African wanderings
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Title: African wanderings
or, an expedition from Sennaar to Taka, Basa, and Beni-Amer, with a particular glance at the races of Bellad Sudan

Author: Ferdinand Werne

Translator: J. R. Johnston

Release date: April 20, 2026 [eBook #78507]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78507

Credits: Galo Flordelis (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American libraries)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFRICAN WANDERINGS ***

AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

London:
Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street-Square.

THE LAND OF BELLAD-SUDAN.

(Large-size)

AFRICAN WANDERINGS;

OR,
AN EXPEDITION FROM SENNAAR TO TAKA, BASA,
AND BENI-AMER,

WITH A PARTICULAR GLANCE AT
THE RACES OF BELLAD SUDAN.

BY
FERDINAND WERNE,

AUTHOR OF
“EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCES OF THE WHITE NILE.”

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
J. R. JOHNSTON.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1852.

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

Although of late years much has been done to explore that least known quarter of our globe, Africa, and many works of deep interest, valuable information, and exciting incident have appeared, recounting bold and enterprising expeditions into that country, none of them surpasses the “Feldzug nach Taka,” lately published by Herr Werne, nor does any of them treat of those almost unknown districts of Africa into which his wanderings led him. In a recent number of “Blackwood’s Magazine,” in which Mr. Werne’s work was ably analysed, the writer says of it:—

“In various respects, Mr. Werne’s ‘Feldzug’ is one of the most curious books of travel and adventure that, for a very long time, has appeared. It has three points of particular attraction and originality. In the first place, the author wanders in a region previously unexplored by Christian and educated travellers, and amongst tribes whose bare names have reached the ears of but few Europeans. Secondly, he campaigns as officer in such an army as we can hardly realise in these days of high civilisation and strict military discipline,—so wild, motley, and grotesque are its customs, composition, and equipment,—an army whose savage warriors, strange practices, and barbarous cruelties, make us fancy ourselves in presence of some fierce Moslem horde of the middle ages marching to the assault of Italy or Hungary. Thirdly, during his long sojourn in the camp, he had opportunities such as few ordinary travellers enjoy, and of which he diligently profited, to study and note down the characteristics and social habits of many of the races of men that make up the heterogeneous population of the Ottoman Empire.”

Under the sanction of such high authority, the translator ventured to think that an English version of Mr. Werne’s work would not prove unacceptable to the readers of the “Traveller’s Library,” and he now offers these African Wanderings to the public.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Meeting of the Brothers. — Fever in Chartum. — Travelling Projects. — Present from the Pascha. — The Divan. — A German Sultan. — Party at Soliman Effendi’s — Preparations for Departure

Page 1

CHAP. II.

Embark for Damer. — Disastrous Voyage. — Reach Damer. — Joseph’s Sufferings. — The March. — Banks of the Atbara. — An Arab Village

17

CHAP. III.

Rejoin the Army. — Arab Sheiks. — Ruins of Herrerem. — The Mirage. — A Country March. — Corn Stores. — A Sheik of the Hallenga. — False Alarms. — A Skirmish

36

CHAP. IV.

A Turkish Camp. — Mohammed Din. — Negroes. — Egyptian Apothecaries. — Tribute. — Nile Expedition. — Monsieur Thibaut. — Diseases. — Natives’ Self-Admiration. — An Adventurer. — Madame Vigoureux

52

CHAP. V.

A Pilgrim Town. — Nimr the Tiger. — Character of the French. — Blood Feud. — Excursion from the Camp. — Arab Infants. — Medical Advice. — El Soffre. — Interview with Mohammed Din

74

CHAP. VI.

Merissa Huts. — Arab Gratitude. — Splendid Soil. — The Pascha’s Grand Projects. — A Pleasant Servant. — Turkish Eating. — Turkish Faith. — Arabs of Hedjas. — Mehemet Ali’s Campaigns

94

CHAP. VII.

Position of Mohammed Din. — Camels Stolen. — Ant Hills. — Chameleons. — Animal Fraternity. — Uses of Tobacco. — Rosaries — Beads — Amulets. — Blacks — Appearance and Opinions

119

CHAP. VIII.

Effects of Exposure to the Sun. — Diseases of the Natives. — Their Insensibility to Pain. — Stoicism under Surgical Operations. — Mograbin Soldiers. — A travelled Arab. — Tyranny of Mehemet Ali. — Amulets. — Foreigners in Egypt. — Turkish Prejudice

133

CHAP. IX.

Circassians and Georgians. — Dress of the Sheiks. — Turkish Etiquette. — Arab Officers and Soldiers. — An Arab Regiment. — Black Soldiery

155

CHAP. X.
Breaking up of the Camp. — March into the Interior. — Nature of the Country. — Sheiks’ Swords | 168
CHAP. XI.

March from Dabàab. — A Sham Fight. — Schaigies. — Sufferings from Heat and Thirst. — Choice of Camp. — Kassela-el-Lus. — Escape of Female Slaves. — Storm of Rain

199

CHAP. XII.

Gohr-el-Gash. — Dam across the great Gohr. — Kassela-el-Lus. — Elephants. — Lion and Elephant Hunt. — Mohammed Din. — Murder of his Nephew and Friends. — Sheik Mussa resolves to starve himself. — The Faki-el-Kebir. — Faki Village. — Faki Plot. — Narrow Escape

213

CHAP. XIII.

Ravages of Wild Beasts. — Hills of Basa. — Native Tribes. — Chariff. — A Chasua and its consequences. — Singular Recovery. — Supper Party. — Female Slaves. — Turkish Jealousy. — Snakes. — Superstitions. — Basa. — Origin of Tribes and Races. — Miseries and Ennui of Camp Life

231

CHAP. XIV.

Advance against the Enemy. — Retreat. — Omar Kaschef. — Great Cavern of the Kassela-el-Lus. — Baobab Trees. — Hunting. — Birds. — Beasts. — Pascha’s Plans. — Quit the Camp for Chartum. — Conclusion

250

APPENDIX.
List of Beasts, Birds, and Reptiles | 266

AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

CHAPTER I.

Meeting of the Brothers. — Fever in Chartum. — Travelling Projects. — Present from the Pascha. — The Divan. — A German Sultan. — Party at Soliman Effendi’s. — Preparations for Departure.

For about a year I and my youngest brother had resided at Chartum, the capital of Bellad-Sudan, in the district of Sennaar, at which place we had arrived after a journey of three months, from Cairo. Of all my brothers, Joseph was the dearest to me, and loved me in turn most devotedly. After passing his medical examinations in Berlin, he had come to pay me a visit and make himself acquainted with the remarkable diseases of Egypt, ere he settled down for life.

In the tavern of Guerra, in Cairo, he recognised me the instant he entered the room; whereas I took him for some impertinent Frenchman, when in his joyful surprise he stared at me from head to foot, and laughed at the rage I showed, and the furious look with which I strode towards him to demand what he meant, and call him to account on the spot. We had not met for eight years, and besides that he had meanwhile grown into manhood, his whole expression of countenance was changed, as a severe sabre cut he had received in a duel had severed the risible muscles of one side of his face, and the poor fellow could only laugh with the other side of it. The joy of this meeting, in another quarter of the globe, proved so overpowering to both of us, that at first the wine would not go down, for all that many congratulating friends, and especially my particular ally, Von Salis, from Switzerland, could do, though the latter, with warm tears of sympathy, exerted himself by pledging and jingling glasses with us, to arouse our cheerfulness and enable us to rally. In a short time, however, we got on better.

I now quitted the village of Tura, lying in a waste, although on the Nile, and some three miles (German, equal to twelve English) further up it than Cairo, and where I had retired to do penance, and finish my work on the White Nile, leaving also my dear friend Dr. Scheldehaus, from Osnabrück, the professor of the military school there (now Director of Military Hospitals in Alexandria), with whom my brother had been a fellow-student at Bonn, and hired for Joseph and myself a small bouse on the Eshekir Plâce, in Cairo. After undergoing an examination of some half hour, Joseph was appointed surgeon-major, with the rank of Sakulagassi (oldest Jussbaschi or captain) to the central hospital, Kasr-el Ain, with a monthly salary of 1000 piastres (or about 10l.) and the allowances of the rank—rations for one horse and four servants. But our gaze was directed on Central Africa and its interior. I had already heard, when in Alexandria, from Achmet Capitan, the former frigate captain, Baumgartner, from Switzerland, and there an honest tailor of high skill, that preparations were making to fit out an expedition to explore the source of the Nile (though gold was the spring sought); but, until this came off, we lived in the happiest brotherly unity in the ancient city of the Caliphs. Our love of travelling was aroused; my office in the Prussian Consulate at Alexandria was sacrificed to the love of adventure, and Joseph was appointed surgeon to the 1st regiment in Sennaar, in addition to his office as surgeon of the Central Hospital at Chartum. Our friends were alarmed for us on account of the dangerous climate; but, full of high heart, we sailed past the fair Isle of Roda, with pleasing remembrances of the happy hours spent on it, and up the Nile, feeling more and more rejoiced as, free from the tumults of the city, we advanced to fresh views and new places. In Tura our stout Dr. Schledehaus awaited us, along with the kind-hearted Schley, from Hamburgh, who, as instructor, was quartered with his regiment in the camp near. The sorrows of parting, like the joys of meeting, were drowned in wine. These were the last friends to wish us a happy return. With outfit for some years that had cost us much money, and in our lately assumed Turkish dress and arms, we looked boldly and firmly towards the future and its unknown dangers; and now and then, by the Prussian flags flying from the mast-head and stern of our Dahabie[1], our thoughts were turned back to our distant fatherland; but no fears of home-sickness—never could this overtake us! The powerful impressions of this splendid voyage, and the responses of our minds to these most magnificent views of the world’s wonders, I must for the present drive forcibly from my recollection, and will only mention how my poor brother, near the cataracts of Ariman, in Upper Nubia, where our bark was nearly dashed to pieces on the rocks, received a coup de soleil, and that after ten days of delirium, during which his sufferings tortured my anxious mind, I cured him by the application of blisters. I then fancied him as not yet acclimated; but I, too, who had already passed many years in the East, was, after a few days’ residence at Chartum, a sufferer under a similar attack of this dreadful malady, which, alas! after my return from the White Nile, was the disease that put an end to my brother’s young and promising life.

During our whole residence in Chartum, we were ever in a most pitiable state, suffering almost continually from attacks of intermittent and other fevers, there so malignant. Gracious Heaven, however, so ordered it, that we were always laid up at different times, once only excepted, when, as about to sit down to dinner, we both felt so overpowered, as we fancied by the smell of the viands, as to fall back nearly unconscious on the divan, where more than likely we had then met our fate, had not two Italian doctors seen us through the window, and, coming to our aid, bled us freely. Our fears, therefore, of being at last compelled, struggle as we might against it, to sink under the influence of a climate that slowly saps man’s health, and even destroys his mind, could not be looked on as cowardly, or founded on improbable grounds.

Under such uncomfortable circumstances, it was little wonder our departure from Chartum for Egypt was determined on; eternal illnesses, despondency, and increasing dislike to an unbearable climate, as well as spirits and bodies dying of ennui of a life of quarantine, united to a devouring longing for the healthy, white-skin-producing North, urged us as soon as possible to quit for ever this unhealthy city, as well as the arid steppes of the Bellad-Sudan. Our purpose was still more strengthened by the first expedition to the source of the White Nile, having sailed while we lay on sick couches, and with it went the main object of our journey. At this time, the Grand Cadi paid us a visit, while his attending Faki remained standing at the doors. We fancied he had come to have a talk with us, or hold a small court of inquiry as to a matter in which I was principally concerned. The case was this: we had allowed the poor mother and sisters of our two servants to occupy one of our out-buildings, and for some days I had observed a tall young Faki, in white garments, and with an immense rosary round his neck, creep over the court to the window, and write some characters on the ground before her door. I asked the sons what the priest did there, and was told by them, with sad faces, that he wrote charms, or amulettes, for the women, and that they had to give up their wages to pay him; that he was a greedy miser, and had already received so much that they had nothing left for themselves. This angered me, and I went across the court to him, and asked, “Amiè è?” (What do you?) but without honouring me with a glance, or even rising for a Nasrani, or Kafr (Infidel), he replied, “Di schogie betai!” (That’s my business!) Next moment I had him by the arm, and, pointing to the gate, desired him to quit our court; but he would not, and striking his breast, exclaimed, “Ana Faki!” (I am a priest), and I retorted by “Ente uachet Faki misaur!” (You are a cheating priest and robber!) and only on my laying hold of a piece of stout stick lying handy, did he, with many threats, quit the court. Hardly had I again sat down and cooled somewhat, when a violent knocking was made at our gates, before which a crowd of Faki and other rabble had gathered. Our servants, who had not been long under my training, retreated in terror, and would not venture to open the court gates, until I, double-barrelled gun in hand, went to our house door, and in loud voice, ordered the gates, with an “Hab ekta el hal!” to be opened. “Stand still!” said my sick brother, in feeble voice, as he laid his double rifle over my left shoulder; and a lad of the name of Sale, from Mahaff, who was anxious to enter our service, also laid hold of a rifle. The cowardly priest-rabble now drew off as fast as they had come; and in the bazaars the Turks had great rejoicings, that we had here thus asserted the sacredness of Europeans’ dwellings. But our good Cadi Effendi had no such matters in his head; but told us with kind, friendly, but sly look, how much the Effendina (Excellency Achmet Pascha, Governor General of Bellad-Sudan) had been pleased to hear of two stout brothers like us, each attending to the other during our illnesses, and advised us from time to time to appear at his Excellency’s divan, &c. &c. Although in our own hearts we felt that we had been merely doing our duty, still the acknowledgment of it by strangers much pleased us; for, as the Italians say, “questi sono fratelli!” We also received tidings from the Pascha, that the private physician of Abbas Pascha, who was no other than our old friend Dr. Gand, was coming to Chartum. The Cadi also spoke of the pleasant taste of the Spanish wines, which he, as a Magrabian (Maugrabin), and unprejudiced Mussulman, was aware of, on which my brother at once prescribed and administered to him a glass of Cardinal, as medicine to strengthen his stomach.

Dr. Gand, an old friend of our Pascha Achmet, with whom he had made a campaign in Arabia, arrived; and as the Doctor was also an old fellow campaigner of mine, we having served together as Philhellenists in Greece, in 1822, my intimacy with the Pascha became more repeated and friendly. He had much raised the Pascha’s expectations as to us, and had not hesitated, in Eastern style, to recommend us as universal geniuses, and as honest, honourable men, to whom he, the Pascha, might trust life and limb. Dr. Gand confided to us that the Pascha meditated a campaign into Darfur, during which we might be of much service to him, and where he would look upon us as his two eyes, as he could not confide fully in any of his own people. On this news, that much excited and interested us, we at once gave up all thoughts of so immediate a departure, and the more willingly, as other inducements were held out to us. My brother was to be made, in place of Soliman Effendi (the renegade Baron de Pasquali, from Palermo), inspector-general of the medical department of all Bellad-Sudan, as the Pascha no longer could employ a man who had already been guilty of so many poisonings, both in Arabia and here.[2] This office of inspector had a salary of six purses, or 3000 piastres, per mensem, attached to it; and the Pascha was also to appoint Joseph his own physician, and that of his harem, and give him from his own pocket a monthly gratification of 1000 piastres. I, who, as my old comrade had told him, had been a captain in the Greek wars of liberty, was to be at his side as Maëndes (engineer), have the rank of Bimbaschi (major), with five purses, free table, and all I could wish for. On my reminding my friend Gand that I was nothing more than a lawyer, he laughed heartily, and replied, that in these lands a man must know everything; that he himself (he had served under Napoleon) had filled here military and various other posts. Besides, he added, that it was the Pascha’s wish, that agreeably to Turkish etiquette, I, a free Frank, should want nothing that would raise my greatness in their eyes.

Next morning we all three waited on the Pascha, who expressed himself highly pleased at our decision, and repeated himself to us the promises he had made through Dr. Gand, and gave orders to procure the sanction of his father-in-law, the Viceroy, to our appointments. After a time he even offered to make me a bey, if I would, as he said, turn Mussulman, not on his own account, for he was an unprejudiced Circassian, but to please the Turkish asses; I laughed, and he said no more about it. He asked our advice as to how he had better carry out his advance into Darfur, and he was Turk enough himself to select the time of the Chariff, or rainy season, for it; and when I also represented to him that from the well-known sensibility of the troops to the effects of wet, one half of his army would give in, he replied by a contemptuous “Malesch!” (It matters not!) I voted for the dry season, as water was to be had here and there, and for the establishment of wells under the protection of block-houses, thus to supply the army, when in the steppes, with the needful water. Such doings were beyond his comprehension; and he boasted of his 700 dromedaries, each of which could, on an emergency, carry three soldiers. On our departing, he sent his Mameluke to call me back, and said, “Musju, ente masduht, musch doggeri?” (Sir, you are discreet and silent; is it not so?) and adding, after looking for a time inquiringly at me, “Taib!” (Good!) he again dismissed me. Soon after this Dr. Gand became seriously unwell, and so irritable, that no one save we two brothers dared approach him; to us he continually talked, and in German, paying no regard to his Italian and French visitors, and on purpose that they might not understand him. Unheeding my brother’s well-meant advice to quit Chartum without delay, he lingered there too long, and died at Abu Hamet, on his way back to his former station. For a year his body lay in the wilderness, covered with the dry sand, ere his family could have it disinterred to be conveyed to France. During his life, the kind Doctor had been little better than skin and bone, and the warm sand had converted his corpse into a kind of mummy; but it had suffered so little change, that not a feature was altered, nor a hair gone of those long, fair moustaches, from which the Pascha and his courtiers used to call the Doctor, Abu Schennap.

When we got home after the above-mentioned audience, two handsome and fully-equipped dromedaries stood at our gates; but instead of being those of visitors, as we thought, they proved to be a present from the Pascha, and were well fitted for a campaign, both from their strength and size, and also from their having been broken to allow of firing from their backs without shying or bolting. At the Divan the Pascha had repeatedly asked me if there was anything I wished for, and Dr. Gand had admonished me in German not to be modest, but I had no wish to appear selfish or greedy; we had enough, and I was too proud to desire to divest myself of my independence by accepting presents, or putting myself under obligations of any kind. Some days after I was summoned to the Pascha; and keeping on my shoes, as I ever did, strode over the large carpet to near where he sat, and bowed to him, while he only touched with his hand his tarbusch (red cap), and did not touch either mouth or breast, the usual sign by which breath, hand, and heart are placed at another’s disposal. I, without any leave asked, sat down European fashion on the divan, and took the cup of coffee offered me, without making the usual sign of thanks for the honour conferred, by placing the hand on the breast. After some business was despatched, the Bascha dismissed all his attendants by a wave of the hand, and turning to me, said with a most dark and lowering face, “I have had letters; first Darfur, and now Taka, will pay no tribute, nor have they done so since Churschid Bascha was in the Chaaba (the forests where he was defeated); and so nothing comes in to the chasne (public purse). I need money, much money,—want it most badly. So come along with me, and on the journey we all will recover our healths (he had also been ill of fever); yonder there are woods, and waters, and many high hills, as in Germany and Circassia.” On my showing my pleasure at his proposal, he went on more cheerfully, and told me, that as soon as he had brought Taka back to its duty, he would open the gate of Habesch, and then that of Darfur, and thus again restore the old trading communication, and compel the caravans to pass through Bellad-Sudan. When I remarked to him that the English cabinet had announced, by an energetic note to Mahomed Ali, that it would at once declare war against him, and lay siege to Alexandria, if he encroached on the limits of Abyssinia, he smiled, and said in most meaning tones, that Egypt was far off, and he was not likely to see it again. ’Twas true he had been minister of war there (Divan Gehadie), and plenty of trouble he had had as such; but that he was now exiled to Bellad-Sudan, and it was his country, where he, as Egyptian general and judge (Miraloa), would follow his own will: as for the English, he was no friend to them, nor would be to those who had been such bitter foes to Napoleon; and he rather fancied he could conquer all Habesch ere an enemy’s ship showed itself; then he would be in a position to make conditions, and I should be his envoy, &c.

My brother was again ill, desponding, and spoke of quitting the country; but he smiled more cheerfully as I produced the map, and spreading it before him, requested him to place his finger on the spot where I should found for him a dukedom, or at least a countship, during the expedition of the Crescent, or anti-Crusade. We again discussed a former plan of ours of going to Bagdad, where Joseph was to set up as a physician, and I, nolens volens, qualify myself as apothecary, there to win heathen gold; as some Turks, whose homes were there, had told us wonders of the delights of their fat Mesopotamians, and the splendid dates of Bassora. We therefore resolved to take our passports with us, in case we should determine to cross the Red Sea. By this time I had thoroughly seen through the Pascha, and resolved at once to propose to him a scheme I had formed in favour of these oppressed races, viz., that he should place himself at their head, and declare them and himself independent of the Egyptian Vampire; and ere long I actually did so, and all, in the end, might have gone right, had he not, instead of gaining in every way the confidence of the principal persons and heads of tribes, and most influential people about him, tyrannised over all in the most shameful manner. Gold and regiments was his motto.

When either my brother or I wished to pay a visit to the Pascha (and this Joseph, as private physician, should have done every morning, but cunningly avoided it, under the plea of not daring to interrupt him in the multiplicity of matters which the Pascha had to attend to, though the sly doctor never omitted his morning’s visit to the Pascha’s wife, a daughter of Mahomed Ali, and to his harem), we went first to the chasnadar’s (treasurer’s), a Circassian, who had been manumitted by the Pascha, and who could always produce a good breakfast from the great man’s cellar and kitchen; and such visits, at which there was generally a merry party, we used, among ourselves, to call “antichambriren” (antechambering). Others who had not the entrée of our small divan, had often to stand for hours at the doors of the great divan, as there all business is so far public, that any one who has a report or request to make, may without announcement enter, and remain standing till the Pascha makes a sign to him to advance, and permits him, with the before-mentioned movements of the hands and deepest reverence, to say, “Good morning, your Excellency!” (Salbacheer, Saba-el-chair Effendina!) and perchance to kiss the hem of his robe, and then, according to his rank, tell him, either by slightest sign, or in words, to be seated (fadl ochaut), i.e. to kneel with the feet under the hinder part of the body, which, resting on them, is bent, however, forward in the attitude of prayer, and so to remain till the great man, by another sign, allows of a seat being taken in a somewhat more comfortable position, viz., that of the well-known Turkish fashion, comfortable enough to them indeed, but far from it to Europeans.

At one of these meetings at the Treasurer’s, we heard from him that the Pascha had said that a German sultan was coming to Chartum, and ordered him to have the kandschia (row boats) ready to send out to meet him. How the word sultan, or sultana, was now used here, though properly only designating a prince of the reigning family, we well knew, from its being bestowed on Prince Puckler Muscau, who figured here as Sultan belal Moscow, and had even been taken, by some wise persons, to be the Tzar of Muscovy, although he here, as in other places, tried to avoid giving the everlasting and indispensable Bakschish, that men might not suppose that gold was to be had in Germany for the gathering. However, we proceeded to pay our respects to the Pascha, and learn from him the name of this expected and noble guest; he drew from under the carpet he sat on, the letters of introduction from Cairo, though rather, as it seemed, annoyed at our asking. The name was not given, but the guest was a German.[3]

The Pascha sent us a message, “the German was come,”—nothing more. It was evening, but our curiosity was too highly excited to rest contented, for the messenger knew no more than that he was a fat handsome sultan (semmin keweiss). The great curtain of the divan door was down, a sign that public business was over, and entrance forbidden the profane; so we reached the saloon by a side entrance, and here I at once recognised one of the Janissaries of the Russian Consulate in Alexandria, by his large silver badge. On my “Chi?” I heard “Principe di Wurtemberg,” and the secret was out. The stout gentleman was delighted when he heard himself saluted in German. For the first time we beheld the Pascha seated on a chair; he was in full uniform, a red jacket covered with gold, the large crescent richly set with diamonds, and three brilliant stars on his left breast, and sabre at his side; the Prince, Duke Paul William of Mergentheim, was also dressed in a sort of half Turkish style, a red cap on his head, a shawl round his white trowsers, and his broad sabre at his side. Soliman Effendi, who had got there before us, had taken on himself the office of interpreter, although the Prince could only converse with him in French, and this he often misunderstood. The institutions of Mahomed Ali seemed to have struck the noble traveller as exceeding all his expectations. The Pascha listened and was silent; but on the conversation being turned on European, and at last on German affairs, love of country, and a feeling of insulted nationality burst from me, and now German was the language; happily our views and opinions agreed, and ere long, all again went on quietly and pleasantly. The Duke rose, so did the Pascha, and all the rest of us; the curtain was drawn back by the numerous attendants, and I plainly observed how the proud Circassian drew himself up, and hardly bent his handsome head as our good countryman, on coming to the head of the steps, took a wordless leave with many low bows and reverences, at which the Pascha could not conceal his laughter and great amusement. On the stairs the Prince took my arm, which gave the Pascha afterwards reason for a well-founded remark on respect due to difference of ranks, though Turkish etiquette carries it rather too far.

Next evening we supped with the Pascha. In vain had we been amusing ourselves with the idea of beholding the fat Prince seated on the ground and eating with his fingers, the table was set out and all arranged European fashion. Some Franks and Turks had been also invited; my brother sat by the Duke, I by the Pascha at the opposite side of the table, and each had before him a different kind of wine. The Pascha did not fail to continually fill my glass, something unheard of, as here this is a servant’s business, and to insist on my being helped before himself; “Keddi el tartibb Frengk” (Such are European customs), he said to me. The Duke first proposed a health to the Viceroy; the Pascha drank it, and gave the Duke; and then came the Pascha’s own health, and it was also drunk. I was again filling the Pascha’s glass, when I felt, under the table, an ice-cold hand laid on mine, and he whispered to me that he was suffering under an attack of the fever, but to say nothing about it. Although my brother was most assiduously performing the part of cup-bearer to the Duke, and doing honour to his name of Joseph, still the Pascha every moment kept calling on me to urge him to fulfil his office. The rest of the party at table, though impressed, drank stoutly; and when from a side table a number of bottles of champagne were brought into play (though, in spite of all I could say, each was well shaken by the stupid attendants, and on the corks being sprung, all was froth and foam), then did the noise and jubilee begin, and a perfect Babel of tongues arose, as the half dozen different languages of our party came into contact with each other; and only with difficulty could I make out what the Duke, in great glee, shouted to me in his loud, commanding officer like tones, or translate to the Pascha all the pretty complimentary speeches his German Highness gave vent to, in praise of the Pascha and brave Circassians. He would make the campaign to Taka with the Pascha; would manage all; overthrow and defeat all before him. The Pascha smiled, and accepted his offers; and when I told him that the Duke was a cavalry general, he laughing said, “Such troops as he has been used to command I have not, but still it were well he went with me; but he jests.”

The morning of this party the Duke told us, that as he travelled incognito, he wished to be treated as a private gentleman. We asked him to dinner for next day; he accepted, and declared himself decidedly opposed to water drinking in tropical climates, and to a certain degree he was right, as the stomach there much more requires stimulants. At dinner he was wonderfully eloquent, told us tales of his travels in America, and that he had served as major in the Prussian army, and was aware he yet retained somewhat of his old commanding officer’s tones. The wine, added to the effects of the previous evening’s carouse with the Pascha, put his princely corpulence into a fearful state of heat, and the warmth of the day also conduced to his feverish state, so that my brother Joseph gazed on him with alarm, and in case bleeding should be necessary laid out his apparatus all ready in the next room; but his Highness’s strong constitution held firmly out, not only then, but also during his further tour, which in spite of my brother’s advice, and that of his own private physician, Dr. Veit, an old friend of Joseph’s, he undertook and luckily completed in safety. His train, besides the kawass, before mentioned, consisted of a lot of Yagers, and an American of Spanish blood. He passed most of his time with us, and took in our garden the latitude of Chartum, which he laid down as 15° 41′ 25″ N. He also selected from our small collection of birds the most curious specimens, and a good many too, for his rich museum at Mergentheim, from which we were in return to be allowed to choose other things. Soliman Effendi asked me if he might venture to invite the Duke, as this “Altezza tedesca” much pleased him; and more, he would like to give him the German national dish of “Fava.” I delivered the invitation, along with some remarks as to this gentleman’s poisoning habits, though I feared much less for the Duke than for my brother, who had already been named the Baron’s successor. This mattered not to the Prince, and as I had before now placed myself on a decided footing with Soliman, I told him plainly he must reserve his revengeful feelings and poisoning abilities for some others, as both my brother and myself would come with loaded pistols to his feast, and if any of our party felt even a belly-ache, shoot him through the head (brucciare il cervello). His table was served in the German manner, and much to our surprise he kept his promise as to the Fava (large beans shelled). All invited appeared save Vaissière—formerly a captain in the French service, now a slave-dealer, and with the cross of the Legion of Honour—who would not trust himself at the Baron’s table, as the latter had, after trying to purchase over his head a favourite female slave, managed, out of revenge, to poison her. All appetites were sharp, but we rose all sound. After a time the Duke altered his mind and plans as to Taka, but promised, however, on his return from Faszogl, to take a part in the campaign. I had to promise the Pascha, in his name, a rifle peculiarly adapted for crocodile shooting, and a hundred bottles of champagne.

On the 1st of March, 1840, my brother returning from the Pascha, told me that the vessels were again all in readiness for Karreri, that he had to accompany the Pascha, and we would meet again at Damer, the place of rendezvous of the army intended for Taka. Karreri (by the Turks called Chirreri), a village some three hours below Chartum, and the residence of the friend and countryman of the Pascha’s, Soliman Kaschef, has a healthy climate, and on this account Joseph had advised the Pascha to hasten there as soon as possible, for the latter was again suffering from fever, and would hear nothing of quinine, but insisted on bleeding; and that, Joseph in his turn, with equal stern pertinacity, would not allow of, let the other fume and look as fierce as he chose. Often have I admired the Pascha’s composure during illness. The curtain of the great door was down, and I therefore entered by a side one, and there he sat as usual, occupied with various affairs, and all kinds of business; but at such times the Circassian lion was tamed and mild as a lamb.

The whole burden of our unfinished preparations now fell to my lot. For provisions, clothes, arms, ammunition, tent, &c., were already 6,000 piastres gone. As far as food and drink went, we might perchance have saved ourselves somewhat, as the Pascha had assured us of places at his table; but we could not depend on the Turkish complimentary style of promising, knowing the hungry state of his dependants, and were particularly anxious to reserve perfect liberty to ourselves. I still required ten camels for the conveyance of our baggage, as the golden cupolas of Bagdad yet held a place in our minds, and had bought, at a high price, two pack-camels (hamln) that had escaped the searching eyes of the soldiery, when Khaimakan (Lieutenant-colonel) Sorop Effendi offered me eight camels from government (belik), their price to be deducted from our allowances. Now came the puzzle, what was I to do with our animals? Our great pride, a young lion without a mane, was dead. Soliman Effendi, who was in terror of it even when it was shut up, had dared to poison it, as I afterwards learned from our servants, but not until the renegade himself was dead; but still there were the birds I had trapped, all in their cages, and these I turned out into the garden, and scattered about a good supply of food for them. Still there were the larger carnivorous birds, an eagle, and our special pet the black horn bird, Abu Goru (Buceros abyss. L.) who answered to the name of “Hans,” came hopping up on being so called, took in his long bent beak the piece of meat offered him, threw it up in the air, catching it again as it descended, and so swallowed it, as nature had only bestowed on him an apology for a tongue (this performance especially delighted his Highness of Wurtemberg), but who did not, however, despise frogs or lizards, and every morning at daybreak aroused us by his cry of “Hum! Hum!” till we replied to it by “Hans;” also two king-cranes (Gornu, grue royale, Grus Pavonia L.), a snake-devouring secretary, with handsome eagle’s head, long tail, and heron-like legs; curious wild ducks, geese, and other much prized birds, some having been shot unable to fly, but others were perfectly cured of their wounds by my brother, who was most dexterous with his pincers, extracting with them the shot pellets, and not seldom making a perfect cure. Under these circumstances, equally pleasant and flattering was the visit of the Chasnadar, who came with the Princess’s request that our birds might be confided to her care during our absence. Many a time before now had this lady, with her female slaves and eunuchs, been in our garden,—at such times, as a matter of course, we had to retire into our innermost apartment,—to visit our plants and flowers, that reminded her of Cairo; and much did it please her when requested to pluck or take with her such as pleased her, as the Pascha’s great garden produced nothing equal to them, no attempts having been made there to raise flowers from seeds, and all I had having been grown from seed I had brought with me from Cairo. In this way she knew of our beasts and birds, and felt that they might help her to pass her time, as she, a well-informed woman, suffered much from the fearful ennui of comfortless Chartum, and even advised my brother to leave it, and go with letters of recommendation, and also her petitions to her father, Mahomed Ali, at Cairo, she not daring to place so dangerous a trust in any one else, for she did not live on the best footing with the obstinate head-strong Pascha. When the Treasurer asked how the bird with the horn was called, I answered, Abdallah Effendi, and this was the name of the Vakul or deputy of the Pascha, a good-humoured Turk, with a splendid nose, but a mere tool of his master’s. As our pet Hans now went to the harem under the name of Abdallah Effendi, it became a habit at the Treasurer’s divan, when any one asked where Abdallah Effendi was, to reply, “Hue fi Charim belal Effendi,” which might be taken either in jest or earnest by the asker.

We had, in addition to poultry, bought for eighty piastres, or about 16s., a young ox, had him killed, salted, and along with a lot of ox-tongues gradually picked up, placed in our chimney to smoke, a simple enough business, but one unknown here. The naturalist Kotchi, from Austrian Silesia, had come with eleven people, from Kordofan, and joined us; and these for a fortnight kept up such an immense fire on our hearth, that all our smoking meat was singed and burnt so as to be useless, save two tongues, which proved excellent. Our house was ever a perfect hospitium; and now, when I had to look after and pack up everything, as nothing could be trusted to the servants, I had to run in and out in the sun, till I was completely done up. For some weeks back, Dr. Windgratzhofer, from Austria, had been with us, waiting till a boat was provided by government to convey him to his station at Faszogl. This good-humoured and droll medico, who had been nicknamed by some of us “Dicksack,” and which name he ever insisted on being called, I seated on our divan as guard over the numerous goods and chattels that lay open and exposed all round, knowing from experience the losses that were to be feared from the many curious callers, under excuses of paying farewell visits. Did I go out, there he sat, like a pagoda, on his post, grim, gruff, and surly (as far as his German went, for he spoke no other language) if any one only looked at an article, and on my return was ever ready with some humorous story, as to how faithfully and well he had filled his post, and how he had kept an eye at the same time on both sides, squinting most fearfully, to display his capability of doing so. But, alas! his jovial mood was checked in Faszogl, as his sorrowing letters told us. He had with him, as interpreter, the Pole Michel, a tailor, formerly in the Russian service, but who had been, for a long series of years, well known in Cairo, and was now a man over sixty. Besides these, we had also in our inn the unfortunate goldsmith, Erno, from Swabia, who wished to settle at Chartum, though he had sold all his instruments at Cairo. He, as well as old Michel, fancied that here, so near the gold hills, they would merely require to scrape with their hands the gold-dust from the Nile’s sand, and at once be made men. Both afterwards died on the journey homewards. The dragoman discharged by Dr. Belloti, a Nubian, also remained with us, as he was now and then employed by my brother; and at last, so that I might not have one corner to call my own, there came now on us Dr. Bellotti, a Bolognese, and the apothecary Dumont, from the neighbourhood of Marseilles, who had established himself at Wollet-Medine, with baggage and servants, having been ordered to follow their regiments on the chasua, or campaign.

CHAP. II.

Embark for Damer. — Disastrous Voyage. — Reach Damer. — Joseph’s Sufferings. — The March. — Banks of the Atbara. — An Arab Village.

The troops from Sennaar and Wollet-Medine had encamped opposite Chartum in Chobba, so as to march by land to Damer. The garrison of Chartum, also, had all, save a very small force, been conveyed over to the right bank of the Blue Nile. As I felt very unwell, I proposed following them by water, but now not a boat was to be seen or heard of, all having been seized on by government, for the conveyance of military stores, munition, and provisions, and without either owner or sailor daring to claim any payment for such services. I sent our cook Achmet down the Nile to look out, and there he hit on a boat belonging to our friend Faragh Effendi, but sunk to its edge in the water, by the rais, who had also got out of the way, that he might not have to sail without a fee. However, on our offering a fair sum for the use of the boat to Damer, as the rais could not be found, his brother was dragged out to put it in order. Our traps were carried on board, the mast lowered down so as to form a tent, and we arranged our beds on our chests, placed alongside each other,—a necessary precaution in this inhospitable and innless country. Bellotti, Dumont, the merchant, Bruno Rollet, a stout Savoyard, of Chartum, and myself, formed our party, and our cook, Achmet, was to look after the kitchen and victualling department.

Our boat would not go on, and every moment we stuck on one or other of the many sandbanks of the river. Our rais had to be threatened with the kurbash (a whip made of the hide of the Nile-horse, or giraffe, both excellent), and he confessed that he expected the proper rais, his brother, to whom he had sent notice of his being compelled to sail the boat, as he himself dared not venture to take her through the cataracts. Nor were my recollections of these, as I saw them on the way up, most pleasant, although they had made a far less lasting impression on my mind than the splendid scenery had done; as when coming, as if from a prison, out of the six or seven miles long rapids (el Bad) of Geb’l Charri, all appeared so glorious, and we seemed to have arrived in a new land. Ere long the brother came down to the banks, and we got him aboard, but hardly were we again afloat, when he again ran us ashore on the rocks at the first tschellel or foaming rapids,—a special term for the white waters of rushing falls,—and instantly the whole bottom of the boat was filled with water, he howling like an old woman, as he feared for his head if he lost the boat. In consequence of my exertions during the last days in Chartum, I had, for the three days we had now been on the water, been suffering from fever, attended with vomitings and diarrhœa; weak and miserable as I was, I could not have saved myself by swimming, had it been necessary, but, as I knew that our boat could not sink deeper than the bottom, and that it was now firm and fast on the rocks, as the ark on Mount Ararat, I felt no alarm and consoled the others. The holes and splits of our really almost unserviceable craft were stopped up, and the rais and crew made desperate efforts to get it off the water-covered rocks. With much naïveté the former prayed us all to get out for a single moment, which brought down on him a volley of curses and abuse from my companions, who would hear of nothing of the sort. The hot fit of my fever was past; so I took off all my upper garments, keeping, however, my shoes on, so that my feet might not be cut by the many thornmussels (etheria, Caill.), and sending Achmet first into the water, slid, feeble as I was, down after him: on this, the others followed my example, and in a few seconds we again had our heavy-laden bark afloat. Hardly had the boasting rais again begun his lies, that he was at home in Assuan, and knew the Nile as well as the palm of his hand, and had before now ascended it with Ismail Pascha, &c., &c., to all of which I calmly listened, when we again went bump on a hidden rock till all crashed again. Such was again and again our fate, till, after a long passage of eleven days, we arrived at Damer, during which we consumed various sheep, which we had forced the natives on the banks to sell to us. After my cold bath, my fever had left me, and all that remained of it was a real wolf’s appetite, which I, without feeling any trace of indigestion, indulged by most ravenous devourings. So sudden, in these climes, is the step from severe illness to perfect health.

On the morning of the 18th March, we at length landed in front of Damer, some three miles above the debouchement of the Atbara into the Nile. No longer are any remains of this hierarchical city to be seen, such as Burckhardt, in former days, beheld them:—it is now only a village, with some high, decaying, loam walls. A sudden alarm now seized me at not immediately beholding my brother, and I hurried off to the Pascha’s tent, pitched near the river’s bank, to announce my arrival, inquire for my brother, and excuse the delay caused by our perilous voyage. The Pascha received me kindly, and told me my brother had been ill, but was now recovered, and busied with the sick in a neighbouring tent. When the doctor and apothecary, having put on their uniform, entered, his face flushed with anger, and he sternly alluded to their having quitted their regiments and come by water; he then severely reprimanded them, saying, they had thrown the whole burden of looking after the sick on Hakim Jussuff (Dr. Joseph), and dismissed them with a Kedi-el-kanua (κανων, such is the law). The merchant Rollet, ever a bashful man, now crept in to receive certain commissions, but I made him a sign that he would not come off well just at this moment, and we left the tent together; but later, I so recommended him to the Pascha, that, so far as his business went, he placed full confidence in him. I found my brother perfectly recovered, after having, almost by force, made my way into his tent, where he had got over his most pressing business, having now little more to do than hand over the sick to Doctor Bellotti; most of the cases were ophthalmia and fever, from the soldiers being allowed no tents to shelter them; these having been looked to, nothing more had to be done than prepare for the morrow’s medical inspection, when the really sick and unserviceable were to be sent back to Chartum.

We had mutually to confess, although now again well, that both looked as if we had undergone severe illness. We sought rest and shade, went up into the village, lay down under a tree, and he there told me how he had fared on his journey. From Karreri he had crossed over with the Pascha to Halfaia, where the latter had assembled the chiefs of the Schaigies, and reminded them to be with their men punctually at their posts. From there the untiring dromedary rider (the Pascha) would have ridden on to Schendy, but gave up the idea on my brother’s remonstrances, as he feared both for the great man and himself; so they again embarked in the small quick kandschia, arrived at Schendy, and there disembarked; the Pascha wishing to see with his own eyes how far his arrangements there were completed. Mussa Effendi, who also had been ordered from the neighbourhood of Sennaar to take part in the chasua—a friend and countryman of the Pascha—was there, but ill. Soliman Effendi, the renegade doctor, had, too, arrived there, to take his leave of the great man (el kebir); but who, being in monstrous bad humour, demanded why he had quitted Chartum without permission,—how he had contracted so many debts there, and which, did he not at once pay, he would have him bastinadoed. Mussa Effendi had continued long ill in the Loam palace of the Pascha, and my brother had only saved him by placing a sentry at his door, to prevent his madly eating and drinking all he could get, as had been his practice till now; but this was for the future in so far put a stop to, as the sentry was ordered, under pain of five hundred blows of the stick, to cut off these supplies. The Pascha would most gladly have had Mussa with him, as he had been in Taka with Churschid Pascha; though he, for this very reason, prophesied no good would come of the present expedition. In the end, my brother had got matters settled. Mussa Effendi, and the renegade Soliman, whom the Pascha had not hesitated to recommend, on his head (the Turkish style, bi Rasak), to his friend, were to return to Chartum, and there, have an eye to the Pascha’s interests. Soliman Effendi had passed us on our voyage, and we could not then understand why he so cursed and fearfully abused all Turks, exclaiming, as all renegades ever do, that he was the mere slave of a set of rascals.

On the 14th March, at two o’clock P.M., the hottest part of the day, when my poor Joseph was about to retire for a siesta, the Pascha, who almost never rested or ate, became gloomy, and ordered out the dromedaries. At once all the camp was bustle and confusion. The Pascha, once mounted, was happy,—more than my brother was, who was anxiously eyeing the beasts, and heard, with no slight thrill of alarm, the Pascha pronounce, as he pointed to a dromedary, the word “kerkab,” (mount); the more so, as he well knew the fearless style of riding of his leader, which his own native attendants much feared. Joseph now had to mount a dromedary for the first time; though in our desert-crossings we both had sat for weeks on the broad cloth-covered backs of the baggage camels. But, up he got; and there, high raised in air, he sat as if on a stool, all loose, without any hold as on a horse, and hardly had got the rope rein into his hand, when off he had to trot alongside his leader, who, of course, took no notice of his companion’s dilemma; though the latter feared every moment to lose his balance, and break his neck or limbs.

At first the ride did him good, but, from the constant shaking, and from being at every step thrown forward by the animal’s shuffling gait, ere long his bowels were set into such a state of inquietude, from the sharp ride of two hours under a burning sun, that he had to remain behind, on the thorn-covered waste near the banks of the Nile, and await the coming up of the servants and baggage, while all the others marched on and passed him. Only one pitying Ababdi-Bedouin remained by him; but, unfortunately, neither understood the other’s language.[4] Headache, convulsive vomitings, racking heat, horrible thirst, and no water, as he had no vessel to fetch any in, and the Bedouin would not leave him to fetch one, was Joseph’s lot; then delirium, but still sufficient consciousness to be aware, now and then, of men passing and asking, “Min di ajahu?” (Who is the sick man?) “Hakim Pascha” and then “Hue bimùtt” (he lies dying); and so they passed on, and still the servants came not. At last, about nine o’clock at night, came our hunter Abdallah, with coverings and cushions, and made him up a bed, on which he lay all night in violent fever, but recovered somewhat ere sunrise; and, after a six hours’ ride, again rejoined the Pascha’s camp, who had been anxiously looking out for him, and welcomed him with kind, compassionate concern. A wretched house was assigned him as a shelter against the sun’s heat, but the soldiers had already got possession of it;—smoke, fires for baking bread, the chattering of the soldiers with the women and idle, restless villagers, added to the burning pain of his galled seat, from which the blood had run down into his trowsers, soaking his drawers, stockings, and all his under clothing—as I now saw with my own eyes—allowed him to find neither rest nor peace. His only comfort was a young black-brown girl, of some twelve years of age, whom the Bedouin had brought to cool him with a fan and keep off the flies and insects. In his dreaming mood he fancied this girl was some brilliant white guardian spirit, sent to give him ease. Next day, when on leaving he would have given her some small farewell present, she whom he had seen all night through, kneeling at his head and waving her fan, had vanished, and her mother with the utmost reluctance took the money; though, from her language not being Arabic, Joseph could not say why she so long declined it.

In the warmest part of the day, two o’clock P.M., the Pascha was again the first to mount his dromedary, and it really seemed as if he desired to find out how much himself and followers could endure. At rapid pace he rode on along the banks of the Nile, past the pyramids of Assur (to which I shall revert), through bushes and past some single Doum-palms, till he came to the village of El Djebl or Djebelab, situated in a small horse-shoe like bend of the hills. Before, when on our journey up to Sennaar, I had placed Joseph, who some days before had succumbed under the sun-stroke, beneath one of these palms, left him there, and at his repeated request had ridden on to examine the pyramids and their neighbourhood; but during my absence he was so annoyed by the blue-tailed lizards running backwards and forwards (his abhorrence) over him, that on my return I found he had left his position and been carried, more dead than alive, into the boat. The road at the foot of the hills was villanous, and most dangerous from the large stones, that had rolled down from above, and Joseph’s dromedary threatened, from the rapid pace, to fall at every step, he no longer having power remaining to support it or himself. After being led and borne for some way by Abdallah and the Bedouin, my brother managed, but on foot, to reach the village on the hill range where the Pascha had halted, though he was too weak to go to him and beg for a boat. There he passed the night in fever and delirium, on an angareb (the common bed place of the country, formed of small strips of plaited camel hide crossed on a frame), and in the morning felt so enfeebled, that he despaired of ever recovering, and only hoped once again to behold me, to warn me to quit the country. As good luck would have it, there was then in that neighbourhood a boat of our friend, the merchant Hassam Mosnùr from Berber; this was put into requisition. Placed on an ass, and held on it, Joseph rode over a well cultivated plain, regularly watered by irrigating channels filled from the Nile by water-wheels; and along with the Pascha’s secretary, the Copt Chakill, embarked in the boat, in which, after daily attacks of fever, he at length, on the morning of the 17th of March, arrived, when sleeping soundly, at Damer. Even my lot had not been so bad as this, but now again we could both breathe freely, and heart and courage revived again.

20th March.—It was said we were to march at L’Asser, so we could not carry out our plans of together visiting the pyramids; as I have already given an account of my visit to them in my “Journey to the Source of the White Nile” (p. 55.), I shall not repeat it here. It seems, however, beyond a doubt to me,—who before leaving Bellad-Sudan also visited the mystic city of Mandera which many, without having seen it, are inclined to hold as the ancient city of Meroe,—that this ancient island city of Meroe did in former days extend along the Nile at the valley of Bach’r amie, westward from the pyramids.[5] The river has since those days retired, as there are now to be seen, some two hundred paces from it, foundation walls and remains of buildings, behind which I hit on four male sphinxes, one of which a young vagabond, who had run after us, mounting, claimed as his horse.

I had persuaded my brother to purchase from Sheik Soliman a small, smooth-going dromedary, as the tall, hard-trotting ones the Pascha had presented to us at Chartum were likely to have thrown him into a fit of apoplexy, his slender form not being able to withstand rough usage and constant joltings like my much stronger one. His ride from Schendy having so much injured him, led me to mount outside the camp this new purchase of his, a lively little animal, a bischari, and I may say as boldly as when I, a boy, was thrown on the so-called wild horse of the stud at Embscher-Bruch, in Westphalia, much to my kind old father’s delight and rejoicing, who, as he ran alongside, holding the caveson, and delighting in his son’s bravery and daring, little suspected this would afterwards cost him so much money. Riding here, however, was a different thing—no mane or saddle-bow for the boy to hold on by, nor any saddle or stirrup for the trained horseman: my brother laughed, but I held myself together, and all went on well. The saddle was certainly desperately slippery, although I did get some hold on it, when, after the custom of the riders here, I crossed my legs over its bow. The rich Turks always spread over the saddle a long-haired, red-coloured ram’s fleece, like that thrown over a Hungarian coach-box; so we had two carpets (Siggadi), and our great dromedaries brought out, and one fastened over each of the saddles. The Zais (inspector of horses and fore-rider) of the Pascha and I placed ourselves on the taller dromedaries, and I looked proudly down on my brother, mounted on his small animal. We rode under the Zais’s instructions, and fancied we were gaining some slight insight into the business, as we held in our left hands the halter and rein drawn through the left nostril, used for turning, and flourished the kurbasch in our right. The two-humped camel (C. Bactrianus) is unknown here; those used are smooth-haired, fine-coated, and of bright colour as any blood horse. The camel and dromedary are the same species, and there is no more difference between them than between a cart and a race-horse. The camels are trained to lie down for loading and unloading, and the signal for so doing is given by a peculiar sound made by drawing in the breath through the teeth, and a gentle stroke of the whip above the knees. The dromedary is called hagihn; the camel, the chimmal, plur. chomal.

We had, at dawn of morning, started on an inspection of this ruined city, Damer, to see if any ancient remains were to be found; but neither brick nor hewn stone did we see. The houses not yet crumbled into ruins were built of meteoric stone (top).[6] We made our way into a couple of such houses; inside all was dark, as windows there were none, but a few round or angular holes up near the flat roofs, such as are in the sloping walls of Egyptian temples. By these means greater strength is lent to the bad material used in building, and this is evident in the high towers or loam castles in the land of Barabra, and from the enduring remains of the pylones of the temples. Any one who doubts the durability of such loam edifices may soon be convinced both of this and the high national liking for them, by examining these old buildings. We generally found in the houses two monstrous clay jars, some six or eight feet high, such as are common also in Greece, for the storing of grain, bread, &c.; one bed-place for the whole family, and a bench or settle, spread with mats, and raised some three or four feet from the ground. The other houses were the common Æthiopian tokuls, to which was attached an oblong bower of wicker-work, a tolerably cool abode, and called a Recuba. The tokul is formed by a circular loam wall, with a pointed roof placed on it; and such huts, with little difference, are to be found in every part of Africa and certain parts of America—Guiana, for instance, where, probably, the negroes introduced them. On entering one of these huts we were welcomed by a Turk from Bosnia, who, with grave face, told my brother he possessed a certain herb that would, in three or four days, perfectly cure broken bones; but he would not produce this wondrous plant, as he feared my brother might steal his secret. We also here heard that at the point of land where the Atbara runs into the Nile there was a village called Kenisse (meaning Church or Christian ruins), where were many old buildings (bint gaddim), in which bricks might be found. That in very early times the Christian faith spread widely in Æthiopia is well known, and we were about to start on a second trial ride to Kenisse, when we were told it was certain that the Pascha would set out at midday or afternoon.

We set about arranging our traps into camel-loads, a camel carrying about three cwts., so that all might be in order. To our cook, Achmet, as the most necessary attendant on the march, we assigned a dromedary, and loaded it with our most valuable articles, so as to always have these near us, as much was to be feared for all baggage that went with the rear-guard, this being much exposed to be cut off or plundered. In these climes water is ever a first consideration, and to each soldier had been served out a small leathern flask, while on our camels were placed many water-skins (girbe), and yet Achmet had, in addition, to hang on the shady side of his beast another water-skin, made of the untanned hide of an antelope, as we wished to preserve our own two water-filled sensamien (bags of leather, fitted with a mouthpiece, screwed in, with a hole and straw or reed to drink from) untouched, in case of any bursting; and also as the water in these keeps cooler, being able to ooze through the pores, which is not the case with the girbes, as so doing would cause too great loss. Then we had also to convey the hammab, a tripod six feet high, indispensable in warm countries at unloading or camping, to hang the water-skins on, as the ground is so hot as to suck up all the water, and where no hammab is to be got, some other means of keeping the skins off the earth is always invented. These water-skins are without seam; the heads of the animals are generally cut off (usually sheep or goats are the sufferers), their skins worked off the body, without outward cut, down to the lower joints of the legs, that are left hanging on the skin, and bound across two and two, or crosswise, to keep all firm and united; the neck of the hide forms the mouth, and is firmly bound round and round with strong cord. Some practice is required to drink while riding, out of one of these, without spilling much water, which, often being more valuable than all other treasures, it is ever looked on as a serious fault to waste. Besides some clean linen and clothing in a leathern bag (jurab), Achmet had on the other side our cotton-stuffed pillows; his saddle was formed of two Abyssinian cow-hides, placed above each other, intended to be used under our carpets, and these proved a most excellent protection against the numerous thorns that covered the soil, or when covered with two great white barakans, folded four times together, formed a very perfect sleeping-place for us when suffering from cold or fever. Atop of all this high-piled load sat the cook himself. We had entrusted to his care some of our arms, three guns and an old-fashioned pistol, with some ammunition; two of the first he had fastened to his dromedary, as we carried our double-barrelled rifles, but a long Turkish gun he had hung over his neck, surely no very comfortable companion during a long, sharp ride. In addition to our double rifles, that we could have in our hands in an instant, we also carried pistols, strung in a belt instead of being stuck in the girdle, and by our sides hung proudly our cavalry swords,—our Turkish sabres, too light for our unaccustomed hands, having been safely stowed away in our chests. Our cook had wisely provided himself with some of the needful tools of his trade, things that neither Joseph or I had thought of. This seems a long list, but still it is but a very poor one of all required for a journey in this land.

At three o’clock in the afternoon (fi l’Asser), a cannon was fired, and soon a sudden commotion and stir was evident in the camp, this being the signal for starting. In an instant our tent was down, and as each camel lay already with shackled knee, between the chests and bags intended for it, and our girbes were ere now filled, all was so quickly laden that our people were at the head of the train, where by our orders they were to keep. We ourselves, mounting, rode up to the Pascha, who had halted to the eastward of Damer, his saddled horses and dromedaries drawn up behind, and here out of the bustle was making his further arrangements at his ease. He growled at the great disorder, but consoled himself that in future things would go on better. It was, indeed, a most varied scene: the Turkish cavalry, in their national dress of every hue and colour, with yellow or green standards and small kettle-drums; the cavalry of the Schaigies and Mograbin Arabs on horses, dromedaries, and on foot; the Sheiks and Moluk (little kings), with their little arm-bearers behind them on the same camels, with spears, lances, swords and shields of leather; the numerous asses and camels, the former led by the halter by almost every second infantry soldier, so that the owners might ride in turn; drums, trumpets, and all kinds of deafening music, &c. The Chabir (caravan leader), with lance and shield, was on his dromedary, far in advance; him we followed, along with the Pascha, who was on horseback, and with picturesque disorder each detachment freed itself from the confused crowd, and came on in our track. The artillery consisted of two field-pieces drawn by camels which the Pascha had trained to this work, to take the place of the usual mules in the desert. Abd-el-Kader, the jovial Topschi Baschi, mounted on his mule, led them on. The Turks, the greater number of whom were Circassians, the Kurds, Arnauts, or Albanians, who an hour before could hardly put one leg before another, were now changed men; the instant they were in their saddles they were galloping like madmen round the Pascha, and thrashing their horses with as little compassion as if they had been intoxicated with opium. But all this was in honour of the Pascha, and a show-off before him of their invincible courage. The way lay over the desert, but was tolerably well marked out. Towards morning the Pascha, accompanied by the Chabir, rode on in advance; but we did not follow him, as I felt unwell. It was dark night when we reached the left bank of the Atbara, where, throwing ourselves down among the bushes, we sought sleep, without waiting or caring for food.

In the morning we commenced looking about us, and came on two Saghies or water-wheels of the Kabyle Omerab. The Atbara is a fine, clear river, with high banks, pretty deep, though here fordable, and at this ford the Pascha posted a guard of forty men, so that the enemy might not take us in the rear. The country on the right bank of the river was yet called Daghela; the forest opposite is a swamp, in which were yet to be seen many lakes full of water, and also a dry river bed, which, from its considerable breadth, must, at times, pour a large body of water into the Atbara. Some Omerabs having joined us, we asked the name of this gohr or rain-brook—often, in tropical climes, of great size and importance—running into the Atbara; to our surprise he answered el Mogren, which immediately reminded us of Father Burckhardt, who so named the lower part of the Atbara. We also knew right well that Mogren means the spot where two rivers join, as in the case of the Blue and White Niles; but here we were told, most distinctly, that the gohr itself was named Mogren. Unfortunately, we did not ask if the people on the opposite side of the Mogren do not sometimes apply that name to the Atbara, down to its junction with the Nile, and if the gohr was to be merely looked on as an auxiliary stream, and included in the name. The Dutchman does not blush to call the main stream of the Rhine the Waal, because a river of that name, on which, perhaps, he once dwelt and still loves, runs into it and flows on with it into the ocean, but hails all on its banks as his countrymen. In Taka I saw the great Gohr-el-Gash, the waters of which are said to vanish—how, if this monstrous mass of water, which it is impossible the earth can drink in, were to collect again in the low lands and form this mogren? and this, the direction of the Gohr-el-Gash, and the slope of the country seem to me but too plainly to point out. Whence the gohr comes they know not; “min fok,” (from above) they said, and that in the rainy season it gathers from all sides, from which gathering may be the peculiar meaning of the word gohr.

The high banks on our side of the river, were at this season covered with luxuriant, beautiful turf, with strong, fruit-laden Dom-palms (Cucifera Thebaica), mimosas, and large thorn trees (nebbek), the bright green of which lent a freshness and enlivening colour to the scene, hardly to have been looked for from the slimy, sandy soil. The Atbara was some 150 or 200 paces broad, but seemed, from the distance of the opposite bank, to have, when full, a breadth of 600 or 800 paces. The banks consisted of layers of sandstone, and it was plainly visible, that this sandstone was in a continuous state of forming, as in some spots it was very soft, and in these we found encrusted wood and petrifactions, but no conchylites. Further upwards, the soil was good, the land well cultivated and sown with durra[7], divided off into small squares, intersected with narrow channels or canals; but we saw no saghies (water-wheels), so either must the river’s overflowings have been guided into these canals, or they must have been filled by means of water-tight baskets (saduff), as in Nubia and elsewhere. We saw no one who could give us any information about this, and at midday returned to the camp, as we had been warned to keep near it, the tribes of this neighbourhood being neither most friendly nor trustworthy.

21st March.—On starting on our excursion this morning, we had felt pretty well, but now we suddenly felt as ill and downcast as ever, but the cannon-shot re-echoed through the wood, and all must mount again. At first steppes that threw back the sun’s rays most dreadfully on us; we drove before us herds of thirty or forty gazelles, the Pascha and Turks setting off in chase of them. Ere long we again approached the river, where the most luxuriant vegetation was visible, also many Dom-palms, cut across under the crown (pollarded), the more easily to get at their branches for mats and ropes, though this kills the trees. Large fields there were none, but merely cultivated patches, and the green turf extending under the trees on the river’s banks, as in Germany. The soil was dark, and seemed of similar quality to that of the Nile banks, cut up like it also, but in smaller polygons. A considerable deposit of slime was to be seen on the rough bark of the lower part of the trees; and were the height of these slime-marks carried out in a horizontal line over the land, the river’s overflow would seem to reach to the stony ridges of the invariably higher desert land. Riding was most perilous, partly from the thorny trees with reversed hooks, strong enough to tear clothes from the body, or eyes out of one’s head (and eyes were lost by some), partly from the crowding, when all had to make, in the dark, their way as well as they could, and then, from the ground being saturated with water, falls were many and severe. At last, at midnight, after a march of ten hours, a halt was made, not one of half an hour’s duration having, until now, been allowed. In the Pascha’s neighbourhood, a fire was kindled, but we sought out a dark spot behind a bush on the river’s bank, and at once lay down, and so wearied was I, that I would not even drink the coffee which the old Deli Mustapha, the Pascha’s kawedschi, brought us. One must have experienced what that weariness is, which, brought on and conjoined with illness, goes so far as to lead him to despise the choicest food rather than arouse himself to partake of it, to judge of my state.

22nd March.—The river’s course here is from south-east to north-west, though as yesterday, any current is hardly perceptible. The banks are distant from each other, and the river is yet some 150 or 200 paces in width,—the bed sandstone, the country beautiful and green as yesterday, larger durra fields, but only two water-wheels. The Atbara is not rich in fish, but crocodiles and Nile-horses abide in the deeper places the whole year through. We saw and heard many geese and ducks, but did not disturb them, as, had we shot them we could not have got them; other birds we saw not, nor did we fall in, outside the camp, with any natives, all of whom seemed, like the Omerabs, to have got out of the army’s way, the Sheik of the latter, alone, being with the camp, and accompanying it through his country. From the fissures of the sandstone in the river’s bed sprouted up a splendid species of willow, with bright green leaves, like a freshly shot oleander, full cup-shaped white blossoms, and odour like jessamine, but not so pungent or agreeable; pistils full of white bitter milky fluid; seed very small and hanging in threads of a finger’s length, intersecting each other like a spider’s web. The river makes great windings between its wildly beautiful banks, from which the trees hang down, often touching the water, and in many places having fallen into it, render its navigation somewhat difficult, though these hindrances could be easily overcome. The increasing heat, accompanied by a hotter wind, that blew disagreeably round our brows, sent us back to the camp. This district of country has as inhabitants, the Kabyle of Kammarabs, who are a considerable tribe, and extend southward to the lands of the Schukurie, under the great Sheik, Abu Sind, and has, as its superior chief, the great Sheik, Aburof. On the opposite right bank of the Atbara live the Kabyle of the Anafidab, a most thievish race, and much given to plunder and steal the Kammarab’s camels. The Anafidab are of the race or tribe (Gins) of the Bischari, and form a kabyle (clan or community) of their own, under their own chiefs.[8] We hear, that all grain, to be had here and hereabouts, is to be delivered up at the six day’s journey distant from here, Gos Rajeb, where a great magazine is to be formed.

