannot deny to Muslim religious ceremonies. Afterwards came the exchange of congratulations, which I, like all the others, both offered and received. It was decided to pay the customary dues to the governor on the following day, and the third day, February 2, was fixed as the date for continuing our journey. But on this occasion, too, the deadline could not be observed. When Hajj Ahmed and Shems ed-Din rode to the Aqid Said - as the governor, who was in fact a slave, was called - they found both him and his people and most of the inhabitants so drunk that they had to abandon the idea of negotiating the arrangements for the journey. According to their graphic story, the general drunkenness

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had spread even to the fowls in the village. T h e n our departure was further hindered by another consideration. A messenger arrived from the king of Wadai, who instructed Hajj A h m e d to wait another day for the arrival of a second messenger. T h e latter arrived next day with news of the death of the Aqid el-Bahar, a high dignitary and a loyal servant of his master. T h e procedure for receiving a royal message is typical. Hajj Ahmed received the messenger sitting on a carpet; before greeting the company, the messenger proclaimed his master's good health, Sidna bil-afia, O u r master is well, and at this formula Hajj Ahmed, and everyone else who could boast a carpet, got off it in great haste. It is not permissible in the presence of the king to sit on a mat or a carpet, and equally a message from him cannot be received otherwise than in the dust. Before listening to the message the whole company recited the fatihah, the opening prayer of the Quran, as a petition for the prosperity of their much-dreaded king. Next day, February 3, we were at least able to set out, and, moving to the east, we climbed steadily [311] to the rocky but still thickly wooded banks of the river. T h e growth there was mainly of low bushes of various varieties of mimosa, with an occasional shady sycamore {jtimmeza) or majestic tamarind (erdebe) towering above its surroundings. W e set out at 8 a.m. and towards midday reached the village of Kelmedi, with about eighty huts. T h e trees became more scanty and the terrain more rocky. Another good half-hour brought us to the last village in Wadai, Tirlanda, with about 100 huts, on the northern bank of a river valley about 20-25 meters wide running from eastsoutheast to westnorthwest to the river of Bir-Tuil. Its banks, on which were growing numerous fine sycamores, were high and rocky, for the most part of coarse-grained granite, while its bed was filled with clean sand. Next morning we broke camp a little earlier than hitherto, for there lay before us the uninhabited desert separating Darfur from Wadai, 1 which is often made unsafe by the independent Massalit. Climbing sharply, the whole of the horizon in front of us and to the south was bounded by conical but not very lofty hills. T h e only road which runs east into Darfur cuts across this whole chain. W e moved forward only slowly because of the rocky terrain and the necessity of crossing some insignificant little streams, which nevertheless cut deep into the ground, flowing to the sources of the Buteha which we had passed the 1 According to el-Tounsy, this border region between Wadai and Darfur was uninhabited, save for innumerable wild animals. It was the only region in which even the nomadic Arabs did not live, for it was too narrow, not much more than a day's journey across, and too exposed to raids from either side to provide any security (Ouaday, 53, 251). Nachtigal left Tirlanda, the last village in Wadai, about midday, and reached the first village in Darfur in the afternoon of the following day.

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day before. As we came to the chain of hills, which is known as the Tirje of Wadai, 1 the road could be seen bounded on both right and left by rocky heights. The gigantic granite rocks of this region made the second half of the morning's march very difficult, but by 11 o'clock we appeared to have reached the end of the Tirje. Though still rising a little towards the east, the country then became flatter and also less stony. The paths were trodden down and screened with high desert grass and some miserable acacias, with scanty foliage growing close together, luban (boswellia?) and similar trees. Around midday the ground fell away again, and towards 2 p.m. we passed a small stream, [312] the Tumtumaya, which ran from north to south to the Wadi Asunga, with numerous water-holes in its bed which was some twenty paces wide. The country became more open here, and was less thickly wooded. To the north we could see the small range of hills where this little stream has its source; we passed an isolated hill lying to the south and descended to the southeast over undulating country into the valley of the Wadi Asunga, camping in its bed in the late afternoon. In this wide valley the character of the landscape was completely changed by the luxuriant vegetation and the fresh colours of lofty trees with abundant foliage, among which the sabaha, the harraza, the tamarind and even the deleb palm, whose northern limit is usually further south, were abundantly represented. Even the grass in the valley and its surroundings was fresh and green. The Wadi Asunga rises in the southeast mountains of T a m a , runs in a generally southerly direction, and at the spot where we camped was about 100 paces wide. The seeds of the fruit of the deleb palm are tracked down by the natives while they are still under the ground, and are readily eaten. Spindle-shaped and 15 to 30 centimeters long, they are roasted and have a pleasantly bitter taste, resembling in their farinaceous character some of the tuberous plants of the south which are related to the potato. During the morning the Aqid es-Sbah joined us with 150-200 men on horseback, with the intention of leaving us only when we reached the 1 The two Tirje (see below, pp. 149 and 239; tirja means barrier) are presumably the Terja which figured in the later boundary dispute between Darfur and Wadai. They were ranges of hills, with apparently some artificial elaborations, to which, however, Nachtigal made no reference, and whose significance may be picturesquely exaggerated in some of the accounts. According to Slatin (cit. A. B. Theobald, Ali Dinar, London 1965, 106, cf. 96), "the boundary between Darfur and Wadai is clearly marked by the 'Terja', the name given to the barrier formed chiefly by parallel ranges of hills, the gaps between which are filled with stone walls to a height of two meters and covered with thorn bushes". An octogenarian friend of el-Tounsy told him that the founders of the two states met together in this region, and promised on oath never to attack each other. They measured the space between the two countries, and at the mid-point between the two set up some very laige and long spikes fastened in some large trees to mark the boundary. El-Tounsy claimed to have seen these spikes on his way into Wadai in 1 8 1 1 (Ouaday, 76-7).

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first settlement in Darfur. Both horses and men looked better than those of many of the Wadai military commanders, although the horses all belonged to that Wadai breed, described elsewhere [p. 60], which is small and not at all beautiful, but nevertheless has great spirit and powers of endurance. Here in the Wadi Asunga was the place in the wilderness where most danger threatened. Caravans which stayed overnight there were frequently attacked by detachments of the Massalit - a tribe which will be mentioned again later [p. 356] - who live between the two frontiers, and only a year before one of K i n g Ali's messengers had been massacred with all his companions. 1 [313] W e spent the night, however, without any disturbance from these much dreaded brigands, and set off again rather early on the morning of February 4, climbing out of the thickly wooded valley of the Wadi Asunga towards the east. T h e country soon became more open, and to the north and northeast there appeared between the low tree-tops some insignificant groups of hills. The country was intersected by numerous watercourses; towards midday we came to the narrow valley of the Wadi Kulkul, which, running from northeast to southwest, turns towards the Wadi Asunga, and is here considered to constitute the actual boundary of Darfur. 2 T h e hills to the north barred our way here, so that we had to go further to the northeast in the bed of the Wadi Kulkul, which squeezes through a ravine in the hills. Behind the hills the country again became more open. T h e whole eastern horizon was bounded by a long chain of hills, the ridge forming an almost exactly straight line. With numerous deviations, our direction remained for the most part first to the northeast, and later to the east. By the afternoon we had reached the crest which is called the Tirje of Darfur, and passed through a defile which breaks through the Tirje near its northern end. O n its eastern side the ridge fell away very steeply to a sort of basin, formed by other mountain ridges coming from the northwest, the northeast and the north, which rose equally steeply out of the valley. In this basin, a quarter of an hour from us to the northeast, there was a pleasant village, and a large herd of cattle was grazing on the hilly country which was traversed by the bed of a river, bordered by immense harraza trees, and containing the wells of the little village. W e left this village to the north, crossed the bed of the wadi, and climbed over the mountain ridge to the southeast down into a wide river valley, running from north to south; we then camped by a well, with a depth of about 1 meters, which was almost without water. 1 T h e Massalit defeated the French at Bir T u i l , or Bir T a w i l , in 1909; see T h e o bald, Alt Dinar, 82-4. 2 This is now the boundary between C h a d and Sudan.

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T h e two valleys unite not far from here and form a larger wadi, called after the spring which is there the Wadi Bir-Deqiq, and [314] which we had to pass next day. A t the foot of an insignificant bare hill, where the river had its source, lay the sister village of the one just mentioned, and which, like it, is called Gerolne. Immediately after our arrival women appeared, bringing corn, flour, kisra, durraba or kaut, i.e. greenstuff's for making sauces, etc. T h e women, who belonged to the Girga tribe, were red-brown to blackish in colour. They wore their hair much like the women of Wadai, but it was more richly decorated with amber beads, small white beads (sini abyad), and imitation coral as well as with silver rings and crescents. A remarkable variation of their hair-style consisted of plaits, 5 to 10 centimeters long, which rose stiffly above the crown of the head and opened out at the top like a flower. Four hours next day brought us to the southeast over three unimportant river-beds, whose banks were covered with a thick growth of makhet, nabaq, harraza, etc., and which went more or less from north to south to the Wadi Bir-Deqiq. Numerous fields of corn and cotton, as well as herds of cattle, indicated that villages were close at hand even when they were not in sight. Low hill-tops, flattened cones, or long straight bare hill ridges became more frequent in every direction, and these explained the enormous bed which, in spite of its short course, was about 300 paces wide, of the Wadi Bir-Deqiq, whose banks were adorned by noble harraza and large tamarind trees. Near to us on the east side of the river was a hill with a village called Sertemmo at its foot. A second village, with the same name as the river, was further to our south. T h e inhabitants of both villages belonged to the tribe of the Latunno, who are mingled with the Q i m r ; similarly the Girga, whom we had seen the previous day, like the Latunno, are probably also only sub-sections of the Q i m r . T h e Qimr on their side appear to be closely related to the people of T a m a . T h e boundary of T a m a is about a day and a half's journey from Bir-Deqiq. T h e district on the east bank of the Wadi Bir-Deqiq, which runs generally from northnorthwest to southsoutheast, [315] is usually known as Dar-Shale. Here too the women wore their hair in the manner described above. Their faces were round, they were short or of only middle height, and the colour of their skin was mostly a reddish dark grey, rarely black. Their whole appearance differs sharply from that of the genuine Wadai women, slender and black, with long oval faces. In the afternoon the melik of Sertemmo arrived, wearing a long red-striped cotton short and a taqiya, and riding on a donkey - in Darfur everybody rides on a donkey, while in Wadai its use as a riding animal is still frowned upon 1 - in order to pay his respects to Hajj 1

This account of the attitude to donkey-riding in Wadai is not consistent with

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A h m e d and Shems ed-Din, who were both well known and respected personalities in Darfur. T h e boundary of the region of the Shertaya Hanefi, the administrator of D a r - F e a [one of the districts in the western province of Darfur], was here. Following the course of the Wadi Bir Deqiq almost southwards, we passed some small villages and narrow streams which ran from the west into the main wadi, and after six hours reached some Massalit villages, which, like nearly all the centres of population, were m a d e u p of a number of small hamlets. T o w a r d s midday we climbed down again into the Wadi Bir-Deqiq and camped about midday to the north of the O m m Sebaha village. N e a r b y was a village described as the seat of the orondulung, the doorkeeper; this word, however, here meant only the frontier-guard of the Shertaya Hanefi. T h e inhabitants of this village were for the most part genuine Fur people. Not far to the southwest is the Bure district, inhabited by the T o r j e m Arabs, who a long time ago ceased to be nomads and now practise agriculture and cattle-rearing, enjoying great prosperity. W e stayed for a few days in O m m Sebaha, partly to replenish our provisions for the journey, and partly to await the herds of camels which the king of W a d a i was sending to his royal neighbour, and which had remained behind. T h e whole market shifted en bloc from the village into our camp, which was inundated with Fur and Torjem women. T h e latter especially claimed attention [ 3 1 6 ] on account of their rich head and neck ornaments. T h e i r hair enclosed the head in little plaits, in the same style as that of the women of Wadai, with one or two large plaits in the middle, surrounded on each side by a string of beads. T h e whole face was furthermore framed in two strings of beads; varied beads were likewise attached to the ends of the plaits, and also hung down over the neck. T h e strings of beads were made of artificial coral, of the sheqiq [green glass beads] already mentioned, and of small amber beads (kawadim), somit and zeitun. In addition, on both sides of the top of the head were two fairly large silver rings, with a gap in each which was completed by a few pieces of coral, and with six or seven similar smaller rings at the back of the head. One or usually both nostrils were pierced with silver rings of considerable size, which were completed with pieces of coral or amber, and with a piece of horsehair or fine thread with beads strung on it. Finally the neck was decorated by a closely fitting necklace of large amber beads, some of which were as big as pigeon's eggs. Most of the women had fine figures, the statements on pp. 229-30 and 254. Tubiana (Survivances, 12), speaking of the Zaghawa in particular, seems to confirm the negative attitude towards donkeys when she says that the Zaghawa have horses for chiefs and notables, donkeys for women and smiths. For perhaps legendary explanations of the taboo on riding donkeys among some Zaghawa clans, see ibid., 64-5. See also el-Tounsy, Ouaday, 379.

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and often pleasant features and a very agreeable reddish-grey skin colouring. The Fur women were smaller, blackish-grey, usually ugly, with a less characteristic expression and very much simpler ornaments. For the adornment of their head they were content with suqsuq, artificial coral and small amber beads; only the right nostril was adorned with a small plug or, rarely, with a piece of coral. The chief items in the market were dukhrt, durraba, sour milk and merissa, in exchange for which cloves mixed with dufr or small pieces of sandalwood, kimba pepper, amber beads and the small suqsuq were above all demanded. Men brought to market hens and occasionally strips woven from the barks of various trees or from hides, and exchanged them for paper, knives and lance tips. Arabs driving their camels, nomads from a section of the Mahamid, who were pasturing in the neighbourhood, also appeared in the market, and through their women, most of whom wore only skins, [ 3 1 7 ] without any ornaments, provided, in contrast with the Torjem women with their clean clothes and rich ornaments, the best evidence of the greater prosperity of their sedentary countrymen. During the market a young Rezeqat (Rizegat) Arab appeared from southeast Darfur, and reported that Zubayr with his Baharina 1 had raided the Rezeqat at Sheqqa (Shekka), and inflicted a bloody defeat on them there. Only one of the four Rezeqat chiefs had 1

Zubayr, who belonged to the tribe of the J a ' l i y a or Jaliyin, that audacious adventurer and slave-raider, and later the Egyptian mudir who inflicted ruin upon Darfur, is called in Nachtigal's journal Zeber or Shebr, which corresponds to Jebr, a common Arab name. The Baharina or Bahara are the people of the river, i.e. in this case, of the Nile. D. H.—Nachtigal continues at a later point the story of Zubayr, 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 1 3 (see index). According to Richard Hill's Biographical dictionary of the Sudan (corrected 2nd edition, London, 1967), 390-1, Zubayr, after being educated in Khartoum, began trading in the southern Sudan in 1856. " H e rationalized the trade in slaves and placed it on a proper commercial footing." By 1865 he was virtually master of the Bahr al-Ghazal, and by a treaty with the Rezeqat Baqqara tried to open up a trade route through southern Darfur to Kordofan. In 1869-72 he fought and beat Muhammad el-Hilali. a government-sponsored filibuster in the Bahr elGhazal, and in 1873 the Khedivial government conferred on him the governorship of Bahr el-Ghazal with the grade of bey. With his well-equipped private army he invaded southern Darfur, and in 1874 defeated and killed Sultan Ibrahim at Manawashi, penetrating even to Wadai. " T h e brilliance of his leadership eclipsed the modest exploits of the regular Egyptian army with which he was cooperating, and he fell out with Ismail Pasha, the governor-general and commander-in-chief of the expedition." He went to Cairo to complain in 1875 but, once there, the Khedive Ismail forbade him to return. He raised a force in Egypt for service against the Mahdi in the Sudan, but disagreeing with the terms of service, did not take command. Suspected, probably without foundation, of relations with the Mahdi, he was sent by the British occupying power to Gibraltar, 1 8 8 5 - 7 . ' 8 9 9 , at the request of Sir Reginald Wingate, he returned to the Sudan, "and for the rest of his life was a valuable counsellor of the new government and a progressive farmer of his large estate at al-Jaili".

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escaped; he had made a complaint to King Brahim in el-Fasher, and the vizier Ahmed Shettah had then gone out with some armed men against the Baharina. We had already heard before about this episode, and he could give us no more recent news, which was awaited every day. The carefully shaven, well-parted hair of the young man contrasted strikingly with the extremely shabby shirt which was his only article of clothing, and which one could see right through, but in spite of the poverty of his exterior, he was able to buy a mare from Hajj Ahmed for two slaves, a young Jenge (Dinka) deaf-mute and a small girl. Four hours' march to the eastsoutheast brought us next day to the point in the Wadi Kaja, or Abu Sanat, where the latter received the tributary wadi, Omm Zefa. This has its source on the southern slopes of the Jebel Mul, runs from northwest to southeast, and empties itself into the Wadi Kaja in the Bure district. The bed of the Omm Zefa is about 100 paces wide, while the main wadi, Kaja, is only about half as wide. The latter, however, proved to be the more important stream, for in its bed there is a continuous series of small standing pools of water, and in contrast to all the other wadis [318] which we had so far passed, its banks were from 4 to 7 meters high, which is evidence of the force with which the water runs there in the rainy season. Its general direction here is from northeast to southwest, turning later to the southsouthwest, until it joins the Wadi Asunga in the Massalit region. It collects the waters of the sections of the Marra mountain furthest to the north and the tributaries of many of the mountain groups of the Zoghawa region. The position of its ultimate source in more elevated regions explains the strength of the water current there, which is sometimes very great. In fact, in the rainy season the traveller is not delayed more than two or three days by either the Wadi Asunga or the Wadi Bir-Deqiq and its tributaries, but the Wadi Kaja, or Sanat, frequently remains impassable for a whole month. We rested here for a day to exchange the camel mares which we still had for baggage camels with the Arabs who were pasturing close by. An unusually large number of these Arabs visited us, for a section of the Mahamid of Wadai was camping in the neighbourhood, who, tired of the extortions of their Shaykh Hagar, had left their home in Arada [some 100 miles north of Abeshr]. They had gone from Arada to the east, and already on the second day had joined up in northern Tama with a section of their tribe from Darfur, with whom they had without delay launched an attack on the Bedeyat of Shekele, before following their fellow-tribesmen to Darfur. From the Wadi K a j a we again kept more to the east, and after a long day's march over a regularly undulating, sparsely wooded plain reached the Bulaga district. Passing a river-bed, Bir-Khadija, with a

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village of the same name, we finally came past the Torjem village, Timmel, to Dar-Marra. The village lay beside a river-bed, similar to two which we had already passed during the afternoon, each of them twenty to fifty paces wide. The waterholes, however, gave so little water that our requirements both for men and for animals had to be taken from the Wadi Bare, which, nearly an hour further south from Dar-Marra, runs from east to west to the Omm Dukhn mountain and the village of Salam at its foot. [319] Wadi Bare is one of the most important river-beds which collect the waters of the Marra range, and has its source on the western slopes of the northern part of the mountain. It runs westward about as far as the place where we met it, turning later to the southsouthwest to join the Wadi Azum, the chief river of the Marra mountain, about 12 miles further on. 1 The two then run to the southwest, and on the boundary of the Daju region, Sula, join the likewise united Wadi Kaja and Wadi Asunga, with the name Wadi K y a ; they then flow on, as is explained elsewhere [p. 267], as the Bahr Sula, the Bahr Mangari, the Bahr es-Salamat, the Omm et-Timan and the Bahr et-Tine, finally losing themselves in southwest Wadai, for the most part in the Iro lake. T o a less extent they seem, as the Iro river, to get as far as the Shari system. A few hours' march to the east brought us next day to the Wadi Tineat. We had to look forward to remaining there for several days, not only because it is the residence of the governor of the Fea province, one of the separate administrative regions in the west, whose governors have no common overlord for the whole province, but also because we were still waiting for King Ali's herd of camels. The source of the Wadi Tineat is one day's march from the place where we were camping, near the Selea mountain, and a few hours farther to the west near the Omm Dukhn mountain which we had touched the day before, it joins the larger Wadi Bare. Despite its modest length, the river-bed is very wide, averaging 300 paces across; it was filled with coarse sand, and at the place where we camped ran from east to west. Another river-bed of less importance joined it at this spot from the north, and on its south side was the village of the Shertaya Hanefi. North of this river valley lay a district with Bornu villages, called elBuweira; further in the same direction northwards was another district, Faga, inhabited by cattle-owning Arabs who belonged to the Hautiya tribe. Adjoining them to the north is the Qimr district proper, the remnant of the former Qimr kingdom. [320] The Mararit live south of Dar-Q_imr to the east of the Wadi Sanat. Opposite them on the other side of the river are the Oro, or Aura, and north of their territory lies the Jebel Mul mountain group. The Mararit and the Oro also have their own sultans, the title sultan 1

Cf. M. Barbour, "The Wadi Azum", Geographical Journal, cxx, 1954, 172-82.

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being associated in Darfur with the possession of drums. The tribes and districts which have been mentioned are all in the Dar-Fea region, and thus controlled by the Shertaya Hanefi, with the exception of the Qimr, who are in the Made administrative district north of Fea, and obey the Shertaya Muhammad Turundibe, "the hyena's ear". The Shertaya Hanefi had under him in his district, in addition to the true Fur people who have been mentioned and those who live in the east of his territory, also some Massalit detachments with chiefs who have no right to nuhas, drums, as well as some Torjem, Talba (cattle-pasturing Arabs), the Girga whom we had passed, the Shale, who are like the Mararit, and the Jore to the north of Shale. The chief village in the northern neighbouring region of Made was Barr Jues, which lay two days' march northwest of Tineat. That we stayed in the Wadi Tineat for several days was still more understandable since Hajj Ahmed Tangatanga had lived there for many years. He came from Dongola on the Nile, where his family had immigrated from the east several generations before. He did his religious studies at the great El-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, then as a young man was brought up in the court of King Hasin in Darfur, and had later settled in el-Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, and established a family there. On his trading journeys - the people of Dongola are all merchants and travellers - he had come to Wadai during the reign of King Muhammad Sherif. He was on no friendly terms with that tyrannical and cruel king, but had close relations with his son and heir, who is now King Ali. When Ali came to the throne, he immediately, as I have already said [p. 57], summoned his friend Tangatanga to Wadi, and offered him a home there [321]. Although he had a house and family in Kordofan, Hajj Ahmed had by that time established a residence in Darfur, in fact in Tineat, whence he carried on trade between Darfur and Wadai in goods from Egypt. For Tineat lies on the one great road that connects the capitals of the two countries, and almost daily there passed through it small and large caravans, as well as single travellers, all of whom as Jellaba had claims on Hajj Ahmed's hospitality; it therefore came about that through the discharge of these obligations Ahmed had in a few years gone bankrupt. Even if a man is, as my friend was, a first-class manager, custom is so compelling that he cannot evade these obligations. Ahmed assured me that sometimes on one day he had to provide up to fifty or even sixty dishes for his guests; he had seen no way out but one day after selling his last slave, to wind up his household, and it was therefore very welcome that just at that time King Ali should have him invited to Wadai. However, because of the threatening character of the natives of Wadai, he had only after some years been able to make up his mind to defer to the wishes of his royal friend and settle in Abeshr and had established his

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family there only two years before. In Tineat he was, of course, not only very well known and well liked for his personal qualities, but he was also highly esteemed as a friend of the king of Darfur, with whom he had been brought up, and as a specially favoured adviser of the king of Wadai. As a result of these circumstances, as indeed I learnt only later in the capital, el-Fasher, Hajj Ahmed rendered me a great service. While the Shertaya Hanefi was temporarily at the royal court, the care of his district had been left to one of his sons. With a sense of his responsibility in face of the general hatred of Christians and Turks, the latter had tried to prevent me from travelling further, at least until he had received instructions from the capital. After our arrival [in Tineat], he had in great haste sent a messenger on horseback to his father with the news that a suspicious individual, a Turk or a Christian, he was not sure which, [322] had entered the country from the west, who in the steadily deteriorating relations of the government with Egypt might well be regarded as a spy. The Shertaya Hanefi at once took counsel on this important question with the other dignitaries, who went together to King Brahjm and asked him to send a number of them to Tineat with orders to get me out of the way. Fortunately, while I was camping with our caravan in perfect tranquillity in the river-bed at Tineat, and had no idea of the storm which was threatening over my head, the king refused to listen to this demand. The honest Hajj Ahmed not only refused to bring or to surrender me to the acting shertaya, but also told him that, if perhaps he did not wish to come to our camp to pay us a visit, he would not even get a sight of me, for I had been entrusted to him, Hajj Ahmed, by the King of Wadai, with instructions to deliver me only to King Brahim. He even contested the right of the shertaya to collect dues from me, since I was a guest of the king and was not engaged in any kind of trade. Here in Tineat we had for the first time more up-to-date and reliable information about the defeat of the Darfur troops who had attacked Zubayr's Bailarina. Their downfall had been preceded by a decisive victory by the Forawa over el-Mur, 1 one of Zubayr's generals. Then, as I have already noted [p. 243], in the main battle on the following day, the Vizier [Ahmed Shettah, cf. p. 3 2 1 ] and the Amin Abd el-Bari had fallen, and the report was being circulated in the country that King Brahim himself would take the field in person. 1 Apparently en-Nur Bey Muhammad Anqara (1836-f. 1920), a Dongolawi soldier in the Turco-Egyptian forces. He later joined Zubayr and commanded the latter's army during the invasion of Darfur. He deserted Zubayr's son and rejoined the government forces, serving in the southern Sudan and Darfur. Next he joined the Mahdi and became a prominent Mahdist amir; see Hill, Biographical dictionary, 297. Cf. p. 221 below.

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The Tineat district has a great reputation for being healthy, and both men and animals are equally said to thrive there. So far as animals were concerned, indeed, the sheep and goats provided striking testimony to this fact, for a large number of them was brought to market daily, so fat as I have seldom seen anywhere else. On our side the chief medium of exchange here for buying corn and cattle for slaughter was the amber bead which was chiefly bought up by the Arabs. [323] In every part of the Sudan where this is a popular trade item, those beads are preferred which have a milky colour. 1 The longer halt which we were obliged to make, regularly as it passes, is never tedious or uninteresting in a caravan of Jellaba. All the people have travelled so extensively, and have had such a rich experience of life, that topics of conversation are never lacking. Moreover, the custom of living together is so strong that it is only with difficulty that one can escape from it for a few hours in the day. The most distinguished members of the caravan always took their meals together, and there were gossip and chat afterwards so that we often kept on talking together until midnight. At last the king's camels arrived, the negotiations with the acting shertaya about his greeting gift, which consisted of a few slaves, were concluded, and on February 22 we were able to continue our journey. From Tineat it is a good three days' journey to the Qabqabiya district, which is for the most part inhabited by Jellaba. The level of the country remains much the same from the boundary as far as Tineat, but there it gradually begins to rise a little more sharply. To the northeast and east more or less regularly shaped conical hills appeared, and the horizon to the southeast was filled by a regularly shaped chain, apparently high, some days' march distant. We passed numerous river-beds, of which the most important was the Wadi Hambul, which we crossed about six hours after leaving Tineat. The Fur element in the population became evident in the villages, all of which were distinguished by the pleasant appearance created by their considerable flocks of goats and cattle. Apart from their meagre stand of various acacias, nabaq, hejlij and tumtum (capparis sodada),2 the heights between the river valleys took on again more the character of steppes, while in the valleys themselves was [324] a lofty growth of harraza, tamarinds and fig-like trees. At 5 p.m. a low chain of hills came into view, the individual peaks of which were crowned by upright columns 1

In commerce they are called "el-limuniyat", the citron-coloured. W. Here, and below (p. 251), instead of the Arabic word, tundub, which elsewhere Nachtigal invariably used for the desert shrub, capparis sodada, he adopted the word tumtum, which was common in Bornu. Tumtum, he said (i. 555-6), was a corruption of tundub used by many Sudanese Arabs. It was also the form preferred by Lewis Carroll, in The Jabberwocky: So rested he by the tumtum tree. 2

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of white stone. From their summits one could see to the east an open rising valley, to the north numerous isolated peaks, and to the south the more important chain of mountains which has already been mentioned. Between these and us there stretched the broad valley of the Wadi Bare, which is here joined by the Wadi Bargu. After we had crossed it, we cut through a dense wood with fine, lofty trees with thick foliage, of the kinds already mentioned, which filled the region between the two rivers, and towards evening we camped in the riverbed of the Wadi Bare. Part of the wadi had high banks, which, even more than its width, averaging 200 paces, indicated its importance. In the angle between the two streams, some of the Arab detachments which belong to the Nawaibe tribe were pasturing their camels, and in the evening we had an interesting visit from the Shaykh en-Nuhas, who, as his title (chief of the copper kettle-drums) indicated, had the rank of sultan mentioned earlier. He came accompanied by a young shaykh of the Mahamid of Wadai, who are the closest relations of the Nawaibe. The shaykh too had renounced his allegiance to the king of Wadai, and settled in Darfur. There then ensued a lively discussion between the two Arab chiefs and Hajj Ahmed about the advantages of the two countries for nomad Arabs. While Ahmed could convince the shaykh that the Arabs in Wadai had on the whole smaller taxes to pay, and in the north of the country would find better opportunities for interrupting their nomad life profitably and pleasantly by raids against the Daza of Borku and the Bedeyat, the Nawaibe shaykh nevertheless won the argument with the very favourable picture which he could eloquently present of the prestige of the Arabs in Darfur and of their social life. The Arabs in Darfur, he said, were treated just like the other inhabitants, while those in Wadai had to accept a subordinate [325] status in relation to the native tribes. The young Mahamid shaykh who had become a fugitive confirmed this view with examples from his own experience which had induced him to leave the country. He recalled the numerous encroachments of King Ali's slaves and officials, while at the same time acknowledging King Ali's own integrity; the thing that was finally decisive for him was the abduction one day of his wife, the mother of his children. In fact, in his own external appearance the Nawaibe shaykh already provided evidence of the superior standard of life of the Arabs in Darfur. While in Wadai the Arabs are only permitted to enter the capital bareheaded, wearing at most sandals, and dressed in a simple garment of the coarse material made in the country, he was wearing a silk garment, a coloured taqiya and red Egyptian shoes, and I actually saw him later at the court of Darfur adorned with a costly cashmere shawl, the principal ornament of the inhabitants of Darfur. Next morning we went through the river valley of Kone (? Konge),

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which gives its name to the district, and its chief village with some hundred huts. T h e chain of mountains to be seen to the south of our road now resolved itself into two peaks, the Fugo J a and the Fugo Rommele. Climbing out of the river valley we came to a dense wood of acacias, the individual specimens of which were, however, miserably developed, in which the talha tree predominated. W e crossed numerous insignificant river-beds, which run into the Wadi Bare and, after about four hours' march, camped by the M a r s h a m village in the wadi of the same name, which, coming from the south, turns towards the Wadi J e l d a m a , the most important tributary of the Wadi Bargu. Next morning we passed the J e l d a m a , maintained our eastern direction with a slight deviation to the north, and in the course of the morning had a clear view of the northern part of the M a r r a mountain, which also bears the special name of J e b e l Kerakiri. In the northeast a chain, K o r a , branched off from the main mountain mass, [326] while to the eastnortheast lay an unimportant group, the J e b e l Aremba, or mountain of the hares; one hour in front of us to the southeast lay a small chain, the J e b e l Aptu. Some loftier sharp peaks rose in the distance in the southeast from the M a r r a range, of which the most noteworthy were the Si mountain and the Bara Simbil. T h e ground became more uneven, and the vegetation poorer. Always keeping close to the Wadi J e l d a m a and sometimes touching it, and crossing some of the river-beds which ran into it, we passed various villages, and camped in the afternoon in the bed of the river that has been mentioned. T h e country was celebrated for the abundance of lions, and our camp therefore had to be surrounded with a zariba. Marching for some hours between rocks and shingle, through gullies, under low, stunted thorny trees, which were close together and clung to everything, we arrived next morning in the attractive rivervalley of Qabqabiya, which is the starting point of the Wadi Bargu. T h e average width of the bed of the river is 120 paces, it runs from east to wrest, and has water everywhere some 3 0 - 5 0 centimeters below the surface of its sandy bed. There are pleasant islands of date palms in the river, and from its banks miniature mountains rise, which have their origin in the salt manufacture there. This condiment, so scarce in Darfur and yet so essential for man, is obtained from the salty soil by treating it with hot water. Out of the sediment these piles of earth then gradually build up like hills. T h e villages of the thickly populated region lie on both sides of the river-bed and, as has already been noted, are inhabited almost exclusively by J e l l a b a . T h e inhabitants came the same day to greet their friends and acquaintances in our caravan, and to exchange their news from Egypt about Darfur with that which we brought from the west. Their entreaties induced us to camp in Q a b q a b i y a also on the following day.

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The Qabqabiya district lies at the foot of the Marra mountain, and from it the road climbs quickly to the east. [327] To the west the terrain dips beyond Tineat, about 750 meters, and Abeshr, some 500 meters, as far as Lake Chad, which is perhaps 250 meters above sealevel. Following the course of the Wadi Bargu more or less to the east, we saw the mass of the Marra mountain breaking up more and more into individual peaks and groups. The Kora chain ran north of us, its southern end indicated by an irregular dome-shaped mountain, Hajer Garda. The ground was thickly covered with black, sometimes porous, stone and blocks of rock, which made progress extremely difficult for both man and beast, and gave to this part of the mountain the name of Kerakiri, since rubble of that kind is called kerakir. The early course of the Wadi Bargu, whose bed here changed from sand to rock, cut and twisted its way with difficulty through the rocky soil and between the hills; its course within the mountain is called Wadi en-nabaq. For the rest Wadi Bargu is distinguished by its water which contains natron, and on that account is much sought after by the Arabs for the sake of their camels. We passed in a southerly direction the foot of the Abu-Ketif mountain, the "shoulder mountain", so called since the main peak has on both sides lower peaks connected with it like shoulders, and several times we crossed the sharply winding Wadi en-nabaq, which here comes from the north of the broad Jebel en-nabaq, that forms part of the Kora chain. After eight more hours we reached two mountain peaks called Boggesa, which, though not important in themselves, are well known as the highest point of the mountain, some 1,100 meters above sea-level. To the ordinary vegetation of the country which we had so far traversed, now becoming more scanty as the country became more rocky and more elevated, there were added great quantities of the candelabra-shaped euphorbia and makhet.1 Both here and further to the west in Darfur there was a remarkable scarcity of wild animals. When one recalled the large number of antelopes [328] which the traveller encounters on all sides in the regions of Bornu, even in the neighbourhood of inhabited places, the difference was astonishing; in this connection the region could not stand comparison even with the less favoured parts of Wadai. Only the hyena seemed to be extensively represented. The rocks and mountain groups never rose to more than 330 meters above the plain. We crossed the watershed near the Boggesa mountains, marched for about an hour, and camped by the well, some 22 meters deep, 1 In conformity with the information on p. 44 about the use to which the fruit of the makhet was put, references in this book to makhet are always to be understood as referring only to the boscia senegalensis. A .

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which is known as Sani'at el-Muhajirin, the cistern of the muhajirin. We accomplished the descent into the plain on the other side towards the eastsoutheast on the following day. To the south we marched past the 200-250-meter-high Hajer Garda rock, went through the stone-filled bed of the Wadi Garda which belongs to it, and struggled painfully through the rubble and the gullies, where mimosa scrub and thorns still tore our clothing. At last the rubble diminished and, instead of narrow valleys and gullies, broad basin-shaped valleys opened up. After eight hours' march we camped in the sandy bed of the Wadi Sanikiri, which with the Wadi Garda flows towards the east to the Wadi Kobe. The next day Kobe was to have been reached, the main centre of all the merchants who have settled in Darfur, and, next to el-Fasher, the most important town in the country. The members of our caravan had already to look out the presents intended for their friends and patrons, their best clothes had been brought out, and there was general excitement among the company in expectation of the following day. A six hours' march almost directly east brought us in fact close to Kobe. As the road descended, it became more open, the ground was less covered with stones, and gradually became very sandy and treeless. To the south of our road, about an hour and a half away, we saw early in the morning the Mala chain of hills, running from east to west, and about three hours long. In the middle of the morning we descended into a plain intersected by some shallow river-beds, in the eastern part of which [329] lies the Abu Dungo valley, where we intended to spend the heat of the day and to receive the greetings of the most distinguished Jellaba from Kobe. The river-beds were unusually shallow, and very wide, but almost without any definite boundaries, generally running from northwest to southeast towards the river which runs past the neighbourhood of both Kobe and el-Fasher, and is later called elKua. The rather poor trees in this sandy region consisted of hejlij, nabaq and tumtum, while mimosa and acacias appeared only as miserable bushes. We camped here, not only to receive the expected greetings of the inhabitants of Kobe, but also because custom requires that arrival in a village should be timed for the evening; the Jellaba indeed keep more carefully to custom than other Arabs, each being a typical example of the whole Jellaba family. We (or rather my travel companions) were, however, much deceived in their expectations. Apart from a brother of Shems ed-Din, none of the more important inhabitants of Kobe appeared; they did not, however, fail to supply a welcoming meal. About a hundred dishes of excellent food were sent to us, on those beautiful trays and with those elegant covers of plaited straw, on the artistry of which the Fur people can pride themselves,

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and which I was able here for the first time to admire in such a quantity. All were very tastefully made, mainly from dum-palm fibres. The black colouring on the fibres was produced from peaty earth, and the red from the stalks of certain varieties of durra. The covers were frequently decorated in very beautiful patterns with small blue glass beads. At the place where it has been manufactured such a cover frequently costs from 4 to 5 Maria Theresa dollars. The celebrated mats of Darfur too were worked up from the same material mainly in Kobe, but also in el-Fasher and in Manawashi, a Bornu colony, some three days' journey south of el-Fasher. Our small camp was soon overflowing with radishes and lemons, which were consumed by the travellers in incredible quantities, since they are entirely lacking in the rest of the Sudan, [330] and were therefore a dainty rarely available. The radishes were unusually large, with the vegetable part well developed, but not very acid; they were a special delicacy for me, as I had not enjoyed any since my departure from the Mediterranean coast. A few of the people and many children came afterwards, and again I observed with satisfaction here the modest demeanour of the children and the respectful way in which they greeted older people. They put their shoes, their head covering and their top garment aside, gliding towards those who were to be greeted and, placing their hands on their knees, they bowed deep before them, who for their part placed their hands lightly on the shoulders of the greeters, murmuring " a f i a " , God protect you. This is not only a duty for the children, but also the custom of older men in greeting their seniors, and even my companion, Hajj Ahmed, though he was certainly more distinguished and more powerful than any of them, made no exception here, when he met the old men of his acquaintance; the ordinary method of greeting was a handshake. We set off again in the evening, with the Hajer Kobe as our objective, which defined the horizon to the northeast and east, and on whose western side is the Wadi Kobe and the town of Kobe. The immediate surroundings of the villages attached to Kobe and of the chief place in the district are distinguished by numerous autlaut acacias, which filled the whole district with an unusual scent; its aromatic wood is used for toothbrushes. By nightfall we had reached the middle of the Kobe mountain, and camped soon afterwards in the zariba of Shems ed-Din's company. Hajj Ahmed was quartered in the private house itself, while very shabby quarters, distinguished chiefly by their dirty surroundings, were assigned to me by Hajj Kerar, Shems ed-Din's brother, who was responsible for accommodation for strangers. But bearing in mind the circumstance that up to a hundred guests were being quartered, I

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contented myself without any remonstrance with my little house, [331] which I had cleaned up on the following day so far as this was in any way possible, and set up in its courtyard a tent for my servants to live in. Our food was outstanding both in quality and in quantity; in this respect, indeed, the hospitality of the Jellaba far surpasses that of all the other tribes which are settled there. It was not enough that the foreigners who were quartered there should morning and evening receive excellent meals for themselves and their servants, for Shems ed-Din's own house throughout the day also presented the appearance of a guest-house. He and Hajj Ahmed received visits there, which continued all day long, while Hajj Kerar had to take care that no one, great or small, known or unknown, came and sat down without being provided in one way or another with food and drink. The numerous women and slave girls of the house were busy the whole day in preparing food, for as soon as only two or perhaps more people had entered the courtyard where the reception was being held, a dish was at once set before them with asida, the corn brew already mentioned [p. 199], or kisra, the cakes likewise mentioned [p. 40], freshly prepared and with meat and sauce. Roast legs of mutton and very tasty wheatmeal cakes with spices and honey were also not lacking, and even the most unimportant person was entertained at least with dates from Dongola. Everybody had coffee, so that often in a few hours a hundred cups had been drunk, and the entertainment lasted in this manner throughout the day. Only when a camel had been slaughtered was a slight exception made to the principle of equal treatment, in so far as the choicest portion, the raw liver, was consumed only in the company of a few specially selected guests. I learnt to appreciate this here in all its excellence, and I must confess that of all the material enjoyments of those regions, raw camel liver still remains in my memory as the greatest delicacy. Before the time of the evening meal, some fifty large dishes were set down in the courtyard, and Hajj Kerar had the duty of supervising their distribution according to the number of guests (difan). A small market was held every day in Kobe, where [332] firewood, corn, radishes, cords and other trifles could be purchased; only twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays, was there a larger market, and this principal market was well supplied with everything. The maqta tromba formed the basic currency, the Maria Theresa dollar being exchanged only at a discount. As small change the so-called terek were used, 17 to 1 maqta tromba, 11 or 12, according to the rate of exchange, to 1 Maria Theresa dollar. The terek were small dark or light blue pieces of dyed cloth, about 1 \ meters long and 1 meter wide, woven so loosely and so thin that they were completely transparent and without any practical value. Because of their lack of durability, they could be used to make clothing only in an emergency, and their use was confined

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to trade in the large market centres and the villages nearest to them. When used in exchange for maqta tromba or Maria Theresa dollars, half the terek were dark blue, which have a somewhat greater value, and the other half light blue; the toqqiya [cotton strip] here was worth 4 or 5 terek. Corn was much dearer than in Wadai, except wheat, for which the chief market is in Qabqabiya, in the neighbourhood of which it is above all cultivated, and where it is brought from the valleys of the Jebel Marra. The amber beads so highly valued in the west of the country were here almost completely worthless, and so was paper. Horses were dear and mostly had to be purchased with slaves. For a good horse one had to pay slaves to the value of 100 maqta tromba or 150 dollars. Like Wadai, Darfur is not a country of horses, and the local breed can be maintained only by continuous imports from other countries. In comparison with the usual price relationships, camels appeared to be surprisingly cheap. Ten to fifteen maqta tromba or 1 5 - 2 0 dollars were always enough to buy a good camel, while a very strong, fat animal cost between 20 and 30 dollars. In contrast with this, the price of a good riding donkey ranged, according to quality, from 30 to 60 maqta tromba, or 50 to 90 dollars, since the preference of the Forawa and of the Zoghawa for this means of transport created a brisk demand for them. Despite its nearness to Egypt, a pound of gunpowder cost more in Kobe [333] than in Wadai, about 1 J - 2 dollars, against 1 dollar in Abeshr. In wholesale trade ostrich feathers were not so plentiful as in Wadai, but they were available in better quality. Those from the region of the Zoghawa and the Arab districts mentioned in the north of the country are as outstanding for size and colour as those imported from the steppes in northeast Kanem. The sources of ivory have almost dried up since the Baharina have exploited and taken possession of the region in the south of Darfur, and people have to be content with imports from Wadai. The provision of water in Kobe is very inconvenient. The wells are all in the river-bed to the east of the town between it and the Hajer Kobe chain of mountains mentioned earlier and running from north to south; they are very deep, though less so than those of the earlier mentioned Sani'at el-muhajirin and Sanikiri. It is a long way to them, and their owners deliver water only in return for a small payment in corn, and to bring the water home it is necessary to have camels or donkeys. Next day I had an opportunity to get to know many of the most important inhabitants of Kobe, among whom I was specially interested in the Derderi \cf. p. 3 1 9 ] who had enjoyed great esteem under the dead King Hasin, but had almost fallen a victim to the change of government, and the Khabir Ali, a special friend of Hajj Ahmed.

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Khabir is a title borne everywhere in the desert by the leaders of caravans; literally it means only "road expert", but in Darfur the title is given to every Jellabi who has once accompanied the great caravan which now every year travels in forty days from the north of the country through the desert along the road known as the Forty Day Road, Drib el-Arba'in, to Assiut on the Nile. Such a leader is appointed afresh every time by the government, but the title is retained by each man so appointed. This khabir should be distinguished from the real khabir, who is the chief of the Jellaba in the country. [334] Since I was summoned from several quarters to see the sick, I also visited the town without giving the impression that I wanted to explore it and take notes. Although for a long time I had been without any medicines, I did not reject this opportunity to get to know the town and its people innocently and without being exposed too much to the glances of the curious. I was, however, rather surprisingly, less exposed to this unpleasantness than some other foreigners, for through my connection with the Jellaba I had become so like them in clothing, speech and behaviour, that if they did not already have knowledge of the fact, only very few suspected me of being a Christian or a European. Kobe is quite irregularly constructed, and has grown without any initial plan. The reason for this is partly that the immigration of the "Children of the River" took place very gradually, and partly that it was carried out according to the original tribes and sections of tribes. At the beginning the members of one tribe stayed together in one zariba. As they grew in wealth and numbers, and the settlement became more permanent, the zariba was replaced by a clay wall, and the man who was outstanding because of his wealth and the number of his followers became head of the zariba. As their wealth increased, people finally built for themselves spacious houses, taking into them weaker poor men or members of other tribes. The occupants of a zariba are usually determined according to their original home, but this is by no means always the case. From this development of the village, with houses being built before there were any roads between them, came its lack of orderly arrangement. Even now there is scarcely anything that can be called a street. Everywhere straw huts are to be found alongside clay dwellings. Clay is plentiful, usually available under a thin layer of sand, with the consequence that, through the use of this material, numerous large quarries have been formed in the midst of the village. The trees, nabaq, hejlij, etc., which are frequent throughout the town, have diminished the monotony presented by earthen walls and houses, and in some places indeed make the scenery quite attractive. [335] Many houses were empty and in ruins, so that even a superficial observer formed the impression that the place must have been much

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more thickly populated in earlier years. The population has in fact sharply declined during the last fifteen years, because of the extortionate practices and weakness of King Hasin, for with all his natural goodwill he was himself very avaricious, and moreover, abandoned the country to the inroads of his slave favourites. To illustrate this, Shems ed-Din and Hajj Ahmed could at once give me the names of some eighty well-known families who during that period had been victims of the dulm, the illegal extortions, of the government, and had, more or less without means, moved eastward, or, poverty-stricken, had simply been ruined and died out. A small section had finally settled in el-Fasher, where under the eyes of the king they found themselves less exposed to the extortions of his slaves. Expenditure on clothing was much greater in Darfur than in Wadai. The Jellaba here dressed in fine white or light blue dyed cotton material of European origin, and they certainly kept themselves cleaner than their brothers in the west, wearing over their shirts, rather as an ornament, a fine cashmere shawl thrown over the shoulders or loosely wound around the head. The preference of the natives was for silk shirts and stockings of all possible colours, and they too wore as their chief ornament a shawl which, like the Jellaba, they threw over one shoulder. I shall have an opportunity to return to this subject later. Already on the day after our arrival, on the evening of March 2, Shems ed-Din had gone on to el-Fasher to inform the king about his mission to Wadai, while Hajj Ahmed and I followed him only on March 6. El-Fasher, situated by the Rahat Tendelti, is a good day's march from Kobe to the eastsoutheast. We set off towards evening in order not to have to take with us too large a supply of water, for which there is inevitably a need, since on the road little or none is to be found. [336] Hajj Ahmed left the trade articles which he intended for Egypt in Kobe, taking with him only horses and slaves which he intended to turn into money in Darfur. The slaves had new clothes, and their hair was arranged in the favourite Darfur style, in small short plaits, joined together at both sides as well as at the back of the head, so that they formed a coil, and had red clay, butter, cloves, mahaleb and the like thoroughly rubbed into them. The slaves were carried two on one camel. We then crossed the Wadi Kobe, here only about eighty paces wide, towards the east, as far as the foot of the mountain ridge opposite and in the same direction cut through part of the mountain chain, which, lying to the south of us, gradually became lower toward the east; our road had also on its northern side a similar unimportant chain. Directly to the south at a somewhat greater distance lay the Bussa mountain which could be seen far off. After about three hours'

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march we reached the end of both chains. Here we passed the little villages of the Ngure district, moved very rapidly for some hours over hard, arid country with a sparse growth of stunted mimosas, and camped in the Wadi Barboja (Wadi Golo), which runs into the Wadi Kobe. At daybreak on March 7, we continued our journey with such speed that my camels could scarcely keep up, and with my Wadai hack I was not in a position to keep pace with the others. At first we had to the northeast of our road an inconsiderable mountain group, the Jebel Wana, which on the side facing us ran from northwest to southeast, and the southeast end of which we reached after a few hours. Here I saw myself at last compelled to exchange my hack for a white horse of Hajj Ahmed, which seemed indeed to be thinner and weaker than the other, but whose gait was nevertheless somewhat more rapid, so that for a few hours I succeeded in keeping up with my companions. The terrain gradually lost its arid hard character, a hilly region with sandy soil began, and we entered the Gerne district (Gos Gerne). [337] Towards midday from that height of this sandy hilly region we looked down on the capital of Darfur, about 650 meters above sea-level, in a long dark green line in the shallow valley. The whole region was extraordinarily devoid of trees, and dominated by oshar to an extent which I had not seen even in the country around Kuka. The valley of the capital, however, with its wealth of trees, contrasted most attractively with its immediate surroundings. We climbed down towards the east into the valley, aiming at the most easterly end of the town, while the road to the middle of the town, i.e. to the king's residence, leads to the south. At the bottom of the valley the Wadi el-Fasher flowed from northeast to southwest to the Wadi el-Kua which ran south further to the west. With a steep climb out of it to the sandy summit, we could survey the eastern part of the town. It consisted likewise entirely of separate farms, zaribas, in most of which there were from five to ten straw huts, a rectangular clay building and a few trees. We alighted in the zariba furthest to the southeast of the town, at the house of Hamed Uled et-Tahir, a distant relation of Hajj Ahmed, and were received very hospitably. If, as I reflected about the prospects for my immediate future, I was not free from a certain sense of insecurity, there was some justification for this, as I saw that Hajj Ahmed was full of anxiety about my fate. The same evening he mounted his horse again in order to visit the Khabir Muhammad, who was a brother-in-law of the king and the chief of all the Jellaba, and lived in the extreme southwest of the town; when he returned late in the evening, he told me that our travelling companion, Shems ed-Din, who had gone ahead, had, for fear of the reception which the king might give to the news of my arrival,

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concealed this news from him. Not without some hesitation Hajj Ahmed presented himself the following evening for a greeting audience with the king, was received in accordance with his rank and previous acquaintance with the king, and finally began cautiously to explain my business, how I had come to Bornu, had later been in Wadai, where I had been received by the king with great consideration, [338] and so on. The king, however, soon interrupted him, and said that all these lengthy preliminaries were superfluous, for he had been thoroughly informed about me, not only from the west through the Shertaya Hanefi's son, but also from the east, by the Egyptian government. The letters from the government about me had been very urgent and pressing. He would receive me with sincere goodwill, but he would have to send me on to Egypt as soon as possible, as this had been strongly urged upon him. The Khabir Muhammad ['s brother, cf. p. 263] Hajj Hamza, had brought these letters, as well as some money with him for me. The good-hearted Hajj Ahmed, with his friendly disposition towards me, returned in the most joyful agitation to our dwelling, although the night was far advanced, and could not restrain himself from waking me from my sleep and surprising me with this favourable news. I was to have my own greeting audience with the king on the following day.

