NUBIANS AND HAMRAN ARABS.
TINT OF THE NUBIAN SKIN -- DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MEN -- PECULIAR
SWORD AND SHIELD -- DRESS OF THE WOMEN -- RÂHAT, OR THONG APRON --
AMULETS -- NUBIAN ARCHITECTURE -- THE HAMRAN ARABS -- WEAPONS OF THE
MEN -- CARE TAKEN OF THE WEAPONS -- ELEPHANT HUNTING -- ADMIRABLE
HORSEMANSHIP -- CATCHING BABOONS -- HUNTING THE LION -- CATCHING A
BUFFALO BY THE TAIL -- HARPOONING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.
Inasmuch as, in spite of the continual contact with civilization,
caused by their locality on the Nile bank, the Nubians have preserved
their ancient style of dress and much of their ancient manners, they
deserve a place in this work.
In color the Nubians are mostly black, some being of quite a jetty hue,
while others are of much lighter color. Even in the blackest Nubian,
however, the tint of the skin is not that of the tropical negro, but
there is a certain transparency about it, which, in the sunbeams, gives
a sort of amber hue to the limbs. Besides being a fine and well-built
race, the Nubians possess pleasing features, the only fault being that
the lower part of the face is somewhat apt to project.
While young the boys wear no clothing whatever, but when adult they
wear short trousers, a shirt, and a kind of large scarf which passes
over the left shoulder, and is fastened by a girdle round the waist.
Being Mahometans, they shave the hair except one tuft on the crown, and
cover their bare heads with a white cotton cap.
The Nubian men mostly go armed according to their ability. The usual
weapons are the sword, dagger, spear, and shield. The sword is shaped
somewhat like that of the Abyssinian, but the curve is not so abrupt.
The general style of the weapon, however, and the shape of the handle,
proclaim a common origin. With some of the Nubians the favorite weapon
is the straight sword, like that of the Hamran Arabs, which will be
described in a future page.
Perhaps on account of the facility which the Nile affords for
travelling into South Central Africa, they wear a dagger fastened to
the left arm just above the elbow, exactly as do several of the tribes
that are found near the sources of the Nile. This dagger is short and
crooked, and is kept in a red leathern sheath, and, on account of its
position on the arm, is covered by the garments. The spear is simply
the ordinary wooden shaft with an iron head, and has nothing about it
specially worthy of notice.
The shield, however, is remarkable for its structure. It is generally
made of the hide of the hippopotamus or of crocodile skin, and is
easily known by the projecting boss in the centre. The hide is
stretched on a wooden framework, and the boss is made of a separate
piece of skin. The Nubians value these shields very highly, and, in
consequence, it is extremely difficult to procure them.
The women are dressed after the usual African manner. As girls they
wear nothing but a little apron of leathern thongs called a râhat.
This apron is about nine inches or a foot in width, and perhaps six
or seven in depth, and in general appearance resembles that of the
Kaffir girl. Instead of being cut from one piece of leather, each thong
is a separate strip of hide, scarcely thicker than packthread, and
knotted by the middle to the thong which passes round the waist. The
apron is dyed of a brick-red color, and, after it has been in use for
any time, becomes so saturated with the castor-oil which stands these
primitive belles in lieu of clothing, that the smell is unendurable.
Travellers often purchase them from the Nubian girls, who, as a rule,
are perfectly willing to sell them; but the buyers are obliged to hang
their purchases on the top of the mast for a month or so, before they
can be taken into the cabin. One of these aprons in my collection has
still the familiar castor-oil odor about it, though many years have
passed since it was purchased from a Nubian girl.
Of course they wear as many ornaments as they can procure; and some
of these, which are handed down from one generation to another, are
of great value. Few characteristics are more striking to an observant
traveller than the fact that a Nubian girl whose whole dress may
perhaps be worth threepence, and who really could not afford to wear
any clothing at all if it cost sixpence, will yet carry on her neck,
her wrists, her ankles, and in her ears, a quantity of gold sufficient
to purchase a handsome equipment.
