Exploration of Aïr; out of the world north of Nigeria

JORTH OF NIGERL

ANGUS BUCHANAN ^

at LKifAtM/T'' V».> I

■jsj^^tttnn^tiJim

c

k^uiSff

OUT OF THE WORLD
NORTH OF NIGERIA

By the Same Author

WILD LIFE IN CANADA

With numerous Photographs by the
Author. Second Impression.

THREE YEARS OF WAR
IN EAST AFRICA

With a Foreword by Lord Cranworth.
Illustrated from Photographs and
Drawings by the Author. Second
Impression.

A selection of Press Opinions of the above ■will
be found at the end of this book.

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2007 witii funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/explorationofaOObucliiala

'^

EXPLORATION OF AIR

OUT OF THE WORLD
NORTH OF NIGERIA

BY ANGUS BUCHANAN, M.C.

• I

AUTHOR OF " THRRE YEARS OF WAR IN EAST AFRICA," AND
** WILD UFB IN CANADA "

WITH NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
AND A MAP

NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY

1922

(^^

TO

MY FATHER

A THOROUGH SPORTSMAN OF
THE FINE OLD SCHOOL

PREFACE

A NARRATIVE of an odd undertaking to a foreign
land. Odd, in the first place, insomuch that for
the greater part of a year a man's tongue was mute
to the language of his race, for the land where he
travelled was native : first to the Hausa people ;
later to Hausa, Beri-Beri, Fulani and Tuareg ;
and later still to Tuareg alone ; while over all
there was a mere handful of French Europeans,
who were the military administrators of law and
order.

The country was that known as the Territoire
Militaire du Niger of the Western Sudan, wherein,
remote and in the midst of desolate seas of sand,
lies the wild brooding mountain country of Air or
Asben — ^which was the traveller's goal.

It might be said that the traveller was a rude
man, for he was untutored in the deep studies of
the scholar of many languages, as in a measure
might be expected and understood of one whose
occupation called him from day to day to don
rough clothing and shoulder a rifle and march
outside the frontiers of civiUsation.

Clumsy, therefore, were his beginnings in
speech with the people of the land ; clumsy also
his studies and understanding of all things new
and strange which unfolded before his eyes in
that amazing succession of novelty that taxes a

xii PREFACE

balanced capacity of observation when one stands
spell-bound at the entrance of an unexpected
wonderland. Nevertheless, day by day, confu-
sion became less ; small words came of many
tongues ; piece by piece threads of understanding
became woven into something durable and of the
character of trustworthiness.

So that to-day I — ^for, alas, I must use that
personal pronoun which is hateful to me, and
admit that I am the traveller, so that I may
shoulder the full responsibility as to the faith-
fulness of this narrative — have taken courage to
tell my story with all its shortcomings, but at the
same time with an earnestness that may in the
end reveal, perhaps, the greater part of the
picture of a strange land as it appeared to me.

And I would tell you that it is a wholly pleasant
task to sit at home — Hornet with all its repose and
sweetness, neither sun-exhausted nor limb-weary,
and with a full repast at hand — and look back-
ward on the trail through the Sahara, and hear in
imagination the fierce wind that brings a blinding
sandstorm on its billows, and only have to write
about it all.

But, though thus it is to-day, to-morrow or
the day after I may be gone once again to the
uttermost corners of the world — ^for such is my
calling.

Some of my countrymen might envy me my
to-morrow, some might pity me ; but to all I
would say neither one thing nor another. Such
adventurings have their rare hours of pleasure
and excitement and their long weary periods of
trial and endurance. He is wise who knows the

PREFACE xiii

hazard of life stripped of all its romance and does
not expect to find either great compensation or
great gladness in strange lone lands — in the same
way as they are seldom to be found in any man's
labours of the commonplace day.

It is deep satisfaction to me to know that, so
far as the collections brought back are concerned,
my labours have not been in vain, for it is one of
my greatest desires, and the desire, I am sure, of
many loyal-hearted men, to see Great Britain
ever striving to continue to hold the honourable
and prominent place in the development of the
Natural History of the World which she has held
in the Past. A year or two ago there were numer-
ous and able rivals in the field, and Germany and
America appeared to be on the verge of leading
the world in all scientific research. Though a
set-back to the former has occurred through the
unfortunate circumstance of war, rivalry of
nations will undoubtedly continue in the laby-
rinths of research, and, I trust, will be welcomed
from any quarter as a healthy element that will
ever give incentive to the students and scientific
workers of this country to hold their own, and
offer inducement to public-spirited people to
encourage and support their commendable
efforts.

The humble work, which in the following pages
I venture upon, is not in any way a treatise on
Natural History, but is a narrative descriptive
of strange scenes and peoples in Out-of-the-
World places in which Air has prominent position.
And Air, in the centre of the Sahara, is unknown,
or virtually unknown to EngUsh-speaking people.

xiv PREFACE

The German explorer Dr. Barth, in his travels in
Central Africa, 70 years ago (1850-1), on behalf of
the British Government, passed through Air, and
in his Travels in Central Africa gave some brief
discursive description of the country, which is,
so far as I am aware, the only account of Air that
we have in modern English literature.

But to return to my first remark, there are other
reasons than that given in the first place for term-
ing this an odd undertaking, and they are that the
journey, which totalled some 1,400 miles of camel-
travel, led to a land that was almost virgin to
exploration of any kind, and of which nothing
was known ; while by force of circumstances it
was decided for me that I must go on my long
journey alone if I wished to undertake it ; and
therefore, perforce, I set out without the two or
three good comrades that can help so greatly to
lighten burdens, real or imaginary, on long un-
certain trails.

The primary object of the Expedition, which
was undertaken in the interests of the Right
Honourable Lord Rothschild, was to link up the
chain of Zoological Geography across that portion
of Central Africa which lies between Algeria in
Northern Africa and Nigeria in West Africa.
Previous research had advanced from the south as
far afield as Kano in Nigeria, and from the north
to the Ahaggar Mountains in the Sudan south-
west of Fezzan. There remained a great inter-
mediate space unexplored by naturalists, wherein
are the French possessions known as the Territoire
Militaire du Niger and the unsettled mountainous
region of Air or Asben ; and it was through those

PREFACE XV

said countries that the expedition proposed to
journey.

With regard to the term Air or Asben which is
appHed to the great range of mountains which He
north of the region of Damergou, I think it is a
pity that there should exist the seeming doubt of
correct designation which the double title implies,
and for my own part I propose, through my narra-
tive, to refer only to the country as Air, which is
the correct name in the language of the Tuaregs
who inhabit the region, whereas Asben is a Hausa
name, and would appear to have no particular
claim to recognition since it is not Hausa country
in the present era, whatever it may have been in
the distant past, when tribal and religious wars
were continually forcing territories to change
hands.

The altitude readings, which I note during the
narrative, since many of them have not been pre-
viously recorded, were taken with an aneroid
barometer set to sea level before starting on the
expedition.

Although the expedition was to a French
colony, I feel that it was foreign only so far as
concerned the difference of language, for the few
officers I encountered, who so ably helped me on
my way, if help I needed, were big-hearted men
of the Lone Places among whom one could not
feel a stranger. To all I owe thanks for such
success as I gained, and gladly give it should any
old comrade of the open road read this humble
work.

I am indebted, also, to the administrative
officials in charge of the Kano district who kindly

xvi PREFACE

rendered me many services ere I set out to cross
the boundary.

Collecting in the field is one side of Natural
History research, but there is, as you are aware,
another side — ^the painstaking study of the speci-
mens after they are unpacked on the museum
benches at home. And I am much indebted to
Lord Rothschild, Dr. Hartert, and the British
Museum for having most kindly furnished me
with the full results of the skilled studies of
research to which the collections have been
subjected since my return, for in so doing they
have placed most valuable records at my disposal,
so that I may draw from that large fund of
knowledge when desired and enhance the value
of this work.

Angus Buchanan.

CONTENTS

PAQB

Introduction (by Lord Roths-
child) ..... xxi

CHAPTER

I. Engaging Boys — ^Lagos . . 1
II. Kano, Northern Nigeria . . 13

III. Hausa — Currency — Camels —

Travelling .... 33

rV". A Day's Work Collecting . 60

V. ZiNDER 73

VI. The Shores of Bushland and

Desert , .... 82

VII. Ostrich Hunting . . .95

VIII. Leaving the Bushland behind —

Air entered .... 121

IX. Agades ..... 134

X. Air: North to Baguezan Mountains

and Hunting Barbary Sheep . 148

2 xvii

xviii CONTENTS

PA.aB

XI. In Baguezan Mountains . .164

XII. The Northern Regions of Air :

Part I 177

XIII. The Northern Regions of Air :

Part II 197

KIV. East of Baguezan, Aouderas and

Tarrouaji . . . .215

XV. The Tuaregs of Air . . . 232

XVI. Heading for Home . . . 241

Appendix : New Species discovered . 247

Index ....... 255

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Out of the World , . . Frontispiece

FACINQ PAOa

12

The Author ......

View of Kano City ....

A Street-lane in Kano

An Entrance in the Mud Walls of Kano

A Hausa Native riding an Ox, Kano .

Cattle of Hausaland ....

Natives drawing Water at Bab an Tubki
Wells, Zinder ....

Among the Rocks of Zinder

Beri-Beri Bushmen, Damergou

Tanout Village .....

Young Ostriches .....

Dorcas Gazelle .....

A Lonely Tuareg Camp in the Bush .

Sundown in the Desert

View of Agades .....

Throne-Room of the Sultan of Agades .

My Caravan on the Arrajubjub River

12
28
28
42
42

76

76

92

92

104

104

124

124

142

142

150

XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACDia PAGE

Typical Air Landscape ..... 150
Typical Boulder Composition of many Air

Mountains and Hills . . . .168
MiNEROU, Chief of Baguezan, and Saidi, my

GOUMIER .... ... 168

Wild Men, Northern Air . . . .190

Approaching Iferouan . . . . .190

In Aguellal Mountains at 3,100 Feet . . 202
We find a Precious Pool of Water S.E. of

Aguellal, Air ...... 202

Teouar, a Typical Deserted Village of Air . 218
Tuareg Boys of Baguezan Mountains . . 234
" Atagoom," a Tuareg Native of Air in Typical

Dress 234

Agades Fort, Built with Clay-mud . . 242
Caught in Flood Rains below Tegguidi . 242
Map of Author's Route , . . At End

INTRODUCTION

Ever since Dr. Hartert * came to Tring, twenty-
nine years ago, I have been keenly interested in
the isolated mountains of Asben or Air in the
middle of the Sahara, and the country surround-
ing them. This was chiefly owing to Dr. Har-
tert's account of his interview with some Tuareg
traders who had come down into Nigeria to sell
salt. This interest was intensified by our own
explorations in Algeria and " Les Territoires du
Sud," and Geyr von Schweppenburg and Spatz's
journeys in the Ahaggar Mountains, all of which
yielded many zoological treasures. Therefore,
Dr. Hartert and I felt much satisfaction when,
after his strenuous labours in the war in East
Africa, Captain Angus Buchanan fell in with our
views and undertook to explore Asben and the
country between it and Kano, in North Nigeria,
the terminus of the new railway. The eleven
months occupied in the undertaking have proved
most fruitful, for, besides the interesting ethno-
logical and other facts recorded in the subsequent
pages of this book, the zoological results have
been most valuable. These latter results have
been published in Novitates Zoologicee, the journal
of the Tring Museum, in a series of articles by

^ Director of Tring Museum.

xxii INTRODUCTION

Messrs. O. Thomas and M. A. C. Hinton,i Dr.
Hartert and myself.

The number of new species and sub-species is
very large, especially among the Mammals ; Mr.
Thomas indeed says that he has never known a
collection of Mammals, from a limited area such
as this, with so large a proportion of novelties.
Among the new Mammals, the most interesting
are undoubtedly the " Gundi " {Massoutiera),
the Rock-Dassy (Procavia), and the " Mouflon "
(Ammotragus), because of the immense stretches
of desert which separate them from allied species
and sub-species. •

Among the Birds, one of the most interesting
is the beautiful goatsucker (Caprimulgus eximius
simplicior), for, although a slightly different sub-
species, it illustrates once more the fact that many
species inhabit a belt south of the Sahara from
N.E. Africa across the African Continent to
West Africa, while most of the forms north and
south of that belt do not show such a wide range
from east to west.

Among the Lepidoptera, the most interesting
species are all true " desert " forms, with a
wide range reaching through Arabia into India,
although several new species and sub-species of
butterflies and moths of great interest are also in
the collection.

From a zoo-geographical point of view the col-
lection is most valuable, for we now know zoologi-
cally a complete section of the " Great Saharan
Desert," with the exception of the small portion
between the Ahaggar Mountains and Asben,

^ Of the British Museum of Natural History.

INTRODUCTION xxiii

and although the region of the Sahara south of
the former is undoubtedly tropical, and not
palaearctic, in its fauna, it is very remarkable
what a large number of palaearctic species and
genera are still to be found there. Unlike most
of the collecting-grounds of the Old World, which
can still yield new and undescribed forms, Asben
and its neighbourhood were absolutely virgin
soil zoologically, and Captain Buchanan's speci-
mens are the first to reach the hands of scientific
workers. Considering the long journey by camel
and the fact that Captain Buchanan was work-
ing absolutely single-handed, the collecting of
over 1,100 Birds and Mammals and over 2,000
Lepidoptera, in a region notorious for its paucity,
both of species and individuals, is a remarkable
achievement, and proves him to be a most efficient
explorer and naturalist.

Rothschild.

TBma Museum,

March 22nd, 1921.

OUT OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER I

ENGAGING BOYS — ^LAGOS

It was at Seccondee on the Gold Coast that
" John " came aboard. Do not mistake me ! — •
he was not a first-class passenger nor an acquaint-
ance. Far from it ; he was one of a motley
crowd of jabbering natives which, with an extra-
ordinary conglomeration of hand-carried house-
hold belongings, were put aboard from surf boats
and herded on to the open after-deck — already
stacked with sacks of Kola nuts from Sierra
Leone — ^like so many head of frightened sheep.

No ! John was certainly not of a race or rank
to claim intimate acquaintance. In the first
place he was as black as the ace of spades, which
in itself for ever barred him from any claim to
equality or kinship — a hard plain fact which any
old colonial on " The Coast " or anywhere in
Africa would endorse, while with grave misgivings
regretting the extraordinary policy and laws that
grow, from what sane source is past understanding,
more and more lenient in their evident stiffness of
opinion to release native inhabitants of our
colonies from the slightest restraint of a dominant
European rulership ; policy that is reacting —

I

2 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

surely not with short-sighted blindness ? — to
bring about the downfall of the fine old decorum
of the white man's prestige which natives natur-
ally observed in every respect in the past. And
it would be well to remember, those singular
innovations which are being brought in on the
tide of European civilisation are being entrusted
to natives who are endowed by nature with char-
acteristics of a different race type to ours and
which are irrevocably unchangeable at the line of
their limitations. European education and Euro-
pean laws along certain well-chosen, sure-set
lines can cultivate those characteristics of the
native to a certain standard — hut not one step
further. It is the logic of Nature ; up to a point,
with many creatures and plants and even matter,
artificial cultivation is possible and beneficial ;
but over- experiment with the material, over-
nurture — and Nature steps in and calls a decisive
halt in this tampering with her creations, and
death or decline is thenceforth observed.

It is difficult for anyone to foresee the Future —
that word of wonderful depth which is the most
awesome in the English language — into which men
may cast the biggest venturings of experiment in
the world ; and generations watch them rise and
flourish if they be right, or flounder and go under
if they be wrong. And surely it shall never be —
this would-be blending of two entirely opposite
races to a semblance of equality, though it is for
the present this ugly threat which is often before
the " Coaster " and the men on the bush stations
to-day.

But to return to John, for John has importance

"EAST IS EAST" 8

in the narrative, which African poHtics have not,
the ship had hauled anchor and cleared Seccondee
for Lagos, and I stood solitary by the taffrail of
the upper deck looking idly on the low line of
typical African shore that lay indistinctly in the
north. The deck, for the moment, was free of
passengers, for it was in the quiet afternoon hours,
when almost everyone on board retired to indulge
in a pleasant book or a snooze, as is the after-
lunch habit in hot enervating climates like Africa.

But, suddenly, I was not alone, and a native,
who had no doubt watched his chance to break
the bounds of the lower-deck, stood beside me
waiting permission to speak.

" What do you want ? " I asked, somewhat
curiously. " You have no right to be on this
deck."

" I want I make work for you, sir," replied the
native. " My massa, he live for back, him go
England. I plenty glad work for you, sir."

" But," I warned, " suppose I want a boy ? I
am a hunter. I am not going to live in a town or
station in Nigeria where the duties of cook-boy or
house-boy are ordinary. I am going to travel far
in a strange land north of Kano ; work will be
hard and plenty ; good boys will catch good pay ;
bad boys will go home quick and catch nothing.
You are a coast boy, and I do not think you are
fit for bush in far country."

But the boy was not so easily discouraged,
either he wanted employment lu-gently or was
ignorant of the full purport of my " white man
talk," for he answered in his pigeon English, with a
broad grin of hopefulness : " Dat be all same same,

4 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

sir! I no fit savvy dat bush now, dat's true,
by-n-bye I plenty fit to look him. I want work
for you — I good boy, sir 1 "

To which what could one do but smile ? But,
nevertheless, I now looked the boy over more
attentively.

His thick-set bulldog head was excessively
ugly and unprepossessing in all its features. Any
face is dull which has no attraction in the eyes or
in the mouth, and those of this negro native had
none, for the soiled whites of his eyes rolled alarm-
ingly, and the large mouth had lips rolled into one
that would have served three ordinary men
adequately. Moreover, he was an Awori native
of the Coast, and had profuse tribe marks on his
face : three small deep-stamped marks over the
cheek-bones, and a line of fourteen marks of the
same stamp between the eye-corners and ears,
while on the centre of the forehead he had a sort
of square and compass scroll more lightly branded
than the rest. He was clad, not in the pictur-
esque nakedness of the aboriginal, but, after the
fashion of the majority of " boys " on the Coast, in
the cast-off clothing of some late master — even to
a tweed cap, which sat with ridiculous incongruity
on his black woolly head. Altogether he was a
regular dandy in " rig-out." But he was no
exception in that respect, for the comical and
audacious dress of house-boys of his kind, who
are inordinately full of personal swagger, has ever
been a source of much amusement to colonials
and strangers alike.

It did not take long to size the native up and
note those brief somewhat unfavourable charac-

CONCERNING JOHN 5

teristics. But at the same time I had appraised
the thick-set, sturdy build of the boy, so that the
conclusions I finally arrived at were : " An ugly
devil — not over intelligent, no doubt — but strong
and healthy, and should stand up through plenty
of hard work — and he looks honest."

" What's your name ? " I asked.

" John, sir ! " he replied. " John Egbuna,"
he added, by way of giving his full name ; for it
was no less a person than he who had come aboard
at Seccondee.

" All right," I said, moving towards the deck
smoking-room. " Come to me when we dock at
Lagos and you can work for me."

Thus John made his appearance. By keen
watchfulness he had risked the abuse of ship's
officers and stolen a chance interview, and taking
him on in this way was a chance shot, but time
proved it to be a lucky one, for John went right
through the whole expedition, ever faithful as a
dog to his master, while his companions, one by
one, fell out.

The ship docked at Lagos after she had come
in over the bar on an early morning tide, and
steamed slowly inshore and up the wide river-like
tidal lagoon of muddy water disfigured with
surface-floating green slime-Hke vegetation and
white froth, which escaped, no doubt, from some
swamp bank further inland. It was a lagoon
which was nevertheless pictiu-esque and novel,
with a light morning haze upon waters from
which protruded the poles and loosely hanging nets
of many fish traps, past which, or about which,
up and down the lagoon, plied long lithe dug-outs,

6 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

and odd-shaped craft of many kinds, single-sailed,
or pole-driven, or paddled, and paintless and
dark as their negro occupants, except where the
gay colour of a cotton garb caught the eye on a
boatman more extravagant than his brethren,
who were generally rag-clad or naked to the
waist.

At Lagos, when I had landed, I made the dis-
concerting discovery that there was no hotel — a
circumstance strange in a port of importance and
modern in nearly every other way. I had natives
to engage in Lagos for my forthcoming travels,
and other business, and therefore it was necessary
to stay a few days in the place. Lagos, being a
crowded town, was not the sort of place one could
pitch a tent in, or that would have been quickly
done ; but I finally overcame the difficulty by
interviewing the purser on the ship, who kindly
allowed me to retain my berth on board while the
ship unloaded her cargo.

And in that little cabin, in the course of events,
some strange interviews were entered on. I had
an old-country friend on shore, and with true
Coast courtesy he sent his head-boy out into the
native town to carry the news that there was a
white man on the ship who wanted natives to go
north with him, but that, " he want to look boy
fit to skin fine fine."

Native news travels fast even in modern Lagos,
and soon boys of various races and types began
to come aboard armed with their pass-books and
letters testifying character — in some cases letters
which were truly from past masters, in others,
false and flattering documents borrowed for the

SELECTING STRANGE BOYS 7

occasion were tendered, such is the unscrupulous
craftiness of some castes.

The outcome of two days of interviewing
natives was not very encouraging, since no boy
was discovered who could skin birds or animals
with practical skill. However, at the end of the
second day I had selected three boys and dis-
missed the rest, despite their clamoiu-ings to be
heard further and reluctance to leave the ship.

One of the natives held over for fiuther exami-
nation was an extraordinary individual, with all
smooth face features absolutely obliterated by
the mass of seared vertical lines of tribe marks
which ornamented his entire face. He was of
middle age, lean, and hard-looking, and obviously
the hunter and tracker that he claimed to be.
What this individual proposed, when an engage-
ment was broached, was that he be allowed to go
to his tribe in the first place to take the news of
his departure to his people, and then return and
catch up with my caravan wherever I might be.
Inquiry revealed that his home was distant a
whole month's travel by canoe along the coast. It
would take him two months to go and return, and
after that he would have to find my camp " some-
where " north of Kano. Yet he appeared to think
nothing of such distance and to take to travelling
as a duck to water, and declared with conviction
that he would meet " master " anywhere, if he
would but employ him. I had met this type of
tireless hunter among natives before, and they
are invariably very good if you can secure them.
But, all things considered, taking the man on in
faith of fulfilment of merely verbal promises, and

8 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

advancing him some money to provide for his
wives in his absence, savoured too much of bad
business ; and as he would not pack up and come
along as he stood, he was finally allowed to go,
with the understanding that if he hurried to his
tribe and caught up with the expedition north of
Kano, he would then be taken on at good wages,
and his " back- time " made good.^

The other two boys were Hausa natives, the
tribe that I had been strongly advised by men of
experience to get my boys from if possible. They
were both young — 20 to 23 — and had been se-
lected from the crowd as being in appearance the
most intelligent, for as it was of the utmost im-
portance to secure some help in dressing specimens
in the field, it was my intention to teach them to
skin if in early practice they should show any
aptitude for the work.

Hence one of them was sent ashore to the
market in Lagos with instructions to buy a pair
of tame pigeons, which would suffice for my pur-
pose in lieu of a specimen dropped to the gun.

Thereafter, down in the hot narrow cabin,
while the ship lay at anchor, I gave an object
lesson on bird skinning — a necessary but not very
edifying proceeding. To begin with, there was
a ridiculous familiar pillow- cushion aspect about
those dead tame pigeons which robbed one at once
of any aesthetic enthusiasm, no matter how
solemnly I was prepared to set about the delicate
operation of skinning ; and a glance from the work-
table to my pupils, great loutish curly-headed
negroes, with no appreciable sign of dawning

^ But this he did not do, for I never saw him again.

NATIVES PRACTISE SKINNING 9

understanding as my handiwork proceeded, made
me much more inclined to laugh than to be serious.

When the lesson for the day was over, I sent the
boys home with money to buy each a pigeon,
which they were to try to skin in their homes in
the way I had shown, and bring their handiwork
on the morrow.

In due course they came aboard again with
their " specimens " : one poor skin in rags and
with half the plumage gone, the other not so
heavily handled, and showing some signs of pains-
taking work. On that day the lesson in my cabin
was repeated, and then independently at home,
and the result was that, on the eve of starting
north to Kano, one boy — Sakari by name — ^was
engaged, since he had shown some intelligence
and skill over his skinning lessons, and the other
dismissed as useless, as he had developed no
aptitude for the work.

It may not be out of place to say here, while on
the subject, that in spite of reports one hears at
times of natives who have become expert at pre-
paring specimens — doubtless exceptions — I would
advise no collector to rely on local skill to any
great extent, for I have always found them most
difficult to educate, and skilful and careful only up
to a certain point. For my own part I have never
employed a native on such work who, when the
skin was separated from the carcass, I could allow
to apply the coating of preservative and reset
the specimen in the natural, faultless repose
which is essential to a finished skin required for
scientific purposes. For straightforward skin-
ning, however, good natives are procurable, and
3

10 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

with practice can save much of the collector's
time by doing the preliminary work.

Meantime, while hunting preparations were
progressing, I had spent some time on shore each
day in the native quarters of Lagos. The port at
which a traveller disembarks in a land which is
foreign always holds the lively interest of novelty,
if nothing more, and Lagos had much that was
novel. Notwithstanding the fact that the out-
ward aspect from the lagoon is almost entirely
European, Lagos is, broadly speaking, a great
native city ; and it is on that account that it is
so attractive to the curious stranger. The Euro-
pean section, which runs chiefly in a line along the
long shores of the lagoon, is as a rampart between
the sea and the great area of native town which
lies hidden behind the solidity and imposing
stature of the commercial and domestic buildings
of the white man. And it is behind those colonial
buildings that one must pass to gain entrance to
the true city of primitive native hutments which
bears the aspect of the historic antiquity and primi-
tive character of the people who inhabit it. So
turning from the main street which runs along
the water-front, and walking up one of the side-
streets, one finds oneself immediately among
curious scenes and curious people in narrow
streets which are lined with irregular closely
packed native huts on either side — huts of every
imaginable shape, and built, for the most part,
with a most nondescript collection of materials
which owners appear to have gathered together
with little or no cost to their pockets. The walls
of the huts are of mud, but the roofs, if they are

THE CHARM OF LAGOS 11

not thatched, and the little dog-kennels of
bazaars which are in front of almost every dwelling,
are made up with old crate-boards, planks, cor-
rugated iron, pieces of tin, old sacks, canvas —
anything ; paintless, untidy squalor for the most
part, and the sun-basking places of countless
lizards that come out from behind the shady
cracks.

Were the huts and the streets deserted of
human life, Lagos would indeed be a dismal place,
and little short of one huge rubbish heap ; but it
is entirely otherwise, for the scene is crowded —
even overcrowded — with life and colour, and
hence attractive and sometimes very beautiful,
and down the hot dusty streets, which in many
instances are very narrow, and in and out of side
lanes, one may pass for hours and never be clear
of the brilUant cotton-clad throng ; every indi-
vidual of which, whether Yuroba, Egba, Hausa,
Arab or Eo'oo, seems intent on selling or buying
something in a veritable hive of trading and
industry.

It is an uncommon sight, and a wonderfully
picturesque one, to view those busy streets of
native Lagos — ^their fullness of motion and rich,
almost Oriental colouring of native dress, worn
as a rule with all the grace of perfect physique ;
bazaars bright with wares exposed for sale ;
children toddling by the doors ; and goats and
chickens, at risk of their lives, tripping and
feeding among the throng. Time without number,
as I passed curiously through those streets, my
eye was arrested by little gleams of perfect
colouring in a perfect natural native setting —

12 ENGAGING BOYS— LAGOS

lovely pictures without one single act of prepara-
tion or posture — and I confess I sighed and moved
on, regretting I was not an artist with genius to
catch such scenes, and hold them in all their
beauty and simplicity, so that I might show them
also to my fellow-men, less fortunate in their
freedom to travel.

Wherefrom it may be gathered that I much
enjoyed my brief sojourn in Lagos, where I
would fain have stayed longer, had not my duties
called me to hurry on to Kano.

THE AUTHOR.

WS»>- it-har-"TTM— --fii.-Mihrrft^- -^' - -

"i^^Hi ^ . j/«^>^ .^ , -^^wi^m ^^]

i^^^^^^m

'**^'"W||k \V#s^BiiHB ^^'^^SI^^i^B '^^HkiBM^^I

VJKW dl- KAN'O C riV.

12]

CHAPTER II

KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA, THE COMMERCIAL
METROPOLIS OF THE WESTERN SUDAN

Twice a week a mixed passenger train runs from
Lagos to Kano, which, despite its crude dis-
comfort, must serve the traveller who wishes to go
north, for there is no other way for the present.

When the time came for me to set out upon
that journey, to say I was astonished at the crowds
of natives at the station and at the confusion
would be to put it very mildly. Drowning the
sound of clanking trucks and blasts of engine
whistles in the station, arose the deafening cries
of instruction and abuse of a highly excited,
hustling mob about to board the train, after
bidding demonstrative farewells to two or three
generations of relations and friends. Din and
confusion reigned supreme ; there was no calm
eddy there, no steady head or hand to order
silence or orderliness. One might be forgiven
if, for the moment, one thought, as I did, that
I had mistaken my direction and had entered
a native market-place, in which a great sale was
going on and the bidding eager and heated, in a
volcanic atmosphere of excitement.

Patience was necessary, I assure you, to

13

14 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

carry master and boys and baggage through
the jostling of some hundreds of people, past the
ticket-desks of distracted native clerks, who were
being overwhelmed by a fiercely gesticulating,
clamouring mob, that know, by force of primitive
environment, only their rude desires and nothing
of manners. And when the train had finally
been boarded and the journey begun, I found
it was necessary to keep hold on patience through-
out, for many stations on the way held some-
thing of the same fearful din and disorder.

Much could be done by strict measures on the
part of the railway authorities to " tone down "
and regulate such native shortcomings, which
white men would surely welcome, for it is little
less than unchecked raw exuberance that is
prevalent among them — perfectly good-natured,
as a rule — ^which interferes with the quick and
systematic disposition of the service, and which
is not in keeping with the fitness of things in
modern travel.

But such circumstances are among the draw-
backs which unprecedented prosperity has brought
in its wake. Nigeria, rich beyond all possible
estimate in natural resources, has come, and is
coming, into her own ; no longer gradually and
steadily as cautious and perhaps wise men might
wish, but by leaps and bounds in keeping with
the impatient spirit of the age. So that laggards
are apt to be left behind, or things which are
primitive become out of date ; and that is what
has happened with the Nigerian railway, which
was built, no doubt, and run for the little needs
of the colony as they existed a few years ago,

NEED OF RAILWAYS 15

but which is not now an adequate nor well regu-
lated service, and fails sadly to fall in line with
the astonishing progress of present-day commerce.
Hence, in part, the cause of the congestion and
confusion at the stations which is so prevalent
to-day.

Nigeria urgently needs more railways, more
railway facilities, throughout the width and
breadth of the land : a land that has few equals
in untouched natural wealth ; a land of immense
possibilities^ provided wise laws conserve its native
labour and cease to over- educate and over-wean
it, and bring it back to the natural conditions
from which it has been swept in a whirlwind of
haste to clutch Prosperity and let everything else
go by the board. Meantime it is bottled up in
its vast interior for lack of outlets, while it is
struggling like a thing unborn to break loose
from bondage.

It is only a very little of the awakening, of the
struggling, which one sees at almost every station
" up the line," but every sign, little or great, is a
sure forecast of a dawning and, perhaps, wonder-
ful new era in West Africa.

The three days* wearisome journey to Kano
need not be dwelt on at length. Throughout it
was through a country rich in forest and bush,
with no great change in geographical aspect or in
altitude. The change in appearance begins in the
Kano region, at the end of the railway, where the
sub-deserts of the north come down in places to
the fringe of the bushland and grade one into the
other. The elevation of Kano is 1,700 ft., and
this comparatively small change in altitude over

16 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

the long distance from the coast to Kano — a
distance of 704 miles — takes place gradually, so
that the country, with small exceptions, appears
flat throughout. There are great dense belts of
oil palms and coco-nut palms in from the coast,
which in time, as you proceed up-country, give
place to more varied tropical forests of tall
stately trees growing from jungle undergrowth ;
while further on again, toward the north, the
growth is less prolific, and there is much acacia
bush, which is open or dense in patches, and of no
imposing height.

To step from the train at Kano and shake one-
self free from the discomforting heat and dust of
the carriage and know that the journey was at an
end was a cause for rejoicing with me. Civilisa-
tion now lay behind ; here would I gather together
my caravan of camels and natives and set out on
the open road with all the freedom of a nomad.

And as a starting-off point, I learned, on close
acquaintance, that Kano was ideal, for it proved
to be a place of the frontiers and of the outdoors
that harboured a host of wayfarers that passed to
and fro from the great and historical market-
centre of the north.

The ancient city of Kano is situated on an ex-
tensive plain of cleared and cultivated bushland,
which is not completely bare and waste nor tree-
less, but which, nevertheless, bears a distinctive
change from the country further south, and has
much of the appearance of sub-desert in the dry
season, for it holds the palest of colouring — that
true buff shadeless neutral tint common to desert
lands which oceans of wind-lain sand and ranges

AT THE END OF THE LINE 17

of dry prairie grass give to a sun-parched, rain-
thirsty country. But only in colour and sand-
winds of the Harmattan has it great resemblance
to desert, for, beside the scattered trees and bush,
the level stretches on closer inspection are found
to be largely lands that have been cultivated
during the short rainy season and are now waste-
grown over a very sandy soil, which is dry and
cracked and powdered to fine dustiness on the
surface. One of the common and best-known
ground plants amongst the dead vegetation on
the sandy soil is that named " Tafasa " by the
Hausa people {Sesbania sp, Leguminosce). It is a
straw-yellow, long-stalked underbrush, with long
thin bean-pods, and known to everyone about
Kano, for it grows about 2 ft. high in considerable
extent, and crackles noisily in brittle dryness as
one brushes against it in passing. Another well-
known plant there, and everywhere in the bush-
land, is that which the natives call " Karengia "
(Pennisetum Cenchroides Rich.), and which is a
very annoying burr-grass that adheres to any part
of one's clothing, and which is a terrible pest to
the hunter.

It was the season of the Harmattan when I
reached Kano, for it was the month of December,
and the driving winds from the Sahara had al-
ready set in. The Harmattan (often designated
" Hazo " by Hausa natives, which means mist)
is a season of hot, dry, dust-filled winds that blow
from the desert interior steadily day after day,
but seldom with the abandoned fierceness of a
sandstorm. At that period the early mornings are
cool even to coldness, and fresh and vigorous

18 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

with the stirring of strong wind, which bears
down with the coming of day, and brings with it
a fine mist-hke haze which envelops the whole
country. But the haze is not an atmosphere of
laden dampness, such as is familiar to England ;
quite the contrary, for it is dry with the intensity
of a white heat, and mist-like only because the
wind is so full of fine sand particles from the
tinder-dry desert in the north, which it carries and
lays in a carpet of fine penetrating dust wherever
it passes.

The dryness in the land at this season is un-
believable if you have not experienced it ; mois-
ture is dried up as if the flame of a furnace was
licking at it ; ink, for instance, dries as fast
as each letter of the alphabet is penned, and
the clogging pen-nib is almost unmanageable :
writing-paper, books — even the stiff book covers
— everything of the kind curls up and becomes
unsightly ; boots that fitted with comfort in
England shrink to such an extent that they are
useless ; nothing escapes, not even one's person,
lips crack, and nostrils and eyes sting ; and alto-
gether one has days of intense personal discom-
fort. Moreover, the fine almost invisible sand-
dust searches into everything, and very soon both
my watches were affected ; next my camera
shutter went wrong, and later on a rifle and gun.
These latter were the greatest mishaps to befall
me during Harmattan, and they were serious
enough at the onset of an expedition.

Thus it will be seen that at Kano there is al-
ready something of sand and bleakness, and, to a
considerable degree, it is therefore relative to the

THE HARMATTAN SEASON 19

boundless Sahara to the north, while the advent
of the Harmattan and driving sands bring to one
the very atmosphere of the great lone wastes of
the hinterland. And in keeping with such im-
pressions, and enhancing them, stands the strange,
and ancient, and powerful city of Kano, which in
its unique earth-built aspect has all the character
of a city of the mystical northern desert and little
or none of the character one is accustomed to see
in Nigeria. Perhaps, most of all, Kano impressed
me with its atmosphere of age : the gigantic
ramparts around it, and many of the quaint mud
dwellings were obviously time-worn, in that
inimitable manner of things that are unmistak-
ably ancient, and carry about them for ever the
rudiments of the craftsmanship of strange races
that have passed and gone for all time.

And though we may know from hearsay that
great powers in race and religion have lived within
the walls of Kano to fight and struggle for power
and existence through ages of History — as is the
destiny of kingdoms — it is difficult to realise how
slowly time has advanced in this secluded back-
eddy, and how very close the past is to the
present, until you have walked within the ancient
walls and fallen under the spell of the old-world
character of the people, and their dwellings, and
their customs.

Undoubtedly this atmosphere of the Past which
hangs so closely about Kano remains there be-
cause the town so long lay out of the way of the
ever-hurrying feet of that advancing, engulfing
" civilisation " of our age which is the ruling
" God " of the white man in his own land, where-

20 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

so ever that be, or in any other land that he has
fallen heir to through the honourable, or mayhap
— be it whispered — dishonourable enterprise of a
bygone grandparent.

It was as late as 1902 that the white man came
before the gates of Kano, demanding admittance,
and since the aggressors were the great " Bature,"
and had many rifles (a few arms collectively are
invariably construed as many by timid, untaught
natives), the Hausa inhabitants, who were at dis-
cord with the Fulani, who were their masters at
the time, and deserted by the cowardly Emir
Alieu, forthwith bowed before Destiny with true
Negro fatalism, and accepted British rule without
serious dispute, and without making any kind of
stout-hearted defence against the undermanned
punitive expedition that was sent out at the time ;
a fact to their discredit, for they were in their
thousands.

It would appear, from records, that the pact
between conqueror and vanquished was a friendly
one, and of such wisdom that the change of rule
was not a drastic one and brought no tyranny ;
in fact, the hands of the Crown's Trustees were
laid so lightly upon the people in directing their
administration, that they (the natives) lost none
of their ancient characteristics or pride of race at
the time of small beginnings of acquaintance with
Europeans ; so that almost up to the present
day Kano remained to all intents and purposes
completely native and original, and a great and
powerful centre of the Hausa people and of
Mohammedanism. It is at the present time that
the careless breath of civilisation has swept

THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 21

inevitably — for it is useless to expect to gainsay
Destiny — in from the South, and has cast a blight
upon the simplicitj'^ of the natives, with unnatural
consequences to their frail character.

In 1911 the Nigeria railway was laid down to
Kano. In 1914 — about six years ago — ^there was
less than a score of Europeans within the British
segregation about a mile east of the Hausa City,
and at the time of my journey, early in 1920, some-
where about six score ; the former a barely percep-
tible number amongst the vast native population ;
the latter just enough to have started the swing
of the pendulum of commerce and speculation
which already promises to change a fine old world
that is rare to a new world that will grow common-
place. I treasure old things, as I fancy we all do,
and therefore cannot refrain from regret when I
see something that is dear totter on the brink of
destruction — so often it cannot be saved by
reason of circumstances or environment, and it
goes out for ever, for the passing of the Old is just
as inevitable as the coming of the New beneath the
propelling will of Destiny.

The population of Kano is a fluctuating one, on
account of the nomadic propensities of many of
the people, and I think I am right in saying that
there are on that account no exact statistics con-
cerning numbers. There is said to be an average
population of about 80,000 inhabitants in Kano,
which dwindles to about 60,000 in the " off
season," and rises to about 100,000 in the height
of the trading season, when ground-nuts are
marketed.

The province of Kano, of which the City of

22 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

Kano is capital, has a population of 2,871,236,^
which is a much greater number than that con-
tained within any other province in Nigeria, its
nearest competitor having barely half that total.

Those few figures may serve to proportion the
extent of the importance of Kano ; but let me
lay statistics aside henceforth, for I would fain
wander back in random fashion within the old
gaunt walls of the city and examine the quaintness
and the rudeness wherever dust-lain mysterious
lanes may lead me.

Within the walls of Kano the city is composed
of thousands of diminutive hutments, which
crouch low and are huddled together as if to gain
each from the other strength, and companionship,
and protection, which is indeed the intention in a
land which suffers from the sting of driving,
biting sandstorms, and knew in the Past the
swoop of attacking enemy.

The huts, and the enclosure walls about them,
are built with reddish clay-soil taken from pits in
the neighbourhood, and, with the addition of
water and plant fibres, kneaded into a plaster
which, after it has been applied, sets very hard.
Dwellings so built are cool and weather-worthy
for the greater part of the year, but at the time of
the Rains some damage is usually wrought by
the heavy wash of water, and repairs are necessary
thereafter.

In appearance the dwellings are stoutly built
at the hands of patient, careful labour (for the
natives are not a little skilled in their work), and,
though they have seldom ornament of any kind,

^ Nigeria handbook

IN KANO CITY 28

their simple lines and odd and primitive planning
have an attraction, and a novelty that is peculiar,
apparently, to the walled-towns on the northern
borders of negro-land.

Kano, like most native towns, has grown upon
no preconceived lines, with the result that it is
to-day a happy-go-lucky jumble of dwellings that
in many cases appear to just save themselves
from complete imprisonment by the number of
lanes that provide, by the genius of necessity, a
way of escape to the encompassed dwellers.
Throughout the whole city runs an amazing net-
work of street-lanes, zigzagging and turning and
twisting in every conceivable direction and holding
to no true course for any appreciable distance,
which is the outcome of the numerous den-builders
having built their little dwellings wherever an
open space or a corner was available, without
preconceived attempt to form the whole in any
kind of symmetrical plan.

From the outside the openings in the severe
lane walls — ^which are 8 to 10 ft. high — do not
invite a stranger to enter freely into the privacy
of these native dwellings, but, not wishing to
miss anything, I one day plucked up courage and
asked of an aged woman, who was squatted on
the ground at a doorway in a lane, if she would
show me the interior of her house ?

But before making my request I tactfully gave
her the long formula of Hausa greeting :

Self : — Sanu sanu ! (good day !)

Aged woman : — Sanu kaddai ! (thank you !)

Selj : — Sanu da aiki ! (blessings in your work I)

24 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

Aged woman ;— Sanu kaddai ! (thank you !)
Self : — Enna lafia ? (how are you ?)
Aged woman : — ^Lafia lau ! (very well !)
Self : — Enna gajia ? (how is weariness ?)
Aged woman : — Babu gajia ! (none !)
Self : — Enna gidda ? (how is your house ?)
Aged woman : — ^I^afia lau ! (very well !)
Self ;— MadiUa !* (thank God !)
Aged woman : — MadiUa ! (thank God !)

which formula the Hausa native dearly loves to
be greeted with, since it is the habitual form of
friendly salutation ; and it now brought me
good-natured bidding to enter.

