Part 51

_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 captain and pilot quarrelled which was the due north. Towards evening the wind increased, when the sailors exchanged the large sail for a smaller. When night set in, the brilliant light on the surface of the water, wherever it was agitated, greatly astonished the Negroes, who endeavoured in vain to obtain an explanation of the phænomenon from the sailors. We passed a cold uncomfortable night, no one having room enough to sleep in. The bold travellers of the desert betrayed great fear in the open sea, to the great amusement of the people from Souakin.

_July 16th._ Early in the morning we descried the coast of Arabia; the ignorance of the pilot now became evident, for instead of finding ourselves off Djidda, as we might have been, had he steered by compass, we were at least fifty miles to the south of it. We entered a small bay in full sail, and had nearly foundered by a whirlwind that sprung up at the moment. We found the beach to be entirely barren, and without wells or springs to a considerable distance; no Bedouins were any where visible. We were now in great distress for water; the last supply we had taken in at Arakyá was nearly consumed; and the water-skins of the Tekaýrne were all empty; the wind was foul, and we had no reasonable hope of reaching Djidda in less than two days. In the evening the greater part of the Tekaýrne left the ship, to proceed by land to Djidda; the sailors represented this place to them as being much nearer than it really was, and pointed to a mountain, about twelve miles distant from our anchorage, where they said a well would be found; but where, as I afterwards understood, no such well existed, their design being merely to get rid of the pilgrims in the fear that necessity might at last force them to fall upon the crew’s stock of water.[82] The Souakin ships seldom arrive at Djidda with pilgrims, without their having suffered from a want of water; the number of pilgrims on board being always so great, that it is impossible for them to carry a supply for more than three days, without a sacrifice of other conveniences, which they are never willing to make; and Djebel Mekouar, from whence the ship takes her departure for the opposite coast, furnishes no water at all. I afterwards saw Negroes at Djidda who had not drank water during this passage for four whole days. We were obliged to remain at anchor here till the following day. There are fewer shells on this coast than on the other.

_July 17th._ About noon we sailed with a southerly breeze, and at sunset the vessel was moored to a coral reef at some distance from the shore. There was an almost total eclipse of the sun this morning; the sailors and the Tekaýrne who remained on board were all equally terrified at the unusual darkness which surrounded them. According to the Mohammedan law, every Mussulman repeated two Rekats (صلاةْ الكسفه Salat el-kassfé, i. e. Prayers of the eclipse), which done, kettles, swords, shields, and spoons were beaten against each other while the eclipse continued.

_July 18th._ It was a calm this morning, and the sailors were employed at the oars; but they became so fatigued with rowing, that we entered about mid-day a harbour opposite to the tomb of a Shikh, with a cupola upon it; it was called Shikh Amer (شيخ عمرْ) There was now not a drop of water in the vessel; a well was said to be in the mountain behind the shore, but no one on board knew exactly in what part; and though we were so near Djidda as to hear the report of some guns in the evening, yet there was a probability of our still remaining on board several days, and thus suffering all the pangs of thirst. I desired therefore to be set on shore upon a raft which the captain had purchased at Tebade. The Greek passenger, and two Souakin men, with their slaves also followed. We walked the whole night along the barren beach, which was covered with a saline crust, till we fell in with the high road leading along shore towards Yemen; about an hour from Djidda we reached a Bedouin encampment, where we refreshed ourselves, and safely entered the town in good health. In the course of the morning of the 19th, we smuggled the slaves who had walked with us, into Djidda; those landed from the ships pay a duty of a dollar a head. The vessel arrived the day following, the 20th July, 1814.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The traders are in the habit of giving to their camels several days before they start, each day three times the usual quantity of Dhourra; which they force down their throats. The camels chew this supply of food for several days after, during the march.]

[Footnote 2: The Nubians fight naked in the same manner.]

[Footnote 3: The Ababde pay some deference to the Fellah merchants, and are unwilling to disoblige them, because they expect presents from them. But the Ababde enjoy much higher credit every where than the Fellahs, and in all essential points the latter must yield to the former.]

[Footnote 4: Until lately eunuchs belonging to Mekka and Medina often went upon mendicant expeditions into Soudan. In 1811, an eunuch went there, and was so much respected, for his connection with the holy places, that he formed a strong party, and at length possessed himself of a district, which he now governs as Melek, or King.]

[Footnote 5: Sélames are common all over Nubia, as well as in Taka and Suakin. A man when he has no lance in his hand is seldom without a Sélame.]

