Travels in Nubia

THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS, K. G. THE EARL OF MORTON, K. T. THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, K. T. THE EARL SPENCER, K. G. THE EARL OF CALEDON. THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES YORKE. THE RIGHT HON. SI...

I have already had the honour to inform you, that I had settled at Malta with a Greek, for my passage to Cyprus on board his ship. A few hours before my departure, the captain c...

The wind being favourable we entered the river, and anchored, after half an hour’s sailing through its sinuosities, at Mina, the port of Antakia, where the ship was laid close t...

Mr. Burckhardt remained two years and a half in Syria, making daily additions to his practical knowledge of the Arabic language, and to his experience of the character of Orient...

It was under these circumstances that in May last the news spread over the country, that Ibn Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, had left his head quarters at Derayeh at the head of...

My time at Aleppo has been exclusively taken up in endeavours to enlarge my knowledge of Arabic. I have completed the perusal of several of the best Arabic authors, prosaic writ...

I am returned to this place from a journey up the Nile, which has carried me into the vicinity of Dóngola. In my last letter from Cairo, I informed you of my projects relative t...

Nearly a year elapsed before the Association received any further advices from their traveller, his next letter being dated from Cairo, upon his arrival in Egypt from Arabia. As...

I acquainted you in a former letter with my intention to pass the time of the plague in the desert of Sinai. My return to Cairo was about the time when the infection usually cea...

I am certain that you take a lively interest in the travels of the unfortunate Seetzen, who was poisoned five years ago in Yemen. His labours, I can assure you, have been very e...

Mr. Salt has already acquainted you with the further discoveries near the pyramids. He and Mr. Briggs made a common purse to enable Captain Caviglia, whose pecuniary resources w...

[Footnote 6: No description of this journey of Mr. Burckhardt ever reached the Association. His epistolary sketch of it was lost on its way to England: and it seems probable, fr...

We descended again to the bank of the river in one hour, and passed the village of Darmout (درموت), built partly upon a rocky island, and partly upon the high rocks of the easte...

The bed of the river is, in general, much narrower than in any part of Egypt, and the course of its waters less impeded by sand-banks. Immediately after the inundation, the poor...

_March 4th._ The grove of date trees continues to the south of Shubak. I found many of the houses abandoned; and at every step were graves. The Nubians place an earthen vessel b...

_March 8th._ From Seras we ascended a high mountain. The rock, which had been everywhere sand-stone as far as Wady Halfa, changes its nature at the second Cataract, where grunst...

The two brothers, the Kashefs Hosseyn and Mohammed, had come to Mahass, in order to besiege the castle of Tinareh, which had been seized by a rebel cousin of the king of Mahass....

Having thus endeavoured to give some account of Dóngola, and the countries bordering upon it, I shall now add a few words respecting its political relations at the period of the...

_March 20th._ We rode over a sandy plain, in the direction of N. E. by E., and in two hours and a half, came again to the river at Wady Djayme (وادي جيمه). The face of the count...

I returned to Derr with Hassan Kashef, but remained there only a few hours. I dismissed my honest Kerrarish guide, Mohammed Sad; at parting, I gave him a woollen Mellaye,[51] wh...

At the end of three hours travelling from our setting out in the morning, we reached Wady Kostamne, situated on both sides of the river. In five hours, Wady Gyrshe; at the north...

_March 29th._ We ascended the mountain which interrupts the road along the shore. On its summit I saw fragments of very small Egyptian columns and capitals, lying near some Arab...

About fifty years ago, Hamman, chief of the Howara Arabs, having taken possession of the whole country from Siout to Assouan, extended also his authority over Nubia, which he se...

I shall subjoin to this account of Nubia some notices upon the Bedouins who inhabit the mountains lying between that country and the Red sea. They consist of two principal tribe...

After my return from a journey along the banks of the Nile towards Dóngola, in the spring of the year 1813, I remained in Upper Egypt, waiting for an opportunity to start with a...

_4th. March._ Our route this morning lay through sandy valleys until we arrived, after about four hours march, at a steep ascent, or Akaba, where the sand and flint hills termin...

_10th March._ After a march of three hours, over a rocky and mountainous country, along a road thickly covered with loose stones, we arrived at El Haimar (حيمَر), a collection o...

_16th March._ After a few hours rest we again started. Our road lay over a sandy flat. High mountains appeared far in the east. At the end of three hours we halted in Wady Safyh...

_March 22._ After partaking of a hearty breakfast, we proceeded, late in the morning, over an extensive gravelly plain, intersected by several Wadys or low grounds, running towa...

The women of Berber, even those of the highest rank, always go unveiled, and young girls are often seen without any covering whatever, except a girdle of short leathern tassels...

