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Comprehension
Strategies in the
Acquiring of a
Second Language

Harris Winitz
Comprehension Strategies in the Acquiring
of a Second Language
 Harris Winitz

Comprehension
Strategies in the
Acquiring of a
Second Language
Harris Winitz
Psychology Department
University of Missouri–Kansas City
Kansas City, MO, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-52997-0    ISBN 978-3-030-52998-7 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52998-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

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To those whom I cherish
Shevie
Flora
Simeon
Jennifer
Adam
Dylan
Autumn
 Preface

This volume represents the history and development of comprehension

as a second-language instructional strategy. Research findings from the
disciplines of psychology, psycholinguistics, child language learning, and
second-language comprehension instruction are summarized. Proposals
for the implementation of comprehension instructional strategies in the
teaching of a second language are presented.
Over the 50 years, beginning in 1970, that we undertook to study and
apply comprehension strategies in the teaching of a second language, a
large number of talented language scholars, teachers, artists, audio pro-
grammers, computer specialists, manuscript readers, and consultants
were involved. I am especially indebted to James Reeds and Paul García
for their early and important contributions. Additionally without the
contribution of the following participants the study and implementation
of comprehension strategies in second-language acquisition would not
have been possible. They are David Alcindor, Bernard Arnold, James
Asher, James Carroll, Cornelia Ayers, Michael Beatty, John Bennetts,
Werner Bleyhl, Natalie Brun, Laurence Conventry, Hernán Díaz, Renate
Frick, Rita Gombinski, Melitta Hanneman, Tobias von der Hyde, Zhao
Jinchuan, Michael Keef, Vera Korchak, James Lindauer, Fred Losch,
Peter McCandless, Greg Mackender, Tod Machin, Jacqueline Miller,
Gloria Nixon, Valerian Postovsky, Josef Rohrer, Victoria Rausseo, Taly
Rosen, Blanca Sagarna, Hélène Germain-Simões, Andrés Trimiño,
vii
viii Preface

Carmen Waggoner, Tami Winitz, Jean Yanes, Walter Zeller, and Josef
Zilbershatz.

Kansas City, MO Harris Winitz

 Contents

1 Introduction  1

2 Our Magical Language 11

3 Development of the Comprehension Approach as a

Method of Second-­Language Instruction 27

4 Models of Implicit Language Processing 61

5 Language Acquisition in Children: The Development of

Syntax101

6 Vocabulary Development131

7 The Relationship Between Comprehension and

Production157

ix
x Contents

8 Word Segmentation and Intelligibility, Parental

Simplification, and Frequency and Amount of Language
Input181

9 The Role of Conversational Interchanges in First- and

Second-Language Learning199

10 Considerations in the Development of Lessons in the

Comprehension Approach217

11 Instructional Principles Applied to the Several Stages of

Comprehension Learning239

12 Consideration of the Advanced Stages of Instruction

Using the Comprehension Approach309

13 Evaluation of the Comprehension Approach and Related

Considerations in Acquiring a Second Language341

References369

Index371
 List of Figures

Fig. 3.1  40
Fig. 3.2  42
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Fig. 3.5  45
Fig. 4.1 An illustration of the linear (left panel) and nonlinear
(right panel) models of language learning in Winitz,
H. Input considerations in the comprehension of first
and second language. Native language and foreign language
acquisition, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
Vol. 379, H. Winitz, Edt. 72
Fig. 5.1  120
Fig. 11.1  242
Fig. 11.2  250
Fig. 11.3  251
Fig. 11.4  251
Fig. 11.5  252
Fig. 11.6  253
Fig. 11.7  254
Fig. 11.8  255
Fig. 11.9  257
Fig. 11.10  258
Fig. 11.11  258

xi
xii List of Figures

Fig. 11.12  260

Fig. 11.13  260
Fig. 11.14  262
Fig. 11.15  263
Fig. 11.16  264
Fig. 11.17  266
Fig. 11.18  267
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Fig. 11.35  304
 1
Introduction

If I were to recommend an essential first book for foreign language teach-

ers, it would be Kelly’s (1976) 25 Centuries of Language Teaching, for
within the covers of this book one can find ancient and modern refer-
ences to almost all current methods of language instruction. For example,
there is reference to audio-lingual, behavioral, cognitive, and classroom
approaches to language teaching. Under the heading “Mime and
Demonstration” there is recognition that some methods use objects and
activities, rather than translation to convey meaning in the second lan-
guage. Although Kelly provides a historical perspective of language
instruction, mentioning past and present approaches and activities, he
does not necessarily endorse a particular method of instruction.
This book, unlike Kelly’s book, is not a review or summary of current
or past language teaching methodologies, although a historical perspec-
tive of foreign language teaching methods is an important ingredient in
understanding new approaches and theoretical positions. The focus of
this book emphasizes comprehension-based instruction for consideration
in foreign language instruction. It provides for instructors of foreign lan-
guages and student majors in a foreign language the background and

© The Author(s) 2020 1

H. Winitz, Comprehension Strategies in the Acquiring of a Second Language,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52998-7_1
2 H. Winitz

development of the Comprehension Approach as an alternative teaching

methodology.
The critical issue in foreign language teaching and learning is that of
discovering the conditions under which the process of language learning
can be maximally effective.
There is a certain degree of disappointment among foreign language
professionals in that interest in achieving success in acquiring a second
language is not evident among the majority of high school and college
students. Students often become discouraged in their study of a foreign
language after taking a first course that entails memorization of gram-
matical structures and endless drill work.
After many centuries of discussion and deliberation, the art of teaching
a foreign language still remains an active area of study and disagreement
among language professionals. There are academic journals devoted to
investigation of almost every facet of foreign language learning. Some of
the current topics are theoretical linguistic issues and their relevance for
language teaching, when and how to introduce grammatical rules, the
role of listening in acquiring a foreign language, reading procedures to
teach vocabulary, the use of computer programs to deliver lessons, the age
at which language instruction should begin and a host of many other
important issues. The list of topics is lengthy as is the number of journal
articles that are devoted to these topics, all of which have the singular goal
of improving the effectiveness of foreign language teaching and learning.
Effective teaching and learning also includes consideration of atten-
tion to student retention rate. American universities generally require one
or two years of foreign language study, but it is generally known that the
majority of university students do not enroll in foreign language courses
beyond that which is required of their major area of study. Part of the
problem can be attributed to the evaluation students make of their for-
eign language courses. Generally they are unconvinced that by taking
additional foreign language courses they will become speakers of a new
language. Contributing also to the low retention rate of students in for-
eign language study is the knowledge students have of foreign language
course curricula. They know its primary emphasis is the study of litera-
ture and that the acquiring of conversational fluency in their respective
disciples is only incidentally emphasized.
 1 Introduction 3

Despite the number of investigations and serious essays on foreign lan-

guage methodology, the American system of language instruction, with
the exception of programs that emphasize the immersion methodology,
has remained essentially the same since the beginning of the twentieth
century. To be sure grammar-translation foreign language textbooks have
been modified to include practice in listening and in conversation, but
the central core of the American introductory high school and college
beginning textbooks is an overwhelming emphasis on syntactic (sen-
tence) grammar and the acquiring of vocabulary by memorization of
paired lists of English and their respective foreign words. The general
teaching procedures of almost all textbooks is to introduce a grammatical
rule followed by a list of vocabulary items in English and the respective
foreign language, followed by sentences illustrating the application of the
grammatical rule. The grammatical principles are largely syntactic rules,
that is, rules of sentence construction, verb conjugations, noun declen-
sions, and case endings. These rules are not the complex and abstract
rules of linguistic grammars, but still these rules are relatively difficult for
beginning student to apply in conversation and writing.
In the majority of academic settings the foreign language course sylla-
bus makes use of the principles of the grammar-translation system of
language instruction. It is implemented in the following way: Note the
grammatical components and the vocabulary items of an English sen-
tence. Select the corresponding vocabulary items from the second lan-
guage and convert the grammar of the English sentence into the grammar
of the foreign sentence.
Consider the following English sentence which is converted into
Spanish.
English: She mixed the salad. Now she is serving it.
Spanish: Ella mezcló la ensalada. Ahora, la está sirviendo.
The translation of the above English sentences is indeed elementary
and yet it is not a simple reproduction of the English sentences. In addi-
tion to knowing the correct Spanish vocabulary elements, the student
must know that the gender of the word “ensalada” is feminine, and,
therefore, the definite article is “la” for the English “the.” The translation
of the second Spanish sentence is somewhat more complex than the first
Spanish sentence. The pronoun “she” can be omitted in Spanish, known
4 H. Winitz

