Part 44

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 obtain exact information of the causes of this inundation, or of the circumstances attending it. About the latter end of June, or sometimes not till July, for the period does not seem to be so fixed as that of the rise of the Nile,[62] large torrents coming from the S. and SE. pour over the country, and in the space of a few weeks (or according to some, in eight days), cover the whole surface with a sheet of water, varying in depth from two to three feet; these torrents are said to lose themselves in the eastern plain, after inundating the country, but the waters remain upwards of a month in Taka; and if I am to believe the reports of several persons who had seen the Nile, and could draw a comparison, the waters, on subsiding, leave a thick slime, or mud, upon the surface, similar to that left by the Nile. It is certain that immediately after the inundation is imbibed, the Bedouins sow the seed upon the alluvial mud, without any previous preparation whatever. The inundation is usually accompanied by heavy rains, which set in a short time before the inundation, and become most copious during its height. I was informed that the rains are ushered in by hurricanes of incredible violence, blowing from the south every evening after sun-set. The rains last several weeks longer than the inundation; but they are not incessant, falling in heavy showers at short intervals. In the winter and spring, the people of Taka obtain their water from deep wells, extremely copious, dispersed all over the country, but at a considerable distance from each other; they are in groups of half a dozen together, with large mud basins round them for the cattle to drink from, and as they supply the adjacent country to the distance of four or five miles, they are crowded the whole day with shepherds and their flocks. The water of most of these wells is brackish; but it is said that there is always found one in each group of which the contents are sweeter than the rest. They are dug to the depth of from twenty-five to forty feet, and are not lined on the sides with either brick or stones.

The produce of Taka is very disproportioned to what it might be in such a fine soil, every part of which is inundated, and where the inundation rarely fails. The people appear to be ignorant of tillage. They have no regular fields; and the Dhourra, their only grain, is sown among the thorny trees, and Oshour, by dibbling large holes in the ground, into each of which a handful of the seed is thrown. After the harvest is gathered, the peasants return to their pastoral occupations; they seem never to have thought of irrigating the ground for a second crop with the water which might every where be found by digging wells. Not less than four-fifths of the ground remain unsown; but as the quantity of Dhourra produced is, generally, sufficient not only for their own consumption, but also for the supply of others, they never think of making any provisions for increasing it, notwithstanding that when the inundation is not copious, or only partial (no one remembers its ever failing entirely), they suffer all the miseries of want. Twenty-four Mouds of Dhourra were bought here with one piece of Tob Dammour; at Shendy the same price is given for seven Mouds. Calculating the price by dollars, nearly the same quantity of Dhourra is obtained here for one Spanish dollar, as in Upper Egypt, which is the cheapest corn-market in the East.[63] The Dhourra is of the best quality, and of the same species as that of Upper Egypt, and the countries on the Nile, but it is much larger grained, whiter, and better flavoured; it is therefore in great request, and when I was at Souakin, in the house of the Turkish officer of the customs, I eat of loaves made of this Dhourra, which were little inferior to wheaten bread. In the Djidda market the Taka Dhourra is sold twenty per cent. dearer than that grown in Egypt. I believe nothing else is cultivated except a few Bamyes and Loubyes. The people are extremely fond of onions, which have become a kind of currency between them and the Souakin traders; but no one has ever tried to grow them in Taka.

