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DEDICATION
On the 9th we crossed over very early, but, alas! the day began
badly. El Mekki did not come, but sent instead two messengers, who
—I really don’t know on what stupid pretext—told us it was
impossible to supply us with guides. I protested in vain, invoking the
name of Madidu.
Political reasons imperatively demanded that we should make a
friend of El Mekki, but there was yet another more immediate motive
for our desire, and that was, we were close to the rapids.
As I have already said, they begin at Ansongo. We did not yet
know all the difficulties they would cause us; all we had to help us
was what Barth had said about them, and we had never known him
wrong, which was quite enough to prove how absolutely
indispensable pilots would be, for at every turn we should have to
choose the most practicable of the many arms of the river.
I called up all my powers of patience, and tried to discuss the
matter quietly, but it was only labour lost. Indeed some negroes who
had come down to the bank to speak to us were ordered back to the
village by the Kel es Suk.
Now came a second deputation, this time an openly hostile one,
of men with determined faces.
“What,” they demanded, “were our intentions?”
“Peaceful and good,” was our reply.
“What is your religion?” they went on.
“That of Issa,” we answered; “whom your own prophet names as
his forerunner. We are Kitabi, or people of the book. Your own
religion enjoins you to treat us as friends, seeing that we entertain
amicable feelings for you.”
Tierno chimed in, arguing with his fellow marabouts to make them
listen to reason, but with very little success.
“Anyhow,” I said at last, “your fathers let a Christian pass through
their country in peace, and indeed they even helped him. That
Christian, my uncle, Abdul Kerim, was the friend and protégé of Sidi
Hamet Beckay; do you think you can do better than your fathers, and
the chief who was venerated throughout the whole of the Sudan?”
Surprise and hurried interrogations now ensued.
“What! are you the nephew of Abdul Kerim?”
I read Barth’s book every day, so that it is rather difficult to put me
out when his adventures are discussed.
Now it so happened that just before he reached Ansongo a little
episode occurred to him which is well worth relating.
Without any disrespect to the memory of my “uncle”—my very
worthy and excellent “uncle”—I suspect him of having been the hero
of at least one idyl on the banks of the Niger, in which a young
beauty of the Kel es Suk tribe also played her part.
Her name was Neschrun, and Barth, who generally dismisses the
charms of the black or brown beauties he came across in his travels
curtly enough, dwells on her graceful figure, her pleasing manners,
her beautiful black eyes, and her hair parted on her brows, à la
Vierge. He does not even neglect to tell us that she wore a garment
alternately striped with black and red, which was most becoming.
The attraction was evidently mutual, for he adds that she one day
said to him, half in fun—
“Will you marry me?”
What prevented the course of true love running smoothly was
some question about camels.
“I expressed to her,” says Barth, “all the regret I felt at being
obliged to refuse, and whilst explaining how sensible I was of the
honour she did me I told her my camels were too tired to carry her.”
I have already referred to the standard of beauty amongst these
people, and how they admire embonpoint; and I may here add that,
when a woman has achieved the weight desired, she might very well
claim to be admitted into the so-called “Société des Cent Kilos.” The
name given to this special charm by the Tuaregs is tebulloden, and
those who know anything of the onomatopœia theory will see in a
minute how appropriate it is to a Tuareg Venus who is not content
with being merely a Venus Callipyge.
Neschrun, no doubt, was rather of the tebulloden style of beauty,
so that it is quite possible that the camels of the German traveller
were really not equal to carrying her weight.
Now was not this a good story to prove my identity in my parley
with the messengers from El Mekki?
It actually turned out that Neschrun was the sister of El Mekki, and
was still alive, so of course I made a great fuss about seeing her at
once. Alas! she was far away in the interior, and it was no use
hoping that she could come to me or that I could go to her, so I had
to be content with sending her a present of a folding mirror with three
glasses, trimmed with plush, which had cost about three shillings.
See how generous I was!
The messengers went back to tell El Mekki all about it, and we at
once became capital friends. Two slaves belonging to the chief of the
Kel es Suk were given to us as guides, and we started again, but not
before I had sent my affectionate greetings to the lady who might
have been my aunt if she had not been so fat, or if Barth’s camels
had been better able to carry heavy loads.
My dear “uncle”! my brave “uncle”! my providential “uncle”! yet
once again had you drawn a sharp thorn from the foot of your
nephew when the happy thought occurred to you of relating your
love affair with a daughter of the Kel es Suk.
The current was now very strong, running at the rate of 4½ miles
an hour. We could not fail to see that we had drunk our best wine at
the beginning of the feast, and that we must now husband our
resources most carefully. In other words, we must steer with the
greatest caution.
The fresh breeze from the south drove the Aube a little out of her
course, and she struck on a bed of coarse gravel. She was,
however, in very little danger, and we soon got her off again. But
when out of the narrow channel she was flung violently on to a sharp
rock, and there remained stationary. The water was so deep just
there that the coolies could not stand in it, and it was only with the
greatest difficulty that we rescued our consort this time. However,
after swimming about her for an hour our efforts were at last
rewarded by seeing her afloat again.
DISTRIBUTION OF PRESENTS TO THE TUAREGS AT BURÉ.
About 109 yards further down stream we doubled the point of the
island of Ansongo.
The right arm of the river, which we could now see distinctly, was
completely encumbered by rocks and rapids. Our barges could
certainly not have got past them.
In front of us eddies and ripples showed that there were also
rocks ahead of us. Our guides were brave fellows enough, but I did
not believe they were much accustomed to the river, so I decided to
make the two big boats anchor here. Baudry and I having removed
the canvas sail which would have given purchase to the wind, and
having pressed into the service every available oar, started to
examine the channel, which, though very tortuous, turned out to be
both wide and deep. We then returned on board, and without further
incident we went on undaunted amongst the grass close to the left
bank.
THE ‘DANTEC’ EXPLORING THE PASS.
The Aube had leaked dreadfully since she struck, and four men
with buckets could scarcely bale her out. Our carpenter, Abdulaye,
dived beneath her, and discovered that one of the planks of her
bottom had got loose, but we managed to patch it up somehow.
To wind up this day, which had been so full of unpleasant
excitement, a storm presently overtook us, during which we were
soaked to the skin, whilst from the banks rose an odour of musk so
strong as to be positively sickening.
Every now and then there were ripples close to the boat, caused
by an alligator plunging into the water. It would not do to fall
overboard just there.
BURÉ.
CANOES AT BURÉ.
Our interview was very brief. I simply repeated what I had said at
Gao, and Djamarata informed me that my statement tallied with what
he had heard from the chief of the Awellimiden.
Now about the letter I had asked for. As he had not a marabout in
his suite who knew how to write Arabic, he proved his confidence in
Tierno by letting him indite it without hesitation, and the latter set
about it at once. Here is a literal translation of his production:
Letter from Madidu and his nephew Djamarata to the Sultan of the
French.
“The object of this letter is to inform you that we have come to an
understanding with Commandant Hourst, known under the name of
Abd el Kader, on the following points:—between us and him there
shall be only good and peace; your traders shall come to us by land
and by water, assured that no one in our country will molest them in
any way. You will bring no trouble into our possessions, nor interfere
with our civil and religious traditions. Be it also known unto you, that
so soon as your envoys are returned, and you will have proved our
truth, you will see us come and go alone and in parties by land and
by water. This is the exact truth without reserve and without
exaggeration. After you have given us the promises mentioned we
shall be brothers; greeting!”
TUAREGS.