The cannon was fired at midday, just as we had finished our meal; although at first seeing this I had felt little appetite, and almost loathed food, still I tried to eat; but suddenly I became seriously ill, and beheld with horror our tent struck over my head, my bed, too, packed up, and ourselves with our servants, obliged to follow the army. I could not mount, I felt as if the sun was heaping glowing coals on my head, but did not lose my consciousness. My brother and I, therefore, resolved to remain behind till the heat of the day was over, and ride on after the crisis was past, if I was ever to get over it. Supported by Joseph and Achmet, I was led to a Dom-palm, near which I sank down, as if dead, under shade, certainly, but on the burning earth. A fearful vomiting and dysentery, sending sweat from every pore, attacked me; I could not remain lying on my carpet, but to keep in the shade, I had, with my trowsers about my heels, to crawl on the sand, round and round the tree, while the spot I had quitted was covered over with clean sand. Dr. Bellotti and the apothecary, Dumont, having heard I was dying, had quitted the army’s slow train, and come to see for themselves, if the report was true or not. They advised me to give up the expedition, the Italian, contrary to my brother’s opinion however, holding my case as most serious. I made Bellotti a sign, and as he bent over me, prayed him, in case of my death, to do his utmost to persuade Joseph to quit Bellad Sudan, and then he could fill all his good posts. Dumont could hardly restrain his laughter, and the two mounted and rode off. Never in my life have I longed for sunset as I then did; the very last sun beams seemed to effect my hair, as if each separate one was electrified and discharging the fluid into my bursting head. Hardly was the torturing sun under the horizon when I felt much better, could again stand up and move slowly about. Good humoured Arab herd lads approached our fire, pitied my state, and brought me milk and durra bread.[9] It was a beautiful evening, the full moon glittering on the waters of the Atbara, silvered the dark crowns of the Dom-palms; wild geese now and then screamed, and some pigeons cooed round us,—all else was silence.

23rd March.—There is a deep pleasure in sleeping in the open air, where weather and climate will permit. Often had I in Greece, even when most sleepy, sought the free air, and, particularly at Nauplia, mounted up to the higher Herculesburg of Tirynth and the rocks of Palmedes, and there passed the night. What a waking in the divine dawn of beauteous, freest Nature! Much restored, two hours before sunrise, we mounted our dromedaries, but did not long trust ourselves in the sun, as at his first beams we dismounted at the tents of some Arabs of the Kabyle of the Kammarabs. We were hospitably received, and entertained with milk and bread; ere long they brought us a great wooden dish (gadda) of the lochma, a stiff soup or batter of durra-meal (hagien), with a hollow in its centre full of butter, and, even when only eaten with the hands, no bad food. At least a dozen men would have found sufficient to eat in this Arab polenta. The baker’s oven, or brick-kilnlike tents (birsch; tents of canvass, gemma; those on boats, denda), are formed of mats of palm-leaves, stretched over boughs, low before but high at the back, where there is a sort of elevated bed-place, or divan, covered with palm mats, and over these a kind of reed-stalks, split fine, is bound by small stripes of hide. This elevation, when used as a bed or seat, is protected from cold wind and curiosity, by being hung round by black and white striped coarse woollen coverlets, and this part of the tent is called the beit, or house. Of such tents some thirty were here, not placed in the shade, but somewhat distant from the larger trees. In the time of the tropical rains these tents are much reduced in size by their inmates, who then sit in them like snails in their shells. Such rains do not extend beyond the mouth of the forest-surrounded Atbara, and seldom bestow a shower on the Berber lands (called by the Arabs el Mucheïrof), where the loam-built towns would soon go to pieces under the torrents of the Chariff, which the tokuls are needed to withstand. The older and principal men came to visit us, and the Wokul of the Sheik, who is in attendance on the Pascha, smoked out of a bone. The country round is flat, sandy, and covered with thorn-bushes. The Dom-palms do not extend so far from the river, as they love a moist soil. Grass and herbage we saw as little of as stones, although the river seemed to overflow far here. A shrub, Tundo, with many small red flowers, very similar to our wild rose, was abundant; birds, save pigeons, very rare; but numerous large white vultures, hovering over and devouring the fallen cattle it left behind, marked the way the army had taken.

Towards evening we again were en route, following the track of the field-pieces, but soon had to halt again, as this guiding-trace was hid in darkness. So, like knights-errant, we turned into another settlement of Kammarabs, which was large and flourishing, and, with its numerous fires before the tents, offered a lively picture of native life. The head man received us most kindly, told us we had been commended to his care by the Pascha, who had also sent orders back to Damer that we were every where to be looked on as his friends. While we sat eating our durra bread and milk, and looking round us for sheep or goat to stick on the spit, twenty Schaigies, mounted on dromedaries, arrived, sent by the Pascha to seek us out and act as our guard. We now continued our march by moonlight, were again become great people, and looked on as Turks. We were told the tribe of Kammarabs was small, and therefore the Schaigies took the high hand, and would have made a sad business of it, had we not kept order, as in every village a guide was to be taken by force, the Arabs, holding us for Turks, putting no trust in our promise of payment. Our Schaigies proved brisk, merry fellows, and played many a mad prank to amuse us.

24th March.—We encamped, about midnight, some distance from the river banks, and found ourselves on a Steppe. The soil was bad and sandy; the barrowlike range of hillocks, that ran from east to west, were sparingly covered with herbage and a few white flowering Mimosas. At mid-day we turned into a small village of some ten huts, belonging to the Kabyle of the Wood Naga, a branch or tribe of the Bischari. These people had no durra for our camels, or would not give us any. The head man brought us milk and durra-teig, but demanded soap and medicine in exchange. On the right bank of the Atbara here dwell the Bischari; the banks of the river are high, nor does it seem to overflow them; but that falls of rain are frequent and heavy, is plainly shown by the high grass under the thorny nebbek and Dom-palm trees. All about the banks, trees are to be seen overthrown and floating in the water. The Schaigies hunted out a deserter, and we could plainly mark the hatred in which they held the Egyptians. I promised I would obtain the Pascha’s pardon for him, and kept my word. At the next village men came at once up to us, offering us water, but for the Egyptian neither ass nor camel could be got. The huts of this village, also, were without all shade. Here, again, two guides had to be seized on by force, and our presence alone prevented our spoil-loving body-guard from plundering it. We then reached the great village Wady, which was picturesquely situated under shady trees, along the river’s bank. From hence our road lay over a wide plain, without tree or bush to afford us shelter; at midnight we halted and dismounted.

CHAP. III.

Rejoin the Army. — Arab Sheiks. — Ruins of Herrerem. — The Mirage. — A Country March. — Corn Stores. — A Sheik of the Hallenga. — False Alarms. — A Skirmish.

25th March.—Before sunrise we were off again. Coffee we could not prepare, for want of wood; one of the Schaigies milked his female camel, and gave us some of its milk, which tasted fresh and excellent. We now again struck the way the army had taken. Numerous wild Kurbisse (Colocynthi) covered the ground in many places. The braying of an ass was plainly heard in this soundless waste; on we went, and came to a female ass with broken leg,—seemingly the field-piece had gone over it; a newly-dropped foal stood by the mother, over whom already circled in air the vultures; from these she seemed to call on us to protect her. The young beast was placed in a net, slung on a camel, and the old one, at our express order, shot, to save her from a lingering death. By noon we were in the camp on the Atbara.

The Pascha, seated on the ground, in the shade before his tent, had remarked us when at some distance, though we could have dispensed with seeing him ere we had first taken some rest. He was, from exposure to the sun during these last few days, much burnt, seemed ill, and suffering; he nevertheless received us with commiserating kindness, and said he had already received a message telling him of our welfare. Tired as we were, we must mount again at two hours after noon. Many gazelles were started; the Pascha, gun in hand, galloped his Arabian stallion into the midst of them; almost all the mounted people galloped like a wild hunt after him, and we also advanced at a sharp trot, to behold nearer the extempore chasse. We fancied our chief had fallen from his horse, so speedily had he swung himself to the ground, and with three shots he brought down three gazelles, of which, in the evening, we received a good portion roasted. The river is here pretty broad; on the opposite bank we next morning, when looking about us, perceived some crocodiles. On the river’s edge were many very beautiful pebbles; the banks are rocky and of sandstone, as is also the bed; pieces of decaying Thorn-mussel were scattered about here and there, but we saw no other shells. In spite of the day being fearfully warm, the march was continued all day till evening. My brother, from his great exertions, was taken ill, had violent headache, and felt as if drunk, but luckily slept all night. The plain we had ridden over was monotonous, covered with reedlike mimosas; the soil most sandy.

27th March.—Joseph cannot rise, has dreadful thirst, and complains that his hair is on fire on his head. We wisely halted here till after mid-day, let the army march on before us, remaining on the river bank till the cooler evening, and then hastened on after the Pascha. On the river’s right bank was to be seen the gebl (hill) Job, or Joc, rising up, all isolated, like a pyramid: this hill was visible yesterday. To-day two other large hills have come into sight, one in the east, the other to the south. We have remarked that the birds gradually return after the army has passed on, and we only remain. The left side of the river is not cultivated, the right very much so; many large fields of durra and doggen (Sorghum saccharatum). Topschi Baschi lent my brother his easy-going mule, which gave him great relief. Gazelles were seen in large herds, hurrying back from the desert, here very sandy and deep, to the river, by paths worn by their own feet. At our camping-place to-day the heat was so great, that guns and sabres, even under the tent, could hardly be laid hold of. For the first time, the soldiers had flesh served out to them, and each captain got a sheep; on every camel and ass flesh was to be seen hanging, and the birds of heaven often approached most near to these, in their nostrils, sweet-smelling scaffolds. The right bank of the river, for the last two days’ march, was the habitation of the tribe of the Haddenda, hostile to us; to its west are the Schukurie, who live in perpetual feud with them. Two hours after sunset a halt was made, and the many fires of the camp, glittering among the trees, offered a pretty scene. Many scorpions showed themselves here, as if attracted by the heat of the fires; some we saw were a finger and a half in length, of a bright colour, one half of the tail a brown black, and covered with hair. Around us were huge flats, overgrown with long, thick, rank grasses, and in these the rain-water must stand long, probably dammed back there by the raised banks of the Atbara. The wind is warm, and by no means refreshing. For the last two evenings there have been continuous flashes of lightning in the south.

28th March.—We encamped for this night on the river, here in some places dried up. Its high banks were evidently never hereabouts overflowed, and so no Dom-palms were visible. Mohammed Defalla, a great Sheik of the neighbourhood of Wollet-Medina, arrived with many followers. He wore a suit of double-chain armour, under this a quilted shirt, arm-braces, and handsome worked steel gauntlets. His helmet fitted to his head like a shell, having in front, instead of a visor, an iron bar coming down over the nose, and behind, to cover the neck, a small guard or curtain formed of steel rings. His sword, the most common here, was one of the horsemen’s straight swords, made in Sennaar, with plain bent hand-guard, golden hilt, with a thick crown-like knob cut out on its end. This equipment came from India, and he has forty or fifty such suits; his relations of the old royal family have whole heaps of such. Two Sheiks of the land of Taka have also arrived: handsome, tall men. Many people from the neighbourhood of Gos-Rajeb have also come to meet the Pascha, and have just dismounted from their dromedaries in the camp; they have their hair anointed and whitened with camel’s fat, which the sun’s heat has melted, and set trickling down their backs. For three hours during to-day’s march we passed over a plain extending farther than eye could reach, with long withered grass, few trees, many gazelles, and some hares. In the morning we had remarked near, and on the river, thousands of partridges, various kinds of snipes, and numerous water-fowl. Our camping-place is two hours distant from water: during the night a strong cold wind blew on us from the south.

29th March.—To-day we were to make our entrance into Gos-Rajeb, and we were in motion before sunrise. The infantry formed two columns, the Turkish cavalry the right wing, the Schaigies and Magrabins the left. About eleven o’clock we found ourselves in this order, and deafened by drums, kettle-drums, and all kinds of Janissary music, in the wide and almost naked plain to the east of Gos-Rajeb. The guns that had been in front did not retain that position, but were passed over to the right side of the here shallow Atbara, where, at the feet of the two rocks of Herrerem, our camp was formed, in a stony, almost treeless plain. Gos-Rajeb (Hill Rajeb) is some 400 paces distant from the river bank, consists of 150 or 200 tokul and loam houses, the former of these being unusually large, and displaying on their pointed tops ostrich eggs as ornaments. The inhabitants of this trading city are of various tribes: Bischari, Haddenda, &c. The few of them we saw were rather red in colour than black or brown; but most of its inmates had fled at our approach. Gos-Rajeb lies in a desert, or nearly so; the goods come from India to Sauakim on the Red Sea, and are brought thence on camels. On a dromedary the journey can be made in seven or eight days. Caravans take ten or eleven; though the Sheik of Gos-Rajeb said seventeen days were required to Sauakim, but only five or six to Kataref. According to him, the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb are a race of themselves, who have been located there since time immemorial; though he allowed that another race, not of the same descent as them, had settled down there in later times. The Pascha has instructed the Sheik to give me all and every information as to country and people, and to accompany me to all most worthy of being seen, and all remarkable points.

30th March.—Our expectations had been highly raised as regarded the ruins we hoped to find in this city of the rocks, for we, as well as the honoured Burckhardt before us, had heard much of Kenisse betal kuf’r, and of memorials of a Christian race. So in the morning we climbed up both hills, and found a grotesque formation of granite rocks, worn by the action of weather and other causes into the most fantastic shapes, and here and there towered up on one another as if some giant’s hand had piled them. The grey whitish granite also shows in its refts round holes smoothed out by rain, and, in some places, crusts of red granite as at Assuan; but ruins there were none to explore. We saw much dried grass, and some small green trees like wild pear-trees, called Sammer: this shows the rain here must be abundant. A crowd of flints and pebbles of all colours were scattered round above, but almost all were broken in pieces, like those placed on graves here to prevent the wild beasts digging up the corpses. It is possible, however, these stones had been broken up to discover the precious stones supposed to be hid in the coarser casket.

The view over the plains covered with small trees and stretching out farther than eye can reach, is monotonous; and here the Atbara is very small, and resembles a brook with naked banks. To the N.W. is Gos-Rajeb with its tokuls and decaying roofs; to the N.N.E. a day and a half’s journey off, is the Hill of Job. N.N.E. and by N. one day’s journey off, is the Hill of Ofrek; the smaller hills of Derra, Tokul, and Aried, the centre one of which has three pointed tops, lie from W. by N. to W.N.W. The Hill of Sabath, W.S.W. is about half a day’s journey from Gos; behind the Hill of Job to the N.N.W. is a yet higher mountain, with a smaller neighbour, and a chain of hillocks. The distance as the crow flies to the hills of Kassela in the E. may be some thirty hours. The other rock of Herrerem lies southward of the first, and may be some 400 feet high. At the foot of it is a quantity of débris rolled down from it, and large pieces of rock also lie about. On this rough ground are many graves of later time; some old bricks red outside, black inside and very hard, lie about. A quarter of an hour N.E. of this Rockery, in a spot to which the Sheik led me, I saw some broken and burnt bricks; hereabouts must once have stood a town as large as Massr (Cairo) and inhabited by Christians. The ground is now level, and neither grave-hill nor bone-house to be seen. There must indeed have been a fearful conflagration here, as the bricks at one spot are melted down into a black glassy mass. Most probably, the city was on both hills, and principally on the first, round which many isolated mounds or hillocks may be seen; but these are covered either with stones or small pieces of granite, and seem to have been used as sepulchres; they have a round or oval form, and some are large and of good height. Often are six or eight such hillocks connected with each other, and on these we found some red bricks. The present inhabitants know not whether they are graves or what they are, and this alone testified to their belonging to older times. On the second hill lie blocks of rocks having much resemblance to colossal sarcophagi; and why these masses were so placed on it cannot be accounted for, unless to serve as memorials. The first hill runs up into two blunt points, on the foremost of which starts up a high rock like a monument, which, perhaps, may have misled Burckhardt. Above this, in the rivers here, mussels and small shells are to be found, similar to those in the Nile, and much petrified wood.

This morning has come in the son of Mohammed Din, the great Sheik of the Haddenda; but the Pascha has again dismissed him, with the necessary orders to his father. Almost all the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb have fled from it, carrying off their herds, flocks, &c., so that nothing is to be got there, not even milk. In the rainy season there is much life and bustle on both sides of the river, as most of the Arabs from the lower and overflowed lands then gather up here, especially those of Sauachinn (Sauakim) and Kataref, when on both banks there are large fairs, much bartering, and considerable business is done by the greater merchants (chawagat, from chawagi) and the slave dealers (djellabi or haddaiba). Only a small stripe on the left bank is planted with cotton; all else is barren wilderness. All the birds have also retired from this neighbourhood, save cranes and vultures. The ants here cause much pain by their bites; they are black in colour, carry the hinder part of their bodies upright, and are most rapid in their movements. Ever at night a strong cold breeze gets up; and even during the day the cold winds raised a feeling of the Chamsin. Tobacco we have never seen on all our journey, and this accounts for the everlasting begging of the natives for it. Much thieving goes on in the open camp, and the soldiers sell many things under the rose to the inhabitants, especially durra, of which 2000 ardips out of the magazine have been issued to the army. To-morrow is to be a grand review, to dazzle and impose on the Sheiks present.

1st April.—At two o’clock P.M., we were marched off in an easterly direction, and kept at it till three hours after sunset, without coming on the promised water. All level, good soil, little or no wood. Mimosas almost vanished; but, on the other hand, much Arrac or Tundo with its bright green, its small red flowers and branches, very similar to our roses, only with longer thorns and thicker more shrub-like stems, growing more closely together, and of greater circumference, but not a leaf; many Sammer trees also, the leaves of which contain no sap. On the dried grass covered plain, gazelles, antelopes, and hares abound. From the distance, the two hills of Herrerem with their grotesque blocks of rocks still looked after us. At dawn we were again on foot, and marched for two hours, till we struck the Atbara. Over the ground in all directions stretched long runs made by the heavy rains. Nowhere was man or beast to be seen; all seemed to have hidden themselves; the very flocks of birds visible on our arrival we instantly frightened away. Towards midday, many of the Sheiks who accompanied the camp assembled in our tent, but being Faki they did not smoke; they could not comprehend that our magnet-needle pointed ever to the north. The Hill of Kassela, now to the east of us, was some two hours distant: this was the end of our journey, at least for a time, as from thence the Pascha intended to carry out his conquests, and spoke of founding a city there.

About noon, when the heat was greatest, off went the great gun, the signal for marching. A mere quarter of an hour’s halt, as a rest towards evening, and then on for four hours longer. All were tired out, and not so much by the heat, which was bad enough, but by the hot wind, that threatened, on these immense level lands, to dry us up into mummies; and here the water-resembling Devil’s lakes (Bacher el Scheitan—the mirage) were constantly deceiving us. In these the trees were reflected as in clear water, although the soil is good, and not mere sand and stones, as in the Desert. The frontiers of Taka are very ill defined, but it was said that our camping-place was in that land, which seems to be remarkable for its thick grass overgrown pasturage.

3rd April.—Two hours before sunrise the army was under arms, and in battle order pursued an eastward march, in which direction the hill of Kassela and the blue mountains of Abyssinia were plainly visible; but, as road there was none, the column of march soon fell into confusion. The soil was of a dark colour, and looked as if it had been rained on but yesterday, and this morning’s sun had called up on its surface a coating of slime of an inch thick. The durra fields still threw out fresh shoots from their ten feet high stems. To the left extended an impenetrable forest of uschar (Asklepias procera), which, with its fresh narcotic green, its verdant hues, and white violet-tinged flowers, was a most pleasing and refreshing sight. After a ride of some three hours, we arrived at a settlement of a Kabyle of Soggilabs, under the Sheik Haddab, some thirty mat huts, enclosed in a seriba (thorn-hedge); a little distance to the east many tents and some Tokuls showed over the green stalks. The larger village is called Soggilab, from the race of that name. A crowd of men, each with the lance or sword, dressed and frizzed out like the other Arabs, were assembled to gaze at us and receive the Pascha, but still no cattle were to be seen; it was plain enough they were all driven away. As far as eye could reach, all the ground was covered with a species of arborescent lucerne (loid) some five or six feet high, on which the camels feasted with delight. The richness of the soil is most evident, from the great luxuriance of all its herbage and shrubs; running water there is none, but the twenty or twenty-five feet deep wells give good drinking water in copious supply. Of such wells I counted forty-eight, which denotes a considerable population. There were many birds, especially pigeons; but, as usual, very shy. Both to-day and yesterday I had shot some hares, smaller and brighter in colour than ours, and with much larger ears. Many lions were said to be about, and we were warned to refrain from hunting. A great part of the bushes were fired and burnt down, to give open space round the camp, as the inhabitants of Soggilab were not to be trusted; and this conflagration made all so clear, that we did not require to kindle any lights at night.

4th April.—To-day is a day of rest. Some horsemen from the village of Soggilab arrived to salute us; their horses, mostly stallions, were small, but of great speed, seemingly a cross of the Arab breed. The saddles small, and of wood; stirrups as ours, some having shoes fixed on them for the lance, as with our lancers. Our poor soldiers are without tents, having nothing to eat but belila, i.e. durra boiled in water, without salt or grease; even with us salt is scarce. Up to this date flesh has been served out but once. The Schaigies are ever the first, form the advance guard, and is any thing to be got, or any booty made, it falls of course to their share, as they are first in the field. Often at night thirty or forty of them in all secrecy quit the camp, surprising any village they can hit on, lay hands on all they can, and ere morning are again returned to the neighbourhood of the camp, and assume the demeanour of men bringing in their horses from pasturing.

5th April.—Contrary to all hope, the signal gun awoke us to-day at dawn, calling on us to march, though we had fully trusted that this day would also be a halt. Ere long we joined the Pascha’s motley train, and found ourselves, along with other Europeans, mixed up among former kings, little and great Sheiks, and their armour-bearers, officers, scribes, and body-guards; and equally singular must we have appeared to the others as they to us. We wore over our Turkish dresses, loose wide blouses, with doubly padded hoods as a protection from the sun’s rays. Right and left surrounded us the wild crowd of Schaigies, on horseback; and little peace or concord was there among their horses and the timid camels and dromedaries; so that at length the Pascha ordered all riding the latter to move on in advance. We did so, and at once found ourselves in a thickly overgrown underwood, where the thorny mimosas ere long again raised their heads, putting our tarbooshes in much danger. Besides these, we observed tombu-bushes (hombuck), with rose-red round fruit, with a gelatinous sweet inside, about the size of a common gooseberry; high heaths, and sammer of brightest green, as also a profusion of uschars overloaded with flowers, and great green seed pods.

The main road had been here and there widened by hewing away some of the trees, but it had already been taken by the cavalry and infantry on their asses; so we had to make our way through the thick close bush as well as we could. All was now indescribable confusion, and had the foe set on us here with their javelins, things would certainly have gone ill with us. We came, even in the bush, to some spots cleared by fire, probably for the cultivation of durra. After a good hour, the ground became more favourable, a halt was at last made, and some order restored to us. The soil here seemed excellent, all covered with grasses, and very deep two or three inch wide water runs intersecting it in all directions, plainly showing by these deep and wide excavations, how heavy the rain torrents must be here. The Pascha we found already encamped, in full security and utmost unconcern, while for a long time the forest kept throwing out his soldiery in beautiful disorder. Each took up his position as he pleased,—cavalry and camel-mounted infantry followed the example,—while a much longer tail of the ass-mounted came slowly creeping out of the defile. Our confidence in the Pascha’s generalship had been much shaken, and it now fell off much more at this sample of Turkish indolence, to which it never occurred to take any measures, or make any proper disposition of his forces.

On pursuing our march we came again to forest, but much opener, and we were now free from crowd and confusion; but from this all the more likely to fall a prey to the foe. Soon there stretched out before us a long wide field, full of numerous holes; these seemed, above, one and a half to two feet in diameter; but below, some four or six, with a depth of the same. They were pear-shaped, and said to be used by the natives to store their grain in. A town must once have been here. Before now we had observed such open spaces;—a sign that this fruitful stretch of land, on which we had now some days been marching, was at times inhabited in certain places by some nomade tribes; and we also remarked, especially at Soggilab, ditches and walls, though not of the most artful structure, to retain the rain water and guide it in irrigating the soil. The soil is lighter than that of the Nile, but covered with the same crust of some fine substance most similar to Nile slime, and must from its lightness be looked on as of vegetable origin; the more so as this is only to be found in the neighbourhood of the Atbara, and the deposit left by the rain floods from the mountains can only be looked for in their channels, or where such gather in the low grounds.

After a further march of three good hours we arrived at some wells, which, like those at Soggilab, ran in a line or course from south-east to north-west, and which might lead one to suspect a subterraneous river, or river bed, as here no great fall of the ground is to be seen. Near the wells were flocks of handsome birds, called Honey-birds (Nectarinia lucida); but they were soon frightened away by the numerous noises. Here were, as at Gos-Rajeb, and more so at Soggilab, many cotton fields; the Asclepias, also, again grew in full luxuriance, covered in greatest profusion with their pendant green air-bottles.

Achmet Pascha had galloped on in advance to look about him, and now off went a cannon as a signal for the army to encamp, or, rather, for each to throw himself down where he pleased. But soon, at my persuasion, came contrary orders; viz., to get clear of the bush, and encamp somewhat farther east, in the open ground. Now, again, all fell into somewhat better order. The infantry enclosed the camp towards the eastward woods; the cavalry faced the south; the Schaigies, Schukuries, and Magrabins the wells towards the west and north. Our two field-pieces were before the infantry; the few tents, along with the baggage camels and asses, were in the centre of our rather irregular square.

We brothers were just trying to gain some strength by a midday siesta, when some shots were fired, followed by a loud confused shouting of “Arab, arab ketir!” The Pascha at once threw himself on his horse, and, followed by all the mounted, galloped on, while the soldiery in the utmost confusion ran to the quarter where all looked for the “numberless enemy,” who had already three times defeated the Turks, and where about again to, or had risked an attack. We also loaded our rifles, buckled on our swords, and set out on our way, but had not advanced far in the thick underwood, when there advanced from it to meet us the so-called “Old Knight,” the Bischari Sheik Wood Naja, in full suit of armour, but his grey head bare, riding a most splendid black stallion, with tidings that it was only a magazine that had been discovered, where durra and lubia were stored in immense quantities, in the midst of numberless holes dug in the earth, belonging to the Haddenda Arabs, who had fled from hence only the night before, under their great Sheik Mohammed Din, into the Chaaba, making with all possible speed their way out of the Pascha’s reach, whose arrival they had not so soon expected. On the discovery of the corn a fight had arisen between the Turks and the row-loving Schaigies, our friends, the expert goat milkers, but of the enemy not one was to be seen. The Pascha had given orders that every one might help himself at will from the prize; and when we arrived at the spot, we found all in the fullest activity with hands, bayonets, spears, sabres, hooks, axes, sticks, groping in the pits; and as each found anything, in it went to sack, bag, or dress, and on horse, camel, or ass-back away off with it to camp; and left there, the finder was instantly back again to try his luck once more. The army might have been subsisted for over two months on this store of durra, although the Haddenda had before carried off all they could. Besides the grain, the soldiers found beans, wood, mats, supports for mat huts, and many such things. As we returned to camp, all the army were going to or coming from the plunder, and again we were in a critical state; but the Pascha trusted to his lucky star. The Sheiks, put in action by the false alarm, in their full iron panoplies, their swords in hand, and horses covered with ornamental saddlecloths, looked proudly and splendidly out among the thickly dusted and sweat drenched soldiery, laden like mill-asses. We ourselves got back to our huts as if drenched in water, but, in spite of the midday-sun’s heat, we were not there long ere we felt a thrill of frost all over our bodies.

6th April.—All rejoiced that to-day was a day of rest. We learned we were in the neighbourhood of the now deserted tent-villages or camps of the Arabs of Issi and Teschum. The soldiers could now, by aid of their hand-mills (tachuhn), slowly grind their grain; and the Khaimakan, that they might not altogether want meat, did not fail, in his high humanity, to sell them for 60 paras the heads and entrails of every sheep he killed, probably thinking these were too small matters to make a present of. This generous man was the Circassian Sorop Effendi. But even while eating this meat, the purchaser had to keep an eye on his dearly won prize, as the numerous vultures, hawks, and ravens were daring enough to have carried it off from under his very nose, and these bold birds repeatedly succeeded in snatching the flesh away from its possessor, especially from the small slaves of eight and ten years old, a number of whom were in the camp. How these little beings held out under the great fatigues is to me incomprehensible, nor less did the soldiers’ power of endurance astonish me, as no arrangements or provisions were made for such as fell sick, neither tents for their reception nor attendants provided, and the medicines laid in were not sufficient for an eighth of them. We rejoiced that we had bought at Cairo a small travelling medicine chest; this had already done us good service in Chartum, and we had brought it with us: the Pascha also had a similar one with him for his own use, and lucky it was so, as all the medicines furnished by government were bad, and the quinine, here so necessary, fearfully adulterated. Although a breeze does occasionally blow here, and one may as much as he can shelter himself by branches, mats, cloaks, &c., from the sun’s rays, still the glowing heat will not long delay to make its unhealthy effects fearfully felt. The black soldiers have taken the wiser course, as many have been daily deserting, and the day before yesterday fifteen of them left us.

To-day the Sheik of the Hallenga, Mohammed Eli, has arrived to meet the Pascha. He looks a man of some forty years, is of stately, warrior-like bearing, with a noble expression of countenance; his hair, greyish about the temples, is there cut short, but long at the sides, and behind hangs down at its full length; he had by his side a small Turkish sabre, probably some present of honour, but most wisely had slung on his saddle behind him his more trusty long-sword. But Mohammed Din, the most dreaded of all, alone came not in; indeed, he has had the Pascha informed, that he will give such grain and beasts as are required, but he will not visit him. He had already, as I mentioned, sent his only son as an hostage to meet the Pascha at Soggilab, but the latter, either from generous pride or some other motive, in my own presence again dismissed him. As his not coming to meet the Pascha is not the most peacelike sign, Achmet has repeatedly warned us not to go far from the camp. Doubtless these Arabs, in larger numbers, lie hidden in the impenetrable bush, and that they know right well how to throw their javelins they have more than once shown. In the meantime the all undertaking and the all attacking Schaigies have to-day slain some of them, though in the skirmish many of themselves have been wounded.

On a large scale the Pascha cannot act against these people. Roads and ways there are none; rapidly do they pack up their all on camels, and with their herds, fly into the Chaaba, where to follow them with an army is impossible. Where will the Pascha procure the heavy expenses of his expedition, where will he pass the rainy season? These and others are questions, the answers to which even he himself has not yet arrived at. His plans he holds most secret, often says the contrary to what he intends, either to do, or not to do; but the truth is, he is without any well considered plan, and the doubtful reports of the Sheiks are not sufficient to let him clearly see the outs and ins, the why and wherefore, of his proceedings. That these Sheiks who have now come in so friendlike, or that those who have accompanied him on his march, can at heart wish well to the Turks, is not to be easily credited; they who before were independent, ruled over a free people, could act and do as they willed, are now deprived of all those privileges, treated with contempt by the stupid, proud Turks,—nay, even subjected to the bastinado, loaded with heavy taxes, and hardly enabled, from diminished revenue, to live, while formerly they fed thousands. Mohammed Din sees these lords’ lot, seems determined to preserve his freedom as long, and sell it as dear as he can, should things go ill for him. But if matters come to extremities, to war itself, setting the Pascha aside, where is there an able, even a tolerable leader? Abdin Aga, the commander of the Turkish cavalry, a puffed up Arnaut; Sorop Effendi, stupidity grafted on avarice; Hassan Effendi Bimbaschi, a quiet glutton; Solimon Aga, greedy and without all or any education; Hassan Effendi of Sennaar, a Turk in the true meaning of the word, commands the Infantry; Mohammed Ladjam, a good-humoured but inexperienced youth, leads the Mograbin horsemen: all these leaders are distinguished from one another, only by the one knowing less than his fellow. What can be expected from an army under such commanders, and more, when that army knows no discipline, and where its best and bravest, the Schaigies, do and ever have done how and what they pleased, and might at a critical moment ruin all? Joined with these are the endless mob of useless rabble, idlers, slaves, and strumpets, dangerous allies, a mere burden to any army, and a fearful impediment to its powers of action. But there is comfort in “Allah Cherim!”

7th April.—To-day we were stationary, so could enjoy a small hunting excursion round the camp, during which we saw many large and small turtle-doves, crowds of guinea-fowl and partridges, and a perfect swarm of finches, but the variety of birds must be far greater in the rainy season. The thick bush is everywhere most green, everywhere bound together by square-limbed, cactus-like parasites and climbing plants, but thornless. From the earth in many places sprout out small grasses, and when it is kept in mind that from the thickness of the bush, the sun cannot exert its full withering powers, the idea of some subterraneous moisture is much strengthened, as the dew is perfectly insignificant. Stones we saw none.

The excursion did my brother no good, as, after his return to camp he felt extremely unwell, out of spirits, complained of insufferable headache, and burning heat. He had hardly lain down, when shouts of “Arab! Arab!” set all again in motion, and made all run to arms. At such a moment my brother would not even seem sick, so we hurried off to the wells, where we met the Pascha already returning with the cavalry. Some thirty thieving Arabs (Garami) had endeavoured to steal the beasts out of the asses’ pen, had thrown some lances over their guards heads, and these, though unharmed, had raised the shouts and tumult. The camp, as we, on going out of it, discovered, had neither pallisade, ditch, nor any defence towards the east. Enriched by this new proof of Turkish tactics, but unfortunately poorer by a handsome hunting-knife, which my brother lost on the way, we returned back to our tent.

8th April.—During the past night, which we spent without rest, as my brother’s sufferings were much increased by violent vomiting, incessant thirst, fearful burning in the bowels, restless dozing, and delirious raving, there all at once arose a fearful noise and a little firing; in spite of it, I, however, remained in our hut, as my brother could not move, and the infantry did not stir, trusting to their cavalry comrades. Only when I saw the Bimbaschi Hassam Effendi lead his company past our hut, and commence, in his mad zeal, firing away over the powder barrels, as if he intended to use them as a defence against hostile lances, did I rush on him, sword in hand, and threaten him both with the weapon and the Pascha; on which the idiot recovered his senses, praying me not to betray him. The whole proved a false alarm, but the tormented Pascha had again started into activity, as he never made the slightest use of his aid-de-camps, and seemed to hold that his own presence was necessary to inspire his troops with courage. Some foes had, however, been brought down, as many traces of blood ran into the bush, although all the shots during the night had been fired on the happy-go-lucky principle. The tactics of our Napoleon-honouring Pascha went so far as to leave the wells, though some 200 paces from our camp, all night totally unguarded, and these might therefore have been with the greatest ease poisoned or filled up, by an enterprising enemy. A real piece of good luck it was for us that no large stones were to be had near to fill up these wells, as we had neither tools nor any means of removing such.

As a variety, the bands were ordered by the Pascha to perform; but a fearful punishment their music proved to our European ears, and how could it be otherwise, as no two instruments were in tune, nor was there aught to soften the banging of the brass instruments. The Turkish cavalry, as well as the Magrabin, have some few small kettle-drums of four inches in diameter, which are incessantly thumped, while the Schaigies of Melik Mammud had only one great copper drum, on which were struck single blows at long irregular intervals, at the performer’s pleasure.

9th April.—The Arabs rest not; about midnight some slaves, having occasion to go to the wells, saw a crowd of them approaching, either with intent to fill up those by no means deep springs, which they ought already to have done, and which even now they could yet so easily have done, as, in spite of their high importance to the camp, their distance from it, and my urgent representations, that as usual were vain, these wells had been left all night without a guard,—or to attack the weaker side of the camp, make themselves masters of our supply of powder, or blow it and us into the air. That our whole store of powder was only guarded by a weak picquet of one sergeant and ten men, was doubtless well known to them, as well as the other arrangements of our camp, for they had many spies among the attendants of the Sheiks who accompanied us, and every day many Arabs were admitted to the camp, who brought for sale butter and honey, here very white and excellent. On this night alarm, a part of the infantry, without waiting for orders, had advanced to the wells, but the incompetency of their leaders had here again done wrong, as the Pascha immediately sent them back again. The guard over the powder store had also quitted their post to take part in the dearly loved firing, and what was yet worse, a Bimbaschi had posted himself and party close beside this powder, and set his men firing right over it towards the wells, though on that side it was totally without any protecting covering, even such as a few branches or sods of turf might have given it, and by his doings threatened death and destruction to all. Fortunately, the Pascha soon observed both these stupid tricks, and instantly replaced the guard over the powder, forbidding all firing near it; if he went a little farther, and made a small example of the offenders, we cannot say but it would certainly have been well. I now see every day more clearly, that if I would gain any point with the Pascha, I must not give him direct advice; and that by doing so, I also expose myself to be used as intercessor with him by his officers, when they wish any of their own numerous wants, or those of their men, attended to.

The Arabs had instantly retreated after the first firing, though not without loss, as some dead men were found near and about the wells; so it was boldly asserted, that their loss was not less than the round sum of sixty men, and certainly there were many more bloody traces running into the bush than yesterday. That during the skirmish some of our own men were killed and wounded by their comrades, we cannot state as fact, but it is highly probable it was so, as our people shot in any direction they fancied, and so, during future night attacks, we being more alarmed for our friends’ fire than our foe’s lances, resolved to remain quietly in our tents, and this we did even after my brother was perfectly recovered.

The blacks do not seem at all to admire the business, for with them desertion is the daily order of things, and they are in the right; the soldiers are miserably off for food, they get nothing but belila (durra boiled in water, without aught else), and the water must be allowed to stand and filter for twelve hours ere it can be drunk, so dirty is it. But the most dreadful plague is the intolerable heat, and this is doubly torturing from a hot wind, like a simoon, which suddenly fills the air with a fine sand that produces itching eruptions on the skin.

CHAP. IV.

A Turkish Camp. — Mohammed Din. — Negroes. — Egyptian Apothecaries. — Tribute. — Nile Expedition. — Monsieur Thibaut. — Diseases. — Natives’ Self-Admiration. — An Adventurer. — Madame Vigoureux.

11th April.—At last we are again in motion, having started at mid-day, a comfortable hour truly for both man and beast; my brother so weak he could hardly sit on his camel. In the bush we again saw the marks of burning, but the effect was here trifling. After half an hour we reached open ground, where the Pascha, as was his custom, lay down under some trees, and concerned himself not as to what might happen to the rest. There he remained upwards of an hour, awaiting the enemy, as it was said, but none appeared, though Mohammed Din had threatened something of the kind, asserting he was resolved to die, as the Pascha would give him no aman (pardon or quarter). At three o’clock the army were allowed to form their camp, while the Pascha rode out right and left reconnoitring, advancing on till he came to an endless durra field, yet green, but no water was hit on. The Schaigies had to accompany him, and, alas! we also, though half dead from the dust and wind.

12th April.—Yesterday’s ride has told. I have almost all night long had violent fever, with nervous convulsions; my brother escaped no better, and we passed all night in delirious dreaming, unable to aid each other. It was a mad conversation. When I had an easier moment, and somewhat recovered my senses, I heard Joseph talking away in all languages, but not to me; when he had a lucid minute, then his case was mine, mine his. To-day we mutually joked each other, but a sorry jest it was, nor could we hide from each other our mutual fears for each other’s life. Two nights before I had been slightly delirious. What can courage or heart do without health or intellect? In the morning the Pascha sent the cavalry on to some wells that the Schaigies, with keen scent, had smelt out, not far off, behind the durra fields. Ere long, he, leaving camp and baggage without any covering force, set forward himself to have these wells opened, as they had been filled up. Again at mid-day, in the most fearful heat, came the order for the camp to follow him; but no one troubled their heads as to any regular order, or protective measures during its advance. My brother gazed in alarm on me, as, besides other bad symptoms, my tongue had become brown; we wound our long white shawls turbanlike round our heads, and placed our hoods over them, as some protection against the sun’s scorching rays. We rode almost an hour in a track running through immense fields of exceedingly high durra, here and there intersected by rows of trees; the soil all along seemed exceedingly good, and everywhere the Arabs had most neatly led runs for irrigation. On arriving in camp, we found some dozen wells had been cleared out, and for each so cleared, the soldiers won fifty paras; but now all were in full work, forming with trees and thorns an inclosure round the camp. Mohammed Ladjam sent us a curious scorpion,—pity it was so much injured; it was almost two fingers in length, black-brown in colour, tail and feet covered with thorn-like hairs, and nippers as large as those of a small crab. The Pascha stated that he had seen one in Hedschas, though somewhat less, with a double sting.

Axes were issued out to the troops, but such axes!—one finger’s length long, and two broad! It is certainly a most amusing scene to watch a Turkish camp being pitched. All run against and through each other, men, camels, horses, asses, all mixed and mingling, each chooses out the spot that suits him best, there plants himself and beast, without the slightest heed being paid to forming divisions or leaving passages. We threw ourselves down under a green tree near a cotton plantation, while our servants unloaded our camels, pitched our tent, &c., and from under our carpets, over my legs and my brother’s face, out hurried and made off, a snake some six feet long. Astonished we indeed were, but too wearied to move, and remained calmly reposing, though ere long the very same snake, having been killed by the attendants of the Sheik Defalla, was brought back to us. After a time one becomes careless as to scorpions and other such reptiles. The Pascha had also hit on a shady tree, but had not allowed his tent to be set up, which led me to fancy he expected an attack, when his tent would have pointed out his whereabouts to the foe. About evening we struck our own, and for the same wise reasons as had prevented the Pascha’s being erected. But the tent of the Kaimakan Sorop Effendi had to remain up, to pass, in the enemy’s eye, for the Pascha’s, although it was not fifty paces from the tree under which the latter had settled himself.

13th April.—The country where we now are, is called El Gash, from the Gohr of like name; the nearest village is one named Aronga. All over our camping ground are now built bower-like huts, of branches and fresh green durra straw; these, called Recubas, are far cooler and pleasanter than tents. From the hut of our herculean neighbour, Mohammed Defalla, crept about mid-day, a snake like that of yesterday: it was, too, soon killed, and measured six feet two inches; they called it an assala (Python Sebæ); about the same hour came into camp, with six hundred dromedaries and seventy horses, Abu Sin, the great Sheik of the Schukurie. The Pascha had gone out to meet him, with all the cavalry and regimental bands. Abu Sin is a handsome large man, with noble countenance, and his character is described by all as vigorous, able, and generous.

14th April.—It is certainly, as usual, excessively warm, but the air here seems better and purer than at any of our former camping places; the same may also be said of the water, which, though drank in large quantities, has no ill effect. Serpents are brought us daily, but generally so much injured as not to be fit for stuffing. After much negotiation, there arrived to-day the much talked of and feared great Sheik, Mohammed Din, with a pretty numerous train, and dismounted at the hut of our neighbour, Sheik Defalla, who had ridden out to meet him on his great war horse. Greatly was our curiosity aroused to behold this so famed man, the defeater of the Turks under Churschid Pascha; but far greater was that of the soldiery, who, with unblushing boldness, pressed into the tents, although most assuredly, ere now, many of them had trembled before him. All were satisfied, and went away from gazing at him gladdened and rejoicing. Mohammed Din is of middle size, black-brown like all his race; at first sight his face says little, but more closely examined, one sees in it much cunning; his head, bald on the crown, is uncovered, his dress Arab, but his trowsers of fine red cloth. The Pascha well sees the importance of the moment, and excuses himself from receiving him under plea of illness, but appoints this morning for an audience. The train of Mohammed Din most truly consists of a parcel of most unmitigated looking rascals, and it really does seem as if nature had stamped on the faces of these Haddenda the faithless character ascribed by all to the race. All are above the middle size, and armed with shields and lance or sword.

15th April.—This morning we beheld the Effendina sitting on the throne of his angareb, while on both sides of it stood on the ground, in solemn silence, many Sheiks, and among them the great Mohammed Din, who seemed in deep thought, and gazed as if much humbled on the earth before him. Much cause he has indeed to muse, to reflect on his venturous step, for he has walked into the net, a lion in the toils, and our friend the Pascha seemed resolved to let him feel it was so; only after a time did he present him with the dress of honour, a red shawl and tarboosch as turban, an under dress, and purple mantle with gold buttons and tassels, but the sabre that generally accompanies the dress was not given, and this is held as a bad sign. Mohammed Din promised to send presents of cows and sheep to the camp, and next day rode away with his followers. A number of snakes were this day slain, many soldiers having been bitten by such reptiles. In spite of the friendship entered into with Mohammed Din, the Haddenda still hover round the camp stealing the camels.

17th April.—Mohammed Din has arrived with a present of two hundred cattle and two hundred sheep. All pots and pans are sought out with smiling faces, although the great men have appropriated the lion’s share of the prey to themselves. Mussa, the twelve year old son of Mohammed Din, paid us a visit in our recuba; he has a negro cast of features, wore heavy gold rings in his ears, and coloured silk trowsers. He showed no curiosity, nor did his mental faculties seem to have been cultivated; he could not talk Arabic, only his own Aggem. A great stretch of the woods is on fire, how or why no one knows, such things are matters of indifference to the Turks.

19th April.—To-night it has rained, a curious occurrence here at this season of the year; from this the air is somewhat cooler, the breeze for the first time refreshing. Mohammed Din has again departed to bring in a part of the tribute laid on his tribe; he wore the same dress as at first, with the white handkerchief the Pascha had given him as sign of pardon, tied round his neck. Poor man! what will this sign of peace avail you? Melek Mammud accompanies him with his Schaigies. He took a mysterious farewell of us, inviting us to visit him, and become acquainted with yonder country. This daring leader of Schaigies seems to have received some secret instructions as regards Mohammed Din, but how far his men may follow them seems doubtful, as they are all for war and nothing else.

22nd April.—Mohammed Din has again returned, but tulba, (tribute) he has brought none; so to-day all the Sheiks have been warned, that only one month’s time will be allowed for them to bring in their contributions, and in that time it must unfailingly be done. We, brothers, are in the meantime laid daily under contributions by these Arabs, for their much loved aragi (properly araki, from arak, sweet, a kind of brandy made from lees of wine or from rice). Not a little were we at first astonished at their coolness, nay, barefaced impudence, in their asking and begging for all that pleased them, while it never occurs to any one of them to make the slightest return on their side, and any little courtesy these men do deign to display, is only when they hope to gain a special advantage by it. My brother has long ere now attended professionally on many of the Sheiks, furnishing them with medicines from our own store, and now, in their own land, it is almost impossible to procure milk, honey, or even a fat sheep, though all of these they have in abundance. To-day we have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the great Sheik (Sheik Kebir), of the tribe of Beni-Amer, between Habesch, the Red Sea, and the country of the Haddenda; but he must pardon us if we style him Pecus campi, and express our surprise how he can be held in any respect or estimation whatever, even by his own race. He is great, powerful, rich in camels, horses, cattle; in constant barter-trading with Habesch, and therefore has to pay a heavy tribute. The uncle of the Scheik, a very aged man, is of true herculean figure, but rather stout. My brother cured him of a disease in the leg, and, as his fee, had also to give him some bottles of aragi. He is still, though very old, with white hair and limping, a wild fellow, and an old lance is never out of his hand. If by chance he has drunk too much aragi or merissa, no very rare occurrence and sees a handsome horse or camel (in his own land), he at once asks for it, and if the Arab owner does not immediately comply, away goes the old lance through him. For his ferocity and strength all fear him; these, and his colossal figure, such as is seldom seen in this land, have gained him the name of Fill (Elephant).

It is singular, that with the strong bodies that both Negroes and Arabs here possess, none have any calves to their legs—neither man, nor woman. In the Negresses especially, as also in most of the women of Bellad-Sudan, the posteriors and thighs are much developed, but the under part of the legs are like sticks. None can boast of finer arms than these races, the women’s full and round, with well-turned elbows, and small delicate hands, the men’s strong and muscular, the breast high and arched. Truly beautiful are the bosoms of the young maidens, and of the women who have not yet borne children; small and most symmetrical in form, hard as stone to the touch, the nipples generally pointing outwards, and in such an erect state, that not rarely the firda is worn through in front by them. But, alas! alas! for these beautiful bosoms after a single child-birth! During child-bearing these are swollen, often to double their former size, and after the child has been long suckled, or at the end of that business, one sees on the youngest and prettiest wives, long empty breasts hanging down to the belly, which, from their smoothness, limpness, and many folds, resemble two long empty tobacco pouches, or, if one likes it better, two pieces of skin laid flat on each other. These repulsive looking bags they always leave bare and exposed to view, without the slightest blush, and it seems that here men’s ideas of beauty in a woman do not depend at all on this part of the female form, but include all in her facultates occultæ. After the first child-bearing, the abdomen, before so delicately arched, is disfigured by knobs and wrinkles, to an extent that as far as my brother’s medical experience went, he had never known common among white women; and this appearance among the women of these races, plainly declared, that they marry and bear children ere their bodies are fully matured. Nothing arrives at such sound maturity in these warm climes, where all develops itself so infinitely quicker than in cooler lands, and this rapid development, especially during child-bearing,—an epoch of evolution, which even with our matured women forces the body into all fulness of bloom,—works doubly injuriously on these half-matured girl-mothers. Nature and bodily power have both been overtasked; then comes the long suckling, the exclusive conversion of the small supply of nourishment to the use of the child, at the expense of the mother’s body, which afterwards cannot recover its exhausted powers, or gather sufficient strength to return to its former state. The extension of the skin and enlargement of the vessels are too sudden and rapid for the diminished powers of contraction to bring them back to a normal state; and herein lies, aided by the ever bad food, the continued consumption of vital power, which evidently, in every warm climate, produces that rapid advent of old age and ugliness among the women, as is only too plainly the case, even among the boasted beauties of Greece and Circassia.

As an exception, and perhaps from a feeling of good neighbourhood, the Sheik Defalla sent us to-day some sweet milk, but it had already been drawn some two hours, was firm, and in this state tasted well here, though it had neither the slight sourness, refreshing flavour, nor slight coating of cream, like our fresh milk, but a much sweeter taste. So rapidly and inexplicably does each change of health and body go on here, that at noon to-day both myself and brother were well again, and eat with excellent appetites; but after a short siesta which we took (when our meal was over), I awoke with strong fever, without being able in the most distant way to account for it. The great difference of temperature between day and night has, however, brought catarrhs and coughs on one-half the inmates of our camp, although it has hardly gone so far as to reach ague or intermittent fevers in any; but, on the other hand, syphilis prevails among the soldiers, as is most commonly the case. The Pascha to-day told us that in a weak battalion at Wollet Medine, 250 men suffered under this disease. Our cavalry, as well as the Schaigies and artillery, are ill off when sickness attacks any of them, as they have neither surgeon, medicine, nor hospital; and when my brother cannot prevail upon himself to leave them totally without medicine, he is compelled to prescribe it as if for some man of the infantry. The medicines for such stranger Sheiks as fall ill, are charged to the Pascha’s account. He has now at length finally settled with these Sheiks their tulba or contributions, and they to-day all set out, to proceed to their countries beyond the Beni Amer, to collect it. Some take small guards of twenty or thirty soldiers with them, thus to give more weight in their own lands to their demands, as there hatred against the Turks is united to Arab innate greed and avarice. Some few single Arabs still prowl about our camp, and it is therefore dangerous to send out the camels to feed, as they steal the beasts, or take them by violence from their keepers, when the latter are asleep or alone.

There have already been many establishments set up for the sale of merissa; the blacks seem totally unable to exist without this noble drink, or perhaps they would, by copious libations of it, repay their throats for swallowing the horrible mixtures which, during illness, the field apothecaries force them to take under the name of medicines. It is most scandalous to see how the Egyptian druggists, without exception, cheat government. Not only do they embezzle all linen furnished for hospital uses, to dress their own servants out with it, but they themselves use all the sugar intended for the sick, sell the medicines clandestinely, and have carried this so far with the here so all-necessary quinine and spiritus wucher, as to have none left, and now do not blush to manufacture false trash to issue in their stead. Ill it must go with them if any change of rule in Egypt causes a sharper eye to be kept on their doings; and among all of them in the Egyptian employ, there are not three who could pass the slightest medical examination of any European College of Surgeons. And where is the wonder it is so, as they are mostly a kind of wholesale, sham production, from the manufactory of Mr. Clot Bey, who, as Chef du conseil général de santé, can, in three months under him in Cairo, form out of common artisans skilful medical men, as was the case of the apothecary under my brother, who had before been a working goldsmith in Cairo; and of another of these medicos, whom I had known before as an honest knight of the thimble. As a matter of course, such men as these were ever going wrong and committing the most fearful blunders; but as for money-making, “per fas et nefas,” they were more expert, and follow ably the example set them by all the higher officials. Often did these gentry seek to make money in an allowed but most degrading way, and among others Gaetani Bey, the private surgeon of Mohammed Ali, who in Faszogl sold at enormous prices, with his own Bey’s hands, false pearls, large and small, to the negroes, and cheated them in the counting too. No one would credit the roguery and cheating that went on in the conseil général de santé itself, who was not well acquainted with the state of things in Egypt; but all formed themselves after the example of their great master, and from him down to the lowest employé of his department, runs a firmly-linked chain of like-minded and like-acting officials.

Already are the new branding-irons fabricated by Topschi Baschi, all in readiness to mark the expected contributions of camels, horses, cattle, cotton goods, &c.; and also two iron stars have been made—horrible barbarity!—for branding the new-made slaves. Our greatest plague is again the fearful heat, especially at noon and in the afternoon; one is ever in a constant sweat, even when sitting perfectly quiet, and everything is now wanting that could contribute to the commonest wants or enjoyments. Our Arabs are equally great admirers of tobacco as of onions, but in Taka there is as little of the one as the other, and not a single date is to be got, as here no date trees are known. Myself and brother would only too gladly advance farther into the country, and so become more closely acquainted with it, and its inhabitants, their manners, and way of life; but with one voice all counsel us, as we regard our own heads, to await a more suitable time. No great friendship does, in truth, seem to exist between the inmates of the camp and the natives, as never are any of the tribe of the Haddenda seen inside our fence, although these have retired no further into the Chaaba than some two hours’ journey from hence; but well do the measures of precaution, daily taken, show the light in which these people are viewed. Not only, every night, do the Turkish cavalry, Schaigies, and Magrabins bivouack outside the main camp and keep strict watch, but the infantry also place strong guards at the thorn bulwark, one half of this force being under arms before, the other after midnight. Most nights the Pascha himself goes, with his rabut, patrolling, and this, wielded by no light hand, plays all night, not on the soldiers’ backs alone, but on the officers also, when anything is found out of order. Doubtless, all this is most necessary, for leaders as well as soldiers are just the men to sleep all night long, and leave it to “Allah kerim” whether the enemy are to surprise them or not.

These bivouacks were not without their accidents. During one a Magrabin’s musket burst in his hands, and not only was the inside of one hand carried away, but part of the fore-arm shot off, and so lacerated, that most of the bones and sinews were laid bare and torn. As another surgeon wished to amputate at once, the Sheik Selim brought him to my brother: he put it to rights as far as he could, sewed up and plastered it, ordering constant cold bandagings, though he had little hopes of the lacerated parts uniting, as the accident happened yesterday, though the wounded man only came to him to-day at noon. When Joseph visited him this evening, no cold applications had been used; the patient fancied he must eat first, and as he had no food of his own, thought we might, perhaps, send him some;—a pleasant reward to my brother for all the pains he had already taken about him, and for which he had not received even a single word of thanks from any party.

A considerable number of the soldiers have been sent out to hasten the bringing in of the tribute, as in their presence each Scheik makes greater exertions, and it is possible they may pick up some knowledge of his country. We now at length discovered that each tribe under tulba pays 20 piastres each male (children not counted), and a tenth of all beasts and produce of all kinds. This tribute is not great, but still it will be heavily felt, and difficult to raise in those lands, where all trade is carried on by barter against cotton cloths. What taxes these tribes may have hereafter to pay, when the Turks find they have a firmer footing in the land, time will show.

After the Pascha had again to-day called his most devoted follower, the Major of Kordafan and Sennaar, an ass, complaining that everything fell on his own shoulders, he turned to me, and with much seeming satisfaction told me that the exploring expedition had returned from the White Nile, having traced that river for 600 miles upwards from Chartum. Now, this is either a great error or a great falsehood; nor can I resist the inclination I feel to investigate how far the Pascha’s favourite epithet may not apply to the leader of this expedition.

The chief commander of it, and general of its 400 soldiers, was Soliman Kaschef, of Karreri, a countryman and friend of the Pascha, who had sent him on this expedition to look after his interests, and have a special eye on Selim-Capitan, sent from Alexandria as chief leader. Men call Soliman Kaschef a good man, but though he may understand justly to allot and gather in the taxes of his district, still he is certainly no fit person to judge with accuracy of foreign countries and people, as regards their geographical position, cultivation, produce, industrious arts, and other such points, or to give them any hints how to better or increase them; nor is he fitted to observe if the Nile flows from a lake or hill, whether its course is east or west, &c. He has neither education, nor, as far as I know, inclination for such matters, and assuredly will ever have been thinking more of his harem at Karreri, and comfortable life there, than the aims of his journey; so the first plausible cause for a return will have been the pleasantest of all occurrences to him.

As admiral of the exploring fleet went the already-named short and well-fed Selim-Capitan, of Candia, a better judge of the qualities of young slaves than of navigation; and even only so far qualified and equipped for his office as one would expect from a proud, arrogant Mussulman. In one word, he is a perfect specimen of an Egyptian man-of-war captain. Such a one would not even admit of the idea of laying down a degree of latitude or longitude, to determine the position of a country, or the course of a river. [This however proved, as often happens in this world, a hastily formed opinion which I had entered in my journal, possibly from vexation at being prevented by sickness from personally taking part in the expedition, and partly because I could perceive no scientific knowledge about him; but I must now bear testimony, on the contrary, to his ability as a practical navigator, of which I had full proof during my later expedition on the White Nile, and in my account of that voyage I have already done so.] Besides, he is a man of mean, avaricious habits. The Soliman Kaschef is a liberal person, a quality that, well used, may do much in these exploring expeditions. The vice-admiral, by name Feizulla Capitan, is a man of good character, but, like the others, most remarkable merely from his ignorance. He indeed had passed five years in England, receiving instructions in naval science, and such matters; but every one asserts he came home as wise as he went, though he has picked up a smattering of English, with which he manages to make a show on all occasions.

These three gentlemen were the chiefs of the exploring expedition; and being such as they were, who could expect that any one of them could be of any service in such an affair? and as their rank and authority was pretty equal, it could be as little looked for that they should work in unison, or do their best, bad though that might be, to carry out the aims of their enterprise.

Besides these, the others were Turks of ordinary life. But a special mention is due to that chief of adventurers, Monsieur Thibaut, who was selected as engineer to this expedition, by reason of his various capabilities and genius. Whether at this moment many cities dispute the honour of his birth, I cannot tell; but as far as my information goes, Paris is the honoured place of his nativity, and there he passed his younger days as one of her famed gamins, without acquiring further knowledge than to read and write, or troubling his head about more. When Greece strove to burst her bonds of slavery, his heroic heart beat for her, and for two whole years Greece had the pleasure of admiring his deeds, but then the misfortune of beholding him quit her soil for Egypt, and join the foes of Hellas. There, however, he rested on his laurels, scorning fresh ones, till he joined his compatriot Seves (the present Soliman Pascha in Syria) who was then in Assuan, where, and in the opposite island of Elephantina, he organized the two first regiments on the European system, and, as all must allow, did so zealously and well. There it pleased M. Thibaut to fall into serious meditations over Europe’s weal and woe, from which not even his best friend’s persuasions could arouse him, or prevail on him to embrace some more active career, as then every thing was open to Europeans, who had only to choose their own degrees, as doctors or apothecaries, professors or instructors, to have such allowed them in Egypt. But the philosophic Thibaut would have held it a disgrace to have resigned his valuable meditations for the duties of instructing and drilling recruits, so did not in any way trouble himself about an instructor’s office or the good pay attached to it; till at last Soliman Pascha lost all interest in a man’s affairs, who, as he said of himself, was without mind or energy, but who had in the meantime been brooding over another, though far less honourable plan, which he now put in force. He became commissioner to the great slave-dealer, Joseph Vaissère, a Frenchman of Languedoc, who with the “Croix d’honneur” (?) on his breast, parades the slaves’ bazaars, buying and selling these unfortunates; with him our philosopher journeyed to the Bellad-Sudan, the Gold-rich Land. But ere long he had bored himself enough with men and men’s affairs, so he now cast his eyes on the animal kingdom, of which, with other men’s money, he picked up some curious specimens, and so ere long we find him first in London, then at Paris, where he gained himself high fame as showman and proprietor of some living giraffes (saraf). His project of conveying a living hippopotamus to Europe failed, but he at least bore off in triumph with him the brute’s skin. In London he became acquainted with his present Dulcinea, Madame Sara, who had arrived in that capital with an English family, a slave from Kordofan, a most interesting person, and who, in addition, is the one with whom the Vice-Admiral Feizulla displays his accomplishments in English. It is said that in former years she had been most pretty, as far as a black can be so; of this, indeed, some remains may still be traced, though now good living, high indulgence in idleness and repose, have swollen out her once well shaped form to colossal dimensions, and repeated and full draughts of darling merissa, it is whispered, have aided much in this. Mrs. Sara had picked up some property, reason sufficient that Mons. Thibaut should pick up her, and with her and her money return to Chartum, where he again set up his staff, and lived comfortably enough on his wife’s means, till the Frigate-Capitan Achmet (a Swiss named Baumgarten) was sent to examine closely the White Nile, and took our friend, then Chawagi Ibrahim, with him. Achmet Capitan died after fulfilling his task, but during his dying moments no one was near him save Thibaut and Dr. Soliman Effendi,—a singular loneliness, more remarkable as many matters belonging to the dead man were missing, as books, maps, charts, manuscripts, and some instruments; but it is possible these had been given away. Baumgarten had employed Ibrahim, at the recommendation of Achmet Pascha; and Ibrahim, by what means I know not, got himself recommended to Mehmet Ali, then in Bellad-Sudan. In short, all of a sudden, Mons. Thibaut was named engineer to the expedition, with 1000 piastres a month, and travelled on in full security under the guidance of Baumgarten’s notes, maps, papers, instruments, &c. The instruments, however, must have had an easy time of it with him, as our hero had not the smallest idea of their scientific uses, nor even of how to handle them, nor would he learn. So what could be hoped for from him? Nothing but the journal, notes, and charts, of Achmet-Capitan, altered and garbled, with favourite places and races set down where fancy dictated, and others that did not please struck out.

