Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
I then went, with Mohammed “the Foolish” and another Kél-owí, to a
shoemaker who lived in the south-western quarter of the town, and I was
greatly surprised to find here Berbers as artisans; for even if the
shoemaker was an Ámghi, and not a free Amóshagh (though from his frank
and noble bearing I had reason to suspect the latter), at least he
understood scarcely a word of Háusa, and all the conversation was carried
on in Uraghíye. He and his assistants were busy in making neat sandals;
and a pair of very handsome ones, which indeed could not be surpassed,
either in neatness or in strength, by the best that are made in Kanó,
were just ready, and formed the object of a long and unsuccessful
bargaining. The following day, however, Mohammed succeeded in obtaining
them for a mithkál. My shoes formed a great object of curiosity for
these Emgédesi shoemakers, and they confessed their inability to produce
anything like them. On returning to our quarters we met several horsemen,
with whom I was obliged to enter into a longer conversation than I liked,
in the streets. I now observed that several of them were armed with the
bow and arrow instead of the spear. Almost all the horses are dressed
with the “karaúrawa” (strings of small bells attached to their heads),
which make a great noise, and sometimes create a belief that a great host
is advancing, when there are only a few of these horsemen. The horses
in general were in indifferent condition, though of tolerable size; of
course they are ill fed, in a place where grain is comparatively dear.
The rider places only his great toe in the stirrup, the rest of the foot
remaining outside.
The occurrences of the day were of so varied a nature, opening to me a
glance into an entirely new region of life, that I had ample material for
my evening’s meditation, when I lay stretched out on my mat before the
door of my dark and close room. Nor was my bodily comfort neglected, the
Sultan being so kind and attentive as to send me a very palatable dish
of “finkáso,” a sort of thick pancake made of wheat, and well buttered,
which, after the unpalatable food I had had in Tintéllust, appeared to me
the greatest luxury in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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