CHAPTER VI.

Laying out a garden _à l’Européenne_. Hunting adventure with

a bastard Gems-bok. Death of Arslan. Physiognomy of the

vegetation. Character of the soil. Geography of plants.

Destruction of a Seriba by natives. Seriba law. Cattle-raids on

the Dinka. Tour round Ghattas’s Seribas. Geography at Geer. Fish

of the Tondy. Fear of ghosts in Koolongo. Caves of Gubbehee.

Cental African jackal. Bamboos in blossom. Triumph of Nature

over her traducers. Joint-stock distillery in Gurfala. Nubian

love of drink. Petherick’s Mundo. Unsuccessful chase in the long

grass. Two bush-antelopes. Cultivated plants of the district.

Cereals. Large growth of sorghum. Leguminous fruits. Oily

fruits. Tubers. Vegetables. Tobacco. Smoking in Africa.

I was again in Ghattas’s Seriba on the 13th of May. The arrival of an

ivory caravan on its return journey had brought an unwonted animation.

But for me very soon the ordinary routine of life came back, and one

day passed on just like another in the closest intercourse with

Nature. Except during some temporary excursions to the Bongo, this

Seriba would be my residence for some months to come, and I set to

work to make my quarters as comfortable as I could in a good-sized hut

which had been vacated for me.

The first thing I did was to lay out a large vegetable garden, a task

which engaged not only all my own people, but gave occupation to not a

few of the black slaves of the place. I had not only brought with me a

good supply of pickaxes and spades, but I had likewise a capital

collection of seeds. Thus I hoped at once to provide for my own

necessities, and to prove to the natives the productiveness of their

soil. The plot of ground was nearly 200 paces square, and the next

thing was to enclose it with a hedge of straw, and to lay it out with

a series of parallel beds. The larger number of these beds I planted

with the best sorts of maize, of which I had procured the original

ears from New Jersey.

Seventy days after sowing I reaped the crop, and the ingathering did

not simply answer ray highest expectations, but surpassed in quality

the original stock; the kinds which seemed to succeed best being those

which after they are dry are horny and transparent.

Tobacco from Maryland grew to an immense height, and I gathered

several hundredweights of it. There was not altogether so much of a

deficiency of tobacco in the country as of the larger leaves, of which

use could be made for rolling into cigars. In Egypt the Virginian

tobacco can be made to grow leaves as large as the palm of one’s hand,

but in the negro districts the whole produce is quite diminutive.

Negroes always sow tobacco under cover before they plant it out; the

midday sun of Central Africa is too powerful for the seed, which

infallibly perishes in a parched soil. I had always to guard against

the same difficulty with all my European vegetables, especially in

July, or at other times, when five or six days without a drop of rain

would come in succession, and I only saved my young sprouts by having

water brought twice a day by the women in their great pitchers. Worms

did a vast amount of mischief amongst the germinating seeds, and no

devastator was more destructive than the great millipede

(_Spirostreptus_), which, as long and thick as my finger, penetrated

the soil in every direction. The havoc made in this way amongst the

beans before they were set was very considerable.

[Sidenote: GARDEN VEGETABLES.]

The hard, yet fertile soil, I feel certain, is quite suited for our

cucumbers, cabbage, turnip-cabbage, and radishes. Of radishes, the

European sort succeeds better than the Egyptian, which belongs to

quite an anomalous variety. Melons and water-melons can only be

ripened during the winter months, when they are artificially protected

and supplied with moisture. Any attempt to grow them in the rainy

season always results in failure; either the fruit is eaten by worms

long before it is mature, or the leaves are devoured by grubs. Here,

too, I trained some tomatoes and sunflowers, which ever since have

been quite naturalised in this part of Africa. Had my sojourn been

longer, I should have made an attempt at establishing the plantain, of

which indeed I saw some isolated plants now and then in the Seriba.

This is a natural production of the land of the Niam-niam; it would

doubtless thrive here, but the indolence of the Nubians is so great,

and their indifference towards all produce that must be gained by toil

is so indomitable, that garden culture amongst them remains fitful and

unprogressive.

When I had seen all the labours of the kitchen-garden complete, I was

free to abandon myself to the full delights of the flora. Up with the

sun, I used to take one or two of my people with me to carry my

portfolios and my arms, and in the safe proximity of the Seriba I

explored the woods for hours together, returning about noon with a

whole treasury of floral wealth. My table at meals never failed to be

well supplied, and I was treated as bountifully as in Africa I could

be. I enjoyed sitting in the shade of some spreading tree, while I

proceeded to analyse, to classify, and to register, the various

novelties which I was perpetually finding. Later in the day I was in

the habit of wandering out alone over the plains, whilst my servants

at home busied themselves in renewing the paper for my _hortus

siccus_, and in pressing out the plants afresh. This labour of the day

was often carried on till quite late at night: it was repeated so

often that my collection increased to a very considerable extent; roll

was piled up after roll; everything most carefully stitched up in

hides ready to go along with me on my farther journey, and to be

carried across deserts and seas until they could finally be deposited

in the magazines of science.

[Sidenote: BASTARD GEMSBOK.]

One of these rambles into the woods led to a singular hunting

adventure, which could only occur in Central Africa. I had been

sitting crouched up for half an hour or more under the shade of a

butter-tree, in the midst of some tall grass, and, engaged in the

dissection of my plants, I had quite forgotten where I was. My three

attendants were enjoying, as they were accustomed, a peaceful doze;

stillness reigned so supreme in the solitude that one could almost

hear the tread of every emmet on the soil, as backwards and forwards

it hurried to the laboratory within its hill. All at once a huge

shadow came in sight, and looking up I saw, just within pistol-range,

the great form of a buck antelope. I was struck as much with

admiration as with surprise: the creature had seemed to come suddenly

from the earth. My heart fluttered at the apparition, but I could not

be otherwise than sensible of its beauty. It was a specimen of the

bastard gems-bok (_Antilope leucophæa_). Except on the belly, which

was white, its long hair was all of a brownish grey. It carried its

head erect; its ears were long and pointed; its horns massive and very

long; its black legs going off into white fetlocks. A stiff mane of

bright brown crested its curved neck, and reached to its withers. It

had a tail like the giraffe, with which it wisped off the flies—a

tuft of hair of about nine inches in length appended to a long slim

stem. There it stood, majestically, I might say, like a stately

buffalo when it surveys the region all around before it trusts itself

to feed. There it stood, in an attitude at once commanding and

defiant. Whenever it moved the grass crackled beneath its tread, and

ere long it shifted its place again and turned its full face towards

me. I cautiously reached out my hand for a rifle that was lying near

me, pushed back the guard, and, at the next movement of the beast, hit

it with a ball right upon the shoulder-blade from a distance of about

twenty paces. The creature reared itself up, then paused an instant,

staggered, and let its head sink down as if amazed. I was just about

to get hold of a second rifle when there came a sudden crash, and,

while I was still sitting, the animal had fallen just beyond the open

portfolio which was lying outspread before me. Fortune had thus cast

the noble prey right into my clutches.

[Illustration: Central African Bastard Gemsbok (_Antilope

leucophæa_).]

The sound of the rifle had hardly aroused my people, for this is a

country where a stray shot does not attract attention for an instant;

but my shout of surprise and delight brought them quickly to their

feet. Some negroes were soon fetched from the neighbouring huts, who

quickly completed the work of flaying and jointing the prey. Its head

alone weighed 35 pounds. The natives informed me that the Mahnya (as

the Bongo call this species of antelope) are among the rarest animals

of the district, although they live as much in one quarter as another.

They are ordinarily found singly and far separate from any other of

their kindred race; and it is said that the largest of them will

assail a huntsman, and are as furious when angry as a wild buffalo.

For a long time I was sorely depressed by the loss of my trusty

Arslan, who had been with me ever since I left Berlin and had reached

the remote wilderness. He had accompanied me through all the hardships

of travel; and here I hoped that all dangers were passed, and now that

the heat of the desert and the privations of water had been overcome,

I had no fear of losing him; but he sank a victim to the treachery of

the climate. My dog had seemed to me almost the last link that bound

me to my home, and when I lost him I felt as though a bridge had been

broken down which connected me with my native soil. It would have been

a grief to me to lose my dog anywhere, but to lose him here was doubly

sorrowful—here, amongst circumstances where he more than ever

replaced the lack of a friend.

Nature, pure and free, must ever be a great consoler amidst all the

disappointments of life. The stillness and peace of the plant-world

brought ease to my troubled mind. To that world, as I turned then, I

may be permitted to return now.

