Chapter VI: Part 6

El Bekrí does not speak quite so concisely of Kaúkaú as of Kúghah: he enters a little into detail respecting the former place; he says that it was nine days from Tádmekkah, which was situate fifty days eastward from Ghánah, and forty from Ghodémis. Tádmekkah was evidently a Berber town, in the desert, while Kaúkaú was considered as belonging to Negroland; yet if we suppose Kaúkaú to have been south of Tádmekkah, or forty-nine days from Ghodémis, and little more than fifty from Ghánah, still it could not, within nine days of Tádmekkah, have been in Negroland properly so called, but only on its frontiers towards the desert. Indeed, it may be inferred from El Bekrí’s words, that its inhabitants were of Berber rather than of Negro origin. They were called by the Arabs, he says, Baẓarkáyín; they dressed _like the Blacks_, they worshipped idols _like the Blacks_, but their king was a Mohammedan. They always threw the remains of the King’s dinner into the Nile,—an expression on which but little stress can be laid. El Bekrí, in tracing the course of the Great River eastwards from Ghánah, states that fourteen days below the latter place, it entered the territory of the Seghmárah; and “opposite to the Seghmárah,” he adds, “on the other side of the river, is Kaúkaú.” Now the Seghmárah also occupied the country north of Tádmekkah; they possessed therefore, or roved over, a desert exceeding a month’s journey in extent. In so wide a compass, it conduces little to accuracy to learn that Kaúkaú stood opposite to them; and as to the river, it may have been the theoretical stream uniting the Nile of Ghánah with that of Egypt. It is plain enough that Kaúkaú, nine days from Tádmekkah, was a very different place from Kúghah on the Great River, fifteen days below Ghánah; but since Kúghah was also called Kaúkaú, it is not quite clear that El Bekrí has not confounded in some degree those two places, and ascribed to the one the characteristics of the other.[172]

In El Idrísí’s accounts of Kúghah and Kaúkaú, there is nothing so remarkable as his tone of uncertainty and the doubts uttered by him. Thus he says of Kúghah, that “it stands on the northern bank of the Nile, the waters of which are drunk by its inhabitants. It belongs to Wanghárah, _but some of the Blacks place it in Kánem_.” Again, he tells us that “Kaúkaú is the most celebrated city of Negroland: it is large, and stands on the banks of a river flowing through it from the north. _But_ many of the Blacks affirm that this city is built on the sides of a canal; _others say_, on a river running into the Nile; but the more probable opinion is, that the river of Kaúkaú has a course of many days before it reaches that city, and is afterwards lost in the sands.”[173] Doubts of this kind respecting the most important and celebrated cities of Negroland may be more naturally ascribed to ambiguity of information, than to actual want of it. Kúghah on the Great River below Ghánah, may have been confounded with Kaúghah adjoining Bornú, and thus transferred eastwards into the vicinity of Kánem. The celebrity of Kúghah (called also Kaúkaú) may have lent a semblance of importance to some place in the desert bearing apparently the latter name, and the physical geography of which was but little known.

Respecting the position of this Kaúkaú of the desert, our information is far from being satisfactory; yet it all points towards the desert fronting Houssa, or between that country and Aghades. East of Ghánah, and behind the Merásah, El Idrísí places the nomade tribe of the Beghámah. Between the Beghámah and the Azḳár who passed the summer on Ṭanṭanah, the range of hills bounding Fezzán on the south, was a distance of twenty days. Now from Kúghah to Kaúkaú, he tells us, was a journey of twenty days going _northwards_ through the country of the Beghámah. It was the natural consequence of a system which arranged the frontier of Negroland in an undeviating straight line from west to east, to suppose that a route from Negroland to the desert went northwards: but, stripped of such inference, El Idrisí’s statement amounts to this,—that Kaúkaú was twenty days distant from Kúghah, not in Negroland, but in the desert. Again, when speaking of Ṭanṭanah and the Azḳár, he says, “further south are Kaúkaú and the Demdem;” and then repeating the various opinions current respecting the river of Kaúkaú, he adds, “the country contiguous to this territory (Kaúkaú) on the east, is chiefly that of Kawwár, well known and much frequented.” The well-known country of Kawwár lies half-way between Fezzán and Bornú, westward of which situation, and consequently in the desert, we must look for Kaúkaú. Obscure as these indications are in many respects, they are conclusive in showing that Kaúkaú, according to the Arab author’s conception, was in the desert, between Kúghah and Kawwár, Ṭanṭanah and the country of the Demdem.[174]

Ibn Sʿaíd, who wrote in the latter half of the thirteenth century, or above a century later than El Idrísí, after stating that Kánem is the greatest kingdom of Negroland, that it has Fezzán on the north, and that it is the head of Bornú, adds, that it has on the west Kaúkaú, Baghárah or Taghárah, Tekrúr, &c. He says also, that “from Tádmekkah to Kaúkaú are ten stages, from Kaúkaú to Ghánah twenty; then follows the Ocean.” The reduced distance here allowed between Tádmekkah and Ghánah, may have arisen from confounding the Kaúkaú of the desert with the city of the same name (called also Kúghah and Kághó) on the Great River. But on one point Ibn Sʿaíd speaks clearly, namely, that Kaúkaú was not comprised in the kingdom of Kánem, which then included Bornú and part of the desert, but lay further west, between Tádmekkah and Ghánah.

