FOOTNOTES:
[1]Volney has considered the walls of Alexandria as of antient structure. But D’Anville had before rejected that idea, and the fragments of columns, &c. worked into the masonry, shew that he is right.
[2]Now supposed to have been erected in honour of Severus.
[3]There happened a plague in 1796, which it is said carried off one half of the inhabitants. This estimate is possibly exaggerated; but no doubt it thinned them much; so that at present they cannot be near so numerous.
[4]Hirtius, Bell. Alex. prope init.
[5]The miles spoken of are always geographical.
[6]See Major Rennel’s map.
[7]D’Anville with equal probability supposes Siwa to be Mareotis.
[8]The water in the river between Terané and Kahira was so shallow, that with a very small boat (Canjia) we had great difficulty in passing.
[9]The condition of slave is so very distinct in Egypt from what it is in other countries, that they who defend the practice of trading in human flesh by its antiquity, and the general consent of nations, should be well aware how they adduce the example of Egypt.—In Kahira, when a slave is legally purchased in the market, if after any length of time he feel discontented with his master, has only to say, “Carry me to the market,” (Sûk-es Sultân,) and the master is legally compellable to offer him for sale.
It can never be believed, that where a power so absolute as that of the proprietor over his slave, is supported by the sanctions of law, that no abuses of it should exist; but this single privilege greatly softens its asperity.
The child of a female slave, begotten by her master, is ipso facto free, and a slave may authorize a free person to purchase his emancipation.
[10]The Mamlûks suffer not the beard to grow till they be emancipated, and hold some office, as Cashef, &c.—A similar practice obtains among the Osmanli. The Ytch oghlans, though free in their persons, yet exercising a kind of servitude, shave the beard: so that though it be not absolutely the mark of a slave, the want of a beard seems to denote a dependent situation. Among the Osmanli, (European Turks) the beard is allowed to grow rather in conformity to the precept and practice of the Prophet, than as a national fashion. The Tatars wear no beard; and the Arabs alone shew great respect to that ornament.
[11]The two last offices are annual.
[12]The patacke may be rated at from three shillings to three and four-pence. The foddân is a given measure, taking its name from the quantity that a yoke of oxen can plough in a day, roughly taken, equivalent to an acre.
[13]English edit. p. 188.
[14]The length may be estimated at about three thousand five hundred yards.
[15]The city is still infested with the usual herds of dogs, and the kites still shriek wildly over the canal; while the turtle-doves, unmolested by men or children, breed in the houses, building their nests under the projecting beams.
[16]Histoire de l’Afrique, et de l’Espagne sous la domination des Arabes; composée sur differens Manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliotheque du Roi, par M. Cardonne, &c. Paris 1765, 3 tomes 12mo. It is to be regretted that the learned author did not divide his work into epochs and chapters, and particularly separate the history of Africa from that of Spain.
[17]Vol. ix. p. 448-466, 8vo.
[18]Their authority did not extend over the ancient Mauritania. The Edrissite dynasty ruled Ceuta, Fez, Tangier, &c. Fez was built by them in 788.
[19]The power of the Chalîfs, successors of Mohammed, had fallen about the middle of the eleventh century. The Turks, a Tataric nation, seized Iconium, and most of Asia Minor, about 1074. Twenty years after, Aleppo and Damascus became separate sovereignties under the grandsons of Elf Arslân; the former city had been long subject to the Chalîfs of Egypt.
[20]This expedition remains in considerable obscurity, though it may be regarded as the last dying spark of the crusades, as the adventurers seem to have been of several nations. Fordun, Scotichr. vol. ii. p. 488, mentions Norman Lesley, his countryman, as a prime actor. There was an old Scottish poem on the feats of Sir Walter, his brother, Duke of Leygaroch in France. Ibid. and Maitland’s Poems.
[21]This place takes its name from the tomb of a Christian ecclesiastic, called Ammon-el-abed, or the devout; its other name is Ensené, evidently from that of Antinous.
[22]The remainder might be easily copied, but circumstances did not then permit me to give the time necessary for that purpose.
[23]That custom is still retained at Damiatt, notwithstanding the purer precepts of Islamism.
[24]They sell the males, and themselves generally mount mares in their warlike expeditions.
[25]Now Geziret-es-Sag, Claustra Imperii Romani. Tac.
