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They had just entered the country of the Bedites when two men were met, who were immediately seized by the Arabs; one was a Shooa and the other a negro. One of the Bornouese had inflicted a dreadful cut under the left ear of the negro, and, notwithstanding his wound, they led the poor fellow by a rope fastened round his neck.
Occupied in writing down the stations of the Bornou route from the mouth of one of the Sheikh's couriers. There are now two of these couriers in Mourzuk, natives of Bornou. The Sheikh corresponds with Belazee as well as with Mr. Gagliuffi. Bornouese couriers travel in pairs, lest a single one should fail if sent alone.
Various Terms employed for denoting Garden. French Woman in The Desert. Price of Slaves. Time required to go round the World. Stature of the Touaricks. Oases of Derge. Reconquest of the World by the Mahometans. Tibboo Slave-dealer. Touatee Silversmith and Blacksmith. Assassination of Major Laing. Tibboos compared to Bornouese. The Touarick Bandit again. First Encounter with the Giant Touarick.
The Bornouese word to denote a slave-hunt, as carried on by the Touaricks, is DIN, applied to private kidnapping expeditions, and means, I think, simply "theft," showing that not by war, as captives, but by "theft," "stealing," the "man-stealing" of the Apostle Paul, are slaves generally procured in Central Africa.
Their only fine manufacture is that of tobes, or vestments of cotton skilfully woven and beautifully dyed, but still not equal to those of Soudan. The Bornouese are complete negroes both in form and feature; they are ugly, simple, and good natured, but destitute of all intellectual culture. Only a few of the great fighis or doctors, of whom the sheik was one, can read the Koran.
The province of which Loggun is the capital, is called Begharmi. The people are in many respects similar to the Bornouese, with whom they are constantly at war. They possess a strong force of cavalry, clothed in suits of thick quilted armour, with helmets of the same material, easily penetrated however by bullets, though impervious to arrows.
Though a much handsomer race than the Bornouese, the Loggun people are thieves, and, judging from their chiefs, great rascals. It appeared that there were two sultans, father and son, both of whom applied to the major for poison that would not lie, to be used against each other, the younger one offering him three female slaves as a bribe.
The Bornouese crowded close upon them, and almost prevented them from moving, till Barca Gana, the shiek's generalissimo, rode up upon a fine Mandara steed, and ordered his troops to fall back. After some delay, they were ushered into the presence of the chief of Bornou.
Clapperton could not refrain from beating the merciless Bornouese and at the same time threatening to lodge the contents of his gun in his head if he repeated his cruelties. He took occasion to impress on the minds of the Arabs how unworthy it was of brave men to behave so cruelly to their prisoners, and he thoroughly shamed them into good behaviour.
Some young Bornouese ladies, who accosted Major Denham, having ventured to say a word in his favour, an attendant matron exclaimed, "Be silent, he is an uncircumcised kafir neither washes nor prays, eats pork, and will go to hell." Upon which the others screamed, and ran off. But in Houssa, this horror was not so great, and was mingled with the belief, that they possessed supernatural powers.
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