Chapter VII

Trade, by whom followed — Exports of Darfur — Price of Slaves — Imports — Value of Metals — The Tallari — Commerce of Wadaï — Pledges of Love — A lost Moudraah — Value of Salt — Manufactures — Interchange of Services — Burials — A Happy Country — Counting Prayers — Forian Character — Occupations of Women — Government of Wadaï — Offices — Audiences — Kabartou — Servility — Punishments — Prisons.

The Sovereign Disposer of all things has placed commercial men neither among the great nor among the poor, but among the middle classes. By their means the productions of various countries are spread abroad, and relations are established between nations. The most virtuous of men, the holy Prophet of God, Mohammed himself, honoured this profession, and went on trading journeys into Syria. His example has been followed by men of various climates; among others, the people of Soudan, being in possession of many natural productions, and in want of manufactured articles, have naturally taken to trade.

From Darfur are exported slaves, gum, elephants’ teeth, tamarinds, various kinds of medicaments, ox-hides, from which are made the great square leathern bags, called in Egypt rai,[49] and black and white ostrich feathers. All these things are easily sold in foreign countries, where there is a great demand for the principal articles.

Darfur imports merchandise which is generally without value or utility for civilised people, especially karaz, or glass ware, beads, &c., of various kinds, used as ornaments by the women. Some kinds serve the purpose of hidden jewellery, if I may so express myself. They wear several strings of them round their waist, the jingling of which is supposed to stimulate amorous sentiments. Women know how to communicate their feelings and desires to their lovers by this curious language. The Forian women also wear, for the same purpose, bracelets and anklets, with little bells, which tinkle as they move. Coral, artificial and otherwise, is also sent to that country for the manufacture of ornaments. The red caps worn by the men are brought from Fez. The slave-merchants take to Darfur some fine cotton stuffs, each piece of which is of sixty cubits. They cut them into lengths of twenty cubits in the country where they buy, and having had them dyed, take them away, and generally procure a slave for each cut. A coarse mixture of silk and cotton is also used in the barter for slaves, as are also several other kinds of stuffs. Foreign asses, such as those of Egypt, are highly esteemed in Darfur. _A Forian will give ten slaves for one ass!_[50]

They take to Darfur a good deal of sunbul or nard (_Spica Celtica_), sandal wood, myrtle-leaves, cloves, coffee, and soap. With the exception of the two last-mentioned articles, which are imported in very small quantities, all these substances are reduced to powder for cosmetics. Old vessels of copper, such as worn-out caldrons, are sent to Darfur, and sold at a high price, to be mixed with zinc, for making anklets and other ornaments. Yellow copper, in leaves, is very rare, being used only to make the frontlets for horses. Latten wire is much sought after, to ornament the shafts of lances. Needles are very dear; a slave is given for a thousand. Foreign razors bear also a high price; those made in the country skinning rather than shaving. Turkish saddles, Mamlook stirrups, coats of mail, and straight swords—for the Sultan only can use the scimitar— are in request. To these straight swords are attached silver pommels, in which are hollows containing pebbles, that produce a jingling sound. When thus ornamented, a sword is called a garlic-head.

One of the most profitable articles of importation is the tallari, or Spanish douro—the pillar-dollar. A slave is bought for eight or ten dollars (from 2_l_. to 2_l_. 10_s_.). Bars of sulphur are also very valuable in Soudan; so is writing-paper; and the sale of Muslim books of jurisprudence, and of the Haddyth, or book of traditions of the Prophet, is very advantageous. Brass inkstands, with cases for pens attached, and pen-knives, are sold to the Fakihs. Muslin for turbans, shoes, and yellow slippers for women, are only sent to private orders. Most of these articles are supplied by Egypt to Darfur.

Wadaï imports almost the same articles as Darfur, although the people are less refined in their taste, and the law interferes in some respects. For example, the khaddour, which is the ornament of the common women in Darfur, is restricted in Wadaï to the wives of great personages, and no one is allowed to use Turkish saddles except the Sultan. The articles most sought after are various kinds of beads, natural and artificial coral, copper, calicoes, melayeh, various kinds of perfumes, coats of mail, sabres, and yellow copper in leaves. The Wadaïans use more silk in their ornaments than the Forians. Asses are rarely demanded. Most of the merchandise brought to Wadaï comes by the way of Fezzan.

