in Egypt, having arrived in those times when all Franks were appointed,
at their own choice, to high offices and good pay. Himself a soldier, he
soon obtained the office of instructor to a regiment, with a salary of
four purses (2000 piastres) a month, and 1000 for clothing or equipment.
During his stay in Hedjas, and by his gold and slave dealings in
Kordofan (where he passed his time, his gold scales in one hand, a
brandy bottle in the other, and his female slaves dancing before him),
he saved some 12,000 dollars,—all the more easily done as he spent
little on himself, his habits being low and mean, and he being well
skilled in the art of living on others. With the Pascha’s leave he then
went to France, returning with soldier-like punctuality at the expiry of
his year’s leave, in company of his noble-minded wife, who was to serve
him as a companion and stay during his old age. But that no very high
age will be his, is visible in his premature decay, and continued
ailings, nor is the unhealthy climate of Kordofan in his favour, to
which land, and to his ruin, his love of gold has again decoyed him; and
his stay, who is far more ill and crazy than himself, is also sinking
under the load of cotton wherewith she burdens herself to supply those
beauties of form nature has denied her. Churschid Pascha, the
predecessor of Achmet, had brought with him from Cairo a carriage, in
pieces, so as to pack on camels’ backs, the ruins of which Achmet made a
present of to Vigoureux, who, aided by a carpenter, converted them into
a cabriolet. Into this he stuck his riding-horse, and, aided by two
slaves who led it, drove in great state past our house in Chartum. He
drank a glass of rum we offered him, and congratulated himself on the
numbers who had admired him and his turnout. Soon after, however, one of
our servants informed us that the wheel had passed over one of his
slaves, and broke the man’s upper thigh bone, forcing it through the
flesh. Vigoureux himself said he had expected something of the kind, and
that the dog might die, as he had already paid too much for him. My
brother promised to cure the slave for nothing, if he would give him his
liberty. He was healed and supported all along and for a time after the
cure at our expense; all at once, however, he vanished, and it was only
some time after we learned that Monsieur the Corporal, in spite of all
his promises, had laid hands on him and packed him off to Kordofan, to
work in his garden.
Between this man and his wife existed a singular unanimity of feelings.
Both were alike miserly, which was plainly enough written on their
faces, and when at home kept most wretched commons. Both, too, gladly
accepted any invitation, and in real gormandizing style devoured all
food set before them. Neither ever thought it necessary to offer any
return, but excused themselves under the plea of having no cook; but
this would not go down with ourselves and others. But too much of
persons of whom we know not one good trait, and who will find no pity
from any one when the punishment justly due to their barbarity and
fearful greed of money falls on them. Once, however, we did feel pity
for the lady, as she told us this history. She was already in the
family-way when she and her husband reached Cairo. Though advised by all
to leave his wife there for her confinement, he was barbarian enough to
drag her, well veiled and with black gloves on, to make the camel
drivers believe she was a black woman, across the desert; and during the
journey she one afternoon, under a glowing sun, on a camel’s back, gave
birth to a male child, that instantly expired. No halt could be thought
of in the desert, and the half-dead woman went on to Chartum, where she
first obtained medical aid. Often has she begged of me to prevail on the
Pascha at once to give her husband his discharge, as she was still so
young, and longed so much again to behold _la belle France_; but
Vigoureux would neither ask nor hear of discharge, so I did not
interfere, as I might have incurred the blame of being an intriguer. On
my return from the White Nile, and when in Chartum, I received a letter
from her from Kordofan, in which, in language of despair, she described
to me her situation, told me her husband was now always laid up, and
praying me to recover some part of the arrears due to him. I, therefore,
on asking the Pascha for these arrears, did not hesitate to tell him,
that to keep such a man in his pay any longer was merely throwing away
money, as he could no longer serve him. The Pascha’s reply was, “I know
that, but he can die!” _i.e._ then all arrears will be paid, too. I told
him of the lady’s sad state; he only quietly smiled. On my journey back
to Egypt, I found the two at Dongola; he was free—was really discharged.
They had been more than a month resting there, and indulging in an
immoderate consumption of grapes, which regimen had had such an
excellent effect on both, that I hardly again recognised Madame
Vigoureux in the amiable and affectionate wife of her already in secret
despaired of old corporal.