It is rather a remarkable point that these aprons always become
narrower toward the left side. The daughters of wealthy parents, though
they wear no clothing except the apron, still contrive to satisfy the
instinctive love of dress by covering the leathern thongs with beads,
white shells, and pieces of silver twisted round them. When the girls
marry, they retain the apron, but wear over it a loose garment, which
passes over one shoulder, and hangs as low as the knee.
The ornaments with which they profusely decorate their persons are of
various materials, according to the wealth of the woman who owns them.
Those of the wealthy are of gold and silver, while those of the poorer
class are of buffalo horn, brass, and similar materials. The metal
amulets are of a crescent shape, and are open at one side, so as to be
clasped on the arm or removed, according to the wearer’s pleasure.
The hair is dressed in a way that recalls the ancient Egyptian woman
to the traveller. It is jetty black and tolerably long, and is twisted
with hundreds of small and straight tresses, generally finished off at
the tips with little knobs of yellow clay, which look at a distance as
if they were little lumps of gold. Amulets of different kinds are woven
into the locks, and the whole is so saturated with castor-oil that
an experienced traveller who wishes to talk to a Nubian woman takes
care to secure the windward side, and not to approach nearer than is
absolutely needful. As a rule, the Nubian women are not so dark as the
men, but approach nearly to a coffee tint.
“Two beautiful young Nubian women visited me in my boat, with hair in
the little plaits finished off with lumps of yellow clay, burnished
like golden tags, soft deep bronze skins, and lips and eyes fit for
Iris and Athor. Their very dress and ornaments were the same as those
represented in the tombs, and I felt inclined to ask them how many
thousand years old they were.” (Lady Duff Gordon’s “Letters from
Egypt.”)
The same writer well remarks that the whole country is a palimpsest,
in which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over
the Bible. In the towns the Koran is most visible; in the country,
Herodotus.
One of these graceful Nubian girls is represented in the frontispiece
to this volume.
The amulets which have been just mentioned are worn by men and women
alike, and are sewed up in red leather cases like those of the
Bornuans. It is an essential part of their efficacy that their contents
should not be known, and if once a case be opened, the enclosed amulet
loses its power. The men often wear great numbers of them, tying them
on their arms above the elbows.
The houses in which the Nubians live, or rather in which they sleep,
are of very simple construction. Residing among the ruins of palaces,
the Nubians have never learned to build anything better than a mud hut.
These huts are of much the same shape as the old Egyptian buildings,
being squared towers, large at the base, and decreasing toward the top,
which is square, and in the better class of house answers as a terrace.
The roof is covered with palm branches, and every good house possesses
a sort of court-yard surrounded by walls, in which the women can pursue
their different vocations while sheltered from the sun.
Granaries are seen near every village, and consist of shallow pits sunk
in the ground and covered with a sort of white plaster. The villages
also possess a shed for the reception of strangers, and each house has
a jar of fresh water always kept ready for use.
Fortunately for themselves, the Nubians are both proud and fond of
their country; and, although they are despised by the Arabs to such
an extent that a Nubian always tries to pass himself off as an Arab
whenever he has the opportunity, they are ever boasting of the many
perfections of the land which they thus reject.
How long the Nubians may possess this land is doubtful. The Turk,
“under whose foot no grass grows,” is doing his best to depopulate the
country. The men are pressed for soldiers, as many as thirty per cent.
having been carried off in one conscription, and they are always being
seized for forced labor--_i. e._ a life somewhat worse than that of
plantation slaves. Consequently, as soon as they take alarm, they leave
their village and escape into the interior, abandoning their crops
and allowing them to perish rather than serve under the hated rule of
the Turk. The least resistance, or show of resistance, is punished by
death, and several travellers have related incidents of cold-blooded
cruelty which seem almost too horrible to tell, but which were taken
quite as matters of ordinary occurrence. Taxation, too, is carried
out to a simply ruinous extent, and the natural result is fast taking
place, namely, the depopulation of the land, and the gradual lessening
of the number of tax-payers.
THE HAMRAN ARABS.
To describe, however briefly, all the tribes which inhabit the vast
district called Arabia would be a task far beyond the pretensions of
this work. Some have advanced very far in civilization, while others
have retained, with certain modifications, their pristine and almost
savage mode of life. I shall therefore select these latter tribes as
examples of the Arab life, and shall briefly describe one or two of the
most characteristic examples.
