African wanderings

LONDON: SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, New-street-Square.

[Illustration: THE LAND OF BELLAD-SUDAN.]

African Wanderings;

Or,

An Expedition From Sennaar To Taka, Basa, And Beni-Amer,

With A Particular Glance At The Races Of Bellad Sudan.

BY FERDINAND WERNE, AUTHOR OF “EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCES OF THE WHITE NILE.”

Translated From The German By J. R. Johnston.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, And Longmans. 1852.

Translator’S Preface.

* * * * *

Although of late years much has been done to explore that least known quarter of our globe, Africa, and many works of deep interest, valuable information, and exciting incident have appeared, recounting bold and enterprising expeditions into that country, none of them surpasses the “Feldzug nach Taka,” lately published by Herr Werne, nor does any of them treat of those almost unknown districts of Africa into which his wanderings led him. In a recent number of “Blackwood’s Magazine,” in which Mr. Werne’s work was ably analysed, the writer says of it:—

“In various respects, Mr. Werne’s ‘Feldzug’ is one of the most curious books of travel and adventure that, for a very long time, has appeared. It has three points of particular attraction and originality. In the first place, the author wanders in a region previously unexplored by Christian and educated travellers, and amongst tribes whose bare names have reached the ears of but few Europeans. Secondly, he campaigns as officer in such an army as we can hardly realise in these days of high civilisation and strict military discipline,—so wild, motley, and grotesque are its customs, composition, and equipment,—an army whose savage warriors, strange practices, and barbarous cruelties, make us fancy ourselves in presence of some fierce Moslem horde of the middle ages marching to the assault of Italy or Hungary. Thirdly, during his long sojourn in the camp, he had opportunities such as few ordinary travellers enjoy, and of which he diligently profited, to study and note down the characteristics and social habits of many of the races of men that make up the heterogeneous population of the Ottoman Empire.”

Under the sanction of such high authority, the translator ventured to think that an English version of Mr. Werne’s work would not prove unacceptable to the readers of the “Traveller’s Library,” and he now offers these AFRICAN WANDERINGS to the public.

Contents.

* * * * *

Chapter I.

Meeting of the Brothers. — Fever in Chartum. — Travelling Page 1 Projects. — Present from the Pascha. — The Divan. — A German Sultan. — Party at Soliman Effendi’s — Preparations for Departure

Chap. II.

Embark for Damer. — Disastrous Voyage. — Reach Damer. — 17 Joseph’s Sufferings. — The March. — Banks of the Atbara. — An Arab Village

Chap. III.

Rejoin the Army. — Arab Sheiks. — Ruins of Herrerem. — The 36 Mirage. — A Country March. — Corn Stores. — A Sheik of the Hallenga. — False Alarms. — A Skirmish

Chap. IV.

A Turkish Camp. — Mohammed Din. — Negroes. — Egyptian 52 Apothecaries. — Tribute. — Nile Expedition. — Monsieur Thibaut. — Diseases. — Natives’ Self-Admiration. — An Adventurer. — Madame Vigoureux

Chap. V.

A Pilgrim Town. — Nimr the Tiger. — Character of the French. 74 — Blood Feud. — Excursion from the Camp. — Arab Infants. — Medical Advice. — El Soffre. — Interview with Mohammed Din

Chap. VI.

Merissa Huts. — Arab Gratitude. — Splendid Soil. — The 94 Pascha’s Grand Projects. — A Pleasant Servant. — Turkish Eating. — Turkish Faith. — Arabs of Hedjas. — Mehemet Ali’s Campaigns

Chap. VII.

Position of Mohammed Din. — Camels Stolen. — Ant Hills. 119 — Chameleons. — Animal Fraternity. — Uses of Tobacco. — Rosaries — Beads — Amulets. — Blacks — Appearance and Opinions

Chap. VIII.

Effects of Exposure to the Sun. — Diseases of the Natives. 133 — Their Insensibility to Pain. — Stoicism under Surgical Operations. — Mograbin Soldiers. — A travelled Arab. — Tyranny of Mehemet Ali. — Amulets. — Foreigners in Egypt. — Turkish Prejudice

Chap. IX.

Circassians and Georgians. — Dress of the Sheiks. — Turkish 155 Etiquette. — Arab Officers and Soldiers. — An Arab Regiment. — Black Soldiery

Chap. X.

Breaking up of the Camp. — March into the Interior. — Nature 168 of the Country. — Sheiks’ Swords

Chap. XI.

March from Dabàab. — A Sham Fight. — Schaigies. — Sufferings 199 from Heat and Thirst. — Choice of Camp. — Kassela-el-Lus. — Escape of Female Slaves. — Storm of Rain

Chap. XII.

Gohr-el-Gash. — Dam across the great Gohr. — Kassela-el-Lus. 213 — Elephants. — Lion and Elephant Hunt. — Mohammed Din. — Murder of his Nephew and Friends. — Sheik Mussa resolves to starve himself. — The Faki-el-Kebir. — Faki Village. — Faki Plot. — Narrow Escape

Chap. XIII.

Ravages of Wild Beasts. — Hills of Basa. — Native Tribes. 231 — Chariff. — A Chasua and its consequences. — Singular Recovery. — Supper Party. — Female Slaves. — Turkish Jealousy. — Snakes. — Superstitions. — Basa. — Origin of Tribes and Races. — Miseries and Ennui of Camp Life

Chap. XIV.

Advance against the Enemy. — Retreat. — Omar Kaschef. — Great 250 Cavern of the Kassela-el-Lus. — Baobab Trees. — Hunting. — Birds. — Beasts. — Pascha’s Plans. — Quit the Camp for Chartum. — Conclusion

Appendix.

List of Beasts, Birds, and Reptiles 266

African Wanderings.

* * * * *

Chapter I.

Meeting of the Brothers. — Fever in Chartum. — Travelling Projects. — Present from the Pascha. — The Divan. — A German Sultan. — Party at Soliman Effendi’s. — Preparations for Departure.

For about a year I and my youngest brother had resided at Chartum, the capital of Bellad-Sudan, in the district of Sennaar, at which place we had arrived after a journey of three months, from Cairo. Of all my brothers, Joseph was the dearest to me, and loved me in turn most devotedly. After passing his medical examinations in Berlin, he had come to pay me a visit and make himself acquainted with the remarkable diseases of Egypt, ere he settled down for life.

In the tavern of Guerra, in Cairo, he recognised me the instant he entered the room; whereas I took him for some impertinent Frenchman, when in his joyful surprise he stared at me from head to foot, and laughed at the rage I showed, and the furious look with which I strode towards him to demand what he meant, and call him to account on the spot. We had not met for eight years, and besides that he had meanwhile grown into manhood, his whole expression of countenance was changed, as a severe sabre cut he had received in a duel had severed the risible muscles of one side of his face, and the poor fellow could only laugh with the other side of it. The joy of this meeting, in another quarter of the globe, proved so overpowering to both of us, that at first the wine would not go down, for all that many congratulating friends, and especially my particular ally, Von Salis, from Switzerland, could do, though the latter, with warm tears of sympathy, exerted himself by pledging and jingling glasses with us, to arouse our cheerfulness and enable us to rally. In a short time, however, we got on better.

I now quitted the village of Tura, lying in a waste, although on the Nile, and some three miles (German, equal to twelve English) further up it than Cairo, and where I had retired to do penance, and finish my work on the White Nile, leaving also my dear friend Dr. Scheldehaus, from Osnabrück, the professor of the military school there (now Director of Military Hospitals in Alexandria), with whom my brother had been a fellow-student at Bonn, and hired for Joseph and myself a small bouse on the Eshekir Plâce, in Cairo. After undergoing an examination of some half hour, Joseph was appointed surgeon-major, with the rank of Sakulagassi (oldest Jussbaschi or captain) to the central hospital, Kasr-el Ain, with a monthly salary of 1000 piastres (or about 10_l._) and the allowances of the rank—rations for one horse and four servants. But our gaze was directed on Central Africa and its interior. I had already heard, when in Alexandria, from Achmet Capitan, the former frigate captain, Baumgartner, from Switzerland, and there an honest tailor of high skill, that preparations were making to fit out an expedition to explore the source of the Nile (though gold was the spring sought); but, until this came off, we lived in the happiest brotherly unity in the ancient city of the Caliphs. Our love of travelling was aroused; my office in the Prussian Consulate at Alexandria was sacrificed to the love of adventure, and Joseph was appointed surgeon to the 1st regiment in Sennaar, in addition to his office as surgeon of the Central Hospital at Chartum. Our friends were alarmed for us on account of the dangerous climate; but, full of high heart, we sailed past the fair Isle of Roda, with pleasing remembrances of the happy hours spent on it, and up the Nile, feeling more and more rejoiced as, free from the tumults of the city, we advanced to fresh views and new places. In Tura our stout Dr. Schledehaus awaited us, along with the kind-hearted Schley, from Hamburgh, who, as instructor, was quartered with his regiment in the camp near. The sorrows of parting, like the joys of meeting, were drowned in wine. These were the last friends to wish us a happy return. With outfit for some years that had cost us much money, and in our lately assumed Turkish dress and arms, we looked boldly and firmly towards the future and its unknown dangers; and now and then, by the Prussian flags flying from the mast-head and stern of our Dahabie[1], our thoughts were turned back to our distant fatherland; but no fears of home-sickness—never could this overtake us! The powerful impressions of this splendid voyage, and the responses of our minds to these most magnificent views of the world’s wonders, I must for the present drive forcibly from my recollection, and will only mention how my poor brother, near the cataracts of Ariman, in Upper Nubia, where our bark was nearly dashed to pieces on the rocks, received a _coup de soleil_, and that after ten days of delirium, during which his sufferings tortured my anxious mind, I cured him by the application of blisters. I then fancied him as not yet acclimated; but I, too, who had already passed many years in the East, was, after a few days’ residence at Chartum, a sufferer under a similar attack of this dreadful malady, which, alas! after my return from the White Nile, was the disease that put an end to my brother’s young and promising life.

During our whole residence in Chartum, we were ever in a most pitiable state, suffering almost continually from attacks of intermittent and other fevers, there so malignant. Gracious Heaven, however, so ordered it, that we were always laid up at different times, once only excepted, when, as about to sit down to dinner, we both felt so overpowered, as we fancied by the smell of the viands, as to fall back nearly unconscious on the divan, where more than likely we had then met our fate, had not two Italian doctors seen us through the window, and, coming to our aid, bled us freely. Our fears, therefore, of being at last compelled, struggle as we might against it, to sink under the influence of a climate that slowly saps man’s health, and even destroys his mind, could not be looked on as cowardly, or founded on improbable grounds.

Under such uncomfortable circumstances, it was little wonder our departure from Chartum for Egypt was determined on; eternal illnesses, despondency, and increasing dislike to an unbearable climate, as well as spirits and bodies dying of ennui of a life of quarantine, united to a devouring longing for the healthy, white-skin-producing North, urged us as soon as possible to quit for ever this unhealthy city, as well as the arid steppes of the Bellad-Sudan. Our purpose was still more strengthened by the first expedition to the source of the White Nile, having sailed while we lay on sick couches, and with it went the main object of our journey. At this time, the Grand Cadi paid us a visit, while his attending Faki remained standing at the doors. We fancied he had come to have a talk with us, or hold a small court of inquiry as to a matter in which I was principally concerned. The case was this: we had allowed the poor mother and sisters of our two servants to occupy one of our out-buildings, and for some days I had observed a tall young Faki, in white garments, and with an immense rosary round his neck, creep over the court to the window, and write some characters on the ground before her door. I asked the sons what the priest did there, and was told by them, with sad faces, that he wrote charms, or amulettes, for the women, and that they had to give up their wages to pay him; that he was a greedy miser, and had already received so much that they had nothing left for themselves. This angered me, and I went across the court to him, and asked, “Amiè è?” (What do you?) but without honouring me with a glance, or even rising for a Nasrani, or Kafr (Infidel), he replied, “Di schogie betai!” (That’s my business!) Next moment I had him by the arm, and, pointing to the gate, desired him to quit our court; but he would not, and striking his breast, exclaimed, “Ana Faki!” (I am a priest), and I retorted by “Ente uachet Faki misaur!” (You are a cheating priest and robber!) and only on my laying hold of a piece of stout stick lying handy, did he, with many threats, quit the court. Hardly had I again sat down and cooled somewhat, when a violent knocking was made at our gates, before which a crowd of Faki and other rabble had gathered. Our servants, who had not been long under my training, retreated in terror, and would not venture to open the court gates, until I, double-barrelled gun in hand, went to our house door, and in loud voice, ordered the gates, with an “Hab ekta el hal!” to be opened. “Stand still!” said my sick brother, in feeble voice, as he laid his double rifle over my left shoulder; and a lad of the name of Sale, from Mahaff, who was anxious to enter our service, also laid hold of a rifle. The cowardly priest-rabble now drew off as fast as they had come; and in the bazaars the Turks had great rejoicings, that we had here thus asserted the sacredness of Europeans’ dwellings. But our good Cadi Effendi had no such matters in his head; but told us with kind, friendly, but sly look, how much the Effendina (Excellency Achmet Pascha, Governor General of Bellad-Sudan) had been pleased to hear of two stout brothers like us, each attending to the other during our illnesses, and advised us from time to time to appear at his Excellency’s divan, &c. &c. Although in our own hearts we felt that we had been merely doing our duty, still the acknowledgment of it by strangers much pleased us; for, as the Italians say, “questi sono fratelli!” We also received tidings from the Pascha, that the private physician of Abbas Pascha, who was no other than our old friend Dr. Gand, was coming to Chartum. The Cadi also spoke of the pleasant taste of the Spanish wines, which he, as a Magrabian (Maugrabin), and unprejudiced Mussulman, was aware of, on which my brother at once prescribed and administered to him a glass of Cardinal, as medicine to strengthen his stomach.

Dr. Gand, an old friend of our Pascha Achmet, with whom he had made a campaign in Arabia, arrived; and as the Doctor was also an old fellow campaigner of mine, we having served together as Philhellenists in Greece, in 1822, my intimacy with the Pascha became more repeated and friendly. He had much raised the Pascha’s expectations as to us, and had not hesitated, in Eastern style, to recommend us as universal geniuses, and as honest, honourable men, to whom he, the Pascha, might trust life and limb. Dr. Gand confided to us that the Pascha meditated a campaign into Darfur, during which we might be of much service to him, and where he would look upon us as his two eyes, as he could not confide fully in any of his own people. On this news, that much excited and interested us, we at once gave up all thoughts of so immediate a departure, and the more willingly, as other inducements were held out to us. My brother was to be made, in place of Soliman Effendi (the renegade Baron de Pasquali, from Palermo), inspector-general of the medical department of all Bellad-Sudan, as the Pascha no longer could employ a man who had already been guilty of so many poisonings, both in Arabia and here.[2] This office of inspector had a salary of six purses, or 3000 piastres, per mensem, attached to it; and the Pascha was also to appoint Joseph his own physician, and that of his harem, and give him from his own pocket a monthly gratification of 1000 piastres. I, who, as my old comrade had told him, had been a captain in the Greek wars of liberty, was to be at his side as Maëndes (engineer), have the rank of Bimbaschi (major), with five purses, free table, and all I could wish for. On my reminding my friend Gand that I was nothing more than a lawyer, he laughed heartily, and replied, that in these lands a man must know everything; that he himself (he had served under Napoleon) had filled here military and various other posts. Besides, he added, that it was the Pascha’s wish, that agreeably to Turkish etiquette, I, a free Frank, should want nothing that would raise my greatness in their eyes.