In Darfur is bought a kind of bead about three fingers’ breadth long, and generally black and white, called chor. The women string these beads on threads taken from the leaves of the daum, or on grass stalks. The rich interpose between a black bead and a white bead a round bead of coral. In this way moudraahs, or armlets, worn above the elbow, are made. Many young Forians wear these ornaments as a sign that they love a young girl, or are beloved by her. Pledges of affection are often interchanged in this way. To a young girl is given generally a ring, or a cadmoul, or sash of cotton striped with silk. In return, the lover receives a moudraah, and exhibits it on his arm, proud of his good fortune.

When I arrived in Darfur my father had two concubines, to one of whom he was passionately attached, being guided in his likes and dislikes by her. One day she was engaged with some of our slaves in arranging her collars, and I was sitting on the ground close by. A young Arab girl of the neighbourhood came and brought a present of a bowl of milk, which was put aside for my father, but I went and drank it, upon which my step-mother became angry. It happened that one of her moudraahs fell to the ground, and, being buried in the dust, could not be found. She accordingly accused me, as soon as my father came in, of having fallen in love with the Arab girl, and of having stolen the armlet to make her a present. I was innocent, but my father believed the accusation, and next day ordered my uncle Zarouk to put me in irons and imprison me in a room. I was kept in this way for three days, regretting that I had come to Soudan. The anklet, however, was at length found, and I was let loose, and presented, by way of consolation, with a complete new suit. I went to kiss the hand of my father, who said to me, with emotion, “Give thanks to God that it was I, and not a judge, who had to examine this affair, otherwise thou wouldst have been condemned.” A little while afterwards this woman again accused me of theft, upon which my father ordered her to be chained and sent to the kitchen to work. It was with some difficulty that he was induced to forgive her. Long afterwards he left her in Wadaï with Zarouk. She was insubordinate, and was put in prison by the Sultan, and remained there several years, being only let loose to bear a child.

The most lucrative article of commerce in Darfur and Wadaï is red copper, which brings almost its weight in gold. Next comes zinc, and then tallaris and latten, in leaf. All these things are brought by the Jellabs, or slave-merchants, on their return journeys.

The Arabs of the neighbouring desert import other articles, as melted butter, oxen, cows’ hides, and honey. The Rezeigat, especially, bring large quantities of butter. Other tribes trade in salt, which they fetch from the wells of Zaghawy. This substance is much sought after in Darfur, where it is often sold one measure for twenty measures of millet. The salt of Mydaub is especially set apart for the viziers and other great people. That of Zaghawy is the worst that can be found in the world, being mixed with great quantities of earth. People in easy circumstances dissolve it in water, which they strain off, and afterwards allow to evaporate. Verily! if the Forians were to behold salt like that of Rosetta or Tunis, they would fight for it sword in hand. The Falgo salt, found in the Marrah mountains, is used in pieces as money.[51]

As might be expected, industry is little developed in Central Africa. In Darfur and Wadaï there are no trades scarcely but those of the weaver, the blacksmith, the cultivator, the spinner, and the founder, that is to say, the maker of lances, of bows and arrows, and some rough utensils for agriculture and the ordinary uses of life. In Darfur there are strangers from Katakou, who dye in blue, with indigo, and know how to produce the varying blue-black tints of the Godeny and the Teykan. The Forians are very clever in tanning skins, for which they have all the necessary implements and substances. They prepare, with the hides of oxen and camels, sacks, and large fine pieces of leather, which are used to sit or sleep upon, or to bolt wheat. With the skins of goats they make excellent bags for carrying travelling provisions. With sheep-skins, red or green, they cover scabbards or saddles.

There are scarcely any other arts in Darfur than those which I have indicated. The wants which in civilised countries have created the professions are satisfied by mutual assistance. Neighbours shave the heads of one another, and then there is no need of barbers. If a man requires a house, he calls in his friends, and pays them with a dinner and supper, and so there is no need of builders.

