FOOTNOTES:
[1]The traders are in the habit of giving to their camels several days before they start, each day three times the usual quantity of Dhourra; which they force down their throats. The camels chew this supply of food for several days after, during the march.
[2]The Nubians fight naked in the same manner.
[3]The Ababde pay some deference to the Fellah merchants, and are unwilling to disoblige them, because they expect presents from them. But the Ababde enjoy much higher credit every where than the Fellahs, and in all essential points the latter must yield to the former.
[4]Until lately eunuchs belonging to Mekka and Medina often went upon mendicant expeditions into Soudan. In 1811, an eunuch went there, and was so much respected, for his connection with the holy places, that he formed a strong party, and at length possessed himself of a district, which he now governs as Melek, or King.
[5]Sélames are common all over Nubia, as well as in Taka and Suakin. A man when he has no lance in his hand is seldom without a Sélame.
[6]Their pay is five dollars from each man, and as much from every load. On the return they take from each slave two dollars, and from every load coming from the black countries five dollars.
[7]See below.
[8]This kind of wound is very dangerous, and is called Dabr (ضَبر). It takes place on the fore shoulders and the fore ribs of the camels, and is occasioned by bad saddles. Wounds in other parts of the body are soon healed, when the camels have enjoyed some days of repose.
[9]Temsah is the family name, meaning crocodile.
[10]Goz is a term applied in the Negro countries to villages built in sandy plains.
[11]See the former Journal.
[12]Fakir means a poor man (before the Lord.)
[13]At Tekake, in Mograt, there lives a tribe of Fokaha (plu. of Fakih,) who are Sherifs (nobles), and pretend to descend from the Abbassides (شُرفاَ من بن عبّاس.) Shorafa mimbaní Abbass.
[14]At Wady Heysad, (وادي حيصاد) a village on the Nile, in Mograt, two and a half days journey from Berber, there lives a celebrated Fakih, who has a great number of disciples.
[15]I have seen several Fokaha at Berber and Damer who knew the whole of the Koran by heart.
[16]In all these countries the Bahmieh is called Weyke, (ويكه).
[17]The expression used here, and also in Egypt, when any traveller is seen taking notes, is, “he writes down the country.” (يكتب البلاد).
[18]There is no distinction made in these countries between villages and towns. Every inhabited place of any size is called Beled, and a small hamlet Nezle. The word Medineh (city or town) is never applied to any place in this part of Soudan.
[19]يُسَبّحِ باِلحصوةِ صَمَدَهِ. Musulmans, in praying over their beads say; “Praise be to God;” as they pass each bead through their fingers.
[20]The Μεγαβάροι, perhaps, of Strabo.
[21]The vizier of Sennaar, of the Adelan family, is said to be the real master there, while the king has a mere shadow of authority.
[22]In Egypt, the meal of the Tormos is used as a substitute for soap in washing the head and body.
[23]The trade in ostrich feathers is one of the most complicated in the markets of Africa: at Cairo the feathers are assorted into several different qualities, and parcels are made up by the Jews (who alone understand the trade well), containing portions of every kind. Each parcel of ten pounds weight must contain one pound of the finest and whitest sort, one pound of the second quality, also white, but of a smaller size, and eight pounds of the sorts called Jemina, Bajoca, Coda, and Spadone, the last of which is black, and of little value. The market price of white sorted feathers is at present (1816) two hundred and eighty piastres per rotolo, or pound, or two thousand eight hundred piastres, each parcel of ten pounds.
[24]The Editor saw it growing in the island of Elephantine.
[25]The same name is given to cinnamon, which is here called Kerfé Hindy.
[26]Berr, originally meaning “continent,” is a word often used to indicate the whole extent of the Soudan countries.
[27]The Arabs say سَنط and سُنط.
[28]The Sembil is the Valeriana Celtica, or Spiga Celtica of the Italians. It is chiefly grown in the southern provinces of the Austrian dominions, and is exported from Venice and Trieste. The Mehleb is brought from Armenia and Persia, and is exported from Smyrna and other ports of Asia Minor. It appears to be the fruit of a species of Tilia.
[29]The most fashionable among the women of the town at Shendy have fixed the price of their favours at a loaf of sugar.
[30]The expenses of the outward journey are three times as much as those attending the transport back from Berber to Daraou, on account of the cheapness of camels at Berber.
