now to throw some light on the historical connection between Egypt and
Ethiopia, the importance of which can be only thoroughly demonstrated by
the monuments of Barkal. There, I have no doubt, will be found the oldest
Ethiopian monuments, although, perhaps, not earlier than the period
of Tahraka, who reigned simultaneously over Egypt and Ethiopia in the
seventh century before Christ.
The next morning at sunrise we rode back to the Pyramids, and discovered
fifteen different kings’ names, some of them, however, in very bad
preservation.
We had just completed our survey of the two groups of Pyramids lying
to the north-east, and were riding on to the third, which is situated
in the plain, not far from the ruins of the town, and is, perhaps, the
oldest Necropolis, when we heard shots from the bank, and saw white sails
fluttering over the river. Soon afterwards Erbkam, the two Weidenbachs,
and Franke, came walking across the plain, and hailed us from a great
distance. We had not expected them to arrive so soon, and, therefore,
rejoiced still more to see them again. We could now pursue our journey to
Chartûm together.
We sailed away about two in the afternoon, and the next morning about
ten o’clock reached SCHENDI. We proceeded in the afternoon, spent the
night on the island of HOBI, and the following morning arrived at BEN
NAGA. Here, we first visited the ruins of two small temples; the one
lying towards the west, had Typhonic pillars, instead of columns, but no
inscription was to be found on the few remains; in the other temple to
the east, some sculptures were preserved on the low remains of the walls
of the temple; and also some writing on several circular fragments of
columns, but too little to take away any connected ideas from them. Had
we made some excavations, we might probably have discovered some kings’
names, but it was impossible to make such an experiment till our return.
We procured some camels for the following day, and about nine o’clock in
the morning I started with Abeken, Erbkam, and Max Weidenbach, for NAGA.
Such is the name given to the ruins of a town and several temples, which
are situated in the eastern desert, between seven and eight hours distant
from the Nile. From our landing-place in the vicinity of the only group
of palm-trees in the surrounding country, it was only one half hour to
the village of BEN NAGA, which is in WADI TERESIB. One hour eastward
down the river (for it here flows in a direction from west to east) are
the above-mentioned ruins, in WADI EL KIRBEGÂN, near to which we had
disembarked the previous day; we left them now on our left hand, and rode
in a south-easterly direction into the desert, having here and there some
parched bushes; we traversed the valley of El Kirbegân, which, as far as
this point, runs outwards from the river, in which we found an encampment
of the Ababde Arabs.
Four hours and a half from Ben Naga we came to a single hill in the
desert called BUÊRIB. It was on the water-shed between the smaller
south-western Wadis (so even the flattest depressions of the ground are
called, in which the water runs off, and which we should scarcely call
valleys) and the great, broad WADI AUATÊB, which we were now descending,
after having left Buêrib at a short distance on our left. In three hours
and three-quarters from Buêrib we arrived at the ruins of NAGA.
It was not till we approached the temple that I solved the enigma,
which I had hitherto sought in vain to interpret, and on which neither
Cailliaud nor Hoskins could offer any explanation; namely, how had it
been possible to found and to maintain a large city in the midst of the
desert, so far removed from the river. The whole valley of Auatêb is even
now cultivated land. We found it far and wide covered with the stubble
of Durra. The inhabitants of Schendi, Ben Naga, Fadniê, Selama, Metamme,
consequently of both banks of the Nile, come as far as this to cultivate
the land and to gather in the Durra. The water of the tropical rains
suffices to fertilise this flat but extensive tract of low ground, and
in ancient times, when more care was bestowed upon it, a still greater
profit must have been derived from this region. During the dry season of
the year they must undoubtedly have had large artificial reservoirs, such
as we found even now, though without water, near the more remote ruins to
the north-west of Naga.
The ruins stand on a projection of a mountain range several hours long,
which from them has taken the name of GEBEL E’ NAGA, and stretches out
from the south, northwards. WADI AUATÊB passes along its western side
towards the river. We arrived about half-past five o’clock, after an
uninterrupted ride. On the road we saw the path covered with the marks of
gazelles, wild asses, foxes, jackals, ostriches. Lions are also met with
here, but we did not see any of their tracks.