If a man dies, a friend, and, above all, a Fakih, performs the last duties, washing the corpse and burying it, for every one knows the simple ceremonies necessary. If a woman dies, the funereal duties are performed by some old person of her own sex. To carry the corpse to the burial-place, they knock up on the spot a rough litter, made of two sticks with cross strings. Upon this is placed a kind of bed, made of mats. The corpse is placed thereon, and thus taken to the place where the friends of the deceased have dug a grave, which is in all cases separate from any other. Neither those who wash the corpse, nor those who carry it, receive any kind of payment; and no charge whatever is made by those who recite the Koran for the repose of the soul of the deceased, or who repeat the prayers of deliverance, or who tell the chaplet of pardon. There is, therefore, no need of undertakers or priests in that country.

In Darfur I have seen the prayers of the chaplet counted by means of little fragments of reeds. Whoever wants to take part in these kind of prayers cuts ten small fragments of reed and ten large ones. When he has pronounced on his ordinary chaplet the first hundred of La Illah il’Allah—“There is no other God but God,” he puts aside one of the small pieces of reed; after the second hundred, he puts aside another piece; and so on until all the ten are united. Then he knows that he has articulated a thousand times his confession of faith. In order to count the thousands, he puts aside one of the large pieces of reed, so that at last he knows exactly when he has uttered the sacred words ten thousand times. The Forians pretend that the fragments of reed thus used acquire beneficent virtues. If they are burned near a fever patient, they at once cure him. The ashes mixed with water form an effective collyrium, which cures ophthalmia, if applied three days successively in the morning. Some of the fragments placed between a corpse and its shroud induce God to treat the soul of the deceased with benevolence, and not to be severe in the appreciation of its faults. Fraternal charity, in reference to the will of God, is a common thing in Darfur. He upon whom any misfortune falls is always succoured by his friends and those who know him.[52]

The Forian women have no knowledge of the domestic labours to which the women of civilised countries are accustomed to. The daughters of the rich spend a part of the day in adorning themselves; in rubbing their bodies with butter and their hair with grease, in putting kohl in their eyes, in perfuming themselves, and curling their hair. When they have finished they occupy themselves with household duties, and then pass their time in making fine mats with slips of daum leaves, which they have stained of different colours—red, black, green, or yellow. These mats are light and handsome, and seem to invite those who see them to sit down and sleep.

A Forian woman, of whatever class, generally prepares the food of her husband and the guests who come to the house. The poor assist the men in sowing and reaping, in gathering grain and cotton. At other periods of the year they collect a store of fruit and many kinds of wild grains for their families. It is they also who gather in the water-melons, and pound them, and prepare them for eating. They go out into the fields with their husbands and cut down the weeds, which they collect for fuel. The very young girls keep the flocks, and afterwards accompany their parents in their work. In the evening it is the wife who brings home upon her head a great packet of wood and dry grass or weeds, to serve for the purposes of cookery and to light up the huts.

The poor people generally endeavour to buy each a she-goat or a sheep, on the milk of which they live. They are in a most frightful state of want and misery, suffering from the tyranny of their governors and the exigencies of war. Their life is that of slaves.

Let us turn from the consideration of these humble topics to that of the government and the constitution of the country of Wadaï. _Certes_, the most powerful and the most respected sovereign in all Soudan was Sultan Saboun. It is the custom in Wadaï to recognise as a prince only one who is born of a mother of noble origin, whose genealogy is pure, and who belongs to one of the five privileged tribes. The son of a slave, even if she were a descendant of the Prophet, can never ascend the throne. I have already traced back Sultan Saboun to the great Seleih, and it is not necessary to repeat what I then said.

The functions and dignities of Darfur differ in nature from those of Wadaï. In the latter country there are eight Kamkolaks; four of the first rank and four of the second. They form a judicial tribunal, whose decisions can never be reversed by the Sultan. If he has strong reasons for blaming any particular sentence, and they persist in it, he may discharge them, but he cannot reverse what they have decreed without the assistance of the Grand Kadi.

The highest rank after the Kamkolaks is that of Momo, mother of the Sultan; then comes that of Hobaba, or chief wife; and afterwards are ranged the Aguid, the Viziers, the Kamna, and the Turguenak. Then follow the kings of the mountains, the governors of secondary rank, and the kings.

Twice a-week, on Mondays and Fridays, the Wadaïan Sultan gives a public audience to receive the complaints of his people. On the Monday he occupies a room which overlooks the Fasher, where are the lines of trees I have mentioned, under which is established the tribunal of the Kamkolaks, indicated by a line of lances stuck up in the ground. The judges remain there all the morning and afternoon, and only go away during the great heat, or when it rains. As I have mentioned, it is also under a tree that the Sultan gives audience on Friday.

