we have seen, on a pedestal, a seated statue of Osiris, somewhat
destroyed, done in a late style, in black granite, with the usual
attributes, about two and a half feet high, which was discovered in
Soba, and is not without interest, as the only monument of Egyptian art
from that city.
The European furniture of Bauer’s room made a strange impression upon
one here in the south among the black population. A wooden clock, made
in the Black Forest, ticked regularly on the wall; some half-broken
European stools were ranged round the strong table, behind which a small
book-shelf was put up, with a selection of German classics and
histories, by the corner of a Turkish divan, which was also not wanting.
Over the great table, and opposite the canopy-bed in the other corner,
hung bell-pulls, leading to the kitchen. A curious Nesnas ape sometimes
peeped in through the lattice by the door, and on the other side of the
little court, one could see the busy Ursula in her purple, red-flowered
gown, toddling backward and forward among the little, naked, black
slaves, arranging this, that, and the other, with a somewhat scolding
voice, and looking into the bubbling pots in the adjoining kitchen. We
did not see her the whole morning, not even at the dinner, that she had
prepared so well and tastily; after dinner, she first presented herself,
with many curtsies, to receive our praises. She complained of the
forlorn state of her cooking apparatus, and grumbled sadly at Herr Bauer
for not leaving this horrid, dirty, and hot country, although he
promised year after year to do it. She had accompanied him hither, had
been eleven years in the country, and four at Kamlîn. Bauer intends in a
year to go to Germany, and settle in Steiermark or Thüringen, with his
savings, and turn farmer, like his father.
After table, the son of Nureddin Effendi sent us a complete Turkish
dinner of from twelve to fifteen dishes, which we left, however, to the
attendants after our European meal. We had also inspected the factories
in the morning, and tasted the fine brandy (called _Marienbad_), which
Bauer chiefly prepares from the sugar-cane and dates. Business seemed
to be in the best order, and the unusual cleanliness of the places, the
vessels, and utensils, attest the care with which the establishment,
only worked by slaves, is conducted. The pleasant impression that this
visit made upon us was heightened by the discovery that Bauer possessed
a second piece of the marble inscription already alluded to,[73] which
had been found in the ruins of Soba. He presented me with the fragment,
which was easily put together with the other piece, although even then
the inscription was not perfected. The fragment exhibits on one side
traces of twelve lines, on the other of nine. Here, too, the writing is
easy to be read, but only the name [Illustration: Koptic] is
comprehensible. It is either a very barbarous Greek, or a peculiar
language, spoken in former times at Soba. In fact, we know from Selim
that the inhabitants of Soba possessed their sacred books in the Greek
language, but also translated them into their own.
After paying the son of Nureddin Effendi a visit, we left with the
promise to stay on our return.
From Kamlîn the shores run on at equal elevations. The character of a
fluvial valley is lost. The deposited black earth has ceased; the steep
high shores are composed of original earth and calcareous conglomerate,
which, according to Bauer, is well capable of being burnt to lime.
On the morning of the 21st we came to a considerable bend in the river
to the east; the wind became so unfavourable through it, that our
_khawass_ landed, to impress the people of the vicinity to draw it. I
went along the western shore for several hours to Arbagi, a deserted
village, built of black bricks, but standing on the remains of another
more ancient one, as I saw from the structures of burnt bricks. This
place was once the chief centre of the trade of the Sudan, which has
since turned itself to Messelemîeh. Soon after we found the two northern
_baobàb_ trees, which are here called _hómara_. These giant trees of
creation (_andansonia digitata_) are found from here southward more and
more frequently, and from Sero they belong to the usual trees of the
region. One trunk which I paced round measured more than sixty feet in
circumference, and certainly does not belong to the greatest of the
kind, as they are here not so frequent.[74] At this season of the year
they were leafless, and stretched their bare, death-like boughs far over
the surrounding green trees, which look like low bushes beneath it.
Their fruit, called _gungulês_,[75] I found here and there among the
Arabs; they resemble pear-shaped melons, with a hairy surface. If the
hard, tough shell be broken, a number of seeds are found inside, which
are surrounded with a dry, acid, but well-tasted mass. The leaves are
five-fingered.