[31]Upon every slave imported into Upper Egypt, Government exacts at present a duty of sixty piastres. The most important articles of the trade, as slaves, Erdeyb, ostrich feathers, natron (from Darfour), are besides exclusively bought up by the Pasha, who fixes a maximum to the Soudan merchants, and resells them at pleasure, with a great profit.
[32]The Pasha of Djidda takes the title of Governor of Djidda, Souakin, and the Habbesh, or Abyssinia (والي جده و سواكن و الحبش), although he possesses nothing in the latter country, except the customs of Massouah, and the nominal jurisdiction of that place. Since the Wahabi have reduced the Hedjaz, and, in conjunction with Ghaleb, Sherif of Mekka, have dispossessed the Turks of Djidda, Ghaleb has taken Massouah into his own hands.
[33]The eastern fashion is to give, as a present, a suit of clothes (Kessoua كسّوه), and a sum for pocket-money (Massrouf, مصروف).
[34]Such is the pronunciation given to this word by the Arabs, and not Amhara, as Bruce writes it. The Abyssinians are not called Habbeshy, but Nekkaty, by which appellation the whole country is more frequently known than by that of Habbesh.
[35]It is well known how little discrimination the Arabs shew in judging of quantities; the terms long or short, great or small, high or low, deep or shallow, &c. &c. are seldom accurately applied by them, and in their descriptions they generally magnify or diminish the object beyond what it naturally is.
[36]Formerly the Sennaar caravans brought as much as 2000 cwt. of gum arabic, annually, to Egypt; at present they do not bring more than 100 cwt. The gum arabic which is collected from the acacias, in the deserts of the Hedjaz, is known at Cairo under the name of Samegh Embawy or rather Yembawy, from Yembo, (صَمغ يمباعوي). The gum arabic collected in the deserts of Suez, Tyh, and in Mount Sinai, is called Gomma Torica (Samegh Tori, صَمغ طوري), from the Arabs of Tor; this is exported to no part of Europe but France. The Kordofan gum is of the best quality, small grained, and of the clearest white. The Sennaar gum is less esteemed.
[37]Since the Mamelouks have established themselves in Dóngola, they are under the necessity of procuring their Egyptian articles by the way of Shendy. The shortest road, which is across the mountains from Korti, in the southern limits of Dóngola, is five days journey, but it is not quite safe.
[38]Wherever I use the word Turks, I mean the Osmanli, or Mohammedans of Europe and Asia Minor.
[39]I met with a Djeheyne Arab at Cairo, who told me that the tribe consisted of both Bedouins and cultivators.
[40]In the country of Sennaar the slave is not called Abd but Raghig.
[41]During the wars of the Sherif of Mekka with Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, the Arab tribe of Kahtan was particularly obnoxious to the Sherif, as being zealous proselytes of the Wahabi faith. He once took forty of them prisoners, and telling them that he had already killed individuals enough of their tribe, he ordered the whole to be mutilated and sent to their homes. As they were all grown up men, two only survived the operation; these rejoined their families, and became afterwards most desperate enemies of the Sherif Ghaleb; one of them killed the cousin of Ghaleb with his own hand, in battle; the other was killed in endeavouring, on another occasion, to pierce through the ranks of Ghaleb’s cavalry, in order to revenge himself personally upon the Sherif. The Sherif was much blamed for his cruelty, such an action being very contrary to the generally compassionate dispositions of the Arabs; I mention it to shew that the ancient practice of treating prisoners in this manner, as represented in the paintings on several of the temples of Upper Egypt, particularly at Medinet Habou, is not quite forgotten: but the above is the only instance of the kind I ever heard of.
[42]Mihi contigit nigram quandam puellam, qui hanc operationem subierat, inspicere. Labia pudendi acu et filo consuta mihi plane detecta fuere, foramine angusto in meatum urinæ relicto. Apud Esne, Siout, et Cairo, tonsores sunt, qui obstructionem novaculâ amovent, sed vulnus haud raro lethale evenit.
[43]W. G. Browne’s Travels to Africa, &c. p. 347. The same custom, as well as that mentioned in the next page, has also been described by M. Frank in the Mémoires sur l’Egypte, tome 4, p. 125.
[44]Excisio clitoridis. The custom is very ancient. Strabo (p. 284) says—και τοῦτο δὲ τῶν ζηλουμένων μάλιστα παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς (τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις) τὸ πάντα τρέφειν τὰ γεννωμένα παιδία, καὶ τὸ περιτέμνειν, καὶ τὰ θήλεα ἐκτέμνειν. ὅπερ καὶ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις νόμιμον καὶ οὗτοι δὲ εἰσὶν Αἰγύπτιοι.