Taka is as celebrated for its herds of cattle as for its Dhourra; they are very numerous; the cows are particularly handsome, and have all humps on the back, like those on the Nile; they serve, as in Darfour and Kordofan, for a medium of exchange. The price of a large fat cow was four pieces of Dammour, or ninety-six Mouds of Dhourra, which is equivalent to about two Erdeybs, or thirty bushels. The price of a strong camel is one-fourth more. As it was now the hottest part of the year, just before the period of the rains, when the ground is quite parched up, I saw few cattle. According to the annual custom, the herds had been sent several months before to the Eastern desert, where they feed in the mountains and fertile valleys, and where springs of water are found. After the inundation, they are brought back to the plain. The camels of Taka are highly prized, from an idea that the young shoots of the acacia trees, on which they feed in the woods, render them stronger than camels fed with other food. The people use the skin of the long neck of the camel, sowed up on one side, and left open on the other, as sacks to transport their grain in, when travelling; their form is very convenient for loading. The quantity of cattle would be even greater than it is, were it not for the wild beasts which inhabit the forests, and destroy great numbers of them; the most common of these are lions, and what they call tigers, but which I suppose to be leopards or panthers. I never saw any of these animals, but I heard their howlings every night. The flocks of the encampment, near which a few sheep are always kept, are driven in the evening into the area within the circle of tents, and the openings in the thorny enclosure already described are filled up with a heap of thorns. No one dares stir out of this entrenchment during the night; it is sufficiently strong to be impenetrable to the wild beasts, which prowl about it the whole of the night, filling the air with their dismal howls, which are answered by the incessant barking of the dogs within. It rarely happens that either lions or tigers are killed in these countries; when such an occurrence happens, it is in self-defence; for the inhabitants having no other weapons than swords and lances,[64] have little chance of conquering the king of the forest, of which this district appears to be a favourite haunt. Some of the Shikhs, but very few, have lion skins in their tents; they appeared to be of middling size; but if the testimony of the Hadendoa may be credited, a lion here sometimes reaches the size of a cow. Persons are frequently killed by them. In the woods wolves (ذيب), Gazelles, and hares abound; and the Bedouins relate stories of serpents of immense size, which often devour a sheep entire. The fiercest animals, however, that inhabit these woods are the Bedjawy, or inhabitants of Bedja, themselves. Great numbers of asses are kept by all these Bedouins. In the mountains of Negeyb, the Giraffa is said to be very numerous; I saw a piece of the skin of one in the tent of a Hadendoa. Locusts are always seen in Taka, which seems to be their breeding-place, from whence they spread over other parts of Nubia. However innumerable their hosts may be, they appear to be incapable of destroying the verdure of this country, as sometimes happens in Egypt and Syria. Those I saw were of the largest size, with the upper wings of a red, and the lower of a yellow colour. The trees are full of pigeons, and crows in large flocks. I do not remember having seen any birds remarkable for their plumage. From the acacia trees gum arabic is collected, which is sold at Souakin to the Djidda merchants; from Djidda it finds its way to Egypt; but it is of an indifferent quality, owing, probably, to the moisture of the soil; for the best gum is produced in the driest deserts.

The Hadendoa Bedouins, the only inhabitants of Taka seen by me, evidently belong to the same nation as the Bisharein, and all the Eastern Nubians, with whom they have the same features, language, character, and manners. They are the strongest of the four tribes who people Taka; the Melikinab are the weakest. All these people are partly cultivators and partly Bedouins. Each tribe has a couple of large villages built in the desert, on the border of the cultivable soil, where some inhabitants are always to be found, and to which the whole population, excepting those who tend the cattle in the interior of the desert, repairs during the rainy season. When the waters subside the Bedouins then spread over the whole district, pitching their Douars or camps in those places where they hope for the best pasturage, and moving about from month to month, until the sun parches up the herbage; the settlers in the village meantime sow the ground adjoining the neighbouring desert. The camps consist of huts formed of mats, like those of Atbara. There are also a few huts with mud walls, resembling those in the countries on the Nile, but smaller: even of the settlers, however, the greater part prefer living in the open country, under sheds, to inhabiting close dwellings. Besides the villages just described, there are others within the fertile districts, which are built upon insulated sandy spots, like islands, somewhat elevated above the general level. I enquired whether there were any marshes, or large ponds of stagnant water in Taka, but was answered in the negative.

The encampment where we remained consisted of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred tents, divided into four Douars, or circles; these were separated from each other by fences lower than the general thorny enclosure, by which the whole were surrounded. In every settlement in Taka, as at Shendy and Atbara, there are several Bouza huts, and many public women, with some of whom even the most respectable of the Souakin merchants took up their quarters. These women seemed to me to be more decent in their behaviour than those of the same description in the countries on the Nile; at least they seldom appeared abroad during the day, whereas the others were seen walking about at all hours. Both sexes wear the common Nubian dress, a Dammour shirt, and a cloke of the same stuff thrown over the shoulders. I observed one peculiarity amongst the women, that of wearing brass or silver rings on their toes; many of them wear leathern aprons, instead of the Dammour cloth which the Nubian women generally wrap round the middle; the same custom prevails amongst the Bedouins of the Hedjaz. In their tents they suspend various ornaments of white shells, Woda (وضع), from the Red Sea, intermixed with black ostrich feathers. All the women go unveiled, and the most respectable think it no shame whatever to receive a man in their tent, and to be seen chatting with him during the husband’s absence. This, however, never happened to me, for whenever I presented myself before a tent, the ladies greeted me with loud screams, and waved with their hands for me to depart instantly. Nothing astonished them more than my beard and mustachios; for the beards of the Bedouins never grow long or thick, and they cut their mustachios very short, it being a disgrace amongst them to wear them long, and considered as great a mark of slovenliness as an unshorn beard among Europeans.

