but I was informed that no eunuchs were imported into that place
during my stay, and that Borgho, to the west of Darfour, is the
only country in eastern Soudan where slaves are thus mutilated for
exportation. Their number, however, is very small; a few are carried
to Egypt from Darfour, and the remainder are sent as presents by the
Negroe sovereigns to the great mosques at Mekka and Medina, by the
way of Souakin. The great _manufactory_ which supplies all European,
and the greater part of Asiatic Turkey with these guardians of female
virtue, is at Zawyet ed-deyr (زويت الدير), a village near
Siout in Upper Egypt, chiefly inhabited by Christians. The operators,
during my stay in that part of the country, were two Coptic monks,
who were said to excel all their predecessors in dexterity, and who
had a house in which the victims were received. Their profession
is held in contempt even by the vilest Egyptians; but they are
protected by the government, to which they pay an annual tax;
and the great profits which accrue to the owners of the slaves in
consequence of their undergoing this cruel operation, tempts them
to consent to an act which many of them in their hearts abhor. The
operation itself, however extraordinary it may appear, very seldom
proves fatal. I know certainly, that of sixty boys upon whom it was
performed in the autumn of 1813, two only died; and every person whom
I questioned on the subject in Siout assured me that even this was
above the usual proportion, the deaths being seldom more than two in
a hundred. As the greater number undergo the operation immediately
after the arrival of the Darfour and Sennaar caravans at Siout,
I had no opportunity of witnessing it, but it has been described
to me by several persons who have often seen it performed. The boys
chosen, are between the age of eight and twelve years, for at a more
advanced age, there is great risk of its proving fatal.—Puer,
corpore depresso, a robustis quibusdam hominibus, super mensâ
continetur. Tunc emasculator, vinculis sericis sapone illitis,
genitalia comprimit, et cum cultro tonsorio (dum puer pro dolore
animo deficit) quam celerrime rescindit. Ad hemorhagiam sistendam
plagam pulvere et arenâ calidâ adurunt, et post aliquot dies
calido oleo inungunt. Dein vulnus cum emplastro aliquo, quod inter
Coptos arcanum est, per quadraginta spatium dierum donec glutinetur
curatur. Nunquam de celotomia sub hoc cœlo audivi.—The operation
is always performed upon the strongest and best looking boys; but it
has a visible effect upon their features when they arrive at full
age. The faces of the eunuchs whom I saw in the Hedjaz, appeared
almost destitute of flesh, the eye hollow, the cheek bones prominent,
and the whole physiognomy having a skeleton-like appearance, by
which the eunuch may generally be recognised at first sight.
A youth on whom this operation has been successfully performed
is worth one thousand piastres at Siout; he had probably cost his
master, a few weeks before, about three hundred; and the Copt is
paid from forty-five to sixty for his operation. This enormous
profit stifles every sentiment of mercy which the traders might
otherwise entertain. About one hundred and fifty eunuchs are made
annually. Two years ago, Mohammed Aly Pasha caused two hundred
young Darfour slaves to be mutilated, whom he sent as a present
to the Grand Signor. The custom of keeping eunuchs has greatly
diminished in Egypt, as well as in Syria. In the former country,
except in the harems of the Pasha and his sons, I do not think
that more than three hundred could be found; and they are still
more uncommon in Syria. In these countries there is great danger
in the display of wealth, and the individual who keeps so many
female slaves as to require an eunuch for their guardian, becomes
a tempting object to the rapacity of the government. White eunuchs
are extremely rare in the Turkish dominions. In Arabia I have seen
several Indian eunuchs of a sallow or cadaverous complexion, and I
was informed that slaves are often mutilated in Hindostan. Almost all
the eunuchs of Siout are sent to Constantinople and Asia Minor.[41]
Among the slave girls who arrive at Shendy and Siout, there are
several who are called مُخَيَّط Mukhaeyt (consutæ), from
an operation[42] which has been described by Mr. Browne.[43] I am
unable to state whether it is performed by their parents in their
native country, or by the merchants, but I have reason to believe
by the latter. Girls in this state are worth more than others;
they are usually given to the favourite mistress or slave of the
purchaser, and are often suffered to remain in this state during
the whole of their life.