CHAPTER

II

STAY IN EL-FASHER March g to May,

1874

[339] Almost directly east of our dwelling lay the northeast end of an elongated valley basin with gently sloping sides; on its black clay soil water accumulates during the rainy season, and in the dry season the wells of el-Fasher are to be found there. The layer of clay in the bed of the valley is only about 1 meter deep, with pure sand beneath it. This is the Rahat, or Nahar, Tendelti, which later has been widely used as the name of the capital, though locally one hears only the name Fasher applied to the inhabited region. For three-quarters of the year the valley is dry, with a network of tracks cutting across it. The shallow but very numerous [340] wells are found chiefly at the northeast and the southwest ends of the town. During the rainy season the southern part of the town fares very badly, since a market is held only in the northern part. In order to reach the market at that time and make essential household purchases it is therefore necessary to go round the pool at either its northeast or its southwest end. The valley is about 1 kilometer wide and 4 kilometers long; separate hamlets and zaribas lie around it, especially on the banks to the east, which are more than 16 meters high. Here and there on the slopes of these banks, close to the bottom of the valley, gardens are laid out, in which radishes, onions, etc., and also wheat, are cultivated. The settlement on the Rahat Tendelti dates back to the time of King Abd er-Rahman, who established his residence on its flat northern bank [in 1791], whereas earlier kings had nearly always lived on the Marra mountain. 1 The majority of its inhabitants accordingly also settled on the same side of the lake, and its south bank became populated only later. The Jellaba village where we had taken up our quarters, [Logoloma (270) or Sogoloma (376)], was near the northeast end of the town. Almost due north from us, at a distance of about 1

The Rahat Tendelti had previously been the residence of the governor of the northern province, Abu Tokunyawi, p. 292 below. 259

CHAPTER

II

STAY IN EL-FASHER March g to May,

1874

[339] Almost directly east of our dwelling lay the northeast end of an elongated valley basin with gently sloping sides; on its black clay soil water accumulates during the rainy season, and in the dry season the wells of el-Fasher are to be found there. The layer of clay in the bed of the valley is only about 1 meter deep, with pure sand beneath it. This is the Rahat, or Nahar, Tendelti, which later has been widely used as the name of the capital, though locally one hears only the name Fasher applied to the inhabited region. For three-quarters of the year the valley is dry, with a network of tracks cutting across it. The shallow but very numerous [340] wells are found chiefly at the northeast and the southwest ends of the town. During the rainy season the southern part of the town fares very badly, since a market is held only in the northern part. In order to reach the market at that time and make essential household purchases it is therefore necessary to go round the pool at either its northeast or its southwest end. The valley is about 1 kilometer wide and 4 kilometers long; separate hamlets and zaribas lie around it, especially on the banks to the east, which are more than 16 meters high. Here and there on the slopes of these banks, close to the bottom of the valley, gardens are laid out, in which radishes, onions, etc., and also wheat, are cultivated. The settlement on the Rahat Tendelti dates back to the time of King Abd er-Rahman, who established his residence on its flat northern bank [in 1791], whereas earlier kings had nearly always lived on the Marra mountain. 1 The majority of its inhabitants accordingly also settled on the same side of the lake, and its south bank became populated only later. The Jellaba village where we had taken up our quarters, [Logoloma (270) or Sogoloma (376)], was near the northeast end of the town. Almost due north from us, at a distance of about 1

The Rahat Tendelti had previously been the residence of the governor of the northern province, Abu Tokunyawi, p. 292 below. 259

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a quarter o f an hour, w a s another village i n h a b i t e d by people f r o m Bornu a n d K o t o k o , a n d at a b o u t the same distance northeast o f us w a s the m o s q u e ; the densest settlement w a s in the i m m e d i a t e neighb o u r h o o d o f the original royal residence. A s is n e a r l y always the case w i t h royal residences in these countries, the t o w n h a d g r o w n in such a w a y that the officials most closely associated w i t h the court h a d settled themselves in separate zaribas scattered a r o u n d the king's d w e l l i n g , to w h i c h in turn w e r e linked u p the zaribas o f their underlings. K i n g Hasin h a d built himself a second p a l a c e on the south bank o f the lake, almost directly south o f the old family residence, b u t further a w a y from the lake. 1 N o r t h o f the t o w n the W a d i el-Fasher runs to the southwest and then, near the west end of the lake, turns to the south so t h a t it still touches it, and in the rainy season c a n fill it. It finally discharges into the W a d i e l - K u a to the southwest o f el-Fasher. T h e late K i n g Hasin preferred to stay in [341] the southern p a l a c e w h i c h he h a d built, a n d w h i c h was called T o m b a s i . K i n g B r a h i m , however, w a s temporarily in the old family p a l a c e , since a n ancient custom required the k i n g to stay there for a certain time after the great d r u m festival w h i c h h a d taken place not l o n g before. O n the afternoon o f the audience d a y w e m o u n t e d our horses, crossed the d r y bed o f the lake, reached the most t h i c k l y p o p u l a t e d p a r t of the t o w n o n the b a n k on the other side, a n d , to avoid causing a sensation, entered the p a l a c e from the side o f the W o m e n ' s R o a d , orre baya, a l t h o u g h it was actually more the done thing in el-Fasher to a p p r o a c h the k i n g by the M e n ' s R o a d , one de.2 A t first, as o n the eastern end o f the lake, there were o n l y scattered zaribas, a n d it w a s only as w e g o t nearer the king's d w e l l i n g t h a t the houses w e r e p a c k e d more closely together, p r o d u c i n g the impression o f a n enclosed village. S t r a w huts were in the m a j o r i t y , most o f t h e m built w i t h v e r y little artistry, a n d w i t h buildings o f c l a y interposed only here a n d there. I was greatly pleased b y large rectangular, almost square, houses w i t h clay foundations a n d thick massive straw roofs w h i c h , h o w e v e r , usually h a d only one room. T h e y h a v e the a d v a n t a g e o f preserving the coolness characteristic of earthen houses in the summer, a n d o f protecting the inhabitants d u r i n g the rainy season from the penetration of w a t e r , as the flat earthen roofs o f the ordinary c l a y dwellings are not able to do. T h e fences of the z a r i b a s were o n l y rarely m a d e o f 1 T h e building of Tombasi is also attributed to K i n g Hasin on p. 332. O n p. 307, however, M u h a m m a d el-Fadl is said to have been its builder, which seems more probable. Perhaps Hasin carried on work begun by his predecessor. Nothing remains today of either of the palaces. 2 Orre is a Fur word which means, not road or path, but door or gate. El-Tounsy said that every dwelling-place, whether that of the sultan, or of a melik or vizier, had two special doors, one, ouarredaye, for men, the other, ouarrebaya, for women (Darfur, 175). Nachtigal translates orre correctly below, pp. 329-30.

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the plaited basket work which the natives of Bornu call siggedi and the Arabs there skerkaniya, but merely of bundles of coarse straw stalks or reeds standing upright, tied above and beside each other at various levels to provide the proper thickness and durability. In order to provide a certain diversity of design, they were then also cut off at varying heights. There was, of course, an incredible number of footpaths scattered here and there without any order between the zaribas; they criss-crossed in every direction, and demanded an intensive knowledge of the locality. T h e old royal dwelling was also enclosed only by a straw fence, with [342] a thick, high, broad thorn hedge inside. This formed an oval with the longer axis running from northeast to southwest, and it took at least a quarter of an hour to go round it. W e had to dismount from our horses and take our shoes off in front of the entrance. Since I was aware of this custom, I had kept for myself from Bornu a pair of the thin soleless goatskin shoes which are imported from the north coast into the Sudan countries. In places where these are in ordinary use, they are not regarded as shoes in the proper sense of the word, so that in all the Arab countries where footwear is likewise laid aside on entering a room these shoes may be kept on one's feet, and a Muslim does not even put them aside for prayers. W e crossed one long narrow court or corridor and, after traversing a second court, came to the dwelling of the Ahmin Bokheit, "the H a p p y " , [Arabic, bakhit], to whom we had first of all to report. In this son of A d a m Tarbush, whom I shall have to mention later in the history of Darfur [pp. 305-11], we found a courteous young man, with sparse moustache and beard, whose mild exterior scarcely suggested the energy with which on Sultan Hasin's death he had set to work to instal K i n g Brahim, but whose eyes inspired little confidence. As a man who was soon to be elevated to the distinguished rank of vizier, 1 I gave him a present of a piece of half-silk, and conversed with him mostly about his father. He was as much astonished as flattered when he found that I was so well acquainted with the part played by this able, vigorous and loyal official. Soon afterwards there also appeared the K h a b i r Muhammad, already mentioned; a man of some fifty years, he had no official position at court other than that of chief of the merchants, but as husband of the iya basi2 [343] possessed a certain influence in virtue of his close relationship with the king, to whom he was on this account allowed unimpeded access. Because of his frequent journeys to Egypt, he was, of course, familiar with foreign customs, and had got to know 1 On May 18, cf. pp. 370-1. * The iya basi, "the great woman", usually a sister of the king, was nominated to this position, and was the most influential personality at court. Cf. ch. 5, Organisation of the Fur State. G. N.

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many Europeans. We had lively conversation about our travels and their objective, about his country and other matters, until the king had been informed and we were summoned to the audience. In a third courtyard, which was smaller but had a clay wall, and in the middle of it a special dais made of clay, I was required by the slaves conducting me, who held firmly to ceremony, to set aside my light footwear, and I went only with my stockings, the last pair of this luxury that I possessed, into a fourth courtyard, at the back of which we found the king sitting on a carpet at a distance of about twenty paces from the entrance. To his right and left slaves were standing with red poles like standards in their hands, and further away from him, near the entrance, were his pages and servants on their knees, the upper part of the body bowed. They were, as custom requires, rubbing the ground with the flat of their hands. Like most of the Sudan kings, the king had the lower part of his face covered with the litham, and had also wrapped his whole face in a shawl, malhafa1 or ferda. We all crouched down in the prescribed fashion near the entrance, and murmured a few words of greeting, which were limited indeed to " G o d prolong your days, God give you peace," etc., to which the unfailing reply given in concert by the slaves was "Arrei Donga, Arrei Donga" i.e. the king's greeting, 2 while in accordance with the custom of the countiy, all except me rubbed the ground. The Khabir Muhammad then handed over the presents from each individual visitor, calling out the name of the donor with each item. I gave him the horse, which had been sent with me for this purpose by the King of Wadai, and a musical box. The king rewarded each of us with a "Barak Allah" God bless you, which, although we had heard very well, the khabir interpreted for us with the words, " T h e king says Barak Allah". Then my friend Hajj Ahmed approached [344] the king's seat on his hands and knees, and I was told to follow him. I refrained, however, from doing 1 El-Tounsy (Darfour, 204-5) described the malhaf as a large piece of cloth with long fringes worn by well-to-do people in Darfur with several turns over the shoulders. In the manner already observed by Nachtigal in Logon and Bagirmi (ii. 5 2 3 , 600), it was a rigid rule of etiquette in Darfur that no one should enter the royal presence unless he were stripped to the waist. This meant that a man who was wearing a shawl over his shoulders had to remove it and wear it like a belt in the manner described by Nachtigal below (p. 327) as obligatory for those meeting the kamene. ' E l - T o u n s y (Darfour, 161) also noted this practice, a normal feature of the "sacral kingships" of the western and central Sudan, according to which the sultans of Darfur gave formal greetings only through an intermediary. He explained how, after visitors had shown their respect for the sultan in the manner described below and adopted also for the kamene, the shadow-king (see below, pp. 3 2 6 - 7 ) - the korkoa behind him repeated several times donaray dona, donaray dona, which, as el-Tounsy, or his French translator, explained, meant "salut, salut, salut, salut", the word ray being merely an expletive. Donaray dona was also used in greeting the orondulung (el-Tounsy, Darfour, 172).

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263

exactly the same, stood up, approached the king, and then squatted down again, repeating my greetings to him. He responded to my greetings in a friendly way, enquired whither I had come and where I was going, assured me of his protection, and promised to assist my journey to Egypt in accordance with my wishes, adding that he thought it best for me to move on as quickly as I could, since people in Egypt were pressing to see me there soon. Having been advised beforehand by Hajj Ahmed that the king would like to see me moving on as soon as possible, which would, however, have meant that I should have had to abandon the possibility of undertaking any investigations of the country or its people, and perhaps of making some journeys into the interior, I answered that I had come with Hajj Ahmed, who was so dear to me that, if he were not going to delay too long in Darfur, I should like also to continue my journey in his company through Dongola to Egypt. He accepted this statement graciously, and dismissed us with great goodwill. King Brahim was about forty years old, very black, powerful and tall, and had a full round face with a kind expression. Next day I also paid a visit to the Khabir Muhammad and his brother, Hajj Hamza, 1 who I was told had brought letters and money for me from Egypt. The khabir was a very important man, not only because of his close relationship to the king, but also because of his great wealth, which was said considerably to exceed that of the Muslim merchants of Egypt and even of Jeddah. His house lay at the extreme southwest end of el-Fasher, a good half-hour on horseback from our village. In view of his wife's high rank, access to him was possible only after an announcement had been made. Even the king had to have himself announced at the iya basi's outer door. After the inevitable dishes of pudding, roast leg of veal, baked camel liver, and wheat cakes sweetened with honey had been served, followed by coffee in cups with saucers, Hajj Hamza handed to me 500 Maria Theresa dollars with an [345] accompanying letter from the Governor-General of the Sudan in Khartoum, and gave me an unexpected pleasure through a letter from Herr von Jasmund, who at that time was the German Consul-General in Egypt. What a difference there was between the transfer of this money through Hajj Hamza and that of the greedy Tripolitanian Muhammad Zommit in Abeshr, whose behaviour I have described earlier [p. 135]. Hajj Hamza could not even be bothered to 1

Both the Khabir Muhammad and Hajj Hamza sided with the Egyptians in the conflict which came to a head shortly after Nachtigal's visit to Darfur. Muhammad was appointed governor of Western Darfur by Gordon in 1879, but was later dismissed for malpractices. Later he defected to the Mahdists, and died in the Mahdi's camp in 1883. Hajj Hamza became president of the court of appeal in Khartoum, and was made a pasha. Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 1 5 0 - 1 , 258-9.

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get an immediate receipt, and he was a child of the Sudan, while the Tripolitanian was accustomed to daily transactions with Europeans. I n many respects the A r a b inhabitants of the north coast of Africa, and especially of Tripoli, fall well below the standards of the merchants of the Nile. I used this opportunity to take the K h a b i r Muhammad into my confidence, and asked him if he would support my request to the sultan for permission to travel inside the country. He replied that in his position it was impossible for him to exert any effective influence for such a purpose. T h e natives would certainly accuse him of treachery, since his brother had already brought in letters and money for me. They would say that he was in the pay of the Turks, that he wanted to betray the country, etc. He could only promise me that in case the king should ask for his advice, he would be willing to represent my request and its fulfilment as innocent and harmless. After some discussion of the feasibility of his plans for introducing European artisans into the country, plans rendered impracticable by the events which followed shortly afterwards, I rode back to my quarters. During the days which followed I sought in vain to present my own request to the king. Every day I sat for four or five hours in the Amin Bokheit's waiting-room, but something always happened to prevent the king from receiving me. These hours were, on the one hand, not without interest because of the numerous people who appeared there and were waiting for an audience, but on the other hand they were extremely unpleasant and disagreeable because of the offensive curiosity with which these people pursued me. [346] I was carrying with me Petermann and Hassenstein's map of Darfur, 1 which had been prepared for the German expedition in search of Vogel, not only in order to check the map and extend my knowledge of the country, but also to establish a reputation for myself among the people and to weaken their distrust. Elaborating my knowledge of the country before the Amin Bokheit and the dignitaries who were present, I told them that for a long time we had had accurate knowledge of every river, every mountain and every village, but that it had never occurred to us to make any use of this knowledge that would be harmful to the country. All those who were present would perhaps have been quite happy to give me information in reply to my questions, but the king's ante-chamber was not the proper place for this, and I had to proceed with the utmost circumspection. Each man who administered one of the villages, whether as an official of the government or as the holder of a hakura, wanted to see his village in print, and gazed with astonishment, childish joy and obvious satisfaction at the point which was shown to him on the map. I was gratified to observe that the account 1

Petermarms Mitteilungen, Erganzungsheft [6], 1861.

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given by the Teima el-Massabawi, the so-called Sultan Teima, on the basis of which the map had been mainly drawn, was quite reliable in its details, though in the arrangement of the details there were frequent errors. At last, on March 22, I succeeded in presenting my request to the king. After the arda, the military review described elsewhere [p. 3 4 1 ] et seq.]t had been held on the 13th of the month, the king had moved into the new palace on the south side of the lake. This, the Tombasi, was a few minutes distant from the Rahat Tendelti; it was also oval in shape, the longer axis running from northwest to southeast, and its circumference was less than that of the old family palace, though it was completely surrounded by a clay wall; the gate of the orre de road faced the lake. In general I found the doors and the door-openings here locked in [347] a much more primitive fashion than in the western Sudan states. While, especially in Bornu, gates and doors could be made out of planks more or less imperfectly joined together, the inhabitants here made use only of branches and boughs fastened together in a network. Strong strips of plant fibre fastened the gate to the wall, and the whole was closed by chains from within. In the outer court of the palace lived only subordinate doorkeepers and slaves. There was a small calibre iron cannon there on a lofty carriage which had been made in Darfur. Its high wheels were of single pieces of wood, laboriously bound together, and in the complete absence of any streets they must have collapsed at the first effort to move the cannon. In the second court lived only a higher-ranking doorkeeper, and in the third was a very large straw hut, draped inside with coloured cloth, which the king used for meetings of his council. In the fourth courtyard was the official residence of the Amin Bokheit, who had gone ahead to the king, and had been instructed by him to have me summoned immediately. In a fifth court which branched off from the preceding one was the king behind a curtain. After putting aside my shoes, I went up to the curtain, el-boya, crept through under it, and greeted the king. Like everything else in those countries, the greetings of superiors to inferiors are ruled by the most rigid custom. With an inimitable expression of dignity, the king responded to my greeting with "afia, 2 hm-hm", which he repeated half a dozen times, and this was followed by the inevitable arret donga of those sitting around, who at the same time with the greatest energy beat upon the ground with the palms of their 1 Teima el-Massabawi was an official of the king of Darfur in Kordofan, before that province was conquered by Egypt. G. N. Cf. Preface, xv, above. A member of the ruling family of the Massabat in Kordofan, he has been described as the vizier of Musellim whom Nachtigal mentions later (p. 301) as the the governor of Kordofan (de Cadalvéne and de Breuvery, L'Égypte et

Turquie, ii. 225). 1

Afia [Arabic, afiyah] means literally well-being, health. W.

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hands. I rose again, went straight up to the king, squatted down again, repeating my greeting, and then presented my request. I explained to him that I had no business of any kind for the period of my stay in his capital, and that I was not engaged in trade; I had only a few acquaintances, and was prevented even from taking a walk by the hatred [348] and ill will of the people, who were actually pursuing my every footstep outside my dwelling, insulting, reviling and threatening me. I asked him therefore to permit me to make a journey to the south to the Ro-Toke hot spring, of which I had heard, at the most southerly point of the Marra r a n g e . 1 1 added that my skill as a physician would qualify me perhaps to discover some therapeutic properties in the spring, from which he as the ruler of the country would draw some profit. Although I had chosen this medical motive to remove from his mind any suspicion of any possible topographical studies that might be intended, he replied at once with great firmness that there could be no question of any such journeys in the country. How much the natives hated me, especially in consequence of the dispute with the Egyptian government, I could understand from the behaviour of the Shertaya Hanefi and the conduct of the inhabitants of el-Fasher. He himself, he remarked further, had not yet been ruling long enough to be able in the prevailing difficult conditions to take any responsibility for my life and safety outside his capital; on his side indeed, he had to fear that, if he sent a Turkish spy into the countryside, his people might regard him as a traitor.2 If I wanted to get information about the country and its people, he would be glad to help mc, but that was all that he could do for me in that direction. I did not dare to press the king further; I therefore requested him to agree to recommend to me some man who had knowledge of the topography of Darfur, another who knew the history of the country, and finally a third who combined an adequate knowledge of Arabic with knowledge of the language of the country, and he very readily promised to satisfy these wishes. It was very fortunate for me that he understood perfectly every word of my Tunisian and Fezzan Arabic, since it had at first been very difficult for the inhabitants of the capital to understand me, although they all actually spoke Arabic as much as 1

In Fur, ro means well, toke hot; the wells are just north of Kalokitting at the southern end of Jebel Marra. On the existence of hot springs in the Jebel Marra region, see D. Hammerton, "Recent discoveries in the Caldera of Jebel M a r r a " , Sudan Notes and Records, xlix, 1968, 136-48. s Fears of espionage in Darfur were not entirely without foundation. In 1867 a Turco-Egyptian officer, Muhammad Nadi Bey, had been sent to spy out the land there for the Khedive Ismail (R. L . Hill, Egypt in the Sudan, London, 1959, reprinted 1963, 134). The similarly suspicious activities of the Benghazi sharif in Wadai in 1856 which predisposed the dignitaries of Abeshr to be equally mistrustful of Eduard Vogel have been mentioned above (pp. 1 3 2 - 3 ) .

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the language of Darfur. The king wore a simple blue tobe and velvet slippers with silver embroidery. [349] He asked me if the horse which had been earmarked for him was also "falih", i.e. "good-natured", and to this I replied that I would have it tested, but that, as a present intended for the king of Darfur, it had never been mounted or ridden. When after taking leave of the king I was waiting outside the audience chamber for the Amin Bokheit in order at once to make sure of the informants who had been promised to me, I had the good fortune to meet a man who was obviously very well informed about his fatherland [Abd el-Aziz]. We talked about the Massalit in the west of the country, the predatory character of the et-Tirje Massalit, and the cannibalism of the Ambus Massalit, who, despite their professed adherence to Islam, were said not to have broken off this shocking custom. He also told me that even now small water-bags made of human skin were sometimes brought into Darfur. From this man I received above all an insight into the system of rivers which run out from the Marra range, and learnt that the numerous streams from its western slopes soon unite in the Wadi Azum, which then soon receives the Wadi Bare, turns to the southwest, joins up with the united Wadi Asunga and Wadi Abu Sanat, and south of the Daju country becomes the Bahr es-Salamat. For the first time I heard here of the For-Tomurkiye territory lying southwest of the Marra mountain, from which the Wadi Ibra runs to the south, in order to join the Wadi Gendi and the Wadi Bulbul, which emerge from the Marra range from the south, and thus through the river of the Rezeqat Arabs which is called Bahr et-Taba or Bahr el-Arab belongs to the Nile system. He told me further that the rain-water streams from the Marra mountain flowing to the east unite in the Wadi el-Kobe or el-Kua, and that this does not reach the Nile, but loses itself in the swampy shallow lakes of southern Darfur. Finally this informant gave me my first accurate information about the sections of the population of Darfur, the recognised elements in which are enumerated by the inhabitants on their five fingers under the letters of the Arabic alphabet, dal, ta,fa, sad and nun. [350] Corresponding to these letters, their names are Daju, Tunjur, Forawa, Zoghawa and Nawaibe. I shall have an opportunity later [p. 346] to return to this subject. According to his information, there was said still to be a tarikh, a written chronicle, about which he promised to make enquiries. During the whole of the time that followed, my main effort was directed to getting the promised reporters. Suitable people who were introduced to me by my friends promised to come to me, attracted by the emoluments offered to them, but the fear of being regarded as a traitor, and of being held responsible as such, outweighed everything

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else, and even those who called themselves close friends of Hajj Ahmed, and to whom sums of money were offered which were very large in comparison with my resources, always drew back at the last moment. T h e difficulty lay in the ill will and hatred entertained towards me by the inhabitants, which indeed was generally in accordance with their proud, arrogant, religious-fanatical character, but was especially increased by the political developments which threatened their country from the side of Egypt. Wherever I appeared, whether I was engaged in my search for a reporter or was called to the sick, I was insulted and derided by those who met me, and even in the king's palace I was subjected to the grossest insults. If I appeared without any distinguished escort, I was stopped at the outer gate and frequently had to wait for hours before being told whether I should be received; out of doors among the people, I was not only obliged to see how those who sat around or passed me spat in front of me, but also sometimes in a crowd I found myself in great anxiety lest I should be driven by some kind of violence to self-defence, the final outcome of which might have been fatal. In the royal forecourts or in the streets people often came to me with the scornful enquiry whether I could say the " l a ilah ill' A l l a h " , and tried to induce me to add the second part [351] of the text. 1 O n one occasion in the forecourt of the palace, which was filled with people seeking an audience, a surprisingly light-coloured Banda slave passed mc, who in the dim surroundings appeared even fairer than she actually was; for a moment. I almost thought she was a European, and could not suppress a movement of astonishment. She was thereupon brought to me, and pressing hard and mocking at me on all sides, the people proposed to me that I should marry her. I saw myself at last compelled to tell the king that I should have to forego the pleasure of visiting him, since he was obviously in no position to protect me and my dignity against the common people. T h e hatred of the people found expression even when they looked at the Turkish saddle on my horse, so that I had to make up my mind to buy a costly Arab saddle, as 1 did not wish to subject my servants to the insults which would otherwise be their lot whenever they were leading the animal by the bridle. In such fanatical countries the servants and slaves of a Christian have in fact the most difficult position of all, and, in forming an opinion about their constancy and loyalty, this above everything else has to be taken into account. Despised everywhere by the people as slaves of a Christian, their consciences worked on by fanatical faqihs who represent it as sin to serve a Christian, troubled by malicious or ignorant people who depict the most gloomy prospects for the cross1 T h e words la ilah ill' Allah form the first half of the Muslim confession of faith; the words wa-Muhammedun resul Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of G o d , are the second half. By pronouncing this confession, a Christian becomes a Muslim. G . N.

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ing to Europe which lies ahead of them, and the sufferings which await them there, it requires a strong sense of duty and loyalty on their part and unusual circumspection on the part of their master to maintain some measure of good relations. Through my long acquaintance with the Negro peoples, which in the course of time taught me how to deal with them correctly, I had, as time went on, [352] some measure of success in overcoming this hostility of the natives. However, the news spread and became more serious of the Baharina theatre of war and the departure of the Egypti a n forces, and the events which then quickly followed one another soon drove me out of the country. I succeeded at last in making sure for myself of three men who offered the facilities which I was seeking and the possibility of widening my knowledge of the country and its people. The Faqih Abd el-Aziz, the man whom I had met one day in the royal palace where he had willingly given me interesting information, and whose forebears had migrated from Bagirmi to Darfur during Ahmed Bokkor's reign [1682-1722], was the first. He had special knowledge of the southern province, Dar-Abu Uma, the southwest province, Dar-Abu Dima, and of the west, Dar-Kerne, Dar-Fea and Dar-Made, as well as of the territories of the Marra range and the region called Ro-Kuri \cj. p. 326] with their villages, rivers, mountains and tribes. In all these districts he had been sent as a messenger to the sherati (singular, shertaya) and other administrative officials, and had not infrequently been employed to collect taxes. His brother, the Faqih Muhammad, a learned man, very well read according to the local standards, was extraordinarily useful to me for the study of the Fur language. He was also fairly expert in the history of the country and in a position to appreciate my interest in all these things. Because of his own craving for knowledge, however, his claims consumed a great deal of my time, and many days, indeed weeks, were occupied by the effort to give him the general knowledge of geography which he wanted, in which I sought to help him by drawing maps in broad outline. I also had to translate the Old Testament and the Gospels into Arabic for him and for other learned men whom he introduced to me. Educated Muslims have a profound respect for our Word of God, though they also cherish the conviction that in the first centuries of the Christian era those parts of it which predicted the future appearance of the Prophet Muhammad were removed. [353] The Psalms especially have an extraordinary fascination for them, and Jesus Christ, to whom they pay great respect, is regarded by them as, next to Muhammad, the greatest prophet. They call Jesus Ruah Allah,1 the Breath or Spirit of God, and His life, 1 Jesus is called in the Q u r a n (iv. 1 7 1 ) a spirit, ruh, from G o d . For a full discussion of the concept of ruh in the Islamic scripture, see T . O'Shaughnessy, The development

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passion and miracles they study with special approval. Both in Wadai and in Darfur the numerous Bibles which I had brought to the Sudan countries at the request of M r Arthington of Leeds, 1 who had interested himself in missions and humanitarian endeavours, would have been of the greatest use to me. I regretted very much that I had delivered them all to Shaykh U m a r in Kuka, for they would have served to build up closer relations with the learned and educated sections of the population. King Brahim put me in touch with the Basi Tahir as likely to have the most accurate knowledge, extending furthest into the past, of the history of the country. Since his zariba was not far from the Jellabi village of Logolorna, where we were living, I could have dealings with him without being bothered by the curiosity or the hatred of the inhabitants. Unfortunately it was difficult to take advantage of his knowledge, for he was filled with great suspicion of my enquiries, and only on the king's instructions agreed to give me some general information ; it was still more difficult to pin down a time when he was generally fit to communicate with me. If I came to him in the morning about 8 or 9 o'clock, his mind was already fogged by the influence of the merissa, the consumption of which seemed to be his chief occupation. But if I visited him around sunrise, he always said that his thoughts were not yet able to function, since he had not yet taken his usual stimulant. This game was repeated in the afternoon; directly after the afternoon nap he had no clear control of his intellectual faculties, and of the meaning of Spirit in the Koran (Rome, 1953). While by no means wishing to belittle Nachtigal's ecumenical enthusiasm here, it is prudent to remember that the life, passion and miracles of J e s u s in which Muslims have such interest are those described in the Q u r a n : they differ in m a n y substantial respects from those in the Gospels, which books the vast majority of Muslims reject as too corrupt to be used reliably. 1 Robert Arthington ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 9 0 0 ) , who has been described as " a n extraordinary figure who might have stepped straight out of one of Dickens' novels", was a Leeds industrialist who came to be known as " t h e miser philanthropist". Living in solitary austerity in one room of a large house, he made extensive contributions to many kinds of missionary activity. H e helped to finance some of Livingstone's enterprises, gave generous support to the work of the Baptist Missionary Society in the Congo, and endowed a missionary settlement near Muhlenburg in Liberia. Arthington maintained an extensive correspondence with geographers and explorers, "using his knowledge and his wealth to assist the hurried preaching of the Gospel throughout the world and thus, he believed, hasten the coming of the millennium". A . M . Chirgwin, Arthington's Millions, London, 1 9 3 5 ; J . R . G r a y , " T h e Missionary Factor in East A f r i c a " , in Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. Joseph C. Anene and Godfrey Brown, Ibadan and London, 1966, 4 6 1 ; Robert I. Rotberg, Christian Missionaries and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia, Princeton, 1965, p. 17, n. 18. Nachtigal noted in his first volume that, in response to a request from Arthington, he carried with him to K u k a a number of Arabic Bibles (i. 35) but made no further reference to the subsequent disposition of this gift.

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later he was again sunk deep in his merissa. There was thus no other way than that I should resign myself to the sacrifice of whole days; I sat down with him, indeed, early in the morning, and [354] drank merissa until the evening, in this way making him less suspicious and more disposed to trust me. During these sessions I gradually coaxed his knowledge out of him. I had moreover to keep him in good humour with presents. This man's manner of life was not at all unusual, especially among the dignitaries who enjoyed an assured income, and it was a matter for great astonishment how long these people could endure this excessive indulgence in alcoholic drink and still remain strong and vigorous. In the course of time merissa drinkers acquire a strong antipathy to all farinaceous food. In accordance with custom, the ordinary stiff dukhn brew with the usual sauce is brought to them twice a day, but they scarcely touch it, and at most revive their thirst, as we had also seen in Wadai, by roasted camel or sheep flesh, or raw camel liver, which, well garnished with salt and red pepper, is especially popular for this purpose. I next record what I learnt about the history, the organisation and the population of Darfur from my official reporters, from other trustworthy informants, and from my own observations.

CHAPTER

III

THE HISTORY OF DARFUR [355] There appear to be no reliable or detailed sources for the history of Darfur. I have found a few historical dcouments, but no real chronicle has ever been produced. From time to time some of those who are conversant with the traditions of their country have written down their reminiscences; these remains are, however, confined to [356] a bare enumeration of rulers without dates, and are without the accompanying notes which are so necessary if the authenticity of the catalogue is in some measure to be established. The difficulties are considerably increased by the fact that some of the recorded lists of rulers differ among themselves in very important respects, and that the popular traditions are again often quite different. I carefully investigated all the written material of whose existence I was told, but nearly all of it showed variations. The first sketch of a list of rulers which I found was in the possession of the Basi Tahir, to whom the sultan referred me as a man expert in the history of the country. It contained the names of thirteen Daju kings, thirteen Tunjur rulers and twenty-two sultans who belonged to the reigning K e r a dynasty, not including the latest member of the K e r a dynasty, Ibrahim, or Brahim, Ibn-Muhammad el-Hasin, i.e. Ibrahim, the son of Muhammad el-Hasin, who had been reigning for less than a year. Another document listed only five Daju kings, and added the names of a further twenty-five rulers, Tunjur and K e r a . There are obvious errors in the notes attached to this document relating to the chronology which makes contemporaries of Gitar, the first of the Daju rulers, and the prophet Salah, 1 who oddly enough was said to have lived in the J e b e l Marra, to the descent from the P a g a n tribes of that mountain of all the peoples of Darfur and Wadai, and to events in later well-known times, all of which make it appear that this record is not at all reliable. Another list, in the possession of a son of Muhammad el-Fadl, and written in his own hand, is only a genealogical tree, designed to prove 1

Salih was a pre-Islamic Arabian prophet, cf. Quran, vii, 74-80; xi. 62-9; x x v i .

'43-59: x x v i i - 46-54272

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the present dynasty's right to the succession. It ostensibly established the direct connection of the reigning family with the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula. Though unfortunately I did not succeed in getting a transcript of it, it enabled me to compile a list of the ancestors of M u h a m m a d el-Fadl back to the founder of the interrelated T u n j u r and Kera dynasties. This does not, however, completely agree with another [357] li s t written under King M u h a m m a d Tirab [1752-85], which contains a mixture of rulers and simple genealogical trees. I n addition, Sultan Ibrahim sent me some old manuscripts from the time of his ancestors, M u h a m m a d el-Fadl [1799-1839] and Abu Abd er-Rahman [1775-99]; these were government documents of which only the part which fixed the diwan, taxes or imposts for the whole kingdom presented any interest. So far as I know, there are also two other old documents; one of these has been handed on in the family of the Basi Ahmed I b n Tahir, while the other, known as the Dali Book, is royal property, but had actually been left in the hands of the Abu Shaykh Dali. In my time the two documents must have been in the king's palace, for Hasin, Brahim's predecessor, had demanded the former document from Basi Ahmed's father, and although the latter formed part of the abu shaykk's investiture, it had not yet been handed over to the present holder of the office. But neither of the documents contained either a chronicle of the rulers or a history of the state. T h e Dali Book contains only the basic principles of the administration and of the system of justice, as established by the founder of the Kera dynasty, the well-known King Delil or Dali. T h e documents which were earlier in the possession of the Basi Ahmed family consisted only of various official papers from former times. As I was sifting these documents I also paid attention to the collection of popular traditions, comparing them, and as far as possible distinguishing between the reliable and the uncertain. As I have already said, the Basi Tahir was helpful to me on the instructions of the king. But if he was more expert in the history of the country than most of its inhabitants, his knowledge was nevertheless far from satisfying me. H e had the defects which sprang from his concept of patriotism, wishing to withhold from me any facts which reflected unfavourably on the king, and to admit them only if I had knowledge of them from some other quarter. I ought to add, however, that I detected in him, so to speak, only negative inaccuracies. [358] A very long time ago the Daju rulers lived in the Jebel Marra, but their dominion was far from absolute, for the individual rulers of the Fur and other tribes did no more than pay tribute to the Daju sultan. The mountainous character of the country made it easy for individual tribes to maintain their independence; the heart of the country was the Jebel Marra, and Daju rule scarcely extended beyond

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its borders. Of the individual kings of this dynasty, the chronicle had nothing more to say, except that the first, King Kosber, 1 still well known among the people, lived in Debba, at the eastern foot of the mountain, and that he was buried there. A list of the Daju kings which I received from one of the Daju princes who had fled from Sula to Wadai, included twenty-one names, of whom the first six are said to have lived still as Pagans on the Jebel Marra. The Daju also represent themselves as having immigrated from the east, and it is worthy of note that most of their rulers had Arab names. Tradition does not, however, impute to them any connection with Arabs or Arab blood. On the contrary, it is stated that they were extraordinarily uncivilised, and had fallen so far short of the claims of Arab custom that the transfer of power from their hands to those of the Tunjur was to be ascribed only to the superior culture of the latter. The Tunjur claim to have come originally from the Arabian peninsula, and trace their more recent origin from Tunis, from the Abu Zeid who is well known in Arab folklore; 2 as I have said elsewhere [ii. 239], I also found in Kanem, where there is also a large Tunjur community, a place called Tunis which allegedly had been founded in honour of this origin. In all the documents the ancestor of the Tunjur in Darfur was always called Ahmed el-Maqur. 3 The intellectual superiority of the immigrant Tunjur, and their more refined customs (their hospitality was especially celebrated), wrested power from the Daju without any fighting or violence. But the Tunjur themselves were still Pagans, or not sufficiently Muslim to establish Islam in the country around them, or to avoid falling back themselves at least partly into Paganism in the midst of these Pagan people. [359] At any rate they tightened the links among the individual mountain peoples who had been living apart by themselves. Not only is the origin of the Tunjur traced back to Ahmed el-Maqur, but the Kera rulers today still describe him as their ancestor, which suggests some connection between the two dynasties. There is no explanation of this, but it is regarded as indisputable that the Tunjur and the Kera are closely related. Tradition tells us nothing about how the Tunjur came into the country. In any case the Arabic language and customs were introduced into Darfur by them. Their dominion was also far from being absolute; 1 The name of the first of the Daju rulers is said above (p. 272) to have been Gitar. This inconsistency is perhaps an illustration of the divergencies, noted by Nachtigal, which cannot now be reconciled, between the different king lists to which he had access. 2 Cf. S. R . Patterson, Stories of Abu Zeid the Hilali in Shuwa Arabic, London, 1930. 3 Maqur is an Arabic word meaning "lame". Ahmed el-Maqur appears in virtually all the different versions of the story of the origin of the Kera dynasty, most agreeing that he was a Hilali Arab from north Africa {cf. p. 347 and n.). See Na'um Shuqayr, Tarikh al-Sudan (Cairo, 1903), 4 4 1 - 3 , and Slatin, Fire and Sword, 3 8 - 4 1 .

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it was limited, like that of the D a j u , to an overlordship over the individual mountain tribes and the receipt of tribute from them. T h e close connection of the Fur dynasty with the T u n j u r is shown not only by the claim made by both of them to A h m e d e l - M a q u r as ancestor, but also by the subsequent tradition about the transfer of power from the T u n j u r to the K e r a . A t the time when A h m e d e l - M a q u r came into the country, he had understood how to establish himself in the favour of the then ruler, w h o m tradition calls K u r o m a , but w h o is not mentioned in any written list of rulers. K u r o m a had married Fora, a daughter of the chief of the K e r a , w h o bore him a son, Shau or Sau. Later he divorced this wife, and w h e n A h m e d el-Maqur became his favourite, she had been given to him as his wife; from this marriage Dali was born. Some, however, depart from this tradition so far as to say that it was R i f a ' a , the son of A h m e d el-Maqur, w h o married the K e r a chief's daughter, and that it was from this marriage that Shau and Dali were born. But the two men cannot have had both parents the same; in all the lists of rulers Shau concludes the T u n j u r rulers, and in popular tradition also he is generally known as the last king of the T u n j u r , while his half-brother Dali, whose proper name is Delil Bahar, is always recorded as the founder of the K e r a dynasty. [360] From the written lists of rulers and from popular tradition, I have formed the following picture: 1. For some centuries the D a j u ruled Darfur from the Jebel M a r r a . T h e i r power passed peacefully into the hands of the T u n j u r . 2. In the course of time the T u n j u r linked up with the K e r a section of the Fur, and from this combination emerged the K e r a dynasty which eventually reigned in Darfur, seizing power by violence from the hands of their relations, the T u n j u r . 3. Islam was consolidated in Darfur only under the K e r a regime, and especially in the time of K i n g Suleman Solon, around A.D. 1600. While there can scarcely be any doubt about the existence and importance of A h m e d el-Maqur in Darfur, neither his date nor any details are clearly recorded; the period when rule passed to the K e r a line stands out, however, more clearly from the darkness. I f Shau or Sau, and Delil or Dali, were born of the same parents, there would not be the slightest reason for recording Shau as the last T u n j u r king and Dali as the first K e r a king, as the inhabitants w h o are familiar with the history of the country tell us. It therefore appears that the dynasty of the K e r a deserves its name only on the mother's side, and that Dali, Shau's half-brother, thus belonged to the K e r a through his mother. K i n g Shau had his usual residence on the Si mount in the

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Kora range, a northern spur of the Jebel Marra, while the main seat of the Kera was Nami mountain in the Marra range; here too Dali or Delil Bahar lived among them. The Dungunga have always been the most distinguished branch of the Fur tribe, and the Kunjara the most numerous, but the Kera were politically the most important, since the daughter of one of their chiefs was the ancestress of the last dynasty [see pp. 348-9]. King Shau, who had the surname Durshit or Dorsid, which means "the master over us", and thus indicates the harshness of his government, was a hard, unjust ruler, who [361] treated his subjects and officials with extreme severity. Not only did he drive them from one military expedition to another, undertaken in difficult circumstances, but he also compelled them to dig wells in the high rocky regions, and to undertake the arduous and useless task of levelling the Mailo mountain peak, on the summit of which he wanted to establish his residence. This lies in the Ro-Kuri region at the western foot of the Marra mountain, and is still called today Mailo Fugo Jurto, i.e. "Mailo, the levelled [or 'dug up'] mountain". Because of the slow progress that was made the levelling project had ultimately to be abandoned. Shau so far alienated himself from the hearts of everybody that on one occasion, when he was away on an expedition against some rebellious villages on the Si mountain, the great men of the country asked Delil, or Dali, his half-brother, to seize power, since the whole country was tired of King Shau. When he learnt of the revolt of his dignitaries, Shau returned as quickly as possible with his forces. He camped for the night in Turi, his second residence, which still exists in the Kora mountains, and from there advanced to Si Dallanga, not far from the Nami mountain. 1 Near here, his half-brother Dali defeated him in a night battle at Barra, during which the daring and courageous Shau was deserted by most of his men. He finally fled to Turi, dismissing on the way, with the words " G o to your new king Dali", the remnant of his faithful followers, and even his wives and children. Dali had him pursued to Turi, but he was no longer to be found there. The popular story says that he had fled on a white horse and apparently disappeared. The Kera dynasty thus came to power, the first ruler being Dali, whose proper name was Delil Bahar. He was undoubtedly, apart from Suleman Solon and Ahmed Bokkor (Bokr?), the most brilliant prince of the dynasty; he was the founder of the dynasty not merely on account of his victory over Shau, but also because of his organisation of the country and the establishment of its laws upon which the administration and legal system are still today for the most part based. Like his maternal ancestors, he lived on the Jebel Nami, and Torra, which lies at the western foot of this mountain, was from that time on 1

The Jebel Nami, 2,159 m. high, one of the highest peaks in the Jebel Marra.

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1

regarded as the centre of the kingdom. [362] Three hours to the east of Torra there stands a nabaq tree, popularly known as Numan Fedda, the silver nabaq, after a ring of the king's which was lost there. From this spot King Dali divided the kingdom into the provinces of Dar-Dali (east), Dar-Uma (south), Dar-Dima (southwest), Dar er-Riah or DarTokonyawi (north) and Dar el-Gharb (west), and established the general principles which assured their revenues to the officials of the administration. He then proclaimed the criminal law, which in the course of time was written down in the so-called K t a b Dali, the Book of Dali. The principles which guided him in establishing these laws were apparently not at all based on Islam, but rather on the effort to assure power and an adequate income for the ruler and his officials, and to bind the two closely together. There is no death penalty, no corporal punishment, no limitation of personal freedom. For the gravest crimes, as for trivial offences, Dali prescribed fines in the shape of payments of cattle or teqaqi, varying according to the seriousness of the offence. This legislation is still in force in Darfur. There have been improvements in it, and here and there some deterioration, but Dali's successors have not undertaken any substantial changes. His reign, which is said to have been long and happy, apparently fell in the middle of the 15th century, but more accurate details about it are lacking. Sultan Dali was followed by some ten kings, about whose names and chronological order there is great uncertainty, and whose relationships with each other are equally obscure. It must have been a period of domestic strife and upheaval, as is shown by the frequent changes of ruler. There were three sons of Dali, Sabun, Sikar and Bahar, then Sabun's sons, Bahet, Darsud and Edris-jal, Bahar's children, Uru, Tinsam, Diatom and Terendim, Edris-jal's son, Kuru, and Uru's son, Tir Salam. Then came Sultan Solbutte Ibn-Muhammad, Sultan Saref Ibn-Omar, Sultan Salah Ibn-Salam, and then fifteen names of kings, for whom neither the length nor the order of their reigns is clear. [363] In other lists are also recorded Rum-Sham, Nasr, Sem-terim and Sakersim. Of the nineteen who have been named, the following apparently actually reigned: Sabun, Edris-jal, Diatom, Darsud, Tinsam, Terendim, Solbutte, Saref and Salah; for Sikar, Bahar and Bahet this is doubtful, and for Uru, Tir-Salam, Rum-Sham, Nasr, Semterim, Sakersim and Kuru improbable. Some of the last-mentioned 1 It has been suggested that Dali, who is recorded in one account as a eunuch from Uri in northern Darfur who organised the administration of Darfur on Bornu lines from his centre at T o r r a on thejebel M a r r a , may be a memory of Dala (Abdallah) Afnu, the slave governor of the eastern province of Bornu under K i n g M u h a m m a d Idris in the 16th century (A. J . Arkell, A History of The Sudan to A.D. 1821, 2nd. ed., London, 1 9 6 1 , 2 1 2 ) .

