river, and is surrounded by barren mountains entirely incapable
of cultivation, on the tops of which are many ancient tombs of
Turkish saints. The houses are constructed of loose sand-stone,
as is the modern wall which surrounds the town. On the west side
are some remains of the ancient wall; this had been built of
hewn stones cemented together with great neatness: the stones
are rather small. It appeared to me to be an erection of the
Lower Empire. Within the area of the town are the remains of two
public buildings, probably Greek churches, built in the same style
as the ancient wall. The castle is about fifteen minutes walk in
circumference. A small gray granite column was the only remnant of
antiquity it contained.
The castle of Ibrim, with its territory, which commences half an
hour south of Derr, and extends as far as Tosko,[24] is in the
hands of the Aga of Ibrim, who is independent of the governors of
Nubia; the inhabitants being thus freed from taxes, and paying
nothing to their own Aga, had in the course of years acquired,
by the annual sale of their dates, great wealth both in money and
cattle; but the Mamelouks, in their retreat last year, destroyed in
a few weeks the fruits of a century. They took from the Wady Ibrim
about twelve hundred cows, all the sheep and goats, imprisoned the
most respectable people, for whose ransom they received upwards of
100,000 Spanish dollars; and on their departure, put the Aga to
death; their men having eaten up or destroyed all the provisions
they could meet with. This scene of pillage, was followed by a
dreadful famine, as I have already mentioned.[25]
The people of Ibrim are often at war with the governors of Nubia,
and although comparatively few in number, are a match for the
latter; being all well provided with fire arms. They are white,
compared with the Nubians, and still retain the features of their
ancestors, the Bosnian soldiers who were sent to garrison Ibrim
by the great Sultan Selym. They all dress in coarse linen gowns,
and most of them wear something like a turban: “We are Turks,”
they say, “and not Noubas.” As they are not under absolute
subjection to their Aga, and independant of every other power,
quarrels are very frequent among them. They have a hereditary Kady:
blood is revenged by blood; no commutation in money being accepted
for it when death ensues; but all wounds have their stated fines,
according to the parts of the body upon which they are inflicted. A
similar law prevails among the Syrian Bedouins. When a Turk of Ibrim
marries, he presents his wife with a wedding dress, and gives her
besides, a written bond for three or four hundred piastres, half of
which sum is paid to her in case of a divorce. Divorces, however,
are very rare. At a wedding a cow or a calf is killed; for to eat
mutton upon such an occasion would be a great scandal to the spouse.
In no part of the Eastern world, in which I have travelled, have
I ever found property in such perfect security as in Ibrim. The
inhabitants leave the Dhourra in heaps on the field, without a watch,
during the night; their cattle feed on the banks of the river without
any one to tend them; and the best parts of the household furniture
are left all night under the palm-trees around the dwelling; in
short, the people agreed in saying, that theft was quite unknown in
their territory. It ought, however, to be added, that the Nubians,
in general, are free from the vice of pilfering.
From Ibrim we crossed the mountain, and at one hour’s distance
from it descended to the river side, at Wady Shubak (شُباق),
whither most of the inhabitants of Ibrim retired, after the passage
of the Mamelouks. We slept here, at the house of the children of
the Aga whom the Mamelouks murdered. Wherever I alighted, a number
of peasants assembled, in the evening, at the house; I always gave
out that I had business of a public nature with the two chiefs,
who were stationed to the south of Sukkot, and being accompanied by
a man known to be attached to the Kashefs, no one dared to create
the least obstacle to my journey. Indeed, travellers in Nubia,
in general, have little to fear from the ill will of the peasants;
it is the rapacious spirit of the governors that is to be dreaded.
