be few invalids, and the place being situated on the skirts of the
desert, the air is certainly wholesome. I was told of a fever called
wardé (ورده), from woid (rose), which seems to be epidemic,
and often proves mortal; the people of Dóngola are very subject
to it; it exists during the time of high water, but does not make
its appearance every year. The plague is unknown, and from what I
heard during my former journey in Nubia, I have reason to believe
that it never passes the cataract of Assouan. The small-pox is
very destructive whenever it gains ground. Last year it was added
to famine, and deaths were very numerous. It had been brought to
Berber by the people of Taka, who had received it from the Souakin
traders; it spread over all the country up the Nile. Grown people
were attacked as well as children; it was observed even, that
the latter suffered less and that more of them escaped. About
one-third of those who were attacked recovered, but they bore
the marks on their skin, especially on the arms and face, which
were covered with innumerable spots and scars; very few instances
happen where the disease is of a mild kind, or where it leaves
but few marks. Inoculation, Dak-el-Jedri (دق الجدري),
is known, but not much practised; little benefit being supposed
to arise from it. The incision is usually made in the leg. Of
the large family of Temsah (our landlord’s), fifty-two persons
died within a few months, and while I am writing this (at Cairo,
December 1815), I hear from some traders, that the same disease
has again broken out, and that almost the whole family, including
Edris, have perished. Their only cure for the small pox is to rub
the whole body with butter three or four times a day, and to keep
themselves closely shut up. The disease generally visits them every
eight or ten years. They are infinitely more afraid of it than the
Levantines are of the plague: and great numbers of the inhabitants
emigrate to the mountains, to fly from the infection. I have heard
it said in Egypt, that the small pox is rendered more dangerous in
the negroe countries than elsewhere, by the thickness of the negroe
skin, the fever being increased by the resistance of such a skin,
to the efforts of the poison to break through it. This may be true
with respect to the negroe slaves, but is not probable at Berber,
where the people’s skin is quite as soft as ours. I saw few
instances of ophthalmia. Venereal complaints are said to be common,
but if it be so, their consequences appear to be less fatal than in
Egypt, for I never saw any of those ulcered faces, or mangled noses,
which are so common in the northern valley of the Nile.
The Meyrefab are partly shepherds, and partly cultivators. After
the inundation, they sow all the ground which has been inundated,
with Dhourra, and a little barley. Just before they sow, they turn
up the ground with the spade. The plough is not in use among them;
last year an Egyptian employed one for the first time. They have very
few water wheels, not more than four or five in the districts of
Ankheyre and Hassa. They sow only once a year, and as the banks of
the Nile are very high, higher in general than in Upper Egypt, many
spots of arable soil remain without being inundated. The deficiency
is not often supplied, as in Upper Egypt, by artificial irrigation,
for the purpose of procuring several crops from the same land, so
that it may easily be conceived, that famine often visits them. Thus
it happened the year before my arrival, when one _moud_ of Dhourra
was sold for half a Spanish dollar. The country, however, appears,
at no very remote period, to have enjoyed a more flourishing state
of culture than it does at present; for I observed in the fields
vestiges of deep canals, which are at present entirely neglected,
although by their help, even part of the adjoining desert plain
might be rendered cultivable. Dhourra is the principal produce of
the ground, and the chief food both of man and beast. Wheat is not
sown at Berber, and very little is found in any of the adjoining
countries. The Dhourra is of the same species as that of Upper
Egypt, but the stalks are much higher and stronger, rising often
to the height of sixteen or twenty feet. No vegetables are grown
except onions, kidney beans (Loubieh), the esculent mallow, or
Bahmieh,[16] and the Melukhyeh (ملوخيه), all of which are
common in Egypt. No fruits whatever are cultivated, and if I am
rightly informed, the lotus nebek, which grows wild, is the only
one known.
