MR. CAILLIÉ MEDITATING UPON THE KORAN AND TAKING NOTES.
VIEW OF THE CITY OF TIMBUCTOO.
The mosque itself is thirty paces long and five and twenty wide. The arcades which are three feet and a half wide and seven and a half high are built of the same bricks as those of the western mosque. There is an inner court, which must be passed through before we can ascend the tower. No part of this mosque is in ruins, though it appears very old. It is not very regularly built. I remarked that it had two gates looking to the south and one to the north. The western and eastern sides had no apertures. Near the mosque, on the eastern side, are seen a small hillock of sand, and some buildings overwhelmed by the sand blown up by the east wind.
In the centre of the town is a kind of square surrounded by circular huts. Here grow some palmæ christi and a palm-tree, the only one I saw in the country. In the middle of this square is a large hole, dug for a receptacle for filth. Two enormous heaps on the outside of the town appeared to me to be also collections of dirt or rubbish. Many a time have I ascended to the tops of these hills to obtain a complete view of the town and to make my sketch[10].
A third and somewhat remarkable mosque stands nearly in the centre of the town. This likewise has a tower, but not so high as those of the other two. It has square arcades: the naves are seven feet wide and twenty five long. The front wall is ornamented with many ostrich eggs, some of which are also placed on the top of the tower. On the east side is a very extensive court, in the middle of which a balanites ægyptiaca is planted by way of ornament. At the back of the mosque on the opposite side, some salvadoras.
There are five mosques besides those which I have mentioned; but they are small and built like private houses, with the exception that each is surmounted by a minaret; all of them have an inner court, to which the people resort in the evening to perform their religious devotions. The criers, whose business it is to call to prayers, receive no salary; but at stated periods they announce to the faithful from the summits of the minarets that it is time to pay their contributions. I happened to be at Timbuctoo at one of these periods. Each person made his offering, consisting of bread, millet, rice, dried fish, pistachios and cowries; all these articles were deposited on a mat spread on the ground, before the door of the mosque.
It frequently happened that Moors who felt interested in my situation questioned me about European customs and the treatment I had experienced at the hands of the christians. I tried in my turn to obtain from them information concerning the neighbouring nations and the distance of their country from Timbuctoo. But, so far from satisfying my curiosity, they pretended not to hear me, and turned from me to speak to each other. Unfortunately, I had not the means of gaining their favour by presents. They called me the meskine (beggar). The little information I obtained at Timbuctoo was furnished me by my host Sidi-Abdallahi-Chebir, and by some Kissour negroes. These were the only individuals who had the civility to reply to my questions. They had no definite idea of the course of the river eastward of the city. Sidi assured me, that it went to Haoussa and joined the Nile[11]. This is the general opinion of the Arabs of this country. This river bears at Timbuctoo the name of Bahar-el-Nil (Nile river).
The house which was appropriated for my residence not being quite finished, I had opportunity to observe the way in which the houses of this country are built. An excavation is made in the town itself to the depth of some feet, where a grey sand mixed with clay is found. This is made into bricks of a round form, which are baked in the sun. These bricks are similar to those used at Jenné. The young slaves carry them on their heads in calabashes, the way in which they also carry the mortar, which is formed from the same material. The builders, who are slaves, execute their work as cleverly as those of Jenné. I thought indeed that their walls were better constructed. Their doors are well made and solid; they are formed of planks joined with bars and nails brought from Tafilet. They fasten their doors by locks made in the country, without iron: even the keys are of wood[12]. Some Moors use iron locks and keys which they bring from the coasts of the Mediterranean. Locks are not used in the interior of the houses; but chains or bars supply their place. The roofs of the houses, none of which have more than the ground-floor, are, like those of the mosques, supported by rafters cut from the trunk of the ronnier, a tree which grows to a prodigious height on the banks of the river. I have seen some of these trees above a hundred and twenty five feet high. The trunk is split into four quarters, which are rounded off, laid upon the walls, and then covered with pieces of wood, mats and earth, like the roofs of the mosques.