Nothing could more completely witness to the great variety of

vegetation in my immediate neighbourhood than the fact that during my

residence of five months I made a collection of almost 700 flowering

plants, which I duly classified. It would not be possible in Europe

during a whole year to gather so large a number if one were limited to

the environs of a single town. From my own experience I am satisfied

that, notwithstanding all means of intercommunication, it would be

beyond the power of a botanist to secure anything like 500 species in

an entire season. This would arise very much from his having to change

his position, and from the varying time at which plants come into

bloom: but here, in the land of the Dyoor and the Bongo, Flora seems

to delight in crowding all her profusion upon the earlier months of

the rainy period: the autumn is left comparatively barren, and even at

the height of the rains there is little to be found which was not

already in perfection some time before.

[Sidenote: WOODLANDS.]

The land itself seems decidedly less varied than in the most uniform

districts of Germany. Woods indeed there are, and steppes; there are

low grassy pastures and shrubby thickets; there are fields and

coppices; there are marshes and pools; there are bare rocky flats, and

occasionally a rocky declivity; very rarely, and only in the dry,

out-drained river-beds, are sands to be met with; and from these

ordinary characteristics there is little or no deviation.

The features of the woodlands are, however, very diversified. There

are trees which run up to a height varying from 30 to 40 feet, and

these alternate with dwarf shrubs and compact underwood. Many of the

fields are marked by single trees, which stand quite apart, and which

have been intentionally preserved by the natives because of their

edible fruit. In some places there are low-lying grassy flats, which

in the rainy months are quite impassable, because the grass grows

taller than a man; whilst in others the grass is stunted, because

there is but a thin layer of soil to cover the rock below, and

consequently vegetation is comparatively weak. As to the

pasture-lands, they seem to be interrupted every here and there with

bushy and impenetrable thickets, which are either grouped around some

isolated trees or luxuriate about some high white ant-hill. In the

shade of these are found the splendid bulbs of the Hæmanthus,

Gloriosa, Clorophytum, together with Aroideæ, ground-orchids, and the

wonderful Kosaria. Upon the drier spots within the forests, or where

the clay-soil happens to be mixed with sand, weeds and herbaceous

plants are found which recall the flora of the northern steppes.

Amongst these are the Capparideæ, which (existing as they do in the

south of Nubia) make good their claim to be a bond of union between

the two zones. Pressing further into the thickets which are formed in

the forests, we come across great trees so thickly bound by the

wonderful foliage of the large creeper Carpodinus, that a ray of

sunlight can never pass them. Here, too, are wild vines of many a

kind, the festoons of which are further burdened as they hang by

Dioscoriæ and Asclepiads.

[Illustration: Kosaria palmata.]

Many are the comparisons that might be made by way of analogy between

the numerous trees of this delightfully wooded district and those of

our own home. Some of the trees at first sight have a considerable

likeness to our common oaks: amongst these may be named both the

Terminalia and the butter-tree (_Bassia_ or _Buterospermum_). The

fruit of the latter consists of a globular oily kernel, which looks

something like a horse-chestnut, and which is as large as a good-sized

apricot, and is enveloped in a green rind. This envelope can be kept

till it is as enjoyable as a medlar, and is considered one of the

chief fruits of the country. From the kernels of this widely-known

tree an oil is expressed, which, under the name of “butter of Galam,”

is a recognised article of commerce in Gambia; it has an unpleasant

flavour, which makes it not at all a desirable adjunct to the table,

and so, for us, it has but an insignificant value; its most valuable

property is that, at a temperature of 68° Fahr., it becomes as solid

as tallow. The tree itself is very handsome, having a bark which is

regularly marked by polygonal rifts in its surface, and which permits

it to be likened to an oak.

[Sidenote: FRUCTIFEROUS TREES.]

A very common tree, which bears a somewhat striking resemblance to our

white beech, is the small-leaved Anogeissus. Nut-trees are here

replaced by Kigelia and Odina. Far spread as are trees of the

character of our oak, so too we may say are trees which have the look

of a horse-chestnut. Of this kind is the _Vitex Cienkowskii_, with

others of the species, of which the sweet olive-shaped fruit is

gathered as assiduously by the natives as by the wart-hogs, who relish

it exceedingly. Another favourite fruit is the produce of the

_Diospyros mespiliformis_. The plane-tree may here be said to be

represented, equally with respect to its bark, its foliage, and the

pattern of its leaves, by the splendid _Sterculia tomentosa_, which

has established itself pretty generally throughout Tropical Africa. In

the place of willows Africa offers the Anaphrenium; and over and over

again the traveller may fancy that he sees the graceful locust-tree.

The Parkia is another of those imposing trees which are met with; the

leaves of this are not unlike the Poinciana, which is known also as

the Poincillade or Flamboyer: its flowers are a fiery red with long

stamens, and hang in a tuft; when they die off they leave a whole

bundle of pods, a foot in length, in which the seeds are found covered

with a yellow dust. The Bongo, as indeed do the Peulhs of Footah

Dyalon in West Africa, mix this mealy dust with their flour, and seem

to enjoy it, but it needs an African palate to conquer the

repulsiveness of this preparation.

Many types of vegetation, however, abound, to which we are altogether

unaccustomed, and can exhibit nothing which appears to correspond. It

is not only by the exuberance and dignity of their forms that these

are marked, but still more by the novelty and grace with which Nature

seems to have invested them. No European production in any way

represents the _Anona senegalensis_, with its large blue-green leaf

and its small fruit. This fruit contains an aromatic dark red pulp,

and in a modest degree it displays something of that captivating

quality which has exalted its kindred plant, the Cherimoyer of Peru,

to its high repute as the queen of fruits. It must be owned, however,

that it is difficult to secure a well-developed example of this fruit,

for so keenly is it spied out and devoured by the birds that often for

months together it may be sought in vain.

Much more singular is the magnificent candelabra-euphorbia, which

follows the pattern of its prototype, the American cactus. Palms are

not frequent enough to play any important part in the scenery, or to

demand any particular specification. Groups of the Borassus are

observed near the river-banks, and the _Phœnix spinosa_, the original

of the date-palm, grows upon the marshes of the steppe. Next must be

mentioned the varieties of fig-trees, with their leathery leaves, and,

associated with them, those chief characteristics of African

vegetation, the Combreta and the Rubiaceæ; tamarinds with their thick

tubular corollas, and shrubby Gardeniæ, dwarf and contorted. It was

the southern limit of the acacias of the White Nile; and only in

isolated cases was the stem of the Balanites to be seen, lingering, as

it were, on the steppes of Nubia. Even the tamarind had become scarce,

and farther south I did not meet with it at all.

[Sidenote: CONFORMATION OF THE LAND.]

In its general character the flora of this district seems to conform

very much to what has been discovered on the table-land of Western

Africa, of which the lower terraces form a narrow belt along the

shore, and are distinguished for the wild luxuriance with which the

African primeval forest seeks to rival the splendour of Brazilian

nature. In contrast to this, the bush-forests in the higher parts of

Tropical Africa, broken by the steppes, present in uniformity perhaps

the most extensive district that could be pointed out in the whole

geography of vegetation. Extending, as it does, from Senegal to the

Zambesi, and from Abyssinia to Benguela, Tropical Africa may be

asserted to be without any perceptible alternation in character, but

that which is offered by the double aspect of steppe and bush on the

one hand, and by primeval forest in the American sense on the other.

On the west this is illustrated by the marked difference between the

table-lands and the low coast-terraces, whilst in the interior it is

exhibited by the distinction between the woods on the river banks and

the flats lying between the river courses. Here, in the country of the

Bongo and Dyoor, this, which may be designated as a duality, almost

completely fails, on account of the small supply of water in the

rivers and brooks; but in the land of the Niam-niam it is again very

striking.

Limited as have been the botanical collections of the few who have

explored this immense region, they are still sufficient to justify us

in estimating the relative abundance of species. When the collections

from Java and Brazil are compared with those of Tropical Africa, it is

certain that the plants of Africa are not altogether half so numerous.

It is not in the least below the most abundant tropical districts of

the New World in producing timber trees. Trees and shrubs constitute

quite a fifth of the entire production, and in the woods of the Bongo

the variety of foliage is everywhere astonishing. Any tracts covered

by a single species are altogether rare, and would exist only within

the most limited range. This uniformity of Tropical Africa in

comparison with the enormous space which it occupies, and the striking

want of provinces in the geography of its plants which it displays,

are the results of several agencies. On the one hand, it arises from

the massive and compact form of the whole; and on the other hand, by

an external girdle which keeps it shut up, so that it is not

penetrated by foreign types of vegetation. This girdle is made by

currents of the sea and long tracts of desert (the Sahara and

Kalahari), and encircles it entirely. In the direction towards Arabia

there is, as it were, a bridge into the regions of India, and, indeed,

the Indian flora has a great share in the characteristics of its

vegetation. The greater number of the African cultivated plants, as

well as nearly all their associated weeds, have been, beyond a doubt,

derived from India—a conjecture, equivalent to a prophecy, which Rob.