The Berberys rear a large quantity of cattle, of the best kind,
which in winter and spring time, after the rains, is pastured
in the mountains of the Bisharein, where the keepers live like
Bedouins in huts and tents. During the latter part of the spring,
the cattle feed upon the wild herbs, which grow among the Dhourra
stubble as thickly as grass in a meadow. In summer time, when the
herbs are dried up, and there is scarcely any pasture upon the
mountains, they are fed at home with the dry stalks, and leaves of
the Dhourra. The principal riches of the shepherds consist in their
cows and camels. They have sheep and goats, but the greater part
having been consumed during the last famine, they are at present not
numerous. The cows are of a middling size, and not strongly built:
they have small horns, and upon the back, near the fore shoulder,
there is a hump of fat. This breed is unknown in Egypt; it begins
in Dóngola, and all along the Nile, as far as Sennaar, no others
are seen. The cows represented in the battle-pieces on the walls of
several ancient temples in Upper Egypt, have the same excrescence. I
saw the same species in the Hedjaz. Cows are kept for their milk,
but principally for their meat, and there are a few for the purpose
of turning the water-wheels.
The camels are of the best breed, much stronger, and more endured
to fatigue even than the celebrated breeds of Upper Egypt: their
dromedaries surpass all that I saw in the Syrian and Arabian
deserts. The camels have very short hair, and have no tufts on any
part of their body. The Hedjin or dromedary, is not of a different
species from the camel of burthen, but they are very careful of the
breed, and an Arab will undertake a journey of several days to have
his dromedary covered by a celebrated male. At present there is a
great demand for camels for the Egyptian market; they are bought
up by the Pasha to be sent to Arabia, for the transport of army
provisions, and every month three or four hundred are marched off
through the desert; yet a camel is worth here only from eight to
twelve dollars, though sold at Daraou for thirty or forty, and at
Cairo for fifty or sixty dollars.
The sheep of these southern countries have no wool, but are
covered with a thin short hair, resembling that of goats; hence
the inhabitants set little value upon them, and rear them for the
table only. Almost every family keeps two asses; they are of a
strong breed, and are employed chiefly to bring home the produce
of the fields, and transport the nitrous earth called Sabakha
(سَبَخه), which is procured in the mountain: the inhabitants
cover their fields with this earth, previously to sowing their seed,
but whether as manure, or as a corrective to the fatness of the soil,
I could not learn. Egyptian asses are much in demand, because they
run faster than the native; they are rode by the great people, and
are eagerly purchased on the arrival of every caravan. Horses are
numerous; every family of respectability keeping at least one, and
many two or three. The Arabs in the Nubian countries ride stallions
only. In their wars with their neighbours, the Meyrefab bring into
the field a considerable number of horsemen, who generally decide
the battle. The horses are of the Dóngola breed, which, as I have
already stated in my journey towards that country, is one of the
finest races in the world. They are fed upon Dhourra, and its dried
leaves serve instead of straw or hay: for several weeks in the spring
they are pastured in the green barley. A horse costs from fifteen
to forty dollars. They are not called Hoszan, as in Egypt, but Hafer
(حافِر). The saddles, which are of the same form as those used
in Dóngola, Sennaar, and Abyssinia, somewhat resemble those of the
European cavalry, having a high pommel in front, bending forward on
the horse’s neck. When entering on a campaign, the back, sides,
neck, and breast of the horses are covered with pieces of woollen
stuff, thickly quilted with cotton, which are said to be impenetrable
by the lance and sword; they are called Lebs (لِبْس), the name
given to a similar covering used by the Eastern Bedouins, but which
the Meyrefab work in a neater manner, and lighter, though stronger.
Almost all the people of Berber, who are cultivators, employ the
time not required by their fields, in commercial transactions; the
place has thus become a principal mart for the southern trade, and
the more so, as all the caravans from Sennaar and Shendy to Egypt
necessarily pass here. Berber itself carries on trade with Egypt,
and many small caravans load and depart from hence, without waiting
for supplies from the southern markets. Almost every article of
the Negro trade, including slaves, may be purchased at Berber,
from fifteen to twenty per cent. dearer than at Shendy. Berber
has a public market; but the late famine, and the great mortality
caused by the small pox, had occasioned a momentary suspension,
which had not been removed at the period of our arrival.