Numerous as are the Arab writers of Geographical Treatises and Dictionaries, it is vain to seek in their pages for any information on so obscure a point as the position of Kaúkaú. They all copy preceding writers literally, particularly El Idrísí; and on opening their volumes, we are almost sure of reading, that “Kaúkaú stands on a river of the same name, coming from the north, and afterwards sinking in the sands of the desert, though some say,” &c. Yet they present one striking variance; many, if not even a large majority of them write, not Kaúkaú, but Karkar. It may be said, indeed, that in Arabic writing, Kaúkaú is easily changed into Karkar, and that the latter name is probably only a clerical corruption of the former.[175] But can it be shown _à priori_ that there could not have been a city or country named Karkar? and is not the readiness to suppose the corruption of Kaúkaú into Karkar, itself the result of a prejudice founded on the celebrity of the former of these names, and which was likely at all times to prompt copiers and compilers to a corruption of an opposite kind, namely, that of Karkar into Kaúkaú? Of two names resembling each other, the more famous and better known may be well presumed to have had the benefit of all doubts in the process of transcription; while on the other hand, if there were actually two important places named Kaúkaú in Negroland, it is inconceivable that Arab travellers visiting that region should have never called attention to so remarkable an instance of homonymy; nay, that Arab Geographers should never have even suspected the existence of two places of that name, but should have uniformly endeavoured to draw to a single point the double image before their eyes. The manifest double use of the name Kaúkaú; the remarkable absence of all direct testimony as to the existence of two places of that name; and the various readings of geographers compiling from the same authorities, being maturely considered, it is impossible to avoid concluding, that there actually were not two places named Kaúkaú, but that there was in the desert a tract called Karkar, which Arab authors easily transformed into Kaúkaú. They separated this well-known name from the names Kúghah and Kághó, with which it had no apparent relationship, and set it on Karkar, wherewith it almost naturally coincided.[176]

But is there any direct and positive evidence, it will be asked, of the existence of a place or territory named Karkar? Yes, we reply, there is direct evidence to that effect, sufficient to confirm the authority of the numerous Arab geographers who write Karkar instead of Kaúkaú. Ibn Baṭúṭah informs us that the Desert of Káhir, eastward of Tekaddá, belonged to the Karkarí Sultan.[177] There is here no possibility of confusion; Kaúkaú, which that traveller had visited, was included in the empire of Málí; and Tekaddá, an independent state, stood between that place and Káhir, depending on the Karkarí. But Káhir had ʿAhír, the desert of the Tawárik, on the north and east; Tekaddá on the west; and southwards it extended—as we learn from Leo, who calls it Ghír—to the frontiers of Guber: in this latter direction, then, we may naturally look for the head quarters of the Karkarí.

A modern writer, who has collected much, but not always distinct information relating to the interior of Africa, after mentioning the Kadarko (probably the Kotú-n-kúra) and the Shaderbah (the river of Kábi), adds,—“some of these rivers open a communication with a tribe of heathens named Gargari, who live in tents, and are not black, but a red- skinned people, yet they are not of the Arabian stock. The best breeds of horses and mules come from these parts.”[178] This is evidently a description of a Berber tribe, whose loose observance of the Mohammedan rites has caused them to be mistaken for pagans. They reared their horses and mules in the desert, and visited the high countries of Kachenah, Zamfarah, and Gúber, whence the rivers alluded to descend. Clapperton found the Tawárik near Kachenah to be in possession of a remarkably fine breed of horses. The same traveller learned that, five days south of Katagum there is an independent people named Kurrikurry, probably a colony of the Karkari who have fixed themselves on the eastern slopes of the hills of Baúshi.[179] In a route from Kanó to Tomboktú, described by an intelligent native of the former place, the following names occur in succession:—Berni-Kachenah (Berni means city), Berni-Gurgar, Zamfarah, Ulumdar, Mallay, Galefaty and Asben. Ulumdar is the name of one of the Arab tribes frequenting Houssa; Mallay means a town belonging to the indigenous population, or the Mallawa; Galefaty (Kiliwatí, in the Houssa language Kiliwawa) is the town of the Kiliwah, a Berber tribe; and Berni-Gurgar, on the frontier between Kachenah and Zamfarah, is probably the chief place of the Karkarí.[180]

The obscurity and indistinctness which hung over the most important place in Negroland being thus removed, there still remains the inquiry, whether Kúghah, Kaúkaú, or Kághó, still exists and flourishes; has it mouldered to decay, or does it still retain the pre-eminence which we know it to have held during at least six centuries? These questions, in the present state of our information, cannot be answered with perfect confidence. The brief journal of Amadi Fatouma, the only survivor of Park’s second expedition, seems to contain no mention of Kághó. But without the original of that journal, how can a critic decide peremptorily as to its contents? Is there nothing to awaken suspicion in the published translation of that journal; or is it not possible, nay even probable, that the name there read Kaffo was really Kághó?[181] Bowdich says, that the places passed on the river below Tomboktú are Uzzalin, Googara, Koolmanna, Gauw, &c. The last-named place is in Marra; Koolmanna is probably the Gourmon of Amadi Fatouma, in the kingdom of Ghurma; and Googara is Kúghah, the burr of the letter ghain being represented by an _r_.[182] Mohammed Másíní, in his description of the Kowára, places on its banks, ten days below Tomboktú, a city named Ghagró, which name, as we have neither the original document, nor an explanation of the translator’s mode of representing the Arabic letters, we feel justified in supposing to be intended for Kághó.[183] Finally, in an account of the travels of an Egyptian-Arab, procured by Major Laing, are the following words:—“To the westward, between Houssa (Kachenah) and Yawoori [this is an indication of direction by the traveller in Núfí] is situated on the Niger, a town of immense magnitude and importance, called Kuku (Kaúkaú), of the power of which surrounding tribes stand in much awe.” These allusions, taken together, seem to warrant the conclusion that Kúghah, Kághó, or Kaúkaú still exists and flourishes.[184]

