some three miles above the debouchement of the Atbara into the Nile. No
longer are any remains of this hierarchical city to be seen, such as
Burckhardt, in former days, beheld them:—it is now only a village, with
some high, decaying, loam walls. A sudden alarm now seized me at not
immediately beholding my brother, and I hurried off to the Pascha’s
tent, pitched near the river’s bank, to announce my arrival, inquire for
my brother, and excuse the delay caused by our perilous voyage. The
Pascha received me kindly, and told me my brother had been ill, but was
now recovered, and busied with the sick in a neighbouring tent. When the
doctor and apothecary, having put on their uniform, entered, his face
flushed with anger, and he sternly alluded to their having quitted their
regiments and come by water; he then severely reprimanded them, saying,
they had thrown the whole burden of looking after the sick on Hakim
Jussuff (Dr. Joseph), and dismissed them with a Kedi-el-kanua (κανων,
such is the law). The merchant Rollet, ever a bashful man, now crept in
to receive certain commissions, but I made him a sign that he would not
come off well just at this moment, and we left the tent together; but
later, I so recommended him to the Pascha, that, so far as his business
went, he placed full confidence in him. I found my brother perfectly
recovered, after having, almost by force, made my way into his tent,
where he had got over his most pressing business, having now little more
to do than hand over the sick to Doctor Bellotti; most of the cases were
ophthalmia and fever, from the soldiers being allowed no tents to
shelter them; these having been looked to, nothing more had to be done
than prepare for the morrow’s medical inspection, when the really sick
and unserviceable were to be sent back to Chartum.
We had mutually to confess, although now again well, that both looked as
if we had undergone severe illness. We sought rest and shade, went up
into the village, lay down under a tree, and he there told me how he had
fared on his journey. From Karreri he had crossed over with the Pascha
to Halfaia, where the latter had assembled the chiefs of the Schaigies,
and reminded them to be with their men punctually at their posts. From
there the untiring dromedary rider (the Pascha) would have ridden on to
Schendy, but gave up the idea on my brother’s remonstrances, as he
feared both for the great man and himself; so they again embarked in the
small quick kandschia, arrived at Schendy, and there disembarked; the
Pascha wishing to see with his own eyes how far his arrangements there
were completed. Mussa Effendi, who also had been ordered from the
neighbourhood of Sennaar to take part in the chasua—a friend and
countryman of the Pascha—was there, but ill. Soliman Effendi, the
renegade doctor, had, too, arrived there, to take his leave of the great
man (el kebir); but who, being in monstrous bad humour, demanded why he
had quitted Chartum without permission,—how he had contracted so many
debts there, and which, did he not at once pay, he would have him
bastinadoed. Mussa Effendi had continued long ill in the Loam palace of
the Pascha, and my brother had only saved him by placing a sentry at his
door, to prevent his madly eating and drinking all he could get, as had
been his practice till now; but this was for the future in so far put a
stop to, as the sentry was ordered, under pain of five hundred blows of
the stick, to cut off these supplies. The Pascha would most gladly have
had Mussa with him, as he had been in Taka with Churschid Pascha; though
he, for this very reason, prophesied no good would come of the present
expedition. In the end, my brother had got matters settled. Mussa
Effendi, and the renegade Soliman, whom the Pascha had not hesitated to
recommend, on his head (the Turkish style, bi Rasak), to his friend,
were to return to Chartum, and there, have an eye to the Pascha’s
interests. Soliman Effendi had passed us on our voyage, and we could not
then understand why he so cursed and fearfully abused all Turks,
exclaiming, as all renegades ever do, that he was the mere slave of a
set of rascals.
On the 14th March, at two o’clock P.M., the hottest part of the day,
when my poor Joseph was about to retire for a siesta, the Pascha, who
almost never rested or ate, became gloomy, and ordered out the
dromedaries. At once all the camp was bustle and confusion. The Pascha,
once mounted, was happy,—more than my brother was, who was anxiously
eyeing the beasts, and heard, with no slight thrill of alarm, the Pascha
pronounce, as he pointed to a dromedary, the word “kerkab,” (mount); the
more so, as he well knew the fearless style of riding of his leader,
which his own native attendants much feared. Joseph now had to mount a
dromedary for the first time; though in our desert-crossings we both had
sat for weeks on the broad cloth-covered backs of the baggage camels.