Next morning we all three waited on the Pascha, who expressed himself highly pleased at our decision, and repeated himself to us the promises he had made through Dr. Gand, and gave orders to procure the sanction of his father-in-law, the Viceroy, to our appointments. After a time he even offered to make me a bey, if I would, as he said, turn Mussulman, not on his own account, for he was an unprejudiced Circassian, but to please the Turkish asses; I laughed, and he said no more about it. He asked our advice as to how he had better carry out his advance into Darfur, and he was Turk enough himself to select the time of the Chariff, or rainy season, for it; and when I also represented to him that from the well-known sensibility of the troops to the effects of wet, one half of his army would give in, he replied by a contemptuous “Malesch!” (It matters not!) I voted for the dry season, as water was to be had here and there, and for the establishment of wells under the protection of block-houses, thus to supply the army, when in the steppes, with the needful water. Such doings were beyond his comprehension; and he boasted of his 700 dromedaries, each of which could, on an emergency, carry three soldiers. On our departing, he sent his Mameluke to call me back, and said, “Musju, ente masduht, musch doggeri?” (Sir, you are discreet and silent; is it not so?) and adding, after looking for a time inquiringly at me, “Taib!” (Good!) he again dismissed me. Soon after this Dr. Gand became seriously unwell, and so irritable, that no one save we two brothers dared approach him; to us he continually talked, and in German, paying no regard to his Italian and French visitors, and on purpose that they might not understand him. Unheeding my brother’s well-meant advice to quit Chartum without delay, he lingered there too long, and died at Abu Hamet, on his way back to his former station. For a year his body lay in the wilderness, covered with the dry sand, ere his family could have it disinterred to be conveyed to France. During his life, the kind Doctor had been little better than skin and bone, and the warm sand had converted his corpse into a kind of mummy; but it had suffered so little change, that not a feature was altered, nor a hair gone of those long, fair moustaches, from which the Pascha and his courtiers used to call the Doctor, Abu Schennap.

When we got home after the above-mentioned audience, two handsome and fully-equipped dromedaries stood at our gates; but instead of being those of visitors, as we thought, they proved to be a present from the Pascha, and were well fitted for a campaign, both from their strength and size, and also from their having been broken to allow of firing from their backs without shying or bolting. At the Divan the Pascha had repeatedly asked me if there was anything I wished for, and Dr. Gand had admonished me in German not to be modest, but I had no wish to appear selfish or greedy; we had enough, and I was too proud to desire to divest myself of my independence by accepting presents, or putting myself under obligations of any kind. Some days after I was summoned to the Pascha; and keeping on my shoes, as I ever did, strode over the large carpet to near where he sat, and bowed to him, while he only touched with his hand his tarbusch (red cap), and did not touch either mouth or breast, the usual sign by which breath, hand, and heart are placed at another’s disposal. I, without any leave asked, sat down European fashion on the divan, and took the cup of coffee offered me, without making the usual sign of thanks for the honour conferred, by placing the hand on the breast. After some business was despatched, the Bascha dismissed all his attendants by a wave of the hand, and turning to me, said with a most dark and lowering face, “I have had letters; first Darfur, and now Taka, will pay no tribute, nor have they done so since Churschid Bascha was in the Chaaba (the forests where he was defeated); and so nothing comes in to the chasne (public purse). I need money, much money,—want it most badly. So come along with me, and on the journey we all will recover our healths (he had also been ill of fever); yonder there are woods, and waters, and many high hills, as in Germany and Circassia.” On my showing my pleasure at his proposal, he went on more cheerfully, and told me, that as soon as he had brought Taka back to its duty, he would open the gate of Habesch, and then that of Darfur, and thus again restore the old trading communication, and compel the caravans to pass through Bellad-Sudan. When I remarked to him that the English cabinet had announced, by an energetic note to Mahomed Ali, that it would at once declare war against him, and lay siege to Alexandria, if he encroached on the limits of Abyssinia, he smiled, and said in most meaning tones, that Egypt was far off, and he was not likely to see it again. ’Twas true he had been minister of war there (Divan Gehadie), and plenty of trouble he had had as such; but that he was now exiled to Bellad-Sudan, and it was his country, where he, as Egyptian general and judge (Miraloa), would follow his own will: as for the English, he was no friend to them, nor would be to those who had been such bitter foes to Napoleon; and he rather fancied he could conquer all Habesch ere an enemy’s ship showed itself; then he would be in a position to make conditions, and I should be his envoy, &c.

My brother was again ill, desponding, and spoke of quitting the country; but he smiled more cheerfully as I produced the map, and spreading it before him, requested him to place his finger on the spot where I should found for him a dukedom, or at least a countship, during the expedition of the Crescent, or anti-Crusade. We again discussed a former plan of ours of going to Bagdad, where Joseph was to set up as a physician, and I, _nolens volens_, qualify myself as apothecary, there to win heathen gold; as some Turks, whose homes were there, had told us wonders of the delights of their fat Mesopotamians, and the splendid dates of Bassora. We therefore resolved to take our passports with us, in case we should determine to cross the Red Sea. By this time I had thoroughly seen through the Pascha, and resolved at once to propose to him a scheme I had formed in favour of these oppressed races, viz., that he should place himself at their head, and declare them and himself independent of the Egyptian Vampire; and ere long I actually did so, and all, in the end, might have gone right, had he not, instead of gaining in every way the confidence of the principal persons and heads of tribes, and most influential people about him, tyrannised over all in the most shameful manner. Gold and regiments was his motto.

When either my brother or I wished to pay a visit to the Pascha (and this Joseph, as private physician, should have done every morning, but cunningly avoided it, under the plea of not daring to interrupt him in the multiplicity of matters which the Pascha had to attend to, though the sly doctor never omitted his morning’s visit to the Pascha’s wife, a daughter of Mahomed Ali, and to his harem), we went first to the chasnadar’s (treasurer’s), a Circassian, who had been manumitted by the Pascha, and who could always produce a good breakfast from the great man’s cellar and kitchen; and such visits, at which there was generally a merry party, we used, among ourselves, to call “antichambriren” (antechambering). Others who had not the entrée of our small divan, had often to stand for hours at the doors of the great divan, as there all business is so far public, that any one who has a report or request to make, may without announcement enter, and remain standing till the Pascha makes a sign to him to advance, and permits him, with the before- mentioned movements of the hands and deepest reverence, to say, “Good morning, your Excellency!” (Salbacheer, Saba-el-chair Effendina!) and perchance to kiss the hem of his robe, and then, according to his rank, tell him, either by slightest sign, or in words, to be seated (fadl ochaut), _i.e._ to kneel with the feet under the hinder part of the body, which, resting on them, is bent, however, forward in the attitude of prayer, and so to remain till the great man, by another sign, allows of a seat being taken in a somewhat more comfortable position, viz., that of the well-known Turkish fashion, comfortable enough to them indeed, but far from it to Europeans.

At one of these meetings at the Treasurer’s, we heard from him that the Pascha had said that a German sultan was coming to Chartum, and ordered him to have the kandschia (row boats) ready to send out to meet him. How the word sultan, or sultana, was now used here, though properly only designating a prince of the reigning family, we well knew, from its being bestowed on Prince Puckler Muscau, who figured here as Sultan belal Moscow, and had even been taken, by some wise persons, to be the Tzar of Muscovy, although he here, as in other places, tried to avoid giving the everlasting and indispensable Bakschish, that men might not suppose that gold was to be had in Germany for the gathering. However, we proceeded to pay our respects to the Pascha, and learn from him the name of this expected and noble guest; he drew from under the carpet he sat on, the letters of introduction from Cairo, though rather, as it seemed, annoyed at our asking. The name was not given, but the guest was a German.[3]

The Pascha sent us a message, “the German was come,”—nothing more. It was evening, but our curiosity was too highly excited to rest contented, for the messenger knew no more than that he was a fat handsome sultan (semmin keweiss). The great curtain of the divan door was down, a sign that public business was over, and entrance forbidden the profane; so we reached the saloon by a side entrance, and here I at once recognised one of the Janissaries of the Russian Consulate in Alexandria, by his large silver badge. On my “Chi?” I heard “Principe di Wurtemberg,” and the secret was out. The stout gentleman was delighted when he heard himself saluted in German. For the first time we beheld the Pascha seated on a chair; he was in full uniform, a red jacket covered with gold, the large crescent richly set with diamonds, and three brilliant stars on his left breast, and sabre at his side; the Prince, Duke Paul William of Mergentheim, was also dressed in a sort of half Turkish style, a red cap on his head, a shawl round his white trowsers, and his broad sabre at his side. Soliman Effendi, who had got there before us, had taken on himself the office of interpreter, although the Prince could only converse with him in French, and this he often misunderstood. The institutions of Mahomed Ali seemed to have struck the noble traveller as exceeding all his expectations. The Pascha listened and was silent; but on the conversation being turned on European, and at last on German affairs, love of country, and a feeling of insulted nationality burst from me, and now German was the language; happily our views and opinions agreed, and ere long, all again went on quietly and pleasantly. The Duke rose, so did the Pascha, and all the rest of us; the curtain was drawn back by the numerous attendants, and I plainly observed how the proud Circassian drew himself up, and hardly bent his handsome head as our good countryman, on coming to the head of the steps, took a wordless leave with many low bows and reverences, at which the Pascha could not conceal his laughter and great amusement. On the stairs the Prince took my arm, which gave the Pascha afterwards reason for a well-founded remark on respect due to difference of ranks, though Turkish etiquette carries it rather too far.

Next evening we supped with the Pascha. In vain had we been amusing ourselves with the idea of beholding the fat Prince seated on the ground and eating with his fingers, the table was set out and all arranged European fashion. Some Franks and Turks had been also invited; my brother sat by the Duke, I by the Pascha at the opposite side of the table, and each had before him a different kind of wine. The Pascha did not fail to continually fill my glass, something unheard of, as here this is a servant’s business, and to insist on my being helped before himself; “Keddi el tartibb Frengk” (Such are European customs), he said to me. The Duke first proposed a health to the Viceroy; the Pascha drank it, and gave the Duke; and then came the Pascha’s own health, and it was also drunk. I was again filling the Pascha’s glass, when I felt, under the table, an ice-cold hand laid on mine, and he whispered to me that he was suffering under an attack of the fever, but to say nothing about it. Although my brother was most assiduously performing the part of cup- bearer to the Duke, and doing honour to his name of Joseph, still the Pascha every moment kept calling on me to urge him to fulfil his office. The rest of the party at table, though impressed, drank stoutly; and when from a side table a number of bottles of champagne were brought into play (though, in spite of all I could say, each was well shaken by the stupid attendants, and on the corks being sprung, all was froth and foam), then did the noise and jubilee begin, and a perfect Babel of tongues arose, as the half dozen different languages of our party came into contact with each other; and only with difficulty could I make out what the Duke, in great glee, shouted to me in his loud, commanding officer like tones, or translate to the Pascha all the pretty complimentary speeches his German Highness gave vent to, in praise of the Pascha and brave Circassians. He would make the campaign to Taka with the Pascha; would manage all; overthrow and defeat all before him. The Pascha smiled, and accepted his offers; and when I told him that the Duke was a cavalry general, he laughing said, “Such troops as he has been used to command I have not, but still it were well he went with me; but he jests.”

The morning of this party the Duke told us, that as he travelled incognito, he wished to be treated as a private gentleman. We asked him to dinner for next day; he accepted, and declared himself decidedly opposed to water drinking in tropical climates, and to a certain degree he was right, as the stomach there much more requires stimulants. At dinner he was wonderfully eloquent, told us tales of his travels in America, and that he had served as major in the Prussian army, and was aware he yet retained somewhat of his old commanding officer’s tones. The wine, added to the effects of the previous evening’s carouse with the Pascha, put his princely corpulence into a fearful state of heat, and the warmth of the day also conduced to his feverish state, so that my brother Joseph gazed on him with alarm, and in case bleeding should be necessary laid out his apparatus all ready in the next room; but his Highness’s strong constitution held firmly out, not only then, but also during his further tour, which in spite of my brother’s advice, and that of his own private physician, Dr. Veit, an old friend of Joseph’s, he undertook and luckily completed in safety. His train, besides the kawass, before mentioned, consisted of a lot of Yagers, and an American of Spanish blood. He passed most of his time with us, and took in our garden the latitude of Chartum, which he laid down as 15° 41′ 25″ N. He also selected from our small collection of birds the most curious specimens, and a good many too, for his rich museum at Mergentheim, from which we were in return to be allowed to choose other things. Soliman Effendi asked me if he might venture to invite the Duke, as this “Altezza tedesca” much pleased him; and more, he would like to give him the German national dish of “Fava.” I delivered the invitation, along with some remarks as to this gentleman’s poisoning habits, though I feared much less for the Duke than for my brother, who had already been named the Baron’s successor. This mattered not to the Prince, and as I had before now placed myself on a decided footing with Soliman, I told him plainly he must reserve his revengeful feelings and poisoning abilities for some others, as both my brother and myself would come with loaded pistols to his feast, and if any of our party felt even a belly- ache, shoot him through the head (brucciare il cervello). His table was served in the German manner, and much to our surprise he kept his promise as to the Fava (large beans shelled). All invited appeared save Vaissière—formerly a captain in the French service, now a slave-dealer, and with the cross of the Legion of Honour—who would not trust himself at the Baron’s table, as the latter had, after trying to purchase over his head a favourite female slave, managed, out of revenge, to poison her. All appetites were sharp, but we rose all sound. After a time the Duke altered his mind and plans as to Taka, but promised, however, on his return from Faszogl, to take a part in the campaign. I had to promise the Pascha, in his name, a rifle peculiarly adapted for crocodile shooting, and a hundred bottles of champagne.

* * * * *

On the 1st of March, 1840, my brother returning from the Pascha, told me that the vessels were again all in readiness for Karreri, that he had to accompany the Pascha, and we would meet again at Damer, the place of rendezvous of the army intended for Taka. Karreri (by the Turks called Chirreri), a village some three hours below Chartum, and the residence of the friend and countryman of the Pascha’s, Soliman Kaschef, has a healthy climate, and on this account Joseph had advised the Pascha to hasten there as soon as possible, for the latter was again suffering from fever, and would hear nothing of quinine, but insisted on bleeding; and that, Joseph in his turn, with equal stern pertinacity, would not allow of, let the other fume and look as fierce as he chose. Often have I admired the Pascha’s composure during illness. The curtain of the great door was down, and I therefore entered by a side one, and there he sat as usual, occupied with various affairs, and all kinds of business; but at such times the Circassian lion was tamed and mild as a lamb.