The argument urged above to show that Kaúkaú is often written for Karkar may be thus briefly stated: Kaúkaú is described by Arab geographers with impossible conditions, the analysis of which shows that either there were two places named Kaúkaú, or two places not so named indeed, but of which the written names were so much alike, that, in nine cases out of ten, they would be both read Kaúkaú; and this is the preferable opinion. Having thus decided that the eastern Kaúkaú, or rather Karkar—as it shall be called hereafter for the sake of avoiding ambiguity—was the territory extending from the vicinity of the modern Aghades, to the frontiers of Gúber and Kachenah, we must now give a little attention to its river. Enough is known of Negroland in that quarter, to render it certain that a river described in such doubtful language, must belong to the desert. Streams flow southward from the mountains of Muḳsim near Aghades, and one of these was probably the river of Karkar.[185] Passing through this place, it turns westward (or rather south-westward), and then, according to some accounts, it winds towards the desert (or northward), and is lost in the sands. But some say that it joins the Nile (the Great River, or Kowára); and as the country north-west of the Quorrama is described as being well watered, and having rivers flowing through it to the Kowára, the river of Karkar may be assumed with probability to be one of them.[186]

* * * * *

[Footnote 170: Not. et Extr. p. 649. Leo (pt. VII. c. 7) says, that not above half or a third of the gold brought to Gago could find purchasers. Cowries were imported into Kúghah, and they were also the money of Gago. A Spanish writer (D. Jorge de Mendoza Dafranca) says of Muley Hamed,—“He increased his empire by the conquest of Gago and Tumbocotum, whence they bring an immense quantity of gold. And here I must state as a curious fact, that in the taking of Gago there was found, in that place, a piece of artillery, bearing the arms of Portugal; a small image of Our Lady, and a metal crucifix.” (Papeles Curiosas, in the Egerton Collection, Brit. Mus. Additional MSS. No. 10,262, p. 235).]

[Footnote 171: Ramusio, 1554, tom. I. Navig. di Aluise Ca da Mosto, c. XIII.]

[Footnote 172: Not. et Extr. p. 656.]

[Footnote 173: Jaubert’s Idrísí, pp. 21, 22, 116.]

[Footnote 174: Jaubert’s Idrísí, pp. 116, 117.]

[Footnote 175: Hartmann (Commentatio de Geogr. Afr. Edrísianâ, p. 43) says, that Ibnu-l Wardi alone has Karkar. But this is a hasty assertion. The Kitábu-l-jʿarafíah, above cited, has also Karkar; and of four Geographical Dictionaries among the Arabic MSS. in the Library of the British Museum, viz., Nos. 7497, 7503, 7504, and 7505, the first three read Karkar. Ibnu-l Wardi sometimes writes Karkarah.]

[Footnote 176: Kaúkaú كوكو in ordinary Arabic writing can hardly be distinguished from كركر, and the latter name is thus assumed to be the former.]

[Footnote 177: Ibn Baṭúṭah writes “es-Sultan el-Karkarí,” the latter word expressing not Sultan’s dominion, but his native country or tribe.]

[Footnote 178: Dupuis, in the passage referred to (Resid. in Ashantee, App. 55), says, that the Moslem merchants of Benin trade with the Gargari by means of those rivers. It is evident that he has here mistaken Bini, a name given by the people of Houssa to the countries adjoining Núfí, and even to Bornú (Clapperton’s Second Expedition p. 103), for Benin.]

[Footnote 179: Clapperton points out the situation of the Kurrikurry in the journal of his first expedition, II. p. 246. He speaks of the Tawárik horses in p. 317.]

[Footnote 180: About twenty years ago, M. Andrada, the Portuguese Minister in Brazil, collected much information from the natives of Houssa whom he found there in slavery. The most interesting portion of it was transmitted by M. Menézes de Drummond, to the Journal des Voyages, and afterwards appeared in the German periodical the Hertha, July 1827, whence it is here quoted.]

[Footnote 181: Park’s Second Journey, 8vo. p. 288. In coarse Arabic manuscript, Kaffo would be hardly distinguishable from Kagho.]

[Footnote 182: Bowdich’s Account of a Mission to Ashantee, p. 199.]

[Footnote 183: Clapperton’s Second Journey, p. 330.]

[Footnote 184: Journal of Science, edited at the British Institution, vol. XIV. 1823, p. 8.]

[Footnote 185: The rivers in ʿAhír on the northern side of Muḳsim (Walckenaer, Rech. p. 448) can hardly be supposed to flow southwards. But the Tatar merchant Wargee (Asiatic Journal, 1823, p. 16) also speaks of a great river one day’s journey south of Aghades; though perhaps it was one of those rivers which have but a short existence after the rains (Walckenaer, Rech. p. 450).]

[Footnote 186: Clapperton’s Second Expedition, App. 332, 333.]

LEMLEM.

Remrem — Demdem — Yemyem — Al-Límiyín.

“Going along the river,” says El Bekrí, “westwards from Kaúkaú (Karkar), you come to the country of the Remrem (or Demdem), who eat all who fall into their hands.” This sentence is copied verbatim by the greater number of the Arab geographers. El Idrísí however satisfies himself with merely stating that south of Ṭanṭanah are Kaúkaú (Karkar) and the Demdem; leaving it to be inferred that the last-named people are furthest south. From what has been said of the position of Karkar and the course of its river, it will be apparent that the Demdem, being negroes and savages, must have been situate, not due west, but rather south-west of that place, and consequently must be sought in the hills of Kábi, facing the desert, and still inhabited at the present day by a wild and intractable race.[187]

In all accounts of Central Africa, from the time of El Bekrí to the present day, mention is made of cannibals variously called Remrem, Lemlem, Demdem, Yemyem, or N’yumn’yum. These names differ only in the consonants employed, one liquid being changed for another, except in the case of Demdem, which might be naturally an oral corruption of Remrem; if it be not merely a variety originating in error of transcription.[188] Are we then to believe that there are so many different nations of cannibals in Negroland, bearing names so singularly related to one another? Or is it not more likely that these various names are but modifications of one, which being the nickname of a particular class of savages, would be naturally carried about to the slave markets, and fashioned to suit the genius of every language which adopted it?[189] It is true that El Idrísí speaks of Lemlem and Demdem as of two distinct countries; but the position of his Lemlem depends on the westward course of the Great River to Ghaïárú, the absurdity of which has been already pointed out; and this error being corrected, his Lemlem and Demdem will be found to coincide.