Brown had formed at a time when little was known of the vegetation of

Central Africa.

Already have I expressed my happiness at having thus reached the

object of my cherished hopes—my satisfaction at thus finding life to

be with me an idyll of African nature. My health was unimpaired, and

never before had I been less hindered in prosecuting my pursuits. I

felt alone in the temple of creation. The people around me were

somewhat embarrassing. Their wickedness, with its attendant impurity,

stood out in sad contrast to the purity of nature; but it did not much

disturb the inner repose of this still life. In sickness everything is

sad, and the craving for home is not to be suppressed; but whoever, in

the robustness of health, can imbibe the fresh animation of the

wilderness, will find that it stamps something of its unchanging

verdure upon his memory; his imagination will elevate it to a

paradise, and the days spent there will enrol themselves among the

very happiest of his life.

[Sidenote: AN ABANDONED SERIBA.]

One day in June there came back to the Seriba a company which had been

sent out by the agent to fetch the ivory which had been stored in one

of the minor Seribas of Ghattas on the Rohl, 130 miles away to the

south-west. The proper place of embarkation for the Seribas on the

Rohl, which are under a separate agent, is the Meshera Aboo-kooka, on

the Bahr-el-Gebel, which is nearer than the Gazelle; but during this

year the natives were animated by such a hostile spirit, that the

shorter route was impracticable, and thus it was necessary to proceed

to the banks of the Gazelle. In April the chief Seriba in this

territory had been abandoned by the few men who had been left, after

nearly all their entire garrison of a hundred men had been killed

during a raid against the Dinka tribe of the Agar. The remnant, who

had been informed of the calamity by some friendly natives, found

themselves in a great strait. They could see no prospect of defending

themselves, and were compelled to surrender all their stores and

ammunition, and to escape under cover of night to one of the dependent

Seribas. The main body of the troops were still out on an expedition

to the Niam-niam country, and it was only the fear of their sudden

return which deterred the Agar from annihilating the very last of

their foes. They plundered and burnt down the Seriba, which has never

since been restored. It was formerly the property of the brothers

Poncet, although they were never known to visit it. Petherick halted

at it whilst he was on his desperate march to Gondokoro, and inserted

it upon his map under the name of Adael. Bad tidings travel quickly,

and so it chanced that the intelligence of this disaster reached

Khartoom before my letters; the details were related very

indistinctly, and my friends were for a while under some apprehension

about my fate.

In another respect a star of ill-luck seemed this year to have risen

over the enterprise of the company of Ghattas. The season had drawn

near in which the agents usually commenced their annual depredations

in the districts of the Dinka to replenish their stock of cattle. As

the various associations were entering upon mutual competition, in

order to prevent disagreements, there was laid down a kind of Seriba

law, which was pretty well the same everywhere. First of all, the

territories immediately dependent were distinctly designated. Then it

provided that the approaches to a meshera should only be used by those

who could establish a claim to it. Nearly every Seriba has its

separate avenues, upon which it levies a toll, and an avenue without

tolls is not a legitimate highway at all. If any extraordinary

companies desire to make use of these roads, they must first come to

terms with the Seriba agents, who have the supervision of the right of

way. Even chieftains who supply provisions to those who are on their

transit, would be sure to attack them as foes if they were not first

conciliated by being appointed as guides and dragomen.

Very similar was the arrangement that regulated all the expeditions

which were undertaken against the Niam-niam. Each separate company had

its own route and its own train of captains, who purchased the ivory

and procured a market. No new-comers were allowed to intrude

themselves into an established market, or to infringe upon its trade.

Fresh marts could only be established by pressing farther onwards into

the interior. These new establishments in their turn were subject to

monopoly, and were rigidly protected. Whereever any violation of this

rule occurred, there would be very serious conflicts—so much so, that

amongst the Nubians the affray was very often fatal. This, however,

would only happen while the contest was limited between one negro and

another, for true Nubians at once renounce all allegiance to a leader

who presumed to shoot a brother Nubian.

The Khartoom companies are most jealous of all their rights of

cattle-plunder, alike in this region and in every other. The district

over which the incursions of Ghattas ranged embraced the whole of the

lower course of the river Tondy. During the previous year it was said

that the total of the booty was no less than 800 oxen; but this year,

although the aggressions were thrice renewed, the result was

altogether a failure, and was quite a derision amongst the neighbours,

being barely forty head of cattle. In vain had they explored the

country west of the Tondy; to no purpose had they scoured the

territories alike of the Rek and of the Lao; everywhere they were just

too late. The Dinka had got intelligence betimes, and off they packed

their herds and families to the inaccessible marshes. Their mere

superiority in numbers here gave them the advantage, and they could

hold their own against considerable troops of armed marauders. The

whole Dinka tribe amongst them could hardly boast a single musket

which could go off properly. Other companies, which had been more

fortunate in plunder, were now ready to avail themselves of the

opportunity to dispose of their superfluous cattle in barter for what

the country afforded. Sometimes it might be for slaves, or for

copper-rings, or sometimes (and this was a very favourite method) for

bills of exchange upon Khartoom. Thus those who lived upon robbery

were glad mutually to make a market of each other.

[Sidenote: CATTLE-RAIDS ON THE DINKA.]

The mode of carrying out these raids may be thus exemplified: On the

last occasion 140 armed troops, accompanied by a recognised train of

some hundred natives, followed again by a lot of people with a keen

scent for cattle of any sort, had set out upon their enterprise. In

this cavalcade they had proceeded exactly as though their intention

was merely to reach some Seriba or other. Then, all of a sudden, when

they saw that the chances were in their favour, just at nightfall

(deviating to one side, or even retracing their steps), they marched

on till, generally at break of day, they arrived at the devoted murah.

Having surrounded it, they began to beat their gongs and to fire away

vigorously. They were so alarmed at the likelihood of hitting each

other in the legs (for that is the general result of their firing)

that they merely discharged a lot of blank cartridges into the air.

This, however, was quite sufficient to intimidate the natives, who

lost no time in making their escape through the gaps which the

invading party were careful to provide in their ranks. In a general

way the Dinka have no larger number of servants with them at their

cattle-farms than is absolutely necessary, and, as I have mentioned,

they leave their wives and children in outlying huts, so that these

are very rarely exposed to the rapine of the invaders.

By the help of the negroes which they bring with them, the invaders

soon make themselves masters of all the herds, and hurry back covered

by the protection of the soldiers. To supply the requirements of a

year it is necessary that they should secure by their raid at least

2000 head of oxen. Of the plundered property two-thirds belong to the

authorities, the remaining third being assigned to the soldiers, who

hawk it about and dispose of it as they please. A portion, however, is

first allotted to the leaders of the negroes, to the overseers of the

districts, and to the chiefs, which is ever an excuse for great

rejoicing. The scandalous accomplices, abettors, and receivers of this

odious commerce are those professed slave-traders, the Gellahba, who

have succeeded in finding snug quarters for themselves in every

Seriba, where they manage, like idle drones, to enjoy the produce of

the toil of the industrious. Their transactions extend to calicoes,

soaps, and head-gear; they deal in firelocks, looking-glasses, and

onions; they can sell a few slaves, old or young, male or female; they

find a market for rings and beads; they do something in amulets and

verses of the Koran; very often they have on hand some bullocks,

sheep, or goats; indeed there is hardly anything which chance does not

occasionally throw into their line of business. Thus it came to pass

that this year they carried on a thriving cattle-trade in our

settlement. From the other marauding companies, whose luck had been

better, they had acquired a considerable store of cattle, and they did

not miss the opportunity of turning it now to their own advantage.

When I consider the ravages that are made year after year on so large

a scale upon the cattle of the Dinka, and the enormous consumption of

the Nubians, I confess that it is quite an enigma to me how the supply

is not exhausted. Although I am aware that they never kill their

cattle, yet the murrain of flies every season decimates their herds;

and, besides this, their cows very seldom ever calve more than once,

and very frequently remain utterly barren. Observations of this kind

somewhat assist us in forming an estimate of the vast numbers of the

people, since for the mere oversight and custody of the myriads of

cattle there must be multitudes of men corresponding to the

hand-to-mouth population of our civilised communities.

[Sidenote: EXCURSION TO SUBSIDIARY SERIBAS.]

