Part 39

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 the borders of that country by petty merchants who deal in Dhourra. These sell them to the traders of Kobbe, who repair to Fertit in small caravans for that purpose. At Kobbe they are bought up by the Darfour, or Kordofan traders, who transport them to Obeydh in Kordofan. Here they generally pass into the hands of other Kordofan dealers, who carry them to Shendy, for the Soudan merchants commonly limit their speculations to a single market; thus the Kordofan people who trade to Darfour are different from those who visit Shendy, while, on the other hand, the Egyptians who trade to Shendy only, are different from those who proceed forward to Sennaar; and, in like manner, the Souakin traders are divided into Shendy and Sennaar merchants. At Shendy the slave is bought by some Egyptian or Abadbe. Upon his arrival in Upper Egypt he is disposed of either at Esne, Siout, or Cairo. In the two first places, entire lots of slaves are taken off by merchants, who sell them in retail at Cairo, or in the small towns of Upper Egypt, in each of which they stop for a few days, in their passage down the river. Even at Cairo they are not always finally disposed of in the first instance. The Khan of the slave-traders, called Okal-ed-djelabe, which is near the mosque El Azher, is crowded with pedlars and petty traders, who often bargain with the merchants of Upper Egypt for slaves immediately after their arrival, and content themselves with a small profit for the re-sale. Again, there are merchants from Smyrna and Constantinople residing constantly at Cairo, who deal in nothing but slaves; these persons export them from Alexandria, and it often happens that they pass through three or four hands, between Alexandria and their final destination in the northern provinces of Turkey. Such is the common lot of the unfortunate slave, but many instances happen of a still more rapid change of masters. At Shendy and Esne I have seen slaves bought and sold two or three times before they were finally removed from the market; after which, perhaps, if the master at the end of a few days trial did not find them answer his expectations, he would again put them up for sale, or exchange them for others. In fact, slaves are considered on the same level with any other kind of merchandize, and as such are continually passing from one merchant to another. The word Ras (head) is applied to them as to the brute species; and a man is said to possess ten Ras Raghig (رقيق), or ten head of slaves,[40] in the same manner as he would be said to possess fifty Ras Ghanam, or head of sheep. When the buyer is desired to take the slave away, it is usual to say, Soughe, (سوقه), drive him out, an expression which is applied only to cattle, as Soug el ghanam go damek (سوق الغَنَم قدامك).

I have seen among the young slaves on sale at Shendy, many children of four or five years old without their parents; others of the same age are met with in the market, with their mothers; and the traders so far shew humanity, that they seldom sell them separately; when such a thing is done, the vender is in general reproached with being guilty of an act of cruelty.

The traders, in buying slaves, are very attentive to their origin, because long experience has proved to them that there is little variety of character amongst individuals of the same nation. Thus the Noubas who come from Sennaar are said to have the best dispositions next to the Abyssinians and Gallas, and to be the most attached to their masters. Of the Abyssinians, those from the northern provinces, called Kostanis, are said to be treacherous and malicious, while the Amaaras are noted for their amiable tempers. Of the western Negroes those from Benda are the most esteemed, and next to them those imported into Darfour from Borgho, a Mohammedan country, whose inhabitants carry off their pagan neighbours. The slaves from Fertit are said to be ferocious and vindictive, and stand the lowest on the list.

Few slaves arrive at Shendy who have not already passed a considerable time in a state of slavery. The strongest proof of this fact is, that I never saw any who could not make themselves understood in Arabic; and the greater part of those imported from Darfour and Kordofan, besides their own native tongue, and Arabic, have some acquaintance with the idioms of those countries.

As soon as a slave boy becomes the property of a Mussulman master he is circumcised, and has an Arabic name given to him. They are seldom honoured with a true Mussulman name; such as Hassan, Mohammed, Selim, Mustapha, &c. Most of them bear such names as these: خير الله Kheyr el illah; فضل الله Fadil ’lilah; فضل الواسع Fadil Elwasia; جبر واجد Jaber Wadjed; اُم الخير Om Elkheyr, and the like. Sometimes the names are more extraordinary, as صباح الخير Sabah el Kheyr (good morning), جراب Djerab (leather sack), &c. &c. It very rarely happens that any uncircumcised boys come from the west; and I never knew any instance of a Negroe boy following the pagan worship of his father, and refusing to become Mussulman; though I have heard it related of many Abyssinian slaves, who, after having been converted from idolatry to the Christian religion by the Abyssinian Copts, were sold by them to the Mussulman traders. I have been told of several of these slaves, particularly females, so steadily refusing to abjure their faith, when in the harem of a Mohammedan, that their masters were finally obliged to sell them, in the dread of having children born of a Christian mother, which would have been a perpetual reproach to the father and his offspring. In Soudan, the slaves, though made Mussulmans by the act of circumcision, are never taught to read or to pray: and even in Egypt and Arabia this instruction is seldom given to any but those for whom their masters take a particular liking. It may be observed, nevertheless, that they are greater fanatics than the proudest Olemas, and that Christians and Franks are more liable to be insulted by slaves than by any other class of Mussulmans.

