Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his Cruelty and
Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the Mamelukes--His cruel
Treachery--His Mode of administering Justice--The stolen Milk--The
Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution of the Thief--The Turkish
Character--Pleasures of a Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their
Patriarchs--The Patriarch of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An
American's choice of a Sleeping-place.
Just before my arrival in Cairo a certain Mohammed Bey, Defterdar, had
died rather suddenly, after drinking a cup of coffee, a beverage which
occasionally disagrees with the great men in Turkey, although not so
much so now as in former days. This Defterdar, or accountant, had been
sent by the Sultan to receive the Imperial revenue from the Pasha of
Egypt, who had given him his daughter in marriage. As the presence of
the Defterdar was probably a check upon the projects of the Pasha, he
sent him to Senaar, at the head of an expedition, to revenge the death
of Toussoun Pasha, his second son, who had been burned alive in his
house by one of the exasperated chiefs of Nubia. This was a mission
after Mohammed Bey's own heart: he impaled the chief and several of his
family, and displayed a rapacity and cruelty unheard of before even in
those blood-stained countries. His talent for collecting spoil, and
valuables of every description, was first-rate; chests and bags of the
pure gold rings used in the traffic of Central Africa accumulated in his
tents; he did not stick at a trifle in his measures for procuring gold,
pearls, and diamonds, wherever they were to be heard of; streams of
blood accompanied his march, and the vultures followed in his track. He
was a sportsman too, and hunted slaves, killing the old ones, and
carrying off the children, whom he sent to Egypt to be sold. Many died
on the journey; but that did not much matter, as it increased the value
of the rest.
At last, alter a most successful campaign, the Defterdar returned to his
palace at Cairo, which was reported to be filled with treasure. The
habits he had acquired in the upper country stuck to him after he got
back to Egypt, and the Pasha was obliged to express his disapprobation
of the cruelties which were committed by him on the most trivial
occasions. The Defterdar, however, set the Pasha at defiance, told him
he was no subject of his, but that he was an envoy from his master the
Sultan, to whom alone he was responsible, and that he would do as he
pleased with those under his command. The Pasha, it is said, made no
further remonstrance, and continued to treat his son-in-law with
distinguished courtesy.
Numerous stories are told of the cruelty and tyranny of this man. One
day, on his way to the citadel, he found that his horse had cast a shoe.
He inquired of his groom, who in Egypt runs by the side of the horse,
how it was that his horse had lost his shoe. The groom said he did not
know, but that he supposed it had not been well nailed on. Presently
they came to a farrier's shop; the Defterdar stopped, and ordered two
horseshoes to be brought; one was put upon the horse, and the other he
made red hot, and commanded them to nail it firmly to the foot of the
groom, whom in that condition he compelled to run by his horse's side up
the steep hill which leads to the citadel.
In Turkey it was the custom in the houses of the great to have a number
of young men, who in Egypt were called Mamelukes, after that gallant
corps had been destroyed. A number of the Mamelukes of Mohammed Bey,
Defterdar, driven to desperation by the cruelties of their master, beat
or killed one of the superior agas of the household, took some money
which they found in his possession, and determined to escape from the
service of their tyrant. His guards and kawasses soon found them out,
and they retired to a strong tower, which they determined to defend,
preferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to the terrors
of service under the ferocious Defterdar. The Bey, however, managed to
cajole them with promises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to
be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his divan in the
Manderan or hall of audience, surrounded by the officers and kawasses
whom interest had attached to his service. The young Mamelukes had given
up the money which they had taken, and the Bey had it on the divan by
his side. He now told them that if they would divide themselves into two
parties and fight against each other, he would pardon the victorious
party, present them with the bag of gold, and permit them to depart; but
that if they did not agree to this proposal he would kill them all. The
Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
one of his kawasses, and the head of the young man rolled at the
tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
Mohammed Bey."
The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.
Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
cut it into twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, who seized the thief, and
having without further ceremony cut him into twenty pieces, forced
twenty people who came into the market on that day from the neighbouring
villages to buy a piece of thief each for a piastre; the joints of the
robber were thus distributed all over the country, and the story told by
the involuntary purchasers of these pounds of flesh had a wholesome
effect upon the minds of the cattle-stealers: the twenty piastres were
given to the woman, whose cows were not again meddled with during the
lifetime of the Defterdar. But the character of this man must not be
taken as a sample of the habits of the Turks in general. They are a
grave and haughty race, of dignified manners; rapacious they often are,
but they are generous and brave, and I do not think that, as a nation,
they can be accused of cruelty.