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names perhaps belong to the same person. It is, moreover, not unlikely that some of those mentioned were not kings of Darfur, but only chiefs of the Massabat, for during this period there was a separation o f the ruling family into two lines, each of which at the beginning claimed the succession. Sultan K u r u , w h o appears in all the family and royal lists as the father of K i n g Suleman Solon, most probably did not actually reign. It appears that T i n s a m or T u n s a m , Bahar's son, w h o is always mentioned as Jedd el-Massabat, ancestor of the Massabat, was for a long time victorious in the struggle against K u r u . Most of the records describe them as brothers, but K i n g Tirab's list gives T u n s a m as a grandson and Edris-jal and Sabul K u r u as great-grandsons of K i n g Dali. T h e reason for the conflict between them, which is still celebrated in popular song, was the M u r u n g a property in Dar-Fea, an administrative district of the D a r el-Gharb (West Province), which was claimed by both princes. K u r u had taken possession of it, and there ensued a long struggle between him and T u n s a m , in which K u r u got the worst of it. This is confirmed by the fact that, on account of T u n sam, Suleman Solon had been carried a w a y into safety as a small child. Suleman's mother belonged to the Massalit tribe, and he was taken across the Darfur frontier to W a d a i to her relatives. T h e y belonged to the Zirban section of the tribe which is said to have a reddish skin (for an A r a b origin is generally ascribed to the Massalit), and which still today enjoys ancient privileges dating back to the time when they were among Suleman Solon's effective protectors. T h e boy grew up with them in W a d a i , and returned as a youth [364] to reconquer the dominion of his fathers. T h e drum with which he appeared in his native land is still known as ginsi among the old people there, and, like later his shield, shirim, it exerted a powerful magical influence over the inhabitants of Darfur. T u n s a m was in the Jebel M a r r a , and from here the warlike young prince expelled his uncle, or great-uncle. " T h e d r u m sounds! T u n s a m is in the ravine! After h i m ! Fall upon h i m ! T u n s a m is in the ravine." It appears to have been the chivalrous custom at that time to exchange challenges in due form. A n envoy thus came from Suleman Solon to T u n s a m , singing the following message to him, and accompanying his song with appropriate dance movements: " S u l e m a n , K u r u ' s son, sends me to you, and says that he will find you tomorrow morning." T o which T u n s a m replied in the same manner: " G o , say to h i m good, tomorrow morning he can find me, T u n s a m . " H o w Suleman Solon succeeded in driving T u n s a m from their native mountain country, h o w long it took h i m to do it and in w h a t battles, is not known in detail. O n l y the following account is well established: Suleman " t h e A r a b " , so-called because of the red colour

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1

of his skin, established himself in the Jebel Marra, soon became ruler of the whole of Darfur, and gave to the kingdom a dimension closely approximating its present size, while Tunsam with his people descended into the plain towards the east, and was called Massa Bawi, i.e. one who goes eastwards. His supporters formed a new tribe of the Massabat, which has gradually forgotten its Fur origin. Suleman Solon, the son of Kuru, gave the kingdom, as it were, a new foundation by his military enterprises and the introduction of Islam. In Darfur, as people are ashamed of their Pagan past, there is a tendency to forget his predecessors, except perhaps Dali, to whom the state owes its whole organisation and whose name has not disappeared from the memory of the people. Suleman, on the other hand, is one of the most popular of the country's rulers. He did not indeed succeed [365] in spreading Islam, which he had introduced into his own family and immediate entourage, throughout the whole country, but he made the new faith in some degree a state religion. He consolidated his power at home and extended it abroad. He lived in turn in Aremba, Kobe, Salua, Omm Harraz, Majalla or Noyo, 2 and from there set forth on the numerous and successful military expeditions, of which he is said to have led thirty-three in person; when he shook his small round metal shield, so that the little bells attached to it sounded, victory seemed to everybody to be assured. This shield, shirim, is still preserved among the family treasures. Suleman was indeed not able to bring into subjection all the numerous sections of the Massalit, but he conquered some of them, and brought under his dominion the Oro, Birgid, Zoghawa, Mararit, Bego and the gallant Tunjur, who still sometimes sought to revolt again. He extended the boundaries of the kingdom to the east as far as the Atbara river beyond the Nile, and in the north his rule was acknowledged as far as the Bedeyat region. 3 It was also he who conquered the Berti under their king Namadu. At this time the people and the king himself had made very little progress in their material culture. The people were clothed in skins, and the king used a red leather garment as a robe of honour. When a carpet was brought from Egypt to Musa, Suleman Solon's successor, it is said that he was embarrassed to know what to do with it, and decided to wrap it round himself as a garment. Suleman Solon reigned for forty-one years, 1596-1637, and was buried at Torra in the centre of the kingdom, where the graves of all the kings of Darfur 4 since that 1

Solongdungo, in the Fur language, meant "redface", and is now used for Arab. These are all sites on the slopes of the Jebel Marra. 3 The Bedeyat in the Republic of Sudan (about 9,000 in the 1965 Census) live in the far north of Darfur, above the Zaghawa, to whom they are related. 4 Except Omar Lele, 1732-9, who died in captivity in Wadai, p. 285. Cf. A. J . Arkell, "Darfur antiquities - I I : The Tora palaces in Turra", Sudan Notes and Records, 2

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time are to be found. D a l i too was buried w i t h his sons in the T o r r a district, a half-day's j o u r n e y from the present family graves; the grave of N a m i n B a h a r [ T u n s a m ' s father] is near the source of the W a d i Bare. O n l y T u n s a m ' s grave is in the east in an u n k n o w n place. S u l e m a n Solon w a s succeeded b y his son, M u s a , w h o reigned for forty-five years, 1 6 3 7 - 8 2 ; his long reign was, however, less glorious t h a n that of his father. H e is said to have been peace-loving, but circumstances nevertheless compelled h i m [366] to w a g e w a r with, for example, the Q i m r , without being able to bring them into subjection, and especially w i t h the Massabat, w h o were unwilling to submit to the domination of the younger line. It appears that under their sultan J o n g o l they undertook expeditions against M u s a , and there were battles at T i n e and K o l g e , residences of K i n g M u s a at the foot of the M a r r a range. M u s a lies in a grave at T o r r a w i t h his father. N e x t c a m e A h m e d Bokkor, the most distinguished ruler o f the kingdom after K i n g D a l i and S u l e m a n Solon. H e reigned for forty years from 1682 to 1722, and was as m u c h respected at home as he was feared abroad. H e was the youngest of Musa's eight sons, the eldest of w h o m , Giggeri, was originally invested w i t h the royal power. But since Giggeri had an epileptic seizure on the first d a y of his reign, and it w a s not possible for one "possessed by the d e v i l " to be sultan, he was replaced the same d a y b y A h m e d Bokkor. A h m e d immediately m a d e it his business to turn his country into a true Muslim state, sought to attract learned m e n , faqihs, into the country, built schools (medresas) and mosques, and compelled the inhabitants to observe the three principal Muslim prescriptions, circumcision, the R a m a d a n fast, and performance of the five daily prayers. W i t h an accurate appreciation of the low standard of civilisation of his subjects, he invited more advanced foreign tribes to settle in the country, guaranteed t h e m security of property and freedom from taxes, and thus attempted to elevate the country. F r o m this period comes principally the i m m i g r a tion from Bornu a n d Bagirmi of numerous Fellata, Bulala and A r a b s and of the people of the Nile, and his hospitality and sense of justice m a d e D a r f u r a country m u c h sought after. A t first A h m e d Bokkor lived at G u r r i in the K e r n e region of the western province, then at M u r r a in the F e a region in the same province, and later at A b u Asel i n the M a r r a range. 1 H e was successful in his military enterprises, overthrowing the Q i m r , a n d driving the people of W a d a i out of the country. T h e centre of power of the Q i m r was in the N o k a t mountain, from w h i c h they xx (1937); and H. A. MacMichael, "Note on the burial place of the Fur sultans at Tura, in Jebel Marra", Sudan Notes and Records, ix (1926). 1 A small rectangular red-brick building of Ahmed Bokkor was still to be seen at Abu Asel; A. J. Arkell, Sudan Notes and Records, xx 1, 1937, 103-4.

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exercised wide-ranging control over the Zoghawa, [367] the inhabitants of the Jebel Mul and other tribes. The wars with the Qimr were said to have lasted seven years, seven months and seven days, and ended with the conquest of the Nokat mountain, which, however, was made possible only by treachery. Ahmed Bokkor bribed the Qimr king's wife with gold and jewels, and she showed his warriors, led by his eldest son, Muhammad Daura, 1 a path to the inaccessible mountain, sending many of her slave women along this path to collect wood on a day agreed beforehand. The conquest of the Qimr, in which the son mentioned above, Muhammad Daura or Muhammad Harut, gave considerable assistance, was an important event, for it assured to Ahmed control of the whole north and northwest of the country. A cannon, which appears to have come miraculously into the country at that time, and did service in this war, was until a few years ago at Murra, one of Ahmed Bokkor's residences.2 During the same period the king of Wadai, Arus, attacked Darfur, as has already been noted in my account of Wadai [pp. 208-10]. Since the reign of Musa, Wadai had every year 3 sent a girl of royal blood to the harem of the King of Darfur; under pressure from his own people, Arus now refused any longer to pay this tribute. Without any declaration of war, indeed, he invaded Darfur with his forces, and got as far as the present Qabqabiya region at the western foot of the north end of the Marra range. King Bokkor seems not to have felt himself sufficiently strong or secure to settle accounts once and for all with these dangerous neighbours. He left his residence in the west, returned to Abu Asel near Torra in the Marra range, and there energetically prepared for war. At the same time he sent to Egypt to procure firearms, and to Bagirmi to assure himself of allies there. When after two years he felt himself a match for, or superior to, the enemy, he came down from the Abu Asel mountain and attacked them near Qabqabiya. He was victorious in this battle, in which the Wadai warriors threw their shields away, as the name recalls (Qabqabiya means "they threw their shields away"), [368] and pursued the enemy to the Shutak mountain on the Wadi Bare, which derives its name, meaning Halt, from this circumstance. Thereafter there was peace in the land. But since King Bokkor was old and infirm, and especially very hard of hearing, this provided some ground for discontent, and it is said that his brother Giggeri succeeded at this time in winning the mastery for himself again. Ahmed Bokkor withdrew to the southwest of the kingdom to Kuli in the Abu Dima province, where he had his slaves forge their shields, and 1 1 3

Daura is a Fur nickname meaning iron. This appears to be the first reference to fire-arms of any description in Darfur. According to p. 208 every three years.

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zealously prepared for war. In the autumn, when the people everywhere were busy with work in the fields, he advanced to Torra, seized the Jebel Abu Asel, killed his brother Giggeri, and became again the undisputed master. Finally he wanted to undertake an expedition to Kordofan, where the Massabat had established themselves, and across the Nile against the Funji, but he died on the way at the Jebel Tika; the place, a qubba, a grave dome, in which his body was prepared for burial, was called el-Mandar. When Ahmed Bokkor went to the east, he invested his son, Muhammad Harut or Muhammad Daura, with the dignity of khalifa. He was a brave warrior but also a barbarous and cruel man. The worthy king knew this very well and felt much concerned both for his other sons, of whom he was said to have had 200, and for the country when the time came that he was no longer there. When he became ill and felt that he was near his end, he had his successor, Muhammad Daura, hastily summoned to him, and gave him his last will and the royal signet ring. Such a thing had not been customary among the earlier kings of Darfur, Bokkor being also the first who used writing and had the art of writing taught in the country by foreign learned men. When he gave his son the ring, he warned him especially against any cruel measures towards his brothers. It appears that he specially loved one of his sons, Yusef, surnamed Deleb, for he charged his eldest son to inflict no injury on Yusef, and prophesied [369] his destruction if he were to fail in this. He feared above all, the dying king added, that his own reign would come to a bad end, but nevertheless entrusted the royal dignity to him as the eldest son. So ended his active life, and his prediction was soon fulfilled. Muhammad Daura was so powerful since he had become khalifa that he could assert his mastery without any opposition, though he was not at all popular among the dignitaries. In order to deprive the dignitaries of any rallying point in the royal family, he sought to get rid of all his brothers. At the time of his accession to the throne, seventy of them were put to death, and only those were spared who were still at a tender age. Some of the adults also escaped from his cruelty, Tahir, the grandfather of my informant, Abd er-Rahman, Tirab, Abu'lQasim, Kuni, Yahishega, Kuduk, Yusef Deleb and others, most of whom dressed themselves as women, and thus evaded the machinations of the king. Gradually, however, he sought to render harmless all the others of whom he had even the most remote suspicion that they might win the favour of the people. After he had reduced their number, he did not spare even his own eldest son, Musa Angreb, whom, following the example of his father, he had named as his successor, or khalifa. The mother and the entourage of his second son, Omar, had however inspired the father, always cruel and vindictive, with suspicion

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that Musa aspired to power for himself. Since the father had already begun to prefer O m a r , it was not difficult to incite him against his eldest son. Musa soon had news of this, and was thus driven to active revolt. He refused a summons to appear before his father, and resisted when his father forthwith marched with his armed forces to seize his disobedient son. Musa Angreb was victorious in a bloody conflict at Ghabashat between Halluf and J e d i d es-Sel. His father then abandoned the use of force and captured his rebellious son by fraud. He sent the grandfather of the Ishaqa, who later became the qadi and the grandfather of the Faqih [370] Salemma, 1 together with a distinguished faqih from Katshena [ = K a t s i n a ? ] , with a message to his son that he forgave him and invited him to come to him. These pious men had not, however, concealed from the king that they feared some evil for Musa, and they had him swear on the Quran that he wished no harm to Musa. M u h a m m a d Daura did this most solemnly, and Musa came. He was received in apparently the most fatherly manner, and then, when his father said that he wished himself to invest him with a robe of honour, and Musa's head stuck inside the garment (garments were pulled over the head), the king seized a musket and knocked his son's skull in with the butt end. When, despite his father's warning, M u h a m m a d Daura also had Yusef Deleb killed, whom he already held prisoner in the J e b e l M a r r a in the state prison for political offenders, in its deep rocky recesses, the vengeance of fate overtook him. He was stricken with leprosy and suffered much from its ravages; it is even said that his tongue had to be cut out. He died after reigning for ten years from 1722 to 1732. He had lived on the J e b e l Mojalla in the R o - K u r i district on the western slope of the M a r r a range, and was buried, like his ancestors, at Torra near his father's grave. There followed then the short reign of M u h a m m a d Daura's son, Omar, with the surname Lele, i.e. donkey, which lasted from 1 7 3 2 to 1739. A worthy son of his father, though less cruel and wicked, he was a great scourge of the country on account of his brutality and wild, warlike temperament. At first he lived, like his father, at Mojalla, and later at Gogorma 2 in the western province near the Wadi J e l d a m a . A b u 'l-Qasim, the most dangerous of the other claimants to the throne, who had a large popular following because of his liberality and chivalrous disposition, O m a r kept imprisoned in the M a r r a range. O f the others, two of Ahmed Bokkor's sons, Pelpelle and A b y a d , had fled 1

The grandfather of Salemma (cf. p. 306) was Ali bin Yusuf el-Futuwi (i.e. from Futa Toro), a Fellata, to whom Ahmed granted extensive hawakir in western Darfur, when he stayed there on his way back from pilgrimage. 2 Kogorma, west of Qabqabiya; there is a plan of the palace there in H. G . Balfour-Paul, History and Antiquities of Darfur (Khartoum, 1955), 23.

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to King Isawi, the son ofJongol and ruler of the Massabat in Kordofan. Isawi was afraid to give hospitality to such guests, for he knew very well Omar's revengeful disposition, and by a stratagem extracted himself from his [371] dangerous situation. He incited the princes to rebel, advised them to pass through the region of the Rezeqat to Darfur and to take possession of the country by surprise with the help of the Arabs of the south, and said that he was willing to divert the king's anger towards himself. To the king he then expressed by letter his sympathy on the occasion of the death of his father Muhammad; he protested that he regarded him as if he were his own son, and begged him to console himself. Isawi added that, if Omar were going to marry his father's wives and his own sisters to some of the great men of the country, he might reserve his own mother for Isawi, for he had the intention of taking her to wife and would come and fetch her himself. Omar fell into the trap, and greatly enraged by the shamelessness of his vassal, departed at once for Kordofan. In the meantime, however, Isawi had fled to Sennar to King Tungi, 1 and from there wrote a letter to Omar which said that if he had come there on his account the journey was useless, since he would never resist him, as he felt himself too weak. But if he had come on account of his two uncles he would have him know that both of them had some time since passed through the Rezeqat region to the borders of Darfur, in order to seize the country there from the south. Omar then turned back, and advanced so rapidly that, in spite of their fear of him, his own people openly complained. Instead of answering them, he thrust his hand into his garment and drew it out bloody between his legs, to demonstrate that he suffered no less than they did from their exertions. He fell on the rebellious princes in the Dar-Birgid, and defeated them at Kalambawa. 2 It should be recorded here that other accounts maintain that the two princes fled not to Isawi, the chief of the Massabat, but to the king of Sennar, who, it is said, impressed by Abyad's warlike spirit, of which he had had an opportunity to convince himself on an expedition against their Pagan neighbours, was afraid for the maintenance of his own rule; by the letter mentioned above he had enticed Sultan Omar towards the east, while he himself fled, and Abyad sought to enter Darfur from the south. Omar undertook minor military expeditions nearly every year, either in [372] the interior of the country or beyond its borders. He could not live without fighting, and was so irascible that it was said that any of his people at whom he merely looked trembled with fear. He was continually preparing for war, and his campaigns were so incessant that after a few years his subjects became weary of him. At 1 2

There appears to be no other reference to a King Tungi of Sennar. On the modern road from Nyala to el-Fasher, marked on the map as Kalamboa.

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last he prepared a large-scale expedition against Wadai, where he had already earlier launched a doga bani, i.e. a flying expedition. This second expedition cost him his freedom and his kingdom. T h e patience of the country was once more completely exhausted by these preparations. It happened that Kuni, 1 one of the sons of his grandfather, Ahmed Bokkor, who had remained in tolerable favour with King Omar, asked him, before marching against Wadai, to free [his brother] Abu '1-Qasim from his imprisonment in the Jebel Marra. When, despite all warnings, Kuni pressed his request the king promised him what he asked for, but predicted that it would be he, Kuni, who would regret it most. H e was undertaking, he said, the expedition against Burgu, 2 since he recognised the sentiments of his people and preferred to die like a man on the field of battle instead of finding an inglorious end, hated and betrayed in his own country. Abu '1-Qasim, however, would be his successor, and Kuni, who was asking for his freedom, would fall the first victim of his brother's jealousy. Abu '1-Qasim was freed, the king marched against Wadai, and in a decisive battle there was deserted by most of his people, taken prisoner and died several years later in captivity. As O m a r Lele had foreseen, power immediately passed, without much public mourning, to Abu '1-Qasim, who, though not without some magnanimity, was also impulsive, and inclined to listen to the insinuations of his favourites, nor was he very scrupulous in relation to his enemies or to those whom he regarded as such. He reigned for thirteen years, from 1739 to 1752, and in the course of time developed with his people relations as bad as those of his [373] nephew and predecessor. H e completely alienated from himself the free men of the country, preferring slaves, upon whom he heaped riches and places of honour. I n revenge for the defeat inflicted by Wadai, he made strenuous military preparations, and for this purpose imposed on the whole country an additional tax of one head of cattle per household. When he marched against Wadai, he was thus able to put into the field 12,000 mounted men, equipped with armour and swords, without counting additional men from the provinces who provided most of the footsoldiers. Since O m a r Lele's death, Wadai too had been preparing for this attack, though, according to reports current in Darfur, they were content to read the Quran, and especially the Ya-Sin surah which is 1

Founder of an important Kera (or Kayra) patrilineage, and ancestor of Ali Dinar's famous general, Adam Rijal. Theobald is inaccurate in attributing Takruri origin to Adam Rijal (Ali Dinar, 75 n.). * Burgu was the name for Wadai used in Darfur and Kordofan. In the days when Wadai was primarily a puzzle for arm-chair explorers, arguments arose over the precise significations of such divergent names; it may be that the Wadaians themselves preferred the name Dar-Salih, or Salayh (cf. p. 206; el-Tounsy, Ouaday, xxiv ff.).

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celebrated in this connection. 1 When Abu 'l-Qasim was informed of this by a man coming from Wadai, he laughed and said that he was not much troubled by Ya-Sin and the like; he had horses, weapons and armour, and thought that he would make a better ruler of Wadai with them than by reading the Quran. On his return his informant should recommend all the inhabitants to furnish themselves with honey and meat, so that the Darfur army might be well catered for on its way. His arrogance was to be severely punished. Bahar, a Zoghawi, was the king's vizier, whom the king valued more highly than all the Forawa, but neither this man nor his slaves, whom he placed in the first battle rank while the free men were kept in the second line, could help him to victory. The free men, already discontented with the king, and still more sensitive to this slight in the hour of danger, had no scruples about leaving him in the lurch when the slave guards began to waver. On all sides the cry arose, "Children of Fur, take to flight, for only flight can save us. Desert Abu 'l-Qasim. Let the cows which he has taken from us, let the Zoghawi Bahar fight for him." Only when the great drum, mansura, "the victorious", ancient and highly esteemed, had been captured by the [374] warriors of Wadai, did the free men take courage, got the drum back again out of the hands of the enemy, and then retreated as quickly as possible. Abu 'l-Qasim was missing, and appeared to have been killed or taken prisoner; his brothersTiraband Abd er-Rahman were wounded, and the vizier Bahar captured. In spite of their defeat, the Forawa returned content to their country. " N o w that we are free from Abu 'l-Qasim," they said, " w e will deal later with the people of Wadai." But scarcely had they summoned Muhammad Tirab, Abu '1-Qasim's brother, to the throne, than Abu 'l-Qasim again appeared on the scene. A Mahmudi, i.e. a man of the Mahamid tribe, had found Abu 'l-Qasim severely wounded, had brought him to his tribe without recognising him, and there cared for him until he had recovered. On his reappearance Tirab wanted to restore him to power, but the great men of the country were opposed to this. They represented to Tirab that if Abu 'l-Qasim returned to power none of them would be sure of his life for even an hour, and that 1 Ya-Siri is the title of the 36th surah of the Quran: exceptional miraculous powers are attributed to it, and it is carried as an amulet in a leather pocket on the body. G. N. In his translation of the Quran, Yusuf Ali says that this surah "is considered to be 'the heart of the Quran', as it concerns the central figure in the teaching of Islam and the ccntral doctrine of Revelation and the hereafter", and was appropriately read in solemn ceremonies after death. Ya-Sin, he added, "is usually treated as a mystic title of the holy Prophet" (1968 edition, 1168-9). El-Tounsy (Ouaday, 606-7; cf. 718), describing the anxious reactions of passengers, among them himself, on a ship in danger of sinking, told how some called upon one saint, some on another, while others recited Ya-Sin.

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they considered themselves fortunate as a result of their defeat at least to be free of the King. Would T i r a b deprive the country of peace, and himself and them of the security which had just been won? They would never endure it again, and, if necessary, would oppose it by force. In the interests of the country and of general peace, T i r a b decided to render his brother harmless, and had Abu 'l-Qasim strangled with a toqqiya by a m a n named Wir. 1 Today the office of head executioner is still in the hands of descendants of this man, though as a high official the executioner himself later scarcely ever actually carried out a sentence. A sister of Abu 'l-Qasim, the Iya Basi Zemzem (iya basi means " t h e first or chief w o m a n " ) , named Sendi Suttera, i.e. the virgin, since she was not married, was present at the execution of her brother and burst into a loud lamentation, whereupon Tirab immediately gave her also to the executioner. In her place the high dignity of the iya basi was entrusted to his own sister, Korongo. Abu 'l-Qasim, who had lived at Girli (? Gurri) in the Wadi Bare in the western province, was buried at Torra near the graves of Bokkor and M u h a m mad Daura. [375] M u h a m m a d Tirab was a distinguished ruler, who both at home and abroad maintained his prestige, and on the whole sought to put a stop to dishonest administration. However, to the great dissatisfaction of the natives, lie gave preference to the Zoghawa, to whom his mother belonged. His uncle H a r u t of the Zoghawa Kube he made sultan of the Kube region, 2 and gave him the drum, nuhas, which is the outward sign of such a dignity. O m a r , a son o f H a r u t ' s , was appointed orondulung, or governor of the royal residence. Another son, Hasseb el-Agaran, was appointed Abu Irlinga, another high office, and attained great power. In all nineteen dignitaries are said to have belonged to the Zoghawa tribe. He took away from the sultan of the Q i m r the royal carpet which had been left with him at the time of his earlier submission, and completely incorporated in his kingdom the regions of the Berti, Bego and Birgid tribes. In a word, he consolidated his sovereign authority more and more. T i r a b had an illustrious reign of thirty-three years, 1752-85, residing at Girli, Gogorma and Shoba; the latter appears to have been his favourite resort. During his reign there was a revolt of the Birgid, who charged the king with selling to the Jellaba as slaves their daughters, of whom they had to deliver each year a number of concubines for the king, wives for his dignitaries, or 1 Cf. p. 334. In his diary of August 1, 1772, J a m e s Bruce referred to the killing of a Darfur sultan "with two razors, in a scshe, or h a n d k e r c h i e f " ; A . M u r r a y , Life and Writings of James Bruce (Edinburgh, 1808), 425. 2 Harut, or K h a r u t , is mentioned in T u b i a n a , Survivances, 27, as the ninth Zoghawa K u b e sultan. Most of the traditional K u b e sultanate is now in the territory of the Republic of Chad.

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servants for the royal household in the residence. In order to suppress this revolt, Tirab set up his residence at Ril in the south, while he left his son Ishaqa as khalifa in the northwest of the kingdom. A pretty story is told about the choice of this khalifa. King Tirab had another son of almost the same age by his favourite wife, who understandably wanted to see him appointed khalifa. The king gave no answer to the request, but had her son called to him. Immediately in front of the entrance gate there lay a lion, of which the young man, appearing on the call of his father, was afraid, so that he presented himself to his father through the door at the back. The king then ordered him to get some silk from a tailor. The young man went off, but immediately returned and asked how much silk he was to bring, [376] went off again, but came back with a second question about the colour of the silk, and finally a third time, to know whether the silk should be raw or spun. The king then revoked his commission and had Ishaqa called. He boldly pushed past the lion at the entrance gate, and asked, immediately after receiving his father's commission, about the colour, the type and the quantity of silk that he was to bring. The king then dismissed both of his sons, and even his favourite wife had no choice but to agree that her own son could not compare with Ishaqa either in courage or in intelligence. Ishaqa's appointment as khalifa was thereby confirmed. Tirab reduced the Birgid most thoroughly to obedience. From this campaign came a trophy, the goat-hair brush, which in the most recent times could be seen fastened .to the spears which are carried before the kings of Darfur. The chief of the Birgid, who sustained a sanguinary defeat, had his beard cut off by Tirab, who added it to the trophies of the royal house, most of which came down from the reign of Suleman Solon. Later it was replaced by a goat-hair brush. He finally stayed in Ril, in order to move against the Rezeqat Arabs, against whom, however, he had little success, for, as was their custom, they fled to the south, to Dar-Jenge, the country of the Dinka, leaving empty fields and huts behind for their enemies. At the same-time he was informed that El-Mur, the Tunjur sultan, was assembling an army at the Kakas mountain. EI-Mur was then killed, together with his nearest relations and a great number of Tunjur. The Massabat also rose in revolt again, and penetrated into the interior of Darfur. After Tirab had defeated them near Ril, they withdrew to Katul in Kordofan. Tirab followed them there and defeated them a second time. Tirab died in Kordofan on a campaign against the sultan of the Funji who boasted of his descent from Suleman's mother, who was said to have married a Funji king during her pilgrimage to Mecca. Tirab is said to have devoted ten years of his reign to religion and

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its study; [377] he was indeed the best writer in the country and the most learned of all the princes of Darfur, and had books brought to him from Egypt and Tunis. Another ten years, the report however adds, was devoted to the enjoyment of merissa, to women and the love of luxury. He had a house built at Shoba, 55 meters long, 20 meters wide and 27 meters high, with 33 rooms for his 33 favourite wives. 1 There he provisioned himself for a whole year with 365 rams, and shut himself up for a year, out of sight of everybody except the vizier, who appeared daily to report to him and ruled the country in accordance with his instructions. Tirab's son, the Khalifa Ishaqa, unquestionably had the best claim to the succession; he was a powerful man, and supported by a large party. However, the country, and even the leaders of the army, were heartily tired of the everlasting campaigns and the expenditure and efforts associated with them, and in this respect, unfortunately, Ishaqa promised to follow in the footsteps of his immediate ancestors, and in any case to surpass his father in military zeal. T h e vizier Ali Uled J a m a , and with him many others, wished to give Ishaqa the succession, but another distinguished military leader, Hassab Allah Garran, wanted to secure it for [Habib,] the son of Tirab's favourite wife, Kinana. He also had his party, so that opinion was divided. T h e army, which was soon in need of a leader, included in its ranks two brothers of Tirab, Tahir, the grandfather of my informant, and A b d er-Rahman. O f the two, A b d er-Rahman was preferred by the Forawa, mainly because he had hitherto been powerless and unimportant and, what especially recommended him, he had no numerous family, for the vassals had learnt positively to fear such people, with their rich crown lands, hawakir, and their inevitable struggles for the throne. Also A b d er-Rahman, whom the army had got to know only in the expeditions against the Rezeqat, seemed not to be eager for conflict and war, but was upright, affable, pious, a skilled writer, and of outstanding good sense. [378] When the army leaders now assembled after the death of the king, and took counsel about the immediate future, Tahir Ibn Bokkor spoke in favour of his brother A b d er-Rahman, emphasising especially that he had next to no children, who hitherto had been the source of all evil in Darfur, and that he was more suited to be king than Tahir himself who had many children. Ishaqa had a large party, apparently still more important in the army, but power lay first of all in the hands the princes who were present, and many supporters of the khalifa therefore remained silent, in the secret hope that he would know how to protect his interests later. It appears that the dead king had h i d some presentiment of A b d 1

A plan of Muhammad Tirab's palace is in Balfour-Paul, History and Antiquities, 25.

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

er-Rahman's designs, for when he went to Kordofan he had wanted to leave him behind in the neighbourhood of his son Ishaqa, whom he advised to get rid of Abd er-Rahman. A wise man, however, advised Abd er-Rahman, who was living as a poor faqih in the capital, to follow the king, for from this campaign great good fortune would come to him. He therefore persisted in his request to be allowed to follow his royal brother, and this was at last permitted to him, though he was so poor that he alone was on horseback, while his wife Ambussa [Umm Buza], who was pregnant with the infant who later became King Muhammad el-Fadl, not only went on foot, but had to carry all their baggage in her hand and the grindstone for the corn on her head. The report continues that Abd er-Rahman was on familiar terms with Tirab's favourite wife, Kinana, and that at his instigation she refused to take over the administration for her son Habib, who likewise had a party of his own. Abd er-Rahman's party grew, and even the vizier Ali Uled J a m a supported him; he was therefore proclaimed king, at first provisionally only in the east of the kingdom, for the north and west remained in the hands of the courageous Ishaqa, whom no one could expect to give up his rights. The power available to Ishaqa as khalifa was considerable, and on the news of the investiture of his uncle, he moved against him as quickly as possible. Abd er-Rahman moved out of southern Kordofan through the Rezeqat territory [379] to the west, and near Tebeldie Sidr he encountered a detachment of Ishaqa under the slave Hajj Muflih, 1 whom he'defeated. Ishaqa then advanced with his army commander, the Abu Jebai Bahar; he fought with his uncle at the Rahat Taldawa (Ril), but was compelled to retreat. Abd er-Rahman's victory was, however, not decisive enough to permit him to pursue Ishaqa. He had got to know the strength and bravery of his adversary, felt by no means confident of victory, and therefore sought means on the one hand to bind more closely to himself his own followers, many of whom were in their hearts devoted to Ishaqa, and on the other to gain friends for himself among Ishaqa's supporters. He succeeded in winning back to his side the man who enjoyed the highest favour with the khalifa, and with whom he himself had had friendly relations earlier, the already mentioned Abu Jebai Bahar. Through him he brought it about that Ishaqa should on grounds of disloyalty confiscate the property of those commanders who had gone with his father, Tirab, to Kordofan and now remained with Abd er-Rahman, and to apply it to military purposes. For Abd er-Rahman knew very well that among the men around him Ishaqa's party was still very strong, and he sought by this means to alienate them from Ishaqa and to attract them to himself. In this he was completely successful. Ishaqa, who had a violent disposition, without any reflection fell into the trap 1

El-Tounsy gives the name as Hajj Muftah; Dar/our, 9 2 - 3 .

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set for him. At the same time A b d er-Rahman sent him a letter, in which he addressed him as his father, and offered to share with him the kingdom which was so extensive, leaving him the choice between the east and the west. Ishaqa did not, however, accept this proposal; he was all the more eager to continue the brilliant rule of his father, w h o had been so fond of show, since his uncle's simplicity promised behaviour completely unworthy of his predecessors. A b d er-Rahman then sent the A b u T o k u n y a w i Timsah (Arabic, crocodile) against his nephew who was living at T o m a near Kofut in the northern part of the kingdom. A well-known faqih from K o b e sought again to mediate between the two claimants to the throne, but Ishaqa was implacable, and a battle ensued [380] at R a w a in the northwest of the country between him and the A b u Tokunyawi, when the latter was defeated and lost his life. In order to make himself less easily recognisable in the battle, Ishaqa had kept continuously in his immediate neighbourhood twelve horses of the same colour as his own, whose riders were also equipped with identical armour. After this victory he came back nearer the centre of the kingdom and camped in the Q a b qabiya region, A b d er-Rahman did not himself move against him, but sent his brother Basi Rifa, whom secretly he feared, since he hoped that, if he did meet a fate similar to that of the A b u Tokunyawi, he, A b d er-Rahman, would at least be free of him. Rifa encountered Ishaqa at Delebe in the Okash region, which is inhabited by the Beni Hasen Arabs. Ishaqa again made a strategical flight, and left A h m e d Jurab el-Fil (Arabic, the elephant), a Bagirmi, in his place with the royal ostrich feather fans. In the battle Rifa sought to engage the royal figure, boldly pressed forward to the pretended sultan and (he is said to have the strength of a giant) threw him down. In the ensuing melée, so dense, it was said, that the sun was darkened and the stars could be seen, 1 Rifa was himself killed. In spite of this victory, however, Ishaqa did not dare to attack his uncle A b d er-Rahman, but withdrew to D a r - T a m a in the northwest of Darfur, and from there asked for armed reinforcements from the neighbouring king of Wadai, Salih Derret. His request was so promptly granted, and such a large force was sent to him, that Ishaqa was more afraid of these friends than of his enemies, and sent them back home under the pretext that he intended to renew the war only in the coming autumn. " I t is," he said, " i n the end better that we should fight things out among ourselves than that we should let our hereditary enemy into the country. If I am defeated and A b d er-Rahman remains in posses1 El-Tounsy tells a somewhat similar story, and his translator, Perron, commented that such hyperbolic expressions were common in Arabic, clouds of dust and showers of arrows so obscuring the atmosphere that the stars became visible (Darfour, 94 and n.).

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

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sion o f D a r f u r , he is still the brother o f m y father and the son o f A h m e d B o k k o r ; a n d if I w i n , I a m still T i r a b ' s son a n d Bokkor's g r a n d s o n . " I n the m e a n t i m e A b d e r - R a h m a n too m o v e d towards the w e s t , a n d c a m p e d at G i r g o in the W a d i J e l d a m a . T h e r e was a b l o o d y c o n f l i c t [381] in w h i c h the K h a l i f a I s h a q a fought w i t h the utmost b r a v e r y a n d w a s at first victorious. H e f o u g h t in person with the vizier A h m e d D o k k u m i , the son o f A l i U l e d J a m a , a n d pushed forward as far as the house o f the A b u J e b a i A b d e l - H a m i d , w h e r e A b d e r - R a h m a n w a s . Scarcely, h o w e v e r , w a s victory in his grasp w h e n the J e b a i B a h a r , the traitor, a b a n d o n e d h i m and went over to A b d e r - R a h m a n , while a m a n n a m e d S e b a h from A b d e r - R a h m a n ' s i m m e d i a t e entourage w o u n d e d Ishaqa severely w i t h a musket shot. I s h a q a d r a g g e d himself to a g i r a f f e tree, harraza, which has since been k n o w n as U t u f a l , and sat d o w n there to die in peace. T h e r e w a s no longer any purpose in c o n t i n u i n g the w a r , a n d A b d e r - R a h m a n w a s the undisputed master o f D a r f u r . H e went at o n c e to his d y i n g n e p h e w , m a d e peace w i t h h i m before he died, took c h a r g e o f his children, and even h a d the m a n w h o h a d killed h i m e x e c u t e d . T h e Z o g h a w a , w h o h a d been supporters o f I s h a q a , 1 returned to K u b e in the extreme northwest o f the k i n g d o m o n the edge o f the d e s e r t ; and other followers o f his sought the king's forgiveness at a holy p l a c e . A b d e r - R a h m a n granted a general amnesty, aman, a n d even f o r g a v e A h m e d J u r a b el-Fil, w h o h a d been one o f Ishaqa's boldest a n d most consistent supporters. After three years o f w a r , A b d e r - R a h m a n lived thenceforth in peace, first at S h o b a and then at T i n e , and for a b o u t another ten y e a r s of his reign in el-Fasher, 2 w h i c h at that time w a s called T e n d e l t i a f t e r the pool, rahat, and w a s the residence o f the A b u T o k u n y a w i , the g o v e r nor of the northern province. A t that time the banks of the rahat w e r e thickly w o o d e d , especially w i t h qarad a n d heshaba, species o f a c a c i a . I n its bed, w h i c h w a s d r y from time to time, there w a s no s p r i n g ; water for the place w h i c h has since that time remained the c a p i t a l w a s b r o u g h t f r o m the J e d i d a (new village) founded b y O m a r L e l e , 1

Ishaqa's mother was a daughter of Harut of the Zoghawa, and her brother,

Hajjar, the tenth Z o g h a w a K u b e sultan, was therefore Ishaqa's uncle. M u h a m m a d Tirab's mother was a sister of Harut, so that Harut was both Tirab's uncle a n d his father-in-law (see p. 287). M u h a m m a d was indeed very much himself a Zoghiawi. In the history of Darfur during these years ill-feeling against the Zoghawa

is a

constantly recurring theme, and it may have been only Tirab's formidable personality that saved him from going the same way as A b u 'l-Qasim. 2

Fasher,

Daza,

faje,

fàshir,

of unknown linguistic origin, is possible connected with

the

" c a m p " , referring to the open audience space in front of the sulttan's

residence, wherever that might be. T h e same word was used in Bornu, W a d a i , Bagirmi and Sennar. El-Tounsy (Darfour, 193-4) g a v e

A-H-

I2°6

( 1 7 9 1 - 2 ) as; the

date of the foundation of el-Fasher, although Browne in 1793 placed the capital at Kobe, the commercial centre

(Travels in Africa

. .

London, 1799, 194).

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and later from the nearby Halluf. After peace had been established, Abd er-Rahman returned to his earlier religious studies and brought many scholars into the country. 1 He knewhowto appreciate the blessings [382] of peace and, by his piety, his wisdom and his sense of justice, he was a boon for the country. He had indeed his faults, and if his principles were just, he was also resentful and vindictive; he never forgave acts of hostility, and repaid them in his own time. He had Ambussa, a sister of Ishaqa's, killed, since she had persuaded her brother not to accept the proposal for a division of the kingdom, and in spite of the general amnesty, he also sought later to revenge himself upon Ahmed J u r a b el-Fil, just as he bore a grudge against the two learned men, the Faqih Dyo Habgawi from Korjo, and the father 2 of the Faqih Salemma, who later became celebrated in Darfur, for the mediating position which they had endeavoured to adopt during the war of succession. He treacherously sought to get rid of J a m u s (Arabic, the buffalo), 3 a man of Manawashi, who had married a daughter of Tirab's, the Mei'ram, or princess, Fetessa, since he suspected him of favouring Tirab's surviving children (he had done away with two of the younger ones, and the Chronicle is silent about Habib, the son of Kinana, 4 and Ziber, another son of Tirab). He sent two letters by a messenger, one to Jamus, in which he promised him rich gifts, which would be delivered to him by the shertaya, or district president, Kubburu of the Birgid tribe, the other to Kubburu himself, in which he was instructed to deliver thefaqih? s head to the king. The two letters were interchanged, and the one intended for the shertaya came into the hands of Jamus, who had the king again swear to guarantee his safety. Abd er-Rahman himself no longer went to war, but he sent Daldin, the melik of the korayat, against the always unruly Rezeqat, among whom Daldin established effective order. His vizier was Dokkumi, the son of Ali Uled J a m a , who had held this post under Tirab. It is said that Abd erRahman had wished to leave his brother's vizier at his post, until one day he observed (his tent was close beside that in which lay the body of the king) that every morning the vizier entered this tent, and only afterwards [383] greeted his new master. When he discussed his strange behaviour with him, he asked the vizier why he did not allow the dead man to rest in peace, for he, the living man, was Tirab's brother and successor, and asked the same devotion from him. Ali Uled J a m a , 1 The tradition was that he had been a muhajir and faki with the father of the Faqih Salemma (mentioned just below) at Kerio, south of el-Fasher. 2 Salemma's father was Malik bin Ali el-Futuwi. He was the "wise man" mentioned on p. 290. Abd er-Rahman had granted him extensive hawakir near el-Fasher. 3 A celebrated faki of Bornu origin who lived and was buried at the Bornu centre at Manawashi. * According to el-Tounsy, Habib was imprisoned in the Jebel Marra after the discovery of a plot in which he was involved against Abd er-Rahman (Darfour, 1 1 7 ) .

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however, replied frankly that he could not show to Abd er-Rahman any attachment which he did not feel. He had grown old in Tirab's service; Tirab had been a friend to him, and he was now too old to find a new friend. If Abd er-Rahman could no longer use him as vizier, he might allow him to die in peace, and from his children raise for himself devoted servants and true friends. After three days the old vizier died; it was said that he had taken poison, 1 and he was succeeded by his son, Dokkumi. Eventually another man exercised much more influence than Dokkumi on the fate of Darfur, the chief eunuch of the country and the governor of the eastern province, the Abu Shaykh Kurra, by origin a Tunjur. 2 He was entrusted with the task of securing the submission of the east, and keeping down the Massabat in Kordofan. After strong resistance, they were defeated at Umm Jenehat, and he made Bara his residence. There he established himself and made himself and the extreme east more independent than Abd er-Rahman could allow. A summons to return was many times ignored; the abu shaykh undertook military expeditions in all directions on his own initiative, no longer appeared in Darfur itself, and at last built for himself on the other side of the Nile a permanent residence, where he accumulated considerable treasure, which he placed in the custody of his slave Asham. T h e king observed the conduct of his representative with growing mistrust, and at last sent the Faqih Tahir to the sultan of the Funji in Sennar, inciting him against the disloyal official, and leaving him a completely free hand. The sultan accordingly attacked Kurra's strong fortress and plundered his treasure; Kurra did not, however, give way, but estab1

According to el-Tounsy, Ali poisoned himself immediately after T i r a b ' s death, while the succession crisis was still unresolved (Darfour, 8 3 ) . 2 K u r r a is a F u r nickname meaning " t a l l " . Darfur tradition said that M u h a m m a d K u r r a came from a N u b a slave group called Turuj. According to el-Tounsy, however, w h o declared the story that he was of slave origin to be false, M u h a m m a d K u r r a had, when still very young, entered the service of M u h a m m a d T i r a b as a korkoa, or royal spear-bearing page (cf. p. 3 3 5 ) . H e became a favourite of the sultan, and this provoked the jealousy of his colleagues, one of whom told T i r a b that M u h a m m a d K u r r a was to be seen every day in the company of one of the sultan's concubines. T h e enraged monarch threatened to take vengeance on him, and M u h a m m a d K u r r a castrated himself. H e was subsequently promoted in the royal service, was appointed melik of the korayat, and finally made abu shaykh by A b d er-Rahman, T i r a b ' s brother and successor (Darfour, 4 5 , 6 2 - 3 , 66). Abu shaykh dali was the highest title in the administrative system of Darfur. H e was chief adviser to the sultan and ex officio governor of Dar-Dali, the eastern province, which included most of Kordofan so long as Kordofan was under the control of Darfur. U n d u e preoccupation with the special case of M u h a m m a d K u r r a m a y , however, have led Nachtigal (and el-Tounsy) to exaggerate the importance of the office of abu shaykh, and earlier holders of the office may not have had much more effective power than was subsequently allowed to M u h a m m a d K u r r a ' s successors.

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lished himself more firmly in K o r d o f a n , while he restricted himself to sending tribute to A b d er-Rahman, but no longer obeyed his orders. A b d er-Rahman then decided to bring the matter to a conclusion by other means. [384] First he sought to get accurate information about K u r r a ' s military strength, and for this purpose resorted to a trick. H e instructed M u h a m m a d K u r r a to undertake a campaign against the K a w a h i l a Arabs, claiming no share of the booty other than one head of cattle for each of his mounted men. K u r r a marched against the K a w a hila, and at the end of the campaign sent 2,700 cattle to el-Fasher. A b d er-Rahman thereupon armed 4,500 mounted men, collecting from the country for this costly enterprise the whole of the tribute in horses due for the next year, and despatched the vizier Dokkumi with this force to Kordofan, but also with gifts for K u r r a ' s commanders, and with instructions to summon abu shaykh, and in case he refused, to bring him back by force dead or alive. M u h a m m a d K u r r a was at first disposed to offer resistance, but when in the council of war he expressed his determination to do this and establish his position more firmly as a ruler in Kordofan, the commanders who had been brought round by the king's gifts and promises left him in the lurch. " W e are serving you loyally," they said, " b u t we cannot fight against the king, our master; his will is sacred for us." When K u r r a saw how things were, he submitted and returned to Darfur. At the border A b d e r - R a h m a n ordered him to await further instructions in Orgod, while, in order to impress the powerful dignitary, he had all the leaders of the army and his vassals come to el-Fasher with an impressive show of mounted strength. He then summoned K u r r a , received him very ungraciously, cast bitter reproaches upon him before the assembled courtiers, called him a wretched slave whom he knew well how to curb, and in front of the crowd took from his head the turban which the abu shaykh alone among the dignitaries was entitled to wear, and banished him and his followers to their houses. Muhammad K u r r a , however, was a proud, ambitious, shrewd and energetic man who, despite the royal disfavour, maintained great power and considerable influence with many who had known him in former times. It did not seem prudent, therefore, to the king to provoke him any further, deeply aggrieved as he was by being deprived of his turban. At the same time A b d er-Rahman was aware of the shaykh's great abilities, and in his old age, [385] while his sons were still children, felt the need for the support of a man of dynamic character who would also be capable of taking over the government after his death. He therefore called K u r r a again to him alone and said to him, " W h a t are you after in K o r d o f a n ? Is not Darfur greater and better than Kordofan ? I am old and weak, and my sons are children. Their fate and that of the whole country I place in your hands." He then restored the

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conciliated Kurra, publicly, as he had humiliated him, to his former dignity, and indeed by the words with which he announced this to the assembled dignitaries and learned men, he actually raised his rank. 1 Three years later the king, who had already reached his sixtieth year when he succeeded to the throne, believed that his end was near; he gave Kurra his last will, recommended to him as his successor his son Muhammad el-Fadl, and appointed him guardian and regent until the young prince came of age. Should the people, contrary to his expectation, not agree to this, he would choose Buhari, his eldest son; and if the Forawa also objected to Buhari, he would substitute one of the sons of Ishaqa, Tahir or Bel Qasim [? Abu'l-Qasim], all of whom were descendants of Ahmed Bokkor, but he would not admit any of the sons of Tirab to the succession, as he feared that the lives of the others would then be in danger. When he had thus arranged for the future with the abu shaykh, he gave at the same time to Hawa Sullum, his favourite wife, a letter for Muhammad el-Fadl, his son and presumptive successor, which he told her should be delivered after three years, and in which he advised him to have the ambitious abu shaykh put out of the way as soon as possible. In order to make the abu shaykh feel still more secure, he called back the vizier Dokkumi who had been despatched to his post in Kordofan, and sent him to the state prison in the Marra range, where he was to remain a prisoner for thirty years. King Abd erRahman died after a prosperous reign of fourteen years, 1785-99, one of the best of Darfur's rulers, who had combined prudcnce and good sense with energy. 2 1 According to El-Tounsy's story, Kurra was completely successful in reconquering Kordofan, stayed there seven years, sending immense riches in slaves, gold, etc. to Abd er-Rahman. His enemies at home were jealous of him, however, and eventually Abd er-Rahman sent an expedition under the Amin Muhammad with some fetters which were to be attached to Kurra. Kurra submitted at once and fastened the fetters himself. Abd er-Rahman said to the courtiers, " W a s I not always right?", and arranged for Kurra to re-enier el-Fasher in state (Darfour, 1 2 0 - 1 ) . 2 Some of Nachtigal's chronology, based no doubt on reports from his informants, is defective in details. Abd er-Rahman is said to have become king of Darfur - in 1785, according to Nachtigal - in his sixtieth year. This would make the date of his birth some time around 1725, though Nachtigal gave the date of the death of his father, Ahmed Bokkor, as 1722 (p. 280). The Cadalvfene-Breuvery chronology (see below, p. 323) gives 1 7 2 8 - 9 as the date of Ahmed Bokkor's death. The Cadalvine-Breuvery date for Abd er-Rahman's death is 1799-1800. Abd cr-Rahman thought it prudent to send Bonaparte a congratulatory address after his invasion of Egypt, in which he welcomed the overthrow of the Mamluks. The letter in which Bonaparte acknowledged this address is dated in June 1799. Having suffered heavy casualties in the Syrian campaign, Bonaparte asked Abd er-Rahman to send him "with the next caravan 2,000 black slaves over sixteen years old, strong and vigorous. I shall buy them all," he wrote, "on my own account" (Correspondence, v. 470, 490, cit. J . Christopher Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, London, 1963, 2 1 2 ) . He

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wrote another letter twelve days later to commend to Abd er-Rahman's attention a physician who was to visit Darfur, repeating his request for 2,000 males slaves over the age of sixteen. The opinion of W. G. Browne, the British traveller who was in Darfur from 1793 to 1796, was that under a cloak of piety, Abd er-Rahman was a misanthropic, licentious tyrant (Hill, Biographical dictionary, 16).

CHAPTER

IV

THE HISTORY OF DARFUR

{continued)

[386] In Darfur, where the succession to the throne is regulated by no definite law, no compelling ancient custom, disputes were only to be expected after the death of Abd er-Rahman. For while his own descendants were not very numerous - he had only four sons, Buhari, Muhammad el-Fadl, Hasibu '1-Kerim and Abu Medina - the eldest, Buhari, who in any case seemed to have been endowed with few talents, had to be excluded from the succession, and Muhammad el-Fadl, the appointed successor, was still a boy of eleven or twelve. The consequence was that a great number of princes [387] were ready, as sons or grandsons of Ahmed Bokkor, to seize the government for themselves.1 Abd er-Rahman had recognised the dangers created by this situation, but in the Abu Shaykh Kurra had also found the man who understood how to obviate or overcome them. The celebrated eunuch was, indeed, a personality especially well fitted to carry out this difficult task, being fearless, energetic, steadfast, calculating and not very scrupulous in his choice of means. He was not only powerful and rich, and therefore respected and feared, but he was also honoured by many for the qualities of his character. Immediately after the death of his master, Kurra assembled the king's sons and nearest relations, the senior dignitaries and military commanders - in short, all who had any kind of claim to concern themselves with the affairs of government. He announced the king's death to them, and at once put the question: What is now to be done ? He had, however, already beforehand approached in secret each one of the princes who could themselves lay claim to the throne, and had 1 "Eleven or twelve" is an underestimate for Muhammad el-Fadl's age at the time of his accession in 1799 (p. 296), if his mother was pregnant with him at the time of Muhammad Tirab's expedition to Kordofan (p. 290), during the course of which Tirab died in 1785 (pp. 287, 288). And if Ahmed Bokkor died in 1722 (p. 280), any son of his who might have been interested in the succession in 1799 must by that time have been at least nearly 80.