Its effect in rendering them Mukhaeyt has not been noticed by the ancients. Cicatrix, post excisionem clitoridis, parietes ipsos vaginæ, foramine parvo relicto, inter se glutinat. Cum tempus nuptiarum adveniat, membranam, a quâ vagina clauditur, coram pluribus pronubis inciditur, sponso ipso adjuvante. Interdum evenit ut operationem efficere nequeant sine ope mulieris aliquæ expertæ, quæ scalpello partes in vaginâ profundius rescindit. Maritus crastinâ die cum uxore plerumque habitat: unde illa Araborum sentenzia, “Leilat ed-dokhlé messel leilat el fatouh” (ليلة الدُخله مشل ليلة الفتوح) i. e. post diem aperturæ, dies initus. Ex hoc consuetudine fit ut sponsus nunquam decipiatur, et ex hoc fit ut in Ægypto Superiori innuptæ repulsare lascivias hominum parum student, dicentes, “Tabousny wala’ takhergany” (تبوسني ولا تخرقني). Sed quantum eis sit invita hæc continentia, post matrimonium demonstrant, libidini quam maxime indulgentes.
[45]Rif is the name given to Egypt throughout those countries; it means properly a low ground abounding in water.
[46]A curious proof of this happened while I was in Upper Egypt; a great man who had bought two girls at Siout from the Darfour caravan, soon afterwards made a party with some friends to spend an afternoon in the cool caves in the mountain behind Siout, and ordered the two girls to attend him. When they entered the caves they immediately conceived it to be the place destined for their immolation; and when the knives were produced to cut the meat that had been brought for dinner, one of them ran off, and endeavoured to escape, while the other threw herself on the ground, imploring the company to spare her. It required a considerable time to convince them that their fears were ill-founded.
[47]On the death of a Djaaly chief at Shendy, I saw the female relations of the deceased walking through all the principal streets and places, uttering the most lamentable howlings. Their bodies were half naked, and the little clothing they had on was in rags; while the head, face, and breast, being almost entirely covered with ashes, they had altogether a most ghastly appearance. They were accompanied by their female friends, in great numbers, echoing their howlings, and continually clasping their hands. Several cows were killed in the evening, and small dishes of the flesh sent to all the foreign merchants.
[48]A Greek priest, with whom I visited part of the Hauran, south of Damascus, made me pay two paras for every answer he gave me on curious subjects, and one para for the name of every village, or Arab tribe which I noted down, from his information; for every Greek inscription he found for me to copy, he received five paras.
[49]As far as I am able to judge, the road to Sennaar is practicable to a Christian or Frank traveller, or to an experienced person of any nation; but the routes from the Nile towards the Red Sea are impracticable to any one who cannot appear as a native trader.
[50]Adjem (عجم). This word is applied by the Arabians to Persia on the one side, and on the other to the countries of the African coast opposite to Arabia, where many different languages are spoken. These countries are still known to the inhabitants of Yemen and the Hedjaz, by the name of Berr el Adjem (برّ العجم), under which appellation is comprised the whole of the coast from Souakin to Barbara, not excepting Abyssinia. It is the Regnum Adjamiæ of the European geographers.
[52]The Kaszyde is one of the most ancient kinds of Arabic versification; the compositions in it are never long, rarely exceeding one hundred distichs, and they ought not to contain less than twenty, though some of seven are met with. The long or true Kaszyde is confined to heroic or serious subjects; the shorter are generally of a playful or amatory description. The versification is peculiar, the two first lines of the poem, and each alternate one, throughout, ending with the same sound. See Jones’s Comment. Poet. Asiat. c. iii. p. 78.
[53]The slaves of the Mek are the only persons who sometimes wear their master’s fire-arms.
[54]I afterwards learnt that a Shikh can never be the chief of a caravan; because, according to the ancient custom still prevalent in the eastern deserts of Arabia, the Shikh of the tribe is never the commander (قايد Kayed) of the armed parties, which the tribe sends out against an enemy. He may join the expedition, but the command of it is in the Kayed or leader, a dignity which is always hereditary in the same family. The Arabs say, (الشيخ ما يقيد القوم) Es Shikh ma yakyd el koum. “The Shikh has no right to be a leader.” I shall recur to this subject in a future journal.
