Chapter IX

Mixed Marriages — A Malady in Darfur — Story of the Small-pox — Diseases — Medicine — Birth — Education — Climate — Cause of Depopulation — Food — Weykeh — Food of Poor — Hunting — Classes of Hunters — Bedawin Arabs — Speculation in Ostrich Feathers — Milk — Gold — Money — Salt — Apology for Money — Curious Money.

There is a peculiar malady in Darfur, called Abou-lessan, or father of the tongue, which consists in the appearance of an excrescence at the root of the tongue, which it is necessary to excise.[21] Dysentery is sometimes cured by cauterisation round the navel. When convulsions are brought on by the malice of demons, who find a child left alone for a moment, it is customary, in Egypt and Tunis, for an exorciser to be called in to make invocations, and sometimes the patient is relieved, and sometimes not. But, in Soudan, this disease is treated by actual cautery on the forehead, and cures often result. The small-pox is common in Soudan. As soon as a person is attacked by it he is immediately removed to a hut built in a lonely place—a kind of hospital, in fact, where there are servants who have already had the disease. The Bedawin Arabs are very frightened at this disease. A man of Birguid, named Othman, once related to me that, having had the disease, and having escaped danger, though his skin was still marked, he used to go out with his face covered with the cloth of his turban to protect him from the flies. One day, being thus veiled, a party of Arabs approached, and sent forward a man, who walked with a hesitating and uncertain step. When he was near he cried out,—

“Tell me, I pray thee, if in this village there be any one ill of the small-pox?”

“God preserve me,” replied Othman, “from exciting in thee a dangerous security by a false answer!” So he uncovered his face, and the Arab fell at once to the ground with a great cry.

His companions ran forward and carried him away, and Othman fled, or otherwise they would have killed him. He afterwards learned that the unhappy man died in three days. The people of Soudan have a curious idea on the origin of the small-pox. They pretend that it is brought by a little animal, imperceptible to the eye, but which leaves evident traces of its passage on the ground. This insect fixes on the skin, and thus engenders the disease. I am told that its track consists of a series of round points, disposed in a single straight line, so, . . . .; and they say that, whenever this track is observed in the morning directed towards any house, the small-pox infallibly appears there.

Syphilis is very common in Darfur, but not so common as in Kordofal, where people endeavour to communicate it, fancying that they thus cure themselves; whilst in Darfur people generally shut themselves up. Elephantiasis is common in these countries. Pleurisy is cured by a number of scarifications on the side. There are a variety of other diseases, many of which are fatal; but neither the plague nor phthisis is known. I may add, that the greater number of the therapeutic means used are surgical, and that they are often successful. There are oculists, named shallans, who devote themselves entirely to performing operations for the cataract, in which they are very successful. The doctors are generally old men who have studied carefully the effects of scarification and cautery. The medicaments they use are marvellously simple, consisting generally of tamarinds, honey, and cow’s butter. The last-mentioned substance is used with wonderful success by the Bedawin Arabs to cure gouty pains in the joints. It must be added, that magic is often resorted to as a means of cure, and that the patients are treated by writings; that is to say, papers on which sacred words have been written. The most successful in this kind of treatment are the Fellatahs.

Women in child-birth are attended on by a number of old women, who are very expert in their art. A cord is swung from the roof of the hut, and the woman remains upright, holding on until safely delivered. Eight days after the birth of the child a feast is given, a sheep killed, and the name bestowed. When the child is two or three months old, it is carried about on its mother’s back, in her mantle, even during her hardest work. She continues to carry it in this manner even after it can walk, and, according to the general custom in Muslim countries, she gives it suck for about two years. Unlike the Egyptians, the Forians never marry their daughters until after the age of puberty. The betrothment, however, often takes place two or three years before.

Very little instruction is given to children in Darfur. The reading of the Koran, which is the only primary education, even in Egypt, is very imperfectly spread. One of the reasons is, that the children only go to evening-schools, for all day they are occupied in keeping the flocks and herds. When evening comes on they take their slates and go to school. Every one of them in his turn brings a fagot of wood to make a fire with, and the scholars sit round, and by the light of the flame pursue their studies for an hour or two. The result is general ignorance. The country produces scarcely any Ulemas, and those who do exist give but mediocre lectures on civil and religious law, and on the proofs of the existence and unity of God. Rational studies, that is to say, those which have for their object the sciences of human invention—the liberal arts, the humanities, &c.—are nearly null; a few individuals only possessing a few simple notions on the Arabic grammar. The study of the rules of Arab phraseology, that of the delicacies and varieties of discourse, of tropes, of rhetoric, of logic, and versification, is entirely neglected, except by a few who have gone to study at Cairo. Great importance is attached, however, to the science of demons and magic. Medicine, among the Forians, is a branch of magic, which is cultivated most especially by the Fullans, or Fellatahs.

