THE SHILLUKS, A VITIATED PEOPLE. — CAUSE OF THE VIOLENT RAINS IN
INNER AFRICA. — REFUSAL OF THE SULTAN OF THE SHILLUKS TO VISIT THE
VESSELS. — DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIES OF GRASS. — BARTER WITH THE
SHILLUKS. — CONQUEST OF THEIR COUNTRY NOT DIFFICULT. — FORM OF
THEIR BOATS. — AMBAK RAFTS. — IRON RARELY FOUND AMONG THE EGYPTIAN
ANTIQUITIES. — WORSHIP OF TREES BY THE SHILLUKS: THEIR RELIGIOUS
RITES. — STARS IN THE SOUTHERN REGIONS OF AFRICA. — SHILLUK
WOMEN: THEIR DRESS. — REFUSAL OF THE MEN TO SELL THEIR ARMS. —
THE BAGHÀRAS: THEIR DRESS, ETC. — RE-APPEARANCE OF THE ISLAND
PARKS, AND MOUNT DEFAFAÙNGH. — ASCENT OF THIS MOUNTAIN, AND FULL
DESCRIPTION OF IT. — THE DINKAS: THEIR LOVE FOR OLD CUSTOMS. —
DESERTION OF TWO DINKA SOLDIERS, AND REFUSAL OF THEIR COUNTRYMEN TO
GIVE THEM UP. — SHEIKS SEIZED, AND DESERTERS RECOVERED.
_28th March._—We navigated to the neighbouring island, and passed
by it on the left, N.E. by N., just as the sun was rising. Where is
the meat that was to be put to-day into the Egyptian flesh-pots? The
Shilluks will be delighted at having tricked the Turks, for they are
really an extremely vitiated people. According to nature, corruption
of morals cannot take place in the very earliest stage of life,
and there might have been, therefore, a previous cultivation here
which has now disappeared, and left only the bad parts behind. But
how could they have gone back to the naked state? Slight clothing is
even necessary here: a people that has once worn a fig-leaf never
throws it off, although a cynic here and there may choose to lead
a free dog-life.
We labour with oars, yet all is in vain against the north wind; the
river itself remains on the average N.W. as far as Khartùm. About
nine o’clock we halt at the right shore, and see herds and villages
of the Shilluks opposite to us; but we must make our appetites
disappear again—“_Quid juvat adspectus, si non conceditur
usus!_” Really it was very vexatious; and in addition thereto,
the new moon has appeared for the last two days, and yet my bold
countryman whistles and roars, which is so very unusual at this time
that we conclude the same phenomena is taking place on the Nile.
It has been considered as a thing decided that the periodical
north winds blow the rain from the Mediterranean Sea against the
mountain terrace of Habesh. But these are winds which blow also on
the Western Ocean, along the coast of Africa, and find no opposition
on the sea and further beyond: the periodical gales cannot ride at
anchor so conveniently on the not very high mountains of Habesh
and last until the counter gust from India ensues, or until the
clouds have impregnated all the air of Habesh, and at last fall,
from their weight, and bring refreshing rain to the country. The
Mediterranean Sea seems to me to afford too small a tract for the sun
and wind to be able to draw a mass of water from it, like that of a
small deluge. Therefore, I think that quite different phenomena lay
the foundation of these violent rains, and that Habesh, beyond the
equator, may have its conductors of moisture from the Indian Sea, as
well as Egypt by the electrical course of its Nile. Otherwise Habesh
would be enveloped in an eternal sea of clouds, for the north winds
would be bottled up there half a year, and, by the same argument,
the south winds the other six months.
[Illustration: MOUNT LINANJIN, FROM THE ISLAND OF TSHÀNKAR, TOWARDS
SOUTH EAST
27TH JANUARY, 1841.]
According to my views, therefore, the north winds pass over the
mountain of Habesh, which if we take Sennaar, or rather Fazògl, as
ten thousand feet high above the Mediterranean Sea, ought to lie in
analogous elevation, but which assumption, however, does not appear
correct, if we look closely at the mountains of Fazògl. It may be,
then, that the ascent of the ground from the Mediterranean to Fazògl
fills up two-thirds of this height, which may or may not result from
the slight fall of the Nile. General experience teaches us in Germany,
that the west wind, as a rule, brings us too liberal an allowance
of rain. That fountain of ours lies toward the west, in the ocean:
accordingly, the ocean might provide, perhaps, the valleys of both
the Niles and their neighbourhood with similar rains, at periodical
winds, the uninterrupted effusion of which during the hariffs (rainy
season) may be derived from other causes, and perhaps may be sought
for in the monsoons.
I found the tokuls of the Shilluks slightly arched: but just now I
see a few higher vaults, somewhat like the Italian cupolas. They are
too high to be called Roman arches. The Romans might have derived
their arch from the sky; the Italians adopt the oblique form: every
part ought to be light, slender, and tending towards the centre. The
tokuls must be considered as the oldest buildings in Africa. Continual
rain necessitated good and secure covering, and a sheaf, tied at the
top, may have suggested the first idea of a tokul, for the violent
showers of rain pierced through the thick horizontal layers of reeds
and straw. Thermometer, 19°, 29°, to 30°; sunset, 28°.
_29th March._—After the north wind had somewhat abated, yesterday
at noon, we pushed on with oars and the rope, and halted on the
evening at the right shore, near the Dinkas, where a village was to
be seen close above, from which the inhabitants had fled. A hillock
extended along the river, resting on a down of the finest white
sand; and this sandy deposit being covered entirely with dome-trees,
mostly young ones, is perhaps the cause why the river is not half
so broad towards this side as previously. The long hollow behind the
shore, up to the neighbouring old shores, displays a scanty forest,
intersected by two arms of the Nile, which, for the moment, are
stopped up above and below. I found, on one dam of earth, remains
of a village that had stood here previously. Our crew did not lose
the opportunity of setting them on fire, without thinking of sparing
the young dome-palms. The proximity of lions is now alleged as the
excuse for the necessity of fires, although we have seen none since
those on the Sobàt, always excepting the ones described by Arnaud in
his journal, whom he attacked chivalrously, with his Fortunatus-cap.
The direction, yesterday, in which we navigated, deviated more
northerly from N.E., whilst to-day we go N.E. in more easterly
declinations. The north-east wind is therefore against us; but we
are happy at having escaped from the confined talus of the solitary
Sobàt. Our left shore presented us yesterday, and to-day, dhellèbs
and some villages in the most charming situation, two of which I
sketched, and afforded us continually the sight of a green forest,
whilst the right shore displayed only a bare tract and several
villages of the Dinka country, concealed from us previously by
the high reeds. Dinkas and Shilluks hold the points of their broad
spears directed towards the ground, according to the custom of the
nations above, and do not throw them, probably as a sign of their
friendly intentions. The spears are decorated at the extreme end
with a little bit of fur or pelt, which, perhaps, is of the same use
in the javelins as the feathers of arrows among other nations. The
Shilluks and Dinkas have not any bows and arrows; and the latter
weapon, which is entirely without feathers in these regions, was no
longer seen after we passed the Nuèhrs, who dwell up the river. We
halt in the afternoon, firstly, at the shore of the Shilluks, near a
little hamlet, close to which is the capital or residence-village of
the Sultan of the Shilluks, whom we had invited even before we left
the Sobàt to honour us with his presence, so that we might present
him with dresses and other beautiful things. But he preferred to
remain where he was, and perhaps removed further, or intended to
send us an usurper of his name, as he did the last time.
When we landed, inquiries were made for what peculiar reason we
had come there—whether with friendly or hostile intentions;
and one messenger after the other was sent to us, to know whether
we wished peace or war, because Turks had _never_ before presented
themselves in this place. It was no answer to them to say that our
object was merely to navigate and survey the river; and the Mek did
not appear on the scene, still fearing, perhaps, treachery—nay,
even kidnapping. I should like to see, however, the faces of the
_good_ Turks, if the Sultan, who they suppose is afraid of them as
the conquerors of the world, should appear all of a sudden behind
the sunt trees, with a suite of some thousand broad lances!
Those trees have astonished me by their strength, being about four
feet in diameter, and by their powerful and now shady branches. The
bark of the lower part of the trunk and the stronger boughs is
of a dirty dark-brown colour; and the latter, together with the
smaller branches, are like those of the lindentree. The small
prickles are seen only sparingly on the boughs hanging down, and
the whole present strength of the trees, which have been deserted
by the water since our ascent, seems to lie more in the crisped and
delicate foliage. The grass, which rose previously so luxuriantly
from the water, lies now like a thick layer of straw; it appears to
continue lying on the ground like the couch-grass—yet not in the
proper sense of the word, for its roots are those of grass,—and,
from time to time, to strike root, and also to stand up, if it has
not been kept too long upright by the water, and its slender stalks
have not grown too high. I have remarked this in many places, and
seen both these species at the same time upon the very same root,
the blades having been cropped every now and then, growing crisply,
and standing upright on all sides; it might be, therefore, the
savannah grass, and therefore I secured a specimen of this grass.
I have not been able to ascertain whence the Shilluks and other
tribes derive the little rice, which is also a species of grass. A
specimen of the fruit is also in my possession; it comes up, perhaps,
like wheat. The Shilluks do not seem to be very much afraid: they
are ready to engage in barter, although they do not come quite close
to us. Perhaps they think to drive us away first, by not supplying
us with meat.