as the pro-drop rule, and the pronoun “la” for “it” appears following
“Ahora,” the equivalent of the English word “now,” and not at the end of
the sentence as is the placement of “it” in the English sentence.
The English-speaking learner of Spanish, who uses a grammar-­
translation method of instruction, must take into account the grammati-
cal correspondence between English and the foreign language and the
appropriate translation of English words into Spanish words. When
speaking, this process must be done at a normal conversational rate which
is perhaps slightly longer than the time it takes an English speaker to say
each of the above two English sentences, probably no more than five
seconds. Conversation involves relatively rapid responses if one is to keep
the attention of the listener. For sentences of greater complexity than
those listed above, a word-by-word conversion cannot easily be made
within the framework of normal conversational time limits. Excessive
pauses in conversation are not usually tolerated in conversation.
Let’s now turn the task around and consider the listening responsibili-
ties of the second-language learner. To understand a foreign language sen-
tence, the process of listening is essentially the reverse of speaking. In
order for the listener to derive the meaning of a sentence using a word-­
by-­word translation requires attention to the grammatical units and to
the meaning of the words. The listener must conduct the process of trans-
lation rapidly as the speaker moves from sentence to sentence. This pro-
cess is extraordinarily complex because the listener must perform the
translation rapidly for sentences that exceed ten words. If the translation
of a sentence is not done rapidly by the listener, attention to the immedi-
ate following sentences cannot be made. In fact the immediate following
sentences will not be heard by the listener who is completely engaged in
applying previously rote-learned grammatical rules that are not easily
retrieved from memory and cannot be quickly applied.
Trained language translators achieve their spectacular translation skills
by attending to the meaning of the source sentences. They do not engage
in word-for-word translation or apply directly grammatical rules. They
work at the meaning level. The meaning of the source sentences is trans-
lated using native or near native understanding of the two respective lan-
guages. That is, the translation process for trained translators involves
little or no conscious attention to grammar or to the isolated meaning of
 1 Introduction 5

each of the words of the sentence, but rather attention is given to the
totality of meaning that is provided by each sentence.
In reading, translation time is not a consideration. The learner of a
second language can take time to convert a sentence by giving it consider-
able thought, seeking a translation rule from a grammar textbook, and
finding the meaning of unknown words, phrases, expressions, and idioms
from dictionaries and other source materials. This approach is recom-
mended by language teachers who take the position that reading is the
primary goal in foreign language education. Nonetheless, reading of for-
eign language texts is still a complex process for students because reading
material requires an understanding of many thousands of words and
expressions that cannot be translated directly.
The real time of sentences in spoken speech is not a critical component
in written homework assignments. Students can take as much time as
they need to identify the correct units necessary to compose or to trans-
late a sentence. However, written assignments for students in the first or
second year of foreign language study can prove to be difficult because
the grammatical units for a particular target sentence may not be the
same for two languages. Even if students know well the respective gram-
mars of two languages, they cannot translate a sentence correctly without
knowing the correspondence between the grammars of the two languages.
Additionally without knowing how a particular thought is expressed in a
foreign language a correct translation cannot be easily made. Language
textbooks may cite a few examples for sentences for which grammatical
units and expressions do not correspond directly between two languages,
but they do not provide a formula or set of correspondence grammatical
rules for the large set of non-convergent grammatical rules and expres-
sions among languages in order to enable students to formulate a correct
translation of sentences in a first language to sentences of a second lan-
guage. Also word usage may differ considerably between respective lan-
guages. In this regard the use of a bilingual dictionary is not particularly
helpful.
The process of applying the same grammatical units to the source lan-
guage and the second language would seem to work best when two lan-
guages are from the same language family, but nevertheless the differences
that prevail are still great. Consider the Spanish equivalent of the English
6 H. Winitz

sentence: What is in this soup?—¿Qué tiene esta sopa? (What has this
soup?). To translate this sentence correctly into Spanish, the student must
know that the use of the verb “is” in this particular English sentence cor-
responds to the Spanish verb “tiene” which is roughly the equivalent of
the English verb “has.”
Native speakers of a language do not have conscious knowledge of the
deep-rooted grammatical principles of their language. Consider the use
of “in” and “on” to describe the following events: The ball hit him on the
chest; the ball hit him in the stomach. The ball hit him in the eye. The
ball hit him on the leg. Two questions immediately surface: (1) Why do
we use “in” and “on” in English to describe what appears to be the same
kind of event? And (2) how, as native speakers of English, have we learned
when to use “in” and “on” correctly with regard to a ball hitting a body
part? A third question can immediately be asked: Were we teaching
English as a second language, what grammatical principle would we
apply to impart to our students the correct use of “in” and “on” for the
simple situation of a ball hitting various body parts?
In our description of the teaching procedures for second-language
learning, called the Comprehension Approach, we emphasize listening
for meaning similar to the now historic approach practiced by teachers of
the direct method (Kelly 1976) in which only the second language is used
in the classroom, with two differences: (1) Students are not asked to talk,
only to listen, but they are not prohibited from volunteering to talk, and
(2) there is no discussion of the grammatical rules of the second language.
The approach presented in this book will include a description of com-
prehension procedures that are employed to teach the vocabulary and
expressions of a second language without translation. The learning of
words by translation from one language to another can cause the words
in the second language to lose their flexibility because each newly learned
word in the second language is tied to the meaning or several meanings
of an English word. For example, in German it is common to say, “The
doctor measures the pulse” (Er misst den Puls.) rather than “The doctor
takes his/her pulse.” A beginning student would be inclined to use the
German word for take which would be inappropriate in German. In
English one waters a tree, but in German the word for “pour” is “gießen”
(giessen), which is used for the English “to water,” as in “Sie gießt den
 1 Introduction 7

Baum” (She waters the tree.). In the Comprehension Approach, students

hear the exact way in which native speakers express themselves in a large
number of contexts and situations.
Collocations are word sequences that are bound together. These bun-
dles of words in every language are enormous in number and differ in
their use across languages. Consider the collocation involving the word
sign in English. Sign is collocated with the word say, as in “The sign says.”
In German the word steht (stand), in this context, is equivalent to the
English word “says,” as in: Das Schild steht. (The sign says.). The English
phrase—sign says—is a commonly used collocation. With regard to cof-
fee there are two frequently used collocations: weak coffee and strong
coffee. These two adjectives, weak and strong, cannot be used with soup.
The collocations for soup are watery soup and thick soup. The term thick
coffee can be used, but not with the meaning of strong coffee.
Collocations are pervasive in every language and their number is enor-
mous (Benson, Benson, and Ilson, 1997). Almost every object referred to
in a language can be defined by a set of standard collocated modifiers.
Toast can be light, medium, and dark whereas the corresponding terms
for steak are rare, medium, and well done.
A Spanish colleague, a teacher of English in Spain, while visiting her
sister in the United States was offered some chocolate candy from a box
with two layers. When seeing the box, she remarked, “Oh a candy box
with two levels.” Her sister immediately corrected her, saying “Yes, the
box has two layers.” That incident alone reinforced my belief that the
learning of collocations in a second language requires extensive contact
with the second language.
Word extensions for second-language learners are difficult to acquire.
Recently, a newspaper reporter wrote, “Investors began to doubt Europe’s
ability to cauterize its worsening debt.” Although I have never heard the
medical term cauterize used in this particular way, it did not strike me as
particularly odd. Contemporary expressions often develop from the
media’s use of newly formed stylistic phrases. In this particular case
English speakers do not need to know the medical use of the term cauter-
ize to assume that the general meaning here of cauterize is “to stop quickly
or abruptly.” Those readers who know the meaning of cauterize will
reflect perhaps for a moment that the meaning of cauterize is “to stop
8 H. Winitz

