| From a Sketch by Major Denham. | Engraved by E. Finden. |
A FAVORITE OF THE SERAGLIO
ACCOMPANYING A MILITARY EXPEDITION.
Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
The sultan of Bornou has five times as many attendants, and his harem is three times as numerous: he is attended, also, by men bearing trumpets (frumfrum), of hollow wood, ten and twelve feet long; with these a kind of music is constantly kept up. As this instrument is considered an appendage of royalty alone, the sheikh has no frumfrums; the keigomha, or standard-bearer, rides in front of him, carrying a very long pole, hung round, at the top, with strips of leather and silk of various colours, in imitation, probably, of the bashaw’s tigue, or tails; and two ride on each side of him called Meestrumha Dundelmah, carrying immense spears, with which they are supposed to defend their sultan in action, whose dignity would be infringed upon by defending himself; but the spears are so hung round with charms, and the bearers so abominably unwieldy, that the idea of such weapons being of any use in the hands of such warriors is absurd. Indeed the grotesque appearance of the whole of this prince’s train, with heads hung round with charms, and resembling the size and shape of a hogshead; their protruding stomachs, and wadded doublets, are ridiculous in the extreme.
The town of Kabshary, where we halted, had been nearly destroyed by the Mungowy. On attacking a place, it is the custom of the country instantly to fire it; and as they are all composed of straw huts only, the whole is shortly devoured by the flames. The unfortunate inhabitants fly quickly from the destructive element, and fall immediately into the hands of their no less merciless enemies, who surround the place: the men are quickly massacred, and the women and children lashed together, and made slaves. Rhamadan, one of the sheikh’s chiefs, a slave from Soudan, had been stationed here for the last fifteen days, and under his protection the survivors of the attack had returned, and were already rebuilding their dwellings. The huts are convenient, and, from the abundance of long straw which the overflowed grounds near the river furnished them, are better built, and withstand the rain better, than those of Kouka: they are divided on the inside by mats, which the women make with great neatness; they have all of them a door of plaited straw in a frame of wood; and some of the habitations of the principals have a wall of mats round them, leaving an inclosure, in which is sometimes a second hut for the female slaves, and the cow or goats which supply them with milk. These unfortunate people seldom think of defending their habitations, but rather give them up, and by that means gain time to escape themselves, should the attack not be made in the night, and the whole set fire to, before they have time to fly. The Kabsharians had long been in dread of a visit from the people of Munga, and, on their approach, the greater part of them had retreated to the banks of the river, to the north-west of the town, which are there extremely high; and they had made a strong post, by digging blaquas, and placing pointed crossed stakes in trenches, which rendered their retreat nearly inaccessible.
June 1.—The sun had scarcely risen this morning, when the sheikh was on horseback inspecting his favourite troops, the Kanemboo infantry: a hollow space under some sandhills, called Cornamaree, was chosen, about a quarter of a mile from the camp, and the whole was conducted with a good deal of order and system. He was attended to the ground by the four sultans who accompanied the expedition under his orders, and a circle was formed by the Arabs and the Bornou horse. The sheikh’s principal slaves and commanders were dispersed in different parts, habited in their scarlet bornouses with gold lace, and surrounded also by their followers. His own dress was, as usual, neat and simple: two white figured muslin tobes, very large, with a bornouse of the same colour, and a Cashemere shawl for a turban, composed his dress; over the whole, across his shoulders, hung the sword which, as he repeatedly said, “the sultan Inglese had sent him.” He was mounted on a very beautiful bright bay horse from Mandara, and took his station on the north side of the circle; while the Kanemboos were drawn up on the opposite extremity in close column, to the number of nine thousand. On the signal being made for them to advance, they uttered a yell, or shriek, exceeding any thing in shrillness I ever heard; then advanced, by tribes of from eight hundred to one thousand each. They were perfectly naked, with the exception of a rather fantastical belt of the goat or sheep’s skin, with the hair outwards, round their middles, and a few gubkas (narrow strips of cloth, the money of the country), round their heads, and brought under the nose; their arms are a spear and shield, with a dagger on the left arm reversed, secured by a ring which goes on the wrist, the point running up the arm, and the handle downwards. The shields are made of the wood of the fogo, a tree which grows in the shallow waters of the great lake, and are so extremely light, as to weigh only a few pounds; the pieces of wood of which it is formed are bound together by thongs of the hide of bullocks with the hair on, which is also carried along the edge of the outside of the shield in vandykes and forms an ornament; they are something the shape of a gothic window, and most of them slightly convex. Under cover of these, the Kanemboo attack the bowmen with great order, and at a slow pace. Their leaders are mounted, and are distinguished merely by a tobe of dark blue, and a turban of the same colour.
On nearing the spot where the sheikh had placed himself they quickened their pace, and, after striking their spears against their shields for some seconds, which had an extremely grand and stunning effect, they filed off to the outside of the circle, where they again formed, and awaited their companions, who succeeded them in the same order. There appeared to be a great deal of affection between these troops and the sheikh; he spurred his horse onwards into the midst of some of the tribes as they came up, and spoke to them, while the men crowded round him, kissing his feet, and the stirrups of his saddle. It was a most pleasing sight; he seemed to feel how much his present elevation was owing to their exertions, while they displayed a devotion and attachment deserving and denoting the greatest confidence. I confess I was considerably disappointed at not seeing these troops engage, although more than compensated by the reflection of the slaughter that had been prevented by that disappointment.
On seeing the sheikh after this inspection, he asked me what I thought of his Kanemboos: I could not help expressing my pleasure at their orderly and regular appearance, and he smiled when I assured him that I thought with such troops as these he need fear but little the attempts of the Arabs and Fezzaneers. Rhamadan, who had been stationed at Kabshary since the burning of the town, gave me an account of a second attack made by the Mungowy since his arrival. He had about two hundred and fifty people with him, amongst whom were about a dozen Arabs in the sheikh’s service, who had guns. Eight or nine hundred of Munga people made their appearance by daylight one morning, principally to try the strength of their enemies, which it was, of course, Rhamadan’s business to prevent their ascertaining. He succeeded in driving them back, although not without some loss, quite to the inclosed country, where they had greatly the advantage of him, and killed nearly thirty of his men with their arrows. Rhamadan now practised a ruse de guerre, by which means he destroyed nearly half the force of his enemies:—He appeared to give up the chase, and retired with his party; towards evening, however, he moved round by the river to a watering-place, where he expected the Mungowy would go to drink and refresh themselves, and rushing upon them unperceived, slaughtered upwards of four hundred.
