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Namondo Child of the Water Spirits 1st Edition Ntemfac
Ofege Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Ntemfac Ofege
ISBN(s): 9789956615599, 9956615595
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 37.21 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
Chaos reigned in the firmament, until the ageless spirit Ovase
Lova breathed and created dawn. Stars from his fingertips

Namondo
jewelled the heavens and newborn planets radiated throughout
the vast universe. The river gods now dispatch Namondo, a
liengu-la-nwanja or water spirit, to the land. The child of the
water spirits, alongside her twin brother, has come to purge
the land of an evil cult. Namondo uses her magic ring to
accomplish her task, but disaster strikes. The fearsome ring of
the water spirits must return to her son.

Ntemfac Ofege weaves a tale combining yesterday and

today, the living dead and the living, tradition and modernity,
scoundrel and righteous deities. This mythological narrative is
rooted in that uproarious extravaganza called Africa – land of
vicious serpents and elephant-doubles.

Ripe with transfigurations and transformations, this novel

promises to be a spirited and lingering read for all those who
navigate multiple cultures, languages, times and geographies.

Ntemfac Ofege
Ntemfac A.N. Ofege was the founder-publisher of Today
newspaper. He was publisher of The Times newspaper,
Associate Editor of Le Messager and Editor-in-Chief of
Cameroon’s leading newspaper, Cameroon Post. He is
currently head of United Media Incorporated, a media-

Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

development Common Initiative Group, which owns
the City Business Network Radio and City Television
in Cameroon. He has also worked in broadcast media
and as a scriptwriter and film director. He holds a first
degree in journalism from the University of Yaounde’s Advanced School
of Mass Communication, and a DEA (M.Phil) in Political Science/Political
Communication.

His earlier works include The Children of Bethel Street, Growing Up, The
Return of Omar and Hot Water for the Famous Seven.

Langaa Research and Publishing

Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Province Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Cameroon Cover: Abidemi Olowomira

5.50 x 8.50 .803 5.50 x 8.50

 Praise for this Book

“A new dimension of the unfathomable, multi-

talented and multifaceted Ntemfac Ofege. Silky,
sophisticated, silvery and scary. A beautiful story
well told.”
Sam-Nuvalla Fonkem, Veteran Journalist, CRTV

“Ntemfac Ofege spins a robust tale full of heroes and

villains. Simply unputdownable.”
Postwatch Magazine

“A tale of mystery and magic where the past meets the

present, and good and evil clash in an epic battle for
supremacy. Mythology so living that it might actually
have happened.”
Tande Dibussi, USA based Journalist and Poet

“This terrific book builds to an explosive crescendo. A

very good read.”
The Post Newspaper
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Namondo
(Child of the Water
Spirits)

Ntemfac Ofege
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Langaa Research & Publishing CIG

Mankon, Bamenda
ii

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Publisher:
Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Province
Cameroon
Contact Address:
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.langaapublisher.com

ISBN: 9956-558-06-0

© Ntemfac Ofege 2007

First Published 2007
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

iii

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Dedication

To
Shirley-Shatu,
Georgie-Nketi,
Raïsa-Suna-Jumeta,
Shekina-Adija,
Nadia-Ladi,
Freda-Lami,
Lewis,
Aicha,
Rafael,
Kennedy,
Charlie…
And the rest of the Beautiful Ones
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

iv

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Acknowledgements

My special apprecia tion goe s to Pr ofe ssor Milton

Krieger and Mrs Judith Krieger (CAMNEXUS-
USA) for reading the hardcopy and for making
some priceless remarks.
I am most indebted to Daniel L yonga
Matute w hose Facing Mount F ako prof fered some
very stimula ting insights.
My sincere a pprecia tion to Sa ngo Tande
Dibussi and Sang o Emil Mondoa who put in the
‘local colour’.
Special thank s to my Auntie, Mrs. Judith
Niboh, who ne ver tired of bringing sheets f or my
typewriter: to Mb ock Banol ock Jacques who told
the story.
And, to Big Mami Patricia Tange Niboh,
now late, who took care of me whe n I went to
school.
To my fa ther, Ge orge Nte mfac, and my
mother, Grace Lami Shatu N temfac, who ta ught
me the joys of effor t, patience a nd perseverance.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

To my late baby brother Paul Ngassa

Ntemfac who made me see the futility of life on
earth.
To the Almighty God without whose mighty
hands this work would never have existed.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Contents

PROLOGUE 1
In the Beginning… 2

PART ONE: The Burial 12

1. Requiem by the Muya River 13

2. Night tryst for Marie-Claire 23

PART TWO: The Coming of the Twin s 35

3. Mysterious births in Muya 36

4. Namondo and Lyonga 48
5. The abode of njoku 60
6. Lyonga and the Elephant-Double 68
7. Awesome powers of a liengu-la-mwanja 78
8. Night of the liengu-la-mwanja 89

PART THREE: Enter the Nyo n go 127

9. First victims of a liengu-la-mwanja 128

10. Mola Mafany consults a witchdoctor 140
11. Battle of the Fiends 151
12. Nyahma comes to Muya 163
13. Go d s at War 171
14. The Making of the Nyongo 177
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

15. The Coming of the Guardian 194

PART FOUR: Ra ge of the Nyo ngo 205

16. The Secret Cults of Bello 206

17. Duel of the Cults 219
18. Death in the Morning 228
19. More blood for the Nyongo 239
vi

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 PART FI VE: The End of a Killer Cult 248

20. Death of the Guardian 249

21. Lyonga and Marlyse 259
22. Efasa Moto takes a stand 264
23. Muambo 274
24. The sacking of the Nyongo 281

PART S I X: The Ret urn Jo urney 289

25. Journey of the Dead 290

26. Encounter with a Mon ster - Serpent 297
27. Rescued by a Pastor 305

PART SE VE N: T he Living Dea d 314

28. A Coffin on the Train 315

29. Clash with the living Dead 326
30. Muambo claims the magic ring 338

EPILOGUE 343
In the End… 344

Glosary 346
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

vii

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 PROLOG UE
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 I n the Begi n n i n g …

D
arkness lay upon the firmament before Ovase Lova
came. The night grew from the earth and spread
steadily to the heavens. The darkness was pitch-
black, savage, forlorn, and forbidding.
Nothing grew within the fastness of that night, but
the flames that rose, raved and roared, the molten lava, the
rising waters, and a rebellion of terrifying creatures and
demons.
The intrepid monsters within the abyss were
engaged in unbounded bivouac, feasting upon the mess
within, gouging out each other’s eyes, crushing the bones,
and eating of the flesh.
Chaos reigned in the firmament.
Ovase Lova, his reach phenomenal, going beyond a
thousand paces, surfed the storm-driven waters breathing
over the turmoil even as he went. This ageless spirit
wended its way through the fusion, casting off the night
and creating dawn: a daybreak that was refreshing,
dreamy, peaceful, and full of grace.
The dark monsters within the abyss, frightful
creatures all of them, halted their savage antics and fled in
terror before the silent, yet shattering, approach of the
awesome spirit. Their shapeless bodies plunged into the
overwrought mixture within, creating an even more raging
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

froth, which froth rose mightily into the heavens. Many

were the demons that perished within that raging broth.
Forthwith, the tremendous spirit mass – a creature
of great marvel and endless means, with the bright light of
eternity in the middle of its forehead – lobbed all the stars
into the heavens and the spheres into the firmament.
The stars came from his fingertips to jewel the
heavens, and the spheres floated all over the void. The
creator spirit bequeathed to some of these celestial bodies

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 astonishing girths and shine. Some of the spheroids were
so large that they threatened to dwarf even the colossal
size of the creator spirit who stood by and watched them
grow. The warmth from the newborn planets radiated
throughout the vast universe.

Ovase Lova now trod the endless stretch of turbulent fire
and water, his spread ever so gentle and majestic, his
tongue and fingertips limbering, yet effortless as he
laboured, naming all the locations for his designs.
All the while, the spirit-thing was muttering to
himself as he cast his awful spells upon the firmament. He
sketched, in almost equal measure, the point where the
great seas would rise in great foamy surges and fall with a
quiet susurration. He created the spot where the land
would grow from beneath the boundless waters and then
rise in awesome glory. And he named the points in the
belly of the earth from whence the fires would come and
then burn the face of the land.
The spirit-thing then turned in his stride, spreading
his massive hands further and mapping out the spot where
the mountains would come from the belly of the earth and
tower heavenwards – thousands of tiers in height, until
they touched the skies.
The spirit also designed the point where the air
separated the earth from the sky. And he drew the exact
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

spot where the oceans, the seas, the lakes, the rivers, the
forests, the fields, the glens, the crags, and the vales would
emerge.
The positions of the earth, the oceans and the skies
now outlined, Ovase Lova retired to the far extremity of
the firmament where he cast his vast, intangible bulk upon
the waters and forthwith he went into a deep slumber full
of his own dreams.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,




The creator-spirit became transfigured even as he lay,
metamorphosing into a huge ball of light. And the figures
he had forged in his mind became real elements and life
forms coming from his head.
First came, the earth – dun and austere – chilling
from the vast stretch of molten rock and water and
spreading further than the eye could see. The vast expanses
of forests, fields, glades, mountains, hills and vales broke
up the modish landmass from spot to spot.
The rivers, the streams, and the waterfalls came
next, cascading down from the heavens above the glaciers
at the top of the mountains. The waters then turned and
ran amok across the land.
The clouds gushed out, and anon they went
careering skywards, every colour of them: white hazy
mists, blue calm fogs, grey frowning billows and frenetic
black smog.
The vapours also came from the breath of the spirit
as he lay upon the waters and the bland mist rose until it
separated the sky from the air and the earth.
The elements of the firmament presently
demarcated, the creator-spirit turned upon his side and
Mbamba Lova – the first effeminate deity – came from the
nether where she had lain with him in the pleasant
congress of procreation. The mother of all creation came
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

out naked, ambling and very pregnant, her womb filled

with the puissant and copious seed of the spirit.
A ponderous and very attractive female was this
mbamba. She was very curvaceous, angular in cheeks, full-
lipped, heavily breasted, and big of hips and limbs. Her
tresses spilled on both sides of her head like a waterfall
even as her blazing, far-seeing eyes gazed deep like wide-
opened doors, misty with effort.
She shuffled through the land, her steps dignified,

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 unhurried and matriarchal, and soon she came upon a fine
turf of grass in the meadows. She settled her bulk upon the
earth and forthwith her waters broke and she went into the
tedious humour of childbirth.
The creator-spirit had fecunded her only a little
while ago, yet the babes in her belly were already knocking
upon her inner whorls, yearning to come out.