In modern accounts of Negroland, frequent mention is made of a race of cannibals, styled Yemyem or N’yemn’yem; and every precise indication of them, from whatever quarter it may come, points to the same spot, namely the hilly country extending southward from Kanó.[190] The Yemyem of the present day, therefore, dwell at no great distance from the site of the Demdem of earlier ages. They occupy the remote continuation of the chain of mountains once inhabited by the latter: and if the changes necessarily effected in the northern part of that region, or Houssa, by the introduction of Mohammedism, the influx of Berbers, Zagháï, and Fellátah, be duly considered, together with the fact that a wild people still keep possession of the hills on the frontier of the desert, it will appear a natural inference that the reproach of cannibalism, or the barbarity itself, has receded, owing to the progress of civilization, and that the Yemyem are the Demdem, changed in site and appellation only by the variations of the medium through which we view them.

If the Yemyem or N’yemn’yem of the present day be not the same people as the Lemlem, Remrem, or Demdem of early writers, it must then be inquired, What has become of these latter?[191] To deny such identity is to plunge back into obscurity: to suppose nations of negroes become extinct, or—a still bolder hypothesis—to have wholly changed their character. On the other hand, the supposition that the Baúwa (or Slaves) in the hills south of Kanó, to the remoter portion of whom the epithet Yemyem is now applied, once occupied the hills of Zamfara and Kábi, and were stigmatised as Demdem or cannibals, reconciles ancient with modern authorities; it attributes a just permanence to a great moral feature of Negroland, depending on peculiarity of race, modelled by physical circumstances; and it adjusts with remarkable precision the geographical elements involved in the question, assigning to the Demdem a position, which exactly coincides with that deduced from the statements connecting them with Karkar and the Great River. It may be assumed as certain, therefore, that the Demdem peopled the hills of the country now called Houssa.[192]

There is another name, much less known than Lemlem or Demdem, and apparently more comprehensive, applied to the inhabitants of the same region. Ibn Baṭúṭah says that Múlí, on the Great River, where the empire of Málí terminated, was in the country of the Límí (Al-Límiyín); and again, he says that Yúfí (Núfí) was in the country of the Límí; whence it is evident that the people so named were on the left bank of the river. The Blacks at Sofálah, he adds, were tattooed like the Límí of Genéwah, the latter name being in this instance used in the wide sense in which it was generally understood in the systematic geography of the Arabs. The practice of tattooing the body all over in fine patterns, is confined, in Central Africa, to the people of Marra. The Límí were said to wear clothing made of a plant called _worzi_, capable of resisting fire. The productions of their land seem to have been in general of a marvellous description.[193]

We are told that in the country of the Remrem or Demdem was a castle, whereon was a statue of a woman, adored by the people; and it is remarkable that in the traditions of Houssa the history of Zegzeg begins with the conquests of a female. It matters not that her name is Arabicised or her antiquity underrated by the native Chroniclers; they leave untouched the essence of the tradition, which is, that Zegzeg was founded by a heroine.[194]

* * * * *

[Footnote 187: Not. et Extr. tom. XII. p. 655. Jaubert’s Idrísí, p. 116.]

[Footnote 188: The _l_ of the Arabs and _r_ of the Africans so often displace each other, that the change of Lemlem into Remrem is quite regular. In Arabic writing Remrem is hardly distinguishable from Demdem, which might therefore have originated in the ambiguous characters of the former name. But it will be shown further on, that in Marra (adjoining the original Demdem) the _r_ is often changed into _d_.]

[Footnote 189: It may be naturally presumed that the slave market, whence the designation first proceeded, was that of Ghánah, and therefore that its meaning should be found in the language of Tomboktú or territory of Ghánah. Now in that language _lemlem_ signifies _to eat_ (Caillié, tom. III. p. 311); and if the Kissúr be as simple in its construction as the Mandingo, it also signifies an _eater_ or cannibal. Thus from _domo_, to eat, in Mandingo, comes the verbal noun _domo_, in the plural _domolu_, eaters—not man-eaters, as it is translated by Park (First Journey, p. 217), who writes _dummulo_—the name with which the Bambarans stigmatize their neighbours the Maniana.]

[Footnote 190: Burckhardt (Trav. in Nubia, p. 441) mentions the Yemyem without assigning their position. Einsiedel (Cuhn’s Merkw. Reis. III. p. 436) vaguely connects them with Kanó. Hornemann (Trav. p. 119) sets them ten days south of the same place. Clapperton (Denh. and Clapp. Disc. II. p. 248) learned that the Baúwa in the country of Jacoba, between Kanó and Adamawa, are styled Yemyem; though Sultan Bello (Clapp. Sec. Exped. p. 250) removed the reproach of cannibalism to the country of Umburm, adjoining Jacoba. Hutchison also was informed in Ashantí (Bowdich’s Mission, &c. p. 203), that the Yemyem are in Quollaliffa, and couples their name with that of Dall, a mountainous district, a few days south of Kanó. According to Abdu-r-Raḥmán Aga, the informant of Niebuhr (Deutches Museum, 1790), the Yemyem are in Adamawa. Again, Lander (Exped. to the Niger, III. p. 83) was told that the journey from Funda to Bornú might be accomplished in fifteen days, and that the only dangerous place on the road was the country of the Yemyem. Browne (Trav. in Afr. p. 356) and others who have gathered their information on the eastern side of the desert, speak of cannibals under the name of Gnumgnum (N’yemn’yem), in vague terms, not indicating their situation. But a Tatar merchant named Wargee, who visited Cape Coast in 1822, stated that the Namnam (as he called them) were fifteen days south of Kanó, a distance reaching to the country of Jacoba. The ocular testimony of this intelligent man (Asiatic Journal, vol. XVI. p. 19), and of Sultan Bello, seems fully to establish the fact that cannibals exist in the quarter indicated.]