_30th March._—There was an _enlightened_ assembly yesterday evening,
on board Suliman Kashef’s vessel: all the lanterns of the Turks
were lighted, and were fixed around it. There is nothing done now
without light; we are recalled, therefore, from the chase by lanterns,
even if it be only dusk. I proposed, yesterday, either to present
ourselves _in propriâ personâ_ to the Mek, at his residence close
by (said to be only two hours distant), or to receive him in the
open air, if he could be persuaded to come, and not to invite him
on board the vessels, according to the favourite custom, because
in that case, he might probably turn back. They agreed with me,
and—there the matter ended. The boats of the Shilluks exceed in
size and solidity those of all the other tribes. This people also
frequently place two trees together, and bind them together at the
bottom by ropes. Their boats have long peaks, and carry twenty to
thirty men, sitting in a line behind one another. The different
colour of the bark of the talles—I had seen them previously red,
and now of a palish green—seems to depend on the nature of the soil.
The royal cranes, so often mentioned, are in extraordinary quantities
here, and we provide ourselves abundantly with them, but got very
few other birds. They keep together in flocks, and walk now on the
dry old river-bed, which consists of the most fruitful earth, and
extends at two hundred paces distant from the Nile. This ancient,
flat, and choked-up bed of the Nile, being subject to inundations,
is perhaps the place between which and the country beyond the vigorous
forest was planted; for I remarked yesterday, that the forest stands
more under the horizontal line than on the rising of the shores.
Just now Fadl and Sale came from the Shilluks, some of whom have
encamped at a tolerable distance from the river. I did not accompany
them, because the natives would infallibly have gone away again, if
they had seen a white countenance, as that is connected in their minds
with a Turkaui. A broad spear could not be procured from them; they
said that every one had his spear, and ought to keep it: moreover,
they gave my men to understand that their Mek would not appear until
we had also a sultan on board, and that we ourselves had come to
their land as spies. Two of them were tolerably conversant in the
Arabic language, but very few of the others understood it. One of
them possessed a small elephant’s tooth, as my servants further
related, but the glass beads I had given them were not sufficient
to purchase it, nor a sheep. They do not despise ornaments, and
were presented with abundance of white, thick glass beads (the blue
are not esteemed); but they prefer, however, objects of real value,
and wanted, for example, half a ferda for the sheep. They said that
they were frequently visited by Gelabis (slave-dealers, merchants),
and that even the day before yesterday, they (the Shilluks) had been
visited by some of them, who had come from Khartùm on camels, and
brought cotton goods, ferdas, beads, &c., which they had exchanged
for cows, teeth, honey, simsim, and kurbàks. A cow costs a ferda,
and such a piece of cotton stuff is valued as money, for we never
see them clothed in it.
It is a striking circumstance, that a merchant is esteemed by them
almost a sacred person; however, I would not recommend any white man
to undertake this business here, if he does not wish to be murdered
as a _much-beloved_ Turkaui.
_31st March._—We leave our landing-place at three o’clock,
without having seen the sultan of one of the largest, if not the
very largest nation of the White Nile. Another fellow, however,
who came, pretended to be the Sheikh-el-Bellet (according to him, a
son or relation of the sultan and his envoy), and was presented with
pearls and a piece of calico conformably to the Turkish policy. We
halt for the night at the left shore. A very large number of black
ibes are remarked on the trees: their flesh has a fine flavour.
_1st April._—Now that I know something of the country of the
Shilluks, which on the whole, perhaps, only amounts to a tract of
shore, the conquest of it, as well as of the land of the Dinkas,
does not appear to me very difficult from this side, even if the
Shilluks were determined to offer real resistance. The army could
defile (that is, in the dry season) along the shores up the stream,
and cover the towing-path, which is necessary here, owing to the south
winds, and the vessels could carry the provisions; there is no Haba
either to fear here, as in Taka. Certainly such an expedition would be
only to press soldiers, or perhaps also to subdue the whole country;
for as to other treasures, they are not to be acquired, except the
large herds, from which the future tribute might be drawn. If Ahmed
Basha, however,—for I have him in my eye,—could once raise an
army of these black devils of Shilluks and Dinkas, whom he himself
allows to possess the greatest courage, _then_ he might think of
other and more profitable conquests.
That broad, choked-up gohr, of which I spoke previously, seems to
continue, and perhaps does so always with the old high shores, which,
however, may be distant enough. They are now invisible on both sides,
and the new shores are mutually of the same height as they have been
for some days. Notwithstanding this, I must still assert that the
Dinka land lies higher than that of the Shilluks, and that both the
barrenness of the former and the dense wood of the country on the
left shore are derived from this cause. On the other hand I have
altered the opinion expressed on the ascent, that we ought to keep
in view only the old or high shores, in composing a map; although it
would be extremely instructive to mark them on the charts, for the
present shores are high enough here at least—about five or six,
and up to ten feet at our landing-place—to be considered as shores.
We make the bend from N.E. to E., and the Gebl-el-Dinka or
Defafaùngh seems to peep forth down the river before us, but it
is only a delusion. The villages, or rather the long-tailed city of
the Shilluks, Jemmati, Gennap, called by the Arabs therefore perhaps
Dennap, advances with its groups of houses and forest to the margin
of the river, and crowds of people have collected shortly below our
landing-place. We halt at the left shore a little before sunset,
which is at present charmingly decorated with grass and trees;
the former, however, only below on the flat strand.