On the 22nd of February we arrived on the western shore by a little
village, where the inhabitants, mere women and children, fled through
the sandy plain to the woods, from fear of our appearance, probably as
they expected to be impressed for the purpose of drawing the bark. On
the opposite shore lay another village, whence we saw a stately
procession of finely-dressed men in Arab and Turkish dresses, and some
handsomely caparisoned horses, proceed to the river. It was the Kashef
and the most noble sheiks of Abu Háras, to whom we had been announced by
Ahmed Pasha, as we had determined to proceed hence with camels and
guides into the desert of Mandera. The horses were destined for us, and
we therefore rode to the house of the Kashef, to inquire again about the
antiquities of Mandera and Qala. As the desert route to the coast of the
Red Sea leads hence from those places, we found several persons who had
been near them. From all their tales, however, I could but find that at
these two places there are only fortress-like mounds, or at most roughly
built walls, as a refuge for caravans, without any buildings or
hieroglyphical inscriptions. At Qala there may be some camels and horses
scratched in the rock by the Arabs, or some other people, like those we
had seen in the great desert at the wells of Murhad.
We therefore determine to give up this journey, and instead of it go
somewhat farther up the river, in order to learn the nature of the Nile
stream, its shores and inhabitants, as far as time would permit us.
At a short half-hour distance from Abu Háras we came to the mouth of the
Rahad, which conveys a great quantity of water into the Nile in the
rainy season, but was now almost dry, with only a little stagnant water,
which may disappear altogether next month.
I left the bark as often as possible, to know as much of the shore as I
could. To proceed farther inland, is impossible, from the almost
impassable forests which line both shores. There stand in luxuriant
magnificence the shadowy high-domed tamarind, the tower-like _hómara_
(_baobàb_) the multi-boughed genius (sycamore), and the many species of
slender gumrick sont trees. On their branches run in innumerable
windings, like giant serpents, the creeping plants; to their highest
bough and down to the earth again, where they close every space between
the mighty trunk in union with the low bushes. Besides this there is
scarcely one thornless tree or bush in ten, by which every attempt to
penetrate the thick underwood is dangerous, indeed impossible. Several
of the plants--the _sittera_ tree for instance--have the thorns placed
in pairs, and in such a manner that one thorn is turned forward, the
other back. If any one come too near these boughs, it is certain that
his clothes will carry away some inevitable traces, imperfectly to be
remedied amidst these wilds. In other places, the thorn trees are most
elegant; rising gracefully in the less thronged parts, like slender
young birches. We distinguished two sorts of these standing mingled
together, and only differing that in one the bark, extending from the
trunk to the most distant twiglet, is coloured like a mass of shining
red veins, while that of the other is black; on both of them the long
shining white thorns and green leaves come out in strong contrast.
Of the birds, fluttering round in great numbers, I recognized not one
Egyptian species. I shot many, and had them stuffed by our cook, Sirian.
Among them were fine silver-grey falcons (_suqr shikl_); birds called
_gedâd el wadi_, with horns on the nose, and blue lappets on each side
of the head; black and white unicorn birds (_abu tuko_), with mighty
beaks; black birds, with purple breasts (_abu labba_); great brown and
white eagles (_abu tôk_), of which one measured six feet with extended
wings; smaller brown eagles, called _hedâja_; and black ones, called
_ráchame_. The latter, which are more numerous toward Egypt, are the
same represented in the hieroglyphics. The plover is principally found
on the shore, with black crooked pricks at the joints of the wings, with
the white long-legged _abu baqr_ (Cow-bird), which is accustomed to sit
on the backs of buffaloes and cows.
We often see great bats flying about in broad day; their long golden
wings glance gleamingly through the foliage, and suddenly they hang to
the boughs, head downwards, like great yellow pears, and are easily
shot; they have long ears, and a curious trumpet-formed nose.