Lies,—adventures,—wonders,—were there in over abundance; such as the 600 miles of course surveyed, as the Pascha told us. The expedition was five months out; allow them three consumed in upward progress, and two for returning, thus to arrive at the 600 miles, seven miles a day must have been for three months the advance; a thing utterly impossible, taking into consideration ignorance of the river’s channel, the long and large shallow reaches—so many of which are to be seen in the White River—the knowing nothing of the languages of the countries, the halts necessary to make inquiries, and the still more necessary ones to procure provisions; then the total indifference of the Turks to all pushing on, or discoveries of any kind; and, finally, the disunion of the leaders among themselves;—all these considered, I say, made such progress impossible; and, were these not enough, the heavy-laden state of their vessels of itself made the thing impracticable.

But, be the 600 miles’ survey as it may, this much is only too certain,—that the hopes raised in all Europe as to the results of this expedition will be as little satisfied, as science or knowledge will be advanced by it.[10]

Mohammed Din has again visited the camp, and the Pascha has announced to him, that he must remain a hostage here till the tribute is paid, and probably also to answer for the lives of the thirty soldiers sent into his country. However, it seems to have occurred to the Pascha, that it was more than probable that the great Sheik’s absence from his own tribe might cause matters to go totally wrong, as he has again dismissed him to his people; but, as hostage in his stead, his only son Mussa has been placed under Mohammed Defalla’s care and guard.

We have now, in the early mornings, a good many clouds (Nedde), and tolerably cool air. At night the breeze is actually cold. The soldiers suffer much on night guards from this, as also from their bad food, which for long has been nothing but Belila. That the white soldiers from Syria and Egypt hold out far better against fatigues and heat than the blacks, is remarkable, as these latter should be far more accustomed and used to the heat.

The medical lessons and occupations of my brother have begun to attract much of my attention, and he has promised to keep a medical journal; but he must first get himself well, as he ever returns from his medical duties perfectly disgusted, complaining of the insufferable stench arising from the patients, and, worn out, falls back in perfect apathy on his cushions, with sunken head; sleeps with his eyes open,—often seeming to me as if something unnatural had come over him. So gets on my Joseph as doctor!

Later, when I had joined the expedition up the White Nile, he wrote me from the camp of Kassela-el-Lus to Chartum, that he had compiled a stout volume on African diseases, but was inconsolable at having lost all his labours. Ten days’ dangerous illness, during which he sadly missed me, had rendered him delirious; during the time he was in this state, on his servant’s asking him for some paper to light a fire with, he had given him his manuscript journal, and the stupid blockhead had used it for such mean purposes. In the same letter he bewailed the loss of our small menagerie, all of which had been starved to death. Topschi Baschi had, at the Pascha’s order, who had visited and beheld the state my brother was in, taken charge of his money that it might not be stolen, and issued to the servants the necessary coin for Joseph’s expenses, as also that needed to purchase food for the animals, which latter money they had spent in Merissa. Joseph, on being a very little better, opened the Fagged (a species of lynx), that had held out longest, having just then expired, and perfectly convinced himself that starvation alone had caused its death. The annoying vexations one suffers from these servants is beyond belief; and even the gentlest and mildest of men, like my brother, are compelled to do violence to their feelings, and have recourse to the Kurbash (hide whip).

The blacks in large numbers are suffering fearfully from the heat of the sun. They complain of horribly torturing heat, and burning in the head, and over the whole body; of such relaxation and weakness in the limbs, especially the legs, as not to be able to walk, and hardly to move them; the pulse is much quickened, at times hard, but never full. They are generally, after a few days, restored to health by bleeding, and cupping in the neck; but a bad case it ever is, when a negro becomes seriously ill, or is attacked by dysentery, for seldom does he survive it. Still, as before, one half of the army suffer from catarrh. Considering how we are situated, fever is rare; and only in very few cases does it reach stadium frigoris; but then, the hot fit, with violent headache, and often gastric complication, is all the longer and more severe. As yet we have had no deaths from fever alone, violent though in many cases its attacks have been. Diseases of the eyes have been rare if one does not regard as such a kind of œdema of the eyelids, which often goes so far as to prevent the sufferer opening even a hair’s breadth, the rima palpebræ. Often, in one day, six or eight sufferers under this, come to us; the reason they give for it is, they have been cutting durra, and must have rubbed their eyes with their hands, and some hurtful herb been among the durra. But as the conjunctiva balbi et palpebræ, as well as the pupil of the eyes, are wholly uninjured, Joseph doubts much that it is the effect of any blistering or deleterious substance. Probably the cause is cold. The men are highly heated by day while cutting durra, and then exposed to cold on night duties, without a sufficient covering for the head; for it is at these times, by their own showing, that the evil commences.

To-day the Sheik of the Beni-Amer, with his elephant uncle, left us for his three days’ distant home, to bring in his Tulba. Hassan Effendi, of Chartum, accompanied him with his soldiers, and also Melek Aat and his Schaigies. Our hunter Abdallah goes with this party, to shoot, and collect specimens for our collection. His Mentor is an old Schaigie named Hami, who is answerable to us for Abdallah with his head. Mohammed Defalla may once more rejoice in being master in his own tent, as this heretofore has been ever filled with these Sheiks and their attendants, so that he could call no part of it his own; besides, on him fell the heavy burden of providing for all these people. If a stranger arrives, and asks the Pascha where he is to lodge, the reply, without a moment’s consideration, is, “Go to Defalla!” Unalarmed at his thus ever increasing expenses, the good-natured Defalla, into whose head the idea of repayment never enters, replies, “Taib (Well, good) Effendina!” and has another guest. Our fat friend comes daily to our tent for his cough mixture, i.e. a beaker of strong punch, after swallowing which he never fails to remark that his Battè (paunch) feels much better. This Battè of his is much in his way when he would kneel to say his prayers; so he now holds it wiser to sit quietly down on his hinder end. For our bodily refreshment he often regales us with Kuschab, a kind of mead made with dripped honey, water, and much pepper; by no means unpleasant to the taste, and slightly intoxicating. We received to-day, as a present from the leader of the Magrabins, Mohammed Ladham, of Tripolis, the skin of an antelope (Ariel) as large as an ass, with legs like those of a cow; on the back and sides it is bright brown, white under the belly, greyish on the sides of the head and under the eyes; over the forehead and nose runs a broad brown stripe, and the horns are black, twisted, rising upwards from behind, and turning away from each other at the points. It is a pity that the hide is completely severed across at the throat, to let out the blood; the custom of the Mussulmen in killing all beasts and birds, for so it is ordered in the Koran—the beast must be living, and the flesh (debieg—with the Jews, Koscher) quivering, when this cut is made. In general, a Mussulman, immediately after firing at any animal, exclaims, “Bismillah!” to propitiate Allah, as the chase is strictly forbidden by the Prophet, save under peculiar circumstances.

To tempt into the camp the Arabs round, not one of whom is hardly ever seen inside our fence, the merchants accompanying the army have been permitted to form a bazaar outside the palisades, and there by day expose their wares for sale. The most favourite articles for sale are small mirrors or looking-glasses (Marrai, or Mirroa, from the French, Miroir); these are offered cheap, and must be highly pleasing to the Arabs here, as they will sit the whole day gazing into them, and even the eldest among them seem never to weary of this unrelaxing admiration of their own reflections. As a variety, every now and then a camel, horse, or ass of ours is carried off by these gentry. Not very long ago a Soggilab stole a horse of one of the Schaigies, and bringing him up close to the camp, killed the beast with many stabs of his knife; thus displaying the deep innate hatred of these people to their oppressors. And this would be most assuredly proved to us in a very different manner, were it not that the Pascha has concentrated so large a force as to overawe them; and so many being armed with firearms, of which the natives’ dread is almost childish. Even at present they show how deep their hate is, by not one ever bringing us the smallest article for sale, flesh, milk, honey, &c.—we can get none, no, not by an offer of ten times its value. Then, from their repeated refusals of money, it seems probable, all trade among themselves is by barter; coin they certainly have none. How under such circumstances the Pascha will get in the tribute, and in the short space of thirty days, is to us incomprehensible. It is true, that at a village some hours’ journey from hence, the present abode of Mohammed Din, a considerable number of cattle have been collected; but it is equally certain that far greater numbers are held in concealment, and in this way the tithe of both beasts and goods will be much reduced. That the number of men will also be in some similar manner made appear much less than the real number, and so diminish the head tax, is also not to be doubted. And who, save a Turk, could blame the people for doing so, as it is only what self-interest teaches?

The lot of the oppressed and enslaved is pitiable enough in its best view; but doubly enraged must every right-minded man be when he sees how inhumanly even Europeans allow themselves to act towards the unfortunates who have the ill fate of being their slaves. Thus the tender-hearted apothecary Dumont blushes not constantly to vent his uncalled-for passion in the most savage manner by kurbasch, fist, or foot on his little slave Amber, though the poor lad does more than all his other servants—but then the slave cannot defend himself! Often have we before now left this brute’s presence not to be spectators of his savage cruelties, but he seems determined to persist in these in spite of all our remonstrances. I have, however, at last informed him that I will call him to an account with my sabre if he does not desist, and also have threatened him that we will take Amber away from him, give him letters of manumission, and employ him as our servant, as he (Dumont) being an European and Frenchman has no right to possess a slave; and this we have already done in the cases of some ill-used slaves of Europeans in Chartum, and in these acts the Pascha ever supported us. Unfortunately, he is not the only Frank here who acts thus tyrannically; nor can I refrain from mentioning by name another, the Frenchman Vigoureux, an old corporal of Napoleon’s, at present living at Kordofan, who is also guilty of even worse cruelties. That his manner and habits have not lost their old corporal’s tinge is no fair charge against him, but it is a nameless disgrace to him that his newly-imported Parisian wife should be allowed to exercise on her female slaves the cruelties of all sorts she too often is guilty of. While in Chartum, my brother, one day at noon, during its fearful heat, saw this man’s small ten-year old female slave Nimra bound perfectly naked to a post, so that her body, all marked with bloody wheals and clotted, drying, and bleeding cuts, was exposed to the sun’s glowing rays, without her having the power of moving it. On his demanding the cause, madame and monsieur smilingly replied, that the little girl had not done something exactly as this Xantippe had ordered, and that he, this old soldier of the empire, had with his own hand flogged and cut the wretched girl with a kurbasch, till wearied out he had, to make the punishment complete, thus bound and exposed her to the sun’s beams, that the cuts might smart the longer; nor would these worthies consent even now to put an end to their barbarities, and madame most particularly showed her total ignorance of mercy. Pity such a woman should boast European blood! My brother came home, when I soon remarked something unpleasant had befallen him, and set about questioning him. “If you will promise to keep cool,” he said, and told me the story; but no remonstrance was of any use; I was already dressed and soon on my legs; so buckling on my sword, and taking up my 10½ lb. iron staff, well known in Chartum, and from which I was nicknamed Abu Nabut (the father of the stick), I set off at a pace that soon left my brother behind, who followed, fearing some mischance. Over the low but bolted court-door I beheld the poor girl, and, as I was afterwards told, shouted in furious tones for Vigoureux; but he, though in all haste, held it advisable to unbind the girl ere he admitted me. At first I was furious, but he called his wife to the rescue, and as her interference prevented my punishing him on the spot, I grew calmer, and at last cooled down. He, after this, told me, as he had done before, of a curious escape he had made when in former days pursued by our black hussars, by bending down over his horse’s neck while urging him to his utmost speed; he had to thank his carbine, slung across his back, that he was not sliced into ribbons.

This ci-devant corporal of the Grand Army has now been sixteen years in Egypt, having arrived in those times when all Franks were appointed, at their own choice, to high offices and good pay. Himself a soldier, he soon obtained the office of instructor to a regiment, with a salary of four purses (2000 piastres) a month, and 1000 for clothing or equipment. During his stay in Hedjas, and by his gold and slave dealings in Kordofan (where he passed his time, his gold scales in one hand, a brandy bottle in the other, and his female slaves dancing before him), he saved some 12,000 dollars,—all the more easily done as he spent little on himself, his habits being low and mean, and he being well skilled in the art of living on others. With the Pascha’s leave he then went to France, returning with soldier-like punctuality at the expiry of his year’s leave, in company of his noble-minded wife, who was to serve him as a companion and stay during his old age. But that no very high age will be his, is visible in his premature decay, and continued ailings, nor is the unhealthy climate of Kordofan in his favour, to which land, and to his ruin, his love of gold has again decoyed him; and his stay, who is far more ill and crazy than himself, is also sinking under the load of cotton wherewith she burdens herself to supply those beauties of form nature has denied her. Churschid Pascha, the predecessor of Achmet, had brought with him from Cairo a carriage, in pieces, so as to pack on camels’ backs, the ruins of which Achmet made a present of to Vigoureux, who, aided by a carpenter, converted them into a cabriolet. Into this he stuck his riding-horse, and, aided by two slaves who led it, drove in great state past our house in Chartum. He drank a glass of rum we offered him, and congratulated himself on the numbers who had admired him and his turnout. Soon after, however, one of our servants informed us that the wheel had passed over one of his slaves, and broke the man’s upper thigh bone, forcing it through the flesh. Vigoureux himself said he had expected something of the kind, and that the dog might die, as he had already paid too much for him. My brother promised to cure the slave for nothing, if he would give him his liberty. He was healed and supported all along and for a time after the cure at our expense; all at once, however, he vanished, and it was only some time after we learned that Monsieur the Corporal, in spite of all his promises, had laid hands on him and packed him off to Kordofan, to work in his garden.

Between this man and his wife existed a singular unanimity of feelings. Both were alike miserly, which was plainly enough written on their faces, and when at home kept most wretched commons. Both, too, gladly accepted any invitation, and in real gormandizing style devoured all food set before them. Neither ever thought it necessary to offer any return, but excused themselves under the plea of having no cook; but this would not go down with ourselves and others. But too much of persons of whom we know not one good trait, and who will find no pity from any one when the punishment justly due to their barbarity and fearful greed of money falls on them. Once, however, we did feel pity for the lady, as she told us this history. She was already in the family-way when she and her husband reached Cairo. Though advised by all to leave his wife there for her confinement, he was barbarian enough to drag her, well veiled and with black gloves on, to make the camel drivers believe she was a black woman, across the desert; and during the journey she one afternoon, under a glowing sun, on a camel’s back, gave birth to a male child, that instantly expired. No halt could be thought of in the desert, and the half-dead woman went on to Chartum, where she first obtained medical aid. Often has she begged of me to prevail on the Pascha at once to give her husband his discharge, as she was still so young, and longed so much again to behold la belle France; but Vigoureux would neither ask nor hear of discharge, so I did not interfere, as I might have incurred the blame of being an intriguer. On my return from the White Nile, and when in Chartum, I received a letter from her from Kordofan, in which, in language of despair, she described to me her situation, told me her husband was now always laid up, and praying me to recover some part of the arrears due to him. I, therefore, on asking the Pascha for these arrears, did not hesitate to tell him, that to keep such a man in his pay any longer was merely throwing away money, as he could no longer serve him. The Pascha’s reply was, “I know that, but he can die!” i.e. then all arrears will be paid, too. I told him of the lady’s sad state; he only quietly smiled. On my journey back to Egypt, I found the two at Dongola; he was free—was really discharged. They had been more than a month resting there, and indulging in an immoderate consumption of grapes, which regimen had had such an excellent effect on both, that I hardly again recognised Madame Vigoureux in the amiable and affectionate wife of her already in secret despaired of old corporal.

CHAP. V.

A Pilgrim Town. — Nimr the Tiger. — Character of the French. — Blood Feud. — Excursion from the Camp. — Arab Infants. — Medical Advice. — El Soffre. — Interview with Mohammed Din.

1st May.—How often have the Germans sung the praise of lovely May! But here all is hot, brown, and scorched; and day by day these horrors increase; our wines and spirits are dwindled away under this heat to two bottles of Geisenheimer, which certainly will not be too liberally sacrificed. All is quiet, as before. We remain here awaiting the Tulba, and while doing so seek amusement in converting our straw huts into large mansions, as no one now can exist under a tent. At times it thunders, a sign the rainy season is within a month or two, and no very pleasant look-out. Yesterday evening, when with us, Topschi Baschi perpetrated the bad joke, after sundry glasses of araki, of sending his Mameluke to fetch to our Recuba the dancing girls (Guawasi), who are also the women of the camp; nor did he trouble himself that, it being evening and the hut lighted up, it could be seen into from all sides. Ere long we beheld two brown nymphs enter, who would have entertained us with dancing and moving songs; these, though lost on us, gave him such exquisite delight, and put him into such boisterous spirits, that he commenced a series of personal jokes with the frail ones, thus in his turn affording amusement to the Arabs and soldiers gazing in at the door and other openings. That an European officer of like rank (major) would, for a moment, think of thus joking in public with such women no one will suppose; but Topschi Paschi had, doubtless, intended amusing and affording us pleasure by calling these young dames to our tent, as he afterwards insisted on paying them himself. Moral, and truly Turkish! In Chartum no feast, public or private, is considered complete if these women are not present to dance and sing, and there the almost naked Bajazzo (procurers) never fail to carry on the lewdest jokes with them. Any day one may see even the most respected Turks talking with these girls in the bazaars, as also with well-known procuresses; standing and doing this before the coffee-houses where these girls principally resort; and no one looks on it as improper, or any breach of decorum. In Cairo and Alexandria these dancing girls are forbidden even to practise their public trade, and all procuresses and brothels strictly forbidden; and most roughly, indeed, are any young Arab girls there handled, who may be caught in any such practices, or in houses of ill-fame—floggings, imprisonments, banishment—nay, even being drowned in a sack with a cat—are the punishments for such doings.

To-day the Schukurie and Haddenda Arabs have had a slight quarrel, during the fetching in of the durra-stalks, much to the Pascha’s annoyance; but some well-administered bastinadoing brought all again into political equipoise. These two tribes dwell next to each other, and are at continual feud, on account of mutual robberies. The Schukurie and Kabbabee Arabs, on the left bank of the Nile, and on the White River, are held to be the most numerous, powerful, as well as the most rich in herds, of all the tribes of Bellad-Sudan, and are only equalled in these points by the Beni-Amer tribe, that extends up to the Abyssinian frontiers. The small country, also on those frontiers, and called Kalabat, with its little town (Helle), is curious from being solely inhabited by black or negro pilgrims (the Tokruri) from Darfur and the neighbouring lands, who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. A number of these settled down in Kalabat, who had either fled out of their own country, or, from its being very distant, did not desire to revisit it, and their numbers were increased more and more by other pilgrims, who here meeting with friends and relations, settled down among them. But notwithstanding their holy journey, their prayers in the Chubba at Mecca, and on the prophet’s grave at Medina; in spite of their washings in the well Semsem,—which was called into existence by Allah, when Hagar and Ishmael, driven away by Abraham, were nearly perishing for want of water in the desert; in spite of all these high merits, the Tokruri are looked on as the worst and most faithless of men, a race that no one will or can trust. Under their lately-deceased Sheik Myri, who possessed more than ninety suits of chain armour (Labbis), and other equipments for man and horse, as also an equal number of strong Dongola steeds to mount his heavy-armed followers on, the Tokruri enjoyed a pretty considerable power, highly dangerous for their frontier neighbours, as they had also for warfare about a hundred muskets, a large number for these lands; but since Sheik Myri’s death, they have sadly declined in power and force.

Arabs are now and then at length seen in our bazaar, and various goods are brought in for sale, but the Arab sellers are yet very few. The Okka (2¾ lbs.) of beef costs twenty paras, about one penny farthing, and the same weight of mutton about double, or one piastre. A whole ox of the better kind could have formerly been bought here for fifty piastres, nine or ten shillings, and government (Bilik) gave forty. In general, the cattle are not large, but strong-built, with high withers and flanks, and large fat folds about the belly; the cows are larger, but not so comely to look on as the Swiss breed. The beef, from the better pasturage here, is far tenderer and better flavoured than in Sennaar, where it is generally tough and hard of digestion, trying both teeth and stomach.

Mussa, Mohammed Din’s young son, a sad and silent lad, who seems, while now a hostage in our camp, to pine for his home, paid us a visit to-day; but we unfortunately could do little to cheer or amuse him, as, from his ignorance of Arabic, all our intercourse had to be carried on by signs and gesticulations. When this lad waits on the Pascha, his short, curly, but not woolly hair is whitened with camel-fat; he is ever closely and carefully guarded, and never moves without an escort; but that this escort is furnished from Defalla’s followers, the Pascha having given that Sheik the special charge of the lad, surprises us, as Defalla has already given many causes for suspecting his fidelity, and both his own and father’s names are too often connected with that of Nimr (tiger). The Pascha wishes to send the lad to Cairo (this being the best thing for his country), to receive a Turkish education. May this education be better conducted than usual!

Mohammed Nimr, called Sedab by his own people, from the village in which he usually dwelt, was Melek of the Gallihn; or Djalin, a numerous, far-spreading Arab tribe, which chiefly frequented the eastern bank (Scherk) of the Nile and Blue River (Bachr asrek), from Abu Hammet to Abu Harrasch; many also of them were to be found on the western banks (Garb), in Metemma, Omdurman, &c. From him Ismail Pascha, son of the Viceroy of Egypt, demanded a monstrous tribute, to be paid in three days, treating, at the same time, this far and widely-respected Sheik with harshness and contempt, and went so far, it is said, as to strike him over the face with his pipe-stem, as he knelt asking some abatement of the tribute, or longer time to collect it. Nimr gasped for revenge. Under pretence of collecting fodder for the camels he had to contribute, he surrounded the residence of the Pascha in Schendy with durra-straw, and firing this at night, burnt it down, and with it Ismail and his attendants. At the same time, the father of our Defalla, Mohammed Adlan Defalla, Great Sheik of the Fungh, on the Gesira, murdered all the Turkish soldiers to be found in his countries. Soon after this, appeared in these lands the bloody Defterdar Bey, to bathe himself in the blood of the inhabitants of it, and especially in those of Schendy, which place and race he totally destroyed, and proceeded burning and slaying all that came in his way, men, women, and children, with such cruelty and barbarity, that men of the present day shudder as they relate his deeds. Melek Nimr, however, had, in the interim, escaped with the greater part of his tribe to the land of Raujahn, at the foot of the Abyssinian mountains, between the two small rivers Bassalahm and Settiet, which afterwards flow into the Atbara, and settled in the neighbourhood of Sofie. After a while the ever restless and discontented Gallihn joined him, some, however, remaining in Taka, and with them came the Angareb into this country, which, without any reference to the length of the person, is made as small and short as possible, so as to be the easier transported with the owners on the camels during their constant moving and shifting of residences and wandering journeys.

The now aged Nimr did not in his new country forget his old, so gave to the new villages he found names that reminded him of his old fatherland, as Schendy, Damer, &c. Every now and then he heads plundering forays against his neighbours the Schukuri, Beni-Amer, and others, carrying off their camels, cattle, and other possessions, while his many sons, principally borne him by his Abyssinian wife, a daughter of a Sultan, or Ras, of that land, are his constant guards and attendants. He is now in possession of many stands of fire-arms, and his troops are similar to the Schaigies, being mounted on camels or horses, and armed with muskets, pistols, swords, or lances. His followers, like his people, increase daily, for now, as at all times, numbers of the Djalin tribe are driven away from the banks of the Nile. This is the reason also why that land seems so ill peopled and badly cultivated, and displays so many Sagies in ruins; and perhaps more now than before, as the Pascha’s oppression in taxes, levies of recruits, &c., cause the people to fly in hundreds, most of whom join Nimr, as well as many more from Schendy, Damer, and other places, as with him they live in content and security. If a Turkish force prepares to take the field against him, he has instantly notice of it, either from some of his own widely-scattered tribe, from the people of the island, who, as is natural, have a better feeling towards him than towards their oppressors, or from his spies, and is then at once off with his people and possessions to the neighbouring Abyssinian mountains, which afford him secure shelter, and where, from his connection by marriage with many of their chiefs, as well through his friend Wood Auet, Sheik of the Dabaina-Arabs, he can be ably protected and supported. Besides, what can be won by warring on such races? Their only wealth, their herds, they ever drive away before them; their huts are of no consequence to them,—destroyed one day, they are rebuilt the next; means of existence in food and forage no enemy will find, and how, under such circumstances, can war be carried on or continued?

Mohammed Adan Defalla had also fled from the Gesira, and, according to report, died in Habesch. When his father cleared the island of the Turkish troops, our fat friend Defalla, though not then grown up, had done his best, slaying many of the enemy. Whether this, easily excusable from love of country and hatred of the foe, be now forgotten, or Achmet Pascha only pretends it is so, we know not, but at present he bestows on this man, his companion and auxiliary with 150 men in this Chasua, many marks of full confidence. But the other Turks see in Defalla a faithless, false man (Ragil batal, misaur), whose heart is as black (Kelbe assuet) as his face. Even the negro says of a man whom he would designate as false, that his heart is black.

The form of countenance of the Fungh does not seem to us to be so similar to that of the negro, as to that of the Barabra, although the skin is certainly much darker than that of the latter. They wear their hair long and loose, though some plait it into knots; their arms are small oval shields,—which they procure by barter from the Kabbabee Arabs, and these are made from the hide of the wild buffalo,—and the usual sword or lance. They are a strong, well-built race; are yet in considerable numbers located on the Gesira, between the Blue and White Nile, and though much mixed up with other tribes, are to be met with all the way from Damer to Gos Rajeb; they still possess their old pride of race and country, and do not wish to be looked on as genuine Arabs. Of a national language we found no trace; but after they were subdued by the Arabs, this may have vanished before that of the conquerors. As a matter of course, they have no love for the Arabs, and less for the Turks, who suck the very marrow from their bones; but their chiefs, who lately have been taking a greater interest in politics, than formerly, hope that, with a change of rule in Egypt, their own lot will also alter, as they are now better acquainted with the use of fire-arms, and they trust that the forcibly raised black regiments in the Turkish service, will, on the first opportunity, disband themselves, deserting their Turkish masters, and all connected or concerned with them. And this we fully believe. According to their own tale, the Fungh descend from races of inhabitants of the Defafonj of the lands of the Dinka and Schilluk, where yet their forefathers’ race may be found. [No such land is now known, but there is a hill of the name, an extinct volcano, in the land of the Dinka, about 11° N. lat., which I afterwards ascended. Had I followed my own ear I would have written the name Defafaungh, although the Funghs themselves pronounce their race’s name so feebly, that one might almost suppose Fonj with an hardly audible e or i was the correct pronunciation of it.] Near this hill live now no people of the name but the tribe of the Dinka, though in their traditions this hill plays so great a part, that it looks as if round and behind it had been the gathering of the whole race, which may have descended from the high lands along the Sabat, and, after delivering battle to the Arabs, poured down on or by the White Nile for 300 years into Sennaar, and there founded an empire. Burckhardt holds, that they had, as a savage race, burst down from the great mountain range. Six hours’ journey above Fazogl there is, among populous and large hills of the Tabi, (who can turn out 100,000 men able to bear arms, and have 500 villages, which the Turks have not, as yet, ventured to approach,) a hill of considerable size and many people, called Fungh; but it is not inhabited by the race of that name, but by the Hammeghs.

The chief country of these Hammeghs extends from the Blue Nile, above Sennaar, from Sero to Rossères, but they also have settlements higher up. The head Sheik was the old famed Soliman, whose name was held in the utmost reverence all over the Gesira, and a single word from whom was sufficient to set it all in uproar. He numbered some eighty or ninety years, had been in his youth a man of wondrous strength, and even in his old age this mummy, for he is nothing but skin and bone, still displays remarkable power. Scars cover his body over and over, the remains of fifty battles, before each of which, knight-like, he measured himself in single combat with the leader of the adverse force. The ability and sly wisdom with which he managed his own people, and also the Turks, is the more remarkable, as he was thus ever fighting and totally uneducated. His honesty, openness, and bold bearing, called forth like qualities in others; and his meeting with Mehmet Ali, when that ruler travelled, in 1838, into Sennaar, and summoned Soliman, as head Sheik, before him, was characteristic of both. It is well known, that the former Mudir of the Berbers, Abbas Aga, who by all kinds of ruinous imposts had gathered up large sums of money, was, by orders received from the highest authority, poisoned by a Copt, his secretary, and all his wealth seized on by government. This Copt, now the renegade Challill Effendi, was rewarded for the crime by being appointed Sheik of Metemma and Schendy! Formerly, this Abbas Aga had caused the Kalif of the Wells of Atmur (the desert between Korusko and Abu Hammet), who was very wealthy, to fall under the suspicion of the ruling powers, who without further to do, at once sentenced him to be hung, and drew in his riches, at least all of them that Abbas Aga had left. The brother of the latter, Soliman Aga, set out for Cairo, but was, at Atmur, set on by the Bischari Scheik, Barakan, brother of the murdered Kalif, and, along with nine of his companions, fell a sacrifice to the revenge of blood. Barakan seized on every thing save the dead man’s harem; this he allowed to go free, with all its property, and also all who had not raised weapons against him. He then, with his own large means, and 1000 purses he had spoiled the dead man of, fled on his way to the Red Sea, probably intending to take shelter in India; but, owing to his provisions falling short, he and his party lost time on their flight, and this enabled the Ababde Sheik Soliman to overtake him while resting on a hill two days’ journey from the Red Sea. After a desperate resistance, Barakan and seven of his followers were slain by Soliman, who afterwards brought his head to Chartum, where, after it had been publicly displayed in the streets by a crier, we were shocked to again behold it borne before Sheik Soliman, a sly and ever-smiling smooth-countenanced rascal, at his triumphal entrance into the Pascha’s divan; there, held up by the bloody hair, it was exposed to the latter’s inspection, who gazed on it with a truly bloodthirsty look. Some of the Bischari, tribe-fellows of Barakan, such as Sheik Mohammed, Issa of Elbe, on the Red Sea, &c. had united with Soliman in the pursuit of the fugitive, and they and their people, from their dexterity in slinging stones, had been the main cause of the victory. But what would not the treacherous Bischari do to gain the Pascha’s favour? Between Sheik Soliman and Barakan there were, on the contrary, old feuds and hatreds; as, in earlier days, the family of the former had had the charge of the wells, and the supply of camels, but had been deprived of these profitable resources by the family of the latter. To turn the tide in his own favour, and regain these privileges, was the aim of Soliman’s pursuit of Barakan, and in this he succeeded, for, on his return to Chartum, he was named Grand Sheik of the Wells, and presented with a dress and sabre of honour. During this pursuit he had followed Barakan for twelve days, without giving himself or dromedaries more than two hours’ rest during the whole time, or ever lying down to sleep! And still the Pascha was not satisfied; the man was dead, but where were his treasures?—for these are ever the main point—and Soliman had received the strictest orders to produce these also. We were in the divan when Barakan’s brother, the Kalif Hassan, took his leave to set out for Berber. The Pascha was violent, harsh, and rude towards this young man, and told him, in the plainest language, he would have the money, or it would go very ill with him (Hassan), as he knew well where this was to be found, and if he did not produce it, he would sell him and all his family to indemnify himself for the great loss. Such is Turkish justice—and enough of it.

A few days ago the Pascha issued orders that all fires in the camp should be extinguished at evening’s gun-fire,—a most wise and proper order, as the carelessness, and want of caution of the soldiery was now doubly dangerous, the huts having become much more inflammable, from the straw they are formed of being thoroughly dried; and at length it was found proper to collect all the supply of powder into one hut, dig round it a wet ditch, and surround all by a wooden fence, near which all fires were strictly forbidden. But now again there burns, not fifteen paces from this fence, one of the largest fires; nor is much watch kept over it, even in the windiest days, and of an evening, one sees fires in the camp as numerous and late as ever. So it is ever with the Turks. An order is issued, and no sooner is it so than it is forgotten, nor is it recalled to mind till some smart bastinadoing in consequence of some misfortune caused by the breach of it, thus forcibly awakens the memory. Carelessness and dependence on a merciful Providence are here equal, and go hand-in-hand. When on the Nile, we often fell in with vessels loaded with dried straw, and heaped so that the crew had barely room to work them, but this did not by any means prevent a roaring fire from being kept up between the piles of straw for cooking, and other purposes.

Every day the soldiers bring to myself and brother numbers of dead snakes, but, unfortunately, so mangled as to be useless as specimens; the soldiery not fancying we merely want the skins, but believing our wish to be the flesh to prepare medicines from. Some of the men have confidently assured us, that, in a thicket, they came on a snake some twenty-feet long, and as thick as a man’s thigh. A kind of boa, probably; pity they could not kill him. The great number of snakes hereabouts, almost all very venomous, make our living in the open air and on the ground very unsafe, and it is by no means a matter of indifference here under what bush, or among what long-grass one sits down: a loose stalk touched, or the bite of an insect, immediately calls up one’s fears that it is a snake or scorpion; and when out shooting we move with eyes bent on the ground, more anxiously looking out to prevent ourselves treading on any venomous reptile, than gazing about for our game. However, during such excursions, we have fallen in with many nebbek-trees; and, during the rainy season, the plants and herbage must be full and numerous, as even now there is much verdure, though the soil is covered with withered grasses and herbs. There are also many cotton plantations that seem to have been tended with care, all being hedged round and cleared of weeds. In this neighbourhood the durra grows to an astonishing height; on one field it had an average height of four or five times the length of our double rifles, and stood so close that it was with difficulty we could force our way between the stalks.

6th May.—Early this morning we mounted our dromedaries and, attended by a servant and guide furnished by Mohammed Defalla, took our way to (the two hours and a half distant) El Soffrè, where at present Mohammed Din and most of his people reside. The Pascha very reluctantly granted his permission; and it was in truth an adventurous enterprise, thus, without any protecting escort, to place oneself in the power of these faithless Haddenda. But we were safer all alone, than if accompanied by the few soldiers the Pascha offered us as escort. Our course was eastward: for the first half hour it lay through large durra fields, in which the heads of the grain were cut off from the tall stems, for it was free to any one in the camp to provide himself and beasts with as much of this as he pleased, these Arabs not having as yet shown any great inclination to follow the Pascha’s orders of forming a grain magazine, as they put no faith in his promises of payment for their trouble. The greater part has, or will be gathered by the Arabs, who hang about here in troops, and this is hidden by them in their secret stores, so as to render the stay of the army here impossible, for want of this necessary bread stuff. The Arabs (Haddenda) met us often when some little distance from our camp, and, at last, in large numbers; and the whole path from these durra fields to El Soffrè was one procession of people, camels, and asses laden with durra. Among the former were many crowds of women, but all old and ugly, who sweating under their loads, trotted behind the beasts, while the men, armed with lance and shield, rode or walked proudly and burdenless in rear of all. Most of the burden of labour seems here to fall on the women, and it is plain they hold no high place, as they are not allowed to anoint their hair. It was soon evident that large bodies of Arabs were assembled somewhere near, and that the population of Taka was greater than given out,—a suspicion much strengthened by such extensive durra fields, and by the many wells sunk; as also by the extent of ruined huts and enclosures within our camp, where, ere we came, the Arabs had had their abodes. All we met were most civil, “Mirhababa” being shouted to us by almost all. After the first half hour’s ride we came to a wood, but were much surprised to see only young trees, and not, as we had hoped, old and venerable timber. But we soon discovered the cause, in fires still glimmering in different parts around, so placed, that it was evidently the inhabitants’ intention to burn down the trees to manure the ground, and also thus to gain clear ground for fresh fields of grain, and better pasturage for their herds. To a great distance round their camping places, which, like all Nomadic tribes, they frequently change, these new copses are found in large quantities.

Incredibly rapidly does all herbage spring up here, called forth by the great warmth, and the regular tropical rains, from the rich fruitful earth, and especially where subterraneous water affords moisture, even to the surface soil. This was here evidenced, by the patches of green grasses, the trees, and especially the durra, which now, under the glowing heat, not only sent out from the under joints of the stem beautifully fresh and vigorous shoots, but, from the tops, where the heads had been cut off, a verdant crown of graceful sprouts. Most of the copse, besides some nebbek-trees, mimosas, &c., consisted of a species of tree that sends out from the root many stems and branches, with leaves small as needlewood, and much resembling the cypress. The wood is very weak, excessively light, gives little charcoal, and is very pithy and brittle. If these trees are deprived of their leaves by fire, or have got no water for a year, they wither and die away; they give little shade, and our people called them Aetle. Some quarter of an hour ere we reached Mohammed Din’s abode, the trees seemed far larger and of considerable age; the woods also were thicker, as the fires had not, seemingly, raged so furiously here. But the older trees looked most mournful; the tops and upper branches were withered, without foliage, and not seldom were the under ones in the same state.

Much to our vexation, we learned that Mohammed Din had gone with fifty Schaigies, to a camp of his nephew, Sheik Mussa, some two hours and a half further distant; and his absence was all the more annoying to us, as it nullified our purpose of alighting at his tent, partly to gain a better knowledge of this far-famed man in his own household, and of the manners and habits of his tribe, and partly to fill our empty and craving stomachs. His absence, therefore, caused us to dismount at the entrance to the village, at the hut of Jusbaschi (Captain) Sali Effendi, where he and the liquor-loving Sheik Ali were making very slow progress in arranging and collecting the tribute. We had intended remaining with them till four o’clock P.M., when the worst part of the day’s heat would have been over; but we soon perceived remaining here was out of the question, as the small hut afforded no protection from the sun, and was constantly crowded with Arabs delivering cattle, who never ceased wrangling and disputing among themselves, as well as with the tribute-gatherers. We therefore resolved, in spite of the sun, to push on and reach the village of Mitkenab, two hours and a half distant. Another reason, too, urged us to move, viz., to regain our liberty; for hardly had we dismounted at El Soffrè, when my brother was recognised by some Arabs as a Hakem, and was instantly mobbed by real and fancied sick in such numbers, that ere long we had half the village round us, demanding medicines and medical advice, and both gratis. Great patience is required here by any one acting the part of Doctor, as all directions must be repeated over and over again, and after all, it is more than probable, these are neither understood nor followed, and the parties return again and again to ask questions, and torment the prescriber. The people here not understanding us, an Arabian interpreter was necessary, and this made matters worse, as he could not convey medical directions. Here, too, a sick man never comes alone, but ever accompanied by six or eight relations or friends, every one of whom must interfere, and give his opinion as to the illness, and, as may be easily imagined, all this severely taxes the medical man’s patience and temper. All Arabs and Turks long and beg for medicines, and with the dose the illness must at once vanish, or else both doctor and medicine are held valueless. To repay the doctor for advice or medicine, never, by any chance, enters their heads; they hold the furnishing of the one as the other to be only the doctor’s duty, before both man and Allah.

After we were thus for some time pestered, we again mounted our dromedaries, and left the Arabs to their own devices, who gazed after us with no pleased eyes, and showered curses on us, as we would not remain and serve out medicines to them; although not one of them would, on being asked, procure us even a little milk, but slunk away behind his companions on our requesting it, and pointed to his neighbour as better able to furnish it than he. For more than half-an-hour we rode on through the far scattered village, nor even then did we see any thing like the half of it, as most of the huts lay off the main path, concealed among bushes and trees; and great numbers of the tribe, also, had no huts at all, but lived under the forest’s shade. All the huts we saw were composed of palm mats, circular and kiln-shaped, high behind, but so low in front, that one has to stoop much to enter them. The interior arrangement is most simple; a raised sleeping-place, called an angareb; a few stakes driven into the ground, or a low bench covered with mats, woven of reeds of dried twigs, form the whole furniture. If the owner is well to do, the sleeping-place is covered or surrounded with a great coarse grey woollen cloth, to keep off wind and weather. A murhaka (two stones to grind grain with), and earthen pot are all the moveables, as these, with a girbe (leathern water-bucket) are all required for Arab housekeeping; so that, without any great preparation or loss, they can desert the birsch (huts), and proceed on their constant wanderings. Some twenty or forty huts, inhabited by families related to each other, are generally surrounded with an enclosure or thorn fence, called a seriba; and so a settlement or village is made up out of a number of these smaller squattings. Each of such family seribas has the most respected or oldest of its occupiers as its head or Sheik; and this dignity is often even hereditary, so that the children frequently have a wokil. In the evenings a fire burns before each tent, on each of which may be seen, in every position and posture, the earthen pots, filled with durra; and as every pot is, more or less, cracked and broken, considerable ingenuity is required so to place them, as to only expose to the fire such parts of them as remain sound, and capable of holding in the contents while the cooking is going on. Round these pots crowd the women, occupied in preparing the food; all of those we saw were old and ugly; but, by all accounts, there is no want of young and pretty girls here, and such are also in much request as female household slaves in Bellad-Sudan. Of these, however, we saw none, as all held their faces closely muffled up in their dirty and torn ferdas; and all the young-looking women we came upon ran off sideways into the bushes, or hid behind trees to avoid our gaze. Almost all the women wore a skin round the hips, which reached down to the knee, and was lapped over in front. On the march they let it hang down behind like a tail, and when they sit down, they draw the part hanging down behind in between the legs and up in front, fastening it to the girdle. Some of the men were also thus dressed. Two men from the hill regions we fell in with had a similar skin round the hips, and, in addition, a sheepskin, wool inwards, hanging over the shoulders: this was the whole dress; and when to it were joined their long hair and fierce wild faces, they were excellent specimens of truly savage life.

In the centre of these family divisions there is always an open space, on which the children, always numerous, play and amuse themselves, all naked as when born, under the burning sun. Their activity and rapidity of motion joined to their dark colour and grinning faces, give them much resemblance to what we would picture a parcel of young devils to be; even such small children as with us would be in the cradle or nurse’s arms, roll and tumble about in the sand, without any one heeding them, but left to look out for themselves. Nothing is more amusing than to watch these young imps, only a few days old, as they crawl and roll about, for in these warm climes development is rapid. Clothes they have none to dirty or spoil, and mixed up among them may be seen cattle of all kinds; and the lambs and goats jump over and play among and with the merry little black creatures.

As we all alone rode on through the village, the men gazed most savagely and angrily at us, and as they certainly took us for Turks, did not bestow the kindest or most friendly wishes on us. All the natives of these lands have a wild and defiant physiognomy, and, with their long black hair and fiery eyes, are by no means unlike their companions the beasts of blood and rapine of the shaaba. At home here, among their own settlements, no man moves unarmed, their round shields and lances are never for a moment out of reach. He who has no iron-headed lance or javelin, is sure to have a long slender staff, of some hard wood, pointed at the end, which, against a naked foe, is little inferior to a more finished lance; the higher orders wear swords in no way differing from those in common use in Bellad-Sudan. Their build is generally tall and slender, but powerful, and a proud feeling of self-reliance and self-esteem is plainly displayed in all their movements and gestures. In colour most are dark brown or brown-black, but many, especially the women we saw, are brown-yellow, or even yellow itself. Some few Negro slaves we saw were perfectly black. Their manner of dressing their hair is similar to that of the Bischari. They have on the crown a toupé, on the sides and behind the long hair is laid in small round twists or curls, first plaited and intertwisted and then frizzed out, so that a strong head of hair makes the head itself seem more than double the usual size, and when beheld from behind, gives the wearer the appearance of having no head, but an immense pyramid of hair rising direct from the shoulders. Thick beards they cannot boast of, and as little of thick calves. Water and wells were in plenty; the latter, holes of twenty or thirty feet deep, going down into a clay subsoil; from these the water is drawn by the women and poured into great circular flat troughs, made by a low small surrounding wall of clay or mud, for the cattle to drink from. The keeping these troughs full, as well as fetching all water for household purposes, falls on the women; these, as we passed, were standing in crowds round the wells, drawing water or filling the skins which were enclosed in a kind of cord net-work. Some bore off these to the huts, some loaded the many asses with them, while the men sat looking calmly on, nor did one of them stir to aid or assist the women in any way. The asses here, as well as the camels, are all trained to lie down, so as to be more easily loaded. Herds of cattle we saw every where, and often remarked how these were being driven off by their owners into concealment in the forest.

The number of huts and tents we beheld were some 1500 or 2000, but far the greater number we did not see, and many, very many of the natives have no fixed dwelling. At all events, from the numbers of men, women, and children we met, double the number of huts we saw would have been necessary to house them. In the present critical times, doubtless many natives from other places (such as the settlements of Issi and Teschum, nearer our camp) have joined Mohammed Din, but it is equally certain that a greater number (30,000 or 40,000, according to Sali Effendi) have, from terror of the Pascha, or to conceal their herds and other goods, fled to the chaaba, to which wilds Mohammed Din himself has sent off 6000 camels, that they might be out of the way of the Turks. On reaching the centre of the village, our path led up a gohr some twelve or fourteen feet wide, which must at times contain a large body of water, and which runs from east to west. In it, and on both sides along its course, were the greater number of the wells. It seems as if here, either a subterraneous stream ran, or that some sunken supply of water filtered up to the surface through the clay subsoil, as at all seasons of the year, water is to be had here in plenty. In the country of the Haddenda is one spring, which supplies nearly the half of it; there one can plainly observe how the water runs strongly below the surface, and the land of Taka is also full of such underground watercourses. But, perhaps, after all it is a mere gathering of water caused by the soil some twenty or thirty feet down being a stiff clay through which water cannot penetrate. However, in the gohr of the hills, even where the ground slopes, and a constant dropping of water must be going on, this element can every where be found. From this under stratum of clay, the inhabitants procure the material from which they form the burnt red earthenware water jugs, which they use in their washings before prayer and at other times.

In this gohr we came upon a great mass of men and beasts, and much surprised the former seemed at our appearance. We now understood our guide’s anxious hurry to get us on to where Mohammed Din was. He believed us not to be in safety among these people, and he was in the right, for as Mohammed Din was not at hand, who alone could answer for our lives, it were better we hastened to him; though it was highly improbable he would neglect to provide for our security, as his only son Mussa was a hostage in our camp. We kept up this gohr some half hour, having all the time many wells and springs on our right and left, and meeting many Arabs. Our way lay north-east, and all through bush that often compelled us to lie flat along our dromedary’s back, not to be left suspended on some tree, although no old or high trees were to be seen among it, from the constant devastations of the burnings. Ere long the wood became thinner, the trunks of numbers of trees, withered and uprooted by the heavy mass of the flood, lay scattered on the ground far and wide, in many places blocking up the path, and every where annoying to the rider and dangerous to the legs of his animal. In many places the water had dug out large hollows in the soil, and here the ground had fallen in, as if the under soil had been carried away by the waters.

These continued for an hour of our way, and the grey soil uncovered by a single green stem, with its holes thus excavated, and small gohrs, devastations, leafless dead trees standing erect or thrown to the earth, and covered with slime and mud, with no bird or beast visible on or near it, showed out most mournfully and disheartening. But these holes, sinkings, lifeless and uprooted trees, bore strong testimony to the great gatherings and deep floods of waters, the more so as the ground is level, and so no great stream can be looked for. From all appearance, the mountains of Abyssinia must shed down much water on to these lands.

One hour before we reached Mitkenab, the country altered. The trees again showed green leaves, and were enlivened by some long tailed birds, which we did not venture to pursue, but remained sitting quietly on our beasts, as the glowing sun shone directly down on our skulls, and no refreshing breeze made its way in among the trees. We caught sight also of some antelopes, vanishing like lightning in the distance. The whole way now showed one uninterrupted stream of people and beasts, and great numbers of persons on camels, horses, and asses. Some few women and girls we got a peep at might be called pretty; they much resembled those of the island, and had, as all women in Bellad-Sudan, large black though not fiery eyes, round faces, small rather stumpy noses, and thick though not blubber lips. Their greatest beauty was small very white teeth. All gazed with angry and hostile eyes on us, taking us for Turks, as we were the only Franks that had as yet found their way into these lands.

Again, ere we reached Mitkenab, the country altered, and for the better, becoming almost beautiful, at least beautiful as far as any scenery can be without hill or water. All was now bright green; older and finer trees were in numbers on the edge of the chaaba (bruch, thick jungle or bush). We were most particularly pleased by the great nebbek-trees, forming bowers and halls, which were overgrown, and joined together by a bright green creeper till complete roofs were formed, affording perfect shelter from the hottest sun. The under branches of many of these trees were cut half through, and their ends being trained down to the ground, thus formed an enclosure for cattle, the entrances to which were stopped up with thorny bushes. In all these lands the trees in general afford but a poor shade, and one can easily conceive how gladly we availed ourselves of such perfect camping places as these bowery trees offered. In their branches cooed thousands of doves. We met hereabouts a large number of camels loaded with salt, which is procured in masses by evaporation of the waters of the Red Sea (Bachr male); and brought from thence by Sauakin, and sent even to India; packed up in pear-shaped basket-work cases.

Mitkenab at last came into sight through the trees, offering us an asylum from the burning midday sun. On our halting outside the village under some shady trees, numbers of Arabs as usual gathered round us, curiously inquiring who we were, but it never occurred to any one of them to offer us, thirsting as they must have seen us to be, either milk or water. Ere long the two Sheiks of the village appeared, but evidently regarded us as very suspicious characters; they did certainly give us their hands in sign of welcome, but did not invite us to enter the village. Soon after one of them sent us a present of a fat sheep, but we declined accepting it, as we expected food would be provided us, and we saw no means of carrying the animal away with us. In its stead we begged some milk, though in vain. It was joyful news to us, to learn that some Schaigies had arrived at the wells near, belonging to the village of Sheik Mussa, Mohammed Din’s nephew, under the command of their Melek Mammud, and in company with Mohammed Din himself; and immediately, in spite of sun and heat, we were on our way to their camping place, some 300 yards from us. This settlement of Mitkenab is in every way perfectly alike to El Soffrè, both as to huts and inhabitants; the latter are also numerous, and their lands lie towards the S.E. The village is large, the huts many and running along the edges of the forest, but it seemed smaller than El Soffrè. Of its political importance nothing can be said, for here, as in all Taka, as well as neighbouring, nay, even distant lands, there is but one Mohammed Din, who is lord of all, and his word an oracle for and to all. It is true, the Haddenda, like all the tribes, have Sheiks of their own, but all are subordinate to this great Sheik Mohammed Din. In Mitkenab were many Sheiks, having equal authority to each other: among the Hallenga, the head Sheik is Mohammed Ele, who bears the character of a bold warrior and honest man.

The wells in Mitkenab are few, and not sufficient for the population, which causes a continued unbroken train of women, camels, asses, &c., between the two not very distant villages, employed in the transport of water. We found Melek Mammud encamped under an ancient and large tree, his fifty mounted Schaigies round him. He himself had just arrived, so had nothing save water to offer us, but we were only too well pleased to find ourselves once again on angarebs, under a cool shade. After a short rest, a pillau of dates, with some roasted gazelle venison we had been provident enough to bring with us from the camp, tasted to us right well, but still more did we relish after it, a large cup-shaped gourd full of merissa, refreshing and pleasant to our palates, as the best beer. Better merissa than this, I never drank in Bellad-Sudan; it was almost white, had a slight sourish flavour, similar to light hock, and the mealy taste was not perceptible in it. Much to our satisfaction there was plenty of it, so we sent the cup merrily round, persuading ourselves we were quaffing the loved beer of our Fatherland.

Shortly after appeared Mohammed Din, who had also camped under an adjoining tree, to pay us a visit. A train of at least fifty men accompanied him. The Great Sheik, whose bravery we as highly honoured as his own people did, could not be prevailed on by us to seat himself on an angareb, but would use only a palm-mat on the earth, giving us to understand, while scorn curled his lip and glanced from his eye, that this was the position that now best became him.

We now had an opportunity of closely inspecting the physiognomy of this Sheik, whom every Arab from Atbara to the Red Sea honours as a demi-god, and of whom they say “Ragil, taib schatter mafish seie di” (A brave man, full of courage, there is no other like him). His face is round and full, with small hazel eye, sly and crafty, and well denoting his cunning, treacherous, but persevering mind; his nose is proportionate to his face, but slightly retroussé; his mouth small and ever curled with a satirical contemptuous smile. Were it not for this feature, and his false glance, he might easily pass for a well fed common-place monk, and his bald head would well become the hood. His manner and demeanour were but too evidently intended to impress all beholders with his importance. His movements are slow, measured, and dignified, while his train, ever composed of the first in the land, and many of it his own relations, follow him at a respectful distance. His bald head was uncovered; he wore a white cotton shirt and ferda, with sandals on his feet; his colour is brown. He did not speak Arabic, as few of these people can, though of Arab origin, but only Aggem (a mixture of Arabic and the dialect of the present natives), such as, with few exceptions, is spoken by the original race of Bischari, and also by the Arab-descended races of Schukurie, Hallenga, &c. With smiling face he asked us, through one of his train, who spoke Arabic, how the country pleased us, and with much irony added the question, if we had noted down the number of trees we had passed on our journey. He seemed to know we took notes, but could not comprehend we merely did this for our own amusement, but seemed to hold us as spies of the Pascha. After asking us a few more questions as to our own country, and remarking that we should not make notes, as it was neither fair nor handsome, Mohammed Din took his leave.

Some hours afterwards we went to pay our return visit to him. He lay sleeping on an angareb, while his whole train, lance in hand, stood as body-guard round him, speaking seldom and then in low tones; on his waking, all still remained reverently standing, nor did they seat themselves, till he requested it. He was again all smiles and most friendly, but did not offer us any refreshment. He, like all Sheiks of high rank and Faki, neither smokes nor drinks any kind of spirituous liquors, not even merissa, but yet takes snuff in large quantities. He examined most closely our basket-hilted dragoon swords, and said they were good. We complimented him on being known everywhere as a warrior, even by the Franks; he shook his head, said, he had seen on the Salt Sea, near Sauakinn, large ships with cannons, but that he did not desire aid from the Ingleb (English), and added some more words that were not translated to us. I unthinkingly asked, how many his people might number. “Count the trees!” he replied, looking proudly round him. Our talk having to be carried on through an interpreter soon wearied us, and we took our departure.

CHAP. VI.

Merissa Huts. — Arab Gratitude. — Splendid Soil. — The Pascha’s Grand Projects. — A Pleasant Servant. — Turkish Eating. — Turkish Faith. — Arabs of Hedjas. — Mehemet Ali’s Campaigns.

On one side of Mitkenab there is held every morning a great market (sukh), to which the natives come in streams, from all parts round, to dispose of cattle, grain, honey, butter, cotton cloths, &c., but all trading is by barter, and by him who has no top, or dogk[11], or such cotton stuffs as are made by the natives themselves, or at least some durra, no business is to be done, or purchases made. And even, though we had possessed all these we could not have traded, as in these villages the hatred against the army was so great, that it seemed as if all the inhabitants had mutually agreed, to allow the foe to procure nothing they could possibly prevent, by the strictest care, nor could we obtain the smallest morsel of flesh, and now much lamented we had not accepted the sheep proffered us in the morning. It is true, it only required a sign from Mohammed Din, and we would have been supplied, and in abundance, with all we could wish for; but as he mistrusted us on account of our note-takings, and classed us among the Turks, this sign he did not give. Little or no coin is to be found among these people, but they are acquainted with the Theresa-thaler, or dollar (value one thaler, twenty piastres), which they call a real, and this they demanded from us for the merest trifles, the true value of which was not two or three pence. Austria still continues to have these thalers coined from the old die, for eastern use, and these are called by the Arabs here “Abu Nukta” (father of drops, i.e., the pearls in the diadem of the Empress Maria Theresa, of which there are numbers). The Kolonates in the land of Sudan call them “Abu Mutfa,” mistaking the pillars of Hercules on them for cannon. In the Levant the Spanish money is commonly called piastres (from piasto), although it is reduced to one twentieth part of its value, and it is possible, that the Arab and Turkish words gersch and grusch for piastre, may be the origin of our groschen.

To see at least as much as possible of the village, and its environs, we two, arming ourselves only with our sabres, now set out for a walk, but without our knowing it, two completely armed Schaigies followed us, and ere long, two young lads, relations of Sheik Mussa, joined us, to provide for our safety, as we afterwards learned. The whole village is formed of mat huts, and is similar in all respects to El Soffrè; its extent is great, and its population numerous, and seemingly rich in cattle. As we marched through it, the people stared greatly at us, the women ran off to hide themselves, as if from evil spirits, and the children who rushed out from their so-called schools, laughed at and mocked us, for they had never before seen white men. To our great satisfaction, we turned into a merissa drinking shop, which, erected under a large tree, was filled with men. We seated ourselves on some square stools with backs, and were at once supplied with some stout beakers full of merissa, which, being good, we relished much, and it even made us feel somewhat in the wind. In such places, the Arabs will sit from early morning to late eve, drinking and carousing, and often eating nothing for many days, as merissa is meat and drink too. Here I remarked for the first time, that even among these dark-skinned men, some red colour is perceptible on their cheeks, such being the case with some of the topers here, who, from copious libations, had sent most of the blood into their heads, as was shown by their deeply flushed though swarthy faces. The nephew of the Sheik Mussa, whom our old camp-neighbour Mohammed Defalla had made our friend, had, on our entering, explained to the company, that we were not Turks, but Inglebs, English, a word which here seems to answer to the Frank of the East; all therefore were friendly and kind, and more so, when they found we drank stoutly. They were particularly pleased, when we taught them the a tempo drinking, in which, from our old student-habits, we came off victorious. In their now confidential intimacy, they told us, they would soon settle matters with the Turks, if Mohammed Din so willed it.

The chaaba near here shows a thick strong bush, intermixed with high old trees, the ground below strewed with uprooted trees and bearing tall grasses. Many fine trees were not to be seen as the violent and sudden hurricanes that occur in the rainy season break over or uproot the high trees, for the soil becomes so saturated with the heavy floods that the roots retain but a poor hold. The chaaba or forest extends from the Atbara to the Red Sea and upwards to Habesch. It is the abode of unnumbered elephants, many of whose immense spinal joint bones we found lying among the grass, of rhinoceroses, lions generally without manes, tigers, hyenas, giraffes, gazelles, large antelopes, wild asses, wolves, cats, &c., and immense numbers of most venomous snakes. From fear of these no Arab will at night move outside his seriba. To form a clear and broad path, such as the Romans cut through the German forests, through this overgrown and dense wilderness, would require many thousand European axes, but such as the Pascha has already given out to the soldiery, many times during our march to clear the way, would be perfectly useless for such a gigantic task. On our return to the well a little before sunset, we found all the Schaigies on the move to take possession of a seriba outside the village, partly for security against the lions, who at night come out from the forest to the water, and partly as a precaution against the hostile-minded Arabs. We could not decline going with them, and encamped with Melek Mammud, in the centre of his troop and of the seriba, thus forming the staff. In the evening some bread was brought us (thin cakes piled on each other like pancakes), but neither flesh, milk, nor butter. Fortunately we had got our rice and chammerdin; flat cakes made of apricots and other things, a sweet compound of Syria; still left us, and at length the old Chingi, whom Joseph had often in the camp given medicine to with satisfactory results, sent us some milk in a girbe. We passed the night in sound agreeable sleep, and were only once awakened by the horrible howlings of troops of hyenas prowling around the village, and setting all the dogs into commotion and uproar. At the entrance (bab) of our seriba slept Mohammed Din himself. In such good odour did we stand with the natives.

At sunrise next morning all in our seriba were in motion, as the soldiers were to accompany Mohammed Din, who was about to go, with the purpose of gathering contributions, to his tribe in the large village, Fille, which lies some two and a half or three hours’ journey to the S.E. of Sheik Mussa’s village, and is similar to all these settlements. Between the villages extend large fields or plains covered with durra, with a few trees interspersed among them. We also prepared for the march, and as we did so had again a good example of the ingratitude of these people;—the old Chingi did not blush to demand back the old worthless girbe he had sent us the night before with the milk, and which, there being yet some left in it, we had already had packed on our camel. Furious at such niggardly conduct in one who owed so much to my brother’s care and medical attention, I threw the skin, milk, and all to the ground, and rode off. We should have liked to have remained some time longer in Mitkenab, but the young relative of Sheik Mussa urged our departure, ready for which waited an Arab escort; and we held it wisest to follow his well-meant advice, the more so as a report had been spread,—we knew not how or why,—that we had been expressly sent by the Pascha to take notes of the country and all we saw, so that he might hereafter be guided by these when he advanced into it. So had we not soon taken ourselves off, it might have easily occurred to the natives that it would be as well to put such dangerous notes and note-takers out of the way. At the edge of the forest a troop of Arabs, armed with shields and lances, friends of the Sheik Mussa, awaited us and accompanied us on our journey; and as long as our way lay through this forest, we had to sit crouching on our dromedaries’ backs, from the lowness of the branches, till we again got into our old path among the durra fields. This young man, who, next morning accepting our invitation, accompanied us into the camp, acted thus to protect us from an intended attack, which might have cost us our lives, had he not fortunately heard of it, and so avoided it. This evil opinion of us Melek Mahmud afterwards confirmed, and told us the people were very much excited (salahn) from our taking such accurate notice of every thing.

Our way back led through the same country we had already seen, but our march was very slow, as our dromedaries, from all supplies being yesterday refused us, had been without food; and on their account we were often obliged to stop to allow them to browse on the trees as they went along. We again rode along the gohr in Mohammed Din’s village, and quietly dismounted at Sali Effendi’s small branch-formed hut, he having proceeded somewhere else on his tribute-collecting business. Although this hut was open on both sides, we fortunately found here a store of some pieces of flesh which we much enjoyed, and by promise of some medicine for the cholic, we obtained from a Sheik some merissa; but from the natives themselves, as before, nothing was to be had. Towards evening we reached our own camp; but some half hour before doing so we came on some trees, where many hundreds of turtle doves were roosting, so that we soon supplied ourselves with materials for a supper; though many we shot we had to leave on the ground, as we dared not venture into the bushes to pick them up, from the numerous venomous snakes and other insects, and the darkness, too, which was setting in. On our return, we had again been met by long trains of Arabs bearing away durra from the fields to their hiding places.