[Footnote 6: Their pay is five dollars from each man, and as much from every load. On the return they take from each slave two dollars, and from every load coming from the black countries five dollars.]

[Footnote 7: See below.]

[Footnote 8: This kind of wound is very dangerous, and is called Dabr (ضَبر). It takes place on the fore shoulders and the fore ribs of the camels, and is occasioned by bad saddles. Wounds in other parts of the body are soon healed, when the camels have enjoyed some days of repose.]

[Footnote 9: Temsah is the family name, meaning crocodile.]

[Footnote 10: Goz is a term applied in the Negro countries to villages built in sandy plains.]

[Footnote 11: See the former Journal.]

[Footnote 12: Fakir means a poor man (before the Lord.)]

[Footnote 13: At Tekake, in Mograt, there lives a tribe of Fokaha (plu. of Fakih,) who are Sherifs (nobles), and pretend to descend from the Abbassides (شُرفاَ من بن عبّاس.) Shorafa mimbaní Abbass.]

[Footnote 14: At Wady Heysad, (وادي حيصاد) a village on the Nile, in Mograt, two and a half days journey from Berber, there lives a celebrated Fakih, who has a great number of disciples.]

[Footnote 15: I have seen several Fokaha at Berber and Damer who knew the whole of the Koran by heart.]

[Footnote 16: In all these countries the Bahmieh is called Weyke, (ويكه).]

[Footnote 17: The expression used here, and also in Egypt, when any traveller is seen taking notes, is, “he writes down the country.” (يكتب البلاد).]

[Footnote 18: There is no distinction made in these countries between villages and towns. Every inhabited place of any size is called Beled, and a small hamlet Nezle. The word Medineh (city or town) is never applied to any place in this part of Soudan.]

[Footnote 19: يُسَبّحِ باِلحصوةِ صَمَدَهِ. Musulmans, in praying over their beads say; “Praise be to God;” as they pass each bead through their fingers.]

[Footnote 20: The Μεγαβάροι, perhaps, of Strabo.]

[Footnote 21: The vizier of Sennaar, of the Adelan family, is said to be the real master there, while the king has a mere shadow of authority.]

[Footnote 22: In Egypt, the meal of the Tormos is used as a substitute for soap in washing the head and body.]

[Footnote 23: The trade in ostrich feathers is one of the most complicated in the markets of Africa: at Cairo the feathers are assorted into several different qualities, and parcels are made up by the Jews (who alone understand the trade well), containing portions of every kind. Each parcel of ten pounds weight must contain one pound of the finest and whitest sort, one pound of the second quality, also white, but of a smaller size, and eight pounds of the sorts called Jemina, Bajoca, Coda, and Spadone, the last of which is black, and of little value. The market price of white sorted feathers is at present (1816) two hundred and eighty piastres per rotolo, or pound, or two thousand eight hundred piastres, each parcel of ten pounds.]

[Footnote 24: The _Editor_ saw it growing in the island of Elephantine.]

[Footnote 25: The same name is given to cinnamon, which is here called Kerfé Hindy.]

[Footnote 26: Berr, originally meaning “continent,” is a word often used to indicate the whole extent of the Soudan countries.]

[Footnote 27: The Arabs say سَنط and سُنط.]

[Footnote 28: The Sembil is the _Valeriana Celtica_, or Spiga Celtica of the Italians. It is chiefly grown in the southern provinces of the Austrian dominions, and is exported from Venice and Trieste. The Mehleb is brought from Armenia and Persia, and is exported from Smyrna and other ports of Asia Minor. It appears to be the fruit of a species of _Tilia_.]

[Footnote 29: The most fashionable among the women of the town at Shendy have fixed the price of their favours at a loaf of sugar.]

[Footnote 30: The expenses of the outward journey are three times as much as those attending the transport back from Berber to Daraou, on account of the cheapness of camels at Berber.]

[Footnote 31: Upon every slave imported into Upper Egypt, Government exacts at present a duty of sixty piastres. The most important articles of the trade, as slaves, Erdeyb, ostrich feathers, natron (from Darfour), are besides exclusively bought up by the Pasha, who fixes a maximum to the Soudan merchants, and resells them at pleasure, with a great profit.]