[Footnote 191: It must not be supposed that Yemyem is the native name of any country or people south of Kanó: it is a foreign term applied with more or less vagueness to the inhabitants of that region. The misery and degradation of a people marked out especially as the prey of the slave hunter, exposes them to the imputation of cannibalism, which draws on them fresh injuries. Lander (Clapp. Second Exped. p. 292), on his way southwards from Kanó to Funda, saw at Fali-n-dúshi (the White rocks) for the first time, a people completely naked and ready to sell their offspring. But the natives of Zamfara also go nearly naked (Clapp. p. 178): the Kombori in Kotú-n-kúra, are still treated as Demdem (id. p. 146), and the pagan negroes near the desert (id. p. 334) are certainly not placed in circumstances more secure or favourable to civilization than the Baúwa further south. The change effected in Houssa by Mohammedism, and the influx of strangers, may be learned by comparing together the descriptions of that country by Clapperton and Leo Africanus. The latter writer (pt. VII. c. 11) knew of no city named Kachenah; the villages of the country so called were small and of the meanest construction; the people were of the deepest black, with noses and lips disproportionately large. He speaks of the people of Zamfara (c. 13) in still less flattering terms, concluding that “they are rather brutes than men.”]

[Footnote 192: On the eastern side of the desert, the Shillúks are pointed out as a remarkably barbarous people, but yet they are not styled Yemyem. In the west, the people of Bambara accuse their neighbours, the people of Maniana (the Manegnan of Caillié), of cannibalism, yet without applying to them the epithet Lemlem, Demdem, or Yemyem. From east to west there is but the one spot to which this name is constantly and distinctly given. With respect to the Manegnan (or rather Manegna, the nasal final being superfluous) it may be suspected that the imputation cast on them by their enemies has its origin in tradition, and that they are descendants of the Manes, reputed cannibals who overran the coast in the latter half of the fifteenth century.]

[Footnote 193: Al-Límiyín الليميين. This name occurs three or four times in Ibn Baṭúṭah’s Narrative. M. Quatremère (Not. et Extr. 650) has read it Lâmes, in the unpointed Parisian MS. of El Bekrí. May not the Worzi be the Bordi (Walck. Rech. p. 448) of the Moors? Marmol (vol. I. fol. 31) quoting Ibn Gezzar, places the people called Lime (Límí) in Genéwah on the eastern side of the desert (that is, in the eastern part of the western division of the desert), between the cities of Rafin and Cuco. Rafin might be easily read for Rágha in Arabic text. Cuco is probably Kaúkaú or Kághó: it elsewhere occurs in the same author (vol. I. fol. 34, and II. fol. 221), but evidently referring to the place so named in the province of Algiers (Peyssonel et Desfontaines, Voy. dans la Régence d’Alger, &c., 1838, tom. I. p. 380). Marmol again places the Limin (Límiyín) (fol. 45) between the Zinj and Western Ocean, and calls them savages. All his hints combined show that they possessed the interior of Houssa.]

[Footnote 194: Not. et Extr. p. 655. The founder of the state of Zegzeg, which includes Baúshí, was ʿAmenáh, according to Bello (Denham’s Disc. II. p. 450). Lander (Clapp. p. 290), who learned a different version of her history, says that she built a town called Almena. May not the remarkable rocks described by him, on the hill above that town, have given rise to the story of the statue?]

NEGROLAND DIVIDED INTO NATIONS.

Ibn Khaldún, after making some prefatory remarks on the origin and genealogy of the Blacks, borrows from an earlier writer the following account of the nations into which they were supposed to be divided:—

“Ibn Sʿaíd, a most diligent writer, enumerates nineteen nations of Blacks, beginning with the Zinj on the shores of the Indian Ocean, who have a city called Mombásah. They profess idolatry, and are the same people who in the reign of Al-Muʿatamid, seized on the city of Baṣrah; where great numbers of them were in slavery. They took up arms against their masters, and, assisted by the Zinj, got possession of the city.[195]

“Near the Zinj are the Berber, among whom Islamism made great progress. They have a city named Maḳdishó, which is partly inhabited by Mohammedan merchants. In their country are the people called Demádem, who go naked. It is recorded in history that these made an irruption into Abyssinia and Nubia, exactly at the time when the Tatars invaded Irak. After laying waste the country, however, they retreated homewards.[196]

“Adjoining the Berber are the Abyssinians, the most numerous and powerful of the Blacks. From their country Yemen once had its kings. The king of the Abyssinians was entitled Al-Negáshí, and the capital of his kingdom was the city of Kʿaber. The Abyssinians are Christians, but it is said that one of their kings embraced the true faith when Mohammed visited their country in the Hijra. They believe that they are destined to become masters of Yemen and all Arabia.[197]

“Next to the Abyssinians are the Bojá, a mixed nation of Christians and Mohammedans, who possess Suwákin, an island in the sea of As-Suweís (the Red Sea).[198] They have for neighbours the Nubians, who are brethren of the Zinj and Abyssinians, and have, on the west of the Nile, a city called Donḳalah. They are chiefly Christians, and border on Egypt, where many of them are sold as slaves. Adjoining them are the Zagháwah, who are Mohammedans, and from whom are sprung the Tájúah.[199]

“Next comes Al-Kánem, a populous kingdom, wherein the true faith is largely disseminated. Its capital city is Jíma. At one time the people of Kánem held the whole Ṣaḥrá in subjection; their ascendency being due to their intimacy with the Sultans of the house of Ḥafṣ, when this dynasty flourished in its prime.[200]

“Next to the people of Kánem, on the west, are the people of Kaúkaú, and after them Beghárah, and At-Tekrúr, and Kimi, and Yemyem, and Jábi, and Kúra, and Inkizár; by the side of the ocean towards the west they reach the people of Ghánah in the west. What precedes has been copied from Ibn Sʿaíd’s work.”[201]