I visited the three principal temples before nightfall, all of which
belong to a very late period, and do not suggest the ideas of very
ancient art, as Cailliaud and Hoskins thought they could recognise. There
is, besides, a fourth temple by the side of the three principal temples,
of Egyptian architecture, whose well-joined arches, not unpleasantly
combined with Egyptian ornaments, not only presupposes them to have been
erected when the Roman dominion extended over the world, but even that
Roman architects were on the spot. This last temple has no inscriptions.
With respect to the three others, the two lying to the south were built
by one and the same king; in the representations in both temples he is
accompanied by the same queen. But a third royal personage appears behind
them having a different name in the two temples. The Throne-Shield of
Sesurtesen I. is again attached to the name of the king, although he does
not appear to be the same as the King of the Pyramids of Sûr. Besides,
both those other personages have assumed old Egyptian Throne-Shields,
which might easily mislead us.
The third most northern temple has sustained much injury, and very little
writing remains upon it, yet a king is mentioned on the door-posts who
differs from the builder of both the other temples.
The figures of the gods are almost wholly Egyptian, but on the southern
temple there is a figure unknown in Egypt, with three lions’ heads (a
fourth may perhaps be supposed behind) and four arms. This may be the
barbaric god specially mentioned by Strabo, whom the Meröites worshipped
besides Hercules, Pan, and Isis.
The next morning, the 2nd of February, we again visited the three
temples, took some impressions on paper, and then started for the third
group of monuments, named by Cailliaud MESAURÂT. This, however, is a term
which is here employed to designate all the three groups of ruins, and
which only means _pictures_, or walls furnished with pictures. The ruins
of Ben Naga are called MESAURÂT EL KIRBEGÂN, because they are situated in
WADI EL KIRBEGÂN; it appears that the second group only has retained its
old name of NAGA, or MESAURÂT E’ NAGA; the third group situated towards
Schendi is called MESAURÂT E’ SOFRA from the mountain basin in which it
lies, which is called E’ SOFRA, the table.
We first pursued, for the space of two hours, in a northerly direction
the mountain chain of Gebel e’ Naga, in the valley of Auatêb. Then, about
half-past twelve, we ascended through the first defile which opens to
the right, into a valley situated somewhat higher, E’ SELEHA; it becomes
broader behind the first low fore-range, and is luxuriantly overgrown
with grass and shrubs; after extending for an hour and a quarter in the
direction of S.S.W. to N.N.E., it opens on the left hand into the valley
of Auatêb, and straight on into another smaller valley, from which it
is separated by Gebel Lagâr. It is this small valley, which from its
circular form is called E’ SOFRA; here are the ruins which were also seen
by Hoskins, who did not, however, advance as far as Naga. We arrived
about a quarter past two, and had not, therefore, been quite four hours
coming from Naga to this spot. As we only wished to take a passing hasty
survey, we walked through the widely-scattered ruins of the principal
building, which Cailliaud held to be a great school, and Hoskins an
hospital; and we saw in the few sculptures, which are unaccompanied by
inscriptions, that here also we had before us monuments of a late period,
probably still more recent than those in Sûr and Naga. We then went to a
small temple in the neighbourhood, with pillars on which are represented
riders upon elephants, lions, and other strange barbarous scenes. We
looked at the huge artificial cisterns, now called Wot Mahemût, which in
the dry season must have compensated the inhabitants for the want of the
river; and about four o’clock we returned to Ben Naga.
As we emerged from the hills, we met great troops of wild asses, which
always kept at a little distance from us, as if they would invite us to
hunt them. They are of a grey or greyish-red colour, with white bellies;
they all have a black stripe drawn distinctly across the back, and the
tip of the tail is also generally black. Many of them are caught when
young, but they cannot then even be used for riding or carrying burdens.
It is only the next generation which can be employed in that manner.
Almost all the tame asses in the south, which come from the Ass Cataract
(Schellâl homâr) in Berber, are got from this wild breed, and have the
same colour and similar marks.