The cotton plantations round our camp of Aronga were, indeed, of considerable extent, and even during the present dry season offered a vigorous and fresh verdure that showed their healthiness, but neither in extent or luxuriance are they to be compared to the durra fields, nor are they, considering their great importance, at all in keeping with the numbers of the Haddenda; it is true the Haddenda are yet too much of the Bedouin,—a race that shun and despise all kinds of domestic labour, and who, if they had cotton plantations, would be tied to these spots; but loving wandering much more, they prefer bartering their durra for cloths made at Hedjas, to growing and preparing such themselves. But yet what might not be made of this splendid land, the fruitfulness of which is so well nourished by the moisture of subterraneous waters, the regular fall of rain, and overflows from the Abyssinian mountains and the hills of Kassela, Abrit, &c.,—a soil that, in spite of hurricanes and the ever repeated forest burnings, never ceases to produce splendid trees, and crops of tallest durra, without tilling or manure, with stalks of fifteen and twenty feet in height, and yielding fifteen and eighteen fold of the best sort and fullest ear, growing cotton within one year to a height of five feet. What, I ask, might not be done with and grown on such a soil? And what is it now? Nothing! save this durra, some little cotton, and a few beans;—this durra, the straws or stalk of which are left standing on the fields, the cattle turned in to feed on it, then left to wind and weather, not to decay, and so return something to the soil as manure, but to be almost wholly swept away by the floods in the rainy season; this from the extraordinary moderation of the natives answers all their wants; for with it, a little milk, and a few beans, all their wants and desires in the way of food are fully satisfied. Undoubtedly all our grains and vegetables would grow splendidly here, so that this land might be made the granary for the grain-needing Hedjas, which is only saved from famine by the gratis delivery of the whole annual crop from the district round Kenne; or when this is insufficient, has to be fed from the lands of Sint and Manfallut in Egypt. Indigo might be cultivated here as well as in Egypt, where its culture is by no means inconsiderable; rice also, tobacco, oil, flax, and especially sugar, which, from the quantity of wood in the neighbourhood might be refined on the spot, whereas it has now to be brought from India. A matter of high importance would also be the planting of date trees. For many days’ journey from Gos Rajeb, the banks of the river are covered with dhom forests; here, too, in certain spots are to be seen magnificent dhom trees, and where these flourish, all the date tribe will do so; and this might be a source of much profit, as in Egypt. Gum-trees we have as yet seen none, many as are their uses. Where now old useless fruitless trees cumber the ground, might soon flourish, oranges, sweet and bitter (Portugahn), pomegranates (Ruman), figs (tihn), nay, even the vine itself (einap).[12]

The position of the land is also highly favourable for the export of its superabundant produce. It lies between the Red Sea and the Nile: to Sauachinn, on the former, is fourteen or fifteen days’ journey for laden camels; to Berber, on the Nile, ten or twelve; from both of these places there is abundance of transport. Then it is more than probable, that, without much difficulty, the Atbara might be made navigable as far as Gos Rajeb, for at least four months in the year; for though, as far as we could judge from a view of its bed in the summer or dry season, this is full of sand banks and sunken rocks, still the banks show most plainly how high the river rises, and what an immense body of water it contains in the rainy season, and as far as my opinion goes, I see no reason why it could not be easily made available for transport. To found stores and magazines at various places, and convey the produce there would certainly be necessary, and this, ere the rainy season set in, as then all roads become impassable for man or beast. But could not these channels of communication be improved? If the natives, by widening these, cutting down the large trees, and clearing the dense bush, would only expose them to the drying powers of wind and sun, then would undoubtedly the roads be available for traffic a month earlier than now. The present so-called roads (derba, sicca, main roads) are nothing but narrow, nay often hardly traceable footpaths, at times formed by the wild animals, which, by their constant and repeated windings to avoid thickets or other small impediments, greatly lengthen the way, and such paths too are ever overgrown with trees, and choked up with brush and jungle.

At present all trade is confined to honey, durra, butter, and salt, brought by the natives on the Red Sea; but this might be much increased and extended to other articles,—cattle-breeding, for instance; the present most numerous herds, by a little attention, might be easily improved and greatly increased, as their support is a matter of no difficulty, and hides might thus become articles of trade. By like care and improvement of the flocks of sheep, wool might be added, while at present these animals are only used for their flesh, and that not as a source of gain. Even the very beasts of prey, lions, tigers, panthers, &c., although their numbers would certainly much diminish with a better cultivation of the land, might for many years to come be a source of great profit in their skins and furs. This the natives would soon find out, and with the knowledge of their value would soon evince the wish to procure them, even though at the cost of a little toil and danger. But most of all would the cotton, at present grown only in such small quantities as not to suffice for the wants of the land, become a trading object of the highest importance. When one beholds in what abundance and beauty it flourishes, even under the present careless and low culture, one must at once be convinced what an immense crop might be produced, merely by some little more attention being bestowed on it. Here there would be no need, as there is in Egypt, to provide for the regular watering of the plants, a work of immense labour; and to this great advantage it is to be added, that the larger mass of the people have at least some acquaintance with the management of this crop,—an advantage inestimable with a race that clings so inveterately to all that is handed down to them from ancient times, manners, habits, customs, modes of life and labour, and who look upon each change and innovation as a diminution of the dignity of their free descent, and a violation of their hereditary rights from oldest time. Trade in elephants’ teeth and tusks there is at present almost none, although, from the immense numbers of these animals, such might be furnished in abundance by the natives, and much more easily and readily than those brought, with long delay and much trouble, from the distant country of Darfur.

A great saving on the other hand might be made by discontinuing the expenditure at present laid out in the purchase of horses from Habesch; the breed, too, is small and ugly, and it is only too evident that here far better animals might be bred and reared. If these and the numerous oxen were trained and employed in agriculture, what a large body of men would be left disposable for other branches of industry—by their employment, arrangements might be made for a general and regular irrigation of the whole country. At present many large fields are, for irrigating purposes, intersected with ditches and small walls of six inches or one foot deep or high, but this is far from sufficient, and only by wisely regulated and extensive arrangements, could the power be attained of watering all at a wish, and only by proper machines for raising this wealth of nature from the subterraneous streams and reservoirs, could a certain and secure supply be depended on during the dry season of the year, for the crops which here require an ever copious and repeated supply of moisture. And why should not manufactures be introduced into a land where hands and wood are in plenty? Everywhere at a greater or less depth clay is to be found in abundance, and out of this, from which the natives form good and lasting dishes and water jars, surely bricks could be made. The capital required for carrying out these plans indeed would be large, but then it would as surely be repaid, and with interest, in a very few years, and it would also call into existence a people and country, who, from agriculture, manufacture, and trade, would be entitled to rank among the most thriving.

On our return to camp we were questioned by all, and about all, but most especially as to the numbers of the natives. In the evening we waited on the Pascha to report our return. He was also most curious and anxious to gain information, and to lead us to speak freely he again went over his before often declared magnificent plans for the future. His views as to the goodness of the land, and its fitness for growing all kinds of produce, as also of its happy position, were on the whole most just, only he allowed far too short a time for the realization of his ardent hopes, and would with too hasty zeal at once set about its improvement and alteration, only, like all Turks, the sooner to leave all off again. Even now, when as yet not a step had been taken, he set about counting up the sums he was to draw from these lands, for the Turk will hear or think of nothing else but gathering money in such sums as by cunning, injustice, oppression, or violence, he can lay his hands on, nor even trouble his head that in so doing he may ruin the future welfare of his subjects, and at the same time destroy all source of revenue to himself.

An idea, that has originated in the hatred borne by the races to each other, has been put into the Pascha’s head by Mohammed Ehle. This is, that the fall of the waters can be cut off above the Gohr el Gash, and thus the lands of Taka be deprived of the necessary supply for agricultural purposes, and the forests of the Chaaba be caused to wither. He now firmly believes he can carry this out, and so force the people of Taka to purchase from him, by an immense yearly tribute, the waters for the irrigation of their fields, congratulating himself greatly on the completion of this wondrous deed, of which he seems to dream day and night. How far such hopes are reasonable we cannot determine, as we know so little about the size of this gohr, and its influence on the lands of the Haddenda and others. But still we think that were the streams of the gohr diverted, sufficient water would yet sink into the ground to keep the wells supplied, and that from the falls of rain that occur before the regular rainy season, as well as from the immense floods that, according to all accounts, pour down during the Chariff, the damming up of the gohr may not have those consequences of which the Pascha dreams, and this we suspect will be the fact, even after hearing his most vivid and certainly biassed account of his scheme.

To in some degree justify so harsh a measure, the Pascha is to-day of opinion, that the present natives are mere children, and must be treated as such; that one must have patience with them, and what cannot be got out of them this year, they must be compelled to pay the next; this, he says, is why he has observed the greatest moderation and kindness towards them, and not set on them with fire and sword. So far as we have got any insight into the character of these races, such kindness seems little likely to be estimated by them; only a stern and strict rule that inspires fear (but not such as the Turks practise, which inspires more vengeance than terror,) will keep them in order, and in time, perchance, overcome their opposition to all reform. To once accustom these unruly tribes to settled dwellings and regular labour will be a formidable task, and of all the Turks we have met with in Bellad-Sudan, not one seems in the least qualified to effect it. Besides, the smallest change in the rule in Egypt might rend altogether from Turkish dominion the countries of Taka, Baraka, Atisch, Kataref, &c., as then the troops necessary to hold them, would be nowhere to be procured.

Some days after our trip a violent attack of fever overcame us both, and for some time deprived us of all power of writing or thinking, and also caused us to lose our reckoning of time; so that for the future no more journalising or exact dates can be attempted.

At length the confusion of the camp has been in some degree put an end to; between the seribas and the small huts of the soldiery a free space is now left of some fifty paces broad, the various bodies of cavalry and infantry are separated, and each have certain places allotted to them. Still in the various divisions there is yet much confusion, every one setting down his hut where he pleases, and never heeding in the slightest how it blocks up or impedes the way. The Pascha is perfectly ennuied, seeks to make time pass by, exercising himself in the sports of the jerreed, with his Schaigies, who perform this oriental tournay in all its dangerous irregularities, in the most masterly manner, as if they were real centaurs—or he makes the Dinka practise before his tent the staff-throwing at each other, which causes many bloody mouths and severe contusions for the doctors to attend to. He also labours hard in his own person, at that most important business, the tavela reale, of which he never wearies, and in which in turn Topschi Baschi, Abd el Kader, and Abdin Aga aid and assist him, so that a lively rattling of the dice is ever kept up, the sound of which is plainly audible to all who pass his tent. At first, when thus engaged, Topschi Baschi was so fortunate as to be allowed to sit, but now he must stand the whole time, so that a proper respect may be maintained between him and his master. As another relief to his overlaboured mind, the great man has caused Mohammed Ehle to procure him an Abyssinian damsel, whom he has quartered in a hut with a high enclosure round it, and for whose amusement he often of an evening orders the heart-delighting band of the 8th regiment to perform; this never fails to call up an accompaniment from every ass in the camp, and it is yet an undecided point whether the band or the asses have the best of it. But these long-eared gentry do not disdain to get up a concert of their own, as hardly a night passes that we are not repeatedly awoke from our sleep by the sweet voices of some 5000 or 6000 asses. Let one only commence, all chime in; the splendid deep notes of the older males mix with the shrill treble of the young females, and then the more stately camels fail not with vigorous roarings or growlings, to join their voices in good time and tune, to the harmonious concert.

We should have often been much pleased, when thus agreeably aroused from rest, to have sought some consolation in a good supper, had not our cook Achmet, a long, lanky native, too often left us unprovided with the materials for one. Long had this man been our daily torment, from his ill-conditioned, obstinate, and contradictory spirit; and even the most vigorous appliance of the karbatsch failed in effecting his cure, as he submitted standing erect, stiff, and perfectly silent, never giving sign or note of pain, and treating our most cutting blows with stoical indifference, and when all was over asking, “Schenu di?” (What’s this for?) He even now and then ventured to set us to rights, and ever was at open war with all our other servants. The man was born with a mania for discord; could he not get up a squabble with his fellows at home, he would sally out and cast about for some cause of quarrel amongst our peaceful neighbours. That he ever lived in peace with any one, or spoke a good word of another, we never heard. With us and our actions he, as a matter of course, constantly found fault. Out of revenge, he for fourteen days in succession gave the other servants no butchers’ meat; and often when we had a sheep killed, he purposely kept the meat till it was putrid, so that they might not be able to eat it. He also carried off our and the servants’ things, and hid them, merely to be able to turn with his slanderous words suspicions of theft on some other one. The only good about him was his talent for cooking, as he could, indeed, produce a good dinner out of almost nothing; but this he never would exercise unless we stood over him and compelled him, or when he desired to appear exceedingly active in our eyes, for some purpose of his own. From a fellow of such character we had every thing to fear; and when at last we discovered him to be a thief, and learnt from his own confession that he had often, ere now, stolen money, clothes, sugar, coffee, rice, various bottles of wine and rum, and sold them, our patience and forbearance towards him were at an end, and, ere half an hour was over his head, he found himself enrolled by the Bimbaschi Hassan Effendi, as soldier in the 1st regiment. We had at first pardoned him, merely dismissing him our service; although the persons to whom he had sold the stolen goods had come forward to give evidence against him, and had proved him beyond doubt to be the thief: but, on the day we made him a soldier, I was lying, much worn out, on my angareb, the fever having just left me, when I heard in the back part of our hut a case of provisions being broken open. I looked round, and there was Achmet, who had taken out a loaf of sugar, and was about to carry it off by the back door. I cried out, “Rugh fenn?” (Where with that?) He put down the sugar, and with a snarling “Aus è?” (What’s wanted?) advanced up to me, as if, I being all alone, he would have throttled me; but, at the instant, I seized one of my pistols, which hung near me, and pointed it at his head; on which he remained as if rooted to the ground, his eyes glaring on me like a tiger’s. As if it had been arranged, and perchance fortunately for me, my brother at that moment entered the hut by the back door, and Topschi Baschi by the front, at the same instant; and now I had to spring up to prevent the wild Kurd, who at once comprehended how matters stood, from splitting Achmet’s head on the spot. Although our friend Achmet came from the land of Djaal, the inhabitants of which, as well as of Barabra, are not compelled to serve as soldiers, their countries being much depopulated, still an exception was made in his favour. He was thus rendered harmless to others, as now the Nabut would take care of his doings; and the example we made of him had the best effect on our other servants.

The noble art of cooking is as little known in Bellad-Sudan as in Arabia or Turkey. Cleanliness, there, is even less attended to than it is generally among the Arabs and Negroes, and the cook is ever distinguished by being dirtier and more filthy in his dress than others. Even in Europe, it is said, if a man would enjoy his dinner, he must not see it cooked; but let one here only cast a glance into the filthy hole they call a kitchen (matbach), see the dabblings of the cook with filthy hands, an equally dirty pipe ever in his mouth, and how, without knife, fork, or spoon, he tastes every dish with his fingers, and with these arranges each plât on its dish, and he must indeed be a man of strong stomach, and stronger appetite, who can eat at all. Arab cookery is certainly very simple, as it is composed of boiled beans, and flesh, either boiled (lachame masluk, or mistaui) or roasted (kabab). This last consists of small pieces of meat stuck on wooden skewers, and roasted over the embers, and if it be desired to make it somewhat better than common, pieces of flesh, fat, and liver are placed on the skewers alternately. The Turks of rank have generally their food prepared for them by the female slaves of their harem, but, even then, cleanliness is no matter of boasting, and none of the Turkish ladies know anything of cookery, and their laziness prevents their acquiring any knowledge of it. Soup is never seen at Turkish tables, as it would be impossible to eat it with the shallow spoons they use, generally made of wood or horn. All the meat to be used for the dinner is boiled or sodden together in one great pot; from this mass afterwards the various plâts are prepared, almost all of which have a similar taste, having been all at first subjected to the same treatment. In some the meat is cut down smaller than in others, in some smothered by a vile sauce of butter or melted fat; some slightly roasted, and otherwise disguised; but in this way the cook prepares a number of dishes, as quantity, not quality, is his object, and constitutes the goodness of the dinner; but in none of them, is there either nourishment or flavour,—all are sodden and tasteless, from want of salt, pepper, spice, &c. The vegetables are ever villanously cooked, and floating in grease, or the water the meat has been boiled in. The sweets, of which all Easterns are especially fond, are better and more varied; but even these are very similar in taste, and cannot for a moment compare with an European dessert.

All food is served, not on dishes, but on plates, many often not larger than a saucer, and all are at one time crowded and heaped on a sennié, i.e. a large copper flat dish, with a low edge, which is placed on a stool a foot or twenty inches high, or an equally low table. The honourable company sit round this, on carpets spread on the floor, and each at once plunges his hand into any or every dish that pleases him, and gropes about till he gets hold of the best bits, pulls them out, and swallows them. Very often a bite is only taken from the piece thus seized on, and the rest returned to the dish; but, in spite of the cleanly treatment it has undergone, it is again soon seized hold of by another, and, perchance, again similarly handled, till all is finally bolted. The Turks eat incredibly rapidly, as they bolt every thing, and keep cramming into the mouth more ere the former mouthful has been swallowed; while a smacking of lips, and licking of sauce-dripping fingers succeed, and proclaim their pleasure in the meal. Bread is generally to be found on the table, but neither salt, oil, vinegar, or pepper; although when they dine with Europeans they show no dislike to highly seasoned dishes, or strong drinks. Although their dishes are numerous, they contain but little, and that little by no means of a quality suited to a German stomach, and this, too, would require to satisfy its cravings as much as four Turkish; but, after all other plâts, comes the never failing pillau, and he who has not already got his fill had better now lose no time in idling up between his two first fingers and thumb some balls of its mass, and cramming them down his throat; as the pillau is an invariable sign that the feast is ended. If there are many courses, or more dishes than the table will hold at one time, the entertainer is ever busied making signs to the attendants which are to be removed; and not seldom the guest finds that the very dish he was about to help himself from is carried off from under his very nose. The Pascha used often to amuse himself by playing tricks on his guests, by ordering off with the utmost rapidity those dishes he found their longing eyes fixed on, ere their outstretched hands could convey any portion of them into their watering mouths. Water, in abundance, is never wanting to wash down the repast, as many slaves stand by, in readiness to pour it out, as well as to keep off the flies. At first, in spite of the pillau, we never were quick enough to get sufficient to eat, not having been brought up to bolt our food; and that the Turks are so quickly satisfied, and by so little, is wholly owing to this bolting of their food, is undeniable: and this, also, produces the repeated eructations they so loudly and joyfully give vent to, as proving their high health and vigour. A newly arrived European is almost certain to rise from table unsatisfied, on dining with a party of Turks; for this dabbling of hands in the dishes, these handlings and tastings of the meat without taking it wholly away, must be disgusting to him; and, even now, when we have become pretty well used to it, we cannot wholly get over our dislike and loathing to the whole eating business; yet all the other Franks here have adopted it, looking upon it as a most comfortable method of feeding.

The contributions come in very sparingly, and are so small, that they more resemble presents than tribute. Of cows only 300 have been delivered, while Churschid Pascha, and with much less ado about it, got 3,000, and also managed in his two campaigns to pick up some 950 purses. When the wealth of these people in herds and flocks is considered, it is no small piece of daring in them to fancy they can make the Pascha credit that these 300 animals are anything like a tenth; and he is furious at the return thus made him for his mildness and forbearance, has sharply rebuked all the Sheiks about it, and has summoned Mohammed Din, Sheik Mussa, and the two Sheiks of Mitkenab to appear before him. All have appeared, though their people, fearing evil, would have prevented their coming in; but they felt secure, depending on the Amàhn already granted by the Pascha to them. But he, like all Turks, faithless in word and deed, had instantly all four made prisoners and laid in irons; chains are placed on their necks and feet, besides their being chained to each other. When we first beheld in camp, with the white handkerchief (mandilla) round his neck, as sign of submission and pardon, the great Sheik Mohammed Din, we more than suspected that old fox would soon be trapped, have, as hostage for his tribe, to travel to Chartum, and most certainly not die in his own land, like the other chiefs of the island. He may, indeed, then have in his heart laughed at his investment in a robe of purple and red shawl, and fancied he had done well in coming in; but, in spite of all his cunning, he has fallen into the snare, and his fate is fixed. Could not the old freebooter have been once again as wise as to confide his fortunes to his forests and arms, instead of having, as now, advanced with steady step to certain ruin? For most surely for long, if not altogether, would the impenetrable and extensive forests have afforded him safe shelter, and there might, indeed, his javelins have dealt death and destruction on our army; but perchance his policy was to hold the Turks here, by empty promises and false hopes, till the rainy season, and then to have seen them, in this inhospitable and totally over-flooded land, perish, man and beast, from sickness and starvation, aided, if needed, by his tribe’s arms. But the Pascha has forestalled his plans.

The day he was put in chains the evening gun was loaded with grape shot, and fired into the forest of the Haddenda land, probably to alarm any Arabs concealed in it, as the thunder of the great guns ever strike terror into the souls of these Arabs and blacks, even of such of them as should be well used to the noise; for we often have seen these, when by any chance near the cannon when fired, start back some six or seven paces, pale and trembling at the report. When the Turks attacked a large, populous, and fortified hill near Faszogl, the blacks sent out spies to learn how strong were their foes, and how they were armed; these spies came back laughing, with the report that there was no great body of troops, and such as there were had no other arms than polished sticks over their shoulders, but neither lances, swords, nor shields. Ere long, however, the ignorant unfortunates discovered the fearful efficacy of these polished sticks, though they could not for a moment comprehend how such small pieces of lead could so speedily wound, nay, slay outright; so the general opinion pronounced that an Afritt scheitàn (devil or evil spirit) lived in the muskets, and under this idea a black, who had laid hold of a soldier’s musket, instantly placed his hand on the muzzle to keep the scheitàn in; the soldier drew the trigger, and the leaden devil shattered the hand and breast of the poor negro. Still they hold their own lances as much the most deadly, and far superior to the invisible balls; hence a negro, after a skirmish, having got possession of some six or seven muskets of the slain soldiers, bore them joyfully home, to convert the barrels into lance heads, in the midst of a circle of admiring countrymen. Some of the former, however, chanced to contain the charge, and becoming red hot in the fire, burst, and sent wounds and death among the astonished lookers-on.

The mere cocking of the piece, and, far more surely, the report, will send most Arabs flying, though no damage has been done, as we have often beheld in the tribes of Taka; but the inhabitants of Hedjas have taken a wiser part, having managed to provide themselves with muskets, and though very slow they are sure shots; hid behind their rocks and walls, they are pretty sure, with their far carrying flint-guns, to hit their man; and in most skirmishes with them the fallen soldiers are found to have been hit on the foreheads, as the red tarbush affords them an excellent mark to aim at.

These Arabs have been known from oldest times as a brave and freedom-loving tribe, and even withstood the conquering arms of Rome, preserving their liberty. The mountains of their country (Hedjas) rise some short day’s journey from the Red Sea, steep and high, so that almost two days’ laborious travel is required to reach the plateau on which they dwell. The path up is steep and rocky, and gives even a good climber enough to do to ascend; and yet these Arabs have trained their horses, and even their camels, to ascend it with heavy loads. If these latter come to a steeper or more dangerous place, they kneel down and crawl along on knees and belly. On the shore are coral reefs. The hills themselves are composed of granite, naked and rugged, to the sea; but no sooner is the plateau or inhabited land reached, than one beholds the most luxuriant verdure, splendid though wild cypresses, oranges, peach, apricot, plum, and pear trees, and, above all, the most flourishing vines and date-palm trees. Hill streams pour their crystal waters from rock to rock, while from their banks rise the balmy perfumes of herbs of all kinds, balm, fennel, &c. &c. The fields, however, are poorly cultivated, as the constant feuds of the various families or clans among each other prevent any careful culture of the soil. Only during a short armistice for sowing and harvesting, do they live at peace and work together, nay, even visit one another; for then, by ancient and inviolable custom, all feuds are at rest; but hardly is the last seed buried in the earth, or the last ear gathered off it, when the old feuds again commence and continue as bitter as ever. Blood-vengeance, which reigns there in full force, is usually the origin of these feuds, and ere long the whole clans on both sides are involved in the quarrel. From the ever-enduring feuds one sees none but armed men in this country, and their houses are converted into small fortalices, in which they can hold out and defend themselves; these are built of stone, in a tower-like form, but with only one very low entrance, through which men can only pass by stooping much; and the upper story of the house is used to contain the horses, camels, cows, &c., all of which have been used from birth to creep in on their bellies through such low doorways, and the inside thus gained have again to mount up a narrow, small stone staircase, at which they are all most expert, difficult though the task may be. Instead of windows these houses have small arrow-slits, and when the inmates have (if necessary) built up their doorway from the inside with stones and stakes, the fortress is in readiness for a siege, as care is ever taken to hold it provided with stores of food for man and beast.

Hospitality is ever and at all times a sacred duty with these Arabs, even towards an enemy; and they have, too, held fast to all their old virtues and good customs, which is far more than can be said of the tribes of the sea coasts and plains; but this may be easily accounted for, from the latter having been more thrown in the way of holding intercourse with foreign nations, and from their trading much more with such. They are particularly distinguished from the mountain races, who will have nothing to do with them, by their darker skin, but they wear a similar dress, and all acknowledge themselves to be of the sect of the Wachabites (Wahabi), thus distinct from the Mussulmen as also by building no mosques, smoking no tobacco, nor adorning their dress with silk or gold, &c.; as they plundered the chaaba in Mecca, and robbed the richly endowed groves of Mahomet and his daughter Fatima in Medina, so also did they take from all caravans without exception, their silver, gold, and valuables, and when they no longer dared venture on such robberies, they invented another means of levying toll on all pilgrims, by compelling them to let fall on the ground their money and other valuables, so that they might afterwards take it to themselves as windfalls; but this procedure is also now forbidden them.

Against these Wachabites, whose warlike qualities were well known, Mehemet Ali declared a religious war, which was highly approved of by the Porte. The latter hoped to see that by this the ever-increasing powers of the Pascha, would be much weakened (a favourite plan of the Porte as regards such powerful vassals); but the old wily Pascha gladly used this approval of the sultan to increase his army greatly, and organise it in European style and to European tactics. Nor did he fail to inflame the Moslem with zeal for the holy war, and so win again to his side those bigots who had been much estranged from him by his many innovations and new institutions, and lead them to publicly proclaim that it was the duty of every Mussulman to advance to the aid and protection of the country of the Holy Prophet, especially to that of Mecca and Medina, the former of which, along with the great chaaba, contains within its walls also the Well and Baths of Purification. Never, for a moment either, did his calculating mind lose sight of the ports of the Red Sea and their trade with India (Hind), the influence of the large caravans, which brought from all parts of the world where Islam existed crowds of pilgrims to the holy shrines and purifying springs, or the quantity of gold these pilgrims or future Hadji expended (a highly honourable title among both Greeks and Turks, and gained by such pilgrimages), and by their means opening up an intercourse with the land of Yemen, and its rich and important trading city of Mocca, where coffee already yields such great gains. It may here be remarked, in passing, that the richer inhabitants of Yemen, as also those of Hedjas, do not use the beans of the coffee in preparing that liquid, but the inner shell or skin that contains these, which they hold to be much higher and better flavoured; they also mix in their coffee cloves, cinnamon, aromatic spices and gums, so that this beverage with them is very similar to a perfumed cordial. Nor do they drink it in such small portions as are usual in Egypt and Turkey, but the attending slave holds ready a large vessel, from which he fills the cups as often as they are emptied, while his masters sit and smoke their well-loved long dschihschi[13] pipes, with long tubes passed through water, that the smoke may come cold to the mouth, and which, when a few inveterate smokers meet together, keep up a boiling and bubbling noise, not unlike a distant corps of drummers in full performance.

The battle with the races of Arabia now began, but never had any of Mehemet Ali’s former wars devoured so many bleeding victims as this with the races of Hedjas and Yemen. Their lands proved a bottomless gulph that nothing could satisfy; and only by the greatest exertions, did he in the end manage to overrun, and in a measure conquer, these tribes. For although, after long-continued marches of twenty-four or twenty-six hours, without the smallest rest, among rocky hills, burning plains, without water, every where harassed by Arabs and tormented by fearful heat, the Egyptian army held out stoutly, and behaved bravely, still the mountain district of land called Assir, between Hedjas and Yemen, proved a refuge not to be forced, and one he never could win, as the élite of the population, composed of a body of not more than five hundred warriors, holding themselves distinct from the others, have, by their wild courage and fiery love of fatherland, ever been victorious, and triumphantly beaten off all attacks.[14]

But to the conscienceless Pascha, this destructive and murderous war was most welcome, as it afforded the best and surest vent for getting rid of those restless fellows who stood in the way of his plans. To it were sent all whose deaths were desired; to it were insubordinate regiments despatched, and to it were thousands on thousands of Arnauts hurried off. By these most assuredly had Mehemet Ali been raised to power. By their love of blood he had swept his foes from his path and made firm his rule, but now no longer did the master want his tools; their claims and demands were too great, their excesses and cruelties were the dread of the land, and so the cunning Pascha gladly availed himself of this excellent opportunity of sending them to destruction, causing them to be most anxious to go, by dazzling their eyes with visions of rich booty and unrestrained plunder and bloodshed. Nay! so far did old Ali carry his shameless inhumanity, as to give secret orders to his trusted officers to “expend” the Arnauts in every way; and so, during the march to Arabia, many of these latter were ordered on distant expeditions into the deserts, with certain promise that camels should be sent after them with food and water: but no supplies were ever sent, and those unfortunate men were allowed to perish miserably in the wastes from thirst and starvation. If Mehemet Ali sought a defence for such barbarity, one well suited to him might be found in this, that his own safety and the maintenance of his power demanded the extirpation of these Arnauts; and certainly from his refusal to admit their claims, and the evil way in which he rewarded their former services, as well as their ever being at the call of him who paid best, they were, undoubtedly, most ready and able to attach themselves to any other aspirant to power, and well fitted to ably assist in overturning the wily old Pascha, already most hateful from his many innovations, and increasing rapacity,—a ruin all the easier effected, as there was always in the country a strong party hostile to him, and this was supported both by the Porte and by the remains of the Mamalukes, who still existed, though in secret. These Arnauts had also, ere now, threatened his life in Cairo, on his refusing to yield to their violent demands.

On this occasion, assembling in great bodies, they marched through the city with shouts and riotings, threatening to lay it all in ashes, committing every kind of crime, and at last surrounded the citadel of Jussuff or Sal-ed-din, the beautiful acropolis of Cairo, and began formally to besiege it, purposing to capture it, and with it the Pascha, and murder him. But the old fox probably foreseeing these plans, or having had some hint of the intended mutiny, had, during the preceding night, stolen out of the citadel to the palace of his son-in-law on the Esbekieh, and at once seeing that his power was endangered, failed not to avert the evil. His confidential messengers were immediately with the most influential leaders of the revolters, and weighty purses changed hands and altered murderous intentions; inactivity and quarrels filled the camp, and suddenly a proposal was heard, probably started by the cunning Pascha’s emissaries, that it would be better fun to plunder the city, than remain idle before the fortress. This idea, so well adapted to the character of these troops, was hardly hinted at, when a small body being left to watch the citadel, all set off and broke into the richest bazaars of the city, there robbed, spoiled, and plundered, cutting down and murdering all who offered the smallest hindrance to their savage fury and bloody greed. There, too, was slain, the youngest and fairest daughter of the Prussian consul, Bokhti, who was shot by an Albanian whose path she unfortunately crossed. The richest spoils were sold for a song, and the coin thus got was lavished in excesses of all kinds, and in these the drunken Arnauts forgot all about siege or Pascha. But by the latter every use was made of the time gained: in all haste the nearest quartered regiments of the line were sent for, and, on arriving, distributed partly in the citadel, partly posted at the most important points and commanding situations of the city; so the Arnauts, on awaking from their debauch, found themselves outwitted, and on Mehemet Ali promising them speedy payment of their arrears, they marched quietly back to their former quarters. The pay, wondrous to say, they did receive, but as surely were all, under one or other excuse, despatched into countries from which for them there was no return. The merchants ruined by the Pascha’s stratagem received some millions of piastres as indemnification, but, as may be easily supposed, this sum nothing like covered their losses.

The conduct of the Arnauts from Rumelia, Albania, and elsewhere, during their time of power, is almost incredible. Not one night passed in Cairo, that a number of men were not murdered by them in the most public streets and places. Ever drunk, they wandered about the town, and more than one Frank was shot down merely because he was a Frank: but not alone did Franks suffer; as they spared neither country, sex, or age; every inhabitant trembled at their approach, and at the sight of their yatachans[15], with which they most dexterously sliced off men’s heads, as well as before the ever-loaded pistols stuck in their girdles, and never laid aside day or night, asleep or waking. They spread fear and horror around them on all sides, and were, in one word, the pest of Egypt. Never did I gaze on countenances that more strongly testified to savage passions, and eager love of blood, than those of these Arnauts; such vile and savage faces never did I see, not even among the infuriated and wild Greeks, during their war of freedom, when, in the pomegranate groves of Ti Myli (Lerna, near Argos), they roasted alive their Turkish captives. Their characters are in true keeping with their debauched and brutally savage features. Their dress and equipments perfect the horrors of their appearance; they wear dirty ragged tarbushes dragged down low over the eyes, or carelessly hanging on one side of the head, the bull-like neck and brown breast ever bared, a jacket, always at first of a yellow colour, but now from age, holes, and dirt, colourless, and under it a gay vest of many hues; the once white Albanian or Grecian shirt[16] with large wide sleeves, but now black or brown, as washing it never knew. This shirt falls like a tunic over their short breeches; their leggings generally fastened with innumerable buttons, are of a different colour from the jacket, usually bright red or green, and the naked foot is thrust into old slippers. Over an old torn scarf or shawl is worn a leathern girdle, in which are carried their ornaments, all valuables, and deadly weapons of every kind; at the back hang two small leathern pouches for powder and ball, along with a small flask holding oil for their arms; during war they carry a long musket, and with it, in spite of its short and awkward stock, they take sure and deadly aim. When I last met with them, they had formed a camp near Cairo, and my brother, as medicine major of the chief hospital, Kasr-el-ain, received orders to visit their sick. Arm in arm we held our way boldly down the centre of the street, till near the gates we fell in with two bodies of them, singing, shouting, and half drunk, who seemed inclined to block up the way. My brother cried out “dropp” (out of that); what charm lay in the word I know not, but the line opened and we passed through uninsulted, though in European garb. Ere long we met the second body, and passed them in like way, but in doing so, I greeted one or two of them in Greek, on which many of them rushed up to me, and hailing me as a brother and compatriot, embraced me, insisting on escorting us into the camp. These Arnauts are merely irregular troops, acting as tiralleurs, and generally as it pleases themselves; their officers are always fellow-countrymen. Brave and death defying they are, but only on those occasions when they look for spoil; indifferent and even cowardly where honour alone is the prize, at it they laugh, as at the sufferings of their prisoners, whom they often murder with cruellest tortures. Better they know not; living in their own land without almost any agriculture, industry, or trade, they support themselves by war, plunder, and murder, till at length, forced by starvation to quit it, they seek richer and more favoured lands, in which to pursue their horrid trade. At the present day few Arnauts are to be found in Egypt, the late arrivals having been rapidly forwarded to where they were soon expended. During our residence at Cairo, there arrived in the Arnaut camp before the city, a regiment of them from Syria; as usual these were to be seen drunk, quarrelling, and committing all kinds of excesses in the city and its environs. Thus, one of them, without the least scruple, murdered a poor girl, who from her yellow slippers was easily known as a Turkish female, because she would not yield to his brutal wishes.

Our favourite Bellad-Sudan has also consumed a number of Arnauts, who had been attracted thither by the tempting promises of Ismail Pascha, and of the monster Mohammed Bey Defterdar[17], and son-in-law of Mehemet Ali. They were the principal agents in the horrible and unequalled cruelties of the Defterdar, and this tiger had even three or four hundred of these fellows as his body guard, and paid out of his own pocket. These were the élite of and pattern for the rest, and their master was the most inhuman miscreant of all. Even yet there may be found here and there in Bellad-Sudan, some one or two of these executioners, but old, worn out, and, by sufferings of many kinds, humbled and tamed down. Sulky and disinclined to talk, they are only to be stirred up by awakening their recollections of past times; by these can their quenched fire be again momentarily revived; at such tales again do their eyes gleam, and sparkle as the old lust for blood is aroused, and the trembling hand grasps the well-blooded weapon. The Defterdar is still their idol, and many other soldiers show their admiration of him; Mograbin and Schaigie have over and over again assured us that his like is no where now to be found. In truth, these are men who know nothing of regular work or orderly occupation, who lead a wild unrestrained life, and support themselves by robbery and murder. In these respects the Defterdar was the very man to satisfy them; he kept them in constant employment, knew well how to reward them, for he was liberal and generous to his own men as he was harsh and cruel to a conquering or conquered foe. No sooner did he sit down before a town, than forth went the order to burn, murder, and plunder,—for the dread his name inspired, and his successes in his many and bold enterprises, checked all attempts at resistance. The plunder he shared with his soldiers, as well as their cruelties and excesses.

CHAP. VII.

Position of Mohammed Din. — Camels stolen. — Ant Hills. — Chameleons. — Animal Fraternity. — Uses of Tobacco. — Rosaries — Beads — Amulets. — Blacks — Appearance and Opinions.

Our Pascha seems to have gained nothing by holding as prisoners Mohammed Din, Mussa, and the two Sheiks of Mitkenab, as now no tribute of any sort comes in from their tribes, and not an Arab is to be seen at our lately-established market. That he will, by these means, succeed with Mohammed Din and his people seems to us far from probable, or rather, we feel certain that he will not, and Mohammed Din is repeatedly demanding why he is kept a prisoner, and not at once put to death; he says he fears not death, and would rather meet it than undergo such treatment, that leads to nothing. And we believe him, and, if so, the Pascha will never receive aught from his tribe, who seemingly are guided in all by Mohammed Din’s orders. If he dies, in his people’s eyes, he will have fallen a sacrifice to his country’s weal, and will be honoured by them as a martyr (Schahied, as we have already heard him styled), his grave will become a holy spot, and he himself be numbered among their saints. Who can tell whether or not Mohammed Din has taken all this into consideration, and may not have made up his mind to sacrifice himself, even though in so doing he may have been less influenced by patriotic feelings than by the honour and fame such a death would bestow on his name, and so gloriously wind up a career like his own,—a life of the utmost reverence from, and influence with, his countrymen, thus closing with a death bringing everlasting honour and renown? Most of the leading men among the blacks of our army have expressed to us their dissatisfaction with the Pascha’s conduct towards Mohammed Din; all accuse him of breach of his word; he having given the Sheik the “Amahn,” and it is possible they may at heart be alarmed for a like fate for themselves. Further it is plainly to be seen that the Pascha himself is by no means sure he had done right in taking this course, although he has doubtless well considered and long intended it; on our waiting on him after the decisive step was taken, his first question was, as he looked inquiringly at us, “Chabare?” (What’s the news? What’s going on?) On our giving no direct answer, he broached the subject and said, on our remarking that we were not sufficiently acquainted with the state of matters to judge fairly of them, that he certainly had the strongest grounds for so acting; nay, that this course was absolutely the only one. Of one thing, however, he may rest certain, that his meditated mighty plans of improving these countries are, if not for ever, at least for a long, long period, all crushed and baffled, as he will never now make aught of their inhabitants, who will, after this, much rather desert and quit for ever these lands, than allow him to introduce alterations and improvements among them. With Mohammed Din’s incarceration, all faith of the Arabs in the Pascha has vanished; kind and friendly as he has acted, and may in future act toward them, all confidence is gone, and their hatred to the Turks, strong enough already, from the reports of their cruelties related by fugitives from Schendy and Damer, as well as by the former visits of the Defterdar, yet too well remembered, will be by his conduct inflamed and strengthened.

Life in our camp has little to recommend it. At night Arabs swarm round us on all sides, whose peculiar cries and howlings portend nothing pleasant. The war-cry of the Arabs, a high shrill “Rara ra la lah,” similar to that of the Maniotes, has something hideous and unnatural about it, especially during the night, and leads one to suppose the utterers to be far more numerous than they really are. Measures of great precaution have been taken on our side, in case of any sudden attack. The whole cavalry encamp at night outside the seriba, and one-third of the infantry is always under arms, being relieved at intervals of two hours by the other divisions. The fatigues of these duties, added to the bad food, have brought sicknesses of all kinds on the soldiery. Why should not one division remain on duty all night, and thus give the infantry two full nights’ rest out of every three?

To the tedium and ennui of our camp-life had now been added other annoyances. Our camel-keeper, Mahomet, must have his siesta during the day, and so allow to be stolen from under his guard the two dromedaries given us by the Pascha, that were celebrated for their power, speed, and endurance, as also a young naga (female camel of highest breed), that the Sheik Soliman had sold us as a great favour. She had not in all the camp her equal in endurance, was gentle in her paces, not too tall, and got over the ground quickly and smoothly. When a dromedary does not step out strong and boldly, the Arabs say he has a cold back (Dach’r bärt). Along with these went also three of our pack-camels,—a heavy loss for us. The keeper too, from fear of punishment for his neglect, has also absconded; but on our sending out our other servants, they soon hit upon the track of our stolen beasts, leading in the direction of Soggilab, and this showed plainly they had been carried off by the thieving Haddenda. The Pascha certainly at once wrote to the Sheik of Soggilab, to have our animals sought for, but they have never appeared again, and the Pascha has omitted to compel this rascally tribe to supply their place by others. Our equipment for this expedition had, ere we left Chartum, already cost us 8000 piastres, and now we are again put to the fresh expense of buying other dromedaries and pack-camels (as we have only four left), to convey ourselves and goods, the daily rumour of the camp being that we march in the morning. It is too well known, unfortunately, to all, that we must buy, which will compel us to pay double price. The sums of money lost on these chasuas are great, and men like ourselves, engaging in one for the first time, have to pay a premium for experience. But the greatest annoyance, as well as additional expense, is the servants’ waste, extravagance, and insolence. We have as few of these pests as possible, but still have five for loading, feeding, and attending to our camels; one as cook; one as attendant on ourselves, and to bring in coffee when we have visitors. The tricks, lies, idleness of these gentry is beyond my powers of relating. One European servant would do more than any four of them; indeed, were not the karbatsch kept ever in hand, one would neither get work out of them, nor be able to get on with them.[18]

The only remarkable quality these fellows possess is a curious power of distinguishing, and this enabled our servants to track our lost camels to Soggilab, following their footmarks among those of hundreds of other animals. It is incredible how the natives here can distinguish and follow up a lost beast’s foot-tracks, and even the footmarks of a man. Have they merely once or twice glanced at the footmark of man, camel, horse, ass, &c., they can with certainty distinguish it from a thousand others, follow the trail any distance, so long as the ground is tolerably favourable, and wind or rain has not obliterated the marks. When need requires it, a professional tracker is called on, shown the foot-print of the lost man or beast, and then he, no further question asked, follows up the track over paths and roads, through streets and towns where daily thousands pass, and seldom fails to hunt out the game; nor does he move on slowly, or bending down with eye examining the ground, but moves on briskly, at a sharp run, along the quickly spied-out track. We ourselves beheld, near the Armenian Karabet, how one of these men, being shown the track of a runaway slave, followed it up, and, after three days, overtaking the fugitive, returned again with him a prisoner. On one occasion, my brother having, more than an hour before, left the Pascha’s dwelling in Chartum, to visit some sick in a distant part of the city, was again wanted by the great man; the tschausch (orderly) was sent after him, and tracked his footsteps out, amongst thousands of others, through street and lane, and found him. When we remained behind the army, on the Atbara’s bank, the Schaigies sent back to escort us discovered, among the tracks of the 700 or 800 asses of the army, the footmarks of one belonging to a friend, and the event showed they were right.

Every evening now there is much lightning in the south-east, and it seems as if the rainy season had commenced in the Abyssinian mountains; we also have had here a forerunner of the much-dreaded chariffs, repeated showers, accompanied by thunder and lightning. This latter is called by the Turks “semscheck,” by the Arabs “bark.” We were, during these showers, well drenched in our airy tents, but slept on, wet as we were, till next morning, and did not suffer from our duckings. Every attempt to sleep in the day-time is now vain, from swarms of a small species of fly, that seems every day to augment its numbers; ants, too, are to be found in numerous troops, both in Taka and in the upper parts of Faszogl; all sorts of woollen or cotton clothes that come in their way are in an instant devoured, and in one night carpets, dresses, &c., are eat into rags. Their devastations are boundless, in the shortest time they have devoured the largest stores of grain; they are large in size, and of a different species from those in Dongola. We had for long observed in the fields mounds of earth, of a conical form, from five to twelve feet high, and three or five feet in diameter, and took them at first for look-out towers, such as are to be met with in Upper Egypt, with men on their tops to overlook the whole field, and drive away thieves, whether winged or biped. Round, and even in our camps, were many such mounds; anxious to discover their real purpose, we examined them, and, to our astonishment, found they were not the work of men, but formed by the small ant. On the outside were merely to be seen a number of irregularly-placed round holes, without seeming order or arrangement, save that at the foot of the pillar, and for two feet from the ground, there were none; these holes led into the interior, and there the swarms and multitudes of these small insects were beyond belief. The whole edifice was most artfully and scientifically laid out in small cells, with passages between them; the partitions of these were of the finest earth, vaulted, polished smooth, and about as thick as a sheet of paper. So smooth were these walls, that they seemed as if polished by water, and a finer or better earth had been chosen for them, as they were totally different from the outside of the structure, which closely resembled the soil it stood on; and, from its coarse, rude, and rough exterior, gave no promise of such beautiful master-work. Indeed, this excess of cells, the larger of which seemed as if formed for the saloons,—of winding passages story above story,—in short, all in the interior, was in an order, and of a masterly art, that man’s hand could hardly have given it. Beyond dispute, this indescribably exquisite building is far more artistical and beautiful than that of the bees, though certainly not of the same benefit to man; one cannot enough examine these labyrinths, nor sufficiently admire the work of the small artizans. These beautiful inner arrangements extended from the top to within 1½ foot of the ground; the under part was not so arranged or laboured, probably on account of the rains, as then the water may rise to such a height, and for this reason it may have no holes in its lower part, where the outer wall is formed more coarsely, thicker, and stronger; as the same instinct that causes these insects to raise the mound to protect and secure themselves from the storms of the chariffs, would also point out to them these minor precautions. The highest of these hillocks we measured was 12½ feet, with a diameter at the centre of 3½ feet. Some had inclosed within their retreat a tree-stem, and thus had a green, shady covering over them. In none could we discover any provision, magazines, or places for storing food.

Snakes continue to be brought to us in numbers. A soldier brought us a domestic cat, which he wished to sell us as a rarity; others brought frogs and such common reptiles. Chameleons are to be had in plenty here; their heads and tails form the larger part of their whole; these, as commonly believed, change colour, but neither so completely nor so variedly as men say. Their general colour is green, with yellow spots or streaks, and from heat, it changes from sunshine to shade; angry, or pleased, this green becomes darker or brighter; at times on one side of the body the colour is light green, without any yellow, and on the other, dark green with yellow spots, and the same colouring of the body’s sides extends down their long slender tails. The whole body becomes, at times, of a bright grey with some dark points and the yellow spots often wholly vanish, or are changed into lighter streaks. The changes from dark to bright light green, and the whole body becoming almost transparent, are the only variations of colour we have remarked after two months’ close observation. In fact, the animal, with its immense head and mouth, its pig-like back and long flexible tail, by which it can suspend itself from the branches, is no pleasant object to look at, and may well be hateful to many; its body is covered with a skin similar to that of a frog, its eyes small but cunning looking, and are so placed and moveable, that it can see directly behind itself with them. What it feeds on we cannot tell; probably, from the construction of its great toothless jaws, on insects. With these we have tried them, and with other kinds of food, and kept five tied up with cords, to try and discover their means of sustaining life, but in vain, as we never discovered them eating anything. They pass the whole day clinging by their claws or tail to the post or cord, seldom stirring, and in spite of this we can perceive no visible decrease in them, either in size or fatness, nor any perceptible change for better or worse.

A young wild cat (kediss, or otta el challa) we have, affords us far more amusement; it is now completely tamed, and its equal in beauty will not be easily found. Its prevailing colour is grey, but its feet, head, and whole body are covered over with the most beautiful leopard-like black spots. Its head is rather smaller and more pointed than those of our common German cats, but its crowning beauty is its large ears, that almost conceal its whole head, and are black with a white stripe. Many persons here hold it to be a young tiger (nimr), but its whole habits and structure prove it to be a cat. The natives call it fachet, or fagged, and say it is a kind of gins (cat). Its companion and playfellow is a rat, with long silvery tail, which, when enraged, it can, like our weasel (which it is much of a size with), stiffen and thicken, carrying it high over its back. The poor creature was brought to us with two broken legs, and we at once gave it to the cat that its pains might be ended; but the cat, either not recognising its prey, or being wearied of living alone, would not touch it, so the rat, cured by splints, gradually recovered, and tamed by pain, became first favourite of the cat; they became inseparable, ate together, and slept arm in arm, nor did the rat ever attempt to avail itself of its perfect liberty and leave us. It is not, as our European rats, ugly or ill smelling, and from its long silvery furred tail, may almost be called handsome.

The Pascha, either to show his good nature, or from some other reason of his own, sent my brother this morning to visit the Sheik Mussa (Moses), who is from Sauakim. My brother found him, outside the camp, lying on the earth in the open air, barely covered by a ferda, and his head resting on a stone, round which stood his followers. He had violent fever, with bloody-flux, and constant vomitings; the ground was moist from rain, and yet the sick man would hardly allow us to have him removed inside the camp. Joseph felt very doubtful as to his recovery, but the Pascha, who seemed to set much value on the Sheik’s life (probably that he might not get the credit of having poisoned him), begged us to take him into our own hut, and do all we could to restore his health. Thus we had the pleasing company of this half-dead man in our small hut, and two of our servants had to watch him day and night, as he never once ordered his own people to come and attend on him, nor indeed had we any wish for them to be in our hut, as their habits of stealing are insufferable. For five or six days the sick man was an intolerable nuisance to us. We had to find him in bed and board, in short, to provide him with everything, nor could we, any moment of these days, call ourselves masters of our own hut, as, from early dawn to late at night, it was constantly crowded by some twenty or thirty Arabs, visitors of the sick man, who kept up a constant chattering with him. The patient, however, at last recovered, and one morning, during my brother’s absence, quietly packed up his goods and took himself off, without as much as wishing me good bye, far less thanking us for all our trouble with him. So it is with all this race. Gratitude they know not; one may show them every kindness, but never will it occur to any of them to make the smallest return for it; thanks is a word to them unpronounceable, but they have a word, viz. kata-geirak, in their language, to express the sentiment, though why I know not, as they never use it; nor does this arise from stupidity or ignorance, but from design. On the other hand, they are never tired of most unblushingly asking and begging for every thing; all they see they covet, and fancy it should be at once given them, even though all could be bought for little money, and they themselves have plenty of this or other means of procuring what they beg for. If one does not from the very first go on the principle of determinedly and rudely refusing them every thing, one is sure to be victimised. Their plan is to part with nothing save for double its value, and all who act otherwise they look on as fools. An Arab would see a man perish for want of a cup of water though plenty was at hand, ere he would reach him one, if he knew the dying man was without a para to give in return. In one word the whole race of the Bellad-Sudan, are the most completely devoid of feeling of any I ever was among.

Our life grows every day more monotonous and tedious; our pipes are almost our only amusement. In general the Turks and Arabs of Egypt are great smokers, but not those of the other tribes. Before the Turkish invasion, tobacco-smoking (dogahn, smoke), was unknown to the Schaigies, and even yet it is not practised by anything like a fourth part of these natives. Among the Mograbins it is hardly known at all,—but chewing, each portion of tobacco being accompanied by a piece of natron, is the order of the day. Master and servant, rich or poor, all carry about them a bag with tobacco and pieces of natron in it, and they do not carry their quid as Europeans who indulge in this bad habit do, in their cheek, but in front, between the teeth and upper lip. The blacks of Gesira have another method of enjoying this plant. They make a cold infusion of tobacco, and dissolve the natron in it. Of this precious mixture, called bucca, they take a mouthful, which they keep rincing about in their mouths for some quarter of an hour ere they eject it. So much do they delight in this bucca, that it is the highest treat they can offer to their dearest friends. The whole party sit in solemn silence, the bucca cup makes its round, each takes his mouthful, and nothing is heard save the gurgling and working inside the closed mouths; at such a moment these blacks will give no reply to the most important questions, as to open the mouth would be to lose the cherished bucca, so signs are only used. All these races, however, blacks and all, are much addicted to snuff-taking (nuschuk); the snuff they usually carry in small oval-shaped cases, made out of the fruit of the Dom-palm; these have a very small opening at one end, stopped up by a wooden peg, and the snuff is not taken in pinches, but shaken out on the back of the hand.

This is the principal sensual pleasure, and the most favourite mental one of every follower of Islam is the counting the beads of his rosary; these rosaries, their chief ornament, they wear hanging on the neck or arm while praying, but carry it at other times as a plaything in the hand. This latter plan was much in vogue among many Franks in Alexandria, who could not remain quiet on the divan if they had not a rosary to finger, nor could they walk out on business through the streets without this indispensable plaything. The religious Turks use a rosary during prayer (sali), at each bead, the telling of which goes on rather more rapidly than with our German devotees, exclaiming the name of Allah. But other religionists carry also rosaries,—Copts, Eastern Christians, Armenians, &c., as a toy to amuse themselves with when their hands are not occupied by the pipe. Among the better classes, these rosaries are generally of precious stones, sweet smelling woods, or a dark, odorous compound of roses, ornamented with gold, silver, ivory, and such like. Those used by the lower order of Arabs are manufactured in Hedjas from the fruit of the Dom-palm, and are sold by the merchants and pilgrims (Hadji) as possessed of particular qualities and special virtues; others are made of rose and other fragrant woods, and retain considerable remains of such scents. The size and numbers of beads vary; commonly there are 99, in three divisions of 33 each, but there are some rosaries with only 33, and some with as many as 198 beads. The sacred number of Mahomet is 33, and pious Mussulmen pronounce or exclaim after prayer Allah’s name 3 times 33 times (99); but this is not absolutely ordered by the Koran. For the first 33 times the exclamation is Subhan Allah (To God belongs all, God created all!); the second division Hamdul el Allah (Thanks to God!); the third Allah Ackbar (God is great—is over all!). In usual conversation the name given the Deity is Mauhle. The whole string of 99 beads is called Sebbà. The Sheiks and Faki[19] are distinguished by extravagantly large and long rosaries; and in Hallenga, where almost every man is a Faki, we have seen some rosaries three or four feet long, each bead as large as a musket-ball. Such a rosary we were anxious to buy, to present to an aunt in our fatherland, to smooth her path to heaven, but were indignantly refused, called Christians and heathen dogs, told that this rosary had made the tour of the holy shrines, and been washed in the Purifying Well at Mecca.

Such rosaries form no small branch of trade with Hedjas, and there is also a considerable trade in glass beads and false pearls carried on between that place and Nubia, Bellad-Sudan, and Taka; and more than probable, this trade extends to the Abyssinians, Negroes, and inhabitants of the upper part of Faszogl and of the White Nile. Many houses trading in these beads are to be found in Cairo and Alexandria. The glass beads come chiefly from Europe (Bohemia, Venice, Conterie di Venezia), and from a place near Jerusalem; formerly from the latter alone. They are of all sizes and colours; in Abyssinia the large amber-like ones are the most valued, although now become much more common, and no longer bringing their earlier high price. These beads form all over the land of the coloured (Sudan) the chief ornament of the women, who wear them in rows round the neck, ancles, arms, both above and below the elbows, in the hair, and some, as also in Egypt, round the naked waist, with some one of the many highly-prized amulets of these lands hanging from them. We have now and then seen them worn as nose and ear rings. Little children are laden with strings of these beads, and of the small white mussel shells (cypræa moneta). The women often are dressed in nothing else save these, the rahat or short skin apron, and the well-known long cloth or ferda rolled round head, breast, and loins. Armlets and bracelets they must ever have, the poor of glass, black horn, or false pearls; the rich of ivory, silver, and even gold; and such are often also worn on the ancles. Children have narrow iron rings with small bells attached to them, fastened round the ancles, perhaps as ornament only, perhaps to tell of their whereabouts; the ringing of the bells much delight the small wearers. That the women keep their hair well anointed with fat, and their bodies smeared with it or grease, is a matter of course.

But here in Taka, where they are treated more as slaves, the women dare not smear fat (dichen) on their hair; here, too, they seem compelled to do most of the field work and household labour, while in Nubia and Gesira they pass the whole day on their couches in comfortable idleness, leaving all labour to the men and slaves.

The pretended pearls brought by Dschellabi (slave-dealers) into Egypt, and bartered with the blacks and natives of Habesch for slaves and other goods, often at a profit of 1,000 per cent., may be seen at times worn by the men on different parts of their bodies as ornaments, but very sparingly. Ear-rings of lead and silver are worn by both men and women of Habesch, and those worn by the Sultan of Habesch and his family were of gold; these ornaments are not worn in the lobe of the ear, but in the upper gristly part, or in the elongation of the skin opposite to or over the orifice of the ear. Usually one ear only is thus adorned, and many, like the Sheik of the Beni-Amer, had two rings in the same ear. Rings through the right nostril are less common here than in Upper Egypt or Nubia, and in Taka we saw none; but where such are worn and happen to be lost or not in use, a piece of wood is always stuck in to keep the orifice open. On the feet are generally sandals, and in Chartum the women wear at times a curious kind, raised at front, and behind on bulky pieces of wood two inches thick, so that the foot can never touch the ground. If the object of this is to avoid wet or cold, it may answer; but the walking on them seems hard work, and is by no means graceful.

The Arab’s pet ornament of all is undoubtedly his beard, although with most of them this mark of manhood is neither full nor flowing. He values it more than mustachios; by it he swears, and puts his hand on it when he would support aught he tells as truth. A Shukurie-Arab had a considerable and very painful wen on his chin; to cure him of it, it would have been necessary to cut off his beard—a scanty and hardly visible one it was—but to this he would on no account submit; he much preferred retaining wen and beard. The blacks of the island have little or no beard; still if only a hair shows itself here and there, this is carefully spared, and the barber (mùssein) must daily be in requisition to tend it. No greater joy can happen them than when they can get possession of a mirror; for hours will they hold this in their hands, gazing into it, and never seeming to tire of admiring and examining in all directions their dark visages. It is solely for the sake of the glass that the blacks let the barbers come near their heads, as it is only on the eye-brows and hair of the ears he has to work. However, one of these blacks, in his white garment, that he well knows how to drape over himself in artistical folds, and white turban surmounting all, has really an interesting and handsome appearance. His gait is slow and proud, and on his hand is displayed a broad, massive signet ring, on the smooth surface of which are engraved some Arabian characters spelling his name; behind him are his attendants, the most favoured of whom bears his sword with silver hilt. Almost all are tall and slender, dignified and stately in their movements. Their robes are always, if possible, clean and spotless; they especially favour white, as they hold it to be the colour of purity and friendly feelings. They often have examined our skin, and cannot comprehend why it is so white, nor how it is possible that the blood should be perceptible in the veins. They were particularly curious as to the colour of our women[20]; and when we assured them they were far fairer, expressed their opinion that it must be a great pleasure to have such a wife; and for the same reason did one of them extol the charms of a certain female slave, as being white as snow (saie el telki). However, it is perfectly incomprehensible to most of them that all our nation should be white; that Arabian is not spoken in our country; that men there know nothing of the supreme and powerful Turkish rule, and that our customs and habits should be what they are. Over and over again are we asked, if all the men of our country are hakims (plural, hakama, doctors), probably as most of the Franks who visit these lands are, or wish to pass for such. Never will they believe that a Frank travels merely to see foreign countries, to collect objects of interest or other curiosities; but often are we asked, “Are your brothers achuan, (achui, my brother, so each calls his countryman) out of their senses, to waste so much money and build such large houses to contain collections, merely to look at them?” That all this leads to the advance of science they cannot at all comprehend.

CHAP. VIII.

Effects of exposure to the sun — Diseases of the natives — Their insensibility to pain — Stoicism under surgical operations — Mograbin soldiers — A travelled Arab — Tyranny of Mehemet Ali — Amulets — Foreigners in Egypt — Turkish prejudice.

We suffer greatly from the heat; and it is only in cases of much urgency we stir out, or quit our hut, from noon till four hours after it. When we are summoned by the Pascha,—and to appear before him, one must at any hour be ready,—we cover up our heads, in addition to the taghie (takie, under-cap) and tarbush, by a hood or cloth, as we have been warned by sad experience to take every precaution. On our journey up, my brother received a stroke of the sun in spite of his straw hat, and had for two days to struggle with death; and I only saved him by the desperate remedy of constantly blistering his stomach and the soles of his feet. In spite, of this fearful heat, we still wear our usual woollen clothing; and even over this, a warm silken scarf (hessàhn), which, as it produces perspiration, is much to be preferred to thinner stuffs. The principal care we Germans require is, shading the head; on the march, we keep this rolled up, and so covered, that we often cannot see out of our eyes; we must cut queer figures. But even the Bedouins themselves, in warm sunshine, carefully cover their heads with their woollen barakan (batanie), although almost all the rest of the body is left exposed or naked; and, for the same reason, the Turks wear two tarbushes. As far as the present inhabitants of Dongola and the Island are concerned, the sun does not seem to exercise any very hurtful power on their brain-pans. Both races, however, are well protected from his rays, by their well-greased and plaited hair, which, like the woolly hair of the negroes, forms a good sheltering roof, or thatch: but even among them are to be found old bald-headed men, who seem to care as little for the sun’s rays as the others. It is very remarkable, that persons with perfectly smooth-shaved heads, and the rest of their body all bare, save some old rag about the loins, will expose themselves all day to the most glowing sun, and not complain of headache, or any thing of the kind. What would we poor Europeans do in such a case? In less than five minutes we would be raving mad. Our youngest attendant, Sale, from Mahass, sits the whole day in the sun, his head uncovered, save by his short-cut hair. Out of pity we gave him an under cap, to somewhat protect him; and as it was a new possession he wore it delightedly till noon, when I again saw him, though then the heat was strongest, sitting bareheaded by the fire; and even the smallest children, such as are with us yet carried in arms, one sees lying for hours long under the glowing sun; and surely those with their tender bones should not be better able to bear its rays, than we with our fully developed bodily powers. How comes it that these delicate creatures do not sicken under it? Of their being accustomed to it, there can be no talk here; and how would infants of our race bear it? However, custom does something; as at first we could not venture out here in the sun without having, in a few minutes, blisters and painful scalds on our naked hands; the skin of our faces was scorched, and, regularly every week, peeled off in great blotches; but without our gaining by it a more juvenile appearance, although we often jested over and amused ourselves with such hopes. Being burnt almost as brown as Arabs, we can now venture to expose our hands without gloves: but still we dare not allow any part of our body usually covered, to be exposed naked to the sun, even for a short while, without we choose to pay for it by a painful redness, almost to be considered a kind of erysipelas. Besides, the covered parts of the body have, in spite of the fiery heat, preserved their original colour. What a fearful state it would be in this country should a man not perspire! The whole body is burning hot; one is tortured by a not to be assuaged inward thirst, and racking restlessness; the hair of the head stands on end; and, although one is inside the house, and sheltered from the sun, it is of a burning heat; every separate hair seems to act as a conductor of the sun’s rays to the brain; one knows not where to fly from such a torturing state, which, besides, is generally accompanied by weakness and despondency, and is usually, though not always, the forerunner of fever. Liver and gastric illnesses are not very common; and acute tropical liver disease we have only seen one instance of. Gastritis chronica and rheumatism are commoner. Ferendit (muscular hair-worm, vena medinensis) has not been seen during our whole expedition; it seems as if this locality was free of it. In Chartum, many of the black soldiers suffered from it; but, probably, brought it from their own countries with them. From many instances, we are led to suspect they communicated it to each other by the touch. The chief spots for ferendit are Dinka, Frantiet, from whence it got its name; Atisch, Katareff, and most parts of the lands of the blacks and negroes. In Taka, the deadly fever swelling, or ague, is so common, that one may safely say every third man suffers under it. The females suffer less from it than the males. Usually it is of such a size, that it extends even to the arcus cruralis, and almost the whole front division of the belly is filled up by it; all over where it does extend, only a few drops of blood can be drawn out, and that after much pain and trouble, by cupping. A general wail is made over the Genna el Wurda (Child of Fever), which gives rise to numbers of other illnesses. As yet, there have only been two dropsical cases, and both these were consequences of disorganisation. Phthisis, especially in women, is oftener seen; and also here and there are cases of hæmorrhoides, but not in any great numbers.

