Chapter 5

Previous to his march from the third cataract, there had arrived at the camp ambassadors from Shendi, from Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive Shageians, demanding terms of peace. The Pasha replied, that "the only terms on which they could obtain peace with him, would be by the surrender of their horses and arms, and returning to their country to live tranquilly, and without disturbing their neighbors." The ambassadors replied, that "they would not give up their horses and arms." The Pasha then answered, that "then he would come to Shendi and take them." To which it is said they answered, "Come."[29] On hearing, however, of the rapid march of the Pasha, and of his arrival in Berber, the chief of Shendi, on whose support it seems Shouus had calculated, was frightened, and sent his son, bearing some valuable presents, to the Pasha, to notify his submission, and to receive his orders. The terror and confusion this step, on the part of one of the most powerful allies of Sennaar, will occasion to the latter, will probably prevent the necessity of a battle to ensure its submission. A part of the remnant of the once powerful Mamalukes of Egypt, who had fled before the Pasha to Shendi,[30] on his arrival in Berber have surrendered themselves to the protection of the Pasha Ismael. They have been treated by him with great kindness, and were presented with a thousand piasters each, to bear their expenses to Cairo, to which place they have departed, with the assurance of passing the remainder of their lives in tranquility in Egypt, under the protection and favor of Mehemmed Ali. They had gone from the camp before my arrival. I was informed that these Mamalukes were in possession of many slaves and fine horses, which will turn to good account in Egypt. A small remnant of the Mamalukes at Shendi, under the direction of a refractory Bey, have fled to the countries on the Bahar el Abiud, where they will probably perish miserably. The Divan Effendi, who has been sent to Shendi to arrange the terms of peace with the Malek of that country, had orders to assure this Bey and his followers there, of the same favor and protection already accorded to their comrades, who had already departed for Egypt, but without success. It is not to be doubted, however, that the remnant of the once powerful Mamalukes, who have surrendered themselves to the compassion and protection of the Viceroy, will receive both from him; whose humanity has been interested in their behalf since their power is gone, and their number reduced to a few individuals, who, doubtless, will be happy to live tranquilly in the country these unfortunate fugitives continually sigh after, and whose sovereignty they have lost by their own misconduct.[31]

17th. I passed over in the canja of the Pasha, to the east side of the river, to visit the capital of Berber, which is nearly opposite to our camp. On reaching the bank, it is a walk of half an hour through immense fields of durra, to come to the road that leads to the residence of the chief.

After quitting the plantations, I came to a collection of villages, extending about three miles down the river. Among these villages is one called "Goos" which is marked in the maps as the capital of Berber; but the residence of the Malek,[32] or chief of the eastern shore, is not at Goos, but at another of the collection, much larger, called Nousreddin, as I was informed, after the name of the present Malek, who resides there. The houses of these villages, like the rest in the country of Berber, are built of clay, and roofed with unhewn timber, covered with trusses of straw; that of the Malek is like those of his people, only larger. The western shore is governed by another Malek, whose village lies higher up the river than the emplacement of our camp. The population of Nousreddin, and the villages adjoining, is considerable. The country is fertile and well cultivated, and abounds in durra, cotton, barley, fine horses, camels, dromedaries, kine, sheep, goats and fowls, as does all the country of Berber. I found in these villages some caravan merchants, who at present had nothing to sell but coarse cotton cloths. These cotton cloths form the only clothing of the inhabitants; both men and women wear them, wrapped round their middle, with one end thrown over the shoulder or head.[33] The Berber, though resembling the fellah of Upper Egypt in complexion, is generally not so well formed in figure and feature. Many of them have defective teeth, probably occasioned by the habit of chewing bad tobacco, (of which they have plenty,) which is common here.

The greater part of their household and field work is done by slaves they purchase from the caravans, coming either from Abyssinia or Darfour. Some of the owners of female slaves would, for a dollar, without scruple, permit the soldiers of our camp to sleep with them. The women of Berber, contrary to the custom in Egypt, go with the face unveiled, without embarrassment. Both men and women never consider themselves in full dress, unless the hair of the head has been combed sleek, then braided and platted together, and afterwards plentifully anointed with butter. They never cut the hair, I believe; it consequently forms an immense bunch behind the head, similar to that observable in some of the ancient statues of Egypt.[34] The barbarous practice of excision is universally performed upon all their females, whether free or slaves; as is the case also among all the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Nile above Assuan.

The people of Berber are, in their exterior deportment, mild and polite. Every man we meet, uniformly gives us the greeting of peace, "Salaam aleikoum," and uniformly shows a disposition to accommodate us in every thing reasonable. This is probably owing to their being, in a very considerable degree, a commercial people; Berber being every year visited and traversed by numerous caravans from Abyssinia, Sennaar, Darfour, and Kordofan.