Across the door-opening in the wall I stepped
from the lane into the yard or compound — a
small open space with high walls on all sides —
which was clean, though earthen and dusty, and
contained a few naked infants that played about
the hut doors in company with a pair of young
goats of an age to be nursed and nourished at
home, while a few bantam-sized African fowls
scratched for pickings where wooden mortar
stools and pestle poles on the ground told that
the industrious women of the house had lately
been crushing grain for the forenoon meal. There
was not, contrary to the usual custom, any tree or
bush preserved within the narrow limits of the
yard for sun- shelter.

The yard I had entered contained two huts
built of the same clay-soil material as the outside
walls, and, bending almost double, I entered the
low dark doorless opening which gave admittance

* Sometimes Madala !

]VIUD-BUILT DWELLINGS 25

to the home of the old woman, and stood then in
dim Hght in a tiny den which had only a few feet
of space altogether. Indeed, such dwellings con-
tain area of so little extent that if a long wood-
framed couch is placed therein, or a grass mat for
reclining upon is laid upon the floor, one full side
of the room is taken up. No window lit the in-
terior— ^though there are sometimes one or two
narrow loopholes near the ceiling in huts of this
type — and but a dim light filtered indoors from
the sun-shadow that fell athwart the low doorless
opening ; the hard-baked floor was of the same
red clay-soil as the rest of the dwelling and of the
colour of the ground outside ; the flat ceiling —
which showed the ant-proof dum palm beams and
the spans of grass matting between, which carried
the weight of earth that composed the roof over-
head— was densely hung with cobwebs and black
with the wood-smoke from years of night-fires and
cook-fires, which had also dimmed the rough red
walls. There was no furniture in the hut, nothing
that had the purpose of an ornament, for though
the Hausa people are excessively fond of ornament
on their persons, strangely enough no such taste
is reproduced in their dwellings. Upon the floor
lay a clean grass mat, whereon the inhabitants are
wont to crouch around the food-bowl at meal-time,
or individuals recline in sleep in the heat of the
height of the day ; a few calabash drinking-
bowls and bowls for drawing well-water hung from
the ceiling and from the wall, where also a well-
used bow and a buck-skin sheath of arrows hung
from a peg.

From this room a short dark passage led to the
4

26 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

other hut, which was of exactly the same character
and aspect as the first, except that therein two
comely women, in bright cotton garb, had taken
refuge in shyness of the white stranger — ^wives, no
doubt, of the proprietor, who was not for the mo-
ment at home. A few Hausa words to them in
friendliness and a coin to the old woman, and I
passed outside into the daylight again and on my
way, followed by the grateful " Na gode, na gode !
(thank you, thank you !) of the old woman, who
was much flattered over the advent of a white man
to her humble *'gidda " (abode).

Therein I have described one native home in
Kano, and in describing one have portrayed the
type, for, except in minor details, they are all very
similar. They are, in fact, when all is said and
done, but the simple primitive shelters of an out-
door people of an old world, who are content for
the most part to make shift, somewhat in gipsy
fashion, with the rude necessities of life like unto
the wild things about them.

Of course there are, in addition to the mass of
dwellings, the Mohammedan mosque, and Sultan's
Palace, and market-stalls, which Ihave importance
and peculiarities of their own and complete the
city as a whole ; but the great novelty of the place
lies along the lanes and about the mud huts of the
crowded populace, and upon the rampart wails
that stand stalwart guards through the ages.

In the Past it would appear the natives of Kano
lived almost altogether within the ramparts of the
city, as was the defensive custom of rival centres
throughout the territory ; for tribal wars were
continual in those days, one group fighting an-

THE GREAT WALLS OF KANO 27

other, one city besieging another to such an extent
that safety was only to be found behind stout
walls and lines of archers, while, in times of
disturbance, the bush outside remained a deserted
no-man's-land.

Thus to withstand siege Kano had more than
its crowded streets of dwellings within the walls
that enclosed an area of TJ square miles ; there
was open ground where goats and cattle and
camels could be herded and fed for a time when
threat of attack should drive them in from the
outside ; there were ponds and pits of water,
even in the dry season, where beasts could be
watered, and deep wells to supply the people.
So that with their herds of animals to slaughter
for meat, and secreted grain stores, and abundant
water, the inhabitants were in a strong position to
withstand siege in the good old days of high
adventure — days not long removed so far as they
are concerned.

Within the walls, also, are the twin hills Goron
Dutse and Dalla, outstanding though not massive
in area, but most notable because they are the
only hills in view on any side over the distance of
cleared land and bushland of the surrounding
country, so that they are like sentinel posts and
fortresses to outside eyes.

Lastly, and most striking feature of all in this
place of strange reflection of ancient customs,
there are the great ramparts which completely
surround the city. They are the very embodi-
ment of strength, towering above all else — of great
width and height, and one solid mass of welded
clay-soil. Indeed, the whole enclosure is so colossal

28 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

that one cannot but be filled with amazement when
endeavouring to conceive an imaginary estimate
of the labour and enthusiasm that the masters
and their subjects and their slaves must have put
into the work. At some time or other one can
easily imagine that countless thousands of naked
natives swarmed upon those walls, intent on one
great purpose, like so many droves of tireless
working ants. The walls are 40 ft. wide at the
base, and rise, tapering to 4 to 6 ft. width at the
top, to a height of 30 ft. and more. The parapet
is punctuated with regular openings to accommo-
date the drawn bows of archers when kneeling on
the ledge or pathway which is on the inside of the
top of the wall. The great wall which encircles
the city is no less than 11 miles around its circum-
ference, while there are thirteen tunnel-like gloomy
entrances, through the great width at the base, on
main roadways that diverge from the city, so that
exit or entrance can be made from any side. In
the side walls of the tunnel entrances there are
room-like cavities excavated which apparently
accommodated the guard in time of war.

The hour to enter Kano by one of these gates is
in the cool of the late afternoon, for at that time
you will find that the somnolence which the
excessive heat of noonday lays upon the easy-
going inhabitants has lifted and that there is a
great stir of joyous life about the city. The
earth streets and lanes are filled with natives bent
on one occupation or another, for Kano is at heart
a regular hive of industry — " the great emporium
of Central Africa," as Dr. Barth described it on his
travels in 1850. It is the principal hour in the

A STREET-LANE IX KAXO.

AN ENTRANCE IN THE MUD "WALLS OP KANO.

88]

KANO MARKET 29

market-place, and women and men pass thereto
with baskets of wares carried with easy grace
upon their heads; laden donkeys, dun-coloured
or grey, pass marketwards too ; and long-gaited
camels, and sometimes lean-ribbed, big-boned
oxen, all converging into Kano in the one
direction, whence issues the hum of many
voices telling where a multitude has already
gathered.

The market is comprised of long streets of low,
roofed-in open stalls, wherein the wares are ex-
posed upon the ground within an allotted space,
while the gown-clad Hausa merchants kneel
behind them with becoming solemnity and do
business. You may see upon some stalls British
cotton, and British ironmongery, and British
cigarettes which have been imported, and a few
other things ; but for the most part the wares are
native, and you can single out baskets of raw
cotton, bobbins of home-spun thread, and stout
Kano Cloth — which is renowned in Nigeria — the
weaving and dyeing of which is a large industry.
Also the sale of hides, and leather-work, and
basket-work, and pottery are local industries of
importance that bring wares to the market ;
while tailors and blacksmiths flourish at their
trades. There are food -stalls, where such staple
foods as millet, and guinea com, and maize, and
beans (whole or ground to flour) are exposed for
sale in calabash bowls or grass-woven baskets ;
and tomatoes, onions, yams, sugar-canes, and the
pepper and plant-leaves that go to make up the
local pottage condiments. The meat market is
set apart, which is wise, for it is fly-ridden and

30 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

odoriferous, and beef and mutton and choice parts
of offal (of which natives are particularly fond)
are there exposed for sale.

The merchants of the stalls are principally of
the Hausa race, and there are a few Arabs. But
in the cattle-market, which is also on one side,
the natives are often Fulani and Beri-Beri, who
have brought in cattle, sheep, goats, and camels
from distant bush where their herds roam.

There are some horses for sale in the cattle-
market ; high-mettled, Arab-like beasts that are
often very attractive, but which, very unfortun-
ately, are almost invariably gone at the houghs
through the stupid native habit of throwing a
galloping horse suddenly back on its hindquarters
on hard ground to make a dramatic halt before an
audience or a king's house, by means of pressure
on the locally-made cruel bit-iron which projects
on to the roof of the mouth.

It may be gathered at this stage that the local
market of Kano is well equipped to supply the
wants of the primitive people. Moreover, the
whole interchange of trading is so extensive, that
there is a very wholesome buying and selling
within its own circle which employs almost
everyone and makes the city doubly self-support-
ing and self-sufficient.

This market within the old city, in its entirety,
is the everyday mart of the inhabitants and does
not greatly concern the white traders, who buy,
at their own warehouses in the European segrega-
tion outside the walls, their stacks of hides and
tons of ground-nuts and beans, which are the rich
exports from the place. There is also some Euro-

AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY 31

pean trade in cattle and sheep, which are railed
for the consumption of people at " down country "
stations and on " the Coast."

But it is now time to pass on from the market-
place and return to quarters, though the loitering
crowd that presses about the stalls is so dense that
it is difficult to pass through it, and the din of
the eager voices is deafening. However, once
clear of the congestion and noise, it is very pleasant
walking or riding slowly home under the spell of
a closing day. Hundreds of natives are still on
the dusty roads, arriving joyfully at the journey's
end with burdened animals, from distant parts, or
coming from the fields or villages near-by when the
work of the day is finished ; all gladly and con-
tentedly returning home, or coming to a haven of
rest, while the sound of pounding pestle-poles in
their mortar stools resounds methodically in the
still air to declare to all ears that industrious
housewives are preparing the evening meal.

You may hear also, about this time, the mono-
tonous tom-tom of small drums arising from the
direction of a group of hutments, and the loud
voice of a functionary raised in peculiar declara-
tion to call forth neighbours ; from which it may
be understood that there is gaiety afoot in some
quarter where a wedding-dance is starting. Such
sounds on the evening air are very pleasant, as
are all sounds close to nature when they are
explanatory of familiar living things and joy of
life to anyone who is overtaxed with the silence
of the lone places, as are many men of the caravans
and of the bush who drift into Kano from afar.

Passing through a shadowed gateway, named

32 KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA

" Nassarawa," in the eastern wall, you may leave
the strange old city behind in the dusk and take
the straight road to the white man's town while
snow-white flocks of Cattle Egrets fly gracefully
and softly across the eve-lit sky to their night
grounds, and satiated vultures and kites clamber
heavily to their roosting-perches on gnarled old
solitary trees to gather on each one in colonies.

CHAPTER III

HAUSA, CURRENCY, CAMELS, TRAVELLING

At Kano I picked up two more natives to accom-
pany me on my journey, a Hausa youth named
Mona and a half-caste named Outa, while the inter-
views with applicants were not without amuse-
ment, since conversation was carried on in my
somewhat amateur Hausa, with John privileged
to look on, and give his comical but shrewd
opinion of the character of his probable fellow-
travellers — ^and he had his strong likes and dis-
likes, though he judged his subjects solely by eye,
for he could not speak Hausa, as is the case with
many natives of other tribes, and in particular
with coast boys.

Languages are very numerous in Africa, and to
know them all would be a great task, but every
European on the West Coast knows and makes
use of the amusing native patois termed " Pigeon
English," which is the crude English that natives
learn to speak who come much in contact with
white men. And when one begins to form
sentences in Hausa, and troubles to translate
them literally into English, it is amusing what
peculiar phrasing is arrived at, and how similar
it is to the patois of the natives. Thus here are

33

34 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

some literal translations of some of the Hausa
sentences I used :

Interrogating native hunter.

" You, you make king of hunting in your
town ? "

" I make journey, I reach Air, after so I return
within Kano when my work I finish. You agree
you come far together with me ? "

" Money how much you wish you do work
with me moon one one ? "

" You agree you do month ten (with me) ? "

Consulting a chief for information of local hunting-
ground and local hunter.

" I want I may collect birds and animals of
bush."

" I want I may flay them and I look inside
of them."

" I wizard am. I carry them and I show them
to white men wizards in land (of) Europe."

" Not I wish I make journey quick because I
want I catch them all."

'' I want I may make hunting where grass it
makes tall."

" I want I may make hunting where rivers
they make many : a place of lake and marsh."

" You are able you give me a hunter, he come
along with me : he point out to me a bush good ? "

Translation of Hausa speech to natives when
camping and hunting.

" We shall alight here."

" Perhaps we sit here days ten and four."

QUAINT LANGUAGE 35

(Or in opposite case) : " We shall sit here
little little, not we shall delay place this. I will
go I make hunting at (this) night. You it is
necessary you sit ; you look (my) camp. Do
not you sleep."

" I will take (my) gun, I will go, I will make of
hunting now."

" You bring trap of iron."

" We will sit here, we will watch in silence."

" Do not you make (of) moving."

" Beast that it is with a bad wound, we will
follow it."

The natives secured at Kano completed my
personnel for hunting — Sakari and Mona being
available for gun-bearing, bag-carrying, and skin-
ning, Outa as horse-boy, and John as cook and
caretaker of his master, for he had already
attached himself to me with the sincerity of a
faithful servant and was now watchful of my
welfare, especially taking upon himself to warn
me when he detected any " slim " manoeuvring
over camels or food or gifts by cunning char-
acters that came about camp or were met on
our wayfaring.

Delays always seem to dog the start of a pre-
arranged journey — the more anxiously planned,
the more sure some fateful hitch at the last
moment — ^and my experience at the " end of the
line " in Nigeria was no exception. At Kano the
large quantity of stores of food and hunting
accessories that were to carry me through barren
country for about a year lacked almost all gun
and rifle ammunition and an important crate of
apparatus for entomological work ; all of which

86 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

had missed the steamer at Liverpool ; which
advice I received in due course.

However, as the neighbourhood of Kano had
been un worked by collectors, it was not unprofit-
able to make a beginning there, while observa-
tions alone would give me a good ground work
to go on as I moved further north, for by being
familiar with species that inhabited the Kano
region of Northern Nigeria, I could the more
surely detect types peculiar to localities or given
latitudes as I encountered them in the Sudan.

Therefore I did not stay many days in Kano
while waiting the arrival of the lost supplies, and
with the aid of native carriers moved out with all
my baggage to camp about six miles north of the
town near to a small village named Farniso.

My experiences there need not be unduly dwelt
on. The country-side was for the most part
thickly populated and well cultivated, and col-
lecting was not of an exciting order. There were
no antelope in the neighbourhood, and jackals and
foxes were the largest animals I collected. Jackals
were very plentiful, and I have seen their dens
even in the walls of Kano.

Reports reached me that there were a few lions
in low-lying country on the Hadeija river, where
it passes through N'gourou, and also that there
was some good big-game country east of Kano
towards Maidugari (nearing Lake Chad territory),
and I have no doubt but that such reports were
true, although I had no opportunity of hunting in
those localities. I judge that the big-game hunter
who journeyed to Kano would not find his hunting
there, but would seek it some days away to the

WILD LIFE AT KANO B7

east or the west or the north. I know not
the territory any great distance east and west,
but I know something of it northwards, and
anon will explain where game lies where I
have seen.

Though collecting in the neighbourhood of
Kano was not exciting, bird life was attractive and
abundant, as were small mammals, and my days
were well filled hunting in the early morning or
late afternoon during the hours of feeding and
movement of the creatures of the underbush, who
dislike as much as humans do the intense heat of
an overhead sun, and skinning and setting speci-
mens all through the day, and after dark at night,
in camp. During the few weeks I remained
camped near Farniso I collected 207 birds and 83
mammals, and also a quantity of butterflies and
moths.

In due course the lost ammunition arrived and
a great anxiety was lifted from my mind, for new
regulations with regard to arms and ammunition
being exported from England were so complicated
at the time, that long delay, or even loss of authori-
sation was possible if not probable ; and I would
have been in a nice predicament and completely
crippled without this item, which was so indis-
pensable to me on my journey. I assure you I
could have shouted with sheer joy when I saw the
small weighty business-like boxes coming into
camp on the heads of carriers that were groaning
under their loads.

The arrival of ammunition stores left me free
to begin the camel journey northward over the
boundary into French territory, though I was still

38 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

short of the crate of entomological apparatus —
which did not reach me till more than a month
later, forwarded by courtesy of the French
officials.

In departing from Kano I would say good-bye
to the last post that boasted of civilisation and
pass " out of the world," for there are surely few
places on the face of the earth more remote and
God-forsaken than the interior Sahara of Central
Africa — ^as in due course I was to learn ; though
in this I was to some extent prepared by study
of bare incomplete maps, and in finding how
difficult it was to glean any information of the
country in England before sailing. But I was
not prepared to find how little was known of the
country at Kano, where I had calculated I would
probably learn much about my journey ahead,
whereas, in fact, I gained practically no informa-
tion from the few white men there, and very little
from natives, who were much given to reticence
with strangers, or, if free-spoken, to wild exaggera-
tions. I did not meet a single Englishman or
Scot in Kano who had been across the boundary
into French territory as far as Zinder, which is
a ten days' camel journey north, and it is strange
but really true that almost as little is known of
the Territoire du Niger in Nigeria as in England,
though the two former are next-door neighbours.
But so far as travelling to Zinder is concerned,
apart from Zinder being in French Territory, it
can be readily understood why British Europeans
do not make the journey from Kano if one can
realise the desolation of the country and the
exhausting heat of the African sun, which makes

LOCAL CURRENCY 89

such a trip, merely for the sake of sight-seeing,
altogether uninviting.

By reason of preparing to enter this land that
knew the sadness and solitude of " the lone
places " rather than even the rudiments of
civilisation and commerce, I had perforce to carry
all stores necessary to life ; and I must carry
money also — not a little, but a quantity sufficient
to last me over a protracted period. Therefore,
my last act on the eve of departing was to ride
into Kano to draw money from the bank. And
through the kindness of the manager of the Bank
of British West Africa, who rightly viewed my
task in the light of one of national importance and
not one of trade, I was enabled to have the large
quantity I required issued to me in silver ; which
was a generous concession on his part, and of the
utmost value to me, for silver was at that time at
a premium, and one could purchase at least 25 per
cent, more with coin than with paper-money,
which found ill -favour with the natives.

There are two reasons why notes, which, at the
time of my visit to West Africa, were causing much
inconvenience and concern to traders in Nigeria
and to the military officials in the French colony,
are disliked. In the first place, many of the
natives are unable to read the value printed on
paper-money, both the actual figures and the word-
ing being in English, so that when it is tendered in
purchase, they are sometimes doubtful of the value
they are receiving ; whereas with coin they can
easily judge the different values by the variety
of size. Secondly, it is the habit of the natives
to conceal their wealth in a secret hole in the walls

40 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

of their huts or in the ground, and paper-money
is not adapted for such a purpose, since it is not
impervious to damp in the rainy season, nor the
ravages of white ants or mice at all times. Further-
more, the "brown paper" shilling currency is a
poor affair at best, and not durable to the large
amount of outdoor handling which money receives
at the hands of the natives, and whenever a note
becomes torn, it is looked upon as valueless among
themselves, and quickly reaches the white man's
store, where it is known it will be accepted and
taken off their hands.

So, with knowledge of the drawbacks of paper, I
gleefully returned to camp with my supply of
silver, and that night secreted the major portion
of the coin in various ammunition boxes in the
hope that it would in that way escape detection
and plunder on my long journey. Silver in
quantity is very heavy to transport, but that was
fully compensated for — for had it not the power
to put one on good terms at once in all dealings
necessary with natives ? Further, I found it
unnecessary to make exchange to French coin
once I had crossed the Frontier, since the
English shilling and two-shilling piece were
acceptable everywhere.

I secured ten camels for my journey to Zinder,
and not, in a limited time, since it was ground-
nut season, when transport animals are in great
demand, being able to obtain the full number
required to transport my loads, which weighed
close on 4,000 lbs., I had to fall back on oxen to
complete the complement, taking four of the
latter to carry loads equivalent to that which two

CAMELS OF HAUSALAND 41

camels could carry. Camels can load 300 to 400
lbs.

The camels of Hausaland and the Territoire
Militaire du Niger are the one-humped race that
are named " Rakumi " in Hausa and "Alum" in
Tamashack, and they are the outstanding trans-
port animals of the country. Indeed, without
camels it is difficult to see how the inhabitants of
the interior Sahara could subsist, for they are, in
essentials, the only animals truly adapted to long
journeys in barren land, where water and food are
often very scarce. The distance they can travel
with 300 to 400 lbs. loaded on their backs, and
their uncomplaining endurance is altogether
marvellous, and it would be a man of poor appre-
ciation indeed who knew their habits and had not
praise for them.

Donkeys and oxen are two other animals of
transport which are used on routes that are not
too severe, and donkeys in their patience and en-
durance have some of the commendable traits
of camels, and are capable of accomplishing long
journeys if not too heavily loaded — 100 to 150 lbs.
is a fair load — ^though they are slower in getting
over the ground. Oxen, on the other hand, are of
secondary value as transport animals, and are
seldom satisfactory on a journey of any length,
for they do not harden well to their work, and often
break down tamely under a prolonged burden.
This is because the heat of day is very trying on
them when en route, while it has little effect on
either camels or donkeys.

As Air, and the section of the Territoire Mili-
taire through which my journey led me is the
5

42 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

home of the camel, and since I travelled hundreds
of miles with those fine animals, perhaps a few
remarks concerning them would not be out of
place.

The market-price of camels in 1920 at Kano
and Agades was about £8 for a young beast 4
years old, and about £15 for a full-grown animal

9 to 15 years old. Those prices, even though
they have risen considerably since the war, like
everything else even in such remote parts, must
appear small if it is taken into consideration that
camels require to be nourished and reared for 8 to

10 years before they have reached maturity and
are really fit to join the caravans and bring recom-
pense to the owner. On one occasion I saw a
young camel of 4 years, small and still with a
semi-calf look about it, being ridden by a Tuareg
who was a lightweight ; but to break a camel at
that age is quite exceptional, if not foolish, for
in all probability this early labour, before bones
are hardened and muscles full and set, spoils
the ultimate development of the animal. Some
camels are considered developed enough for
short journeys when 6 years old, though they are
seldom fully matured until 8, 9, or 10 years, while
they reach their prime about the age of 15 years ;
afterwards they begin to lose a little ground, but
are often quite useful and strong up to and over
20 years. At an age of 30 years a camel may be
said to be altogether beyond work.

In colour there is considerable range among
camels, the most common variety in this terri-
tory being light buffish-brown, somewhat re-
sembling sand, while piebald and brindled camels

A HAUSA NATIVE RIDIXG AN OX, KAXO,

OATXLE OF HAU.SALA.VU.

48]

DESCRIPTION OF CAMELS 43

are also numerous, the latter having random
patches of white on a surface that is chiefly
dull lead-like blackish-grey. Those piebald and
brindled beasts are reputed to be an Air race, but
how far that is true I had no opportunity of
proving, though I can vouch for having seen
among the Air mountains more camel-calves of
that colour than any other. Moreover, it is a
splendid protective colour against the mountain
background of blackish rock and pools of sand, so
that the claim has at least that in its favour. A
colour that is not very common among camels is
pure white, while one that is quite rare is rich
tawny reddish buff. I have seen a score of
animals of the former colour, but only two of
the latter.

In selecting camels to make up a caravan, it
is problematical whether you get good-tempered
or bad-tempered beasts, and one should be
optimistic enough to accept the bad with the good
and put up with the annoyance of saddling and
loading cantankerous individuals, for there is no
caravan was ever without them. But if you wish
to use a camel for hunting — and they are exceed-
ingly good for the purpose, being very noiseless of
foot — great care in selection should be exercised,
and only a tried animal should be used which is
good-tempered and taught that it must not roar
as you dismount to commence your stalk on
sighting game. The awkward and somewhat
wooden appearance of camels does not lead one to
associate much intelligence with them, but to
think so is a mistake, and if one desires to have a
really good hunting camel, I know of no better

44 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

method to secure it than to select a good-natured
beast from the rank and file, and hand-feed it
with tit-bits of vegetation, and pet it when mount-
ing and dismounting, and let no one else saddle
it or ride it, and before long you will be aston-
ished to find that you have won a queer pet and a
useful and obedient comrade. It will have been
gathered that it is the noisiness of the brutes that
has to be guarded against when hunting, and
that is so, for they are fearful beasts to roar on
the slightest provocation. Besides being timid
animals, they are very tender skinned, and almost
all of them emit a loud complaining roar when-
ever they are touched by a human hand or there is
the slightest movement in the position of the
saddle in mounting or dismounting ; while if an
animal happens to be suffering with horrible septic
saddle-sores, such as are very common, it is sure
to make a terrifying uproar whenever approached.
When travelling with a caravan, it is usual to
commence to load up before daylight and get well
started on the way before sunrise, which is about
6.30 a.m., or — especially if there be a moon — ^to
make a start at 2 or 3 a.m. in the night, and travel
the greater part of the day's journey free from the
rays of the exhausting sun. On such occasions
the camels are gathered in at sundown on the eve
before from browsing among the acacias, and made
to lie down by the camp-fire, so that they are at
hand when the camel-men go to work in the dark-
ness. Then, when the hour to start comes round,
logs that have been collected the night before are
kindled to make a blazing fire, and by the light of
the flames the loads are securely roped and loaded

ON LOADING CAMELS 45

across the pack-saddles, so that equally balanced
packs rest on either side, while throughout the
process the black bush silence of the night is
rudely broken by the deep querulous roars of the
camels in protest against being handled. Load-
ing up in the poor light of night is a slow process,
and in my case three or four men usually took
from an hour to an hour and a half to load ten to
fifteen camels. But the secret of a smooth jour-
ney is to begin the day with loads thoroughly
secure and well balanced so that they will not
annoy the bearer ; and with bulky loads, such as
the chop-boxes and collecting-cases of the white
man, which are unfamiliar and clumsy both to
the natives and their beasts, it requires consider-
able care in loading to be reasonably sure of a
well-ordered start. When things do not go well, it
is a mistake for the traveller to become impatient
and abuse or hurry the camel-men in the early
morning, when tempers are apt to be short, for
although they are undoubtedly slow in their
methods, they know their work and their animals,
and will make the better loads if left alone, and
you merely lend a hand here and there, and joke
with them over their work, and thus gain their
good-will and confidence. As to the type of
saddle, a serviceable and simple saddle is made of
wood in this fashion : first there are two arch-
shaped pieces which are made to fit over the back
of the animal, and which rest before and behind
the hump, while underneath them are bound
leather pads filled with palm fibre, so that the
saddle is comfortably received on the camel's
back; secondly, from the back and front pieces

46 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

there are run four horizontal bars, which are
bound in position to the arches with goat-skin
or sheep -skin thongs, whereby the saddle is made
rigid and complete. It is a very simple piece of
construction, but serves the purpose.

Sometimes no saddle is used when carrying
good loads, such as bales of grain or salt, which
naturally lie very close and compactly to the body
of an animal, in which event two long goat-skins
are used, puffed out like pillows with filling,
which are thrown over the back on either side of
the hump, and receive the burdened load ropes
which carry the bales in position on the sides.

When loading camels on the first day at the
commencement of a journey, or after having
been idle for a week or two turned loose in the
bush, they are afraid of their unfamiliar loads,
and behave like bolting horses or wild colts,
and saddles and packs are no sooner secured, and
the brutes on to their feet, than they show their
ill-humour and everything is thrown to the ground
again. Once, twice, even thrice this may happen
with three or four camels in the caravan, while it
seems as if you will never be able to get out and
away on the road. But in the end all are ready
and in line and a start is made. But on that day
you are sure of trouble en route with the fractious
animals, and not until the morrow need you
expect anything like reasonable order, when you
will almost surely find that even the worst of the
brutes has become docile and resigned to steady
work.

I did not miss any of my share of this sort of ex-
perience when the day came for me to set out from

DIFFICULTIES AT THE START 47

Kano — ^I don't think anyone does. Camels and
their Tuareg drivers were in my camp at Farniso
ready to start on the morrow (12th January).
That evening trouble began : the camel-men, not
having finished their private bargaining in Kano
and seeking an excuse to delay, had put their
heads together, with the result that they con-
cocted a story that they had not enough rope to
cope with the tying of the awkward loads of the
white man — which was true, in fact, though anyone
might know that it was not necessary to go to
Kano to secure them with a village close at hand.
However, knowing their homes were distant, and
that it might be long before they had again
occasion to visit Kano, I gave permission for one
of them to go back, provided he would start
there that night when the moon rose at 11.30
p.m., which he promised to do. Being easy-
going and trusting at that time, which was before
I had much knowledge of the plausible and sly-
tongued Tuareg, I turned in and slept soundly
— and so did the cameleer, for next morning I
learned that he had not started for Kano until
daylight. This meant that the whole morning was
lost — ^not very pleasant when tents are down and
everything you possess is bundled up and roped
in camel-loads, and there is nothing left to do but
sit on them and smoke innumerable cigarettes
and inwardly curse your camel-men and your
luck.

The camels were, in the meantime, turned at
large to feed in the neighbourhood with their
fore-feet hobbled, which was as it should be ; and
all was right until the man returned from Kano

48 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

with more ropes and his purchases of cloth, and a
cameleer hastened out to bring in the animals,
but returned in about an hour to say that he
could not find two of the camels.

At this stage everything seemed fated to go
wrong on this day.

But there is a rift in the clouds even on the
worst of days, and in the end the lost camels
appeared in view, coming in at a breakneck pace
before a mounted camel-man who had skilfully
tracked them down in the sand for a long distance
and rounded them up. The brutes, though
their fore-feet were hobbled, had tried to return
to their old haunts in Kano.

It was after 3 p.m. before we got loaded and
away on this ill-fated day.

I had arranged before starting that we would
camp at Fogalawa, 18 miles away, and it was well
I did so, for, after starting out together on the
road, I did not see the main part of the caravan
again until midnight, since I remained throughout
the journey with the tail-end of the line, where an
obstreperous and unruly old female camel made
the devil's own trouble, and threw her load again
and again with most vicious determination.
The climax came close on sunset, when the camel-
man and I were overheated and dust-grimed and
angry over our exertions, and the cantankerous
brute cut loose once again, and threw and shat-
tered the chop-boxes and strewed the contents on
the road. While bemoaning my ill-luck, and
letting tongue run loose on the virtues (?) of our
beast of burden, and at a loss to know what to do
next, a native chanced to come up with some

DEPARTURE FROM KANO 49

unloaded camels, and I was able to strike a bargain
for a beast to take the place of the unruly one.

Thereafter the journey was a smooth one, but,
nevertheless, I had lost so much time on the way
that it was midnight before I came into camp
behind the last camel, and had been nine hours on
a journey that should ordinarily take five and a
half to six and a half hours.

So much for the discrepancies of the " first
day" ; and now I must return to our starting-point,
so that I may tell of the wayside. During the
afternoon and through the night in the darkness
we travelled over a broad roadway of loose
shifting sand that held north through fairly open
country that was, in general, under cultivation.
Trees were plentiful, growing for the most part
singly and not in close-set mass, but they do not
impress one with height or stature at this season,
though in the Rains the full-leaved trees of any
size are imposing and conspicuous enough in most
of the flat country between Kano and Kanya.
No doubt the whole country has been covered
with acacia bush at one time, with an odd large
tree shooting above the dwarf forests here and
there, and though the acacia bush has been
cleared away to give place to cultivation, the big
trees have been left standing, since to the toilers
in the fields they are harbours of shade from the
merciless sun.

Along the road a constant incoming string of
caravans of camels and donkeys and oxen passed
us, carrying bulging bales of ground-nuts to Kano,
for the ground-nut season had begun, and
unprecedented prices were being paid for them by

50 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

the white man, which had created a widespread
boom in the district and a tremendous wave of
speculative excitement. It was a great year —
1920 — of prosperity for the natives of Kano, this
last fling of commercial extravagance at the end
of the war — a rich year that, in the end, must have
left its mark, for one could easily forecast the time
to come, when there would be acute comparisons
between the heyday of the boom and that other
day when the boom must burst, and hearts be sore
— for it is hard even for a native to come back to
the solid old ground-level after he thinks he has
reached a golden citadel in the clouds.

Next morning we continued on our way with-
out any repetition of trouble with the animals,
and the old camel, that had stubbornly refused to
carry the white man's boxes yesterday, to-day
carried with ease a greater load of ammunition
packed in native grass-woven bales. The brute
had been nothing more than wildly scared of the
strange articles that it had been set to carry.

The road continued broad to-day, but grew ever
heavier underfoot with loose sand. By the way-
side there was not so much cultivation as yesterday,
and few habitations, except at Kore and Minna.
We camped in mid-afternoon at the small village
of Kanya after a pleasantly smooth journey. It
was gratifying, after our trials of yesterday, to
see how nicely the camels of a well-ordered cara-
van move forward over the ground with their soft-
footed methodical gait ; they get over the heavy
sand road not only with their long pacing stride,
in which both legs on the same side are lifted
together, but also they move with a strange

CARAVAN TRAVELLING COMMENCED 51

stealthy silence, which is due to the rubber-like
give of their soft elastic pads. A further odd and
striking detail about the feet of a camel is that,
unlike other animals, the fore-feet are larger than
the hind-feet.

Travelling by the wayside in inhabited country,
if you happen to be near human dwellings, cock-
crows will herald in the African dawn from some
village hut-top obscure among the bush foliage,
and on the third day we were busy with the load-
ropes in the chill of late darkness ere the first glad
cock-call told of approaching day. Already we
had learned that it was wise to travel in the cool
hours as far as possible and save our animals from
the great heat of day, so long as short nights and
loss of sleep were not over-fatiguing to ourselves,
or, rather, perhaps I should say to myself alone,
for natives have the knack of sleeping in daylight
just as easily as in darkness, and throw themselves
down in any little patch of tree-shade at the end
of a journey and retrieve their night-sleep almost
before it is lost : while that I could never do, even
if I had not work to attend to.

But there was one native with me who worked
long hours without sleep much as I did, and he
was the faithful John. On his broad shoulders
rested all the petty duties of attending to his
master's welfare in camp : a host of small duties
indeed, such as cooking meals at any hour—
early or late, at noon or midnight ; pitching or
striking my camp-bed (for I slept in the open) ;
or doing the services of a valet in looking after
all my personal belongings, and my toilet, even
washing clothes when he had the time to spare —

52 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

in general, cookboy and houseboy all in one, and
a treasure. Moreover, he afforded amusement all
round through the medium of his perpetual
cheerfulness and expansive grin. Often I have
laughed to see him, after the rush of getting ready
to start, when he had got the last bundle turned
over to the camel-men and his master's camp
clear, come saucily forward in his cloth cap and
with his cane walking-stick — both relics of the
coast which were inseparable from his person —
and with a perceptible swagger over his
"English " (?) and his importance as the master's
boy, grin broadly and ejaculate to the head
camel-man : " Come on, come on, Aboki (friend),
we wait for you 1 " which assurance always pro-
voked laughter among the men, while Sakari
explained to them in Hausa John's " English " (?),
and added to it in the telling.

The Harmattan winds had been very pro-
nounced since starting, and the third day was as
bad as its predecessors. So full of sand-dust was
the air, that a white cloud hung over the land
through which the sun was unable to break clearly.
The mane of my horse was white with dust, and,
looking on the acacia trees a little way off in the
bush, they had the appearance they would bear
on a frosty morning, with the fine dust, like white
mist, hanging low and falling upon them to lie
whitely upon the leaves and boughs.

I noticed at Kanya, and beyond, that the
peculiar reddish sand and soil of Kano had given
place to ordinary whitish-grey.

On this day we travelled to Jigawa, 18 miles
away, on the banks of the Tomas river, which,

ON THE FRENCH FRONTIER 53

though it was nothing more than dry bed at this
season, is a very considerable stream during the
Rains, quite one hundred yards across the flood-
water. The place is a small town, with the
remains of a stockade about its outskirts, and it
contained wells of water and the usual village
produce of eggs, fowls, and millet-meal, as well
as goats and cattle. It may be stated here
that there is no scarcity of water or food ex-
perienced anywhere on the journey from Kano to
Zinder.

I heard at this village the first news of big
game that I had had, and in the cool of the after-
noon I went out westward to investigate, and the
result of a prolonged hunt through fairly open
thorn bush was that I sighted, and viewed through
field-glasses, four Red-fronted Gazelle, which the
local natives with me said were in fair numbers
in the neighbourhood. The beasts, at which I
fired one ineffectual shot, were very wild, and gave
me the impression that they were disturbed often
by the natives who hunt them.

The fourth day was a pleasant one, for it entailed
only a short ten- mile journey ; and I can assure
you that a short day after two or three long, hot,
and exhausting ones is a very agreeable change.

We camped at noon at Barbara, our day's task
finished ; and the camels were hobbled and turned
out into the scrub bush to enjoy a lengthy repast.
Barbara is a large town that lies five miles on
the British side of the frontier, and here it was
that I bid good-bye to Nigeria for a time.
Hence I made it a stopping-place, and an
easy day. (I did the same thing many months

54 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

later, on my return, and was royally received by
the Saraki (native king) and his people — a large
number of whom were Fulani — who en masse
spent the day in holiday and dance because the
White Man had safely returned and was glad.)

On the morrow we crossed the boundary and
entered French territory, having crossed the line
about an hour after starting where it lay between
the two small villages of Baban Mutum (British)
and Dashi (French) ; places, like many others,
that were not shown on either of the incomplete
maps I possessed, which were the best I could
procure in England.

In the afternoon we halted and camped at
Magaria, where there is a small French fort com-
manded by a European officer, with native troops
under him. Here I was most cordially welcomed
to French soil, and enjoyed the frank, unfettered
hospitality that for ever is to be found with the
big-hearted men of the Lone Places. Though
I was not yet more than eighty-five miles from
Kano, a European visitor was rare to the board of
this solitary soldier, and so I was made doubly
welcome over our cups of good comradeship,
though neither could glibly speak the other's
tongue, and conversation was carried on for the
most part in halting words of Hausa. He was a
jovial good fellow, beside being the kindest of
hosts, and ere the day was out I think we put
the sober mud walls of his little cabin to shame
with our gladness and laughter. That he Was a
lone man could be gleaned from his surroundings
and his tastes. For companions about his abode
he had a cage full of little waxbills, a grey parrot.

A SMALL FRENCH FRONTIER POST 55

two pie-dogs, two cats, and four Dorcas Gazelles —
all bird and beast of the country-side, except the
two cats, which were Persian. The barrack
square and the garden of the Fort afforded him
further pleasures in homely hobbies : in the
square, young trees had been lately planted to
form an entrance avenue and give shade, and to
watch them take root and thrive was this man's
way with his treasures. And in the garden among
the shrubs and vegetables his interest was the
same to coax plants that were not indigenous to
grow in the sandy, thirsty soil ; and that he had
some success I can vouch for, for there were beds
of such vegetables as carrots, radish, beetroot,
peas, and cabbage growing quite fairly at the time
of my visit.

As I progressed later on, I found such humble
gardens wherever white men were stationed : only
a few places in all, it is true, but always a garden
to furnish the need for vegetables, which is a
pressing one to the health of Europeans in such
a barren land as this, for rarely vegetables and
no fruit can be obtained from natives. Apropos
to this, entering a country of tropical heat, I was
not prepared to find that it was devoid of fruit
(excepting a limited amount of dates in the rainy
season), and the discovery disappointed and dis-
mayed me, I must confess, for it left me on short
commons in that respect throughout the expedi-
tion. And when one lives for a prolonged period
on the unchanging diet of animals that fall to
your hunting, the hunger for fruit or vegetable
grows ever greater, and is, at times, very difficult
to allay.

56 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

The sixth day found us on the road at dawn,
with Nigeria behind and the caravan well started
on the way to Bande, our next halt. On this day
and the next, over a belt of about twenty-five
miles, country of marked change was passed
through, and one got the impression that it was
now turning more to desert. Dum palms, in
small groups or solitary, sceptral with their tall
graceful stems and tufted rustling tops, were now
in the landscape, while there was a new sense of
open space about one, such as is felt on sea or
prairie, which was brought about by the wide
views of grass -grown land before one where eye
could range for long distances.

With the regularity of routine we were march-
ing off the distance on the map, and each day we
camped a stage further on — and a day nearer to
Zinder. On the seventh day we made the journey
from Bande to Makochia, over a very heavy road
of loose sand ; on the eighth we camped at Dogo —
ever the cruel sand-drifting winds of Harmattan
in our faces, while ever we held steadily on, for
after camels are loaded at the dawning of day,
never halt is made by the roadside until the
journey's end is reached and the patient brutes
lie down and are relieved of their burdens.

The day of our journey to Dogo was one of
particularly fierce storm, and we went forward
against a very heavy wind and enveloped in con-
tinuous clouds of drifting sand : and, besides, it
was so cold that I had to keep on my woollen
sweater and khaki tunic throughout the day,
although hitherto I had not on any day worn a
tunic, and as a rule discarded my sweater an

CLOUDS OF DRIFTING SAND 57

hour or two after the chill of dawn. At Dogo I
was forcibly reminded of a snowstorm on the
Canadian plains ; before the village there is a
wide white level stretch of sand almost plant-bare,
over which winds and driftings rushed fiercely
from afar to pounce madly upon whatever lay
across their path. Not snowstorm nor piercing
cold are elements of this land, but imagine the
soft sand underfoot, like snow, the drifting
sand, the snow blizzard, and the sting of the
storm in eyes and nostrils and throat as un-
pleasant as the tang of biting cold, and you have
the comparisons that have a very decided resem-
blance.

The road to Dogo lay over undulating country,
pale with dry grass and sand, with a touch of faded
green where there were trees in the open spaces.
It should be a fair country to look upon in the
Rains, but it is for the present inert, and dis-
coloured with the drifting sand, and is a melan-
choly land indeed.

The country by the wayside had for a time a
pronounced fall away to a deep valley visible to
the west.

The altitude of Dogo is 1,375 ft., so that we had
descended some 300 ft. since leaving Kano.

Dogo is the Hausa for tall, but I could gather
no particular reason for the name. Had it been
called Gara (the white ant), however, I would have
well understood, for I have seldom seen an equal
to the plague of termites that was here : boots,
leggings, articles hung to the wall, every box
among the camel-loads, was attacked by the
infernal pests as soon as ever we camped and
6

58 HAUSA— CURRENCY— CAMELS

before we had time to prepare rough timber plat-
forms to raise everything off the ground. White
ants have to be guarded against everywhere in the
Sudan, but I never saw them worse than at Dogo.

Next day, which was the ninth day of our
journey, we reached Baban Tubki, six miles
south of Zinder, where there were a few small
date groves and plentiful well-water, and more
luxuriant vegetation than usual. So that I
decided that here I would pitch a collecting camp,
and with that purpose in view swung the caravan
west of the road, and sought a camping-place
among the scattered trees and tall grass about a
mile away. Camels were unloaded and the packs
freed from their many ropings, and the prepara-
tions of camp erection were begun — and trekking
for the present was at an end. . . .

In the part of the territory of Damagarim
through which I had travelled since crossing the
frontier there was no great change from that of
Nigeria. It was certainly less populated, but
the Hausa, Fulani, and Beri-Beri tribesmen were
the same, as also was the construction of their
grass huts and villages, though some of the latter
were somewhat dilapidated and had the aspect
of belonging to a poorer or more careless class of
natives.