CHAP. V.
A Pilgrim Town. — Nimr the Tiger. — Character of the French. — Blood
Feud. — Excursion from the Camp. — Arab Infants. — Medical Advice. — El
Soffre. — Interview with Mohammed Din.
_1st May._—How often have the Germans sung the praise of lovely May! But
here all is hot, brown, and scorched; and day by day these horrors
increase; our wines and spirits are dwindled away under this heat to two
bottles of Geisenheimer, which certainly will not be too liberally
sacrificed. All is quiet, as before. We remain here awaiting the Tulba,
and while doing so seek amusement in converting our straw huts into
large mansions, as no one now can exist under a tent. At times it
thunders, a sign the rainy season is within a month or two, and no very
pleasant look-out. Yesterday evening, when with us, Topschi Baschi
perpetrated the bad joke, after sundry glasses of araki, of sending his
Mameluke to fetch to our Recuba the dancing girls (Guawasi), who are
also the women of the camp; nor did he trouble himself that, it being
evening and the hut lighted up, it could be seen into from all sides.
Ere long we beheld two brown nymphs enter, who would have entertained us
with dancing and moving songs; these, though lost on us, gave him such
exquisite delight, and put him into such boisterous spirits, that he
commenced a series of personal jokes with the frail ones, thus in his
turn affording amusement to the Arabs and soldiers gazing in at the door
and other openings. That an European officer of like rank (major) would,
for a moment, think of thus joking in public with such women no one will
suppose; but Topschi Paschi had, doubtless, intended amusing and
affording us pleasure by calling these young dames to our tent, as he
afterwards insisted on paying them himself. Moral, and truly Turkish! In
Chartum no feast, public or private, is considered complete if these
women are not present to dance and sing, and there the almost naked
Bajazzo (procurers) never fail to carry on the lewdest jokes with them.
Any day one may see even the most respected Turks talking with these
girls in the bazaars, as also with well-known procuresses; standing and
doing this before the coffee-houses where these girls principally
resort; and no one looks on it as improper, or any breach of decorum. In
Cairo and Alexandria these dancing girls are forbidden even to practise
their public trade, and all procuresses and brothels strictly forbidden;
and most roughly, indeed, are any young Arab girls there handled, who
may be caught in any such practices, or in houses of ill-fame—floggings,
imprisonments, banishment—nay, even being drowned in a sack with a
cat—are the punishments for such doings.
To-day the Schukurie and Haddenda Arabs have had a slight quarrel,
during the fetching in of the durra-stalks, much to the Pascha’s
annoyance; but some well-administered bastinadoing brought all again
into political equipoise. These two tribes dwell next to each other, and
are at continual feud, on account of mutual robberies. The Schukurie and
Kabbabee Arabs, on the left bank of the Nile, and on the White River,
are held to be the most numerous, powerful, as well as the most rich in
herds, of all the tribes of Bellad-Sudan, and are only equalled in these
points by the Beni-Amer tribe, that extends up to the Abyssinian
frontiers. The small country, also on those frontiers, and called
Kalabat, with its little town (Helle), is curious from being solely
inhabited by black or negro pilgrims (the Tokruri) from Darfur and the
neighbouring lands, who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. A
number of these settled down in Kalabat, who had either fled out of
their own country, or, from its being very distant, did not desire to
revisit it, and their numbers were increased more and more by other
pilgrims, who here meeting with friends and relations, settled down
among them. But notwithstanding their holy journey, their prayers in the
Chubba at Mecca, and on the prophet’s grave at Medina; in spite of their
washings in the well Semsem,—which was called into existence by Allah,
when Hagar and Ishmael, driven away by Abraham, were nearly perishing
for want of water in the desert; in spite of all these high merits, the
Tokruri are looked on as the worst and most faithless of men, a race
that no one will or can trust. Under their lately-deceased Sheik Myri,
who possessed more than ninety suits of chain armour (Labbis), and other
equipments for man and horse, as also an equal number of strong Dongola
steeds to mount his heavy-armed followers on, the Tokruri enjoyed a
pretty considerable power, highly dangerous for their frontier
neighbours, as they had also for warfare about a hundred muskets, a
large number for these lands; but since Sheik Myri’s death, they have
sadly declined in power and force.
