Part 45

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 here Suratty, and is the yellow leaved sort called Tombac in the Hedjaz and Egypt, and which is smoked in the East in the Persian pipe or Nargyle; being much stronger than the Sennaar tobacco, it is preferred in Taka principally for the manufacture of snuff, of which the people are very fond; the snuff is prepared by mixing natron or salt with the pulverised tobacco. No man or woman is seen without a small gourd, the size of a goose’s egg, in which they carry their snuff. The Souakin traders sell here also _natron_, which they bring from Shendy; all kinds of _spices_, especially cloves, which are in great demand among the Hallenga; _incense_, _beads_, and _hardware_; but the chief articles are tobacco, Dammour, and cloves. Dhourra is taken in exchange for all these articles, and is the main object with the merchants from Souakin, because that place depends solely upon Taka for its supply of this necessary of life, none, or very little, being cultivated in its neighbourhood. The Dhourra of Taka is imported into Souakin in such quantities that many ship-loads of it can at any time be sent from thence to Djidda, where it is always to be purchased in the markets. I need hardly add, that the intercourse between Taka and Souakin is in consequence extremely brisk; a fortnight seldom passes without some arrivals from the latter place; and as camels are very cheap, the expense of transport is proportionally small; nevertheless the Dhourra at Souakin was just four times dearer than at Taka, twelve measures being sold for one dollar; but it was still sufficiently cheap to enable the dealers to transport it to Djidda, and there sell it to advantage. During the last famine Taka supplied the whole valley of the Nile from Shendy to Mograt with Dhourra. There are several market places in the district similar to the one I have described; that of the Hallenga is said to be the largest, and Dhourra is even cheaper there than it is in this part of Taka. The Tob Dammour was there worth from thirty-two to thirty-six Mouds. Several of our people rode thither to sell their tobacco.

The direct road from Taka to Shendy is rendered unsafe by the incursions of the Shukorye, which obliges the Taka people bound for that place to go by Goz Radjeb and Atbara. Small caravans sometimes go straight from Taka to Sennaar for Dammour and tobacco; from the most southern limits of the Hallenga they travel half a day to the village of Menan; from thence three days across a sandy desert, without water, to the river Atbara, where its banks are inhabited by the Arabs Omran, who speak Arabic. From the Atbara they reach, after two days desert journey, the Arabs Dhebdayle (ضبدايله), who possess considerable herds of cows and camels. From thence a journey of one day among woods and cultivated spots, to the village of Dender, and two days more, across a desert bring them to Sennaar, making in the whole a journey of eight or nine days, slow march, but not in a straight line. This route is much frequented by the Negroe pilgrims. The above distances were given to me by a man from Dar Saley, who performed the journey with a boy, and without a guide. He was well treated by the Arabs Omran, from whose tents he performed the journey to Menan across the desert, without a guide, directing his course by the stars. The accuracy of his statements I believe may be depended on. The following is the account which I received of the route towards Ras el Fil, but I am not so well convinced of its correctness as of that of the preceding.

From the last settlements of the Hallengas, one long journey to the Arabs Fohara (فحاره); from thence to Wady Omran (امرن), one day and a half. To Ayaye (عيايه) one day; and from thence in two days to Ras el Fil (راس الفيل), on the route from Sennaar to Gondar. Three days below the Arabs Omran, towards Goz on the Atbara, is a large settlement of Shukorye, called Gabaryb (قباريب), which was stated to be as large as Shendy; its name often occurred in the conversations of the people of Taka.

Great animosity seems to prevail between the Hallengas and the Abyssinians, the latter never being mentioned by them without some opprobrious epithet, the mildest of which is Kafer. I had heard in Upper Egypt, and at Berber, that caravans sometimes depart from the Hallengas for Massouah; and I was afterwards told at Djidda, by some Massouah merchants, that Hallengas were sometimes seen at that place with cows for sale; but I could hear of no such intercourse during my stay at Taka. The Hallengas have a slight commercial intercourse with the Abyssinians of the province called Walkayt. Had I seen the least probability of making my way towards Massouah, I should have attempted it, for that part of the country appeared to me to be very interesting; it would have led me through the dwellings of many tribes who form the links of the chain by which the Abyssinians are connected with the Arabs, and whose manners, no doubt, present striking originalities; but after what I observed of the character of the people of Taka, I did not think that I should have the smallest chance of being able to protect my little property after quitting my companions the Souakin merchants; and from what I saw of the hospitality of these people, I was certain that if once stripped I should perish of want. To have engaged one of these savages as a guide would have been of little avail, had he even proved faithful, as he could not have ensured my safety for more than one day’s journey, or as far as the limits of his own tribe. I should then have fallen among strangers, all intent upon plundering me of whatever I possessed, while I should have had nothing to offer in my defence, and could hardly have made myself understood, very few people in those parts speaking Arabic. I hope, therefore, I shall not be blamed for abandoning this project, while, on the other hand, I had reasonable hopes of reaching Souakin in safety. I heard at Taka that Souakin and Massouah were at equal distances from the Hallengas.