From the 21st of July until the 4th of August I made a tour, which

gave me an opportunity of inspecting the subsidiary Seribas of

Ghattas. My acquaintance with the country was thus materially

enlarged. A march of about four leagues towards the south-west brought

me again, by a road which I had not hitherto traversed, to Geer, where

the fields of sesame were already in bloom. The sesame in this

district all had white blossoms, while in the Nile country it as

uniformly blooms with a pale rose-coloured flower, and this is by no

means an uncommon feature in the flora of the region. I could exhibit

a long list of plants which elsewhere are either red or blue, but here

are invariably white; but I could not offer any satisfactory

explanation of the circumstance.

Like all my other wanderings in the interior, this little excursion

was made entirely on foot. To get along through the tall grass was

anything but easy. The negroes tread down a sort of gutter, the width

of their foot, and along these we made our way, as in a wheel-rut, as

best we could. It was quite necessary to keep one’s steps verging

inwards. Occasionally these gutters change their character and become

water-courses, by means of which the adjacent steppes are drained. But

the enjoyment of a luxuriant nature, with its perpetual change of

scene, and the charms of novelty which presented themselves in the

foliage, compensated richly for a little toil; and day by day practice

made the trouble lighter.

This tour contributed in various ways to my stock of information. In

Geer I met with the clerk from the Seriba destroyed by the Agar, who

related to me the adventures which the sufferers had endured upon

their flight. With a Faki from Darfoor, who had formerly visited Bornu

and the Western Soudan, I had a long geographical dispute as to

whether the great river of the Monbuttoo emptied itself into the Tsad,

or flowed direct into the sea. The foreigner argued justly for the

Shary, whilst I, on the other hand, was referring to the Benwe. I

succeeded in stirring him and all the other interested listeners to a

state of considerable amazement at my acquaintance with localities of

which they had no knowledge except by report and which they hardly

knew even by name. I told them about the whole series of states right

away from Darfoor to the ocean. For about the hundredth time I had

again to answer the inquiry why Europeans want so much ivory. The

curiosity on their part is quite intelligible, as ivory is the unseen

incentive which keeps alive the system of plunder practised by the

Nubians, and I endeavoured to make them comprehend something about the

handles of knives and sticks and parasols, the pianoforte keys, the

billiard-balls, and the variety of other uses to which the material is

applied.

From Geer, with its questions of geography, history, and political

economy, I proceeded another league and a half, and came to Addai,

where the whole armed force was employing itself most peaceably in the

art of tailoring. In nearly all Mohammedan countries needlework is the

business of the men. A short league brought me to Koolongo, past which

there flows a copious stream, bordered by thick jungles 01

impenetrable bamboos, and which, not far from Addai, flows into the

Tondy. The stream is singularly abundant in fish, and the Bongo were

busy in securing their chief haul. They proceed very much in the

European way of damming up the stream by weirs, and laying down

wicker-pots of considerable size. The fishing, for the most part, is

done twice in the year; first, at the commencement of the rainy

season, and again when the waters begin to subside.

[Illustration: The Kilnoky.]

[Sidenote: KILNOKY AND GURR.]

A large proportion of the fish captured in this stream is nearly the

same as what is found in the Lower Nile and in Egypt; but some sorts

are found which are peculiar; amongst which the fish-salamander

(_Lepidosiren_) and some Siluridæ may be mentioned as representatives

of the tropics in Africa. There is one kind of these called Kilnoky by

the Bongo, and which is rather interesting. It reminds one of the

species of the Auchenipterus or Synodontis, which are distinguished by

their forked tail-fins. Another of the most frequent fish is that

known as the “Besher” of the Nile, here called “Gurr” by the

natives.[24] The elegant, large-scaled _Heterotis niloticus_, which

the Bongo style the “Goggoh,” has a tender flesh and is of a good

flavour. The river does not generally abound with fish which are

desirable for food, but those which can be eaten generally belong to

the section of the Characini; for example, the _Hydrocyon Forskalii_,

which is here called “Kyalo.” This is a grey-streaked fish, glittering

like pearl, in shape not unlike a salmon; it has red fins and a

regular dog’s head, of which the lanky jaws, armed with conical teeth,

amply justify the systematic name. Related to this is the “Raha”

(_Ichtyborus microlepis_), which is noteworthy for its pike’s head,

and the small-scaled _Distichodus rostratus_, or “Heeloo,” as it is

termed. There is another sort which the Bongo call “Tonga.” Besides

these there are the “Kalo” (_Alestis_) and the “Dologoh”

(_Citharinus_). Of the perch, which plays so prominent a part in these

waters, the silver-grey _Lates niloticus_, known as “Golo,” is very

abundant, and perhaps still more so the “Warr” (_Chromis_), about the

length of a finger, and of which there are several descriptions. The

“Warr,” when first caught, is of a dark-green tint crossed obliquely

by a number of broad dark stripes. The most common, however, of all

the fish, and which seems never to fail in any of the marshes left by

the retreating floods, are the sheath-fish, which belong to the

Clarias species, the white flesh of which has a detestable flavour of

the swamps; and the “Geegongoh,” which while they are alive are so

like in colour to the brown slime in which they roll that they cannot

be distinguished from it. A rare sort of the smaller fish is that

known as the “Banghey,” and which belongs to the species of the

Schilbe. Interesting, as being a representative in Africa of an Indian

species, is the speckled grey and brown _Ophiocephalus obscurus_. It

only remains to mention among the lesser sorts “Ndeer” (_Ctenopoma

Petherickii_), the “Labyrinthi” of the Marango (_Labeo Forskalii_),

and the “Möll” (_Mormyrus cyprinoides_).

[Illustration: Young Polypterus.]

There are two methods which the Bongo employ to preserve the flesh of

their fish. Table salt they cannot get, but they substitute what they

obtain from ashes. They cut the fish through lengthways, simply expose

it to be dried in the sun, and afterwards hang it up to be fumigated

in the clouds of smoke which fill their huts. Another way is to cut

the fish up and dry it, and then to pound it all up in mortars until

it is reduced to a jelly, which is rolled into balls about the size of

the fist. These, with their high flavour, form a favourite ingredient

in soups and sauces, which are entirely wanting in all other aromatic

condiments.

[Sidenote: HAUNTED CAVE AT KOOLONGO.]

In Kulongo so many ridiculous tales were dressed up for me about the

wonders of the subterranean world, and of the abodes of evil spirits

in the neighbouring caves, that I glowed with the desire to make their

acquaintance. No one that I could find in the Seriba had ever ventured

to visit the dreaded grottoes, and the alarm of the Governor was a

great joke; after he had talked away for an hour, and declared he

would accompany me, he ended by offering a handsome “backsheesh” to

one of his subordinates to take his place; but his offer to go had

been publicly made, and, as matter of honour, he was bound to attend

me. We had to cross a stream ten feet in depth, and as, on account of

an injury to his foot, he was riding an ass, the timid fellow found

just the pretext he wanted to excuse his return; he could not allow

his invaluable donkey to get a chill. In a party of eight, including

myself, we set out towards the house of terror: three of my own

servants, two of the _soi-disant_ soldiers, and two of the natives who

acted as guides. This company however, could not help considering

themselves inadequate to face the peril, and as we approached the

caves some extra negroes from the adjacent fields were pressed into

the service.

Uphill for a while was our way from Kulongo, and on accomplishing the

ascent we had before us a wide plain, and about a league away we could

discern the spot, shrouded in a thick coppice, which was the object of

our march. Reaching the entrance to the cavern, we found it blocked up

through a considerable fall of earth, which apparently had been caused

by the washing away of the surface soil by springs bubbling up from

beneath; and the outside was so choked up by masses of underwood, that

no one could suspect that there was a grotto in the rear.

When, fourteen or fifteen years previously, the first intruders made

their way into this district, the story goes that hundreds of the

natives, with their wives and children and all their goods and

chattels, betook themselves to this inaccessible retreat; and that

having died of starvation, their evil spirits survive and render their

place of refuge a place of danger. Just as we had contrived to push a

little way into the thicket, an idea struck one of my servants that he

could be as cunning as his master. Finding that I persevered in my

intention, he bethought himself of the bees on the White Nile, and so

there rose the shout of “Bees, bees!” from more than one of the party.

But they got some stings they hardly looked for: one good box on the

ear, followed up by another and another, made their cheeks tingle

again, and they were fain to proceed. I can still laugh as I picture

to myself those nigger rascals resigning themselves to enter the

shrubs, and I see them heaving a sigh, and looking as if they were

ready to send their lances through the first devil they should happen

to meet. I followed them on through the hazardous pathway, the

darkness growing ever deeper. Stumbling on, we made our way over

blocks of stone, descending for more than a hundred feet till we

reached the entrance of the cave, which, after a low kind of porchway

through the rifled rocks, arches itself into a spacious grotto,

capable of sheltering some thousand men.