Operating is here an easy matter for the surgeon, as seldom does a sound tell of pain, nor are men necessary to hold the patient while operated on. There is, indeed, much to surprise one in this great self-command or insensibility of the blacks during the most painful operations. For instance, a black in the hospital had caries of all his toes: Joseph amputated the foot à la Chopart, without the patient being held or bound, and without his emitting one cry of pain. The operation completed, it was discovered that the head of the tibula and the joint of the ancles were very carious, although this could not be perceived from the exterior; and so it was necessary to at once take off the leg under the knee. My brother told the patient this: he replied, if it was so, and it must be done, that he had better not lay aside his knife, but proceed at once, as he (the patient) would remain quiet as before; and he did so: the second operation being over, he then, but not till then, begged for some merissa. Although the wound healed well, this man afterwards died, from caries again breaking out in the knee and hip joint; a real dispositio cariosa. The blacks’ cure for the frantiet (farendit), viz. fire, is certainly the best and surest.[21] They run a red-hot nail, or other pointed iron, many times into the swelling, and by this the spot where the worm generally lies, with part of his body rolled up in a knot, is laid open; they think no more of this than a European would do of taking out a thorn; and with all coolness perform on themselves this small but most painful operation.[22] In Chartum, Joseph applied the actual cautery to two soldiers; one in the first, and the other in the second stage of coralgie, with good success. The firing streaks were not small, and the fat, insensible skin hissed much under the hot iron; but neither would allow himself to be held, nor was it required, as only a slight convulsive motion of the muscles of the face showed the pain suffered. Nay, one of them during the firing said, “Ana badenn uachet kabab,” (after this, I may pass as a kabab—roasted bit of meat). During circumcision, these black soldiers will stand upright, and even laugh, while it is going on; the presence of many spectators may contribute much to this stoicism, and by it they would also show their zeal and ardent wish to quit heathenism. The slaves that come from the neighbourhood of Faszogl, the hills of Kordofan, the countries of Schilluk and Dinka, are never circumcised; and it is said, that, with the latter, the pulling out of the four under cutting-teeth has the same significance as circumcision; and this is done to both men and women. Burning sores with caustic seems to inflict no pain whatever on the blacks.

This indifference towards pain exhibited by the blacks generally seems to be highly valued among the better educated and wealthier of them; these, the first among their tribes, would hold themselves degraded, and look on it as a deep disgrace to themselves, to appear weak in the presence of those who are sure to attend in crowds even during the smallest operations. With the common people it may, indeed, be actual insensibility to pain. A sick man is constantly visited by his friends and relatives, and generally the small hut is so full, that many must remain outside. The sick man may be ever so ill, may be in the greatest pain, every day becoming worse, and yet, to his friends’ questions of “Taibin? sciak ente?” (How goes it? How do you feel?) is only the one answer, “El hamdull Allah, taib” (Well, praise be to God!) No complaint is ever heard during such visits. This custom, or this pride, is not confined to the blacks, but is common to both Arabs and Turks. The natives of Egypt and Syria alone cry out and behave like children under the smallest pain, all running off as soon as they see the knife; though they behave tolerably well under any operation performed by fire, perhaps because they are used to such from their youth.

Not long ago my brother had to set a broken thigh-bone, and where, too, there was serious dislocation of the broken parts; but the black sufferer, though he allowed it gave him some pain, still declared he was no woman, but a man (achu el bennaht, brother or defender of the weak—a truly splendid name for the brave, and a title of which all are proud), and had slain many enemies ere he gained his freedom.

The Schaigie Melek Saat, whose father yet rules the old Dongola (Dongola agùhs), had received, a month before the present chasua, some hundred blows of the stick at the orders of the Pascha. One side where he had been punished healed quickly, but under the skin on the other shoulder formed a collection of matter of large extent. In spite of all this, he made on horseback the march from Chartum to Aronga, of more than a month’s duration, with the army, in a state when another man would have been lying in bed with violent fever. In Aronga, at last, he called in Joseph; but now, from neglect, a hard, ulcerous sore had formed:—Joseph informed him it would be necessary to cut it out. “Oh,” he said, “cut away, when and where you will; I can stand it:” and he kept his word.

A Mograbin from the great Oasis (Oa) had got his hand shattered by the bursting of his gun. This happened five hours’ journey from the camp; and he came to us the next day, sitting erect and stately on his horse, having stopped the bleeding by powder and sand. With all possible coolness, he looked on during the painful operation performing on him, supporting his injured arm in his sound right hand.

But, manly and brave as the Mograbins may show themselves, still, from their falseness and dishonesty, they are little liked by the other Arabs, or by the Turks. They are said to be men of two faces (Magrab endu wuschu etenien), i.e. they can speak kind words, while they are false at heart; and we must, as far as we know them, add our confirmation of this character. They are generally tall and stout, have long-shaped faces, strong black beards, long high noses, and very expressive but rather cunning countenances. With us they could pass as Jews. Their gait and demeanour are haughty, but to superiors they are submissive and obsequious, with constant smiles on their faces; and if, as it is said, they are proud of their descent, holding themselves superior to all other Arabs, nay, even to the Turks themselves, they know well how to conceal this pride in the presence of the latter. However little conscientious about other things, they are strict in observing their religious ceremonies, though strongly given to luxury, spending much care and coin on their dress. This consists, when it can be had, of a tarbush, a long, narrow, white under shirt, and a great, very wide upper shirt of the same colour, which must reach the ground; its sleeves being also so wide as to almost touch the earth. Shoes must never be wanting, however old or bad. Thus they dress and ornament themselves for themselves alone, as they have little intercourse with the other Arabs, and keep altogether to their own tribe. The greater part of them have come, some thirty years before, from Tripoli, with the family Ladjam, who had there long carried on quarrels and hostilities with the Pascha Jussuff, but had at last to yield. Many are also to be found here from all parts of Barbary, who had quitted their native lands in hopes of finding rich prizes and spoil here. They boast highly of their own virtues, and of the great riches and high dignities they held at home; but all this is false; one knows only too well the state of things among the Bedouins there, and to this race most of these belong. However, they show themselves good soldiers and horsemen; although the horses they are supplied with by government are bad enough. Their weapon is a long musket, which they well know how to use. Many have a brace of pistols in addition, but the sabre is only worn by their leaders. They themselves look on it as a useless weapon; and, in their opinion, war is only to be carried on by firing. They rush on and fire, and as rapidly retire back again. They have to find their own horses and arms, and maintain them; receive seventy-five piastres monthly, and thirty rupp of durra for their horse, and six for themselves. If the horse dies, or is killed in action, then must they from their own means furnish another, and if they have not the means, as is generally the case, then the divan or their leaders supply one, and always at a high price; so it is too often the case that the soldier remains two or three years in debt, during which time he receives no pay. Besides, their leaders, in the most unlawful way, take the highest interest from their men’s pay, which is the same in peace and war; or they buy necessary articles in the mass, and issue them to the soldier who has no money at two prices. Thus, between the cheating of the divan and their officers, the poor soldier in the end gets no pay at all. Thus acts the commandant of artillery, thus almost all other commanders; and the wretched soldiery, who often for many years receive no coin, are then compelled to apply to these Jews for the means of keeping life in themselves. These tricks can be no secret to the Pascha; and it is well known that Abd-el-Kader, the commandant of artillery, whose monthly pay is only 600 piastres, makes in this way, by selling to the soldiers clothing, soap, &c. at the most usurious prices, some ten purses monthly. To extract money is the only thing these rascals of Turks, who stream into Egypt from all the countries round—Circassia, Kurdistan, Rumelia, &c. &c.—think of or attend to.

The lot of the Mograbins here is, therefore, not very much to be envied. Moreover, often for a couple of years they do not see their wives or children, so well does the Pascha keep them employed; and, ere long, most of them will be swept away by the diseases of the unhealthy climate. As a solitary instance among them of one man of really good character whom we have known, must be mentioned Mohammed Agà, of the family of Ladjam. He is a leader of some 400 men, and this dignity is hereditary in his family. Of the guidance of money he is, indeed, no great master; for, besides his monthly pay of five purses, and his other revenues of nearly as much, he has already got rid of some 2000 purses, although he is not yet twenty-seven years old. And in this expenditure he has had little pleasure, for the Turks do not understand how to expend money worthily. As usual, the brave but not too wise Ladjam has been ably assisted by many friends in this labour. His mother, who lives in Cairo, will now no longer send him money, and he therefore often finds himself in the saddest dilemma, as he supports in his household some 140 persons.[23] In his potations, Ladjam has now become very moderate, since his brother drank himself to death by pouring daily down six or eight bottles of brandy, and wine in proportion to allay the thirst the brandy caused. In earlier days, in Cairo, Mohammed Agà could hold his own with him. He does not stand high with the Pascha, as he is neither flatterer nor soldier, and he some two years ago caused some hundred blows to be given Ladjam. The case was this: Ladjam had fallen desperately in love with a beautiful lady of Cairo, and sent a confidential servant to bring the fair dame to Bellad-Sudan; but while on their journey the couple spent and wasted some seventy or eighty purses. On his arrival Ladjam threw the cheating servant into prison, “karakohl,” and had him well bastinadoed. He complained to the Pascha, who, having no very kind feelings towards Ladjam, and perhaps angered by the whole story, sentenced the latter to corporal punishment. That the dignity and authority of the higher officers must be much impaired by their being subject to such punishments, follows as a matter of course. Now, the poor Ladjam goes in fear and trembling to wait on the Pascha, and one never hears a word from him while there, unless in answer to a direct question. His major domo, his Mentor, in short, his right hand man, is old Achmet Salaui (from Selva), who already had been long with his father. He says, and what he says is true, that he really looks after Ladjam’s interest; and that, were it not for him, the latter would ere now have been beggared. Achmet is a tall, stately, and, spite of his advanced age, a very handsome man. He is better acquainted with European customs and uses, than any other Turk I ever met with, prides himself not a little on his civilisation, and calls the others blockheads, who have not seen the world, and, for all their stupid pride, know nothing of life, especially of European life and pleasures. When he pays us a visit, he gives vent to what he still retains of broken Spanish, Italian, and French. He was once, in earlier times, as others have assured us, a well-doing merchant of Tripoli, and worth some 25,000 Spanish dollars. In the course of business he visited many European ports; life there pleased him only too well, so he gathered up his coin, and set out on his travels; during which he visited Paris, Cadiz, Madrid, Naples, Genoa, Venice, Vienna; and of this last he still remembers the names Prater and Danube. This tour had played the mischief with his treasure, and he at last found himself compelled to pass to Egypt and turn soldier. How much his entertainment of fair dames and kind friends also aided in the devouring of his capital, can easily be imagined. He himself often says, “I have never repented I laid out my money in that way; I have seen the world, and made myself acquainted with it; I have had my enjoyments, such as no Turk knows, and such as I never will have again. Even now, in my reduced state, where I merely manage to live, I have memories left me which I would not sell for any sum. Ah!” he cried out, “those putane belline, quest’ vino buono, deloachti mafish!” (Now it’s all over). “It is much better that I should have spent my money when young, than that after my death the divan should have got it all.”

A Turk is in the right when he thinks thus; for, if it is possible, the divan manages one way or another to be heir to almost all. The widow of the dead man gets nothing, or so little it hardly supports her; and if she is still young, she is forced to marry some other man of humbler rank. The younger children are placed in some establishment for education, the elder into the regiments, and the state pockets the property. Thus are high and low treated, if any gain can be made by it; only the children of the former are usually appointed to some rank in the army. But it is not always that the state has time to wait till death: it knows other ways and means to get money. And this causes all, Turks and rayahs (subjects), to conceal and hide in every possible way from its prying eyes every symptom of riches or property. Every one complains of being poor, suffers privations, goes meanly dressed, lets the outside of his house fall into decay, has in his reception-chamber his worst carpets and furniture, &c. &c., while in the interior of his house, and especially in his harem (charim), all is luxury and abundance; his wives shine in silken robes and costly jewels, and are waited on by numerous slaves of every colour. Incense perfumes their rooms, the most splendid Persian carpets of the richest, freshest, and gayest colours, cover divans and floors,—and he, poor man, casts off his dirty, shabby clothes, wipes from his face his assumed humility and obsequiousness, and becomes a man. Rich robes cover the cooling silken shirt, costly Cashmere shawls girdle his loins, and form the stately Turk; yellow shoes or slippers adorn his feet; and, perfumed with fragrant scents, he strides now with all gravity, as lord and master, into his inner apartments, where all are at his orders. At the doors the guards of his earthly paradise humbly await him, the wretched eunuchs (Tauwasch), as slowly and stately he approaches the circle of his women, haughtily returning the reverent salutations. His long pipe with precious amber mouth-piece (Tarkib) is brought him, the loved Gebbeli (best kind of Syrian tobacco) is kindled with aloe wood, and at once spreads its aroma round, while the evening passes with music, dance, and song. Thus do the rich enjoy in secret that wealth, which a barbarous government prevents their otherwise expending; for should any one in the smallest degree openly display such, a revision of his accounts would at once take place, were he in office and, without doubt, errors and deficiencies be made out, which would far exceed all his means. If he were only a merchant (Chawàga), the state would compel him to make advances that never would be repaid him; or he would be forced to purchase, to the full amount of all he possessed, some produce of the country at double the price the state had already bought it at, and so his ruin made inevitable.

While we were at Cairo, a rich Armenian firm was thus ruined by old Mehemet Ali. He compelled this Armenian, who was a rayah, to purchase from himself, at a very exorbitant price, cotton to the full amount of his means; and as soon as he had received coin in payment, he sold out of his own magazines so much cotton, and at so low a price, that it was only after a very long time, and at less than half price, the poor Armenian could dispose of his. Such are the honest practices of this conscientious ruler, as often and wherever he can; and by such acts of tyrannical violence he has succeeded in so well clearing out his subjects, that in the whole valley of the Nile, not one single wealthy person is to be found. If here and there a man yet possesses wealth, he dare not, under existing circumstances, let it one instant appear, or enter into the smallest speculation with it; from this are now the bazaars in Cairo and other former cities of trade empty in comparison with former times, and from this arises the want of credit and small repute the Egyptian merchants command in other lands.

As badly, if not worse, are the members of the military profession situated. They never receive their discharge; and if they are Arabs, the very thought of it would be high treason. Many of these soldiers, especially the Turks, who have managed to get hold of high office, and by cheatings and extortions from the soldiery as well as from the people of their departments have succeeded in gathering up a tolerable sum, are all most desirous to retire to their native land, or into some town where they may pass the remainder of their lives in rest and quiet. Well, they say so; and what happens? Their accounts, since they entered the army, are revised, and it were a miracle were no deficiency discovered, and such too as far exceeds all the goods and property of the culprit; so that, were he to live to the most unusual age, he never could make good the sum wanting. Thus are and remain all, even the most dignified Paschas, slaves for life; and ever must they tremble either for their wealth or their lives. If they die soon—it is well—the divan are their heirs. If they are tenacious of life, or show any symptom of attempting flight, means are found to introduce into their coffee or food a certain specific for all life’s pains. The higher Turks, whose wealth is known, are thus ever held in constant fear; and often present large sums to the divan as antidotes to such specifics, or, during life, declare the divan their heir, and this proper feeling is found to be in general a good diverter of the evil: such doings as these are not solely confined to Egypt, but are common enough in Turkey itself.

Turks, Arabs, and Negroes, all add greatly to these and other annoyances by their superstitions. These prevail, indeed, more or less in all countries among the ignorant and demi-savage races, but here it is not confined to the low or uneducated; but the same ridiculous opinions are held by the highest and best informed. On all of them are amulets, i.e., texts or words from the Koran, written on tablets and inclosed in leather cases, to be seen. Even the otherwise free-thinking and well-informed Pascha is not free from these superstitions, as, although no amulets are to be seen on himself, still his favourite dromedary bears various such charms on his neck. Among the Haddenda at present each has fresh amulets suspended to some old long worn one, and all for the same object, viz., to make themselves ball and sabre proof against the daily expected attack of the Turks.

Ali Aga, whose family-name is Sobi, leader of 300 Magrabins, told us, with solemn face, that during a battle in Hedjas, against the Bedouins there, he had three horses shot under him, and all his dress torn and riddled by balls, but not one of them touched his body. We said, he was in high luck; but he proudly drew from his breast a little old leathern bag, and holding it up triumphantly, replied: “It was no luck, but this treasure did it, which a saint in my own country gave me!” Although he still wears this and many such charms, the sabres of the Abyssinians seem to have no respect for such relics, as these have wofully slashed him in an attack by the Turks on Makada. Never have we seen on any skull such severe scars, or any attended with the loss of so much of the bone. On the head he has four cuts, more than four inches long and one and a half broad, in which one could easily conceal his thumb: only the inner bone plate remains, and in one of these cuts there is such a loss of the bony substance that the pulsation of the brain can be felt. We, laughing, asked him, if, when he received these wounds, he wore his amulets against sabre cuts: he replied, he had them not on, as, if he had, no sabre would have harmed him. We also learned, from what he said, that men hold the inhabitants of Abyssinia, who are Christians, to know somewhat of the black art, believe them to have an understanding with the devil, and that, to make this power innocuous, some special papers or extracts are necessary. Sobi, who in spite of his fearful wounds was sound again within four weeks, these being healed by application of burnt coffee and brandy, the prescription of an Abyssinian doctor, is descended from one of the principal families of Fez, and his most cunning and shrewd face plainly declares his descent and country. He is false and hypocritical, has a constant smile at his command, is, as usual, outwardly a strict Mussulman, who punctually obeys all the commandments, drinks no spirituous liquors, and lives or seems to live very moderately and sparingly in all things, women alone excepted. Then, too, he has proved himself a brave and able soldier; and, if he had his own way, would extirpate all Franks and Christians.

Innate foes to both are indeed, more or less, all Mussulmen; the lower orders really from religious hate, the higher from envy, caused by the perfect freedom, the civilisation, and scientific acquirements of the Franks. They feel only too well that the Franks in every way are entitled to take a far higher position, and value themselves far higher; but they are too feeble and lazy for rivalry, and see no other means of avenging their inferiority than by silly pride and assumed contempt for all Europeans and European improvements or institutions. However, the time cannot be far off, when the pride of these Mussulmen will be lowered, and they will be shown that the masters of the world, as Mahomet called his followers, along with their system, have become mouldy, worn out, and obsolete.

At present the Franks have actually more liberty in Egypt than the other races, as there the word of their consul is respected, and foreigners can no longer be insulted with impunity. So far has Europe brought matters with the old fox, Mehemet Ali. Still the Frank here must pay considerable regard to public appearances; for instance, were he to enter any mosque of more than common sanctity without the escort of a soldier, he would be cudgelled; or, during the great procession which carries the curtain to Mecca, were any man in European dress to show himself in the streets, he would run a risk of being fearfully ill used. If a Mussulman female be found with a Frank, she is at once seized on, bastinadoed, and cast into prison,—nay, sometimes into the Nile. In general, the European is judged by his own laws; and this is an inestimable privilege, otherwise all Franks would fall a prey to the caprice of Turkish justice. Only for three crimes is a Frank handed over to be punished by Turkish law, i.e. is to be at once hanged or strangled,—viz., for breaking into a harem, for coining false money, or for intentionally murdering a Mussulman.

Unfortunately, in Egypt as in the free states, the foreigners there are the raff of their nations, for though one must not fancy that all Franks here are good-for-nothing rascals, still such is the character of most of them. It is almost incredible the villanous deeds most of these have committed in their own country and other lands, and in Egypt their villany, of course, arrives at the culminating point. It is from this that the better Turks form such mean opinions of Europeans, and hence it is a hard task to gain the respect or confidence of one of these. Besides, in Alexandria and more especially in Cairo, and more or less in many other cities of Egypt, Franks are to be found who have sought an asylum there, and who are nothing but perfect adventurers. Every nation has, indeed, its representatives here. The Greeks (Rumi), partly rayahs (subjects), partly free, are doubtless the most numerous. That this debased race can bring little advantage to any land is too true; and the base character, especially of these Levant Greeks, is too well known, for one to desire the presence of any of this most ungrateful and faithless people.

Next to them the Italians are the most numerous, and their language is the prevailing one all over the Levant. But Italy seems in truth to have opened her brothels and houses of correction, and to have set her galley-slaves at liberty, to aid in rendering Egypt’s people still more rascally and corrupted. Only very few among the Italians can be counted on as honest men; the most of them have been cast off by their country, or compelled to fly from it for their crimes. We had many opportunities of knowing well these Italians, as we were compelled to live, for a considerable time, in close intercourse with many of them, and must unfortunately express our conviction, that they are as false, cunning, and overbearing, where they dare show it, as they are obsequious and profuse of their friendships where this will gain them their ends. They seem unable to live without intrigue, and they are sure to introduce discord wherever they are suffered to interfere. Their grudges and hatred they will keep concealed for many a year, feign friendship towards those whose ruin they have sworn, until the hour of revenge has come, and they find themselves certain of success. All means are right to them, horrible or faithless as they may be, if they only lead to their aim. One can never be enough on his guard with them; a single word, rashly spoken, is enough for them, as from their own great cunning, and their ever being on the look-out to cause the ruin of others, they, agreeably to their innate characters, put the worst construction on every thing, and turn it, as far as they can, to the speaker’s detriment.

They are generally most moderate in their potations, chiefly from their inborn stinginess, which often goes the length of miserliness; but in eating, especially when they can feast at another’s expense, they prove themselves real gluttons. Of the paste they call maccaroni they never tire or can devour enough, and will gulp it down in quantities that a German stomach, which is in general no very delicate one, would turn away from in disgust. They also rejoice in all kinds of puddings, or sweet dishes made with rice; but sweetmeats are their greatest delight, and for these all of them, both old and young, would almost give their souls. A plain soup they know not; theirs must be thickened with rice, or with some kind of pastes. In Egypt most of the Italians are in office of some kind, and unfortunately the greater part of them are mere charlatans, totally without, or only with the smallest smattering of education and science. All are conceited of their own persons, country, and race, which they hold as the first in the world, and it is most laughable to hear them brag and boast. They fancy they are still the same people who formerly ruled the world; those from Venice and its neighbourhood, still dream of the times of the Dorias and the glorious republic. English, French, and Germans they despise; and if one tells them of new or improved institutions in these countries, they defyingly assert the idea was borrowed from Italy; or if this is too palpable a falsehood even for them, then the thing is good for nothing. But the main cause of their holding all other nations as stupid, is, that none of the others will or can rival them in their baseness and wickedness. Alas for their sweet language! only used by them as a covering for their falsehood and faithlessness. Honour, honesty, or chivalrous courage, are unknown to them; never do they confront their foe face to face, but lurk for him in dark ambuscades, and only even then against the solitary and defenceless, do they dare to use a weapon. They, whose country is the toy of the great European powers, and which trembles if only a few companies of Austrian soldiers appear in it, foster yet the high idea of the future liberty and union of all Italy, and hope then to surpass the Rome of old. But in the mean time they hate each other as the plague, living ever among themselves in constant discord and strife. Among them, that is, among the Italians themselves, the palm as conspirators and intriguers is yielded to the Piedmontese, who are easily to be distinguished from the others by the broadness and boorishness of their dialect. A worthy representative of these is the apothecary Major, Lumello, at Chartum, who, from being a billiard-marker in Alexandria, raised himself by his serpentlike cunning to this post, and who understands as much of chemistry, and compounding drugs, as one of our peasants does of heraldry.

The number of the French here is much less than that of the two named nations. They are jesters, boasters, and charlatans, as usual; their every second word is “chez nous,” where all is better, more beautiful, and more perfect than any where else. One may, indeed, call them all adventurers; but still mean or rascally tricks are by no means common among them, and their principal fault seems running into debt with their hosts and all who trust them. Their main supports are Soliman Pascha (the renegade, colonel Sivés) in Syria, and Clot Bey. The latter has had high success here: formerly a poor doctor in Marseilles (I was introduced to him in Marseilles in 1822, by Dieffenbach), he is here a general. Ere he passed his forty-fifth year, he had, by his excesses, so broken down his constitution, that he was not unlike a good pathological preparation. Nothing but art and dress gave to the skeleton somewhat of the look of a man; and he even now looks much more as if he belonged to the noble craft of the needle, than to the high rank and office he claims and holds, which is nothing less than, with the rank and pay of general, President of the Conseil Général de Santé in Egypt. With him rests the promotion or advancement of the medical men and apothecaries: that his countrymen get a good share of it is not at all unnatural, and cannot well be otherwise, however much others may grumble at it. To place his own small and mean person in a conspicuous light, Clot Bey takes all possible means. In his great house, where his reception-chambers are furnished in the European fashion, he receives his friends with high patronising and protecting demeanour, doing all he can to impress upon his subordinates a fitting respect for his dignity. Small as are in truth his acquirements and medical information,—for his dissipated career has reduced to nothing his earlier studies,—still he acts the bold operator, and whatever his drugs may have done, his favourite knife has been vigorously wielded, and more men have been despatched by it to the other world, than he can ever answer for. In spite of his many failures, his self-conceit and arrogance have never for a moment left him. In his room stands a splendid library, in an equally splendid and ever-locked bookcase, all in full parade order, containing the ancient and later classics, and the most valuable works on medical subjects; but all are new, and plainly show that they are there as luxuries, which their possessor never uses, or perhaps, to speak more truly, knows not how to use. The first visit I paid him was in company with my brother; when we were perfectly astonished by the childish questions of this high official, especially those as to the famous and meritorious Professor Dieffenbach, of Berlin, with whom he had in former days fallen in at Paris; and his opinion of this great surgeon and operator seemed to sink much when he heard that he was neither surgeon to the king, nor burdened by any titles of rank. Still more laughable in my brother’s eyes was the fifteen minutes’ examination which the Bey-General had pro formâ to put him to. Before it he had handed to him his doctor’s diploma, and, with the most serious face Clot Bey set to work to try his hand on the Latin of the parchment, not one word of which language, as all well knew, he understood. In the examination, Joseph could not enter into his views either as to lithotomy or operations for hydrocele, and he soon saw he would not find a patron in the Bey. Once has Clot Bey revisited France in all pomp and dignity, but the Marseilles fish and huxter women recognised their old friend Clot, and treated him too unceremoniously. In Paris the little man would have astonished a large company by a splendid speech, but the language did not flow smoothly, and the meaning was not evident. Observing this, he added, with dignity, “La longue habitude des langues orientales m’empêche de m’exprimer avec plus de facilité;” but he might have, with more truth, said, that, saving a little bad Arabic, he knew nor spoke no oriental language, and that he never can speak with any oriental, without the aid of his dragoman, although he has already been for twelve years resident in Egypt. A young and rich dame met our hero at a supper-party in Paris, and was so charmed by him, that she next day made proposals of marriage to him, which he met only too eagerly. A second meeting was agreed on, and Clot, the citizen of the world, appeared in a Frank dress before this lady of gold. But oh, misericordia! to behold him in this simple garb and break off all marriage agreements was the work of one and the same moment to her.[24] The metamorphosis from the picturesque Turkish costume, with its Cashmere shawls, tarbush, diamond orders, &c., and perhaps a little red artistically laid on the wasted cheek, seemed somewhat too sad, and since then Clot has never adopted the Frank dress, nor should he, when he would make a conquest.[25] In the theatre of Cairo one sees him running from box to box, like a young dandy, and whispering soft nothings, and ogling every lady he sees.

Spaniards are very rare in Egypt; but such as there are, are not in good odour. Nor are the numbers of Englishmen large; they are little talked of, nor shall I allude further to them; they are principally employed as engineers, and in the factory or mine departments.

The educated Germans are few; but there is a considerable number of mechanics from that country, and in these the nation seems to have selected her worst specimens. They are all dissipated, without truth or faith, and when one sees these louts, and hears of their rascally tricks, one must blush to have a fatherland in common with them. Most of them have, indeed, been compelled to fly their country, from their villanous excesses or crimes; and have, to perfect themselves, taken lessons in Hungary, Bucharest, and Constantinople, before coming to Egypt and settling down in that land, fully accomplished in all the arts of thieving, cheating, drinking, and blood-shedding.

Besides many Armenians, mostly shrewd merchants and Saraffs (bankers), Mograbins, and Jews, there are to be found here individuals of all races and countries under the sun.

The native population of Egypt are in general a set of cheats and thieves; not the smallest faith or trust can be placed in any of them. The genuine Turks hold the Turks of Egypt as the outcasts of their race. Then, most of the great among the latter have in former times been slaves, brought up under every degradation, and in the knowledge of every low villany—to-day they are slaves, to-morrow they may be Bey or Pascha; but for life they are slaves in mind and feeling, and only fear of their power makes any one look on them as of higher grade than themselves.

One would fancy that in Turkey, and especially in Constantinople, Franks would be better protected and held in higher estimation than in distant Egypt; but this is not so, as nowhere must a Frank be more cautious and guarded than in Stamboul. To remedy this evil state of matters, and particularly to confine this stupid and haughty race within the bounds befitting it, would indeed be no hard task for the greater European powers; but the policy of these towards the Porte is in direct opposition to each other’s, and no united action can even be dreamt of so long as each power acts for itself, and seeks eagerly in every way to gain some small advantage for itself, even though this should be by humiliating submissions; as it cares not how, so it only wins the Porte’s favour. The latter power is allowed still to exist, only because, as the common story runs, it is necessary for the balance of Europe. But, in spite of this story, Turkey still is, as it ever has been, and, from its splendid position, with justice ever will be, the dearest desire of every naval power, and sooner or later it will prove a bone of most bloody contention among these. The nation that possesses the Dardanelles and Constantinople, is lord and master of the whole Levant and Mediterranean trade; and what an inestimable advantage may not this give? Russia, who for centuries has openly and secretly striven with all its power, and by every political means, with unequalled cunning and constancy, to gain this jewel, and even in its most involved and disturbed states has never for a moment turned its eyes away from this splendid aim, well comprehends its inestimable importance, and must therefore venture all to become lord and master of this key-stone of its maritime power, so as to be able to develop its naval forces, from its own seas, into the south. If another power, England or France, possessed the Straits of the Bosphorus, it would be impossible to open the passage of them without its consent, even by force, and Russia with her treasures would be confined to the Black and Caspian Seas, and for ever long in vain for the trade of the south. How much importance Russia places on the possession of the Dardanelles may be guessed, by the expression of the Emperor Alexander at the Congress of Erfurt, where he said to Napoleon, “I will give you the half of Europe, help you to conquer it, and leave you in undisturbed possession of it; and you in return must grant me the Dardanelles; they are the key of my house.”

In the suburbs of Constantinople, the Frank may take certain liberties without being annoyed by the mob, if he only does not heed or trouble himself about the repeated mention he hears, even there, of the word Giour. But one had better not venture to intrude into the interior of the old city, nor try to examine the architecture of the houses, or gaze up at the closely latticed windows, if he would not be insulted and perhaps attacked. The Frank who exhibits himself there in the dress of his country, will, particularly in the more narrow streets, be greeted with showers of stones and the contents of vessels not the most savoury, followed all his way with the most horrible abuse, and even worse handled by the mob; and still he dare not betake himself to his weapons, or defend himself, for then from all houses would the Mussulmen rush, and with cudgels and stones give the Giour a lesson after the Turkish manner. I went one day—it was during the great plague of 1836-37—through a certain street, in the neighbourhood of the Atmeidan, of that part of the city, when a little Turkish lad was amusing himself and making the bystanders merry by running after me, and amid shouts of laughter knocking my hat off four or five times, ere I caught him by the neck; and the instant I did so, many Turks rushed on me, and I dared not punish the young scamp, as I had no wish to be cudgelled to death in return. Such insults to Franks are the order of the day, and no ambassador will trouble himself about them. Even they themselves, though the representatives of monarchs, are, like all common persons, obliged to dismount from their horses, go on foot with closed umbrella and divested of their cloaks, should they pass the palace of the Sultan, and this not only when directly in front of it, but some hundred paces before or behind it: like formalities are gone through when one sails by it on the Bosphorus. It is, indeed, very curious, that the ambassadors have not taken suitable measures long ago against these ceremonies, so truly degrading and derogatory to their office. What European monarch would dare issue such orders? Besides, it is all the same whether the Sultan is in his palace or not; before the mere ungainly pile of stones must every one submit to such humiliations, or be taken prisoner by the guard, and locked up under insults and abuse. It is perfectly à la Gessler! As the common vulgar here know how, in case of necessity, to take their revenge by means of fire, which here (as the most of the houses are either all or mostly of wood) makes rapid and fearful devastations, so do the mob in uniforms insist, with brutal severity, on the observance of public orders. One evening Prince Wrede, with a small party (in jovial humour, from the grape), was returning home, but unfortunately without lanterns, which is forbidden. All at once the watch pounced upon him and his companions, and, with blows, dragged them to the prison of Woiwodin, placed them in a dungeon that not only already contained numbers of the vilest of the mob, but was so small that they had to stand the whole night; neither their names and rank, nor threats, nor prayers, enabled them to send to their ambassador, or release them out of this unpleasant scrape; nor afterwards, much as they complained to their country’s envoy of such disgraceful treatment, and the time and money it had cost them, did they get the smallest redress.

In Egypt, indeed, one must also constantly carry a lantern with him after dark, and in the month of the Ramadan, one may chance to be taken up by the guard; but these are so civil, as to at once let the prisoners go again for a few piastres, or at worst some cigars; or if they will not do so, you have only to send to the consul, and you are at once set at liberty. It is common enough to forget this lantern, the more so when one goes out by day and does not return till evening; but at every street corner, if not very late indeed, paper lanterns are to be had for half a piastre. In consequence of this constant forgetting of lanterns, one at last has a complete store of such in his house; at Cairo, on counting ours, we found some fifty. The small wax tapers for them, with which we could go from the Muske (Frank quarter) to our own homes, on the Esbekieh, cost five paras. These neat light-machines consist of folded paper, and it needs custom and gentle handling to convey them home, for should the wind blow a little fresh, or if the body reels a little from wine, one is every moment in danger of setting on fire the paper lantern, as well as oneself,—an accident by no means rare, especially when one wears the long and loose Turkish dress. This, or the Frank costume, one may wear as he pleases in Egypt; but not so in Turkey. There the Frank must wear the Frank dress, and the Turk that prescribed for his station. The rayah may certainly wear Frank clothes, but not without the tarbush, on which, in sign of being a subject, the Turkish crescent, cut out of cloth, is sewed.

CHAP. IX.

Circassians and Georgians. — Dress of the Sheiks. — Turkish Etiquette. — Arab Officers and Soldiers. — An Arab Regiment. — Black Soldiery.

At our last interview with the Pascha, he, who still with deep affection remembers his native country, Circassia, asked us if we knew anything new of the war between it and Russia; and listened again with much pleasure to our often-told tale. In Constantinople one must be on his guard how he talks of Russia’s successes over the Turks; the people in general believe that the Russians have constantly been beaten—and, from the medals which the Emperor of Russia, to make himself popular, has presented to all the Turkish soldiers engaged in the campaigns, they are led to believe that the Sultan had forced the conquered Emperor to give them those medals. As little as by the Turks, are the Russians loved in Egypt, for here there are many Circassians, whose fury and hatred against them is more and more inflamed by Russia’s unceasing attempts to subdue their native land. These, as a matter of course, relate the great deeds of their countrymen, by whose bravery all Russia’s attacks are rendered vain, and never, they assert and believe, will she succeed in winning Circassia. However little the Circassians here may have otherwise to brag of, nay, although they are capable of all kinds of mean and vicious acts, still all possess strong love for, and the warmest interest in, their native country, and their countrymen (achuan); and this is the more to be admired, as they all have been, when in tenderest age, brought as slaves into Egypt and Turkey. Now, too, hardly any of them have much remembrance of their country, and few speak its language, which they can only keep up by conversation with the many female Circassian slaves in their harems. Achmet Pascha himself was stolen from his native land when only six years old. These tribes either mutually rob one another of children and grown-up girls to sell as slaves, or the parents educate their daughters in all accomplishments, filling their heads with tales of the splendour and magnificence of the harem, and then sell them, often under the impression that by so doing they prepare for them and themselves a better lot. The girls themselves are satisfied; they dream of the pleasures of being mistress of a harem, and of seeing all their desires satisfied, especially in dress and ornaments.

The Circassian women have high foreheads and delicate noses,—often as thin as the back of a knife,—a lovely mouth, and a charming figure; but their eyes do not possess that fire and soul which is usually ascribed to them.[26] In Egypt they are to be found in all respectable harems, in which they are almost the only whites. The chief men of the land, themselves Circassians, gladly buy them, and they, therefore, are sent in plenty to Egypt, as in the harems of Constantinople they are not much admired. Men complain of their love of quarrelling and power, and their constant discontent. They live in open warfare with the other female slaves and women, and are, like all oriental women, without love or attachment to their lords. Their love of revenge is great, and more than one example shows that they know the use of poisons. Dress and intrigue are their only delights, and their pride is insufferable. Our friend Soliman Effendi, of Chartum, complained most bitterly of his Circassian wife, and styled her, the devil of his house. However, it is no more than natural that these poor women should feel themselves unhappy in the harem, and give vent in all ways to their bad humour. What pleasures, save the twice-a-day toilette, the bath, and the table, have these eternally imprisoned females? From their youth, too, the beauties, abundance, and happiness of a harem, have been impressed on them by their parents and female friends, and their expectations have been raised to the highest. But the truth is, indeed, most prosaic. Only to the lot of few does it fall, to see some of their ideas realised in a really rich harem, to be able to shine in splendid garments, and revel in luxury. The most are bought by persons of inferior rank, so all the poor creatures’ hopes and fancies vanish; they feel themselves lost and unhappy. More than likely, too, the lord of the harem is old and ugly, has other female slaves he loves, and they, the younger, are subject to these, and must serve them; thus arise in them those humours that make them the torment of the other women, and cause themselves to bitterly feel their misery. Then many, with cold calculation and determination, proceed so far with their plans of making themselves hateful, that their owner is at last compelled to sell them again. This is what they labour for, as they hope to find, in another harem, a happier life and richer lot.

The first favorites in the Turkish harems are the women from Georgia and Mongolia. Their faces are not so beautiful, nor their features so delicate, as those of the Circassian women: but, on the other hand, their cast of countenance is more gentle, and their forms more rounded; they also retain their beauty much longer. Their mood is mild and forbearing; with submissive gentleness, they bear all kinds of treatment. They are also better taught, and gladly employ themselves on small pieces of female work, such as pocket books, dikha[27], and embroider these in silks, silver, and gold. These women are much sought after, bear a high value, and, according to their beauty, their accomplishments, and talents, especially in music (tambourine, lute, &c.), singing, and dancing, their price varies from thirty to one hundred purses, and even more. One can, at any time, visit the bazaar, where the unhappy coloured slaves, male and female, are stowed, and arranged like goods for show, and gaze on this sight, so revolting to Europeans. In general, those from Habesch, who have before served in other harems, are placed, in particular rooms, or the better places. Their eyes are dark, prominent, and somewhat round; at times, with stupid expression, but oftener lively and brilliant. These unfortunates (now and then wrapped in coloured gauze or muslins), follow, with their uneasy eyes, every visitor, and seem beggingly to say—“Oh! if you have a human heart, release me from this condition, where I am examined and handled by every man, as if I were a beast!” The house of the white slaves is not thus open to all. Franks are only admitted on paying five Spanish dollars, but well known and wealthy Turks are admitted gratis, such being likely to become purchasers. When we visited one of these places, there were many pretty girls there, but not one splendid beauty; all were very young, but this is in accordance with the Turkish taste. If anything arrives new and beyond the common, the rich men, and those of high rank, are at once informed of it, they generally purchasing such rarities before others can get a peep at them. On account of the higher price that men are willing to pay for Georgian females, the slave dealers have a way of their own to cheat the buyers, who would only ask for and purchase women of that province. They purchase newly arrived Circassians, or those who have been sold out of a harem, and place them in another where only Georgian women are. Here they, ere long, pick up the Georgian language, and then the slave merchant takes them as Georgian women to the bazaar, where he soon disposes of them. In Constantinople they dare not venture on such tricks, as there the distinctive differences are too well known.

As in our sad loneliness and dull uniform life, we are glad to find amusement in any diversion, however small, with much satisfaction we got hold of some numbers of the Charivari, the Journal des Debâts, and Marseilles Semaphore, the apothecary had by him. They contain, at least, some political news from Europe, though more than a year old; but in Bellad-Sudan, where one is totally cut off from all European news, this matters little. The Semaphore seems to be the organ of Egypt, and it is ludicrous to see how the merest trifle is pushed forward as an instance of its so called advancing civilisation, and with what zeal and pathos these paid gentlemen sing Mehemet Ali’s praises, and also try to render General Clot-Bey immortal.

The appearance of the old Moluk (sing. Melek or Melik, also Mek and Mak), the native-born and hereditary kings or rulers, in their regal hoods that they still wear as a mark of sovereignty, although the Turks have reduced their power to a nullity, is exceedingly peculiar.

The hoods are a kind of close fitting coloured cap, with flaps hanging down on the neck (probably the lining of the neck armour), though these are generally turned up, and thus their pointed ends take, on each side of the head, the shape of horns, the ancient sign of supreme power, and are on this account called Takie betal gorn. The rest of the dress of one of these royal rulers used to be a long coloured caftan (similar to a dressing gown), with a broad girdle, and handsome pointed sandals. It is well known who are entitled to wear these horned head-dresses, and among these are the Ruler of Faszogl, the Sheik of Beni-Amer, Sheik Edris Wood Agib of Halfaia, and Sheik Nimr, whose Takië was of fur. This Sheik, Edris Wood Agib, whose father, before the Turks broke in, ruled almost all the island, and, in addition, all the land between the Blue River and the Atbara (Land Halfaia or Wood Agib; wood for wollet, uollet, son, or boy), and to whom the tribes of Gos Rajab, Taka, Beni-Amer, and to the Abyssinian mountains and the Red Sea, were tributary, now sits in Halfaia, mourning his past greatness, and existing on the miserable pension of 500 piastres a month, which is hardly enough to find food and clothing for himself and his very small retinue. But, in spite of his poverty and insignificance, he is highly respected and reverenced by the present holders of rank and power, and waited on by all. He claims his descent from the family of Fungh, a branch of the former ruling family of Sennaar, and can name his ancestors and trace his pedigree a long way back. To us, whom he daily visited, he used to open his heart about the Turks’ conduct to him. He always wore the royal hood, and when the blockhead of an apothecary, Dumont, one day mockingly asked him why he wore such a fool’s cap of a takië, when he now had no country to rule, he answered him in proud tone: “di shoggie betai ou ma betack,” (that is my business, and none of yours). Fearful, will one day, I believe, be the revenge of these races on their oppressors! The reverence the natives and Arabs of this land have for their old sheiks is much greater than that they feel for the Pascha himself. If one of them passes through the camp, not one of the Arabs will continue seated, but will rise and remain respectfully standing,—a thing that never occurs when the Pascha makes his tour of the camp. This high respect is either founded on the antiquity of the sheik’s families, and has been carried down from member to member, or, perhaps, is somehow connected with their religion; for among these free tribes, that everywhere find a home, and of which one may indeed say, every individual is independent, the sheik has, as far as I know, no compulsory powers in his hands, or means to maintain his tribe’s obedience. The Schaigies every morning wait on the old Sheik Melek Saat, and kiss his hand. They never steal or make a prize of anything, without preserving the best of it for him, and in all ways provide for and attend to him, as if he was still in possession of his old rank and dignities, and could still reward or punish them. Such attachment and reverence is all the more to be admired among this people, as they are too much used to regulate the degree of obedience they yield, by what they hope to make by it, nay, more, among them a certain degree of equality ever prevails, and all look upon themselves as of the same rank and equal in dignity and value.

The right of primogeniture holds full force among them; the younger brothers attend like servants on the elder, never venturing to seat themselves in his presence, unless requested or ordered to do so. The eldest, too, in general, eats alone. My brother was highly admired by them, because, when we paid visits he (for the sake of jest) yielded me the first place, and for this very reason they styled me Sheik. No son will so far commit himself as to take place on the angareb where his father sits; he humbly seats himself on the ground, some distance off, and only speaks when he is spoken to. I have often seen the relatives of a great sheik, though perhaps older than himself, rise at his entrance from their angarebs, and seat themselves on the ground. On solemn occasions, Nasra, the royally descended wife of the Sheik Mahomed Wood Defalla in Soriba, sits on a kind of divan, while the latter, who is only the son of the former Grand Vizier, as well as their younger brother, Edris Wood Adlan, after Aburow the most powerful ruler in the peninsula, must sit on the ground till it pleases the large and fat Nasra to assign them better places.

There is much ceremony, too, about seats and sitting. No captain ever sits before the Pascha, and he even lets most respectable Coptish writers, who hold high civil posts, remain standing in his presence. In the room of any one of higher rank, seats are not taken at pleasure, nor when sitting, is any posture to be assumed at will; the inferior sits in a most uncomfortable and wearying posture, his legs turned back below him till he receives permission to assume a more agreeable posture. No captain dare sit down before his major, till he has been expressly asked to do so by him, and then he must select a mat or carpet on the ground. A sign of salutation is only, in general, made after the superior has set the example, and no one speaks, not even the higher officers, till they have been addressed by the great man. The Turkish language is the prevailing one, and Turks speak only Turkish, even to Franks, although these may only understand Arabic. Thus Turkish is the fashionable language. Old Mehemet Ali, who well understands Arabic, from having been so long in those lands, acts as if he knew not a word of it; all must be translated by an interpreter, nay, it is said, he has forbidden his children to learn it. But it is inconceivable why the educated part of Egypt’s people, Copts and others, do not understand Turkish, since, for centuries, they have been in close intercourse with the Turks. Among many thousands of the country people, hardly one understands Turkish. It were, indeed, a most easy matter for the Coptish writers to learn Turkish; but their laziness and indifference to all that concerns their race, and their ignorance of all they are not compelled to know, easily explain their not picking up that language. However, there may also be many, especially among the Copts, who knowing it would not venture to speak it before the Turks, from fear, that they not being Turks, would pay dear for having learnt the ruler’s language, and as the Turks would probably imagine that by knowing it they had learnt and would betray their secrets.

From the preponderance of Turkish influence in all things, many evils arise, especially among the military. The higher officers, and even the captains (Juss-baschi) and first lieutenants (Milasim auel) are all Turks, and most difficult it is for any Arab to reach a first lieutenancy. In any other nation, or in a more civilised one, such disrespect and degradation would bring with it the worst consequences, but these Arabs seem to care very little about it, as I have convinced myself, by often talking with them about the matter. “What can we do? The Turks would beat us to death if we made any fuss about it. Why should we attack them, we are too weak, and the Great Pascha (el Pascha el Kebir) wills it so.” This is all I could ever get from them, and in most indifferently careless tones. From such feelings, and also because, from most remote times, the Egyptians or Arab races have lived under oppression and slavery, and thus become used to be ruled and not to rule themselves, the Turks may, perhaps, in spite of their ignorance, in spite of their seldom being capable of understanding or executing military movements, be necessary to the Egyptians as officers, and perchance without them the whole army would fall into utter confusion and lose all traces of discipline. Moreover, as all the Arabs, high and low, have submitted to their lot, a kind of equality and brotherhood has sprung up among them: they walk about, officers and privates, arm in arm, and enter one another’s dwellings as if they were indeed brothers, as they style each other; and this self-equalising has had its effects on all military matters and arrangements. In this way, the Arab private has no respect for his lieutenant, he is his brother; the lieutenant has none for his captain, and so on: even though he were the bravest and most skilful officer. But for the Turkish officer, worthless as he may be in every way, the Arab feels terror, and obeys him without any hesitation, for he is no achu[28], speaks another language, and belongs to the race of his rulers. Besides, the Arab officers do not themselves feel their own dignity, and are the less able to support their own authority, from being so disregarded and despised by the Turkish officers. Then, too, differences of language separate them; the Arab officer feels himself neglected in the company of his Turkish comrades, and, therefore, seeks that of those who treat him with confidence and speak his language. Moreover, the Arab cannot exist without society; he must, and will, chatter the whole day, and hold long talks upon most trifling subjects. Give him this, his pipe, and coffee, the Arab is happy and contented. One sees these people sitting for hours, nay for the whole day, in a circle, and discussing matters eagerly, as if it were some important state affair, but if one inquires the subject discussed, perchance one had bought, for twenty paras, what another paid twenty-one for. Any place does, too, for chattering in; even in the mud, in the middle of the unpaved streets, they will gladly stand talking. The officer so completely associates with his inferiors, as to smoke out of the same pipe, and drink coffee with them, eats with them, when they have anything to eat, and plays with them at their games. From such constant and close intimacy, the soldier forgets, when in the ranks, that the officer is his superior, often does not obey him at all, and when he does, with much ill-will. A long time will, therefore, be required, to bring Arab to proper subordination to Arab. The state, too, does not seem to see the necessity, that the under-officers should, by their dress, be in some degree distinguished from the privates; these often go about worse and more raggedly dressed than the latter; and this has a very bad effect with the Arabs, who, like other mobs, only judge of persons by their exterior. The Arab greatly loves finery, but it matters little to him if some holes also ornament it, or if dust and dirt have made the original colours hardly recognisable. He sits and lies down carelessly, even when in his best, and cares little how dirty his seat is. The women act with little more sagacity, and in their best silken dresses will run about as though in their worst. Cleanliness, especially in their linen, they know as little of as the Turkish women, and under their picturesque and handsome outer garment, the silken shirt will often be found dirty and ragged,—an edifying sight for a European! Then, the conduct of the higher officers towards their subordinates, is, by no means, such as to gain their respect. They treat them, when in the presence of the soldiers, as domestics, and apply the most vulgar terms to them; as, marras, besewink, kelb, chomar, gansier (scoundrel, rascal, dog, ass, hog), &c. They dare not sit down in their houses, or in their presence; no coffee is ever offered them,—nay, they often have to serve it to the superiors, fill their pipes, and perform many such unbecoming and degrading offices.

As far as mind and abilities are concerned, we have from experience fully convinced ourselves that the Egyptian or Arab, in general, far exceeds the Turk; and he is the one to be employed in all labour, mental or bodily, provided the stick is at hand,—this remedium omnipotens for all these races. He more readily comprehends everything, and knows how to execute it; i.e., if he is under the eye of another whom he fears. To execute and labour, or work by and of himself, he has not the power, as, if not watched, he falls back into his laziness and far niente, and lets matters go as they will: “Allah kerim” (God is merciful) answers for all. This is visible in all Mehemet Ali’s new institutions and arrangements, that cost him so much money. The manufactories while under the charge of Franks brought some profit, and the valuable machinery was, then at least, kept in order, and in some cases even improved on. But now, when the direction is left to Arabs, the gains have become much less, and every day the machinery is becoming more broken and useless; for they seldom know how, and when they do never think it necessary, to perform any repairs on it, till at last all goes to wreck and ruin, and restoration or repair is impossible. It is the hereditary fault of Turk and Arab to put off every thing till the last instant, and often the slightest effort of activity is refused when it would avert some serious mischance; and so it is with government—only when the accident has occurred, come orders for the future, and these are no sooner given than they are again forgotten. The greatest injury, however, to all the factories arises from the dust, which is so fine and penetrating, that it finds its way into the most delicate parts of all machinery, even into pocket watches, and ruins everything. Up to the present time, though a high reward has been offered, no one has succeeded in remedying or preventing this mighty evil, and the best fitting double windows have proved as useless, as all other defences attempted against the subtle enemy.

As the learning and understanding of the Turks is far less than that of the Egyptians, either because they want the natural power or from their pride and laziness, the teacher of the school (mektab) has three times as much trouble with them as with the Egyptians; but they are far better soldiers. Many of the Franks who have made the campaigns in Hedjas and Yemen with them have highly praised their courage, and the battle of Konieh has also proved it. In the Morea and at Crete, under Ibrahim Pascha, they were as brave as cruel. As a general rule, the courage of the Egyptian population is nothing to boast of. Shouts, cries, and gesticulations are their chief strength; but two or three good right and left whip cuts will usually put to flight a whole crowd of these mouth-fighters, and the coward curs are very careful how they resist the Franks, the more so as their bodily powers are far less than those of Europeans. But the Arab may yet gain more courage as a soldier, or the fear of the nabut (stick) may force him, with an “Allah kerim,” to rush into all dangers, not to mention that desperation as to his fate, may also lead him to end his misery with his life. It is gradually beginning to enter the heads of these Arab soldiers, who have made the campaign of Hedjas and Syria against and with the Turks, that they are somebody, and they begin to feel and observe that they have been the means by which all Ali’s conquests and victories have been gained. They see, at least a part of them, that by holding together they form a mass, which, at a fitting time, may overpower the Turks, and that in future it may depend on their being united, whether or not, they may not regain their native country from the Turks; and this daily increasing feeling of self-dependence may perchance become dangerous to the Turks in Egypt, supposing no other power should interfere.

One regiment of Arab soldiers has already given a warning example; these were in Hedjas, and had there made themselves a terror to the natives by their fierce courage. Their leader, a stupid, self-conceited fellow, did not treat his soldiery as they, proud of their proved bravery, deserved, and withheld from them, perhaps to tame their pride in some measure, or to be better able to restrain them, a sum of money granted them as a reward, although most of them were much in want. Infuriated by this, they murdered this Bey on the spot, and swore death to any one who should bury him; chose a captain of the regiment as their commander, paid him as such, after they had laid their hands upon the money they found in the late Bey’s possession, and took from it their arrears of pay, but no more. Afterwards, wearied by the long campaign in Hedjas, they compelled the new chosen leader to conduct them back to Cairo; and he knew so well how to perform the duties of his office, that he prevailed on them to spare the town of Djedda, which they meditated plundering. The regiment arrived at Cairo, and the old fox Mehemet Ali sent messengers to meet it, and to order it to encamp outside the town; made no fuss about the matter, but gave all the soldiers leave to return for half a year to their homes, so that they might recover after their exertions and battles. He knew right well that such a regiment in his camp might do immense mischief. After the leave was expired, or shortly after, he called all the men into service again; but parcelled them out into many different regiments, and their lot since has certainly been none of the best. The unfortunate new Bey was, however, beheaded at Cairo, some time afterwards; not, for leading back the regiment, but because he had, without Mehemet Ali’s permission, assumed a rank that he alone could grant, and because he had also defrauded the state by allowing the soldiery to pay him as Bey. The old Pascha thus vented on him the rage he dared not vent on the soldiers, though, without doubt, it was a piece of most striking injustice. After the murder of the former Bey, the captain, the favourite of the whole regiment on account of his bravery and humanity, had been, by unanimous voice, selected as leader; he had been by force led into the tent of the Bey, and there put in possession of it, along with his slaves and horses; but at the same time made aware, that if he did not at once lead them back to Cairo, where they could get some rest, they would take him with them, and in a body go over to the enemy. Had this last occurred, not only had all been lost for Egypt in Hedjas, but Mehemet Ali would have found another much-to-be-feared foe there. The captain, though thus under their hands, still managed by prayers and cunning, often at the risk of his own life while restraining their excesses, to lead the regiment back in safety to Cairo, and there got his reward.

Our Achmet Pascha depends on and values his black soldiers more than his Arab and Syrian troops. The first regiment, now nearly twenty years in Bellad-Sudan, is almost all blacks; as climate and skirmishes have carried off almost all the Arabs of Egypt and Syria that were in it. Those still alive are old, worn-out invalids, as nothing but total uselessness, such as blindness, the loss of a leg or arm, releases these unfortunates from the service; lameness, the loss of one eye, the want of three or four fingers of the hand, is a matter of no consequence. Often have we heard Achmet Pascha express the wish that all his regiments, officers excepted, were composed of blacks; and he is in the right for service in Bellad-Sudan. They are not affected by sickness and the influence of climate as the others, suffer hardships without murmuring, quickly and cheerfully obey all orders, and can subsist on the worst food, in the smallest quantities, a little durra daily satisfying them. Besides, their courage is good, even though they may not possess the same bravery as soldiers who fight for parents, wife, children, and country, or who are spurred on by honour; still they go on to the spot they are ordered, fight their way, and many of them, especially those from the mountains of the upper parts of Faszogl, fear death little, if at all. In the Morea, the body-guard of Ibrahim Pascha, composed of 500 blacks, more than once distinguished themselves above his other forces. Once a hill held by the enemy was to be taken; twice did the Egyptians advance to the attack and fail; Ibrahim now sent his blacks, who at once took by storm the important point. Hardly could such things be expected from men who are first forcibly made slaves, and then soldiers. A greater part of them certainly feel unhappy in their lot, more than one would suppose in these rude men; and many die from home-sickness, as we saw in Chartum—a disease which, once attacking, proves fatal. But as many, also, are not sensible of the misery of their existence, or the wretched life they pass as Egyptian soldiers, the state of their former lot may be guessed. They are stolen as children, have been slaves, and feel themselves freer as soldiers, and, at least, considered as men; while those they have left behind them, as they know, live in the saddest state, almost like cattle, often exposed to starvation, and always to slavery, from the repeated wars among themselves. Formerly without clothing they now are proud of their dress, cap, arms, and that they, as soldiers inspire others with fear; and, finally, what may contribute not a little to their satisfaction, they always find themselves associating with their own countrymen.

CHAP. X.

Breaking up of the Camp. — March into the Interior. — Nature of the Country. — Sheiks’ Swords.

The tribe of the Haddenda, in spite of Mohammed Din’s imprisonment, will not bring in their tribute. The Pascha has discovered that he gains nothing here by violence, and has now ordered them to collect 6,000 ardeps of durra at Kassela, a spot some fourteen miles from here, where the Pascha will pass the all-dreaded chariff, and will found a new city to protect his army, as up to the present time the health of both men and animals has been wonderfully good. The Hallenga must also deliver durra (here called Esch). All Arabs, as well as the blacks, chew the fresh durra-straw all day, as in the sap there is a slightly perceptible sweetness, and one never meets any of these people without a piece of the stem in hand or mouth, at which they are ever gnawing, as at a favourite morsel. In like manner one sees in Egypt, and also in part of Chartum, during the time of the ripening of the sugar-cane, considerable quantities of it exposed in every market; and of this the people buy much, to suck the juice of it. Turks, Arabs, blacks, all are very fond of sweets, although from stinginess they never use sugar in their coffee, or drink much in their sherbets; but from a Frank, to whom they never offer any sugar with the coffee they produce for him, they always expect to have such, and they are honest enough to confess that the coffee tastes much better with it. However, we do not live here very luxuriously or splendidly. Rice and flesh are our only food. Vegetables, that from the continuous great heat would be of much service, are not to be got; but, on the other hand, there is no want of the stick, and especially with Rustan Bey, who in Upper Egypt served out plentiful doses of it to the fellahs there. If any of these came to him to complain, he heard them patiently, and on their ending recommended them, with serious face, to go to his chasnadar (treasurer), and to tell him to pay out to them one or two purses. The complainants, much rejoiced at such unexpected luck, ran off to the treasurer, already in fancy counting over their coin, and he counted out to them blows instead of piastres; one purse, holding 500 piastres, was paid by 500 lashes. Our Pascha used to act similarly in Chartum.

Every day the journey to Kassela is talked of, but we still sit crouching here. Not long ago a report was suddenly spread, that Achmet Pascha was recalled to Cairo, and Mustapha Bey of Kordofan appointed governor of the Bellad-Sudan. This came to us as a secret, and was only mentioned to us by the Turks we were most intimate with, and in an under tone. But as the truth of the report was a serious matter to us, and none of the Turks knew how to put the question to the Pascha, we went ourselves to him; when he laughingly told us, that he had, in jest, told the Kaimakan of the 8th regiment, Sorop Effendi, something of the sort, but had himself no intention of going to Cairo, as, in spite of the failure as regarded the treatment of the Sheiks, he could easily make himself independent; at least so his words to me, during the absence of my brother, seemed to imply.

All at once the order came—we break up to-morrow! So near no one had believed the march to be. All things were in disorder; the whole night all was bustle and confusion in the camp. More than likely the Pascha had purposely said nothing of this beforehand, so that the Arabs might make no preparations for an attack, to set at liberty their Sheiks who go with us in chains. We had, during the night, to hurriedly buy a dromedary from Mohammed Defalla, after having at a high price, only the day before, purchased the others we needed; then we had to set about packing up the numerous articles we had unpacked during our month’s halt; the three new servants we had got knew too little about our baggage to be themselves ready in time with it. Punctually, two hours before sunrise, the well-known cannon shot aroused all for the march. When half an hour from the camp, the Pascha halted a long while to await the baggage camels.

Our way led through high durra fields, impenetrable to sight; in a south-east direction the whole country seemed flat, with well cultivated and fruitful soil, and before us, like a great blue cloud, rose the hill of Kassela, under which was to be our abode for a considerable time. In brighter blue, as the sun rose higher, was displayed its beautiful head, which towered in splendour over the rest of the hill’s chain extending to the eastward. A most refreshing sight in this monotonous country! We fancied we saw in these magnificent hills a second Switzerland; and kept our longing eyes constantly fixed on their groups. It seemed to us as if we were now arriving at some wished for and promised land, and about to receive the reward for our long wanderings and sufferings in the deserts, for all our exertions and deprivations. Mountains have, on every man, a solemn effect, arouse curious longings and indescribable desires, call up an insensible brightening of mind, and an increase both of mental and physical powers. After long marches in barren countries, when the blue hills rise in the distance, the eye becomes as if chained on them, and man dreams that behind them lies the strange, new, and unseen, and that he will there behold and tread an unknown world.