I enquired at Shendy whether any of the slaves were eunuchs, but I was informed that no eunuchs were imported into that place during my stay, and that Borgho, to the west of Darfour, is the only country in eastern Soudan where slaves are thus mutilated for exportation. Their number, however, is very small; a few are carried to Egypt from Darfour, and the remainder are sent as presents by the Negroe sovereigns to the great mosques at Mekka and Medina, by the way of Souakin. The great _manufactory_ which supplies all European, and the greater part of Asiatic Turkey with these guardians of female virtue, is at Zawyet ed-deyr (زويت الدير), a village near Siout in Upper Egypt, chiefly inhabited by Christians. The operators, during my stay in that part of the country, were two Coptic monks, who were said to excel all their predecessors in dexterity, and who had a house in which the victims were received. Their profession is held in contempt even by the vilest Egyptians; but they are protected by the government, to which they pay an annual tax; and the great profits which accrue to the owners of the slaves in consequence of their undergoing this cruel operation, tempts them to consent to an act which many of them in their hearts abhor. The operation itself, however extraordinary it may appear, very seldom proves fatal. I know certainly, that of sixty boys upon whom it was performed in the autumn of 1813, two only died; and every person whom I questioned on the subject in Siout assured me that even this was above the usual proportion, the deaths being seldom more than two in a hundred. As the greater number undergo the operation immediately after the arrival of the Darfour and Sennaar caravans at Siout, I had no opportunity of witnessing it, but it has been described to me by several persons who have often seen it performed. The boys chosen, are between the age of eight and twelve years, for at a more advanced age, there is great risk of its proving fatal.—Puer, corpore depresso, a robustis quibusdam hominibus, super mensâ continetur. Tunc emasculator, vinculis sericis sapone illitis, genitalia comprimit, et cum cultro tonsorio (dum puer pro dolore animo deficit) quam celerrime rescindit. Ad hemorhagiam sistendam plagam pulvere et arenâ calidâ adurunt, et post aliquot dies calido oleo inungunt. Dein vulnus cum emplastro aliquo, quod inter Coptos arcanum est, per quadraginta spatium dierum donec glutinetur curatur. Nunquam de celotomia sub hoc cœlo audivi.—The operation is always performed upon the strongest and best looking boys; but it has a visible effect upon their features when they arrive at full age. The faces of the eunuchs whom I saw in the Hedjaz, appeared almost destitute of flesh, the eye hollow, the cheek bones prominent, and the whole physiognomy having a skeleton-like appearance, by which the eunuch may generally be recognised at first sight.

A youth on whom this operation has been successfully performed is worth one thousand piastres at Siout; he had probably cost his master, a few weeks before, about three hundred; and the Copt is paid from forty-five to sixty for his operation. This enormous profit stifles every sentiment of mercy which the traders might otherwise entertain. About one hundred and fifty eunuchs are made annually. Two years ago, Mohammed Aly Pasha caused two hundred young Darfour slaves to be mutilated, whom he sent as a present to the Grand Signor. The custom of keeping eunuchs has greatly diminished in Egypt, as well as in Syria. In the former country, except in the harems of the Pasha and his sons, I do not think that more than three hundred could be found; and they are still more uncommon in Syria. In these countries there is great danger in the display of wealth, and the individual who keeps so many female slaves as to require an eunuch for their guardian, becomes a tempting object to the rapacity of the government. White eunuchs are extremely rare in the Turkish dominions. In Arabia I have seen several Indian eunuchs of a sallow or cadaverous complexion, and I was informed that slaves are often mutilated in Hindostan. Almost all the eunuchs of Siout are sent to Constantinople and Asia Minor.[41]

Among the slave girls who arrive at Shendy and Siout, there are several who are called مُخَيَّط Mukhaeyt (consutæ), from an operation[42] which has been described by Mr. Browne.[43] I am unable to state whether it is performed by their parents in their native country, or by the merchants, but I have reason to believe by the latter. Girls in this state are worth more than others; they are usually given to the favourite mistress or slave of the purchaser, and are often suffered to remain in this state during the whole of their life.

The daughters of the Arabs Ababde, and Djaafere, who are of Arabian origin, and inhabit the western bank of the Nile from Thebes, as high as the cataracts, and generally those of all the people to the south of Kenne and Esne as far as Sennaar, undergo circumcision, or rather excision,[44] at the age of from three to six years. Girls thus treated are also called Mukhaeyt (مخيط), but their state is quite different from that of the Negroe slave-girls, just mentioned.