Arabs are now and then at length seen in our bazaar, and various goods
are brought in for sale, but the Arab sellers are yet very few. The Okka
(2¾ lbs.) of beef costs twenty paras, about one penny farthing, and the
same weight of mutton about double, or one piastre. A whole ox of the
better kind could have formerly been bought here for fifty piastres,
nine or ten shillings, and government (Bilik) gave forty. In general,
the cattle are not large, but strong-built, with high withers and
flanks, and large fat folds about the belly; the cows are larger, but
not so comely to look on as the Swiss breed. The beef, from the better
pasturage here, is far tenderer and better flavoured than in Sennaar,
where it is generally tough and hard of digestion, trying both teeth and
stomach.
Mussa, Mohammed Din’s young son, a sad and silent lad, who seems, while
now a hostage in our camp, to pine for his home, paid us a visit to-day;
but we unfortunately could do little to cheer or amuse him, as, from his
ignorance of Arabic, all our intercourse had to be carried on by signs
and gesticulations. When this lad waits on the Pascha, his short, curly,
but not woolly hair is whitened with camel-fat; he is ever closely and
carefully guarded, and never moves without an escort; but that this
escort is furnished from Defalla’s followers, the Pascha having given
that Sheik the special charge of the lad, surprises us, as Defalla has
already given many causes for suspecting his fidelity, and both his own
and father’s names are too often connected with that of Nimr (tiger).
The Pascha wishes to send the lad to Cairo (this being the best thing
for his country), to receive a Turkish education. May this education be
better conducted than usual!
Mohammed Nimr, called Sedab by his own people, from the village in which
he usually dwelt, was Melek of the Gallihn; or Djalin, a numerous, far-
spreading Arab tribe, which chiefly frequented the eastern bank (Scherk)
of the Nile and Blue River (Bachr asrek), from Abu Hammet to Abu
Harrasch; many also of them were to be found on the western banks
(Garb), in Metemma, Omdurman, &c. From him Ismail Pascha, son of the
Viceroy of Egypt, demanded a monstrous tribute, to be paid in three
days, treating, at the same time, this far and widely-respected Sheik
with harshness and contempt, and went so far, it is said, as to strike
him over the face with his pipe-stem, as he knelt asking some abatement
of the tribute, or longer time to collect it. Nimr gasped for revenge.
Under pretence of collecting fodder for the camels he had to contribute,
he surrounded the residence of the Pascha in Schendy with durra-straw,
and firing this at night, burnt it down, and with it Ismail and his
attendants. At the same time, the father of our Defalla, Mohammed Adlan
Defalla, Great Sheik of the Fungh, on the Gesira, murdered all the
Turkish soldiers to be found in his countries. Soon after this, appeared
in these lands the bloody Defterdar Bey, to bathe himself in the blood
of the inhabitants of it, and especially in those of Schendy, which
place and race he totally destroyed, and proceeded burning and slaying
all that came in his way, men, women, and children, with such cruelty
and barbarity, that men of the present day shudder as they relate his
deeds. Melek Nimr, however, had, in the interim, escaped with the
greater part of his tribe to the land of Raujahn, at the foot of the
Abyssinian mountains, between the two small rivers Bassalahm and
Settiet, which afterwards flow into the Atbara, and settled in the
neighbourhood of Sofie. After a while the ever restless and discontented
Gallihn joined him, some, however, remaining in Taka, and with them came
the Angareb into this country, which, without any reference to the
length of the person, is made as small and short as possible, so as to
be the easier transported with the owners on the camels during their
constant moving and shifting of residences and wandering journeys.
The now aged Nimr did not in his new country forget his old, so gave to
the new villages he found names that reminded him of his old fatherland,
as Schendy, Damer, &c. Every now and then he heads plundering forays
against his neighbours the Schukuri, Beni-Amer, and others, carrying off
their camels, cattle, and other possessions, while his many sons,
principally borne him by his Abyssinian wife, a daughter of a Sultan, or
Ras, of that land, are his constant guards and attendants. He is now in
possession of many stands of fire-arms, and his troops are similar to
the Schaigies, being mounted on camels or horses, and armed with
muskets, pistols, swords, or lances. His followers, like his people,
increase daily, for now, as at all times, numbers of the Djalin tribe
are driven away from the banks of the Nile. This is the reason also why
that land seems so ill peopled and badly cultivated, and displays so
many Sagies in ruins; and perhaps more now than before, as the Pascha’s
oppression in taxes, levies of recruits, &c., cause the people to fly in
hundreds, most of whom join Nimr, as well as many more from Schendy,
Damer, and other places, as with him they live in content and security.
