From North Pole to Equator: Studies of Wild Life and Scenes in Many Lands

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

But these are not the only settlers in this wilderness of waters. Even men are able to find a home here. At intervals of a mile or more one comes upon a miserable straw hut, in which a Nubian and his family eke out a meagre subsistence. A small creek between the precipices on the shore filled with fertile mud, or it may be only a deposit of mud upon the rocks themselves, forms the paltry farm which he cultivates. The owner of a creek is rich compared with his poor neighbour who can call himself master only of a mere mud-bed. At the risk of his life the latter swims to spots which are inaccessible on foot, and sows some beans on the mud-plot from which the falling stream has just receded. Some days later, when the river has sunk still lower, he repeats his visit and his sowing operations, and so proceeds on the parts of the mud-bank successively uncovered as long as the river continues to fall. Thus at such places one sees fields of beans at all stages of growth, becoming broader as the water sinks; and the frugal husbandman is engaged at once with sowing and reaping. In the most favourable circumstances a deeply receding inlet, filled with Nile mud, makes it possible for the farmer to erect a water-wheel and to irrigate a field a few acres in extent. The fortunate possessor is then able to keep a cow, and to live at least in tolerable comfort, although he is still so poor that even the Egyptian government does not venture to burden him with taxes. But such places are rare oases in this forbidding waste. The boatman, fighting his way up-stream, welcomes every bush; he greets a palm-tree with manifest joy, a bean-field, perhaps hoped for all day long, with exultation, a water-wheel with thanks to the All-merciful. For it is not merely that his bold spirit has learned to know fear in this valley of rocks, but also because he knows well that, should his supply of provisions fail, bitter want would befall him, and starvation stare him in the face. Down-stream the well-steered boat speeds rapidly through this land of desolation and poverty; but sailing up-stream it often lies, as if spell-bound, for hours, or even days, at a time, waiting for a favourable wind, sheltered by a rock from the force of a rapid. The boatman, who becomes “sea-sick” with the incessant rocking of his craft, may roam or swim for miles without coming upon men or fields.

Fig. 54.—An Egyptian Sakieh or Water-wheel.

At its southern limit the rocky valley passes almost abruptly into the fertile country of middle Nubia. Before the traveller lies a narrow basin shut in by two deserts, and with several large islands in its midst. The basin is filled with mud, and of this the islands are composed. Though we do not yet find all the wealth of tropical life, there are hints of it in the freshness and vigour of both fauna and flora. Almost continuous palm-groves, in which ripen the most delicious dates in the world, border this pleasant oasis in which the labours of the husbandman are rewarded by rich harvests. Christ-thorns and various mimosas, not hitherto seen, give evidence that we have crossed the equator. Besides the sun-bird already mentioned, there are now other birds characteristic of the interior of Africa. In the first dhurra-field which one carefully observes, the eyes are gladdened by a sight of the fiery weaver-bird, as beautiful as it is agile, which has its home among the stems, and from time to time appears like a flash of fire on the top of an ear, uttering from this perch its simple whirring and buzzing song, and inciting others of its kind to a like display. In the holes and crevices of the mud-huts other members of the family, especially steel-finches and blood-finches, have established themselves; in the gardens round the houses the cape-pigeons have settled; on the sand-banks in the stream have been hollowed out the shallow mud-nests of the shear-waters or skimmers—night-terns, of peculiar habit, who do not begin to seek their prey until the twilight, and fish, not by diving, but by skimming over the waves and rapidly ploughing the water with their bills, thus catching small creatures which swim on or near the surface.

But this cheerful region has narrow limits. Below the ruined temple of Barkal the desolate and barren hills again encroach on the river, excluding fertile land and steppe alike. The last group of rapids now lies before the traveller who is making his way up-stream. The region of the third group of cataracts is not so unutterably poor as the rocky valley. Well-tilled, though narrow, strips of land lie on either bank, and there are fertile islands in mid-stream; thus there is not that look of hopeless poverty which is characteristic of the region already traversed. The masses of rock on the banks are more broken up than those in the rocky valley, and there are many of the so-called “stone-seas”, hillocks and walls of wildly jumbled blocks and rolled stones, such as mighty streams leave behind when they dig their bed deeper in the valley. On each side, usually on the top of the cliff next the stream, there are great blocks of more than a hundred cubic yards in bulk, which rest so loosely on their substratum that they oscillate in violent wind, and could be hurled down by a few men with levers. In many places these stone-seas present a most extraordinary appearance. It seems just as if giants had for a whim amused themselves by erecting cones and pyramids, mounds and ramparts to form a weirdly-disordered parapet on the river’s rocky embankment. But it is not so much to this strange natural architecture as to ancient works of man’s own hand, that the third group of rapids owes its characteristic appearance. On all suitable rock-projections, and especially on the larger islands, rise buildings with inclosing walls, towers, and jagged battlements, such as are not seen elsewhere in the Nile valley. These are fortifications of ancient days, castles of the river-chiefs, erected for protection and defiance, to secure life and property against the invasions of hostile neighbouring tribes. The ramparts and battlements are built of unhewn stones, rudely piled one upon the other, usually cemented only with Nile mud; the thick walls of the superstructure, roofed with sun-dried mud-tiles, have for the most part fallen or are still falling. These fortresses impress one not so much by their architecture as by the boldness of their position. A naked, deep-black, glistening rock rises from the midst of the rushing waters, and bears on its summit one of these forts. The waves beat wildly around its base, but it stands absolutely unshaken by any flood, and towers aloft, an impregnable refuge. On the down-stream side, in the shelter of the rock, the life-giving stream has added beauty to sublimity. For in the course of ages the mud accumulated in the still-water, and an island gradually rose above the flood. On this fertile island man planted palms and laid out fields; and thus, among the rocks there arose a pleasing scene of security and comfort, all the more impressive in its contrast to the wilderness of restless water and barren rock.