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promised the government to each of the most eligible, persuading the others to agree to whatever he, Kurra, would propose. Accordingly, to the question which he put to them publicly, they were unanimous in answering, " W e are all content, abu shaykh, with whatever you will do." The decision thus having been left to him, in the presence of all of them he installed the boy Muhammad el-Fadl as king, in accordance with the instructions of his deceased master. Surprised as they were, they all agreed, at least in public, to this fait accompli, with the exception of the Kuningawi [Ibrahim] Uled Romed, 1 who advised against the selection of the boy. He saw blood in the features of the royal boy, said this fearless man, and of blood Darfur had for the time being had enough. Abu shaykh should take heed of what he was doing, for at some time he would himself be the man who had most to fear from the young prince. Just as he had, however, already made many of the most important princes and dignitaries well-disposed towards him with his gifts, so now Muhammad Kurra allayed the misgivings of the others with ten lucrative hawakir, 500 dollars, and twenty horses with armour and weapons, and seized the reins of government [388] for Muhammad elFadl. Most of the outwitted princes returned from the capital to their homes in the country, where they remained in a state of hostile reserve, considering with each other what was to be done. For some time Muhammad Kurra left them alone, in order to ascertain precisely who their supporters were, and then sent off a certain Daldin, 2 who was called Manvo Siddi, i.e. the black buffalo, to apprehend them. He fetched them all, with the exception of four sons of King Tirab, who had disappeared for good, and sixty of them were executed on the south side of el-Fasher, in a square still known today as Gos es-Sittin, the sand of the sixty, the others being shut up in the state prison of the Marra range. Muhammad Kurra thus ruled by harshness and terror for three years, a de facto king, more feared and given more honour than are most kings. The people fell back at a distance from his path, and squatted down to the side, brushing the ground with the palms of their hands. He was called J a b i r ed-dar, the fortifier of the state; stern and proud, he suffered no oppression of the poor by the great, no dulm, dishonest administration, that deep-seated vice of the Sudan countries. Further, he gradually released the princes whom he had deceived over the succession, but many remained to be abandoned to Muhammad el-Fadl's bloodthirstiness. After about three years things gradually changed as the child king 1 Kuningawi is probably a misreading of abbo konyunga, head of the Konyunga Fur, the title held by Ibrahim Uled Romed as melik en-nuhas. 2 According to el-Tounsy, Daldin was son of an aunt of Muhammad el-Fadl. The magical devices to which it was alleged that he resorted to ensure the success of his punitive expedition are described in Darfour, 3 5 0 - 1 .

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grew up. About this time, Hawa Sullum, the royal widow, sent Muhammad el-Fadl the letter of Abd er-Rahman which has already been mentioned; the woman who was her confidential emissary, however, fell into the hands of the abu shaykh. He read his death-sentence, but allowed the letter to be delivered to the young king, as if he had taken no notice of it; from that time, however, he was unusually on his guard, fearing, if not overt violence on the part of his child master, at least poison and assassination. He ate nothing without having it tasted by either a man or a dog, thereby convincing himself that it contained no poison. As Muhammad el-Fadl grew older, Muhammad Kurra became ever more suspicious, and ever more certain [389] that some catastrophe was impending. There was indeed no lack of envious and hostile people whom he had provoked by his arrogance and severity, and who were always trying to arouse the young king's suspicions of his guardian. Complaints were often made in public, which however still always ended with the ruin of the complainants. In anticipation of a final clash, abu shaykh gradually increased his military strength. This could not remain concealed either from his enemies or from the young king, and the latter allowed himself to be persuaded by the former to put the behaviour of his ruling guardian to a test. It was suggested to him that he should have the abu shakyh,s people prevented from using the wells in the dry bed of the Tendelti lake. When the water was refused to him, the abu shaykh, they told the king, would, if he had no evil intentions, simply ask for the reasons. If, however, his purposes were evil, he would, after the ban had been announced, immediately start hostilities. What Kurra's enemies had foreseen in fact happened. He at once assembled his soldiers, with his own hand killed the official who had delivered the prohibition to him, and began open resistance. The fight raged in the dry bed of the Tendelti lake, on both banks of which the royal residence has been built; on the first day, things went so favourably for the eunuch that in the evening even the young king had to be moved out of the palace and brought in safety to the southwest end of the capital. It was the Kuningawi Ibrahim Uled Romed who brought the royal boy there, and he made use of the night to bribe some of Kurra's followers and bring them over to his side. When the same night the royal drums, and especially the one which is called mansura,2 suddenly sounded apparently without any human intervention - and this likewise was his work - this miraculous event changed the attitude of many, and when the fight was resumed in the 1 According to El-Tounsy (Darfour, 124-5), Muhammad el-Fadl became increasingly exasperated by Kurra's persistent efforts to have him educated. 2 It was believed that when mansura, the Victorious, a drum kept in the royal palace, was beaten by the damzogs or genies, this indicated that some great event, a foreign or a civil war, was impending (El-Tounsy, Dafour, 153). Cf. p. 286 above.

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morning, very many of those who the day before had stood by the Abu Shaykh were to be found on the king's side. Victory inclined his way, and became complete when Muhammad Kurra was killed by Ahmed J u r a b el-Fil, who had been bribed by Uled Romed. 1 [390] Thus Muhammad el-Fadl became the undisputed ruler, the most important influence upon him being of course that of his deliverer, Ibrahim Uled Romed, who did not, however, himself live much longer. He was succeeded by the Maqdum Said, and in addition to him, the vizier Hamed and Abdallah Uled en-Nuh, a man from Dongola, who held no specific office, secured great influence over the king. The young ruler still had the best of relations with his older brother Buhari, in whose company he used to carouse and engage in amorous adventures. But since it made a bad impression on the people that he preferred above all others the tribe to which his mother belonged, 2 choosing the highest ranking dignitaries from its members, although he was himself regarded as being of vulgar birth, many of the disaffected gathered around Buhari. As soon as Muhammad el-Fadl got news of this, he had his brother seized one day at a merissa party of Maqdum Said, and shut him up in the dungeon in the Marra range. U p to that time Kordofan was still part of the kingdom of Darfur. The governor, Musellim, who had accompanied Dokkumi to Kordofan and remained there when Dokkumi was recalled, tried to make himself independent of Muhammad el-Fadl, following the example of his predecessor, and for this reason entered into a secret agreement with Buhari. At the beginning of Muhammad el-Fadl's long reign, Kordofan was, however, conquered by Egypt. 3 Muhammad el-Fadl was, indeed, as a young man, frivolous and pleasure-loving, but though he treated his subjects harshly, he was also not without magnanimity. Later he became unjust, cruel and revengeful. The Arab tribes of the kingdom especially had to suffer under him, and more than once he massacred and plundered them. He was irritated above all by the power, the wealth and the indepen1 The story told by El-Tounsy, who was an eye-witness of these events, was a variant of the account reported to Nachtigal some sixty or seventy years later, Darfour, 51-5; Ouaday, 434-5. * The Bego, who were regarded as in some sense having slave status (cf. p. 356). As a result of Muhammad el-Fadl's favour, their ruler acquired the title of sultan (p. 325), which was usually reserved for the rulers of larger and more important tribes. Slatin (Fire and Sword, 44-5) said that Muhammad's mother was a concubine paid in tribute to the ruler of Darfur by immigrants from the Bahr cl-Ghazal; on his succession, Muhammad decreed the Bego free for ever, ended the tribute, and made the buying and selling of Bego a capital offence. See also Fisher and Fisher, Slavery, 106. 3 Darfur's rule over Kordofan ended in 1821, after thirty-four years, when a Turco-Egyptian force defeated and killed Musellim at Bara. Arms exports to Darfur (p. 392 below) were banned from this time. Hill, Egypt in the Sudan, 1 2 - 1 3 , 30.

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dent attitude of the Beni Holba, and rendered them innocuous by the "bloodbath of the Beni H o l b a " , a massacre which was notorious throughout the country. 1 Later the Ereqat (Oreqat?) on the northwest, border aroused his displeasure by frequently deriding the government of the king who in their view was still too young. H e had them [391] pillaged by an expedition under Basi Omar, when every fifth camel was taken from them. When this too did not suffice, he despatched seven years later against the rebellious Arabs a larger army under the Shaykh Dubu, the Abu Shaykh el-Hanefi and the Basi Dongu. These leaders were, however, defeated and killed. Muhammad elFadl then sent his vizier A b d es-Sid, with all the tribes of the northwest as auxiliaries, against the Ereqat, who defended themselves in battles which lasted for days, but were finally completely defeated. Seven of their chiefs were brought before the king, who had them all executed in the market square. Since that time the Ereqat no longer survive as a tribe in Darfur. Its numerous members live scattered among the other tribes, chiefly among the Mahamid, and in the vassal state of T a m a . T h e Rezeqat were the third of the Arab tribes who were several times plundered by the king. They were, however - and this is still true today - all the more unmanageable since they were protected by the pathless terrain on the southern border of the kingdom, and they are still the most powerful of all the tribes of Darfur. T h e M a q d u m Said, who held the office of somingdoqola, overseer of the state drums, 2 at first succeeded in outwitting them. He enticed the shaykhs of the Rezeqat to come to him, entertaining them for several days and giving them presents at Buldona in the south of the kingdom; he then pretended one day that he had been summoned to el-Fasher to the king, and offered to allow his guests to stay in his house until his return. He had in the meantime already allied himself with the neighbouring tribes, sent all his armed forces to the southeast, and then moved by forced marches against the Arabs whom he had deprived of their leaders, defeated and plundered them. He succeeded several times in outwitting the Rezeqat in a similar way. 3 Meanwhile the king's younger brothers, Hasibu'l-Kerim and Abu 'l-Medina, were growing up, and began to make friends of their own among the people and the dignitaries. Muhammad el-Fadl, suspicious 1 See p. 353. The Beni Holba presented a constant problem to the Darfur sultans; many of them were driven out of the country by Ali Dinar in 1 9 1 4 ; Theobald, Ali Dinar, 1 3 6 - 7 . 2 It is doubtful whether guardianship of the state drums was actually part of the duty of the office of the somingdoqola, as Nachtigal states here and on pp. 329 and 335. Confusion may have arisen from the fact that for most of the 19th century the offices of somingdoqola and melik en-nuhas were held by the same man. 3 A modern descendant of the Maqdum Said still (in 1970) recalled the story of his ancestor's success in outwitting the Rezeqat.

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as he was, warned and reminded them of their brother Buhari and his end; he did this so often indeed that the two of them, knowing well their brother's violent character, decided to flee, and for this purpose withdrew [392] to an estate lying one day's march east of el-Fasher. They remained there for several years, until they believed that they had made their brother feel secure, and then fled to Kordofan. The owner of the camels which the princes used for their flight, however, betrayed them; the king had them pursued, and succeeded in capturing Hasibu '1Kerim while he with great scrupulousness was performing his daily prayers, but Abu '1-Medina fortunately reached Egypt. 1 At the instance of the king, the captured Hasibu '1-Kerim was condemned to death by all the assembled ulema of the country; the king, however, then announced that he did not want blood, and put Hasibu in the prison which was under the charge of the great eunuch, Abu J o d a . Later he had him secretly killed, and equally secretly had his executioner also removed to the next world. There was still one son of Buhari, Tirab, whom the fugitive princes had in vain tried to persuade to accompany them. He had been unable to agree to this, but also he had not betrayed them. Muhammad el-Fadl therefore put him in Abu Uma's dungeon in the Marra range, from which he was freed only by Muhammad el-Hasin, Muhammad el-Fadl's son and successor. Muhammad el-Fadl daily became more violent, more peevish and more feared. The dignitaries came trembling to royal audiences, no one dared to look at him, everybody kept their eyes on the ground. Anyone who approached the audience chamber sought first to inform himself about the colour of the king's clothes, so that he should not wear anything of the same colour as the king. If by chance he was wearing something of the same colour, he changed it before appearing before the king. One day the king caught sight of a very ugly Midobi, a man from the Midob district, and banished him on pain of death for his ugliness. In later years he had his good and his bad days; if he 1 The Abu '1-Medina, whose flight to Egypt Nachtigal describes here, may perhaps be identified with Muhammad Abu Madyan, who was in Kordofan in March 1837. A. T. Holroyd ("Notes of a journey to Kordofan in 1 8 3 6 - 7 J o u r n a l of the Royal Geographical Society, ix, 1839, 163-91) met him there at that time, and described him as a half-brother of Muhammad el-Fadl and about twenty-five years old. Perron, el-Tounsy's translator, met Abu Madyan in Cairo in 1841, and reported his claim to be a brother of Muhammad el-Fadl. According to el-Tounsy, indeed, Abd er-Rahman had only two sons, Muhammad el-Fadl and Muhammad Bukhari (Darfour, 122), and not four as Nachtigal recorded; and Perron thought Abu Madyan looked too young to justify his claim (ibid., 155). However that may be, Muhammad Ali took his status as a claimant to the throne of Darfur sufficiently seriously to send him on an expedition to Darfur in 1843. This came to nothing, and Abu Madyan returned to Cairo, where he died c. 1847 (Hill, Biographical dictionary, 264). ElTounsy's story says nothing about Hasibu '1-Kerim being caught at his prayers.

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

wore a black robe, everybody trembled for their lives, for they were then certain that he must be seeing blood. 1 The Abu Mundenga, Abd el-Bari, the chief of the Ta'aisha Arabs, and the stable master, the melik el-korayat, Abd el-Fettah, in addition to the Maqdum Said, who was the somingdoqola, and the vizier, [393] enjoyed the king's great esteem. Of the king's numerous sons, the eldest, Abd er-Rahman, had early died a violent death. Muhammad el-Fadl had wanted to make him khalifa, but all those whose advice he respected declared themselves to be strongly opposed to this, and indeed Abd er-Rahman was arrogant, greedy of power, and violent. The king, moreover, found him several times in the royal palace at night in suspicious circumstances, so that he was obliged to suspect him of some evil designs against his own father. For this reason he was banished to a mountain region, but there too he ill-treated even the highest dignitaries, and made such enemies of the inhabitants that they took him prisoner with seven of his companions, and complained to the king. He was then imprisoned in the Marra range under the Melik Zame, by whose people he was murdered after he had killed the melik. The king forgave the murderers, and permitted no mourning for his dead son even in his own house. Towards the end of his reign the king embarked on the war against Wadai, using the unhappy period of the reign of King Abd el-Aziz of Wadai with its famine years and civil wars to conquer Wadai for his son Hasin. The looting in the Same district by the Wadai people and the Wadai prince, Muhammad esh-Sherif, 2 who was living as a merchant in Jeman in the south of Darfur, served as a pretext for this incursion. Its leaders were the vizier Abd es-Sid and the melik el-korayat, Abd el-Fettah, with whom were associated Muhammad el-Hasin, the king's second eldest son, and the prince Muhammad esh-Sherif, so that, if the expedition were successful, the latter might take over the government of Wadai; the secret plan, however, it was said, was to place Muhammad el-Hasin, the king's son, on the throne. The plan, however, miscarried, for Abd es-Sid, the commander-in-chief, as a result of the situation which he discovered, allowed himself to be induced to hand over the government to the Wadai prince, Muhammad esh-Sherif.3 Afraid of the revenge of [394] the king, whose commands he had not carried out, Abd es-Sid took his own life on his return. 1

In the Maghrib yellow was said to be the colour which indicated anger. When the kings of Morocco intended to shed blood, they put on yellow clothes; R . P. A . Dozy, Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes (Amsterdam, 1845), ao. Red has been noted above (p. 195) as the preferred colour for a burnus to wear when a battle was impending; cf. also p. 310. For the Fur the colour white had special ritual significance; cf. p. 3 3 7 . 2 A son of Salih Derret who had fled to Darfur to evade Sabun, p. 214. 3 Cf. pp. 2 1 9 - 2 0 . G. N .

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He died of poison in Birkawiya, where he is now buried. According to another account, he died as a result of the ill-treatment to which the king had him subjected when at their meeting Abd es-Sid did not dismount from his horse at an appropriate distance. In place of Abd es-Sid, Abd el-Bari was appointed vizier, while at this time the Midobi Adam, who was nicknamed Tarbush, was the king's favourite and confidant. Abd el-Bari was an ambitious man with far-reaching plans. He was hoping for the early death of the king, who had suffered from leprosy for a long time, intended then to marry the mother of the princes Seif ed-Din and Bosh, and make one of her sons king. He tried to attract the people to him by a great display of magnificence, and to bind the dignitaries to him with rich gifts. His most important associates were the Dadingawi Ishaqa Kokome, 1 the Orondulung Ahmed ed-Dabi, Ahmed Wotfa, the Abu Jebai Muhammad Tottorre, the Basinga Nyombo ibn-Nuh and Muhammad ibn-Tirab, together with the meliks, Muhammad Maqdum [sic] and Maqdum Abd el-Fettah. Finally Abd el-Bari and his lover, the Umm Na'im Kussa, mother of the two princes who have been mentioned, entered into a real conspiracy, which was however betrayed to the sultan by A d a m Tarbush. The king at once dismissed Abd elBari and banished him to his own house. Then, two days later, while the other conspirators were still awaiting their fate, Muhammad elFadl died. Before his death he had commissioned his confidant, Amin Adam, to make his second son, Muhammad el-Hasin, king, since he was afraid of the violent character of his eldest [surviving] son, Abu Bekr. Adam had indeed sworn earlier to Abu Bekr to help him seize the government, but as a loyal servant he carried out his master's last command and succeeded in fact in installing Muhammad el-Hasin. In Darfur, where, as has been noted [p. 298], there is no law, no ancient custom, regulating the succession, and where either a son or a brother of the king can equally well take over the government, the [395] closest confidants of the king, who have been with him during his last illness, are accustomed to arrange matters by agreement among themselves and with those of the king's brothers and sons whom they regard as most suitable for the succession, and this practice was adopted on this occasion. The last turn for the worse of the king's illness and his death were kept secret, and the next night Adam tried to enforce the new order of things. He had Abu Bekr summoned early in the night, but Abu Bekr did not appear, for when there is a change of government the princes of the royal family must always have the greatest anxiety about their own lives, and on this occasion Abu Bekr and his brothers were also afraid of the treachery of the dead king's domes1

Ishaqa was a grandson of Abd el-Qadir Wir, to whose family the office of abu dadinga was assigned; cf. p. 334 below.

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tic slaves. Next morning A b u Bekr assembled his brothers, Hasin, Hasan, For, Nuren, Aras, A h m e d Bokkor, M u h a m m a d A q i l , Ibrahim, A b u K i n d i , A q i d O t m a n , A b d el-Gani, A h m e d O m a r and A b d elHamid, and asked them to join in a concerted armed attack on the royal palace, to prevent A d a m Tarbush from investing, as he intended, Hasib Allah, Bosh or Seif ed-Din with the royal dignity. In fact Hasib Allah's prospects were by no means negligible; one of the oldest princes, and with a vigorous character, he had a large following, and A d a m Tarbush would not have been averse to ensuring the succession for him if there had not been, in addition to his master's last command, a personal motive which was decisive for him. T h e Faqih H a m e d , melik of the korkoa, i.e. overseer of the pages, warned him against Hasib Allah's revenge. T h e faqih reminded h i m that he, A d a m Tarbush, had at one time, when Hasib Allah's uncle, the Basi R a m a d a n , was, as maqdum, administering Dar-es-Said, 1 the southern province, wanted to have him killed because of his extortions, Hasan A b u Kebir, a Midobi in the service of the A b u Irringa, the lover of the Iya Basi Zemzem, was also persuading his countryman to make one of the three brothers, A b u Bekr, Hasin and Nuren, sons of K a t t u m a , king. A d a m Tarbush accordingly sent [396] the Faqih Salemma by night in disguise to Prince Hasin, w h o was with his brother Nuren. Mindful of the oath that had been sworn that each of the brothers would, if he were summoned to the palace, inform the others, Hasin sent Nuren to A b u Bekr, a mission which N u r e n did not carry out. Hasin, however, went in great haste to the royal palace with the Faqih Salemma, and was there installed as king. T h e same night, two dignitaries, the Basi O m a r and Hasan A b u K e b i r , were despatched to rouse the most distinguished officials and men from their sleep, and to administer to them the oath of loyalty which was to be taken on the Quran. In the early morning the drums and the musket shots of the troops w h o had occupied the palace sounded, and the Sherif Brahim went with the Melik A h m e d ibn-Dardok 2 to A b u Bekr, to inform him of Hasin's installation, which he was unwilling to believe, although Hasin himself sent to him. O n l y when his mother, K a t t u m a , and his sister, Zemzem, had convinced him of the truth did he send his troops home, called his brother Hasin a perjurer, and persisted in his surly, if not hostile, mood. T h e r e were also others w h o did not agree with Hasin's installation; thus A b d el-Fattah came to A d a m T a r b u s h , asking him " W h o m have you c r o w n e d ? " , and when A d a m answered, " H a s i n , our master," A b d el-Fettah cried, " W h a t , M i d o b i , have you set up five kings instead 1

Dar-es-Said means "highland"; Upper Egypt is also called es-Said. W. More accurately Muhammad ibn Hayyan Darduq, a melik of the Berti tribe; Nachtigal is virtually our only source for the other people mentioned. 2

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of o n e ? " , meaning by that that Hasin was under the influence of his mother, his sisters and his brothers. K i n g Hasin was listening behind a curtain to this unflattering opinion, without however bringing the audacious speaker to account, and was content to have him swear loyalty on the Quran. A b d el-Fettah, however, who was neither satisfied with the state of affairs nor trusted the king's intentions towards him, asked permission to go slave raiding (ghaziyat) in the Pagan regions to the south. For a few months he came only occasionally to el-Fasher in order after that to resume his campaign. For all that Hasin had very little confidence in A b d el-Fettah, and commissioned one of the heads of the zeribas [397] " t o give him medicine that would make him harmless" on one of his occasional visits to el-Fasher, and this in fact is said to have been done. I lived myself in that quarter of the town and knew the official concerned very well. A b d el-Bari, moreover, had not yet at that time given up his ambitious plans, and was continuing his customary drinking bouts with the Dadingawi Ishaqa Kokome and his brother, Ibrahim Dodogi, Ahmed Wotfa and the Abu J e b a i Tottore. A slave of A b u Bekr, Sa'id Uled Gumzut, came to them one day, and they said to him, " W e sit here in the Beit el-kebir (great palace) with our nuhas (drums), and the king sits yonder in Tombasi (the new Palace) with A d a m Tarbush. What if we were to set up another ruler here in the old p a l a c e ? " There are, as is explained elsewhere, two palaces in el-Fasher, one built by A b d er-Rahman on the northwest side of the Tendelti, where the royal insignia, and therefore the great drums of which they had spoken, are kept, and the new palace, Tombasi, built by M u h a m m a d el-Fadl on the south side. It was impossible to think of a ruler in Darfur without the drums, the ostrich feather standards and the other insignia sanctified by tradition. T h e slave reported these treasonable words to the king who had the whole company thrashed half to death and imprisoned. Abd el-Bari was dismissed from his office and would have been condemned to deatli if Prince Nuren had not interceded for him and given security for him. He was placed in Nuren's charge, and for a long time lived in his house; he was, however, unable to lay aside either his taste for extravagance or his boastful nature, and when one day Prince Nuren had him help his own children in building his house and scolded him as an idle slave, he took this so much to heart that he poisoned himself, thus fulfilling M u h a m m a d el-Fadl's prophecy, which had foretold a melancholy end for his boastful nature. A d a m Tarbush was elevated to the dignity of vizier just after A b d el-Bari's dismissal. This is indeed the place to explain the origin of his nickname, Tarbush, which, as is well known, means fez, the red T u n i sian cap. [398] Once when M u h a m m a d el-Fadl had received a tarbush as a present from a Nile merchant, he ordered the overseer of his

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slave pages [the Faqih Hamed or his predecessor] to send the merchant a page as a present in return. The overseer, who was not well disposed to Adam Tarbush, selected him. When a few days later the king asked after the boy, the overseer had to confess that in return for his present of a tarbush he had given Adam to the merchant, who in the meantime had gone away. Messengers were at once sent out on horseback and Adam was fetched back from the desert. Since that time he had the nickname Tarbush, which was often very disagreeable for him, since he occupied a position of great dignity. Hasin ruled in peace, but was nevertheless not loved by his subjects. His mother incited him against the dignitaries; his brothers, and in particular Abu Bekr and Hasib Allah, despised him as a visionary miser, and his subjects found him deficient in kingly disposition and warlike spirit. His father indeed had said, "If you crown Hasin, you are setting up a merchant as king," and the well-known fact that he engaged in petty trading transactions with Kordofan for all kinds of objects, and had once shed tears over some pieces of clothing that had been burnt in one of his huts, did not increase the esteem in which he was held. He knew how to get rid of his enemies among the dignitaries, since he sent them one by one against the Rezeqat, who took care that they did not return. The whole of his military activity was concerned with these unruly rebellious Arab tribes in the south of the kingdom. In his thirtyfive-year reign, he despatched eighteen expeditions against the Rezeqat - including expeditions against the Habaniya and the Maliya who were allied with them - which, however, for the most part turned out unfortunately. The Somingdoqola Abd el-Aziz attacked the Rezeqat in the first place because of a horse that had been stolen from him. They offered to replace the stolen horse with twenty horses and saddles; the Basi Nyombo and other dignitaries, however, saw more advantage for themselves in a military expedition, and advised Abd el-Aziz to reject the ransom. At the outset they secured a rich booty of cattle, while the Rezeqat, in accordance with their custom, temporarily withdrew, [399] a n d concealed themselves in their own territory where there were many difficulties in the terrain. When, however, their enemies were on their way home with their booty, and had imprudently neglected to take any measures for security, the Rezeqat gathered together and attacked them during the night, killing nearly all the dignitaries, with the exception of Abd el-Aziz, who escaped only because of the speed of his horse, and bringing their cattle back with them in triumph. When King Hasin received news of this unfortunate expedition he was very angry, and charged the Melik Khalil to take Abd el-Aziz, who had remained in the south at Dara, prisoner. The melik found him there and brought him back without resistance. Abd el-Aziz,

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however, was not unprepared for his interview with the king, whose character he knew well. He had 200 nose-rings of gold, zimam,1 such as are worn by women, sewn into his garment. After Hasin had rebuked him sharply, and finally condemned him to death, A b d elAziz replied that he accepted the judgment as just; he was the king's slave, with whom the king might deal as seemed good to him. He might, however, be permitted first to offer the king a substitute for that which had been lost through his fault, and at the same time to give proof that he had been mindful of the king. As A b d el-Aziz had calculated, the greedy king was at once persuaded by the sight of gold to change his mind, revoked the death penalty, and again sent the man whom he had pardoned to the south with the ostensible commission of collecting corn from the Jeman region. He then sent him the turban, the royal lances (kori dorme), the royal chair (kakr), Quran and carpet, the objects which are the insignia of a maqdum, a royal commissioner, who in some measure represents the person of the king, lacking only the royal drum, and is honoured by the inhabitants as if he were the king himself, and thereby installed him as maqdum of the south. A b d el-Aziz lived at Dara for three years and administered [400] extremely well the province which had been entrusted to him. He was severe but just, permitted no oppression of his subjects by the officials, and punished crime and theft with great severity. In the fourth year of his administration, he again advanced against the Rezeqat, and at Musannet, a marshy lake lying between the territory of the Habaniya and the Rezeqat and Darfur itself, captured 1,200 cattle from them and from the Habaniya. The following year too he attacked them with considerable force in the rainy season in the autumn, without, however, having any success in the swamps of the south. This was known as the Fayo expedition, Nehat el-Fayo, because, to allay their hunger in the regions which had been stripped of everything by the Arabs, the soldiers were obliged to eat a plant called fayo. When K i n g Hasin once more became very angry and accused A b d el-Aziz of cowardice, the latter again in the sixth year of his administration attacked the Rezeqat with a large mounted force, through the territory of the Habaniya, whom he charged with having Rezeqat in their ranks, a charge which they denied. He then organised a great military review {arda) of the Habaniya. A number of horses had been shown to him whose riders were said to belong to the Rezeqat tribe. He had the Habaniya surrounded and demanded the surrender of these riders. T h e Habaniya refused and would not betray their protégés. A b d el-Aziz then attacked them, and the Habaniya, with the Rezeqat who were with them, tried to break through the ranks of the armed men who surrounded them. They lost, however, 1,000 men, and 1 In Darfur, zimam is a woman's nose-ring, but the same word is used for the ring worn through the nose of a camel, to which its reins are fastened. W .

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a further considerable number in the subsequent pursuit, together with a substantial booty said to amount to 4,000 cattle. After Abd el-Aziz returned, Sultan Hasin ordered him to attack the Rezeqat again, this time directly. In darret (the autumn) he set out on the 15th of Shaban with 15,000 horsemen. The circumstance that the sultan had provided him with a firman, commission, with a red seal instead of the customary black one, and had given him a black burnus instead of a red one, was regarded as a most unfavourable omen. Eight days later he was attacked by the Rezeqat, and [401] the whole of his rearguard was captured with the animals and supplies. Abd el-Aziz sent detachments in various directions to intercept his marauding enemies, the Missiriya, the Massalit and the Zoghawa to the south, the Birgid and the Beni Holba to the southeast. The latter detachments were likewise attacked by the Rezeqat, plundered and stripped of all their horses. The former, indeed, brought back some substantial booty, but next day the Rezeqat appeared from all sides, clad in armour of buffalo, crocodile and rhinoceros hide, and armed with powerful lances, whose iron points were said to be three spans long and a span wide. That day the battle lasted until the assr, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon; it was resumed next morning, Thursday, when again it lasted until assr, and continued on Friday from daybreak until doher, about 1.30 in the afternoon. By this time the Rezeqat were carrying off the camels which were kept in the neighbourhood with the women, and Abd el-Aziz hastened to save them, but in vain. This failure caused quite general discouragement, and complete victory remained in the hands of the Rezeqat. Everyone took to flight, and Abd el-Aziz fled northward without stopping until the morning. His horse foundered in a morass, and he was rescued by slaves of the Rezeqat who did not recognise him. The following day, however, when he arrogantly revealed his identity, they killed him. The Rezeqat obtained a substantial booty. The news of this defeat arrived at the capital on the first day of the month of the fast. At the id el-fitr, the king appointed Khalil, who has been mentioned earlier [p. 308], the son of Abd es-Sid, the melik of the korkoa, the spear-bearing pages, as maqdum for the south, Hasan Abu Kebir as maqdum of the Dar-Tokunyawi, and the Abu Shaykh Rahma as maqdum for the eastern province, and had all three march against the Rezeqat. But one day, when the Ma'aliya Arabs were guiding the rearguard, the Rezeqat, who were always swarming around them, suddenly appeared at their rear, killed a large number, and captured both the women and the supplies. Later they came again from the other side, attacked [402] Hasan Abu Kebir's detachments, killing his son, the chief of the Ziadiya. In expectation of an attack by the Forawa, the Rezeqat always kept their goods, their wives and children

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concealed in the inaccessible swampy Dar-Jenge, which lies south of their territory. The most distinguished Rezeqat chiefs were J e m a el-Harro from the Habaniya tribe and Faqih Abu Bekr from the Mahamid section. The results of this whole expedition were thus reduced to nothing. The Rezeqat villages were empty, their cattle, their women and children were hidden in inaccessible swamps, while they themselves were equally difficult to find as they swarmed around in the wide inaccessible terrain. Hunger was also their ally against their enemies. Great was the displeasure of the king when Maqdum Khalil returned; he deposed him, and had the vizier Adam Tarbush, at his own request, march out against the Rezeqat. The vizier brought home a considerable booty of cattle, but the Rezeqat themselves he did not get under control. The Melik Atiya, a Berti, was then sent against them; he attempted an attack at the place where the Arab Ma'aliya were living mixed with the Rezeqat, but was defeated. A third time the Shaykh Rashid of the Habaniya, who later lived with the slave-trader, the Egyptian pasha Zubayr, enticed Adam Tarbush to the Musannet marshes under the pretence that there were many Rezeqat herds there. The Rezeqat, however, warned in time by spies, brought their herds to safety, and this expedition too was thus in vain. Next year Adam Tarbush advanced with 12,000 horsemen to the Shullul marsh, where the Rezeqat joined battle with him. After a fiveday conflict both sides were exhausted, and Adam Tarbush saw himself compelled by his own people to retire, thereby incurring the severest reproaches of his master. In the following year, Adam Tarbush appeared again in Dar-Rezeqat with a large force accompanied by the Basi Abd er-Rahman, Adam T u , 1 the head of the stable officials, and others. Again they fought for four days, and again [403] on the fifth day his people asked him to give up the fight and retire, as they were exhausted. The number of the Rezeqat was continuously increasing, and no possibility of victory was in sight. Adam Tarbush, however, refused to present himself in this fashion again before the eyes of the king, and tried to withdraw with his forces to Sheqqa which was within sight on some sandy ground. He had to cross some low swamps to get there, and the Rezeqat again brought to a halt those who were concerned in the withdrawal. The battle went on until assr, but victory remained with the Rezeqat, after Adam Tarbush himself with fifty of his commanders had fallen. After the unhappy outcome of all his expeditions against the Rezeqat, King Hasin entrusted the administration of the south to Ahmed 1

Tu was a common nickname, a Fur word meaning "monitor lizard". Adam Tu was probably a member of the Birgid ruling family.

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Shettah, the son of the Abd el-Aziz who had been mentioned above, and who until then had been melik saringa;1 he did not have him resume the struggle at once, but first strengthened his army with fire-arms. Every year for fifteen years he bought muskets in considerable quantities, and Ahmed Shettah trained his people in their use. He then advanced against the Habaniya, but brought home as booty no more than 400 cattle; he appeased the sultan, however, with the size of the forces armed with muskets which he had at his disposal. During this period Khalil died, it is said from grief at the neglect to which he had been subjected, and Ahmed Shettah was appointed vizier in his place. He at once pacified the Ma'aliya who were making the road to the east insecure, and then attacked the Rezeqat, against whom, however, he had as little success as his predecessors. After losing 900 horses and many men through thirst and excessive exertions, before they had even seen the enemy, he turned back without achieving anything. In the following autumn King Hasin again sent him out against the Rezeqat, with all the forces that were equipped with muskets, under Adam Seif, Brahim Kaskassanyi, Saad en-Nur and Abdallah Runga. 2 There were skirmishes at Kelakela (Kalaka), in which the Rezeqat killed Brahim Kaskassanyi [and ?] Uled Fadl, who was called Arnab, the hare, and others, and captured fifteen horses. [404] Next day the neighbouring villages were plundered, and in this operation Ahmed Shettah lost 500 men as the result of an attack by the Rezeqat. At night the men of Fur sang songs of contempt and ridicule of their enemies, and promised them revenge on the next day. That day too, however, brought no success for the Darfur forces, although all their fire-arms were brought into action. A cannon which Ahmed Shettah had with him, however, held the Rezeqat in check to some extent after it had been fired three times. Next day, Friday, the battle was resumed at the Mamfus swamp where Adam Tarbush had been killed. The position of the Fur forces became very difficult, and only with much toil were they able to withdraw to Sheqqa, where they were again frequently attacked by the victors. This time too, therefore, they returned unsuccessful, but in the following year Sultan Hasin again had his forces move against the Rezeqat. They got as far as Amaturek, where they fought continuously for two days, and this time with such success that on the third day 1

The saringa, or sarenga, were swordsmen (sar is a Fur word meaning sword) who formed a section of the sultan's bodyguard. Shettah (shatta) means red pepper. The build-up of forces with fire-arms in which Ahmed Shettah engaged is referred to by Shuqayr, Tarikh, 464. 2 Saad en-Nur was the melik en-nuhas, a son of Ibrahim bin Rammad (Nachtigal's Kuningawi Ibrahim Uled Romed, pp. 299, 300, 301), who had also been melik enn-uhas; Abdullah Runga was a Dinka slave, who was later appointed maqdum of the western province.

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the Rezeqat offered their submission and brought sixty horses as tribute. The leaders who were operating under Abu Shettah advised him to seize the 400 Rezeqat shaykhs; however, he not only refused to follow their advice, but promised the Rezeqat freedom for their persons and their property, and gave them the right to kill anyone who might wrongfully seize their possessions. Dissatisfied with his mildness, most of his leaders deserted him, while Ahmed Shettah stayed behind, and in spite of the peace that had just been confirmed by oath he was attacked again. The Rezeqat shaykh, Bremo Uled el-Bonyai, tried indeed to represent this as the act of thoughtless young men, and sent two horses in expiation for the attack. He also asked Ahmed Shettah, however, to leave the Rezeqat territory, for peace was impossible in the midst of muskets. Ahmed Shettah then returned to the capital, half under compulsion, half voluntarily. During King Hasin's reign there was another military episode which shows with what a small force a country which in itself is large but is militarily badly organised [405] can be attacked with impunity. 1 A n Arab shaykh from Egypt, the so-called Shaykh el-Missri [lit. the Egyptian shaykh], accompanied by some Daza tribes, penetrated from the north across the territory of the Bedeyat and plundered the inhabitants of Darfur. The Mahariya indeed repulsed him, but he returned, and although the Arab tribes in northern Darfur are numerous, he would almost have succeeded with the number of his musketeers in imperilling the government of Darfur itself. In one of his attacks, in pursuit of the Mahamid who live in the extreme northwest of Darfur, he penetrated right into the heart of the northern province, to the Zoghawa Anqa, and finally to Barr Jues in the western province. Abdallah Runga, who has been mentioned in the struggle against the Rezeqat, was sent against him with all the forces of the west, reaching him at the Rahat Maun or Gerger south of Kube, in the pagan Mahamid regions. Abdallah was driven back, advanced a second time, and again defeated with the loss of his whole rearguard. Emboldened by his success, the Arab shaykh then plundered the Ziadiya tribe, which lives in the north a few days' journey from the capital, el-Fasher. The Ziadiya informed King Hasin of the danger which was threatening him, for the Shaykh el-Missri seemed to have the intention of marching on the capital. But when in all haste the king had sent against him the largest possible force under the command of the vizier Khalil, he withdrew again and his attacks were not repeated. Fate reserved for the king some hard tests at the end of his reign and of his life, although he was on the whole a benevolent ruler, who commanded intellectual talents and learning, in the Muslim sense of the word, that were not common. Although with great moderation and 1

Cf. Sudan Notes and Records, xxiv, 1941, 155.

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skill he maintained peace with his two neighbours, the dangerous Egypt to the east, and Wadai, Darfur's hereditary enemy to the west, he received little recognition of his thirty-year efforts. It was only abroad that he was actually popular, and especially celebrated and appreciated from the remote parts of west Africa to the holy land of the Hijaz because of his generosity to travelling scholars and pilgrims. 1 [406] His own subjects, however, shared the opinion of his elder brother, Abu Bekr, and of Hasib Allah who took the same view, that by his complaisance abroad he was damaging the prestige of Darfur, and that at home the royal dignity was compromised by his unassuming, moderate and mild administration. He would therefore have scarcely succeeded in keeping the peace vis-à-vis his numerous brothers Muhammad el-Fadl had had some forty sons - if he had not been such an even-tempered and patient man. Abu Bekr and Hasib Allah provoked him in public more than once, and more than once, soon after he came to the throne, he had been obliged to explain in the family council that he had undertaken the government only because of his designation by the man who was the father of all of them, but that he would renounce his position the moment their quarrelsomeness made it impossible to maintain internal peace. Especially Abu Bekr offered open defiance to the king, courting severity. On one occasion at the so-called konda (kidney) feast, a custom which is described below, he had coughed and cleared his throat in the presence of the king, an offence which in Darfur carried with it the death penalty. His royal brother gave the appcarance of not having heard him. On another occasion, when the king was making his Friday procession to the mosque, Abu Bekr suddenly rushed towards him with his lance couched, and when the dignitaries threw themselves between him and the king, he drew back, laughing scornfully and representing the whole episode as a harmless jest. Several times he pushed into the palace armed to the teeth, at some unusual hour, and into the presence of the king who, however, did not punish him. In short, the hatred which he displayed against both the king and the vizier Adam Tarbush, since he believed that it was through Adam's cunning that he had lost the throne, caused the king much trouble and sorrow. There were violent scenes between the prince and Adam Tarbush, who was indispensable to the king and could be maintained by the king in his position only by a great expenditure of tact and intelligence. In the country, indeed, Abu Bekr was as much respected as he was [407] feared. The king himself sought to compensate him for the loss of the throne by numerous estates, and thus in the course of time he acquired a power which the king could not 1

The sultanic documents from the time of Muhammad el-Hasin emphasise through such titles as mawlana sayyidna, not used before or since, the religious character of this sultan.

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regard as unobjectionable. The death of his fraternal rival delivered him from this danger. With Wadai, Hasin had by his co-operation in the installation of K i n g Muhammad Sherif been able to establish such a good neighbourly relation that even in my time King Ali of Wadai constantly addressed K i n g Hasin in his letters as Father, and had the highest regard and genuine respect for him. For many years he also succeeded in maintaining peace with Egypt, the development of the power and the capacity for assistance of whose king he could fully understand. With a presentiment of events to come he had, however, procured for himself from the sultan in Constantinople, both from Abd el-Mejid [1839-61] and from Abd el-Aziz [1861-76] a firman which assured to him the independence of his country, under the overlordship of the Supreme Porte. 1 Nevertheless, if death spared him the pain of seeing his people defeated, and his country conquered by the Egyptians, the last years of his life and of his reign were embittered for him by Egypt. Finally fate inflicted blindness on him ; glaucoma seems to have deprived him of his sight with extraordinary speed. People came from all sides, and learned men were summoned to heal the king, who was celebrated far and wide as a generous and grateful prince. Glaucoma surgeons from Morocco, pious Fellata from the Dar-Mali, sherifs from the far west and the Hijaz, wise men from Bornu, and physicians from the civilised countries of the north African coast, came in vain every year to exercise their skill upon him. With great resignation the king submitted himself to all the cures; he rewarded them all generously, but with his deep fear of God, he was resigned to his fate. He became only weaker and weaker in directing the domestic administration of the country. In order to keep the numerous members of his family well disposed towards him and to attach the dignitaries to himself, he squandered the royal domains, and the most productive and richest regions [408] of the country were securely in the hands of his brothers, sisters, cousins or favourite slaves. His sister Zemzem, the iya basi, already mentioned as one of the highest female dignitaries in the country [p. 261], whose character 1 N o other references to these firmans have been found. T h e Ottoman sultan, however, in reply to a letter from A b d er-Rahman, granted him the title er-Rashid, the J u s t (Shuqayr, Tarikh, 4 5 3 ) , and M u h a m m a d el-Fadl was reported to have sent presents to the Sublime Porte with a view to securing its support against the ambitious plans of E g y p t (H. Dehérain, Le Soudan Égyptien sous Mehemet Ali, Paris, 1898, p. 103). O n the other hand, M u h a m m a d Ali Pasha claimed Darfur by virtue of a firman given to him by Sultan A b d el-Mejid ( J . C . Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, N e w York, 1956, i. 120). A letter dated 1 8 2 9 - 3 0 , from M u h a m m a d el-Fadl to M u h a m m a d Ali Pasha, is extant, refuting the latter's claim to Darfur (Shuqayr, Tarikh, 4 6 3 - 4 ) . Ali Dinar subsequently invoked Turkish support and authority when the British threatened Darfur.

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was very much that of a man, finally exercised so much power that she could with impunity give herself over to that unbridled arbitrariness to which she was by nature inclined. She moved around the country at the head of her armed men, plundered the districts placed under her control, and easily got from the weak king those kawakir which she particularly liked. Feared and hated throughout the whole country, she could indeed do nothing better than die at the same time as her royal brother. It is said that, immediately after the death of King Hasin, she fell into such a deep depression that she refused all food and likewise died forty days later. Complications with Egypt began, as already related, in the last years of Hasin's reign. There had lived for a long time at his court a faqih from the small Fitri country, last remnant of the brilliant empire of the Bulala, who represented himself as belonging to the Bulala tribe, though he belonged in fact to the Abu Simmin. The Abu Simmin, however, had been the actual rulers of the Fitri region before the Bulala, who are of Arab origin, had penetrated there and established their rule. They form now only a meagre tribe, scattered among the Fitri villages or driven back to the few islands of the Fitri marshes, and treated with the utmost contempt by the dominating Bulala and Kuka. This faqih, who was known as Muhammad el-Bulalawi, lived as a scholar at the court of King Hasin who attracted such men from all countries and received them hospitably. Hasin had given thz faqih a district on the revenue from which he could live, but which the vizier Ahmed Shettah, who stood high in the king's favour and regarded himself as all-powerful in the country, claimed for himself. Disputes therefore arose between him and the faqih's sons who were living in that district, as a result of which one of the sons was killed. [409] The father complained to the king, who, though himself a man whose disposition was just, was too weak to give him satisfaction. The dispute continued, and the second and last son of Bulalawi also fell victim to the vizier's revenge. 1 The mortified and lonely father, who could not get the satisfaction of seeing the evil-doer punished, wanted then to leave Darfur. He asked the king's permission to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, but the king, fearing hostile reports outside his country, endeavoured by all possible means to hold him back, and indeed made his second son, Abd er-Rahman, with whom the faqih was especially friendly, responsible for seeing that the aggrieved and injured man did not leave the country secretly. As the faqih understood the reasons for the king's refusal, he went to him and said: "See, my lord, all the happiness which I had on earth, my sons, has been reft from me in your 1 R. C. Slatin mentions ill-will between the cleric and Ahmed Shettah, adding that the cleric was at odds also with the iya basi; Fire and Sword in the Sudan (London and New York, i8g6), 48.

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country. He who has robbed me is going about unpunished in your court as the most powerful of men. My heart is sad, and I can no longer feel at ease in your country. I need the consolation of religion, and hope that in the house of God my peace will be restored to me. I have no intention whatever of complaining abroad about you and the events which have happened to me here, and if you will let me go, I am willing to swear this on the Quran." He had then to swear to the king that he would neither relate the facts to important personalities in Egypt, nor discuss them with the Grand Sherif of Mecca. King Hasin accordingly let the Bulalawi go. He, however, went immediately to the Egyptian capital, and succeeded in making the viceroy's government there believe not only that because of his royal blood he had a claim to the countries of Darfur and Wadai as far as the Fitri lake, but also that his power and reputation in those countries were great enough to permit him with Egyptian help to take possession of them. The government sent him to Khartoum and the GovernorGeneral there was instructed to enquire from pilgrims coming from the west whether there was any truth in his assertions. [410] He was in fact able to bring together to confirm his reports witnesses who had undertaken the pilgrimage to Mecca from all over the world. Thereupon he was allowed to raise troops, and the government supported him with weapons and munitions; he was permitted to go to the territories on the southern border of Darfur, the Pagan countries to the south which are less dependent on Darfur, whence he disturbed the whole country, while he boasted about conquering the eastern Sudan states throughout their whole extent as far as Lake Chad. In southern Darfur, however, there already dwelt another adventurer, Zubayr. Born in Shendi of the Ja'a[l]iyin, he had lived in Khartoum in his youth as a government scribe; later, when the riches which ivory- and slave-traders in the territories on the western tributaries of the Nile acquired for themselves were exciting the spirit of people in southern Egypt, he entered the service of one of those traders, Ali Abu Omori, and after he had acquired some independent means of his own, had established himself in those regions. All the ivory and slaves that he acquired he exchanged at Khartoum and Kordofan for weapons, munitions and troops, so that eventually he had a considerable force at his disposal. In the course of time ivory and slaves were becoming scarce in southern Darfur, and the country could no longer contain two such adventurers. Conflicts arose between Zubayr and the Bulalawi, and finally open fighting, in which the latter lost his life. 1 Zubayr, an intelligent and literate man, then took over the 1 The story of Muhammad el-Bulalawi told above has a close resemblance to that told elsewhere about Muhammad el-Hilali, though the two names are not identical. Muhammad el-Hilali is said to have come originally from Lake Fitri,

3

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

Egyptian troops of the dead man, placed all the blame on their fallen leader, looked after them well, and promised them more booty and profit than they would ever have found under the Bulalawi. At the same time he wrote to Khartoum and to the Egyptian government, representing the origin of the conflicts between himself and the fallen official Egyptian leader in a light favourable to himself, making them understand how absurd and foolhardy had been the Bulalawi's plans, and how little they corresponded with his actual power. In his letter he set down the possible gains for Egypt from a rational moderation, [ 4 1 1 ] to the attainment of which he pledged himself, and finally reimbursed the government for the estimated cost of the original armaments of the Bulalawi. Zubayr was indeed condemned in Khartoum in contumaciam, but in his distant region he was secure from the claims of justice in Khartoum, maintained the troops of the Bulalawi as before, and was able to attach them to himself by the rich fruits of his enterprises. Repeated letters and remittances of money reconciled the Egyptian government to him, and not long after he could ask for a new administrative region, which embraced the territories on the Ghazal river, under the name Bahr el-Ghazal. During the whole of this time there was a exchange of letters with King Hasin, whom Zubayr continually tried to assure that he had no thought of disturbing Darfur itself, claiming for himself only the Pagan territories to the south which belonged to nobody. King Hasin answered sharply and with dignity that he was not afraid of Zubayr, and that he was not accustomed to see horse traders concerning themselves with matters of government which were usually the business of kings. Soon all the territories in the south of Darfur were obeying Zubayr rather than their proper ruler. The owners of the copper mines, Hofrat en-Nuhas, the great Arab tribes on the southern border of Darfur, the Ta'aisha and the Habaniya, the vassal Pagan countries, and to have remained in the Sudan on his way back from the pilgrimage. He had been in Egypt where he had told the Khedive Ismail that he had conquered parts of Darfur and wished to take possession of the copper mines of Hofrat en-Nuhas. The Sudan government provided him with a small force with which he occupied points in the Bahr el-Ghazal in collaboration with a Turkish ex-trader, with whom he quarrelled, and who mysteriously died. His overbearing conduct towards traders in the name of the government angered Zubayr Rahma Mansur, who attacked and defeated him, and in 187a he was killed by Zubayr's henchman, Rabih Fadl Allah, who eventually overthrew the dynasty of Shaykh Umar in Bornu (Hill, Dictionary, 2 5 7 - 8 ) . Another version represents the suppression of the slave trade as the purpose of el-Hilali's expedition to the Bahr el-Ghazal, and describes the expedition as " a n unqualified failure" (Holt, The Mahdist State, 26). According to another variant, Muhammad el-Hilali had set out from Morocco intending pilgrimage, but was distracted by the needs and opportunities in Dar Fertit, and settled there, until he was killed by Rabih in 1872 (G. Douin, Histoire du règne du Khédive Ismail, Cairo, •9361 vol. iii, part i, 4 5 1 ) . Cf. Slatin, Fire and Sword, 48-9.

