Selim-Capitan shews far more energy and attention than I should

have given him credit for, comprehends everything very quickly,

and, with the exception of his Greco-Turkish faults, which I will

touch upon afterwards, his character has been entirely mistaken. We

reckon our number of miles from yesterday at noon till to-day at the

same time, to be fifteen; and find, after the necessary reduction,

that we have advanced only two miles in direct line towards S. The

land retreats on all sides. From the deck I still discover the dark

vigorous trees of yesterday, called by Mariàn Tihl, and otherwise

named Shudder el Fill (elephant-tree), the large fruit of which is

said to be welcome food to elephants. At noon we towed southwards—a

very troublesome labour, for there are sloughs and gohrs on every

side in the reeds, which the crew must swim through in order to get

firmer ground for a short time. Even this presents many difficulties,

owing to the reeds and their great unevenness. Nevertheless, the food

of the crew is not so bad as in Khartùm, although for several days

we have been in want of meat; thus they are not very much spoiled

from their birth upwards. The N.E. wind, which was slack at mid-day,

freshens at three o’clock; we sail E.S.E., and in five minutes

again S.W by S., and make three miles. But already again we see

the river going eastward, and we follow it, really S.E. and E.S.E.,

and then E. within a short time, for it makes eternal bends here,

of two hundred paces, or less, in breadth.

Four o’clock.—To S.; ten minutes after, to W. We see towards

the south, on the right shore, from aloft, a small land-lake, the

white basin of which denotes some depth, and appears not to be fed by

the main stream. We observe in the back ground, two villages, with

dhellèbs and other trees, and in the distance other villages upon

a bare whitish shore, skirted with some trees. The vessels coming

after us reach to our right side, where the left shore ought to

lie, a good gun-shot distance from the reeds—and, O illusion and

fancy!—the old shore on the right, with its villages and trees,

is _Sherk_ (_East_)—that is, the right shore of the river.—Five

o’clock, from S.W. to S. We make only half a mile, whilst the

current is not more rapid. At sunset we remark a number of birds,

mostly long-shanks, moving in two divisions near one another from west

to east, and perhaps repairing to the already more exposed sources

of the Nile. Thermometer 17°, 25°—27°, and 22°, at the three

different times of the day. The river three fathoms in depth.

_22nd December._—I remained last night on board Selim Capitan’s

vessel. From S.E., which direction we reached yesterday evening,

we now went with a faint north wind to east, and our course had

one mile and a half in rapidity. At last I saw on the low ground

in the south, a village, with a large tree, apparently a baobàb,

and further on the old right shore, with palms and other trees;

when,—at half-past eight o’clock,—no more was to be seen of the

left shore. At half-past nine o’clock we went to the right shore

to fetch wood. The crew landed under a suitable guard, with axes,

for we remarked a village in the neighbourhood, and feared the old

acquaintance of this people. There were, moreover, no regular trees

to be seen here, but only stunted and decayed trunks, standing on or

near the countless ant-hills. These serve the natives as watch-towers,

as we had already seen, but no person appeared on them. The stumps

were said to be torn and disfigured by the elephants; indeed we

saw several deep impressions made by the feet of these colossi,

for the river had flowed off from hence some time.

The wind has gone round to E., and is very favourable; whereupon we

sail also at half-past ten o’clock from this place S.E. towards

S., but soon draw to the E. and row; then sail to N.E., and assist

with the oars. At noon, owing to the dead calm, we are towed in

a south-easterly direction, and at three o’clock we make use

slightly of our sails to S.W. by S., and soon afterwards S.E. by

S. On the left shore, a long row of isolated trees is visible, also

groups of trees themselves, among which, afar off, are distinguished

dhellèb-palms. They mark, indeed, as usual, the real old shore,

for they do not thrive in the morass, but frequently also they may

denote, like other trees, the ephemeral margin of the river. The

dhellèb-palms come nearer before us in a wide bend, which, however,

may be only so in appearance. The reeds are already on dry ground,

and a lower border of the same forms the momentary limits of the

river. We remark also here on the right shore of the reeds, where we

halt about five o’clock, in a southerly direction, several deep

foot-prints of elephants, who have trod down and eaten away every

thing, so that only single bushes of high rushes remain. Ant-hills,

of eight to ten feet high, rise indeed around, but neither tree nor

house—a real elephant pasture-ground.

I went on board Suliman Kashef’s ship, and found there my Feïzulla

Capitan again, but in such a state of intoxication, that he fancied I

was lost from his ship. He regretted me, and I played also this time

again the “achùl el bennàt,” and carried him safely home. It is

a wonder that his crew, who have worked themselves tired the whole

day, and with whom he is always joking in his Turkish drunkenness,

do not thoroughly lose their patience and respect.

_23rd December._—Instead of sailing at daybreak with the favourable

wind, one vessel went after the other to the left shore, but we soon

heard that the vessel of the commander, Selim Capitan, was full of

water, having drawn so much during the night, that if the morning

had not brought this circumstance to light, it would inevitably

have sunk. Biscuit, durra, wheat, and all the other provisions were

taken out, and dried on the sails spread on the shore. Sale made a

capital shooting excursion, and is very proud of it: he requests his

comrades not to shoot any more, for they only throw away powder. The

birds are generally the very same as those we found in Taka. I shall

return to this subject hereafter.

We could plainly remark near the numberless ant-hills, of eight to

ten feet high, and thirty to thirty-six paces in circumference,

by the difference of the same vegetation, how far the water has

washed over these hills, and how inconsiderably it has reached

up to the same, although the whole earth, in which there are many

foot-prints, and marks of elephants, rose itself only two feet above

the present surface of water. Even here, therefore, where a lake must

always disclose itself when the water is at its greatest height,

the ascent of the river is only slight, owing to its overflowing

in an immeasurable space. In a more extended excursion, I lighted

upon a low green plot of ground with water, and as I had remarked

from the deck and mast-head, these verdant tracks are found again

in the half-dug elephant-pasture. They may be old beds of the Nile,

choked up by reeds and slime.

Wild cucumbers were very frequently met with here, and with their

yellow flowers, often take the high rushes on the water into their

friendly embrace. The under stratum of the ground is formed here

also, as elsewhere, by blue clay, mixed with a little sand, whereon

a covering of humus lies, the vegetable parts of which are visible

in masses, less from their being decomposed by the atmosphere, than

from being worked up by the feet of animals. Hygrometer, at eight

o’clock, eighty degrees.

_24th December._—After everything had been dried and packed up

again yesterday, we make, towards the evening, a very short track,

in order to secure ourselves somewhat more from the gnats, which have,

on the whole, decreased, and we cast anchor. Our clock, put at six at

sunset, shewed also six o’clock, when the sun rose S.E. by E. The

trombetta (drummers) beat a _reveillée_ at the first tinge of dawn;

that is here an hour and a quarter before the sun; yet I could not

read for the first half hour.

The whole sky has been clouded since we left the country of the

Shilluks; and although they are not our heavy white clouds, the

sun cannot penetrate through them. A mist, in appearance like a

coast cut off from the horizon, surrounded us on all sides, without

visibly extending itself in our neighbourhood. This layer of mist,

however, was open from S. to S.W., where the river probably flows,

with which the mist nearest to us melted away before daybreak, as I

have so often remarked on the Rhine. The hazy streak of the rising

sun is splendidly irradiated from E. to S., and therefore deludes

us to believe that it is a broad luminous stream, or white lake,

contrasted with the dark edge of the sky. I had remarked, the evening

before last, a similar misty veil to the east, and, as I expected,

there were light mists yesterday morning, before sunrise, on the

river, and slowly floating down with it.

We went this morning E.S.E., and at seven o’clock S.W., without

having got ahead, for the very feint north wind had not yet made

up its mind. One of our vessels sails towards E. in the grass,

and appears to have struck into another road, in order to cut us

off. Isolated dhellèb-palms on the right shore, and towards N.E. a

whole group of them; whilst on the left shore a great wood is visible,

drawing into the land, as I hear, from the west. Before this forest

shady Tihl-trees, with broad branches, in our neighbourhood; the

right shore retreats again here, with its blooming ambak-thicket.

The lakes seem, in some measure, to be at an end; but the gigantic

bed of the stream remains, although the old high shores are not,

perhaps, to be discovered, for we cannot approach the real dry ground,

as the river does not extend so far. This must, however, have been

an extensive margin of the river, separated from it, between which,

towards the sides, the water flows and ripples in small rivulets, like

a meadow under water. It is said that there are no more doum-palms

here, although I would take some trees in the distance for them,

having, it is true, a stunted appearance compared with those in Taka,

but similar to those commonly found on the White River.

Half-past eight o’clock. To S.E. by S.; then an easterly direction,

with the usual deviations, and at last S. From the mast is seen,

near the before-named shady elephant-trees, a whole herd of these

lovers of their fruit,—the white birds on their massive backs,

whom they are trying to drive away with their trunks.

About ten o’clock S.E. by E. and S.E. I think I see on the right

shore, a small river, discharging itself in the reeds, for the colour

in the little basin is different from that of our water. Immediately

afterwards, a small village, composed of low, wretched tokuls. A

dog looked at us, but did not bark, much as he was teased; he was

a large-boned greyhound, such as are seen generally in Taka and

Sennaar. This fishermen’s village stands some three feet above the

water, and we see by the fresh repairing of the huts with Nile slime,

that the river must have washed against this place. Four sails go

on the right, at a regular distance W., in the reeds, whilst the

vessels sailing a-head in S.E., also look over the reeds, and move

towards the E. The ambak-wood continues almost uninterruptedly on our

left. About eleven o’clock, from S.W., is an extensive bend to the

E., and afterwards to N.E., as it appears from the other vessels. On

the right stands an enclosed dhellèb-palm, quite solitary in the

wide green lake; and yet it delights the eye as a resting-point,

like the sails far and near.

From the undulating eastern direction, swerving to the N.E.,

where the towing-path is now made through the reeds, we wheel,

according to the dear old custom, towards S., in which direction we

halt at noon on the right shore, to wait for the other vessels. The

north-wind having become stronger since half-past eight o’clock,

promises to be favourable for the two windings we see before us. We

see over those vessels, towards S.E., clouds of smoke arise in the

forest, about half an hour distant, as we did yesterday and the day

before. Over the green-flat, to the E., from which bushes of high

rushes and ant-hills rise, several dhellèb-palms.

At three o’clock we set sail towards W.S.W., yet soon again S.S.W.,

and at four o’clock S.E. by S.

One mile rapidity. Five o’clock. To W. On the right thirteen tokuls,

which, like the four on the opposite side, near our landing-place,

are partly new, partly restored, for the high-water rises above these

new shores. There are neither human beings nor anything else living

to be seen near the poor, badly built huts. The river navigated by

us has here a breadth of some four hundred paces. To the N. we at

last observed the vessels which had remained behind, and from yonder

the Haba shews itself, with groups of trees jutting out in a circle

to some distance; in N.W. smoke ascends in different places: as on

the left, to the E., in the far distance over the trees, although

no villages can be seen even from the mast.

These pillars of smoke are considered by the crew not as aerial

angels of peace and friendship, but rather as a general signal

against us. It seems more probable to me, however, judging from

analogy with the people, dwelling in Taka, that this kindling of

high grasses and pines is done by the tribes of the place to free

their territory from insects, snakes, and other noxious animals,

or to give air and nourishment to the sprouting grass, in order to

make it fit for pasture. In these forest-burnings we must seek for

the cause of the bad and stunted condition of the wood.

I thought that the river made a bend to the S., because I saw water

there; but they tell me from the mast, that this water is a broad

gohr, or Birke, (land-lake). It shews itself a gun-shot distance

from the river, and quite parallel to it from E. to W., and is, at

this moment, only divided from it by the reeds under water, and an

ambak-thicket. A water-course meandered through the rushes to the

eastern end of the lake. The crew affirmed that the lake receives

its water from the river by this road (sikka): this, indeed, is not

_impossible_, but it is _improbable_, for the river must propel its

current against the water from W. to E. I believe rather that the lake

feeds itself from S.W., where incisions are remarked in the reeds,

and behind, a long and broad marsh-land. The lake and the river have

now an equal level, and there is neither an influx nor outflux to

be seen in the so-called little water-road. If it be not an outlet

of the lake, discharging its higher surface of water through the

reeds, it is a road for crocodiles and river-buffaloes. The broken

rushes and the scattered borders of the lower vegetation, &c. make me

believe the latter supposition. I have also remarked, at this moment,

a large hippopotamus wallowing about there.

There can scarcely be a doubt that this waterpath serves the

fishing-boats as a channel. The lake is from E. to W. about an hour

long. There may be numbers of such collective lakes and tributaries

which the reeds hide from us; for these waters, when the Nile is _at

its height_, do not rush into it, and cannot force a road through

the luxuriant and strongly articulated world of plants. These

plants perhaps allow a conjunction of water; but no open tributary

stream for the rise and fall of the waters takes place at the same

time. Fadl tells me that the lake is only twice as broad as the Nile,

which is here three hundred paces; and the head of the lake is said

to draw towards the south, thereby shewing itself to be an old bed

of the river.

No large fish are found here; for if there were any we must have

heard them at times in the evening splashing up; that is, supposing

they were very abundant in these lakes. However, in the land of

the Shilluks several fish of uncommon size, such as are seen in

the markets at Kàhira and Khartùm, floated towards us, dead. The

crew eat them, although they stank. Standing at the helm, above the

cabin, I noticed, before sun-set, seven elephants, with two young

ones, feeding on the right in the reed-grass, and, for this once,

unmolested by their feathered friends. We halt on account of the

faint breeze, towards the west, in order to wait for the vessels,

the sun going down before us and throwing all its charms on the

limitless watery expanse. Throughout the whole day it had never

shone through those misty veils, which appeared so lightly floating.

Feïzulla Capitan has found a new consolation, by establishing a

small brandy distillery. For this purpose he used dates, a great

quantity of which fruit we carried with us. One burma forms the

boiler, and another, with a reed in it, the head of the still. As,

however, he only once draws off this araki, there remain too many

lees in it to be pleasant; but this does not offend the taste and

smell of the bold captain. The thermometer before sunrise 19°,

from noon to afternoon 25-26°; after sunset 24°. The hygrometer

had fallen from 80° to 30°.

CHAPTER VIII.

ARNAUD’S IGNORANCE AND SELIM CAPITAN’S CUNNING. — HATRED OF

THE THREE FRENCHMEN TO EACH OTHER. — THE ENDERÀB TREE. — THE

POISON TREE HARMLESS. — REMARKS ON THE LAKES IN CONNEXION WITH

THE WHITE NILE. — THE WOOD OF THE AMBAK TREE. — FONDNESS OF

THE ARABS FOR NICK-NAMES. — THE AUTHOR DEFENDED FROM GNATS BY A

CAT. — INTERVIEW WITH A KÈK. — HUSSEÏN AGA’S DRINKING BOUTS

WITH FEÏZULLA CAPITAN. — DESCRIPTION OF A SUN-RISE. — VISIT OF

THE KÈKS. — SOLIMAN KASHEF AND THE LOOKING-GLASS.

25th December.—We are still waiting for the Kawàss and Sandal. A

man had been given to each of these ships to assist them; but we

have gained nothing by it; and therefore Selim Capitan intends to

tow both of them. Thibaut and I visited the invalid, Sabatier, who

scarcely knew how to keep himself from laughing when Selim-Capitan

took upon himself to give lessons anew to the learned Arnaud, who

very boldly asserted in our presence, that the “altitudine”

and “amplitudine” of the sun were one and the same thing. As

we then well understood, Selim Capitan wants Arnaud and he to agree

in their calculations, and grudges no instruction to the latter for

that purpose. He tells us, that such a coincidence with the French

engineer is the more necessary, because the Viceroy would sooner

credit the reckonings of a scientific Frenchman than of a Turk,

who had never seen Frankestàn. According to Sabatier, Arnaud has

not made yet a single calculation, because he is not capable of

doing so, but loads his back with these burdens, notwithstanding

Sabatier’s feverish state of health. Unfortunately, this appears

to be exactly the case, for Arnaud always agrees with Selim-Capitan,

who is exceedingly reserved in speech; and therefore it is really

fortunate that the Turk, being a naval officer, understands something

at least of these matters.

The three French gentlemen mutually conceal their journals, in

which one abuses the other; but they each fetch them out from their

hiding-places, in order to read them to me, and I am obliged to

listen to them. Arnaud lies, as usual, and relates in his journal,

that he bought a beautiful slave from a captain—although the

black girl belonged to a sailor, and Thibaut, in my presence,

played the interpreter when she was sold. He pretends to have been

a pupil of the Polytechnic School at Paris, and yet is not capable

of writing three lines of French correctly. “_In Egypt one must be

everything_,” Dr. Gand used to say, who studied in Germany, and who,

in 1822, was in Greece with me, and the physician in ordinary of Abbas

Basha. Europeans appear generally to know this, and therefore exhibit

no shame in getting themselves appointed, in Egypt, to situations

for which they were never brought up. “_Exempla sunt odiosa_.”

Still mist this morning, and the hygrometer stood, at eight o’clock,

at 78°. We advance about ten o’clock, with a gentle east wind,

towards the west. About eleven o’clock, direction S.S.E., one

mile’s rapidity of course, and half a mile rapidity of current. Half

an hour later we sail westward, in which direction Suliman Kashef

has already gone ahead of us. At midday the east wind strengthened

and passed over into S.E. We sail for scarcely half an hour S.S.W.;

then a very short track to S., where we approach the trees of the

Haba, and immediately, W. by N., making three miles and a half in

the hour. We remained scarcely five minutes in this direction, as

the river winds S.E. A small lake with reed banks, sharply separated

from it, lies to the right shore, in this encroaching corner. Probably

the river ran formerly through this lake in a straight line, and the

angle from S.W. to N.E. was cut off. The S.E. wind is contrary for

us, wishing to go S.S.E.; but fortunately this neck of land is dry,

and so we take to libàton. Our Dinkas and Mariàn assert that the

land here still belongs to the Dinkas, who continue on the right

shore still higher up, whilst the Kèks possess the left shore. We

go southwards, and anchor at the right shore to fell wood.

In spite of the hot exhalations of the ground, which I felt indeed

in my feet and legs, and notwithstanding the heat of 28°, I go a

little into the interior of the country. The usual clay soil was

under the humus, for the whole surface of the earth was open to it,

and full of deep holes or foot-prints of the colossal animals running

here. The trees have a sickly appearance, and are old dwarf trees

standing upon and round about the ant-hills. These trees are called

_Enderàbs_. The bark is smooth on the old trunk and has nearly fallen

off; on the young straight shoots it is rough, and a brownish grey,

like in the hazel-tree; the leaf is lanceolated similar to that of

the Oleander’s, but light green and slender, with sharply indented

borders. The wood is, on the whole, soft, and may be compared to the

linden wood. The greatest part of the Haba consists of these trees,

which, however, had also previously appeared. The reed-grass was

eaten away and trodden down by the beasts. It might, in former times,

have caught fire, and contributed to the destruction of this forest.

Four o’clock.—Already the drum has beaten three times for

departure; but everything in our vessel remains in the most beautiful

state of tranquillity; because the wood-hewers, scattered in the Haba,

must be waited for.

The Nile makes here also a circular stream, which is stronger than

in the preceding curve, where we were driven, in spite of sailing

and rowing, on to Selim Capitan’s vessel. So likewise Suliman

Kashef comes upon us, as if he were going to board us, whilst we

were lying quite peaceably at the shore. The current of the river is

far stronger, and receives below a check by the lake, which may give

it additional water, for the islands floating there dance a waltz in

front of us before going further. There must be some cause for that. I

advance, and see, on the left, another small lake, and succulent

green grass, from its shore even to the Nile. This lake stretches

from N.E. to S.W. The river makes a bend from our landing-place,

which we leave soon after four o’clock, from W. to S.S.W. I am

inclined to believe, judging from the yellow reed-grass, that this

lake, like the former one, where the crew, when towing, were able

to go over the dam, separating it from the river, is closed at its

heading, whilst the river flows by it. I remark also, up the country,

green tracks of vegetation, possibly covering for a short time, or

for ever, the vital veins of the lake. The Haba loses itself, and

only solitary trees denote still the right side of the Nile, whilst

W.N.W. to S.W. a tract, rich in trees, bounds the horizon. The south

extends before us, from S.W. to S.E., without a tree, and perhaps,

therefore, has the river-bed in its centre.

The trees of the left side are unfortunately too far for us to

distinguish them. The crew think, however, that they must be a

kind of date-palms (naghel; the fruit, however, is called tammer,

or bellàgh). But Mariàn says that there are many trees on that

side belonging to the palm species, but bearing large, beautiful

fruit, containing milk, which, he thought, were a species of

cocoa-palm. These trees rise with a straight shaft similar to the date

and dhellèb-palms; but the top appears to be entirely flat, like

an extended fan, or a round table. I had seen also, from the ship,

in that forest, some poison-trees: now, I heard dreadful things told

of them, that even the scent of their flowers, or a thorn, nearly

invisible on them, falling on one’s hand, is certain death, and

that the natives poison their arrows with it. This Shudder el Simm

is called, in the language of the Nubas, _Auer_, and I was curious

to see the tree somewhat nearer.

With the before-mentioned short course from W. to S.S.W., we came

again to the right shore, and to the Haba, where we halted again. I

sprang on the shore, which is only two and a half to three feet above

the water, as in the preceding place, under the very same appearances,

and I found in the poison-tree an old acquaintance of mine at Taka;

but with this difference, however, that it might be called here a

tree, whilst there it was only a shrub. Both of them are Euphorbias. I

had, in Taka, cut off such a cactus-like plant, with its blue-reddish

flowers, similar to those of the ushàr (_Asclepias procera_), and

crushed it in my hand, when I punished in the Haba the stubbornness of

my donkey, who wanted to join his brothers grazing in the meadow. I

had involuntarily touched my lips and the tip of my tongue with the

hand wet with the poisonous sap. Notwithstanding all the washing, I

for two days found the taste of it quite abominable, without alarming

myself the least about it, for I did not consider it more poisonous

than the ushàr, the leaves of which are eaten by goats. These

leaves, well-known from their intoxicating quality, are laid upon

funnel-shaped sieves, in order to strain merissa through them, by

which the milk, gushing from the leaves, mixes with the liquor itself.

I made no ceremony of cutting off a branch from a poison-tree

fifteen feet high, with the fruit, which are little round knobs,

and had not yet come to maturity. The crew were somewhat angry when I

came on board with it, and avoided me, till they saw that I laid it

close to me on my bed, without the least evil consequences arising

from it. Mariàn told me that they prepared the poison from this

tree by boiling its milk and the sap, pressed between two stones;

when this has become thick, like asside (meal-pap), the arrows are

dipped into it.

The wind has left us, and we advance with the assistance of oars,

about five o’clock, from S.S.W. to W.S.W. Towards S.W. the oars

were obliged to assist the hoisted sails, owing to the faint wind. A

small lake shews itself again, as before, on the left, where it goes

round in the obtuse corner from S.W. to N.E. This announces here the

old direction of the once majestically flowing river, parallel with

the forest, to the brink of which these lakes are arranged in a line,

one by the other. We go from S.W., around the before-named corner,

to N.E., leave the lake mentioned behind us, and have, at sunset,

a long row of low tokuls, near which a thick cloud of smoke extends

to a distance. Our blacks perceive through the smoke a large herd of

cattle. We have wood enough, but for several days have been deficient

in meat, and the crew cannot apparently pass without tasting the

flesh of these animals. No human form, however, is to be seen on the

shore any more than on the right, where we had remarked isolated

huts, as well as by the lakes. To the west, behind this village,

extends an immeasurable meadow, having mists rising over it, like

clouds, whilst a thick layer of mist lies round the whole horizon,

which we may consider as an exhalation from the dried-up country.

