two principal quarters of the town. Three rows of small shops
built of mud, one behind the other, in the shape of niches, about
six feet in length by four feet in depth, and covered by mats,
are occupied by the more opulent tradesmen, who carry their goods
to their respective shops every morning, and back to their houses
in the evening, as these shops have no door by which they can be
secured. The other merchants sit upon the ground, under a kind of
shed or awning of mats supported by three long poles, which can
be turned in all directions, to keep off the sun, so as to afford
sufficient shade to the seller and his customers at all times of the
day. Similar awnings are in common use in the Hedjaz. The articles
usually offered for sale in the daily market are the following:
_Butchers Meat._ Cows and camels are slaughtered daily for this
supply, but sheep very seldom. I did not hear that they were in the
habit of emasculating the animals destined for the shambles. The
tallow is sold by particular merchants, who wash and cleanse it,
in order to make it fit for anointing the hair and skin. Close by
the butchers shops are sold pieces of roasted fat, upon which and a
little Bouza, the Bedouins of the desert usually dine when they come
to the town. The flesh is not weighed, but sold in lots of about two
or three pounds weight. Weights, in general, are only met with in
the merchants own houses; in the market they use for this purpose
stones, by means of which the sellers have often an opportunity of
cheating. The pound or rotolo is equal to that of Cairo.
_Milk._ In the morning both fresh and sour milk is brought in by
Bedouin girls, and exchanged for Dhourra; they carry with them
small wooden bowls, one of which the buyer fills with the grain,
and receives in return three measures of milk; these girls also
sell boiled chick-pease and boiled Tormous, both of which are a
favourite breakfast, and called Belileh (بِليله). Bread is
never sold in the market; but there are many women living in poor
huts in different parts of the town, who, for a trifling recompense,
immediately grind the Dhourra, and make it into bread. It is an
established custom not to eat in the market-place, nor any where in
public; it is even considered very indecorous for a person to be seen
chewing any food beyond the threshold of his own house: the reason
of this is a superstitious notion that a hungry man may observe the
eater and may envy the morsels he puts into his mouth; for there
is no blessing, they say, or nutriment in food upon which another
has cast an envious eye (الطعام المحسود مافيه
بَرَكة). It is for the same reason that in the Levant, the
meanest peasant never eats his dinner of bread and onions without
exclaiming (بِسمللّه) Besmillé, and inviting every one
who passes by to partake with him; and he considers it a great
favour if a small portion of his loaf is accepted, and as great an
insult if his offer is silently refused; he expects, according to
the custom of the country, that the person invited should answer
him at least with the word Hannyan (هَنّياً _prosit_), if
he does not choose to eat with him. In Turkey, this custom is not
observed; and people may often be seen eating in the market places,
and before their own houses. I often bought milk early in the morning
in the market at Shendy, and then retired into a neighbouring hut,
to drink it; but I was obliged to give the woman of the hut a
handful of Dhourra for permission to do so.
_Tobacco._—Retail dealers in tobacco are met with in every corner
of the market; the people are immoderately addicted to the use of
it, and esteem it a luxury; they have not, however, the insolent
custom of taking the pipes of others, like the people of Berber. The
Fokara never smoke. The best tobacco comes from Sennaar, and is
called Taba; when dry, it is of a dark green colour, and has much
the same taste and appearance as that cultivated in the mountains
of Arabia Petræa. Pipes, and pipe-heads of clay, are also imported
from Sennaar. Many persons mix natron with the tobacco before they
chew it. Snuff is much in use; it is made by reducing the tobacco
to a fine powder, and mixing about one-third of natron to given
quantities of it. They use for snuff-boxes small cocoa nut shells
brought from Sennaar, or very small gourds; like the inhabitants
of the Hedjaz, they lay the snuff upon the thumb-nail, and never
take it between the finger and thumb. The Souakin merchants take
off several camel loads of the tobacco, for the Djedda and Yemen
markets. Unlike the Arabs and Turks, the people of these countries
spit at every whiff; and they say that he who does not, will never
be a hardy bouza drinker. They squirt the spittle through the
fore-teeth, a custom I should not have thought worth noticing here,
had it not been a habit so totally different from that of all the
Musulman smokers I ever saw.
The dealers in tobacco also sell natron, which is brought from
Kordofan, whither it is imported from Darfour; and salt, from the
salt mines of Boyedha; but this salt is dear, and the poor use as a
substitute for it a brine, which they procure by dissolving in hot
water lumps of a reddish coloured saline earth, of a bitterish,
disagreeable taste, which they purchase from the Bedouins of
the eastern desert; it seems to contain ochre and allum. Some
of the poorer merchants sell dried Bamyes, red pepper, onions,
and Meloukhye.
The grocers and druggists shops are the most frequented of any;
there are always half a dozen of them opened, in which are sold
cloves (قرنفل), pepper, cardamoms, (حَبّ الحال), and
tamarinds, called here Erdeyb (عِرديب), which are brought from
Kordofan, in small cakes. The tamarinds are prepared by exposing
the pulse together with the beans to the sun until they approach
putrefaction, in which state they are kneaded into cakes. The best
sort grows to the N. W. and W. of Darfour, between that country
and Dar Saleht; but they abound also in the neighbourhood of
Kordofan. The people of Shendy dissolve the cakes in hot water,
which they drink as a refreshing beverage. Many camel loads of
this excellent fruit are carried to Egypt; it is called Tamerhindy
(تمرهندي), _the date of India_, at Cairo, where it is in part
imported from the East-Indies. I have seen considerable quantities
of it in the hands of the Indian merchants, at Djidda, where it
is called Homar (حُمر); but this sort is much cheaper than
the other, being loose, not made into cakes, and of an inferior
quality. The Tamerhindy tree grows at Mekka[24] and in different
parts of the Hedjaz.
_Sandal wood_ is imported from India, in considerable quantities;
it forms one of the ingredients of the perfumed paste with which
they rub the skin; and in cases of sickness the patient’s room
is perfumed with it by strewing chips of the wood upon burning
charcoal. It is sold in pieces about six inches in length. Much of
it is carried to Sennaar.
_Fenugreek_ (Helbeh, حلبه) is brought from Egypt, and used by
the medical practitioners in this part of the country as a tonic.
The _Liban_ (لبان) is a species of gum, collected by the Bedouin
Arabs who inhabit the deserts between Kordofan and Shilluk, on the
road to Sennaar. It is said to exude from the stem of a tree in the
same manner as gum arabic. It is sold in small thin cakes, is of a
dull gray colour, very brittle, and has a strong smell. The country
people use it as a perfume, but it is dear. It is much in demand for
the inhabitants of Taka, and all the tribes between the Nile and the
Red Sea. It is exported to Souakin; the Cairo merchants receive it
from Djidda. At Cairo it is considered as the frankincense, and is
called Incenso. There are two sorts, one of which is much coarser
than the other. It is also imported into Djidda from Souahal, on the
eastern coast of Africa, beyond Cape Gardafui; and from Abyssinia,
by the way of Massouah; but this last is of an inferior quality.
_Gum arabic_ is sold in small quantities in the markets of Shendy;
but loads of it may always be had of the Sennaar or Kordofan
merchants; that of which the fine white colour causes it to be
most esteemed comes from Kordofan, from the districts inhabited
by the Bedouins Fadhel. The trade in gum arabic by this route has
of late been of little consequence, as the profits arising from
it are much less than those on slaves and camels; but the Darfour
caravan continues to import it. It is now, however, become scarce
and dear in Egypt, and will therefore, probably, be again imported
in large quantities.
_Shishm_ (ششم), a small grain of the size and shape of the
smallest lentils, of a deep black, shining colour, is imported
from Darfour. It is pulverised and rubbed into the eyelids for
complaints of the eyes. The Darfour caravans carry large quantities
of this grain to Egypt, where it is much more in request than in
the southern countries; there it is in general use amongst all
classes, rather as a preserver of the eyes, than as a remedy for
ophthalmia. It certainly communicates a refreshing coolness to the
eye. I did not understand that any of it was exported from Egypt.
_Antimony_ is sold in large quantities to people from all parts, and
of all descriptions, to blacken the eyelids. In the open country,
small pieces of antimony (Kohhel) often answer the purpose of a
currency, as the peasants wives will always readily barter for it
any thing that their house can afford.
A drug called _Kerfé_[25] (قرفه), i. e. bark, is imported by
the western merchants; it is a yellow-coloured bark, of considerable
thickness, of a fibrous texture, and apparently belonging to a
shrub, or the smaller branches of a tree, being about an inch in
diameter. A decoction of it is used as an astringent in fever and
dysentery; it has a very bitter taste. I was told that the tree or
shrub from which this bark is procured, grows also in the mountains
towards Abyssinia, in the country of the Shukorye.
