alighted at the house of Hassan Kashef, as do all travellers of
respectability, and where the two Mamelouk Begs above mentioned
were also quartered. As the governor had retired to his women’s
apartments, I did not wait upon him, but went to rest, having
refused to answer all the inquisitive questions put to me as well
by his people, as by the servants of the Begs; but the next morning,
Hassan, after having visited the Mamelouks, surprised me in the open
hall where I was lodged, before I had risen, and immediately asked
me what was the object of my arrival, and whether I was a merchant,
or sent to him by the Pasha of Egypt. It had been my intention,
before I knew of the arrival of the Mamelouks, to pass for a person
sent by the Pasha upon a secret mission into Nubia, having learnt
from the people of Upper Egypt, that the governors of that country
dread the power of Mohammed Aly, and would not dare to molest me:
but when I was apprised of the arrival of the two Begs, and being
also led to believe, from the conversation of the peasants at whose
houses I had slept in my way up to Derr, that the Nubian princes
were as much afraid of the Mamelouks, their southern neighbours,
as they are of their northern one, I thought it would be dangerous
to disguise my real intentions; and, encouraged by the success
of Messrs. Legh and Smelt, I candidly told Hassan Kashef, that
I had merely come to make a tour of pleasure through Nubia, like
the two gentlemen who had been at Derr before me; and presented
to him, at the same time, my letters of recommendation. I however
profited little by my candour. The frank avowal of my intentions
was interpreted as a mere scheme of deception; no one would believe
that I was only a curious traveller; the Arabic I spoke, and my
acquaintance with Turkish manners, led the Kashef to believe that
I was a Turk, and sent by Hassan Beg of Esne to watch his motions;
and the two Begs, although they had behaved remarkably civil to me,
upon my visiting them, strengthened the Kashef in his opinion. I
spent the whole of this day, and part of the next, in negociations
with the governor, in order to obtain a guide to conduct me to
the southward. An offering of soap,[15] coffee, and two red caps,
worth, altogether, about sixty piastres, which I made to him,
would, at any other time, have been very acceptable; but the
presents made to him by Messrs. Legh and Smelt were worth about
1000 piastres, and they had only gone to Ibrim, “while you,”
said the Governor, “give me a few trifles, and wish to go beyond
that place, even to the second Cataract.”—I replied, that my
present was certainly not proportionate to his rank and claims;
but that it was already more than my means could afford; and that
I thought myself possessed of an advantage over my predecessors
in my letters of recommendation from Esne. The following lucky
incident at last led to the attainment of my wishes: I had been
informed that a large caravan was on its way from Mahass to Esne,
and that a considerable part of the merchandize belonged to the
Kashef himself, who wished to sell it at Siout and Cairo. I therefore
waited privately upon him, and told him, that if I returned to Esne,
and the Beg who had given me the letter of recommendation, should be
informed of the little attention that had been paid to his letter, in
not allowing me to pass beyond the second Cataract, notwithstanding
its express tenour that I should be so permitted, he would readily
think himself justified in raising a contribution upon the caravan
on its arrival at Esne, or impeding its route towards Siout. This
became a matter of serious reflection with the Kashef; and he at
last addressed me in the following terms: “Whoever you may be,
whether an Englishman, like the two other persons who passed here,
or an agent of the Pasha, I shall not send you back unsatisfied:
you may proceed; but, farther than Sukkot the road is not safe for
you; and from thence, therefore, you will return.” I requested a
letter of recommendation for Sukkot, which was immediately written,
and a Bedouin guide also was soon found. I bought some Dhourra and
dates, for provision on the road, and left Derr a little before
noon on the 2d of March, the two Mamelouk Begs in vain endeavouring
to create obstacles to the prosecution of my journey. But before I
continue the description of my route, I shall here give some details
concerning the country I had already passed through from Assouan,
and its inhabitants.
The general direction of the river from Assouan to Korosko is south;
it there takes a western course, which it retains the whole of the
way to Dongola. The eastern bank is, throughout, better adapted
for cultivation than the western; and wherever the former is of
any breadth, it is covered with the rich alluvial earth deposited
by the Nile. On the western side, on the contrary, the sands of
the desert are impetuously carried to the very brink of the river,
by the north-west winds which prevail during the winter and spring
seasons; and it is, generally, only in those places where the
course of the sandy torrent is arrested by the mountain, that
the narrow plain admits of cultivation. The eastern shore is,
in consequence, much more populous than the western; but it is
not a little singular, that all the chief remains of antiquity are
upon the latter. The ancient Egyptians, perhaps, worshipped their
bounteous deities more particularly in those places where they had
most to dread from the inimical deity Typhon, or the personified
desert, who stands continually opposed to the beneficent Osiris,
or the waters of the Nile.
