The Tuarick are not all Mahometans. In the neighbourhood of Soudan and Tombuctoo live the Tagama, who are white, and of the Pagan religion. This must have occasioned the report, to which my attention has been called, by several learned men, that there are white Christians in the neighbourhood of Tombuctoo. I am convinced that the fable arises solely from the expression Nazary (i. e. Christians), which the Arabs and Mahometans use in general for unbelievers.
The greatest part of the eastern Tuarick lead a wandering life. A place, for instance, under the government of Hagara consists of about twenty-five or thirty stone houses only; but at the time of their markets (which are said to be very considerable), many hundred men assemble there with their leathern tents.
SECTION III.
Behind these countries lies Tombuctoo, of which I shall say nothing, as I could not get any well-founded and certain accounts, for there is little intercourse between this region and Fezzan; however, it certainly is the most remarkable and principal town in the interior of Africa.
Eastward from Tombuctoo lies Soudan, Haussa, or Asna; the first is the Arabic, the second is the name used in the country, and the last is the Burnuan name. Of these three names I choose the second, as being the most proper, and understood by the Arabs below Soudan, and all the land southward from Ghaden. The Burnuan name means properly only Kano and Kashna, and the country lying eastward from that region Asna, but incorrectly spoken, it comprehends also Tombuctoo.
As to what the inhabitants themselves call Haussa, I had, as I think, very certain information. One of them, a Marabut, gave me a drawing of the situation of the different regions bordering on each other, which I here give as I received it. (See the Sketch opposite.)
The land within the strong line is Haussa; my black friend had added Asben.
These regions are governed by Sultans, of whom those of Kashna and Kano are the most powerful; but they all (either by constraint or policy) pay tribute to Burnu, except Cabi or Nyffé, their districts being at too great a distance. Guber pays, moreover, a tribute to Asben. Zamtara is united with Guber; the Sultan of the latter having taken possession of it, killed the Sultan, and sold all the prisoners he could take.
The Haussa are certainly Negroes, but not quite black; they are the most intelligent people in the interior of Africa; they are distinguished from their neighbours by an interesting countenance; their nose is small and not flattened, and their stature is not so disagreeable as that of the Negroes, and they have an extraordinary inclination for pleasure, dancing, and singing. Their character is benevolent and mild. Industry and art, and the cultivation of the natural productions of the land, prevail in their country; and, in this respect, they excel the Fezzanians, who get the greatest part of their clothes and houshold implements from the Soudanians. They can dye in their country any colour but scarlet. Their preparation of leather is as perfect as that of the Europeans, although the manner of doing it is very troublesome. In short, we have very unjust ideas of this people, not only with respect to their cultivation and natural abilities, but also of their strength and the extent of their possessions, which are by no means so considerable as they have been represented. Their music is imperfect, when compared to the European; but the Haussanian women have skill enough to affect their husbands, thereby even to weeping, and to inflame their courage to the greatest fury against their enemies. The public singers are called Kadanka.