All these people believe in sorcery, and each sheik possesses spells and conjurers. Tortoise shells, scales of the manis, lions' claws, and those of the leopard, roots, knots of trees of peculiar shape, and many other things, are worn as talismans.
My wife's parrot was supposed to be a cojoor, or fetish. This was the grey bird of West Africa, that was unknown in these parts. The interpreter explained that "it could speak like a human being, and that it flew about the country and listened to what people said—all of which it repeated to its mistress and myself; thus we knew everything that occurred, and the natives could not deceive us." This parrot was exceedingly tame, and was never confined. It was now walking about the deck, and while its extraordinary powers were being described by my Bari interpreter, Morgian, to the amazement and fear of the natives, it advanced stoutly to the sheik Bedden, and would have bitten his big toe had he not quickly jumped up and taken leave.
The magnetic battery and the large musical box were also believed to be magic.
At sunset, the great sheik departed in the best of spirits, with all his people, as he had drunk a tumbler of Marsala before he started, in order to try the quality of our merissa.
The population of this country is very large, and the natives are good agriculturists. Although the soil is stony, it is very productive, as the cultivation is carefully attended to. Dhurra, sesame, dochan, and beans, in addition to a species of Hibiscus which produces an edible seed and also a fine fibre, are sown in exact oblongs or squares resembling the plots in allotment-grounds in England. Near the villages are large heaps of manure, collected from the cattle zareebas. These are mixed with the sweepings of the stations, and the ashes from the cattle-fires, and are divided when required among the proprietors of the herds.
Each cow of the zareeba is entitled to a certain measure of manure at the commencement of the rains, when all hands turn out to cultivate; thus the owner of many cows is enabled to farm a large area.
The cows are all herded in one or two pens; thus the whole manure is heaped, and, when divided, is measured in large baskets. It is then distributed very thickly over the field, and is roughly hoed with the iron molote, the seed been thrown upon the manure broadcast, previous to the hoeing.
The geological appearance of the country would suggest the presence of precious metals. Large masses of rose-coloured and icy-white quartz project from the surface in dikes. These run for miles in tolerably direct lines, like walls, from west to east. Generally the rocks are granitic, consisting of syenite and gneiss, with micacious schist in the lower valleys. Occasionally, dikes of basalt break through the surface, which is generally much denuded, and the rocks are weather-worn and decomposed.
I have frequently washed for gold in the most likely spots among the deep holes of ravines, where the torrents have worn away the bed, but I have found no sign of either precious stones or metals. Magnetic iron ore in large quantities is the only metal to be discovered in the river-beds.
On 13th November, at sunrise, Lieutenant Baker started with the troops to convey corn from a distant village. I was sitting on the poop-deck of the diahbeeah, enjoying a pipe and a cup of coffee, when he suddenly galloped back with the news that a herd of bull elephants was approaching from the west. I was not prepared for elephant-shooting, and I recommended him to return to the troops, who would otherwise waste their time. I had no suspicion that elephants would approach our position after having been disturbed by the soldiers, in a country that was perfectly open.