Lova, the one who would become the omnipotent deity of
fertility and the sun was the first one out. This Lova was a
sprightly baby-child – godlike, and in the very image of his
father Ovase Lova, who still lay sedately upon the waters.
The sun-child emerged in all majesty and splendour.
The sun-child had hardly emitted his first cry when
his spirit father clad him in swathing robes of whispering
tangerine and gold. Ovase Lova also placed on his son’s
head the glittering crown of the sun. The spirit-thing then
breathed greater vivacity upon Lova, and the whelp
matured, going from childhood to boyhood, and anon to
manhood in moments. His limbs grew big, his shoulders
spread until they seemed to fill the universe. The dark hair
came upon Lova’s chest. The child’s voice grew deep and
husky, very like the voice of the thunder. The lightning
now came and flashed within his eyes.
The creator-spirit took one look at the fine form of
his son and he muttered his delight. He now assigned unto
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Lova's charge the gilded pantheon of the gods beyond the

clouds yonder.
Ovase Lova turned anon and he made the even
friskier pages of the sun god who then escorted their
magnificent prince to the imperishable chariot of the sun.
Lova’s fleet chariot, and its princely occupant, now
streaked across the skies in a tremendous display of wind,
lightning and thunder. The sun-chariot and its driver
journeyed in the general direction of the stars in search of
5

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 the dawn.
Another personage emerged from the woman, this
time from the left-hand side. This one, a thing of great
marvel, first tiny and anon, became phenomenal in its
reaches: a leviathan, almost as big as the creator-spirit
himself, but resplendent in its blackness. Even the
creature’s less dark hues were of jaded black with vast
spreads of brown patches.
The leviathan measured over a thousand paces in
the belly region, and it had a way of opening and closing
its yawning maw as it sucked in the vital breath of life from
the spirit. Two glassy fins hung on both sides of its
ungainly body, and it had a way of propelling itself
through the fields with rapid, but graceful hurls.
The creator came and he made two huge eyes,
which he planted on both sides of the creature’s head.
Ovase Lova then ordained that the cow eyes of the
leviathan would never go to sleep. They would forever
look deep, surveying the murky dark within the watery
depth and yonder. That way the leviathan would keep
eternal watch on the firmament. And he would come and
forewarn of events in the universe even before they came
about.
None would truck with the harrowing sea beast,
whose hump stood like a mountain, and on whose chest
were plates of black stone that opened and closed like
yawning maws whenever the leviathan cruised the deep
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

seas.
No fisherman would dare cast a hook or a net after
him. None would stand in its way when the vast creature
playfully rose from the waters and sallied heavenwards
before falling back into the selfsame waters, creating a void
within the ocean where it would land.
The leviathan was possessed of a tremendous tail,
which flapped from side to side as it floated in the air and
slipped into the waters, creating a prodigious splash. The
6

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 froth from the leviathan’s landing climbed until they
almost touched the heavens. Wherefore the creator
ordained that when the man would eventually build his
sea vessels, even crafts made out of wondrous iron, the
leviathan would rise from the nether and break them to
smithereens.
Onwards through the waters coursed the fiery, yet
taciturn leviathan, harrying the newly formed sea creatures
that furrowed upon it. The great sea apothecary coasted
along with every surge of the waters, breasting the waves,
until the waters roiled with its passing. Oftentimes, the
beast would pour out fountains of perfumed gases from its
spacious snout, bathing the waters for miles and miles with
the ambrosial fragrance. Some of these gases rose like a
rainbow from the surface of the waters unto the edges of
the gaunt mountains that had just emerged at various
points of the earth. The gases, from time to time, bestowed
life and strength to the creatures beneath the waters.
The spirit-thing called the leviathan, Moto, and gave
it power to rule over the oceans and the underworld. He
bequeathed unto it authority over all the life forms beneath
the waters, especially the fishes, whose shape it mirrored.
The creator spirit then invented the huge black rock of the
water spirits, the hulking rock of the nyango-na-mwana in
the deep seas, upon which the mermaids would sit and
sing their hearts out.
The last creatures to come from the woman unto the
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

fields were preternatural even in birth. They were twins,

and they bobbed out at the same time. They simply
materialised from their mother and flopped upon the turf
of grass.
One of the twins was obsidian-black and rather
ungainly. The child came out, a hulk, as black as night,
eyes flaring, with a monstrous head, a big chest, and two
legs of stone. Its eyes shone like a furnace and its cry was
shrill and sickening. The yelling infant greatly affrighted
7

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 the equally infant quadruped life forms that frolicked in
the fields, creatures newly born of the creator.
Wherefore the presence of the graceless infant
shimmered and altered, giving way to another child, this
one well proportioned, godlike and incredibly beautiful, a
whelp of great marvel. Its skin was as fair as the sun, its
locks lush and golden. This child had sloe eyes with dark,
embroidered lashes through which the cold fires flashed.
Its voice was a rumble, very like the distant thunder.
This child was prodigiously treacherous. Iniquity
coursed through his veins, and came through him rather
easily. In him caroused the malevolent phantoms of all
creatures foul; the swine, the gnomes, the demons, the
serpents, the enchanters, and the harpies – all – throve
within him. Even his breath was evil, and it brought death.
The child’s breath slew the very air that whirled about his
nose.
Ovase Lova also assigned to this child a task that
was equally ghastly. The whelp would forever ferry the
dead from the land of the living, past the gates of hades
unto the shrine of darkness down yonder. The child was
even then trucking with the ghastly scales of death in its
tiny hands, measuring the souls he would soon doom. And
the creator ordained that the evil child would forever pace
back and forth upon the earth.
Anon the supreme god went and conjured up the
other avatars of death: the savage twin hounds that would
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

forever guard the gates of hades within the deep. They

would then come from the shrine of the dead to ferry the
souls of men and beasts unto the land of the living dead
down under. He made the hounds male and female and he
gave them unto fair Emala as his escorts.
Whilst the first child, the homely one – the one
which was half-man and half-rock –, was all peace and
quiet, very like beatitude, the evil child was yelping fit to
raise the firmament. It was screeching and bawling, rolling
8

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 and tumbling, banging its tiny fists upon the earth and
spewing fires from its mouth. Each time the flames raged,
threatening to burn even its mother, Mbamba Lova, who
looked at her offspring with maternal love, the half-man
half-rock baby, put them out again.
The flame-caster then turned its sinister attention
upon the quadruped life forms that wandered in the fields
yonder. He cast his blaze upon them, scorching them with
white-hot fire from his mouth.
The creatures squealed in mortal agony whilst the
wicked child smiled a crooked smile. The ungainly child,
however, eased their pain and gave them life again even as
he showed his exasperation with his brother’s temper.
Mbamba Lova marvelled at the sauciness of her
second child even as she commended the righteousness of
her misshapen baby. The woman gazed into time and saw
the strife, the plagues, the wiles, the hatred, the sorrow, the
trickery, the thievery, and the death that the evil baby
would bring upon humanity. The foray into the fates was
foreboding and repulsive. It tasted like ashes upon the
tongue of Mbamba Lova.
And, much as the woman wept over the fate of her
child, she was powerless before the staggering will of the
creator. The woman turned her face away from her own
baby, and her grief was horrible to behold.
Thus did strife and iniquity come upon the universe
through the agency of woman. This ungodliness was
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

hardly some moments old, yet it was already in conflict

with righteousness.
Essence from the spirit-thing soon came upon the
twins mightily and they matured, the beautiful child
becoming more and more like a demon even as his sibling
tried very hard to be righteous. The one, which was half-
man and half-rock the creator named, Efasa Moto, whilst
the very evil child he called Emala.

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Immeasurable godliness from the creator set upon
Efasa Moto and he became the righteous god of the earth
and the mountains. His twin brother, Emala, received less
righteousness and he became the prince of the flames, of
evil and of death. His abode lay in hades yonder.

Ovase Lova turned and the lesser deities came from his
forehead. The righteous river deities spewed out, hundreds
of them, and flopped into the waters. The mischievous
imps of the forests also came and prattled among the trees
and the fair fairies of the glades and mountains came out.
These lesser deities, each according to its kind, ran off and
settled within the nooks and crevices of the earth from
whence they now meddled with the affairs of the earth.
Anon, the creator-spirit peopled the earth with other
lesser life forms and denizens, each different from the
other, but all beholden to his essence. He made man the
foremost among the minor creatures. Male and female he
made them. And, the first among humanity, were the fair
natives of the balmy lands of everlasting sunshine and
rainfall about Muya.
The forebears of the inhabitants of Muya came from
the creator, fair of skin, spirited of address, and fleet of
foot. The ferocious temper of the meridian sun burnt their
fair skin and it became blacker than charcoal. The harsh
elements also made them feeble of enterprise, yet Ovase
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Lova gave them authority over all the fair lands about the
centre of the earth. The spirit-thing girded their land, with
giant hills and pleasant vales. And, from one planting
season unto the next, endless sunshine and rainfall from
the skies washed this land.
The waters from the heavens caused the rivers
throughout this gracious site to run impressively
throughout the year. And the mountain springs formed

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 fountains that were forever clear and refreshing upon the
tongue.

Day was astir by the time Ovase Lova came awake from
his slumber, refreshed by his exploits. The creator god now
viewed all that his hands had wrought and it pleased him
tremendously. His will now firm upon the world, he took
Mbamba Lova by the hand, and together they silently
melted into the firmament, their task accomplished.
Ovase Lova sojourns to this day as the air that gives
essence unto all life forms upon earth whilst Mbamba
Lova, his spouse, shines on as the silvery moon at night.
The princely deities, Lova, Moto, Efasa Moto and Emala,
still keep their watch over the world unto this day.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 PART ONE
The Burial
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Requiem by the Muya River
1
L
yonga-la-Njuma let the water spill over his fingers.
At the same time, his thoughts were rolling along a
narrow path. In his mind’s eye, Njuma’s son could
see the logical sequel to the events he had just fled from in
disgust.
The gravediggers – the wima-wa-songo – would now
be filling up the grave, piling on the earth, shovelful after
shovelful, upon her coffin. They would then throw leaves,
flowers, and barks of trees into the grave to wish the dead
farewell.
They were burying her body barely a few hundred
paces away, but he knew exactly where she was. Her elinge
had not risen in flight unto the gilded pantheon where
Lova held his assizes.
She was right there. In the river. She was a liengu-la-
mwanja – a water spirit, the one with preternatural powers.
Her elinge had slipped softly from her body and was in
there, romping within the treacherous waters. Presently,
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

the moon would draw out the water and her spirit would
rise and transform and she would become half-woman and
half-fish – a mammy wata. She would then come out, in
radiance and splendour like all mermaids, to sing upon the
rocks.
The same thing would happen to him when his own
elinge came from his body, Lyonga thought, as he splashed
more water into his eyes. He would also return to the river
when his own spirit left his body. He was also a water

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 spirit, but his time had not yet come. Even so, his own
spirit would not come out. His was a male spirit, the one
that stayed within the waters and, ever so often, cast its
formidable cry upon the firmament.
He let his mind go back to the life they had led
before the quarrel that separated them. They were born
within a minute of each other, and their mother had died
bringing them forth. His sister had taken their mother’s
place. She not only indulged him, but she used the
omnipotent fetish from the river to shield him in all his
undertakings.
Then, by his unkind words, Lyonga had broken
their auspicious bond. He recalled vividly that rash
moment long ago, when he cursed his sister. Sorely did he
speak to her, and the river spirits sanctioned his words of
wrath. They cursed him in their turn. Then they crept upon
him and severed the bond that held him to his sister. They
also shut down the fathomless eyes that made him see into
the beyond. Then they banished him from their midst.
He now repented deeply of his actions. He felt
himself falling deeper and deeper into the void again as the
anguish overpowered him. His heart weakened, and all
became blurred. For a fleeting moment, he considered
plunging into the raging Muya River. Something within
him went out to the children of the river that she had
abandoned and he dithered.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Muambo was now the custodian of his mother’s silver
ring, the magic fetish of the liengu-la-mwanja. The boy
would keep the ring of the water spirits, following his own
destiny, until the next apparition emerged from the river to
claim it.
The ring of the mermaids was like that. It went from
woman to man, and it turned around again and went from
man to woman. The fetish was passed on from generation

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 to generation and whilst it sojourned in the land, calamity
stayed away.
The ring of the river was said to be so powerful that
only the redoubtable powers of Efasa Moto, the righteous
god of the earth and the mountain, could match its essence.
The talisman had come with a mission – to cleanse
the land of all the forces of evil, especially fiendish cults
like the preternatural nyongo, a juju cult that had its abode
in the mountains. Namondo was the custodian of the ring,
but he, Lyonga, was its guardian.
Namondo had suffered great adversity at the hands
of the fiends of this preternatural juju, but she had
prevailed in the end. Her task was now accomplished, and
she had gone back to the people of the river who had shut
him out.
He felt the sobs breaking from deep within him, first
dry and then almost choking him. The tears gushed out
once more, drenching his face. He wept for the sister he
would never see again.
The hurt and the pain of his bereavement tore at his
heart. For a while, his tears flowed fast and heavy. When
the wave subsided, his head came up. He sought guidance
from those waters, but none came. The long mass rumbled
on, unfettered, forbidding, unceasing and indifferent to his
attention. He could feel the mighty presence of the river,
manifested in its loud, though silent voice, broken now and
again by a gentle, splashing and slapping upon the banks
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

as the waters rushed wildly by. Now and again, several

boughs, uprooted tree trunks, unfortunate leaves, and
shrubs careened past, borne on the heedless waters.
He had known that river for many seasons, yet the
strange waters held the same power – the same magic.
There was that mystery which always captivated him each
time he squeezed aside the cloak of reeds, and ventured
unto the banks of those mysterious waters.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Once upon a time, it used to frighten him to stand
by the Muya, and to listen to its deep, sulking, mournful
voice. His heart would beat in great big booms, yet he
came back to the spot again and again and again.

