Two hours and a half from Wady Medyk is Wady el Arab (وادي العرب), where, besides the Aleykat, Arabs of the tribe of Gharbye (غربي) have been settled since the period of the Mohammedan conquest of Nubia. The shore is every where well cultivated. From three hours and a half, till five hours and a half, the rock is close to the river, with a narrow footpath on the bank; the road for camels traverses the rugged sand-rocks and deep valleys of the mountain. Five hours and a half brought us to Wady Songary (وادي سنكاري); six hours and a half, to Korosko (قرسكو). Here the shore widens, and a grove of date-trees begins, which lines the banks of the river as far as Ibrim. Groups of houses are now met with at every hundred yards, which render it difficult to determine the exact limits of each village. At seven hours, is Beshyra Nerke (بشير نرقه); seven and a quarter, Shakke (شقّه); eight hours, Kherab (خراب). Here are some heaps of hewn stones, the remains of ancient edifices, from which the village has taken its name (Kherab signifying ruined). Nine hours, Wady Oeshra(وادي عشرا). Nine and a half, Wady Diwan (ديوان). Ten and a half, Derr, (الدر), the chief place between Egypt and Dongola. I do not remember to have seen, in any part of Egypt, fields more carefully cultivated than are those between Korosko and Derr. The peasants’ houses too are larger, and more cleanly, than those of the Egyptian Felah.
March 1st. I had reached Derr late in the evening, and alighted at the house of Hassan Kashef, as do all travellers of respectability, and where the two Mamelouk Begs above mentioned were also quartered. As the governor had retired to his women’s apartments, I did not wait upon him, but went to rest, having refused to answer all the inquisitive questions put to me as well by his people, as by the servants of the Begs; but the next morning, Hassan, after having visited the Mamelouks, surprised me in the open hall where I was lodged, before I had risen, and immediately asked me what was the object of my arrival, and whether I was a merchant, or sent to him by the Pasha of Egypt. It had been my intention, before I knew of the arrival of the Mamelouks, to pass for a person sent by the Pasha upon a secret mission into Nubia, having learnt from the people of Upper Egypt, that the governors of that country dread the power of Mohammed Aly, and would not dare to molest me: but when I was apprised of the arrival of the two Begs, and being also led to believe, from the conversation of the peasants at whose houses I had slept in my way up to Derr, that the Nubian princes were as much afraid of the Mamelouks, their southern neighbours, as they are of their northern one, I thought it would be dangerous to disguise my real intentions; and, encouraged by the success of Messrs. Legh and Smelt, I candidly told Hassan Kashef, that I had merely come to make a tour of pleasure through Nubia, like the two gentlemen who had been at Derr before me; and presented to him, at the same time, my letters of recommendation. I however profited little by my candour. The frank avowal of my intentions was interpreted as a mere scheme of deception; no one would believe that I was only a curious traveller; the Arabic I spoke, and my acquaintance with Turkish manners, led the Kashef to believe that I was a Turk, and sent by Hassan Beg of Esne to watch his motions; and the two Begs, although they had behaved remarkably civil to me, upon my visiting them, strengthened the Kashef in his opinion. I spent the whole of this day, and part of the next, in negociations with the governor, in order to obtain a guide to conduct me to the southward. An offering of soap,[15] coffee, and two red caps, worth, altogether, about sixty piastres, which I made to him, would, at any other time, have been very acceptable; but the presents made to him by Messrs. Legh and Smelt were worth about 1000 piastres, and they had only gone to Ibrim, “while you,” said the Governor, “give me a few trifles, and wish to go beyond that place, even to the second Cataract.”—I replied, that my present was certainly not proportionate to his rank and claims; but that it was already more than my means could afford; and that I thought myself possessed of an advantage over my predecessors in my letters of recommendation from Esne. The following lucky incident at last led to the attainment of my wishes: I had been informed that a large caravan was on its way from Mahass to Esne, and that a considerable part of the merchandize belonged to the Kashef himself, who wished to sell it at Siout and Cairo. I therefore waited privately upon him, and told him, that if I returned to Esne, and the Beg who had given me the letter of recommendation, should be informed of the little attention that had been paid to his letter, in not allowing me to pass beyond the second Cataract, notwithstanding its express tenour that I should be so permitted, he would readily think himself justified in raising a contribution upon the caravan on its arrival at Esne, or impeding its route towards Siout. This became a matter of serious reflection with the Kashef; and he at last addressed me in the following terms: “Whoever you may be, whether an Englishman, like the two other persons who passed here, or an agent of the Pasha, I shall not send you back unsatisfied: you may proceed; but, farther than Sukkot the road is not safe for you; and from thence, therefore, you will return.” I requested a letter of recommendation for Sukkot, which was immediately written, and a Bedouin guide also was soon found. I bought some Dhourra and dates, for provision on the road, and left Derr a little before noon on the 2d of March, the two Mamelouk Begs in vain endeavouring to create obstacles to the prosecution of my journey. But before I continue the description of my route, I shall here give some details concerning the country I had already passed through from Assouan, and its inhabitants.
The general direction of the river from Assouan to Korosko is south; it there takes a western course, which it retains the whole of the way to Dongola. The eastern bank is, throughout, better adapted for cultivation than the western; and wherever the former is of any breadth, it is covered with the rich alluvial earth deposited by the Nile. On the western side, on the contrary, the sands of the desert are impetuously carried to the very brink of the river, by the north-west winds which prevail during the winter and spring seasons; and it is, generally, only in those places where the course of the sandy torrent is arrested by the mountain, that the narrow plain admits of cultivation. The eastern shore is, in consequence, much more populous than the western; but it is not a little singular, that all the chief remains of antiquity are upon the latter. The ancient Egyptians, perhaps, worshipped their bounteous deities more particularly in those places where they had most to dread from the inimical deity Typhon, or the personified desert, who stands continually opposed to the beneficent Osiris, or the waters of the Nile.
The bed of the river is, in general, much narrower than in any part of Egypt, and the course of its waters less impeded by sand-banks. Immediately after the inundation, the poor Nubians cultivate, on the narrow shore, Dhourra, and the grain called Dokhen (دخن), of which bread is made;[16] but it is upon the crop of Dhourra that they depend for their subsistence; while its dry stalks serve during the whole of the summer, as food for their cattle, instead of straw. The Birsim, or lucerne of Egypt, is unknown here, as well as in Upper Egypt, south of Kenne. After the inundation has subsided, and the Dhourra harvest is finished, the soil is irrigated by means of water wheels (Sakie ساقيه), turned by cows, which throw up the water either from the river, or from pits dug in the shore; for water is every where found in plenty, on digging to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, after the inundation; it is the same in Upper Egypt during the summer; but the water of these pits or wells has a disagreeable, brackish taste; and even the best of it is very heavy, and difficult to digest.[17] In order that the soil may be well soaked, the fields are divided into numerous small squares, of about ten feet each, with elevated borders, so as to retain the water, which is conveyed to them by narrow side channels. The fields are then sown for the second time with barley, a kind of bean called Kasherangag, tobacco of the worst kind, and the French bean (Louby), the leaves of which afford, when boiled, a soup much esteemed among the Nubians. I seldom saw any wheat. Near Derr are some fields of lentils, peas, and water melons. On the declivity of the shore, towards the river, which is more humid, and less exposed to the sun than the upper plain, a kind of bitter horse-bean (Turmus ترمس) is sown, which does not require irrigation; they are well known in Egypt, and are the Lupini of the Italians. The wheat and barley are ripe in the middle of March. In the end of April, after the latter is reaped, the ground is sometimes sown, a third time, with Dhourra; and watered by means of the water-wheels. This is called “the summer seed” (زرع صيفي), and comes to maturity in the month of July; but the most fertile spots only are used for it.