So far as I could tell by daily short excursions
into the bush off the road, none of the country I
had passed through was notable for big-game ;
but if I was to hunt in that particular territory,
I would start at Jigawa (fifty-six miles north from
Kano), and work north as far as Makochia, about
fifty miles further on. I know there are Red-

WE CAMP NEAR ZINDER 69

fronted and Dorcas Gazelles in that belt, but that
is as far as my limited knowledge goes for the
present.

By the wayside, each day, I had made notes of
every living thing I had seen — bird or beast or
butterfly. Now it was my task to set to work
and preserve a representative collection of the
fauna of Damagarim, and forge one link in the
chain of the zoological geography of the country,
of which up to the present nothing was known.

CHAPTER IV

A day's work collecting

Collecting was my constant occupation during
the month that I camped and hunted near
Zinder.

Now, collecting Fauna for the scientific purposes
of large Natural History Museums is work some-
what out of the ordinary ; so much so, in fact,
that I would like to show clearly what such
pursuits entail, and to do this will endeavour to
describe some of the actual work in the field.

To begin with, the climate is African : which
means, in this territory, that for at least nine
months in the year the land knows not rain, and
lies like an overdone pie-crust, withering beneath
a heat that is too great. Day after day, with
unchecked regularity, from the break of dawn, a
fierce sun rises rapidly high up in the sky, and as
it gains in strength, so a silence settles upon the
earth, for so great is its oppression, that at the
height of its power it subdues all living things.
About 10 a.m. you may notice that the glad
sounds of morning have faded — ^birds are retiring
to leafy shades, the boisterous noise of natives
at work in the village has died down ; before
noon the land is wrapped in silent solitude, and
Old Sol alone is left in the field.

60

THE COOL HOURS 61

Hence the time to go hunting in this land is
early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when
the creatures of the underworld have left their
hiding-places and are up and about in eager
quest of feeding. For the hunter and his native
boys it is also the favoured hour, for, as in travel-
ling, the cool of the day allows of the maximum of
exertion without any forfeit of sheer exhaustion
which the noonday sun inexorably imposes.

Let us follow the proceedings of a morning's
hunting. I have turned wakeful toward dawn,
and lie warmly in my blankets awaiting the sound
of cock-crowing to tell me the time, for I am
without a watch since the sand has damaged both
I possess. When I hear the call I listen for, I
know full well I must bestir myself if I would go
away to the fields in good time. Blankets and
bed are provokingly comfortable at that moment,
but it is fatal to hesitate, so I call " John ! " and
at once he answers, for he too has been sleeping
lightly ; and while I am dressing he lights a camp-
fire and prepares tea. Sakari and Mona are also
awakened, and sit, with their coloured blankets
over their shoulders and drawn about them,
huddled before the few embers of a fire that they
have rekindled, for there is a chill in the air and
they are still half asleep and without vigorous
circulation.

When I am ready, we prepare to start. My
search is for birds this morning, so I take '410
shot-gun for collecting small specimens, 12 -bore
shot-gun for anything larger, and a '22 Win-
chester rifle in case I find some wary bird that I
cannot get within gun-shot of, and yet may see it

62 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

watchfully perched within the range of the little
rifle. I fill my pockets with cartridges : those
for the '410 loaded with dust for sparrow-sized
birds, and with No. 8 for birds of the size of doves ;
while I carry only No. 6 in the cartridges for the
12-bore gun, which I have found will kill vulture or
eagle or bustard — in fact, any bird less than an
ostrich. Also, I take an open basket, so that I may
carry the specimens I capture with great care and
without damage to the plumage, some cotton wool
to stop bleeding and fill wounds, and a notebook
in which to record the colours of the soft parts
before they fade at death — viz. the colour of the
eyes, the bill, and the feet.

John stays behind to prepare breakfast and
make camp clean and tidy for the day ; Sakari
and Mona come with me.

I know where I will go — I keep more westerly
than yesterday. We go carefully at first over the
uneven ground, for it is not yet light, though there
is now a faint brightness in the eastern sky. We
are well away from camp, and cannot see it when
daylight is upon us. I am alert now that the sky
has cleared ; eyes roam everywhere, catching
movement in the undergrowth, among the leaves
of big trees, or in the sky. Many birds I see :
little brown ones like the undergrowth or ground ;
pale ones like the sand ; dark ones like the trees ;
or gorgeous ones that have no shy colouring, but
are gems unto themselves, that peep out brightly
revealed in the dark background of their leafy
haunts. I know them all, they are very familiar
— for am I not among them every day ? I am
not concerned with these : I pass on ever obser-

A MORNING IN THE BUSH 68

vant, ever expectant, knowing that there are
others that I will find. . . . Soon I am arrested :
I have heard a note that I do not know — so often
I am guided in that way. I go forward watchfully
in the direction of the sound. ... I have now
marked down the clump of bushes whence the
call proceeds. ... I am within range of it — •
when I see a long-tailed bird dive from it and dis-
appear in an instant. I have seen that it is a Coly,
but not of a race I know. . . . Pray do not think
I have lost this valuable quarry, though it has
flown and is out of sight. Ah, no I birds that
inhabit a favoured thicket are unlikely to fly
very far, especially in the feeding hours of morn-
ing. So I pause and listen attentively, and anon
I think I hear the tell-tale somewhat mournful
single-pipe call of the bird I seek, but it is so faint
that I wonder if fancy is deluding me. There is
no time now to be lost. I hasten forward among
the thorn trees that in a belt grow numerously,
and the pulse quickens as I again hear the call
for certain, and from more than one bird. ... I
feel my way toward the sounds. ... I am not
sure of the direction at first, but as I draw near
there is no doubt. The birds are ferreting for
leaf -buds among the thick tangle in the centre of
a thorn tree (acacia). I get up in time to see them
dart away, and succeed in shooting one specimen.
But that is not enough, for the species, a long-
tailed Coly, with a blue band on the back of the
head (Colius macrourus), is new to my collection ;
I must follow them up. So I hunt on for an hour
or so, with the result that I capture four; and
it has been an exciting chase, for the birds were

64 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

peculiarly wild, though they are of a kind that are
often easy of approach.

I am very warm, and stand beside a tree to
smoke a soothing cigarette. I have seen a num-
ber of hawks in the air during the morning ; now
that I am idling in the shade I see another. It is
of a species that I have observed before, but that
I have never been able to approach — a very large
hawk, of even dark leaden-grey colour, with
mighty wings and a crested head. The bird swings
slowly over the land about a quarter of a mile
away, and I give up following it, and drop my
eyes to look about nearer at hand.

I had forgotten the incident, when Sakari
aroused me with : " White man, dem shafo
(hawk) live for tree — ^look him I " and he pointed
away to a small group of tallish trees on our
right. Sure enough, following Sakari's direc-
tions, I could make out the outline of a heavy
bird perched near the top of one of the trees,
whence it overlooked the whole country-
side. The native had watched it fly and settle
there.

Now began a stalk as exciting as one could
wish for. I always look on birds of prey, the
hawks and the eagles, as royal game, and feel
about the same intense interest in hunting a wild
species of them as I do when stalking a particu-
larly fine head of big-game. Between me and my
prey there was hardly any tree cover. I could
only trust to using the " lie " of the hollows to
reach the bird unobserved or at least unsuspected.
I ordered the two natives to remain where they
were, while I took my shot-gun and started on a

STALKING RARE SPECIES 65

wide detour, so that I might reach a little dry
streamlet hollow that led in toward the trees.
Rapidly, but carefully, after I had got round into
position, I advanced, crouching and creeping,
toward the bird ; and always when I dared to
glance ahead I saw my coveted quarry perched
in place and unalarmed. When I drew closer I
could distinguish the eyes and hooked beak, and
saw that the bird was watchful, for it turned its
head in one direction and then in another as it
looked out over the landscape. . . . Now I was
crawling flatwise, bare bruised knees and all,
and before long stood breathless among the trees
— ^the bird somewhere overhead. As I moved to
get a better view through the branches, the bird
swooped from its perch to make off ; and then
crumpled up in mid-air as the report of my gun
rang out. Seldom have I been more satisfied with
the sound of the fall of a heavy bird ; for many a
like stalk have I made after equally rare prize,
only to find the sharp-eyed quarry depart when I
was half-way on my journey, or sometimes when
almost within shooting range.

The natives soon joined me, and having now
enough specimens for the work of the day, we
turned back to camp.

On the way home I had two fox-traps to visit
and lift, for it is not safe to leave them set during
daylight, lest browsing goat or village cur stumble
into them. The luck of the morning continued,
for in the second trap there was a struggling
captive — a. beautiful buff sand-coloured little fox
known as Vulpes pallida edwardsi.

This capture afforded the two natives great

66 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

satisfaction, and, as is their habit, they showed
fiendish glee over the downfall of this creature of
renowned wit and cunning. If they were not
restrained by my presence, I know they would
poke it with sticks and jeer at it, and in many
ways act with unconscious cruelty, for they have
not an atom of pity for such things — ^no African
has. If they were free to kill the fox, they would
secure the teeth and the eyes and the skin to
secrete the parts about their persons as charms in
the firm belief that they thus invest themselves
with the high gifts of the animal against the
cunning of their opponents or enemies.

Thus finished a morning's hunting. Sometimes,
on other days, I would meet with greater success,
sometimes with less ; and sometimes, too, I
would have my days of disappointment, when a
rarity was seen and lost through a missed shot or
in losing all traces of it in its flight. But the
hunter does not readily forget, and naturally
memorises a place where he has once found
quarry, so that again and again he will revisit it,
and often picks up on a later day that which has
escaped him at the start.

There were few big-game in' the district, and,
in my case, for the present, it was not my concern
to hunt them, except that I might have fresh
meat.

But in addition to ornithological research, I
was interested in collecting all kinds of small
mammals, and as few indeed were ever seen in
daylight, I had to resort almost altogether to steel
traps to make my captures, and had mouse-traps,
rat-traps, rabbit-traps, and fox-traps set at nights

PROCESS OF SKINNING ANIMALS 67

wherever I found an inhabited burrow or den
or a frequented " run."

Furthermore I had yet other matters to give
thought to, for I was to bring home collections of
Lepidopterae, which entailed long excursions in the
heat of the day in quest of butterflies, and patience-
trying hours of watching by a lamp-lure in the
darkness of night in quest of moths.

Altogether, I can assure you I had no time to
weary for companionship or to realise my loneli-
ness, and that was a comforting consideration.

I have described the manner of hunting speci-
mens, and would now turn to the work of preserv-
ing them.

I have built a rough-framed grass hut for work-
shop, close to my tent. When I return in the
morning, it is here that the specimens are taken,
and work is begun at once, for the temperature
is so great that a lifeless carcass cannot be relied
on to keep fresh longer than five hours, and will
certainly be beyond handling if left to the end of
the day. I usually preserve from five to ten
specimens in a day, the number depending on
size or the success of hunting ; while on special
occasions I have finished as many as fifteen in a
day.

Sakari and Mona, the boys selected at Lagos
and Kano to help in skinning specimens, can now
be trusted with certain work. The fox had been
put out of pain, and, laying it on its back, I make
the opening cut in it and start Sakari on the task
of skinning. As he proceeds to work the skin off,
from the belly upwards, the limbs are drawn
inside and severed at the heel of the paws, the

68 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

tail is pulled out by the root, and in time the skin
is clear of the body and drawn off over the neck
and head. The limbs are then labelled : " right
fore," "left fore," "right hind," and "left
hind," and are severed from the carcass at the
hip and shoulder joints, and, along with the skull,
are scraped clean of flesh and numbered and laid
aside to go with the finished skin of the specimen.
All the scraps of flesh and fatty matter are then
removed from the skin, and I take it over from
Sakari to apply a thorough coating of arsenical
soap preservative, when it is labelled and com-
pleted, and laid aside to dry. It has taken Sakari
about an hour and a half to do the work, and
when he is finished I set him to partly skin the
smaller birds, for he is light-fingered and has
considerable skill.

Mona, meantime, is set to work on the large
hawk, which proved to be the Banded Gymnogene
(Gymnogenys typica). A smaller bird may have
the wings severed at the shoulder of the carcass
as the skinning progresses and the bones drawn
inside to be cleaned of flesh and returned into
position, but with a very large bird such pro-
cedure is impossible, and the wings must be dealt
with separately. So I stretch one of the great
wings to full expansion, and on the underside
make a cut along the full length of it. Mona then
proceeds to part the skin from flesh and bone, so
that when the skin is fully released above and
below the limb, he can remove all flesh. When one
wing is complete, and the bones white and clean,
he proceeds with the other. Now the main body
may be dealt with, and a cut is made from the

PROCESS OF SKINNING BIRDS 69

top of the breast-bone to the tail, and the work
of skinning continues, always using maize-meal
as well as scalpel in removing the skin, for the
former is invaluable for absorbing all moisture,
such as saliva, blood, and grease, as the skin is
parted from the flesh, and safeguards all danger
of soiling the plumage. From the inside the legs
are severed from the body at the top of the thigh,
and the tail at the base of the big quills, and
Mona proceeds with removing the skin from the
body — ^for later the legs may be returned to, the
skin peeled down as far as it will go, and the flesh
cleaned from the bones. Soon he reaches the
shoulders, and breaks off the wing-bones close to
the body, and works the skin, which is now freed
from the body carcass, slowly up the neck and
over the skull ; the neck is then cut off at the base
of the skull and the carcass thrown away. The
skull is carefully cleaned and remains in the skin
attached to the bill. When the limbs and skin
are all thoroughly cleaned, Mona's work is finished,
for so far can I trust him to go, but no further.
He has taken fully two hours over the work, and he
has nothing else to do for the time being, since he
is not yet sufficiently skilled to skin the smaller
things. I now take the hawk skin from Mona
and thoroughly anoint the skull and neck with
preservative soap, fill the eye-sockets with globular
balls of cotton wool, to take the place of the live
eye, and pass the head back through the neck
into its normal position ; I then soap all the
remainder of the skin, and place a thin layer of
cotton-wool over the damp surface as I go along
to keep the feathers from becoming soiled should

70 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

they turn over skinwards as they often do. When
that is done, the bird is completely preserved ;
but still it has to be reformed, so that it will dry
in a perfectly natural outstretched posture. With
this intention I first take needle and strong thread,
and where I see the base of the scapular feathers
showing on the inside of the skin, on either side,
I pass the thread through each, and tie it so that in
doing so the shoulders are brought together — a
trick that greatly assists in bringing the wing butts
back into their normal place. Next I cut a stout
straight stick or rod of the length of the bird, and
point both ends. Upon the upper length of this
I wrap sufficient wool to fill the neck, and when
that is done, it is carefully inserted in the neck-
skin and the point of the stick forced up into
the base of the bill, while the other end is fixed
into the root of the tail. The bird-skin is now
lying, back-downwards, with a straight firm rod
running down the centre of it ; round this rod
I commence to build the woollen filling, until
a form is shaped of the size of the carcass. I
then see that the base of the wing-bones and leg-
bones are nicely set close into the body, and, that
done, draw the skin over the breast into its
original position, and hold it in place with a few
stitches ; and the bird is ready to pick up and have
the feathers rearranged with such care that no
one may suspect that it has ever been tampered
with — work that requires a distressing amount of
patience if you desire a beautiful specimen.
When every feather is in place, the specimen is
laid in a coffin-shaped mould * of correct width to

♦ Made of pasteboard for small specimens and wood for large.

FINISHING SPECIMENS 71

hold the wings in place close to the body, and it is
then set aside to dry. When quite dry, the speci-
men is perfectly rigid, and requires no further
support, and may be handled freely.

Small birds are treated in the same way, except
that there is no difficulty with the wings, but the
work is much more dainty, and requires light
fingers and a great store of patience.

Some birds, such as ducks and night-jars, can-
not be skinned by bringing the neck over the
head, as the latter is too large ; in such cases an
incision is made in the back of the head and the
skull worked out through it.

Meantime, while the natives have been employed
with fox and hawk, I have worked on the small
birds (the Colics), so that by mid-afternoon all
are finished and laid aside to dry, with sufficient
camphor sprinkled over them to keep ants from
attacking the soft parts of the head. I am then
free to set out on another search for specimens
or to employ my time in setting traps. If I
collect in the cool of the evening, I keep speci-
mens overnight, which can be done without fear
of decay, and start skinning them at daybreak
on the following morning.

My description will, I trust, illustrate something
of the process employed with specimens collected
and preserved in the field. You may already
know them if you have been " behind the scenes "
in an important museum, and have seen the
wealth of research specimens that are there,
carefully stored away from the strong rays of
daylight so that their colour shall not fade.
Drawer upon drawer of different species, all uni-

72 A DAY'S WORK COLLECTING

form in shape and labelled for the purpose : the
Type specimens from the locality where the
species was first discovered, and specimens from
any other part of the world where it has since
been found to exist ; many rare and immensely
valuable ; many the absolute proof of vastly im-
portant records that have gone to establish the
Natural History of the world, and valuable as
the parchments of the historian or the relics of
the antiquarian. There you may actually see
how the collector makes up his skins in the field,
and why they are made, and how the peoples of
the world come to know all the creatures that
inhabit it.

CHAPTER V

ZINDER

ZiNDER is a very strange town : strange because
of its great size in so isolated a position ; strange
because of the nature of its site and old-world
obsolete composition.

Kano, though it is the commercial metropolis
of the Western Sudan, is first and foremost the
capital of the province of the same name by reason
of its large population and importance ; and in
like manner so we find Zinder, the capital of
Damagarim, vastly larger than any fellow- village
in the territory — a unique and imposing place,
lost in a wilderness of great spaces and little
peoples.

It is difficult to give those " back home " a
fair conception of the solitude of Zinder. But
let us suppose for the moment that England and
Scotland are wilderness — ^without " made " roads,
without mason-built houses or cottages — and all
England covered with scrub-wood of a great same-
ness, wherein, concealed among the foliage, a few
natives have settlements of primeval gipsy kind,
while Scotland, we picture, in fancy, as a moun-
tain-land of barren rock, with lowlands of desert
sand, and almost no inhabitants at all.
7 73

74 ZINDER

Zinder is 140 miles from Kano, and Agades, at
the southern foot of the Air mountains — and the
only other old-world town on my route — is 257
miles north of Zinder. Suppose we take London
to represent Kano, and set out to walk with a
caravan of loaded camels toward the north of
England. Days pass, and we see a few gipsy-
constructed villages by the wayside — nothing
more ; but when we approach Sheffield, we are
surprised to see a large fortified town appear
before us, in the distance, standing in the great
wilderness alone. This we can take to represent
Zinder, for from London to Sheffield is about
equidistant as from Kano to Zinder. If you
would continue the journey as far as Edinburgh
or Glasgow, you should imagine that you have
passed from the scrub-wooded land into desert,
and that either of those Scottish towns may repre-
sent Agades, for from Sheffield to Edinburgh is
about equidistant as from Zinder to Agades.
Therefore, to realise the solitude of Zinder, you
require to imagine that Sheffield stands alone in
her dignity in all the land between London and
Edinburgh ; and if you would picture even
greater solitude, such as invests isolated Agades,
you may imagine Edinburgh as a straggling town,
not large, but steeped in ancient history, and that
it is the only town in the length and breadth of
Scotland, the earth's surface of which we have
imagined to be barren as sea-shore which the tide
has left, and containing but a mere handful of
inhabitants. By such comparisons, by likening
with bold sweeps of the brush the home geography
to that in the territories of Kano, Damagarim,

A COMPARISON OF DISTANCES 75

Damergou, and Air, we arrive at the conclusion
that there would only be three towns throughout
the length of England and Scotland, which we
have called London, Sheffield, and Edinburgh for
convenience of comparative distance at which
they are set apart, and nothing intervening
excepting a number of diminutive hut-villages of
natives among the scrub-wood of the land. By
this time, if your imagination has run free, you
have shovelled the countless towns on the map
of England, Scotland, and Wales into the sea, so
that you have just the three you require and the
requisite solitude surrounding them. But that
is not all you do : trains must vanish, and ships
that visit your shores, and the ocean around you
shall be deserted, and no strangers shall come to
the land. . . . Then is the picture of Solitude
such as it is in the Western Sudan drawn to
completion, and you may realise something
of the ever-present weight of seclusion that
hangs over ill-fated places that lie remotely
out of the world and seem to soliloquise of
Eternity, since they are so much alone and so
near to the earth.

" Ah, it is a sad land I " is an exclamation I
have oftentimes heard escape from the lips of
Frenchmen who hold appointments in the country,
for their vivacious natures feel most keenly the
solitude of the barren land which envelops them
with a grimness akin to the bare walls of a prison,
and holds out no hope of escape until the date of
release decreed, the while many a homesick heart
has passionate longing for freedom of expression
in convivial and comprehensive surroundings. I

76 ZINDER

have been informed by officers that the depression
of sohtude —no doubt combined with the unnerv-
ing influence of malaria — ^is so great, that some
men cannot stand it, and have to be prematurely
sent from the territory in a state of total mental
collapse ; especially is this the case, it is asserted,
among the N.C.O.s, who have naturally a
narrower field of interest outside their military
duties than the officers.

Zinder, like Kano, is surrounded with great
earthen walls of similar height and strength,
and they are so prominent that they may be
sighted at a long distance off, whether you ap-
proach the place from the south or the north, for
the nature of the landscape is such that you
descend to Zinder (altitude 1,640 ft.) from the
south, and look on its imposing bulwarks when-
ever you top a distant ridge which lies about two
miles away ; while you ascend to it from the north,
where, perched on the crown of a rocky ridge, it
has the pleasing appearance of a fortified castle.
Kano has no view equal to this northern aspect
of Zinder, which is of charming outline, and
which looks particularly picturesque in the shades
of evening, and fantastic in the moonlight, for
then are the barren, unsympathetic surroundings
almost forgotten under the softening influence
of night's enchantment.

The site upon which Zinder stands is a curious
one, insomuch that it is on a rising grade, which
extends to the upper or most northern section of
the town, which is on a low-rugged ridge extra-
ordinary for the outcrop of giant boulders thereon,
some of them many times the height of man, and

NATIVES DRAWING WATER AT BABAK TUBKI WELLS, /INDEH.

AMONG THE ROCK> (il ZINDER,

76]

THE NATIVE QUARTER 77

lending an uncommon character to the sur-
roundings of the habitations. The huts are built
of clay-soil in the same manner as at Kano, for
the community is, as there, largely Hausa, but
the town in general, since it is smaller, is less
bewildering in its narrow street-lanes, while there
are markedly fewer inhabitants and less commo-
tion. There is a circumstance in Zinder which is
sad to relate : many of the dwellings are forsaken,
and stand to-day in disrepair or in ruins, and a
certain melancholy atmosphere of decline is there.
Doubtless there are many causes for this de-
cline, but those that are apparent and presently
prominent are: firstly, that the lure of the
rapidly ascending prosperity of industries and
commerce of Kano has influenced many to
desert the old town and go to settle in the
great metropolis; and, secondly, that jurisdic-
tion under military rule would appear to contain
some element that is irksome to a certain
number of natives, and so those who are not
content, depart from under the immediate eyes
of the administrative to seek, perhaps, a greater
freedom in some distant bush-village, or in Hausa-
land in Nigeria. Natives of primitive environ-
ment are very easily influenced, and the act of
changing abode an undertaking of small conse-
quence, so that once a movement commences,
others quickly follow the example of the leaders.
My boys, Sakari and John, I fancy, expressed
something of popular Hausa opinion when they
quaintly proffered the conviction that " Kano
is sweet past Zinder."

On the high ground just outside the western

78 ZINDER

walls of Zinder there has sprung up, since the
date of French occupation in 1900, an exten-
sive European cantonment which is altogether
modern and in strange contrast to the old town,
to which it is distinctly foreign. Herein are the
headquarters of the military administration of
the Territoire Militaire du Niger. Here, laid out
on broad lines, there are spacious buildings of
creditable French colonial design — ^long flat-roofed,
one-story bungalows in type, with pleasant balus-
trades that shelter cool verandas. The thick
walls of the buildings are constructed by natives,
with bricks which are baked with clay mud,
obtained, strangely enough, by breaking into the
ancient wall fortifications of Zinder, and kneaded,
with the addition of fibrous straw, and baked or
dried in the blazing sun. The domestic quarters
or the administrative offices within the bungalows
are delightfully cool, and it is pleasant indeed to
have occasion to go inside out of reach of the hot
sun of day which strikes down perpetually and
without mercy on the scorched, expressionless
sand of bare streets and compounds. (In the
month of February the thermometer registers
about 80° Fahr. in the shade at 8 a.m., and about
100° Fahr. at noon, although the hottest season
is not reached until June and July.) The canton-
ment, which might almost be called a town
within itself, is unique in the territory, there
being nothing but outlying forts to compare with
it ; indeed, if we go outside it, not even the segre-
gation at Kano, which contains about an equal
number of Europeans, can compare, in my opinion,
with the general planning and architectural

THE EUROPEAN QUARTER 79

appearance of Zinder. Which may be due to
the fact that Kano is principally a township of
trading stores, with domestic quarters overhead,
whereas at Zinder there is not a shop in the
place, and all the buildings are laid out on a
well- conceived plan to accommodate the military
administration, with due consideration to comfort
and their exalted rank.

For the white traveller to come unawares upon
the imposing buildings of Zinder, in such isolated
surroundings, is naturally a great surprise, and a
totally unexpected pleasure ; and to the natives
who arrive from the distant bush, or stop in the
passing of their caravans, they must be a constant
source of wonder.

In Zinder or in Kano, or, in fact, anywhere
south of Air, you never hear " Zinder " given its
official name, for, without exception, it is spoken
of among the Hausa people under the designation
of " Damagarim." Their explanation is that the
name " Zinder " is not of Hausa origin, but is an
old Arabic or Tamashack name belonging to
ancient rulers of northern race whose tribes have
long ago been driven back, though the name still
remains in use among the Semitic races in Air and
other distant places on the old caravan routes to
Tripoli and Algeria.

Zinder came under French rule in 1900.

It was in 1898 that large military missions were
organised with the purpose of entering and
occupying the country now known as the Terri-
toire Militaire du Niger in the Western Sudan.
The project was supported by a treaty between
Britain and France which had been agreed on and

80 ZINDER

signed in 1890 — eight years before the undertaking
was actually set afoot.

There was, in all, three separate missions,
which started from Algeria, from the Niger
river, and the Congo of French Equatorial
Africa ; and the scheme was that all would
converge on Lake Chad, which was to be the
rendezvous should each column meet with suc-
cess. An object ultimately attained — and the
Territoire Militaire was created in 1900, under
the jurisdiction of a commandant, with head-
quarters established at Zinder. In 1901 a
second mission was organised to stabilise the
position, and this mission was a powerful one
in strength of arms, so that an imposing and
awesome impression should be made on the minds
of any disaffected native inhabitants, should such
be encountered. During that year complete occu-
pation of the Damagarim Region was peacefully
carried out.

Below are statistics kindly furnished by the
commandant, in September, 1920, of the native
population in the region known as Damagarim,
of which Zinder is the capital : —

Hausa 116,104

Beri-Beri 33,680

Fulani 5,969

Tuareg 1,520

Bellahs (Captive slaves and their descend-
ants, of no caste) .... 4,564

Total Native Population . . . 161,837

It will be seen that the Hausa race predomi-
nates, but the northern quarter of this region is

FRENCH OCCUPATION OF DAMAGARIM 81

near to the limit of their range, for they extend
but little farther into the Damergou region, where
they are only twenty -three thousand all told ;
and those principally in the neighbourhood of
Tanout.

CHAPTER VI

THE SHORES OF BUSHLAND AND DESERT

Toward the end of February I left Zinder.

Takoukout, 109 miles farther on, was to be my
next camping-place.

Before leaving Zinder I heard plenty of dis-
couraging news of the journey confronting me :
exploits of armed robbers and great scarcity of
food were freely spoken of, by both Europeans
and natives, as existing drawbacks to visiting Air ;
and I began to note that my Hausa boys were
growing restive and suspicious of what lay ahead.
In fact, in the end those fearsome but idle rumours
unsettled and unnerved Mona to such an extent
that, when the time drew near to go forward, I
decided to send him back to Kano, deeming it
useless to take him further in such a state of mind.
Sakari was little better, but he was so helpful in
skinning, that I was loath to let him go, and by
the aid of increased wages was able to induce him
to continue.

It was the old familiar trouble, for I have
always found it difficult to induce natives, most
of whom appear to have a strong erratical and
unreliable temperament in their composition, to
leave their homes on a long journey, and, when

82

THE THREAT OF HUNGER 88

possibilities of hunger and danger are added,
trouble may be anticipated after the undertaking
has commenced, no matter how auspicious the
start, nor how binding the promises, which
were perfectly sincere at the time they were
made.

For my own part I had often puzzled over the
question : " Why is it that Air has so long been
avoided by naturalists and travellers ? " for, so far
as I could gather, no one had explored the country
in British interests since Dr. Earth's geological and
anti-slave trade mission to Central Africa in 1850
— seventy years ago ; but now I believed I had a
cue, for hunger and danger are indeed companions
of ill-omen sufficiently gruesome to warn away the
wise — provided they are altogether without some
opposite neighbours to stand by in time of stress
and modify the fearsome picture. But of this
more anon.

It may be said that in leaving Zinder, north-
ward bound, one passes out into true Sahara
and true wilderness. Henceforward the break-up
of the natural bushland sets in, and wide belts of
sand desert and dwarf bush alternate, until the
vast sea of sand-plain is reached about 180 miles
north of Zinder. Henceforward, also, the nature
of the country undergoes change ; it is more
barren than before, which is reflected at once in
the tremendous drop in population which occurs
in the region or province of Damergou ; and it is
reflected, also, in the dwarf stature of the ill-
nourished acacia trees, which, by the way,
remind me much of the dying-down of the timber
forests of Canada to the dwarf Scrub Pine on the

84 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

shores of the sub-Arctic barren grounds. How
strikingly similar are those two instances of land-
locked shores, that are boundary between bush-
land and desert or plain, though they take effect
in continents widely separated, and of entirely
different climatic conditions ! In both cases the
trees are ill-thriven and dwarfed, but there is a
difference : in the Sudan the cause is to be found
in the unfertile sand and lack of moisture, while
in Canada it is the severity of the winter in that
particular latitude which lays its blight upon the
land.

Then, too, as you enter wilderness and land of
diminished population, you pass into country
that is poorer in bird life, but richer by far in big-
game than any territory to the south — as shall be
seen as we progress.

The village of Tanout, 85 miles distant, lay
across our path to Takoukout, and I set out with
the intention of covering the distance in five days,
which meant fairly stiff going for the well-loaded
camels. As customary, we had the usual trouble
with certain animals and their burdens on the
first day out from Zinder, and were on the road,
without pause for rest, from 7 a.m. till 4 p.m.,
when we reached Bakimaran after a journey of
18 miles. There is a belt of barren land which
starts about 5 miles south of Zinder and continues
northward until beyond Bakimaran — a belt alto-
gether 25 to 30 miles in width — and it was across
this that we travelled in setting out. It was
drearily bare country, undulating in places with
low rounded rises, sandy or covered with withered
grass, and often with rough outcrops of gravel and

BARREN COUNTRY NORTH OF ZINDER 85

boulders and rock, while, in patches, there was
some scraggy bush and an odd tree. Few natives
were encountered until Bakimaran was reached,
and cattle and goat-herds, which are common to in-
habited territory, were remarkably scarce, though
the latter circumstance could, perhaps, in a
measure be explained, as there are occasions in
the dry season when grazing or water give out,
and it is necessary that the main herds of the
people be driven, often long distances, to find new
pasturage. Apropos of this, there sometimes
arises an amusing incident : a thunderstorm and
sudden cloud-burst of heavy rain occurs in a
limited locality and starts the grass growing
green ; before long a wandering bushman chances
upon this fine pasture, and hastens away to fetch
his lean and hungry herds to it ; but on his return
he finds to his disgust that someone, who has also
made the discovery, has forestalled him, and there
ensues lively dispute over rights of possession,
which sometimes ends in angry abuse and even
fighting — like to the madness of two hungry dogs
that pounce together upon a dish of appetising
food, antagonistic and snarling, although the
vessel, in all probability, contains ample repast
for both.

On the following day we departed from Baki-
maran before dawn, and camped at Kaleloua in
the afternoon. On the way we passed from the
barren belt into fairly thick bush country, wherein
no native habitations were seen until we reached
our destination. The country now contained
some big game. Red-fronted Gazelles were numer-
ous, and were observed, usually, singly or in pairs,

86 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

and I had no difficulty in shooting sufficient meat
for my natives and the headmen of Kaleloua.
Also one small band of giraffe were observed, but
not disturbed, much to the disappointment of my
natives, who were most anxious that I should kill
those Rakuma-n-daji (Camels of the bush),
which is the quaint Hausa name for those odd-
shaped animals.

On the third day, which was a Sunday, we
travelled to Dambiri. During the early part of
the day we continued to pass through the bush
belt we had entered on the previous day, but
midway on the journey, after about 20 miles of
bush country lay behind, this gave place again to
open plains of sand and dry grass, which con-
tinued to Dambiri, and beyond as far as eye
could see. In contour the open landscape was
gently rolling, without any sharp rise, and not
unlike the plain we had passed in leaving Zinder,
except in the ever-growing supremacy of sand
and solitude.

The growing poverty of the land is reflected
in the natives and their habitations : the
village of Dambiri, like the few others we had
passed since leaving Zinder, was small, and
the grass dwellings and yard fences built with
less neatness and thoroughness than further
south, and there was much that was unkempt
and uncared for in the general aspect of the
place, while the natives themselves were poor
and raggedly clad. It is curious to note how
surely the gradual change from fertile land to
desert land is insistent of a corresponding
falling off in the quantity and quality of the

GROWING POVERTY 87

Hausaland natives, until they reach the very
lowest ebb on the shores of the desert, and cease
to venture farther ; while another and vastly
different race, the nomad Tuaregs, take up the
duel of existence against nature in the great
barren sea-like wastes beyond.

Dambiri, the designation of the village, is not
an unpleasant Hausa name in quality of sound,
but one gets rather a set-back if inquisitive
enough to inquire into the literal English
translation, for the meaning of the word is, "a
bush cat with a bad smell " — which, I take
it, rather pointedly has reference to the Civet
Cat.

Once a week, on a set day, it is the custom of
each village to hold market ; and market-day
constitutes the most important occasion in the
routine of native life, for all are born traders,
even in this impoverished territory of small pro-
ductiveness, and outlying natives and the in-
habitants of other villages travel eagerly, often
long distances, with their quota of humble pro-
duce, to swell the concourse. Sunday was the
day of market at Dambiri, so that there was
unwonted stir about the place when we arrived,
and much sound of tom-toms. I will not go
into details of market-day at Dambiri, for the
wares and proceedings are similar to those de-
scribed at Kano ; but I will make mention of
the tom-tom music.

Those drum-beats which emanate so persist-
ently from the village, and which sound so
monotonous and aimless to the European stranger,
have in reality a definite purpose to the initiated.

88 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

for they are in fact declaring urgent news that is
intended to reach the ears of all, something after
the manner of the old-fashioned town-crier in
our own country, who goes forth with a hand-bell
to make quaint public proclamations. Here are
a few examples selected out of many : a certain
rattan, or scale of beats, means that a beast (ox,
sheep, or goat) is about to be killed, and that those
who want fresh meat should hasten to purchase
it before the excessive heat of the climate works
destruction upon it ; another sound denotes that
meat is being sold at the market-place — not at
the slaughter-place ; others call the population
to foregather before the King's dwelling, or to a
wedding, or to feast ; and yet another warns the
people of the approach of a Saraki (local king) or a
Amiru (emir or prince). In the examples which
I have given, it will be seen that there is some need
of urgency in the proclamation ; and that is
usually the case. Furthermore, the drum-beats
of the tom-tom travel much farther than the
human voice, and as it is often desired to reach
the ears of the people at toil in the fields as well as
those within the village, the inhabitants show
cuteness in thus using their favourite instrument
of music (?) for the duties of the day as well as
for pleasure.

On the fourth day we journeyed throughout
across strange wide plains of grass and sand, where
no trees grow and but few scattered dwarf bushes,
and camped at Mazia, which has an altitude of
1,700 ft., so that a decided ascent has set in since
leaving Dambiri (1,500 ft.). In fact, on reaching
Tanout next day, the highest altitude thus far

STRANGE PLAINS OF GRASS AND SAND 89

encountered was recorded, namely, 1,800 ft.,
while a little further north, above Guinea Valley,
the continuation of the same height of land
recorded 1,900 ft., which is the highest point
noted anywhere on my route from Kano to
Agades.

During the late afternoon, at Mazia, I shot two
Dorcas Gazelles and one great Arab Bustard to
add to our scant supply of food. The dainty
little Dorcas Gazelles are creatures that frequent
the open plains and thin scrub, so that they too
furnished evidence that we were now on the shores
of the desert.

Water is not plentiful nor pure at Mazia : in
fact, at this season (I am writing at the end of
February), after four or five months have passed
without rainfall, many wells reach a very low ebb,
and pure water was a luxury enjoyed only at
Zinder. Elsewhere it was always much dis-
coloured with vegetable matter, and decaying
timber props and soil ; but it is precious enough
even so, for it means no less than life to man and
beast in this country of ravenous sunlight and
terrifying dryness.

True to schedule, my caravan completed the
85-mile journey from Zinder to Tanout in the
calculated time, and weary, dust-covered men and
beasts camped at the Fort on the fifth day. On
the way the country continued open and practic-
ally bushless, and little changed from that of the
previous day, until the caravan drew near to
Tanout, when three small hills became visible in
the direction we were heading, while many of the
low ridges among the sand-dunes were now strewn
8

90 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

with dark glazed and rounded stones and pebbles,
which gave to them a curious and striking re-
semblance, when viewed from a distance, to the
colour of heather-hills at home in winter-time ;
also, in the low ground in the widely sweeping
hollows between the rounded rises, there were
often large circular or oval, basin-like, sand-
coloured mud-flats, which, no doubt, hold lakes
of water in the flood-rains of a good year
(during some years very little rain falls in the
wet season, which, roughly, is July and August
in this territory, while there are occasions when
the country is cruelly handicapped by two or
three successive years of very slight rainfall),
but which now appear to the eye as dry and
smooth as a concrete area, and devoid of a
single blade of grass or shrub or boulder — a
cleanliness quite remarkable where no human
hand has given aid.

At this season of the year Tanout is surrounded
by dreadfully bare country, and one can scarcely
conceive that the dead wastes of sand of the
present time are, at another season, cultivated
and green with the tall luxuriant growth of
millet, guinea-corn, and maize ; nevertheless,
such is the case. The neighbourhood of Tanout
is a renowned granary in the western Sudan, and
it is to this territory that the Tuaregs of Air, who
for lack of rain grow very little in their own
country, send their caravans to barter for or
purchase the grains which I have named above,
which are the staple foods they live upon. This
in some cases entails a journey of 170 miles
(from Agades), and in others as much as 300 miles

TANOUT 91

(from Timia, the furthest north inhabited village
in Air to-day), which figures should be doubled
if one wishes to calculate the full distance,
outward and homeward, that caravans travel
before they can bring food to the doors of their
people.

The caravan track from the south runs straight
into Tanout fort, which therefore acts as a barrier
across the route, where all who pass may be
questioned as to their identity and business —
which is, in fact, a duty performed at this place,
where a check is desired for military reasons on
all native comings and goings. The fort, which
stands facing south on a slight rise, is small ; a
square enclosure within high thick mud walls,
containing a few humble hutments set back
against the main structure and facing into the
small open barrack square, which serve as quar-
ters for the Europeans and magazines for military
stores. The coloured troops are camped outside
in a group of grass -thatched huts just west of the
fort walls, where a straight avenue, planted with
young trees that hesitate to take root in the
ungracious soil, leads down to the native village,
which lies in a dip about a quarter of a mile
to the west. The native village is poorly con-
structed and primitive, much like the others
in the region, even though this is the capital of
Damergou. At the time of my visit there was
one European officer and three N.C.O.s at the
fort in command of the coloured troops ; and a
more isolated life than theirs could not well be
imagined.

The native population in 1920 within the region

92 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

of Damergou, of which Tanout is the capital, is
detailed as follows :

Hausa . 22,929

Beri-Beri 3,500

Tuareg 2,740

Fulani 370

Total Population 29,539

I also made some interesting notes with regard
to the camels in this region and the alarming
decline which has recently taken place — alarming
because transport and existence in the country
are so much dependent on those animals. It is
stated that there were 15,000 camels in Damergou
previous to the rising of 1916 in Air, whereas now
there remain but 2,800 — 2,200 the property of
Tuaregs, and 600 belonging to Beri-Beri. The
chief reason of this great loss of animals appears
to lie in the fact that at the time of the rising —
which, I am told, had strong religious influence
behind it, of the Senussi persuasion, as well as
cunning instigation from Constantinople, where
the Turks were already the sworn enemies of
France in Europe — ^nearly all the Tuareg natives
hastened north to join the rebel leader, Kaossen,
taking with them their camels ; and few of those
camels ever returned. If one considers that a
female camel has but one young at a birth, and
that many years are required to rear camels to
maturity, it will be seen that the loss is very
serious, since it can hardly be replaced — ^unless
animals were imported wholesale, which, I fancy,
is an impossibility.

i;kri-beri bushjikx, u.uikugou.

TANOUT VILIAQE.

92]

NO VILLAGES BEYOND TANOUT 93

In the following two days I completed the
journey to my destination at Takoukout, which
is merely the native name of a shallow valley,
wherein a few nomad Tuaregs, who live in gipsy-
like families, herding their cattle and goats and
roaming from place to place in the virgin bush,
have excavated numerous pit-like wells to
obtain sufficient water for themselves and their
stock.

There are no native villages north of Tanout —
none until Agades is reached, 169 miles away, at
the southern end of the mountains of Air.

There is no water anywhere between Tanout
and Takoukout at this season, so, before setting
out, one camel was loaded with goat-skins of water
sufficient to serve for the journey.

The country north of Tanout is very irregular,
with much of the ground surface strewn with
pebbles and bare of vegetation, while some
strange and picturesque escarpments were passed
before descending into Guinea Valley, which is
about 300 ft. below the level of the high land on
which Tanout is situated. In Guinea Valley, 13
miles north of Tanout, the barren belt, which had
first been entered beyond Kaleloua at a point 50
miles back, is left behind, and in the low ground
there is now more bush-growth, which continues
to Takoukout, and beyond to the very edge of the
desert-sea.

After a pleasant cool journey by moonlight, my
caravan reached Takoukout on the second morn-
ing after my departure from Tanout ; whereupon
I prepared to make a permanent encampment
whence to do some hunting, for in this last

94 BUSHLAND AND DESERT

belt of bush before the desert is entered there
is much game reported, and, what concerned
me most, ostriches I Lord Rothschild was
particularly anxious to secure specimens of
those birds from this isolated region.