23d of Jamisalachar. This day arrived the Divan Effendi, from Shendi, accompanied by the Malek of that province, and the son of Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive Shageias. The Malek of Shendi was accompanied by a considerable suite, and two most beautiful horses, intended as a present to the Pasha.[35] On being introduced to his Excellence, he kissed his hand, and pressed it to his forehead, and told him that he had come to surrender himself and his country to his favor and protection. His Excellence received him graciously, presented him with splendid habiliments, and a horse richly caparisoned. After his presentation was finished, he was conducted to the tent of the Hasnardar, who was directed by the Pasha to treat him with due hospitality. The son of Malek Shouus came in behalf of his father, and other distinguished chiefs of the Shageias, to implore the mercy of the Pasha for these chiefs and the fugitive remnant of their followers, who were opposite Shendi, awaiting the decision of the Pasha, as to what was to be their fate. I was told that the determination of the Pasha continued in their regard the same, making the surrender of their arms and horses the sine qua non of peace between him and them. Three days after, the chief of Shendi returned home the friend of the Pasha.

On the 25th of the moon, I passed over to the eastern side of the river, to purchase camels; as there were many buyers at this time from our camp, I did not find any good enough for the exorbitant price demanded. I passed the greater part of the day, and the night following, at the town of Nousreddin, in the house of one of the principal chiefs of the Berbers. He bears the title of Malek, as do all the distinguished chiefs of Berber, Shageia, and Dongola. Their dignity is hereditary, generally passing from father to son. I have noticed that the families of the Maleks exceed the common people in respect of stature and stoutness. The Malek, in whose house I lodged, a man about 60 years of age, was near seven feet high, and very stout. His eldest son, a young man about 22 years of age, was about 6 feet 4 inches in stature, stout and well proportioned. I imagine, that this superiority in size is owing to the circumstance that they eat well and heartily, and have no work to do beside seeing that others work for them. The family of this Malek carried their hospitality towards me to a very extraordinary length for people professing Islam. I was offered, by the mother and mistress of the house, my choice of two of her daughters for a bedfellow. They were both young, and the handsomest women I have seen in Berber, but married to husbands whose houses were at the other end of the town. When I understood this circumstance, I told the mother, that a genuine Mussulman ought to regard lying with his neighbor's wife as a crime almost as bad as murdering him in his bed.[36] I am sorry to be obliged to say, that though the Berbers are a quiet and industrious people, very civil and disposed to oblige all for whom they have any regard, yet, with respect to their women, they appear to be unconscious that their conduct is quite irreconcilable with the precepts of the Koran, and the customs of their co-religionists. They suffer them to go about with the face exposed--to converse with the other sex in the roads, the streets, and the fields; and if the women are accustomed to grant their favors to their countrymen, as liberally and as frequently as they did to our soldiers, I should imagine that it must be more than commonly difficult, in this country, for a man to know his own father.[37]

On my return to camp, I was amused on the way by a dispute in connection with this subject, between the Malek I have mentioned and a soldier; it happened in the boat that brought me back to camp. The boat was heavily laden, and this gigantic Malek was stepping into it, when the soldier I have mentioned intimated a determination to exclude him, calling him by several opprobrious names, and among other terms, "a pimp." Upon this, I checked the soldier, telling him that this man was a considerable personage in his country, and extremely hospitable to the Osmanlis. This mollified the soldier, and the Malek took a place as well as he could. The Malek then addressed the soldier in a mild manner, and asked him why he had bestowed such appellations upon one who was a Mussulman, as well as himself. The soldier positively refused to allow the Malek's claims to this honorable appellation. The chief demanded upon what grounds the soldier denied it: "Because," said the soldier, "the women of your country are all whores, and the men all get drunk with bouza, araky, and other forbidden liquors, which you make out of durra and dates;" and turning to me, he demanded "whether he was not right?" The poor chief appeared to be much vexed that he was unable to reply to this accusation, and remained silent. The soldier, not content with humbling the unlucky Malek, pursued his advantage without mercy. "Come," said he to the chief, "I do not believe that you know any thing about your religion, and I will soon make you sensible of it" He then asked the chief how many prophets had preceded Mohammed? If he knew any thing about the history of Dhulkamein and Gog and Magog? and many others of a similar tenor: how to answer which the unfortunate Malek was obliged to own his ignorance. The soldier then told him that "the Commander of the Faithful,"[38] the chief of the Mussulmans, had authorized his Vizier, the Pasha Mehemmed Ali, to set the people on the upper parts of the Nile to rights, and that now the Osmanlis were come among them they would probably learn how to behave themselves. The Malek might, however, have had his revenge upon the edifying soldier, had he known as well as I did that he had gone over to the town of Nousreddin expressly to amuse himself with the women of the country, and had doubtless paid as much attention to the bouza as the most sturdy toper in Berber.

