[200]The Tesabba valley of the Cortier map. It runs into the Afasas valley, which joins the Beughqot valley further down.
CHAPTER VII
TRADE AND OCCUPATIONS
The Auderas country, still almost in Tegama, is far less interesting ethnically than the north or east. The old permanent habitations in the area are less characteristic of the Tuareg; there are hardly any inscriptions or rock drawings, with the exception of the large group at T’in Wana, and a few scattered about elsewhere. Owing to the many pools and “eresan”[201] there are no deep wells. At Auderas itself there are some ruined stone-built dwellings of the later type, but a few earlier examples may be seen both there and at Abattul, a village about two miles to the N.E. in the same basin of valleys. A famous mosque was founded there by Muhammad Abd el Kerim el Baghdadi. Abattul village lies between the domed peaks of Faken[202] and Mt. Abattul, which is itself a spur of Mount Todra. Behind, and between them, a valley and rough track run north to Mount Dogam. Just south of the village are the valleys which converge from Todra and Faken on the main Auderas basin. From Auderas Mount Faken is a prominent object on the northern horizon with a rounded top and vertical black sides which look unscalable. Almost at the foot of Faken on the Abattul side is a pool in a deep gorge, usually containing water enough to swim in most of the year. The path from Auderas to Abattul is very rough, as it crosses and re-crosses several small valleys where gazelle, some wild pig, and occasionally monkeys are to be found. Abattul village lies just under a low white cliff in which there are a few caves and many smaller holes inhabited by owls and night birds. It was the first settlement in the basin and was only gradually abandoned as the country became less subject to raids and war. The inhabitants had settled in this place so that they could easily take refuge in the inaccessible crags of Mount Todra just behind their village, in time of raids. Even nowadays the folk from Auderas have to resort to the mountain from time to time, but not so often as to prevent them from living further away. The stone mosque at Abattul is one of the few in Air which is still used for prayer.[203]
The main road from Auderas to Northern Air runs over very rocky ground to a plain west of Faken, bordered by two valleys on the east and by low hills on the west side. The latter continue for some distance along the valley of Auderas until it eventually reaches the foothills of Air on the Talak plain. The different groups of hills are known by names which the Itesan sub-tribes adopted and retained.[204] The plain north of Agades is the Erarar n’Dendemu of Barth:[205] it contains El Baghdadi’s place of prayer mentioned by the traveller, lying under a small hill. Turning left here into more broken country by a small tributary the track enters the Ighaghrar valley, which descends from the Gissat and T’Sidderak hills.[206]
At the head of the basin a steep drop leads into a valley flowing north between Mount Bila to the west and Mount Dogam to the east. This drop, the descent of Inzerak, is equivalent to the ascent south of Auderas at T’inien on to the central platform of the plateau. It leads into one of the most beautiful valleys in Air, called Assada, the head of which, at right angles to its main direction, is formed by small ravines draining Mount Dogam. It runs along the eastern foot of Bila and falls into Anu Maqaran, the central basin of Air. When we came into Assada there were two or three pools near the foot of Inzerak; further up the T’ighummar tributary lay a small village of stone houses with a deep well and mosque on an alternative loop road from Auderas branching off at the place of prayer of El Baghdadi. This alternative track was the one taken by Barth in 1850; it debouches into the Tegidda valley, a tributary of the Assada from the north, at Aureran well.
I camped in Assada three times in all, twice near the foot of the descent and once a mile or so further down at the wells of Tamenzaret,[207] which are temporary and require to be dug again every year. The deep narrow valley with its sandy bed and immense trees growing in the thick vegetation on both banks was magnificent. Towering up on either side the red mountains framed, in a cleft towards the east, the cone of Dogam seated on a pedestal of black lava and basalt. Most of the Dogam massif is so rough as to be impassable. It seems to be a volcanic intrusion in the Todra group, to which it really belongs. I suspect that the basalt boulders covering the plain north and south of Auderas, and perhaps certain features of Todra itself, owe their origin to the Dogam activity. But Bila is hardly less imposing: on the Assada side it presents a wall of vivid red rock. The fine clean colours of dawn on the first morning I saw the mountains against a cold blue sky offered the most lovely spectacle I saw in all Air.
The Assada and T’ighummar valleys are inhabited by a northern section of the Kel Nugguru, who pasture their goats and camels there, and owe allegiance to Ahodu of Auderas. There are a few ruined stone houses below Tamenzaret and the remains of a mosque at the old deep well of Aureran, where the main road divides. From here one branch proceeds north past another ruined settlement to the Arwa Mellen valley and mountain, the other turns east towards the upper part of the Anu Maqaran basin. I took the latter road to T’imia. It crossed several broad valley beds flowing northwards from Dogam, notably the Bacos, where there is a village and palm grove, and the Elazzas not far from where they fall into Anu Maqaran. The road I have had occasion to mention as running from Agades by the Ara valley over the shoulder of Dogam descends from the Central massif by Bacos or Elazzas. The latter corresponds to the Ara on the other side of the Dogam pass. By these two the Todra-Dogam group is divided from Bagezan.
Near its junction with the main Anu Maqaran valley, the Elazzas is a broad bed between low rocky banks. At a certain point where it crosses a ridge of rock large quantities of water are held up in the sand. The remains of a recent village with a few date palms appear on the site. The rocks in the neighbourhood bear a few rude pictures, but the ruins, a few round pedestal foundations of loose stones some 15-20 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high, on which reed huts used to stand, are uninteresting. Bila from here has the appearance of a long flat ridge, in pleasant contrast to the isolated peaks of Aggata and Arwa in the north, or the confused mass of Bagezan to the south and south-east.