The whole burden of our unfinished preparations now fell to my lot. For provisions, clothes, arms, ammunition, tent, &c., were already 6,000 piastres gone. As far as food and drink went, we might perchance have saved ourselves somewhat, as the Pascha had assured us of places at his table; but we could not depend on the Turkish complimentary style of promising, knowing the hungry state of his dependants, and were particularly anxious to reserve perfect liberty to ourselves. I still required ten camels for the conveyance of our baggage, as the golden cupolas of Bagdad yet held a place in our minds, and had bought, at a high price, two pack-camels (hamln) that had escaped the searching eyes of the soldiery, when Khaimakan (Lieutenant-colonel) Sorop Effendi offered me eight camels from government (belik), their price to be deducted from our allowances. Now came the puzzle, what was I to do with our animals? Our great pride, a young lion without a mane, was dead. Soliman Effendi, who was in terror of it even when it was shut up, had dared to poison it, as I afterwards learned from our servants, but not until the renegade himself was dead; but still there were the birds I had trapped, all in their cages, and these I turned out into the garden, and scattered about a good supply of food for them. Still there were the larger carnivorous birds, an eagle, and our special pet the black horn bird, Abu Goru (Buceros abyss. _L._) who answered to the name of “Hans,” came hopping up on being so called, took in his long bent beak the piece of meat offered him, threw it up in the air, catching it again as it descended, and so swallowed it, as nature had only bestowed on him an apology for a tongue (this performance especially delighted his Highness of Wurtemberg), but who did not, however, despise frogs or lizards, and every morning at daybreak aroused us by his cry of “Hum! Hum!” till we replied to it by “Hans;” also two king-cranes (Gornu, grue royale, Grus Pavonia _L._), a snake-devouring secretary, with handsome eagle’s head, long tail, and heron-like legs; curious wild ducks, geese, and other much prized birds, some having been shot unable to fly, but others were perfectly cured of their wounds by my brother, who was most dexterous with his pincers, extracting with them the shot pellets, and not seldom making a perfect cure. Under these circumstances, equally pleasant and flattering was the visit of the Chasnadar, who came with the Princess’s request that our birds might be confided to her care during our absence. Many a time before now had this lady, with her female slaves and eunuchs, been in our garden,—at such times, as a matter of course, we had to retire into our innermost apartment,—to visit our plants and flowers, that reminded her of Cairo; and much did it please her when requested to pluck or take with her such as pleased her, as the Pascha’s great garden produced nothing equal to them, no attempts having been made there to raise flowers from seeds, and all I had having been grown from seed I had brought with me from Cairo. In this way she knew of our beasts and birds, and felt that they might help her to pass her time, as she, a well-informed woman, suffered much from the fearful ennui of comfortless Chartum, and even advised my brother to leave it, and go with letters of recommendation, and also her petitions to her father, Mahomed Ali, at Cairo, she not daring to place so dangerous a trust in any one else, for she did not live on the best footing with the obstinate head-strong Pascha. When the Treasurer asked how the bird with the horn was called, I answered, Abdallah Effendi, and this was the name of the Vakul or deputy of the Pascha, a good-humoured Turk, with a splendid nose, but a mere tool of his master’s. As our pet Hans now went to the harem under the name of Abdallah Effendi, it became a habit at the Treasurer’s divan, when any one asked where Abdallah Effendi was, to reply, “Hue fi Charim belal Effendi,” which might be taken either in jest or earnest by the asker.

We had, in addition to poultry, bought for eighty piastres, or about 16_s._, a young ox, had him killed, salted, and along with a lot of ox- tongues gradually picked up, placed in our chimney to smoke, a simple enough business, but one unknown here. The naturalist Kotchi, from Austrian Silesia, had come with eleven people, from Kordofan, and joined us; and these for a fortnight kept up such an immense fire on our hearth, that all our smoking meat was singed and burnt so as to be useless, save two tongues, which proved excellent. Our house was ever a perfect _hospitium_; and now, when I had to look after and pack up everything, as nothing could be trusted to the servants, I had to run in and out in the sun, till I was completely done up. For some weeks back, Dr. Windgratzhofer, from Austria, had been with us, waiting till a boat was provided by government to convey him to his station at Faszogl. This good-humoured and droll _medico_, who had been nicknamed by some of us “Dicksack,” and which name he ever insisted on being called, I seated on our divan as guard over the numerous goods and chattels that lay open and exposed all round, knowing from experience the losses that were to be feared from the many curious callers, under excuses of paying farewell visits. Did I go out, there he sat, like a pagoda, on his post, grim, gruff, and surly (as far as his German went, for he spoke no other language) if any one only looked at an article, and on my return was ever ready with some humorous story, as to how faithfully and well he had filled his post, and how he had kept an eye at the same time on both sides, squinting most fearfully, to display his capability of doing so. But, alas! his jovial mood was checked in Faszogl, as his sorrowing letters told us. He had with him, as interpreter, the Pole Michel, a tailor, formerly in the Russian service, but who had been, for a long series of years, well known in Cairo, and was now a man over sixty. Besides these, we had also in our inn the unfortunate goldsmith, Erno, from Swabia, who wished to settle at Chartum, though he had sold all his instruments at Cairo. He, as well as old Michel, fancied that here, so near the gold hills, they would merely require to scrape with their hands the gold-dust from the Nile’s sand, and at once be _made men_. Both afterwards died on the journey homewards. The dragoman discharged by Dr. Belloti, a Nubian, also remained with us, as he was now and then employed by my brother; and at last, so that I might not have one corner to call my own, there came now on us Dr. Bellotti, a Bolognese, and the apothecary Dumont, from the neighbourhood of Marseilles, who had established himself at Wollet-Medine, with baggage and servants, having been ordered to follow their regiments on the chasua, or campaign.

* * * * *

Chap. II.

Embark for Damer. — Disastrous Voyage. — Reach Damer. — Joseph’s Sufferings. — The March. — Banks of the Atbara. — An Arab Village.

The troops from Sennaar and Wollet-Medine had encamped opposite Chartum in Chobba, so as to march by land to Damer. The garrison of Chartum, also, had all, save a very small force, been conveyed over to the right bank of the Blue Nile. As I felt very unwell, I proposed following them by water, but now not a boat was to be seen or heard of, all having been seized on by government, for the conveyance of military stores, munition, and provisions, and without either owner or sailor daring to claim any payment for such services. I sent our cook Achmet down the Nile to look out, and there he hit on a boat belonging to our friend Faragh Effendi, but sunk to its edge in the water, by the rais, who had also got out of the way, that he might not have to sail without a fee. However, on our offering a fair sum for the use of the boat to Damer, as the rais could not be found, his brother was dragged out to put it in order. Our traps were carried on board, the mast lowered down so as to form a tent, and we arranged our beds on our chests, placed alongside each other,—a necessary precaution in this inhospitable and innless country. Bellotti, Dumont, the merchant, Bruno Rollet, a stout Savoyard, of Chartum, and myself, formed our party, and our cook, Achmet, was to look after the kitchen and victualling department.

Our boat would not go on, and every moment we stuck on one or other of the many sandbanks of the river. Our rais had to be threatened with the kurbash (a whip made of the hide of the Nile-horse, or giraffe, both excellent), and he confessed that he expected the proper rais, his brother, to whom he had sent notice of his being compelled to sail the boat, as he himself dared not venture to take her through the cataracts. Nor were my recollections of these, as I saw them on the way up, most pleasant, although they had made a far less lasting impression on my mind than the splendid scenery had done; as when coming, as if from a prison, out of the six or seven miles long rapids (el Bad) of Geb’l Charri, all appeared so glorious, and we seemed to have arrived in a new land. Ere long the brother came down to the banks, and we got him aboard, but hardly were we again afloat, when he again ran us ashore on the rocks at the first tschellel or foaming rapids,—a special term for the white waters of rushing falls,—and instantly the whole bottom of the boat was filled with water, he howling like an old woman, as he feared for his head if he lost the boat. In consequence of my exertions during the last days in Chartum, I had, for the three days we had now been on the water, been suffering from fever, attended with vomitings and diarrhœa; weak and miserable as I was, I could not have saved myself by swimming, had it been necessary, but, as I knew that our boat could not sink deeper than the bottom, and that it was now firm and fast on the rocks, as the ark on Mount Ararat, I felt no alarm and consoled the others. The holes and splits of our really almost unserviceable craft were stopped up, and the rais and crew made desperate efforts to get it off the water-covered rocks. With much _naïveté_ the former prayed us all to get out for a single moment, which brought down on him a volley of curses and abuse from my companions, who would hear of nothing of the sort. The hot fit of my fever was past; so I took off all my upper garments, keeping, however, my shoes on, so that my feet might not be cut by the many thornmussels (etheria, Caill.), and sending Achmet first into the water, slid, feeble as I was, down after him: on this, the others followed my example, and in a few seconds we again had our heavy- laden bark afloat. Hardly had the boasting rais again begun his lies, that he was at home in Assuan, and knew the Nile as well as the palm of his hand, and had before now ascended it with Ismail Pascha, &c., &c., to all of which I calmly listened, when we again went bump on a hidden rock till all crashed again. Such was again and again our fate, till, after a long passage of eleven days, we arrived at Damer, during which we consumed various sheep, which we had forced the natives on the banks to sell to us. After my cold bath, my fever had left me, and all that remained of it was a real wolf’s appetite, which I, without feeling any trace of indigestion, indulged by most ravenous devourings. So sudden, in these climes, is the step from severe illness to perfect health.

On the morning of the 18th March, we at length landed in front of Damer, some three miles above the debouchement of the Atbara into the Nile. No longer are any remains of this hierarchical city to be seen, such as Burckhardt, in former days, beheld them:—it is now only a village, with some high, decaying, loam walls. A sudden alarm now seized me at not immediately beholding my brother, and I hurried off to the Pascha’s tent, pitched near the river’s bank, to announce my arrival, inquire for my brother, and excuse the delay caused by our perilous voyage. The Pascha received me kindly, and told me my brother had been ill, but was now recovered, and busied with the sick in a neighbouring tent. When the doctor and apothecary, having put on their uniform, entered, his face flushed with anger, and he sternly alluded to their having quitted their regiments and come by water; he then severely reprimanded them, saying, they had thrown the whole burden of looking after the sick on Hakim Jussuff (Dr. Joseph), and dismissed them with a Kedi-el-kanua (κανων, such is the law). The merchant Rollet, ever a bashful man, now crept in to receive certain commissions, but I made him a sign that he would not come off well just at this moment, and we left the tent together; but later, I so recommended him to the Pascha, that, so far as his business went, he placed full confidence in him. I found my brother perfectly recovered, after having, almost by force, made my way into his tent, where he had got over his most pressing business, having now little more to do than hand over the sick to Doctor Bellotti; most of the cases were ophthalmia and fever, from the soldiers being allowed no tents to shelter them; these having been looked to, nothing more had to be done than prepare for the morrow’s medical inspection, when the really sick and unserviceable were to be sent back to Chartum.

We had mutually to confess, although now again well, that both looked as if we had undergone severe illness. We sought rest and shade, went up into the village, lay down under a tree, and he there told me how he had fared on his journey. From Karreri he had crossed over with the Pascha to Halfaia, where the latter had assembled the chiefs of the Schaigies, and reminded them to be with their men punctually at their posts. From there the untiring dromedary rider (the Pascha) would have ridden on to Schendy, but gave up the idea on my brother’s remonstrances, as he feared both for the great man and himself; so they again embarked in the small quick kandschia, arrived at Schendy, and there disembarked; the Pascha wishing to see with his own eyes how far his arrangements there were completed. Mussa Effendi, who also had been ordered from the neighbourhood of Sennaar to take part in the chasua—a friend and countryman of the Pascha—was there, but ill. Soliman Effendi, the renegade doctor, had, too, arrived there, to take his leave of the great man (el kebir); but who, being in monstrous bad humour, demanded why he had quitted Chartum without permission,—how he had contracted so many debts there, and which, did he not at once pay, he would have him bastinadoed. Mussa Effendi had continued long ill in the Loam palace of the Pascha, and my brother had only saved him by placing a sentry at his door, to prevent his madly eating and drinking all he could get, as had been his practice till now; but this was for the future in so far put a stop to, as the sentry was ordered, under pain of five hundred blows of the stick, to cut off these supplies. The Pascha would most gladly have had Mussa with him, as he had been in Taka with Churschid Pascha; though he, for this very reason, prophesied no good would come of the present expedition. In the end, my brother had got matters settled. Mussa Effendi, and the renegade Soliman, whom the Pascha had not hesitated to recommend, on his head (the Turkish style, bi Rasak), to his friend, were to return to Chartum, and there, have an eye to the Pascha’s interests. Soliman Effendi had passed us on our voyage, and we could not then understand why he so cursed and fearfully abused all Turks, exclaiming, as all renegades ever do, that he was the mere slave of a set of rascals.

On the 14th March, at two o’clock P.M., the hottest part of the day, when my poor Joseph was about to retire for a siesta, the Pascha, who almost never rested or ate, became gloomy, and ordered out the dromedaries. At once all the camp was bustle and confusion. The Pascha, once mounted, was happy,—more than my brother was, who was anxiously eyeing the beasts, and heard, with no slight thrill of alarm, the Pascha pronounce, as he pointed to a dromedary, the word “kerkab,” (mount); the more so, as he well knew the fearless style of riding of his leader, which his own native attendants much feared. Joseph now had to mount a dromedary for the first time; though in our desert-crossings we both had sat for weeks on the broad cloth-covered backs of the baggage camels. But, up he got; and there, high raised in air, he sat as if on a stool, all loose, without any hold as on a horse, and hardly had got the rope rein into his hand, when off he had to trot alongside his leader, who, of course, took no notice of his companion’s dilemma; though the latter feared every moment to lose his balance, and break his neck or limbs.

At first the ride did him good, but, from the constant shaking, and from being at every step thrown forward by the animal’s shuffling gait, ere long his bowels were set into such a state of inquietude, from the sharp ride of two hours under a burning sun, that he had to remain behind, on the thorn-covered waste near the banks of the Nile, and await the coming up of the servants and baggage, while all the others marched on and passed him. Only one pitying Ababdi-Bedouin remained by him; but, unfortunately, neither understood the other’s language.[4] Headache, convulsive vomitings, racking heat, horrible thirst, and no water, as he had no vessel to fetch any in, and the Bedouin would not leave him to fetch one, was Joseph’s lot; then delirium, but still sufficient consciousness to be aware, now and then, of men passing and asking, “Min di ajahu?” (Who is the sick man?) “Hakim Pascha” and then “Hue bimùtt” (he lies dying); and so they passed on, and still the servants came not. At last, about nine o’clock at night, came our hunter Abdallah, with coverings and cushions, and made him up a bed, on which he lay all night in violent fever, but recovered somewhat ere sunrise; and, after a six hours’ ride, again rejoined the Pascha’s camp, who had been anxiously looking out for him, and welcomed him with kind, compassionate concern. A wretched house was assigned him as a shelter against the sun’s heat, but the soldiers had already got possession of it;—smoke, fires for baking bread, the chattering of the soldiers with the women and idle, restless villagers, added to the burning pain of his galled seat, from which the blood had run down into his trowsers, soaking his drawers, stockings, and all his under clothing—as I now saw with my own eyes—allowed him to find neither rest nor peace. His only comfort was a young black-brown girl, of some twelve years of age, whom the Bedouin had brought to cool him with a fan and keep off the flies and insects. In his dreaming mood he fancied this girl was some brilliant white guardian spirit, sent to give him ease. Next day, when on leaving he would have given her some small farewell present, she whom he had seen all night through, kneeling at his head and waving her fan, had vanished, and her mother with the utmost reluctance took the money; though, from her language not being Arabic, Joseph could not say why she so long declined it.