_2nd April._—Some Shilluks from the neighbouring village were
on the shore, but drew back a short distance when they saw me
coming. I had experienced a violent perspiration in the night,
for we had yesterday evening 30° Reaumur in our cabin, where not a
breath of air was stirring, and therefore, being in a perspiration,
I had just now thrown over me my burnus, under which certainly a
gun might be very easily concealed. The Shilluks are not generally
timid, especially if they be in a body. It were, in truth, too much
to expect that they should prove their courage, in a small troop
and armed merely with shield and spear, against guns that hit at a
distance, and send invisible and inevitable death.
Their little floating vessels, which we see so frequently standing
against the trees on the shore, serving as fishing-boats, and also
for crossing to the opposite side, consist in the Nile merely of a
bundle of reeds, and have the form of a flat skiff, obtuse at the
stern, because the ambaks are joined together at the slender end,
and tied in three or four layers one over the other to make the
vessel broader behind: there are two holes at the bottom for the
feet. They go quickly, and a long flat oar is used to propel them
along, as in the other boats: their name is generally with the
Arabs, toff, and with the Baràbras, geïhga. The ambak rafts that
come from Sennaar, or Rossères to Khartùm, are large, and carry a
freight of one hundred ardepps of durra. A little wood approached
this morning also on the right to the shore, but having no trees
like that of the left shore. I thought previously that the Haba of
the Shilluks was scanty, but I have altered my opinion by ocular
inspection: the trees must appear thin, even at a short distance,
for the stunted thick stems generally stood in the water.
Iron is very rare among the Shilluks as in all Bellet Sudan,
notwithstanding the proximity of Kordofàn; and it does not seem that
the kingdom of Bari has ever provided Ethiopia and Egypt with iron,
for very few instruments and arms made of this metal are found among
the antiquities, but, on the contrary, they are of brass and other
metals. The use of iron, however, is very ancient, and perhaps a black
Tubal Cain may have hammered there long before the tribe accumulated,
sufficiently to shew the characteristics of a nation. If an Ethiopian
tribe descended from Bari, it possibly kept up a communication with
the iron country, from the want of iron in Nubia, though perhaps not
by a direct road; or if only a tradition of iron-mines existed, a
Rhamses or some other great king, might have followed and traced them
out; for the White River was just as accessible as at present, and the
vessels of that age would have found more room for sailing,—that
is, supposing a Dædalus had discovered also sails for Egypt, which
we may suppose to be the case from their sea-voyages, and which is
also confirmed by the hieroglyphics.
It was ascertained yesterday that the Shilluks pasture their cattle
wherever they like. The great inundation of this year has covered
their former pasture-ground with slime, or the water has retreated so
lately that there is not yet sufficient grass, and the little that
has sprung up is already consumed. On account of this want of grass
a large number of Shilluks collected, and armed with broad spears,
drove their cattle from the mouth of the Sobàt down to this part,
and still further to the right shore of the Dinkas. The latter drew
back modestly, and pasture now in the interior, renouncing Nile fish
for the present.
The Shilluks are feared, and particularly because they always go
in bodies, and even descend to pasture as far as the Sagiën of
Mustapha Bey, on the left shore. They behave very peaceably, on
the whole, towards us, principally because their Sultan has ordered
them to avoid giving any cause for strife, and to leave the _good_
Turks in peace. Yet the latter are still in great fear, and Selim
Capitan is very unwilling to pass the night on the left shore, so we
anchor afterwards in the river. We hear in this country, as in Taka,
the greeting of “Habàbä.”
I have convinced myself to-day that the villages visible from the
Nile, standing, as I thought previously, on the old shore—that
is, from the southern part of the Shilluk land down the river till
sunset to-day—do not stand higher than the present shore, and that,
if they appeared to me to lie higher, it arises from the low region
extending behind the shore on both sides of the river, and covered
with water. Every village, however, here lies somewhat high, for the
ground is elevated by itself, through the decay of the old buildings,
and the erection of new ones upon them; or this has been done by the
foresight of the inhabitants, as we have also remarked. We remain
to-day at the right shore; but not any of the people of the country
are to be seen. Thermometer 19°, 30° to 31°, 29°.
_3rd April._—We navigated this morning to N., with a few deviations
to N.N.W., and halted at noon, by reason of the strong wind. Then
we went on to N., and in a bend to W., where a long road stretched
before us. Now, in the afternoon, we sail, and shall navigate longer,
perhaps, than usual, for the Turks are hastening to Khartùm and
its pleasures. The right shore has some trees here and there. The
forest on the left sometimes comes to the shore, and sometimes level
alluvial land separates it from us.
