When the Fullans approached Niffy, the inhabitants of that city came out in arms, but were defeated and cut to pieces. This place is one of the most remarkable of all Soudan. It is celebrated for the easy character of its inhabitants, and the well-being which they enjoy. Strangers are received with benevolence, and some learned men have fixed their dwelling-place there. The cheapness of provisions renders life agreeable. The population is rich, and consists in a great measure of merchants, who, at certain periods, go upon commercial expeditions to Timbuctoo, to Kashna, and to other places of Soudan, from whence they bring back merchandise, and especially slaves. Dar-Niffy is situated south of the states of Morocco, and carries on an active commerce with that empire.[47]
The city of Niffy, as I have said, is full of very rich merchants, who carry on a prodigious trade. The following anecdote is a proof of this:—A merchant of Morocco, who wanted to exhibit his great wealth, arrived there with at least a thousand slaves and more than five hundred camels; the great people of the place came to visit him, and felicitate him on his fortunate voyage. Not knowing the amount of their fortune, he received them with haughtiness. The chief was hurt by his airs of importance, but dissimulated his anger, and resolved to humble the pride of the stranger. He sent several people to ask what merchandise he had to sell. “I have,” he said, “this troop of slaves, but I want to sell all together, camels, cords, sacks, travelling utensils, &c., and I wish to find a single buyer. If there is any one who can pay the price of my whole caravan, let him come.”—“Very good,” they replied; “rest after thy fatigues, and thou wilt easily find what thou desirest.”
Two or three days afterwards, the Morocco man learned that there was at Niffy an individual the amount of whose fortune no one knew. He was the chief of the merchants of the city whom he had received so coldly. This merchant called one of his inferior slaves, who acted as a clerk, and said to him: “Said, go and buy the whole caravan of that man, slaves, utensils, camels—everything.” Said dressed himself in his best, and went, and was received by the Morocco man, who thought he had to do with the chief of the merchants of the city. After a few words, Said observed that he had a great number of slaves to send to some of his correspondents, and had heard that there was a large caravan to be sold in a mass. The bargain was soon struck, at the rate of six thousand cowrie shells per head, and the price of all the other articles was also fixed. The merchant only kept a slave-woman, by whom he had had a child. The rest were led away; and Said told the merchant to come in three days, and receive payment. At the appointed time the Morocco man dressed, and went to the house of the chief of the merchants, thinking that it was with him that he had done business. He found him in a handsome mansion, about which a considerable crowd was moving, whilst he himself sat in a place apart, like a king, overlooking and directing all this bustle. When the salutations had been exchanged, the man of Niffy affected to talk with other persons on matters of business; add it was not for some time that he condescended to address the stranger, and say to him,—“Friend, what is the motive of thy visit?” The other told him that it was to fetch the price of his slaves, which he had sold to him three days ago. The head of the merchants affected surprise, and said that he had not found it necessary to buy slaves for a whole year, and yet had about ten thousand left. “Is it possible, then, that there is any one else here besides thyself who could have made this large purchase?”—“Certainly. I have myself thirty clerks who have slaves, and yet the poorest of them could have bought thy whole lot.” At this moment a slave came up, and mentioned that he had bought so many slaves and so much gold dust, that he had received so many thousands of shells, &c. His master asked him if it were he that had bought the caravan of the merchant, but he said, “No.” Then the other clerks were called one by one, but all denied having heard of the business; so that the merchant began to think that he had lost his caravan. At last some one said that he had heard that Said had bought a whole caravan. “May Heaven confound him!” exclaimed the chief of the merchants; “he is always doing those kind of things: let him be called.” Said soon presented himself, and admitted the purchase, but affected to be angry with the Morocco man for speaking on such a trifling business to his master, and then requested him to come and be paid. Having handed over the amount of shells agreed on, he said,—“May God and his Prophet preserve me from ever buying again from such as thee! Didst thou consider me to be insolvent, that thou shouldst thus go and complain to my master? I have bought much greater caravans than thine without his knowing anything of it.” The Morocco man was so humiliated by this proof of his comparatively small importance, that he hastened to leave the city.