I had collected small specimens of the articles above enumerated;
but I unfortunately lost them through the negligence of my companions
during the voyage from Souakin to Djidda. Amongst them was some of
the fruit Allobé, brought from Sennaar and Kordofan. In its dry
state it is of the size of a pigeon’s egg, of a brownish yellow
colour, with a large kernel, inveloped in a thin fleshy substance,
which has a sub-acid, and rather agreeable taste. It is eaten as
a dainty; and is believed to be a remedy for flatulency, of which
many people here complain. It is likewise called Tamr el berr
(تمر البرّ),[26] or the date of Soudan. The Allobé is said
to grow on a large tree. The people of Kordofan are extremely fond
of it. I have seen at Cairo a specimen of a fruit called Zakkoum,
from the plains of Ramle, in Palestine, which appeared to me to be
the same as the Allobé.
On the great market days, which are every Friday and Saturday,
several thousands of people resort to Shendy from the distance
of three or four days; the greater part of whom bring cattle
for sale. Judging from the individuals I saw in the market, all
these Arabs appear to be entirely of the same race, excepting only
that the true Djaalein Bedouins who come from the eastern desert
are much fairer-skinned than the inhabitants of the banks of the
Nile, which arises probably from their taking greater care not to
mix in concubinage with the negro race. I was much struck with
the physiognomy of many of these Djaaleins, who had exactly the
countenance and expression of features of the Bedouins of eastern
Arabia; their beards are even shorter, and thinner. Some individuals
of a tribe of Djaalein who border, to the south, upon the Shukorye,
appeared at the market with hats on their heads, made of reeds;
they were high and pointed, with broad brims, and were tied under
the chin with a leather thong. They are worn both by men and women.
About four or five hundred camels, as many cows, a hundred asses, and
twenty or thirty horses, were on sale on the great market-days. Every
merchant then takes his stand in one of the open shops, or in
the open market, and exposes part of his merchandize; for even
the richest traders are not ashamed of trafficking in the minutest
detail. The Egyptian, Souakin, Sennaar, and Kordofan merchants form
separate corps, in the midst of which is a great circle of slaves,
thus exposed for sale. The country people bring to market mats,
baskets, ox hides, and other skins, coarse pottery, camel saddles,
wooden dishes, and other articles of their own manufacture,
&c. About a dozen shoe-makers, or rather sandal-makers, from the
country, work for these two days in the market, and will make a
pair of sandals at an hour’s notice. The works in leather are very
prettily done. The leather is tanned with the Garadh (قَرَض) or
pulse of the acacia (Sant سَنت[27]); the Bedouins about Sennaar
are said to be the most skilful in its preparation. Leather sacks
(Djerab جراب plur. جربان) are likewise sold here; they
serve for the transport of every kind of baggage and merchandize,
excepting Dhourra, gum arabic, and salt, which are carried in
baskets. Many blacksmiths repair to Shendy from [Illustration]
the country; they make and sell the small knives generally worn
among these people. These knives are about eight inches long, and
are worn in a leathern scabbard tied over the left elbow: they are
two-edged, like those worn by the Berábera, and are of the shape
here represented.
The market is so crowded, and the dust and heat are so great,
during the mid-day hours, which is the favourite time for transacting
business, that I was unable to remain in the market-place many hours
together, and always left one of my companions in charge of the
little I had to sell. In different parts of the place are stationed
peasants with jars of water, which they sell to the thirsty, at the
rate of a handful of Dhourra for as much water as two persons can
drink. Several of the Fakys have water cisterns in the court-yards
of their houses, which are always kept full, and at which every one
may drink gratis. Many of them have likewise small chapels annexed
to their dwellings. There is no mosque in the whole place.
The only artizans I saw at Shendy were blacksmiths, silversmiths,
who work very coarse ornaments for the women, tanners, potters, and
carpenters. If a house is to be built, the owner, his relatives,
and slaves, with a few labourers, execute the masonry, and the
carpenter is only called in to lay the roof and make the doors. Like
the Bedouins of the desert, these Arabs are their own artizans upon
all ordinary occasions.
