Chapter IV

Governor of Dongola — Embarkation of camels — Well in the desert — Camel drivers — Iron fragments — Effect of cold on the Bedouins — An Arab superstition — Verdure on the banks of the Nile — Pastoral scene.

During the first two days of the four we unwillingly passed at Dongola, my chief employment was lying on my back applying a lotion to my eyes. This treatment succeeded wonderfully, and I at length got rid of the inflammation.

We visited the Governor, to whom we had letters of recommendation, and a firman, about three times a day. We found him polite, extremely obliging, and gentleman-like; he had travelled much in Europe, and was well acquainted by name with all the leading statesmen of England and France.

He at once sent a soldier to collect camels for us, and afterwards sent four more on the same errand, as there was some difficulty, the Camel Sheik being ill of the small-pox, and no one liking to interfere in his duties. Notwithstanding all the Governor’s exertions in our favour, only nine camels had made their appearance by the third day. An express was sent to order a fresh supply at Argo island, about twenty miles distant—and these were brought to a place near the river, where the banks were sufficiently low to embark them and the luggage, that we might determine their different employments. It was not till between two and three o’clock of the following afternoon that we were able to effect a start.

We broke up our camp; had everything transported by camels to the water’s side, to be shipped in two crazy boats, for the purpose of crossing to the opposite bank. I watched the embarking of our unfortunate beasts, who, much to my disgust, were tormented with more than Smithfield cruelty. After having been dragged down the bank on their knees, they were hoisted into the boat by the aid of ropes.

The scene was further enlivened by the soldiers thrashing the Bedouins with whips, made of hippopotamus’s hide; and as each of the sufferers had a wife, and each possessed the power of screaming, their united concert in that way defies description.

Dongola is a large mud town, with capacious streets, and pieces of ground without buildings. In one of these I counted sixteen large white and black eagles, moving about as unconcernedly as barn-door fowls. They are almost tame, and quite impudent, for some of them came swooping down upon our hen-coop with a rush that nearly made the inmates die of fright. We were obliged to shoot a couple of the most audacious.

The dogs too had to be ran after and stoned for being too inquisitive respecting our dinner. We found them great connoisseurs of soup, and possessed of a respectable taste for more solid cookery. A superstition prevails which prevents these curs from been destroyed; so they multiply at a considerable rate, and though perfectly harmless and cowardly, are an immense nuisance to strangers.

Crowds of children visited our tents, and a few very pretty little girls, uncommonly unlike their mammas. One wore a girdle of agate, badly cut, from which hung a fringe of leather. Several necklaces were round her neck; from one a Spanish dollar was suspended.

My brother and I, well supplied with five-para pieces, went into the houses. We were soon surrounded by crowds of mothers and children; but the young girls, from seven to eighteen, were so shy, that they invariably ran away directly we made our appearance.

We killed about seven brace of partridges during our stay at this place; they were very wild, but exceedingly numerous. The only day I could go out, we saw at least two thousand, yet only succeeded in bagging a brace, and this was quite a chance, as we were never allowed to approach within sixty yards.

The next morning we climbed the steep banks, then turning our backs on the river and its verdant shore, emerged on the desert. We had started for a journey—some said of three days, some said of six—with no track to guide us—nothing but hills and valleys of sand, and rocks half-covered with sand—occasionally a watercourse with its scanty herbage—occasionally heaps of stones. One placed on a point of rock betrayed, by its artificial character, an attempt to form a land-mark; but generally these heaps were so numerous as completely to confuse those who sought guidance from them—sometimes leading them hopelessly about till they became bewildered. To add to the comfort of our prospects, we were told that we should meet with no water, except one well, at which in due time we arrived. We found it about six feet in diameter, and thirty deep; the water, though not very fresh, was clear, and of a good flavour; a skin and a rope were ready to pour a supply into a mud-basin for the camels. Here we lunched, under the shade of some thorny acacias that grew round the well, and formed a most acceptable promenade for our beasts.

All my interest about these animals is lessening fast. It is impossible to imagine how provoking they can make themselves, and did contrive to make themselves day after day. Some would run away—some, by way of contrast, not only would not run, they would not move. Some were always lying down—some could not be persuaded to kneel: but mine beat all the rest in camel-like amiability. On an average he howled six hours a day—a kind of music such as no one can conceive who has not heard it. He would stand doggedly still, till forced by blows to lie down; and every time I turned round, he howled fiercer than ever.

Of these we again have eighteen, but our caravan is increased by a soldier, or cavass, whose appearance (armed as he is with one of the matchlocks sold by the English Government to Mehemet Ali, bearing the Tower mark) could affright only the most timid of Bedouins.

Our camel-drivers are the wildest-looking men I ever met with; with their dishevelled hair, and their only garb a blanket, that covered as much or as little of their persons as the temperature made desirable. One of these was especially conspicuous by his large square shoulders, his miserable blanket, too scanty in its dimension to reach below the knee, whence it hung in a fringe of tatters; his hair hung about him like a brood of snakes, and his aspect was singularly wild, if not maniacal. Sometimes a kind of mirthful frenzy seized these fellows, and they would suddenly fling their limbs about in the strangest attitudes, as they danced around their camels, shouting, singing, and finally begging for backsheesh.

We have also in our train a young camel, a dog of the gazelle hunting species, and a Nubian who is returning to his home at Gebel Berkel. He was, by his own account, to have accomplished the distance—one hundred and twenty miles, as the crow flies—between sunrise and sunset, but as his camel ran away, and he was some hours in finding it, he is still with us, enjoying the reputation of being a humbug.

The ground was everywhere strewn with fragments, as it were, of iron cups, vessels, and immense bowls, which had a very curious appearance; some pieces appeared, both in colour and weight, like the sediment at the bottom of iron boilers.

We passed three boundless plains of sand, with here and there gravel, covered with these ferruginous materials, mixed with innumerable cannon- balls and bullets. I could almost have fancied that we were approaching the forge of Vulcan, where he used, in the classic age, to manufacture thunderbolts.

The next day we had what, in England, would be called a bitter east wind, which brought us all the usual consequences of change of weather, such as colds, swelled lips, and sore faces: we were intensely cold all day on one side of our bodies, and intolerably hot on the other, as if we stood by a bonfire at Christmas.

The Bedouins declared that they would not work: as fast as our servants fetched them, they slunk back again to the fire, swearing that we might kill them, but that they could not endure the cold. They did, however, move away at last, and we started before sunrise.

We have seen no game, except a hare; but have discovered some recent gazelle marks. Our last pursuit of this species of game has not cooled our sporting ardour, and we only wait to obtain something like a chance.

We have been told that ninety guides have been lost on this hazardous road; the number is, no doubt, a figure of speech, but the difficulties and uncertainties of the path are evidently sufficient to account for a very considerable loss of life. After four days’ diligent travelling, from dawn to dusk, we arrived at the verge of these elevated regions, and welcomed the sight of the Nile, as the face of an old friend. To say the truth, we existed in a kind of dependence on the river, from the dread of having to endure the sufferings which we had heard often befel travellers wandering in the desert, looking in vain for water.

Our way had been, as usual, over vast plains, gravelly and sandy. We saw four or five petrified trees, like immense oaks, lying, some entire, some in fragments, on the ground.

Two women, and a few young calves, comprised all the living objects we met with at Merawah, our last stage, the men being absent with their herds. The females brought out large calabashes of excellent butter- milk, which they presented to us, refusing all payment. They said that they never sold milk, as it was considered unlucky. We relished the draught extremely, expressed our gratitude, and made them a present at parting, which we had some difficulty in getting them to accept.

All bushes and trees here possess thorns; among them, one shrub, like a broom, which grows to a large size, seemed entirely without leaves. The euphorbia, or a plant closely resembling it, when broken in any part, exudes a thick white juice, of a sweet flavour, and of a poisonous quality, which, we were informed, was sometimes mixed in cakes, to give the unwary traveller, that he might be the more easily robbed.

Along the banks of the river lay a luxuriant belt of verdure of considerable breadth, edged by palm and other trees. At a little distance, rose the singular-shaped mountain, Gebel Berkel, with a ruined temple at its base; a cluster of pyramids formed the background, and in the distance, a pile of hills, tinged by the last rays of the setting sun, bounded the prospect.

We were at first at a loss how to descend to the lovely garden at our feet; but, before attempting to proceed, lingered for our caravan, that we could observe winding its course along a narrow pathway of broken rocks, among the curiously-shaped calcareous banks, full of holes, rising like a wall from the lower plain. When we had reached the bottom, our eyes were regaled with a view of singularly pastoral beauty, perfectly Eastern in character: some hundreds of camels, of various ages and sizes, had been brought down to the banks to water, by their proprietors, whom we found to consist of but eight individuals. The owner of numerous flocks lives very much like the humblest Arab, and dresses in a blanket, neither less greasy nor less dirty than that worn by his poorer brother. He rarely kills any of his flock, except on occasions of great festivity, nor will he sell any; therefore, they are sure to increase rapidly.

Flocks of goats and cattle succeeded the camels, to drink of the refreshing river, to which they make weekly expeditions—often from a considerable distance.

We were invited by the people we found here, to pitch our tents under a wide-spreading tree in the centre of the village; but this being too public for our taste, we requested to be led to the river side, whence we must embark on the morrow. A guide soon presented himself, and we followed, not only with a feeling of weariness, but doubtful whither we were going, as we passed field after field, tired with striving to prevent our hungry camels from cropping the tempting heads of corn.

At length, we found a road to the river, and an open space in the stubble of durra corn, where the Governor, to whom we had sent a letter from the Governor of Dongola, by our cavass, joined us, followed by people bearing bedsteads—rude frames supporting leather mats—a luxury, however, with which we had long been unfamiliar. We had also a good supply of fresh bread and milk, that was quite as acceptable; and having got comfortably housed, passed a remarkably pleasant evening.

The Governor was very civil, obtained us thirty-three camels, and accompanied us while we remained in his district. The fact was, Kirchid Pacha, our friend the Governor of Dongola, had, in his letter, promised him a bastinado, or as Daireh translated it, “five hundred stick,” when he next had the pleasure of meeting him, if anything unpleasant should happen to any of us; and the poor fellow, as Tony Lumpkin says, was “in a concatenation accordingly.”