it was related to me by the European eye-witnesses. Already twelve among
the forty-one Sheikhs who were carried away, and were nearly sinking
under the fatigue of the marches, have been shot on the road. The others
were exhibited to me singly. Each of them carried before him the stem
of a tree as thick as a man’s arm, about five or six feet long, which
terminated in a fork, into which the neck was fixed. The prongs of the
fork were bound together by a cross-piece of wood, fastened with a strap.
Some of their hands, also, were tied fast to the handle of the fork,
and in this condition they remain day and night. During the march, the
soldier who is specially appointed to overlook the prisoner, carries
the end of the pole: in the night most of them have their feet also
pinioned together. All of them had had their black curls shaven off.
The Sheikhs alone still wore their large head-dress of braids or curls.
Most of them looked very depressed and miserable; they had been the most
distinguished of their nation, and had been accustomed to be treated
by those they commanded, with the greatest reverence. They almost all
spoke Arabic, beside their own language, and mentioned to me the tribes
to which they severally belonged. But the most distinguished of all of
them was a Fakir, who was held sacred; his word had been regarded like
that of a prophet throughout the whole land, and, by his oracular sayings
and exhortations, he had been chiefly instrumental in causing the whole
revolution. He was called Sheikh MÛSA EL FAKIR, and was of the tribe of
the Mitkenâbs. I found him an old, blind, broken-down, hoary man, with
a few snow-white hairs; his body was already more like a skeleton; he
was obliged to be raised up by others, and was scarcely able to hear and
answer the questions which were addressed to him. His little, shrivelled
face, was incapable of any new expression corresponding to the present
circumstances. He looked forwards with a fixed and indifferent stare,
and I was surprised how such a shadow could have still exercised so
much influence on the minds of his fellow-countrymen as to excite a
revolution. Yet it is remarkable that, both in Egypt and everywhere about
here, blind people have an especial reputation for sanctity, and are held
in great respect as Prophets.
After breakfast I had one of the captured Sheikhs, Mohammed welled
Hammed, brought to the tent of Osman, that I might question him about his
language, of which I was still perfectly ignorant. He was an intelligent,
well-spoken man, who at once took advantage of the opportunity which
I readily granted him, to relate his history to Osman Bey and Sheikh
Ahmed, and to assure them of his innocence of the revolutionary events.
He belonged to the tribe of the HALENKA, from the village of KASSALA. I
made him give me the lists of the forty-one Sheikhs and their tribes, and
had them written down. Six tribes had taken part in the insurrection—the
Mitkenâb, Halenka, Kelûli, Mohammedîn, Sobeh, Sikulâb, and Hadenduwa
(plur. from Henduwa).
All the tribes of Taka speak the same language; but only a few of them
also understand the Arabic. I suspect that it is the same as that of the
Bischâri tribes. It has many, and well-distributed vowels, and is very
euphonous, as it is without the hard guttural sound of the Arabs. On
the other hand, it has a peculiar alphabetical letter, which to our ear
seems to stand between _r_, _l_, and _d_; a cerebral _d_, which, like the
Sanscrit, is pronounced by throwing back the point of the tongue upwards.
After our examination of the Sheikh it had become too late to set out
again; night would have overtaken me, and especially on camel-back, it
is impossible to avoid the dangerous branches of the thorny trees. I
therefore complied with the invitation to spend the night in the camp,
till the rising of the moon; Osman Bey would then at the same time start
in the opposite direction with the army. A whole sheep was roasted on
the spit, which we ate with a hearty appetite.
I learnt from Osman Bey about many interesting customs of the most
southern provinces, as for the last sixteen years he has been living
here in the south, and has an accurate knowledge of the country, to the
extreme limits of Mohammed Ali’s government. It is still the custom in
Fazoql to hang a king who is no longer beloved, which occurred only a few
years ago to the father of the present reigning monarch. His relatives
and ministers assemble round him, and announce to him that as he no
longer pleases the men and women of the country, the oxen, asses, and
fowls, &c., &c., but is detested by all, it is better that he should die.
Once upon a time, when a king did not wish to submit to this practice,
his own wife and mother made the most pressing remonstrances to him, not
to load himself with still greater disgrace, upon which he yielded to his
fate. Diodorus narrates exactly the same resignation to death in those
who in Ethiopia were to die by judicial verdict; a person who had been
condemned, and who had at first intended to save himself by flight, had
nevertheless allowed himself to be strangled without resistance by his
mother, who had obstructed him in his design. Osman Bey has only lately,
he assures me himself, abolished the custom there of burying old people
alive, when they become feeble. A pit used to be dug and a horizontal
passage at the end of it, and the body laid within, like that of a dead
person, firmly swathed in cloths; by his side they placed a bowl with
merisa, fermented Durra water, a pipe, and a hoe, to cultivate the land;
also, according to the wealth of the individual, one or two ounces of
gold, to pay the ferryman who must convey the deceased across the great
river which flows between heaven and hell. The entrance is then filled
up with rubbish. Indeed, according to Osman, the whole legend of Charon,
even with a Cerberus, appears still to exist here.
This custom of burying old people alive also exists, as I afterwards
heard, among the negro tribes to the south of Kordofan. Invalids and
cripples, those especially who have an infectious malady, are there
also put to death in a similar manner. The family complains to the sick
man, that because of him, no one will come near them any longer; that
he himself is wretched, and death would be only a gain for him; that
he would again find his relations in the other world, and would be in
health and happiness there. They charge him with kind messages to all
the deceased, and then bury him either as they do in Fazoql, or standing
upright in a pit. Besides merisa, bread, a hoe, and a pipe, he is there
given a sword and two pairs of sandals, for the deceased live in the
other world just as they do here on earth, only in greater happiness.
The dead are buried with loud lamentations, while their actions and good
qualities are extolled. Nothing is there known of a river and ferryman
of the lower world, but they are acquainted with the old Mohammedan
legend of the invisible angel Asrael, or as he was here called Osraîn.
He is commissioned by God, as they say, to receive the souls of the
dead, and to conduct the good to the place of reward, the bad to that
of punishment. He dwells upon a tree, _el Ségerat Mohàna_ (the Tree of
Completion), which has as many leaves as there are living men. There is
a name upon every leaf, and a new one grows whenever a child is born.
If any one sickens, his leaf fades, and should he die, Osraîn breaks it
off. In former times he used to come in a visible form to those whom he
was going to carry away from the earth, and thereby put them in a great
fright. Since the days of the Prophet he has been invisible, for when
he came to fetch the soul of Mohammed, the latter told him that it was
not good that he should terrify mankind by his visible appearance; they
might then easily die of fright without having previously prayed; for he
himself, although very courageous, and a man of enlarged mind, had been
terrified by his appearance. The Prophet, therefore, prayed to God that
he would make Osraîn invisible, and the prayer was heard.
Osman Bey told me that among some other tribes in Fazoql, the king was
obliged to administer justice daily beneath a certain tree. If on account
of sickness, or from any other mishap, which renders him unfit, he does
not make his appearance for three whole days, he is hung up. Two razors
are placed in the noose, and when this is drawn tight, they cut the
throat across.
The meaning of another of their customs is quite obscure. At a certain
time of the year they have a kind of carnival, where every one does what
he likes best. Four ministers of the king then bear him on an anqareb out
of his house to an open space of ground; a dog is fastened by a long cord
to one of the feet of the anqareb. The whole population collects round
the place, streaming in on every side. They then throw darts and stones
at the dog, till he is killed, after which the king is again borne into
his house.
Amidst these and other tales and accounts of those tribes, which were
besides confirmed by the old Chief Sheikh Ahmed, we feasted on the
roasted sheep in the open air in front of the tent. Night was somewhat
advanced, and the near and distant camp-fires, with the people busy
around them, either squatting about, or walking up and down between
groups of trees, had an extremely picturesque and unique effect.
Gradually they all became extinguished, with the exception of the
watch-fire; the poor prisoners scattered here and there, had their legs
fastened still more tightly together, and it became quieter in the camp.
Osman Bey is a strong, cheerful man, with natural manners, and at
the same time a strict and valued officer. He promised to give me a
slight proof of the discipline and good order among his soldiers, whose
external appearance did not prejudice me very much in their favour by
an unexpected reveillé. I was sleeping on an anqareb in the open tent,
covered with a soldier’s cloak. About three o’clock in the morning I was
awoke by a slight noise; Osman Bey, who lay beside me on the ground,
got up, and ordered the nearest drummer of the chief watch to beat the
reveillé. He made a few, short, interrupted beats of the drum, quickly
sinking again into silence. These were immediately repeated at the post
of the next regiment, then at the third, fourth, and fifth, in various,
always more distant, positions of the camp; and suddenly the whole mass
of 5000 men rose up and stood to their arms. Nothing was to be heard
but a soft whispering and rustling of the soldiers, who were rousing
each other, and the faint clank of the weapons, which were cautiously
separated from one another. I went through the camp with Dr. Peney, who
came across to me from the adjoining tent, and in a very few minutes we
found the whole army under arms, arranged in ranks, the officers marching
up and down in front. On our return, after we had related to Osman Bey
the wonderfully punctual execution of his commands, he allowed the
soldiers to separate again, and did not give the signal for the breaking
up of the camp before four o’clock. That produced a very different
effect: all were quickly in movement and activity; the abominable
gurgling and miserable roaring of the camels was heard above everything
during the packing up; the tents were taken down, and in less than half
an hour the army marched southwards with pipe and drum.
I started in an opposite direction. The early morning with the bright
moonlight was very refreshing; the birds awoke with the dawn of day, a
cool wind rose, and we trotted quickly through the thorny sont-trees.
Soon after sunrise we met a magnificent procession of well-dressed men,
and attendants, on camels and asses. It was the King Mahmûd welled
Schauîsch, whose father, the warlike Schauîsch, King of the Schaiqies,
is well known in the conquering expedition of Ismael Pascha, to whom he
did not submit for a long time, and at whose house in Hellet e’ Solimân,
near Messelemîeh, we had stopped a few weeks ago. He had gone with Ahmed
Pascha Menekle to Taka, and followed the army to Halfaï, where he now
usually resides. About half-past nine we again reached the Pyramids. My
camel, a young one, and very difficult to manage, shortly before, took
fright in the plain, and ran round in a circle with me as if it was mad;
at length, stumbling over a tall bunch of grass, it fell on one knee,
and hurled me far over its head, happily without doing me any serious
injury.
On my return I occupied myself, without interruption, with the Pyramids
and their inscriptions. I had several more chambers excavated, and made
an exact description of each individual Pyramid. Altogether, I have
found about thirty different names of Ethiopian kings and queens. I have
certainly not yet been able to bring them into any chronological order,
but from a comparison of the different inscriptions, I have learnt much
about the manner of the succession, and form of government. The King of
MERÖE (whose name in one of the most southern Pyramids is written MERU,
or MÉRUA,) was at the same time first Priest of Ammon; if his consort
survived him, she succeeded him in the government, and the male heirs
to the throne only took the second place beside her; if the reverse
happened, the son, as it appears, succeeded, who, even in the lifetime
of his father, bore the royal shields and titles, and was second Priest
of Ammon. Thus we still see here the domination of the priests, which is
spoken of by Diodorus and Strabo, and the pre-eminence of the worship of
Ammon, which is even mentioned by Herodotus.
The inscriptions on the Pyramids show that, at the period of their
erection, the hieroglyphic writing was no longer perfectly understood,
and that the hieroglyphic signs were often only added as a customary
ornament, without wishing to express anything by them. Even the kings’
names are thereby rendered uncertain, and this for a long time prevented
me from recognising the three royal personages who built the chief
temples in Naga, Ben Naga, and in Wadi Temêd, and who undoubtedly
belonged to one of the most brilliant periods of the Meröitic Monarchy.
