Part 9

[Footnote 29: I have been informed that, previous to the advance of the Pasha Ismael from Wady Halfa, deputies from the chiefs of Shageia arrived in the camp to demand of the Pasha, "for what reason he menaced them with war?" The Pasha replied, "because you are robbers, who live by disturbing and pillaging all the countries around your own." They replied, "that they had no other means to live." The Pasha answered, "cultivate your land, and live honestly." They replied with great naivete, "we have been bred up to live and prosper by what you call robbery; we will not work, and cannot change our manner of living," The Pasha replied, "I will make you change it."]

[Footnote 30: The number of the old Mamalukes of Egypt was reduced, at the time of our arrival in Berber, to less than one hundred persons. They had, however, some hundreds of blacks, whom they had trained up in their discipline.]

[Footnote 31: I am happy to add that these relics of the renowned cavalry of Egypt are now residing there in ease and in honor; the promises of the Pasha Ismael having been fulfilled by his father to the letter.]

[Footnote 32: It is a singular circumstance, that the chiefs of Dongola, Shageia, Berber, Shendi, and Halfya; should bear the same title as used in the Hebrew bible, to designate the petty sovereigns of Canaan.]

[Footnote 33: The Shageia cavalry, however, wore these cloths cut and made into long shirts, in order, probably, to have the freer management of their lances, shields, and broad swords. It should also be stated, that the Maleks or chiefs of the Upper Nile, were generally habited in fine blue or white shirts, brought from Egypt.]

[Footnote 34: The same circumstance of dress is common also among the peasants of both sexes of Dongola, Shageia, and along the third cataract, with this addition, that they not only anoint the head, but also the whole body with butter, they say it protects them from the heat; that employed by the personages of consideration is perfumed. Every Malek has a servant charged with the particular care of a box of this ointment. On our march to Sennaar, whither we were accompanied by the Malek of Shendy, I could wind this servant of his a mile off.]

[Footnote 35: I never in my life saw such noble and beautiful specimens of the species as were these two horses; they were stallions, eighteen hands high, beautifully formed, of high courage and superb gait. When mounted, they tossed their flowing manes aloft higher than the heads of their turbaned riders, and a man might place his two fists in their expanded nostrils; they were worthy to have carried Ali and Khaled to "the war of God."]

[Footnote 36: I feel myself, however, bound in conscience to tell the whole truth of this affair. In perambulating about the town, in the course of the day, which was very hot, I got affected by a coup de soleil, which gave me a violent fever and head-ache. I have strong suspicions that this circumstance acted as a powerful "preventer stay" to my virtue, and enabled me to put the devil to flight on this trying occasion. The mother of these damsels appeared to be edified by the discourse I made to her upon the subject of her proposal, but the young women plainly told me, that I was "rajil batal," i.e. a man good for nothing. If they could have understood Latin, I should have told them,

"Quodcunque ostendes mihi sic-k Invalidus odi."]

[Footnote 37: The ordinary price of a virgin wife in Berber, is a horse, which the bridegroom is obliged to present to the father of the girl he demands in marriage. I remember asking a young peasant, of whom I bought some provisions one day in Berber, "why he did not marry?" He pointed to a colt in the yard, and told me that "when the colt became big enough, he should take a wife."]

[Footnote 38: This learned soldier somewhat surprised me, on my demanding "why he did not give the title of Caliph to the Padischah?" by answering that there had been no Caliph since Ali, and that the Padischah was only "Emir el Moumenim," i.e. "commander of the true believers."]

[Footnote 39: This word is Hebrew, and signifies "a lamb."]

[Footnote 40: Abdin Cacheff is a very brave and respectable man, of about fifty years of age. He treated me with great politeness and consideration. He distinguished himself greatly at the battle near Courty, fighting Ills way into the mass of the enemy and out again, twice or thrice on that day.]

[Footnote 41: In order to save the artillery horses for the exigencies of battle, the cannon were drawn by camels from the third cataract to Sennaar, and the horses were led harnessed by their respective guns, ready to be clapped on if necessary. I venture to recommend the same procedure in all marches of artillery in the east.]

