Chapter XX (2)

Now and then, with a frightful roar that resounded far away, the males would leap violently from the water, displaying all the forepart of their huge body; they seemed to be scuffling together, but whether they were quarrelling for a monopoly of the limited space, or whether they had been hit by some of my bullets, I could not determine. Their small pointed ears were remarkably flexible, and were continually moving to and fro as the animals listened to distant sounds or flapped away the settling insects. All other characteristics of the hippopotamus are so well known that it would be superfluous to introduce any further description of them here.

[Sidenote: THE TENANTS OF THE DYOOR.]

To the same degree as its waters were enlivened by fish and hippopotamuses, were the banks of the Dyoor animated by birds and many varieties of animals. The forests were denizened by several species of the monkey family, that during the winter months found there an abundant harvest of ripened fruit. The grotesque form of the red-billed Nashorr-bird rocked to and fro on the half-bare branches, and one of the most splendid of African birds, the sky-blue Elminia, was especially frequent. The bare sand-flats in the half dry river-bed were the favourite resorts of the water-birds. The quaint-looking umbers (_Scopus umbretta_), which are generally seen sitting solitary by the shady swamps in the woods, were here marshalled along the banks in flocks of twelve or fifteen; these birds, with their ponderous crested heads pensively drooping in the noontide heat, seemed in their “sombre weeds” rather to belong to the dreary wastes of the chilly north than to the smiling grass-plains of the Upper Nile. Then there were the great herons (_Mycteria senegalensis_) gravely strutting about, or skimming the dark blue surface of the water on their silvery pinions. The Khartoomers call this bird Aboo Mieh, or father of hundreds, in commemoration of the munificence of a traveller who is said to have given a hundred piastres (five dollars) for the first specimens of this noble bird. In other places the sacred ibises had congregated into groups, and with their bills turned towards the water, stood or squatted motionless under the vertical beams of the midday sun. The return of the dry and cool winter months regularly brings these birds, like their compatriots the Khartoomers, into the more southerly negro-countries. Ever and again the sharp cry of the osprey from some invisible quarter would rouse the traveller from his reveries, as though by its yelling laughter it were mocking at his meditations. Storks, which are so prominent a feature in the Central Soudan, and are so highly reverenced in Adamawa, did not appear in these regions, and throughout my journey to the Niam-niam I never saw them.

We were hard at work on the following day in turning the huge carcase of the hippopotamus to account for our domestic use. My people boiled down great flasks of the fat which they took from the layers between the ribs, but what the entire produce of grease would have been I was unable to determine, as hundreds of natives had already cut off and appropriated pieces of the flesh. When boiled, hippopotamus-fat is very similar to pork-lard, though in the warm climate of Central Africa it never attains a consistency firmer than that of oil. Of all animal fats it appears to be the purest, and at any rate never becomes rancid, and will keep for many years without requiring any special process of clarifying; it has, however, a slight flavour of train-oil, to which it is difficult for a European to become accustomed. It is stated in some books that hippopotamus-bacon is quite a delicacy, but I can by no means concur in the opinion; I always found it unfit for eating, and when cut into narrow strips and roasted, it was as hard and tough as so much rope; the same may be said of the tongue, which I often had smoked and salted. The meat is remarkably fibrous, and is one continuous tissue of sinews.

[Sidenote: KURBATCHES.]

Several hundred Nile-whips or kurbatches can be made from the hide of a single animal, and afterwards, in Egypt, my servants made a profitable little market by selling the whips, for which they found a ready demand. By a proper application of oil, heat, and friction, they may be made as flexible as gutta percha. The fresh skin is easily cut crosswise into long quadrilateral strips, and when half dry, the edges are trimmed with a knife, and the strips are hammered into the round whips as though they were iron beaten on an anvil. The length of these much dreaded “knouts” of the south is represented by half the circumference of the body of the hippopotamus, the stump end of the whip, which is about as thick as one’s finger, corresponding to the skin on the back, whilst the point is the skin of the belly.