After some hours we found ourselves at last quit of the monstrous durra fields, and a great plain with scanty herbage received the army, which, expecting an attack from the infuriated Arabs, drew up in some order on it. The infantry marching in sections, in three divisions, formed the centre, the Turkish cavalry formed the right, the Mograbin horsemen and Schaigies the left wing; in the advance, and forming the advance guard, were the Arab Sheiks Mohammed Defalla, Achmet Abu Sinn, Edris Woodagib, &c. The plain was only here and there broken by ill-grown, distorted trees, the soil good and fertile, but bearing nothing, as the rain had not yet given the scorched ground the power of bringing forth. Many long, irregular, two feet high walls or mounds, with small ditches, intersected the ground, and showed that the Arabs irrigated the land, and used it for the growth of grain. Seemingly they change their cultivated fields every three or four years, and in this way have a certain rotation of crops. Many hares were started and galloped down by the horsemen, or slain by sticks. Those of these lands are smaller than ours, but have enormous lop ears; the skin, like the flesh, is lighter in colour, nor has the latter the pleasant game flavour of ours; the same may be said of all their wild animals, nor has their flesh that aroma which prevails in the game animals of northern lands. Various schakals (jackals, badschumm) were also disturbed out of their slumbers, and even they were galloped down and slain by the Turkish horsemen. They are only eaten by the Arabs and Dongolese. Large and small gazelles we saw vanishing in the distance on all sides; their speed is wonderfully great; yet we have seen them overtaken by the Turkish horses.

Soon the plain began to slope very gradually downwards. Trees, among them the atla, atle, or atal (here darfa), the tundo, and a tree similar to a wild pear-tree, grow in numbers on the plain; the two latter, more like shrubs or bushes, and the former of ill growth, and rising into trees giving little or no shade. The tundo we had already seen in the great desert; it has no leaves, but thick green thorny branches, similar to those of a rose stem; it also bears sour, round berries, which contain many seeds, and have a decayed sweet taste. They are greedily eaten by the Arabs. The shrub itself is, from its bitterness, a special favourite with the camels. Useful woods, such as would from size do for house or ship building, we have not as yet seen. Birds, save vultures, hawks, and crows, we have seen or heard hardly any, as is ever the case in the little animated and devoid of water scenes of Africa. Only in the neighbourhood of rivers, lakes, or springs, are to be found rich plumaged birds. The vultures with ruffled feathers, bald heads and necks, generally grey, or grey-black; yellowish or light grey bodies, follow, in monstrous flocks, our march, and rush in hundreds on each falling beast. They are a real blessing to these countries, in which men let animals lie where they have fallen, even in the streets of the capital, Chartum. They are quite tame, and will let one go up to them without rising; and when they do rise, they only fly off a little way, and then lounge about as usual.

On our progress the bush grows ever thicker; nebbeck, acacias, and other mimosas, start up among the former trees, and the grass grows very high, so that it overtops the smaller asses. Foot-tracks of many wild beasts cross in all directions; those of the elephant are of enormous size and sunk into the ground, somewhat moistened by the rain, more than a foot, and are from one and a half to two feet in length and breadth. One can plainly enough distinguish where these gentry have halted any time, for all bushes and shrubs are destroyed or trodden into the ground. At some such places we saw perfectly fresh marks of them; and much did these excite us, as it was evident they had only on the army’s advance retired somewhat further into the thickets. We much lamented we fell in with none of these giants of the forest; for to see them moving about in their homes would doubtless afford a different sight from the tame specimens in Europe. Numbers also of the two-horned rhinoceros (the lower horn is the larger) are here to be met with. It is said to be of savage fierceness, to attack men and beasts as it meets them, nay even to engage in violent battle with the elephant, and often to vanquish it in spite of its greater agility.

But to make up for our disappointment, another not less interesting scene was afforded us. Among the little Schaigie cavalry all of a sudden arose a loud shouting, all seized their arms, expecting an immediate attack of the Arabs. But soon we distinguished the cries of “Asset! asset!” (lion), and quickly we glanced round on all sides, anxiously expecting to see him burst forth. In the mean time the Pascha had issued orders to his chase-loving cavalry, not to leave their places on the appearance of the beast, under penalty of a punishment of 1000 blows; as he, in this intricate ground, was much alarmed for any disorder among his ranks, and expected every moment an attack from the Arabs. We were at the time at the extreme head of the left wing, near Melek Mahmud, when all at once came out of the bushes on our side, not one hundred paces from us, a pretty large lioness, moving at a sharp trot: she seemed totally without fear, for at the sight of the whole army she did not quicken her pace. A minute later at the same spot appeared, roaring fearfully, a mighty lion, in great fury as it seemed; he moved off yet slower than his mate, at times halting in his course, gazing at us, and when he had approached within sixty or seventy paces of us, he again gazed with furious eye at all, and then, with great bounds, was lost to our view. How much we were astounded, but at the same time delighted, at this scene, all may easily imagine: I for my own part openly confess, that the appearance of this savage beast, whose strength and courage have become a proverb, made a most peculiar impression on me; had I been alone, and not in such a large and armed crowd, I would have assigned it to fear or alarm, but it would, more than likely, be felt by any one, who instead of now reading this in his snug room, and probably laughing at it, was at once brought into these countries, and thus introduced to the sight of such an animal in its full liberty. In short, the sight of this proud, royal pair, had awakened and excited all our spirits and life, after they had been sunk from a seven hours’ ride, the regular movement of the camels, and more than all by the hot scorching midday’s sun, and most horrible thirst.

On this occasion, as before, we observed that the Arab Sheiks seem to place far more confidence in their old straight cross-handled blades, than in the light, crooked Turkish sabre. In purchasing these swords the Arabs use every precaution; they have their own marks or ideas on this point, and should a sword be wanting in one of them, though in every other respect good, it is looked on by them as valueless. First of all, it must not be new, or at least not have any appearance of being so; a certain part of the double edges must show itself ground out, so that the lines may run in the form of a bow, and on one of its sides must a lion be engraved, and on the other a figure the meaning of which I have not been able to find out. The blade is hollow (i.e. a shallow groove must run along both edges of the flat, but never get completely into the centre), pointed and double edged the whole way down. These are the principal necessary points. Many of these swords are very old, and this can be clearly proved, as the present possessors are well aware of their history, and proud of it; the swords are handed down from father to son, and one never hears of new blades being carried into the country. Whence these swords come, no one knows, and they never have either the maker’s name or residence on them, as far as we could discover. Ask any one whence they come, and he answers, “Min, beid, beid!” (From far, from far!) either from the north (Riff) or from far beyond the Bach’r male (Red, literally, salt sea), and were made by heathens (Kaff’rn). In Cairo we saw, at the merchant’s Biagini, of Genoa, many swords from the manufactory of Küll of Solingen; but still they were all in some way different from those generally in use here, and principally in being ground off round at the point. But I afterwards bought, on my journey to Mandera, two swords, of which one, a new blade from Solingen, had the usual sharp point, the other was an old Spanish blade of the fourteenth century. Oh, that such a knightly relic of the crusades could speak! Most of these blades have been introduced by or procured from the slave-dealers, and probably brought from the south-west countries, Darfur, &c., as in the south and south-east, such blades are not to be seen. The chain armour, with which man and horse is covered in battle, comes from India, as all say; in time of peace, the horses of the Arab chiefs only carry head and eye covering.

The land still continued sloping downwards, the vegetation became extremely luxuriant, and it was evident that water lay longer here than in other places; so that during and after the rainy season, this neighbourhood must be a lake or swamp. Ere long we found ourselves in the great Gohr (the bed of a river only full in the rainy season), named el Gasch, which seems to have its main sources in the rain from the mountains of Makada (Habesch), and extends in a direction from south-east to north-west. This it is that principally furnishes the watering of the land of Taka, and causes the fruitfulness of its fields, as well as the growth of the trees of the Chaaba. We beheld a considerable arm of this Gohr in el Sofra, the village of Mohammed Din; and it also furnishes waters to the wells and springs of those lands, and by its sinking into the earth forms the subterranean rivulets, which principally maintain the high fruitfulness of the lands of the Haddenda. It is commonly said that it afterwards divides into many branches, and loses itself at last in standing pools in the Chaaba, that during the dry season evaporate under the sunbeams. But as, during the rainy season, the torrents of waters conveyed to it from the higher mountains are very considerable, and as, at the same period, very many other rain brooks pour their waters into it, it does not seem very probable that these grounds, so completely soaked themselves by the Chariff, can drink in this immense quantity of water also. In Berber we heard that a considerable rain torrent poured itself into the Nile, either a little above or below that place, perchance that is the el Gasch; it may, however, pour itself into the Mogren, a large river in the rainy season, which rushes into the Atbara, a day’s journey higher up than its junction with the Nile. That it does not run into the Atbara under the name of the el Gasch, is well known.

On the high bank of the Gohr el Gasch, on our side, stood many pretty large trees, atles and mimosas; but in spite of the height of the bank, one saw plainly by marks on the trees how high the water rose on them, and that it extended far over its banks, and poured itself into the plain, turning it into a swamp, and, afterwards, giving life to a luxuriance of vegetation unknown to us, and furnishing a shelter and abode to all kinds of animals, and among them many venomous reptiles. The breadth of the Gohr was over fifty paces. Its fall, at least where we saw it, does not seem great; its bed was deep, and smoothly covered with sand; no stones were in either its bed or banks. Its windings are many and varied, and everywhere were to be seen, lying about, larger or smaller trees and bushes, washed loose in the season of its floods. Its direction here was in general south-east to north-west. We rode almost for an hour up its dried bed, and had to guide our dromedaries most carefully, that they might not step into the deep foot-holes of the elephants, which were all over the river bed, and often of such a size and depth, that the camels fell into them, some breaking their legs. To fall with or from a dromedary is most dangerous; for first the height is something, and then the chances are that the unwieldy and unaided beast falls, with its large, heavy body, on the rider, or sets a foot on him. To jump off it, is, from the form of the saddle and the position of the rider, who sits as if on a stool, next to impossible. The saddle, a skeleton of wood with high cantle behind, and great hook of a pummel, is exceedingly well adapted, either to catch the dress of the rider should he attempt to leap off, or to smash his bones when he comes with his beast to the ground. If the camel falls violently, then from the force of the fall, and the height, the rider is at best pitched over its ears, and runs a good chance of breaking neck or limbs.

To preserve some order in his army in so dangerous a spot, the Pascha caused it to pass this Gohr by divisions; but still each rode and went as he pleased. In the centre of the infantry was Mohammed Din, loaded with heavy chains, though on account of his age an ass had been furnished him; but the three other prisoners, in spite of the chains on their neck and ankles, were obliged, under the horrible heat, to perform the long march on foot, and certainly received no consolation or comfort from the conversation of the soldiery, which was neither edifying nor friendly. As we were thus in the Gohr, passing through, each as he chose, without order, crowded together and moving ever on, it seemed to us most wonderful that the Haddenda, a tribe that numbers over 80,000 fighting men, did not set on us, and give us a lesson such as Churschid Pascha had received from them. The army in long column pressed on, in crowded masses, through the Gohr, the banks of which were high, and thickly overgrown with trees and bushes, so all the foe had to do was to post themselves on each side in the thickets, and not one lance would have failed to transfix its man; cavalry could do nothing here, and the infantry, from its disorder, would have been unable to deploy or get into any position of defence, as the ground would not have allowed of it. The tribe must either have been afraid of the Turks and their fire-arms, or alarmed that their great Sheik would have been instantly murdered. For some 100 paces on the other side of the Gohr, the path lay through trees and low bushes; then we again arrived at a country where a thousand determined Arabs, with lance and shield, might certainly have destroyed great part of the army. It was now a dried morass, some half mile in breadth, but of unknown length. Path there seemed none; for all was so perfectly overgrown with luxuriant uschar (Asclepias procera, L.) young atles, and high reedy grasses, that it was impossible for a foot passenger to make his way through it; and we, on horses and dromedaries, only got forward with much difficulty, having to tread down the lower bushes, and work our way through, with all kinds of turnings and windings.

The Pascha, with some horsemen, had ridden on to form a path, but found himself often obliged to turn back and seek out an easier and more practicable way. Every one saw the dangers of such a place, but no one thought of holding their arms ready, when both hand and foot were needed to pull asunder, and make way through the interwoven boughs and branches on every side. The two guns were to be dragged through; this was only effected, with the greatest difficulty, by a double yoke of mules, and even then the poor animals had almost to lower their bellies to the earth, to get the guns a few feet on. Where the guns went was told by the crashing of breaking bushes, especially by the crushing of the fruit of the uschar, here of great size, and full of wind; the noise they made in bursting much resembling that of a bladder. We almost fancied we heard some platoon firing, and laughed heartily at these blank shots, in spite of the trouble and danger of our way. On our road, as well as at the Gohr, many of our old soldiers were reminded of the fatal defeat of Churschid Pascha, in which he also lost two guns, to recover which a whole battalion, save one or two men, were sacrificed. But again they trusted in the Pascha, and the Arab-Turkish “Allah Kerim!” Surely there was nothing easier than to have had these dangerous spots reconnoitred beforehand, and some 1000 men sent on with axes to clear a way.

Now at last were we in the land of the Hallenga, to whom Taka belongs. It was indeed a laughable sight to watch the army, as, in the most inconceivable disorder, it made its way out of the morass. Horse, foot, baggage camels, asses, from all sides and corners, pushed their way so slowly out, that the Pascha, on reaching the opener ground, saw himself forced to halt at least two hours, to let men and cattle once again assemble, and get into some sort of order.

Here, again, all was plain; the durra fields extended far and wide, though not in the luxuriant vegetation of the land of the Haddenda. On the open plain were visible small water-courses and much grass, but bushes and trees only in twos or threes, and right and left in the distance, from a half to one hour’s journey off, was to be seen the Chaaba. We passed the ruins of a village, which, as we were told, had been burnt and plundered by the Schaigie Melek Kamball, brother to Wood Mahmud, when he some two years before of his own accord, undertook with only 300 of his men an incursion into these lands, and murdered and plundered all he fell in with. That such an enterprise could be successfully carried out, can only be ascribed to surprise, and the rapid movements of the Schaigies, who never seem to halt, know the country well, and have a great advantage in their fire-arms. Even now, though dead, Kamball still lives in the people’s mouths; they have a great number of songs about him, in which he is described, on account of his cruelty and savage deeds, constantly wandering round, without grave, rest, or peace, as the punishment of his crimes. He was shot in the back, most likely by the soldiers of Achmed Pascha, in a fight between them and the Schaigies of Melek Hammet. The latter is well known by all as an exceedingly brave and daring man, and is much beloved by the Schaigies; he is of an old ruler’s family, from Old-Dongola, where his father was murdered by the Mamelukes he had hospitably received. Hammet had, during our residence in Chartum, fled from thence with 400 of his most trusty men, discontented and enraged, like most of the Schaigies, at the present government, who held these freebooters too much in check. Had he succeeded in reaching the Makada frontier, he would have been safe, for he would have been received with open arms by that people, and especially would old Melek Nimr have welcomed such a fugitive. Ere long assuredly most of the Schaigies would have drawn round such a chief, and also from Dongola a great number of people would have followed him; these numbers possessing fire-arms, knowing so well how to use them and carry on war, added to Melek Nimr’s own tribe of the Djalin, and also the probable junction with them of all the races of the southern part of the island, particularly that of the far extended race of Hammesh, and finally that of the tribes dwelling to the east of the Nile in Kataref, Kalabatt, Atisch, &c., would have formed an hostile force the Turks never could have overcome. The trade with Habesch would then have been completely lost to Bellad-Sudan (an inestimable loss), constant plundering expeditions into the lands ruled by the Pascha were to be looked for, and had he marched against the enemy, they would have had a secure retreat in the high mountains of Makada, where they would have found water and food in abundance.

The Pascha well aware of all this, and fearing a revolt of all the tribes of Bellad-Sudan as the consequence of Hammet’s flight (in which Hammet was likely to pass by Halfaia, between Bach’r asrek and the Atbara), had, the moment he got news of it in Berber, assembled the most trusty of the leaders of the Schaigies, and ordered them to pursue Hammet. These, perhaps envious of the latter’s future power, perhaps fearing that their own followers would soon fly also, or perhaps from anxiety to gain the great reward they expected, and which had been promised them, did all in their power to overtake the fugitive. The Pascha himself rode in four days from Berber to Abu Harrass, a distance that generally takes a courier six or seven days; put 500 soldiers on dromedaries; and having overtaken Hammet, who was employed feasting and drinking merissa with his followers, overpowered him and his small force. On this a relation of Hammet broke through the infantry, and rushed, with cocked pistol, on the Pascha, who only saved himself by the speed of his horse; and it is said, that Kamball, who had all along held faithfully to the Pascha, was then shot by the infantry, who were enraged at and jealous of the Schaigies. His death was generally lamented, as he was a distinguished soldier, an honest man, and general favourite, and from his generosity to the poor, ever in debt. The Pascha himself set high value on him, most likely from finding in him a particularly useful subject, who, with the smallest force, would calmly go to face each and any danger, however great. He had, like another Theseus, undertaken and succeeded in the boldest enterprises; if not in the camp, men knew some desperate expedition was out, and often he was not seen again for eight or ten days, and ever and again it was reported he was dead; but he ere long re-appeared, his task, as usual, having been well and perfectly performed; and it is much to be questioned if he was not at last slain out of private hate and envy of his great fame. After his death, the Pascha himself took charge of his infant son, had him educated, and allows him 500 piastres a month. He daily visits his benefactor, who is most friendly and amiable to him, as to all children. The Pascha granted a pardon to Melek Hammet and his followers, but still it is generally believed, that in spite of this, the former will, on the first favourable opportunity, in some way or other lose his life, as the Turk never forgets to avenge an injury. He has been ever since treated by the Pascha with reserve and slight; is, indeed, now with the army, but ever in the camp, as if he were under surveillance, and never has any expedition been confided to him, either to collect tribute from the neighbouring country, or make small plundering excursions, in which one-half of the booty goes to the spoilers. The gloomy, savage countenance of Hammet, shows that he feels all this, and meditates vengeance.

At last, about mid-day, we again struck the great Gohr in the middle of durra-fields. A halt was made, and the Pascha rode about for an hour in all directions, till he at last hit on the worst possible spot for his camp, and one distant from all water. While this fool’s excursion was going on, we and our beasts were exposed to the most fearful heat, but when his Excellency at last pitched on his camping-place, near the village of Dabaab, and we were done to a turn, we had the good luck to get possession of one side of a great tree, where our tent was shaded from the burning sun, and we could cool down a little. Though tired and exhausted, almost to falling, the great heat prevented our either sleeping or eating; our only comforter and consoler was the water-cup. As we looked forward to being again attacked by fever, it was good news to us that the Pascha intended remaining some days here; and the seriba, which can be put up in some two hours, was formed round the camp. The Gohr, here pretty broad, had plenty of water in some parts of it, in pits some five or six feet deep: but, unfortunately, this was very bad and stinking, and, after standing a day in the water-skin, unfit to drink. The open plains all round were durra-fields, but the Chaaba was not far off. In the evenings there was constant lightning without thunder, but no rain at night.

Letters appearing (concerning his return journey) from Duke Paul William of Wurtemberg, and being written in German, we had to act as interpreters. He mentioned, with many thanks, the reception the Pascha gave him in Bellad-Sudan, the attentions that had been shown to him everywhere, and the care taken to provide him with food. In short, all was compliments, and the Pascha was much delighted at hearing these translated to him. The earlier intentions of the Prince had been to advance, by Faszogl, farther into the country than ever European had done, but he had only proceeded some days’ journey into the parts beyond that place. Jacob Effendi, whom the Pascha had given him as an escort, and who had gone with him from Abu Hammet up and back, now came to the camp in high hopes, as he had received from the Prince a special recommendatory letter to the Pascha, instead of the usual rewards given here, and expected confidently, what the giver had promised him, either promotion, or at least a good sum of money. But neither followed, and Jacob ran all day, in the glowing sun’s heat, through the camp, with the German letter of recommendation in his pocket, as, after I had translated it to the Pascha, he coolly gave it back to the bearer. We received from the Pascha the office of thanking the Prince for his attention, and wishing him all possible happiness.

The expected fever from the dreadful heat and bad water has arrived, and the glowing noon-day’s sun seems, even through the tent, to be bent on converting our skulls to ashes. Not until ten o’clock at night did perspiration appear, and at the same time there burst out a fearful storm of rain, and tent, bed-covering, cloak, were all wet through, making us fear the worst consequences. But, thank God! we slept soundly in spite of rain, thunder, and lightning, and in the morning felt pretty well, so much so, that we were able to make a short hunting excursion. The soaked ground was certainly no pleasant promenade; we were ever slipping, and our light Turkish shoes sticking in the mud, so that our white stockings, ere long, were the colour of the natives’ legs. When we got a short distance from the durra-fields, we were both astonished and surprised to find ourselves in a country exactly similar to the Westphalian Embscher Bruch, and long did we brothers gaze on it, calling up past days in our fatherland; the country, too, was enlivened by singing-birds, particularly the black-heads, with their full, melodious voices—sounds of pleasure one seldom hears in Africa, where never is there such music of the woods as with us. We pushed on into the bush, which grew thicker, and where the grass rose high as our heads, hiding the deep rain-courses. On all sides crawled venomous reptiles; already had we seen two pretty large snakes and many smaller sunning themselves on dry spots under the bushes, and therefore it was only with great caution, and well examining where we placed our feet, that we moved on. Besides, we were alone, and had still fresh in our memories the sight of the two lions of the day before yesterday. In such high grass, lions or tigers could easily lie hid, or fierce cats might crouch among the branches, and every rustling seemed to us to announce the outburst of some such beast of prey; then, ere long we came on a yet fresh, half-devoured gazelle, from its feast on which some wild beast had been disturbed. Footsteps of elephants, quite recent, we saw in great numbers; seemingly they had visited the durra-field at night. Among the various birds, we particularly remarked many small pigeons, about as large as a stare, with tails three-quarters of a foot long, of a brown-red colour, as was also the plumage under their wings. At last we came on a large gazelle, and having luckily shot him, made our way back, and ere long were feasting on a piece of him, which tasted to us excellent, and not unlike our roe venison; much we lamented no juice of the grape was to be had, to rejoice our longing and languishing palates. Jackals and hyenas are here in plenty; the young of both were brought us, but we had no wish to be now troubled with them. Chameleons, too, were to be found hanging and basking in large numbers on the trees round.

On taking a ride, at mid-day, to the village of Dabàab, some half-hour’s journey off, to visit the sick Kadi Ali, we found everywhere about hollows, or sunken places, which formed large marshes, and explained why, during and after the rainy season, the country round about is so unhealthy; for the vegetable and animal matter, when decaying, and the accompanying exhalations, must produce an atmosphere remarkably well adapted to bring on fever. In Dabàab we were closely inspected and examined by all, as, seemingly, before us no white-skin had ever been seen in the village. This is of great extent, and seems to have many inhabitants; we also saw many cattle, and a certain prosperity and wealth seemed to peep out from all about us. But they possess, as we afterwards learned, only very few camels, and their horses, bought in Abyssinia for ten to fifteen top[29], are small and not enduring. Asses, cattle, sheep, and goats they have in abundance. Besides the one great thorn enclosure, there were some smaller ones round the dwellings of the different families. The houses, or tokuls, were of tolerable size, and almost on every one had storks built their nests; here this bird is sacred, and it would be one of the greatest crimes an Arab could commit, were he to hunt away or injure these birds. The wealthier adorn the tops of their tokuls with ostrich-feathers and eggs, or some such ornament, and to each is attached another square hut (recuba) of straw or dried wood, serving as kitchen, abode, and sleeping-place for family and servants. The master of the house, and his wife, however, have their sleeping-place in the tokul, where also is kept everything that might perchance be ruined by rain; this sleeping place is some three feet high, and of a length and breadth that six men might find room in it; it is also surrounded by pales, on which are gratings woven of thin wood, and on these are fastened straw mats; the whole structure, like those we saw at el Soffre, is hung round with thick woollen cloths. A little light gets in through the very small door of the hut, and were it not for this, all would be darkness inside. Nothing more than the usual household utensils, a few angarebs and mats, did we see; the utensils consisted of a murhaka (mill), a burma (earthen pot), a gadda (wooden dish), and some water-skins.

The Kadi, a man of at least eighty years old, and now ill with fever, sought by every means to impress on us his high dignity and great knowledge. He said of himself that he was most learned (ahlem), did and ought to know every thing, as he had been eight years in Mecca and two in Medina; he also was proud of his knowledge that we Franks wrote from the left to right. He represented himself to my brother as a physician, who knew how to cure all diseases, but unfortunately had no medicines by him. All Kadis are penmen (faki, plur. fokra), and at once civil and religious judges: but, unluckily, it is the usual plan with them to decide the same point of law, one day one way, the next another; in fact as it suits themselves, or as higher officials order them. We were entertained with honey-water, and many sweeter words, as to our country, our customs, and fine things, the latter of which they understand, even here, to ask for with the greatest greediness and importunity. Ere long the small hut we were in was crammed with more than thirty men, the exhalations and heat of whose bodies caused such a stench and suffocating feeling, that remaining in it became most disagreeable. All who entered kissed most respectfully the Kadi’s hand, and then came up to us and held out their hand with the greeting “Mirhaba!” All had some complaint, and believed, that through the old Kadi’s influence they must obtain medicine. Among these followers the old man had six sons, many grandsons, and almost all the rest were brothers, nephews, or relatives. To escape from the importunities of this large family, we had nothing else for it than to return to camp. After some days, the Kadi’s son came to us, and Joseph, out of pity, gave him medicine, but made him aware that hereafter he would give him nothing gratis; no other means exist of holding one’s own with these greedy Arabs. After some days he repeated his visit, and requested more medicine, proudly offering in exchange a hen which at most was worth a piastre.

The tribe of the Hallenga are in general a fine race; they have open countenances, in which is not visible that savageness and falseness so marked in those of the Haddenda, although, in truth, there is little to choose between them. Their hair they wear like the other Arabs. The women, compared with the men, are much whiter, very well grown, and with good features while yet young; but with them, as the other Arab tribes, the ugliness of old age shows itself only too soon.

We did not see their chief Sheik, Auet, he having, on the approach of the Turks, fled to Makada, and in so doing has certainly acted more wisely than Mohammed Din, else he too might have had to stroll to Chartum as an hostage. As descendant of the most ancient family of Sheiks of the Hallenga, this Auet is held in high respect by his people, and praised by all as brave and generous. At his flight he had said, “I have ever been free, and will never be a servant of the Turks, for I am of higher race than they.” Much stress is here set on such a descent, and for this reason our Mohammed Ehle, formerly a Faki, and first made Sheik by Churschid Pascha, in spite of his being a good and brave man, is held in small esteem by these people, who look with contempt on a Sheik who had been appointed by their oppressors, and as such he is called Sheik betal Diwan; to this is added that he is poor in cattle or other property, and he could hardly have, in their eyes, a greater fault than this.

It seems that, being now in the land of the Hallenga, we are considered in a more friendly country; for the guards round the camp are much weaker than in Arronga, and are only posted of an evening, and then round the large fires constantly kept up to scare away the wild beasts. In other ways we are not particularly well off. Saving hares and gazelles, the first costing one, and the second, if any size, three or four piastres, there is no good food to be got. A most fearful evil is the bad, stinking water, and worse than all the rest, the dreadful heat. Our tent is of thick, double canvas, and yet the sunbeams pierce so glowingly through it, that we are forced to lay coverlets and such like things over the side the sun strikes on, to try and thus get some relief. Tents that have been painted over with some colouring are much cooler, from having their pores thus filled, than those of white linen or canvas. We have been more than once favoured, during the night, by storms, with heavy rain, which soaked us well; nor were we altogether free from alarm at the constant lightning and thunder, as our tent was pitched under the highest tree hereabout, and at a distance from the others.

The severest storm we experienced in Africa was in Chartum, on the 31st August, 1839, during which many houses were destroyed by the wind and rain, and eleven vessels foundered in the White Nile. The masses of water poured down from heaven were such, that for more than a week afterwards the sun had not dried up the puddles in the narrow streets. We were at the time on our return from the bath we had been taking in the Nile, and counted flashes of lightning in eleven different points of the horizon round us; there was, too, such a brilliant clearness spread about on all sides, that, although it was otherwise very dark, one could see to read quite plainly. In four points the lightning was so violent, that it no longer seemed zigzag flashes, but like streaked columns of fire, ascending from earth to sky,—a splendidly beautiful sight! In our house every room was full of water; in the court we had to wade through streams up to our knees, in passing through it to examine our store-house; and this set in order, we had nothing for it, to keep off the ill effects, but to sit on our table and drink hot punch. The next house to us was a powder magazine, and we still look on it as good fortune we were not blown into the air by the explosion of the powder stored there. The next day we paid a visit to Theodore Kotschy, a collector of objects of natural history from Austrian Silesia, who was encamped in the open land near Omdurman, on the left bank of the Bach’r abiat. His tent, fastened with twenty strong ropes, was totally torn away and blown high into the air, and he and his people seemed yet far from having got over the terrors of a night they described as a most fearful one.

It now turns out most fortunate for us that we have brought with us, on our camels, our light bedsteads or angarebs, else must we have lain on the earth, like the soldiers, who have much want and many sufferings besides to undergo, as money becomes daily scarcer in the camp. All kinds of things are carried round by the criers (dellal) for sale, as cooking utensils, clothing, pipes, &c. We, too, seem likely ere long to have nothing left us; our Hussein the Gaddam taib (or good servant, as he called himself on being hired, but who, in reality, is a cunning discontented stupid fellow), a Djaln, had suddenly deserted us, and in company with our best camel, taken his road to return to his own land. He had arrived at Kassela, but was met by Ibrahim Kaschef of Kataref, who asked him for his papers, and, as he could produce none, was brought back to the camp as a deserter. He had tried to defend himself by a trumped-up story, that he had been sent by us to Beni-Amer, to see why our huntsman Abdallah remained so long there. The Arab servants are in general a real pest to every master, as among many hundreds of them you will not find ten honest or faithful.

Ibrahim Kaschef, a Circassian, foster brother of Soliman Kaschef of Carreri, made his entrance with a great following of soldiers and some considerable Sheiks of Kataref, and fortunately for us, brought with him a large quantity of Abyssinian coffee. Ibrahim is, as most Circassians, a handsome man, but, unfortunately, has had his nose somewhat damaged. He complains much of the unhealthy climate of Kataref, the water, constant fevers there, and that the smallest cut, in spite of the utmost care, soon becomes a great ulcer; and that the ferendit (thread-worm) has twice attacked him, and showed us a very distinct scar it had left. All his Turkish soldiers had suffered from illness. In the neighbourhood of Kataref and Kalabatt are some powerful Arab races, the most important of which in power and greatness, second to neither the Beni-Amer nor Haddenda, is the Kabyle (tribe) Dabaina, under their present Sheik, Issa Wood Said. The Tokruri, in former days so important in Kalabatt, have been much weakened by wars with other Arab tribes, and with Churschid Pascha. The natives of Kalabatt and Kataref seem to be much darker than those of Taka. Their dress is the usual one worn, the well-known Ferda; the hair is frizzed and fastened in knots on the crown, as with the inhabitants of Gesira.

We gained a prize in a civet-cat, called by the Arabs kedis-sabat or sebat, a handsome animal, but unfortunately of an age not likely to admit of its being tamed. It is three feet in length, including its long pretty thick tail; its feet are short, with small claws it never uses; head long, eyes wild, ears small and thin, skin grey, with the most beauteous black spots; tail with black and grey rings alternately. Below the tail are placed, on both sides, the glands that contain the singular musk-smelling substance, and these glands become, when it is excited, of a dark brown colour. The natives here, as elsewhere, value it highly, shut it up in a wicker-basket (kafass), and carefully collect its strong-smelling secretions, which are made use of by the women for powdering the upper parts of their body, their necks &c., and called by them musk. Its chief food is flesh, but it is very fond of milk.

Of reptiles, besides serpents of every size and colour, we found many scorpions, very large and half black. As such in human form may the Faki be viewed, for they act as scourges on the superstitious Mussulmen in all ways. That the Mussulmen look on many matters as aphrodisiacs, such as opium, tea, pigeons, schnaps, punch, &c., is only laughable; but it is vexatious to see how the Faki cheat the sick with their so-called charms and holy relics. The Sheik Effendi, a young mauhn (writer), with the rank of major, was suffering from violent fever, and, like a strict orthodox Turk, had recourse to the Faki for his cure, rather than to our quinine pills. Now, for one of these rascals to perform a cure, is a long ceremony, and consists chiefly of praying without intermission with the most hideous grimaces, and ever and anon spitting in the sick man’s face; a fresh egg is also necessary, but how used, we have not been able to discover. By this praying, spitting, grimacing, and writing of amulets, some of which are hung on the sick man, and some eaten by him, are cured all diseases without distinction. If the sick man is rich, then three black or white kids or lambs are necessary, which, of course, the Faki afterwards retains as his own share; from the poorer classes he requires hens, or a goat, ere he takes his leave. A Turk of the train of Ibrahim Kaschef professed to write charms against the ferendit, and was so convinced of their unfailing virtues, that in the presence of the Pascha, he pledged his head on their efficacy. Whether he was put to the proof we know not, but the common remedy for it is fire or butter; the latter, indeed, is a remedy for all diseases, and not in spoonfuls, but morning and evening a pound or two, and sometimes as much as six pounds are taken (drunk) daily. Many healthy persons in Bellad-Sudan, as well as in Beni Amer, Taka, and elsewhere, drink every morning fasting from three to six pounds of butter, as they fancy that this makes and keeps them strong (schedied), and this belief is general. Most of the rich and respected men are also the fat and stout, and the common saying is, they have no want of butter (dich’n).

But we feel the want of many things, especially of our mid-day’s siesta, for the Pascha generally passes his noon under the large tree, one side of which we occupy (this is by far the finest tree we have seen in Bellad-Sudan, and would afford shelter to at least fifty men), and either has people with him to whom he talks, or is ever clattering with the dice at triktrak (tauola), which game he often plays at for four or five hours together, without heeding aught else. Topschi Baschi, the chief of the artillery, has the honour of playing with him, and he cannot count at any time on an hour’s repose, as it often pleases the Pascha, who sleeps but little, to send for him at night to his tent; and he, wearied or sick as he may be, must, of course, attend. As little, too, is to be envied the lot of the Copt, Mallem Challill, Achmet’s private secretary, who, during the day, is summoned at least twenty times to his master; during the whole time he is in the presence, often three or four hours, he must ever stand, and at night, when his Excellency cannot sleep, and coffee, taken four or five times, does not succeed in soothing him, some thought will come perchance into his head, and the unfortunate secretary is at once sent for to write it down. Often during our journey have we pitied him; for hardly had we, all worn out, dismounted at mid-day, or late in the evening, from our dromedaries or horses, fit for nothing but repose, when the unhappy Mallem was summoned to the Pascha, and often kept up the whole night through, writing and arranging letters and papers. Pity, a Turk knows not. From all this, Challill is silent, melancholy, and drinks, in the evening (his day’s work over), to keep up his strength, six or eight fingan, or small coffee cups, of araki, as this, he fancies, more quickly cheers him than wine. Often have we warned him to mind what he did, and for his health’s sake to take fewer of these destructive drams; but he ever replies, that for his health’s sake he dare not give them up, as he has been used to them from his youth, and were it not for them, he would not feel he was alive; nay, more, that now he had discovered it was impossible for him, once he commenced, to cease drinking as long as there was anything in the bottle. After such potations, Challill becomes somewhat more communicative, and tells us stories in answer to our questions as to the customs of his race, of whom we have heard much from him. He, indeed, often ventures to call the Turks an evil set, but no one will or can get out of him the smallest hint as to the Pascha’s affairs, be the matter ever so trifling, although he possesses his master’s full confidence, and knows every thing. He has now been seven years absent from Cairo, all the time with the Pascha, and his wife and children are still in that city, as the Pascha will not permit her to join him, that his secrets may be better kept.

Challill is well acquainted with the old Coptish language and writing, which are no longer in use, and are only to be met with in the church books. These books used to be read by the stupid priests (chassies), though neither they nor the hearers understood them. The present service in the churches is in Arabic, as it is now the prevailing language among them. The alphabet of the old Coptic language is the Greek α, β, γ, &c., and is written from left to right. It dates from the times of the Ptolemys, and this evident Grecian alphabet could only have been forced on them by Grecian dominion; doubtless, in the earliest times, the original inhabitants of Egypt, now a mixture of Persians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, &c., had another language, probably that which we now see on the ruins and monumental remains. No other equally old race with the Copts is to be found in Egypt, nor is there any notice of their having migrated into the land, nor is there anywhere else to be found a similar people; from all this it seems that they must have been born in this land and be the children of the soil (hence the name Kopt, pronounced Köpt, for they do not accent the k); and only from the many wars of races, as also from mixing with their conquerors, can the original character of the whole people have become so altered as it is. It is held as certain, that down the Nile, from Æthiopia, came Egypt’s first population; but that physiognomy is now nowhere to be found in the land, and a whole nation cannot have died out; emigrated, like the Hebrews, they have not, and so there is nothing else for it but to hold that continued admixtures have thus totally altered the old people of Egypt. The belief, that the original race of Egypt was descended from African negroes, is held by the celebrated Volney. He says in his notices of the different races he found in Egypt, “que les Coptes sont les descendants des anciens Egyptiens; que les Coptes ont le visage bouffe, l’œil gonflé, le nez écrasé et la lèvre grosse comme les mulâtres; qu’ils ressemblent au sphinx des pyramides, lequel est une tête de nègre très-characterisée;” and he infers from this, “que les anciens Egyptiens sont de vrais nègres de l’espèce de tous les naturels de l’Afrique.”[30] However, these negro features are now so refined and ennobled, especially in many of the beautiful women, that one would much rather (even had the Egyptians, on their first acquaintanceship with the Greek, had woolly hair) believe them to be a race with similar descent as the Habesch tribes, which had received some admixture of Æthiopian blood.

The Copts chiefly reside in Alexandria, Cairo, Siut, Nagadeh. In the first of these cities resides their religious head, their patriarch. The founder of their sect is admitted to have been Eutyches. Why their numbers are now so few, is easily explained. At the first announcement of the Christian religion, all the Copts might not have become converts to it, but perhaps divided themselves among many other nations, and were thus lost among their masses. Such as did embrace Christianity were diminished, and driven from their homes by the cruellest persecutions, martyrdoms, and executions, when they did not die of starvation and miseries, or on their flight to the deserts, or in their places of hiding and refuge in the caves and catacombs of the Lydian and Arabian hills, all round which, even to this day, the marks of smoke and many skeletons plainly tell of their having died a miserable death. And faster still did their numbers melt away before Islamism, which then appeared. Here, death or conversion was the sole choice; and though, perhaps, many did in some way manage to remain true to Christianity, still the greater number certainly went over to the newer doctrines, as the glory of martyrdom had somewhat faded, and was no more so ardently sought after. The calendar was almost filled with the ancient heroic martyrs, and no place remained for the new. But now one sees among the Arabs a style of features that has nothing in common with the general sharp Arab features, but possesses all the characteristics of the Copts, and there can be no doubt that the possessors of these descend from Coptish families, who, from compulsion or interest, have embraced Mahomedanism. To the remainder of the Copts, after these persecutions, a short space of rest was, indeed, allowed; but ere long burst out the devouring crusades, and certain it is, that, after each new victory of the Christians, the infuriated Turks vented their disappointed rage on the poor Copts. By all this, as well as from after miseries and oppression enough to decrease any people, must this formerly so important population have become thus reduced, even though one does not take into consideration that, large as Egypt’s former population was (in its flourishing times six or seven millions), yet that the war with Persia, in which religious fury not only sacrificed thousands of men, but also destroyed all temples, &c., and the wars with Rome, Greece, Æthiopia, and other nations, must and did reduce the numbers of its population to the lowest ebb.

Even now the government do not allow the Copts to bear arms, nor are they employed as soldiers. Under the French they served as such, and seem to have behaved well. From them, too, they received many ameliorations of their lot, and they have ever since shown themselves well and gratefully inclined to that nation. But that the European powers have never, as yet, done anything towards the alleviation of their lot—no very difficult task for the former,—that this Christian race has been left to be tyrannised over by the Mussulmen as rayah,—in one word, that they are not declared free, and a consul allowed them, is a crying injustice; and, were this done, it would be seen that this race, naturally gifted with good abilities, would display many good and beautiful features. At present, they seek comfort in the belief that, as they in former days have been a great people, and ruled over Egypt, a time will come, their present slavery over, when they will no longer be oppressed, but again become a great nation. So it is written in their old books of prophecy; but much blood must yet be shed, and many more martyrs sacrificed to their religion, ere then. Similar prophecies of great wars and much bloodshed have the Turks also; and, as far as I recollect, these are looked for in 1257 or 1258 of their calendar.

As far as the persons and faces of the present Copts are concerned, most travellers describe them as very ugly, and with a sulky cast of countenance; and it is true, that many fearfully ugly faces may be found among them, principally from their diseased and lachrymose eyes: but, if we reflect on the oppressions and constant cruelties of all kinds to which they are ever exposed from the Mussulman; on the wretched manner of life they are compelled to lead, condemned as they are to sit hunched up all day in dark places, without fresh air day or night, ever writing—confined to the most wretched nourishment, which their miserable wages alone allow them to buy—and, finally, their despair at their contemptible position, which leads them to nightly debauches on the most injurious brandy—we will see that all this is not peculiarly adapted to ennoble or beautify any human race. However, one now and then meets among these Copts, especially among those who are less exposed to misery, truly antique handsome manly countenances; and their women have also much beauty among them. In general, the Copts have rather round than long faces, black hair, black curled beards (unless, as very often is the case, there is none), black, intelligent eyes, but in almost all with a suspicious glance, and often these are diseased and specked, and not seldom one of them is sightless. Projecting or prominent eyes, one seldom meets with among them; oftener, they are rather sunken, the socket cut sharp, and the inner corners little defined. The eyelashes are long and thick, the brows bent, and meeting close on the nose, and, in the women, only a fine black stripe. The nose is regularly formed, at times arched, but almost always more or less blunted off at the point, as in all the races above Assuan, but never pressed down from above, or flattened, as in the negro. The mouth is generally large, and with thicker lips than the European, although never so thick, blubbery, and ugly as the negro. The chin is round. The outline of the face is regular, as in Europeans, and the teeth are good, and not projecting.

In viewing and comparing such countenances, and considering for how many centuries a constant admixture of human races has been taking place (Hyksos with Æthiopians, under Sabacon, 800 B.C., with Jews and Macedonians, 332 B.C., with Romans, Turks, Arabs, &c.), and how from this, and a total change of manner of life, every thing is altered, still, perhaps, the fundamental type of the Æthiopian race will be found more distinct among them than that of any other known nation; and it may be held that nothing has ever proved sufficient to thoroughly efface the peculiarity of origin; as may be seen in the numerous classes of Jews in Cairo, who, like the Copts, dwell in their own peculiar quarter, and by misery, oppression, unhealthy dwellings and food, are so degraded, dwarfed, and crippled, that in them the distinctly marked descendants of Abraham, in spite of their characteristic features, can hardly be recognised; but yet all traces of descent are not effaced.

The features of the Coptish women are sharper than those of the men, and one may with truth say, that they recal to mind those of the Greek and Roman females. Their skin is often so fair, it may almost be called white, and their eyes are peculiarly beautiful, large, open, and full of fire. They all have black hair, good teeth, and well-sized, well-formed body and limbs. Pity, that at times, the piece of iron which hangs down in the shape of a hook from the head, even to the point of the nose, and to which the long, narrow face veil (burkh) is fastened, by having been worn from youth, and being springy and flexible, has blunted the point of the nose, and even sometimes turned it upwards. Usually they are very pale, and this is chiefly caused by their little attention to cleanliness, their constant sitting in their houses in an unhealthy atmosphere, and their poor and unhealthy food. The poorer classes of the Copts often sell their very young daughters to Franks and others, but not to Mussulmen, as a kind of temporary wives. Some relation settles the price of the bride, generally from 500 to 2000 piastres, and some ornaments and dresses for her. The moment terms are settled, the man is allowed to behold his bride elect, and, if she does not please him, all may be broken off on the payment of a small sum of money; if she does, the time of marriage is fixed on and takes place after Coptish rites. On the evening of such marriage day, the bride, closely veiled, accompanied by her parents, male and female relatives and friends, arrives with a torch procession at her pro tempore husband’s house, where a Coptish priest performs the marriage ceremony, and a splendid meal, with much drinking, at the bridegroom’s expense, finishes the business. This temporary marriage is over when the husband, at his own time, sends back the woman along with her clothes and ornaments, to her parents; and these, along with the already received price, often amount to a considerable value. The Coptish women are very little given to work of any kind, spend most of their time in coffee drinking, lounging on sofas, and clapping their hands, a sign for the slaves to bring in the fresh filled pipes, or refreshments. They also pass much of their time in dressing and adorning themselves, even though there is no one to see or admire them.

The Coptish men seem to view their wives as their most valuable treasures, for as soon as they leave their dwellings to go to the Divan, they lock up their doors, and stick into their pockets the large wooden keys with iron pins; so that all inside are locked in for all day, as the careful master seldom returns home till evening. Iron keys or locks, save among the Franks, are not to be found in Egypt, Nubia, or Bellad-Sudan. The wooden lock consists of a block of hollow square wood, which is firmly nailed to the door, and through which runs a slide or bolt; a square piece of wood, that passes into a hole in the door-post, is moveable in the block, and by being shoved backwards or forwards serves to fasten or unfasten the door. This sliding wooden bolt is hollowed or nicked out on one side, so that the large square-sided key fits into it. Such locks can only be opened from the outside, and are, probably, the invention of Eastern jealousy. At night, the lock remains unshot, and an inner cross bar fastens the door. It was a common trick of certain wags, as a joke, to lock from the outside all the doors in a street, so that in the morning the inmates could only get released from their confinement by casting out their keys through the windows, for the passers-by to unlock their doors.

It is seldom the Copts allow a stranger to enter their houses, and these, from being ever closed, seem as if deserted. After long knocking, one hears at last, from a grated upper window (for in the ground story there are none), or from the interior of the house, a voice screaming out, “Min di?” (Who’s there?) and announcing the absence of the master of the house with a “Mafisch” (Nothing). The Copts, however, hold fast by their sect, and visit much among one another. On the Sunday many Copts usually join to take their coffee in a garden on the water, or, taking a cold meal with them, to pass the whole day there in the open air. The favourite place of the Copts of Cairo is a beautiful garden, laid out in English style, on the island of Roda, formed by the Nile, on the southern point of which may be seen the famous old Nilometre. Here the Copts cast off their upper garments, the veils no longer hide the female faces, and often may there be seen forms and faces of surprising beauty. Although somewhat silent and bashful, they are courteous and civil, and always ask you to eat with them, and seem to lose somewhat of their timidity when they act the part of entertainers. On such occasions they appear in their best garbs; rings adorn the fingers, and gold plates and ear-rings the head; nor do they seem to be at all annoyed, although their silken dresses are somewhat ragged and dirty. Cleanliness is certainly the virtue of neither man nor woman; in their houses prevail disorder, dirt, and stench; as these even among the highest of them are seldom set in order, cleaned, or aired. They seldom wash themselves or bathe, and wear the same under garments, day and night, till they are worn out. To visit sick Copts, to be forced to view the dirt of themselves and their houses, and how all live on the most unhealthy viands,—half rotten fish and flesh, decayed vegetables and cheese,—is no pleasant matter.

Nor does the Copt afford a much more pleasant sight when one meets him creeping through the streets in his long black dirty abbai, with his miserable, humiliated, pale face, made yet paler by his black beard. The dress of all is alike, consisting of a black, white, or red oemme or turban (for one of these colours they must use); coloured jackets, with sleeves, generally of silk (antèri), of which they often wear three or four, one above and each dirtier than the other; and a caftan of silk or cotton (harir), girdled with a scarf. Over this is the so-called top; when not of cloth, this is made of black-coloured cotton stuff or chibbe, wide, open before, and falling down to the feet; and, finally, in cold weather, they wear over all this, a wide, long, open black coat, with short, loose sleeves, made of goat’s hair; it is impervious to rain, and comes from the Hedjas. The poorer substitute in the place of this an open blue linen smockfrock. From this garb, which they have voluntarily worn from olden times, they never have departed, and now they dare not. Military garbs can only be worn by the renegades among them; but these long robes are common to all oriental races, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Indians, as well as Copts.

An esteemed ornament among the Copts is the long brass ink and pen case (among the wealthier classes it is made of silver), which, like a dagger, is stuck in his girdle, and cuts a great figure there. The long, square, hollow case holds his reeds for writing (kallam), and his scissors (magass), and at the end is the well closed square ink-holder of the same metal as the case. He carries his whole utensils about his person, as he bears his papers under his caftan, in a pocket on his breast. All Copts, like the Turks, hold the sheet of paper loose in one hand on their knee as they write, and this art, as well as their ever having their ink-bottles about them, enables them to carry on their trade at every street corner. There or any other place where they may be called on to write, they instantly squat down on the ground, and if they are placed on a chair or sofa to write, you see them gradually sliding off it down on to the floor; to them that is the best and most comfortable place to exercise their calling. In all Egypt they are the sole clerks and secretaries; they seem to be particularly skilled in arithmetic and keeping accounts, and as far as my brother, in his small way, could judge, he always found them most rapid and faithful accountants.

In one small room many Coptish clerks are easily lodged, and seldom less than five are reckoning up large sums or drawing up most important reports in a space where no European clerk would find room to perform the most trifling duty. Besides, when one sees how few of these Coptish writers must arrange everything and conduct all state affairs, which are here pretty extensive and tolerably closely looked after, one must smile at the army of great and small scribes in our state arrangements. As an instance, the Pascha has with him on the present expedition some 10,000 soldiers, not reckoning servants, camp and baggage attendants and Arab auxiliary troops, in all not less than 20,000 men. He is not only military but also civil Governor of all Bellad-Sudan; all business and other state matters, without exception, must fall on him, must be cared for by him, and letters and orders sent regarding them. Daily there arrives a dromedary courier (hagahn) with the post (posta), and his jarre (leather sack), is full of letters for the Pascha who reads all of them, and generally answers most; among them are those from the different ministers in Cairo and Alexandria, which usually require direct answers, or contain certain orders, which again must be promulgated in all the provinces. Then come reports from the extensive province of Kordofan, from the districts of Dongola, Berber, Chartum, Sennaar, Faszogl; from the Kaschefs of Kataref, Sauachinn, Atisch, Karreri, Wollet Mèdine, Schendy, Gos Rajeb, Rosseres: then there is the correspondence with the Sheiks of the different Arab tribes who are tributaries, as the Kababish Arabs on the left bank of the White Nile, up to Dongola, Kordofan, and Hassanie, Dongola, Agricultural-Schaigies in Dongola, the War-Schagies in Halfaia, Schendy, Ellefun, &c.; the Mograbins, Bischari, Schukurie, Batahanie, the tribe of Abu Ginn in Atisch, of the Dabaina, Homrahn, Baghara, Fungh, Hammech, and others. And how many secretaries and clerks has the Pascha for all this? In all five! Mallem Challill, with two copyists; Sheik Effendi, as journal keeper; and Mustapha Effendi, as conductor of the Turkish correspondence; and even these have at times an idle day. Much simplified, certainly, is the writing; inasmuch as the Pascha only gives out dictatorial orders, that must be obeyed without any further remonstrance or petitioning; and the military and civil rule are united in one person, and not so divided and subdivided as in more civilised states. He alone issues orders, passes all great sentences, and declares war or concludes peace; thus all is shortened and simplified, and needs not the result of twenty different departments, and as many colleges or offices.

As to the religious ceremonies and usages of the Copts, which, such as they are, are closely observed by them,—they are bigots to their own faith, and hate (independent of the feelings of slavery) all Mussulmen bitterly, as also all other Christians who hold not the same opinions with themselves; know to a nicety all saints in their calendar, strictly keep the fast days, of which they have many; submit to, and inflict faithfully on themselves, the penances laid on them by their father confessors, even though these extend to the leaving off of their favourite dram-drinkings; most regularly attend the churches on the Sundays, and are on these occasions more cleanly in their dresses than usual. The women sit in church in balconies with blinds. The Copts marry in their own sect, and are only allowed one wife; many of them certainly keep slaves or concubines, but the children of such are not looked on as legitimate—a custom that has crept in with Islam. On the inner flat of the right wrist each Copt has a cross (salib), which is usually cut into the flesh when he is a boy, and is ineffaceable; the women generally have the same on the hollow of the chin. With these marks they are sure of kind reception and hospitality in all places where Copts dwell. Many Coptish families in Egypt have still private property, but keep it as secret as possible, for were the Turks to get scent of it, they would most certainly ere long find means to deprive them of it. This by no means large religious sect is, however, again divided into two, one of which holds by the old faith and ritual, and the other, headed by Basilius Bey, at present on account of his fits of drunken passion exiled to Tachta, and also by Sergius Bey and Tobia Bey, would wish to introduce some changes. These would join the Catholic Church, and are also inclined to listen to the English missionaries.

CHAP. XI.

March from Dabàab. — A Sham Fight. — Schaigies. — Sufferings from Heat and Thirst. — Choice of Camp. — Kassela-el-Lus. — Escape of Female Slaves. — Storm of Rain.

After a halt of six days in the camp at Dabàab, the army again marched at dawn. The first country we passed was flat and stony, only here and there showed some low bushes, though its monotonousness was made somewhat more tolerable by the view of the Hill of Kassela, on which we marched. The whole land was covered with small pieces of granite, pebbles, and stones, which had been washed and rolled down from the mountains by floods, although these hills were yet a day’s journey distant. After three long hours, our progress was interrupted by six or eight small gohrs, which from the rain of the former week had been converted into large swamps, and promised much annoying fatigue, especially to the baggage camels. The fields round about showed no trace of having ever been cultivated, and the grasses also had almost vanished from the surface; the trees were very small and few. Of living animals we only saw one ostrich, and this at a considerable distance, hurrying rapidly off on its long legs, while a few birds of prey, like solitary specks, floated over our heads. At length, fully two hours distant from all the other hills, rose in this large sterile plain a round conical hillock of some 150 or 200 feet high. The position seemed to plainly mark it out as some ancient monument, and we fancied we saw ruins on it; but, on riding up to it, we were disappointed in only finding time-worn and blackened rocks and blocks of granite. To our left (east) was visible a long chain of isolated hillock rocks of the most curious forms, but mostly pyramidical; they stood out singly like the sentinels of the higher hills, which run in unbroken range to the east and south, boundary hills between the races of Makada and of this land. Some of these hills showed the fairest shapes and brightest colours. We rode to the foot of the hills south of Kassela, that with its dome-shaped head offered a most imposing sight, and declared its height by its cloudy canopy or curtain. We sought in vain for a sign of ancient ruin or building remains on hillocks and hills; nothing of the kind was to be found, and none of the natives knew aught of bint gaddim (old buildings). Time and weather had here wasted the hard granite rocks, and those still standing upright were split and fractured into a thousand shapes and forms.

To somewhat lessen the tedium of our march the Pascha hit on the happy thought of ordering out the various Arab races, as also the Turkish, Mograbin, and Schaigie cavalry, to go through a sham fight, each after their own manner, and this certainly afforded a most interesting and characteristic scene. All, save the Arabs, rushed impetuously on the invisible enemy, discharging their firearms, and then immediately retreating, while past our ears whistled some of their balls. To infantry unaccustomed to such attacks these violent cavalry onsets might be dangerous, as these incessant skirmishings would be an eternal harassing, that could only be resisted by a rapidly-formed square, retained with steadiness and energy; and I much doubt if our forces here could, without much difficulty, be brought to effect or maintain a formation that would defeat such attacks. Even at the most rapid gallop, all these cavalry handled their long, heavy flint muskets like riding whips; in pursuit and retreat they used their pistols, and kept up a constant fire on the pursued or pursuing enemy. All was done in the most rapid gallop, nor did they make the smallest attempt at order in their onsets. The twentieth part of the Turkish cavalry alone had sabres, but all muskets and pistols; some men had four of the latter, two in the girdle and two at the saddle-bows. The Schaigies, like the Mograbins, are only armed with muskets; but the officers have mostly pistols, and the leader a sabre. Firearms are, indeed, the best and most efficacious weapons here in Bellad-Sudan, as the blacks do not possess such, and have a great dread of them; and on their part generally fight by casting lances and stones from a distance, out of their rocks and forests, as swords are not common among them. The Turkish cavalry certainly cut the best figure from their handsome and swift horses, but could not in dexterity and active movement compare with the Schaigies, who are, however, at present ill-mounted, as the formerly highly-famed Dongola breed of horses, somewhat similar to the Holstein, have been much decreased by the doings of the Turks, especially by those of Ismail Pascha and Defterdar Bey. Better soldiers than the Schaigies could not be found for these lands. They are the real fighting caste of the country, born and brought up here, and from their youth practised to war; able to bear the greatest fatigues and privations with endurance and indifference. They are closely acquainted with the capabilities, manners, and customs of these lands; and this knowledge enables them to inflict severe injury on their foes. With savage courage they steal into the very heart of the enemy’s country, and never return empty-handed. They also were the only indwellers of all Nubia up to Beni Schangull who ventured to meet Ismail Pascha in open battle, and were only defeated by the overpowering force of firearms. They then possessed no firearms, but the straight double-edged sword, lance, and shield were their weapons, and the larger number of them had iron chain armour and helmets; but these, on adopting firearms, they have cast aside as useless. The most of them are mounted on horseback, or on camels; those on foot are only armed with the lance. Their horses were famed far and near, but only among their leaders are many of the old breed to be found. Burckhardt, who saw the Schaigies in their own land, believed that their breed had originated in a cross between their country horses and the Arabian. But this is not well-founded; they much more resemble our German horses, and have even as little Arab blood in them as these. In general, they are large and long-bodied, with strong thick tails, which they mostly carry ill, and coarse thick manes; the neck is long, and always a ewe-neck, and the ever somewhat thick head, always ill set on it; in the breast and coupling they are generally weaker than Arab horses; the back, too, is much more hollowed, the croup sloping more, and the continuation of the backbone not so perfect as in the Arab breed. They are generally rather lean, and can go a good pace, but not with the same powers of continuance as the true Arabs or the cross with the Syrian horse.

These two last-mentioned breeds are rather short than long bodied, and never over the middle height; from the shoulder to the end of the backbone is an almost straight line, and this may be the reason they always carry a good tail, as this is nothing but the finish off of the stronger backbone. The tail is docked by the Arabs, but not so short as in England, nor is it ever set or nicked, nor is the hair of the tail so neatly trimmed and arranged. They have very fine bone, and broad chests, and stand wide behind. Below the neck is broad and thick, but runs up small and thin towards the head, so that with the small well-set head and bright ever-observing eye, and open nostrils, it is a fair sight. They never carry the neck arched, but it stands at somewhere about an angle of 130° with the backbone, and the head at one of 90° with the neck; hence its motions are free and unconstrained. When tied up this is not done by the head, but by the foot; either one hind foot only, or one hind and one fore, being picquetted to a peg driven into the ground. To make them more strong and lasting, the Arabs give them honey mixed with meal or dried flesh; and certainly they will hold out and undergo much fatigue for two or even three days without water or food. In general, all horses here are given water once a day and food twice, generally durra, which they eat from a nosebag.

On the march, as at home and every where, the Turkish horses must be saddled day and night, as Mahomet ordered that man and horse should ever be ready for the field. Their saddles are very high before and behind, the stirrups, as also those of the Mograbins, are large iron plates, on which the whole foot rests. The Arabs here, and the Schaigies, have stirrups like Europeans, in which, as they wear sandals, and often have their feet altogether bare, they only stick the great toes; at times one sees attached to the stirrups a spur an inch long. On their small wooden saddles there is only allowed a place for the drinking-vessel; but the way the Arabs keep their seats on the small wooden saddles of their camels, at their quickest pace, in the sharpest turnings retaining their balance, is truly wonderful, and in doing so they stick out their elbows far from their bodies, and look as if about to fly. Here on horseback no one rides by hold, but all by balance, and, in the most rapid pace of their horses, the Schaigies will coolly pick up a stone, or any other small object, from the earth, without losing their balance or checking their horses.

Their dress consists, with the better sort, of a tarbush; the most of the common orders having their hair uncovered, cut close, or when covered, with a white taghie (takhie); short white breeches, and a ferda, or a shirt. One can at first glance tell a Schaigie, and still one cannot easily tell how they are so completely distinct from the other Arabs. Their faces are good, and generally marked and thin; the higher among them, especially Melek Mahmud, are distinguished by extremely fine features; foreheads rather lofty; eyes lively and sharp cut; nose arched, and pointed at the end (in this they are principally distinguished from the smaller-featured Barabra); lips common; beard thin; colour of skin brown, or brown-black; slight of form, but well built, and therefore, with great ease, they perform all kinds of bodily exercises, and the common expression used of them is “Jasiff saie el Tair” (light as a bird). All are very fond of liquors. Although, from their face and features, they seem to more nearly approach the Arabs than the Nubians, still they unanimously, and with something like scorn, assert that they are no Arabs, and have no descent from such a race. But whence they come, or to what race they are allied, as they themselves equally deny a Nubian descent, their small kings, who have their pedigree at their fingers, could not, or would not, tell us, much as we tried to get out of them their genealogy. They firmly maintain that they have been, from most distant times, the children of the soil (betal Thin), and have ever been the warriors of their race (min Astlu Askari). One must not put any confidence, as other travellers have done, in what they have learnt from their priests, who are said to assert the contrary; though we have not heard it from them, for most of these (but this we afterwards heard from the much-travelled Sheik and Faki Hamsa of Hannak, in the country of Barabra, who boasted of his Arabian origin,) are of Arab families, and are to be looked on as the proselyte-makers of the Nubian Christians, to whom they, along with Islam, have also brought the Arabic (the only language well pleasing to God), as well as to the Schaigie. Such pious fathers also fancy, although they may be of a totally different origin, that they are able, by means of Arabian descent, to claim a kind of relationship with the Prophet. Here starts up the interesting historical question, are these Schaigies, who perhaps really do owe their present name to some Arabian saint, a part of the emigrated warrior caste of Egypt, or the descendants of those discontented warriors who were hospitably received by the kings of Ethiopia? Their country, their proximity to old Meroë, which they perhaps protected against the barbarous south, and their own warlike spirit, agree with this tradition; as does also the fact, that amongst them has never existed any common superior chief, but all have ever lived free under their moluks; the present ruling families are perhaps the old Egyptian leader-race, who, holding the Ethiopian kings as their only lords, became, on the overthrow of that kingdom, independent princes, as the Macedonian generals did on the death of Alexander the Great. Their hair too is thinned, or kept cut short to the head, as cleanliness, so necessary in Egypt, may have demanded; and such a custom is contrary to Arab habits, and those of Nubia and Barabra also, although they have, in common with those races, incisions on the cheeks as marks of caste; among the Schaigies these are horizontal.