Sabatier and I ate with great _goût_ to-day, on Thibaut’s vessel,
two of the three geese we procured yesterday; but Thibaut had nothing
new to shew us, except a soffeia (funnel for Merissa), brought from
Bari. The people there manage to console themselves for the want of
wine with their African mum, made from durra, as they do in other
places with mead and beer. We stop after sunset at the Dinka shore,
W.N.W., near some trees. Thermometer 18° (cold north-east wind),
29°, and 28°.
_4th April._—To-day again the wind is contrary. We go this morning
N., with easterly deviations, and in the afternoon N.E., with a
few declinations. There are several villages on the left shore;
we halt at the right, and the Shilluks retreat. Suliman Kashef
confirms to day what I had already heard, viz., that the Shilluks
worship a tree. They call it by the general name of Nigàma, which
is said to have been introduced by the Great Sheikh, their ancestor,
the founder of their union as a tribe, the father of the nation,
and their law-giver. Almost every village has such a Nigàma,
which is generally a sunt-tree. The place round it is enclosed,
and the ground is kept very clear. On any misfortune occurring, the
Shilluks throw themselves on their face, under the tree, and call
and cry for assistance. It is considered identical with the holy
founder of their race. Whether he ordered them to act in counsel
after his death under a tree, and to complain to him; or appointed
the tree as a mediator, through which they might converse with him;
or, lastly, he may have been buried under such a tree, which thus
became an object of veneration; and subordinate Nigàmas spread then
with the increase of population. Moreover, the holy circuit of the
Nigàma affords an asylum even to the enemy, and also to snakes,
toads, and other animals, which are even considered sacred during
their abode there, and fed with milk. A similar canonization of rats
and mice is represented in the Egyptian temples. The Shilluks hang
cows’ tails, tufts of hair, &c., on the Nigàmas, as sacrifices.
The germ of gratitude is undeniably planted in the heart of human
beings, as in that of animals; and the man of nature who does not
enter into more abstruse speculations will not destroy what does good
to him, but, on the contrary, foster and cherish it; then comes love,
and gradually veneration is paid to it. Idolatry, though often made
absurd and laughable enough by superstition and individual notions,
may have arisen originally from natural instinct, and is, perhaps,
spread throughout all the countries on the Nile, though we have not
been able to obtain satisfactory information on this subject from want
of a dragoman, even had he only been slightly intelligent, and able
to comprehend the questions properly. But this much appears certain,
that the object of veneration among these nations does not dwell
high in heaven. They had no knowledge of the worship of a Supreme
Being. Perhaps their gods stand around them, or walk friendly with
them, and eat out of their cribs. Even beasts, injurious or fatal
to man, may receive gratitude and veneration from them in return
for some instance of magnanimity. Thermometer 20°, 29°, and 28°.
_5th April._—We have stopped since yesterday at a narrow and bare
island near the Shilluks, to make astronomical observations, and
shall probably remain here to-day. It would delight an astronomer
to gaze at the stars in these southern regions, which are never
seen in Europe—as for example, the Crozier of the south, Canopus,
which, according to our two learned astronomers, was even invisible
in Alexandria, and had been first seen by them in Korusko.
Two of my servants have just returned from the Shilluks. I remarked
yesterday and to-day that when the women belonging to the villages
lying not far from the shore, and close to one another, came to
water the herds, with their well made and nearly round pitchers on
their heads, the men accompanied them, spear in hand, in consequence
of the wicked enemy being in the vicinity. The women did not wear
cotton stuff round their hips, but front and back aprons; and some
had a third, a leathern one, without hair, thrown over the shoulders,
or on the back. Man appropriates to himself the cotton stuff, when
luxury goes so far, which is, however, very rare; yet he must be a
chief of a village or a Sheikh, to be able to wear it, as is the case
with the tribes up the river. My men were not able to purchase a spear
or a shield from them. One of the Shilluks, who spoke Arabic well,
declared that they wanted the spears themselves, and never sold them
to Turks; that they were obliged to protect the cattle by weapons,
and that by means of these beasts they purchased their corn, which
does not grow in their country (perhaps in this year owing to the
inundation), from which circumstance they were obliged to eat locusts
(geràt). My men were sent away after this short conversation,
during which they were courteously invited to sit down, as I saw
at the distance. We proceed an hour before sun-rise from our place,
but can only make a short course, in consequence of the wind being
contrary, and soon halt again at the shore of the Shilluks; to-morrow
we ought to be near Mount Defafaùngh. Thermometer sun-rise, 18°;
noon to three o’clock, 30° to 31°; sunset, 29°.
_6th April._—Still a contrary wind; the direction N.E., with
easterly deviations. We saw a scanty forest on the right, but not
any habitation,—mostly alluvial soil, which previously stood under
water, even between the trees. When we set foot on such a ground as
this, we cannot imagine from whence the reeds, partly burnt away,
have sprung. The straw in wads covers the ground here and there,
and solitary reed-stalks, the leaves of which seem blasted by the
sun and wind; yet there are still tracts with reeds on wet soil:
also some groups of reed or long straw huts, like beehives, stand on
the left shore. In the afternoon we observe several birds, and the
longing after meat drives the vessels of our General and Admiral
to the right shore, where copsewood and isolated trees display
themselves. Some of our party went off to shoot guinea fowls.