[55]Several of the Souakin merchants had concubines with them, whom they always carry with them on their travels.
[56]In all the Mussulman countries the female cousins can be demanded in marriage by the males of the family.
[57]I omitted to mention in a preceding part of this journal, that in all the countries on the Nile which I visited, as well as in the Nubian desert, I observed the people make use of small wooden supports, about five inches in height, with a top about the same length, and three or four inches broad, much resembling, on the whole, the head of a crutch; they are formed out of single pieces of very hard wood, and the best are brought from Sennaar; they are placed under the head when persons go to sleep, or serve during the day-time to rest one arm upon while in a reclining position. Whenever a great man walks out, one of these supports is carried after him, and in the house or tent of every person one of them is always found, which is offered to the stranger who pays a visit; but it requires to have been accustomed to it from infancy to find any kind of ease in the use of it. I am led to notice this, from observing in Mr. Salt’s book that a similar machine is used in Abyssinia, the manners of which country appear, from the descriptions of Mr. Salt and Mr. Bruce, to bear a great resemblance to those of the people on the borders of the Nile.
[58]Several of the Bisharye tribes, although Bedouins, do not despise agriculture; they repair to the banks of the Atbara immediately after the inundation, to sow Dhourra, and remain there till the harvest is gathered in, when they return to their mountains. During the hottest part of the summer, when pasturage is dried up in the desert, they again descend, to feed their cattle on the herbage on the borders of the stream. In like manner the Turkmans in the vicinity of Aleppo are both Bedouins and cultivators.
[59]Whenever the country is dangerous the whole caravan is divided into two watches, one till midnight, and the other from midnight till day.
[60]استعجلوا يا ناس الجلابه ساقت اذا قعدنا يقتلونا يا الله دلوّا قِرَبّكم وشدّوا علي جمالكم.
[61]البجه سُكَّانها يسمون بجاوا, Bedja and its inhabitants are called Bedjawa.
[62]This year, as I learnt afterwards at Souakin, it began about the 26th or 29th of June.
[63]When I was in Upper Egypt, the Erdeyb of the best wheat, about fifteen bushels, cost five patacks, equivalent to eleven bushels for a Spanish dollar. The Pasha monopolized it, and sold it at Alexandria, for forty patacks the Erdeyb, or eleven bushels for eight dollars.
[64]The Souakin merchants are equally unused to fire-arms. A few Arabians sometimes pass this way armed with matchlocks, in company with the Souakin caravans, on their road to Shendy or Sennaar.
[65]The mosque El Azhar is famous for its pious foundations for the relief of poor travellers of various nations. In this building the Upper Egyptians, the Negroes, the Moggrebyns, the Abyssinians, (or Djebert, as they are called,) the Yemeny, the Indians, the Afghans and Soleymany, the Bokharas, the Persians, the Kurds, the Anatolians, the Syrians, &c. &c. have each their separate establishment, called Rouaks, over which one of the principal Olemas of Cairo presides; these together form the Olema of El Azhar, a body which has often made Pashas tremble.
[66]This, like the other names of places, since we have quitted the Atbara, is not of Arabic, but Bisharye formation.
[67]This tree bears a great resemblance to the larch: I often saw it in the Hedjaz: the dried branches, as I was told, are used to procure fire, by rubbing them against each other.
[68]This comprises the whole country south of Langay, as far as the Atbara, and the Abyssinian mountains, including Taka.
[69]Thus pronounced in the vulgar dialect of the Hedjaz, instead of Hadhareme, the plural of Hadhramy, or a native of Hadhar el Mout (حضر الموت, meaning in Arabic, “Come death,”) and which Europeans have converted into Hadramout. The people of Hadramout are famous for emigrating; large colonies of them are found in all the towns of the Yemen and Hedjaz. The greater part of the people of Djidda, and the lower class of the inhabitants of Mekka, are from the same country.
[70]It is in a liquid state, which is the only kind of butter used in the black countries. It is made, as in Egypt and Arabia, by shaking the milk in goatskins till the butter separates (بخضّوا القِربَ).
[71]I had assumed the name of Osmanly on quitting Shendy, having there heard that there was an officer of the Pasha at Souakin, and another at Massouah.
[72]This method of swimming is called, on the lakes in Swisserland, ‘Water-treading.’ Das wasser stampfen.
