The specimens of sand I brought back with me, and which were subjected to an examination in Berlin, with my other geognostical collections, have been already defined by Dr. Girard, in C. Ritters’ “Glance at the Source-Territory of the Nile.”
He says:—“A sand from the shore of the Bahr-el-Abiad, in the kingdom of Bari, is similar to this sand (from the Sobàt river), only a little coarser in the grain, which, however, is only at the most of the size of millet-grain: it contains principally quartz, but more mica than the former, and has considerably more of those black grains, from which we see that it is horn-blende. This is either derived from syenite and diorite masses, as they often appear in gneiss and mica-slate mountains, or they might be also of volcanic origin, for the lava of the Gebl Defafaungh lying to the north boundary of these plains, contains the same in great abundance.” With respect to the constituent part of the rocks of this cataract, Dr. Girard observes:—“It is gneiss, consisting of white feldspar, and a good deal of white mica, and mica-slate, containing much granular, brittle, white and yellow quartz, no feld-spar, and small scaly black mica.”
The island of Tshànker, on which I planted a number of palm-seeds, rises, with reference to the back of the surface of the earth, fifteen feet high above the present water-mark. The natives could not have been able to have sown the ground, which is strongly mixed with sand, with the simsim (sesame), a grass particularly requiring moisture, if the water of the swollen river had not remained upon it for some time. In accordance with that, the chain of mountains must have discharged an immense body of water during the rainy season, for the island appears to me to lie somewhat higher than either of the shores, and the high water overflows therefore not only this island, but also a great part of the shores which are separated about six hundred mètres from each other. From this cause arise the beautiful green trees, and the verdant low country lying back, from which ephemeral shallow lakes the water seems to be drawn off by canals. Like Oases (Arabic Oà), they lie there in a level land, which is parched up far and wide.
Legislation appears to be in a peculiar state in the country of Bari. We were told that King Làkono slew criminals with his own hand, by a thrust with a spear, and very quickly (goàm, goàm), without any ceremonies; he sits under a large tree, with a heavy spear in his hand, to pass judgment, and assumes a very angry look. Perhaps the great spirit of the tree may inspire him on such a presidency, or rather his own feeling of justice may cause this righteous anger, and make him the supreme judge and executioner of the misdoer, the latter being devoted also to death by the unanimous will of the assembly. Priests or sorcerers do not appear to be assembled at these public sittings in judgment, which remind us of the ancient German institutions, because not a trace has been found, so far as I know, of any such men among these people. The great king, therefore, does not crack the criminal’s skull with the club-sceptre he usually carries, as I imagined on his first visit; but the very same views of a death without dishonour seem to prevail here as among the Shilluks, who do not slay the Arabs taken prisoners by them with the honourable spear, but beat them to death like a dog with the hassaie.
The innate respect towards the king is, however, greater perhaps than the royal power. This may mostly be reduced to the gigantic limbs of his family and all his adherents, amongst whom the heads of tribes subject to him, may be numbered, who stand around his free stool as judges armed, although not voting, maintaining order, and easily defeating his solitary antagonists, with their heavy sceptres of ebony, like constables’ staves.
It is evident that he has opponents, and indeed not a few, from the circumstance that he requested us to shoot some people on the left shore, because they were always making war on those of the right shore. It might therefore seem quite right to him that several of the inhabitants of that side were shot down a few days ago, in so shameful a manner, from our vessels. His statements of the hostile feelings of the men there does not appear, however, to be founded on truth, for we have seen several times herds of cattle swimming over from one shore to the other, without any robbery and contention taking place in consequence. On a closer inquiry, his main grievance was unbosomed; for two years he had not received anything from the people of the left shore. This was interpreted, consonant to Turkish views, to mean Tulba (tribute); it seems to me, however, to denote rather a voluntary contribution, because he complained at the same time, that he had nothing to live upon, and therefore was not able to give us anything.
King Làkono had a very sound understanding, and contrived skilfully to evade the demand for meat, and the desire expressed to visit him at his residence; for the Turks wanted to make a closer inspection of his treasures, since gold was said to be among them. He always affirmed that we should be obliged, in paying such a return visit, to swim through a deep gohr, although we had been previously told that he possessed a large and handsome sürtuk, in which he plies far up and down the river. Our sandal, which appeared to him probably more fitted for use than his own hewn-out trunk of a tree, pleased him so well, that he asked it as a present. Of course we were obliged to refuse him; for this little skiff was quite indispensable to us for communication. It was promised that a far handsomer vessel should be built for him at Marseilles—a white lie, with which he did not seem to be content. It was tolerably plain, from the badly translated expressions of these lords of Bari, and still more from the far more intelligible language of signs, of which they were not sparing, that they were perfectly conscious of their superiority in force; for they signified, with ironical laughter, that they could easily take our sandal by force, because it was the smallest of our vessels.
Although Làkono seemed not to have expected such an answer from us, and to be offended at it, yet he did not relinquish his plans of conquest and booty, in which we were to assist him. He wished not only to undertake a warlike expedition, in company with us, to Berri, so rich in copper, but also to the neighbouring mountain-chain of Logajà (also Lokonjà). The cannibals dwelling upon this mountain—not known here, however, by the name of Njam-Njam—had been long the subject of conversation among the crew. According to what we heard from the natives below, these ill-famed mountaineers had heads, and went on all-fours like dogs; this was repeated also, even in Bari, probably from our misunderstanding the language.
Captain Selim, the Muscovite, to whom courage could not be denied in other respects, had, even in Khartùm, been wonderfully afraid of these so-called Njam-Njams. Now, however, he allowed his fear to mount to a truly ridiculous height, probably because he was the most corpulent of us all, except Selim-Capitan. He thought nothing less than that he would be the first roast morsel which that savage mountain-race would choose for a feast, on a favourable nocturnal opportunity. Before the first expedition, my brother had designated him a plump morsel (kabàb semmin) for the cannibals; and scarcely was he summoned to this expedition than he inquired repeatedly and anxiously about the existence and the abode of these men. This joke was now haunting his brains, and particularly when his fat face was lighted up by the enjoyment of araki, which he drank secretly in his cabin, in order not to let the others partake of it. In such a condition as this, he exhorted me to assist in urging as speedy a return as possible; and, moreover, to think of my poor brother Jussùf, who perhaps was ill.
Làkono, explained, on closer questioning, the ominous rumour of the Anthropophagi, with dogs’ heads, and informed us that these bad people have heads indeed, like others, but allow all their teeth to remain in their head, and crawl upon all-fours when they eat men. This means, perhaps, nothing more than that they do not join in open combat with the inhabitants of Bari, but crawl close to people, like dogs, plunder them, and perhaps eat them. The Baghàras assert, that the same custom of crawling, in marauding expeditions, exists among the Shilluks; and our Circassians relate things, which are scarcely credible, of the manner in which boys and girls are caught in their country.