We encamped soon after sunset in a plain, overgrown with bushes. The
camel-drivers and our Kawass were in great terror of lions in this desert
till a large fire was kindled, which they kept most carefully alive
throughout the night. If a lion only lets his voice be heard near a
caravan, which really does sound deep and awful across the wide desert,
all the camels run away on every side as if they were mad, and it is
difficult to catch them again, frequently not before they have sustained
and done much injury. Human beings are not, however, easily attacked. A
few days ago a camel was strangled by a lion in our neighbourhood, but on
the farther side of the river. A man who was present saved himself on the
nearest tree.
On the 3rd of February we again set out about seven in the morning;
we left the two Buêribs, the great “blue” and the little “red,” at a
considerable distance on our left hand, and shortly before nine o’clock
arrived in the valley of El Kirbegân, which we followed for half an hour
in the direction of the river. We saw the Mesaurât el Kirbegân in its
whole extent on our right, but kept upon the hills till a little after
eleven, when we arrived at Ben Naga, and half an hour afterwards once
more at our landing-place.
Two hours afterwards we continued our journey in our boat. We made,
however, little progress with a strong adverse wind, and saw nothing new,
except for the first time a hippopotamus swimming in the water. The next
morning we disembarked on the western bank, opposite the village of GÔS
BASABIR, to see the ruins of the walls of an old fortress, with towers of
defence, which surrounded the summit of a hill. The space enclosed was
about 300 paces in diameter. In the afternoon we approached the Schellâl
(the Cataract) of GERASCHAB, the higher mountain ranges lying before
us, closed in upon each other, and at length formed a mountain hollow,
seemingly without any outlet; this was, however, to our surprise, near at
hand, for we turned to our left into a narrow defile, which widened into
a high and wild rocky valley; we followed it for nearly an hour before
again emerging on the other side into another plain. The eruptive granite
ranges of QIRRE pass on the eastern side of the river into RAUIÂN, “the
thirsty quenched;” while to the west, some distance from the river, there
is ATSCHAN “the thirsty,” also rising up in a detached form.
The 5th February we landed about eleven in the morning at TAMANIÂT.
Mohammed Saïd, the former treasurer of the late Achmed Pascha, whose
acquaintance we had made in Dâmer, had given us a letter to one of the
sub-officials there, which contained instructions to him to deliver
to us the fragment of an inscription which had been found in Soba. It
belonged to the centre of a marble table, which was inscribed on both
sides with Greek or Coptic letters of a late period. The signs, which
were not difficult to read, neither contained Greek nor Coptic words;
only the name ⲅⲉⲱⲣⲅⲓⲟ.. could be deciphered. The same evening we arrived
in CHARTÛM. This name signifies an elephant’s trunk, and probably was
derived from the form of the narrow tongue of land on which the town is
situated, between the two Nile rivers which unite at this spot.
My first visit with Abeken was to Emin Pascha, who had reached Chartûm
before us. He received us in a very friendly manner, and would not allow
us to leave him the whole morning.
A magnificent breakfast, consisting of thirty dishes, which we partook
of at his house, gave us a most curious insight into the secrets of
the Turkish culinary art; as I learned from our highly-fed Pascha, it
resembles the most accomplished systems of the latest French kitchens, in
obeying the refined regulations of a fastidious taste in the preparation
and arrangement of food. Soon after the first dishes, mutton, roasted on
the spit, is brought in, which cannot be dispensed with at any Turkish
meal. Then follow various courses of dishes of meats and vegetables,
solid and liquid, sour and sweet, and a certain repetition of changes is
observed in the successive dishes, in order to keep up the keenness of
the appetite. Pillau, boiled rice, always forms the conclusion.
The external preparations for such an entertainment are somewhat as
follows. A great, round, metal tray, with a flat border, about three
feet in diameter, is placed on a low frame, and serves as a table, round
which five or six persons seat themselves on cushions or coverlets; the
legs vanish beneath the body, in the ample folds of the dress; as to the
hands, the left must be invisible, it would be quite improper to let it
ever be seen during meals. The right hand must alone be active. No such
thing as a plate is to be seen, no more than knives and forks. The table
is covered with deeper or shallower, covered or uncovered dishes, which
are constantly changed, so that but a very few morsels can be taken from
each. Particular dishes, however, such as roast meat, cold milk with
cucumbers, &c., remain longer on the table, and one returns to them more
frequently. Both before and after dinner, the hands are of course washed.