[Footnote 42: The other side of the river, at least as often and as far as we could see it, presented the same appearance. The only mountains we saw on the other side of the river, were those of "Attar Baal," at the foot of which (they lie near the river, about three days march north of Shendi) are, as I have learned, to be seen the ruins of a city, temples, and fifty-four pyramids. This, I am inclined to believe, was the site of the famous Meroe, the capital of the island of that name. The territory in which these ruins are found is in fact nearly surrounded by rivers, being bounded on the west by the Nile, on the south by the rivers Ratt and Dander, and on the north by the Bahar el Uswood. All these three rivers empty into the Nile.]

[Footnote 43: The butter of the countries on the Upper Nile is liquid, like that of Egypt. That, however, which they use to anoint themselves is of the color and consistence of European butter. We used the latter in preference, in our cookery.]

[Footnote 44: It includes a great part of the ancient Isle of Meroe.]

[Footnote 45: Malek Shouus, on learning that the Malek of Shendi had made his peace with the Pasha, threatened to attack him. On this it is said the Malek of Shendi called out twenty thousand men to line the easterly bank of the Nile, to prevent the approach of Shouus. Shouus, however, had the whole country of Shendi on the western side entirely under his control before our arrival, he and his cavalry devouring their provisions and drinking their bouza at a most unmerciful rate. On our approach, he went up opposite Halfya, where the country, on the western shore, is desert. He demanded of the chief of Halfya, to supply him with provisions: on his refusal, Shouus, in the night, swam the river with his cavalry, fell upon the town of Halfya by surprise, and ransacked it from end to end, and then repassed the river before the chief of Halfya could collect a force to take his revenge. The cavalry of Shouus, in the course of the campaign, have swam over the Nile five times: both horse and man are trained to do this thing, inimitable, I believe, by any other cavalry in the world. Shouus, since his joining us, has rendered very important services to the Pasha, as he is thoroughly acquainted with the strength, resources, and riches of all the tribes of the Nile, from the second Cataract to Sennaar and Darfour: his horses' feet are familiar with the sod and sand of all these countries, which he and his freebooters have repeatedly traversed. On our march from Berber to Shendi, I ran some risk of falling into his hands, as Shouus was continually prowling about in our neighborhood, from the time of our quitting Berber. Two nights before we reached Shendi, I stopped on the route, at a village, to take some refreshment, letting the army go by me. About an hour and a half after, I mounted my horse to follow the troops, but, owing to the state of my eyes, I missed my way, after wandering back-wards and forwards to find the track of the troops, about two hours after midnight, I descried the rockets always thrown aloft during our night marches, to direct all stragglers to the place where the Pasha had encamped. I put my horse to his speed, and arrived there a little before dawn.]

[Footnote 46: During the night of the 22d, I received an order from the Pasha to precede the march of the troops, and pick out a spot near Halfya to encamp his army on, in the European manner. Mr. Caillaud was requested to accompany me in this duty. Mr. Caillaud candidly told me that he was not a military man, and left the affair entirely to me. I chose a fine position on the river, about two miles above Halfya, in the rear of which was plenty of grass for the horses and camels. The Pasha, however, did not choose to come so far, but pitched his camp on the low sand flats before Halfya, near which there was no grass for the camels, who, during the five days following, perished in great numbers. He had undoubtedly his reasons for this, among which not the least important was, to be near enough to Halfya to have the town within reach of his cannon, as the Malek of Halfya had not as yet submitted. The Pasha, however, had like to have had serious cause to repent of having taken this position, when the river rose, and threatened to inundate his camp. Luckily it did not reach the ammunition, otherwise we should probably have been left without the means of defending ourselves.

This overflowing of the Nile was occasioned by the rise of the Bahar el Abiud, which, this year at least, commenced its annual augmentation nearly a month sooner than the Nile.]