The bed of the river is, in general, much narrower than in any
part of Egypt, and the course of its waters less impeded by
sand-banks. Immediately after the inundation, the poor Nubians
cultivate, on the narrow shore, Dhourra, and the grain called
Dokhen (دخن), of which bread is made;[16] but it is upon the
crop of Dhourra that they depend for their subsistence; while
its dry stalks serve during the whole of the summer, as food for
their cattle, instead of straw. The Birsim, or lucerne of Egypt,
is unknown here, as well as in Upper Egypt, south of Kenne. After
the inundation has subsided, and the Dhourra harvest is finished,
the soil is irrigated by means of water wheels (Sakie ساقيه),
turned by cows, which throw up the water either from the river,
or from pits dug in the shore; for water is every where found in
plenty, on digging to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, after
the inundation; it is the same in Upper Egypt during the summer;
but the water of these pits or wells has a disagreeable, brackish
taste; and even the best of it is very heavy, and difficult to
digest.[17] In order that the soil may be well soaked, the fields
are divided into numerous small squares, of about ten feet each,
with elevated borders, so as to retain the water, which is conveyed
to them by narrow side channels. The fields are then sown for the
second time with barley, a kind of bean called Kasherangag, tobacco
of the worst kind, and the French bean (Louby), the leaves of which
afford, when boiled, a soup much esteemed among the Nubians. I
seldom saw any wheat. Near Derr are some fields of lentils, peas,
and water melons. On the declivity of the shore, towards the river,
which is more humid, and less exposed to the sun than the upper
plain, a kind of bitter horse-bean (Turmus ترمس) is sown,
which does not require irrigation; they are well known in Egypt,
and are the _Lupini_ of the Italians. The wheat and barley are ripe
in the middle of March. In the end of April, after the latter is
reaped, the ground is sometimes sown, a third time, with Dhourra;
and watered by means of the water-wheels. This is called “the
summer seed” (زرع صيفي), and comes to maturity in the
month of July; but the most fertile spots only are used for it.
Besides the palm and Doum[18] tree, a variety of thorny trees of
the Mimosa species (Sant صَنت) grow wild on the banks of the
river. The low shrub of the Senna (Senna mekke (سنا مكّه),
is every where met with from Esne to Mahass, growing wild, but upon
those spots only which have been inundated. This Senna, however, is
little esteemed for its quality, and is used only by the peasants,
who are well acquainted with its medicinal virtues. The Senna
of Upper Egypt is distinguished from that of Nubia, and of the
mountains, by the larger size of its leaves. Among the mounds of
sand on the western shore grows the tamarisk (Tarfa, طرفا),
the same tree which lines the borders of the Euphrates, in the
Mesopotamian deserts.
Of animals I saw but few, in riding along the banks of the
river. The cattle of the Nubians consist in cows, sheep, and goats;
and sometimes a few buffaloes are met with. The wealthier have
asses. Few camels are seen, except among the merchants of Seboua,
and in Wady el Arab. In the eastern mountain, the mountain goat,
or Bouquetin of the Alps, (called in Upper Egypt Taital تَيتل),
is found, one of which I saw at Siout: it is called Beden in Arabia
Petræa. The Arabs Bisharye speak of a wild sheep, with straight
horns, which inhabits their mountains. Gazelles of the common gray
species are every where in great numbers; and hares are not uncommon;
some of the Arabs Kerrarish hunt them both with greyhounds kept
for that purpose.