Besides the palm and Doum[18] tree, a variety of thorny trees of the Mimosa species (Sant صَنت) grow wild on the banks of the river. The low shrub of the Senna (Senna mekke (سنا مكّه), is every where met with from Esne to Mahass, growing wild, but upon those spots only which have been inundated. This Senna, however, is little esteemed for its quality, and is used only by the peasants, who are well acquainted with its medicinal virtues. The Senna of Upper Egypt is distinguished from that of Nubia, and of the mountains, by the larger size of its leaves. Among the mounds of sand on the western shore grows the tamarisk (Tarfa, طرفا), the same tree which lines the borders of the Euphrates, in the Mesopotamian deserts.
Of animals I saw but few, in riding along the banks of the river. The cattle of the Nubians consist in cows, sheep, and goats; and sometimes a few buffaloes are met with. The wealthier have asses. Few camels are seen, except among the merchants of Seboua, and in Wady el Arab. In the eastern mountain, the mountain goat, or Bouquetin of the Alps, (called in Upper Egypt Taital تَيتل), is found, one of which I saw at Siout: it is called Beden in Arabia Petræa. The Arabs Bisharye speak of a wild sheep, with straight horns, which inhabits their mountains. Gazelles of the common gray species are every where in great numbers; and hares are not uncommon; some of the Arabs Kerrarish hunt them both with greyhounds kept for that purpose.
The birds of Nubia are, a small species of partridge, with red legs, which sometimes afforded me a welcome supper; wild geese of the largest kind, a few storks, the eagle Rakham, crows in vast numbers, the bird Katta,[19] but in small flights, and clouds of sparrows, which are the terror of the Nubians, as they devour at least one-third of the harvest. A species of lapwing is also extremely common. It is the head of this bird which is represented in the hieroglyphic figures upon the augural staff; at least so it appeared to me whenever I saw the bird displaying its crest. A white water-bird of the size of a large goose, called Kork, by the natives, inhabits the sandy islands in the Nile, in flocks of several hundreds together, but I could never get near enough to examine any of them. The bird Zakzak (زقزاق), frequently seen in Upper Egypt, which is said to creep into the crocodile’s mouth, and to feed upon the digested food which that animal throws up from its stomach, does not visit Nubia; neither did I see any bird of the shape of the Ibis.
On the sandy shore, on the west side of the Nile, are numberless beetles (Scarabæi), of great variety in size and shape; I often found the sandy road on that side completely covered with the traces of their feet. The Nubians, who call them Kafers, or Infidels, dread them from a belief that they are venomous, and that they poison whatever kind of food they touch. Their colour is generally black, and the largest I have seen were of the size of a half-crown piece. The worship paid to this animal by the ancient Egyptians may probably have had its origin in Nubia; it might well be adopted as a symbol of passive resignation to the decrees of providence; for it is impossible, from the sandy mounds which they inhabit, that these beetles can ever taste water, and the food they partake of must be very scanty; they are however always seen busily and unweariedly toiling their way over the sands.
The Nubians have no fishing apparatus whatever, except at the first Cataract, at Derr, and at the second Cataract, where some fish are occasionally caught in nets. The two species of fish which seem to be most common, are called by the natives Dabesk and Meslog.
The country which I had crossed, from Assouan to Derr, is divided by its inhabitants into two parts: the Wady el Kenous, which extends from Assouan to Seboua, and the Wady Nouba, comprising the whole country south of Seboua, as far as the northern limits of Dongola. Of the Wady Nouba, and its inhabitants, I shall speak hereafter.[20] The Wady el Kenous is inhabited by the Arabs Kenous (sing. Kensy, قنسي), who derive their origin, according to their own tradition, from the deserts of Nedjed, and who settled here at the period when the great Bedouin tribes from the East spread over Egypt.[21] Among these were also Bedouins of the neighbourhood of Bagdad, whose descendants are still known by the name of Bagdadli, and inhabit the Wady Dehmyt, and Wady el Embarakat, on the western side of the river. The Kenous are subdivided into many smaller tribes, which have given their names to the districts they inhabit; thus, Wady Nasrellab, Abou Hor, &c. &c., are inhabited by Kenous of the tribe of Nasrellab, and Abou Hor. Great jealousies often exist amongst these different tribes, which sometimes break out in wars.
It should seem that the new settlers had soon familiarized themselves with the conquered natives, whose language they adopted, and still retain. This language has no Arabic sounds whatever, and is spoken all the way south of Assouan, as far as Seboua, and in every village to the north of the former place, as far as Edfou; numbers of Kenous having settled in Upper Egypt in later times. I have subjoined a vocabulary of the Kenous and another of the Nouba. It is a fact worthy of notice, that two foreign tongues should have subsisted so long, to the almost entire exclusion of the Arabic, in a country bordered on one side by Dongola and on the other by Egypt, in both of which Arabic is exclusively spoken. Those only of the Kenous who have been in Egypt speak Arabic; their women are, for the greater part, entirely ignorant of it. Nor is it less remarkable that the Aleykat Arabs of Seboua, and Wady el Arab, have retained their pure Arabic, placed as they are on the boundaries both of the Kenous and Nouba. The men are acquainted with both languages; but the Aleykat women understand Arabic only.
The way of living, and the manners, of the Nouba and Kenous being much the same, I shall speak of them, after I have given a description of my route.
The neighbourhood of Derr is interesting on account of a temple situated on the declivity of a rocky hill, just behind the village. Its structure denotes remote antiquity. The gods of Egypt appear to have been worshipped here long before they were lodged in the gigantic temples of Karnac and Gorne, which are, to all appearance, the most ancient temples in Egypt. The temple of Derr is entirely hewn out of the sand-stone rock, with its pronaos, sekos or cella, and adyton. The pronaos consists of three rows of square pillars, four in each row. The row of pillars nearest the cella, which were originally joined by the roof to the main temple, are of larger dimensions than the rest; they are nearly four feet square, and about fourteen feet high, and are still entire, while fragments of the shafts only remain of the two outer rows. In front of each of the four pillars are the legs of a colossal figure, similar to those of the temple of Gorne, at Thebes. A portion of the excavated rock which had formed one of the walls of the pronaos, has fallen down; on the fragments of it, a battle is represented: the hero, in his chariot, is pursuing his vanquished foe, who retires to a marshy and woody country, carrying the wounded along with him. In a lower compartment of the same wall, the prisoners, with their arms tied behind their backs, are brought before the executioner, who is represented in the act of slaying one of them. All these figures are much defaced. On the opposite wall is another battle, but in a still more mutilated state: in this, prisoners are brought before the hawk-headed Osiris. On the front wall of the cella, on each side of the principal entrance, Briareus is represented in the act of being slain, and Osiris, with uplifted arm, arresting the intended blow. This is the same group which is so often seen in the Egyptian temples; but, Briareus has here only two heads, and four arms, instead of the numerous heads and arms represented in Egypt. On the four pillars in front of the cella, variously dressed figures are sculptured, two generally together, taking each other by the hand. The Egyptian Mendes, or Priapus, is also repeatedly seen. The cella of the temple consists of an apartment thirteen paces square, which receives its light only through the principal gate, and a smaller one, on the side of it. Two rows of square pillars, three in each row, extend from the gate of the cella to the adytum: these pillars show the infancy of architecture, being mere square blocks, hewn out of the rock, without either base or capital; they are somewhat larger at the bottom than at the top. The inside walls of the cella, and its six pillars, are covered with mystic figures, in the usual style; they are of much ruder workmanship than any I have seen in Egypt. Some remains of colour prove that all these figures were originally painted. On one of the side walls of the cella, are five figures, in long robes, with shaven heads, carrying a boat upon their shoulders, the middle of which is also supported by a man with a lion’s skin upon his shoulder. In the posterior wall of the cella, is a door, with the winged globe over it, which leads into the small adytum, where the seats of four figures remain, cut out of the back wall.[22] On both sides of the adytum are small chambers, with private entrances into the cella; in one of which a deep excavation makes it probable that it was used as a sepulchre.