Let us now return to the history of the Fullans. Zaky easily made himself master of Niffy. Struck with the beauty of the country, and the wealth of the inhabitants, he resolved to build there a seat of government.[48] He became so fond of the country that he always returned thither after his excursions. Having rested a year, and organised the government according to the principles of Islam, he marched upon Afnou, which is celebrated for the beauty of its slaves, and soon conquered it as well as Aghadez. Then he proceeded against Bornou, the Sultan of which fled, as I have related, to Kanoum. Now it was that Emin preached a sacred league against the invader, whom he accused of having uttered false accusations against Soudan, as an excuse for extending his authority. Soon afterwards Zaky was defeated with great loss, and driven out of Bornou. This was the first revival of courage amongst the princes of Soudan. It is singular that the defeat of the Fellatahs coincided in time with the first reverses of the Wahabites, which took place four or five years after the period when the French definitively evacuated Egypt.
All these revolutions, which convulsed Central Soudan from Niffy and Kashna to Bornou, were the consequences, as I have already suggested, of the sedentary and tranquil life of the inhabitants. Ibn-Khaldoun has already shown, in his great history, the effects of luxury in rendering people effeminate. It may be objected that the developments of industry and wealth in Europe do not produce similar results. But it must be remembered that, in Islam, whatever refinement exists is merely material, and has reference to the pleasures of the table, the relation of the sexes, the laying out of fine houses, furniture, valuable horses, singing, and domestic festivals. But there is nothing done for the abstract sciences, nothing for the departments of knowledge which are the domain of intelligence, the applications of mathematics to arts and to war, physics, chemistry, medicine, natural history, botany, and experimental studies. The knowledge of the Muslim, when he has any at all, is confined to religious and civil jurisprudence, according to the rite he has adopted. He adds to this certain theological notions on the unity of God, and the elements of analytical grammar. This is all that constitutes the science of the Ulemas, the learned men of Islam, who attack all those who meddle with human sciences as infidels and philosophers.
I shall now make some observations on the various characters of the people of Soudan, comparing them with the other countries known to me. The Forians resemble the Turks something in character, as well as by a large number of words of their language, by the ostentation of courage under which they mask their pusillanimity, by their pride, coupled with their suppleness to humiliation, by their love of idleness, by their haughtiness, by their fondness for show, and their eagerness to exercise revenge when an opportunity presents itself. Like the Turks, the Forians neglect important things to busy themselves about matters of minor importance. But that which characterises them essentially, especially those that are indigenous, inhabiting the Marrah mountains, is an avarice beyond all expression. Generosity and free and open hospitality are found only among the kings, who are nearly all of Arab origin. The Forians are wanting in vivacity of intelligence and in promptitude of action. This is another feature in which these black men, habitants of arid and unfertile countries, resemble the Turks, who occupy a more favourable position.
The temper of the Wadaïans has some analogy with that of the French. They resemble them even in their fondness for institutions like that of the quarantine; but, instead of having their narrow and grasping parsimony, they have the generous hospitality of the Arabs. I also notice in the councils of the Sultan a certain resemblance with the parliamentary assemblies of France. The Kamkolaks, who are in reality Wadaïans of an inferior rank, are counsellors of the Sultan. If he were to dissent from their decisions, and oppose the execution of their judgments, they would probably revolt against him. This is another trait peculiarly French.
The people of Bagirmeh and Katakou remind me of the Italians in the softness of their language, and the want of energy of their character. The Birguid, the Tamians, and the Zagawah, are perfidious and treacherous, like Greeks. Like them, they are base and crawling when they fall in war into the hands of their enemies. The Fullans resemble the Russians in their love of aggression and conquest, and in the care they take to keep armies always ready for that purpose; but in religious fanaticism they resemble the Spaniards, and for a single prayer missed would put a man to death. The Bornouese resemble the English in their somewhat coarse pride, in their taste for luxury and show, and in their insatiable avidity; but they are cowardly. Among Dajo and the Bijo, we find the natures of the Fellahs, or peasants, of Egypt—the same laziness, the same carelessness of their persons, the same dirt around them. They submit, without a word, to all kinds of oppressions from their superiors—to forced labour in every shape. They allow their children, girls and boys, to be carried away and made to work, without ever thinking of means of escape from unjust caprice, or of freedom from odious servitude. This resignation is greater still among the Berti and the Massalit, who are richer and more numerous. They turn pale at the slightest glitter of warlike weapons, and at sight of a few armed men tremble like sheep in presence of the wolf. A single Forian, with a stick in his hand, can drive before him two hundred men of Berti.