_7th April._—Set off at an early hour, with a contrary, though
not a strong, north-east wind, and continued in a north-easterly
direction till some hours after sunrise. I hear the joyful cry of
“Baghàras!” and perceive immediately from the window a dozen
of these mounted herdsmen, who spring forward to the margin of
the shore on the left side of the river, greet, and make signs to
us. To see horses for the first time after several months gave me
a delightful sensation.
It is, perhaps, certain, that cultivation has not ascended the
river from hence, for otherwise the useful horse and the camel,
which subsequently became indigenous on the Nile, would not
have been forgotten, being two of the most necessary animals on
earth. Flags and streamers, with the insignia of the Prophet,
were hoisted to welcome the bold horsemen as Mahommedan brothers,
and to soften their hearts. Then begins a barter for butter, milk,
and sheep, but these Anti-Christs are hard to deal with, for they
make us pay dearly for everything; yet they also take glass beads
as well as gold. It is delightful to view these well-known heads,
with their hair twisted back in a tuft. The men in blue shirts
carry three or four lances, holding the longer and stronger one
in their hand. The pretty girls wear a ferda round their hips, and
the swelling bosom is uncovered. A ring decorates their nostrils,
as in other regions, but, on the other hand, they wear long hair,
falling in tresses on their shoulders—an ornament which we have
never beheld in the upper countries. These horsemen, employed as
an _avant garde_ against the Shilluks, whom they do not fear in the
least, are, according to Mariàn, a bold stem of the Baghàras from
Kordofal (the last syllable fluctuates between fal and fan) who call
themselves Abanies. Their Sheikh, who is said to be known to me,
is called “Wood el Mamùd.” I cannot, however, recall his name
to my recollection, although he has been with us in Khartùm.
The first island-park appeared this morning on the left, its
convolvuli in full verdant splendour, and considerably elevated above
the water; another one followed, but the variegated flowers were
absent, and the lower part of the foliage of the hanging creepers
was dry, having been covered longer by the water.
We halted at the left shore to wait for the oxen and sheep which the
Baghàras had promised to bring, but these brothers in Mohammed, were
too well acquainted with our Abu Daoud, Suliman Kashef, who would
have dispensed with any payment, and therefore they did not shew
themselves. “Naas batalin” (bad people) they were called,—and
we navigate in the afternoon further to N.E., and wind to E., where
the isolated Mountain Defafaùngh, hanging over the river, sets me on
tenterhooks of expectation. Here I shall see pyramids and enormous
walls, for the whole rock is said to be formed of burnt bricks
(Top achmer). This might have been, therefore, the halting point
for the archæology of the Ethiopian world. I must set out on my
travels early in the morning and sketch the outlines of its ruins,
even if I catch a fever that may continue several days.
_8th April._—I was on my feet before daybreak, and woke, as usual,
my men from their heavy sleep; I drank a strengthening draught of
yemen, and set off with Thibaut, Sabatier, and three servants,
one of whom carried a goat’s skin, containing water, to the
mysterious mountain which, as the final end of Egyptian or Ethiopian
civilization, the first or last power of human art, may afford so
much _éclaircissement_ to science. Cheerful and brisk—for the
sun had not yet risen—I walked with the ostrich and crane, as
I called Thibaut and Sabatier, on account of their quick strides,
through the Ambak wood, and the long grass of the Savannah-prairie,
which was partly burning under our feet. But soon the depressed land
of an old river, with standing water therein, lay between us and
the foot of Mount Defafaùngh. We perceived by some trees here, on a
level with the shore of the Nile, that the water had risen four feet
high—what a lake, then!—and, therefore, the Ambak was lying dry,
and its root bent and feeble. Arnaud was advancing far behind us,
with the military escort given to us for our protection, which we
thought we could do without. When we saw armed natives at a little
distance from where we stood, my two Frenchmen made a show of courage,
but seemed to me to hide their fear under the cloak of joking. It
would have been disgraceful to stop and wait for Arnaud, and so one
after the other rode upon the shoulders of our strongest servants,
to whom a comrade gave his hand, so that he might not stick in the
clay soil and morass, and we crossed in this manner a narrow gohr,
leaving the little lake and the standing pools at our left.
On we went through the dried low ground until we arrived, after
walking a mile or so, at the foot of the mountain where the ground is
again elevated, and contains some trees (also dome-palms). I let the
others ascend as if they were running for a wager, and looked right
and left for antiquities, picking up stones with which the steep path
I had struck into was bestudded, whilst the long grass and low bushes,
but still more the projecting rocks, made the ascent difficult and
laborious. Some ledges of rocks encircle the gable-end like a crown;
no human being could have chiselled here, nor has nature so disposed
them in her natural course; I knew the cause from what I had already
seen, and from the specimen I had put into my fowling-bag; I was
standing upon volcanic ground, and therefore I might expect to see a
crater on the top. Reddish ashes and pieces of lava of similar colour
filled the space between the rocks, the porosity of which, as well
as the particles of shining black little stones, similar to coals
and porphyry, convinced me that they have also undergone a powerful
volcanic fire, which has dried up all the pores; or the entire
mountain might have risen from a subterraneous forge, and poured
over itself a thick coating of lava like liquor from a foaming goblet.