It was a large river, the Muya was. It took its rise from
some springs in the distant hulking and desolate
mountains – the place that people said was the home of
Efasa Moto. On those heights were numerous black rocks
curving from the crags and the glaciers like fat maidens as
the waters frothed and foamed down their smooth backs,
leaping; gambolling and gyrating; cascading down like a
silver lava-flow; gleaming like riches whenever the sun
was bright, beguiling.
After the hills, the tumult ended. The wild river
suddenly settled into the poise and sobriety of a goddess. It
came wending its way like a huge serpent, through the
hills. The roar died down to deep echoes, seldom raging.
The eddies became larger and wider with an awesome hiss.
The splashing upon the banks became uneasy, ceaseless,
noiseless, and weary. Only the cold, sepulchral, resonating
voice of the people of the river accompanied the majestic
roll of the waters.
The villagers were known to flee in abject terror
during such nerve-shattering moments beside the
formidable Muya. Their fear had reached such dimensions
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

that no Muya maiden ventured to fetch water from the

river. They left the possessed river alone, and as if in
appreciation of their dread, loud guttural laughter, like a
pot of boiling fat, was heard every now and again rising
from the watery depths, especially during the moonlit
nights.
One story told that a long time ago, some reckless
maidens had ventured to bathe in the mighty and
mysterious Muya. They had taken off their sanjas and Kaba,
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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 jumped into the river and were splashing merrily away.
All was going well until they suddenly felt the Muya
closing over their heads. Their giggles turned to shrieks as
the unfortunate maidens tried to get out of the water.
But, some unseen force – a ngumbah – pressed them
underneath. Soon they were all gone, all ten of them, never
to be seen again. The waters roiled on merrily as if nothing
had happened.
Lyonga knew these dreadful tales about the Muya
River. Still, he was not afraid. He was curious. He saw
those waters differently. They were time and life in a way.
They rolled on forever, undisturbed and undying.
In the dry season, the waters thinned out, but with
the arrival of the rains, they rose again in turmoil and in
strength. The river then surged beyond its banks. It then
went rampaging across the land like a tribe of furies.
He saw life like a river, which started somewhere,
far, far away upon some barren mountains, gathering
waters voraciously and coming down upon the world with
a great roar. It did not end there. The river went on and on,
getting bigger and bigger, before thundering away into
eternity.
He was not sure how exactly it had happened, yet
his life had also started like that, from deep within those
waters. The villagers said that, like Namondo, he had also
been born of the river. He was the male side of the liengu-
la-mwanja, the one that wore a talisman about its neck for
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

protection.
He could feel the tears welling up again as the
memories burnt like a brushfire within his head. As he
exploded again, the river seemed to be winking at him, but
he was not too sure. Almost wrathful now, he splashed
some more water into his eyes. The cold water seemed to
wash away some of the sorrow that had taken over his
spirit.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,




Far away in the village, the thumping of the jimbis – the
talking drums – had started again, coming ... dim! dim! dim!
From the distance. The xylophones and the female voices
raised in mourning accompanied the doleful rhythm of the
drums.
That would mean the grave was already a mound.
The va-e’eli or the mourners would now be demanding
their evinga sungu – their toll: the five pigs, the five goats,
and the ten cockerels, which were, by tradition, given to
the mourners. They would also turn the funeral grounds
into a carnival. The matutu, that robust palm wine, would
flow freely. So too would the mourners bite deep into the
most savoury timbanambusa ever prepared this side of the
great mountain. Then would come the funeral dance to the
languorous tune of the Muya song of lament. The women
would loosen their loincloths, cast off their sandals, and
come shouting and ululating all over the place. Maalé
would also come, bringing along its elephants in the night
to dance about the grave.
Lyonga was used to it all, the vast multitudes of
Muya who tied their sanjas around their waists, put on
their white shirts, tied a black scarf about their necks, and
came to burials to eat and drink. Then they disappeared
into the balmy forests to lift up the nearest Kaba, as it were,
and engage in prodigious carnal affairs.
His tears came back, spilling right into the river. The
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

sobs wracked his body, as the sorrow became a deluge. His

sorrow came along with anger. He cursed Manga: the
effeminate character, whom, they said, was a seraph of
Emala, the dark deity of fire and death. Manga it was who
had chased his sister to the grass fields. The same Manga
stole his talisman, and tricked him into forgetting his duty
to protect his sister. He also cursed the god of fire and
death who started it all by creating the cult of havoc, called
the nyongo. Crooked Emala, it was, who dispatched Manga

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 to the land. Finally, he damned Nyahma, the mojili – the
stranger – from the north, who had taken advantage of the
chaos to run off with his sister to the grass fields.
For a long while, he wept. He felt much better
afterwards, and he dried his eyes. It took a while yet for the
feelings to subside and when they did, the man turned
away. He parted the reeds, like a man in a trance and let
his feet carry him towards the village by the hillside.
The talking drums were now fully awake, coming in
fierce booms. The sad notes of the Muya songs of lament
followed their frenzied rhythm. The offending river
murmured on and on, enraptured by its own personality,
and oblivious of the goings-on just a mile away.
All was not over at the gravesite. The diggers were
still smoothing the mound, but the crowd had thinned
down considerably. Someone brought an enormous rock,
forced it into the head end of the grave to serve as
tombstone. Only then did the rest of the crowd start going
away.

Six people – four men and two women, remained by the
grave. The first was a huge man. Several inches above the
others he stood, with broad arms sticking from a muscular
body. The body ended with a huge head. He was dressed
in a well-cut black suit, white-laced shirt, and black
trousers. The black earth on his black shoes had not come
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

from the grave. He had just been to the river, and Lyonga-
la-Njuma was his name.
Lyonga was an assistant manager in the vast Native
Development Authority Estates: an agro-industrial
complex set up by the colonial administration in Konjea,
not far from Ongola. He had occupied that position for
nearly three years. At fifty, his greatest dream was to move
up the ladder to full manager.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Lyonga was standing by the equally tall, heavy-
breasted, long-legged and very pretty woman. That one
was Marlyse, his betrothed.
Another big fellow stood next to Lyonga and
Marlyse. This one was really muscled, with a bullet shaped
head coming from his broad shoulders. He stood there –
njim! – like a full-sized ojongo, the one that could carry fifty
measures of palm wine. Not even his nostrils flared as he
breathed in the air. His eyes were on the rock at the head of
the grave. The eyes were bloodshot, but alert. They darted
here and there, very like the eyes of a civet cat.
This one was Bwanga, a trainman working in the
Wouri-Ongola Line. Bwanga was wearing a great overcoat,
on the back of which was engraved the legend: “Ongola
Railroad Corporation” in thick gold letters. The overcoat
was vast, but the man filled it completely. The seams
threatened to come apart around his shoulders, for he was
that solid.
Bwanga had come through the last forty-eight hours
like a man in a nightmare. He was still trying to figure out
how he found himself in the Muya, and standing at the
foot of a grave.
Bwanga shifted his eyes from the cross to the others,
particularly the brothers – Muambo and Njuma. The two
stood next to each other, but from there, the similarity
wavered. Muambo, the elder one, now fully nineteen years
old, wore a smaller version of the dark-green railroad
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

overcoat. He was standing at the head of the grave, tall,

composed and outrageously handsome. His fair
complexion came from his mother, the woman they had
just buried.
Marie-Claire was standing by Muambo. She was
now leaning on him, enthralled by the young man, and
almost eating him with her eyes. That one was a strange
young woman, Bwanga thought. They had met on the train
and she had come with them to Muya. Now she would not
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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 let Muambo out of her sight. Bwanga almost laughed as he
shifted his eyes towards Muambo’s brother, Njuma.
He had just met Njuma, but the boy was beginning
to look very much like Muambo, the one he knew so well.
He was also wearing an overcoat. His was khaki in colour.
He had on a pair of black trousers. Njuma was sixteen, a bit
shorter than Muambo, but with a more muscular build.
The boy was dark in complexion, with very deep obsidian
eyes outside, which stood some very long lashes, light
brown hair, protruding ears and a rather long neck. He
looked tired, his black eyes were now bloodshot and his
hair dishevelled. The tedious journey from Bello through
the Wouri to Ongola and Muya was just starting to tell
upon Njuma.
Bwanga did not know it then, but Njuma was the
exact replica of his father – Nyahma, the man whom the
cult of death had doomed long ago in the northern village
of Bello.
The mourners were raising a tremendous din in the
backyard. The songs of lament had since ceased, giving
licence to the excesses of the body. The eating and drinking
must have started in earnest. There would be no food and
drink for the people by the grave. Lyonga had to go back to
his job in Konjea whilst Bwanga would take the now
battered and bruised locomotive back to the Wouri.
Muambo and Njuma were to stay back in Muya until they
performed the sassa cleansing rites, which came after a
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

burial.
Marlyse, Lyonga’s betrothed, had giggled in great
understanding when Marie-Claire said that she was not
going back to Ongola and school until all was done in the
village. They had hardly been together for twenty-four
hours and now the girl was declaring that she would not
let Muambo out of her sight even for one minute!
Bwanga and Lyonga started the drive back to
Ongola just as evening was descending upon Muya. From
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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 far across the horizon, the retiring sun cast its blood-red
rays upon the landscape. All was now serene in the village;
it was the quiet of the weary. High in the glow of the
evening skies, a pair of tired mountain birds, eagles,
winged their way in the general direction of the lonely
mountains surrounding Muya. The hills looked down
upon the village with a sage, cool aloofness.
Lyonga’s car roared on towards the rapidly
approaching dusk. The group sat there bone-tired,
watching the trees, the shrubs, the hills, the plains, and the
vales careering by. Several hours after leaving the Southern
District, the car and its occupants were engulfed in the
turmoil of Ongola.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 2
Night tryst for Marie-Claire

T
he Wouri was having one of those rainy nights. The
rains came down in alternate sessions of violent
thunderstorms and drizzles. Now and again, great
forks of jagged lightning tore across the dingy skies, which
draped the town like a shroud, with the accompanying
thunder breaking loose in the distance and rolling gloomily
into the night.
The night, which hung about the gaunt and dismal
buildings, was dark, but not very dark, for it was the age of
electricity. The pools of streetlights seemed shredded into
tiny ropes by the hot rain as it came cascading down from
the overcast heavens.
Often, it seemed like the rain would completely
mask the light, but not quite. The skies overhead were
bland and star-less as the rain clouds caught each other in a
fierce collision and wrestled for a while, before casting
their waters down upon the bemired land below. The
rainwater went spattering upon the roofs and rolling to the
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

dank earth like miniature waterfalls.

It always rained in the Wouri though the town was
by nature hot – very hot. It was sometimes so hot that the
residents sweated profusely whilst having a cold bath. It
was often so hot that the people cried out in disgust.
Then there were the squalid marshes, and more
especially, there were the mosquitoes. They were a savage
lot, those bloodsuckers were. The mosquitoes knew neither
anti-mosquito sprays nor mosquito nets. The vermin had a

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 way of staying outdoors until the killer spray was gone.
Then they swarmed in, biting.
There was very little the Wouri Municipality could
do to combat those fiendish insects because of the nature of
their town. The Wouri laid on an extensive marshy plain,
tree-less, hill-less, the vast stretch of land punctuated
sporadically by mounds and sand-hills. The flat terrain of
the Wouri was very irritating each time it rained. The filthy
water collected into vast foul ponds, which became the
perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes.
The rain and the thunderstorms were never much of
a deterrent to nightlife in the Wouri, a town that never
went to sleep. Night after night, the boulevards were a-
bustle as the inhabitants hurried here and there – some
homewards; others sneaking to the always-crowded bars,
chicken parlours, and pepper soup joints; others going to
nightclubs, and others just walking aimlessly, ignoring the
rain.