The common currency of the country at Berber, and all the way from
thence to Sennaar, is Dhourra, and Spanish Dollars; every thing
of minor value has its price fixed in Dhourra, which is measured
by Selgas (سلقا), or handfuls. Eighteen Selgas make one Moud,
or measure: one Selga is as much as can be heaped upon the flat
extended hand of a full-grown man. It may easily be conceived that
disputes frequently arise between buyers and sellers, from the
unequal size of their hands; in such case a third person is usually
called in to measure the Dhourra: ten Mouds are now given for one
dollar. If a considerable quantity of Dhourra is to be measured
out, the contents of a wooden bowl, or other vessel, is previously
ascertained in handfuls, and this vessel is then used. They have,
it is true, Mouds, or measures of wood, but nobody trusts to them,
the hand-measure being always preferred. Besides the Dhourra,
another substitute for currency is the Dammour (دمّور), a
coarse cotton cloth, which is fabricated in the neighbourhood of
Sennaar, and principally used by the people of this country for
their shirts: one piece of Dammour is exactly sufficient to make
one shirt for a full grown man; this is called Tob, or Thob Dammour
(توب دمّور, plural تياب). When I was at Berber, one
dollar was paid for two Tob. The Tob Dammour is divided into two
Ferde Dammour; the Ferde (فرده) makes a long napkin, used by the
slaves to wrap round their waists. The Ferde contains two Fittige,
(فِتقِه) which serve for nothing else than a currency; thus
I remember to have bought some tobacco with a Fittige. Dhourra is
generally the most acceptable medium, as sellers will not always take
the Dammour at the real market price, which, moreover, varies on the
arrival of every caravan from the south. Slaves, camels, horses,
or any other articles of large amount, are paid for in dollars,
or Tob Dammour; but the broker takes his commission in Dhourra,
which he readily converts into dollars. In commerce, two reals,
or dollars, are called Kesme (قِسمه); four are termed Mithkal
(مثقال); eight, or half an ounce, Nosfwokye (نصف وقيه),
and sixteen are called Puma, or Wokye. These denominations were
taken originally from the gold weights, one ounce of gold being
generally worth about sixteen dollars; but they have now become
fixed appellations, and sixteen dollars are called Wokye, even
though the ounce of gold should be worth eighteen or twenty dollars,
as was the case during my stay at Berber.
In Cordofan, besides Dhourra and Dokhen, the usual currency is small
pieces of iron, which are wrought into lances, knives, axes, &c.;
besides these pieces of iron, _cows_ are used as a representative
of money in large bargains, and are thus continually transferred
from one person to another.
I shall enter more into detail on the different articles of Negro
trade, when I come to speak of the Shendy market; both places deal in
the same commodities; there is much less trade, however, at Berber,
than at Shendy, from its having no direct intercourse with any
southern state, except Shendy, while the latter is visited by slave
caravans from all quarters, and is at present the first commercial
town, perhaps, of Africa, south of Egypt, and east of Darfour. All
the slaves, and every other article for sale in the Berber market,
come from Shendy; yet the Egyptian merchants often prefer this market
to the more southern ones, notwithstanding the increased charges;
because they can finish their business more quickly, and profit by
the first opportunity to return through the desert. During my stay
at Berber, a caravan set out for Daraou, consisting of about two
hundred and fifty camels, and twenty slaves; several of my companions
having disposed of their merchandize, returned with it. Still,
however, the Berber market contains but a small quantity of goods,
and is fit only for the Egyptian traders with small capitals.