[Sidenote: INVOKING THE SPIRITS.]

In place of any heart-rending shrieks of wicked ghosts, there was

nothing more to alarm us than the whizzing of countless bats

(_Phyllorhina caffra_), and thus at once the whole veil of romance was

torn asunder. We reclined for a time in the cool shade, and then I

invited the whole party to take part in a scene of conjuration, for

which they were quite prepared. With the full strength of my voice I

cried, “Samiel, Samiel, Afreed!” invoking the spirits of evil to put

in an appearance; thus all pretext of fear from that quarter was put

to rest; and now belief in ghosts took another shape, and the men

pretended that they were terrified, because the cave was a

lurking-place of lions; but as a fine brown dust covered the floor of

the grotto, leaving it as smooth as though it had just been raked

over, I asked them to show me some traces of the lions. They could

detect nothing, however, but the vestiges of some porcupines, of which

a few quills made it clear that other creatures besides ghosts and

bats made the cave their home. That brown dust was a vast mass of

guano that had gradually accumulated; I brought away a sack of it with

me, and it worked wonders in making my garden productive, resulting in

some cabbages of giant growth.

The rocky walls of the cave, dripping as they were with moisture, were

covered with thick clusters of moss, which took the most variegated

forms, and were quite a surprise in this region of Central Africa,

where mosses are very scarce. A regular network of foliage, with long

creepers and thorny brambles, filled up the entire glen upon which the

grotto opened, so that no ray of sunlight could ever penetrate.

The Bongo give the name of “Gubbehee” (or the subterranean) to this

cavern. I tried to creep into some of the crevices, but was soon

obliged to desist, sometimes because the fissures were too narrow, and

sometimes because the multitudes of bats came flying out in my face,

and sometimes because the reeking ammonia choked me, and made further

progress impossible. By some shots, however, which I discharged, I

convinced myself of the magnitude of these rifts, which, within a few

inches, were full of guano.

Full of spirits, we retraced our steps to the Seriba, and had some

sport with the Governor about his pretence of the susceptibility of

his donkey. When I asked him to accept a bet of 100 dollars that he

would pass a night by himself in the cave, he was quite as bumptious

as on the day before; but I moderated his enthusiasm by suggesting

that his donkey, perhaps, was worth more than the 100 dollars, and

that I was sure that the donkey could not stand the damp. The result

was, that he declined the engagement, and cried off the wager.

These details will answer the purpose of showing what kind of heroes

these cattle-stealers and men-hunters are. To them most literally

applies Dante’s verse, when he speaks of the saucy herds who, “behind

the fugitives swell with rage, but let these show their teeth, or even

stretch out their purse, and at once they are gentle as a lamb.”

Against the poor faint-hearted negroes they were valiant and full of

pluck; but all their courage vanished into nothing when they came in

contact with the Shillooks and Bari.

In Kulongo were wide plains covered with earth-nuts, which attract

multitudes of the jackals of the country, which scratch up the nuts,

and crack them with their teeth. The jackal (the “bashohm” of the

Nubians, _Canis variegatus_) is one of the most common animals in

Bongo-land. It is about the size of an ordinary fox, in colour being

like a wolf, with black back and tail. They are pretty sure to be seen

in the early morning, squatting comfortably down, and composedly

enjoying the nuts. I knocked over several of them with heavy shot, and

took care of their skins, which gave me some beautiful fur. The

bashohm is very destructive among the poultry of the villages, doing

even more mischief than the wild cat, which does not care to venture

so near the huts.

[Sidenote: ANOTHER DESERTED SERIBA.]

From Kulongo I returned to Geer, from which it is distant about as far

as from Addai. Half a league on the way we came to a spot where a

deserted Seriba of Ghattas’s exhibited its desolate remains. The sight

here was very striking; after penetrating the tall masses of grass, we

found some self-sown sorghum, the stalks of which reached the

astonishing length of 20 feet, being beyond question the tallest

cereal in the world. The extraordinary growth was probably to be

attributed to the manuring substances which, year after year, collect

upon and fertilise the soil. The palisades of the old Seriba were

still partially standing, and were hardly higher than the surrounding

grass, and the ruins were overgrown with wild gourds, calabashes, and

cucumbers. The bare frameworks of the conical roofs had fallen to the

ground, and lay like huge crinolines: they served as supports to the

growing pumpkins, and formed in this condition a thick shady bower.

The extensive wilderness derived a weird aspect from the strange

stillness that pervaded the deserted dwellings. There was not a song

from a bird, there was hardly the humming of an insect; it seemed as

if Nature were revelling in her undisputed sway, or as if the curse of

a prophet had been wreaked upon the abodes of violence and of plunder.

By the end of July all the bamboos were in full blossom. The grains

are not unlike rye, and are edible, and, in times of dearth, have been

known to form a substitute for the exhausted corn. When the fruit is

mature, the long, ramified panicles have a very remarkable appearance,

and the ears, clustered together at their base, radiate like an

ancient whirlbat. Very rarely, however, does the African bamboo bloom,

so that it is not often that it supplies the place of ordinary corn.

At an equal distance of about a league and a half from Kulongo and

from Geer lies the village of Gurfala. The way thither led through

perpetual marshes and was so interrupted by deep masses of mud that I

had repeatedly to change my clothes. When the naked skin is exposed to

the filth of the bogs, it is not only annoyed by a number of insects,

some of them harmless enough, many of them most disgusting, but it is

terribly cut by the sharp edges of the grass. This not merely causes

considerable pain, but the wounds inflicted in this way are often very

troublesome and slow to heal; they not unfrequently result among the

Nubians in serious sores, and have been known to entail the loss of a

foot. At every Seriba there will be found some who are suffering from

this cause, and Baker observed the recurrence of the same evil amongst

his people. As the same consequences do not occur in Nubia itself they

are probably to be attributed to the effect of the climate. The backs

of the negroes are not available for transport over any long distances

of this fenny land, because of the insecurity of the footing; and in

another respect this mode of conveyance offers little attraction; to

mount one of the negroes is almost as disastrous to one’s white summer

garments as an actual tumble into the marsh. Soap is not a common

article hereabout, and must be used economically, and the traveller

has to put up with a general wash about once in two months.

All the minor Seribas are really established for the purpose of

overlooking the Bongo, and the sub-agents are always in trepidation

lest there should be a sudden disappearance of all their negroes. It

has not unfrequently happened that whole communities of the Bongo,

quite unawares, have taken up their baggage, started off from their

state of subjection, and, escaping the hands of their masters, have

established themselves amongst the neighbouring Dinka. If they wish to

cultivate corn for themselves, who could venture to blame them?

[Sidenote: AFRICAN DISTILLERY.]

The Bongo name for Gurfala is Ngulfala, which indicates an earlier

tribe of this race, which is no longer separated into various clans.

Gurfala, I found, had its amusing associations. As in Kulongo it was

the fear of ghosts for which the people had been conspicuous, so here

it was the effect of a great brandy-distillery upon the inhabitants

that entertained me. This distillery was kept by an old Egyptian, one

of the few of his race who resided in the district of the Seribas. Out

of an “ardeb,” or about five bushels of sorghum, he managed, with his

rude apparatus, to extract about thirty bottles of watery alcohol. The

sallow old Egyptian, whom the enjoyment of his vile liquors had tanned

till his skin was as dry as parchment, was, as it were, director of a

joint-stock company, of which the sub-agents and the soldiers in the

Seriba were the shareholders, contributing their quota of corn to the

concern. The apparatus for distilling consisted of a series of covered

clay retorts, connected by tubes made of bamboo; the establishment for

working was made up of a party of fat-bellied, swarthy women slaves,

who had to pound away at the grain in a mortar; and as often as they

paused for a moment to recover their breath, after their grinding

exertions, they invariably panted till they reminded one of exhausted

Cybeles. The chief material used was sorghum; the produce was a vile

spirit. All the Nubians who settle here would abandon themselves very

much to the use of brandy, if it could be more readily procured and if

a continual superabundance were at their disposal; their fanaticism,

however, is irreproachable; they rigorously follow the prescription of

their law, and most scrupulously observe the Fast of Ramadan.

Together with the fresh relays arrived rows of spirit-flasks in their

original packing (mostly made at Breslau), which are stored away in

the magazines. These find their way from Alexandria and Khartoom to

this remote corner of traffic. The agents drink their spirits neat,

and cannot get it strong enough to please them; everybody else dilutes

it with two-thirds water or mixes it with his merissa. In their

drinking-bouts they used to besiege me with applications for some of

the sharp radishes from my garden, which on these occasions they

seemed especially to relish. What was most revolting to me about their

intoxication was that they always preferred the early hours of the

morning for their indulgence, and for the rest of the day became

incapable of standing upright. After they were tipsy they were just as

pugnacious as Europeans, but the excitability of the South would break

out, so that manslaughter and death were not of unfrequent occurrence.

After a couple of days I took my departure from the huts of Gurfala,

where a number of the Gellahba also have settled themselves, and I

made my way over a short two leagues towards the west to Doomookoo,

the fifth of the Ghattas Seribas. The route was over a firm soil,

alternately bushwood and open steppe. The grass on the rocky level

seemed to have a permanent character. All of one kind, and covering

large tracts of country, it reminded me of the waving ears of our own

cornfields. Although the region seems to be destitute of any

continuance of trees, it far surpasses the European plains and meadow

lands in the variety of its permanent grasses.

About half-way there was a pond made by rain on the rocky ground,

which was covered with the large red-headed geese of the Gambia and a

number of widow-buntings. Only during the rainy season do these birds

quit the waters of the great Nile and find their way to the interior.

[Sidenote: MUNDO.]

At Doomookoo I found the negroes all astir; an equipment was being

made for an expedition to Gebel Higgoo, and, with the co-operation of

Aboo Guroon, was to consist of a hundred armed men. Mukhtar, the

captain of the troop, repeatedly assured me that he could reach his

destination in about five days, and I was much disposed to accompany

him. But there was in my way this obstacle, that I was obliged to get

my correspondence off-hand; I had to write my letters for a whole

year. The mountains Higgoo and Shetatah have been so denominated for

some cause by the Nubians; Higgoo signifying a bandbox, and Shetatah

being their name for cayenne pepper. They lie in a southerly direction

from where we were, only a few leagues distant from that Mundo which

is so often mentioned by Petherick; a spot which on every map is

notoriously always pushed either backwards or forwards for several

degrees, and originally, by those who professed to have visited it,

was said to be situated on the Equator. The fact is, that Mundo is the

name ordinarily given by the Bongo to a small tribe calling itself

Babuckur, which has contrived to wedge in its position between the

borders of the Bongo and the Niam-niam. On the eastern limit the Bongo

denote the Niam-niam themselves by this name of Mundo. To the isolated

hills of this border-land, such of the Bongo as could maintain their

independence made good their retreat, and only in consequence of the

contemplated expedition of the Khartoomers were they laid under

tribute. During the present year the trading companies had established

a number of settlements here amongst them, these advanced colonies

being necessary for the security of the highways for traffic into the

Niam-niam territory. Hitherto all the avenues for transit had been

found liable to attack from the uncontrolled Bongo and from the

Babuckur; but now the entire region was sequestered, and made a kind

of preserve, on which the two companies could meet and monopolise

their slave-plunder.

In one of the more extended low-lying steppes, overgrown with its mass

of vegetation, I lost a whole day in vain endeavours to secure an

antelope of that large breed which is found here, but which seems to

elude all pursuit, in the course of the chase learning to discriminate

a considerable number of species. Fate was here unpropitious. Manœuvre

as I would, I could not sneak up close enough to get a shot. More than

once I saw large herds of Leucotis, grazing apparently in entire

repose; but every movement of mine was so dependent upon the formation

of the ground, and every disturbance of the tall grass resulted in

such a crackling, that to meditate a surprise was out of the question.

If ever I flattered myself that I was gaining some advantage, and was

getting close to the herd under cover of a detached bush, I was sure

to be betrayed by the keen vision and disquietude of some stray beast

that was hanging on the flank. Still greater were the obstacles that

occurred if pursuit were tried in the drier tracts by the border of

the lowlands. Here were seen whole troops of the Aboo Maaref (_A.

nigra_), like great goats, with their sharp horns and their flowing

manes, proudly strutting on the plain; but, times without number, on

the first alarm they bounded off. No avail that their black wrinkled

horns were right before us, rising and sinking in the grass, offering

a mark indeed somewhat indefinite; no good that we crept on, three at

a time, one taking the wilderness, another the thicket, and the third,

step by step, getting through the marshy hollows—everything was

ineffectual: just as we thought we were getting an advantage, either

some one would fall into a hole, or would shake a bough that hung over

his head, or would disturb the crackling stalks in the bushes, and all

hope was gone; the signal of danger was circulated, and the herd were

out of reach. These details will furnish an idea of the endless

artifices by means of which the chase in the rainy seasons has to be

practised to insure success. Wet through, and with clothes saturated

with the mire of the marshes, extremely weary, and having only

succeeded in sending one poor Aboo Maaref hopping on three legs after

its companions, we returned at the close of our day of unsuccessful

exploit.

The return to my headquarters from Doomookoo was a journey of about

four and a half leagues. I found the way entertaining enough. Elevated

dry flats of rocks came in turns with inundated lowlands; and after

passing through pleasant woodlands the road would wind through open

steppes. Game was everywhere most abundant. It was only necessary to

withdraw for an hour from a settlement to get an impression that the

whole of the animal creation had ceased to give itself any concern

about the proceedings of man. Not one of the soldiers, whose lives are

lavished by their employers in a hundred useless ways, finds the least

enjoyment in the noble pleasures of the chase. They all shirk the

trouble, and, even if they could get up the necessary perseverance,

they are such bad shots that they could hardly recompense themselves

for their exertion. Besides this they prefer the very rankest of their

goats’ flesh to the choicest venison; partly it may be from the

general uniformity of their diet, or partly perhaps from their

religious aversion to eat of meat slaughtered in a manner that is not

prescribed in their law; certainly it is very rare for them, in their

wanderings, to partake of any game which they have captured.

[Sidenote: THE HEGOLEH AND THE DELOO.]

There are two little antelopes which are here very common, and which

roam about the country in pairs. One of these is the Hegoleh (_A.

madoqua_) which appears to be found right through from Abyssinia to

the Gambia; the other is the Deloo (_A. grimmia_), which is known also

in the south. They are both pretty and lively bright-eyed creatures,

of which the entire length is but little over three feet; they

correspond very nearly to a small roe, or the fawn of a fallow deer.

The Hegoleh is all of one colour—a light tawny with a greyish throat,

not so foxy as the Leucotis. The Deloo is of a fawn colour on its

back, with a tinge of yellow in front; its flanks are nearly white,

whilst its ankles are black. Its head is very expressive; a black

stripe runs along it and terminates in a dark brown tuft; this gives

to the female, which has no horns, rather a comical look, running up

as it does into a stiff peak of about five inches long: in the males

this growth is concealed by the short horns. Both kinds are

distinguished by the glands of the lacrymal ducts.[25] The Madoqua has

two pair of these, one pair set under the roots of the ear, making a

triangle of an area of half a square inch; the other pair in the

tear-pits composing a sort of pouch, about an inch long, which

consists of a deep fold of skin, and from which is discharged a

viscous and colourless matter. Above the tear-glands, towards the

nasal bone, there projects on each side from the frontlet a thick pad

about three inches long, which seems to have an adenoid texture,

almost like a tumour. In the same way as with the Cervicapra, these

tear-glands during any excitement open themselves like the nostrils of

a snorting horse. The Deloo has only one pair of these glands, which

lie horizontally in a narrow streak across the hollow of the eyes.

Both kinds are alike in never venturing into the low grounds exposed

to floods, and in preferring the rocky lands which are covered with

bushwood. They often get into the middle of a thicket, and startle the

huntsman by suddenly springing out, in the same way as the Ben-Israel

or Om-digdig of Abyssinia (_A. Hemprichiana_). The flesh of both these

antelopes is very indifferent for eating as compared with the larger

kinds; that of the Deloo when roasted having a singular acrid flavour,

which seems to suggest the unpleasantness of the glands.

[Illustration: The Madoqua.]

[Sidenote: CULTIVATION OF SORGHUM.]

Towards the end of August the sorghum-harvest commenced with the

pulling of the light crop of the four-monthly sort, which had been

sown in the latter part of April. But the general ingathering of the

heavier varieties, which contribute chiefly to the supply of corn, did

not take place until the beginning of December, after the rainy season

was over. In Sennaar and Taka, sorghum requires five or six months to

come to maturity, but in this district it rarely takes less than eight

months. Both the early and late sorts commonly attain a height of

nearly fifteen feet; the stalks of the former remain quite green, but

the reedy stems of the latter become so strong and woody, that they

are used for fences to divide one enclosure from another. Some of the

varieties are scarcely inferior to the regular sugar millet (_Sorghum

saccharatum_) in producing an abundance of saccharine matter; these

are known to the negroes as well as to the Arabians of the Soudan, who

chew the straw and so express the juice. The Bongo and the Dyoor

express the pulp by means of wooden mortars, and boil it till it has

the consistency of syrup. From this concoction I was able to procure a

spirit which was far more palatable than what I should have obtained

by distilling the sorghum itself.

[Illustration: The Deloo.]

Both varieties of the common sorghum,[26] which here abound in all

their minor differences of colour, shape, and size of grain, yield

well-nigh a dozen different descriptions for the market at Khartoom.

The standard value is fixed by the Fatareetah, a pure white

thin-skinned grain, which also is grown by the negroes in the Seriba.

All negro races that depend upon agriculture for their subsistence

consider the cultivation of sorghum most important. Of the people

among which I travelled, the Bongo, the Dyoor, and the Mittoo, were

examples of this. On the other hand, among the southern Niam-niam and

the Monbuttoo this cereal is quite unknown.

[Sidenote: LIMITATION OF GRAIN PRODUCE.]

I could not help being astonished at the length of time which most of

the kinds take to ripen. In some fields a portion of the stubble is

left intentionally ungrubbed until the next season; this will die

down, but, after the first rain, it sprouts again from the root, and

so a second gathering is made from the same stem. No loosening of the

soil is ever made, and this perhaps accounts in a degree for the

tardiness of the growth. With the small spades, of which I have

already spoken, shallow holes are sunk in the ground at intervals of

about a yard: into these is dropped the corn, which then is trodden

down by the foot. It is only during the first few months that any

labour at all is given to the fields, just to remove from the surface

of the soil the multitudes of weeds which will spring up. These weeds

are gathered into heaps, and form the only manure which is employed in

this lavish laboratory of nature. Never more than once is this weeding

repeated; it is done by the women and children; and the corn is then

left entirely to take its chance until it is time to gather it. On

account alike of its tall growth and of its luxuriant habit, the men

are careful not to plant it too thickly. The country does not offer

many materials for manuring the land; if, therefore, greater

application of labour or of skill should succeed in doubling the yield

of every stem, there would ultimately be no gain. The soil, which

already in many places fails after the second year, would only be

exhausted so much the sooner. Such being the case, every project of

ameliorating the condition of this people by enlarging their crop is

quite an illusion; the land could not sustain a larger number than

that which already resides upon it.

In my garden I made several attempts to sow wheat, but without much

success. Probably I should have prospered better if I could have

obtained some European seed: mine was from Khartoom, and it is very

likely that the conditions under which it had been grown, amidst the

flooded fields of the Nile Valley, on a soil far more soddened than

that of this district, had been very injurious to the grain.

Very unwisely, not one of the Seriba governors has ever made an

attempt to introduce into the district the culture of rice, for which

the low marshy fields, otherwise useless, seem, very admirably

adapted; but the people are not to be taught; vain the endeavour to

initiate them even into a rational system of burning charcoal; and as

to the culture of rice, nothing throughout the whole of Nubia was

known about it. On the contrary, the expeditions which have set out

from Zanzibar, and which have explored districts where the climate is

not dissimilar to that of which we speak, have introduced the

cultivation of rice over a very considerable area. The finger of

nature itself seems to point out the propriety of not neglecting this

product; in the whole district south of the Gazelle the wild rice of

Senegal grows quite freely, and this I always found of a better

quality than the best kinds of Damietta. During the rains the wild

rice (_Oryza punctata_) environs many a pool with its garland of

reddish ears, and seems to thrive exceedingly, but it never occurs to

the sluggish natives to gather the produce that is lost in the water;

and it is only because the Baggara and some of the inhabitants of

Darfoor had saved some quantity, that I contrived to get my small

supply.

There yet remain three kinds of corn to which a passing reference

should be made in order to complete a general survey of the

agriculture of this district.

Next to the sorghum stands the penicillaria, or Arabian “dokhn,” to

which much attention is devoted, and which is cultivated here much

more freely than in the northern Soudan. Sown somewhat later than the

sorghum, somewhat later it comes to maturity.

A second substitute on the land for sorghum is a meagre grain, the

_Eleusine coracana_. By the Arabians it is called telaboon, and by the

Abyssinians tocusso; it is only grown on the poorest soils and where

the ground is too wet to admit of any better crop. The grain of this

is very small and generally black, and is protected by a hard thick

skin; it has a disagreeable taste, and makes only a wretched sort of

pap. It yields a yeast that is more fit for brewing than for baking;

in fact, not only do the Niam-niam, who are the principal growers of

the Eleusine, but the Abyssinians as well, make a regular beer by

means of it.

Midway between the sorghum and the penicillaria must be reckoned the

maize of the country, which only grows in moderate quantity, and is

here generally cultivated as a garden vegetable in the immediate

proximity of the huts. The Madi tribe of the Mittoo are the only

people who seem to cultivate it to any great extent.

[Sidenote: AFRICAN WHEATS.]

There is one quality which pertains equally to all these varieties of

grain which are grown in these torrid regions; it is not possible from

the flour which they provide to make bread in the way to which we are

accustomed. All that can be made from the fermented dough is the

Arabian bread, “kissere,” as it is called—tough, leathery slices,

cooked like pancakes on a frying-pan. If the fermentation has gone on

far enough to make the dough rise for a good spongy loaf, when it is

put into the oven it all crumples up, and its particles will not hold

together; if, on the other hand, the fermentation has not proceeded

sufficiently, the result is a heavy lump, and this is the ordinary

daily achievement of the natives, who pack up their dough in leaves

and bake it in the ashes. The wheats of the Upper Nile Valley, and

even large Abyssinian kinds, have the same property, which may arise

from the small proportion of _soluble_ starch which exists in all corn

of the tropics, however large the entire quantity of the starch may

be. The presence or absence of gluten in the grain is irrelevant, and

cannot be an adequate explanation with regard to sorghum, of which the

better kinds are richer in gluten than our wheat.

Next, after the various sorts of corn, the leguminous plants play an

important part amongst this agricultural population. Cultivated

frequently alike by the Dinka and Dyoor is the catyang (_Vigna

sinensis_), which is grown by the Shillooks more plentifully than by

either; but the Bongo have a great preference for the mungo-bean

(_Phaseolus mungo_), which they call “bokwa.” The pods of these

contain a little hard kernel, not unlike black pepper; in comparison

with the catyang they are very poor eating. Wild representatives of

both these classes of beans are almost universal throughout Africa,

and demonstrate that they are indigenous to the soil. The best of all

the beans is the _Phaseolus lunatus_, which is found of various

colours, white, or brown, or yellow, and which in shape is like our

own, although the legume is very short, and rarely contains more than

two seeds. This is grown very freely by the Mittoo and the Madi, but

the Bongo and the Dinka also give it their attention.

There are two kinds of these leguminous plants which are cultivated

very extensively, and which fructify below the soil, that is, as the

pods ripen the peduncles bend down and sink beneath the ground. These

are the speckled pea-shaped voandzeia and the arachis, or earth-nut.

Dispersed now everywhere over the tropics, the proper home of these is

in Africa. The first is cultivated most of all by the Bongo; the

single seed which its pod contains is mealy, but cooking does not

soften it, and it is consequently very indigestible.

The earth-nut, on the contrary, is of an oily nature. It is seldom

wanting amongst any of the tribes; in value it is almost a rival of

the sesame, to the culture of which the Bongo give their care next to

their sorghum.

Another oily vegetable product of the country is the _Hyptis

spicigera_, which the Bongo named “kendee.” Once sown among cultivated

plants it becomes a sort of half-wild growth, and establishes itself

as an important shrub between the stubble. The Bongo and Niam-niam

especially store large quantities of it. The tiny seeds, like those of

a poppy-head, are brayed to a jelly, and are used by the natives as an

adjunct to their stews and gravies, the taste and appearance being

very similar to the hemp-pap of the Lithuanians. Just as poppy and

hemp to the people of the North, so here to the natives the sesame and

the hyptis appear a natural product so enjoyable that, without any

preparation whatever, it can be oaten from the hollow of the hand,

according to Boccaccio’s expression, “more avium.”

[Sidenote: AFRICAN TUBERS.]

A very subordinate place is occupied in the cultural pursuits of these

people by any of the tuberous vegetables. Various kinds of yams

(_Dioscorea alata_, and _D._ or _Helmia bulbifera_) are found in the

enclosures of the Bongo and of the Dinka, and are here and there

cultivated in some measure like the maize, under the eye of the

proprietor. The Niam-niam and the Monbutto, who devote more attention

to the growth of tubers than of cereals, have a greater preference for

the sweet potato (_Batatas_), the manioc, and the colocasia, and other

bulbs, which to the northern people are quite unknown. All the yams in

these parts seem to exhibit the same form, which is reckoned the most

perfect in this production, lavished by bountiful Nature on man with

so little labour on his part. The tubers of the Central African

species are very long; at their lower extremity they have a number of

thick protuberances; they are similar to a human foot, or rather

(taking their size into account) to the great foot of an elephant.

Some were brought to me which varied in weight from 50 to 80 lbs. The

substance of the tuber, which is easily cooked, is light, mealy, and

somewhat granulated; it is more loose in texture than our tenderest

potatoes, and decidedly preferable to them in flavour.

[Illustration: Central African Yam.]

[Illustration: The Nyitti.]

The Nyitti (_Helmia bulbifera_), which are protruded from the axils of

every leaf on the climbing sprouts, are in shape like a great

Brazil-nut—a section of a sphere with a sharp edge. In their

properties they correspond much with our potato, particularly as

regards their taste and their bulk; but they never develop themselves

into such mealy masses as the ordinary yams. Their skin is remarkably

like potato-peel, and altogether their colour, sometimes yellow,

sometimes a thoroughly purple-brown, adds to the resemblance. Very

frequently these plants grow wild, but in that condition the tubers

are quite small, and have a taste so pungent that they are said by the

natives to be full of a dangerous poison. To a kindred species which

is found wild, and which produces a horn-shaped tuber, we shall have

to allude hereafter.

Just before the sorghum-harvest commenced the gourds were ripening,

and came on as a welcome boon to the natives, who at this season were

suffering from the usual scarcity. They devoured incredible quantities

of them, and I saw whole caravans of bearers literally fed upon them.

Of the ordinary gourds (_Cucurbita maxima_) there are two kinds, the

yellow and white, which succeed excellently and attain a prodigious

size. There is a kind of melon with a hard woody rind, which the Dyoor

and the Dinka cultivate: when half-ripe, they cook and enjoy it as a

palatable vegetable; it is generally of a cylindrical form, and about

a foot in length. As it grows it assumes the diverse shape of the

_Cucumis chate_, the cooking-cucumber of the Egyptians, which they

call “adyoor” and “abdalowy;” by its wild shapes it seems to reveal an

African origin. The leaves of the gourds are boiled just like

cabbages, and are used for a vegetable. The bottle-gourds do not grow

anywhere here actually without cultivation, but in a sort of

semi-cultivation they are found close to all the huts. From the edible

kinds are made vessels, which are quite secure.

[Sidenote: AFRICAN VEGETABLES.]

As actual vegetables the Bongo cultivate only the bamia or waka of the

Arabians (_Hibiscus esculentus_) and the sabdariffa. The calyx of the

latter is very large, varying in colour from a pale flesh to a dark

purple, and is used as a substitute for vinegar at meals. The bamia

here is a larger variety of the Oriental vegetable; its seed-vessels

before they are ripe are gathered and boiled.

Altogether unknown throughout the population of pagan negroes is the

onion, which appears to have its southern limit in Kordofan and

Darfoor. The equatorial climate seems to render its growth very

difficult, and do what the Nubians will, they are unable successfully

to introduce this serviceable vegetable into the districts of their

Seribas. The tomato may well be considered as a cosmopolite, making

itself at home in all warmer latitudes, but previously to my arrival

it had not found its way into this region.

[Illustration: Calyx of the Hibiscus esculentus.]

For the sake of its fibres the _Hibiscus cannabinus_ is very generally

cultivated here, as it is in the Nile Valley; but I observed that the

Bongo have another plant, the crotalaria, an improvement upon the wild

sort (_C. intermedia_), from which they make excellent string.

Compared with Africa in general, this district seemed very deficient

in the growth of those spices which serve as stimulants to give a

relish and variety to dishes at meals. Red cayenne pepper, for

instance, is swallowed by Abyssinians and Nubians in incredible

quantities in their soups, but the Bongo regard it as little better

than absolute poison. Although the first-comers found the indigenous

pimento growing in all the enclosures, yet the Bongo reckoned it as so

dangerous that they carefully kept it in guarded spots, so that their

children might not be victims to the deleterious effects of its bright

red berries. The natives had been accustomed to poison their arrows

with pimento, and I may mention this as one of the numerous proofs

which might be alleged that much of the arrow-poisoning of Africa is

quite a matter of imagination. When the natives witnessed the Nubians

come and gather up the suspected berries and throw them into their

food, their astonishment was unbounded; they came at once to the

conclusion that it was utterly useless to contend with a people that

could gulp down poison by the spoonful, and accordingly they submitted

unconditionally to the intruders.

Of all the plants which are cultivated by these wild people, none

raises a greater interest than tobacco, none exhibits a more curious

conformity of habit amongst peoples far remote. The same two kinds

which are cultivated amongst ourselves have become most generally

recognised. These kinds are the Virginian tobacco (_Nicotiana

tabacum_) and the common tobacco (_N. rustica_). It is little short of

a certainty that the Virginian tobacco has only made its way into the

Old World within the few centuries since the discovery of America. No

production more than this has trampled over every obstacle to its

propagation, so that it has been kept to no limits; and it must be

matter of surprise that even Africa (notorious as it has ever been for

excluding every sort of novelty in the way of cultivation) should have

allowed the Virginian tobacco to penetrate to its very centre.

[Sidenote: TOBACCO.]

It is a great indication of the foreign origin of this plant that

there is not a tribe from the Niger to the Nile which has a native

word of their own to denote it. Throughout all the districts over

which I travelled, the Niam-niam formed the solitary exception to this

by naming the Virginian tobacco “gundeh;” but the Monbuttoo, who grow

only this one kind and are as little familiar with _N. rustica_ as the

Niam-niam, call it “Eh-tobboo.” The rest of the people ring every kind

of change upon the root word, and call it “tab, tabba, tabdeet,” or

“tom.” The plant is remarkable here for only attaining a height of

about eighteen inches, for its leaves being nearly as long as one

could span, and for its blossoms being invariably white.

Quite an open question I think it is, whether the _N. rustica_ is of

American origin. Several of the tribes had their own names for it.

Here amongst the Bongo, in distinction from the “tabba,” it was known

as “masheer.” The growth it makes is less than in Europe, but it is

distinguished by the extreme strength and by the intense narcotic

qualities which it possesses. It is different in this respect from

what is grown in Persia, where it is used for the narghileh or

water-pipes, and whence there is a large export of it, because of its

mildness and aromatic qualities. Barth[27] has given his opinion that

the tobacco is a native of Logane (Mosgoo). At all events, the people

of Africa have far surpassed every other people in inventing various

contrivances for smoking, rising from the very simplest apparatus to

the most elaborate; and thus the conjecture is tenable, that they

probably favoured the propagation of the foreign growth, because

smoking, either of the common tobacco (_N. rustica_) or of some other

aromatic weed, had in some way already been a practice amongst them.

To such a hypothesis might be opposed the important fact that on all

the monuments of the ancient Egyptians that afford us so clear an

insight into the details of their domestic life, there has never been

found a written inscription or pictorial representation that could

possibly afford a proof that such a custom was known to exist. In

conclusion, it deserves to be mentioned that the pagan negroes, as far

as they have remained uninfluenced by Islamism, smoke the tobacco

whilst those who have embraced Mohammedanism prefer the chewing of the

leaf to the enjoyment of a pipe.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] The illustration on the following page represents a

young fish, about nine inches long, and is remarkable for

the long, thread-like spikes of skin on the lids of the

gills. This peculiarity has been observed in Senegal, and

probably is only seen whilst the fish is young.

[25] The head of the Madoqua is represented as accurately

as possible in the accompanying illustration.

[26] In all descriptions of sorghum, as given by

travellers, there seems to be a considerable confusion with

respect to the distinctive names of this ordinary cereal.

It is called promiscuously “Kaffir-corn,” “negro-cane,”

“bushel-maize,” “Moorish-mille,” or sometimes “durra.”

Durra is an Arabic definition, which can be traced in

literature as far as the tenth century. The etymology of

the Italian word _sorgho_ is altogether uncertain. Peter de

Crescentiis, about the year 1300, is the first author who

definitely alludes to corn under this name; whether Pliny

meant to refer to it is very doubtful. The Germans in the

South Tyrol, who are very limited in their acquaintance

with cultivated cereals, call it, in their Germanised way,

“Sirch,” whilst the Sclavonians corrupt it further into

“Sirek.” In Egypt this sorghum is called _Durra belladi_,

“durra of the country,” to distinguish it from maize, which

is known as _Durra Shahmi_, or “Syrian durra.” In Syria

itself, where the sorghum is little known, because rarely

cultivated, it is simply called “durra.” Throughout the

Soudan it has exclusively the appellation of _Aish_, _i.e._

“bread.”

[27] Vol. iii., p. 215.