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
and doctrine entitles them to rank with any sect, are Malekíye, as well
as the Kél-owí.
Resigning myself to the disappointment of not being able to ascend the
tower, I persuaded my friend to take a longer walk with me round the
northern quarter of the town. But I forgot to mention that besides
Hámma, I had another companion of a very different character. This was
Zúmmuzuk, a reprobate of the worst description, and whose features bore
distinct impress of the vile and brutal passions which actuated him;
yet being a clever fellow, and (as the illegitimate son, or “dan néma,”
of an Emgédesi woman) fully master of the peculiar idiom of Ágades,
he was tolerated not only by the old chief Ánnur, who employed him as
interpreter, but even by me. How insolent the knave could be I shall soon
have occasion to mention. With this fellow, therefore, and with Hámma, I
continued my walk, passing the kófa-n-alkáli, and then, from the ruins of
the quarter Ben-Gottára, turning to the north. Here the wall of the town
is in a tolerable state of preservation, but very weak and insufficient,
though it is kept in repair, even to the pinnacles, on account of its
surrounding the palace of the Sultan. Not far from this is an open space
called Azarmádarangh, “the place of execution,” where occasionally the
head of a rebellious chieftain or a murderer is cut off by the “dóka;”
but as far as I could learn, such things happen very seldom. Even on the
north side, two gates are in a tolerable state of preservation.
Having entered the town from this side, we went to visit the quarter of
the leather-workers, which, as I stated before, seems to have formed
originally a regular ward; all this handicraft, with the exception of
saddle-work, is carried on by women, who work with great neatness. Very
beautiful provision-bags are made here, although those which I brought
back from Timbúktu are much handsomer. We saw also some fine specimens of
mats, woven of a very soft kind of grass, and dyed of various colours.
Unfortunately, I had but little with me wherewith to buy; and even if I
had been able to make purchases, the destination of our journey being so
distant, there was not much hope of carrying the things safely to Europe.
The blacksmiths’ work of Ágades is also interesting, although showy and
barbarous, and not unlike the work with which the Spaniards used to adorn
their long daggers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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