The treatment which the slaves experience from the traders is rather kind than otherwise. The slaves are generally taught to call their masters Abouy (ابوي, my father, and to consider themselves as their children. They are seldom flogged, are well fed, are not over-worked, and are spoken to in a kind manner; all this, however, results not from humanity in the traders, but from an apprehension that under different treatment the slave would abscond; and they are aware that any attempt to prevent his flight by close confinement would injure his health; for the newly imported slaves delight in the open air, and reluctantly enter houses, which they look upon as prisons. But when they are once in the desert, on the way to their final destination, this treatment is entirely changed; the traders knowing that the slaves have no longer any means of escaping, give a loose to their savage temper. At Shendy I often overheard my companions, who, although savage enough, were certainly not of the worst class of slave-merchants, say to each other, when a slave had behaved ill, and they were afraid of punishing him, “Let him only pass Berber, and the Korbadj will soon teach him obedience.” The Souakin traders with whom I afterwards travelled, shewed as little humanity, after we had passed Taka. The health of the slave, however, is always attended to; he is regularly fed, and receives his share of water on the road at the same time that his master drinks; and the youngest and most delicate of the females are permitted to ride upon camels, while all the others perform the journey on foot, whether it be to Egypt or to Souakin, as they had done from Darfour to Shendy. The hardiness of the young slaves is very extraordinary; after several successive days march at the rate of ten or twelve hours a day, I have seen them, in the evening, after supper, playing together as if they had enjoyed a long rest. Females with children on their backs follow the caravan on foot; and if a camel breaks down the owner generally loads his slaves with the packages. If a boy can only obtain in the evening a little butter with his Dhourra bread, and some grease every two or three days, to smear his body and hair, he is contented, and never complains of fatigue. Another cause which induces the merchants to treat the slaves well, is their anxiety to dissipate that horror which the Negroes all entertain of Egypt and of the white people. It is a common opinion in the black slave countries that the Oulad er-Rif[45] (ولد الريف), or children of Rif, as the Egyptians are there called, devour the slaves, who are transferred thither for that purpose.[46] Of course the traders do every thing in their power to destroy this belief, but notwithstanding all their endeavours, it is never eradicated from the minds of the slaves. Another terrible apprehension which they have is of a small jumping animal, which they are told will live upon their skin, suck their blood, and leave them not a moment’s rest. By this description they mean fleas, which are entirely unknown in the interior parts of Soudan, and of which the most curious stories are told by the people of the country, in enumerating the superior advantages of their own country over those of Egypt. Other vermin however, more to be dreaded than fleas, are too common among them. The fear of being mutilated on their arrival in Egypt operates powerfully also upon the minds of the young slaves.

Slave boys are always allowed complete liberty within the yard of the house; but the grown up males, whose characters cannot be depended upon, or whose dispositions are unknown, are kept in close confinement, well watched, and often chained. On the journey they are tied to a long pole, one end of which is fastened to a camel’s saddle, and the other, which is forked, is passed on each side of the slave’s neck, and tied behind with a strong cord, so as to prevent him from drawing out his head; in addition to this, his right hand is also fastened to the pole at a short distance from the head, thus leaving only his legs and left arm at liberty; in this manner he marches the whole day behind the camel; at night he is taken from the pole and put in irons. While on my route to Souakin I saw several slaves carried along in this way. Their owners were afraid of their escaping, or of becoming themselves the objects of their vengeance: and in this manner they would continue to be confined until sold to a master, who, intending to keep them, would endeavour to attach them to his person. In general the traders seem greatly to dread the effects of sudden resentment in their slaves; and if a grown up boy is only to be whipped, his master first puts him in irons.

It is not uncommon to hear of a slave-dealer selling his own children born of Negroe women; and instances occur daily of their disposing of female slaves who are pregnant by them; in such cases the future child of course becomes the property of the purchaser. Most of the traders have old slaves who have been for many years in their service; these are placed over the young slaves bought in trade, and become very useful in travelling; but even these too I have seen their masters sell, after they had become members as it were of the family, merely because a high price was offered for them. It is in vain to expect in a slave trader any trace of friendship, gratitude, or compassion.

Slave girls are every where thirty per cent. dearer than males of the same age. They are called in these countries Khademe (خادمه) and not Djarye (جاريه), as in Egypt. The finest of them are kept by the traders themselves, and are called Serrye (سرّيه); their masters allow these girls great liberty, which they often abuse. It is falsely asserted by the caravan traders in Egypt, that it is a custom among them to respect the chastity of the handsomest female slaves; on the contrary, the traders do not observe the slightest decorum in their intercourse with the slave-girls. During our journey to Souakin, where the caravan often encamped, on account of the apprehension of danger, in one large circle, I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless indecency, which the traders, who were the principal actors, only laughed at. I may venture to state (whatever may be the opinion at Cairo), that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth year, reach Egypt or Arabia in a state of virginity. The grandees, and rich people of those countries, take care never to buy grown up females from the traders, except for servants; but they often purchase very young girls, whom they educate among their women.