Chase was also made on the monkeys, but they are difficult to catch from
their agility. One day we found a mighty tree full of monkeys. Some
climbed quickly on our approach, and fled to the distant bushes; others
hid themselves in the upper boughs; but some to whom both plans seemed
hazardous, sprang with incredibly daring leaps from the highest branches
of the tree, which was nearly a hundred feet in height, on to the little
trees below, the thorny twigs of which bent low beneath their weight,
without any of them falling; they gained their point, and escaped my
gun.
The more south, the more crocodiles. The promontories of the islands are
often covered with these animals. They usually lie in the sun, close to
the edge of the water, opening their mouths and appearing to sleep, but
they will not allow any one to approach them, but dive under the surface
immediately, even if hit by the ball. Thus their capture is very
difficult. Our _khawass_, however, struck a young one, only three feet
in length, so well that it could not reach the waters. It was brought on
board, where, to the horror of our Nesnas monkey, Bachit, it lived
several days.
Not less impracticable than the crocodiles are the hippopotami, which we
have occasionally seen in great numbers, but only with their heads above
water. Once only a young Nile horse stood exposed on a sand islet, and
allowed us to approach unusually near. The _khawass_ shot and hit, but
of course the ball did not penetrate the thick skin; then the fat animal
with its shapeless head, large body, and short, elephant-like legs,
broke into a highly comic gallop, in order to gain the adjacent water,
where it soon disappeared. They usually only land at night, when they
make terrible havoc in the durra-field and other plantations by stamping
and eating. No one knew here of any hippopotamus ever being taken alive.
We did not see any lions, but their roars were heard sounding through
the moonlight nights; there is something solemn in the deep sonorous
voice of this royal animal.
On the 24th of February we came to a second tributary of the Nile, the
Dender, which is larger than the Rahad. I went some way up it, to see
what was impossible to be seen at the embouchure, whether there was yet
a stream, and found that above, where the water ran in little channels,
there was still a current, but very weak; in the rainy season the Dender
swelled to the height of twenty feet, as its bed shows; the shores were
covered with cotton-bushes, pumpkins, and other useful plants.
The heat is not inordinate; in the morning, at eight o’clock, usually
23° R.; from noon, till about five o’clock, 29°; and at eleven at night,
22°.
The evenings we spend on board, then I have the geography explained to
me by our _khawass_, Hagi Ibrahim, or take some Nubians to my camels, to
learn their language. I have already prepared a long vocabulary of the
Nubian language. On a comparison with other lists, in Rüppell and
Cailliaud, I also found in Koldági one of the languages spoken in the
southernmost part of Kordofan, many similar words, which testify a
narrow connection between the two languages. The Arabs call the Nubian
language _lisân rotâna_, which I at first took for its actual name; it
signifies, however, only a foreign language, distinct from the Arabic.
Therefore if the three Nubian dialects are spoken of, they are not only
called Rotâna Kenûs, Mahass, or Donqolaui, but also Rotâna Dinkaui,
Shilluk, even Turki and Franki, Turkish and Frank, _i. e._ European
gibberish. The same error is at the bottom of the now received
designation of the Nubians as Berbers, and their language as the Berber
language; for this is not their national name, or that of the language,
as it is generally believed, but means originally the foreign-speaking
persons, the Barbaros.[76]
On the 25th of February we landed near Saba Doleb; I sought for ruins,
but only found tall, well-built cupolas of burnt brick, in the form of
beehives, and erected in quite a similar manner to the Greek Thesauri,
in horizontal layers. They are the graves of holy Arab sheikhs of a late
era; the villagers did not know what date to assign for their erection.
Under the cupola, in the middle of the building of fifteen to eighteen
feet in diameter, is the long narrow grave of the saint, surrounded with
larger stones and covered with a multitude of little ones, according to
the superstition one thousand in number. I found six such domes, most of
them half dismantled, some quite ruined, but two tolerably well
preserved, and still visited; a seventh, probably the latest, was built
of unburnt bricks.
At Wad Negûdi, a village to the west of the Nile, we found the first
dilêb-palms,[77] with slender naked trunks and little bushy crowns,
like date-palms in the distance, and dûm-palms close to it, by reason of
the leaves. The fruit is round, like that of the dûm-palm, but larger.