By a remarkable accident one of my most important manuscripts, happily for me, escaped the conflagration in Ghattas’s Seriba. The explosion of a chest of ammunition had sent the book flying high into the air, where it had been caught by a current of wind caused by the glow, and, being carried for some distance, fell to the ground in a wood outside the Seriba; after the lapse of many days it was picked up by some natives and brought to me with no other damage than that the edges of the leaves had been slightly singed. The manuscript contained a copious vocabulary of the Bongo dialect and a collection of carefully translated phrases and sentences. I could not fail to accept this recovered treasure as an incitement to the further prosecution of my linguistic studies, and I set to work at once to replace my Dyoor and Niam-niam vocabularies. The idioms of the far south and east, which I had so laboriously committed to writing, the dialects of the Mittoo tribes, of the Behl, of the Babuckur, and the Monbuttoo, were unfortunately irrecoverably lost, for during my subsequent residence in the Seribas I could never meet with competent interpreters.

My old friend Khalil commanded greater respect from his subordinates, and maintained more order and discipline in his Seriba, than any other controller belonging to a Khartoom mercantile firm with whom I ever became acquainted. With him, the settler who had been longest in the country, I spent many a pleasant hour, and from his confidential gossip I gained many a hint that enabled me to form an accurate judgment upon the state of affairs. He complained very much about the undisciplined troops of his countrymen that were sent to him from Khartoom; he emphatically denounced the slave trade, and although he could not enter much into the humanity of the attempts for its suppression, yet he was fully alive to the disadvantages that it exercised upon the internal administration of the Seribas. He was extremely anxious that the natives under his jurisdiction should suffer no diminution in their numbers, and would often dispute with the itinerant slave-dealers their right to carry off property that they had obtained from his territory; he even endeavoured to exercise control over his subordinates in the subsidiary Seribas, although they generally contrived to elude his watchfulness. Whenever it happened that any orphan Dyoor or Bongo children had been sold to the Gellahbas, he would use all sorts of remonstrances and would spare no argument to induce the traders to surrender their booty.

“This boy,” he would say, “you can’t have him: in the course of three or four years he will be old enough to be a bearer, and will be able to carry his 70 lbs. of ivory to the Meshera; and this girl, you mustn’t take her: she will soon be of an age to be married and have children. Where do you suppose I am to get my bearers in future, if you run off with all the boys? and where do you expect that I shall find wives for my Bongo and Dyoor, if you carry all the girls out of the country?”

[Sidenote: NUBIAN CHARACTER.]

However reserved might be my behaviour towards the Nubians, yet my long period of daily intercourse with them gave me a tolerably deep insight into their character. It may perhaps appear incomprehensible how, with any equanimity, I could have endured for two years and a half the exclusive society of what was, for the most part, a mere rough rabble; but it must be remembered that the social position that I was able to maintain amongst them was very different to what it would have been amongst a party of rude and unpolished Europeans, and their religious fanaticism, as well as the entire difference of their habits, raised a strong barrier of defence against any sort of intimacy. Amongst the thousands of Nubian colonists with whom I was thrown in contact, I never met with a single individual who offered me any insult either in word or deed; I never had occasion to enter into anything like domestic relations with them, and never did otherwise than eat and sleep perfectly alone and in the seclusion of my own hut. But in spite of all my reserve I was a constant witness of the scenes in their daily life, and I believe that very few of their habits escaped my notice; it may not, therefore, be altogether uninteresting to insert here some results of my observations upon the character of my old travelling companions.