The birds of Nubia are, a small species of partridge, with red
legs, which sometimes afforded me a welcome supper; wild geese of
the largest kind, a few storks, the eagle Rakham, crows in vast
numbers, the bird Katta,[19] but in small flights, and clouds
of sparrows, which are the terror of the Nubians, as they devour
at least one-third of the harvest. A species of lapwing is also
extremely common. It is the head of this bird which is represented
in the hieroglyphic figures upon the augural staff; at least so
it appeared to me whenever I saw the bird displaying its crest. A
white water-bird of the size of a large goose, called Kork, by
the natives, inhabits the sandy islands in the Nile, in flocks of
several hundreds together, but I could never get near enough to
examine any of them. The bird Zakzak (زقزاق), frequently seen
in Upper Egypt, which is said to creep into the crocodile’s mouth,
and to feed upon the digested food which that animal throws up from
its stomach, does not visit Nubia; neither did I see any bird of
the shape of the Ibis.
On the sandy shore, on the west side of the Nile, are numberless
beetles (Scarabæi), of great variety in size and shape; I often
found the sandy road on that side completely covered with the traces
of their feet. The Nubians, who call them Kafers, or Infidels,
dread them from a belief that they are venomous, and that they
poison whatever kind of food they touch. Their colour is generally
black, and the largest I have seen were of the size of a half-crown
piece. The worship paid to this animal by the ancient Egyptians may
probably have had its origin in Nubia; it might well be adopted
as a symbol of passive resignation to the decrees of providence;
for it is impossible, from the sandy mounds which they inhabit,
that these beetles can ever taste water, and the food they partake
of must be very scanty; they are however always seen busily and
unweariedly toiling their way over the sands.
The Nubians have no fishing apparatus whatever, except at the first
Cataract, at Derr, and at the second Cataract, where some fish are
occasionally caught in nets. The two species of fish which seem to
be most common, are called by the natives Dabesk and Meslog.
The country which I had crossed, from Assouan to Derr, is divided
by its inhabitants into two parts: the Wady el Kenous, which
extends from Assouan to Seboua, and the Wady Nouba, comprising
the whole country south of Seboua, as far as the northern limits
of Dongola. Of the Wady Nouba, and its inhabitants, I shall speak
hereafter.[20] The Wady el Kenous is inhabited by the Arabs Kenous
(sing. Kensy, قنسي), who derive their origin, according to their
own tradition, from the deserts of Nedjed, and who settled here at
the period when the great Bedouin tribes from the East spread over
Egypt.[21] Among these were also Bedouins of the neighbourhood of
Bagdad, whose descendants are still known by the name of Bagdadli,
and inhabit the Wady Dehmyt, and Wady el Embarakat, on the western
side of the river. The Kenous are subdivided into many smaller
tribes, which have given their names to the districts they inhabit;
thus, Wady Nasrellab, Abou Hor, &c. &c., are inhabited by Kenous of
the tribe of Nasrellab, and Abou Hor. Great jealousies often exist
amongst these different tribes, which sometimes break out in wars.
It should seem that the new settlers had soon familiarized themselves
with the conquered natives, whose language they adopted, and still
retain. This language has no Arabic sounds whatever, and is spoken
all the way south of Assouan, as far as Seboua, and in every village
to the north of the former place, as far as Edfou; numbers of Kenous
having settled in Upper Egypt in later times. I have subjoined a
vocabulary of the Kenous and another of the Nouba. It is a fact
worthy of notice, that two foreign tongues should have subsisted
so long, to the almost entire exclusion of the Arabic, in a country
bordered on one side by Dongola and on the other by Egypt, in both
of which Arabic is exclusively spoken. Those only of the Kenous who
have been in Egypt speak Arabic; their women are, for the greater
part, entirely ignorant of it. Nor is it less remarkable that the
Aleykat Arabs of Seboua, and Wady el Arab, have retained their pure
Arabic, placed as they are on the boundaries both of the Kenous and
Nouba. The men are acquainted with both languages; but the Aleykat
women understand Arabic only.
The way of living, and the manners, of the Nouba and Kenous
being much the same, I shall speak of them, after I have given a
description of my route.