If a Turkish force prepares to take the field against him, he has
instantly notice of it, either from some of his own widely-scattered
tribe, from the people of the island, who, as is natural, have a better
feeling towards him than towards their oppressors, or from his spies,
and is then at once off with his people and possessions to the
neighbouring Abyssinian mountains, which afford him secure shelter, and
where, from his connection by marriage with many of their chiefs, as
well through his friend Wood Auet, Sheik of the Dabaina-Arabs, he can be
ably protected and supported. Besides, what can be won by warring on
such races? Their only wealth, their herds, they ever drive away before
them; their huts are of no consequence to them,—destroyed one day, they
are rebuilt the next; means of existence in food and forage no enemy
will find, and how, under such circumstances, can war be carried on or
continued?
Mohammed Adan Defalla had also fled from the Gesira, and, according to
report, died in Habesch. When his father cleared the island of the
Turkish troops, our fat friend Defalla, though not then grown up, had
done his best, slaying many of the enemy. Whether this, easily excusable
from love of country and hatred of the foe, be now forgotten, or Achmet
Pascha only pretends it is so, we know not, but at present he bestows on
this man, his companion and auxiliary with 150 men in this Chasua, many
marks of full confidence. But the other Turks see in Defalla a
faithless, false man (Ragil batal, misaur), whose heart is as black
(Kelbe assuet) as his face. Even the negro says of a man whom he would
designate as false, that his heart is black.
The form of countenance of the Fungh does not seem to us to be so
similar to that of the negro, as to that of the Barabra, although the
skin is certainly much darker than that of the latter. They wear their
hair long and loose, though some plait it into knots; their arms are
small oval shields,—which they procure by barter from the Kabbabee
Arabs, and these are made from the hide of the wild buffalo,—and the
usual sword or lance. They are a strong, well-built race; are yet in
considerable numbers located on the Gesira, between the Blue and White
Nile, and though much mixed up with other tribes, are to be met with all
the way from Damer to Gos Rajeb; they still possess their old pride of
race and country, and do not wish to be looked on as genuine Arabs. Of a
national language we found no trace; but after they were subdued by the
Arabs, this may have vanished before that of the conquerors. As a matter
of course, they have no love for the Arabs, and less for the Turks, who
suck the very marrow from their bones; but their chiefs, who lately have
been taking a greater interest in politics, than formerly, hope that,
with a change of rule in Egypt, their own lot will also alter, as they
are now better acquainted with the use of fire-arms, and they trust that
the forcibly raised black regiments in the Turkish service, will, on the
first opportunity, disband themselves, deserting their Turkish masters,
and all connected or concerned with them. And this we fully believe.
According to their own tale, the Fungh descend from races of inhabitants
of the Defafonj of the lands of the Dinka and Schilluk, where yet their
forefathers’ race may be found. [No such land is now known, but there is
a hill of the name, an extinct volcano, in the land of the Dinka, about
11° N. lat., which I afterwards ascended. Had I followed my own ear I
would have written the name Defafaungh, although the Funghs themselves
pronounce their race’s name so feebly, that one might almost suppose
Fonj with an hardly audible _e_ or _i_ was the correct pronunciation of
it.] Near this hill live now no people of the name but the tribe of the
Dinka, though in their traditions this hill plays so great a part, that
it looks as if round and behind it had been the gathering of the whole
race, which may have descended from the high lands along the Sabat, and,
after delivering battle to the Arabs, poured down on or by the White
Nile for 300 years into Sennaar, and there founded an empire. Burckhardt
holds, that they had, as a savage race, burst down from the great
mountain range. Six hours’ journey above Fazogl there is, among populous
and large hills of the Tabi, (who can turn out 100,000 men able to bear
arms, and have 500 villages, which the Turks have not, as yet, ventured
to approach,) a hill of considerable size and many people, called Fungh;
but it is not inhabited by the race of that name, but by the Hammeghs.