On the side of the mountain, near the temple, are some sepulchral pits excavated out of the rocky ground: over two of them are the following inscriptions, which I copied:
Derr being the principal place in Nubia, and the usual residence of the chiefs, whenever they are not travelling about, is resorted to by strangers, and carries on some commerce. The dates of Derr and Ibrim are much esteemed in Egypt, and the merchants of Esne and Assouan export many ship-loads from hence in autumn, when the height of the waters insures a quick passage down the river. Young date trees are also carried hence to Egypt, as the trees propagated there from seed soon degenerate. The dates are paid for in Dhourra, and in coarse linen and Melayes, of Esne and Siout manufacture; but if the harvest of Dhourra has been abundant in Nubia, the payment is then made in Spanish dollars. The state of commercial intercourse in this country is, however, very bad; dates, for example, bought at Derr, even when paid for in cash, leave, when sold at Cairo, a clear profit, after paying all expenses, of at least 400 per cent. Dhourra, on the contrary, carried from Assouan to Derr, yields there 100 per cent. profit. The hundred weight of dates at Derr is worth about eight shillings. The common currency is the Moud, or small measure of Dhourra, by which every article of low value is estimated. The dollar is rather an article of exchange than a currency. Piastres and paras have only been known here since the invasion of the Mamelouks.
The village of Derr stands in a grove of date trees, and consists of about two hundred houses. Hassan Kashef and his two brothers have each a good house. The greater part of the inhabitants are Turks, the descendants of the Bosnian soldiers who were sent by Sultan Selym to take possession of the country.[23]
March 2d. I departed from Derr with an old Arab, named Mohammed Abou Saad (محمّد ابو سَعد), one of the Bedouins called Kerrarish (قراريش). These Bedouins, a remote branch of the Ababde, pasture their cattle on the uninhabited banks of the river, and on its islands, from Derr southward, as far as Mahass and Dongola, where they are said to be more numerous than in Nubia. They are poor; their tents are formed of mats made of the leaves of palm-trees, with a partition in the middle to separate the women’s apartment; but, notwithstanding their poverty, they refuse to give their daughters in marriage to the Nubians, and have thus preserved their race pure. They pride themselves, and justly, in the beauty of their girls. The Kerrarish are, for the most part, in the service of the governors of Nubia, to whom they are attached as a corps of guards, and guides, and accompany them in their journies through their dominions. Whilst the father and grown up sons are absent, the mother and daughters remain in their solitary tent; for they generally live in separate families, and not in encampments. These Bedouins receive occasional presents from the chiefs of Nubia, and such of them as cultivate the islands in the river are exempted from taxes. They are a very honest and hospitable people, and more kind in their dispositions, than any of the inhabitants of Nubia whom I met with. Those who are not in the employ of the governors, gain their livelihood either by acting as guides, or in collecting the senna in the eastern mountain, which they sell to the merchants of Esne at about £1. per camel’s load (from four to five hundred weight). Numbers of them also travel from Wady Halfa, on the Nile, three days journies into the western desert, and collect there the Shabb, (شبّ) or nitre, which they exchange with the same merchants for Dhourra; giving two measures of the former for three equal measures of the latter. The nitre is found on digging only a few inches deep, and covers a space of several miles in extent. This is, however, a perilous traffic, as the inhabitants of Kubbanýe, a village about twelve miles north of Assouan, also engage in it; these are eleven days in reaching the nitre pits, and whenever the two parties meet, a bloody conflict ensues. Between Wady Halfa and the Shabb, one day’s distance from the latter, is a spring where is some verdure, and where a few Doum trees grow North of the Shabb, one day, in the direction of the great Oasis, is a similar spring, called Nary (ناري), with many date trees growing round it.
After having rode along by the date groves, and well built peasants houses, for about half an hour from Derr, we ascended the eastern mountain, the road along the river side being interrupted by the rocks. On the top of the mountain is a wide plain, covered with small fragments of loose sand-stone; and bordered on the east, at about two hours distance, by a higher range of mountains. We continued along this plain in the direction of W. S. W., until two hours and a half from Derr, when we descended again to the banks of the river, near the village Kette (قتّه), where we crossed the dry bed of a branch of the stream, and alighted on an island, at the tent of my guide, where I remained for the night. These people, who all speak Arabic as well as the Nouba language, are quite black, but have nothing of the Negro features. The men generally go naked, except a rag twisted round their middle; the women have a coarse shirt thrown about them. Both sexes suffer the hair of the head to grow; they cut it above the neck, and twist it all over in thin ringlets, in a way similar to that of the Arab of Souakin, whose portrait is given by Mr. Salt in Lord Valentia’s Travels. Their hair is very thick, but not woolly; the men never comb it, but the women sometimes do; the latter wear on the back part of the head, ringlets, or a small ornament, made of mother of pearl and Venetian glass beads. Both men and women grease their head and neck with butter whenever they can afford it; this custom answers two purposes; it refreshes the skin heated by the sun, and keeps off vermin. The young boys go quite naked; but the grown up girls tie round their waist a string of leather tassels, much resembling the feather ornaments worn for a like purpose by the south sea islanders.
March 3d. I sent my guide back to Derr, to purchase more Dhourra, in order that we might give some of it to the camels, in those places where no wild herbs grow; and on his return we set out. Our road lay along a grove of date trees, and an uninterrupted row of houses, for two hours, when the perpendicular rock reached close to the river. At the height of about sixty or eighty feet above the footpath, I observed from below, the entrance to an apartment hewn in the rock, but without any road leading to it, the rock being there quite perpendicular. In like manner I have seen sepulchres cut in the rock of Wady Mousa in Arabia Petræa, which can only be approached by means of ladders, forty or fifty feet in height. In two hours and a half we reached the castle of Ibrim (ابريم), which is now completely in ruins, the Mamelouks having sustained a siege in it last year, and in their turn besieged the troops of Ibrahim Beg, in the course of which operations, the walls were battered with the few cannon that were found in the castle, and many of the houses of the village levelled with the ground.
Ibrim is built upon an insulated rocky hill, just above the river, and is surrounded by barren mountains entirely incapable of cultivation, on the tops of which are many ancient tombs of Turkish saints. The houses are constructed of loose sand-stone, as is the modern wall which surrounds the town. On the west side are some remains of the ancient wall; this had been built of hewn stones cemented together with great neatness: the stones are rather small. It appeared to me to be an erection of the Lower Empire. Within the area of the town are the remains of two public buildings, probably Greek churches, built in the same style as the ancient wall. The castle is about fifteen minutes walk in circumference. A small gray granite column was the only remnant of antiquity it contained.
The castle of Ibrim, with its territory, which commences half an hour south of Derr, and extends as far as Tosko,[24] is in the hands of the Aga of Ibrim, who is independent of the governors of Nubia; the inhabitants being thus freed from taxes, and paying nothing to their own Aga, had in the course of years acquired, by the annual sale of their dates, great wealth both in money and cattle; but the Mamelouks, in their retreat last year, destroyed in a few weeks the fruits of a century. They took from the Wady Ibrim about twelve hundred cows, all the sheep and goats, imprisoned the most respectable people, for whose ransom they received upwards of 100,000 Spanish dollars; and on their departure, put the Aga to death; their men having eaten up or destroyed all the provisions they could meet with. This scene of pillage, was followed by a dreadful famine, as I have already mentioned.[25]
The people of Ibrim are often at war with the governors of Nubia, and although comparatively few in number, are a match for the latter; being all well provided with fire arms. They are white, compared with the Nubians, and still retain the features of their ancestors, the Bosnian soldiers who were sent to garrison Ibrim by the great Sultan Selym. They all dress in coarse linen gowns, and most of them wear something like a turban: “We are Turks,” they say, “and not Noubas.” As they are not under absolute subjection to their Aga, and independant of every other power, quarrels are very frequent among them. They have a hereditary Kady: blood is revenged by blood; no commutation in money being accepted for it when death ensues; but all wounds have their stated fines, according to the parts of the body upon which they are inflicted. A similar law prevails among the Syrian Bedouins. When a Turk of Ibrim marries, he presents his wife with a wedding dress, and gives her besides, a written bond for three or four hundred piastres, half of which sum is paid to her in case of a divorce. Divorces, however, are very rare. At a wedding a cow or a calf is killed; for to eat mutton upon such an occasion would be a great scandal to the spouse.
In no part of the Eastern world, in which I have travelled, have I ever found property in such perfect security as in Ibrim. The inhabitants leave the Dhourra in heaps on the field, without a watch, during the night; their cattle feed on the banks of the river without any one to tend them; and the best parts of the household furniture are left all night under the palm-trees around the dwelling; in short, the people agreed in saying, that theft was quite unknown in their territory. It ought, however, to be added, that the Nubians, in general, are free from the vice of pilfering.
From Ibrim we crossed the mountain, and at one hour’s distance from it descended to the river side, at Wady Shubak (شُباق), whither most of the inhabitants of Ibrim retired, after the passage of the Mamelouks. We slept here, at the house of the children of the Aga whom the Mamelouks murdered. Wherever I alighted, a number of peasants assembled, in the evening, at the house; I always gave out that I had business of a public nature with the two chiefs, who were stationed to the south of Sukkot, and being accompanied by a man known to be attached to the Kashefs, no one dared to create the least obstacle to my journey. Indeed, travellers in Nubia, in general, have little to fear from the ill will of the peasants; it is the rapacious spirit of the governors that is to be dreaded.
March 4th. The grove of date trees continues to the south of Shubak. I found many of the houses abandoned; and at every step were graves. The Nubians place an earthen vessel by the side of every grave, which they fill with water at the moment the deceased is interred, and leave it there: the grave itself is covered with small pebbles of various colours, and two large palm leaves are stuck into the ground at either extremity; the symbol of victory thus becoming, in Nubia, that of death. Near Shubak are some mounds of hewn stones, indicating the remains of an ancient edifice. One hour from Ibrim brought us to Wady Bostan (وادي بُستان). The soil, fit for culture, is here very narrow; the eastern mountain is distant about one hour; between it and the plain is a rising spot of ground covered with loose sand-stones. The shape of the insulated mountains which compose this part of the chain, is remarkable; most of them resembling cones flattened on the top, or perfect pyramids; and when viewed from afar, they appear so regular, that they seem to be the work of man. In two hours and a half we came to the village of Tosko (تسقه), the southern limits of Wady Ibrim. In the rocky plain east of Tosko stands an insulated, shattered rock, with several sepulchres excavated in it; these are supported on the inside by low square pillars: in one of them, a vaulted passage leads out to a back entrance. They are of very rude workmanship; and have no sculptures upon the walls, except the figure of the cross. Near the rock are considerable mounds of rubbish. It is matter of surprise, that these are the only sepulchres met with in the eastern hills, from Assouan to this place: the sand-stone rock might have easily been excavated, as has been done in numerous places in Egypt. Tosko continues for about one hour. Three hours and a half, passed over the mountain. Four and a half, Ermenne (ارمنّه), a fine village, belonging to the territory of Nubia. Our road had been till now, in the direction of S. W. From hence, southward, we travelled W. S. W. Five hours and a half, again passed over the mountain, which is close to the river. Six hours, Formundy (فرمندي), a poor village, extending for several miles. The Nubians here grow a little cotton, small plantations of which are every where met with from Kenne, in Upper Egypt, as far as Dongola. The women weave the cotton into coarse shirts, or sell it for Dhourra to the merchants of Derr. Seven hours and a half, we passed the ruins of a Greek church, which had been used in later times as a mosque. Its walls, for half their height, are constructed of small stones, and the upper part of bricks burnt in the sun; there are many names of visitors written on the white plaister; the writing is of the latest time of the Lower Empire. The river here has many windings; and this part of it is reputed a favourite haunt of the crocodile. I saw myself half a dozen of them lying close together on a sand-bank. All the Nubians, as well as the people of Upper Egypt, eat the flesh of this animal whenever they can catch it, which is, however, very seldom.[26]
Beyond the Greek church, the road again crosses the mountain, on the other side of which, at eight hours and a half, is the Wady Fereyg (فريك). The different villages comprised under the collective term Wady, are generally separated from the Wadys on their northern or southern side by a part of the mountain projecting close to the river, which thus forms a natural division. Nine hours and a half, long after sunset, we alighted, at the house of one of the wives of Hassan Kashef, where I slept. Our day’s march, reckoning by the length of the day, must have been at least ten hours and a half. My watch had unfortunately stopped, from the dust having penetrated into it. My day’s march in Nubia is therefore calculated only by the sun’s height, and the length of the day; I may have in this way erred as to partial distances from one village to another; but the entire day’s route will generally be found correct.