But, up he got; and there, high raised in air, he sat as if on a stool,
all loose, without any hold as on a horse, and hardly had got the rope
rein into his hand, when off he had to trot alongside his leader, who,
of course, took no notice of his companion’s dilemma; though the latter
feared every moment to lose his balance, and break his neck or limbs.
At first the ride did him good, but, from the constant shaking, and from
being at every step thrown forward by the animal’s shuffling gait, ere
long his bowels were set into such a state of inquietude, from the sharp
ride of two hours under a burning sun, that he had to remain behind, on
the thorn-covered waste near the banks of the Nile, and await the coming
up of the servants and baggage, while all the others marched on and
passed him. Only one pitying Ababdi-Bedouin remained by him; but,
unfortunately, neither understood the other’s language.[4] Headache,
convulsive vomitings, racking heat, horrible thirst, and no water, as he
had no vessel to fetch any in, and the Bedouin would not leave him to
fetch one, was Joseph’s lot; then delirium, but still sufficient
consciousness to be aware, now and then, of men passing and asking, “Min
di ajahu?” (Who is the sick man?) “Hakim Pascha” and then “Hue bimùtt”
(he lies dying); and so they passed on, and still the servants came not.
At last, about nine o’clock at night, came our hunter Abdallah, with
coverings and cushions, and made him up a bed, on which he lay all night
in violent fever, but recovered somewhat ere sunrise; and, after a six
hours’ ride, again rejoined the Pascha’s camp, who had been anxiously
looking out for him, and welcomed him with kind, compassionate concern.
A wretched house was assigned him as a shelter against the sun’s heat,
but the soldiers had already got possession of it;—smoke, fires for
baking bread, the chattering of the soldiers with the women and idle,
restless villagers, added to the burning pain of his galled seat, from
which the blood had run down into his trowsers, soaking his drawers,
stockings, and all his under clothing—as I now saw with my own
eyes—allowed him to find neither rest nor peace. His only comfort was a
young black-brown girl, of some twelve years of age, whom the Bedouin
had brought to cool him with a fan and keep off the flies and insects.
In his dreaming mood he fancied this girl was some brilliant white
guardian spirit, sent to give him ease. Next day, when on leaving he
would have given her some small farewell present, she whom he had seen
all night through, kneeling at his head and waving her fan, had
vanished, and her mother with the utmost reluctance took the money;
though, from her language not being Arabic, Joseph could not say why she
so long declined it.
In the warmest part of the day, two o’clock P.M., the Pascha was again
the first to mount his dromedary, and it really seemed as if he desired
to find out how much himself and followers could endure. At rapid pace
he rode on along the banks of the Nile, past the pyramids of Assur (to
which I shall revert), through bushes and past some single Doum-palms,
till he came to the village of El Djebl or Djebelab, situated in a small
horse-shoe like bend of the hills. Before, when on our journey up to
Sennaar, I had placed Joseph, who some days before had succumbed under
the sun-stroke, beneath one of these palms, left him there, and at his
repeated request had ridden on to examine the pyramids and their
neighbourhood; but during my absence he was so annoyed by the blue-
tailed lizards running backwards and forwards (his abhorrence) over him,
that on my return I found he had left his position and been carried,
more dead than alive, into the boat. The road at the foot of the hills
was villanous, and most dangerous from the large stones, that had rolled
down from above, and Joseph’s dromedary threatened, from the rapid pace,
to fall at every step, he no longer having power remaining to support it
or himself. After being led and borne for some way by Abdallah and the
Bedouin, my brother managed, but on foot, to reach the village on the
hill range where the Pascha had halted, though he was too weak to go to
him and beg for a boat. There he passed the night in fever and delirium,
on an angareb (the common bed place of the country, formed of small
strips of plaited camel hide crossed on a frame), and in the morning
felt so enfeebled, that he despaired of ever recovering, and only hoped
once again to behold me, to warn me to quit the country. As good luck
would have it, there was then in that neighbourhood a boat of our
friend, the merchant Hassam Mosnùr from Berber; this was put into
requisition. Placed on an ass, and held on it, Joseph rode over a well
cultivated plain, regularly watered by irrigating channels filled from
the Nile by water-wheels; and along with the Pascha’s secretary, the
Copt Chakill, embarked in the boat, in which, after daily attacks of
fever, he at length, on the morning of the 17th of March, arrived, when
sleeping soundly, at Damer. Even my lot had not been so bad as this, but
now again we could both breathe freely, and heart and courage revived
again.
