(هامّداب); which must not be confounded with the Hameydab
(حميداب,) a tribe of Ababde. The Hammadab are one of
the strongest tribes of the Bisharye nation:[58] the chief had
travelled with us from Shendy, where he had purchased some slaves
and horses. There are always a few inhabitants in this place who
trade with Shendy, and wait here for the arrival of the Souakin
caravans. As soon as it was known in the neighbourhood that a
caravan had arrived, and intended to stop a few days, a great number
of Bisharein came with Dhourra, sheep, butter, and milk, in order
to barter these articles for Dammour and drugs, especially Mehleb,
cloves, and incense, or Libban, from the west. Scarcely any of these
people understand the Arabic language, except those who trade to
Berber and Shendy; but it is understood by almost all their slaves,
the greater part of whom are educated among the inhabitants on the
Nile. Their dress, or rather undress, was every where the same,
consisting only of a Dammour shirt, worn by both men and women;
I thought the latter remarkably handsome; they were of a dark brown
complexion, with beautiful eyes, and fine teeth; their persons were
slender and elegant. They seemed to be under no fear of jealousy in
their husbands or fathers, as they came laughing and joking quite
close to our tents, and those who could not speak Arabic endeavoured
to make themselves understood by signs. The beauties seemed to be
fully conscious of their charms; but it was easy to perceive that
they flirted with us for no other purpose than to make a better
bargain for their Dhourra and milk, than the less handsome ones
could obtain; and they all betrayed bad faith in their dealings
with us. I had already heard in Egypt, that the Bisharein are not
jealous of their women; it is with them a law of honour never to
suspect their wives till they have the most unequivocal proofs of
their incontinency. A Bisharye seeing a stranger kiss his wife,
would laugh it off, but death would inevitably ensue if he caught
her in adultery.
The Bisharein of Atbara, like all their brethren, are a handsome
and bold race of people; they go constantly armed, and are seldom
free from quarrels. Drunkenness is as common among them as it
is among the Arabs of Shendy, and we heard every night some loud
dispute in the Bouza huts. They are much addicted to pilfering, and
notwithstanding all our precautions, every person in the caravan lost
some small articles of baggage; several camels were also stolen, but
they were afterwards returned through the interference of the chief,
who exacted a handsome present for his trouble. Their propensity to
theft is not the worst part of their character; they appear to be
treacherous, cruel, avaricious, and revengeful, and are restrained
in the indulgence of these passions by no laws either divine or
human. One of the people of this village, who had come with us
from Shendy, found on his arrival, that two of his best camels
had been stolen. Suspecting one of his neighbours to be the thief,
he came to the Tekaýrne, to know whether they would, by charms,
inform him if his suspicions were well founded; but they refused
to give him any distinct answer, or to meddle in the business. The
man then swore that if he ever ascertained who the thief was,
he would cut the throats of all his children, maim his camels,
and reduce him to such poverty, as would oblige him to feed with
the cattle in the woods. The Bisharein are all Mussulmans, but they
observe none of the rites prescribed by that religion, thus forming a
remarkable contrast to the Negroe Hadjis who pass this way, and who
never omit any of the exterior duties of the Musselman faith. The
inhospitable character of the Bisharein would alone prove them to
be a true African race, were it not put beyond all doubt by their
language. Not a drop of milk could be had without purchasing it,
and the women obliged us to pay for the use of some old earthen
pots which we were in need of during our stay; no one would even
interpret between us and such of the people as were ignorant of
Arabic, without exacting at least a handful of Dhourra for his
trouble; this avaricious spirit is conspicuous in all their actions,
and it is not merely caravan passengers, from whom it is natural
for them to extort some profit, that are thus treated; the poor
Negroe pilgrims who pass this place in their way to Taka complain
bitterly of the pitiless inhabitants of the banks of the Atbara.
