MIMOSAS AND TAMARIND-TREES. — DIFFERENT SPECIES. — DURRA
AND CREEPING BEANS. — RELIGION OF THE ETHIOPIANS. — SECOND
VISIT OF LÀKONO. — THE CROWN-PRINCE TSHOBÈ. — PARTICULARS
OF THE COUNTRIES OF BARI AND BERRI. — DESCRIPTION OF LÀKONO’S
FAVOURITE SULTANA. — MOUNTAINS IN THE VICINITY OF BARI. — THEIR
FORM AND DISTANCE. — ISLAND OF TSCHANKER. — REMARKS ON LÀKONO’S
LEGISLATION AND CONDUCT. — THE NJAM-NJAM, OR CANNIBALS. — CUSTOMS
AND ARMS OF THE NATIVES. — THE TROPICAL RAINS.
25th January.—At eleven o’clock we leave our island at the
right shore, and halt towards the south, for the north-east wind is
favourable to us. On the right and left are several little villages,
and on the right shore a low foreland, which we had already visited
and found very fertile. Several poison-trees stand near the village
lying in the background. The bushàr and garrua have not left us,
but cover the greatest part of the shore, where the thorn-bushes
appear to diminish, the nearer we approach the equator. We remark
the very same circumstance with respect to the mimosas, and in those
that we still here and there see, the leaves are broader and seem
to announce varieties or different species. Even the tamarind-tree,
from which we have already gathered ripe fruit, has a different
physiognomy here to what we see in the country of the Shilluks;
the branches are more slender, and the larger leaves are not so
thickly piled one upon the other. I was laughed at by my servant
when I asked the name of this tree.
We sail along the left shore, and advance three miles and a half; but
one ship soon gets obstructed here, another there, and the water-track
pointed out to us by the natives is really very narrow. The stream,
which might previously have been about three hundred paces, is here
certainly five hundred. A large island, with another smaller one,
covered with durra, rises out of it. At one o’clock S.S.W., in
which direction we sail now at the right shore, where the water is
better than we had thought. The negroes continue to run along the
shore, or in the shallow places plunge into the water, and cry as
loud as they can to us to stop a little and barter with them. The
right shore is planted with durra, but it is already harvested. It
is a small reddish kind, giving but little meal. At the previous
landing-places there were, amongst other plants, several small
creeping beans, of white and red colour, thriving luxuriantly on
the ground. A small island on our left.
I hear, from the mast, that nineteen mountains (gùbàl) are counted,
without reckoning the small ones. The chain of mountains is, properly
speaking, not wooded; but that which looks like a forest, from a
distance is, in reality, the fragments of rocks, with which they are
nearly all studded at the base: yet between these blocks a tree and
copsewood here and there thrives, which may sprout out beautifully
green in the rainy season. A splendid ground, covered with trees,
and inclined towards the river, approaches to the foot of the Korek,
but does not probably afford the shade we suppose at a distance. The
shores are not only very strongly intersected with layers of sand,
but also the mould of the dam itself is completely mixed with
sand. Therefore it seems that the river enters now into a rocky bed,
from the mountains of which there is not much fertility to wash away.
Two o’clock; W. by S. On the left shore again, several of those
round-headed beautiful trees, with large acacia-leaves, under
which the negroes seek for shade. The Frenchmen had, according to
yesterday’s measuring, 4° 40′ north latitude, and 41° 42′
east longitude, from Paris. Selim-Capitan, however, found 4° 35′
north latitude, and 30° east longitude. At half-past two o’clock
we go with the river S.S.W., which direction it seems to retain for
the present. On the left an island. The people still continue to
shout, but they run no longer, as if they were mad, into the water,
to cling to and hold fast to the vessels, for the sailors rap their
fingers smartly; but stand quietly on one foot, resting the other
against the knee. Three o’clock; S.S.W. The water is not bad,
and we shall have, perhaps, a good course for a considerable time,
if we only sound properly. On the right there is a small island,
with a couple of tokuls behind upon the shore. Immediately on the
left is another shallow island, with luxuriant durra. The natives wade
through the water to an island situated not far from the left shore,
upon which we see a farmyard. Two more islands follow this one, and
they swarm with black people. Four o’clock. The direction of the
river is always still S.W., whilst we seek for deeper water in the
windings of the stream. Right and left are islands, and also tokuls,
part of which peep over the trees. The forms of the mountains become
more visible and different from what they had hitherto appeared. This
produces uncommon changes in the landscape, where all the surface
of the earth is picturesquely skirted with trees.