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1

Delqawna and Kuttuwaka, paid their taxes to Zubayr, and the Rezeqat Arabs, the most powerful subjects of Darfur, were bound by treaties in a friendly relation with him. As far as Bornu, states felt themselves disturbed by the constantly growing power of these socalled Baharina, 2 who extended their military operations further and further. King Ali of Wadai sought in vain to move his royal neighbour and fatherly friend to energetic action with regard to the danger, promising to participate himself with all [412] his forces, for the independence of Darfur was a guarantee of his own, and there was already a defensive and offensive alliance between them for such purposes. But, just as King Hasin had throughout his reign sought to gain time at home and abroad, he could not now bring himself to take energetic measures. If he had at that time freed himself from the Baharina by the power of his army, the Egyptian government would scarcely have made that a casus belli. In the spring of 1874, 3 in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, Hasin's death was rapidly approaching. Without having any specific office, the faqih Derderi from Kordofan was his confidential adviser. When the king appeared to be dangerously ill, this man summoned the absent vizier Ahmed Shettah, and they agreed to make Abu 'l-Beshr, the king's oldest son, his successor. T w o days before the death of the king Abu 'l-Beshr entered the capital with 1,000 riflemen. There was, however, another party which wanted Ibrahim, the king's youngest son, to be king, and in this they were in agreement with the dying king's last instructions. Hasin was aware of the preference of Ahmed Shettah and the faqih Derderi for his oldest son, and through his trusted valet, Kher Greb, 4 commissioned the Amin Bokheit, son of Adam Tarbush, to assemble a larger number of men secretly and swiftly in the palace, and with their help to proclaim the young Ibrahim king after his death. The Amin Bokheit joined with a melik, subordinate to him, of the korkoa, whose chief he himself was; he acted according to the instructions given to him, and when Ahmed Shettah 1

Delqawna is Telgona, on the Darfur-Bahr el-Ghazal border; the main tribe of this area is the Ngulgule. Kuttawaka is probably the Koti-waka, a section of the Kresh of the Bahr el-Ghazal; cf. S. Santandrea, A tribal history of the western Bahr el-Ghazal (Bologna, 1964), 193-5. J Baharina, i.e. the people from the country of the river, Bahar, either the Nile or the Bahr el-Ghazal. W. 3 1874 is the date in the German text. The frequent earlier references to the way in which the news of Hasin's death penetrated into Wadai make it clear that 1873 should have been substituted. 4 The role of Kher Greb, mentioned again on p. 383, at this time is described by Shuqayr (Tarikh, 465), who calls him Khayr Qarib, amin al-khaziniya, amin of the treasury. Shuqayr says he was in origin a Fertit slave.

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entered el-Fasher, Derderi was already in chains, and entrance to the palace was denied to the vizier. Great unrest was feared from the change of government, not so much from Ibrahim's two elder brothers, Abu '1-Beshr and Abd er-Rahman, as from the brothers of the dead king, and especially from Hasib Allah, as well as from others who likewise had power and public esteem. The most dangerous of all was Hasib Allah; similar in character to Abu Bekr, who has been described earlier, [413] he h^d a considerable following in the country, and especially represented the numerous party of those who had been dissatisfied with Hasin's rather unregal, almost mercantile, government. Hasib Allah, however, was an old man of about seventy, and if Hasin's other sons were in agreement about the installation of their youngest brother, could scarcely venture to resist openly. It was enough that in the night which followed King Hasin's death, Ibrahim was invested with the royal dignity by being placed on Ahmed Bokkor's carpet, as was the custom at these investitures. The brothers, the closest relations and the chief dignitaries of the country were sworn, and next morning the great state drum made known the change of government to the capital and the country without any serious kind of opposition being made effective. King Ibrahim, usually called Brahim for short, was a man of forty, and in many respects resembled his dead father. He had the same mildness and intelligent complaisance, but was, however, on the one hand less clever and learned, on the other, more manly and decisive. On the whole, he was not equal to the position which his father had left him, a position which moreover became more difficult day by day. The adventurer Zubayrhad meantime been appointed mudir (governor) of Bahr el-Ghazal province, and thus recognised as an Egyptian official. He no longer had to wait, but could proceed more quickly to the realisation of his plans, and in this circumstances favoured him. Muhammad el-Hasin had already induced the Rezeqat, whom with so many expeditions he had sought in vain to reduce to unconditional obedience, to attack the Baharina, and about the time of his death they had attacked a caravan of Zubayr's, which had to pass through the Rezeqat territory, and plundered it, massacring the rank and file. Zubayr attacked the Rezeqat with his troops, inflicted great slaughter upon them, and established himself at Sheqqa, one of the chief Rezeqat villages. The Bahr el-Ghazal mudirate was then turned into the mudirate of Sheqqa, and Zubayr Bey became its governor. [414] He had thus penetrated into the territory of Darfur itself, and if the Rezeqat could scarcely be considered subjects of Darfur, they were so in name, since in the last years of King Hasin's reign they had been reduced by the cleverness and energy of the vizier Ahmed Shettah to the condition of paying regular tribute. The Forawa, who in an incredibly frivolous

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over-confidence were unable to form for themselves any accurate representation of the power of Egypt in comparison with their own, and who for a long time had been dissatisfied with the late king's flexible and waiting attitude, now pressed King Brahim to decisive action. And he could not do otherwise than act energetically if he did not wish to offer the party which supported his uncle Hasib Allah, and which was very numerous, the best pretext for making it impossible for him as king. He allowed himself therefore to be persuaded to equip an expedition under Ahmed Shettah against Zubayr and his Baharina, and thus began to hasten the downfall of both his kingdom and himself. Towards the end of 1873 Ahmed Shettah attacked en-Nur, one of Zubayr's commanders, in the Rezeqat region and completely defeated him. Then, in consideration of the larger forces at Zubayr's disposition, Ahmed Shettah wrote him a conciliatory letter in which he asked him to leave the borders of the country, and assured him that there could then be completely assured intercourse between Darfur and the Baharina. The messengers departed with this letter to Zubayr, and of the forces of the army of Darfur, which were always more or less disorderly, those who had collected a rich booty from the victory went home to make their booty secure there, but those who had not got any booty remained with the vizier. These people were now very indignant about the protracted negotiations with Zubayr after their victory, there were whispers of cowardice, and at last they became so mutinous that Ahmed Shettah saw himself obliged to push forward in order in some measure to quieten his troops. Unfortunately, however, he was badly [415] informed about Zubayr's dispositions and camping place and his army came unexpectedly within sight of the enemy, at a time when Zubayr had scarcely received and answered the letter. The Baharina were understandably very astonished by the advance of the Fur forces in the middle of the negotiations; nevertheless, Zubayr's answer, in which he too in a friendly way had declared himself willing to respect the actual boundaries of Darfur, was despatched. Then, exactly at the moment when Ahmed Shettah became aware of this, he was rashly driven by his own people upon Zubayr's troops; this led at once to a scrimmage, soon to a general battle, and finally to Zubayr's complete victory. Ahmed Shettah lost his life and with him eight of the more important dignitaries of the country. From this time began open hostilities by Egypt against Darfur. Regular troops and cannon were given to Zubayr, and Ismail Pasha, the Governor-General of the Egyptian Sudan, who had his residence in Khartoum, received instructions likewise to march into Darfur. From that time, too, Zubayr's troops made attacks to the northwest from the Rezeqat region into the Habaniya region, and no day passed in the capital of Darfur without some disturbing reports of war.

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

In spite of everything the inhabitants themselves still remained in their state of profound self-deception. They were unable to understand that their great, strong, noble fatherland could fall into the hands of the Turks, as they always called the Egyptians, and shut their ears with the utmost stubbornness against the certain and ominous news which came to them from the south. The tribes in the south were already paying their taxes to Zubayr, officials were being attacked and massacred, but no one was willing to believe in the possibility of a conquest. King Brahim was, however, more intelligent than his subjects, and in general allowed himself no illusions about his position. Towards the time of our departure - as I will report later, we had [416] to speed this up as much as possible in view of the disturbing news which came in from all sides, since my life was in the utmost danger from the prevailing attitudes of the fanatical population of Darfur - the king spoke out openly to me about his future. He had originally relied too much on the firman of the Sublime Porte, which had assured his autonomy, and later had made the mistake of himself in some sense making the first attack. After his defeat by Zubayr, he wished to undertake nothing more than to occupy the narrower boundaries of his kingdom, and to send an official to the Egyptian viceroy with money and valuables in order if possible to save his independence. If in the meantime the Egyptians should penetrate into the heart of his country, he was resolved to place himself at the head of his people, and to fight and die like a man. And this indeed is what happened. The Governor of the Egyptian Sudan was actually said to have moved from Kordofan to Sheqqa, and advanced into the neighbouring kingdom in association with Zubayr. Since August had come and the rainy season had in the meantime set in, while in southern Darfur there are many swamps which are more or less dried up in the dry season, but tend to become impassable in the rainy season, Ismail Pasha very intelligently decided to advance on the direct road to the west against the centre of Darfur. This is by far the shorter road, and is quite passable in the rainy season. The terrain is sandy, and even during that period is possible for camels. In order to operate jointly with Zubayr, Ismail Pasha ordered him to leave Sheqqa on an appointed day, and to advance into the country through Kelakela into the Habaniya region and past Dara, both of which are border territories. The association between Zubayr and Ismail Pasha had in the meantime been firmly established, and after receiving news of Zubayr's advance, Ismail Pasha also moved forward. He commanded scarcely 3,000 men, one-third of whom were irregular cavalry, and three cannon, while Zubayr Bey's forces were nearly three times as strong. [417] Manawashi, originally a Bornu colony, as its name indicates, lies some days'journey northwest of Dara. As soon as the news reached

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el-Fasher that Z u b a y r had arrived in D a r a , K i n g Ibrahim gathered his people together and advanced against him. T h e two armies met at Manawashi. K i n g Ibrahim and his elder brother A b u '1-Beshr fell, and the victory of the Egyptians was complete. Three days later Z u b a y r marched into the capital el-Fasher, and immediately after him, at the beginning of the autumn of 1874, Ismail Pasha likewise entered the town. T h e uncle of the fallen Ibrahim, the old prince Hasib Allah, withdrew with what was left of the army to the M a r r a range, and from there sought to organise renewed resistance. While Ismail Pasha, who understandably took over the main command, showed himself disposed to maintain peaceful conditions in the plains to the east and southeast of the M a r r a range, Z u b a y r advanced with his men into the mountains, which the inhabitants of the plain regarded as inaccessible and impregnable, set up his headquarters in T o r r a , and before the beginning of 1875 Hasib Allah, who had assumed the royal dignity, had to surrender to the Egyptians with the rest of his troops. If on the one hand the lack of military spirit may be made a reproach against the supreme commander Ismail Pasha, one must on the other hand place to his credit the fact that he carried out in the most humane way his task of reconciling the arrogant and raw inhabitants of the conquered country. Only the ambitious and stubborn prince Hasib Allah and a young son of the fallen king were sent by the viceroy as prisoners to Cairo as men who could possibly create difficulties for the Egyptian government. T h e y arrived there in the spring of 1875, and were received by the Khedive with consideration and indulgence. DARFUR

CHRONOLOGY

Little respect was paid to " t h e bathos of dates" (Hill, Biographical dictionary, p. iii) by the chroniclers and story-tellers from whom Nachtigal and others had to cull the information on which to base their guesses about the chronology of African history; these guesses, if accepted at all, have inevitably often a wide margin of error. There are, in addition to Nachtigal's, two other chronologies of the rulers of Darfur, one published in Paris in 1836 in de Cadalvene and de Breuvery's L'Egypte et la Turquie de 1829 a 1836 (ii, 198-9), and the other in N . Shuqayr's Tarikh al-Sudart, published in three volumes in Cairo in 1903, and reprinted in one volume in Beirut in 1967 (Beirut edition, 445). T h e two diverge considerably, and there are differences, sometimes substantial, between their dates and Nachtigal's. T h e 1836 dates are probably the most accurate, but, as so many of the figures are at best approximations, our translation makes no attempt to correct Nachtigal's guesses. T h e dates which we have here and there inserted, in square brackets, are Nachtigal's own, and are simply to remind the reader of the period in question. T h e problems of D a r f u r chronology, inter alia, are exhaustively examined by R . S. O ' F a h e y in his unpublished thesis, Growth and development of the Keira sultanate of Dar Fur, with special reference to the period 1750 to 1874.

CHAPTER

V

ORGANISATION OF THE FUR STATE [418] For the administration of the conquered country, the V i c e r o y of E g y p t , [Ismail Pasha, 1863-79], has with great shrewdness maintained the traditional divisions o f D a r f u r . T h e country is n o w divided into five mudirates, corresponding to the former five provinces. T h e s e were the northern province, D a r T o k u n y a w i ; the southern, D a r - U m a ; the southwestern, D a r - D i m a ; the eastern, D a r - D a l i ; a n d the western province [419], D a r - e l - G h a r b . Each of these provinces, w i t h the exception of D a r - e l - G h a r b , h a d a governor w i t h the title A b u attached to the n a m e of the province, e.g. A b u T o k u n y a w i , etc. 1 I n accordance with ancient custom, the A b u T o k u n y a w i c a m e from the K u n y u n g a , one of the divisions df the Fur people, the A b u U m a belonged to the B a l d a n g a or S o m i n g a section, while the A b u D i m a c a m e from the M u r m i n g a . 2 T h e governor of the D a l i province was, however, never a free-born F o r a w i but was always the chief eunuch, the so-called abu shaykh or A b u D a l i , w h o on the king's death acted as a sort o f g u a r d i a n to his children and was considered to be invested w i t h the full powers of the d e a d ruler. E a c h province was originally divided into twelve districts, but this division is now maintained only in the northern and southwest provinces. A t the h e a d of each of these districts was the so-called shertaya (plural sherati), or prefect. T h e eastern province later h a d o n l y four, a n d the southern province five districts. T h e western province h a d no 1 In this context abu is not the Arabic word, abu, father, widely used throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and frequently in other parts of Nachtigal's narrative, as part of a personal or other name, sometimes a nickname, e.g. Abu Sekkin, "father of the knife", the fugitive king of Bagirmi, and Abu Teir, "father of the bird", the popular name for the Maria Theresa dollar. In the usage of Darfur, abu usually stands for a Fur word abbo, which was a title of respect. Nachtigal himself usually wrote abu, and this has not been corrected in the translation. 1 Murminga is probably a misprint for Murginga. Forawa, the word used by Nachtigal which is translated above as "the Fur people", is a Kanuri plural form. The corresponding words in Fur are singular, fordmgo, and plural, fora.

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325

governor; from the beginning it was divided into three large districts, Dar-Fea or Feya, Dar-Made, and Dar-Kerne, and the smaller DarKunyer, the sherati of which had in accordance with the size of their territory a higher rank and a more independent status; they reported directly to the king. 1 T h e sherati's districts were further divided into smaller regions, with a dimilik at the head of each. Between the shertaya and the dimilik was a go-between, the so-called zambe, a word which in the Fur language means strictly a javelin, but here means a spear used for fishing; by means of this zambe, the shertaya in a sense "speared" his dimilik. O n receiving instructions, the zambe assembled the relevant dimiliks who then called together the [420] faqihs, the learned men, who are the village schoolmasters here, each of whom had to represent a certain number of villages, and without whom written communication between the dimilik and his subordinates was not possible. T h e faqihs informed the ukela (sing, wakil, the headman) of the little villages and hamlets (there are no large villages) of the instructions, and these informed the so-called masters of the zariba,2 i.e. of an encampment which includes a certain number of houses, in the Fur language, tigenganga,3 and is enclosed within a common fence. In addition to these officials of the true settled population of the Fur tribe there are the chiefs of the various immigrant tribes, either sedentary or nomad. There were thus several sultans who, however, were subordinate to the sherati on whose territory they lived. T h e Massabat, the Birgid, the Bego, the Mararit, the Massalit who lived in the interior of the country, and the Zoghawa-Kube all had their sultans. T h e Arab tribes, notable because of their power and their historical importance, had dealings with the government through their shuyukh en-nuhas, the shaykhs of the great drums, who had the rank of a sultan. And finally the T a m a , the O r o and some western sections of the Massalit had chieftains with the title fersha, literally carpet, who were of lower rank than the sultans or shaykhs [cf. p. 356]. T h e abu shaykh or A b u Dali, who was a court as well as an administrative official, was thus distinguished from the four other provincial governors; the others, who had a rank similar to his, came to the capital only at the king's definite request. 1 Fea a n d made are F u r words, w h i c h originally h a d a practical significance, for e v e r y t h i n g in the k i n g d o m w a s d i v i d e d into fea a n d made, as e v e r y t h i n g in W a d a i is luluk or toluk, left o r right. I l e a v e u n d e c i d e d h o w far the m e a n i n g of kerne, i.e. trousers, is related to the n a m e of the district. G . N . T h e point w h i c h N a c h t i g a l w i s h e d to m a k e here is not clear, for fea a n d made d o not m e a n " l e f t " or " r i g h t " in F u r . H e is, h o w e v e r , correct in i m p l y i n g that the principle o f left/female a n d right/male operates in m u c h D a r f u r ritual. 1 Zirbe-metik, or Sidi ez-zariba, p. 187. 3 Perhaps related to the F u r w o r d , tige, tigenga, small village or h a m l e t .

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

In order to obviate any kind of encroachment on his authority, the k i n g from time to time sent commissioners into the provinces, w h o , in some measure representing the k i n g in person, took charge of the supervision of affairs there. D u r i n g their period of office, these commissioners, maqdum, were furnished with the external marks o f royal dignity and exercised supreme authority. T h e appointment of a maqdum was usually for t w o or three years, and only in the northern province had there for a long time been any p e r m a n e n t maqdum. [421] A n y officials, whether slaves or free men, could be appointed to this office, and after completing their mission they returned to their former positions. T h e central part o f the M a r r a range was excluded from the w h o l e of this arrangement. T h e r e w a s a shertaya of D a r - T o r r a there, a n d the rest was divided into small districts, the supervisory officials of w h i c h , as also the shertaya of T o r r a , were directly responsible to the king. T h e king in his o w n person administered the most fertile part of the country, on the western slopes of the M a r r a range, R o - K u r i , " t h e king's w e l l " , the fruits of which were reserved for his benefit and that of his f a m i l y . In addition to these administrative officials the old kings of D a r f u r also had a highly organised court household. After the king, w h o was called aba kuri or ari,1 the queen mother had the highest rank with the title of abo, the A r a b i c hababa2 or g r a n d mother, although her position carried w i t h it no real power. I f she also often exercised a considerable influence upon the ruler, she scarcely ever mixed in the affairs of the government. She was at the head o f the seven abonga (plural of abo), widows or aged relations of the royal house, whose land was exempt from all taxes and dues. Perhaps the so-called kamene, the "sultan's n e c k " , enjoyed as m u c h prestige as the queen m o t h e r ; he m i g h t be called the king's shadow. I n earlier times, as soon as the king died the kamene h a d to be killed too. 3 This cruel custom appears to h a v e been still observed up to A h m e d Bokkor's reign. U n t i l that time the kamene was appointed f r o m the Father {aba) of obeisance (kuri) in F u r . Ari is an a r c h a i c f o r m of the title. T h e fact that hababa, or m o r e a c c u r a t e l y hubaba, means g r a n d m o t h e r a m o n g the A r a b s in D a r f u r , a m e a n i n g w h i c h the w o r d has only in H a d r a m a u t , permits the conclusion that the A r a b tribes there h a d m i g r a t e d f r o m southern A r a b i a . W . See Glossary. Abo is F u r for g r a n d m o t h e r . 3 Y a q u t in his g e o g r a p h i c a l L e x i c o n notes that in his time, 600 years a g o , the custom prevailed a m o n g some o f the N e g r o p e o p l e of killing a certain n u m b e r of the most distinguished m e n on the d e a t h of the king a n d of b u r y i n g t h e m w i t h h i m . W . T h e title kamene w a s said to h a v e b e e n a n illustration of the F u r p r a c t i c e of honouring the majesty of the sultan b y g i v i n g court dignitaries the n a m e s of various parts of his b o d y , e.g. the vertebrae, the left a r m , the right a r m , etc. ( E l - T o u n s y , Darjour, 173). T h i s interpretation w a s rejected b y A r k e l l , b u t M a c M i c h a e l t h o u g h t that it m i g h t h a v e some justification ( T h e o b a l d , Ali Dinar, 209-10). A c c o r d i n g t o el-Tounsy, the kamene w a s strangled secretly if the sultan w a s killed in battle, b u t allowed to survive if the sultan died in his b e d (Darfour, 172). 1

2

Organisation of the Fur State

327

Kattuwanga section of the Fur people. On one occasion, however, Ahmed Bokkor, some of his [422] subjects having been wronged by his kamene, sent them to that dignitary, accompanied by a tolkonyawi, a royal messenger, with an order to treat the people justly; the shadow king, feeling that his dignity had been injured, had thrashed the messenger. The king then deposed him and appointed in his place a certain Ramadan from the tribe of the Awlad Mana, and since that time the kamene has always come from that tribe. It was an intermixture of Arabs and Forawa, and Bokkor's mother seems to have belonged to it. In my time Muhammad Dumba, "the little black hyena", from the Awlad Mana, held the position of kamene. His rank must originally have been inferior to that of the queen mother, for he brushed the ground in front of her with the palm of his hand, the greeting from an inferior to a superior that is generally customary here. The kamene was given as much outward respect as the king himself, i.e. if the kamene came on horseback, one dismounted at a distance, squatted on the ground, wound the shawl, which every Forawi wears and usually over his shoulders, round the waist, and brushed the ground with the palms of one's hands, wishing the kamene long life and peace, in reply to which, as if he were the king, his retinue muttered arei donga, arei donga, while, again like the king, he thanked them without opening his mouth with a faint drawling " h m " , or at most replied with a scarcely audible low afia, good health. From time to time the kamene went to the palace to greet the real king. He did not, however, enter the palace immediately; on the contrary a cloth partition of toqqiya was set up for him outside, whence, through an overseer of the royal pages, he had the king informed of his presence and of his desire to greet him. Only when the king had declared himself ready to receive him did the kamene enter the palace. Everybody had to dismount and pass on foot through the space which lay between the partition and the palace. Only the abu shaykh, the iya basi and the orondulung had the right to enter the courtyard of the kamene on horseback, and there to dismount. The kamene was adequately endowed with crown lands, hawakir, so that he might live his functionless life in a respectable manner, but he had few [423] servants or horses. He had exclusive jurisdiction over his subordinates, and frequently exercised the power of life and death, although this actually belonged only to the real king. The transgressions of the kamene were sometimes passed over in silence, so that the royal dignity, which in some sense he shared or represented, should not be impaired. He wore the turban of a shaykh and, like the king, wore his litham over his nose and mouth, but put it aside in the immediate neighbourhood of his royal master; inside the palace he fastened his shawl only in the style called ferr, i.e. around the waist without being folded. At the annual drum festival he ate alone, and was on that

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occasion served by the somingkoe, with whose garment, in accordance with ancient custom, he dried his fingers after the somingkoe h a d poured over his hands the water for washing them. Despite his lofty title, in actual importance the kamene stood third in the royal household, definitely inferior to the Abu Shaykh Dali, and facetious people there called him " t h e cow's v a g i n a " because of the disproportion between his dignity and his power. T h e point of the comparison was that the cow's vagina consists neither of hide, which can be worked up, nor of meat, which can be eaten, corresponding rather to our "neither fish nor fowl". As we have seen in the history of D a r f u r [p. 294 if.], the power of the Abu Shaykh Dali often m a d e h i m a danger to the king himself. T h e first holder of this dignity under King Delil,also called Dali, seems to have been Khalifa, and bore simply the n a m e Dali. H e probably h a d the greatest share in the establishment of the whole administration and in drawing u p the code of law, which took place under King Delil, and m a d e him the real founder of the last Fur kingdom. T h e abu shaykh, himself a eunuch, was the chief of the eunuchs and of the whole of the king's domestic household, although he did not concern himself with the women. I n addition he was governor of the eastern province. W h e n the king died, the abu shaykh was provisionally master of the palace, took possession of the royal insignia, locked the state treasury, shut u p the king's wives, and h a d originally n a m e d his successor. Since, however, the Abu Shaykh K u r r a had become such a danger to the royal power, [424] the influence of the abu shaykh h a d been diminished. He lived in el-Fasher, wore the royal t u r b a n with the litham in public processions and on the way to the mosque, and had to maintain in his house a sacred fire, which was allowed to go out only on the death of the sovereign. A similar fire was maintained in the sultan's palace. H e was thus to some extent regarded as a representative of the king's power, or as a khalifa. This was the position under King Musa with the Abu Shaykh K u y u n , under K i n g Bokkor with the Abu Shaykh Olongo, under K i n g T i r a b with the Abu Shaykh Moggeram, and under Abu '1-Qasim with the Abu Shaykh J u t t a . W h e n the Abu Shaykh J u t t a moved against the Massabat, 1 he could, in order to mock the king, still have his people sing: " T h e eye of the children of elFasher is afraid, afraid; it is the eye of J u t t a which sees the Massabat." T h e power of the abu shaykh was at its peak in the time of Abd erR a h m a n and of M u h a m m a d el-Fadl, when the Abu Shaykh K u r r a was de facto king. O n l y when M u h a m m a d el-Fadl h a d got rid of him 1

There is no other record of a '1-Qasim, though the death of an abu reign of Omar Lele, A b u '1-Qasim's de Breuvery, L'Égypte et la Turquie, ii.

campaign against the Massabat under Abu shaykh, Baraka, in battle against them in the predecessor, is recorded (de Cadalvène and 205-6).

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w a s an effort m a d e to limit the power o f the head eunuch. After K u r r a , the following held the office: Degessa, Yusef, T a n i a ; and under K i n g Hasin, R a h m a , T u k k u n , A b d e l - G h a f f a r , S h a i b a and A b d e r - R e z z a q , w h o was still abu shaykh in m y time. A s a eunuch the abu shaykh should, strictly speaking, always h a v e been a slave; m a n y of those w h o h a v e been mentioned were, however, freeborn men, for example, K u r r a , Yusef, T a n i a and S h a i b a , whether they had been castrated as a punishment for some crime, or because of illness, or had done it themselves out of ambition, as might well h a v e been the case. Like the kamene, the abu shaykh h a d the privilege of having to brush the ground w i t h his hands only before the king and the queen mother. T h e female dignitary next in rank, the iya basi, which means literally " t h e great w o m a n " , almost always a sister of the king, was in fact scarcely inferior to the kamene and the abu shaykh, especially since at the same time her actual p o w e r far surpassed that of the queen mother. 1 She was to be considered as an actual official, h a d her o w n military force, appeared in public processions on horseback, w a s available for anyone to speak to, and, as people said, was often only too accessible; m a n y a high dignitary used her as a go-between with the sultan, for naturally no one else had [425] such easy access to, or such frequent relations with, h i m . T h e I y a Basi Z e m z e m , w h o held this office under K i n g Hasin, and played a role in the history of the country, was the most powerful person in the land, of w h o m the king himself, w h o was her brother, was afraid, and w h o m he was unable to keep in check. A t the time of m y visit to Darfur, the office was held b y A r o f a , K i n g Brahim's sister, the wife of the K h a b i r M u h a m m a d . I mention here at the same time the t w o wives of the sultan w h o likewise enjoyed a high status, but without being on a par with the other dignitaries. T h e favourite wife, the iya kuri, i.e. the " k i n g ' s w i f e " , was one of t h e m ; in m y time her n a m e was K a l t u n a , but she was also called omm kittirkoa, and was, so to speak, the administrator of the domestic royal household. She too did not m i x in the affairs of government, but often nevertheless h a d a great influence on the king, and there was a certain rivalry between her and the iya basi. N e x t to her c a m e the omm soming doqola, w h o h a d the duty of putting on the t u r b a n a n d the litham for the king, and of supervising the keepers of the drums, soming doqola, from w h o m indeed she took her name. T h e orondulung was entitled to rank next to the iya basi; earlier he c a m e from the F u r tribe but later also from the Bego and the Z o g h a w a , and in m y time from the D a j u . His title was derived from the words, one, door or entrance, and dulung, the trough-like w o o d e n platform of 1 As in the parallel case of M u h a m m a d Kurra, Nachtigal may have been induced to exaggerate the significance of the title of iya basi by the reports which he heard of the unusual activities of Zemzem.

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the slaves w h o g u a r d the door, and accordingly means door-keeper. 1 H e was the governor of el-Fasher, L o r d M a y o r and C h i e f of Police in the same person, and the representative of the western province before the king. Those w h o sought an audience assembled in the morning in the waiting-room, actually the w a i t i n g - h u t , sat at the outer door, one, chatting until the umena (plural oiamin), the king's confidential domestic slaves, went to the king. T h e orondulung commissioned one of t h e m to inform the sultan of the presence of the dignitary concerned. T h e king then either had h i m summoned or, if he did not wish to do this, h a d him informed t h r o u g h the amin that there w o u l d be no audience that day. [426] Respect for his master did not permit the messenger to mention the king as the m a n w h o h a d given him his orders, and thus to bring him into the conversation. T h e sixth in rank a m o n g the court officials was t h t f o r a n g aba, w h o , according to ancient custom, had to come from the F u r sections of the Foranga or B a l d a n g a . Expert in ancient l a w and custom, he was their guardian, and the j u d g e on all disputed matters in this field. For even after Islam had been introduced as the state religion in D a r f u r , the laws set d o w n in the Book o f Dali h a d not lost their validity, and right up to the most recent times any one could, in relation to specific cases, be j u d g e d , according to his wish, either by the religious laws of Islam or by the siesa, i.e. the old customs of the country. In public processions and on the w a y to the mosque the forang aba wore the turban, but not with the litham over his nose and mouth. H e held m a n y hawakir, and was chief of a great m a n y sections of the Fur, from w h i c h he d r e w his income. Seventh in line were the seven grandmothers, or abonga, mentioned above [p. 326], whose position has already been described; they had in addition an important role to p l a y in the d r u m festival to be described elsewhere [p. 338]. Next c a m e the A b u Irlingo and the A b u Irringa, of approximately the same rank. T h e former under K i n g S u l e m a n Solon and the latter under K i n g M u s a had had the position of vizier, an office w h i c h A h m e d Bokkor was the first to confer upon a slave. T h e names of these dignitaries come from the similarly n a m e d sections of the Fur \cf. p. 383]. T h e A b u Irlingo h a d to place the turban on the king at his investiture, and for this received a horse with harness, a surriya or concubine and a robe of honour. T h e M i m i , H a m r , W a d a w a and T u n j u r obeyed him, and the M e l i k el-Jankati 2 of the west, w h o h a d to collect the honey tax, was responsible to him. A t court the Z o g h a w a 1

T h e more correct derivation is from one, door, and dulung, posts to support a

door. 1 Probably king, or head, of the hunters, from jankaat, a Fur word meaning a hunter who uses pits to trap animals.

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and all the subordinate officials of the northern province and of the tribe of the K a j a 1 in the east of the country were under the Abu Irringa. Next came four dignitaries with the same rank at court, the Abu Dugunga, the Abu Kunjara, the abu je'oai, and the abu 'l-haddad. The two first of these [427] were chiefs of the two distinguished Fur sections of the same name, which will be mentioned again later. The abu jebai was the chief tax-collector, and in accordance with custom came from the Fur section of the Koranga. 2 He was responsible for the collection of the taxes of corn and of the local cotton fabrics, and had the king's corn store in his custody. Since his office was extensive, he had numerous subordinate officials who were organised and given names on the model of the royal household; his household was almost as numerous as that of the king himself, and his Tokunyawa, Dima, Uma, sherati, meliks, were scattered over the whole country, just as his functions also extended everywhere. The corn taxes were usually not brought into the capital, but were placed in corn-stores, matamir, in the custody of the provincial officials and the holders of crown lands, and only the accounting was brought to the sultan. The abu 'l-haddad, the mirong sayal in the Fur language, belonged in my time to the YVahienya,3 a section of the J ellaba. He was chief of the smiths and had to deliver their taxes of lances, throwing irons, knives, axes, etc., from which he derived his income. The basinga who came next, the overseers of all the male persons of royal blood, had to be descendants of an earlier king. There were two of them with, on the whole, no difference in their rank, although one had a somewhat higher status in that he wore a decoration given to his ancestors by King Musa. This consisted of a kind of necklace of pieces of amber, with silver plates lying on his breast, and a similar arm band. In my time, the owner of this decoration was the Basi Doldum, who also had the right to wear a turban on the way to the mosque, though not the litham. This exceptional distinction belonged also to another basi, the Basi Ahmed, son of Tahir - all the descendants of former basinga were given this title although there were actually only two who held the office. Tahir was the guardian of all the sons [428] and descendants of the earlier kings from Ahmed Bokkor down, while those who were descended from the kings before Ahmed Bokkor were supervised by the 1 K a j a is strictly speaking not a tribal name, but was applied to the tribally mixed inhabitants of the K a j a / K a t u l hills on the Darfur-Kordofan border; cf. H . MacMichael, Tribes of northern and central Kordofan (Cambridge, 1 9 1 2 ) , 8 5 - 8 . 2 Ahmed Tumbukei, who succeeded A b u J e b a i Bahar after his execution for conspiracy by A b d er-Rahman, was, however, Massabat, as were the later holders of the office. T h e abu jebai commanded the heavy cavalry and advance guard in war. J T h e W a h i y a still live in a district with the same name in el-Fasher.

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Basi A h m e d , T a h i r ' s son. T h e basinga h a d to a c c o m p a n y the k i n g o n all his processions, six on his right, and six on the left. T h e y held m a n y hawakir, and also d r e w their i n c o m e from the tribes and villages w h o s e inhabitants o b e y e d t h e m as their chiefs. These were the great court offices. W i t h the exception of the abu shaykh, they h a d always to be free men. T h e A b u T o k u n y a w i , A b u D i m a and A b u U m a stood outside this ranking in so far as they h e l d n o court office, but they brushed the ground only before the king, the queen mother and the kamene. T h i s was also the position of the maqdum. These three governors were of practically the same r a n k ; perhaps the administrator of the northern province ranked slightly above the others. A l l the dignitaries so far mentioned wore their shawls in the ferr style, i.e. w o u n d around their waist w i t h o u t being folded up, so t h a t they h u n g d o w n behind, while m e n of lower rank wore t h e m rolled u p like a girdle. A l l these mentioned above, except the governors, had court offices, but they were actually officials of state rather than of the palace. T h o s e w h o belonged only to the royal household were divided, in a c c o r d a n c e with the layout of the royal palace, into t w o groups, completely separated f r o m the others. It should here be mentioned a g a i n that the r o y a l palace, not only in D a r f u r and W a d a i [p. 46], but also in m a n y of the other N e g r o countries, c a n be entered b y t w o different roads, the M e n ' s R o a d and the W o m e n ' s R o a d . In D a r f u r the former is called one de, the latter, orre baya. But while in other countries, e.g. W a d a i , it is a mark of distinction to be such a trusted visitor of the king as to be a b l e to choose the so-called W o m e n ' s R o a d , in D a r f u r , as I h a v e a l r e a d y said, great importance was attached to access to the king b y the orre de [p. 26]. In D a r f u r the royal palace as a whole was called Beit-eljebaye, w h i c h means approximately the house to which one [429] pays tribute. T h e r e were, as has been said, t w o o f these palaces in the capital. T h e old royal palace, Beit el-qadim [ A r a b i c , lit. the old house], c a m e from the time of K i n g A b d e r - R a h m a n ; it lay on the northwest side of the T e n d e l t i lake, while the other, called the T o m b a s i , was built by K i n g Hasin on the southeast bank [see p. 260 and n.]. Each of them had its orre de and its orre baya. T h e officials of the old royal p a l a c e were the abu kotinga, or vizier, and the abu dadinga, t w o dignitaries whose rank was so exactly identical that they were called " t h e t w i n s " . 1 In the royal audience c h a m b e r they stood side b y side at exactly the same distance from the king. I n the course of time, however, the vizier h a d w o n , if not a higher rank, at least a greater actual importance. T h e office of the vizier, w h i c h could be held by either a slave or a free m a n , had first become so influential and important after A h m e d Bokkor h a d t a k e n it a w a y f r o m 1

Both kotinga a n d dadinga w e r e sections of the sultan's b o d y g u a r d .

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the free man, the A b u Irringa, a representative of a distinguished F u r family, and given it to an amin, an official specially assigned to the king. Since that time the vizier usually came from the meliks of the korkoa sirhar, the overseers of the young spear-bearing pages, who were mostly slaves. There are, however, frequent examples of free-born viziers. T h e Vizier Bahar under K i n g el-Qasim, who was raised by him above all the other officials and was perhaps responsible for the loss of the battle against Wadai, was a free Zoghawi, and the Vizier Ali Uled J a m a under K i n g T i r a b , like his son Dokkome under A b d er-Rahman, was free-born. Under M u h a m m a d el-Fadl, Hamed I b n Saqed, Ibn K u n i , Ibn Bokkor were not only free-born, but actually of royal blood. 1 Under the same ruler A b d es-Sid later was indeed a slave, but his successor, A b d el-Bari, from the Bego tribe, was only a half-slave, as was also his successor, A d a m Tarbush, the Midobi. Under M u h a m m a d el-Hasin, Halib, the son of A b d es-Sid, and Ahmed Shettah were slaves, and finally under K i n g Brahim, Bakheit, A d a m Tarbush's son, the successor of Ahmed Shettah, was a half-slave. T h e slave element, of course, played the same important role in Darfur as in the other Sudan countries. A ruler there will usually [430] be careful not unnecessarily to make an enemy of a distinguished free man, but as a rule his real confidants are slaves, whose prosperity depends on his, and who on his death can be thrown back into the insignificance of ordinary slave life. Thus in Darfur we find the head eunuch the most powerful official in the country, and see that the governors obtained access to the king only through a courtier, and might possibly be reduced to complete insignificance by [the appointment of J a maqdum, who likewise could be a slave. Among those mentioned above, the most outstanding were Ali Uled J a m a , Hamed Ibn Saqet and A d a m Tarbush, who all left behind a good reputation among the people. A d a m Tarbush seems to have been especially distinguished by loyalty to his master and uprightness in dealing with the people. I found that Ahmed Shettah was remembered with less favour; his master's partiality for him had enabled him to become extremely powerful, but because of his boundless extravagance he was not in the good books of the people. T h e Begawi A b d el-Bari, who in his insolence used always, for example, to have his horse watered with water with sugar in it, also gave grounds for dissatisfaction under K i n g Muhammad el-Fadl. T h e Vizier Bakheit, whom I saw invested with this dignity, appeared not to follow in his father's footsteps. He clearly, indeed, had great intelligence, and had rendered undeniable service in the establishment of his master as king; but he was also a complete egoist, and extremely negligent in the administration of public business. 1

It is likely, particularly as we know that K u n i was a son of Bokkor, that Hamed, etc.. was one man, not three, and that Nachtigal's editor slipped in making him plural.

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

This was all the more to be regretted for, since the power of the abu shaykh had been diminished, the office of vizier was the most influential in the whole country. T h e vizier had a number of hawakir to provide an income for him, and many tribes paid him taxes. He was also chief of all the Jellaba, which yielded him a very considerable income. His twin brother in rank, the abu dadinga or dadingawi, was decidedly inferior to him in influence. T h e abu dadinga was a free-born man of T a m a blood. T h e word dadinga does not mean, as one might suppose, a branch of the Fur tribe, nor is it derived, as some have wanted to maintain, [431] from the Arabic dad, which in the Hijaz means a boy's teacher, 1 in which case dadinga might perhaps mean a teacher of the royal princes. Rather, if it is not a Fur word, it should be connected with the Arabic dahda,2 which means a man without support or kindred, for the oversight of all who were without tribe or family in Darfur was associated with the office of the abu dadinga, and its origin is said to have been as follows. W h e n K i n g O m a r Lele was moving against Wadai, he observed every evening an isolated fire separated from the camp. O n enquiring about its owner, he was told that a certain Wanna, a man of royal blood, who always kept himself apart, was camping there. T h e king liked the man, and in order to give him support and company, he entrusted to him the oversight of all the people who were living in the country without any natural tribal chief and assigned to him as revenue the receipts from the market tolls, which were not inconsiderable. T h e abu dadinga had numerous officials throughout the country, who delivered these tolls to Ixim. This office thus dated only from the reign of Omar. Under his successors a certain Wir, likewise from T a m a , was appointed as \abu\ dadinga, and the office has remained in his family ever since. 3 Since executions are usually carried out in the market place, he was at the same time chief executioner. In addition to the influence of his high income, he was also especially powerful because of the large number of those who were dependent on him, for those who had no definite tribe were very numerous. He could place in the field considerably more men than many of the dignitaries whose rank was superior to his. Next in the hierarchy of the royal household came the soming koe or 1 That the word dad actually has this meaning in Mecca can be seen from the Mekkanischen Sprichwörtern collected by Snouck Hurgronje (The Hague, 1886, 113). W. ! According to Dr Nachtigal's daybook in Darfur, dahda means the slaves who grew up with the children of the royal household, and were treated as their brothers. D. H. 3 Wir's full name was A b d el-Qadir Wir. Abu dadinga (dadingawi as on pp. 305 and 337) is one of the few titles still surviving in Darfur today. The present dadingawi claimed that the word meant "brother to the sultan", but agreed that most of the dadinga were of slave origin.

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soming doqola, and three meliks el-fellagine, of practically the same rank. The word [432] soming koe is derived from som, the assembly place where the people come together for conversation or for a common meal, and koe, the boy, servant, overseer, so that it means the overseer of the places of assembly, and, applied to the royal palace, overseer of the square where people wait for an audience. He was the real master of the one de road. His subordinates were called soming doqola, and in the course of time this had also become the name of his office. Slaves, as well as freemen, could be elevated to this dignity, which carried with it at the same time supervision of the great state drums. In my time the post was held by a son of the soming koe, Sa'ad en-Nur, who had just before fallen against the Baharina. The older pages or palace servants are called either fellagine or korkoa, and the meliks el-fellagine were their overseers. One of the oldest of them, the Melik Abd el-Maula, a stout old man and a good friend of mine, enjoyed indeed greater esteem than the soming koe, though he was inferior to him in rank. Next came the overseers of the young pages, the korkoa sirhar, of whom there were six, who again had a defined order of precedence among themselves. The first of them was called the "father" of the others, and he fastened his shawl in the ferr style. At the time of my arrival he was the Melik Rahma, who was, however, during my visit, out-ranked by the brother of Amin Bakheit, Adam Tarbush's son. At the time of my arrival Bakheit himself held the fifth place among the six overseers of the pages, and was soon after appointed vizier. As has already been said, the korkoa sirhar are the boys carrying spears, who accompanied the king on processions, and were also used for messages and other services for the king's person. The commanders of the pages were followed by the chief masters of the horse, of whom a new appointment was made by each king at the beginning of his reign. The abu jinshinga should be mentioned as among these muluk el-korayat. The jinshinga are the workers in wool and hair, who in the course of time have come to form a special section of the Fur tribe. [433] Felt covers, now imported from Egypt and Tripoli, are generally used as a support for a horse's saddle, six or eight of them being laid one over the other on the horse; earlier, saddles were employed like those still carried today by donkeys, the wooden frame of the saddle being padded, or laid upon thick cushions of sheep's hair. These padded saddles are called bedida, as are still today the donkey saddles, and the large consumption of wool thus occasioned makes the office of the abu jinshinga quite important. The most important stable official after the abu jinshinga was the abu an, who, like the abu jinshinga, can wear his shawl in the ferr style. Ari means king and the abu ari derived this title from specified festivals where he had to take the place of the king, and in some sense to be a

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From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

mock king. A t one of the the great military inspections which followed the spring d r u m festival, he appeared on the royal square under the king's umbrella and behind the ostrich feather fans, in the midst o f the royal family heirlooms and the crown equipment, while the king h i m self took his stand a m o n g his officials. T h e abu ari at that time was said to be the grandson o f a Christian, Tshokke, w h o had immigrated into Darfur, embraced Islam, and remained there; this story was also supported b y his grandson's light skin colour. After the abu ari came the melik el-mundunga, the leather workers' overseer; the melik karga, overseer of the horses' bits; the melik et-tunis, the king's stirrup-holder; the girgid el-korayat, w h o had to lift the k i n g into the saddle; and the abul-korayat, father of the grooms, with the same office. In addition there was a melik ez-zinam, w h o had to put on the reins; the melik es-serj, w h o put on the saddle; and the melik elhizam, w h o had to buckle on the saddle girth. T h e r e was actually one melik murrunga whose duty it was to scare the flies a w a y from the king's horse and to pick other vermin off it, and a melik el-hisam, the real overseer and guardian of the horses, and m a n y others, [434] not all of w h o m indeed discharged the duties of their offices themselves, but instead handed them over to subordinates. 1 N e x t in rank c a m e the abu dugo erre, w h o had in his keeping the butter used each year at the d r u m festival, and then the melik kuringa, the overseer of the king's tent-makers and leather and quilt armour workers, w h o according to custom was a subordinate of the A b u Irringa. T h e K u r i n g a formed a not unimportant section of the Fur tribe, for their activities were many-sided; not only is leather work in Darfur very diversified, but much attention is also given to quilt armour. A m o n g the cavalry the greatest value was placed upon a brilliant armour-plating both for the horseman and for the horse. For this purpose they used quilts made of coarse cloth imported from Europe and filled with cotton or a stuffing from the fruit of the cotton tree. These covered the neck, the breast and the upper part of the body of the horse d o w n to the knee, and thickly quilted garments were similarly made for the horsemen. T h e next ranking official, the khoshem el-kelam, " m o u t h p i e c e " , the king's interpreter, w e find in Darfur as in most of the Sudanese countries. T h e office is usually held by an A r a b scholar. In my time, L o q m a n , a m a n from Bornu, was the king's interpreter in Darfur. T h e r e are also a large number, twenty-three, overseers of the lia 1 Karga is Fur, stirrups; tunis we have not been able to identify; these two terms have perhaps been transposed. For girgid, see Glossary. £inam is presumably Arabic, zimam, rein; see also Glossary. Serj is Arabic, sarj, saddle, ffizam is Arabic, hizam, saddle girth. Murrunga is from Fur, muru, horsefly. Hisam is presumably Arabic, his an, horse.

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koa, i.e. officials and bearers of the old family relics, w h o are a m o n g the officials of the royal house. E a c h of the seven old family spears, that were carried in front of the king, h a d its overseer, the kor dorming sagal, and each of the four ostrich feather fans, risk, a sumo koa sagal. T h e ancient royal chair, kakr, also h a d its chief overseer, and the bearers of the royal throwing irons, w h i c h they carried before the king on public processions, striking the t h r o w i n g irons against each other and flourishing them in the air, were led b y the samballang sagal. T h e ancient royal shield of S u l e m a n Solon, goring durjo, h u n g with little bells, never failed to appear in public processions with its shiremeng sagal. [435] T h e ancient royal musket, the first fire-arm that had come into the country, had its bendaging sagal; even an ancient gourd-bottle was under a kere kussang sagal, there were some old fifes with their tadang morlengang sagal, a n d every d r u m h a d its special official. T h e sultan's own horse, w h i c h he rode on festive occasions, had its special melik, its special servants, under the control of one of the king's wives. T h i s horse h a d to be white, and was not fed like the other horses. It was, for example, given fresh grass only towards the end of the rainy season, and on the d a y w h e n it first received this fodder a great festival was arranged for its keepers and the grooms o f the whole stable. A l l these officials of the royal palace and of the orre de road were under the control of certain of the king's wives, w h o w i t h their slave w o m e n had to take the responsibility for feeding them. T h u s , the vizier and his twin brother, the dadingawi, had the king's first wife, omm el-kittirkoa, as a sort of mother, and it was she w h o provided the clothing for the vizier on his appointment, and installed him in his office. Similarly, the soming doqola had an iya kuri as a mother, w h o was called omm soming doqola and, as I have said, had to put the king's turban and litham on him before he went out. W e come then to the orre baya, the W o m e n ' s R o a d , where first w e find the A b u J o d e who, like most o f the officials o n this side of the palace, was a eunuch, and entrusted with the oversight of all the w o m e n of the palace, with some fourteen subordinate officials under h i m . F r o m the bearers of these offices, the h e a d eunuch o f the country, the A b u S h a y k h Dali, was usually chosen. N e x t to him c a m e the kittir koa, w h o had the king's favourite wife under his special protection, and w h o was also sometimes called the king's vizier here. H e was, o f course, a eunuch. T h e third official in this part of the palace w a s the h e a d doorkeeper, kammel koa, a eunuch, as was the gutto koa w h o c a m e next to him. T h e so-called aqid, the overseer of buildings a n d of the servants, had the same rank as the kammel koa; neither he nor [436] the third doorkeeper, the melik saringa, nor the mining koa, w h o supervised the water pitchers, 1 was a e u n u c h . 1

Mining in modern Fur means a pot used for merissa.