Marie-Claire Etune stood by the window of the apartment
building in the Bonapriso neighbourhood looking out into
the rain. Her mind was made up. The rain would not stop
her. She was going out and that was that.
She turned to her junior sister, Nadege, who was
pretending to be asleep on the four-poster bed to one
corner of the room:
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

“Mamie, you are my friend, not so –? You won’t tell

on me, not so?”
Mamie was her name for Nadege. Marie-Claire said
Nadege looked like their mother, much more than she
herself did.
“Yes, Sister Marie,” Nadege said in her childlike
voice.

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 The older girl did not want to argue. “There, you are
a good girl. As soon as I go out, you close the windows and
you shut the door. You hear me –”
“Yes, Sister Marie.”
“Good, I will bring you more sweets and a big cake.
Don’t you open the door if mamma knocks, you
understand me?”
The child nodded again. The two girls were in a
large bedroom. The elder one was nineteen, almost a
woman, whilst the other was still a child. It was a very
comfortable room with cream lace curtains spilling in
ample folds to the floor, and an enormous chandelier
hanging from the ceiling, from which the golden lights
scintillated. There was a large four-poster bed of carved
and gilded wood at one end, and various paintings
adorned the walls. At the head of the bed was a large
mirror in front of which was a dressing table. A fine
display of silver and crystal flasks of multi-coloured fluids,
perfumes, pastes, and creams sat on the table. There were
many other girlish decorations adorning the pale blue
walls. A tall wardrobe stood open at the foot of the bed
with dresses lined up from end to end. Several
embroidered pillows and more clothes were scattered all
over the thickly carpeted floor.
The older girl picked up her handbag and
undulated across the room.
Seconds later, she was gone.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Out of the window.

She glided on the sill for some minutes before
curving fearlessly round the drainpipe that went down to
the ground floor. Then she swung her long legs over the
pipe, adjusting the yellow dress that had stuck
suggestively upon her body.

Marie-Claire had ripened fast, metamorphosing into a

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 tallish, long-legged beauty – almost a flamingo. The bad
thing was that she knew she was beautiful and the boys
saw that she was gorgeous. Mamie Etune had discovered
many sedulous fellows lurking inside her hedges on
several occasions. She had even heard strange cats mewing
downstairs. On investigating, they had turned out to be
some young devils keeping some kind of vigil about her
house. On one occasion, she had had her bedroom window
shattered beyond recognition by an over zealous young
horror. Confronted, the creature only laughed into her face
and swaggered away.
Mamie Etune never mentioned these incidents to
Marie-Claire. She simply reinforced her vigilance about her
daughter, but she did so very discreetly. The old lady came
to admit that the task was not easy, for Marie-Claire was a
slippery young woman: Very like an eel.
Marie-Claire reminded her mother of Janine, her
first daughter – the one born four years before Marie-
Claire. Janine was asthmatic, and the condition had killed
her at the age of three. The little girl had a seizure in the
yard and before her mother rushed to her, she was dead.
Mamie Etune believed strongly in reincarnation. She
actually thought her daughter was an ogbanje – those
dreadful children who came into their mother’s womb to
be born again and again. There were times she called
Marie-Claire “Janine,” and each time she made that
mistake the sorrow would swim in her eyes.
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

Mamie Etune did not know it, but each time she
mentioned Janine in her daughter’s presence, fear would
come upon the girl. There were things about Marie-Claire
that even her mother did not know. Her mother would
never know, for example, that the girl’s unparalleled
beauty always attracted strange adventures to her person.
At the same time, an uncanny disposition that lurked
within Marie-Claire always drew her wherever the
preternatural manifested.
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 Mamie Etune loved her daughter dearly. She
chaperoned her closely without being insufferable. She
dominated her upbringing, but she was quick to realise
that she could not control Marie-Claire. Her father had not
been able to put a leash on her either.
Mamie Etune came to accept that she had handed
down her own singular passion about dancing to her
daughter. Any keen observer – and there were very keen
observers – would have noticed that, like her mother, the
girl walked with a rippling step that galvanised her whole
body, giving those around her a warm feeling.
The young girl could swear that the best moments
of her life were when she was on the dance floor,
surrounded by all those vibrant and unruly bodies. It was
sensational to feel the hungry eyes of the men as they
plotted.

Marie-Claire was not the only one in the Etune family to
have that thing for the nightclub. Her father, Mr. Etune
was the next. Mr. Etune was the senior accountant in the
Wouri Breweries, one of the most lucrative jobs in town.
Actually, he was among the creme de la creme in Wouri. The
“Old Boy,” as his friends called him, was fifty-one, very
young at heart by his own standards, with a critical flaw in
his otherwise quiet mien. Mr. Etune believed sincerely in
young women, particularly young college girls – creamers,
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

he called them – and everything they had to offer. The

man’s philosophy was that he remained young because of
his insatiable weakness for young girls. If he went to
nightclub most nights, it was to satisfy that thing for
young, piquant, and willing creamers. These he consumed
with relish.
But Old Boy Etune had a problem. He could swear
that he had had the misfortune of marrying the most fiery-
tongued woman in the Wouri. Whenever the neighbours

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Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 heard Mamie Etune blowing her top in the wee hours of
the morning, and threatening to throttle her spouse, they
knew the old boy had come home late again.
Marie-Claire came to know some, but not all, of her
father’s assignations. She had caught him more than once
eyeing her girlfriends in a very funny way. She had also
seen him, many times, zooming by with some of her
friends in his car.
Her father baffled her. He could appear in the most
unlikely places at the most unlikely times. Marie-Claire
could swear that if she were doing something wrong right
in the middle of the sea and at midnight, the neighbouring
waters would shimmer, and her father would materialise.
Her one nightmare was the eventuality of her father
suddenly springing one of his appearing tricks on her in
any of the Wouri nightclubs.
Mr. Etune had a way of looking at his children
whenever he caught them deep in mischief. Rays of frozen
light come from crystal-cold eyes, and his gaze would cut
you to the heart. To Marie-Claire, that was worse than a
beating.

Nadege speedily obeyed her sister’s directives. The little
girl pulled back the blinds and watched her elder sister
slide right down to the ground floor and disappear in the
dark. Then she turned around and came back to bed. Two
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

faint clicks came from the room, the first of the bolt on the
door sliding home and the second of the window shutting
out the rain.
Mamie, as Nadege was known, was a tiny little
thing, exactly seven, but slightly bigger for her age. She
had very keen black eyes, a heavy-lipped curve for a
mouth and tiny broomsticks for arms. She wore a flimsy
pink nightgown that displayed hints of her ebony black
complexion. Those who bothered looking closely could

28

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 clearly see the tiny bulge of early-blooming breasts jutting
out of the nightgown.

Marie-Claire slid from the apartment building like a snake.
She brushed the grime off her dress and tiptoed right to the
edge of the hedge. Her head went up, and she smiled as
the lights went out in her mother’s bedroom. The smile
was still playing at the edges of her lips as she applied her
makeup with the help of the small mirror in her handbag.
She then squeezed her svelte body through a hole in the
hedge and disappeared.
Some moments later, she came out on Main Avenue.
The rain smelt warm and felt the same as it cascaded from
the skies. Her yellow dress was soon soaked and it glued
nicely to her body displaying rebellious and tempting
curves. The wetness did not bother her. The dress would
soon get dry.
The girl was standing on Main Avenue for only two
minutes when a silvery black Mercedes screeched to a halt
by the pavement. The overhead streetlights reflecting off
the now wet bodywork of the car scintillated like the
distant stars. A young man in a well-cut suit and dark
glasses sat behind the wheel. He did not speak. He simply
leaned across and opened the door.
Marie-Claire hesitated. She was going to say
something rude, but she changed her mind as the rain
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

became more forceful. Moreover, the gaping doorway

revealed the all-soft and expressively cosy interior of the
convertible.
She slipped in and smiled demurely. Her dimple
became pronounced when her face grew radiant. The wet
dress stuck to her body, highlighting her curves. White,
slippery white underwear flashing from the chocolate
brown background that was a rounded thigh showed as
she swung in her long legs.
29

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 The man behind the wheel grinned. He had seen the
glimmer of white and he felt warm. The shape he had seen
from a distance had not revealed anything. He could swear
that he had just picked up the most stunning girl in all of
the Wouri. He started having ideas.
They soon reached the end of Main Avenue, exactly
at the intersection where the neon sign of The Paradise
shone, throbbing inside some aluminium boards. A sixth
sense told the young man that The Paradise nightclub was
the girl’s destination. He took her in with one glance and
leered at her. “I know a better place where we can do
better things tonight–”
His voice caught in his throat and he left the
sentence hanging.
“I know about it too, my friend,” came the retort.
“Mister, if you please – the pavement.”
The young man felt the wind go out of his sails. He
pulled over. The hand that reached out to open the door
lingered around her breasts.
Marie-Claire did not react. She simply let the man
feel what he would never possess. The car did not even
stop before the girl pried opened the door and stepped out.
Her companion started to shout at her, but she was
already at the door of The Paradise. She turned and looked
at him, her face radiant and incredibly beautiful. At that
moment, her companion of late felt like jumping out of the
car and going after her. He was still staring at her swaying
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

derrière as she flung open the door and was engulfed by the
nightclub. Outside, the rain went on relentlessly.

Marie-Claire undulated into the nightclub. Heads, male
and female, turned with her regal entrance. The girl was
sensational and she knew it. She walked towards the
counter with slow, confident steps; tapering legs, resilient

30

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 in their pliancy, danced enticingly with the rest of her
body.
The electric yellow dress – already low-cut – split on
one side. Her seemingly endless stretch of thigh showed. A
ghost of a smile played around her lips and she had a deep
dimple that seemed to laugh with her smile.
All around, the dim shadows rose and fell as the
young and the young at heart criss-crossed the dance floor,
some going to the restaurant in one wing of The Paradise,
others sauntering to the bar, some dragging hesitant
partners to the dance floor. Around and about there was a
riotous explosion of lights, clothes, and perfumes, on all
shapes and sizes of bodies on the dance floor.
A half drunk launched an assault, which did not get
beyond the first sentence.
“Hello, miss. My name is –!”
“Who cares what your name is –?” the girl snapped.
She had not even looked at him as she blasted. She
simply wheeled around and walked away. The half drunk
took the direct affront to his dignity in stride.
It was then close to midnight, and The Paradise was
just coming alive. The discotheque was gushing out
decibels and decibels of the latest beats, and the bodies had
started rising and dipping under the doused neon lights.
The Paradise was about the most sophisticated
nightclub in the Wouri. It combined a dance floor, a
restaurant, a snack bar, and a hotel. Aside from for the
Copyright © 2007. Langaa RPCIG. All rights reserved.

alien explosion of neon lights, some installed inside bush,

or hurricane lamps, the interior of the club looked like a
typical jungle village. There were numerous tiny huts with
bamboo walls, complete with thatched roofs. Each hut had
polished bamboo benches and cane chairs with deceptively
hard tops. The designers concealed thick layers of foam
underneath the hides and skin on top of the benches and
chairs. On the visible portions of the walls were statues of
every shape, design, and wood, whilst large paintings of
31

