Roman emperors in Nubia were probably only restorations of earlier
sanctuaries, which were erected in the old time by the Pharaohs of the
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. That was the temple of Pselchis,
first built by Tuthmosis III. Beside the scattered fragments of this
first building, which, however, was not dedicated to Thoth, as
Champollion thinks, but to Horus, and therefore underwent a later
change, we have found others of Sethos I. and Menephthes: also, it
appears that the earlier erection did not have its axis parallel with
the river like the later one, but, like almost all other temples, had
its entrances toward the river.
At the temple of Korte, the doorway only is inscribed with hieroglyphics
of the worst style. But these few were sufficient to inform us that it
was a sanctuary of Isis, here denominated “Lady of Kerte.” We also found
blocks rebuilt in the walls, which has escaped former travellers,
belonging to an earlier temple erected by Tuthmosis III., the
foundations of which may still be traced.
We gathered our last harvest of Greek inscriptions at Hierasykaminos. To
this place, the Greek and Roman travellers were protected by the
garrison of Pselchis; and by a fixed camp called Mehendi, some hours
southerly from Hierasykaminos, which is not mentioned in the maps.
Primis seems only to have had a temporary garrison during the campaign
of Petronius. Mehendi--which name probably only signifies the structure,
the camp in Arabic--is the best preserved Roman encampment that I have
ever seen. It lies upon a somewhat steep height, and thence commands the
river and a little valley extending on the south side of the camp from
the Nile, and turns the caravan road into the desert, which comes back
to the side of the river again at Medik. The wall of the town encloses a
square running down the hill a little to the east, and measuring one
hundred and seventy-five paces from south to north, and one hundred and
twenty-five from east to west. From the walls there rise regularly four
corner and four middle towers; of the latter, the south and north formed
also the gates, which, for the sake of greater security, led into the
city with a bend, and not in a direct line. The southern gate, and the
whole southerly part of the fortress, which comprehended about one
hundred and twenty houses, are excellently preserved. Immediately behind
the gate, one enters a straight street, sixty-seven paces long, which is
even now, with but little interruption, vaulted; several narrow
by-streets lead off on both sides, and are covered, like all the houses
of the district, with vaults of Nile bricks. The street leads to a great
open place in the middle of the city, by which lay, on the highest point
of the hill, the largest and best-built house--no doubt belonging to the
commandant--with a semicircular niche at the eastern end. The city
walls are built of unhewn stone; the gateway only, which has a
well-turned Roman arch, is erected of well-cut freestone, among the
blocks of which several are built in, bearing sculptures of pure
Egyptian, though late style, as a proof that there was an Egyptian or
Ethiopian sanctuary here (probably an Isis chapel) before the building
of the fortress. We discovered an Osiris head and two Isis heads; one of
which still distinctly bore the red marks of the third canon of
proportion.
The last monument we visited before our arrival in Korusko, was the
temple of Ammon in the Wadi Sebùa (Lion’s Dale); so called from the rows
of sphinxes which just peep out of the sand ocean that fell and covered
the whole temple as far as it was exposed. Even the western portion of
the temple, hewn in the rock, is filled with sand; and we had to summon
the whole crew of our bark to assist in obtaining an entrance into this
part. We encountered a novel and very peculiar combination of divine and
human natures in a group of four deities, the first of whom is called
“Phtha of Ramses in the house of Ammon;” the second, “Phtha,” with other
usual cognomens; the third, “Ramses in the house of Ammon;” and the
fourth, “Hathor.” In another inscription “Ammon of Ramses in the house
of Ammon” was named. It is difficult to explain this combination.[64]
I was not less astonished to find in the front court of the temple of
Ammon a representation of the posterity of the King Ramses-Miamun, in
number one hundred and sixty children, with their names and titles, of
which the greater part are scarcely to be read, as they are very much
destroyed, and others are covered with rubbish, and can only be reckoned
by the space they occupy. There were but twenty-five sons and ten
daughters of this great king previously known. The two legitimate wives
whose images appear on the monuments, he did not have at the same time,
but took the second at the death of the first. To-day we were visited by
the old, blind, but powerful and rich, Hassan Kachef, of Derr, who was
formerly the independent regent of Lower Nubia; he has had no less than
sixty-four wives, of which forty-two are yet remaining; twenty-nine of
his sons and seventeen daughters are yet living; how many have died, he
has probably never troubled himself to count, but, according to the
usual proportion of this country, they must have been about four times
the number of the living ones; therefore, about two hundred children.