[73]This seems to be the only crime in the east which has not yet penetrated into Africa, where all classes express disgust and horror at the descriptions given by the returning pilgrims, of the unnatural excesses of the Turks and Arabians.
[74]See under 14th July.
[75]ما هو الحمل بَسّ بَل نا خذ عفشك كله و نفتّشه و ندبّر شغلك مع لفندينا حقاً و لا تخمّن انك تحيّل علينا يا معرّص و استكثر بخيرنا اذا ما رمينا رقبنك
[76]Dhourra is transported from Taka to Souakin in baskets two of which make a camel’s load, and in these it is shipped to Djidda.
[77]It was on one of these occasions that a small sack of mine in which were all the collections I had made at Shendy, fell overboard through the negligence of a sailor. A few specimens of rocks still remain in my possession.
[78]In the market of Souakin I often saw hares, and was told that the Bedouins in the neighbourhood follow their footsteps in the sands, and surprise and kill them during the noon tide heat, while they rest under the shade of the shrubs.
[79]This is an Arabic name; the names of the bays we had hitherto visited are Bisharye.
[80]The Syrian Bedouins have the same custom in bargaining for their horses. The purchaser states the price he is willing to give, and the owner, without explaining the sum he wants, replies to every bidding by the word Hot (حط, give or set down,) till the bidder has reached the price which he has fixed in his own mind.
[81]Thus they say, “We crossed over the sea on such a day” (نحن كورّنا البحر يوم الفلاني)—and again, “We started from Djebel to cross over to Djidda (نحن كورّنا من الجبل الي جدّه). In the northern parts of the Red Sea they use, instead of the second expression, the verb دفع, and say, “We started from Ras Mohammed to cross over to the western continent (نحن دفعنا من راس محمّد الي البَّر الغربي).
[82]These unfortunate Tekaýrne were two days and a half in reaching Djidda; one of their women and a boy, perished of thirst by the way, and the remainder of the party arrived in an exhausted state: they uttered bitter complaints against the sailors for their falsehood.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX. No. I.
Itinerary from the Frontiers of Bornou, by Bahr el Ghazal, and Darfour to Shendy.
From Bornou towards Bahr el Ghazal, lies Dar Katakou (دار كتاكو); its king is tributary to the king of Bornou, who resides at Birney (برني).[1] The principal districts of Katakou, which have all their own chiefs, are Dar Mandara (منضره); Dar Mekry (مكري); Dar Ankala (انكالا); Dar Afady (افَدي); Dar Kolfey (كلفي). The Bedouin tribes in Katakou, are Beni Hassan[2] (بني حسن); Oulad Abou Khedheyr (اولاد ابو خضير); El Nedjeymé (النجيمه); El Fellate (الفلّاته); Beni Seid (بني صيد); Essalamat (السلامت); El Kobbar (الكبّار); El Aouy Sye (العويسيه); Om Ibrahim (ام ابراهيم); El Adjayfe (العجايفه). All these tribes pay tribute to Bornou; and all pretend to draw their origin from Arabia. Some of them speak the Bornou language, while others, as the Beni Hassan, Essalamat, Om Ibrahim, speak only Arabic. The strongest among them are the Fellate. They are often at war with the king of Bornou, and have, in later times, it should seem, extended their influence over the northern limits of Soudan, quite across the continent, for they are also in great strength at Timbuctou; and about ten years ago conquered, and half ruined Kashna. Their chief force is cavalry, and their chiefs dress in robes of coloured cloth or silk.
Between Katakou and Bahr el Ghazal, flows the great river called Shary (شاري), in a direction, as far as I could learn, from N.E. to S.W.,[3] towards Bagerme, but its source was unknown. It is represented to be as large as the Nile, full of fish, and abounding with crocodiles, hippopotami, and an animal called Om Kergay (ام قرغي), said to be as large as the rhinoceros, with a very small head and mouth, but harmless. Its banks are inhabited by elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, and giraffas. The Bahr Djad (بحر جاد) a considerable stream, runs into the Shary, besides several smaller ones. The tribe Abou Khedheyr reside chiefly on its banks, which are also visited in the summer by the other Bedouins, for the purpose of pasturing their cattle. From the limits of Bornou to Bahr Shary is fifteen days slow march, in the direction of the Kebly.[4] The route from Bahr Shary to Bahr el Ghazal is in the same direction.