If we go upon the supposition, that it is an independent volcano,
and not merely an elevated volcanic mass, we may easily recognize
in the top an extinct crater, levelled by the fallen walls of rock,
such as we see even now on the eastern side, by lava and volcanic
mud, wherein ants at present wallow, and by the crumbling fragments
of projecting rocks. The summit of this burnt-out volcano forms an
oval terrace from N.W. to S.E.; the north-eastern part, however,
is shelving, but the reservoir of lava could not be transplanted
here, for some of the breaks of the mountain in that part, are
precipitously disrupt, and there are no signs of a lava stream
below. The porous rocks on the summit, exhibit a kind of decay,
entirely earthy and friable, so that we might believe that they
were once covered with boiling mud. The curved rocks, jutting out
to the south, are smooth, considerably lower than our summit, and
separated from it by a horizontal rocky wall, cleft here and there,
which surrounds the crater at the top, and is not higher on the
side we are than five to ten feet. The flat part of the upper ring
falls away slightly to the west, and no lava stream was to be seen
here. If the great lake so often spoken of by me existed at one time,
its waters never perhaps dashed over the summit of this Stromboli,
which is about four hundred feet high, much as it might increase by
the opened sluices of the high land, and thus be in a condition to
reach the volcanic mountain itself. An immeasurable circular plain
lay now at our feet, in which the Nile extended from W. to N.; at
its side, turned towards us, were several standing mountain streams,
which join the Nile again at the rainy season, and testify to the
changeableness of the course of the river, whose waters formed at
one time a large lake at the foot of this mountain, and still do
so at high water. No city, therefore, could have stood here, and
still less on the little summit of the mountain, where also not a
single fragment speaks in favour of the previous existence of Tokuls,
although the mountain would have afforded the most splendid building
materials to a nation, that had even only attained a moderate degree
of cultivation. I knew already that we should find no ruins here,
for the so-called ruins were said to consist of _top_, or bricks;
and the fragments of stone have a great similarity to bricks,
but only at the first superficial glance. The Turks, however, had
taken these stones for bricks, and their fiery imagination pictured
immediately pyramids, fortresses, and tombs; which assumption
appeared more credible to me, because by embracing it and believing
in such an existence, I hoped to be able to trace out, whether the
cultivation of the Ethiopians travelled up or down the river. After
a few glances, however, at the upper valley of the White Nile, I was
soon persuaded, that Defafaùngh only remained as a _ne plus ultra_,
an ever-interesting boundary-mark of the cultivated western Ethiopia.
The prospect from the top presented to us some Dinka villages towards
S., and a distant chain of mountains to S.E., and another to E. These
seem also to lie isolated in the immeasurable plain, from the waters
of which they might have stood forth, at one time, like islands. We
saw the dung of hyænas and antelopes; and thousands of guinea-fowls
enticed us to descend by a steep path on the south-eastern side,
where the earlier volcanic phenomena were seen. I scrambled down,
whilst the others were shooting, whom my huntsmen had followed by
spontaneous impulse; twice I aimed and fired, but my gun flashed
in the pan, and I had no more caps. I was therefore obliged to
let the birds, driven up from below by Suliman Kashef’s Turks,
fly round my head, or rise under my feet to the number of fifty to
one hundred head, without even being able to kill them by throwing
stones, or treading them to death. I thought _habeat sibi_, and
wandered over the numberless wild paths, intersecting one another,
between thorns and long straw, to the nearest reach of the mountain,
which is only slightly elevated towards it in N.E., but of equal
height to its base. Up rose a flock of guinea-fowls here, another
covey alighted there; they jumped up and run on all sides to hide
themselves, or flew to the slopes of the mountain, where they were
received by the soldiers standing above, with a discharge from their
terrible weapons, which perhaps they had never heard before. Some of
the birds smelling powder, who were in the neighbouring copsewood,
called the others in vain to leave the circuit of their hitherto Zion.
