of about a quarter of a mile from the left bank of the river. It
is named Goz from its situation among sands. Its inhabitants are
said to be a mixture of all sorts of Arabs, Bisharein, Hadendoa,
Djaalein, and Shukorye, who have settled here principally for the
purposes of trade. As far as I could judge, agriculture forms no
part of their occupation, and I understood that they draw all their
Dhourra from the neighbouring district of Taka. They possess cattle,
which feed in the summer on the bank of the river, and in winter in
the interior of the desert. Goz is under the dominion of Sennaar,
and its chief, like that of Shendy, is of the reigning family of
Wold Adjib (ولد عجيب). The inhabitants carry on a brisk trade
with Sennaar and Shendy, and sometimes visit the market of Damer,
where, as at Shendy, they sell their cattle. Slaves are always
to be found in the market of Goz, which is frequented sometimes
by Souakin traders, but more usually by the Bisharye and Hadendoa
Bedouins, for, although they are enemies, yet, in these countries,
as among the Arabian Bedouins, a free passage is allowed through
a hostile territory, under certain restrictions. The caravans from
Souakin to Sennaar, which do not wish to pass by Atbara or Shendy,
take the route by Goz, from whence they proceed straight across
the desert to Sennaar. In the winter pools of water abound in
the sands; but in summer the caravans are obliged to carry water
with them for the whole journey of six days; this desert is said
also to be destitute of trees. The route is only attempted during
the hot season, because the Bedouins Shukorye encamp there during
the winter, and render the road dangerous. Although the barrenness
which prevails in this route in the summer often proves fatal to the
slaves, the traders nevertheless prefer it to incurring the expenses
which attend a stay at Shendy, and the payment of passage duties
at Atbara. We marched about four hours during the night, and then
rested upon deep sandy ground near some thorny trees and tamarisks.
_June 4th._—We set out before sun-rise. Our road lay over
an immense plain, without the smallest elevation, except the
abovementioned hills to our left, which, in the morning, bore
N. N. E. and at mid-day, when we halted, N. W. The soil of the plain
consists of clay, with very few stones, and is almost as fertile as
that on the banks of the Nile; it is over-grown with many different
species of wild herbs, and what appeared to me remarkable, each
species occupied a separate spot, seldom mixing with those adjoining
it, so that the whole plain had the appearance of an immense sheet
of patterns. Many of the herbs were now withered.
Our direction was E. N. E.; during the morning a part of our
companions quitted the caravan, and took a more southerly route
towards the southern parts of the country of Taka. About noon we
descried some trees at a distance, and as the heat of the sun was
extremely great, every one hastened in search of a shady place. The
surface of the ground, as well as the trees, afforded proofs of the
prevalence of strong easterly winds. In the afternoon we entered upon
a completely barren, gravelly plain, without trees or the slightest
vegetation of any kind, and without any elevation, or other land
marks to guide the traveller. In the evening there were some vivid
flashes of lightning, which served as a direction for the march,
as the people of the caravan knew the quarter from whence they
came; the horizon was cloudy, and threatened rain. After a march
of about eleven hours we encamped, much tired, in a Wady of trees,
a part of the caravan having gone astray during the night.
_June 5th._—It appeared that we had all missed our road yesterday,
owing to the extreme flatness and barrenness of the plain; for we
started to-day in the direction of E. S. E. After about an hour’s
march we reached the boundaries of the province of Taka; where we
found a rich soil as fine as that near the Nile, and much like it
in colour; the march of the camels was obstructed by thick groves
of Oshour and acacias. A most violent gust of wind arose, and blew
about the dust and sand in such a manner, that we were unable to see
ten yards before us; we in consequence lost our way among the trees,
and after wandering about for some time, during which we frightened
several shepherds, who mistook us for Bisharye enemies, and hastily
drove away their flocks, we reached, after a three hours march,
an encampment of Hadendoa Bedouins, where we rested. One of our
chief guides or Khobara (خبرا) was married to a relative of the
chief of this encampment. We alighted in the open area surrounded by
the tents, which, as in Arabia, were pitched in a Douar or circle
(دوار). Towards evening we were visited by another hurricane,
the most tremendous I ever remember to have witnessed. A dark blue
cloud first appeared, extending to about 25° above the horizon;
as it approached nearer, and increased in height, it assumed an
ash gray colour with a tinge of yellow, striking every person in
the caravan, who had not been accustomed to such phænomena, with
amazement at its magnificent and terrific appearance; as the cloud
approached still nearer, the yellow tinge became more general, while
the horizon presented the brightest azure. At last, it burst upon
us in its rapid course, and involved us in darkness and confusion;
nothing could be distinguished at the distance of five or six feet;
our eyes were filled with dust; our temporary sheds were blown down
at the first gust, and many of the more firmly fixed tents of the
Hadendoa followed; the largest withstood for a time the force of
the blast, but were at last obliged to yield, and the whole camp
was levelled with the ground. In the mean time the terrified camels
arose, broke the cords by which they were fastened, and endeavoured
to escape from the destruction which appeared to threaten them, thus
adding not a little to our own embarrassment. After blowing about
half an hour with incessant violence, the wind suddenly abated,
and when the atmosphere became clear, the tremendous cloud was
seen continuing its havoc to the north-west. Similar hurricanes
frequently happen at this time of the year, their consequences,
however, are never more disastrous than what I have just detailed;
in a few minutes the tents were raised, and every thing was again
put in order.