The Bahr el Ghazal (بحر الغزال) is a wide extent of low ground without any mountains: it is called Bahr (i. e. sea, or river), and also Wady, because tradition reports, that in ancient times a large river flowed through it. Rice grows wild; elephants are in great numbers, and all the other wild beasts above mentioned are found in it. It is inhabited only during the rainy season, and the months immediately following it, by Bedouins, who there pasture vast herds of cows, camels, and sheep (the latter without wool like those of Shendy), and who retire, in the dry season, towards the limits of Katakou, Bagerme, and Dar Saley. They purchase the Dhourra necessary for their consumption in Dar Saley and Bagerme; and in the latter place they also procure the blue and red striped cotton stuffs there manufactured, for which they give in exchange cows, the general currency of the country in all large bargains; a fine slave girl is there worth ten cows. All these Bedouins, as well as those of Katakou, are Mussulmans, and the greater part of them speak nothing but Arabic. They have a good breed of horses, which they mount in their wars; their weapons are lances, and a few two-edged swords of German manufacture, like those used in Nubia and Abyssinia; coats of mail, worth twenty cows each, are frequent among them; they ride mares only. They live in huts (Ishash عِشَش) made of rushes and brushwood, and intermarry with the people of Bornou, Bagerme, and Saley. There is no trade in their country, which is not visited by any caravans; and it is not unusual to see heaps of elephants tusks collected, which no body carries away. These Bedouins are sometimes visited by Sherifs from the Hedjaz, who come by the way of Sennaar and Darfour, in order to solicit alms of the chiefs of the tribes, who respect them as descendants of the family of the Prophet. The chiefs, every three or four years, pay tribute to Bornou, consisting of horses, camels, and slaves. A man who possesses fifty cows, two camels, and a mare, is considered to be poor. Spanish dollars are found amongst them, but not as a currency. The law of retaliation is in full force. Among the Beni Hassan the price of blood (Azzeye, الذيه) is two hundred cows, if a stranger kills one of them, or one hundred, if an Arab of the same tribe is the murderer, a distinction which is also made in Arabia. Few people among them read and write, or are Fakys; those who aspire to that name, study in the schools of Bagerme, Katakou, and Saley, and are held in great reverence by their countrymen. The place nearest to the Shary in the Bahr el Ghazal, is Kanem (كانم), four days distant; it is a large district inhabited by the tribes of Tendjear (تنجر) and Beni Wayl[5] (بني وايل); they have their own language, and speak no Arabic. Between Kanem and Shary is the Dar Karka (داركاركا), which forms no part of the Bahr el Ghazal; it is inhabited by the Bedouins Kory (كوري), who pasture their cattle on the banks of a large river, called Bahr el Feydh (بحر الفيض), i. e. the inundating river, from its periodical risings, and which empties itself into the Shary. The Kory have a breed of very large cows, with horns two feet long.
The principal tribe in the Bahr el Ghazal is that of Beni Hassan, who pretend to be from the Hedjaz, and who assert that the Sherif Rashouan is their forefather. They are related to the Beni Hassan in Katakou. They speak no other language than Arabic, are of a deep brown colour, and have lips rather thick, but nothing else of the Negroe character; their hair is not woolly. They are subdivided into the tribes Daghana (دَغَنَه), which inhabits close to Kanem; Oulad Mehareb (اولاد محارب); Oulad Serar (اولاد سرار); Oulad Ghanem (اولاد غانم); Oulad Abou Aisa (اولاد ابو عيسي), and El Aszalé (الاصالع). In the district occupied by the Daghana, is a place called Mezrag (مزراق), in which is a fresh-water lake (بحر ما حلو, Bahr ma halou), two days journies in length, and half a day in breadth; it is called Wady Hadaba (وادي هدبا), and is always filled with water. The Bedouins of Bahr el Ghazal are continually moving about. Three or four days from them, on the northern side, live Negroe tribes of infidels, who have many languages; as El Kareyda (القريده); El Keshreda (الكشرده); El Nouarme (النوارمه); El Famallah (الفامالله); the Arabs of Bahr el Ghazal often make predatory incursions among them, and drive away their children as slaves. If we had fire-locks, said my informant, we should soon be able to subdue them entirely.
