they have of their invincibility; while they are smart active fellows themselves, and both ride and move better and quicker: but the guns! the guns! are their dread; and five or six of them will go round and round a tree, where an Arab has laid down his gun for a minute, stepping on tiptoe, as if afraid of disturbing it, talking to each other in a whisper, as if the gun could understand their exclamations ; and I dare say, praying to it not to do them an injury, as fervently as ever man Friday did to Robinson Crusoe's musket. None of the Gunda Tibboos were above the middle size, slim, well made, with sharp, intelligent, copper-coloured faces, large prominent eyes, flat noses, large mouth and teeth, regular, but stained a deep red, from the immoderate use of tobacco; the forehead is h ig h a n d the turban, which is a deep indigo colour, is worn high on the head, and brought under the chin and across the face, so as to cover all the lower part from the nose downwards: they have sometimes fifteen or twenty charms, in red, green, and black leather cases, attached to the folds of their turbans. Most of them have scars on different parts of their faces : these generally denote their rank, and are considered as an ornament. Our sheikh had one under each eye, with one more on each side of his forehead, in shape resembling a half moon. Like the Arabs of the north, their chieftainships are hereditary, provided the heir is worthy; any act of cowardice disqualifies, and the command devolves upon the next in succession. Our Gunda sheikh, Mina Tahr-ben-Soogo-Lammo, was the seventh in regular succession. This tribe is called Nafra Gunda, and are always near Beere- Kashifery. My watch pleased him wonderfully at first; but after a little time, I found that looking at himself in the bright part of the inside of the case gave him the greatest satisfaction : they are vainer than the vainest. Mina Tahr had the finest clothes on that had ever been brought to Beere-Kashifery; and what to him could be so agreeable as contemplating the reflection of his own person so decked out ? I could not help giving him a small looking-glass; and he took his station in one corner of my tent for hours, surveying himself with a satisfaction that burst from his lips in frequent exclamations of joy, and which he also occasionally testified by sundry high jumps and springs into the air. Jan. 31.—After regaining the road, we moved until noon, when our horses were watered at a well called Kanimani (or the sheep’s well), where some really sweet milk was brought us in immensely large basket bottles, some holding two gallons and more. We had drank, and acknowledged its goodness, and how grateful it was to our weak stomachs, before finding out that it was camels’ milk. No traveller in Africa should imagine that this he could not bear, or that could not be endured. I t is wonderful how a man’s taste conforms itself to his necessities. Six months ago, camels’ milk would have acted upon us as an em e tic n ow we thought it a most refreshing and grateful cordial. The face of the country improved in appearance every mile. We passed along today what seemed to us a most joyous valley, smiling in flowery grasses, tulloh trees, and kossom. About mid-day, we halted in a luxurious shade, the ground covered with creeping vines of the colycinth in full blossom, which, with the red flower of the kossom which drooped over our heads, made our resting-place a little Arcadia. Towards the evening, we saw two very large black vultures (aglou, in Bornou), but were not near enough to shoot them; and at sun-set we pitched the tents, surrounded by forage for our horses, while the half-famished camels fed on the young branches of the tulloh. The place was called Auoul Mull (before Mull). Feb. 1.—By three in the morning our people commenced packing, and by daylight we moved off. The herbage, almost resembling wild corn, was often up to our horses’ knees. We killed to-day one
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