The new moon is seen and heartily greeted by the Reïs, as a sign of

our fortunate journey. Nevertheless, it was two days old, and there

was but little merit, therefore, in its discovery by the Arabs, who

themselves discover immediately the fine sickle of the new moon, even

when the sun is still in the heavens. We moved up to eight o’clock

a short distance in S.W., and anchored in the middle of the river

to wait for the morning, and with it the hospitality of the herdsmen.

_26th December._—We looked in vain this morning for an oblation

of flesh, and an embassy on the part of the herdsmen. Therefore,

even before sunrise, we moved on with a faint wind from S.W. to

N.W. On the left of the right shore a village, but no human beings,

and, somewhat forward, a lake in the corner, from N.W. to W.:

they told me from the mast that even behind the village there was a

lake. It is the very same case with this lake as with the preceding

ones. The range of these lakes of _the more straight tract_, which

the river previously followed as the direction most worthy of it,

and even now at high-water may renew for a short time, is plainly

manifest. Solitary trees stand right and left, more or less removed

from the shore; but no high shore is to be seen here, such as the line

of the horizon, covered with trees, had deceived me to believe. This

dry pasture-land is, at the most, three feet above the water; and

even from the trees and high ant-hills yesterday, I could not discover

any other tract of shore than that which the separated trees afford,

and in the direction of which the lakes follow behind one another.

The bed of the Nile has raised itself here like in all other places,

without the shore being proportionably elevated: this is also the

case in Nubia and Egypt; for the level ground gives an indefinite

extension to the stream, by which it can wallow and carouse in the

untried shores; not to mention that this whole territory navigated

by us was a fresh water lake. The shore land could not therefore

be raised in the manner of downs here by the river, on account of

the want of sand or light earth, and moreover, because the river

deposits also but little slime, the ingredients of which flow away

to the hollow land, and only receive their fertilizing qualities by

the process that takes place on their journey.

_Eight o’clock._—The faint S.W. veered for a short time to the

North, with a slight squall, and we sailed with two miles course

from S.W. to S.; but on the left the evolution continues in the form

of an arch to E. by S., where we halt, in order to go, libàhn, the

wind coming now from the east. The left shore forms a broad edge of

high reeds, over which we cannot see. Red and blue convolvulus float

and creep around, as well as two species of wild cucumbers, one of

which has a large and deep yellow flower; the other, small and pale

yellow. Reddish and yellowish flowing beans, and other water-plants,

are entwined in picturesque confusion. On the left hand is observed

in the distance a single palm, which was previously on our right,

so that we can scarcely imagine how we shall get in the old path

again. Over an extended, magnificently green savannah prairie of

high grass, the melancholy Enderàb forest of yesterday is still

visible at a distance: its soft wood is as brittle as glass.

I yesterday split several stems of the ambak already described. I

found, as previously, that they are more like a woody pith than real

wood. No pith, properly speaking, is distinguished at the first sight,

but I now discover that a pith-canal of about a quarter of an inch

in diameter shoots through it. The contents were cleared out in the

most careful manner by ants, as is generally the case where these

insects are in the neighbourhood. The giant rush is becoming less

abundant. The ray-formed expanding rushes of the corolla are often two

feet long, and branch again into smaller ones, with the usual tendency

of the flowers of rushes. From nine to half-past one o’clock,

we have only made two miles and-a-quarter with the towing-rope, for

the high reeds hung with creepers on the right margin of the river

present endless difficulties. It is to be hoped that the N.E. wind

which has now set in, will continue for a time, for we make three

miles, as we go from E. by S., over S.E. to S. At three o’clock

we make a further bend from S. over E. to N.E., yet with the line,

where another margin of high reeds gave us the same trouble.

We passed here by some tokuls, which were plundered of everything by

the men towing the vessels. They gave me also fruits and lotus-roots,

being here as large as pomegranates, and quite fresh; on account of

which they were placed on reed-stalks to dry. This fruit is still

abundant in the rushy marshes, and very quickly ripens, because we

have not seen any lotus-flowers since the land of the Shilluks. They

also brought me seeds of the broad reeds called “slaves’ rice.”

When we survey the small stock of rice in the corbel, we find that

this is not even collected in a mass, and therefore a harvest of

grain—that is, of this and similar seeds—must be always very

troublesome. The reed-grass here was never trodden down by cattle,

and these people may therefore only live by fishing. Two fish, large

of their species, the _Bolti_ (Chromis Niloticus), a favourite with

every one in Khartùm, lie on the shore, and must therefore not be

quite fresh, as the Egyptian wolves let them remain. A dark brown

thick felt cap, found there, was well adapted by its globular form

to make a blow with a club less sensible or entirely harmless. At

four o’clock we sail a short track S. by E.: see on the right and

left small fishing-villages, and, indeed at this moment shaded by

the reeds. The surface of the earth is here clearly somewhat higher,

and therefore was dried sooner. The extreme margin of the shore was,

near the plundered village, from two and a half to three feet high;

whilst that towards the huts was one and a half or two feet higher,

and formed a kind of low dike. A subordinate river, choked up with

mud, and appearing to be used as a fish-pond, lies behind the huts

on the right shore. We have soon at our side a second village with

two geïlid-trees, as well as a deserted river-bed for fishing in;

for we see at the lower end a ditch, serving, after the high water

has receded, for the letting off of this fish-pond.

Beyond this village we perceive some trees, near which the smoke rises

up in several places. The last little hamlet consists of fourteen

tokuls, and the people are seen afar off amid the grass hastening to

five other tokuls by the reeds. The inundation seems here altogether

to cease, and the medium height of the water to have commenced for

some time. A vigorous smoke, like a wide-spread steam of slaughtering,

delights our crew. They hope to be able to regale their stomachs with

the delicious roasted morsels, enveloped by these clouds of smoke,

and protected against the insects. We wind an ell’s length to the

right S.W., and over S.S.E. to S.E., and immediately again to W.N.W.,

where we have at five o’clock a large island, in the shape of a

half-moon at our left, and we go then in a bend to the East. The

border of the island consists of reeds continually running into the

river, with their beautiful wreaths of flowers in dentated points;

whilst the ambak forms, in the direction of the interior, gently

ascending hills and woods, which, with their fresh green reeds,

promise more than they may be able to keep. The floating islands

are always meeting us or driving by us, and afford us, on the whole,

the best proof that we have not yet escaped the marshy regions. I have

been seeking for several days, but in vain, a small-leaved water moss,

on account of its elegance, in order to put it again in my collection.

The wind at last, having veered to the north, is nearly quite spent,

and we go from an easterly direction, shortly before sun-set, to

the south. The before-named island seems to have a considerable

breadth, according to the account from the mast. The river winds

again eastward, and we halt immediately after sun-set, having left

behind a well-built village, containing fifteen tokuls, to wait for

the Kaiass and the sandal, which we had abandoned again to their

fate. The Turks hoped, however, that there would be some people in

this village, as it shewed signs of prosperity, and that they would

come to us, to make our worthy acquaintance; but they were deceived,

for the natives appeared to have fled from hence far and wide.

The Arabs are fond of giving nicknames, derived either from the

figure, or some other distinction and manner of acting, to which

they prefix the word Abù. The Kurd, Hüsseïn Aga, has distinguished

himself for a short time, by drinking merissa, which he prepared on

board his vessel; for he found the time hang heavy on his hands, as

he told me, and was vexed that his vessel was always behind. He was

therefore called _Abù Sofaia_,—the latter word being the name of

the sieve for merissa. If a pair of them wanted to teaze each other,

they began to ask, reciprocally: “Your father, what is his name?”

“You, what is your name?” then followed jeering, abusing, and

scoffing. They do not fail, in addition, to use the coarsest words,

if the Turkish listeners are pleased at it. On the sun setting,

the new moon turned both her horns in equal height to the heavens,

and Venus shone immediately over it, exactly similar to the Turkish

escutcheon. This symbol appeared to me more suitable than all our

heraldic compositions.

For the last two nights the gnats have been very troublesome,

notwithstanding that a small cat, which I have not yet seen by

daylight, seems to find particular pleasure in licking my face all the

night through, pulling my beard, and purring continually, thus scaring

away the gnats. The cats, however, in Belled-Sudàn are generally of

a more savage nature, apparently arising from the unkind treatment

of the people: they go even into the hen-roosts, and the strongest

fowls are lacerated by them; but they meddle very little with rats

and mice. The Baràbras, especially those of Dòngola, like them

for eating; not so, however, the Arabs, who do not persecute them,

because the cat is one of the favourite animals of their Prophet,

but yet hold them unclean. The sky was cloudy to-day, as it was

yesterday and the day before.

_27th December._—Set out immediately after sunrise towards

N.N.W. The sun rises of a dark red colour, exactly behind us, out

of the river, into the red humid atmosphere, and yet there is the

main direction of the river; we have, therefore, a real labyrinth of

circuitous routes to work through. If yesterday, no object disclosed

itself in the south, for the eye to rest upon, so now in the left,

the arm flowing round the island is only to be seen; there is nothing

besides but reeds, and the water which we are navigating. The high

reeds may, it is true, here and there conceal from the eye a tree

or a hut, because, on the whole, we go lower between the dried-up

shores. The N.E. wind is slack, and we assist the sails by rowing

in S.W., where, about eight o’clock, a small village of twelve

tokuls starts up, on the left side of the river, the river coming

from S.E. A dog barks from the neighbouring reeds, and betrays the

hiding-place of the people who had fled, which the blacks, accustomed

to similar signs, corroborated, and wanted even to shoot into the

reeds. Our Abù Hashiss barked lustily against the animal, and it

really appeared as if several large and small dogs were barking.

About an hour’s distance beyond the village some trees are to be

seen; whilst, on the left, where the river now winds to S.E., we do

not observe anything. This also appears to be a fishing village, for

we do not remark any trace of the tread of cattle in the grass. These

poor Icthyophagi have, according to their usual custom, wretched huts,

and their tokuls are also partly plastered with Thin. This thin,

or Nile slime, naturally affords a good material for plastering

the reed walls. It would be good for airstones, if these should be

generally considered a suitable building material in places where

the violent periodical rains of the tropics only too often shew the

contrary. I myself have experienced this in Khartum, where in _one_

night some thirty houses fell. The storm of rain was so violent,

that it broke through the wall of our bed-room, three feet thick,

built of airstones, and in a short time tore an opening the size of a

window. It was only with the greatest difficulty that I was able to

save my brother (the servants being at a distance), by carrying him

away. He was dangerously ill at the time, and, bursting out into a

clear loud laugh, vigorously resisted my endeavours to lay him upon

a table under the door-way, in order that he might not be buried by

the fall of the roof.

The whole horizon is without a high tree; only the ambak covers, in

small thickets, a great part of the island, which is still drawing

nearer to us. The ambak appears here considerably higher and stronger,

to which the warmer climate, together with the earlier inundation

and the growth thereby produced, has mostly contributed. On the

return voyage I will try to procure, at all events, seeds of it;

for I am really curious to see, at some future day, this new species

of tree, the ambak, in my own native country, even should it be in

a hot-house. Although it may not thrive and grow as quickly with us

as here, yet I am quite sure that its incredible productive powers

will excite the more astonishment, because its many large flowers

and great succulent acacia-like leaf, make it an ornamental tree.