These trees are said to be more frequent on the eastern tributaries;
here, on the Nile, they are found but in a very small district. The
leaves are regularly divided into fan-like folds one under the other,
and the stem has strong saw-like notches. With such a stalk the Rais of
our vessel sawed off another leaf, which I had brought to the bark, to
take with me. It is divided into sixty-nine points, and measures five
feet and a quarter from that part of the stem where the fan begins,
although it is but young, and therefore keeps its fans quite shut as
yet. Another one, still larger, which had already unfolded itself, we
put up in the bark as a parasol, in the shade of which we sat. The way
to those palms we had to make through the giant grass thickets, shooting
up stiffly and closely like corn, and covering great plains. The ends of
the stalks were five or six feet above our heads, and even the tall
camels, bred in this place, could scarcely see above them.
On the 26th of February, we arrived at the village Abu el Abás, on the
eastern shore. This is the principal place of the neighbourhood, and the
Kashef living here, has authority over 112 villages. I there purchased,
for a few piasters, of a Turkish _khawass_ a dog-ape. This is the holy
ape of the ancient Egyptians, _kynokephalos_, dedicated to Thoth and the
Moon, and appearing as the second of the four gods of the lower
world.[78] It interests me to have this animal, which I have seen so
innumerably represented on the monuments, about me for a time, and to
observe the faithfully caught representations of its striking and usual
characteristics in old Egyptian art. It is remarkable that this ape, so
peculiar to Egypt in ancient times, is now only found in the south, and
even there not very frequently. How many species of animals and plants,
indeed manners and customs of men, with which the monuments of Egypt
make us acquainted, are only to be found here in the farthest south of
old Ethiopia, so that many representations, _i. e._ those of the graves
of Benihassan, seem rather to picture scenes of this country than of
Egypt. The _kynokephalos_ has here no particular name, but only the
general term _gird_ (great ape). His head, hair, and colour, are not
unlike those of a dog, whence his Greek appellation. Occasionally, too,
he barks and growls just like a dog. He is yet young, and very
good-natured, but immeasurably cleverer than Abeken’s little dog and
Nesnas monkey. He is very funny when he wants something good to eat,
that he may see held in the hand. Then he lays his ears back, and knows
how to express the greatest joy, but sits still, like a good child, and
only smacks his lips like an old wine-taster. On seeing the crocodile,
however, his hair ruffled up on his whole body, he cried out lamentably,
and was scarcely to be held in his terror.
We arrived at the famous old metropolis of the Sudan, Sennâr, on the
27th of February, the king of which, before the conquering of the
country by Ismaël Pasha, ruled as far as Wadi Halfa, and was supreme
over a number of lesser tribute-paying kings. The place does not look
now as if it had been so lately a royal city. Six or seven hundred
pointed straw huts, (_tukele_) surround the ruins of red brick, where
the palace formerly stood. The bricks are now used for the erection of a
building for Soliman Pasha, who is to reside in Sennâr. It was so far
finished, that the Vakil of the absent Pasha could hold his divan in it.
We found him there, sitting in judgment. Many other people, Sheikhs and
Turks were present; among them the Sheikh Sandalôba, the chief of the
Arab merchants, and a relation of Sultana Nasr, with whom we afterwards
became acquainted in her capital village Sorîba. We paid this
distinguished man a visit in his house, at which honour he seemed much
delighted. His chief chamber was a dark though lofty saloon, with a roof
resting on two pillars and four half pillars, on to which we mounted,
in order to get a view of the city.
In the meantime, an anqarêb was prepared for us in the court; mead
(honey and water) was brought, and from the stable an hyæna, here called
Morafil, and two young lions, of which the larger, actually the property
of Soliman Pasha, was led to our bark, together with a couple of sheep,
as a present from the Vakil. I had the animal tied up in the hold, and
received a tear in the hand from his sharp claws, as a welcome. His body
is already more than two feet long, and his voice is a most powerful
tenor. Every morning now there is a tremendous row on board our not over
large vessel, when we are drinking tea before the cabin early; the
monkeys jumping merrily about, and the lion is let out from the hold on
deck, which is given him during the day, and we are bringing the cups
and pans into safety, which he tries to reach with his already strong
and inquisitive claws.
