Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2: Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's Government — John Shaqi
Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2: Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's GovernmentRichardson, James
History
Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2: Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's Government
Richardson, James
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Richardson, James, 1806-1851
In Wadi Buddeh grows a prickly plant called karengia; and a parasite
(_griffenee_), producing a sweet but insipid berry of a red colour. A
party of five lions were pursued like so many jackals. A small caravan
of four persons, in Wadi Teffarrakad, were making use of four different
modes of progression: one was on a camel, another on a buffalo, the
third on a donkey, and the fourth used his own legs. In Wady Boghel were
the signs of a field of ghaseb having existed last year. The ground was
covered by a sickly wild melon; and in the thick foliage of the trees
the guinea-hens were cackling. Here Dr. Barth saw the first specimen of
the bauré tree, the trunk measuring twenty-six feet in circumference,
and the thick crown rising to the height of eighty feet. Here and
elsewhere wild beasts were observed. The whole country, indeed, abounds
in lions, wild boars, gazelles, ostriches, and monkeys.
On the seventh day the party reached Aghadez, which they entered about
an hour after sunset, it being the custom in this country never to enter
a town by day. Aghadez is situated on a hamadah, or lofty plateau of
sandstone and granite formation. Around, although there is no arable
soil, a good deal of herbage and wood is found in the depressions of the
plain. It is not surprising, therefore, that this much-talked-of capital
is nothing but a large village, as indeed are all the other places of
Aheer, with the exception of Asoudee. Aghadez, which is mentioned by Leo
Africanus, is said by tradition to have been founded or enlarged by
settlements from the north, consisting of a people called Arabs, but
probably Berbers, since expelled by the Tuaricks. It serves as a sort of
rendezvous between the Kailouees and the tribes to the south and west. A
peculiar language (Emghedesie) is spoken by the inhabitants in their
private intercourse; but Haussa is the idiom of trade. There are about
seven hundred inhabited houses scattered among the ruins; and of fifty
thousand people who must previously have lived within the walls, scarce
eight thousand remain.[7] The inhabitants are partly artizans, partly
merchants; but few caravans now pass on this route, and commerce with
Timbuctoo seems altogether to have ceased. The trade that exists is
entirely in provisions, principally in ghaseb, or millet, which is
imported from Damerghou. The system adopted is entirely one of
barter--the Aghadez money consisting of turkedi,[8] or dark-coloured
cotton for female clothing made in Soudan, Egyptian leather for sandals,
English calico, white shawls, cloves, pepper, pearls, &c. All these
objects are imported, the only manufactures of Aghadez being
leather-work (sandals and saddles) and coloured mats. I do not know what
materials are used in tanning. The Fezzanee gets assistance, according
to my fighi, from four trees--the graut, the ethel, the pomegranate, and
the essalan. The first and last are a species of acacia. Women and men
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