The chief country of these Hammeghs extends from the Blue Nile, above
Sennaar, from Sero to Rossères, but they also have settlements higher
up. The head Sheik was the old famed Soliman, whose name was held in the
utmost reverence all over the Gesira, and a single word from whom was
sufficient to set it all in uproar. He numbered some eighty or ninety
years, had been in his youth a man of wondrous strength, and even in his
old age this mummy, for he is nothing but skin and bone, still displays
remarkable power. Scars cover his body over and over, the remains of
fifty battles, before each of which, knight-like, he measured himself in
single combat with the leader of the adverse force. The ability and sly
wisdom with which he managed his own people, and also the Turks, is the
more remarkable, as he was thus ever fighting and totally uneducated.
His honesty, openness, and bold bearing, called forth like qualities in
others; and his meeting with Mehmet Ali, when that ruler travelled, in
1838, into Sennaar, and summoned Soliman, as head Sheik, before him, was
characteristic of both. It is well known, that the former Mudir of the
Berbers, Abbas Aga, who by all kinds of ruinous imposts had gathered up
large sums of money, was, by orders received from the highest authority,
poisoned by a Copt, his secretary, and all his wealth seized on by
government. This Copt, now the renegade Challill Effendi, was rewarded
for the crime by being appointed Sheik of Metemma and Schendy! Formerly,
this Abbas Aga had caused the Kalif of the Wells of Atmur (the desert
between Korusko and Abu Hammet), who was very wealthy, to fall under the
suspicion of the ruling powers, who without further to do, at once
sentenced him to be hung, and drew in his riches, at least all of them
that Abbas Aga had left. The brother of the latter, Soliman Aga, set out
for Cairo, but was, at Atmur, set on by the Bischari Scheik, Barakan,
brother of the murdered Kalif, and, along with nine of his companions,
fell a sacrifice to the revenge of blood. Barakan seized on every thing
save the dead man’s harem; this he allowed to go free, with all its
property, and also all who had not raised weapons against him. He then,
with his own large means, and 1000 purses he had spoiled the dead man
of, fled on his way to the Red Sea, probably intending to take shelter
in India; but, owing to his provisions falling short, he and his party
lost time on their flight, and this enabled the Ababde Sheik Soliman to
overtake him while resting on a hill two days’ journey from the Red Sea.
After a desperate resistance, Barakan and seven of his followers were
slain by Soliman, who afterwards brought his head to Chartum, where,
after it had been publicly displayed in the streets by a crier, we were
shocked to again behold it borne before Sheik Soliman, a sly and ever-
smiling smooth-countenanced rascal, at his triumphal entrance into the
Pascha’s divan; there, held up by the bloody hair, it was exposed to the
latter’s inspection, who gazed on it with a truly bloodthirsty look.
Some of the Bischari, tribe-fellows of Barakan, such as Sheik Mohammed,
Issa of Elbe, on the Red Sea, &c. had united with Soliman in the pursuit
of the fugitive, and they and their people, from their dexterity in
slinging stones, had been the main cause of the victory. But what would
not the treacherous Bischari do to gain the Pascha’s favour? Between
Sheik Soliman and Barakan there were, on the contrary, old feuds and
hatreds; as, in earlier days, the family of the former had had the
charge of the wells, and the supply of camels, but had been deprived of
these profitable resources by the family of the latter. To turn the tide
in his own favour, and regain these privileges, was the aim of Soliman’s
pursuit of Barakan, and in this he succeeded, for, on his return to
Chartum, he was named Grand Sheik of the Wells, and presented with a
dress and sabre of honour. During this pursuit he had followed Barakan
for twelve days, without giving himself or dromedaries more than two
hours’ rest during the whole time, or ever lying down to sleep! And
still the Pascha was not satisfied; the man was dead, but where were his
treasures?—for these are ever the main point—and Soliman had received
the strictest orders to produce these also. We were in the divan when
Barakan’s brother, the Kalif Hassan, took his leave to set out for
Berber. The Pascha was violent, harsh, and rude towards this young man,
and told him, in the plainest language, he would have the money, or it
would go very ill with him (Hassan), as he knew well where this was to
be found, and if he did not produce it, he would sell him and all his
family to indemnify himself for the great loss. Such is Turkish
justice—and enough of it.