CHAPTER VII

OSTRICH HUNTING

It is remarkable that in the wide range of territory
over which I journeyed, ostriches were to be found
only in one particular part. I have endeavoured
to show, in the preceding chapter, that on the
shores of the desert there are alternating strips of
barren desert and bushland, and it is in the very
last belt of bush, which reaches to the actual edge
of the desert, that ostriches are to be found —
roughly between the small forts of Tanout and
Aderbissinat in a scattered bush belt about 80
miles in width. I have seen one ostrich track
within 30 miles of Agades (near Tegguidi cliff)
and some 50 miles north of the usual range, while
I have heard reports of ostriches being near
Agades, but inactual experience I have seen enough
to feel satisfied that they do not often range far
beyond the bush belt, which dies out a short dis-
tance north of Aderbissinat, and about 80 miles
south of Agades, which is near to the foot of the
Air mountains.

In deciding to make camp at Takoukout, I had
selected the place put forward by my camel-men
and by the local natives as the most favourable
for the pursuit in view, while at the same time
they warned me that ostriches were not numerous

95

96 OSTRICH HUNTING

anywhere in the country ; and their judgment
eventually proved to be quite sound.

It was March 4th when I reached Takoukout
and set about preparing a permanent camp. I
had had an escort of Senegalese soldiers with me
since leaving Zinder, for it is the military rule
that no European shall proceed north of that
point unaccompanied by an armed escort, and
from Tanout six soldiers were detailed to go with
me to guard my belongings and person at Takouk-
out, so that on this occasion pitching camp was
rather an elaborate business, as it required some
defensive arrangement. With the purpose of
gaining a little shade, a clump of bush in a slight
hollow was selected, and there camp was estab-
lished within a thick brushwood barricade of
thorn bushes, which was erected all around the
encampment for protection and as an enclosing
wall. It was difficult to find any local natives to
help in cutting down trees for hut construction,
since the few that existed within visiting distance
of the Takoukout wells were hidden away in soli-
tary bush-camps, and it was difficult, also, to
secure grass in the neighbourhood sufficiently
long for the purpose of covering in the walls and
roof of the huts ; but a few Tuaregs of the district
came to our aid on the second day, and a comfort-
able camp was knocked into shape in due course.
There were then within the zareba : my tent
erected for my own use ; a grass-hut workshop ;
a small cooking shelter for John ; and, set some
distance apart, four rough hut sun-shelters for the
soldiers, as well as for Sakari, a local hunter, and
a camel-man ; while my horse, and those be-

PITCHING A HUNTING CAMP 97

longing to escort, and two camels for carrying
water-skins or game on long journeys in the
bush, were also within the enclosure on nights
that I happened to be there.

A notable addition to my personnel at this time
was a native hunter, of whom I shall make brief
reference. This local warrior, whose proper name
was Dirto, but whom my followers invariably
called Tsofo (old man), was secured for me by the
French officer at Tanout, so that I would have a
man familiar with hunting, and, above all,
familiar with the puzzling sameness of the level
seas of low bush-forest which prevailed in the Tak-
oukout region. Tsofo, as I too called him, since the
name fitted so well, had the reputation of being a
great chasseur who had lived his life hunting the
wild animals of the bush with snare and bow and
arrows, which primitive devices are the only ones
available to the natives for pursuit of the chase in
the country.

For the purpose of hunting, and, particularly
as a means of defence, bows and arrows are uni-
versally in use in Damergou, and an adult male
native is seldom seen abroad, no matter on what
business he is intent, without bow in hand and a
leather sheath, containing usually about fifteen
arrows, slung from a cord over the left shoulder.
The same weapon is much used in Damagarim
and Kano provinces, but not to the same extent as
in this still more remote and exposed zone, where
the need for an arm for protection is imperative,
since among the natives there is not only lingering
dread of robbers descending across the desert
from the north, but also the wild instinct of very

98 OSTRICH HUNTING

primitive people, in dreadfully primitive sur-
roundings, to wage war, one against the other,
under the grim impulse of an existence that de-
mands self-protection before all else, and upholds
the faith that life is a struggle for " the survival of
the fittest." The European law of the country
forbids any natives to possess fire-arms.

But, to return to Tsofo, I will endeavour to
describe him, for he was an odd character in
appearance and constitution, and at the same time
somewhat typical of many of his kind. When I
first laid eyes on him, I could not believe that the
ill-clad, unkempt creature that stood before me
was the chosen hunter that was to accompany me.
Upon my word, I never saw a dirtier native ; his
bit of a gown, once white, now a smoked blackish
colour, was cast carelessly over his shoulder and
hung in rags about him, full of rents and badly
frayed round the bottom edge ; beneath this he
wore an equally discoloured buckskin loin-cloth
and apron. He carried not a scrap of food when
he joined me, and had nothing about his person
except bow and arrows, and a hatchet and hunting-
knife of his own crude making. Undoubtedly he
was past his prime, in fact he was an old man, de-
spite the stalwart framework that remained of deep
chest, and mighty thighs and lower limbs which
bespoke an athlete. His face was so wrinkled
with exposure, and with frowning beneath the
fierce rays of the sunlight, and so unkempt that it
would be unkind to estimate his character by it.
The coarse hair on his head and the scrub-beard
on his chin were almost entirely grey, and his
watery red-rimmed eyes betrayed declining years.

AN ODD CHARACTER 99

He wore a broad-brimmed, high-crowned hat,
locally woven with dyed grasses, which was not
unlike the garish headgear of a Spanish muleteer.
On his feet he wore rough sandals cut to shape
from a single piece of thick antelope-hide. He
was a Beri-Beri native of a very primitive class,
and most of his kind that I have seen have fine
physique, but coarse features of heavy unattrac-
tive type, and I have often doubted the purity of
their breeding.

As I have said, it would be unkind to judge
Tsofo's character by his unprepossessing appear-
ance, so I will tell you how I found him in daily
life. In his favour be it said : he knew perfectly
the bush country where we hunted, and, during
many long journeys in the most difficult bush I
have ever encountered, he never failed to find his
way back to the base camp, though he had one or
two occasions for anxiety. On the other hand,
Sakari, the Hausa boy, was quite bewildered
in this country, and got separated from us and
lost on three occasions, which goes to show that
all natives have not that marvellous faculty of
travelling in a given direction with animal-like
instinct and memory, which is usually their most
striking gift. On accoiuit of this shortcoming, it is
interesting to note that Sakari had lived most of his
life in Lagos and Kano, and belonged to a family
of shop-keepers, so that no doubt environment,
which has such a powerful influence on the
character of mankind as well as on the lesser
creatures of the earth, had much to do with his
loss of natural instinct.

Tsofo's knowledge of the bush was his greatest

100 OSTRICH HUNTING

asset ; as a hunter he was not a success, for
undoubtedly he was too old, as I will explain
below. But he was most eager to serve me and
to bag game, and spared no pains to that end.
Also he was on friendly terms with the few nomad
Tuaregs who came about the shallow wells at
Takoukout to water their herds and fill their
water-skins. (With them this old hand at travel-
ling light and camping anywhere bartered part
of his share of the buck-meat killed, so that he
could have millet-meal (Dawa) and goat cheese
(Chuku) to vary his diet.) He was kindly dis-
posed to all he met, and had always a word and a
hand-pat for children, while he never attempted
that domineering attitude which natives are so
prone to assume, when backed by a white man's
presence, to bully some gift from the frightened
bush-people.

Being an old man, long days were too much
for Tsofo, but, even so, he never dropped behind
while he hunted, though the efforts of the day
often caused him to groan with pain and complain
of sickness when we got into camp at night. He
had wonderful strength and endurance for his age,
and I often found myself admiring his dogged
gait, though it was nothing less than pure animal
toughness of the kind which one associates with
tramps, or tinkers in the old country, who live
outdoors the year round, and care little for bodily
comfort and cleanliness so long as they can secure
enough to eat.

Tsofo had his limitations : he would eat food
in almost any condition and in large improvident
quantities. When he joined my caravan he was

AN ODD CHARACTER 101

well-nigh in a starving condition, and when a
gazelle was killed for food, the old man fell upon it
like a jackal, starting on the raw entrails, when
disembowelling the animal, and thereafter cooking
and eating meat until he was completely gorged.
Next day he was sick and not so greedy, but he
soon recovered, and before long I knew him to be
a savage, untamed glutton when he had food in his
possession. The old rascal, I'm sure, had been a
very fine hunter and tracker, for he knew all the
" tricks of the trade," as it were, and the habits
of the animals ; but both eyesight and hearing
were impaired to such an extent that he altogether
lacked the acutely keyed keenness of those senses,
which are essential to good hunting. I soon
found that he was a blunderer after he had spoilt
a chance or two to shoot in failing to detect the
first slight movement of wary game, while he
proved a dreadfully slow tracker, because, by
reason of his bad eyesight, he often overshot the
footprints he was following in the sand, and had
to search about to pick up the right track again.
His knowledge of the bush was invaluable, and,
besides, he had an unassuming character that
pleased me, so I always took him out, but when I
understood his weakness, I did not allow him to
join me up in front, but bade him follow some
hundred yards behind.

Before I proceed to deal with the actual search
for ostriches, I feel I should make reference to the
climate, and its fierce antagonism to comfortable
hunting in this part of the world.

I would not like to boldly assert that the climate
in the Western Sudan is unhealthy for Europeans,

102 OSTRICH HUNTING

for such an assertion might appear unjust in the
estimation of some men of very adaptable and
robust constitution, but on the whole I think it
can justly be said that the climate is such as be-
longs to Central Africa in general, and that there-
fore it already has an accepted reputation for
being very hot and trying. North of the neigh-
bourhood of Kano there is no open water or marsh
in the dry season (approximately from October to
July), so that for the greater part of the year no
hanging dampness, no mosquitoes, and no malaria
are experienced in the country with which I am
dealing — ^which is so much to the good. On the
other hand you have a mighty opponent to com-
fort and health in the form of the merciless sun,
which glares down upon the white glittering sand-
surface of the earth with unmitigated fierceness,
laying an awesome withering breathlessness upon
the land which saps the energy of man and beast,
so that they perforce forsake their occupations for
the greater part of the day and seek rest in the
shade ; while even the plant life cannot survive the
remorseless moisture-consuming oppressor in
the sky, and leaves and grass that were green in
the short rainy season, lie wilted and bleached
on the sand. We Europeans of temperate zones
love the sun, but I'm afraid Old Sol is a graceless
and greedy robber of the earth's vitality in some
climes, and here, where Nature has raised no com-
pact leafy screen upon the land, nor sends not
clouds across the sky, he well-nigh reigns supreme
over smitten wastes that lie wretchedly subdued
because of his unopposed power. On account of
the intense heat, and the exhaustion resultant

EXCESSIVE HEAT 108

therefrom, I found the climate very trying at
times, for there are many occasions when the
hunter must be afoot all day in the open, while,
even if he chances to be in camp, the collector
seldom enjoys relaxation from his busy labours
by the specimen bench during the valuable hours
of daylight. Records of temperature on 27th
March read : 7 a.m., 58 % Fahr. ; noon, 105 %
Fahr. ; 8 p.m., 71 % Fahr. I have brought up
the subject of climate at this juncture, because
it was at Takoukout that I felt the heat more
trying than at any other period — ^in fact, it
temporarily sapped my strength to such an extent
that I came near collapsing under the strain of day
after day searching the stifling hot waterless
country for restless, ever-travelling ostriches.

I will not enter into every incident of the
unlucky hunting that I experienced at Takoukout,
but will quote from my diary a few records of
typical days. In all I hunted twenty days for
ostriches and saw sixteen birds, but never fired a
shot at any of them. Nevertheless, the general
details of hunting them are, I feel sure, not with-
out peculiar interest, and on that account I am
induced to give some personal experiences.

Ith March. — Away hunting all day. Left camp
6.30 a.m. ; returned 5.30 p.m. Set out north-
west till noon, then north till 3 p.m., then south-
east to camp. Searched again for ostriches
without seeing any ; a few tracks encountered,
all leading westward. In late afternoon, having
seen no ostriches, I decided to break the silence,
which I was particular to preserve so long as there
was hope of coming on any of the great wary

104, OSTRICH HUNTING

birds, and to shoot gazelle, if the opportunity
offered when nearing camp. Now, the country
within the last bush-belt is rich in game, and a day
never passed without seeing some beautiful gazelle
— creatures which surely must rank among the
most noble on earth, so delicate in form are they,
so superbly graceful, so joyously alive in activity
and in the sheen of health that casts a glamour
over their soft rich coats, so proud with their
finely poised heads and large inquiring eyes and
nostrils. There were three species of them :
sometimes dainty little Dorcas Gazelles, pale
fawn in colour, like the dry grass and sand, would
be encountered in small lots of two, four, and
five, and occasionally in herds of about ten to
fifteen in the open sandy glades, which they seem
to prefer to frequent ; sometimes, again, the
rich rufous Red-fronted Gazelles would be seen
among the acacias, usually single, in pairs, or in
threes and fours — ^never in herds ; while yet
again the big and striking Dama Gazelles would
be encountered — striking because of the large
amount of conspicuous white which they possess.
They are the largest species of the genus. They
were occasionally seen single, but are much given
to associate in herds of ten, twenty, thirty, or
more. (Later on, in August, after the advent of
the Rains, which had caused a tall rank grass to
spring up in the bush and gave leaf to the acacias,
so that the country appeared much more enclosed
and vastly changed from the open barrenness
which it possessed in the dry season, those
animals appeared to be migrating northward out
into the desert margin ; no doubt so that they

YOU>"G OSTRICHES.

DORCAS GAZELLE.

104]

REGARDING BIG GAME 105

might breathe the wind of the open places, and
be to some extent free from flies, and feed on the
fresh delicate grasses that were then sprouting
forth. On one notable day, when between
Tegguidi and Abellama — ^before the bush belt
is entered when journeying from the north — ^I
passed herd after herd of Dama Gazelles, and was
able to get close enough on three occasions to
count the numbers. The totals were 37, 44, and
84, and in each case I probably overlooked a few.

The local Hausa names of those three species
are : Dorcas Gazelle, Matakundi ; Red-fronted
Gazelle, Barewa ; Dama Gazelle, Mena, some-
times Myna, The Hausa for ostrich is Jimmina.

From the above may be gathered some idea of
buck we expected to see on this evening of which
I am writing ; true, there were other kinds, but so
rarely seen that, as a general rule, they could be
discounted, though their clean-cut tracks in the
sand were occasionally crossed. As far as my
observations go, those others were White Oryx,
Korrigum, and Giraffe.

We were still a fair distance from camp when a
nice herd of a dozen Dama Gazelles were sighted,
and, after a certain amount of running and dodg-
ing to keep a screen of bush cover between the
herd and myself, I got a good view of them, and
managed to drop the animal that appeared to
have the best head. I got another as they jumped
and paused to ascertain from which direction the
danger threatened, and yet another in following
them up a little way ; for, besides wanting speci-
mens, meat was needed in camp for all the natives
— afresh meat and sun-dried. One of the animals
9

106 OSTRICH HUNTING

was a splendid male, but, as so often happens, the
fine head was spoilt through one horn being
slightly deformed and broken at the tip. How-
ever, one female was a good specimen, and, as
both sexes were desirable, I reserved it for a
museum specimen, and told the natives not to
cut it in any way. The other two were disem-
bowelled, and all were then loaded on to the two
camels that had come up from the rear, where they
had been following unseen. The day was then
drawing to a close, but incident was not yet
finished with, for, before reaching camp, I stalked
and shot a Red-fronted Gazelle — also a nice
museum specimen — and missed its companion.

8th March.— In camp all day skinning and
preserving two gazelles, one jackal, and a few
small birds.

9th March. — ^Left camp at daybreak to continue
search for ostrich. Travelled eastward. Made
short halt at 10 a.m. Nothing, so far, has been
seen of our quarry, though four tracks of yester-
day's making were crossed — ^three of them leading
in a southerly direction and one in northerly
direction. Five Dorcas Gazelles seen about time
of halting. Continued on the move after a brief
consultation with Tsofo, at the same time chang-
ing direction more into the north, and soon entered
country where bush was more plentiful, for
previously it had been very open and the scrub
thin. But up to noon-time nothing seen moving ;
sun blazing hot. Lunched and lay watchful for
a time in the doubtful shade of a poor-leaved tree,
while the natives slept.

Resumed search through bush about 2 p.m.,

SEARCHING FOR OSTRICH 107

about which time some Dama Gazelles were seen
resting in the heat of day. Those animals were
given a wide berth and left undisturbed, as is my
unvarying custom when the search for ostrich is
afoot. In my opinion, to disturb any such game
which, for the time being, happen to be of second-
ary interest, and set them hurrying away before
you in alarm, is almost as bad as to lose patience
and fire an unimportant shot, for in both cases
you stand to spoil the great chance you hope for,
since there is always the possibility of giving
warning to the creatures you seek, and which may
at any moment be at hand all unknown to the
hunter.

Close on 4 p.m. we came upon a very fresh
ostrich track where a bird had passed about two
hours earlier in the afternoon. Followed track
some distance, but bird not seen, and gave up, as
there appeared no prospect of overtaking it before
darkness set in ; indeed, so far as that was con-
cerned, there was no certainty that it would be
overtaken even in a whole day's travelling, for
they are birds that are incessantly moving on
from place to place, while, if alarmed, they run
long distances before assured that they are safe
from their enemies.

Leaving the ostrich tracks, we started on a
long wearisome journey in a westerly direction to
camp, while the sun set and the day finished. I
and the natives — Sakari, Tsofo, and the man with
the camels — showed much relief and gladness
when at last, after the trying labour of picking our
way over rough unfamiliar country in the dark,
we caught the welcome light of our camp-fires,

108 OSTRICH HUNTING

beckoning from afar ; and we were safely back in
camp an hour and a half after dark.

From what I have thus far seen, added to local
information gleaned from more than one quarter,
I am satisfied that ostriches are far from plenti-
ful in this isolated strip of country that they
inhabit, and it has been, and will continue to be,
hard hunting to secure the desired specimens—
long arduous days of tracking through the sand-
swept bush, beneath the inextinguishable sun,
until one day, perchance, we meet across each
other's tracks. Tsofo, the old native hunter,
claims that for a number of years hunting condi-
tions within the territory have been undergoing
change owing to the influx of nomad Tuaregs,
with their herds of goats and cattle, from the
neighbourhood of Air. Those natives in small
numbers are now scattered about in the bush at
distant intervals, and, possibly, if they were
sedentary, no harm would be done, but the neces-
sity of constantly changing to fresh ground, so that
enough food may be found for their herds, and
their own strong nomadic instincts, lead those
Tuaregs to range from place to place continually
and disturb considerable areas, and Tsofo rightly
claims that this circumstance greatly tends to
frighten any timid game such as the ostrich, for
nothing is more disturbing to their keen senses
than to come across the tainted trail which clumsy
herds of domestic animals invariably leave behind
wherever they happen to pass, or pause in feeding.
Tsofo declares, and no doubt there is a lot of truth
in his statement, that when the French occupied
Agades (the first French military mission visited

i

A GREAT CHANCE LOST 109

Agades in 1904), some of the wild unenthralled
Tuaregs of Air fled from the country in fear of the
invaders and scattered broadcast on the edge of
the desert as far south as the neighbourhood
of Tanout in their secretive, gipsy-hke wanderings.

10th March. — Hunting as unfruitful as yester-
day.

11th March, — Almost at dark, after a long
uneventful tramp through the bush, I at last
sighted ostrich. Crossing from a bare open glade,
and approaching quite close to an edge of fairly
thick bush, I suddenly stood motionless in my
stride, for I had seen the head and neck of an
ostrich just within the cover. The acacias awk-
wardly blocked further view, and breathlessly I
made a short careful creep forward. When I rose,
inch by inch, to peer forward, I found I was quite
close to a great black male ostrich, but, unfortu-
nately, it stood on the far side of a tree, and the
trunk and all intervening branches and foliage hid
it to such an extent that I could not discern head
from tail, nor where to place a fatal shot. There-
fore I tried to change my position very slightly, and
was in the act of doing so, when, of a sudden, an-
other bird on my right, a grey hen which I had not
seen amongst the bushes nor thought of guarding
against, rushed off in alarm, startling the bird I
was stalking and two others. In [an instant, al-
most, they were out of sight among the bushes, and
although I rushed forward hoping that an open
space was not far ahead and that I would get a
shot at them making off, I had no such luck, and
never saw them again. My disappointment was
acute, the more so because I had plenty of time to

110 OSTRICH HUNTING

fire from the first position, after crawling forward,
if I had foreseen what was to follow, and taken
the risk of getting a lucky shot home.

Who that is a sportsman does not know dis-
appointment of the kind ? I fancy we all do, and,
moreover, have been lured on to stick to many a
difficult quest in once having seen and let escape
some much-prized quarry. Does not the fisherman
who has risen a nice fish and missed it, after many
patient hours on the water, go on thereafter with
a new zest and a brighter outlook ? It was so in
my case ; and, instead of returning to Takoukout,
and having sufficient water on the camels, we
camped out in the bush this night with a new
excitement, and hoping to make amends on the
morrow.

12th March. — Camped comfortably overnight.

Hopes awakened by yesterday's experience
doomed to disappointment, for the day's hunting
brought no reward. Returned to camp in the
afternoon ; very tired, for the sun and the glitter-
ing sand take it out of one. The sun seems to hold
its fatiguing intensity from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. at
this time of year.

A number of gazelles seen, and tracks in the
sand are constantly crossed. It is splendid
country for tracking, and most interesting to read
and study the signs upon the smooth sand.

Sand covers the whole earth in this country,
and reminds me much of a land of snow. The
level wastes, that are random planted with wiry,
hard-living thorn trees (acacias), have patches
that are wind-swept and crusted to hardness
underfoot, and there are soft driftings in the slight

FRUITLESS HUNTING 111

declivities and about the plant roots, while the
grass is so scant in most places, that the few blades
that stand have the aspect of such as peep above
the surface of a country that has been the victim of
a deep fall of snow.

13th March. — ^A day in camp. Feeling some-
what overstrained. Skinned birds all forenoon ;
collected ten more in afternoon. Giving bush a
rest in hope that I'll have more luck next outing.

IMh March. — Greater part of day skinning
eleven birds. Toward evening made short hunt
to secure meat for camp, and had a few shots at
gazelle, wounding two, but failed to get either
of them. I shot badly : possibly through being
overtired.

When about to turn home, I stood on a slight
elevation and looked out across a wide shallow
hollow on to an open grass slope similar to the one
I occupied, and carefully scanned the distant view,
more from habit than in hope of seeing anything
of particular interest. My surprise was therefore
manifest to the natives with me when I discovered
four black-looking objects, like boulders or small
dark shrubs, in the far distance, that moved and
were undoubtedly ostriches. In an instant the
blacks were beside me imbued with excitement
equal to my own as I pointed out the birds.
Immediately, for receding day threatened to
frustrate this lucky chance, I started on a long
encircling stalk, since the birds were in an open
position that was difficult to approach unseen, and
great care had to be exercised, for ostriches are
endowed with wonderfully keen eyesight. Un-
fortunately, when I cast in toward the position of

112 OSTRICH HUNTING

the quarry, I saw nothing, and thought I had mis-
judged the place and was a little too high on the
slope. I then cast lower down, but with no better
result, and soon picked up their tracks leading
westward on to the summit of the rise. Perhaps I
had been heard by the birds, for pebbles crunched
annoyingly underfoot in places, or perhaps they
had merely shifted onward in feeding ; I could
not tell, for I had been out of sight of them almost
since the stalk began. They might still be quite
close ; but that availed me nothing, for the
moments of daylight, that had been precious,
were finished. So there was nothing for it but
to give up and return to camp empty-handed.

15th March. — Left camp at daybreak, taking
with me two mounted native escort, two camels
and camel-men, Tsofo, and Sakari in charge
of my horse. I usually have a horse following
behind in case it should be required in an emerg-
ency, but never use it in actual hunting, for the
hoofs resound over loudly for my liking, and I
prefer to be far out ahead of all following, except-
ing one native gun-bearer, and, on foot, moving
along as quietly as possible. I took a larger
following than usual on this occasion, and camels
to carry skins of water, as I intended to be away
some days.

Travelled all day in north-westerly direction,
but no ostriches seen, and only two single tracks of
them were crossed.

At dusk shot one gazelle for food, and camped
at the kill for the night.

Gazelle continue to be constantly seen. I have
noted th9,t jD^ma G^^zelles hg,ve ^ remarkable

DAYS IN THE BUSH 118

tendency to run up-wind when alarmed, an im-
pulse so strong that if you know this habit, and
make to get nearly between them and the wind,
instead of making directly for them, they will
almost certainly pass you as they run away. As
a general rule they are very alert animals, and
more difficult to stalk than either the Red-fronted
or Dorcas Gazelles.

16th March. — ^INIoved on again at daylight, first
heading westward, then swinging more into the
north under the direction of Tsofo, making for a
well on the Agades trail named Tchingaraguen,
so that the horses could be watered and the water-
skins refilled. During the morning oryx and
giraffe tracks were seen on the sand, which were
the only incidents of note. Oryx tracks were not
uncommon, but giraffe tracks were seldom seen
during my wanderings through this bush. Neither
animal was important to my collections, so that I
did not attempt to follow their tracks.

We reached Tchingaraguen about 11 a.m., and
made short halt while I breakfasted and the horses
were watered — the poor brutes were desperately
thirsty. This half-barren, shadeless sand country
is not a land for horses, and they suffer a lot from
the heat, while fodder is miserably poor. I have
resolved that when I move on to Agades I will
leave my horse "behind at Tanout and henceforth
ride a camel.

Leaving Tchingaraguen, we crossed the Agades
track and held south-east. In other words, we had
reached the crown of the huge circular trail we
were making through the country, with the
starting-point at Takoukout ; we had covered

114 OSTRICH HUNTING

the western side of that circle, and had now the
eastern side to trace in on the way homeward. The
country we entered, once well clear of the watering-
place, held more encouraging signs than hitherto,
for a fair number of footprints were seen upon the
sand, sometimes where an ostrich had passed,
sometimes where birds had been feeding on the
bleak acacias or on a little patch of living ground
weed ; once, too, I came upon the " form " where
a bird had recently had a sand-bath, and picked up
a few feathers which had dropped out while the
bird rolled in the dust. But they are birds that
are ever on the move, here one hour and gone the
next ; and this day I never sighted a bird.

There is at least one substantial reason at the
present time for the restless wanderings of the
ostrich, while I am not at all sure that it does not
account for their scarcity of numbers for the time
being in the territory. It was Tsofo who first
drew my attention to the marked scarcity of
ostrich food. Time and again the old man, who
knew this country like a book, though he had not
hunted in it for more than a year back, led me
to places where he knew, from past experience,
that there should be good feeding-ground for the
birds. But always when we got to these chosen
places where their favourite plants were expected
to be abundant, he would look sadly about him, for
the bushes were almost as bare as dead trees, and
scarcely a plant grew on the soil that was not
burnt up. The good old fellow at such times
bravely held his tongue, so that he would not dis-
hearten me, unaware that it was easy to detect
his disappointments and make one's own deduc-

SCARCITY OF OSTRICH FOOD 115

tions. It was not difficult to see that the growth
was suffering from a water-famine, and when at last
I taxed Tsofo on the poor state of the country, he
confessed his surprise at finding it in such condi-
tion, and said that the cause must lie in the fact
that no plentiful rain fell in the territory last year.
At a later date I happened to learn that at Agades
in the same year — 1919 — small rainfall had oc-
curred only on two days, and there is little doubt
that there was a similar drought further south,
and that Tsofo spoke the truth.

But nevertheless it is difficult to conceive that a
land, where so fierce a sun is dominant, can survive
without rainfall for almost two years (sometimes,
the natives declare, they experience drought for
so long as three years in succession), and it is little
wonder that, with such grim set-backs to existence,
the ground is largely barren and the bush-growth
stunted.

But that the plants of the earth do not always
survive, I can vouch for, for when I passed east of
the mountains of Tarrouaji in Air later in the year,
I saw there a belt of standing acacia bush, on the
edge of mountain and desert, that was quite dead,
and to all appearance from no other cause than
from lack of nourishment. It was an eerie sight
and a desolate one : every bush dead, the limbs
colourless and lifeless, and the bark hanging there-
from in shreds — a graveyard, where the struggle for
existence had been greater than could be withstood.

It was not difficult to ascertain which plants
the ostriches fed on at the season I was hunting
them, for one could tell by the tracks in the sand
exactly where a bird stopped in the act of feeding.

116 OSTRICH HUNTING

while careful survey of the foliage further revealed
where pieces had been broken off. I brought
home those plants that were known to me as food
of the ostrich so that they might have authorita-
tive identification, and I give some notes on them
herewith ; while I am indebted to Dr. A. B.
Rendle, of the British Museum, for their scientific
names :

1. Cassia nr. obovata (Leguminosae) Hausa :
Filasko. " Senegal Senna." A small low shrub,
with yellow flowers and short flat pods, which
curve in a quarter circle and have a raised saw-
edged rib down their centre. The local natives
claim this plant to be the one most sought after
by ostriches.

2. Cucumis sp. ( Cucurbit aceae) Hausa : Gurji.
A small ground-creeping gourd, which has often
long-reaching trailers. Ostriches feed on the
leaves of this plant.

3. Mcerua rigida R. Br. (Capparidacese) Hausa :
Chichiwa. A small tree, with white flowers and
tiny elongated leaves.

4. Oxystelma hornouense R. Br. (Asclepia-
dacese) Hausa : Hanjin Rago. A slender, climbing
creeper, which flourishes in the topmost branches
of acacia trees, there overreaching and having
green foliage in a thick cluster. When trees
are almost bare of leaves, as often is the case in
the dry season, the clumps of green of this para-
site in the tree-tops are conspicuous and easy to
find, which is perhaps a kind provision of Nature,
so that the creatures who seek such food may be
guided to it from afar. The leaves of the plant
contain considerable juice, and it is the second

A NATIVE TRAP 117

favourite food of the ostrich ; while it is also a
rich titbit for camels, who are very fond of it.

Native hunters of the territory know those
plants well, and utilise the knowledge to secure
the downfall of many an ostrich ; for it is where
they expect birds to feed that they conceal the
traps that are the only means by which they can
capture them, for ostriches are too wary to be
shot with bow and arrow. The ostrich trap is of
the same kind as that which the natives use for
antelope (and for wild sheep in Air), but it is of a
much larger size and stronger. It is constructed
in this way : two wands about the thickness of
half an inch are relaxed in hot water and bent into
the form of a complete circle which has a diameter
of 14 in. ; those rods are bound at their meeting
points, and allowed to dry and set in the form of
a rigid hoop, whereupon they are laid together,
while closely grouped hard unbending straws,
about the length of a pencil, are inserted between
them and stoutly bound in place with strips of
bark ; all the straws radiate to the inside centre,
but do not quite meet, so that, though they are
held firmly on the circular frame, they have no
support whatever where they converge in the
centre, therefore the finished article is a flat tray
of rigid straws, which is firm around the rim, but
is subject to collapse outward in the centre if any
great weight be put upon it. The contrivance
looks a simple enough thing, but there is more in
the construction than first appears. The trap is
for ostrich, and on that account it is desirable
that smaller animals shall not " spring it," and
the resourceful hunters have hit on the solution

118 OSTRICH HUNTING

to a nicety, simply by increasing the thickness and
rigidity of the straws, so that they will give
beneath the weight of an ostrich, while they will
remain undisturbed beneath the footstep of a
gazelle.

To set an ostrich trap, a hole is excavated in the
sand, say, beneath an acacia thorn, which bears
an attractive cluster of the plant Oxystelma horn-
ouense, and exactly where it is anticipated a bird
will stand that is intent on reaching the choice
foliage ; this hole is 10 to 12 in. in diameter, so
that when the straw tray is laid over it, the greater
part of the surface lies over the cavity, while the
rim is firmly held on the edge of the pit. When
the tray is in position, a very strong noose made
out of plaited raw-hide thongs, and opened to a
diameter similar to the rim of the tray, is laid
over it, and the end attached to a stout log : this
log is buried beneath the sand, while the tray and
noose are also concealed by smoothing the sand
surface over them until every sign of disturbance
of the soil is obliterated. If an ostrich chance to
visit the place, and approaches to feed on the
small clump of green leaves, with his eyes fixed
upon the coveted morsel, he will almost certainly
step upon the concealed tray; whereupon his
foot breaks through it into the hole, and the noose
jumps upward and is around the limb when the
unfortunate bird hurriedly withdraws the foot
from the hole. Thus he is caught ; snared so
securely that, powerful bird though he is, he has
no hope of breaking loose. He will yet go a long
distance, but trailing the log behind him, and
leaving the tell-tale marks of it in the sand

END OF A CHAPTER OF ADVERSITY 119

wherever he goes — and his captors will find him
in the end.

17th March. — Off again at daylight. But first
searched for a Dama Gazelle which I had
wounded at camp almost at dark on the night
before, and had been unable to find it. Almost
where we had given up tracking it on the previous
night we found the animal's deathbed, but only
pools of blood-discoloured sand, and some green
grazings from the stomach, so completely had the
animal been devoured in the night by jackals and
hyenas. I wanted to find the head, for I thought
it was a very fine one when shooting at the animal,
and I had all the natives search the neighbour-
hood of the kill. But so complete had been the
meal of the night-prowlers, that not a vestige of
anything was found except one solitary piece of
shoulder-blade.

To-day travelled south-east, but in morning
nothing seen except gazelle. However, about
10 a.m., advancing cautiously over a low ridge,
I saw at last a single ostrich ; but the sharp-eyed
brute saw me at the same time also, and cleared
right away, very wild. The sun was now blazing
hot, but we had to keep going incessantly, as the
water-skins were almost empty, and we had a long
way to go to reach Takoukout before sundown.

About noon again sighted ostriches —three of
them away to the west in fairly open country.
Made long stalk, keeping out of sight in the slight
hollows, but could not overtake the birds, as they
were moving too rapidly; followed them a long
way, but finally had to give up. Throughout the
remainder of the day no more birds were seen.

120 OSTRICH HUNTING

and we reached Takoukout at sundown, after
being three days in the bush, and having seen, in
that time, but four ostriches, distant and wild.
Very glad to get into camp; our water was
finished, and all were very done up with the
excessive heat. The poor horses drank till I
thought they would collapse.

20th and 21st March. — ^Two fruitless days hunt-
ing for ostrich. Not a bird seen. Travelled
north, then west to Eleki, and returned to camp
on second day. Brought back one Dama Gazelle,
two Dorcas Gazelles, one partridge, and four
small specimens.

I have endeavoured to give an idea of hard
hunting in a dreary belt of country, and beneath
a pitiless sun, where the reward desired was
withheld to the bitter end. It is a chapter of
adversity, such as we all meet at some time
or other in our experiences of life, but may still
hold some value, even although the chief pursuit
devolved in failure.

CHAPTER VIII

LEAVING THE BUSHLAND BEHIND : AIR ENTERED

On 29th March my Takoukout camp was dis-
mantled, and everything packed up in readiness
to continue farther on into the interior, where
Agades, in Air, I hoped would be my next place
of halt.

My stay at Takoukout had been the least
profitable of camping places. It is true it was
not territory where bird life was plentiful, but
results would have been better if ostrich hunting
had not taken up the greater part of my time.

At this date my total collections numbered 485
birds and 121 mammals, as well as 374 butterflies
and 138 moths ; and, of those, 58 birds were taken
at Takoukout and 8 mammals, including three
complete gazelles (not merely the head and horns,
but the whole animal).

At the end of my stay at Takoukout I lost the
services of Sakari. He had grown less and less
inclined to follow the arduous life I led him,
whilst he had developed a hankering to be back
amongst the companionship of his own people.
Moreover, he had now a better idea of the stern
conditions which the nature of the country im-
posed— conditions that promised to grow worse

10 121

122 AIR ENTERED

rather than better — and plainly he did not relish
the prospect of what lay ahead. His three ex-
periences of being lost in the bush, which I refer
to in the preceding chapter, did not tend to help
matters, and, finally, seeing that his heart was no
longer in his work, I considered it advisable to pay
him off and send him back, though I was very sorry
to lose him, since his departure left me without any
one to assist in the task of skinning specimens.

I bid good-bye, also, to the old hunter Tsofo,
who had joined me for the period that I hunted
at Takoukout, so that I might have the assistance
of his local knowledge. He had never been to
Air, and, therefore, could not aid me in the same
way further on ; a circumstance which I think
we both regretted, for the old fellow was genuinely
loath to go home, and I sorry to lose him. There
had always been plenty of buck-meat in camp, and
the old fellow had never wanted food, which was
a state of affairs that greatly pleased him, for
he had close acquaintance with poverty in the
ordinary round of living in this poverty-stricken
land.

John, therefore, was the only personal servant
to go on with me to Air — ^faithful, cheerful John,
who did not care two straws where he went, so
long as he had his master with him.

Therefore John and the camel-men were all
that composed my following on the way to Agades,
while the caravan was accompanied by the escort
of six native soldiers, who had been detailed by
the officer at Tanout to escort me as far as Ader-
bissinat, where there was a small Fort midway
on my journey.

TRAVEL BY NIGHT 128

I intended to leave Takoukout on the night of
the 30th, for the moon was full and opportune for
night travel.

The day was employed proportioning loads and
securely roping them, when sufficient rope had
been found, for it is astonishing how such things
disappear in the careless hands of natives during
a month in camp, and on this occasion, when
packages came to be made up, many ropes were
short and others destroyed by white ants. As
there was no longer village nor market-place where
such native commodities could be purchased,
there was no alternative but to insist that the
camel-men search the bush for suitable tree-bark
which could be plaited into rude cords ; and this
task kept the men fully employed all afternoon.

With the aid of the light of the moon and
brightly blazing camp-fires, the camels were loaded
up about 11 p.m., and we filed out of the old stock-
ade, which had been home for almost a month, and
made slowly off into the shadowy bush.

Night travel always holds for me an element of
adventure, and it is not without livening and
keenly alert senses that one advances into the
unknown in the dark in the wake of some dusky
leader who has none of the apprehension which
the tendency to blindness produces in the stranger
who is ignorant of the lie of the land ahead.
Under such circumstances night travel also holds
novelty, and, although one loses the opportunity
to view the landscape as one passes along, there is
a freshening of the senses that makes ample
compensation : I am aware that it is cool, and
that in consequence it is good to be out in those

124 AIR ENTERED

common hours of sleep ; I observe the gaunt
outline of the phantom-like camels that advance
without sound of foot-fall ; I see the shadows of
low trees that ever change their shapes as we
wend our course in and out among them over the
gleaming moonlit ways of sand ; I hear, some-
times, the low soft speech of the camel-man in
consultation, followed, as a rule, by the caravan
being halted and the discordant roar of a camel,
which jars on the calm night stillness, while the
men are righting a load; . . . afterwards silence
is regained, and we are as a part of the brooding
night, the camels padding along quite noiselessly
in the sand, and there is naught that I can hear
but the slight creaking of a load that rests un-
easily on a pack-saddle, and the gritty scrape of
the hard-skin sandals of a shuffling camel-man
near me.

When the moon went down about 3 a.m., we
camped for a few hours in the bush, off-loading
the camels and lying down to rest on the bare
ground without troubling to unpack blankets.

At daybreak, 6 a.m., the journey was resumed,
and we camped at the well known as Tchingara-
guen about noon, having travelled 25 miles since
we broke camp.

On the following day we again travelled a long
distance, camping by the light of the moon, about
9 p.m., at the well named Tadelaka, being then
only about 10 miles short of the small outpost
at Aderbissinat. Throughout the day the type
of bush country continued the same, in aspect
and insomuch that there was no visible sign that
it is inhabited, though we are aware that there are

A LOXELY TUAREG CAMP IX THE BUSH.

SUNDOWN IN THE DESERT.

134]

THE PRESTIGE OF WHITE MEN 125

a few Tuaregs, and their herds hidden in the in-
scrutable land somewhere.

Next morning, 2nd April, we made the short
journey to Aderbissinat and halted for the day.

What a strange place Aderbissinat is : the whole
no larger than a small farm-dwelling enclosed
within a square zareba, which might be the fence
of a crofter's garden, while immediately outside
are the wells and one or two temporary native
shelters. About the wells are grouped some lean
listless cattle and goats, and some tired donkeys
and camels belonging to passing caravans. How
well they fit the desolate scene! Listen to
the plaintive lowing of the thirsty cattle, not the
common cry of a domestic beast, but a wild
strange sound peculiar to the land — a deep
rumbling forced-out bellow that tails away with
terrible insistency to a wail of want so clear and
expressive in sound that even humans can easily
comprehend that the animals are in dire distress.
The simple unadorned scene, which is but a tiny
speck of habitation in a boundless virgin space,
lies in a hollow, so that approaching it either from
the south or the north one is almost upon it before
it is discovered.

If any of my fellow-men should ever doubt the
constancy of the old-fashioned prestige of the
white race in Africa, which goes to uphold peace
in the wildest comers of the continent, I should
like to direct their attention to such a place as
this. Aderbissinat stands alone in one of the
bleakest spots that could well be imagined, and
isolated to such an extent that, if it happened to
be attacked, it might easily be wiped out in a night

126 AIR ENTERED

and its nearest neighbour remain in ignorance of
the fact for days — ^Tanout lies 75 J miles south,
and Agades 93| miles north, while both flanks are
open to unlimited unguarded ranges. Yet all the
force within this tiny Fort is one French officer
and one sergeant, and a mere handful of native
troops. Is it conceivable that it is such a force as
this that intimidates the unreliable natives of the
immediate neighbourhood to uphold peacefulness,
or that keeps away the powerful bands of robbers
from the north ? I think not ; rather is the cause
to be found in native tradition of the prowess of
the white race, and their far-reaching rule. It is
not of an immediate act of rashness that the usual
native fanatic is afraid, but of the inevitable con-
sequences that they know would sweep in upon
them once they had raised the white man's wrath.
So that, in a broad sense, it is simply this tradition
of great power that safeguards Aderbissinat, and
other undermanned posts of the kind that are
dreadfully remote yet not hopelessly beyond the
reach of the long arm of justice ; and therefore
Tradition represents an unseen strength that is
unrecorded on any roll, yet is reliable and useful
as an army of men, impotent though it be except
in significant influence.

Diminutive though it is, Aderbissinat Fort
serves more than one purpose: it guards a precious
store of water on the edge of the desert, which
furnishes half the water-supply that is necessary
for caravans to carry on the journey to Agades,
for the intervening desert is waterless except for
one well at Abellama ; it serves as a blockhouse
half way between Tanout and Agades, and

ADERBISSINAT FORT 127

therefore is protection to the highway ; while it
is also an important relay and checking station
for the transport of the large supplies, chiefly
grain, that are constantly going north to Agades
to feed the considerable forces that are stationed
there. Native escort, on foot, invariably accom-
panies those caravans of supplies, and the duty,
burdened with rifle and accoutrements, is a very
hard one in such a climate ; so much so, that it is
only by a series of relays that the escort for the
total journey is successfully maintained. Thus,
escort from Tanout is relieved at Aderbissinat, and
fresh men take on the journey to Agades. Also,
on occasions, the animals of a caravan are changed
at Aderbissinat and, others complete the journey.

Therefore, when all things are considered,
Aderbissinat is of much importance to the trans-
port of the country, and to the existence of Agades,
and I am inclined to think that it has always held
something of this importance as an outlying gate-
way to Air, for all Tuaregs, whether old or young,
claim it to be within the southern boundary of
their territory, though it is fully 100 miles from
the foot of the Air mountains ; and no doubt it
is in consequence of their claim that the French
authorities recognise it as within Air at the present
time.

