Governor of Dongola — Embarkation of camels — Well in the desert — Camel
drivers — Iron fragments — Effect of cold on the Bedouins — An Arab
superstition — Verdure on the banks of the Nile — Pastoral scene.
During the first two days of the four we unwillingly passed at Dongola,
my chief employment was lying on my back applying a lotion to my eyes.
This treatment succeeded wonderfully, and I at length got rid of the
inflammation.
We visited the Governor, to whom we had letters of recommendation, and a
firman, about three times a day. We found him polite, extremely
obliging, and gentleman-like; he had travelled much in Europe, and was
well acquainted by name with all the leading statesmen of England and
France.
He at once sent a soldier to collect camels for us, and afterwards sent
four more on the same errand, as there was some difficulty, the Camel
Sheik being ill of the small-pox, and no one liking to interfere in his
duties. Notwithstanding all the Governor’s exertions in our favour, only
nine camels had made their appearance by the third day. An express was
sent to order a fresh supply at Argo island, about twenty miles
distant—and these were brought to a place near the river, where the
banks were sufficiently low to embark them and the luggage, that we
might determine their different employments. It was not till between two
and three o’clock of the following afternoon that we were able to effect
a start.
We broke up our camp; had everything transported by camels to the
water’s side, to be shipped in two crazy boats, for the purpose of
crossing to the opposite bank. I watched the embarking of our
unfortunate beasts, who, much to my disgust, were tormented with more
than Smithfield cruelty. After having been dragged down the bank on
their knees, they were hoisted into the boat by the aid of ropes.
The scene was further enlivened by the soldiers thrashing the Bedouins
with whips, made of hippopotamus’s hide; and as each of the sufferers
had a wife, and each possessed the power of screaming, their united
concert in that way defies description.
Dongola is a large mud town, with capacious streets, and pieces of
ground without buildings. In one of these I counted sixteen large white
and black eagles, moving about as unconcernedly as barn-door fowls. They
are almost tame, and quite impudent, for some of them came swooping down
upon our hen-coop with a rush that nearly made the inmates die of
fright. We were obliged to shoot a couple of the most audacious.
The dogs too had to be ran after and stoned for being too inquisitive
respecting our dinner. We found them great connoisseurs of soup, and
possessed of a respectable taste for more solid cookery. A superstition
prevails which prevents these curs from been destroyed; so they multiply
at a considerable rate, and though perfectly harmless and cowardly, are
an immense nuisance to strangers.
Crowds of children visited our tents, and a few very pretty little
girls, uncommonly unlike their mammas. One wore a girdle of agate, badly
cut, from which hung a fringe of leather. Several necklaces were round
her neck; from one a Spanish dollar was suspended.
My brother and I, well supplied with five-para pieces, went into the
houses. We were soon surrounded by crowds of mothers and children; but
the young girls, from seven to eighteen, were so shy, that they
invariably ran away directly we made our appearance.
We killed about seven brace of partridges during our stay at this place;
they were very wild, but exceedingly numerous. The only day I could go
out, we saw at least two thousand, yet only succeeded in bagging a
brace, and this was quite a chance, as we were never allowed to approach
within sixty yards.
The next morning we climbed the steep banks, then turning our backs on
the river and its verdant shore, emerged on the desert. We had started
for a journey—some said of three days, some said of six—with no track to
guide us—nothing but hills and valleys of sand, and rocks half-covered
with sand—occasionally a watercourse with its scanty
herbage—occasionally heaps of stones. One placed on a point of rock
betrayed, by its artificial character, an attempt to form a land-mark;
but generally these heaps were so numerous as completely to confuse
those who sought guidance from them—sometimes leading them hopelessly
about till they became bewildered. To add to the comfort of our
prospects, we were told that we should meet with no water, except one
well, at which in due time we arrived. We found it about six feet in
diameter, and thirty deep; the water, though not very fresh, was clear,
and of a good flavour; a skin and a rope were ready to pour a supply
into a mud-basin for the camels. Here we lunched, under the shade of
some thorny acacias that grew round the well, and formed a most
acceptable promenade for our beasts.
All my interest about these animals is lessening fast. It is impossible
to imagine how provoking they can make themselves, and did contrive to
make themselves day after day. Some would run away—some, by way of
contrast, not only would not run, they would not move. Some were always
lying down—some could not be persuaded to kneel: but mine beat all the
rest in camel-like amiability. On an average he howled six hours a day—a
kind of music such as no one can conceive who has not heard it. He would
stand doggedly still, till forced by blows to lie down; and every time I
turned round, he howled fiercer than ever.
Of these we again have eighteen, but our caravan is increased by a
soldier, or cavass, whose appearance (armed as he is with one of the
matchlocks sold by the English Government to Mehemet Ali, bearing the
Tower mark) could affright only the most timid of Bedouins.
Our camel-drivers are the wildest-looking men I ever met with; with
their dishevelled hair, and their only garb a blanket, that covered as
much or as little of their persons as the temperature made desirable.
One of these was especially conspicuous by his large square shoulders,
his miserable blanket, too scanty in its dimension to reach below the
knee, whence it hung in a fringe of tatters; his hair hung about him
like a brood of snakes, and his aspect was singularly wild, if not
maniacal. Sometimes a kind of mirthful frenzy seized these fellows, and
they would suddenly fling their limbs about in the strangest attitudes,
as they danced around their camels, shouting, singing, and finally
begging for backsheesh.
