Monday, 15th.—I am still very weak; Richard worse. I had a letter from the learned Abdurahman, of Kora, a noted chief of banditti, and who once, with his followers, overran Nyffé, and held possession of the capital six months. He now keeps the town of Kora, a day’s journey to the north-east, and is much feared by Mohamedan and Kafir. He is a native of Nyffé. He is particularly anxious that I should visit him, as he wants my acquaintance, and begs I will give him the Psalms of David in Arabic, which he hears I have got. His letter was written on part of the picture of the frontispiece of an European book, apparently Spanish or Portuguese. He says he has something to communicate to me, which cannot be done but by a personal interview; but unless he come to Koolfu I told his messenger, I could not see him.
Tuesday, 23d.—Cool and cloudy. A large caravan arrived from Yourriba. They had come through Borgoo, where they sold what natron they had remaining after they left Yourriba. They were in Katunga when I was there; but were forbidden to hold any communication with us, on pain of having their throats cut. They told me that my friend the fat eunuch had endeavoured to hire a man to assassinate me, but that they were all afraid. There are strong reports of a war between the Sheik El Kanami and the Fellatas. They say the sheik has taken the city of Hadija, and that the governor of Kano is gone out to meet him, as he is advancing upon Kano. Whether it is a report to please the Nyffé people, who cannot bear the Fellatas, or not, I do not know. We had a number of such reports when in Bornou last journey. In the evening a messenger from the sultan of Boussa arrived, bringing me a present of a beautiful little mare. The messenger of the sultan was accompanied by another person from the midaki, a female slave, bringing me rice, yams, and butter. He brought a message from the sultan desiring me to kill a she-goat, and distribute the flesh amongst the inhabitants of Koolfu the day before I left it; that he had distributed gora nuts and salt for me at Boussa, which would do for Koolfu. I was also desired not to eat any meat that came cooked from the west, and which would be sent by the Magia’s female relations from Tabra, as they intended to take away my life by poison. Through the night continual rain, thunder, and lightning.
Thursday, 25th.—Sent Sheeref Mohamed to Raba, a town possessed by the Fellatas, three days south of this, on the banks of the Quorra, with a message to the late Imam of Boussa, who, he says, has got some of the books belonging to the late Mungo Park: one, he tells me, was carried to Yourriba by a Fellata, as a charm and preservative against musket balls. He is either to buy them, or I will give him Arabic books for them in exchange.
Friday, June 17th.—This evening I was talking with a man that is married to one of my landlady’s female slaves, called her daughter, about the manners of the Cumbrie and about England; when he gave the following account of the death of Park and his companions, of which he was an eye-witness: He said that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatas first rose in arms, and were ravaging Goober and Zamfra; that the sultan of Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and that the boat was different from any that had ever been seen before, as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting that they were the advance guard of the Fellata army then ravaging Soudan, under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of the present Bello; that one of the white men was a tall man with long hair; that they fought for three days before they were all killed; that the people in the neighbourhood were very much alarmed, and great numbers fled to Nyffé and other countries, thinking that the Fellatas were certainly coming among them. The number of persons in the boat was only four, two white men and two blacks: that they found great treasure in the boat; but that the people had all died who eat of the meat that was found in her. This account I believe to be the most correct of all that I have yet got; and was told without my putting any questions, or showing any eagerness for him to go on with his story. I was often puzzled to think, after the kindness I had received at Boussa, what could have caused such a change in the minds of these people in the course of twenty years, and of their different treatment of two European travellers. I was even disposed at times to flatter myself that there was something in me that belonged to nobody else, to make them treat me and my people with so much kindness; for the friendship of the king of Boussa I consider as my only protection in this country.
