In
Some Of Their Inland Towns, The Arabs And Azanbaji Use Small White
Porcelain Shells, Or Cowries; Which Are Brought From The Levant To Venice,
And Sent From Thence Into Africa.
These are used for small purchases.
The
gold is sold by a weight named _mitigal_, which is nearly equal in value
to a ducat. The inhabitants of the desert have neither religion nor
sovereign; but those who are richest, and have the greatest number of
retainers and dependents, are considered as chiefs or lords. The women
are tawny, and wear cotton garments, which are manufactured in the
country of the Negroes; but some of them wear a kind of cloaks, or upper
garments, called Alkhezeli, and they have no smocks. She who has the
largest and longest breasts, is reputed the greatest beauty; on which
account, when they have attained to the age of seventeen or eighteen, and
their breasts are somewhat grown, they tie a cord very tight around the
middle of each breast, which presses very hard and breaks them, so that
they hang down; and by pulling at these cords frequently, they grow
longer and longer, till at length in some women they reach as low as the
navel. The men of the desert ride on horseback after the fashion of the
Moors; and the desert being everywhere very hot, and having very little
water, and extremely barren, they can keep very few horses, and those
they have are short lived. It only rains in the months of August,
September and October. I was informed that vast swarms of locusts appear
in this country some years, in such infinite numbers as to darken the air,
and even to hide the sun from view, covering the horizon as far as the
eye can reach, which is from twelve to sixteen miles in compass; and,
wherever they settle they strip the ground entirely bare. These locusts
are like grasshoppers, as long as ones finger, and of a red and yellow
colour. They come every third or fourth year, and if they were to pay
their visits every year, there would be no living in the country. While I
was on the coast, I saw them in prodigious and incredible numbers.
[1] The distance between Tisheet and Tombuctu, according to our best maps,
is about 560 miles E. and by S. In the same proportion, supposing
Tisheet to be Teggazza, the distance between Tombuctu and Melli ought
to be about 420 miles. Of Melli we have no traces in our modern maps,
but it may possibly be referred to _Malel_, the apparent capital of
Lamlem; see Pinkert. Geogr. II. 917, as laid down from the Arabian
geographers, nearly 1200 miles E.S.E. from Tombuctu. - E.
[2] This story is probably a fiction, proceeding upon a trade of barter
between parties who did not understand the languages of each other.
The succeeding part of the story seems a mere fable, without the
smallest foundation whatever. - E.
[3] Few persons, perhaps, will be disposed to think the credit of the
Africans, however positive, or the belief of the author, however
strong, sufficient evidence of the truth of this story.
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