_20th March._—It was said we were to march at L’Asser, so we could not
carry out our plans of together visiting the pyramids; as I have already
given an account of my visit to them in my “Journey to the Source of the
White Nile” (p. 55.), I shall not repeat it here. It seems, however,
beyond a doubt to me,—who before leaving Bellad-Sudan also visited the
mystic city of Mandera which many, without having seen it, are inclined
to hold as the ancient city of Meroe,—that this ancient island city of
Meroe did in former days extend along the Nile at the valley of Bach’r
amie, westward from the pyramids.[5] The river has since those days
retired, as there are now to be seen, some two hundred paces from it,
foundation walls and remains of buildings, behind which I hit on four
male sphinxes, one of which a young vagabond, who had run after us,
mounting, claimed as his horse.
I had persuaded my brother to purchase from Sheik Soliman a small,
smooth-going dromedary, as the tall, hard-trotting ones the Pascha had
presented to us at Chartum were likely to have thrown him into a fit of
apoplexy, his slender form not being able to withstand rough usage and
constant joltings like my much stronger one. His ride from Schendy
having so much injured him, led me to mount outside the camp this new
purchase of his, a lively little animal, a bischari, and I may say as
boldly as when I, a boy, was thrown on the so-called wild horse of the
stud at Embscher-Bruch, in Westphalia, much to my kind old father’s
delight and rejoicing, who, as he ran alongside, holding the caveson,
and delighting in his son’s bravery and daring, little suspected this
would afterwards cost him so much money. Riding here, however, was a
different thing—no mane or saddle-bow for the boy to hold on by, nor any
saddle or stirrup for the trained horseman: my brother laughed, but I
held myself together, and all went on well. The saddle was certainly
desperately slippery, although I did get some hold on it, when, after
the custom of the riders here, I crossed my legs over its bow. The rich
Turks always spread over the saddle a long-haired, red-coloured ram’s
fleece, like that thrown over a Hungarian coach-box; so we had two
carpets (Siggadi), and our great dromedaries brought out, and one
fastened over each of the saddles. The Zais (inspector of horses and
fore-rider) of the Pascha and I placed ourselves on the taller
dromedaries, and I looked proudly down on my brother, mounted on his
small animal. We rode under the Zais’s instructions, and fancied we were
gaining some slight insight into the business, as we held in our left
hands the halter and rein drawn through the left nostril, used for
turning, and flourished the kurbasch in our right. The two-humped camel
(C. Bactrianus) is unknown here; those used are smooth-haired, fine-
coated, and of bright colour as any blood horse. The camel and dromedary
are the same species, and there is no more difference between them than
between a cart and a race-horse. The camels are trained to lie down for
loading and unloading, and the signal for so doing is given by a
peculiar sound made by drawing in the breath through the teeth, and a
gentle stroke of the whip above the knees. The dromedary is called
hagihn; the camel, the chimmal, plur. chomal.
We had, at dawn of morning, started on an inspection of this ruined
city, Damer, to see if any ancient remains were to be found; but neither
brick nor hewn stone did we see. The houses not yet crumbled into ruins
were built of meteoric stone (top).[6] We made our way into a couple of
such houses; inside all was dark, as windows there were none, but a few
round or angular holes up near the flat roofs, such as are in the
sloping walls of Egyptian temples. By these means greater strength is
lent to the bad material used in building, and this is evident in the
high towers or loam castles in the land of Barabra, and from the
enduring remains of the pylones of the temples. Any one who doubts the
durability of such loam edifices may soon be convinced both of this and
the high national liking for them, by examining these old buildings. We
generally found in the houses two monstrous clay jars, some six or eight
feet high, such as are common also in Greece, for the storing of grain,
bread, &c.; one bed-place for the whole family, and a bench or settle,
spread with mats, and raised some three or four feet from the ground.