In the warmest part of the day, two o’clock P.M., the Pascha was again the first to mount his dromedary, and it really seemed as if he desired to find out how much himself and followers could endure. At rapid pace he rode on along the banks of the Nile, past the pyramids of Assur (to which I shall revert), through bushes and past some single Doum-palms, till he came to the village of El Djebl or Djebelab, situated in a small horse-shoe like bend of the hills. Before, when on our journey up to Sennaar, I had placed Joseph, who some days before had succumbed under the sun-stroke, beneath one of these palms, left him there, and at his repeated request had ridden on to examine the pyramids and their neighbourhood; but during my absence he was so annoyed by the blue- tailed lizards running backwards and forwards (his abhorrence) over him, that on my return I found he had left his position and been carried, more dead than alive, into the boat. The road at the foot of the hills was villanous, and most dangerous from the large stones, that had rolled down from above, and Joseph’s dromedary threatened, from the rapid pace, to fall at every step, he no longer having power remaining to support it or himself. After being led and borne for some way by Abdallah and the Bedouin, my brother managed, but on foot, to reach the village on the hill range where the Pascha had halted, though he was too weak to go to him and beg for a boat. There he passed the night in fever and delirium, on an angareb (the common bed place of the country, formed of small strips of plaited camel hide crossed on a frame), and in the morning felt so enfeebled, that he despaired of ever recovering, and only hoped once again to behold me, to warn me to quit the country. As good luck would have it, there was then in that neighbourhood a boat of our friend, the merchant Hassam Mosnùr from Berber; this was put into requisition. Placed on an ass, and held on it, Joseph rode over a well cultivated plain, regularly watered by irrigating channels filled from the Nile by water-wheels; and along with the Pascha’s secretary, the Copt Chakill, embarked in the boat, in which, after daily attacks of fever, he at length, on the morning of the 17th of March, arrived, when sleeping soundly, at Damer. Even my lot had not been so bad as this, but now again we could both breathe freely, and heart and courage revived again.

_20th March._—It was said we were to march at L’Asser, so we could not carry out our plans of together visiting the pyramids; as I have already given an account of my visit to them in my “Journey to the Source of the White Nile” (p. 55.), I shall not repeat it here. It seems, however, beyond a doubt to me,—who before leaving Bellad-Sudan also visited the mystic city of Mandera which many, without having seen it, are inclined to hold as the ancient city of Meroe,—that this ancient island city of Meroe did in former days extend along the Nile at the valley of Bach’r amie, westward from the pyramids.[5] The river has since those days retired, as there are now to be seen, some two hundred paces from it, foundation walls and remains of buildings, behind which I hit on four male sphinxes, one of which a young vagabond, who had run after us, mounting, claimed as his horse.

I had persuaded my brother to purchase from Sheik Soliman a small, smooth-going dromedary, as the tall, hard-trotting ones the Pascha had presented to us at Chartum were likely to have thrown him into a fit of apoplexy, his slender form not being able to withstand rough usage and constant joltings like my much stronger one. His ride from Schendy having so much injured him, led me to mount outside the camp this new purchase of his, a lively little animal, a bischari, and I may say as boldly as when I, a boy, was thrown on the so-called wild horse of the stud at Embscher-Bruch, in Westphalia, much to my kind old father’s delight and rejoicing, who, as he ran alongside, holding the caveson, and delighting in his son’s bravery and daring, little suspected this would afterwards cost him so much money. Riding here, however, was a different thing—no mane or saddle-bow for the boy to hold on by, nor any saddle or stirrup for the trained horseman: my brother laughed, but I held myself together, and all went on well. The saddle was certainly desperately slippery, although I did get some hold on it, when, after the custom of the riders here, I crossed my legs over its bow. The rich Turks always spread over the saddle a long-haired, red-coloured ram’s fleece, like that thrown over a Hungarian coach-box; so we had two carpets (Siggadi), and our great dromedaries brought out, and one fastened over each of the saddles. The Zais (inspector of horses and fore-rider) of the Pascha and I placed ourselves on the taller dromedaries, and I looked proudly down on my brother, mounted on his small animal. We rode under the Zais’s instructions, and fancied we were gaining some slight insight into the business, as we held in our left hands the halter and rein drawn through the left nostril, used for turning, and flourished the kurbasch in our right. The two-humped camel (C. Bactrianus) is unknown here; those used are smooth-haired, fine- coated, and of bright colour as any blood horse. The camel and dromedary are the same species, and there is no more difference between them than between a cart and a race-horse. The camels are trained to lie down for loading and unloading, and the signal for so doing is given by a peculiar sound made by drawing in the breath through the teeth, and a gentle stroke of the whip above the knees. The dromedary is called hagihn; the camel, the chimmal, plur. chomal.

We had, at dawn of morning, started on an inspection of this ruined city, Damer, to see if any ancient remains were to be found; but neither brick nor hewn stone did we see. The houses not yet crumbled into ruins were built of meteoric stone (top).[6] We made our way into a couple of such houses; inside all was dark, as windows there were none, but a few round or angular holes up near the flat roofs, such as are in the sloping walls of Egyptian temples. By these means greater strength is lent to the bad material used in building, and this is evident in the high towers or loam castles in the land of Barabra, and from the enduring remains of the pylones of the temples. Any one who doubts the durability of such loam edifices may soon be convinced both of this and the high national liking for them, by examining these old buildings. We generally found in the houses two monstrous clay jars, some six or eight feet high, such as are common also in Greece, for the storing of grain, bread, &c.; one bed-place for the whole family, and a bench or settle, spread with mats, and raised some three or four feet from the ground. The other houses were the common Æthiopian tokuls, to which was attached an oblong bower of wicker-work, a tolerably cool abode, and called a Recuba. The tokul is formed by a circular loam wall, with a pointed roof placed on it; and such huts, with little difference, are to be found in every part of Africa and certain parts of America—Guiana, for instance, where, probably, the negroes introduced them. On entering one of these huts we were welcomed by a Turk from Bosnia, who, with grave face, told my brother he possessed a certain herb that would, in three or four days, perfectly cure broken bones; but he would not produce this wondrous plant, as he feared my brother might steal his secret. We also here heard that at the point of land where the Atbara runs into the Nile there was a village called Kenisse (meaning Church or Christian ruins), where were many old buildings (bint gaddim), in which bricks might be found. That in very early times the Christian faith spread widely in Æthiopia is well known, and we were about to start on a second trial ride to Kenisse, when we were told it was certain that the Pascha would set out at midday or afternoon.

We set about arranging our traps into camel-loads, a camel carrying about three cwts., so that all might be in order. To our cook, Achmet, as the most necessary attendant on the march, we assigned a dromedary, and loaded it with our most valuable articles, so as to always have these near us, as much was to be feared for all baggage that went with the rear-guard, this being much exposed to be cut off or plundered. In these climes water is ever a first consideration, and to each soldier had been served out a small leathern flask, while on our camels were placed many water-skins (girbe), and yet Achmet had, in addition, to hang on the shady side of his beast another water-skin, made of the untanned hide of an antelope, as we wished to preserve our own two water-filled sensamien (bags of leather, fitted with a mouthpiece, screwed in, with a hole and straw or reed to drink from) untouched, in case of any bursting; and also as the water in these keeps cooler, being able to ooze through the pores, which is not the case with the girbes, as so doing would cause too great loss. Then we had also to convey the hammab, a tripod six feet high, indispensable in warm countries at unloading or camping, to hang the water-skins on, as the ground is so hot as to suck up all the water, and where no hammab is to be got, some other means of keeping the skins off the earth is always invented. These water-skins are without seam; the heads of the animals are generally cut off (usually sheep or goats are the sufferers), their skins worked off the body, without outward cut, down to the lower joints of the legs, that are left hanging on the skin, and bound across two and two, or crosswise, to keep all firm and united; the neck of the hide forms the mouth, and is firmly bound round and round with strong cord. Some practice is required to drink while riding, out of one of these, without spilling much water, which, often being more valuable than all other treasures, it is ever looked on as a serious fault to waste. Besides some clean linen and clothing in a leathern bag (jurab), Achmet had on the other side our cotton-stuffed pillows; his saddle was formed of two Abyssinian cow-hides, placed above each other, intended to be used under our carpets, and these proved a most excellent protection against the numerous thorns that covered the soil, or when covered with two great white barakans, folded four times together, formed a very perfect sleeping-place for us when suffering from cold or fever. Atop of all this high-piled load sat the cook himself. We had entrusted to his care some of our arms, three guns and an old-fashioned pistol, with some ammunition; two of the first he had fastened to his dromedary, as we carried our double-barrelled rifles, but a long Turkish gun he had hung over his neck, surely no very comfortable companion during a long, sharp ride. In addition to our double rifles, that we could have in our hands in an instant, we also carried pistols, strung in a belt instead of being stuck in the girdle, and by our sides hung proudly our cavalry swords,—our Turkish sabres, too light for our unaccustomed hands, having been safely stowed away in our chests. Our cook had wisely provided himself with some of the needful tools of his trade, things that neither Joseph or I had thought of. This seems a long list, but still it is but a very poor one of all required for a journey in this land.

At three o’clock in the afternoon (fi l’Asser), a cannon was fired, and soon a sudden commotion and stir was evident in the camp, this being the signal for starting. In an instant our tent was down, and as each camel lay already with shackled knee, between the chests and bags intended for it, and our girbes were ere now filled, all was so quickly laden that our people were at the head of the train, where by our orders they were to keep. We ourselves, mounting, rode up to the Pascha, who had halted to the eastward of Damer, his saddled horses and dromedaries drawn up behind, and here out of the bustle was making his further arrangements at his ease. He growled at the great disorder, but consoled himself that in future things would go on better. It was, indeed, a most varied scene: the Turkish cavalry, in their national dress of every hue and colour, with yellow or green standards and small kettle-drums; the cavalry of the Schaigies and Mograbin Arabs on horses, dromedaries, and on foot; the Sheiks and Moluk (little kings), with their little arm- bearers behind them on the same camels, with spears, lances, swords and shields of leather; the numerous asses and camels, the former led by the halter by almost every second infantry soldier, so that the owners might ride in turn; drums, trumpets, and all kinds of deafening music, &c. The Chabir (caravan leader), with lance and shield, was on his dromedary, far in advance; him we followed, along with the Pascha, who was on horseback, and with picturesque disorder each detachment freed itself from the confused crowd, and came on in our track. The artillery consisted of two field-pieces drawn by camels which the Pascha had trained to this work, to take the place of the usual mules in the desert. Abd-el-Kader, the jovial Topschi Baschi, mounted on his mule, led them on. The Turks, the greater number of whom were Circassians, the Kurds, Arnauts, or Albanians, who an hour before could hardly put one leg before another, were now changed men; the instant they were in their saddles they were galloping like madmen round the Pascha, and thrashing their horses with as little compassion as if they had been intoxicated with opium. But all this was in honour of the Pascha, and a show-off before him of their invincible courage. The way lay over the desert, but was tolerably well marked out. Towards morning the Pascha, accompanied by the Chabir, rode on in advance; but we did not follow him, as I felt unwell. It was dark night when we reached the left bank of the Atbara, where, throwing ourselves down among the bushes, we sought sleep, without waiting or caring for food.

In the morning we commenced looking about us, and came on two Saghies or water-wheels of the Kabyle Omerab. The Atbara is a fine, clear river, with high banks, pretty deep, though here fordable, and at this ford the Pascha posted a guard of forty men, so that the enemy might not take us in the rear. The country on the right bank of the river was yet called Daghela; the forest opposite is a swamp, in which were yet to be seen many lakes full of water, and also a dry river bed, which, from its considerable breadth, must, at times, pour a large body of water into the Atbara. Some Omerabs having joined us, we asked the name of this gohr or rain-brook—often, in tropical climes, of great size and importance—running into the Atbara; to our surprise he answered el Mogren, which immediately reminded us of Father Burckhardt, who so named the lower part of the Atbara. We also knew right well that Mogren means the spot where two rivers join, as in the case of the Blue and White Niles; but here we were told, most distinctly, that the gohr itself was named Mogren. Unfortunately, we did not ask if the people on the opposite side of the Mogren do not sometimes apply that name to the Atbara, down to its junction with the Nile, and if the gohr was to be merely looked on as an auxiliary stream, and included in the name. The Dutchman does not blush to call the main stream of the Rhine the Waal, because a river of that name, on which, perhaps, he once dwelt and still loves, runs into it and flows on with it into the ocean, but hails all on its banks as his countrymen. In Taka I saw the great Gohr-el-Gash, the waters of which are said to vanish—how, if this monstrous mass of water, which it is impossible the earth can drink in, were to collect again in the low lands and form this mogren? and this, the direction of the Gohr-el-Gash, and the slope of the country seem to me but too plainly to point out. Whence the gohr comes they know not; “min fok,” (from above) they said, and that in the rainy season it gathers from all sides, from which gathering may be the peculiar meaning of the word gohr.

The high banks on our side of the river, were at this season covered with luxuriant, beautiful turf, with strong, fruit-laden Dom-palms (Cucifera Thebaica), mimosas, and large thorn trees (nebbek), the bright green of which lent a freshness and enlivening colour to the scene, hardly to have been looked for from the slimy, sandy soil. The Atbara was some 150 or 200 paces broad, but seemed, from the distance of the opposite bank, to have, when full, a breadth of 600 or 800 paces. The banks consisted of layers of sandstone, and it was plainly visible, that this sandstone was in a continuous state of forming, as in some spots it was very soft, and in these we found encrusted wood and petrifactions, but no conchylites. Further upwards, the soil was good, the land well cultivated and sown with durra[7], divided off into small squares, intersected with narrow channels or canals; but we saw no saghies (water-wheels), so either must the river’s overflowings have been guided into these canals, or they must have been filled by means of water-tight baskets (saduff), as in Nubia and elsewhere. We saw no one who could give us any information about this, and at midday returned to the camp, as we had been warned to keep near it, the tribes of this neighbourhood being neither most friendly nor trustworthy.