The daughters of the Arabs Ababde, and Djaafere, who are of Arabian
origin, and inhabit the western bank of the Nile from Thebes, as
high as the cataracts, and generally those of all the people to the
south of Kenne and Esne as far as Sennaar, undergo circumcision,
or rather excision,[44] at the age of from three to six years. Girls
thus treated are also called Mukhaeyt (مخيط), but their state is
quite different from that of the Negroe slave-girls, just mentioned.
The treatment which the slaves experience from the traders is rather
kind than otherwise. The slaves are generally taught to call their
masters Abouy (ابوي, my father, and to consider themselves
as their children. They are seldom flogged, are well fed, are not
over-worked, and are spoken to in a kind manner; all this, however,
results not from humanity in the traders, but from an apprehension
that under different treatment the slave would abscond; and they are
aware that any attempt to prevent his flight by close confinement
would injure his health; for the newly imported slaves delight in
the open air, and reluctantly enter houses, which they look upon as
prisons. But when they are once in the desert, on the way to their
final destination, this treatment is entirely changed; the traders
knowing that the slaves have no longer any means of escaping,
give a loose to their savage temper. At Shendy I often overheard
my companions, who, although savage enough, were certainly not of
the worst class of slave-merchants, say to each other, when a slave
had behaved ill, and they were afraid of punishing him, “Let him
only pass Berber, and the Korbadj will soon teach him obedience.”
The Souakin traders with whom I afterwards travelled, shewed as
little humanity, after we had passed Taka. The health of the slave,
however, is always attended to; he is regularly fed, and receives his
share of water on the road at the same time that his master drinks;
and the youngest and most delicate of the females are permitted to
ride upon camels, while all the others perform the journey on foot,
whether it be to Egypt or to Souakin, as they had done from Darfour
to Shendy. The hardiness of the young slaves is very extraordinary;
after several successive days march at the rate of ten or twelve
hours a day, I have seen them, in the evening, after supper,
playing together as if they had enjoyed a long rest. Females
with children on their backs follow the caravan on foot; and if
a camel breaks down the owner generally loads his slaves with the
packages. If a boy can only obtain in the evening a little butter
with his Dhourra bread, and some grease every two or three days,
to smear his body and hair, he is contented, and never complains
of fatigue. Another cause which induces the merchants to treat
the slaves well, is their anxiety to dissipate that horror which
the Negroes all entertain of Egypt and of the white people. It is a
common opinion in the black slave countries that the Oulad er-Rif[45]
(ولد الريف), or children of Rif, as the Egyptians are there
called, devour the slaves, who are transferred thither for that
purpose.[46] Of course the traders do every thing in their power
to destroy this belief, but notwithstanding all their endeavours,
it is never eradicated from the minds of the slaves. Another terrible
apprehension which they have is of a small jumping animal, which they
are told will live upon their skin, suck their blood, and leave them
not a moment’s rest. By this description they mean fleas, which
are entirely unknown in the interior parts of Soudan, and of which
the most curious stories are told by the people of the country, in
enumerating the superior advantages of their own country over those
of Egypt. Other vermin however, more to be dreaded than fleas, are
too common among them. The fear of being mutilated on their arrival
in Egypt operates powerfully also upon the minds of the young slaves.
Slave boys are always allowed complete liberty within the yard
of the house; but the grown up males, whose characters cannot be
depended upon, or whose dispositions are unknown, are kept in close
confinement, well watched, and often chained. On the journey they
are tied to a long pole, one end of which is fastened to a camel’s
saddle, and the other, which is forked, is passed on each side of
the slave’s neck, and tied behind with a strong cord, so as to
prevent him from drawing out his head; in addition to this, his right
hand is also fastened to the pole at a short distance from the head,
thus leaving only his legs and left arm at liberty; in this manner
he marches the whole day behind the camel; at night he is taken from
the pole and put in irons. While on my route to Souakin I saw several
slaves carried along in this way. Their owners were afraid of their
escaping, or of becoming themselves the objects of their vengeance:
and in this manner they would continue to be confined until sold to
a master, who, intending to keep them, would endeavour to attach
them to his person. In general the traders seem greatly to dread
the effects of sudden resentment in their slaves; and if a grown
up boy is only to be whipped, his master first puts him in irons.