The other houses were the common Æthiopian tokuls, to which was attached
an oblong bower of wicker-work, a tolerably cool abode, and called a
Recuba. The tokul is formed by a circular loam wall, with a pointed roof
placed on it; and such huts, with little difference, are to be found in
every part of Africa and certain parts of America—Guiana, for instance,
where, probably, the negroes introduced them. On entering one of these
huts we were welcomed by a Turk from Bosnia, who, with grave face, told
my brother he possessed a certain herb that would, in three or four
days, perfectly cure broken bones; but he would not produce this
wondrous plant, as he feared my brother might steal his secret. We also
here heard that at the point of land where the Atbara runs into the Nile
there was a village called Kenisse (meaning Church or Christian ruins),
where were many old buildings (bint gaddim), in which bricks might be
found. That in very early times the Christian faith spread widely in
Æthiopia is well known, and we were about to start on a second trial
ride to Kenisse, when we were told it was certain that the Pascha would
set out at midday or afternoon.
We set about arranging our traps into camel-loads, a camel carrying
about three cwts., so that all might be in order. To our cook, Achmet,
as the most necessary attendant on the march, we assigned a dromedary,
and loaded it with our most valuable articles, so as to always have
these near us, as much was to be feared for all baggage that went with
the rear-guard, this being much exposed to be cut off or plundered. In
these climes water is ever a first consideration, and to each soldier
had been served out a small leathern flask, while on our camels were
placed many water-skins (girbe), and yet Achmet had, in addition, to
hang on the shady side of his beast another water-skin, made of the
untanned hide of an antelope, as we wished to preserve our own two
water-filled sensamien (bags of leather, fitted with a mouthpiece,
screwed in, with a hole and straw or reed to drink from) untouched, in
case of any bursting; and also as the water in these keeps cooler, being
able to ooze through the pores, which is not the case with the girbes,
as so doing would cause too great loss. Then we had also to convey the
hammab, a tripod six feet high, indispensable in warm countries at
unloading or camping, to hang the water-skins on, as the ground is so
hot as to suck up all the water, and where no hammab is to be got, some
other means of keeping the skins off the earth is always invented. These
water-skins are without seam; the heads of the animals are generally cut
off (usually sheep or goats are the sufferers), their skins worked off
the body, without outward cut, down to the lower joints of the legs,
that are left hanging on the skin, and bound across two and two, or
crosswise, to keep all firm and united; the neck of the hide forms the
mouth, and is firmly bound round and round with strong cord. Some
practice is required to drink while riding, out of one of these, without
spilling much water, which, often being more valuable than all other
treasures, it is ever looked on as a serious fault to waste. Besides
some clean linen and clothing in a leathern bag (jurab), Achmet had on
the other side our cotton-stuffed pillows; his saddle was formed of two
Abyssinian cow-hides, placed above each other, intended to be used under
our carpets, and these proved a most excellent protection against the
numerous thorns that covered the soil, or when covered with two great
white barakans, folded four times together, formed a very perfect
sleeping-place for us when suffering from cold or fever. Atop of all
this high-piled load sat the cook himself. We had entrusted to his care
some of our arms, three guns and an old-fashioned pistol, with some
ammunition; two of the first he had fastened to his dromedary, as we
carried our double-barrelled rifles, but a long Turkish gun he had hung
over his neck, surely no very comfortable companion during a long, sharp
ride. In addition to our double rifles, that we could have in our hands
in an instant, we also carried pistols, strung in a belt instead of
being stuck in the girdle, and by our sides hung proudly our cavalry
swords,—our Turkish sabres, too light for our unaccustomed hands, having
been safely stowed away in our chests. Our cook had wisely provided
himself with some of the needful tools of his trade, things that neither
Joseph or I had thought of. This seems a long list, but still it is but
a very poor one of all required for a journey in this land.
