4th February,—Yesterday was the last day of the great Bairam. Selim Capitan and Suliman Kashef had called up all the skill of Turkish cookery to give us Franks a good dinner, at which we were the jollier because the Frenchmen had lost several bottles of wine in a wager. The river, flowing in S.S.W., and said to be an arm of the Nile, puzzles me exceedingly. According to the natives, it comes from the mountains above, and indeed from the Nile itself. If it come from above, it must make a considerable bend; for it flows from the left side into the river, and follows upwards its direction immediately from S.S.W. to W.: it must cut through, somewhere, the old sanded and choked-up primitive bed of the Nile, to come from E. or S.E. from the mountains to W. It might be possible that the half dried-up gohr, from S.S.E., serves as its main bed at high water, and this being sanded up, it had retreated now into the deeper canal. Selim Capitan found the breadth of this tributary, or gohr, to be eighty metres near the before-mentioned solitary dhellèb-palm on its shore. The rapidity of its current is greater than usual in the White river, and amounts to three sea-miles and a half. Still it is doubtful whether it be a river discharging itself, or a Nile arm. Clouds, threatening rain, have shewn themselves for some days, and in the evening-whole coveys of swallows are moving towards the N. We have seen no dhellèb-palms on the shores of our Kirboli, although there are some of them on the main stream. The Kirboli, therefore, may have already reached its termination here.
I hear, from Selim Capitan and his interpreter, who is well acquainted with this country, that we passed by two tribes yesterday afternoon; and I understand now what the natives wanted to tell me when we yesterday halted for a moment to wait for Selim Capitan. According to what the Bukos themselves said, they were as large a nation as their island. But this is incorrect; for at two o’clock yesterday, this tribe ceased, and was followed by that of the Tshièrrs, who possess both shores from thence, and reach to the neighbourhood of this place, where Bohrs appear on the right shore. The Tshièrrs have their foreheads stippled, like the people dwelling upwards, and use also the same language. Downwards from them the language is again allied to that of the Dinkas. It was, therefore, the little country of the Tshièrrs, where no one was seen on the shore, because they feared that we were set against them by the Bukos. However, the tribes above named, having similar tongues and descent, do not live in open feud, for I met myself with men of the Tshièrrs at the top of the island. A couple of them also were with Selim Capitan, and told him that their countrymen had fled from us.
It was here where I was so ill on our ascent, and yet was sufficiently sensible to request to be bled. Therefore, everything now is new to me, and I am the more anxious for intelligence about the stream territory of this place. As I hear from Thibaut and Selim Capitan, Arnaud applied himself to the sextant on our ascent, and found 3° 48′! Selim made himself merry at the engineer’s expense, because he himself, on the first expedition, the limits of which were some hours further upwards, had likewise found, or pretended to have found, 3° and some minutes. The difference, however, appears now by the calculation at not less than 3°!
We are here among the Elliàbs, who are constantly at war with the Bòhrs dwelling opposite. Twenty-four Bòhrs had come across to us to-day and brought us cows. The Elliàbs wanted to fall at once on these men, and to massacre them. We made earnest remonstrance to them to prevent such a scene, but they continued angry at the Bòhrs coming into their territory, and thought that they could provide us as well with cattle. The Bòhrs seem to be wealthy, and are better armed than the Elliàbs. They hunt elephants, but also catch them in pits as elsewhere. The Elliàbs have their foreheads adorned, like the Keks, with artificial wrinkles. They want also the four lower incisors, as is generally the case on the White Stream. The people are not muscularly limbed, but tolerably tall. They wear a feather on the head, or a coiffure like a flat basket, which may serve them as such, for it is only very loosely put on.
The war-dance which they performed in honour of us was of the same character as those we had hitherto seen, but it was executed here even in detail. They approach us marching in a column, with a leader at their head. The commander tunes the battle-song, and the chorus answer him. They run forward, and the column breaks, because in their wars they meet breast to breast; they parry with their hands the feigned hostile darts, and avoid them, bending and writhing their body, and kneeling down. They retreat, and the leader encourages them by a warsong, and even a woman steps out from their little company and sings to them to inspire them with courage, in quite a different melody, and with half-threatening, half-imploring gestures. The column has again closed, deploys a second time, and sings its answer in vehement and broken notes. We need not understand the language in such a warlike play, which reminds us irresistibly of the ancient Germans. They generally performed this dumb show with a pliability and truth of expression, such as no European artiste could imitate, unless he had learned their manner of carrying on war from his infancy. Moreover it does not seem that they carry shields, because otherwise they would have made the parry with their hand differently. When I think how skilfully the dexterous horsemen of the Shaigiës performed the well-known girid, or Dshirid game, threw the obtuse spears, parried them with the hand or the girid, which answers to the German gerte (switch), or avoided them, now I believe that the men of Bari mostly make use in their wars of the little hand-shields. The Elliàbs have brought cattle; but repeatedly declare that it is the same to them whether Selim Capitan gives them beads or not. Such proud disinterestedness has not hitherto come before our notice.
5th February.—The thermometer shewed, before sunrise, 15°; yesterday morning, however, 20°, but at noon it was not higher than 27°, and at three o’clock 28°, and fell after sunset to 26°. The hygrometer has been so disordered by Arnaud’s masterhand, that he cannot even make use of it himself. This morning was misty, damp, and cold. The corn was brought ashore from the vessels, and it was discovered that a great part of it was mouldy. The bad condition of the vessels is alone the cause of this, and Selim Capitan bears the blame, because he had not taken care to have them properly caulked before setting out. The people of this place have no ornaments on themselves, and not even elephants’ teeth to dispose of. I could only therefore procure a broad iron bracelet, and looked with a kind of envy, when Selim Capitan despatched the sandal to the Bòhrs, on the right shore, and fetched off a number of beautiful elephants’ teeth. Cultivation is not to be seen on and near our anchorage.
Selim Capitan asserts, that the questionable river is a gohr, which he saw in the country of the Liènns, flowing away from the main stream. I cannot persuade myself that I could have overlooked this, with all my earnest attention. We shall navigate it therefore this afternoon, in order to divest ourselves of uncertainty.
CHAPTER VI.
EXAMINATION OF AN ARM OF THE NILE. — FORESTS ON THE BANKS. — PRICE OFFERED IN ENGLAND FOR A LIVE HIPPOPOTAMUS. — THESE ANIMALS RARELY MET WITH IN EGYPT. — THE LIÈNNS. — ROPES MADE FROM THE LEAVES OF THE DOUM-PALM. — UÈKA. — CHARACTER AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LIÈNNS. — THE EMEDDI-TREE. — DÖBKER-TREE. — COTTON-TREES. — THE TSHIÈRRS. — TRIBES OF THE BODSCHOS AND KARBORAHS. — LABYRINTHS OF THE WHITE STREAM. — BARTER WITH THE KARBORÀHS. — THEIR DRESS, ARMS, ORNAMENTS, ETC. — MOUNT NERKANJIN. — ISLAND OF TUI. — THE KOKIS. — CONTEST WITH HIPPOPOTAMI. — CROCODILES’ EGGS. — HOSTILITY OF THE TSHIÈRRS TO THE ELLIABS. — EBONY CLUBS. — THE BÒHRS: THEIR SONGS, ORNAMENTS, ETC. — ANT-HILLS. — “IRG-EL-MOJE” OR WATER-ROOT, A SPECIES OF VEGETABLE. — VETCHES. — THE ANDURÀB OR ENDERÀB-TREE. — THE DAKUIN-TREE. — A SOLDIER STABBED BY A NATIVE. — ANTIQUITY OF DUNG-FIRES.