In Upper Egypt the caravans from Berber are commonly called Sennaar
caravans; for the Egyptians having little knowledge of the southern
countries, all the caravans which arrive from thence are classed
under the two heads of Darfour and Sennaar, according as they enter
Egypt from the western or the eastern desert: the latter comprise
the caravans from Sennaar, Shendy, Berber, Mahass, and Seboua. Every
caravan arriving at Berber from the south remains there for some
time, in order to engage proper guides, and make other preparations
for the journey across the desert. Many of the Ababde are settled
here, and are always ready to undertake the journey; for twenty
dollars none will refuse to accompany a caravan, and they serve
both for guides and protectors. Many traders are well acquainted
with the route, but if unaccompanied by an Ababde, they would be
stripped by any Bedouin of the same tribe whom they might happen to
meet on the road. The caravans must pay at Berber a transit duty to
the Mek, the collection of which, from every individual, requires
several days. The Mek exacts from each person coming from Egypt,
without reference to the number of loads or camels he may have,
or whether he be a master or a servant, five Tob Dammour; his
officers must be paid one Tob, his slaves one Tob; and whenever
the chiefs of the Bisharein of the tribes of Are-ab and Ali-ab,
or their relations, meet a caravan here, they demand one Tob more;
this demand is made because the Bisharein are masters of the
desert from hence to the wells of Naby: to the north of Naby the
country is reckoned to be in the dominions of the Ababde, and may
thus be said to form part of Egypt, the Ababde being tributary to
the government of Egypt. The seven Tobs are collected by the Mek,
who distributes to his people their portion; the Bisharein collect
their Tob themselves; and if none of them happen to be present,
the caravan does not pay any thing on their account. The Mek takes
his payment either in dollars or in Dammour, or if the people of
the caravan have no ready cash upon their arrival, which frequently
happens, their last farthing being often invested in goods previously
to their quitting Egypt, he then takes merchandize, but at a value
fixed by himself. The Ababde are exempted from this transit duty,
because they are themselves, as is said, “Ahl Soltane,” or
independent people, in their own mountains; and it is held that one
chief cannot with honour take any thing as duty from another. But
the fact is, that the people of Berber are afraid of them, because,
when any quarrels happen between them and the Ababde, the latter
descend from their mountains and make plundering incursions towards
Berber, carrying off cattle and slaves in the night. The Bisharein
traders also pass duty free, but their numbers are very small;
only three or four merchants of their tribe frequent this route.
The Mek exacts no fixed toll from the caravans arriving from the
south, and here entering the desert, because these traders come
from the capital of his sovereign; but he receives some trifling
presents from each trader, proportionate to the number of his
camel-loads and slaves.
The above are not the only duties exacted by the Mek and his
party. They enquire after the particular merchandize brought by
every merchant from Egypt, and then ask for presents beyond what
is due to them: the Mek is assisted in this enquiry by the traders
themselves, who inform against each other, in order to ingratiate
themselves in his favour. The first week of our stay at Berber
was passed in continual endeavours on the part of the Mek to
obtain various presents, and corresponding efforts in the traders
to elude them. Having been always represented as a very poor man
in the caravan, the Mek took only three dollars from me at first;
but being afterwards informed that I had some dollars in my girdle,
he obliged me to give him a fourth. Were it not for his apprehensions
of the more powerful chief of Shendy, and of a total interruption of
the transport trade by way of Berber, he would certainly prove still
more vexatious to traders by his demands. I calculate his yearly
income from the caravans at about three or four thousand Spanish
dollars; he spends this sum in keeping a large establishment of
male and female slaves, of horses, and fine dromedaries; and in
feeding daily about fifty people belonging to his household, as
well as strangers. He must likewise make frequent presents to his
relatives, and his party, to strengthen his influence over them;
thus he has never been able to accumulate any considerable capital.
The most wealthy man of Berber, next to the Mek, was pointed out
to me, with the observation that he possessed about two thousand
dollars, which he gained last year, during the famine, by happening
to have a full-stocked granary. The generality of the people styled
respectable possess from three to six hundred dollars each, including
the value of their cattle, household furniture, &c.