_March 4th._ The grove of date trees continues to the south of
Shubak. I found many of the houses abandoned; and at every step were
graves. The Nubians place an earthen vessel by the side of every
grave, which they fill with water at the moment the deceased is
interred, and leave it there: the grave itself is covered with small
pebbles of various colours, and two large palm leaves are stuck into
the ground at either extremity; the symbol of victory thus becoming,
in Nubia, that of death. Near Shubak are some mounds of hewn stones,
indicating the remains of an ancient edifice. One hour from Ibrim
brought us to Wady Bostan (وادي بُستان). The soil, fit
for culture, is here very narrow; the eastern mountain is distant
about one hour; between it and the plain is a rising spot of ground
covered with loose sand-stones. The shape of the insulated mountains
which compose this part of the chain, is remarkable; most of them
resembling cones flattened on the top, or perfect pyramids; and when
viewed from afar, they appear so regular, that they seem to be the
work of man. In two hours and a half we came to the village of Tosko
(تسقه), the southern limits of Wady Ibrim. In the rocky plain
east of Tosko stands an insulated, shattered rock, with several
sepulchres excavated in it; these are supported on the inside by
low square pillars: in one of them, a vaulted passage leads out
to a back entrance. They are of very rude workmanship; and have no
sculptures upon the walls, except the figure of the cross. Near the
rock are considerable mounds of rubbish. It is matter of surprise,
that these are the only sepulchres met with in the eastern hills,
from Assouan to this place: the sand-stone rock might have easily
been excavated, as has been done in numerous places in Egypt. Tosko
continues for about one hour. Three hours and a half, passed over the
mountain. Four and a half, Ermenne (ارمنّه), a fine village,
belonging to the territory of Nubia. Our road had been till now,
in the direction of S. W. From hence, southward, we travelled
W. S. W. Five hours and a half, again passed over the mountain,
which is close to the river. Six hours, Formundy (فرمندي), a
poor village, extending for several miles. The Nubians here grow a
little cotton, small plantations of which are every where met with
from Kenne, in Upper Egypt, as far as Dongola. The women weave the
cotton into coarse shirts, or sell it for Dhourra to the merchants of
Derr. Seven hours and a half, we passed the ruins of a Greek church,
which had been used in later times as a mosque. Its walls, for half
their height, are constructed of small stones, and the upper part of
bricks burnt in the sun; there are many names of visitors written
on the white plaister; the writing is of the latest time of the
Lower Empire. The river here has many windings; and this part of it
is reputed a favourite haunt of the crocodile. I saw myself half a
dozen of them lying close together on a sand-bank. All the Nubians,
as well as the people of Upper Egypt, eat the flesh of this animal
whenever they can catch it, which is, however, very seldom.[26]
Beyond the Greek church, the road again crosses the mountain, on the
other side of which, at eight hours and a half, is the Wady Fereyg
(فريك). The different villages comprised under the collective
term Wady, are generally separated from the Wadys on their northern
or southern side by a part of the mountain projecting close to the
river, which thus forms a natural division. Nine hours and a half,
long after sunset, we alighted, at the house of one of the wives of
Hassan Kashef, where I slept. Our day’s march, reckoning by the
length of the day, must have been at least ten hours and a half. My
watch had unfortunately stopped, from the dust having penetrated
into it. My day’s march in Nubia is therefore calculated only by
the sun’s height, and the length of the day; I may have in this
way erred as to partial distances from one village to another;
but the entire day’s route will generally be found correct.
_March 5th._ In half an hour we arrived at the Akabe[27] of Fereyg,
or the place where the mountain separates that Wady from its southern
neighbour. I sent my guide, with the camels, over the mountain; and
following a narrow foot-path along the almost perpendicular shore,
I arrived, at one hour’s distance from Fereyg, at an ancient
temple hewn out of the rocky side of the mountain; no other road
leads up to it but this dangerous foot-path, neither are there any
traces of an ancient road. I entered through a high narrow gateway
into a small Egyptian temple, cut entirely out of the rock, and in
as perfect a state of preservation, as when first [Illustration]
finished. It consists of a cella, ten paces in length and seven in
breadth, and about twelve feet high. Within it are four columns,
with Egyptian capitals. On either side of the cella is an apartment
which receives light only by the entrance from the cella. Low stone
benches run along the walls of the cella, a peculiarity which
I had not seen in any other Egyptian temple. There is an ascent
by three low steps from the cella into the adytum, in which is a
deep sepulchral excavation; there is also a similar but smaller
one in the cella itself. The walls both of the cella and adytum
are covered with mystic sculptures in the usual style, but there
are none in the two side chambers. The Greeks had converted this
temple into a church, and had plaistered the walls white, to receive
their paintings, many of which still remain; a St. George killing
the dragon is particularly conspicuous. Many Greek travellers have
inscribed their names on the walls. The whole fabric is of coarse
execution, and the hieroglyphics much in the same style as those
at Derr. On the opposite side of the river, a little to the north
of it, is the large temple of Ebsambal, and the colossal figures,
of which I shall speak hereafter.
