actually in Egypt is forty thousand, two-thirds of which number
are males, and the rest females. There is hardly a village in which
several of them are not found, and every person of property keeps at
least one. During the plague in the spring of 1815, upwards of eight
thousand slaves were reported to the government to have died in Cairo
alone. I have reason to believe, however, that the numbers exported
from Soudan to Egypt and Arabia, bears only a small proportion to
those kept by the Mussulmans of the southern countries themselves,
or in other words to the whole number yearly derived by purchase,
or by force, from the nations in the interior of Africa. At Berber
and Shendy there is scarcely a house which does not possess one or
two slaves, and five or six are frequently seen in the same family,
occupied in the labours of the field, tending cattle, &c. &c.; the
great people and chiefs keep them by dozens. As high up the Nile as
Sennaar the same system prevails, as well as westwards to Kordofan,
Darfour, and thence towards Bournou. All the Bedouin tribes also who
surround those countries are well stocked with slaves. If we may
judge of their numbers by those kept on the borders of the Nile,
(and I was assured by the traders, that slaves were more numerous
in those distant countries than even at Shendy,) it is evident that
the number exported towards Egypt, Arabia, and Barbary, is very
greatly below what remains within the limits of Soudan. From what
fell under my own observation at Berber and Shendy, I believe that
the slaves of both sexes on the borders of the Nile from Berber to
Sennaar, amount to not less than twelve thousand. As the population
of Darfour, according to Mr. Browne, is two hundred thousand,
there are probably twenty thousand slaves in that kingdom; and
every account agrees in proving that as we proceed farther westward
into the populous countries of Dar Saley, Bournou, Bagermé, and
the kingdoms of Afnou and Haoussa, the proportion of the slave
population does not diminish.
The laudable efforts made in Europe, and particularly by England,
to abolish the slave trade, will, no doubt, in time, extend a
beneficial influence over the Negroe countries of Western and
South-western Africa, from whence slaves have hitherto been drawn
for the supply of the European traders; but there does not appear
to be the smallest hope of the abolition of slavery in Africa
itself. Were all the outlets of Soudan closed to the slave trade,
and the caravans which now carry on the traffic with Barbary,
Egypt, and Arabia, prevented from procuring further supplies,
still slavery would universally prevail in Soudan itself; for as
long as those countries are possessed by Mussulmans, whose religion
induces them to make war upon the idolatrous Negroes, whose domestic
wants require a constant supply of servants and shepherds, and
who considering slaves as a medium of exchange in lieu of money,
are as eager to obtain them as other nations might be to explore
the African mines, slavery must continue to exist in the heart of
Africa; nor can it cease until the Negroes shall become possessed of
the means of repelling the attacks and resisting the oppression of
their Mussulman neighbours. It is not from foreign nations that the
Blacks can hope for deliverance; this great work must be effected by
themselves, and can be the result only of successful resistance. The
European governments, who have settlements on the coasts of Africa,
may contribute to it by commerce, and by the introduction among
the Negroes of arts and industry, which must ultimately lead them
to a superiority over the Mussulmans in war. Europe, therefore,
will have done but little for the Blacks, if the abolition of the
Atlantic slave trade, which is trifling, when compared with the
slavery of the interior, is not followed up by some wise and grand
plan, tending to the civilization of the continent. None presents a
fairer prospect than the education of the sons of Africa in their
own country, and by their own countrymen, previously educated
by Europeans. Faint hopes, however, can be entertained that the
attention of European governments will be turned towards the remote
and despised Negroes, while selfishness and a mistaken policy have
prevented them from attending to the instruction of their own poor.