With reference to climate, Darfur is not equally salubrious throughout its whole extent, and in all its provinces. The most healthy part is the Gouz, or Country of Sand. The Arabs who inhabit it, and breathe its pure air, are full of force and courage; but it contains, unfortunately, little water. The most unhealthy country for strangers is the Saïd; and, indeed, all the great capital towns are remarkably unfavourable to health. In spite, however, of this prevalence of disease, the people of Darfur love their country and cherish their huts. However, it must be observed that, as there are few epidemic diseases in Darfur, the population is tolerably well kept up. Many men reach the age of a hundred, or even a hundred and twenty; and very old people are common, despite of wars, and domestic disturbances, and private quarrels. If it were not for these causes, and the murders which are committed in a state of drunkenness, or from jealousy, the population of Darfur would equal in number the Yagog and the Magog, and the vastest plains would not be able to contain it. Some may object that the women, not being exposed to the same chances of death, ought to exist in greater numbers; but I believe that grief for the loss of their husbands, children, and relations, and the various privations and fatigues they are subject to, prevent their excessive increase. However, there are more old women than old men, even among the very poor. I have remarked that, in this latter class, the misery is so great, that the poor of our country would never be able to support it.

Food that is bitter and disgusting to us seems to the Forians exquisite eating. A little time after my arrival a dish called weykeh was set before me, and I was invited to eat; but this was impossible. My father, hearing of this, said to me,—“He who will not eat weykeh should not come into this country.” However, for some time, he had prepared for me a few dishes that I liked, such as rice and milk. When we went to the Fasher to visit the Sultan, we were lodged by the Fakih Malik. At the first supper a bitter mess was placed before me. I asked what it was, and was answered,—“Weykeh, cooked with heglig.” I found it impossible to touch it. Another dish was brought in, and with it came an abominable stink. “What is that rotten stuff?” cried I. I was told it was weykeh dandary, which was considered a great delicacy; but I could not put a single morsel in my mouth, and so Malik was obliged to send me some fresh milk sweetened with honey. In the evening he asked me why I did not eat any of his dishes.

“The first,” said I, “was too bitter; and the second was too stinking.”

“My friend,” replied he, “these kinds of dishes are necessary for the preservation of health in our country, and whoever does not eat them is in danger of disease.”

The dandary is prepared with the residue of bones of sheep and oxen, which are thrown into a great vase full of water, and left for several days, until they begin to smell strong.[22] Then they are pounded in a mortar, and reduced to a sort of paste, of which balls are made as big as oranges. To prepare a weykeh, one of these balls is dissolved in water, strained and mixed with onions fried in butter, with pepper, salt, and other condiments.

The common food of the poor is millet, not winnowed. Their cookery is detestable; they use a salt extracted from wood-ashes. People a little better off live, for the most part, on milk and butter. They eat meat only from time to time, when an animal is killed, and sold in portions for so many measures of millet. The young men often go out hunting, and kill rabbits, hares, the gazelle, the wild ox, the fox, and the teytel. The latter animal has the form and appearance of a tame ox, but is not larger than a middle-sized calf. It has a couple of horns, one or two spans in length, nearly straight, and bent sometimes forward, sometimes backward. This animal is remarkably stupid, and only flies if it sees a great crowd of people; if one or two people draw nigh, it looks with a tranquil eye and does not move. If the Forians meet a teytel standing still in a plain, they generally cry, “Ya teytel, ya kafer!”—“O teytel, O infidel!” The beast looks at them with indifference, unless they endeavour to approach quite near. The teytel seems to be a variety of the wild ox, but is smaller; its colour is fallow.

Many people in Darfur gain their living by hunting. They are divided into two classes, and are generally workers in iron. They rarely appear in the villages, and form a caste apart, called Darmoudy. They are people without faith and without law, and it is dangerous to meet them in bye-places. The other Forians never seek to ally themselves to them by marriage. The first class hunts quadrupeds, as the gazelle, the wild ox, the elephant, the buffalo, the hyæna, the lion, the rhinoceros, &c. They dig pits, in which they place stakes, and cover them with slight roofings of branches and earth. When they catch an elephant, they take the ivory and the skin; the latter is used to make bucklers and kurbashes. Sometimes the Darmoudies use fixed lassoes to catch their prey; at other times lances and javelins.

The second class of hunters devotes itself entirely to bird-catching. They seek principally the hoberah, a kind of bustard, which they catch with a worm and a line, like a fish. Small birds are taken by nets, to which they are attracted by millet-seeds. If a Darmoudy catches paroquets, or parrots, he pulls out the feathers of their wings and takes them home alive in a basket to sell.

There are some Darmoudies who go into the mountains to hunt various kinds of monkeys. The gun is never used either on this or on any other occasion. Some rich people keep a slave always employed in hunting; and I once tried to procure one who was clever, but did not succeed. The giraffe and the ostrich are hunted principally by the Bedawin Arabs, who run them down on horseback.