bleeding quickly or abruptly by the burning of flesh.” In the

Comprehension Approach, students hear thousands of sentences as they
are spoken by native speakers of a second language.
Among foreign language specialists there is the widely held belief that
a variety of teaching approaches should be implemented in the class-
room. This point of view is held by most educational institutions respon-
sible for the teaching of a foreign language. The Ontario Canadian
Ministry of Education, as an example, clearly expresses this viewpoint in
a public document regarding the teaching of high school French stated in
the following way, “It is important that students have opportunities to
learn in a variety of ways individually and cooperatively; independently
and with teacher direction; through hands-on activities; and through the
study of examples followed by practice. There is no single correct way to
teach or to learn” (The Ontario Canadian Ministry of Education, The
Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12, p. 6, 2000).
The Ontario document seems to acknowledge that an eclectic approach
to second-language teaching is not only acceptable, but preferred, when
it is executed within the language teaching framework of the Ontario
Ministry guidelines. Among these guidelines is the restriction that the
language of communication in the classroom is only French; that with
respect to course procedures a “balance” of oral communication, reading,
and writing is used; and that students’ interests and concerns should be
taken into account. These last two teaching strategies are expressed in the
following way: “these skills (oral communication, reading and writing)
should be taught in contexts that reflect students’ interests and concerns
so that they can apply their knowledge of French in situations that are
meaningful to them” (The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12,
p. 4, 2000).
The Ontario Ministry guidelines document provides a step-by-step set
of expectations for mastering each of the four language skills, listening,
reading, speaking, and writing, and the grammatical categories that are to
be acquired at each point in the teaching syllabus. Furthermore, the writ-
ers of this document make note of a common belief held by many foreign
language teachers that the classroom study of a foreign language, in this
case French, should enable students to expand their command of French
“through contact with French speaking people” (The Ontario Curriculum,
 1 Introduction 9

Grades 11 and 12, p. 1, 2000). This last point demands critical theoreti-
cal and practical attention as there is no information available that indi-
cates at what point students can capably engage in conversation in the
second language that they have been studying and, therefore, gain
increased understanding and use of a second language. Placing students
in a second-language speaking environment in order to expand their
command of a second language by having contact with speakers of a sec-
ond language implies that language learning will take place, although the
second-language requirements of students necessary to accomplish this
goal are yet to be investigated.
With reference again to the Ontario Canadian Ministry of Education
(2000) guidelines the following position regarding the use of computers
was offered, “Students will be expected to use French computer programs
as well as computer-assisted learning modules developed for second-­
language learners” (2000, p. 44). The Ministry curriculum guide acknowl-
edges the useful application of the internet and other audiovisual materials
in enhancing the students’ acquisition of French. We will present the
position that a successful comprehension-immersion teaching approach
should rely heavily on computer-assisted instruction, as the acquisition of
a foreign language requires intensive input which classroom one hour five
days a week courses cannot easily provide.

Concluding Remarks
Our goal in this book is to explain the Comprehension Approach and its
implementation. We will describe the development of lessons according
to this method and the research that has been conducted thus far to sup-
port comprehension second-language learning. We will support the posi-
tion that speaking develops from understanding a foreign language
through listening and reading over an extended period. Principles and
procedures for teaching understanding will be given considerable atten-
tion in this book. The understanding of language input, we will claim, is
the foundation on which the achievement of language learning rests. The
skills of speaking and composition are not separate skills to be acquired
but are the result of achieving a sturdy understanding of a second
10 H. Winitz

language, which includes a large vocabulary and a set of expressions,

vastly greater than what is taught in the standard four-year foreign lan-
guage college sequence.
Jerome Bruner (1968) writing in his book Toward A Theory of
Instruction outlined several preconditions for successful teaching and
learning. Of particular significance are Bruner’s second and third princi-
ples which direct our concern to the instructional format of a body of
knowledge and the sequence in which this knowledge should be taught.
Bruner (p. 41) said, “a theory of instruction must specify the ways in
which a body of knowledge should be structured so that it can be most
readily grasped by the learner.” Equally important, “a theory of instruc-
tion should specify the most effective sequences in which to present the
materials to be learned.” These considerations posed by Bruner are impor-
tant but often difficult to operationalize. How is knowledge reprocessed
in a form that is readily grasped by the learner and how should the lessons
be arranged? These questions form the basis for the subject matter of this
book as it applies to the teaching of foreign languages.

References
Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. (1997). The BBI dictionary of English word
combinations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co..
Bruner, J. S. (1968). Toward a theory of instruction. New York: W. W. Norton.
Kelly, L. G. (1976). 25 Centuries of Language Teaching. Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.
(The) Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12, French as a Second Language –
Core, Extended, and Immersion French, Ministry of Education (2000).
 2
Our Magical Language

The depth of native language knowledge and the skill with which it is
executed is rarely contemplated by individuals until confronted with the
academic responsibility to study the grammar of a language. Perhaps the
first occasion at which reflection on grammatical analysis in American
schools takes place is in the third grade when the mechanics of sentence
structure are introduced to young children. Students are taught that their
language skills which they so ably use can be described and analyzed. As
students mature, they recognize that their early confrontation with gram-
matical analysis doesn’t go away. It continues throughout their years of
academic study. To some it becomes a welcome area of study. For many
who enjoy writing and public speaking and desire to enter any one of a
number of disciplines in which language is used effectively and correctly,
the analytical study of language is a welcome area of study. Even those
whose interests lie outside the communication fields but are required to
write reports and memoranda recognize the importance of attending to
the study of their native language. Their recognition of knowing about
their language extends beyond syntactic grammar and parts of speech to
how one uses language to communicate in a multitude of academic, busi-
ness, and social settings.

© The Author(s) 2020 11

H. Winitz, Comprehension Strategies in the Acquiring of a Second Language,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52998-7_2
12 H. Winitz

However, there is one discipline in which the study of grammar bluntly

confronts the student and is often not received well. Eager to learn a for-
eign language, but having a distaste for studying the rules of grammar,
some students are placed in the uncomfortable position of dismissing an
ideal that they had wished to attain. Although often told that knowing
the grammar of the foreign language that they are studying will lead to
speaking that language, they become unconvinced by one or two semes-
ters of high school or college study and opt to complete the high school
or college requirement quickly and without further study.
Some students faced with a grammatical approach to foreign language
study often reflect on the learning of their first language. One student
reported to me that she asked her mother what she did to teach her
English and when did she learn it. Her mother replied that she didn’t do
anything special, as far as she knew other than talk to her. Parents are
often as oblivious to their role in their children’s learning of a first lan-
guage as are their children in learning their native language, yet the role
of the parent is extremely important, as subsequently will be discussed.
For the moment let us consider the study of verb tenses. The verb
tenses of foreign languages can be memorized, but this learning tactic will
not ensure their accurate use. What must be acquired is their functional
use. On a visit to a foreign country, a tour guide who spoke reasonably
good English took a group of tourists to the country’s empty parliament
building. At one point he stood next to a podium in the assembly hall
and said, “This is where the speaker of the house is sitting.” I received a
slight jolt, knowing that the meaning in this case was clear, but that the
contextual use of this sentence was incorrect. A native English speaker
would have said: This is where the speaker of the house sits, using the present
tense to indicate a situation or a specific ongoing event. I thought to
myself that it is clear that the present progressive form of the verb sit, that
is, “he is sitting,” must require the presence of an individual. However, on
another occasion sitting in a restaurant with my nine-year-old grand-
daughter, I revised my belief that someone must be present in order to
use the progressive “is sitting.” Sitting next to my granddaughter was my
grandson who momentarily left the table. At that point a relative sat
down next to my granddaughter, and my granddaughter responded:
“Dylan is sitting here,” a perfectly acceptable use of the present
 2 Our Magical Language 13

progressive form “is sitting.” She might have used the past progressive,
“Dylan was sitting here,” but she didn’t because she knew he was return-
ing to the table. She might have used the simple present tense, Dylan sits
here, but she didn’t because it would imply that he always sits at this place
at this table.
At this point two generalizations regarding the learning of the correct
use of verb tenses appear reasonable. Learning the grammatical forms of
verb tenses of a foreign language will not prepare an individual with the
correct implied meanings of verb tenses. What is important, I believe, is
to experience verb usage in a large number of occasions. The discipline of
semantics is concerned with the meaning of sentences whereas the disci-
pline of syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences. A sentence
can be grammatical but not appropriate in a particular context.
Our understanding of word knowledge, termed lexical knowledge,
contributes importantly to our use and understanding of sentences.
Nelson (1981) considers the issue of what it means to have knowledge of
the lexical item ball. Some of the lexical descriptors that she mentions are
that a ball is used on the playground; it can be picked up, thrown, and
caught; it rolls; it bounces; and so on. Children acquiring the meaning of
the word ball acquire early these several descriptors of the word ball. With
age they learn additional descriptors for the word ball, such as its fabric,
its size, and the various types of balls, such as baseball, basketball, moth-
ball, ballpark, oddball, hairball, cornball, and so on.
The language principles that underlie our native language are acquired
early in childhood. We do not necessarily know these language principles
at a conscious level; nonetheless we are capable of using them. The under-
standing we have of our native language falls within the realm of implicit
knowledge. Our understanding of the meaning of a sentence is not a
conscious endeavor.
The discipline of linguistics centers on the description of elements and
rules that define and explain the infinite set of sentences that users of
natural languages can generate. Recently I read the following sentence
which was novel for me in an article on interior design: “Make your great
room cozy.” It is a sentence that I believe I had not encountered before
and one that I probably would never have created, but it is a sentence that
I well understand for both its literal meaning and its clever word usage. I
14 H. Winitz

