In spite of these hindrances and deficiencies the Abyssinian people, government and creed, have survived among heights protected on one side by the sea and on the other by a tract of country which is uninhabitable and impassable from May to September, on account of the incessant torrential rains and the floods which they cause. If these favouring conditions had not existed, the Abyssinian nation would long ago have been “converted” to Islamism or exterminated, and in the former case they would have become assimilated by consanguinity to, if not merged in, the surrounding Arab and negroid tribes. As it is, the Abyssinians form, ethnologically, an entirely distinct race.
This digression has carried me a long way from the “donkey-boys” at Gedaref. They were paraded to the number of a hundred for our inspection—Dongolis, Abyssinians, Tokrooris, Dinkas, Hadendowas, men from every clan in the district. An uglier-looking crowd I never beheld, and, as I gazed at the sinister, villainous faces, I hoped rather than believed that our choice of seventeen would not include robbers or murderers. We adopted the plan of choosing one or two men from each of the different races. Experience showed that the policy was sound, for no tribal quarrel was raised during our journey in Abyssinia. None of the groups was strong enough to commence a feud with confidence.
The business of selection was completed after the haggling and confusion inseparable from a bargain among Orientals, and I spent most of the remainder of this and the following day in acquainting myself with the features of life in Gedaref. As this place is a type of the more important towns in the Soudan, in which Great Britain has a permanent interest, I hope the reader will tolerate the transcription of a few of my notes.
The inhabitants number about eight thousand, and live—to use Mr. Dufton’s description—“in a number of scattered villages, the principal called Hellet-es-Sook, or the market town.”[14] The dwellings in this part of the Soudan and in Abyssinia are of the same construction, and I cannot better convey a conception of their simplicity and their appearance to those of my readers who have not seen them than by quoting the following passage from Mr. Dufton’s work:—“Some of the houses are built of sun-dried bricks and have flat roofs, but most of them” (almost all in Western Abyssinia) “are conical thatched huts. The latter are made in the following manner:—In the first place a circle of about twenty feet diameter is described on the ground and surrounded by strong posts, each a yard apart, which are interlaced with thin pliable branches of trees, the whole being covered outwardly with durrha stalks, tied together with the long grass common on the banks of the river. A roof is formed in skeleton on the ground. A number of beams, corresponding to that of the posts, are made to converge at the top, and are held in this position by concentric circles of plaited twigs; the whole being then raised to its position on the house, where it is fastened and made ready to receive the thatch of straw and grass. Not a nail or rivet of any kind is used in the construction of these buildings, and they are rendered totally impervious to the wet. Of course their disadvantage in comparison with mud houses is their liability to catch fire, one or two cases of which I have witnessed; but they are generally built at sufficient distance not to endanger others, and a house of this description is rebuilt in a day or two.”[15] Hence the scattered appearance of the huts. They cover a distance some five miles in length at Gedaref. These dwellings are called “tokhuls,” and I shall have occasion to allude to them frequently under that name. In the Soudan storks build their nests round the upper part of the roofs, and are not molested.
In Mr. Dufton’s time an open-air market was held twice a week in Gedaref. He thus describes it:—“One part is devoted to the sale of camels, cattle, sheep, and goats; another to that of corn and durrha; another milk and butter; another raw cotton, dates, etc. The butcher slaughters his meat on the spot, whether ox, sheep, or camel. The camel is killed somewhat differently from the rest; for it may well be imagined that a camel with merely its throat cut might be a long while in dying. They therefore adopt the mode of striking it with a long knife at once to the heart, having previously taken care to tie his long legs in a manner that he cannot move.”[16]
The commerce of the place has been resuscitated since the British and Egyptian occupation. The market is now held daily. In addition there are the usual bazaars of an Oriental town. Gedaref has the advantage of possessing wells from which water of good quality is drawn. The place suffered severely in the time of the Dervishes. They raided the district as often as their supplies ran low, ruined the cultivation, and destroyed the greater part of the habitations.
The people seemed to be peaceable and contented under the present administration, and I was struck by their politeness towards Europeans. As we passed, they rose, if they were squatting on the ground; those riding dismounted as a token of respect; those who were at work discontinued it and stood still.
There are a certain number of shops in the town kept by Greeks. The commerce of the Eastern Soudan is almost entirely in the hands of Hellenes, who import goods by way of Suakim. The merchandise is brought up the country by camel-train. The articles most in request among the natives are cheap mirrors, tumblers, coloured silk handkerchiefs and similar goods—in short, cheap finery and cheap small commodities. I am not a commercial man, and do not speak upon the point with certainty, but I think German houses meet this demand. The Greek retailers also carry on a brisk trade in olives, which are imported in barrels. Olives and bread are the staple of the diet of many Soudanese, and they eat this simple food with relish.
We found that we could purchase sugar, taken from the familiar sugar-loaf, soap, similar sundries and tinned provisions at Gedaref. I was pleased to observe—for my own sake and that of British enterprise—that the latter bore the trade-mark of Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell.
My impression with regard to commercial opportunities in these towns is that a northern-bred storekeeper could not compete with the Greek retailer. I do not refer, in making this inference, especially to the singular astuteness of the latter. But it is an important consideration that these men are able to live almost on the same scale as the natives, and their profits are due to the frugality of their life.