It was a very fine morning; and the whole scenery of the town in its great variety of clay houses, huts, sheds, green open places affording pasture for oxen, horses, camels, donkeys, and goats, in motley confusion, deep hollows containing ponds overgrown with the water-plant the Pistia stratiotes, or pits freshly dug up in order to form the material for some new buildings, various and most beautiful specimens of the vegetable kingdom, particularly the fine symmetric gónda or papaya, the slender date-palm, the spreading alléluba, and the majestic rími or silk cotton-tree (Bombax)—the people in all varieties of costume, from the naked slave up to the most gaudily dressed Arab,—all formed a most animated and exciting scene. As far as the market-place I had already proceeded on foot; but Báwu, as soon as he saw me, had hurried me back to my lodgings, as having not yet been formally received by the governor. But no one on foot can get a correct idea of an African town, confined as he is on every side by the fences and walls, while on horseback he obtains an insight into all the courtyards, becomes an eye-witness of scenes of private life, and often with one glance surveys a whole town.
Passing through the market-place, which had only begun to collect its crowds, and crossing the narrow neck of land which divides the characteristic pool “Jákara,” we entered the quarters of the ruling race, the Fúlbe or Féllani, where conical huts of thatchwork, and the gónda-tree, are prevalent, and where most beautiful and lively pictures of nature meet the eye on all sides. Thus we proceeded, first to the house of the gadó (the Lord of the Treasury), who had already called several times at my house, and acted as the mediator between me and the governor.
His house was a most interesting specimen of the domestic arrangements of the Fúlbe, who, however civilized they may have become, do not disown their original character as “berroróji,” or nomadic cattle-breeders. His courtyard, though in the middle of the town, looked like a farmyard, and could not be conscientiously commended for its cleanliness. Having with difficulty found a small spot to sit down upon without much danger of soiling our clothes, we had to wait patiently till his Excellency had examined and approved of the presents. Having manifested his satisfaction with them by appropriating to himself a very handsome large gilt cup, which with great risk I had carried safely through the desert, he accompanied us on horseback to the “fáda,” “lamórde,” or palace, which forms a real labyrinth of courtyards, provided with spacious round huts of audience, built of clay, with a door on each side, and connected together by narrow intricate passages. Hundreds of lazy, arrogant courtiers, freemen and slaves, were lounging and idling here, killing time with trivial and saucy jokes.
We were first conducted to the audience-hall of the ghaladíma, who, while living in a separate palace, visits the “fáda” almost every day, in order to act in his important and influential office as vizier; for he is far more intelligent, and also somewhat more energetic, than his lazy and indolent brother ʿOthmán, who allows this excessively wealthy and most beautiful province, “the garden of Central Africa,” to be ransacked with impunity by the predatory incursions of the serkí Ibrám of Zínder, and other petty chiefs. Both are sons of Dábo and Shékara—the latter one of the celebrated ladies of Háusa, a native of Dáura, who is still living, and has three other children, viz. a son (Makhmúd) and two daughters, one of them named Fátima Záhar, and the other Sáretu. The governor was then eight and thirty, the ghaladíma seven and thirty years of age. They were both stout and handsome men, the governor rather too stout and clumsy. Their apartments were so excessively dark that, coming from a sunny place, it was some time before I could distinguish anybody. The governor’s hall was very handsome, and even stately for this country, and was the more imposing as the rafters supporting the very elevated ceiling were concealed, two lofty arches of clay, very neatly polished and ornamented, appearing to support the whole. At the bottom of the apartment were two spacious and highly decorated niches, in one of which the governor was reposing on a “gadó,” spread with a carpet. His dress was not that of a simple Púllo, but consisted of all the mixed finery of Háusa and Barbary; he allowed his face to be seen, the white shawl hanging down far below his mouth over his breast.
