[428]Who did not die 400 years, but barely 100 years, ago, in 1835.
[429]Jean is, of course, quite unjustified in dragging in the Kel Owi. His information, owing to the fact that the Kel Owi had always favoured the French expansion both during the Foureau-Lamy expedition and when Jean occupied Air, seems to be derived largely from this source, which is as prejudiced as the accounts given by all parvenus in the world when discussing history in which they have not been, but would have liked to have been, involved. A parallel unjustified assumption of historical responsibility is found in the Maket n’Ikelan story.
[430]Barth, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 467.
[431]Jean, op. cit., p. 121.
[432]I cannot agree with Jean that the first occupation of Damergu, Elakkos and Damagarim by the earlier Tuareg is at all recent (op. cit., pp. 121-2). Some of the events he records are recent, but not the earlier movements of the tribes.
CHAPTER XIV
VALEDICTORY
Here my account of the Air Tuareg must close. No one can be better aware than myself of the shortcomings and discrepancies of my story. The task would have been easier had a general survey of an unprejudiced character of the history and ethnology of North Africa existed. Where my account has wandered from the field of the Tuareg of Air, it has had to build both a general and a particular foundation for itself, and I am conscious that the result is not as satisfactory as it should be. The subjects of script and of language have scarcely been touched upon at all; they are too large and specialised matters for this volume. If ever there should come a period of leisure for me, they might be made the subject of a separate study.
I cannot conceal the pleasure that writing this account has afforded me in the course of my researches, by making the scenes which I enjoyed in Air live again before my eyes. Had the time available both in Africa and since my return been commensurate with my interest in the subject, the result would have been better. Intended originally as a book of travel, it has in places become complicated, obscure and overladen with some of the fruits of inquiry in a vast field, namely, the origin and nature of all the peoples of North Africa. I shall feel amply rewarded if another student will allow his curiosity to be sufficiently stimulated to continue the work.