Throughout this account of my wanderings I have, for the sake of simplicity, always used the term “Nubians” to denote the present inhabitants of the Nile Valley, in contradistinction to the Egyptians and true Arabs (Syro-Arabians) on the one hand, and to the Ethiopian Bedouins and the Negroes on the other. I do not for a moment deny that the present Nubians (meaning by this term only the people who dwell on the banks of the river) must have sprung from various races. Independently of the three dialects of the Nubian language, which are those of Dongola, of Kenoos, and of Mahass (in which it is supposed that the still undeciphered ancient Ethiopian inscriptions are written), and independently of Arabic being the actual mother-language of the natives, who have, in fact, immigrated from Asia, and some of whom, as for instance the Sheigieh, have hitherto remained ignorant of the Nubian language altogether; they are yet all so united by one common bond alike of general habits and physical character, that they no longer exhibit any perceptible distinctions. It must also be remembered that these Nubian natives of the Nile district have for centuries not only intermarried with each other, but have also mixed so indiscriminately with slaves of every origin, that they have lost all traces of being other than a single race. Accordingly the use of the term “Nubian,” under the restriction named, may be justified in more than one respect, and may be fairly employed in geographical, ethnographical, or historical relations.

Whoever has become acquainted with the passive natives of Berber or Dongola[61] in Egypt only, or more especially in Alexandria, where they are trusted with the charge of house and home, and whoever has witnessed the patience with which they endure the antipathy of the residents, will be at a loss how to reconcile his own impression with the unfavourable one given by a traveller so faithful as Burckhardt,[62] who knew them before they were subjected to Egyptian domination, and has left on record his version of their national character.

As far as my own experience went, with regard to morality, I decidedly preferred the people of Berber to the Egyptians, and I believed that the change for the better that had taken place since Burckhardt’s visit to Berber and Shendy in 1822, had been owing to the more rigid government of the Turks on the one hand, and to the increasing physical luxury of the people of Berber on the other; for in their own homes I never found them to be otherwise than quiet and harmless.

[Sidenote: VIRTUES AND VICES.]

My impressions, however, were at that time very imperfect; but when I saw the people on the territory of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, that pasture-land for their hungry spirits, where they are beyond the jurisdiction of the Government and are no longer in dread of bastinadoes, extortions, taxation, or summonses to the divans of the satraps, and where there are no Egyptians to mock them with the insulting cry of “Barabra,”—then I discovered the true side of their nature, and all their leading traits came fully to light. Their character, a curious mixture of exemplary virtues and most repulsive vices, was not like a mechanical medley of antagonistic qualities, but was a composition in which each single quality seemed to partake of mingled good and evil, though unfortunately the evil decidedly preponderated.

If an Alexandrian merchant were asked for a character of his Nubian servant or baob, he would probably give it something in the following way: “My servant is a man whom I would confidently trust with untold gold, and yet there is no one to whom he is more indifferent than to myself. I am convinced that if I were in danger he would not stir a finger to save me.” And this judgment would indeed be perfectly fair; the faithfulness of the Nubians is merely inspired by their cowardice, otherwise it would not be limited to money or things of a similar nature. Pilfering is not one of their failings, and is unheard of even in their lawless proceedings in the wilderness of the Upper Nile. As long as I lived amongst them they never robbed me of the smallest article of my property, and in this respect their behaviour offered a very favourable contrast to what I experienced from the Egyptians, whose thievish propensities have already been placed by Burckhardt in unfavourable contrast to the honesty of the Nubians. It is not, however, a genuine sense of right that makes the Nubians honest, but rather the want of courage that pervades all their dealings: courage, whether for good or for evil, physical or moral, is entirely wanting amongst them. Their agreement one with another, and the promptitude with which every one feels bound to check a rising quarrel, whether it concern himself or not, arises from this same defect. Their indomitable striving for freedom is only the utterance of a spirit that rebels against order of any kind, and refuses, even to be compelled to cleanliness; but at the same time it cannot be denied that sparks of a nobler nature can be traced in this part of their character, and they show a degree of patriotism, a feeling of nationality, and a resistance to usurped authority, all of which are sentiments quite unknown to the Egyptians.