Koolfu, or, as it is called by many, Koolfie, is the principal town for trade in Nyffé at present; and at all times a central point for trade in this part of the interior. It is situated on the north bank of the river May-yarrow; and it is surrounded by a clay wall about twenty feet high, and has four gates. It is built in the form of an oblong square, having its longest diameter from east to west; there is a long irregular street runs through it, from which lead a number of smaller streets. There are two large open spaces near the east and west ends of the town, in which are booths, and large shady trees, to protect the people from the heat of the sun, when attending the markets, which are daily held in those places: there are, besides the daily markets, two weekly markets on Mondays and Saturdays, which are resorted to by traders and people inhabiting the sea coast. Ajoolly and the other towns in Yourriba, Cubbi, Youri, Borgoo, Sockatoo, and Zamfra on the north, Bornou and Houssa on the east, and, before the civil war, people from Benin, Jabbo, and the southern parts of Nyffé, used to resort to this town as a central point of trade, where the natives of the different countries were sure to get a ready sale for their goods; either selling them for cowries, or exchanging them for others by way of barter. Those who sold their goods for cowries attend the market daily, and when they have completed their sale, buy at once the goods or wares they want, and return home. Such is the way of the small traders, who are nine out of ten women, and are principally from the west part of the Quorra, even as far off as Niki: they carry their goods on their heads in packages, from sixty to eighty and a hundred pounds weight. The goods these people bring from the west are principally salt, and cloths worn by the women round their loins, of about six yards in length and two in breadth, made of the narrow striped cloth, in which red silk is generally woven, and a great deal of blue cotton; this is called Azane, and the best are worth about three thousand to five thousand cowries, or two dollars:—Jabbo cloths, which are about the same length as the others, and about the breadth of our sail-cloth, are worn by slaves, and have a stripe or two of blue in them; the poor classes also wear them, men and women:—Peppers, called monsoura, shitta, and kimba; monsoura is like our East India pepper; shitta is the malagetta pepper of the coast; kimba is a small thin pepper, growing on a bush, near the sea coast, in Yourriba, of a red colour, like Chili pepper:—Red wood from Benin, which is pounded to a powder and made into a paste; women and children are rubbed with this, mixed with a little grease, every morning; and very frequently a woman is to be seen with a large score of it on her face, arms, or some part of her body, as a cure for some imaginary pain or other:—A small quantity of calico or red cloth is sometimes brought, which is of European manufacture. They take back principally natron, beads made at Venice of various kinds, and come by the way of Tripoli and Ghadamis, and unwrought silk of various colours, principally red, of about one ounce in weight, and is sold here at three thousand cowries; it and natron are as good as cowries.
The caravans from Bornou and Houssa, which always halt here a considerable time, bring horses, natron, unwrought silk, beads, silk cords, swords that once belonged to Malta, exchanged for bullocks at Bengazie, in the regency of Tripoli, sent to Kano and remounted, and then sold all over the desert and the interior; these swords will sell for ten or twenty dollars a piece or that value, and sometimes more; cloths made up in the Moorish fashion; looking-glasses of Italian manufacture from about a penny a piece to a shilling in Malta; tobes or large shirts undyed, made in Bornou; khol or lead used as blacking for the eye-lids; a small quantity of ottar of roses, much adulterated; sweet smelling gum from Mecca; a scented wood also from the East; silks the manufacture of Egypt; turbans; red Moorish caps with blue silk tassels; and sometimes a few tunics of checked silk and linen made in Egypt: the last are generally brought by Arabs. A number of slaves are also brought from Houssa and Bornou, who are either sold here or go further on. The Bornou caravans never go further than this place, though generally some of their number accompany the Houssa merchants to Agolly in Yourriba, Gonja, and Borgoo, from which they bring Kolla or Gora nuts, cloth of woollen, printed cottons, brass and pewter dishes, earthenware, a few muskets, a little gold, and the wares mentioned before as brought from Yourriba. They carry their goods on bullocks, asses, and mules; and a great number of fine women hire themselves to carry loads on their heads; their slaves, male and female, are also loaded. The Bornou merchants, during their stay, stop in the town in the houses of their friends or acquaintances, and give them a small present on their arrival and departure, for the use of the