What I have said on the manners of Berber is applicable, in every
respect, to Shendy, where the habits of the people are equally
dissolute. The chief of Shendy, however, possesses much more power
than the Mek of Berber, and keeps the violence and rapacity of his
subjects in check. The inhabitants of the district are all free
Arabs; of these the Djaalein are the most numerous, and next to them
the following: 1. Ababde, who pretend to be descended from the same
Djidd (جِدّ) or forefather as those of Egypt; namely, Selman, an
Arab of the Beni Helal, the great eastern tribe which emigrated into
the northern parts of Africa, as far as Tunis, after the Mohammedan
conquest; 2. Battakhein (بطخين); 3. El Hamdeh (الحامده);
these, I understand, are acknowledged as relations by the Arabs of
the same name who inhabit the neighbourhood of Luxor and Karnak,
in Upper Egypt; Luxor has hence received the name of El Hamdye,
and is more generally known in Upper Egypt by that appellation. The
several tribes are constantly quarrelling with each other, chiefly
respecting the retaliation of blood, to which, among the eastern
Bedouins, the near relations are liable; but it appears to me that
those nice distinctions which I have detailed in my description of
the Bedouins, are not here attended to. Among the Djaalein the price
of blood is one thousand Tob Dammour, equivalent, at the present
time, to three or four hundred Spanish dollars. If the relations
of the slain agree to take it, which seems to expose them to less
obloquy than a similar action does in Arabia, the murderer pays the
sum by instalments; a regular account is kept, and credit given
for the smallest sum paid to the family of the deceased by the
murderer or his family, even if it be no more than a little bread,
or a few handfuls of Dhourra. Many years may pass before the whole
sum is paid, and during this time the parties keep the peace.
The Djaalein have the character of being treacherous, but this is
common to all the Arabs of these countries; and they have not yet
so much degenerated from their forefathers, as not to know that
good faith is held the first of Arab virtues: I have often heard the
Djaalein boast of their sincerity to those to whom they have pledged
their word as friends or companions; but this character, which they
give of themselves, is not confirmed by the general opinion.[47]
All these Arabs have two tribes of mortal enemies, the Shukorye
(شُكُريه) and the Kouahel (قواحل), names which are
both Arabic in their formation. They inhabit to the south and
south-west of the others, and make frequent inroads upon the
Djaalein, plundering the country, and driving off the cattle. Some
of the Shukorye live on the banks of the Nile near Abou Heraze,
but the greater part of them lead a pastoral life in the Eastern
desert. The Kouahel are said to extend as far as the country of
Dender, and some of them are found on the Atbara. Both tribes
speak the Arabic language. During my stay at Shendy the Djaalein
returned from a successful expedition against them, bringing back
a booty of two hundred camels taken from the hostile encampment
which was then about four days distant from Shendy. In the Syrian
and Arabian deserts in like manner, there is scarcely an Arab tribe
of any importance which has not a national enemy in some equally
powerful tribe; the warlike spirit and rivalship of the young men
of both parties being kept up by continual expeditions against each
other. These, however, seldom occur between tribes who are immediate
neighbours: among whom although war often happens, it is generally
soon succeeded by peace and alliance.
All the Arabs of the southern countries, excepting those who inhabit
the valley of the Nile, besides their daily movements from one spot
to another, make two general movements in the year. In the summer
they retire towards the mountains, where springs and pasturage
are more abundant than in the parched plains; during the rains
they spread themselves, with their flocks, over the wide expanse
between the Atbara and the Nile, which in that season is clothed
with abundant pasturage. The Kouahel are said to be less numerous
but more powerful than the Shukorye; they are both, nominally at
least, Mohammedans; it is said that their cattle is admirable.
Though I remained only a month at Shendy, and in a situation
not at all favourable for such inquiries, some geographical
information respecting the surrounding countries may reasonably
be expected from me. In the Appendix will be found some details
of this kind respecting the _western_ countries, which, however,
are the less interesting as Mr. Browne has already elucidated
the geography of those parts. Of the countries to the _south_
I was unfortunately unable to obtain any information, nor of
those between Shendy and Habbesh, to the eastward. This was not
owing to indolence or indifference; but to my situation with the
caravan, which rendered it extremely difficult for me to take any
notes whatever. Surrounded on all sides by curious observers of
my conduct, and having no other protection than that which poverty
gives, I knew that if suspicion was once excited, it would end in my
ruin. Accurate and detailed statements of positions and distances
could only have been acquired by expressly questioning the traders
on this head; but nobody showed any inclination so far to oblige a
person from whom no profit was to be derived, and to have paid[48]
for information would have rendered me a subject of conversation
and enquiry through the whole town, where I was already but too
conspicuous an object. I often indeed attempted to entice people
from Sennaar into familiar conversation, by sitting down near them,
and filling their pipes with my own tobacco; but they soon got
tired of my questions concerning the southern countries, and put
the strangest constructions upon them. Such information, therefore,
I could only have derived from casual conversations during a long
stay. Had I been known as a Frank traveller, like Bruce in Abyssinia,
and Browne in Darfour, I might have made the best use of my leisure
time, without thereby indangering my person much more than it would
otherwise have been. But my case was different: I had succeeded in
keeping my secret: I had still a very dangerous road before me,
nor could I ever have hoped to reach the sea, had any suspicions
been excited concerning my travelling projects; at least such was
my firm belief. In asserting that I was unknown, I do not mean to
claim the merit of extraordinary prudence, but merely to inform
the reader upon what depended my success.[49] I must be allowed to
add, that if future travellers should hear me described, in these
countries, as a Frank, they will have no right to disbelieve on
that account the other parts of my personal history during this
journey. For although the people of Daraou will undoubtedly at
last discover who the poor man was who travelled with them, I was
certainly unknown during the journey.