In both audiences (as well that with the ghaladíma as with the governor) old Elaíji was the speaker, beginning his speech with a captatio benevolentiæ, founded on the heavy and numerous losses sustained on the road by me and my companions. Altogether he performed his office very well, with the exception that he dwelt longer than was necessary on Overweg’s journey to Marádi, which certainly could not be a very agreeable topic to a ba-Féllanchi. Sídi ʿAlí also displayed his eloquence in a very fair way. The ghaladíma made some intelligent observations, while the governor only observed that, though I had suffered so severely from extortion, yet I seemed to have still ample presents for him. Nor was he far wrong; for the black “kabá” (a sort of bernús, with silk and gold lace, which I gave him) was a very handsome garment, and here worth sixty thousand kurdí: besides, he got a red cap, a white shawl with red border, a piece of white muslin, rose oil, one pound of cloves, and another of jáwi or benzoin, razor, scissors, an English clasp-knife, and a large mirror of German silver. The ghaladíma got the same presents, except that, instead of the kabá, I gave him a piece of French striped silk worth fifty thousand kurdí.
However, our audience did not go off so fast as I relate it, for, after being dismissed by the ghaladíma, we were obliged to wait full two hours before we could see the governor; yet although we returned to our quarters during the very hottest hour of the day, I felt much better, and in the evening was able to finish a whole chicken, and to enjoy a cup of Cyprian wine, for which I felt very grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Crowe, who had supplied me with this cheering luxury.
Having now at length made my peace with the governor, and seeing that exercise of body and recreation of mind were the best medicines I could resort to, I mounted on horseback the next day again, and, guided by a lad well acquainted with the topography of the town, rode for several hours round all the inhabited quarters, enjoying at my leisure, from the saddle, the manifold scenes of public and private life, of comfort and happiness, of luxury and misery, of activity and laziness, of industry and indolence, which were exhibited in the streets, the market-places, and in the interior of the courtyards. It was the most animated picture of a little world in itself, so different in external form from all that is seen in European towns, yet so similar in its internal principles.
Here a row of shops filled with articles of native and foreign produce, with buyers and sellers in every variety of figure, complexion, and dress, yet all intent upon their little gain, endeavouring to cheat each other; there a large shed, like a hurdle, full of half-naked, half-starved slaves torn from their native homes, from their wives or husbands, from their children or parents, arranged in rows like cattle, and staring desperately upon the buyers, anxiously watching into whose hands it should be their destiny to fall. In another part were to be seen all the necessaries of life, the wealthy buying the most palatable things for his table, the poor stopping and looking greedily upon a handful of grain; here a rich governor dressed in silk and gaudy clothes, mounted upon a spirited and richly caparisoned horse, and followed by a host of idle, insolent slaves; there a poor blind man groping his way through the multitude, and fearing at every step to be trodden down; here a yard neatly fenced with mats of reed, and provided with all the comforts which the country affords—a clean, snug-looking cottage, the clay walls nicely polished, a shutter of reeds placed against the low, well-rounded door, and forbidding intrusion on the privacy of life, a cool shed for the daily household work,—a fine spreading alléluba-tree, affording a pleasant shade during the hottest hours of the day, or a beautiful gónda or papaya unfolding its large feather-like leaves above a slender, smooth, and undivided stem, or the tall date-tree, waving over the whole scene; the matron in a clean black cotton gown wound round her waist, her hair neatly dressed in “chókoli” or bejáji, busy preparing the meal for her absent husband, or spinning cotton, and at the same time urging the female slaves to pound the corn; the children naked and merry, playing about in the sand at the “urgi-n-dáwaki” or the “da-n-chácha,” or chasing a straggling stubborn goat; earthenware pots and wooden bowls, all cleanly washed, standing in order. Further on a dashing Cyprian, homeless, comfortless, and childless, but affecting merriment or forcing a wanton laugh, gaudily ornamented with numerous strings of beads around her neck, her hair fancifully dressed and bound with a diadem, her gown of various colours loosely fastened under her luxuriant breast, and trailing behind in the sand; near her a diseased wretch covered with ulcers, or with elephantiasis.