There are no weavers at Shendy, but all the women and grown up
children, and many of the men, are seen with a distaff constantly
in their hands, spinning cotton yarn, which they sell to the people
of Berber. The distaff, Mugzil (مغزل), resembles that used
in Egypt and Syria. Cotton is cultivated in this neighbourhood,
and is a general produce of all the countries on the banks of the
Nile, although nowhere in any great quantity, except at Damer and
about Sennaar.
The wholesale trade at Shendy is principally conducted through
the agency of brokers. Most of these are Dongoláwy, who seem, in
general, to be the most acute and intelligent traders of this part
of the country. A caravan no sooner arrives, than every merchant’s
house is crowded with brokers; but the avidity and parsimony of all
parties are too great to allow them to bring their transactions to
a speedy conclusion. Even after the bargain is made, each party
endeavours to cheat the other before the goods are delivered and
the money paid. In addition to this, every attempt to enter into
an engagement of any importance becomes known all over the place,
and the jealousy of the traders often prevents its taking place. No
merchandize has its fixed price; there is no such thing as a
price current; every one sells according to the prospect he has
of cheating the buyer and bribing the broker. The purchase money,
or in cases of barter, its equivalent in merchandize, is almost
always immediately paid down; the longest credit I have witnessed
is a couple of days; and it is evident, on the termination of every
commercial transaction, that the buyer and seller reciprocally
entertain suspicions of each others honesty. To oblige a debtor
to settle his accounts, recourse is generally had to the slaves of
the Mek, who act as police officers; but a man who is unprotected,
and without friends, is sure to lose the greater part of his goods,
if he allows them to go out of his hands without immediate payment.
I shall now briefly mention the different articles of the trade
of Shendy with Egypt, Kordofan, Sennaar, and Souakin; premising,
however, that I remained too short a time to collect the fullest
and most correct information on that subject.
The principal articles imported from Egypt are the Sembil[28]
(سِنبِل), and Mehleb (محلب), both of which are in great
request in Soudan; the former as a perfume and medicine, the latter
as a condiment, and occasionally as a medicine also. The traders
usually sell them together, in the proportion of about three parts
of Sembil to one of Mehleb. Thus, in general, each camel load
contains about 350 pounds of the former, and 120 pounds of the
latter; but sometimes it consists of equal quantities of each. The
loads of these articles are termed exclusively Zamele (زامله),
i. e. the full, or great load. Every respectable merchant coming
from Egypt brings with him two Zameles. In the caravan with which
I came there were eight, distributed amongst thirty-nine camels,
the whole number of the beasts of transport. The Zamele is easily
disposed of, in wholesale, to the Sennaar merchants, who give,
in exchange, dollars, Dammour, and slaves.
There is much less demand for these drugs in the west than in the
south of Africa. In the countries to the north of Abyssinia, in those
south of Sennaar, and in Abyssinia itself, they are in constant
use, and besides what passes by land, considerable quantities are
shipped from Djidda to Massouah, for the Abyssinian market. They
are here at least 250 per cent. dearer than at Cairo. The Egyptians
sometimes push on as far as Sennaar, if they cannot find a ready
sale for their Zamele at Shendy.
_Soap._ The soap which supplies all Egypt and Arabia, is manufactured
at Gazé, Yaffa, Hebron, and Jerusalem. No good soap has hitherto
been made in Egypt itself; there are several manufactories of it at
Siout, but it is of a very inferior kind, the oil which they employ
being made from the lettuce, instead of the olive. The Pasha of
Egypt, however, has lately established, under the direction of an
able Italian, a soap manufactory in the Delta. The oil is brought
from the Archipelago, and the natron lakes furnish the alkali. Soap
is a very profitable article, and in great demand in all parts of the
southern countries, but it exposes the merchant to the importunities
of numerous beggars of all classes, whose commonest intreaty is
for a piece of soap to wash their shirt, and whom it is not always
advisable to send away unsatisfied. Soap is sold at Shendy by the
piece, without examining into its greater or smaller size. This
is likewise the case with _sugar_. The loaf, weighing about four
pounds, and the prime cost of which in the sugar works of Upper
Egypt is one-sixth of a dollar, is sold for a dollar at Shendy. Its
dearness is owing to the great risks incurred in transporting it,
as a sudden fall of rain on the road might ruin a whole cargo.
Sugar is much in demand in all parts, for presents to the great
people, and to the women.[29] It is always eaten by itself, never
entering into any dish of sweetmeats, or cookery.