Who would have thought of such a beautiful country in the centre
of Africa, and looked for such a well-proportioned, gigantic race
as we see yonder! They are real giants. Go on shore, look at the
Turks, the Christians, and our other companions,—what children
they seem standing in the middle of this crowd of Titans. Half-past
four o’clock. Rocks shew themselves, for the first time, in the
river. Three large, and several small ones form an ominous crossline
for our voyage. At five o’clock we halt at an island near these
rocks. Here there are picturesque materials enough, and nothing
shall prevent me from taking a panorama of this region.
The people appear to be favoured of God as of heaven itself. The sun
and moon do not appear to excite any unusual ideas here, although
the former may be welcome in the morning, when they shake off the
night’s frost with the ashes, and in the evening to light them
when they return from the chase, from labour in the fields, and from
battle, or when they drive home their herds. The moon is of less
service to them, for they go to roost with the fowls. The beneficent
deeds of these two luminaries are too regular. But the canopy of
heaven itself may direct their thoughts above; from thence comes
the rain, irrigating their fields, causing the stream to increase,
filling and animating anew their large fish-ponds. God’s water
is allowed to flow over God’s land, and they are pleased at the
cheerful harvest, without praying, beseeching, and returning thanks,
for they may look upon periodical rain as a regular tribute from
above. Heaven does not forsake her people here, and the inexorable
sun, parching up everything, has perhaps never been worshipped by
the Ethiopians.
We lie now to the eastern side of the island of Tshànker. King
Làkono visited us to-day a second time, and brought with him a young
wife from his harìm. He took off his hand the orange-coloured ring,
on which Selim Capitan fixed a longing eye, and presented it to him
with a little iron stool, plainly forged in a hurry. The Crown-prince,
Tshobè, has a very intelligent countenance, and seems to me to
be a clever fellow. He wears no ornament on the upper part of his
arms, except the two large ivory rings. Although it was known that
he would succeed King Làkono, and that the latter had called him
his eldest son and successor, yet the Turks believed that he was
some relation of the king’s, whom he had only brought with him
to receive presents. I had, however, previously seen him with us,
and remarked at that time that he kept back proudly when the others
stepped forward for our gifts. But Làkono had only presented us with
two oxen, and given us a verbal mandate to the republicans of the left
shore; therefore, the Turks were discontented. Against all policy, the
honour of a Turkish coronation-mantle was not conferred upon Tshobè,
nor on the others who might have expected a dress. The prince took
the miserable glass beads with a kind of indifference and contempt.
We gathered further intelligence about the country, and Làkono was
complaisant enough to communicate to us some general information. With
respect to the Nile sources, we learn that it requires a month,
the signification of which was interpreted by thirty days, to
come to the country of Anjan towards the south, where the Tubirih
(Bah’r el Abiad) separates into four shallow arms, and the water
only reaches up to the ankles. Thirty days seems indeed a long time,
but the chain of mountains itself may present great impediments,
and hostile tribes and the hospice stations may cause circuitous
routes. These latter appear necessary, for the natives being already
overladen with weapons and ornaments, it is impossible that they
can carry provisions for so long a time, from the want of beasts of
burden. There are said to be found very high mountains on this side,
in comparison with which the ones now before us are nothing at all.
Làkono did not seem, according to my views, to understand rightly the
question, whether _snow_ was lying on these mountains. He answered,
however, _No_. Now, when I consider the thing more closely, it is
a great question to me whether he and his interpreter have a word
for snow; for though the Arabic word telki or snow is known perhaps
in the whole land of Sudàn, yet _that_ itself is unknown. Whether
these four brooks forming the White Stream come from rocks or from
the ground, Làkono could not say for he had not gone further. With
respect to the country of Berri, which he stated in his first visit
was likewise a month distant, Làkono now corrected himself and
said that this country is not thirty, but only ten days’ journey
off to the east. He impressed on us particularly that copper is
as abundant, and found there in the same manner as iron here. He
appears, indeed, to wish to inflame our gold-seeking hearts by his
repeated commendations of this country, on purpose that he may get
possession, at one blow, of the treasures, with the assistance of
our fire-arms. He expected an answer which could not be given him,
because the Dinkaui, who translated his words into Arabic, only told
us (according to my full conviction) what he chose to let us know,
most probably being induced by the other soldiers and sailors to do
everything he could for our speedy return.
