ENCAMP AT HEIKOTA—SHEIK AHMED—HERR SCHUMANN AND HIS ZAREEBA—WE
MAKE A ZAREEBA—THE MAHDI—EXCITEMENT IN THE VILLAGE—HORRIBLE
TRAGEDY—SHEIK AHMED DINES WITH US—THE MAGIC LANTERN—LIONS VISIT
US.
Ere we could pitch our tents we had to cut down a number of young palm
trees, and clear away a quantity of tall grass, &c. Whilst doing so Sheik
Ahmed, of the powerful Beni-Amir tribe, who paid us a visit, gave us
a good deal more of manual labour by advising us to make a zareeba (a
fence of prickly trees), assigning as a reason, and a very substantial
one, the fact that lions came down every night, and often made such a
noise as to disturb his slumbers, but that we had nothing to fear from
his tribe. He said further that boa-constrictors and scorpions were very
common, leopards also. We found traces of the latter whilst clearing.
Sheik Ahmed, or Achmet, is said to be one of the most powerful Sheiks
in the Soudan; he certainly was far and away the best sample of a Sheik
that I have seen anywhere. His head was kept shaved; on it he wore a
tight-fitting white skull-cap. He was almost black, and of a determined
aspect, but his features were good, and his teeth white, sound and
regular; his eyes were keen, black and glittering as a hawk’s; he was
dressed in spotless white and scrupulously clean; quick in action,
thought, speech, and appearance. One might almost say really that he was
an educated man, for he could both write and read, and certainly looked a
remarkable, shrewd, and intelligent man. During the piping times of peace
he could be a merry fellow of infinite jest; and he and I cracked many
a joke together by the aid of an interpreter. He could also be a fierce
warrior when necessary, and bore marks, some deep ones, too, of many a
skirmish he had been engaged in. “Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but
being in at it, bear thyself, that thine opponent may beware of thee.”
The latter half of this proverb, I think, would be quite applicable to
our friend, Sheik Ahmed, as all his wounds were in front; the first
part, I fear, he would be rather regardless of, probably, indeed, more
of the temper of an Irishman handling a shillelagh at Donnybrook fair,
exclaiming—“Will ye jist thread on the tail of me coat, now?” And I
assure you, reader, that had you known Sheik Ahmed you would hesitate
ere you trod on his caudal appendage, if you discovered it. I have heard
that he is one of the most powerful vassals under the Khedive, and that
should occasion require he could put in the field about 10,000 horsemen
and tribesmen.
These people, over whom the Sheik seemed to possess great control and
authority, are quite pastoral in their pursuits, and own such enormous
flocks and herds as would astonish any ordinary mortal. These are every
night driven in from grazing to a large zareeba on the river-bed. I was
irresistibly reminded here of the patriarchs of old. Here was this Sheikh
with four wives and I don’t know how many children, the leader or petty
sovereign of a large and powerful tribe, over whom he possessed absolute
power, and, as I said before, owning these flocks and herds. On the
river-bed of the Mareb the tribe, or a part of it rather, lived, their
dwellings simply consisting of a few stakes driven into the sand, over
and around which is a covering of tall grass and matting made from the
palm leaves. They live in this neighbourhood as long as there is anything
for their flocks and herds to eat; when there is not, like locusts,
they move off a few miles to pastures new. Then, when the wet season
commences, they clear off to the mountains or desert, else the tetse fly
would destroy the animals. They seem a contented lot, and may truly say,
as a deceased M.P. once said, “My riches consist, not in the vastness of
my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.”
They live simply, on milk, honey, and dhurra principally, and to that
fact may be attributed the beautifully white sound teeth they possess.
I think I ought to say that the Sheik was good enough to ask me to stay
with the tribe for three or four years, and as an inducement was good
enough to say that if I would he would give me four wives, thus placing
me on a par with himself. However, I neither embraced this tempting offer
nor the sable females, and here I think the utterances of the deceased
M.P. would be peculiarly applicable. When the Sheik, who was very
friendly, left us, he accepted our invitation to dinner at 7 p.m. Quite
close to our camp was another zareeba; in this dwelt Herr Schumann and
his wild animals. He had, when we were there, three young elephants; two
females, and one rogue (the latter, being a rather fierce little fellow,
was chained by the leg), a few young lions, wild cats, leopards, and 15
young ostriches about the size of Dorking fowls.