It is not uncommon to hear of a slave-dealer selling his own children
born of Negroe women; and instances occur daily of their disposing
of female slaves who are pregnant by them; in such cases the future
child of course becomes the property of the purchaser. Most of
the traders have old slaves who have been for many years in their
service; these are placed over the young slaves bought in trade,
and become very useful in travelling; but even these too I have
seen their masters sell, after they had become members as it were
of the family, merely because a high price was offered for them. It
is in vain to expect in a slave trader any trace of friendship,
gratitude, or compassion.
Slave girls are every where thirty per cent. dearer than males
of the same age. They are called in these countries Khademe
(خادمه) and not Djarye (جاريه), as in Egypt. The finest
of them are kept by the traders themselves, and are called Serrye
(سرّيه); their masters allow these girls great liberty, which
they often abuse. It is falsely asserted by the caravan traders
in Egypt, that it is a custom among them to respect the chastity
of the handsomest female slaves; on the contrary, the traders do
not observe the slightest decorum in their intercourse with the
slave-girls. During our journey to Souakin, where the caravan
often encamped, on account of the apprehension of danger, in one
large circle, I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless
indecency, which the traders, who were the principal actors, only
laughed at. I may venture to state (whatever may be the opinion
at Cairo), that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth
year, reach Egypt or Arabia in a state of virginity. The grandees,
and rich people of those countries, take care never to buy grown
up females from the traders, except for servants; but they often
purchase very young girls, whom they educate among their women.
Young slaves are bought upon trial; at Shendy one day’s trial
is allowed, in Egypt three days are usually granted. Girls are
often delivered in this manner for Tadjrebat leilat (تجربة
ليلة), as it is called, and the purchaser may return a girl
without alleging any other reason than that he dislikes her, so
little do these savages care about cherishing a sense of shame or
honour in their female slaves, who, of course, whenever they remain
any length of time in a trader’s hands, acquire the most depraved
habits. Sometimes young slaves are sold under the express condition
that they shall not be returned.
There are certain defects (عيوب Aayoub), which if met with in the
male slave authorize the purchaser to return him, even so long as a
fortnight after he has bought him, unless, in making the bargain,
he has renounced this right. Of these defects the principal are;
1. snoring at night, which is considered as a capital defect; 2. si
mingit dormiens; 3. grinding and rubbing the teeth upon each other
during sleep; this is much disliked, from an idea that the boy who
does so will never become attached to his master; 4. any disease
which has not been completely cured, or recurs while in the hands
of the purchaser, as intermittent fever, itch, &c. &c. In buying
a slave it is carefully observed, and enquired, whether or not he
has had the small-pox; those who have not had it sell for less than
the others. Traders have told me, that in Darfour and Kordofan,
one-fifth upon an average of the young slaves die of the small-pox.
Many of the traders engage their female slaves to turn their
beauty to profit, which they afterwards share with them. In our
caravan one of my companions openly sold the favours of one of his
females for two measures of Dhourra, of which he always received
one. This man also, when a favourite little slave girl died during
our stay at Shendy, with the utmost indifference ordered the body,
after stripping it of every rag of Dammour, to be laid on an ass
and carried to the Nile to be thrown in. It is true, indeed, that
slaves are very seldom buried, the corpse being usually thrown into
the river.