Young slaves are bought upon trial; at Shendy one day’s trial is allowed, in Egypt three days are usually granted. Girls are often delivered in this manner for Tadjrebat leilat (تجربة ليلة), as it is called, and the purchaser may return a girl without alleging any other reason than that he dislikes her, so little do these savages care about cherishing a sense of shame or honour in their female slaves, who, of course, whenever they remain any length of time in a trader’s hands, acquire the most depraved habits. Sometimes young slaves are sold under the express condition that they shall not be returned.

There are certain defects (عيوب Aayoub), which if met with in the male slave authorize the purchaser to return him, even so long as a fortnight after he has bought him, unless, in making the bargain, he has renounced this right. Of these defects the principal are; 1. snoring at night, which is considered as a capital defect; 2. si mingit dormiens; 3. grinding and rubbing the teeth upon each other during sleep; this is much disliked, from an idea that the boy who does so will never become attached to his master; 4. any disease which has not been completely cured, or recurs while in the hands of the purchaser, as intermittent fever, itch, &c. &c. In buying a slave it is carefully observed, and enquired, whether or not he has had the small-pox; those who have not had it sell for less than the others. Traders have told me, that in Darfour and Kordofan, one-fifth upon an average of the young slaves die of the small-pox.

Many of the traders engage their female slaves to turn their beauty to profit, which they afterwards share with them. In our caravan one of my companions openly sold the favours of one of his females for two measures of Dhourra, of which he always received one. This man also, when a favourite little slave girl died during our stay at Shendy, with the utmost indifference ordered the body, after stripping it of every rag of Dammour, to be laid on an ass and carried to the Nile to be thrown in. It is true, indeed, that slaves are very seldom buried, the corpse being usually thrown into the river.

The merchants take great care to prevent any improper intercourse between the slaves themselves, always separating the boys from the girls at night; this is not so much done from jealousy, as because the pregnancy of the females diminishes their value. It frequently occurs however, notwithstanding all their vigilance; and it is generally found that every female has some favourite among her master’s slaves. It is a received opinion also in all the countries where the slave-trade prevails, that a female black conceives more readily from her intercourse with a black male, than with a stranger. If a female proves pregnant under these circumstances, no means are left untried by the trader who owns her, to procure abortion. She is compelled to swallow certain potions, which are supposed to have this effect; and I have several times even seen masters beating pregnant women in a manner, that evidently shewed that it was for this purpose. It is a general observation in the East, that a female slave, when pregnant, easily acknowledges the true father; and several instances have come within my own knowledge, where such an avowal, which they might easily have avoided, has subjected them to great hardship. In Egypt, where almost every family keeps a couple of slave servants, abortion is still more common, and is considered as being far from a criminal act. The favourite females are often admitted by their masters to the Bouza, or drinking parties, where the great joke is to intoxicate the girls.

What I have seen and heard of the Negroes has made me conceive a very indifferent opinion of their general character; but I ought to add that I have not yet seen them in their native countries, before they fell into the hands of these vile traders, who would spoil the mildest and most amiable dispositions. I have found, however, very few instances of slaves being sincerely attached to their masters, even when well treated by them. Their general vice is an incorrigible stubbornness and haughtiness of temper, and many of them betray a deadly rancour and spirit of revenge; but in general the treacherous disposition discernible in the children even of the free Arabs of the Nile and of Nubia, is certainly not to be found among them. They are lazy and slovenly, and will not work but when forced to do so. They seem to be almost entirely devoid of every feeling but that of gratifying their appetites; and provided the slave is well fed, and receives a regular allowance of butter and meat, and of grease to besmear his body, he cares little for the stripes or curses he receives. The merchants say: “Never trust a black slave; whip him well, and feed him well, and the work will be done” (لا تامن العبد اضربه و اطعمه فتشوف الحاجه مقضيه). I know not whether the maxim is founded in truth or not, but it is certainly that by which the merchants are guided, when they are no longer afraid of their slaves escaping. The slaves, nevertheless, whether from strength of mind, or from a brutal apathy, manifest the same propensity to mirth and frolic. In intellect, I think they are much upon a level with the Negroe Arabs, and little lower than the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria; nor should I much blame their obstinacy, if it were not too often accompanied by malignity. I have already observed that different characters are assigned to different countries, and all that I observed of them has not diminished my belief, that with proper education the Black nations might be taught to approach, and, _perhaps_, to equal the white.