The other chief imports of Egyptian manufacture are _Takas_, a sort
of coarse cambric, died blue, with which the women, especially the
Bedouin women, line their best clokes. It is sold in small pieces,
one of which, when I was at Shendy, was worth a dollar; it is
the most current article of merchandize in small bargains, and is
principally bought up by the Kordofan merchants. It is everywhere
very acceptable, as it serves to pay the local authorities, when
dollars are not at hand. _White cotton stuffs_, with red borders,
made at Mehalla, in the Delta; they are worn by the great people,
especially at Sennaar. _Melayes_, a blue striped cotton cloth,
in which the women of distinction wrap themselves up when they
sleep. The Darfour caravans also take from Egypt, as presents to
kings and other great persons, scarlet cloth, and some velvet,
satin, and gold-embroidered stuffs, of the lighter kind, from
Lyons and Florence, together with a variety of English calicoes
and cambrics. _Linen_ made at Siout and Monfalout is in great
request for shirts, but is too dear to be commonly worn. Egyptian
_Sheep-skins_, dressed with the wool on, form also a considerable
article of importation. They are used as saddle-cloths for the
horses, dromedaries, and asses, of the natives, and as carpets to
sit upon in their women’s apartments. They are often died blue
or red, and find their way to the farthest parts of the west and
south. No chief of a tribe, or head of a village, is without one
of these skins. The sheep of the southern countries bear no wool.
_Beads._ I have already mentioned the use of beads in these
countries, as a kind of currency. The most common are small wooden
beads, made by the turners of Upper Egypt, which are bought up
chiefly by the Bedouin and other peasants. Others, of which the chief
manufactory is at Déndera in Upper Egypt, are made of the kernels
of the Doum, and are worn by all those who wish to distinguish
themselves by an appearance of sanctity. A variety of beads, of a red
and black colour, are imported from Jerusalem. There is hardly a man,
woman, or child, without a string or two of beads round the neck, or
arm, or in their hands. Glass beads (Kherraz خرّز) have not the
same currency here as they have in Abyssinia and Darfour, though they
are constantly seen in the market. The better sort are of Venetian
manufacture, but the greater part are made at El Khalil (or Hebron,
near Jerusalem), which furnishes the whole of southern Syria, and
the greatest part of Egypt, and of Arabia, with glass ware. The white
glass beads of Bohemia, called by the Italians Contaria d’Olanda,
go to Darfour. Of Venetian glass beads, from four to five hundred
chests, of ten cwt. each, are sold annually at Cairo, at from fifty
to one hundred patacks per cwt., or from 4_l._ to 8_l._ I had an
opportunity, when at Djidda, of seeing the beads destined for the
Abyssinian market, of which I counted at least a dozen varieties,
each known by its name, as, Om Shaher (ام شهر, the renowned),
Serdj el Melouk (سرج الملوك, the king’s saddle), Ayn el
Kahba (عين القحبه, the whore’s eye), Alowan (الوان,
the many-coloured), Khams djenous (خمس جنوس, the five sorts),
Hassan Beg (حسّن بك), Othman Beg (عثمن بك), all different
species. Every district there has its particular glass bead, which is
not in fashion in the neighbouring districts. The Souakin merchants
import into Shendy a species of beads called Reysh (رَيش),
which are bought up exclusively by the Kordofan merchants, and
which form the principal article of exchange for slaves, in their
own country: they are likewise in demand at Darfour, Dar Saleh,
and Bergho, to the west of Darfour. The Reysh come from the East
Indies, principally from Surat; they are perforated balls of coloured
agate, of the size of a small cherry, much resembling the marbles
with which the children in Europe play. One thousand of these Reysh
were worth, at Djidda, fifteen Spanish dollars. At Shendy they are
sold at three Wokyes, or forty-eight dollars; and I was told that
at Kordofan one thousand of them would purchase six female slaves,
who, on being carried to Shendy, are there worth one hundred and
twenty dollars. The Reysh are worn as necklaces by the women. The
trade in this article is considered as one of the most profitable,
because the beads are easily transported, and may escape the notice
of the chiefs of the country.
_Coral_ (Merdjan مرجان) of a bad kind is brought in small
quantities; the tribes of the chiefs adorn their necks with it,
and also with amber. False coral (Merdjan kudab مرجان كداب)
comes from Venice, and goes principally to the western countries. Of
amber the transparent kind only is in request.