Dhourra, and a small quantity of Loubye, or kidney-beans, are sown
in the woods close to the river, without any previous preparation
of the ground. Water-wheels are unknown. The extent of fertile soil
is equal on both sides of the river; but nothing is cultivated on
the left bank, on account of the depredations of the Djaalein on
that side. In years when the river does not overflow the banks,
they draw all their supplies from Taka. The same trees grow near
the village which I saw on the west bank; the Nebek was the most
common; its fruit is so abundant that the camels are sometimes fed
upon it. The Oshour occupies the intervals between the larger trees,
and leaves but little space for the growth of the Dhourra. A great
number of turtle-doves and pigeons flew about; they have numerous
enemies in a species of eagle, which is very little larger than
the eagle Rakham of Egypt; the body is quite black, the head bald,
and of a deep purple red, like that of the turkey. The Bisharein
say that tigers abound in the woods, and that very large serpents
are sometimes seen; but though I crossed the woods every day to
bring water from the river, I never saw any quadrupeds, except
innumerable hosts of rats, of the largest size, running among the
Dhourra stubble, great numbers of which the slaves killed, and were
delighted to eat. The large ants, which are said to be extremely
obnoxious in Kordofan and Darfour, are never seen any where to the
east of the Nile. During high water crocodiles are found in the
river, but no hippopotami. The rhinoceros is unknown here.
The cattle of the Bisharein are very fine, and in great
abundance. Their camels had just been sent to the nearest mountains,
where some rains had fallen, to feed upon the fresh herbage, while
those in our caravan were driven every morning into the woods to
feed upon the twigs of the acacias. The flocks of sheep and goats
were following the camels to the mountains; we bought two large
sheep for one dollar’s worth of Dammour. The chief and some of
his relatives keep horses, and wear coats of mail; there are a
couple of asses belonging to every tent.
The river Atbara joins the Mogren at about two days from this
village, beyond which the united stream bears the latter name. The
Mogren is said to rise in the Bisharye mountains, but it is almost
dry in summer; and even in the rainy season, appears to be nothing
but a collection of torrents. The direct road from hence to Souakin
does not cross it, whence it is evident that its course must be
much more from the northward than is generally laid down in the
maps. I have already stated that we found very little water in the
Atbara; a few weeks before, it must have been almost dried up; for
in the bed of the united stream, where we crossed it near Damer,
we found nothing but some stagnant pools. During our stay at Atbara
we had several light showers at night, and the days were cloudy,
often with foggy mornings. On the 3d and 4th of June the river fell
suddenly, leaving the greater part of the bed quite dry. I afterwards
observed in our way to Taka, that the fall must have been at least
one foot. The banks are not more than twenty-five feet high; I did
not measure the river’s breadth, but from a clear impression left
on my mind, I conjecture the banks to be distant from each other
at most from four to five hundred paces. The current of the stream
was so slow as hardly to be perceptible.
The women of Atbara shave their heads on the death of their nearest
relatives; a custom prevalent also among several of the peasant
tribes of Arabs in Upper Egypt. The law of retaliation is said
to exist among the Bisharein in all its force; their tribes are
in continual war with each other; their national enemies are the
Shukorye on one side, and the Hadendoa on the other. The Hammadab who
live at Atbara have for neighbours, up the river, towards Goz Radjeb,
the Beni Kurb, and in the desert the Baterab, both of the Bisharye
race. The Hammadab cultivate the banks of the Atbara as low as its
junction with the Mogren, below which commence the territories of
the Djaalein. From thence to Berber is four long journeys, but the
road is very little frequented, and the only places these people
communicate with are Shendy, Goz Radjeb, and Taka, and with the
Bisharein of the mountains to the northward.
After remaining three or four days at Atbara the chief of the
village collected passage duty from every individual, according to
the number of his slaves. Each slave pays one Tob Dammour, and the
same is levied upon every camel’s load, whatever it may consist
of. Those merchants who are supposed, or known to carry gold,
are taxed arbitrarily, which, as may readily be conceived, gives
rise to many disputes. I paid on the whole one Tob and a half; but
the Souakin merchants were extremely dissatisfied with the chief on
account of his extortions, and told him that they would never again
return by this route. It is, however, the safest road to Souakin,
the desert on this side being inhabited by tribes friendly to the
Hadherebe, and to Souakin; and I was informed that the chief of
Atbara is obliged to divide with several of those tribes the sums
which he derives from the caravan. The road, on the contrary, from
Souakin to Damer, lies through the pasturing-places of some potent
Bisharye tribes inimical to Souakin, and cannot be passed but by
caravans sufficiently strong to repel any attack. The day after
we had paid the duties, the chief sent to every party of traders
a large dish of Dhourra made into a liquid paste, and some Bouza
for the use of the caravan.
The caravan, on quitting Atbara, was to divide into two parties,
the one taking the direct road through the desert to Souakin,
the other proceeding by Taka. The former route, for the three
first days, takes a direction more easterly than Souakin, to the
well of Gengerab, when it passes in a direct line to Souakin, by
three watering-places, situated two days from each other. The entire
journey is of ten or twelve days; the road abounds with pasturage and
many encampments of Bedouins are met with in the fertile valleys,
which are watered by winter torrents, giving birth to luxuriant
crops of wild herbage. The part of the caravan proceeding to Taka,
intended to sell there the Dammour and tobacco which they had brought
from Sennaar; some of them purposed returning immediately afterwards
to Shendy, while others intended to go on to Souakin. I determined
to take the Taka road, and had the pleasure of seeing the Negroe
merchants in whose company I travelled, follow my example. They had
many slaves; their camels were weak, and on the Taka road they knew
that water was to be met with daily.
_May 31st._—The merchants destined for Souakin had left us on the
preceding night. We departed ourselves in the morning, following
the banks of the Atbara, and passing over a plain about two miles
in breadth, overgrown with Doum trees and Oshour, among which the
Dhourra stubble was still standing. I observed several hamlets
in the thick groves of acacia trees near the river. At the end of
three hours we halted upon a sandy beach near the river, where I
saw several skeletons of crocodiles of moderate length lying on the
ground. There appeared not the smallest elevation of ground; as far
as the eye could reach, the horizon was unbroken in every direction,
and the country on both sides of the river was an uninterrupted
flat. A great number of rats ran, at every step, among the legs
of the camels, and the slaves amused themselves the whole day with
hunting them. From this place we took a short cut, leaving the river
at some distance to the right, and proceeded over a gravelly and
sandy plain, in a direction south. After a day’s march of about
ten hours we again reached the river, and encamped for the night.
_June 1st._—We continued to follow the bed of the river; the banks
on both sides are overgrown with trees. This district belongs to
the Beni Kurb. The soil is fertile, but bears no traces whatever
of cultivation; the inhabitants of several hamlets or encampments
appear to be exclusively shepherds. At a spot, where we came
close to the bed of the river, I calculated its breadth at about
ten minutes walk. At the end of four hours we passed Om Daoud, a
large encampment of the tribe of Nefidjab of the Bisharein; this
is the most southern boundary of the Bisharye dominions, and the
beginning of the territory of the Hadendoa, a very powerful tribe,
of which I shall again have occasion to speak; the son of their
Shikh had come with us from Shendy, and we had therefore little
to fear, except from their pilfering habits. The caravan halted
near the village, and I walked up to the huts to look about me. My
appearance on this occasion, as on many others, excited an universal
shriek of surprise and horror, especially among the women, who were
not a little terrified at seeing such an outcast of nature as they
consider a white man to be, peeping into their huts, and asking
for a little water or milk. The chief feeling which my appearance
inspired I could easily perceive to be disgust, for the Negroes are
all firmly persuaded that the whiteness of the skin is the effect of
disease, and a sign of weakness; and there is not the least doubt,
that a white man is looked upon by them as a being greatly inferior
to themselves. At Shendy the inhabitants were more accustomed to the
sight if not of white men, at least of the light-brown natives of
Arabia; and as my skin was much sun-burnt, I there excited little
surprise. On the market days, however, I often terrified people,
by turning short upon them, when their exclamation generally was:
Owez billahi min es-sheyttan erradjim (اعوز باللّه من
الشيطان الرّجيم), “God preserve us from the devil!”
One day, after bargaining for some onions with a country girl in the
market at Shendy, she told me, that if I would take off my turban
and shew her my head, she would give me five more onions; I insisted
upon having eight, which she gave me; when I removed my turban she
started back at the sight of my white closely shaven crown, and
when I jocularly asked her whether she should like to have a husband
with such a head, she expressed the greatest surprise and disgust,
and swore that she would rather live with the ugliest Darfour slave.