The current of the river was tolerably strong this morning, and

amounted to nearly one mile. This difference depends simply on the

_many_ windings of the river, a greater or less fall could be scarcely

followed up in a _single_ one. The medium for these parts may remain

always half a mile. As we see here all the corners of the shore,

without exception, still in the water with their reeds, it may be

supposed that there is also a more shallow river-bed. Vegetation

grows from beneath and the side into the river-bed, and the reeds

advancing in out-and-in bending angles, make the first step to press

and encroach on the river. Slime always sticks to the corners of

these angles, and depositing and rising up from beneath, spreads

again its own vegetation.

I see here water-thistles, with lanceolate leaves, and reddish

flowers of the thickness of a finger, exactly as are seen in our

fish-ponds. Green water-lentils cover the sides of the stream, and are

a plain proof of the stagnating water flowing off in it. At half-past

eight o’clock I hear from Fadl, at the mast, that we are sailing

to the south; that there is a large lake with a village towards the

E. and in the S.E.; also a large lake on the before-named island,

of which the former is a quarter of an hour, and the other half an

hour distant from the river. He is not able to see the other arm

of the river along the right shore, and therefore it has either

lessened in breadth, for previously at its conflux it was broader

than our water-course, or it is very far distant; for Fadl remarks

trees on the right shore, from two hours and a half to three hours

distant, which may be standing indeed on the margin of the river,

whilst its water may be concealed by the ambak thickets.

Yet it is said that this land approaches in a bend towards the

south. Also on the left is seen, in the neighbourhood of the river,

W. by N., a small lake and a large wood, stretching up the country. We

go with our N.E. wind, at nine o’clock, from S. to E. The river

forms here a broad bay, and we lay-to at the left shore, four hundred

paces from which a village is found, containing about thirty tokuls,

but indifferently built, because each individual erects his house

to suit his own convenience, and takes no trouble to beautify it,

but creeps through an oval hole—the general doors of the huts on

the White Nile.

The reeds were burnt down all round, yet the thick green stalks

had withstood the fire, although they were all covered with black

ashes. One of the natives remained quietly standing on the shore,

in order to accurately survey us strangers. Soon after a great number

of our men collected around him, seeking to make use of him as their

bearer, with a flag of truce, in their favourite meat transactions.

I sat down with Suliman Kashef and Selim Capitan on the ashes, with

the negro, who was of a livid colour, owing to the ashes on which he

had slept. He told us, with the assistance of our Dinkas, to whom he

could make himself intelligible, that he had swam through the river,

to visit his brother in the neighbouring village, from which every

one had fled; that his hut was on the right shore, and that he was a

Kèk, like these here. The crowd became too strong for him. The black

looked about him, perplexed; but was, however, persuaded to come with

us on board Selim Capitan’s vessel. When he approached the cabin,

bending his body forward in a comically awkward and ape-like position,

perhaps to denote subjection, he slid round on the ground, dropped on

his knees, and crept into it, shouting repeatedly with all his might,

“Waget tohn agèhn, agiht agiht-waget tohn agèhn, agiht agiht,”

by which words he greeted us, and expressed his astonishment. He had

several holes in the rims of his ears, containing, however, no other

ornament than a single little stick. Strings of beads were brought

out and hung about his neck; there was no end to his transports;

he struck the ground so hard with his posteriors, that it resounded

again, and raised his hand on high, as if praying. When I bound a

string of beads round his wrist, he could not leave off jumping,

at such an invaluable ornament, and never once kept still; he sprang

up, and threw himself down again, to kiss the ground; again he rose,

extended and contracted himself, held his hands over all our heads,

as if to bless us, and sang a very pretty song, full of the simple

melody of nature. He had a somewhat projecting mouth; his nose and

forehead quite regular, as well as the cut of the face itself; his

hair was sheared away short, to about the length of half an inch. He

might have been about thirty years of age; an angular high-shouldered

figure, such as we have frequently perceived among the Dinkas. There

were two incisors wanting above, and four below, which is also the

case with the Dinkas; they pull them out, that they may not resemble

wild beasts. His attitude and gestures were very constrained, arising,

perhaps, partly from the situation in which he found himself; his

shoulders were raised, his head bent forward in unison with his

bent back; his long legs, the calves of which were scarcely to be

perceived, seemed as if broken at the joints of his knees; in short,

his whole person hung together like an orang-outang’s. Added to

this, he was perfectly naked, and no hair, except on his head,

to be seen. His sole ornament consisted of leathern rings above

the right hand. What a grade of humanity is here! This poor man of

nature touched me with his childish joy, in which he certainly felt

happier than any of us. He was instructed to go forward and tell his

countrymen not to fly before us, _honest_ people. Kneeling, sliding

along, jumping, and kissing the ground, he let himself be led away

by the hand like a child, and would certainly have taken it all for

a dream, had not the glass-beads convinced him to the contrary.

Ten o’clock.—The east wind has splendidly freshened, and we sail

S.E. by S. delightfully. We flew by a small village, of ten to twelve

tokuls, on the island, and make six, or rather only three miles;

this pleasure lasting only half an hour. The river winds towards E.,

and the crew again take to towing, one leading the choir, and the

chorus repeating its usual “Ja Mohammet.” After eleven o’clock

we sail, however, again, and with the assistance of oars, E.S.E.; soon

S.S.E., and then W. by S., where we make five miles and a half. There

is an everlasting tacking about, and with it bawling, abusing,

and shouting. We turn, because we see the vessel a-head turning,

without system and without advantage, for this terrible careening,

with the tedious shifting of the sails every short distance, only

wastes time. Feizulla is squatting again with Selim Capitan, who is

not very delighted at his company. It is the devil to be shut up with

such simpletons in a cabin, to undertake journeys with Turks, and,

for my future recreation, to be obliged to converse with insipid

men, whose spite at not being able to say just what they like in

their journals, as they would do, were I not with the expedition,

I plainly see.

Twelve o’clock.—To south, six miles, and only too with the

mainsail. A fire extends before us, probably lighted reed-grass. This

stands close to us, being a height of twenty to thirty feet, and

in brown silky ears, whilst the grass and broad reeds are not so

far advanced. Unfortunately the river winds again E.S.E., and at

one o’clock libàhn to E. Sloughs and deep recesses of water are

close to the river, and run parallel with it.

Half-past one o’clock.—Fadl tells me from the mast, that the

large island before mentioned, turns out to be a peninsula. The other

arm of the stream approaches again our river, with the right shore,

but its water is lost against the ascending surface of its river

bed; however, it may at high water, have flowed over this, although

it is not shewn by any remarkable hollow. This arm is also choked

up above, though it has preserved the lower part of its bed. If we

only think of this large horizontal water-line, from the foot of the

island up to the damming up in our neighbourhood, we see plainly how

melancholy it must look at the fall of the White Stream. The right

side of the river is close to us, and the wood on the left, perhaps

containing here the old tract of the shore, is, as Fadl tells me,

nearly three hours’ journey off. He calculates distances correctly,

though always at something less than myself, for he has longer legs,

and is of the active race, who run in their journeys to water and

bread with as much _goût_, as we to the outstretched arms of an inn.

Where the river winds to S.E. a group of small ambak and grass

islands enter into the landscape; thousands of birds enliven a lake,

the two tributaries of which draw in to the east, and from the east

to south. I hear, however, from the mast, that they are neither

tributaries nor arms of the Nile, and soon come to an end. A trace

of a more extensive gohr or rain-river discharging itself here, and

now, perhaps, dried up, to which supposition we are led, at the first

glance, cannot be followed by the eye. These are, perhaps, indeed,

old arms of the Nile, now choked up and grown over; the sluggish

stream may not be able to cover them again, but overflows them at

high-water. Creepers and flowers fantastically entwined hang around

on the margin of the reeds, behind which the high ambak-trees stand,

also in flower.

Two o’clock.—S.E. wind, good and strong; but it forced us to

use the towing rope till half-past two o’clock, when we sail

from S. to S.S.W. Constant north winds, such as are blowing at

this moment in Khartùm, do not occur here at this time; however,

this everlasting change of wind is, at times, advantageous to us,

from the extremely varying course of the river. The wind falls—the

drum beats for libàhn, when the wind from N.E. allows us again to

stretch sail, in order to go to the south. This is, however, but a

short pleasure, and the rope is obliged to be had recourse to, when

we go, about half-past three, east by south; where, right and left,

is a village in the reeds.

Four o’clock.—From E. to W., S.E., S.S.E., and from S. to S.E.,

all in an hour, in nearly equal sections of time. At five o’clock,

a city on the left shore, but the smoke extending near it, does not

proceed from herds, but from the kindled reeds. At six o’clock, near

sunset, on the left shore lagoons and birds; five men are standing

close to them, but do not approach nearer. Towards the south of the

village we remark a lake, which receives its water from the river,

and is a broad, old river-bed, stretching from W. to E. The lower end

is choked up with slime and rises only a little above the present

level of the water. We halt, and the eastern horizon is illumined

with the visible flames of the reeds.

_28th December._—The bustle of departure awoke me before

day-break. No mist is to be seen, and even the ram’s skin of the

Turkish Gideon, Hüsseïn Aga, stretched out before the cabin, is

but slightly wet. He had remained with us the night, in order to

help Feïzulla Capitan (who even seeks to stimulate his thirst by

eating anchovies in rancid oil) to drink his wretched dram made from

dates. Gnats do not appear from without; the old guests from the reeds

were soon killed. With a gentle N.E. wind we steer towards S.S.W. Even

before sun-rise we see on the left a village of thirty-six tokuls,

on the slope of a hill. This has been formed, perhaps, by the hand

of man from the first dam thrown up. Judging from the houses still

falling to ruin, the clay walls of which remain, it may have ascended

to a height of twelve to fifteen feet. The river has full play here

in the free level field, yet its power of rooting up, through the

falls, is so little, that it is not able, with the want of sand,

to pile up Downs. The roofs of the tokuls run, indeed, to a point,

but their superficies is cut away into ring-formed layers, so as to

form steps. The roofs are elevated to an unusual height. The oval

doors look, as usual, towards different directions, for they serve

also as windows. One looks straight to the river, another up the

river, and the third wants to see what is taking place down below. I

have not seen any doors looking towards the country. The high water

seems here to have done mischief to the lower huts, as we see by

the make-shift ones which have been erected in all haste. Inland,

on the left shore, a village shews itself for a moment, through an

aperture in the high reeds.

I looked upon the rising sun with the blissful heart and kindly

humour that Nature, in her majesty, calls forth with irresistible

power. Dark brown clouds covered the place where he was to disclose

himself in all his glory. The all-powerful light of the world inflames

this layer of clouds; ruffled, like the billows of the ocean, they

become lighted up with an indescribable hue of blue Tyrian purple,

from which an internal living fire beams forth on every side. To

S.E. by E. a vessel dips its mast and sails into this flood of

gold. Filmy rays and flames of gold display themselves in the centre

of that deep blue curtain, the borders of which only are kindled with

luminous edging, whilst the core of the sun itself, within the most

confined limits, sparkles through the darkest part like a star never

to be looked upon. At last he rises, conquering all the atmospheric

obstacles of the vaporous earth; the latter stand like clear flakes

of gold, attending him on the right, whilst two strata of clouds,

embedded in each other, draw a long beautiful train to the north,

ever spreading and dissolving more and more. I write—I try once more

to embrace the mightiest picture of ethereal life, but the ship has,

in the mean time, turned, and the sails cover the sun, so as not to

weaken the first impression. There are moments, truly, when one is,

as it were, a god; but this god-like feeling lasts, in its entire

strength, only as long as the external impression, which the inmost

persuasion rather weakens than strengthens. Cheerfully, and with a

fresh heart, I settled myself there in a _vernùs_, on _my little_

bamber, before the cabin, to a soothing sleep, where dreamy pictures

of my home delighted me. I drank my coffee even before sun-rise,

(18° Reaumur,) and filled my pipe a second time, for tobacco also

has a great deal to do with beginning the day in good humour.

