and depends upon the caprice of the governor of Kordofan, who
often prevents the departure of merchants, in order to increase
his own commercial profits. Three months sometimes elapse without
any arrival, after which they come in rapid succession. The road
from Obeydh (اُبيّض) (not Ibeit, as Browne writes it), the
capital of Kordofan, to Shendy, is quite safe; it is performed in
about fourteen days, of which the five last are through a desert
without water. With the Kordofan caravans arrive also merchants
from Darfour; and the intercourse between Kobé, the capital of
Darfour, and Obeydh, is said to be at present very brisk, and quite
safe. Kordofan has no other slaves than those brought from Darfour;
its own people, it seems, do not traffic with the southern Negro
countries; but since the arrival of the Mamelouks in Dóngola,
a direct trade has been opened between that country and Kordofan,
the northern limits of which are said to be only six days distance
from the frontiers of Dóngola.
The arrival of every Kordofan caravan at Shendy fills the market
with slaves, who constitute the principal import from thence. The
Kordofan merchants bring likewise gum arabic, of the best quality
known in the Negro countries;[36] Erdeyb, or Tamarinds; the gum
Leban; Natron from Darfour; Sheshme, the seed used in Egypt for
diseases of the eye; Shooshe, a small pea of Kordofan and Darfour
growth; the latter are of a fine pink colour, with a small black
spot at one end, and are worn in strings as necklaces. They sell
also ropes of leather. The inhabitants of the countries on the
Nile make their ropes and cords of the fibrous inner bark of the
palm date-tree, called Lif (ليف), or of reeds which grow on the
banks of river; but all the western nations, where no date-trees
grow, use for their packages twisted leathern thongs, which are
of great solidity and strength, a very important advantage in
travelling through the deserts with heavily loaded camels. These
ropes are sold to the Egyptian and Souakin merchants, as are
likewise large leathern sacks made of very thick ox-leather in
Kordofan and Darfour. These sacks are used for the transport of
Dhourra meal through the desert for the food of the slaves. Large
water-skins (Rey رَيّ) made of ox-hides, in which traders who
have many slaves transport water through the desert: two of these
Reys make a camel’s load; they keep the water much better than
the smaller goats skins, and the thickness of the leather prevents
it from evaporating so readily. Reys are a considerable article of
commerce between Darfour and Egypt; they are used in all the towns
of Egypt, and particularly at Cairo, to transport the water from
the river to the town, for the daily use of the inhabitants. The
Kordofan merchants bring likewise water-skins made of sheep-skins,
in the manufacture of which great skill is shown, because the
skins are preserved entire. The animals are killed by cutting off
the head; and those who slaughter them possess an art, unknown to
the Arabian Bedouins, of taking off the skin without cutting it,
by introducing the hand at the aperture in the throat, armed with
a small knife, and thus separating it entirely from the carcase. A
Kordofan water-skin has thus no seams but where the legs are cut off,
while the common ones are sewed up on three sides. Another import
from Kordofan are large wooden dishes, or bowls, carved, as it is
said, out of the root of some tree; they are rubbed with butter,
and then held over the fire, to give them a black colour. These
bowls often supply the place of the China ware, vessels, dishes,
cups, &c. which in the more polite parts of the East are placed upon
shelves along the walls of the sitting-room, as ornaments. Some of
these bowls are large enough to contain sufficient food for twelve
persons; they are very nicely worked; not the smallest trace of
the instruments with which they are formed can be observed.
