OCR Text |
Show MEETING THE EMIR OF CAHUA. An African Iolnt:ite Surrounded by .VallcUd Warriors. An acquaintance of mine who has lived some considerable time in tha upper reaches cf the Binue send3 me an intercsti-g account cf the meeting with the Fuiani emir of Garua. The account as a piece of unwritten history his-tory affords an attractive peep into a little-known world, where the picturesque pictur-esque has net yet disappeared before the all-leveling properties of civilization civiliza-tion and the Maxim gun. "It was in August, 1S9V says my correspondent, "when I was at Yola (Ycia is on the Binue, and is the capital capi-tal cf the Fulani state of Adamawa, one of Sokoto's tributary provinces), on the floating hulk Africa, anchored c.'f the town, that a native came and tcid me the emir of Garua had arrived and was waiting on the river bank to see me. I went on shore, and was rewarded re-warded by a very picturesque sight. Seated on a grass mat was a man of about 40 years of age. A tall, lithe, finely made, high-caste Fulani, in color col-or almost white one of the pure breed, that has never intermingled with the native element. Round his shoulders hung a white robe, spotlessly spotless-ly clean, and lined with shining indigo-dyed indigo-dyed cloth. He wore baggy, green silk trousers and sandals; on his head was fixed one of the enormous Kano straw hats, some three feet in circumference. He was surrounded by some thirty or forty soldiers, armed with swords and spears and a few rifles. What greatly struck me was the armor worn by tha soldiers. They had surcoats of chain mail and helmets on which the sun glinted. It made an extraordinary picture there in that wild place, 900 miles in the interior of the continent a scene from some medieval play In savage Africa. The armor, I afterward ascertained, came from Bornu. The emir greeted me very cooly in the Fulani Fu-lani tongue and held out his hand without rising. He hoped to receive a present, but I did not offer him one, and he was too proud to ask. We parted after the usual interchange of courtesies. It was one of the most interesting interviews I ever had In Africa, or elsewhere, for the matter of that." London Globe. |