authority in some of the provinces, were brought to El Fasher as
prisoners. It was said that they had been detected in treasonable
correspondence with the hostile leader (Hashem) in Kordofân. They
did not undergo any form of trial, but as the Sultan chose to give
credit to the depositions that were made against them, his command
issued for their execution. Three of them were very young men, the
youngest not appearing to be more than seventeen years of age. Two
of them were eunuchs. A little after noon they were brought, chained
and fettered, into the market-place before one of the entrances
of the palace, escorted by a few of the royal slaves, armed with
spears. Several of the Meleks, by the monarch’s express order,
were present, to witness, as he termed it, what they might expect
to suffer if they failed in their fidelity. The executioner allowed
them time only to utter some short prayer, when he plunged the
knife in the neck of the oldest of them, exactly in the same manner
as they kill a sheep. The operation too is marked by the same term
(_dhebbah_). He fell and struggled for some time: the rest suffered
in their turn. The three last were much agitated, and the youngest
wept. The two first had borne their fate with becoming firmness. The
crowd, that had assembled, had scarcely satiated itself with the
spectacle of their convulsive motions, while prostrate in the dust,
when the slaves of the executioner coolly brought a small block of
wood, and began mangling their feet with an axe. I was surprized at
this among Mohammedans, whose decency in all that concerns the dead is
generally worthy of applause. Nor did it diminish my astonishment,
that having at length cut off their feet, they took away the
fetters, which had been worn by the criminals, in themselves of very
inconsiderable value, and left the bodies where they were. Private
humanity, and not public order, afterwards afforded them sepulture.
It happened this year that some excesses had been committed by persons
in a state of inebriation, and the Sultan having had cognizance of
the fact, could find a remedy only in force. He ordered search to be
made in all houses throughout the country for the utensils for making
_merîsé_; directed that those who should be found in a state of
intoxication should be capitally punished; and the women who made it
should have their heads shaved, be fined severely, and exposed to all
possible ignominy. The Furians had however been habituated to Merîsé
before they had known their monarch, or the Islam. The severity
of the order, therefore, and the numbers trespassing against it,
defeated the Sultan’s purpose. It was indeed put in execution, and
a few miserable women suffered unrelenting tonsure, and innumerable
earthen jars were indignantly strewed piecemeal in the paths of the
faithful; but the opulent, as is usual, escaped with impunity, and
some were bold enough to say, that the eyes even of the Sultan’s
women were still reddened with the voluptuous beverage, while priests
and magistrates were bearing the fulminating edict from one extremity
of the empire to the other. It is certain that, subsequent to this
new law, the minds of the troops were much alienated from the monarch,
and it is thought that no other cause than this was to be sought. The
monarch who admits of no licence will never reign in the hearts
of the soldiery; and he must give up the hope of their affections,
who is disposed to become an impartial censor of the public morals.
Innumerable reports had been propagated at different times, that the
Jelabs would be allowed to depart. But none was well authenticated;
nay, as afterwards appeared, all were false. It is probable they were
artfully circulated by order of the Sultan, with a view to cajole the
foreign merchants, who, having now collected the intended number of
slaves, were at a heavy expense for their daily sustenance, and of
course ill bore the unexplained delay, while his own merchandize was
sold at a prodigious advance in Egypt. In effect, two small caravans
found their way thither, between the time of my arrival at Fûr,
and that of my departure; but they consisted only of the Sultan’s
property, and that of one or two individuals, whom he particularly
favoured. For a great quantity of merchandize having accumulated in
his hands, he was determined to dispose of it to advantage, before
the other merchants should be permitted to produce theirs for sale.
They were therefore restrained by the strong arm of power, to favour
the monarch’s pernicious monopoly; while the latter, with singular
effrontery, gave out, that he had sent to negociate with the Beys
the reception of the commodities of Soudân, on more advantageous
terms than they had been before admitted.