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I n the palace o n the southeast side of the T e n d e l t i lake, there were other officials in addition to those already mentioned. T h e r e were the overseers of the various stores under the melik khamis, a eunuch, as indeed they all were, the melik ban jues, the melik torn fal, the melik bitir, the melik el-teqaqi, the melik el-asel,1 etc., w h o had in their keeping t h e stores of cotton strips, honey, butter, w h e a t and other things. T h e importance and rank of all these officials found its most definite expression at a great national festival, w h i c h in D a r f u r is a sort o f spring festival, and notwithstanding the M u s l i m calendar, marked the beginning of the year, the so-called great d r u m festival, already mentioned several times, with the konda (kidney) feast, w h i c h was held in the month of R a j e b , and an account of w h i c h follows. A s soon as this festival was approaching, a prescribed number o f cattle was sent to the capital from throughout the country by every tribal chief and every administrative official, the cattle being earmarked as a sadaqah, a memorial sacrifice to the dead kings of D a r f u r . W h e n the number of animals was complete, the seven hababa w i t h their melik proceeded to T o r r a , where most of the kings from S u l e m a n Solon onwards are buried. E a c h of the d e a d kings lies there in his o w n house, with the exception of A b d e r - R a h m a n , w h o is buried in a house w h i c h he shares with his son M u h a m m a d el-Fadl and M u h a m m a d ' s son Hasin. M o r e than i oo slaves lived there to g u a r d and look after the tombs. Before the cattle appointed for the sadaqah were slaughtered, the so-called melik ed-dubban, i.e. the king of the flies, proceeded to the N a m i mountain, killed a sheep there and ate a little of its flesh, leaving the rest to the flies, w h o thus should not be troublesome w h e n the cattle were slaughtered. T h e slaves of the dead kings had [437] to slaughter an appointed number of cattle for each of them, to eat as m u c h as possible of the flesh in honour of and as a memorial to their masters, and to distribute the rest a m o n g those w h o lived around, while the Q u r a n was read several times by faqihs so that the dead might rest in peace. W h e n this had been done, the hababa took out of the earth a large water j u g , dauana, w h i c h had been buried there full of merissa at the time of the festival of the preceding year. It is said that the beer begins to ferment again only at the m o m e n t w h e n the hababa appear a g a i n for this festival in the following year. T h e contents of the pitcher are filtered by them, and even drunk. F r o m this sadaqah only K i n g A b u ' l - Q a s i m was excluded, since after being defeated in battle in the w a r against W a d a i he had taken to flight. W h e n the sadaqah was over, the melik kissinga dora took the cattle 1 A m o n g these titles, khamis may relate to the Arabic khums, a fifth, some taxes being payable as fifths; and asel is the Arabic 'asal, honey.

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t h a t remained, dressed himself in a t u r b a n a n d black litham, and proceeded to a similar festival on the J e b e l K o r a , the northern spur of the M a r r a range, w h e r e in various places t h e P a g a n kings of D a r f u r w e r e buried. In their m e m o r y he slaughtered there a prescribed n u m b e r of cattle, but without p r o m o t i n g the bliss o f the souls of the departed b y r e a d i n g the Q u r a n . O n the d a y before the great d r u m festival, the king with all his dignitaries went to S e m m a O t a , a field b e l o n g i n g to the state about t w o hours east of the royal residence. H e r e the melik of the seven hababa brought the king a pair of sandals (darmanga) from the c r o w n treasures, a n d a simple white garment, an heirloom, was placed u p o n h i m . D u r i n g this time the melik el-muqauwi, i.e. the overseer o f the people w h o shouted around the king on his processions, h a d roughly cleared the surface of the field from weeds and left o n l y one tree standing. T h e sultan el-haddad then h a n d e d the king a n axe, with w h i c h he cut d o w n the tree. T h e weeds that h a d been cleared out were then piled u p in a h e a p w i t h the tree, and the overseer o f the king's ancient muskets, w h o was said likewise to have been o f E u r o p e a n origin, [438] descended from a m a n w h o brought the first musket into the country, set fire to it b y means of g u n p o w d e r . A t the conclusion of the ceremony, the king of the smiths brought a spade (tur) to the king, w h o d u g seven holes in the ground, and t h r e w into each some dukhn seeds, after w h i c h the hababa filled the holes again w i t h earth. A f t e r the agriculture o f the year h a d been symbolically i n a u g u r a t e d in this w a y , the w h o l e procession returned towards doher, a b o u t 2 p . m . , to the capital, taking care to capture some live hares and gazelles on the w a y , w h i c h were then carried b y the hababa. Precautions were taken beforehand to ensure that this h u n t i n g should be successful. A t the time of asr there were brought before the king t w o white cows and a white steer, w h i c h h a d been picked out in the country long before and reserved for this festival, the substitution of cream-coloured animals being permitted only in an emergency. A hooked staff, kunjar, such as the camel-driving A r a b s of the far east carry, was presented to the king, w h o then chose one of the t w o cows, whose hide was to be used to cover the drums, pointing to it w i t h the kunjar - the staff was preserved and later facilitated the chronology. N e x t morning the k i n g had to slaughter the three animals with his o w n h a n d . T h e sultan o f the smiths, the omndulung, t h e abu jebai, the A b u K u n j a r a and the A b u D u g u n g a cleaned a n d scraped the skin o f the a n i m a l chosen b y the king the d a y before, a n d in the afternoon the hide w a s fitted to the drums. T h e sultan o f the smiths had to fasten the hide to the drums, w h i l e the other four dignitaries stretched it, and all a c c o m p a n i e d the hammer-blows w i t h traditional songs. T h e k i n g was then h a n d e d a rib of this c o w , f r o m w h i c h the flesh a n d periosteum h a d been r e m o v e d ; this he h a d to

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smash to pieces on the drum which was called mansura, the victorious. It would have been a very bad omen for the country if he had not succeeded in doing this; by proper preparation beforehand, care was therefore taken here too so that there should be no such mishap. On the next, that is, the third day of the great festival, [439] the sultan slaughtered the wether assigned for the konda feast, which had to be light-coloured and black around the eyes. From the day when it was selected until the moment when it was slaughtered, it was kept without sleep by a melik appointed for that purpose. Whereas the entrails of this wether v/ere left to putrefy for a few days, the flesh of the slaughtered cattle was distributed among all the dignitaries. Each of them had one specific piece which he could claim, and no one let himself be cheated of even a small part of what he was entitled to receive. It was characteristic that as much as possible established connections were taken into consideration in this distribution. The chief of the Jellaba, for example, had the right to the animals' feet and lower part of the leg, since these merchants were continually travelling. Before the hide had been stretched over the two drums, the mansura already mentioned and its "child", the butter which a year before had been poured into them was removed. The rancid butter, which had disintegrated as a result of its constant contact with the copper vessel, was distributed among the highest dignitaries, and had a reputation as an outstanding remedy for eye diseases. At the same time a vessel with butter was dug out of the ground, which had been buried there the previous year, and its contents were now put into the drums for the coming year. Three days after the slaughtering of the wether, the royal princes and princesses assembled, the former in my time under Basi Tahir, the latter under the iya basi, for the feast, the konda feast, from which the festival took its name. The entrails of the wether which had putrefied, the liver, kidneys, spleen, etc., were cut up, sprinkled with part of the drum butter of the previous year, and strongly seasoned with a sharp red pepper. The leader of the princes then devoured one of the wether's eyes, while he gave the other to the iya basi, who dared not hesitate to do the same. The princes and princesses sat down in a circle around the konda dish, and armed slaves stood behind them so that no one could withdraw from the duty of eating it. Woe to him who, overcome by nausea, or irritated by the pepper, made any movement that suggested vomiting, or [440] gave way to a fit of coughing; the slaves who were on guard had the duty of killing him, since his behaviour was considered a sign that he did not wish well to the king and his government. Instead of the wether, there had been slaughtered in Pagan times, and right up to the reign of King Suleman Solon, a virgin who had scarcely reached puberty, whose entrails were consumed in the manner I have

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described. This custom was said indeed to have been maintained until the beginning of this century. In more recent times, the death blows were also apparently no longer so strictly imposed, for although, in accordance with traditional usage, clearing the throat or choking was considered to be inadmissible, King Hasin's oldest brother, Aba BuBekr, already mentioned in the history of Darfur, coughed very audibly at the first drum festival in his brother's reign, with the intention of challenging him, but without Hasin having him put to death on this account. After the drum festival there followed at irregular intervals seven great military reviews, the so-called arda. Twenty-five of the dignitaries belonging to the one de erected straw huts inside the outer zariba of the royal palace while a number of those belonging to the one baya, the Abu Jode, the melik kammel koa, the seven hababa with their melik, the melik of the iya basi and others did the same inside the royal dwelling. On the great square in front of the old royal palace, which served at the same time as a market place, the various administrative officials, the numerous chiefs of the tribes and sections of tribes, camped under their tents, verandas, etc. They remained there for seven days, after which the king went first of all to the one de road, where each of the dignitaries who were there presented him with his salam, i.e. his greeting gift, with wishes for a happy conclusion to the festival and to the year of his reign that was beginning. He then went to the one baya road, where the officials who were there did the same. There followed similarly the chiefs and officials who were camping outside the palace, and the customary arda then took place. [441] In the year when I was in el-Fasher, five of the seven military reviews which followed the drum festival, and of which the last is usually the most brilliant, had already taken place. The sixth was to be held on March 13, at which, indeed, no very imposing impression was to be expected, for many of the dignitaries who were not absolutely obliged to take part had withdrawn to their hawakir because of the high corn prices. We mounted our horses about 8 a.m., rode across the Tendelti pool, which was dry at this time of the year, near its northeast end, and proceeded to the great square north of the old royal palace. Most of the people had already assembled, but the king had not yet appeared. We placed ourselves near the exit from which the king had to emerge, among the ranks of the horsemen whom he had to pass, and this naturally provided an occasion for unfriendliness towards me on the part of those who had already assembled. We first greeted the Khabir Muhammad, the king's brother-in-law and chief of the foreign merchants, who was near us, dressed in a coloured silk robe, over which was a shirt of armour with brass arm-strips, and on his head a shapeless quilted velvet military cap. The Abu Shaykh Dali appeared

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first from inside the royal palace, a stout eunuch, in shirt of armour, his head covered with a turban and his face with the litham, and wearing a silver or plated helmet of conical shape. He was surrounded by many horsemen and lancers, and many antelope horns and drums resounded around him. Then appeared the Amin Bakheit, the son of Adam Tarbush, the king's favourite slave. He too wore a coat of mail over his clothes with metal strips on his arms, and in front of his face a wire visor attached to a broad collar which extended firm and resistant from the neck down to the waistband, to which it was fastened by a gold embroidered red shawl thrown over the shoulders. The amin rode a beautiful black horse, and a white horse with a saddle was led behind him. The horse's harness was even more remarkable than the dress and the military decoration of its rider. Luxury was mainly confined [442] to the animal's head, neck and breast. A silver or plated decoration, or of brass or metal, enclosed the whole of its forehead; this reached as far as the nose, and formed between the eyes a projecting obtuse angle. To this face-plate a silver neck ornament was connected, made almost entirely of little plates worked up in the most varied patterns and arranged together in rows on cloth or velvet. The whole ornament lay in considerable width on the neck, and beneath the neck near the throat it was fastened with a broad silver-embroidered girdle. Towards the back this neck ornament had several projections, which were linked with the saddle and harness and with the horse's wide, richly embroidered and decorated girth. Two girths were frequently used, one of which, closely attached, held the saddle fast, while the other hung down almost free to the animal's legs. Both of them were broad, and overloaded with gold and silver embroidery, silk tufts, tassels and little bells in great variety. The Amin Bakheit was followed by a drummer and several cow and antelope horn blowers, while an Arab from Egypt kept close behind him, and throughout the festival sang the praises of his master in rhymed improvisations with the greatest skill and not without spirit, or declaimed his free verse before the sultan and his dignitaries. At last the king himself approached. There was a general stir. Each man sought to press his horse into its most spirited posture and to thrust himself forward. All the musical, or at least the resonant instruments that were there, whistled, drummed, jingled and rattled. The king's drums boomed in the distance. His outrunners, the muqauwi, each of whom wore a feather on his head, announced his approach by singing or rather by shrieking his praises. Gourds filled with little stones were brandished on all sides; people with little bells in their hands swarmed around the royal procession. Metal plates were banged against each other, weapons clashed together; in short, everything at the same time made a deafening uproar, which, however, according to

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the local standards, was dignified to the highest degree. At the head of the procession were 200 men armed with muskets, [443] but without uniforms, and for the most part carrying their weapons, in a quite unmilitary style, like cudgels. 1 A drummer playing a European drum preceded them. His artistic feats, which he had learnt from an Egyptian, were indeed quite limited. The people arranged themselves in a long line in front of us, and the king approached the group. He was accompanied by five camels with drums, hanging on both sides of the hump, while the drummers sat at the rear of the animal and beat the drums lustily. The camels wore on their heads bright red woollen or silk tufts, surrounding a cluster of ostrich feathers. They were followed by some horn-blowers and drummers with native drums, who accompanied the old family heirlooms; in front the so-called kakr, the rectangular four-legged low stool cut from a piece of wood with seats shaped like troughs which was covered by a piece of white cotton; large and small lances and spears wrapped in red cloth: and the Quran likewise covered with cloth, etc. The king himself, riding on a dark horse, wore a very fine shirt of armour over his plain silk costume, goldplated strips on the arm and over the white turban and litham which covered his head and face, a conical or sugar loaf-shaped silver helmet with several points, to which amber and coral decorations were attached, in front and at the back. His sword with a handle of gold was prominent on his left under the gold-embroidered velvet saddle cover, the horseman's leg being always supported by the sword. The king's horse was decorated in much the same way as has been described above, but was so overloaded with ornaments that only a little of the noble animal's head, neck and breast could be seen. The four risk bearers were at the king's side. The standards were worked like those which I had seen with the king of Bagirmi, and their bearers, dancing and brandishing them, manipulated them in quite the manner I had observed there [ii. 604]. On the king's left side were the umbrella-bearers, who held over his head a truly magnificent, large, purple-red and gold embroidered umbrella. [444] Behind the royal horseman some thirty slave girls trotted along, each wrapped in the same way in a red shawl, fata, their hair decorated with amber and coral. The sword-bearers followed, also about thirty in number, each of them carrying one of the king's swords with a gold or silver handle. Behind them marched about the same number of musketeers and a rather larger company of spearmen, each of whom carried a bundle of spears in a cotton case. The procession was completed by eight of the king's favourite horses, which escorted 1 Muhammad el-Hasin appears to have been the first Fur sultan to equip part of his forces with muskets, probably in imitation of the armed retainers of the slave traders of the Bahr el-Ghazal; cf. Shuqayr, Tarikh, 464-5.

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him, but whose harness was not so rich as that which I had had the opportunity of admiring in Bornu. As the royal procession passed, everybody got as close as he could to the prince, so that he might be observed by him and give a greeting, an example which I followed, raising and brandishing my musket in greeting. The king replied to these greetings by gently raising and lowering his sword, and then took up his position in the middle of the broad square, while each of the dignitaries with his followers went to the place there which custom allotted to him. For anyone who used the European stirrup, as I did, the press was not without its dangers. The gigantic Arab stirrups, with their sharp corners and edges, are usually buckled so short that they inflicted numerous bruises and wounds on the lower parts of my legs. We kept beside the Amin Bakheit, who had his place behind the king, since at that time he was not yet vizier; if he had already been elevated to this dignity, as was daily expected, he would have had to take his place immediately beside his master. Amin Bakheit was very amiable to me and urged me to remain always at his side wherever he might go, for in that way I should have the best view of everything. However, my short stay and my ignorance of the personalities detracted from my interest in the military show, for I hesitated to ask too many questions about the most important participants. The king's uncles and brothers marched past first in succession with their pennons, their drums and horns, their musketeers and their followers who were armed with lances. [445] They halted before the king, greeted him, and returned to their place, where they remained until the end of the parade. In front of them, and not far from us, the iya basi was on her horse, which she rode like a man, in a yellow silk robe, which was supported by a peaked head-dress, and completely covered her head and body; she did not leave her place. The horsemen now surged hither and thither, greeting this and that dignitary, and delighting in their horsemanship. Their harness, as well as their own clothing and weapons, was most varied. Many carried lances, a few had guns, many had steel battle-axes, damascened and here and there decorated with gold or a few precious stones. Others carried staffs with a whorled knob, and others again curved wooden staffs or a club with a thick knob filled with lead, or simple long staffs such as are common with pedestrians. Finally, many of them had swords; the handles, which were often of massive gold or silver, were tastefully made in the country itself, but according to foreign models. The military caps of the dignitaries, already mentioned, are worthy of note. Where they rested on the head, they were of metal, and on their edge around the head was a rampart of velvet about 30 centimeters high, of red or some other colour, with a gap left in front above

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the forehead. On the middle of the head three or four points of different length rose from the metal base, curving more or less from front to back rather like wild boar's teeth. A second cap was frequently carried after a dignitary, not unlike the large woven stands for dishes, for the manufacture of which Darfur is celebrated. When the Amin Bakheit's turn came, we also marched before the king to greet him, and then returned to our place, attaching ourselves later to the royal retinue when the king made his final procession. From time to time he left his saluting base and rode inspecting here and there, and returned again to the starting point. At the conclusion of the parade he made a great circuit round the whole square, and then disappeared into the palace, [446] while we continued exchanging greetings for a short time and then went home. The whole parade lasted about two and a half hours, but the number of horses was less than on similar occasions in Bornu, and with the exception of the animals imported from Dongola, 1 which were very much in the minority, they were likewise not so beautiful as those which I had seen in Bornu. 1

Since the local breed of horses was usually too small and lacked the stamina necessary to carry a heavily armed rider, the breed of large horses suitable for such riders which was raised in Dongola had considerable military importance in Darfur, especially as only the sultan could afford to import them on any considerable scale.

CHAPTER

VI

INHABITANTS AND PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL OF DARFUR [448] The population of Darfur may be divided on the one hand into Negroes and Arabs, or on the other into its original inhabitants and the conquered peoples or foreigners. In our historical sketch we have already seen the influence which in the course of the centuries the Arab elements have had on the native tribes, and how, according to local tradition, the last dynasty itself arose from a grafting of the Tunjur, undoubtedly an Arab tribe, 1 on the original masters of the country, the Forawa [pp. 274-5]. Because of their smaller numbers the Tunjur appear to have been overwhelmed in this combination, so that they have now to be classed with the non-Arab sections of the Fur kingdom. I have also already explained how the principal sections of the population are identified by the letters of the Arabic alphabet, dal, ta, fa, sa, and nun, which are the first letters of the tribes of the Daju, Tunjur, Fur, Zoghawa and Nawaibe. 8 The Daju, who have been well known in these regions for a very long time, have a tradition, like most of the Muslim tribes in the Sudan, of having come from the east; however that may be, they lived earlier in the central range of Darfur, the Marra mountains. They form a considerable part of the population of the southern province, Dar-Abu Uma, and also live on the borders of the southwest province, Dar-Abu Dima, as far as the Sula country. There they occupy something more than 100 villages with a certain measure of dependence on both Darfur and Wadai, but have nevertheless maintained their own independent administration. Much as they are now despised in Darfur they are called nasJira'on, the people of Pharaoh, i.e. evil, violent men 3 1

The question of the origin of the Tunjur has yet to be settled; cf. MacMichael, History of the Arabs, i. 6 6 - 7 1 , and A . J . Arkell, History of the Sudan to i8zi (London, 1961, 2nd edition), 1 9 1 - 4 . 2 Nachtigal here gives sa, presumably intending za, the usual initial letter of Zaghawa in Arabic. But on p. 267 he gives sad, quite a different letter; el-Idrisi. Description de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, eds. Dozy and de Goeje, Leyden, 1866, pp. 15, 3 9 - 4 1 , mentions an apparently variant spelling with sad in place of za. 3 The phrase nas fara'on is also quoted by Barth in relation to the Daju (Travels, iii. 426).

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and although they are regarded as being very nearly Pagans, so that during the last century part of their tribute still had to be paid in the shape of their own subjects, there is still no doubt that before the penetration of Islam into Darfur, i.e. before the Tunjur immigration, the Daju formed the most powerful section of the population. Although the Daju are so little esteemed in Darfur, they still look upon it as their real fatherland, even though because of fear some of them also pay tribute to the kings of Wadai. [449] Their language, however, is quite different from that of the Fur tribe, with some resemblance to the dialects of the White Nile. The Tunjur, to whom, because of their higher standard of civilisation, the Daju more or less voluntarily conceded first place, appear to have entered the country some four centuries ago, and claim to be descended from the Beni Hilal, who are said to have lived in the highlands of Arabia at the time of the Prophet. 1 Details of the story are in my historical chapter [pp. 274-5], but I may here also note that, although their sections now live in Bornu, Wadai and Darfur without any association with each other, the same tradition is uniformly maintained by all of them. In Bornu, some Tunjur live scattered about in small numbers all over the country, while others inhabit almost exclusively the southeastern part of Kanem, and especially the Mondo region which is now subject to W a d a i ; there is still a village in Mondo, already mentioned in ii. 328, to which they have given the name of Tunis, as they say, in memory of their origin. In Wadai, too, where in the north of the country the Tunjur keep together in a region of the Dar-Ziyud, but in the southwest have been almost submerged in a rocky district of the Abu Telfan by this Pagan tribe, the tradition of their origin in Tunis is said to have been maintained. Finally, in Darfur, where they seem to have appeared in the largest numbers and to have achieved their greatest importance, though in Wadai too they set up a kind of government, this hypothesis appeared to be approved by Sultan Muhammad el-Hasin, who once asked a friend of mine, a sherif from Qairawan, the holy city of Tunis, what had become of the descendants of his ancestors there. 2 A manuscript genealogical sketch of the rulers of Darfur from the 1 T h e Beni Hilal were an A r a b tribe who invaded North Africa in the 11 th century. According to Theobald ( A l i Dinar, 18) there is no evidence that they ever came as far southwest as Darfur or Kordofan. There m a y , however, have been some Beni Hilal among the Arabs who migrated to the west from the Nile and U p p e r E g y p t in the 14th and 15th centuries. 2 Ethnographic data on the T u n j u r in the Republic of C h a d have been summarised in A . M . D . Lebeuf, Les populations du Tchad (Paris, 1 9 5 9 ) , 3 5 - 7 . O n their origin from Tunis, see H . Carbou, La région du Tchad et du Ouaddai (Paris, 1 9 1 2 ) , i. 74, and L'arabe parlé au Ouaddai (Paris, 1 9 1 3 ) , where a T u n j u r song about Tunis is quoted. After the accession to power of the K e r a dynasty, the T u n j u r played only a small

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hand of King Muhammad el-Fadl has recorded the origin of the Tunjur in the well-known Qoreish Arab tribe. This sketch went back as far as Ahmed el-Maqur, and reads as follows: Muhammad el-Fadl, Ibn-Abd er-Rahman, Ibn-Bokkor, Ibn-Musa, Ibn-Suleman Solon, Ibn-Kuru, Ibn-Jal Idris, Ibn-Hajj Brahim Delil, Ibn Rifa'a, IbnAhmed el-Maqur. The Arab origin [450] of the Tunjur is further confirmed by the fact that, without having lived together with Arabs at any later time, they know no language other than Arabic, either in Bornu, or in Wadai or Darfur, that their chief in Darfur still has the Arab title, sultan, although he has no real importance, and that he wears the litham, as is never the case among the native Sudanese peoples. Ever since the Tunjur sultans conceded the supremacy to the Kera dynasty, they have worn the black litham.1 Although the Tunjur groups in Bornu were the least numerous, they scarcely mixed at all with the natives there, and in their physical appearance have preserved the stamp of their descent, whereas, especially in Darfur, where they have intermarried with the natives and have the closest relations with them, they are now scarcely to be distinguished from them. As I have related elsewhere [p. 275] King Kuroma, or Rifa'a, took a wife from the ruling family of the Kera, the most important section of the Fur people, and her son, King Delil, wrested power from his brother Sau, or Shau Dirshit, who was of pure Tunjur descent. At that time the true Tunjur lost their political importance, being replaced by the Kera dynasty, although the latter actually deserves this name only at the mother's side. Sincc that time the Tunjur have lived chiefly at the eastern foot of the Marra range, in the Dali province, the Jebel Khares being indeed the central point of their region. They are, however, also found scattered about throughout the whole of the central part of the country. Thirdly, the Fur, the main part of the population of the country, are the sole inhabitants of the Marra mountain range, a large part of the Dar-Uma, and of the largest part of the Dar-Dima; they also constitute at least half the population of the Dar-Fea (Feya), DarKerne and Dar-Made. There are numerous sub-sections of them of which I have noted some forty. 2 The Dugunga are respected as being of the most noble birth, while at one time the Kunjara were so powerful part in the history of Darfur. According to the Sudan Census of 1956 they numbered about 57,000. 1 The black litham was said to be worn by the Tunjur sultans as a token of mourning for the time when the Tunjur had ruled Darfur (Arkell, History, 213). According to El-Tounsy it was a black turban that they wore (Darfour, 128). 2 Of these Nachtigal mentions fifteen specifically in various contexts. The significance of these divisions is obscure, and there appear to be no corporate descent groups among the Fur today.

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

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that in the neighbouring countries D a r - K u n j a r a was used instead of Darfur, and people spoke of the K u n j a r a language instead of the Fur language. T h e status which the K e r a achieved politically was a consequence of the fact that, [ 4 5 1 ] as has already been mentioned [p. 276], the last dynasty was descended from them on the mother's side. Apparently those who inhabit the extensive K u t i a rocky region, which lies southwest of the M a r r a range in the Dar-Abu Dima, have been most successful in maintaining the purity of their blood. These are the so-called For-Tomurkiya; their languat,- shows fairly important dialectical differences from those of the other sections of the F u r . 1 T h e Fur, or Forawa, have a fairly dark skin, grey-black or black, are of middle height and with undistinguished features. Their character is arrogant, hot-tempered and revengeful, and they are much given to quarrelling and outbreaks of violence. T h e y can scarcely lay claim to any reputation for real bravery. T h e y have little talent for industry, almost as little indeed as their western neighbours, the people of Wadai, and like all mountain dwellers, hold tenaciously to their ancient manners and customs, so that Islam itself, of which in the larger villages they are fanatical adherents, has not been able in the more distant regions to suppress Paganism completely. T h e Zoghawa, who are said some centuries ago to have had a certain importance beyond Darfur, are not, as Barth and others have supposed, actually a section of the T u b u family, but, together with the inhabitants of Ennedi, the Bedeyat and the small W a n y a tribe which occupies the little region of Wanyanga on the road leading from Benghazi to Wadai, constitute a single tribal group. Living as they do on the borders of, or in, the desert, the Z o g h a w a arc nomads or seminomads, and the owners of considerable herds of camels. Some small Zoghawa communities also live scattered about in the northern part of Wadai. T h e chief sections in Darfur may be distinguished thus: the Zoghawa K u b e , who under a separate sultan live in the extensive K u b e region which is part of the province of the Abu Tokunyawi on the northeast border of T a m a ; the Zoghawa D o r ; the Z o g h a w a Keitinga; the Zoghawa K a l a b u , who are said to have originally been Bedeyat; the Zoghawa A n q a , all of whom, like the Zoghawa K u b e , live in the province of the Abu T o k u n y a w i ; and finally the Z o g h a w a A m m Kimmelte, who appear by mixing with A r a b tribes to have been transformed centuries ago, [452] and now live in Darfur among the Rezeqat, where they can no longer be distinguished from the Arabs either physically or socially. 2 1

On the dialects of the Fur and their distribution, see B. Jernudd, "Linguistic integration and national development: a case study of the Jebel Marra, Sudan", in J . A. Fishman, ed., Language Problems of Developing Nations (New York, 1968). * The Zoghawa are still a large nomad group living across northern Darfur and

35»

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

The Nawaibe, the last of those listed as one of the original tribes of Darfur, appear to have been the first Arab tribe to enter the country. For they are, as we shall shortly see, the nearest relations of the Mahamid and the Mahariya. We come then to the Arabs of Darfur, either nomad or sedentary. The individual tribes can be classified in groups, the relationships of which with one another can still be detected nearly everywhere. We thus have the extensive group of the so-called Fezara 1 Arabs, who all boast of being descended from Hamed el-Afzer. T o them belong the Ziadiya, with the related sections of the Kurumsiya and the Qasarina, who have their pastures in the northern province of the Abu Tokunyawi, near the middle of the kingdom, and furthermore the Maliya, with the sections of the Awlad Abdun, and their relations, the Ma'aqila, who live in the eastern province of the Abu Dali between the Hamr and the Rezeqat. These two tribes are nomads and camelherdsmen ; the Ziadiya are also said to possess many horses, and in an emergency can muster 2,000 horsemen. The Maliya are also strong in both manpower and camels, but can raise only 300-400 horses. T o the Fezara belong the Habbabin, the Jelledat, the Mejanin, the Awlad Igoi, the Beni Umm Ran and the Beni Jerrar. These likewise live iii the east of Darfur, boast of considerable wealth in camels, and for the most part live a sedentary lfe. The Ziadiya have ten shaykhs of superior rank, i.e. who are in possession of drums, the Maliya seven, and the Jelledat and Beni Umm R a n four each. Hamed el-Afzer was the son of Abdallah el-Ja'anis, [453] who also had a second son, Hamed el-Ajzem, who was regarded as the ancestor of the tribes included in the el-Juzm group. Finally Hamed el-Ajzem had a son, Juned, whose sons, Rashid and Heimat, were the ancestors of the Awlad Rashid and the Heimat. The Awlad Rashid have for the most part moved further to the west, and we find them as a large tribe in Wadai, and in smaller detachments in Bornu. From the Heimat, on the other hand, have sprung the tribes of the Ta'aisha and the Habaniya, large cattle-rearing tribes in the south and southwest of Darfur; they live as neighbours on its extreme southern boundary. The Habaniya live along the road which leads from the middle of Darfur towards the south to the Hofrat en-Nuhas, the well-known copper mine. They are said to be able to place 600-700 horsemen in the field. The Ta'aisha, who extend to the west, until they touch the nomad tribes in southern Wadai, can muster 1,000 horsemen. 2 Wadai. The 1956 Census gave the number of Zoghawa in Darfur as 96,000; cf. Tubiana, Survivances. 1 The Fezara are among the oldest Arab settlers in Africa. G. N. 2 The Ta'aisha played an important part in the Mahdist rising; P. M . Holt, A modem history of the Sudan (London, 1963), 9 9 - 1 0 1 .

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

351

A third son of J u n e d , the son o f H a m e d e l - A j z e m , w a s R a k a l , f r o m w h o m the Ereqat (Oreqat) c l a i m to be descended. Earlier they were v e r y numerous and lived in the extreme northwest of the country. T h e i r distance from the capital and their wealth m a d e t h e m very u n r u l y in their relations w i t h the government, and at the time w h e n M u h a m m a d el-Fadl was a child and the A b u S h a y k h K u r r a w a s g o v e r n i n g the country on his behalf, they believed that they could take a d v a n t a g e of this and m a k e themselves almost completely independent. T r o o p s were sent against them on several occasions but were a l w a y s defeated and driven b a c k ; it was only by a ruse that their chief shaykhs w e r e finally seized b y an envoy of M u h a m m a d el-Fadl, w h o had b y this time g r o w n up, as he was sending presents to them. W h e n they c a m e to receive the robes o f honour from their master, and were listening to a letter of his being read, they were seized, sewn u p in skins, w i t h openings for only their eyes and mouth, and in this condition were brought to el-Fasher where they were all executed. W i t h o u t its leaders the tribe was easily defeated and brought into subjection. A s has already been reported [p. 302], the tribe disappeared under the more than energetic measures of the cruel M u h a m m a d el-Fadl. [454] O n l y a few remnants have maintained themselves in the neighbouring T a m a , living a m o n g the Z i a d i y a and the M a h a m i d , or h a v e become sedentary, a n d live in the service of other people. R a k a l ' s son was A t i a , the father o f Missir and R i z q . T h e Missiriya are descended from Missir, and the T a ' a l i b a , a sub-section of the Missiriya, from his son T a ' a l e b . T h e Missiriya live near the southern end of the M a r r a range, are cattle-herdsmen, as are also the T a ' a l i b a , and are said to have about 500 mounted men. Shakir was a third son of A b d a l l a h el-Ja'anis, and his son D a h m e s h was the father of Bedr, the ancestor of the Bedriya, w h o live in the province of the A b u Dali, possess few camels, raise cattle, and h a v e become partly sedentary. T h e F e z a r a , the J u z m and the Bedriya were also called J o h e i n a after their c o m m o n ancestor, A b d a l l a h el-Ja'anis, the son of M u h a m m a d el-Hauri, and are reported to be the closest relations of the K a b a b i s h , w h o as c a m e l herdsmen traverse the extensive regions between K o r d o fan a n d D o n g o l a . I have, however, no information about the actual relationships between them. T h e brothers H a m e d el-Afzer and H a m e d e l - A j z e m had a sister w h o , after the death o f their father, had a secret liaison w i t h a m a n belonging to the T u r r u j , a fair-skinned plebeian tribe, and thus b e c a m e the ancestress of the H a m r , a n a m e derived from ahmar, red. T h e H a m r (or H o m r ) are a very numerous tribe w h o live partly in t h e western border region of K o r d o f a n and partly in eastern Darfur. T h e y are the owners of m a n y camels, a n d can put u p to 1,000 horsemen into the field.

352

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

Atia, as has been noted above, had, in addition to his son Missir, another son, Rizq, who himself had three sons, Mahar, Mahmud and Naib, the ancestors of the Mahariya, the Mahamid and the Nawaibe. As camel-herdsmen these three large tribes are found separately in northern Darfur and Wadai, and unified in the south of the country under the name of [455] Rezeqat, or Rizeqat. Each of the three tribes lives separately in the northern province of D a r f u r ; the Mahamid are said to be able to raise 3,000 horsemen, the Mahariya at least 1,500* and the Nawaibe nearly 2,000. The Rezeqat are the most numerous tribe in the whole of Darfur; they are cattle-herdsmen, and their military force is estimated at 10,000 horsemen. This figure may be exaggerated, but it is nevertheless a fact that the kings of Darfur have never been in a position to bring them completely under their control. 2 The Awlad Yasin, who claim Yasin Ibn-Barek, Ibn-Mahmud, Ibn-Rizq as their tribal ancestors, are related to the Rezeqat. T h e Mahamid, their nearest neighbours, maliciously maintain that after the death of their ancestor Mahmud his eldest son Sheiq married his mother to a slave, and that from this union the Awlad Yasin were descended. The Kinana and Khozema are smaller A r a b sections, closely related to each other, and likewise claiming to have originated in the Arabian peninsula, where at all events at the time of the foundation of Islam we find two tribes with the same names. Their genealogical tree is said to be as follows: Ibn-Khozam, Ibn-Mudrekka, Ibn-Elias, IbnMudar, Ibn-Nasr, Ibn-Ma'ad, Ibn-Adnan, beyond whom a genealogy would in the view of the Muslims in Darfur be sacrilegious. 3 The Kinana and Khozema live in small communities 111 the eastern province and have become sedentary. The Korobat also claim to have come from Yemen, and indeed ultimately from Saba, a grandson of Qahtan, or Yoqtan, 4 and would therefore be not Ismailites but Sabaeans. The Fur came upon them in the Qimr region when they subdued the Q j m r , who, as recorded above [pp. 2 8 0 - 1 ] , occupied an extensive territory between T a m a and the 1 The Mahamid and the Mahariya are today only small camel-owning groups in northern Darfur, the largest Mahamid group being now in the Republic of Chad. 2 The Rezeqat continued to be a centre of conflict in Darfur until the fall of Ali Dinar in 1 9 1 6 ; they are still the most numerous of the Baqqara tribes of Darfur. 3 Adnan, himself descended from Ishmael, is regarded as the ancestor of the Arabs of northern Arabia, those in the south tracing their ancestry to Qahtan or Yoqtan (see above); for a brief discussion of the genealogies, see R. A. Nicholson, A literary history of the Arabs, Cambridge, 1953, pp. xviii-xx, and for fuller information turn to Wüstenfeld, Genealogische Tabellen der Arabischen Stämme und Familien, Gottingen, 1 8 5 2 - 3 . Why Nachtigal should have regarded a reference to generations before Adnan (which include Ishmael and Abraham, both prophets in Islam) as improper is not clear. 4 Cf. Genesis x. 2 5 - 9 .

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

353

Z o g h a w a region beside the J e b e l Nokat; since that time they have dispersed over the north of the kingdom. In the western province, that is, in Dar-Fea and D a r - M a d e , live also the Hautiya, who are regarded as only half-Arabs, since they are said to have in them the blood of a slave of Missir's, [456] the son of A t i a ; they form only a small community. T h e Beni Hasen in D a r - M a d e live in a district whose central point is the J e b e l Ottash; they can muster 600-700 horses, and likewise claim to have originated in the Yemen. If this descent too is not proved, they are at all events neither Fezara nor Sujan (Sudanese). T h e origin of the numerous tribes of the Torjem and Beni Holba is equally obscure. T h e former are indeed considered to be distant relations of the Rezeqat, but have also some slave blood. T h e y live for the most part in Dar-Fea, among the Ziadiya, the Beni Holba and the R e z e q a t ; they are cattle-herdsmen, nearly all sedentary and very prosperous, and it is said that they can muster 1,500 horses. T h e Beni Holba are still more numerous; they live in the west of the country, in the R o - K u r i region and its vicinity. T h e number of their horsemen is estimated at 3,000; they are cattle-herdsmen, and had great power and wealth, especially before the episode during the reign of M u h a m m a d el-Fadl, which has been described as the "massacre of the Beni H o l b a " . O f these Arabs, especially those who live in the less thickly populated north and east have remained pure, so far as skin-colouring and features are concerned, while those of course who have become sedentary in the interior of the country, such as the Torjem and the Beni Holba, especially since they are suspected of not being originally of pure blood, show all possible shades of skin-colouring and crossings with the Negroes. Among the free and the conquered sections of the population, the J e l l a b a , some of whom have been settled in Darfur for centuries, and who originate in the various Nile countries from Sennar through Nubia to Upper Egypt, mostly sticking together in specific districts, are the closest to the Arabs. T h e most important of their settlements in Darfur are K o b e and its surroundings, where about 2,000 hearths may be counted; the Q a b q a b i y a district, three d a y s ' j o u r n e y west of K o b e , where there may be as m a n y ; K u r s [457] and Delajo to its southwest [which] include three villages; Numro, southwest of K o b e ; and Tetel, Kofod and Mellit in the north of the country [which] m a y , with the J e l l a b a settled in the capital el-Fasher, where they have 500 houses, comprise altogether 1,000 to 1,500 hearths. T h e y are also found south of the central part of Darfur in Manawashi, Seheria and Tuwesha and in the Hofrat en-Nuhas, where altogether there may be 5 0 0 - 1 , 0 0 0 households. Finally, in O m m Meshana, in the east of the kingdom, there were perhaps at that time more J e l l a b a even than in

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

354

Kobe. There would therefore, for Darfur as a whole, be at least 5,00c 1 Jellaba households. They in no way now constitute a homogeneous whole; many of them, like those who are natives of Dongola or of the Dar en-Nuhas, "the copper country", originated in the Nile region which is inhabited by Berbers (or Berabira), but we also find among them people of Arab origin, e.g. the J a ' a l i n or J a l i y a , and the Tsharata. There are also people from Egypt proper, such as the Awlad er-Rif, and those who are a racial mixture, such as the Mgharba (or Meghariba), 2 who are said to have come from Morocco, and the like. Thirty families or tribal sections have been noted among them, of which the largest are said to be those native to Dongola, from whom also should come the khabir par excellence, the chief of the Jellaba; next to them are the J a ' a l i n who, like the people from Sennar, are also in some regions called Awlad el-Bahar. The Jellaba settled originally, as I have already said [p. 255], according to families in zaribas, which were gradually grouped in hamlets, in the midst of which a market then developed. They move about indefatigably in large numbers to the west as far as Wadai, and some individuals have even passed through Bornu and Bagirmi as far as the Hausa states. They carry their goods to the Niger and Wadai from Cairo, inferior cotton goods, amber and glass beads, and in the event of wishing to return by the same route they exchange these for ostrich feathers, or they buy camels which they take to Bornu, where they bring a much higher price than in Wadai. Transforming the proceeds into [458] ready cash, natron, etc., they carry the goods which they have received in exchange to the Hausa states, to Nife and as far as Ilorin. Often they do not return from the Niger territories for years, bringing back guro nuts, manufactured and leather goods from the Hausa states, and even the finer cotton goods which have been carried there by English and American ships, in order finally to exchange them again in Wadai for ostrich feathers and slaves. T o the south they go to the Hofrat en-Nuhas, and thence to the small Niamniam Pagan principalities which were formerly more or less dependent on Wadai, as far as the J u r and Dor tribes. These remarkable people are often absent for ten years from the homes which they have somewhere in Darfur or on the Nile; for years they have no news of their families, though one should not conclude from this that they have no affection for their home and their people. Of the Negro tribes who are not regarded as having equal rights must first be mentioned the Massabat and the foreigners who have migrated to Darfur, who are only parts of tribes living in Wadai, Bornu and Bagirmi. 1

The figures listed suggest a considerably larger total. Al-maghrib is Arabic for "the west", usually applied to North Africa and in particular northwest Africa. A maghribi, plural magharibah, is a North African. 2

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

355

One Fur tribe which does not have equal rights is that of the Massabat, who, as mentioned elsewhere [p. 279], were compelled some 300 years ago, because of a struggle for the succession between K u r u and Tunsam, to leave their native mountains; they moved to the east, and from that fact are said to derive their name Masbawi, which gradually became Massabawi, plural Massabat. Although orginally pure Forawa, the Massabat have in the course of a few centuries completely forgotten their original language since, because of the hostility of their mother country, most of them went to Kordofan, and in speech and customs, if not in skin colouring and in features, have become Arabs. This fact illustrates the difficulties with which one has to grapple in discussing the migrant tribes in the manifold displacements of people which have taken place in Central Africa. The Massabat still live mostly in Kordofan, and to a less extent in Darfur, where they occupy several districts in the eastern province, and are under a sultan, [459] t o whom the possession of drums accords a superior rank. Among the foreigners who migrated into Darfur a century or two ago, principally under Sultan Ahmed Bokkor, there are people from Bornu, who occupy various districts in the centre and south of the kingdom, people from Wadai who are also settled in the south, and people from Bagirmi, who are scattered about the country, as well as the A b u Derreq, the K a r a n g a , and the Kashemereh from Wadai in the A b u U m a province, Mararit, K a b g a and Oro in Dar-Fea, and also in Dar-Fea on the borders of Wadai the Sungor with the smaller tribes of the Latunno, Barkari, Serebuk, Awlad Dulla, Girga, Mirga and Shale who are related to them. In the extreme west, in Dar-Made and the northwest districts of Dar-Tokunyawi, as well as in the north, are the people of T a m a , the inhabitants of the Jebel Mul and the remnants of the Q i m r , who, with the Sungor who have been mentioned and their relations, seem to belong to a larger family of peoples. Among these especial note should be made of the Q j m r , who, as recorded earlier [pp. 2 8 0 - 1 , 352], used to have an extensive domain between T a m a and the Zoghawa region with Nokat as its centre, and from there also extended their rule in part over the T a m a and the Zoghawa. Their power was very considerable in earlier times, and even now this historical importance was taken into account to the extent that the sultan of the Q_imr was, after the king, the most highly respected person in D a r f u r ; for him, shortly before my time, a carpet was spread out alongside that of the king, while the other vassal princes could only sit on the bare earth in front of their ruler. T h e last sultan of the Q i m r was called A b u Bekr. T h e Q_imr live not only in the northwest of Darfur, but are also scattered about in the southern province of the Abu U m a . While they now speak only one language, closely related to that of the T a m a and the Sungor,

356

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

they are recognised even by the Fur as people with a western origin. They are now scarcely to be distinguished from the Sungor and the Tama, i.e. they are more or less black and retain in their features no traces of their distinguished origin. 1 [460] Of the conquered tribes who live in large numbers in Darfur proper there are still to be mentioned the Birgid, the Berti, the Mimi and the Massalit. The Birgid, of whom we have met traces in the most easterly part of the country among the Kaja, live chiefly in the southeast part of the eastern province and the eastern part of the southern province, and here too, not far from them, and to some extent intermixed with them, are the Bego. These two tribes are of ignoble origin and are rather despised by the pure Forawa. The largest part of the Birgid are in the province of the Abu Uma, but their sultan lives in the Debba district of Dar-Dali; surprisingly his title, like that of the subject Arab tribes on the Nile, is el-mek, a garbled form of el-melik, the king. The Mimi are less numerous; they live in the eastern province, but are under a separate sultan, who likewise is subject to the governor of the southern province. In the west and extreme southwest the Massalit form a considerable part of the subject population. A few of them live in an extensive region in the Abu Uma province. They have no sultan but are divided into smaller sections and ruled by a fersha, literally carpet, who is half-way between a sultan and a shaykh. 2 Their nearest relations live in numerous sections in the most eastern border districts of Wadai, Massalit elHaush, i.e. those who guard the house, and on the banks of the Batha, Massalit el-Batha. Although they are all nominally Muslims and there are some very celebrated Massalit faqihs, scribes, even in Wadai, they appear nevertheless to be on a very low level of civilisation. Even now some sections of them, e.g. the Massalit Ambus, are notorious throughout Wadai and in Darfur as cannibals, in spite of the inexorable Muslim law on this subject. In Wadai they speak a dialect which is very close to the Maba language. I was not able to get specimens of their language in Darfur. The origin of the Massalit is obscure, but they themselves claim to be of Arab origin. [461] Finally, the Berti live in the northeast of Darfur; they form a small tribe, which is very near the centre of the kingdom, but until a short time ago lived in extreme seclusion, and were said to be distinguished by a great lack of culture and intelligence. The people of Midob in the extreme northeast of the kingdom on the road which leads from Kobe through the desert to Assiut on the Nile are a special scction of the Berti, which appears to form a transition to the Bedeyat 1 The Qimr, living in Dar Qimr, north of Dar Massalit, were recorded as numbering 35,000 in the 1956 Sudan Census. 2 Cf. p. 325, where a fersha is said to be of lower rank than a sultan or a shaykh.

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

357

or the Z o g h a w a . T h e isolation w h i c h their mountainous terrain and its position almost in the middle of the desert have assured to them has kept them with scarcely a trace of M u s l i m culture, though they too h a v e nominally embraced Islam. T h e y are ruled by three meliks, whose title always passes, in accordance with ancient custom, to the sister's son. T h e custom according to w h i c h the son has to marry his dead father's w i d o w , if she is not his mother, links the people of M i d o b with the Bedeyat proper. Even today they are regarded almost as slaves, but more important men sometimes emerge from them, as, for example, the celebrated A d a m T a r b u s h , the father of A m i n Bakheit, the last vizier of D a r f u r . O n the actual southern border of the kingdom, apart from the T a ' a i s h a , the H a b a n i y a and the R e z e q a t A r a b s , w h o w a n d e r through the territories beyond the frontier of Darfur, there live also a number of lowly Foroge and Fongoro, of w h o m the Foroge are indeed Muslims, though still regarded as in fact Pagans, while the Fongoro have for the most part not yet accepted Islam. 1 T h e far southwest is occupied b y tribute-paying tribes, the Monsh, the K a r a , the B i n g a and the S h a l a , w h o live in a mountainous region near the Hofrat en-Nuhas, a few sections of B a n d a , the K r a j and a section of the G u l l a w h o live between D a r f u r and the Bongo w h o owe tribute to YVadai. South o f the Hofrat en-Nuhas are also the most distant regions which up to the most recent times owed tribute to the ruler of D a r f u r , those of the K u t t u w a k a and the D e l q a w n a , on the western tributaries of the Nile, [462] and of the W a n y a to the west and the B a y a to the southwest of the Hofrat en-Nuhas by the A b u Rassin mountain. A l l these P a g a n tribes are comprised under the n a m e of the Fertit, and w e cannot at present distinguish them from each other either physically or ethnographically. Darfur has an area about the same as that of the kingdom of Prussia. T h e most thickly populated parts are in the centre, west, southwest a n d south. T h e northwest and north are less populated, and the east is almost uninhabited. T h i s is a consequence of the differences in fertility between the individual regions, and this again depends on the a d e q u a c y of the water supply, w h i c h comes from the numerous rivers and streams of the M a r r a range. T h e s e do not indeed carry water throughout the w h o l e year, but there is a water-holding stratum a few feet beneath their sandy beds. T h e country's w e a l t h in cattle is closely linked to the fertility of its soil. In the centre, west and southwest 1 Just before the middle of the century, the districts of Fongaro and Goula, the former belonging to Darfur, were reported as paying an annual tribute of 1,000 slaves each to Wadai, in order to escape being raided for slaves themselves; Fresnel, " M é m o i r e " , 19.

