Through Timbuctu and across the great Sahara /

by A. H. W. Haywood

In all this country supplies are wonderfully plentiful and cheap. Fowls can be bought for 15 cts.; eggs cost 10 cts. for four; milk is about a halfpenny a quart; and a bullock can be bought for 20 francs. For this reason living is as inexpensive as anywhere in the world, I should think, so long as the traveller lives on local produce. Freight from the coast is so high, however, that European stores are most expensive. Between Niafounké and Timbuctu the French reckon that a loaf of bread, baked with French flour, costs them 1 franc 50 cts. The French being great eaters of bread grumble greatly at the cost of flour in those parts.

Five miles from Saraféré we had to cross a wide swamp by canoe. On the other side of this water was a fair road, coming from the west; this was the road from Niafounké to Saraféré, and this we now followed till the town was reached.

Saraféré lies on the opposite shore of the River Bara-Issa, which here is a couple of hundred yards wide. The river twists and winds around the town in a curious manner, describing a curve resembling the letter “W.” As the crow flies the distance between the outer bends of the “W” cannot be more than a couple of hundred yards, but by the river it must be fully five miles. The town itself consists of a strange collection of mud-built houses, of rather Moorish appearance. The streets are quaint, narrow alleys, winding in an aimless fashion through the place. All the houses have flat roofs, upon which the better-class citizens take the evening air.

Saraféré is called the Sister of Timbuctu, owing to the similarity existing between the two towns. The inhabitants are mostly Sonrhais, but the place is divided into quarters for Arabs, Fulanis, Bambaras, Bosos and Tuaregs, all of which races are fairly well represented. Besides all these permanent residents there is a floating population of traders from all parts of Western Soudan. Mossis from the south bring native cloths and kola nuts, chiefly the product of the big market of Wagadugu. Moors and Tuaregs bring salt and gum from the desert regions in the north. Sonrhais from Djenné take spice and native peppers to Saraféré market, while Hausas from Kano, to the east, bring beads, sham pearls and Kano leather wares. This mixture of different races, talking different languages, makes Saraféré market-place an interesting scene to the European visitor.

The Resident’s house and those of the two French merchants face the river, occupying a large space in front of the town. Here one gets a foretaste of the desert winds. Clouds of sand envelop the town during the months of March, April and May, making existence anything but pleasant while the wind is blowing. The sand permeates every nook and cranny of a house. The only thing to do is to shut all doors and windows, enduring the heat in preference to being buried in sand. The soil on the immediate banks of the river is capable of producing good rice and millet, but away from the water it is poor and desert-like. Long stretches of sand, with only here and there a few dried-up shrubs or tufts of coarse grass, characterize this rather forbidding-looking land.

The Sahara has, indeed, invaded the right bank of the Niger, not content with the havoc it has wrought along the left bank of the river. Much of the country in the “Bend” bids fair to develop into desert in the course of time unless these terrible winds can be checked. Nature opposes no obstacle to them, as the land is so flat, almost uninterruptedly from the southern slopes of the Atlas Mountains across the whole of this portion of Northern Africa. But I am rather digressing, for that part of my story belongs really to the description of the country near Timbuctu and the other side of the Niger.

There are two kinds of canoes on the Niger, the “Djenné” and the “Niger” canoe. While I was at Saraféré I had ample opportunity for watching the building of the latter kind of craft. The whole material for the canoe is produced from the dum palm. It is interesting to observe the uses the different portions of that tree can be put to in the manufacture of a canoe. As the dum palm is practically the only tree found in the country it is fortunate for the natives that it has so many varied uses.

A canoe made of this palm cannot be constructed out of one piece, as a dug-out is hewn from a single tree trunk. This is not possible, because the trunk of the dum palm is of small diameter, and several trees must be utilized to make a single canoe. Most canoes are made of six separate portions of the wood, sewn together, but of course, the number of pieces required varies with the size of the craft to be built. The first operation is roughly to hew the different parts of the frame into the required shape. The tools used are an instrument resembling a chisel and an iron-headed hammer. These tools are of native make, forged roughly by a native blacksmith, so hardly the most suitable for the work they are required to perform. However, ever, the result is not by any means bad, doing great credit to the skill of the workmen. When the portions of the body have been shaped, they are placed together, being kept in position by logs of wood propped against them. The next operation is to sew these portions together. Holes are punched with a sharp-pointed instrument through the pieces near their edges, the local rope being used to bind the parts together by threading it through these holes.

The local rope is made out of strips of the stalk of the palm leaf. These strips are plaited together until they form a kind of withy, which is exceedingly strong and durable. The holes in the frame are stopped up by taking as many turns of rope as possible through them, but of necessity there is plenty of space left between the stitches for water to leak through.

The next item is to stop these holes more effectively, for it would be impossible to remain long in the water in a canoe which leaked so badly as the unfinished article now would do. For this purpose the leaves themselves of the palm trees are utilized. These leaves are very fibrous in texture. This fibre is pounded up until it becomes a stringy, yellowish mass, quite soft and easily manipulated. Small bits of this stuff are poked into all existing crevices until no gaps are discernible. It only now remains to smooth off the rough surfaces of the canoe, and to put in seats, etc. Even the best canoes leak a great deal, but a constant supply of the fibre referred to is kept on board for the purpose of stopping the more serious leaks, and a man is frequently engaged in baling out. These canoes rarely last more than one year, but building is so simple and all materials so near to hand that there is no great difficulty in building new ones.