The country of the Braknas is situated about sixty leagues E.N.E. of St. Louis; it is bounded on the south by the Senegal; on the east by the country of the Douiches;[26] on the N.E. by that of the Koonts;[27] and on the north, by the tribe of Oulad-Lame,[28] which is united with another neighbouring tribe; these two compose a nation formidable on account of the depredations which they commit; they are not Mahometans. The tribe of Labohs[29] is on the N.E., and to the west of the Trarzas. This nation is composed of several tribes, some hassanes, and others marabouts. The principal tribes of hassanes are: Oulad-Sihi, Oulad-Aly, Oulad-Hamet, Oulad-Makhso, Oulad-Abdallah, Oulad-Baicar, Oulad-Pis-nem-Nematema; of the marabouts, Dhiedhiebe-Touaryk, Oulad-Tandora, and Oulad-Biery-Togat. Each of these tribes has its separate and independent chief. Hamet-Dou is recognised as king by the French government, and the duty on the trade in gum is paid into his hands; he receives also the tax which is levied on merchant ships; but the goods derived from these sources are divided amongst all the chiefs and princes. The marabouts receive nothing from the princes.
These tribes are often engaged in war with one another, which they undertake without the king’s consent. The crown is hereditary only when the king leaves a son who is of age; if he leaves no children, or minors only, it devolves to his brother, who enjoys it during life; after his death, if the sons of the preceding king are of age to inherit, the eldest succeeds to his father’s rights. The population of the Braknas is not very numerous; it is divided into five classes, which have been already mentioned: hassanes, marabouts, zenagues, laratines, and slaves.
The hassanes may be considered as the aristocracy of the country and its warriors; their armies consist of themselves and their slaves; the zenagues join also, in the hope of pillage; the common people, that is, the poorer hassanes, are attracted by the same hope, but they serve only as volunteers, and the princes have no power to compel free men to enlist in their armies.
When the chief of a tribe is cruel or unjust towards his subjects, or even deficient in liberality, it is at every man’s option to remove with his flocks, and to join any other tribe which he pleases; hence nothing is more uncertain than the population of a tribe, which increases or diminishes according to the reputation of its chief; even the king’s own tribe is not exempt from desertion.
When the Moors make war upon one another, they take no prisoners; if any of their enemies fall into their hands, they kill them immediately, and the spoils of the slain belong to the conqueror. They fight from a distance, and only attack by surprise. The chiefs fight like their subjects; I have been told, however, that when Hamet-Dou goes to war, he is always accompanied by one of his ministers, whose business it is to hold him by his coussabe and to keep him at a safe distance: report says the coussabe has never been torn; but this may be a calumny. It is the hassanes who always make excursions against the negroes to pillage them, and carry off slaves; and on these occasions they are seldom accompanied by the zenagues. The hassanes are idle, mendacious, thievish, envious, superstitious, and gluttonous; they combine in short, all possible vices. An hassane who possesses a horse, a gun, and coussabe, thinks himself the happiest of mortals. Filthiness they seem to consider as a virtue. The men swarm with vermin, of which they take no pains to rid themselves. The women are disgusting; lying always upon their couches, with their heads besmeared with butter, which, being melted by the heat, runs down their faces and their whole bodies: they exhale in consequence a perfume which to Europeans is any thing but agreeable. In idleness they surpass the men, for they will not even rise to take their food, but rest on their elbows while a slave gives them their milk.
The commerce of the Braknas is carried on by the marabouts. It is they who collect all the gum, for which they pay no tribute; and when they have disposed of it to Europeans, they travel into a distant part of the country, to sell the guns and Guinea cloth which they receive in exchange. They often stop at Adrar, seven days’ journey north of lake Aleg; this town gives its name to a small kingdom, and is inhabited by a number of marabouts who are wholly engaged in agriculture, and keep numerous herds of cattle. Dates are plentiful in this part; the fields are surrounded by date-trees. These marabouts do not live in tents, like the Braknas; they have mud houses one story high, and flat at the top. They barter their dates and millet, for the guns and Guinea cloth of the Braknas; of the Guinea cloth they make garments, for they grow no cotton. They have many slaves, who are employed in the cultivation of rice and millet, and in the tending of the cattle. Pasturage is not abundant in the neighbourhood of the town, so that they are obliged to send their flocks to a distance to graze: it is said that the slaves who take care of them are sometimes absent for one or two months. This nation is peaceful, and only takes up arms to defend itself against the depredations of its neighbours. It is during the rainy season that the Braknas undertake their trips to Adrar, in which they are compelled to cross a desert of four days’ journey. These particulars I received from some marabouts who have visited that country several times. I intended to accompany those who were going the following spring, if I had remained among them.
The Brakna marabouts are as idle as the hassanes; they take no other exercise than walking to the mosque; and their only diversion is reading the Koran. They sometimes converse together as they lie on the sand, and go to sleep while talking over religion and politics.
Of all the classes of Moors the marabouts give the least and require the most; their quality of priests causing them to be considered as the dispensers of favours, they are never refused any thing, especially as the Moors are persuaded that they shall gain heaven by liberality. It is not to the hassanes alone that they apply; they harass one another also, and they torment the poor zenagues more especially. This class, despised by the others, is oppressed by them all. If the marabouts do not maltreat them as the hassanes do they threaten them with everlasting fire; and the poor zenague, in the hope of a happier life hereafter, strips himself to comply with the demands of his insatiable masters in this. Those marabouts who have no slaves to collect gum, being far too lazy to work for themselves, would be without clothes if the zenagues did not supply them with the means of procuring them. In the same way they obtain bags of butter to sell at the markets for Guinea cloth. It may be thought, perhaps, that the marabouts are grateful, and know how to appreciate the sacrifices which the zenague makes to please them; but ingratitude is one of their vices, and scarcely have they obtained what they want before they slander their benefactors, curse them, and devote them to eternal fire.
Some of these wretches, who have no other means of subsistence, settle amongst the zenagues to instruct their children: besides their food, they receive in payment sheep, butter, tanned hides, and stuff for tent-covering.
The marabouts are not more susceptible of friendship than of gratitude. I told Mohammed-Sidy-Moctar one day, that I should like to go and see his son-in-law; he tried immediately to dissuade me. “He is a good-for-nothing fellow,” said he; “he ought to have given you an ox the first time you went to his tent, and he only gave you a coussabe; he never gives me any thing; he does not like me.” I asked him if he liked Hamet-Dou, who had made him presents before my eyes: “Oh,” said he, “Hamet-Dou is rich.”