On the side of the desert near the village of Om Daoud, were a
number of tombstones; the small-pox made great ravages here last
year. According to the Nubian custom, the graves were covered with
pebbles of white quartz, and a pole was stuck down at each end. We
here fell in with a large caravan of Bisharein, who were travelling
the same road with us as far as Goz Radjeb, where they intended to
purchase Dhourra. The Souakin traders entertained great suspicions
of them, as they belonged to a tribe which was not altogether
friendly, and we therefore kept carefully separated from them,
and upon the watch.
From Om Daoud we continued along the Atbara, making occasionally
short cuts across the desert. Our general direction was
S. E. b. S. After a march of nine hours and a half, having seen
that the Bisharein caravan had alighted at some distance from us, we
halted; our chief was afraid to continue our route and halt farther
on, lest we should be surprised; he thought it more prudent to have
the enemy in view, than behind us, and we kept under arms the whole
of the night. We lighted a fire, and placed our baggage in such a
manner as to serve as a protection to us, in case of an attack. The
Bisharein, however, were probably in as much fear of us as we were
of them; for they remained the next morning on their halting place,
while we continued our journey.
_June 2d._—We travelled this morning about four hours, in a
south-east direction, over a plain of cultivable soil, though
distant several miles from the river. No mountains were any where
visible. We rested during the mid-day hours in a grove of Nebek,
Syale, and Allobe trees. I here observed several unknown birds;
one was of the size and shape of a black-bird, with a long tail
striped with white. I saw some large crows with a white neck. The
Bisharein seemed to have no names in their language for these
different birds; amongst them it is a great scandal to eat the
flesh of birds, and I several times heard them sneeringly call the
Egyptians “bird-eaters.” On resuming our journey we entered
the sandy desert in the direction of S. E. b. E. In the afternoon
the Souakin traders chased with their swiftest dromedaries a wild
beast which they descried at a distance; they called it in Arabic
Homar el Wahsh (حمار الوحش), which means the wild ass. It
did not come near enough to be distinctly seen; but they say it is
of the size of a hyæna, with a head and tail much resembling those
of an ass: it has no horns. In the Arabian deserts they speak of
an animal to which they give the same name; whether it is really
the same animal I am not certain. The ground was covered in every
direction with innumerable footsteps of the Gazelle species, some
of which appeared to belong to animals of a much larger size than
any I had yet seen. At the end of four hours, we halted in a Wady
with trees. The heat during the day was very oppressive; at night we
had a shower of rain. Along the whole route I observed in the form
of the sand-hills, and in the shape of the trees, evident proofs of
the prevalence of strong easterly winds. A high insulated mountain
in the plain bore east, four hours distant.
_June 3d._—We saw this morning, while travelling in the plain,
a mirage of the brightest azure, as pure and clear as those I had
witnessed in the desert between Egypt and Berber. After a march
of four hours (direction south), we again reached the river,
nearly opposite the large village of Goz Radjeb (قوز رجب),
an Arabic name. The banks on both sides were quite barren. We
encamped under some Oshour trees, large enough to afford shade to
the whole party. It was our intention to remain here a few days,
as the Hadherebe thought the market of Goz Radjeb a fit place for
disposing of a part of their merchandize. In approaching the river
I saw at a distance two insulated hills close to each other in the
plain, and at a short distance from the river; and when we drew
nearer to them, I was extremely surprised to see upon the summit
of the largest a huge fabric of ancient times. Being naturally
short-sighted, and my vision having been further impaired by two
attacks of ophthalmia while I was in Upper Egypt, I could not
trust my eyes, and therefore asked my companions what it was that
appeared like a building upon the hill. “Don’t you see,”
they replied, “that it is a church?” (Kenise, كنيسه,
a name often applied by the Egyptians to their ancient temples,
which they ascribe to the Christians) “and no doubt the work of
infidels.” We continued to approach the hill, and encamped at
about half an hour’s distance from it. As soon as we had alighted,
and placed our baggage in order, I started for the hills, in great
eagerness to examine these Ethiopian remains; but a loud cry from
the Souakin people brought me back. “The whole country,” they
said, “is infested by the peasants of Goz Radjeb; you will not
be able to move a hundred paces alone, without being attacked.”