358

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

there are numerous herds of cattle, sheep and goats, the excellent appearance of which is superior to that of Wadai, and even of Bornu. In the north, on the other hand, and in the infertile broad plain in the east - el-Fasher is only 100 meters higher than el-Obeid - there are camels and ostriches. The climate is in general healthy, a fact explained by the predominance of sandy soil and the considerable elevation of the country above the sea-level. Only the south, with its clay soil, becomes dangerous during and after the rainy season. To get an estimate of population I have noted down and added together as many villages as I could get information about in every administrative district and in every province. For the twelve districts in the northern province, I got 5,900 hamlets, which, at ten houses to a hamlet, and five inhabitants to a house, would give a total population of approximately 300,000. Similarly for the eastern province I get about 200,000 inhabitants, for the fairly well populated southern province 500,000, for the most densely populated southwest province, about 600,000, and for the three separate regions of the west together 500,000, while in the Jebel Marra, directly administered by the king, there might be about 100,000. [463] Thus, taking into account only the districts and hamlets which I have actually listed, the total sedentary population would be 2,500,000. But since it has to be borne in mind that not all of them could be listed, and probably a third to a quarter of the existing districts were left out, the total sedentary population of Darfur can be put at something more than 3 million. If in addition the nomads, who in the northeast, east and south of the country are camel- or cattle-herdsmen, are estimated at half a million, we reach a total population for Darfur of at least million. 1 The taxes which these people had to pay consisted chiefly of tribute in the form of corn and cattle, property tax, customs dues and the so-called diwan. The corn tribute included the fitra, collected at the end of the month of fasting, one mudd, the ancient moditts of the time of the Prophet, per head, and the zekak which in other countries is called el-oshr, the tenth. These corn taxes were collected by the chief taxgatherer, the Abu Jebai. Connected with them was the tax in toqqiya, the ordinary cotton cloth, collected by the faqih. From all districts together this amounted to about 100,000 teqaqi.2 The cattle tax, jeba, consisted of one-tenth of the oxen and camels. The land tax, tugandi, was one toqqiya per cultivated field about 500 paces long and approxi1 In his preliminary survey of Darfur, published in Peltrmarms Mitteilungen, Band 21, 1875, 19-23, Nachtigal put the population of Darfur at 4-5 million. Perron suggested the same figure in an appendix to El-Tounsy, Darfour, 393. * The cloth thus collected was said later to have been made up in el-Fasher into clothing for the sultan's soldiers. Theobald, AH Dinar, 216.

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur

359

mately as wide. T h e customs duty, kheddema, varied according to the route by which the goods were imported. O n the road from Kordofan or from the west from Wadai, it amounted for each camel load to 5 meqati (pi. of maqta) tromba, the cotton cloth, kham, already described. T h e diwan, levied every four years, varied according to the occupation of the tribes and the yield of the region; cattle-rearing tribes paid in horses or camels up to 130 head. Other tribes, e.g. the Sula, Bego, D a j u , Gulla, etc., paid in slaves. It was also paid in donkey loads [464] of wheat, durra and dukhn, in teqaqi, tobacco, honey and salt, which in some districts in the Marra range and the north is obtained by washing saliferous earth, and in butter. T h e butter tax was very productive; several thousand jars were collected, each of which might hold up to 20 pounds, from the A r a b tribes of the Beni Holba, Missiriya, Torjem, Ta'aisha, Habaniya and Rezeqat, but chiefly from the hawakir assigned to officials, many of which had to deliver 50, 100 up to 200 jars. Otherwise the holders of hawakir either contracted to pay the sultan half of their rents, or, if they were exempted from this obligation, according to their ability and at their discretion. T o these taxes were added those which the chief corn tax-gatherer collected before the assessment of the fitra, amounting to a considerable number of teqaqi per administrative district. Dar-er-Riah, for example, had to pay 8,000 pieces, Dar-Dali 7,000, Dar-Kerne 8,000, Dar-Fea 5,000, Dar-Made 4,000, Dar-Dima 6,000 and D a r - U m a 3,000. Dukhn is much the most important agricultural product in a large part of the country, the ordinary variety being almost exclusively cultivated. Another variety, with reddish seeds which ripens in two months, is cultivated in the mountains, and a third with white seeds, suitable for a richer soil, in the southwest of the kingdom. Five varieties of durra are distinguished, with seeds varying in colour and size. Wheat is cultivated only on the mountains, and the same clay and heavy humus soil, found in isolated places in the mountains and in the south and southwest, that is good for durra, is also favourable for maize. Ground-nuts are cultivated everywhere, while sugar-durra is limited to some individual regions. Wild (spotted) rice is found in the west and north, but is no more popular as food here than in the Sudan countries to the west. Cotton cultivation extends over the whole of Darfur, though in the north and the south the ground is often too poor to allow the cotton bushes to thrive. T h e cultivation of [465] indigo is not nearly so extensive as in Bornu and the Hausa states, where also the art of dyeing is very advanced, while in Darfur and W a d a i it is practised only by immigrants from Bornu or Bagirmi. Large gourds and bottle gourds are of course not lacking, for here, as in all the Sudan countries, most of the kitchen utensils are made of

360

From Wadai to Darfur and Egypt

such things. M e l o n s a n d c u c u m b e r s are not rare, a n d especially t h e small w i l d w a t e r - m e l o n s are v e r y c o m m o n in t h e steppes o f t h e sparsely p o p u l a t e d east, w h e r e w i t h the deficient w a t e r supply they g i v e m u c h refreshment to t h e natives. Beans are g r o w n in m a n y varieties; t h e c o l o c y n t h , w h i c h , after a tedious t r e a t m e n t to g e t rid o f its drastic bitter substance, forms a p o p u l a r a n d i m p o r t a n t foodstuff in the d r y steppes n e a r t h e desert, is p r i n c i p a l l y g a t h e r e d b y the Z o g h a w a a n d the n o m a d A r a b s of the north. I n a d d i t i o n t o sesame, w h i c h is c u l t i v a t e d all o v e r the c o u n t r y , a n d f r o m w h i c h , as f r o m the g r o u n d - n u t (arachis), a w i d e l y used oil is expressed, v a r i o u s other plants are g r o w n , w h i c h are boiled to m a k e t h e sauces used w i t h t h e c u s t o m a r y aish. O f the useful trees, d a t e - p a l m s are g r o w n in some places in t h e north a n d t h e interior o f t h e c o u n t r y , t h e fruit o f w h i c h is rather better t h a n that p r o d u c e d in the north o f W a d a i or in K a n e m ; it c a n n o t , h o w e v e r , be h a r v e s t e d t w i c e as it is in the latter. T h e d u m - p a l m is also f o u n d here a n d there in the n o r t h a n d in the interior. It is a v e r y i m p o r t a n t tree, not o n l y because o f its fruit, w h i c h is v a l u a b l e as f o o d in the poorer districts o f the semi-desert or real steppe, b u t c h i e f l y because o f its u n d e r g r o w t h , w h i c h is used for w e a v i n g mats a n d other utensils a n d for twisting into cords. T h e l e m o n tree is c u l t i v a t e d in el-Fasher, K o b e a n d a few other f a v o u r e d places, its small fruit b e i n g v e r y h i g h l y v a l u e d as a d e l i c a c y . T h e role o f the b a o b a b , w h i c h g r o w s chiefly in the east, w e shall sec [466] in the a c c o u n t o f the wells p l a c e d inside their trunks, w h i c h I took a n o p p o r t u n i t y to investigate n e a r O m m M e s h a n a on m y w a y to E g y p t [pp. 384-6]. T h e fruits o f the t a m a r i n d are inferior to those o f W a d a i a n d B o r n u , but are often a n item o f c o m m e r c e . T h e b a n a n a , w h i c h in g e n e r a l has its northern b o u n d a r y f u r t h e r south, is f o u n d in m a n y o f the valleys o f the M a r r a r a n g e , a n d in earlier times some districts there p a i d a r e g u l a r tribute in b a n a n a s for t h e personal use o f t h e p r i n c e . T h e t h o r n y a c a c i a s g r o w w i l d a b o v e all in the north, a n d use is m a d e o f m a n y o f their products. T h e fruit o f the qarad or N i l e a c a c i a , for e x a m p l e , is indispensable for t a n n i n g hides, a n d the hardness o f its w o o d m a k e s it suitable for m a n y t e c h n i c a l purposes. In a d d i t i o n there are the sayal a c a c i a , the talha tree a n d the hashab, w h i c h grows in K o r d o f a n in l a r g e forests a n d provides the g u m w h i c h is most in d e m a n d . T h e foliage o f all o f these trees, if not usable in a n y other w a y , serves as f o d d e r for c a m e l s a n d goats. T o this g r o u p o f trees also b e l o n g t h e zizyphus species, t h e kurna, the nabaq a n d the nabaq el-fil, the fruit o f all o f w h i c h m a k e s a substantial c o n t r i b u t i o n to the food o f the poorer p e o p l e . N o t less v a l u a b l e in this c o n n e c t i o n is t h e hejlij or soap tree {balanites), w h o s e fruit a n d seeds are e a t e n , a n d w h o s e leaves are m u c h sought after for the p r e p a r a t i o n o f sauces in default o f o t h e r things.

Inhabitants and Products of Darfur Their roots are used instead of soap for washing, and finally their wood is used everywhere to make handles for mattocks and spades, etc. Many kinds of fig-like tree, the sycamore, the so-called white jummeza, the jeja with its aerial roots, are found in single specimens scattered over the whole country, and not less the habila,1 the hommed (sclerocarya birrea), and the amudeka with their small, sourish refreshing fruit, as well as the jakhjakh, the makhet and the sabaha. On the desert stretches the markh (lefitadenia pyroetchnica) [467] is frequently found, the senna, and the oshar (calotropis procera), whose wood is used in short-cut cylinders to roof the earthen houses and as a foundation for the layer of earth on the flat roof, and the bark of which makes excellent rope. The ginkhir is characteristic of various regions in the Marra range and has the reputation of providing honey with an especially agreeable taste. The ebony tree, called babanus in Darfur (dalbergia melanoxylon), is frequently found to the south, while the deleb-palm (borassus) and the candelabra-euphorbia are often seen in the valleys of the Marra range; the jokhan (diospyros mespiliformis), which Barth calls the central African plum tree, and the wood of which is used in the construction of saddles, is distributed throughout the whole country. The far south is distinguished by trees which could be exploited in the future, the butter tree, the oil palm, and the cotton tree [enodendron). And finally in Darfur among the plants which can be used, tobacco has an important place, predominantly the peasant tobacco [Bauerntaback], distinguished by its strength, which has become an article of commerce to both the west and the east. 1

Is this identical with the kabil (?) tree mentioned by Pfund, p. 2 9 3 , but not identified by h i m ? A . J . F. Pfund ( 1 8 1 3 - 7 6 ) , who is also mentioned on p. 3 8 2 n., was a German botanist who took part in surveys of Darfur organised by the Khedive Ismail after the conquest of 1 8 7 4 . Nachtigal mentioned him as a G e r m a n physician in Cairo, expressing the opinion that he was too old to undertake the assignment eventually allocated to him (Petermanns Mitteilungen, 21 Band, 1 8 7 5 , 22). His main work on Darfur is " R e i s e briefe aus Kordofan und D a r f u r " , Mitteilungen Geographischen Gesellscha/t, H a m b u r g , 1 8 7 6 - 7 , 1 2 1 - 3 0 5 . H e died in el-Fasher; cf. Hill, Biographical dictionary, 306.

CHAPTER

VII

FURTHER STAY IN EL-FASHER May to July i, 1874 [468] As a consequence of the conditions described at the end of Chapter 2, I kept myself for the most part inside the house of my host; especially because of the presence of Hajj Ahmed, this became the meeting place for the most distinguished Jellaba, and other inhabitants who were acquaintances of Hajj Ahmed or of our host, Hamed Uled Tahir, also very frequently appeared on visits there. Here too I had again the opportunity to admire the boundless hospitality of the Jellaba. O u r house was never without numerous visitors, who often stayed there for months; the guests not only made claims on the head of the house for mats, carpets, bed frames (angreb) and other things, [469] but also on their departure loaded their camels with these belongings of their host, to which, with the profound delicacy of his sense of hospitality, he raised no objection. Yet for all that he by no means had the resources to cover such expense; almost daily I saw him mount his horse early in the morning and spend half the day procuring the means for maintaining his guests on the following day. If Hajj Ahmed had for his part ruined himself in Tineat by hospitality beyond his powers, the same thing seemed to me inevitable here too; I often jestingly warned our host of the bankruptcy which threatened him on account of his guests. In this respect there is indeed a fundamental difference between the Jellaba and the natives, who in the discharge of such duties always proceeded with more caution. One important topic of our discussions, which often went on far into the night, was the recent events in the south of the country, where on the one side in the east Zubayr and his Baharina were threatening Darfur from the Rezeqat region on, and on the other in the territory of the Ta'aisha Arabs, ed-Daba, a former subordinate of Zubayr, who was also a Jellabi, was trying to hold the country against his former chief. T h e country was bled white by all of them, whether they were friends of the government or its enemies; the Jellaba, however, travelled secretly to both sides, exchanging manufactured articles, weapons and powder for slaves, who at that time were extraordinarily cheap there. 362

Further Stay in El-Fasher

363

I was summoned hither and thither to give assistance in my capacity as a physician, and although, for the reasons already explained, I could carry on my practice in only a very limited way, this was an activity all the more welcome to me since it secured for me many contacts with the population. If my patients were close at hand, I should have preferred to go on foot, but I had in any case to conform with the compelling custom established there by the disposition to cultivate external marks of honour. For business within the town the donkey was mostly used; if a person of high rank went on foot, which was indeed [470] very rare, he always used a bamboo staff about 54» «55 «60, 163, 175, 178, 232. 206, 214 & n., 226 n., 262 n., 282, 292 n., 354, 397, 398, 407, 408, 409, askemmta (askemta), grass with edible 416; immigrants from, in Darfur, seeds, 143, 199. 269, 280, 291, 355, 359; in Wadai, Assala, Arab tribe in Wadai, 28, 162. 67-8, 118, 171, 200, 231, 359; asser (assr, asr): see prayer. industrial skills in, 67-8, 200, 359. Assiut, ix, 255, 356, 375. Asunga, wadi, part of Bahr es-Salamat, Bahar, Zoghawi vizier under Abu 'l-Qasim, 286, 333. 138, 149» 238, 239, 243, 244, 265. Atia, ancestor of Missiriya and Rezeqat, baharina, 242 & n., 243, 246, 254, 269, 319 & n., 320, 321, 335, 362, 365, 35«. 353372, 374. 375. 383, 405Atiya, Berti melik, 311. Atmor, wilderness on Darfur-Kordofan Bahr el-Abiad, White River, 83, 98, border, 390, 391. 139, 140, 141. Auk, upper course of Aukadebbe, 139 Bahr el-Ardhe, 98, 139, 140, 141. & n. Bahrel-Azraq (Azrak), 98, 139, 141. Aukadebbe, tributary of Shari, 98, 139, Bahr el-Ghazal, mudirate, 242 n., 318 140. & n., 320, 396, 397, 405; outflow Aura: tee Oro. from Lake Chad and region, 14, 16, autlaut, acacia, 252, 377. 18, 28, 30, 33, 87, 137, 162, 164, 404. auwama, swimmers, 96; (ostrich feathers), Bahr es-Salamat, river and region, 59, 37278, 80, 83, 96, 98, 103, 104, 105, 106, Awjila, 8 & n., 412. 108, i n , 137, 138, 139, 141, 143, Awlad Bakka: see Fala. «59. «78, 199. 202, 203, 244, 267. Awlad el-Bahar: see Ja'liya. Bahr et-Tine, part of Bahr es-Salamat, awlad el-qresh, beads, 40, n o , 125. 138, 159, 244. Awlad er-Rif, immigrants into Darfur Bahr Korte, part of Bahr es-Salamat, from Egypt, 354. 106, 108, 138. Awlad Hamed (Hamid), Arab tribe in Bahr Kuta (Kubanda, Uelle), xv, 56 n., Wadai, 33, 34, 38, 145, 156, 160 & n., 82, 140, 141. 162, 164. Bahr Mangan, part of Bahr es-Salamat, Awlad Jema, Arab tribe in Wadai, 108, n o , 138, 144, 155, 156, 244. 146-7, 148, 150, 158, 165, 166, 167, Bakheit (Bokheit), vizier under Brahim, 168, 170, 171, 172, 178, 215, 217, 261, 264, 265, 267, 319, 333, 335, 223, 225. 342. 344. 345. 357. 37°. 37«. 383.

Index

422

Baldanga (or Sominga), Fur section, 324, 330. Balfour-Paul, H. G., " C a v e Paintings", 414; History, 283 n., 289 n., 4 1 4 ; "Palaces", 63 n. bamboo (gamsa), 104, 143. Banadula, immigrant Pagans in W a d a i , 150. banana, 141, 360. Banda (Niamniam), 56, 82, 83, 137, 139, 141, 268, 354, 357, 4 1 4 ; Banda Marba, 139; Banda Miri, 140. Bandala, Muslim slaves of W a d a i kings, 116, 165, 181. baobab (iebeldi), 360, 380, 382, 384, 385 & n., 386 & n., 392. baqqara, cattle-breeding Arabs, 158-61, 242 n., 352 n. Bara, A b u Shaykh Kurra's Kordofan capital, 294, 301 n. Barani, Sanusi merchant, 120, 122. Barbour, M . , " W a d i A z u m " , 244 n. Bare, wadi, draining Jebel range, 164 n., 244, 248, 249, 267, 280, 281, 287. band, cold, applied to slaves in Wadai, 231. Barr (Bar) Jues, chief village in DarMade, 245, 313; section of royal palace, 338, 370. Barth, Heinrich, 3 n., 5 & n., 7 n., ' 4 n-> 33. 34. 82, 131 n., 140, 349, 361, 398; Travels, 5 n., 33 n., 50 n., 150 n., 206 n., 214 n., 222 n., 346 n.,

385 n-» 399 n-> 4°3> 4° 6 . 4'4> 4 l 6 basi (pi. basinga), 331-2, 405, 4 1 7 ; A b d er-Rahman, 306; Doldum, 331; Dongu, 302; M u h a m m a d ibn-Tirab, 305; N y o m b o ibn-Nuh, 305, 308; O m a r , 302, 306; R a m a d a n , 306; Rifa, 291 ; see also Tahir, basi. Batha river, 34 & n., 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,

4 1 . 59. 9°. 92, 94. 95-6. " 5 . " 6 , 119, 138, 142, 143, 144, 146, 150, '52, 153. '54. 160, 162, 169, 181, 210, 405. Batuma, near Wara, 213, 219, 221. beads, 26, 31, 37, 38, 40, 84, 86, n o , 125, 196, 197, 198, 201, 209, 234, 240, 241, 242, 247, 254, 410, 416. Bedde, Pagan tribe in Bornu, 16, 21, Bedeyat (Baele), 38, 65, 68, 87, 137, 243, 248, 279 & n., 313, 349,

357. 4°9-

151, 199,

101, 203, 354, 124. 229, 356,

Bedr, ancestor of Bedriya; Bedriya, A r a b tribe in Darfur, 351. Bego, ignoble tribe in Darfur, 279, 287, 301 n., 325, 329, 333, 356, 359. Belaid, merchant in K u k a , 7, 19. Benghazi, 43 n., 48, 50, 89, 120, 122, 128, 133, 184 n., 203, 235, 349, 412. Beni Hasen (Hasan) (Shurafa), two A r a b tribes in Wadai, 160, 161, 291, 353. Beni Hilal, Bedouin invaders of north Africa, 274 n., 347 & n. Beni Holba, A r a b tribe in Wadai, 158, 162, 207, 302 & n., 310, 353, 359. Berber, 74, 122, 405. Berbers, 158 n., 170, 354. Berej, region in W a d a i , 152, 156, 165,

166.

Berti, tribe in Darfur, 279, 287, 306 n.,

3 " . 356-7. 4° 6 Beshir, H a j j , minister of Shaykh U m a r , 220 & n. bertemele (bertemmele), grass with edible seeds, 143, 199. Bettelstudenten, 186 & n. Beurmann, Moritz von, xix, 15, 22, 134 & n., 136. Bible among Muslims, 269-70 & n., 409. Bidderi, 124, 206 & n., 405. Billama, Nachtigal's servant, 3 n., 100, 127. Binga, Pagan tribe in Darfur, 357. Birgid, Dar-Birgid, slave tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 152, 165, 166, 169, 171, 279, 284, 287, 288, 293, 310, 311 n., 325Bir Sessi, village in Wadai, 100, 102, 114, 1

'5-

Bir T u i l , village in Wadai, 214, 233-4, 237. 239 n-> 4'6Bisharin, 229 & n. Bitakginnek, near Wara, 147, 162, 179. Bivar, A . D. H . , Nigerian Panoply, 184 n. blinding, 52, 76, 174, 177, 179, 214, 216, 220 n., 225, 400. boadi, nomads, 28. Boahen, A . A . , Britain . . . Western Sudan, 63 n., 134 n., 398 n. Boddy, A . A., Kairwan, 120 n. Bokheit: see Bakheit. Bonaparte, Napoleon, 296 n. Bongo, Makari style house, 27, 46, 405; tribe in Darfur, 357, 405.

Index Bora M a b a n g , language of M a b a , 144, 145, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 163, 165-6, 167, 168, 356. Borku, 87, 128, 248, 406. Bornu, 92, 124, 127 n., 158-9, 175, 193, 207, 208, 277 n., 315, 348, 354, 359, 363, 385 n., 397, 398, 400, 409, 410, 4 1 1 , 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 4 1 7 ; immigrants from, in Darfur, 260, 280, 293 n., 322, 336, 355, 359, 363 & n.; in Wadai, 80, 95, 114, 157 n., 162, 235, 244; Wadaian attack on, 222-3, 235. Bosh, son of K i n g Hasin, 71, 305, 306. Botokollo, Pagan god, 142. Botting, Douglas, Knights, 133 n. Brahim (Ibrahim) ibn Muhammad el-Hasin, king of Darfur, x, 21, 54 n., 70-1, 74, 88, 120, 123, 229, 230, 236, 242 n., 243, 246, 257-8, 260, 261-3, 265-7, 270, 272, 273, 321, 322, 323, 329, 333. 370. 37i. 372. 374-5. 376, 377. 383. 396. Brahim ben Alua, Hajj, 8 & n. Brek, H a j j , Moroccan pilgrim, 3 & n. Browne, W . G., x v ; Travels, 292 n., 296 n., 412, 414. Bruce, James, 287 n. Bua, Pagan tribe in Bagirmi, 139. Bu Aisha, Hajj Muhammad, Turkish emissary to Bornu, viii, 3 & n., 4 & n., 6 n., 13, 14, 19. Buba, H a m m u ' s slave from Bagirmi, 116, 127. Budduma, 14, 15, 403, 405. Budge, E. A. Wallis, Handbook, 12 n. buffaloes, 30, 35, 58, 106, 108, 112, 141, 144. Bugdy lake, 138, 160. Bugoman, town in Bagirmi, 124. Bu Hadi, Hajj, Fezzan merchant, 5 & n., 8, 16, 19. Buhari (Bukhari), eldest son of K i n g A b d er-Rahman, 296, 298, 301, 303 & n. Bukko, residence of sultan Jurab, 33, 36. Bulala, 31, 33-4, 36, 37, 40, 154, 164 n., 166, 168, 171, 280, 316; section of Salamat, 98. Burgu, mountain in Darfur, 206; name of W a d a i in Darfur, 206, 285 & n. burial ritual, 194-5. Burkomanda, sultan of Bagirmi, 214 & n.

423

burnus, 13, 99, 130, 148, 179, 195, 405. burresa, species of ant, 383. Burtei (Burtai), villages in Wadai, 61, 167, 218. Burton, Richard, 397 n. Buta. K a j a district in Darfur, 381, 382, 389Buteha, tributary of Batha, 34 n., 60, 89, 90, 91 & n., 92, 95, 119, 138, 142, "43, '44. ' 5 ° . !54> '62, «7«. 210, 231, 232. 237. Butta (Buta), Kajakse village, 102-4, 105. butter in medical treatment, 69, 121-2, 34°butter tree, 141, 361. CAFTAN, 86, 195, 364, 405.

Cairo, viii, ix, 3 n., 65, 123, 201, 206 n., 242 n., 245, 303 n., 323, 354, 372, 373. 375. 396. calendar, Muslim, names of months in, 91, 190, 310, 338. camel liver, 65-6, 119, 199, 253, 263, 271. camels, 4 & n., 5 n., 35, 59, 129, 144-5, 158, 182, 229 & n., 254, 354, 358, 407, 417. camphor, 76, 77. cannibalism, 87, 141, 142, 151, 153, 267, 340-1, 356, 414. Carbou, H . Région du Tchad and L'arabe au Ouaddai, 347 n., 398 n., 414. Carroll, Lewis, The Jabberwocky, 247 n. Cashmere shawls, 248, 256. caterpillar sauce, 115. cats, sacred, 367-8. cattle, 35, 144, 338, 4 1 1 , 4 1 5 ; see also Kuri. C h a d , Lake, vii, 14, 15, 17 & n., 26, =9. 3°, '54. l 6 ° . '62, 221, 222, 250, 404. C h a d , Republic of, vii, x, xi, 14 n., 63 n-> ' 3 9 n-> 239 n., 287 n., 352 n. children's playthings, 104. Chirgwin, A . M . , Arthington, 270 n. Christians, attitude to, x, 10 n., 12, 18, 23, 4". 43-4. 54. 56, 58, 64, 71, 77-8, 88, 103, 120, 123, 246-7, 268 & n., 269-70, 370, 407, 413. circumcision, 70, 71, 73-4, 194, 280, 416. Clapperton, H . , Second Expedition, 50 n., 59 398 n.

424

Index

climate, 4, 11, 17-18, 235, 358. coffee, 7, 176, 235-6, 253, 263, 408. colours, significance of, 195, 303-4 & n., 3'°> 337. 348 n. colour scale, 151, 159, 162, 170-1 & n., 402. concubinage, 84, 294 n., 301 n., 330, 364, 407. Constantinople (Istanbul), 3 n., 4 & n., «20, 175, 193, 315, 375, 398, 400. copper, 340; see also drums; Hofrat en-Nuhas. coral, real or imitation, 31, 65, 110, 197, 234, 240, 241, 242. cotton, 91, 119, 142, 151, 181, 190, 232, 359cotton processing, 102, 113, 186, 187, 200. cotton strips as medium of exchange, 26, 417; see also kham; maqta kham; terek; toqqiya. cotton tree, 141, 336, 361. cowries, 5, 13, 25, 31, 37, 38, 86, 201, 203, 414-15. criminal jurisdiction, 62, 174, 179, 180, 182, 187-8, 277. crocodiles (timsah), 36, 82, 98, 140, 144. Cuny, Dr, xvi. (Daba), former subordinate of Zubayr, 362, 389. dadinga: see abu dadinga. Daju, tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 74, 80-1, 82, 154, 155 & n., 157 & n., 166, 169, 171, 185, 230, 244, 267, 272, 273, 274 & n., 275, 329, 346 n., 347. 359. 405-6. 4>5Dakhakhira (Dukhakhira, PDekarire), section of Salamat, 159, 162. Daldin, melik of the korayat, 293, 299 & n. Dali (Dclil Bahar) (Hajj Brahim Delil), founder of Kera dynasty, 273, 275, 276, 277 & n., 279, 280, 328, 348. Dali Book, 273, 277, 328, 330, 369, 370. Damagaram, state northwest of Bornu, 7 & n. dancing, 71, 72-3, 85, 95, 191, 192. Danoa, 165 n. dar, 406. Dara, near Darfur-Kordofan border, 308, 322, Dar-Abu Dima: see Dar-Dima. ED-DABI

Dar-Abu Uma: see Dar-Uma. d'Arbaumont, J., "Convention", 193 n. darb el-arba'in, Forty Day Road, 255. Dar-Dali, eastern province of Darfur, 277, 294 n., 324, 348, 350, 351, 355, 356, 358, 359. 369Dar-Dima, southwest province of Darfur, 210 n., 269, 277, 281, 324, 332, 346, 348. 349. 358. 367. 401. Dar-el-Bahr, province of Wadai, 178. Dar el-Gharb, western province of Darfur, 277, 278, 312 n., 324. Dar er-Riah : see Dar-Tokunyawi. Dar-es-Said : see Dar-Said. Dar-Fea (Feya), administrative district in Darfur, 241, 244, 245, 269, 278, 280, 325 & n., 348, 353, 355, 359. Dar-Jenge, 311 : see Dinka. Dar-Jungertan, province of Wadai, 178. Dar-Kerne, administrative district in Darfur, 269, 280, 325 & n., 348, 359. Dar-Kedro, province of Wadai, 178. Dar-Kuka: see Kuka. Dar-Kunyer, administrative district in Darfur, 325. Dar-Luluk, western province of Wadai, 178. Dar-Maba: see Maba. Dar-Made, administrative district in Darfur, 245, 269, 325 & n., 348, 353, 355. 359Dar-Mali, 315. Dar-Marra: see Jebel Marra. Darmut, offshoot of Zoghawa in Wadai, 163, 166, 169, 170, 182. Dar-Runga: see Runga. Dar-Said (Dar-es-Said, Dar-Turlulu), southern province of Wadai, 143, 144, 145, 147, 150, 157, 161, 163, 165, 171, 178, 197, 199, 306 & n. Dar-Salih, a name of Wadai, 206 & n., 211, 285 n. Dar-Sula: see Sula. Dar-Tama : see Tama. Dar-Tokunyawi (Tokonyawi), northern province of Darfur, 277, 324, 349, 350. 352. 355. 358, 359. 4«7Dar-Toluk, eastern province of Wadai, 178. Dar-Turtalu, northern province of Wadai, 145, 178. Dar-Turlulu : see Dar-Said. Dar-Uma, southern province of Darfur,

Index 6

a 10 n., 269, 277, 3°3» 324. 33«. 34 . 348. 355. 356, 358. 359Dar-Ziyud, predominantly Arab province of Wadai, 41, 142, 145, 152, 154, 161, 162, 163, 165, 169, 171, 179, 181, 182, 197, 204, 347. dates, 147, 253, 360, 370. Daud, Tunjur ruler, 207. Daza (Qoran), Tubu tribe, 6 n., 14 n., 30, 68, 70, 87, 126, 137, 145, 154, 160, 164, 165 & n., 166, 170, 171, 206, 248, 292 n., 313, 406. deafmutes, 4, 243, 398. Debaba, Arab tribe in Bagirmi, 36, 38, 162. Debba, near Wara, 158, 165, 167, 206, 208, 274, 356. debt collection, 8, 19, 52. de Cadalvfcne and de Breuvery, L'ßgypte et la Turquie, xv n., 265 n., 296 n., 323, 328 n. Dehdrain, H., Le Soudan, 315 n. Delal, wadi in Wadai, 147, 149, 151, 161, 210, 235. deleb palm, 141, 143, 185, 238, 361. de Leone, E., "Un Italiano", 11 n. Delil: see Dali. dental care, 198 & n., 252. Deqena, Arab tribe, 28-9, 30, 32, 160. Derbai, Nakazza chief, 87, 128. Derderi, 254, 319, 320. Deribe, crater of Jebel Marra, 368 & n. Derna, hot spring, 147. devil, 367. dhimmi, 395. difa, guest-gift or tax in Wadai, 91, 126, 179, 180, 406; difan, guests, 116, 253. Dikoa, Rabih's capital in Bornu, 17 n., 25. dimilik, 325, 406. Dinka, Pagan tribe, 243, 288 & n., 312 n. dir ja, 46, 406. diseases, 11,48,56,58,64, 69, 78,88, 120, 121, 122, 215, 219, 280, 315, 392, 393» see fever; leprosy; smallpox. diwan, 406; tax in Darfur, 358; tax in Wadai, 181, 273. diya, 14, 182, 406, 415. Dogorda, Daza tribe in Kanem, 14, 164-5. doher: see prayer. Dongola, 46, 57, 61, 74, 122, 129, 230, 245» 253» 263. 3 ° ' , 345 & n., 351, 354» 376, 381» 386» 387, 389.

425

donkeys, 83, 84, ioi, 144-5, 229-30, 240 & n., 254, 363. Dor, subsection of Zoghawa, 163, 349; Pagan tribe south of Darfur, 354. doso : see abtmdoro. Douin, G., Histoire, 318 n. Dozy, R. P. A., Dictionnaire, 304 n., 405, 408, 4 1 1 , 416, 417. dra, ell, 197, 407. dreams, 45, 368. drums, nuhas, 343, 371, 413-14» 4 ' 5 ; ^ insignia of a sultan in Darfur, 245, 248, 287, 325, 350, 355; as royal insignia, 173, 278, 302 & n., 307, 320, 335» 337» 3 6 6; melik en-nuhas, 299 n., 302 n., 312 n., 4 1 1 , 416; drum festival, 260, 338, 339-40, 363 n., 366, 368; see also mansura. drunkenness, 49, 65, 76, 126, 200, 236-7, 369Dugri, jerma, 217, 218. Dugunga, Fur section, 339, 348; Abu Dugunga, 331, 339. dukhn, 4, 26, 28, 36, 65, 85, 91, 99, 118, 119, 126, 141, 142, 143, 149, 150, 151, 172, 181, 185, 198, 199, 203, 232, 234, 235, 242, 271, 339, 359, 365, 388, 406, 4'3dulm, corrupt administration, 256, 299, 407. dumma, fermented drink, 142. dum palm, 24, 29, 30, 32, 38, 41, 89, 116, 143, 185, 252, 360. durra, 99, 109, 110, 141, 142, 172, 198, «99» 235, 359» 406, 413. Durring : see Jumbo. Duveyrier, H., Confrérie, 3 n., 43 n. dyeing, 25-6, 143, 195, 359. Ebony, 38, 104, 361, 390. EgyP1» 43 n-> «33 n-» 229, 245, 246, 256, 258, 263, 265 n., 266, 268, 279, 281, 289, 296 n., 301, 315 & n., 316, 317, 318, 321, 322, 363, 369, 371, 373, 375, 382, 384, 410, 412. elephants, 28, 58, 81, 104, 108, 141, 143, 144. Elias, headman of el-Obeid, 393 & n., 394Encyclopaedia Britannica, 17 n. Engringa, village group in Wadai, 90, 1 '9- 349, 398, 406. Ennedi,

426

Index

Ereqat (Oreqat), Arab tribe in Darfur, 3 02 > 35". 39°; in Wadai, 158, 161, 174, 207.

eunuchs, 4, 20 n., 46, 55, 89, 1 2 1 , 126, •73» 1 75 & n-> 176-7. l 8 ° . i 8 4 . 277 n-> 294 n., 2 9 8 , 3 0 3 , 3 2 4 , 3 2 8 , 3 2 9 , 3 3 3 , 337. 338. 342, 369, 37°. 373. 398, 4°°euphorbia candelabrum, 250, 361. European passion for travel, 47, 48, 83. Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Sanusi, 120 n.; "Bongo", 405. evil eye among Daju, 155. exchange, media of: see beads; cottonstrips; cowries; kimba pepper; Maria Theresa dollars; paper, exports, of Wadai, 202-3, 4 1 1 i of Darfur, 373. 377E l - F a d i l , Benghazi merchant, 120. Fala (Awlad Bakka), tribe in Wadai, 95, 97, 1 1 4 , 1 1 5 , 152, 158, 166, 168, 169, 171.

Falmata, slave-girl, 39. Famalla: see Hawalla. Fanga (Fana), tribe in Runga, 78, 139, •57. ' 7 ' faqih (faki; pi. fuqahd), 13, 32, 33, 4 1 , 6 2 , 89, 1 0 5 , 1 2 3 , 1 2 4 , 1 5 1 , 1 6 2 , 1 7 4 , 1 8 2 , 1 8 9 , 1 9 4 , 1 9 5 , 2 0 5 n., 2 2 4 , 2 3 6 ,

fever, 7 - 8 , 1 1 , 1 2 , 42, 78, 1 0 7 - 9 ,

II0

»

120, 126, 129, 383, 387.

Fezara, Arab group in Darfur, 350 & n., 351, 353Fezzan, vii, 5, 8, 48, 128, 129, 266, 399 n.; see also Murzuq. firde, hip shawl, 196, 197. fire, ritual, 191, 328, 368. firearms, 9 n., 13, 20, 48, 51, 68, 71 & n., 7 2 , 8 5 , 8 6 , 8 7 , 1 2 7 , 1 8 3 & n., 2 6 5 , 2 8 1 & n., 2 8 3 , 3 1 2 & n., 3 1 3 , 3 2 1 , 322, 337. 339. 343 & n - 344. 362, 371, 381, 3 8 7 , 388, 392 & n. firki, dark black soil, 24. Fisher, A. G. B. and H . J . , Slavery, viii n., ix, 1 7 5 n., 2 1 4 n., 2 1 6 n., 3 0 1 n. Fisher, H . J . , " M u h a m m a d al-Amin", 62 n. ; and V. Rowland, "Firearms", 7 1 n. fishing, h i , 181, 199. Fishman, J . A., Language Problems, 349 n. fitra, 358, 359, 407. Fitri, lake and region, 15, 17, 20 n., 26, 3". 32. 33. 3 4 - 6 , 37. 69. 8 3 , 8 8 , 1 2 2 , >32, 137, >38, 1 4 2 , 143, '45. '54. '55. 1 6 0 , 1 6 9 , 1 7 8 , 3 1 6 , 3 1 7 & n., 4 1 7 . flies, 5, 17, 20 n., 32, 35, 36, 83, 88, 94, 99, 1 0 2 , 1 1 0 , 1 1 2 , 1 2 2 ,

141.

Fora, daughter of Kera chief, 275. Foranga, Fur section, 330. 268, 269, 2O0, 283, 290, 291, 293 & n., 2 9 4 . 3 0 6 , 3 1 1 , 3 1 6 , 3 1 9 , 3 2 5 , 3 3 8 , forang aba, 330, 407. Fotr, kamkolak, 121, 126. 356, 358, 369. 372. 4°7French, x-xi, 393, 399-401. faqir (pi. fuqara), 171, 185, 407. farfarok (pi.ferafir), age group, 188, 191. Fresnel, M., "Mémoire", 50 n., 183 n., 2 1 6 n., 2 2 0 n., 2 2 2 n., 2 3 3 n., 3 5 7 n. el-Fasher, 246, 256, 257, Book V I I I , frogs, 168, 199. chap, ii, 284 n., 292 n., 295, 299, 323, Fulani: see Fellata. 328, 330, 331 n., 353, 358, 361, chap, Funj, Funji, 282, 288, 294. vii. 387. 396, 4'7Fur, Forawa, 7 1 , 2 1 1 , 221, 241, 242, fatihah, 9, 23, 104, 237, 377, 407. 246, 247, 254, 267, 273, 275, 286, Fatima, Nachtigal's hostess, 97, 99. 289, 3 1 0 , 3 2 0 - 1 , 3 2 4 & n., 346, falsha, chief military commander in 3 4 8 - 9 & n., 352, 3 5 5 , 356, 363, 364, Bagirmi, 124. 3 6 5. 3 6 6, 374, 397, 399, 409; sections fattashi, the "seeker", 91, 181, 407. of, 348 & n. ; see also Baldanga; fellagine, female palace-servants, 176, Dugunga: Foranga; Irlinga: Irringa; 335. 4°7Jinshinga; Kattuwanga: Kera; Fellata, Fulani, 9 n., 16 & n., 23, 29, Koranga; Kunjara; Kunyunga; n , i6 39. 59 -> 4°> 4> >7'. 207 n-. 224. Kuringa; Mundenga; Murminga; 2 8 0 , 2 8 3 n., 3 1 5 , 4 0 6 , 4 0 7 . Sominga; Tomurkiya (Tomurkiye). ferda, a half-toqqiya, 125, 204, 262. fersha, "carpet", 325, 356 & n., 407. "États musulmanes", 126 ferr style of wearing shawls, 3 2 7 , 3 3 2 , 3 3 5 . G a d e n , H., n-, 175 n-> 398 n., 400 n.; "Note", Fertit, Pagan tribes in southern Darfur, 2 0 6 n. 2 1 2 n., 3 1 7 n., 3 1 9 n., 3 5 7 .

Index Gagliuffi, G . B., 8 n. Gallabat, 376 n. Gandigin, remnant of Wara, 63. Ganslmayr, H . , in Nachtigal, 11 n., 64 n., 205 n. Ganyanga, tribe in Wadai, 149, 150, 151, 152, 167, 170, 174, 217, 218. gates, construction of, 265. gazelles, 144, 163, 339. German miles, 80, 137, 230, 407. German scenery, comparisons with, 63, 94Gerri, 37, 85, 163, 167, 175, 177, 184, •99Ghana, ancient, 400 n., 405. Giggeri, son of K i n g Musa, 280, 281-2. Giorgi, Dr, 393, 394. giraffes, 28, 30, 35, 58, 106, 108, 112, 141, 144, 242, 245, 355, 388. Girga, Q.imr tribe in Darfur, 242, 245, 355girg'd, 336, 407. Girli (Gurri), first capital of Ahmed Bokkor, 280, 287. Gitar, first Daju ruler of Darfur, 272, 274 & n. Gleichen, Count, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 387 n. goats, 141, 145, 247, 388. Gogorma, capital of O m a r Lele, 283 & n., 287. gold, 72, 296 11., 343, 344, 373-4, 413. Golo, Fitri village, 36, 37; village near Maffate, 25; wadi in Darfur, 257. Gordon, General, 263 n., 382 n. gos es-sittin, 299. gratuities, 55, 373. Gray, J . R., "Missionary factor", 270 n. ground-nuts, 115, 142, 359, 360. guineaworm, 78, 88. Gulfei, Makari town, 26. Gulla, tribe in southern Runga, 139, 141, 156-7, 159, 357, 359. Gummel, vassal-state of Bornu, 9 & n., 12. gunpowder, 68, 71, 87, 254, 339, 362. guro nuts, 7 & n., 12, 13, 21, 65-6, 76, 235» 354. 408. Gurri : see Girli. Gwarzo, "Seven Letters", 6 n. HABABA,

77,

174,

326 & n., 408.

176,

179,

213,

338,

427

Habaniya, A r a b tribe in Darfur, 308, 309, 311, 318, 321, 350, 357, 359, 381. Habesh, Abyssinia, 164. Habib, son of M u h a m m a d Tirab, 289, 290, 293 & n. habila, tree, 92, 142, 361 & n., 392. haddad: see smiths. Hadeija, vassal-state of Sokoto, 9 & n., 12. Haderbi,_/b^i'A from Suakin, 369. Hagenbucker, F., "Notes", 33 n. hair-styles, 31, 64-5, 110-11, 163, ' 9 7 - 8 , 240, 241, 256, 364, 384, 388, 410. hakura (pi. hawakir), 264, 283 n., 289, 293 n-> 299, 3 ' 4 . 3 ' 6 » 327» 330, 33 2 . 334. 34'» 359. 365. 4 o 8 - 9 . 4 " . 4'7Halluf, Q a d i w a chief, 14 & n., 68. Hamed el-Afzer, ancestor of Fezara, 350, 35 Hamed el-Ajzem, ancestor of el-Juzm, 35°. 35 H a m e d ibn Soqed (Saqet), 301, 333. Hamed uled et-Tahir, Nachtigal's host, 257. 362, 369, 372. hami, warm, applied to slaves in Wadai, 231. Hammerton, D., "Recent discoveries", 266 n. H a m m u , Nachtigal's Moroccan servant, 3 "•> 7°. 95. 97. >00, 106, 116, 125, 127. H a m r (Homr), A r a b tribe in Darfur and Kordofan, 330, 350, 351, 373, 381, 383-5. 386, 389, 390, 391. el-Hamra (Hamra), wadi in Dar-Said, 143. «5 1 . '52. 161. Hamza, Hajj, 135, 258, 263 & n., 375. Hanefi, shertaya, 241, 245, 246, 258, 266. haram, unlawful, 116. harem, 174, 176, 179, 281, 408. harraza, acacia, 143, 233, 238, 239, 240, 247. 292, 408. Harut (Kharut), uncle of M u h a m m a d Tirab, 287 & n., 292 n. Hasan, Darfur prince, 306. Hasan A b u K a b i r , maqdum, 306, 310. hashab, acacia, 38, 143, 292, 361, 380, 382, 392, 408. Hasib Allah, Darfur prince, 70-1, 74, 306, 308, 314, 320, 321, 323. Hasibu'l-Kerim, Darfur prince, 298, 302, 303 & n.

428

Index

Hasin, king of Darfur: see M u h a m m a d el-Hasin. Hasseb el-Agaran, Hassan Allah Garran, son of Harut, 287, 289. Hausa states, 20, 200, 354, 359, 414, 4 1 7 . Hawalla (Famalla), T u b u tribe in Wadai, 164, 165. H a w a Sullum, wife of K i n g A b d erRahman, 296, 300. Hazaz, A w l a d Sulayman notable, 14 & n., 68. Heimat (Heiyimat, Hayimat), A r a b tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 156, 157, 159, 160, 162, 350; ancestor of Heimat, 350. hejlij, soap-tree, 25, 28, 30, 38, 41, 44, 101, 122, 143, 231, 232, 247, 251, 361, 371» 377» 392. 409. Herold, J. Christopher, Bonaparte, 296 n. Hijaz, 206 n., 314, 315, 334, 416. Hill, Richard, Biographical Dictionary, 242 n., 246 n., 263 n., 296 n., 303 n., 318 n., 361 n., 406, 412; Egypt in the Sudan, 266 n., 301 n. hippopotamuses, 36, 82, 108, 112, 138, 140. Hodgkin, T . , Nigerian Perspectives, viii. Hofrat en-Nuhas, 140, 318 & n., 330,

hyenas, 101, 108, 119, 141, 144, 250. hyrax, 94, 121. IBRAHIM, king of Darfur: see Brahim. Ibrahim, sultan of T a m a , 158, 224. Ibrahim el-Wadawi, 223 & n. Ibrahim ibn Suleman, 222, 224. Ibrahim uled Romed, kuningawi, 299 & n., 300, 301, 312 n., 411. id el-fitr, 12, 127, 190, 310, 409. idel-kabir, 12, 21 & n., 190, 234, 236, 409. Idris, Nachtigal's Arabic name, vii, 394, 395el-Idrisi, Description, 346 n. Ifemesia, C . F., " B o r n u " , 20 n., 223 n.

Ilorin, 354. imam, 175, 176, 187, 236, 409. imports of European goods, 201, 354, 373import tolls, 62, 201-2, 359, 383, 387. India, 373. indigo, 26, 142, 359. inheritance, 195 & n. Irlinga (Irlingo), Fur section, 383; A b u Irlinga, 287, 330. Iro, lake and river, 78, 82, 98, 138, 139, 14°. 157, I5 8 . 244. Irringa (Iringa), Fur section, 330, 383; 354. 357» 414A b u Irringa, 306, 330, 331, 333, 336. Holroyd, A . T . , "Notes", 303 n. Isa, kursi, 100. Holt, P. M . , Modern History, 350 n . ; Isawi, Massabat chief, 284. Mahdist State, 133 n., 318 n., 383 n., Ishaqa, khalifa in Darfur, 288, 289, 290, 393 397 291, 292 & n., 293, 296. hommed, fruit-tree, 101, 361, 382, 390. Ishmael, 352 n. honey, 11, 20, 85, n o , 182, 199, 229, Islam, 52, 53, 62, 67, 77, 78, 93 n., 137, 253. 263, 330, 338 & n., 359, 376. 15'» 153» ' 5 5 . ' 5 6 . ' 5 7 . '62, «63, horr, free man, 67, 148 & n., 175, 409. 169, 172, 189, 205-6 & n., 208, 237, horses, 5 & n., 21, 35, 60, 61, 88, 122, 268 & n., 275, 277, 279, 280, 286 n., 128, 141, 145, 182, 183, 239, 254, 257, 330» 349» 356, 357, 367. 379 345 & n., 378, 412; see also jerma; Ismail A y y u b Pasha, governor-general korayat. of Egyptian Sudan (1873-6), ix, hospitality, 10, 11, 12, 21, 54-5, 93, 100, 242 n., 263, 321, 322, 323, 371, 382 115, 116, 146, 157, 168, 176, 186, 245, & n-, 393» 394. 396. 251, 253, 274, 362, 370. Ismail Pasha, khedive of Egypt, ix, hot springs, 147, 266. 133 n., 242 n., 266 n., 318 n., 323, human sacrifices in Darfur, 326 n., 324, 361 n., 375, 382 n., 396. 340-1, 366. ivory, 4, 6 & n., 82 & n., 83, 98, 113, hunting, 25, 58-9, 81, 106, 143-4, 33° n-> 123, 141, 181-2, 202, 203, 254, 317, 365» 377. 381, 383 & n-> 387» 4'4339. 4 ' ° iya basi, 261 & n., 287, 327, 329 & n., Hurewitz, J. C . , Diplomacy, 315 n. 341, 405; see also Zemzem. Hurgronje, Snouck, Sprichwörtern, 334 n. Husayn, Hajj, Nachtigal's servant, 3 iya kwri, favourite wife of king of Darfur, & n. 329» 337. 408.

Index Izz ed-Din, grandson of K i n g Joda, 220, 221. JA'ADINA, A r a b tribe in W a d a i , xviii n., 38> 5 1 , «54, 160 & n., 161, 162, 180, 211. jakkjakh, tree, 232, 361. Ja'liya (Jaliyin), 158, 205, 206 n., 242 n., 317, 354, 376, 390, 393 n. Jalo oasis, 8 n., 43 n., 50, 122, 123, 184 n., 201, 202, 203, 235, 404, 412. jami, mosque, 90. Jasmund, Herr von, 263. Jebel, tribe in W a d a i , 157, 162, 166, 168. Jebel en-nusf, 61. Jebel K o r a , northern spur of Jebel Marra, 249, 250, 276, 339. Jebel Marra, M a r r a range, xvi, 138, 243, 244, 249> 250, 254, 259, 266 & n., 267, 269, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276 & n., 277 n., 278, 279 & n., 280, 281, 323, 326, 339, 346, 348, 349, 351, 357, 358, 360, 361, 368 n., 396-7, 402, 414; see also prison. Jebel M u l , in western Darfur, 149 & n., 157, 168, 243, 244, 281, 355. Jebel Nami, peak in Jebel M a r r a , xviii, 276 & n., 338. Jeddah, 263. Jedida, near el-Fasher, 292. Jeggel, tribe in Wadai, 109, 110, 155-6, 166, 169. Jeldama, wadi in Darfur, 244, 283, 292. jellabi (pi. jellaba), (ayal el-bahar), "Nile merchants", ix, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 33, 44, 50, 51, 52, 57, 58, 59, 61, 65, 68-9, 80, 84, 89, 106, 112, 120, 122, 123, 128, 129, ' 7 ' , ' 7 7 , 185. 199» 201, 202, 203, 217, 232, 233, 234, 245, 247, 249, 251, 253, 255, 256, 257, 270, 287, 331, 334, 344, 353, 354, 362, 363, 365, 371» 376, 378, 381, 388, 389, 398, 404, 409, 410, 414. Jellatat (Jelledat), A r a b tribe in Darfur, 350, 381. Jema'an, 220; Jeman, 304, 309. jemma, age-group, 187 & n., 188, 189. Jerid, in Tunisia, 129. jerma, 24 & n., 51, 178, 180, 214 n., 409. Jernudd, B., "Linguistic integration", 349 n. Jesus, 269 & n. jinshinga, 335.

