I went on board Suliman Kashef’s ship, and found there my Feïzulla Capitan again, but in such a state of intoxication, that he fancied I was lost from his ship. He regretted me, and I played also this time again the “achùl el bennàt,” and carried him safely home. It is a wonder that his crew, who have worked themselves tired the whole day, and with whom he is always joking in his Turkish drunkenness, do not thoroughly lose their patience and respect.
23rd December.—Instead of sailing at daybreak with the favourable wind, one vessel went after the other to the left shore, but we soon heard that the vessel of the commander, Selim Capitan, was full of water, having drawn so much during the night, that if the morning had not brought this circumstance to light, it would inevitably have sunk. Biscuit, durra, wheat, and all the other provisions were taken out, and dried on the sails spread on the shore. Sale made a capital shooting excursion, and is very proud of it: he requests his comrades not to shoot any more, for they only throw away powder. The birds are generally the very same as those we found in Taka. I shall return to this subject hereafter.
We could plainly remark near the numberless ant-hills, of eight to ten feet high, and thirty to thirty-six paces in circumference, by the difference of the same vegetation, how far the water has washed over these hills, and how inconsiderably it has reached up to the same, although the whole earth, in which there are many foot-prints, and marks of elephants, rose itself only two feet above the present surface of water. Even here, therefore, where a lake must always disclose itself when the water is at its greatest height, the ascent of the river is only slight, owing to its overflowing in an immeasurable space. In a more extended excursion, I lighted upon a low green plot of ground with water, and as I had remarked from the deck and mast-head, these verdant tracks are found again in the half-dug elephant-pasture. They may be old beds of the Nile, choked up by reeds and slime.
Wild cucumbers were very frequently met with here, and with their yellow flowers, often take the high rushes on the water into their friendly embrace. The under stratum of the ground is formed here also, as elsewhere, by blue clay, mixed with a little sand, whereon a covering of humus lies, the vegetable parts of which are visible in masses, less from their being decomposed by the atmosphere, than from being worked up by the feet of animals. Hygrometer, at eight o’clock, eighty degrees.
24th December.—After everything had been dried and packed up again yesterday, we make, towards the evening, a very short track, in order to secure ourselves somewhat more from the gnats, which have, on the whole, decreased, and we cast anchor. Our clock, put at six at sunset, shewed also six o’clock, when the sun rose S.E. by E. The trombetta (drummers) beat a reveillée at the first tinge of dawn; that is here an hour and a quarter before the sun; yet I could not read for the first half hour.
The whole sky has been clouded since we left the country of the Shilluks; and although they are not our heavy white clouds, the sun cannot penetrate through them. A mist, in appearance like a coast cut off from the horizon, surrounded us on all sides, without visibly extending itself in our neighbourhood. This layer of mist, however, was open from S. to S.W., where the river probably flows, with which the mist nearest to us melted away before daybreak, as I have so often remarked on the Rhine. The hazy streak of the rising sun is splendidly irradiated from E. to S., and therefore deludes us to believe that it is a broad luminous stream, or white lake, contrasted with the dark edge of the sky. I had remarked, the evening before last, a similar misty veil to the east, and, as I expected, there were light mists yesterday morning, before sunrise, on the river, and slowly floating down with it.
We went this morning E.S.E., and at seven o’clock S.W., without having got ahead, for the very feint north wind had not yet made up its mind. One of our vessels sails towards E. in the grass, and appears to have struck into another road, in order to cut us off. Isolated dhellèb-palms on the right shore, and towards N.E. a whole group of them; whilst on the left shore a great wood is visible, drawing into the land, as I hear, from the west. Before this forest shady Tihl-trees, with broad branches, in our neighbourhood; the right shore retreats again here, with its blooming ambak-thicket.
The lakes seem, in some measure, to be at an end; but the gigantic bed of the stream remains, although the old high shores are not, perhaps, to be discovered, for we cannot approach the real dry ground, as the river does not extend so far. This must, however, have been an extensive margin of the river, separated from it, between which, towards the sides, the water flows and ripples in small rivulets, like a meadow under water. It is said that there are no more doum-palms here, although I would take some trees in the distance for them, having, it is true, a stunted appearance compared with those in Taka, but similar to those commonly found on the White River.
Half-past eight o’clock. To S.E. by S.; then an easterly direction, with the usual deviations, and at last S. From the mast is seen, near the before-named shady elephant-trees, a whole herd of these lovers of their fruit,—the white birds on their massive backs, whom they are trying to drive away with their trunks.
About ten o’clock S.E. by E. and S.E. I think I see on the right shore, a small river, discharging itself in the reeds, for the colour in the little basin is different from that of our water. Immediately afterwards, a small village, composed of low, wretched tokuls. A dog looked at us, but did not bark, much as he was teased; he was a large-boned greyhound, such as are seen generally in Taka and Sennaar. This fishermen’s village stands some three feet above the water, and we see by the fresh repairing of the huts with Nile slime, that the river must have washed against this place. Four sails go on the right, at a regular distance W., in the reeds, whilst the vessels sailing a-head in S.E., also look over the reeds, and move towards the E. The ambak-wood continues almost uninterruptedly on our left. About eleven o’clock, from S.W., is an extensive bend to the E., and afterwards to N.E., as it appears from the other vessels. On the right stands an enclosed dhellèb-palm, quite solitary in the wide green lake; and yet it delights the eye as a resting-point, like the sails far and near.