The man whom I had brought with me from Kahira as servant, had
availed himself of the property he had plundered to purchase several
slaves. He still continued to live in an apartment within the same
inclosure with myself, and I occasionally employed one of his slaves
to prepare my food.
He knew too much of me to imagine that I should lose any opportunity
that might offer of punishing him, and accordingly was desirous
of anticipating my design. I had received warning of his views,
and was cautious, sleeping little at night, and going always armed;
not that I much expected any thing would be attempted by open force,
though in effect two men had been employed by him, under promise
of a reward, to strangle me. Finding that measure unsuccessful,
he obtained some _corrosive sublimate_, and put it into a dish that
one of the slaves was dressing. She was honest and generous enough
to inform me of it, or the scheme would probably have taken effect,
as I had certainly then no suspicion. The villain on returning, after
a few hours, and finding that the poison had not produced its effect,
vented his rage on the slave, and had nearly strangled her with a
cord, when I interfered and forced him to leave her. The next scheme
was an accusation of debauching his slaves, which after a tedious
investigation before the civil judge, and then the Melek of Jelabs,
I was able to refute. Other attempts, planned with sufficient art,
were made against my life, which, however, I had equal good fortune
in escaping.
In the summer of 1795, I received the second payment for the
property in the Sultan’s hands, which consisted of female
camels (_naka_). The same injustice operated on this occasion as
before. After all the other creditors of the monarch had been
satisfied, I was directed to choose from what remained: two of
which, as usual, were allotted as equivalent to a slave, though of
so inferior a kind, that three would not have been sufficient to
purchase one.
After having received these, I was preparing to return to Cobbé, when
a message came to require my attendance on a sick person. The patient
was brother of the Melek of the Jelabs. He was in the last stage of
a peripneumony, and I immediately saw the case was desperate; but was
forced to remain there with the sick man, administering such remedies
as his situation permitted the application of, till he expired. Two
guides were sent to accompany me home, but coming to a torrent that
crossed the road, (it was the middle of the _Harîf_, or wet season,)
they were fearful of passing it, and returned, after endeavouring
in vain to persuade me to do the same. I was obliged to abandon the
camel, which belonged to the Melek, and pursue my journey on foot.
The time I was constrained to devote to this patient afforded me
an opportunity of remarking the _True believer’s practice of
physic_. No mummery, that ever was invented by human imbecility
to banish the puny fears of mortality, was forgotten to be put in
practice. The disease was sometimes exorcised as a malignant spirit,
at others deprecated as the just visitation of the Deity: two or
three thousand _fathas_ were to be uttered, and numbered at the same
moment on a chaplet; and sentences of the Koran were then written on
a board, which being washed off, the inky water was offered to the
sick man to drink, when he was no longer able to open his mouth. But
though this puerile anxiety prevailed so long as the man remained
alive, the moment he was dead, all sunk into undisturbed composure,
except a few of the women, who officiously disquieted the living,
with vociferations of affected sorrow for the dead.
Near the end of the year 1795, a body of troops was mustered and
reviewed, who were to replace those that had died of the small-pox in
Kordofân, which it was said amounted to more than half the army. The
spoils which had been taken from Hashem, were also on this occasion
ostentatiously displayed. They consisted of eighty slaves, male and
female, but the greater proportion of the latter, many of them were
very beautiful, nor the less interesting, that though the change in
their situation could not be very important, their countenances were
marked with despondency. To these succeeded five hundred oxen and
two hundred large camels; the whole procession concluded with eighty
horses, and many articles of less value borne by slaves. Shouts rent
the air, of “Long live el Sultan Abd-el-rachmân el rashîd! May
God render him always victorious!”