At the southern boundary of the third group of rapids begin the steppes and forests of tropical Africa, in which rocks are found only here and there on the banks of the main stream and its great tributaries. For over 450 miles the Bahr-el-Abiad and Bahr-el-Azrek, the White and the Blue Nile, flow through a fruitful and almost flat country; thereafter there are again some rapids. But they do not belong to the picture whose chief outlines I have been endeavouring to sketch: Nubia alone is the land of the Nile cataracts.

While it is difficult to tell to what degree the Nubian has been influenced by his surroundings, or made by them the manner of man he is, this at least may be safely said, that he is as markedly differentiated from his neighbour, the modern Egyptian, as his home is different from the land of Egypt. The truth is, they have nothing in common, neither race nor speech, neither customs nor habits, scarcely even religion, although both to-day repeat the creed, “There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet”.

The modern Egyptians are of mixed blood, being descended from the ancient Egyptians and the immigrant Arabic hordes from Yemen and Hedjaz, who amalgamated with the earlier inhabitants of the lower Nile valley. The Nubians are descendants of the “wild Blemyes”, with whom the Pharaohs of the ancient, middle, and more recent dynasties, as well as the Egyptian governors of the Ptolemies, contended ceaselessly, and by no means always successfully. The former use the language in which the “Revelations” of Mohammed are recorded, the latter use an old Ethiopian speech now split up into several dialects; the former employ an ancient mode of writing, the latter never have had any which has taken organic root in their own language. The former still preserve the seriousness at once characteristic of the old Egyptians, and of the sons of the desert from whom they sprang. Like all Orientals they give themselves, throughout their whole life, deep anxiety about the world to come, and order their customs and habits according to their fantastic notions of it. The Nubians, on the other hand, have preserved the cheerful joyousness of the Ethiopians, living like children for the present, taking what is pleasant without thanks and what is painful with loud complainings, and under the influence of the moment readily forgetting both. The yoke of foreign masters rests heavily on both alike; the Egyptian bears it with groaning and grumbling, the Nubian with equanimity and without resistance; the former is a sullen slave, the latter a willing servant. Every Egyptian fancies himself high above the Nubian, regards himself as nobler in race, speech, and customs; boasts of his culture, though that is restricted to but a few of the people, and seeks to oppress the dark-skinned race as completely as he himself is oppressed. The Nubian recognizes the general physical superiority of the Egyptian, and thoroughly acknowledges the intellectual culture of the prominent members of the neighbour-people, but he seems to be scarcely conscious of his own deficiency in culture, and is even inclined, in his turn, to enslave the less strong or less gifted people of the interior. Yet even with the purchased negro he is on a brotherly footing, and seems to have patiently submitted to his burdensome fate, after having tried in vain to contend successfully against a superior force. In every fibre of his being he is still a child of nature, while the Egyptian seems the sad type of a decayed and still decadent people. The Nubian, in the most barren country in the world, still retains a measure of freedom; the Egyptian, on the richest of soils, has become a slave, who is not likely ever to venture to shake off his chains, though he still talks vaingloriously of the greatness of his past.

In point of fact, the Nubian has as much right, if not more, to glory in the exploits of his ancestors and to fortify his soul in recounting their prowess. For these ancestors fought bravely not only with the Pharaohs and the Romans, but also with the Turks and the Arabs—the governing and subject races of modern Egypt[79]—nor would they have been overcome had they not been without fire-arms. At the time of my first visit to the Nile, eye-witnesses of some of the last battles were still alive, and from their lips I learned enough to enable me to do justice, in one respect at least, to a manly, much misjudged people. The events to which I refer took place in the beginning of the third decade of this century.

After Mohammed-Aali, the energetic but unscrupulous and even cruel founder of the family now ruling in Egypt, had, in March 1811, treacherously fallen upon and massacred the chiefs of the Mamelukes whom he had invited to meet him, his mastery of the Lower Nile seemed assured. But the proud warriors, whose leaders had been done to death by shameful stratagem and unworthy breach of faith, were not completely subjugated. Brooding revenge, the Mamelukes chose new leaders and betook themselves to Nubia, there to collect their forces, to renew the combat with their artful foe, or at least to threaten him. Mohammed-Aali recognized the danger, and delayed not to meet it. His army followed the still-scattered troops of the Mamelukes. The latter, too weak to venture open battle, were forced to take to the river-forts, where, fighting desperately and defiant of death, they fell to a man. The Nubians were conquered at the same time, and, submitting to their fate, were condemned to servitude. Only the brave race of the warlike Sheikier resisted. In 1820 they met the Turkish-Egyptian army near the village of Korti—an heroic but undisciplined people, accustomed to win victory with lance, sword, and shield, against well-drilled soldiers equipped with fire-arms. According to ancient custom the women were present at the battle to stimulate the combatants with their shrill battle-cry, to raise the children aloft in their arms, that the fathers, seeing them, might be fired to deeds defiant of death.