Ostrich feathers brought by the Kordofan merchants are also in
great request. These merchants are people of moderate property; the
greater part of them have wives at Shendy and at Darfour, as well as
at Obeydh; they buy up slaves at Darfour, remain awhile with their
families at Obeydh, and then bring their slaves to Shendy. They have
a better character for honesty than the people of Sennaar, but the
favourable opinion entertained of them does not induce any one to
trust them with goods upon credit. They take in return from Shendy,
a little Sembil and Mehleb, some antimony and beads, a good deal
of spices, especially cloves, which are in great demand all over
the western countries; a little hardware; Dammour from Sennaar;
Egyptian linen; Indian cotton stuffs imported from Souakin; a few
silk and cloth dresses from the Hedjaz, which are worn by the chiefs,
who seem to be extremely fond of gaudy showy dresses, as a mark
of distinction; some coffee-beans; but above all, Reysh, or Indian
agate beads. The common currency of Kordofan, besides Dhourra, is
said to be small pieces of iron, with which milk, flesh, and Dhoken
bread, are bought in the market. These pieces of iron are collected
and worked into axes and spear-heads. Cows are likewise taken as
a medium of exchange. Slaves are often bought for so many cows;
wild herbage for their food is so abundant, that nobody objects to
keeping large numbers of those animals in their court-yards.
The most substantial of all the traders who at present frequent
the Shendy market are the people from Souakin, or as they are
more commonly called in this part of Africa, the Hadharebe,
or Hadharame, that is, people of Hadremaut, in South Arabia,
from whence they draw their origin. Some of these traders are
always found at Shendy: during my stay there two caravans took
their departure for Souakin, and one large party arrived; and no
month passes without some arrivals from that quarter. The Hadhareb
also visit the Sennaar market; their caravans to that place either
take the road by Shendy, or the nearer one by Goz Radjeb, on the
Atbara, from whence they proceed straight across the desert to
Sennaar. Some of the Hadharebe also frequent Obeydh in Kordofan,
but not in sufficient numbers to form a caravan of their own, and
they therefore join the native traders. Their caravans are hailed
at Shendy by the Sennaar and Kordofan people, as the promptest
purchasers of their goods; but they create great jealousy among
the Egyptians, whose rivals they are in various articles of
import. The Souakin trade supplies Shendy principally with India
goods. Different sorts of cambric (بفت Baft, and another sort
called بنوه Benoueh) from Madras and Surat; and coarse muslins
from Bengal are partly wanted for the use of the Shendy and Sennaar
inhabitants themselves; but the greater part is given in exchange
to the Kordofan merchants for slaves. They bring also spices,
especially cloves, ginger (Zandjebil زنجبيل), India sugar,
Mokha beads, as they are called, though none are made at Mokha;
sandal wood, which is an article of consequence, and finds its way
from hence to the countries west of Darfour, as far as Bagermé;
and all the articles of hardware imported by the Egyptians, in which,
however, the latter can afford to undersell them. They also bring the
Dhofer, which is taken by the Sennaar and Darfour merchants. It is
the shell of an animal found in the Red Sea, cut into small pieces,
and used as a perfume, emitting a pleasant odour when held over the
fire. The pieces of the Dhofer, cut like beads, are much esteemed
in the Hedjaz and Egypt, where the ladies wear them as necklaces;
they are of a black, or dark blue colour, with veins of a lighter
hue. The people of Souakin export them likewise to Djidda.
The Hadharebe take in return gold, slaves (Abyssinians in
preference), and all the other articles of the Negro trade, except
gum arabic; though they sometimes take this article also, and sell
it at Mokha, to English and American traders. Every Souakin caravan
purchases at Shendy a number of horses of the Dóngola breed, which
they sell to great advantage in Yemen, at Hodeyda, Loheya, and as far
south as Mokha. The cavalry of the Sherif Hamoud, the present chief
of Yemen, are mounted almost entirely upon horses from Dóngola,
for the good breed of native Arab horses is very scarce in Yemen.
The Souakin caravans, that go as far as Sennaar, bring from thence
a large quantity of tobacco, which they sell in the Yemen. These
merchants enjoy more credit at Shendy than any others, because
they are the richest and most numerous, all free Arabs themselves,
not peasants, like those of Upper Egypt, or Blacks, like those of
Kordofan; but composed chiefly of the best families of Souakin,
and who are prompt to revenge an insult offered to any individual
amongst them. They are always treated very politely by the Mek,
to whom they make larger presents than any other traders. But I
shall recur to this subject hereafter, under the head of Souakin,
which at present is, next to Massouah and Cairo, the most important
slave-trading place in north-eastern Africa, beyond the limits
of Soudan.