The merchants take great care to prevent any improper intercourse
between the slaves themselves, always separating the boys from
the girls at night; this is not so much done from jealousy, as
because the pregnancy of the females diminishes their value. It
frequently occurs however, notwithstanding all their vigilance;
and it is generally found that every female has some favourite
among her master’s slaves. It is a received opinion also in all
the countries where the slave-trade prevails, that a female black
conceives more readily from her intercourse with a black male,
than with a stranger. If a female proves pregnant under these
circumstances, no means are left untried by the trader who owns her,
to procure abortion. She is compelled to swallow certain potions,
which are supposed to have this effect; and I have several times
even seen masters beating pregnant women in a manner, that evidently
shewed that it was for this purpose. It is a general observation in
the East, that a female slave, when pregnant, easily acknowledges the
true father; and several instances have come within my own knowledge,
where such an avowal, which they might easily have avoided, has
subjected them to great hardship. In Egypt, where almost every
family keeps a couple of slave servants, abortion is still more
common, and is considered as being far from a criminal act. The
favourite females are often admitted by their masters to the Bouza,
or drinking parties, where the great joke is to intoxicate the girls.
What I have seen and heard of the Negroes has made me conceive a
very indifferent opinion of their general character; but I ought
to add that I have not yet seen them in their native countries,
before they fell into the hands of these vile traders, who would
spoil the mildest and most amiable dispositions. I have found,
however, very few instances of slaves being sincerely attached to
their masters, even when well treated by them. Their general vice is
an incorrigible stubbornness and haughtiness of temper, and many of
them betray a deadly rancour and spirit of revenge; but in general
the treacherous disposition discernible in the children even of the
free Arabs of the Nile and of Nubia, is certainly not to be found
among them. They are lazy and slovenly, and will not work but when
forced to do so. They seem to be almost entirely devoid of every
feeling but that of gratifying their appetites; and provided the
slave is well fed, and receives a regular allowance of butter and
meat, and of grease to besmear his body, he cares little for the
stripes or curses he receives. The merchants say: “Never trust a
black slave; whip him well, and feed him well, and the work will
be done” (لا تامن العبد اضربه و اطعمه
فتشوف الحاجه مقضيه). I know not whether the maxim
is founded in truth or not, but it is certainly that by which the
merchants are guided, when they are no longer afraid of their slaves
escaping. The slaves, nevertheless, whether from strength of mind,
or from a brutal apathy, manifest the same propensity to mirth and
frolic. In intellect, I think they are much upon a level with the
Negroe Arabs, and little lower than the inhabitants of Egypt and
Syria; nor should I much blame their obstinacy, if it were not
too often accompanied by malignity. I have already observed that
different characters are assigned to different countries, and all
that I observed of them has not diminished my belief, that with
proper education the Black nations might be taught to approach,
and, _perhaps_, to equal the white.
Though the slaves endure the greatest fatigue, they are not of a
hardier constitution than Europeans; indeed, I have reason to believe
that, upon the whole, they are more frequently attacked by diseases;
when ill, they certainly endure them much less patiently. It is
a saying among the traders that “a blow (i. e. illness) which
scarcely makes an Arab stagger, knocks down a slave.” The most
common disease among them is inflammatory fever, to which the people
of Shendy also are very subject. The remedies applied by them are
cupping on the legs, and a drink made of infusion of tamarinds,
but the disorder carries off great numbers of the slaves, and
especially those who have endured a fatiguing journey, which is,
perhaps, chiefly owing to their exposing themselves to currents of
air while perspiring, and to their sleeping the whole night quite
naked. I heard many people complain of bile, which is occasioned,
perhaps, by their immoderate use of the ill-fermented Bouza. Piles
(Bouassir, بواسير) are very common among the country people,
less among the slaves. The only remedy they know or practise for
it is cauterising, by the application of a red-hot iron to the
parts. I first saw here the Fertit, or genuine Guinea worm, although
it is not unknown among the slaves, and Soudan merchants who come
to Upper Egypt. It seems very common in Soudan, and I also saw it
in Arabia. The worm does not attach itself exclusively to the leg;
I have seen it issuing from the arm, the breast, and the knees,
though its favourite place seems to be the calf of the leg. Persons
are more rarely attacked with it in Shendy than in Kordofan and
Darfour; and great numbers of the slaves and traders coming from
the two latter places are affected by it. Though it occasions
great pain, it does not prevent the sufferer from walking until
the very approach of death. I have been shown persons who had been
repeatedly attacked by it, but who had always had the good fortune
to descry the worm breaking through the skin, when they were able,
with patience, to draw it entirely out; for it proves mortal only
when it does not issue through the skin, or when, having issued,
it is afterwards broken off in the act of drawing out. Even in the
latter case many persons are cured. In Kordofan and Darfour the
attack of the Fertit is universally ascribed to the animal matter
contained in the water which is drank after the first rains.