The country of the Berbers, after the best in formation I have been able to obtain, is small, not extending, from the upper end of the third cataract, more than eight days march in length on both sides of the Nile. The Bahar el Uswood, or Black river, bounds it (i.e. on the eastern bank) on the south, and separates it from the territory of Shendi. The cultivable land reaches generally to the distance of one or two miles from the river. It is overflowed generally at the inundation, and its produce is very abundant, consisting in durra, wheat, barley, beans, cotton, a small grain called "duchan," tobacco, and some garden vegetables similar to those of Egypt. Berber also raises great numbers of horned cattle, sheep, goats, camels, asses, and very fine horses. It is very populous, the succession of villages being almost continued along the road on both sides of the river. The houses are built of clay, covered with a flat roof of beams overlaid generally with straw; but the houses of the Maleks have generally terraced roofs of beaten clay, This manner of building is sufficient in a country where no great quantity of rain falls throughout the year. Some of the houses of the peasants are formed of trusses of cornstalks, and placed side by side in a perpendicular position, and lashed together, with roofs of the same materials. All the people sleep upon bedsteads, as they do also in Dongola and Shageia: these bedsteads are composed of an oblong frame of wood, standing on four short legs, the sides of the frame supporting a close network of leathern thongs, on which the person sleeps; it is elastic and comfortable.

Berber contains plenty of salt, which the natives find in some calcareous mountains between the desert and the fertile land. In its natural state, it is found mingled with a brown earth, with which the stone of those mountains is intermixed. This earth the natives dilute with water, which absorbs the salt and leaves the earth at the bottom; they then pour off the water into another vessel, and, by exposing it to the sun or fire, the water is evaporated and the salt remains.

The assemblage of villages which compose the capital of Nousreddin, contains houses enough for a population of five or six thousand souls, but I do not believe that the actual population of those villages is so great.

The language is Arabic, perfectly intelligible to the natives of Egypt, but containing some ancient words at present disused on the lower Nile; for instance, the Berber calls a sheep "Kebesh."[39'

As to the climate, the difference between the heat at two hours afternoon in the month of the vernal equinox, and at an hour before sunrise, has been as great as ten degrees of the thermometer of Reaumur, as I have been informed by one of the medical staff attached to the army, who was in possession of that instrument. It is at present the commencement of spring, and the heat at two hours after mid-day, at least to the sense, is as great as in the month of the summer solstice, in Cairo. I have seen no ferocious animals, either in Berber or the country below, and believe that they are rare.

5th of Regeb. The camp continues in Berber, awaiting the arrival of the remainder of the cannon, ammunition, provisions and troops, from the boats at the cataract. The reason why these have not been transported hither before this time, is the want of camels, a large part of the camels attached to the army having perished, by reason of having been over fatigued by the Pasha's forced march over the desert, and up the country of Berber. A considerable number of camels have been obtained from Berber and sent to the cataract, and more are expected to arrive from Shendi, to which place the Divan Effendi has accompanied the chief of that country when he left our camp, in order to receive them. Abdin Cacheff departed two days past for Dongola, with his division. He is charged, by Mehemmed Ali, with the government of the country between the second and third cataracts.[40] Twelve hundred men, under the command of Ibrihim Cacheff, are said to be on the way to replace the vacancy left in our camp by the departure of Abdin Cacheff. They are expected to arrive in a few days, if not delayed by the sickness of Ibrihim Cacheff, who, it is said in the camp, is dangerously ill on the road.

7th of Regeb. This day Nousreddin, the Malek of Berber, came to kiss the hand of the Pasha. He had been prevented from paying his homage to the conqueror heretofore by sickness. He brought with him, as a present to the Pasha, fifty fine horses, and fifty dromedaries of prime breed. He was well received by his Excellence, and his presents were returned by the Pasha, by others of great value. Nousreddin is a very tall and very large man, about sixty years of age. Two days after, having occasion to go to the other side of the river, I found Nousreddin upon the shore, awaiting the arrival of a boat to carry him and some of his chiefs over. I paid him some compliments relative to the handsome horses he had presented to the Pasha, which pleased him considerably; he invited me to come to his house and partake of his hospitality. I told him, if circumstances would admit it, I would visit him in a few days.

From the 10th of Regeb to the end of the moon, nothing worth notice took place, except the successive and gradual arrival of the remainder of the cannon,[41] ammunition, stores and troops from the cataract, which had been left there when the Pasha quitted it, for want of camels to transport them. On the last day of the month, arrived the cavalry of Ibrihim Cacheff from Egypt, consisting of four hundred excellent horsemen; one thousand infantry were yet far distant, but on their way to join us. Ibrihim Cacheff is at Wady Halfa, severely sick.