March 5th. In half an hour we arrived at the Akabe[27] of Fereyg, or the place where the mountain separates that Wady from its southern neighbour. I sent my guide, with the camels, over the mountain; and following a narrow foot-path along the almost perpendicular shore, I arrived, at one hour’s distance from Fereyg, at an ancient temple hewn out of the rocky side of the mountain; no other road leads up to it but this dangerous foot-path, neither are there any traces of an ancient road. I entered through a high narrow gateway into a small Egyptian temple, cut entirely out of the rock, and in as perfect a state of preservation, as when first finished. It consists of a cella, ten paces in length and seven in breadth, and about twelve feet high. Within it are four columns, with Egyptian capitals. On either side of the cella is an apartment which receives light only by the entrance from the cella. Low stone benches run along the walls of the cella, a peculiarity which I had not seen in any other Egyptian temple. There is an ascent by three low steps from the cella into the adytum, in which is a deep sepulchral excavation; there is also a similar but smaller one in the cella itself. The walls both of the cella and adytum are covered with mystic sculptures in the usual style, but there are none in the two side chambers. The Greeks had converted this temple into a church, and had plaistered the walls white, to receive their paintings, many of which still remain; a St. George killing the dragon is particularly conspicuous. Many Greek travellers have inscribed their names on the walls. The whole fabric is of coarse execution, and the hieroglyphics much in the same style as those at Derr. On the opposite side of the river, a little to the north of it, is the large temple of Ebsambal, and the colossal figures, of which I shall speak hereafter.
One hour and three quarters from Fereyg, I rejoined my guide, at the foot of an insulated hill, close to the water, on which a castle has been built, resembling in size and form, that at Ibrim; it bears the name of Kalat Adde (قلعت ادّه); it has been abandoned many years, being entirely surrounded by barren rocks. Part of its ancient wall, similar in construction to that of Ibrim, still remains. The habitations are built partly of stone and partly of bricks. On the most elevated spot in the small town, eight or ten gray granite columns of small dimensions lie on the ground, with a few capitals of red sand-stone near them, of clumsy Greek architecture. The rock of this hill is a fine pudding-stone, of flint, quartz, and red sand-stone; the only specimen of the kind I have met with in Nubia. Opposite the castle, the river forms a large island, called Beyllany (جزيرة بيلاني), from the name of the village nearest to it, on the western side. The mountain round Adde is composed of rugged hills of grotesque shape, which seem to have been shattered by some violent commotion of nature. From hence, upwards, the course of the river is W. S. W. Two hours and a half from Fereyg, the eastern mountain branches out far to the eastward, and closes with the river again beyond the second Cataract of Wady Halfa. The wild shrub, Oshour (عشور), called by the Arabs of the Dead Sea, Asheyr (عشير), grows here in great quantity. This plant produces a fruit, within which is a bunch of silky fibres enveloping a small bean. It has been described by Norden. It grows in every part of Upper Egypt, south of Siout, in sandy spots near the river; but is not so large there as it is in Nubia; the Egyptians call it Fetme (فتمه). From Silsilis (south of Edfou) to the district of Mahass, it is the most common weed met with on the road: its leaves are poisonous to the camels. The Coloquintida (حَنضَل) is likewise frequently met with, where the Oshour grows. Like the Arabian Bedouins, the Nubians make tinder of it.[28] At the end of three hours we passed, in the sandy plain, a number of tumuli, or barrows, of various sizes, covered with sand: I counted about twenty-five within the circuit of a mile and a half: the regularity of their shape, which is exactly the same as that of the tumuli in the Syrian deserts, and the plain of Troy, makes it almost certain, that they are artificial. Three hours and a half, Kosko, a small village. Four hours, the large village of Endhana, also called Adhendhan (انضانا—اضنضان). In riding along, we were invited to a funeral feast by the inhabitants of a house belonging to some relation of the Nubian princes; the possessor had died a few days before at Derr, and on receiving the news of his death, his relations here had slaughtered a cow, with which they were entertaining the whole neighbourhood; at two hours distance from the village, I met women with plates upon their heads, who had been receiving their share of the meat. Cows are killed only by people of consequence, on the death of a near relation; the common people content themselves with a sheep or a goat, the flesh of which is equally distributed; the poorer class distribute some bread only at the grave of the deceased. Four hours and three quarters; upon the hill, at the south end of Wady Endhana, opposite the village of Faras, on the west side of the river, stands an ancient ruined mosque. Five hours and a half, passed the fine island of Faras. The country is here open, but the plain, on both sides of the river, is covered with sand. Seven hours, the village Serra gharby (سرّه غربي) on the west side. Seven and a half, the ruins of a small Arab town close to the water, enclosed by a thick brick wall. Eight hours, Serra (سرّه), a fine village; eight and a half, Debeyra (دبَيرهَ), where I slept. My guide always conducted me to the house of the principal person in the village; we should otherwise have often gone supperless to rest. Wherever we alighted, a mat was spread for us upon the ground, just before the gate of the house, which strangers are never permitted to enter, unless they are intimate acquaintance. Dhourra bread, with milk, was our usual supper; to this were sometimes added dates. The landlord never eats with his guests, except when earnestly pressed to do so. Our camels were not always fed by our hosts, who excused themselves, by saying that the stock of Dhourra stalks was already exhausted. If the stranger is to be well treated, a breakfast is brought in, at sunrise, before he departs; it consists of hot milk and bread, the supper being usually cold: but we were seldom so fortunate as to get a breakfast, and generally rode the whole day without tasting any thing but a few dates from our own stock, at some spot where we stopped in the morning to bait our camels upon the tamarisk or acacia trees.
March 6th. Our road lay over a fertile plain, covered with date trees and habitations, to Eshke (اشقه). The Nile had been so very low last year, that the plain had not been inundated. An old man, a relation of the governors of Nubia, on seeing me pass by his house, invited me to stop, and entertained me most hospitably. He had been, in his youth, governor of Sukkot, where he had acted with great tyranny; but he seemed to have repented of his former deeds, and was now become the benefactor of Eshke. A handful of burnt coffee, which I gave him, was a most acceptable present, and he insisted upon my staying with him one day, promising that he would cause a lamb to be killed for me; but this did not appear to me a sufficient temptation to retard my journey.
The slave caravan from Mahass, which I mentioned above, passed along the west bank of the river, while I was at Eshke; the usual route of these caravans, which generally visit Egypt twice in the year, lies across the desert, from Mahass to the Great Oasis, a journey of twenty-three days; and from thence to Siout and Cairo. It was only this year that the slave-traders, informed of the perfectly tranquil state of Nubia and Upper Egypt, had ventured to proceed along the banks of the Nile, a road they had not followed in the memory of man.
To the south of Eshke is a sandy plain; in three hours, we reached Dabrous (دَبروس); the direction of the road S. W. by S. Four hours, Sukoy (سَقوي). Five hours, Wady Halfa (وادي حلفه), to the east of which, the eastern mountain terminates in slight undulations of the ground; but these increase in size, and collect again into mountains, about thirty miles farther up. There is some trade carried on at Wady Halfa; vessels from Assouan often moor here to load dates, and the nitre which the Arabs collect at three days journeys from hence in the western desert.[29] In summer, the navigation from Derr to Wady Halfa becomes, in many places, very difficult, except for small boats, on account of the sand banks. One of the relations of the governors of Nubia resides here, and collects the revenue.
