FOOTNOTES
[1] Burckhardt gives the following account of the same custom, in his travels in Nubia: “In two hours and a half we came to a plain on the top of the mountain called Akabet el Benat, the Rocks of the Girls. Here the Arabs who serve as guides through these mountains have devised a singular mode of extorting presents from the traveller; they alight at certain spots in the Akabet el Benat, and beg a present; if it is refused, they collect a heap of sand, and mould it into the form of a diminutive tomb, and then placing a stone at each of the extremities, they apprise the traveller that his tomb is made; meaning, that henceforward, there will be no security for him, in this rocky wilderness. Most persons pay a trifling contribution, rather than have their graves made before their eyes; there were, however, several tombs of this description dispersed over the plain.”
[2] The following record of the temperature, from the time of leaving Korosko to the date of the accident which deprived me of the thermometer, is interesting, as it shows a variation fully equal to that of our own climate:
| 7 A. M. | 12 M. | 2 P. M. | |||
| Korosko, | Dec. 21st | 59° | 75° | 80° | |
| Desert, | ” 22 | 50° | 74° | 80° | |
| ” | ” 23 | 55° | 75° | (Bahr bela Ma) | 85° |
| ” | ” 24 | 51° | 70° | 78° | |
| ” | ” 25 | 54° | 78° | 85° | |
| ” | ” 26 | 60° | 91° | 100° | |
| ” | ” 27 | 55° | — | 95° | |
| ” | ” 28 | 59° | — | 90° | |
| Abou-Hammed | ” 29 | 61° | — | 90° | |
| The Nile | ” 30 | 59° | — | 85° | |
| ” | ” 31 | 52° | 78° | 84° | |
| ” | Jan. 1st, 1852 | 47° | 70° | 68° |
[3] In the Letters of Lepsius, which were not published until after my return from Africa, I find the following passage, the truth of which is supported by all the evidence we possess: “The Ethiopian name comprehended much that was dissimilar, among the ancients. The ancient population of the whole Nile Valley as far as Khartoum, and perhaps, also, along the Blue River, as well as the tribes of the Desert to the east of the Nile, and the Abyssinian nations, were in former times probably even more distinctly separated from the negroes than now, and belonged to the Caucasian Race.”
[4] Capt. Peel, who measured the volume of water in the two rivers, gives the following result: Breadth of the Blue Nile at Khartoum, 768 yards; average depth, 16.11 feet; average current, 1.564 knots; volume of water, 5,820,600 cubic feet per minute. Breadth of the White Nile, immediately above the junction, 483 yards; average depth, 13.92 feet; average current, 1.47 knots; volume of water, 2,985,400 feet per minute. Breadth of the Nile below the junction, 1107 yards; average depth, 14.38 feet; average current, 2 knots; volume of water, 9,526,700 cubic feet per minute. This measurement was made in the latter part of October, 1851. It can hardly be considered conclusive, as during the preceding summer the rains had been unusually heavy in the mountains of Abyssinia, which may have occasioned a greater disproportion than usual, in the volume of the two rivers.
[5] July, 1854.
[6] Dr. Constantine Reitz died about a year after my departure from Soudân, from the effects of the climate. He had been ill for some months, and while making a journey to Kordofan, felt himself growing worse so rapidly that he returned to Khartoum, where he expired in a few days. He was about thirty-three years of age, and his many acquirements, joined to a character of singular energy and persistence, had led his friends to hope for important results from his residence in Central Africa. With manners of great brusqueness and eccentricity, his generosity was unbounded, and this, combined with his intrepidity and his skill as a horseman and a hunter, made him a general favorite with the Arab chieftains of Ethiopia, whose cause he was always ready to advocate, against the oppressive measures of the Egyptian Government. It will always be a source of satisfaction to the author, that, in passing through Germany in September, 1852, he visited the parents of Dr. Reitz, whose father is a Forstmeister, or Inspector of Forests, near Darmstadt. The joy which they exhibited on hearing from their son through one who had so recently seen him, was mixed with sadness as they expressed the fear that they would never see him again—a fear, alas! too soon realized.
[7] I give the following translations of these two songs, as nearly literal as possible:
I.
Look at me with your eyes, O gazelle, O gazelle! The blossom of your cheeks is dear to me; your breasts burst the silk of your vest; I cannot loose the shawl about your waist; it sinks into your soft waist. Who possesses you is blessed by heaven. Look at me with your eyes, O gazelle, O gazelle! Your forehead is like the moon; your face is fairer than all the flowers of the garden; your bed is of diamonds; he is richer than a King who can sleep thereon. Look at me with your eyes, O gazelle, O gazelle!
II.
O night, O night—O darling, I lie on the sands. I languish for the light of your face; if you do not have pity on me, I shall die.
O night, O night—O darling, I lie on the sands. I have changed color from my longing and my sorrow; you only can restore me, O my darling.
O night, O night—O darling, I lie on the sands. O darling, take me in: give me a place by your side, or I must go back wretched to my own country.
Transcriber’s Note: Map is clickable for a larger version.
MAP OF THE COURSE OF THE NILE AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES
