Chapter I (4)

Besides these, the others were Turks of ordinary life. But a special mention is due to that chief of adventurers, Monsieur Thibaut, who was selected as engineer to this expedition, by reason of his various capabilities and genius. Whether at this moment many cities dispute the honour of his birth, I cannot tell; but as far as my information goes, Paris is the honoured place of his nativity, and there he passed his younger days as one of her famed _gamins_, without acquiring further knowledge than to read and write, or troubling his head about more. When Greece strove to burst her bonds of slavery, his heroic heart beat for her, and for two whole years Greece had the pleasure of admiring his deeds, but then the misfortune of beholding him quit her soil for Egypt, and join the foes of Hellas. There, however, he rested on his laurels, scorning fresh ones, till he joined his compatriot Seves (the present Soliman Pascha in Syria) who was then in Assuan, where, and in the opposite island of Elephantina, he organized the two first regiments on the European system, and, as all must allow, did so zealously and well. There it pleased M. Thibaut to fall into serious meditations over Europe’s weal and woe, from which not even his best friend’s persuasions could arouse him, or prevail on him to embrace some more active career, as then every thing was open to Europeans, who had only to choose their own degrees, as doctors or apothecaries, professors or instructors, to have such allowed them in Egypt. But the philosophic Thibaut would have held it a disgrace to have resigned his valuable meditations for the duties of instructing and drilling recruits, so did not in any way trouble himself about an instructor’s office or the good pay attached to it; till at last Soliman Pascha lost all interest in a man’s affairs, who, as he said of himself, was without mind or energy, but who had in the meantime been brooding over another, though far less honourable plan, which he now put in force. He became commissioner to the great slave-dealer, Joseph Vaissère, a Frenchman of Languedoc, who with the “Croix d’honneur” (?) on his breast, parades the slaves’ bazaars, buying and selling these unfortunates; with him our philosopher journeyed to the Bellad-Sudan, the Gold-rich Land. But ere long he had bored himself enough with men and men’s affairs, so he now cast his eyes on the animal kingdom, of which, with other men’s money, he picked up some curious specimens, and so ere long we find him first in London, then at Paris, where he gained himself high fame as showman and proprietor of some living giraffes (saraf). His project of conveying a living hippopotamus to Europe failed, but he at least bore off in triumph with him the brute’s skin. In London he became acquainted with his present Dulcinea, Madame Sara, who had arrived in that capital with an English family, a slave from Kordofan, a most interesting person, and who, in addition, is the one with whom the Vice-Admiral Feizulla displays his accomplishments in English. It is said that in former years she had been most pretty, as far as a black can be so; of this, indeed, some remains may still be traced, though now good living, high indulgence in idleness and repose, have swollen out her once well shaped form to colossal dimensions, and repeated and full draughts of darling merissa, it is whispered, have aided much in this. Mrs. Sara had picked up some property, reason sufficient that Mons. Thibaut should pick up her, and with her and her money return to Chartum, where he again set up his staff, and lived comfortably enough on his wife’s means, till the Frigate-Capitan Achmet (a Swiss named Baumgarten) was sent to examine closely the White Nile, and took our friend, then Chawagi Ibrahim, with him. Achmet Capitan died after fulfilling his task, but during his dying moments no one was near him save Thibaut and Dr. Soliman Effendi,—a singular loneliness, more remarkable as many matters belonging to the dead man were missing, as books, maps, charts, manuscripts, and some instruments; but it is possible these had been given away. Baumgarten had employed Ibrahim, at the recommendation of Achmet Pascha; and Ibrahim, by what means I know not, got himself recommended to Mehmet Ali, then in Bellad-Sudan. In short, all of a sudden, Mons. Thibaut was named engineer to the expedition, with 1000 piastres a month, and travelled on in full security under the guidance of Baumgarten’s notes, maps, papers, instruments, &c. The instruments, however, must have had an easy time of it with him, as our hero had not the smallest idea of their scientific uses, nor even of how to handle them, nor would he learn. So what could be hoped for from him? Nothing but the journal, notes, and charts, of Achmet-Capitan, altered and garbled, with favourite places and races set down where fancy dictated, and others that did not please struck out.

Lies,—adventures,—wonders,—were there in over abundance; such as the 600 miles of course surveyed, as the Pascha told us. The expedition was five months out; allow them three consumed in upward progress, and two for returning, thus to arrive at the 600 miles, seven miles a day must have been for three months the advance; a thing utterly impossible, taking into consideration ignorance of the river’s channel, the long and large shallow reaches—so many of which are to be seen in the White River—the knowing nothing of the languages of the countries, the halts necessary to make inquiries, and the still more necessary ones to procure provisions; then the total indifference of the Turks to all pushing on, or discoveries of any kind; and, finally, the disunion of the leaders among themselves;—all these considered, I say, made such progress impossible; and, were these not enough, the heavy-laden state of their vessels of itself made the thing impracticable.

