Bornu

“ Formerly an independent Mahommedan sultanate it has been divided between Great Britain, Germany and France. To France has fallen a portion of northern Bornu and also Zinder (q.v.) , a tributary state to the north-west, while the south-west part is incorporated in the German colony of Cameroon. Three-fourths of Bornu proper, some 50,000 sq. m., forms part of the British protectorate of Nigeria.
Bornu is for the most part an alluvial plain, the country sloping gradually to Lake Chad, which formerly spread over a much larger area than it now occupies. ”

“ Besides that of the Tuareg Berbers, several languages are current amongst these mixed communities. The most prevalent is Kanuri, the speech of the kingdom of Bornu ; and several local names of villages, wells, and other places attest a long residence in Fezzan of the Bornu Negroes, descendants probably of the Garumantes. ”

“ The total area may be approximately set down at 56,000 square miles, with a population roughly estimated by Barth and Nachtigal at upwards of five millions. Inhabitants. The extremely mixed inhabitants of Bornu, collectively called Berauna, present a surprising diversity of colour, stature, and other physical features. The term Kanuri, current in the country for centuries, designates not a particular race, but simply the more civilised residents, in whom have been gradually merged the various ethnical elements introduced by trade, slavery, Avar, or peaceful immigra. ”

“ Having passed the former site of a little town, we soon gained the direct road, where we fell in with a motley gipsy-looking troop of those Tébu-Jétko, who, after the almost total annihilation of the commonwealth of Kánem, have immigrated into Bórnu. Those we met here were coming from Zínder. They had a few horses, oxen, and asses with them, but scarcely any luggage; and the whole attire of men, women, and children was very poor. ”

“ The scenery and produce of Bornou were exceedingly various. Mountains, valleys, plains, and deserts alternating with each other composed a prospect of striking aspect; and the population, consisting of wild soldiers, merchants, artisans, farmers, herdsmen, and shepherds, some glittering with arms, or wrapped in ample drapery, others nearly as naked as when they left the womb, appeared no less picturesque or strange. Leo’s stay in this country was short, and the persons from whom he acquired his information must have been either ignorant or credulous ”

“ Of what can be called a religion the Borneans have little; they are, to a certain extent, idolaters, and their projects are banned or blest by omens drawn from certain birds and animals, but mainly by auguries interpreted from the livers of sacrificed swine and from fowls; wherein they are no more barbarous than the ancient Romans. But the one custom, to which they all cling with a [65] tenacity born of what is to them its proved efficacy, is the taking of human heads. ”

“ Every now and then my eyes were dazzled by flashes from a diamond-shaped decoration on Abun’s war-cap. When we disembarked at noon I found that this glittering jewel was a tin trade-mark stamped in familiar letters: ‘Devoe’s Brilliant Kerosene Oil.’
For some inexplicable reason, the Borneans never breakfast before starting on any expedition; but, once started, they always seem to choose the most inopportune time for their first meal; [84] just when they have fallen fairly into the swing of paddling or poling, they must needs land and build fires for cooking rice. ”

“ The natives of Borneo are in a certain sense savages, but yet they are savages of a high order, possessed of a civilization far above what is usually implied by the term; they live together in what almost might be called coöperative communities, they practise the art of weaving, they forge rough implements of iron, they cultivate rice and esculent plants, and in all their work, such as house-building, boat-building, manufacture of cloth and weapons of warfare, they show an ambitious desire, and a skilful ability, to ornament [Pg 4] their work and add, to its usefulness, pleasure to the eye. ”

“ It can hardly have suggested itself to the minds of the Borneans as an element of purification and cleansing; to their mind water does not possess these properties. Water is good to drink when you are thirsty, and refreshing to bathe in when you are [Pg 25] hot, that is all; dirt has no horrors to the Bornean mind, and after a plunge in the river has refreshed the body, the Kayan, Dayak, Kenyah, Sibop, or whatever the tribe, will put on the same dirty waist-cloth or cotton jacket that has never known soap, and has seldom if ever been nearer the water than when on the back of its owner. ”