understood the word “great room” because family rooms that are large are
often labeled “great rooms.” “Cozy” implies a small and almost intimate
situation, but in this context cozy provides to the reader something about
the design of the great room, more specifically, the intimate placement of
the furniture. Novel sentences such as this one are encountered frequently
by native speakers of a language and in most cases are interpreted easily.
To understand novel sentences, that is, ones we have not heard before,
is an extraordinary creative process. Applying our understanding of the
fundamental principles of the English language, our knowledge of the
speaker, the occasion in which a sentence is spoken, and an understand-
ing of the physical, sociological, and psychological makeup of the world
in which we live, we put forward a hypothesis as to the meaning of a
sentence. Stated in another way, we test the meaning of each sentence,
not necessarily at a conscious level, with all our language and social capa-
bilities by providing for ourselves that which we believe to be the mean-
ing of the speaker’s or writer’s intent. On some occasions we may fail to
grasp a speaker’s intent, but under an almost innumerable thematic situ-
ation, the system works extraordinarily well in that it provides to the lis-
tener the speaker’s intended meaning.
There is much to learn when acquiring a new language. In fact what is
to be learned is massive in size not generally recognized by the beginning
foreign language student. The student of German, for example, is required
to distinguish between the meaning of Er geht unter den Baum and Er
geht unter dem Baum, of which both expressions can be translated into
English as: He walks under the tree. A precise English translation can be
made, but let us first look at the difference in meaning between these two
German sentences by focusing on the two definite articles den and dem.
Here the article den signals entering the walking space beneath the tree,
whereas dem indicates that the walking takes place while under the tree.
He walked under the tree in English can have the meaning of just enter-
ing the space under the tree and walking in the space under the tree. If
necessary, of course, a distinction can be made in English for just entering
the space under the tree by saying: Just now he has begun to walk under
the tree. But this sentence would only be used for clarification. It would
be uncommon in English to cite this event in this way. However, in
German the distinction between entering the space under the tree and
 2 Our Magical Language 15

walking under the tree is used as a matter of course. In English we can

almost make this distinction of entering a space and walking within a
space by using the two prepositions in and into. “He walked into the
house” has the meaning of entering the house and “He walked in the
house” has the meaning of walking in the house and walking inside the
house. When “in” is used the meaning of the sentence is ambiguous
because it can mean that the person is walking into the house and walk-
ing inside the house. Note, of course, that in an instructional manual in
which this distinction must be made clear, the writer of the instructional
manual would most likely use “into” rather than “in” to designate the
unambiguous meaning of entering the house. However, the meaning of
the prepositions “on” and “onto” in English is clear with regard to enter-
ing the particular designated space as in the difference in meaning for
these two sentences: They walked on the table and They walked onto
the table.
A student of German who does not understand the difference in mean-
ing between the above two German sentences in which the articles “den”
and “dem” are used would not be expected to make this distinction when
speaking German. Accordingly, understanding the meaning of the two
German definite articles, den and dem, for this situation and similar situ-
ations, must take place before these two definite articles can be used cor-
rectly in speech. No measure of practice in the speaking of German will
result in the correct use of these articles. Their functions must be under-
stood before they are used correctly in speech. Similarly for the native
speaker of English, understanding of the contrast between “on” and
“onto” must be understood before these two prepositions can be used
correctly in speech.
It is important to underline that understanding the meaning of sen-
tences in one’s native language, in most cases, is not a conscious endeavor.
We invoke this process of understanding sentences within an almost
instantaneous time span without engaging in conscious reasoning of the
structural components of the sentences we hear. When teaching foreign
languages, using the perspective of comprehension learning, the goal is
the same for the second-language learner: to understand a foreign lan-
guage rapidly and correctly without engaging in conscious reasoning of
the structural components of the sentences of the second language.
16 H. Winitz

Acquiring our native language has largely been a function of an immer-

sion process that began, as some language scientists believe, at birth, and
continued throughout our school years. Individuals whose interests lie in
the use of language beyond its everyday listening and conversational
needs hone their language skills in a variety of ways often taking courses
that emphasize advanced writing principles, creative writing, and meth-
ods of scientific writing, while concentrating on expanding their vocabu-
lary by extensive reading and by giving conscious attention to the meaning
of words. But before explicit attention is given to the development of
one’s second-language skills, implicit language knowledge of the second
language must be well established. Implicit knowledge of the second lan-
guage is the foundation upon which successful language usage rests.
Implicit use of language rules for native-speaking adults can best be
illustrated by a now well-known sentence assessment procedure.
Individuals are given sentences and asked to identify the sentences that
English speakers would say or would not say. The linguistic journals and
books are filled with thousands of such comparative examples because the
first step in formulating a linguistic rule is to compose sentences which
are regarded as allowable and those sentences that are unallowable accord-
ing to a linguistic principle or a set of linguistic principles.
In the following examples, sentences that are regarded as unallowable
are marketed with an asterisk.

*He spoke her to about the fire. (1)

*She has the apple eaten. (2)

We recognize that in sentences (1) and (2) that English word order has
been violated without consciously attending to the rules of pronoun and
verb placement in English.
The ordering of adjectives is an intricate process in English. Sentence
(3) would be considered grammatical whereas sentence (4) would not be
considered well formed.

The big red rubber ball is on the table and the small yellow plastic ball is
on the floor. (3)
 2 Our Magical Language 17

*The rubber red big ball is on the table and the plastic yellow small ball is
on the floor. (4)

Radford (1981, p. 59) points out that the coordinate and cannot be
applied willy nilly when conjoining sentences. He cites the following ill-­
formed sentence:

*John rang up his mother and up his sister. (5)

Parts of the sequence in (5) are grammatical: John rang up his mother;
John rang up his sister, but these two separate sentences are not gram-
matical when the conjunction and is used, as in (5).
Another example of an ungrammatical use of “and” involves conjoin-
ing the following two sentences to form a third sentence, indicated as
8 below:

He ran quickly. (6)

He ran outside. (7)
*He ran quickly and outside. (8)

Instead of conjoining sentences (6) and (7), we would much pre-

fer to say:

He ran quickly outside. (9)

It is instructive to examine a few sentences from the work of Fillmore

(1968) who studied the grammatical category case. Some cases he dis-
cussed were the following: agentive, the agent or instigator of an action;
instrumental, the inanimate force or instrument used to carry out the
action; and objective, the noun that is affected by the action specified by
the verb.
Consider the following sentences provided by Fillmore (1968, p. 22)

John broke the window. (10)

A hammer broke the window. (11)
John broke the window with a hammer (12)
18 H. Winitz

In (10), the subject John is the agent and in (11) the subject hammer
is the instrument. In (12) hammer is the instrument in the prepositional
phrase introduced by the preposition “with.” Fillmore notes that the con-
joining of sentences (10) and (11) is ungrammatical as the agentive and
instrumental cases cannot be conjoined to form (13).

*John and a hammer broke the window. (13)

However, the sentence “Bill broke the window” (14) can be conjoined
with sentence (10) “John broke the window” to form sentence (15):

John and Bill broke the window (15)

For every commonly used sentence, one word change can produce a
sentence that native speakers, in this case English, will reject as ill formed.
Consider the following sentences:

She mows the grass. (16)

She cuts the grass. (17)
She mows the lawn. (18)
*She cuts the lawn. (19)

What are the language considerations for sentence (19) that makes it a
sentence we would probably not say? A linguistic analysis would begin by
examining the difference between the words grass and lawn recognizing
that grass is a plant and plants vegetate. A lawn contains the crop grass.
To mow is to beautify by leveling and smoothing. These factors would be
used to define the language properties of the above sentences when a
linguistic analysis is made. However, native speakers of English do not
engage in an explicit linguistic analysis of a sentence prior to uttering it.
They reject sentence (19) because it “doesn’t sound right.”
The term generative grammar is used in formal linguistic analysis
because the grammar is said to generate the structural descriptions of the
sentences of a language. The grammar operates somewhat like a formula
which if carried out correctly will generate well-formed sentences. It is
generally accepted that generative grammars provide explanations and
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 A LOGGUN LADY. FUNHA OF MAFFATAI.
ABDALLAH OF MANDARA.