It is observable that the names in this list of places or countries lying west of Kánem (nine in number) are not recognized at all, or not confidently, by modern geographers. But before we proceed to determine the position of each of them, it will be advantageous to examine the information which Makrízí, in quoting Ibn Sʿaíd, adds to that of his author.[202] His words are as follows:—“Al-Kánem is an extensive region watered by the blessed Nile, and distant a ten days’ journey from the borders of At-Tájú. In that country (Kánem) are naked Blacks, among whom are the Iklí, ruled by a just and mighty king; and Afnú, whose King, called Mastúr, guards his wives with extreme jealousy. Near this is another kingdom named Mambó, next to which lie Kátakúmá, Kátakú, and Ibkarem (Bekarmi), and another kingdom greater than the preceding, named Rábúmá (Umburm), the great kingdom of Haúdama (Adamawa), and the tribe of Ankarú, rich in herds, flocks, and elephants.[203] Next to these are the tribes Shádí, Mábiná, Abham, Atʿaná, Yáfalam, and Makabá, who are all naked Blacks, and hold clothed men in derision. The tribe of Mábiná is the most numerous, and the chief part of it is called Kálkín.[204] This region is covered with great trees and with pools from the overflowing of the Nile. It was invaded in the year 650 (A.D. 1252-3) by the King of Kánem, who killed many of the natives, or led them into slavery. Beyond this, westward to Kaúkaú, are many populous tribes, of which those next to Mábiná are the Adermá and Dafúmú, among whom are Mohammedan temples. Also the Abkalá (Ankalá), who have camels, wear skins for clothing, and are accounted unbelievers; and the Túkámá, who dwell on the borders of At-Tájú, possess palm-trees, and drink of the Nile. Al-Kánem is the greatest kingdom of Negroland, and has on the west Kaúkaú, then Baḳárah, Tekrúr, Nama, Temím, Já, and Inkizár, which extend in the west from the ocean to Ghánah.”[205]

In this list of countries or tribes lying within the circle, as it were, of Kánem, the name Afnú, given by the people of Bornú to the adjacent part of Houssa, stands conspicuous, and cannot fail to be recognized. The Arab writer appears to have commenced his survey from a prominent point, the Iklí being probably on the frontier of Negroland, between Afnú and the desert.[206] Kátakúmá may also be fairly assumed to be the Katagum of Clapperton; the writer therefore proceeds eastwards or south- eastwards, and consequently Mambó or Manbú will be near the country called Anbur by the English traveller. Continuing in the same course, he necessarily arrives at Kátakú and Bekarmi, having thus traced the frontiers of the independent tribes of Bornú facing Kánem.[207] He then seems to make the tour of the hilly country forming the remote boundary of the same region; but, it must be confessed, that this portion of his path is less easily investigated, and leaves a larger scope to conjecture. However it is a natural supposition that he enumerates the chief nations or tribes behind the line already traced, and so, eastward from Bekarmi, are Rábúmá (Umburm, a kingdom near Jacoba), Haúdama (ʿAdám, or, in the language of Houssa, Adamawa), and Ankarú (Angarú), the western part of Bornú.[208]

Adjoining these, we should expect to find Baúshí, with its decried inhabitants; and accordingly our author here names several tribes of savages “who hold clothed men in derision.” Shádí is certainly the name of a place in Baúshí; but we must not yield to the temptation of detecting resemblances of names which may easily prove deceitful.[209] It is more important to consider the force of the words “from Mábiná westwards to Kaúkaú,” from which it may be concluded that Mábiná lay towards Kaúkaú, or was the north-westernmost point of the region described, and consequently that the Arab author proceeds in a circle, agreeably to our hypothesis, and terminates at a point in Afnú whence he first started. His picture, too, of a region covered with great trees and pools from the overflowing of the Nile, corresponds exactly with the physical character of Zegzeg and Zamfara.[210] The invasion by the King of Kánem for the purpose of carrying off slaves, further confirms the supposition that the country described was Houssa and Baúshí. What other region had equal attractions for the slave hunter,—or where else could be found a long line of savage tribes extending to the frontiers of the desert and of Kaúkaú? Next to the Mábiná, towards the desert, followed the Adermá and Dafúmú, who were not strangers to the Mohammedan rites; and then came the Túkámá (Togáma) and Angála, of whom the former have given their name to a place in the desert not far from Kachenah, while similar traces of the latter remain on the shores of Lake Chad.[211] The Túkáma of Makrízí, it is true, were on the east of Kánem, near Tajúah; but so easily do the tribes of the desert change their dwellings, that there is no improbability in the supposition that the same tribe subsequently spread westwards and settled near Houssa.

In considering the interpretation here offered of Makrízí’s statement, less weight is to be allowed to the resemblance of names than to the order, coherence, and accordance with probability which the whole passage acquires from the mode of viewing it. Some points in it may be obscure; but others, as Afnú and Katagum, hardly admit of doubt; and we feel justified, therefore, in concluding that the nations or countries, as Kaúkaú, Baḳárah, Tekrúr, &c., which Makrízí (copying Ibn Sʿaíd) arranges west of Kánem, are all excluded from the region above described—that is to say, from Bornú and the hills of Baúshí and Houssa immediately encompassing it on the west.

In endeavouring to ascertain the positions of the various nations mentioned by early Arab writers as extending across Negroland, it will be advantageous to compare the whole series of those nations with the list of kingdoms arranged by Leo Africanus in the same line. For this purpose Ibn Sʿaíd’s list shall be inverted, or taken from west to east; and then the names which are clearly related being placed opposite to each other, we shall have the geography of Negroland in the latter half of the thirteenth century, contrasted with that of the beginning of the sixteenth, as in the following table:—

IBN SʿAÍD. LEO.

Ghánah ············ Gualata.

Ghinea.