But, be the 600 miles’ survey as it may, this much is only too certain,—that the hopes raised in all Europe as to the results of this expedition will be as little satisfied, as science or knowledge will be advanced by it.[10]

Mohammed Din has again visited the camp, and the Pascha has announced to him, that he must remain a hostage here till the tribute is paid, and probably also to answer for the lives of the thirty soldiers sent into his country. However, it seems to have occurred to the Pascha, that it was more than probable that the great Sheik’s absence from his own tribe might cause matters to go totally wrong, as he has again dismissed him to his people; but, as hostage in his stead, his only son Mussa has been placed under Mohammed Defalla’s care and guard.

We have now, in the early mornings, a good many clouds (Nedde), and tolerably cool air. At night the breeze is actually cold. The soldiers suffer much on night guards from this, as also from their bad food, which for long has been nothing but Belila. That the white soldiers from Syria and Egypt hold out far better against fatigues and heat than the blacks, is remarkable, as these latter should be far more accustomed and used to the heat.

The medical lessons and occupations of my brother have begun to attract much of my attention, and he has promised to keep a medical journal; but he must first get himself well, as he ever returns from his medical duties perfectly disgusted, complaining of the insufferable stench arising from the patients, and, worn out, falls back in perfect apathy on his cushions, with sunken head; sleeps with his eyes open,—often seeming to me as if something unnatural had come over him. So gets on my Joseph as doctor!

Later, when I had joined the expedition up the White Nile, he wrote me from the camp of Kassela-el-Lus to Chartum, that he had compiled a stout volume on African diseases, but was inconsolable at having lost all his labours. Ten days’ dangerous illness, during which he sadly missed me, had rendered him delirious; during the time he was in this state, on his servant’s asking him for some paper to light a fire with, he had given him his manuscript journal, and the stupid blockhead had used it for such mean purposes. In the same letter he bewailed the loss of our small menagerie, all of which had been starved to death. Topschi Baschi had, at the Pascha’s order, who had visited and beheld the state my brother was in, taken charge of his money that it might not be stolen, and issued to the servants the necessary coin for Joseph’s expenses, as also that needed to purchase food for the animals, which latter money they had spent in Merissa. Joseph, on being a very little better, opened the Fagged (a species of lynx), that had held out longest, having just then expired, and perfectly convinced himself that starvation alone had caused its death. The annoying vexations one suffers from these servants is beyond belief; and even the gentlest and mildest of men, like my brother, are compelled to do violence to their feelings, and have recourse to the Kurbash (hide whip).

The blacks in large numbers are suffering fearfully from the heat of the sun. They complain of horribly torturing heat, and burning in the head, and over the whole body; of such relaxation and weakness in the limbs, especially the legs, as not to be able to walk, and hardly to move them; the pulse is much quickened, at times hard, but never full. They are generally, after a few days, restored to health by bleeding, and cupping in the neck; but a bad case it ever is, when a negro becomes seriously ill, or is attacked by dysentery, for seldom does he survive it. Still, as before, one half of the army suffer from catarrh. Considering how we are situated, fever is rare; and only in very few cases does it reach _stadium frigoris_; but then, the hot fit, with violent headache, and often gastric complication, is all the longer and more severe. As yet we have had no deaths from fever alone, violent though in many cases its attacks have been. Diseases of the eyes have been rare if one does not regard as such a kind of œdema of the eyelids, which often goes so far as to prevent the sufferer opening even a hair’s breadth, the rima palpebræ. Often, in one day, six or eight sufferers under this, come to us; the reason they give for it is, they have been cutting durra, and must have rubbed their eyes with their hands, and some hurtful herb been among the durra. But as the conjunctiva balbi et palpebræ, as well as the pupil of the eyes, are wholly uninjured, Joseph doubts much that it is the effect of any blistering or deleterious substance. Probably the cause is cold. The men are highly heated by day while cutting durra, and then exposed to cold on night duties, without a sufficient covering for the head; for it is at these times, by their own showing, that the evil commences.

To-day the Sheik of the Beni-Amer, with his elephant uncle, left us for his three days’ distant home, to bring in his Tulba. Hassan Effendi, of Chartum, accompanied him with his soldiers, and also Melek Aat and his Schaigies. Our hunter Abdallah goes with this party, to shoot, and collect specimens for our collection. His Mentor is an old Schaigie named Hami, who is answerable to us for Abdallah with his head. Mohammed Defalla may once more rejoice in being master in his own tent, as this heretofore has been ever filled with these Sheiks and their attendants, so that he could call no part of it his own; besides, on him fell the heavy burden of providing for all these people. If a stranger arrives, and asks the Pascha where he is to lodge, the reply, without a moment’s consideration, is, “Go to Defalla!” Unalarmed at his thus ever increasing expenses, the good-natured Defalla, into whose head the idea of repayment never enters, replies, “Taib (Well, good) Effendina!” and has another guest. Our fat friend comes daily to our tent for his cough mixture, _i.e._ a beaker of strong punch, after swallowing which he never fails to remark that his Battè (paunch) feels much better. This Battè of his is much in his way when he would kneel to say his prayers; so he now holds it wiser to sit quietly down on his hinder end. For our bodily refreshment he often regales us with Kuschab, a kind of mead made with dripped honey, water, and much pepper; by no means unpleasant to the taste, and slightly intoxicating. We received to-day, as a present from the leader of the Magrabins, Mohammed Ladham, of Tripolis, the skin of an antelope (Ariel) as large as an ass, with legs like those of a cow; on the back and sides it is bright brown, white under the belly, greyish on the sides of the head and under the eyes; over the forehead and nose runs a broad brown stripe, and the horns are black, twisted, rising upwards from behind, and turning away from each other at the points. It is a pity that the hide is completely severed across at the throat, to let out the blood; the custom of the Mussulmen in killing all beasts and birds, for so it is ordered in the Koran—the beast must be living, and the flesh (debieg—with the Jews, Koscher) quivering, when this cut is made. In general, a Mussulman, immediately after firing at any animal, exclaims, “Bismillah!” to propitiate Allah, as the chase is strictly forbidden by the Prophet, save under peculiar circumstances.