Korusko is an Arab place, in the midst of the land of the Nubians, or
Barâbra (plural of Bérberi), who occupy the valley of the Nile from
Assuan to the other side of Dongola. This is an intelligent and honest
race, of peaceable, though far from slavish disposition, of handsome
stature, and with shining reddish brown skin.[65] The possession of
Korusko by Arabs of the Ababde tribes, who inhabit the whole of the
eastern desert, from Assuan down to Abu Hammed, may be accounted for by
the important position of the place, as the point whence the great
caravan road, leading directly to the province of Berber, departs, thus
cutting off the whole western bend of the Nile.
The Arabic language, in which we could now, at any rate, order and
question, and carry on a little conversation of politeness, had grown so
familiar to our ear in Egypt, that the Nubian language was attractive on
account of its novelty. It is divided, as far as I have yet been able to
ascertain, into a northern and a southern dialect, which meet at
Korusko.[66] The language is totally distinct in character to the
Arabic, even in the primary elements the consonantal and vocalic
systems. It is much more euphonious, as it has scarcely any doubling of
consonants, no harsh guttural tones, few sibilating sounds, and many
simple vowels, more distinctly separated than in Arabic, by which an
effeminate mixture of vowels is also avoided. It has not the slightest
connection in any part of its grammatical constitution, or in the roots,
either with the Semetic languages, nor with the Egyptian, or with our
own; and therefore, certainly belongs to the original African stock,
unconnected with the Ethiopic-Egyptian family, though the nation may be
comprehended by the ancients under the general name of Ethiopians, and
though their physical race may stand in a nearer relation to them. They
are not a commercial people, and therefore can only count up to twenty
in their language; the higher numbers are borrowed from the Arabic,
although they employ a peculiar term for one hundred, _imil_.[67]
Genders scarcely exist in the language, except in personal pronouns,
standing alone; they distinguish. “he” and “she,” but not “he gives” and
“she gives.” They use suffixed inflections, as in our languages, rather
than changes of accent, like the Semetic. The ordinals are formed by the
termination _iti_, the plural by _îgi_; they have no dual. The union of
the verb with the pronoun is both by prefix and affix, but is simple and
natural; they distinguish the present tense and the preterite; the
future is expressed by a particle, even for the passive they have a
peculiar formation. The root of negation is “_m_,” usually with the
following “_n_,” the single affinity, probably more than accidental
with other families of language. Their original number of roots is very
limited. They have certainly distinct words for sun, moon, and stars;
but the expressions for year, month, day, hour, they borrow from the
Arabic; water, ocean, river, are all signified by the same words with
_essi_, yet it is remarkable, that they designate the Nile by a peculiar
term _tossi_. For all native tamed wild animals, they have native names,
for houses, and even all that concerns shipping, they use Arabic terms;
the boat only they call _kub_, which has no very apparent connection
with the Arabic _mérkab_. For date-fruit and date-tree, which have
different designations in Arabic, _bellah_ and _nachele_, they have only
one word, _béti_ (_fentί_); the sycamore-tree they name in Arabic, but
it is remarkable, that they designate the sont-tree by the word for tree
in general. Spirit, God, slave, the ideas of relationship, the parts of
the body, weapons, field fruits, and what relates to the preparation of
bread, have Nubian names; while the words servant, friend, enemy,
temple, to pray, to believe, to read, are all Arabic. It is curious that
they have separate words for writing and book, but not for stylus, ink,
paper, letter. The metals are all named in Arabic, with the exception of
iron. Rich are they in Berber, poor in Arabic, and in fact they are all
rich in their poor country, to which they cling like Switzers, and
despise the Arab gold, that they might win in Egypt, where their
services, as guards and all posts of confidence, are much sought.