There are five caravan stages between Aderbis-
sinat and Agades, known to the natives as Tim-
boulaga, Tessalatin, Abellama, Tegguidi, and
Tilaraderas. The camping-ground known as
Timboulaga is within the bush-belt, but the others
are all in the open desert, which commences
about 19 miles north of Aderbissinat.

128 AIR ENTERED

I continued my journey on the following day,
leaving Aderbissinat in the cool of the late
afternoon, and utilising the kindly moon to
light us on our way until camping-ground was
chosen, about midnight, some distance beyond
Timboulaga.

On the next day, which was a Sunday (4th
April), we again did not move until the afternoon,
while the camels, fifteen of them, were turned out
in the bush to partake of a good meal, as fodder
promised to be less plentiful ahead. Under
suitable conditions, camels should be allowed to
graze at least five or six hours each day after halt
is made.

Early in the day I shot two gazelles to augment
the food supplies of the natives, and put in rather
an uncomfortable time thereafter, for, when the
sun rose high overhead, we were left without
shade, and enjoyable rest was thereby impossible.
In the full midday hours the sun is so directly
overhead, that on no side of the dwarf, thin-
leaved bush is there shade, which is a circum-
stance that reminds me to recount the wisdom of
my camels, for, if the tired beasts happen to be off
loaded about that time of day, they all proceed
to select, with perfect knowledge and precision,
the north-east side of the thickest bush available,
thus choosing resting-places exactly where shade
will be thrown later on when the sun commences
to swing into the west.

I had intended to travel again at night, but the
sun became so irksome, that I grew very restless,
and about 2 p.m. was glad to call the camels in
and start loading up, even though it entailed

DESOLATE DESERT 129

unpleasant labour for the camel-men in the intense
heat.

Three hours after leaving Timboulaga we
ascended perceptibly to country of changed aspect,
where the land was a desert of sand-dunes, and
sand-pockets, and level pools of small gravel.
This was the beginning of the desert, and the end
of earth's fertility ; behind lay the bush that
struggled for a patchy existence in an ungenerous
soil, which was a circumstance sad enough, yet
infinitely more blessed did that barely clad
beggary seem when compared with the awful
desolate deadness of desert, which was, in general,
unable to support life altogether.

On this night we camped at Tessalatin, which
was but a name in a drear level land of sand. The
altitude there was 1,875 ft., 225 ft. above Ader-
bissinat, which now lay 31 miles behind.

On the following day we left camp at 3.30 p.m.
and camped at Abellama about 11 p.m. Through-
out the journey we travelled over level desert —
desert cloudless and pale as the sky, but of a
huffish or khaki tone, and in places covered with
tussocks of hardy grass, which catch and hold the
loose sands that are the sweepings of the wind, so
that they bank up in mounds and wave-crests, and
bear the appearance of sand-dunes on the sea-
shore. Here and there a tiny thorn bush, alone
and hardly living ; at other times, a scattered
group of bushes that find existence possible and a
little easier, since they are banded together, and
each protecting the other from exposure to the
onslaught of withering sand-storms. After cross-
^^g 3, gradual rise to a height of land about mid-

130 AIR ENTERED

journey to-day, we began a slight descent toward
Abellama (alt., 1,700 ft.), where there is a deep
well which is said to be as ancient as the old
caravan roads across Africa, and which is the only
place where water is to be found between Ader-
bissinat and Agades ; so that, though drear and
comfortless and lacking in everything that is
picturesque, Abellama is a name that is con-
jured with by weary men of the caravans that
travel there thirsting for water and sorely in need
of replenishing the precious store that for some
days has been slowly diminishing in sagging goat-
skins.

At Abellama, as there was no shady bush to
camp beside, I resorted to rigging up the baggage
tarpaulin in the open desert, and camped under a
few feet of shade like the veriest gipsy Tuareg.

As the months advance, so is the temperature
increasing, and now that there was less protection
than ever from the sun, it seemed to me that I was
experiencing greater heat than I had ever known,
and heat that was terribly exhausting.

The cause of the exceedingly fierce temperature
(105° Fahr. to-day in the shade) may be ac-
counted for in the fact that the sand is a ready
medium for holding and reflecting the heat of the
sun. As an example of this : if a man sit on a
camel for sometime, withfeet dangling downwards,
the sole-leather of boot or shoe or sandal, which
is facing the sand and not the sun, becomes so
heated that the feet are vastly uncomfortable,
while if he should dismount and place weight
upon them, the soles will be found to be so burning
hot that he will exclaim with pain.

HEAT AND ILLNESS 181

When evening came on this day, the caravan
did not move off, as I had intended, for a change
had come over me, and, for the first time, I felt too
weak to go on. Dysentery and fever were upon
me, illness which seemed to be the outcome of
some kind of mild sunstroke, for I was quite dizzy
and confused. The night's rest helped me little,
and I spent the next day also in camp, feeling very
miserable in my hot, improvised shelter. It was
a bad place to be caught ill in — no restful shade
at hand, not even scraggy bush, indeed, hardly
enough wood to make a camp-fire ; nothing but
wastes of dreary sun-bleached desert. One lay all
day and almost panted in the heat, and thanked
God with a deep sigh of relief when the sun went
down.

At the end of the second day I felt I must
make an effort to move on, and therefore called
John and the camel-men to my couch upon the
sand, and bade them prepare to start at midnight,
even if it was found necessary to rope me to my
camel so that I should not collapse and fall to the
ground from weakness. This resolution was
carried out, and about 1 a.m. the caravan was
en route under the blessed coolness of the night,
and aided by the light of the moon, which rose
about the time the men commenced to load up
the camels.

Tegguidi was reached not long after daylight,
which enabled the caravan to negotiate the rough
descent of the Pass in the cliff that is there with-
out serious mishap to the loads, and we camped in
due course on the flat plain that lay below. By
which time I felt somewhat better, though I did

132 AIR ENTERED

not completely recover until some days later, when
privileged to rest and shelter in a cool mud-house
at Agades.

The abrupt change in elevation which occurs at
Tegguidi is very remarkable and the cliff the most
unique geological occurrence that I had thus far
seen. It is a striking line of sheer cliff, which is very
rugged in countenance, while at the base there are
bankings and columns of detached rock and huge
boulders. Advancing from the south, no sign of
the cliff is visible until you arrive almost at
the very edge of it, and look down over the grim
countenance that faces the north, and out upon
the pale sand-plains that stretch away from a
level 200 ft. below. One is forcibly reminded of
the open sea and rugged coast that stems the
tide, for the whole formation, stretching east
and west as far as eye can see, is like to the cliffs
of the sea-shore, and one wonders in what age
and by what force of elements it was fashioned
to be so complete a barrier, and if it holds some
strange geological secret.

Tegguidi cliff is of interest to sportsmen, for a
few Barbary sheep are to be found there, while
I received reliable reports of one or two lions seen
in the vicinity (probably the rare nameless beast),
which is quite feasible, as there is a tiny spring of
water at a point known as Irhayen further east on
the same cliff.

A comfortless day was put in at Tegguidi, trying
to rest as best we could lying out on the bare plain
as before, while the camels foraged for thriftless
pickings.

With the advent of the moon we thankfully

DREAR COUNTRY 188

stole away from the place in the middle of the
night.

When day broke, the caravan did not camp, for,
anxious on account of my health and our small
water store, I kept moving on until 2.30 p.m., when
we camped about 11 miles from Agades, after
having been thirteen hours on the march. Desert
was crossed throughout the journey, dreary
country of sand-dunes and great flat stretches
of sand, with occasional gravel rises, which were
sometimes buff like the sand and sometimes grey,
but the pebbles always as level and neat as if set
in place by the hands of skilful workmen. During
the journey there was practically no change in
elevation, which remained about 1,600 ft.

Again we snatched brief rest in the early part of
the night and then travelled on to Agades, reach-
ing our destination on the morning of the sixth day
of travel (10th April), every man and beast of the
caravan dreadfully tired ; not because of the dis-
tance we had come, 93 miles, but on account of the
ravaging sun, and for want of adequate sleep and
proper food and water.

A note in my diary at this time reads : " It is
uncanny land to travel through — barren of every-
thing—dead like the ashes of a furnace fire—in
no way beautiful, in nothing inspiring. ... I was
really glad when I entered Agades."

CHAPTER IX

AGADES

Agades is not, as one might imagine from a glance
at the map, close under the Air mountains, but is
well out from them, and situated on the border of
the desert. From Agades the low foothills of the
mountains, not a continuous range, but individual
elevations, with gaps between, are visible, blue in
the distance, in the north, over some low acacia
and evergreen " Abisgee" (Hausa) bush, which is
growing, not far away, along a wide, very shallow
river-bed that holds water but for a day or two
during the surface rush of water that follows the
rare torrential bursts of rain which sometimes
occur in July or August.

It is a very great pleasure to sight those hills ; to
feast eyes that are weary of looking over limitless
space upon this tangible promise of new and
wonderful scene, already touched with the rest-
fulness of the greys and browns of mountain slopes
that cannot be altogether robbed of their richness
by the blinding glare of overbold sunlight. Great
is the contrast between mountain and desert, but
greater still the change after the long, long jour-
ney through the featureless land to the south, for
from the seaboard on the West Coast, from Lagos

134

THE SURROUNDINGS OF AGADES 185

to Agades, there is no majestic range of like kind
to those mountains of Air.

Agades is an ancient town ; not large, not
encircled by a great wall, not imposing, except
for the high tapering tower of the old Mohamme-
dan mosque which stands sentinel above every-
thing in the land. It is, indeed, not much more
than a cluster of clay-built tiny dwellings that
crouch tenaciously upon the desert to exist as
best they can amid driving winds and drifting
sands that sweep over a landscape that is as open
as the sea. Therefore, in truth, Agades to-day
bears much of the woeful appearance of an out-
cast, and stands on a site of singular choice in
surroundings over-barren to adequately support
the inhabitants, who gain most of their livelihood
far afield on the caravan routes.

Yet Dr. Barth, who passed through Air 70 years
ago, wrote of Agades, with reference to its notable
position in African history : " It is by the merest
accident that this town has not attracted as much
interest in Europe as her sister town Timbuktu." ^

But the hey-day of the greatness of Agades is
past, though it is still a name of fame known to
every native throughout the length and breadth of
the western Sahara, which renown it has attained
since it has long been a place of importance on one
of the great caravan routes across Africa, and in
olden times, as the chief town of Air, was a famous
place where pilgrims journeying to and fro from
Mecca halted and forgathered. Very, very
old is Agades, and one cannot well conceive the
changes that have taken place since its beginning,

^ Barth's Travels in Central Africa. Vol. i, p. 870.

136 AGADES

yet I am prone to think that the land, at least,
was more fertile, less sand-enveloped than to-
day, and offered less hardship to existence, for
there is remarkable evidence of decline in the
population of Air ; a decline which has appar-
ently been devolving very slowly, to judge by Dr.
Earth's remarks concerning Agades in 1850 —
remarks which strangely enough could be applied
with equal accuracy as it appears to-day. " The
streets and the market-places were still empty
when we went through them, which left upon me
the impression of a deserted place of bygone
times ; for even in the most important and central
quarter of the town most of the dwelling-houses
were in ruins." ^ A concluding remark in my own
diary of 1920 reads : "... but it is a sad place,
belonging to an age of the Past; half-deserted,
half-dead ; full of the melancholy of the lone
land which surrounds it." Though 70 years
separate those two descriptions of the atmosphere
of Agades, they are strangely alike in fact.

But to come down to recent times, Agades was
occupied by the French in 1904 (16 years ago).
In that year a military mission joined in with the
great caravan of thousands of camels that once a
year, at the time of the Rains when desert travel is
possible, journey to the oasis of Fachi and Bilma,
east of Air, to bring back to Hausaland a great
store of salt obtained from salt-springs there.
This mission left Zinder in August and reached
Agades on 12th September, where it met with a
friendly reception. In time a small pill-box of a
fort was established about a mile north of the

1 Dr. Barth's Travels in Central Africa. Vol. i, p. 399.

A STRONG GARRISON 137

native town, which, by the way^ was the one which
withstood siege during the Rising of 1916, under
the leadership of the northern rebel Kaossen, and
Tegama, the traitor Sultan of Agades. Since then
a large fort, many times the size of the original,
has been erected about the old building, and
equipped with modern weapons of war erven to
the inclusion of a wireless plant which receives
daily news from Lyon, via Zinder.

Besides the Fort at Agades, there is also a strong
camel corps maintained in the territory. On
occasions this mobile force is camped at Agades,
but more often it is forced to move from place to
place along the borders of the desert, so that
fodder may be found sufficient for the needs of
the large number of camels.

Altogether the military force at Agades is a
powerful one, which is due to the need that exists
to combat and confound the constant depredations
of armed robbers. Strange though it may seem in
those modern times, Agades to-day is the centre
of continual skirmishing activity, and Air the
happy hunting-ground of daring bands of robbers,
who descend upon it in search of such loot as
camels, and goat herds, and young men and
women to serve as slaves. Hogar and Tebu
robbers are the most notorious and persistent
miscreants to visit Air at the present time, but
others from even greater distances are not un-
known. For instance, last year (1919) the terri-
tory was visited by a band of the Requeibat
tribe, said to be some 200 strong, from Cape Juby
in the Spanish possessions of Morocco.

But later on I will deal more fully with the
U

1S8 AGADES

subject of robbers, which I have brought up here
for a moment, since it has important bearing on
the miHtary composition of Agades.

The troops at Agades, or elsewhere in the
Territoire MiHtaire, are chiefly Senegalese natives,
while there is also a scouting force of camel-
mounted goumiers, composed of local Tuaregs.
Altogether there are eleven Europeans at Agades
— ^French officers and N.C.O.s of the regular
Colonial Service.

In the old town, apart from the Fort, there is a
civic population of some 1,400 Tuaregs, and, in
addition, some Hausa traders from the south, and
an Arab or two from the north.

At the time of my visit food was remarkably
scarce among the natives of Agades, and they
were actually living from hand to mouth almost
in a state of famine, though there was still three
months to run before the Rains were due which
promised new grain crops and new grazing for the
herds. But, from all accounts, scant rations and
poverty may be associated with Agades at most
times, and far out on the caravan routes the
traveller is warned that there is " nothing to eat at
Agades," while the native soldiers, who get the
best that is going under any circumstances,
obviously dread being detailed for service there
on account of its impoverished condition. On
my way north, one of the senior officers at Zinder,
speaking of the white men at Agades, remarked to
me : " The climate, it is good ; we have men there
who are strong ; but, oh ! they are not fat. — ^Ah,
no I they are not fat."

The fact of the matter is, Air, at the present

GREAT SCARCITY OF FOOD 139

time, is far from self-supporting in what she
produces. This, in part, appears to be due to the
barren nature of the country, and to lack of rains,
but to a certain extent I believe it to be due to
the indolent nature of the Tuareg inhabitants,
who are essentially wandering fickle nomads, and
not ardent toilers in the fields.

Of food-stuffs. Air produces goat herds which
furnish the people with a certain amount of
milk, cheese, and meat ; some wild game which
is snared for the flesh and hides ; and a limited
amount of dates, which are gathered during the
Rains. Domestic poultry, which one associates
with every native village in A^frica, are here kept
in very small numbers, as there is little grain for
them ; and it is often difficult to secure a single
bird or a few eggs.

There are few villages in Air that can boast of
inhabitants to-day, and only at three of those is
there any grain grown, viz. at Azzal, Aouderas,
and Timia, where small garden-plots on the
river-bed banks, which are watered daily from
wells, are cultivated to produce a small quantity
of wheat and millet.

Yet grain is undoubtedly the chief food of the
natives of Air, and, therefore, since they do not
grow it, as much grain (millet, guinea- corn, and
maize) as they can afford has yearly to be
imported into Air on camel caravans and donkey
caravans, which travel for this purpose to Tanout
and Zinder, and even to Kano, 397 miles distant
from Agades.

I was, unfortunately, only able to remain a few
days at Agades before proceeding into the

140 AGADES

mountains, and, so far as the strange old town is
concerned, I will not attempt to describe it fully,
since I have not had sufficient opportunity to
study the ancient history of the place — ^that all-
important background which is the very soul of
its significance, and which may only be compre-
hended after long examination, aided by the
wisdom of the oldest inhabitants or learned
Senussi, Marabout, or Mohammedan priests.

I have in mind, however, two notable dwellings
in Agades with which I am familiar. The first
I would like to describe is the Sultan's Palace,
the most notable building in Agades excepting
the imposing Mohammedan mosque, and, per-
haps, of greater interest now than hitherto, since
it was so lately the home of the traitor sultan
Tegama, who at the time of my visit lay awaiting
trial on the charge of high treason within the
fort scarce a mile away. (Tegama, however,
never stood trial, for he committed suicide
about a month later.)

Through a deep archway in a thick mud wall
you enter the courtyard of the Sultan's Palace.)
A small gloomy entrance, wherein one can wel
imagine lurked the watchmen of the Sultan ii
time of danger. On the outside of this entrance
is a double-leaved, cumbersome door, constructec
with palm poles laced securely together witl
thongs of goat-hide — a door to be closed at nighl
to shut out the dangers of the desert. Do nol
picture a courtyard within the entrance that is
paved and spotless for the reception of the foot-
steps of royalty or you will be disappointed, foi
there is nothing but an open space of level sand^

THE SULTAN'S PALACE 141

with small mud buildings erected in such position
that they form a fairly regular square. On the
east is the palace ; on the south the stall-divided
mosque for private prayer ; on the west an open
shelter, presumably for the reception of travellers
waiting audience with the Sultan or his advisers ;
and on the north the wall wherein the entrance.
The palace is deserted — forsaken since the down-
fall of Tegama — and there is now no pleasant
scene within the courtyard, so that one can
but imagine those better days when camp-fires
sparkled here at eventide surrounded by the hum
of camp-fire gossip, and groups of picturesquely
clad Tuaregs and reposing camels of wayfarers
arrived with news or food from distant parts. Or
the scene by day : the courtyard almost empty
(as it is now), since the fierce heat of the sun had
driven the people to seek shelter within the dark
chambers of the palace, and the town, after the
early hours of coolness, had witnessed the direct-
ing of the business of the day.

To enter the palace from the courtyard you turn
to the left, and again you pass within a deep
dark entrance. You are then in a gloomy window-
less mud-built vestibule or entrance hall, with
large fireplaces recessed at either end, while
the room is crossed diagonally, to a door in the
opposite wall, by a path that has raised margins.
No doubt the convenient spaces on either side of
the path were loitering places, where servants of
the Sultan gossiped, the while they observed all
who entered or passed out. Proceeding, one
steps from the vestibule through the door in the
opposite wall, and is again outdoors in the full

142 AGADES

daylight (which is most noticeable after the dark-
ness of the den-like interior), having entered a
small inner courtyard hemmed in by dwellings on
all sides and containing a confusing number of
low dark doorways and ascending stairways to
dwellings above. Directly opposite the vesti-
bule is the low door which gives entrance to the
throne-room, a diminutive chamber with arched
ceiling beams, which contains the throne dais,
fashioned, like all structure, with the clay-soil
from neighbouring pits, and rounded off plainly,
but not without some neatness and endeavour at
rude design. As to the rest of the chamber, there
are a few small niches in the thick walls, and some
interesting quaintly primitive scroll ornament,
while on the right of the throne there is an ex-
posed mud-built stairway leading up to a second
story, wherein are three low-ceilinged rooms lit
by small openings in the exterior wall, each room
a tiny gloomy shut-in space more like hiding-den
or prison than chosen human dwelling. The
doors from the inner courtyard lead to many
other such apartments, no less diminutive, no
less gloomy, and now but the home of swarms of
bats and one or two large brown African owls
(Bubo africanus cinerasceus). Throughout one finds
the same congestion of space, the same rude adapt-
ability to the bare needs of shelter of primitive
outdoor people, which is common to every native
dwelling in Hausaland or Air, or, indeed, any-
where in out-of-the-way places in Africa. The
entire dwelling, and many another of the kind
in similar country, is a " Palace " only in
name and political significance. And this con-

i

vii;\\' or Ai.AiJi'.s.

-Mo-nu

MlMiMll

1

THROXE-ROOM OF THE SULTAK OF AGADES.

US]

PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS 143

dition of primitiveness and humbleness ought, I
think, to be made quite clear, for I have read
works which, in my view, were far too apt to
lead one astray in forming an overhigh opinion of
the royalty and magnificence which is sometimes
believed to surround the Emir or Sultan or Saraki
of a native community and their dwellings. True,
such men are the kings and princes of the land,
and have a certain exalted standing ; but there is a
very wide difference between those chiefs of tribes
or districts (who are sometimes not much more
than crafty rascals, and seldom to any notable
degree better in refinement than their subjects)
and the kings of civilised lands. And the great
difference in caste between primitive King and
cultured King is in no way more clearly reflected
than through the medium of their dwellings and
environments : in the one case a beautiful palace,
rich in architecture, refined, and royally appointed
in every inner detail ; in the other nothing more
important than a group of small bare mud-built
dwellings, neither tastefully appointed nor regal
in any degree, and entirely wrapped in an atmo-
sphere of humbleness, even poverty, such as sur-
rounds all people of primitive environment and
primitive race.

The position of the Sultan of Agades is one of
greatness in the land, though of a type of local
importance which has decided limitations, and
one might be forgiven, if, carried away by the
weight of rank and reputation, he should expect
to find about the Sultan's abode something in
keeping with the name of a sovereign. But that is
I not so, for we find the throne-room a small dark

144 AGADES

space, within earthen walls, no larger than a
cottage bedroom, and less ornamented; and his
private apartments for his own use, and the use
of his retinue, no larger, no more attractively or
extravagantly constructed, than tiny cellars or
pen-like outhouses.

So that the Sultan's Palace at Agades, like
many others in Africa, is a humble place indeed,
its virtue not at all in regal magnificence, but in
historic value, and in the novelty and quaintness
of primitive native architecture of a character of
great simplicity and antiquity as if it has remained
unchanged through time by any process of
civilisation.

The second dwelling I will describe is not in the
old town of Agades, nor is it of native design. I
write of the European mess-room within the Fort,
part of a dwelling of European conception, builtj
with some knowledge of design, and imposing and
spacious in comparison with the diminutive build-
ings of the native town, but, nevertheless, a dwell-
ing rude enough in construction, since, by nature
of its wilderness environment, it is, in essentials,
impossible to avoid the limitations imposed by
primitive labour and primitive material.

I will give the description, such as it is, inform- j
ally from my diary, since it embraces a little of
the life, as well as the architecture, common to the
white man at the Fort of Agades :

" We had forgathered for breakfast, that cus-
tomary eleven o'clock meal of the French which
is both breakfast and lunch in one, at that
time of day when it is an ordeal merely to cross
the barrack square, so white and glaring the sand,

AN OFFICERS/ HOME 145

so great the fierceness of the sun. Therefore, one
by one, the labours of the morning over, we
stepped into the shade and coolness of the thick
walled room with a real thankfulness; especially
thankful, perhaps, those who bear the mark of
chronic fatigue, which an unnatural climate is so
apt to impose, and which is apparent upon the
features of most of the group. Around small
tables that were pushed together to make up one
large one we sat down to the meal, the company
being composed of five French officers and myself,
while our dusky native servants were in attend-
ance, and a small child stood to one side and
pulled the cord that swung a punka which was
suspended over the table.

*' We sat long over the repast, discussing many
things African, and it was not until some time after
the meal was over that conversation lagged at my
end of the table and gave me an opportunity to
observe my surroundings. The room is not very
large, and there is just space enough to allow the
attendants to pass comfortably around the table.
Trimless, square-cut liberal openings serve as
doors and windows, while over those are dropped
blinds of light lattice, which prevent the entrance
of sun and sand-dust, yet admit a free current of
air. The mud walls are thick and straightly
built, smoothed down with a coating of mud
plaster, and whitewashed with a preparation of
chalk and cement, obtained out of the ground in
the neighbourhood. (Dr. Barth in his works makes
reference to a house nicely whitewashed in
the old to^vn of Agades, but he did not mention
the interesting fact that the " whitewash " is

146 AGADES

native to Agades.) The walls are bare of orna-
ment except for cupboards, set back against them,
that are made from an assortment of packing-
cases and still retain their true character, even to
the glaring names of merchant and merchandise
in their rude transformation and paintlessness.
But what better can be done where sawn boarding
is unknown ? The ceiling of the room is lofty,
and constructed with closely set undressed fibrous
dum palm timbers, the only wood in the country
that the terrible white ant will not destroy.
Upon the walls, in the darkest places, there are a
number of wart-like lumps which are the plaster-
built cell-nests of black-and-yellow hornets that
pass constantly in and out of the room. Also
there are one or two pairs of tiny waxbills at free-
dom in the room, cheeping and flitting from floor
to window-ledge, or vanishing outdoors. They
are always in pairs, inseparable as love-birds,
the male crimson in colour and his mate mouse-
brown. I must call them Estrilda senegala
bruuneiceps^ so that there may be no error on
account of their scientific identity, but to
ordinary folk, such as you and me, I would de-
scribe them as ' Crimson Waxbill ' or ' House
WaxbilL'

" I think I have described all, when eyes roam
nearer hand and dwell on the few articles on the
table, and I see that even there we do not escape
the primitive : the pepper is in a cigarette tin
which still bears the yellow label of the manu-
facturer ; the salt is in another distinguished by a
green label ; while all the drinking-glasses are
dark-coloured and thick and ragged-rimmed, and

RUDE NECESSITY 147

are nothing more than old wine bottles cut down
about their centre."

And from all this we may perhaps justly con-
clude that the Sultan's Palace is about the best
the natives can do in the way of dwelling-building
at Agades, and the mess-room at the Fort a fair
sample of the humble extent that civilised people
can improve upon it when thrown entirely on the
scant resources of a wilderness.

CHAPTER X

AIR : NORTH TO BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS AND
HUNTING BARBARY SHEEP

On 26th April I left Agades with the intention of
travelling north into the Air mountains, and to
ultimately pitch a base camp on Baguezan.

Besides four transport camels, the little band
which set out was made up of two goumiers, by
name Saidi and Atagoom, the chief of Baguezan,
and two followers and myself; six fully armed
camel-mounted men, not including my cook-boy,
John, who was also in the company. The Chief of
Baguezan had been called into Agades so that, if
he was friendly disposed, he could conduct me to
his country. He was the new Chief Minerou who
had succeeded Yofa, who was foully killed a few
months before by the dagger-thrust of a skulking
foe when guarding his camels against an attack
from prowling robbers.

At Agades, before departure, I had stored every
article I could do without, on account of the
difficulties of travel ahead, and took with me
supplies of food and ammunition barely suffi-
cient to last for a period of two or three
months.

Our little band left Agades at various times in

148

WE START NORTH OF AGADES 149

the afternoon to camp at the tent-like inhabited
Tuareg village of Azzal, which was only about
five miles N.E. of our starting-point, and was to
be the rendezvous of our organised departure on
the morrow.

27th April, — ^Left Azzal before dawn. Yester-
day we had skirted the foothills in travelling up
the broad dry river-bed of the shallow Azzal
Valley, but to-day we departed from the edge of
the level desert, and entered low hill country of
strange appearance, composed of rock and boulder
and gravel, bare of any vegetation, and therefore
dreadfully melancholy and barren. View after
view of brown coloured hills unfolded before us
as we passed onward over gravel-strewn ground,
or picked our way through rocky outcrops, or
descended to sandy river-bed ; while always one
could follow out the thin line of the river banks or
hollows which caught moisture in the rains, for
they contained a bright green growth of dum
palm and " abisgee " * bush, which was very
striking and conspicuous among the sombre
hills.

Without any doubt it is beyond Azzal that the
traveller enters the true brown-grey rock country
of Air : the low country, which contains many
isolated cone-shaped hills or kopjes, that leads
one, in time, to the great central mountains. Bare
the land is of generous elements of beauty, and
almost equally bare of living thing. In many

* " Abisgee," Hausa name ; an evergreen, willow-like bush,
which has a pungent skiuik odour. It bears large clusters of
currant-like fruit in June and July. This bush was foimd only
in Air, and it may be Boscia aalicifolia, Oliver (Capparidacese).

160 AIR

places the only vegetation in a large area lies in
the thin rift of some infant rivulet — a meandering
line of sand which seeks a way among the grey
pebbles and rocks, wherein a few dry tufts of
grass, and, perhaps, a stunted dwarf acacia, a
grasshopper or two, and, if you are in luck, a small
mouse-like, sand-coloured lark crouching on the
ground may be seen, for scarcely any moving
living thing misses the eye in a land that is
well-nigh motionless.

We camped at Solom Solom about noon, and
obtained some water from a well which is on the
banks of a river there, and about which one or
two Tuaregs are camped. The Tuaregs with me
pronounce this name Selim Selim. It is about
18 miles due north of Azzal, and has altitude of
2,100 ft. (Agades is 1,710 ft.)

28th April. — ^Left Solom Solom an hour before
daybreak ; reached Tchefira about noon, after
stopping to replenish our water-skins in the river-
bed known to the natives as Arrajubjub. Water
obtained by digging down in the sand of the river-
bed close under some large rocks on the east bank
of the stream.

There is a height of land at Arrajubjub where
the river falls south to Agades and north toward
Baguezan. The river valley, which we chiefly
followed to-day, and which turns almost due east
not long after leaving Solom Solom, is named in
sections, as are most rivers in the country : thus
it is the Solom Solom (which becomes the Azzal
river further south) at the beginning of to-day's
journey, then Dabaga, then Injerwdan, then
Arrajubjub, and, finally, Tchefira. The river banks

MY CARAVAN UX THE AKRAJUBJUB RIVER.

,■'••• ->

TYPICAL AIR LANDSCAPE.

UO]

NATURE OF FOOTHILLS 151

continue to have the green fringe of vegetation :
dum palms, Hausa Kaha ; small skunk-smelling
tree, Hausa Ahisgee ; small dwarf acacia, growing
3 ft. to 4 ft. high, Hausa Giga ; and a fairly large
acacia, say, 20 ft. high, Hausa Zandidi.

Some picturesque hill country was passed
through, though the hills remain bare of vegeta-
tion. The large mountain range of Aouderas was
sighted faintly in the north about 11 a.m.,
distant a little more than 20 miles.

A number of Dorcas Gazelles were seen at
Tchefira and a single Dama Gazelle.

29th April. — ^To-day our direction of travel
changed to about due N.E., while we kept chiefly
in touch with the Araouat River, sometimes
travelling up its heavy sandy bed, sometimes
branching off to make a short cut overland when
the river took a large circuitous bend. The hills
we passed to-day in the stony uneven plains were
mostly conical and of blackish lava rock or red-
dish dust. About 6 miles from Tchefira there is a
prominent hill which the Tuaregs call Nafurifanya,
and below this hill, on the west side, we found a
single native working on a section of ground that
contained a salt deposit, which mineral he collected
by digging one foot to three feet below the sand
surface. At the end of our journey, after travel-
ling a considerable distance over gravel- covered
country, we intersected a narrow river-bed,
named Arra (not on map), where we camped
for the day, in view of Baguezan, lying north,
and Aouderas, north-west : both very large
mountains, of which Aouderas appears the lesser
in extent but the greater in height. Many of

152 AIR

the lower hills between Baguezan and Aouderas
are of striking shapes ; two noteworthy with
tower-like peaks, and the others strangely cone-
shaped.

Altitude at camp, 3,000 ft.

30th April. — ^Travelled onward in the early
morning, and camped two to three miles north-
west of Teouar (a deserted village of stone-built
huts), close in under Baguezan foothills, at a place
selected by Minerou as a suitable camping- ground
from which to hunt among the hills for mountain
sheep. We were still in the district known to the
natives as Arra, so named apparently on account
of the river course that has its source in the
mountain of that name, which is the most
northern of a group of three prominent eleva-
tions that lie immediately to the west of this
camp, named respectively, from south to north,
Tchebishrie, Aouderas, and Arra.

When camp was selected, brackish water was
obtained from the Arra river by digging in the
sandy bottom, but there was no rich vegetation
on the banks.

Thus far, north of Agades, good water had
been found at Azzal and Solom Solom in wells,
and at Arrajubjub by excavation. No water
was drawn at Tchefira, except for the camels,
as it was brine-tasted and not good, and there
was no water at our i&rst camp on the Arra river
on 29th April.

Altitude at camp, 3,300 ft.

About 3 p.m. I set out with Minerou to tramp
to the mountains to search for sheep, and had my
first experience of the nature of the hunting that

SOUTH OF BAGUEZAN 153

lay before me in looking for those animals. The
ruggedness of the country was astonishing. To
begin with, the apparently flat stony land that lay
between camp and the hills was, on closer acquaint-
ance, found to be thickly seared with deep ravines,
and although Minerou, who knew the country like
a book, led me by the easiest route, our path was
constantly barred by those strange deep channels,
down which we scrambled, over rocks and stones,
to afterwards ascend with no little effort to the
opposite side. The nearer we drew to the hills,
the rougher became the nature of the country, and
our outward journey culminated at the base of
Arra in one long scramble among huge boulders
and loose stones, where foothold had to be picked
out at each step as we hurried on, for Minerou,
born mountaineer and barefooted (for he had re-
moved his sandals the better to grip foothold as he
stepped or jumped from rock to rock), was cover-
ing the ground at a great pace. We had planned,
in setting out, that we would not have sufficient
daylight to climb the mountain, and would skirt
a part of the base in the hope that at dusk we
might chance upon sheep descending from the
mountain tops (where they remain all day) to
feed on the sparse vegetation in the ravines.
However, our search went unrewarded, although
I had the pleasure of actually seeing one animal
perched away up on the mountain-side at a great
height.

During the outing I saw some birds of great

interest, and I particularly made note of three

species which I had not observed further south,

and which, later, proved to be the Rock Pigeon

12

154 AIR

(Columba livia targia), the beautiful Sandgrouse
(Pterocles lichtensteinii tar gins), and a small
sombre wheatear-like bird (Ceromela melanura
airensis) of blackish-brown colour of striking
similarity to the rocks and stones on which
they perch.

1st May. — Away before daylight to hunt in
earnest for wild sheep. To-day we did not go
to the mountains lying N.W., but made for some
lower more isolated hills in the north, the principal
one of which the Tuaregs call Tuckazanza. The
chief of Baguezan and one of his men accompanied
me. Travelling was as hard as that experienced
yesterday, over rough mountain sides and valleys
of rocks and boulders and stones, while in some
cases whole hills were composed of huge boulders,
individually many tons in weight, which could
only be negotiated by reckless bounding and
leaping and scrambling, while deep ugly chasms
held open mouth to receive you should you slip.
I have hunted in many strange places, but never
in such wild mountainous country as this ; I feel I
cannot compare it with anything at home : the
nearest to it in ruggedness that I know is where
one may hunt for sea otters along the cliff-
shores of the storm-torn coasts of the Orkney
Islands.

About 7.30 a.m., having seen no sheep, we held
a consultation, when Minerou decided that he
would climb right over the summit of Tucka-
zanza, while his follower and myself were
directed to go further round the base and climb
over a lower spur, and we were eventually to
meet again on the other side. This arranged,

HUNTING BARBARY SHEEP 155

we started off on our separate ways. In due
time I, along with Minerou's follower, had
climbed to the summit of the ridge, always
scanning every fresh hollow or rise as they ap-
peared in view in hope of sighting game ; but
thus far without any luck.

We had begun the descent down the other side,
when the native beside me suddenly gripped my
arm and pointed excitedly to the right, where,
after a few moments of perplexity in endeavour-
ing to locate that which the Tuareg had seen, my
eyes were arrested by the slight movement of a
pair of heavy curved horns. Not a hair of the
animal was in sight, but the head undoubtedly
belonged to a sheep standing not more than five
hundred yards away in a slight dip in the moun-
tain side. No time was to be lost : the horns were
facing our way, and perhaps, for all we could tell,
the wary animal had heard us and was looking
upward, listening. I signed to the native to lead
on, judging he would choose the easiest way
through the huge boulders that we were among
(I found in later experience that mountain sheep
always frequent the very roughest places, where
they the more readily find the coolest and darkest
shelter from the heat and sunlight in the caves
and chasms which gigantic boulders and rocks so
readily form), and, crouching and scrambling and
leaping, we set off on the stalk at a perilous speed
— perilous at least to me, who could not boast
the barefooted nimbleness of my mountaineer
companion.

It was surely the " daftest " and the least
cunning stalk I have ever made, excepting

156 AIR

perhaps the " buck-fever " pranks of my earliest
experiences of hunting. The native had simply-
grasped the idea that the animals looked like
shifting when we sighted them, for he had
seen two, and his one purpose was to get there
before they could possibly be gone — ^and I had but
to follow ; for moments were precious, and what
use to hesitate and stop to explain that I should
advance slowly so that my footwear would make
no scraping noise on the rocks, and slowly, also, so
that I should have some breath and life in my
body when the moment came to shoot. How I
managed to cover the distance in our mad haste
without mishap I do not to this day know,
except that for the moment I had no time to
think of fear, which certainly helped me on over
ugly chasms that yawned across my path, en-
tailing leaps that seemed beyond my ability,
yet, somehow, were miraculously crossed and
left behind.

We reached the place where the animal had
stood, and, on peering over the slight rise which
had screened us, at once saw two sheep clambering
away over the rocks. I fired at once at the largest
one and brought him down, but twice missed the
second one as he headed away upwards, some-
times in view, more often hidden among the
rocks.

However, as luck had it, we learned a little later,
when Minerou joined us, that this second animal
had run into him on the summit, and he had shot
it, so that both animals were bagged.

Consultation decided that the follower and I
should go back to camp for a camel to fetch in the

SHEEP KILLED 157

game, while Minerou would return to his kill on
the summit and safeguard it against jackals and
crows (the latter were already croaking and
cawing on the rocks about us, having detected the
kills from afar with their extraordinary eyesight),
as we had already secured ours, after disembowel-
ling it, by moving it into a hollow between two
rocks, and heaping upon it big stones so that
nothing could reach the carcass.

On the way back to camp there occurred a
strange incident that proved highly exciting for a
moment, until the voices of friends banished the
possibility of human bloodshed ; an incident
which demonstrated to me at an early stage how
real is bandit warfare in those hills. This is what
happened. We were about to cross a deep ravine,
when we suddenly espied two men travelling
toward us on foot, not on the open ground of the
level land above, but perched up on the cliff face
of the sunken ravine and advancing amongst the
rocks, as if they had some purpose in remaining
concealed. Instantly the native with me
crouched behind cover and looked to the full
charging of his rifle, quite apparently apprehend-
ing danger. In a few moments the men advanced
around a spur and disappeared into a recess in the
twisting ravine. Whenever they were out of sight
my follower bounded forward, agile as a goat,
among the huge rocks, to a prominence where he
might carefully look over and down upon the ap-
proaching men and observe them more closely
from a point of advantage, while I lay with my
rifle ready and waited. But the native did not
beckon me forward, or return himself, and soon

158 AIR

I heard voices ring out, and knew we were with
friends and not enemies, and a few moments
proved them to be one of our own party, who
had been sent away the night before by the
Chief to scout through the neighbourhood as a
precaution against robbers, and with him was
a native from Baguezan whom he had chanced
to meet.

The alarm had turned out to be false. Never-
theless, I did not readily forget my native's in-
stant expectation of a fight with enemies, and
the familiar manner in which he accepted the
situation. His were the actions of one who lived
from day to day in the midst of dangers, and had
been bred and born to the habit of defence against
foes that ever lurked near.

Many incidents of this character I experienced
later on, and had soon learned that the alarming
rumours relating to robbers which were prevalent
farther south were all too true, and that the
shadows of lurking foes were foremost in the
thoughts of every Tuareg in Air, where robbers
imposed a terrifying oppression.

On reaching camp, a camel was despatched to
find Minerou in the hills and bring in the sheep,
which in due course arrived in camp to be skinned
and used as food, as neither beast was perfect
enough to serve as a museum specimen. The
larger of the two had a fine head, but the body
hair was thin and patchy, and altogether out of
condition.

A peculiar change in the hot cloudless weather
had occurred during the past two days. Yester-
day, in the afternoon, there was high wind and

A STRANGE INCIDENT 159

some rain showers, while to-day, at the same hour,
the sky was overclouded, and distant thunder
rumbled, and there was again very high wind
which wrecked my tarpaulin shade-shelter and
rudely interrupted the bird-skinning on which I
was employed at the time. Possibly Rains are
now falling in Nigeria, where, I am told by the
natives, they are about due. But Rains are not
due in Air until July or August, if local informa-
tion is to be trusted.

2nd May. — ^Away again at peep of daylight, but
to-day had no luck. The Chief and I followed
the trail of a very large animal where it had been
this morning feeding along the foot of the moun-
tain named Ebodina, and when we had traced it
over rocks and sand-pools in the ravines to where
it had taken to the heights, we too started to
ascend in hope of finding its resting-place in some
cave above. And upward we laboured during the
remainder of the morning, the sure-footed Chief
sound of lung and never daunted, and I, bound to
follow over the wildest mountain face imaginable,
composed, like the hills we had hunted yesterday,
chiefly of pile upon pile of huge boulders, with
deep dark chasms between. Into the deepest
of those recesses the Chief would sometimes
pause to throw a pebble in the hope that it might
send the sheep from its place of hiding in its noisy
course as it bounded and trickled down into the
gloomy well-like depth. But all to no avail,
and we returned to camp empty-handed.

On this day I found the relics of a tragedy
among the boulders near the foot of Ebodina.
They were the rags of clothing and a few minute

160 AIR

pieces of personal belongings, and a riddled goat-
skin water-bag belonging to some native who had
died there alone, either through falling from the
rocks or from want of water or food. No weather-
bleached bones lay beside those pitiful remnants,
and without doubt jackals had long ago seen to
their removal.

Srd May. — Similar to the previous days here,
the weather dulled down in the afternoon, and we
had high wind and thunder and a little rain, the
wind being a great hindrance to skinning in my
temporary quarters, for I have not built a grass-
hut workshop here, as the ground is bad to
excavate for post sockets — ^rocks and gravel —
and wood and grass is very scarce.

No hunting except for small specimens, and none
of the men left camp, save to keep watch over
the camels, who have constantly a guard in
case robbers should discover them.

The Chief of Baguezan is impatient to move on
to the security of his mountain home, one long
day's journey distant, but I ask him to have
patience for a little, for here we are on low ground,
and can hunt for bird and beast and butterfly
which I may not find on the mountain-top of
Baguezan.

4!th May. — ^Dawn found Minerou and myself
again among the deep ravines and rugged moun-
tains in quest of sheep. Four animals were seen
late in morning far up the mountain side of
Aouderas, but we were unable to get near them.
Signs of sheep are plentiful enough, but, so far as
I can judge at present, they are very wary and
wild and secretive in their movements, resting

WIND AND RAIN 161

and hiding in the dark mountain caves by day,
and coming out to feed in late evening and through
the night.

Yesterday evening and to-day Rains have fallen
quite heavily, and the hitherto dry river-bed at
camp is to-day a shallow stream of water, which
is a sight to gladden men's hearts in this land of
terrible drought. The water in the river is very
reddish on account of the soil of that colour which
has been washed down from the ravine sides and
mountain sides. Streams of water are also
apparent to-day in ravines on the slopes of
Baguezan Mountains, so that precious rain has
fallen there also, and the Chief is now more anxious
than ever to get back to his home.