From Drawings by Major Denham. Engraved by E. Finden.

Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.

On entering the town of Angala, on the 19th, Bellal, who had

accompanied Mr. Toole and myself on the excursion to Loggun,
again pointed out the place where we had deposited my unfortunate
friend. I went to the spot to see that it was not disturbed; and a
peaceful depository it had proved for his remains: every thing
remained just as I had left it, even to the branches which covered his
grave, and I was fearful, by exciting observations, to risk their
disturbance.
 On the 20th we reached Maffatai, and took possession once more
of my old quarters in Birmah’s house. The host, however, was from
home, getting his gussub into the ground; his eldest wife did the
honours: she also gave me a little more of her company than before,
and told me, very good-naturedly, that she could do many things
now, that she could not when the lord was at home. Nothing, indeed,
could exceed the kindness with which my hostess, who was called
Ittha, did all she could to show how welcome a visitor I was.
“Birmah,” she said, “must stay and get in the corn, but she hoped I
should not miss him.” During the first day she came repeatedly with
her sister Funha, a negress with an expression of countenance more
pleasing than I had ever before seen, of about eighteen, who, Ittha
said, was most anxious to see me, from what she had told her
formerly. Luckily, she added, Funha had divorced her husband only
two days before, or she could not have had that pleasure. Ittha, with
all the familiarity of an old acquaintance, uncovered my hands, arms,
and breast, to show to her sister my extraordinary whiteness. It
seemed to surprise her greatly; but nevertheless I was pleased to
observe that it did not appear to excite either much alarm or disgust:
but what certainly seemed to both the greatest wonder, was the sight
and touch of my head, which had just been shaved; it was literally
passed from the hands of one to the other, with so many remarks,
that some minutes elapsed ere I could be allowed to replace my
turban. When, at length, they left me, Ittha exclaimed, pressing my
hand with both hers, that I was fit to be a sultan, mai, mai, wolla! and
that Funha should shampoo me, and try to bring on sleep, as I must
be tired and fatigued by the heat of the sun. This, however, was not
all: towards evening, more than a dozen of Ittha’s friends, the
principal ladies of the town, came, in consequence of the liberty she
enjoyed while the goodman was away, to have a look at the bulfulk
(white man), each bringing me something—a few onions, a little rice,
or a bowl of milk, as a present. Funha performed all the duties
imposed on her to perfection. I had a supper of pounded rice, milk,
and honey, with something like bread made into cakes: and verily I
began to think, like Ittha herself, that I not only deserved to be a
sultan, but that I had really commenced my reign.
 We moved to Showy, and crossing the Gurdya by a slanting ford,
came more to the eastward than before, and by a nearer route. I was
here greatly amused with seeing a party of girls skipping in a long
rope, just as we do in England, and the fear of losing my dignity
alone prevented my speedily joining them. They performed well; but
then it must be recollected that they were totally unincumbered with
drapery or any covering whatever, although good-sized young ladies
of twelve or thirteen years old. The inhabitants of Showy are a most
indolent happy people: half the night is passed in fishing, which is
their sole support; and towards evening, each day, the sound of the
drum calls them to the open space in the centre of their huts, when
the men form themselves into circles, and dance in a most uncouth
though joyous manner. The women all assemble at a certain part of
the circle, sitting on the ground with their faces covered, and salute
the most active with loud screams of approbation.
D. Denham. J. & C. Walker Sculp.

Hager Teous called by the Natives the Foot Stool of Noah.

(Large-size)
Published by J. Murray, Albemarle Street London. March 1826.