On the 29th of February we arrived at nine o’clock in Abdîn. The wind
was unfavourable on the 1st of March, and we proceeded but little, so
that I had plenty of time for shooting birds. Toward evening I came to a
village, lying very romantically in a creek of the river, which is here
broader. Many huts built of straw poked their pointed roofs into the
branches of thickly-leaved trees. Narrow tortuous paths, forming a real
labyrinth, led among thorns and trunks from one hut to another, in and
before which the black families were lying and the children playing by a
sparing light. I asked for milk, but was referred to an adjoining Arab
village, whither a man conducted me, armed with a lance, the general
weapon of the country. By light brushwood and high grass we came to the
great herds of cattle of the Arabs, who had pitched their mat huts about
the grazing place. The Fellahs of this region are much browner than the
wandering Arabs, although far from being negroes, and they seem to
coincide with the Nubians in race.
On the 2nd of March we anchored by an island, near the eastern shore. At
a little distance from the landing-place, the Rais perceived a broken
crocodile egg at a spot newly dug. He dug away with his hands, and found
forty-four eggs three feet down in the sand. They were still covered
with a slimy substance, as they had only been laid the day before or in
the past night. The crocodiles like to leave the river in a windy night,
make a hole for the eggs, cover them up again, and the wind soon blows
away every trace. In a few months the young ones creep out. The eggs are
like great goose-eggs, but rounded off at both ends, as the latter are
only at the large end. I had some boiled; they are eaten, but have an
unpleasant taste, so I willingly yielded them up to the sailors, who ate
them with a great appetite.
We landed near the deserted village of Dáhela, on the eastern shore,
whence I proceeded alone inland for three-quarters of an hour. The
character of the vegetation remains the same. The earth is dry and
level; the inconsiderable hills and dales that occur are not original,
but seem to have been formed by the rain. My goal was a great tamarind
tree, which rose mightily amidst the low trees and bushes, and was
encircled by a number of fluttering green and red birds, the species of
which is yet unknown to me.
I came on my way, first to a colony, by Kumr betá Dáhela, where the
inhabitants of that village hold their _villeggiatura_; for they stay
here during the dry months, and return to their village on the river
bank, at the beginning of the rainy season. The last village whither I
came is called Româli, a little above that given in the map as Sero,
which lies under the 13° N. latitude. On the hot and tiring way back I
attended a burial. Silently and solemnly, without sound or sob, two
corpses, wrapt in white cloths, were borne along on _anqarêbs_ by
several men, and laid in a grave of some feet deep in the forest near
the road. Perhaps they had perished of the cholera-like complaint, which
has now broken out with great violence in the southern regions.
We should have much liked to proceed to Fasoql, in the last province of
Mohammed Ali, to see the change in the character of the country
beginning at Rosêres, where so many novel forms of tropical vegetation
and animal life present themselves; but our time was expended.
The Rais received the command to take down the masts and sails, by which
the bark at once lost its stately appearance, and drove down the river
with the current like a wreck. Soon the pleasant quiet of the vessel,
that had seemed to fly along of itself, was interrupted by the yelling,
ill-sounding songs of the rowers contending with the wind.
By the 4th, we were again at Sennâr, and on the 8th, at an early hour,
we reached Wed Médineh. This place is almost as important as Sennâr. A
regiment of soldiers lies in barracks here, with the only band in the
Sudan, and two cannons. We were immediately visited by upper military
scribe Seïd Hashim, one of the most important persons of the place, whom
we had already known in Chartûm.
We determined to visit Sultana Nasr (Victoria) at Sorîba, an hour and a
half inland, partly to learn the character of the country further from
the river, and partly to get some idea of the court of an Ethiopian
princess. Seïd Hashim offered us his dromedaries and donkeys for this
trip, and also his own society; so we rode away that afternoon into the
hot, black, but scantily treed plain, and soon accomplished the
uninteresting way on the sturdy animals.