Untruthfulness has become to them a second nature, and most of them will tell lies by habit, even when it is not of the smallest advantage to conceal the truth.

They display a far greater amount of religious fanaticism in the Seribas than in their own homes, as may be seen in their behaviour towards the heathen negroes, and I should fill a long chapter if I were to attempt to illustrate my account by the various examples of this of which I was myself a witness. To their ineradicable belief in witches and in the periodic migration of souls into the bodies of hyænas, I have already made several allusions. But the most monstrous of all their practices was that of liver-eating, of which some of the soldiers (though I must confess they were only exceptions) were shamelessly guilty during their encounters with the heathen. In Nubia dogs are trained for the chase in rather a remarkable manner: for a long time they are deprived of all animal food, but the first time afterwards that an antelope is killed they are fed with its still reeking liver; by this means the dog is accustomed to the scent, and becomes so wild and bloodthirsty, that it is always eager to track and hunt down its prey. It is probably this custom that has caused the liver-eating people to imagine that by a similar method they may make themselves invincible in battle; perhaps they entertain the belief, that after partaking of such food, a portion of the power and courage of their fallen foe may pass into the vanquisher.

[Sidenote: PREJUDICES.]

Other notions, very similar in character, appear to be widely diffused throughout the Mohammedan world. In their bigoted prejudices the Mohammedans imagine that the Christians are just as fanatical as themselves; the pitch to which their imagination will carry them about the actions of which they believe Christians to be guilty may be illustrated by the following anecdote: A friend of mine, who held the post of Government physician in a town on the Red Sea, proposed one day, in order to gain a more accurate knowledge of a disorder that was raging in the place, to dissect the body of a pilgrim, a stranger without kith or kin, who had died in the hospital. The doctor had long been on the look-out for an opportunity of this kind, but up to this time had never had a body which he could consider as being at his own disposal; now he thought he had a chance of making his investigations in peace and quietness. But his project was quickly to be frustrated. The hospital servants, perceiving his preparations, rushed horrified to the Governor; the news spread like wild-fire through the little town; the principal inhabitants met and consulted, and authorised a deputation to wait upon the Governor, who, at their instance, commanded the physician, under penalty of forfeiting his post, to desist from the operation. The offender also received a severe reprimand from the sanitary authorities, who expressed their indignation that he should have been guilty of such an outrage upon the customs of the land. The citizens were at length pacified, but for long afterwards the revolting report was current amongst them that the doctor, being a Christian, had been about to take the opportunity of eating the heart of a Mussulman and of drinking his blood!

Khalil told me that in his own home it was the general belief, in which, although he now knew better, he had himself been a firm believer, that when a Mussulman enters the land of the Franks he is at once caught and put into a cage, where he is carefully fattened; as soon as he is nice and plump, he is placed upon a gridiron over a fire that has been lighted in a pit below; the fat is collected as it drops from his body, and from this fat of the faithful it is believed that the Franks prepare their most subtle poisons.

Whenever a horse or a donkey gets in any way sickly it is compelled to swallow pieces of pork; this is considered as an infallible cure throughout the whole of Nubia, and in some of the heathen negro-countries, where tame pigs are unknown, the flesh of the wild hog (_Phacochærus_) is used as a substitute. The practice in Zanzibar and in other places subject to the Arabian semi-culture of introducing pigs into the stalls with the horses for the purpose of attracting the devil from them into the swine, is unknown to the Nubians, but probably only for the reason that stalls do not exist in the Soudan.

Amulets[63] are not only worn by dozens round the arms of the “believers,” but are affixed to the doors of the houses as a protection from fire, and, what may sound still more remarkable, they are hung upon the necks of horses and donkeys. The writing of amulets is one of the most remunerative occupations of the Fakis or scribes, and they are in far greater requisition in Nubia than in Egypt.

[Sidenote: SILVER BULLETS.]