[Footnote 32: The Pasha of Djidda takes the title of Governor of Djidda, Souakin, and the Habbesh, or Abyssinia (والي جده و سواكن و الحبش), although he possesses nothing in the latter country, except the customs of Massouah, and the nominal jurisdiction of that place. Since the Wahabi have reduced the Hedjaz, and, in conjunction with Ghaleb, Sherif of Mekka, have dispossessed the Turks of Djidda, Ghaleb has taken Massouah into his own hands.]

[Footnote 33: The eastern fashion is to give, as a present, a suit of clothes (Kessoua كسّوه), and a sum for pocket-money (Massrouf, مصروف).]

[Footnote 34: Such is the pronunciation given to this word by the Arabs, and not Amhara, as Bruce writes it. The Abyssinians are not called Habbeshy, but Nekkaty, by which appellation the whole country is more frequently known than by that of Habbesh.]

[Footnote 35: It is well known how little discrimination the Arabs shew in judging of quantities; the terms long or short, great or small, high or low, deep or shallow, &c. &c. are seldom accurately applied by them, and in their descriptions they generally magnify or diminish the object beyond what it naturally is.]

[Footnote 36: Formerly the Sennaar caravans brought as much as 2000 cwt. of gum arabic, annually, to Egypt; at present they do not bring more than 100 cwt. The gum arabic which is collected from the acacias, in the deserts of the Hedjaz, is known at Cairo under the name of Samegh Embawy or rather Yembawy, from Yembo, (صَمغ يمباعوي). The gum arabic collected in the deserts of Suez, Tyh, and in Mount Sinai, is called _Gomma Torica_ (Samegh Tori, صَمغ طوري), from the Arabs of Tor; this is exported to no part of Europe but France. The Kordofan gum is of the best quality, small grained, and of the clearest white. The Sennaar gum is less esteemed.]

[Footnote 37: Since the Mamelouks have established themselves in Dóngola, they are under the necessity of procuring their Egyptian articles by the way of Shendy. The shortest road, which is across the mountains from Korti, in the southern limits of Dóngola, is five days journey, but it is not quite safe.]

[Footnote 38: Wherever I use the word Turks, I mean the Osmanli, or Mohammedans of Europe and Asia Minor.]

[Footnote 39: I met with a Djeheyne Arab at Cairo, who told me that the tribe consisted of both Bedouins and cultivators.]

[Footnote 40: In the country of Sennaar the slave is not called Abd but Raghig.]

[Footnote 41: During the wars of the Sherif of Mekka with Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, the Arab tribe of Kahtan was particularly obnoxious to the Sherif, as being zealous proselytes of the Wahabi faith. He once took forty of them prisoners, and telling them that he had already killed individuals enough of their tribe, he ordered the whole to be mutilated and sent to their homes. As they were all grown up men, two only survived the operation; these rejoined their families, and became afterwards most desperate enemies of the Sherif Ghaleb; one of them killed the cousin of Ghaleb with his own hand, in battle; the other was killed in endeavouring, on another occasion, to pierce through the ranks of Ghaleb’s cavalry, in order to revenge himself personally upon the Sherif. The Sherif was much blamed for his cruelty, such an action being very contrary to the generally compassionate dispositions of the Arabs; I mention it to shew that the ancient practice of treating prisoners in this manner, as represented in the paintings on several of the temples of Upper Egypt, particularly at Medinet Habou, is not quite forgotten: but the above is the only instance of the kind I ever heard of.]

[Footnote 42: Mihi contigit nigram quandam puellam, qui hanc operationem subierat, inspicere. Labia pudendi acu et filo consuta mihi plane detecta fuere, foramine angusto in meatum urinæ relicto. Apud Esne, Siout, et Cairo, tonsores sunt, qui obstructionem novaculâ amovent, sed vulnus haud raro lethale evenit.]

[Footnote 43: W. G. Browne’s Travels to Africa, &c. p. 347. The same custom, as well as that mentioned in the next page, has also been described by M. Frank in the Mémoires sur l’Egypte, tome 4, p. 125.]

[Footnote 44: Excisio clitoridis. The custom is very ancient. Strabo (p. 284) says—και τοῦτο δὲ τῶν ζηλουμένων μάλιστα παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς (τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις) τὸ πάντα τρέφειν τὰ γεννωμένα παιδία, καὶ τὸ περιτέμνειν, καὶ τὰ θήλεα ἐκτέμνειν. ὅπερ καὶ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις νόμιμον καὶ οὗτοι δὲ εἰσὶν Αἰγύπτιοι.