June 24.—We crossed the Shary with but little less water than we
had found six months before, and passing the day on the east bank,
we moved again in the evening: we saw twelve crocodiles basking
on the banks. A large party of Shouaas were passing on rafts,
swimming their sheep and bullocks, which they drive over in flocks,
one being first forced into the river, and dragged over by a line run
through the cartilage of the nose. Women often perform this duty,
showing great strength and agility in swimming and curbing these
powerful animals. We made nine miles, passed quantities of ghrwka
(castor-nut tree), and at noon arrived at lake Hamese, which is part
of the Tchad, and halted at some Shouaa huts of the Beni Hassan
tribe, at a place called Zeabra. In continuation of our course, we
halted, in the afternoon, at Berbeeta, where we encountered a
terrible storm, and were sadly bitten by mosquitoes.
A little to the northward of the road, and at the head of the lake
Hamese, are some very curious rocks of red granite standing in an
immense plain, at a great distance from any mountains of a
corresponding structure: one is of a conical form, and distant about
three hundred yards from the others, which are connected. The
space between Kou Abdallah, the name of the first, and the other
three is covered with loose fragments of rock of different sizes, and it
is natural to suppose they were all formerly united: the three are
called Hager Teous by the Bornouese, and by the Shouaa Bete
Nibbe Mohammed. I had dismounted for the purpose of approaching
nearer to the base of the single rock, over the broken fragments by
which it was surrounded, principally for the purpose of procuring
some specimens, when those who were waiting in the plain
exclaimed, “A lion! a lion! a lion!” I began to look around me with
great anxiety, and quickly perceived a large female panther, big with
young, bursting from the shade of the loose fragments just before
me, and, frightened at the cries of the negroes, was running up the
rock. These are the most dangerous animals that are here met with,
although they never attack when several persons are together; my
being in advance was what alarmed the rest. The animal, however,
passed quietly away.
June 26.—We still kept near the swamps which surround the
Tchad, and halting as usual for two hours in the heat of the day, by
sunset we had made nineteen miles, winding, and arrived at the huts
of the Biddomassy Shouaa, where Barca Gana was encamped.
June 27.—Proceeded fifteen miles, and found the Dugganah
Shouaa were about three miles before us, with Malem Chadely, and
a small body of the sheikh’s people who had preceded us. We
forded to-day eight waters, branches of the lake, some up to the
body of the horse; while the camels took a more circuitous route, and
passed beyond the waters on perfectly dry ground. Amanook’s
people, we found, had fled.
June 28.—Although on our arriving at the camp of the Dugganah
a long parley was held, and a number of questions asked of sheikh
Hamed, as to Amanook’s numbers, and his hiding-place, yet the first
object of the expedition did not appear until just before daylight this
morning, when the whole body mounted, and in fifteen minutes were
moving towards Kanem Mendoo, one day from Maou, the capital;
from whence the Waday’s had driven the sheikh’s friends. Mendoo
had thrown off the sheikh’s government, and Edershi Gebere,
nephew of the Fugboo, that had been put to death by the order of
Mustapha L’Achmar the sultan of Fezzan, now ruled as khalifa. The
sheikh’s object had been to catch him by surprise; and for this
reason Amanook and La Sala were always held out as the sole
destination of the army. Mendoo was nearly in my road, and it was
therefore necessary that it should be cleared first of these rebels.
Barca Gana sent in the night for Bellal, and desired him to acquaint
me with his intention, and that as he should merely halt to sully
(pray) and water the horses, from his starting until the sun should be
three fathoms high on the following day, when he should surround
Mendoo; that the sheikh wished me to remain where I then was until
his return, which would be in four days, when he trusted I should be
able to proceed in safety. I should have preferred going on, and
leaving Mendoo to him, have passed on round the Tchad; but he
would not hear of such an arrangement, and as I was kept in
ignorance of this plan until the whole army was actually in motion, I
had no alternative. Not a camel went with them, and all the baggage
and siriahs were left in the camp. Bellal now became the chief, and
with the assistance of the Shouaas and Arabs, the camp was
intrenched, trees were cut down, and a sort of abbattis quickly
formed for our protection. Our situation was, however, one of
jeopardy and inconvenience, as nothing but their ignorance of our
movements could save us from an attack from Amanook’s people, to
whom we should have been a fine booty and an easy prey. From our
vicinity to the Tchad, the swarms of flies in the day, and mosquitoes
at night, were so great, that we were obliged to resort to our old
remedy of lighting fires, and living in the smoke, in order to obtain a
little peace.
June 29.—The Dugganah chief, Tahr, came to my tent to-day,
attended by about twenty people, who all sat down behind him
bareheaded, while he had on a dark blue cotton cap. He had a fine,
serious, expressive countenance, large features, and a long bushy
beard: these are the particular characteristics of these Shouaas—
they differ from the Shouaas to the west, who have mixed more with
the natives. Tahr might have sat for the picture of one of the
patriarchs; and an able artist would have produced a beautiful head
from such a study. Their mode of salutation is by closing their hands
gently several times—as we applaud—and then extending the palms
of both flat towards you, exclaiming, “L’affia?—Are you well and
happy?”
Tahr, with his followers, after looking at me with an earnestness
that was distressing to me for a considerable time, at last gained
confidence enough to ask some questions, commencing, as usual,
with “What brought you here? they say your country is a moon from
Tripoli.” I replied, “to see by whom the country was inhabited; and
whether it had lakes, and rivers, and mountains like our own.” “And
have you been three years from your home? Are not your eyes
dimmed with straining to the north, where all your thoughts must
ever be? Oh! you are men, men, indeed! Why, if my eyes do not see
the wife and children of my heart for ten days, when they should be
closed in sleep they are flowing with tears.”
I had bought a sheep for a dollar, a coin with which he was not
conversant; and he asked if it was true that they came out of the
earth? The explanation pleased him. “You are not Jews?” said he.
“No,” said I. “Christians, then?” “Even so,” replied I. “I have read of
you: you are better than Jews,” said he. “Are Jews white, like you?”
“No,” replied I; “rather more like yourself, very dark.” “Really;” said
the sheikh: “Why, are they not quite white? They are a bad people.”
After staying a full hour, he took my hand, and said, “I see you are a
sultan: I never saw any body like you. The sight of you is as pleasing
to my eyes, as your words are to my ear. My heart says you are my
friend. May you die at your own tents, and in the arms of your wives
and family.” “Amen,” said I; and they all took their leave.
June 30.—Tahr paid me another visit to-day. The Dugganahs
were formerly Waday, and were strong enough to have great
influence with the sultan; but by quarrelling among themselves, they
lost their influence, and became subject to the Waday sultans. They
generally passed one part of the year in the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and the
other part by lake Fittre: in these two spots had been the regular
frigues, or camps, for several generations. Sheikh Hamed his father,
the present chief, who had more than one hundred children, found
that another tribe of Dugganah had been intriguing with the sultan of
Waday against him, and that he was to be plundered, and his
brethren to share in the spoil. On learning this, he fled with his flocks
and his wives, offered himself to the sheikh, El Kanemy, and had
since lived in his dominions. The account he gave of the Tchad was
this—it formerly emptied itself into the Bahr-el-Ghazal by a stream,
the dry bed of which still remained, now filled with large trees and full
of pasture: it was situated between the N’Gussum and Kangarah,
inhabited by Waday Kanemboos. “I could take you there,” said he,
“in a day; but not now—spears are now shining in the hands of the
sons of Adam, and every man fears his neighbour.” He had heard his
grandfather, when he was a boy, say, “that it there gradually wasted
itself in an immense swamp, or, indeed, lake[50]: the whole of that
was now dried up. They all thought,” he said, “the overflowings of the
Tchad were decreasing, though almost imperceptibly. From hence to
Fittre was four days: there was no water, and but two wells on the
road. Fittre,” he said, “was large; but not like the Tchad. His infancy
had been passed on its borders. He had often heard Fittre called the
Darfoor water and Shilluk. Fittre had a stream running out of it—was
not like the Tchad, which every body knew was now a still water; a
river also came from the south-west, which formed lake Fittre; and
this and the Nile were one: he believed this was also the Shary; but
he knew nothing to the westward: it, however, came from the Kerdy
country, called Bosso, and slaves had been brought to Fittre by it,
who had their teeth all pointed and their ears cut quite close to their
heads.” Tahr wished to purchase our water skins, “for,” said he, “we
can get none like them; and either to Fittre, or Waday, we pass a
high country, and find but few wells.” The Biddoomah sometimes pay
them a visit; and although generally professing friendship, always
steal something. The last time, they sold them a woman and a boy;
which by Barca Gana’s people were recognized as the same they,
the Biddomahs, had stolen from the neighbourhood of Angornou six
months before: they were of course restored without payment. The
hyænas were here so numerous, and so bold, as to break over the
fence of bushes in the middle of a thunder-storm, and carry off a
sheep from within five yards of my tent. We had news that Barca
Gana had found Mendoo deserted, and was disappointed in catching
the khalifa.
The Shouaas live entirely in tents of leather, or rather of rudely
dressed hides, and huts of rushes, changing but from necessity, on
the approach of an enemy, or want of pasturage for their numerous
flocks: they seldom fight except in their own defence. The chiefs
never leave their homes, but send bullocks to the markets at Maffatai
and Mekhari, and bring gussub in return: their principal food,
however, is the milk of camels, in which they are rich, and also that
of cows and sheep; this they will drink and take no other
nourishment for months together. Their camps are circular, and are
called dowera[51], or frigue, with two entrances for the cattle to enter
at and be driven out. They have the greatest contempt for, and
hatred of, the negro nations, and yet are always tributary to either
one black sultan or another: there is no example of their ever having
peopled a town, or established themselves in a permanent home.
 Sketch of the Lake Tchad.

D. Denham. J. & C. Walker Sculpt.

(Large-size)

Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle Street London.