Indeed several suspicious looking persons were seen lurking among
the trees that lined the banks of the river farther on. My companions
added, that the hill was inhabited by Hadendoa robbers, who lived in
caverns in it, and were at war with all their neighbours. As they
could have no interest in deceiving me, I readily believed them,
and returned, not with the intention of abandoning my design, but in
the hope of being able the next day to concert measures with some
of the country people who might come to barter with us, for their
accompanying me to the ruins, which I was then fully determined
to visit, whatever might be the consequences. Unfortunately I was
deceived in my expectations; and I shall never forgive myself for
the momentary irresolution which prevented me from examining the
most interesting object which occurred during my journey.
A party of our people had crossed the river to Goz Radjeb to
inquire after the state of the market. About two hours after
sunset, when we were retiring to sleep,[59] they returned, and
soon after the chief of the caravan came to us, crying: “Make
haste, the caravan is in fear; if we remain here we shall be
attacked. Fill your water-skins, and load your camels, for we
shall depart immediately.”[60] In such cases, every feeling
gives way to that of self-preservation. Forgetting for a moment
the temple, I ran with two skins to the river, while my slave got
the camel ready, and by the time I returned with my filled skins,
the chief had set off. The people who went to Goz Radjeb had been
there secretly informed that a large party of Bisharein intended
to surprise us, and the immediate departure of the caravan became
in consequence advisable, as it would have been very difficult to
pass the river during the night, in order to take refuge at Goz,
where we might have been moreover besieged for a long while. We
proceeded in silence along the bank of the river; I passed the foot
of the hill, but the night was cloudy, and its darkness prevented
me from catching the smallest glimpse of the ruins. The barking of
dogs proved to me that our people had told me the truth in saying
that the rocks were inhabited. Our merchants seemed much frightened,
the greatest silence was observed, no pipes were permitted to be
lighted, lest the burning ashes might indicate the direction of our
march, and nothing was heard but the groans of a few infirm female
slaves, and the whips of their cruel masters, who obliged them to
follow the caravan on foot, having lent the camels upon which they
rode to some people of Goz, for the transport of goods to Taka. I
cast a last look towards the object of my curiosity, and lamented
the ill fortune, which last year, when at the most southern point
which I reached on the Nile, had prevented me from seeing the temple
of Soleb in Mahass, and now again, when I had gained the farthest
term of my journey southwards, had equally thwarted my desires,
and had deprived the public of what many persons might perhaps have
thought the most valuable fruit of this difficult journey. May a
more fortunate or a more courageous traveller be hereafter able to
examine what I have thus merely pointed out.
The rock of these hills is granite; while passing them in the night,
I picked up several stones, which I found the next morning to be red
coarse-grained granite. The hill upon which the ruin stands appears
to be the highest, being about three or four hundred feet above the
river, with sloping sides covered with large irregular blocks, and
masses of rock. It is perpendicular on the side towards the river,
between which and the hill is a space of about thirty yards, where
the road passes. The building appears to be just over the precipice,
and to face the river. What I could distinguish of [Illustration]
it were two high and extremely massive walls, with an equally
massive flat roof; on the roof was a sort of cupola, the sides of
which appeared to be perpendicular. I could perceive no columns,
or any other building. The ruin itself is enclosed on all sides
by high rocks, which hide the greater part of it from view; and in
the day time I was unable to get a sight of it in front. As far as
I could judge its walls must be between thirty and forty feet in
height, and I suppose them to be built of granite, as they were of
the same hue as the surrounding rocks. I had no telescope with me,
and can therefore give no accurate details respecting these remains;
but the whole building, with the exception of the pointed roof,
appeared to me to be of the rudest construction, and of the remotest
antiquity. I asked the Souakin merchants if they had ever seen any
similar ruins in this neighbourhood, but they had never gone higher
up the river, and could therefore give me no positive information,
and no natives appeared whom I could question on the subject.