We now only stay for the arrival of the camels to begin our desert
journey. Hence to Abu Hammed, an eight days’ journey, we shall only find
drinkable water once, and then we shall continue our camel ride for four
more days to Berber. There we shall find barks, according to the
arrangements of Ahmed Pasha. We must then continue on to Chartûm, in
order to provision; to proceed higher up, to Abu Haras, and thence to
Mandera, in the eastern desert, will scarcely be worth while, if we may
believe Linant; but Ahmed Pasha has promised to send an officer to
Mandera, in order to test again the reports of the native.
This report I shall send with other letters by an express messenger to
Qeneh.
LETTER XVI.
KORUSKO.
_January 5, 1844._
With not a little sorrow, I announce to you that we shall probably have
to give up the second principal object of our expedition,--our Ethiopian
journey, and return northward hence. We have waited here in vain since
the 17th of November, for the promised but never-coming camels, which
are to bring us to Berber, and there seems to be no more chance of our
getting them now than at first. What we heard on our arrival, I am sorry
to say, is confirmed; the Arab tribes, who are the sole managers of
traffic, are dissatisfied with Mohammed Ali’s reduction of the rate from
80 to 60 piastres per camel hence to Berber; they have agreed among
themselves to send no more camels hither; and no _firman_, no promises,
no threats, will obviate this evil. A great number of trunks with
munition for Chartûm, have been lying here for ten months, and cannot be
sent on any further. We hoped for the assistance of Ahmed Pasha
Menekle,[68] the new Governor of the Southern Provinces, which he has
also promised us in the most friendly and unbounded manner. The officer
who has remained with the munition, received definite orders from him to
retain the first camels which arrived here, for our use. Notwithstanding
that, we shall scarcely attain our end. The Pasha himself could hardly
get on further, although he required but few camels. Some he had brought
from the north, and some he had assembled by force. Yet he was
ill-furnished enough on his departure, and half of his animals are said
to have become ill, or perished in the desert.
On the 3rd of December, as no camels came, although the Pasha must have
passed the province Berber, whence he was going to send us the necessary
number, I sent our own trustworthy and excellent _khawass_, Ibrahim Aga,
through nine days wilderness, to Berber, with Mohammed Ali’s _firman_.
In the meantime, we went on to Wadi Halfa to the second cataract,
visited the numerous monuments in that neighbourhood, and returned
hither in three weeks, with a rich harvest.
It is thirty-one days this morning, since our _khawass_ has departed,
and some time since I received a letter from the Mudhir of Berber, in
which I learn that the camels cannot be collected, although immediately
on the arrival of our _khawass_, and the delivery of the letter from the
Mudhir of this place, he sent out soldiers to get together the necessary
number of sixty camels. Matters are just the same there as here. The
authorities can do nothing against the ill-will of the Arabs.
On the sudden death, by poison, of Ahmed Pasha,[69] the governor of the
whole Sudan, at Chartûm, who, it is said, had for some time been
meditating an independence of Mohammed Ali, the south is divided into
five provinces, and placed under five pashas, who are to be installed
by Ahmed Pasha Menekle. One of them, Emir Pasha, was formerly Bey under
Ahmed Pasha, at Chartûm, whom he seems to have betrayed. Three others
arrived at Korusko, soon after Ahmed Pasha Menekle. Of these, the most
powerful, Hassan Pasha, is gone by water to Wadi Halfa, in his province
of Dongola; he was almost unattended, and required but a few camels to
get on farther. The second, Mustaffa Pasha, intended for Kordofan, has
seized on a trade caravan returning from Berber. The Arabs report,
however, that of these tired animals, a part have already become useless
before arriving at the wells, which lie at about four day’s journey into
the wilderness; there he found some merchants, eight of whose camels he
seized; the remainder of the caravan has not arrived here, but had taken
another road to Egypt for fear of being stopped again. The third, Pasha
Ferhât, is waiting here, at the same time with ourselves, and tries
every plan that he can think of, to procure a few camels from the north
or south. But every hope of ours thus becomes fainter and fainter, as we
cannot set the insignificant power of the authorities so mightily to
work as he, and have not now either _khawass_ or _firman_ with us.