[Footnote 47: The troops of Shouus and the Abbadies swam their horses and dromedaries over the river. Cogia Achmet, one of the chiefs of the army, in endeavoring to imitate the cavalry of Shageia, lost seventy horses and some soldiers. The rest of the horses and camels of the army were taken over by arranging them by the sides of the boats, with their halters held in hand by the people in the boats. Another large portion of our horses and camels was taken over by the Shageias and the Abbadies, who fastened at the breast of each horse, and over the neck of each camel of ours, so carried over, an empty water-skin blown up with air, which prevented the animal from sinking, while their guides swam by their sides, and so conducted them over.]

[Footnote 48: The same day that the camp marched from the Bahar el Abiud, Mr. Caillaud and Mr. Frediani embarked in the boats to go to Sennaar, by the river, in order to have an opportunity of visiting the ruins of "Soba," which lie on the east side of the Nile, not far above from its junction with the Bahar el Abiud. When these gentlemen rejoined us at Sennaar, they informed me that almost the very ruins of this city have perished; they found, however, there some fragments of a temple, and of some granite, statues of lions: the city itself, they said, had been built of brick. This city of "Soba" probably takes its name from "Saba," the son of Cush, who first colonized this country, which is called, in the Hebrew Bible, "the land of Cush and Saba."--See Gen. x. 7. See the references in a Concordance to the Hebrew Bible, under the heads of "Cush," and "Saba."

If there were any pyramids near Saba, I should believe it to be the ancient Meroe, because Josephus represents that the ancient name of Meroe was "Saba." "Nam Saba urbs eadem fuisse perhibetur quae a Cambyse Meroe in uxoris honorem dicta est:" quoted from Eichom's ed. of Sim. Heb. Lex. artic. Sameh Bet Alef

It was impossible for me to ask of the Pasha liberty to accompany the gentlemen abovementioned, as a battle was expected in a few days between us and the king of Sennaar, from which I would not have been absent on any consideration.]

[Footnote 49: The people of Dongola, Shageia, Berber, Shendi, and Sennaar, do not use mills to make meal. They reduce grain to meal by rubbing it a handful at a time between two stones--one fixed in the ground, and one held by the hands. By long and tedious friction, the grain is reduced to powder. This labor is performed by the women, as is almost all the drudgery of the people of the Upper Nile.]

[Footnote 50: On my return from Sennaar, I descended by the river as far as Berber. On the way I did see some few water-wheels, which, however, were employed merely to water the patches of ground devoted to raising vegetables.]

[Footnote 51: The Pasha had invited the Malek of Shendi and the Malek of Halfya to accompany him to Sennaar. The Malek of Halfya excused himself on account of his age and infirmities, but sent his eldest son along with the Pasha. By this stroke of policy the Pasha made the tranquility of the powerful provinces of Shendi and Halfya certain; and the advance of his army without risk from an insurrection in his rear; as the people of those provinces would hardly dare to make any hostile movement while the chief of one province and the heir of the Malek of the other were in our camp. Nymmer, the Malek of Shendi, is a grave and venerable man of about 65 years of age, very dignified in his deportment, and highly respectable for his morals. The Malek of Halfya I have not seen.]

[Footnote 52: The present Sultan of Sennaar is a young man of about 26 years of age; he is black, his mother having been a Egress. He was taken out of prison, where he had been confined for eighteen years by his predecessor, who was massacred by the party who placed him upon the throne. This revolution had taken place not very long before our march to Sennaar. His name is Bady.]

[Footnote 53: The natives told me that this palace had been built eighteen years ago, by the late good Sultan that they had had, who had planted before it rows of trees, which had been destroyed when the palace was ruined, as I understood them, in the wars between the different competitors for the throne during the last eighteen years.]

[Footnote 54: The river Nile lost its transparency four days before the army reached Sennaar. The day that presents the river troubled, marks the commencement of its augmentation. The day before we observed this change in the Nile, its waters were very clear and transparent. The day after, they were brown with mud.]

[Footnote 55: Sennaar has three market-places. On our arrival we found them deserted, but on assurances from the Pasha that all sellers should receive a fair price for their commodities, the principal one in a few days began to be filled. The articles I saw there during my stay in Sennaar, were as follows: Meat of camels, kine, sheep, and goats; a few cat-fish from the river, plenty of a vegetable called meholakea; some limes, a few melons, cucumbers, dried barmea, a vegetable common in Egypt; beans, durra, duchan, tobacco of the country, plenty of gum arable, with which, by the way, Sennaar abounds, (the natives use it in their cookery;) drugs and spices brought from Gidda, among which I observed ginger, pepper, and cloves; and great quantities of dried odoriferous herbs found in Sennaar, with which the natives season their dishes; to which must be added, aplenty of the long cotton cloths used for dress in Sennaar. Such were the articles offered for sale by the people of the country. In addition to which, the suttlers of our army offered for sale, tobacco, coffee, rice, sugar, shirts, drawers, shoes, gun flints, &c. &c. all at a price three or four times greater than they could be bought for at Cairo. In some parts of the market-place the Turks established coffee-houses, and the Greeks who accompanied the army, cook-shops. These places became the resort of every body who wanted to buy something to eat, or to hear the news of the day. There might be seen soldiers in their shirts and drawers, hawking about their breeches for sale in order to be able to buy a joint of meat to relish their rations of durra withal, and cursing bitterly their luck in that they had not received any pay for eight months; while the solemn Turk of rank perambulated the area, involved, like pious Eneas at Carthage, in a veil of clouds exhaling from a long amber headed pipe. All around you you might hear much hard swearing in favor of the most palpable lies; the seller in favor of his goods, and the buyer in favor of his Egyptian piasters. In one place a crowd collects around somebody or other lying on the ground without his head on, on account of some misdemeanor; a little farther on, thirty or forty soldiers are engaged in driving, with repeated strokes of heavy mallets, sharp pointed pieces of timber, six or eight inches square, up the posteriors of some luckless insurgents who had had the audacity to endeavor to defend their country and their liberty; the women of the country meantime standing at a distance, and exclaiming, "that it was scandalous to make men die in so indecent a manner, and protesting that such a death was only fit for a Christian," (a character they hold in great abhorrence, probably from never having seen one). Such was the singular scene presented to the view by the market-place of Sennaar.]

[Footnote 56: The occasion of this expedition was as follows:--On our arrival at Sennaar, and after the accord made between the Pasha and the Sultan of Sennaar, by which the latter surrendered his kingdom to the disposal of the Vizier of the Grand Seignor, the Pasha sent circulars throughout all the districts of the kingdom notifying the chiefs of this act, and summoning them to come in to him and render their homage. The Chief of the Mountaineers, inhabiting the mountains south and south-west of Sennaar (the capital), not only refused to acknowledge the Pasha, but even to receive his letter. On this, the Pasha sent Cogia Achmet, one of the roughest of his chiefs, with thirteen hundred cavalry, escorting three, brazen-faced lawyers, out of the ten the Pasha had brought with him in order to talk with the people of the upper country, to bring this man and his followers to reason.]

[Footnote 57: Several of the chiefs of Eastern Sennaar had refused to recognize the act of the Sultan, calling him "a coward" and "a traitor," for surrendering their country to a stranger. Some of them took up arms, which occasioned the expedition commanded by the Divan Effendi.]

[Footnote 58: I must confess that I was much shocked and disgusted by this act on the part of the Pasha, especially as he had shown so many traits of humanity in the lower country, which was undoubtedly one of the principal causes of its prompt submission. This execution was excused in the camp, by saying, that it would strike such terror as would repress all attempts at insurrection, and would consequently prevent the effusion of much blood. It may have been consistent with the principles of military policy, but I feel an insurmountable reluctance to believe it.]

[Footnote 59: They told me the names of these rivers, which I put down upon a sheet of paper devoted to preserving the names of some of the principal Maleks of the country. In my journey back this paper has disappeared from among my notes and papers, which has been a subject of great vexation to me.]

[Footnote 60: The people of Sennaar also believed that our boats could not pass the third cataract; and, therefore, their opinion with regard to the shellal at Sulluk is not to be relied on.]