A short time after I caused a petition to be drawn up, which was
presented by Ali-el-Chatîb to the Sultan, in which I stated my
sufferings, requested payment of what yet remained due to me,
and permission to proceed on my journey to Kordofân. Though the
person who presented it was a man of considerable weight, no answer
was given. I therefore followed it up by a visit in person, which
I had resolved should be my last. My arrival was no sooner known,
than I was directed as before to attend some sick person. This
I positively refused to do; and it was many days before I could
be admitted at court, for Fowaz, the Melek of Jelabs, was grown
tired of his office. I therefore accompanied (11th December 1795)
the Chatîb to the monarch’s presence, and shortly stated what
I came to request, which the former seconded, though not with the
zeal that I might have wished. To my demand of permission to travel
no answer was returned. But the generous and hospitable monarch,
who had received from me the value of about 750 piasters in goods,
and notwithstanding that my claim was well supported, condescended to
give me twenty meagre oxen, in value about 120 piasters! The state
of my purse would not permit me to refute even this mean supply,
and I bad adieu to El Fasher, as I hoped for ever.
Another accident happened at this time, which awaked my attention to
personal security. Being retired at night to a small distance from
my apartment, a spear was thrown over the fence, grazed my shoulder,
and stuck in the ground near me. I ran to the place whence it came,
but saw no one, and in vain endeavoured to discover the owner of it.
Having applied the value of the oxen to preparatives for the journey
to Egypt, the report of the caravan’s departure growing daily
stronger, I lost no time in joining the Chabîr, who was then encamped
at _Le Haimer_, (3d March 1796,) a small village about three days’
journey North of Cobbé, where was a tolerable supply of water,
but no other requisite for living.
Two nights previously to leaving Cobbé I received a letter, impressed
with the seal of Fowas, Melek of Jelabs, importing that he (Fowas)
had obtained from the Sultan for me the permission I had so often
earnestly sought, _viz._ of passing through Kordofan to Sennaar,
and that nothing remained but to repair to El Fasher, and set out
from that place. My astonishment was great at finding that what
had so constantly and contumeliously been refused, should now be
spontaneously offered. I therefore immediately went to some of
the merchants, in whom I had the greatest confidence, to inquire
their opinion. All of them strongly dissuaded me from paying any
attention to the Melek’s letter, hinting at the same time that
they understood what it meant. I acquiesced, notwithstanding my
earnest desire of going eastward; and it afterwards was proved to
me in a way sufficiently clear, that this letter was the result of
a scheme concerted between the Melek and my servant Ali, by which
it was contrived that I should reach the eastern confine, and there
perish by the hands of my attendants.
During my residence at El Fasher and Cobbé, I had been repeatedly
assured, and that from those persons who were best informed, that
the Sultan never meant to permit my departure; and the imperfect
compensation he had directed for what had been brought him confirmed
that opinion. But as I knew much is done among persons of that
description by whispers, I took care to spread them thickly in his
way. To the Chabîr I promised an ample recompence for his assistance,
and set before him the consequences of his appearing in Kahira without
me. I also offered proofs that I had been able to dispatch letters to
Egypt, unknown to the government here. The Chabîr did not neglect to
use his interest with the Sultan; and whether the latter was really
intimidated by these vain insinuations, whether he had begun to hold
a more favourable opinion of me from my having been so long in the
country without attempting any thing improper, or whether he was not
in reality much more tranquil and indifferent on the subject than
we at that time imagined, I cannot even now with certainty affirm.
We arrived at Le Haimer about a month before Ramadan, and it was
not till the sixth day of El Hedge, the second month after that
fast, that we actually commenced our journey to Egypt. In the mean
time having pitched the tent under a great tree, where we were
sheltered from the rays of the sun, and in tolerable security,
I fed on polenta (_as-cidé_) and water with the camel-drivers. I
had collected eight camels for the journey, but the best of them was
stolen while grazing. Another died; and to supply his place I was
obliged to seek one on credit, for my whole exchangeable property
at that time amounted only to about eight piasters.
While the caravan was assembling, an incident happened which may
deserve mention. The Muggrebîns of Elwah, having passed by Selimé,
crossed the desert (a route of three or four days) to Dongola,
where they carried off goods and captives. Among these was a
Dongolese girl, of fourteen years of age, who was sold in Upper
Egypt, and carried to Kahira, where she was bought by an Arab, who
had afterwards returned to Dar Fûr with his property. The girl
being recognized by some Dongolese, of her own tribe, resident
in Fûr, the question came before the Melek of the district, and
was referred to the monarch. Her master pleaded the purchase at a
valuable consideration; but it was decided that having been free,
she was not a subject of sale, and she was restored to her friends.