“ In their Manners, the people of Bornou are singularly courteous and humane. They will not pass a stranger on the road till they have stopped to salute him: the most violent of their quarrels are only contests of words; and though a part of the business of their husbandry is assigned to the women, yet, as their employment is confined to that of dropping the seed in the furrows, and of removing the weeds with a hoe, it has more of the amusement of occasional occupation, than of the harshness of continued labour. ”

“ The observations which introduced the account of Bornou, have already announced the remarkable similarity, as well with respect to climate, soil, and natural productions, as with regard to the colour, genius, religion, and political institutions of the people, that prevails between that powerful State and its sister Kingdom of Cashna.
The rains, indeed, are less violent than those of Bornou. It exclusively furnishes the Bishnah, a species of Indian corn that differs from the gamphúly, in the blended colours of red and white which distinguish its grain. ”

“ CHARLES. "Borneo is the chief of the Sunda group, is extremely fertile, producing all sorts of tropical fruits, and various spices and drugs. Much of the interior is covered by immense forests, inhabited by wild animals, and aboriginal tribes of human beings almost as wild. It is in Borneo that the largest of the monkey tribe, the ponga, equalling the human race in stature, is to be found; also the ourang-outang, or Simia Satyrus, which comes nearer to man in his looks, manners, and gait. Some writers assert that these animals light fires, at which they broil their fish and rice ”

“ Certainly Börne ought to have honoured this man, and for the very reason for which he despises him. For perhaps at no time was he more clearly worthy of all honour. Börne, by his own showing, would, like the ordinary tourist in Venice, have spent himself in vague moonlight and sunset romancings on the subject of the Bridge of Sighs, the terrors of tyranny, the blessings of liberty, and all the melody and colour—Goethe gazed at his sheep's skull. ”

“ The nearest part of it to Bornou is about ten days east-north-east. It is an immense wadey, or valley full of trees, and having many inhabitants, who are wanderers. Elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, buffaloes, and the camelopard, or giraffe, called Jimel Allah جمل الله, or God’s camel, by the Arabs, are in great numbers. The natives generally use a kind of corrupt Arabic, though one or two languages peculiar to the country are also spoken.
These people are a fine race, well made, and very active. They wear their hair, which is not woolly, long and plaited. ”

“ From Wéddan, by forced marches, they arrived in twenty days at Bornou. A desart of sand, in some places interrupted by woods, and occasionally watered with rivulets of a strong mineral taste, constitutes the general description of the country. But as he entered the kingdom of the Bornoos, the limit of which he represents as seven days distant from the capital, he passed through several poor villages of Blacks, who live upon the charity of Travellers; for though there be no regular marked road, yet the caravans always take the same rout, and pass by those villages both in going and returning. ”

“ The Fakih Wali of Bagirmeh was a distinguished poet, [214] and composed several copies of verses in praise of the Sultan. Many other learned and able men were to be found among the courtiers of Saboun.
I have already mentioned the courage which distinguishes the people of Wadaï, who surpass in valour most of the neighbouring tribes. They are far more intrepid than the people of Bornou, which is a country vaster and richer than theirs. I have often been told that the Fullans, or Fellatahs, have conquered the Bornouese nearly every time they have fought with them. ”

“ We were in the very heart of the Bornean jungle, guests, in the house of a barbarous ‘savage’ and bloodthirsty ‘head-hunter,’—but, these terms, when applied at that moment to our host, what misnomers! Could contrast be more emphatic than the perfect peacefulness of our surroundings, and the thought that a man as benignant and hospitable as Aban Avit should cherish as his highest aim in life to add every year to that cluster of human heads hanging from the rafters just above us, and gently swaying in the heat ascending from the flames? ”

“ And why if Borron, or any other French poet, wanted to connect the Holy Vessel legend which he had imagined with Arthur, should he go out of his way to invent the personages of Brons and Alain? The story as found in the Queste would surely have been a far more natural one for him. And why the insistence upon Avalon? We have plain proof that Borron did not understand the word, as he explains it by a ridiculous pun (supra, p. 78) . [142]
These difficulties are met in a large measure if we look upon [Pg 223] Bran (Brons) as the starting point of the Christian transformation of the legend. ”