One hour and three quarters from Fereyg, I rejoined my guide,
at the foot of an insulated hill, close to the water, on which
a castle has been built, resembling in size and form, that at
Ibrim; it bears the name of Kalat Adde (قلعت ادّه); it
has been abandoned many years, being entirely surrounded by barren
rocks. Part of its ancient wall, similar in construction to that
of Ibrim, still remains. The habitations are built partly of stone
and partly of bricks. On the most elevated spot in the small town,
eight or ten gray granite columns of small dimensions lie on the
ground, with a few capitals of red sand-stone near them, of clumsy
Greek architecture. The rock of this hill is a fine pudding-stone,
of flint, quartz, and red sand-stone; the only specimen of the kind I
have met with in Nubia. Opposite the castle, the river forms a large
island, called Beyllany (جزيرة بيلاني), from the name of
the village nearest to it, on the western side. The mountain round
Adde is composed of rugged hills of grotesque shape, which seem to
have been shattered by some violent commotion of nature. From hence,
upwards, the course of the river is W. S. W. Two hours and a half
from Fereyg, the eastern mountain branches out far to the eastward,
and closes with the river again beyond the second Cataract of Wady
Halfa. The wild shrub, Oshour (عشور), called by the Arabs of the
Dead Sea, Asheyr (عشير), grows here in great quantity. This plant
produces a fruit, within which is a bunch of silky fibres enveloping
a small bean. It has been described by Norden. It grows in every
part of Upper Egypt, south of Siout, in sandy spots near the river;
but is not so large there as it is in Nubia; the Egyptians call it
Fetme (فتمه). From Silsilis (south of Edfou) to the district
of Mahass, it is the most common weed met with on the road: its
leaves are poisonous to the camels. The Coloquintida (حَنضَل)
is likewise frequently met with, where the Oshour grows. Like the
Arabian Bedouins, the Nubians make tinder of it.[28] At the end
of three hours we passed, in the sandy plain, a number of tumuli,
or barrows, of various sizes, covered with sand: I counted about
twenty-five within the circuit of a mile and a half: the regularity
of their shape, which is exactly the same as that of the tumuli in
the Syrian deserts, and the plain of Troy, makes it almost certain,
that they are artificial. Three hours and a half, Kosko, a small
village. Four hours, the large village of Endhana, also called
Adhendhan (انضانا—اضنضان). In riding along, we were
invited to a funeral feast by the inhabitants of a house belonging
to some relation of the Nubian princes; the possessor had died a
few days before at Derr, and on receiving the news of his death,
his relations here had slaughtered a cow, with which they were
entertaining the whole neighbourhood; at two hours distance from
the village, I met women with plates upon their heads, who had been
receiving their share of the meat. Cows are killed only by people
of consequence, on the death of a near relation; the common people
content themselves with a sheep or a goat, the flesh of which is
equally distributed; the poorer class distribute some bread only
at the grave of the deceased. Four hours and three quarters; upon
the hill, at the south end of Wady Endhana, opposite the village
of Faras, on the west side of the river, stands an ancient ruined
mosque. Five hours and a half, passed the fine island of Faras. The
country is here open, but the plain, on both sides of the river, is
covered with sand. Seven hours, the village Serra gharby (سرّه
غربي) on the west side. Seven and a half, the ruins of a small
Arab town close to the water, enclosed by a thick brick wall. Eight
hours, Serra (سرّه), a fine village; eight and a half, Debeyra
(دبَيرهَ), where I slept. My guide always conducted me to the
house of the principal person in the village; we should otherwise
have often gone supperless to rest. Wherever we alighted, a mat was
spread for us upon the ground, just before the gate of the house,
which strangers are never permitted to enter, unless they are
intimate acquaintance. Dhourra bread, with milk, was our usual
supper; to this were sometimes added dates. The landlord never
eats with his guests, except when earnestly pressed to do so. Our
camels were not always fed by our hosts, who excused themselves, by
saying that the stock of Dhourra stalks was already exhausted. If
the stranger is to be well treated, a breakfast is brought in,
at sunrise, before he departs; it consists of hot milk and bread,
the supper being usually cold: but we were seldom so fortunate as to
get a breakfast, and generally rode the whole day without tasting
any thing but a few dates from our own stock, at some spot where
we stopped in the morning to bait our camels upon the tamarisk or
acacia trees.