The neighbourhood of Derr is interesting on account of a temple
situated on the declivity of a rocky hill, just behind the
village. Its structure denotes remote antiquity. The gods of Egypt
appear to have been worshipped here long before they were lodged
in the gigantic temples of Karnac and Gorne, which are, to all
appearance, the most ancient temples in Egypt. The temple of Derr
is entirely hewn out of the sand-stone rock, with its pronaos,
sekos or cella, and adyton. The pronaos consists of three rows of
[Illustration] square pillars, four in each row. The row of pillars
nearest the cella, which were originally joined by the roof to the
main temple, are of larger dimensions than the rest; they are nearly
four feet square, and about fourteen feet high, and are still entire,
while fragments of the shafts only remain of the two outer rows. In
front of each of the four pillars are the legs of a colossal figure,
similar to those of the temple of Gorne, at Thebes. A portion of
the excavated rock which had formed one of the walls of the pronaos,
has fallen down; on the fragments of it, a battle is represented: the
hero, in his chariot, is pursuing his vanquished foe, who retires to
a marshy and woody country, carrying the wounded along with him. In
a lower compartment of the same wall, the prisoners, with their
arms tied behind their backs, are brought before the executioner,
who is represented in the act of slaying one of them. All these
figures are much defaced. On the opposite wall is another battle,
but in a still more mutilated state: in this, prisoners are brought
before the hawk-headed Osiris. On the front wall of the cella,
on each side of the principal entrance, Briareus is represented in
the act of being slain, and Osiris, with uplifted arm, arresting
the intended blow. This is the same group which is so often seen
in the Egyptian temples; but, Briareus has here only two heads,
and four arms, instead of the numerous heads and arms represented in
Egypt. On the four pillars in front of the cella, variously dressed
figures are sculptured, two generally together, taking each other
by the hand. The Egyptian Mendes, or Priapus, is also repeatedly
seen. The cella of the temple consists of an apartment thirteen paces
square, which receives its light only through the principal gate,
and a smaller one, on the side of it. Two rows of square pillars,
three in each row, extend from the gate of the cella to the adytum:
these pillars show the infancy of architecture, being mere square
blocks, hewn out of the rock, without either base or capital; they
are somewhat larger at the bottom than at the top. The inside walls
of the cella, and its six pillars, are covered with mystic figures,
in the usual style; they are of much ruder workmanship than any
I have seen in Egypt. Some remains of colour prove that all these
figures were originally painted. On one of the side walls of the
cella, are five figures, in long robes, with shaven heads, carrying
a boat upon their shoulders, the middle of which is also supported
by a man with a lion’s skin upon his shoulder. In the posterior
wall of the cella, is a door, with the winged globe over it, which
leads into the small adytum, where the seats of four figures remain,
cut out of the back wall.[22] On both sides of the adytum are small
chambers, with private entrances into the cella; in one of which
a deep excavation makes it probable that it was used as a sepulchre.
On the side of the mountain, near the temple, are some sepulchral
pits excavated out of the rocky ground: over two of them are the
following inscriptions, which I copied:
[Illustration]
Derr being the principal place in Nubia, and the usual residence
of the chiefs, whenever they are not travelling about, is resorted
to by strangers, and carries on some commerce. The dates of Derr
and Ibrim are much esteemed in Egypt, and the merchants of Esne
and Assouan export many ship-loads from hence in autumn, when the
height of the waters insures a quick passage down the river. Young
date trees are also carried hence to Egypt, as the trees propagated
there from seed soon degenerate. The dates are paid for in Dhourra,
and in coarse linen and Melayes, of Esne and Siout manufacture; but
if the harvest of Dhourra has been abundant in Nubia, the payment
is then made in Spanish dollars. The state of commercial intercourse
in this country is, however, very bad; dates, for example, bought at
Derr, even when paid for in cash, leave, when sold at Cairo, a clear
profit, after paying all expenses, of at least 400 per cent. Dhourra,
on the contrary, carried from Assouan to Derr, yields there 100 per
cent. profit. The hundred weight of dates at Derr is worth about
eight shillings. The common currency is the Moud, or small measure
of Dhourra, by which every article of low value is estimated. The
dollar is rather an article of exchange than a currency. Piastres and
paras have only been known here since the invasion of the Mamelouks.