At three o’clock in the afternoon (fi l’Asser), a cannon was fired, and
soon a sudden commotion and stir was evident in the camp, this being the
signal for starting. In an instant our tent was down, and as each camel
lay already with shackled knee, between the chests and bags intended for
it, and our girbes were ere now filled, all was so quickly laden that
our people were at the head of the train, where by our orders they were
to keep. We ourselves, mounting, rode up to the Pascha, who had halted
to the eastward of Damer, his saddled horses and dromedaries drawn up
behind, and here out of the bustle was making his further arrangements
at his ease. He growled at the great disorder, but consoled himself that
in future things would go on better. It was, indeed, a most varied
scene: the Turkish cavalry, in their national dress of every hue and
colour, with yellow or green standards and small kettle-drums; the
cavalry of the Schaigies and Mograbin Arabs on horses, dromedaries, and
on foot; the Sheiks and Moluk (little kings), with their little arm-
bearers behind them on the same camels, with spears, lances, swords and
shields of leather; the numerous asses and camels, the former led by the
halter by almost every second infantry soldier, so that the owners might
ride in turn; drums, trumpets, and all kinds of deafening music, &c. The
Chabir (caravan leader), with lance and shield, was on his dromedary,
far in advance; him we followed, along with the Pascha, who was on
horseback, and with picturesque disorder each detachment freed itself
from the confused crowd, and came on in our track. The artillery
consisted of two field-pieces drawn by camels which the Pascha had
trained to this work, to take the place of the usual mules in the
desert. Abd-el-Kader, the jovial Topschi Baschi, mounted on his mule,
led them on. The Turks, the greater number of whom were Circassians, the
Kurds, Arnauts, or Albanians, who an hour before could hardly put one
leg before another, were now changed men; the instant they were in their
saddles they were galloping like madmen round the Pascha, and thrashing
their horses with as little compassion as if they had been intoxicated
with opium. But all this was in honour of the Pascha, and a show-off
before him of their invincible courage. The way lay over the desert, but
was tolerably well marked out. Towards morning the Pascha, accompanied
by the Chabir, rode on in advance; but we did not follow him, as I felt
unwell. It was dark night when we reached the left bank of the Atbara,
where, throwing ourselves down among the bushes, we sought sleep,
without waiting or caring for food.
In the morning we commenced looking about us, and came on two Saghies or
water-wheels of the Kabyle Omerab. The Atbara is a fine, clear river,
with high banks, pretty deep, though here fordable, and at this ford the
Pascha posted a guard of forty men, so that the enemy might not take us
in the rear. The country on the right bank of the river was yet called
Daghela; the forest opposite is a swamp, in which were yet to be seen
many lakes full of water, and also a dry river bed, which, from its
considerable breadth, must, at times, pour a large body of water into
the Atbara. Some Omerabs having joined us, we asked the name of this
gohr or rain-brook—often, in tropical climes, of great size and
importance—running into the Atbara; to our surprise he answered el
Mogren, which immediately reminded us of Father Burckhardt, who so named
the lower part of the Atbara. We also knew right well that Mogren means
the spot where two rivers join, as in the case of the Blue and White
Niles; but here we were told, most distinctly, that the gohr itself was
named Mogren. Unfortunately, we did not ask if the people on the
opposite side of the Mogren do not sometimes apply that name to the
Atbara, down to its junction with the Nile, and if the gohr was to be
merely looked on as an auxiliary stream, and included in the name. The
Dutchman does not blush to call the main stream of the Rhine the Waal,
because a river of that name, on which, perhaps, he once dwelt and still
loves, runs into it and flows on with it into the ocean, but hails all
on its banks as his countrymen. In Taka I saw the great Gohr-el-Gash,
the waters of which are said to vanish—how, if this monstrous mass of
water, which it is impossible the earth can drink in, were to collect
again in the low lands and form this mogren? and this, the direction of
the Gohr-el-Gash, and the slope of the country seem to me but too
plainly to point out. Whence the gohr comes they know not; “min fok,”
(from above) they said, and that in the rainy season it gathers from all
sides, from which gathering may be the peculiar meaning of the word
gohr.
The high banks on our side of the river, were at this season covered
with luxuriant, beautiful turf, with strong, fruit-laden Dom-palms
(Cucifera Thebaica), mimosas, and large thorn trees (nebbek), the bright
green of which lent a freshness and enlivening colour to the scene,
hardly to have been looked for from the slimy, sandy soil. The Atbara
was some 150 or 200 paces broad, but seemed, from the distance of the
opposite bank, to have, when full, a breadth of 600 or 800 paces. The
banks consisted of layers of sandstone, and it was plainly visible, that
this sandstone was in a continuous state of forming, as in some spots it
was very soft, and in these we found encrusted wood and petrifactions,
but no conchylites. Further upwards, the soil was good, the land well
cultivated and sown with durra[7], divided off into small squares,
intersected with narrow channels or canals; but we saw no saghies
(water-wheels), so either must the river’s overflowings have been guided
into these canals, or they must have been filled by means of water-tight
baskets (saduff), as in Nubia and elsewhere. We saw no one who could
give us any information about this, and at midday returned to the camp,
as we had been warned to keep near it, the tribes of this neighbourhood
being neither most friendly nor trustworthy.