429

Joda (Salih), king of Wadai (1747-95), 170, 210-12, 215, 217, 220, 224. Joheina, A r a b tribal group in Darfur, 35'Johnston, H. A . S., Fulani Empire, 9 n., 16 n. jokhan, fruit-tree, 95, 361. Jongol, Massabat sultan, 280, 284. J u m b o (Durring), tribe in Wadai, 154, 163, 166, 167, 169, 171, 210. Jur, Niamniam tribe, 354. Jurab, sultan of Fitri, 15, 32-4, 36-7. el-Juzm (Juzm), A r a b tribal group in Darfur, 350, 351. KABABISH (Kebabish), A r a b tribe in Kordofan, 129 & n., 351, 381, 386. kabartu, 57, 66, 86, 133, 409-10. K a b g a , tribe and mountain in Wadai, 148, 15°, ' 5 7 , ' 6 6 > '68, 169, 174, 355. K a b k a b i y a : see Q a b q a b i y a . K a d a m a , last Tunjur capital of Wadai, 163, 207. K a d i j a , friend of Nachtigal in Butta, 103. Kafani, hababa, 226. kafir, unbeliever, 49. K a j a , tribe in Darfur, 331 & n., 356,381, 388, 390; wadi, chief source of Bahr es-Salamat, 80, 138, 243, 244. Kajakse, tribe in Wadai, 102, 104, 105, 110, 113, 114, 117, 151, 156, 166, 169, 171. K a j a n g a (Ertana), tribe and mountain in Wadai, 89, 90, 92, 150, 151, 152, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 181, 199. kakr, 309, 343, 410. K a l g e , Pagan god in Darfur, 366. Kaltuna, iya kuri, 329. kamene, shadow-king in Darfur, 262 n., 326 & n., 327, 329, 332, 366. kamkolak (pi. kemalik), 46, 121, 126, 147, 173 & n., 174, 175, 178-9, 180, 181, 182, 184, 187, 189, 190, 210, 213, 217, 218, 219, 221, 224, 225, 410, 417. K a n e m , viii, 5 n., 13, 14 n., 15, 30, 31, 33, 34, 40, 44 n-, 68, 85, 87, 134, 137, 154, 158 n., 162, 163, 164 & n., 165 n., 178, 207, 212 & n., 222, 254, 274, 360, 403. K a n e m b u , 164. K a n o , 6, 8, 16, 19, 20, 21, 38, 54, 55, 127, 202, 398, 4 1 1 .

43°

Index

Kanuri, 13 n., 31, 33, 34, 128, 171, 324 n., 363 & n., 385 n., 390, 403, 409, 412. K a r a n g a (Kurungu), tribe in W a d a i , 93» 94» '52. ' 5 3 . 158, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 180, 199, 355. K a r d a : see Kreda. K a r k a (Karga), archipelago in Lake Chad, 30, 220, 221. kashella, 16 & n., 24. Kashemereh, tribe in Wadai, 89, 90, 91 & n., 93, 118, 119, 151, 152, 158, 162, 163, 166, 168, 169, 170, 199, 207, 355Kaserda (Kasherda), D a z a tribe in Wadai, 154, 164. Kassala, 122. K a t a g u m , 16. Katshena (?Katsina), 283, 406. Kattuma, wife of K i n g M u h a m m a d el-Fadl, 306. Kattuwanga, Fur section, 327. K a t u l , in Kordofan, 288, 331 n. K a w a r , 6 & n., 13, 68, 411. Kedeni, hababa, 223, 225. Kelingen, district in Wadai, 59, 60, 66, 90, 1 4 8 , 1 4 9 - 5 0 , 1 6 5 , 1 6 7 , 1 6 8 , 1 7 0 , 2 3 1 . K e n g a (Kcna), Pagan tribe in W a d a i , 56 n., 91, 155 n. K e r a , Darfur dynasty, 272, 273, 274 n., 275» 276» 285 n., 347 n., 348, 396-7, 399, 401, 405; Fur section, 276, 348, 349Kerar, Hajj, 252, 253, 376. Keribina, 25, 410. Kerrikerri, 16, 124. khabir, 80, 236, 254-5, 354» 3Ö7» 4 1 0 ! see also M u h a m m a d , khabir. khaddur, 125, 201, 203, 234, 410. khalifa, 105, 156, 212, 282, 288, 289, 290, 292, 304, 328, 383, 384, 385, 389, 410. Khalifa, abu shaykh, 328. Khalil, vizier, 308, 310, 3 1 1 , 312, 313. kham, 5, 88, 103, 135, 406, 410; see also maqta kham. Kharif, K i n g of Wadai (1678-81), 208, 209. Khartoum, 61, 69, 74, 205, 230, 242 n., 263, 3'7> 318» 321, 37'» 375» 3 8 i > 383» 389, 392K h a r u t (Harut), king of W a d a i (165578), 64 n., 208.

K h a r u t es-Sarhir, king of Wadai ( 1 7 0 7 47). >47» i6 4> "7°. 210. Kheir-Wajid (Kherwajid), 169, 209. K h e r Greb (Grib), maqdum, amin, 319 & n., 383. K h e r u a , near K u k a , 17 & n., 124. Khorefin, king of W a d a i : see Yusef. khoshem el-kelam, 173, 174, 336, 410. K h o z z a m ( K h u z a m ) , A r a b tribe in Wadai, 38, 84, 85, 101, 158, 160, 162, 163. K i b e t , tribe in Wadai, 105, 138, 141, 155» '5 6 » l 6 6 > I 6 9» '7 389, 411; see also Isa; Tom.

kurtu: see sibyan.

Kuru (Sabul Kuru), father of Suleman Solon, 277, 278, 279, 348» 355Kusseri, battle of, 139, 222, 406. Kuti, Dar-Kuti, 59, 81, 82 & n., 83.

1 0 1 , 137, 139, 140, 1 4 1 , 143, 202, 397. 335» 4 " Kya, wadi, part of Bahr es-Salamat, 138, Korobat, Arab tribe in Wadai and 244. Darfur, 161, 352, 383, 384, 385, 389. Korongo, sister of Abu'l-Qasim, 287. LAG 1 A (Ligia), ridge in Wadai, 100, 117. kororobshi tobe, 20, 127, 411. Kosber,firstDaju king of Darfur, 274 & n. Lamino, 10 & n., 124, 373. languages, 15,81,82, 104, 141, 148, 149, Kotoki, Kotoko: see Makari. 150, 1 5 1 , 152, 155, 163, 165-6, 168, kreb, grass with edible seeds, 40, 143, 199. 174» 269, 347, 355, 388, 393, 394; see Kreda (Karda, Qarda), Tubu in Wadai, also Arabic; Bora Mabang; Tar Lisi. 30, 154, 164. el-Kua, wadi (wadi Kobe), 251, 257, laqbi, 65, 4 1 1 . 260, 267.

Kubanda: see Bahr Kuta. Kube, Zoghawa centre, 157, 163, 287 & n., 292 & n., 3 1 3 , 325, 349, 401. Kubu, tribe in western Darfur, 157, 166, 168, 174.

Kudugus, region in Wadai, 100, 159,

Last, Sokoto Caliphate, 9 n., 16 n., 28 n. latif sperta prayer, 379-80 & n.

leather and leather goods, 30, 38, 47,

68, 85-6, 89, 92, 96, 145, 186, 194, 195-6, 198, 200, 202, 229, 248, 2 6 1 , I0 279» 3 > 328, 336, 339» 354» 385»

388, 402; see also tanning. Lebeuf, Annie M. D., Populations, Kufra, 120 n., 203. '49 n-» 347 n-> 4° 6 Kuka, capital of Bornu, vii, viii, 3-22, Lebeuf, J. P., "Site", 63 n. 23» 24» 3 2 » 48, 52» '23. 200, 203, 223 n., Le Chatelier, A., VIslam, 62 n. 226, 257, 270, 385 & n., 4 1 4 . lemons, 360. Kuka, Dar-Kuka, tribe and region in leopards, 20, 141, 144, 387. Wadai, 27, 31, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, leprosy, 64, 78, 283, 305. 138, 140, 1 4 1 , 153, 154 & n., 155, Lewis, B., "Race and colour", 171 n. 160, 169.

160, 162, 166, 168, 169, 170, 1 7 1 , 176,

lia koa, 336-7.

199» 316. liban: see luban. kulkul, acacia, 38, 44, 73, 187; wadi on libbe (libs): see armoured horsemen and Wadai-Darfur border, 239. horses. Kumm, Karl, From Hausaland, x & n., Likore, tributary of Batha, 97, 98, 100, 82 n. USKuni, son of Ahmed Bokkor, 282, 285, LIONS, 20, 35-6, 38, 1 0 1 , 108, 120, 1 4 1 , '43-4» '99» 249, 288, 3 9 1 . 333 & n literacy, 92-3 & n., 172, 282, 289. kuningawi: see Ibrahim uled Romed. kunjar, hooked staff, 339, 344, 363 & n. litham, 33, 262, 327, 328, 329, 330, 3 3 1 , 337» 339» 342, 343» 348 & n., 370, 371. Kunjara, Fur section, 276, 331, 348-9; Livingstone, David, 270 n. Abu Kunjara, 331, 339. Kunyunga (Konyunga), Fur section, lizards, 116, 144, 199. Lobbede, wadi in Wadai, 147, 149, 150, 229 n., 324, 4 1 1 . 210, 2 1 1 , 232. Kuri cattle, 4, 162, 411. locusts, 126, 378. Kuringa, Fur section, 336. Kuroma (Rifa'a), last Daju ruler of Logoloma (Sogoloma), Jellaba village, 259» 270, 376. Darfur, 275, 348. kurna, thorny tree, 25, 26, 27, 30, 95, Logon, 5 n., 26, 27, 47, 124, 126, 262 n.; river, 25, 140, 222. IOI, 1 1 8 , 143, 3 6 1 .

Index

432

Loqman, interpreter, 336. luban, 29, 143, 182, 202, 238, 390, 410, 411.

Lukas, J., "LinguisticResearch", 166n.; "Sprache der Mimi", 148 n.; Study,

Mali, 315. Mangan, Nachtigal's southernmost point, 104, 108, i i o - n , 138, 146, 156, 160, 1 6 6 , 1 6 9 , 1 7 1 .

luluk and toluk, 173 & n., 176, 178, 180, 184, 3 2 5 n.

trumjak, headman, 90, 103, 156, 187, igo. mansura, royal drum, 286, 300 & n., 340. Mao, 14, 164. maqdum, 305, 306, 309, 310, 311, 312 n.,

MABA, Dar-Maba, 74-5, 89, 116, 121, 145-6» '5°. «52» '53. '54» «56. '62,

410, 411, 412; see also Said. maqta kham, maqta tromba, 55,84, 125, 128,

412.

326, 332,

163,

165 N.,

166-7,

171,

172,

187,

197, 199, 225, 226, 411; see also Bora Mabang. Macguire, N. C. O. with Vogel, 134 n. Macleod, Olive, Chiefs, 53 n. MacMichael, Sir Harold, 326 n., History, 206 n., 346 n., 405, 407; "Note", 280 n.; Tribes, 331 n. Madaba, tribe in Wadai, 63, 148, 150, 158, 1 6 5 , 1 6 7 , 1 6 9 , 1 7 1 , 1 7 2 , 2 1 5 , 2 1 7 .

Madala, tribe in Wadai, 63, 148, 165 & n., 1 6 7 , 1 6 9 , 1 7 1 , 1 7 2 , 180, MafTate, Makari town, 25, 26, 27. Mahamid, Arab tribe in Wadai Darfur, 84, 85, 91, 123, 125, 128,

158, 213.

365,

366, 369,

383,

2 0 1 , 202, 203, 204, 2 3 4 , 2 5 3 , 2 5 4 , 359» 3 7 2 , 373» 380, 3 8 4 , 388, 4 1 0 .

Mararit (Abii, Abu Sharib), tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 1 4 4 , 1 4 7 - 8 , 14g, 150, 1 5 1 , 1 5 7 , 1 5 8 , 1 6 1 , 1 6 6 , 169, 1 7 0 , 1 7 1 , 1 8 7 , 199, 2 1 7 , 225, 245, 279, 325, 355, 401.

168, 223,

Marfa (Marpa), tribe in Wadai, go, 9 2 , 9 4 , 104, 1 1 7 , 1 1 8 , 1 5 1 - 2 , 1 5 6 , 1 6 6 , 168, 1 6 9 , 1 7 0 , 1 7 1 , 199.

Maria Theresa dollars, 5 & n., 55, 125, 1 3 5 , 184 n., 2 0 1 , 202, 203, 2 5 2 , 2 5 3 , 254, 3 2 4 n . , 4 1 4 - 1 5 .

and 148,

158, 160, 1 6 1 , 162, 182, 183, 203, 2 0 7 , 2 3 4 , 242, 2 4 3 , 248, 286, 302, 3 5 1 ,

352 n. Mahariya (Mahariye), Arab tribe in Darfur, 148, 158, 161, 174, 217, 313, 350, 3 5 2 & n. Mahdia, 3 9 6 - 9 , 4 0 1 . Mahmud, ancestor of Mahamid, 161, 352mahmudi, cloth, 7, 406, 411. mai, 26, 27 & n., 4 1 1 . makhet, fruit-tree, 44, 60, 104, 240, 250 & n., 3 6 1 , 3 7 7 , 380, 3 9 2 . Makari, Dar Makari (Kotoko), 15, 17, 18, 2 5 , 26, 2 7 , 3 1 , 6 7 , 7 3 , 82, 1 7 1 , 1 9 5 , 260, 4 1 2 .

333,

128,

makruh, 116, 199. mala, 20 & n., 412. Malanga, tribe in Wadai, 39, 63, 89, 90, 1 4 7 , 148, 1 4 9 , 150, 1 5 8 , 165 & n., 1 6 7 , 169, 1 7 1 , 1 7 2 , 180, 2 1 2 , 2 1 7 , 2 1 8 , 308, 3 1 0 , 3 1 1 , 3 1 2 , 386, 4 1 7 .

Maliya (Ma'aliya), Arab tribe in Darfur, 308, 3 1 0 , 3 1 1 , 3 1 2 , 350, 386.

Manawashi, Bornu colony in Darfur, 8 1 , 242 n., 2 5 2 , 293 & n., 322, 3 5 3 , 396-

markets, 26, 31-2, 51, 55, 66, i t i , 116, 119,

125,

203-4,

234,

242,

247,

253-4» 259» 380, 388.

Marra range: see Jebel Marra. marriage ceremonies, 84-6, 192. Marte, 24, 27 n. Martin, B. A., "Five Letters", 4 n. Mashek, village group in Wadai, 42, 167.

masjid, 90, 92, 94, 95, 96, 100, 102, 103, 105, 1 1 7 , 1 1 8 , 4 1 2 .

Masmaje, tribe in Wadai, 153, 154, 166, 168, 1 6 9 , 1 7 0 , 1 7 1 , 1 7 6 , 206 n. Massabat, tribe in Darfur and Kordofan, 2 6 5 n., 2 7 8 , 2 7 9 , 280, 282, 2 8 4 , 288, 294» 325» 328 & n-> 33' n., 354-5Massalit, tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 53» '49» '5»-2, '53. l 6 o > '62, 166, 168, 239

170,

171,

182,

199,

233,

237,

& n., 2 4 1 , 243, 245, 2 6 7 , 2 7 8 , 279» 3'°» 325» 356, 398» 400-1, 411; -Ambus, 267, 356 & n.; el-Batha, 41, '50, 153» 356; el-Haush, 150, 153, 178, 356; et-Tirje, 267; Zirban, 278. Massenya, 47 n., 52, 68, 124, 214. Matlamba (Denba), tribe in Wadai, 150, 1 6 5 & n., 169, 2 2 5 . mawlid, 12, 412. Mecca, 43 n., 126 n., 175, 190, 197,

Index 209, 220 & n., 236, 288, 3 1 7 , 334 n., 416. medical advice and treatment, 7-8, 48, 54. 57-8» 64, 68-9, 74, 75, 77, 78, 1 2 1 , 122, 130, 255, 363, 369-70. Medina, 175, 398. medresa, school, 280. mehari, riding camel, 145. meiram, 127, 177, 179, 184, 207, 293, 412. Mejabra, 8 n., 45, 50, 1 2 0 , 1 2 2 , 123, 201, 202, 235, 404, 412. Mejanin, Arab tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 161, 350. el-Mekki, Hajj, Nachtigal's host, 382,389. melik (pi. muluk), 109, n o , i n , 1 1 3 , 1 1 7 , 146, 148, 152, 156, 174, 181, 187, 189, 240, 299 n., 302 n., 305, 306, 308, 310, 3 1 2 & n., 319, 325 n., 330, 333. 335» 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 356, 357, 367, 368, 378, 383, 388, 389, 392> 405, 4 > a - i 3 ; of ^ korayat, 293, 294 n., 304, 335, 4 1 2 ; of the korkoa, 306, 310, 319, 3 3 3 ; saringa, 312, 337. merissa, 60, 62, 64, 65, 76, 8 1 , 91, 1 2 1 , 142, 155, 163, 172, 1 8 1 , 189, 190, 195, 200, 235, 242, 2 7 1 , 289, 3 0 1 , 337 338, 364, 368, 407, 413. Metemma, market centre, 376 & n. Mgharba (Meghariba), Arabs, 14, 354 & n. Middogo (Modogo), tribe in Wadai, «54, ' 5 5 , '66, 168. Midob, in northeast Darfur, 303, 305, 306, 333, 356-7. Milbis, sultan of Tama, 208. milk, 39, 125, 145, 163, 172 & n., 199, 2 1 1 & n., 234, 242, 388. millek, 175, 177, 182, 188, 189. Mimi (Mututu), tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 143, 148, 150, 1 5 1 , 157, 158, 161, 163, 166, 168, 169, 170, 1 7 1 , 180, 2 ' 7 , 330, 356. Missiriya (Misriya), Arab tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 37, 39, 158, 159, 162,

433

Monjobok, wadi, 149,150, 157, 210, 2 3 1 . monkeys, 120 & n., 144. Monteil, P., 11 n.; St. Louis ä Tripoli, 6 n. Morocco, 3 1 5 , 3 1 7 n., 354; (Marrakesh), 70. mosques and praving-places, 27, 63 & n., 90, 92, 109, 127, 173, 174, 185, 208, 2 1 7 , 245, 260, 280, 314, 328, 366, 369. Moyo, tribe in Wadai, 1 1 7 , 1 1 8 , 152,166. Mubi, tribe in Wadai, 152-3, 155, 160, 166, 169, 1 7 1 , 185. mudd, 181 & n., 407, 413. mudir, mudirate, 242 n., 320, 324, 3 7 1 , 382, 4«3muhajirin, 92, 94, 95, 96, 102, 105, 1 1 5 , 1 1 7 , 186, 2 5 1 , 254, 293 n., 4 1 1 , 4 1 3 . Muhammad the Prophet, 268 n., 408, 4 ' 3 , 4'5Muhammad, faqih, 269, 368. Muhammad, khabir, 257, 258, 261, 262, 263 & n., 264, 329, 3 4 1 , 371, 375, 376. Muhammad, tintelak, 158, 224-5, 226. Muhammad Ali, king of Wadai (185874), x> »5. ' 8 , 19, 20 & n., 22, 23, 33, 35, 36, 37, 40, 4'» 43 & n-> 44, 45-50, 5 ' - 5 , 57, 62, 64, 66, 67, 68, 7 1 , 75, 76, 78, 80, 8 1 , 82-4, 85, 86, 87, 88, 99, 103, 109, 1 2 1 , 123, 124, 128, 130-2, 137, 138, 145, 175, 176, 183, 188, 193, 200, 202, 226, 229, 2 3 1 , 236, 239, 245, 248, 3 1 5 , 319, 370, 3 7 1 , 372. Muhammad Daura (Harut), king of Darfur (1722-32), 281 & n., 282-3, 284, 287. Muhammad el-Amin el-Kanemi, shaykh of Bornu, 16 & n., 223, 385 n. Muhammad el-Amri, Hajj, merchant, 8 & n., 19, 2 1 . Muhammad el-Bulalawi (el-Hilali), 242 n-, 3 ' 6 , 3 ' 7 & n-> 37«, 383 Muhammad el-Fadl, king of Darfur (1799-1839), 136 n., 213, 219, 220 & n., 260 n., 272, 273, 290, 296, 298 & n., 299-305, 307-8, 314, 3 1 5 n., 328, 3 ' ° , 359333, 338, 348, 3 5 ' , 353, 399, 4'2el-Missri, shaykh, 3 1 3 . Muhammad el-Hasin, king of Darfur miihqal, 12, 413. (i839-73), >*, *vi, 35, 70, 7 1 , 225, momo, 53, 54, 57, 66, 7 1 , 75, 76, 77, 86, 245, 254, 256, 260 & n., 261, 272, 273, 100, 127, 177, 184, 201, 413. 303, 304, 305, 30&-7. 308-9, 3 1 0 , Momodu Lamine, 61 n., 399 n. 3 1 1 , 3 1 2 , 3 1 3 - 1 4 & n., 3 1 5 , 316, 3 1 8 , Mondo, capital of Kanem, 163, 164, 319 & n., 320, 329, 333, 338, 3 4 1 , 165 n., 212 & n., 347. 343 n -, 347, 365, 367. 372, 409-

434

Index

Muhammad el-Komami, 10, 13. Muhammad el-Qatruni, Nachtigal's servant, 3 & n. Muhammad el-Tounsy (Tunisi), xv, '3^~7> '93; Darfour, xv n., 136 n., 233 n., 260 n., 262 n., 2go n., 291 n., 292 n., 293 n., 294 n., 296 n., 299 n., 300 n., 301 n., 303 n., 326 n., 348 n., 358 n., 406, 407, 408, 410, 412; Ouaday, 91 n., 125 n., 134 n., 136 n., 137, 172 n., 174 n., 187 n., 193 n., 198 n., 206 n., 211 n., 212 n., 214 n., 237 n., 238 n., 285 n., 286 n., 301 n., 404, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 415. Muhammad en-Nur, merchant, 371, 389, 39°. 392» 393Muhammad en-Nur, sultan of T a m a , 222. Muhammad esh-Sherif, son of Salih Derret, 212, 214, 278, 304 & n. Muhammad et-Titiwi, 11 & n., 19. Muhammad Kurra, abu shaykh, 136 n., 294 & n., 295, 296 & n., 298-301, 328, 329 & n., 351. Muhammad Sherif, king of Wadai (1835-58), 43 n., 49, 50, 57, 62-3, 84, >32-3» «57-8. 163, 193, 214, 219, 220, 221-5, 230, 235, 245, 304, 315. Muhammad Tirab, king of Darfur (•752-85), 273, 278, 282, 286-g, 290, 292 & n., 293, 294 & n., 298 n., 299, 328, 333. Muhammadu, Nachtigal's servant, 3 n., 127. Muhammad Zommit, merchant, 129-30, 135. 263. Mundenga (?Mundunga), 304, 336. Munzinger, W., 134 & n. muqauwi, Darfur cheer-leaders, 339, 342, 4'3Murabids, 126, 128, 171, 413. Murminga (?Murginga), Fur section, 324 & n. Murray, A., Bruce, 287 n. Murzuq, vii, viii, 3 n., 6, 8 & n., 398 n. Musa, king of Darfur (1637-82), 279, 280, 281, 328, 330, 331, 348. Musa Angreb, son of Muhammad Daura, 282, 283, 403. Musellim, governor of Kordofan, 265 n., 301 & n. Musgo, 25.

NABAQ, thorny tree, 27, 101, 231, 232, 240, 247, 251, 255, 277, 361, 377. nabaq el-fil (elephant nabaq), 27, 104, 114, 143, 360. nal, grass, 29, 415. al-Naqar U . " T a k r u r " , 233 n. Nasara, 41, 413. nas el-khala, 169 & n. nasfira'on, 346 & n. natron, 15, 39, 88, 122, 250, 354, 413. Nawaiba (Nawaibe), A r a b tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 94, 116, 148, 158, 161, 207, 248, 267, 346, 350, 352. Neri: see prison. New Year festival, 191. Ngala, 15, 17, 25 & n., 27. Ngijem (Ngijim) , Bulala remnant, 34» 164 n. Ngornu, Bornu town, 14, 23. Niamniam: see Banda. Nicholson, R . A., Literary history, 352 n. Nife (Nupe), xvii, 12, 20, 354, 413, 416. Niger river, xv, 354, 385. Nimro, 50, 57, 59, 61 & n., 62, 64, 66, 68, 160, 171, 185, 203, 215, 234, 398, 414. Nokat, mountain, 209, 280, 281, 353, 355nokena, 9, 13 n., 413. Norca (Nawarma), Daza tribe, 87, 164. Nubia, 353. nuhas: see drums. en-Nur, general of Zubayr, 246 & n., 321. Nuren, son of Muhammad el-Fadl, 307. nurti (ngurti), age group, 188, 189, i g i . Nyere, capital of Tama, 157, 208, 214, 225, 400.

EL-OBEID, ix, 245, 358, 382, 3 9 1 , 393.

O'Fahey, R . S., x i ; and Hasan, 149 n. oil palm, 141, 361. Olo, Kajakse village, 102, 103, 104, 105, 112, 113, 155 n. Omar Lele, king of Darfur (1732-9), 210, 279 n., 283-5, 292, 328 n., 334. O m m et-Timan, part of Bahr es-Salamat, 138, 244. omm (el-) kittirkoa, iya kuri, 329, 337. O m m (Umm) Meshana, trading centre, 353. 360, 374. 381, 382-3, 384, 385, 386, 387, 389. 393-

Index omm somingdoqola, 329, 337. Orgod, Darfur village, 295, 378, 379. Oro (Aura), Mararit section, 166, 168, 244. 279. 325. 355orondulung, 241, 262 n., 287, 305, 327, 329-30 & n., 339, 414. one baya, women's entrance, 46, 121, 260 & n., 332, 337, 341; one de, men's entrance, 46, a6o & n., 265, 332, 335. 337. 34'• oshr, tithe, 91, 181, 358, 417. oshar, shrub, 16, 32, 73, 143, 257, 361, 377» 379» 382, 393O'Shaughnessy, Spirit, 269 n. ostriches, 143, 358, 372-3; eggs, 46, 47, 123, 182, 185; feathers, 4, 46, 47, 86, 202, 203, 254, 343, 354, 372-3, 377, 381, 383. 384» 387. 388, 394; feather standards {risk, risha, neffada), 128, '73. 291, 307» 337> 343» 414Otman uled el-Fadl, Nachtigal's guide, 18, 19, 20, 21 & n., 23, 24, 29, 30, 32, 33» 35. 36, 39» 40» 4'» 42» 43. 45» 54» 56» 76, 89, 120, 122.

435

asha, 62, 92, 409; doher, 310, 339, 406. prices, 4-5 & n., 7 & n., i n , 204, 252, 254, 380. Prietze, Dr R., xvii. prison in Jebel Marra, 42, 283, 285, 293 & n., 296, 299, 301, 303, 304. (Kabkabiya), region in Darfur, 206, 247, 249, 250, 254, 281, 283 n., 291, 353. qafla, gum-bearing tree, 380, 382, 390. Qairawan, 45, 50, 56, 70, 120, 123, 201, 202. qarad, acacia, 15, 143, 292, 360, 380, 414. qarrasa, species of ant, 378. Qatrun, 3 n. Qirnr (Gimr), tribe in Wadai and Darfur, 149, 157, 162, 163, 166, 168, 170, 198, 205, 240, 244, 245, 280, 281, 287, 352, 356 & n., 398, 400-1. Qoran: see Daza. Qoreish, Arab tribe, 348. quinine, 7, n n., 109. Quran, 65, 78, 92, 93 n., 94, 173, 179, 189, 191, 195 & n., 210, 217, 237, 269 n., 272 n., 283, 285-6 & n., 306, 309» 3'7. 338, 343» 4'5QABQABIYA

142, 153, 155, 366-7, 367-8, 409. Palmer, H. R., Sudanese memoirs, 174 n., R A B I H F A D L A L L A H , 6 n . , 11 n . , 1 7 n . , 207 n., 208 n. 318 n., 397, 399, 400. paper as a medium of exchange, 28 & n., 3 1 - 2 , 38, 40, 95, too, 104, h i , Radama, son of Salih Derret, 212, 214, 217, 220. 201, 242, 254. rahat (pi. ruhut), 40, 141, 209, 290, 313, Patterson, S. R., Stories, 274 n. 380, 415; see also Tendelti. Perron, el-Tounsy's translator, 136 n., 212 n., 262 n., 291 n., 303 n., 358 n. Rahma, abu shaykh, 310, 329. Petermann and Hassenstein's map of Rahma, melik, 335. Darfur, 264. Rakal (Ereqa), ancestor of Ereqat, 161, Petermanns Mittheilungen, xv, xvi n., 6 n., 35'10 n., 71 n., 155 n., 205 n., 264 n., Rakkana (Rakanna), village in Wadai, 358 n., 371 n. 2 1 1 , 233. Pfund, J . F., 361 n., 382 n. Ramadan, n , 12, 13, 109, 123, 124, phogu {ambaj), 15, 26, 95, 99, 403. 126, 172, 190, 280, 409, 414. pilgrimage, pilgrims, 19, 23, 29, 39, 41, Raqib, sultan of Wadai, 216, 217, 218. 43 n., 61 n., 153, 190, 206 n., 209, Rezeqat (Rizegat), Dar-Rezeqat, 148, 220, 230, 233, 288, 316, 317 n., 364, 242 & n., 267, 284, 288, 289, 290, 376, 398, 399» 4 ° i , 408, 409293, 302 & n., 308-13, 319, 320, 321, population of Abeshr, 66; of Bornu, 349» 350, 352 & n., 353, 357, 359, 137; of Darfur, 137, 358 & n.; of 362, 371, 381, 386. Wadai, 137-8. rhinoceroses, 38, 58-9, 81, 98, 104, 108, porcupines, 141. 119, 141, 144, 388. prayer, 172, 175, 176, 186, 187, 188, rice, 38, 40, 142, 181, 198, 204, 359, 206 n., 236, 280, 303, 379 & n.; 37°James, 5 n., 131 n. asser, assr, asr, 310, 3 1 1 , 339, 404; Richardson, PAGAN RELIGION,

Index

436

Rifa'a, son of Ahmed el-Maqur, 275, 348. rijel (pi. rijul), 25, 108. Ril, capital of Muhammad Tirab, 288, 290.

rish, risha: see ostrich, rock formations and inscriptions, 380-1, 387, 4 ' 4 -

Rohlfs, Gerhard, 3 n., 6 & n., 10 n., 2 0 5 n. Ro-Kuri, region in Marra range, 26g, 2 7 6 , 326» 3 5 3 . 4 «4-

rosary, 125 & n., 175, 379 n. Rossi, Luigi, 6 & n., 129, 135. Rotberg, R., Christian Missionaries, 270 n. roll, 5 & n., 4 1 4 - 1 5 .

Ro-Toke, hot spring, 266 & n. Runga, Dar-Runga, x, 59, 80, 81, 82, 8 3 , 8 7 , 88, 9 4 , 9 9 , 103, 104, 109, I N , «37. >38, 1 3 9 . ' 4 0 . > 4 ' . ' 4 3 . 1 5 7 N-. 1 6 3 , 1 6 6 , 1 7 1 , 1 7 5 , 202, 3 9 7 , 4 1 6 , 4 1 7 .

rutrut, tree, 104, 114, 143.

1 9 4 , 280, 4 0 1 .

Schultze, A . , Sultanate, 11 n., 17 n., 2 2 3 n. Schweinfurth, Dr Georg, xv, 56 & n., 8 2 & n., 140. scorpions, 144, 378. sedasi, 189, 197, 373, 414, 415. Seif ed-Din, son of King Hasin, 71, 305, 306.

Seif en-Nasr, 215, 216, 225. Selten, region west of Lake Iro, 157. Sennar, 61 & n., 72, 74, 122, 206 & n., 2 1 6 n., 2 8 4 & n., 292 n., 294, 3 5 3 , 3 5 4 , 3 8 1 , 398.

serir, 106 & n., 112. Shale, Mararit section, 166, 168, 243, 355-

Shari river, xv, xvi, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 3«. 5 9 . 8 2 , 8 3 , 98, 138, 1 3 9 , 140, 1 5 4 , 160, 1 6 2 , 1 6 3 , 2 2 2 , 2 2 3 , 2 4 4 , 4 0 4 .

shash, 369 & n.

SAAD EN-NUR, somingdoqola, 3 1 2 &

n.,

335-

sabaha (sahaba), tree, 92, 95, 238, 361. Sabun (Abd el-Kerim), king of Wadai ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 3 ) , 5 0 & n . , 6 3 n . , 91 n . , 136 n., 212, 2 1 3 - 1 4 & n., 215, 218, 220, 3 0 4 n.

sadaqah, 13, 57, 236, 338, 415. saddles, 28, 67-8, 130, 200, 268, 335, 3 3 6 & n., 3 6 1 . Said, maqdwm, 301, 302 & n., 304. Salah, Arabian prophet, 272 & n. Salamat, A r a b tribe in Wadai, 38, 39, 4 ° . 9 5 . 9 6 , 98, 9 9 , 1 5 6 , 1 5 9 , 160, 1 6 2 , 1 8 1 , 183, 4 1 6 .

Salemma, faqih, 283 & n.. 293 & n., 306.

Salih Derret, king of Wadai

schools, 90, 92-3 & n., 186, 188, 189,

(1795-

1803), 2 1 2 - 1 3 , 2 1 5 n., 2 9 1 , 304 n.

Salim, Hajj, merchant, 45, 50, 55, 56, 6 7 , 7 9 , 120, 1 2 3 , 2 0 1 , 202.

salt, 26, 38, 95, 96, 101, 106, 109, i n , 1 1 3 , 118, 182, 249, 359.

sandalwood (dufr), t i t , 234, 242, 364. Santandrea, S., Tribal history, 319 n. Sanusiya, 12,43-4 & n., 61 n., 120 & n., 398, 4 0 1 .

Sara, Pagan tribe in Bagirmi, 141. Sara, sister of K i n g Ali, 75, 127. stffal, acacia, 143, 360.

shawls, 125, 190, 196-7, 248, 256, 262

& n., 3 2 7 , 3 3 2 , 3 3 5 , 3 4 3 , 3 7 3 . sheep, 11, 55, 64 & n., 144, 145, 247. Shems ed-Din, Darfur envoy in Abeshr, 1 2 3 , 230, 2 3 2 , 2 3 3 , 2 3 6 , 2 4 1 , 252. 253. 256, 257, 372, 376.

251,

Shendi, 158, 205, 317, 381. Sheqqa (Shekka), Rezeqat village, 242, 3 1 1 , 3 1 2 , 320, 322.

shtrif, 7, 41, 50, 55, 56, 123, 133, 134, >97. 3 ' 5 . 3 9 9 . 4>5-

Sherif ed-Din, eunuch, 126 & n. sherkanin (sherkaniya), 383; see also siggedi. shertaya (pi. sherati), 241, 244, 245, 246, 269, 293, 3 2 4 - 5 , 326, 3 3 1 , 406, 4 1 5 , 417.

Shinqiti, 23, 70, 415. shirim, Suleman Solon's

shield,

278,

2 7 9 . 337-

Shitati, 142, 165. Shoba, capital of Muhammad Tirab, 2 8 7 , 289 & n., 2 9 2 . shukotma, Bagirmi princess, 52. Shuqayr, Na'um, Tarikh, 274 n., 312 n., 3 1 5 n., 3 1 9 n., 3 4 3 n. Shuwa, 5 n., 23, 26, 27, 29, 144, 159, 3 9 9 . 4 ' 5 . 4»6-

sibyan (sing, sabi; kurtu), age group, 188, 1 8 9 , 190, 1 9 1 .

siesa, 330, 416. siggedi, 29, NO, 185, 204, 261, 415.

Index sini, 84, 125, 234, 240, 416. siwak, shrub, 29, 60, 143, 198, 232, 381. Slatin, R., 229 n., 238 n., 397 & n.; Fire and Sword, 274 n., 301 n., 316 n., 3 1 7 n., 397 n., 398 n., 409. slaves, slavery, viii, 4, 6 n., 7, 19, 43 n., 46, 5 2 , 62, 64, 66, 67, 7 1 , 78, 85, 86, 9 1 , n o , h i , 1 2 3 , 124, 1 2 5 n., 128, 148 N., 1 5 2 , 154, 1 5 5 , 1 5 8 , 159, 1 7 5 , 176, 177, 178, 180, 1 8 1 , 1 8 2 , 183, 184 & N., 187, 192, 197, 2 1 2 & N., 2 1 4 n., 2 1 6 & n., 2 1 7 , 2 1 8 , 220, 223 n., 226, 2 3 1 , 236, 243, 247, 248, 253, 254, 256, 262, 265, 2 8 1 , 285, 287, 290, 294 & n., 296 n., 306, 307, 308, 3 1 0 , 326, 330, 3 3 2 , 3 3 3 , 3 3 4 n., 3 3 5 ,

337, 338, 342» 343 & n., 347, 353, 354. 357 359, 362, 364, 365, 372, 373, 377, 384, 389, 39«, 392, 3 9 3 , 399 & N., 400, 402, 408, 409, 4 1 4 , 4 1 5 ,

437 149 & n., 150, 1 5 1 , 1 5 7 , 1 6 1 , 165, 166, 168, 169, 1 7 1 , 178, 187, 198, 199, 2 3 5 , 355.

163, 181,

Sunta, swamp, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112. sycamore (jumnuza), 109, 142, 237, 361.

TA'AISHA, Arab tribe in Darfur, 304, 3 1 8 , 350 & n., 3 5 7 , 359, 362, 3 8 1 . Ta'aliba (Talba), Arab tribe in Darfur, 245, 35 «• Taffe, village and mountain, 103, 104, 105, 106.

Tahir, bast, Nachtigal's "informant", 2 7 0 - 1 , 272, 2 7 3 , 282, 289, 3 3 1 , 340,

368, 370; faqih, 294; ibn Bokkor, grandfather of Nachtigal's "informant", 282, 289; son of Ishaqa, 296. Takrur, 233 n., 285 n., 407, 415. talha, acacia, 25, 115, 122, 143, 232,

416; slave raids, 98, 141, 182, 307; 249, 3 6 1 . settlements, 152, 165; trade, 202, Tama (Tamazan), Dar-Tama, 15, 71 242 n., 3 1 7 , 3 1 8 n., 365, 3 8 1 , 382 & n., 1 4 3 , 147, 149 & n., 1 5 1 , 157, & n., 383; see also eunuchs; tuweirat. 158, 162, 163, 166, 168, 170, 1 7 1 , smallpox, 64, 215, 219. 1 7 5 , 185, 187, 198, 208, 209, 2 1 4 , smiths (haddad), 57, 146, 163, 165 & n., 2 1 5 , 222, 224, 225, 2 3 1 , 232, 238, ' 7 1 , '79, '84, 241 N.; stdtan el240, 243, 2 9 1 , 302, 3 2 5 , 334, 349, haddadin, 175, 179, 184, 241, 331, 35«, 352, 355, 356, 397, 4 ° ° - ' 339, 408. tamarind (erdebe), 106, 119, 143, 202, snakes, 144. 237, 238, 247, 360. Sokoto, 9 n., 16, 28 n., 59 n. Tanemon, prince of Zinder, 9 & n., solo, communal hut, 186, 187. 1 2 , 222. Sominga, Fur section, 324. tanga, 127, 184. somingdoqola, somingkoe, 302 & n., 304,tanjak, 73, 188, 416. 308, 328, 329, 3 3 4 - 5 , 3 3 7 , 4*6. tanning, 360, 414. somit (somij), 197, 241. Tar-Lisi, language of the Kuka, 34, 155. Somrai, Pagans in Bagirmi, 47, 48, 83. taxation, 62, 91, 98, n o , 126, 128, 146, spiders, 378. «49, «58, 179, «80, 1 8 1 , 2 0 1 - 2 , 246, stirrups, 336 & n., 344. 285, 33«, 338 n . , 3 5 8 - 9 , 406, 407, stone figures in Darfur, 368. 409, 4 1 1 , 4 1 4 , 4 1 7 . Suakin, 145, 369. tea, 236, 408. Sudan, Republic of, x, xi, 239 n., tebeldi: see tibeldi. 279 n-> 347 n-> 356 n. Teda : see Tubu. sukko, grass, 185, 415. Tedaga, Tubu language 163, 166. Sula, Dar-Sula, 71 & n., 74, 81, 103, Teima el-Massabawi, xv, 265 & n. 1 3 8 , 142, 1 5 5 & n., 1 5 7 & n., 160, Temple, C. M., Notes, 9 n., 79 n. 166, 1 7 5 , 185, 2 1 6 , 225, 230, 2 3 1 , Tendelti, lake in el-Fasher, 256, 259 & n., 265, 292, 300, 307, 332, 338, 244, 274, 346, 359, 4°534«, 371Suleman Solon, king of Darfur (15961 6 3 7 ) , 275, 276, 278-9 & n., 280, 288, terek, cloth used as small change, 330, 337, 338, 340, 348. 253-4, 380, 388. sultans, 301 n., 325, 348, 355, 356 n. Terkama, district of Runga, 109, i n , Sungor, tribe in Wadai, 15, 145, 1 3 8 , 140.

438

Index

Theobald, A . B., Ali Dinar, 238 n., 239 n., 285 n., 302 n., 326 n., 347 n., 358 n., 386 n., 400 n., 401 n. Thorega, mountain near W a r a , 63, 174 & n., 400 n. Thousand and One Nights, 236. throwing-irons (Wur/eisen), 142 & n., 3 3 ' . 337tibeldi, tibeldiya: see baobab; Tebeldie Sidr, 290. Tibesti, vii, 8 n., 128, 136 n., 144, 164, 193 n., 402, 4 1 1 . Timbuktu, 23, 406. Tineat, district, village and wadi in Darfur, 140, 230, 244-7, 250, 362. Tinne, Fràulein A . , 8 n. tintelak, 41, 66, 76, 94, 123, 127, 158, 224, 225, 226, 416. tirje, boundary of Wadai and Darfur, 149, 238 & n., 239, 267. Tittir, tribe in W a d a i , 157, 218. tobacco, 65, 84, 99, 100, 142, 359, 361, 377, 402, 408. toluk: see luluk and toluk. T o m , kursi, 8g, 97, 100, 106, 107, 109, 112, 113, 115, 116, 117. Tombasi, 260 & n., 265, 307, 332, 338, 370, 371, 417. Tomurkiya (Tomurkiye), Fur section, 267, 349toqqiya (pl. teqaqi), 46, 55, 81, 91, 95, 98, n o , M I , 113, 125, 169, 179, 181, «95. ' 9 6 . '97. 200, 201, 204, 234, 254. 277, 287, 327, 338, 358, 359, 364. 365, 367. 376, 384, 417Torjem, A r a b tribe in W a d a i and Darfur, 160, 162, 241, 242, 244, 245, 353. 359Torra, Dar-Torra, burial place on kings of Darfur, 276, 277 n., 279, 280, 281, 283, 287, 323, 326, 338. tortoises, 144. Tojthill, J. D . , Agriculture, 229 n. d - T o u n s y : see M u h a m m a d el-Tounsy. Trimingham, J . S., History, 62 n . ; Islam, 403, 413. Tripoli, Tripolitania, 43 n., 68, 120, 128, 129, 414. Tuareg, 5 n., 68, 145, 229. Tubiana, M . , Survivances, 207 n., 241 n., 243 n., 287 n., 350 n., 400 n., 401 n., 4'5T u b u (Teda), 5 n., 13, 145, 154, 163,

164, 179, 229, 349, 398, 406, 4 1 1 - 1 2 . Tucker, A . N., and Bryan, M . A . , Non-Bantu languages, 149 n. T u m a n g , burial place of kings of Wadai, 63, 174, 213. T u m m o mountain, 13. tumtum (tundub), shrub, 30, 41, 143, 247 & n., 251, 377, 417. Tunis, vii, viii, xiii, xv; xix, 56, 64, 120 n., 136 n., 274, 289, 347 & n . ; T u n j u r settlement in K a n e m , 274,347. Tunjur, A r a b tribe, 23, 93, 158, 162, 164, 181, 205, 207 & n., 208 & n., 211, 212, 267, 272, 273, 274, 275, 279, 288, 294, 330, 346 & n., 347 & n., 348 & n. Tunsam (Tinsam), sultan of Darfur, 277, 278-9, 280, 355. Turks, Turco-Egyptians, 133 & n., 183, 246, 264, 266 & n., 322, 370, 374, 396-7, 401, 413. turqenak (pi. teraqina), 180, 182, 417. turrik, communal hut, 186, 188, 189. tuweirat, " b i r d s " , 46, 47, 49, 50, 127, 175. 177-8. 184, 404, 418. UELLE (Welle): see Bahr K u t a . ulema, 173, 182, 183, 184, 206 n., 303, 4'7U m a r , shaykh of Bornu, vii, viii, 3 n., 4. 9. IO> ' 5 . 1 6 & n-> ' 7 . '9. 21, 22, 23. 33. 4 ' . 54. 55. 82, 130, 193, 203, 220, 222, 223, 226, 270, 317 n., 406. umbrellas, 128, 173, 209, 218, 336, 343. umm bujena (bojena), 83, 102, 417. Urfilla, A r a b tribe in Tripolitania, 68. VALPREDA, Giuseppe, Nachtigal's Genoese servant, vii, 10 & n. van Vollenhoven, J., Bulletin, ix n., 186 n. Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, 186 n. vizier, 332-3, 334. 344. 37°Vogel, Eduard, x, xix, 55, 84, 130 & n., 13». »32, 133 & n-. >34 & n-> '36, 264, 266 n. W A D D A I F A L L A H , Tabaqat,

216 n.

wakil (pi. ukela), 325, 414, 417. W a m b a , Pagan god, 142. Wandala, Daza tribe, 165. Wanya, Baele tribe in Wanyanga, 137,

Index 349; Pagan tribe in southern Darfur, 357Wanyanga, region north of Wadai, 137, 349Wara, old capital of Wadai, 42, 59 & n., 6 1 , 6 2 - 3 & n., 6 8 , 8 9 , 9 1 r.., n o , 145, 146, 148, 149, 159, 167, 1 7 1 , 174, 179, 188, 206, 207-8, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 2 2 3 , 2 2 4 , 2 2 5 , 399-

169, 210, 221,

water supplies, 32, 39, 40, 41, 60, 119, 254» 3 6 0 , 3 7 8 , 3 8 5 - 6 & n . , 3 9 1 .

William, king of Prussia, vii, 22. Wir, Abd el-Qadir, abu dadinga, 287, 3 0 5 n., 3 3 4 & n. Wüstenfeld, F., Genealogische Tabellen, 352 n. YAKUB ARUS, king of Wadai: see Arus. Yame, founder of Wadai dynasty, 205, 2 0 6 & n. Yaqut, geographical lexicon, 326 n. Y a Sin s u r a , 2 8 5 - 6 & n .

Yaw (Yawa), Fitri town, 34, 36, 37. Yemen, 235, 352, 353, 409. Yoqtan (Qahtan), ancestor of Sabaeans, 352. Yusef, brother of Muhammad Ali, 5 1 & n., 7 5 , 94, 1 2 7 , 3 9 8 , 3 9 9 , 4 0 0 . Yusef (Khorefin), king of Wadai (1813— 29). ' 9 3 . 215, 2 1 6 & n. Yusef Pasha, ruler of Tripoli, 129 & n.

439

ZAMBE, 3 2 5 , 4 0 7 , 4 1 7 .

Zebeda, Arab tribe in Wadai, 38, 77, i5 8 » '59. l 6 a Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin, xvi, 64 n., 205 n. zeitun, beads, 197, 241. Zemzem, iya basi, sister of Abu'l-Qasim, 287; iya basi, sister of Muhammad el-Hasin, 2 6 1 , 263, 306, 3 1 5 - 1 6 & n . , 3 2 9 & n., 3 4 0 , 3 4 4 , 3 6 5 . Ziadiya (Ziadin), Arab tribe in Darfur, 3IO> 3'3> 350, 35'» 353. 3ÖOZiadeh, N. A., Sanusiya, 43 n. zimam, 309 & n., 336 n., 374, 417. Zinder, capital of Damagaram, 9 & n., 12, 222, 223.

zirbe-melik, 187, 325 & n. Ziyudi: see Dar-Ziyud. Zoghawa, people in northern Wadai and Darfur, 160, 163, 166, 168, 169, 1 7 0 , 1 7 1 , 1 8 2 , 2 0 7 n., 2 1 5 , 2 4 1 n., 2 4 3 , 2 5 4 , 2 6 7 , 2 7 9 & n., 2 8 1 , 2 8 6 , 2 8 7 , 2 9 2 n., 3 1 0 , 3 1 3 , 3 2 5 , 3 2 9 , 3 3 0 , 333. 346 & n., 3 4 9 & n., 3 5 3 , 3 5 5 . 357. 360, 398, 401, 4 1 5 ; see also Kube. Zommit: see Muhammad Zommit. Zubayr Rahma Mansur, 242 & n., 246 & n., 269, 3 1 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 8 & n . , 320-2, 323, 362, 374, 383, 389, 396-7, 405.

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