In the meantime I had found a solitary fragment of a Burma, red
outside and black inside, made in the same manner as those of the
Shilluks, and I roved about the mountain from S.E. to N., where
several blocks of rock were lying below which had fallen from the
mountain, and seemed to be porous basalt, or tophus (the latter most
likely, from the regularity and fineness of the pores). These blocks
lay scattered far and wide to the east, having sharp corners like
those of a red-brown colour, which stand forth as pilasters from the
west side of the mountain itself. They appear, however, to have been
thrown by violence, rather than rolled to this distance. These blocks,
which formerly covered the mountain here as thick crusts of lava,
and under which still other crusts may lie, are broken off nearly
in a horizontal line towards the river, and might, therefore,
together with their clefts, easily suggest the idea of ancient
circular walls or fortifications, to the Arabs and Turks. Perhaps
it is from this cause that the Defafaùngh is called also Berba;
for Birbe means a ruin in Arabic. We found there a cave—perhaps
there are several—formed of stones piled up one over the other,
equal in size to the one at the top on the south-eastern side of
the terrace, and inhabited by wild beasts, as we concluded from
the hyænas’ dung; on the north-eastern side we remarked several
holes and fissures in the rocks, occupied at day by owls, and at
night by the guinea-fowls. We saw the former and heard of the latter
from some Dinkas, after we had assembled under the shade of large
tamarind-trees, on which already there was ripe fruit.
The Dinkas came, laid down their spears at some distance, greeted us
with their “hababa,” and sat by our side in a friendly manner. No
sooner did they see the dead guinea-fowls than they told us, that they
kill them either with stones, or by catching them in the evening in
the holes and cavities of the rocks. They were presented with some
tobacco at their request, contrary to the usual custom of the Turks,
who do not shew such favour to these “Abit.” They thought the
“bumb” (report) of guns was “affiàt” (good and fine), but
they were afraid of it, like all Negroes, and so much so that it
appears laughable to us; but what ideas may they connect with the
simple report, and what species of spirit or devil may they suppose
to be raised in the gun!
There cannot be much worship of trees here, for the neighbouring
villages have not any shady trees; although these splendid tamarinds,
with a trunk of five to six feet thick, and dense foliage, to the foot
of which moreover the water reaches, as we see by the foot-prints of
the Hippopotami, which serve me as an arm-chair, certainly deserve
care and gratitude. But there was very little cleanliness at the
place where we were sitting (to be silent of the ground being trod
smooth by men), and the boughs of the trees did not shew any marks
of consecration; there might have been, perhaps, about one thousand
head of black birds sitting on them. We proceeded afterwards along
the dry margin of the lake to the two layers of rocks projecting from
the ground, wherein we recognise basalt, also porous, but displaying
great hardness on breaking off the upper crust. I dare not decide
whether this lake be not an extinct crater choked up by the Nile,
similar to the Laacher See on the Rhine.
Girard, who has examined my specimens, says indeed truly,—“The
mountain is clearly an extinct volcano. It rises probably from a
basaltic plateau, for basalt, olivine, and pyroxene appear on it,
and red-brown porous lava, with large circular hornblende crystals,
as well as dark blue tophus, formed from clear porous scraps of lava
and fine ashes, seem to cover its declivity. The tophus, as well as
the lava, does not contain any vitreous feldspar, yet pumice stone
shews itself under them, but all the products of the volcano prove
that it is only converted basalt.”
Everything was therefore collected here to form a frontier-fortress;
but perhaps it is reserved for another age to see a new Nigritia
flourishing under the auspices of an enterprising man, who has
money, and will undertake men-hunts. Certainly, by that means,
the whole country would be deprived of the free and independent
negroes; who, notwithstanding their poverty, will not enlist for
gold and silver. They even prefer to remain in the old state, for
they love old customs, even if they have seen or been obliged to have
better ones. One example will suffice for many. Several Dinka slaves
deserted from Fàzogl, who had been made craftsmen, taking with them
all the implements of their trade. They appear, however, to have done
the latter, not on account of the greater usefulness of such tools,
but merely for the sake of the iron, to make spears or bracelets of
it: this, at least, our soldiers and Dinkas affirmed. Some of the
deserters were also shipwrights, but yet we have never seen a boat,
although it would be so useful to them in their marauding expeditions.
The Dinkas accompanied us now to our ships, bringing milk and butter
with them; but we found that they mix cow’s urine with the former,
which was quite sufficient to disgust us, but not so our servants. The
discovery of the desertion of two Dinkas from my vessel delayed the
continuation of our journey; their village, parents, and relations
were near this mountain. We had a long parley with their countrymen,
who continued faithful for some time, and would not deliver up the
two soldiers. At last, when all the threats were of no avail, and we
had ordered our soldiers to get their arms ready, some one managed
to entice with a good grace three sheikhs on board Selim Capitan’s
vessel, whom we had shortly before clothed. We bore off from land,
and the poor Dinkas, who were too few to make war against us, saw
themselves compelled to give up their brothers, who were immediately
then laid in irons; because, according to Turkish custom, these
kidnapped men, although they have not taken the oath of allegiance,
are subject to French military discipline. But it was contrary to
Turkish usage to restore the shiekhs without further extortion, and
they would certainly have been carried to Khartùm, if no Franks
had been present,—who speak, however, frequently in vain. Even
the voluntary slaves were put in chains until they were far distant
from their native country. I begged for mercy for the poor prisoners,
but in vain: we then made a short course and halted, for good reasons
not at the shore of the Dinkas. Thermometer up to 32°.