We also heard that on the road water is found, but that in Berri
itself there is _no river_, and that the natives drink from _springs_
(Birr). The people of Bari get their salt, which is quite clear and
fine-grained, from thence. It is boiled in earthen pots, and retains
their form. The language of the country of Berri is different from
that of Bari. The blue beads, in the form of little cylinders, which
we saw on Làkono and some others, and had even found previously,
came also from Berri. We had similar-formed glass paste, of white
and blue colours; but the higher value was set on the blue, and on
the large, round, blue beads.
Commercial intercourse in Berri does not seem to be carried on in a
very peaceful manner, according to what we had heard previously, and
also now from some of the King’s companions; for it is boasted that
on the way home copper is plundered from the people on the road, with
whom they take up their quarters, and who have it piled up in their
houses. They say that the men on the copper mountains are a very bad
set; and that therefore they are obliged to take from them again the
spears which they had given them for copper. In Berri also the people
go naked, and there are few dresses such as Làkono possesses. The
latter asserts that his dominion reaches seven days’ journey further
up the river. Much might be learnt if there were more order, on our
side, in the questions; but they are jumbled up one with the other,
and asked more for amusement than for scientific interests, without
once reflecting whether the answer corresponds to the question or not.
The favourite Sultana had certainly not much to boast of in the
way of beauty, but she was an amiable looking woman: she was not
at all shy, and looked freely around her. A number of glass beads
were given to her, and she was too much of a woman and negress not
to be exceedingly delighted at them. Làkono restrained himself, as
at the first time, on the sight of such presents, within the limits
of pleasing surprise, without betraying the least symptom of the
childish joy which is indigenous in these men of nature. She was,
however, very cordial with him, and he with her; he helped her
even to pack together her ornaments in a handkerchief, and gave
it over to her with a benevolent look. I had the honour also of a
friendly smile from her, which I naturally returned. She remarked
this immediately to her lord and master, whereupon the latter bowed
his entire approbation, and smiled at me.
This queen was very simply adorned for her rank. Her head was shaven
quite bare, without a diadem and other ornaments; her hair, the
embellishment of woman, was therefore put to the sword, and with it
also the first advantageous impression, even if the nose had not been
slightly turned in. She was simply clothed with two leathern aprons,
under which, through her continually shifting her seat, I caught sight
of a rahàt. A number of polished iron rings were spread over the
joints of her hands and feet. A narrow ring of ivory was on the upper
part of each arm; and around the neck a large iron ring, from which
a great tooth, a flat little bell, and some other knick-knackeries of
iron, hung down to her breasts, which are already tolerably withered,
for she has probably borne children. She had red sandals on the feet,
with little iron rings on them as ornaments. All the under part
of the body was tattooed—this may be the sign of a foreign race;
the nose also is of a different stamp to those in Bari. The root of
the nose is certainly strongly depressed in these women, of whom I
saw yesterday also some specimens, so that it forms, with the arched
forehead, not an unpleasing waved line, terminating in a saucy point,
without the latter becoming a flat knob. If we could have put into the
mouth, where the four lower incisors also were wanting, a ducat, or
perhaps a dollar, the teeth would not then have projected in the negro
manner, and those blubber lips would not have been at all noticed.
The skull, throughout Bari, is not generally pressed back like that of
animals, to the occiput, although the latter is strongly developed. I
find, however, no difference in the form of our Egyptian thick heads
directly they take off their tarbusch. The _fluidum primordiale_
of the Barian power of creation must therefore have worked, in
this mountain-land, with the same noble power as that of the land
of Kashmire.
In other respects our queen was well formed, and the calves of her
legs projected tolerably stoutly over the iron rings. Even in Germany
she would have been considered one of the tallest of her sex, and
here also her size would be surprising if she wore a long dress. She
was at least five and a half Rhenish feet high, for she looked very
comfortably over my head. On this occasion I discovered remains of
ochre in her close-cut hair, a sign that she does not use soap. Her
name is Ishòk; she could scarcely keep herself from laughing, and
appeared to be very much flattered when she heard her charming name
repeated by us several times. Làkono and his queen had brought a
doll, representing a woman, hewn roughly from wood, as a present,
which turned out, contrary to our expectation, to be only a doll;
for they laughed immensely when we asked them whether they worshipped
or adored it as a deity.
We could not get a clear conception of their ideas of religion—the
less so, because the Tershomàn translating into Arabic was a heathen
Dinkaui. It seems that they worship a spirit of nature, for we had
been previously told that their god was grander than the mast of
our vessel. Whether they reverence him under a tree, as the criminal
court of Làkono seems to denote, is a question I do not venture to
decide. Horns, teeth, and amulets point to some sort of worship.
Without troubling himself further with farewell ceremonies, Làkono
rose with his men; but his wife had previously looked at the carpet,
gave him a friendly dig in the ribs, and whispered a few words to
him. The great king did not wait for this being said twice; he seized
the end of the carpet, and gave it over, without further ceremony, to
the slave close at hand. This carpet belonged, however, to Rassulla
Effendi, who was the maùhn, or scribe, to Selim Capitan, and a
Persian by birth. He drew a long face on seeing these proceedings,
but was consoled with the promise of another new carpet, and the
whole thing was laughed at as an ingenious trick.
A panorama, to which, however, the neighbourhood of beautiful
mountain-forms lends the true charm, opens from the Island of
Tshànker. Opposite to us, on the right shore, we see the village
of Wuàlana, and before it lies a shallow island, called Koriana;
on the right shore lie, at a short distance from it, the villages of
Harikono and Amrit. The houses of the villages are tokuls, part of
them having higher pointed roofs. Shady trees stand around, and the
copsewood enjoys such a verdant life that we might fancy ourselves
in a northern region.
The mountains lie around in the following direction: Mount Lof-et
rises behind Mount Pelenjà, to S.E. by E., at a distance of
about four hours, like an isolated mountain of small height. Mount
Pelenjà, to S.E., in tolerable extent, from its peak about eight
hundred feet high, S.E., 60″ to S. and 75″ to E., some three
hours distant, a small mountain group of a rocky nature, and partly
wooded, completely secluded. The mountain chain of Logojà, where
cannibals dwell, the anterior peak of which seems to project to N.,
rises at a distance of from eight to nine hours, to a height like
that of the seven hills seen from Cologne, with a lofty back, which
appears, so far as it is not concealed from the eye by the mountains
lying before it right and left, to extend from S.E. southerly 60″
long. The Hill of Liènajin, or Linanzin, a gently rising rock,
covered with bushes, towards S.E. 50″ to S., distant an hour and
a half. The still smaller rocks of Arlu, to S.E. by S., two hours
distant; the rocks of Luluri or Lullulù to S.E. 30″ to S., one
hour and a half. In the S. rises Mount Lugi, smoothed at the top,
with precipitous disrupt walls of rock, which does not appear to
exceed Korèk in height, and may have six hundred feet relative
height. The river winds a little to the W. around its base, and this
mountain may once have formed a terrace, which has joined to the
mountain chain of Kàlleri, lying behind to S.S.E., forming as it
were the foot to the mass of mountains rising up in the S. We see
on the unevenly elevated rocky wall of Kàlleri, the dry bed of a
cataract, to which even the natives drew our attention.
[Illustration: MOUNT PELENJA. MOUNTAIN CHAIN OF LOGOJA. MT. KORESCHIP.
MT. KONNOPI. ISLAND OF KORIANA.
COUNTRY ON THE RIGHT SHORE OF THE NILE FROM THE ISLAND OF TSHANKER,
TOWARDS SOUTH-EAST.—27TH JANUARY, 1841.]
All these mountains and rocky hills lie on the right side of the
river. This coincides with what has been said to us previously,
and the plastic formation of the mountains themselves shews that
the river does not break through from E. or S.E., and the natives
are right when they place the sources of the White Stream to the
_south_. On the left side of the river rises first, S.W. 3″ to W.,
Mount Lòngi, at two hours distant; Mount Lobèk, with a rocky head
S.W. 28″ to W., three hours; the flat, round Loffoni S.W. 30″
to W. four hours; Mount Bio S.W. 60″ to W., some eight hours
distant, ascending again to a considerable height; Mount Korèk,
already known to us, on the ground softly rising from the river; it
is one hour and a half from the river, entirely of a rocky nature,
intersected in manifold parts by steep disrupt walls of rocks, similar
to quarries. All its peaks not only lie in the distance, where the
whole mountain appears like a terrace, but also near at hand, in
equal horizontal lines, from W. to 75″ to N. It is perhaps not more
than six hundred feet high, and it is the mountain that principally
affords iron, although all the heights are said to contain the same.
As I distinguished previously Mount Nerkanjin on the left side of the
Nile, by its height, so the mountains seem to increase generally
on this side in height, as also the country from the shore to
S.W. gradually ascends. Mount Konnopi or Kunobih appears W. by N.,
at a distance of from nine to ten hours, of light-coloured rocks,
without any vegetation. It forms likewise a mountain group, with
its six or seven peaks, which fall away tolerably steeply in convex
lines, and separate one from the other. The high points of this
group are of equal form, and may rise to two hundred feet relative
height. Behind this mountain and Korèk, a mountain-chain projecting
on both sides of Korèk, which stretches itself for about an hour in
length, extends in an undulating form, and loses itself to S. This
chain is called Kugelù, and I calculate its distance at being at
least twenty hours. To N.W. 73″ towards N. lies Mount Lokùn,
about two to two and a half hours distant, with a gentle slope of
small height, and to N. the Nerkanjin already known to us, some
eight to nine hours distant.
If we only consider the situation of these mountains generally,
and the evidence of the natives with reference to the origin of the
White Stream, who, from the moment that they stated the iron came
from the mountains in the south (where we had already hoped for
mountains), shewed their accurate knowledge of locality, and who
here, also, transfer the sources of the White arm of the Nile from
the foot of the mountain land _further to the south_, every doubt
must be removed by the agreement of these expressions. Even among
us the opinion was prevalent that the sources of the Nile should
be sought to the east in a ramification of the Abyssinian chain of
high mountains. We have therefore made close inquiries, whether any
_running water_ were existing on this side, and learned that there
is not; for the people in that part, drink, on the contrary, from
_springs_. Nature seems here to have formed, generally, to the east,
as well as to the west, a watershed.[2]
In S.E. Mount Logojà is seen, at a distance of eight to nine hours,
a chain of mountains stretching from E. to S.; in the west rises
Mount Kugelù, twenty hours off, like a long serpentine track,
which must be in proportion to the presumed distance, as also
its height to the near rocky mountains of considerable elevation,
and seems to extend likewise to the south. Both mountain chains
may, in consequence of these exterior plastic proportions, rise up
like branches to the mighty trunk of mountains in the south, as the
natives on the Island of Tshànker endeavoured to shew me when I was
sketching, by uttering names and making unmistakable gestures. This
mountain-stock, perhaps a second Himalaya, may form the combination
of streams of the White Nile between these its sides. The river here
formerly broke violently through its projecting base—isolated Mount
Lugi, which is like a half demolished pyramid, and rushed down over
it like a powerful waterfall.
Selim Capitan made three observations upon the Island of Tshànker,
and the northern latitude was confirmed as 4° 30″. The stream,
having a direction to S.S.W., is found to be three hundred mètres[3]
broad, from the island to the right shore. The two arms of the river
may amount to something over one hundred mètres from the island to
the left shore, before which another little island lies. A rocky
bar of gneiss extends here from E. to W. right across the stream,
and continues beyond the islands, the highest points of which it
forms, to the left shore, where we may follow the traces of this
rocky bank to a still greater distance, for it projects in a slight
breadth over the ascending grounds. This reef, running from E. to
W. which may give the direction of the succeeding chasms in the
valley broken through by the stream, rises in the middle of the
river to a larger rock, and other blocks peep out of the water
towards the right shore, whilst the other rocky part towards the
Island of Tshànker is only superficially covered by water. The
current gushes by the before-named rocks as at the Bingen Loch,[4]
and it is only there where we may expect to find a passage.
Our Arabs are glad at this tschellàl, as they call a waterfall, or
even a current, and want to take it immediately for an insurmountable
wall, even before sounding the passage. The conchylia, similar to
oysters, clinging to these gneiss rocks, are the thorn-muscles, which
are found also at the cataracts in Nubia (_Etheria tubifera_). By
mistake, I previously called these muscles _ampulla tubulosa_.[5]
Besides the snails mentioned on a former occasion, I found on the
shores of the White Stream the large water-snails (_ampullaria ovata
var._), as well as the muscles (_Iridina rubens_, and _Anodonta
acuta_).
The specimens of sand I brought back with me, and which were subjected
to an examination in Berlin, with my other geognostical collections,
have been already defined by Dr. Girard, in C. Ritters’ “Glance
at the Source-Territory of the Nile.”
He says:—“A sand from the shore of the Bahr-el-Abiad, in the
kingdom of Bari, is similar to this sand (from the Sobàt river), only
a little coarser in the grain, which, however, is only at the most
of the size of millet-grain: it contains principally quartz, but more
mica than the former, and has considerably more of those black grains,
from which we see that it is horn-blende. This is either derived
from syenite and diorite masses, as they often appear in gneiss
and mica-slate mountains, or they might be also of volcanic origin,
for the lava of the Gebl Defafaungh lying to the north boundary of
these plains, contains the same in great abundance.” With respect
to the constituent part of the rocks of this cataract, Dr. Girard
observes:—“It is gneiss, consisting of white feldspar, and a good
deal of white mica, and mica-slate, containing much granular, brittle,
white and yellow quartz, no feld-spar, and small scaly black mica.”
The island of Tshànker, on which I planted a number of palm-seeds,
rises, with reference to the back of the surface of the earth,
fifteen feet high above the present water-mark. The natives could
not have been able to have sown the ground, which is strongly mixed
with sand, with the simsim (sesame), a grass particularly requiring
moisture, if the water of the swollen river had not remained upon it
for some time. In accordance with that, the chain of mountains must
have discharged an immense body of water during the rainy season,
for the island appears to me to lie somewhat higher than either of
the shores, and the high water overflows therefore not only this
island, but also a great part of the shores which are separated
about six hundred mètres from each other. From this cause arise
the beautiful green trees, and the verdant low country lying back,
from which ephemeral shallow lakes the water seems to be drawn off
by canals. Like Oases (Arabic Oà), they lie there in a level land,
which is parched up far and wide.
Legislation appears to be in a peculiar state in the country of
Bari. We were told that King Làkono slew criminals with his own hand,
by a thrust with a spear, and very quickly (goàm, goàm), without
any ceremonies; he sits under a large tree, with a heavy spear in
his hand, to pass judgment, and assumes a very angry look. Perhaps
the great spirit of the tree may inspire him on such a presidency,
or rather his own feeling of justice may cause this righteous anger,
and make him the supreme judge and executioner of the misdoer,
the latter being devoted also to death by the unanimous will of the
assembly. Priests or sorcerers do not appear to be assembled at these
public sittings in judgment, which remind us of the ancient German
institutions, because not a trace has been found, so far as I know,
of any such men among these people. The great king, therefore, does
not crack the criminal’s skull with the club-sceptre he usually
carries, as I imagined on his first visit; but the very same views of
a death without dishonour seem to prevail here as among the Shilluks,
who do not slay the Arabs taken prisoners by them with the honourable
spear, but beat them to death like a dog with the hassaie.
The innate respect towards the king is, however, greater perhaps than
the royal power. This may mostly be reduced to the gigantic limbs of
his family and all his adherents, amongst whom the heads of tribes
subject to him, may be numbered, who stand around his free stool as
judges armed, although not voting, maintaining order, and easily
defeating his solitary antagonists, with their heavy sceptres of
ebony, like constables’ staves.
It is evident that he has opponents, and indeed not a few, from the
circumstance that he requested us to shoot some people on the left
shore, because they were always making war on those of the right
shore. It might therefore seem quite right to him that several of
the inhabitants of that side were shot down a few days ago, in so
shameful a manner, from our vessels. His statements of the hostile
feelings of the men there does not appear, however, to be founded
on truth, for we have seen several times herds of cattle swimming
over from one shore to the other, without any robbery and contention
taking place in consequence. On a closer inquiry, his main grievance
was unbosomed; for two years he had _not_ received _anything_ from
the people of the left shore. This was interpreted, consonant to
Turkish views, to mean Tulba (tribute); it seems to me, however,
to denote rather a voluntary contribution, because he complained at
the same time, that he had nothing to live upon, and therefore was
not able to give us anything.
King Làkono had a very sound understanding, and contrived skilfully
to evade the demand for meat, and the desire expressed to visit him
at his residence; for the Turks wanted to make a closer inspection
of his treasures, since gold was said to be among them. He always
affirmed that we should be obliged, in paying such a return visit, to
swim through a deep gohr, although we had been previously told that
he possessed a large and handsome sürtuk, in which he plies far up
and down the river. Our sandal, which appeared to him probably more
fitted for use than his own hewn-out trunk of a tree, pleased him
so well, that he asked it as a present. Of course we were obliged to
refuse him; for this little skiff was quite indispensable to us for
communication. It was promised that a far handsomer vessel should
be built for him at Marseilles—a white lie, with which he did not
seem to be content. It was tolerably plain, from the badly translated
expressions of these lords of Bari, and still more from the far more
intelligible language of signs, of which they were not sparing,
that they were perfectly conscious of their superiority in force;
for they signified, with ironical laughter, that they could easily
take our sandal by force, because it was the smallest of our vessels.
Although Làkono seemed not to have expected such an answer from
us, and to be offended at it, yet he did not relinquish his plans of
conquest and booty, in which we were to assist him. He wished not only
to undertake a warlike expedition, in company with us, to Berri, so
rich in copper, but also to the neighbouring mountain-chain of Logajà
(also Lokonjà). The cannibals dwelling upon this mountain—not
known here, however, by the name of Njam-Njam—had been long the
subject of conversation among the crew. According to what we heard
from the natives below, these ill-famed mountaineers had heads, and
went on all-fours like dogs; this was repeated also, even in Bari,
probably from our misunderstanding the language.
Captain Selim, the Muscovite, to whom courage could not be denied
in other respects, had, even in Khartùm, been wonderfully afraid
of these so-called Njam-Njams. Now, however, he allowed his fear
to mount to a truly ridiculous height, probably because he was the
most corpulent of us all, except Selim-Capitan. He thought nothing
less than that he would be the first roast morsel which that savage
mountain-race would choose for a feast, on a favourable nocturnal
opportunity. Before the first expedition, my brother had designated
him a plump morsel (kabàb semmin) for the cannibals; and scarcely
was he summoned to this expedition than he inquired repeatedly and
anxiously about the existence and the abode of these men. This joke
was now haunting his brains, and particularly when his fat face was
lighted up by the enjoyment of araki, which he drank secretly in
his cabin, in order not to let the others partake of it. In such
a condition as this, he exhorted me to assist in urging as speedy
a return as possible; and, moreover, to think of my poor brother
Jussùf, who perhaps was ill.
Làkono, explained, on closer questioning, the ominous rumour of the
Anthropophagi, with dogs’ heads, and informed us that these bad
people have heads indeed, like others, but allow _all their teeth_
to remain in their head, and crawl _upon all-fours_ when they eat
men. This means, perhaps, nothing more than that they do not join in
open combat with the inhabitants of Bari, but crawl close to people,
like dogs, plunder them, and perhaps eat them. The Baghàras assert,
that the same custom of crawling, in marauding expeditions, exists
among the Shilluks; and our Circassians relate things, which are
scarcely credible, of the manner in which boys and girls are caught
in their country.
It was _confirmed_ here what we had previously heard, viz. that
brothers do not marry sisters, nor fathers daughters; they were
indignant, and with reason, at such a question. The bride is purchased
from the father for sixty to seventy oxen: this price might be
called dear, in spite of the numerous herds of cattle here; yet it
counteracts polygamy and the enfeeblement of race thereby produced,
as much as the forbidding of marriage among blood relations. The
release of a prisoner costs only thirty oxen, whence we might conclude
that their wars, which they appear to carry on only by the river’s
side, are not very barbarous. Besides, their spears confirm this
supposition, for they are ground off to a smooth edge, and have no
barbs such as those of the people of the mountains in these regions,
and in the land of Sudàn.
The spears with barbs found amongst them, have been either received in
exchange, having been thrown by the mountaineers in the mutual feuds,
or they have been forged by themselves for the chase, to cast at the
wild deer when they hunt them to death. The poisoning of arrows,
with their various barbs, is certainly against this humane view
of the character of the people. They warned us of poison every
time we purchased arrows, yet I found a quantity among them not
poisoned. It may therefore be usual to use the latter only in war,
because otherwise they would poison their spears; whilst they shoot
the deer with the former, without the poison perhaps exercising
any effect when the flesh is eaten—as Shömburg says, is also
the case in Guiana. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture,
and far away from their huts or tokuls.