Berber has few channels of commercial intercourse, except Daraou
and Shendy. I was told that caravans used formerly to go from hence
to Dóngola, not along the Nile, because they would then be stopped
at every village for toll, but across the mountains on the western
bank of the river. Since the Arabs Rebatat have been at war with all
their neighbours, that road has been continually infested by them,
and has therefore been discontinued. At present the intercourse
with Dóngola is carried on by way of Shendy only, from whence the
caravans depart in a straight direction across the mountains. Many
merchants from Dóngola are settled here; they trade principally in
dates and tobacco; and their wives and slaves have the reputation of
making the best Bouza. The Bisharein Bedouins, and the husbandmen
on the banks of the river Mogren (the Mareb of Bruce), repair to
Berber to buy Dammour; and they purchase from the Egyptian traders
beads, antimony, nutmegs, and the various ingredients used in the
preparation of the perfumed grease already mentioned. Caravans
also arrive occasionally from Taka, across the eastern mountains,
a journey of ten or twelve days, to buy the same articles, or to
exchange ox hides and camels for them. Small caravans, composed
principally of Bisharein, come also from Souakin, a journey of ten
days, with spices and India piece goods, chiefly cambrics. This
route is not frequented by foreign traders, from apprehension of
the treachery of the Bisharein; but if any pilgrims happen to be
at Berber, in their way to Mekka, when one of these caravans sets
out on its return, they often take the same route, in which water
is found in plenty. The usual route of the Negro pilgrims, however,
is either along the banks of the Nile, or by way of Taka, of which I
shall speak hereafter. I had myself some idea of trying the journey
to Taka, from whence I had reason to hope that I might reach the
northern frontiers of Abyssinia, in the direction of Massouah. As
there were many people at Berber who had come from Sennaar, and as
these, upon being questioned, by my companions, about my pretended
lost relation, all agreed that no white man was then in Sennaar,
I was obliged to resort to the supposition that he had quitted it,
and gone on towards Abyssinia; I was thus enabled to make enquiries
concerning the route across the desert to Taka, and towards Souakin,
without creating suspicion; and my companions pressed me much
to travel in the latter direction, and to wait at Berber till a
favourable opportunity should offer for setting out. They would,
no doubt, have been glad to see me undertake a journey of evident
peril, thinking that if I perished, they would be entirely rid of me,
for they could not divest themselves of some secret apprehensions
that, if I ever returned to Egypt, I should find means of being
revenged upon them for their behaviour towards me. Upon closer
enquiry, however, I found that this route is quite impracticable
for strangers; the people of Berber, even, are afraid to trust
themselves, except in large numbers, with the Bisharein, who will
kill their companions if they have a prospect of the smallest gain;
and persons recommended by the Mek himself are not more secure. The
traveller must always carry with him some little merchandize and
baggage, in order to barter on the road for provisions, and this
is more than sufficient to excite the cupidity of the Bisharein,
and render him the victim of their treachery. In the course of
my enquiries on this occasion, I was informed that, about five
or six years before, a man had reached Berber from Egypt, who was
supposed to be a Christian, because he made notes of his journey in
writing.[17] It was said that he made considerable presents to the
Mek, who strongly recommended him to a small party of Bisharein;
he set out for Souakin in their company, but was murdered by them
in the road, and on their return, a small present purchased their
peace with the Mek.
I heard afterwards that, about eight or ten years since, an avowed
Christian, who spoke very little Arabic, and passed Sennaar, in
his way from the north (I suppose from Egypt), was murdered by the
Arabs in the mountains between Sennaar and Abyssinia, but not in the
caravan route. When at Shendy, I enquired after such a traveller,
but nobody knew any thing of him. Had he come by the western caravan
route from Darfour and Kordofan, I think I must have heard of him,
because white people (and this person was said to be white) are
much more noticed in that quarter, than in the route from Egypt;
and he must have been seen by some of the Kordofan travellers,
with several of whom I became acquainted at Shendy. I did not hear
that he was seen writing a journal.