_21st March._—On starting on our excursion this morning, we had felt pretty well, but now we suddenly felt as ill and downcast as ever, but the cannon-shot re-echoed through the wood, and all must mount again. At first steppes that threw back the sun’s rays most dreadfully on us; we drove before us herds of thirty or forty gazelles, the Pascha and Turks setting off in chase of them. Ere long we again approached the river, where the most luxuriant vegetation was visible, also many Dom-palms, cut across under the crown (pollarded), the more easily to get at their branches for mats and ropes, though this kills the trees. Large fields there were none, but merely cultivated patches, and the green turf extending under the trees on the river’s banks, as in Germany. The soil was dark, and seemed of similar quality to that of the Nile banks, cut up like it also, but in smaller polygons. A considerable deposit of slime was to be seen on the rough bark of the lower part of the trees; and were the height of these slime-marks carried out in a horizontal line over the land, the river’s overflow would seem to reach to the stony ridges of the invariably higher desert land. Riding was most perilous, partly from the thorny trees with reversed hooks, strong enough to tear clothes from the body, or eyes out of one’s head (and eyes were lost by some), partly from the crowding, when all had to make, in the dark, their way as well as they could, and then, from the ground being saturated with water, falls were many and severe. At last, at midnight, after a march of ten hours, a halt was made, not one of half an hour’s duration having, until now, been allowed. In the Pascha’s neighbourhood, a fire was kindled, but we sought out a dark spot behind a bush on the river’s bank, and at once lay down, and so wearied was I, that I would not even drink the coffee which the old Deli Mustapha, the Pascha’s kawedschi, brought us. One must have experienced what that weariness is, which, brought on and conjoined with illness, goes so far as to lead him to despise the choicest food rather than arouse himself to partake of it, to judge of my state.

_22nd March._—The river’s course here is from south-east to north-west, though as yesterday, any current is hardly perceptible. The banks are distant from each other, and the river is yet some 150 or 200 paces in width,—the bed sandstone, the country beautiful and green as yesterday, larger durra fields, but only two water-wheels. The Atbara is not rich in fish, but crocodiles and Nile-horses abide in the deeper places the whole year through. We saw and heard many geese and ducks, but did not disturb them, as, had we shot them we could not have got them; other birds we saw not, nor did we fall in, outside the camp, with any natives, all of whom seemed, like the Omerabs, to have got out of the army’s way, the Sheik of the latter, alone, being with the camp, and accompanying it through his country. From the fissures of the sandstone in the river’s bed sprouted up a splendid species of willow, with bright green leaves, like a freshly shot oleander, full cup-shaped white blossoms, and odour like jessamine, but not so pungent or agreeable; pistils full of white bitter milky fluid; seed very small and hanging in threads of a finger’s length, intersecting each other like a spider’s web. The river makes great windings between its wildly beautiful banks, from which the trees hang down, often touching the water, and in many places having fallen into it, render its navigation somewhat difficult, though these hindrances could be easily overcome. The increasing heat, accompanied by a hotter wind, that blew disagreeably round our brows, sent us back to the camp. This district of country has as inhabitants, the Kabyle of Kammarabs, who are a considerable tribe, and extend southward to the lands of the Schukurie, under the great Sheik, Abu Sind, and has, as its superior chief, the great Sheik, Aburof. On the opposite right bank of the Atbara live the Kabyle of the Anafidab, a most thievish race, and much given to plunder and steal the Kammarab’s camels. The Anafidab are of the race or tribe (Gins) of the Bischari, and form a kabyle (clan or community) of their own, under their own chiefs.[8] We hear, that all grain, to be had here and hereabouts, is to be delivered up at the six day’s journey distant from here, Gos Rajeb, where a great magazine is to be formed.

The cannon was fired at midday, just as we had finished our meal; although at first seeing this I had felt little appetite, and almost loathed food, still I tried to eat; but suddenly I became seriously ill, and beheld with horror our tent struck over my head, my bed, too, packed up, and ourselves with our servants, obliged to follow the army. I could not mount, I felt as if the sun was heaping glowing coals on my head, but did not lose my consciousness. My brother and I, therefore, resolved to remain behind till the heat of the day was over, and ride on after the crisis was past, if I was ever to get over it. Supported by Joseph and Achmet, I was led to a Dom-palm, near which I sank down, as if dead, under shade, certainly, but on the burning earth. A fearful vomiting and dysentery, sending sweat from every pore, attacked me; I could not remain lying on my carpet, but to keep in the shade, I had, with my trowsers about my heels, to crawl on the sand, round and round the tree, while the spot I had quitted was covered over with clean sand. Dr. Bellotti and the apothecary, Dumont, having heard I was dying, had quitted the army’s slow train, and come to see for themselves, if the report was true or not. They advised me to give up the expedition, the Italian, contrary to my brother’s opinion however, holding my case as most serious. I made Bellotti a sign, and as he bent over me, prayed him, in case of my death, to do his utmost to persuade Joseph to quit Bellad Sudan, and then he could fill all his good posts. Dumont could hardly restrain his laughter, and the two mounted and rode off. Never in my life have I longed for sunset as I then did; the very last sun beams seemed to effect my hair, as if each separate one was electrified and discharging the fluid into my bursting head. Hardly was the torturing sun under the horizon when I felt much better, could again stand up and move slowly about. Good humoured Arab herd lads approached our fire, pitied my state, and brought me milk and durra bread.[9] It was a beautiful evening, the full moon glittering on the waters of the Atbara, silvered the dark crowns of the Dom-palms; wild geese now and then screamed, and some pigeons cooed round us,—all else was silence.

_23rd March._—There is a deep pleasure in sleeping in the open air, where weather and climate will permit. Often had I in Greece, even when most sleepy, sought the free air, and, particularly at Nauplia, mounted up to the higher Herculesburg of Tirynth and the rocks of Palmedes, and there passed the night. What a waking in the divine dawn of beauteous, freest Nature! Much restored, two hours before sunrise, we mounted our dromedaries, but did not long trust ourselves in the sun, as at his first beams we dismounted at the tents of some Arabs of the Kabyle of the Kammarabs. We were hospitably received, and entertained with milk and bread; ere long they brought us a great wooden dish (gadda) of the lochma, a stiff soup or batter of durra-meal (hagien), with a hollow in its centre full of butter, and, even when only eaten with the hands, no bad food. At least a dozen men would have found sufficient to eat in this Arab polenta. The baker’s oven, or brick-kilnlike tents (birsch; tents of canvass, gemma; those on boats, denda), are formed of mats of palm-leaves, stretched over boughs, low before but high at the back, where there is a sort of elevated bed-place, or divan, covered with palm mats, and over these a kind of reed-stalks, split fine, is bound by small stripes of hide. This elevation, when used as a bed or seat, is protected from cold wind and curiosity, by being hung round by black and white striped coarse woollen coverlets, and this part of the tent is called the beit, or house. Of such tents some thirty were here, not placed in the shade, but somewhat distant from the larger trees. In the time of the tropical rains these tents are much reduced in size by their inmates, who then sit in them like snails in their shells. Such rains do not extend beyond the mouth of the forest-surrounded Atbara, and seldom bestow a shower on the Berber lands (called by the Arabs el Mucheïrof), where the loam-built towns would soon go to pieces under the torrents of the Chariff, which the tokuls are needed to withstand. The older and principal men came to visit us, and the Wokul of the Sheik, who is in attendance on the Pascha, smoked out of a bone. The country round is flat, sandy, and covered with thorn-bushes. The Dom-palms do not extend so far from the river, as they love a moist soil. Grass and herbage we saw as little of as stones, although the river seemed to overflow far here. A shrub, Tundo, with many small red flowers, very similar to our wild rose, was abundant; birds, save pigeons, very rare; but numerous large white vultures, hovering over and devouring the fallen cattle it left behind, marked the way the army had taken.

Towards evening we again were _en route_, following the track of the field-pieces, but soon had to halt again, as this guiding-trace was hid in darkness. So, like knights-errant, we turned into another settlement of Kammarabs, which was large and flourishing, and, with its numerous fires before the tents, offered a lively picture of native life. The head man received us most kindly, told us we had been commended to his care by the Pascha, who had also sent orders back to Damer that we were every where to be looked on as his friends. While we sat eating our durra bread and milk, and looking round us for sheep or goat to stick on the spit, twenty Schaigies, mounted on dromedaries, arrived, sent by the Pascha to seek us out and act as our guard. We now continued our march by moonlight, were again become great people, and looked on as Turks. We were told the tribe of Kammarabs was small, and therefore the Schaigies took the high hand, and would have made a sad business of it, had we not kept order, as in every village a guide was to be taken by force, the Arabs, holding us for Turks, putting no trust in our promise of payment. Our Schaigies proved brisk, merry fellows, and played many a mad prank to amuse us.

_24th March._—We encamped, about midnight, some distance from the river banks, and found ourselves on a Steppe. The soil was bad and sandy; the barrowlike range of hillocks, that ran from east to west, were sparingly covered with herbage and a few white flowering Mimosas. At mid-day we turned into a small village of some ten huts, belonging to the Kabyle of the Wood Naga, a branch or tribe of the Bischari. These people had no durra for our camels, or would not give us any. The head man brought us milk and durra-teig, but demanded soap and medicine in exchange. On the right bank of the Atbara here dwell the Bischari; the banks of the river are high, nor does it seem to overflow them; but that falls of rain are frequent and heavy, is plainly shown by the high grass under the thorny nebbek and Dom-palm trees. All about the banks, trees are to be seen overthrown and floating in the water. The Schaigies hunted out a deserter, and we could plainly mark the hatred in which they held the Egyptians. I promised I would obtain the Pascha’s pardon for him, and kept my word. At the next village men came at once up to us, offering us water, but for the Egyptian neither ass nor camel could be got. The huts of this village, also, were without all shade. Here, again, two guides had to be seized on by force, and our presence alone prevented our spoil-loving body-guard from plundering it. We then reached the great village Wady, which was picturesquely situated under shady trees, along the river’s bank. From hence our road lay over a wide plain, without tree or bush to afford us shelter; at midnight we halted and dismounted.

* * * * *

Chap. III.

Rejoin the Army. — Arab Sheiks. — Ruins of Herrerem. — The Mirage. — A Country March. — Corn Stores. — A Sheik of the Hallenga. — False Alarms. — A Skirmish.

_25th March._—Before sunrise we were off again. Coffee we could not prepare, for want of wood; one of the Schaigies milked his female camel, and gave us some of its milk, which tasted fresh and excellent. We now again struck the way the army had taken. Numerous wild Kurbisse (Colocynthi) covered the ground in many places. The braying of an ass was plainly heard in this soundless waste; on we went, and came to a female ass with broken leg,—seemingly the field-piece had gone over it; a newly-dropped foal stood by the mother, over whom already circled in air the vultures; from these she seemed to call on us to protect her. The young beast was placed in a net, slung on a camel, and the old one, at our express order, shot, to save her from a lingering death. By noon we were in the camp on the Atbara.

The Pascha, seated on the ground, in the shade before his tent, had remarked us when at some distance, though we could have dispensed with seeing him ere we had first taken some rest. He was, from exposure to the sun during these last few days, much burnt, seemed ill, and suffering; he nevertheless received us with commiserating kindness, and said he had already received a message telling him of our welfare. Tired as we were, we must mount again at two hours after noon. Many gazelles were started; the Pascha, gun in hand, galloped his Arabian stallion into the midst of them; almost all the mounted people galloped like a wild hunt after him, and we also advanced at a sharp trot, to behold nearer the extempore _chasse_. We fancied our chief had fallen from his horse, so speedily had he swung himself to the ground, and with three shots he brought down three gazelles, of which, in the evening, we received a good portion roasted. The river is here pretty broad; on the opposite bank we next morning, when looking about us, perceived some crocodiles. On the river’s edge were many very beautiful pebbles; the banks are rocky and of sandstone, as is also the bed; pieces of decaying Thorn-mussel were scattered about here and there, but we saw no other shells. In spite of the day being fearfully warm, the march was continued all day till evening. My brother, from his great exertions, was taken ill, had violent headache, and felt as if drunk, but luckily slept all night. The plain we had ridden over was monotonous, covered with reedlike mimosas; the soil most sandy.

_27th March._—Joseph cannot rise, has dreadful thirst, and complains that his hair is on fire on his head. We wisely halted here till after mid-day, let the army march on before us, remaining on the river bank till the cooler evening, and then hastened on after the Pascha. On the river’s right bank was to be seen the gebl (hill) Job, or Joc, rising up, all isolated, like a pyramid: this hill was visible yesterday. To- day two other large hills have come into sight, one in the east, the other to the south. We have remarked that the birds gradually return after the army has passed on, and we only remain. The left side of the river is not cultivated, the right very much so; many large fields of durra and doggen (Sorghum saccharatum). Topschi Baschi lent my brother his easy-going mule, which gave him great relief. Gazelles were seen in large herds, hurrying back from the desert, here very sandy and deep, to the river, by paths worn by their own feet. At our camping-place to-day the heat was so great, that guns and sabres, even under the tent, could hardly be laid hold of. For the first time, the soldiers had flesh served out to them, and each captain got a sheep; on every camel and ass flesh was to be seen hanging, and the birds of heaven often approached most near to these, in their nostrils, sweet-smelling scaffolds. The right bank of the river, for the last two days’ march, was the habitation of the tribe of the Haddenda, hostile to us; to its west are the Schukurie, who live in perpetual feud with them. Two hours after sunset a halt was made, and the many fires of the camp, glittering among the trees, offered a pretty scene. Many scorpions showed themselves here, as if attracted by the heat of the fires; some we saw were a finger and a half in length, of a bright colour, one half of the tail a brown black, and covered with hair. Around us were huge flats, overgrown with long, thick, rank grasses, and in these the rain-water must stand long, probably dammed back there by the raised banks of the Atbara. The wind is warm, and by no means refreshing. For the last two evenings there have been continuous flashes of lightning in the south.

_28th March._—We encamped for this night on the river, here in some places dried up. Its high banks were evidently never hereabouts overflowed, and so no Dom-palms were visible. Mohammed Defalla, a great Sheik of the neighbourhood of Wollet-Medina, arrived with many followers. He wore a suit of double-chain armour, under this a quilted shirt, arm-braces, and handsome worked steel gauntlets. His helmet fitted to his head like a shell, having in front, instead of a visor, an iron bar coming down over the nose, and behind, to cover the neck, a small guard or curtain formed of steel rings. His sword, the most common here, was one of the horsemen’s straight swords, made in Sennaar, with plain bent hand-guard, golden hilt, with a thick crown-like knob cut out on its end. This equipment came from India, and he has forty or fifty such suits; his relations of the old royal family have whole heaps of such. Two Sheiks of the land of Taka have also arrived: handsome, tall men. Many people from the neighbourhood of Gos-Rajeb have also come to meet the Pascha, and have just dismounted from their dromedaries in the camp; they have their hair anointed and whitened with camel’s fat, which the sun’s heat has melted, and set trickling down their backs. For three hours during to-day’s march we passed over a plain extending farther than eye could reach, with long withered grass, few trees, many gazelles, and some hares. In the morning we had remarked near, and on the river, thousands of partridges, various kinds of snipes, and numerous water-fowl. Our camping-place is two hours distant from water: during the night a strong cold wind blew on us from the south.