To tempt into the camp the Arabs round, not one of whom is hardly ever seen inside our fence, the merchants accompanying the army have been permitted to form a bazaar outside the palisades, and there by day expose their wares for sale. The most favourite articles for sale are small mirrors or looking-glasses (Marrai, or Mirroa, from the French, Miroir); these are offered cheap, and must be highly pleasing to the Arabs here, as they will sit the whole day gazing into them, and even the eldest among them seem never to weary of this unrelaxing admiration of their own reflections. As a variety, every now and then a camel, horse, or ass of ours is carried off by these gentry. Not very long ago a Soggilab stole a horse of one of the Schaigies, and bringing him up close to the camp, killed the beast with many stabs of his knife; thus displaying the deep innate hatred of these people to their oppressors. And this would be most assuredly proved to us in a very different manner, were it not that the Pascha has concentrated so large a force as to overawe them; and so many being armed with firearms, of which the natives’ dread is almost childish. Even at present they show how deep their hate is, by not one ever bringing us the smallest article for sale, flesh, milk, honey, &c.—we can get none, no, not by an offer of ten times its value. Then, from their repeated refusals of money, it seems probable, all trade among themselves is by barter; coin they certainly have none. How under such circumstances the Pascha will get in the tribute, and in the short space of thirty days, is to us incomprehensible. It is true, that at a village some hours’ journey from hence, the present abode of Mohammed Din, a considerable number of cattle have been collected; but it is equally certain that far greater numbers are held in concealment, and in this way the tithe of both beasts and goods will be much reduced. That the number of men will also be in some similar manner made appear much less than the real number, and so diminish the head tax, is also not to be doubted. And who, save a Turk, could blame the people for doing so, as it is only what self- interest teaches?

The lot of the oppressed and enslaved is pitiable enough in its best view; but doubly enraged must every right-minded man be when he sees how inhumanly even Europeans allow themselves to act towards the unfortunates who have the ill fate of being their slaves. Thus the tender-hearted apothecary Dumont blushes not constantly to vent his uncalled-for passion in the most savage manner by kurbasch, fist, or foot on his little slave Amber, though the poor lad does more than all his other servants—but then the slave cannot defend himself! Often have we before now left this brute’s presence not to be spectators of his savage cruelties, but he seems determined to persist in these in spite of all our remonstrances. I have, however, at last informed him that I will call him to an account with my sabre if he does not desist, and also have threatened him that we will take Amber away from him, give him letters of manumission, and employ him as our servant, as he (Dumont) being an European and Frenchman has no right to possess a slave; and this we have already done in the cases of some ill-used slaves of Europeans in Chartum, and in these acts the Pascha ever supported us. Unfortunately, he is not the only Frank here who acts thus tyrannically; nor can I refrain from mentioning by name another, the Frenchman Vigoureux, an old corporal of Napoleon’s, at present living at Kordofan, who is also guilty of even worse cruelties. That his manner and habits have not lost their old corporal’s tinge is no fair charge against him, but it is a nameless disgrace to him that his newly-imported Parisian wife should be allowed to exercise on her female slaves the cruelties of all sorts she too often is guilty of. While in Chartum, my brother, one day at noon, during its fearful heat, saw this man’s small ten-year old female slave Nimra bound perfectly naked to a post, so that her body, all marked with bloody wheals and clotted, drying, and bleeding cuts, was exposed to the sun’s glowing rays, without her having the power of moving it. On his demanding the cause, madame and monsieur smilingly replied, that the little girl had not done something exactly as this Xantippe had ordered, and that he, this old soldier of the empire, had with his own hand flogged and cut the wretched girl with a kurbasch, till wearied out he had, to make the punishment complete, thus bound and exposed her to the sun’s beams, that the cuts might smart the longer; nor would these worthies consent even now to put an end to their barbarities, and madame most particularly showed her total ignorance of mercy. Pity such a woman should boast European blood! My brother came home, when I soon remarked something unpleasant had befallen him, and set about questioning him. “If you will promise to keep cool,” he said, and told me the story; but no remonstrance was of any use; I was already dressed and soon on my legs; so buckling on my sword, and taking up my 10½ lb. iron staff, well known in Chartum, and from which I was nicknamed Abu Nabut (the father of the stick), I set off at a pace that soon left my brother behind, who followed, fearing some mischance. Over the low but bolted court-door I beheld the poor girl, and, as I was afterwards told, shouted in furious tones for Vigoureux; but he, though in all haste, held it advisable to unbind the girl ere he admitted me. At first I was furious, but he called his wife to the rescue, and as her interference prevented my punishing him on the spot, I grew calmer, and at last cooled down. He, after this, told me, as he had done before, of a curious escape he had made when in former days pursued by our black hussars, by bending down over his horse’s neck while urging him to his utmost speed; he had to thank his carbine, slung across his back, that he was not sliced into ribbons.