The Dóngola trade is of little consequence at Shendy. The Dongoláwy
bring dates, which they buy up in Mahass, and tobacco, the growth
of their own country. Dates are sent to Sennaar and to Kordofan as
presents to the chiefs, and are there considered, next to sugar,
the most exquisite dainty they have.
The female slaves who have served an apprenticeship in the houses
at Dóngola are eagerly sought for by all traders, as expert cooks,
and good servants.[37]
From the concurrence of all these traders, Shendy has become the
first commercial town in the Black countries for the Egyptian
and Arabian slave trade. These two trades, and the Abyssinian,
are closely allied to each other, and merchants of all the three
countries occasionally meet each other upon the most distant limits
of their respective trades: and the imports into Africa from the
north and east are much the same. The farthest limit of the trade
appears to be Dar Saley, or perhaps Bagermé, to the west and
north-west of Darfour. Although the countries, to a considerable
distance beyond those provinces, keep up an intercourse with Darfour,
for the purpose of receiving Arabian and Egyptian merchandize,
they are not accessible to commercial enterprize; and merchants,
with goods of any value, would in vain attempt to pass through
the hostile tribes of Arabs and Bedouins who people the Bahr el
Ghazal, and the idolatrous African nations between Bagermé and
Afnou. Beyond Bahr el Ghazal, towards the frontiers of Bournou,
the Fezzan, or _Zeyla_ trade, as it is here termed, begins to
exercise its influence, and spreads from thence far westward
across Soudan. Notwithstanding my repeated questions on this
head (and such questions may be put to the Black traders without
fear of exciting jealousy or suspicion), I never could trace any
regular intercourse, by means of caravans, between eastern and
western Soudan; nor have I ever seen any merchants who came from
the countries beyond Bagermé. Those persons who wish to engage
in that direction join the Fezzan caravans at Bornou. The few
Bornou people who come by the direct route through Bahr el Ghazal
to Darfour are pilgrims who live by charity. The greater part of
the slaves met with at Shendy are from the idolatrous countries in
the vicinity of Darfour, Borgho, and Dar Saley. Those from Bornou,
who are easily distinguished by their tattooed skin, never find
their way to Shendy; such of them as are seen in Egypt, came by
the way of Fezzan. Few foreign traders, except Egyptians, visit
Shendy. A few Yembawy, or Arabians from Yembo, arrive occasionally
by the Souakin caravans, and there are others of the same people,
who accompany the Egyptian caravans, for there are considerable
settlements of Yembawy at Kenne and Gous, in Upper Egypt. When I
was at Shendy, there were at Kordofan, two Yembawy and one Turk
from Mohil; the latter had gone thither with a small adventure from
Egypt, but had spent his money in debauchery, and could not raise
enough to carry him back to the northern countries. Turkish[38]
merchants going from Egypt to Darfour, and Sherifs from the Hedjaz,
whose object it is to importune the chiefs for presents, occasionally
come this way. While I was at Shendy an Arabian came from Souakin,
who was of the tribe of Refaay (رفاعي), which is related to the
great tribe of Djeheyne (جهينه),[39] near Yembo; he told me that
he had heard that there were descendants of his own tribe of Refaay
settled to the south of Sennaar, and that he intended to visit them,
in the hope of obtaining some presents from them, as they had always
manifested kindness to their relatives in the Hedjaz, especially
to such as had undertaken the journey for the purpose of saluting
them. He knew the name, and the place of residence of one of the
chiefs of these Refaay on the river, about six days above Sennaar,
and he left Shendy with the Sennaar caravan, on his way thither.
Persons from the Hedjaz and from Egypt sometimes pass by Shendy
on their way to Sennaar, in search of young monkeys, which they
teach to perform the tricks so amusing to the populace in the towns
of Arabia, Syria, and Egypt. I was repeatedly asked whether I had
not come in search of monkeys, for that my equipments appeared too
shabby for those of a merchant. These monkey-hunters are held in
great contempt, because, as the Negroes say, they pass their whole
lives in making others laugh at them.
