Chapter XXVII: Letter XXIV: Dongola, the 15th June, 1844

Before we left Barkal, I undertook another excursion of three days up the Nile to the Cataract country, which we had cut off by our desert journey. I was anxious to become acquainted with the character of this district also, the only part of the Nile valley through which we had not travelled with the caravan. We went by water as far as KASINQAR, and spent the night there. At this point bold masses of granite rise up majestically, which divide the river into numerous islands, and impede the navigation. The following morning, before the camels were ready, we reached, not without difficulty, the island of ISCHISCHI; it is surrounded by violent and dangerous currents. We here found ruins of walls, and buildings built of bricks, and sometimes of stones, both hewn and unhewn, by which we may conclude there were fortifications on the island at different periods of time; but there were no inscriptions, except one single one, consisting of a few incomprehensible signs.

We did not mount our camels in Kasinqar before nine o’clock, and then rode along the right bank between the granite rocks, which leave but a small space for a scanty vegetation. Almost all the numerous, though generally small, islands refresh the eye by green groups of trees and cultivated bits of ground, which are cut up in a variety of ways by the black rocks. There would be scarcely room in this rocky channel for villages of any considerable size, still less sufficient to maintain them. Those that exist are distributed in houses standing singly, and small groups of houses far apart, but which bear one and the same name up to certain frontier points. The village plot of ground belonging to Kasinqar terminated with a beautiful group of palm-trees. We then entered the territory of KÛʾEH, after that followed the long tract of HAMDÂB, which includes the island of MÉRUI or MERÖE, which is a quarter of an hour in extent. Here also the name is explained by its appearance. It is very lofty, sometimes forty feet above the surface of the water, but completely barren and uninhabited; and with the exception of the low black rock, which at times is covered by the water, the whole island is totally white. This chiefly arises on account of the dazzling moving sands with which it is covered; but, what is still more remarkable, the rock which projects from them is also white, either on account of great veins of quartz, similar to what I had observed in another strikingly white rock which lay on our road in the province of ROBATAT, and which was called HAGER MÉRUI by the camel-drivers, or because the weathered granite had here assumed this colour. The name of the town of MÉRAUI, near Barkal, is perhaps derived from the same origin; in that instance the white rocky precipices descending from Méraui to the river, which, on our departure, especially struck me by their colour, must have given occasion to it. On the opposite bank, GEBEL KONGELI approaches close to the river, which is also called Gebel Mérui, from the island, and in the same manner the rushing cataract a little above the island has received the name of Schellâl Mérui.

About four o’clock we arrived at the ruins of HELLET EL BIB, which in the distance looks exactly like a castle of the middle ages. It rises from a low rock, whose ridge intersects the court and the building itself, so that one portion of it looks like an upper story to the other. The whole structure is composed of unburnt, but well and carefully made, bricks, which were firmly joined together with a little lime, and covered with a coating of the same. There are various larger and smaller chambers in the interior, some of them furnished with semicircular niches, and arched doors. The walls on the western side were fifteen feet high. The outer wall of the court was of unhewn stones, but carefully built up to the height of between five and eight feet; it embraced a tolerably regular square space, each side of which was about sixty-five paces long.

This small castle, though of considerable importance in this district, reminded us much, by its niches and arched doors, of the Christian architecture of the earlier centuries, but yet did not seem to have had any religious destination. Perhaps, therefore, it only belonged to the flourishing times of the powerful and warlike Schaiqîeh tribes, which, according to tradition, are said to have first wandered from Arabia into these parts several hundred years ago. In the time of the Egyptian conquest the country was under three Schaiqîeh princes, one of whom might have resided here. The neighbourhood, besides, was somewhat more favoured by nature, the banks more level, and covered with thicket, which here and there bordered some of the land capable of cultivation. After I had drawn out the plan of the building we started on our return about nine o’clock in the evening, by the light of a full moon, and we considerably shortened our journey by taking the road through the desert from the island of SAFFI. About eleven o’clock we halted for the night, on an open sandy spot of ground of the great granite plain. About five o’clock we again started betwixt moonlight and morning dawn, and, as early as nine, we reached our boat at Kasinqar.

Near this place I met with a new tree in a small Wadi, which led to the river. It was called BÂN, and is said to grow nowhere in this country except in this Wadi, called after it CHÔR EL BÂN, and in one other Wadi near Méraui.[49] A strong stem, with a white bark, not unlike our walnut-tree, with some side stems and branches just as white, rose short and knotty from the ground. Most of the branches were now bare; only a few of them had foliage, if we choose to call the long green twigs collected in little bunches by that name. The fruits are long, roundish, furrowed pods, which split into three parts, when the black-shelled nuts contained within (of the size of small hazel nuts), five to ten in number, are ripe; the white oily kernel, sweet as a nut, though also somewhat acrid, is good to eat, and is much liked, but it is more particularly used by the inhabitants in the immediate neighbourhood for pressing oil out of it. The blossoms are said to be yellow, and to grow in clusters.