Four or five days from Bahr el Ghazal lies Bagerme (باكرمه), a country lately conquered by the king of Saley; its inhabitants have a language of their own, but are all Mussulmans; their manufactories of cotton stuff furnish the whole of the eastern part of Soudan, with the stuff of which the people make their shirts. Once in two or three years caravans of Fakys go from Bagerme to Afnou, a journey of twenty or twenty-five days, to sell their stuffs; but they are often obliged to fight their way through the idolatrous tribes on the road. In Bagerme are the Bedouins Essalamat (السلامات); Oulad Abou Dhou (اولاد ابو ضو); Fullatem (فلّاتم); Oulad Ahmad (اولاد احمد); not Oulad Ahmed; Oulad Aly[6] (اولاد علي), who speak Arabic.
From Kanem there is a road to Fittre (فتره) a journey of eight days. From Kanem to the Bedouins called Oulad Hameid (اولاد حميد) is three days; through the district of the Hameid two days; and from thence to Fittre three days. Another road leads from Fittre to Megrag, near the lake Hadaba, a journey of ten days. The Arabs of Fittre are Belale (بلاله), who inhabit nearest to the Bahr el Ghazal; Djaathene (جاعثنه);[7] El Heleylat(الحليلات); El Khozam (الخزام). The road between Fittre and Bahr el Ghazal is inhabited by Bedouins only in the rainy season. The only travellers who pass through these districts are a few Negroe pilgrims, who follow the wandering tribes in their slow and irregular movements, proceeding from tribe to tribe till they reach Saley, where they join the caravans of merchants.
From Fittre to Dar Saley (دار صليح), are three days journey. The Arabs Beni Hassan, in the Bahr el Ghazal, turn their faces towards Dar Saley when they pray. The King of Saley, Abd el Kerim, nick-named Saboun, Soap, (عبد الكريم صابون) is, next to those of Darfour and Bornou, the most potent prince in the eastern part of Soudan,[8] and has conquered several of the neighbouring states. Mekka is visited annually by pilgrims from his dominions. The Bedouin inhabitants in Dar Saley, are Mehameid (محاميد); Nowadiéh (نواديه); Beni Hellyé (بني حليه); El Masirieh (المسيريه); El Fawalé[9] (الفواله); Essalamat (السّلامات); Esshorafa (الشّرفه); El Aszalé (الاصالع); El Heymat (الحيمات); Oulad Rashed (اولاد راشد).[10]
The soil of Saley is well cultivated, and sown with grain after the rains; the country is full of villages, with houses built of mud, like those of Shendy; and many of the above mentioned Bedouins have become settlers and cultivators. One of the principal villages in Dar Saley is called Kauka (كَوكا). There are many schools in the country; the Fakys, as well of Saley as of the countries to the east of it, all write the eastern Arabic Nuskhy character (خط نسخي), though very much corrupted; while those to the west and north have uniformly adopted the Moggrebyn character (خط الغرب), which differs in several of its letters from the eastern Arabic; this I know from my own observation, and I think it worth noticing.
There are two routes from Dar Saley to Darfour. The shorter one leads over a hilly country, and a barren desert; there are three long days journeys from the farthest limits of Saley to the Dar Beni Mohammed (دار بني محمّد), a district of Bedouins belonging to Darfour. But travellers seldom use this road, because it is infested by robbers of both countries; they prefer a longer, but safer journey through a country where they meet with many rivulets. From Saley they proceed along the banks of the river Oulad Rashed (بحر اولاد راشد), next along those of the river Abou Redjeyle (بحر ابو رجيله), and further on by those of the river Om Etteymam (بحر ام التّمام). The borders of all these rivers are populous, and cultivated, and the grain Dhoken is plentiful there. From the last mentioned river they reach, in three days, Dar Rouka (رُكا), and from thence cross an uninhabited district of fifteen days to Darfour. This is a safe road, but as there is no water whatever in this district, it is crossed only in the rainy season, or immediately after it; it is full of trees, among which is the Nebek, the Erdeyb (شجر العرديب) which bears the Tamarind; the ebony tree (بابانومو), which is very common; and also a tree called Djerdjak (جرجق), from which a kind of honey is extracted. As the Kings of Darfour and Saley are generally at war with each other, their respective officers are stationed at both extremities of the desert, who search the goods of the merchants and pilgrims, and confiscate every kind of fire arms, and all horses; the traveller suffers greatly from their rapacity. In travelling from Saley, the first district of Darfour which is entered, is that of Taayshe (تعايشه); from thence to Kobbe is five days, and from Kobbe to Dar Essoltáne, or the residence of the king, one day.