Its effect in rendering them _Mukhaeyt_ has not been noticed by the ancients. Cicatrix, post excisionem clitoridis, parietes ipsos vaginæ, foramine parvo relicto, inter se glutinat. Cum tempus nuptiarum adveniat, membranam, a quâ vagina clauditur, coram pluribus pronubis inciditur, sponso ipso adjuvante. Interdum evenit ut operationem efficere nequeant sine ope mulieris aliquæ expertæ, quæ scalpello partes in vaginâ profundius rescindit. Maritus crastinâ die cum uxore plerumque habitat: unde illa Araborum sentenzia, “Leilat ed-dokhlé messel leilat el fatouh” (ليلة الدُخله مشل ليلة الفتوح) i. e. post diem aperturæ, dies initus. Ex hoc consuetudine fit ut sponsus nunquam decipiatur, et ex hoc fit ut in Ægypto Superiori innuptæ repulsare lascivias hominum parum student, dicentes, “Tabousny wala’ takhergany” (تبوسني ولا تخرقني). Sed quantum eis sit invita hæc continentia, post matrimonium demonstrant, libidini quam maxime indulgentes.]

[Footnote 45: Rif is the name given to Egypt throughout those countries; it means properly a low ground abounding in water.]

[Footnote 46: A curious proof of this happened while I was in Upper Egypt; a great man who had bought two girls at Siout from the Darfour caravan, soon afterwards made a party with some friends to spend an afternoon in the cool caves in the mountain behind Siout, and ordered the two girls to attend him. When they entered the caves they immediately conceived it to be the place destined for their immolation; and when the knives were produced to cut the meat that had been brought for dinner, one of them ran off, and endeavoured to escape, while the other threw herself on the ground, imploring the company to spare her. It required a considerable time to convince them that their fears were ill-founded.]

[Footnote 47: On the death of a Djaaly chief at Shendy, I saw the female relations of the deceased walking through all the principal streets and places, uttering the most lamentable howlings. Their bodies were half naked, and the little clothing they had on was in rags; while the head, face, and breast, being almost entirely covered with ashes, they had altogether a most ghastly appearance. They were accompanied by their female friends, in great numbers, echoing their howlings, and continually clasping their hands. Several cows were killed in the evening, and small dishes of the flesh sent to all the foreign merchants.]

[Footnote 48: A Greek priest, with whom I visited part of the Hauran, south of Damascus, made me pay two paras for every answer he gave me on curious subjects, and one para for the name of every village, or Arab tribe which I noted down, from his information; for every Greek inscription he found for me to copy, he received five paras.]

[Footnote 49: As far as I am able to judge, the road to Sennaar is practicable to a Christian or Frank traveller, or to an experienced person of any nation; but the routes from the Nile towards the Red Sea are impracticable to any one who cannot appear as a native trader.]

[Footnote 50: Adjem (عجم). This word is applied by the Arabians to Persia on the one side, and on the other to the countries of the African coast opposite to Arabia, where many different languages are spoken. These countries are still known to the inhabitants of Yemen and the Hedjaz, by the name of Berr el Adjem (برّ العجم), under which appellation is comprised the whole of the coast from Souakin to Barbara, not excepting Abyssinia. It is the _Regnum Adjamiæ_ of the European geographers.]

[Footnote 51: See p. 160.]

[Footnote 52: The Kaszyde is one of the most ancient kinds of Arabic versification; the compositions in it are never long, rarely exceeding one hundred distichs, and they ought not to contain less than twenty, though some of seven are met with. The long or true Kaszyde is confined to heroic or serious subjects; the shorter are generally of a playful or amatory description. The versification is peculiar, the two first lines of the poem, and each alternate one, throughout, ending with the same sound. See Jones’s Comment. Poet. Asiat. c. iii. p. 78.]

[Footnote 53: The slaves of the Mek are the only persons who sometimes wear their master’s fire-arms.]

[Footnote 54: I afterwards learnt that a Shikh can never be the chief of a caravan; because, according to the ancient custom still prevalent in the eastern deserts of Arabia, the Shikh of the tribe is never the commander (قايد Kayed) of the armed parties, which the tribe sends out against an enemy. He may join the expedition, but the command of it is in the Kayed or leader, a dignity which is always hereditary in the same family. The Arabs say, (الشيخ ما يقيد القوم) Es Shikh ma yakyd el koum. “The Shikh has no right to be a leader.” I shall recur to this subject in a future journal.]