I discussed the boundaries of Air with the Chief
of Baguezan to-day. He states that Aderbis-
sinat is within the boundary of Air, and that east
and west their country terminates at the edge of
the desert. He declares he knows nothing of the
limits of Air to the north, and that his people never
go there. " It is bad country, they are afraid to
go," he said ; while at the same time he informed
me that none of his people would accompany me
to Assode or Iferouan when I declared my inten-
tion to visit those places. Moreover, he warned
me solemnly that I would be very rash if I
did not give up my intention of going farther
into the country — a view expressed by every
Tuareg native of Air with whom I discussed the
subject previous to setting out north. From
which it may be gathered that northern Air is
indeed a place of evil repute.

To-day I trapped a beautiful silver-grey fox of

162 AIR

a kind I had not seen before, which, I fancy, is
peculiar to mountain country and not to be found
in the desert. (Scientific examination has since
proved it to be a new sub-species : Vulpes riippelli
ccesia.)

5th May. — ^Travelled far this day over most
rugged country, but once again did not succeed
in bagging sheep.

On returning to camp in the afternoon, bluster-
ing wind-squalls again made the skinning of small
specimens almost impossible, and I suddenly
made up my mind to pack up and go on to Bague-
zan, prompted partly by the unsatisfactory con-
ditions at camp and partly by the wishes of the
Chief and his men, who were impatient to reach
their homes.

Thus closed the first few days of hunting in the
Air mountains without any great measure of
success. But I had thoroughly enjoyed the search
for sheep amongst the wild grandeur of strange
mountains and had found a type of hard hunting
which, I fancy, would rejoice the heart of any
sportsman. Moreover, in the Chief of Baguezan
I had found a splendid hunter, full of shrewd
knowledge of the habits of the animals of his
country, a born mountaineer, active as a cat
among the rocks, familiar with every nook and
cranny in the hills, and tireless in his quest
for game.

At a later date I was very successful in similar
hunting, and secured fine representative speci-
mens of the Barbary sheep of Air, which the Hausa
natives name Ragondoutchie (or Ragonduchi) and
the Tuaregs Afitell, and which has proved to be

A BORN MOUNTAINEER 168

a new sub-species which Lord Rothschild has
named Ammotragus lervia angusi.

The head of the best male specimen had horns
measuring 21 ins. in length and of 20j ins. span,
while the animal weighed 152 lbs. The largest
sheep I shot was an old one which weighed 164 lbs.,
with damaged horns that had no larger dimen-
sions than those recorded above.

CHAPTER XI

IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

I HAD no sooner departed outside the immediate
neighbourhood of the Fort of Agades, in commenc-
ing the journey to Baguezan, as described in the
preceding chapter, than the Chief, Minerou, and
his glib-tongued companions, who had all put
their heads together — even the two goumiers
joining in — endeavoured to dissuade me from my
purpose to climb into Baguezan Mountains, and
strongly advised my return to Agades. Their
chief argument was that the camels carrying my
stores could not possibly ascend the mountain
pass. From which I judged that they were fool-
ishly suspicious of the stranger, and did not want
me to pry into their mountain stronghold. They
kept up plying me with similar doubtful stories
for the next three days, by which time we had
camped at Arra, whereafter they desisted, seeing
that I would on no account be shaken in my
purpose before I had actually seen the pass in
Baguezan. The following days of sheep hunting
with the Chief brought us more closely together and
enabled me to break down, at least outwardly, the
barrier of distrust of me ; until, in a moment of
confidence, seeing that I would not be hoodwinked,

164

ASCENDING MT. BAGUEZAN 165

he went so far as to admit that the ascent into
Baguezan, for me and my stores, could be accom-
plished.

So that it transpired that on 6th May we
climbed the slopes of Baguezan and entered the
strange, awesome mountain stronghold.

There are, the natives declare, but two ways by
which camels can enter Baguezan mountains :
one in the southern slopes above a camping-place
known to the natives as Tokede, which is the prin-
cipal pass and that which we used, while the other
(the only other pass I have seen, which endorses,
to some extent, native statements) lies N.W., and
is a means of exit to, or entrance from, the north,
which is principally used at the present time by
natives passing between Baguezan and Timia.
Both are rocky, awkward paths, no wider than
game-tracks, that wend their way zigzagging
upward over steep slopes where foothold for
beasts of burden has been searched for and found
possible, while in many rough places the path has
been hewn and excavated by the hands of men
where it has been necessary.

Slowly the surefooted patient mountain-reared
camels of Air succeed in ascending or descending
these paths, sometimes slipping and falling to
their knees, so treacherous the foothold, and
always some beasts of the caravan make the
journey at the expense of torn nails and bleeding
feet.

When we had climbed half-way up Baguezan
and had paused on a short levelled stretch to rest
the distressed camels and their rock-bruised feet,
as was necessary from time to time, I turned back

166 IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

and looked below, and out before me to the very
horizon, on scenes the like of which in colouring
and utter strangeness I had never witnessed
before : to the west lay the mountains Tchebishrie,
Aouderas, and Arra, and a score of others that are
unnamed, all dark and towering and majestic ;
while in the forefront the rough lowland over
which we had travelled now looked, from a height,
like level flats, barren and blackish (on account
of the porous lava rock and hard round pebbles
which cover the land), as if they had been swept
by fire and only the ash remained. The scenes
are overflowing with a strange drear greyness,
that fills the heart of man with sadness, except
where deep ravines run out from the mountains
and draw therefrom thin lines that have some-
times their beginning in the brightness of dum
palms, or " Abisgee" bushes, which grow on dry
river-banks of certain fertility, and which trend to
lines of sand colour and the dull greyness of leaf-
less acacias as they die away in the far distance
of the lowland.

In four hours we had ascended to the summit,
and were upon a plateau covered with innumer-
able rocky hills, through which we wandered in
and out where passage for the camels was possible,
and two hours later reached the small village
of Tasessat, hidden in the hills, where I decided
to pitch a permanent collecting-camp.

Baguezan mountains might be said to be two
storeys high, the great plateau being the line
of the first and principal level, whence arise
countless hills with summits of various elevations.
The altitude of Tasessat village, which is on the

A GREAT PLATEAU 167

plateau, is 5,200 ft., about 2,000 ft. above the land
at the mountain base of Baguezan, while a hill
named Tarusszgreet, which is the highest rising
from the plateau, has an altitude of 6,050 ft.

The plateau of Baguezan is perplexing to
describe adequately. There are countless ranges
of hills, sometimes with narrow sand-jflats and
river-beds between ; massive hills formed of giant
grey granite boulders, and others - not nearly so
numerous — with rounded summits and a surface
of apparent overlappings and down-pourings of
smooth loose reddish and grey fragments, as if
the peaks were of volcanic origin, though no craters
are there. But it is the formation of the many
hills of giant granite boulders that make the
scenes so astonishing, so rugged, and so unique —
you might be on the roughest sea coast in the
world, and not find scenes to surpass those here
in desolation and wildness. They are hills that
appear to the eye as if a mighty energy underneath
had at some time heaved and shouldered boulder
upon boulder of colossal proportion into position,
until huge, wide-based, solid masses were raised
upon the plateau. On the other hand there are
instances where hills appear as if the forces under-
neath had built their edifice badly, and in a
manner not fit to withstand the ravages of time,
and those are places where part of the pile has
apparently collapsed, and there remains a bleak
cliff face and the ruins of rocks at the foot. Be-
tween the hills the narrow defiles which make up
the plateau level are, in general, small places of
sand, where scattered acacias grow (some to a fair
height), and where, in certain places, dry shallow

168 IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

sandy stream-beds find a course : also there are
flats, with ground surface of pebbles, which are
bare as the hills that invest them.

From the plateau, or even from the lower hills,
it is impossible to obtain a fair conception of the
area of Baguezan mountains, since an extensive
view is blocked in all directions by the hills which
surround one on all sides. But from the top of
Tarusszgreet a splendid view may be obtained.
The great hill-bearing plateau is about 25 miles in
diameter, with an edge that, viewed from the
commanding height of Tarusszgreet, appears
almost as round as a tea-cup. Looking down
on the land on all sides from this pinnacle that
permits an unbroken view north, south, east, and
west, the scene is a memorable and a striking one :
rocks, boulders, and grave greyness predominate
all else, for, as far as an eye can see within the
limits of Baguezan, nearly the whole land is one of
barren hills — barren, that is, of fertility, but not
of wild native beauty, even impressiveness. It
strikes one most forcibly as a place of fearful
poverty, but, even though the blackness of the
grey rocks so strongly predominates, there are,
as in the country south of Baguezan, brighter
scenes on a miniature scale in the pleasant little
basins or sandy pockets on the plateau, where, in
places, the line of a dry stream-bed may be traced,
and where straggling acacias stand darkly dotted
against a huffish sandy background. Be the eye
attracted to the broad masses of grey hills, or to
the little gleams of golden sand, the view from the
lofty height of Tarusszgreet, somewhat vaguely
sad though it be, captures the appreciation of the

TYPIC.VL BOULDER COMTOSITIOX OP ATAXi' Alil ilOUXTAlXS AXD HHiLS.

Mi.vKUor, CiiiKF vi i;ai.i i;/.A.v, and .-aiiii, mv i,<ir.\ni:]{.

168]

BEAUTY IN AFRICA 169

mountaineer, who cannot help, unless he be an
unresponsive soul indeed, being enraptured with
the wonderful space of earth and sky which his
position for the moment commands, and with
the details of a hundred mysterious scenes con-
tained within the miniature kingdom that lies
beneath his feet. Particularly at sunrise or sun-
set is the view fair, when short-lived lights rest
on the broad rugged surface of mountain-side
scene, and dip delicately into the valleys to be
absorbed by lurking shadows. Those are precious
moments in a day, or, might I say, in a lifetime ?

There is much beauty in Africa, though that is
a circumstance which, I believe, we do not often
realise or speak about, because, I fear, beauty is
often missed, or at least fails to receive full
appreciation, since, to view any fair picture with
full and generous reflection, the individual or audi-
ence should be in the cleanness of health and good
spirits that lead to enthusiasm and energy and
praise ; and, alas, such a state of mind is all too
seldom the white man's lot beneath a sun that is
hourly tapping his precious store of vitality.

In ascending to the plateau of Baguezan, one
enters a secretive stronghold of a small band of
Tuaregs, and I think it is because Baguezan is a
natural fortification, for the most part inaccess-
ible to robbers or to any stranger, that we to-day
find any natives living in Air north of Agades and
its immediate neighbourhood. I have said else-
where that Timia, Aouderas, and Baguezan are
the only places now inhabited in Air north of
Agades, and both Timia and Aouderas are near to
the foot of Baguezan, so that, when robbers
13

170 IN BAGUE2AN MOUNTAINS

threaten, the camels of the inhabitants of those
two places can, if the danger warrants, be driven
on to the plateau for safety, while the natives
scatter broadcast among the rocks — a procedure
which occurred once while I was there.

There are in Baguezan mountains at the present
time six tiny villages. They are : Tasessat, the
chief village where I camped, whence radiate
the bearings given below ; Argargar, about 8
miles distant from Tasessat, on a bearing of 330°;
Ouwari, on the same bearing, not far from Tasessat,
on the track to Argargar; Egulubilub, 3 to 4 miles
from Tasessat, on a bearing of 140° ; Emuludi, on
the same bearing, about one mile distant from
Tasessat ; Atkaki, near Tasessat, on a bearing of
220°. Excepting Tasessat, none of these villages
are on any map I possess.

The dwellings now in use in the villages are
mere tiny, gipsy-like sun-shelters of a type com-
mon to the inhabitants of Air. They are con-
structed with lathes of wood bent over to form
a dome framework, which is round in plan and a
half-round in elevation. Upon the framework
hay-grass is laced securely, or skins, to keep out
sun and a certain amount of sand-dust. They
are no higher than permits an average man to
stand upright inside, while the floor space can
little more than accommodate two or three out-
stretched forms. Gipsy -like, they are not in any
degree extravagant in labour of construction or
in expenditure of material, from which it may be
gathered that the natives are lazy and material
scarce.

There are a number of stone-built dwellings

RUINS 171

at Tasessat and elsewhere, but nowhere are they
occupied by the natives, who have allowed them
to relapse to a state of ruin. Whether those
strange old dwellings belonged to a race which at
one time the Tuaregs conquered, or to their own
ancestors, I do not know, though I am inclined
to think that they are of Hausa origin. At all
events, they belong solely to the Past, when, at
some time or other, there were many people in
the Baguezan mountains, for in numerous places
are to be found the old sites of villages where huts
were built of stone : in some cases the whole
village completely overthrown, in others a few
skeletons of huts standing. Also there are many
strange old graveyards, sometimes near an old
village site, sometimes where no sign of dwelling-
place remains. They are usually on a level stony
piece of ground, chosen, I surmise, because jackals
cannot scrape down through such a surface, and
the graves, which have lain there through ages,
are still marked with mounds of pebbles heaped
body-length, or with borders of selected stones
laid out in the shape of a coffin ; while in some
cases the wood poles, which support the stones
laid over the grave, have given out, and the grave
lies partly open.

The natives of to-day point to ruins of this
kind, and tell, with a very real ring of sadness in
their voices, that they mark the full and awful
extent of decline in population — ^the ravages of
war and the pillage at the hands of raiders who,
even to-day, descend upon the hapless decadent
people to steal their camels and take their young
men and women into slavery.

172 IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

Minerou and the old headman of Tasessat declare
that natives of Baguezan of the present time have
not fled or been driven to the low country in the
south. Such a thing could not possibly be, they
say, " for there are no mountains there, and how
could we live without them ? " — true mountain
people, the land of their birth dear to their hearts
as their freedom.

To-day there are altogether only 40 male
Tuaregs in Baguezan mountains ; that is, adult
men at the head of a family.

According to native statement, there has never
been, in living memory, an English-speaking
white man in Baguezan before ; and no one, they
say, has camped or roamed about the hills as I
have done, in which event I trust this humble
description of the place may hold some particular
interest. Old natives say that, previous to my
visit, there have been, in all, three white men in
Baguezan : French officers who have had occasion
to enter Baguezan in course of performing duty,
and who did not remain there any length of time.

The natives of Baguezan, like all natives of Air,
get the grain which is their principal food chiefly
from Tanout and district, a journey of about 496
miles altogether, outward and homeward. It is
transported by caravans of camels. On some
occasions the natives carry south with them, to
market, dates, which they get chiefly from Fachi,
but a few from Air, and goat hides. Fachi, and
also Bilma, are oases on the desert east of Air.
Fachi, according to the natives, is fifteen days'
caravan journey from Baguezan, and Bilma 30
days' journey. Both places are very well known

MOUNTAIN CLIMATE 173

to the natives of the territory, for it is chiefly from
those places that they obtain salt for themselves
and their camels.

With regard to the climate of Baguezan, the
inhabitants say that they have no snow in the
mountains at any time, but there is ice in the cold
season (about November). Personally I have wit-
nessed a shower of large hailstones in Baguezan,
similar to occurrences of the kind witnessed in
South Africa and during a Canadian summer,
when such hail-showers sometimes fall in the
course of a particularly violent thunderstorm.
To one who comes from the stifling hot desert, the
remarkable clearness of the air of Baguezan gives
untold delight, while the coolness of morning and
evening in the mountains goes far toward reviving
drooping vitality. In my case I often look back
and doubt if I could have completed the under-
taking without a disastrous breakdown had I not
had the good fortune to pick up a new store of
vigour during my stay among the mountain-
tops of Baguezan.

I noted the following temperatures during the
month of May: daybreak, 60°, 62°, 68°, 74°
Fahr. ; noon, 96° Fahr. ; sundown, 80°, 76°, 74°
Fahr.

I hope to describe the Tuaregs of Air in a later
chapter, and for the moment, so far as the natives
of Baguezan are concerned, may briefly say that
they are true mountain people, not very tall,
sturdily built, strong in wind and limb, and extra-
ordinarily active in hill-climbing. But they are
cunning, shifty, and suspicious people, and I never
felt I was made a friend among them ; and

174 IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

Baguezan, up to the present, ranks as the one
place where I have felt frustrated in overtures
toward friendship with the local inhabitants. I
hunted in Baguezan from 6th May to 7th June,
but my feeling of insecurity may be judged in that
I pitched camp well apart from the village of
Tasessat and surrounded it with a strong thorn
zereba, through which no one could enter without
disturbance, and never lay down at night without
my loaded rifle by my side.

I consider I had only one friend in Baguezan : a
native who might be called the local smith, for he
handled a bellows that nourished a coke fire and
welded primitive tools and weapons and trinkets
for the people. He often came to my camp un-
called, and gladly did me any service that I wished
that was within his power. Next to him I trusted
most the chief, Minerou ; principally because I
knew him well — his good points and his faults.
With him I was friends, at least outwardly — as
friendly as one can be with a person shrewdly
suspected of being an unscrupulous rascal. The
commandant at Agades, replying to a letter of
mine from Baguezan, wrote with regard to
Minerou : " Yes I the Chief of Baguezan is under-
neath full of slyness : and so they all are. But
you know the bush law better than myself, and I
rely upon your carefully watching. Don't trust
any of them."

I find in my diary the following notes of the
Chief of Baguezan : " Among his people he is a
king, and all appear to obey his command. How
he obtains authority over his wild-natured flock
is, to me, mysterious, yet the power of king is his.

SUSPICIOUS NATIVES 175

He is wise in a cunning way, and appears to have
greater capacity for enterprise and work than any
of his people. Like all Tuaregs, he has no subter-
fuge in his greed for food or clothing or money.
He professes to be my friend, yet at heart I know
he is full of suspicion of the stranger, and is friends,
in reality, only with my purse, and, also, because
he fears the military authorities at Agades. In his
religion, Mohammedan, or sect of Mohammedan,
he is very devout, and at sunrise or sunset, no
matter what occupation he may interrupt, he
never fails to address his incantations and salaams
to the east ; and I would not be surprised if the
excessive zeal of his devotion induces the belief
that his faith is supreme, and shuts out the white
man as a fanatic or an enemy to his God."

In time the period of hunting among the Bagu-
ezan mountains came to an end, and I turned my
thoughts to travelling northward, an undertaking
not altogether looked on with favour by the
authorities at Agades, who, though desirous of
helping me, declared, like the natives, that the
journey entailed, perhaps, foolish risk. My own
view of the matter is partly contained in the
following letter to the commandant at Agades :
". . . with regard to going further north, I place
myself entirely in your hands, knowing you will
advise me for the best and assist me where you can.
I realise even here that there is risk and that one
must ever be careful and on the alert, but nothing
worth while was ever accomplished without over-
coming difficulties, and I would much like, since
I have come so far with that purpose, to
complete my journey fully in Air. From my map

176 IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS

I estimate that Aguellal is 4 to 5 days further
north and Iferouan 1 to 2 days more (Iferouan
would be the end of my northward journey), while
outward or homeward I would like to visit Assode.
I purpose travelling very light, and estimate that
3 or 4 camels would suj0fice for the journey.
Regarding escort, I leave the matter entirely with
you, who know conditions much better than I do.
For my own part, I am ready to undertake any
risk, but any natives who may accompany me
might feel reassured with a small show of rifles.
This is a type of mountain country where but a few
armed men could put up a great fight — if not
taken by surprise in the dark. But now there is
the chief point : to obtain one native who knows
where there is water to be found on the journey.
The Chief of Baguezan declares none of his people
know the north territory, though I doubt his state-
ment, and strongly suspect it is prompted by the
universal fear of entering an ill-reputed neighbour-
hood. Possibly a guide can be secured in Agades?
Where men from the north are to be found, you,
of course, know, and in this, as in everything, I
will await your consideration of the matter and
your advice."

Which letter brought satisfactory results ; so
that on the afternoon of 7th June I was able to
commence the journey to Iferouan, situated in
the extreme north of Air.

CHAPTER XII

THE NORTHERN REGIONS OF AIR : PART I

On 6th June I received a letter from the com-
mandant at Agades suggesting that I proceed at
once on my contemplated journey to the northern
regions of Air, proposing that I push forward
under conditions that would restrict the time that
I remain beyond communication with Agades to
a period of 15 days. This was short time indeed
for the journey, and would entail constant travel-
ling, but I had no wish to question the desire of
the French authorities, who, with kindness and
courtesy, assisted me in every way in their power
to make the expedition a success ; therefore, to
this proposal I at once concurred, and sent back
a message to say that if all went well, news of me
might be expected at Agades not later than 23rd
June.

At the same time I was advised that six goumiers,
to join me at Timia, would be despatched from
Agades on the following day, which, with Atagoom
and Saidi (the goumiers already with me) and
myself, would make up a party of nine rifles for the
journey. Atagoom and Saidi, who had now been
with me for more than a month, had become very
friendly, and had grown familiar with the white

177

178 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

man's ways, so that I was particularly glad that
they were available for the forthcoming journey.
They were, like all Tuaregs, very lazy when about
camp, but splendid camel-men and travellers
when once out on the trail, Atagoom in particu-
lar being an exceptionally active and tireless
individual.

At the last moment, when loading up the camels
in preparation to depart from Baguezan, the Chief
offered me a man to look after my camels on the
way to Timia ; a powerfully built fellow, bigger
than the average native of Air, and appropriately
named Dogo, which is Hausa for tall, though he
was more often addressed as Buzu, the Tamashack
for slave — for such he was, free to all outward
appearance, but bound to the service of the Chief
in some mysterious way and dependent upon him.
This man, like so many others, was not a pure-
blooded Tuareg— probably not of Tuareg descent
at all, for he was a descendant of slaves — although
he spoke their language and dressed as they did.
He was a remarkably reticent individual, and
never spoke a word to me unless I first addressed
him, when he would couch his answer in a few
brief syllables, and then shut up like a clam. I
give those few particulars of Dogo because, al-
though he set out merely to accompany me to
Timia, he came forward a couple of days later and
voluntarily offered to go the journey north with
me : which he did, and thenceforward this strange
fellow, who never gave outward demonstration
of human feeling, attached himself devotedly
to my caravan (with the consent of the Chief),
and looked after the camels during all sub-

A NEW HENCmiAN 179

sequent travel in Air, and, in the end, accom-
panied me all the way back to Kano. Which
was great good fortune for me, for he was a
splendid worker, and soon grew familiar with
the animals and their burdens, the way in which
I liked to load up or off-load, his duties in camp,
and in tending the camels when turned out to
graze, so that in time I needed to pay little
attention to him, feeling secure that no detail
would be forgotten.

We left Tasessat about 2 p.m. on 7th June,
and travelled over the plateau in a north-westerly
direction, heading for the Pass that gave exit
to Timia. Our route over the plateau was far
from a direct one, since it was necessary to
dodge in and out to evade the numerous hills,
while it was over cruelly rough country almost
altogether of stones and rocks, which punished
the camels' feet severely ; so severely that, after
an equally hard journey the following day, one
of the animals had to be discarded when reach-
ing Timia. We were still on the plateau at
sundown, and camped about an hour's journey
from the head of the Pass.

Next day travel was resumed, and we soon
came to the top of the pass, where a magnificent
view from the mountain edge lay before us of
the wide gradient of the rough hill-covered
Baguezan mountain sides, and of the very broad
valley which lay westwards between us and the
Bela mountains, and is drained northward in
time of rain by the Assada river and its numerous
tributaries.

Throughout the day I was delighted and

180 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

astonished by the wealth of everchanging scene
of mountain and hill and valley, hardly finishing
appreciation of one striking picture before it
changed, as we moved onward, and another came
into view to arrest attention. (To my mind, wild
mountain scenery, second only to the magnificent
views which surround Timia, is here seen at its
best in Air — a region rich in mountain landscape.)
In the Infinite Detail I found greatest attraction,
detail of constant change of form and contour,
and perspective of country full of rugged features.
It is not scene that is rich in colour, being over-
clouded with the dominant dull greyness of the
bare rock and stone, and therefore, perhaps,
contains no great appeal to one who might
appraise it with the eye of a painter; rather
would I suggest that it holds appeal for the etcher,
insomuch that there is such a wealth of detail,
detail delicate or superbly masterful, in form and
outline, in grotesque shapes, and in strength of
shadow.

So far as travel underfoot was concerned, we
put in a long arduous day, first descending the
pass out of Baguezan, which is a more rugged and
difficult one than that in the south, and then con-
tinuing among foothills that never offered a level
course, so that we were constantly climbing or
descending rocky, stony hill-ground or dipping into
the numerous ravines that crossed our path ; and
we were still about a day's journey from Timia
when we camped at night.

Before dawn on the following day — 9th June—
we had risen from our hard beds on the open
ground (I had left all camp equipment in

ROUGH COUNTRY 181

Baguezan, so that this journey should not be
unnecessarily hampered with baggage) and
pushed on to Timia, which it was necessary
we should reach this day, for we had been
unable to find water at sundown yesterday,
and had almost finished the store in our goat-
skin bags.

Daylight found us slowly advancing northward,
in towards Agalak mountains, which loomed
massively in a long line before us ; at first dimly,
haze-softened, then growing to a frowning coimten-
ance, in which cliffs and clefts and precipitous
ravines could be discerned. By which time we
began to swing easterly, keeping the slopes of
Agalak mountains, which appear to have a plateau
summit, not far distant on our left, while
Baguezan mountains lay almost out of sight
on our right. About 11 o'clock, after toiling
up and down dale, over stone-strewn ground
and among rocks that presented difficulty to
free travel as constantly as yesterday, we
emerged on to a wide river-bed of loose sand
which bore the name of Abarakan in the locality
where we intersected it. Still heading east, we
continued up the river course for a long time in
the full heat of day and with the sun-glare re-
bounding off the sand, which was very loose and
powdery, as in all river-beds in Air, and heavy
underfoot for the camels, but vastly better than
the terrible mountain trail we had left behind.
About 1.30 p.m. we branched off the river, ascend-
ing the right bank on to a small level stony plain
which lay beneath the western slopes of some low
hills near to and S.E. of the Timia range. We

182 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

crossed this plain in a northerly direction, into
which course the river had also turned just about
the time we parted from it, and even now the river
channel was not far distant on our left, drawing
a parallel line also to Timia, but not so directly
as the one which Dogo, the local native, was
following. However, at the head of the rocky
plain, where it terminated at the foot of hills
which shut it in completely, we again intercepted
the river, about 2 miles from Timia, where pre-
cipitous slopes dipped to the very edge of the
east bank and completely blocked passage on that
side. Hence we entered the river-bed again, and
travelled up it a little way, between steep banks,
until we came to the mouth of Timia Gorge, and
encountered the strange and formidable barrier
that there shuts off further progress up the river.
This obstacle was the sheer cliff of a dry waterfall
of height of some 25 to 30 ft., and, in conjunction
with the closely crowding hill-sides on either bank,
it appeared to close the narrow neck between the
hills altogether. But native wit, or necessity, had
found a way to force a door in the barrier, to give
passage to caravans into the rich gorge that lay
beyond, for close examination of the west bank of
the river reveals a winding, precipitous, cave-like
staircase hewn out of the solid rock, which ascends
to the top of the high bank, where there is space
enough, and no more, between mountain base and
river-bank, to allow camels to pass above the fall.
One by one we led each camel into this stairway,
which they had to strain and struggle to ascend,
and humoured them slowly upwards, until all
were safely at the top, when we proceeded up

TIMIA GORGE 183

the broad river-bed into Timia without further
hindrance.

Timia Gorge is, in my opinion, the most beauti-
ful spot in Air and the most fertile. It has a
length of some three or four miles, through which
the wide shallow river-bed winds (I judge the river
to be 75 to 100 yards wide), while the steep slopes
of the majestic heights of Agalak and Timia moun-
tains descend on either side to its very margin,
leaving, in places, narrow little stretches of
ground upon the banks, no wider than a mansion
garden, which are irrigated by means of wells
and cultivated by the natives to grow wheat and
millet and maize, or bear thick groves of date
palms.

We entered Timia village about 4 p.m., and
were warmly welcomed by the fine old headman,
who acted as deputy in absence of the Chief
Fougda. I was amused to find that, as in many
other instances, all the natives who gathered
around while we off-loaded already knew of me
and wanted to look on " the hunting white man,"
while many of the women and children of the
village, who did not travel to Agades like the men,
had never seen a European before, and were vastly
interested in a timid, furtive way.

I was greatly pleased with Timia village, which
is built chiefly on the west bank of the river in a
small open flat stony pocket at the eastern base of
Agalak. The small dome dwellings are the same
as those on Baguezan, but built with more care,
while there is a decided appearance of neatness
and tidiness in the whole village which I found
lacking elsewhere in inhabited places in Air.

184 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

Moreover, I found the people really industrious in
working their riverside gardens, and, in fact,
when I came to see more of them a week or two
later, I judged them to be the most superior tribe
I had encountered in Air.

The six goumiers from Agades joined me at
Timia, heavily masked, like all Tuaregs, with
yashmak, which leaves only the eyes uncovered,
and picturesquely dressed in cotton robes of
various colours ; while the old headman brought
forward a young fellow named Homa, who had
been born in Iferouan and was to act as guide,
and, in particular, point out where water was to
be found. He and another man had been part of
the way north about a month before trying to
trap donkeys, which escaped from the natives at
the time of the evacuations, or out of the hands
of robbers, and are now running completely wild
in Air. (Later I saw fresh tracks of one band, and
many signs of them where they had been feeding.)
Those men succeeded in trapping one donkey,
but say the brutes are terribly wild and difficult
to catch.

The altitude of the stream-bed at Timia village
is 3,800 feet, while some of the splendid tops of
Timia mountains, which are higher than Agalak
(map alt. : 4,593 ft.), appear to be easily 2,000 to
3,000 ft. more, and it would not surprise me if
the highest altitude in Air is contained in Timia
mountains, and I regret I had not occasion or time
to climb to the highest peak.

Next morning, 10th June, we left Timia and
started on the long journey north in uninhabited
regions. In the early part of the day we travelled

UNINHABITED REGIONS 185

over rough, broken, rocky country until Tiggeur
was reached, the abandoned site of a village (alt.
3,700 ft.), where there are a few date palms and an
old well which contains no water. To the east
the country had appeared more open thus far, and
contained a number of small hills, while on the
west lay the high slopes of Agalak mountains.
Thereafter we continued by Tiggeur and Teguednu
river-beds, which had bare, almost treeless banks,
and camped at the junction where the latter
stream and the Asselar meet and become the
broad Agoras river-bed, which trends away N.W.
to the ancient town of Assod^. Altitude at this
camping-place, 3,150 ft.

To-night and henceforth a sentry was posted
and the camels made to lie down in a half-circle,
while the goumiers slept beside them, so that we
were prepared in the event of robbers stealing
in upon us.

11th June. — Slight rain in early part of
night ; otherwise no disturbance. Woke once
or twice, hearing the sentry moving about in
idle wakefulness, which recalled habits of active
service.

Left our night camping-place about an hour
before dawn and travelled to Igouloulof. To-day
we passed through country more open in expanse,
not in general so mountainous as hitherto, which
contained in the rough lowlands some level
stretches of sand and stone, while Goundai
mountains loomed large and very conspicuous at
a distance to the east.

Igouloulof (altitude, 2,950 ft.), on the north
bank of a sandy river-bed that trends east, proved
14

186 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

to be a small deserted village among rocks com-
posed of remarkably well-built, flat-roofed stone
huts, which are whitish-grey in colour owing to
the use of a natural cement in their construction,
apparently obtained from open pits in the village.
The huts bear a strange aspect against the black
rocks, showing like little square pill-boxes inset
here and there with pleasing irregularity. They
are built without system in laying the stone — ^no
rubble, no regular jointing, just a jumble of stones
that are not very large, set in a liberal bed of
mortar.

Such places, now deserted — ^and there are many
in Air — fill me with sadness ; they are often in
pleasant situations, and picturesque even now,
notwithstanding the strange bleakness and still-
ness of the land, but one cannot refrain from
thinking how much more attractive Air would be
if occupied by happy natives, and a wayfarer
could see, instead of this melancholy desolation,
smoke of wood-fires rising and hear homely
sounds.

It is difficult to ascertain from the natives, with
any certainty of accuracy, the period when Air
first began to decline in population, though, of
course, they all know of the final desertion which
took place, about three years ago, in the forced
evacuations following on the Rebellion of 1916,
when the remnants of the Tuareg inhabitants
were commanded by the French authorities to
settle in the neighbourhood of Agades under
direct protection of the Fort and within reach of
surveillance. But this last was a comparatively
small affair, and does not by any means account

STRICKEN AIR 187

for the loss of the large population, which, if one is
to judge by the numerous ruins of old villages and
graveyards, once occupied the Air mountains.
Apart from the question of the extent of oppres-
sion pursued by stronger tribes from outside
territories, I am prone to wonder if Air has under-
gone any great geological change or climatic
change which has made it less fertile than hither-
to ? For it seems to me that want and hunger
are the most tangible causes that drive people to
forsake dearthful country and seek a better else-
where capable of supporting livelihood ; more
especially if the people happen to be, as in Air,
naturally nomadic. I think it may be accepted
that Air in the present age is a land of dearth not
capable of supporting a great many people. If
it was a rich land, and war was the great scourge
that destroyed the people, would not the victors
seize the country and settle in it ? Such thoughts
naturally occur to me, because I cannot believe
that this dreadfully bare country, as it is to-day,
ever offered any inducement to a large population
to live in it ; while if food for many people was
carried from Damergou, Damagarim, and Kano
in the south, it must have constituted a colossal
and unending task that necessitated the upkeep of
great herds of camels and an abundant growth
of forage : viz. grass, ground plants, acacias,
" Abisgee," and other bushes.

Therefore the solution may lie in geological
change or climatic change, such as may have
altered the whole aspect of the land's fertility.
If sands have swept in from the desert seas that
bound Air, to pile up gradually at the base of the

188 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

range through centuries of time and smother
forests of acacia and other plant life which may
have been there, then the land has suffered a
great loss (I have crossed the edge of the eastern
plain below Baguezan mountains, where there are
still considerable numbers of acacias close in to
the margin where mountain rock terminates) ;
while also the sand that is blown into the moun-
tains from the desert is, during Rains, washed into
the valleys and innumerable river-beds, causing,
perhaps, the valleys to grow in depth of sand and
the rivers, for lack of sufficient gradient, or by
reason of an estuary out on the desert that may
be slowly blocking up, to gradually fill up and
choke, where once, perhaps, there were deep rocky
channels which held pools of water all the year
round.

If, on the other hand, or also, climatic con-
ditions have changed, and much less rain falls
now than in former years — natives declare some
years in the present are practically rainless — ^the
difference in the fertility of the country would be
tremendous, for Air, with its countless river-
courses, under conditions of bountiful lasting
rainfall would be rich and beautiful indeed.

12th June. — ^Bad weather set in last evening,
beginning with rapidly rising gale ; then develop-
ing to thunderstorm and rain. Heavy rain fell
through the night, and we slept in water-soaked
blankets.

We left Igouloulof at daybreak, and continued
northward to Faodet. During the morning we
passed through some broad valley country, where
evergreen "Abisgee" bushes were fairly numerous,

COUNTRY NEAR FAODET 189

in locality the guide called " Tchyerus " ; and
the river of that name, draining westwards
(which appears to be a local name for a section
of the Zilalet river, which is an arm of the great
Agoras), was forded, as it was in flood after the
rain of last night. Thereafter, before coming to
Agarageur, we passed over open country of pale
sand, dotted with small cone-shaped hills, which
opened up in wide expanse westward. Agarageur
mountain was passed close on our right, and the
stone-built village of Afis, which is S.W. of the
range, the tiny dwellings, strikingly diminutive,
tucked in at the great mountain base. Agarageur
mountain (named Tamgak on Courtier's French
map, but called by the natives Agarageur) appears
high and stately, rising in rugged slopes from
massive boulder-strewn base. Altitude at foot of
Agarageur, 2,600 ft.

Approaching Faodet, where we camped, we
travelled among rough foothills, with the large
magnificent range of the same name on the east.
The village of Faodet is in a level sand- basin, which
contains some " Abisgee " and acacia trees and
an old deep well, which is in bad disrepair and long
out of use. The deserted stone dwellings lie back
among the foothills in a pleasant ravine. The
altitude at Faodet is 2,900 ft.

Not long before reaching Faodet, a fierce
thunderstorm burst, and we were suddenly caught
on a bare hill-crest by onslaught of heavy driving
torrential rain, and as camels will not face such
weather, they at once turned their backs to the
biting gale and slashing rain, and huddled to-
gether in little groups to stand motionless with

190 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

their cowering, unprotected riders on their backs,
while the rain beat down on them. It was a
strange sight — groups drawn together for protec-
tion, patiently waiting, the rain, as if incensed,
literally hurling itself angrily down upon us in
torrents, while the ground at our feet grew to a
flowing stream of water, and camels shifted their
feet uneasily as the wet and discomfort and cold
increased. But in the end, as always in this
country, the brief mad storm ceased, and we shook
out our bedraggled feathers, so to speak, and
journeyed on our way.

We had barely restarted when a second unex-
pected incident surprised us this day ; and this
was when breasting a ridge we came right on
top of three men ascending from the other side.
Their appearance was extraordinary : they were
clothed solely in skins of wild sheep and gazelle,
and their whole colour, even to their pale light
yellowish faces, was a remarkable blend with the
sand. Had we not surprised them, it is certain
that we should never have detected them hidden
away among rocks and sand. They were
absolutely wild men of the mountains, roaming
those uninhabited ranges at will, and were amazed
and visibly frightened when finding themselves
completely at our mercy ; which fear was partly
dispelled when they were told I had no wish to
make captives of them or harm them. They all
carried short wooden-shafted spears, and bundles
of skin bags containing their scant belongings,
slung over their shoulders on a short stick ; one
also carried a small child perched on the top
of his shoulder and clinging to the crown of his

APPROACIII-N'-; iri-.l'jjrAX.

190]

WILD MEN 191

head. All were wearing yashmaks, which veiled
their faces in the usual Tuareg fashion. When it
was found that we were friendly, two women were
revealed concealed fearfully among the rocks near
by, and with them were four small naked children
— ^two of them infants in arms. Those strange
people had no goats and no grain, and were living
on wild meat, which they trapped with snares,
green barely ripe dates, and edible roots and leaves
and berries of worth known to themselves. They
had not been out of Tamgak mountains for a year,
they declared, and were on their way to Igouloulof
to gather " Abisgee " berries, now ripening in
that district. I gave them half a gazelle, killed
this day, and sent them gratefully on their way,
letting them go, knowing they might never be
seen again, with the same feelings as I might
liberate snared animals, and watch them bound
away into the wilderness, their dearly loved
freedom regained.

I note to-day that thus far no mosquitoes,
which had appeared further south in the wake
of the first light Rains, have been seen north of
Timia.

Shot three Dorcas Gazelles to-day to augment
our food supplies ; a number of those animals
seen.

Each day I note down the few birds which I see,
and remain watchful for new species which I may
not have already collected in Air ; but up to now
have found nothing of that kind.

13^/i June. —Leaving Faodet, a broad view of
mountain range was sighted soon after daylight
to the north and east, and the slopes and outline

192 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

of the great Tamgak mountains, in the north of
Air, lay before us, not in appearance of aston-
ishing height (map alt. west side of range 5,569
ft.), but very rugged and of massive solidity, for
they are of extensive area. But before the Tamgak
range is reached, a very wide valley or flat sandy
plain is crossed which lies between the Faodet
mountains and Tamgak mountains. At this
time we could see in the north a peculiar blunt-
pointed isolated tower of rock projecting above
the most distant mountains in sight along the
Tamgak range, which the guide at once declared
denoted the position of Iferouan ; and once one
has seen this unique rock spire from the south, or
anywhere, one could never mistake the locality of
Iferouan in the whole of Air. (It transpired
later that this spire is nearer to Zeloufiet than
Iferouan, for we swung out in a north-west direc-
tion from the mountains at Zeloufiet, to find
Iferouan in a wide fertile valley at a considerable
distance from Tamgak.) Thus, in the morning,
we sighted a landmark of our destination, which
we expected to reach about 4 p.m.

Crossing the flat sandy plain, referred to above,
the village of Iberkom was found right in under
mountain slopes of Tamgak, in a valley fertile in
open bush growth, which was already pleasantly
green from the fall of recent rain. There were
some date palms at Iberkom and a few stone huts
among the bare rocks.

Leaving Iberkom, we followed round the
western base of Tamgak range, crossing over one or
two bare rocky ridges, but generally following along
the narrow level bush-grown sandy valley that

COUNTRY NEAR TAMGAK 193

circled round the base of the towering grey rocks.
We next passed a small village named Tanetmolet,
deserted like all others, with a well which con-
tained no water. Altitude, 2,400 ft. Soon after-
wards Tintaghoda was passed : a picturesque
widely laid out village on a gravel ridge, the
stone huts of which were more elaborate than any
seen elsewhere, having roof parapets and craftless
ornament in some cases, while all buildings were
of peculiar colouring, since the stones were laid in
a brick-red mortar. (I did not dismount and walk
about the empty village, which I much regretted
afterwards, when I learned, from the exiled Chief
of Iferouan, that this place contains an important
mosque. On the other hand I had been told that
there was a mosque at Iferouan, and could find
no trace of it there, and now know that the Tinta-
ghoda mosque is the one of the territory.) A
deep well south of the village held water in plenty,
but it was sour and stagnant from lying long
unused.

The bush-grown valley narrowed after we had
breasted the stony rise of Tintaghoda, then opened
out again before Zeloufiet is reached ; another
village that is first viewed on a bare stony ridge,
and of some picturesqueness and variety when
entered, except that it is sadly desolate like all
the others. There is a fine belt of date palms to
the west of the huts, and many old garden-patches
which still bear the marks of irrigation, at one
time laid out with the purpose of nursing cultiva-
tion. At Zeloufiet the great Tamgak mountains
have died down, and the wide flat basin, wherein
is the village, is surrounded by ranges of low black

194 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

hills ; while the strange rock spire, which we had
seen from afar in the morning, lies due east of
the village. Between Zeloufiet and Iferouan the
shallow, bankless river we have been keeping in
touch with in the bush-grown valley along the
mountain base broadens out and becomes the
extremely wide shallow Igheser river-bed, which
on its banks carry some dum palms and date
palms, besides some " Abisgee " and acacia bush ;
while the small villages of Afassat and Tassebet,
which each contain some date palms, are passed
on the east bank of the river before Iferouan
is reached.

Nearing Iferouan, the goumiers were much inter-
ested in the tracks of a single camel in the sand
of the river-bed. Expert in reading the minutest
detail of any individual camel track, they spent
some time following the signs, which led toward
Iferouan, and conjecturing among themselves
over them. They were not very fresh tracks, a
week or ten days old, but the natives decided
that they were certainly the marks of a camel
from the north ; no doubt the mount of a scout
from some Hogar band of robbers sent to spy out
the land : looking at the dates in Iferouan to
judge, perhaps, when they would be ripe, so that
they might, in season, be plundered or descent be
planned upon the people who might be sent from
Timia or Agades to gather them — a disaster which
actually occurred last year. On the other hand,
the outlaw might have gone into Iferouan for
water, and thereafter proceeded south to spy
about the borders of inhabited districts to seek out
the grazing-places of camels, with a view to his

IN IFEROUAN 195

band swooping in on them and bearing them off ;
as so often happens in Air in the present day.