[26]A place where the troops are exercised, and rencontres between opposing parties frequently have had place.
[27]Populorum Africæ vocabula plerumque ineffabilia, præterquam ipsorum linguis. Pliny.
[28]The best idea of the Sphinx seems to be that of Maillet, who supposes it an emblem of the increase of the Nile under the signs of Leo and Virgo.
[29]Pococke, vol. i. p. 56. conceives this place to have received its name from the Greek word Ταμιέια, there having been a kind of lock there to restrain or let loose the water in the canal which passes by it.
[30]Parallel to this is a narrow cut, called Bahr Yussuf, which runs into the Birket-Kerûn.
[31]Τὸν Μῖνα πρῶτον βασιλέυσαντα Ἀιγύπτου, ὁι ἱερέες ἔλεγον τοῦτον μὲν ἀπογεφυρῶσαι καὶ τὴν Μέμφιν. Herodot.
Of the fact of Memphis having been surrounded by water, some evidences appear even at this day. Parts of the banks of the canal yet are visible toward the mountains, and at the extremities of the ground, where ruins are distinguishable.
[32]Soudân in Arabic corresponds to our Nigritia, merely general words for the country of the blacks.
[33]In passing the desert, partly from want of water, partly from being overloaded, (these animals being then scarce and dear in Egypt,) so many camels died, that several merchants of the caravan were obliged to bury their goods in the sand near Selimé, whither they afterwards sent for them.
[34]The Mahréa Arabs have the art of making wicker baskets, of so close a texture, that they carry in them milk, water, bouza. Much of the earthen ware made by the people of Dar-Fûr is glazed, I know not with what composition.
[35]A fermented liquor, called Bûza or Merîsi.
[36]By the law of the Prophet, any illicit connexion with the female slave of another makes the person guilty responsible for her value to the owner. Thus the personal injury is expiated. The public offence of Zinna, whoredom, incurs a punishment varying according to the character and circumstances of the offender; but the positive testimony of four witnesses is necessary to establish this fact.
[37]A female slave.
[38]It is not usual with Mohammedans to eat meat in such a state. It is reported in Soudan, I know not how truly, that the Leopard, after he has seized his prey, leaves it till it become putrid before he eats of it.
[39]Here is one among many instances of tacit submission to the authority of the head of a tribe, though unfurnished with any express deputation from the government.
[40]Sultan Teraub used always to reside at Rîl, but the present monarch, or usurper, is induced by his fears to wander from place to place. The first place I saw him at was Heglig; the next was Tini; the third was Tendelti, where he passed about a year.
[41]The Fûrians, it may be remarked, distinguish the South part of their empire by this term, as well as the Egyptians.
[42]On the East of Fûr there is a particular tribe of Arabs, who curl their hair, as it were, in a bushy wig, resembling that of the antient figures in the ruins of Persepolis. It is probable that many fragments of antient nations may be found in the interior of Africa. Carthaginians expelled by the Romans, Vandals by Belisarius, &c. &c.
[43]In the market held at Cobbé, there are slaughtered ordinarily from ten to fifteen oxen, and from forty to sixty sheep; but all the villages, six or eight miles round, are thence supplied.
It is usual for the people of the town to lay in their annual stock of grain when cheapest, which is commonly about the month of December. At that time two, sometimes three mids (pecks) of millet (Dokn) may be had for a string of beads, worth about one penny sterling in Kahira.
[44]Fruit of India.
[45]Season of the rains.
[46]I remember to have borrowed, while at Damascus, a small quarto volume, written in easy Arabic, without either title or conclusion, which contained a kind of history of the progress of the (ashab) early propagators of Mohammedism, and which enumerated, if I mistake not, a tribe under the denomination of Fûr فور among their adversaries, after the taking of Bahnesé in Middle Egypt, and their consequent invasion of the more Southern provinces.
[47]If but a small quantity of rain fall, the agricultors are reduced to great distress; and it happened, about seven years before my arrival, that many people were obliged to eat the young branches of trees pounded in a mortar.
[48]The inhabitants of a village called Bernoo, having quarrelled with those of another hamlet, and some having been killed on both sides, all the property of both villages was forfeited to the king, the inhabitants being abandoned to poverty.
[49]About a century and a half ago.