The Fakis of Darfoor are held in the greatest reverence, and they are credited with the power of securing a certain protection from bullets. They are presumed, by means of spells, to be able to make the lead to dissolve into vapour, and to work enchantments so that the discharge becomes innocuous. There has hence arisen in the Egyptian Soudan such an exaggerated notion of the superiority of the weapons of Darfoor, that none other than white Turkish troops are considered suitable for a campaign against this stronghold of Mohammedan fanaticism. The Turks, themselves bigoted enough, naturally laugh at all their superstition, and an anecdote related to me by the Governor of Fashoda will serve to illustrate the extravagance of these delusions of the Nubians. He told me that Seebehr Rahama, the great Seriba owner, whose territory joins the southern frontiers of Darfoor, had boasted to him that he possessed a means of foiling the black art of the Foorian Fakis; he had had 25,000 dollars melted down into bullets in Khartoom, and as the amulets of the Fakis did not apply to silver, he declared these new-fashioned shot to be most effectual. This story, as I have said, had been received by the Governor from Seebehr’s own lips, and as I heard it confirmed in various quarters, I have no reason to doubt its truth, especially as Seebehr’s wealth and enterprising character were as well-known to me as his blind superstition. If then the Viceroy should open a war with Darfoor (and there are few who, interested in the progress of enlightenment, would not rejoice to hear of such a movement) he must first, before venturing to attack this African Bokhara, lay in a store of the precious metal, in order to make the weapons of his troops at all effective against their foes. A costly war this would be in truth.

Throughout the Mohammedan Soudan there is a widespread belief in the unfailing efficacy of water which has been subject to the charm of imbibing the virtue of leaves of paper inscribed with texts from the Koran; to the Nubians this infusion is the best of medicine.

According to their notions, all diseases may be divided into two classes; those that are caused by “haboob” (wind), and those that are caused by “damm” (blood). For purifying and cooling the blood their specific remedies are infusions of pepper, cloves, and other spices. Not a day, and hardly an hour, passed during my residence in the Seribas without my being a witness to some action prompted by one or other of their ingrained superstitions. The “evil eye,” which it is well known is dreaded by all the people on the Mediterranean, plays a prominent part amongst them. No one is ever seen to eat alone, or even known to eat in private, and no food is ever carried across the road without being carefully covered. The invitation “bes-millah,” which is heard amongst the people as they sit at table, is by no means uttered because there is a lack of envy and selfishness. Before the tongue of any animal is eaten, the tip has to be cut off, for here, they say, is the seat of all curses and evil wishes, and even the tongues of sheep and oxen are not served up until they have been subject to this treatment.

It is well known that most dogs have a few white hairs at the extreme tip of the tail; this tip, they declare, must be removed, otherwise the animal will not thrive. Altogether their fancies about dogs are most absurd; they adhere to the belief that to inhale their breath would be followed by grievous consequences, and that the worst internal disorders, such as consumption and dropsy, would infallibly ensue. Every Nubian dreads hearing a dog howl, and I was not a little surprised at finding in this remote land a superstition that is common in many parts of Europe, and which I remember having met with in Hungary. The superstition to which I refer is, that whenever a dog howls (and that is not seldom, for it will do so on hearing a donkey bray) it betokens the approaching death of its master.

[Sidenote: MORE PREJUDICES.]

One of their practices is as disgusting as it is strange. They suppose it will give them strength to apply the sweat of their horses to their own bodies. After a ride they scrape off the sweat from their horse’s back with their hand, and rub it about their persons, just in the same way as if they were using one of their ordinary greasy ointments. All Mohammedans have peculiar ideas about what is clean and unclean. A horse is not an unclean animal, and therefore its sweat cannot be supposed to defile a man. By the same rule, nothing impure can proceed from a man, because man is not an unclean animal. This theory of theirs is exemplified when a group of travellers is seen squatting on the ground preparing their cooling drinks; with their dirty hands they will squeeze the tamarinds into the water, and their draught is ready; that a couple of sticks would be in any way a more wholesome or seemly device appears never to have entered their thoughts. In order to express his disgust at anything dirty or impure, the traveller must either invent some phraseology of his own, or must signify his disapprobation in the words: “Take that away: it is niggis” (_i.e_. unclean in a religious sense): the Arabic terms for dirt being quite inadequate to convey the right idea.

