11th.—Zangheema, En-Noor's principal slave, came early this morning for Dr. Overweg, that he might attend the "beaten wife." My privileged friend went accordingly, and visited at the same time all the women of the household. They received him in a very friendly manner: some of them proved nearly white.
12th.—This day I finished my Kailouee vocabulary, which contains about a thousand words. I have never yet collected so large a quantity of materials of any of the languages of Africa. I carefully packed up my vocabulary for England, and got it ready, with other matters, to send by the first opportunity.
Dr. Overweg has again visited the belaboured wife this morning, and reports her to be improving. The Sultan seems now to repent what he has done, and is endeavouring to obtain forgiveness by kind and courteous behaviour.
There was a great deal of wind to day, but it did not come in puffs, endangering our tents. I sometimes wonder, however, how the flimsy huts of which part of Tintalous is composed are not swept away. They are made of the dry stalk of that excellent herb bou rekabah, called in Kailouee afada.
13th.—No news stirring to-day; nothing said of razzias; so much the better. We are living very quietly here, and the climate agrees with me extremely well. Some of our people, however, are sick.
14th.—The mornings continue cold; 65° outside the tent, and a few degrees higher inside. This fresh weather, no doubt, accounts for my good health.
According to a Tibboo merchant now here, and going with our caravan, the people of Wadaï would receive a Christian well, and allow him to visit their country. He represents Wadaï as a very rocky region, like Aheer, with two large rivers in it running from south to north—not season streams, but continual. He says that the people are all blacks, and a very tall race. They have a language of their own, which is difficult to learn. Warrah is the capital. The natives drink a great deal of bouza, and are nearly always intoxicated. Such is a summary account of Wadaï from the mouth of a Tibboo geographer.
This morning, Madame En-Noor sent me by Zangheema a pair of pewter earrings, in exchange for some rings. It is extremely difficult to make a good bargain with these people. With respect to our merchandise, it all sells lower here than we paid for it at Mourzuk. The profits come from the purchase of slaves. A burnouse of forty mahboubs will sell in Soudan for little more than its cost, if dollars or money is to be given; but if slaves are taken in exchange, three slaves, perhaps, may be obtained, which, in Tripoli, may be sold at forty or fifty dollars each. Hence the profit of the Soudan commerce. The article which yields the greatest profit is loaf sugar, which, costing half a dollar in Mourzuk, is said to sell for a full dollar in Bornou. To be sure there is all the risk and the heavy freight of such an article, especially if conveyed up during the rainy season.
I wrote yesterday a despatch to Government, requesting letters of recommendation to be sent up to me in Kordofan, pointing out the route of Egypt as the probable one by which I shall return to the Mediterranean. I had a long dispute with Overweg about the letter ghain, which he persists in pronouncing like a strong k. Yusuf was called in, and declared that the ghain was the letter which distinguished Arabic from all other languages. In Kailouee Tuarick there is no kaf or ghain. These Berber dialects have, however, the hard g in a thousand words, and have also the k in a great number of cases, but the hard g and the t are the consonants most frequently occurring. The Haussa has also the g hard, as in măgăree, "good;" and a great number of words with the sound tsh, as doutshee, a stone or mountain.
The Fellatah language is said to resemble the Kailouee; in other words, to be a Berber dialect. If this be the case, the Fellatah people are probably of Berber extraction, and not Arab, as they are vulgarly supposed to be. This is a question requiring still further investigation. Others, again, say that the Fellatah language is quite different from the Tuarick. Overweg thinks Islamism was introduced into Bornou by the Shoua Arabs, who are found in Bornou in great numbers. The Fellatah, he thinks, received Islamism by way of Timbuctoo, from Moors and Arabs trading to that city from Morocco. There is considerable probability in both these opinions.