[Footnote 55: Several of the Souakin merchants had concubines with them, whom they always carry with them on their travels.]

[Footnote 56: In all the Mussulman countries the female cousins can be demanded in marriage by the males of the family.]

[Footnote 57: I omitted to mention in a preceding part of this journal, that in all the countries on the Nile which I visited, as well as in the Nubian desert, I observed the people make use of small wooden supports, about five inches in height, with a top about the same length, and three or four inches broad, much resembling, on the whole, the head of a crutch; they are formed out of single pieces of very hard wood, and the best are brought from Sennaar; they are placed under the head when persons go to sleep, or serve during the day-time to rest one arm upon while in a reclining position. Whenever a great man walks out, one of these supports is carried after him, and in the house or tent of every person one of them is always found, which is offered to the stranger who pays a visit; but it requires to have been accustomed to it from infancy to find any kind of ease in the use of it. I am led to notice this, from observing in Mr. Salt’s book that a similar machine is used in Abyssinia, the manners of which country appear, from the descriptions of Mr. Salt and Mr. Bruce, to bear a great resemblance to those of the people on the borders of the Nile.]

[Footnote 58: Several of the Bisharye tribes, although Bedouins, do not despise agriculture; they repair to the banks of the Atbara immediately after the inundation, to sow Dhourra, and remain there till the harvest is gathered in, when they return to their mountains. During the hottest part of the summer, when pasturage is dried up in the desert, they again descend, to feed their cattle on the herbage on the borders of the stream. In like manner the Turkmans in the vicinity of Aleppo are both Bedouins and cultivators.]

[Footnote 59: Whenever the country is dangerous the whole caravan is divided into two watches, one till midnight, and the other from midnight till day.]

[Footnote 60: استعجلوا يا ناس الجلابه ساقت اذا قعدنا يقتلونا يا الله دلوّا قِرَبّكم وشدّوا علي جمالكم.]

[Footnote 61: البجه سُكَّانها يسمون بجاوا, Bedja and its inhabitants are called Bedjawa.]

[Footnote 62: This year, as I learnt afterwards at Souakin, it began about the 26th or 29th of June.]

[Footnote 63: When I was in Upper Egypt, the Erdeyb of the best wheat, about fifteen bushels, cost five patacks, equivalent to eleven bushels for a Spanish dollar. The Pasha monopolized it, and sold it at Alexandria, for forty patacks the Erdeyb, or eleven bushels for eight dollars.]

[Footnote 64: The Souakin merchants are equally unused to fire-arms. A few Arabians sometimes pass this way armed with matchlocks, in company with the Souakin caravans, on their road to Shendy or Sennaar.]

[Footnote 65: The mosque El Azhar is famous for its pious foundations for the relief of poor travellers of various nations. In this building the Upper Egyptians, the Negroes, the Moggrebyns, the Abyssinians, (or Djebert, as they are called,) the Yemeny, the Indians, the Afghans and Soleymany, the Bokharas, the Persians, the Kurds, the Anatolians, the Syrians, &c. &c. have each their separate establishment, called Rouaks, over which one of the principal Olemas of Cairo presides; these together form the Olema of El Azhar, a body which has often made Pashas tremble.]

[Footnote 66: This, like the other names of places, since we have quitted the Atbara, is not of Arabic, but Bisharye formation.]

[Footnote 67: This tree bears a great resemblance to the larch: I often saw it in the Hedjaz: the dried branches, as I was told, are used to procure fire, by rubbing them against each other.]

[Footnote 68: This comprises the whole country south of Langay, as far as the Atbara, and the Abyssinian mountains, including Taka.]

[Footnote 69: Thus pronounced in the vulgar dialect of the Hedjaz, instead of Hadhareme, the plural of Hadhramy, or a native of Hadhar el Mout (حضر الموت, meaning in Arabic, “Come death,”) and which Europeans have converted into Hadramout. The people of Hadramout are famous for emigrating; large colonies of them are found in all the towns of the Yemen and Hedjaz. The greater part of the people of Djidda, and the lower class of the inhabitants of Mekka, are from the same country.]

[Footnote 70: It is in a liquid state, which is the only kind of butter used in the black countries. It is made, as in Egypt and Arabia, by shaking the milk in goatskins till the butter separates (بخضّوا القِربَ).]

[Footnote 71: I had assumed the name of Osmanly on quitting Shendy, having there heard that there was an officer of the Pasha at Souakin, and another at Massouah.]