The village of Derr stands in a grove of date trees, and consists of
about two hundred houses. Hassan Kashef and his two brothers have
each a good house. The greater part of the inhabitants are Turks,
the descendants of the Bosnian soldiers who were sent by Sultan
Selym to take possession of the country.[23]
_March 2d._ I departed from Derr with an old Arab, named Mohammed
Abou Saad (محمّد ابو سَعد), one of the Bedouins
called Kerrarish (قراريش). These Bedouins, a remote branch
of the Ababde, pasture their cattle on the uninhabited banks of the
river, and on its islands, from Derr southward, as far as Mahass and
Dongola, where they are said to be more numerous than in Nubia. They
are poor; their tents are formed of mats made of the leaves of
palm-trees, with a partition in the middle to separate the women’s
apartment; but, notwithstanding their poverty, they refuse to give
their daughters in marriage to the Nubians, and have thus preserved
their race pure. They pride themselves, and justly, in the beauty of
their girls. The Kerrarish are, for the most part, in the service
of the governors of Nubia, to whom they are attached as a corps of
guards, and guides, and accompany them in their journies through
their dominions. Whilst the father and grown up sons are absent,
the mother and daughters remain in their solitary tent; for they
generally live in separate families, and not in encampments. These
Bedouins receive occasional presents from the chiefs of Nubia,
and such of them as cultivate the islands in the river are exempted
from taxes. They are a very honest and hospitable people, and more
kind in their dispositions, than any of the inhabitants of Nubia
whom I met with. Those who are not in the employ of the governors,
gain their livelihood either by acting as guides, or in collecting
the senna in the eastern mountain, which they sell to the merchants
of Esne at about £1. per camel’s load (from four to five hundred
weight). Numbers of them also travel from Wady Halfa, on the Nile,
three days journies into the western desert, and collect there
the Shabb, (شبّ) or nitre, which they exchange with the same
merchants for Dhourra; giving two measures of the former for three
equal measures of the latter. The nitre is found on digging only a
few inches deep, and covers a space of several miles in extent. This
is, however, a perilous traffic, as the inhabitants of Kubbanýe,
a village about twelve miles north of Assouan, also engage in it;
these are eleven days in reaching the nitre pits, and whenever the
two parties meet, a bloody conflict ensues. Between Wady Halfa and
the Shabb, one day’s distance from the latter, is a spring where
is some verdure, and where a few Doum trees grow North of the Shabb,
one day, in the direction of the great Oasis, is a similar spring,
called Nary (ناري), with many date trees growing round it.
After having rode along by the date groves, and well built peasants
houses, for about half an hour from Derr, we ascended the eastern
mountain, the road along the river side being interrupted by the
rocks. On the top of the mountain is a wide plain, covered with
small fragments of loose sand-stone; and bordered on the east,
at about two hours distance, by a higher range of mountains. We
continued along this plain in the direction of W. S. W., until two
hours and a half from Derr, when we descended again to the banks of
the river, near the village Kette (قتّه), where we crossed the
dry bed of a branch of the stream, and alighted on an island, at
the tent of my guide, where I remained for the night. These people,
who all speak Arabic as well as the Nouba language, are quite black,
but have nothing of the Negro features. The men generally go naked,
except a rag twisted round their middle; the women have a coarse
shirt thrown about them. Both sexes suffer the hair of the head to
grow; they cut it above the neck, and twist it all over in thin
ringlets, in a way similar to that of the Arab of Souakin, whose
portrait is given by Mr. Salt in Lord Valentia’s Travels. Their
hair is very thick, but not woolly; the men never comb it, but
the women sometimes do; the latter wear on the back part of the
head, ringlets, or a small ornament, made of mother of pearl and
Venetian glass beads. Both men and women grease their head and neck
with butter whenever they can afford it; this custom answers two
purposes; it refreshes the skin heated by the sun, and keeps off
vermin. The young boys go quite naked; but the grown up girls tie
round their waist a string of leather tassels, much resembling the
feather ornaments worn for a like purpose by the south sea islanders.
_March 3d._ I sent my guide back to Derr, to purchase more Dhourra,
in order that we might give some of it to the camels, in those
places where no wild herbs grow; and on his return we set out. Our
road lay along a grove of date trees, and an uninterrupted row of
houses, for two hours, when the perpendicular rock reached close
to the river. At the height of about sixty or eighty feet above the
footpath, I observed from below, the entrance to an apartment hewn
in the rock, but without any road leading to it, the rock being
there quite perpendicular. In like manner I have seen sepulchres
cut in the rock of Wady Mousa in Arabia Petræa, which can only be
approached by means of ladders, forty or fifty feet in height. In
two hours and a half we reached the castle of Ibrim (ابريم),
which is now completely in ruins, the Mamelouks having sustained
a siege in it last year, and in their turn besieged the troops of
Ibrahim Beg, in the course of which operations, the walls were
battered with the few cannon that were found in the castle, and
many of the houses of the village levelled with the ground.