Namondo : Child of the Water Spirits, Langaa RPCIG, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
protecting eye of God upon him, and that God is with him; but that,
if he withdraw his influence from any one, then evil or misfortune
ensues; not actively from God, but passively from the withdrawing of
that protecting influence; that this is an act of the Almighty, which
cannot be easily comprehended by our weak reason: and that it is
not willed by him with approbation, but necessarily. The
Mohammedan thinks himself unworthy to prostrate himself before
God, until he be clean and undefiled: this opinion makes ablutions so
necessary; of which there are three kinds: the first is El gasul (the g
pronounced guttural), which is an immersion of the whole body, and
is performed by the affluent, or those in easy circumstances; the
second is El woden, which is a washing of the hands, fingers, and
arms, up to the elbows, the feet, face, and head, the sexual parts,
the mouth and nostrils, the toes, separately and singly; and this
should be repeated three times: the third mode of purification is
practised only in the Desert, where the difference is the substitution
of sand for water, as the latter can seldom be procured there.
Charity is considered a cardinal virtue, and an indispensible duty:
those, however, who possess not five camels, or thirty sheep, and
200 pieces of silver, are not considered as obligated to give alms; for
it is held, that the alms-giver should not injure himself. It is expected
that a person of good property ought to give a muzuna[161] in a
mitkal, which is equivalent to 6d. in the pound, to the poor, out of
his annual profits, which being calculated at the end of the sacred
month of Ramadan, the people have ten days to prepare their
donations, when the feast of L’ashora commences, and the poor go
about to the inhabitants to collect their respective donations, which
they call (mtâa Allah) God’s property.[162]
During the fast of the moon, or month of Ramadan (which, from
their years being lunar, happens at various periods of the year), they
are very rigorous; it is necessary that the fast should be begun with
an intention in the heart to please God: during this month they do
not eat, nor even smell food, drink, smoke, nor communicate with
women, from the rising to the setting sun; but at night they eat
plentifully. Even those who indulge in wine at other times, refrain
from it in the sacred month of Ramadan.
Mohammed declared that the Jews, Christians, and Pagans,
cannot be saved, so long as they remain in infidelity and idolatry: of
which last, the Mohammedans accuse the Roman Catholics, who
worship a cross, or an image, carved by the hands of man: as to the
English, they seem not to have determined what denomination to
give them; they are commonly called infidels, who never pray; this
opinion having obtained among them because Protestants have no
public chapels in the Mohammedan towns in Africa, which the
Catholics have, as already mentioned. They have it on record, that
the sultan of the English (Richard Cœur de Lion) received from the
Sultan Solhaden or Saladine, or from Mohammed himself, the letter
admitting him and his followers as Mohammedans: but that the
English king being engaged in various negociations whilst in
Palestine, he did not give so much attention to the letter as was
expected, and that after returning to England, he still doubted
whether he should embrace the Mohammedan doctrine, or remain a
Christian!
It is highly probable, in that age of fanaticism, when the holy
wars were undertaken, that the Sultan Saladine, apprehensive for
the cause of Mohammedanism, did make overtures to Richard; for it
was the custom in the days of Mohammed, and afterwards in the
days of those enthusiasts, to invite all powerful princes to embrace
their religion.
The 2nd, 5th, and 9th chapters of the Koran declare a believer to
be one who embraces the Mohammedan faith (i.e. a belief in the
divine inspiration of the Prophets, of Jesus, and of Mohammed); this
and Islaemism are synonymous terms.
Koran, chap. v.—“If Jews and Christians believe, they shall be
admitted into paradise.”
1. Believe, implies a belief in one God, and of the day of
judgment, the two grand pillars of Islaemism.
 2. Believe in Islaemism; this admits of various interpretations:
Islaem is performing obedience and prostration before God! in
another interpretation it implies Mohammedanism, or a belief in the
divine mission of Mohammed.
The generality of religions, which have made any progress in the
world, make it indispensable to believe in its own tenets:
Mohammed, although he naturally gives the preference to the
religion of his own forming, yet he has the liberality to acknowledge,
that those who have professed other religions may be saved, after
suffering a degree of chastisement or damage in the life to come, as
it is termed by him.
“Whoever shall have professed any religion except Islaemism, his
belief shall not be acceptable to God, and he shall receive damage in
the life to come, or be not so well received, as if he had professed
Islaemism, or the law of peace and obedience.”
Although the Prophet reprobated the Jews as well as the
Christians, whom he accused of perverting the Scriptures, yet he
took care to keep up the latitudinarian principle of his own law,
called Dêne-el-Wasah (the extended doctrine) by believing the divine
inspiration of both the Old and New Testament, thus giving an
opportunity to the expounders of the law, to regulate themselves
according to circumstances.
The Mohammedans, when disputing with Christians, which they
rarely do, say, that Christians believe faith will save the soul: they
also believe so; and that if their religion is the true one, they will go
to Paradise; they tell us, if your’s be the true one, we both shall go
there, because we believe in the divinity of Christ, but you do not
believe in that of Mohammed, therefore, if faith save the soul, we
have the advantage of you in being, in any case, on the safe side.
[163]

The Mooselmin’s ideas of the Creator are grand and elevated.

Whatever is, exists either necessarily and of itself, and is God, or has
not its being from itself, and does not exist necessarily, and is of two
sorts: substance and accidents: substances are of two kinds,
abstract and concrete; abstract substances are, all spirits and
intellectual beings: concrete being the matter and form.
Whenever God is spoken of by the Mohammedans, as having
form, eyes, &c. it is meant, allegorically, to convey the idea of some
particular attribute.
They deny that Christ was crucified.
Finally, the Mohammedan religion recommends toleration; and all
liberal Mohammedans insist that every man ought to worship God
according to the law of his forefathers. “If it pleased God,” say they,
“all men would believe; why then should a worm, a wretched mortal,
be so foolish as to pretend to force other men to believe? The soul
believes only by the will of God: these are the true principles of
Mohammedans.”
It must, however, be observed, that the principles here laid down
are not always the rule of action, any more than the sublime truths
inculcated by the Christian religion are altogether acted upon by its
professors.
Both religions acknowledge the greatness of God, and yet bigotry
is so prevalent at Old Fas, that if a Christian were there to exclaim
Allah k’beer, God is great, he would be invited immediately to add to
it, and Mohammed is his prophet, which, if he were inadvertently to
utter before witnesses, he would be compelled to become a
Mohammedan, and would be circumcised accordingly: so that
Europeans should be extremely cautious, when unprotected, or not
in the suite of an ambassador, what words they ever repeat after a
Mohammedan, even if ignorant of the meaning thereof. I do not
apprehend, however, that it is necessary to observe this caution in
any part of the empire except at Old Fas, where bigotry, as before
observed, predominates.
Martin Martinius, the jesuit, and Abraham Ecchellensis, professor
of Oriental languages at Rome in the 17th century, tax the Koran
with asserting, that God himself prays for Mohammed; this absurdity
has probably originated in an incorrect translation of the Koran,
published about 270 years since, which translates, “may the blessing
of God be upon thee, may the prayers of God be upon thee:” the
same Arabic word (Sollah) which signifies peace or blessing, when
applied to a man, signifies prayer. Sollah Allah ala Seedna
Mohammed, signifies, “pray to God through our master Mohammed,”
not, “the prayers of God are upon Mohammed.”
It has been said by Maccarius, in his Theolog. Polemic. p. 119,
that Mohammed does not acknowledge any hell. Why then does he
explain the seven gates of hell, mentioned in the Koran, chap. xv.?
which are an emblem of the seven deadly sins, and of their various
punishments; for, according to the Arabian prophet, hell has seven
gates, allegorically, and heaven has seven heavens, or degrees of
happiness; the highest and chiefest of which, according to the
Mohammedans, is to see God. The (Gehennume) hell of Mohammed
is not an eternal punishment.
Monsieur de St. Olon, ambassador from the King of France at
Marocco, says, in his description of the kingdom of Marocco, chap. ii.
—“The Mohammedans maintain, that by washing their head, hands,
and feet, they are purified from all sin:” but this is an error, and I
may presume, from the nature of the assertion, that the
Ambassador, like many others, who are sent to Mohammedan
countries, knew nothing of the Arabic language, and that he was
obliged to negotiate through some Jewish interpreter. The washing is
merely a necessary ceremony, and is similar to our custom of going
washed and clean to church; it is a purifying of the shell, or the
outward man, prayers are a purifying of the kernel or inward man;
as by purifying the kernel, the amendment of the heart is implied.
With regard to spirits or devils (called Jin, Sing. and Jinune (pl.);
Sale translates Genii, which is the word Jin, with the vowel point
thus, ‫ جِن‬jinee), Philip Guadagnolo,[164] in his apology for the
Christian religion, p. 291, asserts, that the Koran is full of
contradictions, from what it says about devils in the chapter called
the chapter of Devils; but this is really the chapter of spirits (Genii,
spirits), for of these Mohammedans admit three kinds, besides the
departed souls of men, called Rôh Benadam, viz.
1. Lucifer, the chief of the devils, is called Shetan.
2. All rebellious or deformed spirits belonging to Shetan are called
Iblis.
The 3d kind are called Genii, in Arabic Jinune; they are both good
and bad, offensive and inoffensive, and assume various forms. The
good are called Melik.
Of sins, the Mooselmin affirm envy to have been the first
committed in heaven and on earth; they say Iblis envied Adam;
when God ordered all Angels to honour him, he tacitly condemned
God; and expostulated with him on ordering him, who was made of
fire, to adore or honour the first man, who was made from earth.
‘Now,’ said the wretch Iblis, ‘it is not just that the superior being
should honour the inferior;’ and he was cast down from heaven for
his disobedience: thus envy was the first sin in heaven.
Kabel and Habel (the Arabic names of Cain and Abel) offered
sacrifice to God; the offerings of Habel met with a more favourable
reception; Kabel envied him and killed him; so envy first occasioned
infidelity in heaven, and murder on earth.
The heighth of the celestial happiness is to see God; all those
elegant descriptions of beautiful virgins, rivers flowing with honey,
gardens of delicious fruits, &c. which are said by some to compose
the happiness of the Mohammedan paradise, are allegorical
descriptions.
Chap. xl.—“Whoever shall believe and do good works, whether
man or woman, shall enter paradise.”
Thus we see that the fate of the Mohammedan women is not
altogether so deplorable as some Christians have made it.
Peter Cevaller, in his Zelus Christi contra Saracenos, p. 137,
speaking of Mohammed, says—“This madman places Haman in the
time of Pharoah, which is such a proof of his ignorance, as ought to
put him and all his beastly followers to an eternal silence.”
Peter Cevaller, it appears, was not apprised that Pharaoh was a
general name for all the kings of the Pharoah dynasty, which
continued to reign in Egypt many centuries. The Mohammedans,
moreover, have many traditions about a man of the name of Haman,
who was a general of one of the Pharaohs.
Bartholomew of Edessa, in p. 442 of the Varia Sacra, published by
Stephen le Moine, reproaches Mohammed with saying, that the
blessed Virgin became pregnant by eating dates:
Koran, chap. xix.—“Remember what is written of Mary. We sent to
her our spirit, (or angel,) in the shape of a man; she was frightened,
but the angel said to her, O Mary! I am the messenger of your Lord,
and your God, who will give you an active and prudent son. She
answered, How shall I have a son without knowing any man? The
angel replied, God has said it, the thing shall happen; it is easy to
your Lord, and your son himself shall be a proof of the almighty
power of God. Then she conceived, and retired for some time into a
solitary place, near a date-tree, and her labour-pains began
forthwith; but the angel said, Do not afflict thyself; shake the date-
tree, and gather the dates; eat them, drink water, and wash your
eyes.” Now this passage, which is the one alluded to, does not say
that the pregnancy proceeded from the eating of the dates, although
the dates eased the pains of pregnancy. Hence, probably, that
superstitious African tradition, that when the Virgin Mary was in
pain, she exclaimed, O that I had some dates! and immediately the
exclamation, or letter O, was marked on the stone of the fruit.[165]
Dog and hog are synonymous terms of contempt or degradation
among the Mohammedans: they are the two unclean animals; and if
either of them drink out of a cup, it must be washed. They will not
sit down where a dog has been, nor will they wear the skin of the
animal, even if made into leather. Some men of rank, however, keep
greyhounds, and other dogs for hunting; but seldom let them go
into those apartments of their houses, where the women are, for
they say, no angel or benediction comes to any place where a dog
is.
In the xivth chap. of the Koran Mohammed makes Abraham beg
of God to protect Mecca, and to make it a place of peace or safety
(aman ‫ المعان‬in the original) to all the world. The learned Robert of
Retz, who translated the Koran in the 16th century, has rendered
this word, Aman or Hammon, and hence the prophet has absolutely
been accused of placing Mecca in the country of the Hammonites,
and consequently abused for his geographical ignorance, as if any
man of common understanding could so far mistake the place of his
birth, a place he had lived in so long, had conquered, and from
whence he had made so many eruptions against his neighbours. The
word Aman in the original is a consecrated place, or place of faith, of
safety, of refuge, of protection. Birds, fish, or animals, are not
allowed to be killed in such places, neither is blood to be spilt
therein.
Mohammed has also been accused of contradicting himself, in
saying, sometimes, that he could read, and at others, that he could
not; and the following passage of the Koran (ch. xlvii.) is thence
produced as evidence that he could read: God is introduced as
saying to Mohammed—“God knows what you do, and what you
read.”[166] But the whole is a mistake, both of the version and of the
annotator, for in the original Arabic, God does not speak to
Mohammed, but the latter speaks to other men, and says, “God
knows what ye do, and what ye meditate,” (not read).
With regard to marriage, the Koran (chap. iv.) allows four wives:
“Receive in marriage such women as you like, two, three, or four
wives, at the most. If you think you cannot maintain them equally,
marry only one.” (This subject has been elucidated in a preceding
chapter, it is therefore unnecessary to say any thing further upon it
here).
It has been said by Euthymius Zygabenus, and an anonymous
author, who wrote Mohammed’s life, in Sylburgh’s Saracen. p. 60,
that Mohammed, in his Koran, placed Moses amongst the damned;
but whoever has the least knowledge of Arabic, must know, by
consulting the Koran, that Moses is every where mentioned with
great respect, and the Mohammedans call him Seedna, i.e. our Lord
or Master.
From the foregoing observations, it will be perceived that the
principles of the Mohammedan religion are neither so pernicious nor
so absurd as many have imagined. They have sometimes been
vilified from error, or for the purpose of exalting the Christian
doctrine; but that doctrine is too pure and celestial to need any such
aids.
 FOOTNOTES:
[161]Forty muzuna make one mitkal.
[162]In the evening of the feast of L’ashora, they have a masquerade,
during which the masquers proceed through the different streets, and go
to the houses, to collect charity: their masks are made in a rude way, but
the characters are well represented throughout. Amongst them we
generally find an English sailor, a French soldier, a cooper, a lawyer, an
apothecary, and a sheik or alkaid, who determines all disputes, and whose
decree is absolute.
[163]This is similar to the Catholic lady, who, worshipping the picture of
Satan alternately with that of the Virgin, declared that her object was to
secure a friend on both sides.
[164]He translated the Bible into Arabic in 1671.
[165]All date-stones have a circular mark on them, like the letter O.
[166]Robert de Retz’s translation.
 CHAPTER X.
Languages of Africa — Various Dialects of the Arabic Language — Difference between the
Berebber and Shelluh Languages — Specimen of the Mandinga — Comparison of the
Shelluh Language with that of the Canary Islands, and Similitude of Customs.