Nothing can be more secure and peaceable than a journey on the Nile, as
every one knows nowadays. Floating along in a boat like a house, which
stops and goes on whenever you like, you have no cares or troubles but
those which you bring with you--"cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare
currunt." I can conceive nothing more delightful than a voyage up the
Nile with agreeable companions in the winter, when the climate is
perfection. There are the most wonderful antiquities for those who
interest themselves in the remains of bygone days; famous shooting on
the banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how to make the
proper arrangements, comfortable quarters, and a constant change of
scene.
* * * * *
The wonders of the land of Ham, its temples and its ruins, have been so
well and so often described that I shall not attempt to give any details
regarding them, but shall confine myself to some sketches of the Coptic
Monasteries which are to be seen on the rocks and deserts, either on the
banks of the river or in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Nile.
The ancient Egyptians are now represented by their descendants the
Copts, whose ancestors were converted to Christianity in the earliest
ages, and whose patriarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted
succession, from St Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, but whose body
the Venetians in later ages boast of having transported to their island
city.[3]
The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of their nation: he is
elected from among the brethren of the great monastery of St. Anthony
on the borders of the Red Sea, a proceeding which ensures his entire
ignorance of all sublunary matters, and his consequent incapacity for
his high and responsible office, unless he chance to be a man of very
uncommon talents. Like the patriarch of Constantinople, he is usually a
puppet in the hands of a cabal who make use of him for their own
interested purposes, and when they have got him into a scrape leave him
to get out of it as he can. He is called the Patriarch of Alexandria,
but for many years his residence has been at Cairo, where he has a large
dreary palace. He is surrounded by priests and acolytes; but when I was
last at Cairo there was but one remaining Coptic scribe among them, whom
I engaged to copy out the Gospel of St Mark from an ancient MS. in the
patriarchal library: however, after a very long delay he copied out St.
Matthew's Gospel by mistake, and I was told that there was no other
person whose profession it was to copy Coptic writings.
The patriarch has twelve bishops under him, whose residences are at
Nagadé, Abou Girgé, Aboutig, Siout, Girgé, Manfalout, Maharaka, the
Fioum, Atfeh, Behenesé, and Jerusalem: he also consecrates the Abouna or
Patriarch of Abyssinia, who by a specific law must not be a native of
that country, and who has not the privilege of naming his successor or
consecrating archbishops or bishops, although in other respects his
authority in religious matters is supreme. The Patriarch of Abyssinia
usually ordains two or three thousand priests at once on his first
arrival in that country, and the unfitness of the individual appointed
to this high office has sometimes caused much scandal. This has arisen
from the difficulty there has often been in getting a respectable person
to accept the office, as it involves perpetual banishment from Egypt,
and a residence among a people whose partiality to raw meat and other
peculiar customs are held as abominations by the Egyptians.
The usual trade and occupation of the Copts is that of kateb, scribe, or
accountant; they seem to have a natural talent for arithmetic. They
appear to be more afflicted with ophthalmia than the Mohamedans, perhaps
because they drink wine and spirits, which the others do not.
The person of the greatest consequence among the Copts was Basileos Bey,
the Pasha's confidential secretary and minister of finance. This
gentleman was good enough to lend me a magnificent dahabieh or boat of
the largest size, which I used for many months. It was an old-fashioned
vessel, painted and gilt inside in a brilliant manner, which is not
usual in more modern boats; but being a person of a fanciful
disposition, I preferred the roomy proportions and the quaint arabesque
ornaments of this boat, although it was no very fast sailer, to the
natty vessels which were more Europeanised and quicker than mine. The
principal cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was ornamented with
paintings of peacocks of a peculiar breed and nondescript flowers. The
divans, one on each side, were covered with fine carpets, and the
cushions were of cloth of gold, with a raised pattern of red velvet. The
ceilings were gilt, and we had two red silk flags of prodigious
dimensions in addition to streamers forty or fifty feet long at the end
of each of the yard-arms: in short, it was full of what is called
fantasia in the Levant, and as for its slowness, I consider that rather
an advantage in the East. I like to take my time and look about me, and
sit under a tree on a carpet when I get to an agreeable place, and I am
in no hurry to leave it; so the heavy qualities of the vessel suited me
exactly--we did nothing but stop everywhere. But although I confess that
I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of
an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the
Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains
near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks I asked him
what he wanted. "Oh," said he, "I am looking out for a good place to go
to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep
where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so
good afternoon, and if you come back this way mind you call me."
Accordingly an hour or two afterwards I came back and aroused my
friend, who was still fast asleep. "I hope you enjoyed your nap," said
I; "we had a glorious walk among the hills." "Yes," said he, "I had a
famous nap." "And what did you think of the view when you awoke?" "The
view!" exclaimed he, "why, I forgot to look at it!"
NATRON LAKES.