I should not omit to mention that there are certain prejudices about the fabrication of European products that are shared by all the inhabitants of the Soudan. They believe that gum-arabic is in such demand in Europe only because the Franks use it for making their glass-ware, and especially their beads. Cigars, they say, are rolled up from tobacco that has been soaked in spirits to give it pungency; consequently no true believer can be induced to put one to his lips. All preserves are supposed to contain pork, or at any rate to be mixed with pigs’ fat; otherwise, why should they be introduced into the country? Cheese, a product that is utterly unknown amongst the pastoral tribes of Africa, from the people of Morocco to the Bishareen on the Red Sea, and from the Dinka to the Kaffirs, is imagined to be composed of pigs’ milk, a fact which accounts for the predilection of the Europeans for it.

I could go on reciting a hundred of the absurd prejudices and misconceptions of the Nubians, but having given examples of their failings, I will now say a few words in commendation and recognition of the better qualities of my old friends. There are certain peculiarities of their character that may be described as actual virtues. The Nubian is far less cringing and servile to his superiors than the Egyptian: the title “Seedy” (my lord), which is continually heard in ordinary conversation amongst the Egyptians, is never heard from his lips. One day I asked my servants why they persisted in addressing me by the meagre and pointless term “Musyoo,” when their language provided them with a courteous word like “Seedy,” which is always used in Egypt. They at once replied that “Seedy” meant lord, and that they acknowledged no lord but the one All-powerful Allah.

I have already mentioned the romantic tone of conversation used by all Nubians, high and low, even on the most trifling subjects, and how, in this respect, they form a striking contrast to the Egyptians, who are ever harping on money and business.

Another very laudable trait in the character of the Nubians is their moderation in eating; they eat little, but quickly; their meals seem to occupy them but a few moments, and it is remarkable with what enjoyment they will gulp down their frugal repast of tough kissere. They are not at all dainty, and do not seem to covet tit-bits of any description; they never helped themselves to any of my delicacies, though amongst the Egyptians and the true negroes, I was always obliged to keep my sugar-basin in a place of security. Their outbreaks of intemperance over their abominable merissa stand out in strong and sad contrast to their otherwise perfect moderation.

Amongst their physical qualities I may especially remark their powers of marching; they are the best walkers that I know, and seem formed for tramping along the wildernesses of Africa. Turks and Egyptians are rarely seen in the Seribas of the Upper Nile district, and mainly for the reason that in marching they are unable to keep pace with the Nubians.

Although they are more lively and excitable than the Turks and Egyptians, the Nubians exhibit a more decided idleness and dislike to work than either of them; hence proceeds that utter want of order and regularity in their households which is so conspicuous everywhere, and to overcome which would require more energy than they are ever likely to display. It is true that they are free from some of the more revolting vices of the Turks, such for instance as opium-eating, but they indulge in the same lascivious excesses, and have the same hankering after stimulants when their physical powers flag or fail to answer to those demands of an insatiable imagination, which have become a second nature in the degenerate nations of the East.

[Sidenote: EXCURSION TO EGYPTIAN CAMP.]

My condition was somewhat ameliorated, but I was still in want of many common necessaries. Hitherto I had been quite unable to find anything that could compensate for the boots and shoes I had lost. In the hope, therefore, of obtaining some of the things I so much required from amongst the effects of the deceased Turkish Sandjak, I resolved to make an excursion to the Egyptian camp. A series of settlements belonging to various Khartoomers would be passed along the route, and by stopping at these I might not only break my journey, but might get an opportunity in addition of gaining information about that portion of the frontier of the Upper Nile territory.

