French enterprise in Africa

by Hourst

“Samory used to kill both the guilty parties, but Tieba, his enemy and neighbour, professed an amiable kind of philosophy on the subject of the weaker sex and the ways of women. When Samory was conquered by Tieba, the chief auxiliaries of the latter were the nomad Diulas who were strangers in the land. These Diulas had come to the district by way of Sikasso, where they had met with women of free and easy manners, and had been driven by the force of circumstances to remain amongst them, adopting their ways. Now it generally happens amongst the negroes, that those who have travelled much and seen something of the world are not only brave but sensible and free from bigotry.

WOMEN OF SAY.

“Samory, who was so fond of cutting off heads in obedience to the injunctions of the Koran, had a wife named Sarankeni, who is still his favourite, and she was the one to lay her finger on the cause of his defeat, when he was still smarting from its effects. She saw that it was the women of easy morals who prevented the strangers who had aided Tieba from deserting him in his need. Samory was open to conviction, and since then”—according to Suleyman, though I think he exaggerated—“if one of the chief’s people discovers that a woman or a daughter of his house has gone wrong, he gives a fee to the seducer, or at least offers him refreshments and speaks him fair, and this has now become the fashion throughout the districts reigned over by the great Fama. Sarankeni, the favourite, the giver of the advice which led to the change, is alone excepted from the new rule.” Probably, as she is still young, she had a very different motive for her conduct than that generally accepted.

Whilst the market was going on, we used also to make a tour of inspection in our kitchen-garden. An officer of the garrison of Timbuktu had been good enough to give us some packets of the usual seeds, and under the skilled direction of the doctor we had had a plot of ground cleared, manured, and planted. To sow seed is one thing, however, to reap results is another, and in spite of the delicate attentions of Atchino, our man from Dahomey, our gardener for the nonce, who religiously watered the seeds every morning, and in spite of the visits we paid to our plantations at dawn and eventide, no great results ensued. Probably the sheep and goats, who were greedy creatures all of them, got the pick of everything, in spite of the thorn hedge we had put up round our garden.

All we got ourselves were a few big tomatoes, some cucumbers, some little pink radishes, and two or three salads. You can just imagine our delight when on one occasion Taburet triumphantly brought in three radishes apiece.

For all that, we can’t be too grateful for our garden. If we did not get many vegetables, we always had the hope of getting some, and the pleasure of watching the growth of various weeds which we expected to turn out to be lettuces, beetroots, or cabbages, and we used to say joyfully, “When that is big enough to eat, or when this is ready,” and so on. The hope of luxuries, when we are provided with all that is absolutely necessary, is always cheering.

Whilst we are on the subject of food, I may as well say a little about what we lived on during our stay at Fort Archinard. In spite of our long distance from home we must be strictly accurate, and I am almost ashamed to own that we were never reduced to having to eat our dogs. Nor was the reason for this the fact that we had no dogs with us to eat. Far from that; we had three dogs, one after the other, not to speak of the cats already referred to. Our three dogs were all, I don’t know why, called Meyer. They were yellow, famished-looking beasts, who were native to the country, and rather savage. All came to a sad end and got lost, but I don’t know exactly what became of them. Once more, however, I swear by Mahomet we did not eat one of them.

Although we ate no dogs we managed to subsist, for we were never without sheep or rice. The diet was not much to boast of, and we had to keep a whole flock in our island always, for there was very little pasturage on our small domain for some twenty or thirty animals. After a few days of such nourishment as they got, our sheep became anæmic, and their flesh turned a greenish colour. Still we managed to eat it in semi-darkness. On the other hand, our rice was always good. That grown in the country is small, and of a slightly reddish colour. It swells less in cooking than the white rice of Cochin China or Pegu, but it has a nicer and a stronger taste. Taburet used to swear by all the heathen gods that he would never eat rice, yet very soon he could not do without it. Fili Kanté, already mentioned, turned out a first-rate cook, and he really did deserve praise for what he achieved, for we were none of us able to help him with advice. True, the Commandant had made everybody’s mouth water by saying that he would take charge of the pot as soon as the expedition arrived at Say; but he never troubled his head about the matter again.

He did, however, sometimes preside at the cooking of mechuis, that is to say, of sheep roasted whole on the spit in the Arab style, and the mechuis of Fort Archinard were celebrated—on the island!