Y areb , the son of Kohtan,[167] is said to have been the first who spoke
Arabic, and the Mohammedans contend that it is the most eloquent language
spoken in any part of the globe, and that it is the one which will be used at
the day of judgment. To write a long dissertation on this copious and
energetic language, would be only to repeat what many learned men have
said before; a few observations, however, may not be superfluous to the
generality of readers. The Arabic language is spoken by a greater proportion
of the inhabitants of the known world than any other: a person having a
practical knowledge of it, may travel from the shores of the Mediterranean sea
to the Cape of Good Hope, and notwithstanding that in such a journey he
must pass through many kingdoms and empires of blacks, speaking distinct
languages, yet he would find men in all those countries versed in
Mohammedan learning, and therefore acquainted with the Arabic; again, he
might cross the widest part of the African continent from west to east, and
would every where meet with persons acquainted with it, more particularly if
he should follow the course of the great river called the Nile of the Negroes,
on the banks of which, from Jinnie and Timbuctoo, to the confines of Lower
Egypt, are innumerable cities and towns of Arabs and Moors, all speaking the
Arabic. Again, were a traveller to proceed from Marocco to the farthest shore
of Asia, opposite the islands of Japan, he would find the Arabic generally
spoken or understood wherever he came. In Turkey, in Syria, in Arabia, in
Persia, and in India, it is understood by all men of education; and any one
possessing a knowledge of the Korannick Arabic, might, in a very short time,
make himself master of the Hindostannee, and of every other dialect of the
former.
The letters of this language are formed in four distinct ways, according to
their situation at the beginning, middle, or end of words, as well as when
standing alone; the greatest difficulty, however, to be overcome, is the
acquiring a just pronunciation, (without which no living language can be
essentially useful), and to attain which, the learner should be able to express
the difference of power and sound between what may be denominated the
synonymous letters, such as ‫ ط‬and ‫ ث‬with ‫ ت; ع‬with ‫ ا; ص‬with ‫ س; ض‬and ‫ظ‬
with ‫ د; ه‬with ‫ ح; ڧ‬and ‫ ك‬with ‫ خ; غ‬with ‫ر‬.
Besides these, there are other letters, whose power is extremely difficult to
be acquired by an European, because no language in Europe possesses
sounds similar to the Arabic letters ‫ع غ خ‬, nor has any language, except,
perhaps, the English, a letter with the power of the Arabian ‫ث‬. Those who
travel into Asia or Africa scarcely ever become sufficiently masters of the
Arabic to speak it fluently, which radical defect proceeds altogether from their
not learning, while studying it, the peculiar distinction of the synonymous
letters. No European, perhaps, ever knew more of the theory of this language
than the late Sir William Jones, but still he could not converse with an
Arabian, a circumstance of which he was not conscious until he went to India.
This great man, however, had he been told that his knowledge of this popular
eastern language was so far deficient, that he was ignorant of the separate
powers of its synonymous letters, and consequently inadequate to converse
intelligibly with a native Arab, he would certainly have considered it an
aspersion, and have disputed altogether that such was the fact. Considering
how much we are indebted to the Arabians for the preservation of many of
the works of the ancients, which would otherwise have never, perhaps, been
known to us, it is really surprising that their language should be so little
known in Europe. It is certainly very difficult and abstruse (to learners
particularly), but this difficulty is rendered insurmountable by the European
professors knowing it only as a dead language, and teaching it without due
attention to the pronunciation of the before mentioned synonymous letters, a
defect which is not likely to be remedied, and which will always subject the
speaker to incessant errors.
To shew the Arabic student the difference between the Oriental and
Occidental order of the letters of the alphabet, I shall here give them opposite
each other.
Oriental Order of the Alphabet. Occidental Order of the Alphabet.
1 Alif ‫ا‬ — 1 Alif ‫ا‬
2 ba ‫ب‬ — 2 ba ‫ب‬
3 ta ‫ت‬ — 3 ta ‫ت‬
4 thsa ‫ث‬ — 4 tha ‫ث‬
5 jim ‫ج‬ — 5 jim ‫ج‬
6 hha ‫ح‬ — 6 hha ‫ح‬
7 kha ‫خ‬ — 7 kha ‫خ‬
8 dal ‫د‬ — 8 dal ‫د‬
 Oriental Order of the Alphabet. Occidental Order of the Alphabet.
9 dsal ‫ذ‬ — 9 dth’al ‫ذ‬
10 ra ‫ر‬ — 10 ra ‫ر‬
11 za ‫ز‬ — 11 zain ‫ز‬
12 sin ‫س‬ — 12 ta ‫ط‬
13 shin ‫ش‬ — 13 da ‫ظ‬
14 sad ‫ص‬ — 14 kef ‫ك‬
15 dad ‫ض‬ — 15 lam ‫ل‬
16 ta ‫ط‬ — 16 mim ‫م‬
17 da ‫ظ‬ — 17 nune ‫ن‬
18 ain ‫ع‬ — 18 sad ‫ص‬
19 gain ‫غ‬ — 19 dad ‫ض‬
20 fa ‫ف‬ — 20 ain ‫ع‬
21 kaf ‫ق‬ — 21 r’gain ‫غ‬
22 kef ‫ك‬ — 22 fa ‫ف‬
23 lem ‫ل‬ — 23 kaf ‫ق‬
24 mim ‫م‬ — 24 sin ‫س‬
25 nun ‫ن‬ — 25 shin ‫ش‬
26 waw ‫و‬ — 26 hha ‫ه‬
27 he ‫ه‬ — 27 wow ‫و‬
28 ya ‫ي‬ — 28 ia ‫ي‬
29 lam-alif ‫ال‬ — 29 lam-alif ‫ال‬
Besides this difference of the arrangement of the two alphabets, the student
will observe that there is also a difference in the punctuation of two of the
letters: thus—
Oriental. Occidental.
fa ‫ف‬ fa ‫ڢ‬
kaf ‫ق‬ kaf ‫ڧ‬
Among the Western Arabs, the ancient Arabic figures are used, viz. 0, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: they often write 100 thus, 1 . .-200, 2 . .
To explain the force of the synonymous letters on paper would be
impossible; the reader, however, may form some idea of the indispensable
necessity of knowing the distinction by the few words here selected, which to
one unaccustomed to hear the Arabic language spoken, would appear similar
and undistinguishable.
 ENGLISH. ARABIC. ARABIC.
Rendered as near to
European pronunciation
as the English Alphabet
will admit.
A horse Aoud ‫عوْد‬
Wood Awad ‫اعواْد‬
To repeat Aoud ‫َع وْد‬
Fish Hout ‫ُح وْت‬

A gun Mokhalla ‫اُم ْك حَل‬

A foolish woman Mokeela ‫ُم خيلَه‬
A frying-pan Makeela ‫َمڧُل‬

A lion Sebah ‫َّالسبْع‬

Morning Sebah ‫َّالصبْح‬
Seventh Sebah ‫َّالسبْع‬

Hatred Hassed ‫احَس ْد‬

Harvest Hassed ‫احصْد‬

Learning Alem, or El Alem ‫ العالْم‬or ‫عالْم‬

A flag El Alem ‫االعالْم‬

Granulated paste Kuscasoe ‫كسْك ُس‬

The dish it is made in Kuscas ‫كسكاْس‬

Heart Kul’b ‫ڧلْب‬

Dog Kil’b ‫كلْب‬
Mould Kal’b ‫ڧالْب‬

Captain Rice ‫الُر ايُس‬

Feathers Rish ‫الُر يش‬
Mud Ris ‫الغيْس‬

Smell Shim ‫الُش ْم‬

Poison Sim ]168[ ‫ألسْم‬

Absent R’gaib ‫الغايْب‬

 ENGLISH. ARABIC. ARABIC.
Rendered as near to
European pronunciation
as the English Alphabet
will admit.
Butter milk Raib ‫الَّرايْب‬

White Bëad ‫ْابيْض‬

A black El Abd ‫العبْد‬
Eggs Baid ‫الَبيْض‬
Afar-off Baid ‫اْب عيْد‬

A pig Helloof ‫حلوْڢ‬

An oath Hellef ‫احلْڢ‬
Feed for horses Alf ‫الّعلڢ‬
A thousand Alf ‫الْڢ‬
It is difficult for any one who has not accurately studied the Arabic
language, to imagine the many errors which an European commits in
speaking it, when self-taught, or even when taught in Europe. Soon after my
arrival in Africa, when I had not attained the age of eighteen, I happened one
day to be in the house of an European gentleman who had then been in the
country twenty years; an Arab of the province of Tedla came in, when the
former (at all times desirous of exhibiting his knowledge of their language)
addressed him, and after making a long speech, the Arab very coolly replied,
“I entreat thee to speak Arabic, that I may understand thee (tkillem Eaudie
b’lorbea besh en fhemik).” This was interpreted to me by a friend, who was
present, and it made such a strong impression on my mind, that I resolved to
apply myself assiduously to discover the reason why a person who spoke the
language tolerably quick, should be altogether so little understood, and I was
some time afterwards, by making various observations and trials, convinced
that the deficiency originated in the inaccuracy of the application of the
synonymous letters.
The ain ‫ ع‬and the ‫ غ‬r’gain cannot be accurately pronounced by Europeans,
who have not studied the language grammatically when young, and under a
native; I have, however, heard an Irishman,[169] who did not understand it
grammatically, but had acquired it by ear, pronounce the latter equally as
correct as any Arabian; but this was a rare instance. He was in England whilst
Elfie Bey was here, who, as I was afterwards informed, had declared, that he
was the only European whose Arabic he could easily understand. The
aspirated h, and the hard s, in the word for morning (sebah), are so much like
their synonymes, that few Europeans can discern the difference; the one is
consequently often mistaken for the other; and I have known a beautiful
sentence absolutely perverted through an inaccuracy of this kind. In the
words rendered Hatred and Harvest, the two synonymes of ‫ س‬and ‫ ص‬or s
hard and s soft, are indiscriminately used by Europeans in their Arabic
conversations, a circumstance sufficient to do away the force and meaning of
any sentence or discourse.
The poetry as well as prose of the Arabians is well known, and has been so
often discussed by learned men, that it would be irrelevant here to expatiate
on the subject; but as the following description of the noblest passion of the
human breast cannot but be interesting to the generality of readers, and
without any exception to the fair sex, I will transcribe it.
“Love (‫ )العشك‬beginneth in contemplation, passeth to meditation; hence
proceeds desire; then the spark bursts forth into a flame, the head swims, the
body wastes, and the soul turns giddy. If we look on the bright side of love,
we must acknowledge that it has at least one advantage; it annihilates pride
and immoderate self-love: true love, whose aim is the happiness and equality
of the beloved object, being incompatible with those feelings.
“Lust is so different from true love (‫)العشك‬, and so far from a perfection,
that it is always a species of punishment sent by God, because man has
abandoned the path of his pure love.”
In their epistolary writing, the Arabs have generally a regular and particular
style, beginning and ending all their letters with the name of God,
symbolically, because God is the beginning and end of all things. The
following short specimen will illustrate this:

Translation of a letter written in the Korannick Arabic by Seedy Soliman ben

Mohammed ben Ismael, Sultan of Marocco, to his Bashaw —— of Suse, &c.
&c.
“Praise be to the only God! for there is neither power, nor strength, without
the great and eternal God.”
[L.S. containing the Emperor’s name and titles, as Soliman ben
Mohammed ben Abdallah, &c. &c.]