I was not molested during my stay at Taka, and nothing particularly disagreeable happened to me; but I learnt afterwards, that I had nearly been reduced to a most distressing situation, a grown up slave of one of my companions having formed the design of stealing my camel, and selling it at a neighbouring encampment, in which case I should probably never have recovered it. Our camels were driven into the woods every morning to feed, under the care of the slaves; mine was entrusted to my own slave-boy; during the mid-day heat, when the slaves sometimes indulged in sleep, camels belonging to the caravan were occasionally lost, and mine would certainly have shared the same fate, had not the man who intended to steal it communicated his intention to another, who informed me of it. I complained to his master, who reprimanded him severely, and from that day I never permitted my camel to pasture abroad, but kept it in the camp, and fed it with Dhourra. To prevent their best camels from being stolen, the merchants are in the habit of fastening their fore legs with heavy iron chains, which being locked on, and not removable without a key, prevent at least any attempt to drive off the animal suddenly. The day after our arrival the chief of the encampment treated the whole party with a breakfast and supper of Dhourra, in a state of thin paste, sent round to each mess. Two days after, he ordered a couple of cows to be slaughtered, in honour of our arrival; a part of the flesh was intended for my companions the Tekaýrne and myself, but the slaves of the Souakin merchants got hold of it, and it disappeared in an instant. In return for this hospitality we were obliged to make a present to the chief, of a Ferde Dammour, equivalent to about twelve measures of Dhourra, for each slave in the caravan, which amounted in all to nearly twenty times the value of the bread and meat he had given us. No direct duties are paid here, neither do the Taka people pay any at Souakin.

By the 14th the merchants of the caravan had sold all their cotton stuffs and tobacco; and some of them had already set off with a small party on their return to Goz Radjeb. We had learnt that, on the morning of our departure from opposite that place, the Bisharein arrived there in superior force, but that they retired again when they found, by the extinguished fires of the caravan and the cold ashes, that we had got a long start of them. On the eve of our departure from Taka the caravan was joined by several people of the place with loads of Dhourra. Our own merchants had converted all their goods into Dhourra, and had loaded their camels to the utmost they could bear. A large party of Negroe pilgrims also joined, and we formed in all a caravan of about three hundred camels. Our departure was extremely irregular; the principal chief had set out on the 14th, and we thought that we should remain several days longer, when the second chief broke up suddenly, and began to load. One of my companions was thus obliged to abandon an outstanding debt, which made him a loser to the amount of twenty measures of Dhourra; he hesitated long whether or not he should stay behind, in order to recover it, and repair to Souakin with some future caravan; but prudence got the better of avarice, and we marched off early on the morning of the 15th of June. Before our final departure we were beset by all the people of the Douar endeavouring to obtain some small presents from us before we left them; they had plagued us during the whole of our stay, especially the women, who left no arts of coquetry untried, in order to possess themselves of the objects of their wishes. One of the cousins of the chief, who had just been married, was particularly importunate. Knowing that she looked on me with disdain and derision, I could not help admiring her subtilty and address in persuading me by signs, that she had conceived a great affection for me, giving me plainly to understand that for a handful of cloves she would refuse me nothing. Her own people probably knew that the whole was a trick to get from me something of value; it was some satisfaction to me, therefore, that all her arts were ineffectual, and that she did not succeed in obtaining the smallest present from me.

During the whole of my stay in this encampment, as well as at Shendy, I affected the greatest sanctity of manners, imitating, as far as possible, the Fakys, whose character is the more respected in these countries from their enjoying the reputation of great learning, and of exemplary private conduct. This is the character of the whole body, but it is well known how unworthy many individuals are of it, and that all their actions are governed by hypocrisy. Superstitious prejudices, and respect for a religion which appears more awful from the great bulk of the people being ignorant of its tenets; fear, perhaps, of incantations, and the great respect shewn towards each other, still tend to keep up the popular belief that a Hadji must be a being superior in virtue and sanctity; and if he ever proves the contrary, no one is bold enough to accuse him, as the whole body would then become the enemy of the accuser. It is much the same with the Olemas in Turkey and Arabia; their real character is well known; but they continue to enjoy great credit, because no one likes to be the first to raise his hand against them; and they are protected by the government, which finds them useful in enslaving the multitude, and in directing public opinion.