_29th March._—To-day we were to make our entrance into Gos-Rajeb, and we were in motion before sunrise. The infantry formed two columns, the Turkish cavalry the right wing, the Schaigies and Magrabins the left. About eleven o’clock we found ourselves in this order, and deafened by drums, kettle-drums, and all kinds of Janissary music, in the wide and almost naked plain to the east of Gos-Rajeb. The guns that had been in front did not retain that position, but were passed over to the right side of the here shallow Atbara, where, at the feet of the two rocks of Herrerem, our camp was formed, in a stony, almost treeless plain. Gos- Rajeb (Hill Rajeb) is some 400 paces distant from the river bank, consists of 150 or 200 tokul and loam houses, the former of these being unusually large, and displaying on their pointed tops ostrich eggs as ornaments. The inhabitants of this trading city are of various tribes: Bischari, Haddenda, &c. The few of them we saw were rather red in colour than black or brown; but most of its inmates had fled at our approach. Gos-Rajeb lies in a desert, or nearly so; the goods come from India to Sauakim on the Red Sea, and are brought thence on camels. On a dromedary the journey can be made in seven or eight days. Caravans take ten or eleven; though the Sheik of Gos-Rajeb said seventeen days were required to Sauakim, but only five or six to Kataref. According to him, the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb are a race of themselves, who have been located there since time immemorial; though he allowed that another race, not of the same descent as them, had settled down there in later times. The Pascha has instructed the Sheik to give me all and every information as to country and people, and to accompany me to all most worthy of being seen, and all remarkable points.

_30th March._—Our expectations had been highly raised as regarded the ruins we hoped to find in this city of the rocks, for we, as well as the honoured Burckhardt before us, had heard much of Kenisse betal kuf’r, and of memorials of a Christian race. So in the morning we climbed up both hills, and found a grotesque formation of granite rocks, worn by the action of weather and other causes into the most fantastic shapes, and here and there towered up on one another as if some giant’s hand had piled them. The grey whitish granite also shows in its refts round holes smoothed out by rain, and, in some places, crusts of red granite as at Assuan; but ruins there were none to explore. We saw much dried grass, and some small green trees like wild pear-trees, called Sammer: this shows the rain here must be abundant. A crowd of flints and pebbles of all colours were scattered round above, but almost all were broken in pieces, like those placed on graves here to prevent the wild beasts digging up the corpses. It is possible, however, these stones had been broken up to discover the precious stones supposed to be hid in the coarser casket.

The view over the plains covered with small trees and stretching out farther than eye can reach, is monotonous; and here the Atbara is very small, and resembles a brook with naked banks. To the N.W. is Gos-Rajeb with its tokuls and decaying roofs; to the N.N.E. a day and a half’s journey off, is the Hill of Job. N.N.E. and by N. one day’s journey off, is the Hill of Ofrek; the smaller hills of Derra, Tokul, and Aried, the centre one of which has three pointed tops, lie from W. by N. to W.N.W. The Hill of Sabath, W.S.W. is about half a day’s journey from Gos; behind the Hill of Job to the N.N.W. is a yet higher mountain, with a smaller neighbour, and a chain of hillocks. The distance as the crow flies to the hills of Kassela in the E. may be some thirty hours. The other rock of Herrerem lies southward of the first, and may be some 400 feet high. At the foot of it is a quantity of _débris_ rolled down from it, and large pieces of rock also lie about. On this rough ground are many graves of later time; some old bricks red outside, black inside and very hard, lie about. A quarter of an hour N.E. of this Rockery, in a spot to which the Sheik led me, I saw some broken and burnt bricks; hereabouts must once have stood a town as large as Massr (Cairo) and inhabited by Christians. The ground is now level, and neither grave-hill nor bone-house to be seen. There must indeed have been a fearful conflagration here, as the bricks at one spot are melted down into a black glassy mass. Most probably, the city was on both hills, and principally on the first, round which many isolated mounds or hillocks may be seen; but these are covered either with stones or small pieces of granite, and seem to have been used as sepulchres; they have a round or oval form, and some are large and of good height. Often are six or eight such hillocks connected with each other, and on these we found some red bricks. The present inhabitants know not whether they are graves or what they are, and this alone testified to their belonging to older times. On the second hill lie blocks of rocks having much resemblance to colossal sarcophagi; and why these masses were so placed on it cannot be accounted for, unless to serve as memorials. The first hill runs up into two blunt points, on the foremost of which starts up a high rock like a monument, which, perhaps, may have misled Burckhardt. Above this, in the rivers here, mussels and small shells are to be found, similar to those in the Nile, and much petrified wood.

This morning has come in the son of Mohammed Din, the great Sheik of the Haddenda; but the Pascha has again dismissed him, with the necessary orders to his father. Almost all the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb have fled from it, carrying off their herds, flocks, &c., so that nothing is to be got there, not even milk. In the rainy season there is much life and bustle on both sides of the river, as most of the Arabs from the lower and overflowed lands then gather up here, especially those of Sauachinn (Sauakim) and Kataref, when on both banks there are large fairs, much bartering, and considerable business is done by the greater merchants (chawagat, from chawagi) and the slave dealers (djellabi or haddaiba). Only a small stripe on the left bank is planted with cotton; all else is barren wilderness. All the birds have also retired from this neighbourhood, save cranes and vultures. The ants here cause much pain by their bites; they are black in colour, carry the hinder part of their bodies upright, and are most rapid in their movements. Ever at night a strong cold breeze gets up; and even during the day the cold winds raised a feeling of the Chamsin. Tobacco we have never seen on all our journey, and this accounts for the everlasting begging of the natives for it. Much thieving goes on in the open camp, and the soldiers sell many things under the rose to the inhabitants, especially durra, of which 2000 ardips out of the magazine have been issued to the army. To- morrow is to be a grand review, to dazzle and impose on the Sheiks present.

_1st April._—At two o’clock P.M., we were marched off in an easterly direction, and kept at it till three hours after sunset, without coming on the promised water. All level, good soil, little or no wood. Mimosas almost vanished; but, on the other hand, much Arrac or Tundo with its bright green, its small red flowers and branches, very similar to our roses, only with longer thorns and thicker more shrub-like stems, growing more closely together, and of greater circumference, but not a leaf; many Sammer trees also, the leaves of which contain no sap. On the dried grass covered plain, gazelles, antelopes, and hares abound. From the distance, the two hills of Herrerem with their grotesque blocks of rocks still looked after us. At dawn we were again on foot, and marched for two hours, till we struck the Atbara. Over the ground in all directions stretched long runs made by the heavy rains. Nowhere was man or beast to be seen; all seemed to have hidden themselves; the very flocks of birds visible on our arrival we instantly frightened away. Towards midday, many of the Sheiks who accompanied the camp assembled in our tent, but being Faki they did not smoke; they could not comprehend that our magnet-needle pointed ever to the north. The Hill of Kassela, now to the east of us, was some two hours distant: this was the end of our journey, at least for a time, as from thence the Pascha intended to carry out his conquests, and spoke of founding a city there.

About noon, when the heat was greatest, off went the great gun, the signal for marching. A mere quarter of an hour’s halt, as a rest towards evening, and then on for four hours longer. All were tired out, and not so much by the heat, which was bad enough, but by the hot wind, that threatened, on these immense level lands, to dry us up into mummies; and here the water-resembling Devil’s lakes (Bacher el Scheitan—the mirage) were constantly deceiving us. In these the trees were reflected as in clear water, although the soil is good, and not mere sand and stones, as in the Desert. The frontiers of Taka are very ill defined, but it was said that our camping-place was in that land, which seems to be remarkable for its thick grass overgrown pasturage.

_3rd April._—Two hours before sunrise the army was under arms, and in battle order pursued an eastward march, in which direction the hill of Kassela and the blue mountains of Abyssinia were plainly visible; but, as road there was none, the column of march soon fell into confusion. The soil was of a dark colour, and looked as if it had been rained on but yesterday, and this morning’s sun had called up on its surface a coating of slime of an inch thick. The durra fields still threw out fresh shoots from their ten feet high stems. To the left extended an impenetrable forest of uschar (Asklepias procera), which, with its fresh narcotic green, its verdant hues, and white violet-tinged flowers, was a most pleasing and refreshing sight. After a ride of some three hours, we arrived at a settlement of a Kabyle of Soggilabs, under the Sheik Haddab, some thirty mat huts, enclosed in a seriba (thorn-hedge); a little distance to the east many tents and some Tokuls showed over the green stalks. The larger village is called Soggilab, from the race of that name. A crowd of men, each with the lance or sword, dressed and frizzed out like the other Arabs, were assembled to gaze at us and receive the Pascha, but still no cattle were to be seen; it was plain enough they were all driven away. As far as eye could reach, all the ground was covered with a species of arborescent lucerne (loid) some five or six feet high, on which the camels feasted with delight. The richness of the soil is most evident, from the great luxuriance of all its herbage and shrubs; running water there is none, but the twenty or twenty-five feet deep wells give good drinking water in copious supply. Of such wells I counted forty-eight, which denotes a considerable population. There were many birds, especially pigeons; but, as usual, very shy. Both to-day and yesterday I had shot some hares, smaller and brighter in colour than ours, and with much larger ears. Many lions were said to be about, and we were warned to refrain from hunting. A great part of the bushes were fired and burnt down, to give open space round the camp, as the inhabitants of Soggilab were not to be trusted; and this conflagration made all so clear, that we did not require to kindle any lights at night.

_4th April._—To-day is a day of rest. Some horsemen from the village of Soggilab arrived to salute us; their horses, mostly stallions, were small, but of great speed, seemingly a cross of the Arab breed. The saddles small, and of wood; stirrups as ours, some having shoes fixed on them for the lance, as with our lancers. Our poor soldiers are without tents, having nothing to eat but belila, _i.e._ durra boiled in water, without salt or grease; even with us salt is scarce. Up to this date flesh has been served out but once. The Schaigies are ever the first, form the advance guard, and is any thing to be got, or any booty made, it falls of course to their share, as they are first in the field. Often at night thirty or forty of them in all secrecy quit the camp, surprising any village they can hit on, lay hands on all they can, and ere morning are again returned to the neighbourhood of the camp, and assume the demeanour of men bringing in their horses from pasturing.

_5th April._—Contrary to all hope, the signal gun awoke us to-day at dawn, calling on us to march, though we had fully trusted that this day would also be a halt. Ere long we joined the Pascha’s motley train, and found ourselves, along with other Europeans, mixed up among former kings, little and great Sheiks, and their armour-bearers, officers, scribes, and body-guards; and equally singular must we have appeared to the others as they to us. We wore over our Turkish dresses, loose wide blouses, with doubly padded hoods as a protection from the sun’s rays. Right and left surrounded us the wild crowd of Schaigies, on horseback; and little peace or concord was there among their horses and the timid camels and dromedaries; so that at length the Pascha ordered all riding the latter to move on in advance. We did so, and at once found ourselves in a thickly overgrown underwood, where the thorny mimosas ere long again raised their heads, putting our tarbooshes in much danger. Besides these, we observed tombu-bushes (hombuck), with rose-red round fruit, with a gelatinous sweet inside, about the size of a common gooseberry; high heaths, and _sammer_ of brightest green, as also a profusion of uschars overloaded with flowers, and great green seed pods.

The main road had been here and there widened by hewing away some of the trees, but it had already been taken by the cavalry and infantry on their asses; so we had to make our way through the thick close bush as well as we could. All was now indescribable confusion, and had the foe set on us here with their javelins, things would certainly have gone ill with us. We came, even in the bush, to some spots cleared by fire, probably for the cultivation of durra. After a good hour, the ground became more favourable, a halt was at last made, and some order restored to us. The soil here seemed excellent, all covered with grasses, and very deep two or three inch wide water runs intersecting it in all directions, plainly showing by these deep and wide excavations, how heavy the rain torrents must be here. The Pascha we found already encamped, in full security and utmost unconcern, while for a long time the forest kept throwing out his soldiery in beautiful disorder. Each took up his position as he pleased,—cavalry and camel-mounted infantry followed the example,—while a much longer tail of the ass-mounted came slowly creeping out of the defile. Our confidence in the Pascha’s generalship had been much shaken, and it now fell off much more at this sample of Turkish indolence, to which it never occurred to take any measures, or make any proper disposition of his forces.

On pursuing our march we came again to forest, but much opener, and we were now free from crowd and confusion; but from this all the more likely to fall a prey to the foe. Soon there stretched out before us a long wide field, full of numerous holes; these seemed, above, one and a half to two feet in diameter; but below, some four or six, with a depth of the same. They were pear-shaped, and said to be used by the natives to store their grain in. A town must once have been here. Before now we had observed such open spaces;—a sign that this fruitful stretch of land, on which we had now some days been marching, was at times inhabited in certain places by some nomade tribes; and we also remarked, especially at Soggilab, ditches and walls, though not of the most artful structure, to retain the rain water and guide it in irrigating the soil. The soil is lighter than that of the Nile, but covered with the same crust of some fine substance most similar to Nile slime, and must from its lightness be looked on as of vegetable origin; the more so as this is only to be found in the neighbourhood of the Atbara, and the deposit left by the rain floods from the mountains can only be looked for in their channels, or where such gather in the low grounds.

After a further march of three good hours we arrived at some wells, which, like those at Soggilab, ran in a line or course from south-east to north-west, and which might lead one to suspect a subterraneous river, or river bed, as here no great fall of the ground is to be seen. Near the wells were flocks of handsome birds, called Honey-birds (Nectarinia lucida); but they were soon frightened away by the numerous noises. Here were, as at Gos-Rajeb, and more so at Soggilab, many cotton fields; the Asclepias, also, again grew in full luxuriance, covered in greatest profusion with their pendant green air-bottles.

Achmet Pascha had galloped on in advance to look about him, and now off went a cannon as a signal for the army to encamp, or, rather, for each to throw himself down where he pleased. But soon, at my persuasion, came contrary orders; viz., to get clear of the bush, and encamp somewhat farther east, in the open ground. Now, again, all fell into somewhat better order. The infantry enclosed the camp towards the eastward woods; the cavalry faced the south; the Schaigies, Schukuries, and Magrabins the wells towards the west and north. Our two field-pieces were before the infantry; the few tents, along with the baggage camels and asses, were in the centre of our rather irregular square.

We brothers were just trying to gain some strength by a midday siesta, when some shots were fired, followed by a loud confused shouting of “_Arab, arab ketir!_” The Pascha at once threw himself on his horse, and, followed by all the mounted, galloped on, while the soldiery in the utmost confusion ran to the quarter where all looked for the “numberless enemy,” who had already three times defeated the Turks, and where about again to, or had risked an attack. We also loaded our rifles, buckled on our swords, and set out on our way, but had not advanced far in the thick underwood, when there advanced from it to meet us the so-called “Old Knight,” the Bischari Sheik Wood Naja, in full suit of armour, but his grey head bare, riding a most splendid black stallion, with tidings that it was only a magazine that had been discovered, where durra and lubia were stored in immense quantities, in the midst of numberless holes dug in the earth, belonging to the Haddenda Arabs, who had fled from hence only the night before, under their great Sheik Mohammed Din, into the Chaaba, making with all possible speed their way out of the Pascha’s reach, whose arrival they had not so soon expected. On the discovery of the corn a fight had arisen between the Turks and the row- loving Schaigies, our friends, the expert goat milkers, but of the enemy not one was to be seen. The Pascha had given orders that every one might help himself at will from the prize; and when we arrived at the spot, we found all in the fullest activity with hands, bayonets, spears, sabres, hooks, axes, sticks, groping in the pits; and as each found anything, in it went to sack, bag, or dress, and on horse, camel, or ass-back away off with it to camp; and left there, the finder was instantly back again to try his luck once more. The army might have been subsisted for over two months on this store of durra, although the Haddenda had before carried off all they could. Besides the grain, the soldiers found beans, wood, mats, supports for mat huts, and many such things. As we returned to camp, all the army were going to or coming from the plunder, and again we were in a critical state; but the Pascha trusted to his lucky star. The Sheiks, put in action by the false alarm, in their full iron panoplies, their swords in hand, and horses covered with ornamental saddlecloths, looked proudly and splendidly out among the thickly dusted and sweat drenched soldiery, laden like mill-asses. We ourselves got back to our huts as if drenched in water, but, in spite of the midday- sun’s heat, we were not there long ere we felt a thrill of frost all over our bodies.