Melli.

{ Tombuto.
Inkizár ···········{
{ Gago.

Guber.

Kúra.

Agadez.

Jábí.

Cano.

Yemyem.

Casena.

Kimí.

Zegzeg.

Tekrúr.

Zanfara.

Baghárah.

Guangara.

Kaúkaú.

Kánem ············ Borno.

Gaoga.

Zagháwah.

Núbah ············ Nubia.

Here then, in the first place, it is manifest that Ghánah coincides with Gualata (Walata). The salient point of Negroland towards the north-west ranks as the extreme west, and the countries which lie to the south, though extending further westward, are placed after it. Hence the Ghinea and Melli of Leo, both supposed by him to reach the ocean, nevertheless follow Gualata.

From the southern countries, Ghinea and Melli, Leo turns eastwards down the river to Tombuto and Gago; and thence proceeds across the desert to Guber, on the northern frontiers of Houssa. Ibn Sʿaíd, on the other hand, goes in two steps from Ghánah to Kúra, the western frontier (as will be seen further on) of the same region. He seems to take the straight road through Negroland to the eastern settlements of the Tekrúrí, while Leo keeps to the desert and the roads frequented by Moorish merchants. Inkizár then appears to be the region encompassed by the great circuit of the river between Jenni and Kághó. Its collective name, little known to geographers, probably never enjoyed political importance, but it seems still to survive in the name of the language called by Caillié the Kissour. This language extends from Jenni down the river to Tomboktú, where it is spoken, as the same traveller informs us, by the negro or indigenous population. But there is no authority for supposing that it extends no further eastward than Tomboktú; and it seems more reasonable to enlarge the limits of a language occupying so important a position, so that it may fill the area encircled by the river, and comprise Kághó (the Gago of Leo) in its domain. Inkizár then was a kingdom situate on the right bank of the Great River, between Jenni, Tomboktú, and Kághó, of which the political fabric has long since fallen to ruin, while a vestige of the original bond of unity still remains in the Kissour language.[212]

From Gago Leo passes to Guber, on the northern frontier of Houssa; then to Agadez, which is more easterly; then to Cano and Casena, lying further south; then to Zegzeg and Zanfara, still more in the rear, till at length he arrives at Guangara (Wanghárah), which fills the remote interior. But he shows his imperfect acquaintance with Houssa, by setting Casena (Kachenah) on the east of Cano (Kanó), and Zanfara in like manner on the east of Zegzeg. It is not surprising, therefore, that he should place Guangara on the east of Zanfara. He may possibly have confounded (like some modern writers) Angarú, the western province of Bornú, with Wanghárah or Guangara; but it is more likely that his information was substantially good, and that he knew Wanghárah to be a region extending widely at some distance from Houssa; but his systematical ideas left no room for such expansion south-westward from Houssa, and consequently he was obliged to shift Wanghárah to the south- east. Since Nufí and the other comparatively industrious countries on the Great River, are not expressly named by him, it may be fairly presumed that they were included in his Wanghárah.[213]

Ibn Sʿaíd, in like manner, passes from Inkizár to Houssa; not however to the northern part of this country next to the desert, but to its western side near the river. He goes not in the track of the merchant or slave dealer, but in that of the slave hunter. It may appear indeed difficult at first sight to recognize any part of Houssa in the names Kúra, Jábí, &c., but a little patient examination will dissipate the obscurity which involves them, and concentrate on them so many rays of probability as to guide us safely through the difficulties encompassing the first steps of our inquiry.

In the Geographical Dictionary of Yakút, an earlier writer than Ibn Sʿaíd, and who is copied with little change by Abú-l-fedá, the names Kúra and Jábí occur together, with such explanatory details as to prove that the former is applied to the river Kowára, while the latter (probably pronounced Gábí) seems meant for Kábí. It is there stated that the King of Kaúkaú (Kághó) wages war with the moslim of Ghánah on the west, and with those of Tekrúr on the east; and that a little to the east of Kaúkaú is the Lake Kúra, which must consequently be near Tekrúr: and, indeed, the author adds, that it is navigated by the Tekrúri and their neighbours dwelling on its northern bank. On the shores of this lake is Jábí, near the capital of which flows the Nile of Ghánah, so that the continuity of the Nile of Ghánah with Lake Kúra seems to be here offered as a fact; and this statement must not be set in the same category with the theory afterwards enunciated by the Arab geographer, that Lake Kúra is the common source from which issue the Niles of Ghánah, of Egypt, and of Maḳdishó.[214]

The same authors inform us that the tribes inhabiting the countries near Lake Kúra were cannibals: among the people of Jábí, whoever died was eaten by his neighbours. No one had ever seen the south side of the lake, but it was known that, at its remote end, it branched into two; and that by some means it extended westward into Kánem, whence flowed the Nile of Egypt. Now at the present day, the Kowára is generally called by the natives a lake; its name, written by them, is Lake Kúra; it is thought by them to join the sea, or rather to become a sea, a little below Núfí; they are quite ignorant of its southern termination, but know that it separates into what they consider as two branches, by one of which (the Chadda) it is supposed to communicate with Lake Chad, in Kánem and Bornú, and thence to mingle its waters with those of the Egyptian Nile.[215] In the country adjoining the Kowára and the Chadda are still found the Yemyem or cannibals. Thus it appears that the rudiments of the geographical system of the thirteenth century, so far as regards the waters of Central Africa, were precisely the same which now compose the native accounts of the Kowára, and its supposed continuation, the Chadda.[216]

Next to Jábí, in the east, Ibn Sʿaíd places Yemyem, then Kimi, of which we are unable to give any account. Next to that, and towards the north perhaps, he sets Tekrúr; then Baghárah, probably a tribe of the desert, and then Kaúkaú, after which comes Kánem.[217] Leo, on the other hand, passes from Guangara (Wanghárah) eastwards to Bornú, which coincides sufficiently well with the Kánem of Ibn Sʿaíd to serve with it as an established point of adjustment. He then goes to Gaoga, a kingdom extending, according to him, from Bornú to Nubia, and which appears to be the Kaúghah placed by some modern inquirers in the Baḥr el-Gazel. At all events care must be taken not to confound the Kaúkaú of Ibn Sʿaíd, which lay beyond the north-western bounds of Kánem and Bornú, with the Kaughah of Leo, on the east of the latter kingdom.[218] East of Kánem stands Zagháwah in Ibn Sʿaíd’s list, and beyond that Núbah, which coincides with Leo’s Nubia.