I have extended my remarks upon commerce to so great a length because
it is the very life of society in these countries. There is not a
single family which is not connected, more or less, with some branch
of traffic, either wholesale or retail, and the people of Berber
and Shendy appear to be a nation of traders in the strictest sense
of the word. I have a few remarks to add upon the most important
branch of their commerce, the slave-trade.
I calculate the number of slaves sold annually in the market of
Shendy at about five thousand, of whom about two thousand five
hundred are carried off by the Souakin merchants, and fifteen
hundred by those of Egypt; the remainder go to Dóngola, and to the
Bedouins who live to the east of Shendy, towards the Atbara and
the Red Sea. I have already made some mention of the places from
whence these slaves come. Those brought from Kordofan to Darfour,
are, for the greater part, from the idolatrous countries of Benda,
Baadja, Fetigo, and Fertit, to the south and south-west of Darfour,
from twenty to forty days from Kobbe; each of these countries speaks
a separate language. The Darfour merchants trade with Fertit, which
lies about twenty days distant from Kobbe, in a southerly direction:
the country is mountainous, and its inhabitants are wholly ignorant
of agriculture; but they have tasted the luxury of Dhourra and
Dokhen; and are said, in cases of a dearth of these grains, to sell
even their own children to procure them.
Far the largest proportion of the slaves imported into Shendy are
below the age of fifteen. All of them, both male and female, are
divided by the traders, with reference to age, into three classes:
namely, Khomasy (خماسي), comprising those apparently below ten
or eleven years; Sedasy (سَداسي), those above eleven and below
fourteen or fifteen; and Balegh (بالغ), or grown up, those of
fifteen and upwards. The Sedasy are the most esteemed; when I was
at Shendy a male of this class was worth fifteen or sixteen dollars,
provided he bore the marks of the small pox, without which a boy is
not worth more than two-thirds of that price; a female was worth
from twenty to twenty-five Spanish dollars. The price of the male
Khomasy was twelve, of the female fifteen dollars. The male Balegh
seldom sells for more than eight or ten dollars; and there is but a
small proportion of this class, because it is thought both in Egypt
and Arabia, that no great dependance can be placed upon any slave,
who has not been brought up in the owner’s family from an early
age. Hence there is a great reluctance to the purchasing of grown up
slaves for domestic purposes, or even for labourers. The Baleghs are
chiefly bought by the Bedouins, who employ them as shepherds. The
Bisharein have many of them in all their encampments. Grown up
female slaves, although past the age of beauty, sometimes sell
for as much as thirty dollars, if they are known to be skilful in
working, sewing, cooking, &c. In Syria few slaves are kept; those
which I have seen there are, for the greater part, imported by the
caravans from Bagdad, and come from Souahel on the Mozambik coast.
Few slaves are imported into Egypt, without changing masters several
times, before they are finally settled in a family; for instance,
those from Fertit are first collected on the borders of that
country by petty merchants who deal in Dhourra. These sell them
to the traders of Kobbe, who repair to Fertit in small caravans
for that purpose. At Kobbe they are bought up by the Darfour, or
Kordofan traders, who transport them to Obeydh in Kordofan. Here
they generally pass into the hands of other Kordofan dealers,
who carry them to Shendy, for the Soudan merchants commonly limit
their speculations to a single market; thus the Kordofan people
who trade to Darfour are different from those who visit Shendy,
while, on the other hand, the Egyptians who trade to Shendy only,
are different from those who proceed forward to Sennaar; and,
in like manner, the Souakin traders are divided into Shendy and
Sennaar merchants. At Shendy the slave is bought by some Egyptian
or Abadbe. Upon his arrival in Upper Egypt he is disposed of either
at Esne, Siout, or Cairo. In the two first places, entire lots
of slaves are taken off by merchants, who sell them in retail at
Cairo, or in the small towns of Upper Egypt, in each of which they
stop for a few days, in their passage down the river. Even at Cairo
they are not always finally disposed of in the first instance. The
Khan of the slave-traders, called Okal-ed-djelabe, which is near
the mosque El Azher, is crowded with pedlars and petty traders,
who often bargain with the merchants of Upper Egypt for slaves
immediately after their arrival, and content themselves with a
small profit for the re-sale. Again, there are merchants from
Smyrna and Constantinople residing constantly at Cairo, who deal
in nothing but slaves; these persons export them from Alexandria,
and it often happens that they pass through three or four hands,
between Alexandria and their final destination in the northern
provinces of Turkey. Such is the common lot of the unfortunate
slave, but many instances happen of a still more rapid change of
masters. At Shendy and Esne I have seen slaves bought and sold two
or three times before they were finally removed from the market;
after which, perhaps, if the master at the end of a few days trial
did not find them answer his expectations, he would again put them up
for sale, or exchange them for others. In fact, slaves are considered
on the same level with any other kind of merchandize, and as such
are continually passing from one merchant to another. The word Ras
(head) is applied to them as to the brute species; and a man is said
to possess ten Ras Raghig (رقيق), or ten head of slaves,[40]
in the same manner as he would be said to possess fifty Ras Ghanam,
or head of sheep. When the buyer is desired to take the slave away,
it is usual to say, Soughe, (سوقه), drive him out, an expression
which is applied only to cattle, as Soug el ghanam go damek (سوق
الغَنَم قدامك).