Mr. Browne, in the course of his two years residence at Darfour,
collected highly valuable information concerning the Negroe countries
surrounding that kingdom, but I have little doubt, that the bad
opinion which the Darfour people entertained of him, was owing in
great part to such enquiries. The same thing would have happened
to him in any other part of Soudan, had he been permitted to quit
Darfour, and it must ultimately have frustrated all his views. This
remark is not made for the purpose of detracting from the merits
of Mr. Browne, whose talent and perseverance were such as will
seldom be found united in the same person, whose friendship for me
I can never forget, and to whose excellent advice I owe much of
my success. It is for the sake of those who may succeed me, that
I make these observations. When Mr. Browne undertook his journey
to Darfour he was not possessed of that knowledge of Arabic, and
of Arab manners, which he afterwards acquired; unable therefore to
attempt to pass for a native of the Levant, he never assumed any
other name than that of a Frank, justly thinking that it would be
more to his advantage to maintain his native character, however
little it might be respected in those parts, than by an awkward
imitation of native dress and manners, to expose himself to still
worse consequences, and to the hourly dread of being discovered. But
even as a Frank he would have been more secure in the character
of a mercantile adventurer, than in that of a physician, which is
a profession quite unknown in these countries. During my stay at
Siout, in Upper Egypt, I became acquainted with a man who had seen
Mr. Browne in Darfour, and in whose brother’s house Mr. Browne had
spent a considerable part of his time. He told me that Mr. Browne,
during his journey from Siout to Darfour, was busily occupied in
writing down the daily occurrences, and in inquiring after the
names of all the hills and valleys met with on the road; that he
had a piece of lead, with which he wrote, and which never failed
him. The Soltan of the English (the man observed) had undoubtedly
sent him to inquire after these countries; and the king of Darfour
prevented him from travelling about the country, as knowing that his
sole motive was curiosity. The same person confirmed Mr. Browne’s
statements respecting himself while in Darfour, of the veracity of
which, indeed, no one, acquainted with that gentleman’s integrity,
would ever entertain any doubt. My departed friend, who has fallen
a noble sacrifice in the cause of truth and science, felt at last,
that the circumstance of his taking notes had prevented him from
succeeding to the full extent of his wishes; and he repeatedly
advised me to use the greatest precaution in this respect. To an
European reader such a maxim may look like pusillanimity, or at
least excess of prudence, for it can be fully appreciated only by
those persons who embark in such expeditions.
There is no communication by water between Sennaar, Shendy, and
Berber; boats are used only as ferries, but even these are extremely
scarce, and the usual mode of passing the river is upon the Ramous,
or small raft of reeds. It is usual with the native Arabs to call
the branch of the river on which Sennaar lies, and which rises in
Abyssinia, by the name of Nil, as well as by that of Bahr el Azrek
(Blue-River.) Thus every one says that Sennaar is situated on the
Nile, (بلد سنار مبنيه علي حافيه النيل);
so far therefore Bruce is justified in styling himself the
discoverer of the sources of the Nile. But I have often heard the
Sennaar merchants declare, that the Bahr el Abyadh (White-River),
which is the name invariably given to the more western branch,
is considerably larger than the Nile. I was credibly informed,
that between Shendy and Damour, there is a cataract in the river,
similar to that of Assouan, and another of greater size and rapidity
in the country of the Arabs Rebatat, below Berber.
