René Caillié

“ I have seen the negroes tilling the field from which a crop had just been gathered in, to sow it afresh with another grain. The women were occupied in clearing away the grass, and in weeding the beautiful fields of rice with which the country is covered. The people are industrious; they do not travel, but devote themselves to the labours of the field, and I was astonished to find agriculture in such a state of advancement in the interior of Africa: their land is as carefully cultivated as ours, whether under the plough or not, according as the position of the soil permits inundation. ”

“ If the bearers are weary, they rest one end of the basket upon the branch of a tree, and support the other with their staff; thus loaded, they travel to the Kankan to sell their salt. We seated ourselves under the shades of a superb bombax to take our slender repast, consisting of boiled rice, and pistachio-nuts parched and pounded, to which they added a little palm-oil. The six free Mandingoes and I placed ourselves round the calabash containing our dinner, and each in turn took a handful of rice; the slaves and my porter ate together, and the women dined alone. ”

“ About eight in the morning, we entered a plain of black sand, in which we perceived here and there spots resembling little islands covered with herbage and mimosas. In proportion as we approached the limits of the desert, nature appeared less desolate. At eleven, we halted upon loose sand: we experienced the whole day a stifling heat, which created a dreadful thirst; as night drew on, some rice was boiled as usual for supper. About ten o’clock on the same day, we started towards the N. N. E., over a soil broken by deep ravines, on the edge of which some vegetation appeared. ”

“ I observed some very beautiful granite of a whitish-grey colour. We passed not far from a little village, where the Foulahs were tending their cattle. As we crossed the chain of mountains, I saw the poor negroes, with loads on their heads, leaping from precipice to precipice, and every moment expected to see them fall into the yawning gulphs beneath. From the depths proceeds a dull murmur, produced by the numerous springs which rise among the mountains. They fall into the plain beneath, where they form a sort of river. ”

“ What a country is this, in which it is impossible to stir a step without danger of being robbed and even murdered by one’s neighbours! We continued our course in the same direction over a hard and stony soil, and passed an ancient village in ruins, where the minaret of a mosque is still to be seen; beside it is a well at which travellers quench their thirst; one of the Trajacant Moors gave me a little of this water, which I found tepid and bad. I also observed a mausoleum, like that which we had seen the day before, and where the Musulmans again performed their devotions. ”

“ The oldest caravan conductors go first, to lead the way. A sand-hill, a rock, a difference of colour in the sand, a few tufts of herbage, are infallible marks, which enable them to recognize their situation. Though without a compass, or any instrument for observation, they possess so completely the habit of noticing the most minute things, that they never go astray, though they have no path traced out for them, and though the wind in an instant completely covers with sand and obliterates the track of the camels. ”

“ I have seen poor little girls crying and rolling on the ground, and even throwing up the milk which they had just drank; neither their cries nor their sufferings making any impression upon the cruel slave, who beat them, pinched them till they bled, and tormented them in a thousand ways, to force them to take the quantity of milk which she thought proper. If their food were heavier, such a system would have fatal consequences; but it is so far from hurting their constitutions, that they grow visibly stronger and fatter. ”

“ A most delightful country presented itself to our view. I saw many fields of cotton, which the negroes cultivate with success; indigo grows there without culture; there is but little millet in the environs of the village.
We sat down under a great tree, where travellers usually rest themselves till some one comes to offer them hospitality; on that day there was a great number of them, who took me for a Moor, because I wore the Moorish dress; but, being undeceived by my guides, who told them that I was about to become a convert to Islamism, they congratulated me upon my intention. ”

“ Here the Moors and Berbers of our little caravan went through their devotions; after a short ceremony they took a little sand from the place in which they had prostrated themselves and sprinkled it over their camels and slaves. I learned that these ruins belonged to an ancient village called Zawât, long since abandoned by its inhabitants, who had elsewhere founded another town of the same name.
The soil of the environs is barren, hard, and full of stones of various colours; a few bushes indeed are to be seen, but their foliage is parched up by the sun. ”

“ The christians are rich; they have abundance of every thing; they eat a great deal, they drink wine, and spirituous liquors; they will not acknowledge the prophet: they will go to hell; this world is their paradise. As for us, we have nothing but oxen and sheep; we eat nothing but a little sangleh and drink nothing but milk and water; but we pray to God who will reward us in heaven. Nothing is to be compared with the bliss which is there enjoyed; it is renewed every hour, every minute; you have only to wish in order to obtain in abundance whatever you desire. ”