I am now convinced that the Pyramids with Roman arched ante-chambers, in
the brick-work of which Ferlini found the treasure concealed, in spite of
slight alterations in the name, belonged to the same mighty and warlike
queen who appears in Naga with her rich decorations, and her pointed
nails almost an inch long. By the circumstance of their having belonged
to a well-known, and, as it appears, the greatest of all the queens of
Meröe, who built almost all the temples still in tolerable preservation
on the island, Ferlini’s jewels become infinitely more valuable for the
history of Ethiopian art, in which they now occupy a fixed position. The
purchase of that remarkable discovery is a most important acquisition to
our museum.
An _Ethiopian-demotic_ writing was more in use at that period, and
more generally understood than hieroglyphics. It was similar to the
Egyptian-demotic in its characters, although consisting of a very limited
alphabet of between twenty-five and thirty signs. The writing, like the
latter, is read from right to left, but is distinguished by a constant
separation of the words by two strongly-marked points. I have already
found six-and-twenty similar demotic inscriptions; some of them on
steles and libation-tablets; some of them in the ante-chambers of the
Pyramids, over the persons belonging to the processions, who usually go
to meet the deceased king with palm-branches; some of them on the smooth
surfaces of the Pyramids; and indeed always in such a state, that they
are clearly proved to have belonged originally to the representations,
and not to have been added at a later period. On a closer examination
of this writing, it will not perhaps be difficult to decipher, and we
should then obtain the first certain sounds of the Ethiopian language
spoken here at that period, and could decide on its true relation to
the Egyptian language, while the almost perfect agreement between the
Ethiopian and Egyptian hieroglyphics have hitherto yielded no conclusive
evidence that there is an equal accordance between the two languages. It
seems, on the contrary, and with respect to the later Meröitic period
may be safely affirmed, that the hieroglyphics, as the sacred monumental
writing, were adopted from Egypt without alteration, but also without
being perfectly understood. The few signs which constantly recur,
prove that the Ethiopian-demotic writing is purely alphabetic, which
must very much facilitate the deciphering of it. The separation in the
words has perhaps been borrowed from the Roman writing. But its analogy
with the Egyptian development of writing went still further; for next
to this Ethiopian-demotic writing there is an _Ethiopian-Greek_, at a
later period, which may be perfectly compared with the _Coptic_, and
it has borrowed certain letters directly from it. It is found in the
inscriptions of Soba, and in some others on the walls of the temple-ruins
of Wadi e’ Sofra. We have therefore now, as in the case in Egypt, two
modes of writing, which no doubt sprang up one after the other, and
really contain the actual Ethiopian dialect of the country. It is now
usual to call the ancient Abyssinian Geez language the Ethiopian, which,
with the characteristics of a Semetic language that has immigrated from
Arabia, has only a local, but no ethnographic claim on our attention. A
Geez inscription, which I have found in the chamber of a Pyramid, has
evidently been written down at a later period.
I hope that we shall obtain many important results from studying the
native inscriptions, as well as the present living languages. The
Ethiopian name comprehended much that was dissimilar among the ancients.
The ancient population of the whole Nile valley as far as Chartûm, and
perhaps, also, along the Blue River, as well as the tribes of the desert
to the east of the Nile, and the Abyssinian nations, were in former
times probably more distinctly separated from the Negroes than now, and
belonged to the _Caucasian_ race. The Ethiopians of Meröe (according to
Herodotus, the parent-state of all Ethiopia) were a red-brown people,
similar to the Egyptians, but darker, as they are at the present day.
The monuments also prove this, on which I have more than once found the
_red_ colour of the skin in the kings and queens preserved. In Egypt,
especially in the Old Monarchy, before the mixture with the Ethiopian
race, at the period of the Hyksos, the women were always painted yellow;
and the Egyptian women even now, who are blanched in the harem, incline
to the same colour. But red women appear even after the 18th Dynasty,
and the Ethiopian women were always so represented. It appears that much
Ethiopian blood is mingled with the nation of the so-called Barâbras, so
widely distributed at the present day, and this perhaps will also one day
appear still more distinctly from their language. This, no doubt, is the
ancient _Nubian_, and has been still retained in somewhat distant regions
to the south-west under this name; for the Nuba languages in and round
Kordofan, as can be proved, are partly related to the Berber language.