Then the Kadi, the Muftis, the Ulemas, the Shereefs, and other great people, each according to his rank, squat down on the ground before the Sultan, between whom and the crowd is a row of seven interpreters, ranged one behind the other. Amongst the Forians the people begin by uttering their salutations; but in Wadaï no one speaks before the Sultan. The interpreters repeat his words, saying: “Kadi, the Sultan salutes thee; Ulemas of Islam, the Sultan salutes you;” and so on through all the various ranks until they come to the people. The individuals of each category, as soon as they have been addressed, clap their hands and incline their heads even to the earth, at first on the right hand and then to the left. During this ceremony, and almost without interruption, the baradieh and tambourine resounds behind the Sultan, and whenever its notes are strengthened the whole assembly accompanies it by a gentle clapping of hands. At the same time the soldiers, who are ranged standing round the crowd, brandish and strike together the iron rods which they hold in each hand. This beating of the tambourine, this clapping of hands, this clashing of weapons, is mingled, moreover, with the cries of the soldiers, who shout out, “Glory to thee, O Sultan! Buffalo of intrepidity! May God make thee victorious over our enemies,— thee, our master!” All these sounds make a strange and savage concert.

The Kabartou form a choir who in public ceremonies sound the trumpet and beat the tambourine; they also act as executioners. In the weekly assemblies they sit on a slightly-raised platform, some of them furnished with long trumpets, which assist in increasing the clamour. When the music ceases to play, the Turguenak advance, armed with clubs, the knobs of which are covered with iron. They wear steel headpieces, and most of them have coats of mail, whilst others have a thick-padded tunic, to protect them in battle against arrows. Each company is headed by two drums, which are beaten with tremendous violence. They march through the crowd, and then round between it and the Sultan, making as if they would strike the spectators, and crying: “Ask pardon of God and the Prophet.”

At the extremity of the Fasher, opposite the palace, is a little eminence called Thoraya, on the top of which is a building in which are deposited the great kettle-drums of the Sultan. At Wadaï the covering of these drums, instead of being performed with ceremonies, as at Darfur, is executed in secret. Whenever the Sultan appears upon the Fasher the music of Thoraya resounds, and at the same time is heard the crash of the baradieh, the rolling of the tambourines of the Kabartou, the trumpets of the Turguenak, the clashing of the iron rods, the clapping of hands. It is impossible to conceive a greater clamour. On Friday, after the salutation, whoever has any complaint to make proceeds in the following manner:—He first strips his garments off his shoulders and ties it round his loins; then he walks in front of the spectators from right to left, stooping down and clapping his hands. He does this until he succeeds in attracting notice. If the matter is of minor importance the Sultan sends the plaintiff to the Kamkolak; if otherwise, he himself decides.

The respect of the Wadaïans for their Sultan is a kind of adoration. They never lay any business before him without repeating the first chapter of the Koran, and praying God to grant him victory and long life. Everything of value is reserved for him. No vizier or functionary is allowed to wear silk on his person, or in the housings of his horses. He must not have a saddle covered with cloth, nor gilded, nor embroidered in gold, nor garnished with silver. No one but he, moreover, is allowed to make use of a carpet to sit upon. No man or woman is permitted to have ornaments of gold, nor to have fans of ostrich feathers, nor even of coloured paper, as in Europe. Both sexes indifferently wear clothes, black or white, of cotton, linen, or coarse muslin. All ornaments, even of the wives of viziers and emirs, are of silver; the middle classes wear copper, and the poor iron. If any one were to transgress this sumptuary law, whatever might be his rank, he would be put to death without mercy.

The object of these customs is to repress the spirit of insubordination,—to prevent its being supposed that there is no difference between a sovereign and his subject, and thus to prevent revolt. The servility of the people is so great that it is not allowed amongst them to praise any one whatever. No one is worthy of praise but their Sultan. It is not even allowed for a subject to bear the same name. Under the reign of Saleh the people of the provinces came to present themselves to that Sultan. The interpreter, according to custom, had taken down their names beforehand in a hurry. Among the visitors was one named Saleh, so, in addressing him, the interpreter said,— “The Sultan salutes Fakih Saleh.” At these words the Prince frowned, and uttered a cry like that of a peacock. The interpreter felt his danger, and quickly said,—“The Sultan salutes thee, Fakih Fakeh.” Near Warah there was a well called the well of Saboun; when that Sultan came to the throne it was called the well of Ochar.