The results obtained by comparing Ibn Sʿaíd’s list of Negro nations with that furnished by Leo, are not, in a general view, of a doubtful character. At the extreme west, the coincidence of Ghánah with Walata is manifest. It is hardly less certain that Inkizár is the country embraced by the Great River, between Jenni and Kághó, and in which the Kissour (perhaps rather N’Kiṣár) language prevails. Though the Kánem of Ibn Sʿaíd and the Bornú of Leo do not exactly coincide, yet they approach so nearly to coincidence as to serve for terms of adjustment in the compared schemes. The tracts extending therefore between Inkizár and Kánem, in the one author, and from Gago to Bornú, in the other, may be said to lie between the same meridians, and to contain either the same countries under different names, or contiguous and intermingled countries. Now within those limits Leo describes the greater part of Houssa, proceeding, or meaning to proceed, from west to east, and from north to south. Ibn Sʿaíd, commencing with Kúra, goes on to Tekrúr and Kaúkaú, evidently from west to east, and from south to north. Tekrúr extended westwards from Zamfara (which may indeed have been included in it) to the desert, and therefore Kúra, Jábí or Gábí, Yemyem and Kimí, were all south-westward of the countries of Houssa named by Leo.[219] There can be little doubt that Kúra was a district situate on the Great River, the name of which is variously written or pronounced Kúra, Kuḍa, Quorra or Quolla. Jábí was Kábí, to the east (or south-east) of which lay Yowí or Yúfí (the modern Núfí), on the northern shore of Lake Kúra, and under which, as we are also informed, flowed the Nile of Ghánah.[220]

The difference between Ibn Sʿaíd and Leo in their modes of viewing the same region, may be naturally ascribed to changes in the channels and manner of intercourse with it. The people of Gúber once possessed the desert of ʿAhír, but were displaced by the Tawárik. The invasion of Tekaddá by the people of Málí, had probably for its object to relieve the trade of Kághó from the exactions levied on caravans in the desert. It can hardly have failed to improve the road through that country, and increase the influx of strangers. A few years later, Aghades was founded, probably by the Kiliwah (the Kolluvi of Hornemann), who are now the predominant Berber tribe on the frontiers of Houssa. When these various changes are all taken into consideration, it will no longer appear surprising, that while Ibn Sʿaíd viewed Houssa from the road opened to it by the people of Tekrúr, Leo should look at it only from the opposite quarter, or from Aghades.[221]

It is needless to follow the parallel between the systems of Ibn Sʿaíd and Leo beyond the western frontiers of Kánem and Bornú. Further east, the few points touched on by Arab geographers are not liable to misinterpretation. The inquiry into the early geography of Negroland, so far as concerns representations founded on fact, might here terminate. But it is worth while to observe how the framers of theories, the compilers of Dictionaries and Complete Treatises of Geography, dealt with the obscurer portion of it: how they endeavoured to fill up every void, and by arbitrary suppositions to give unity and coherence to their fragmentary information. The popular belief that the Great River of Negroland unites with the Nile of Egypt, is of ancient date, and may perhaps be traced back even to the time of Herodotus. It is stated with more or less distinctness by all the Arab geographers. Leo, however, discarded it, and adopted an original opinion of his own. The Shary, according to him, is the source of the Niger; for this river, he says, rises in the Desert of Seu (or country of the Shaúá), south-east of Bornú, and enters the Lake of Gaoga (the Chad). Respecting the hypothetical course of the river westwards from the lake, he is quite silent; and when he says that Cano is 500 miles east of the Niger, he seems to acknowledge his ignorance of its course south of that country. However, he believed it to flow westwards by Tomboktú and Jenni to the Western Ocean.

At the present day all African geographers believe in the junction of the Kowára with Lake Chad. Some suppose the line of connexion to be formed by the Quorrama and the Yeou; others look upon the Chadda as the continuation of the Kowára, and think that they can trace its course into Lake Chad by the river of Katagum and the Yeou; while others again carry it through Adamawa into the Shary.[222] All this hypothesis arises naturally from the constitution of the human mind, which is averse from doubt and systematic suspension of opinion. It hurries on to the solution of every problem presented to it. Furnished with a knowledge of portions of seas, continents, or rivers, it feels no pleasure in devising their limits and separations, but prefers joining the fragments together, as if it thus advanced a step in discovery, or mounted to a higher and simpler truth. Illustrations of this remark might be drawn from the history of geography in every age and country. It is not extraordinary therefore that Yaḳút, copied by Abú-l-fedá and others, should delineate decisively and with the air of a master, that assemblage of waters in Central Africa, the existence of which seemed proved by popular belief. Lake Kúra, says Abú-l-fedá, is 1000 miles long. On its western side, near Jábi, flows the Nile of Ghánah; and at its north-eastern angle, near the capital of Kánem, the Nile of Egypt issues from it. Here it is apparent that the lake Kúra described by Ibn Fáṭimah, the lake Kúra, or river Kowára or Quorra of the present day, is supposed to be united with Lake Chad, and that it gives its name to the great inland sea, thus formed by theory. The lake Kúra of Yáḳút and Abú- l-fedá derives its origin from facts arbitrarily combined and expanded; it owes its magnitude to the distance between the waters thus connected together, and its name to the western portion of them, the river Kowára or Quorra.