It was a weary band of men, and camels, that
off-loaded and camped in Iferouan, for we had
travelled hard for the last few days over country
that held many drawbacks to comfortable travel.

The dwellings of Iferouan are on the west bank
of the Igheser river, among, and bordering, an
extensive date-palm and dum-palm belt, where
many wells are sunk which once served the wants
of natives and irrigated the garden patches, that
had evidently been cultivated on every available
piece of ground within the palm grove. (Later
the exiled Chief of Iferouan, by name Obidelkilli,
informed me that it was principally wheat which
was grown there in the past, a grain which in all
probability came into the country from northern
Africa.) The huts in the palm grove are of cane
framework and grass thatched, and are chiefly in a
state of ruin, while outside the grove, on the
margin of stony ground to the west, there are both
grass huts and stone huts. Also, on an island,
quite apart from the village, out in the centre
of the wide stream-bed, there is a small house
of European aspect, apparently a small post or
place of accommodation for resident or visiting
French officer at one time.

From Iferouan one views the rugged western
slopes of the great Tamgak range out to the
northern extreme, and low hills beyond that tail
away in the distance — the last of the hills of Air,
broken hills that appear to grow more diminu-
tive and scattered as they recede beyond the care
of the wild mountain ranges of Air. ... I had

196 NORTHERN AIR: PART I

reached my goal, the north of Air, a goal which
from the time I left England to this memorable
day had never been promised with any measure
of certainty ; and perhaps I may be forgiven
if at this hour I was filled with gladness.

CHAPTER XIII

THE NORTHERN REGIONS OF AIR I PART II

I REMAINED the ncxt day in Iferouan collecting
a few specimens of doves, inhabiting the palm
trees, which proved to be Streptopelia turtur
hoggarUy a rare and beautiful soft-coloured richly
mottled dove which I found in no other locality in
Air. This was the first and only good find during
my northern journey, throughout which birds
remained remarkably scarce. I think, after all,
birds like the society of mankind ; at any rate,
desolate, man-forsaken northern Air held very few
birds indeed in comparison with inhabited dis-
tricts in the south. Mankind cultivate seed
crops, keep herds of cattle, throw out debris, live
where water is to be found, and have a score or
more habits, each of which unconsciously, in some
way, is of benefit to one or other of the feathered
tribe.

I did not intend to return to Timia by the route
I had come, but to journey south-west to Aguellal,
the most western mountain range in Air of any
importance, and thence cut back eastward by way
of the ancient town of Assode.

Before setting out, an unexpected difficulty
cropped up in that, wilfully or truthfully, Homa,
the native who had been guide to Iferouan,

197

198 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

declared that he did not know the way to Aguellal.
I had made my plans quite clear before leaving
Timia, and was considerably annoyed to find that
I had been misled as to the ability of the guide.
I called the goumiers, and asked each one if he knew
the country, but received a negative reply from
all, which, so far as I could judge, was true,
although by this time I knew something of Tuareg
shortcomings, and was aware that the whole busi-
ness might be a ruse to put me off returning by a
circuitous and longer route. In any case, I
nipped any indecision, which they may have
wished to encourage, in the bud, by declaring
emphatically that I had a good Takarda (map),
and would lead the way to Aguellal, at the same
time knowing the men would have to accompany
me unless they wished to greatly displease their
officer at Agades.

My map showed a track from Iferouan to
Aguellal, and the evening before starting I sent
the chief goumier and Homa out to search for it
west of the village. They came back at dark with
the encouraging news that they had found a track
out on the stony plain leading westward.

Hence at daybreak on 15th June we set out
from Iferouan in the direction of Aguellal. The
track soon proved to be very vague, so that I had
to refer frequently to map and compass before
Aguellal mountain range loomed in sight, a pro-
cedure which astonished and impressed the
natives, who had for days past been vastly in-
terested in the magic sheet of paper which told me
so much about a land which they were aware I had
never seen before. From time to time we picked

DOUBT OF DIRECTION 199

up the old track, usually on stony ground where
sand had not drifted, and thus reassured we kept
on a true course.

The country between Iferouan and Aguellal is
in general aspect plain-like and expansive and
very barren. Low rugged hills lie west and south
of Iferouan, in country of alternating stretches of
light gravel and sand in slight hollows and valleys,
and darker gravel and rock on the rounded ridges
and higher lands. When more than midway on
our journey, we crossed an extensive sandy plain
on its western margin, and there the old track was
completely obliterated by weather and drifting
sand, and I noticed the leading camel-man was
following, at times, the small particles of bleached
camel-litter of animals that had long ago passed
this way — in the end, even those slight signs, that
would escape unpractised eyes, were lost.

No trees were seen to-day, except an occasional
low weed-like, ill-nourished bush and a few scat-
tered acacais at our night camp, which was chosen
in the Aniogaran valley bed (altitude, 2,200 ft.),
at which time we were in full view of the northern
slopes of rugged Aguellal.

Dr. Barth, on entering the Air mountains from
the north in 1850, described the approach to
Aguellal as " a picturesque wilderness," where
" majestic mountains and detached peaks towered
over the landscape."

Unlike other localities throughout to-day's
journey, there was no sign of recent rainfall, and
the land lay terribly parched, and altogether the
most drear and barren area we had entered since
leaving Timia.

200 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

The undulating fairly level type of country was
of the type favoured by Dorcas Gazelles, and a
number of them were seen to-day, and an animal
shot for food.

I am now living principally on buck-meat and
dried dates bought in Timia, for my European
stores, which I have had to draw on heavily ever
since leaving the inhabited regions of Damergou,
are almost finished. The articles I miss most of
all, and which ran out about a month ago, are
sugar and tobacco ; especially the latter, which
can be a wonderful solace when the palate
grows listless on a constant diet of freshly killed
meat.

Resuming the journey on the following day, we
changed our course westward and then southward,
to swing round the north-west spur of the Aguellal
range, over very rough foot-hills, through which an
old mountain track led us in toward Aguellal
village, which lay hidden round the corner of the
spur, until we came suddenly in sight of it at close
range.

We camped in Aguellal two hours after setting
out. Aguellal village (altitude, 2,100 ft.) is be-
neath the western slope of the strange dark moun-
tains of the same name — magnificent ranges in
rugged contour, and of considerable height—
while westward from the deserted village, or
rather, villages, for there are four separate groups
of dwellings in different localities, stretches a
wide sandy valley, with green banks of low bush
comprised chiefly of " Abisgee " and acacia.
There are no date palms at Aguellal and no old
signs of grain cultivation ; indeed, I doubt if the

AGUELLAL 201

barren stony ground would permit of cultivation.
So that natives in the past apparently gave their
attention entirely to maintaining herds of goats and
camels, though, in general, Aguellal mountain has
little attractive fertility round its base, and is sur-
rounded by country of more barren appearance
than the more central ranges,^ which have a
certain fertility in some of the valleys in their
immediate surroundings.

The deserted huts in the villages are stone-built
and of reddish colour, and many contained relics
of native furniture and utensils, such as wooden
stools, mortar bowls, grass mats, grass-made
baskets and dishes, and earthenware water -jars.
In a number of dwellings jars were found built into
the inside walls, and the goumiers informed me
that those were customarily used by natives as
hiding-places for money.

There is a deep well at Aguellal in the centre of
the principal village.

Accompanied by Atagoom and Saidi, I left
camp not long after midday, and proceeded to
climb into Aguellal mountains, an undertaking
which proved to be a strenuous one, and we did
not get back to camp until after dark. Mountain
climbing in intense heat is not mountain climbing
under ideal conditions, and we put in an afternoon
of extreme exertion, for Aguellal slopes are very
steep, almost cliff -like in their upper reaches, and
of a rugged composition which rendered them
quite impassable in places. We succeeded, before

^ The mountains of Baguezan, Timia, Agalak, Goundai, Agara-
geur, Faodet, and Tamgak may be said to form almost one continu-
ous range, whereas Aguellal is a detached moimtain range.
15

^2 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

receding daylight warned us to begin descent, in
climbing to a summit which registered 3,100 ft.,
1,000 ft. above Aguellal village, which is a very
considerable distance away from the actual
mountain base. Other peaks were, at that
altitude, above us north and south-west, which
appeared almost inaccessible without the aid of
ropes, and I judged they might have additional
height of 600 to 800 ft. (On one map which I
possess there is an altitude reading on the east side
of the range of 3,609 ft.)

Fresh tracks of wild sheep were numerous in the
mountain.

17th June, — ^Left Aguellal at daybreak, travel-
ling first south-west to avoid the southern spur of
Aguellal, and thereafter swinging round into the
south-east with the intention of cutting in to the
broad Agoras valley, and thence continuing up the
river course to Assode. The journey to-day was
the hardest performed since leaving Timia, being
throughout over rocky, irregular lowland, which
offered bad foothold for the camels and entailed
much variance of direction to avoid impassable
rocks and gully channels. Throughout the day
there were many individual hills in the landscape.
About mid- journey a long time was spent in
making our way through the strange pass that
is between the large detached hills of Matalgha
and Marasset — a much greater time and distance
than the map would lead one to expect.

Marasset is prominent, and can be identified a
long way off. It has one peak in particular,
which rises high above all else and terminates in
twin cone-shaped towers.

IN AQUKLLAL MOUNTAIN;} AT 3,100 FEET.

^»^M*£

Ir-

W t. ilSU A 1'UiaiUl.r- I'UUL Ul- WATEK S.K. Vl AG L LLl^iL, AiH.

202]

SOUTH OF AGUELLAL 203

Beyond Marasset we found a pool of fresh rain-
water, which brought forth a general exclamation
of pleasure, while halt was made to slack our imme-
diate thirst and fill all our water-skins. Through-
out this journey in northern Air it has been,
excepting on one other occasion, our lot to subsist
on the stagnant, foul-tasted waters obtained from
old decayed village wells which have not been in
use for some years.

We camped about 4 p.m. at a small village
named Ebazouera, near to the edge of the ex-
pansive Agoras valley ; a tiny village containing
a few ruins and three standing stone huts. There
was no well. Altitude, 2,300 ft.

ISth June. — About two hours after setting out
in the early morning we passed out of rocky land
and intersected the Agoras river, which was then
followed upstream until Assode was reached
about 2 p.m. The river-bed of sand is very wide,
with shallow banks almost barren of trees. It was
necessary for me to act as guide, as on the previous
days ; moreover, the natives now had implicit
faith in my magic Takarda (map). One might
think that doubt should not arise travelling in a
wide river-bed, nevertheless it does ; broad chan-
nels open up in the shores, outlets of other streams
join into the Agoras, and more than once the ques-
tion arises : which shall be followed of two broad
ways ? — which seem, at their junction, to both
lead much in the same direction. However,
when nearing Assode, one or two of the goumiers,
and the guide Homa, began to find landmarks
with which they were familiar, and I soon learned
that I need have no further concern as to our

204 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

whereabouts, as the way back to Timia was hence-
forth known to the natives.

I may say that the French map of Air, resultant
from the Cortier Geographical Mission, which had
been kindly given to me at Agades, proved of the
utmost service to me throughout my travels in
Air, and is an excellent and accurate map if one
follows it on broadly conceived lines. But one
must form conception of proportion very ex-
pansively, for the scale (and, perhaps, the extent
of geographical data) does not permit the inclusion
of the abundant detail which this rugged moun-
tain-land possesses. For instance, the chief
mountain ranges and a great many hills and
rivers are indicated, but there are hundreds, yea,
perhaps, thousands, of individual hills and many
streams which are not included on the map.

The village or town of Assode (altitude, 2,475
ft.) is the largest I came across in Air north of
Agades. It is strangely situated in a small stony
plateau-basin, behind high rocky banks on the
north side of the Agoras river, in country more
hilly than that which borders the river further
west. The basin, wherein lies the village, is com-
pletely surrounded with natural ramparts of small
hills, and therefore presents the appearance of a
place capable of strong defence in time of
war. The space within the hills is in places
crowded with stone huts, while, where huts do not
now stand, the area is a rubbish heap of ruins
where dwellings have fallen, and undoubtedly
Assode at one time was a place of considerable
importance.

Among the ruins I found the ancient mosque

ANCIENT ASSODE 205

of Assode, the existence of which is known to every
Tuareg in Air, and no doubt it holds a prominent
place in Mohammedan religious history. The
mosque stands, without any notable prominence,
except in ground area, on the crown of a rising knoll
in the eastern quarter of the village, with the front
and tower ruins facing the north-west ; possibly
so that the main body of the prayer court and
devotion cells face eastward toward the rising
sun. The mosque is altogether in a sad state of
ruin : roofs in places collapsed, lintels and door
jambs fallen, and the tower (apparently never
built to any great height) but a pile of fallen
stones. Roughly, the mosque has a ground area
of 135 ft. length and 55 ft. breadth, which longi-
tudinally is divided into two equal sections : an
indoor place of prayer and an outdoor place of
prayer. The indoor section, which is the eastern
half, is made up of five long dark passage-like
aisles, varying from 5 ft. to 6 ft. wide, with stone
walls, about 2 ft. thick, which are honeycombed
with low door openings 4 ft. high, while the ceilings
are only 7 ft. to 8 ft. high, constructed with
timbers carrying an earth and gravel roof. The
outdoor section is simply an open courtyard,
surrounded by a stone wall and levelled off a few
steps above the ground level outside. On the
west of this there is a wing, 21 ft. by 78 ft., on a
lower level containing a double row of aisles :
possibly a special department for the devotions
of priests. I found in the aisles great piles of
Mohammedan literature, most beautifully penned,
and regretted I could not bear it away with me so
that it might be searched for ancient records

206 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

relating to the history of the land. (Later I
informed the French authorities of this litera-
ture, and it is possible that an effort will be
made to have it brought back and preserved and
thoroughly examined.)

There are monastic quarters well apart from the
mosque and farther east, and they still have out-
line which shows that they were more extensive
than any of the hut dwellings at present standing,
which are small, square, single-room affairs.

All the ancient huts of the age of the mosque
are completely in ruins and but piles of building
stones, so that one cannot judge the shape which
they possessed, but it is highly probable that
they were of the same style as those at present
standing.

There are no date palms at Assode, but
numerous signs that the inhabitants kept goats
and camels.

19th June. — We left Assode an hour and a half
before daylight, and, on account of the chapter
of incidents about to be related, travelled without
halt till 5 p.m.

Leaving Assode, we headed south-east up the
Agoras river, until we intersected our outward
route to Iferouan at the point where we had
camped ten days before at the junction of the
Teguednu and Asselar rivers, at which time the
large conspicuous mountain named Goundai,
which I remarked on when outward bound, was
again in view.

It was at this point that tremendous excite-
ment was suddenly aroused among the goumiers in
finding fresh tracks of camels in the sand of the

ROBBERS 207

river-bed of robbers, who, coming from the north-
east, had cut into our outward tracks and had
gone southward following them.

High exclamations and intense excitement was
rife among the goumiers for some minutes, while
rifles were unslung and locks looked to and
magazines fully charged, the while the tracks in
the sand were being examined and read. There
were, the goumiers decided, twelve camels, and
their riders were undoubtedly robbers, but they
were in considerable doubt as to whether they had
come from Tibesti or the Ahaggar mountains, and
such signs as they picked up — ^an end of cord, a
small piece of cotton garb, and a few dried dates ;
articles all eagerly examined — ^failed to prove
conclusively whether the band were Tebu or
Hogar natives.

I had intended to camp at Tiggeur for the day,
but now decided to rapidly follow the tracks of
the robbers in the hope of arriving in time to aid
the natives of Timia, if aid were needed. So we
hurried on, following the course of a deep ravine ;
and all the time the tracks in the sand were being
keenly read by the excited goumiers. In time,
some miles from Timia, we came to where the
robbers had happened on a herd of goats tended
by a woman. Here it was noted in the sand that
they had spurred their camels to rush forward so
that they might catch and seize the woman, and
signs of struggle were found below an acacia tree,
where they had effected her capture. Thereafter
they had driven the goats before them along the
ravine until a side-branch was reached, and we
traced where one man had turned up this on foot

208 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

and gone off eastward with the captured herd,
while the main band had continued in towards
Timia, led by the woman they had taken prisoner,
and whose sandal-prints could be traced in the
sand. (It was presumed that the goats would be
driven to some rendezvous where the band would
meet later ; but this proved wrong conjecture, for
it was afterwards found that they had abandoned
the goats.) Again, farther on, we traced in the
sand where all the robbers had dismounted and
advanced stealthily to where some donkeys were
grazing ; no doubt with the purpose of catching
anyone who might be in attendance so that he or
she would not escape to give the alarm in Timia.
But there was no sign of an additional prisoner
having been taken, and the robbers had continued
onward, taking the donkeys with them for a short
distance, and then had turned them aside up a
quiet guUey and left them there.

At last, having left the ravine to ascend over a
stony stretch of land and then descend into Timia
valley, we came upon the place — ^just before the
river bends toward the village, and in shelter of a
jutting hill-spur — ^where, in the dusk, the robbers
had made camp. They had lain beside their
camels and reposed, and had apparently partaken
of little food beyond dried dates, as they had not
dared to light fires. From this camping-place,
where they waited the advent of dawn, we traced
the naked footprints of two of the robbers who,
in the dark, had crept stealthily in to Timia to
reconnoitre.

In a few minutes more we were on the out-
skirts of Timia, which seemed strangely deserted

TIMIA ATTACKED 209

and silent. However, we soon espied a single
armed man dodging about in a date grove, and
hailed him that we were friends, whereupon he
and two others came out to join us, and soon the
hurried tale of the adventures of the day was
being poured into the ears of my excited goumiers.
To begin with : we were too late ! Timia had
been attacked and entered, and the robbers had
left, heading south, about four hours ago. The
disjointed story of the natives pieced together
something in this form : The robbers had at-
tacked Timia at dawn to-day, trying to terrorise
the place. But the inhabitants had had warning
the evening before, brought in by a woman, who
had been with the donkeys, which the robbers had
come across, and who had fled undetected some
little time before the bandits had reached the
animals. So that the Timia natives (who were
unfortunately without the leadership of their
chief Fougda : reputed to be an able man in
circumstances of danger) were already secreted
among the rocks in the gorge at dawn awaiting
the robbers. Also they had wisely sent a man to
where their camels were grazing south-west of
Timia, with instructions that they were to be
driven with all haste on to the Baguezan plateau
(an order which events proved was not explicitly
obeyed). Therefore, when the robbers advanced,
they found the natives waiting for them, and,
apparently, regular guerilla warfare ensued which
lasted for some hours. It would appear that the
Timia natives were foolish, and blazed off their
ammunition at ineffective range ; for, apparently,
they did not hit a single robber, while they com-

210 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

pletely exhausted their scant supplies of ammu-
nition. On the other hand the robbers were very
daring and wily in attack and better marksmen,
also they had modern rifles and plenty of ammu-
nition (later I picked up a full clasp — 6 rounds —
of '303 Italian ammunition and some empty cases
of Turkish ammunition of about '44 calibre).

About noon the village was completely at the
mercy of the robbers, and they entered where they
willed. But, be it said to their credit, they made
no attempt to wreak vengeance on the people or
their dwellings, and they carried off neither quan-
tities of food nor goats nor women. Their sole
purpose was to steal camels, and as none were in
the village or near by, they forthwith forced the
old headman, whom they had captured, to guide
them out of the village and take them to where
the camels were to be found.

This was as far as their story went. At the
time we arrived in Timia the robbers were some-
where to the south, searching for the camels
belonging to the natives.

I was in a quandary, for I felt sure the robbers
could yet be caught, yet if I led the goumiers
against the robbers without real personal cause
and failed to rout them, or suffered heavy
casualties, I might be asked awkward questions
by the French authorities and be asked to leave
the country ; which would be disastrous to the
interests of the expedition. Therefore, after due
consideration of my position as a civilian in a
foreign land, which barred me from pursuing the
enemy with no other purpose than to force a
fight, I called the chief goumier and Atagoom,

ESCORT FOLLOW ROBBERS 211

and told them that I was certain that if their
captain at Agades knew they were close to robbers,
he would expect them to follow them up, while,
if they did not, he would be sure to be vastly dis-
pleased —this was, I felt, as far as I could go in
the matter. And my reasoning bore fruit, for the
goumiers agreed to follow the robbers, reinforced
by five armed natives of Timia, and though both
men and beasts were terribly tired, having
travelled since 4.30 in the morning, they set
out to follow the tracks of the robbers just as
it was growing dusk.

As soon as I had got them away, I sent the half-
dozen unarmed men remaining in Timia to look
for wounded, and before retiring to rest dressed,
as best I could, with warm water and bandages,
three bad cases which they brought in : one of
whom I did not expect to live.

The old headman wearily returned to Timia at
night, leaning heavily on his staff and barely
able to walk, for, besides his trying experiences in
the hands of the robbers, he was slightly wounded
in the chin and right knee. The robbers had
released him when they had sighted the camels
they sought. He said the robbers were Hogar, and
the band comprised twelve camels (as the goumiers
had accurately read from the mingled tracks in
the sand), fourteen men, and thirteen rifles.
(Those robbers sometimes mount two men on
one camel.)

Timia, 20th June. — Spent an uneventful night
alone : no further disturbance.

This morning a few natives begin to appear
out of hiding and come to my camping-place to

212 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

express their gladness that I have returned to
protect them. (For they have great faith in the
powers of any white man.) They are still in a
state of panic, and most of the women and children
remain hidden among the rocks in the mountain
sides afraid to come in, especially as they fear a
second band which the robbers declared would
follow them in a day or two ; a declaration which
proved without truth, and circulated by the
robbers solely to intimidate the populace and
prevent the men of Timia from leaving the
neighbourhood to follow them. For my own
part I remain camped in the open by the edge
of the dry river-bed, in spite of remonstrance
from the old headman, who wanted me also to
hide in the hills ; and before the end of the day
my apparent indifference had helped to restore
native confidence.

During the day five more wounded were brought
in to be attended to, in addition to the three placed
in my charge last evening : one of whom had died
during the night.

The goumiers returned late to-night, reporting
they had not caught up the robbers, who had
succeeded in capturing (about midway between
Timia and Baguezan plateau) and driving off
thirty- two camels. The native guarding the
camels, who had unfortunately dallied in executing
the order to drive the camels rapidly away into
Baguezan, had been caught by the robbers and
disrobed of everything he possessed except a
leather loincloth.

21st June. — I now proposed to remain and
collect at Timia for some time ; therefore, as

ROBBERS CAPTURE CAMELS 213

arranged, I sent off news to Agades of my safe
return from northern Air, at the same time return-
ing all the goumiers, excepting the two worthies
Atagoom and Saidi.

Two of my patients passed away overnight,
both with very bad internal wounds. Three
have now succumbed to wounds out of the eight
brought in. The remainder are all likely to
recover.

22nd June. — Quiet day skinning, and Timia
now rapidly returning to a normal state. This
morning witnessed the arrival of many of the
fugitive population from hiding in the moun-
tains. They came in twos or threes and small
parties : some men, with staves and bundles on
their shoulders ; but mostly women, liberally clad,
for warmth at night, in cotton clothing, and
carrying roUed-up grass mats upon which they had
slept among the rocks. Some of the women also
drove in goats before them.

Further information with regard to the robbers
was revealed to me to-day by the old headman,
who is now recovering from his wounds. It
appears that on the way to Timia the robbers
came upon and caught one of the " wild "
women from Tamgak mountain which we had
run across north of Egouloulof, and had ques-
tioned her closely as to whom it was who had
passed northward and left behind the many camel
tracks. She informed them there was a white
man and many armed natives, who had gone to
Iferouan ; whereupon they showed signs of
uneasiness, and threw the woman aside, while
exclaiming denunciations on our heads, and,

214 NORTHERN AIR: PART II

among themselves, saying that they must now
hasten on their way to Timia, lest we return on
their heels or intercept them on their way north.

It is also now known definitely that the robber
band were Hogar natives, and came from Janet,
a short distance south-west of Ghat, in the terri-
tory of the Asger (Asdjer, Azkar), approximately
some 500 miles north of Timia, and were led by a
famous and much-feared robber chief named
Chebickee. The old headman, who, of course,
had ample opportunity to see everything while
captive, says the band were mounted on exception-
ally fine camels, as I and the goumiers had already
surmised from the large footprints in the sand.

I remained on in Timia while the wounded
recovered and the little village among the moun-
tains gradually settled down to wonted peaceful-
ness.

CHAPTER XIV

EAST OF BAGUEZAN, AOUDERAS, AND TARROUAJI

After collecting specimens for some little time
in the pleasant neighbourhood of Timia, I set out
to return to my base camp on Baguezan, not by
the route I had come, but round by the east side
of the mountain, via Tebernit valley, and there-
after along the southern base until we should
come to the pass above Tokede which I had
originally climbed. There is no pass in the north-
em or eastern mountain-sides of Baguezan.

The journey by this route occupied four days,
as against two and a half days by the more direct
route on the western side by which I had travelled
outward to Timia. But, in general, the east side
of Baguezan is easier to travel along with camels
than the rugged western side, for there it is
possible to skirt the margin of the stony foothills
that lie out from the base and travel along the
edge of the sand or over fairly level gravel-
covered ground.

The eastern aspect of Baguezan Mountains
differs from that of the west in that it presents a
more abrupt mountain face and has less bulwark
of rugged foothills than in the west, where the
whole country below the plateau is broken and
mountainous ; while out beyond the foothill

215

216 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

margin on the east side, east of the shallow
Tebernit valley, the land stretches away in a flat-
looking plain, which contains very few detached
hills, and, in places, bears a fair growth of open
acacia bush.

Leaving Tebernit valley and advancing round
the south-east corner of Baguezan the Ouna and
Nabaro rivers are crossed : wide dry stream-beds
rising from deep crevices in the mountain- side.
There are some particularly large acacais growing
on the banks of the Ouna river, while there is a
deserted village on the south bank of the stream.
Altitude, a short distance north of Ouna river,
3,300 ft.

So completely deserted is Ouna village and the
whole territory, that I see, as I have seen elsewhere,
confident gazelles resting in the street spaces,
while their footprints mark the sand even to the
very doors of the dwellings.

Dorcas Gazelles are fairly plentiful in the
country east of Baguezan, and there are also a
few Dama Gazelles, while there are Wild' Sheep
on the mountain faces ; but, so far as the latter
are concerned, the rugged western side of the
mountain is much the better hunting-ground.

The flatness of the country east of Baguezan
continues round into the south-east for a long way,
and it is not until Adekakit river is reached that
the aspect changes and one begins to enter rugged
foothills.

Adekakit river, which rises in a remarkably
deep ravine on the mountain face, is a broad river-
bed, with fairly fertile banks, which support some
dum palms, and the south side of the mountain

BEAUTIFUL FOOTHILLS 217

appears to be the only locality around Baguezan
base where those trees grow.

By the time Teouar is reached, one has entered
a land of mountain foothill environment and en-
counters many scenes of rugged beauty. Par-
ticularly fine in that respect is the journey up the
Tessouma river-bed from Teouar to Tokede. The
stream-bed is here very broad, and well garbed with
trees on either bank, dum palm, a few date palms,
acacia and "Abisgee" bush, while its course is
channelled, latterly in a deep twisting rock-
banked gorge, through a land of mountains, some
of which have such grotesque shapes and towering
heights that they command acute admiration and
attention.

Teouar village (altitude, 3,050 ft.) stands on
high stony ground on the east bank of the river.
It is a deserted village of stone huts. Across the
river there are some date palms, and here we
found two natives cultivating the ground beneath
the palms in spite of their constant fear of robbers.
So great is their dread, that at our approach to
Teouar we descried two figures fleeing into the
hills until I sent the goumiers in chase of them,
and to hail them that we were friends. One was
armed with a huge heavy long-barrelled rifle, long
out of date, while the other had only a hand-spear.

I have already described the ascent from Tokede
to Baguezan plateau, so that the final stage of my
journey back into Baguezan need not here be
dwelt on.

It was early in July when I re-entered Baguezan,
and I was astonished and delighted at the change
which, owing to considerable rain showers in June,
16

218 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

had taken place during my absence. Where
all had been bleak and overshadowed with the
melancholy grey of bare rocky hills, there are now
valleys bearing green-leafed trees and green grass,
while even among the rocks there is a faint tint of
greenness where thin grass or small plant or tiny
bush has precarious lodgment. But I note no
bright display of flowers, which is because the
few flowering bushes and plants have blooms that
are small and modest, and are hidden at any
distance by the fullness of growth of green leaf
and grass blade. Butterflies, hitherto remarkably
scarce, are now numerous on Baguezan on account
of the prevailing spring-like conditions, but they
are not of great variety of kind, nor brilliantly
coloured, nor large of size, being chiefly of desert
forms.

The few days I remained on Baguezan were
occupied, when not collecting, in packing away
boxes of specimens in readiness to travel, and in
mending my bush-clothes which were now in a
sad state of raggedness.

On 4th July I left Baguezan mountains and set
out to Agades, having, by camel courier, received
a request to come in to meet the commandant
of the Territoire Militaire du Niger, who was to
arrive at Agades from Zinder in a few days in the
course of a round of inspection of outlying posts.

I journeyed back to Agades by the way I had
come, and spent three very enjoyable days at the
Fort in the society of fellow Europeans — a great
treat when one has been long alone except for
native following.

In connection with the last remark, being

ml' ' ''w

BLESSED RAIN 219

alone on work of this kind has, I have concluded,
one advantage, which may be set against its
harshness in denying companionship ; and that
is the rare opportunity which it gives to undis-
tracted study. When a man in ordinary business
life wishes to pursue deep study, it is common habit
to select a quiet room where he may sit alone in
undisturbed contemplation of his subject. And
a similar privacy has, I believe, its advantages to
the man out on the trail : alone, he is better
equipped to give undivided attention to study, so
long as the period of research is not too protracted
and the strain of loneliness not unbearable to the
point of depression. But besides this advantage
to study, besides the fate which circumstances may
impose, I would be one of the first to say to any-
one contemplating a journey beyond civilised
frontiers : " Never go without a well-tried comrade
— if you can help it."

But to return to my narrative. On the way
in to Agades I experienced a rain-storm, which
illustrates how local such occurrences often are.
My caravan was five miles north-east of Agades
on the evening of 7th July, when we saw black
threatening clouds rolling in the distance appar-
ently over Agades, and, judging it prudent not to
run into the storm, we camped at Azzal for the
night. At Azzal we experienced strong wind
and a very light shower, but on entering Agades
next morning we learned that on the previous
evening a regular tornado had descended upon the
place (which wrecked the wireless plant) and
torrential rains had fallen. The after result will
be that at Agades (without rain until this storm)

220 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

the vegetation will now rapidly grow fresh and
green, while Azzal and the other places unwatered
will remain dormant. Hence at this season parts
of Air may be green, like Baguezan and localities
further north, and others parched and leafless.

It was during this journey to Agades that some
particularly fine deceptive mirages were seen.
At times lakes of blue water bordered with marsh
would be apparent away in the distance, always,
of course, to fade out long before the traveller
could draw near to the alluring picture. The
whole illusion is perfectly clear to the healthy
traveller, but what a thing of torture such picture
could be to any unfortunate man in search of
water in the barren land — ^lakes lying before our
eyes, but for ever receding out of agonised reach.

After my brief visit to Agades, which had inter-
rupted previous plans, I turned again northward,
with the purpose of travelling to Aouderas, where
I had originally intended to go direct from
Baguezan.

On the way north I camped at Azzal (altitude,
1,825 ft.) for a week to make some collections, and,
in particular, to capture some specimens of the
beautiful Bee-eater, Merops albicollis albicollis,
which up to that time I had not seen elsewhere.

It was here, at the settlement on the banks of
the Azzal river, which contains many of the natives
evacuated from northern Air, that I found the
Chief of Iferouan with a number of his tribe about
him. His people had been accustomed to grow
wheat at Iferouan, and it was interesting to note
that they had commenced, with considerable
success, to establish the same crop cultivation at

AN OLD PILGRIM ROUTE 221

Azzal, with the aid of deep wells and primitive
irrigation. But the Chief declared that he and
his people longed to be free to return to Iferouan —
" Our hearts are there, not in Azzal." A senti-
ment which recalled the words of the Chief of
Baguezan in decrying the Sahara south of Air as
of no attraction to his people : " There are no
mountains there, and how could we live without
them ! "

The Chief of Iferouan had been across Africa
on the old pilgrim route, which he described to me
as follows : From the country of the Tuaregs in
the neighbourhood of Timbuktu the route crosses
Upper Senegal to Zinder on the Niger river, thence
it skirts the northern borders of Sokoto (Nigeria),
and then strikes north-east to Agades, and con-
tinues through Air via Aouderas, Aguellal, and
Iferouan (or alternatively via Assode), there-
after continuing away northward to Tripoli on the
seaboard of the Mediterranean, touching on the
way the important points of Ghat, Rhadames, and
Djebel. So far as this ancient pilgrim route
concerns Air, the old caravan roads are still to be
seen with undiminished clearness when they pass
over stony ground where no sand accumulates
and not a blade of vegetation has root. At such
places one may see ten to fifteen single foot-wide
paths running parallel to each other camel-width
apart, light-coloured clearly defined lines where
the dark gravel surface of the natural ground has
been brushed aside or powdered down by passage
of countless feet. When those old roads lead off
such stony ground through rocks between hills
or over ridges, where the way is barred with rocks

222 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

and boulders, the road changes always to a narrow
much-worn single defile, which turns and twists
where passage for camels has been found possible,
or, by labour of hands, made possible. Again,
when those old roads enter and continue along the
loose sandy bed of a dry river, there remains no
sign of track whatever, as all marks have been
long washed away by wind and flood.

Accompanied by ten goumiers, I left Azzal on
the 19th July en route to Aouderas, three days'
journey north. At Dabaga, on the Azzal river,
we branched off the route to Baguezan, and
headed due north until we cut into the Tilisdak
river, when we turned eastward until Aouderas
was reached. I will not enter upon detailed de-
scription of the journey to Aouderas, for the barren
country was of the same rugged, stony, hill-dotted
nature as that described south of Baguezan.
The altitude at Dabaga registered 2,100 ft., at
Germat, on the Tilisdak river, 2,350 ft., and at
Aouderas, 2,700 ft., so that (as experienced on
the journey to Baguezan) a decided ascent takes
place between Agades (1,710 ft.) and the base of
the most southern mountain ranges, once the sand
plains are left behind and the true rock region of
Air entered.

Fortunately it was not a very long journey to
Aouderas, for the climate at this time was particu-
larly trying, as it was the season preceding the
Rains, which period, and the period just after the
Rains, are the most unhealthy for European or
native, and much sickness (principally malaria)
then prevails. At these times many of the days
are unpleasantly hot and enervating — days that

AOUDERAS 223

from sunrise to sunset are breathless and sultry
and heavily oppressive. While, as to the in-
tensity of the heat, an afternoon temperature on
20th July registered 102° Fahr. in the shade.

The little village of Aouderas is tucked away
in an open glen in the foothills of Aouderas
mountains, and is surrounded on all sides by
rugged hills and mountainous landscape. The
Aouderas river runs through the glen, and the
village is built upon its banks. In places where
there are small pockets of level ground between
the river-bank and the rising hill-side, there are
a goodly number of date palms growing in the
gardens of grain cultivated beneath their shade,
which makes very attractive scenes after the
barren greyness of the land to the south.

I was warmly received by the Chief of Aouderas
and his tribe, who had news that I was coming,
and, to my surprise, I found, as on no other like
occasion, that a hut had already been built for me
on a nicely cleared space of ground. I find that
all Air natives know of " the Hunting White Man "
now, and each new place that I visit, where there
are natives, my welcome increases in cordiality
and there is less suspicion of the stranger.

On the day I entered Aouderas there was a
caravan of natives, with camels and donkeys,
camped there, who, with a posse of goumiers, were,
in obedience to orders from Agades, on their
way north to Iferouan to gather dates, which are
now ripening. Some of those natives openly
declared that they were afraid of the journey, and
related to me the following story : " Last year, at
this season, a party went north on the same errand,

224 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

and, in the night, when camped at Iberkom, they
were surprised by Tebu robbers, and three of
them were killed and two captured and bound
and carried off, as were also all the donkeys
which were to have transported the dates to
Agades."

During the time I camped at Aouderas I spent
much time in the mountains and witnessed many
of the wild magnificent scenes which are to be
found on the tops and in rock-girt valleys, whether
one travels eastward or westward or northward
among the many ranges. In the detached Amat-
tasa mountains, west of Aouderas, I hunted to an
altitude of 4,000 ft., which is near to but not the
highest summit ; and in the Aouderas mountains,
north of the village, I reached an altitude over 3,000
ft., which, however, is a long way from the summit
of this massive rugged range. There is some very
fine scenery in the Amattasa range, while on the
east side of it there is a rocky river-bed which has
a course in a cliff-banked gully that cuts deeply
below the level of the surrounding land. The
natives call this river the Tarare. Immediately
below a ruined village of the same name there is,
in this stream, a remarkable dry waterfall of great
height, while in deep cavities in the rock at the
bottom there are pools of open water and some
green vegetation ; the only place in Air where
I have found a river containing open water in the
dry season which was long-lying and not the out-
come of recent rains. The cliffs of the fall and
the sheer banks on either side were the haunts
of numerous dark-coloured apes, which stared
curiously upon the strange intruders and barked

COUNTRY NEAR AOUDERAS 225

repeatedly. There is, also, a cave at the foot of
the east bank which the Chief of Aouderas
declares used to be the home of lions.

Passing north of Amattasa mountains, the river
Tarare runs out into a very wide valley of dark
gravel ground, with hills and mountains on all
sides ; and this is the way through from Aouderas
Glen to the Assada valley, which lies between
Baguezan and Bela mountains, and which I had
viewed, further north, from the head of the
north-west pass out of Baguezan.

The Chief of Aouderas, whose name is Ochullu,
proved to be a fine hunter, and thoroughly
friendly, and together we hunted in all directions,
sleeping among the mountains at night on occa-
sions, so that we might travel farther and be high
in the hills at break of day.

Besides collecting birds, and small mammals,
and butterflies in the Aouderas neighbourhood, I
had the good fortune to kill three wild sheep
(wily difficult animals to approach), one of them a
nice museum specimen, which was skinned com-
plete, while another proved to be the largest of the
kind which I shot in Air, weighing 164 lbs., but
was, unfortunately, no use as a specimen, as it had
one massive horn diseased at the base.

Ochullu was not nearly so active among the
rocks as Minerou (the Chief of Baguezan), and
whereas Minerou had led me many a pretty dance
among wild mountain-tops, I found it was now
my turn to reverse the position and give Ochullu
some gruelling experiences.

With reference to this subject I received about
this time a letter from the Commanding Officer at

226 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

Agades, which contained the following paragraph :
" Minerou has come to Agades ; he told me you
are not fat, you climb the rocks like the Ragin-
douchi (wild sheep), and you are very fond of rats ;
so everything is right." Let me hasten to add
that even although I may be lean, / do not eat rats.
(The amusing remark of Minerou is intended to
refer to my efforts to collect small rodents of all
kinds.)

But, to return to the subject of the preceding
paragraph, if not a hard hunter, Ochullu was a
wise one, who knew every crevice in the mountains
and the habits of our quarry, so that it was a
pleasure to set out with him.

Ochullu has a memorable mark upon his person,
which I shall always associate with this " Child
of the mountains " — a deep sword wound slashed
across his left side, which was often exposed when
he lifted his arm and the loose mantle drapings of
his sleeve uncovered his swarthy side, which,
below the armpit, was bare to the waist.

Ochullu, like all Tuaregs, is familiar with
robbers and with fighting. In fact I believe he
is inclined to be a bit of an independent outlaw
himself, for he showed me a hiding-place, high in
the Aouderas range, where he and his tribe had
fled from the French soldiers during the 1916
rising, and where they had hidden till a peace-
able truce was arranged. While now, at the time
of my visit, he does not appear altogether content
to acknowledge the authority of the newly
appointed Sultan of Agades.

Among other interesting things, Ochullu
showed me where last year, one afternoon, twelve

THE PROXIMITY OF ROBBERS 227

robbers had come in close to Aouderas and lain
in hiding in a ravine while two of their band went
right in to the village outskirts and spoke as
friends to a native woman, gathering wood, whom
they craftily questioned as to the inmates of the
village. They sought to obtain news of the move-
ments of the white men in Agades ; whether there
were any soldiers in the neighbourhood, whether
or not the Chief of Aouderas was at home in the
village, and how many rifles the natives possessed.
However, Ochullu and some armed men chanced
to be at home at the time, which circumstance
was apparently disquieting to the robbers, for
they thereafter prudently withdrew, taking with
them two camels which they had found grazing
near where they lay in hiding. But that same
band proceeded to Baguezan, and it was they
who a few days later raided camels of Baguezan
and killed the late Chief Yofa, as I have previously
related.

Ochullu made some interesting remarks with
regard to Rains. Thus far it has been a rainless
year at Aouderas, like last year, and Ochullu
declares that if rain does not fall with the present
moon (full moon, 27th July, to-morrow), none
will come this year. Further, he told me that
Aouderas would still have water in the wells in
the event of no proper rainfall occurring for a
period of four years, while he says Iferouan,
Timia, and Azzal all suffer want if there is not
rainfall in two years.

Ochullu is very superstitious, and declares that
if only the Sultan of Agades would call all the
people of the land together and make a great

228 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

united prayer to Allah, they would then surely
have rain.

On 1st August I left Aouderas and started
south, intending to return to Agades to commence
the long journey south to Kano, after circling
round the eastern side of the Massif of Tarrouaji.

Accompanied by the goumiers, I departed from
Aouderas at dusk after warm leave-taking with
Ochullu and many of his tribe, among whom I
had been made welcome from the start ; while
I carried away a number of bundles of fresh dates
(the first of the season), presented by the Chief in
final token of goodwill : a gift which I afterwards
conveyed all the way home to England. We
travelled till very late by light of the full moon,
and camped out in the stony Ararouat plains,
which I had passed through before on the way to
Baguezan.

Continuing at dawn on the following day, we
crossed the extensive gravel-covered plain which
lies between the Ararouat river and the northern
base of Tarrouaji, and camped about noon on the
In Ouajou river (altitude, 2,750 ft.), a small dry
river-bed in flat country north of the massive hill
range.

In the late afternoon a thunderstorm advanced
over us, and, much to my relief, some rain fell ; for,
previous to leaving Aouderas, I had been warned
that no water is to be found anywhere in the neigh-
bourhood of Tarrouaji in the dry season, and all
the goumiers were averse to my attempting to
make the journey. Nevertheless, I had set
out ; but when search for water in the neigh-
bourhood of our In Ouajou camp had proved

TARROUAJI 229

completely fruitless, I began to fear that our plight
would force me to give up the intention of going
round Tarrouaji — and then the storm broke,
leaving small pools of water in its wake, and an
awkward situation was saved. As the natives put
it : " Allah had listened to me."

