Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855Barth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
The village of Namantúgu is almost exclusively inhabited by Fúlbe, all
of whom were clad in the purest white, even the little children wearing
round their heads a large turban of white cotton strips; but this was,
perhaps, in consequence of their festival having been held the previous
day. A great deal of rain had fallen hereabouts; and cotton appeared to
be cultivated to a considerable extent.
[Sidenote: Sunday, July 10th.]
Our road, on leaving Namantúgu, led through a deep clayey soil covered
with rank vegetation, which was only now and then interrupted by a
little cultivation. A wealthy family of Fúlbe, father, mother, son, and
daughter, all mounted on horseback, and accompanied by servants and by a
numerous herd of cattle, were pursuing the same path; and their company
was rather agreeable to us, as, after a march of about five miles, we
had to cross a large sheet of water in the midst of the forest, through
which they showed us the way. It is delightful for a traveller to meet
with these nomadic settlers, after the disgust he has felt at the
degraded character of their countrymen in Wurno. We had here entered a
region full of water, the soil presenting very little inclination to
afford it the means of flowing off. Further on also, where we passed the
site of a former dwelling-place, we had to cross several channels of
running water, and encamped at length, after a march of about seventeen
miles, in the midst of the forest, close beyond another watercourse; for
we were not aware that about two miles further on there was a far more
favourable place for encamping, viz. the site of the former town of
Tumpénga.
The site of this place we passed early the next morning. Before the time
of the rising of the Jihádi, the town had been inhabited by Fúlbe and
pagans indiscriminately, when, owing to the religious ferment caused by
that reformer, a bloody feud broke out between the Mohammedan and pagan
inhabitants. The latter were vanquished, and fled to Nába, the powerful
Gurma domain at some distance towards the south, while the former
founded the town of Dóre. Two dyeing-places bore testimony to the fact
that a certain degree of industry had formerly prevailed in this place,
which, like so many other human abodes in Christian and Mohammedan
countries, has been reduced to desolation in consequence of religious
disputes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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