During the two last days of our stay at Taka, we were greatly alarmed by intelligence from Souakin that a man of Taka had been killed there by a Hadherebe. The Hadendoa deliberated whether they should not detain all the individuals of the caravan till they knew the result of the affair, and they would probably have done it had not another Bedouin arrived soon after, with information that the business had been settled by the Souakiny paying the price of blood.

JOURNEY FROM TAKA TO SOUAKIN.

_June 15th._—Just as we started a violent wind rose and continued the whole of the morning; the sand flew about in every direction, and caused us to miss our way. Our general direction was N. E. by N. We passed alternately sandy and fertile ground, the latter, which traverses the desert in narrow strips, is regularly inundated by the waters of Taka. At the end of about four hours we reached the extremity of this cultivable tract, where high acacias were growing. Here we found the principal chief of the caravan waiting for us. In the afternoon we continued in the same direction, over the desert plain, and halted after a day’s march of nine or ten hours. After sunset we were involved in a violent whirlwind, during which the camels became unruly, and we were obliged to remain on the spot till it ceased.

_June 16th._—We continued in the direction of N. E. by N. We had now with us eighteen or twenty of the Tekaýrne, or Negroe pilgrims. Tekroury, the _singular_ of this name, is not derived from a country called Tekrour, as is generally supposed in the East, and which has misled all the Arabian geographers, but from the verb Takorror (تكرّر), to multiply, renew, to sift, to purify, to invigorate; i. e. their religious sentiments, by the study of the sacred book, and by pilgrimage. The appellation is bestowed on all Negroes who come from the west, in search of learning (Taleb Olm, طالب عُلم—or simply Taleb), or for the Hadj, of whatever country they may be. They do not call themselves by this name of Tekroury, which many assured me they had never heard till they reached the limits of Darfour. All these pilgrims can read and write a little; and they all belong to the class styled Faky (_plur._ Fakiha). I never found any of them quite illiterate. After making some progress in the schools of their country, (schools being met with in all the Mohammedan countries of Africa,) they proceed to Mekka for the Hadj, or in order to study the Koran and the commentaries upon it, in that place and Medinah; or to Cairo, for the same purpose; but the greater part go for the Hadj; at present there are not more than twelve in the mosque El Azhar at Cairo, and I did not find above double that number in the great mosque at Mekka, where they are occupied chiefly in learning the Koran by heart, in the belief, that they can never forget a chapter which they have once learnt in the Beit ullah (house of God). The greater part of the Tekaýrne who visit Mekka come from the schools of Darfour, the principal of which are at Kondjara, in the neighbourhood of Kobbe. Those from the most western countries who pass this road are from Bahr el Ghazal and Bagerme. All the Black Hadjis from the countries to the west of Bagerme, from Bournou as far as Timbuctou, either travel with the Fezzan, or great Moggrebyn pilgrim caravan, or proceed by sea from the coast of Barbary. Their motives for undertaking the journey are, partly a sincere desire to fulfil the precepts of their religion, and partly the ambition of enjoying afterwards the credit which the Hadj confers in their own country upon those who have performed it, and which is of course in proportion to the difficulty of the journey.

Some of the Tekaýrne of Darfour and Kordofan are possessed of considerable property, and trade during their journey. At Djidda I met with a man from Darfour with three or four female attendants, and half a dozen female slaves, which formed his household, besides the slaves he carried with him for sale; but the greater part of them are quite destitute, and find their way to Mekka, and back to their own country, by begging, and by what they can earn by their manual labour on the road. The equipments of all these pilgrims are exactly alike, and consist of a few rags tied round the waist, a white woollen bonnet, a leathern provision sack, carried on a long stick over the shoulder, a leathern pouch containing a book of prayers, or a copy of a few chapters of the Koran, a wooden tablet, one foot in length, by six inches in breadth, upon which they write charms, or prayers, for themselves or others to learn by heart, an inkstand formed of a small gourd, a bowl to drink out of, or to collect victuals in from the charitable, a small earthen pot for ablution, and a long string of beads hanging in many turns round the neck. The Tekaýrne seldom travel alone, at least they never set out alone upon their journey; they generally form parties of about half a dozen, and as opportunity offers, join some caravan on the road, or proceed by themselves. Their usual route to Mekka is by Siout, by Sennaar, or by Shendy. Those from the most western countries meet at Darfour; after which, such only as can afford to travel with the Darfour caravan, (which requires capital sufficient to buy camels and provisions for the journey through the desert), repair to Siout, from whence they proceed to Djidda, by the way of Kosseir. The pilgrims who go by Sennaar come from Kordofan, and pursue their journey by three different routes; viz. 1, through the interior of Abyssinia, by Gondar and Axum, to Massouah; 2, along the Nile from Sennaar to Shendy; and, 3, from Sennaar to Taka, by the way of Ras el Fil, and from thence to Hallenga, by which they escape the journey through the desert. Those who travel by the first route complain of being ill-treated by the Christians of Abyssinia, of never being allowed to enter any house, or even court-yard, and of being fed like dogs (as they express it) before the threshold. They, however, always obtain a copious evening meal. At Massouah they remain a few weeks, till they earn by their labour sufficient to pay their passage-money by sea either to the nearest coast of Yemen, which is one dollar, or to Djidda, which is two dollars. Their usual rendezvous is Hodeyda, the sea-port of Yemen, from whence they proceed to Mekka, by land, passing through the hospitable tribes of Bedouins in the mountains of the Hedjaz. I estimate the number of Negroe pilgrims who pass by this route annually to Mekka at about one hundred and fifty, or two hundred. Many Tekaýrne are settled in the sea-ports of Yemen, as well as at Djidda and Mekka. The third route is preferred by all pilgrims who are able to make a common purse in order to buy a camel for the transport of water and provisions; and they are sure of finding at Taka, after a short stay, some merchants from Souakin, in whose company they can proceed to that place.