In Soudan it is rare that male slaves are emancipated (Maatoug
معتوق), but we find many females who have obtained their
liberty. It is different in Arabia and in Egypt, where a slave
very seldom remains in a respectable family for a series of years
without being made free; and then he is either married to a female
slave of the family, or remains voluntarily as a servant, and
receives wages. It is a general custom in these latter countries to
emancipate every female slave who has borne a child to her master. It
is then considered discreditable, especially if the child is a male,
not to present the mother with the Tezkeret el Nekah (تزكرة
النكاح), or the marriage contract, signed by the Kadhi, which
is the only marriage ceremony used on those occasions. If the child
dies after this marriage, it is not considered improper to divorce
such a wife, but provision must in that case be made for her. As the
number of wives is limited by the Mussulman law to four, it sometimes
happens that the rich people keep, besides their four wives, several
of these emancipated female slaves, who live with them as mistresses.
Slavery, in the East, has little dreadful in it but the name; male
slaves are every where treated much like the children of the family,
and always better than the free servants. It is thought a mean action
to sell a slave after he has been long resident in a family. If a
slave behaves ill, he is generally sent into the country to work as a
labourer in the fields of his master. Female slaves who are servants
in families, are not so well off as males, because they generally
suffer much from the jealousy of their mistresses. It is only by the
Turkish soldiers that slaves are ill-treated. They purchase, in Upper
Egypt, slave boys, whom they rear in their service, and who, after
they have come to a certain age, and learned the Turkish language,
are clothed and armed as soldiers, and enlisted into the company or
corps of which their master is the chief. He then draws the monthly
pay of his slave from the governor, as he does that of every other
soldier; for, according to the regulations of the Turkish army,
the captain, or Binbashy, receives the pay for the number of men
whom he has under his command, and distributes it among them. It
thus becomes a source of emolument to him to enrol slaves, to whose
services the government never objects, and whose pay goes into his
own pocket, as he is subject only to the obligation of feeding and
clothing them. Great numbers of Black soldiers have, in this manner,
been introduced into the Turkish army in Egypt; it was even thought
that Mohammed Aly Pasha had formed the plan of organizing a body of
Black troops, and of drilling them according to the European manner;
but the great dislike to this innovation expressed by his principal
officers, appears to have made him abandon it. At present, from
six to eight hundred slaves are bought up annually by the Turkish
officers in Egypt.
In the southern countries a slave brought up in the family (I do
not here speak of the traders) thinks himself superior to every
other person in it except the master: he is admitted to all the
family councils, is allowed to trade, or to engage in any other
business on his own account, and to do just as he pleases, provided
he proves a bold fellow, and in case of emergency can wield a sword
in his master’s defence; he may then misbehave at pleasure,
without the fear of punishment. If a slave kills a free man his
master is obliged to pay the price of blood, otherwise his own
family becomes exposed to the retaliation of the relations of the
slain; for the death of a slave who commits murder is not deemed
a sufficient atonement for the blood of a free man.
In Arabia and Egypt the law gives to the slaves one great advantage;
if they are discontented with their master, and decidedly determined
not to remain with him, they have the right of insisting upon being
sent to the public slave market, (Beaéni fi Souk el Sultaun,
بيعني في سوق السلطان), to be resold. The owner
may at first refuse to part with his slave, but if, having overcome
the fear of exposing himself to the effects of his master’s rage,
the slave finds an opportunity of making his demand, in presence of
respectable witnesses, and perseveres in this conduct, he must at
last effect his purpose. Some slaves are less able to take advantage
of this privilege, which the law grants to all, from being shut up
in the harem, where no one hears their complaints except those who
are the cause of them.