The camp of the Government was situated close to the chief settlement of the most powerful of all the Khartoom Seriba owners, Seebehr Rahama, who himself resided there. His territory included the western portion of the district occupied by the Khartoomers, and was immediately adjacent to the most southerly outposts of the Sultan of Darfoor. A few days before I started on this little journey to the west, a circumstance had occurred that had thrown all the inhabitants of this Seriba into a great commotion, and which did not augur altogether well for my projected tour. A conflict had broken out between the black Government troops and Seebehr’s Nubian soldiers, and twenty Nubians as well as many of the negroes had lost their lives in the fray. The Turkish bazibozuks, instead of remaining neutral, had joined in the affair and taken part against the blacks. The reason of this coalition between the Egyptian Turks and the Nubian settlers was, that the Turkish commander had given orders that their common enemy, Hellali, should be seized and imprisoned. This Hellali, it will be remembered, was the man who had been appointed to the special command of the black troops of the Government, and who had represented himself as the owner of the copper-mines in the south of Darfoor, stating that they had to pay him 4000 dollars annually. He was really the cause of the present quarrel, and the events that led to his imprisonment will not take long to describe.

Hellali had drawn upon himself the odium of all the Khartoomers, because, by alleging himself to be the owner of the land in the south of Darfoor, he threw doubt upon their legal right to the soil on which they had founded their Seribas; he was consequently summoned to Khartoom to give an account of his conduct. All the representations by which he had induced the Viceroy to undertake the expedition to the Gazelle had turned out to be nothing but the fraudulent devices of a swindler; Hellali had never possessed land in this district at all, and much less had received any grant of territory from the Sultan of Darfoor. For months it had been rumoured that he intended to retire with his black troops to that part of the country, and in spite of his appeal to the seal and signature of his Highness, by virtue of which he claimed possession of the lands, the suspicion against him increased to such an extent that the Turkish commander appeared to be justified in proceeding to violent measures against the alleged favourite of the Viceroy. The conflict that now arose determined the matter; Hellali had been the mainspring of the quarrel with Seebehr’s people, and thus, as I have said, his capture brought about a reconciliation between the Turks and the Nubians.

[Sidenote: HELLALI.]

The immediate cause of the disagreement may now be related. Hellali had ordered his soldiers to make requisitions of corn upon the natives under Seebehr’s jurisdiction, who had hitherto been accustomed to furnish contributions to none but their own master. The strange troops were proceeding by violence to appropriate to themselves the contents of the granaries, when the Nubian soldiers, with Seebehr himself at their head, sallied out from the Seriba, and attempted to drive off the intruders. Hellali’s people immediately opened fire upon the Nubians, and the very first shot wounded Seebehr in the ankle. This was the signal for a general battle, and many lives were lost on either side. For the first few days the Egyptian camp, so near the Seriba as it was, was in imminent danger, and could with difficulty hold its own against the ever-increasing numbers of antagonists, for of course all the neighbours hastened to the assistance of Seebehr, whose fighting force already amounted to more than a thousand. In this dilemma the Turkish commander was obliged to resort to the diplomatic measure to which I have referred, so as to avert the serious consequences that threatened himself and his troops.

FOOTNOTES:

[58] The Turkish name is properly pronounced Kutshook
Aly, but I give the words as I believe they are more
generally written.

[59] The negro races of Central Africa also, without any
notion of hours as a division of time, are able to
indicate the time of day by the same method, which
for the equinoctial regions may be considered quite
practical.

[60] _Vide_ Chapter V.

[61] The Egyptians call them simply “Barãbra.”

[62] ‘Travels in Nubia,’ by the late John Lewis Burckhardt.
London, 1822.

[63] Burckhardt gives copies of two of these amulets in his
‘Travels,’ pp. 210 and 211.