For several days we were kept in the greatest suspense. No news

arrived from the army. Reports varied: it was said Barca Gana had
pushed on to Maou and Waday; again, that he was gone to the
islands. We had thunder and rain, with distressing heat, and flies,
and mosquitoes to torture. Bellal would not go on, and I would not go
back: we were consuming daily our store of rice, with eight days
before us to Woodie, through a country without supplies.
 July 6.—On the evening of yesterday, Barca Gana, with the
chiefs, and about half their force, returned; the remainder had been
obliged to halt on the road, to refresh their horses. He had pushed
on to Maou after Edirshe Gebere, a Shouaa chief of Korata
Mendooby. Fugboo Kochamy, as he was called, was the fourth
khalifa whom the sheikh had placed at Maou (his three predecessors
having been strangled by the Waday people); he was first cousin to
Edirshe, who, affecting friendship for him, lulled his suspicions, and
one night attacked him in his capital. Kochamy made a gallant
defence; he killed nine of them with his spear, but was at length
overcome, and died, with eleven others of the sheikh’s allies.
Fugboo Jemamy, his brother, alone escaped: to assist Jemamy was
the object of Barca Gana. Edirshe had news of their movements,
notwithstanding they went nearly fifty miles in a day and night, and
appeared first at Mendoo, and then at Maou, on the day after they
left us. Edirshe had fled with all his cattle and women: they found
them about ten miles from Maou, entrenched within a circular camp,
with all their cattle, women, and children, strongly defended with
stakes; their bowmen were all distributed between the stakes, and in
front of the entrenchment: they saluted their enemies with shrill cries
on their approach, and the sheikh’s people, after looking at them for
a day and a night, without any provisions for either men or horses,
dared not attack them. Disappointed, therefore, in their hopes of
plunder and revenge, the whole returned here, their horses and men
nearly in a state of starvation.
July 10.—We were all anxiety this day. Barca Gana was nearly
one thousand strong, and about four hundred Dugganahs joined
him, besides furnishing him with nearly one hundred horses.
Amanook was one of the sheikh’s most troublesome remaining
enemies; the sheikh had, on various occasions, and lastly, when he
joined the Begharmis in their attack on Bornou, very severely
crippled him, and destroyed more than half his force: the design now
was to annihilate the remainder, and secure, if possible, the person
of this inveterate foe, who kept alive the hostile feeling both on the
Begharmi and Waday side. Amanook, however, was not to be taken
by surprise, and he gave the sheikh’s troops such a proof of what
might be done by a handful of men, bold of soul, and determined to
defend an advantageous situation, that they will not easily forget.
Just before sunset a Fezzanneer, who had lately entered into the
sheikh’s service, returned to the camp, giving an account of Barca
Gana’s complete discomfiture, and Bellal and myself immediately
mounted our horses in order to learn the particulars. The Tchad[52],
which in this part forms itself into innumerable still waters, or lakes of
various extents, and consequently leaves many detached spaces of
land or islands, always afforded the La Sala Shouaas, and the
Biddomah, natural defences, which their enemies had ever found it
extremely difficult to conquer. In one of these situations, these very
La Salas, with Amanook at their head, kept the sultan of Fezzan,
with two thousand Arabs, and all the sheikh’s army, several days in
check, and killed between thirty and forty of the Arabs before they
surrendered. On this occasion Amanook had taken possession of
one of these islands, which, to attack with horsemen alone, in front
of an opposing enemy, was the height of imprudence. A narrow pass
led between two lakes to a third, behind which Amanook had posted
himself with all his cattle, and his people, male and female: the lake,
in front of him, was neither deep nor wide, but full of holes, and had
a muddy deceitful bottom on the side from whence the attack was
made.
The sight of the bleating flocks, and lowing herds, was too much
for the ravenous troops of the sheikh, irritated by their recent
disappointment; and notwithstanding the declaration of Barca Gana,
that he wished to halt on the opposite side of the water, and send for
spearmen on foot, with shields, who would lead the attack, the junior
chiefs all exclaimed, “What! be so near them as this, and not eat
them? No, no! let us on! This night these flocks and women will be
ours.” This cry the sheikh’s Shouaas also joined in, ever loud in talk,
but rearmost in the fight, as the sequel proved. The attack
commenced: the Arabs, of whom there were about eighty, led the
way with the Dugganah. On arriving in the middle of the lake the
horses sank up to their saddle-bows, most of them were out of their
depth, and others floundered in the mud: the ammunition of the
riders became wet, their guns useless, many even missed the first
fire, and they were unhorsed in this situation. As they approached
the shore, the La Sala hurled at them, with unerring aim, a volley of
their light spears, a very formidable missile, which they followed up
by a charge of their strongest and best horse, trained and
accustomed to the water; while, at the same time, another body,
having crossed the lake higher up, came by the narrow pass, and cut
off the retreat of all those who had advanced into the lake. The
Shouaas, on the first appearance of resistance, had, as usual, gone
to the right about, and left those, under whose cover they meant to
plunder, to fight it out by themselves: the slaughter now became very
desperate amongst the sheikh’s people. Barca Gana, although
attacking against his own judgment, was of the foremost, and
received a severe spear wound in his back, which pierced through
four tobes, and an iron chain armour, while attacked by five chiefs,
who seemed determined on finishing him; one of whom he thrust
completely through with his long spear. By crowding around him, and
by helping him quickly to a fresh horse, his own people and chiefs
saved him, and thirty of them remained either killed or in the hands
of the La Sala: but few of those who were wounded in the water, or
whose horses failed them there, escaped. We found Barca Gana,
with the other chiefs, seated near the second water; he was in great
pain from his wound, and the whole army dreadfully disheartened:
they had not more than forty followers in all. We vainly waited until
sunset, in the hopes of the missing making their appearance, but we
were disappointed, and returned to the camp. By this desertion of
the sheikh’s Shouaas, the Dugganahs suffered severely: anxious to
show their sincerity to the sheikh, they had gone on boldly, and their
loss exceeded one hundred; eighteen of the Arabs were also
missing. The night was passed in a state of great anxiety, from the
fear of an attack on our camp; and the sense of our unjoyous
situation was constantly awakened by the melancholy dirges which
the Dugganah women were singing over their dead husbands, really
so musically piteous, that it was almost impossible not to sympathize
in their affliction.
The Dugganah, from being the humblest of allies, now became
rather dictatorial, and told the general very plainly that they could
fight better without him than with him: they refused him both bullocks
and sheep, and said they must keep them to pay the ransom of their
people.
Amanook, who it seems had no idea of following up his victory by
an attack on our camp, which he might have done successfully, and
carried off all the chiefs, siriahs, and camels, sent word this evening
that he would now treat with nobody but the sheikh himself; that he
had declared to the general, before he attacked him, that he feared
no one but God, the Prophet, and the sheikh, and wished for peace:
“They would not listen to me,” said he, “but attempted to take by
force what was their master’s before; for all we had was the sheikh’s,
and is still. By God’s help my people overcame them, but that is
nothing; I am to the sheikh, in point of strength, as an egg is to a
stone: if he wishes peace, and will no more molest me in my wilds,
peace be with us—I will give up his people, his horses, and his arms,
that have fallen into my hands; if not, I will keep them all, and may be
add to their number. We are not easily beaten: by the head of the
Prophet, I can and will, if I am forced, turn fish, and fly to the centre
of the water; and if the sheikh comes himself against me, I will bring
Waday against him.”
July 8.—The chiefs all refused to withdraw their forces on this
offer of Amanook: they sent word that he was not to be depended
on, so often had he deceived them. Nothing but an unconditional
return of all the spoil would satisfy them. In a long conversation
which I had with Barca Gana, whose wound was now fast healing
from the dressing of burnt fat and sulphur, which I had applied, he
assured me that they should not make another attempt on this bold
chieftain: he, however, advised my returning to Kouka. “The
excursion,” said he, “you wish to make was always dangerous, it is
now impracticable; we must wait for the sheikh’s appearance before
we can do any thing, and I think, from the advanced state of the
season, as the rains have now begun to fall, you will find that the
sheikh will not come, and that we shall all return.”
By being ten days encamped[53] close to the frigue of the
Dugganah Shouaas, we had a better opportunity of observing these
curious people: they were a superior class to any I had met with;
they were rich in cattle, and in camels, and seemed to live in plenty,
and patriarchal simplicity. The sheikh had greatly encouraged their
taking refuge with him on their disagreement with Waday, and had
promised them protection, tribute free, provided they were faithful.
Both the men and women were comely, particularly the latter, who,
when they found that we paid for what we wanted in little bits of
coarse karem (amber), with which I had provided myself, brought us,
night and morning, frothy bowls of milk, which formed by far the best
part of our repasts. There is something so curious and singularly
interesting and expressive in the Shouaa manners and language,
that I am at a loss how to describe it. A girl sits down by your tent
with a bowl of milk, a dark blue cotton wrapper tied round her waist,
and a mantila of the same thrown over her head, with which she
hides her face, yet leaves all her bust naked; she says, “A happy day
to you! Your friend has brought you milk: you gave her something so
handsome yesterday, she has not forgotten it. Oh! how her eyes
ache to see all you have got in that wooden house,” pointing to a
trunk. “We have no fears now; we know you are good; and our eyes,
which before could not look at you, now search after you always:
they bid us beware of you, at first, for you were bad, very bad; but
we know better now. How it pains us that you are so white!”
As we had not more than four days’ provision, I determined on
returning after another interview with Barca Gana: we left Tangalia,
and returned to the spot where we had left the Biddomassy, and had
scarcely pitched our tents when a storm came on, which lasted till
midnight: but bad as it was, it was preferable to the stings of the
musquitoes and flies which succeeded it. Notwithstanding we had
fires inside the tent, which nearly stifled us, no sleep was to be
obtained.
On the 11th we arrived at Showy, after a very tedious march, and
losing our way for three hours: the woods are, indeed, most intricate