The people of Berber appear to be a healthy race. There seemed to be few invalids, and the place being situated on the skirts of the desert, the air is certainly wholesome. I wa...

The success of a traveller, in this part of the world, depends greatly, I may say wholly, upon his guides and fellow travellers, and their being well disposed towards him. If he...

We departed from Ras el Wady in the course of the morning. The Mek sent two of his relations, to accompany us to the limits of his jurisdiction. Our road lay partly through barr...

_April 17th._ At the end of two hours from Djebail, in crossing the arable soil, we passed low mounds consisting of rubbish, and red burnt bricks; they were about eighty paces i...

The envoy whom the Pasha of Egypt sent to Sennaar, related, upon his return, that the king exhibited one day a review of cavalry before him, when the envoy desired to be permitt...

_Soap._ The soap which supplies all Egypt and Arabia, is manufactured at Gazé, Yaffa, Hebron, and Jerusalem. No good soap has hitherto been made in Egypt itself; there are sever...

_Rhinoceros horns;_ in Egyptian Arabic called Khartit (خرتيت). The rhinoceros is called in the Negroe countries Om Korn (ام قرن or, the mother (i. e. the owner) of the one horn;...

Few slaves are imported into Egypt, without changing masters several times, before they are finally settled in a family; for instance, those from Fertit are first collected on t...

Though the slaves endure the greatest fatigue, they are not of a hardier constitution than Europeans; indeed, I have reason to believe that, upon the whole, they are more freque...

At Shendy the river, owing to the height of the banks, often fails to inundate the adjacent lands; and the husbandmen are too lazy to aid nature by digging canals. I have alread...

_May 20th._—We set out before sunrise, in a N.E. b. E. direction. The caravan consisted of at least two hundred loaded camels, twenty or thirty dromedaries, carrying the richest...

_June 1st._—We continued to follow the bed of the river; the banks on both sides are overgrown with trees. This district belongs to the Beni Kurb. The soil is fertile, but bears...

The reason why Taka is so fertile, and has become so populous, is its regular inundation, a fact of which not a doubt can be entertained, although I found it impossible to obtai...

The principal article sold by the foreign merchants is _tobacco_, as well the produce of Sennaar as of Persia and the Yemen; that which comes from the latter countries is called...

The route most frequented by the Negroe pilgrims is that from Damer along the Mogren to Taka, and from thence to Souakin; I do not over-rate the number who pass this way at five...

The route over the mountain which we had just crossed presents no difficulties whatever; the mountain is called by the inhabitants Orbay Langay, or the mountain of Langay, and i...

The Emir has no insignia of royalty about him, except his yellow Turkish slippers, which, according to ancient custom, he is obliged to wear, and the small Takye, or Arabian bon...

The cattle of the Souakin Bedouins are extremely numerous; they are kept in the neighbourhood only during the months immediately following the rainy season, when the surrounding...

We had a fair westerly wind this morning. The Blacks were all sick, no person had room sufficient to stretch out his limbs, and we were confined the whole day in the same positi...

_July 15th._—A favourable wind sprung up this morning, and we steered for the open sea. A compass was brought from amongst the ship’s lumber, but merely for form’s sake, for the...

[Footnote 73: This seems to be the only crime in the east which has not yet penetrated into Africa, where all classes express disgust and horror at the descriptions given by the...

Mr. Browne has indicated in his map several rivers to the west of Darfour; but I was told that none of them are large, except during the rains. The principal of these streams is...

The following extracts are made from the first volume of this excellent work, which is already too well known in Europe, to be farther described here. They form about one hundre...

Souba[58] is the residence of the chief of Aloa;[59] it lies to the east of the great island, on its northern side, and between the White and the Green rivers, near their conflu...

This treaty was for a long time observed; after which the Bedjas re-assumed their inroads into Upper Egypt, and clamorous representations were repeatedly made on that subject to...

It begins with some remarks on the etymology of the word Assouan, which is said to mean a person in grief. Assouan lies on the extremity of the territories of Sayd. It is one of...

(40.) Under Ahlylid, I believe the Myrobolan to be understood, although it is not quite certain whether this is really the tree. Ibn Wahyshe describes four different species of...

(82.) The Moggrebyn traveller, Batouta, crossed this desert repeatedly. The relation he gives of it, when he passed it the first time, in 725 A. H. is the following: “he embarke...

688, the Sultan of Egypt set on foot an army of 40,000 men to recover the Nouba country. They were accompanied by 500 ships of all sorts, with many Harakes (a sort of gondolas,...

[Footnote 206: Their province is at the same time one of the most populous and well cultivated; from the hill of the small town of Tahta I counted 35 villages within reach of th...