With a faint north wind we advance for some minutes N.E. by S. A

light mist, thrown over the horizon, rises high to the heavens, and

melts away. Neither land or tree is to be seen, for the village is an

island in the verdant sea, extending boldly in all shades of green,

and to an immeasurable distance. About seven o’clock N.E. by E.,

and in a bend to W. Wild geese fly here and there, but they scream,

and are therefore not roasted. Even I feel inclined for meat.

At 8 o’clock, three villages appear in the south. From N.N.W. we

turn a sharp angle to the south. The creepers form, from the shores

already deserted by the water, a beautiful rim of flowers down

and into the stream. We row and sail slowly round the before-named

corner, not to S., but to S.S.E., as the wind somewhat freshens;

immediately, however, S.W. by W. and a short tract S.E.; but, about

nine o’clock, to N. with Libàhn. The north-east wind has set in

with such strength, that we can drift along without sails for half an

hour in a south-westerly direction. At ten o’clock, to N.E. Libàhn;

and at half-past, to S. in a bend—God knows where—to W., and again

without sails. We make five miles, when the fore-sail is let out in

a slackened bow. To the right—still in the bend mentioned just now

to N.W., and in this direction we have a pretty long tract before us.

Happy are those who have time, or take time, to sleep, when they feel

inclined: I really must praise myself for holding out, from early

in the morning to late in the evening, sometimes aloft, sometimes

below, with such a continual scribbling of “on the right,” “on

the left,” and describing all kinds of winds and weather—which

is perfectly necessary, but may be as tedious to my future readers

as it is to myself. From N.W., with some trouble, Libàhn to E. At

twelve o’clock we sail gradually to S.E. and S., and make five

miles, although the river has one mile rapidity; but at half-past

twelve E. by S. and S.E., and at one o’clock again E. by S.;

at half-past one S.S.W.; a quarter of an hour later S.E. by S.

“_Bagher, Bagher-ketir!_” I hear murmured and shouted, and

every one runs upon deck. On the distant margin of reeds, several

cows were noticed. Suliman Kashef stood with his great telescope

on the top of his cabin, to discover the enemy, who were slightly

concealed. The crew were really like madmen; I was also very glad

because my wild-goose, which I had winged some days before, and

which Fadl drew out of the water, in spite of its diving, was now

out of all danger of being slaughtered, for it was to have been

_Communistically_ divided like a solid _ponderabile_. Fires burnt

in the distance, and reed-straw was already consumed, even behind

the broad reedy margin of the river, but, as everywhere else, too

early, for it was yet quite green; but the poor people want to rid

themselves of the gnats and other vermin, and therefore burn it away

directly it is combustible. We landed, therefore, soon afterwards,

at two o’clock. Allah had certainly sent us the cows, as the good

Muslims thought. We assembled on board Selim Capitan’s vessel, and

I was really eager to come into contact with the natives. A tolerably

intelligent Dinkaui was sent ashore as Tershomàn (interpreter),

where he shouted in the distance. Soon some people appeared; but the

Arab wolves rushed down from the vessel, and the natives fled for the

second time. Under threats of the bastinado, our men were recalled to

the ships. It was not long before ten bullocks, of beautiful form and

clear colour, and goats of a very fine breed, with compressed faces,

were driven near to us. Nearly all the latter were distinguished

by incisions, or recisions of one ear—not exactly announcing a

_communio bonorum_.

The inoffensive livid-coloured negroes accompanied the Tershomàn

on board the vessel where we were,—they were five in number,

two old men, and three young ones: they made gestures, in their

perplexedness, bending forward in the attitude of apes. I remarked

on the two old men short grey hairs in the ashes on their heads,

but there was not a single hair to be discovered on the bodies of

the young men. They were naked, and had leathern and iron rings on

their wrists, as well as adorned round their necks with rings made

of skins. With uplifted hands they greeted us humbly, and screeched

with a fearful voice, “Tebing conjegò,” which one sang, and then

“Tebing conjegorarèmemm” was repeated in chorus, and so often

that I was nearly stunned with the noise. The leader of the choir

was the son of Abù: and this word seems here to denote “elder of

a family,” or Sheikh. He was called Tshòli, and his village Dim;

he was therefore Tshòli-Dim, of the nation of the Keks. His son,

Gilowaï, was exceedingly delighted when he heard us pronounce his

name, and screamed it, as if he were mad, in our ears. The others

were called Rialkoï, Panjàil, and Ialkoï. Red calico shirts were

put on the father and son; but, owing to their uncommon height,

they did not entirely cover their nakedness. This naturally vexed

them but little, and perhaps, if it had been otherwise, it would

have incommoded them: they viewed the beautiful flowers on these

shirts, pointed with their fingers at them, and were very much

pleased. White shirts were put over the heads of the others; and

this was no little labour, although they were simply made according

to the Turkish cut; for these men moved their arms here and there,

and could not reconcile themselves to such splendour, which perhaps

was afterwards consumed in fire and smoke on the nearest ashes. But

when the glass beads were produced, then came the joy, the singing,

and shrieking without end; they uttered the resounding words with

which they praised us with as much force as if there had been the

most horrible strife. Looking-glasses at last were given to them;

and they could not at first distinguish their faces, owing to the

shadow; but when they found how to hold them at the proper distance,

they were always looking behind them to see where their black

brother might be. Yet the _possession_ of these shining toys was

dearer to them than the _use_ of them, or the pleasure of looking

at themselves for an hour long in the glass, as the Turks do. They

must take a similar delight, only in a greater degree, in looking

in the water; and therefore their astonishment was not so great:

they even asked what they were used for. Whereupon Suliman Kashef

took a glass in his hand and smoothed his beautiful beard by it:

they understood, and laughed. Their train of ideas was not guided,

indeed, by philosophical reflections at this sight, or they certainly

would not have laughed at our vanity, for they themselves, beyond

all people, are fond of empty toys, tatooing, and ornaments.

At sunset we set sail to S., and soon S.W. Level meadow-land: the

trees in the background, being thrown by mist into the distance, have

the appearance of a connected forest. I know from places seen before,

where it even appeared more thickly covered, that this deceptive

forest is without shade. The eye fancies that it discovers clouds

threatening rain in the sky—a vain longing for one drop of rain.

At the rainy season, according to the assertion of our blacks, the

rain falls here in indescribable streams, and a single drop (to use

an Arabic comparison) is as thick as a musket-ball. Subsequently

to these violent showers, innumerable shallow lakes may be found

in many places, swelling up, and at last pouring their water into

the Nile. The character of an emptied lake-basin is expressed

in the whole stream territory. We have already seen remains of

such shallow lakes, which may be in connection with others in the

interior. The hypothesis set up,—that of making the White Stream

spring from great lakes,—may therefore be partially confirmed by

this circumstance; although this cannot be extended to the _united_

Nile, for both rivers increase and fall at the same time. On the left,

the shore is raised a little above the water. To all appearance, it

was only overflowed for a short time at the season of the inundation,

for the vegetation is extremely scanty, and now dried up.

CHAPTER IX.

TURTLE-DOVES. — DESERTION OF BLACK SOLDIERS AND PURSUIT OF THEM. —

INTERVIEW WITH NATIVE WOMEN. — GIGANTIC STATURE OF THE KEKS. —

THEIR PASSION FOR GLASS BEADS. — FEIZULLA CAPITAN’S QUARREL WITH A

SUBALTERN OFFICER. — SYLVESTER’S EVE. — A “HAPPY NEW YEAR.”

— VILLAGE OF BONN. — WANT OF SHADE IN THE FORESTS. — CURIOUS

TATOOING AND CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES. — A WOMAN’S VILLAGE. —

MODESTY OF THE WOMEN. — MEAT BROTH. — REPORT OF HOSTILE INTENTIONS

OF NEGROES. — FRENCH EXPEDITION TO EGYPT UNDER NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

29th December.—We sailed quite early this morning, scarcely

half an hour, when we found ourself at a place called by the Arabs

“Mattrag betal Mutfa,” or “Place of Cannons,” because, in

the former expedition, a cannon was lost here in the water. Here

we were to rest some days, in order to make immense astronomical

calculations, which may be, truly, a complicated labour for the

great “Ingenia.” A shooting excursion after the numerous birds

was much more pleasant. The left shore was here four feet high,

and I believe that the water of the Nile has only stood in the still

green and marshy low hollows which, like rivulets, run parallel to the

stream. What we looked upon at a distance as a forest (called Haba),

turns out to be misery itself for a German. In vain we seek shade

here, where the half dried-up trees, mostly dwarfs, always stand some

hundred paces from one another. Here also the long, thick-stalked

grass was burnt away, and a young grass, which otherwise would have

wanted air, now sprouted in plenty from the earth. The trees are, for

the most part, a species of mimosas, called talle. I had only gone

about on the shore a few paces, when I came to the full conviction

that there must be capital shooting here. I returned, therefore,

on board, but there was neither gun nor servant to be seen. They

had gone shooting, to spare me the trouble of exerting myself. One

after the other came back, and brought birds, but, whilst I was

looking at them, they were off again. I could not be angry, much as

I might have wished to be. Among the turtle-doves are found even the

Egyptian (Columba Ægypt), called gimri; but still more the larger

_gumri_ (C. risoria, Linn.; also C. collaris, Hemp and Ehrbg). The

turtle-doves with the long tail and black stomacher (C. caprensis),

seem not to present themselves here. A brownish eagle, with a white

head (Falco vocifer), a white and dark grey ibis (I. æthiop and

I. Hagedash); a crane, with black velvet crest and golden nimbus,

grue royale (Grus pavonius), appeared to be the chief among the birds

found here. The white birds sitting upon the backs of the elephants,

and fishing there on dry land, are small herons, and exactly similar

to the Ardea Coromandelica, with the exception of the yellow bill

and feet.

The vessels are washed out and cleansed; the bread-corn, which

had become somewhat damp, is brought out on hand; and we leave our

goods and chattels out of doors, relying on the good-natured Keks,

who have not hitherto shewn themselves armed. Towards evening I

went a tolerable distance to shoot, and had nearly lost my way in

returning; for in seeking the nearest road to the vessels, I fell

into the marshes. I had not one of my servants near me, because they

were occupied in preparing the birds. Scarcely had the sun set, when

a mist rose up around the great plain on which the reeds were burnt

away, but that magnificent luminary remained free from it; for the

ground here, being dried up by the fire, has no exhalations. Even

at a little distance, the trees appeared of a dark blue colour. On

the second morning, however, even the burnt place was wet, and my

feet were as black as coals, when I returned from it.

_30th December._—Abd-Elliab, the Kurd, had had the watch on shore,

except the night posts on the ship, whilst we were asleep, and sixteen

men from the Nuba, and the surrounding country, had deserted from

him. These unhappy creatures being so far from their home by water

as well as by land, with only a small stock of munition, must fall

sooner or later into the power of an enemy, and had, therefore, as

it were, surrendered themselves to death; for hunger, thirst, and

ignorance of the road, could only prepare for them a very deplorable

fate. An unbounded love for home could alone have induced them to

expose themselves to such jeopardy; and they instinctively hastened

to it, like a horse taken from the chase.

I had already been in the morning on a shooting expedition, but

was obliged to return, in order to clean my gun, which Sale, in

spite of my constant admonitions, only very carelessly attends to,

because he is always hoping that it will not miss fire. It was now

determined that the deserters should be pursued, and First Lieutenant

Hüssein Agà commanded on this occasion. In order to see something

of the country, I joined with two of my servants, though I wished

the blacks, who had only run away from slavery, a happy return to

their native country. Even Hüsseïn Agà, though a Turk, agreed

with me, for he did not wish to come upon them. The sun rose higher

and higher, and we left the Haba, affording us here and there for a

moment a shady tree. I determined not to expose myself any more to

this forced march, and to return; but Hüsseïn would not let me go

from him, because he must be answerable for my safety;—however,

he offered me half of his men as a protection on my road back,

which I refused, not believing that there was any danger. When the

ground permitted, I stayed behind with my huntsmen in a dry gohr,

and followed it upwards; whilst Hüsseïn, with his Egyptians, who

would have murdered without mercy the run-away soldiers, or rather

the slaves seeking again their freedom, was soon out of our sight

with his long legs.