We have also in our train a young camel, a dog of the gazelle hunting
species, and a Nubian who is returning to his home at Gebel Berkel. He
was, by his own account, to have accomplished the distance—one hundred
and twenty miles, as the crow flies—between sunrise and sunset, but as
his camel ran away, and he was some hours in finding it, he is still
with us, enjoying the reputation of being a humbug.
The ground was everywhere strewn with fragments, as it were, of iron
cups, vessels, and immense bowls, which had a very curious appearance;
some pieces appeared, both in colour and weight, like the sediment at
the bottom of iron boilers.
We passed three boundless plains of sand, with here and there gravel,
covered with these ferruginous materials, mixed with innumerable cannon-
balls and bullets. I could almost have fancied that we were approaching
the forge of Vulcan, where he used, in the classic age, to manufacture
thunderbolts.
The next day we had what, in England, would be called a bitter east
wind, which brought us all the usual consequences of change of weather,
such as colds, swelled lips, and sore faces: we were intensely cold all
day on one side of our bodies, and intolerably hot on the other, as if
we stood by a bonfire at Christmas.
The Bedouins declared that they would not work: as fast as our servants
fetched them, they slunk back again to the fire, swearing that we might
kill them, but that they could not endure the cold. They did, however,
move away at last, and we started before sunrise.
We have seen no game, except a hare; but have discovered some recent
gazelle marks. Our last pursuit of this species of game has not cooled
our sporting ardour, and we only wait to obtain something like a chance.
We have been told that ninety guides have been lost on this hazardous
road; the number is, no doubt, a figure of speech, but the difficulties
and uncertainties of the path are evidently sufficient to account for a
very considerable loss of life. After four days’ diligent travelling,
from dawn to dusk, we arrived at the verge of these elevated regions,
and welcomed the sight of the Nile, as the face of an old friend. To say
the truth, we existed in a kind of dependence on the river, from the
dread of having to endure the sufferings which we had heard often befel
travellers wandering in the desert, looking in vain for water.
Our way had been, as usual, over vast plains, gravelly and sandy. We saw
four or five petrified trees, like immense oaks, lying, some entire,
some in fragments, on the ground.
Two women, and a few young calves, comprised all the living objects we
met with at Merawah, our last stage, the men being absent with their
herds. The females brought out large calabashes of excellent butter-
milk, which they presented to us, refusing all payment. They said that
they never sold milk, as it was considered unlucky. We relished the
draught extremely, expressed our gratitude, and made them a present at
parting, which we had some difficulty in getting them to accept.
All bushes and trees here possess thorns; among them, one shrub, like a
broom, which grows to a large size, seemed entirely without leaves. The
euphorbia, or a plant closely resembling it, when broken in any part,
exudes a thick white juice, of a sweet flavour, and of a poisonous
quality, which, we were informed, was sometimes mixed in cakes, to give
the unwary traveller, that he might be the more easily robbed.
Along the banks of the river lay a luxuriant belt of verdure of
considerable breadth, edged by palm and other trees. At a little
distance, rose the singular-shaped mountain, Gebel Berkel, with a ruined
temple at its base; a cluster of pyramids formed the background, and in
the distance, a pile of hills, tinged by the last rays of the setting
sun, bounded the prospect.
We were at first at a loss how to descend to the lovely garden at our
feet; but, before attempting to proceed, lingered for our caravan, that
we could observe winding its course along a narrow pathway of broken
rocks, among the curiously-shaped calcareous banks, full of holes,
rising like a wall from the lower plain. When we had reached the bottom,
our eyes were regaled with a view of singularly pastoral beauty,
perfectly Eastern in character: some hundreds of camels, of various ages
and sizes, had been brought down to the banks to water, by their
proprietors, whom we found to consist of but eight individuals. The
owner of numerous flocks lives very much like the humblest Arab, and
dresses in a blanket, neither less greasy nor less dirty than that worn
by his poorer brother. He rarely kills any of his flock, except on
occasions of great festivity, nor will he sell any; therefore, they are
sure to increase rapidly.
Flocks of goats and cattle succeeded the camels, to drink of the
refreshing river, to which they make weekly expeditions—often from a
considerable distance.
We were invited by the people we found here, to pitch our tents under a
wide-spreading tree in the centre of the village; but this being too
public for our taste, we requested to be led to the river side, whence
we must embark on the morrow. A guide soon presented himself, and we
followed, not only with a feeling of weariness, but doubtful whither we
were going, as we passed field after field, tired with striving to
prevent our hungry camels from cropping the tempting heads of corn.
At length, we found a road to the river, and an open space in the
stubble of durra corn, where the Governor, to whom we had sent a letter
from the Governor of Dongola, by our cavass, joined us, followed by
people bearing bedsteads—rude frames supporting leather mats—a luxury,
however, with which we had long been unfamiliar. We had also a good
supply of fresh bread and milk, that was quite as acceptable; and having
got comfortably housed, passed a remarkably pleasant evening.
The Governor was very civil, obtained us thirty-three camels, and
accompanied us while we remained in his district. The fact was, Kirchid
Pacha, our friend the Governor of Dongola, had, in his letter, promised
him a bastinado, or as Daireh translated it, “five hundred stick,” when
he next had the pleasure of meeting him, if anything unpleasant should
happen to any of us; and the poor fellow, as Tony Lumpkin says, was “in
a concatenation accordingly.”