and difficult; and as all the Shouaas had moved up towards Barca
Gana, we could get no guides. We saw five giraffees (cameleopards)
to-day, to my great delight; they were the first I had seen alive, and
notwithstanding my fatigue and the heat, Bellal and myself chased
them for half an hour: we kept within about twenty yards of them.
They have a very extraordinary appearance from their being so low
behind, and move awkwardly, dragging, as it were, their hinder legs
after them: they are not swift, and unlike any figure of them I ever
met with. Passing the Shary was attended with very great difficulty;
the stream was extremely rapid, and our horses and camels were
carried away from the sides of the canoe, to which they were lashed:
we lost a camel by this passage; these animals have a great dislike
to water, and after swimming a stream are often seized with illness,
and are carried off in a few hours.
July 12.—Left Showy, and once more found ourselves at Maffatai.
The rest, and fish bazeen, with which we were here regaled, with the
deep shade of Burmah’s spacious mansion, greatly recovered us.
The skin of my face all came off, and I slept nearly the whole day
after our arrival: the sun, rain, flies, and musquitoes, altogether had
fatigued me more than any former journey.
On the 15th we pursued our route homeward by a new course,
and halted close to the Gambalarum, on the ground the Begharmis
had escaped over, after their rencontre with the sheikh: the ground
was strewed with skeletons.
July 16.—After a long and fatiguing march we reached some
Felatah huts, about sunset. The water, after crossing Maffatai, is all
sad muddy stuff; and the nearer you approach Angornou, the blacker
the soil is, and the worse it becomes. We to-day crossed the Molee,
a small stream which runs to the Tchad. The whole of this road,
indeed the whole country from Angala, is an inclined plane towards
the Great Lake, and during the rains it is impassable: they were now
every where sowing their grain, and in many places they were
reaping the Indian corn. Since leaving Maffatai, we had nothing
besides a little rice, to which I added a duck or two, which I made it
part of my business to search after, and shoot.
July 17.—We this day reached Angornou, very much fatigued with
our journey; we had a drenching night of it, and crept into our friend
Abdi Nibbe’s hut, with great joy: the worst of these storms were that
they spoiled the only meal we could get time to cook in the twenty-
four hours; and our tents, which rarely withstood the blasts, on
falling, exposed all our stores as well as ourselves to the pelting of
the storm.
On my arrival again at Kouka I found that Captain Clapperton,
with a small kafila, had returned from Soudan: it was nearly eight
months since we had separated, and although it was midday I went
immediately to the hut where he was lodged; but so satisfied was I
that the sun-burnt sickly person that lay extended on the floor, rolled
in a dark blue shirt, was not my companion, that I was about to leave
the place, when he convinced me of my error, by calling me by my
name: the alteration in him was certainly most striking. Our meeting
was a melancholy one: he had buried his companion, and I had also
closed the eyes of my younger and more robust colleague, Mr.
Toole. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which I found
Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke of returning to Soudan after the
rains.
July 28.—I had now determined on proceeding by Woodie to
Kanem, and approaching as near as possible to Tangalia, the spot
where I had left Barca Gana, when I had passed by the southern
extremity of the lake; and if I succeeded, and returned before the
departure of the kafila after the Aid Kebir, I fostered a hope of
retracing my steps across the desert, with all the satisfaction of a
man who had accomplished to the full the duties that had been
assigned him. Yagah Menamah, the chief eunuch of the sheikh’s
favourite wife, came to me soon after daylight, and presented me
with two kansara, or fly-flappers, made of the tail of the camelopard;
and in her name said that she had burnt salt for my departure,
praying that neither the devil nor any of his imps might be able to
play me any malicious tricks on my journey. The sheikh had
consented to Mr. Tyrwhitt’s remaining as consul: and on my inquiring
whether he would protect one or two English merchants, if they
came to his country—“Certainly: why not?” said he, “and assist them
to the extent of my power; but they must be small traders, or the
journey will never pay them.” He expressed his wish to write to the
king, and added, “whatever I can do in Soudan, remember I am
ready. I have influence there certainly, which may increase, and
probably shortly extend to Nyffé. As to yourself, I shall write to beg
the king will send you here, with any English whom he may wish to
visit Bornou. You are known, and might now go any where in Bornou
without fear. Even the Shouaas on the frontiers, and the Duggenah,
all know Rais Khaleel: but this has not been done hastily; you have
been nearly eighteen months amongst us, and you remember when
you could not go to Angornou without inconvenience. I then thought
you would never be as much at liberty here as you are. Time and
yourself may be thanked for this, not me; for I could not, by any
orders I might have given, have done for you what your mixing freely
with the people, and gaining their good will, has brought about—and
yet you are a Christian!”
July 30.—This morning the sheikh sent to Mr. Clapperton, Mr.
Hillman, and myself, as a present, a very fine camel, a horse, and
two water-skins, two leopard skins, and two dressed-leather sacks.
In the course of the morning another cargo was brought to me,
consisting of eight elephants’ tusks, with the horns of three other
animals. The horns were, first, the maremah, a long horn similar to
one I had seen at Kabshary—the animal has two, bending
backwards at the point; kirkadan, a two-horned animal; another
animal, with one long horn and a second shorter just above it, nearly
between the eyes of the animal, was described to me as having, on
the sheikh’s late expedition to Gulphi, carried a man and horse,
spiked on his horn, more than one hundred yards, when, frightened
by the cries of the people, he dropped them, and made his escape:
the man was unhurt, but the horse died.
Aug. 6.—This was the Aide Kebir, the principal feast of the
Mussulmans during the year, in commemoration of God’s staying the
hand of Abraham in the place Jehovah-jireh, when about to sacrifice
his son Isaac: all who can muster a sheep or a goat kill it on this day,
after prayers. The sheikh sent the day before, to know if we kept the
feast; and when we met, repeated his question. I replied, that we
believed the interposition of the Divine Power in saving Isaac to be a
signal proof of God’s mercy and love to all his creatures; “for
remember,” said I, “he is the God of many, not of Mussulmans alone;
and that our father Abraham’s great and implicit faith in the existence
of that mercy, was what obtained for him all the blessings God
promised him.”
He sent us two very fine sheep, and we killed and feasted with the
rest. Early in the morning, the sheikh, with his sons and all his court,
mounted, according to custom, to welcome the Aid, by praying
outside the town, and firing and skirmishing on their return: the
assembly was not so large as on former occasions, in consequence
of the absence of the chiefs in Kanem; indeed every thing went off
extremely flat, owing to the defeat of the sheikh’s people. Contrary to
custom, no presents were made by him, and no dresses were
distributed to the slaves: instead of the glossy new tobes which on
former occasions shone on the persons of the footmen who ran by
the side of his horse, they were now clothed with torn, discoloured
ones, and every thing wore the appearance of gloom and disgrace.
On these days, the custom is also for the women to assemble,
dressed in all their finery, in the street, before the doors of their huts,
and scream a salutation to the passing chiefs: it was one of the best
parts of the ceremony, but this year it was omitted. The sheikh,
whose unamiable trait was, as I have before observed, visiting the
weaknesses of the female part of his subjects with too great severity,
had, during my absence, given an order which would have disgraced
the most absolute despot that ever sat on a throne: the gates of his
town were kept shut at daylight one morning, and his emissaries
despatched, who bound and brought before him sixty women who
had a bad reputation; five were sentenced to be hanged in the public
market, and four to be flogged; which latter punishment was inflicted
with such severity, that two expired under the lash. Those who were
doomed to death, after being dragged, with their heads shaved,
round the market on a public day, with a rope round their necks,
were then strangled, and thrown, by twos, into a hole previously
prepared, in the most barbarous manner. This diabolical act, for it
deserves no better name, armed all tongues against him. The
Bornouese, who are a humane and forgiving people, shuddered at
so much cruelty: and so much influence had the ladies in general
with their husbands, that more than a hundred families quitted
Kouka, (to which place they were before daily flocking), to take up
their abodes in other towns where this rigour did not exist. In Kouka,
they declared there was no living, where only to be suspected was
sufficient to be doomed to a cruel and ignominious death; and where
malicious spies converted “trifles light as air, into confirmation
strong.” Those who remained, though the women of his particular
attendants, refused flatly to scream him a welcome, and the
procession passed through the streets in silence.
Aug. 7.—I was now on the eve of departing for Kanem, to proceed
by Woodie to the north-east of the lake. Mr. Clapperton had been ill
with sore legs and an attack of dysentery, but was better.
Mohammed Bousgayey, an Arab, who left this place with Doctor
Oudney and Mr. Clapperton, came to my hut: he had gone on from
Kano, with four or five Arabs, to Yeouri and to Nyffé, and had stayed
some time at a place called Gusgey on the Quolla, two days west-
south-west nearly, from Yeouri. The Quolla he described to be here
as wide as to the market outside the walls and back, which must
have been nearly two miles: they were all kaffirs, he said, but not
bad people. The sultan Mahmoud had several hundred guns, and
powder, which were brought from the bahr kebir (great water), and
arrack (rum), in plenty; which was brought in large glass bottles. At
eight days distance only from Yeouri, large boats came to a place
called Yearban, but it is not on the bahr kebir. Katungah is the great
port, which is at some distance: to both of these places people he
called Americans came; they were white, and Christians: they
always demand gum arabic and male slaves, for which they will pay
as high as sixty and seventy dollars each. Sultan Mahmoud
produced to him two books, which he said were like mine; and told
him, that a man, whose beard was white, had lived nearly three
years with no money; that he wished to go, but had no means, and
that he died. Bousgayey said the sultan had offered him the book;
which he refused, as he did not know what he could do with it; but
that now he was going back, and should bring it.
In the afternoon we went to pay our respects to the sheikh, in
honour of the feast. He received us but coolly: and I was scarcely
seated on the sand, when I saw near me a little shrief from Marocco,
named Hassein, who, though once or twice our friend, I was always
in fear of, being aware both of his cunning and his influence. Almost