At the end of six hours, we came to the southern extremity of Wady Halfa. The river forms here several islands, upon one of which are the remains of an ancient town, built of bricks, with a high brick wall. Seven hours, the plain over which we rode became uneven, and studded with insulated clusters of rocks, whose summits just appear above the surface of the sand. To the west is the second Cataract. Eight hours, halted for the night, in this desert, near one of the islands, which are formed by the river. The noise of the Cataract was heard in the night, at about half an hour’s distance. The place is very romantic; when the inundation subsides, many small lakes are left among the rocks; and the banks of these, overgrown with large tamarisks, have a picturesque appearance amidst the black and green rocks; the lakes and pools thus formed cover a space of upwards of two miles in breadth. I here shot a wild-goose, which afforded a supper to our party, now increased by the company of a poor young girl from Dabrous, who ran after us, when she saw us pass by, and begged we would take her under our protection as far as Wady Mershed, beyond the Cataract. From Wady Halfa to Sukkot is a stony wilderness, with many cataracts in the river, similar to that at Assouan; and the navigation is interrupted for about one hundred miles. This rocky tract is called Dar el Hadjar, or Batn el Hadjar, i. e. the rocky district, or the “womb of rocks.”
March 7th. After a march of one hour, the straggling hillocks and mounds rose into a low chain of hills, the road amongst them being a perfect sandy plain. In one hour and a half we came to Wady Amka (وادي عَمقه). In the Batn el Hadjar, there occur a few spots that admit of cultivation; but they consist of very narrow strips of plain by the side of the river, where the banks are generally so high, that the waters do not reach them during the inundation, and where the soil must consequently be irrigated, by means of water-wheels. These narrow plains, called Wady, as in other parts of the country, were formerly well cultivated. Their principal inhabitants pretend to be Sherifs from Mekka, and to have come here at the time of the invasion of the other Arab tribes. They have a chief named Abdallah Ibn Emhyd (عبدالّه ابن امهيد), who resides in Wady Attar,[30] and is honoured with the title of Melek, or king, which is bestowed on chiefs of all ranks from hence southward. These Sherifs, called Omsherif (اُم شريف), pay a small tribute to their Melek, and the Melek is tributary to the governors of Nubia, who besides carry off as much of the property of these Arabs as falls in their way, whenever they pass along the Batn el Hadjar. The greater part of the Sherifs, however, have now quitted their abode, owing to the continued incursions of the Arabs Sheygya (شَيِكيعَ), who live on the banks of the river, south of Dongola, eight days journeys distant from Sukkot, across the desert; and whose depredations have so much ruined the Sherifs, that the greater part of them have retired to Sukkot, and many of them to Dongola. At present, the male inhabitants in the whole district of Batn el Hadjar hardly amount to two hundred, half of whom are Sherifs, and the other of the Bedouin tribe of Kerrarish. Some Arabs remain at Amka; and a small village is built upon a rocky island, where are the ruins of a large brick tower; from hence the Arabs cross the branch of the river every morning, (upon the trunk of a palm-tree, using their hands as paddles) for the purpose of cultivating their fields upon the shore, and return in the evening in the same manner. As we advance the river continues to be full of rocks and islands, and the country has a very wild aspect. There is no place that so much resembles the Batn el Hadjar and its Wadys, as the road along the Nile from Assouan to the first Cataract; the same rocky shore, with here and there the same narrow strip of soil, continues all along “the womb of rocks,” from Wady Halfa to Sukkot.
At two hours and a half, is Wady Mershed (مرشد). The Wadys are separated from each other by rocky tracts, which reach close to the river. At Wady Mershed there are again numerous islands in the river; upon two of them are some brick ruins, an ancient tower, and a few huts of Arabs. Our route from Wady Halfa to Mershed had been W. S. W. Above Mershed, the river is free from islands, and few rocks are seen in it; but its bed is very narrow, and the banks are high: I could throw a stone over to the opposite side. Four hours and a half brought us to Sette Hadje, a cultivable patch of ground, enclosed by rocks, with some ancient brick dwellings; it is inhabited only by an old Arab, who lives in the hut constructed over the tomb of the female saint called Sette Hadje, and who owes his livelihood to the charity of passengers: I found him extended upon his mat, with a pot of water, and an earthen vessel near him, into which I put a few handfuls of dates. From hence southwards, the river has many windings. The hills on the east side increase in height until eight hours and a half, at Wady Seras (سِراص), when they again form a regular chain of mountains, over which lies the road from Wady Sette Hadje. My old Arab guide, afraid of robbers from among the Sheygya Arabs, who are continually hovering about in these parts, to waylay travellers, hurried me along as fast as he could. We met very few persons on the road, excepting small parties of five or six Soudan pilgrims, or Tekayrne (sing. Tekroury); these courageous travellers come from all parts of Soudan to Darfour, from whence they proceed either by Kardofan to Sennaar, or direct to Dongola. From the Nile some of them take the route of Suakin, crossing the Red Sea, from thence to Djidda; others follow the Nile through Dongola and Mahass, and perform their pilgrimage with the Egyptian Hadjis, after having remained some time in the mosque El Azhar at Cairo, occupied in reading the Coran and a few books of prayers. I found, upon subsequent enquiry, that the greater part of these pilgrims were natives of Darfour, and Bergho. Among more than forty whom I spoke to at Esne, I could not find one whose country was as far west as Kashna; but I met with several who came from Wangara. The name Tekroury is given to them, I suppose, from their being natives of the district of Tekrour in Soudan. Such of them as can read and write are called Fókara (plur. of Fakyr), a term applied in Upper Egypt to all learned persons, by which is meant, such as can read the Coran, and who know how to write talismans, for preservatives against charms, and spells of the devil.
Nine hours and a half, we stopped at the southern extremity of Wady Seras, at a hut of Kerrarish Arabs, who, together with a family of the Sherifs, were watching the produce of a few cotton fields, and bean plantations. They gave us some milk for supper, assuring us that they had no bread, and that they had not even tasted any for the last two months. I distributed a measure of Dhourra amongst them, upon condition that they should not exchange it for any thing else, but make bread of it for themselves and their women, for the latter very seldom enjoy this luxury, which is almost exclusively reserved for their husbands and brothers. In consequence of my present, the women were all set to work to grind the Dhourra between two granite stones, for the richer class only have hand-mills (رحا), like those of the Arabian Bedouins. Plenty of bread was then made, and the girls sat up, eating and singing, the whole of the night, and being separated from us only by a partition formed of tamarisk branches, they often joined in the conversation. The leaves of beans, and the grain of the shrub Kerkedan, which is black, and resembles in size the coriander seed, form the food of these people. The Kerkedan grows wild in the Batn el Hadjar, and is sown in some parts of Northern Nubia; a coffee is made from the roasted grains, which is not disagreeable to the taste, but the Arabs more usually make bread of them. The leguminous shrub Symka is also very common here, and affords excellent food for camels; it produces a pod, resembling pease, and containing several round rose coloured grains, which are edible, when green; these the Arabs collect and dry, and by hard boiling, obtain from them an oil, which they use, instead of butter, to grease their hair and body.
The Sherifs of Batn el Hadjar are of the darkest brown colour, with fine features, and are remarkably well made. Both men and women go naked; but the latter wear leather amulets round the neck, copper armlets and bracelets, and silver ear-rings. Most of them speak a little Arabic.