After a longer halt, we at last quitted our camp at Dabab. The Hakim (Kadi), whom we visited in that village, said that the Hallenga were indeed an Arab tribe, but not Arabs or Nomades, but “Naas betal bellad” (people of the land), as they from centuries had had fixed dwellings therein, as the tokul and mud huts of his own village might testify. However, he also asserted that neither the Schaigies nor Djalin were of Arab descent, as I also learnt from the latter, on making more particular inquiries. From all this, it seems more than probable that these two races are to be looked on as the ancient people of Meroë, and as different tribes of the same race, as the Djalin have the incisions on the cheeks from above downwards, while those of the Schaigies are more horizontal. How strong the belief here is in an extreme old age, we heard not only from the old Hakim, but also from the Pascha himself. In this neighbourhood lives a holy man, who, by all accounts, has seen upwards of 400 years, during which period he has wholly subsisted on milk. The Pascha sent for the holy man, that we might ourselves behold him, but he has not thought fit to appear. Moreover, it is said, that in the neighbouring hills there are many persons of 150 to 200 years old. In Senaar the Pascha had himself seen and spoken with a man of 250 years of age. Of registers of birth there is as little here now as in the time of Methuselah. The people here believe such tales, and a high age, whether real or claimed, gives to the Faki his boasted saintship.

According to the old favourite custom, we were marched out in the noon’s heat, and followed back the road by which we had come, to the springs. We left the slopes of the higher Abyssinian hills on our left, passed through forests and steppes, where we saw only a few cattle, as Mahommed Ehle, the Sheik of Hallenga, had been knowing enough to have all such driven away, and to represent his people as a most well-disposed but an exceedingly poor race. The Pascha pretends he believes this, although camels are stolen daily; out of personal revenge, one of his dromedaries has been slain, and on the same occasion one of ours was carried off. We passed south-westwardly through durra-fields, then south, and at last east, directly in the direction of the hill of Kassela-el-Lus. We had to pass many gohrs full of water; (a bad road for camels, who so easily slip and fall, and sweat, from mere alarm;) and encamped, at the advice of Mahommed Ehle, on a waterless plain, while his own fair village lay some way to the left. The soil here seemed, on the whole, unfruitful, and the durra-crops were far inferior to those at El Sofre. In the evening violent thirst reigned in the camp, and all cursed the perfidious Mahommed Ehle, who had promised water.

The want of water and groanings of the men, set all again on their legs before day-break, and with music, loud murmurs, and most horrid noises, we marched on hillward. The Pascha, on account of these tumults, remained in the pass, casting furious looks round him; but we, accompanying the advanced guard of Schaigies, pushed on eastward. The hills, visible even from Gos Rajeb, now appeared close at hand, but still we reached them not till mid-day. The flat country, on which were started some hyenas, jackals, and hares, was cut up by many small rain-brooks from the hills, much impeding our march; most easily might such have been filled up, but Turkish generalship could not condescend to such trifles, and there therefore arose a confusion and straggling unequalled, as every one took any way he fancied likely to lead him across them. The camels, horses, and asses remained fixed in the mud, drinking; the poor thirsty soldiers rushed blindly after them, and laid about them to get a mouthful of stinking water to cool their burning throats. We also were nearly again mired, having got into a bog, but at last we arrived at the left bank of the Gohr el Gasch, which showed itself shortly before the first rocks, and where we, having got a start of the rest, could coolly drink ourselves, and let our beasts do so likewise. The country, covered with coarse granite sand, washed down from the hills, rose somewhat on the opposite side, but was wholly without vegetation. A vale of some half-hour’s breadth opened between the high rocky walls of the Mokran (from which also a gohr came down called Baraka) and the hill of Kassela. On the west side of the Mokran mountain we rode southwards to the foot of that of the Kassela el Lus, and there halted to await the Pascha.

The army came on, and order seemed to have been in some measure restored; but when they arrived at the Gohr Baraka, neither man nor beast was to be restrained; they rushed on, and quenched their burning thirst in its clear waters, which ran merrily down from the narrow vale-gulley; this seemed, some quarter of an hour further up, where it separated the hill of Kassela from that of Mokran, to narrow greatly, and after running a little distance, to unite itself to the Gohr el Gasch. The heat was most fearful; neither the more healthy hill-breeze, the truly magnificent nature of the high, domelike, and bold granite formations, nor the almost picture-like blue colour and romantic form of the mountains of Sabderath, gave for the moment the hoped-for relief, nor made their full impression felt. A consolation it certainly was that we were to remain here for at least three months, to let the rainy season pass over, and then continue our conquests. At last the Pascha and his followers galloped up. I drew his attention to the spot where we had halted being highly suited for the camp; as it was open on three sides, to the east leant on a perpendicular wall of rock, and water was near. He thought a better place could be found, and we had to ride on for an hour, till we reached a ravine, in the bottom of which we saw the village of Kadmin, or Assunia, at the foot of the immense masses of rock of the main mountain of Kassela-el-Lus. But the ground here was cut up by rocky ridges, and it was plain that the hill shed down a part of its waters on it. The Pascha rode backwards and forwards, dismounted and received some of the people of the village, who made queer faces when they found the camp was to be pitched immediately over their heads. I had already discovered a somewhat raised spot, where we had made our dromedaries lie down, thus taking possession of it for our tents; the Pascha looked at us, again mounted his Arab, and we followed him back to the flat, I had at first proposed as our camping-place. Our first business was to get up our tent as quickly as possible, and to send for water, as my brother was complaining of violent headache, although as yet the Pascha had given no orders to encamp there. No sooner was our tent up, than all the army began to pitch theirs round us, as if by higher orders, and as now the Pascha had also had his pitched, I hastened to him, begged him to have sufficient extent and room given the camp, and, for that purpose, to place some picquets out, so as to at least give it some regular figure, oblong or square. Inside the different detachments of the army sat down as they pleased, but always as far off as they could from the Pascha, so as not to be overlooked by him, or at least as little as possible. By this there was left a kind of clear space in the centre of the camp, on which, to our great joy, stood isolated the Pascha’s tents and ours. Such was the beginning of the city to be founded here,—a picture of what was perhaps only a repetition of what had occurred in founding other older cities.

With gloomy face, silent and thoughtful, sat the Pascha, now the Rubicon was crossed; and then first sounded the cannon-shot, as a signal that here the camp was to be. The outwardly humble Sheiks, who welcomed him here, and most of whom had never heard such a report before, shrunk together and shuddered at the shot, which again recalled a smile to the Pascha’s moody face. A loud, far round rolling echo, caused him to have the gun repeatedly fired, he seemed again to feel pride in his superior power, and in announcing his presence to the tribes around by the thunder of his guns. The Turks too did not fail to arouse the echo by repeated volleys of their fire-arms, till one might almost have fancied he was near the scene of a battle. Not in vain, therefore, did the Viceroy of Egypt style himself in his proclamation to these races, who are little acquainted, if at all, with fire-arms, “Lord of Armies and Cannon.” In the deeper stillness of evening, the echo of the great gun, beating the signal of retreat, was yet more imposing; the many fires of the camps lighted up the high rocky domes and buttresses, which cast strange shadows, and gave a truly splendid night view, such as we had never seen before.

Next morning we commenced fortifying the camp with palisades, as it had only been, during night, surrounded by a low thorn fence. Numberless Dom-palms, from one and a half to two feet in circumference, had been felled in the wood, and sawn into lengths of twenty-five feet, dragged down by men and beasts, and buried upright in the earth, giving the camp an outward form of a lengthened square, with three gates or outlets, while within all was disorderly confusion. The entrances, as well as the spaces between these large palisades, were filled up with thorn-bushes, to impede the naked-legged enemy in getting over them even should they not altogether prevent him. Toward evening many fires were made outside this seriba, and detachments of cavalry and infantry told off to them, while the guns were placed at the north and south gates, to guard against any surprise. By day guards were posted on the eastern rocks, on which the camp itself leant, to overlook the country. In the evening, however, they were withdrawn, on account of the numerous wild beasts. In the interior also some change had taken place, so as to keep open passage between the gates and along the seriba. The Pascha made his rounds, at uncertain hours, round the camp, and up and down it, and seemed proud of his work; he usually went alone save two servants, who followed him, bearing his pipe and camp-stool; he bore no sabre, had merely a long staff in his hand, which he, like Frederick the Great, often made use of, but never making more than one blow with it, where he found sentries sleeping, sitting, or having laid aside their arms. Very often I had to accompany him on such rounds, during which he now and then conversed with such as came in his way, knew all their names, put them into confusion by his questions, and laughed at their too simple, or oftener free and easy answers; but much more frequently in a truly paternal tone, reminded them of their duty. At times we sat down at one of the gates, and even on the Pascha did the splendid rocks, and their grotesque lighting up by the fires, make an impression, and strongly affect him with home-sickness, by reminding him of Circassia. We two brothers also often sat for hours before our hut, gazing on the ever-changing scene around, and felt as if in a dream.

The burning sun, the rays of which, reflected from the rocky walls had a double power, caused us after a time to exchange our tent for a recuba. For this purpose, Topschi Baschi made his gunners fell for us some tall Dom-palms, and drag them with mules into the camp. Our hut was to be distinguished beyond all others. I caused the two longest palms having forks to be sunk pretty deep into the ground, at the back and front, and, laying a slender stem across, bound it to the forks with withies, thus forming the gables. This was not the work of a moment, as ladders and cranes there were none. The Turks and Arabs assembled, and at first imagined that I was, at the Pascha’s orders, raising an enormous gallows, on which were to be hung the Sheiks held prisoners in the camp, viz. Mohammed Din and the others. Four corner timbers, each with a fork, were soon found among the sawed off remains of the palisades, sunk into the earth till only six feet of them was left above it, and two long stems bound along these, thus forming the eaves or lower rims of the roof. Then spars were laid along and tied on; and, over all, a pretty thick thatch of long grass. The front and back, as well as the side walls, were covered with durra straw, and besides defended by pales driven into the earth, and wove in with the straw, thus to defeat, as far as possible, the constant attempts at theft. Round the hut the soil was thrown up a foot high, and a kind of wall formed, and ditch to save it in case of any high flooding, from the rains. Above, in front, was a round hole, and two doors with pointed gothic arches formed the entrance; so that the whole, when looked at from the front, was not very unlike a Gothic chapel. We had bought one of the here common large carpets of coarse wool, which at night, on the inner side, covered doors and window, and was fastened to the ground by some small posts. The interior of the hut was divided into two compartments, the front one having on right and left of it our angarebs, that served us as sleeping places and divans. In the back part, that had also a small door, was our store of provisions, and many chests and cases placed on stones: these took it all up, save a passage. This we called our sanctum. Behind this our recuba were the huts of our servants, made by themselves in their usual careless manner. Our chateau so pleased the Pascha, that he gave me the employment of superintending the building of a recuba for him, that was to be as large as a castle (kasr). He himself fixed on length and breadth, a heap of the longest Dom-palms were dragged in, and the carpenters (baltaschi, sappers[31]) set to work to sink them in the ground; and these were then bound to one another, and from one side to another, with long ropes, to prevent their giving way, as cross beams of such length could not be found, and the Pascha would have no partition in the interior. The spar work of slender palms was laid on, and fastened in the joinings with long rails, which for this purpose were sunk into the great tree. I would have added supports, but the Pascha rejected these with an “Allah Kerim!” and thus was formed a house far surpassing all the rest.

Hardly was this erection finished, than my brother was summoned to the Pascha, to inspect two female slaves purchased for him by Mohammed Ehle (Ehle, white, innocent). According to my brother’s report, they were both very pretty, of bright brown colour, free from blemish, very young, and from the land of Basa. The poor girls sat in one corner of this larger recuba, behind a great curtain; they were totally ignorant of the Arab language, and, trembling in every limb, awaited their fate. Ere long we beheld, behind the large building, two tokuls (plur. täkela) erecting under Mohammed Ehle’s superintendence; the cross-formed pointed roofs were brought in by men, placed on buried pales, bound fast on the forks of these, and the interval between the pales filled up into a wall with durra straw; so that, in a few hours, these Æthiopian huts (of which the Hallenga erected many in the camp, for twenty or thirty piastres each) were all ready, finished, and standing there, in connexion with the Pascha’s palace. The one tokul was for the girls, the other for his excellency, that he might there retire and rest after the labours of the day. Silken stuffs and coloured muslins were all at hand, to dress out, or rather hang on these girls; and one would have fancied that these naked innocents would have felt happy in their unwonted splendours; but it was not so. On the second day, as we sat on our heels with the Pascha, he smiled in his own peculiar way, and then asked my brother to give him some love-powders. Joseph would not hear of it; and the mighty man became angry, and said it was his own look-out whether they injured him or not, as Joseph said they would. Joseph now hit on a happy thought, viz. to tell the Pascha that wine was specially necessary. On this a whole basket of wine was sent to our hut, with the remark that we might, with the rest, make any decoctions for ourselves we pleased; which we laughingly promised to do, but hastened off to our hut to see what sort of liquor we had got, and found a most capital French wine. As my brother knew how strong the Pascha’s faith was, he merely mixed up two bottles of it with some lemon-peel, and sent them to him.

The following night a regular hurricane, with torrents of rain, came on; and this was used by the home-sick girls, left all alone in their dark corner, to call to mind the liberty they had been deprived of, and while the Pascha held a divan in front of their abode, to break through the straw walls of their prison, cast off and forsake all their fine clothes, and escape out of the camp. The Pascha was furious; but, in spite of his rage, he in a very droll way alluded to the girls’ escape. He had, however, during the night sent out scouts in all directions, who, to our great grief, brought back to the Pascha the unfortunate fugitive girls, whom they had found hiding in the bush. Unhappily, none of us were present at this minute, to beg mercy (amahn) for them; for he afterwards told us he would have given them to us. He had acted so meanly as to sell them to the merchant, Hassan Mosmar of Berber, who was then in the camp. A real piece of good fortune it was for the poor girls that they had left all the clothing and ornaments the Pascha had given them behind, for otherwise some deed of barbarity would have most probably fallen on them.

This same night, during which the storm demolished a great part of the camp, the roof was blown off our recuba. In spite of a sound draught we had taken out of the Pascha’s hamper, the heavy rain aroused us out of our sound sleep. A foot deep rushed the water, below our bed places. I hastily seized the carpet and cowskin on which I lay, and hung both up above my head; on which my brother lost no time in jumping across to me, and getting under this shelter. With legs tucked in under us we both crouched close together, and were all right; save only our just alarm for a return of fever. The water-spout, however, seemed as if it would never cease, and a chill seemed inevitable; besides, thirst tormented us. Luckily, the hamper of wine stood near me, on it there lay a piece of bread that had been given us, made out of the apple-like fruit of the thorny Nebbek, and this, in our state of despair, we much longed for, both to pass the time in eating, and, if possible, ward off the fearful cold and consequent fever. The dagger served instead of a knife, the yet untasted curious bread had the flavour of the best ginger-bread, and the wine was excellent. The next morning, when the rain had ceased, and the water run off, the cover was raised from our head as if by an invisible hand, and we were found sleeping in brotherly love and embrace, the head of one on the other’s shoulders; but the laugh and well-known voice of Mallem Challill, aroused us out of our sweet dreams, and we sprung up happy and fresh, only somewhat dazzled with the daylight, but all ready for work, as we had, as usual, lain down dressed and armed.

CHAP. XII.

Gohr-el-Gash. — Dam across the great Gohr. — Kassela-el-lus. — Elephants. — Lion and Elephant Hunt. — Mohammed Din. — Murder of his Nephew and Friends. — Sheik Mussa resolves to starve himself. — The Faki-el-Kebir. — Faki Village. — Faki Plot. — Narrow Escape.

The hatred of the natives among themselves goes so far, that it has caused “divide et impera” to be the rule of Egypt’s policy. Mohammed Ehle, who is appointed by the Divan Sheik of the Hallenga, has taken it into his pious wise head to drive the Haddenda out of their land, if not totally extirpate them, with the support of the Turks. The great Gohr-el-Gash goes in full force from here, and sends its arms—such, for instance, as the gohr at El-Sofr—through the lands of the Haddenda; and it is this that gives abundance of water to this great tribe and their fruitful lands, as well as, here and there, to the impenetrable Chaaba, that land of free tribes so much dreaded by the Turks. This life-vein is now, on the advice of Mohammed Ehle, who already before tried it, to be cut off without mercy; and I, as engineer and confidential adviser to the Pascha, have been at the same time compelled to lend a helping hand in it. Mohammed Ehle, the Pascha, and I, mounted dromedaries, and rode, followed at a distance by an escort, towards the south, for about an hour, passing by the village of Kadmin. On our way our beasts suddenly shied, and I fancied I saw a hulk of a bear; but it proved to be some large baboons, who were hurrying past us from the dom-palm forest, where they find their food, to the barren rocks, over which dangerous road they made their way with great speed and agility. We then came to the western rocks of the Kassela-el-Lus, which extend to the gohr. Here the gohr was pretty deep, and at the same time narrower both above and below, and this place seemed suitable for forming a dam slanting across it. The Pascha at once gave the order, that a part of the army, with 4000 axes, should cut down the palms, which are only to be found in the neighbourhood of the gohr, and as far as its overflow extends. The troops, on this, advanced; and the Pascha rode backwards and forwards, to encourage the people by his presence, and called this “politica sogaier” (small policy); which art he also afterwards exercised with no little effect. The tribe of the Hallenga is by no means so savage and defiant as the Haddenda, and patiently set about delivering tribute, in a monstrous quantity of straw mats, that we found would be necessary in forming the dam (gisser).

By next morning, a lot of fallen palm-trees lay scattered about the gohr, near this spot. The dam ran from N.E. to S.W., and the main bed of the gohr was 1220 metres broad. I at once told the Pascha that it would be necessary, on the other side, where the banks somewhat rose, to dig a canal so far as to reach the water level of the Atbara, and so prevent the rushing back of the waters. The dam was commenced by a double row of palm-trees being placed close to one another perpendicularly, while mats were extended along these on both sides, and sand thrown in between them. As soon as one set of mats were filled, another was placed above, and by this means the height of five metres was reached. To prevent the yielding of the trees, and to break the force of the water above, a slope of 45° (Arab, kerath) was given to the dam. At the rocks on the right bank, where the principal body of water seemed to rush, was thrown in an immense quantity of matting sacks filled with sand. The work was from time to time urged on by drums beating, and by the Pascha’s presence; this haste was all the more necessary, as the rainy season had commenced, and might, as if by a charm, call up all growing shrubs and trees into full force, and fill at any moment the gohr, before we could oppose our first bulwark to its waters. I examined the opposite side, which was covered with atle-trees, and found there an arm that must be filled up, as well as the main course. From the greater depth of this, and its seeming to contain when full a greater weight of water, a triple row of palms was used here. To prevent the work in the main gohr from going to nought in the tropical rains, I had placed above the dam a row of palms, sunk in the earth to half their length, and supported them also by straw mats full of sand. This was run out about 270 metres. Hardly had we got our work ready, when the rain from the Abyssinian mountains turned the gohr into a lake. It was now plainly seen that the level was also to be taken well into consideration, and that from the water rising the whole length of the dam, it must be forced backwards into the forests higher up. Bad food, and the burning sun, had prostrated almost all the soldiers, who were fearfully tyrannised over during this labour by their officers. I therefore proposed to the Pascha to continue the dam by means of an earthen mound, and to employ on it the hypocritical Mohammed Ehle and his people; which task Mohammed Ehle, with most humble reverence to the Pascha, and a fiery glance of gratitude to me, at once promised to undertake. The dam was thus continued, and ere long had a length of 1613 metres, and, at top, a breadth of five metres.

The Haddenda already felt the want of water, as that stood already three metres high in the great gohr. Bloody feuds commenced between the Haddenda and Hallenga, and I much rued now my inhuman work. I therefore did not further urge the digging of a canal (bachr terra) to lead the water over the small rise of the land, into Atbara, and well knew what was coming. One morning the Pascha pulled up his horse before our recuba, and aroused me by his “Musju!” out of my sleep. There was a fearful tumult in the camp; all were rushing out from it; for the Gisser was broken through. I had to mount in all haste, and on the way I heard that the Haddenda, in spite of the guard of 200 men, had broken down this Arab wonder. We rode to the critical point; bags with sand were cast in; the Pascha was furious; he sprung from his horse, rushed into the water, and gazed at me as if he expected I was about to follow his example. I, however, remained calmly on my horse, and tried by remonstrances to get him out of the water—told him how little such conduct became the general; that it was his duty to support us; that here human powers were useless; and that all came from above (kulo min fok). We now went to the rocks from which the dam ran out, and took our breakfast in the shade; where I repeatedly advised him to return at once to the camp, so as not, by remaining in his wet clothes, to incur the danger of fever. He was already green and yellow about his jaws, ere he could be persuaded to leave. Hardly was he in camp, when my brother was called; found him in the cold fit, and his teeth chattering so much that he could not speak. Joseph and I were, most probably, the only ones in all the camp who rejoiced that such had been the dam’s fate. The Gisser was done for!

In this way were all the fine plans of drying up the highly beautiful lands of the Haddenda and destroying their Silva Hercynia—or, as the Pascha (excusing himself to me) styled it, forming the dam into an immense reservoir, and so, selling the water to the Haddenda—if not for ever totally defeated, at least transferred to futurity.

Very soon the gohr was in flood, and the water extended up to the S. and W. points of the camp, while it overflowed the whole Dom-palm forests, and from this arose general illness. The soil here is not so good as in Mohammed Din’s country, and even in the lower fields, the durra does not reach the same height as in his lands. The Hallenga have, therefore, less grain, fewer cattle, and camels; but such of the last as they have, they have wisely hid from our spoiler’s eyes. A horse costs here fifteen or twenty reals or Theresa dollars. The Sugk or Bazaar is in the open streets of the village of Hauathi, on the Gohr-el-Gash, some half an hour’s journey distant: milk, butter, honey, meat, and cotton goods are the main articles. Although, in former days, the barter of small articles was chiefly managed by means of durra, men now begin to know the value of Egyptian coin, and are shameless in their demands; for instance, for a bottle of milk, about three quarters of a quart, they will ask sixty fadda or paras, equal to one and a half piastres. Gold, however, will not be taken, as men will not acknowledge its value, not holding it to be as good as the Okiën that rich women wear in their ears. The mats they make here are seventeen to eighteen feet long, three feet wide, and cost two girsch, or piastres. An immense quantity of monkeys are among the hills here; we often, at first, counted troops of 200 or 300 of them on the slopes of the dome-shaped Kassela, ere the continued shooting in the camp frightened them off; they are the size of a stout hound, and have shiny, dark brown skins and horrible faces. They are called here Chirt, and seem to be a species of kynokephalos. At night, is often heard, on the rocks above us, a fearful screaming and howling, when they receive a visit from some panther or leopard. One day, my brother and I made a foray on the apes, and, unmarked by them, got before them on the smooth rocks, over which their path ran; but hardly were we there, when they descended from their Olympus, and bombarded us with stones, so that we had to beat a speedy retreat. A Turk called Hassan, a capital shot, and who often brought to our kitchen hares, guinea fowls, and otru (a dwarf deer), that he had killed with ball, promised at our request, not only to bring in a male and female of these apes, but, if well paid, a camel load of them. For many days we did not see our friend Hassan again; at last, we fell in with him at the bazaar, but he tried to get out of our way; however, we caught him, and asked for the apes; but he fancied we were laughing at him, and pointed to a hole in his head and a wound he had got in the shoulder. On my pressing two charien (gulden) into his hand, he recovered his good humour, and declared to us, that he would have nothing to do with those metamorphosed men.

In former times the race of the Hallenga had, at the foot of the hill of Kassela-el-Lus, a great city, an hour’s journey in length, and it seems to have extended from Kadmin, near which one sees yet many loam walls, over our camping place, and on to the entrance of the valley, between the above-named hill and that of Mochrän (Mokran). The true name of the hill is el Lus, and the word Kassela is the name of a sainted Sheik. The rock-dome of Kassela is surrounded by six pillar-like rocks; and hence the saying “Kassela-el-Lus saba Rus” (Kassela-el-Lus of the seven heads), whereby would be denoted the pride and invincibility of its people. Above on the hill are yet to be found the ruins of the castle of a queen, named Sunia. The above-mentioned large city was called Fakenda, and there, according to the old Faki Mohammed in Kadmin, dwelt all the race of the Hallenga, descendants of the Hedjas. Some thirty years ago the race, partly from the distance of water, and partly from their numbers becoming too great, divided and separated; and from this separation arose Hauathi, Kadmin (Sunia or Assunia), Abré and Dabàb. The language of these villages is the Aggem, an original language, but mixed with many Arabic words. In Sabderath are made very nice sandals, stout leather sacks, and a good cotton stuff. Defterdar Bey destroyed Sabderath and murdered all he met with therein; he had large pyramids built of the corpses, to contaminate the air, and so force the fugitives to take up, at least for some time, a new location. He acted less savagely in Hallenga, as he was not resisted there, all having fled to the hills, but he carried off all their fine horses, which were of the famed Dongola breed, and also all their horned cattle, which are of a fine form and bright colour, the dark-coloured ones not being admired by the natives. Judging from their language, some mixture must have taken place with the original native race, perhaps by means of their women; but of this the natives will not hear, but claim a pure origin.

The Sheik Mussa of Hauathi had often visited us, and invited us to come to his village, as there many birds of paradise are to be found. We started, and we were yet a good distance from the village, when we perceived a large tree, on which, even when some way from it, we saw, glistering in the sun’s beams, many of these splendid birds. We entered Mussa’s court-yard, and the first thing that struck our eyes was his beautiful slave-girl Melka. She had a regular, handsome face, was a native of the Basa hills, and had, like all these hill-races, the advantage over the Arabian females in displaying well-turned, round calves. She had been the person who for some time had brought us milk in the mornings, and so we were old acquaintances. We also saw the Sheik’s wife and daughter, both of good stature and with delicately cut features. On returning from our bird-chase and from the before-mentioned tree, from which we procured many of the gay birds, as also of their artfully formed nests suspended from it, we found our dinner prepared; this consisted chiefly of a number of fowls, brought on in a great pot, floating in butter. The Sheik seemed much vexed that our stomachs were not those of two starved Arabs; he scooped with a small gourdshell the melted butter out of the pot, and begged us to drink it, as it was most wholesome, and would make us fat. On this occasion he told us, that every rich man took from five to eight pounds of butter to breakfast, a statement incredible, though confirmed by many other informants.

Sheik Jacob, a relative of Mussa, visited us, inviting us to enter his hut; on so doing, we there saw his wife, who was distinguished by very long nails tinged red and yellow with henna. He is the most considerable merchant of this neighbourhood, and trades principally with Makada or Habesch; his tokul, here also called Baid (house), was dark, as all the light it had came in at the door, but was elegantly arranged in its way. Tables and seats were of well-made wicker-work from Abyssinia. Ostrich eggs were hung round, and the whole way round the tokul was a row of wine bottles placed close to each other as ornaments. Here we had again to eat, but we could hardly get a piece down, on which coffee was produced, which, from the perfumes used in its preparation, had a most peculiar though not unpleasant taste. He told us much of their habits and customs; such as, that the son of the ruling Sheik retained that title even when he was not elected on his father’s death by the tribe, and received a third part of the revenue from the newly chosen Sheik; that the Faki did not accompany the tribe to battle. Here, too, the higher women colour their eyelids with antimony. Sheik Jacob confirmed what Mussa had already told us, that he had twice killed a lion with a lance, while the latter was moving off slowly with a calf in his jaws, and that he did not drop it when Mussa attacked him. The Sheik held that the king of beasts was ashamed of his theft, although he had no fear for himself. We were told that the elephants had twice nearly destroyed the whole village, because the holes dug in the gohr, which also served them as drinking-places, had been filled up by sand drifted by the wind. One elephant, on the occasion, had eaten too much durra, and drunk copiously of water, and had been left behind dead. We wandered about the village and came on a house of Mohammed Ehle’s, who, though standing at his door, did not invite us in, but only saluted us. He was vexed and his pride was offended, because we had not visited him first of all. Some Schaigies, who stood near, joked Mohammed Ehle on it, blaming him for not showing us the usual civilities. As neither Mussa nor Jacob had placed any merissa before us, for, being Faki, they neither drink it nor smoke tobacco, though they snuff it, we asked the former where this Æthiopian drink was to be procured. On this he led us to a concealed hut in a distant corner, and here we found a merry party, Melek Mahmud presiding. The fat Mohammed el Chamuss (Buffalo), who owes the epithet to his corpulence, was so far gone in drunkenness, that in rising to welcome us he fell, but continued by his humour and wit to highly amuse the party, at the expense of the Turks. We afterwards saw a funeral; the corpse was rolled up in two pieces of cotton cloth and borne on the shoulders; men with shields and lances followed it, and behind them came the wife and female attendants. She was of very voluptuous build, held a cloth in her hands; with most furious howling, she waved it over her head, ever and anon striking her naked breast. She, like the other women and girls, conducted themselves as if insane, grasping handfuls of sand, casting it in the air, on their heads, and on all around. But in spite of this outward inconsolable state, we observed that not a tear was to be seen in her eyes, or in any of the other women’s.

A chasua had been made into the hills of Basa; the troops returned, bringing a crowd of prisoners of both sexes with them. The males were almost all wounded, and exhibited much stoicism during the painful operation of extracting the balls, which my brother performed. Even the Turks confessed that these mountaineers had defended themselves bravely with stones and lances. Many of the soldiers were also wounded, and with balls, which they in their usual blundering had fired into each other. It was, however, Turk-like asserted, that the Mograbin and Schaigies knowingly and wilfully had here and there fired on the soldiers, to drive them from the booty. It was a piteous sight to behold the prisoners, especially the women and children, brought into the camp bound on camels, despair written on their countenances. Before these were sold or distributed by lot, they were taken near the tent of Topschi Baschi, where a fire was burning, in which were iron stamps in the form of a star, heated red hot, to brand all of them with on the shoulder, even to the smallest child. No sooner did the howling and weeping reach our hut than, starting up, we seized our rifles, and with three servants were off to hunt. In spite of all our warnings, these would not remain with us, and we were much enraged on hearing three shots fired; we went up to the spot, supposing it to be our servants, but instead of them we found three soldiers, who lay on the ground bathed in their blood, and fearfully torn. Two were already dead, and the third, who yet lived, though his whole belly was torn out, told us, that a lion had attacked them. On hearing the shots, our servants had hurried up, and were now sent back to the camp with the survivor, though my brother had no hopes of saving him. The Pascha no sooner heard this, than with Soliman Kaschef and his body-guard he mounted to pursue the lion, and I accompanied him with my hunter Sale, my brave lad from Mahass, who afterwards followed me to the White Nile, to show him the place and the visible track. Arrived there, the Turks galloped on, and I and Sale remained alone behind. I heard a heavy tread and the breaking down of bushes, and saw near me an elephant with its young. Sale, who was some distance from me, and had just shot a parrot, called to me, asking, if he was to fire at the elephant, which I loudly forbade. The beast went on close past me, crushing down the bushes: I saw its high back, and took up a secure position between some Dom-palms which, springing from one root, stood so close together, that the elephant from its size could not push in to me. Sale, in the meantime, was up a tree, and told me that the elephant had turned and was making its way back to the Chaaba. The monster seemed to be enraged, but still alarmed for its young one; for we found a long track on the ground where it had with its tusks as with a plough turned up the soil. Some shots were heard, and we fancied the lion had been tracked; but it proved to be the Pascha and his mounted followers, who had seen the elephant. A mounted messenger now galloped into camp, and in a moment the Arnaut Abdin Bey with some of his people came up. The elephant, finding itself saluted from all sides by a shower of balls, now charged here now there on the riders, who fired at it and as quickly as possible wheeled off. Aim as far as possible was taken at the eye, and ere long it was evident it was blinded, as in its mad charges on its foes it dashed against the palm-trees till the fruit fell in showers from them. All dismounted, and a narrower circle was formed round the elephant. It must have by this time received some hundred balls, and the ground it staggered over was dyed red, when the Pascha crept up to it, and, kneeling down, sent a ball into the right eye, on which the colossal creature fell backwards and expired. No traces could be found of the young one, and as little of the lion. However, some days after and close to the camp, in which one often at night heard the lions roaring, a large male lion, without a mane, was shot by the followers of Soliman Kaschef.

We now got some sad news. Our hunter Abdallah, who from his unusual bravery we highly cherished, had a good while before, at his own express wish, marched with the Schaigie chief Melek Ada to Beni Amer, to shoot wild beasts for us, and inquire into other matters in that land. We had provided him with one of our best camels, a double-barrelled flint gun, powder, lead, and a considerable sum of money, to enable him to purchase giraffes. He had collected a good number of birds and other curiosities, when he resolved on joining us with what he had. Disregarding the advice of Melek Ada, as he himself afterwards told us, Abdallah would not await the recal of the detachment, but, without escort or companion, commenced his journey back. He had got safely through the lands of our foes, and reached those of the Hallenga; but near Arbre, three hours’ journey from here, he was slain. There he was found, recognised as our hunter, and the intelligence spread in the camp by the Hallenga themselves. The Pascha at once sent out people to inquire after our property; and our man Sale, who went with them, found his dear friend lying with his belly cut open. He openly asserted that this murder was committed by the Hallenga. Of Abdallah’s property and packages not a feather was to be found, although he was known to have carried two cases of stuffed birds with him. We suspected Mohammed Ehle, and were strengthened in our suspicions, as ere long a yet more horrid accident occurred. Ali, a nephew of Mohammed Din, and the friend who had protected us on our visit to the Great Sheik, and accompanied us back into the camp, had, with two other young relatives, visited his uncle, and ourselves, here. The Pascha had not deigned to notice him, and he was much cast down about the sad fate of his near relative Mohammed Din. Although the latter was ill, and the Pascha had forbidden my brother access to him, still we resolved from humane feeling to pay him a visit. Unquestioned, we passed the guard, and found the unhappy man, who had been deprived of his angareb, lying on the bare, damp earth, in an old, dirty ferda; two thick posts had been driven into the ground, to which he was chained heavily, and in a way more fitting a wild beast than a man. He would take no medicine from my brother, as he feared poison; we could not, indeed, understand his Aggem, but his words as translated to us implied that he was ready to die for his race, and even by the fearful death of impalement, with which the Pascha threatened him. Towards evening, the three young men had started on their homeward journey. Next morning we had gone out very early on the hunt, and ere we went far saw thousands of birds hovering in the sky, and too truly foreboding the horrible fate of our acquaintances. We went to the spot over which the birds hovered in greatest numbers, and found, some half hour’s journey from the camp, the three corpses, lying in their blood, most fearfully disfigured and mutilated. The bloody lances, and the quantity of blood round, showed that our friends had bravely defended themselves, but they offered a horrible spectacle, their eyes having been already picked out by the birds. That this murder was committed by order of the Pascha admitted of little doubt in our minds, and therefore it behoved us to bring punishment on him for it. We laid the three corpses on a camel feeding near, and I accompanied them into camp and to the Pascha’s presence. I commenced as accuser against the Hallenga, and bitterly reproached them for such a breach of hospitable duties; but the Pascha, without any look of surprise or displeasure, answered with a mere “Min ara di?” (Who knows it?) accompanied by a meaning look at me, and then, by a sign, ordered the removal of the corpses, without exchanging another word with me. General pity was felt in the camp for the murdered, and even among the feelingless Turks there was much excitement, when Mohammed Ehle, with a small train, entered to pay his respects to the Pascha, or inform him of his villanous treachery. As at first the Pascha did not speak to him, which probably my presence might account for, he, according to Turkish etiquette, had to remain silent, and afterwards, as we were at the same time leaving the divan, I, before all his people, bitterly reproached him. This he bore in silence, as if he was the guilty party, and in his own village of Hauathi the same was openly asserted by our friends. The Albanian Abdin Bey was so enraged, that it was only by the united persuasions of the other officers that he was prevented from mounting, along with his wild Albanians, and overtaking and cutting down Mohammed Ehle; this, had it occurred, would more likely have brought on a general revolt against the Pascha himself, as the soldiers have been long loudly murmuring at his ill treatment of them as regards food and pay. Mohammed Ehle had before this, in a battle with the Haddenda, received a lance wound right through the outer part of the breast, directly over the midriff. The Pascha had expressed a wish that my brother should operate on him, but Joseph did not admire this practice, and had recourse to washing it with opium. When the pious Sheik, from its smell, recognised opium, he would no longer submit to the treatment, because opium in no shape must find its way into the sainted body of a Faki. So my brother let him and his wound, which had already become an ulcer, alone; he had hoped to have healed it by sympathetic means.

In our hunting excursions, we often visited Hauathi, as merissa was to be got there, which was not allowed to be introduced or brewed in the camp. The women of the upper orders pass the whole day on their angarebs, and do not busy themselves in any way; they anoint their bodies, and wear glass coral, and some real coral in its rough state, round their necks and wrists, as well as silver and horn rings on the latter, the ankles, and above the elbows; silver rings on the fingers and both thumbs, a small silver ring in their right nostril, and in their ears golden plates. Their hair lies in small plaited knots close to the head, but one never sees on it the white pomade made from camels’ fat, so common on the men’s. Each house had a hollow in the floor, covered with hoops and a cloth, in which the women squat down on their heels and smoke their pipes; they also smear their face, and necks to their shoulders, with musk; the men do the same to their necks, so as to conceal the disagreeable specific smell that the skins of all these dark races emit. We also hit here upon an establishment where the men had their hair frizzed out after the prevailing fashion before mentioned. Instead of a comb a piece of pointed wood was used, which they often leave sticking in the hair, so that it may serve to scratch the head with. Such a frizzing-out requires many hours’ labour, and with the women it often takes up a whole day, as their hair is very stiff and difficult to arrange. The women carry very heavy burdens on their heads, and move under them with much grace and activity, nor did we observe any deformity among them.

We paid a visit to the Chawaga Mohammed, a respected and, in his way, well-informed merchant: he confirmed to us what the fiery milkmaid of Mohammed Ehle, by name Fatme, had reported in the camp, that our friend Mussa, who had been most shamefully defamed by Ehle to the Pascha, had shut himself up in his tokul, to starve himself to death. For four days he had been shut up in his dark hut without any nourishment, and threatened to stab with his lance any one who came near its door. We held it to be our duty to dissuade him from this determination, and so went to his house. Here all were in deep sorrow, and we were warned not to go near the tokul, as the Sheik was a brave man, who would keep his word. This however did not alarm us, nor prevent our going up to the door and begging admittance, saying we wished before his death, which we declared a manly one, to take our leave of him. It was the work of some hours, during which we sat in the shade of the recuba, to get the miserable man to answer us. At length, however, after we had stoutly abused both Turks and Mohammed Ehle, he cried out that all should retire save we alone, and cautiously opening with his lance the door, admitted us, and again locked it behind him, so that only a very little light came in through its crevices. We embraced and kissed the brave old man, who wept that it was the last time he would behold us. We pretended to be about to leave him; my brother telling him he carried drops about with him, which did he take he would avoid all the tortures of the death by starvation he seemed resolved on. I still see the man, with shaking knees, leaning on his lance, and gazing on my brother, as he dropped on sugar, from a phial, some liquid anodyne. Mussa let his lance fall, seized us both by the hands, and begged my brother to stick the sugar in his mouth. Instead of the instantaneous hoped for effect, he found his love of life awakened; and my brother plainly told him that he now would live fourteen days, although he took neither food nor drink. This did not at all please him, and he grew angry. I saw, through a crevice, that food was prepared for us in the recuba, and begged him to let us eat our meal. My brother held him persuasively in his embrace, and as the Sheik opened the door, I drew the angareb into the doorway, under the pretext that we would eat in his presence; he began to yield a little, said we had acted ill towards him, in forcing him yet to live fourteen days. After some remonstrance, he took a little milk, and gave up his purpose of dying. No sooner did his family and the merchant Mohammed remark his drinking from the distance, than they rushed up to him, and embraced him. I afterwards told all this to the Pascha, who gave me an assurance that nothing to harm or annoy the Sheik should happen. The people, who had heard of this wonderful medicine, now came about us, and would have some of it. My brother, who well knew the greed of these Arabs, told them first to bring honey and butter into the camp; on this they hurried off as fast as they had come, but, as usual, brought us nothing.

The Aggem, or language of Taka, has no means of counting over the thousand, and by this is therefore often meant much more. Mabuck and Abba mean father; Oho, merissa; el Dura, honey and water as drink; Eüm, water; Tohscha, Toschi, flesh; Dahanita, Good day; Dabaiakn, How goes it? Tiah, milk; Ola, butter; Thau, honey; Otamm, bread; an Harguab, I am hungry; an Guib, I am thirsty; Ohàtta, horse; Okamm, camel; Omir, ass; Ditock, mother; Sannock, brother, &c. This language has great similarity with that of the Bischari, and like it is very widely spread, and to be viewed as the original language of the old foes of Egypt. Whether the words of Arabic occurring in it have been introduced by the Arabs, or are an original part of the language, cannot well be decided.

In the stalls of the cows in milch were always some stuffed skins, taken from the slain calves, stuffed and placed there, that the cows at the sight of their sucklings might yield their milk. The Hallenga possess many suits of chain armour (labbis) and good straight swords; the first however they only now use in their forays upon their foes about here, as these would not protect them from musket-balls. Their food is chiefly milk and asside (meal soup); in such meat dishes as they have, they put so much of a small red pepper (schiteta) that an European can hardly eat them. They ascribe curious powers to this schiteta. They eat, in defiance of the Koran, the tortoise, as well as the hog, and also the locust or grasshopper, from which they tear off the wings, and then roast it in the fire. The shells of the tortoise and of many small mussels they use as dishes and spoons. They have neither wheat nor maize, although the ground is well adapted to them. The merry-makings on marriage often last a month, when the bridegroom is rich, or has a number of relatives. Hides are used as cradles, which are suspended like hammocks on cords, and swung about. These are hung from trees, in the open air, as are also skins filled with milk, and in them, by shaking, butter is produced.

One day, when we were with the Pascha, he gave my brother directions to professionally visit the sick Faki Mahommed of Kadmin, a man held in high esteem by all. He, the head of all the priesthood in Hallenga, was now very old, and had no special liking to pay his respects to the Pascha; besides, he might also have been offended, the Pascha having laid his village, where alone the Faki may dwell, under contribution,—a thing even Defterdar Bey had not ventured on. We learned from a Faki, who had accompanied the army from Chartum, that this Faki-el-Kebir had sworn not to behold the sun-light, as long as the Turks darkened the land. Accompanied by a servant, we mounted our asses, and started for the Faki village, some half-hour’s journey distant; we must have been spied out when some way from it, for we found many of these holy men assembled, who would have denied us entrance into it, as no laity were permitted to tread its sacred soil. However, on our unslinging our guns, they disappeared in all haste; but on our calling out and asking where the great Faki dwelt, two of them turned and showed us to his abode. We entered a roomy recuba, where many young girls of considerable beauty and bright colour were occupied weaving straw mats. From the entrance-hall we came to a tokul, and through this to another, where the old man lay on an angareb, reading by dull lamp-light. I, however, returned at once into the entrance-hall, both for the sake of the purer air, and more agreeable company, the latter of which our sudden entrance much surprised. My brother remained conversing a considerable time with the old man, who told him many things, and could not conceal his hatred of the Turks; he had been many years in Mecca and Medina,—had, according to his own expression, learnt every thing, and called himself Allan (learned). When my brother questioned him as to his ailments, he at once loudly declared he would take no medicine from any surgeon of the Pascha’s, not because he mistrusted my brother, as he before now had in Djedda had for his friend a Frank doctor, but merely because he would not be indebted to the Pascha for any thing whatever. When my brother recommended him to move into a better atmosphere, as the air in the dark tokul was very detrimental to health, he replied, that after sunset and before sunrise he continued his devotions in the open air.

We left him, and, as we were doing so, we were met by the Faki of Chartum before mentioned, who had married a woman of this priest-village, and who often had invited us to come and drink merissa, which he secretly brewed. As he almost never spoke the truth, from which habit we called him Misaur, we now threatened to take him stoutly to task, if he did not procure us this drink, which he had days before promised to bring into the camp, though we held it impossible that he would dare to produce it here. He led us through an empty house into a court surrounded by a high mud wall, and to the shade of a tree; then brought out some small stools or chairs (bamber), made of woven camel-hides, for us to sit on. With his hands he dug up the earth before us, showed us a wooden cover, and, after this was removed, a great burma (an earthen bomb-shaped vessel), full of merissa, concealed under it. He then hurried into the house, and brought out a small gara, to scoop it up in, and a knife, with which he scraped off the brown bark of some branch smelling like mint, and which, powdered over the merissa, gave it a more piquant taste. We grew merry, as if from draughts of good wine, and drank, in the German student style, in rivalry with the Faki. From the rapid drinking and talking, he became maudlin and loving, and wanted to embrace us as his brothers, but the stools not being the steadiest, he came to the ground. We then helped him up, and now he as suddenly became lachrymose, as it occurred to him that he must save us from a great peril, and that, as he knew the road, we must return with him to Sennaar along the Abyssinian frontier. Our servant became now attentive, and winked to me to mark the Faki; however, we drank on stoutly, would not allow any danger was near us, and at last out came his secret. On our arrival hereabouts, the Pascha had sent his stores of powder to this village, not so much because, from the great want of caution in the soldiery, it and the camp were in great peril when it was there, but as he held it improbable the enemy would risk the blowing so many holy men and their village into the air by firing it. This, however, we now, to our great surprise, learned was about to be done, and the holy men were, within three days, secretly to remove their possessions by night out of the village, and hide them in the great cave of the Kassela, and when all was ready, the house in which the all-important powder was stored would be fired. If this plot were carried out, the whole army, and we with it, would be lost to a certainty, as the Hallenga, excited by their priests, would have then set on us, and we could have offered no resistance. As by this time the Faki could no longer either get upon his legs, or stand when placed on them, our servant raised the burma out of the ground, and placed it on his beast before him, to bear it off to the camp, where we might finish its contents. Burdened with this important secret, but otherwise very merry, we rode back to the camp. My brother made his report to the Pascha as to the illness of the Faki, and the former could not conceal his annoyance, that, by declining the medicine, a want of confidence had been shown him,—a confidence that he on so many occasions had most horribly abused, as had been acknowledged by his former trusty surgeon, Soliman Effendi.

Before now, I had, at the instigation of his higher officers, more than once begged of the Pascha to remove the stores of powder into the camp, and place a cordon of sentinels round it, as the priesthood, most especially, were unworthy of trust. I now repeated the request; he gazed on me with sparkling eyes, and said, “I know all!” At once he gave orders to closely surround the village with troops, to allow no one to pass in or out, and to strongly reinforce the guard over the powder-magazine. Next morning, the powder, which was packed in small chests, was brought on camels’ backs into the camp, and piled up in a pyramidical form on the open space before our tent. The Pascha fancied that all that was necessary for its safety, was to cover it with a tokul, to protect it from rain. I represented to him, that the foe might steal up into the rocks above us, and from thence, fastening burning stuff to their lances, hurl them down on the straw thatch, and so, at one stroke, destroy us all. On this, great thick woollen cloths were got, and spread over the chests, and above these a coating of turf placed. Over all this a tokul was erected, and the Pascha seemed satisfied, but still brooding over the vengeance he would take on the Faki, though probably he would not at once venture to carry it out, so as not to further inflame all the tribes against him. I had afterwards returned to Chartum (Chardum, by the Turks), on my way to visit the White River, when my brother’s letters informed me that the Pascha had hung up, not on a gallows, but on Dom-trees near the camp, nine of the Faki, and that he asserted he would ere long serve in the same way some forty more.

Breach of matrimonial ties is uncommon here; any female guilty of such breach is slain with a lance, not by her husband, but her brother. At a marriage, the women sing all manner of indecent scandals against the man, and especially those least likely to make him acceptable to a young wife. The wives veil themselves always, even at home, while the slave and female attendants (Nussuahn), young or old, wear merely a small cloth round the loins and hips. The preparation of fat for ointments, and incense, form their main employment. The beauties of a maiden are great eyes, large and round; small breasts; hair down to the shoulders, and sometimes a white skin. When tidings reach them of the death of a relative, they howl in a fearful manner all night, strew dust or earth on their heads, and repeat this for many successive nights.

CHAP. XIII.

Ravages of Wild Beasts. — Hills of Basa. — Native Tribes. — Chariff. — A Chasua and its consequences. — Singular Recovery. — Supper Party. — Female Slaves. — Turkish Jealousy. — Snakes. — Superstitions. — Basa. — Origin of Tribes and Races. — Miseries and Ennui of Camp Life.

To form a regiment for the Khaimakan Hassan Effendi, a vile fellow, who was slave along with the Pascha, the officials have to furnish slaves. The Pascha gave 50, Mustapha Bey 35, a Colonel 30, a Kaimakan 15, a Bimbaschi 10, a Jusbaschi 2, a Melasim, and all Mallems, 1; and just as arbitrarily does the Pascha act with the Saraf (money-changer, or financial officials). The Saraf of Cairo has run off with 7000 purses (kies). The Pascha has been generous enough to place 3000 to his own debit, but the other Sarafs of the country must pay the remaining 4000. No officer, however old, gets his discharge without first having his accounts overhauled, or, in other words, being plundered. Some people of Mohammed Ehle’s have been caught tempting the soldiers to desert, and stealing camels, but our chief remains true to his policy not to break with the Hallenga. The only punishment he inflicts on them is to take away their lances and shields, and, at the prayer of Mohammed Ehle, after a few days’ imprisonment, let them go. The making of busa, or merissa, is forbidden, and brandy is not to be had; so now they steep raisins and honey in water till it ferments, burying the vessel containing it in the ground. The opium is, too, all used up, and the few who have been in the habit of using it torment my brother for some, and promise in return what they never mean to perform. The tigers (nimr), or panthers, almost nightly spring from the rocks over the low camp-fence, and bear off so easily goats and sheep, that the owners, who sleep beside them, only hear the dying cry of the prey, and the rapid spring of the spoiler over the pales. The lions have again slain a man, and three cows, near the camp; we therefore are now more cautious when we go out to hunt, and the servants wisely stick close to us. Our collection of birds and four-footed animals is much increased, and we have also gathered together a number of snakes and other reptiles.

Towards the east, among the hills, running up to Habesch, dwell savage tribes and robbers; they speak an aggem of their own, are Maguss (heathens), dress in skins, or go perfectly naked. Their weapons are the lance and a small shield of buffalo-hide. The men ornament themselves with coral, are powerful, incredibly agile, and wonderful runners. They are an abomination to the Mussulmen, as they neither pray, have any kitab (book or Koran), nor any Faki. They have neither camels nor horses, but only cattle, goats and sheep, and live on milk and flesh. They grow little durra, as their ground is ill adapted to it, and only eat of it every tenth or twelfth day. Their towns or villages are situated on the highest hill-tops, are fenced in with thorns and stone walls, and they are said to have sixty such fortresses. They are of various shades of colour,—brown, black, red, and almost white. The fairer females of bright complexion are highly valued. They plunder from each other, principally stealing women and cattle, and make forays into Habesch and Taka; they know not the duties of hospitality; the stranger who enters their country, even though a female, is robbed and murdered. The father will demand the guest from the son, even though he has eaten and drunk with him, and only with the view of sacrificing him to their inhospitable usages. This makes them deeply hated by the Arabs, with whom a guest (Diffahn), with certain exceptions, is sacred. They sell their own offspring, even their daughters, as victims to Turkish lust. They tattoo body and limbs very neatly. Whence these hill-tribes, whom the Arabs, in contempt, call Naas-el-Gebl saket, spring, no one knows; probably, however, they are the original inhabitants of the land, driven back into the hills by the conquering races of Abyssinians and Arabs: further, the different hill-tribes have different languages, with some Arab words mixed in them, as in Faszogl.

On the Gohr-el-Gash, two days’ journey from here to the eastward, commence the extensive and highly populous mountains of Basa. The two principal cities of that land are Bada and Deriba. These nations also murder their guests, and are Kaffers or Maguss (heathens). Here, too, plundering is the main pursuit, with little agriculture, but much cattle-breeding. The whole labours are those of the chase, especially elephant-hunting, the making of coloured straw mats, and vessels for food and drink; they also make very neat drinking-cups and milk-dishes, covered or lacquered over with rosin. They generally eat their meat raw, drink much merissa, and old and young dance and beat the nogara day and night. The Gash winds through among the hills, and gives these tribes water; for eight days’ journey on each side of it, extend the hills of Basa to Makada, to which succeed the hills of Damballass, followed by the high lands of Hammassein, in which the Gohr commences. The houses in Basa are well-built tokuls. The coral-ornamented men, who smoke much, wear a ferda, the women only a small loin-cloth. In both sexes the eyes are small, the cheek-bones very prominent, the face broad, and the lips not even fleshy; their whole physiognomy displays brutality and savageness. Each hill has its chief; one over all there is not; the powers of the chiefs are small. Even the Turks admit their bravery, and say that individuals among them would take up a position on the rocks, and, after having cast away all their lances, would defend themselves against a heavy fire with stones, until they were brought down riddled with many balls. The love of home is very great; much to our joy, almost the whole of the slaves of both sexes have escaped from the camp by the gate, which the Schukurie held. The women had actually slain their infants, that these, by their cries, might not betray or impede their flight. These people run like deer, and in a moment leave much ground behind them. Their language is perfectly different from all others, and is certainly a well-sounding one, e.g. Oïfa, meaning merissa. Here, and on the way to the hills, snakes are said to be found, not so very long, but thick as a crocodile, and able easily to swallow a man; instances are related of their having half or wholly swallowed the sleeper from his angareb. Four days’ journey off, higher among the hills, lies Belcha, or Balacha, which, according to these people, must be an immense and most populous city.

Behind these, a day’s journey from here, on a hill towards the east, is Sabderath, and half a day’s journey from thence is Gedehn, the population of which are of Arab descent, and tributary to the Turks. From the hills of Baria, Mària, Basehn, and Semhend and to the north-west, bounded by the Haddenda, extends in a somewhat bowlike form, from the south to the east, the land of the Beni Amer, which, in its people and their habits, much resembles the Haddenda; its southern part is hilly, more so than on the east, where it slopes away till it reaches the Red Sea. It receives its principal supplies of water from the Gohr Baraka, which has its rise in the north-east chain of the Abyssinian mountains, and winds through the lands of Kostahn and Mària westwards, then divides into two branches, one of which runs eastward by Sauakin into the Red Sea, and the other through the Beni Amer. On its course to Sabderath, where date and tamarind-trees are to be found, it loses much of its waters, and beneath that hill it divides again into two arms, one of which runs southward round the hill of Kassela-el-Lus, by the village of Hafara, and the other westward, by Hauathi, into the Gohr-el-Gash. Among the Beni Amer, cultivation is not much pursued, but attention is paid to cattle-breeding, and they have many of these, and camels with large humps, which they barter with the Haddenda for grain. There are also in their land many giraffes and elephants, the teeth of which they pay tribute in.

North-east of Basa, to the frontiers of Makada, and to the south-east of the Beni-Amer, extend the hills of Baria, inhabited by a numerous race of blacks, heathens, who, however, wear the ferda. They are a stout, warlike race, great hunters, and therefore little of agriculturists.

Mària, yet more populous, and on the western frontier of Habesch, and south-west of Sauakin, has, on the contrary, much grain, and many most beauteous female slaves, of a copper-brown and red-yellow colour. These people have a sultan, and manners very like the Abyssinians. It is said they are Christians (Nassara), and not badly disposed or cruel; to this it is not unlikely Christianity has somewhat contributed. The hills there are well covered with fine trees, and tamarinds are plentiful; but also immense serpents, of which most wonderful tales are told. The natives are most dexterous in weaving straw.

On the land of Mària joins, to the S.E., Kostahn, the tribes of which are the most warlike of all, and are ruled by a sultan. Both races much resemble the Abyssinians, and in Kostahn are both Christians and heathens. Swords are rare; with their lances, however, they attack elephants, of which there are many, as also wild buffalos and rhinoceroses; the teeth, hides, and horns of these they bring to Massaua, in the Habesch, and there barter them for pieces of cotton cloths for clothing. Both countries receive their waters from the Baraka, and on it, but further up the hills, their villages lie. Each land has a different language, mutually plunder each other of women and cattle, and carry on war among themselves, and against Makada. The men usually wear their hair long, and anoint it with fat. In all these lands gold is unknown, so are also the Abu Nukta and Abu Matfe (Theresa dollars and Spanish piastres), and all trade is carried on by barter in salt, cloths, and cattle.

The tropical rains generally commence at Assur or Magreb (three o’clock, P.M., or sunset), are usually accompanied by a Habub (blast of wind), and last till far into the night. In the morning the sky is clear and pure, not a cloud, save those which almost the whole day hang round the great hills’ rocky dome. If the cloud (Nedde) withdraws during the day, rain sets in. However, it has not proved, as we were told by all, that during the Chariff, or rainy season, rain fell day and night, and in drops the size of musket-balls. Not only in the valleys, but in every crevice and fissure of rock, now starts up verdure, even where it could hardly have been looked for. A man here came to my brother, and requested a certain poison, backing his request by saying that he wished to separate from his wife for ever. We advised him to adopt the Mussulman’s plan, and, if his wife was a bad one, to divorce her; but he preferred dying to exercising such a right, and left us much depressed. I had tried to persuade the Pascha not to treat Mohammed Din so harshly; but he said I did not know him. He at the same time told us, that his policy demanded he should also carry off into imprisonment at Chartum, the as-saint-esteemed old Sheik Hagemar, of Mahass, who had long prophesied the arrival of the English in these countries, and now English ships were in the port of Sauakim, from which the people much desired a landing.

Desertion among the soldiery still goes on, and increases: so many are now sick, that all fear to die. The vapours drawn from the water and damp soil by the sun’s heat, the many dead camels lying round the camp, have poisoned the air, and brought on a serious mortality among the men, who are almost all covered with small, itching pimples. Even the finest horses of Dongola, Cairo, Scham (Syria), and Arabia, are dying in the same way. The Pascha, not to embitter his higher officers, although all, discontented as they are, still appear before him with the utmost outward subserviency, allows them now to draw almost the full amount of their allowances; though they alone should answer for the deserters. The news from Sauakim, of a probable landing of the English, has caused much excitement in the camp. From all sides men flock to and question us, as they fancy that we, being Franks, must be aware of the English plans. On the whole, much general satisfaction would follow a change of rule; and this is specially shown when we tell them of the good pay of the English, the good treatment all receive at their hands, and how no officer is subjected to unworthy usage from his superiors, nor dare any attempt, such practices as are common here, towards man or officer.

Certain of the detachments sent out in various directions to bring in tulba (tribute) have been slain, and a kind of revolt has occurred in the camp. In Mitkenab, in the land of the Haddenda, one of these detachments, a troop of Turkish cavalry, who seemed to be on the best footing with the inhabitants, who prepared a feast for them, have been treacherously murdered. They had encamped, eaten, and drunk, when the Haddenda attacked with their knives the thirty-two horsemen and fifteen servants, and cut their throats like sheep, before these, armed with pistols and muskets, could rise to defend themselves. The Buluk Baschi, alone, slew the Arab attacking him, threw himself on his horse, and galloped in with the horrible tidings. We were with Abdin Bey, their commandant, when the messenger of death entered. Abdin Bey, who loved his men, dead or alive, became so furious, that he howled aloud, and plainly gave us to understand that this murder was done at the instigation of the Pascha. He was about to rush to him, but as this would at once have driven matters to extremities, his relatives and we held him back by force, although the foam actually stood on his lips. Then he wanted to mount with all his men, and take a bloody revenge, nor wait for any orders from the Pascha. Afterwards I accompanied him to the Pascha, who put on a most indifferent face, as if nothing particular had occurred, called him merely Aga, though he is by birth a Bey of one of the first Albanian families, and smiled sarcastically when he prayed to be allowed to set out immediately; and at last said to him, “Your men and horses are ill, but, if you choose to go alone, you may.” This finished the business. The Pascha, indeed, could not put up with the pride of this Arnaut, who could see in the Pascha merely a Mameluke and a slave.

The tribute laid on the land of the Beni-Amer, in camels and cattle, has only come in part to hand. There are yet due 3500 cattle and 1300 camels, which the blood-sucker Hassan Effendi must go and bring in. Soon after his setting out, there was much talk of the cruelties which he was exercising on the natives. Although the people, on the whole, remained quiet, and their chiefs, not being able to assert their authority, had fled, still Hassan had allowed 200 persons to be pitilessly shot down, and besides had carried away whole herds of camels from the Haddenda, with whom we were on terms of peace. These, at once, took their revenge; burned Gos Rajeb, murdered some twenty merchants, and plundered the magazines of corn laid up there for our retreat. Almost all the soldiers returned ill, when the continued rains forced them to retire to camp. To give the Pascha actual proof of their courage, they had cut off the ears of the slain; and he, in return, ordered a present to the soldiery. A servant had been compelled to cut off the ears, and now he lies yonder firmly bound, and raving mad. All stealers of camels, when caught in flagranti, are immediately deprived of their ears, as the Pascha also pays for them. That many lose their ears who had no thought of theft, is easily imagined, as the operation is done on the instant and spot. Besides many pretty women and children, Hassan Effendi brought in 2900 cattle, and 7000 sheep. He had, also, laid hands on eighty camels for himself; these he gave out he had bought. The camels, though handsome animals, showed little docility, as they live among these natives as untrained as in the desert; they were sent off to Cairo for sale. Although Hassan cheats the soldiers in an unheard-of manner, keeps back their corn, has cows stolen and slain and sells them, milk, flesh, and all such things, to the soldiers, at a high price, and has before been imprisoned for his roguery, and a second time, for similar tricks, degraded, still the Pascha has advanced him to be Kaimakan, and raised for him, as already said, at the expense of all his officers and officials, a complete regiment. All he requires for his own housekeeping is one piastre’s worth of flesh a day, and his people get only belila (boiled durra) and water for themselves. If they ask wages, he gives them the bastinado. He purchases from the poorer officers the horses they have taken as spoil, but never pays them; and these are afraid to complain to the Pascha, lest they expose themselves to Hassan’s intrigues, and the cabals which the higher officers carry on against their inferiors. The Pascha had sent the poor camel-drivers sixteen cows, but this vampire took on himself to reduce their share to three, keeping thirteen to himself. I held it my duty to tell the Pascha this, who merely said, “Malliich” (’Tis no matter), and soon after mentioned he had recommended him to Cairo, to be made Bey! that he was already very old, and was failing, and that, ere long, the Divan might call him to account, or be his heir. While thus speaking he could not repress an ironical smile—such is Turkish policy. The market now showed well; fine cows could be bought for forty or sixty piastres, five to eight cows were given for a horse from Habesch, and goats and sheep were to be had at three or four piastres a head. The Hallenga made large profits, and those who had before represented themselves as miserably poor, now flocked in with from eight to twelve pieces of cotton cloth on their shoulders for sale.