_Apropos_ of the Mahdi, I find the following in to-day’s paper:
“April 2nd, ’84—An Austrian dealer in wild animals, writing from Kassala
to friends in Vienna, gives some information about the Mahdi, whom he
knows personally, and with whom he has frequently transacted business,
the Mahdi himself having for years past dealt in wild beasts for the
different European Zoological Gardens. He is described by the writer
as a very cunning impostor, and as an instance, it is related that a
short time ago he suddenly appeared with a number of warts on his right
cheek, these having been artificially produced by the aid of a German
called Schandorper, formerly a clown, and afterwards a hairdresser, now
in the service of the Mahdi. The reason was that the legends about the
expected Mahdi speak of him as having such marks. Like the beasts he
formerly dealt in, the Mahdi sleeps in the daytime and transacts business
during the night.” I have no doubt whatever that our old acquaintance,
who was the only animal collector I ever met with, is the author of the
preceding, and I think a very credible man.
In the evening, just before dinner, we heard near our camp a great number
of women and children, accompanied by the inevitable beating of the
tom-toms, and that wild, peculiar trilling note of a woman to which I
have before alluded. Being desirous to find out as much as I could of the
habits and customs of these people, I got Mr. Colvin to accompany me to
ascertain the cause. We went and found a great number of women shouting
and chanting, whilst a number of their braves were executing a war dance
with spear and shield, others in the meantime sharpening their spears.
Of course we were at a loss to account for the extreme activity and
evident war-like preliminaries, and returned to camp not feeling certain
whether these sharpened spears would not on the morrow make unpleasant
incisions in our intercastal spaces—at least Mr. Colvin, who was a very
facetious and witty fellow, humorously suggested this. On returning
to camp we passed Herr Schumann’s zareeba, and told him what we had
witnessed, asking him the meaning of it all. He narrated the following
tale of blood: The day before our arrival at Heikota, when we were in
the immediate neighbourhood, probably about the time we were encamping,
a number of the Basé people from the village of Sarcella had come upon
the children of the Beni-Amirs driving the flocks and herds in for the
night. They then perpetrated a deed which makes one shudder to think of,
for they were not satisfied with simply slaughtering these unoffending
children, but doing so in a most horrible manner; in short, they ripped
them open with their knives, and drove off about 2,000 head of cattle. In
consequence of this the Sheik had given the word to his men to prepare
for action, and they were now doing so, intending to make an attack on
the village of Sarcella in the morning.
In the evening we had a champagne dinner; the Sheik studiously avoided
the champagne, and had the shocking bad taste to prefer raspberry vinegar
and water. Herr Schumann also joined us, but, like a Christian, partook
of champagne.
We pretended not to know anything of this slaughtering business, so asked
the Sheik what was the reason of all the commotion amongst the tribe. He
related the same story, adding that he should get his men together in
the morning and attack these Basé (that means kill all they could lay
their hands on) and get his cattle back again. How ably he carried out
his destructive intentions I will tell the reader later on. The customs
are somewhat peculiar in this part of the world. Supposing I and my
party, who are not Beni-Amirs, enter the Basé country from the Beni-Amir
tribe, and they should be at enmity with them at that time, they would
regard us as enemies. Knowing this, we told the Sheik we were very sorry
this had occurred just now, as we intended to explore that country,
and his fighting might make it a very difficult, if not impossible
matter to do so. However, with the true instincts of a gentleman sheik,
he accommodated himself to all parties, very readily acquiesced in our
views, and was good enough to postpone his bloodthirsty intentions for a
few days.
After dinner we chatted round the camp fire for awhile, smoking the
“calumet of peace,” to use a Cooperian phrase, and retired to our
different tents to rest 9.30 p.m. The Sheik, ere he left us, accepted
an invitation to breakfast next day at 7 a.m. If we are late birds in
England, we are early ones in the Soudan.
January 21st.—True to his appointment the Sheik breakfasted with us this
morning. He was not only punctual, but he literally _did_ breakfast;
there was no finiking and fiddling about with his food, for he disposed
of it in a most straightforward manner. Imagine an opening in the
pavement for the reception of coals, and you have a pretty good idea of
the rapid disappearance of food down the œsophagus of our friend. We
commenced with porridge and milk; a dish evidently highly appreciated by
the Sheik; then we had minced collops, kippered herrings, gazelle, stewed
kidneys, wild honey, French jam and coffee, to all of which Sheik Ahmed
did ample justice. After breakfast many warriors drop into camp, and,
in their fashion, squat round in a circle on their haunches. One of the
spears was covered with leather as a sign that they were at peace with
us. A great and long pow-wow ensued as to our future journey; we should
want to buy or hire camels for going through the Basé country, as those
we had hired at Kassala would have to return from Heikota.
