The latter was sitting at table with an Italian, and just putting into his mouth a piece of roast meat, held between the fingers and thumb, when a monkey of the cynocephalus (Arabic Khirt) family snatched it hastily from him. The Bey very quietly ordered the hand of Abu Dom (so called from his reddish yellow colour, similar to the fruit of the Doum-palm) to be cut off as that of a robber (Garami), which was done on the spot. The poor monkey came immediately afterwards to his cruel master, and shewed him, with the doleful accent peculiar to him, the bleeding stump of his fore paw, whereupon the Bey ordered him to be killed. The execution, however, was prevented by the Italian, who begged him as a gift, for the purpose of healing him. I came, soon afterwards, into possession of this foolish beast, who contributed as much to the amusement so necessary to me on the return voyage to Egypt, as the filial attentions of my freedman Hagar from mount Basa, whom my brother had received as a present, and bequeathed to me. My servants would not believe but that the monkey was a transformed Gabir (caravan guide), because he always preceded us, and on the right road, even in the desert; and availed himself of every stone and rock to look about him, whereupon the birds of prey frequently drove him under the camels to complain to me with his “Oehm, Oehm.” This complaint he also uttered when he had been beaten, in my absence, by the people, whose merissa he helped to drink, till he could not move from the spot, and committed all sorts of misdemeanours.
I found on the shore large snail shells (Ampullaria ovata), and also some river oysters (Ampulla tubulosa Caill), as well as a number of fresh foot-prints of hippopotami, though we had not as yet seen any of these animals. These river buffaloes must be of enormous size here, to judge from the foot-marks which we made use of to place the large household pots upon.
We had already, however, seen many crocodiles, which are but seldom met with when the water is high and turbid, for they then, like the hippopotami, inhabit sloughs, caused by the swelling of the Nile, because fish are more plentiful there, whilst the graminivorus hippopotami find their nourishment in the thriving marsh plants.
I myself came into very close contact with a crocodile, larger than any I had ever yet seen, whilst both barrels of my gun were only loaded with smallshot. The monkeys had amused me long enough. I advanced, therefore, further up the shore, turned round a huge tree, the right side of which, facing the water, was covered with thick underwood: I soon, however, drew back behind it, for I here nearly walked into the jaws, literally speaking, of a crocodile, as another step would have brought me to the creek, which was quite filled up by the monster, as he lay in front of me. I looked round for my huntsman Sale, an active, good-tempered, but very inconsiderate youth, who carried my rifle; but he was not to be seen. Yet I could not help taking up another position behind the trees, which afforded me protection, in order to fire a volley of shot at the odious beast, whereupon it very quietly retreated into the stream.
When I subsequently reproached Sale, he answered me very naively that I should not hunt so close to the shore, for that he had more than once, whilst gazing at the birds and monkeys in the trees, on looking down, seen the head of a crocodile close before him, glaring at him like a ghost (Sheitàn, Satan); and which he dared not shoot lest he should kill his own father. Of witches and sorcerers who transform themselves and others into beasts, especially into crocodiles and hippopotami, that even in their transformation, still bear the griefs they received when human beings—how injured wives often wither up their husbands’ stomachs, and place them on their backs by magic, &c.—tales such as these we hear related as true, even by those to whom these occurrences are said to have happened. The traces of a belief in the transmigration of souls cannot well be mistaken, although almost entirely obliterated by the Islam; but it is only applied here to the degradation into beasts—such as serpents and dogs.
When at a distance from the shore, it is as well to have a barrel loaded with ball, there being in this region many lions whom we hear roaring at night. One soon, however, becomes accustomed to such dangers, nay, I might say that we are not only rash, but quite foolhardy, in neglecting all precautions and means of preservation, and, therefore, we have nothing to reproach the Arabs with in their everlasting “Allah kerim” (God is merciful, the Dio é grande of the whole of the Levant). To be burdened with guns and shot-pouches is troublesome, owing to the heat; on this account we often sally out without weapons, not intending to go far from the camp, when suddenly, allured from one object to another, we find ourselves at a long distance from it, and, consequently, helpless against danger.
Towards evening cartridges were served out, and muskets loaded, for we are now, for the first time, in a hostile country! The powder-room stood open, and the men with lighted pipes passed continually to and fro unrestrained, over the open hatchway. Allah kerim! I seek to rouse my captain from his indolence by drawing comparisons, every moment, with the English sea-service,—I fall asleep myself whilst the powder is being distributed, and waking early in the morning, find the hatchway still open, and the sentinel, whose duty it was to give an alarm as soon as the water increased in the hold, fast asleep, with the pipe in his hand, and his musket in his lap. Feïzulla Capitan begged me not to report the poor devil (el meszkin).
The upper strata of the ground here are sandy and but little fertile, yet I sometimes sank so deep into water and the livid clay soil that my red shoes stuck fast. Beyond the gently elevated margin of the shore, the ground is flat and bare, with short grass and stunted copsewood, among which the wood usually made for tobacco-pipe tubes in Sennaar, with its light grey rind, oblong-shaped leaves and truncated at the top, is particularly abundant, and very much in request with the crew. The height of the water here was, owing to the great breadth of the inundation, not near so much as further downwards. In Khartùm, where the bed of the river on both sides is contracted by the sides of the shores, it must have been twice as high at this time. The whole inclination of the ground in the territory of the White Stream, sinks from E. to W. The Nile is the best hydrometer for this observation, for I have frequently remarked that the islands in the neighbourhood of the right shore are generally less inundated than those on the left; therefore, in the former, the greater elevation of the eastern bank still continues.
An observation also, which I made on the plains of Meroë, or rather on the enormous plain between the Atbara and the Blue Stream, contributes to strengthen this opinion of mine with respect to the slope of the land from E. to W. It can be plainly remarked there that the rain-water runs off westward, without paying any attention to the direction of the current of the Nile, as its boundaries are now defined by its mountains and high shores.
But now the question is: If my hypothesis of the inclination of these parts from E. to W. is generally correct, what has induced the Nile to take a course diverging from it?