* * * * *
South of Cassala there is a remarkable tribe of Arabs known as the
Hamrans, who are celebrated through all the country for their skill in
hunting. They possess the well-cut features and other characteristics
of the Arab race, and are only to be distinguished by the style of
wearing the hair. They permit the hair to grow to a great length, part
it down the middle, and carefully train it into long curls. Each man
always carries the only two weapons he cares about, namely, the sword
and shield. The latter is of no very great size, is circular in shape,
and about two feet in diameter, with a boss in the centre much like
that of the Nubian shield already described. It is made of the skin of
the hippopotamus, and being meant for use and not for show, is never
ornamented.
As to the sword, it is the chief friend of the Hamran Arab’s life, and
he looks upon it with a sort of chivalric respect. It is straight,
double-edged, and is furnished with a cross-handle, like that of the
ancient Crusaders, from whom the fashion seems to have been borrowed.
The blades are of European make, and the Arabs are excellent judges
of steel, valuing a good blade above everything. They keep both edges
literally as sharp as razors, and prove the fact by shaving with them.
When a Hamran Arab is travelling and comes to a halt, the first thing
he does after seating himself is to draw his sword and examine both
edges with the keenest attention. He then sharpens the weapon upon his
leathern shield, and when he can shave the hair on his own arm with
both edges, he carefully returns the blade into the sheath.
The length of the blade is three feet, and the handle is about six
inches long, so that the weapon is a very weighty one, and a fair
blow from its keen edge will cut a man in two. Still, it is not
serviceable in single combat, as, although its weight renders a
successful blow fatal, it prevents the recovery of the sword after
an unsuccessful blow. Sir S. Baker, to whom we are indebted for an
account of this remarkable tribe, says that a Hamran Arab, with his
sword and shield, would be at the mercy of an ordinary swordsman. He
can cut and slash with wonderful energy, but knows nothing of using the
point or parrying, so that, if a feint be made at his head, he will
instinctively raise the shield, and lay his whole body open to the
point of his adversary’s sword.
The scabbard in which the sword is carried is very ingeniously made of
two strips of soft and elastic wood, slightly hollowed to receive the
blade, and covered with leather. The absurd metal scabbards still in
use in our army would be scorned by an Arab, who knows the value of
a keen edge to his weapon. On the scabbard are fitted two projecting
pieces of leather. When the Arab is on the march, he slings the sword
on the pommel of his saddle, and passes his leg between these leather
projections, so that the sword is held in its place, and does not jump
and bang against the sides of the horse.
Armed with merely the sword, these mighty hunters attack all kinds of
game, and match themselves with equal coolness against the elephant,
the rhinoceros, the giraffe, the lion, or the antelope. Their mode
of procedure is almost invariably the same. They single out some
particular animal, and contrive to cut the tendon of the bind leg with
a blow of the sword, thus rendering the unfortunate beast helpless.
When they chase the elephant, they proceed in the following manner. The
elephant hunters, or aggageers, as they call themselves, convert their
swords into two-handed weapons by wrapping thin cord very closely round
the blade, for about nine inches from the handle. The guarded portion
of the blade is held in the right hand, and the hilt in the left.
Two hunters generally set out in chase of the elephant. Having selected
the bull with the largest tusks, they separate it from its fellows,
and irritate it until it charges them. One of the aggageers takes
on himself this duty, and draws the attention of the elephant upon
himself. The irritated animal makes its furious onset, and goes off at
full speed after the aggageer, who carefully accommodates his pace to
that of the elephant, so that it always thinks it is going to catch
him, and forgets that he has a companion.
Meanwhile, the other aggageer rides close to the side of the elephant,
draws his sword, springs to the ground, bounds alongside of the
elephant, delivers one tremendous cut on the ankle of the hind foot,
and springs again on his horse. As soon as the elephant puts the
injured foot on the ground, the joint becomes dislocated, and the
foot turns up like an old shoe. The animal is now helpless, and,
while its attention is still engaged by the aggageer whom it has been
pursuing, the swordsman passes to its other side, slashes the ankle
of the remaining leg, and brings the animal to a dead halt. The sword
is carefully wiped, sharpened, and returned to the sheath, while the
wounded elephant sinks to the ground, and in a short time dies from
loss of blood. Thus one man will kill an elephant with two blows of a
sword.
