206 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



The name of the surrounding country, too, bears its 

 testimony to the past : Bornu, Bur-Noah = the land of 

 Noah. 



As the name Hajer-el-Hamis denotes, it is a place 

 of pilgrimage, and for centuries men have travelled 

 thither to make sacrifice, — sacrifice that was once of 

 human beings, though humbler offerings are made 

 now, the chief assured us. Once certain pilgrims, 

 who lived not far from Chad, journeyed to Mecca, and 

 when they had come there they made plaint before 

 the Mallam, saying, " See how far we have come, and 

 what we have suffered on the way." The Mallam 

 made answer, "You had no need to come thus far. 

 In your own country there is a holy mountain where 

 you may worship," and they retired discomfited. 



Till comparatively recently Lake Chad surrounded 

 the hills, and there are traces of water action as high 

 as 50 feet upon them. Therefore the pilgrims made 

 sacrifice in a cave that lies midway towards the 

 summit of one of the three lower peaks which stand 

 in a group apart from the Noah's Ark hill. 



In old times, when a river flowed through the now 

 dry sandy depression of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, pilgrims 

 coming westward would have approached the rocks 

 from thence, landing perhaps not far below the cave 

 itself; but there was peril on the journey, for the 

 Buduma, the reed - men of Lake Chad, brooked no 

 intruders by their shores, and they would sweep down 

 in big fleets of canoes to carry away captive any such 

 strangers. Now the lake has receded, and not only 

 the high lonely peak where Noah first set foot, but 

 the group of rocks with the sacrificial cave, stand in 

 a desert of sand. We approached them therefore by 