_6th April._—All rejoiced that to-day was a day of rest. We learned we were in the neighbourhood of the now deserted tent-villages or camps of the Arabs of Issi and Teschum. The soldiers could now, by aid of their hand-mills (tachuhn), slowly grind their grain; and the Khaimakan, that they might not altogether want meat, did not fail, in his high humanity, to sell them for 60 paras the heads and entrails of every sheep he killed, probably thinking these were too small matters to make a present of. This generous man was the Circassian Sorop Effendi. But even while eating this meat, the purchaser had to keep an eye on his dearly won prize, as the numerous vultures, hawks, and ravens were daring enough to have carried it off from under his very nose, and these bold birds repeatedly succeeded in snatching the flesh away from its possessor, especially from the small slaves of eight and ten years old, a number of whom were in the camp. How these little beings held out under the great fatigues is to me incomprehensible, nor less did the soldiers’ power of endurance astonish me, as no arrangements or provisions were made for such as fell sick, neither tents for their reception nor attendants provided, and the medicines laid in were not sufficient for an eighth of them. We rejoiced that we had bought at Cairo a small travelling medicine chest; this had already done us good service in Chartum, and we had brought it with us: the Pascha also had a similar one with him for his own use, and lucky it was so, as all the medicines furnished by government were bad, and the quinine, here so necessary, fearfully adulterated. Although a breeze does occasionally blow here, and one may as much as he can shelter himself by branches, mats, cloaks, &c., from the sun’s rays, still the glowing heat will not long delay to make its unhealthy effects fearfully felt. The black soldiers have taken the wiser course, as many have been daily deserting, and the day before yesterday fifteen of them left us.

To-day the Sheik of the Hallenga, Mohammed Eli, has arrived to meet the Pascha. He looks a man of some forty years, is of stately, warrior-like bearing, with a noble expression of countenance; his hair, greyish about the temples, is there cut short, but long at the sides, and behind hangs down at its full length; he had by his side a small Turkish sabre, probably some present of honour, but most wisely had slung on his saddle behind him his more trusty long-sword. But Mohammed Din, the most dreaded of all, alone came not in; indeed, he has had the Pascha informed, that he will give such grain and beasts as are required, but he will not visit him. He had already, as I mentioned, sent his only son as an hostage to meet the Pascha at Soggilab, but the latter, either from generous pride or some other motive, in my own presence again dismissed him. As his not coming to meet the Pascha is not the most peacelike sign, Achmet has repeatedly warned us not to go far from the camp. Doubtless these Arabs, in larger numbers, lie hidden in the impenetrable bush, and that they know right well how to throw their javelins they have more than once shown. In the meantime the all undertaking and the all attacking Schaigies have to-day slain some of them, though in the skirmish many of themselves have been wounded.

On a large scale the Pascha cannot act against these people. Roads and ways there are none; rapidly do they pack up their all on camels, and with their herds, fly into the Chaaba, where to follow them with an army is impossible. Where will the Pascha procure the heavy expenses of his expedition, where will he pass the rainy season? These and others are questions, the answers to which even he himself has not yet arrived at. His plans he holds most secret, often says the contrary to what he intends, either to do, or not to do; but the truth is, he is without any well considered plan, and the doubtful reports of the Sheiks are not sufficient to let him clearly see the outs and ins, the why and wherefore, of his proceedings. That these Sheiks who have now come in so friendlike, or that those who have accompanied him on his march, can at heart wish well to the Turks, is not to be easily credited; they who before were independent, ruled over a free people, could act and do as they willed, are now deprived of all those privileges, treated with contempt by the stupid, proud Turks,—nay, even subjected to the bastinado, loaded with heavy taxes, and hardly enabled, from diminished revenue, to live, while formerly they fed thousands. Mohammed Din sees these lords’ lot, seems determined to preserve his freedom as long, and sell it as dear as he can, should things go ill for him. But if matters come to extremities, to war itself, setting the Pascha aside, where is there an able, even a tolerable leader? Abdin Aga, the commander of the Turkish cavalry, a puffed up Arnaut; Sorop Effendi, stupidity grafted on avarice; Hassan Effendi Bimbaschi, a quiet glutton; Solimon Aga, greedy and without all or any education; Hassan Effendi of Sennaar, a Turk in the true meaning of the word, commands the Infantry; Mohammed Ladjam, a good-humoured but inexperienced youth, leads the Mograbin horsemen: all these leaders are distinguished from one another, only by the one knowing less than his fellow. What can be expected from an army under such commanders, and more, when that army knows no discipline, and where its best and bravest, the Schaigies, do and ever have done how and what they pleased, and might at a critical moment ruin all? Joined with these are the endless mob of useless rabble, idlers, slaves, and strumpets, dangerous allies, a mere burden to any army, and a fearful impediment to its powers of action. But there is comfort in “Allah Cherim!”

_7th April._—To-day we were stationary, so could enjoy a small hunting excursion round the camp, during which we saw many large and small turtle-doves, crowds of guinea-fowl and partridges, and a perfect swarm of finches, but the variety of birds must be far greater in the rainy season. The thick bush is everywhere most green, everywhere bound together by square-limbed, cactus-like parasites and climbing plants, but thornless. From the earth in many places sprout out small grasses, and when it is kept in mind that from the thickness of the bush, the sun cannot exert its full withering powers, the idea of some subterraneous moisture is much strengthened, as the dew is perfectly insignificant. Stones we saw none.

The excursion did my brother no good, as, after his return to camp he felt extremely unwell, out of spirits, complained of insufferable headache, and burning heat. He had hardly lain down, when shouts of “Arab! Arab!” set all again in motion, and made all run to arms. At such a moment my brother would not even seem sick, so we hurried off to the wells, where we met the Pascha already returning with the cavalry. Some thirty thieving Arabs (Garami) had endeavoured to steal the beasts out of the asses’ pen, had thrown some lances over their guards heads, and these, though unharmed, had raised the shouts and tumult. The camp, as we, on going out of it, discovered, had neither pallisade, ditch, nor any defence towards the east. Enriched by this new proof of Turkish tactics, but unfortunately poorer by a handsome hunting-knife, which my brother lost on the way, we returned back to our tent.

_8th April._—During the past night, which we spent without rest, as my brother’s sufferings were much increased by violent vomiting, incessant thirst, fearful burning in the bowels, restless dozing, and delirious raving, there all at once arose a fearful noise and a little firing; in spite of it, I, however, remained in our hut, as my brother could not move, and the infantry did not stir, trusting to their cavalry comrades. Only when I saw the Bimbaschi Hassam Effendi lead his company past our hut, and commence, in his mad zeal, firing away over the powder barrels, as if he intended to use them as a defence against hostile lances, did I rush on him, sword in hand, and threaten him both with the weapon and the Pascha; on which the idiot recovered his senses, praying me not to betray him. The whole proved a false alarm, but the tormented Pascha had again started into activity, as he never made the slightest use of his aid-de-camps, and seemed to hold that his own presence was necessary to inspire his troops with courage. Some foes had, however, been brought down, as many traces of blood ran into the bush, although all the shots during the night had been fired on the happy-go-lucky principle. The tactics of our Napoleon-honouring Pascha went so far as to leave the wells, though some 200 paces from our camp, all night totally unguarded, and these might therefore have been with the greatest ease poisoned or filled up, by an enterprising enemy. A real piece of good luck it was for us that no large stones were to be had near to fill up these wells, as we had neither tools nor any means of removing such.

As a variety, the bands were ordered by the Pascha to perform; but a fearful punishment their music proved to our European ears, and how could it be otherwise, as no two instruments were in tune, nor was there aught to soften the banging of the brass instruments. The Turkish cavalry, as well as the Magrabin, have some few small kettle-drums of four inches in diameter, which are incessantly thumped, while the Schaigies of Melik Mammud had only one great copper drum, on which were struck single blows at long irregular intervals, at the performer’s pleasure.

_9th April._—The Arabs rest not; about midnight some slaves, having occasion to go to the wells, saw a crowd of them approaching, either with intent to fill up those by no means deep springs, which they ought already to have done, and which even now they could yet so easily have done, as, in spite of their high importance to the camp, their distance from it, and my urgent representations, that as usual were vain, these wells had been left all night without a guard,—or to attack the weaker side of the camp, make themselves masters of our supply of powder, or blow it and us into the air. That our whole store of powder was only guarded by a weak picquet of one sergeant and ten men, was doubtless well known to them, as well as the other arrangements of our camp, for they had many spies among the attendants of the Sheiks who accompanied us, and every day many Arabs were admitted to the camp, who brought for sale butter and honey, here very white and excellent. On this night alarm, a part of the infantry, without waiting for orders, had advanced to the wells, but the incompetency of their leaders had here again done wrong, as the Pascha immediately sent them back again. The guard over the powder store had also quitted their post to take part in the dearly loved firing, and what was yet worse, a Bimbaschi had posted himself and party close beside this powder, and set his men firing right over it towards the wells, though on that side it was totally without any protecting covering, even such as a few branches or sods of turf might have given it, and by his doings threatened death and destruction to all. Fortunately, the Pascha soon observed both these stupid tricks, and instantly replaced the guard over the powder, forbidding all firing near it; if he went a little farther, and made a small example of the offenders, we cannot say but it would certainly have been well. I now see every day more clearly, that if I would gain any point with the Pascha, I must not give him direct advice; and that by doing so, I also expose myself to be used as intercessor with him by his officers, when they wish any of their own numerous wants, or those of their men, attended to.

The Arabs had instantly retreated after the first firing, though not without loss, as some dead men were found near and about the wells; so it was boldly asserted, that their loss was not less than the round sum of sixty men, and certainly there were many more bloody traces running into the bush than yesterday. That during the skirmish some of our own men were killed and wounded by their comrades, we cannot state as fact, but it is highly probable it was so, as our people shot in any direction they fancied, and so, during future night attacks, we being more alarmed for our friends’ fire than our foe’s lances, resolved to remain quietly in our tents, and this we did even after my brother was perfectly recovered.

The blacks do not seem at all to admire the business, for with them desertion is the daily order of things, and they are in the right; the soldiers are miserably off for food, they get nothing but belila (durra boiled in water, without aught else), and the water must be allowed to stand and filter for twelve hours ere it can be drunk, so dirty is it. But the most dreadful plague is the intolerable heat, and this is doubly torturing from a hot wind, like a simoon, which suddenly fills the air with a fine sand that produces itching eruptions on the skin.

Chap. IV.

A Turkish Camp. — Mohammed Din. — Negroes. — Egyptian Apothecaries. — Tribute. — Nile Expedition. — Monsieur Thibaut. — Diseases. — Natives’ Self-Admiration. — An Adventurer. — Madame Vigoureux.

_11th April._—At last we are again in motion, having started at mid-day, a comfortable hour truly for both man and beast; my brother so weak he could hardly sit on his camel. In the bush we again saw the marks of burning, but the effect was here trifling. After half an hour we reached open ground, where the Pascha, as was his custom, lay down under some trees, and concerned himself not as to what might happen to the rest. There he remained upwards of an hour, awaiting the enemy, as it was said, but none appeared, though Mohammed Din had threatened something of the kind, asserting he was resolved to die, as the Pascha would give him no aman (pardon or quarter). At three o’clock the army were allowed to form their camp, while the Pascha rode out right and left reconnoitring, advancing on till he came to an endless durra field, yet green, but no water was hit on. The Schaigies had to accompany him, and, alas! we also, though half dead from the dust and wind.

_12th April._—Yesterday’s ride has told. I have almost all night long had violent fever, with nervous convulsions; my brother escaped no better, and we passed all night in delirious dreaming, unable to aid each other. It was a mad conversation. When I had an easier moment, and somewhat recovered my senses, I heard Joseph talking away in all languages, but not to me; when he had a lucid minute, then his case was mine, mine his. To-day we mutually joked each other, but a sorry jest it was, nor could we hide from each other our mutual fears for each other’s life. Two nights before I had been slightly delirious. What can courage or heart do without health or intellect? In the morning the Pascha sent the cavalry on to some wells that the Schaigies, with keen scent, had smelt out, not far off, behind the durra fields. Ere long, he, leaving camp and baggage without any covering force, set forward himself to have these wells opened, as they had been filled up. Again at mid-day, in the most fearful heat, came the order for the camp to follow him; but no one troubled their heads as to any regular order, or protective measures during its advance. My brother gazed in alarm on me, as, besides other bad symptoms, my tongue had become brown; we wound our long white shawls turbanlike round our heads, and placed our hoods over them, as some protection against the sun’s scorching rays. We rode almost an hour in a track running through immense fields of exceedingly high durra, here and there intersected by rows of trees; the soil all along seemed exceedingly good, and everywhere the Arabs had most neatly led runs for irrigation. On arriving in camp, we found some dozen wells had been cleared out, and for each so cleared, the soldiers won fifty paras; but now all were in full work, forming with trees and thorns an inclosure round the camp. Mohammed Ladjam sent us a curious scorpion,—pity it was so much injured; it was almost two fingers in length, black-brown in colour, tail and feet covered with thorn-like hairs, and nippers as large as those of a small crab. The Pascha stated that he had seen one in Hedschas, though somewhat less, with a double sting.

Axes were issued out to the troops, but such axes!—one finger’s length long, and two broad! It is certainly a most amusing scene to watch a Turkish camp being pitched. All run against and through each other, men, camels, horses, asses, all mixed and mingling, each chooses out the spot that suits him best, there plants himself and beast, without the slightest heed being paid to forming divisions or leaving passages. We threw ourselves down under a green tree near a cotton plantation, while our servants unloaded our camels, pitched our tent, &c., and from under our carpets, over my legs and my brother’s face, out hurried and made off, a snake some six feet long. Astonished we indeed were, but too wearied to move, and remained calmly reposing, though ere long the very same snake, having been killed by the attendants of the Sheik Defalla, was brought back to us. After a time one becomes careless as to scorpions and other such reptiles. The Pascha had also hit on a shady tree, but had not allowed his tent to be set up, which led me to fancy he expected an attack, when his tent would have pointed out his whereabouts to the foe. About evening we struck our own, and for the same wise reasons as had prevented the Pascha’s being erected. But the tent of the Kaimakan Sorop Effendi had to remain up, to pass, in the enemy’s eye, for the Pascha’s, although it was not fifty paces from the tree under which the latter had settled himself.

