Chap. XL. SLAUGHTER OF THE WELA'd SLIMA^. 
65 
a troop of swift horsemen armed with muskets, if 
kept in strict subjection and subordination, might 
have proved exceedingly useful on the northern 
borders of Bornu, on the one side as a check upon the 
Tawarek, on the other upon Waday. But the great 
difficulty, which the vizier appears not to have over- 
come, was to subject the predatory excursions of such 
a set of people to some sort of political rule. 
With this view, he sent the young chief, who was 
scarcely more than twenty years of age, to Kanem 
with all that were left of the Welad Sliman, keeping 
back in Kiikawa, as hostages for his proceedings, his 
mother and the wives and little children of some of the 
principal men. But from the beginning there was a 
strong party against the young chief, who had not 
yet achieved any exploit, and whose sole merit con- 
sisted in his being the nearest relation of e Abd el Jelil. 
'Omar, his uncle, who from his youth had given him- 
self up to a life of devotion, and was called a Me- 
rdbet, had a considerable party; and there were, be- 
sides, several men who thought themselves of as much 
importance as their chief. In the absence of indivi- 
dual authority in a small band like this, which only 
numbered 250 horsemen, no great results could be 
produced. All the tribes settled in Kanem and the ad- 
jacent districts were their natural enemies : the Norea" 
or Nuwarma and the Shendak6ra and Medema, the 
Sakerda and Karda in the Bahar el Ghazal, the Biiltu, 
the Woghda, the Welad Eashid, the Diggana or Da- 
ghana, the Welad Hamid, the Hommer and the Maha- 
VOL. III. F 