It is evident that such hunting as this requires the most perfect
horsemanship, and it is accordingly found that the Hamran Arabs are
among the best horsemen in the world. They and their steeds seem to be
actuated by one spirit, and they sit as if the horse and his rider were
but one animal. In his travels in Abyssinia Sir S. Baker gives a very
graphic account of their mode of riding.
“Hardly were we mounted and fairly started, than the monkey-like
agility of our aggageers was displayed in a variety of antics, that
were far more suited to performance in a circus than to a party of
steady and experienced hunters, who wished to reserve the strength of
their horses for a trying journey.
“Abou Do was mounted on a beautiful Abyssinian horse, a gray; Suleiman
rode a rough and inferior-looking beast; while little Jali, who was
the pet of the party, rode a gray mare, not exceeding fourteen hands
in height, which matched her rider exactly in fire, spirit, and speed.
Never was there a more perfect picture of a wild Arab horseman than
Jali on his mare. Hardly was he in the saddle, than away flew the
mare over the loose shingles that formed the dry bed of the river,
scattering the rounded pebbles in the air from her flinty hoofs, while
her rider in the vigor of delight threw himself almost under her belly
while at full speed, and picked up stones from the ground, which he
flung, and again caught as they descended.
“Never were there more complete Centaurs than these Hamran Arabs; the
horse and man appeared to be one animal, and that of the most elastic
nature, that could twist and turn with the suppleness of a snake; the
fact of their separate being was proved by the rider springing to the
earth with his drawn sword while the horse was in full gallop over
rough and difficult ground, and, clutching the mane, he again vaulted
into the saddle with the agility of a monkey, without once checking the
speed.
“The fact of being on horseback had suddenly altered the character
of these Arabs; from a sedate and proud bearing they had become the
wildest examples of the most savage disciples of Nimrod; excited by
enthusiasm, they shook their naked blades aloft till the steel trembled
in their grasp, and away they dashed, over rocks, through thorny bush,
across ravines, up and down steep inclinations, engaging in a mimic
hunt, and going through the various acts supposed to occur in the
attack of a furious elephant.”
This capability of snatching up articles from the ground stands the
hunters in good stead. If, for example, they should come across a flock
of sheep, each man will dash through the flock, stoop from his saddle,
pick up a lamb, and ride off with it. They can even catch far more
active prey than the lamb or kid. On one occasion, as the party were
travelling along, they came upon a large troop of baboons, who had been
gathering gum arabic from the mimosas. “Would the lady like to have a
baboon?” asked Jali, the smallest and most excitable of the party.
Three of the hunters dashed off in pursuit of the baboons, and in spite
of the rough ground soon got among them. Stooping from their saddles,
two of the aggageers snatched each a young baboon from its mother,
placed it on the neck of the horse, and rode off with it. Strange to
say, the captive did not attempt to escape, nor even to bite, but
clung convulsively to the mane of the horse, screaming with fear. As
soon as they halted, the hunters stripped some mimosa bark from the
trees, bound the baboons, and with their heavy whips inflicted a severe
flogging on the poor beasts. This was to make them humble, and prevent
them from biting. However, in the course of the next halt, when the
baboons were tied to trees, one of them contrived to strangle itself in
its struggles to escape, and the other bit through its bonds and made
off unseen.
For such work as this, the hunter must be able to stop his horse in a
moment, and accordingly the bit must be a very severe one. The saddle
is a very clumsy affair, made of wood and unstuffed, while the stirrups
are only large enough to admit the great toe.
The rhinoceros gives far more trouble to the hunters than the elephant.
It is much swifter, more active, and can turn more rapidly, spinning
round as if on a pivot, and baffling their attempts to get at its
hind leg. Unlike the elephant, it can charge on three legs, so that a
single wound does not disable it. Still the Hamran Arabs always kill
the rhinoceros when they can, as its skin will produce hide for seven
shields, each piece being worth two dollars, and the horn is sold to
the Abyssinians as material for sword hilts, the best horn fetching
two dollars per pound.