“ The villagers sleep soundly till cock-crow; but the European guest, lying in the place of honour almost beneath the row of human heads which adorns the gallery, is, if unused to sleeping in a Bornean long house, apt to be wakened from time to time throughout the night by an outburst of dreadful yelpings from the dogs squabbling for the best places among the ashes, by the prolonged fit of coughing of an old man, by an old crone making up the fire, by the goats squealing and scampering over the boats beneath the house, or by some weird cry from the depths of the jungle. ”

“ There is every reason to believe that Borron knew nothing of any other Early History. His work, as we have it, is abridged and arranged. Meanwhile
(5) Queste had appeared. The author probably used the same Early History as Pseudo-Gautier. He knew the Conte du Graal, and wrote in opposition to it with a view to edification. He certainly knew nothing of Borron's poem, or he could not have failed, with his strong mystical tendencies, to dwell upon the spiritual and symbolic character of the Grail. ”

“ But, certainly among the Borneans, demonstrative affection is, I should say, an exceedingly rare trait; their lives are almost as purely individual and selfish as are the examples Nature sets before them at every turn in the jungle. ”

“ A nation possessing such a force as this amongst his own people,—who, from their situation on the frontier, were constantly exposed to the attacks both of the Felatahs and the Tuaricks, and by being more accustomed to warfare, were consequently better troops than any in the kingdom of Bornou,—it became a matter of great importance to the sheikh to conciliate by fair means, if it were practicable, and he was perfectly alive to the policy of such [174] a proceeding. The Mungowy nearly all fight on foot, while Bornou may not improperly be called an equestrian nation. ”

“ Simplicity, good-nature, and ugliness are the peculiar characteristics of the people; and although the men are not warriors, nor the women favored by nature, they are certainly a kind, inoffensive race. Angornou is the largest and most populous town of Bornou; it is situated a few miles from Lake Tchad, and contains 30,000 inhabitants. Major Denham gives a very good account of an interview with the Sultan of Bornou. ”

“ The houses in which the Borneo people live are the outcome of a life of constant apprehension of attacks from head-hunters. In union alone is strength. Surrounded by a dense jungle which affords, night and day, up to the very steps to their homes, a protecting cover for enemies, the Borneans live, as it were, in fighting trim, with their backs to a hollow square. A village of scattered houses would mean the utmost danger to those on the outskirts; consequently, houses which would ordinarily form a village have been crowded together until one roof covers them all. ”

“ Races.—The peoples of Borneo belong to a considerable variety of races, of different origin and degrees of civilization. The most important numerically are the Dyaks, the Dusuns and Muruts of the interior, the Malays, among whom must be counted such Malayan tribes as the Bajaus, Ilanuns, &c., the Bugis, who were originally immigrants from Celebes, and the Chinese. The Dutch, and to a minor extent the Arabs, are of importance on account of their political influence in Dutch Borneo, while the British communities have a similar importance in Sarawak and in British North Borneo. ”

“ Little Börne used to say: "I only don't go out because the sentry is stronger than I am." Yet when the boy, who early showed signs of a distinctly benevolent disposition, was accosted one day by two beggars, the one a Jew, the other a Christian, it was to the latter he gave all the money he had in his pocket. "Why do you not give the preference to one of your own people?" asked the tutor. "Because it is written in the Proverbs of Solomon that we are to heap coals of fire on our enemies' heads." ”

“ MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS
There is no name between the covers of the atlas which so smacks of romance and adventure as Borneo. Show me the red-blooded boy who, when he sees that magic name over the wild man's cage in the circus sideshow or over the orang-utan's cage in the zoo, does not secretly long to go adventuring in the jungles of its mysterious interior. So, because there is still in me a good deal of the boy, thank Heaven, I ordered the course of the Negros laid for Samarinda, which, if the charts were to be believed, was the principal gateway to the hinterland of Eastern Borneo. ”