The Bedouin inhabitants of Darfour are the Mehameid (محاميد); Areykat (عريقات); Djeleydat (جليدات); Zeyadye (زياديه); Beni Djella (بني جلّه); Taayshe (تعايشه); and Djeheyne[11] (جهينه); they bring gum arabic, Tamarinds, ostrich feathers, and ivory, to the market of the slave-traders.
From the Dar Essoltáne to the village of Ako (اكو) is four days journey, through an inhabited country; between Ako and the frontiers of Kordofan extends a desert of eight days, over which there are two roads; by the one the traveller proceeds straight across the desert, but finds no water; by the other he proceeds two days from Ako to a place called Armen (ارمن), inhabited by Arabs, where water is found, and from thence he crosses the waterless track in seven days. But this is a dangerous route on account of the incursions of the Arabs Bedeyat (عرب بديات), the same who often way-lay the Darfour caravans to Egypt. Both roads terminate on the frontiers of Kordofan at one point, at a village called Om Zemeyma (زميما), from whence the caravans proceed through a cultivated and fertile country for three days to El Obeydh (الاُبيض), the capital of Kordofan.
Kordofan is at present under the jurisdiction of Darfour; its King, who is called Mosellim, was formerly a slave of the King of Darfour; he is praised for his justice, but it is said he would gladly act otherwise, were it not for fear of his master at Kobbe, in whose name he governs; he resides at Obeydha, and keeps about five hundred horsemen. There is also at Obeydha a king of the Tekaýrne (مك التكارنه), as he is styled; he is a native of Bornou, and a Tekroury himself; his jurisdiction extends over all the foreign traders, from whom he levies a tribute. Obeydha is a large place, but with few houses; the far greater part of the inhabitants live in huts made of bushes, to which is annexed a court yard enclosed by hedges. They are active traders, and also cultivators of the soil, their principal grain is Dokhen; and Bamyes and red pepper are common.
The Bedouins of Kordofan are called Bakara, from their rearing great numbers of cows, Bakar (بكر). The principal tribes are Moteyeye (متييه); Hamma (حمّاي); Djeleydat (جليدات); Djerar (جرار); Kobabeish (قبابيش); Feysarah (فيساره), who bring the best ostrich feathers to the market of Obeydha; Zyade (زياده); Beni Fadhel (بني فضل); Maaly (معالي), and on the south-east limits of Kordofan, and subject to it, lives a strong tribe called Ghyatene (غياتنه). They all speak Arabic exclusively, but intermarry with the free-born inhabitants of Obeydha and the surrounding villages, whose language is the idiom of Darfour. The Djerar, Kobabeish, and Feysara live to the north and north-east, and in winter time render the roads to Dóngola and Shendy dangerous. The Beni Fadhel and Maaly live on the route from Obeydha to Shilluk on the way to Sennaar; they supply the best Leban (لبان), or incense. During the summer all these tribes approach the cultivated ground in search of pasture for their cattle. They have all good breeds of horses, are warlike, and are dreaded by the chief of Kordofan. Many of them have become settlers and cultivators; many Djaalein also have done the same, but these live chiefly on the borders of the Nile. The manners of Kordofan appear to be similar to those of Darfour, and differ little from those of Shendy.
From Obeydha the traveller proceeds three days through an inhabited country, to the large village of Douma (الدومه) which is entirely inhabited by Djaalein Arabs; and from thence three days more to Om Ganater (ام قناطر) where duties are levied on the caravans which arrive there from Shendy, by an officer appointed by the Mek of Kordofan; they are levied in a very arbitrary manner; and amount to about five per cent.; the goods are all closely searched. On quitting Om Ganater the desert is entered, and on the second day the traveller arrives at a mountain called Abou Dhober (ابو ضبر), standing in the midst of sands; it is inhabited by Noubas and a few people from Dóngola, who are in possession of deep wells, the water of which they sell to the passing caravans. From thence to the Nile, opposite to Shendy, is a desert without water of five or six days, but with Wadys of trees, and inhabited in the rainy season by Bedouins.
Kordofan is a complete Oasis, being separated on all sides from the neighbouring countries by deserts of six days extent, except that of Shilluk, which is only four.
I have reason to believe that this Itinerary is very exact. I might have extended it, but not with the same certainty or accuracy; I could occupy many pages with the most plausible statements respecting countries in the interior of Africa; for a Tekroury, if asked, is never at a loss to answer; but very few of them are met with who can be brought to any thing like accurate details. The route from Dar Saley to Shendy was confirmed to me by great numbers of them.