March 8th. From Seras we ascended a high mountain. The rock, which had been everywhere sand-stone as far as Wady Halfa, changes its nature at the second Cataract, where grunstein and grauwacke predominate; these primitive rocks continue throughout the Batn el Hadjar. In the mountain beyond Seras are granite, and immense rocks of quartz: the grunstein rocks are also every where crossed by strata of quartz. Three or four hours east of our route, a high chain of mountains extends parallel with the course of the river; it bears the name of Djebel Bilingo (جبل بَلَنكو), and is uninhabited: it is regularly visited by winter rains, and the water remains in the clefts and hollows the whole of the summer. In two hours and a half we came to a plain on the top of the mountain, called Akabet el benat (عقبة البنات), the rocks of the girls. Here the Arabs who serve as guides through these mountains have devised a singular mode of extorting small presents from the traveller: they alight at certain spots in the Akabet el benat, which they call قبضه or مقبضه, and beg a present; if it is refused, they collect a heap of sand, and mould it into the form of a diminutive tomb, and then placing a stone at each of its extremities, they apprize the traveller that his tomb is made; meaning, that henceforward, there will be no security for him, in this rocky wilderness. Most persons pay a trifling contribution, rather than have their graves made before their eyes: there were, however, several tombs of this description dispersed over the plain. Being satisfied with my guide, I gave him one piastre, with which he was content. On the southern descent of Akabet el benat, the principal rock is micaceous schist and chlorite, and farther down, towards the Wady Attyre, fine porphyry rocks are met with. I saw only a few specimens of green porphyry, with red slabs of feldspath; the greatest part being red porphyry, and porphyry schist. I possess specimens of all these rocks. From Seras, our route lay S. W. by S. Four hours and a half, Wady Attyre (التّيره), the principal village in the Batn el Hadjar. Here again, there are several islands in the river, with ruins of ancient brick habitations and towers upon them. The shores seem to have offered little security, even in ancient times, for I met with no ruined buildings on the eastern bank of the Batn el Hadjar; the ancient inhabitants seem to have exclusively chosen the islands for their abode. There is another cataract in the river at Wady Attyre, and a similar one between that place and Seras, opposite to Samne, on the west bank. We continued in the Wady Attyre upwards of an hour. Some date trees grow in all these Wadys, but the Doum is more common. At five hours, a wild passage across the mountain begins, called Akabet Djebel Doushe (عقبة جبل دوشه). From the top of it I enjoyed a beautiful view of the course of the river to the southward; but its narrow verdant banks are almost lost in the wide expanse of the rocky desert, where the eye, fatigued by the view of the dreary wilderness, searches with difficulty for the blue stream, often hidden by islands, and only appearing partially. Its course from hence is S. W. by S. At seven hours, we descended from the mountain into Wady Ambigo (اَمبقُو). At eight hours, were several cataracts, where the stream rushes impetuously over the rocks, and carries its foaming current to the distance of several hundred feet; there is no where, however, any fall, that can be properly so called. All these cataracts resemble those of Assouan, but the river is more narrowly hemmed in by rocks than at the latter place; and its whole course through the Batn el Hadjar is so very rapid, that navigation of every kind seems to be quite impracticable. At the end of nine hours, we stopped at a hut of Omsherifs.
March 9th. To the east of Ambigo, there are high mountains; and to the south of it, the eastern chain decreases in height. The mountains of Ambigo seem to be the highest summit of the Batn el Hadjar. Our road lay alternately along the shore, and over the rocks; I no where saw any traces of an ancient road through this rugged district. In three hours we reached Wady Om Kanaszer (اُم قناَصِر), in which is a small watch-tower built of stones, upon a hill. From hence we followed a mountainous road as far as Wady Lamoule (وادي لاموله), which we reached in five hours; here are some cataracts in the river, and several rocky islands, upon which I saw crocodiles basking. At five hours and a half, we ascended the mountain; and in six hours gained a high summit, known by the name of Djebel Lamoule (جبل لامولَه), and corresponding with a similar one on the west side. At the foot of this hill, the Arabs repeat the custom of digging the traveller’s grave, but as I knew not how often a present might in this way be demanded of me by my guide, I refused to give him any thing upon his making the demand; and as soon as he began to construct my tomb, I alighted, and making another, told him that it was intended for his own sepulture; for that, as we were brethren, it was but just that we should be buried together. At this, he began to laugh; we then mutually destroyed each other’s labours, and in riding along he exclaimed from the Coran, “No mortal knows the spot upon earth where his grave shall be digged.” Seven hours brought us to a sandy plain in the mountain, called Khor Sonk (خور سُنك), Sonk being a Wady, situated below it. As the road which leads to the country of the Sheygya turns off here, this spot is more frequently visited by them, than any other part of this rocky tract, and is noted for the many robberies committed here by those Arabs; my guide shewed me the place where his cousin had been killed, at his side, in an encounter with the Sheygya, and hurried me, at a full trot, over the plain. The whole of the Batn el Hadjar is dangerous for single travellers; but it was my good fortune not to meet with any banditti; should any European be inclined to make the same journey hereafter, he may procure at Derr as many guards to accompany him as he chooses, provided he previously arranges matters with the governors of Nubia.
At eight hours and a half we issued from the mountains, and crossing a sloping plain, arrived, at the end of nine hours and a half, at the side of the river. The country opens here, and the eastern chain continues at about two miles distance from the river. At ten hours and a half, we halted for the night in a thick grove of tamarisk trees, opposite a long island, upon which are several brick ruins, and a tower of the same material. The ruins of a small village are upon the east bank: the place is called Wady Okame (عقمه); and here the dominions of the governor of Sukkot begin, although the Wady is considered to belong to the Batn el Hadjar. Close to the spot on which we slept is the tomb of a saint, Sheikh Okashe (شيخ عُقاشه), much revered by the Nubians. Offerings of earthen vessels, mats, and small pieces of linen, were spread within the enclosure of the tomb, and all around it. The inhabitants of Sukkot make frequent pilgrimages to this tomb. My guide, in constant dread of the Sheygya, would not allow me to light a fire, although the nights were now very cold.
March 10th. After a ride of two hours over low hills, in a S. S. W. direction, we arrived opposite the island of Kolbe (قُلبه), the northern extremity of Sukkot, and the residence of the governor of that district;[31] the island is about one hour in length: the shore, on both sides, is hemmed in by huge masses of gray granite. Here some regular cultivation commences. I had a letter of recommendation from Hassan Kashef to the governor, who is an old man, named Daoud (David) Kara, distantly related to the three chief governors of Nubia, under whose control he holds his district. Being desirous of paying him a visit, in order to gain some information from him respecting the state of things farther southward, I left my guide to watch the camels, and with some Arabs, who had arrived at the place where we alighted, crossed the river upon a Ramous (راموس). This kind of ferry boat is formed of four trunks of date-trees, tied loosely together, and is worked by a paddle about four feet in length, forked at the upper extremity, and lashed to the raft by ropes of straw. It precisely resembles those which are represented on the walls of the Egyptian temples. Persons who trust themselves upon such frail vehicles should be able to swim, for as these people have no idea of skulling, and use only one paddle to each Ramous, they row alternately to leeward and windward, so that the Ramous is never directed towards the shore. The old governor received me coolly; “This is not a country,” he said, “for people like you to travel in, without being accompanied by caravans.” I requested a letter of introduction to his son, who governs the southern parts of Sukkot, when he caused his scribe[32] to write a few lines for me upon a blank corner of an old letter, the only paper that could be found. He repeatedly enquired my business; I answered, that I was the bearer of letters from Esne to the two Kashefs, who were at Mahass. After a stay of one hour I retired, recrossed the river, and continued my journey. We rode over mountainous ground, where the sand-stone again appears among the grauwacke and feldspath, until, at two hours and a half from Kolbe, we reached Wady Dal (وادي دال), which may be called the southern extremity of the Batn el Hadjar. At Dal the river is interrupted by immense blocks of granite lying confusedly across it, occasioning several foaming cataracts, and forming many rocky islands; upon one of these is a large brick building, in ruins. Here the country opens, and we continued for half an hour along a cultivable shore, overgrown with date trees, amongst which was a ruined village, called Dabbe. One hour farther, still following the plain by the side of the river, we arrived at the village of Zergamotto (زرقَمطو), where we slept. The inhabitants of Zergamotto bring rock salt from Selyma, distant two long days and a half in the western desert, and a halting-place of the Darfour caravan, in its way to Siout. Whenever this caravan passes Selyma, the Nubians resort thither, to sell dates and other provisions to the travellers. Rock salt is found also in every part of the eastern mountain from Kenne southward, and the peasants of Egypt and Nubia collect it; but it has a very disagreeable bitterish-sweet taste.