In almost every village we found one or two individuals who had been on the Hadj, and who exercised the functions of Fakys. They are the only persons who trouble themselves about religious ceremonies, the people generally being entirely ignorant of the Mohammedan law and religion. In some instances they act directly contrary to the dictates of Mohammed, as for example, in eating the blood of slaughtered animals, which is prepared by placing it over the fire till it coagulates, when some salt is mixed with it, and butter poured upon it. Cows blood is most esteemed for this dish, which is equally common in Darfour, as I was informed by the Negroe slaves from that country. They eat no flesh raw excepting the liver, or kidneys; these the Arabian Bedouins, and the inhabitants of Syria, also eat raw with salt. The raw marrow of cows is considered a great dainty. When their cattle is near the encampment they live almost wholly upon milk, particularly that of the camel. When a company is collected, a large bowl of milk is set on the ground in the midst of them, and is handed round at intervals of about five minutes, for every one to sip a little; when emptied the bowl is filled again, and thus continues as long as the guests remain.

The Hadendoa are very indolent; the business of the house is left to the wives and slaves, while the men pass the day either in paying an idle visit to some neighbouring encampment, or at home reclined upon the Angareyg, smoking their pipes, and generally going drunk to bed in the evening. To each other they shew great hospitality, but towards strangers I never saw a more pitiless race of people, which is the more remarkable from its being so contrary to the general disposition of the Bedouins, one of whose first considerations is how to supply the wants of the stranger. Inhospitality to strangers seems to be a marked characteristic both of this people and of those of Souakin. In the market village near our encampment I could never obtain a drop of water without paying for it in Dhourra; and in our own encampment I was obliged to pay for the hire of a mat for a few minutes, to spread a little Dhourra meal upon in order to dry it in the sun. The poor Negroe pilgrims who pass through Taka in their way to Mekka, complain bitterly of this want of hospitality. Several of them were here during our stay, and lived in the encampment; they used to go round in the evening with their wooden bowls to beg for a little bread, when they knew that the people were at supper; but from two hundred tents they never could collect enough to make a meal sufficient for themselves; and myself and companions were obliged to entertain two of them every evening at supper. Where no feelings of generosity exist, the baser passions easily find access. The people of Taka are as noted for their bad faith as for their inhospitality; they live in continual broils with each other, which are not terminated by open hostility, but by a warfare of treachery, wherein each man endeavours to surprise and destroy his enemy by secret contrivances. Even in their own encampments they are armed with a spear, sword, and shield; and when they go to any distance it is generally in parties. During my stay two men were murdered in the woods by some persons unknown. The people of the caravan never ventured out of the encampment except in large parties; in the evening it was our practice to form a small caravan to proceed to the wells to fill our water-skins, taking care to keep as close together as possible. Treachery is not considered here as criminal or disgraceful, and the Hadendoa is not ashamed to boast of his bad faith, whenever it has led to the attainment of his object. The Souakin people assured me that no oath can bind a man of Taka; that which alone they hesitate to break is when they swear, “By my own health” (وحياة عافيتي). A Hadendoa seldom scruples to kill his companion on the road in order to possess himself of the most trifling article of value, if he entertains a hope of doing it with impunity; but the retaliation of blood exists in full force. Among the Hallenga, who draw their origin from Abyssinia, a horrible custom is said to attend the revenge of blood; when the slayer has been seized by the relatives of the deceased, a family feast is proclaimed, at which the murderer is brought into the midst of them, bound upon an Angareyg, and while his throat is slowly cut with a razor, the blood is caught in a bowl, and handed round amongst the guests, every one of whom is bound to drink of it, at the moment the victim breathes his last. I cannot vouch for the truth of this, although several persons asserted it to be a fact, and I heard no one contradict it. I might, perhaps, have come to the knowledge of several other strange customs amongst these savages, had I understood their language, or met with many of them who spoke Arabic; it was not sufficient to have found one or two who were acquainted with that language, for they will not endure to be plagued with questions, when no advantage is to be gained by answering them, and a traveller circumstanced as I was, can only obtain information of this kind by listening to general conversation, or by endeavouring to draw it insensibly to the subject upon which he wishes to be informed.