Lion-hunting is not a favorite pursuit with the Hamrans, as they gain
little if successful, and they seldom come out of the contest without
having suffered severely. They always try to slash the animal across
the loins, as a blow in that spot disables it instantly, and prevents
it from leaping. Sometimes the lion springs on the crupper of the
horse, and then a back-handed blow is delivered with the two-edged
sword, mostly with fatal effect.
The buffalo, fierce and active as it is, they hunt with the sword.
Nothing, perhaps, shows the splendid horsemanship and daring courage of
the Hamrans better than a scene which was witnessed by Sir S. Baker.
A large herd of buffaloes was seen and instantly charged by the
aggageers, and, while the buffaloes and hunters were mixed together in
one mass, the irrepressible little Jali suddenly leaned forward, and
seized the tail of a fine young buffalo, some twelve hands high. Two
other hunters leaped from their horses, snatched off their belts, and
actually succeeded in taking the animal alive. This was a great prize,
as it would be sold for a considerable sum at Cassala. Now as Jali was
barely five foot three inches in height, and very slightly made, such a
feat as seizing and finally capturing a powerful animal like a buffalo
bull was really a wonderful one.
They are as active on foot as on horseback. On one occasion, three
of them, Jali of course being one, were so excited with the chase
of a wounded elephant that they actually leaped from their horses
and pursued the animal on foot. The elephant was mad with rage, but
seemed instinctively to know that his enemies wanted to get behind
him, and always turned in time to prevent them. Active as monkeys, the
aggageers managed to save themselves from the charges of the elephant,
in spite of deep sand, which impeded them, while it had no effect on
the elephant. Time after time he was within a yard or so of one of the
hunters, when the other two saved him by dashing upon either flank, and
so diverting his attention.
They hunt the hippopotamus as successfully as they chase the elephant,
and are as mighty hunters in the water as upon land. In this chase they
exchange the sword and shield for the harpoon and lance. The former
weapon is made on exactly the same principle as that which has already
been described when treating of the hippopotamus hunters of South
Central Africa, but it is much lighter. The shaft is a stout bamboo
about ten feet in length, and the head is a piece of soft steel about a
foot long, sharply pointed at one end and having a single stout barb.
One end of a rope, about twenty feet in length, is firmly attached to
the head, and to the other end is fastened a float made of a very light
wood called ambatch, which is also used for making canoes and rafts.
When the hunter sees a hippopotamus, and means to attack it, he puts on
his hunting dress, _i. e._ he braces a leathern belt round his waist,
and takes off all his clothes. He then fixes the iron head on the
bamboo shaft, winds the rope round the latter, and boldly enters the
water, holding the harpoon in the right hand and the ambatch float in
the left. As soon as he comes within striking distance of his victim,
the harpoon is hurled, and the hunter tries to find a spot in which the
infuriated animal cannot reach him. The wounded hippopotamus dashes
about, first in the river, then on the bank, and then in the river
again, always trailing after it the rope and float, and so weakening
itself, and allowing its enemies to track it. Sooner or later they
contrive to seize the end, drag the animal near the bank, and then with
their lances put it to death.
Often, when they have brought the hippopotamus to the shore, it charges
open-mouthed at its tormentors. Some of them receive it with spears,
while others, though unarmed, boldly await its onset, and fling
handfuls of sand into its eyes. The sand really seems to cause more
pain and annoyance than the spears, and the animal never can withstand
it, but retreats to the water to wash the sand out of its eyes. In the
mean time, weapon after weapon is plunged into its body, until at last
loss of blood begins to tell upon it, and by degrees it yields up its
life.
Sir S. Baker gives a most animated description of one of these strange
hunts.