This _ci-devant_ corporal of the Grand Army has now been sixteen years in Egypt, having arrived in those times when all Franks were appointed, at their own choice, to high offices and good pay. Himself a soldier, he soon obtained the office of instructor to a regiment, with a salary of four purses (2000 piastres) a month, and 1000 for clothing or equipment. During his stay in Hedjas, and by his gold and slave dealings in Kordofan (where he passed his time, his gold scales in one hand, a brandy bottle in the other, and his female slaves dancing before him), he saved some 12,000 dollars,—all the more easily done as he spent little on himself, his habits being low and mean, and he being well skilled in the art of living on others. With the Pascha’s leave he then went to France, returning with soldier-like punctuality at the expiry of his year’s leave, in company of his noble-minded wife, who was to serve him as a companion and stay during his old age. But that no very high age will be his, is visible in his premature decay, and continued ailings, nor is the unhealthy climate of Kordofan in his favour, to which land, and to his ruin, his love of gold has again decoyed him; and his stay, who is far more ill and crazy than himself, is also sinking under the load of cotton wherewith she burdens herself to supply those beauties of form nature has denied her. Churschid Pascha, the predecessor of Achmet, had brought with him from Cairo a carriage, in pieces, so as to pack on camels’ backs, the ruins of which Achmet made a present of to Vigoureux, who, aided by a carpenter, converted them into a cabriolet. Into this he stuck his riding-horse, and, aided by two slaves who led it, drove in great state past our house in Chartum. He drank a glass of rum we offered him, and congratulated himself on the numbers who had admired him and his turnout. Soon after, however, one of our servants informed us that the wheel had passed over one of his slaves, and broke the man’s upper thigh bone, forcing it through the flesh. Vigoureux himself said he had expected something of the kind, and that the dog might die, as he had already paid too much for him. My brother promised to cure the slave for nothing, if he would give him his liberty. He was healed and supported all along and for a time after the cure at our expense; all at once, however, he vanished, and it was only some time after we learned that Monsieur the Corporal, in spite of all his promises, had laid hands on him and packed him off to Kordofan, to work in his garden.

Between this man and his wife existed a singular unanimity of feelings. Both were alike miserly, which was plainly enough written on their faces, and when at home kept most wretched commons. Both, too, gladly accepted any invitation, and in real gormandizing style devoured all food set before them. Neither ever thought it necessary to offer any return, but excused themselves under the plea of having no cook; but this would not go down with ourselves and others. But too much of persons of whom we know not one good trait, and who will find no pity from any one when the punishment justly due to their barbarity and fearful greed of money falls on them. Once, however, we did feel pity for the lady, as she told us this history. She was already in the family-way when she and her husband reached Cairo. Though advised by all to leave his wife there for her confinement, he was barbarian enough to drag her, well veiled and with black gloves on, to make the camel drivers believe she was a black woman, across the desert; and during the journey she one afternoon, under a glowing sun, on a camel’s back, gave birth to a male child, that instantly expired. No halt could be thought of in the desert, and the half-dead woman went on to Chartum, where she first obtained medical aid. Often has she begged of me to prevail on the Pascha at once to give her husband his discharge, as she was still so young, and longed so much again to behold _la belle France_; but Vigoureux would neither ask nor hear of discharge, so I did not interfere, as I might have incurred the blame of being an intriguer. On my return from the White Nile, and when in Chartum, I received a letter from her from Kordofan, in which, in language of despair, she described to me her situation, told me her husband was now always laid up, and praying me to recover some part of the arrears due to him. I, therefore, on asking the Pascha for these arrears, did not hesitate to tell him, that to keep such a man in his pay any longer was merely throwing away money, as he could no longer serve him. The Pascha’s reply was, “I know that, but he can die!” _i.e._ then all arrears will be paid, too. I told him of the lady’s sad state; he only quietly smiled. On my journey back to Egypt, I found the two at Dongola; he was free—was really discharged. They had been more than a month resting there, and indulging in an immoderate consumption of grapes, which regimen had had such an excellent effect on both, that I hardly again recognised Madame Vigoureux in the amiable and affectionate wife of her already in secret despaired of old corporal.

CHAP. V.

A Pilgrim Town. — Nimr the Tiger. — Character of the French. — Blood Feud. — Excursion from the Camp. — Arab Infants. — Medical Advice. — El Soffre. — Interview with Mohammed Din.

_1st May._—How often have the Germans sung the praise of lovely May! But here all is hot, brown, and scorched; and day by day these horrors increase; our wines and spirits are dwindled away under this heat to two bottles of Geisenheimer, which certainly will not be too liberally sacrificed. All is quiet, as before. We remain here awaiting the Tulba, and while doing so seek amusement in converting our straw huts into large mansions, as no one now can exist under a tent. At times it thunders, a sign the rainy season is within a month or two, and no very pleasant look-out. Yesterday evening, when with us, Topschi Baschi perpetrated the bad joke, after sundry glasses of araki, of sending his Mameluke to fetch to our Recuba the dancing girls (Guawasi), who are also the women of the camp; nor did he trouble himself that, it being evening and the hut lighted up, it could be seen into from all sides. Ere long we beheld two brown nymphs enter, who would have entertained us with dancing and moving songs; these, though lost on us, gave him such exquisite delight, and put him into such boisterous spirits, that he commenced a series of personal jokes with the frail ones, thus in his turn affording amusement to the Arabs and soldiers gazing in at the door and other openings. That an European officer of like rank (major) would, for a moment, think of thus joking in public with such women no one will suppose; but Topschi Paschi had, doubtless, intended amusing and affording us pleasure by calling these young dames to our tent, as he afterwards insisted on paying them himself. Moral, and truly Turkish! In Chartum no feast, public or private, is considered complete if these women are not present to dance and sing, and there the almost naked Bajazzo (procurers) never fail to carry on the lewdest jokes with them. Any day one may see even the most respected Turks talking with these girls in the bazaars, as also with well-known procuresses; standing and doing this before the coffee-houses where these girls principally resort; and no one looks on it as improper, or any breach of decorum. In Cairo and Alexandria these dancing girls are forbidden even to practise their public trade, and all procuresses and brothels strictly forbidden; and most roughly, indeed, are any young Arab girls there handled, who may be caught in any such practices, or in houses of ill-fame—floggings, imprisonments, banishment—nay, even being drowned in a sack with a cat—are the punishments for such doings.

To-day the Schukurie and Haddenda Arabs have had a slight quarrel, during the fetching in of the durra-stalks, much to the Pascha’s annoyance; but some well-administered bastinadoing brought all again into political equipoise. These two tribes dwell next to each other, and are at continual feud, on account of mutual robberies. The Schukurie and Kabbabee Arabs, on the left bank of the Nile, and on the White River, are held to be the most numerous, powerful, as well as the most rich in herds, of all the tribes of Bellad-Sudan, and are only equalled in these points by the Beni-Amer tribe, that extends up to the Abyssinian frontiers. The small country, also on those frontiers, and called Kalabat, with its little town (Helle), is curious from being solely inhabited by black or negro pilgrims (the Tokruri) from Darfur and the neighbouring lands, who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. A number of these settled down in Kalabat, who had either fled out of their own country, or, from its being very distant, did not desire to revisit it, and their numbers were increased more and more by other pilgrims, who here meeting with friends and relations, settled down among them. But notwithstanding their holy journey, their prayers in the Chubba at Mecca, and on the prophet’s grave at Medina; in spite of their washings in the well Semsem,—which was called into existence by Allah, when Hagar and Ishmael, driven away by Abraham, were nearly perishing for want of water in the desert; in spite of all these high merits, the Tokruri are looked on as the worst and most faithless of men, a race that no one will or can trust. Under their lately-deceased Sheik Myri, who possessed more than ninety suits of chain armour (Labbis), and other equipments for man and horse, as also an equal number of strong Dongola steeds to mount his heavy-armed followers on, the Tokruri enjoyed a pretty considerable power, highly dangerous for their frontier neighbours, as they had also for warfare about a hundred muskets, a large number for these lands; but since Sheik Myri’s death, they have sadly declined in power and force.

Arabs are now and then at length seen in our bazaar, and various goods are brought in for sale, but the Arab sellers are yet very few. The Okka (2¾ lbs.) of beef costs twenty paras, about one penny farthing, and the same weight of mutton about double, or one piastre. A whole ox of the better kind could have formerly been bought here for fifty piastres, nine or ten shillings, and government (Bilik) gave forty. In general, the cattle are not large, but strong-built, with high withers and flanks, and large fat folds about the belly; the cows are larger, but not so comely to look on as the Swiss breed. The beef, from the better pasturage here, is far tenderer and better flavoured than in Sennaar, where it is generally tough and hard of digestion, trying both teeth and stomach.

Mussa, Mohammed Din’s young son, a sad and silent lad, who seems, while now a hostage in our camp, to pine for his home, paid us a visit to-day; but we unfortunately could do little to cheer or amuse him, as, from his ignorance of Arabic, all our intercourse had to be carried on by signs and gesticulations. When this lad waits on the Pascha, his short, curly, but not woolly hair is whitened with camel-fat; he is ever closely and carefully guarded, and never moves without an escort; but that this escort is furnished from Defalla’s followers, the Pascha having given that Sheik the special charge of the lad, surprises us, as Defalla has already given many causes for suspecting his fidelity, and both his own and father’s names are too often connected with that of Nimr (tiger). The Pascha wishes to send the lad to Cairo (this being the best thing for his country), to receive a Turkish education. May this education be better conducted than usual!

Mohammed Nimr, called Sedab by his own people, from the village in which he usually dwelt, was Melek of the Gallihn; or Djalin, a numerous, far- spreading Arab tribe, which chiefly frequented the eastern bank (Scherk) of the Nile and Blue River (Bachr asrek), from Abu Hammet to Abu Harrasch; many also of them were to be found on the western banks (Garb), in Metemma, Omdurman, &c. From him Ismail Pascha, son of the Viceroy of Egypt, demanded a monstrous tribute, to be paid in three days, treating, at the same time, this far and widely-respected Sheik with harshness and contempt, and went so far, it is said, as to strike him over the face with his pipe-stem, as he knelt asking some abatement of the tribute, or longer time to collect it. Nimr gasped for revenge. Under pretence of collecting fodder for the camels he had to contribute, he surrounded the residence of the Pascha in Schendy with durra-straw, and firing this at night, burnt it down, and with it Ismail and his attendants. At the same time, the father of our Defalla, Mohammed Adlan Defalla, Great Sheik of the Fungh, on the Gesira, murdered all the Turkish soldiers to be found in his countries. Soon after this, appeared in these lands the bloody Defterdar Bey, to bathe himself in the blood of the inhabitants of it, and especially in those of Schendy, which place and race he totally destroyed, and proceeded burning and slaying all that came in his way, men, women, and children, with such cruelty and barbarity, that men of the present day shudder as they relate his deeds. Melek Nimr, however, had, in the interim, escaped with the greater part of his tribe to the land of Raujahn, at the foot of the Abyssinian mountains, between the two small rivers Bassalahm and Settiet, which afterwards flow into the Atbara, and settled in the neighbourhood of Sofie. After a while the ever restless and discontented Gallihn joined him, some, however, remaining in Taka, and with them came the Angareb into this country, which, without any reference to the length of the person, is made as small and short as possible, so as to be the easier transported with the owners on the camels during their constant moving and shifting of residences and wandering journeys.

The now aged Nimr did not in his new country forget his old, so gave to the new villages he found names that reminded him of his old fatherland, as Schendy, Damer, &c. Every now and then he heads plundering forays against his neighbours the Schukuri, Beni-Amer, and others, carrying off their camels, cattle, and other possessions, while his many sons, principally borne him by his Abyssinian wife, a daughter of a Sultan, or Ras, of that land, are his constant guards and attendants. He is now in possession of many stands of fire-arms, and his troops are similar to the Schaigies, being mounted on camels or horses, and armed with muskets, pistols, swords, or lances. His followers, like his people, increase daily, for now, as at all times, numbers of the Djalin tribe are driven away from the banks of the Nile. This is the reason also why that land seems so ill peopled and badly cultivated, and displays so many Sagies in ruins; and perhaps more now than before, as the Pascha’s oppression in taxes, levies of recruits, &c., cause the people to fly in hundreds, most of whom join Nimr, as well as many more from Schendy, Damer, and other places, as with him they live in content and security. If a Turkish force prepares to take the field against him, he has instantly notice of it, either from some of his own widely-scattered tribe, from the people of the island, who, as is natural, have a better feeling towards him than towards their oppressors, or from his spies, and is then at once off with his people and possessions to the neighbouring Abyssinian mountains, which afford him secure shelter, and where, from his connection by marriage with many of their chiefs, as well through his friend Wood Auet, Sheik of the Dabaina-Arabs, he can be ably protected and supported. Besides, what can be won by warring on such races? Their only wealth, their herds, they ever drive away before them; their huts are of no consequence to them,—destroyed one day, they are rebuilt the next; means of existence in food and forage no enemy will find, and how, under such circumstances, can war be carried on or continued?

Mohammed Adan Defalla had also fled from the Gesira, and, according to report, died in Habesch. When his father cleared the island of the Turkish troops, our fat friend Defalla, though not then grown up, had done his best, slaying many of the enemy. Whether this, easily excusable from love of country and hatred of the foe, be now forgotten, or Achmet Pascha only pretends it is so, we know not, but at present he bestows on this man, his companion and auxiliary with 150 men in this Chasua, many marks of full confidence. But the other Turks see in Defalla a faithless, false man (Ragil batal, misaur), whose heart is as black (Kelbe assuet) as his face. Even the negro says of a man whom he would designate as false, that his heart is black.

The form of countenance of the Fungh does not seem to us to be so similar to that of the negro, as to that of the Barabra, although the skin is certainly much darker than that of the latter. They wear their hair long and loose, though some plait it into knots; their arms are small oval shields,—which they procure by barter from the Kabbabee Arabs, and these are made from the hide of the wild buffalo,—and the usual sword or lance. They are a strong, well-built race; are yet in considerable numbers located on the Gesira, between the Blue and White Nile, and though much mixed up with other tribes, are to be met with all the way from Damer to Gos Rajeb; they still possess their old pride of race and country, and do not wish to be looked on as genuine Arabs. Of a national language we found no trace; but after they were subdued by the Arabs, this may have vanished before that of the conquerors. As a matter of course, they have no love for the Arabs, and less for the Turks, who suck the very marrow from their bones; but their chiefs, who lately have been taking a greater interest in politics, than formerly, hope that, with a change of rule in Egypt, their own lot will also alter, as they are now better acquainted with the use of fire-arms, and they trust that the forcibly raised black regiments in the Turkish service, will, on the first opportunity, disband themselves, deserting their Turkish masters, and all connected or concerned with them. And this we fully believe. According to their own tale, the Fungh descend from races of inhabitants of the Defafonj of the lands of the Dinka and Schilluk, where yet their forefathers’ race may be found. [No such land is now known, but there is a hill of the name, an extinct volcano, in the land of the Dinka, about 11° N. lat., which I afterwards ascended. Had I followed my own ear I would have written the name Defafaungh, although the Funghs themselves pronounce their race’s name so feebly, that one might almost suppose Fonj with an hardly audible _e_ or _i_ was the correct pronunciation of it.] Near this hill live now no people of the name but the tribe of the Dinka, though in their traditions this hill plays so great a part, that it looks as if round and behind it had been the gathering of the whole race, which may have descended from the high lands along the Sabat, and, after delivering battle to the Arabs, poured down on or by the White Nile for 300 years into Sennaar, and there founded an empire. Burckhardt holds, that they had, as a savage race, burst down from the great mountain range. Six hours’ journey above Fazogl there is, among populous and large hills of the Tabi, (who can turn out 100,000 men able to bear arms, and have 500 villages, which the Turks have not, as yet, ventured to approach,) a hill of considerable size and many people, called Fungh; but it is not inhabited by the race of that name, but by the Hammeghs.

The chief country of these Hammeghs extends from the Blue Nile, above Sennaar, from Sero to Rossères, but they also have settlements higher up. The head Sheik was the old famed Soliman, whose name was held in the utmost reverence all over the Gesira, and a single word from whom was sufficient to set it all in uproar. He numbered some eighty or ninety years, had been in his youth a man of wondrous strength, and even in his old age this mummy, for he is nothing but skin and bone, still displays remarkable power. Scars cover his body over and over, the remains of fifty battles, before each of which, knight-like, he measured himself in single combat with the leader of the adverse force. The ability and sly wisdom with which he managed his own people, and also the Turks, is the more remarkable, as he was thus ever fighting and totally uneducated. His honesty, openness, and bold bearing, called forth like qualities in others; and his meeting with Mehmet Ali, when that ruler travelled, in 1838, into Sennaar, and summoned Soliman, as head Sheik, before him, was characteristic of both. It is well known, that the former Mudir of the Berbers, Abbas Aga, who by all kinds of ruinous imposts had gathered up large sums of money, was, by orders received from the highest authority, poisoned by a Copt, his secretary, and all his wealth seized on by government. This Copt, now the renegade Challill Effendi, was rewarded for the crime by being appointed Sheik of Metemma and Schendy! Formerly, this Abbas Aga had caused the Kalif of the Wells of Atmur (the desert between Korusko and Abu Hammet), who was very wealthy, to fall under the suspicion of the ruling powers, who without further to do, at once sentenced him to be hung, and drew in his riches, at least all of them that Abbas Aga had left. The brother of the latter, Soliman Aga, set out for Cairo, but was, at Atmur, set on by the Bischari Scheik, Barakan, brother of the murdered Kalif, and, along with nine of his companions, fell a sacrifice to the revenge of blood. Barakan seized on every thing save the dead man’s harem; this he allowed to go free, with all its property, and also all who had not raised weapons against him. He then, with his own large means, and 1000 purses he had spoiled the dead man of, fled on his way to the Red Sea, probably intending to take shelter in India; but, owing to his provisions falling short, he and his party lost time on their flight, and this enabled the Ababde Sheik Soliman to overtake him while resting on a hill two days’ journey from the Red Sea. After a desperate resistance, Barakan and seven of his followers were slain by Soliman, who afterwards brought his head to Chartum, where, after it had been publicly displayed in the streets by a crier, we were shocked to again behold it borne before Sheik Soliman, a sly and ever- smiling smooth-countenanced rascal, at his triumphal entrance into the Pascha’s divan; there, held up by the bloody hair, it was exposed to the latter’s inspection, who gazed on it with a truly bloodthirsty look. Some of the Bischari, tribe-fellows of Barakan, such as Sheik Mohammed, Issa of Elbe, on the Red Sea, &c. had united with Soliman in the pursuit of the fugitive, and they and their people, from their dexterity in slinging stones, had been the main cause of the victory. But what would not the treacherous Bischari do to gain the Pascha’s favour? Between Sheik Soliman and Barakan there were, on the contrary, old feuds and hatreds; as, in earlier days, the family of the former had had the charge of the wells, and the supply of camels, but had been deprived of these profitable resources by the family of the latter. To turn the tide in his own favour, and regain these privileges, was the aim of Soliman’s pursuit of Barakan, and in this he succeeded, for, on his return to Chartum, he was named Grand Sheik of the Wells, and presented with a dress and sabre of honour. During this pursuit he had followed Barakan for twelve days, without giving himself or dromedaries more than two hours’ rest during the whole time, or ever lying down to sleep! And still the Pascha was not satisfied; the man was dead, but where were his treasures?—for these are ever the main point—and Soliman had received the strictest orders to produce these also. We were in the divan when Barakan’s brother, the Kalif Hassan, took his leave to set out for Berber. The Pascha was violent, harsh, and rude towards this young man, and told him, in the plainest language, he would have the money, or it would go very ill with him (Hassan), as he knew well where this was to be found, and if he did not produce it, he would sell him and all his family to indemnify himself for the great loss. Such is Turkish justice—and enough of it.

A few days ago the Pascha issued orders that all fires in the camp should be extinguished at evening’s gun-fire,—a most wise and proper order, as the carelessness, and want of caution of the soldiery was now doubly dangerous, the huts having become much more inflammable, from the straw they are formed of being thoroughly dried; and at length it was found proper to collect all the supply of powder into one hut, dig round it a wet ditch, and surround all by a wooden fence, near which all fires were strictly forbidden. But now again there burns, not fifteen paces from this fence, one of the largest fires; nor is much watch kept over it, even in the windiest days, and of an evening, one sees fires in the camp as numerous and late as ever. So it is ever with the Turks. An order is issued, and no sooner is it so than it is forgotten, nor is it recalled to mind till some smart bastinadoing in consequence of some misfortune caused by the breach of it, thus forcibly awakens the memory. Carelessness and dependence on a merciful Providence are here equal, and go hand-in-hand. When on the Nile, we often fell in with vessels loaded with dried straw, and heaped so that the crew had barely room to work them, but this did not by any means prevent a roaring fire from being kept up between the piles of straw for cooking, and other purposes.

Every day the soldiers bring to myself and brother numbers of dead snakes, but, unfortunately, so mangled as to be useless as specimens; the soldiery not fancying we merely want the skins, but believing our wish to be the flesh to prepare medicines from. Some of the men have confidently assured us, that, in a thicket, they came on a snake some twenty-feet long, and as thick as a man’s thigh. A kind of boa, probably; pity they could not kill him. The great number of snakes hereabouts, almost all very venomous, make our living in the open air and on the ground very unsafe, and it is by no means a matter of indifference here under what bush, or among what long-grass one sits down: a loose stalk touched, or the bite of an insect, immediately calls up one’s fears that it is a snake or scorpion; and when out shooting we move with eyes bent on the ground, more anxiously looking out to prevent ourselves treading on any venomous reptile, than gazing about for our game. However, during such excursions, we have fallen in with many nebbek-trees; and, during the rainy season, the plants and herbage must be full and numerous, as even now there is much verdure, though the soil is covered with withered grasses and herbs. There are also many cotton plantations that seem to have been tended with care, all being hedged round and cleared of weeds. In this neighbourhood the durra grows to an astonishing height; on one field it had an average height of four or five times the length of our double rifles, and stood so close that it was with difficulty we could force our way between the stalks.

_6th May._—Early this morning we mounted our dromedaries and, attended by a servant and guide furnished by Mohammed Defalla, took our way to (the two hours and a half distant) El Soffrè, where at present Mohammed Din and most of his people reside. The Pascha very reluctantly granted his permission; and it was in truth an adventurous enterprise, thus, without any protecting escort, to place oneself in the power of these faithless Haddenda. But we were safer all alone, than if accompanied by the few soldiers the Pascha offered us as escort. Our course was eastward: for the first half hour it lay through large durra fields, in which the heads of the grain were cut off from the tall stems, for it was free to any one in the camp to provide himself and beasts with as much of this as he pleased, these Arabs not having as yet shown any great inclination to follow the Pascha’s orders of forming a grain magazine, as they put no faith in his promises of payment for their trouble. The greater part has, or will be gathered by the Arabs, who hang about here in troops, and this is hidden by them in their secret stores, so as to render the stay of the army here impossible, for want of this necessary bread stuff. The Arabs (Haddenda) met us often when some little distance from our camp, and, at last, in large numbers; and the whole path from these durra fields to El Soffrè was one procession of people, camels, and asses laden with durra. Among the former were many crowds of women, but all old and ugly, who sweating under their loads, trotted behind the beasts, while the men, armed with lance and shield, rode or walked proudly and burdenless in rear of all. Most of the burden of labour seems here to fall on the women, and it is plain they hold no high place, as they are not allowed to anoint their hair. It was soon evident that large bodies of Arabs were assembled somewhere near, and that the population of Taka was greater than given out,—a suspicion much strengthened by such extensive durra fields, and by the many wells sunk; as also by the extent of ruined huts and enclosures within our camp, where, ere we came, the Arabs had had their abodes. All we met were most civil, “Mirhababa” being shouted to us by almost all. After the first half hour’s ride we came to a wood, but were much surprised to see only young trees, and not, as we had hoped, old and venerable timber. But we soon discovered the cause, in fires still glimmering in different parts around, so placed, that it was evidently the inhabitants’ intention to burn down the trees to manure the ground, and also thus to gain clear ground for fresh fields of grain, and better pasturage for their herds. To a great distance round their camping places, which, like all Nomadic tribes, they frequently change, these new copses are found in large quantities.