house. The Houssa merchants stop outside the walls in little straw huts or leathern tents, which they erect themselves. They sell their goods and wares in their houses or tents; the small wares they send to the market and round to the different houses by their slaves to sell; there are also a number of male and female brokers in the town, whom they also intrust. The pedlers or western merchants always live in the houses of the town, and attend the markets daily, employing their spare time in spinning cotton, which they provide themselves with on their arrival, and support themselves by this kind of labour. There have been no fewer than twenty-one of these mercantile women living in my landlady’s house at one time, all of them from Yourriba and Borgoo: these women attend the markets at the different towns between this and their homes, buying and selling as they go along. The caravans from Cubbi, Youri, and Zamfra, bring principally slaves and salt, which they exchange for natron, Gora nuts, beads, horses, tobes dyed of a dark blue, having a glossy and coppery tinge. The slaves intended for sale are confined in the house, mostly in irons, and are seldom allowed to go out of it, except to the well or river every morning to wash; they are strictly guarded on a journey, and chained neck to neck; or else tied neck to neck in a long rope of raw hide, and carry loads on their heads consisting of their master’s goods, or his household stuff; these loads generally from fifty to sixty pounds weight. A stranger may remain a long time in a town without seeing any of the slaves, except by accident, or making particular inquiry. The duties which traders pay here are collected by the people of Tabra, who take twenty cowries from every loaded person, forty for an ass, and fifty for a loaded bullock.
The inhabitants may amount to from twelve to fifteen thousand, including all classes, the slave and the free; they are mostly employed in buying and selling, though there are a great number of dyers, tailors, blacksmiths, and weavers, yet all these are engaged in buying and selling; few of these descriptions ever go on distant journeys to trade, and still fewer attend the wars, except it be to buy slaves from the conquerors. I have seen slaves exposed for sale here, the aged, infirm, and the idiot, also children at the breast, whose mothers had either fled, died, or been put to death. The domestic slaves are looked upon almost as the children of the family, and if they behave well, humanely treated: the males are often freed, and the females given in marriage to freemen, at other times to the male domestic slaves of the family; when such is the case a house is given to them, and if he be a mechanic, he lives in the town, and works at his trade; if not, in the country, giving his owner part of the produce, if not made free; in both cases they always look upon the head of such owner’s family as their lord, and call him or her father or mother.
The food of the free and the slave is nearly the same; perhaps the master or mistress may have a little fat flesh, fish, or fowl, more than their slaves, and his meat is served in a separate place and dish; but the greatest man or woman in the country is not ashamed at times to let their slaves eat out of the same dish, but a woman is never allowed to eat with a man. Their food consists of ground maize, made into puddings or loaves, and about half a pound each, sold at five cowries each in the market; of flummery, or, as they call it in Scotland, sowens, made from the ground millet, which is allowed to stand covered with water, until it gets a little sour; it is then well stirred and strained through a strainer of basketwork into another vessel, when it is left to settle, and the water being strained off, it is dried in the sun; when perfectly dry, it is broken into lumps and kept in a sack or basket; when used it is put into boiling water, and well stirred, until of a sufficient thickness; this makes a very pleasant and healthy breakfast with a little honey or salt, and is sold in the market at two cowries a pint every morning, and is called Koko. They have a pudding made of ground millet, boiled in the ley of wood ashes, which gives a red colour; this is always eaten with fat or stewed meat, fish, or fowl. They always stew or grill their meat: when we have it in any quantity it is half grilled and smoked, to preserve until it is wanted to be used. Boiled beans made up in papers of a pound or a half pound each, and wrapped in leaves, sold for two cowries each, and called waki. Beans dried in the sun sold at one cowrie a handful. Small balls of boiled rice, mixed with rice flower, called Dundakaria, a cowrie a piece, mixed with water, and serves as meat and drink. Small balls of rice, mixed with honey and pepper, called Bakaroo, sold at five cowries each. Small balls made from bean flowers, fried in fat, like a bunch of grapes. Their intoxicating draughts are the palm wine called roa bum, bouza, and aquadent, very much adulterated and mixed with pepper.