I have also found indications in the local names that this last, which
is only now spoken from Assuan to Dar Schaiqîeh, south of Dongola, in
the Nile valley, predominated for a long while also in the province of
Berber, and still higher up.
MARÛGA, DANQELEH, and E’ SÛR, are close to the ruins of the city of
Meröe, and are situated along the river from south to north; all three
are comprehended under the name of BEGERAUÎEH, so that we scarcely ever
hear anything but this last name mentioned. Five minutes to the north of
e’ Sûr lies the village of Qala, and ten minutes farther on El Guês, both
of which are comprehended under the name of Ghabîne. One hour down the
river there are two other villages, not far apart, called MARÛGA, which
were deserted even before the conquest of the country; and still more to
the north, close to the Omarâb Mountains, which project towards the river
on the eastern bank, there is a third village called GEBEL (mountain
village) inhabited only by Fukaras. Cailliaud knew only the most southern
of the three MARUGAS, situated near the largest temple-ruins. He was
struck by the name, on account of its similarity with that of Meröe. The
similarity becomes still more evident when it is known that the real name
is MARU, since -GA is only the universal termination to names, and is
always either added or omitted, according to the grammatical combination,
for it does not belong to the root of the word. In the dialect of Kenûs
and Dongola this termination is -GI; in the dialect of Mahass and
Sukkôt it is -GA. When I ran over the different local names of the upper
countries with one of our Berber servants, I learnt that in one dialect
_maro_ or _marôgi_, in the other _maru_ or _marûga_, means “mounds of
ruins,” “destroyed temples;” thus, for example, the ruins of ancient
Syene, or those on the island of Philæ, are called _marôgi_. There is
another Berber word quite distinct from this, _mérua_, which is also
pronounced _méraui_, by which all _white rocks_, _white stones_, are
designated; as, for example, such a rock as occurs in the neighbourhood
of Assuan, on the eastern side of the Nile, at the village of El Gezîret.
By this it is evident that the appellation Marûga has nothing to do with
the name of Meröe, as a town would not be called when first founded
“ruin city.” On the other hand, the name of Mérua, Méraui (in German,
_Weissenfels_, white rock), would be very appropriate for a town, if its
local position gave occasion to it, as at Mount Barkal, but which, again,
is not really the case here.
LETTER XXI.
_Keli, opposite Meröe, the 29th April._
Franke did not return from his expedition to Ben Naga before the 23rd
instant. He brought the altar here, on a boat, in sixteen blocks. All
the stones taken together, which we must carry along with us on the
difficult journey of six or seven days across the desert, form a load
for about twenty camels, so that our train will be considerably longer
than before. Unfortunately, on account of the difficulty of the means of
transport, we have been unable to take anything away with us from NAGA
in the desert, except a Roman inscription, mentioned above, and a great
_Clavis Nilotica_, peculiarly carved. Some very strange representations
are to be seen there; among others, a figure sitting frontways, a crown
of rays over the floating hair, the left arm raised at a right angle, and
the fore-finger and middle-finger of the hand stretching upwards, as is
represented in the old Byzantine figures of Christ. The right hand holds
a long staff resting on the ground, as John the Baptist usually holds it.
This figure is totally different from the Egyptian representations, and
no doubt is borrowed elsewhere, as well as another god who frequently
appears, also represented frontwise, with a richly curling beard; he
might at first sight be compared to a Jupiter, or Serapis, in bearing and
appearance. The mixture of the religions had made great progress at that
period, evidently of very late date, and it would not surprise me if it
should be proved by later researches that the Ethiopian kings had adopted
Christ and Jupiter also, among their various kinds of gods. The god with
the three or four lions’ heads is probably not a native invention, but
obtained from some other quarter.
On the 25th we crossed the Nile in boats, in order to set out on the
left bank, on our road across the desert to Gebel Barkal. There seemed
to be difficulties again about procuring camels, but my threat, that if
they would not come to a private agreement I should, on the ground of my
Firman, settle the matter, not with the Sheikh but with the Government,
had such a rapid effect, that, even the following morning, we were
enabled to set out with eighty camels from Gôs Burri in the immediate
neighbourhood, across the desert.