The Sultan never drinks water twice following from the same place. The water-carriers of the palace come suddenly upon one of the wells, and beat away with whips those who are near it, and then fill their jars. It is feared that some one may bewitch or poison the water, which is put carefully in jars, enough for twenty days being taken at a time.

No person is allowed to appear before the Sultan inside his palace with a turban, with shoes, or even fully dressed. He takes off something at each gate, until he is reduced to a single garment round the middle. When the Sultan calls any one he uses the words, Ya Abd!—“Oh slave!” which appellation is received with pleasure. No one is allowed to see him face to face in his own dwelling, for he always speaks from behind a partition or curtain.

When a debtor delays payment too long in Wadaï, the creditor, on meeting him, whether alone or in company with others, draws a line round him and says, “I summon thee in the name of God and his Prophet, in the name of the Sultan, and the mother of the Sultan, and the judges, not to overpass this line until thou hast paid me.” After this the debtor dare not pass until he receives permission or pays his debt, otherwise he may be severely punished.

It is customary in all Wadaï to give to any pretty girl the surname of Habbabeh, the title of the first wife of the Sultan. After this she cannot be married until she has been presented to the Sultan, who has the option of keeping her for his harem or of sending her back to her father.

Few persons occupy a lofty position for more than two years. After that they are removed to other posts or fall into disgrace. There is an extensive system of inspection organised. Malversation is severely punished.

There are various kinds of punishment established by the Koran and by the laws of different countries. Murderers are decapitated in Egypt, or cut to pieces with swords, or hanged, or impaled. In the times of the Mamlooks, a frightful punishment was that of the Shamyal. The body of the criminal was placed in a great basin and stained with tar, which was set on fire, and in this state he was carried about the city on the back of a camel. The last person who suffered this punishment was a woman named Jinieh, who used to decoy young women into her house to assassinate them. Other criminals were burned, others were buried alive. In the year 1797 of the Christian era there was a Turk who used to put men in a deep pit, and sit over it to take his meals until they died. In Tunis it is still customary to pound people in mortars. A Sultan of Morocco once put a Jew in a barrel, the inside of which bristled with nails, and ordered it to be rolled down a hill. There are various other kinds of punishments, by drowning, strangling, poisoning, starvation, or the cannon. The Defterdar Bey, in Egypt, used to call the cannon employed for this purpose his Kadi, and when he condemned any one to that kind of death, used to say simply,—“Take him to the Kadi.”

Many of the punishments ordered by the Muslim law have fallen into disuse. For some time robbers have begun to be sent to the galleys, instead of having their hands cut off. In Soudan people are allowed to buy themselves off from condemnations, even for incest and murder.

In Darfur the most common punishments are imprisonment and stripes. The prison is an inclosure without roof or flooring, in which the convict is thrown with irons on his feet and a collar round his neck. The gaolers are eunuchs. The prisoners are obliged to occupy themselves in tanning hides, and if they do not perform their appointed task in a proper time they are severely punished. If they oversleep themselves in the morning, they are dreadfully beaten for a long time. Those who are condemned for life have their irons rivetted on.

Among the Forians, they have what they call the bortoan-bau, or break-melon. When an individual is condemned to death by the Sultan, he says,— “Break the melon;” upon which the executioners seize the condemned man, and raising him in the air, drop him down several times head foremost until he be dead. Men are sometimes stretched between two posts and beaten with the prickly branches of a stinking tree, until death nearly ensues. Murderers are killed with a lance by the nearest relation of the victim. There is a commutation established for a broken tooth, or any other wound.

In Wadaï the punishments determined by the religious laws are applied according to the very terms of the Koran.[53] The Sultan has also the right to condemn to death, to stripes, or to imprisonment. When he wants to put a criminal to death, he says to his Kabartou, “Take that man and crush him,” and he is immediately led out to the Fasher and killed with clubs. Stripes are administered with whips made of the hippopotamus’ hide; and men are often known to receive a hundred or a thousand blows without a cry. Prisoners have sometimes their legs tied round trees, at other times their feet are put in a kind of fetter called a scorpion.