[50]A great tribute is also paid in butter.
[51]Thummara Hindi means simply Fruit of India, not date, as insinuated by the learned author of the Botanical Observations, in Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 250.
[52]This is observable in many of the slaves. They seem to esteem it a beauty. In filing the teeth, they also force the gums from them, to make them appear longer: the teeth in this case suffer discoloration, but do not appear to undergo a consequent decay.
[53]Qui Africæ aut Asiæ plagis peragratis, primi hunc exsecandi morem Occidentalibus narravere auctores, ab ore incolarum re acceptâ, et novitate ejus perculsi, de modo excisionis toto cælo errare solent, nymphas exsecari perhibentes: prorsus ineptè quidem, sed septâ pudicitiâ vitam agentibus, nunquam illis nudam vel è longinquo vidisse, multo minùs muliebria attrectavisse, uti manifestum, contigerat.
[54]Quoties autem confibulatio fortior meatûs etiam urinarii aditum claudere minetur, plumâ vel osseâ quâdam tubulâ adhibitâ, illam in ore urethræ inserunt, ibidemque tenent, usque dum canalis majoris aditui amplius invigilare non sit opus.
[55]In the neighbourhood of Damiatt the Papyrus is termed el-Berdî. Another name is also given it, evidently derived from the term in use among us, El-Babîr.
[56]The butcher.
[57]He brought her thither during the process, instituted at Rome, relatively to her first marriage, and before that marriage was set aside. A long history attends this part of the life of this remarkable man. Montague having persuaded the first husband, who was captain of a merchant-man in the service of persons at Marseilles, to leave his wife, whom he had brought with him to Egypt, under M.’s protection at Rashîd, the latter took advantage of his absence on a voyage home, to persuade the woman that her husband was no more. He then made an offer of himself, which was accepted. On a disclosure of the affair, Montague had interest and address enough to set aside the first marriage, which had been solemnized before either of the parties were of age. The religious were persuaded that Montague was a zealous convert to the Catholic faith.
[58]The Santons, or Mohammedan saints, are still permitted to continue their excesses. I was informed that one of them, very vigorous in transitory amours, met the wife of a rich Mohammedan merchant, newly married. The female attendant who was with her fled, and he accomplished his purpose in the open street. The merchant, complaining to the Pasha, only received this answer, “You ought to esteem yourself very happy, for your wife will probably be brought to bed of a wellî,” that is, a saint.
[59]This sect, represented to me by the Arabs, and others in Syria, as having only at a late period originated, is precisely mentioned by Niebuhr, Description d’Arabie, ed. Paris, p. 208. with a little variation as to the tenets of its founder. He dates its rise in the year 1760, which is very possible, considering that the later accounts all agree that Abd-el-azîz el Wahhâbé is a man of very advanced age.
[60]The machine used in the manufacture is very simple, but the fabric is very complete, and executed with tolerable expedition. To make a cottoni requires one hundred and twenty-five drams of silk. Half that quantity is sufficient for a light alléja. The wages of a manufacturer for making the former are sixty paras. The fabric of white silk is technically called in Arabic craishi; the alléja, darekli; the cottoni, dadâr. The ordinary length of each of these is about ten pikes (draa). The width about a pike.
[61]The manner of making soap here deserves mention. They use oil of olives, putting to an hundred weight twenty-five pounds of kali, and five pounds of pulverized chalk. The latter articles are boiled till the water be sufficiently impregnated; the oil is then poured in, and the whole boils for three days over a fire composed of stones of olives.
[62]Throughout Syria and Anatolia is established a kind of tolls called ghafar, demanded under pretence of keeping up the roads, and freeing them from robbers. A fixed sum is exacted from all Christians; and even an European, though furnished with a travelling firman, often finds it difficult to avoid paying them. Mohammedans pay what they please, or even nothing.
In Syria these tolls are of no apparent use; the demand is somewhat considerable, the roads are not repaired, and there is no defence but immemorial custom. In Anatolia, where there are woods, some responsibility is attached to the office of toll-gatherer, in case a traveller is robbed; and the sum paid is more reasonable.
[63]Musket and bayonet.
[64]Ibeit is one of the principal towns of Kordofân; it is also the name of a small district.
[65]The bearing of the road from Rîl to Hellet Allais is reported to be generally E. with very small variation.