Part 10

15th.—In the morning we would not leave the island without seeing the inhabitants. The men soon appeared for their bakshis; and at last came the women, to see Mrs. Belzoni, who made them presents of glass bead-necklaces, with which they were wonderfully pleased: though, as it is their custom to take all, and give nothing, they did not even return us thanks for what they received; but took their presents, laughed, and ran away immediately.

We now descended the river with a strong north wind against us; and though some authors assert, that the Nile has no waves, but runs quite smooth, I can assure the reader, that we were this day tossed about as if by a gale at sea. The wind blowing fresh against a strong current naturally caused this effect.

We arrived in the afternoon at the village of Iskus, and went to see Osseyn Cacheff, who was returned, and to whom we had a letter from his brother Mahomet at Deir. I had landed with my interpreter and the Janizary, and entered a kind of house made in the shape of an angle of a propylæon. These houses would not stand the weight of an upper apartment, if they were built perpendicularly; for the clay walls, of which they are made, would fall outward. The Cacheff’s house was adorned with an old mat spread on the ground as usual, a water jar, and a chain with two hooks made in a particular manner. This was that same Osseyn, who was one of the two brothers that caused Mr. Burckhardt to return from Tinareh. He was about sixty-eight years of age, five feet eleven inches high, stout and robust, and able to support the charge he was born to hold. He was surrounded by thirty men, all armed, some with matchlock guns and long swords, and some with spears and shields instead of guns. He was clothed in a long tunic down to his feet, made of white woollen cloth, with a belt round his waist, to which his sword, flint, and steel were attached. Over his shoulder he had a long shawl, made of the same stuff as the tunic, thrown partly over his head, so as to cover it from the sun. He had also a red turban, and on his feet a pair of ragged shoes. Notwithstanding his dress, there was an air of superiority about him, which distinguished him at once above all the rest. It is worthy of observation, that even among barbarians great respect is paid to superiors; and those very men, who would murder a fellow-creature in a difference about a few pipes of tobacco, almost tremble at the frown of a single and sometimes harmless old man. His inquiries concerning my business were very minute; but I soon brought the affair of the temple forward, which did not a little surprise him. He said he knew the entrance into the place very well; that the round ball on the large head was the door of the great Dere, as he named it, and if removed I could immediately enter. This round ball was no other than the globe on the head of the hawk-headed Osiris, which stood over the door, as I mentioned before. At first he stated to me the great difficulty, if not impossibility of opening this place; and at last, when I had endeavoured to remove these obstacles, he made me promise, that, if I found the temple full of gold, I should give him half. To this I agreed, on condition that if I found only stones, they should be all my own property; and he immediately assented, for he said he wanted no stones. Upon this he gave me a letter to his son at Ybsambul, and when I left him, and went on board, I sent him some trifling presents, which he received with pleasure, and sent us a lamb.

When I came to the bark I found it crowded with women, who had learned from our crew, as we passed upwards, that there was a woman on board; and as soon as we arrived, on our return, they all ran to the shore. Mrs. Belzoni, not supposing they would come in such numbers, made a present of some glass beads to one of the wives of the Cacheff. This was enough: they increased in crowds, and we had to please them all.

Next morning we continued our voyage, and arrived very early at Ybsambul. I went to see a small temple on the south side, opposite the village; but it is of no consequence, only it may be remarked as the last on the Nile on this side of the cataract. It has served as a chapel to the Christian Greeks; and the figures of the Apostles remain nearly perfect painted on the wall and roof. We crossed the river, and I went immediately to Daoud Cacheff. Having presented the letter from his father, he sent for the men who were intended to work. I found these people complete savages, and entirely unacquainted with any kind of labour. They had changed their minds since I was there last; and, though I had the authority of the Cacheff, they would not work. My persuasion was of no avail; first, because they were not inclined to such labour; secondly, they did not know the value of money, &c. At last I pretended to give up my project, and go away. When the Cacheff saw that I meant to go, and that he should lose many a good present, he began to talk to them; and at last, with much difficulty, reduced the payment to one half of what they had demanded before. On my agreeing to this, they immediately insisted, that I should employ as many as they chose. It was in vain I told them, thirty were more than sufficient for my purpose; they would not hear of less than a hundred. With this it was impossible for me to comply; so I rose, and took leave of the Cacheff, ordering the Reis to go on board, and set off immediately. This, however, was not satisfactory to the parties; they had still more to say, and at last it was concluded, that I should take forty men, who were to be at the bark before the sun rose next morning, as it was nearly two miles from the village to the temple. I went on board, heartily wishing I had done with these people.

17th.—Early in the morning when I expected to see these wild men, for such I must call them, I was greatly disappointed: the sun was very high, and no one appeared. I then returned to the Cacheff, to inquire whether the men meant to make a joke of the business, or to work. Not being accustomed to be disturbed so early, he rose very slowly, and sent a party of his soldiers to search for the men, some of whom at last made their appearance, while others pretended they could not come. Their excuse was, that they saw a Bedoween in the desert, and they were all on the watch. The day before they wanted to be employed to the number of a hundred, and to-day they were unwilling to be employed at all. At length some arrived by land, some by water, but very late, and we went at last to the temple. I took it patiently, and began the work in such a direction, that the sand should fall off from the centre of the front of the temple, where naturally the door must be. They had a long stick, with a cross piece of wood at the end, at each extremity of which was a rope. One man drew the long stick back, and another pulled it forward. This is the method they use in removing the earth in their cultivated ground, and I found it very useful in clearing away sand also. As it was the first day of our enterprise, they went on better than I expected; and all their thoughts and talk were on the quantity of gold, pearls, and jewels, we should find in the place. I did not discourage them in their supposition, as I considered it to be the best stimulus they could have to proceed. At noon I gave them some boiled lentils, and bread soup, with which they were pretty well pleased. The Cacheff, who attended to the work himself, partook of what I ate. At night I paid the men, and recommended them to be there again early in the morning. The Cacheff and part of his court came on board, and we returned to the village for the night.

18th.—In the morning we went to the temple, and the Fellahs came after us rather late, and we began the work again very slowly. I had to use a great deal of persuasion this day; for the savages were led to think, they had laboured too hard on the first day, so that they were obstinate, and I had much ado to prevail on them to continue. As they complained of being very much tired, I promised, that they should not work the next day, but be allowed to rest themselves. We ended this day’s work before sunset, and returned to the village. Finding ourselves but ill supplied with provision in this place, I offered more than usual for a sheep, but to no purpose: I was obliged to eat rice and water, and very little of that, as we had not much on board. Our stock of butter was quite finished, and milk was very scarce.

19th.—In the morning I went to see the Cacheff, to speak about some palm wood. I found him quite changed in his behaviour, starting a thousand difficulties; in particular, that the Fellahs would not come to work any more, as it was useless for them to fatigue themselves for a little money; adding, that it was impossible to get any palm wood; though at the same time we were surrounded by it. I answered, that this was not our agreement; and, as I kept my word, and paid the Fellahs according to our first engagement, I expected them to perform their part of the bargain. After much debate, it was at last concluded, that I should see the Fellahs at night, and try myself what could be done, for he could not serve me. In short, I could make nothing of him; but his interpreter soon gave me to understand, that all this difficulty arose from my not having made him any considerable present; and the soldier who was with me from Siout told me, that I ought not to omit giving him a brace of pistols, or some other valuable thing. I saw their meaning immediately; but I also knew that these people never feel grateful for any thing after they receive it, but think only of contriving new tricks to extort more, if possible; so that it is just the same whether you give or not. However, I took a middle course, and told the interpreter, that I would provide a good bakshis both for his master and himself, if they would interest themselves in my favour. In the afternoon the savages were all assembled, and I was sent for. The brother of the Cacheff, whom I saw the first time we arrived at Ybsambul, was there: his behaviour however was altered, and much for the better; so that he, who at first was rough, became smooth, and the smooth became rough. I inquired about the wood, and was told, that I must go to a place two leagues off, where I should find some; but this was said only to start new difficulties, as I knew there was plenty in the village. With respect to the savages, I was informed, that they would not come to work so hard, unless I doubled the numbers. It was in vain for me to tell them, that a man does not work more when alone, than when accompanied by multitudes. They were obstinate, and I could do nothing with them; for had I consented to employ a hundred, I should soon have been called on to make it up two hundred. I promised to give bakshis to the brother of the Cacheff, who began to talk to them in their own language; and to my astonishment all at once they agreed to come to the number of forty only; on condition, however, that I should give them the sixth part of an ardep of corn to make bread with. The Cacheff seemed displeased with the influence of his brother, and rose and walked off. A barbarian from Deir, who was a stranger in the island, and had come thither to cultivate a piece of ground, had bought some wood to build a sakias, or water machine; but as he could not agree with the savages at Ybsambul, and was going away, he proposed to sell his wood to me; and I gladly availed myself of the opportunity, and thus got over this difficulty.

Next day (20th), in the morning the people came slowly to work, but upon the whole we went on very well, though I had much ado to make them proceed in the right way. The Cacheff, with his attendants, came to see how we were proceeding, and gave me to understand, that he intended dining with me. I told him I was very glad of his company, but had nothing except boiled rice, unless he would order his people to kill a sheep for us, which I would gladly pay for. They consulted about who could afford to part with a sheep, and receive piastres in payment, and at last the order was given to an old man, who had five, which was a greater number than any body else. When the sheep was brought to us, the difficulty was to fix the price of it. Being the first ever sold for money in that place, to put a high price on it would have increased the value of sheep in general, and consequently would have been against the interest of the Cacheff; for when he receives his revenue in these animals, he sets them at a very low price, that he may have the more given him. To estimate it at a low price would be worse, for it would be against them all in the exchange of sheep for dhourra with the other villages. Finding it a dangerous point to decide, it was at length resolved, that no price at all should be put upon the sheep, but that the man should make me a present of it, and I should give any thing I pleased in return. To prevent any standard being established from what I gave the man, I paid him in soap, tobacco, and salt.

At dinner the sheep was brought in pieces in two wooden bowls, and the Cacheff and his attendants seated themselves in a circle on the sand near the temple. The extremities of their filthy hands were soon washed in the liquor, and in a few seconds the whole was devoured. Not being accustomed to this unceremonious sort of feasting, I stood but a poor chance; but in subsequent occurrences of this kind I contrived to take my share without interfering with their scramble. Soon after dinner coffee was brought up from the boat, and I went on board to take my dinner with Mrs. Belzoni, who had boiled rice and water for her fare, in preference to the chieftain’s mess of mutton. In a short time the Cacheff approached, and signified his wish to speak to me in secret. We retired, and his principal interpreters were called to us. The great secret was this: on the night before, as he stood on the bank close to our boat, he saw me drinking a coffee cup of red liquor that I poured out of a bottle; and having inquired what it was, was told it was _nebet_ (wine). Now he had heard that the wine of the English was much better than what they made in their own country with dates; he wished, therefore, to have some to drink also, but in a secret way. Fortunately I had a few bottles left from our stock in Cairo, which we preserved for extraordinary occasions; and I sent my interpreter down to the boat to fetch one. When the wine was first poured out into a cup and presented to the Cacheff, he sternly looked at the interpreter, and told him to drink first. The interpreter, who was a Copt, and had been in the French army for several years, did not want much persuasion to make a libation to Bacchus; so with a smile he soon convinced the Cacheff of the purity of the contents of the bottle, and the Cacheff did not hesitate to drink the next cup. At the first taste it did not appear to him so strong as he had supposed; but at last he found it so good, that in three days my scanty stock was nearly finished. I had much reason to repent having taken a Janizary with me, for instead of assisting me in my dealing with these people, I found he was the first to suggest to them what they never would have thought of. It is not to be supposed that a Mussulman will ever take the part of a Christian dog, against any of his own religion, unless he is responsible for the life of the stranger; and then he does it for his own sake, and not from any attachment to the European. The work went on very slowly this day; but altogether we had made a considerable advance in the sand, towards the centre of the front of the temple.

Next morning (21st), the people took it into their heads to come in such numbers, that I could not employ them all, as the work was directed only to one point. There was warm debating on the subject; but, as I would not spend one farthing more than I had promised from the first, they agreed at last that the pay should be divided amongst them all; and thus, instead of forty men, I had eighty for the same price, which was less than sixpence a day. The anxiety to see the inside of the temple, and to plunder all that it might contain, brought the two brothers on board very early in the morning. They soon gave me to understand plainly, that all that was there was their own property; and that the treasure should be for themselves. Even the savages began to lay their account in the division of the spoil. I assured them that I expected to find nothing but stones, and wanted no treasure. They still persisted, that, if I took away the stones, the treasure was in them; and, if I could make a drawing, or likeness of them, I could extract the treasure from them also, without their perceiving it. Some proposed, that, if there were any figure discovered, it should be broken before I carried it away, to see the inside of it. Thus I plainly perceived, that, on entering the temple, I should not be at liberty either to take notes of what was in it, or to make any drawings, much less to take away any statue, or any thing else that might be found. We went on with our labour, however, and, as I made a palisade with the palm wood I had bought, I had no need of so many men, as they had only to clear the space between the palisade and the temple.

In the course of the morning, two of the men left the work, and went down the Nile to our boat. Finding Mrs. Belzoni on board, with only a little girl from the village, they were rather impertinent to her, and attempted to go on board in spite of all she could say to them, intending to rob the boat. At last she presented a pistol to them, on which they immediately retired, and ran up the hill. She followed, but they mixed with a number of their fellow savages, and it was impossible to find them out; for they were all like so many lumps of chocolate seated on the sand at work, and not to be distinguished the one from the other. At night, when I paid the men, the Cacheff’s brother said, the money must be counted all in one heap, before it was divided among the people. My interpreter, who was also my treasurer, accordingly counted the money on a piece of a ragged shawl, which he had no sooner done, than the Cacheff’s brother threw himself on it, and seized every piastre. The men looked at each other, but no one dared to say a word about it; and he took it all away with him. I observed to him, that his magic was much more sure in its operation than mine, for obtaining money. But I was pleased to find they had begun to know the worth of it so well.

I naturally expected, that no one would come to work the next morning (22nd); but in this I was mistaken. So much of the sand had been taken away, that the first palisade became useless. I made another, therefore, directly before the place where I supposed the entrance to be, to prevent the sand from falling against it. I now began to perceive clearly, that this work would employ more time than I could spare in that country, and the period I had meant to dedicate to it was already elapsed; but this would not have deterred me from proceeding, and no doubt I should have accomplished my undertaking, had it not been for a material cause which compelled me to quit the work for a time. This was the want of that very article which, a few days before, was so despised and unknown; and now I absolutely could not proceed without it. It was money, which, even here, had shown its usual power among mankind, of exciting avarice, and of which those wild people soon became very fond. I had some water brought up from the Nile, and poured down close to the wall over the door. This stopped the sand from running, till I had a hole made so deep, that I could perceive it required a longer time to reach the door than I could stay, and more money than I could then afford. I had by this time removed so much sand, as to uncover twenty feet in the front of the temple. The colossal statues above the door were completely exposed; and one of the great colossi sitting before the temple, on the north side, which was buried in the sand, appeared with his face and shoulders like his companion on the south. Having obtained a promise from the Cacheff, that he would not let any one touch the place till my return, which would be in a few months, I contented myself with putting a mark where the sand was before I commenced the operation; and after taking a drawing of the exterior of the temple, quitted it, with a firm resolution of returning to accomplish its opening. We brought our boat to the village, and, after making some trifling presents to the Cacheff, set off the same evening.

We descended the Nile rapidly, as the current was very strong, which was a fortunate circumstance for us, for we were almost without provisions on board. Two hours after we left Ybsambul, a Turkish soldier on a dromedary hailed us from the right bank of the Nile; but, without attending to him, we continued our voyage. He turned back, and followed us a considerable way; and when he came to a place, where the current brought us near the shore, he fired a pistol, as a signal to stop. We were greatly at a loss to conjecture who he could be, as it was not to be supposed, that a Turkish soldier would venture alone into this country. At length, as we drew near the bank, he said he had letters for me from the Bey of Esne. This was not true. He produced two letters in Arabic, signed by two different persons not in existence, which ordered me, in an insolent tone of command, to desist from any work I might have begun in Nubia, and return to Cairo. The reason why these letters were sent to me, by whom, and for what purpose, is one of those mysteries which, for the present, must remain unknown.

The soldier came on board, and sent the dromedary back by his servant; for in that country every soldier has a servant, to take care of his camel, horse, or asses, if he have any. Thus, when a body of five thousand men marches against an enemy, there are always at least six thousand people more to encumber it, and eat up the provision: for not only every common soldier has a man, but every officer has two or three; and those of the higher rank, as Beys, Cacheffs, &c. have ten or more.

As the current was so rapid, the next day (23d), in the evening, we arrived at Ibrim, and early on the 24th at Deir. I went to see the temple, but in a cursory way, reserving my observations to my next visit. We took in some provision, set off immediately, arrived in the evening at Nobat, and the next night (25th), stopped at El Kalabshe. Here we visited the temple a second time, but rather too late for much inspection.

Next day (26th,) we visited the two temples at Taffa, my humble observations on which I shall give in my next voyage in Nubia. Here a barbarian, armed with a spear and shield, called to me to stop, which I did, as he said he had something to communicate. He demanded my money in a resolute manner, and with a savage look; but when I made the interpreter inquire of him if he demanded the money per force, or as a voluntary bakshis, he laughed and ran off.

Continuing our voyage, at Cardassy I saw the remains of some very extensive buildings, and of some quarries, where a small chapel is cut in the rock, containing many Greek inscriptions, which I regretted I had not time to copy. We next came to Gamby, where, on the east, is a small temple, but almost even with the ground, and a few figures and hieroglyphics on the stones. This temple, that of Deir, and the one opposite Ybsambul, are all I have seen on the eastern side of the Nile above the first cataract. We came down to Deboude in the afternoon, and went to see the ruins of that place, as I shall describe in my next journey.