To treachery the people of Taka add a great propensity to theft. We had all occasion to complain of their pilfering habits, but particularly a Sowakiny, who lodged in the tent of one of the principal Bedouins of the encampment: his leathern sack was cut open during the night, and one hundred ounces of gold taken out of it. We missed every morning some trifles; but our precautions were such, that nothing of value could be taken away without awakening us. One day when I was in the market-place measuring some Dhourra, the Ferdes (or quarter of a piece) of Dammour, which I had thrown over my shoulder to expose it for sale, was taken off without my immediately missing it, although all the bye-standers saw the thief walking off with it. As soon as I discovered the robbery I pursued him, but as I found him armed, and more than a match for me, and as others interfered in his favour, I thought myself fortunate in recovering two-thirds of the value of the Dammour in Dhourra, the thief keeping the remainder to himself for the trouble he had had in stealing the whole.

Their own quarrels, and their national enmity to the Bisharein, with whom they are never known to be at peace, have rendered the people of Taka a warlike nation. They use the same weapons as the inhabitants of the Nile countries; bows and arrows are unknown amongst them. Their chiefs keep horses, and arm themselves with coats of mail. They are said to be brave, but I never saw scars on any part of their bodies except the back. The same remark applies to all the people of Nubia, where I have never seen any individuals with scars upon their breasts, while the backs of most of the men bear the marks of large wounds, in which they seem to pride themselves. The shield is said to protect the sides from blows. I found a custom here, which in my journey towards Dóngola I had been told of, as existing among the Bisharein; when a young man boasts of his superior prowess, in the presence of another, the latter draws his knife and inflicts several flesh wounds in his own arms, shoulders, and sides; he then gives the knife to the boaster, who is bound in honour to inflict still deeper wounds upon his own body, or yield for ever in reputation to his antagonist. They are certainly a strong and hardy race of men; and are more robust and muscular than any Bedouins I ever saw. During winter they live almost wholly upon flesh and milk, tasting very little bread; and it is to this they attribute their strength. The only disease which they dread is the small-pox, which made great ravages among them last year, and had not yet entirely disappeared; a neighbouring encampment was still infected, and all communication had in consequence been cut off between it and the surrounding encampments. The disease was first brought here by the Souakin merchants, from whence it has spread over all the countries on the Nile.

On the skirts of the desert, at a quarter of an hour from our encampment, was a village called Souk Hadendoa, or the market-place of Hadendoa (the Arabic word Souk سوق being used in the native idiom), the residence of the great chief of the Taka Hadendoas. On the sands behind the village a market is held once a week, which is frequented by great numbers of Bedouins and country-people; I visited it twice, and occasioned no little amusement and astonishment among the strangers, to whom I was an object of the greatest curiosity; but I always excited much more contempt and disgust amongst the women than amongst the men. The Black traders with whom I lived accompanied me to this market, where we sold various articles brought from Shendy, for Dhourra, which is the common currency here. Bedouins who take dollars are seldom found at Taka, but Dammour is in great demand. The following were the articles brought to market by the country people, besides _cattle_. A variety of _mats and baskets_ made of reeds, and of the leaves of the Doum tree, which is common in the valleys of the [Illustration] desert to the N. and E. _Earthen pots_ for cooking, and for ablution (Ibareik alloudhou اباريق اللوضو); the latter are of the annexed form, and are bought by the Souakin people and carried to the Hedjaz; all the Negroes, and other poor Hadjis carry one of them for their daily ablutions.—_Camel saddles_; _ropes_, made of reeds; _hides_; _water-skins_; a few _fowls_, which are met with all over Nubia; dried _camel’s flesh_ (butter was no where to be procured, the flocks being at a distance); the _Allobe_ and _Nebek fruits_; of the latter they make here a sort of viscid jelly, which has an agreeable taste. _Tama_, the bark of a tree similar to that which I observed at Shendy under the name of Gyrfe, of like taste, and used for the same purposes; in the mountains south of Hallenga it is called Basinya. _Gum arabic_. _Gharab_, the pulse of the acacia, with which leather is tanned. _Salt_, brought from Souakin, which forms a considerable article. _Black Ostrich feathers_; these are the feathers of the female ostrich; the white feathers are sold privately to the Souakin traders. Some blacksmiths attend the market; a slave works the bellows, while the master is employed in mending knives, lance heads, or the iron chains which are used for tying the fore legs of the camels during the night.