I have seen among the young slaves on sale at Shendy, many children
of four or five years old without their parents; others of the
same age are met with in the market, with their mothers; and the
traders so far shew humanity, that they seldom sell them separately;
when such a thing is done, the vender is in general reproached with
being guilty of an act of cruelty.
The traders, in buying slaves, are very attentive to their origin,
because long experience has proved to them that there is little
variety of character amongst individuals of the same nation. Thus the
Noubas who come from Sennaar are said to have the best dispositions
next to the Abyssinians and Gallas, and to be the most attached to
their masters. Of the Abyssinians, those from the northern provinces,
called Kostanis, are said to be treacherous and malicious, while
the Amaaras are noted for their amiable tempers. Of the western
Negroes those from Benda are the most esteemed, and next to them
those imported into Darfour from Borgho, a Mohammedan country,
whose inhabitants carry off their pagan neighbours. The slaves from
Fertit are said to be ferocious and vindictive, and stand the lowest
on the list.
Few slaves arrive at Shendy who have not already passed a
considerable time in a state of slavery. The strongest proof of
this fact is, that I never saw any who could not make themselves
understood in Arabic; and the greater part of those imported from
Darfour and Kordofan, besides their own native tongue, and Arabic,
have some acquaintance with the idioms of those countries.
As soon as a slave boy becomes the property of a Mussulman master he
is circumcised, and has an Arabic name given to him. They are seldom
honoured with a true Mussulman name; such as Hassan, Mohammed, Selim,
Mustapha, &c. Most of them bear such names as these: خير الله
Kheyr el illah; فضل الله Fadil ’lilah; فضل الواسع
Fadil Elwasia; جبر واجد Jaber Wadjed; اُم الخير Om
Elkheyr, and the like. Sometimes the names are more extraordinary,
as صباح الخير Sabah el Kheyr (good morning), جراب Djerab
(leather sack), &c. &c. It very rarely happens that any uncircumcised
boys come from the west; and I never knew any instance of a Negroe
boy following the pagan worship of his father, and refusing to become
Mussulman; though I have heard it related of many Abyssinian slaves,
who, after having been converted from idolatry to the Christian
religion by the Abyssinian Copts, were sold by them to the Mussulman
traders. I have been told of several of these slaves, particularly
females, so steadily refusing to abjure their faith, when in the
harem of a Mohammedan, that their masters were finally obliged
to sell them, in the dread of having children born of a Christian
mother, which would have been a perpetual reproach to the father
and his offspring. In Soudan, the slaves, though made Mussulmans
by the act of circumcision, are never taught to read or to pray:
and even in Egypt and Arabia this instruction is seldom given to
any but those for whom their masters take a particular liking. It
may be observed, nevertheless, that they are greater fanatics than
the proudest Olemas, and that Christians and Franks are more liable
to be insulted by slaves than by any other class of Mussulmans.