The Schaigies, also, made a chasua on the Dabaina-Arabs, who dwell towards the south, between the small rivers Settiet and Bassalahn, and will pay no tribute. The Schaigies, however, suffered considerable loss, from the now highly flooded waters, the lands there being very fruitful from this abundance of water. Although the Schaigies lost many men, and also horses, still they have brought in with them 700 cows and 300 camels; but all, from the constant rains, have returned ill. Such as have to supply themselves with new horses are much cast down, as a new horse often costs them all their pay for two years. Although it is usual to give a part of the spoils of such robbing expeditions to the troops engaged, still the Pascha on this occasion took the whole of the plunder to himself, but in the name of the Belik, leaving unanswered their petition for a share. By this, the Schaigies, who are ever placed in the most dangerous posts, are much soured, openly and bitterly complain to us of their wants, and make no secret of their hatred of the Turks. Thus, in one way or another, the whole camp is filled with sickness and discontent. I myself had been ill eight days of fever and ague, and was lying alone in our tent, suffering from violent fever, when a Faki entered and came up to my bed head, accompanied by Melek Mahmud, who had brought him to cure me. My brother entered, and seating himself on his angareb, signed to me, with assumed gravity, to remain calm and quiet, as the Faki commenced murmuring sentences out of the Koran, and, like a mesmeriser, to pass his hand over my head and face. To please the Melek, I submitted quietly; but when the priest, raising his voice, began to spit in my face, while he would have held me down by the shoulders, I, enraged, sprung up and hurled him from me on my brother, whose enjoyment of the scene greatly annoyed me. In an instant, I was all well again: the excitement had thrown off the fever, nor did it return.

The Sheik Mohammed Defallah, who very often visits us, had slain a young camel, and asked us to sup with him. Although we as yet had not tasted camel flesh, we preferred remaining at home, as we had game, and were preparing a pudding for supper, and were just about to commence our meal, when he appeared, followed by two squires, and with friendly violence forced us to go with him. We found in his recuba Abu Sin, Wod-Naga, and two other Sheiks. The camel flesh had been cut in small pieces, stuck on wooden skewers, fat and lean alternately, and roasted. It did not suit our palates, we much preferring dishes prepared after our own country fashion. His bilbil, a better kind of merissa, however repaid us, and put us in better humour; and not to appear stingy before the Æthiopians, we had our own supper brought in, as also what we had intended for our next day’s dinner; viz. some roast hare, and a ragout of guinea-fowl. Of course we, with a “Bismillah,” invited the Sheiks to partake; and our cookery so well suited their taste, that the strongly spiced camel flesh found few customers. On our producing a rice pudding, mixed with raisins, and covered with wine sauce, which certainly should have been four times as large as it was, all burst out into praises; and these joys became yet greater, when Mohammed Defallah pulled out two bottles of date brandy, which he, having spent all his money, had purchased for two pieces of cloth which he had won by his dromedary’s speed; and I now requested the party to be allowed to prepare for them a Frank drink. I poured out the bottles’ contents into a vessel, and, to the surprise of all, set fire to the brandy; a thing none had before seen, much less tried; and then taking white sugar, melted it in the flames. When they beheld us two stirring about the flaming liquor with our hands, without fear or pain, they took us for sorcerers. Abu-Sin and Wod-Naga, who, being Faki, did not drink even merissa, stared with the utmost astonishment at each other, and retired without taking leave of any one. On our blowing out the flame, Melek Mahmud was the first who ventured to taste it, and soon after the strong-liquor-loving Defallah was all joy, and praising the Germans (Nemza) who had invented such a beverage. Ere long it suddenly occurred to the fat Defallah, that he had not said his evening prayer. Although Melek Mahmud would have prevented him, and told him that he himself only prayed when no plunder was to be had, he, with the aid of his servants, rose from the ground and staggered out of the door. There he was let down, on the spot where we had often before seen him praying, and where, contrary to prescribed ceremony, he let his heavy posteriors rest on his heels, but could not call to mind one word of his prayers; nor would he have got out a word had he done so, as he held in his mouth the biting bukka (tobacco, natron and water), and could only make a dull mumbling murmur. After this there was much talk, and the Turks were abused, as usual: all had full confidence in us, and were well convinced we told no tales.

Of the female slaves of Basa, brought into the camp for sale, the old rogues who had most money (such, for instance, as Hassan Effendi) have bought the most beautiful, for the purpose of again selling them at a large profit; the lower ranks of officers also buy on a venture, and foolishly enough, as they have seldom sufficient to keep themselves. Old Deli Mustapha, the Pascha’s Kawedschi, had bought a slave, and hidden her in a nook behind the hearth where he cooked his coffee, where she could neither stand upright, nor see daylight. Although we were very well acquainted with him, still his jealousy would not allow us a single peep at the girl. Besides, he seemed to feel some superstitious fears about it; he used to pour on the ground, as a libation to the evil spirits, the first cup of coffee he brewed in the morning. The Bosniak, Hussein Aga, city commandant of Sennaar, who was a friend of ours, and who looked upon us as a kind of countrymen, had bought a couple of pretty girls, and his jealousy was fearfully aroused when they smiled at one of his slaves. Happily, the latter escaped death, but came in full career, with his master after him, to seek safety in our recuba. We saw at once what would occur, and let him in, but excluding his master, who stood without with drawn sabre, foaming with rage, and demanding his slave, to murder him. The latter, however, aided by our servants, had made his escape through the back-door, and was off again, on which I sent one of my people after him, to tell him to take shelter under the Pascha’s roof. As our friend Hussein still continued to conduct himself like a savage, we had to show him our rifles, and I thought it better to go myself to the Pascha, to save the slave’s life. I told the Pascha the case; he said that under the circumstances the master was certainly at liberty to take his slave’s life, but that Hussein, as Chief Hakim, could make no use of such a right, as he had openly and often promised not to do so. He declared he would let Hussein Aga taste the bastinado, and gave orders to a Kawass to go and bring him. I had nothing now for it than to retire in all haste, send the Kawass to Hussein’s hut, and get to my own. In an instant I told the yet raging though somewhat cooled Hussein, who was still before it, what had occurred, and advised him to take shelter in the back part of our recuba, where he would not be seen, and at once make out the order for the freedom of the slave; that I would convey it to the Pascha, as he was certain to demand it from him. Though a few minutes before so brutally savage, he now went at once into the proposal, and I hurried off with the manumission to the Pascha, and prayed him not to let any disgraceful punishment fall on the brave Bosniak, that might be followed by degradation, and whom he moreover had, by a mere word, brought to silence; and assured him that the Bosniak had given us no offence. However, he must appear before the Pascha, which he did, pale and trembling; but the great man reproved him for his passionate outburst and former similar offences, and dismissed him, smiling and nodding to me, as if pleased at what I had done. No one was happier than the slave, who on the sight of his master had again fled to our recuba, when I handed him his manumission; we took him into our service as cook, so that our former cook could now go and follow his passion, the chase.

The Gisser was not yet swept away, though the water was four or five feet above the dam. I, along with the Pascha, was riding one day in its neighbourhood, on the left bank of the Gash, when my dromedary shied, and we became aware of a large serpent. The Pascha at once gave the workers orders to catch the animal, and this was at once set about. The snake, thus pursued, took the water, and once in, it boldly raised its head and turned on the Arab near it, who, armed with a hassaie, had cast himself off the dam into the water. With great dexterity he took aim at the head of the snake, and struck it so violent a blow, that, as if stunned, it let its head sink and began to writhe and twist most violently, on which another Arab approached with a cord: the first laid hold of it, seized the snake by the neck below the head, looped the cord round it, and then both drew it ashore. Here it lay for a moment quiet, and we could examine the fearfully beautiful creature, which was more than eleven feet long and half a foot in diameter. However, when they began to drag it further on, which, of course, would have spoiled the whole skin, orders were given to carry the animal into the camp; a jacket was bound over its head, and three men prepared to raise it on their shoulders. The brute, however, made such strong convulsive writhings, that it and its three bearers came to the ground together, and the same thing happened again when many other bearers were aiding. I went with them to the camp, had a strong nail driven into the front large beam of our recuba, and the monster hung on it. It hung all slack and limber down, as did also another snake that our servants had hung while yet alive inside our recuba; and I intended to take them down and skin them in the morning, as the day was too far gone to do anything to them now. In the night I was most unpleasantly disturbed, for the inside snake that hung at the head of my bed seemed to glide with its cold belly over my face; in terror I sprung up, and thought I had been struck over the shin with a club, when the big serpent, now in its death agonies, gave me a stroke with its tail through the open door of the recuba, before which some of the servants sat on their heels telling tales of spirits, snake-kings, &c.

Next morning, when we called on our servants to take down the snakes to skin and stuff them, and told them not to spare the alum and arsenical soap, to our great astonishment they refused to work. We soon perceived they had been told by some bigot that this was an unclean work for a Mussulman: as at the moment there was nothing better for it, if we would not allow the sun to ruin this fine specimen of a python, we ourselves, though much disgusted, set to work on the job. As soon as the servants saw that we were not ashamed of such work, first one came and then the other, and took the assala to themselves, and worked all the more diligently on our promising them a pot of merissa. This serpent, like all large snakes, is called assala. Not long after, we received a similar snake of half a foot in diameter, but only nine feet in length, that had a short tail, like the Vipera cerastes; this they also called assala, and held it to be one of those before-mentioned short thick snakes, that swallow men. The marking of the skins of the two snakes showed little difference, but the head of the latter was the broader of the two.

As we here meet with people of all nations of the world, we hear many things, but with all the praise of their own native country, however small, is ever the favourite theme. Abdin Bey told us that in his country, Albania, were to be found flying snakes. He has a black serpent’s horn, that seems to be an artificially blackened large tooth, and a stone out of the jawbone of an ass. To make oneself proof against poisons, as well as the bite of numerous reptiles, one has only with a sabre to slice off a piece of an Aggem, i.e. a heretic, and eat it. The race of Sagara (sorcerers) is much feared, as they are held to have strange power; but there is also an herb, a charm against such sorcerers. In the mountains of the Druses there is yet another kind of magicians, Gessit, who draw a circle round the bewitched person, out of which he cannot pass. Superstition, indeed, goes far, and Melek Saat has written amulets that bring evil on those, who secretly foster ill-will against him; they are very old, as are all such papers we have examined. Mahmud Aga, Bulluk Baschi, and Abdin Bey have great seals, the impression of which they stamped on paper, and gave to those who had the fever to wear about them; if this has no effect, there must be some evil spirit (schittan) in the way. There are also papers (uarrag) that sick men must eat, or burn and inhale the smoke. Omar Kaschef, as a preventive to cold and cough, drinks the water with which the ink of certain written words has been washed off a wooden table; and he swears that a frog split open and placed on a shot-wound will draw out any ball within twelve hours. Even the most intelligent among them believe more in their charms than in the best doctor. The Pascha, a freethinker, states his belief in men living to the age of 400 or 500 years. All, both Turks and Arabs, are much prejudiced against the European method of treating diseases. If the medicine does not give immediate relief, it is bad, all bosh. All that any friend recommends is at once tried, and faki and charms are always employed along with the attending doctor. Their own receipts are powerful, as, for instance, for a cold, pepper, ginger, and hot spices, &c. Almost for every illness they open some particular vein; the vena ranina for indigestion, the vena frontalis for headache, the vena digitalis for ailments in the limbs, &c. &c. Garlic, placed on or in the tarbush is a preventive to coup de soleil; and garlic and salt, placed under the tongue, a cure for thirst and fever. Arabs and Turks groan and cry at every attack of illness, and call on Allah and the Prophet, “ia Rabbi! Rassul Allah! Sheik Abd-el-Kader!” &c. During illness they seldom change their clothes, and remain in their under garments, which are clogged with perspiration. On fresh wounds they place sulphur, wash them often with brandy, and strew on them coffee, salt, and gunpowder. For lance wounds the natives here roll round a piece of stickgoat’s hair or cotton, and turn it round in them. When these in a day or two become highly inflamed, they make a rim of paste round the wound, and pour into it boiling butter. That the butter that runs over after being applied to the wound is never wasted, but drunk up, is a matter of course. They say if it does not burn like fire it does no good, and it is incredible how soon they thus heal wounds. That every wound in this clime requires to be more stimulatingly treated than with us, is true, and therefore balsam of Peru is a capital medicine here. In Beni-Amer men pour into their wounds hot pitch or rosin, and leave it there. As a cure for fever, milk and senna are used.

The nearest town or village on the Gohr-el-Gash, some half day’s journey from here, is Terefàt or Hafarra; east from it, on a hill well supplied with water, is Illit, some day and a half’s journey from Kassela; at a similar distance to the south-east is, on the Gash, another village, called Bitama. In the east, on a picturesque hill, rises Sabderath, one day’s journey from here, and half a day’s further to the east, Gedèhn. The range of hills these villages are on runs from north to south-east, and is well supplied with water. At the foot of the hills are gohrs, the hollows of which collect the rain water from them, which afterwards runs out or is lost in the plains. The Sheik Nuhr of Sabderath is a great leader of hostile forays and plundering expeditions. If he can not go on these, he finds no rest at home, and therefore wars on giraffes and tigers. The tribe of the hill of Gedèhn are respected by the Turks for their fidelity and firm adherence to their word. These are Arabs, and of the Hallenga tribe.

A fresh foray has been made into Basa, and some days ago tidings of heavy losses reached the camp. The natives there had retreated into caves, of which there are many and large ones among the hills, some of which, like those of Kassela, have water inside them; almost all of them have very small well concealed entrances, though many inside are of great extent. They are said to be inhabited by men of ancient days, spirits, and ghosts. The Turks fired in grenades or small shells, full of schiteta (red peppers pounded), as kindling fires at the mouths does no good, the smoke escaping by some hidden outlets.

The district of Basa commences, as before said, two days’ journey further up the Gohr-el-Gash than Kassela, and extends along this Gash for eight days’ journey up to Makada. Four days’ journey from the frontier, and so nearly in the centre of the land, is Belgam or Bàlacha, which is a part of Basa, and has large populous villages among its hills. The inhabitants of Basa are to be praised for allowing no thievings to go on among them; one may lay down his goods by the wayside, and no one will touch them. None commence harvest till all go. Circumcision is usual among the men, but not as a religious rite. Elephants are in great numbers, and these are the principal objects of their hunts. The elephant hunters are called Agàr, and for this reason my brother’s slave of the Basa race, got the surname of Agàr, as his father was a famed elephant hunter. The method of killing elephants is, while one hunter well mounted attracts the monster’s attention in front, another behind cuts with a sword the back sinews of the leg, a deed not only requiring much strength, but also high courage and dexterity. Besides corn, they cultivate simsim (sesame). Children are fed on milk and honey; grown persons consume merissa and lochma. Flesh is little used; the head of the elephant is, however, highly famed, as also the cap of the foot. The climate is healthy, and the people hale and cheerful. The troops returned from thence highly delighted with the burmas, filled with honey and merissa, which they found in great plenty in the larger tokuls of these people.

All speak of a Bellad-el-Kelb (Dog-land); the women there are not disfigured, but the men have dogs’ faces, feet with claws, and tails like apes; they cannot speak, though the women well understand what the men mean by the wagging of their tails! This land of dogs is at one time said to be on the frontier of the Habesch, at another on those of Darfur, now Felatta, and so on. A land inhabited by Fellati who are clothed, was mentioned to me when voyaging on the White Nile; and there was also pointed out to me, under 4° N. latitude, the hills of Lokoja, where it was said there was a race of men with dogs’ heads who were cannibals. Afterwards we heard that the Wadi-el-Kelb was thus named, from the inhabitants being great robbers who held fast to their prey like dogs. The great Sheik Abu Sin, however, informed us, that this land was only six hours’ journey distant from here, and that its Sheik bore the title of honour of Wod Kelb, which probably had been the title or name of some earlier renowned Arab chief, and that this Wod Kelb, who some seven years before had defeated a part of the army of Churschid Pascha, and would not behold a Turk, paid, in an indirect manner, his tulba (tribute) through him. There is, in truth, a district of Arabia called Kalb, pronounced Kelb by the Turks, from whence it is possible this tribe may have their name.

Hallenga, Haddenda, Mitkenab, Bischari, Homrahn, Beni-Gerahr, Beni-Amer, and even a part of Schukurie, have a language of their own (Rottàn). Why not also Arabic, like most of the Arab tribes? who have emigrated the more so, as now on the Gesira Arabic has even driven out the original language. Were all these the original tribes, or rather the sole people of these lands, as they have only one language, or were they a powerful people, only gradually intermixed with Arabians? or have they united with them, the latter being the fewer, having adopted the language, while the former received the new religion? or has only a part of the well-known immense emigrations of the Arab race remained here, while the rest moved further south (to Kordofan, Darfur, Borzu, Bornu, &c.), and thus among larger masses lost its original language, while it retained its religion? On the hills men speak another language, which the above-mentioned races do not understand, and these hill tribes must be an original race, although among the tribes each has a different language of its own, perhaps the poor remains of their nationality. But over the great tract of country of the above-mentioned tribes, some one language, some one great nation must have once spread, as among all these different races there is a perfect similarity of customs and usages, as of one nation. The original nation must also have been migratory and uncivilised, as in the whole extent of country, from the deserts behind Syene from the Atbara to the Red Sea, not the smallest trace of a former cultivation, or settled dwelling seat, has been seen by any traveller, although men talk of pyramids and such-like, as I afterwards heard. Perhaps all these lands were once subject to the Abyssinian emperor, who among his titles styled himself King of “Kas,” which may be identical with “Gash,” and have not only meant the Gohr itself but also all the lands situated on it. The word, too, “Makada,” used for Habesch or Ittopia, also points to an olden connection with the empire of Abyssinia, as according to the Kebra za Negest, the queen who visited Solomon was called “Makeda,” that is if one does not derive the word from the Arabic Machada. Although different languages prevail among the hills on the borders of Habesch, still one finds, with the exception of those who from trade or religion are connected with Habesch, the manners and customs nearly the same, and like those of all races of the earth of a lower grade of civilisation, who do not come into contact with other nations, and in trade and opinion learn little new. Basa, however, seems that which has remained most true to a state of nature.

Hardly had the Schaigies and Mograbins returned from their chasua into Basa with their prisoners and plundered cattle, than the Pascha took it all to himself, contrary to the common usage that allows the troops employed one half; but now to stir up Melek Mahmud to a similar foray with his Schaigies into Beni-Amer, on which land an ever arbitrarily increased tulba has been laid, and to make him and his people more zealous, he promised them the whole plunder: Mahmud goes, and returns when men fancied he and his whole troop had been cut off; and again the Pascha breaks his word, in spite of the great loss the party had suffered, and only gives him half of the spoil, and shares some of it among different Sheiks with whom two stolen camels had been found, as if he feared such a revolt in Hallenga as has already broken out in Kalabat. Mohammed Ehle, who with part of his people had joined the foray, appropriated to himself 50 camels, 200 cows, and 600 sheep. For the same reason, the Pascha had 400 ardep of corn brought from the reservoir at Kataref, as the Hallenga knew how to excuse themselves under the plea of poverty, and the Haddenda, who had declared themselves (taija) submissive, were not to be heard of, nor would they deliver any grain.

Many and various as are the natives of the countries we meet with here from all parts of the Ottoman empire, their own country is and ever will be the favourite theme of all. We feel this also, and our old Rhine songs make us now gay, now sad. For some days I had been sick of fever. Omar Kaschef sent me some lemonade with orange juice in it; I fancied I was drinking our favourite May-drink, and that I was in Konigswinter on the Rhine, and, in spite of the fever’s violence, I was happy. Unfortunately we have had latterly to give up the chase, as from behind almost every bush peep out hostile lances, and horrible murders daily occur. I lie all day on my angareb, constantly smoking, and, like a dreamer, keep my eyes fixed on the dusty partition of our hut, scarce hearing the dull words of the ignorant Turks, and allowing the time to pass on in idle listlessness. Thus do men alter; I am vexed with myself, but the unendurable heat soon changes my anger against myself, into curses at this broiling, monotonous life, the camp, and all in it. But I cannot venture outside the seriba without running the risk of being massacred, and the life and doings inside the fence are all too familiar to me. On all sides are heard nothing but grumblings about want of money, food, and everything else; then, each abuses the other, the Pascha comes in for his full share, and all round are complaints of the present, and praises of past times under Churschid Pascha. Only a small German country town could show dulness similar, and there other things would be better. The few books I carry with me I have read over a dozen times, and all that remains for me is thought, though my mind is so dulled and worn, that I almost at once fall into dreamy fancies and castle-buildings;—gigantic plans! immense fortune,—careless, luxurious old age,—purchase of landed estates in some happy, fair land, improvement of them,—family happiness, &c. These coloured and handsome women are not calculated, even for a short time, to afford amusement to an educated man; one can indeed only look on them as dumb conductors, as no one spark of feeling seems to be ever drawn from them. They themselves are unconscious of their unhappy lot, to be thus throughout all these lands condemned to slavery. All feelings here die away and become blunted, save only the remembrances of earlier life in one’s native country, and especially the joys of one’s student years and intercourse with youthful friends. Then come the thoughts of wine, beer, and clear cold water, and the food of home, not delicacies, but the plainest fare. How often do we talk over the sauer-kraut, potatoes, hams, sausages, and pork and broad beans! These may all be trifles, but if a man wants them for many years, and is exposed to all the annoyances of such a climate, he will soon feel how dear such things will become. I have now been more than half a year from Chartum, and constantly in the field, and not once have I enjoyed the great luxury of reposing undressed between clean-washed linen sheets, but have invariably slept, full dressed, on the ground, or on the angareb. Our best linen soon vanishes, as the constant perspiration spoils its purity, the chalky dust burns into it, and the servants know nothing of washing; near their black skin all seems to them white; and, alas! for three months we have had no soap. In the midst of such a lazy, idle life, creeping on like a slow fever, all at once one hears the cry of “Jalla!” and one hangs for four or five days, eighty or a hundred leagues on a camel’s back, shaken and rubbed till sore in body and bones, with a glowing sun, or sudden cold, and constant thirst and hunger as embellishments. But a man can bear much; I have held out through what I never would have believed. In violent fever, mounted on a dromedary, in midday sunbeams, more dead than living, held on by others,—and yet I recovered. To remain behind was certain death from the hand of the enemy, or the teeth of wild beasts. I have experienced what necessity will force a man to bear. In this monotonous state of existence and uniform manner of life, I compared myself to the camels picketed outside our tent, under the burning sun, now perfectly quiet, now lazily stretching themselves, undisturbed, though crows and ravens walk about on their backs, ever chewing the cud, or, as a change, seizing a blade of grass, and never showing the slightest sign of joy or curiosity.

CHAP. XIV.

Advance against the Enemy. — Retreat. — Omar Kaschef. — Great Cavern of the Kassela-el-Lus. — Baobab Trees. — Hunting. — Birds.—Beasts. — Pascha’s Plans. — Quit the Camp for Chartum. — Conclusion.

The Haddenda continue shooting our camels, although these are sent out to feed under military escort. We, ourselves, have during this campaign lost in all five and twenty camels and six dromedaries by such robberies,—a loss that falls on our own purse, as we could not bring ourselves to ask the Pascha for any share of the plundered camels taken by our troops. Quite close to the camp the Haddenda, or, as is likely, the Hallenga, have with their broad lance heads pierced through and through three Mograbins, who defended themselves and their camels against them. My brother, who, at the first glance, gave up the wounded as hopeless cases, now says, it is a wondrous chance that these three men have ever recovered so far as they have; they are now out of danger. Sobi Aga, a leader of the Mograbins, had presented us for these cures, or rather that we might speak well of him before the Pascha, a truly handsome dromedary. For the latter reason also another chief officer, Soliman Aga, left behind him, on visiting us, 400 piastres, which we sent back to him by a servant, to whom, however, he maintained that the money was none of his. On our telling this to the Pascha, he rejoiced at our prize, and, laughing heartily, advised us to keep our consciences quiet, as in this land a man must take all he could get.

At last it was resolved to advance against the Haddenda in their Chaàba with the whole army: which caused a precious confusion in the camp. The camels, laden with the ammunition, set out, but ran away, and threw it off when but a short way from the camp: the latter was fired at all corners, that the enemy might not throw themselves into it. The march was continued in a north-westerly direction, on the before-mentioned village of Dabab, till late in the night. Next day, about noon, we found ourselves on the Gohr-el-Gash, and had to undergo an awful scorching. On the following morning the camp was pitched an hour’s journey beyond Dabab, where the deep, grassy soil and heavy dews caused much illness, and many of the sick died. The poor Schaigies had day and night to gallop round the camp, and for three days had not been off horseback. After a rest of two days the march further into the Chaàba was made for some two miles, and, as usual, without any order, as every one had to find his way as he best could over the yet undried morass. The Black Sheiks are in their suits of armour, and have their helmets hanging at the saddle-bow. So also have Mohammed Ehle and Achmed Scheriff, though they are much in terror of being shot by our soldiery (Askari), but must, such being the Pascha’s express orders, accompany us, that so we may have in our power hostages for the Hallenga’s good behaviour. The Pascha had a great square formed, as the Arabs began to show on all sides. The few Hallenga who are with us have stuck pieces of white paper in their hair, not to be taken by our soldiery for the enemy (Haddenda). The Arabs, by fearful howlings, challenged us to commence the battle; these were replied to by a perfectly useless fire from our soldiers, without aim and at too great a distance. The Pascha galloped about like a madman, but would not move his force. The cannons were moved about from side to side and fired off, so as to astound the foe by their thunders and grape-shot, and make them keep a respectable distance from us. At last the cavalry took a breathing and charged; but, from the trees and some huts that had been fired, effected little. One of the Schaigies and four Koschafs (sing. Kaschef) fell, horses and men. After this the enemy became again quiet, and made no more attacks. The Pascha took particular pleasure in riding here and there against a single foe, and in shooting them down, as these, after having thrown all their lances, remained fixed as Achu-el-Bannat, to show their scorn for death. The Schaigies made a fearful howling as they attacked, and as the foe approached them, the blacks of Mohammed Defallah danced about on one leg and beat on their shields with their swords, now crouching low down, now springing up into the air. The village of Dabab was burnt down, although it is in the Hallenga country, and the powder was moved on close by, and passed not ten paces from the burning houses. At midday the triumphant Achmet Pascha, to whom I certainly had ascribed higher leader’s talent, retreated to his camp, which had in the meantime been left in charge of Abdin Bey. Here there was now no end of all kinds of boastings. Each proclaimed his great deeds, and according to all, an immense number of Arabs must have been slain. Friday arrived, and we should have again marched out, but the great Kadi Salani of Chartum, who had been for some time in camp, and to whom the Pascha had presented a beautiful female slave, although he brought two wives with him, advanced out of his tent and spoke with some of the upper officers. This did not continue long, till the Pascha came from his tent, and we soon observed what had been the tenor of the sly priest’s words. All the soldiers rushed one after the other to the Pascha’s feet, praying that this day no blood might be shed, as it was Chumna, a holy day or festival. This great Kadi is a hypocritical but intelligent Mograbin, drinks stoutly his wine in private, especially when he gets it for nothing, and, as I afterwards learnt from my brother, during Ramazan, when even the poor half-starved soldiers fasted, openly set them the fine example of eating and drinking before his tent, nor allowed himself to be annoyed by the displeasure of the other holy Sheiks, who during that period abstained from all food or indulgences. The Sheik of the Bischari, Wod-Naga, who, as well as the other Sheiks, have no wish to see the complete subjection of the Haddenda, has disappeared with his people from the camp to arrange with them a secret treaty, to which the Pascha has in private given his consent. The latter, who did not, nor dared not, trust to this, has during the negotiation caused the great Sheik Mohammed Din, his nephew, and the Sheik of Mitkenab, to be placed on camels, loaded as they were with the chains they all along had worn, and conveyed back to Chartum under a strong escort. In spite of the negotiations going on for a peace, many expeditions were made from the camp, but without any success, as the herds that were here and there seized on, at the fearful howls of the Arabs were scattered in all directions, upsetting infantry and cavalry, and rushing back into the forest to their fellows. The Haddenda declared themselves defeated by a deputation of a Sheik and three of themselves, but they would pay no tulba, unless the Pascha retired to the Kassela. The retreat to Kassela was made in a single day. Thirty men perished from fatigue, and 370 asses, and many horses and camels. Among the wounded was Omar Kaschef, to whom the Pascha paid every attention, and specially recommended him to my brother’s care. His horse had been killed under him by a lance-thrust, and he had received six deep wounds in the neck from the Handschar. The poor man had the night before lost an amulet, and all, even the free-thinking Sali Effendi, are firmly convinced that some evil spirit had during the night stolen it, so to effect his death. My brother who, after the Pascha had marched off with the great part of the troops, had been left behind with the sick, has completely cured the Kaschef. From this and the cure of the three Mograbins, Joseph’s fame rose so high, that men believed he could revive the dead, but would not, as he dared not contend with the will of God.

The camp was now close to the village of Kadmin, behind which in a ravine started up a beautiful rock-spring, the only one of its kind we saw in Africa; and near this we were again fenced and pallisaded. No sooner did the Pascha again find himself in security here, than at the instigation of Mohammed Ehle he openly exposed for sale in the camp the three sons of the Sheik Auet, the true head of the Hallenga, who will not surrender, and this he did on purpose to insult the father. The price asked for these youths was so high that no one would buy them. Mohammed Ehle alone bid for them with looks bent on the ground, as his countrymen round loured with furious eyes on him, it being against all custom, and contrary to the Koran, to buy a true Believer.

From the village being so near us we had much better opportunity of coming into communication with the natives, among whom my brother made various medical observations. The women, especially the female slaves, have beautifully turned strong arms, a full upper body, and this principally from working at the murhaka; the under part of the body and limbs are not so fully developed. All are rather slender than stout; whereas most of the blacks, the Dinka excepted, exhibit a good deal of such beauty as the Cape Venuses boast of. The body is free in all its movements, and the ankles and wrists are fine and the feet small. The hair is thick, bushy, and stiff.

Here the people, on the death of a Faki, or rich man, beat the nagara, and sing to it a monotonous song of a very few words. After burials the howlings are continued in the houses of the dead for from seven to fourteen days, and longer by the women. In the graveyard stands a kind of catafalque, a low scaffold, overhung by coloured mats; at the head is erected a post ornamented with shells and ostrich feathers, round which the women stand, stretching up their arms in the air, singing, and dancing. Here, too, are Faki, to whom on the night of Thursday and Friday the Nebi come. Ere a Faki can become famous he must be very aged, or have distinguished himself by much fasting and self-denial, but chiefly by much dissimulation and hypocrisy.

On the south-east side of the main ridge of the Kassela-el-Lus is to be seen, low down between blocks of rocks, the entrance to an extremely large cavern (Mogara, here Charr), which, according to the tales of the older men, is exceedingly high and roomy, runs under the whole hill, and contains water, which afterwards comes out at the north-west side of the hill in a rock-spring. Accompanied by our friend the Faki Misaur, who had, as before told, entertained us so splendidly with merissa, and, betrayed by it, revealed to us the priests’ gunpowder plot, we made a hunting excursion to that side, thus, unobserved by the inhabitants, to reach the cave; we having always received evasive or negative answers, when we requested to be shown the entrance to this place of retreat in pressing dangers. The entrance is round, and only by bending low under a mass of rock can one get in; inside all was dark. We had no torches. Our timid guide called our attention to the fresh bones and traces of blood, which, though they might not foretell a Polyphemus, still hinted at unpleasant four-footed inmates. We did not push far in, but resolved to purchase wax, make large torches, and with a larger party repeat the visit, as it was said that high pillars, probably stalactites, were to be found in the interior; but of such we saw as little sign at the entrance, as of inhabitants. It is probable that there are here about many such caves, and all connected with each other. In the hill of Abd Chammel, which rises like a sugar loaf at the distance of some miles to the south-south-east of Kassela, and which is to be seen from the Gisser, there are many such caves, which, holding water, are used by men as dwellings. If one considers this, together with the caves of the neighbouring hills, being used as dwellings, while such in other places, e.g. in Basa, serve only for places of refuge in times of danger, one might justly hold this land to be that of the Troglodites—the race of Troglodytica of olden geographers. It is worthy of remark, that all these “people of nature” bear no bows or arrows, nor even “poisoned” lances, as those on the hills behind Sennaar, Kordofan, and the White Nile. The distant weapons are held unworthy of a man, but are not on that account the less feared.

The present inhabitants, though otherwise good Mussulmen, as little reject the flesh of the tortoise as of the wild hog, which they look on as a delicacy, and the fat of which they form into sausages and roast on a hot stone. Their other food is milk, lochma, durra bread, which is often as fine and white as the wheaten wafer of the Host; meat, generally stinking or that of sick cattle, always eaten without bread, the more fat and butter the better, as they never look on any dish as good that is not swimming in grease. Like the Schaigies, they leave on the bones not the smallest bit of flesh, sinew, or muscle, and even with their sharp white teeth grind down the smaller bones. Their only relishes are salt and red pepper, which they bear about them in large horns. In general, they are very moderate and easily satisfied; but when they can light on anything gratis, they prove themselves real gluttons, but never seem to suffer from their gorgings. When starting on foraging expeditions, which they carry on far and wide into the Haddenda country, they merely take with them a little durra, a small quantity of flesh dried in the sun, and each a small water-skin; on such expeditions the leader lives no better than his meanest follower. The main object of these forays is cattle. To somewhat relieve the stench of their pomatum, they strew highly-scented powder over the hair, and so give it a golden red tinge. Blood revenge is here, as on the island, imperative; but commonly 1000 piastres will be accepted as blood-money; this is also the usual sum demanded as a prisoner’s ransom. Blood is here not avenged solely on the person guilty of shedding it, but, as in Russia and Greece, on his family and relatives. The women of the better orders work at making fine cotton cloths and handsome mats, but not for sale, merely for the use of their husbands and selves. Such mats are often cheap at ten or twelve reals. These people are in the habit of holding snuff mixed with ashes between their teeth and lower lip, partly as a delicacy, partly as a preventive against scurvy in the wet season. Musk and all such strong scents are highly admired. The large raised angareb or marital couch stands in the background of the tokul, and is shut off by coarse woollen cloths (schamla) and straw mats (birsch); before it stands the usual angareb for the husband. The armlets and foot-rings (anklets) of the women of the Djalin, who fled from the Nile on account of Defterdar Bey’s cruelties, were made most neatly out of dollars slightly alloyed with copper; and it was these fugitives who introduced among these tribes some culture, and civilisation, and also cotton and onions. Besides the Theresa dollars, one also meets here thalers of the Emperor Francis, which from the eagle, or rather from its feathers, are called Abu Risch, but these are not so well liked as the former.

In spite of the Haddenda hovering about the camp, we went to a gisser, an hour’s journey south from here, to look at a Baobab. On a small hill, where a large ravine touches on the Gisser, there is one towards the south-south-east, and some others about the edge of the Gohr at the foot of the hills; but neither here nor in Sabderath nor Gedèhn, do they reach the size we had seen them elsewhere, in higher regions. We had never before heard that these giant-trees were to be found here, although my brother had often sat under the shadow of a fallen one, of which the stem had a circumference of eighteen feet, and was thirty feet to the branches. Its bark is like that of our birch; outside it has a fine white rind peeling off in strips; beneath this, the real nourishing brown bark, and below that the substance of the tree, fine nets of fibres, that lie on one another in lamina the thickness of a finger. The marrow-reed of it is very large, and when fresh and green makes a good salad. The stem suddenly ceases, and finishes off in small horizontal branches; the fingerlike leaves are all small, and the crown poor compared to the stem. The bright green woolly fruit resembles longish gourds, the shell of which is easily broken, and the interior is filled with brownish beans, as hard as stones, which lie imbedded, without any regular order, in a white substance. This white substance melts in the mouth, and has a pleasant sourish taste. The fruit is more than a foot long, and half as thick. The older trees are generally rotten at heart, but, from their cork-like elasticity, not easily felled, and difficult to burn. From the fibres of the wood are made rahat, baskets, and ropes. From the White Nile I brought with me a sample of these fibres prepared for use, which in fineness did not yield to the best flax, and in durability far exceeded it. The gazelles have incredibly increased; on his return to the camp my brother shot three, but the Otru (Antelope saltiana) seems to have completely vanished. Formerly here, in Taka, hyenas were so numerous, that they broke into houses, and attacked full-grown men. Sobi Aga in one night’s ride shot thirteen of these marauders, as his people assured us.

Snakes’ bites and scorpions’ stings grow more common. Although men have repeatedly been brought to us who had been found delirious, and with all their limbs greatly swollen, still until now my brother has succeeded in saving all by administering sal-ammoniac inwardly, and washing the wound with it, without having to apply fire, as is the usual habit here, and which is also the custom in cases of poisoned lance wounds in Kordofan. There are some other good remedies in use among the natives themselves, as e.g. fresh pounded ricinus seed mixed in butter quickly cleans the ulcer; and they have also some singular remedies, as, for instance, for colds and sore throats, the cutting of the uvula.

Although we have everywhere inquired after, and looked about on all sides for, old remains, we have not as yet fallen in with even a single stone which is either hewn or marked with figures; however, Achmet Scheriff tells us (and he it was who first gave us tidings of the great Queen Kahua who ruled up in the mountains), of a part of the Beni-Amer country, where the city of Eidip stands at the head of the Gohr of Baraka, called Assaramm Dehera, a day’s journey from the Red Sea, where there are scattered about seven pyramids and many great stones, and that at the foot of the hills of Kostahn, Habab, and Mària are also many remains of ancient buildings of great extent.

A main source of amusement has been, and will be, during all this campaign, hunting, or rather shooting; and, on the whole, we have succeeded well, as not only have gazelles and antelopes, but also hares, bustards, guinea fowls, wild geese, and ducks, kept our kitchen pretty well supplied. The neighbouring forest affords here and there sufficient shade for us to rest under, and in early morning or late of an evening listen to the song of the birds, who by their songs often make us forget we are in the centre of Africa. The first of these is a kind of thrush, with fire-red breast and black wings (Lanius barbatus, Afr. spec. nov.) which has the song of our blackbird, and first showed itself in numbers in the rainy season. These mostly frequent the higher trees, while other kinds of thrush with black or white heads [Turdus (ixos), leucocephalus (Crateropus), and xanthopygus (Arsinoe)], which crowd in flocks the lower bushes, by their chatterings, curious notes, and mocking songs remind us of the starling. The Marabous (Leptoptilus, here called Abu seïn), has also become plentiful. The Schaigies take great delight in chasing these birds, (that have a difficulty in rising from the ground) on horseback, and even on dromedaries, either overriding them or knocking them down by throwing a stick, and then, without killing them, pull out the feathers under the tail and set them at liberty; these feathers they sell to us for some trifle or other. Our collection increases, and we rejoice in the prospect of at a future time seeing them in the Berlin Museum, for which we intend them. The animals now in that museum sent by us will be found enumerated in the Appendix. One bird, most plentiful in Chartum, the small red house-tit (Fring. Senegal L.), we have never seen here.

Of living animals, we have a young animal of the lynx species, here called fagged; but, although we have had him many months by us, he is as little tamed as any weasel. Against my brother, though he has never beaten him, the beast has a peculiar spite, and he cannot pass near him without being in danger of feeling his sharp claws driven into his feet. Besides, we have a young lion (the male lion here has no mane), and a kind of panther (here sometimes called nimr, tiger, a vague designation of all larger animals of the feline species, and sometimes, fagged), which has all the way along its back a whitish mane, as broad as one’s hand, under which, however, its peculiar spotted skin is observable; especially when, as it grows older, this mane thins off, seeming to be peculiar to the animal in its younger state. Further, we have a kind of squirrel, with a silver grey tail (Sciurus brachyotus Ehrenb.), which has become perfectly tame, and lives in strange intimacy with the lynx. Of these squirrels there seems to be plenty here, but never have I seen them on the trees, as with us; they dig and grope about the ground, especially where the natives have their corn pits. Of birds, we have only the Secretary, or snake-eater; and a Horn-bird (Buceros nasutus L.), which was winged by a shot. The first is very handsome, and has the peculiarity that in the upper part of him he resembles an eagle, while his legs are those of a wader. The Arab who sold him to us, asserted he had brought him down from the nest where he bred. The Horn-bird has a very short tongue, in a very crooked bill, and over the latter an evident horn, the point of which seems blunted off. From his short tongue, and projecting horn, he is obliged to seize his pieces of flesh by the tip of his bill, throw them up in the air, and catching them, thus bring them within reach of his tongue, to settle them for swallowing. The Pascha had received two young dwarf antelopes (here, Otru, springing bucks), which he presented to us. We bought a goat in milk, to give suck to these little creatures. One night I heard a peculiar noise, and I foreboded some mischance had happened to one of the little ones. I kindled a light, and saw that another, to me unknown beast, had one of the antelopes in its jaws. Without thinking long over it, I seized the robber in the act, and then discovered that it was a jackal. My brother, from being ill, could not aid me; but our servants had heard my calls, and, to save the skin, a cord was at once procured, and the spoiler strangled with it. Men called it Badschum, but it had a short tail, and the Arabs said it was a Kelb-el-Galla (wild dog). Finally, we have a Civet-cat (here, Kediss-el-Sabat). Numbers of these cats are kept here in cages, to procure from them the much-loved musk or civet, which is contained in glands behind. Of the great brown apes, which are represented among the hieroglyphics with torches in their hands, as executioners (a species of Kynocephalus), we could procure no specimen, and Mohammed Ehle would not sell us his, that was quite tamed, and generally sat on his house’s roof. As these hideous apes fight among each other with sticks and branches, and know how to defend themselves with stones, as we ourselves had experience of, perchance they may be some species of the far-famed Chimpanzee, which in size exceed the Ourang-outang.

The Pascha summoned me, and informed me that Kataref and Kalabat had declared against all tribute; that a revolt against the Egyptian rule was to be dreaded in Sennaar; and that England threatened Egypt; then, that fortunately, six cannon, with munitions, had arrived at Berber, and seventeen at Korusko. But, in spite of this, he would abstain from chastising the rebels, as the army was much melted away, and many were sick. He held that the Sheiks under him must have business elsewhere, and would there make much spoil; he would, therefore, wait till spring, and then push up, on and by the Blue Nile, to Atisch, from there fall on Habesch, and quickly conquer it, ere the English, who had taken it and its bad people under their protection, could have tidings of it, and so by force open up this old road of trade. His plans of conquest extended from thence all over the gold lands of Faszogl, out over the Beni-Amer, and to Darfur; as if all this was a mere trifle. On a sign given, his attendants quitted the recuba, and he entrusted to me that the Viceroy had invited him to pay him a visit at Cairo; that he certainly would not go, but had no wish to quarrel with him, as he still possessed his confidence, as his sending the twenty-three great guns showed; although he had before had his doubts about it. (This reserve that he obstinately persisted in, after a second and even third invitation, afterwards cost him his life; and it was fortunate for me I made my escape in time, as he must have divulged to some treacherous Sheiks the plans of independence he fostered, as I afterwards, on my journey to Mandera, had completely proved to me by Abu Sin.) He then made a gloomy face, and related that his father-in-law, even at this busy and unpleasant time, urged him to equip a second expedition to the White Nile, and that he must, for the moment, comply with his wishes.

No one was better pleased than I by this last intelligence, and I was hard put to to conceal it. His promise to promote me to Bey on his conquest of Abyssinia, or rather of its nearest provinces, and to give me sixteen purses monthly, was, compared with this, a mere nothing; as, in this country, there is a mighty difference between promising and performing, as I, unfortunately, in the sequel had bitter experience of. Soliman Kaschef, of Karreri, a brave Circassian, and a “fellow of infinite humour,” who already had commanded the first expedition to the Bachr-el-Abiat, and who had now been some time with the camp, and employed on many plundering expeditions, made a long face when the Pascha announced to him that he should lead this expedition. However, on our quitting the Pascha’s presence, he came with us to partake of a bottle of wine, and I revealed to him that it would be the greatest pleasure to me to accompany him on this journey of discovery, that we were sure to find much gold (as I knew from my books), and requested him that he would beg of the Pascha that we two brothers might accompany him, even though it should be at our own expense; he undertook the task with great willingness, and also saw that it was all proper that we, whom the Pascha called his two eyes, should not make such request ourselves, as it would look as if we were no longer desirous of being near him. Next morning we got the great man’s decision. I might go; select a boat for myself, but nothing more; my brother, on the contrary, must remain with him. My request to him, that my brother might also go was refused; as he pointed out the great mortality in the camp, and also the care of his own person, which he would not confide to the Italian Hakim, Dr. Bellotti.

This determination of the Pascha placed us two brothers, who desired to live, fight, and die together, in the most painful dilemma. The thoughts of a separation, when dangers were each day increasing, in the centre of Africa, where we had already mutually nursed each other during repeated attacks of fever, and each found, during such, the other so necessary, was insufferable; nor was this bettered by the short time allowed us to come to any resolution, as the departure of Soliman Kaschef was fixed for the next day but one. Only late on the last evening did I acquaint the Pascha with our determination, and that I would avail myself of his permission to join the expedition as a traveller. For long he gazed in silence at me, as if he feared that I, who bore his dangerous secret about me, might purpose to journey, instead of up, down the Nile, to receive the reward for betraying him. However, when I recommended my brother to him, and begged him not to let him from under his eye, this hostage seemed to him sufficient bail for my honesty; for he broke his gloomy silence, and recovered his usual friendly manner, though sadder than common, and sent for Soliman Kaschef. He specially requested me to keep a careful journal, which he would have translated into Turkish; and recommended me to cling firmly to Soliman Kaschef, to whom he was immediately about to commend me. “Oefta ainak” (open your eyes), he said to me at the conclusion, with meaning emphasis; as if he hoped, hereafter, pursuing his conquests in this direction, to be able to carry out his favourite plan of forming all his regiments from the blacks alone.

As the Pascha could not spare troops to afford us a sufficient escort to Gos Rajab, our journey had to be kept the greater secret, as during the night the challenging cries and howlings of the Haddenda had been heard on the other side of the highly swollen Gohr-el-Gash. At break of day an alarm was beaten, and, as usual, all, without the smallest order, rushed out of the camp, as the foe was believed to be already at our gates. In the utmost haste our camels were laden, and I took our collection and the greater part of our things with me to place them in safety in Chartum, as a surprise and plundering of the camp was likely sooner or later to occur. The Pascha accompanied us with the greater part of his forces to the village of Hauathi on the banks of the Gash, by this demonstration, and also by the fire of grape-shot across the Gohr, to frighten the Haddenda back into the Chaaba. This manœuvre succeeded completely, for Mohammed Ehle by his spies found out, that the Arabs had directed their steps to the north, nor was there any trace of themselves now to be seen; and this, ere long, the bold Melek Mahmud confirmed, who had taken with his Schaigies possession of the opposite bank of the Gohr to secure the passage across it. He now received orders from the Pascha to cover our flank on the side of the Chaaba, to draw off the enemy’s attention and mask our march, and, if necessary, escort us with his horsemen as far as the Atbara river. Now commenced leave-takings as if we were never again to meet each other, save in Paradise; even the Pascha looked sorrowful; his unsuccessful campaign, his fame; and again gazing questioningly at me, embraced me for the first and last time, on which, as became their slavish souls, his train and followers took leave of me with much respect and reverence. It was curious that my brother and I, dear as we were to each other, parted, as if we were merely separating for a morning’s ride. We both regarded this as a good omen; it seemed as if a greater certainty was given to our again meeting by this cheerful feeling, and by this more happy mood succeeding to our forebodings of evil.

In long winding line we rode in single files up the sandy banks after our leader, and reached, without any mischance in crossing the some 4000 feet wide Gohr, the still most swampy Chaaba, where I all the more feared our baggage animals would never get through, from the difficulty I found in making my own way on my dromedary. The Schaigies rode right and left through the bushes, and so closely crouched down on their animals under the branches, that often neither man nor horse was to be seen. The escort (Schaigies not included) of our caravan was only some sixty men strong, and part of these were camel-drivers and servants armed only with lances. Nor were we without female, and most assuredly unveiled, society; many pretty young slave-girls, from the mountains of Basa, were with us, who understood not a word of Arabic. They belonged partly to Soliman Kaschef and his Askari, partly to Ladjam and other lovers, who did not seem to hold the camp as the safest abode for their loves, as many slaves, both male and female, had already escaped from it. These poor creatures were much to be pitied and much moved my compassion, especially when I beheld how longingly they looked towards the hills, as if they would fix in their minds the direction, in case any chance of escape offered. No sooner had their conductors observed these glances, though some of these were themselves slaves of the negro race, than with the utmost brutality they lashed the poor girls, crouching on the camels, over the loins and naked back with the kurbash till the weals rose on them. But to behold this, and dash on the scoundrels with long whip and lay stoutly about me, and to bestow on one slave of our friend Mohammed Ladjam’s (who offered to resist me, and was about to use his weapon, calling me a Kaffre), a horizontal cut with the lash that circled his neck and dashed him to the ground, where my servants instantly disarmed him, was the work of a few instants. Soliman Kaschef and his people had ridden on far in advance without knowing anything of these doings, and I had nothing therefore for it, but to remain in the neighbourhood of the slave-women and my baggage, and putting new caps on my rifle and pistols, threaten to instantly shoot down any one who did not conduct himself as he ought, or who should dare, as my servants feared they would, attempt to injure my baggage camels. On the Kaschef halting and our reaching him, I related the matter to him, and he repeated my threats as to any one attempting to injure me or my baggage animals, and turning to me, told me, he would give me other slaves to indemnify the owners, in case I found it necessary to shoot any for misconduct; on my particular interference to obtain good treatment for the slave-women, he at once declared the punishment of any ill-usage shown them to be irrevocably fixed at fifty blows of the nabut (bastinado). The poor girls now cast grateful looks at their deliverer, and I laughed at the jealous but powerless fury of their conductors, and at an after-time had the satisfaction to be recognised by some of these unfortunate women, and welcomed by them in the most kindly manner. We now, without any further strange adventure, passed over Gos Rajeb, through the meadow-lands of Butana, to which I intend again to revert in my “Journey to Mandera;” and by Halfaia to Chartum.

The Pascha also afterwards arrived at the same place, his long-determined-on retreat having been carried out, as there were no laurels to be gained by keeping the field, and his presence was indeed much required in Sennaar.

APPENDIX.

LIST OF BEASTS, BIRDS, AND REPTILES,
SENT TO THE BERLIN MUSEUM.

- Lepus æth.

- Cercopithecus Sabaeus, n. sp.

- Sciurus brachyotus Ehrenb.

- Viverra Canis, a kind of jackal with short tail.

- Felis Leo.

- Felis, n. sp.

- Felis Serval.

- Antilope Saltiana.

- Antilope Sommeringii Rupp.

- Falco vocifer Daud.

- Falco excaudatus Daud.

- Falco polyzonus Rupp.

- Falco leucocephalus.

- Falco melanopterus Daud.

- Falco tinnunculus L.

- Strix flammea L. var. Afric.

- Corvus Cryptorhina poicilorhynchos Wag.

- Lanius, n. sp.

- Lanius nubicus.

- Lanius barbatus, sp. dist.

- Turdus [Ixos] leucocephalus [Crateropus].

- T. [Ixos] xanthopygus [Arsinoe L.].

- Saxicola aurita Temm.

- Fringilla [Pyrgita] spadiceae, n. sp. Afr.

- Fr. [Estrelda] elegans L. Gm.

- Fr. bengalus L. Gm.

- Fr. cantans L.

- Fr. nitens, L., adult.

- Vidua [Fring.] paradisea.

- V. [Fring. serena.]

- Oryx [Fring. ignicolor] Vieill.

- Ploceus personatus Temm.

- Lamprotornis aenea [Turdus aeneus].

- L. chalybea, n. sp.

- L. Chrysogaster.

- Nectarinia lucida, n. sp.

- N. melampogon, n. sp.

- N. metallica, n. sp.

- N. metallica, adult.

- Anabastes acaciæ [Crateropus].

- Picus nubicus L. Gm.

- P. Goertan L. Gm.

- Bucco erythropygos, n. sp.

- Pogonias senegalensis.

- Psittacus frenatus.

- Cypselus melba (var. jun.).

- Caprimulgus cuneatus, n. sp.

- C. climacurus Vieill.

- Merops nubicus.

- M. Cuvieri.

- M. viridis.

- M. erythropterus Lath.

- Alcedo rudis L.

- A. senegalensis L.

- A. Actæon.

- A. striolata Ill.

- Coracias abyssinica L.

- Centropus senegalensis Ill.

- Colias senegalensis L. Gm.

- C. striatus Lath.

- Buceros abyss. L., adult.

- Buc. nasutus L.

- Buc. melanoleucos, Lichtenst. Bechst.

- B. erythrorhynchus Briss. Tem.

- Columba capensis Lath., adult.

- Pterocles Senegal. Temm.

- Perdix, sp.

- Ciconia Senegal.

- Grus Pavonina.

- Ibis Hagedasch Lath.

- Ib. æthiopica.

- Parra africana Lath.

- Anser ægyptiacus.

- A. [Sarkidiornis] melanotus.

- Pelecanus Onocrotalus L., adult.

- Gypogeranus.

- Psamosaurus.

- Hydrosaurus [Monitor, Varanus niloticus].

- Naja Haje [Coluber Naje Hasselq.].

- Vipera Cerastes Daud.

- Python Sebæ.

- &c. &c. &c.

THE END.

London:
Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street-Square.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]Native boat.

[2]In Chartum, the Baron, indeed, had used his poisons at the Pascha’s desire, and in his service, and it is more than probable that the latter, at an after period, caused the Baron to be poisoned by one of his wives, a Circassian, with whom he, Soliman Effendi, lived on the worst terms of hate and discord.

[3]Nemzani plur. Nimza, borrowed into the Turkish language from the Sclavonic, in which Niemetz means a silent fellow, and per abusum, a German, as he cannot speak their language, and having the same meaning as Deutscher among the Sclaves, where this word is still used as a term of reproach, arising from the bad blood left by the old Sclavonic wars, though the Turks, as I am fully convinced, use the word without any bad meaning. In Europe, on the contrary, the word Sclave (slave) is no title of honour, and even the Greeks sneer at Σκλαβος.

[4]We did not again fall in with this singular man till encamped at the Kassela-el-Sus, when we richly rewarded and handsomely entertained him; he, however, had often seen my brother in the interim, but never came near him, or made himself known.

[5]These are filled up with rubbish, and when much of this was removed by the treasure seeker, Dr. Ferlini from Bologna, no mummies were found, but many skeletons in sitting postures, which he stripped of their gold and ornaments.

[6]The word for brick is top achmer, red stone, and may point to a manufacture introduced by the Arabs.

[7]Sorghum cernuum, L., the ancient Egyptian bread corn—Sorgho, a kind of thick-eared, high-growing barley.

[8]How the French in Algeria,—called el Geseier by the Arabs,—can use the word kabyle for any particular persons, tribe, or country, I cannot comprehend.

[9]Kisra, flat cakes like pancakes; other bread is called esch, as is also the durra itself.

[10]Although this short description of Mons. Thibaut is merely truth, and nothing but truth, even to his having been a gamin of Paris, still, after having journeyed with him on the White Nile, when he admitted that we had known each other in Greece in 1822-23, I see, from the style of it, that the warm climate calls forth a passionateness that one can hardly explain on calmer consideration; but even for this psychological fact, I give my journal word for word.

[11]Top, in plural Topchan—pieces of cotton cloths twenty or thirty ells long and one yard and a half broad, which come from Hedjas. Dogk—pieces twice as broad, from Habesch, of two reals value.

[12]These names, Ruman and Portugahn, point to emigration from Greece and Portugal, although the first fruit may be found among the hieroglyphics.

[13]So called by the Persians with whom they originated; by the Greeks, nargile; by the Turks, nerschile.

[14]Of this remarkable war in Hedjas, the details of which are most probably even yet little known, I hope ere long to be able to give the public some account from materials I have by me.

[15]A long crooked knife, sharpened on the inner edge.

[16]Fustanella, from φουστανα.

[17]Defterdar, keeper of public accounts, minister of finance.

[18]We have long ago been convinced of the truth of the common saying in Egypt, that no Arab can bring home even an orange or lemon from the market, without running a pin into and sucking it, so as to make something by the job. The love of theft seems to have been an hereditary vice of Arabs from the earliest times, as even in the Bible they are described as unsafe companions. However, their thefts are generally those of the pettiest kinds, such as Frank servants would not think of, as they never take more than a small portion of what they steal from, even were this a pile of coin or a heap of sugar. They either trust that the owner’s stupidity will not miss this (and it is true Europeans are very apt in this country to sink into a curious state of careless listlessness), or they imagine that, in case of discovery, no great noise will be made about such a trifle. The Barabra are perfect children in their manners. When sent to fetch anything, they never think, full as their hands may be, of first emptying them, ere trying to lift other articles. One of these we, for our sins, had, while in Chartum, attempted to make a cook of, and instruct him, as far as we ourselves had picked it up, in making our favourite dish of jugged hare; but all in vain—a nice mess he made! A cookery book would, indeed have been a treasure here, as the favourite dishes of one’s young and healthy days are doubly relished when ailing, or among a people whose food and cookery are so different to European.

[19]The Faki should be well versed in the Koran, able to read and write; they are not allowed to smoke or drink merissa, and they should be pious men, but, in spite of their outward holiness, they are generally the greatest rascals going.

[20]Mara, woman; bint, bannàht, a girl; garië, gàddim, female slave.

[21]It is also sometimes got rid of by salt water bathing, as has been remarked on slaves brought to Alexandria.

[22]I also afterwards cured in Chartum (my poor brother having made his early and sad departure from this life) our brave Agar (meaning in the Aggem speech of Taka, elephant hunter), who had acquired the disease from a Koschef in return for having cured his almost cut-off head. This lad, from the Basa hills, where he, during a chasufa, had been made a slave, calmly held out his foot and kept it there like a stoic, so that he might be held by the other servants as “schatter” (brave), while my own hand trembled fearfully. Each morning showed two pieces of the worm, like white threads, coming out of the opening caused by the burning; as these dried up they fell off, and the wound soon healed of itself. Being obliged afterwards, from want of travelling funds, to leave him in Alexandria, I handed him over to the Alt-Graf Franz von Salm-Reifferscheidt of Prague, who soon became very fond of him, and had an excellent education bestowed on him, as I myself afterwards saw when on my return home, and was no more than I expected from my honest countryman.

[23]His mother has herself alone to blame, that her son in his youth indulged in all kinds of excess. When Ladjam was only twelve years old she gave him a young female Abyssinian slave as a playfellow, and on his entering his fourteenth year she presented him with a Circassian girl, by way of change. At this moment, the son of Omar Kaschif, who is only twelve years old, lives with a wife of the same age. It is frightful to see how such young children are almost forced into vice, and how their parents look on it as a sign of stoutness they may be proud of.

[24]It is asserted in Paris that this took place at the altar.

[25]This he closely adhered to on his last trip to France to look for a bride, and there he happily gained a wife, who may have then dreamt she had not done so ill.

[26]This I have remarked (when close to them on the long harbour bridge at Constantinople) in the women of the former Sultan Mahmoud and other Turks of rank, when these were there taking the air in the oxen-drawn carriages, enjoying the favour, procured them by the Sultan, of looking about them and seeing something of life; but this species of emancipation does not seem to have borne the best fruit, for I hardly had got to Egypt ere the Sultan issued some pretty severe orders as to these ladies’ mode of life.

[27]A band some four or five inches wide, drawn through the trousers to hold them fast above the hips.

[28]Achu—Brother.

[29]Pieces of cotton cloth.

[30]See also L’Univers, ou Histoire et Déscription de tous les Peuples, de leurs Réligions, Mœurs, Coutumes, &c. Egypte, par M. Champollion-Figear, conservateur à la Bibliothèque du Roi.

[31]From balta, axe.

Transcriber's note:

- pg 2 Changed: "oldest Juffbaschi or captain" to: "Jussbaschi"

- pg 17 Changed: "Nile to look out, ond there" to: "and"

- pg 19 Changed: "morning of the 18th May" to: "March"

- pg 21 Changed: "and then “Huc bimùtt”" to: "“Hue"

- pg 26 Changed: "where no hammah is to be got" to: "hammab"

- pg 29 footnote 7 Changed: "Sorgno, a kind of thick-eared" to: "Sorgho"

- pg 38 (x2) Changed: "Sanakim" to: "Sauakim"

- pg 41 Changed: "was none, the column o" to: "of"

- pg 75 Changed: "Schukurie and Habbabee Arabs" to: "Kabbabee"

- pg 82 Changed: "be useless as pecimens" to: "specimens"

- pg 90 Changed: "at might he called pretty" to: "be"

- pg 109 Changed: "on the Amàhe already granted" to: "Amàhn"

- pg 129 Missing reference to footnote 19 placed after: "Sebbà. The Sheiks and Faki"

- pg 130 Changed: "A Skukurie-Arab had a considerable" to: "Shukurie-Arab"

- pg 139 Changed: "hostilities with the Pascha Juffuff" to: "Jussuff"

- pg 142 Changed: "and become sa man. Rich" to: "becomes a"

- pg 143 Changed: "departments hav succeeded in" to: "have"

- pg 157 Changed: "to shine in spendid garments" to: "splendid"

- pg 157 Changed: "sought after, t bear a high value" to: "after, bear a"

- pg 186 Changed: "our Husseln the Gaddam taib" to: "Hussein"

- pg 190 Changed: "l’œil gouflé, le nez écrasé" to: "gonflé"

- pg 201-202 Changed: "set on it; in in the breast" to: "it; in the"

- pg 204 Changed: "races are to to be looked on" to: "are to be"

- pg 212 Changed: "fruit of the thorny Hebbek" to: "Nebbek"

- pg 217 Changed: "separation arose Hanathi, Kadmin" to: "Hauathi"

- pg 244 Changed: "Osmar Kaschef, as a preventive" to: "Omar"

- pg 247 Changed: "and even a part of Schukune" to: "Schukurie"

- pg 251 Changed: "shot by our soldiery (Ashari)" to: "Askari"

- pg 258 Changed: "black wings (Larius barbarus" to: "Lanius barbatus"

- pg 260 Changed: "The Pascha summonsed me" to: "summoned"

- Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged.

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Table of Contents

- AFRICAN WANDERINGS;

- TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

- CONTENTS.

- CHAPTER I.

- CHAP. II.

- CHAP. III.

- CHAP. IV.

- CHAP. V.

- CHAP. VI.

- CHAP. VII.

- CHAP. VIII.

- CHAP. IX.

- CHAP. X.

- CHAP. XI.

- CHAP. XII.

- CHAP. XIII.

- CHAP. XIV.

- APPENDIX.

- FOOTNOTES:

- Transcriber's note:

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE