The village is called Min, Mim, Mièmn, ever according to the different pronunciation of the people, and, as Selim Capitan afterwards asserted, “Bakak.”
This nation of the Keks, or Kièks, appears, on the whole, to be numerous, and has a great sheikh, or king, by the name of Ajol. His city lies on the left side of the river, far from hence, near a stream, and is called Gog. Polygamy prevails here, as generally on the White Stream; only, however, the more opulent enjoy this privilege, for the women are bought. I remarked here, for the first time, bodily defects, which, like elephantiasis, are so very rare in the whole land of Sudàn. One had hernia, and many suffered from diseases of the eyes, and wanted medical assistance. Their eyes, indeed, were nearly all suffused with red, as I had previously remarked; and it seems that these people must suffer uncommonly in the rainy season, when they lie, as it were, in the morass. The hair of some of them, who wore it long, was of a reddish colour, having lost its natural black hue by the ley of the ashes and water, and heat of the sun; for we did not perceive this in the shorter hairs, and they did not know how to explain the cause of this tinge. The cattle are generally of a light colour, of moderate size, and have long beautifully-twisted horns, some of which are turned backwards. The bulls have large speckled humps, such as are seen in the hieroglyphics; the cows, on the contrary, only a little elevation on the shoulders. The small reed tokuls, with half-flat roofs, are neat, and serve throughout the day for protection against the sun. I wandered about here quite alone, without being molested or sent back by the people, although the whole crew on board believed, and our blacks agreed with them, that men and women live separate the greatest part of the year, and that man durst not enter into such a Harìm-village out of season. I must, however, differ in some measure with respect to this assertion; for I saw in some little tokuls of the male village, young women and children, crawling about upon the extended skins on the ground.
MOUNT NERKONJIN, 22nd JANUARY, 1842.
A young woman was so enraptured at the sight of my glass beads, that she wanted to sell me her child, which she carried in a skin under her left arm, as if in a bag. I do not think that I am mistaken with regard to this offer, although one ought not to be confident that the daughter of a harmless nation like the Keks would do so. Perhaps she was a prisoner, which might be the case here generally, and that these women are watched by the men. It is always possible too, that the men take their favourite wives with them for comfort’s sake, and leave the others at home, or put them in some kind of bodily restraint.
A very large and broad sürtuk caught my eye, and I was curious to find out the species of wood of which it was built, but the bulls standing close to each other there, pointed their horns at me. Two natives sprang nimbly to them, in order to quiet them; whereupon I went off as quickly as possible,—and the more so, because last year a soldier had been gored to death. A village bull towered above all of them; his high horns were adorned with two animals’ tails; he had also ornaments around his neck. I was not able, however, to examine these ornaments very closely, for he rushed too quickly into the herd, that he might, like all the other beasts, stick his nose as quickly as possible into the smoke. This is a ludicrous sight: every beast appears to know exactly his heap, or rather his neighbourhood, else an uncommon confusion would take place, for they have their stakes quite close to one another. In the morning this encampment, on which no straw is strewed, is carefully cleansed of the dirt, which is thrown in small heaps near the stakes, and kindled in the evening, shortly before the cows come home, where it continues to glimmer till towards morning.
Though the natives had hitherto let me quietly walk about, because the general attention was directed to the vessels, and the distribution of beads, now I heard from the men on all sides a peculiar buzzing sound, similar to the bleating of sheep. The sound can only be denoted by “Eh;” it is a natural tone of disapprobation, and was sufficiently intelligible to me. The men had concealed their arrows and spears, for they were told that they must not come with them. If the women go also freely among the men, without taking notice of the nakedness of the latter, yet there appears in them a certain innate degree of modesty, as I saw myself in the maidens, who are quite naked, whilst the married women wear a leathern apron. An aproned woman had crept out of a tokul with her child, to see the other strangers at a distance, when a girl, with swelling breasts, also hastily followed her out of the oval hole, and stood on tip-toe to see better. Scarcely had the naked maid remarked me close at hand, than she quickly seized a stiff piece of leather lying there, and covered herself with it. Other girls, already a good height, but still without breasts, were between the cows and goats, and concerned themselves more about the young of these animals than about us. I found also here, in the tokuls, large gourd-shells filled with urine, which, as mentioned before, is said to supply the place of salt.
Amongst other huts, I here saw two built of bamin stalks, twenty feet high, placed conically upon the ground, joined together at the top in such a manner that they formed a draft of air as well as a chimney. It was quite cool inside, for the entrance also nearly reached to the top, and formed a triangle. They offered us milk and butter, but as both are seasoned with the water previously named, instead of salt, the crew refused them with contempt. We got, however, fresh milk, and I charged my servants, who laughed at the Egyptian braggarts, to take butter with them: it left very little twang when cooked, whilst the milk of the morning tasted of smoke, and of that dirty mixture.
Richly provided with meat, we took advantage of the east wind just freshening up, and sailed, after sunset, to S. by E., but this lasted only a moment, and we went from S.E. to N., when we were obliged to take to our oars; then to N.W. and S.E. A smoking herdsman’s village was noticed to E. by S. as also just after our setting out. Reckoning from the horizontal layers of smoke, the country must have been tolerably populated, even at some distance from the river, which is here about four hundred paces broad. The smoke produced for the cattle has no unpleasant smell; on the contrary, that from the burnt reeds, has the smell of our thick yellowish fogs; and, if I am not mistaken, I have met with such a fog in the Nubian deserts, or perhaps in Egypt. The hygrometer shewed this afternoon, at four o’clock, 65°; and I hear that Arnaud has had it in his hands, and has made himself master of it, in order to profit by it alone.
4th January.—The vessels remained during the night towards E.S.E. According to my usual custom, I breathed the fresh morning air at the open window: but I flew from the room where gnats and the besotted Feïzulla-Capitan had robbed me of my sleep, as soon as day shewed itself through the red tinge of morning. I see at my right hand a lake, and hear from the mast that the same extends on the right to S. for half an hour, and is, from S.E. by E. to W., three-quarters of an hour long; that another joins to it towards N., cut off from the Nile by dry slime. We remarked also a third little lake, a quarter of an hour distant, behind the before-named city. The green grass ceases before us; on the right is noticed a wood behind the lake, and on the left some trees of the right shore,—always a friendly appearance to me in the landscape. We advance by the rope at ten o’clock S.E. by E., and then on the right to S. At eleven o’clock we move towards the left side of the river to gain better ground for towing, although the east wind had become stronger, and we could see before us the continuation of our course. The wind is now always driving the vessels on the reeds, and the people tow only with the greatest difficulty, the poles being continually used to prevent us from running aground. At noon, to S. The south-east wind blows so violently against us, that we hardly advance beyond the lake, near which is a little village. We still see the herdsmen’s city, at which we stayed yesterday. The lake, as is mostly the case here, fills up the angle of the earth formed by the Nile in its present circuit, and therefore cut off formerly by it in a straight line, and perhaps is so now at high water. The main stream then makes good its old right, on account of its greater fall, without tearing up from their foundations the choked-up passes to the lakes; for these old river-beds form, by means of that root-work of marsh plants, a natural cofferdam, which is no more to be subdued.