March 11th. From Dabbe our road lay S. by W. We rode along the bank of the river; where the plain is about two miles in breadth, but for the greater part barren. The river continues to be full of low islands, and rocks. In one hour and a half we came to a cluster of small hamlets, called Ferke (فرقه). In the plain are five barrows, or tumuli, evidently artificial, like those I saw near Kosko.[33] The son of the governor of Sukkot, to whom I had the letter of recommendation, lives upon an island at Ferke. We stopped opposite the island to bait our camels upon the tamarisk trees; and as this place, according to the injunction of Hassan Kashef, was to be the termination of my journey southwards, and the farthest point to which my guide was to conduct me, the latter insisted upon complying with the orders of his master. A promise, however, of two piastres and a woollen Melaye, worth as much, overcame his fidelity, and he agreed to accompany me to Mahass; “If Hassan Kashef,” said he, “upbraids me, I shall tell him that you rode on, notwithstanding my exhortations, and that I did not think it honourable to leave you alone.” My plan was, to reach Tinareh, the chief place in Mahass, and there to cross over to the western side, as I knew that the Kashefs, who were encamped there, had a vessel at their disposal. On my way back, I intended to visit Say, and all the ruins on the western side.
Having no particular business with the governor of Ferke, I did not pay him a visit; but when he saw us riding on, he came gallopping after us on horseback, with one of his slaves, to enquire who we were, and insisted upon our returning with him to his house. In cases like this, compliance is always better than fruitless resistance; and we therefore crossed over the dry bed of a branch of the river to the island, where we found the whole neighbourhood assembled at the governor’s house, to partake of a cow slaughtered in honour of the same deceased relation, to whose funeral feast we had been invited at Endhana. The women who were present had a small drum; and some of them sang glees, in honour of the deceased, while others danced. Our host had a great desire to possess himself of my camels, and he would have done it, by giving me two others of no value instead of them, had it not been for his father’s letter. I excused my having rode on by saying that I thought his residence had been farther to the southward. He insisted that we should stay all the night with him; but as I knew this was only to extort a present from me, I gave him a large piece of soap, after which he suffered us to depart. From hence to Say, the route is W. 1 S. In two hours, we reached Mekrake (مقرقه). Four hours, Kennis (قِنّس). The plain is cultivated in a few spots only. Senna mekke grows in quantity, and is of a good quality, though still inferior to that of the Eastern mountain; it is collected here by the Arabs Kerrarish, whenever there is any demand for it at Esne.[34] The western borders of the river are quite sandy and barren. Five hours, Sheikh Medjdera (شيخ مجدره), a small village built round the tomb of a saint. Here, as in every other part of Nubia, the thirsty traveller finds, at short distances, water-jars placed by the roadside, under a low roof. Every village pays a small monthly stipend to some person to fill these jars in the morning and again towards evening. The same custom prevails in Upper Egypt, but on a larger scale; and there are small carawanserais often found near the wells,[35] which supply travellers with water. In five hours and a half, we reached Aamara (عَماره), the extremity of the territory of Sukkot, to the south of which begins the district of Say.
In the plain of Aamara are the ruins of a fine Egyptian temple: the shafts of six large columns of the pronaos remain, constructed of calcareous stone, and they are the only specimen of that kind I have seen, all the Egyptian temples being built of sand-stone. The sculptures upon these columns are in imitation of those of Philæ, and are of middling execution; but much better than those of the temple at Derr: the figure of the ibis most frequently occurs: over each compartment or group of figures is a square blank tablet, as if to receive an inscription; the same thing is seen at Dakke, Kalabshe, and Philæ; but not in the more northern Egyptian temples. All the capitals of the columns are wanting. Of the cella nothing remains but mounds of rubbish, except the lowest part of the walls, and their foundations, which are of stone, reposing upon a substructure of bricks burnt in the sun: the walls were probably built of alternate layers of stone and brick. A thick enclosure of brick surrounds the site of the temple, at about fifty yards distance from the columns. The temple appears to have been erected at the period when Egyptian architecture began to degenerate; the finest specimens are found at Philæ and Dakke.
From Aamara a wide plain opens: the eastern chain making a wide circuit, while, to the west, the mountains terminate. The cultivable soil on the east side is nearly one mile and a half in breadth; and between it and the mountains is a barren tract covered with small flints and pebbles, similar to that at Suez. Here the river has many windings. In seven hours we came to Ebar (اَِبر), where we slept, at the house of one of the women of the brother of Hassan Kashef; for the governors of Nubia have a number of women dispersed over their dominions, in order that they may find a comfortable home wherever they stop, in their unceasing journeys through them. Hosseyn Kashef has about twenty wives, each of whom has her own separate establishment. In the inner court-yard of the lady’s house where we stopped was a well, and water-wheel, turned by cows; by means of which the surrounding fields were irrigated: similar wheels are every where met with, but this was the only instance I saw of their being within the walls of a dwelling. During this day’s march our camels were constantly at a trot.
March 12th. Our road lay over a quartzy plain, in a direction S. 1. E. At one hour is a high insulated hill, in the plain, called Djebel Ollaky, (جبل عُلاقي). Here the island of Say (ساي) begins. In one hour and a quarter, I saw upon the island, close to the water, the castle of Say, built of alternate layers of stone and bricks, with high walls. The few guns which were formerly in it had been carried off by the Mamelouks. Say, with its territories, like Ibrim and Assouan, has its own governor, or Aga, who is independent of the governors of Nubia; it having been, like the two former places, garrisoned by a troop of Bosnian soldiers, sent hither by Sultan Selym, whose descendants still remain. The island is well cultivated on its eastern side, where the principal branch of the stream runs; on the west side, it appeared to be quite barren; its breadth is about two miles. In the middle of it is a high hill or mountain. There is a ford on the west side, at this period of the year, which I intended to cross, on my return from Mahass, in order to examine the island; but in this I was disappointed, as will presently appear. There is no Ramous or ferry in any part of it, and when the Nubians have any business on the opposite shore, they swim over, with their spear, or lance, fastened on the top of the head. I have reason, however, to believe, that there are no remains whatever of antiquity on Say, except the above-mentioned castle, which is probably of the same date as that at Ibrim.