We saw two villages, and repaired to the larger one to get water or

milk. There were no men to be seen, but they had left their wives

behind, who shewed themselves very friendly towards us. They were of

moderate stature, and two of pleasing physiognomy. This indeed was

not improved by the four lower incisors, and here and there another

tooth, being wanting, and also the hair of the head being kept quite

short. The circumstance of two upper incisors being wanting to the

first Kek, was only an accident, as I had already remarked in those

we had seen since. Their foreheads were tattoed by three strokes,

or rather incisions, rising horizontally from a vertical cut in the

middle of the forehead, and extending to the temples. They had also a

hole in their ear-laps, but neither a little stick nor anything else

in it. They wore iron rings around the hand, and skins covered their

hips. Some had a circle of the bark of trees round their heads. They

spoke confusedly, much, and in a loud tone, and might have related

many pretty things, of which, however, we understood nothing. One

passed her hand over my countenance, then looked at it, and wetting

her finger with her saliva, she tried my skin to see if it were

coloured. She fetched us black bread, of a somewhat sweetish taste;

also green tobacco, and gave us water in a gourd-shell.

I was surprised at not seeing either children or marriageable maidens;

but whilst the women were occupied with me, as with a white man

browned by the sun, Sale had discovered a tokul where the girls were

shut up together. It was with difficulty that I could keep him back

from opening the low door closed by split trunks of trees;—the women

recognised this conduct of mine very gratefully by their gestures and

dances. It appeared to me, moreover, unadvisable to awaken mistrust;

for they might only too easily have taken us for kidnappers; and the

men, who carried bows with poisoned arrows, were perhaps nearer than

we imagined, and might even have been concealed in the tokul.

I was sorry that I had, in my hurry, omitted to bring a glass bead or

two with me, in order that I might have made these good women quite

happy. The walls of the tokuls were low, and plastered with clay,

though the pointed roofs were, as usual, of straw. Skins were lying

on the ground, and gourd-shells and vessels of black clay standing

around, but there was neither merissa nor milk to be discovered in

them; and I must say, I laughed not a little, when Sale, who is so

devoted to merissa, put a gara to his mouth, in the greatest delight,

thinking he had found some. It was urine, which they are in the habit

of collecting from cows, and mixing with milk, as a drink, which I

learned subsequently from our blacks. This is considered wholesome,

as there is no salt here. A number of short stakes were driven into

the ground near the village, for the cattle to be fastened to; and the

women made us understand by signs that the beasts were a long distance

from here. An immense number of birds were perched around the pools;

amongst them also ducks and sand-pipers, but we could not get within

shot of them. The latitude 6° 34′, east longitude, from Paris

28° 32′. The thermometer in the morning 16°, and at noon, 25°.

The women must have reported well of our friendly intentions;

for when we returned to the vessels, we found there some natives,

who had probably washed the ashes from themselves, for they were

quite black. Very little notice was taken of them by the Turks,

because they had not brought with them any cattle. These people were

more like trees than men; I perceived with them also the artificial

wrinkles on the forehead, being the insignia of the nation of the

Keks, which I had overlooked in the former visitors, owing either

to the dirt or the ashes. At three o’clock the drum beat, and I

really thought that it was a joke; but it was not so, for it was

supposed that there was reason to believe all our negroes intended

to desert. We towed our vessels, therefore, further to the S.; for

Hüsseïn Aga had also returned with his fifty men without having

effected his object.

At four o’clock we had, on the left, a long village, the tokul

roofs of which were without under-walls. The right shore is elevated

here four to five feet above the height of the Nile, and has only

scanty grass, for the Nile appears not to have inundated it. A wood

at a distance, losing itself under the horizon, on the left shore;

the Haba close at hand, wherein I had shot yesterday, runs with

the river to the south. A faint east wind has set in, with which

we slowly sail S.S.E., and make one mile. Two lakes, of which the

former one is not inconsiderable, are in a line with each other

between the before-named Haba and the river; the forest, with a

margin of reeds before it, approaches then to the border of the river.

At five o’clock, to S.E. by E., where again there is a similar

half-finished summer or herdsman’s village. The hills of ashes,

from their being covered with the mud of the preceding year, and not

by the water, incline us to believe that the Nile has not ascended

above four feet; yet, behind this temporary settlement, the surface

of the earth seems to lie a little deeper, for we remark there a

green vegetation.

A vessel has sprung a leak; it is affirmed that this accident has

been caused by a hippopotamus. We halt, owing to this circumstance,

at half-past five o’clock, at the left shore. According to the

superstitious notions of the Reïs, hippopotami recognise us as the

dangerous enemy with the fiery claw, and therefore attack our ships

with their hard skulls; for it is quite certain that a Sheitàn is

concealed under their form. The surface of the earth rises here only

two feet above the river, and is a fertile slime soil. The Keks who

came this morning to the ships, return, and bring three goats and

one calf, for which some glass beads were presented to them. These

glass beads are called by the Keks and Iengähs, Gòd or Guòd;

by the Arabs, on the contrary, Sug-Sug; so, also, the two former

nations call the Nile “Kidi or Kiti.”

Several more Keks came, and amongst them two old men, dressed in

stiff cobblers’ aprons; these reached over the breast, and were

very well curried. Two of the men who were of gigantic stature,

like all the rest, might have been called really handsome; it was

only a pity that they were covered with a crust of ashes, even in

the orbits, and in every part where the perspiration had not found

its way through. They wore ornaments of feathers or skins, according

to their fancy, on their heads; earrings of red copper, strips of

leather round their necks, and iron rings, both on the right and on

the left arm. Owing to the short hair, we could see how the incisions

on the forehead, previously referred to, run above the ears, even

to the occiput. There were only some who had a longer tuft of hair.

It is wonderful that they do not quarrel and fight for the beads

thrown on the ground, as these ornaments are of higher value to them

than gold and jewels.

The sun had gone down for a long time, and the negroes had run home

as quickly as possible, to shew their wives, whom I had already seen,

their magnificent presents, when we sailed S.S.E. The village in

which I had been was called Pagnaù. We soon go to the S., where a

lake gleamed on the right. Towards E., we got aground in an arm of

the Nile, close by a peninsula; again go back, and in a short time,

from S. to N., and again in S. and N., and cast anchor in the middle

of the river.

_31st December._—In spite of the coolness, or rather warmth of

15° Reaumur, we are even plagued this morning with gnats. We go

N.N.W. If the river had for some days a decided southerly direction,

now I really do not know what will become of it. Where the shores

do not fall away precipitously, they are always covered with reeds;

and the frequent lagoons, although mostly dry and deeply split and

cracked, run close to the river, and may form beneficent conduits

in these level regions.

9 o’clock.—Always advancing with Libàhn, owing to which we have

scarcely made two miles and a quarter, for the rope gets continually

entangled in the reeds, and we cannot tow on this side the margin,

or but very seldom. The river winds here from E. to S.E. by E.,

to go again immediately to N., where a little village is seen on

the right shore. It is cold, and yet the thermometer shews 20° in

the cabin itself.

We halt because Feïzulla Capitan has given our Ombashi (subaltern

officer) a box on the ear, and the latter has complained to the

commander. This officer, our Abu Hashis, had laid aside for himself

a cow’s skin, which here, as well as in all Egypt, is a monopoly

of the Belik (government). Feïzulla Capitan had remarked this by

accident, and reproached him for it, which ended in a box on the

ears. The fact of the peculation was attested. The commander feared

the crew. The Egyptians, stung by gnats, were discontented with the

voyage itself, because they had again got into their heads the idea

of Njam-Njam, or cannibals. They were also afraid of a conspiracy

among our negroes, whom they still always call “Abit.” This is

the cause why attention was paid to the Egyptian subordinate. He was

quietly allowed to complain, and just as quietly to retire. Nothing

was said to Feïzulla Capitan, because the _Insbashi_, or captain of

the plaintiff, neglected to support his complaint; in vain, therefore,

had this officer caught hold very eagerly of the ship’s towing-rope,

when he jumped overboard after receiving the box on the ears. We must

not think that _esprit du corps_, or wounded honour, which seldom

or ever presents itself to the Fellahs, prompted him to this not

very dangerous jump, but the screamer thought that he must open his

mouth before the others. He was removed to his _Insbashi’s_ vessel.

My servants will not get accustomed, or attend only in a very

careless manner, to the shifting of my specimens of marsh plants,

which cannot be too frequently done in such a damp atmosphere. They

can understand stuffing (osluk) birds and other animals, for the

purpose of exhibiting them in Europe for money; but to preserve gesh

(grass), that is beyond their comprehension.—One o’clock. We

have come from the northern direction slowly again to S.S.W.,

sail at half-past one o’clock round a corner of the reeds S.W.,

and go at two o’clock E. with the rope. At three o’clock to S.,

with sails, and in five minutes again Libàhn towards E. Our course

became, by this eternal change, almost reduced to nothing; had it

been otherwise, we might have made a good tract with the east wind.

It occurred to me that it was Sylvester’s day, and I brought

before my wretched mind the different Sylvester nights; how I had

sometimes passed them joyfully, sometimes melancholy or quietly,

ever according to the circumstances and situations in which I was

placed at the time. I shouted to Thibaut, who was just passing by me,

that it was Sylvester’s day, that we ought to keep the anniversary

of our honest patron as a festival, and invited him to my vessel. He

was afraid, however, of Feïzulla, who, reclined upon his carpet on

deck, resting from his tailoring, and had one Fingàn (small cup) of

date brandy after another handed to him, as if he wanted to solemnise

Sylvester’s evening in his own way. I went down, therefore, to

Thibaut; we drank maraschino and grog, having a coal-dish between

us, over the fire of which we laid green brushwood, to protect us,

in some measure, against the impudent gnats. We related anecdotes

of our previous journeys in Greece, and how we, being then young,

looked at the world with perfectly different eyes, and had now

become old fellows, whose highest destiny would be to get an old

maid or widow for a wife, on our return to our native country,

and how we had lost the _so-called_ happiness when it was thrown in

our way. The usual Jeremiads of incipient old bachelors. After four

o’clock we sailed S.W., and then generally more to the S.

It was eight o’clock when I summoned my _Dahabie_ to come close,

but as if the devil had seized the helm, it went at the very same

moment bang against the vessel in which the Frenchmen were; a fearful

row and mutual abuse then took place, especially as all the vessels

were thrown together by wind and the current, into the corner where

the river makes a sudden bend from S. to S.W. It was only with much

trouble that we worked ourselves loose with oars, poles, and sails,

to stop about N.W. with the north-east wind. At sunset we cast anchor,

north latitude 6° 52′, east longitude from Paris 28° 33′.

_1st January_, 1841.—Welcome new year! Oh ye beautiful past

times! Dance and the girls—Wine and friends.—I could not

sleep; the sentinels sang, and told stories of spirits, snakes,

and unbelievers, accompanied by abuse of the gnats. I thought of

my brother in Taka, who at the present moment did not even know it

was Sylvester’s evening, for there we had lost the computation

of time, both having different dates in our journals. This was

also the case with the Italian physician, Dr. Bellotti, who took

the greatest delight however in the new moon, because the arrears

of his salary increased with it. It occurred to me that my brother

and I, when we had nearly lost our memory, after a severe illness,

had even contended about the date of the year. Midnight had long

passed, and I was just on the point of falling asleep, when Thibaut,

who had continued his libations in honour of St. Sylvester, shouted

out a “Happy New Year to you!”