_March 6th._ Our road lay over a fertile plain, covered with date
trees and habitations, to Eshke (اشقه). The Nile had been so
very low last year, that the plain had not been inundated. An old
man, a relation of the governors of Nubia, on seeing me pass by his
house, invited me to stop, and entertained me most hospitably. He
had been, in his youth, governor of Sukkot, where he had acted
with great tyranny; but he seemed to have repented of his former
deeds, and was now become the benefactor of Eshke. A handful of
burnt coffee, which I gave him, was a most acceptable present,
and he insisted upon my staying with him one day, promising that
he would cause a lamb to be killed for me; but this did not appear
to me a sufficient temptation to retard my journey.
The slave caravan from Mahass, which I mentioned above, passed along
the west bank of the river, while I was at Eshke; the usual route
of these caravans, which generally visit Egypt twice in the year,
lies across the desert, from Mahass to the Great Oasis, a journey of
twenty-three days; and from thence to Siout and Cairo. It was only
this year that the slave-traders, informed of the perfectly tranquil
state of Nubia and Upper Egypt, had ventured to proceed along the
banks of the Nile, a road they had not followed in the memory of man.
To the south of Eshke is a sandy plain; in three hours, we
reached Dabrous (دَبروس); the direction of the road S. W. by
S. Four hours, Sukoy (سَقوي). Five hours, Wady Halfa (وادي
حلفه), to the east of which, the eastern mountain terminates in
slight undulations of the ground; but these increase in size, and
collect again into mountains, about thirty miles farther up. There
is some trade carried on at Wady Halfa; vessels from Assouan often
moor here to load dates, and the nitre which the Arabs collect at
three days journeys from hence in the western desert.[29] In summer,
the navigation from Derr to Wady Halfa becomes, in many places,
very difficult, except for small boats, on account of the sand
banks. One of the relations of the governors of Nubia resides here,
and collects the revenue.
At the end of six hours, we came to the southern extremity of Wady
Halfa. The river forms here several islands, upon one of which are
the remains of an ancient town, built of bricks, with a high brick
wall. Seven hours, the plain over which we rode became uneven,
and studded with insulated clusters of rocks, whose summits just
appear above the surface of the sand. To the west is the second
Cataract. Eight hours, halted for the night, in this desert,
near one of the islands, which are formed by the river. The noise
of the Cataract was heard in the night, at about half an hour’s
distance. The place is very romantic; when the inundation subsides,
many small lakes are left among the rocks; and the banks of these,
overgrown with large tamarisks, have a picturesque appearance amidst
the black and green rocks; the lakes and pools thus formed cover a
space of upwards of two miles in breadth. I here shot a wild-goose,
which afforded a supper to our party, now increased by the company
of a poor young girl from Dabrous, who ran after us, when she saw
us pass by, and begged we would take her under our protection as far
as Wady Mershed, beyond the Cataract. From Wady Halfa to Sukkot is a
stony wilderness, with many cataracts in the river, similar to that
at Assouan; and the navigation is interrupted for about one hundred
miles. This rocky tract is called Dar el Hadjar, or Batn el Hadjar,
i. e. the rocky district, or the “womb of rocks.”
_March 7th._ After a march of one hour, the straggling hillocks and
mounds rose into a low chain of hills, the road amongst them being
a perfect sandy plain. In one hour and a half we came to Wady Amka
(وادي عَمقه). In the Batn el Hadjar, there occur a few
spots that admit of cultivation; but they consist of very narrow
strips of plain by the side of the river, where the banks are
generally so high, that the waters do not reach them during the
inundation, and where the soil must consequently be irrigated,
by means of water-wheels. These narrow plains, called Wady, as in
other parts of the country, were formerly well cultivated. Their
principal inhabitants pretend to be Sherifs from Mekka, and to have
come here at the time of the invasion of the other Arab tribes.
They have a chief named Abdallah Ibn Emhyd
(عبدالّه ابن امهيد), who resides in Wady Attar,[30]
and is honoured with the title of Melek, or king, which is bestowed
on chiefs of all ranks from hence southward. These Sherifs, called
Omsherif (اُم شريف), pay a small tribute to their Melek, and
the Melek is tributary to the governors of Nubia, who besides carry
off as much of the property of these Arabs as falls in their way,
whenever they pass along the Batn el Hadjar. The greater part of
the Sherifs, however, have now quitted their abode, owing to the
continued incursions of the Arabs Sheygya (شَيِكيعَ), who
live on the banks of the river, south of Dongola, eight days journeys
distant from Sukkot, across the desert; and whose depredations
have so much ruined the Sherifs, that the greater part of them
have retired to Sukkot, and many of them to Dongola. At present,
the male inhabitants in the whole district of Batn el Hadjar hardly
amount to two hundred, half of whom are Sherifs, and the other of
the Bedouin tribe of Kerrarish. Some Arabs remain at Amka; and a
small village is built upon a rocky island, where are the ruins of
a large brick tower; from hence the Arabs cross the branch of the
river every morning, (upon the trunk of a palm-tree, using their
hands as paddles) for the purpose of cultivating their fields
upon the shore, and return in the evening in the same manner. As
we advance the river continues to be full of rocks and islands,
and the country has a very wild aspect. There is no place that so
much resembles the Batn el Hadjar and its Wadys, as the road along
the Nile from Assouan to the first Cataract; the same rocky shore,
with here and there the same narrow strip of soil, continues all
along “the womb of rocks,” from Wady Halfa to Sukkot.
At two hours and a half, is Wady Mershed (مرشد). The Wadys
are separated from each other by rocky tracts, which reach close
to the river. At Wady Mershed there are again numerous islands in
the river; upon two of them are some brick ruins, an ancient tower,
and a few huts of Arabs. Our route from Wady Halfa to Mershed had
been W. S. W. Above Mershed, the river is free from islands, and
few rocks are seen in it; but its bed is very narrow, and the banks
are high: I could throw a stone over to the opposite side. Four
hours and a half brought us to Sette Hadje, a cultivable patch of
ground, enclosed by rocks, with some ancient brick dwellings; it
is inhabited only by an old Arab, who lives in the hut constructed
over the tomb of the female saint called Sette Hadje, and who owes
his livelihood to the charity of passengers: I found him extended
upon his mat, with a pot of water, and an earthen vessel near him,
into which I put a few handfuls of dates. From hence southwards,
the river has many windings. The hills on the east side increase
in height until eight hours and a half, at Wady Seras (سِراص),
when they again form a regular chain of mountains, over which lies
the road from Wady Sette Hadje. My old Arab guide, afraid of robbers
from among the Sheygya Arabs, who are continually hovering about in
these parts, to waylay travellers, hurried me along as fast as he
could. We met very few persons on the road, excepting small parties
of five or six Soudan pilgrims, or Tekayrne (sing. Tekroury); these
courageous travellers come from all parts of Soudan to Darfour,
from whence they proceed either by Kardofan to Sennaar, or direct
to Dongola. From the Nile some of them take the route of Suakin,
crossing the Red Sea, from thence to Djidda; others follow the Nile
through Dongola and Mahass, and perform their pilgrimage with the
Egyptian Hadjis, after having remained some time in the mosque El
Azhar at Cairo, occupied in reading the Coran and a few books of
prayers. I found, upon subsequent enquiry, that the greater part of
these pilgrims were natives of Darfour, and Bergho. Among more than
forty whom I spoke to at Esne, I could not find one whose country
was as far west as Kashna; but I met with several who came from
Wangara. The name Tekroury is given to them, I suppose, from their
being natives of the district of Tekrour in Soudan. Such of them
as can read and write are called Fókara (plur. of Fakyr), a term
applied in Upper Egypt to all learned persons, by which is meant,
such as can read the Coran, and who know how to write talismans,
for preservatives against charms, and spells of the devil.