The Bedawin Arabs of Darfur and Wadaï are abundantly supplied with everything necessary to support life. They derive from Darfur or Wadaï only a little millet, some maize, and articles of costume. In exchange for these they sell their surplus of butter, honey, cattle, skins of wild or domestic animals, leather sacks, whips, or cords. Most of them are wealthy in butter and in honey. The latter is found in certain trees where the wild bees make their hives. The chase supplies the Arabs with many advantages. Ostrich feathers and rhinoceros’ horns are so plentiful with them as to be of no value. When I was in Wadaï, a Fezzan merchant came there to buy ostrich feathers, and applied to the Shereef, who had succeeded my father as Vizier, for a letter of introduction to the Sheikh, Shaw-shaw, chief of the tribe of Mahami, in order to induce him to hunt the ostrich for a moderate price. The merchant had brought fifty Frank ryals, or dollars. The Shereef wrote the letter for the Fezzanee, who departed for the district where the tribe was settled. On his return, he related to me his commercial expedition in these words:—“When I arrived, I was conducted to the tent of the Sheikh, Shaw-shaw, who received me with bounty and kindness, and gave me a tent of camels’ hair, well furnished. He assigned to me a male and female servant, who attended me in all things. I had brought him a present, which he accepted with joy, giving me another in exchange, and I handed over to him my fifty ryals. He called together a certain number of his Arabs, and said to them,—‘This man is my guest; he has come and confided himself to me, and wants ostrich feathers. Let those who wish to gain some of these dollars go forth to-morrow at dawn of day. Each zhalym-skin shall be paid half a dollar, and each rabdah-skin a quarter of a dollar.’[23]

“Next day, accordingly, the Arabs went out and brought me twenty zhalym-skins. I remained three weeks, and completed a hundred. Shaw-shaw put them on his camels, and carried them for me to Warah, the capital of Wadaï. He gave me, also, a plentiful supply of provisions; as melted ostrich grease, honey, &c. At Warah I sold nearly ninety zhalym-skins for three dollars each, so that, without any fatigue, I gained a pretty profit.”

Milk is so plentiful in Arab encampments that they can never use the whole, in spite of the quantity of butter they make, and are obliged to throw away a large portion. In the districts of the Rezeigat, the Red Masirieh, and others, the pools and ponds are all white with milk.

Very few of the natives of Soudan are able to distinguish gold from copper, or tin from lead. Gold-dust is sometimes used, however, as a medium of exchange. In Darfur there are absolutely no precious metals but such as are imported from abroad, and even the ornaments of women are principally composed of glass beads. It is not astonishing, therefore, that the Forians remained long without knowing the use of silver or gold coins. When commerce, however, became extended, they were obliged to invent some kind of money, and they first used rings of pewter, which they employed for the purchase of daily necessities. For things of a greater price, a long piece of stuff, about five yards long, and half a yard wide, is used. Slaves have also a fixed monetary value, according to their height. For example, a horse may be worth three or four sedasy, or slave, who, from the heel to the lower lobe of the ear, measures six spans. In Darfur are known neither the mahboub nor the piastre, nor any kind of coin used in civilised countries, except the abou-medfah, or pillar-dollar. In the chief towns glass beads are used as money; and in the parts about Guerly they use the falgo, or cake of salt, prepared in a particular manner. There are three kinds of salt in Darfur,—the zaghawy, which is procured from the lakes of the same name; the falgo, which is of a grey colour, opaque, and rather agreeable to the taste; and the mydaoub, which is of a blood-red colour, and by far the best. At Krousa tobacco is used as money, and is called taba. It is pounded into a paste, and made up into hollow cones, about the size of a pear. By the way, I have read a piece of verses composed by one of the descendants of the Kaliph Abou-Bekr, the object of which is to prove that smoking is not a sin. These verses date from about the middle of the ninth century of the Hegira. I shall extract one or two verses:—

“The all-powerful God has produced from the soil of our country a plant, the true name of which is tabgha.

“If any one in his ignorance maintains that this plant is forbidden, say to him, ‘How do you prove it? By what verse of the Koran?’

“This plant does not inebriate, and this is why God has not condemned it. Whence hast thou taken thy word of condemnation?

“If thou inspirest the smoke of the tabgha, it rejoices and solaces thee; but never forget to say before the first puff,—B’ism Illah, in the name of God.

“And when thou hast finished, give praise to the single God, and this will bring upon thee abundant blessings.”

In some places little bundles of cotton-twist are used as money, and at others strings of onions. At one market the iron head of a kind of hoe is employed; and in the Gouz the same purpose is served by handfuls of millet. In many places the measure of value is an ox; and they say, for example, “this horse is worth ten or twenty oxen.”