“Our servant, Alkaid Abdelmelk ben Behie Mulud, God assist, and peace be
with thee, and the mercy and grace of God be upon thee!
 “We command thee forthwith to procure and send to our exalted presence
every Englishman that has been wrecked on the coast of Wedinoon, and to
forward them hither without delay, and diligently to succour and attend to
them, and may the eye of God be upon thee!”
26th of the lunar month Saffer, year of the Hejira 1281.
(May 1806.)[170]

The accuracy of punctuation in the Arabic language is a matter that ought

to be strictly attended to; thus they maintain writing to be the first
qualification of a scholar, and that, from a want of a due knowledge of
punctuation, the Christians have misunderstood the word of God, which says,
“I have begotten thee, and thou art my son.” This passage, they say, first
stood as follows, (which if the Scriptures had been originally written in Arabic
would have had some plausibility.)
“I have adopted thee, and thou art my prophet.” The difference of
punctuation in one word makes all this difference in signification, for—

‫ ٮٮ‬punctuated thus ‫ بن‬signifies son, and

‫ ٮٮ‬punctuated thus, ‫ نب‬signifies prophet.

It has been already observed, that the Mohammedans believe in Jesus Christ,
and that he was a prophet sent from God; but they acknowledge no equal
with God. The doctrine of the Trinity is incomprehensible to them, hence they
will not admit of the punctuation ‫ بن‬but allow that of ‫نب‬.
The foregoing observations will serve to prove the insufficiency of a
knowledge of this language, as professed or studied in Great Britain when
unaccompanied with a practical knowledge. These observations may apply
equally to the Persian language.[171]
If the present ardour for discovery in Africa be persevered in, the learned
world may expect, in the course of a few years, to receive histories and other
works of Greek and Roman authors, which were translated into the Arabic
language, when Arabian literature was in its zenith, and have ever since been
confined to some private libraries in the cities of the interior of Africa, and in
Arabia. Bonaparte, aware of the political importance of a practical knowledge
of this language, has of late given unremitting attention to the subject, and if
we may believe the mutilated accounts which we receive occasionally from
France, he is likely to obtain from Africa in a short period relics of ancient
learning of considerable value, which have escaped the wreck of nations.
Having said thus much with regard to the Arabic of the western Arabs,
which, with little variation, is spoken throughout all the finest districts of North
Africa, I shall proceed to say a few words respecting the other languages
spoken north of Sahara: these are the Berebber and its dialects, viz. the
Zayan and Girwan, and Ait Imure; the Shelluh of Suse and South Atlas, all
which, though latterly supposed by some learned men to be the same, differ
in many respects; any one possessing a knowledge of the Berebber language
might, with little difficulty, make himself understood by the Zayan of Atlas, the
Girwan, or the Ait Imure; but the Shelluh is a different language, and each so
different from the Arabic, that there is not the smallest resemblance, as the
following specimen will demonstrate:
BEREBBER. SHELLUH. ARABIC. ENGLISH.
Tumtoot Tayelt Ishira A girl
Ajurode Ayel Ishire A boy
Askan Tarousa Hajar A thing
Aram Algrom Jimmel Camel
Tamtute Tamraut Murrah A woman
Ishiar Issemg’h L’abd A slave
Aouli Izimer Kibsh A sheep
Taddert Tikimie Dar House
Ikshuden Asroen Lawad Wood
Eekeel Akfai Hellib Milk
Tifihie Uksume El Ham Meat
Buelkiel Amuran Helloof A hog
Abreede Agares Trek A road
Bishee Fikihie Ara Give me
Adude Asht Agi Come
Alkam Aftooh Cire Go
Kaym Gäuze Jils Sit down
Imile Imeek Serire Little

SPECIMEN OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ARABIC AND SHELLUH LANGUAGES.

 SHELLUH. ARABIC ENGLISH.
Is sin Tamazirkt Wash katarf Shelluh Do you understand
Shelluh?
Uree sin Man arf huh I do not understand
it
Matshrult Kif enta How are you?
Is tekeete Marokshe Wash gite min Are you come from
Marockshe Marocco?
Egan ras Miliah Good
Maigan Ala’sh Wherefore?
Misimmink As’mek What is your name?
Mensh kat dirk Shall andik How much have
you got?
Tasardunt Borella A mule
Romi Romi An European
Takannarit Nasarani A Christian
Romi Kaffer An infidel
Misem Bebans Ashkune mula Who is the owner?
Is’tkit Tegriwelt Wash jite min Are you come from
Tegriwelt Cape Ossem?
Auweete Imkelli Jib Liftor Bring the dinner
Efoulkie Meziana Handsome
Ayeese El aoud A horse
Tikelline El Baid Eggs
Amuran Helloof Hog
Tayuh Tatta Camelion
Tasamumiat Adda Green lizard
Tandaraman Ertella b’hairie Venemous spider
Tenawine Sfune Ships
Marmol says, the Shelluhs and Berebbers write and speak one language,
called Killem Abimalick,[172] the name of the person who was accounted the
inventor of Arabic letters; but the foregoing specimen, the accuracy of which
may be depended on, clearly proves this assertion to be erroneous, as well as
that of many moderns who have formed their opinion, in all probability, on the
above authority. Now, although the Shelluh and Berebber languages are so
totally dissimilar, that there is not one word in the foregoing vocabulary which
resembles its corresponding word in the other language, yet, from the
prejudice which Marmol has established, it will still be difficult, perhaps, to
persuade the learned that such an author could be mistaken on such a
subject. My account therefore must remain for a future age to determine
upon, when the languages of Africa shall be better known than they are at
present; for it is not a few travellers occasionally sent out on a limited plan
that can ascertain facts, the attainment of which requires a long residence,
and familiar intercourse with the natives. Marmol has also misled the world in
saying that they write a different language; the fact is, that when they write
any thing of consequence, it is in the Arabic, but any trifling subject is written
in the Berebber words, though in the Arabic character. If they had any
peculiar character in the time of Marmol, they have none now; for I have
conversed with hundreds of them, as well as with the Shelluhs, and have had
them staying at my house for a considerable time together, but never could
learn from any that a character different from the Arabic had ever been in use
among them.
In addition to these languages, there is another spoken at the Oasis of
Ammon, or Siwah, called in Arabic (‫ )الواح الغاربي‬El Wah El Garbie, which
appears to be a mixture of Berebber and Shelluh, as will appear from the list
of Siwahan words given by Mr. Horneman,[173] in his Journal, page 19, part of
which I have here transcribed, to shew the similitude between those two
languages, whereby it will appear that the language of Siwah and that of the
Shelluhs of South Atlas are one and the same language.
ENGLISH. SIWAHAN, SHELLUH.
as given by Mr. Horneman, p. 19.
Sun Itfuckt Atfuct
Head Achfé Akfie
Camel Lgum Arume
Sheep Jelibb Jelibb
Cow Tfunest Tafunest
Mountain Iddrarn Iddra[174]
Have you a horse? Goreck Ackmar Is derk Achmar?[175]
Milk Achi Akfie
Bread Tagor Tagora[176]
Dates Tena Tenie (sing.)
Tena (plural.)
 South of the Desert we find other languages spoken by the blacks; and are
told by Arabs who have frequently performed the journey from Jinnie to Cairo,
and the Red Sea, that thirty-three different Negroe languages are met with in
the course of that route, but that the Arabic is spoken by the intelligent part
of the people, and the Mohammedan religion is known and followed by many;
their writings are uniformly in Arabic.
It may not be improper in this place, seeing the many errors and mutilated
translations which appear from time to time of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian
papers, to give a list of the Mohammedan moons or lunar months, used by all
those nations, which begin with the first appearance of the new moon, that is,
the day following, or sometimes two days after the change, and continue till
they see the next new moon; these have been mutilated to such a degree in
all our English translations, that I shall give them, in the original Arabic
character, and as they ought to be spelt and pronounced in the English
character, as a clue whereby to calculate the correspondence between our
year and theirs. They divide the year into 12 months, which contain 29 or 30
days, according as they see the new moon; the first day of the month
Muharam is termed ‫ راس العام‬Ras Elame, i.e. the beginning of the year.
As we are more used to the Asiatic mode of punctuation, that will be
observed in these words.
Muharam ‫ُم َح اَرْم‬
Asaffer ‫َاصَافْر‬
Arabia Elule ‫اَّلوله‬ ‫اَّلرابيع‬
Arabea Atthenie ‫اَّلثاني‬ ‫اَّلرابيع‬
Jumad Elule ‫جوماد الول‬
Jumad Athenie ‫جوماد اَّلثاني‬
Rajeb ‫راجب‬
Shaban ‫شعبان‬
Ramadan ‫رامدان‬
Shual ‫شوال‬
Du’elkada ‫ُد لكعدَه‬
Du Elhagah ‫ُد لحاَج ْه‬
The first of Muharram, year of the Hejira 1221, answers to the 19th March
of the Christian æra, 1806.
Among the various languages spoken south of the Desert, or Sahara, we
have already observed that there are thirty-three different ones between the
Western Ocean and the Red Sea, following the shores of the Nile El Abide, or
Niger: among all these nations and empires, a man practically acquainted with
the Arabic may always make himself understood, and indeed it is the
language most requisite to be known for every traveller in these extensive
regions.
The Mandinga is spoken from the banks of the Senegal, where that river
takes a northerly course from the Jibel Kumera to the kingdom of Bambarra;
the Wangareen tongue is a different one; and the Houssonians speak a
language differing again from that.

