Chap. XXXV. MOUNT BAGELE'. 
479 
it contains a good many spots of arable land, which 
support eighteen little hamlets of independent pagans. 
These, protected by the inaccessible character of their 
strongholds, and their formidable double spears, 
have not only been able hitherto to repulse all the 
attacks which the proud Mohammedans, the centre of 
whose government is only a few miles distant, have 
made against them, but, descending from their haunts, 
commit almost daily depredations upon the cattle of 
their enemies.* One of their little hamlets, perched 
on the top of steep cliffs, we could plainly distinguish 
by the recently thatched roofs of the huts, the snow- 
white colour of which very conspicuously shone forth 
from the dark masses of the rock. The country was 
always gaining in interest as we advanced, the 
meadow-lands being covered with living creatures of 
every description, such as cattle, horses, asses, goats, 
and sheep, and we reached the easternmost cluster of 
huts of the large straggling village or district of 
* I leave this passage as it stood in my journal, although it 
describes a state of things which now, in 1857, belongs to the 
past. This stronghold also has at length been taken by the in- 
truders, and the seat of happiness and independence converted 
into a region of desolation. In 1853, two years after my journey 
to A'damawa, Mohammed Lowel left his residence with a great 
host, having sworn not to return before he had reduced Bagele, 
After a siege of almost two months, with the assistance of a few 
muskets, he succeeded in conquering the mountaineers, and re- 
ducing them to slavery. The chief of the pagans of the Bagele, 
who belong to the Batta tribe, in the height of his power exercised 
paramount authority over the neighbouring tribes, and is said to 
have even had the "jus prima noctis." 