Last night we were rather disturbed by the noise of lions, and this
morning, within about a dozen yards of my tent, I found their footprints,
fortunately outside the zareeba. I dare say I spent about an hour or
so at my tent this morning attending to a large number of natives, and
afterwards visited others in their own tents on the river-bed. In some
instances I was obliged to crawl in on my hands and knees. When I had
finished my morning’s work I took up my shot gun and strolled off in
quest of some beautifully plumaged birds which were abundant here and
brought home an eagle, paroquet, laughing-bird, falcon, and shreik, which
I skinned after luncheon.
We again invited Sheik Ahmed and Herr Schumann to join us at the festive
board at 7 p.m.; we also told the former to let his people know that at
about 8.30 p.m. there would be what they call a _fantasia_. Just before
7 p.m. the Sheik arrived and behaved himself in quite a gentlemanly
manner. He was dressed in spotless white, and was so particular as to
borrow a pen-knife from me to clean his nails with (a great instance of
the civilizing effect of Englishmen). Although we drank iced champagne
and claret, he stuck to raspberry vinegar and water, which he consumed
with great relish. He was rather clumsy with a knife and fork; indeed,
almost the only breach of manners that he perpetrated was to finish up
the repast (just before coffee was brought) by plunging the teaspoon
into the preserve, scooping out as much as it would conveniently hold,
conveying it to his mouth and replacing the spoon in the preserve; this
mode of eating has its inconveniences.
Another peculiarity of his was a singular habit that one requires to get
thoroughly accustomed to to really appreciate; he generally indulged in
it largely at meal times when conversing, and having his face directed
to the object of attack. I scarcely know how to describe it, and perhaps
ought not to do so in polite society, but that I wish to tell my readers
exactly what kind of a man this was. It was a method (not unfamiliar
even to English ears) of producing a peculiar vibration or concussion of
the atmosphere by a noise proceeding from the mouth; some polite people
would call it an eructation, but that is not sufficiently explanatory. It
is familiarly and vulgarly known as “belching,” and so frequently did it
occur at meal times that it became known amongst ourselves as “the genial
belch of the Sheik.” I suggested that probably it was a complimentary
proceeding on his part, but I must say if it was so we could readily
have forgiven this _too_ frequent formality. After dinner a great many
of his people assembled (no women, and very few children) to witness the
mysteries and wonders of the magic lantern, or _fantasia_. Would that I
had the pencil of an artist to delineate the picture which the _Graphic_
or any other illustrated paper would have been glad to have reproduced.
Here we were encamped in equatorial Africa; we had five tents pitched
amongst waving dhoum palms, tamarisk, and tamarind, nebbuck, baobob,
hegleek, ebony, and other trees, and the usual luxuriant growth of tall
grass and young palms. About three hundred of these dusky-skinned, almost
black, agile-looking fellows, wearing simply the tope or loin-cloth,
the foremost squatting on their haunches, the rest standing behind, the
Europeans in white clothing, and the picturesquely-dressed Sheik in his
white turban and robes. It was a weird, wild scene, when viewed by the
flickering light of the lanterns as they moved about the camp, but
when the moon shone out, shedding a soft, bright light on the scene, it
certainly was a most charming and interesting picture. Amidst it all
could be seen three hundred glittering spear-heads, making the picture
complete. How easily, had they been so disposed, could these wild sons of
the Soudan have made an end of us, but I am happy to say this ceremony
was not included in the evening’s programme. We placed a wet sheet across
the entrance to one of the bell-tents, and as the Queen (whom they called
the Sultana) the Prince and Princess of Wales, the elephant, lion,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffe, ostrich, crocodile (snapping his jaws
together), and other animals with which they were familiar, appeared on
the canvas, the delight of these grown-up children was manifested by loud
expressions of approval. When the Sheik, his retinue and people took
their departure, we further astonished them by letting off rockets and
illuminating their way with red and blue fire. If I went out there again
I should certainly take out a galvanic battery, which I am sure would
astonish and amuse immensely. We here engaged fresh camel-men, huntsmen,
horse-boys, and servants, at rather high wages, on account of the
rumoured ferocious character of the Basé, the Sheik taking a pretty good
share of the wages himself. All camels were bought, not hired; when we
wanted to hire we were cheerfully assured by the owners that we should
very likely all be killed by the Basé or Kunama people, and they would
lose their camels. The Sheik was presented with a capital bell-tent,
a rifle, and a good musical-box, which played six airs, others, with
razors, butchers’ knives in sheaths, topes, beads, knives, scissors,
small portable looking-glasses, &c., all of which were productive of
great wonder and joy. Sheik Ahmed, in return, sent us a present of ten
sheep and ten milk-giving goats, so that now we had sixteen goats, which
furnished us with plenty of milk every morning to our porridge. As we
intended resuming our journey on the morrow, we were all busy writing
letters to England, which Herr Schumann engaged to forward to Kassala.