A servant, or slave, kneeling, holds in one hand a metal basin, in the
middle of which lies a piece of soap, in a little projecting saucer,
expressly used for the purpose; with the other he pours water from a
metal pitcher over the hands, and a fine, ornamentally embroidered towel
hangs over his arm for drying them.
After dinner the pipe is immediately presented, coffee handed round,
and then one may retire. The Turks are in the habit of making this the
period of their mid-day repose, till Asser. But before we parted from our
host, a number of weapons were brought, belonging to the savage nations
living farther up the country, lances, bows, arrows, clubs, and a king’s
sceptre, which he sent to the boat for me, as a present to his guest.
We afterwards visited our countryman, NEUBAUER, the apothecary of
the province, who has been very unfortunate: a short time since, he
was removed from his post by the late Achmed Pascha; but he has now
been again appointed apothecary by Achmed Pascha Menekle, through
the intercession of Dr. Koch. We then went to a Pole who has settled
here—Hermanovich, the head-physician of the province, who, in consequence
of an order from the Pascha, offered us his house, to which we went the
following day; it had lately been newly fitted up; there was a garden
beside it, and a great court-yard, which was very useful for unpacking
and repairing our chests and tents.
The next day the Pascha returned our visit. He came on horseback. We
handed him coffee, pipes, sherbet, and showed him some drawings and
pictures from Egypt, in which he was interested merely from curiosity.
He is a large, corpulent man, a Circassian by birth, and therefore, like
most of his countrymen, better informed than the Turks in general. I saw
a rich collection of all kinds of birds of the Sudan, at the house of a
Syrian, IBRAHIM CHÊR; there were about 300 different species, and between
twenty and thirty choice specimens of each.
On one of the following days, I took a walk with Abeken and Erbkam to
the opposite bank of our tongue of land on the WHITE RIVER, which we
then followed up to its junction with the Blue; its waters are in fact
whiter, and have a less pleasant taste than those of the Blue, because at
a higher point it flows slowly through several lakes, the standing water
of which imparts an earthy and less pure taste to it. I have filled some
bottles with the water of the Blue, and White Rivers, which I shall take
away with me sealed up.
On the occasion of a more recent and friendly visit of the Pascha, we met
the brother of the former Sultan of Kordofan (who was himself also called
Mak or Melek) and the Vizier of the Sultan NIMR (Tiger) of Schendi. The
latter still lives in Abyssinia, whither he fled, after having, in the
year 1822, burned the conqueror of his country, ISMAEL PASCHA, a son of
Mohammed Ali, and all his officers, after a nocturnal banquet which he
had prepared for him in a somewhat lonely house.
On the 14th, we made an excursion up the WHITE RIVER, but were soon
obliged to turn back, because it has so little current, that, on account
of the north wind which of late has constantly been blowing, our return
threatened to be tedious. The banks of the White River are barren, and
the few trees which formerly stood in the neighbourhood of Chartûm are
now cut down, and have been used for building or fuel. There is a larger
mass of water in the White River than in the Blue, and even after its
junction it preserves its course, so that the Blue River must be viewed
as the secondary river, but the White as the true Nile. Their different
waters can be distinguished beside each other for a long time after their
junction.
On the 16th February, I sent for some DINKA slaves, to interrogate them
about their language. They were, however, so dull of apprehension, that I
could only with difficulty get out of them the words for numbers up to a
hundred, and a few separate pronouns. The languages of the Dinkas and the
Schilluks, who dwell several days’ journey distant up the White River,
the former on the eastern bank, the latter on the western, are as little
known grammatically as most of the other languages of Central Africa; I
therefore requested the Pascha to procure me some intelligent persons who
were well acquainted with those languages. This was impossible for the
present, but we shall attend to it on our return.