The route most frequented by them is that from Darfour or Kordofan straight to Shendy. The latter part only of this route presents any difficulty; in the inhabited districts they everywhere find hospitable people, who pride themselves in giving alms to the poor Fakiha. But from the limits of the dominions of Kordofan to Shendy is a journey of five days through a desert, without water, the dread of which often induces them to take either the circuitous route by Sennaar, or to wait at Kordofan for the rainy season, when water is found in plenty in the barren tract. At Shendy they generally remain some time to recruit their strength, visiting every evening the residence of the foreign merchants, and sitting down without ceremony to their supper. In general, the Tekroury is under little anxiety; wherever he finds himself comfortably situated there he will remain for weeks together; and he prefers taking a circuitous road of fourteen days through a country where he knows that he will find charitable inhabitants, to passing a desert or inhospitable tract of only two days. From Shendy they all proceed to Damer, and this road is never unfrequented by parties, consisting of half a dozen or a dozen of them. On arriving at a village they disperse among its families, and re-assemble again in the evening to partake in common of the victuals which the charity of the inhabitants has provided for them.

At Damer the two principal pilgrim routes separate, and they either proceed along the Nile towards Egypt, or ascend the banks of the Mogren and Atbara, as far as Goz Radjeb, from whence they cross over to Taka and to Souakin. The former is a long but a less fatiguing journey; and the nearer they approach Egypt the more charity they find among the inhabitants on the Nile. The Arabs Sheygya pique themselves on their bounty to the Tekaýrne, in return for which the pilgrim is sure to be stripped of every thing of value that he may possess. Their little property is tolerably secure on the road from Darfour to Shendy, where they are protected by the government; but from thence they are in a very different predicament. At Shendy they usually exchange whatever they possess for gold, as they can secrete it with greater facility than any other article of value; but as this is known to be their practice, they are frequently ill-treated on the road, in consequence of it. I have been assured by many, that among the Bedouins of Atbara and Taka, as well as among the Sheygya, they are often stripped to the skin, in search of their gold, and that all their books, and even their inkstands, are examined, no means being left untried to rob them of the little cash or gold they may have about them. The Sheygya compensate, in some degree, for their rapacity, by their otherwise hospitable conduct; but the Bedouins on the Atbara and at Taka are as uncharitable as they are greedy of booty, and subject the poor travellers to great hardships.

The pilgrims who follow the course of the Nile, stop a short time in the villages of Upper Egypt, in many of which are foundations annexed to the revenues of the mosques,[65] for the entertainment of the passing Tekaýrne during three days. At Esne every one receives one piaster from the mosque, at parting. If they are entirely destitute of money they endeavour, by manual labour, or by writing charms, to collect as much as will pay, at the time of the Hadj their passage from Kosseir to Djidda, otherwise they rely on the charity of some Turkish Hadji, to pay it for them. The Kosseir route is most usually followed by them; few visit Cairo, although there is a public foundation in the mosque El Azhar, in which a small number of them, not exceeding, I think, forty (for more than that number seldom unite together, except in the time of the Hadj), are fed daily with bread and broth. Those who pass Cairo follow the great pilgrim caravan to Mekka, and the Emir el Hadj has strict orders from the Sultan, to furnish with food and water all the Negroes who have no beasts of burthen of their own.