At daylight the whole household arise: the women begin to clean the house, the men to wash from head to foot; the women and children are then washed in water, in which the leaf of a bush has been boiled called Bambarnia: when this is done, breakfast of cocoa is served out, every one having their separate dish, the women and children eating together. After breakfast the women and children rub themselves over with the pounded red wood and a little grease, which lightens the darkness of the black skin. A score or patch of the red powder is put on some place where it will show to the best advantage. The eyes are blacked with khol. The mistress and the better looking females stain their teeth and the inside of the lips of a yellow colour with gora, the flower of the tobacco plant, and the bark of a root: the outer part of the lips, hair, and eye-brows, are stained with shuni, or prepared indigo. Then the women who attend the market prepare their wares for sale, and when ready go. The elderly women prepare, clean, and spin cotton at home and cook the victuals; the younger females are generally sent round the town selling the small rice balls, fried beans, &c. and bringing a supply of water for the day. The master of the house generally takes a walk to the market, or sits in the shade at the door of his house, hearing the news, or speaking of the price of natron or other goods. The weavers are daily employed at their trade; some are sent to cut wood, and bring it to market; others to bring grass for the horses that may belong to the house, or to take to the market to sell; numbers, at the beginning of the rainy season, are employed in clearing the ground for sowing the maize and millet; some are sent on distant journeys to buy and sell for their master or mistress, and very rarely betray their trust. About noon they return home, when all have a mess of the pudding called waki, or boiled beans, and about two or three in the afternoon they return to their different employments, on which they remain until near sunset, when they count their gains to their master or mistress, who receives it, and puts it carefully away in their strong room. They then have a meal of pudding and a little fat or stew. The mistress of the house, when she goes to rest, has her feet put into a cold poultice of the pounded henna leaves. The young then go to dance and play, if it is moonlight, and the old to lounge and converse in the open square of the house, or in the outer coozie, where they remain until the cool of the night, or till the approach of morning drives them into shelter.
Their marriages are the same amongst the Mohamedans as they are in other countries, where they profess that faith. The pagan part first agree to go together, giving the father and mother a present, and, if rich, the present is sent with music, each separate article being borne on the head of a female slave. The Mohamedans bury in the same manner as they do in other parts of the world. The pagans dig a round hole like a well, about six feet deep, sometimes in the house, sometimes in the threshold of the door, and sometimes in the woods: the corpse is placed in a sitting posture, with the wrists tied round the neck, the hams and legs close to the body: a hole is left at the mouth of the grave, and the relations and acquaintances leave tobes, cloth, and other articles at the small round hole, and telling the dead persons to give this to so and so: these things are always removed before the morning by the priest. The majority of the inhabitants of Koolfu profess to be Mahometans, the rest Pagans, whose mode of worship I never could learn, except that they, like the inhabitants of the other towns in Nyffé, attended once a year in one of the southern provinces, where there was a high hill, on which they sacrificed a black bull, a black sheep, and a black dog. The figures on their houses of worship are much the same as in Yourriba: the lizard, crocodile, the tortoise, and the boa-serpent, with sometimes men and women. Their language is a dialect of the Yourriba, but the Houssa tongue is the language of the market. Their houses and court are kept very clean, as also the court-yard, which is sprinkled every morning with water, having the shell of the bean of the mitta tree boiled in it, which stains it of a dark brown colour; and each side of the doors of the coozies or huts are stained with indigo and ornamented with figures. The women have the stone for grinding the corn, pepper, &c. raised on a clay bench inside the house, so that they can stand upright while they grind the corn; an improvement to be seen in no other part of the interior, or in Fezzan, the women having to sit on their knees when grinding corn. Their gourd dishes are also of the first order for cleanliness, neatness, and good carving and staining, as also their mats, straw bags, and baskets.