About mid-day the Sheikh of Nuri came on board our boat, and I collected some more information from him about the Cataract country. In the province of SCHAIQÎEH, and the adjoining one of MONASSIR, eight separate cataracts are reckoned; the first, Schellâl Gerêndid, at the island of Ischischi; then Schellâl Terâi, at Kûʾeh; Schellâl Mérui; Schellâl Dahák, at the island of Uli; Schellâl el Edermîeh; e’ Kabenât; e’ Tanarâi; and Om Derás. Afterwards the rocky country continues uninterruptedly to El Kab, from which point the river has very little fall as far as Schellâl Mogrât, in the great bend towards Berber.

At the present day nothing but Arabic is spoken in the whole of this district; but some recollection of the earlier Nubian population has been distinctly retained, since even now a number of villages are distinguished from the others as _Nuba places_. The following were mentioned to me as such, above the province of Dongola: GEBEL MAQÁL and ZÛMA on the right bank, and near it the island of MASSAUI, which also still bears the Nubian name of ABRANARTI; then upon the left bank BELLED E’ NUBA, between Debbe and Abu Dôm, HALUF or NURI and BELLEL; opposite to these, GERF E’ SCHECH and KASINQAR. Then there is a gap in the statement, and it refers to places up the river to CHÔSCH E’ GURÛF, a little below the island of Mogrât, to SALAME and DARMALI, two villages between Mechêref and Dâmer; lastly, there is another BELLED E’ NUBA to the north of Gôs Burri, in the province of Metamme.

On the 4th of June we at length left Barkal, after having placed the Ram and the other heavy monuments on two transport boats specially devoted to that purpose.

We stopped the first night in Abu Dôm, on the left bank. I had heard of a Fakir in this place, who was said to be in possession of written records about the tribes of the Schaiqîeh Arabs. He was an intelligent, and, for this country, a learned man, who would not indeed yield up to me the few sheets of his own copy which he actually possessed, but immediately set to work to transcribe them for me.

The following morning we first landed in TANQASSI, situated an hour and a half below Abu Dôm, where we were told we should find ruins. A Fakir Daha, who belonged to the Korêsch, the tribe of the Prophet, accompanied us to the, now at least insignificant, mound of bricks. We passed his hereditary sepulchre, a small building with a cupola that had been built by his grandfather, but had already received in addition to him, his father and several relatives. From this spot I descried some mounds in the distance, which the Fakir pronounced to be natural. We, however, rode up to them, and a short half hour from the river found more than twenty Pyramids of tolerable size, now apparently only consisting of black earth, but originally built of Nile bricks. Single stones lay around, and on the eastern side, at a short distance, there were always two small heaps of stones, which seem to have belonged to the ante-chamber, and were perhaps connected with the Pyramid by brick walls; but nowhere could we find hewn stones, and still less inscriptions.

We also found a field of Pyramids at KURRU, on the farther bank, although but little could be discovered of the ruins of a town. Of the two most considerable Pyramids, the largest, which still bears the strange name of QANTUR, was 35 feet high; and towards the south-east we saw the remains of an ante-chamber. Twenty-one smaller ones are grouped round these two, four of which, like the largest Pyramid, were entirely built of sandstone, but are now in great part demolished; others only consisted of black field stones. Lastly, to the west of all of them, the ground plan is still to be seen of a large Pyramid, which was probably once completely massive, and has been on that account demolished; the foundations were laid in the rock. It appears that these Pyramids also, which, by their solid structure, are quite distinct from those lying opposite, belonged to a royal Dynasty of Napata, for which reason the absence of any considerable ruins of a town would be easier to explain here than on the opposite side of the river.

Three-quarters of an hour farther down the river is situated the village of ZÛMA, on the right bank. Near it, in the direction of the mountains, there rises an old fortress, with towers of defence, called KARAT NEGIL, whose front walls were only destroyed and thrown down about fifty or sixty years ago, when the inhabitants of Zûma settled here. The name is derived from an ancient King of the country, NEGIL, in whose time the surrounding land, now dry, was still within reach of the Nile, and is said to have been fertile.

The first thing that I saw on the road to the fortress was again a number of Pyramids, eight of which are still 20 feet high; including those which are destroyed, and which in general seem to have been those which were most massive, we found above thirty; the ancient stone quarries are still to be seen which furnished the material for the Pyramids.

These three fields of Pyramids, that of TANQASSI, KURRU, and ZÛMA, or KARAT NEGIL, whose sites were paced, and carefully noted down by Erbkam, are planted on an extent of ground of but a few hours in circumference, and indicate the existence of a strong and flourishing population in this district in Heathen times; on the other hand, in the district immediately succeeding this, and more or less throughout the whole province of Dongola, we found numerous remains of Christian churches.

On the 7th of June we visited three of these, situated at short distances from each other, all on the right bank of the river. Two hours and a half from Zûma we first come to BACHÎT. Here the precipitous rock of the desert advances close upon the river, and bears a fortress, no doubt, also dating from Christian times, with eighteen semicircular projecting towers of defence. In the interior, beneath barren heaps of rubbish, there were still the ruins of a church, which at that time seems to have everywhere formed the central point of the stronghold. Here it was only 63 feet long, and the whole nave rested on four columns and two pilasters; nevertheless, the plan corresponded perfectly with the general type.

The church of MAGAL, which is situated only one half hour farther on, must have been considerably larger, as we found beneath the ruins monolithic granite columns 13½ feet high from below the capital, which is separated from it, and is 1½ foot high and 2 feet in diameter; it appears to have had five naves.

From this point we reached GEBEL DÊQA in one hour. Strong, massive walls again surrounded a Christian fortress, which was situated on the projecting sandstone rock, and in the interior exhibited the ruins of several buildings of considerable size; among them, those of a small, three-naved church, very similar to the one at Bachît.

This is the frontier village of the province of Schaiqîeh, in the direction of Dongola, the last place coming from the south, whose inhabitants speak Arabic. Formerly the frontier of the Nubian population and language, undoubtedly, was as far up as the cataracts above Barkal. This seems to have occasioned the accumulation of strong posts in this district, and probably also the strong fortification of the island of Ischischi.

Christianity penetrated to the Nubians from Abyssinia as early as the sixth century; they were at that time a powerful people, till their Christian priest-kings, in the fourteenth century, yielded to the encroachment of Islamism. We must date the erection of the numerous churches from those days, the ruins of which we have found scattered from Wadi Gazâl, northwards, throughout the whole province.

The same day we went as far as AMBUKÔL, at the extremity of the western bend of the Nile, and halted here for the night. The following day we reached TIFAR, and again visited the ruins of an old fortress with the remains of a church.

On the road we met the boat of Hassan Pascha, which was on its way to Méraui. We each fired many salutes as a mutual greeting, and anchored beside each other. The Pascha inquired with interest about the treasures which he suspected existed in the Pyramids of Barkal, and with the greatest courtesy promised us all that we could desire to promote our journey and its objects. After returning our visit, we parted with fresh salutes.

The 10th June we reached OLD DONGOLA, the former royal residence of this Christian kingdom. The extensive ruins of the town, however, now testify to little more than the considerable extent which it once embraced. On a hill in the neighbourhood, which commanded an admirable panorama, now stands a mosque. An Arabic inscription on marble proves that it was opened on the 20 Rabî el auel, of the year 717 (1st June, 1317), after the victory of Safeddin Abdallah e’ Nâsir over the infidels.

As we have had very little opportunity of improving our monumental knowledge since leaving Barkal, and had much leisure in our boat, I employed myself specially during this time with a comparison and research, as far as lay in my power, of the Nubian language, which is spoken in this part of the country. It presents very remarkable linguistic phenomena, but does not exhibit the slightest similarity with the Egyptian language. My belief is, that the whole race penetrated into the Nile valley from the south-west at a late period. We have now a servant from Derr, the capital of Lower Nubia, who speaks tolerably good Italian, is animated and intelligent, and is a great assistance to me in acquiring a knowledge of his own dialect, the Mahass. I have sometimes tormented him with questions in the boat for five or six entire hours in one day, for it is no small trouble for both of us to understand each other about grammatical forms and inflections. He has, at any rate, at the same time acquired more respect for his own language, here everywhere considered bad, and inferior to the Arabic, and which it is thought one ought rather to be ashamed of.

Yesterday, after sailing three days from Old Dongola, we at length reached New Dongola, usually only called by the Arabs EL ORDE (the Camp); we had the great joy of receiving here the large packet of letters, whose arrival had already been announced to us on the road by Hassan Pascha. We now look forward with fresh courage and renewed confidence to the last difficult portion of our southern journey. For from this point we must again, alas! quit our boats, and mount the far more uncomfortable ships of the desert. The Cataract country before us can only be navigated during the short season of the highest flood, and even then not without danger. Nevertheless, our richly freighted stone-boat must undergo this dangerous trial, as naturally it is impossible to think of transporting our Ram and the other monuments from Barkal by land.

We shall besides be unable to leave this as soon as we otherwise should have done, owing to the total change in the arrangements for our journey during the next five or six weeks. Yet we shall be obliged to separate from our boat of burden, as it must seize the proper moments of high water, which first occurs a few weeks hence.