According to Làkono and his relations, the rainy season will set
in, in _two months_ from the present time, (therefore at the end
of March, or beginning of April.) This appears, in truth, somewhat
late: for the two arms of the Nile, near Khartùm, begin to ascend
nearly simultaneously on the 2nd or 3rd of May, and it is impossible
that even one drop of these first rains in the high land, which the
thirsty soil, moreover, immediately absorbs, and which are swallowed
up by a course in a long valley-land, should reach Khartùm from
hence in so short a time. The regions lying lower, and subject to
the tropical rains, are the cause perhaps of the first swellings
to the White Stream; for, before all those numerous low grounds
and shallow lakes are full, the eventual connections with the more
distant inner waters, are restored and overflow. Much more time
is required for this than for the effusion of the mountain waters,
near the sloping rocky ground lying before us.
If we should not, however, take the nearer district of the tropical
rains as an explanation of the simultaneous swelling of both arms
of the Nile near Khartùm, we could not explain this phenomenon,
for the mountain waters of the White Stream must, though with a far
slower course, make three times as long a way as those of the Blue
Nile, in just the same time. A difference is consequently seen at
Khartùm at high water, which, however, soon becomes equal, from
the mutual pouring into each other of the arms, or by the damming
up of the tributary streams.
Fadl is my faithful confidant in purchasing the curiosities of
the country; he is slow and painstaking in a negotiation, when
I immediately lose my patience. He first, for a long time, squats,
as he used to do in the land of Sudàn, with the people here; plays
with the glass beads,—holds the larger ones by themselves against
the light, as if they were jewels; and the good Ethiopians become
so confident and longing, that they can hold out no longer; and then
he is very slow in giving any, so that the value increases in their
eyes. They are not only, as I have before said, very mistrustful in
this barter, but also so undecided, like children, that beads and
goods are often given away and returned. I have some hopes that my
Ethnographical collection will increase considerably in this manner
during the return voyage, for we have already exchanged many weapons
and other things.
The spears of this country are distinguished by a greater elegance in
the workmanship, and do not exceed the length of the gigantic bodies
of these men. With the exception of a few, they are javelins, seven
feet long, with a shaft of the thickness of a thumb. The shaft of
bamboo is encircled entirely, or partly, with a narrow band of iron,
or with the skins of snakes and land crocodiles, and the lower end
surrounded with an iron knob and single rings, in order that the spear
may have the proper equilibrium in the hand when it is hurled. About
half a foot from the end it is generally furnished with a tuft of
fur, which seems to stand in the place of a _feathered_ arrow, a
weapon never seen here. The iron of the head is one and a half to
two feet long, the back flat, and the knob has four little bosses.
The bows are from five and a half to six and a half feet long,
of bamboo, and encircled in the same manner; the strings are made
from the inner bark of trees. The arrows are very neatly wrought,
have barbs, and are two and a half to three feet long.
The harpoons employed against crocodiles and hippopotami, have,
with the short point, which has only one barb, a length of thirteen
to fourteen feet. The shank, of bamboo, is an inch and a half thick,
and is not fastened to the point (neither are the shafts to the beads
of lances, so that it comes off in launching the harpoon. The point
itself remains by a long thin line made of bark, in the possession
of the fisherman, and is always visible to him at the end by a float
of ambak wood, until the animal struck has exhausted its rage; and
then, sitting in his hewn-out trunk of a tree (sürtuk), he takes
the line in his hand, and with a spear attacks the exhausted beast
as it comes up to the surface for air, until it bleeds to death.
The ivory rings, two of which are often seen on the upper part of
each arm, are two pounds and upwards in weight; the fluted clubs of
ebony are two to three pounds. The knives are crooked, rounded at the
top, and half a foot long, with a handle one and a half or less in
length. The people procure the materials for their beautiful works
in iron from Mount Korèk, in the tanks and gohrs of which iron is
said to be found, like sand, in immense quantities. They brought me a
little basket full of this coarse-grained black mineral, and with it
a few scoriæ. According to Marian, the men smelt in earthen pots;
for furnaces and such like are as little to be looked for here as
in Kordofàn.
This is pure magnet-iron, which, as my Nuba thinks, they free from
the larger stones, and then shake in a sieve, to free it from the fine
rocky sand. Girard says that this magnet-iron shews also, in several
places, specular-iron, and recalls to mind similar appearances in
the great Mica slate chain of mountains of the Brazils. The specimens
of stones procured from Mount Korèk, through the natives, were of a
reddish coarse-grained granite, although we had expected gneiss from
thence, having found it near and upon the island of Tshanker. Yet I
would not be certain that these specimens were not taken from some
other mountain. What rich results might ensue from an examination
of these mountains!