72 
AUTHORITY OF ASBENOUEE CHIEFS. 
I have been reminded of Homer's heroic age. The 
princes and the people seem alternately to appear 
on the scene, exercising sovereign sway. The great 
Sultan is elected from out of the country ; but he 
is compelled to seek the ratification of the chiefs, 
the elders, and the populace within. Then there 
is the great chief of the Kailouees, whose town or 
camp is at Asoudee ; with Sultan Lousou, a most 
influential man ; not to speak of the great En-Noor 
himself, who has, perhaps, personally, the greatest 
political weight of them all. Each of these great men 
is perpetually surrounded by an army of retainers, 
dependants, and slaves ; and public affairs are trans- 
acted, partly according to some old routine, difficult 
for a stranger to understand, partly after the fashion 
of " Arabian Nights," kings meeting casually at 
the head of great armies in some poetical wilder- 
ness. All these chieftains are both pastors and 
merchants. One of their chief articles of traffic is, 
I am sorry to say, their unfortunate fellow-creatures. 
They are the greatest slave-dealers in the Sahara ; 
two-thirds of the whole commerce is in the hands 
of the Kailouees. The Sultans levy duties likewise 
on the caravans that pass through their territory 
— duties which, to our cost, we know to be neither 
regular nor moderate; but they have no right 
to apply taxation to their quasi-subjects. Some- 
times, when they are " hungry," they make a razzia 
on a distant tribe, and find both slaves and cattle at 
their disposal. 