Everyone, and the pashas most particularly, endeavours to comfort us
from day to day; but, meantime, the winter, the only time when we can do
anything in the Upper Country, elapses. To this must be added, that the
Mudhir of Lower Nubia, with whom we had become friendly, has been
accused to Mohammed Ali by the Nubian sheikh of his province, and had
just been summoned away by the viceroy, This region has been
provisionally placed under the jurisdiction of the Mudhir of Esneh, from
whose lieutenant, a young, and otherwise well-disposed man, there is
nothing to be obtained by us.
I have, therefore, made up my mind to the only practicable step. I will
myself go to Berber with Abeken upon a few camels, and leave Erbkam with
the rest of the company and all the luggage here. There I shall be able
to look into the matter myself, and try what can be done, with the aid
of the _khawass_ (whose authority I miss here much) and the _firman_. We
were received here by Ahmed Pasha Menekle in the most friendly manner,
and are assured of his most strenuous co-operation by the assistance of
his physician, our friend and countryman, Dr. O. Koch. Perhaps money or
threats will bring us sooner or later to our end. By a mere chance, I
have myself been able to secure six camels. Two more are wanting to
complete our little caravan. These two, however, the lieutenant of the
Mudhir cannot procure for us, even with the best desire. We have been
awaiting them three days, and know not whether we shall obtain them.
LETTER XVII.
E’ DAMER.
_January 24, 1844._
Our trouble has at last come to an end, though at a late period.
Yesterday I arrived here with Abeken, yet two days’ journey from the
pyramids of Meroë, and our whole camp probably was also yesterday
pitched near Abu Hammed, at the southern end of the great desert. After
the last little encouraging communication from Berber, I set out on the
8th of January about noon, with Abeken, the dragoman Juffuf Sherebîeh, a
cook, and ’Auad, our Nubian lad. We had eight camels, of whom two were
scarcely in condition for the journey, and two donkeys. As the promised
guide was not at his post, I made the camel-driver Sheikh Ahmed himself
accompany us, as he would be of service in consequence of the high
estimation in which he was held among the tribes of the resident
Abâbde-Arabs. We had beside these, a guide, Adâr, who was sent us
instead of the one promised, five camel-drivers; and soon after our
departure several foot-travellers joined us, besides two people with
donkeys, who took this opportunity of returning to Berber. We took with
us ten water-skins, some provision of rice, maccaroni, biscuit, and cold
meat, also a light tent, our coverlets to ride upon and sleep in, the
most necessary linen, and a few books; to this must be added a tolerable
stock of courage, which never fails me on a journey. Our friends
accompanied us for some distance into the rock valley, which soon
deprived us of all idea of the proximity of the shore and its friendly
palms.
The dale was wild and monotonous, nothing but sandstone rock, the
surfaces of which were burnt as black as coals, but turned into burning
golden yellow at every crack, and every ravine, whence a number of
sand-rivulets, like fire-streams from black dross, ran and filled the
valleys. The guides preceded us, with simple garments thrown over their
shoulders and around their hips, in their hands one or two spears of
strong light wood with iron points and shaft-ends; their naked backs
were covered by a round, or carved shield, with a far-reaching boss of
giraffe’s skin; other shields were oblong, and they are generally made
of the skin of the hippopotamus, or the back skin of the crocodile. At
night, and often during the day, they bound sandals under their feet,
the thongs of which are not unfrequently cut out of the same piece, and
being drawn between the great and second toes, surround the feet like a
skate.
Sheikh Ahmed was a splendid man, still young, but tall and well grown,
with peculiarly active limbs of shining black-brown hue, an expressive
countenance, a piercing, but gentle and slyly-glancing eye, and an
incomparably beautiful and harmonious pronunciation, so that I liked
much to have him about me, although we were always in a contention at
Korusko, as he was obliged to furnish the camels and their concomitants,
and through circumstances, could not or would not, procure them. Of his
activity and elasticity of limb he gave us a specimen in the desert, by
taking a tremendous run on the sandy and most unfavourable soil, and
leaping fourteen feet and a half; I measured it with his lance, which
was somewhat more than two metres in length. Adâr only, our under guide,
dared to try his powers after him, at my suggestion, but did not reach
the same distance by far.