At Shendy the river, owing to the height of the banks, often fails to
inundate the adjacent lands; and the husbandmen are too lazy to aid
nature by digging canals. I have already said that Shendy depends,
for its Dhourra, principally upon importations from the south;
but during the famine last year, part of the supply was drawn
from Taka. The rains generally begin about the middle of June;
their season, however, seems to be less settled than in the western
countries of Soudan. In the last days of April, some slight showers
fell at Shendy, and in the evening much lightning was seen to the
east. So early as the 10th of May, we were informed that the bed
of the Mogren was filled with water, and that its stream, then
several feet deep, emptied itself into the Nile; it was therefore
evident that heavy rains must have fallen either towards the
Bisharye mountains, where the Mogren rises, or towards the source
of the Atbara, in Abyssinia; the latter is the more probable, as we
afterwards found no traces of rains in the Bisharye desert. They do
not appear to be very abundant, never continuing for weeks together
without intermission, as is said to be the case in Kordofan, but
falling at intervals, though in heavy torrents. In the northern
desert, between Berber and Egypt, but more particularly in the
mountainous country north of the well of Shigre, there appears
to be no fixed rainy season: all the Egyptians and Ababdes whom
I questioned on the subject, agreed in stating that rain falls
in those mountains both in winter and summer, but never in great
quantity. The caravans are always under some apprehensions of having
their bales spoiled in crossing the desert, by an occasional shower
of rain, whatever may be the time of year. The same information
as to the nature of the rains was given to me during my journey
up the Nile towards Dóngola. In the chain of mountains extending
from Assouan to Kosseir, between the river and the Red Sea, the
rain falls in like manner at all seasons, while to the north of
the Kosseir route, and from thence to Suez, in the mountains of
the Arabs Maazy, it is much more confined to the winter season. It
is well known that showers rarely fall in the valley of the Nile,
but the Delta has its months when the rain falls occasionally. Upper
Egypt is almost entirely deprived of rain near the river, and thus
exhibits the singular spectacle of continual dryness of atmosphere
in the fertile valley, while the barren mountains, at a few hours
distance, have their regular falls of rain. During my stay at Esne,
in Upper Egypt, there occurred in the month of September a most
violent shower, which lasted for two hours; the inhabitants did
not remember having ever experienced any thing like it.
The inhabitants of Shendy, in common with the Egyptians, distinguish
the time of the Khamsein (خمسين), or hot wind. The word is
derived from Khamsyn (fifty), because the winds are computed to
last fifty days, from the 29th or 30th of April, to the 18th or 19th
of June, which is the period of the Nokhta, or dew, when the river
first begins to rise in Egypt. During my stay at Esne the Khamsein
began on the 1st of May, with a suffocating hot wind. I passed the
early part of the same period at Shendy, where we had several days
of hot winds, but whether it was in consequence of my temperate
habits, which (I have reason to believe) tend greatly to weaken
the effect of immoderate heat, as well as cold, or whether it was
owing to the climate itself, the heat appeared much less oppressive
than during the Khamsein in Upper Egypt, although at Shendy I was,
day and night, exposed to the open air, without ever entering a cool
room, and having seldom any thing but a shed to shelter me from the
mid-day heat. It must be recollected, however, that Shendy is upon
a level considerably higher than that of Upper Egypt.