We sailed from sun-rise to seven o’clock, in a southern direction,

with a faint north-east wind. We halt on the left side of that

large island, near which Selim Capitan returned the evening before

yesterday, to navigate the left instead of the right arm. Here,

on the right shore, our stream takes up in S.S.E. by E., a

small, but strongly-flowing river, or an arm of the Nile; in the

latter signification it is called, without any further ceremony,

a gohr. Ash-grey negroes come to the shore and bring us some

cattle. Both their chiefs or Sheiks are called Arwor and Albisùg:

their neighbouring village bears, to my astonishment, the name of

Bonn. We presented them with glass beads, and threw some on the ground

for the others, without their quarrelling or fighting for them. The

stream we traverse is called by them Kir, and the arm before mentioned

Muts; the former is said to be very circuitous. A little before ten

o’clock we sail with a good north-east wind to S.E., and immediately

to S. As we see here, the arm of the Nile comes from the east.

Our high road has scarcely thirty paces breadth for a short tract,

because the giant rushes and the everlasting blooming ambaks

advance deeply in the water from the left shore. At half-past ten

o’clock in a bend to S.S.W., then S.S.E., and S.S.W. The shores

are only two feet high on the left hand, and therefore the burning

away of the half-dried reeds is of no consequence. Still, before

eleven o’clock, round a corner to E.S.E., where we perceive,

on the right shore towards E., a large lake at half an hour’s

distance, whilst we sail to S.S.W. Both shores are here scarcely

elevated one foot above the river, which again is more than three

hundred paces broad. There lies yonder a herdsman’s village;

the natives step to the right shore, but run away, however, when

we begin to beat the drum; yet they approached soon afterwards,

and without weapons. Each had adorned himself according to his

fancy, with feathers or the skin of a wild beast. I have remarked

also that all these inhabitants of the marshes have very bad teeth,

notwithstanding their otherwise personal advantages. They came on

the left shore with a cow, but we did not think it worth the trouble

to accept such an insignificant sacrifice. Only a gun-shot distance

to the N., then again to S.E. and S.

One o’clock. I had fallen asleep, wearied out, and Feïzulla told

me that he had watched the compass during the time I slept, and that

we had remained to this moment in a southerly direction. Towards

S.E. a large lake, extending between the shore and a wood an hour

distant. Fishermen from a village in the neighbourhood are employed in

making the water disturbed in its narrow outlets, and covering these

with wicker and fishing-baskets. At half-past one o’clock, E.N.E.,

where another village appears on the right shore; then E. up to four

o’clock, and with the rope, for the east wind has set in. This

wind is, however, too faint to advance with sails S.W. Even rowing

does not assist us, and we at first advance Libàhn.

I interpret it as a good omen that I am in such a cheerful humour

to-day, arising a good deal from my present state of health. Poor

Sabatier, on the contrary, seems to be going fast to certain death,

through his own melancholy and Arnaud’s heartlessness, for he is

continually affected with fever and will never hear of any diet. At

half-past four o’clock, S.S.W. Our vessel draws water, whereupon we

fire two shots as signals of distress; but no care was taken about us,

because the wind had become a little stronger, and we make about a

mile; before, we had scarcely made half a mile in the hour. We sail,

therefore, “Alla kerim,” behind the others, although the water

visibly rises in the hold, and we have not even pumps. We halt, about

five o’clock, at the corner, where the river goes from S.S.W. to

E.N.E. Here we have an extensive view of the scenery, an immeasurably

flat country, with yellow grass, which seems to have been merely

overflowed a little by the water, although the shores are only two

feet high. Numberless ant-hills stand around. In the background we

remark a forest without shade. A German prince said to Ahmed Basha

in Kahira, “I have found forests here, but no _shade_ in them.”

Two negroes greet and make signs to us, but in vain, for they do not

bring oxen, and we have already to-day distrained ten. At half-past

five o’clock we left this place, and sailed E.N.E. into a canal,

scarcely fifty paces broad, having on the right an ambak-thicket,

with a fore-ground of aquatic grass, and on the left a margin

of reeds. This last is said to belong to an island, but we do not

observe there either tree or shrub. After sunset, from E. to S.; then

again eastward, and lastly S.S.W. The wind again becomes very slack;

therefore rowing and singing, contention and strife, among the crew,

who get one before the other. A short bend to N., but a bad sandy

point of land for oars and poles. The wind blows from S.W., and

we sail E. by S., and still somewhat N.E., when it again slackens,

and we are obliged to torment ourselves in an E.N.E. direction.

We come here unexpectedly upon _four rivers_, according to the

expression of the Arabs. The Nile separates into two arms, into

those in which we had come, and in those which we had left to N.W.,

and afterwards at our back; again it splits into two arms above, of

which the smaller one ascends upwards to E. and our arm to E.N.E. The

island, the lower portion of which we saw this morning at seven

o’clock, is therefore confirmed by the arm flowing away to N.W.

Baùda! Baùda! Everyone is fanning and striking off the gnats,

especially in Suliman Kashef’s vessel, where the crew have armed

themselves with the corollas of the giant rushes, to be used as

fans. The east wind is faint, the sky cloudy, and always Libàhn to

N.E. till nine o’clock. A floating island wheeled our ship round,

anchor and all; this also frequently happens at night. Thermometer

18°, 25°, 28°, and 23° Reaumur.

_2nd January._—Selim Capitan now asserts that he navigated,

in the first expedition, this arm of the Nile in which we are at

present. That arm, from which, three days ago, we returned at night,

would be, according to this statement, a tributary, or an arm, ending

when the water falls in a cul-de-sac. But where is now the Muts,

which was pointed out to us as a nearer Nile arm, and the beginning

of which ought to have shewn itself?—for we saw already the mouth

of it yesterday morning near the village of Bonn. At ten o’clock

we go, by the rope, to E. by S.

On the right, to the west, we remark an arm of the Nile, which can

be no other than the commencement of the little one seen yesterday

evening, pouring itself yonder from the east, when we were going

E.N.E. It is a wonder that the Nile does not divide into far more arms

in these level regions; although it may be presumed with certainty

that many gohrs are lost in the reeds, or slink again to the river,

without being visible by us. The stream goes from here S.E. and E.,

and we halt S.E. on the right shore. The river appears again to

separate in front of us.

I cannot help laughing when I hear the Reïs say to the lazy

sailors, “Are you Muslems or Christians?” in order to tickle

their sense of honour. Yet Nazrani is more a contemptuous expression

for the Christian Rajahs than for Europeans, who are called Franks;

although they abuse Arnaud and his vessel, by way of pre-eminence,

with the title of “Nazrani,” because his conduct towards the men

is very forbidding. From one to five o’clock in continued serpentine

movements between S. and E. At half-past five o’clock, some minutes

S.W. by S., and then again in an easterly direction. Throughout

the day I was hot, languid, and sleepy, which I looked upon as

the forebodings of fever, to which my three servants had already

succumbed. Now I dread the night, and an incessant yawning gives me

no sweet foretaste of the future.

We work over the shallows from W. by S. to E.N.E., and sail lastly,

after sunset, at half-past six o’clock, slowly in a bend to E.S.E.,

and immediately W.N.W., and in eight minutes S.S.E. We tried, by

using oars, poles, and sails, to get to N.E., and then halted. Here

we saw to the N.E. an arm of the Nile flowing to S., the mouth

of which we ought to have seen yesterday, and it may therefore

probably be the Muts. Subsequently, when all had gone to sleep,

a violent habùb threw the ship on shore; but the wind soon veered

to our advantage. Thermometer 18°, 26°, to 28°, and 25°.

_3rd. January_—This morning a thick mist, and the hygrometer

92°. In the early part, towing to E.S.E. We sail at eight o’clock

with a still changeable north wind to S.S.E., and about nine o’clock

to S. Here, on the right low shore, where stands some scanty grass,

flows a small canal to the left into the plain to the N.E., and leads

probably to a shallow lake or a low ground, discharging its water

in this way. The negroes, who appear to me to be generally vigorous

Icthyophagists, have established a fishing weir here at the entrance

of this outlet. It consists of a double row of strong stakes, having

between them a deep hole and two openings to let in the fish. We see

by the fresh earth thrown up, that this canal is cleaned out. Probably

the natives take the fish retreating with the water subsiding, and

emptying itself into the Nile, in these passes formed with stakes,

by means of baskets, and the larger ones by harpoons. No tree,

and scarcely any ambaks in the shape of green hills, are seen.

Ten o’clock. On the left, a little village, with seven well-built

tokuls, the indented roofs of which are, however, tolerably flat,

and on the whole are low. Close by, a large herdsman’s or pastoral

village: the huts are built slightly enough, for they are only

inhabited during grazing-time. Some negroes jump and sing; other

men of ashes bring a cow and a few goats. The people here appear

stronger and more muscular than these high shot-up marsh plants

were in other places, and are on an average six Parisian feet[7]

and upwards in height. Their sheikh or chief was called Tchinkah,

and his village Kuronjah. A piece of white cotton stuff was given

him to cover, at least, the nakedness of his shoulders, and some

beads. Several negroes presented themselves, and they all now wanted

“god” (glass beads). The teeth of the natives are very bad: this

is generally the case in fenny countries; and we see it, for example,

in Holland, where the women have not only bad teeth, but also very

frequently swollen joints. They quarrel here for the beads thrown to

them, but without fighting. Though such ornaments may soon lose the

charm of novelty, yet they may lay the foundation of future discord,

and cause homicide and murder. We saw some strings of blue glass beads

on the chief, looking like broken maccaroni, and of which we also had

brought a good supply. We could not learn from what country this glass

ornament—_Vermiglio_ or _conteri di Venezia_—had come to them;

it was a proof, however, that communications take place between these

inner African nations. The beads were very much worn and ground away,

and therefore probably an old inheritance of the tribe.

They wear only a single tuft of hair: it is sometimes long, and

sometimes short, so that they may shew the distinguishing mark of

their race—the incisions running from the forehead in three strokes

around the head. Yet there were some who wore their entire hair,

which is no more to be called woolly than that of the Arabs in the

land of Sudàn. Every one had adorned his head according to his own

taste. Many were bedecked with a short ostrich-feather, others with

a thong of pelt, or with a wooden ring, and one was covered all over

with small burrs. This was that dreadful little burr that used to

stick to our stockings and wide Turkish trowsers in Taka, and drew

together the latter into the most singular folds. Its hook-formed

point or prickle was only extracted from linen with the greatest

trouble. Another wore a felt cap upon which was a tassel, as if he

had taken a Turkish cap for his model.

Tattooing is called by these Keks _garo-ungè_: they wear slips of

leather round their necks, hands, and also frequently round the

hips, and rings of ivory and iron, varying in number, round the

arm. If we ask them whence the iron comes, they answer, “From the

mountain,” and point to the south. The iron rings are of various

forms, furnished at the joints with small bells—that is, with a

small hole, in which grains are placed to make a rattling noise;

or even with small spikes, in order not to be seized so easily

by the enemy. Their points were covered with little wooden heads,

to prevent injury to the wearer. The bracelets were also adorned in

another manner, or were quite simple, as those on the upper part of

the arm,—some narrow, and others broad. They open in one place,

so as to pass over the hand; but are so exactly joined together,

that the opening is scarcely to be perceived: thus proving the

elasticity of iron in good workmanship. Some wore a shoemakers’ or

sadlers’ apron, serving to ward off darts rather than as a covering,

for they all, in other respects, go naked. The women have a similar

apron around the lower part of their body, as I also saw in the

village of Pagnaù; and excepting this leathern apron, they have

no other attire. The lower part of the back was generally tattooed

in many rows by vertical incisions. The Dinkas appear to have a

particular dexterity and perseverance in this kind of basso-relievo;

for we see the female slaves in Khartùm having their whole thorax

covered with such incisions, and even in the form of festoons of

leaves—a kind of toilet that might not be very pleasant to the

tender skin of our coquettish ladies. We saw also some earrings of

red copper, and there was always a hole for these in the ear; often

also many holes in the rim of the ear for future trinkets, a small

stick being placed in them to prevent them closing. These negroes

cross and throw their legs under them in all directions; so that,

compared with them, Orientals and tailors are only bunglers. They

have generally a flexibility in their limbs, which would not be

supposed from the manner in which they tread the ground.