We had departed on the first day early about eleven o’clock, and rode
till five, stayed for an hour and a half, and went on till half-past
twelve; then we pitched our tent upon the hard soil, and laid ourselves
down after a twelve hours’ march. The most interesting thing after the
hot active days was the evening tea, but we were obliged to accustom
ourselves to the leathery taste of the water, which was plainly to be
perceived even through both tea and coffee. The second day we stopped
for fourteen hours on our camels; we set out at eight, stopped in the
afternoon at four, to eat something, went on about half-past five, and
pitched for the night at half-past twelve, after having issued from the
mountains at about ten, at the rising of the moon, into a great plain.
No tree, no tuft of grass had we yet seen, also no animals, except a few
vultures and crows feeding on the carcase of the latest fallen camel. On
the third day, after an early beginning, we met a herd of 150 camels,
bought by government, to be taken to Egypt. The Pasha is going to import
several thousand camels from Berber, in order to obviate the consequence
of the murrain of last year; many had already come through Korusko
without our being able to avail ourselves of them, as they are the
private property of the Pasha; we could not have ridden on them, too, as
they had no saddles.
The guide of the herd, whom we met, gave us the long desired
intelligence that our _khawass_, Ibrahim Aga, had left Berber with a
train of sixty camels, and was quite in our vicinity, but on a more
westerly track. Sheikh Ahmed was sent after him, in order to bring in
three good camels instead of our weak ones, and to obtain any further
news from him. Next night, or at farthest in the following one, he was
to rejoin us. By the Chabîr (leader) of the train, I sent a few lines to
Erbkam. We stopped at half-past five, and stayed the night, in the hopes
of seeing Sheikh Ahmed earlier. Towards evening we first beheld the
scanty vegetation of the desert, thin greyish yellow dry stalks, hardly
visible close by, but giving the ground a light greenish yellow tint in
the distance, which alone drew my attention to it.
On the fourth day we ought actually to have been at the wells of
brackish but, for the camels, drinkable water; but in order not to go
too fast for Sheikh Ahmed, we halted at four o’clock, still about four
hours’ distance from the wells. At last, towards mid-day, we left the
great plain Bahr Bela ma, (river without water,) which joins the two
days’ long mountain range of El Bab, into which we had entered from
Korusko, and now neared other mountains. Till now we had had nothing but
uniform sandstone rocks beneath and around us, and it was a pleasing
circumstance when I perceived, from the high back of the camel, the
first plutonic rock in the sand. I slipped down immediately from my
saddle, and knocked off a piece; it was a grey green stone, of very
fine texture, and without a doubt of granitical nature. The other
mountains also were mostly composed of species of porphyry and granite,
with which the red syenite, so much employed by the ancient Egyptians,
as so extensively seen at Assuan, not unfrequently appears in broad
veins. Farther into the mountains quartz predominated, and it was
somewhat peculiar to see the snow-white flint veins peeping at different
heights from the black mountains, and flowing streamwise down into the
valley, where the white extended somewhat after the fashion of a lake. I
took small specimens, also some of the various kinds of rock.
After we had passed, crossing a little ravine, the little valley Bahr
Hátab, (Wood River, by reason of the wood somewhat farther in the
mountains), and another Wadi Delah, on the north side of the mountains,
we came to the rock-gorge of E’Sufr, where we expected to find
rain-water, to replenish our shrunken water-bags (_girbe_ pl. _geràb_).
In this high mountain it rains in one month of the year, about May. Then
the mighty basins of granite in the valleys are filled, and hold the
water for the whole year. On this plutonic rock, there was some little
vegetation to be seen, in consequence of the rain, and because the
granite seems to contain a somewhat more fertile element than the
sad-looking, brittle sand, composed almost wholly of particles of
quartz. At Wadi Delah, which has water in the rainy season, we came to a
long-continued row of dûm-palms, the rounded leaves and bushy growth of
which makes a less crude impression than the long slender-leaved
date-palms; the latter will not bear rain, and are therefore altogether
wanting in Berber, while the dûm-palms occur at first very singly in
Upper Egypt, and become more numerous, more full, and more large, the
farther they reach southward. When their fruit drops off unripe and dry,
the little eatable matter about the stone tastes like sugar; when ripe,
the yellow wood-flavoured meat may be eaten; it tastes well, and some
fruits had an aroma like the pine-apple. They sometimes grow to the size
of the largest apples.