Srd August. — I remarked this morning, after
the rain, a few short hours of dawn, when earth
was damp and grass roots already green and the
pipe of wilderness birds filled the air with un-
wonted cheerfulness. . . . For a moment spring
in the desert . . . ere stilled in its birth by
scorching sun and driving sand.

Travelled from daylight to dusk round the
eastern base of Tarrouaji, and camped at a pool of
water, which was found close in imder the hills
after some searching.

From the north and east the massif of Tarrouaji
appears a great jumble of hills of no great height,
which do not die out at the plain's edge with the
impressive strength that may be found in great
mountain slopes or towering cliffs, but rather do
they tail away in broken diminishing lines to
outlying plains, where little straggling hills of rock
are seen as far as the eye can penetrate.

On the following day I did not resume caravan
travel, but left the goumiers in camp and set out
before dawn to climb into Tarrouaji hill-tops.
During the day the highest of numerous altitudes
recorded was 3,100 ft., and, so far as I could judge
by eye, I doubt if any of the innumerable crowded
hill-tops which constitute this range exceed that
figure. As the altitude of our camp on the east
base of the range was 2,300 ft., the actual eleva-

230 EAST OF BAGUEZAN

tion of the range itself, to its highest points, in
that quarter was therefore only 800 ft.

Those hills hold wild and barren scenes and no
fertility, and are seldom, if ever, entered by natives,
which accounts, no doubt, for the number of Bar-
bary Sheep which I found inhabiting this range
and the ease with which I could approach them.
Hitherto I had been mightily pleased if I got a
single shot at sheep during a day's hunting, but
on this day I killed no fewer than four animals,
and looked upon half a dozen others within range
which I allowed to go unharmed. It was here
that I secured the best head taken by me in Air
of the new subspecies of Barbary Sheep (Ammo-
tragus lervia angusi).

5th August. — ^We left our camp on the east side
of Tarrouaji in the middle of the night, and
travelled on round to the south side of the range as
far as the district known as Tin-Daouin, where we
camped for the day while I skinned a specimen
of vulture I had shot. Thunder had been over us
yesterday, but very little rain fell ; however, to-day
we entered country where it was apparent there
had been heavy rain yesterday, for the ground
was water-soaked, and the sands of the river-beds
were cast in freshly lain wavelets as the result of
flood an hour or two subsided.

6th August. — ^We saddled our camels and were
away at dawn, and travelled till 3.30 p.m., when
we camped in Tin-Teborag valley (altitude, 1,900
ft.), having left the hills of Tarrouaji behind and
advanced near to Agades, which now lay due west
not far distant. Throughout the day the country
was rolling and somewhat roughly broken, while a

OUT OF THE HILLS 281

number of broad valleys were crossed at intervals
where river tributaries trend south to join the
mainstream Tin-Daouin, which passes eastward
in a flat valley well away from the hills. Those
valleys, with river-bed in their centre, are wide
and very shallow, as is usual everywhere in low-
land in Air, with little or no banks ; merely a
slight slope of gravel or rock surroundings, termin-
ating where sand and grass tussocks and trees
of the valley begin. Much of the undulating
country is of pleasant warm-coloured browns and
greys in certain morning and evening lights :
wide stretches of ground surface of pebbles of an
orderly smallness and sameness, as smoothly and
well-arranged as a pebble beach on seashore
which the tide has just left. Indeed the whole
outlook in such foothill gravel country of an early
morn is remarkable : strange because of the
absence of earth and vegetation, but with an
artistic appeal to the eye on account of its striking
orderliness and cleanness and uncommon purity
of colour.

On the following evening we travelled in to
Agades : my travels in the mountains of Air at
an end, and the long journey south to Nigeria all
that lay between me and the completion of my
travels.

CHAPTER XV

THE TUAREGS OF AIR

Before concluding this narrative I would like to
make brief reference to the native inhabitants of
Air.

I have said elsewhere that the total population
of Air at the present time is made up of 5,000
Tuaregs. And they are strange people — the
strangest race I have ever come in contact with —
independent, haughty, daring, unscrupulous, and
lazy in leisure, yet fit to rank among the finest
travellers and camel-riders in the world. If one
is to judge these Tuaregs fairly, one must try to
conceive their surroundings and realise the all-
important fact that they are practically wild
people in a wild land that lies remote and un-
known, and that they have had no advantages to
influence them to be aught but wholly primitive.
While, further, it may be well to remember that
they are the remnant descendants of a race that
was once crafty and able in war ; indeed, even in
the present day, they consider themselves the
aristocrats of the land, and look down with scarcely
veiled contempt on all negro tribes.

To the French officers and to many Hausa
natives they are known as downright rascals,
because they are cunning and deceitful in the
most unprincipled way the moment they have

232

CHARACTER OF NATIVES 288

any dealings with strangers, and I imagine that
among themselves they hold belief that anyone
outside their own tribe is a legitimate enemy to
be overcome, if possible, by cunning artifice, since
strength of arms is no longer theirs.

For my own part I found the Tuaregs of Air
difficult people to deal with, and impossible people
to rely on. Except at Timia and Aouderas, I met
with no sincere friendliness at their hands, and
was inclined to be wholly harsh in my judgment
of them all, until my later experiences prompted
me to be more inclined to mitigate my opinion of
their shortcomings ; for, after all, especially with
primitive natives, one must live among such
people for a long time to break through that
protective reserve that shuts out the stranger as a
suspect and interloper, and to learn to know them
from an intimate point of view.

In appearance these Tuaregs, who are an
Arab -like Semitic race, are not tall. The men are
generally of strong, wiry build, inclined, if
anything, to slimness, and I have never seen one
of their sex in any degree corpulent. The women
are smaller than the men, many of them not much
more than five feet in height, and, at middle age,
often grow to moderate stoutness.

The features of the Tuareg natives are usually
of a swarthy copper colour of fairly light hue,
while a few of them are as yellowish-white as
Arabs. Their features are, of course, not of blunt
negro type, and — when they can be seen un-
masked— there is a pleasant variety of facial
character among them, and no two are found to
be alike.
17

234 THE TUAREGS OF AIR

Many of the women paint their faces — especially
when attending a marriage or a feast — ^with a
hideous pigment, sometimes yellow and some-
times red.

The men, without exception, wear the yashmak
over their faces on all occasions. This is a long
swathe of cotton cloth, sometimes white, but
generally dark blue or black, which is wound round
the head so that the lower folds cover all the face
up to the centre of the nose-bridge, while the
upper folds are passed over the forehead and
overlap the eyebrows, so that a hood is formed to
shade the eyes from the fierce rays of the sun.
All that remains visible of an individual's face are
two piercing dark eyes that peer out of the narrow
slit in the mask. One may know Tuaregs thus
masked for months, and identify individuals
by little more than their eyes ; but should the
yashmak ever be removed, the transformation is
so staggering that it is impossible to recognise
the person at all, since you have never seen the
face before in its entirety. The women wear a
cotton shawl cast over the crown of the head, in
typical work-girl fashion, but they do not cover
the face or wear yashmak in any form. Wearing
the yashmak is a Moslem custom, but outside its
religious purport I am not sure but that it is a very
comfortable and sensible thing for those nomads
of desert places to wear, for it serves as splendid
protection to the face in biting sandstorms, since
it completely covers the mouth and nostrils and
ears, while it hoods the eyes from fierce and tiring
sun-glare.

As to the garb of the men, they are clothed in

XLAliJiU i;ulS OF BAUUEZAiV MUUNTALNJ.

"ATAGOOM," A lUABEQ NATIVE OF AlH LV TYPICAL DRESS.

231]

DRESS OF NATIVES 285

full-flowing cotton gowns which reach almost to
the ground, while folds drop from the shoulders
to the elbows to look like wide sleeves without
being actually sewn to that form. Underneath
this robe are worn loose baggy cotton trousers
secured round the waist. The robes are, in general,
white or dark indigo-blue (a dye locally obtained
in Hausaland, where all Tuareg clothing is
bought), and the latter colour is the most becoming.
All the men wear leather sandals on otherwise
naked feet. For ornament they wear leather
wallets containing charms and trinkets, which
are hung in front of the person suspended from a
cord round the neck. Bangles above the elbows
on the arms are also commonly worn, usually
made out of soft slate-like native stone, which
may be hewn to bangle-shape and then polished
to a glossy blackness ; sometimes the bangles are
of cheap metal, welded out of scraps of brass or
tin by the local blacksmith. All Tuaregs carry
double-edged swords in a leather sheath slung
over the shoulder on a strap.

The women wear loose cotton garb swathed
about them, but, being of diminutive stature, they
seldom bear anything of the native gracefulness
which is often associated with the men, many of
whom have more than ordinary vanity as to their
appearance and carry themselves accordingly.
The women are much given to wearing bright
coloured cottons, and sometimes the effect in
sombre surroundings is very pleasant. For orna-
ment the women principally wear bangles both on
the wrists and above the elbows, necklaces to
which one or more charm is attached, and earrings.

236 THE TUAREGS OF AIR

With regard to the wealth of the natives, I
think it may safely be said that they are a poor
people, if we except one or two chiefs who possibly
have fair means. The wealthiest individual that
I questioned on this matter was a native of Timia,
who possessed thirty camels, which, if valued at
£12 a piece — which is a fair average price — would
place his total wealth at £360. But the property
of the ordinary native of Air is usually comprised
of one or two camels and a number of goats,
ranging from herds of five to thirty according
to their means. The camels, besides being the
means of transporting private stores of grain from
the south, bring in a certain ready-cash return
(usually about two francs per camel per day)
when hired by traders or military authorities to
make up a caravan journey to Hausaland or else-
where. The goat-herds furnish milk, which is
a staple food among the Tuaregs — liquid or in
the form of cheese ; while male animals are
butchered from time to time, the meat eaten, and
the hides turned to domestic use or sold.

The Tuaregs of Air appear to be a fairly healthy
race, but the women do not bear large families,
and I am told that there is a good deal of inbreed-
ing wherever there are small local settlements.
Outside of Agades there is no European doctor
(at Agades there is a doctor, the only one north
of Zinder), and the country would benefit greatly
if it could support an adequate medical staff.

The language of the Tuaregs, which they call
Tamashack (Temashight and Tarkiye : Barth)^
is much more difficult to learn than Hausa, and is
spoken in a peculiar rapid-running fashion, which

CIRCUMSTANCES CONCERNING NATIVES 237

makes it very difficult to grasp the distinct sound-
ing of the vowels. Tuareg voices are often
pleasantly soft and musical.

I have remarked with interest that tree names
and the names of birds and animals are well-
known to almost all the natives, even boys at an
early age having much knowledge of the nature
about them. How many of us at home can name
all the trees and birds of the common roadside ?
But then we are really an indoor, over-civilised
people, while those natives of the outdoors miist
know Nature and something of her secrets, since
she provides their livelihood : food, building
material, ropes, saddlery, leather, clothing, dyes,
medicines, even luxuries — all that is essential to
man's needs, the Tuareg harvests from his country-
side, in small portion, whether he seek among the
branch-tops, or digs at the tree-roots, or kills
with arrow or noose-trap, or sows and reaps
grain with the two hands Creation gave him and
little else besides the scraps of metal he fashions
to bring to his aid.

On the other hand, so far as one can observe,
these natives do not discern beauty in the scenes
about them, and I have often witnessed them pass
by some exceptionally fair picture without paying
the slightest attention to it. They are, however,
attracted by strange shapes, such as are often to
be seen among the rugged mountain-tops, and
they sometimes exclaim and point these out.

These natives have also some meagre knowledge
of the great world outside their own land : no
doubt scraps of information brought to their ears
by their Mohammedan priests, or by those wha

238 THE TUAREGS OF AIR

have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and returned
ahve. They know, for instance, that there are
such races as Japanese and Indians ; while they
have a Tamashack name for fish, and know that
this is a creature that lives in the water and is
good to eat, though none exist anywhere in Air.

The Mohammedan religion, and sects of
Mohammedanism, such as Senussi, constitute the
faith of the natives of Air, and they are very
devout.

In their domestic life, it seems to me, the
Tuaregs know little of the beauty of love. Mar-
riage to them is something of an animal instinct,
and the devotion of the men is never sacred to one
woman, for they have usually from two to four
wives. As an instance of their apparent lack of
deep devotion, I have seen Tuaregs, after being
away on a journey with their camels for months,
return to their home-village and alight on the
outskirts to enter into promiscuous conversation
with the crowd of men that quickly gather to hear
the news the travellers bring, and have known them
to spend hours thus engaged before they give a
thought to go forward to their huts to greet their
wives and children : surely a strange indifference
to domestic devotion on the part of men who have
been long away from home.

In daily life it is the custom of the natives to
rise before daylight, and they are already started
on the road if they are travelling, or at work about
their hut doors if they are in camp, before dawn
lightens the eastern horizon. But you are not
to conclude from this that they are energetic
people, far from it ; I believe that, except when

A LAZY RACE 239

travelling, the men are the laziest people I have
ever met. By 8 a.m. I have known men to lie
down in their' huts, and not again make any
attempt to rise and exert themselves until 4 or 5
p.m. in the cool of the evening. The dreadfully hot
climate tends towards such laziness, but without
doubt it is inherent in the blood. And their lazy
life begins in childhood, for at an early age the
children are sent out by their parents to herd
the goats ; and through the heat of a long day
the youngsters chiefly spend their time sleeping
or idling beneath the shade of acacias while the
animals wander at no great range. In the cool
of the evening the herd-boys wake to exertion,
and if flocks have strayed while unattended, they
have merely to follow their footprints in the tell-
tale sand to come up with them and drive them
home to the village.

It is pleasant to be near a native village at
sundown : to hear the clear voice of some woman
who sets out along a bypath uttering some strange
peculiar call known only to her herd, who will in
time bleat an answer ; then, so that they may
be milked and sheltered for the night from prowl-
ing, destructive jackals, to see her humour them
slowly homeward, repeating her call the while, as
the active animals run from bush to bush in haste
to ferret out a few last mouthfuls of supper ;
while shadows of evening deepen and the comfort
of coolness sets men and women rejoicing in the
village. Then may be heard, above the talk and
laughter of the villagers, the thud ! thud ! thud I
of pestle poles as women crush grain for the even-
ing meal in wooden mortar-bowls, and the cries of

240 THE TUAREGS OF AIR

nursling livestock that await their feeding-time—
the bleat of suckling goats and the unhappy-
roaring call of the milk-hungry, impatient camel-
calves.

It is the women who work : they who carry-
water, tend the beasts, collect firewood, prepare
the evening meal ; and, besides their many
domestic tasks, to them also is credit due for
teaching their children all that they know of
home-work and bush-work, of school -learning and
legend, of folksong and dance.

I would say of the Tuareg men that they are
adventurers of the road ; seen at a disadvantage
in their villages, but active and able when away
with their caravans — superb camel-riders, obser-
vant trackers, and endowed with that marvellous
second sense of direction which belongs only to
natives.

CHAPTER XVI

HEADING FOR HOME

Who of us who have lived in Out of the World
places do not know the boundless pleasure that is
ours in those memorable hours when trammels
are cast aside and, task-free and care-free, we are
at liberty to set out Homeward Bound I on that
dream- journey that has ever been treasured as
something finer than gold and oft our solace in
the bitterest hours of solitude ! And, at Agades,
while packing up and preparing to go south, I
confess to spending days of exultation, while
honest John went about with a perpetual smile
on his face : for he too was at last going home I

I left Agades, en route to the south, on 10th
August, with a caravan of camels bearing boxes
and bales containing my complete collections.

We had no sooner departed than we experienced
terrible weather : sandstorms succeeded by
thunderstorms and rain, which for the next six
days caused me considerable anxiety in my efforts
to protect the precious cases of specimens from
damage.

On the second day we camped below Tegguidi
cliff in a regular land of flood, while thunderstorm
raged and rain swept down upon us in torrents,
ftnd we spent a miserable night, standing ankle-

241

242 HEADING FOR HOME

deep in water, unable to lie down on the ground to
sleep.

Next day we were in the centre of lakes of water,
and it was impossible for the caravan-camels to
travel ; indeed, it was not until late morning on
the following day that the water subsided suffi-
ciently to permit of foothold for the camels and
we were able to load up and, with difficulty, get
out of the predicament.

The advent of Rains had set the game moving
northward out of the bush-country, and, when
travelling between Tegguidi and Abellama, great
numbers were seen out on open plains which had
been bleak and barren sand-wastes when I had
passed northward, but which now contained
patches of fresh grass -greenness. Dama Gazelles
{Gazella dama darner gouensis, subsp. nov. :
Hausa : Mena) were most numerous, and many
large herds of them were seen, and I counted
herds of 37, 44, and 84. Dorcas Gazelles (Gazella
dorcas dorcas : Hausa : Matakundi) were also
plentiful, while I also saw a few handsome White
Oryx {Oryx algazel algazel).

A day later Egyptian kites and marabou, and
black and white storks were very common feeding
on the abundance of locusts which now infested
the green vegetation, the former catching locusts
on the wing or swooping to pick them off grass-
blades with their well-known dexterity. None
of these birds had been present in this locality in
the dry season.

On 16th August I reached the lonely post of
Aderbissinat, and camped there for two weeks
while collecting waterfowl and hunting again tov

^iS'J^^AR iJMMM^im i]T< 'j^.^?:^av:3— ^B^w

A0ADE3 FORT, BUILT WITH CLA.Y-MUD.

CAUGUT IN' FLOOD IIAIXS BELOW TEG«iUII)I.

242]

DISTANCE TRAVELLED 248

ostrich. Much water had collected in ponds in
Aderbissinat valley, and here, and henceforth,
territory that had appeared bleak and barren
when I passed northward was now green and
fresh and well-watered, and completely changed
in aspect. Waterfowl were unknown in the
territory in the dry season, but now I found
them plentiful : geese, ducks, waders ; even gulls.
But the advent of rain had brought one evil upon
Aderbissinat — it was infested with mosquitoes,
and much malaria was prevalent among the native
soldiers of the Fort.

Aderbissinat, as I have already stated, is on the
southern borders of Air, and in departing from it
on 30th August I bid final farewell to the strange
land I had come so far to explore.

In pursuit of my zoological research I calculate
my camel-caravan travelled the following dis-
tances in Air :

Miles
Aderbissinat to Agades . . . . 93J

Agades to Tasessat, Baguezan Mountains . 79
Tasessat to Timia . . . . .49

Timia to Iferouan . . . . .77

Iferouan to Aguellal . . . . .31

Aguellal to Assode . . . . .40

Assod6 to TJfeia 30

Timia to Tasessat via east side of Baguezan 73
Tasessat to Agades . . . . .79

Agades to Aouderas via Tilisdak river . 62

Aouderas to Agades via east side of Tarrouaji 93
Agades to Aderbissinat .... 93J

Total caravan travel in Air . . . 800

Kano to Aderbissinat .... 303

Aderbissinat to Kano .... 303

Total travel with camels » • * 1,400

244 HEADING FOR HOME

There is one point I would like to refer to before
departing from the subject of Air. Air has been
termed in the past on African maps and in text-
books a great " oasis," a word which I take it
means a " fertile place in a sandy desert " ; a
concise enough explanation, unless one endows it
with a wider, less clearly defined latitude. But
it appears to me that such a term applied to Air,
inferring as it does that the country is fertile,
is an imposition on the word that is apt to be
misleading to anyone who endeavours to conceive,
through the medium of description, the real com-
position of the country. And I hold this belief
because during the dry season / cannot imagine a
more barren country than Air in all the world :
mountain after mountain of bare rock and far-
reaching lowlands of nothing but dark gravel-
covered ground, bleak as a ploughed field in
winter time, except for scant rifts of green along
shallow sandy river-beds or close under mountain
slopes. Without doubt Air is bleak almost as
the veriest desert : the one a vast lifeless scene
of rock and boulder and pebble, the other great
wastes of sand. For my own part, therefore, I
am happier and much more sure of my ground
when, in speaking of the country, I refer to it
nominally as " The mountain land of Air," and
am sure that at the present time it has no real
claim to be termed an " oasis " unless in the height
of a good season of rain.

From Aderbissinat I travelled south to Tanout,
where I camped in the hope of securing an ostrich,
as I had met with no success in hunting for those
birds up till that time. Here, however, owing

I RE-ENTER KANO 245

solely to the keenness of the French officer at the
Fort, I managed to secure a very fine adult male
ostrich, which proved on later examination to be
the same species as is found elsewhere in Africa :
Struthio camelus camelus. Those birds carry a
large quantity of fat, and the task of skinning this
specimen, and cleaning and drying the skin free
of oily matter with due regard to keeping the rich
plumes unsoiled, occupied no less than two days.

Tanout, like everywhere else now, was greatly
changed since I had passed north, and I found all
the inhabitants in the fields cultivating large
areas of millet which had already sprung up
almost to man-height. All natives declare it has
been a bountiful and wonderful season of rain ;
which has fallen here earlier than farther north.

North of Tanout the country is uninhabited
(except for a few roving Tuaregs) and unculti-
vated ; but on resuming the journey south of
this Fort, I thenceforth passed green fields of
millet each day.

I need not dwell further on my return journey
to Nigeria, via Zinder, for it was henceforth,
until our destination was reached, simply routine
of continual wearisome grinding travel, while I
suffered from fitful attacks of malaria which I had
contracted at Aderbissinat.

On 22nd September I re-entered Kano. All
that I find recorded in my diary of this, to me,
memorable day is : " The trail has ended — the
camels have gone and faithful Dogo — and I miss
the fretful roar of the beasts, and the soft speech
of the Tuaregs, and the glow of the camp-fire. . . .
Everyone is most kind in welcoming me safely

246 HEADING FOR HOME

back." But it needs no diary to recall the day
of my arrival in Kano — when the long trail
finished, and riding saddles and pack saddles and
a band of sorely tried camels were freed upon the
sand from precious loads of specimens which they
had carried for many months. That great last
day when work was done — ^the burden and worry
of it all thrown to the four winds — the warm hand-
shake of friends awaiting to welcome me in — a
day, indeed, rare in a lifetime.

Yes I I was back among my own people at
last, had drifted in unannounced like the sand-
storms that fitfully bore me company from the
north, no one knowing of my coming until a
ragged figure was in the streets of the European
settlement, where civilisation and railway begin
and the desolation of the Sudan ends.

Fourteen hundred miles lay behind me in my
camels' tracks, and all of the months of a year but
one since the day I left home.

Assuredly, and perhaps I may be forgiven for
thinking so, it was good to be back on British
soil, good to hear my own tongue spoken, and
good to look on the broad grin on John's face.
" Kano is sweet past Zinder," he had said long
ago, and boarding the steamer at Lagos a few days
later, while honest John stood by with tears in his
eyes and repeated injunctions that " master "
was to hurry to return, I said to him : " Yes,
John, what you mean is : ' Home is sweet past
anywhere else on earth— and you are right I ' "
And I stepped on board, followed by John's part-
ing cry ringing in my ears : " Sai wata rana '*
(Farewell till another day).

APPENDIX

NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES
DISCOVERED DURING THE EXPEDITION

NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF MAMMALS
(OTHER THAN RUMINANTS)

Described by Messrs. Oldfield Thomas and Martin
A. C. HiNTON of the British Museum (Natural
History). (The complete collection is fully de-
scribed by Messrs. Thomas and Hinton in Novitates
Zoologicce, the Journal of the Tring Museum, vol,
xxviii., pp. 1-13, 1921.)

Wild cat : Felis haussa sp. nov. .
Caracal (Lynx) : Caracal caracal

poecilotis subsp. nov.
Pale sand-coloured fox : Vulpes

pallida harterti subsp. nov.
Silver-grey fox : Vulpes rUppelli

ccBsia subsp. nov. . .
Striped weasel : Poecilictis roths-

childi sp. nov.
Ground Squirrel :" Euxerus

erythropus agadixis subsp. nov.
Naked-soled gerbU : Taterillus

gracilis angelus subsp. nov.
Nigerian hairy-soled gerbil :

Gerbillus nigerice sp. nov.
Dwarf gerbil : Desmodilliscus

bucharuini sp. nov.
Fat-tailed mouse : Steatomys

cuppedius sp. nov. . .

247

Locality taken.
Kano and Damagarim.

Baguezan Mts.

Damergou and Air.

Air.

Kano.

Air.

Kano.

Kano and Damagarim.

Kano.

Kano.

248 APPENDIX

Locality taken.
Giant rat : Cricetomys buchanani

sp. nov. . . . . Kano.
Dwarf mouse : Leggada haussa

sp. nov. .... Kano and Damagarim.
Spiney rock mouse : Acomys

airensis sp. nov. . . . Air.
Striped bush mouse : Lemniscomys

olga sp. nov. . . . Damergou.

Jerboa : Jaculus jacuhis airensis

subsp. nov. .... Damergou and ASx,
Gundi : Massouiiera rothschildi

sp. nov. .... Air.

Short-eared hare : Lepus canopus

sp. nov Kano.

Rock dassie : Procavia buchanani

sp. nov. .... Air.

With regard to the entire collection of mammals
(other than Ruminants), in which is contained the above
species and subspecies which are new, the British
Museum paper, in the foreword makes the following
appreciative statements :

" Thanks to the kindness of Lord Rothschild we are
now able to give a list of the complete collection made
by Captain Buchanan, both of such further mammals
as he obtained in the Kano region and of those which
he got northwards to Air itself, which he explored most
successfully.

As this is a country which has been hitherto entirely
out of the ken of mammalogists, we were prepared to
expect a considerable number of new forms to be dis-
covered, but we certainly never expected that so very
high a proportion of the species would be new. Indeed
we believe it may safely be said that in the history of
mammalogy no collection containing so high a pro-
portion of novelties has ever come to Europe from a
continental locality.

In all, the collection contains 36 species and sub-
species, of which no less than 18 are new, 6 of these latter

APPENDIX 249

having been described in our previous paper. Consider-
ing the comparatively barren nature of the country, and
the number of mammals usually found to occur in any
given area, the capture of 36 forms indicates that Captain
Buchanan has been highly successful in getting a full
representation of the fauna of the districts he has
worked in. . , .

" As already stated, the National Museum has to
thank Lord Rothschild for a full set of the mammals
dealt with, including all the types. The skins are all
beautifully prepared, and Captain Buchanan is to be
congratulated on the great value that his collection has
proved to possess."

NEW SUBSPECIES OF UNGULATE MAMMALS

Described by Lord Rothschild, F.R.S., Ph.D. (The
complete collection of Ungulate Mammals is fully
described by Lord Rothschild in Novitates Zoo-
logicce, the Journal of the Tring Museum, vol. xxviii.,
pp. 75-77, 1921.)

Locality taken.
Ami, Udad, or Barbary sheep :

Ammotragus lewia angusi sub-

sp. nov. (Largest head

collected : right horn 21 in.

over curve ; left horn 20^ in.) Air.
Dama gazelle : Gazella dama darner'

gouensis subsp. nov. (Largest

head collected : length of horns
6^ ins.) .... Damergou.

18

250

APPENDIX

NEW SUBSPECIES OF BIRDS

Described by Dr. Ernst Hartert, Director of Tring
Museum. (The complete collection of Birds is
fully described by Dr. Hartert in Novitates Zoo-
logicce, vol, xxviii., pp. 78-141, 1921.)

Subsaharan striped kingfisher :
Halcyon chelicuti eremogiton
subsp. nov. ....

Straight-billed wood-hoopoe : Scop-
telus aterrimus cryptostictus sub-
sp. nov. ....

Golden goatsucker : Caprimulgus
eximus simplicior subsp. nov. .

Sand martin : Riparia obsoleta
buchanani subsp. nov. .

Sombre rock-chat : Cercomela mel-
anura airensis subsp. nov.

Northern ant-eating wheatear ^ :
Myrmecocichla cethiops buch-
anani subsp, nov. .

Saharan bush-babbler : Crateropus

fulvus buchanani subsp. nov. .
Grey bush-babbler : Crateropiis

plebejus anomalus subsp. nov. .
Long-tailed sunbird : Nectarinia

pulchella cBgra subsp. nov.
Crested shrike : Prionops plumatus

haussarum subsp. nov. .
Asben brown pipit ^ : Anthus

sordidus asbenaicus subsp. nov.
Dunn's desert lark : " Calendula "

dunni pallidor subsp . nov.
Small rock sparrow : Petronia

dentata buchanani subsp. nov.
Pencil - crowned weaver - bird :

Sporopipes frontalis pallidior

subsp. nov

1 Described by Lord

Locality taken.

Kano and Damagarim.

Air.

Damagarim and Damergou.

Air.

Air.

Kano, Damagarim, and
Damergou.

Air.

Kano.

Kano, Damagarim, and Air.

Kano.

Air.

Damergou.

Damagarim.

Damagarim and Damergou,
Bothschild.

APPENDIX 251

Dr. Hartert, in his most interesting foreword to his
paper (which deals extensively with the zoo-geographical
history of the Sahara and the important information
which the Expedition has brought to light in that con-
nection), states two facts which have a particular bearing
on the value of the collection of birds :

" Zoologically Air remained absolutely unknown until
Buchanan's expedition. It was with great satisfaction
to myself that Lord Rothschild fell in with my ideas
about it, with his usual zeal and interest in all scientific
exploration, and that Captain Buchanan accepted the
offer to make a collecting trip to Air for the Tring
Museum. The exploration of that country has been in
my mind since 1886. ... It was one of my many un-
fulfilled dreams of life to visit Asben myself, but I have
never given up hope one day to see natural history
specimens from there. . . ,

** Captain Buchanan obtained skins of 168 species. In
a country which, to a great extent, is desert and there-
fore poor in animal life, and considering that he also
collected as many Lepidoptera and mammaha as
possible, this is a very fine collection."

NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF BUTTER-
FLIES AND MOTHS

Described by Lord Rothschild, F.R.S., Ph.D. (The
complete collection is fully described by Lobd
Rothschild in Noviiates Zoologicos.)

BUTTERFLIES

Locality taken.
Teracolits amelia f. arid, insignia

f. nov. .... Kano.

Teracolus celimene angusi subsp.

nov. ..... Damagarim.

Teracolus liagore f. pluv. liagoroides

f. nov. .... Air.

252

APPENDIX

Eronia bugueti buchanani subsp.

nov. .....

Terias flavicola f . arid, parva f . nov.
Vivachola livia palleseens subsp.

nov. .....

Spindasis buchanani sp. nov.

Locality taken.

Daraergou.
Kano.

Damagarim and Air.
Kano and Damagarim.

MOTHS

Aegocera brevivitta rectilineoides sub-
sp. nov. . . . .
Timora buchanani sp. nov. .
Timora terracottoides sp. nov.
Adisura affinis sp. nov.
Eublemma dissoluta sp. nov. .
Eublemma bipartita sp. nov. .
Eublemma perkea sp. nov.
Eublemma pseudonoctna sp. nov. .
Ozarba damagarima sp. nov. .

Pseudozarba abbreviata sp. nov.
Pseudozarba bella sp. nov.
Enlocasira sahariensis sp. nov.
Enlocastra pseudozarboides sp. nov.
Tar ache buchanani sp. nov. .
Tarache asbenensis sp. nov. .
Crypsoiidia griseola sp. nov. .
Crypsotidia parva sp. nov.
Grammodes buchanani sp. nov.
Parachaldope mixta sp. nov. .
Raphia buchanani sp. nov. .
Rhynchina sahariensis sp. nov.

Rhynchina buchanani sp. nov.
Hypena sordida sp. nov.
Casama griseola sp. nov.
Acidaliastis micra dissimilis ab.

saturata ab. nov. .
Tephrina quadriplaga sp. nov.
Paropta buchanani sp. nov. .
Anadiasa sahariensis sp. nov.
Pachypasa concolor sp. nov. .

Damergou.

Air.

Damagarim.

Damagarim.

Damagarim.

Damergou.

Damagarim.

Damagarim.

Damagarim, Damergou,

and Air.
Air.
Air.

Damagarim.
Air.

Damergou and Air.
Air.

Damagarim.
Kano.

Damagarim.
Locality not noted.
Kano.
Damagarim, Damergou,

and Air.
Air.

Damagarim.
Damagarim and Damergou.

Air.

Damergou.

Air.

Air.

Air.

APPENDIX

253

Miresa coccinea intensior subsp.
nov. .....

Ommatopteryx hampsoni sp. nov. .
Ommatopteryx asbenicola sp. nov. .
Suraitha albostigmata sp. nov.
Heterographis medioalba sp. nov. .
Heterographis airensis sp. nov.
Heterographis eximia sp. nov.
Heterographis sahariensis sp. nov. .
Heterographis cretaceogrisea sp. nov.

Homoeosoma straminea sp. nov.
Homaeosoma basalis sp. nov. .
Homoeosoma asbenicola sp. nov.
Brephia inconspicua sp. nov.
Brephia gracilis sp. nov.
Crocidomera intensifasciata sp. nov.
Pogononeura buchanani sp. nov.
Anerastia aurantiaca sp. nov.
Pterothrix damergouensis sp. nov. .
Crocolia africana sp. nov. . .
Pyralis sotidanesis sp. nov. .

Tyndis umbrosus sp. nov.
Bostra asbenicola sp. nov.
Dattima buchanani sp. nov. .
Dattima dubiosa sp. nov.
Marasmia hampsoni sp. nov.
Loxostege damergouensis sp. nov. .
Cybolomia azzalana sp. nov. .
Cybolomia ledereri sp. nov. .
Cybolomia fenestrata sp. nov. .
Metasia angustipennis sp. nov.
Metasia parallelalis sp. nov. .
Tegostoma camparalis sahariensis
subsp. nov

Locality taken,

Damagarim.

Air.

Air.

Air.

Damergou.

Air.

Air.

Damagarim and Air.

Damagarim, Damergou,

and Air.
Damagarim.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.

Damergou.
Damergou and Air.
Damiagarim, Damergou,

and Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Kano.
Damergou.
Air.

Damergou.
Air.

Damagarim.
Damagarim.

Damergou and Air.

20

MAP OF

THE AUTHOR'S ROUTE

Stntute Miles

— . • AuVioi's Route
0 O Toivns and Villages A Campa
•_ • ^ . International Boundary

Approxima le Boundaries of

Provinces
I I Railway

i^ mbntA Tamgak
^fbkrHoih, }"
%d'Aguellal

r

•;;:>nrnia Mts\

bermat, (/\\/ ¥^fudi

N}^ t B E , N

^\ ^JfiMassif dS

e^"* M I

^ ilaraaeras

Tessalatirt

\Jimboulaga \ ^'

Merbiss/fia/ j^ort •-* - ^ ' ~ = = ="
' sjadelakar

\Abouzak ^^ .„ .„

ueKi TV ^o^ihout

D A] M E^F? G H 0 U

Tanout Fort

sMaz/a

R

anfzrouft

Fachi

e n e r e

T A R Y

O R Y

Bilma a

Ago demo

Beduatrirno

from Lago^

East of 8 Greenwich

ge Philip 6 Son I f

The London Groyiaphical Imtitute.

INDEX

Abellama, 129

Aderbissinat outpost, 125, 243
Administrative headqimrters, 78
Agades, ancient, 134
Agalak mountains, 181
Agaraguer mountain, 189
Agoras river, 185, 189, 203, 206
Aguellal moimtains, 200
Aguellal, south of, 202
Afr, barren nature of, 163, 167,
187, 199, 222

— entered, 125

— mountains in view, 134

— nature of foothills, 149, 151,
166, 216

— northern end, 195

— places where water, 160, 162,
193, 196, 201, 224

— stricken, 186

— travel ends, 231

Altitudes, Air, 150, 152, 167, 184,
189, 192, 199, 202, 217, 220, 222,
224, 228

Ancient stone huts, 171

Animals discovered, 247

— trapping, 66

An isolated walled town, 76
Ants, white, 67, 146
Aouderas mountains, 161, 224

— village, 223
Area of Kano, 27

A remarkable individual, 7, 98

Arra district, 151

A8sod6, 204

Atagoom and Saidi, 177

A wonderful city, 19

Azzal, 220

Baban Tubki, 68
Baguezan, east of, 216

— motuitains, 151, 164

— plateau, 166, 168, 179

Barbara village, 63

Barbary sheep, 152, 163, 202, 216,

225, 230
Beauty in Africa, 169
Beri-Beri hunter, a, 97
Birds, collecting, 62
— rare, 153, 197, 220, 250
Bilma oasis, 172
Border of desert, 96, 110
Boundaries of Air, 127, 161, 165
Bushland, end of, 83
Bustard, Arab, 89
Butterflies and moths, 67, 218, 251

Camel corps, 137

Camels, alarming decline of, 92

— in mountains, 165, 179

— of Hausaland, 41

— on loading, 46

— stolen, 212

Camps, hunting, 36, 58, 93, 162,

166, 213, 225
Caravans, composition of, 41
Caravan travelling started, 48
Ctirtridges, 62
Chief killed by robbers, 148, 227

— of Aouderas, 225

— of Baguezan, 148, 153, 162, 174
aimate, 60, 78, 101, 130, 173

— change ? 188
Collecting in Dswnergou, 106

— in Nigeria, 37

Collecting, scientific, 60, 71, 121
Companionship, regarding, 219
Comparison of distances, 74
Construction of mud huts, 24, 77,

142
Country changing, 56, 83, 86

— nature of Damagarim, 57, 73,
83,86

of Damergou, 86, 89, 93, 246

— north of Kano, 49

— of bsfcd repute, 175

856

256

INDEX

Cultivation in Air, 139, 183, 220,

223
Currency, drawbacks of, 39

D

Damagarim territory, 58
Dambiri village, 86
Damergou territory, 90
Date Air occupied, 136

— of British occupation, 20

— of French occupation, 79

— palms, 183, 193, 195, 217, 223
Declining population, 77
Delayed at Kano, 35
Deserted villages, 152, 186, 189,

201, 204, 217, 224
Desert entered, the, 129

— the shores of, 83
Desolate country, 133
Difficulties at start, 46
Discomforts of Harmattan, 18
Discouraging rumours, 82
Distance travelled, 243
Dogo village, 57

Dry season, the, 102
Dwelling, an outpost, 145

E

Engaging natives, 6, 23, 178
Escort, 96, 122, 148, 177, 184
European population, Kano, 21
Expedition ends, 246

F

Fachi oasis, 172

Faodet mountains, 189

Food plentiful in Nigeria, 53

Forest and bush, 15

Fox trapped, 65, 161

French forts, 54, 78, 91, 125, 137

— frontier, 54

— mission to Agades, 136
Friendly fact, a, 20

G

Gazelle, Dama, 104, 151, 216, 242

— Dorcas, 59, 89, 104, 151, 191,
200, 216, 242

— Red-fronted, 53, 59, 85, 104
Geological change ? 187
Giant walls, 27

Giraffe, 86, 105, 113
Gorge, mouth of Timia, 182

Goundai motmtain, 185, 206
Grain, chief native food, 139
Grain-growing cotintry, 90, 245
Green growth, 217, 242, 245
Ground-nut boom, 49
Growing poverty, 86
Guarding camels, 160
Guide, a native, 184, 197
Guns, 61

H

Harmattan, the, 17, 52, 56
Hausa names of game, 105

— phrasing, 34

— race, boundary of, 81, 87

— salutation, 24

Heat intense, 78, 103, 128, 130,

223
Hive of industry, a, 28
Homeward ! 241
Horses, country unfit for, 113

— Kano, 30
Hunting, a morning's, 61

— unlucky, 103, 110, 120
Huts of Kano, 22

Iferouan, 194

Igouloulof, 185

Illness, 131

Inhabited villages. Air, 139

Jigawa, 53

John, 1, 51, 122, 246

Kano market, 29
— Northern Nigeria, 16
Kano's defences, 27
Kings, primitive, 143
Kites, Egyptian, 242
Korrigum, 105

Lagos, 10

Lagos-Kano railway, 13

Lagos lagoon, 5

Land of immense possibilities, 16

Life in Kano, 31

Lost ammunition,^37

INDEX

257

M

Magaria fort, 54

Malaria, 222, 243

Map and compass, 198, 204

Margin of mountainland, the, 231

Market, village, 87

Military force in Air, 137

— nile, 77
Mirage, 220

Modes of transport, 29
Mosque, Assode, 205

— Tintaghoda, 193
Mosquitoes, 191, 243
Mountain climate, 173

— scenery, wild, 180, 224
— stronghold, 165, 169
Mountains, rugged, 153

N

Native dress, 235

— hunter, a, 99, 122

— limitations, 2

— personnel, 35

— population, Agades, 138
Air, 232

Baguezan, 172

Damergou, 92

Kano, 21

— scouts, 148

— soldiers, 138

— taxidermists, 9

— weapons, 97

Natives of Deunagarim, 68, 77, 80

— of Lagos, 1 1

— shot, 211

— suspicious, 174

— uneasy, 82, 121
Nigeria's needs, 14
Northern Air, 177
Notability of loced kings, 143

Oasis, the term, 244
Oryx, white, 105, 113, 242
Ostrich foods, 116

— himting, 95, 245

— scarcity of, 108

— trap, 118
Outfit, 39

Palm belts, 16

Pass into Btiguezan, 165, 179

Pets, 54

" Pigeon English," 33
Pilgrim routes, old, 135, 221
Plants, Kano, common, 17
Population grows less, 58, 77
Preparations for journey, 39
Prestige of white men, 125
Produce of Air, 139
Prospering trade, 50

Race, a question of, 2

Rainfall scant, 90, 115

Rains, 159, 161, 185, 217, 222,

227, 230, 241, 245
Rains, local, 219
Remote territory, 38, 75
Rising of 1916, 137, 186
Robber tracks, 194, 207
Robbers attack Timia, 209, 213

— dread of, 97, 157, 223

— Hogar, 214

— persistent, 137, 227
Routine of travelling, 61
Ruins of the past, 171, 187
Rumours of robbers, 82

S

Sahara Desert, 129

— remote, 38

Sand and bleakness, 18
Sandstorms, 241
Sand tracks, heavy, 56
Scarcity of food, 83, 138, 200

— of water, 89, 93, 126, 228
Sentry posted, 185
Skinning lessons, 8

— specimens, 67
Skins complete, 68, 70
Solitude, weight of, 75
Spring for a moment, 229
Sultan of Agades, traitor, 137
Sultem's palace, 140
Suspicious of stranger, 164

Ttikoukout country, 95, 110
Tamgedc mountains, 192
Tanout, 88
Tarrouaji hills, 228
Tarusszgreet summit, 167
Tebemit valley, 216
Tegguidi cliff, 132
Teouar village, 217

258

INDEX

Thiinderstorms, 189, 219, 241
Time to hunt, 61
Timia, 183

Tom-tom proclamations, 87
Tragedy, relics of a, 159
Transport animals, 41
Travel by night, 123
Treaty between Britain

France, 79
Trees of Air, 149, 151, 194
Tuareg huts, 170, 183
— natives, 93, 138, 173, 232

U

Untravelled land, 172

Vegetable gardens, 65

and

Villages in Baguezan mountains,
170

W

Walls of Kano, the, 27

— of Zinder, 76

Wares in native markets, 29
Water, foul, 203
Wild life of Kano, 36

— men, 190
Wireless, 137

Yashmak, 234

Zinder, 73

Zoological geography, 69, 72

Printed by lJazcl\ Walton dt Tiney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England,

V:

'r\

THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Santa Barbara

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW.

Series 9482

A 000 904 261 5