This pretext of an accusation for purchasing free persons is often
used to extort money from rich merchants, and an instance happened,
within my knowlege, in which the purchaser was condemned, not only to
forfeit two females, but to pay a fine of seven slaves for each. Such
is the sole attention which the government pays to the freedom of
the subject.
Our voyage, once commenced, was continued with little remarkable,
except the violent heat. We returned by the only caravan route, _Bir
el malah_, _Leghea_, _Selime_, _Sheb_, and _Elwah_. Our provisions
were indifferent, and in small quantity. The camel-drivers regaled
themselves with the flesh of those animals, when they chanced to be
disabled on the road. When we came to _Beirîs_ we were met by a
Cashef, who welcomed the Jelabs with an exhibition of fire works;
on this occasion he treats the chief merchants with coffee, and
presents to each a _benîsh_ of coarse cloth, worth about a guinea,
expecting, however, in return, a slave from each, worth at least
ten guineas. When I arrived at Assiût it was four months since
I had eaten of animal food. The hard living, heat, and fatigue,
occasioned a diarrhea which much weakened me; but before leaving
Assiût, where I passed about twenty days, it was considerably abated.
CHAP. XVII.
DAR-FÛR.
_Topography of Fûr, with some account of its various inhabitants._
The town called Cobbé, as being the principal residence of the
merchants, and placed almost in the direct road from the North to the
South extremity of the country, shall, for the sake of perspicuity,
though not centrally situated, be considered as the capital of
Dar-Fûr.
I found it to be in lat. 14° 11′ long. E. G. 28° 8′. This
town is more than two miles in length, but very narrow, and the
houses, each of which occupies within its inclosure a large portion
of ground, are divided by considerable waste. The principal, or
possibly the only view of convenience by which the natives appear to
have been governed in their choice of situation and mode of building,
must have been that of having the residence near the spot rented or
inherited by them for the purpose of cultivation. The town is full of
trees of several kinds, among which are the palm, _deleib_, &c. but
chiefly the _heglîg_ and the _nebbek_, which give it an agreeable
appearance at a small distance, for being situated in a plain, it is
not distinctly visible more than four or five miles in any direction.
During the rainy season, the ground on which it stands is surrounded
by a _wadi_ or torrent. Fronting it to the East, (for the town
extends from North to South,) is a mountain or rock, distinguished
by the same appellation. It is not memorable for its height, nor
indeed for any thing but as being the resort of hyenas and jackals;
yet it forms part of a ridge of hills, or rocks, for there is little
earth on them, which runs from North to South for many leagues.
The inhabitants are supplied with water from wells, of small depth,
which are dug within the inclosure of many of the houses; but the best
of them are those which are in or near the bed of the torrent. The
water is generally turbid, and though not apparently possessing any
injurious quality, has often an ungrateful flavour. The quantity
too is not always equal to the public consumption, which sometimes
throws the people into difficulties before the periodical return of
the rains. Their manner of digging is so unskilful, that the soil
often collapses; and the same well is seldom useful for more than
three or four months successively.
There are some villages, at small distances, in various directions
from Cobbé, which are dependent on it, and increase its apparent
population. To the N.E. by N. _Hellet Hassan_, inhabited altogether
by the people of _Dongola_. It has been[39] governed many years by
the _Chabîr Hassan wullad Nasr_, one of the oldest of them, who
had been formerly once, or more than once, _Chabir_ (leader) of the
jelabs on their journey to Kahira, and a man, as I have generally
understood, respectable for his talents and his virtues. North and
North-west, _Nûkti_ and _Hellet-hummâr_. South, _Hellet-el-Atamné_
and _Hellet Jemîn-Ullah_. South-west and West, _Hellet-el-Fukkara_
and _Bweri_. There are some other smaller ones, the names of which
I have either never learned or have forgotten.