Specimen of the difference between the Arabic and Mandinga language; the
words of the latter extracted from the vocabularies of Seedi Mohammed
ben Amer Soudani.
ENGLISH. MANDINGA ARABIC.
One Kalen Wahud
Two Fula Thanine
Three Seba Thalata
Four Nani Arba
Five Lulu Kumsa
Six Uruh Setta
Seven Urn’klu Sebba
Eight Säae Timinia
Nine Kanuntée Taseud
Ten Dan Ashra
Eleven Dan kalen Ahud ash
Twelve Dan fula Atenashe
Thirteen Dan seba Teltashe
Nineteen Dan kanartée Tasatash
Twenty Mulu Ashreen
Thirty Mulu nintau Thalateen
Forty Mulu fula Arbä’in
Fifty Mulu fula neentan Kumseen
Sixty Mulu sebaa Setteen
Seventy Mulu sebaa nintan Sebä’in
Eighty Mulu nani T’ammana’een
Ninety Mulu nani neentaan Tasa’een
 ENGLISH. MANDINGA ARABIC.
One hundred Kemi Mia
One thousand Uli Elf

This Neen Hadda

That Waleem Hadduk
Great Bawa Kabeer
Little Nadeen Sereer
Handsome Nimawa Zin
Ugly Nuta Uksheen (k guttural)
White Kie Bead
Black Feen Abeed, or khal
Red Williamma Hummer
How do you do? Nimbana mountania Kif-enta
Well Kantée Ala khere
Not well Moon kanti Murrede
What do you want Ala feeta matume Ash-bright
Sit down Siduma Jils
Get up Ounilee Node
Sour Akkumula Hamd
Sweet Timiata Helluh
True Aituliala Hack
False Funiala Kadube
Good Abatee Miliah
Bad Minbatee Kubiah
A witch Bua Sahar
A lion Jatta Sebaâ
An elephant Samma El fele
A hyæna Salua Dubbah
A wild boar Siwa El kunjer
A water horse Mali Aoud d’Elma
A horse Suhuwa Aoud
A camel Kumaniun Jimmel
A dog Wallee Killeb
 ENGLISH. MANDINGA ARABIC.
Hel el Killeb or the dog-
Hel Wallee Hel El Killeb
faced race
A gazel Tankeen Gazel (g guttural)
A cat Niankune El mish
A goat Baâ El mâize
A sheep Kurenale Kibsh
A bull Nisakia Toôr
A serpent Saâ Hensh
A camelion Mineer Tatta
An ape Ku’nee Dzatute
A fowl or chicken Susee Djez
A duck Beruee El Weese
A fish Hihu El hout
Butter Tulu Zibda
Milk Nunn El hellib
Bread Mengu El khubs (k guttural)
Corn Nieu Zra
Wine Tangee Kummer (k guttural)
Honey Alee Asel
Sugar Tobabualee Sukar
Salt Kuee Mil’h
Ambergris Anber Anber
Brass Tass Tass
Silver Kudee Nukra
Gold-dust Teber Tiber
Pewter Tass ki Kusdeer
A bow Kula El kos
An arrow Binia Zerag
A knife Muru Jenui
A spoon Kulia Mogerfa
A bed El arun El ferrashe
A lamp El kundeel El kundeel
A house Su Ed dar
A room Bune El beet
 ENGLISH. MANDINGA ARABIC.
A light-hole or window Jinnee Reehâha
A door Daa Beb
A town Kinda Midina
Smoke Sezee Tkan (k guttural)
Heat Kandia Skanna (k guttural)
Cold Nini Berd
Sea Bedu baba Bahar
River Bedu Wed
A rock Berri Jerf
Sand Kinnikanni Rummel
The earth Binku Dunia
Mountain Kuanku Jibbel
Island Juchüi Dzeera
Rain Sanjukalaeen Shta
God Allah Allah
Father Fa Ba
Mother Ba Ma
Hell Jahennum Jehennume
A man Kia Rajil
A woman Musa Murrah
A sister Bum musa Kat (k guttural)
A brother Bum kia Ka
The devil Buhau Iblis
A white man Tebabu Rajil biad
A singer Jalikea Runai (r guttural)
A singing woman Jalimusa Runaiah (r guttural)
A slave June Abeed
A servant Bettela Mutalem
Having now given some account of the languages of Africa, we shall
proceed to animadvert on the similitude of language and customs between
the Shelluhs of Atlas and the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands. The
words between inverted commas are quotations from Glasse’s History of the
Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands.
 “The inhabitants of Lancerotta and Fuertaventura are social and cheerful;”
like the Shelluhs of Atlas; “they are fond of singing and dancing; their music is
vocal, accompanied with a clapping of hands, and beating with their feet:” the
Shelluhs resemble them in all these respects; “Their houses are built of stone,
without cement; the entrance is narrow, so that but one person can enter at a
time.”
The houses of the Shelluhs are sometimes built without cement, but
always with stone; the doors and entrances are low and small, so that one
person only can enter.
“In their temples they offered to their God milk and butter.”
Among the Shelluhs milk and butter are given as presents to princes and
great men: the milk being an emblem of good will and candour.
“When they were sick (which seldom happened) they cured themselves
with the herbs which grew in the country; and when they had acute pains,
they scarified the part affected with sharp stones, and burned it with fire, and
then anointed it with goat’s butter. Earthen vessels of this goat’s butter were
found interred in the ground, having been put there by the women who were
the makers, and took that method of preparing it for medicine.”
The custom of the Shelluhs on similar occasions is exactly similar; the
butter which they use is old, and is buried under ground many years in
(bukul) earthen pots, and is called budra: it is a general medicine, and is said
to possess a remarkably penetrating quality.
“They grind their barley in a hand-mill, made of two stones, being similar
to those used in some remote parts of Europe.”
In Suse, among the Shelluhs, they grind their corn in the same way, and
barley is the principle food.
“Their breeches are short, leaving the knees bare;” so are those worn by
the Shelluhs.
“Their common food was barley meal roasted and mixed with goats milk
and butter, and this dish they called Asamotan.”
This is the common food of the Shelluhs of Atlas, and they call it by a
similar name, Azamitta.
The opinion of the author of the History and Conquest of the Canary
Islands, is, that the inhabitants came originally from Mauritania, and this he
founds on the resemblance of names of places in Africa and in the islands: for,
says he, “Telde,[177] which is the name of the oldest habitation in Canaria,
Orotaba, and Tegesta, are all names which we find given to places in
Mauritania and in Mount Atlas. It is to be supposed that Canaria,
Fuertaventura, and Lancerotta, were peopled by the Alarbes,[178] who are the
nation most esteemed in Barbary; for the natives of those islands named milk
Aho, and barley Temecin, which are the names that are given to those things
in the language of the Alarbes of Barbary.” He adds, that
“Among the books of a library that was in the cathedral of St. Anna in
Canaria, there was found one so disfigured, that it wanted both the beginning
and the end: it treated of the Romans, and gave an account, that when Africa
was a Roman province, the natives of Mauritania rebelled and killed their
presidents and governors, upon which the senate, resolving to punish and
make a severe example of the rebels, sent a powerful army into Mauritania,
which vanquished and reduced them again to obedience. Soon after the
ringleaders of the rebellion were put to death, and the tongues of the
common people, together with those of their wives and children, were cut
out, and then they were all put aboard vessels with some grain and cattle,
and transported to the Canary islands.”[179]
The following vocabulary will shew the similarity of language between the
natives of Canaria and the Shelluhs (inhabitants of the Atlas mountains south
of Marocco).
LANCEROTTA AND SHELLUH OR LYBIAN ENGLISH.
FUERTAVENTURA TONGUE.
DIALECT.
Temasin Tumzeen Barley
Tezzezes Tezezreat Sticks
Taginaste Taginast A palm-tree
A blanket, covering or
Tahuyan Tahuyat
petticoat
Ahemon Amen Water
Faycag Faquair Priest or lawyer
Acoran M’koorn God
Almogaren Talmogaren Temples
Tamoyanteen Tigameen Houses
Tawacen Tamouren Hogs
Archormase Akermuse Green figs
Azamotan Azamittan Barley meal fried in oil
 LANCEROTTA AND SHELLUH OR LYBIAN ENGLISH.
FUERTAVENTURA TONGUE.
DIALECT.
Tigot Tigot Heaven
Tigotan Tigotan The Heavens
Thener Athraar A mountain
Adeyhaman Douwaman A hollow valley
A hayk or coarse
Ahico Tahayk
garment
A head man or a
Kabehiera Kabeera
powerful
Ahoren — Barley meal roasted
Ara — A goat
Ana — A sheep
Tagarer — A place of justice
Benehoare, the name of the natives of Palma.
Beni Hoarie, a tribe of Arabs in Suse between Agadeer and Terodant.[180]
FOOTNOTES:
[167]This Kohtan is the Yoctan, son of Eber, brother to Phaleg,
mentioned in Genesis. Chapter 10, verse 25.
[168]The African Jews find it very difficult in speaking, to distinguish
between shim and sim, for they cannot pronounce the sh, (‫ )ش‬but sound
it like s (‫ ;)س‬the very few who have studied the art of reading the
language, have, however, conquered this difficulty.
[169]Mr. Hugh Cahill.
[170]When they write to any other but Mohammedans, they never
salute them with the words “Peace be with thee,” but substitute—“Peace
be to those who follow the path of the true God,” Salem ala min itaba el
Uda.
[171]“One of the objects I had in view in coming to Europe was to
instruct young Englishmen in the Persian language. I however met with so
little encouragement from persons in authority, that I entirely relinquished
the plan. I instructed however (as I could not refuse the recommendations
that were brought to me) an amiable young man, Mr. S——n, and thanks
be to God, my efforts were crowned with success! and that he, having
escaped the instructions of self-taught masters, has acquired such a
knowledge of the principles of that language, and so correct an idea of its
idiom and pronunciation, that I have no doubt after a few years residence
in India he will attain to such a degree of excellence, as has not yet been
acquired by any other Englishman.” Vide Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan,
vol. i. p. 200.
[172]Killem Abimalick signifies the Language of Abimalick.
[173]In reading Mr. William Marsden’s observations on the language of
Siwah, at the end of Horneman’s Journal, in page 190, I perceive that the
short vocabulary inserted corresponds with a vocabulary of the Shelluh
language, which I presented to that gentleman some years past.
[174]Plural Iddrarn.
[175]Or, Is derk ayeese?
[176]This is applied to bread when baked in a pan, or over the embers
of charcoal, or other fire; but when baked in an oven it is called Agarom (g
guttural.)
[177]Telde or Tildie is a place in the Atlas mountains, three miles east
of Agadeer; the castle is in ruins.
[178]The Alarbes, this is the name that the inhabitants of Lower Suse
and Sahara have, El Arab or Arabs.
[179]One Thomas Nicols, who lived seven years in the Canary Islands,
and wrote a history of them, says that the best account he could get of
the origin of the natives, was that they were exiles from Africa, banished
thence by the Romans, who cut out their tongues for blaspheming their
gods.
[180]For further particulars see Glasse’s History of the Canary Islands,
4to. page 174.
 CHAPTER XI.
General Commerce of Marocco. — Annual Exports and Imports of the Port of Mogodor. —
Importance and Advantages of a Trade with the Empire of Marocco. — Cause of its Decline.
— Present State of our Relations with the Barbary Powers.

T he city of Marocco, besides its trade with the various districts of the interior,
receives the most considerable supplies of European merchandize from the
port of Mogodor, which is distant from it four days journey, caravan travelling;
[181] some of the more valuable articles, however, are transported from Fas to
the Marocco market, such as muslins, cambricks, spices, teas, pearls, coral,
&c. and the elegant Fas manufactures of silk and gold. There is a considerable
market held at Marocco every Thursday, called by the Arabs Soke-el-kumise,
[182] which all articles of foreign as well as home manufacture are bought and

sold, also horses,[183] horned cattle, slaves, &c. Samples of all kinds of
merchandize are carried up and down the market and streets of the city by
the Delels, or itinerant auctioneers, who proclaim the price offered, and when
no one offers more, the best bidder is apprised of his purchase, the money is
paid, and the transaction terminated.
The shops of Marocco are filled with merchandize of various kinds, many of
which are supplied by the merchants of Mogodor, who receive, in return for
European goods, the various articles of the produce of Barbary for the
European markets. The credit which was given by the principal commercial
houses of Mogodor to the natives has of late considerably decreased owing to
the change of system in the government; for, in the reign of the present
Emperor’s father, the European merchants were much respected, and their
books considered as correct, so that a book debt was seldom disputed, and
every encouragement was given to commerce by that Emperor; but Muley
Soliman’s political principles differ so widely from those of his father, that the
most trifling transaction should now be confirmed by law, to enable the
European to be on equal terms with the Moor, and to entitle him to recover
any property, or credit given; these measures have thrown various
impediments in the way of commerce, insomuch that credit is either almost
annihilated, or transformed into barter, which has necessarily thrown the trade
into fewer hands, and consequently curtailed it in a great degree. For the
purpose of showing at once the traffic carried on in the port of Mogodor, I
shall here give an accurate account of its exports and imports during the
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