One of the old Hamran hunters, named Abou Do--an abbreviated version
of a very long string of names--was celebrated as a howarti, or
hippopotamus hunter. This fine old man, some seventy years of age, was
one of the finest conceivable specimens of humanity. In spite of his
great age, his tall form, six feet two in height, was as straight as
in early youth, his gray locks hung in thick curls over his shoulders,
and his bronze features were those of an ancient statue. Despising all
encumbrances of dress, he stepped from rock to rock as lightly as a
goat, and, dripping with water, and bearing his spear in his hand, he
looked a very Neptune. The hunters came upon a herd of hippopotami in a
pool, but found that they were too much awake to be safely attacked.
“About half a mile below this spot, as we clambered over the
intervening rocks through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, I
observed, in a small pool just below the rapid, an immense head of a
hippopotamus close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to the
river, about six feet above the surface. I pointed out the hippo to
old Abou Do, who had not seen it.
“At once the gravity of the old Arab disappeared, and the energy of the
hunter was exhibited as he motioned us to remain, while he ran nimbly
behind the thick screen of bushes for about a hundred and fifty yards
below the spot where the hippo was unconsciously basking, with his ugly
head above the surface. Plunging into the rapid torrent, the veteran
hunter was carried some distance down the stream, but, breasting the
powerful current, he landed upon the rocks on the opposite side, and,
retiring to some distance from the river, he quickly advanced toward
the spot beneath which the hippopotamus was lying. I had a fine view of
the scene, as I was lying concealed exactly opposite the hippo, who had
disappeared beneath the water.
“Abou Do now stealthily approached the ledge of rock beneath which he
had expected to see the head of the animal; his long, sinewy arm was
raised, with the harpoon ready to strike as he carefully advanced. At
length he reached the edge of the perpendicular rock, the hippo had
vanished, but, far from exhibiting surprise, the old Arab remained
standing on the sharp ledge, unchanged in attitude.
“No figure of bronze could have been more rigid than that of the
old river-king, as he stood erect upon the rock with the left foot
advanced, and the harpoon poised in his ready right hand above his
head, while in the left he held the loose coils of rope attached to the
ambatch buoy. For about three minutes he stood like a statue, gazing
intently into the clear and deep water beneath his feet.
“I watched eagerly for the reappearance of the hippo; the surface of
the water was still barren, when suddenly the right arm of the statue
descended like lightning, and the harpoon shot perpendicularly into
the pool with the speed of an arrow. What river-fiend answered to
the summons? In an instant an enormous pair of open jaws appeared,
followed by the ungainly head and form of the furious hippopotamus,
who, springing half out of the water, lashed the river into foam,
and, disdaining the concealment of the deep pool, he charged straight
up the violent rapids. (See engraving No. 1, on the next page.)
With extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream; gaining
a footing in the rapids, about five feet deep, he ploughed his way
against the broken waves, sending them in showers of spray upon all
sides, and upon gaining broader shallows he tore along through the
water, with the buoyant float hopping behind him along the surface,
until he landed from the river, started at full gallop along the dry
shingly bed, and at length disappeared in the thorny nabbuk jungle.”
During one of these flights, the hippopotamus took it into his head
that the ambatch float was the enemy that was damaging him, and
attacked it furiously. Taking advantage of his pre-occupation, two
hunters swam across the river, carrying with them a very long and tough
rope, and holding one end on each bank and “sweeping,” as the sailors
say, they soon caught the float in the centre of the rope and brought
it ashore. The hippopotamus then made a charge, and the slackened line
was immediately coiled round a rock, while two hunters fixed additional
harpoons in the animal; and though he made six charges at his foes,
bit one of the ropes asunder, and crushed the lance-shafts between his
teeth like straws, the hardy hunters got the better of him, and his
death was a mere matter of time.
The hippopotamus is nearly as great a prize as the rhinoceros, as it
affords an almost unlimited supply of food, and the hide is extremely
valuable, being cut into strips two inches in width, which are used in
the manufacture of the koorbash, or hide whip, so universally employed
throughout Africa.
In the water, the crocodile is even a more dangerous antagonist than
the hippopotamus, and yet the Hamrans attack it with their harpoons,
boldly entering the water, and caring no more for crocodiles than for
so many frogs.
[Illustration: (1.) HUNTING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. (See page 678.)]
[Illustration: (2.) TRAVELLERS AND THE MIRAGE. (See page 689.)]