[Footnote 61: The rainy season in Sennaar, at least the commencement of it, such as I found it, may be thus described: Furious squalls of wind in the course of one or two hours, coming from all points of the compass, bringing and heaping together black clouds charged with electric matter; for twelve or fifteen hours an almost continual roar of thunder, and, at intervals, torrents of rain; after which, the sky would be clear for two, three, or four days at a time.]

[Footnote 62: It is nevertheless possible that this fly may be found in that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies on the other side of the Adit.]

[Footnote 63: It was in the house where I quartered, at Sennaar, that I saw this singular animal. I jogged Khalil Aga, my countryman and companion, to look at it. He burst cut into an exclamation, "by God, that snake has got legs." He jumped up and seized a stick in order to kill and keep it as a curiosity, but it dodged his blow, and darted away among the baggage, which was overhauled without finding it, as it had undoubtedly escaped into some hole in the clay wall of the house. Mr. Constant, the gentleman, who accompanies Mr. Caillaud, was present at the time, so that I am convinced that what I saw was not an ocular delusion. I have been informed, since my return to Egypt, that the figure of this animal is to be seen sculptured upon the ancient monuments of Egypt.]

[Footnote 64: The people of Sennaar catch, cook and eat, without scruple, cats, rats and mice; and those who are rich enough to buy a wild hog, fatten it up and make a feast of it. I had heard in the lower country that the people of Sennaar made no scruple to eat swine's flesh, but I absolutely refused to believe that a people calling themselves Mussulmans could do this from choice. But after my arrival in Sennaar I was obliged to own that I had been mistaken. The species of hog found in the kingdom of Sennaar is small and black; it is not found in that part of the kingdom called "El Gezira," i.e. the island, but is caught in the woody mountains of the country near Abyssinia. In the house of one Malek in Sennaar was found about a dozen of these animals fattening for his table.]

[Footnote 65: The mountains of Bokki border upon the kingdom of Fezoueli, which lies south of Sennaar twenty days march. The mountains of Fezoueli are supposed to contain gold mines; pieces of gold are frequently found in the torrents that flow from those mountains in the rainy season. A native of that country told the Pasha Ismael, that he had seen a piece of gold, found in those mountains, as big as the bottom part of the silver narguil of his Excellence, i.e. about six inches in diameter. That there is gold in that country, is certain, as the female prisoners, taken at Bokki, had many gold rings and bracelets, of which they were quickly disencumbered by our soldiers. The Pasha intends to visit Fezoueli after the rainy season is over, to find the veins from whence this gold is washed down by the torrents, and, in case of success, to work the mines.]

[Footnote 66: We passed Attar Baal the same night. The reader is aware that a boat carrying a courier, could not be detained to give a passenger an opportunity to see ruins.]

[Footnote 67: The "Adit," or Nile of Bruce, enters the Bahar el Abiud nearly at right angles, but such is the mass of the latter river, that the Nile cannot mingle its waters with those of the Bahar el Abiud for many miles below their junction. The waters of the Adit are almost black during the season of its augmentation; those of the Bahar el Abiud, on the contrary, are white: so that for several miles below their junction, the eastern part of the river is black, and the western is white. This white color of the Bahar el Abiud is occasioned by a very fine white clay with which its waters are impregnated. At the point of junction between the Bahar el Abiud and the Adit, the Bahar el Abiud is almost barred across by an island and a reef of rocks; this barrier checks its current, otherwise it would probably almost arrest the current of the Adit. It is, nevertheless, sufficiently strong to prevent the Adit from mingling with it immediately, although the current of the Adit is very strong, and enters the Bahar el Abiud nearly at right angles.]

[Footnote 68: Since my return to Egypt, we have learned that this army, after some bloody battles, had succeeded in taking possession of Darfour and Kordofan.]

[Footnote 69: The provinces lying on the third Cataract, between Shageia and Berber, are called, 1st, Monasier; 2d, Isyout, 3d, El Raba Tab.]

[Footnote 70: He came up in one of the nine boats that were able to pass, as mentioned before.]