We had made the good Ethiopians comprehend that a few more oxen would

be welcome to us; but about eleven o’clock a favourable east wind

set in, promising to become still better. We sail to S.S.W.; but in

the space of ten minutes put to land again, so that we might not

leave in the lurch the promised morsels, costing only a few glass

beads. But the people did not shew themselves again; and just as

the sails were bent to proceed on our voyage, the wind also veered,

and blew from S.E.: therefore libàhn. The hygrometer had at ten

o’clock still 58°, whilst this morning it was even 92°. Twelve

o’clock.—E.N.E., and soon E.; where, on the left, a lake is seen,

about an hour and a half long.

After an hour’s progress, we are towed S.S.E. again, and it seems

that we shall follow this direction further. I cannot keep my eyes

open, and go to sleep, with orders to wake me at the first bend in

the river. At three o’clock from S.E. to E.S.E. Towards S.E. by

S. the river makes a bend, and a village extends yonder on the

right shore, which brought to my recollection Bonn on the Rhine,

as seen from the so-called Obtuse Tower, although neither towers

nor high buildings are to be seen there. Close to us, on the left

side, we observe a large and long lake, retreating with the river

in a parallel direction for about two hours and a half. I had not

previously remarked it, owing to the reeds rising so high, for I had

now no servant in sufficiently good health to keep a look-out from

the mast. Judging from the green reeds, it appears to be connected

with the river. At half-past three o’clock we go N.N.E., and at

half an hour’s distance over the right shore, a little lake and

a village are to be seen. The boundary of the old shore, properly

speaking, is not visible from the deck, but a sailor tells me from

the mast that trees, three or four hours’ distant, are standing

there, up to which all is green. The Haba, or the old shore, runs

at the left side of the river, in the direction of the great lake,

about one hour distant from us, and approaches near to us, according

to appearances, behind the before-named large village, which may be

called here a city.

We soon come to a gohr, or canal, apparently feeding the little

lake. The current along the shore itself is frequently more unequal in

strength than in the centre of the river, owing to such flowings off,

and on account of the great depth of three to five fathoms, which is

often found directly close to the margin of the new shore, against

which the mass of waters is thrown. But notwithstanding this striking

disadvantage, we prefer to remain close to the shore, where the crew

are obliged to work till they are half dead to gain ground only a

little. At five o’clock we come nearer to the great village. My

Bonn, with the green of its _vinea Domini_, and its old custom-house,

is turned here into high reeds; its university into tokuls concealed

behind them; and its houses into reed huts of various sorts. It was

only the position and the winding of the stream itself that could

awaken this dear remembrance, with a whole host of half-extinguished

pictures; and the more so because we had already seen an Ethiopian

Bonn, the bare name of which had excited my imagination.

On all sides the cattle turn to the smoking pastoral city. I hear

and see that the village of the women is always separated from that

of the men; that the latter possess only the temporary huts, and the

former regular tokuls,—the last being only common to both sexes at

the rainy season. We pass slowly by, whilst I stand on the deck and

write. This Harim village looks, on the whole, very well: the tokuls,

indeed, are low, but well built, and, as I have remarked already, the

straw upon the roof is laid round in five or six layers, giving it the

same number of stories, without having a steep slope. The old women

were the first to gratify their curiosity: they dance and jump before

their houses, sing bold songs, and beat their breasts up and down, so

that it is horrible to see and hear them. Children and maidens appear

to be locked up from fear of the “Children of Heaven;” for it was

asserted that the white soldiers in the former expedition were looked

upon by the negroes of this country as “Children of Heaven.” I

scarcely believe that such a compliment was paid to them, for I saw a

black soldier pointing to two Egyptians as having come from Heaven;

whereupon the blacks put on a silly laughing countenance, and went

away, as much as to say, “Children of Heaven ought to fly lightly,

like birds, and not crawl heavily on the earth, and draw ships.”

A natural pond was connected by a canal with the river, and closed

by a fishing weir of palisadoes. Lumps of earth lay piled up on one

another, like pyramids of cannon-balls. They take, perhaps, the slime

from the canal with their hands, to plaster round the walls of their

tokuls, and also to clean the canal. Even the old women here were

ash-grey; therefore it seems as if they make fires in their tokuls,

and their beds on the ashes.

The city of these Amazons, numbering forty-two tokuls in a line

along the river, was immediately followed, however, by the city,

or a village, of the men. These summer huts have partly the form

of tokuls, with only slightly elevated pointed roofs; partly they

were huts with a mere covering, as a protection against the weather,

and frequently so small that they could only be built for the young

cattle. The hills of ashes, the real places of rest for the night,

were surrounded with a wall of reeds on one side, to shelter them

from the wind. The huts might be here about two hundred in number;

near them on every side rose the smoke of small piles of dung: close

at hand, the stakes stood, to which the oxen were fastened in the

evening. The horned cattle, and even the little goats, go cheerfully

to the smoke, because they know they are protected there from gnats.

The men here behave very quietly, and do not seem to have known that

they would meet us when driving home their cattle. As they do not

come to us, we go ashore to them. The sheikh of this tribe visits us

in quite a friendly manner; he is invested by us with a red shirt,

and with a gay-coloured pocket-handkerchief round his head, as

well as strings of beads round his neck. In vain Thibaut and I gave

ourselves the trouble of trying to learn, with the assistance of our

stupid interpreters, something from these Keks; for they appear to

be unwilling to mention names, as if evil might happen to the person

whom it concerns.

The village is called Min, Mim, Mièmn, ever according to the

different pronunciation of the people, and, as Selim Capitan

afterwards asserted, “Bakak.”

This nation of the Keks, or Kièks, appears, on the whole, to be

numerous, and has a great sheikh, or king, by the name of Ajol. His

city lies on the left side of the river, far from hence, near a

stream, and is called Gog. Polygamy prevails here, as generally on the

White Stream; only, however, the more opulent enjoy this privilege,

for the women are bought. I remarked here, for the first time, bodily

defects, which, like elephantiasis, are so very rare in the whole

land of Sudàn. One had hernia, and many suffered from diseases of

the eyes, and wanted medical assistance. Their eyes, indeed, were

nearly all suffused with red, as I had previously remarked; and it

seems that these people must suffer uncommonly in the rainy season,

when they lie, as it were, in the morass. The hair of some of them,

who wore it long, was of a reddish colour, having lost its natural

black hue by the ley of the ashes and water, and heat of the sun; for

we did not perceive this in the shorter hairs, and they did not know

how to explain the cause of this tinge. The cattle are generally of

a light colour, of moderate size, and have long beautifully-twisted

horns, some of which are turned backwards. The bulls have large

speckled humps, such as are seen in the hieroglyphics; the cows, on

the contrary, only a little elevation on the shoulders. The small

reed tokuls, with half-flat roofs, are neat, and serve throughout

the day for protection against the sun. I wandered about here quite

alone, without being molested or sent back by the people, although

the whole crew on board believed, and our blacks agreed with them,

that men and women live separate the greatest part of the year, and

that man durst not enter into such a Harìm-village out of season. I

must, however, differ in some measure with respect to this assertion;

for I saw in some little tokuls of the male village, young women

and children, crawling about upon the extended skins on the ground.

[Illustration: MOUNT NERKONJIN, 22nd JANUARY, 1842.]

A young woman was so enraptured at the sight of my glass beads, that

she wanted to sell me her child, which she carried in a skin under

her left arm, as if in a bag. I do not think that I am mistaken with

regard to this offer, although one ought not to be confident that the

daughter of a harmless nation like the Keks would do so. Perhaps she

was a prisoner, which might be the case here generally, and that these

women are watched by the men. It is always possible too, that the men

take their favourite wives with them for comfort’s sake, and leave

the others at home, or put them in some kind of bodily restraint.

A very large and broad sürtuk caught my eye, and I was curious to

find out the species of wood of which it was built, but the bulls

standing close to each other there, pointed their horns at me. Two

natives sprang nimbly to them, in order to quiet them; whereupon

I went off as quickly as possible,—and the more so, because last

year a soldier had been gored to death. A village bull towered above

all of them; his high horns were adorned with two animals’ tails;

he had also ornaments around his neck. I was not able, however, to

examine these ornaments very closely, for he rushed too quickly into

the herd, that he might, like all the other beasts, stick his nose as

quickly as possible into the smoke. This is a ludicrous sight: every

beast appears to know exactly his heap, or rather his neighbourhood,

else an uncommon confusion would take place, for they have their

stakes quite close to one another. In the morning this encampment,

on which no straw is strewed, is carefully cleansed of the dirt,

which is thrown in small heaps near the stakes, and kindled in the

evening, shortly before the cows come home, where it continues to

glimmer till towards morning.

Though the natives had hitherto let me quietly walk about, because the

general attention was directed to the vessels, and the distribution

of beads, now I heard from the men on all sides a peculiar buzzing

sound, similar to the bleating of sheep. The sound can only be

denoted by “Eh;” it is a natural tone of disapprobation, and was

sufficiently intelligible to me. The men had concealed their arrows

and spears, for they were told that they must not come with them. If

the women go also freely among the men, without taking notice of the

nakedness of the latter, yet there appears in them a certain innate

degree of modesty, as I saw myself in the maidens, who are quite

naked, whilst the married women wear a leathern apron. An aproned

woman had crept out of a tokul with her child, to see the other

strangers at a distance, when a girl, with swelling breasts, also

hastily followed her out of the oval hole, and stood on tip-toe to

see better. Scarcely had the naked maid remarked me close at hand,

than she quickly seized a stiff piece of leather lying there, and

covered herself with it. Other girls, already a good height, but

still without breasts, were between the cows and goats, and concerned

themselves more about the young of these animals than about us. I

found also here, in the tokuls, large gourd-shells filled with urine,

which, as mentioned before, is said to supply the place of salt.

Amongst other huts, I here saw two built of bamin stalks, twenty feet

high, placed conically upon the ground, joined together at the top in

such a manner that they formed a draft of air as well as a chimney. It

was quite cool inside, for the entrance also nearly reached to the

top, and formed a triangle. They offered us milk and butter, but as

both are seasoned with the water previously named, instead of salt,

the crew refused them with contempt. We got, however, fresh milk,

and I charged my servants, who laughed at the Egyptian braggarts, to

take butter with them: it left very little twang when cooked, whilst

the milk of the morning tasted of smoke, and of that dirty mixture.

Richly provided with meat, we took advantage of the east wind just

freshening up, and sailed, after sunset, to S. by E., but this lasted

only a moment, and we went from S.E. to N., when we were obliged

to take to our oars; then to N.W. and S.E. A smoking herdsman’s

village was noticed to E. by S. as also just after our setting

out. Reckoning from the horizontal layers of smoke, the country must

have been tolerably populated, even at some distance from the river,

which is here about four hundred paces broad. The smoke produced for

the cattle has no unpleasant smell; on the contrary, that from the

burnt reeds, has the smell of our thick yellowish fogs; and, if I

am not mistaken, I have met with such a fog in the Nubian deserts,

or perhaps in Egypt. The hygrometer shewed this afternoon, at four

o’clock, 65°; and I hear that Arnaud has had it in his hands,

and has made himself master of it, in order to profit by it _alone_.