On the 2d of the moon Shaban, shortly after the hour of afternoon prayer, the signal was fired and the tents fell. We mounted our snorting horses, now lusty from long repose, and commenced our march to traverse the famous country of the Ethiopian shepherds, at present subject to the Malek of Shendi. We arrived opposite Shendi, by easy marches, in eight days, and encamped on the west side of the river, near a very large village called "Shendi el Garb," i.e. Shendi on the west bank.

Our route from Berber led us through a country consisting of immense plains of fertile soil, extending many miles from the river, and mostly covered with herbage; mountains or hills were rarely visible.[42]

We passed many large villages, most of which stood far off from the river, to be out of the reach of the inundation. The houses of these villages, particularly as we approached Shendi, were generally built with sloping roofs of thatched straw, which indicated that this is a country visited by the rains. We hardly ever, during our march, came in view of the river, except to encamp. We found it at this season narrow and shallow, though its bed was frequently a mile and a half broad. At every halt we made, the chiefs of the country came to salute the Pasha, and seemed to be well disposed towards the army, whose conduct was very exemplary.

On the 9th of the moon, I visited the town of Shendi el Garb, in the rear of our camp. It is large and well built, in comparison with the other villages I have seen on the Upper Nile. It contains about six thousand inhabitants, and has three market places, where the people of the country exchange dollars and durra for what they have need of. Our piasters they disliked, being ignorant of their value, but sometimes received them for fowls, vegetables, butter, and meat, and for durra, but for wheat they demanded dollars.

On the 10th of the moon, I went to Shendi on the east bank, which is the capital of the country. I traversed the town with some surprise; the houses are low, but well built of clay. Large areas, walled in for the reception of the merchandize brought by the caravans, are to be seen in various parts of the town, which is large, containing probably five or six thousand inhabitants; the streets are wide and airy, regular market places are found there, where, beside meat, butter,[43] grain and vegetables are also to be purchased, spices brought from Jidda, gum arabic, beads, and other ornaments for the women. The people of Shendi have a bad character, being both ferocious and fraudulent. Great numbers of slaves of both sexes, from Abyssinia and Darfour, are to be found here, at a moderate price, a handsome Abyssinian girl selling for about forty or fifty dollars. The chief of Shendi, the same who had come to our camp in Berber, has done his uttermost to promote a good disposition in his people towards the Osmanlis, and has made the Pasha a present of several hundreds of very fine camels, within the last two days. His house is not built of better materials than those of his people, and differs from them only in being larger. Shendi stands about half a mile from the easterly bank of the river. Its immediate environs are sandy; it derives its importance solely from being the rendezvous of the caravans of Sennaar and the neighboring countries going to Mecca or Egypt. The territory belonging to the chief of Shendi is said to be very large,[44] but by no means peopled in proportion to its extent. He can, however, in conjunction with the Malek of Halfya, bring into the field thirty thousand horsemen, mounted on steeds probably as beautiful as any found in any country in the world.

On the 14th of the moon, some soldiers, who went to a village in the neighborhood of the camp, to get their rations of durra from the magazine in this village, which had been formed there by its chief, for the service of the army, were insulted, maltreated, and two of them killed outright with lances, and others severely wounded by the inhabitants. On the news of this outrage reaching the camp, the soldiers took arms, and mounted, to proceed to this village, with the full determination to revenge the death of their comrades in the severest manner. In five minutes nearly all the camp was upon the march for this village, when the Pasha sent orders to stop them and leave the affair to him. It was however impossible to prevent the greater part of them from proceeding to the village, which they pillaged and destroyed, sacrificing to their fury many of its inhabitants. The plunder which they brought back was however seized by the Selictar, and by the Pasha's orders restored to its owners.

The conduct of his Excellence on this occasion was highly laudable, while it must be confessed that that of the soldiers was not much to be blamed. Durra--a miserable pittance of durra, scarcely sufficient to support nature, was all that was required from the people of these countries, money free; and this, in the instance mentioned, was refused by a people whose chief had already granted it--a people absolutely within our power, and who extorted from the starving soldiery enormous prices for every thing they sold us, and who frequently refused to sell us any thing at all with great ferocity and insolence.

On the 15th of the moon, at two hours before sunset, the signal was fired, and the camp of the Pasha rose to commence its march for Sennaar. We marched till midnight, and reposed, as usual, on the bank of the river till about the same hour of the afternoon of the 16th of the moon, when we pursued our march for five hours, and halted by the river. We stayed here till the 18th, in the afternoon, in order to obtain three days rations for the horses from the villages in the neighborhood, which are numerous and large, as the country through which our route would lie for that time, is destitute of inhabitants and cultivation.