“ To lighten the canoe all the slaves were set on shore, and the rice-grinders were sent to continue their work on the plain. At sunset the wind fell a little, and the oars might have been used during the whole of the night, but the negroes, to whom time is of no value, and who are never in a hurry to reach their destination, thought proper to wait till morning. ”

“ On the 12th, at two in the morning, still half asleep, I mounted my camel and we resumed our route northward, over a level, hard and stony soil: I saw some mimosas scattered in the plain at great distances apart, without any other sign of vegetation. About nine, we descended, through a very narrow path, into a deep ravine, surrounded by enormous blocks of granite, of a pink and various other colours, in strata of eighteen or twenty inches thick. The camels, fatigued with so bad a road, had much difficulty in descending amongst these rocks. ”

“ These good negroes came to see me every day; they sat by me and looked at me with curiosity; they were all very dirty and covered with rags, but there was great sweetness in their countenances. They were not annoying like the Mandingoes, but contented themselves with staring at me, and saying to one another: “He is a white! what a good, looking man he is!” One of them, the head of a family, made me a present of a sheep, and in the course of the day, of a large calabash of new milk, in which he had put some dégué, and which I thought delicious. ”

“ An hassane who possesses a horse, a gun, and coussabe, thinks himself the happiest of mortals. Filthiness they seem to consider as a virtue. The men swarm with vermin, of which they take no pains to rid themselves. The women are disgusting; lying always upon their couches, with their heads besmeared with butter, which, being melted by the heat, runs down their faces and their whole bodies: they exhale in consequence a perfume which to Europeans is any thing but agreeable. ”

“ This mysterious city, which has been an object of curiosity for so many ages, and of whose population, civilization, and trade with the Soudan, such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is situated in an immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation but stunted trees and shrubs, such as the mimosa ferruginea, which grows no higher than three or four feet. The city is not closed by any barrier, and may be entered on any side. Within the town are seen some of the balanitis ægyptiaca, and in the centre is a palm tree. ”

“ Whole families sometimes fight to settle their own quarrels, or even those of their ancestors. They are armed with poniards, and defend themselves very skilfully against the blows of their adversaries with large shields made of elephant’s hide. I have been assured that they are not accustomed to make slaves, but kill their prisoners without mercy.
The Bagos have no king; each village is governed by the oldest of the inhabitants, who settles their disputes, though they have, like the Landamas, a Simo, who performs the functions of chief magistrate upon important occasions. ”

“ I afterwards went to sleep under the roof of the mosque, among the Moors, who were necessitated like myself to take refuge there. As the sons of Haggi-Le-Mekke had represented to me, no stranger is here admitted into the interior of the houses, lest the women, who are not allowed to see any other men but those of their family, might be exposed to indiscreet observation: consequently travellers obtain an asylum for the night in the mosques, and the host at whose house they alight sends them their meals; they send for them at supper time, but receive them in a very dark corridor. ”

“ As commerce attracts to this spot a vast number of dealers and visiters; there is a perpetual bustle. While the trade lasts, the port is like a tumultuous fair; on one side are the camels and oxen of the caravans, driven out to graze or to the river to water; on another a flock of sheep, which a zenague is endeavouring to sell; here a caravan just arrived from the desert, with dealers besetting it and quarrelling with one another; laptots [35] fighting, and women squabbling ”

“ After proceeding six miles in this direction, we arrived at Mourat, a small village, containing five houses like those of El-Arawan, and built of sand bricks. At Mourat, the sons of Sidi-Boubacar, chief of El-Arawan, keep a school, where the children of the inhabitants of the town study the Koran. Mourat appeared to me even more gloomy than El-Arawan; the uniformity of the soil is broken only by a few plants, which are eaten by the camels, and which are buried beneath the sand, drifted by the east wind. On leaving Mourat, the traveller comes to some deep wells filled with brackish water. ”

“ I have already observed that the Moorish women have great influence over their husbands; I repeat it here, to correct an error into which M. Durand has fallen, and which he may have communicated to his readers. The husband has no authority over his wife but what a superior understanding gives him; I should even say that the Mooresses possess more influence over their husbands than our French women. They rarely wait upon them; and only for want of slaves; even then I have always seen that in this case a neighbour would lend a woman to pound the millet and make the sangleh. ”

“ Heartily cursing the inhumanity of their masters, I returned sorrowfully to our own camp under the date-trees. The Berbers keep a great number of dogs to watch their flocks, and they are so accustomed not to suffer the approach of any stranger whatsoever to the habitations of which they are left in charge, that the fear of being devoured by them serves as a wholesome restraint upon the depredations of those robbers by whom the country is so much infested. The Berbers themselves dare not approach without caution the camps of their own tribe to which they are strangers ”