Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
- Page 209 of 587 - First - Home
The Majority Of Them Have Scars On Different Parts Of Their Faces;
These Generally Denote Their Rank, And Are Considered As An Ornament.
Their Sheik 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 chieftainship is hereditary, provided the heir be
worthy, any act of cowardice disqualifies, and the command devolves
upon the next successor.
Their guide a sheik, Mina Tahr ben Soogo
Lammo, was the seventh in regular succession. This tribe is called
Nafra Sunda, and are always near Beere-Kashifery.
The watch of Major Denham pleased him wonderfully at first but after
a little time, it was 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 was now habited in the
finest clothes 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? Major Denham, therefore, could not help
giving him a small looking-glass, and he took his station in one
corner of the major's 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.
After regaining the road, they moved till noon, when their horses
were watered at a well called Kanimani, or the sheep's well, where
some really sweet milk was brought to them, in immensely large basket
bottles, some holding two gallons and more. They had drank and
acknowledged its goodness, and how grateful it was to their weak
stomachs, before they found out that it was camel's milk.
No traveller in Africa should imagine that this he could not bear,
or that could not be endured. It is most wonderful how a man's
taste conforms itself to his necessities. Six months ago camel's milk
would have acted upon them as an emetic, now they thought it a most
refreshing and grateful cordial.
The face of the country now improved in appearance every mile, and on
this day they passed along, what seemed to them a most joyous valley,
smiling in flowery grasses, tulloh trees, and kossom. About mid-day,
they 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, that drooped over their heads, made their resting
place a little Arcadia.
They killed to-day one of the largest serpents they had seen: it is
called liffa by the Arabs, and its bite is said to be mortal,
unless the part is instantly cut out. It is a mistaken idea that all
the serpent tribe are called liffa; this species alone bears the
name; it has two horns, and is of a light brown colour. Major
Denham's old Choush Ghreneim had a distorted foot, which was but of
little use to him except on horseback, from the bite of one of those
poisonous reptiles, notwithstanding the part infected was cut out; he
was for thirteen months confined to his hut, and never expected to
recover.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 209 of 587
Words from 109522 to 110066
of 309561