_13th April._—The country where we now are, is called El Gash, from the Gohr of like name; the nearest village is one named Aronga. All over our camping ground are now built bower-like huts, of branches and fresh green durra straw; these, called Recubas, are far cooler and pleasanter than tents. From the hut of our herculean neighbour, Mohammed Defalla, crept about mid-day, a snake like that of yesterday: it was, too, soon killed, and measured six feet two inches; they called it an assala (Python Sebæ); about the same hour came into camp, with six hundred dromedaries and seventy horses, Abu Sin, the great Sheik of the Schukurie. The Pascha had gone out to meet him, with all the cavalry and regimental bands. Abu Sin is a handsome large man, with noble countenance, and his character is described by all as vigorous, able, and generous.

_14th April._—It is certainly, as usual, excessively warm, but the air here seems better and purer than at any of our former camping places; the same may also be said of the water, which, though drank in large quantities, has no ill effect. Serpents are brought us daily, but generally so much injured as not to be fit for stuffing. After much negotiation, there arrived to-day the much talked of and feared great Sheik, Mohammed Din, with a pretty numerous train, and dismounted at the hut of our neighbour, Sheik Defalla, who had ridden out to meet him on his great war horse. Greatly was our curiosity aroused to behold this so famed man, the defeater of the Turks under Churschid Pascha; but far greater was that of the soldiery, who, with unblushing boldness, pressed into the tents, although most assuredly, ere now, many of them had trembled before him. All were satisfied, and went away from gazing at him gladdened and rejoicing. Mohammed Din is of middle size, black-brown like all his race; at first sight his face says little, but more closely examined, one sees in it much cunning; his head, bald on the crown, is uncovered, his dress Arab, but his trowsers of fine red cloth. The Pascha well sees the importance of the moment, and excuses himself from receiving him under plea of illness, but appoints this morning for an audience. The train of Mohammed Din most truly consists of a parcel of most unmitigated looking rascals, and it really does seem as if nature had stamped on the faces of these Haddenda the faithless character ascribed by all to the race. All are above the middle size, and armed with shields and lance or sword.

_15th April._—This morning we beheld the Effendina sitting on the throne of his angareb, while on both sides of it stood on the ground, in solemn silence, many Sheiks, and among them the great Mohammed Din, who seemed in deep thought, and gazed as if much humbled on the earth before him. Much cause he has indeed to muse, to reflect on his venturous step, for he has walked into the net, a lion in the toils, and our friend the Pascha seemed resolved to let him feel it was so; only after a time did he present him with the dress of honour, a red shawl and tarboosch as turban, an under dress, and purple mantle with gold buttons and tassels, but the sabre that generally accompanies the dress was not given, and this is held as a bad sign. Mohammed Din promised to send presents of cows and sheep to the camp, and next day rode away with his followers. A number of snakes were this day slain, many soldiers having been bitten by such reptiles. In spite of the friendship entered into with Mohammed Din, the Haddenda still hover round the camp stealing the camels.

_17th April._—Mohammed Din has arrived with a present of two hundred cattle and two hundred sheep. All pots and pans are sought out with smiling faces, although the great men have appropriated the lion’s share of the prey to themselves. Mussa, the twelve year old son of Mohammed Din, paid us a visit in our recuba; he has a negro cast of features, wore heavy gold rings in his ears, and coloured silk trowsers. He showed no curiosity, nor did his mental faculties seem to have been cultivated; he could not talk Arabic, only his own Aggem. A great stretch of the woods is on fire, how or why no one knows, such things are matters of indifference to the Turks.

_19th April._—To-night it has rained, a curious occurrence here at this season of the year; from this the air is somewhat cooler, the breeze for the first time refreshing. Mohammed Din has again departed to bring in a part of the tribute laid on his tribe; he wore the same dress as at first, with the white handkerchief the Pascha had given him as sign of pardon, tied round his neck. Poor man! what will this sign of peace avail you? Melek Mammud accompanies him with his Schaigies. He took a mysterious farewell of us, inviting us to visit him, and become acquainted with yonder country. This daring leader of Schaigies seems to have received some secret instructions as regards Mohammed Din, but how far his men may follow them seems doubtful, as they are all for war and nothing else.

_22nd April._—Mohammed Din has again returned, but tulba, (tribute) he has brought none; so to-day all the Sheiks have been warned, that only one month’s time will be allowed for them to bring in their contributions, and in that time it must unfailingly be done. We, brothers, are in the meantime laid daily under contributions by these Arabs, for their much loved aragi (properly araki, from _arak_, sweet, a kind of brandy made from lees of wine or from rice). Not a little were we at first astonished at their coolness, nay, barefaced impudence, in their asking and begging for all that pleased them, while it never occurs to any one of them to make the slightest return on their side, and any little courtesy these men do deign to display, is only when they hope to gain a special advantage by it. My brother has long ere now attended professionally on many of the Sheiks, furnishing them with medicines from our own store, and now, in their own land, it is almost impossible to procure milk, honey, or even a fat sheep, though all of these they have in abundance. To-day we have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the great Sheik (Sheik Kebir), of the tribe of Beni- Amer, between Habesch, the Red Sea, and the country of the Haddenda; but he must pardon us if we style him Pecus campi, and express our surprise how he can be held in any respect or estimation whatever, even by his own race. He is great, powerful, rich in camels, horses, cattle; in constant barter-trading with Habesch, and therefore has to pay a heavy tribute. The uncle of the Scheik, a very aged man, is of true herculean figure, but rather stout. My brother cured him of a disease in the leg, and, as his fee, had also to give him some bottles of aragi. He is still, though very old, with white hair and limping, a wild fellow, and an old lance is never out of his hand. If by chance he has drunk too much aragi or merissa, no very rare occurrence and sees a handsome horse or camel (in his own land), he at once asks for it, and if the Arab owner does not immediately comply, away goes the old lance through him. For his ferocity and strength all fear him; these, and his colossal figure, such as is seldom seen in this land, have gained him the name of Fill (Elephant).

It is singular, that with the strong bodies that both Negroes and Arabs here possess, none have any calves to their legs—neither man, nor woman. In the Negresses especially, as also in most of the women of Bellad- Sudan, the posteriors and thighs are much developed, but the under part of the legs are like sticks. None can boast of finer arms than these races, the women’s full and round, with well-turned elbows, and small delicate hands, the men’s strong and muscular, the breast high and arched. Truly beautiful are the bosoms of the young maidens, and of the women who have not yet borne children; small and most symmetrical in form, hard as stone to the touch, the nipples generally pointing outwards, and in such an erect state, that not rarely the firda is worn through in front by them. But, alas! alas! for these beautiful bosoms after a single child-birth! During child-bearing these are swollen, often to double their former size, and after the child has been long suckled, or at the end of that business, one sees on the youngest and prettiest wives, long empty breasts hanging down to the belly, which, from their smoothness, limpness, and many folds, resemble two long empty tobacco pouches, or, if one likes it better, two pieces of skin laid flat on each other. These repulsive looking bags they always leave bare and exposed to view, without the slightest blush, and it seems that here men’s ideas of beauty in a woman do not depend at all on this part of the female form, but include all in her _facultates occultæ_. After the first child-bearing, the abdomen, before so delicately arched, is disfigured by knobs and wrinkles, to an extent that as far as my brother’s medical experience went, he had never known common among white women; and this appearance among the women of these races, plainly declared, that they marry and bear children ere their bodies are fully matured. Nothing arrives at such sound maturity in these warm climes, where all develops itself so infinitely quicker than in cooler lands, and this rapid development, especially during child-bearing,—an epoch of evolution, which even with our matured women forces the body into all fulness of bloom,—works doubly injuriously on these half-matured girl- mothers. Nature and bodily power have both been overtasked; then comes the long suckling, the exclusive conversion of the small supply of nourishment to the use of the child, at the expense of the mother’s body, which afterwards cannot recover its exhausted powers, or gather sufficient strength to return to its former state. The extension of the skin and enlargement of the vessels are too sudden and rapid for the diminished powers of contraction to bring them back to a normal state; and herein lies, aided by the ever bad food, the continued consumption of vital power, which evidently, in every warm climate, produces that rapid advent of old age and ugliness among the women, as is only too plainly the case, even among the boasted beauties of Greece and Circassia.

As an exception, and perhaps from a feeling of good neighbourhood, the Sheik Defalla sent us to-day some sweet milk, but it had already been drawn some two hours, was firm, and in this state tasted well here, though it had neither the slight sourness, refreshing flavour, nor slight coating of cream, like our fresh milk, but a much sweeter taste. So rapidly and inexplicably does each change of health and body go on here, that at noon to-day both myself and brother were well again, and eat with excellent appetites; but after a short siesta which we took (when our meal was over), I awoke with strong fever, without being able in the most distant way to account for it. The great difference of temperature between day and night has, however, brought catarrhs and coughs on one-half the inmates of our camp, although it has hardly gone so far as to reach ague or intermittent fevers in any; but, on the other hand, syphilis prevails among the soldiers, as is most commonly the case. The Pascha to-day told us that in a weak battalion at Wollet Medine, 250 men suffered under this disease. Our cavalry, as well as the Schaigies and artillery, are ill off when sickness attacks any of them, as they have neither surgeon, medicine, nor hospital; and when my brother cannot prevail upon himself to leave them totally without medicine, he is compelled to prescribe it as if for some man of the infantry. The medicines for such stranger Sheiks as fall ill, are charged to the Pascha’s account. He has now at length finally settled with these Sheiks their tulba or contributions, and they to-day all set out, to proceed to their countries beyond the Beni Amer, to collect it. Some take small guards of twenty or thirty soldiers with them, thus to give more weight in their own lands to their demands, as there hatred against the Turks is united to Arab innate greed and avarice. Some few single Arabs still prowl about our camp, and it is therefore dangerous to send out the camels to feed, as they steal the beasts, or take them by violence from their keepers, when the latter are asleep or alone.

There have already been many establishments set up for the sale of merissa; the blacks seem totally unable to exist without this noble drink, or perhaps they would, by copious libations of it, repay their throats for swallowing the horrible mixtures which, during illness, the field apothecaries force them to take under the name of medicines. It is most scandalous to see how the Egyptian druggists, without exception, cheat government. Not only do they embezzle all linen furnished for hospital uses, to dress their own servants out with it, but they themselves use all the sugar intended for the sick, sell the medicines clandestinely, and have carried this so far with the here so all- necessary quinine and spiritus wucher, as to have none left, and now do not blush to manufacture false trash to issue in their stead. Ill it must go with them if any change of rule in Egypt causes a sharper eye to be kept on their doings; and among all of them in the Egyptian employ, there are not three who could pass the slightest medical examination of any European College of Surgeons. And where is the wonder it is so, as they are mostly a kind of wholesale, sham production, from the manufactory of Mr. Clot Bey, who, as _Chef du conseil général de santé_, can, in three months under him in Cairo, form out of common artisans skilful medical men, as was the case of the apothecary under my brother, who had before been a working goldsmith in Cairo; and of another of these _medicos_, whom I had known before as an honest knight of the thimble. As a matter of course, such men as these were ever going wrong and committing the most fearful blunders; but as for money-making, “_per fas et nefas_,” they were more expert, and follow ably the example set them by all the higher officials. Often did these gentry seek to make money in an allowed but most degrading way, and among others Gaetani Bey, the private surgeon of Mohammed Ali, who in Faszogl sold at enormous prices, with his own Bey’s hands, false pearls, large and small, to the negroes, and cheated them in the counting too. No one would credit the roguery and cheating that went on in the _conseil général de santé_ itself, who was not well acquainted with the state of things in Egypt; but all formed themselves after the example of their great master, and from him down to the lowest _employé_ of his department, runs a firmly-linked chain of like-minded and like-acting officials.

Already are the new branding-irons fabricated by Topschi Baschi, all in readiness to mark the expected contributions of camels, horses, cattle, cotton goods, &c.; and also two iron stars have been made—horrible barbarity!—for branding the new-made slaves. Our greatest plague is again the fearful heat, especially at noon and in the afternoon; one is ever in a constant sweat, even when sitting perfectly quiet, and everything is now wanting that could contribute to the commonest wants or enjoyments. Our Arabs are equally great admirers of tobacco as of onions, but in Taka there is as little of the one as the other, and not a single date is to be got, as here no date trees are known. Myself and brother would only too gladly advance farther into the country, and so become more closely acquainted with it, and its inhabitants, their manners, and way of life; but with one voice all counsel us, as we regard our own heads, to await a more suitable time. No great friendship does, in truth, seem to exist between the inmates of the camp and the natives, as never are any of the tribe of the Haddenda seen inside our fence, although these have retired no further into the Chaaba than some two hours’ journey from hence; but well do the measures of precaution, daily taken, show the light in which these people are viewed. Not only, every night, do the Turkish cavalry, Schaigies, and Magrabins bivouack outside the main camp and keep strict watch, but the infantry also place strong guards at the thorn bulwark, one half of this force being under arms before, the other after midnight. Most nights the Pascha himself goes, with his rabut, patrolling, and this, wielded by no light hand, plays all night, not on the soldiers’ backs alone, but on the officers also, when anything is found out of order. Doubtless, all this is most necessary, for leaders as well as soldiers are just the men to sleep all night long, and leave it to “Allah kerim” whether the enemy are to surprise them or not.

These bivouacks were not without their accidents. During one a Magrabin’s musket burst in his hands, and not only was the inside of one hand carried away, but part of the fore-arm shot off, and so lacerated, that most of the bones and sinews were laid bare and torn. As another surgeon wished to amputate at once, the Sheik Selim brought him to my brother: he put it to rights as far as he could, sewed up and plastered it, ordering constant cold bandagings, though he had little hopes of the lacerated parts uniting, as the accident happened yesterday, though the wounded man only came to him to-day at noon. When Joseph visited him this evening, no cold applications had been used; the patient fancied he must eat first, and as he had no food of his own, thought we might, perhaps, send him some;—a pleasant reward to my brother for all the pains he had already taken about him, and for which he had not received even a single word of thanks from any party.

A considerable number of the soldiers have been sent out to hasten the bringing in of the tribute, as in their presence each Scheik makes greater exertions, and it is possible they may pick up some knowledge of his country. We now at length discovered that each tribe under tulba pays 20 piastres each male (children not counted), and a tenth of all beasts and produce of all kinds. This tribute is not great, but still it will be heavily felt, and difficult to raise in those lands, where all trade is carried on by barter against cotton cloths. What taxes these tribes may have hereafter to pay, when the Turks find they have a firmer footing in the land, time will show.

After the Pascha had again to-day called his most devoted follower, the Major of Kordafan and Sennaar, an ass, complaining that everything fell on his own shoulders, he turned to me, and with much seeming satisfaction told me that the exploring expedition had returned from the White Nile, having traced that river for 600 miles upwards from Chartum. Now, this is either a great error or a great falsehood; nor can I resist the inclination I feel to investigate how far the Pascha’s favourite epithet may not apply to the leader of this expedition.

The chief commander of it, and general of its 400 soldiers, was Soliman Kaschef, of Karreri, a countryman and friend of the Pascha, who had sent him on this expedition to look after his interests, and have a special eye on Selim-Capitan, sent from Alexandria as chief leader. Men call Solim