The Hadendoa showed us little hospitality; we encamped in the
very midst of them, that we might not be exposed to any hostile
attacks in the night, during the whole of which we kept watch to
preserve our baggage from their pilfering propensities. The wells
were at some distance from the encampment, and as the road to them,
which lay through the wood, was unsafe for strangers, the Hadendoa
made us pay for the water they supplied us with. The guide and his
relations feasted upon a sheep that had been slaughtered in honour
of him; a few pounds of the roasted meat were sent from their board
to the party of black merchants to which I belonged, and presently
afterwards the Shikh of the Douar sent a slave to beg some cloves,
which could not be refused, as they were evidently considered as
a return due for the meat. In the Arabian deserts, such meanness
would disgrace a Bedouin and the whole tribe to which he belongs.
_June 6th._—Our people did not like to remain longer with the
Hadendoa, because the smallness of their encampment, and its distance
from any market, left our people little hopes of disposing of their
goods; we therefore, against the opinion of our chief, moved on this
morning in a S. S. E. direction, over the fertile grounds of Taka,
which consist every where of a rich soil, but uncultivated, with
trees, and wild herbs in great abundance. After a winding march
of three hours through the woods, we came to a large encampment
called Filik, where we intended to stop. We entered through one of
the openings made in the high thick enclosure formed of the thorny
branches of trees, with which all these encampments are surrounded,
and we pitched our huts in the square area within. Many of the
merchants had friends here, in whose tents they took up their
quarters. The black traders kept close together, and as I knew that
we should, at all events, remain here for several days, I hired
a Bedouin, for a handful of tobacco, to construct for me a small
tent of mats, which might at least afford me shelter from the sun.
_Taka_ (بلاد التاكا Bellad el Taka). The country of Taka,
or as it is also called by its inhabitants, El Gash (القاش),
is famous all over these countries for its extreme fertility. It
extends in a SE. direction for about three long days journeys
in length, and one in breadth, and is peopled entirely by tribes
who are part settlers and part Bedouins. One day’s journey, in
a SE. direction from Filik, which is an encampment of Hadendoa,
begin the encampments of the Bedouins called Melikinab; further on
live the Bedouins Segollo; one day’s journey from the Melikinab,
begin the tribe of Hallenga, which is divided into the Upper and
Lower, the former dwelling about one day’s journey beyond the
latter. Taka forms part of the country of Bedja,[61] which includes
the course of the river Atbara from Goz Radjeb, and continues, as I
was informed, to the south, as far as the mountains (of Abyssinia,
I suppose), while, to the north, the chain of mountains called
Langay marks the boundary of Bedja, thus including many deserts, and
several hilly districts. Taka itself, however, is an entirely flat
country, or rather low ground, bounded on the N. and W. by deserts,
and on the SE. by a chain of mountains called Negeyb, which, from
what I learnt, runs parallel with the Red Sea. Of the nature of its
frontiers to the south I cannot speak with certainty, but I believe
it to be a country interspersed with mountains and fertile valleys.
The reason why Taka is so fertile, and has become so populous, is its
regular inundation, a fact of which not a doubt can be entertained,
although I found it impossible to obtain exact information of
the causes of this inundation, or of the circumstances attending
it. About the latter end of June, or sometimes not till July, for
the period does not seem to be so fixed as that of the rise of the
Nile,[62] large torrents coming from the S. and SE. pour over the
country, and in the space of a few weeks (or according to some,
in eight days), cover the whole surface with a sheet of water,
varying in depth from two to three feet; these torrents are said to
lose themselves in the eastern plain, after inundating the country,
but the waters remain upwards of a month in Taka; and if I am to
believe the reports of several persons who had seen the Nile,
and could draw a comparison, the waters, on subsiding, leave a
thick slime, or mud, upon the surface, similar to that left by the
Nile. It is certain that immediately after the inundation is imbibed,
the Bedouins sow the seed upon the alluvial mud, without any previous
preparation whatever. The inundation is usually accompanied by heavy
rains, which set in a short time before the inundation, and become
most copious during its height. I was informed that the rains are
ushered in by hurricanes of incredible violence, blowing from the
south every evening after sun-set. The rains last several weeks
longer than the inundation; but they are not incessant, falling
in heavy showers at short intervals. In the winter and spring, the
people of Taka obtain their water from deep wells, extremely copious,
dispersed all over the country, but at a considerable distance from
each other; they are in groups of half a dozen together, with large
mud basins round them for the cattle to drink from, and as they
supply the adjacent country to the distance of four or five miles,
they are crowded the whole day with shepherds and their flocks. The
water of most of these wells is brackish; but it is said that there
is always found one in each group of which the contents are sweeter
than the rest. They are dug to the depth of from twenty-five to forty
feet, and are not lined on the sides with either brick or stones.
The produce of Taka is very disproportioned to what it might be
in such a fine soil, every part of which is inundated, and where
the inundation rarely fails. The people appear to be ignorant of
tillage. They have no regular fields; and the Dhourra, their only
grain, is sown among the thorny trees, and Oshour, by dibbling
large holes in the ground, into each of which a handful of the
seed is thrown. After the harvest is gathered, the peasants return
to their pastoral occupations; they seem never to have thought of
irrigating the ground for a second crop with the water which might
every where be found by digging wells. Not less than four-fifths of
the ground remain unsown; but as the quantity of Dhourra produced is,
generally, sufficient not only for their own consumption, but also
for the supply of others, they never think of making any provisions
for increasing it, notwithstanding that when the inundation is
not copious, or only partial (no one remembers its ever failing
entirely), they suffer all the miseries of want. Twenty-four
Mouds of Dhourra were bought here with one piece of Tob Dammour;
at Shendy the same price is given for seven Mouds. Calculating the
price by dollars, nearly the same quantity of Dhourra is obtained
here for one Spanish dollar, as in Upper Egypt, which is the cheapest
corn-market in the East.[63] The Dhourra is of the best quality, and
of the same species as that of Upper Egypt, and the countries on the
Nile, but it is much larger grained, whiter, and better flavoured;
it is therefore in great request, and when I was at Souakin, in the
house of the Turkish officer of the customs, I eat of loaves made
of this Dhourra, which were little inferior to wheaten bread. In the
Djidda market the Taka Dhourra is sold twenty per cent. dearer than
that grown in Egypt. I believe nothing else is cultivated except
a few Bamyes and Loubyes. The people are extremely fond of onions,
which have become a kind of currency between them and the Souakin
traders; but no one has ever tried to grow them in Taka.
Taka is as celebrated for its herds of cattle as for its Dhourra;
they are very numerous; the cows are particularly handsome, and have
all humps on the back, like those on the Nile; they serve, as in
Darfour and Kordofan, for a medium of exchange. The price of a large
fat cow was four pieces of Dammour, or ninety-six Mouds of Dhourra,
which is equivalent to about two Erdeybs, or thirty bushels. The
price of a strong camel is one-fourth more. As it was now the
hottest part of the year, just before the period of the rains,
when the ground is quite parched up, I saw few cattle. According
to the annual custom, the herds had been sent several months before
to the Eastern desert, where they feed in the mountains and fertile
valleys, and where springs of water are found. After the inundation,
they are brought back to the plain. The camels of Taka are highly
prized, from an idea that the young shoots of the acacia trees,
on which they feed in the woods, render them stronger than camels
fed with other food. The people use the skin of the long neck of
the camel, sowed up on one side, and left open on the other, as
sacks to transport their grain in, when travelling; their form is
very convenient for loading. The quantity of cattle would be even
greater than it is, were it not for the wild beasts which inhabit
the forests, and destroy great numbers of them; the most common
of these are lions, and what they call tigers, but which I suppose
to be leopards or panthers. I never saw any of these animals, but
I heard their howlings every night. The flocks of the encampment,
near which a few sheep are always kept, are driven in the evening
into the area within the circle of tents, and the openings in the
thorny enclosure already described are filled up with a heap of
thorns. No one dares stir out of this entrenchment during the night;
it is sufficiently strong to be impenetrable to the wild beasts,
which prowl about it the whole of the night, filling the air with
their dismal howls, which are answered by the incessant barking of
the dogs within. It rarely happens that either lions or tigers are
killed in these countries; when such an occurrence happens, it is
in self-defence; for the inhabitants having no other weapons than
swords and lances,[64] have little chance of conquering the king
of the forest, of which this district appears to be a favourite
haunt. Some of the Shikhs, but very few, have lion skins in their
tents; they appeared to be of middling size; but if the testimony
of the Hadendoa may be credited, a lion here sometimes reaches the
size of a cow. Persons are frequently killed by them. In the woods
wolves (ذيب), Gazelles, and hares abound; and the Bedouins relate
stories of serpents of immense size, which often devour a sheep
entire. The fiercest animals, however, that inhabit these woods are
the Bedjawy, or inhabitants of Bedja, themselves. Great numbers of
asses are kept by all these Bedouins. In the mountains of Negeyb,
the Giraffa is said to be very numerous; I saw a piece of the skin
of one in the tent of a Hadendoa. Locusts are always seen in Taka,
which seems to be their breeding-place, from whence they spread
over other parts of Nubia. However innumerable their hosts may
be, they appear to be incapable of destroying the verdure of this
country, as sometimes happens in Egypt and Syria. Those I saw were
of the largest size, with the upper wings of a red, and the lower
of a yellow colour. The trees are full of pigeons, and crows in
large flocks. I do not remember having seen any birds remarkable
for their plumage. From the acacia trees gum arabic is collected,
which is sold at Souakin to the Djidda merchants; from Djidda it
finds its way to Egypt; but it is of an indifferent quality, owing,
probably, to the moisture of the soil; for the best gum is produced
in the driest deserts.
The Hadendoa Bedouins, the only inhabitants of Taka seen by me,
evidently belong to the same nation as the Bisharein, and all the
Eastern Nubians, with whom they have the same features, language,
character, and manners. They are the strongest of the four tribes
who people Taka; the Melikinab are the weakest. All these people are
partly cultivators and partly Bedouins. Each tribe has a couple of
large villages built in the desert, on the border of the cultivable
soil, where some inhabitants are always to be found, and to which
the whole population, excepting those who tend the cattle in the
interior of the desert, repairs during the rainy season. When the
waters subside the Bedouins then spread over the whole district,
pitching their Douars or camps in those places where they hope
for the best pasturage, and moving about from month to month,
until the sun parches up the herbage; the settlers in the village
meantime sow the ground adjoining the neighbouring desert. The camps
consist of huts formed of mats, like those of Atbara. There are also
a few huts with mud walls, resembling those in the countries on the
Nile, but smaller: even of the settlers, however, the greater part
prefer living in the open country, under sheds, to inhabiting close
dwellings. Besides the villages just described, there are others
within the fertile districts, which are built upon insulated sandy
spots, like islands, somewhat elevated above the general level. I
enquired whether there were any marshes, or large ponds of stagnant
water in Taka, but was answered in the negative.
The encampment where we remained consisted of from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred tents, divided into four Douars, or circles;
these were separated from each other by fences lower than the
general thorny enclosure, by which the whole were surrounded. In
every settlement in Taka, as at Shendy and Atbara, there are several
Bouza huts, and many public women, with some of whom even the most
respectable of the Souakin merchants took up their quarters. These
women seemed to me to be more decent in their behaviour than those
of the same description in the countries on the Nile; at least
they seldom appeared abroad during the day, whereas the others were
seen walking about at all hours. Both sexes wear the common Nubian
dress, a Dammour shirt, and a cloke of the same stuff thrown over
the shoulders. I observed one peculiarity amongst the women, that
of wearing brass or silver rings on their toes; many of them wear
leathern aprons, instead of the Dammour cloth which the Nubian
women generally wrap round the middle; the same custom prevails
amongst the Bedouins of the Hedjaz. In their tents they suspend
various ornaments of white shells, Woda (وضع), from the Red Sea,
intermixed with black ostrich feathers. All the women go unveiled,
and the most respectable think it no shame whatever to receive
a man in their tent, and to be seen chatting with him during
the husband’s absence. This, however, never happened to me,
for whenever I presented myself before a tent, the ladies greeted
me with loud screams, and waved with their hands for me to depart
instantly. Nothing astonished them more than my beard and mustachios;
for the beards of the Bedouins never grow long or thick, and they
cut their mustachios very short, it being a disgrace amongst them
to wear them long, and considered as great a mark of slovenliness
as an unshorn beard among Europeans.
In almost every village we found one or two individuals who had been
on the Hadj, and who exercised the functions of Fakys. They are the
only persons who trouble themselves about religious ceremonies,
the people generally being entirely ignorant of the Mohammedan
law and religion. In some instances they act directly contrary to
the dictates of Mohammed, as for example, in eating the blood of
slaughtered animals, which is prepared by placing it over the fire
till it coagulates, when some salt is mixed with it, and butter
poured upon it. Cows blood is most esteemed for this dish, which is
equally common in Darfour, as I was informed by the Negroe slaves
from that country. They eat no flesh raw excepting the liver, or
kidneys; these the Arabian Bedouins, and the inhabitants of Syria,
also eat raw with salt. The raw marrow of cows is considered a great
dainty. When their cattle is near the encampment they live almost
wholly upon milk, particularly that of the camel. When a company is
collected, a large bowl of milk is set on the ground in the midst of
them, and is handed round at intervals of about five minutes, for
every one to sip a little; when emptied the bowl is filled again,
and thus continues as long as the guests remain.