Meanwhile our purchases and repairs being completed, I hurried on the
departure as much as possible. The house of Hermanovich will also be
at our disposal on our return; it is built in a convenient manner, and
is very airy. I had a prospect of the oldest house in the town from my
window, whose pointed straw roof peeped over our wall. These pointed
straw huts, called TUKELE, are the characteristic buildings of this
country, and are found almost exclusively in the south. But as Chartûm
is a new town, the small number of old huts have disappeared, with the
exception of this one, and all the houses are built of unburnt bricks.
About mid-day, on the 17th February, we embarked on board our boats.
I sailed to the south with Abeken up the Blue River, partly to become
acquainted with its natural character, partly to view the ruins of Soba
and Mandera; our other travelling companions, who had nothing to occupy
them farther up, sailed northwards back to Meröe, in order to sketch the
monuments there.
The following day we landed on the eastern bank, where great heaps of red
bricks, destined for exportation, proclaimed the vicinity of the ruins
of SOBA. At the present day, unburnt bricks alone are made throughout
the country, therefore all the ruins of burnt stones must have belonged
to an earlier period. This material for building is transported in great
quantities from Soba as far as Chartûm, and beyond it.
We disembarked, and had scarcely got beyond the thorny bushes nearest to
the bank, when we perceived the overturned mounds of bricks, covering a
large plain, possibly an hour in circumference. Some larger heaps might
be the remains of the Christian churches which are described by Selîm of
Assuan (in Macrizi), in the tenth century, as magnificently decorated
with gold, when Soba was still the capital of the kingdom of ALOA. We
were shown the spot where some time ago a stone lion is said to have been
discovered, which is now in the possession of Churshid Pascha, in Cairo.
Nowhere could walls, nor the form of buildings, be recognised; it was
only on the mound to the south, at a little distance off, that we found
some hewn yellow blocks of sandstone, and a low wall; on another heap lay
several rough slabs of a black slaty stone.
The country round Soba, like this, is flat both far and wide to the base
of the hills in front of the Abyssinian range, and the ground, especially
at this season, is arid and black; the denser vegetation is confined to
the bank of the river; farther off there are nothing but single trees,
now in greater, now in fewer numbers.
I promised the sailors a sheep, on condition that we should reach
KAMLÎN betimes, for there was a strong wind, which made us very slow
in our progress; our boat, besides, is not a fast one, the sailors are
inexperienced, and from the low state of the water, the boat easily
sticks fast in the sand; we sailed on almost the whole night through, and
reached Kamlîn about eight in the morning.
The ancient place of the same name lies one half-hour farther up the
river, and is composed of a few huts. The houses near which we landed
belong to a number of factories, which Nureddin Effendi, a Coptic
Catholic Egyptian, who went over to Islam, established, in common with
the late Achmed Pascha, more than four years ago, and which yield a
rich profit. A simple, homely German, who has never given way to the
bad customs of the East, born in the neighbourhood of Würzburg, by name
Bauer, has established a Soap and Brandy Manufactory, of which he takes
the management himself. A Sugar and Indigo Factory is conducted by an
Arab. Bauer has settled farther to the south than any European we have
ever met with in Mohammed Ali’s dominions, and we were rejoiced to find
such a good termination to the long but not very agreeable chain of
Europeans, most of them degenerated in civilisation, who have preferred
the Turkish government to that of their Fatherland.[43]
He has an old German housekeeper with him, Ursula, a comical,
good-natured soul, to whom it was no less a holiday to receive German
guests again, than it was to himself. With joyful alacrity she rummaged
out some European utensils, and the only fork that was still in
preservation, and served up fried chickens, saurkraut, and some small
sausages, with excellent wheaten bread; at last actually a cherry cake,
of baked European cherries (for our fruits do not grow in Egypt), in
short, a home repast such as we never expected to see in this Ultima
Thule.
On a pedestal in front of Bauer’s house we found the most southern
Egyptian sculpture which we have met with: a sitting statue of OSIRIS,
with the usual attributes, carved out of black granite; a portion of it
is mutilated, and it is of a late style, about 2½ feet high; it had been
found in SOBA, and is not devoid of interest, being the only monument of
Egyptian art from this town.