The people of the countries on the Nile from Dóngola to Sennaar,
and all the other true Arab tribes, as far as Bornou, speak no other
language than the Arabic; and they look with disdain upon their
western and eastern neighbours, whom they designate by the same
epithet of Adjem,[50] which the Koran bestows upon all nations who
are strangers to the Arabic language. There exist, however, among
them as many dialects, and as much difference in pronunciation and
phraseology, as are found among the Arabian Bedouins. The eastern
nations on the Atbara, towards Taka and the Red Sea, speak the
Bisharye language, of which I have given a short vocabulary,[51]
and to the west the nearest foreign language is that of Kordofan,
a dialect differing in pronunciation only from that of Four. The
Arabic is well spoken in these countries, and the black Arabs
appeared to me to possess a greater command of it, and to be
more eloquent than their Egyptian brethren. The pronunciation is
similar to that of Upper Egypt, which differs considerably from
the pronunciation of Cairo and the Delta. The inhabitants of Upper
Egypt, to the south of Siout, are in fact ancient Bedouin tribes,
and their idiom appears to me the purest, next to that of Arabia
proper. The pronunciation indeed is Egyptian, but the terms and
phraseology are, for the most part, borrowed from the language of
the Hedjaz, and Yemen, as I fully convinced myself afterwards,
during my stay at Djidda and Mekka. The southern Arabs use many
expressions foreign to the language, and which have been introduced
perhaps by their intimate connexion with the Negroes. They have a
great number of technical terms, which seem to be derived from the
Abyssinian, and others from the Bisharye and Negroe languages.
The Djaalein particularly value themselves upon speaking their
language well. I have heard Arabs of the tribe of Beni Hassan, who
pasture their flocks in the Bahr el Ghazal, speaking much the same
dialect as the Djaalein, and, as I particularly observed, without any
tincture of the Moggrebyn. This circumstance makes it very probable,
that they are of eastern, and not western origin. In the same manner
there are numerous tribes of Arabs in Darfour and Kordofan, who still
retain the language of their forefathers, although they speak also
the idiom of the country. Few persons among the Arab tribes know how
to write and read, but all express themselves with great neatness,
and often very eloquently; and poets are not rare among them. Like
the eastern Arabs, they celebrate the praises of their warriors in
the Kaszyde (قصيده);[52] these are not written down, but are
transmitted orally from one to another; and although they may often
fail in grammatical accuracy, the measure of the verse is always
scrupulously attended to. The melodies of their songs appear not to
be national, for the songs of the Arabs (I do not mean the Bedouins),
whether in Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia or Egypt, retain amidst their
varieties a common character, whereas the melodies of the Moggrebyns
as well as of the Negroe Arabs are quite different. Those of the
latter seem to originate with the Bisharye Bedouins, whose national
airs approach much nearer to them than those of the Egyptians. The
Ababde Bedouins have borrowed the melodies of their songs entirely
from the Bisharein, and they sing in Upper Egypt the same airs,
which I heard again at Shendy from the Sennaar merchants, over
their Bouza. There is however, one species of song common to all
these nations; I mean the Hedou (حدو), or song with which they
animate their camels on the march, especially during the night; it
is the favourite air of all the Bedouins in the Arabian deserts,
and I have heard it on the banks of the Euphrates as well as on
those of the Atbara. Among the peculiarities of all these people,
is a very common practice of smacking with the tongue, when denying,
or refusing any thing, and the same, but in a sharper or higher tone,
as a sign of affirmation or approbation. In Turkey and Arabia this
is considered as an affront, or at least as a most vulgar habit;
they also snap the fingers at the person of whom they demand any
thing, as equivalent to saying “Give me.”
The people of Shendy know little of musical instruments, however
fond they may be of songs. The lyre (Tamboura) and a kind of fife
with a dismal sound, made of the hollow Dhourra stalk, are the only
instruments I saw, except the kettle-drum. This appears to be all
over Soudan an appendage of royalty; and when the natives wish to
designate a man of power, they often say the Nogára (نُقاره)
beats before his house. At Shendy the Mek’s kettle-drums were
beaten regularly every afternoon before his house. A favourite
pastime of the Negroe Arabs, and which is also known among the Arabs
of Upper Egypt, is the Syredje (سيرجه), a kind of draughts;
it is played upon sandy ground, on which they trace with the
finger chequers of forty-nine squares; the pieces, on one side,
are round balls of camel’s dung, picked up in the street, and
on the other those of goats. It is an intricate game, and requires
great attention; the object is to take all the antagonist’s pieces,
but the rules are very different from those of Polish draughts. The
people are uncommonly fond of the game, two persons seldom sitting
down together without immediately beginning to draw squares in
the sand. The Mek himself will play with the lowest slave, if the
latter is reputed a good player. If a bye-stander assists one of
the parties with his advice, it gives no offence to the other;
sometimes they play for a gourd of Bouza, but not usually. Chess is
not quite unknown here, but I never met with any one who played it.