On all sides Cobbé is surrounded by a plain. To the West and
South-west it extends to the foot of _Kerda_ and _Malha_, two
rough mountains or rocks, at about twenty-miles distance in that
direction. South it is bounded by _Gebel Cusa_, at near twelve
miles distance, near which are seen some villages. South-east it
extends to _Barbogé_, and is there bounded, on the North-east,
by _Gebel Wanna_, and on the East South-east by a wadi or torrent,
which bears its name, and the sands (_goze_) beyond it. But to
the East there is no extent of level ground; the whole road from
_Sweini_ North, to _Gidîd_ South, being bounded in that direction
by a mountain, first under the name of _Téga_, and then under that
of _Wanna_. Gebel Cobbé stands almost insulated, and is placed
West of the latter. In Cobbé there are very few houses, perhaps
none, inhabited by natives of Fûr. The people are all merchants
and foreigners. The other more noted towns of the empire are,
_Sweini_, _Kûrma_, _Cubcabîa_, _Rîl_, _Cours_, _Shoba_, _Gidîd_,
_Gellé_. Sweini is situated almost North of Cobbé, at the distance
of more than two days diligent travelling. Koûrma, a small town, West
by South, at the distance of four and a half or five hours—twelve
or thirteen miles. Cubcabîa, a more considerable one, it was not
in my power to visit, but it is described as nearly due West, at the
distance of two days and a half. The road is rocky and mountainous,
and of course may be supposed somewhat circuitous. Cours, a place of
little note, North-west by West, at five hours and a half travelling
from Cobbé. Rîl is something more than three days removed from it,
in the direction South-south-east; and as the road is good and lies
through a plain, this cannot be estimated at much less than sixty
miles. Shoba is two days and a half from Cobbé.
Gidîd is nearly South-east, and about one day and a half from
Cobbé. Gellé is not far from Cubcabîa, but some hours further
removed to the South. Sweini is the general resort of the merchants
trading to Egypt, both in going and returning, and thence derives
its chief importance. Provisions, of most kinds which the country
affords, are found there in plenty, and while the jelabs remain there,
a daily market is held. The Chatîb, and some other of the principal
merchants have houses there, for the convenience of lodging their
property, as the caravans pass and repass. A Melek, with a small
number of troops, is always stationed there to receive them. The town
therefore may be considered as in some measure the key of that road,
though not entirely so, as there are two others which lead from the
center of Dar-Fûr towards Egypt, without going to Sweini.
The poorer people who constantly live there, are either of the
province called Zeghawa, or Arabs.
In Kourma, the merchants who occupy almost the whole of the
place, are called the _Jeiâra_, most of them born in the Upper
Egypt. Exclusively of them and their dependents, the number of people
in that town is inconsiderable. Twice in the week a market is held
there for meat and other provisions, as at Cobbé.
Cubcabîa is a considerable town, and its inhabitants various and
numerous. It forms the key of the Western roads, as Sweini of the
Northern; and is the depôt of all the merchandize that is brought
from that quarter. A market is held there twice a week, in which
the chief medium of exchange for articles of small value is salt,
which the inhabitants make by collecting and boiling the earth of
those places where horses, asses, or other animals have been long
stationary. This market is celebrated for the quantity of _tokeas_,
and for the manufacture, if so it may be called, of leather, which
they are very dextrous in stripping of the hair, tanning, and then
forming into large and durable sacks for corn, (_geraubs_,) water,
(_ray_,) and other purposes. The tokeas are cotton cloths, of five,
six, or eight yards long, and eighteen to twenty-two inches wide:
they are strong but coarse, and form the covering of all the lower
class of both sexes. The inhabitants are partly Fûrians, who speak
their own language, in part Arabs, and partly from some of the
Western countries, as Bergoo, &c. There are also some of the race
called _Felatîa_, and other descriptions.